Erodibility of soil and organic matter: independence of organic matter resistance to interrill erosion

The enrichment of organic matter in interrill sediment is well documented; however, the respective roles of soil organic matter (SOM) and interrill erosion processes for the enrichment are unclear. In this study, organic matter content of sediment generated on two silts with almost identical textures, but different organic matter contents and aggregations, was tested. Artificial rainfall was applied to the soils in wet, dry and crusted initial conditions to determine the effects of soil moisture and rainfall and drying history on organic matter enrichment in interrill sediment. While erosional response of the soils varied significantly, organic matter enrichment of sediment was not sensitive to initial soil conditions. However, enrichment was higher on the silt with a lower organic matter content and lower interrill erodibility. The results show that enrichment of organic matter in interrill sediment is not directly related to either SOM content or soil interrill erodibility, but is dominated by interrill erosion processes. As a consequence of the complex interaction between soil, organic matter and interrill erosion processes, erodibility of organic matter should be treated as a separate variable in erosion models. Further research on aggregate breakdown, in particular the content and fate of the organic matter in the soil fragments, is required. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Smithsonian Institution’s Global Volcanism Network

Information included in this summary is based on more detailed reports published in the Bulletin of the Global Volcanism Network, vol. 32, no. 3, March 2007 (on the Internet at ). Edited by scientists at the Smithsonian, this bulletin includes reports provided by a worldwide network of correspondents. The reports contain the names and contact information for all sources. Please note that these reports are preliminary and subject to change as events are studied in more detail. The Global Volcanism Program welcomes further reports of current volcanism, seismic unrest, monitoring data, and field observations.     

Geospatial–temporal dependence among weekly precipitation extremes with applications to observations and climate model simulations in South America

A quantification of the spatio-temporal dependence among precipitation extremes is important for investigating the properties of intense storms as well as flood or flash-flood related hazards. Extreme value theory has been widely applied to the hydrologic sciences and hydraulic engineering. However, rigorous approaches to quantify dependence structures among extreme values in space and time have not been reported in the literature. Previous researchers have quantified the dependence among extreme values through the concept of (pairwise bivariate) tail dependence coefficients. For estimation of the tail dependence coefficients, we apply a recently developed method [Kuhn G. On dependence and extremes. PhD thesis (Advisor: C. Klüppelberg), Munich University of Technology, 2006] which utilized the multivariate tail dependence function of a subclass of elliptical copulas. This study extends the previous approach in the context of space and time by considering pairs of spatial grids in South America and quantifying the dependence among precipitation extremes based on the time series at each spatial grid. In addition, Kendall’s τ is used to estimate the pairwise copula correlation (for an elliptical copula) of precipitation between all grids in South America. The geospatial–temporal dependence measures are applied to precipitation observations from 1940 to 2005 as well as simulations from the Community Climate System Model version 3 (CCSM3) for 1940–2099. New insights are obtained regarding the spatio-temporal dependence structures for precipitation over South America both with regard to correlation as well as tail dependence.     

Efficient solution of 3-D geomechanical problems by indirect BEM using iterative methods

The research herein primarily addresses to geomechanical problems of underground constructions in Mining and Civil Engineering. The problems are solved using the Indirect Boundary Element Method (IBEM). Although the geometry of the constructions themselves is usually very complicated, it will become much more complicated if we were to draw the existing joints. The computational problem therefore is how to deal with huge amount of equations and find out efficient methods of their formation and solution keeping in mind restraints of the computer memory and calculation time. Several approaches are used to enhance the performance of the Indirect Boundary Element Method. One of them deals with application of efficient equation solvers. It is shown that Krylov-type methods like CGS and GMRES with simple Jacoby preconditioning appear to be efficient and robust. In addition, adaptive integration on the boundary elements, together with diagonal dominance of equationsmake it possible to accelerate convergence of the iterative procedure. Some of the problems discussed allow a substantial reduction of matrix entries that leads to a very cheap iterative solution keeping reasonable accuracy of the results. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Reports from the Smithsonian’s Global Volcanism Network,December 2008

