Cadmium (Cd) concentration in wheat (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Triticum aestivum</Emphasis>) grown in Cd-spiked soil varies with the doses and biochar feedstock

Biochar is considered a promising amendment for the reduction of metal concentration in plants; however, the effects of biochar in terms of dose and feedstock on metal uptake by plants remain widely unclear. In the current study, three individual biochars were prepared at 450 °C from different feedstocks (wheat straw, sukh chain (Pongamia pinnata), and cotton sticks). The main aim was to evaluate their ability to remediate cadmium (Cd)-spiked soil in terms of growth response and Cd uptake by wheat (Triticum aestivum) tissues. Biochars were separately applied at 0, 1, and 2% (w/w) in Cd-spiked soil and wheat was grown until maturity in pots and then morphological and physiological parameters and Cd concentrations in grains, roots, and shoots were determined. The post-harvest soil was analyzed for extractable Cd concentrations. Plants grown in Cd-spiked soil treated with biochars had higher seed germination, lengths of roots, shoots, and spikes, grains per spike and leaf relative water contents, chlorophyll contents, and dry weight of roots, shoots, and grains as compared to the untreated control. Biochar treatments significantly decreased the Cd concentrations in shoots, roots, and grains as well as total Cd uptake by grains. Soil extractable Cd concentrations were significantly decreased with biochar treatments. The application of 2.0% wheat straw biochar was the most efficient treatment in increasing grain yield and decreasing Cd in grains as well as soil extractable Cd than the other two biochars and doses applied.     

Numerical Analysis of Himalayan Rock Tunnels under Static and Blast Loading

Geotechnical and Geological Engineering - Tunnels have been the necessary element of the modern construction industry. Due to their importance for the infrastructural and economic point of view,...     

Kinematic evolution of thrusts wedge and erratic line length balancing: insights from deformed sandbox models

Kinematic evolution of fold-thrust structures has been investigated by analogue models that include syntectonic sedimentation. Different decollement dips and basement thicknesses produced different wedge geometries and propagating characteristics. A model with one decollement level was characterized by a closely spaced thrust system during early stages of shortening as compared to the late stages. The frequency of fault nucleation was rapid during the early stages of deformation. Conversely, the frequency of fault nucleation was low and thrust spacing was significantly wider in a model with two decollement levels. Individual faults became locked at steep dips and deformation stepped forward as a new fault nucleated in-sequence in front of the older locked structure. Once the thrust system was established up to 27 % overall shortening, an overlying bed was introduced to simulate syntectonic deformation. Model sand wedge did not grow self similarly but rather its length and height increased episodically with deformation. Restoration of deformed models show that layer parallel shortening accommodated for approximately half of the total model shortening across the multilayers. Calculated error in apparent layer shortening from the restored layers revealed a direct relation with depth of the layers in the models. The experimental results are comparable to a natural example from the Northern Apennines fold-and-thrust belts.     

Discretization of Complex Geometric Domain Through Computer-Based Stair-Step Representation Method for Estimating Water Levels Associated with A Storm

In this paper, an improvement has been made to the approximation technique of a complex domain through the stairstep approach to have a considerable accuracy, minimize computational cost, and avoid the hardship of manual work. A novel stair-step representation algorithm is used in this regard, where the entire procedure is carried out through our developed MATLAB routine. Arakawa C-grid is used in our approximation with (1/120)° grid resolution. As a test case, the method is applied to approximate the domain covering the area between 15°–23°N latitudes and 85°–95° E longitudes in the Bay of Bengal. Along with the approximation of the land-sea interface, coastal stations are also identified. Approximated land-sea interfaces and coastal stations are found to be in good agreement with the actual ones based on the similarity index, overlap fraction, and extra fraction criteria. The method can be used for approximating an irregular geometric domain to employ the finite difference method in solving problems related to long waves. As a test case, shallow water equations in Cartesian coordinates are solved on the domain of interest for simulating water levels due to the nonlinear tide-surge interaction associated with the storms April 1991 and AILA, 2009 along the coast of Bangladesh. The same input except for the discretized domain and bathymetry as that of Paul et al. (2016) is used in our simulation. The results are found to be in reasonable agreement with the observed data procured from Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority.

     

Effects of climate anomaly on rainfall,groundwater depth,and soil moisture on peatlands in South Sumatra,Indonesia

Climate anomalies can cause natural disasters such as severe fires and floods on peatlands in South Sumatra. Factors that affect the natural disasters on peatlands include rainfall, groundwater level, and soil moisture. This paper aims to study the effect of the climate anomalies in 2019 and 2020 and effects of these influencing factors on peatlands in South Sumatra. The data used in this study was derived from in-situ measurement at two SESAME’s measurement stations in the study area. The results indicate that in the 2019 dry season, the rainfall was minimal, the lowest groundwater table depth was ?1.14 m and the lowest soil moisture was 3.4%. In the 2020 dry season, rainfall was above the monthly average of 100 mm, the lowest groundwater level was ?0.44 m, and the lowest soil moisture was 26.64%. There is also a strong correlation between soil moisture and groundwater table depth. The correlation between the two is stronger when there is less rainfall.     

