The Colorado East River Community Observatory Data Collection

The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Colorado East River Community Observatory (ER) in the Upper Colorado River Basin was established in 2015 as a representative mountainous, snow-dominated watershed to study hydrobiogeochemical responses to hydrological perturbations in headwater systems. The ER is characterized by steep elevation, geologic, hydrologic and vegetation gradients along floodplain, montane, subalpine, and alpine life zones, which makes it an ideal location for researchers to understand how different mountain subsystems contribute to overall watershed behaviour. The ER has both long-term and spatially-extensive observations and experimental campaigns carried out by the Watershed Function Scientific Focus Area (SFA), led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and researchers from over 30 organizations who conduct cross-disciplinary process-based investigations and modelling of watershed behaviour. The heterogeneous data generated at the ER include hydrological, genomic, biogeochemical, climate, vegetation, geological, and remote sensing data, which combined with model inputs and outputs comprise a collection of datasets and value-added products within a mountainous watershed that span multiple spatiotemporal scales, compartments, and life zones. Within 5 years of collection, these datasets have revealed insights into numerous aspects of watershed function such as factors influencing snow accumulation and melt timing, water balance partitioning, and impacts of floodplain biogeochemistry and hillslope ecohydrology on riverine geochemical exports. Data generated by the SFA are managed and curated through its Data Management Framework. The SFA has an open data policy, and over 70 ER datasets are publicly available through relevant data repositories. A public interactive map of data collection sites run by the SFA is available to inform the broader community about SFA field activities. Here, we describe the ER and the SFA measurement network, present the public data collection generated by the SFA and partner institutions, and highlight the value of collecting multidisciplinary multiscale measurements in representative catchment observatories.     

The only show cave known to boast a Palaeozoic reef

In south‐central Pennsylvania, USA, is the world's only Upper Silurian/lower Devonian period shallow water marine reef, located deep within a cave and operated for the tourist trade. Other unusual features in the cave include black basaltic rock, the presence of nearly perfect clear calcite crystals and varied cave decorations. The reef is primarily composed of stromatoporoids with brachiopods and crinoids and is part of the Upper Silurian Jersey Shore Member of the Keyser Formation siliciclastics and carbonates. Just outside the cave itself is a transition to the Devonian New Creek and Corriganville formations, also siliciclastics and carbonates. In these formations are the only actual fossil corals in the vicinity of the cave discovered by Boy Scouts in 1928 by climbing through a natural entrance. ‘Wonderland Coral Caverns’ was opened to the public in the 1930s and closed in the 1980s until a safer entrance could be created. The cave is the result of the Alleghanian Orogeny in which Silurian and Devonian sedimentary strata were buried without metamorphism beneath the encroaching northwest African continental mass as the proto‐Atlantic Ocean and the Rheic Ocean closed. The mass eroded completely and the resulting sediments were transported to the west of modern day Pennsylvania, leaving a karst topography and a well preserved fossil reef.     

Wildfire effects on extractable elements in ash from a Pinus pinaster forest in Portugal

The aim of this work is to study the effects of a wildfire on water‐extractable elements in ash from a Pinus pinaster forest located in Portugal. The pH, electrical conductivity (EC), calcium (Ca²⁺), magnesium (Mg²⁺), sodium (Na⁺), potassium (K⁺), sodium and potassium adsorption ratio (SPAR), aluminium (Al³⁺), manganese (Mn²⁺), iron (Fe²⁺), zinc (Zn²⁺), sulphur (S), silica (Si) and phosphorous (P) were analysed in ash sampled from a sloped area burned in a wildfire and from litter from a contiguous unburned area, with similar morphological conditions. The results showed that ash leachates had higher pH and EC, and were significantly richer in water‐extractable Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, Na⁺, K⁺, SPAR, S and Si and significantly poorer in water‐extractable Al³⁺, Fe²⁺, Mn²⁺ and Zn²⁺ than litter solutions. No significant differences were observed in water‐extractable P. The fire changed the ash solute chemistry compared with the unburned litter and increased the sample variability of nutrient distribution with potential implications for plant recovery. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An anisotropic elastic‐decohesive constitutive relation for sea ice

