Assessment of coastal marine pollution in Galicia (NW Iberian Peninsula); metal concentrations in seawater,sediments and mussels (Mytilus galloprovincialis) versus embryo-larval bioassays using Paracentrotus lividus and Ciona intestinalis

Sediments from three Galician Rias were tested for toxicity using sea-urchin and ascidian sediment elutriate embryo-larval bioassays. Trace metal contents in seawater, sediments and mussels were also determined and subjected to multidimensional scaling methods which grouped stations according to chemical contamination. High metal contents were found in seawater, sediments and mussels from the Ria of Pontevedra, and moderate levels were detected in the Ria of Vigo and Ria of Arousa. The results revealed that samples assessed as toxic, according to the sea-urchin and ascidian embryo-larval bioassays, were among the most polluted by trace metals. A good agreement was reported between ordination plots resulting from applying multidimensional scaling to the chemical data, and the results of the biological endpoints tested.     

Reconstructions of the Mediterranean Outflow Water during the quaternary based on the study of changes in buried mounded drift stacking pattern in the Gulf of Cadiz

Contourite deposits in the central sector of the middle slope of the Gulf of Cadiz have been studied using a comprehensive acoustic, seismic and core database. Buried, mounded, elongated and separated drifts developed under the influence of the lower core of the Mediterranean Outflow Water are preserved in the sedimentary record. These are characterised by depositional features in an area where strong tectonic and erosive processes are now dominant. The general stacking pattern of the depositional system is mainly influenced by climatic changes through the Quaternary, whereas changes in the depositional style observed in two, buried, mounded drifts, the Guadalquivir and Huelva Drifts, are evidence of a tectonic control. In the western Guadalquivir Drift, the onset of the sheeted drift construction (aggrading QII unit) above a mounded drift (prograding QI unit) resulted from a new Lower Mediterranean Core Water hydrodynamic regime. This change is correlated with a tectonic event coeval with the Mid Pleistocene Revolution (MPR) discontinuity that produced new irregularities of the seafloor during the Mid- to Late-Pleistocene. Changes in the Huelva Drift from a mounded to a sheeted drift geometry during the Late-Pleistocene, and from a prograding drift (QI and most part of QII) to an aggrading one (upper seismic unit of QII), highlight a new change in oceanographic conditions. This depositional and then oceanographic change is associated with a tectonic event, coeval with the Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 6 discontinuity, in which a redistribution of the diapiric ridges led to the development of new local gateways, three principal branches of the Mediterranean Lower Core Water, and associated contourite channels. As a result, these buried contourite drifts hold a key palaeoceanographic record of the evolution of Mediterranean Lower Core Water, influenced by both neotectonic activity and climatic changes during the Quaternary. This study is an example of how contourite deposits and erosive elements in the marine environment can provide evidence for the reconstruction of palaeoceanographic and recent tectonic changes.     

Gas-related morphologies and diapirism in the Gulf of Cádiz

Recently developed high-resolution profiling (multibeam, sonar) and surface sampling were used to map seafloor morphology of the Gulf of Cádiz middle continental slope. Multichannel seismic profiling has made it possible to elucidate the geologic origin of these features as well as the main triggering mechanisms of gas-related morphologies, principally mud volcanoes, carbonate mud mounds, pockmarks and slides. Throughout the entire Gulf of Cádiz, from the continental slope to the shelf and even on land, a close correlation between morphology and gas mobility and associated diapirism can be observed. The middle slope area is strongly deformed by several diapiric ridges, named Guadalquivir, Cádiz and Doñana. Most of the diapirs identified in this study are related to the Allochthonous Unit of the Gulf of Cádiz, a chaotic body emplaced during the Tortonian, containing salt and shale nappes affected by later gravitational extension collapse and reactivated compression thrusts. It can be proposed that diapirism and related tectonics provided gas migration pathways.     

Mesoscale, seasonal and interannual variability in the Mediterranean Sea using a numerical ocean model

In this paper, we present the results from a 1/8° horizontal resolution numerical simulation of the Mediterranean Sea using an ocean model (DieCAST) that is stable with low general dissipation and that uses accurate control volume fourth-order numerics with reduced numerical dispersion. The ocean model is forced using climatological monthly mean winds and relaxation towards monthly climatological surface temperature and salinity. The variability of the circulation obtained is assessed by computing the volume transport through certain sections and straits where comparison with observations is possible. The seasonal variability of certain currents is reproduced in the model simulations. More important, an interannual variability, manifested by changes in currents and water mass properties, is also found in the results. This may indicate that the oceanic internal variability (not depending on external atmospheric forcing), is an important component of the total variability of the Mediterranean circulation; variability that seems to be very significant and well documented by in situ and satellite data recovered in the Mediterranean Sea during the last decade.     

