Twentieth century agricultural drainage creates more erosive rivers

Rivers in watersheds dominated by agriculture throughout the US are impaired by excess sediment, a significant portion of which comes from non‐field, near‐channel sources. Both land‐use and climate have been implicated in altering river flows and thereby increasing stream‐channel erosion and sediment loading. In the wetland‐rich landscapes of the upper Mississippi basin, 20th century crop conversions have led to an intensification of artificial drainage, which is now a critical component of modern agriculture. At the same time, much of the region has experienced increased annual rainfall. Uncertainty in separating these drivers of streamflow fuels debate between agricultural and environmental interests on responsibility and solutions for excess riverine sediment. To disentangle the effects of climate and land‐use, we compared changes in precipitation, crop conversions, and extent of drained depressional area in 21 Minnesota watersheds over the past 70 years. Watersheds with large land‐use changes had increases in seasonal and annual water yields of >50% since 1940. On average, changes in precipitation and crop evapotranspiration explained less than one‐half of the increase, with the remainder highly correlated with artificial drainage and loss of depressional areas. Rivers with increased flow have experienced channel widening of 10–40% highlighting a source of sediment seldom addressed by agricultural best management practices. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Influence of partial confinement and Holocene river formation on groundwater flow and dissolution in the Florida carbonate platform

Much of what is known about groundwater circulation and geochemical evolution in carbonate platforms is based on platforms that are fully confined or unconfined. Much less is known about groundwater flow paths and geochemical evolution in partially confined platforms, particularly those supporting surface water. In north‐central Florida, sea level rise and a transition to a wetter climate during the Holocene formed rivers in unconfined portions of the Florida carbonate platform. Focusing on data from the Santa Fe River basin, we show river formation has led to important differences in the hydrological and geochemical evolution of the Santa Fe River basin relative to fully confined or unconfined platforms. Runoff from the siliciclastic confining layer drove river incision and created topographic relief, reorienting the termination of local and regional groundwater flow paths from the coast to the rivers in unconfined portions of the platform. The most chemically evolved groundwater occurs at the end of the longest and deepest flow paths, which discharge near the center of the platform because of incision of the Santa Fe River at the edge of the confining unit. This pattern of discharge of mineralized water differs from fully confined or unconfined platforms where discharge of the most mineralized water occurs at the coast. Mineralized water flowing into the Santa Fe River is diluted by less evolved water derived from shorter, shallower flow paths that discharge to the river downstream. Formation of rivers shortens flow path lengths, thereby decreasing groundwater residence times and allowing freshwater to discharge more quickly to the oceans in the newly formed rivers than in platforms that lack rivers. Similar dynamic changes to groundwater systems should be expected to occur in the future as climate change and sea level rise develop surface water on other carbonate platforms and low lying coastal aquifer systems. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Stream and bed temperature variability in a coastal headwater catchment: influences of surface‐subsurface interactions and partial‐retention forest harvesting

Stream temperature was recorded between 2002 and 2005 at four sites in a coastal headwater catchment in British Columbia, Canada. Shallow groundwater temperatures, along with bed temperature profiles at depths of 1 to 30 cm, were recorded at 10‐min intervals in two hydrologically distinct reaches beginning in 2003 or 2004, depending on the site. The lower reach had smaller discharge contributions via lateral inflow from the hillslopes and fewer areas with upwelling (UW) and/or neutral flow across the stream bed compared to the middle reach. Bed temperatures were greater than those of shallow groundwater during summer, with higher temperatures in areas of downwelling (DW) flow compared to areas of neutral and UW flow. A paired‐catchment analysis revealed that partial‐retention forest harvesting in autumn 2004 resulted in higher daily maximum stream and bed temperatures but smaller changes in daily minima. Changes in daily maximum stream temperature, averaged over July and August of the post‐harvest year, ranged from 1.6 to 3 °C at different locations within the cut block. Post‐harvest changes in bed temperature in the lower reach were smaller than the changes in stream temperature, greater at sites with DW flow, and decreased with depth at both UW and DW sites, dropping to about 1 °C at a depth of 30 cm. In the middle reach, changes in daily maximum bed temperature, averaged over July and August, were generally about 1 °C and did not vary significantly with depth. The pre‐harvest regression models for shallow groundwater were not suitable for applying the paired‐catchment analysis to estimate the effects of harvesting. However, shallow groundwater was warmer at the lower reach following harvesting, despite generally cooler weather compared to the pre‐harvest year. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Nutrient supply to anticyclonic meso-scale eddies off western Australia estimated with artificial tracers released in a circulation model

