Community structure of macrozooplankton in Trinity and Upper Galveston Bays

Macrozooplankton were sampled bi-weekly from October 1969 through May 1973 at 16 stations. Hydrological measurements, including water temperature and conductivity, accompanied each biological sample. Sampling sites and species were grouped by cluster analysis using Camberra-Metric measure of dissimilarity and flexible sorting. Two major seasons, based on taxon composition and abundance, were identified: A warm season (average water temperature above 22°C) dominated by larval and juvenile crustaceans, and a cool season with an abundance of larval fishes. Sites were more similar to each other within a year than they were between years. Differences between years correlated with variations in salinity and temperature. Community structure indices (Shannon-Weaver diversity, species richness and “evenness”) were applied to the seasonal data. Shannon diversity and “evenness” were positively correlated with each other, but richness values were often negatively correlated with the other two indices.     

Assessing stone degradation using an integrated database and geographical information system (GIS)

An integrated database and geographical information system (GIS) for the recording and monitoring of stone degradation are outlined. GIS requirements for stone degradation are summarized and a simple classification system for weathering forms identified and applied. The potential use of the system for identifying change in weathering forms using historic imagery is illustrated using an example from Oxford. Combining information from imagery of different buildings at different time periods, it is possible to put forward a possible scenario of weathering form evolution.     

Evaluating the interactions between surface water and groundwater in the arid mid-eastern Yanqi Basin,northwestern China

The environment of Bosten Lake in the Mid-Eastern Yanqi Basin (MEYB), an arid inland area in northwest China, has deteriorated greatly due to increasing groundwater exploitation and changes in the interactions between groundwater and surface water. This study intended to simulate the spatio-temporal variability of groundwater and surface water across the entire MEYB over the period 2000–2013. The applicable groundwater flow model and mass balance calculation method for river water were constructed to evaluate the change in groundwater recharged by and discharged to different segments of the Kaidu River. Simulation results show that the entire river seepage in the MEYB increased from 1.05 to 6.17 × 10⁸ m³/year between 2000 and 2013. The increasing river seepage, induced by increasing groundwater exploitation, plays the most important role in the water level decline in the downstream reaches of the Kaidu River and in Bosten Lake. This implies that the current utilization of groundwater resources in the MEYB is unsustainable.     

Distribution, condition, and growth of newly settled southern flounder (Paralichthys lethostigma) in the Galveston Bay Estuary, TX

Several flatfish species, including southern flounder (Paralichthys lethostigma) recruit to estuaries during early life. Therefore, evaluation of estuarine sites and habitats that serve as nurseries is critical to conservation and management. The present study used density data in conjunction with biochemical condition and growth measurements to evaluate settlement sites used by southern flounder in the Galveston Bay Estuary (GBE). In 2005, beam-trawl collections were made in three major sections of the GBE (East Bay, Galveston Bay, West Bay). Three sites were sampled in each bay. Within each sampling site, replicate collections were taken from three habitats: 1) marsh edge (< 1 m depth), 2) intermediate zone (10–20 m from marsh interface;  1 m depth), and 3) bay zone (typically > 100 m from marsh interface; depth > 1 m). Average size of southern flounder collected was 12–19 mm standard length, and peak densities occurred in January and February. Catch data indicated that densities of southern flounder were significantly greater in East Bay (2.75 per 100 m²) than in Galveston Bay (0.91 per 100 m²) or in West Bay (0.45 per 100 m²). Densities were statistically similar among habitats. Otolith-based estimates of age indicated that the majority of southern flounder collected were 35–45 days old and derived from early December to early January hatch-dates. Growth rates were similar among bays and among habitats, with the average growth rate being 0.40 mm day^− 1 (range: 0.21–0.76 mm day^− 1). RNA:DNA was above the established baseline value for nutritional stress, indicating that newly settled southern flounder in the GBE were in relatively high condition. Habitat-specific differences in RNA:DNA ratios were not observed; however, ratios were significantly lower in West Bay (average 8.0) than in East Bay (average 9.5) or in Galveston Bay (average 9.8), suggesting the condition of new recruits may vary spatially within the GBE. Findings from the current study suggest density and condition of newly settled southern flounder vary at the bay scale, suggesting that parts of GBE do not function equally as nurseries.     