Thermodynamic growth or melt and mechanical redistribution due to lead opening or ridge formation shape the thickness distribution of the Arctic ice cover and impact the overall strength of pack ice. Specifically, the deformation and strength of ice are not isotropic but vary with the thickness and lead orientation. To reflect these facts, we develop an anisotropic, elastic‐decohesive constitutive model for sea ice together with a model to describe an oriented, ice thickness distribution. The tight connection between the mechanical response and the thickness distribution is an improvement over a previous model that only depended on the average ice thickness. The model describes mechanical responses anisotropically in both the elastic and failure regimes. In the elastic regime, the constitutive relation implicitly reflects strong and weak directions of the pack ice depending on the distribution of thin ice (including open water) and thicker ice (e.g., multi‐year ice or ridges). In the failure regime, the model predicts both failure initiation and the lead orientation. Evolution from initial failure to complete failure when traction‐free crack surfaces are formed is also modeled. Crack or lead width is determined during the evolution. Various examples of failure surfaces are presented to describe the behavior of modeled ice when the thickness distribution varies. The model predictions are also illustrated and compared with previous modeling efforts by examining regions of ice under idealized loading. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Meta‐analysis of field‐saturated hydraulic conductivity recovery following wildland fire: Applications for hydrologic model parameterization and resilience assessment

Hydrologic recovery after wildfire is critical for restoring the ecosystem services of protecting of human lives and infrastructure from hazards and delivering water supply of sufficient quality and quantity. Recovery of soil‐hydraulic properties, such as field‐saturated hydraulic conductivity (K_fs), is a key factor for assessing the duration of watershed‐scale flash flood and debris flow risks after wildfire. Despite the crucial role of K_fs in parameterizing numerical hydrologic models to predict the magnitude of postwildfire run‐off and erosion, existing quantitative relations to predict K_fs recovery with time since wildfire are lacking. Here, we conduct meta‐analyses of 5 datasets from the literature that measure or estimate K_fs with time since wildfire for longer than 3‐year duration. The meta‐analyses focus on fitting 2 quantitative relations (linear and non‐linear logistic) to explain trends in K_fs temporal recovery. The 2 relations adequately described temporal recovery except for 1 site where macropore flow dominated infiltration and K_fs recovery. This work also suggests that K_fs can have low hydrologic resistance (large postfire changes), and moderate to high hydrologic stability (recovery time relative to disturbance recurrence interval) and resilience (recovery of hydrologic function and provision of ecosystem services). Future K_fs relations could more explicitly incorporate processes such as soil‐water repellency, ground cover and soil structure regeneration, macropore recovery, and vegetation regrowth.     

Total mercury in sediments and in Brazilian Ariidae catfish from two estuaries under different anthropogenic influence

Santos-São Vicente estuary, located in São Paulo State, Brazil, has a history of contamination by inorganic chemicals such as mercury (Hg). In the 1980s the Cubatão was considered one of the most polluted sites in the world as a consequence of the intense industrial activities located in the city close to the estuary. To provide data and evaluate the local biota, total mercury (THg) contents were determined in sediments and in fish, Cathorops spixii, from different areas of the Santos-São Vicente estuary. For comparison, samples were also collected in a non-polluted system with similar hydrochemistry characteristics, the Cananeia estuary. The water characteristics and THg levels in sediment and fish samples confirmed a high human influence in the Santos-São Vicente estuary. The lowest THg values, observed in Cananeia, were evidence of low anthropogenic influence. High values observed in Santos-São Vicente show the necessity for a monitoring program.     

