Shell Middens,Cultural Chronologies,and Coastal Settlement on the Rhode River Sub‐Estuary of Chesapeake Bay,Maryland, USA

North America's Atlantic Coast has been a focus of human settlement and subsistence for millennia, but sea‐level rise, sedimentation, and other processes pose significant challenges for archaeological research. Radiocarbon dating of 31 shell middens near the Rhode River Estuary, Maryland provides an opportunity to evaluate human land use, settlement, and cultural chronologies on the Chesapeake Bay. Sixty calibrated radiocarbon dates on eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) shell and charcoal demonstrate that Native Americans, colonial, and historic peoples harvested oysters and other shellfish from at least 3200 years ago through the 19th century. The number of dated sites increases during the Late Woodland period after about 1000 cal yr B.P., a factor probably related to greater site visibility and preservation, as well as increased human exploitation of the watershed. Accumulation rates for five of the shell middens provide preliminary indications that some of the sites accumulated rapidly suggesting, along with other evidence, that many of the region's shell middens were logistical or perhaps seasonal camps. Our study demonstrates the importance of regional watershed surveys and radiocarbon dating programs to help build and refine cultural chronologies in coastal regions threatened by sea‐level rise and other processes.     

基于生物酶的固土技术在香港的应用研究

传统加固土体的方法主要是通过在土中加入一定量的高性能掺合剂使之成为一种强度较高的复合土体,但这种方法需要较长的养护时间,且不经济。利用一种新型实用的生物酶固化技术,针对香港地区3种常见的海洋黏土、完全风化花岗岩和完全风化凝灰岩,开展了土体加固试验研究。试验结果表明,生物酶对海洋土的加固效果最好,强度增加最高可达20%,而生物酶对完全风化花岗岩的加固效果则不太理想,抗剪强度指标只有少许改变。此外,海洋土和完全风化凝灰岩的压缩性因为生物酶的作用反而有所增强。最后,从微观上分析了生物酶固土作用的本质,指出固土效果主要缘自于生物酶分子与土中的黏土矿物分子发生相互作用产生的胶结作用。     

Characterization of microstructural and physical properties changes in biocemented sand using 3D X-ray microtomography

An experimental study has been performed to investigate the effect of the biocalcification process on the microstructural and the physical properties of biocemented Fontainebleau sand samples. The microstructural properties (porosity, volume fraction of calcite, total specific surface area, specific surface area of calcite, etc.) and the physical properties (permeability, effective diffusion) of the biocemented samples were computed for the first time from 3D images with a high-resolution images obtained by X-ray synchrotron microtomography. The evolution of all these properties with respect to the volume fraction of calcite is analysed and compared with success to experimental data, when it is possible. In general, our results point out that all the properties are strongly affected by the biocalcification process. Finally, all these numerical results from 3D images and experimental data were compared to numerical values or analytical estimates computed on idealized microstructures constituted of periodic overlapping and random non-overlapping arrangements of coated spheres. These comparisons show that these simple microstructures are sufficient to capture and to predict the main evolution of both microstructural and physical properties of biocemented sands for the whole range of volume fraction of calcite investigated.     

The Monitor project: rotation of low-mass stars in NGC 2362 – testing the disc regulation paradigm at 5 Myr

We report on the results of a time-series photometric survey of NGC 2362, carried out using the CTIO 4-m Blanco telescope and Mosaic-II detector as part of the Monitor project. Rotation periods were derived for 271 candidate cluster members over the mass range  0.1 ≲ M /M_⊙≲ 1.2  . The rotation period distributions show a clear mass-dependent morphology, qualitatively similar to that in NGC 2264, as would be expected from the age of this cluster. Using models of angular momentum evolution, we show that angular momentum losses over the ∼1–5 Myr age range appear to be needed in order to reproduce the evolution of the slowest rotators in the sample from the ONC to NGC 2362, as found by many previous studies. By incorporating Spitzer IRAC mid-infrared (mid-IR) measurements, we found that three to four objects showing mid-IR excesses indicative of the presence of circumstellar discs were all slow rotators, as would be expected in the disc regulation paradigm for early pre-main-sequence angular momentum evolution, but this result is not statistically significant at present, given the extremely limited sample size.     

