Wind erosion control

Wind erosion is a serious problem in many parts of the world. It physically removes from the field the most fertile portion of the soil, pollutes the air, fills road ditches, reduces seedling survival and growth, lowers the marketability of many vegetable crops, and creates new desert landforms and landscapes. It is generally worse in arid and semi-arid than in subhumid climates.A wind erosion equation was developed as a result of many investigations on the factors influencing wind erosion. It is a useful guide to the principles of wind erosion control. The functional relationship is expressed as E = % MathType!MTEF!2!1!+-% feaafiart1ev1aaatCvAUfeBSjuyZL2yd9gzLbvyNv2CaerbuLwBLn% hiov2DGi1BTfMBaeXatLxBI9gBaerbd9wDYLwzYbItLDharqqtubsr% 4rNCHbGeaGqiVu0Je9sqqrpepC0xbbL8F4rqqrFfpeea0xe9Lq-Jc9% vqaqpepm0xbba9pwe9Q8fs0-yqaqpepae9pg0FirpepeKkFr0xfr-x% fr-xb9adbaqaaeGaciGaaiaabeqaamaabaabaaGcbaGaeyOKbykaaa!37B2!\[f\](I,K,C,L,V), where E is potential average annual soil loss per unit area, I is a soil erodibility index, K is a soil ridge roughness factor, C is a climatic factor, L is the unsheltered median travel distance of wind across a field, and V is an equivalent quantity of vegetative cover.Principles suggested by the wind erosion equation for controlling wind include: stabilizing erodible surface with various materials; producing a rough, cloddy surface; reducing field width or the distance wind travels in crossing an unprotected field with barriers and strip crops; and establishing and maintaining sufficient vegetative cover. This last item is sometimes referred to as the cardinal rule for controlling wind erosion.     

Long-term estuarine variability and associated biological response

Corpus Christi Bay, one of seven major Texas estuaries, is characterized by low freshwater inflow, small tidal flushing, low annual rainfall, and high evaporation rates. Minimal exchange of water makes this estuary sensitive to episodic environmental variation caused by sudden surges of freshwater from flooding rains or hurricanes. It is suggested that this episodic variability stimulates estuarine production. For the last 11 years, detailed data have been collected on benthic community structure, primary and secondary productivity, and sediment nutrient regeneration which are combined with other information, such as fishery yields, into a reconstructed long-term data set. During this same period significant environmental changes in the estuary have been documented. In 1979 the lowest salinity recorded over the 11-year record was related to a short-term, high intensity rainfall. The benthos responded with abundance and biomass levels far greater than any other year during the study interval. Correlated with increased benthic production were large increases in shrimp yields. During more subtle changes with respect to freshwater input in 1981, significant alterations in primary productivity were quantified. Primary, secondary, and tertiary carbon production estimates derived from the reconstructed long-term data base indicated the benthos as a major link between primary producers and other consumers. Carbon flow from primary producers, however, appeared inadequate to support benthic production. Nutrient recycling was judged to provide more than 90% of nitrogen needed to support phytoplankton production and was considered a major factor influencing ecosystem function. The matching of biological responses to significant environmental changes in this estuary provided insight into ecosystem function and stressed the importance of short-term variability. Although recycling was identified as a major source of nutrients supporting primary production, it was concluded that episodic environmental change from freshwater input provided a much needed stimulus to productivity. These episodic changes replaced materials lost through recycling and sustained productivity over the long term.     

The discrete Hurst range for skew independent two-valued inflows

A new theoretical interpretation is proposed for Hurst's empirical law which is applicable to discrete-valued inflows and is consistent with the existing interpretation for continuous-valued inflows. This is applied to independent net inflows {X _r} having values +1 and –1 with unequal probabilities. With the aid of a new result on the exchangeability of symmetrically conditioned exchangeable variables, values of the resulting range are obtained and tabulated. It is found that the effect of skewness is very slight for skewness values between (about) 3 and –3, and that Hurst's own approximation, the conditioned range, is remarkably accurate.     

