A new discovery of parautochthonous moldavites in southwestern Poland,Central Europe

Moldavites represent tektites derived from the Ries impact structure (~24 km diameter, ~15 Myr old) in southern Germany. Two new localities with parautochthonous moldavites in southwestern Poland were found. In these localities, fluvial sediments of the so‐called Gozdnicka formation host the moldavites. Characteristic tektite features, especially bubbles and inclusions of lechatelierite, are reported. The moldavites' size distribution and their abraded shapes indicate that they were redeposited from the nearby Lusatia substrewn field.     

Integral Turbulence Statistics Over a Central European City Centre

Atmospheric measurements over 5 years (2005–2010) at two sites in ?ód?, central Poland have been analyzed to develop a better understanding of turbulence in urban areas. Fast response wind velocity, temperature, humidity and CO₂ concentration were measured using sonic anemometers and gas analyzers, placed on narrow masts at 37 and 42 m above the ground. The measurements were used to calculate standard deviations of each parameter, and were then normalized according to local Monin–Obukhov similarity theory and plotted as a function of stability parameter ζ = z′/L. Results for the wind components show typical scaling with a power law with exponent ±1/3 in the free convection limit, and that approaches a constant value close to neutral stratification. For stable conditions, the constant value in the neutral limit remains the same for stability parameters lower than 0.1–0.2, then increases. The normalized standard deviation of temperature fits the ?1/3 law in the free convection limit, approaching a constant value within a stable limit. However, it exhibits hyperbolic characteristics for close to neutral stratification. The normalized standard deviations for humidity and CO₂ concentration exhibit scaling similar to the wind components in the unstable regime and remain constant in the stable domain. The results for the wind components and for temperature are in the range of various functions found in other studies. The absolute values for humidity and CO₂ concentration seem to be slightly higher, but only single examples of such investigations can be found in the literature.     

Discovery of the most distal Ries tektites found in Lower Silesia,southwestern Poland

We report the first occurrence of moldavites in Poland. This discovery confirms the hypothesis that moldavites could have been distributed up to 500 km from the Ries crater in Germany. The tektites were reworked from Middle Miocene sediments and redeposited in Late Miocene (Pannonian) fluvial deposits of the Gozdnicka Formation in Lower Silesia. The Polish moldavites are represented by nine (<8 mm) fragments with a total of 0.471 g. The lack of the autochthonous tektites indicates that tektites investigated here had to be redeposited in a fluvial environment, probably from the Lusatian area. The chemical composition of the Polish moldavites plots in the same area with those from other localities.     

Part II. Discontinuous Galerkin method applied to a single phase flow in porous media

Discontinuous Galerkin numerical simulations of single phase flow problem are described in this paper. The simulations show the advantages of using discontinuous approximation spaces. hp convergence results are obtained for smooth solutions. Unstructured meshes and unsmooth solutions are also considered.     

Abnormal features of Macoma balthica (Bivalvia) in the Baltic Sea: alerting symptoms of environmental adversity?

Recent studies of the Baltic clam Macoma balthica (L.) from the southern Baltic (the Gulf of Gdansk) have revealed striking morphological, histological and cytogenetic features. Strong deformation of the shell, including elongation of the posterior end and the appearance of an easily visible flexure in this part, has been recorded. The population contribution of the deformed blunt shelled ("irregular") clams ranged from 0% to 65% and tended to increase with depth. The morphologically "irregular" clams had higher accumulated tissue concentrations of trace metals (As, Ag, Cd, Pb, Cu and Zn), indicating a different metal handling ability. Adverse conditions in deeper water regions of the Gulf (e.g. hypoxia, hydrogen sulphide, elevated bioavailability of contaminants) have been suggested as inducers of the phenotypical changes (morphological deformation) in part of the population and, in parallel, of the specific physiological adaptations that result in higher metal accumulation in the "irregular" clams. Cytogenetic and histological analyses showed the presence of tumours in gill cells and digestive system of the affected clams, the prevalence of disseminated neoplasia ranging from 0% to 94% depending on the site. The disease was manifested by a modified karyotype (i.e. an abnormal number and morphology of chromosomes), a higher activity of nucleolar organizer regions (AgNORs), and tissue lesions (enlarged cells, actively proliferative with pleomorphic nuclei). Bottom sediments showed acute toxicity and have been proposed as a source of an initialising carcinogenic factor. However, none of the ecotoxicological studies provided was successful in the clear demonstration of a single (or multifactorial) agent that can account for the disseminated neoplasia.     

Observation‐Driven Geo‐Ontology Engineering

Big Data, Linked Data, Smart Dust, Digital Earth, and e‐Science are just some of the names for research trends that surfaced over the last years. While all of them address different visions and needs, they share a common theme: How do we manage massive amounts of heterogeneous data, derive knowledge out of them instead of drowning in information, and how do we make our findings reproducible and reusable by others? In a network of knowledge, topics span across scientific disciplines and the idea of domain ontologies as common agreements seems like an illusion. In this work, we argue that these trends require a radical paradigm shift in ontology engineering away from a small number of authoritative, global ontologies developed top‐down, to a high number of local ontologies that are driven by application needs and developed bottom‐up out of observation data. Similarly as the early Web was replaced by a social Web in which volunteers produce data instead of purely consuming it, the next generation of knowledge infrastructures has to enable users to become knowledge engineers themselves. Surprisingly, existing ontology engineering frameworks are not well suited for this new perspective. Hence, we propose an observation‐driven ontology engineering framework, show how its layers can be realized using specific methodologies, and relate the framework to existing work on geo‐ontologies.     

A new design of the LAPS land surface scheme for use over and through heterogeneous and non-heterogeneous surfaces: Numerical simulations and tests

Numerical simulations and tests with the recently redesigned land–air parameterization scheme (LAPS) are presented. In all experiments, supported either by one-point micrometeorological, 1D or 3D simulations, the attention has been directed to: (1) comparison of simulation outputs, expressing the energy transfer over and through heterogeneous and non-heterogeneous surfaces, versus observations and (2) analysis of uncertainties occurring in the solution of the energy balance equation at the land–air interface. To check the proposed method for aggregation of albedo, “propagating hole” sensitivity tests with LAPS over a sandstone rock grid cell have been performed with the forcing meteorological data for July 17, 1999 in Baxter site, Philadelphia (USA). Micrometeorological and biophysical measurements from the surface experiments conducted over crops and apple orchard in Serbia, Poland, Austria and France were used to test the operation of LAPS in calculating surface fluxes and canopy environment temperatures within and above plant covers of different densities. In addition, sensitivity tests with single canopy covers over the Central Europe region and comparison against the observations taken from SYNOP data using 3D simulations were made. Validation of LAPS performances over a solid surface has been done by comparison of 2 m air temperature observations against 5-day simulations over the Sahara Desert rocky ground using 3D model. To examine how realistically the LAPS simulates surface processes over a heterogeneous surface, we compared the air temperature measured at 2 m and that predicted by the 1D model with the LAPS as the surface scheme. Finally, the scheme behaviour over urban surface was tested by runs over different parts of a hypothetical urban area. The corresponding 1D simulations were carried out with an imposed meteorological dataset collected during HAPEX-MOBILHY experiment at Caumont (France). The quantities predicted by the LAPS compare well with the observations and the various subcomponents of the scheme appear to operate realistically.