The neighborhood effects of foreclosure

Neighborhood quality is an important attribute of housing yet its value is rarely known to researchers. We argue that changes in nearby foreclosures reveal changes in neighborhood quality. Thus estimates of the hedonic price of nearby foreclosures provide a glimpse of values that people hold for local neighborhood quality. The empirical models include controls for both spatial dependence in housing prices and in the errors. The estimates indicate that nearby foreclosures produce externalities that are capitalized into home prices—an additional foreclosure within 250 feet of a sale negatively impacts selling price by approximately $1,666, ceteris paribus.     

High precision radial velocities of southern solar-type stars by cross-correlation

A system for obtaining high-precision radial velocities of solar-type stars by spectral cross-correlation has been established at the Mt John University Observatory. The use of a fibre-feed between the telescope and échelle spectrograph has enabled a stability such that we can achieve a precision of better than 50 m s^–1.A programme of radial-velocity observations of 29 southern solar-type stars—of which two are IAU radial velocity standard stars—is under way with the prime objective being a search for low-mass companions to the stars. Ten further IAU radial-velocity standard stars are also being monitored.     

Hydromechanical behavior during constant-rate pumping tests in fractured gneiss

Deformation and fluid pressure during constant-rate pumping tests were characterized by sensitivity analyses using a theoretical model of a deformable fracture, and by conducting and analyzing field tests at a site underlain by fractured biotite gneiss in western South Carolina, USA. The sensitivity analysis indicates that displacement is a hysteretic function of fluid pressure during constant-rate pumping tests, and the signals are affected by properties of the fracture (normal stiffness, aperture, and heterogeneities in the fracture plane) and enveloping rock (elastic modulus and permeability). The field tests used a removable borehole extensometer to measure axial displacements in the pumping well. The field results are generally similar to simulations, and the hydraulic and mechanical properties obtained by inversion of the pumping test results are essentially the same as results from hydromechanical slug tests. The observed displacements early in the pumping tests are less than, whereas late in the test they are greater than predicted values assuming a uniform fracture. This difference can be explained as a consequence of preferential flow within the fracture. These results indicate that displacements in a wellbore are sensitive to details of fracture connectivity and preferential flow that are difficult to detect through the pressure signal alone.     

From mass‐wasting to slope stabilization – putting constrains on a tectonically induced transition in slope erosion mode: a case study in the Judea Hills,Israel

Calcrete‐coated remnants of landslide debris and alluvial deposits are exposed along the presently stable hillslopes of the Soreq drainage, Judea Hills, Israel. These remnants indicate that a transition from landslide‐dominated terrain to dissolution‐controlled hillslope erosion had occurred. This transition possibly occurred due to the significant decrease in tectonic uplift during the late Cenozoic. The study area is characterized by sub‐humid Mediterranean climate. The drainage hillslopes are typically mantled by thick calcrete crusts overlying Upper Cretaceous marine carbonate rocks. Using TT‐OSL dating of aeolian quartz grains incorporated in the calcrete which cements an ancient landslide deposit, we conclude that incision of ~100 m occurred from 1056 ± 262 to 688 ± 86 ka due to ~0·3° westward tilt of the region; such incision invoked high frequency of landslide activity in the drainage. The ages of a younger landslide remnant, alluvial terrace, and alluvial fan, all situated only a few meters above the present level of the active streambed, range between 688 ± 86 ka and 244 ± 25 ka and indicate that since 688 ± 86 the Soreq base level had stabilized and that landslide activity decreased significantly by the middle Pleistocene. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Reflections on a Vision for Integrated Research and Monitoring After 15 Years

In May of 1998, Owen Bricker and his co-author Michael Ruggiero introduced a conceptual design for integrating the Nation’s environmental research and monitoring programs. The Framework for Integrated Monitoring and Related Research was an organizing strategy for relating data collected by various programs, at multiple spatial and temporal scales, and by multiple science disciplines to solve complex ecological issues that individual research or monitoring programs were not designed to address. The concept nested existing intensive monitoring and research stations within national and regional surveys, remotely sensed data, and inventories to produce a collaborative program for multi-scale, multi-network integrated environmental monitoring and research. Analyses of gaps in data needed for specific issues would drive decisions on network improvements or enhancements. Data contributions to the Framework from existing networks would help indicate critical research and monitoring programs to protect during budget reductions. Significant progress has been made since 1998 on refining the Framework strategy. Methods and models for projecting scientific information across spatial and temporal scales have been improved, and a few regional pilots of multi-scale data-integration concepts have been attempted. The links between science and decision-making are also slowly improving and being incorporated into science practice. Experiments with the Framework strategy since 1998 have revealed the foundational elements essential to its successful implementation, such as defining core measurements, establishing standards of data collection and management, integrating research and long-term monitoring, and describing baseline ecological conditions. They have also shown us the remaining challenges to establishing the Framework concept: protecting and enhancing critical long-term monitoring, filling gaps in measurement methods, improving science for decision support, and integrating the disparate integrated science efforts now underway. In the 15 years since the Bricker and Ruggiero (Ecol Appl 8(2):326–329, 1998) paper challenged us with a new paradigm for bringing sound and comprehensive science to environmental decisions, the scientific community can take pride in the progress that has been made, while also taking stock of the challenges ahead for completing the Framework vision.     

