Climate change adaptation of coffee production in space and time

Savannas constitute the most fire-prone vegetation type on earth and are a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions. Most savanna fires are lit by people for a variety of livelihood applications. ‘Savanna burning’ is an accountable activity under the Kyoto Protocol, but only Australia, as a developed economy, accounts for emissions from this source in its national accounts. Over the past decade considerable effort has been given to developing savanna burning projects in northern Australia, combining customary indigenous (Aboriginal) approaches to landscape-scale fire management with development of scientifically robust emissions accounting methodologies. Formal acceptance by the Australian Government of that methodology, and its inclusion in Australia’s developing emissions trading scheme, paves the way for Aboriginal people to commercially benefit from savanna burning projects. The paper first describes this Australian experience, and then explores options for implementing community-based savanna burning emissions reduction projects in other continental savanna settings, specifically in Namibia and Venezuela. These latter examples illustrate that savanna fire management approaches potentially have broader application for contributing to livelihood opportunities in other fire-prone savanna regions.     

Depthimeter-Precise Vessel Depth for Bathymetry

This article describes the design, operation, and field testing of the depthimeter. The depthimeter merges heave and acoustically derived vessel depth to form estimates of instantaneous vessel depth and instantaneous sea surface height, both relative to mean sea level. Results from sea trials held in December 1997 demonstrate successful operation of the system.     

North Brazil current: vertical structure

On the basis of the data ofin situ measurements of the velocities of currents and basic hydrophysical parameters (such as temperature and salinity) carried out during Cruise 41 of the R/VAkademik Vernadsky, we analyze the structure of the North Brazil Current near the continental slope and in the equatorial abyssal part of the ocean in winter, establish the regularities of changes in the current velocity with depth, and compare the structures of the North Brazil and Guiana Currents. Translated by Peter V. Malyshev and Dmitry V. Malyshev     

Surface melt-driven seasonal behaviour (englacial and subglacial) from a soft-bedded temperate glacier recorded by in situ wireless probes

We investigate the spatial and temporal englacial and subglacial processes associated with a temperate glacier resting on a deformable bed using the unique Glacsweb wireless in situ probes (embedded in the ice and the till) combined with other techniques [including ground penetrating radar (GPR) and borehole analysis]. During the melt season (spring, summer and autumn), high surface melt leads to high water pressures in the englacial and subglacial environment. Winter is characterized by no surface melting on most days (‘base’) apart from a series of positive degree days. Once winter begins, a diurnal water pressure cycle is established in the ice and at the ice/sediment interface, with direct meltwater inputs from the positive degree days and a secondary slower englacial pathway with a five day lag. This direct surface melt also drives water pressure changes in the till. Till deformation occurred throughout the year, with the winter rate approximately 60% that of the melt season. We were able to show the bed comprised patches of till with different strengths, and were able to estimate their size, relative percentage and temporal stability. We show that the melt season is characterized by a high pressure distributed system, and winter by a low pressure channelized system. We contrast this with studies from Greenland (overlying rigid bedrock), where the opposite was found. We argue our results are typical of soft bedded glaciers with low englacial water content, and suggest this type of glacier can rapidly respond to surface-driven melt. Based on theoretical and field results we suggest that the subglacial hydrology comprises a melt season distributed system dominated by wide anastomosing broad flat channels and thin water sheets, which may become more channelized in winter, and more responsive to changes in meltwater inputs. © 2019 The Authors. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.     

Cooling history of nested plutons from the Variscan Tichka plutonic complex (Morocco)

International Journal of Earth Sciences - Four imbricated mafic to felsic plutons of Variscan age from Morocco have been investigated for their cooling history and geochemical interactions with...     

Assessment of evaporation and water fluxes in a column of dry saline soil subject to different water table levels

Dry saline soils are common in the arid and hyper‐arid basins located in the Chilean Altiplano, where evaporation from shallow groundwater is typically the major component of the water balance. Thus, a good understanding of evaporation processes is necessary for improving water resource planning and management in these regions. In this study, we conducted laboratory experiments with a natural saline soil column to estimate evaporation rates and assess the liquid and water vapor fluxes under different water table levels. Water content, electrical conductivity and temperature at different depths were utilized to assess the liquid and water vapor fluxes in the soil column. We observed movement of water that dissolves salts from the soil and transports them to areas in the column where they accumulate. Isothermal liquid flux was predominant, while thermal and isothermal liquid and thermal water vapor fluxes were negligible, except for deep water table levels where isothermal and thermal water vapor fluxes had similar magnitude but opposite directions. Differences observed in total fluxes for all water table levels were due to different upward and downward fluxes, which depend on changes in water content and temperature within the soil profile. Both the vapor flux magnitude and direction were found to be very sensitive to the choice of empirical parameters used in flux quantification, such as tortuosity and the enhancement factor for local temperature gradients in the air phase within the column. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effect of removing small (<150?μm) chironomids on inferring temperature in cold lakes

