An assessment of land degradation in the Save catchment of Zimbabwe

The lack of reliable baseline information on land degradation is a hindrance towards its monitoring and mitigation. Of particular interest is the identification of areas susceptible to degradation. In this study, remote sensing and GIS technologies were applied to detect and map susceptibility to land degradation in Buhera district, in Save catchment, Zimbabwe. Data used included Landsat TM and ETM imagery for 1992 and 2002, agro-ecological zones, vegetation cover and population density. The study identified five preliminary categories of degradation susceptibility ranging from very high to low.     

Ocean currents determine functional connectivity in an Antarctic deep‐sea shrimp

The coherency among larval stages of marine taxa, ocean currents and population connectivity is still subject to discussion. A common view is that organisms with pelagic larval stages have higher dispersal abilities and therefore show a relatively homogeneous population genetic structure. Contrary to this, local genetic differentiation is assumed for many benthic direct developers. Specific larval or adult migratory behavior and hydrographic effects may significantly influence distribution patterns, rather than passive drifting abilities alone. The Southern Ocean is an ideal environment to test for the effects of ocean currents on population connectivity as it is characterized by several well‐defined and strong isolating current systems. In this study we studied the genetic structure of the decapod deep‐sea shrimp Nematocarcinus lanceopes, which has planktotrophic larval stages. We analysed 194 individuals from different sample localities around the Antarctic continent using nine microsatellite markers. Consistent with a previous study based on mitochondrial DNA markers, primarily weak genetic patterns among N. lanceopes populations around the continent were found. Using ocean resistance modeling approaches we were able to show that subtle genetic differences among populations are more likely explained by ocean currents rather than by geographic distance for the Atlantic Sector of the Southern Ocean.     

Modelling soil moisture in a high‐latitude landscape using LiDAR and soil data

Soil moisture has a pronounced effect on earth surface processes. Global soil moisture is strongly driven by climate, whereas at finer scales, the role of non‐climatic drivers becomes more important. We provide insights into the significance of soil and land surface properties in landscape‐scale soil moisture variation by utilizing high‐resolution light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data and extensive field investigations. The data consist of 1200 study plots located in a high‐latitude landscape of mountain tundra in north‐western Finland. We measured the plots three times during growing season 2016 with a hand‐held time‐domain reflectometry sensor. To model soil moisture and its temporal variation, we used four statistical modelling methods: generalized linear models, generalized additive models, boosted regression trees, and random forests. The model fit of the soil moisture models were R² = 0.60 and root mean square error (RMSE) 8.04 VWC% on average, while the temporal variation models showed a lower fit of R² = 0.25 and RMSE 13.11 CV%. The predictive performances for the former were R² = 0.47 and RMSE 9.34 VWC%, and for the latter R² = 0.01 and RMSE 15.29 CV%. Results were similar across the modelling methods, demonstrating a consistent pattern. Soil moisture and its temporal variation showed strong heterogeneity over short distances; therefore, soil moisture modelling benefits from high‐resolution predictors, such as LiDAR based variables. In the soil moisture models, the strongest predictor was SAGA (System for Automated Geoscientific Analyses) wetness index (SWI), based on a 1 m² digital terrain model derived from LiDAR data, which outperformed soil predictors. Thus, our study supports the use of LiDAR based SWI in explaining fine‐scale soil moisture variation. In the temporal variation models, the strongest predictor was the field‐quantified organic layer depth variable. Our results show that spatial soil moisture predictions can be based on soil and land surface properties, yet the temporal models require further investigation. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

GIS应用中认知阶层性对地理信息有效传输的影响

GIS应用的最终目的是使其所包含的地理信息有效传递。该文从信息科学、认知科学及地理信息科学角度出发,指出认知空间和地理空间的阶层对应性是实现地理信息有效传递的基础;提出两类空间重叠区的概念,并阐明其在信息有效传递过程中的重要作用;确立认知科学在GIS应用中的两个基本原则是建立这种对应性的理论依据;强调信息制造者(制图者)是构建这种对应性的实施者,而信息接收者(用户)对认知空间分类阶层的正确识别则是构建这种对应性的出发点。     

Late Holocene linkages between decade–century scale climate variability and productivity at Lake Tanganyika, Africa

