The ages of pre-main-sequence stars

The position of pre-main-sequence or protostars in the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram is often used to determine their mass and age by comparison with pre-main-sequence evolution tracks. On the assumption that the stellar models are accurate, we demonstrate that, if the metallicity is known, the mass obtained is a good estimate. However, the age determination can be very misleading, because it is significantly (generally different by a factor of 2 to 5) dependent on the accretion rate and, for ages less than about 10⁶ yr, the initial state of the star. We present a number of accreting protostellar tracks that can be used to determine age if the initial conditions can be determined and the underlying accretion rate has been constant in the past. Because of the balance established between the Kelvin–Helmholtz, contraction time-scale and the accretion time-scale, a pre-main-sequence star remembers its accretion history. Knowledge of the current accretion rate, together with an HR-diagram position, gives information about the rate of accretion in the past, but does not necessarily improve any age estimate. We do not claim that ages obtained by comparison with these particular accreting tracks are likely to be any more reliable than those from comparisons with non-accreting tracks. Instead, we stress the unreliability of any such comparisons, and use the disparities between various tracks to estimate the likely errors in age and mass estimates. We also show how a set of coeval accreting objects do not appear coeval when compared with non-accreting tracks. Instead, accreting pre-main-sequence stars of around a solar mass are likely to appear older than those of either smaller or larger mass.     

Anatomically preserved plants in siderite concretions in the shale split of the Foord Seam: mineralogy, geochemistry, genesis (Upper Carboniferous, Canada)

A shale split in the well-studied Foord Seam (Upper Carboniferous), Stellarton Basin, Nova Scotia, provides a rare opportunity to study little known siderite concretions with anatomically preserved plants from a limnic basin. Siderite concretions occur throughout the split, commonly as sheet-like, inter-connected lepidodendrid logs, or less frequently as spherical masses; they are typically vuggy. A sample of 14 stratigraphically oriented concretions in the split shows that primary siderite varies from 45% to 80% (wt.%) due to selective replacement by 5% to 40% ferroan dolomite or ankerite in plant tissues. These two minerals show large Mg/Fe and Mg/Ca variability and are Fezoned. Clay content ranges from trace to 20%, and quartz from 5% to 10%. Partial cell-wall destruction by erosion and changeable oxic/anoxic conditions, prior to siderite permineralization, resulted in preservation mainly of the more resistant plant tissues. On average, carbon from siderite is isotopically heavier (+4.8±1.9 0/00) than that from ‘dolomite' (−7.2±1.1 0/00). The distribution of and the positive correlation between δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O probably reflects the two fractionation processes associated with methanogenesis and ‘dolomitization', respectively, in the genetic history of the siderite concretions in the split. Siderite concretions formed diagenetically early from bicarbonate under reducing conditions in a slightly alkaline freshwater environment that precluded calcite deposition.     

Proxies for land plant biomass: closed system pyrolysis of some methoxyphenols

Methoxyphenols can be used as proxies for terrestrial biomass when investigating the chemical changes in lignin during hydrothermal alteration. The closed system microscale pyrolysis of 2-methoxyphenol (2-MOP) and 2,6-dimethoxyphenol (2,6-DMP), in the presence of water vapour, has been studied in borosilicate glass vessels. 2-MOP was heated isothermally at temperatures of 330°C for 96 h and 2,6-DMP was heated isothermally at 300°C for 118 h. Pyrolysis of the model compound 2-MOP gave a simple product distribution which was composed mainly of 1,2-dihydroxybenzene with lower amounts of 2-methylphenol and phenol. The prominent reaction products from heating 2,6-DMP were 1,2-dihydroxy-6-methoxybenzene and 2-methoxy-6-methylphenol, with minor amounts of 2-MOP, 1,2-dihydroxybenzene and 2-methylphenol. The decreasing amounts of 2,6-DMP with heating time and the concomitant increase in the amounts of 1,2-dihydroxy-6-methoxybenzene suggested that demethylation had occurred.     