The last interglacial ocean

The final effort of the CLIMAP project was a study of the last interglaciation, a time of minimum ice volume some 122,000 yr ago coincident with the Substage 5e oxygen isotopic minimum. Based on detailed oxygen isotope analyses and biotic census counts in 52 cores across the world ocean, last interglacial sea-surface temperatures (SST) were compared with those today. There are small SST departures in the mid-latitude North Atlantic (warmer) and the Gulf of Mexico (cooler). The eastern boundary currents of the South Atlantic and Pacific oceans are marked by large SST anomalies in individual cores, but their interpretations are precluded by no-analog problems and by discordancies among estimates from different biotic groups. In general, the last interglacial ocean was not significantly different from the modern ocean. The relative sequencing of ice decay versus oceanic warming on the Stage 6/5 oxygen isotopic transition and of ice growth versus oceanic cooling on the Stage 5e/5d transition was also studied. In most of the Southern Hemisphere, the oceanic response marked by the biotic census counts preceded (led) the global ice-volume response marked by the oxygen-isotope signal by several thousand years. The reverse pattern is evident in the North Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, where the oceanic response lagged that of global ice volume by several thousand years. As a result, the very warm temperatures associated with the last interglaciation were regionally diachronous by several thousand years. These regional lead-lag relationships agree with those observed on other transitions and in long-term phase relationships; they cannot be explained simply as artifacts of bioturbational translations of the original signals.     

The joint effect of rank and grain size on the flotation of Australian bituminous coals

Laboratory batch flotation tests were carried out to determine the effect of grain size on the recovery of four Australian bituminous coals of high and low rank. The flotation concentrates, taken over successive time intervals, and the tailings, were sized and the recovery-size curves plotted. A method was developed for determining the proportions of liberated and composite grains in the various flotation products. Flotation tests were carried out in the presence of methylisobutylcarbinol (MIBC) and MIBC + kerosene. The shapes of the recovery-size curves depended on the rank of the coal and whether or not kerosene was present. The variation of the recovery with size was explained in terms of the joint effect of rank and size on the floatability of composite grains.     

Dating fluvial terraces by Th/U on pedogenic carbonate, Wind River Basin, Wyoming

Reliable and precise ages of Quaternary pedogenic carbonate can be obtained with ²³⁰Th/U dating by thermal ionization mass spectrometry applied to carefully selected milligram-size samples. Datable carbonate can form within a few thousand years of surface stabilization allowing ages of Quaternary deposits and surfaces to be closely estimated. Pedogenic carbonate clast-rinds from gravels of glacio-fluvial terraces in the Wind River Basin have median concentrations of 14 ppm U and 0.07 ppm ²³²Th, with median (²³⁰Th/²³²Th) = 270, making them well suited for ²³⁰Th/U dating. Horizons as thin as 0.5 mm were sampled from polished slabs to reduce averaging of long (≥10⁵ yr), and sometimes visibly discontinuous, depositional histories. Dense, translucent samples with finite ²³⁰Th/U ages preserve within-rind stratigraphic order in all cases. Ages for terraces WR4 (167,000 ± 6,400 yr) and WR2 (55,000 ± 8600 yr) indicate a mean incision rate of 0.26 ± 0.05 m per thousand years for the Wind River over the past glacial cycle, slower than inferred from cosmogenic-nuclide dating. Terrace WR3, which formed penecontemporaneously with the final maximum glacial advance of the penultimate Rocky Mountain (Bull Lake) glaciation, has an age of 150,000 ± 8300 yr indicating that it is broadly synchronous with the penultimate global ice volume maximum.     

Analytical prediction of seismic behaviour for concentrically-braced steel systems

This paper presents an analytical model for the inelastic response analysis of braced steel structures. A model is first presented for the behaviour of steel struts subjected to cyclic axial load, which combines the analytical formulation of plastic hinge behaviour with empirical formulas developed on the basis of experimental data. The brace is modelled as a pin-ended member, with a plastic hinge located at the midspan. Braces, with other end conditions, are handled using the effective length concept. Step-wise regression analysis is employed, to approximate the plastic conditions for the steel UC section. Verification of the brace model is performed on the basis of quasi-static analyses of individual struts and a one-bay one-storey X-braced steel frame. The comparison of analytical and experimental data has confirmed that the proposed brace model is able to accurately simulate the cyclic inelastic behaviour of steel braces and braced systems. A series of dynamic analyses has been performed on two-storey V- and X-braced frames to study the influence of brace slenderness ratio on the inelastic response, and to look at the redistribution of forces in the post-buckling range of behaviour of CBFs. Recommendations have been made as to the estimation of maximum storey drifts for concentrically-braced steel frames in major seismic event. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.