Influence of geological structures on groundwater accumulation and groundwater salinity in Musandam Peninsula,UAE and Oman

The hydrological setting and groundwater quality of Musandam Peninsula was studied to investigate the influence of geological structures on the groundwater accumulation and groundwater salinity. Five sets of modified morphometric maps were used to reduce errors and carry out the geological structures. The modification was modified by applying mean filter to the Digital Elevation Model (DEM) then applying Soble filter with 10% threshold and equalization enhancement. D8 and algorithms were used to reveal the drainage basins and drainage networks of the entire area. The algorithm determines into which neighbouring pixel any water in a central pixel will flow naturally. Flow direction in a DEM is calculated for every central pixel of input blocks of a 3 × 3 window, all the time comparing the value of the central pixel in the window with the value of its eight neighbours. The spatial association between geological structures and drainage networks was studied using 2D graph and rose diagrams. Flood basin model was applied to simulate the Arabian Gulf water intrusion into the coastal aquifer. The concentrations of solutes in groundwater samples collected from Wadi Al Bih well field and well locations were correlated with the geological structure trends and intersections. The results of the study reveal that the drainage basins, drainage network and groundwater quality are structurally controlled by subsurface geological structure displacements.     

Determining the susceptibility of Eucalyptus nitens forests to Coryphodema tristis (cossid moth) occurrence in Mpumalanga,South Africa

The cossid moth, Coryphodema tristis was first noted on Eucalyptus nitens trees in Mpumalanga province, South Africa during July 2004. Currently, the moth poses a major threat to commercial forestry in the country. In this study, selected climatic and topographical variables were used to model the susceptibility of E. nitens forests to cossid moth occurrence, thereby providing insight into the variables that may influence the occurrence and spread of the moth. A zigzag sampling technique was used to survey 5316 ha of E. nitens forests for the presence or absence of the moth. The random forest classification algorithm was then used to model the relationship between the climatic and topographical variables and the occurrence of the cossid moth. Results indicate that four variables that included elevation, maximum temperature for September, maximum temperature for April and the median rainfall for April best explained the presence or absence of C. tristis with an overall accuracy of 82% and a kappa value of 0.63. Partial dependence plots indicated that the areas that have a maximum temperature greater than 23°C in September and 22°C in April are likely to be infested by the cossid moth. The results from this study provide a robust and accurate spatial framework to assist forest managers in focussing their existing monitoring and control efforts to specific E. nitens forested areas that are highly susceptible to C. tristis infestations.     

Distributional changes in rainfall and river flow in Sarawak,Malaysia

Climate change may not change the rainfall mean, but the variability and extremes. Therefore, it is required to explore the possible distributional changes of rainfall characteristics over time. The objective of present study is to assess the distributional changes in annual and northeast monsoon rainfall (November-January) and river flow in Sarawak where small changes in rainfall or river flow variability/distribution may have severe implications on ecology and agriculture. A quantile regression-based approach was used to assess the changes of scale and location of empirical probability density function over the period 1980-2014 at 31 observational stations. The results indicate that diverse variation patterns exist at all stations for annual rainfall but mainly increasing quantile trend at the lowers, and higher quantiles for the month of January and December. The significant increase in annual rainfall is found mostly in the north and central-coastal region and monsoon month rainfalls in the interior and north of Sarawak. Trends in river flow data show that changes in rainfall distribution have affected higher quantiles of river flow in monsoon months at some of the basins and therefore more flooding. The study reveals that quantile trend can provide more information of rainfall change which may be useful for climate change mitigation and adaptation planning.     

Usage of multivariate geostatistics in interpolation processes for meteorological precipitation maps

Long-term meteorological data are very important both for the evaluation of meteorological events and for the analysis of their effects on the environment. Prediction maps which are constructed by different interpolation techniques often provide explanatory information. Conventional techniques, such as surface spline fitting, global and local polynomial models, and inverse distance weighting may not be adequate. Multivariate geostatistical methods can be more significant, especially when studying secondary variables, because secondary variables might directly affect the precision of prediction. In this study, the mean annual and mean monthly precipitations from 1984 to 2014 for 268 meteorological stations in Turkey have been used to construct country-wide maps. Besides linear regression, the inverse square distance and ordinary co-Kriging (OCK) have been used and compared to each other. Also elevation, slope, and aspect data for each station have been taken into account as secondary variables, whose use has reduced errors by up to a factor of three. OCK gave the smallest errors (1.002 cm) when aspect was included.     

Spatiotemporal trends of temperature extremes in Bangladesh under changing climate using multi-statistical techniques

Theoretical and Applied Climatology - The rise in the frequency and magnitude of extreme temperature phenomena across the globe has led to the recurrent incidence of global climate hazards, which...     

The deuterium and oxygen-18 isotopic composition of the groundwater in Khan Younis City,southern Gaza Strip (Palestine)

The environmental isotopes such as deuterium and oxygen-18 and the deuterium excess values have been used to assess groundwater recharge sources and their dynamics in Khan Younis City in the Gaza Strip in Palestine. Three isotopic lines for the relationship between δ²H and δ¹⁸O were used in the assessment. These lines are the global meteoric water line, the local meteoric water line and the groundwater evaporation line. The δ²H, δ¹⁸O and D-excess values indicate that deuterium and oxygen-18 isotopes originated in the groundwater from groundwater mixing with rainfall and other water sources; the groundwater in the area recharged from rainfall from a distant source that came from the Mediterranean Sea and from other sources such as wastewater, irrigation return flow and saline water.     

FEG-EPMA mapping and Fe-Ti oxide mineral chemistry of Brahmaputra River sediments in Bangladesh: provenance and petrogenetic implications

The present research deals with the FEG-EPMA mapping and Fe-Ti oxide mineral chemistry of Brahmaputra River sediments in Bangladesh. Major heavy minerals in the sediments consist of garnet (8.5–21.3%), kyanite (5.35–11.9%), monazite (2.3–5.3%), sillimanite (1.8–4.7%), zircon (3.6–9.1%), and a considerable amount of opaques mainly Fe-Ti oxide minerals (23.1–35.4%). The detrital Fe-Ti oxide minerals carry significant clues to the parent rocks or sources. In these contexts, detrital opaques (Fe-Ti oxides) have been analyzed with an electron probe microanalyzer (EPMA). These opaques (Fe-Ti oxide) display six types of textural patterns, dominantly seriate with granular, emulsion, and acicular sandwich structures and trellis type of textural patterns. These textural patterns belong to five intergrowths of Fe-Ti oxide minerals such as (1) ilmenite-hematite, (2) magnetite-ilmenite, (3) hematite-rutile, (4) ilmenite-hematite-rutile, and (5) ilmenite-rutile, where ilmenite-hematite intergrowth is common. Alteration is seen in both exsolved and unexsolved ilmenites. Textural patterns and mineral chemistry of the studied ilmenite minerals provide lines of evidence of low-temperature magmatic inheritance, later modified by diffusional processes. The estimated temperature and oxygen fugacity from the magnetite-ilmenite exsolution range from 547.6 to 558.2 °C and from 10^?21.4 to 10^?21.7, respectively. The data are also consistent with hematite-ilmenite temperature (between 537 and 540 °C) and oxygen fugacity (10^?21.7 to 10^?21.9) measurements in Cox’s Bazar beach placers. These temperatures and oxygen fugacities specify Fe-Ti oxide assemblages equilibrated in a T-fO₂ field very near to the FMQ buffer curve suggesting a crustal source (magmatic and/or metamorphic), which is modified significantly by metamorphic processes.