Using the Climate Forecast System Reanalysis as weather input data for watershed models

Obtaining representative meteorological data for watershed‐scale hydrological modelling can be difficult and time consuming. Land‐based weather stations do not always adequately represent the weather occurring over a watershed, because they can be far from the watershed of interest and can have gaps in their data series, or recent data are not available. This study presents a method for using the Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR) global meteorological dataset to obtain historical weather data and demonstrates the application to modelling five watersheds representing different hydroclimate regimes. CFSR data are available globally for each hour since 1979 at a 38‐km resolution. Results show that utilizing the CFSR precipitation and temperature data to force a watershed model provides stream discharge simulations that are as good as or better than models forced using traditional weather gauging stations, especially when stations are more than 10 km from the watershed. These results further demonstrate that adding CFSR data to the suite of watershed modelling tools provides new opportunities for meeting the challenges of modelling un‐gauged watersheds and advancing real‐time hydrological modelling. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Phytoplankton and chlorophyll a relationships with ENSO in Prydz Bay,East Antarctica

The historical data of phytoplankton and chlorophyll a(Chl a)(1990–2002)obtained during the Chinese National Antarctic Research Expedition(CHINARE)in the Prydz Bay have been integrated.The results showed that the temperature,salinity,nutrients,and oxygen of seawater changed when El Nino/La Nina occurred.The variation of biological communities reflected the response of ecosystem to environmental changes.During El Ni?o period,Chl a concentration and phytoplankton community structure changed significantly,and the relative proportion of diatoms increased while dinoflagellates decreased.During La Ni?a period,the proportion of diatoms decreased,but the golden-brown algae and blue-green algae increased significantly.The variation of phytoplankton population directly affected the biodiversity of the bay,which were also quite sensitive to the marine environment changes.Meanwhile,the satellite remote sensing data of 2002–2011(December–March)have been used to study the temporal connection change of Chl a and phytoplankton in the Prydz Bay.We found that there were significant differences in the monthly variation characteristics of satellite remote sensing Chl a and sea surface temperature(SST),which had some links with sea ice melting and El Ni?o/La Ni?a events.We found that the start time of bloom advanced,lagged or synchronized with the changes of the SST,and we also found the occurrence time of phytoplankton bloom corresponded with the sea ice melting inner bay.To some extent,this study will help us understand the relationships between ENSO events and the phytoplankton bloom in the Southern Ocean.     

Vegetation turnover in a braided river: frequency and effectiveness of floods of different magnitude

This work addresses the temporal dynamics of riparian vegetation in large braided rivers, exploring the relationship between vegetation erosion and flood magnitude. In particular, it investigates the existence of a threshold discharge, or a range of discharges, above which erosion of vegetated patches within the channel occurs. The research was conducted on a 14 km long reach of the Tagliamento River, a braided river in north‐eastern Italy. Ten sets of aerial photographs were used to investigate vegetation dynamics in the period 1954–2011. By using different geographic information system (GIS) procedures, three aspects of geomorphic‐vegetation dynamics and interactions were addressed: (i) long‐term (1954–2011) channel evolution and vegetation dynamics; (ii) the relationship between vegetation erosion/establishment and flow regime; (iii) vegetation turnover, in the period 1986–2011. Results show that vegetation turnover is remarkably rapid in the study reach with 50% of in‐channel vegetation persisting for less than 5–6 years and only 10% of vegetation persisting for more than 18–19 years. The analysis shows that significant vegetation erosion is determined by relatively frequent floods, i.e. floods with a recurrence interval of c. 1–2.5 years, although some differences exist between sub‐reaches with different densities of vegetation cover. These findings suggest that the erosion of riparian vegetation in braided rivers may not be controlled solely by very large floods, as is the case for lower energy gravel‐bed rivers. Besides flow regime, other factors seem to play a significant role for in‐channel vegetation cover over long time spans. In particular, erosion of marginal vegetation, which supplies large wood elements to the channel, increased notably over the study period and was an important factor for in‐channel vegetation trends. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Über die Bestimmung von Differenzen der Lotrichtung mit Hilfe des GradientenU zzs

Zusammenfassung R. v. Eötvös hat für die Bestimmung von Lotrichtungsdifferenzen mit seiner Drehwaage zwei Verfahren angegeben, die aber nur unter Hinzuziehung astronomisch-geodätischer Messungen zum Ziel führen. Beide Verfahren sind sehr umständlich, und in der einschlägigen Literatur finden sich keine Hinweise, daß eines der genannten Verfahren seitEötvös nochmals angewandt wurde. — In Freiburg i. Br. wird zur Zeit eine Drehwaage erprobt, mit der voraussichtlich die direkte Messung des GradientenU _zzs möglich sein wird. Es soll nun gezeigt werden, daß die Bestimmung der Lotrichtungsdifferenz zweier Feldpunkte mit Hilfe dieser Größe, ohne Zuhilfenahme von astronomisch-geodätischen Messungen, möglich ist.

