Variability of the mixing zones and estuarine turbidity maxima in the Elbe and Weser estuaries

The neighboring coastal plain estuaries of the Elbe and Weser Rivers in Northern Germany exhibit pronounced estuarine turbidity maxima (ETM). Common features and differences between the longitudinal distributions of salinity and suspended particulate matter (SPM) in both estuaries are compared as well as the mechanisms effecting them. Monthly transects of the near surface SPM indicate that the long-term variability of salinity and the ETM is mainly influenced by the freshwater runoff. The variability is reduced to certain characteristic patterns by application of Empirical Orthogonal Functions analysis. The coefficients of these patterns are then correlated to runoff and the resulting functional regressions are used for the construction of a statistical model for the distribution of salinity and SPM along the estuaries; for SPM this has not been successful.     

Reconstructing and understanding the impacts of storms and surges,southern North Sea

Coastal barriers are ubiquitous globally and provide a vital protective role to valuable landforms, habitats and communities located to landward. They are, however, vulnerable to extreme water levels and storm wave impacts. A detailed record of sub‐annual to annual; decadal; and centennial rates of shoreline retreat in frontages characterized by both high (> 3 m) and low (< 1 m) dunes is established for a barrier island on the UK east coast. For four storms (2006–2013) we match still water levels and peak significant wave heights against shoreline change at high levels of spatial densification. The results suggest that, at least in the short‐term, shoreline retreat, of typically 5–8 m, is primarily driven by individual events, separated by varying periods of barrier stasis. Over decadal timescales, significant inter‐decadal changes can be seen in both barrier onshore retreat rates and in barrier extension rates alongshore. Whilst the alongshore variability in barrier migration seen in the short‐term remains at the decadal scale, shoreline change at the centennial stage shows little alongshore variability between a region of barrier retreat (at 1.15 m a^?1) and one of barrier extension. A data‐mining approach, synchronizing all the variables that drive shoreline change (still water level, timing of high spring tides and peak significant wave heights), is an essential requirement for validating models that predict future shoreline responses under changing sea level and storminess. © 2016 The Authors. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.     

Practices in disaster mitigation in the case of the 2015 Typhoon Koppu debris flows in Nueva Ecija,Philippines

Natural Hazards - In October 2015, heavy rains brought by Typhoon Koppu generated landslides and debris flows in the municipalities of Bongabon, Laur, and Gabaldon in Nueva Ecija province....     

The potential of spectral mixture analysis to improve the estimation accuracy of tropical forest biomass

A main limitation of pixel-based vegetation indices or reflectance values for estimating above-ground biomass is that they do not consider the mixed spectral components on the earth's surface covered by a pixel. In this research, we decomposed mixed reflectance in each pixel before developing models to achieve higher accuracy in above-ground biomass estimation. Spectral mixture analysis was applied to decompose the mixed spectral components of Landsat-7 ETM+ imagery into fractional images. Afterwards, regression models were developed by integrating training data and fraction images. The results showed that the spectral mixture analysis improved the accuracy of biomass estimation of Dipterocarp forests. When applied to the independent validation data set, the model based on the vegetation fraction reduced 5–16% the root mean square error compared to the models using a single band 4 or 5, multiple bands 4, 5, 7 and all non-thermal bands of Landsat ETM+.     

Perspectives for Hamburg as a port city in the context of a changing global environment

During recent decades, most European river-port cities and also many seaport cities have undergone a major transition towards a service-centred, rather than industrially-based metropolis, offering a high quality urban environment with a revitalised waterfront. Hamburg is one of the few river-port cities that have chosen the course of port expansion instead. This paper discusses the consequences of current global technological, organisational and economic developments for the port. Changing requirements imply rising monetary and land-use costs and environmental and social impacts, and also entail the risk that the port may not be able to fulfil new requirements and could thus lose market shares to coastal competitors. More importantly, the world-wide economic shift towards the service sector has affected port-dependent jobs in two ways: Directly port-dependent jobs have been reduced to a fraction, while many indirectly port-dependent jobs no longer require physical proximity of the port. Those benefits that continue to arise tend to spread over a much larger geographical region, while the port’s costs remain locally concentrated. Given the increasing competition between world-wide metropolitan regions that seek to establish themselves in new sectors and attract a qualified workforce, it is particularly relevant for Hamburg to account for these changes and to incorporate an assessment of the port’s changing costs and benefits into planning processes. To date, this task has received little attention from the city.     