Testing the sensitivity of geomorphic indices in areas of low-rate active folding (eastern Betic Cordillera, Spain)

Active deformation structures have an incidence in topography that can be quantified by using geomorphic indices. Most of these indices have been checked in faulted regions with high-deformation rates. The application of several geomorphic indices (hypsometric curve analysis, normalized stream-length gradient, and valley width-to-valley height ratio) to the drainage network of the southern limb of the Sierra de Las Estancias antiform (Internal Zones, eastern Betic Cordillera), where low-rate active folding has been recognized, allows us to investigate the suitability of these indices to identify active structures in such a scenario. Hypsometric curves clearly identify regions with recent uplift and young topography, but they do not provide any constraint on the location of active folds. Local valley width-to-valley height index variations have been detected just coinciding whit the position of ENE–WSW active folds. Normalized stream-length gradient index serves to locate active folds in areas of hard rock substratum, but not in those areas with soft sediments (Neogene-Quaternary sedimentary basins). This is most likely due to the fact that in the basins erosion is much more intense than in the hard rock sectors. In view of these results, we consider that geomorphic indices constitute a valuable tool for identifying sectors affected by low-rate uplift related to active folding, with the best results obtained in hard rock areas.     

Testing exponentiality against NBUE distributions with an application in environmental extremes

The test for exponentiality of a dataset in terms of a specific aging property constitutes an interesting problem in reliability analysis. To this end, a wide variety of tests are proposed in the literature. In this paper, the excess-wealth function is recalled and new asymptotic properties are studied. By using the characterization of the exponential distribution based on the excess-wealth function, a new exponentiality test is proposed. Through simulation techniques, it is shown that this new test works well on small sample sizes. The exact null distribution and normality asymptotic is also obtained for the statistic proposed. This test and a new empirical graph based on the excess-wealth function are applied to extreme-value examples.     

Validation and comparison of Advanced Differential Interferometry Techniques: Murcia metropolitan area case study

This paper is focused on the analysis of the performance of Stable Point Network (SPN) and Coherent Pixel Technique (CPT), which are Advanced Differential Interferometry Techniques (A-DInSAR) that estimate, among other results, mean deformation velocity maps of the ground surface and displacement time series from a SAR dataset. The test site is the metropolitan area of the city of Murcia (Spain) where a moderate slow subsidence induced by the overexploitation of aquifers is present. SAR data acquired between July 1995 and August 2005 from ERS and ENVISAT sensors have been processed by the SPN and CPT techniques and compared with in situ instrumental measurements assumed as reference. Experimental results have shown that both SPN and CPT techniques provide estimates of the deformation evolution in time with an absolute difference below 6 mm consistently in all comparisons: SPN vs extensometer, CPT vs extensometer and SPN vs CPT. The proposed validation and comparison experiment between both A-DInSAR techniques has been useful to observe their differences and complementarities.     

Polarimetric receiver in the forty gigahertz band: new instrument for the Q-U-I joint Tenerife experiment

This paper describes the analysis, design and characterization of a polarimetric receiver developed for covering the 35 to 47 GHz frequency band in the new instrument aimed at completing the ground-based Q-U-I Joint Tenerife Experiment. This experiment is designed to measure polarization in the Cosmic Microwave Background. The described high frequency instrument is a HEMT-based array composed of 29 pixels. A thorough analysis of the behaviour of the proposed receiver, based on electronic phase switching, is presented for a noise-like linearly polarized input signal, obtaining simultaneously I, Q and U Stokes parameters of the input signal. Wideband subsystems are designed, assembled and characterized for the polarimeter. Their performances are described showing appropriate results within the 35-to-47 GHz frequency band. Functionality tests are performed at room and cryogenic temperatures with adequate results for both temperature conditions, which validate the receiver concept and performance.     

From locational fundamentals to increasing returns: the spatial concentration of population in Spain, 1787–2000

Why is population not evenly distributed throughout a country’s territory? This paper focuses on the case of Spain, in order to empirically test two complementary theoretical explanations: (a) first nature advantages or locational fundamentals; and (b) second nature advantages or increasing returns. We estimate population density and population growth equations for the case of Spain between 1787 and 2000. Our results suggest that locational fundamentals explain the distribution of population prior to industrialization and that industrialization reinforced the pre-existing regional population disparities, especially as the share of increasing-returns sectors in the Spanish economy became significant. Finally, we perform an ANOVA analysis which shows that although in the pre-industrial economy first nature advantages were the most important in explaining the growth in provincial population densities, these were progressively superseded by the influence of first via second nature effects.