Multicomponent reactive transport modeling of uranium bioremediation field experiments

A reaction network integrating abiotic and microbially mediated reactions has been developed to simulate biostimulation field experiments at a former Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) site in Rifle, Colorado. The reaction network was calibrated using data from the 2002 field experiment, after which it was applied without additional calibration to field experiments performed in 2003 and 2007. The robustness of the model specification is significant in that (1) the 2003 biostimulation field experiment was performed with 3 times higher acetate concentrations than the previous biostimulation in the same field plot (i.e., the 2002 experiment), and (2) the 2007 field experiment was performed in a new unperturbed plot on the same site. The biogeochemical reactive transport simulations accounted for four terminal electron-accepting processes (TEAPs), two distinct functional microbial populations, two pools of bioavailable Fe(III) minerals (iron oxides and phyllosilicate iron), uranium aqueous and surface complexation, mineral precipitation and dissolution. The conceptual model for bioavailable iron reflects recent laboratory studies with sediments from the UMTRA site that demonstrated that the bulk (∼90%) of initial Fe(III) bioreduction is associated with phyllosilicate rather than oxide forms of iron. The uranium reaction network includes a U(VI) surface complexation model based on laboratory studies with Rifle site sediments and aqueous complexation reactions that include ternary complexes (e.g., calcium-uranyl-carbonate). The bioreduced U(IV), Fe(II), and sulfide components produced during the experiments are strongly associated with the solid phases and may play an important role in long-term uranium immobilization.     

Indigenous perspectives of climate change and its effects upon subsistence activities in the Arctic: the case of the Nets’aii Gwich’in

This paper discusses the relationship between climate change and subsistence behaviors of indigenous peoples in Arctic regions of North America. It is noted that those most affected by such change are, typically, those peoples who continue to carry out subsistence practices through which they acquire a significant percentage of food from the land. It is these very peoples who also may offer valuable observations about changes which they are personally witnessing. A case study example, the Nets’aii Gwich’in community of Arctic Village, Alaska, is presented. Using Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and villagers’ observations as the primary data source, it is shown that levels of subsistence activity in this community are decreasing. Villagers believe that climate changes are playing a key role in the ability to access country foods. They believe too that there are fewer animals and that the food now available is of poorer quality than in the past. It is concluded that the information and data presented here concerning villager perceptions should be viewed as only part of the explanation for changes in subsistence behaviors. More research in the coming years is called for to further help distinguish the impacts of climate change upon subsistence activities from other social and economic forces which also are playing a role in such indigenous communities.     

Cladoceran community composition in tropical semi-arid highland reservoirs in Tigray (Northern Ethiopia): A metacommunity perspective applied to young reservoirs

A field survey of zooplankton communities was carried out in 32 recently established tropical semi-arid reservoirs in the highlands of Northern Ethiopia with the aim to identify to what extent environmental factors determine species composition of the cladoceran community in such isolated and young reservoirs. To address seasonal variation, the survey was carried out both at the beginning and the end of the dry season. A total of 15 species of cladocerans were identified. Daphnia was the most abundant cladoceran genus, and was present in all reservoirs. Using presence-absence data, no association between cladoceran community composition and geographic distance was found. RDA results indicate that the set of environmental variables that explained cladoceran community composition differed among seasons. Depth, altitude and fish biomass showed a significant association with cladoceran community composition during the wet season, whereas variation in cladoceran community structure was associated with phytoplankton biomass in the dry season. The relative abundance of Daphnia was much higher in the pelagic than in the littoral zone of our study systems. Two key groups of pelagic filter-feeding cladocerans, Diaphanosoma and Daphnia, showed a clear pattern, in which one or the other tended to strongly dominate the community. In addition, we observed a negative association between dominance of Daphnia in the zooplankton community and dominance of cyanobacteria in the phytoplankton community.     

Surveying Upstate NY Well Water for Pesticide Contamination: Cayuga and Orange Counties

Private wells in Cayuga and Orange counties in New York were sampled to determine the occurrence of pesticide contamination of groundwater in areas where significant pesticide use coincides with shallow or otherwise vulnerable groundwater. Well selection was based on local groundwater knowledge, risk modeling, aerial photo assessments, and pesticide application database mapping. Single timepoint samples from 40 wells in each county were subjected to 93‐compound chromatographic scans. All samples were nondetects (reporting limits ≤1 μg/L), thus no wells from either county exceeded any of 15 state groundwater standards or guidance values. More sensitive enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) found two wells with quantifiable atrazine in each county (0.1–0.3 μg/L), one well with quantifiable diazinon (0.1 μg/L) in Orange County, and one well with quantifiable alachlor (0.2 μg/L) in Cayuga County. Trace detections (<0.1 μg/L) in Cayuga County included atrazine (five wells), metolachlor (six wells), and alachlor (one well), including three wells with multiple detections. All 12 Cayuga County wells with ELISA detections had either corn/grain or corn/forage rotations as primary surrounding land uses (although 20 other wells with the same land uses had no detections) and all quantified detections and most trace detections occurred in wells up to 9‐m deep. Orange County trace (<0.1 μg/L) ELISA detections (atrazine three wells, diazinon one well, and metolachlor five wells) and quantified detections were only generally associated with agricultural land uses. Finding acceptable drinking water quality in areas of vulnerable groundwater suggests that water quality in less vulnerable areas will also be good.     

