A note on vacuum self-creation cosmological models

The vacuum field equations of the self-creation theory of gravitation are solved for the Robertson-Walker space-time, by using a correspondence to known solutions of general relativity.     

Flow and sediment regimes at tributary junctions on a regulated river: impact on sediment residence time and benthic macroinvertebrate communities

Tributaries may either ameliorate or exacerbate the geomorphic and ecologic impacts of flow regulation by altering the flux of water and sediment into the flow‐regulated mainstem. To capture the effects of tributary influences on a flow regulated river, long‐term discharge and cross‐sectional data are used to assess the geomorphic and hydrologic impacts of impoundment. In addition, the use of the short‐lived cosmogenic radioisotope ⁷Be (half‐life 53·4 days) to link sediment transport dynamics to benthic macroinvertebrate community structure is evaluated. It is found that the ⁷Be activity of transitional bed load sediment is highly seasonal and reflects both variations in activity of sediment sources and limited sediment residence time within the junction. Benthic communities also exhibit a strong seasonal variability. In the spring, neither the ⁷Be activity of the sediment, nor benthic communities exhibit clear relationships with sample site location. In contrast, during the late summer the ratio of Ephemeroptera (mayflies)/Trichoptera (caddisflies) decreased significantly below tributary junctions. This decrease in benthic community ratio was driven by increases in caddisfly abundance and was strongly correlated with the presence of recently ⁷Be tagged transitional bedload sediment. These observations are probably associated with the presence of coarse, stable, and unembedded substrate downstream of tributaries and the rapid turnover of sediment that may also be associated with a rapid flux in nutrients or seston. The results show that tributaries are impacting the flow‐regulated mainstem and that these impacts are reflected in the benthic community structure and in the ⁷Be activity of transitional bed load sediment. Moreover, the observed reduction in competence and capacity of the mainstem following flood control suggests that these spatial discontinuities may be a consequence of impoundment. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Earth orientation parameters estimated from VLBI during the CONT11 campaign

In this paper we investigate the accuracy of the earth orientation parameters (EOP) estimated from the continuous VLBI campaign CONT11. We first estimated EOP with daily resolution and compared these to EOP estimated from GNSS data. We find that the WRMS differences are about 31  $\upmu $ as for polar motion and 7  $\upmu $ s for length of day. This is about the precision we could expect, based on Monte Carlo simulations and the results of the previous CONT campaigns. We also estimated EOP with hourly resolution to study the sub-diurnal variations. The results confirm the results of previous studies, showing that the current IERS model for high-frequency EOP variations does not explain all the sub-diurnal variations seen in the estimated time series. We then compared our results to various empirical high-frequency EOP models. However, we did not find that any of these gave any unambiguous improvement. Several simulations testing the impact of various aspects of, e.g. the observing network were also made. For example, we made simulations assuming that all CONT11 stations were equipped with fast VLBI2010 antennas. We found that the WRMS error decreased by about a factor five compared to the current VLBI system. Furthermore, the simulations showed that it is very important to have a homogenous global distribution of the stations for achieving the highest precision for the EOP.     

A technique for modeling transport/conversion processes applied to smectite-to-illite conversion in HLW buffers

This paper describes an application of a technique developed for modeling chemical processes in buffer materials that are controlled by a reaction rate and by the transport of one component, which is essential for the process in question to occur. The application described here is the illitization of smectite by fixation of potassium ions in cation exchange positions, and with diffusion of dissolved potassium being the transport process. The technique is verified by comparison with analytical solutions. An overview, based on small models, is given which outlines under what constellations of assumptions the time scale for conversion of the buffer is controlled by reaction rate parameters and under which conditions transport controls this time scale. Examples are given of calculations performed for deposition holes, with potassium being supplied from the surroundings to the upper parts of the highly compacted bentonite buffer. It is concluded that restrictions in nearfield transport capacity have a very significant effect on the conversion time scale. Towards the end of the heating period about 98% of the smectite is found to remain, even for reaction rates and buffer transport conditions that would have left only 10% of the smectite unconverted without nearfield transport restrictions. It is also concluded that the modeling technique can be applied to other, similar, transport/conversion processes.     

Across the Arctic front west of Spitsbergen: high-resolution CTD sections from 1998-2000

The structure of the oceanic Arctic front west of Spitsbergen is investigated using data from high-resolution CTD sections from September 1998-2000. Below the fresher surface layer, the front appears as a temperature-salinity front situated near the shelf break. No clear corresponding front in density is found. Our analysis suggests that barotropic front instability is a main factor in provoking subsurface cross-front exchange. The subsurface heat loss in the West Spitsbergen Current due to this exchange is estimated to be of the same order of magnitude as the heat loss to the atmosphere in the surface layer.     