Origin of epithermal Ag–Au–Cu–Pb–Zn mineralization in Guanajuato, Mexico

The Guanajuato epithermal district is one of the largest silver producers in Mexico. Mineralization occurs along three main vein systems trending dominantly northwest–southeast: the central Veta Madre, the La Luz system to the northwest, and the Sierra system to the east. Mineralization consists dominantly of silver sulfides and sulfosalts, base metal sulfides (mostly chalcopyrite, galena, sphalerite, and pyrite), and electrum. There is a broad zonation of metal distribution, with up to 10 % Cu+Pb+Zn in the deeper mines along the northern and central portions of the Veta Madre. Ore occurs in banded veins and breccias and as stockworks, with gangue composed dominantly of quartz and calcite. Host rocks are Mesozoic sedimentary and intrusive igneous rocks and Tertiary volcanic rocks. Most fluid inclusion homogenization temperatures are between 200 and 300 °C, with salinities below 4 wt.% NaCl equivalent. Fluid temperature and salinity decreased with time, from 290 to 240 °C and from 2.5 to 1.1 wt.% NaCl equivalent. Relatively constant fluid inclusion liquid-to-vapor ratios and a trend of decreasing salinity with decreasing temperature and with increasing time suggest dilution of the hydrothermal solutions. However, evidence of boiling (such as quartz and calcite textures and the presence of adularia) is noted along the Veta Madre, particularly at higher elevations. Fluid inclusion and mineralogical evidence for boiling of metal-bearing solutions is found in gold-rich portions of the eastern Sierra system; this part of the system is interpreted as the least eroded part of the district. Oxygen, carbon, and sulfur isotope analysis of host rocks, ore, and gangue minerals and fluid inclusion contents indicate a hydrothermal fluid, with an initial magmatic component that mixed over time with infiltrating meteoric water and underwent exchange with host rocks. Mineral deposition was a result of decreasing activities of sulfur and oxygen, decreasing temperature, increasing pH, and, in places, boiling.     

Hydrogeology of the vicinity of Homestake mine, South Dakota, USA

The former Homestake mine in South Dakota (USA) cuts fractured metamorphic rock over a region several km² in plan, and plunges to the SE to a depth of 2.4 km. Numerical simulations of the development and dewatering of the mine workings are based on idealizing the mine-workings system as two overlapping continua, one representing the open drifts and the other representing the host rock with hydrologic properties that vary with effective stress. Equating macroscopic hydrologic properties with characteristics of deformable fractures allows the number of parameters to be reduced, and it provides a physically based justification for changes in properties with depth. The simulations explain important observations, including the co-existence of shallow and deep flow systems, the total dewatering flow rate, the spatial distribution of in-flow, and the magnitude of porosity in the mine workings. The analysis indicates that a deep flow system induced by ~125 years of mining is contained within a surface-truncated ellipsoid roughly 8 km by 4 km in plan view and 5.5 km deep with its long-axis aligned to the strike of the workings. Groundwater flow into the southern side of the workings is characterized by short travel times from the ground surface, whereas flow into the northern side and at depth consists of old water removed from storage.     

Rapid shipboard identification and enumeration of pelagic marine fish eggs by a simple photographic technique (note)

A technique is described for obtaining rapid high‐quality silhouette photographs of plankton samples at sea. This technique was designed to facilitate identification and enumeration of pelagic marine fish eggs in near real‐time. It uses readily available photographic materials and unlike previously described techniques, the silhouettes are recorded directly on to photographic paper rather than film. The resolution is adequate for microscopic measurements. Examples are presented from a cruise off Westland, New Zealand, which investigated the distribution of hoki eggs.