Sieving samples for chironomid analysis with a 150 μm mesh was shown to greatly reduce sample preparation time, and use of only larger specimens did not affect chironomid-inferred salinities in African lakes. Here, we tested if this method is suitable for temperature reconstruction in colder lakes at higher latitudes. Removal of specimens <150 μm in two training sets, one from Canada and one from Sweden, had little impact on the performance statistics of the calibration models. Chironomid abundance, however, decreased greatly because more than half of the head capsules in assemblages were <150 μm. This had major impacts on the temperature reconstructions. Inferences were on average 2°C warmer with the modified models (all specimens >150 μm) than those obtained with the full model (all specimens >100 μm). General patterns of temperature change were also altered. For Lake 7 on Southampton Island, Canada, a cooling trend was reconstructed with the full Canadian model while the modified Canadian model yielded a warming trend. When only specimens >150 μm were used, two to three times more wet sediment was needed to obtain a sufficient number of head capsules. These results indicate that, in cold lakes (mean July/August air temperature ≤11°C), large proportions of head capsules are <150 μm, and sieving the samples in a 150 μm mesh leads to altered temperature reconstructions.     

Fishing for diatoms: fish gut analysis reveals water quality changes over a 75-year period

Defining the reference state of some perturbed streams and rivers is challenging since their non-altered state is undocumented. Despite the near-absence of pristine sites in highly anthropogenic areas, information about aquatic communities that existed prior to human disturbance can be obtained from historic sources. Sediment coring is commonly used in paleolimnology to estimate past environmental conditions of lakes, but this technique is often not appropriate for studies of lotic systems. An alternative is to use diatom assemblages present in the guts of fish that were captured in the streams prior to significant human disturbance. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the biological integrity of several streams in Ontario and Québec during the early twentieth century based on “paleo” diatom assemblages extracted from the guts of fish stored in museums. The Eastern Canadian diatom index (IDEC: Indice Diatomées de l’Est du Canada) was used to evaluate the biological status of “paleo” and “modern” diatom assemblages. The IDEC shows the position of diatom assemblages on a general pollution gradient. The comparison of IDEC values calculated for the 1925–1948 and the 2003–2007 periods showed that several streams were severely polluted in the early 1900s. In general, present water quality has declined compared to the early 1900s. The biological integrity of only three of the 22 sites has increased. IDEC values were not influenced by the species of fish studied.     

Petrography of alluvial sands as a past and present environmental indicator: Case of the Loire River (France)

Four sample sets of the Upper and Middle Loire river sands were analyzed in order to study the impact of natural and anthropogenic factors on their petrographic composition in space (on an 800 km stretch) and time. Composition was determined by modal analysis of three sand-size fractions using a polarizing optical microscope and calculated for each sample (“standard sand” = Sst). The watershed is composed mainly of endogenic (Massif Central) and sedimentary (southern Parisian Basin) rocks. B-set sands collected in channels for different water flows in 1996 show that Sst compositions vary by only 5 %. Present-day sands in the Upper Loire and Middle Loire have very high petrographic immaturity comparing to others worldwide fluvial sands, although bio-climatic conditions favor sand maturation by source-rock weathering in the watershed. This shows the strong impact of the Massif Central on sediment yield due to relief rejuvenation as a consequence of the formation of the Alps during the Quaternary. Fluvial sands stored during the Weichselian and the Holocene in the Middle Loire floodplain, although partly weathered since their deposition, show higher inputs from the endogenic rocks of the Massif Central than present-day deposits. This can be explained by Weichselian periglacial conditions and the development of crop farming since the Neolithic, which favored mechanical erosion, particularly in the Massif Central which is characterized by a cold, humid climate and steep slopes. The upstream-downstream change in the composition of presently deposited sand is low in the diked area. It shows however that basalt and some heavy mineral grains are vulnerable to abrasion during transport and indicates a marked sediment yield from ancient sediment stored in the floodplain. This is in line with the high incision of the river bed over the last 150 years partly due to dam construction and aggregate mining.     

The SHARE European Earthquake Catalogue (SHEEC) 1000–1899

In the frame of the European Commission project “Seismic Hazard Harmonization in Europe” (SHARE), aiming at harmonizing seismic hazard at a European scale, the compilation of a homogeneous, European parametric earthquake catalogue was planned. The goal was to be achieved by considering the most updated historical dataset and assessing homogenous magnitudes, with support from several institutions. This paper describes the SHARE European Earthquake Catalogue (SHEEC), which covers the time window 1000–1899. It strongly relies on the experience of the European Commission project “Network of Research Infrastructures for European Seismology” (NERIES), a module of which was dedicated to create the European “Archive of Historical Earthquake Data” (AHEAD) and to establish methodologies to homogenously derive earthquake parameters from macroseismic data. AHEAD has supplied the final earthquake list, obtained after sorting duplications out and eliminating many fake events; in addition, it supplied the most updated historical dataset. Macroseismic data points (MDPs) provided by AHEAD have been processed with updated, repeatable procedures, regionally calibrated against a set of recent, instrumental earthquakes, to obtain earthquake parameters. From the same data, a set of epicentral intensity-to-magnitude relations has been derived, with the aim of providing another set of homogeneous Mw estimates. Then, a strategy focussed on maximizing the homogeneity of the final epicentral location and Mw, has been adopted. Special care has been devoted also to supply location and Mw uncertainty. The paper focuses on the procedure adopted for the compilation of SHEEC and briefly comments on the achieved results.