Modification of climate signals by human activities recorded in varved sediments (AD 1608–1942) of Lake Holzmaar (Germany)

Paleolimnological data from varved sediments in Lake Holzmaar (Eifel, Germany) were combined with documentary data on human activities, long-term data from the Historical Climate Database (HISKLID) for Germany and with recent monitoring data to evaluate changes in deposition that arose from climatic and human influences. The sediment data included seasonal layer thickness in an established varve chronology (1608–1942 AD), subannual chemical element counts, and multiannual organic matter data (TOC, TN, δ¹³C_org), all combined on an annual scale. Indicators for detritus deposition (lithogenic element counts and detritus layers) determined the first principal component (PC1) of the sediment data. This detritus PC1 was compared to the first PCs of the seasonal precipitation and temperature from HISKLID. While no relation was found to precipitation, the correlation with the temperature PC1 determined by spring to fall temperatures was significant. From 1608 to 1870, a positive correlation of the PCs suggests an increase of detritus deposition in the lake center with increasing non-winter temperatures. These may be linked by lake-internal sediment redeposition that increases when the periods of winter stratification become shorter and that of lake circulation longer. The detritus deposition is modulated by external detritus input depending on the intensity of erosion-conducive land use (wood pasture, wood cutting, and rotational slash-and-burn cultivation). Detritus input diminished when land use slowed down with population decrease as the consequence of plague epidemics, warfare and emigration. After 1870, forest regeneration and improving agricultural practices led to a stabilization of the catchment. Erosion and detritus deposition decreased progressively. The negative correlation of detritus deposition with the gradually increasing temperature presumably mimics a cause-effect relation, although a link with decreasing freeze–thaw action is possible. The modernization of agriculture proceeded with manuring and fertilizing, which caused an increase of lake productivity as indicated by summer blooms of diatoms with enhanced nutrient demand, increased δ¹³C_org values and sulfur concentrations. Within this well established data base we found combinations of criteria that may be used to deduce natural climatic or anthropogenic influences. The quantitative attribution of these influences remains a challenging task in paleolimnology because their interaction makes the detection of linking mechanisms difficult even at high degree of detail and the processes themselves remain debatable.     

Analysis of spatial and temporal extreme monsoonal rainfall over South Asia using complex networks

We present a detailed analysis of summer monsoon rainfall over the Indian peninsular using nonlinear spatial correlations. This analysis is carried out employing the tools of complex networks and a measure of nonlinear correlation for point processes such as rainfall, called event synchronization. This study provides valuable insights into the spatial organization, scales, and structure of the 90th and 94th percentile rainfall events during the Indian summer monsoon (June–September). We furthermore analyse the influence of different critical synoptic atmospheric systems and the impact of the steep Himalayan topography on rainfall patterns. The presented method not only helps us in visualising the structure of the extreme-event rainfall fields, but also identifies the water vapor pathways and decadal-scale moisture sinks over the region. Furthermore a simple scheme based on complex networks is presented to decipher the spatial intricacies and temporal evolution of monsoonal rainfall patterns over the last 6 decades.     

Ageing effect on the mineral and chemical composition of Opalinus Clays (Mont Terri,Switzerland) after excavation and surface storage

Samples of Opalinus Clays from Mont Terri Underground Research Laboratory in the Swiss Jura were analyzed repetitively relative to the duration of their exposure to atmosphere. The objective was the evaluation of such a progressive exposure on the chemical composition of whole-rock samples, and on the chemical and Sr isotopic compositions of leachates obtained by leaching the rock powders with dilute acetic acid. This chemical study was complemented by scanning electron microscope observations to identify the related mineral alterations. The chemical data for the rock powders remained quite constant whatever the duration of the storage, whereas significant changes were observed for the leachates. Similar changes were observed in the leachates of samples collected progressively closer to the walls of a previously excavated niche. When storage time or distance to gallery wall increases, the main variations are: (1) a progressive decrease of the element contents and of the ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratio in the leachates, (2) an alteration of pyrite followed by precipitation of Ca-sulfate in the rocks, both observed by SEM, and (3) a probable precipitation of new mineral phases in the rocks, such as Fe-oxyhydroxides and/or jarosite that could not be visualized by electron microscopic observation because of their very limited amount and very small grain size. The modifications call for an oxidation of pyrite that probably induced also an oxidation of the organic matter. It could also be shown that the reactions were enhanced by temperature increase, and that they were less pronounced in the samples behind the gallery wall than in the cores stored in laboratory conditions.     