The phytoplankton distribution off western Australia in the period from April to October is unique in that high biomass is generally associated with anticyclonic eddies and not with cyclonic eddies. As the western Australian region is oligotrophic this anomalous feature must be related to differing nutrient supply pathways to the surface mixed layer of cyclonic and anticyclonic eddies. A suite of modelled abiotic tracers suggests that cyclonic eddies are predominantly supplied by diapycnal processes that remain relatively weak until June–July, when they rapidly increase because of deepening surface mixed layers, which start to tap into the nutrient-replete waters below the euphotic zone. To the contrary, we find that anticyclonic eddies are predominantly supplied by injection of shelf waters, which carry elevated levels of inorganic nutrients and biomass. These injections start with the formation of the eddies in April–May, continue well into the austral winter and reach as far as several hundred kilometers offshore. The diapycnal supply of nutrients is suppressed in anticyclonic eddies since the injection of warm, low-salinity shelf waters delays the erosion of the density gradient at the base of the mixed layer. Our results are consistent with the observed seasonal cycles of chlorophyll a and observation of particulate organic matter export out of the surface mixed layer of an anticyclonic eddy in the region.     

Satellite gravity gradiometry: Secular gravity field change over polar regions

The ESA Gravity and steady state Ocean and Circulation Explorer, GOCE, mission will utilise the principle of satellite gravity gradiometry to measure the long to medium wavelengths in the static gravity field. Previous studies have demonstrated the low sensitivity of GOCE to ocean tides and to temporal gravity field variations at the seasonal scale. In this study we investigate the sensitivity of satellite gradiometry missions such as GOCE to secular signals due to ice-mass change observed in Greenland and Antarctica. We show that unaccounted ice-mass change signal is likely to increase GOCE-related noise but that the expected present-day polar ice-mass change is below the GOCE sensitivity for an 18-month mission. Furthermore, 2–3 orders of magnitude improvement in the gradiometry in future gradiometer missions is necessary to detect ice-mass change with sufficient accuracy at the spatial resolution of interest.     

Southern African topography and erosion history: plumes or plate tectonics?

The physiography of southern Africa comprises a narrow coastal plain, separated from an inland plateau by a horseshoe-shaped escarpment. The interior of the inland plateau is a sedimentary basin. The drainage network of southern Africa is characterized by three river divides, broadly parallel to the coastline. These features contrast strongly with the broad dome and radial drainage patterns predicted by models which ascribe the physiography of southern Africa to uplift over a deep mantle plume. The drainage divides are interpreted as axes of epeirogenic uplift. The ages of these axes, which young from the margin to the interior, correlate closely with major reorganizations of spreading regimes in the oceanic ridges surrounding southern Africa, suggesting an origin from stresses related to plate motion. Successive epeirogenic uplifts of southern Africa on the axes, forming the major river divides, initiated cyclic episodes of denudation, which are coeval with erosion surfaces recognized elsewhere across Africa.     

Arthropod types from Sparth Bottoms in the Howard Collection (Rochdale Museum Service)

Rochdale Museum Service holds a large collection of fossils from the important Carboniferous site of Sparth Bottoms (Lancashire, UK; Middle Coal Measures). Several of these are type specimens donated by Harold Howard in 1939. These objects were stored in the museum basement for several decades, and were thought to have been lost. The types are the holotype of the scorpion Eobuthus holti Pocock, 1911 and the holotype of the crustacean Anthrapalaemon grossarti var. holti Woodward, 1911a. These species were not named after Howard, because the describers thought that Fred Holt was the rightful collector. The holotype of the myriapod Euphoberia woodwardi Baldwin, 1911 (put into synonymy with Palaeosoma robustum Baldwin, 1911) is known to have originally been in the collection, but was not located in a recent survey.     

