Natural and artificial recharge investigation in the Zéroud Basin,Central Tunisia: impact of Sidi Saad Dam storage

Hydrochemical and isotopic data of waters from the Zéroud aquifer have been used to potentially provide a means for locating occurrences and to trace movements of a variety of natural and anthropogenic recharge waters in the Zéroud Basin, Central Tunisia. Geochemical data have been measured during the dam water release, from May to September 2005, with a sampling time step of 15 days. An implication of dam water has been demonstrated that is noticeable up along the main flow path to a distance of 10 km far from the injection site. Environmental isotopes ²H, ¹⁸O and ³H of water molecule were studied to investigate the effect of dam water on the hydrological system, and an isotope balance was established to compute the contribution of water storage component in groundwater. Based on isotopic mass balance, we assess that an average of 13% of total groundwater in the upper aquifer came from dam water storage. Three distinctive recharge waters in the aquifer can be determined. Water from local rainfall (pre-dam Zéroud River) that infiltrated into the boundaries of the Draa Affane Mountain was easily distinguished from the water influenced by anthropogenic recharge located in the Zéroud right rivulet. Distinguishable isotopic signatures of native wadi Zéroud recharge due to “recent lineal recharge” through the riverbed were also identified.     

Longitudinal and temporal thermal patterns of the French Rh?ne River using Landsat ETM+ thermal infrared images

Understanding the thermal regime of rivers is a key issue for predicting ecosystem change in the context of global warming. However, water temperature is not only influenced by air temperature. To better highlight relative contribution of factors controlling water temperature, we used satellite thermal infrared (TIR) images from Landsat ETM+ to investigate longitudinal and temporal variations in thermal patterns of the French Rh?ne River. Because satellite TIR remote sensing is limited to large rivers, we used an automated water extraction technique to remove pixels contaminated by terrestrial surfaces. We calculated water surface temperatures of the 500?km long reach for 83 dates between 1999 and 2009. The average accuracy and uncertainty of our data, ±1.1 and ±0.4°C for reaches with more than 3?pixels across and ±1.4 and ±0.5°C for reaches with one to 3?pixels across, are comparable to other satellite TIR studies of rivers. Our results confirmed previous studies on the thermal impacts of tributaries and nuclear power plants on the Rh?ne, providing an understanding of their seasonal pattern and their longitudinal impact. We showed temperature differences of 0?C2°C within the largest hydroelectric bypass facilities between the bypass section and the canal, with Montélimar and Caderousse showing the most pronounced differences. Discussion points concern the potential impacts of tributaries and nuclear power plants on the spatio-temporal thermal patterns, as well as the factors responsible for thermal differences in the bypass facilities: length and minimum flow of the bypass section, and tributaries coming into this reach.     

Contourites in the Gulf of Cadiz: a cautionary note on potentially ambiguous indicators of bottom current velocity

Facies associations in cores collected in the deep part of the Gulf of Cadiz, which is under the influence of the lower branch of the Mediterranean Outflow Water, are investigated in terms of the classical contourite model using grain-size analyses and thin sections of indurated sediment. Cores include both low-energy (contourite drift) and high-energy (channel) environments. The thin sections and grain-size distributions show that clayey fine silts and sandy coarse silts are the most common facies associations in the studied contourite sequences, while coarse-grained, gravelly contourites are less common. Grain-size distributions are unimodal in the fine-grained and bi- or trimodal in the coarser-grained contourites. This change in grain-size composition is related both to the partial removal of the fine-grained fraction and to the replenishment of the coarser-grained one. In addition, most of the contacts between individual facies are sharp rather than transitional. This suggests that the contourite sequence is only in part related to changes in bottom current velocity and flow competency, but may also be related to the supply of a coarser terrigeneous particle stock, provided by either increased erosion of indurated mud along the flanks of confined contourite channels (mud clasts), or by increased sediment supply by rivers (quartz grains) and downslope mass transport on the continental shelf and upper slope. The classical contourite facies association may therefore not be solely controlled by current velocity, but may be the product of a variety of depositional histories. The classical contourite depositional sequence should therefore be interpreted with greater care and in the light of the regional sedimentological background. In addition, the wisdom of exclusively using mean or modal particle size for the interpretation of depositional contourite processes is questioned. Instead, it is proposed that the vertical evolution of grain-size populations in the facies successions forming contourite sequences be assessed.     

