Potential for deep geological sequestration of CO2 in Switzerland: a first appraisal

Possibilities to sequester anthropogenic CO₂ in deep geological formations are being investigated worldwide, but the potential within Switzerland has not yet been evaluated. This study presents a first-order appraisal based solely on geological criteria collated from the literature. The Swiss Molasse Basin (SMB) and the adjacent Folded Jura are the only realms of the country where CO₂ could conceivably be stored in saline aquifers. Evaluation of geological criteria at the basin-wide scale shows that the SMB–Jura has moderate potential (score of 0.6 on a scale from 0 to 1) when compared to basins elsewhere. At the intrabasinal scale, inspection of the stratigraphy reveals four regional candidate aquifers that are sealed by suitable caprocks: top Basement plus basal Mesozoic sandstones, all sealed by the Anhydrite Group; Upper Muschelkalk sealed by the Gipskeuper; Hauptrogenstein sealed by the Effinger Member, and Upper Malm plus Lower Cretaceous sealed by the Lower Freshwater Molasse. Nine geological criteria are defined to evaluate the storage potential of these and other smaller scale candidates. A numerical scoring and weighting scheme allows the criteria to be assessed simultaneously, permitting the storage potential to be depicted using the 0–1 scale in contoured maps. Approximately 5,000 km² of the central SMB exhibits potentials between 0.6 and 0.96. The Fribourg–Olten–Luzern area is the most favoured owing to the presence of several sealed aquifers within the preferred 800–2,500 m depth interval, and to its low seismicity, low geothermal gradient, low fault density, and long groundwater residence times. Smaller areas with good potential lie between Zürich and St. Gallen. In contrast, western Switzerland, the Jura and the southern SMB have markedly poorer potential. Considering only the portions of the aquifers with potential above 0.6, the theoretical, effective storage capacity of the basin is estimated to be 2,680 million tonnes of CO₂.     

Multiscale analysis of vegetation surface fluxes: from seconds to years

The variability in land surface heat (H), water vapor (LE), and CO₂ (or net ecosystem exchange, NEE) fluxes was investigated at scales ranging from fractions of seconds to years using eddy-covariance flux measurements above a pine forest. Because these fluxes significantly vary at all these time scales and because large gaps in the record are unavoidable in such experiments, standard Fourier expansion methods for computing the spectral and cospectral statistical properties were not possible. Instead, orthonormal wavelet transformations are proposed and used. The are ideal at resolving process variability with respect to both scale and time and are able to isolate and remove the effects of missing data (or gaps) from spectral and cospectral calculations. Using the spectra, we demonstrated unique aspects in three appropriate ranges of time scales: turbulent time scales (fractions of seconds to minutes), meteorological time scales (hour to weeks), and seasonal to interannual time scales corresponding to climate and vegetation dynamics. We have shown that: (1) existing turbulence theories describe the short time scales well, (2) coupled physiological and transport models (e.g. CANVEG) reproduce the wavelet spectral characteristics of all three land surface fluxes for meteorological time scales, and (3) seasonal dynamics in vegetation physiology and structure inject strong correlations between land surface fluxes and forcing variables at monthly to seasonal time scales. The broad implications of this study center on the possibility of developing low-dimensional models of land surface water, energy, and carbon exchange. If the bulk of the flux variability is dominated by a narrow band or bands of modes, and these modes “resonate” with key state and forcing variables, then low-dimensional models may relate these forcing and state variables to NEE and LE.     

Chemical characterization of porewaters in an intertidal mudflat of the Seine estuary: relationship to erosion-deposition cycles

A seasonal field study was carried out in the Seine estuary to determine the chemistry of sediment porewaters using the 'peeper' technique and changes in the elevation of the mudflats using the 'Altus' technique. This approach allowed us to evaluate the release of nutrients and to link these releases to the sediment hydrodynamics. Our results show that nutrient and organic matter cycling in a Seine estuary mudflat exhibits a seasonal behaviour, which is mainly influenced by variations in hydrodynamics. Sediments, rich organic matter, were input during floods and they were mineralized during summer and autumn, releasing nutrients and dissolved organic carbon into the sediment porewaters. The nutrient release, including ammonium, is mainly linked to the mineralization of organic matter, while the release of phosphate is delayed. The delay could be the result of phosphate association with organic matter and/or its co-precipitation with calcium and iron.     

