Tree-ring reconstructed megadroughts over North America since a.d. 1300

Tree-ring reconstructed summer Palmer Drought Severity Indices (PDSI) are used to identify decadal droughts more severe and prolonged than any witnessed during the instrumental period. These “megadroughts” are identified at two spatial scales, the North American continental scale (exclusive of Alaska and boreal Canada) and at the sub-continental scale over western North America. Intense decadal droughts have had significant environmental and socioeconomic impacts, as is illustrated with historical information. Only one prolonged continent-wide megadrought during the past 500 years exceeded the decadal droughts witnessed during the instrumental period, but three megadroughts occurred over the western sector of North America from a.d. 1300 to 1900. The early 20th century pluvial appears to have been unmatched at either the continental or sub-continental scale during the past 500 to 700 years. The decadal droughts of the 20th century, and the reconstructed megadroughts during the six previous centuries, all covered large sectors of western North America and in some cases extended into the eastern United States. All of these persistent decadal droughts included shorter duration cells of regional drought (sub-decadal  ≈  6 years), most of which resemble the regional patterns of drought identified with monthly and annual data during the 20th century. These well-known regional drought patterns are also characterized by unique monthly precipitation climatologies. Intense sub-decadal drought shifted among these drought regions during the modern and reconstructed multi-year droughts, which prolonged large-scale drought and resulted in the regimes of megadrought.     

A note on the top-down and bottom-up gradient functions over a forested site

The dimensionless bottom-up and top-down gradient functions in the convective boundary layer (CBL) are evaluated utilizing long-term well-calibrated carbon dioxide mixing ratio and flux measurements from multiple levels of a 447-m tall tower over a forested area in northern Wisconsin, USA. The estimated bottom-up and top-down functions are qualitatively consistent with those from large-eddy simulation (LES) results and theoretical expectations. Newly fitted gradient functions are proposed based on observations for this forested site. The integrated bottom-up function over the lowest 4% of the CBL depth estimated from the tower data is about five times larger than that from LES results for a ‘with-canopy’ case, and is smaller than that from LES results for a ‘no-canopy’ case by a factor of 0.7. We discuss the uncertainty in the evaluated gradient functions due to stability, wind direction, and uncertainty in the entrainment flux and show that while all of these have a significant impact on the gradient functions, none can explain the differences between the modelled and observed functions. The effects of canopy features and atmospheric stability may need to be considered in the gradient function relations.     

LandScan USA: a high-resolution geospatial and temporal modeling approach for population distribution and dynamics

High-resolution population distribution data are critical for successfully addressing important issues ranging from socio-environmental research to public health to homeland security, since scientific analyses, operational activities, and policy decisions are significantly influenced by the number of impacted people. Dasymetric modeling has been a well-recognized approach for spatial decomposition of census data to increase the spatial resolution of population distribution. However, enhancing the temporal resolution of population distribution poses a greater challenge. In this paper, we discuss the development of LandScan USA, a multi-dimensional dasymetric modeling approach, which has allowed the creation of a very high-resolution population distribution data both over space and time. At a spatial resolution of 3 arc seconds (～90 m), the initial LandScan USA database contains both a nighttime residential as well as a baseline daytime population distribution that incorporates movement of workers and students. Challenging research issues of disparate and misaligned spatial data and modeling to develop a database at a national scale, as well as model verification and validation approaches are illustrated and discussed. Initial analyses indicate a high degree of locational accuracy for LandScan USA distribution model and data. High-resolution population data such as LandScan USA, which describes both distribution and dynamics of human population, clearly has the potential to profoundly impact multiple domain applications of national and global priority.     

Development and the Household: Missing the point?

