Changes in sediment and organic carbon accumulation in a highly-disturbed ecosystem: The Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta (California, USA)

We used the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta CA (Delta, hereafter) as a model system for understanding how human activities influence the delivery of sediment and total organic carbon (TOC) over the past 50–60 years. Sediment cores were collected from sites within the Delta representing the Sacramento River (SAC), the San Joaquin River (SJR), and Franks Tract (FT), a flooded agricultural tract. A variety of anthropogenic tracers including ¹³⁷Cs, total DDE (∑DDE) and brominated diphenyl ether (BDE) congeners were used to quantify sediment accumulation rates. This information was combined with total organic carbon (TOC) profiles to quantify rates of TOC accumulation. Across the three sites, sediment and TOC accumulation rates were four to eight-fold higher prior to 1972. Changes in sediment and TOC accumulation were coincident with completion of several large reservoirs and increased agriculture and urbanization in the Delta watershed. Radiocarbon content of TOC indicated that much of the carbon delivered to the Delta is “pre-aged” reflecting processing in the Delta watershed or during transport to the sites rather than an input of predominantly contemporary carbon (e.g., 900–1400 years BP in surface sediments and 2200 yrs BP and 3610 yrs BP at the base of the SJR and FT cores, respectively). Together, these data suggest that human activities have altered the amount and age of TOC accumulating in the Delta since the 1940s.     

Sensitivity of post‐hurricane beach and dune recovery to event frequency

The recovery of Santa Rosa Island in northwest Florida is characterized following Hurricane Katrina (September 2005), which was preceded by Hurricanes Ivan (2004) and Dennis (2005). Beach and dune recovery were quantified to the east and west of Pensacola Beach through a comparison of LiDAR data collected immediately following Hurricane Katrina and in July 2006 after almost a year of recovery. East of Pensacola Beach (the Santa Rosa Unit), the shoreline retreated by an average of 64 m during the 2004–2005 hurricane season and recovered by an average of 19 m. To the west of Pensacola Beach (the Fort Pickens Unit), the shoreline retreated by an average of 30 m, and while no significant shoreface recovery was observed, the presence of vegetation on low‐profile dunes promoted backshore accretion. It is found that beachface recovery in the Santa Rosa Unit and backshore accretion in the Fort Pickens Unit occurred at the widest sections of the island where the pre‐storm profile volume had been relatively large and overwash penetration was at a minimum. The narrow sections of the island (between cuspate headlands) had a smaller profile volume before the storms, leading to greater overwash penetration and in some cases island breaching in both sections, which limited the volume of sediment available for shoreface recovery. The alongshore variation in recovery is not only related to the island width, but also the offshore bathymetry, height of the pre‐storm dunes and the overwash penetration. If sufficient time is allowed for the return of vegetation and the recovery of the dunes, the variations in storm impact observed during Hurricane Ivan will be reinforced during subsequent storms. In this respect, the level of impact during subsequent storms and the ability of the island to recover will depend on the frequency of storm events. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Atmospheric Electrification in Dusty,Reactive Gases in the Solar System and Beyond

Detailed observations of the solar system planets reveal a wide variety of local atmospheric conditions. Astronomical observations have revealed a variety of extrasolar planets none of which resembles any of the solar system planets in full. Instead, the most massive amongst the extrasolar planets, the gas giants, appear very similar to the class of (young) brown dwarfs which are amongst the oldest objects in the Universe. Despite this diversity, solar system planets, extrasolar planets and brown dwarfs have broadly similar global temperatures between 300 and 2500 K. In consequence, clouds of different chemical species form in their atmospheres. While the details of these clouds differ, the fundamental physical processes are the same. Further to this, all these objects were observed to produce radio and X-ray emissions. While both kinds of radiation are well studied on Earth and to a lesser extent on the solar system planets, the occurrence of emissions that potentially originate from accelerated electrons on brown dwarfs, extrasolar planets and protoplanetary disks is not well understood yet. This paper offers an interdisciplinary view on electrification processes and their feedback on their hosting environment in meteorology, volcanology, planetology and research on extrasolar planets and planet formation.     

Communicating geomorphology: global challenges for the twenty‐first century

The British Society for Geomorphology (BSG), established as the British Geomorphological Research Group (BGRG) in 1960, is considering how best to represent geomorphology and geomorphologists in the light of recent changes in the nature of communication. These changes provide the BSG and other academic societies with challenges and opportunities. Seven drivers of communication change are outlined: the changing position of geomorphology in higher education, the nature of academic interaction, the means of communication available, a transformation in the nature of geomorphological research, changes in funding support, the government role in resource allocation, and developments in quantifying international research impact. Challenges arising from changing communications are identified as occurring beyond the ‘academy’, in the nature of publication within the ‘academy’, and associated with meetings of the ‘academy’. Although national societies now have to contemplate significantly different purposes to provide for their members than in the twentieth century, there are opportunities available that cannot be fulfilled by international organizations alone. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Ecomorphodynamics of rivers with converging boundaries