Carbon and water cycling in a Bornean tropical rainforest under current and future climate scenarios

We examined how the projected increase in atmospheric CO₂ and concomitant shifts in air temperature and precipitation affect water and carbon fluxes in an Asian tropical rainforest, using a combination of field measurements, simplified hydrological and carbon models, and Global Climate Model (GCM) projections. The model links the canopy photosynthetic flux with transpiration via a bulk canopy conductance and semi-empirical models of intercellular CO₂ concentration, with the transpiration rate determined from a hydrologic balance model. The primary forcing to the hydrologic model are current and projected rainfall statistics. A main novelty in this analysis is that the effect of increased air temperature on vapor pressure deficit (D) and the effects of shifts in precipitation statistics on net radiation are explicitly considered. The model is validated against field measurements conducted in a tropical rainforest in Sarawak, Malaysia under current climate conditions. On the basis of this model and projected shifts in climatic statistics by GCM, we compute the probability distribution of soil moisture and other hydrologic fluxes. Regardless of projected and computed shifts in soil moisture, radiation and mean air temperature, transpiration was not appreciably altered. Despite increases in atmospheric CO₂ concentration (C_a) and unchanged transpiration, canopy photosynthesis does not significantly increase if C_i/C_a is assumed constant independent of D (where C_i is the bulk canopy intercellular CO₂ concentration). However, photosynthesis increased by a factor of 1.5 if C_i/C_a decreased linearly with D as derived from Leuning stomatal conductance formulation [R. Leuning. Plant Cell Environ 1995;18:339–55]. How elevated atmospheric CO₂ alters the relationship between C_i/C_a and D needs to be further investigated under elevated atmospheric CO₂ given its consequence on photosynthesis (and concomitant carbon sink) projections.     

Estimation of the mass density contrasts and the 3D geometrical shape of the source bodies in the Yilgarn area, Eastern Goldfields, Western Australia

We invert 2D surface gravity data constrained both by geological and seismic information. We use a number of pre-processing tools in order to reduce the general multi-body inversion into several single-body inversions, whereby we can reduce the overall complexity of the inversion task. This is done with as few assumptions as possible. Furthermore, for a single-body inversion we uncouple the determination of the shape of the causative sources from the determination of their mass density contrast to the surroundings. The inversion for the geometrical shape of the source body is done in steps. Firstly, a rough 3D shape of the source is modelled—a model consisting of the vertical mass columns of equal height. The horizontal extension is implied by the surface gravity signal. Subsequently, the shape of each source body is modified to obtain a better fit to the surface gravity data. In each modification step, the overall change of the shape of the source body is followed by an update of the mass density contrast to the surroundings. The technique was applied to a set of gravity data from the Eastern Goldfield area in Western Australia. The area has been widely studied in the past. In 1999, two seismic profiles that cross-sect the area were measured. Furthermore, an extensive geological modelling for the area has been conducted. The practical goal of this work was to verify the geological interpretation using the potential field data (mainly the gravity data although magnetic data were also available) and only weakly constrained by the seismic information. The result was the reconstruction of the ‘rough’ 3D geometry of the source bodies and the estimation of a constant mass density contrast to the surroundings. A possible extension of this technique for detailed studies of the geological model is briefly discussed.     

An Investigation of Higher-Order Closure Models for a Forested Canopy

Simultaneous triaxial sonic anemometer velocity measurements vertically arrayed at six levels within and above a uniform pine forest were used to examine two parameterization schemes for the triple-velocity correlation tensor employed in higher-order closure models. These parameterizations are the gradient-diffusion approximation typically used in second-order closure models, and the full budget for the triple-velocity correlation tensor typically employed in third-order closure models. Both second- and third-order closure models failed to reproduce the measured profiles of the triple-velocity correlation within and above the canopy. However, the Reynolds stress tensor profiles (including velocity variances) deviated greatly from the measurements only within the lower levels of the canopy. It is shown that the Reynolds stresses are most sensitive to the parameterization of the triple-velocity correlation in these lower canopy regions where local turbulent production is negligible and turbulence is mainly sustained by the flux transport term. The failure of the third-order closure model to reproduce the measured third moments in the upper layers of the canopy-top contradicts conclusions from a previous study over shorter vegetation but agrees with another study for a deciduous forest. Whether the third-order closure model failure is due to the zero-fourth-cumulant closure approximation is therefore considered. Comparisons between measured and predicted quadruple velocity correlations suggest that the zero-fourth-cumulant approximation is valid close to the canopy-atmosphere in agreement with recent experiments.     

The local effect of intermittency on the inertial subrange energy spectrum of the atmospheric surface layer

Orthonormal wavelet expansions are applied to atmospheric surface layer velocity measurements. The effect of intermittent events on the energy spectrum of the inertial subrange is investigated through analysis of wavelet coefficients. The local nature of the orthonormal wavelet transform in physical space makes it possible to identify a relationship between the inertial subrange slope of the local wavelet spectrum and a simple indicator (i.e. the local variance of the signal) of local intermittency buildup. The slope of the local wavelet energy spectrum in the inertial subrange is shown to be sensitive to the presence of intermittent events. During well developed intermittent events (coherent structures), the slope of the energy spectrum is somewhat steeper than -5/3, while in less active regions the slope is found to be flatter than -5/3. When the slopes of local wavelet spectra are ensemble averaged, a slope of -5/3 is recovered for the inertial subrange.