Recent temperature and precipitation increases in West Siberia and their association with the Arctic Oscillation

Surface air temperature and precipitation records for the years 1958-1999 from ten meteorological stations located throughout West Siberia are used to identify climatic trends and determine to what extent these trends are potentially attributable to the Arctic Oscillation (AO). Although recent changes in atmospheric variability are associated with broad Arctic climate change, West Siberia appears particularly susceptible to warming. Furthermore, unlike most of the Arctic, moisture transport in the region is highly variable. The records show that West Siberia is experiencing significant warming and notable increases in precipitation, likely driven, in part, by large-scale Arctic atmospheric variability. Because this region contains a large percentage of the world's peatlands and contributes a significant portion of the total terrestrial freshwater flux to the Arctic Ocean, these recent climatic trends may have globally significant repercussions. The most robust patterns found are strong and prevalent springtime warming, winter precipitation increases, and strong association of non-summer air temperatures with the AO. Warming rates for both spring (0.5-0.8 °C/decade) and annual (0.3-0.5°C/decade) records are statistically significant for nine often stations. On average, the AO is linearly congruent with 96% (winter), 19% (spring), 0% (summer), 67% (autumn) and 53% (annual) of the warming found in this study. Significant trends in precipitation occur most commonly during winter, when four of ten stations exhibit significant increases (4-13 %/decade). The AO may play a lesser role in precipitation variability and is linearly congruent with only 17% (winter), 13% (spring), 12% (summer), 1% (autumn) and 26% (annual) of precipitation trends.     

Floodplain–river ecosystems: lateral connections and the implications of human interference

Floodplains are ecotones that form a transition between aquatic and terrestrial environments. These important ecosystems can be described as dynamic spatial mosaics in which water plays an important role in connecting various patches on the floodplain surface. Hydrological connections facilitate the exchange of carbon and nutrients between the river channel and the floodplain and therefore influence the productivity of the entire river system. This paper examines the influence of hydrological connections on the potential exchange of dissolved organic carbon between a large Australian floodplain to a river channel, and the effects of land and water developments on these exchanges. The paper proposes that an understanding of floodplain ecosystems requires an interdisciplinary approach—a recognition of the importance of the three disciplines hydrology, geomorphology and ecology. Large-scale water-resources and floodplain development has significantly altered the spatial and temporal patterns of hydrological characteristics in the Lower Balonne floodplain, Australia. The magnitude, frequency and duration of flooding events have all been reduced. The construction of levees and water storages has also reduced the reactive floodplain surface area. The presented data show the impacts of these changes on the potential supply of dissolved organic carbon from the floodplain surface during periods of inundation. Annual reductions of up to 1293 tonnes of dissolved organic carbon supply were noted and reductions were especially significant for floods with an average recurrence interval of 2 years or less. Some small flood events no longer facilitate the potential supply of dissolved organic carbon from the floodplain to the river channel because of water-resources and floodplain developments.     

松辽盆地后五家户气田沉积相特征与控气作用

本文对松辽盆地东南部后五家户气田划分出22种沉积微相,建立7种相层序,分析了扇三角洲及三角洲沉积环境对天然气成藏的控制作用。指出了扇三角洲前缘砂体和三角洲前缘砂体较为发育,沉积物源来自气田东北部和东南部两个方向。后五家户气田多为构造—岩性气藏和岩性气藏。     

Discussion on the feature of strong earthquake: Orderly distribution in time, space and intensity before the Western Kunlun Mountain Pass M=8.1 earthquake

Introduction The Western Kunlun Mountain Pass M=8.1 earthquake occurred on November 14, 2001 is the other M=8 earthquake occurred 50 years after Dangxiong, Tibet M=8.0 earthquake in Chinese mainland. The earthquake has caused the attention of the seismologists in the following aspects: 1) The fracture length is more than 400 km, which is far away from the estimated length by the statistic empirical function between the magnitude and the fracture length (WANG, et al, 2002); 2) The aftersh…     

The BEAM-project: prediction and assessment of mixture toxicities in the aquatic environment

Freshwater and marine ecosystems are exposed to various multi-component mixtures of pollutants. Nevertheless, most ecotoxicological research and chemicals regulation focus on hazard and exposure assessment of individual substances only, the problem of chemical mixtures in the environment is ignored to a large extent. In contrast, the assessment of combination effects has a long tradition in pharmacology, where mixtures of chemicals are specifically designed to develop new products, e.g. human and veterinary drugs or agricultural and non-agricultural pesticides. In this area, two concepts are frequently used and are thought to describe fundamental relationships between single substance and mixture effects: Independent Action (Response Addition) and Concentration Addition. The question, to what extent these concepts may also be applied in an ecotoxicological and regulatory context may be considered a research topic of major importance, as the concepts would allow to make use of already existing single substance toxicity data for the predictive assessment of mixture toxicities. Two critical knowledge gaps are identified: (a) There is a lack of environmental realism, as a huge part of our current knowledge about the applicability of the concepts is restricted to artificial situations with respect to mixture composition or biological effect assessment. (b) The knowledge on what exactly is needed for using the concepts as tools for the predictive mixture toxicity assessment is insufficient. Both gaps seriously hamper the necessary, scientifically sound consideration of mixture toxicities in a regulatory context.In this paper, the two concepts will be briefly introduced, the necessity of considering the toxicities of chemical mixtures in the environment will be demonstrated and the applicability of Independent Action and Concentration Addition as tools for the prediction and assessment of mixture toxicities will be discussed. An overview of the specific aims and approaches of the BEAM project to fill in the identified knowledge gaps is given and first results are outlined.     

