Simulating compound flooding events in a hurricane

Ocean Dynamics - Compound flooding is usually induced by the concurrence of coastal storm surge and heavy precipitation induced river flooding, with the former involving oceanic processes and the...     

Diatom transfer-functions for quantifying past air temperature, pH and total organic carbon concentration from lakes in northern Sweden

The relationships between diatoms (Bacillariophyceae) in surface sediments of lakes and summer air temperature, pH and total organic carbon concentration (TOC) were explored along a steep climatic gradient in northern Sweden to provide a tool to infer past climate conditions from sediment cores. The study sites are in an area with low human impact and range from boreal forest to alpine tundra. Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) constrained to mean July air temperature and pH clearly showed that diatom community composition was different between lakes situated in conifer-, mountain birch- and alpine-vegetation zones. As a consequence, diatoms and multivariate ordination methods can be used to infer past changes in treeline position and dominant forest type. Quantitative inference models were developed to estimate mean July air temperature, pH and TOC from sedimentary diatom assemblages using weighted averaging (WA) and weighted averaging partial least squares (WA-PLS) regression. Relationships between diatoms and mean July air temperature were independent of lake-water pH, TOC, alkalinity and maximum depth. The results demonstrated that diatoms in lake sediments can provide useful and independent quantitative information for estimating past changes in mean July air temperature (R² _jack = 0.62, RMSEP = 0.86 °C; R² and root mean squared error of prediction (RMSEP) based on jack-knifing), pH (R² _jack = 0.61, RMSEP = 0.30) and TOC (R² _jack = 0.49, RMSEP = 1.33 mg l^-1). The paper focuses mainly on the relationship between diatom community composition and mean July air temperature, but the relationships to pH and TOC are also discussed.     

Middle and Late Holocene Sea-Level Changes in Eastern Maine Reconstructed from Foraminiferal Saltmarsh Stratigraphy and AMS C Dates on Basal Peat

A relative sea-level history is reconstructed for Machiasport, Maine, spanning the past 6000 calendar years and combining two different methods. The first method establishes the long-term (10³ yr) trend of sea-level rise by dating the base of the Holocene saltmarsh peat overlying a Pleistocene substrate. The second method uses detailed analyses of the foraminiferal stratigraphy of two saltmarsh peat cores to quantify fluctuations superimposed on the long-term trend. The indicative meaning of the peat (the height at which the peat was deposited relative to mean tide level) is calculated by a transfer function based on vertical distributions of modern foraminiferal assemblages. The chronology is determined from AMS ¹⁴C dates on saltmarsh plant fragments embedded in the peat. The combination of the two different approaches produces a high-resolution, replicable sea-level record, which takes into account the autocompaction of the peat sequence. Long-term mean rates of sea-level rise, corrected for changes in tidal range, are 0.75 mm/yr between 6000 and 1500 cal yr B.P. and 0.43 mm/yr during the past 1500 years. The foraminiferal stratigraphy reveals several low-amplitude fluctuations during a relatively stable period between 1100 and 400 cal yr B.P., and a sea-level rise of 0.5 m during the past 300 years.     

On the election of the flat metric in the bimetric theory of gravitation

The problem of the form of the flat metric in the Rosen bimetric theory is examined in the following work.It is shown, on concrete examples, how necessary it is to write down the flat metric and solve the problem of finding the gravitational field in arbitrary non-inertial frame. It is shown also how to separate the pure gravitational effects from those connected with non-inertiality of the frame by way of comparing both metrics.     

Vertical distribution of dissolved aluminium in the mediterranean sea

The vertical distribution of dissolved aluminium in the Mediterranean Sea offshore of Corsica has been followed during a period of high biological activity (April–September). In May and August, the concentration of dissolved aluminium is at a relatively low (1.5 μg Al1^?1) and rather constant value in the surface waters, while exhibiting minimum values of about 0.5 and 0.8 μg Al1^?1 in April and September. It increases under the seasonal thermocline to a depth of 150–500 m. The bottom waters are characterized by a constant and relatively high value of 4 μg Al1^?1.The observed concentrations of dissolved aluminium are not compatible with a precipitation-dissolution mechanism of clay minerals.The general distribution pattern and the seasonal changes of dissolved aluminium exhibit strong analogies with those of dissolved silica and nitrogen, suggesting a pre-dominant role of biological activity. It is not possible at this stage to attribute the aluminium uptake in the photic zone solely to the activity of diatoms, as suggested earlier.     

Study of the weathering of albite at room temperature and pressure with a fluidized bed reactor

A continuous reactor based on the fluidized bed technique was developed in order to study the kinetics and the mechanisms of the initial stages of weathering of albite. Simultaneous determination of Si, Al and Na and the observed low concentrations of the dissolved elements which were always at levels below saturation with respect to possible secondary precipitates, indicate that formation of a residual layer of a few tens of angstroms occurred at the surface of the feldspar. The composition of this layer, enriched in Si and/or Al, is strongly dependent on the pH of the aqueous solution. The formation of the layer is followed by the establishment of a quasi-steady state during which the dissolution of albite tends to become stoichiometric.     

Satiation of juveniles ofCoregonus lavaretus L. fed onDaphnia pulicaria

Juveniles ofCoregonus lavaretus L. of a body weight (wet weight) between 0.5 and 11g were fed on pond reared livingDaphnia pulicaria. The fish were held in groups of 4 to 8 fish in tanks of a volume of 10 to 20 l at water temperatures of 8, 12, 16 and 20°C. After a deprivation time of 24 h the fish were fed an amount of livingDaphnia of about 1000 specimen/l. Fish of a body weight (wet weight) less than 1 g showed a continuous food intake until satiation, whereas the food intake of bigger fish was divided into three phases: During a first feeding period 50 to 73% of the satiation amount were consumed. This feeding period was followed by a period of no food intake, which was followed by a second feeding period. At the end of the second feeding period the fish were satiated. The period of no food intake is considered to be a specific adaptation to planctivory. The satiation time (min) increased with increasing body weight and increasing water temperature. The satiation amount, i.e. the amount of food eaten until satiation (mg stomach content, dry weight) increased with increasing body weight. The satiation amount expressed in % body weight (dry weight/dry weight) reached a maximum of 10% for fish of a body weight of 1 g. With increasing body weight it decreased to 5% for fish of 11 g b.wt. At 8°C the satiation amount was significantly lower than at 12°C. The experiments were performed at the Limnological Institute, University of Constance, D-7750 Constance, Federal Republic of Germany.