The impact of rural land management changes on soil hydraulic properties and runoff processes: results from experimental plots in upland UK

To develop an evidence base to help predict the impacts of land management change on flood generation, four experimental sites were established on improved grassland used for sheep grazing at the Pontbren catchment in upland Wales, UK. At each site, three plots were established where surface runoff was measured, supplemented by measurements of soil infiltration rates and soil and vegetation physical properties. Following baseline monitoring, treatments were applied to two of the plots: exclusion of sheep (ungrazed) and exclusion of sheep and planting with native broadleaf tree species (tree planted), with the third plot acting as a control (grazed pasture). Due to a particularly dry summer that occurred pre‐treatment, the soil hydrological responses were initially impacted by the effects of the climate on soil structure. Nevertheless, treatments did have a clear influence on soil hydrological response. On average, post‐treatment runoff volumes were reduced by 48% and 78% in ungrazed and tree‐planted plots relative to the control, although all results varied greatly over the sites. Five years following treatment application, near‐surface soil bulk density was reduced and median soil infiltration rates were 67 times greater in plots planted with trees compared to grazed pasture. The results illustrate the potential use of upland land management for ameliorating local‐scale flood generation but emphasise the need for long‐term monitoring to more clearly separate the effects of land management from those of climatic variability. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Scales and magnitude of hyporheic,river–aquifer and bank storage exchange fluxes

Many studies have investigated the exchange processes that occur between rivers and groundwater systems and have successfully quantified the water fluxes involved. Specifically, these exchange processes include hyporheic exchange, river–aquifer exchange (groundwater discharge and river loss) and bank storage exchange. Remarkably, there are relatively few examples of field studies where more than one exchange process is quantified, and as a consequence, the relationships between them are not well understood. To compare the relative magnitudes of these common exchange processes, we have collected data from 54 studies that have quantified one or more of these exchange flux types. Each flux value is plotted against river discharge at the time of measurement to allow the different exchange flux types to be compared. We show that there are positive relationships between the magnitude of each exchange flux type and increasing river discharge across the different studies. For every one order of magnitude increase in river discharge, the hyporheic, river–aquifer and bank storage exchange fluxes increase by factors of 2.7, 2.9 and 2.5, respectively. On average, hyporheic exchange fluxes are almost an order of magnitude greater than river–aquifer exchange fluxes, which are, in turn, approximately four times greater than bank storage exchange fluxes for the same river discharge. Unless measurement approaches that can distinguish between different types of exchange flux are used, there is potential for hyporheic exchange fluxes to be misinterpreted as river–aquifer exchange fluxes, with possible implications for water resource management decisions. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mauer – the type site of Homo heidelbergensis: palaeoenvironment and age

The mandible of Homo heidelbergensis was found 1907 in the sand pit Grafenrain at Mauer in coarse fluvial sands 24 m below the surface, deposited in a former course of the Neckar River. These ‘Mauer sands’ are overlain by a series of glacial-climate loess deposits with intercalated interglacial palaeosols, which can be correlated with Quaternary climate history, thus indicating an early Middle Pleistocene age for H. heidelbergensis. The ‘Mauer sands’ are famous for their rather rich mammal fauna, which clearly indicates interglacial climate conditions. The faunal evidence – in particular the micromammals – place the ‘Mauer sands’ into MIS 15 or MIS 13 although most stratigraphic arguments favour correlation to MIS 15 and therefore to an age of ca 600 ka.     

Slope stability analysis using evolutionary optimization techniques

Slope stability optimization, in the presence of a band of a weak layer between two strong layers, is accounted for in complicated geotechnical problems. Classical optimization algorithms are not suitable for solving such problems as they need a proper preliminary solution to converge to a valid result. Therefore, it is necessary to find a proper algorithm which is capable of finding the best global solution. Recently a lot of metaheuristic algorithms have been proposed which are able to evade local minima effectively. In this study four evolutionary algorithms, including well‐known and recent ones, such as genetic algorithm, differential evolution, evolutionary strategy and biogeography‐based optimization (BBO), are applied in slope stability analysis and their efficiencies are explored by three benchmark case studies. Result show BBO is the most efficient among these evolutionary algorithms and other proposed algorithms applied to this problem. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

New P–T constraints on the Tamayen glaucophane‐bearing rocks,eastern Taiwan: Perple_X modelling results and geodynamic implications