Over the past two decades development has been shifting its focus toward smaller scales and particular problems. As a result, the household has become an increasingly important institution for development, and has come under increased scrunity as development practitioners and scholars seek to better understand this institution’s functions and foundations, trying to ‘get the household right’. These efforts, rather than clarifying the character and the function of the household, have contributed to its indeterminacy by reifying the very institution they seek to analyse. Arguing that these efforts fundamentally miss the point of examining the household, this paper introduces a different framework of analysis that addresses the household not as a fixed object of research, but as a local construction that embodies flows of power and knowledge both within and transcending the local. Using the example of varying constructions of the household in two villages in Ghana’s Central Region, this article illustrates how such an approach allows us to address the various functions of the household as particular embodiments of these flows, an approach that better explains the endurance or ephemerality of these functions. Such an approach provides a stronger foundation for the consideration of how particular constructions of this institution may have troubling implications for issues like gender equity and sustainability.     

Multi-spectroscopic study of Fe(II) in silicate glasses: Implications for the coordination environment of Fe(II) in silicate melts

The coordination environment of Fe(II) has been examined in seven anhydrous ferrosilicate glasses at 298 K and 1 bar using ⁵⁷Fe Mössbauer, Fe K-edge X-ray near edge structure (XANES), and extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS), UV-Vis-NIR, and magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) spectroscopies. Glasses of the following compositions were synthesized from oxide melts (abbreviation and nonbridging oxygen:tetrahedral cation ratio (NBO/T) in parentheses): Li₂FeSi₃O₈ (LI2: 1.33), Rb₂FeSi₃O₈ (RB2: 1.33), Na_l.08Fe_l.l7Si_3.l3O₈ (NAl: 1.09), Na_l.46Ca_0.24Fe_l.08Si_2.97O₈ (NC6: 1.38), Na_l.09Ca_0.51Fe_0.72Si_3.10O₈ (NC2: 1.15), Na_0.99Ca_0.92Fe_0.24 Si_3.17O₈ (NCl: 1.04), and Na_0.29Mg_0.53Ca_0.52Fe_0.56Al_0.91Si_2.44O₈ (BAS: 1.05). Mössbauer, XANES, and EXAFS information suggests that iron is dominantly ferrous in all glasses (<10 atom% Fe(III)) with an average first-neighbor Fe(II) coordination varying from ∼ 4 to 5.2 (±0.2) oxygens. The UV-Vis-NIR spectrum of each sample exhibits intense absorption centered near 8100-9200 cm⁻¹ and weak absorption near 5000 cm^−l, which cannot be assigned unambiguously. The MCD spectrum of NC6 glass, which is the first such measurement on a silicate glass, shows three transitions at ∼8500 cm⁻¹, ∼6700 cm⁻¹, and ∼4500 cm⁻¹. The behavior of these MCD bands as a function of temperature (1.6 K to 300 K) and magnetic field strength (1 T to 7 T) indicates that they most likely arise from three distinct Fe(II) sites with different ground states, two of which are 5-coordinated and one of which is 4-coordinated by oxygens.The combined results suggest that Fe(II) predominantly occupies 5- and 4-coordinated sites in each glass, with the ratios differing for the different compositions. Small amounts of 6-coordinated Fe(II) are possible as well, but primarily in the more basic glass compositions such as BAS. The substitution of Li(I) for Rb(I) in the M₂FeSi₃O₈ base glass composition causes a weakening of the average Fe(II)-O bond, as indicated by the longer Fe(II)-O distance in the latter. The basalt composition glass was found to have the largest Fe(II) sites relative to those in the other glasses in this study. A bond valence model that helps predict the coordination number of Fe(II) in silicate glasses is proposed. The structural information extrapolated to Fe(II)-bearing melts is parameterized using bond valence theory, which helps to rationalize the melt-crystal partitioning behavior of ferrous iron in natural and synthetic melt-crystal systems.     

Smithsonian Institution’s Global Volcanism Network

Information included in this summary is based on more detailed reports published in the Bulletin of the Global Volcanism Network, vol. 29, no. 12, December 2004 (on the Internet at ). Edited by scientists at the Smithsonian, this Bulletin includes reports provided by a worldwide network of correspondents. The reports contain the names and contact information for all sources. Please note that these reports are preliminary and subject to change as events are studied in more detail. The Global Volcanism Program welcomes further reports of current volcanism, seismic unrest, monitoring data, and field observations.     

