Quantitative urban climate mapping based on a geographical database: A simulation approach using Hong Kong as a case study

The urban environment has been dramatically changed by artificial constructions. How the modified urban geometry affects the urban climate and therefore human thermal comfort has become a primary concern for urban planners. The present study takes a simulation approach to analyze the influence of urban geometry on the urban climate and maps this climatic understanding from a quantitative perspective. A geographical building database is used to characterize two widely discussed aspects: urban heat island effect (UHI) and wind dynamics. The parameters of the sky view factor (SVF) and the frontal area density (FAD) are simulated using ArcGIS-embedded computer programs to link urban geometry with the UHI and wind dynamic conditions. The simulated results are synergized and classified to evaluate different urban climatic conditions based on thermal comfort consideration. A climatic map is then generated implementing the classification. The climatic map shows reasonable agreement with thermal comfort understanding, as indicated by the biometeorological index of the physiological equivalent temperature (PET) obtained in an earlier study. The proposed climate mapping approach can provide both quantitative and visual evaluation of the urban environment for urban planners with climatic concerns. The map could be used as a decision support tool in planning and policy-making processes. An urban area in Hong Kong is used as a case study.     

西藏羊八井热田地热流体成因及演化的惰性气体制约

地热流体中惰性气体的相对丰度和同位素组成，不仅可以揭露热田的热源性质，而且还能够揭示深，浅层地热流体的内在联系和演化过程等。在西藏羊八井热田的地热气体中，已检测出大量的^4He组分，3He/^4He值是大气的0．087－0．259倍，表明深部地壳物质的局部熔融为热田提供能量，浅层地热流体的3He/4He 值自西北向东南呈降低趋势，与热储温度的变化相一致，反映出侧向运移时补充了更多的壳源氦，热田北区深层地热流体具有稍高的3He/4He值，是浅层地热流体的母源，气体中氪和氙的相对丰度具有大气降水成因的特征，结合现有的实际资料，建立了热田地热流体的概念模型。     

From water to tillage erosion dominated landform evolution

While water and wind erosion are still considered to be the dominant soil erosion processes on agricultural land, there is growing recognition that tillage erosion plays an important role in the redistribution of soil on agricultural land. In this study, we examined soil redistribution rates and patterns for an agricultural field in the Belgian loess belt. ¹³⁷Cs derived soil erosion rates have been confronted with historical patterns of soil erosion based on soil profile truncation. This allowed an assessment of historical and contemporary landform evolution on agricultural land and its interpretation in relation to the dominant geomorphic process. The results clearly show that an important shift in the relative contribution of tillage and water erosion to total soil redistribution on agricultural land has occurred during recent decades. Historical soil redistribution is dominated by high losses on steep midslope positions and concavities as a result of water erosion, leading to landscape incision and steepening of the topography. In contrast, contemporary soil redistribution is dominated by high losses on convex upperslopes and infilling of slope and valley concavities as a result of tillage, resulting in topographic flattening. This shift must be attributed to the increased mechanization of agriculture during recent decades. This study shows that the typical topographical dependency of soil redistribution processes and their spatial interactions must be accounted for when assessing landform and soil profile evolution.     

Diets of mammalian herbivores in Australian arid, hilly shrublands: seasonal effects on overlap between euros (hill kangaroos), sheep and feral goats, and on dietary niche breadths and electivities

The diets of euros or hill kangaroos (Macropus robustus), domestic sheep (Ovis aries) and feral goats (Capra hircus) in hilly, shrub rangeland in southern Australia were examined in a 12-year study. Levels of dietary overlap between these herbivores, their foraging in relation to resource availability, and the potential for competition in different conditions were also examined. The diet of euros was based around grasses. In dry seasons some shrubs were also eaten but in severe drought grass formed more than 80% of their diet. While grass was important to sheep in wetter conditions, they ate much shrub in dry conditions. Feral goats had broad diets but their preference for browse was high. In drought, euros had only a modest dietary overlap with sheep and goats. Data for dietary niche breadths and electivities pointed to only limited competition between the herbivores.     

From Grain to Floodplain: Evaluating heterogeneity of floodplain hydrostatigraphy using sedimentology,geophysics, and remote sensing

Stratigraphy is a fundamental component of floodplain heterogeneity and hydraulic conductivity and connectivity of alluvial aquifers, which affect hydrologic processes such as groundwater flow and hyporheic exchange. Watershed-scale hydrological models commonly simplify the sedimentology and stratigraphy of floodplains, neglecting natural floodplain heterogeneity and anisotropy. This study, conducted in the upper reach of the East River in the East River Basin, Colorado, USA, combines point-, meander-, and floodplain-scale data to determine key features of alluvial aquifers important for estimating hydrologic processes. We compare stratigraphy of two meanders with disparate geometries to explore floodplain heterogeneity and connectivity controls on flow and transport. Meander shape, orientation, and internal stratigraphy affected residence time estimates of laterally exchanged hyporheic water. Although the two meanders share a sediment source, vegetation, and climate, their divergent river migration histories resulted in contrasting meander hydrofacies. In turn, the extent and orientation of these elements controlled the effective hydraulic conductivity and, ultimately, estimates of groundwater transport and hyporheic residence times. Additionally, the meanders’ orientation relative to the valley gradient impacted the hydraulic gradient across the meanders—a key control of groundwater velocity. Lastly, we combine our field data with remotely sensed data and introduce a potential approach to estimate key hydrostratigraphic packages across floodplains. Prospective applications include contaminant transport studies, hyporheic models, and watershed models. © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Petrological evidence for shock‐induced high‐P metamorphism in a gabbro