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Summary R. v. Eötvös has showed two methods for the measurement of differences between vertical lines with his torsion-balance. Both methods are only applicable, if they are connected with astronomic and geodetic measurements, and they are very troublesome. In the special publications are no remarks, that one of these methods everytime has been applied since the measurement ofEötvös. —At Freiburg i. Br. (Western Germany) now a new torsion-balance is built, with which foreseeable the direct measurement of the gradientU _zzs will be possible. In the following publication will be demonstrated, that the fixation of differences between the vertical lines of two points of the gravity field of the earth is possible with this gradientU _zzs without astronomic and geodetic measurements.

     

Growth rates of manganese nodules in Oneida Lake,New York

²²⁶Ra is used to document the growth histories of six manganese nodules from Oneida Lake, New York. Detailed sectioning and analysis reveal that there are discontinuous gradients in²²⁶Ra content in these samples. These gradients result from periods of rapid growth (>1 mm/100 years) separated by periods of no growth of erosion. Although the²²⁶Ra “age” of the nodules approximates the age of Oneida Lake, the nodules are not sediment-covered because they occur only in areas of the lake where fine-grained sediments are not accumulating.     

A Surface Wave Dispersion Study of the Middle East and North Africa for Monitoring the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty

—?We present results from a large-scale study of surface-wave group velocity dispersion across the Middle East, North Africa, southern Eurasia and the Mediterranean. Our database for the region is populated with seismic data from regional events recorded at permanent and portable broadband, three-component digital stations. We have measured the group velocity using a multiple narrow-band filter on deconvolved displacement data. Overall, we have examined more than 13,500 seismograms and made good quality dispersion measurements for 6817 Rayleigh- and 3806 Love-wave paths. We use a conjugate gradient method to perform a group-velocity tomography. Our current results include both Love- and Rayleigh-wave inversions across the region for periods from 10 to 60 seconds. Our findings indicate that short-period structure is sensitive to slow velocities associated with large sedimentary features such as the Mediterranean Sea and Persian Gulf. We find our long-period Rayleigh-wave inversion is sensitive to crustal thickness, such as fast velocities under the oceans and slow along the relatively thick Zagros Mts. and Turkish-Iranian Plateau. We also find slow upper mantle velocities along known rift systems. Accurate group velocity maps can be used to construct phase-matched filters along any given path. The filters can improve weak surface wave signals by compressing the dispersed signal. The signals can then be used to calculate regionally determined M _S measurements, which we hope can be used to extend the threshold of m _b :M _S discriminants down to lower magnitude levels. Other applications include using the group velocities in the creation of a suitable background model for forming station calibration maps, and using the group velocities to model the velocity structure of the crust and upper mantle.     

Structural features of Panarea volcano in the frame of the Aeolian Arc (Italy): Implications for the 2002–2003 unrest

Panarea, characterized by gas unrest in 2002–2003, is the volcanic island with the least constrained structure in the eastern-central Aeolian Arc (Italy). Based on structural measurements, we define here its deformation pattern relative to the Arc. The main deformations are subvertical extension fractures (63% of data), normal faults (25%) and dikes (12%). The mean orientation of the extension fractures and faults is N38°E, with a mean opening direction of N135° ± 8°, implying extension with a moderate component of dextral shear. These data, matched with those available for Stromboli volcano (pure opening) and Vulcano, Lipari and Salina volcanoes (predominant dextral motions) along the eastern-central Arc, suggest a progressive westward rotation of the extension direction and an increase in the dextral shear. The dextral shear turns into compression in the western arc. The recent unrest at Panarea, coeval to that of nearby Stromboli, may also be explained by the structural context, as both volcanoes lie along the portion of the Arc subject to extension.     

What controls levels of dissolved phosphate and ammonium in surface waters?

Dissolved inorganic nutrient pools are small relative to particulate pools, and dissolved pools turnover rapidly. It has been observed that pools change little from day to day on the sampling scales usually employed. A simple model is presented where uptake and regeneration rates balance to cause a local steady state concentration for dissolved inorganic nutrients. Enrichment and dilution perturbation experiments with lake water support the idea of steady state nutrient concentrations. Although inorganic nutrient concentrations are often controlled by biota, the absolute concentrations present tell little about the activity of that biota.     

Variangular wind spirals

The term variangular is introduced to emphasize a significant difference between the present and certain earlier solutions to the problem of organized airmotion within the planetary boundary layer. The latter belong to the family of equiangular wind spirals and have the characteristic that the angle () formed by the vectors of shearing stress and geostrophic departure is invariant with height; it is shown that in this spiral-family, parabolic height-dependency of the effective (eddy) diffusivity (K) alone is permitted, including the asymptotic case of constant K; the famous Ekman spiral as well as the Rossby spiral are two prominent members of the family of equiangular wind spirals. The new variangular theory, as the name implies, permits variation of with height (z) and produces more versatile profiles of wind and stress due to less restraint in K (z). As an example of comparison with observed data, monthly mean wind profiles obtained at Plateau Station, Antarctica, are selected since they exhibit a noteworthy degree of variangularity, in relatively satisfactory agreement with properties of the new theoretical model for wind spirals.National Research Council Visiting Scientist Research Associate, Regional Environments Division, Earth Sciences Laboratory.