Integrated Reservoir Characterization and Petrophysical Analysis of Cretaceous Sands in Lower Indus Basin,Pakistan

The reservoir character of the Cretaceous sand is evaluated in Lower Indus Basin, Pakistan where water flooding is very common. Thus, prediction of subsurface structure, lithology and reservoir characterization is fundamental for a successful oil or gas discovery. Seismic reflective response is an important tool to detect sub-surface structure. Seismic reflection response is not enough to highlight geological boundaries and fluids in the pore space therefore, the use of integrated approach is vital to map sub-surface heterogeneities with high level of confidence. Based on seismic character and continuity of prominent reflectors four seismic horizons are marked on the seismic sections. All the strata is highly disturbed and distorted with presence of a network of fault bounded horst and graben structures, which indicate that the area was under compressional tectonic regime. These fault bounded geological structure formed structural traps favorable for the accumulation of hydrocarbon. The petrophysical analysis reveals that the Cretaceous sand formation has four types of sand: Sand A, B, C and D with good porosity (15 % average) and low volume of shale. Although complete petroleum system is present with structural traps and reservoir character of sand interval is very good but these sands are highly saturated with water thus are water flooded, which is the main reason of the abundant wells in the study area.     

Seismic hazard and probability assessment of Kashmir valley,northwest Himalaya,India

Seismic hazard analysis of the northwest Himalayan belt was carried out by using extreme value theory (EVT). The rate of seismicity (a value) and recurrence intervals with the given earthquake magnitude (b value) was calculated from the observed data using Gutenberg–Richter Law. The statistical evaluation of 12,125 events from 1902 to 2017 shows the increasing trend in their inter-arrival times. The frequency–magnitude relation exhibits a linear downslope trend with negative slope of 0.8277 and positive intercept of 4.6977. The empirical results showed that the annual risk probability of high magnitude earthquake M?≥?7.7 in 50 years is 88% with recurrence period of 47 years, probability of M?≤?7.5 in 50 years is 97% with recurrence period of 27 years, and probability of M?≤?6.5 in 50 years is 100% with recurrence period of 4 years. Kashmir valley, located in the NW Himalaya, encompasses a peculiar tectonic and structural setup. The patterns of the present and historical seismicity records of the valley suggest a long-term strain accumulation along NNW and SSE extensions with the decline in the seismic gap, posing a potential threat of earthquakes in the future. The Kashmir valley is characterized by the typical lithological, tectono-geomorphic, geotechnical, hydrogeological and socioeconomic settings that augment the earthquake vulnerability associated with the seismicity of the region. The cumulative impact of the various influencing parameters therefore exacerbates the seismic hazard risk of the valley to future earthquake events.     

Hybrid genetic algorithms in view of the evolution theories with application for the electrical sounding method

The classical genetic algorithm is a stochastic process which operates by natural selection. Although the algorithm may localize a point around the global minimum of the misfit function, it is not efficient at finding the precise solution. This paper suggests some hybrid genetic algorithms, derived from evolution theories, to overcome this problem. Firstly, sexual selection has been incorporated in the classical genetic algorithm to obtain a full representation of the Darwinist evolution concept. The simulation of sexual selection is performed by assigning a higher probability of surviving to some parameters that satisfy some algebraic relationships. This method is called the ‘marked constraints’ algorithm since it permits us to insert geological and geophysical constraints into the problem. The algorithm implementation is realized by progressively shrinking the parameter search space through successive generations. In this way, the genetic algorithm gains some degree of determinism. Secondly, since the evolution theory of Lamarck postulates that the acquired traits are passed on to the next generation, a hybrid use of the damped least‐squares method and the genetic algorithm is called Lamarckian inversion. Lamarckian inversion involves some improvement procedures that simulate the reduction of the misfit with the help of a derivative‐based method between two generations. Finally, although there is no correspondence in nature, Lamarckian and Darwinist evolution concepts are combined to strengthen the deterministic part of the solution algorithm. This is called the Lamarckian‐marked‐constraint algorithm. The merits and behaviours of the suggested algorithms are discussed using two examples. The first is a hypothetical example affected by a multiminima problem. The second examines the equivalence problem using vertical electrical sounding data.     

Site selection for hazardous wastes: A case study from the GAP area, Turkey

The increase in the popularity of using environmental design criteria in town and country planning has brought about the need to fully identify the principles to determine the best location of hazardous wastes to be landfilled. This environmental management issue has received considerable attention because of its applications in urban and rural infrastructure planning, industrial development planning as well as health, housing, transportation and agricultural schemes. This paper explains a method to determine how to locate suitable sites for hazardous waste landfilling area by using the site screening study. It demonstrates how the criteria such as geology, topography, land use, climate, earthquake and other related factors can be introduced into the overlayer technique to determine the suitable site selection in a region. The research was undertaken in the Southeastern Anatolia Project (known as GAP in Turkey) region where identifying the land resources is crucial for agricultural and water management purposes. The paper also explains the validity of the method employed on the site selection process for hazardous wastes. The introduced method may enable more accurate design procedure for planning in environmental management in future.