Direct simulation of solute recycling in irrigated areas

Solute recycling from irrigation can be described as the process that occurs when the salt load that is extracted from irrigation wells and distributed on the fields is returned to the groundwater below irrigated surfaces by deep percolation. Unless the salt load leaves the system by means of drains or surface runoff, transfer to the groundwater will take place, sooner or later. This can lead to solute accumulation and thus to groundwater degradation, particularly in areas where extraction rates exceed infiltration rates (semi-arid and arid regions). Thus, considerable errors can occur in a predictive solute mass budget if the recycling process is not accounted for in the calculation. A method is proposed which allows direct simulation of solute recycling. The transient solute response at an extraction well is shown to be a superposition of solute mass flux contributions from n recycling cycles and is described as a function of the travel time distribution between a recycling point and a well. This leads to an expression for a transient ‘recycling source’ term in the advection–dispersion equation, which generates the effect of solute recycling. At long times, the ‘recycling source’ is a function of the local capture probability of the irrigation well and the solute mass flux captured by the well from the boundaries. The predicted concentration distribution at steady state reflects the maximum spatial concentration distribution in response to solute recycling and can thus be considered as the solute recycling potential or vulnerability of the entire domain for a given hydraulic setting and exploitation scheme. Simulation of the solute recycling potential is computationally undemanding and can therefore, for instance, be used for optimisation purposes. Also, the proposed method allows transient simulation of solute recycling with any standard flow and transport code.     

Microbial ecology of the stratified water column of the Black Sea as revealed by a comprehensive biomarker study

The stratified water column of the Black Sea is partitioned into oxic, suboxic, and euxinic zones, each characterized by different biogeochemical processes and by distinct microbial communities. In 2003, we collected particulate matter by large volume in situ filtration at the highest resolution to date for lipid biomarker analysis and bacterioplankton for enumeration of major prokaryotic groups. Abundances of several prokaryotic groups were estimated using CARD-FISH probes specific for Bacteria, Archaea (Crenarchaeota and Euryarchaeota), epsilonproteobacteria (mainly sulfide oxidizers) and sulfate reducing bacteria. We also measured a wide range of bacterial and archaeal lipid biomarkers. Depth distributions of diagnostic biomarkers are matched with zonation of microbial processes, including aerobic bacterial oxidation of methane, oxidation of ammonium by bacteria and archaea, metal reduction, and sulfide oxidation at the chemocline, and bacterial sulfate reduction and anaerobic oxidation of methane by archaea in the anoxic zone. Cell densities for archaea and sulfate reducing bacteria are estimated based on water column biomarker concentrations and compared with CARD-FISH results.     

Situated knowledges and the spaces of consent

Informed consent has often been presented as a kind of ethical panacea, the best way of guarding against medical and scientific abuses of human rights. However recent empirical research has led bioethicists to question both the feasibility and the value of informed consent procedures. This paper also seeks to critique informed consent, but focuses less on its empirical shortcomings. Instead, this paper questions the assumption that ethics involves engaging in the kind of rational, distanced, objective reflection traditionally considered the basis of both scientific observation and ethical decision making. Drawing on recent insights from ethical geography and geographers studying the biotechnology industry, I wish to argue that ethical reflection is a relational and situated process, less about being distanced and objective, and more about recognizing how our ethical decisions are shaped by our social and material environment.     

High-Resolution Forecast Models of Water Vapor Over Mountains: Comparison With MERIS and Meteosat Data

Propagation delay due to variable tropospheric water vapor (WV) is one of the most intractable problems for radar interferometry, particularly over mountains. The WV field can be simulated by an atmospheric model, and the difference between the two fields is used to correct the radar interferogram. Here, we report our use of the U.K. Met Office Unified Model in a nested mode to produce high-resolution forecast fields for the 3-km-high Mount Etna volcano. The simulated precipitable-water field is validated against that retrieved from the Medium-Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) radiometer on the Envisat satellite, which has a resolution of 300 m. Two case studies, one from winter (November 24, 2004) and one from summer (June 25, 2005), show that the mismatch between the model and the MERIS fields ( rms = 1.1 and 1.6 mm, respectively) is small. One of the main potential sources of error in the models is the timing of the WV field simulation. We show that long-wavelength upper tropospheric troughs of low WV could be identified in both the model output and Meteosat WV imagery for the November 24, 2004 case and used to choose the best time of model output.     

Three-dimensional simulations of air flow and momentum transfer in partially harvested forests

In order to predict wind loading on trees (canopy height h) in partially harvested forests, it is necessary to characterize air flow and momentum transfer in progressively more complex patterns where groups of trees (or aggregates) are retained. In this study, we used large-eddy simulation to explore the effects of aggregate size, inter-aggregate spacing, and the ratio between the aggregate size and inter-aggregate spacing on air flow and momentum transfer. Forty-five grid points across an aggregate were needed to achieve an adequate level of turbulence. Using grid sizes of h/15 throughout was too viscous for the smaller aggregates. Vertical and horizontal flow deflection by the leading aggregates sheltered some of the downstream aggregates to varying degrees where turbulence increased for subsequent rows. The number of rows of protected aggregates decreased as aggregate dimensions and the space between aggregates increased. A theoretical treatment of time-dependent wind is presented for the lead aggregate and a simulation case is presented for the case of a gust of reduced wind passing through the aggregate pattern. The leading aggregate responded with decreasing moment for decreasing ambient wind speed as predicted by theory. However, downwind aggregates experienced substantial increases in bending moment. The overall results of the disruptive aspects of time dependence agrees with arguments regarding the role of irrotational (potential) flow to this problem. Our treatment of retention pattern design is only a first step and further research suggestions are presented.     

Predicted relative sea-level changes (18,000 years B.P. to present) caused by late-glacial retreat of the Antarctic Ice Sheet

Predictions of global changes in relative sea level caused by retreat of the Antarctic Ice Sheet from its 18,000 yr B.P. maximum to its present size are calculated numerically. When combined with the global predictions of relative sea-level change resulting from retreat of the Northern Hemisphere ice sheets, the results may be compared directly to observations of sea-level change on the Antarctic continent as well as at distant localities. The comparison of predictions to the few observations of sea-level change on Antarctica supports the view that the Antarctic Ice Sheet was larger 18,000 years ago than at present. The contribution of the Antarctic Ice Sheet to the total eustatic sea-level rise is assumed to be 25 m (25% of the assumed total eustatic rise). If as little as 0.7 m of this 25-m rise occurred between 5000 yr B.P. and the present, few mid-oceanic islands would emerge. If the Antarctic Ice Sheet attained its present dimensions by 6000 yr B.P., however, and if the volume of the ocean has remained constant for the past 5000 years, numerous islands throughout the Southern Hemisphere would emerge. It is suggested that a thorough study of Pacific islands, believed by some to have slightly emerged shorelines of Holocene age, would yield useful information about ocean volume changes during the past 5000 years, and hence on the glacial history of the Antarctic Ice Sheet.