Controls on Arctic glacier-fed river water temperature

The impact of climate change on Arctic rivers is expected to be severe. There is therefore a need for greater understanding of Arctic river temperature processes. This study quantifies the spatio-temporal variability of water temperatures in the Kårsa River, Sweden. Water temperature was monitored over two summers within the main proglacial channel and within braids fed by different sources. Longitudinal and lateral temperature patterns were assessed in relation to prevailing hydro-meteorology. Temperature metrics in the main channel increased with distance downstream but were moderated by a large lake, while temperatures in the braids were dependent upon channel source. The high temperature standard deviation and inter-site differences within the braids highlight the importance of braided channels for creating thermal habitat heterogeneity. Temperatures were dependent on hydro-meteorological conditions, with sensitivity to air temperature maximized during cooler, rainy conditions. These results shed new light on Arctic river temperature patterns and their controlling processes.     

Late Pleistocene talus flatiron formation below the Coal Cliffs cuesta,Utah, USA

Cuesta escarpment retreat is a principal mode of exhumation in regions of layered sedimentary rock. On the Colorado Plateau, this process acts as a mechanism for maintaining high‐relief topography and facilitating drainage divide migration. Quantitative estimates of cuesta evolution are difficult to evaluate over glacial‐interglacial timescales, and thus rates of geomorphic change along individual escarpments have mostly been constrained over millions of years. Several studies have addressed this problem by dating colluvium‐mantled talus flatirons. However, this technique has not been applied systematically on the Colorado Plateau. This study quantifies geomorphic change along a single Colorado Plateau cuesta using ³⁶Cl surface exposure dating. We present 33 ages from a single generation of talus flatirons below the Coal Cliffs of central Utah. Landscape evolution is further constrained using 14 ages from in‐situ bedrock, 3 ages from boulders on gully interfluves, and two ages from terrace alluvium. Results suggest a colluvial apron was deposited below the cuesta beginning as early as Marine Isotope Stage 3, and the latest depositional phase occurred near the Last Glacial Maximum. A switch from apron deposition to incision initiated flatiron formation sometime between 19.7 ± 2.5 and 11.8 ± 1.6 ka, broadly coincident with the transition from glacial to interglacial conditions. Our results have several important implications. Climatic changes during the end of the last glacial period appear to have shifted the balance between deposition and erosion below the Coal Cliffs, emptying the sediment reservoir at their base and increasing their height via bedrock incision. The climatic forcing could be imparted by several mechanisms, including local controls on debris generation / mobilization and base level changes exerted by transverse streams. Similar processes may have occurred during previous glacial‐interglacial transitions, implying that the escarpment retreat processes may be partially modulated by orbitally‐controlled variations in Earth's climate over larger timescales. Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A regime shift in sediment export from a coastal watershed during a record wet winter,California: Implications for landscape response to hydroclimatic extremes

Small, steep watersheds are prolific sediment sources from which sediment flux is highly sensitive to climatic changes. Storm intensity and frequency are widely expected to increase during the 21st century, and so assessing the response of small, steep watersheds to extreme rainfall is essential to understanding landscape response to climate change. During record winter rainfall in 2016–2017, the San Lorenzo River, coastal California, had nine flow peaks representing 2–10‐year flood magnitudes. By the third flood, fluvial suspended sediment showed a regime shift to greater and coarser sediment supply, coincident with numerous landslides in the watershed. Even with no singular catastrophic flood, these flows exported more than half as much sediment as had a 100‐year flood 35 years earlier, substantially enlarging the nearshore delta. Annual sediment load in 2017 was an order of magnitude greater than during an average‐rainfall year, and 500‐fold greater than in a recent drought. These anomalous sediment inputs are critical to the coastal littoral system, delivering enough sediment, sometimes over only a few days, to maintain beaches for several years. Future projections of megadroughts punctuated by major atmospheric‐river storm activity suggest that interannual sediment‐yield variations will become more extreme than today in the western USA, with potential consequences for coastal management, ecosystems, and water‐storage capacity. The occurrence of two years with major sediment export over the past 35 years that were not associated with extremes of the El Niño Southern Oscillation or Pacific Decadal Oscillation suggests caution in interpreting climatic signals from marine sedimentary deposits derived from small, steep, coastal watersheds, to avoid misinterpreting the frequencies of those cycles. Published 2018. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.     