Importance of Biogeomorphic and Spatial Properties in Assessing a Tidal Salt Marsh Vulnerability to Sea-level Rise

We evaluated the biogeomorphic processes of a large (309 ha) tidal salt marsh and examined factors that influence its ability to keep pace with relative sea-level rise (SLR). Detailed elevation data from 1995 and 2008 were compared with digital elevation models (DEMs) to assess marsh surface elevation change during this time. Overall, 37 % (113 ha) of the marsh increased in elevation at a rate that exceeded SLR, whereas 63 % (196 ha) of the area did not keep pace with SLR. Of the total area, 55 % (169 ha) subsided during the study period, but subsidence varied spatially across the marsh surface. To determine which biogeomorphic and spatial factors contributed to measured elevation change, we collected soil cores and determined percent and origin of organic matter (OM), particle size, bulk density (BD), and distance to nearest bay edge, levee, and channel. We then used Akaike Information Criterion (AICc) model selection to assess those variables most important to determine measured elevation change. Soil stable isotope compositions were evaluated to assess the source of the OM. The samples had limited percent OM by weight (<5.5 %), with mean bulk densities of 0.58 g cm^-3, indicating that the soils had high mineral content with a relatively low proportion of pore space. The most parsimonious model with the highest AICc weight (0.53) included distance from bay's edge (i.e., lower intertidal) and distance from levee (i.e., upper intertidal). Close proximity to sediment source was the greatest factor in determining whether an area increased in elevation, whereas areas near landward levees experienced subsidence. Our study indicated that the ability of a marsh to keep pace with SLR varied across the surface, and assessing changes in elevation over time provides an alternative method to long-term accretion monitoring. SLR models that do not consider spatial variability of biogeomorphic and accretion processes may not correctly forecast marsh drowning rates, which may be especially true in modified and urbanized estuaries. In light of SLR, improving our understanding of elevation change in these dynamic marsh systems will play a crucial role in forecasting potential impacts to their sustainability and the survival of these ecosystems.     

A highly symmetric restricted nine-body problem and the linear stability of its relative equilibria

We study a highly symmetric nine-body problem in which eight positive masses, called the primaries, move four by four, in two concentric circular motions such that their configuration is always a square for each group of four masses. The ninth body being of negligible mass and not influencing the motion of the eight primaries. We assume all the nine masses are in the same plane and that the masses of the primaries are \(m_{1}=m_{2}=m_{3}=m_{4}=\tilde{m}\) and m ₅=m ₆=m ₇=m ₈=m and the radii associated to the circular motion of the bodies with mass \(\tilde{m}\) is λ∈[λ ₀,1] and for the bodies with mass m is 1. We prove the existence of central configurations which characterize such arrangement of the primaries and we study the influence of the parameter λ, the ratio of the radii of the two circles, on the masses m and \(\tilde{m}\) . We use a synodical system of coordinates to eliminate the time dependence on the equations of motion. We show the existence of equilibria solutions symmetrically distributed on the four quadrants and their dependence on the parameter λ. Finally, we show that there can be 13, 17 or 25 equilibria solutions depending on the size of λ and we investigate their linear stability.     

New models of interstellar gas–grain chemistry – II. Surface photochemistry in quiescent cores

The photodissociation of surface species, caused by photons from the cosmic-ray-induced and background interstellar radiation fields, is incorporated into our combined gas-phase and grain-surface chemical models of quiescent dense interstellar cores. For the cores studied here, only cosmic-ray-induced photons are important. We find that photodissociation alters gas-phase and surface abundances mainly at large cloud ages (≳ 10^6–7 yr). The abundances of those surface species, such as H₂O, that are readily reproduced on the surface following photodissociation are not strongly affected at any time. The abundances of surface species that are, on the other hand, reformed slowly via surface reactions possessing activation energy (e.g. CH₃OH) are reduced, while the abundances of associated surface photoproducts (e.g. CO) increase. In the gas phase, inclusion of surface photodissociation tends to increase molecular abundances at late times, slightly improving the agreement with observation for TMC-1.