Implications of management strategies and vegetation change in the Mount St. Helens blast zone

The 1980 eruptions of Mount St. Helens provided an excellent opportunity for scientists to investigate the recovery of vegetation communities following a major geologic disturbance. An important and often overlooked aspect in these studies is the human factor in recovery processes, and specifically, the different management approaches taken towards re-establishment of vegetation on lands under the control of various owners. This study examines vegetation changes throughout the 1980 blast zone using a time series of Landsat-derived Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) images and change detection methods to assess the changes over 25 years, from 1980 to 2005, as a function of human management combined with ecological factors. This long-term tracking of change indicates that differences in the speed of vegetation re-establishment and consequent rates of change substantially reflect human involvement and varying management strategies.     

Clay‐coat diversity in marginal marine sediments

The specific mineralogy of clay grain coats controls the ability of the coat to inhibit quartz cementation in sandstones during prolonged burial and heating. How and why clay‐coat mineralogy varies across marginal marine systems is poorly understood, even though these eogenetic phenomena strongly influence subsequent mesodiagenesis and reservoir quality. The novel development of the ability to predict the distribution of clay‐coat mineralogy would represent an important development for sandstone reservoir quality prediction. In marginal marine sediments, clay minerals occur as grain‐coats, floccules, mud intraclasts, clay‐rich rock fragments or as dispersed material. However, the relationships between clay mineralogy, the amount of clay, and its distribution is poorly understood. This study focused on the Ravenglass Estuary, UK. The key aim was to develop and apply a novel methodology utilising scanning electron microscope – energy dispersive spectrometry, for the first time, on grain coats in modern sediments, to differentiate the clay‐coat mineral signature from that of the bulk sediment, and reveal the distribution of clay minerals across marginal marine sediments. The study showed that marginal marine sediments principally have their clay mineral assemblage present as clay‐coats on sand grains. These clay‐coats have a mixed clay mineralogy and are spatially heterogeneous across the range of marginal‐marine depositional environments. The study further showed that clay‐coat mineralogy is governed initially by the hydrologically‐controlled segregation of the clay minerals within inner estuarine depositional environments, and subsequently by the selective abrasive removal of specific clay mineral types during reworking and transport into the outer estuary and the marine environment. The highest relative abundance of grain‐coating chlorite was in sand‐flat and tidal‐bar depositional environments. The availability of an analogue data set, and an understanding of the controlling processes of clay‐coat mineralogy, offer crucial steps in building a predictive capability for clay‐coat derived elevated reservoir quality in deeply buried sandstones.     

The role of in situ stress in determining hydraulic connectivity in a fractured rock aquifer (Australia)

Fracture network connectivity is a spatially variable property that is difficult to quantify from standard hydrogeological datasets. This critical property is related to the distributions of fracture density, orientation, dimensions, intersections, apertures and roughness. These features that determine the inherent connectivity of a fracture network can be modified by secondary processes including weathering, uplift and unloading and other mechanisms that lead to fracture deformation in response to in situ stress. This study focussed on a fractured rock aquifer in the Clare Valley, South Australia, and found that fracture network connectivity could be discriminated from several geological, geophysical and hydrogeological field datasets at various scales including single well and local- to regional-scale data. Representative hydromechanical models of the field site were not only consistent with field observations but also highlighted the strong influence of in situ stress in determining the distribution of fracture hydraulic apertures and the formation of hydraulic chokes that impede fluid flow. The results of this multi-disciplinary investigation support the notion that the hydraulic conductivity of a fracture network is limited to the least hydraulically conductive interconnected fractures, which imposes a physical limit on the bulk hydraulic conductivity of a fractured rock aquifer.     