18O/16O studies of fossil fissure fumaroles from the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes, Alaska

At three sample sites where there are good exposures of the upper 15 m of the 1912 ash-flow sheet in the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes (VTTS), Alaska, ¹⁸O/¹⁶O studies indicate that fumarolic activity produced a very wide range of δ¹⁸O values (?0.1 to +12.6; n=32) in the groundmass adjacent to fossil fissure fumaroles. This contrasts sharply with the uniformity of δ¹⁸O in the groundmass away from fumarolic conduits (δ¹⁸O=+5.9 to +7.1; n=7) and in all of the feldspar phenocrysts (δ¹⁸O=+6.11 to +7.5 1 for 11 samples from this study and Hildreth 1987), independent of whether these were collected from fossil fumaroles or from unaltered tuff. Only one sample contained feldspars that were even slightly ¹⁸O-enriched relative to the others (cloudy plagioclase δ¹⁸O=+8.45). and this sample also contained the most ¹⁸0-enriched groundmass of any of those analyzed (δ¹⁸O=+12.6). This preservation of primary magmatic δ¹⁸O values in the VTTS feldspar phenocrysts is clearly a consequence of the extremely short time span (i.e., 1912 to ≈1923) of vigorous, high-temperature, fumarolic activity in the 1912 ash-flow sheet. These ¹⁸O/^l6O systematica are strikingly similar to those discovered in the 2.8-Ma intracaldera Chegem Tuff (Gazis et al. 1996) and in the fossil fumaroles in the outflow sheet of the 0.76 Ma Bishop Tuff (Holt and Taylor 1998), thus confirming that a similar type of fumarolic meteoric-hydro-thermal activity occurred above the zone of intense welding in all three of these ash-flow tuffs. This is particularly important, because it provides a direct linkage between the older tuffs and the actual observations at the VTTS of steam chemistry, water/rock interaction, circulation geometry, flow velocities, and fumarolic temperatures (up to 645°C). The ¹⁸O/^l6O effects in the VTTS can all be explained in terms of a two-stage history: (a) an early, 10- to 15-year-long, high-temperature (τ;450°C), fumarolic ¹⁸O-depletion event (groundmass δ¹⁸O=?0.1 to +4.8); and (b) a subsequent, much longer-lived, low-temperature (<150°C), ¹⁸O-enrichment episode (groundmass as high as δ¹⁸O=+12.6). Steam in these low-temperature fumaroles probably passed through various parts of the same hydrothermal system associated with the earlier, higher-temperature, fumarolic activity, and a weakened form of this low-temperature hydrothermal circulation continues to the present day (Keith et al. 1992; Lowell and Keith 1991). This low-temperature ¹⁸O/¹⁶O exchange probably occurred in combination with mineralogical alteration of both the groundmass and the calcium-rich portions of feldspar phenocrysts during the waning (<150°C) stages of fumarolic activity (Spilde et al. 1993). The slight ¹⁸O enrichment of apparently pristine, transparent feldspar phenocrysts (δ¹⁸O=+7.51) in one of the ¹⁸O-depleted, meteoric-hydrothermally altered fumarolic samples (whole-rock δ¹⁸O=+4.8) probably indicates that this sample was incipiently altered at low temperatures as fumarolic activity waned, and thus may have had a whole-rock δ¹⁸O value much lower than +4.87‰ prior to 1923.     

