A Contribution to the Mechanism of Elimination of Dimethylformamide and Dimethylamine by a Heterogenous Culture of Microorganisms

In a batch experiment with activated sludge from a large-scale plant the hydrolytical and biochemical degradation of dimethylformamide (DMF) and its reaction product dimethylamine (DMA) and the conversion connected with this under aerobic and anaerobic conditions is investigated. Parallel to the hydrolysis of DMF the biochemical degradation of DMA occurs. The extensive conversion of these substrates is followed by the nitrification of the ammoniumions formed, and under subsequent anaerobic conditions with methanol as the carbon source also denitrification can be achieved. If the oxygen supply of the activated sludge is insufficient, however, also DMA can be used as a carbon source for denitrification, ammonium-ions being released from DMA in addition. In the batch experiment the elimination rates referred to nitrogen were 7 … 14 mg/g · h for DMF, 0.8 … 1.7 mg/g · h for DMA, 0.3 … 0.6 mg/g · h for NH and 0.4 to 1.3 mg/g · h for nitrate in the presence of methanol. DMF and DMA are obviously not suitable as the only carbon source for denitrification.     

Evaluation of the MODIS snow cover fraction product

Eleven years of daily 500 m gridded Terra Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) (MOD10A1) snow cover fraction (SCF) data are evaluated in terms of snow presence detection in Colorado and Washington states. The SCF detection validation study is performed using in‐situ measurements and expressed in terms of snow and land detection and misclassification frequencies. A major aspect addressed in this study involves the shifting of pixel values in time due to sensor viewing angles and gridding artifacts of MODIS sensor products. To account for this error, 500 m gridded pixels are grouped and aggregated to different‐sized areas to incorporate neighboring pixel information. With pixel aggregation, both the probability of detection (POD) and the false alarm ratios increase for almost all cases. Of the false negative (FN) and false positive values (referred to as the total error when combined), FN estimates dominate most of the total error and are greatly reduced with aggregation. The greatest POD increases and total error reductions occur with going from a single 500 m pixel to 3×3‐pixel averaged areas. Since the MODIS SCF algorithm was developed under ideal conditions, SCF detection is also evaluated for varying conditions of vegetation, elevation, cloud cover and air temperature. Finally, using a direct insertion data assimilation approach, pixel averaged MODIS SCF observations are shown to improve modeled snowpack conditions over the single pixel observations due to the smoothing of more error‐prone observations and more accurately snow‐classified pixels. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Alongshore variation in the rip current hazard at Pensacola Beach, Florida

Many drowning and near drownings at Pensacola Beach, Florida are attributed to rip currents, the strong seaward-flowing currents that extend from the shoreline to the line of breakers and sometimes beyond. While surf forecasts assume that the rip hazard is uniform alongshore and that the (erosion) rips are ephemeral features, evidence is presented to suggest that the rip hazard at Pensacola Beach is not uniform alongshore. Rather the rip current “hotspots” develop as a consequence of an alongshore variation in the surf similarity parameter and nearshore state on the order of ~1,450 m. The variation is forced by transverse ridges on the inner shelf that force wave refraction and focusing at the ridge crests. This creates a more dissipative, rhythmic bar and beach morphology at the ridges and rougher surf. Between ridges, where wave heights and periods are smaller and the outermost bar is forced closer to the shoreline, the nearshore is in a (more reflective) bar and rip state during red flag conditions. Drownings between 2000 and 2009 are shown to be clustered between transverse ridges and in the years following a hurricane or tropical storm (2000–2003 and 2005–2008) when the bar and rip morphology first develops as the shore face recovers. This continues until the innermost bar attaches to the beach face unless the bar system is reset by another tropical storm or hurricane. It is argued that the rip hazard is dependent on the alongshore covariation of the environmental forcing with the individual and group behavior in both time and space, even on what appears to be a relatively uniform beach environment.     