A method for uncertainty constraint of catchment discharge and phosphorus load estimates

River discharge and nutrient measurements are subject to aleatory and epistemic uncertainties. In this study, we present a novel method for estimating these uncertainties in colocated discharge and phosphorus (P) measurements. The “voting point”‐based method constrains the derived stage‐discharge rating curve both on the fit to available gaugings and to the catchment water balance. This helps reduce the uncertainty beyond the range of available gaugings and during out of bank situations. In the example presented here, for the top 5% of flows, uncertainties are shown to be 139% using a traditional power law fit, compared with 40% when using our updated “voting point” method. Furthermore, the method is extended to in situ and lab analysed nutrient concentration data pairings, with lower uncertainties (81%) shown for high concentrations (top 5%) than when a traditional regression is applied (102%). Overall, for both discharge and nutrient data, the method presented goes some way to accounting for epistemic uncertainties associated with nonstationary physical characteristics of the monitoring site.     

Evapotranspiration is resilient in the face of land cover and climate change in a humid temperate catchment

In temperate humid catchments, evapotranspiration returns more than half of the annual precipitation to the atmosphere, thereby determining the balance available to recharge groundwaters and support stream flow and lake levels. Changes in evapotranspiration rates and, therefore, catchment hydrology could be driven by changes in land use or climate. Here, we examine the catchment water balance over the past 50 years for a catchment in southwest Michigan covered by cropland, grassland, forest, and wetlands. Over the study period, about 27% of the catchment has been abandoned from row‐crop agriculture to perennial vegetation and about 20% of the catchment has reverted to deciduous forest, and the climate has warmed by 1.14 °C. Despite these changes in land use, the precipitation and stream discharge, and by inference catchment‐scale evapotranspiration, have been stable over the study period. The remarkably stable rates of evapotranspirative water loss from the catchment across a period of significant land cover change suggest that rainfed annual crops and perennial vegetation do not differ greatly in evapotranspiration rates, and this is supported by measurements of evapotranspiration from various vegetation types based on soil water monitoring in the same catchment. Compensating changes in the other meteorological drivers of evaporative water demand besides air temperature—wind speed, atmospheric humidity, and net radiation—are also possible but cannot be evaluated due to insufficient local data across the 50‐year period. Regardless of the explanation, this study shows that the water balance of this landscape has been resilient in the face of both land cover and climate change over the past 50 years.     

Effects of variation in loading protocol on the strength and deformation capacity of ductile reinforced concrete beams

Understanding the impact of prior earthquake damage on residual capacity is important for postearthquake damage assessment of buildings; however, interpretation of such impact is challenging when based on tests using traditional reversed‐cyclic loading protocols. A new loading protocol, consisting of a dynamic earthquake displacement history followed by quasi‐static reversed‐cyclic loading to failure, is presented as an alternative to traditional simulated seismic loading protocols. Data are analyzed from a set of 12 nominally identical ductile reinforced concrete beams that were tested by using variations of this protocol and traditional reversed‐cyclic and monotonic protocols. Differences in the cycle content of the earthquake displacement histories applied to the test specimens allowed for the effects of load history variation below 2.2% drift to be isolated. It is found that such variation had no effect on the beam deformation capacities. The effects of dynamic loading rates are also analyzed and compared against control quasi‐static specimens. Relative strength increases due to dynamic loading are found to be more significant at yield than at ultimate. Dynamic loading rates led to modest reductions in the beam deformation capacities, but the presence of causality between these variables remains uncertain.