Learning with Local Help: Expanding the Dialogue on Climate Change and Water Management in the Okanagan Region, British Columbia, Canada

The research activity described in this report is a comprehensive regional assessment of the impacts of climate change on water resources and options for adaptation in the Okanagan Basin. The ultimate goal of the project is to develop integrated climate change and water resource scenarios to stimulate a multistakeholder discussion on the implications of climate change for water management in the region. The paper describes two main objectives: (a) providing a set of research products that will be of relevance to regional interests in the Okanagan, and (b) establishing a methodology for participatory integrated assessment of regional climate change impacts and adaptation that could be applied to climate-related concerns in Canada and other countries. This collaborative study has relied on field research, computer-based models, and dialogue exercises to generate an assessment of future implications, and to learn about regional views on the prospects for adaptation. Along the way, it has benefited from strong partnerships with governments, researchers, local water practitioners, and user groups. Building on the scenario-based study components, and a series of interviews and surveys undertaken for the water management and adaptation case study components, a set of stakeholder dialogue sessions were organized which focused on identifying preferred adaptation options and processes for their implementation. Rather than seeking consensus on the “best” option or process, regional interests were asked to consider a range of available options as part of an adaptation portfolio that could address both supply side and demand side aspects of water resources management in the Okanagan. The Canadian Crown reserves the right to retain a non-exclusive, royalty free licence in and to any copyright.     

Stochastic study of solute transport in a nonstationary medium

A Lagrangian stochastic approach is applied to develop a method of moment for solute transport in a physically and chemically nonstationary medium. Stochastic governing equations for mean solute flux and solute covariance are analytically obtained in the first-order accuracy of log conductivity and/or chemical sorption variances and solved numerically using the finite-difference method. The developed method, the numerical method of moments (NMM), is used to predict radionuclide solute transport processes in the saturated zone below the Yucca Mountain project area. The mean, variance, and upper bound of the radionuclide mass flux through a control plane 5 km downstream of the footprint of the repository are calculated. According to their chemical sorption capacities, the various radionuclear chemicals are grouped as nonreactive, weakly sorbing, and strongly sorbing chemicals. The NMM method is used to study their transport processes and influence factors. To verify the method of moments, a Monte Carlo simulation is conducted for nonreactive chemical transport. Results indicate the results from the two methods are consistent, but the NMM method is computationally more efficient than the Monte Carlo method. This study adds to the ongoing debate in the literature on the effect of heterogeneity on solute transport prediction, especially on prediction uncertainty, by showing that the standard derivation of solute flux is larger than the mean solute flux even when the hydraulic conductivity within each geological layer is mild. This study provides a method that may become an efficient calculation tool for many environmental projects.     

Rare earth distributions in clay minerals and in the clay-sized fraction of the Lower Permian Havensville and Eskridge shales of Kansas and Oklahoma

The REE (rare earth element) content of a wide variety of clay mineral groups have been analyzed using radiochemical neutron activation and have been found to be quite variable in absolute REE content (range of ∑REE = 5.4–1732) and less variable in relative REE content (range of chondritenormalized La/Lu = 0.9–16.5). The variable REE content of the clay mineral groups is probably determined by the REE content of the source rock from which the clay mineral was derived and not from the separate minerals in the rock.The clay-sized fractions of the Havensville and Eskridge shales of Kansas and Oklahoma have similar relative REE distributions and identical negative Eu anomaly size as the composite of NAS (N. American shales), but an absolute REE content (range of ∑REE = 46–348) that may differ significantly from the composite of NAS. The clay-sized fraction of samples from any given outcrop did not vary much in absolute or relative REE content, but samples from northern Oklahoma, probably composed of continental to near-shore marine sediments, have higher absolute REE contents and higher La/Lu ratios than samples of marine deposits in Kansas (e.g. mean ∑REE in Oklahoma = 248; mean ∑REE in Kansas = 69–116). The differencess in the REE content between samples in Oklahoma and Kansas may be caused by chemical weathering processes in the source area, exchange reactions in the environment of deposition, or diagenesis and do not appear to be a result of the different clay minerals.Most samples have Eu anomalies relative to chondrites (range of Eu/Sm ratios of samples = 0.035–1.17; chondrites = 0.35). Some montmorillonites and kaolinites are anomalous in Eu relative to the NAS (range of Eu/Sm ratios of samples = 0.056–0.21; NAS = 0.22). These anomalies may be inherited from source rocks with Eu anomalies originally produced by igneous processes, or they may be produced by chemical weathering processes in the source area.