A Moisture Balance Reconstruction for the Drainage Basin of Albemarle Sound, North Carolina

Freshwater discharge into Albemarle Sound and many other large estuaries can have a major impact on the physical and biological properties of the estuary. Earlywood (EW) and latewood (LW) width tree ring chronologies recently developed from ancient trees and sub-fossil logs found at Devil’s Gut of the Roanoke River, North Carolina, were used with new EW and LW width data from Blackwater River, Virginia, to reconstruct the July Palmer Hydrological Drought Index (PHDI) over the drainage basin of Albemarle Sound from 934 to 2005. This reconstruction is based on a principal component regression using millennium-long chronologies of both EW and LW widths, calibrated and verified against instrumental July PHDI from 1895 to 1985. The reconstruction provides a lengthy representation of inter-annual to multi-decadal growing season moisture variability that directly affects water quality in the Albemarle Sound estuarine ecosystem. Single-year drought and wetness extremes were more common in the modern instrumental period (1895–2005), but prolonged droughts reconstructed during the Medieval and Early Colonial eras were more severe and sustained than the reconstructed or observed droughts during the twentieth century. Several abrupt transitions between decadal drought and wetness regimes are reconstructed, especially during the Medieval Era. Composite analysis of lower-magnitude sub-decadal regime shifts in the instrumental record during the twentieth century indicates that major changes in mid-latitude circulation over the Northern Hemisphere may have been involved in these longer decadal transitions between moisture regimes over Albemarle Sound in prehistory.     

Practical considerations on the GreenView application development and execution over SEE-GRID

Earth Science data and particularly the satellite images supplies important information on status and dynamics of earth covering vegetation. The development of environment applications is a challenge for Grid technologies and software development methodologies. This paper exemplifies and experiments the development of the GreenView application over SEE-GRID infrastructure by the Grid Application Development Methodology. The paper highlights through the ESIP and gProcess platforms based methodology the steps of the GreenView development. The application reveals three main functionalities—refinement of the satellite image resolution, field measurements based calibration and satellite image classification by vegetation index computation. A few experiments evaluate the execution time of the tasks at four sites of the SEE-GRID infrastructure.     

Profile response of a lacustrine multiple barred nearshore to a sequence of storm events

Profile change in a lacustrine multiple-barred nearshore was investigated over the ice-free season of 2001/2002 at Burley Beach on the southeastern shore of Lake Huron in order to identify the feedback mechanisms between the pre-existing morphology and the wave forcing and the consequence of those feedbacks to the behaviour of the nearshore environment. The characteristics of the offshore wave field were monitored using a Falmouth Scientific combined 3D-ACM wave recorder and pressure transducer. Supplemental wave data were downloaded from a 3-m discus buoy operated by the National Data Buoy Center, 75 km to the NW of the study site. The three nearshore bars were in a quasi-equilibrium state through a large part of the ice-free season, with dramatic changes occurring during relatively moderate storm events that followed much larger storms in late October. A comparison of the incident wave field with changes in the nearshore profile through canonical correlation analysis indicates that the morphology responds to the distribution of the significant, root-mean-square (rms) and average wave heights between surveys. The threshold between bar decay and onshore bar migration and growth is associated with the onset of breaking of the rms wave at the bar crest (H_rms h_cr⁻¹ ≈0.3–0.4). The threshold between onshore and offshore migration is associated with the onset of breaking of the average wave at the bar crest (H_avg h_cr⁻¹ ≈0.3–0.4), coincident with complete dissipation of the significant wave over the lakeward slope of the bar (H_s h_cr⁻¹ >0.6). Inshore wave data collected during an instrumented study at the same site revealed that the middle and inner bars remained at the threshold of onshore and offshore migration over a wide range of offshore significant wave heights (0.8 to 2.4 m) prior to the October storms. This self-organised equilibrium is a result of changes to the incident wave distribution through breaking on the outer bar. It is concluded that the prediction of bar response requires an understanding of the feedback between the bar and the local wave distribution in addition to an understanding of the feedback associated with the profile as a whole.     

