The rates and spatial patterns of annual riverbank erosion revealed through terrestrial laser‐scanner surveys of the South River,Virginia

Between a.d. 2006 and 2008, we completed annual surveys of two mercury‐contaminated eroding banks, one forested and the other grass covered, along the gravel‐bed, bedrock South River in Virginia. Gridded digital terrain models with a resolution of 0·05 m were created from bank topography data collected using a terrestrial laser scanner. Model comparisons indicate that the forested bank retreated nearly 1 m around two leaning trees, while elsewhere the extent of bank retreat was negligible. On the grassy bank, retreat was controlled by the creation of small overhanging clumps of turf at the top of the bank, their occasional failure, and the ultimate removal of failed debris from the bank toe. Partial autocorrelation analysis of vertically integrated bank retreat demonstrates that bank profile erosion is virtually uncorrelated at horizontal distances greater than about 1 m on both banks, a length scale of approximately half the bank height. This extensive streamwise variability suggests that widely spaced profile data cannot adequately represent bank erosion at these sites. Additional analysis of our comprehensive spatial data also indicates that traditional bank profile surveys with any spacing greater than 1 m would result in measurement errors exceeding 10%, an important conclusion for assessing annual rates of mercury loading into the South River from bank erosion. Our results suggest that three‐dimensional gridded bare‐earth models of bank topography may be required to accurately measure annual bank retreat in similar river systems. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Relational Agriculture: Gender,Sexuality, and Sustainability in U.S. Farming

Although 97% of U.S. farms are “family-owned,” little research examines how gender and sexual relationships – inherent in familial dynamics – influence farmers’ practices and livelihoods. Gender and sexual dynamics – shaped by race and class – affect who is considered a farmer, land management decisions, and access to resources like land, subsidies, and knowledge. We use feminist and queer lenses to illuminate how today’s agricultural gender and sexual relations are not “natural,” but when left uninterrogated are constructed in ways that harm women and queer farmers while limiting potential to develop sustainable practices. Women and queer farmers also resist, “re-orienting” gender and sexual relations in ways that expand possibilities for achieving food justice and ecological sustainability. We offer “relational agriculture” as a tool for making visible and re-orienting gender and sexual relations on farms. Relational agriculture brings sexuality into food justice and demonstrates the centrality of gender and sexuality to agricultural sustainability.     

Magmatism in the eastern Aleutian Arc: temporal characteristic of igneous activity on Akutan Island

Lavas from Akutan Island, located in the eastern Aleutian arc at the transition between continental and oceanic crust, show a gradual change in their petrologic and chemical characteristics over the last 4 million years. The oldest lavas exposed on the island, the Hot Springs Bay Volcanics (HSBV), range from magnesian basalt to dacite (45%–62% SiO₂). The most mafic basalts contain salitic clinopyroxene, Cr- and Al-rich spinel, and pargasitic amphibole suggesting that they were derived from relatively hydrous magmas at greater pressures than lavas from the younger Akutan Volcanics (AKV) and the modern volcano (MOD). AKV lavas also range between basalt and dacite (46%–63% SiO₂), but contain no hydrous phenocrysts and seem to have fractionated within a shallow level magma chamber. Lavas from the modern volcano are andesitic (52%–57% SiO₂) and have a mineral assemblage similar to that of AKV lavas of similar composition. With the exception of clinopyroxene and spinel in the most mafic lavas, the compositions of plagioclase (An_92?45), olivine (Fo_88?51), orthopyroxene (En_69?56), and titanomagnetite (15%–21% TiO₂) phenocrysts found in these lavas are within the range observed in lavas from other Aleutian volcanoes. Variations in the major element chemistry of the older lavas can be reproduced by fractional crystallization of the observed mineral assemblages, however closed system crystal fractionation models are inadequate to explain the trace element variations. During the last 4 million years, La/Yb ratios have decreased (6.5–3.3 for HSBV lavas and 2.9–1.9 for MOD lavas) whereas Ba/La ratios appear to have increased slightly (37–43 for HSBV and AKV, and 41–45 of MOD). The lower La/Yb ratios of MOD lavas correspond with lower total abundances of the REE and slightly higher Sr and Pb isotopic ratios. The increased⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios and Pb isotopic ratios in the MOD lavas, the less enriched LREE, and the higher Ba/La ratios may result from partial melting of an arc source which has experienced previous melting events but has continued to be contaminated by a component from the subducting slab. It may also indicate a change in the degree of partial melting of the underlying mantle, which corresponds to a different percentage of a slab derived component being incorporated into the overlying mantle.     

‘Development’, resistance and the geographies of affect in Oecussi: Timor‐Leste's Special Economic Zone (ZEESM)

In 2013, it was announced that Timor‐Leste's Oecussi enclave would become the site of a special economic zone. Arid, and inhabited mostly by semi‐subsistence farmers from West Timor's Meto ethno‐linguistic group, the plan entails remaking the enclave as an industrial, transport and tourism hub. To facilitate this, in mid‐2015 the authorities began the process of clearing hundreds of indigenous gardens and homes from land slated for mega‐projects intended to make the region attractive to foreign investors. In this paper, I describe how, for many Meto, land tends to be experienced as a spiritually mediated ‘geography of affect’ (Lea & Woodward, 2010) in which questions of place, belonging, spirituality and personal fortune cannot easily be divided, a reality that raises questions about the suitability of the plan's vision of globalized and investment driven ‘development’. Drawing on Scott, I argue that in Oecussi, spirits associated with the land are not apolitical, but are sometimes perceived as acting to protect locals against powerful outsiders – a characteristically Meto ‘weapon of the weak’ that is in keeping with their previous encounters with colonial regimes.     

