Assessment of faecal contamination and the relationship between pathogens and faecal bacterial indicators in an estuarine environment (Seine, France)

The Seine estuary, one of the largest estuaries of the European northwest continental shelf, is subjected to numerous anthropogenic influences. Here we present an assessment of the microbial faecal contamination of the estuary water. The most vulnerable areas were defined on the basis of the fluxes of indicator organisms and the occurrence of Salmonella and Cryptosporidium sp. and Giardia sp. (oo)cysts. The microbial quality of the water changes from upstream to downstream: in the upstream area, contamination by faecal-indicator bacteria and Salmonella occurs during periods of high flow; in the urbanized area, mid-way between the uppermost areas of the estuary and its mouth, discharge from a wastewater treatment plant and a tributary degrade water quality; at the estuary mouth, the accumulation of microorganisms attached to particles in the maximum turbidity zone, particularly Clostridium perfringens spores and oocysts of Cryptosporidium, is accompanied by inputs of ThC and Escherichia coli from tributaries. In some areas, significant strong relations are observed between Salmonella, (oo)cysts of protozoan, and levels of faecal indicators.     

A report card and quality indicators for the Seine estuary: from scientific approach to operational tool

The scientific teams from the interdisciplinary Seine-Aval (SA) research program and the SA's operational pole, GIPSA (Groupement d'Intérêt Public Seine-Aval) have worked together to create a report card designed to help the Estuary Council (Conseil de l'Estuaire) revitalize its original functions: maintaining functional links between the various estuarine ecosystems, comprehending and managing the estuary's natural habitats and biological populations, and monitoring and improving the physical-chemical quality of the estuarine waters. The report card will be able to synthesize the information obtained from several system performance variables and available operational indicators. This approach, intended to guide the estuary managers, is the oeuvre of several scientific teams; it is particularly important in the context of the Water Framework Directive because it facilitates the elaboration of a group of relevant indicators, which can then be used as operational tools. A report card will provide decision-makers (e.g., political authorities; national, regional and local institutions and industries) with the key indicators for evaluating the system and predicting changes in terms of selected objectives, such as the preservation and restoration of the estuary's environmental functionalities. The final objective of the research is to choose among the available indicators to approximate potential ecological risks. Integrating the socio-economical data will perhaps lead to setting risk acceptability thresholds for the different uses of the Seine estuary. In the end, collaboration between the scientists, the managers, and the GIPSA operational pole will be essential to produce a viable report card about the environmental status of the Seine estuary. To illustrate the research now under way, this article presents the results for three actions undertaken, concerning: (i) physical indicators (i.e., an inventory of the estuary first as a whole, and then section by section); (ii) benthic indicators (i.e., seven indices which show a moderate EcoQ for the lower part of the estuary); and (iii) a eutrophication indicator (i.e., an indicator for coastal eutrophication potential (ICEP), which helps to limit the nutrient fluxes (N or P) that exceed the silica flux delivered by the Seine network, based on the Redfield ratios for algal propagation).     

Magmatic emulsion texture formed by mixing during extrusion, Rauðafell composite complex, Breiðdalur volcano, eastern Iceland

The Rauðafell composite complex is part of the Neogene Breiðdalur volcano, eastern Iceland and is composed of a composite feeder dyke, a vent structure and a composite flow. The two end-members of the composite complex are rhyolite and basalt, and both are rich in plagioclase macrocrysts: bytownite in basalt and oligoclase in rhyolite. The rhyolite also includes ferroaugite macrocrysts. The mixed rocks are separated in three textural groups related to mixing proportions. When the basaltic end-member is dominant, a hybrid texture with a homogeneous matrix is observed and the only evidence of mixing is the presence of antecrysts of both end-members. When the basaltic end-member represents c. 65 to 30 % of the mixture, we observe emulsion textures composed of finely co-mingled basalt and rhyolite. The difference between these two textural expressions of mixing is due to effects of diffusion. The third texture shows mafic enclaves suspended in a rhyolitic matrix. In these rocks, the proportion of the basaltic end-member is inferior to 30 %, implying that the basalt froze solid in contact with the rhyolite. Zoning of plagioclase shows that the mixing processes are driven initially by highly efficient micro-mingling; the emulsification is possibly a result of compositional gradient stresses (Korteweg stress) between miscible basalt and rhyolite. This is followed by chemical diffusion (hybridisation) and tend to protect antecrysts from reaction with the primitive magmas. When antecrysts originated in the evolved magma, they undergo dissolution due to thermal disequilibrium during mingling and chemical disequilibrium during hybridisation. We argue that such mixing processes are important in producing intermediate rocks in Iceland and elsewhere that shows only the chemical attributes of an origin by mixing. The preservation of emulsion textures is rare and highly dependent on cooling history.     