Evidence for solar forcing in variability of temperatures and pressures in Europe

Daily temperature and pressure series from 55 European meteorological stations covering the 20th century are analyzed. The overall temperature mean displays a sharp minimum near 1940 and a step-like jump near 1987. We evaluate the evolution of disturbances of these series using mean squared inter-annual variations and “lifetimes”. The decadal to secular evolutions of solar activity and temperature disturbances display similar signatures over the 20th century. Because of heterogeneity of the climate system response to solar forcing, regional and seasonal approaches are key to successful identification of these signatures. Most of the solar response is governed by the winter months, as best seen near the Atlantic Ocean. Intensities of disturbances vary by factors in excess of 2, underlining a role for the Sun as a significant forcing factor of European atmospheric variations. We speculate about the possible origin of these solar signatures. The last figure of the paper exemplifies its main results.     

Arctic microbial ecosystems and impacts of extreme warming during the International Polar Year

As a contribution to the International Polar Year program MERGE (Microbiological and Ecological Responses to Global Environmental change in polar regions), studies were conducted on the terrestrial and aquatic microbial ecosystems of northern Canada (details at: http://www.cen.ulaval.ca/merge/). The habitats included permafrost soils, saline coldwater springs, supraglacial lakes on ice shelves, epishelf lakes in fjords, deep meromictic lakes, and shallow lakes, ponds and streams. Microbiological samples from each habitat were analysed by HPLC pigment assays, light and fluorescence microscopy, and DNA sequencing. The results show a remarkably diverse microflora of viruses, Archaea (including ammonium oxidisers and methanotrophs), Bacteria (including filamentous sulfur-oxidisers in a saline spring and benthic mats of Cyanobacteria in many waterbodies), and protists (including microbial eukaryotes in snowbanks and ciliates in ice-dammed lakes). In summer 2008, we recorded extreme warming at Ward Hunt Island and vicinity, the northern limit of the Canadian high Arctic, with air temperatures up to 20.5 °C. This was accompanied by pronounced changes in microbial habitats: deepening of the permafrost active layer; loss of perennial lake ice and sea ice; loss of ice-dammed freshwater lakes; and 23% loss of total ice shelf area, including complete break-up and loss of the Markham Ice Shelf cryo-ecosystem. These observations underscore the vulnerability of Arctic microbial ecosystems to ongoing climate change.     

Assessment of suspended sediment transport in four alpine watersheds (France): influence of the climatic regime

High‐frequency water discharge and suspended sediment concentration (SSC) databases were collected for 3 years on four contrasted watersheds: the Asse and the Bléone (two Mediterranean rainfall regime watersheds) and the Romanche and the Ferrand (two rainfall–snowmelt regime watersheds). SSCs were calculated from turbidity recordings (1‐h time step), converted into SSC values. The rating curve was calculated by means of simultaneous SSC measurement taken by water sampling and turbidity recording. Violent storms during springtime and autumn were responsible for suspended sediment transport on the Asse and the Bléone rivers. On the Ferrand and the Romanche, a large share of suspended sediment transport was also caused by local storms, but 30% of annual fluxes results from snowmelt or icemelt which occurred from April to October. On each watershed, SSC up to 50 g l^?1 were observed. Annual specific fluxes ranged from 450 to 800 t km^?2 year^?1 and 40–80% of annual suspended sediment fluxes occurred within 2% of the time. These general indicators clearly demonstrate the intensity of suspended sediment transport on these types of watersheds. Suspended sediment fluxes proved to be highly variable at the annual scale (inter‐annual variability of specific fluxes) as well as at the event scale (through a hysteresis loop in the SSC/Q relationship) on these watersheds. In both cases, water discharge and precipitations were the main processes involved in suspended sediment production and transport. The temporal and spatial variability of hydro‐meteorological processes on the watershed provides a better understanding of suspended sediment dynamics. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Post‐Younger Dryas deglaciation of the Greenland western margin as revealed by spatial analysis of lakes