Microlaminated sediment cores from the Kalya slope region of Lake Tanganyika provide a near-annually resolved paleoclimate record between ∼∼2,840 and 1,420 cal. yr B.P. demonstrating strong linkages between climate variability and lacustrine productivity. Laminae couplets comprise dark, terrigenous-dominated half couplets, interpreted as low density underflows deposited from riverine sources during the rainy season, alternating with light, planktonic diatomaceous ooze, with little terrigenous component, interpreted as windy/dry season deposits. Laminated portions of the studied cores consist of conspicuous dark and light colored bundles of laminae couplets. Light and dark bundles alternate at decadal time scales. Within dark bundles, both light and dark half couplets are significantly thinner than within light bundles, implying slower sediment accumulation rates during both seasons over those intervals.Time series analyses of laminae thickness patterns demonstrate significant periodicities at interannual–centennial time scales. Longer time scale periodicities (multidecadal to centennial scale) of light and dark half couplet thicknesses are coherent and in some cases are similar to solar cycle periods on these time scales. Although laminae thickness cycles do not strongly covary with the actual Δ¹⁴C record for this same time period, two large Δ¹⁴C anomalies are associated with substantial decreases in both light and dark laminae thickness. In contrast to the multidecadal– centennial time scale, significant annual to decadal periodicities, which are broadly consistent with ENSO/PDO forcing and their impact on East African climate, are not coherent between light and dark half couplets. The coherency of light–dark couplets at decadal–centennial time scales, but not at shorter time scales, is consistent with a model of a long-term relationship between precipitation (recorded in wet season dark laminae thickness) and productivity (light laminae thickness), which is not manifest at shorter time scales. We hypothesize that this coupling results from long-term recharging of internal nutrient loading during wet periods (higher erosion of soil P) and reduced loading during drought intervals. The relationship is not expressed on short time scales during which the dominant control on productivity is wind-driven, dry season upwelling, which is uncorrelated with wet-season precipitation. Our record greatly extends the temporal record of this quasi-periodic behavior throughout the late Holocene and provides the first evidence linking decade- to century-scale episodes of enhanced productivity to enhanced precipitation levels and nutrient recharge in a productive tropical lake.     

Influence of dissolution/reprecipitation reactions on metamorphic greenschist to amphibolite facies mica 40Ar/39Ar ages in the Longmen Shan (eastern Tibet)

Linking ages to metamorphic stages in rocks that have experienced low‐ to medium‐grade metamorphism can be particularly tricky due to the rarity of index minerals and the preservation of mineral or compositional relicts. The timing of metamorphism and the Mesozoic exhumation of the metasedimentary units and crystalline basement that form the internal part of the Longmen Shan (eastern Tibet, Sichuan, China), are, for these reasons, still largely unconstrained, but crucial for understanding the regional tectonic evolution of eastern Tibet. In situ core‐rim ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar biotite and U–Th/Pb allanite data show that amphibolite facies conditions (~10–11 kbar, 530°C to 6–7 kbar, 580°C) were reached at 210–180 Ma and that biotite records crystallization, rather than cooling, ages. These conditions are mainly recorded in the metasedimentary cover. The ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar ages obtained from matrix muscovite that partially re‐equilibrated during the post peak‐P metamorphic history comprise a mixture of ages between that of early prograde muscovite relicts and the timing of late muscovite recrystallization at c. 140–120 Ma. This event marks a previously poorly documented greenschist facies metamorphic overprint. This latest stage is also recorded in the crystalline basement, and defines the timing of the greenschist overprint (7 ± 1 kbar, 370 ± 35°C). Numerical models of Ar diffusion show that the difference between ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar biotite and muscovite ages cannot be explained by a slow and protracted cooling in an open system. The model and petrological results rather suggest that biotite and muscovite experienced different Ar retention and resetting histories. The Ar record in mica of the studied low‐ to medium‐grade rocks seems to be mainly controlled by dissolution–reprecipitation processes rather than by diffusive loss, and by different microstructural positions in the sample. Together, our data show that the metasedimentary cover was thickened and cooled independently from the basement prior to c. 140 Ma (with a relatively fast cooling at 4.5 ± 0.5°C/Ma between 185 and 140 Ma). Since the Lower Cretaceous, the metasedimentary cover and the crystalline basement experienced a coherent history during which both were partially exhumed. The Mesozoic history of the Eastern border of the Tibetan plateau is therefore complex and polyphase, and the basement was actively involved at least since the Early Cretaceous, changing our perspective on the contribution of the Cenozoic geology.     