The effects of bushfires on hydrological processes using a paired-catchment analysis

Summary Several problems associated with capturing the effects of bushfires on hydrological processes in the Goulburn River catchment (6810km²), Hunter Valley, Australia are investigated using a paired-catchment analysis. It is suggested, first, that the within-year-missing data, as defined in this paper, need to be examined carefully when using the double-mass curve of annual total discharge in a paired-catchment analysis. Second, in order to provide an accurate precipitation background, which is one of the most important prerequisites for a paired-catchment analysis, the use of annual average precipitation is strongly recommended together with annual total precipitation when there are large amounts of within-year-missing data. Third, caution is needed in comparing multi-year average precipitation and streamflow data before and after the fire when the data series is not statistically long enough, since the average values for precipitation and streamflow over a different number of years may produce completely contrasting results. Fourth, the analysis of the flow duration curve, which is another useful technique in paired-catchment analysis, needs to be interpreted from the precipitation duration curve. This is because the change of flow duration curve can be caused either from the change of precipitation or the fire. Fifth, the change in streamflow, calculated by subtracting the average streamflow for the non-fire years from the observed streamflow for the years in which fires occurred, is not an efficient way of capturing the fire effects. The problem associated with this approach is not just that the streamflow is strongly dependent on rainfall, as reported elsewhere, but also, it can lead to misinterpretation using the hydrograph when the average streamflow in non-fire years is close to the average streamflow in fire years.By taking into account the above problems there was no effect of fires found on streamflow in the Goulburn River catchment. This result contrasts with the conclusions reported from other studies that have reported an immediate increase in streamflow by experimental analyses, paired-catchment analyses or modelling studies. Instead, it is shown that the spatial pattern of precipitation over the Goulburn River catchment is more important in shaping the hydrograph than the effects of bushfires. The ratio of fire extent to catchment area is approximately 4% in this study, which we suggest is a minimum area required to identify a hydrological response to the fires. The fact that other studies have focused more on capturing the generally expected effect of an immediate increase in streamflow after fire, than on why this effect occurs, makes it highly desirable to undertake micro-meteorological experiments to obtain observed evapotranspiration data before and after fire. Also, it is important to develop a coupled soil-vegetation-atmosphere-transfer dynamic mechanism and high resolution numerical weather prediction model with a distributed hydrological model in order to simulate more realistically the effect of fire on hydrological processes.     

Flow and Pollutant Transport in Urban Street Canyons of Different Aspect Ratios with Ground Heating: Large-Eddy Simulation

A validated large-eddy simulation model was employed to study the effect of the aspect ratio and ground heating on the flow and pollutant dispersion in urban street canyons. Three ground-heating intensities (neutral, weak and strong) were imposed in street canyons of aspect ratio 1, 2, and 0.5. The detailed patterns of flow, turbulence, temperature and pollutant transport were analyzed and compared. Significant changes of flow and scalar patterns were caused by ground heating in the street canyon of aspect ratio 2 and 0.5, while only the street canyon of aspect ratio 0.5 showed a change in flow regime (from wake interference flow to skimming flow). The street canyon of aspect ratio 1 does not show any significant change in the flow field. Ground heating generated strong mixing of heat and pollutant; the normalized temperature inside street canyons was approximately spatially uniform and somewhat insensitive to the aspect ratio and heating intensity. This study helps elucidate the combined effects of urban geometry and thermal stratification on the urban canyon flow and pollutant dispersion.     

Rainfall characterization of the Bumbu watershed,Papua New Guinea

Theoretical and Applied Climatology - Accurate assessment of the rainfall characteristics of a river basin is essential for its proper management. In this study, we examine long-term trends in...     

Adaptability of the ocean and earth tidal models based on global observations of the superconducting gravimeters

As the gravity field is the most primary and direct physical quantity reflecting the density variation of the Earth’s interior and its geodynamic properties under various environmental changes and as the knowledge of the fine structure of the Earth’s interior and its geo-dynamics has a strong impact on space research, grav-ity observations become more and more important in Earth sciences. Therefore based on a global network of superconducting gravimeters (SGs), the Global Geo-dynamic Proje…     

Urban scale modelling: The Sydney hailstorm of 14 April 1999

Summary The aim of this study is to point to the very large improvements that are taking place in a range of modelling applications in the urban areas. The particular phenomenon chosen in this study is a supercell, but it could well have been any other aspect of urban modelling. The Sydney hailstorm of 14 April 1999 was a long-lived, high precipitation supercell that produced a massive damage bill of over 2 billion Australian dollars from its hail swath. The Sydney hailstorm was poorly forecast for a number of reasons including: the severe weather season had officially ended so there were no specialist staff on duty when the hailstorm struck Sydney; the storm proved very difficult to predict and it was expected to continue heading out to sea; and the forecast guidance from all available operational numerical models was inadequate at the resolution required for a supercell simulation. Here, our interest is on the last of the problems, namely, the quality of the operational numerical model guidance, especially given the impact it had on a densely populated urban region.In this study, we compare the numerical guidance available at the time with current modeling capability which, although in research mode at present, will soon be available in real-time mode. The operational models were hydrostatic models run at horizontal resolutions of 25km at best, compared with 1km horizontal resolution for the non-hydrostatic research model. The research model also had a high-order differencing scheme and a sophisticated six phase cloud physics scheme compared with the much simpler parameterized convection in the operational models. The operational model produced very little convective precipitation and it was displaced well to the north of Sydney. The research model generated a supercell with a track and a hail size distribution that was encouragingly close to the observed.