Wind-Speed Controls on Scalar Gradients,Fluxes, and Cospectra in the Stable Boundary Layer

Boundary-Layer Meteorology - Vertical profiles of temperature, water vapour, and carbon dioxide ( $$\mathrm {CO}_{2}\,$$ ) densities are analyzed, together with the respective turbulent fluxes of...     

Early Paleozoic Structural and Metamorphic Evolution of Western Sierra de San Luis (Argentina), in Relation to Cuyania Accretion

Structural, metamorphic and isotopic data obtained from the Nogoli Metamorphic Complex of western Sierra de San Luis indicate that the Early Paleozoic Famatinian Orogeny overprinted an already structured and metamorphosed older basement. The older geological features are relict NW trending fabric associated with high-grade (amphibolite facies) regional metamorphism preserved within thin strips of schists and paragneisses and in the core of mafic to ultramafic lenses. Arc magmatism, medium P (Barrovian type)/high T (amphibolite to granulite facies) regional metamorphism and penetrative NNE to NE trending foliation are related to the building of the Famatinian orogenic belt. The P-T conditions of the Famatinian prograde metamorphism reached a pressure peak of ca. 8 kb, with a thermal peak from -750°C up to -820°C. U-Pb conventional and chemical dating and Ar-Ar plateau ages constrain the peak of the main orogenic phase related to the Famatinian belt to 470–457 Ma (Early to Mid-Ordovician). Greenschist facies retrograde metamorphism closely associated with shear zones and secondary Ar-Ar plateau and Sm-Nd ages suggest that a late to post-orogenic phase of the Famatinian belt was active at least since -445 Ma. This phase continued during the Silurian to Late Devonian times through multiple reactivation of early shear zones. The Famatinian Orogeny reset a previous thermal history and therefore, the timing of the relict fabric could not be constrained conclusively with radiometric dates. Despite this difficulty, a range of 520 to 490 Ma suggests some inheritance from Pampean events registered by the older NW-SE fabric. The Early to Mid-Ordovician regional metamorphism and ductile deformation of the western Sierra de San Luis is interpreted as the orogenic effects of the collision of the allochthonous Cuyania terrane with the autochthonous proto-Pacific margin of Gondwana during the Famatinian Orogeny.     

Visualization of Volcanic Rock Geochemical Data and Classification with Artificial Neural Networks

An unsupervised neural network technique, Growing Cell Structures (GCS) was used to visualize geochemical differences between four different island arc volcanic rock types: basalts, andesites, dacites and rhyolites. The output of the method shows the cluster structure of the dataset clearly, and the relevant geochemical patterns and relationships between its variables. The data can be separated into four clusters, each associated with a specific volcanic rock type (basalt, andesite, dacite and rhyolite), according to a unique combination of major element concentrations. Following clustering, performance of the trained GCS network as a classifier of volcanic rock type was tested using two test datasets with major element concentration data for 312 and 496 island arc volcanic rock samples of known volcanic type. Preliminary classification results are promising. In the first test dataset 94% of basalts, 76% of andesites, 83% of dacites and 100% of the rhyolites were classified correctly. Successful classification rates in the second dataset were 100%, 80%, 77%, and 98% respectively. The success of the analysis suggests that neural networks analysis constitutes a useful analytical tool for identification of natural clusters and examination of the relationships between numeric variables in large datasets, and that can be used for automatic classification of new data.     

Methodology for applying the Limits of Acceptable Change process to the management of recreational boating in the Balearic Islands, Spain (Western Mediterranean)

The objective of this study is to propose a simple methodological approach, based on the Limits of Acceptable Change process, to support the formulation of management measures for recreational boating in bays. Management measures have been determined using statistical and geospatial analyses of data of biophysical characteristics, use, and user perceptions in a bay on the island of Mallorca. The results suggest that the optimal use level of the study site is being surpassed and a range of potential management options is provided. This methodology is applicable to additional management scenarios where balancing social and environmental needs is necessary and should be implemented as part of a broader Integrated Coastal Zone Management framework.     

Age,growth and mortality in the giant snail Adelomelon beckii (Broderip 1836) on the Argentinean shelf

The marine subtidal volutid snail Adelomelon beckii was studied in order to obtain their population dynamics, particularly on growth, age, mortality and production. Stable oxygen isotope ratios confirmed semiannual formation of internal growth marks. A von Bertalanffy growth model fitted 308 size-at-age data pairs. A. beckii potential lifespan in Mar del Plata (Argentina) region is 29 years, being rather long lived compared to other large gastropods. Total mortality Z and natural mortality M were calculated to be 0.210 y^?1 and 0.081 y^?1 respectively. Fishing mortality F amounts to 0.129 y^?1 corresponding to an exploitation rate E of 0.614, a value much beyond the optimum rate of 0.427. The current exploitation regime will be unsustainable in the long run unless a proper management approach establishes.     

Aggregate performance in managing marine ecosystems of 53 maritime countries

Fourteen indicators of marine living resource management performance by country, reflecting both their intention to sustainably use the resource within their Exclusive Economic Zones and the effectiveness of their policies, were developed and the performances of 53 maritime countries were assessed. Four rankings of the countries, which jointly account for over 95 percent of the world's marine fisheries landings, are presented here as aggregated scores of the fourteen indicators, using different schemes for weighting the indicators, each reflective of the management preferences identified by the Global Environment Outlook 4 (GEO4) future development scenarios: Market First; Policy First; Security First; and Sustainability First. The resulting rankings differed substantially between the weighting schemes for the top performing countries but less so for the countries performing poorly.     

天然气水合物稳定带内流体压裂计算的程序耦合方法

海洋天然气水合物稳定带气烟囱结构中存在被水合物充填的裂隙, 表明在自然条件下沉积物中曾发生过流体压裂以及相关的流体流动和水合物形成。在水合物稳定带内实施人为的流体压裂工程, 并联合其他方法(如降压或注热)进行水合物开采, 有望提高开采效率。水合物稳定带内, 无论是自然条件下发生的流体压裂过程, 还是人为实施的流体压裂工程, 都存在水合物反应和沉积物裂隙变形之间的耦合响应。当前, 已有不少数值程序对水合物反应与沉积物弹塑性变形的耦合过程进行了定量研究, 但尚没有数值程序能够计算水合物反应和离散裂隙变形之间的耦合过程。文章将TOUGH+Hydrate程序、IC-FERST和Solidity两者的耦合程序进行了进一步耦合, 为水合物稳定带内的流体压裂计算提供了一种耦合计算方法, 同时通过一个算例初步验证了该耦合计算方法的可行性。验证结果表明, 该耦合计算方法经进一步改进后有望应用于定量研究水合物稳定带内的裂隙变形和水合物反应过程。     

Astronomical time-series analysis – III. The role of the observational errors in the minimum entropy method

In two recent papers a new method for searching for periodicity in time series was introduced. It takes advantage of the Shannon entropy to compute the amount of information contained in the light curve of a given signal as a function of a supposed period p . The basic result is that, if the signal is T -periodic, the entropy is then minimum when p T . Also, there is theoretical and numerical evidence that the minimum entropy method is more sensitive to the presence of periodicity and has a higher resolution power than other classical techniques. In the present work the discussion is focused on the way in which the observational errors have to be included in the method. The application of the resulting modified algorithm to real data and a performance comparison with the former algorithm are presented. The dependence of both periodograms on the size of the partition is also investigated. Analytical estimates are given only for the limiting case of small errors. The numerical results show that the new algorithm leads to a smoother periodogram and provides a higher significance for the minimum than the former algorithm.