Bed waves at the basin scale: implications for river management and restoration

An extensive literature about fluvial sediment waves, slugs or pulses has emerged in the past 20 years. The concept has been useful in many respects, but has been applied to diverse phenomena using a variety of definitions. Moreover, inferred linkages between channel‐bed changes and sediment loads are often not justifiable. This paper reviews concepts of large fluvial sediment waves at scales extending to several tens of kilometres. It points out constraints on the inferences that can be made about sediment loads based on changes in channel‐bed elevation at this scale where channel sediment interacts with storage in floodplain and terrace deposits. The type area of G. K. Gilbert's initial sediment‐wave concept is re‐examined to show that neither wave translation nor dispersion occurred in the simple manner commonly assumed. Channel aggradation and return to graded conditions provide an alternative theory explaining Gilbert's observed bed‐elevation changes. Recognizing the evidence and implications of the former passage of a large‐scale bed wave is essential to the accurate diagnosis of catchment conditions and the adoption of appropriate river restoration goals or methods. Sediment loads, water quality, channel morphologic stability and aquatic ecosystems often reflect changes in sediment storage long after the channel bed has returned to grade. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Ponderomotive effects in magnetospheric hydromagnetic waves

The ponderomotive force (PMF) is a ubiquitous nonlinear wave effect arising in plasma physics when applied wave fields or plasma parameters have significant spatial gradients. Some basic properties of the PMF are described as they relate to ULF hydromagnetic waves in the magnetosphere. Examples are given of recent results obtained using both analytical and numerical techniques for waves from the lowest frequencies (determined by the dimensions of the magnetosphere) up to the vicinity of the ion cyclotron frequency. These results include the possibilities that the PMF may transport plasma over large distances in the magnetosphere, and that the PMF may energize magnetospheric ions significantly. In particular the PMF may play a role in transporting and energizing O⁺ ions from the ionosphere into the body of the magnetosphere. The PMF can also generate nonlinear coupling between the slow magnetosonic mode and the other hydromagnetic modes. This should lead to limitation of density enhancements and, notably in the case of standing Alfvén waves, to spatial harmonic generation, secularly growing frequency shifts, and saturation of driven wave fields. Some implications of these results for the magnetosphere are discussed.Based on an invited review given in IAGA Symposium 3.07, Nonlinear and Kinetic Effects in ULF Waves, at the IUGG XXI General Assembly, Boulder, Colorado, July 2-14, 1995.     

Energetic Constraints on Precipitation Under Climate Change

Energetic constraints on precipitation are useful for understanding the response of the hydrological cycle to ongoing climate change, its response to possible geoengineering schemes, and the limits on precipitation in very warm climates of the past. Much recent progress has been made in quantifying the different forcings and feedbacks on precipitation and in understanding how the transient responses of precipitation and temperature might differ qualitatively. Here, we introduce the basic ideas and review recent progress. We also examine the extent to which energetic constraints on precipitation may be viewed as radiative constraints and the extent to which they are confirmed by available observations. Challenges remain, including the need to better demonstrate the link between energetics and precipitation in observations and to better understand energetic constraints on precipitation at sub-global length scales.     

Killing of marine larvae by diesel oil

Fourteen species (five phyla) of pelagic larvae, when exposed to 0.5% of No. 2 diesel oil in sea water, survived from 3 to 72 hours excepting the larvae of the echinoderm Crossaster which lived for 8 days.     

Aluminium in coexisting pyroxenes as a sensitive indicator of changes in metamorphic grade within the Mafic Granulite Terrane of the Fraser Range,Western Australia

Three pairs of coexisting pyroxenes of mafic granulites from each of two locations 100 km apart show large chemical differences, especially in Al, Fe, Mn, Ti and Na. Al content of the pyroxenes at the higher pressure locality is more nearly independent of Al of the host rock than are the pyroxenes from the lower pressure locality. All the data confirm that although no significant difference in temperature has emerged, there was a large difference in pressure between the two localities. Al is found to be a more effective discriminant of metamorphic conditions than . As the three pairs of pyroxenes cover a wide range of Fe at each locality, the close relationship of Al and Na (and of Ca-tschermak and jadeite) to Fe becomes evident. This shows that a normalizing procedure should be adopted before comparing localities with different Al, Mn, Ti, Na and other elements or derived components such as jadeite and Ca-tschermak.     

The activity of convectively coupled equatorial waves in CMIP3 global climate models

This study evaluates the convectively coupled equatorial waves in ten coupled general circulation models (GCMs) in the twentieth century experiment from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 3 of the World Climate Research Programme. The antisymmetric bands in all GCMs are weaker than in observations, and the mixed Rossby-gravity (MRG) wave seems to be a mixture of the equatorial Rossby (ER) and tropical depression-type (TD-type) waves rather than a mixture of the ER and inertiogravity waves found in observations. The simulated TD-type wave is more organized than in observations with a quasilinear wavenumber–frequency relationship. In most GCMs, the two observed activity centers of the MRG and TD-type waves over the southern Indian Ocean and the southwestern Pacific cannot be separated; only one wave activity center is found over the Maritime Continent. The observed northwestward propagation of the TD-type wave over the western North Pacific is also not well simulated in the GCMs. The simulated active season of the MRG and TD-type waves over the northern hemisphere during the boreal summer and fall is much shorter than in observations. The models from CCSR utilizing the Pan and Randall scheme with the convection suppression simulate the realistic Kelvin wave activity with the maximum activity near the equator, while the wave activities filtered for the Kelvin wave in the other GCMs are similar to the extratropical Rossby wave with the maximum activity at higher latitudes. Likewise, only these two models produce a realistic seasonal cycle of the Kelvin wave activity.     

Bayesian updating revisited

Bayesian updating methods provide an alternate philosophy to the characterization of the input variables of a stochastic mathematical model. Here, a priori values of statistical parameters are assumed on subjective grounds or by analysis of a data base from a geologically similar area. As measurements become available during site investigations, updated estimates of parameters characterizing spatial variability are generated. However, in solving the traditional updating equations, an updated covariance matrix may be generated that is not positive-definite, particularly when observed data errors are small. In addition, measurements may indicate that initial estimates of the statistical parameters are poor. The traditional procedure does not have a facility to revise the parameter estimates before the update is carried out. alternatively, Bayesian updating can be viewed as a linear inverse problem that minimizes a weighted combination of solution simplicity and data misfit. Depending on the weight given to the a priori information, a different solution is generated. A Bayesian updating procedure for log-conductivity interpolation that uses a singular value decomposition (SVD) is presented. An efficient and stable algorithm is outlined that computes the updated log-conductivity field and the a posteriori covariance of the estimated values (estimation errors). In addition, an information density matrix is constructed that indicates how well predicted data match observations. Analysis of this matrix indicates the relative importance of the observed data. The SVD updating procedure is used to interpolate the log-conductivity fields of a series of hypothetical aquifers to demonstrate pitfalls and possibilities of the method.