Inversion of multicomponent seismic time shifts for reservoir pressure and length: a feasibility study

Pressure drops associated with reservoir production generate excess stress and strain that cause travel‐time shifts of reflected waves. Here, we invert time shifts of P‐, S‐, and PS‐waves measured between baseline and monitor surveys for pressure reduction and reservoir length. The inversion results can be used to estimate compaction‐induced stress and strain changes around the reservoir. We implement a hybrid inversion algorithm that incorporates elements of gradient, global/genetic, and nearest neighbour methods and permits exploration of the parameter space while simultaneously following local misfit gradients. Our synthetic examples indicate that optimal estimates of reservoir pressure from P‐wave data can be obtained using the reflections from the reservoir top. For S‐waves, time shifts from the top of the reservoir can be accurately inverted for pressure if the noise level is low. However, if noise contamination is significant, it is preferable to use S‐wave data (or combined shifts of all three modes) from reflectors beneath the reservoir. Joint wave type inversions demonstrate improvements over any single pure mode. Reservoir length can be estimated using the time shifts of any mode from the reservoir top or deeper reflectors. We also evaluate the differences between the actual strain field and those corresponding to the best‐case inversion results obtained using P‐ and S‐wave data. Another series of tests addresses the inversion of the time shifts for the pressure drops in two‐compartment reservoirs, as well as for the associated strain field. Numerical testing shows that a potentially serious source of error in the inversion is a distortion in the strain‐sensitivity coefficients, which govern the magnitude of stiffness changes. This feasibility study suggests which wave types and reflector locations may provide the most accurate estimates of reservoir parameters from compaction‐induced time shifts.     

Analysis of one-dimensional models for exchange flows under strong stratification

Ocean Dynamics - One-dimensional models of exchange flows driven by horizontal density gradients are well known for performing poorly in situations with weak turbulent mixing. The main issue with...     

Cross-correlation beamforming

An areal distribution of sensors can be used for estimating the direction of incoming waves through beamforming. Beamforming may be implemented as a phase-shifting and stacking of data recorded on the different sensors (i.e., conventional beamforming). Alternatively, beamforming can be applied to cross-correlations between the waveforms on the different sensors. We derive a kernel for beamforming cross-correlated data and call it cross-correlation beamforming (CCBF). We point out that CCBF has slightly better resolution and aliasing characteristics than conventional beamforming. When auto-correlations are added to CCBF, the array response functions are the same as for conventional beamforming. We show numerically that CCBF is more resilient to non-coherent noise. Furthermore, we illustrate that with CCBF individual receiver-pairs can be removed to improve mapping to the slowness domain. An additional flexibility of CCBF is that cross-correlations can be time-windowed prior to beamforming, e.g., to remove the directionality of a scattered wavefield. The observations on synthetic data are confirmed with field data from the SPITS array (Svalbard). Both when beamforming an earthquake arrival and when beamforming ambient noise, CCBF focuses more of the energy to a central beam. Overall, the main advantage of CCBF is noise suppression and its flexibility to remove station pairs that deteriorate the signal-related beampower.     

The 1982 eruptions of El Chichon volcano,Mexico (2): Observations and numerical modelling of tephra-fall distribution

Tephra fallout from the A-1 (March 29, 0532 UT), B (April 4, 0135 UT), and C (April 4, 1122 UT) 1982 explosive eruptions of El Chichon produced three tephra fall deposits over southeastern Mexico. Bidirectional spreading of eruption plumes, as documented by satellite images, was due to a combination of tropospheric and stratospheric transport, with heaviest deposition of tephra from the ENE tropospheric lobes. Maximum column heights for the eruptions of 27, 32, and 29 km, respectively, have been determined by comparing maximum lithic-clast dispersal in the deposits with predicted lithic isopleths based on a theoretical model of pyroclast fallout from eruption columns. These column heights suggest peak mass eruption rates of 1.1 × 10⁸, 1.9 × 10⁸, and 1.3 × 10⁸ kg/s. Maximum column heights and mass eruption rates occured early in each event based on the normal size grading of the fall deposits. Sequential satellite images of plume transport and the production of a large stratospheric aerosol plume indicate that the eruption columns were sustained at stratospheric altitudes for a significant portion of their duration. New estimates of tephra fall volume based on integration of isopach area and thickness yield a total volume of 2.19 km³ (1.09 km³ DRE, dense rock equivalent) or roughly twice the amount of the deposit mapped on the ground. Up to one-half of the erupted mass was therefore deposited elsewhere as highly dispersed tephra.     

Age of amphibolites associated with alpine peridotites in the Dinaride ophiolite zone,Yugoslavia

Amphibolites associated with alpine peridotites in the Central Ophiolite zone in Yugoslavia have K-Ar ages of 160–170 m.y. These amphibolites and associated peridotites underwent deep-seated metamorphism prior to tectonic emplacement into the sedimentary-volcanic assemblage of the Dinarides. The alpine peridotites and associated local rocks of the ophiolite suite are interpreted as Jurassic oceanic crust and upper mantle.