Feeding Monsters – A Study of Active Galaxies

We present new interferometric observations of the molecular gas distribution and kinematics in the nuclei of different active galaxies at high angular resolution and high sensitivity carried out with the IRAM Plateau de Bure interferometer (PdBI). The observations cover galaxies in a redshift range of 0.03–1.4. We have so far observed five different active galaxies: NGC3718, NGC1068, HE1029–1831, 3C48 and Q0957+561. The first two objects belong to the NUGA (NUclei of GAlaxies) project – an international collaboration mainly between Spain, France and Germany – containing about 30 Seyfert and LINER galaxies. Both are at the same distance of 14Mpc and show a warped gas and dust disk. The new mosaic map of NGC3718 corrected for short-spacing effects with IRAM 30 m observations well demonstrates the existence of the warped gas disk with several secondary maxima in the projected gas distribution caused by orbit crowding effects. Based on these new data we have improved recent simulations of the warped disk in NGC3718. HE1029–1831 and 3C48 are nearby QSOs. HE1029–1831 is taken out of the Cologne nearby QSO sample. The maps of the integrated CO(1–0) and CO(2–1) emission clearly show that the molecular gas is mostly related to the central bulge with a non-negligible fraction distributed along the bar known from optical observations. Our new CO data of 3C48 unveil new information about the kinematics of its molecular gas complementing and improving further studies based on previous infrared observations and detailed multi-particle simulations. Finally, new measurements of the CO(1–0) line in Q0957+561 – a highly-red-shifted, gravitationally lensed quasar – will be presented as a link to earlier evolutionary stages of active galaxies and their hosts.     

Composition and petrology of HED polymict breccias: The regolith of (4) Vesta

We have done petrologic and compositional studies on a suite of polymict eucrites and howardites to better understand regolith processes on their parent asteroid, which we accept is (4) Vesta. Taking into account noble gas results from companion studies, we interpret five howardites to represent breccias assembled from the true regolith: Elephant Moraine (EET) 87513, Grosvenor Mountains (GRO) 95535, GRO 95602, Lewis Cliff (LEW) 85313, and Meteorite Hills (MET) 00423. We suggest that EET 87503 is paired with EET 87513, and thus is also regolithic. Pecora Escarpment (PCA) 02066 is dominated by melt‐matrix clasts, which may have been formed from true regolith by impact melting. These meteorites display a range in eucrite:diogenite mixing ratio from 55:45 to 76:24. There is no correlation between degree of regolith character and Ni content. The Ni contents of howardite, eucrite, and diogenites (HEDs) are mostly controlled by the distribution of coarse chondritic clasts and metal grains, which in some cases resulted from individual, low‐velocity accretion events, rather than extensive regolith gardening. Trace element compositions indicate that the mafic component of HED polymict breccias is mostly basalt similar to main‐group eucrites; Stannern‐trend basaltic debris is less common. Pyroxene compositions show that some trace element‐rich howardites contain abundant debris from evolved basalts, and that cumulate gabbro debris is present in some breccias. The scale of heterogeneity varies considerably; regolithic howardite EET 87513 is more homogeneous than fragmental howardite Queen Alexandra Range (QUE) 97001. Individual samples of a given howardite can have different compositions even at roughly 5 g masses, indicating that obtaining representative meteorite compositions requires multiple or large samples.     

A framework for addressing the lack of diversity in the Geosciences through evaluating the current structure of institutional efforts

How can universities build institutional partnerships through supporting community geography projects? This paper details the case of university members seeking to achieve a community goal of expanding Geosciences education opportunities, while also targeting a long-range goal of improving diversity within the university Geosciences. Over the course of one year, two Ph.D students collaborated with community members affiliated with a local middle school to design and organize the School of Earth, Society, and Environment (SESE) Geosciences Camp for Middle School Girls, held in August 2019. This paper deconstructs and critiques the camp organizing process and its outcomes. The conclusion addresses what worked and what did not as a model for future attempts at more sustainable institutional partnerships serving community geography projects.