Residual currents in juan de Fuca strait

Abstract

We examine the residual (non‐tidal) flow in Juan de Fuca Strait on the west coast of Canada using current and bottom pressure data collected on cross‐channel sections in the summers of 1975 and 1984. A positive estuarine circulation was evident in both sections but was better defined at the mid‐strait section than at the outer section near the mouth of the strait. Magnitudes of the volume transports in both the upper and lower layers of the channel ranged from ～ 0.25 X 10 m s at the mid‐strait section to ～ 0.15 X 10 m s～ at the outer section. The method of geostrophic levelling (Garrett and Pétrie, 1981; Pétrie et al, 1988) is used to determine the relationship between the daily averaged long‐strait velocity component and the cross‐strait pressure difference. A statistically significant relationship, consistent with a cross‐strait geostrophic balance, is obtained between the time series of shallow currents and shallow bottom pressures at the mid‐strait section. The deep currents and cross‐strait pressure differences were correlated at both sections but, because of the placement of the pressure gauges and/or ageostrophic effects such as bottom friction, were not related through a simple geostrophic balance. Cross‐spectral analysis and the calculation of the current amplitude ratios (square root of the energy ratio between the deep and shallow currents) are used to examine the baroclinicity of the flow as a function of frequency. Results suggest that flow variability in Juan de Fuca Strait is strongly baroclinic and has marked cross‐channel structure throughout the low‐frequency band.     

Particulate pollution monitoring in the Elefsis Gulf: The role of mineral magnetic studies

Measurements of ‘quadrature’ susceptibility (X_q) at low and high frequency on seabottom sediments of the Gulf of Elefsis supplement the results derived from the study of magnetic susceptibility (X) and saturation isothermal remanent magnetization (SIRM) (Scoullos et al., 1979) and make possible the distinction between the background soil erosional fraction and that of anthropogenic combustion origin. New devices speed up the on-site appraisal of the impact of discharges on marine sediment quality.     

Stable Isotope Ratios: Hurricane Olivia

The oxygen and hydrogen isotopic compositions of rains from HurricaneOlivia (1994) in the eastern Pacific were measured. The rains werecollected on 24 and 25 September during airplane flights conducted at anelevation of 3 km. Hurricane Olivia peaked in intensity to a category-4storm between the two dates. Isotope ratios of rains from HurricaneOlivia were markedly lower ( ¹⁸O = –13.9to –28.8) than that of rain collected from a thunderstormat an elevation of 2.3 km outside the influence of Olivia (¹⁸O = –3.8). A distinct decrease in isotoperatios from the first day to the next ( ¹⁸O =–18.4 to –21.9) in Hurricane Olivia wasattributed to decreased updraft velocities and outflow aloft. Thisshifted the isotopic water mass balance so that fewer hydrometeors werelifted and more ice descended to flight level. A decrease in the averagedeuterium excess from the first day to the next (d = 15.5 to 7.1)was attributed to an increase in the relative humidity of the watervapor `source' area. We hypothesize that the `source' region for therain was in the boundary layer near the storm center and that becausethe hurricane was at peak intensity prior to the second day the relative humidity was higher.     

Macrofauna Communities in the Eastern Mediterranean Deep Sea

Abstract. During two expeditions with RV ‘Meteor’ in summer 1993 and winter 1997/98 the structural and functional diversity of the benthic system of the highly oligotrophic eastern Mediterranean deep sea was investigated. The macrofauna communities were dominated by polychaetes even at the deepest stations. The fauna at shallow stations was dominated by surface deposit feeders, whereas subsurface deposit feeders and predators generally increased with depth. A high percentage of suspension‐feeding Porifera was found in the Levantine Basin. Mean abundance and number of taxa of both expeditions were significantly correlated to depth and distance to the nearest coast as well as to the total organic carbon (TOC) content in sediments. Numbers of taxa and abundance decreased generally with depth, although lowest numbers were not found at the deepest stations but in the extremely oligotrophic Levantine and Ierapetra Basin. Biomass measured during the second cruise was extremely low in the Ierapetra Basin and comparable to other extreme oligotrophic seas. The significant correlations found for TOC contents and macrofauna with distance to coast during both expeditions apparently reflect the role of hydrographically governed transport of organic matter produced in coastal regions into greater and extreme depths of the Mediterranean Sea. Seasonal differences in macrofauna communities due to seasonal differences in food supply were not found. However, recent large‐scale hydrographic changes (Eastern Mediterranean Transient, EMT) might change the oligotrophy and, thus, the structure of the benthic communities in the Eastern Mediterranean deep sea.     

Observations of shocked [FeII] and H2 line profiles in orion bullet wakes

Recent near-IR imaging of the Orion molecular cloud has revealed a complex of dense bullets, visible as [FeII] emitting HH-objects at the tips of H₂ wakes, ejected explosively from the cloud core. Having resolved individual bow-shock structures for the first time in this bright source, we have observed [FeII] 1.644µm velocity profiles of selected bullets and H₂ 1-0 S(1), 2.122µm velocity profiles for a series of positions along and across the corresponding bow-shock wakes. We present observed profiles for the bullet M42 HH1 and its associated wake and compare with theoretical bow-shock models.