Natural hazard experiences and adaptations: A study of winter climate-induced road closures in Norway

The effects of global climate change include more extreme weather events that harm lifeline infrastructure such as road access. The questionnaire-based study takes a novel natural experiment approach to subjective personal experiences and perceptions of lifeline vulnerability in two seaside communities in Norway that have been sporadically isolated due to avalanches, heavy snowfall, and/or snowdrifts. The enquiry aims at filling a research gap on sudden winter climate-induced disconnections and road travel hazards in advanced societies. The results show that weather-induced road closures lead to worries about road travel and practical problems, but also that many people are able to adjust to reduce their vulnerability. The authors concluded that community characteristics such as available services and social and human capital are important for understanding people’s vulnerabilities, worries, and hazard preparedness.     

Pilot-Scale Electrochemical Treatment of a 1,4-Dioxane Source Zone

Electrochemical treatment is a promising emerging technology in which direct current is applied to drive the degradation of aqueous contaminants. Several bench-scale studies have demonstrated the capability of electrochemical oxidation to fully mineralize refractory organics such as pesticides and perfluorinated compounds. However, insights into large-scale design and field performance are critically lacking. Here, we designed six pilot-scale reactors and tested their performance and efficiency for the treatment of groundwater contaminated with 1,4-dioxane (1,4-DX) at concentrations exceeding 1000 mg/L. Anode surface area-normalized degradation rates increased with increasing potential applied, while the process was more energy-efficient per mass unit removed at low potentials. While not all 1,4-DX was completely mineralized, the detected ring-opening intermediates are known to be readily biodegradable. Analyses of potential by-products from chloride oxidation revealed the generation of chloromethanes and perchlorate at low mg/L concentrations. Towards the end of the 8.5-month pilot test, decreasing currents and degradation rates indicated progressing passivation of the electrodes, likely due to cathodic carbonate precipitation and/or poisoning by the uniquely high organic carbon load of this source zone groundwater. The findings of our study demonstrate that electrochemical groundwater remediation is a capable approach for the treatment of persistent organic pollutants. Our pilot-scale test provides practitioners with a basis for evaluating its efficiency under site-specific conditions and collecting critical performance metrics for technology scale-up.     

海冰中侧向传播光衰减系数的解析验证

The attenuation of lateral propagating light(LPL) in sea ice was measured using an artificial light source in the Canadian Arctic during the 2007/2008 winter. The apparent attenuation coefficient μ(λ) for lateral propagating light was obtained from the measured logarithmic relative variation rate. In this study an analytical solution based on the strict optical theories is developed to validate the measured result. There is a good consistency between theoretical solution and measured data, by which a quite simple but very rigorous relationship among the light source, measurement geometry, and measured irradiance is established. The attenuation coefficients acquired by measurement and theory are the diffusion attenuation as an apparent optical property of ice, independent of the light source and shining condition. The attenuation ability of sea ice should be caused by the microstructure of sea ice, such as crystal size, ice density, brine volume, air inclusion, etc. It also includes the leak from both interfaces by directional scattering. It is verified that the measuring approach is operational and accurate to measure the attenuation of the LPL. The solution from this study did not tell the connection among the extinction and the inclusions of sea ice theoretically because of insufficient understanding.     

Artificial reef effect and fouling impacts on offshore wave power foundations and buoys – a pilot study

Little is known about the effects of offshore energy installations on the marine environment, and further research could assist in minimizing environmental risks as well as in enhancing potential positive effects on the marine environment. While biofouling on marine energy conversion devices on one hand has the potential to be an engineering concern, these structures can also affect biodiversity by functioning as artificial reefs. The Lysekil Project is a test park for wave power located at the Swedish west coast. Here, buoys acting as point absorbers on the surface are connected to generators anchored on concrete foundations on the seabed. In this study we investigated the colonisation of foundations by invertebrates and fish, as well as fouling assemblages on buoys. We examined the influence of surface orientation of the wave power foundations on epibenthic colonisation, and made observations of habitat use by fish and crustaceans during three years of submergence. We also examined fouling assemblages on buoys and calculated the effects of biofouling on the energy absorption of the wave power buoys. On foundations we demonstrated a succession in colonisation over time with a higher degree of coverage on vertical surfaces. Buoys were dominated by the blue mussel Mytilus edulis. Calculations indicated that biofouling have no significant effect in the energy absorption on a buoy working as a point absorber. This study is the first structured investigation on marine organisms associated with wave power devices.     

Diffusive and total oxygen uptake of deep-sea sediments in the eastern South Atlantic Ocean:in situ and laboratory measurements

Total O₂ uptake rates were measured by the benthic flux chamber lander ELINOR, and O₂ microprofiles were measured by the profiling lander PROFILUR in the eastern South Atlantic. Diffusive O₂ fluxes through the diffusive boundary layer and the depth distribution of O₂ consumption rates within the sediment were calculated from the obtained microprofiles. The depth integrated O₂ consumption rate agreed closely with the diffusive O₂ uptake at all stations. Total O₂ uptake was 1.2–4.2 times the diffusive O₂ uptake, and the difference correlated with the abundance of macrofauna in the sediment. Diffusive O₂ uptake and O₂-penetration depths correlated with the organic content of the sediments and exhibited an inverse correlation with water depth. Total and diffusive rates of in situ O₂ uptake were higher than previously published data for shelf and abyssal sediments in the Atlantic, but were comparable to rates from upwelling areas in the eastern Pacific. Laboratory measurements on recovered sediment cores showed lower O₂ penetration depths and higher diffusive uptake rates than in situ measurements. The differences increased with increasing water depth. We primarily ascribe this compression of O₂ profiles to a transiently increased temperature during recovery and enhanced microbial activity in decompressed sediment cores. Total O₂ uptake rates measured in the laboratory on macrofauna-rich stations were, in contrast, lower than those measured in situ because of underrepresentation and disturbance of the macrofauna.     

Concordant ages for the giant Kipushi base metal deposit (DR Congo) from direct Rb–Sr and Re–Os dating of sulfides

We report concordant ages of 451.1 ± 6.0 and 450.5 ± 3.4 Ma from direct Rb–Sr and Re–Os isochron dating, respectively, of ore-stage Zn–Cu–Ge sulfides, including sphalerite for the giant carbonate-hosted Kipushi base metal (+Ge) deposit in the Neoproterozoic Lufilian Arc, DR Congo. This is the first example of a world-class sulfide deposit being directly dated by two independent isotopic methods. The 451 Ma age for Kipushi suggests that the ore-forming solutions did not evolve from metamorphogenic fluids mobilized syntectonically during the Pan-African-Lufilian orogeny but rather were generated in a Late Ordovician postorogenic, extensional setting. The homogeneous Pb isotopic composition of the sulfides indicates that both Cu–Ge- and Zn-rich orebodies of the Kipushi deposit formed contemporaneously from the same fluid system. The sulfide Pb isotope signatures in combination with initial ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr and ¹⁸⁷Os/¹⁸⁸Os ratios defined by the isochrons point to metal sources located in the (upper) crust. The concordant Re–Os and Rb–Sr ages obtained in this study provide independent proof of the geological significance of direct Rb–Sr dating of sphalerite.