Verification of the TSMP-assisted digisonde topside profiling technique

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the performance of the TSMP-assisted Digisonde (TaD) topside profiling technique. We present systematic comparisons between electron density profiles and TEC parameters extracted from TaD model with (a) CHAMP-derived TEC parameters, (b) CHAMP reconstructed profiles, (c) ground based GPSderived TEC parameters, and (d) profiles reconstructed from RPI/IMAGE plasmagrams. In all cases, TaD follows the general trend of plasmaspheric observations derived from the above datasets. Especially during storm cases, TaD shows remarkable agreement with the variations of the ground based GPS-derived TEC parameters. Overall, the comparison results shows that TaD method can be adopted by EURIPOS to provide the electron density distribution up to plasmaspheric heights in real-time.     

Effective Photoinactivation of Alpha‐Amylase,Catalase and Urease at 222 nm Emitted by an KrCl‐Excimer Lamp

The inactivation of enzymes is of great interest for many industrial applications. The effectiveness of photoinactivation of alpha‐amylase, catalase, and urease with 222 nm radiation was investigated in comparison to that at 254 nm. The enzymes were irradiated with different fluence rates of 222 nm radiation emitted by a KrCl‐excimer lamp and with 254 nm radiation produced by a low‐pressure mercury lamp. The relative activities were calculated before and after irradiation. Degradation caused by UV‐radiation was assessed by SDS‐PAGE analysis. The results clearly demonstrated that inactivation of the proteins is much more effective with the 222 nm excimer lamp compared to the 254 nm mercury lamp. Irradiation with the excimer lamp and a UV‐fluence rate of 1000 J/m² was sufficient to reduce the relative activities of amylase and urease to 15% and that of catalase to 60%. After irradiation with 4000 J/m², the enzyme activity was almost completely inhibited. In contrast, after irradiation with the mercury lamp with an UV‐fluence rate of 4000 J/m², the relative activity was still above 85%. The gel patterns showed no visible degradation after irradiation at 254 nm, but a strong and unspecific degradation was obvious after treatment at 222 nm, presumably caused by cleavage of the peptide bonds.     

On the application of combined geoelectric weighted inversion in environmental exploration

Geophysical surveying methods are of great importance in environmental exploration. Inversion-based data processing methods are applied for the determination of geometrical and physical parameters of the target model. The use of this geoelectric inversion method is advantageous in environmental research where highly reliable information with large spatial resolution is required. The 2D combined geoelectric inversion (CGI) method performs more accurate parameter estimation than conventional 1D single inversion methods by efficiently decreasing the number of unknowns of the inverse problem (single means that data sets of individual vertical electric sounding stations are inverted separately). The quality improvement in parameter space is demonstrated by comparing the traditional 1D inversion procedure with a 2D series expansion-based inversion technique. The CGI method was further developed by weighting individual direct current geoelectric data sets automatically in order to improve inversion results. The new algorithm was named combined geoelectric weighted inversion, which extracts the solution by a special weighted least squares technique. It is shown that the new inversion methodology is applicable to resolve near-surface structures such as rapidly varying layer boundaries, laterally inhomogeneous formations and pinch-outs.     

XMM‐Newton publication statistics

We assessed the scientific productivity of XMM‐Newton by examining XMM‐Newton publications and data usage statistics. We analyse 3272 refereed papers, published until the end of 2012, that directly use XMM‐Newton data. The SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS) was used to provide additional information on each paper including the number of citations. For each paper, the XMM‐Newton observation identifiers and instruments used to provide the scientific results were determined. The identifiers were used to access the XMM‐Newton Science Archive (XSA) to provide detailed information on the observations themselves and on the original proposals. The information obtained from these sources was then combined to allow the scientific productivity of the mission to be assessed. Since around three years after the launch of XMM‐Newton there have been around 300 refereed papers per year that directly use XMM‐Newton data. After more than 13 years in operation, this rate shows no evidence that it is decreasing. Since 2002, around 100 scientists per year become lead authors for the first time on a refereed paper which directly uses XMM‐Newton data. Each refereed XMM‐Newton paper receives around four citations per year in the first few years with a long‐term citation rate of three citations per year, more than five years after publication. About half of the articles citing XMM‐Newton articles are not primarily X‐ray observational papers. The distribution of elapsed time between observations taken under the Guest Observer programme and first article peaks at 2 years with a possible second peak at 3.25 years. Observations taken under the Target of Opportunity programme are published significantly faster, after one year on average. The fraction of science time taken until the end of 2009 that has been used in at least one article is ∼90%. Most observations were used more than once, yielding on average a factor of two in usage on available observing time per year. About 20 % of all slew observations have been used in publications. The scientific productivity of XMM‐Newton measured by the publication rate, number of new authors and citation rate, remains extremely high with no evidence that it is decreasing after more than 13 years of operations.