Partially to fully saturated flow through smooth,clean, open fractures: qualitative experimental studies

Fractures are both rough and irregular but can be expressed by a simple model concept of two smooth parallel plates and the associated cubic law governing discharge through saturated fractures. However, in natural conditions and in the intermediate vadose zone, these assumptions are likely violated. This paper presents a qualitative experimental study investigating the cubic law under variable saturation in initially dry free-draining discrete fractures. The study comprised flow visualisation experiments conducted on transparent replicas of smooth parallel plates with inlet conditions of constant pressure and differing flow rates over both vertical and horizontal inclination. Flow conditions were altered to investigate the influence of intermittent and continuous influx scenarios. Findings from this research proved, for instance, that saturated laminar flow is not likely achieved, especially in nonhorizontal fractures. In vertical fractures, preferential flow occupies the minority of cross-sectional area despite the water supply. Movement of water through the fractured vadose zone therefore becomes a matter of the continuity principle, whereby water should theoretically be transported downward at significantly higher flow rates given the very low degree of water saturation. Current techniques that aim to quantify discrete fracture flow, notably at partial saturation, are questionable. Inspired by the results of this study, it is therefore hypothetically improbable to achieve saturation in vertical fractures under free-draining wetting conditions. It does become possible under extremely excessive water inflows or when not free-draining; however, the converse is not true, as a wet vertical fracture can be drained.     

Nitrate sources and sinks in Elkhorn Slough,California: Results from long-term continuous in situ nitrate analyzers

Nitrate and water quality parameters (temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, and depth) were measured continuously with in situ NO₃ analyzers and water quality sondes at two sites in Elkhorn Slough in Central California. The Main Channel site near the mouth of Elkhorn Slough was sampled from February to September 2001. Azevedo Pond, a shallow tidal pond bordering agricultural fields further inland, was sampled from December 1999 to July 2001. Nitrate concentrations were recorded hourly while salinity, temperature, depth, oxygen, and turbidity were recorded every 30 min. Nitrate concentrations at the Main Channel site ranged from 5 to 65 μM. The propagation of an internal wave carrying water from ≈100 m depth up the Monterey Submarine Canyon and into the lower section of Elkhorn Slough on every rising tide was a major source of nitrate, accounting for 80–90% of the nitrogen load during the dry summer period. Nitrate concentrations in Azevedo Pond ranged from 0–20 μM during the dry summer months. Nitrate in Azevedo Pond increased to over 450 μM during a heavy winter precipitation event, and interannual variability driven by differences in precipitation was observed. At both sites, tidal cycling was the dominant forcing, often changing nitrate concentrations by 5-fold or more within a few hours. Water volume flux estimates were combined with observed nitrate concentrations to obtain nitrate fluxes. Nitrate flux calculations indicated a loss of 4 mmol NO₃ m^?2 d^?1 for the entire Elkhorn Slough and 1 mmol NO₃ m^?2 d^?1 at Azevedo Pond. These results suggested that the waters of Elkhorn Slough were not a major source of nitrate to Monterey Bay but actually a nitrate sink during the dry season. The limited winter data at the Main Channel site suggest that nitrate was exported from Elkhorn Slough during the wet season. Export of ammonium or dissolved organic nitrogen, which we did not monitor, may balance some or all of the NO₃ flux.     

Transformative left-wing parties’ and grassroots organizations: Unpacking the politics of “top-down” and “bottom-up” development

Academic analyses of the potential for agents to transform development processes have been dominated by social movement theorists who focus on the prospects for creating an alternative to development that challenges the status quo. This has downplayed the role of political parties in the transformation process. This article takes the South African Communist Party (SACP) as a unit of analysis by drawing from a case study in Alexandra township, Johannesburg, where the local SACP has assisted with mobilizing a community-based organization in an informal settlement called S’swetla where the ruling African National Congress (ANC) purportedly imposed development onto residents. The local SACP viewed its intervention as pro-poor and bottom-up. It appeared initially to offer a transformative alternative to the official approach taken by the Alexandra Development Forum (ADF), an invited participatory space adopted by the Alexandra Renewal Project (ARP) – a flagship project of the ANC. This paper uses this example to problematize the simplistic dichotomy between top-down and bottom-up development in the context of a political party that claims to be committed to pro-poor and people-driven development. In doing so, it argues that theorists must pay closer empirical attention to the politics of both invited and invented participatory spaces in order to understand the implications that this has for transforming development.     