Titan: An exogenic world?

All landforms on Titan that are unambiguously identifiable can be explained by exogenic processes (aeolian, fluvial, impact cratering, and mass wasting). Previous suggestions of endogenically produced cryovolcanic constructs and flows have, without exception, lacked conclusive diagnostic evidence. The modification of sparse recognizable impact craters (themselves exogenic) can be explained by aeolian and fluvial erosion. Tectonic activity could be driven by global thermal evolution or external forcing, rather than by active interior processes. A lack of cryovolcanism would be consistent with geophysical inferences of a relatively quiescent interior: incomplete differentiation, only minor tidal heating, and possibly a lack of internal convection today. Titan might be most akin to Callisto with weather: an endogenically relatively inactive world with a cool interior. We do not aim to disprove the existence of any and all endogenic activity at Titan, nor to provide definitive alternative hypotheses for all landforms, but instead to inject a necessary level of caution into the discussion. The hypothesis of Titan as a predominantly exogenic world can be tested through additional Cassini observations and analyses of putative cryovolcanic features, geophysical and thermal modeling of Titan’s interior evolution, modeling of icy satellite landscape evolution that is shaped by exogenic processes alone, and consideration of possible means for supplying Titan’s atmospheric constituents that do not rely on cryovolcanism.     

Impacts of Varying Estuarine Temperature and Light Conditions on <Emphasis Type="Italic">Zostera marina</Emphasis> (Eelgrass) and its Interactions With <Emphasis Type="Italic">Ruppia maritima</Emphasis> (Widgeongrass)

Seagrass populations have been declining globally, with changes attributed to anthropogenic stresses and, more recently, negative effects of global climate change. We examined the distribution of Zostera marina (eelgrass) dominated beds in the York River, Chesapeake Bay, VA over an 8-year time period. Using a temperature-dependent light model, declines in upriver areas were associated with higher light attenuation, resulting in lower light availability relative to compensating light requirements of Z. marina compared with downriver areas. An inverse relationship was observed between SAV growth and temperature with a change between net bed cover increases and decreases for the period of 2004–2011 observed at approximately 23 °C. Z. marina-dominated beds in the lower river have been recovering from a die-off event in 2005 and experienced another near complete decline in 2010, losing an average of 97 % of coverage of Z. marina from June to October. These 2010 declines were attributed to an early summer heat event in which daily mean water temperatures increased from 25 to 30 °C over a 2-week time period, considerably higher than previous years when complete die-offs were not observed. Z. marina recovery from this event was minimal, while Ruppia maritima (widgeongrass) expanded its abundance. Water temperatures are projected to continue to increase in the Chesapeake Bay and elsewhere. These results suggest that short-term exposures to rapidly increasing temperatures by 4–5 °C above normal during summer months can result in widespread diebacks that may lead to Z. marina extirpation from historically vegetated areas, with the potential replacement by other species.     

Stable isotope evidences of jarosite–barite mineralization in the Rangan rhyolitic dome NE Isfahan,Iran

The Rangan area is part of Cenozoic magmatic belt of central Iran. Eocene volcanic flows and pyroclastic rocks are intruded by a Neogene rhyolitic dome along the major Qom–Zefreh fault. The dome is pervasively hydrothermally altered. The main mineral assemblage is jarosite+barite+pyrite+quartz+sericite. This assemblage indicates acid sulphate or advanced argillic alteration. Sulfur and oxygen isotope data (δ³⁴S & δ¹⁸O (SO₄)) obtained from jarosite and barite indicate a mixing episode during the evolution of hydrothermal system and reflect the overlapping of two distinct sources of acid sulphate alteration in Rangan, i.e., a magmatic–hydrothermal fluid reacting with steam-heated meteoric water. Considering the position of brittle–ductile transition and major fault movements, jarosite and barite seemingly precipitated from rapid injection of magmatic–hydrothermal fluids into the upper portions of a steam-heated environment.