Information included in this summary is based on more detailed reports published in the Bulletin of the Global Volcanism Network, vol. 33, no. 12, December 2008 (on the Internet at ). Edited by scientists at the Smithsonian, this bulletin includes reports provided by a worldwide network of correspondents. The reports contain the names and contact information for all sources. Please note that these reports are preliminary and subject to change as events are studied in more detail. The Global Volcanism Program welcomes further reports of current volcanism, seismic unrest, monitoring data, and field observations.     

Reports from the Smithsonian’s Global Volcanism Network, March 2008

Information included in this summary is based on more detailed reports published in the Bulletin of the Global Volcanism Network, vol. 33, no. 3, March 2008 (on the Internet at ). Edited by scientists at the Smithsonian, this bulletin includes reports provided by a worldwide network of correspondents. The reports contain the names and contact information for all sources. Please note that these reports are preliminary and subject to change as events are studied in more detail. The Global Volcanism Program welcomes further reports of current volcanism, seismic unrest, monitoring data, and field observations.     

Smithsonian Institution’s Global Volcanism Network

Information included in this summary is based on more detailed reports published in the Bulletin of the Global Volcanism Network, vol. 32, no. 5, May 2007 (on the Internet at ). Edited by scientists at the Smithsonian, this bulletin includes reports provided by a worldwide network of correspondents. The reports contain the names and contact information for all sources. Please note that these reports are preliminary and subject to change as events are studied in more detail. The Global Volcanism Program welcomes further reports of current volcanism, seismic unrest, monitoring data, and field observations.     

Smithsonian Institution’s Global Volcanism Network

Information included in this summary is based on more detailed reports published in the Bulletin of the Global Volcanism Network, vol. 32, no. 8, August 2007 (on the Internet at ). Edited by scientists at the Smithsonian, this bulletin includes reports provided by a worldwide network of correspondents. The reports contain the names and contact information for all sources. Please note that these reports are preliminary and subject to change as events are studied in more detail. The Global Volcanism Program welcomes further reports of current volcanism, seismic unrest, monitoring data, and field observations.     

Measurements and Models of the Mass Balance of Hintereisferner

This paper summarizes the methods applied to determine the mass balance of Hintereisferner and several other glaciers in the Tyrolean Alps since 1952. On an annual basis the direct glaciological method was applied with fixed date measurements on 10–15 accumulation pits and 30–90 ablation stakes on 9 km².
Indirect mass balance determination from equilibrium line altitude, accumulation area ratios or representative stakes, yield fair results and some exceptions could be related to anomalous meteorological conditions.
Monthly or more frequent stake readings supplied time series of ablation at various altitudes and slope aspects that served as basis for the calibration of energy and mass balance models. Of various models developed, two are presented in this paper. Both are based on degree days, one using daily values from a valley station to predict the mean annual balance of the entire glacier, while the other calculates day-to-day changes at 50-m grid points on the glacier.
The geodetic method has been applied for longer periods and yields results consistent with those of the glaciological method. The balance velocity calculated from recent ice thickness soundings and accumulation measurements is significantly less than observed velocity.     

Fine-Scale Observations of Summertime Precipitation in an Intra-Alpine Region

Summary ?Intra-mountain summertime precipitation was studied in the Alps in a 40×20 km² area centered around Innsbruck, Austria, from June through September 1997. An observational network with a mean separation distance of 9 km and forecasts from the ECMWF model were used to examine the role the strong forcing from the lower boundary plays in creating “hot spots” for the formation of thunderstorms and the location of heavy precipitation as well as systematic precipitation patterns for different weather situations, which can be used to downscale forecasts from global scale routine numerical weather prediction models. Received March 16, 1999/Revised August 20, 1999