Habitat Selection and Ecology of Two Speleophilic Gobiid Fishes(Pisces: Gobiidae) from the Western Mediterranean Sea

The life habits and microhabitat selection of speleophilic gobiid fishes were investigated on the Balearic Island of Ibiza (western Mediterranean Sea). Corcyrogobius liechtensteini (Kolombatović, 1891) was the most frequent species within submarine crevices, cavities and caves. Didogobius splechtnai Ahnelt & Patzner, 1995 co-occurred with C. liechtensteini in several cases but showed a clear spatial separation based on a different microhabitat preference. The microhabitat selection of both species was confirmed by habitat-choice experiments in anaquarium. Corcyrogobius liechtensteini was frequent in depths between 5 m and 25 m and attained abundances of 14.2 individuals · m⁻². This species inhabited the ceilings and upper parts of the walls within the caves. D. splechtnai was mainly found between 7 m and 11 m and showed abundances of approximately 2 indivi-duals · m⁻². This species occupied the fine sediment bottoms in the innermost parts of crevices and caves. The growth and the maximum age of both species were determined by length-frequency distributions. The overall sex ratio from catches of three different years are given for C. liechtensteini .     

Physical and biological characteristics of the pelagic system across Fram Strait to Kongsfjorden

The Fram Strait is very important with regard to heat and mass exchange in the Arctic Ocean, and the large quantities of heat carried north by the West Spitsbergen Current (WSC) influence the climate in the Arctic region as a whole. A large volume of water and ice is transported through Fram Strait, with net water transport of 1.7–3.2 Sv southward in the East Greenland Current and a volume ice flux in the range of 0.06–0.11 Sv. The mean annual ice flux is about 866,000 km² yr⁻¹. The Kongsfjorden–Krossfjorden fjord system on the coast of Spitsbergen, or at the eastern extreme of Fram Strait, is mainly affected by the northbound transport of water in the WSC. Mixing processes on the shelf result in Transformed Atlantic Water in the fjords, and the advection of Atlantic water also carries boreal fauna into the fjords. The phytoplankton production is about 80 g C m⁻² yr⁻¹ in Fram Strait, and has been estimated both below and above this for Kongsfjorden. The zooplankton fauna is diverse, but dominated in terms of biomass by calanoid copepods, particularly Calanus glacialis and C. finmarchicus. Other important copepods include C. hyperboreus, Metridia longa and the smaller, more numerous Pseudocalanus (P. minutus and P. acuspes), Microcalanus (M. pusillus and M. pygmaeus) and Oithona similis. The most important species of other taxa appear to be the amphipods Themisto libellula and T. abyssorum, the euphausiids Thysanoessa inermis and T. longicaudata and the chaetognaths Sagitta elegans and Eukrohnia hamata. A comparison between the open ocean of Fram Strait and the restricted fjord system of Kongsfjorden–Krossfjorden can be made within limitations. The same species tend to dominate, but the Fram Strait zooplankton fauna differs by the presence of meso- and bathypelagic copepods. The seasonal and inter-annual variation in zooplankton is described for Kongsfjorden based on the record during July 1996–2002. The ice macrofauna is much less diverse, consisting of a handful of amphipod species and the polar cod. The ice-associated biomass transport of ice-amphipods was calculated, based on the ice area transport, at about 3.55 × 10⁶ ton wet weight per year or about 4.2 × 10⁵ t C yr⁻¹. This represents a large energy input to the Greenland Sea, but also a drain on the core population residing in the multi-year pack ice (MYI) in the Arctic Ocean. A continuous habitat loss of MYI due to climate warming will likely reduce dramatically the sympagic food source. The pelagic and sympagic food web structures were revealed by stable isotopes. The carbon sources of particulate organic matter (POM), being Ice-POM and Pelagic-POM, revealed different isotopic signals in the organisms of the food web, and also provided information about the sympagic–pelagic and pelagic–benthic couplings. The marine food web and energy pathways were further determined by fatty acid trophic markers, which to a large extent supported the stable isotope picture of the marine food web, although some discrepancies were noted, particularly with regard to predator–prey relationships of ctenophores and pteropods.     

Effects of cross-shore boundary condition errors in nearshore circulation modeling

The paper analyzes the effect which prescribed errors in the cross-shore boundary conditions for a computational domain along a beach have on the flow field predicted inside the domain. This problem is relevant because errors in boundary conditions are unavoidable when modeling limited domains of a nearshore region. For simplicity, we consider a longshore uniform plane beach with monochromatic, obliquely incident waves, and assume depth uniform currents. It is then studied analytically and numerically how small perturbations of the boundary conditions along both upstream and downstream cross-shore boundaries spread inside the computational domain. It is found that the errors at the upstream cross-shore boundary tend to spread over a long distance downstream of the boundary, while the influence of the errors in the downstream boundary condition is limited to the adjacent upstream area of the computational domain. Both the numerical and analytical solutions show that the errors introduced at the upstream boundary decay exponentially in the surf zone at a rate proportional to the bottom friction. A simple formula is developed to estimate the influence distance of the upstream errors. If we consider the mismatch in the volume flux at the upstream boundary, the error merely redistributes in the cross-shore direction to conserve volume. In the case of excessive flux or velocity specified at the cross-shore boundaries, a circulation cell tends to appear in the offshore region where the errors caused by the boundary mismatch increase with the cross-shore width of the model domain.