Many rivers worldwide show converging sections where a characteristic limiting front for vegetation establishment on gravel bars is observed. An important conceptual model was advanced in 2006 by Gurnell and Petts, who demonstrated that for the convergent section of the Tagliamento River the downstream front of vegetation establishment can be explained by unit stream power. We introduce a theoretical framework based on 1D ecomorphodynamic equations modified to account for the biological dynamics of vegetation. We obtain the first analytical result explaining the position and river width where vegetation density is expected to vanish in relation to a characteristic streamflow magnitude and both hydraulic and biological parameters. We apply our model to a controlled experiment within a convergent flume channel with growing seedlings perturbed by periodic floods. For a range of timescales where hydrological and biological processes interact, we observe the formation of a front in the convergent section beyond which vegetation cannot survive, the location of which is explained by flow magnitude. This experiment confirms that the timescales of the involved processes and the unit stream power determine the existence and the position of the front within convergent river reaches, respectively. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Two species of microcracks

We identify two interrelated but independent species of microcracks with differentorigins and different distributions. One species is the classic high-stress microcracksidentified in laboratory stress-cells associated with acoustic emissions as microcracks openwith increasing stress. The other species is the low-stress distributions of closely-spacedstress-aligned fluid-saturated microcracks that observations of shear-wave splitting （SWS）demonstrate pervade almost all in situ rocks in the upper crust, the lower crust, and theuppermost 400 km of the mantle. On some occasions these two sets of microcracks may beinterrelated and similar （hence ＇species＇） but they typically have fundamentally-differentproperties, different distributions, and different implications. The importance for hydrocarbonexploration and recovery is that SWS in hydrocarbon reservoirs monitors crack alignmentsand preferred directions of fluid-flow. The importance for earthquake seismology is that SWSabove small earthquakes monitors the effects of increasing stress on the pervasive low-stressmicrocrack distributions so that stress-accumulation before, possibly distant, earthquakes canbe recognised and impendin~ earthquakes stress-forecast.     

The territorial integrity of Iraq, 2003-2007: Invocation, violation, viability

This paper considers the ways in which Iraq’s territorial integrity has been invoked by the international community, how it was violated by the US-led coalition between 2003 and 2007, and how these acts have called into question the future viability of the Iraqi state. The paper contends that Iraq provides an instructive illustration of how the international legal term of territorial integrity is being pulled apart; where the spatial extent of the state must be preserved at all costs, yet the sovereignty of the state is rendered entirely contingent. Using interviews with key actors within the British context and documentary analysis, this paper examines the political situation in Iraq and the content of the new Iraqi constitution, the rise of factionalism within Iraq, and the report of the Iraq Study Group. In doing so it considers the impact of key decisions concerning Iraq’s sovereignty upon the future viability of the state.     

Cosmogenic 21Ne analysis of individual detrital grains: Opportunities and limitations

We use a numerical model describing cosmogenic nuclide acquisition in sediment moving through the upper Gaub River catchment to evaluate the extent to which aspects of source area geomorphology and geomorphological processes can be inferred from frequency distributions of cosmogenic ²¹Ne (²¹Ne_c) concentrations in individual detrital grains. The numerical model predicts the pathways of sediment grains from their source to the outlet of the catchment and calculates the total ²¹Ne_c concentration that each grain acquires along its pathway. The model fully accounts for variations in nuclide production due to changes in latitude, altitude and topographic shielding and allows for spatially variable erosion and sediment transport rates. Model results show that the form of the frequency distribution of ²¹Ne_c concentrations in exported sediment is sensitive to the range and spatial distribution of processes operating in the sediment's source areas and that this distribution can be used to infer the range and spatial distribution of erosion rates that characterise the catchment. The results also show that lithology can affect the form of the ²¹Ne_c concentration distribution indirectly by exerting control on the spatial pattern of denudation in a catchment. Model results further indicate that the form of the distribution of ²¹Ne_c concentrations in the exported sediment can also be affected by the acquisition of ²¹Ne_c after detachment from bedrock, in the diffusive (hillslope) and/or advective (fluvial) domains. However, for such post‐detachment nuclide acquisition to be important, this effect needs to at least equal the nuclide acquisition prior to detachment from bedrock. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley and Sons, Ltd.     

地震能够应力预测

1997年Geller等人曾发表"地震不能预报",因为在自组织临界系统中尺度不变性是普遍存在的,而地球正处于自组织临界状态中,在这种状态下小地震具有某种概率,如瀑布般触发大的地震事件。但是在物理上,只有对应其地震震级的应力能量得到有效释放,才能有大地震的发生。利用对这种应力的依赖性可以进行地震预测,方法就是利用剪切波分裂来监控即将发生地震的周围岩体的应力积累。这项技术可以说是成功的,但是由于假定的不可预报性,所以需要清晰的论证才能被普遍接受。雪崩也是自组织临界现象。近期通过二维球形素珠堆进行的雪崩实验观测表明,具有自组织临界性的自然物理现象是能够预报的,如雪崩、地震等。预报地震和雪崩的关键是监控母体介质,而不是即将发震的震源区。