Testing the ‘two water worlds’ hypothesis under variable preferential flow conditions

Widespread observations of ecohydrological separation are interpreted by suggesting that water flowing through highly conductive soil pores resists mixing with matrix storage over periods of days to months (i.e., two ‘water worlds’ exist). These interpretations imply that heterogeneous flow can produce ecohydrological separation in soils, yet little mechanistic evidence exists to explain this phenomenon. We quantified the separation between mobile water moving through preferential flow paths versus less mobile water remaining in the soil matrix after free-drainage to identify the amount of preferential flow necessary to maintain a two water world's scenario. Soil columns of varying macropore structure were subjected to simulated rainfall of increasing rainfall intensity (26 mm h⁻¹, 60 mm h⁻¹, and 110 mm h⁻¹) whose stable isotope signatures oscillated around known baseline values. Prior to rainfall, soil matrix water δ²H nearly matched the known value used to initially wet the pore space whereas soil δ¹⁸O deviated from this value by up to 3.4‰, suggesting that soils may strongly fractionate ¹⁸O. All treatments had up to 100% mixing between rain and matrix water under the lowest (26 mm h⁻¹) and medium (60 mm h⁻¹) rainfall intensities. The highest rainfall intensity (110 mm h⁻¹), however, reduced mixing of rain and matrix water for all treatments and produced significantly different preferential flow estimates between columns with intact soil structure compared to columns with reduced soil structure. Further, artificially limiting exchange between preferential flow paths and matrix water reduced bypass flow under the most intense rainfall. We show that (1) precipitation offset metrics such as lc-excess and d-excess may yield questionable interpretations when used to identify ecohydrological separation, (2) distinct domain separation may require extreme rainfall intensities and (3) domain exchange is an important component of macropore flow.     

Improving the recreational value of Ireland's coastal resources: A contingent behavioural application

This paper measures willingness to pay (WTP) for public access to additional beach area and trail improvements to a coastal recreational site in the west of Ireland. The Contingent Behaviour model is used to measure the increased number of trips associated with improved public access using a connecting trail between two beach areas along a stretch of Irish coastline. Results show that improving access through the use of the connecting trail increases consumer surplus by €111.15 per person per annum. It is argued that in designing new regulation such as Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) for the management of Ireland's coastline, an understanding of the values the Irish public place on coastal recreational access will be important to manage the resource in a sustainable manner.     

Partitioning of metals (Fe,Pb, Cu,Zn) in urban run‐off from the Kaikorai Valley,Dunedin, New Zealand

Urban run‐off from a catchment in Dunedin, New Zealand was sampled and chemically characterised (iron (Fe), lead (Pb), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn) in total and <0.4 (im fractions, suspended solids, nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), dissolved organic carbon, major ions, pH) during base flows, and storm flows from five rainfall events. Fe and Pb were found to be predominantly particle‐associated (>0.4 μm) and their concentrations increased significantly at the beginning of storm run‐off. In contrast, the majority of Cu and Zn was found in the <0.4μm fraction before rainfall events but during the initial period of storm flows a significant proportion of Cu and Zn was also present in the >0.4 μm fraction. The results indicate that Cu and Zn may be more bio‐available, and more difficult to remove by storm‐water treatment, than Pb. The pH level and the concentration of major ions (Ca⁺², Na⁺, Mg⁺², K⁺), dissolved reactive phosphorus, and nitrate generally decreased during storm flows as a result of dilution by rainwater. Concentrations of total N and P often increased during the initial period of storm run‐off, which was likely because of wash‐off of particulate plant material.