Microlites (minute spherulitic, dendritic, skeletal, acicular and poikilitic crystals) diagnostic of crystallization in quenched melt or glass in fault rocks have been used to infer fossil earthquakes. High‐P microlites and crystallites are described here in a variably eclogitized gabbro, the wallrock to the coesite‐bearing eclogite breccia at Yangkou in the Chinese Su‐Lu high‐P metamorphic belt. The studied hand specimens are free of discernible shear deformation, although microfractures are not uncommon under the microscope. In the least eclogitized gabbro, the metagabbro, stellate growths of high‐P minerals on the relict igneous minerals are common. Dendritic garnet crystals (<1?5 μm) grew around rutile and/or phengite replacing ilmenite and biotite, respectively. Skeletal garnet also rims broken flakes of igneous biotite and mechanically twinned augite. Radial intergrowths of omphacite and quartz developed around relict igneous orthopyroxene and are rimmed by skeletal or poikilitic garnet where a Ti‐bearing mineral relict is present. Acicular epidote, kyanite and phengite crystallites are randomly distributed in a matrix of Na‐rich plagioclase, forming the pseudomorphs after igneous plagioclase. In the more eclogitized gabbro, the coronitic eclogite located closer to the eclogite breccia, all the igneous minerals broke down into high‐P assemblages. Thick coronas of poikilitic garnet grew between the pseudomorphs after igneous plagioclase and ferromagnesian minerals. The igneous plagioclase is replaced by omphacite crystallites, with minor amounts of phengite and kyanite. Thermodynamic modelling of the plagioclase pseudomorphs shows an increase in P–T in the wallrock from the metagabbro to the coronitic eclogite, and the P–T variation is unrelated to H₂O content. The fluid‐poor pressure overstepping scenario is unsupported both by phase diagram modelling and by whole‐rock chemical data, which show that the various types of eclogitized gabbro are all fairly dry. A large pressure difference of >2 GPa between the metagabbro and the coesite‐bearing eclogites ~20 m apart cannot be explained by the subduction hypothesis because this would require a depth difference of >60 km. The microlites and crystallites are evidence for dynamic crystallization due to rapid cooling because constitutional supercooling was unlikely for the plagioclase pseudomorphs. The lack of annealing of the broken biotite and augite overgrown by strain free skeletal garnet is consistent with a transient high‐P–T event at a low ambient temperature (<300 °C), probably in the crust. Therefore, the eclogitization of the wallrock to the eclogite breccia was also coseismic, as proposed earlier for the eclogite facies fault rocks. The outcrop‐scale P–T variation and the transient nature of the high‐P–T event are inconsistent with the other existing tectonic models for high‐P metamorphism. The fact that the less refractory but denser biotite is largely preserved while the more refractory but less dense plagioclase broke down completely into high‐P microlite assemblages in the metagabbro indicates a significant rise in pressure rather than temperature. Given that the metamorphic temperatures are far below the melting temperatures of most of the gabbroic minerals under fluid‐absent conditions, stress‐induced amorphization appears to be the more likely mechanism of the coseismic high‐P metamorphism.     

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in Antarctic Martian meteorites, carbonaceous chondrites, and polar ice

Recent analyses of the carbonate globules present in the Martian meteorite ALH84001 have detected polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) at the ppm level (McKay et al., 1996). The distribution of PAHs observed in ALH84001 was interpreted as being inconsistent with a terrestrial origin and were claimed to be indigenous to the meteorite, perhaps derived from an ancient martian biota. We have examined PAHs in the Antarctic shergottite EETA79001, which is also considered to be from Mars, as well as several Antarctic carbonaceous chondrites. We have found that many of the same PAHs detected in the ALH84001 carbonate globules are present in Antarctic carbonaceous chondrites and in both the matrix and carbonate (druse) component of EETA79001. We also investigated PAHs in polar ice and found that carbonate is an effective scavenger of PAHs in ice meltwater. Moreover, the distribution of PAHs in the carbonate extract of Antarctic Allan Hills ice is remarkably similar to that found in both EETA79001 and ALH84001. The reported presence of L-amino acids of apparent terrestrial origin in the EETA79001 druse material (McDonald and Bada, 1995) suggests that this meteorite is contaminated with terrestrial organics probably derived from Antarctic ice meltwater that had percolated through the meteorite. Our data suggests that the PAHs observed in both ALH84001 and EETA79001 are derived from either the exogenous delivery of organics to Mars or extraterrestrial and terrestrial PAHs present in the ice meltwater or, more likely, from a mixture of these sources. It would appear that PAHs are not useful biomarkers in the search for extinct or extant life on Mars.     

Interfacial instabilities driven by self-gravity: first numerical results

The evolution of the interstellar medium (ISM) is driven by a variety of phenomena, including turbulence, shearing flows, magnetic fields and the thermal properties of the gas. Among the most important forces at work is self-gravity, which ultimately drives protostellar collapse. As part of an ongoing study of instabilities in the ISM, Hunter, Whitaker & Lovelace have discovered another process driven by self-gravity: the instability of an interface of discontinuous density. Theory predicts that this self-gravity driven interfacial instability persists in the static limit and in the absence of a constant background acceleration. Disturbances to a density interface are found to grow on a time-scale of the order of the free-fall time, even when the perturbation wavelength is much less than the Jeans length. Here we present the first numerical simulations of this instability. The theoretical growth rate is confirmed and the non-linear morphology displayed. The self-gravity interfacial instability is shown to be fundamentally different from the Rayleigh–Taylor instability, although both exhibit similar morphologies under the condition of a high density contrast, such as is commonly found in the ISM. Such instabilities are a possible mechanism by which observed features, such as the pillars of gas seen near the boundaries of interstellar clouds, are formed.