ON THE DETERMINATION OF THE ROUGHNESS COEFFICIENT IN NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL WATERWAYS

SYNOPSIS

It has always been a problem for the hydraulic engineer to obtain reasonable values for the roughness in a waterway. The writer feels that the idea put forward in this essay could help the parcticing engineer to obtain a roughness value without complicated procedure.     

Comparison of abstraction scenarios simulated by SWAT and SWAT-MODFLOW

In hydrological modelling of catchments, wherein streams are groundwater-fed, an accurate representation of groundwater processes and their interaction with surface water is crucial. With this purpose, a coupled model was recently developed linking SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) with the fully-distributed groundwater model MODFLOW (Modular Groundwater Flow). In this study, SWAT and SWAT-MODFLOW were applied to a Danish groundwater-dominant catchment, simulating groundwater abstraction scenarios and assessing the benefits and drawbacks of SWAT-MODFLOW. Both models demonstrated good performance. However, SWAT-MODFLOW provided more realistic outputs when simulating abstraction: the decrease in streamflow was similar to the volume of water abstracted, while in SWAT the impact was negligible. SWAT also showed impacts on streamflow only when abstractions were taken from the shallow aquifer, not from the deep aquifer. Overall, SWAT-MODFLOW demonstrated wider possibilities for groundwater analysis, providing more insights than SWAT in supporting decision making in relation to environmental assessment.     

Spectra of poorly resolved ocean data

Standard temperature and pressure sensors on Aanderaa RCM8 current meters have a resolution of 0.024 °C and 0.6 bar, each equal to 1 digital number (value) over a range of 1024. It is shown that an 11-month deep-ocean temperature record using only four values can contain useful spectral information on internal wave motions. This is partially due to the modulation of high-frequency data by non-zero low-frequency (subinertial) variations. This result follows from the comparison of this record with artificial three- and four-value data constructed from temperature records observed in stronger stratified waters nearby. These artificial records show main features of the internal wave band similar to those observed in the original data spectra. Peaks at tidal harmonic frequencies and enhancements at sum-tidal-inertial interaction frequencies are preserved in the artificial data, but overall noise level (and thus the continuum spectral slope) is enhanced with respect to the properly resolved records (using 15 and 100 values). As a demonstration of the stable accuracy of the temperature sensors, the poorly resolved records provided an estimate of mean stratification to within 5% of the estimate using Seabird CTD data.Responsible Editor: Hans Burchard     

Sampling Fauna in Stream Sediments as well as Groundwater Using One Net Sampler

Groundwater bores act as traps. Net samplers are regularly used for sampling this type of trap for fauna. To enable direct comparisons of faunal communities in groundwater bores and stream sediments, stream sediment tubes were built similar to groundwater bores and were sampled with net samplers for fauna. These stream sediment tubes consisted of a tube anchored in the stream sediment, also called interstitial space. To test the efficacy of this trap method in stream sediments, it was compared to another type of trap, Hahn's trap. Faunal communities sampled by a net in the stream sediment tubes did not differ hugely from fauna in Hahn's trap samples. Physical and chemical factors of sampled water in both the stream sediment tubes, the surrounding interstitial sediments and the second type of traps, Hahn's traps, showed that water in both the tubes and Hahn's traps was closely related to interstitial water. The net sampler is inexpensive and easy to handle. It is suggested that sampling stream tubes with nets may be an appropriate method for long‐term monitoring studies.     

Development of fouling communities on vertical structures in the Baltic Sea

The pillars of the bridge connecting the Island of Öland with the Swedish mainland were rebuilt between 1990 and 2000. The renovation produced pristine vertical concrete substrates, which became submerged in known years and seasons. The fouling communities on the pillars were examined in 2001 to determine whether the community structure could be explained in terms of either orderly successional development or of seasonal variation in the settlement of benthic organisms. As well, the communities on the pillars were compared to communities on the vertical surfaces of boulders in the area. The results indicated that an annual species composition is the final stage in the succession on the observed, vertical constructions. The few perennial species add to the variation between pillars as they increase in biomass (Polysiphonia fucoides) or become out-competed (Balanus improvisus). Also, observed seasonal differences in the biomass of these perennial species indicated that the time of year free space becomes available might be an important determinant of the future structure of the community. Comparison between the pillar and boulder communities showed that the artificial structures were not surrogates for the natural hard substrate: pillar communities differed in that they lacked most perennial algal species and had a high biomass of B. improvisus.     