Annual regime of bedforms, roughness and flow resistance, Lillooet River, British Columbia, BC

A field study to examine the statistical character of dune morphology and the correlation among dune morphology, discharge, and flow resistance was conducted in a meandering reach of Lillooet River, near Pemberton, British Columbia, Canada. The field season spanned the 1995/1996 hydrologic year with sample day discharge events ranging between 33 and 425 m³ s⁻¹. Surveys of the bed morphology along the thalweg in two dune fields (A and B) were completed using an echo sounder with chart recorder that enabled the measurement of more than 4000 dunes. Dune height ranged between 0.08 and 0.96 m, length between 2.01 and 20.99 m, and steepness between 0.02 and 0.10. Histograms of each dune shape (height, length, steepness) sample most often displayed positive skewness and non-Gaussian distributions (Gamma, Beta, and Weibull); median sample height and length histograms displayed positive skewness; and steepness was nearly Gaussian. Histograms of all dimensionless dunes (i.e., measurement divided by average measurement of sample) were Gaussian and slightly leptokurtic. Neither the height nor length of dunes measured in this investigation were successfully predicted by the empirical models of Allen [Allen, J.R.L., 1984. Developments in Sedimentology. Sedimentary Structures: Their Character and Physical Basis, 2nd edn. Elsevier, New York, vol. 30 (A and B), 1256 pp.], Fredsøe [J. Hydraul. Div., Am. Soc. Civ. Eng. 108(HY8) (1982) 932.], or Yalin [J. Hydraul. Div., Am. Soc. Civ. Eng. 90(HY5) (1964) 105.]. Least-squares regression models for dune–height relations produced here are similar to models published by other field researchers; regression models for dune length only conform to those developed elsewhere if the discharge of the study rivers was similar. The energy gradient in dune field A varied within a smaller range than in field B, enabling dune size to become more fully equilibrated with respect to flow environment. Although the average Froude numbers were much less than critical, dunes appeared to wash out towards a plane bed as discharge increased due to a change from a bedload to suspended-load dominated sediment-transport regime. Flow resistance increased most rapidly during changes in base flow and at the beginning and end of the seasonal flood; resistance tended to be smaller in field A than B, reflecting local differences in energy gradient. Flow resistance increased until a dune steepness of 0.070 was attained and then decreased. The steepness value was considered to be coincident with kolk generation [Dyer, K.R., 1986. Coastal and Estuarine Sediment Dynamics. Wiley, NY, 342 pp.], suggesting that macroturbulent flow structures play an important role in defining the roughness of dunes on a channel bed.     

The decline and recovery of a persistent Texas brown tide algal bloom in the Laguna Madre (Texas, USA)

The Laguna Madre has experienced a persistent bloom ofAureoumbra lagunensis for over eight years. The persistence of this bloom may be due in part to the often hypersaline conditions in Laguna Madre (40–60 psu) that favor the growth ofA. lagunensis. Above-normal rainfall in the fall of 1997 reduced the salinities in Baffin Bay from >40 to<20 psu.A. lagunensis cell densities dropped from>10⁶ cells ml⁻¹ in July 1997 to c. 200 cells ml⁻¹ in January 1998. During this time of low brown tide density, phytoplankton biomass generally remained high and the Laguna Madre experienced successive blooms of diatoms (Rhizosolenia spp.) and cyanobacteria. Hypersaline conditions returned in 1998 and brown tide densities increased to>0.5 × 10⁶ cells ml⁻¹ by summer. The extraordinary persistence of the brown tide and the unusual sequence of intense blooms may be related in part to the reduction of zooplankton populations. Microzooplankton populations declined following the above-normal rain in the fall of 1997; populations did not recover until fall 1998. Copepod populations also declined sharply and remained low in Laguna Madre, but recovered by summer 1998 in Baffin Bay. Dilution experiments indicated that microzooplankton grazing and phytoplankton growth were usually balanced when measured during our cruises. The rapid recovery of theA. lagunensis bloom suggests that this alga may be a more resilient component of the Laguna Madre flora than previously suspected.