Lake shapes and their spatial distribution are important geomorphological indicators in previously glaciated areas. Their shapes are influenced by the underlying geological structure and processes of glacial sediment deposition or erosion. Since these processes act on large areas, distribution of lakes can reflect the intensity of glacial erosional/depositional processes and their spatial extent. Landsat imagery was used to extract lake outlines from a selected pilot‐study area on the widest ice‐free coastal margin of the south‐western Greenland north of Kangerlussuaq. Analysis included image classification and spatial analysis of lakes with elevation data using geographic information system (GIS) tools. A morphometric index was applied to extract kettle lakes as indicators of a specific glacial process – ice stagnation. Analysis of their spatial distribution helped in the reconstruction of glacial dynamics in formerly glaciated terrain. Our results show that spatial lake distribution combined with elevation analysis can be used to identify zones of glacial erosion and deposition. The highest concentrations of lakes within the study area occupy the elevation range between 164 and 361 m above sea level (a.s.l.). This zone can be identified as an area where intensive glacial erosion took place in the past. The widespread distribution of modeled kettle lake features within the same elevation range and across the study area suggests that the last deglaciation process was accompanied by abandonment of blocks of stagnant ice. This conclusion is supported by surface exposure ages obtained in the same study area and published elsewhere. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The influence of bed forms on reference concentration and suspension under waves and currents

Hydrodynamic, suspension and bed-form measurements were made 2 km off the Dutch coast near Noordwijk aan Zee in ∼14 m water depth for a period of 32 days in 2003. Tidal currents were just able to suspend sand at the bed at peak spring tide but most suspension and transport occurred as a result of the combination of waves and currents. Burst-average (17 min) sand concentration profiles (C¯-profiles) from an acoustic backscatter instrument were used to define the (varying) location of the sea-bed, following the method used by Green et al. [Green, M.O., Dolphin, T.J., Swales, A., Vincent, C.E., 1999. Transport of mixed-size sediments in a tidal channel. Coastal Sediments ‘99, edited by N.C. Kraus, and W.G. McDougal, ASCE, Long Island, New York, pp. 644–658]. Reference concentrations at the sea-bed (C₀) and at 1 cm (C₁) were examined in relation to both the hydrodynamic conditions and the type of bed forms present. The C₀ predictive equations of Green and Black [Green, M.O., Black, K.P., Suspended sediment reference concentration under waves: field measurements and critical analysis of two predictive models, Coastal Engineering, 38, 115–141, 1999](short-wave ripples) and Nielsen [Nielsen, P., Suspended sediment concentrations under waves, Coastal Engineering, 10, 23–31, 1986](all bed forms; includes ripple steepness), both of which require knowledge of the bed-form type, were not as successful in explaining the variance in our C₀ data as a regression of C₀ against the skin-friction Shields parameter θ′_cw that ignored bed-form type (73% of variance explained). The values of the reference concentration C₁ were compared with the Lee et al. [Lee, G.-H., Dade, W.B., Friedrichs, C.T., Vincent, C.E., Examination of Reference Concentration Under Waves and Currents on the Inner Shelf., Journal of Geophysical Research, 109, 1–10, 2004] equation which predicts C₁ from the product of the Shields parameter and the inverse Rouse parameter; 51% of the variance in C₁ was explained.     

On the Use of Hydrological Models and Satellite Data to Study the Water Budget of River Basins Affected by Human Activities: Examples from the Garonne Basin of France

Natural and anthropogenic forcing factors and their changes significantly impact water resources in many river basins around the world. Information on such changes can be derived from fine scale in situ and satellite observations, used in combination with hydrological models. The latter need to account for hydrological changes caused by human activities to correctly estimate the actual water resource. In this study, we consider the catchment area of the Garonne river (in France) to investigate the capabilities of space-based observations and up-to-date hydrological modeling in estimating water resources of a river basin modified by human activities and a changing climate. Using the ISBA–MODCOU and SWAT hydrological models, we find that the water resources of the Garonne basin display a negative climate trend since 1960. The snow component of the two models is validated using the moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer snow cover extent climatology. Crop sowing dates based on remote sensing studies are also considered in the validation procedure. Use of this dataset improves the simulated evapotranspiration and river discharge amounts when compared to conventional data. Finally, we investigate the benefit of using the MAELIA multi-agent model that accounts for a realistic agricultural and management scenario. Among other results, we find that changes in crop systems have significant impacts on water uptake for agriculture. This work constitutes a basis for the construction of a future modeling framework of the sociological and hydrological system of the Garonne river region.