From Local Star Formation to Global Star Formation

In this brief report we summarise the most important points raised in the course of a two-hour evening discussion session on the above topic, organised by the author. Major questions that were debated included the universality of the IMF, the history of the star formation rate in the solar neighorhood, the star formation efficiency in molecular clouds, and the role of triggered star formation. The issue of a threshold gas surface density for star formation to occur was also critically discussed. This revised version was published online in September 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Association of spherical and ellipsoidal gravity coefficients of the Earth's potential

A comparison is drawn between the expansion of the potential in spherical harmonics on the one hand and in ellipsoidal harmonics on the other, with the objective of associating the spherical and ellipsoidal gravity coefficients of the Earth's potential.For this purpose the properties of orthogonality of the Lamé functions of the first kind have been tailored to this subject of investigation and become instrumental in establishing the mathematical expressions which relate the two classes of gravity coefficients to each other. In deriving the elements of the transition matrices elliptic integrals have been encountered whose reduction to the three kinds of canonical elliptic integrals is discussed.Presented at the Conference on Celestial Mechanics, Oberwolfach, Germany, August 17–23, 1969.     

Lysosomal injury and MFO activity in the liver of flounder (Platichthys flesus L.) in relation to histopathology of hepatic degeneration and carcinogenesis

Flounder (Platichthys flesus L.), 18–48 cm total length were sampled in the mouth of the Elbe River during a 3-year interdisciplinary project ‘Fish Diseases in the Wadden Sea’. Lysosomal changes (lysosomal membrane stability) and the activity of biotransforming enzymes (MFOs/EROD) were measured parallel to investigations of ultrastructural changes in liver cells, tissue pathologies and macroscopically visible changes. The aim of the study was to investigate if these cyto- and biochemical parameters were able to reflect contaminant induced biological effects. Interlinking of the results of the MFO activity to the pathological alterations observed at the electron- and light-microscopic levels as well as during macroscopic inspection of identical individuals evidenced that the activity of the biotransformation enzymes (EROD) was not induced in healthy livers, increased considerably with the onset of liver changes and dropped again in those livers with degenerative, preneoplastic and neoplastic lesions. In contrast, concurrent studies of lysosomal membrane stability measured in parallel showed a decrease with the onset and progression of liver lesions from reversible to irreversible, neoplastic change.     

Subglacial emplacement of tills and meltwater deposits at the base of overdeepened bedrock troughs

The sedimentary infills of subglacially eroded bedrock troughs in the Alps are underexplored archives for the timing, extent and character of Pleistocene glaciations but may contain excellent records of the Quaternary landscape evolution over several glacial–interglacial cycles. The onset of sedimentation in these bedrock troughs is often reflected by diamicts and gravels directly overlying bedrock in the deepest basin segments. Subglacial or proglacial depositional environments have been proposed for these coarse‐grained basal units but their characteristics and origin remain controversial. This article presents results from drill cores that recovered a coarse‐grained basal unit in a major buried bedrock‐trough system in the Lower Glatt Valley, northern Switzerland. The excellent core recovery allowed a detailed study combining macroscopic, microscopic and geochemical methods and gives unprecedented insights into the transition from erosion to deposition in overdeepened bedrock troughs. These results show that the basal infill comprises diamicts, interpreted as subglacial tills, separated by thin sorted interbeds, originating from subglacial cavity deposition. The stacking of these units is interpreted to represent repeated switching between a coupled and decoupled ice–bed‐interface indicating an ever‐transforming mosaic of subglacial bed conditions. Decoupling in response to high basal water pressures is probably promoted by the confined subglacial hydraulic conditions resulting from the bedrock acting as aquitards, the narrow reverse sloping outlet and a large catchment area. While stratigraphic and lithological evidence suggests that erosion and the onset of basal sedimentation occurred during the same glaciation, different scenarios for the relative timing of infilling in relation to formation and glaciation of the bedrock trough are discussed. Overlying deltaic and glaciolacustrine sediments suggest deposition during subsequent deglaciation of the bedrock trough. The basal sediment characteristics are in agreement with previous reports in hydrogeological and seismic exploration and suggest the occurrence of similar basal successions in other subglacially overdeepened basins in the Alps and elsewhere.     

关于创口海百合(Traumatocrinus)的分类、分布及古生态

在中国贵州关岭地区晚三叠世(卡尼期)小凹组(=瓦窑组)海生爬行动物和海百合化石库中产有大量完好保存的创口海百合(Traumatocrinus)(棘皮动物门,海百合纲)化石。根据对此类海百合分类、分布和形态构造及古生态的研究,特别是大量完好保存、且附着在漂浮木头上的群体化石标本的发现,进一步证明这种外形似海百合花的创口海百合营假浮游的生活方式。这类特化的海百合分枝起源于另一类底栖中三叠世石莲海百合科,很快占领了卡尼期初期的生态境,至卡尼期末创口海百合衰退以后,它的生态境在诺利期时为形态发生的趋同变异的链海百合(Seirocrinus)和五角海百合(Pentacrinites)所占领。