North Atlantic extratropical and subpolar gyre variability during the last 120 years: a gridded dataset of surface temperature,salinity, and density. Part 1: dataset validation and RMS variability

We present a binned annual product (BINS) of sea surface temperature (SST), sea surface salinity (SSS), and sea surface density (SSD) observations for 1896–2015 of the subpolar North Atlantic between 40° N and 70° N, mostly excluding the shelf areas. The product of bin averages over spatial scales on the order of 200 to 500 km, reproducing most of the interannual variability in different time series covering at least the last three decades or of the along-track ship monitoring. Comparisons with other SSS and SST gridded products available since 1950 suggest that BINS captures the large decadal to multidecadal variability. Comparison with the HadSST3 SST product since 1896 also indicates that the decadal and multidecadal variability is usually well-reproduced, with small differences in long-term trends or in areas with marginal data coverage in either of the two products. Outside of the Labrador Sea and Greenland margins, interannual variability is rather similar in different seasons. Variability at periods longer than 15 years is a large part of the total interannual variability, both for SST and SSS, except possibly in the south-western part of the domain. Variability in SST and SSS increases towards the west, with the contribution of salinity variability to density dominating that of temperature in the western Atlantic, except close to the Gulf Stream and North Atlantic Current in the southwest area. Weaker variability and larger relative temperature contributions to density changes are found in the eastern part of the gyre and south of Iceland.

     

General database for ground water site information

In most cases, analysis and modeling of flow and transport dynamics in ground water systems require long-term, high-quality, and multisource data sets. This paper discusses the structure of a multisite database (the H+ database) developed within the scope of the ERO program (French Environmental Research Observatory, http://www.ore.fr). The database provides an interface between field experimentalists and modelers, which can be used on a daily basis. The database structure enables the storage of a large number of data and data types collected from a given site or multiple-site network. The database is well suited to the integration, backup, and retrieval of data for flow and transport modeling in heterogeneous aquifers. It relies on the definition of standards and uses a templated structure, such that any type of geolocalized data obtained from wells, hydrological stations, and meteorological stations can be handled. New types of platforms other than wells, hydrological stations, and meteorological stations, and new types of experiments and/or parameters could easily be added without modifying the database structure. Thus, we propose that the database structure could be used as a template for designing databases for complex sites. An example application is the H+ database, which gathers data collected from a network of hydrogeological sites associated with the French Environmental Research Observatory.     

The large volume multi-anvil press as a highP-T deformation apparatus

The rheological properties of mantle materials are being investigated up to pressures of 16 GPa and temperatures of 1600°C for times up to 24 h, using a new sample assembly for the 6–8 multi-anvil apparatus. Al₂O₃ pistons, together with a liquid confining medium, are used to generate deviatoric stress in the specimen. Strain rates are estimated by monitoring the relative displacement of the guide blocks of the multi-anvil apparatus, scaled to the total axial strain of the sample. The applied stress on the sample is estimated using grain size piezometry. Strain rates and flow stresses of approximately 10^–4 to 10^–6 s^–1 and 50 to 250 MPa respectively, are presently attainable.Preliminary results on San Carlos olivine single crystals, partially dynamically recrystallized to a grain size of 10 to 300 m, indicate that the effective viscosity of polycrystalline olivine is consistent with values obtained from olivine single crystal creep laws. Assuming a dislocation creep mechanism (n3.5) with (010)[001] as the dominant slip system, the data are best fit using a creep activation volume of 5 to 10×10^–6 m³ mol^–1.     

Simulation of damage–permeability coupling for mortar under dynamic loads

The results reported in this paper deal with the simulation of damage in cohesive geomaterials such as rocks or concrete subjected to dynamic loads. The practical objective is to stimulate the production of tight gas reservoirs with a technique that is an alternative to hydraulic fracturing. The principle is that when subjected to dynamic loads, cohesive materials such as concrete, rocks or ceramics exhibit distributed micro‐cracking as opposed to localised cracking observed under static loads. Hence, a low permeability rock containing gas trapped into occluded pores can be fragmented with the help of dynamic loads, and gas can be extracted in a much more efficient way compared with hydraulic fracturing, where only large macro cracks are formed with very few connections between occluded pores. At the stage of laboratory development of this technique, compressive underwater shock waves have been used to increase the intrinsic permeability of concrete specimens. In a previous study, pressure waves generated by pulsed arc electrohydraulic discharges in water were used in order to induce micro‐cracking and an increase of average permeability of concrete hollow cylinders subjected to confinement stresses (equivalent to geostatic stresses). We discuss here a 3‐D anisotropic constitutive model aimed at describing the dynamic response of these specimens. It is based on rate‐dependent continuum damage constitutive relations. Crack closure effects and damage‐induced anisotropy are included in the model. The directional growth of damage is related to the directional growth of material intrinsic permeability. Numerical simulations of damage induced by shock waves show good agreement with the experiments for various confinement levels of the specimens. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

How can a few streamflow measurements help to predict daily hydrographs at almost ungauged sites?

Abstract

Available data from nearby gauging stations can provide a great source of hydrometric information that is potentially transferable to an ungauged site. Furthermore, streamflow measurements may even be available for the ungauged site. This paper explores the potential of four distance-based regionalization methods to simulate daily hydrographs at almost ungauged pollution-control sites. Two methods use only the hydrological information provided by neighbouring catchments; the other two are new regionalization methods parameterized with a limited number of streamflow data available at the site of interest. Based on a network of 149 streamgauges and 21 pollution-control sites located in the Upper Rhine-Meuse area, the comparative assessment demonstrates the benefit of making available point streamflow measurements at the location of interest for improving quantitative streamflow prediction. The advantage is moderate for the prediction of flow types (stormflow, recession flow, baseflow) and pulse shape (duration of rising limb and falling limb).

Editor Z.W. Kundzewicz; Associate editor A. Viglione