盆地岩石圈结构与油气成藏及分布

本文综述了大陆岩石圈研究现状和克拉通盆地、裂谷盆地和前陆盆地的岩石圈结构特征,指出在古裂谷、褶皱带或区域性深断裂等陆壳构造薄弱带上发育起来的多期叠合盆地,具有很好的含油气前景。大型含油气盆地往往存在地幔上隆、地壳减薄和地壳内低速层,盆地基底沉降与盖层沉积厚度较大。适度的后期构造活动改造和岩浆活动有利于沉积盆地内油气生成与保存。     

Mid‐Holocene sub‐blanket‐peat alluvia and sediment sources in the upper Liffey valley,Co. Wicklow,Ireland

A recently exposed section across a ?rst‐order valley buried beneath the regional blanket peat on hillside slopes in the upper Liffey valley, Co. Wicklow, is described. The section shows two alluvia within a shallow valley form underlain by an extensive boulder and stone line over regional till and weathered granite. ¹⁴C dates from wood in the alluvia indicate the older alluvium to have formed between 4324 ± 53 BP and 4126 ± 45 BP and the younger between 3217 ± 53 BP and 2975 ± 53 BP . The basal layer of the overlying peat yielded a date of 2208 ± 61 BP . The younger alluvium shows the effects of soil paludi?cation prior to the peat expansion. Dated pollen analyses elsewhere in the upper catchment con?rm the spread of blanket peat over most areas above 350 m after 4000–3600 BP . The buried valley was contributing sediments to the mid‐Holocene ?oodplains in the upper Liffey valley prior to the extension of blanket peat over the catchment after which sediment yields from it and the other catchment slopes declined. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Characterisation of the Dabla Granitoids, North Khetri Copper Belt, Rajasthan, India: Evidence of Bimodal Anorogenic Felsic Magmatism

The Palaeoproterozoic Dabla granitoid pluton of the North Khetri Copper Belt is located to the east of a NNE-SSW trending lineament with numerous albite-rich intrusives, the intraplate ‘albitite line’. The Dabla pluton is essentially made up of calcic amphibole-bearing granitoids, displaying a concentric bimodal distribution of alkali-feldspar granites, comprising a microcline-albite granite and an albite-granite. The dominant rock type is pink-coloured granite, which is characterised by quartz, microcline, albite and hastingsitic hornblende, and occurs in the marginal parts of the pluton. The volumetrically subordinate albite-granite in the central part of the pluton is invariably white in colour, non-foliated and is mainly composed of quartz, albite and amphibole of actinolite to ferro-actinolite composition. The albite-granite is characterised by low K₂O (0.06-0.09%), Rb (<5 ppm) and Ba (<20 ppm), high Na₂O (7.19-7.36%) and high Na/K ratios (122.4-185.2) as compared to the granite. These rocks are not subjected to any metamorphic overprint, especially the albite-granite, which shows pristine abundances of major and trace elements. The rocks are highly evolved as reflected in their high SiO₂ (72 to 78%) contents and high DI (89.5-97) values. The Dabla granitoids are characterised by similar REE and spider patterns, displaying LREE enriched slopes, flat HREE profiles and strong negative Sr, P, Ti and Eu anomalies suggesting their comagmatic nature. Nevertheless, the granite is relatively more fractionated [(La/Yb)_N = 3.89-8.19] and show higher REE abundances (466-673 ppm) as compared to the albite-granite [(La/Yb)_N = 1.97-2.96; REE = 220-277 ppm]. Distinctive features of these rocks are their low Ca (0.21-1.53%), Mg (<0.02-0.19%), Al (11.84-12.96%) and Sr (12-46 ppm) abundances, high Zr (155-631 ppm), Y (67-156 ppm), Nb (14-91 ppm), and Ga (20-31 ppm) concentrations and high Fe*-number, high Ga/Al ratio and high agpaitic index (AI) values. These features, coupled with their ferroan, alkaline and metaluminous nature, are typical of within-plate aluminous A-type granites. The geochemical data further indicate that the Dabla magma was generated at fairly high temperature, apparently in an upper mantle region, under relatively low H₂O activities and reduced conditions and emplaced at a shallow depth in an extensional tectonic environment.     

Kinematics of throughgoing fractures in jointed rocks

Throughgoing fractures play a major role in subsurface fluid flow yet the kinematics of their formation, which directly impact rock flow properties, are often difficult to establish. We investigate throughgoing fractures in the Monterey Formation of California that developed by the coalescence of pre-existing joints. At Lompoc Landing, throughgoing fractures fall into three main groups: linked, linked with aperture, and breccia zones. The segmented nature of their walls provides numerous piercing points to firmly establish the sense of displacement. Analysis of displacement vectors derived from piercing points demonstrates that the NW–SE trending throughgoing fractures, often interpreted as strike–slip faults, are in fact extensional structures in origin. We suggest that this method may be applied to throughgoing fractures that form by the same mechanism in other geologic settings. Establishing kinematics of throughgoing fractures will lead to a better understanding of their contribution to subsurface fluid flow.