Retrieval and interpretation of precipitation rates generated from the composition of the Merouane Chott ephemeral lake

Merouane Chott ephemeral lake is an ideal natural system for studying mineral dissolution and precipitation rates because (1) it undergoes annual cycles of filling and complete evaporation, and (2) it has a simple, well-defined hydrology. The major element concentrations of Merouane Chott lake waters have been measured weekly from January to June 2003. These concentrations are used together with estimates of the chott lake volume to calculate the temporal evolution of the total mass of these major elements. Dividing the first derivative of these masses with respect to time by the chott surface area yields precipitation rate estimates for halite, calcite, gypsum, and K–Mg salts during the complete evaporation of the lake. These rates are compared with the saturation indexes of these minerals to deduce the degree to which they are consistent with laboratory measured rates available in the literature.     

Social vulnerability indices: a comparative assessment using uncertainty and sensitivity analysis

Social vulnerability indices have emerged over the past decade as quantitative measures of the social dimensions of natural hazards vulnerability. But how reliable are the index rankings? Validation of indices with external reference data has posed a persistent challenge in large part because social vulnerability is multidimensional and not directly observable. This article applies global sensitivity analyses to internally validate the methods used in the most common social vulnerability index designs: deductive, hierarchical, and inductive. Uncertainty analysis is performed to assess the robustness of index ranks when reasonable alternative index configurations are modeled. The hierarchical design was found to be the most accurate, while the inductive model was the most precise. Sensitivity analysis is employed to understand which decisions in the vulnerability index construction process have the greatest influence on the stability of output rankings. The deductive index ranks are found to be the most sensitive to the choice of transformation method, hierarchical models to the selection of weighting scheme, and inductive indices to the indicator set and scale of analysis. Specific recommendations for each stage of index construction are provided so that the next generation of social vulnerability indices can be developed with a greater degree of transparency, robustness, and reliability.     

Carbonate Mineral Saturation State as the Recruitment Cue for Settling Bivalves in Marine Muds

After a pelagic larval phase, infaunal bivalves undergo metamorphosis and transition to the underlying sediments to begin the benthic stage of their life history, where they explore and then either accept or reject sediments. Although the settlement cues used by juvenile infaunal bivalves are poorly understood, here we provide evidence that carbonate saturation state is a significant chemical cue in both direct observation laboratory studies and field manipulations. In the laboratory, plantigrade-stage Mercenaria mercenaria (200 μm shell height) showed a significant positive relationship between percent burrowed and Ω_aragonite, with an increasing probability of settlement with increasing saturation state. In the field, we increased bivalve recruitment by a factor of three in a 30-day field study by raising the pH (～0.3) and saturation state of surface sediments by buffering sediments with crushed shell (CaCO₃). The susceptibility of infaunal bivalves to dissolution mortality and the tight coupling of other sedimentary biogeochemical processes with carbonate dynamics suggest that mineral thermodynamics may be an overarching cue new settlers are responding to.     

Editorial

Abstract

With the increase in volume of spatial data now available, more effective ways must be found of storing and processing these data. This paper presents a compacted version of the linear quadtree and a spatially-referenced index method that can significantly reduce the storage requirements of a set of images and the time taken to process spatial queries. The index acts as a high-level summary of a regular-sized portion of the underlying image and so can be used to avoid examining areas of the image where none of the required features is present. Some example results are given. A method for the optimization of spatial searches is presented which takes into account the area and distribution of features within an image. Finally, a method for directly associating the edges of features with the individual nodes of a quadtree is reported. This is important since the edges of objects are no longer explicitly present in linear quadtrees and so must be recalculated when they are required for part of a query. Recalculation of object edges or boundaries is expensive; it is best, therefore, to perform the operation once only, and then save the results.     

Transatlantic latest Cretaceous mosasaurs (Reptilia,Lacertilia) from the Maastrichtian type area and New Jersey

Cranial and postcranial elements of the mosasaurid reptiles Mosasaurus hoffmanni Mantell 1829 and Plioplatecarpus marshi Dollo 1882 from the Maastrichtian type area, and of Mosasaurus maximus Cope 1869 and Plioplatecarpus depressus (Cope 1869) from New Jersey are compared. Views held by previous authors are discussed. It is concluded that these European and North American taxa are conspecific.     

Seasonal oxygen depletion in Chesapeake Bay

The spring freshet increases density stratification in Chesapeake Bay and minimizes oxygen transfer from the surface to the deep layer so that waters below 10 m depth experiece oxygen depletion which may lead to anoxia during June to September. Respiration in the water of the deep layer is the major factor contributing to oxygen depletion. Benthic respiration seems secondary. Organic matter from the previous year which has settled into the deep layer during winter provides most of the oxygen demand but some new production in the surface layer may sink and thus supplement the organic matter accumulated in the deep layer.     

Stationarity of Turbulence in Light Winds during the Maritime Continent Thunderstorm Experiment

Non-stationary turbulence can invalidate eddy flux calculations. Two-hour longrecords of wind velocity, temperature and humidity are classified as stationaryor non-stationary based on the behaviour of the flux as a function of Reynoldsaveraging period; a number of indicators of stationarity are investigated. Thetwo-hour Maritime Continent Thunderstorm Experiment wind datasets are notcompletely stationary, as indicated by the lack of a spectral gap, but can beclassified as approximately stationary, when the mean wind speed is greaterthan 3.8 m s^-1, or the standard deviation of true wind direction is 10°, or the ratio of horizontal wind variance to wind speed is <0.25. In the stationary case the calculated friction velocity exhibits a 7% decrease on average when the Reynolds averaging period is doubled, while data classified as non-stationaryexhibit an increase of 32%. There is little non-stationary behaviour in the kinematicheat fluxes, and is independent of the non-stationarity of the friction velocity. Thekinematic heat fluxes show small decreases (around 3%) when the Reynolds averagingperiod is doubled.     

Estimating source regions for snowmelt runoff in a Rocky Mountain basin: tests of a data‐based conceptual modeling approach

In many mountain basins, river discharge measurements are located far away from runoff source areas. This study tests whether a basic snowmelt runoff conceptual model can be used to estimate relative contributions of different elevation zones to basin‐scale discharge in the Cache la Poudre, a snowmelt‐dominated Rocky Mountain river. Model tests evaluate scenarios that vary model configuration, input variables, and parameter values to determine how these factors affect discharge simulation and the distribution of runoff generation with elevation. Results show that the model simulates basin discharge well (NSCE and R >0.90) when input precipitation and temperature are distributed with different lapse rates, with a rain‐snow threshold parameter between 0 and 3.3 °C, and with a melt rate parameter between 2 and 4 mm °C^?1 d^?1 because these variables and parameters can have compensating interactions with each other and with the runoff coefficient parameter. Only the hydrograph recession parameter can be uniquely defined with this model structure. These non‐unique model scenarios with different configurations, input variables, and parameter values all indicate that the majority of basin discharge comes from elevations above 2900 m, or less than 25% of the basin total area, with a steep increase in runoff generation above 2600 m. However, the simulations produce unrealistically low runoff ratios for elevations above 3000 m, highlighting the need for additional measurements of snow and discharge at under‐sampled elevations to evaluate the accuracy of simulated snow and runoff patterns. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.