An Experimental Apparatus for Laboratory and Field-Based Perfusion of Sediment Porewater with Dissolved Tracers

The water–sediment interface is a dynamic zone where the benthic and pelagic environments are linked through exchange and recycling of organic matter and nutrients. However, it is often difficult to measure rate processes in this zone. To that end, we designed an experimental apparatus for continuous and homogeneous perfusion of sediment porewater with dissolved conservative (SF₆, Rhodamine WT dye) and isotopic (H¹³CO₃⁻ and ¹⁵NH₄⁺) tracers to study nitrogen and carbon cycling by the sediment microbial community of shallow illuminated sediments. The perfusionator consists of a 60-cm ID × 60-cm high cylinder that includes a reservoir for porewater at the base of the sediment column. Porewater amended with conservative and stable isotopic tracers was pumped through a mixing reservoir and upward through the overlying sediments. We tested the perfusionator in a laboratory setting, as part of an outdoor mesocosm array, and buried in coastal sediments. Conservative and isotopic tracers demonstrated that the porewater tracers were distributed homogeneously through the sediment column in all settings. The perfusionator was designed to introduce dissolved stable isotope tracers but is capable of delivering any dissolved ionic, organic, or gaseous constituent. We see a potentially wide application of this technique in the aquatic and marine sciences in laboratory and field settings.     

Simulating the role of tides and sediment characteristics on tidal flat sorting and bedding dynamics

Understanding sediment sorting and bedding dynamics has high value to unravelling the mechanisms underlying geomorphological, geological, ecological and environmental imprints of tidal wetlands and hence to predicting their future changes. Using the Nanhui tidal flat on the Changjiang (Yangtze) Delta, China, as a reference site, this study establishes a schematized morphodynamic model coupling flow, sediment dynamics and bed level change to explore the processes that govern sediment sorting and bedding phenomena. Model results indicate an overall agreement with field data in terms of tidal current velocities, suspended sediment concentrations (SSCs), deposition thicknesses and sedimentary structures. Depending on the variation of tidal current strength, sand-dominated layers (SDLs) and mud-dominated layers (MDLs) tend to form during spring and neap tides, respectively. Thinner tidal couplets are developed during daily scale flood–ebb variations. A larger tidal level variation during a spring–neap tidal cycle, associated with a stronger tidal current variation, favours the formation of SDLs and tidal couplets. A larger boundary sediment supply generally promotes the formation of tidal bedding, though the bedding detail is partially dependent on the SSC composition of different sediment types. Sediment properties, including for example grain size and settling velocity, are also found to influence sediment sorting and bedding characteristics. In particular, finer and coarser sediment respond differently to spring and neap tides. During neap tides, relatively small flow velocities favour the deposition of finer sediment, with limited coarser sediment being transported to the upper tidal flat because of the larger settling velocity. During spring tides, larger flow velocities transport more coarser sediment to the upper tidal flat, accounting for distinct lamination formation. Model results are qualitatively consistent with field observations, but the role of waves, biological processes and alongshore currents needs to be included in further studies to establish a more complete understanding.     

Nitrogen cycling and ecosystem exchanges in a Virginia tidal freshwater marsh

Tidal freshwater marshes are diverse habitats that differ both within and between marshes in terms of plant community composition, sediment type, marsh elevation, and nutrient status. Because our knowledge of the nitrogen (N) biogeochemistry of tidal freshwater systems is limited, it is difficult to assess how these marshes will respond to long-term progressive nutrient loading due to watershed development and urbanization. We present a process-based mass balance model of N cycling in Sweet Hall marsh, a pristine (i.e., low nutrient)Peltandra virginica-Pontederia cordata dominated tidal freshwater marsh in the York River estuary, Virginia. The model, which was based on a combination of field and literature data, revealed that N cycling in the system was largely conservative. The mineralization of organic N to NH₄ ⁺ provided almost twice as much inorganic N as was needed to support marsh macrophyte and benthic microalgal primary production. Efficient utilization of porewater NH₄ ⁺ by nitrifiers and other microbes resulted in low rates of tidal NH₄ ⁺ export from the marsh and little accumulation of NH₄ ⁺ in marsh porewaters. Inputs of N from the estuary and atmosphere were not critical in supporting marsh primary production, and served to balance N losses due to denitrification and burial. A comparison of these results with the literature suggests that the relative importance of tidal freshwater marsh N cycling processes, including plant productivity, organic matter mineralization, microbial immobilization, and coupled nitrification-denitrification, are largely independent of small changes in water column N loading. Although very high (millimolar) concentrations of dissolved inorganic N can affect processes including denitrification and plant productivity, the factors that cause the switch from efficient N recycling to a more open N cycle have not yet been identified.     

Earthquakes in Switzerland and surrounding regions during 2009

This report of the Swiss Seismological Service summarizes the seismic activity in Switzerland and surrounding regions during 2009. During this period, 450 earthquakes and 68 quarry blasts were detected and located in the region under consideration. The three strongest events occurred about 15 km NW of Basel in southern Germany (M_L 4.2), near Wildhaus in the Toggenburg (M_L 4.0) and near Bivio in Graubünden (M_L 3.5). Although felt by the population, they were not reported to have caused any damage. With a total of 24 events with M_L ≥ 2.5, the seismic activity in the year 2009 was close to the average over the previous 34 years.