An initial classification of 10-km squares in Great Britain from a land characteristic data bank

In a pilot classification of 282 10-km squares in Great Britain, data on physiography, climate and geology were extracted. Parallel classifications were run using these variables and also using spatial location. Two classification methods were compared: minimum within-group variance and indicator species analysis. Similarities between the resulting classifications were considered, and the groups were assessed for geographic coherence. Their validity for use as stratifications were tested using analysis of variance and also by matching the classifications with known distributions of a number of bird and plant species.Classifications using spatial variables were geographically more coherent than those without. The different methods resulted in different groupings of the squares which were partly a result of the differences in weightings applied to the four types of variable. However, the analysis of variance showed that either classification method provided a good stratification of the country, in particular with respect to altitude and rainfall. Some bird and plant species distributions correlated well with the classifications, but others did not, dependent on the factors limiting those distributions.     

Analysis of velocity profile measurements from wind-tunnel experiments with saltation

Investigations of wind-field modification due to the presence of saltating sediments have relied heavily on wind tunnels, which are known to impose geometric constraints on full boundary layer development. There remains great uncertainty as to which portion of the vertical wind-speed profile to analyze when deriving estimates of shear velocity or surface roughness length because the lower sections are modified to varying degree by saltation, whereas the upper segments may be altered by artificially induced wake-like effects. Thus, it is not obvious which of several alternative velocity-profile parameterizations (e.g., Law of the Wall, Velocity Defect Law, Wake Law) should be employed under such circumstances.A series of experimental wind-tunnel runs was conducted across a range of wind speed using fine- and coarse-grained sand to collect high-quality, fine-resolution data within and above the saltation layer using thermal anemometry and ruggedized probes. After each run, the rippled bottom was fixed with fine mist, and the experiment repeated without saltation. The measured wind-speed profiles were analyzed using six different approaches to derive estimates of shear velocity and roughness length. The results were compared to parameter estimates derived directly from sediment transport rate measurements, and on this basis, it is suggested that one of the six approaches is more robust than the others. Specifically, the best estimate of shear velocity during saltation is provided by the logarithmic law applied to the profile data within about 0.05 m of the bottom, despite the fact that this near-surface region is where profile modification by saltating sediments is most pronounced. Uncertainty remains as to whether this conclusion can be generalized to field situations because progressive downwind adjustments in the interrelationship between the saltation layer and the wind field are anticipated in wind tunnels, thereby confounding most analyses based on equilibrium assumptions.     

The emission and vertical flux of particulate matter <10 μm from a disturbed clay-crusted surface

Arid and semi‐arid environments are important sources for the atmospheric loading of PM₁₀ (particulate matter <10 μm), although the emission of this material is often limited by surface crusts. This study investigates the emission and vertical flux of PM₁₀ from a clay‐crusted playa, with and without saltating grains to abrade the surface. Using a portable field wind tunnel, it was found that, despite disturbance to the surface, the emission of PM₁₀ decays rapidly without abrasion. Only in the presence of saltating grains was PM₁₀ continuously liberated from the surface, such that the emission rate (the total amount of PM₁₀ emitted from the surface expressed as a horizontal flux) varied linearly with the saltation transport rate. Although the emission of PM₁₀ was found to depend on saltation abrasion, past studies have tended to focus on the relationship between the vertical flux of PM₁₀ (the amount of PM₁₀ being transported vertically through the boundary layer) and the shear velocity. In this study, the vertical flux of PM₁₀ was found to vary with the shear velocity to the power of 2·14. Although the vertical PM₁₀ flux is a proportion of the emission rate (the horizontal flux), no statistically significant relationship was observed between the emission rate and the shear velocity. The disparity of these results is explained by the lack of a consistent relationship between the shear velocity and the saltation transport rate in this supply‐limited environment. This suggests that the observed relationship between the vertical PM₁₀ flux and the shear velocity is a spurious correlation, resulting from the use of shear velocity to calculate the vertical dust flux. It is thus concluded that shear velocity is not an appropriate variable for emission modelling in supply‐limited environments and that improvements in dust emission modelling will only be realized if the abrasion process is the focus of a concerted research effort.