New pseudosection modelling was applied to better constrain the P–T conditions and evolution of glaucophane‐bearing rocks in the Tamayen block of the Yuli belt, recognized as the world's youngest known blueschist complex. Based on the predominant clinoamphibole, textural relationships, and mineral compositions, these glaucophane‐bearing high‐P rocks can be divided into four types. We focused on the three containing garnet. The chief phase assemblages are (in decreasing mode): amphibole + quartz + epidote + garnet + chlorite + rutile/titanite (Type‐I), phengite + amphibole + quartz + garnet + chlorite + epidote + titanite + biotite + magnetite (Type‐II), and amphibole + quartz + albite + epidote + garnet + rutile + hematite + titanite (Type‐III). Amphibole exhibits compositional zoning from core to rim as follows: glaucophane → pargasitic amphibole → actinolite (Type‐I), barroisite → Mg‐katophorite/taramite → Fe‐glaucophane (Type‐II), glaucophane → winchite (Type‐III). Using petrographic data, mineral compositions and Perple_X modelling (pseudosections and superimposed isopleths), peak P–T conditions were determined as 13 ± 1 kbar and 550 ± 40 °C for Type‐I, 10.5 ± 0.5 kbar and 560 ± 30 °C for Type‐II (thermal peak) and 11 ± 1 kbar and 530 ± 30 °C for Type‐III. The calculations yield higher pressures and temperatures than previously thought; the difference is ~1–6 kbar and 50–200 °C. The three rock types record similar P–T retrograde paths with clockwise trajectories; all rocks followed trajectories with substantial pressure decrease under near‐isothermal conditions (Type‐I and Type‐III), with the probable exception of Type‐II where decompression followed colder geotherms. The P–T paths suggest a tectonic environment in which the rocks were exhumed from maximum depths of ~45 km within a subduction channel along a relative cold geothermal gradient of ~11–14 °C km^?1.     

Coastal lagoons and beach ridges as complementary sedimentary archives for the reconstruction of Holocene relative sea‐level changes

Coastal lagoons and beach ridges are genetically independent, though non‐continuous, sedimentary archives. We here combine the results from two recently published studies in order to produce an 8000‐year‐long record of Holocene relative sea‐level changes on the island of Samsø, southern Kattegat, Denmark. The reconstruction of the initial mid‐Holocene sea‐level rise is based on the sedimentary infill from topography‐confined coastal lagoons (Sander et al., Boreas, 2015b). Sea‐level index points over the mid‐ to late Holocene period of sea‐level stability and fall are retrieved from the internal structures of a wide beach‐ridge system (Hede et al., The Holocene, 2015). Data from sediment coring, georadar and absolute dating are thus combined in an inter‐disciplinary approach that is highly reproducible in micro‐tidal environments characterised by high sediment supply. We show here that the commonly proximate occurrence of coastal lagoons and beach ridges allows us to produce seamless time series of relative sea‐level changes from field sites in SW Scandinavia and in similar coastal environments.     

The Fluxes and Behaviour of Plumes Inferred from Measurements of Coherent Structures within Images of the Bulk Flow

This paper describes how measurements of the movement of identifiable features at the edge of a turbulent plume can be interpreted to determine the properties of the mean flow and consequently, using plume theory, can be used to make estimates of the fluxes of volume (mass), momentum, and buoyancy in a plume. This means that video recordings of smoke rising from a chimney or buoyant material from a source on the sea bed can be used to make accurate estimates of the source conditions for the plume. At best we can estimate the volume flux and buoyancy flux to within about 5% and 15% of the actual values, respectively. Although this is restricted to the case of a plume rising in a stationary and unstratified environment, we show that the results may be of practical use in other more complex situations. In addition, we demonstrate that large-scale (turbulent) coherent structures at the plume edge form on a scale approximately 40% of the local (mean) plume half-width and travel at almost 60% of the average local (mean) velocity in the plume.     

Pseudostatic approach for seismic analysis of pile group

This paper evaluates a simple approximate pseudostatic method for estimating the maximum internal forces and horizontal displacements of pile group subjected to lateral seismic excitation. The method involves two main steps: (1) computation of the free-field soil movements caused by the earthquake, and (2) the analysis of the response of the pile group based on the maximum free-field soil movements (considered as static movements) as well as a static loading at the pile head, which depends on the computed spectral acceleration of the structure being supported. The methodology takes into account the effects of group interaction and soil yielding at pile–soil interface. The applicability of this approach has been validated by a similar approach for single piles and then verified by both experimental centrifuge models of pile-supported structures and field measurements of Ohba-Ohashi Bridge in Japan. It is demonstrated that the proposed method yields reasonable estimates of the pile maximum moment, shear, and horizontal displacement for many practical cases despite of its simplicity. Limitations and reliability of the methodology are discussed and some practical conclusions on the performance of the proposed approach are presented.     

Weichselian interstadials at Riipiharju,northern Sweden – interpretation of vegetation and climate from fossil and modern pollen records

Hättestrand, M. & Robertsson, A.‐M. 2010: Weichselian interstadials at Riipiharju, northern Sweden – interpretation of vegetation and climate from fossil and modern pollen records. Boreas, 10.1111/j.1502‐3885.2009.00129.x. ISSN 0300‐9483. The most complete records of Weichselian ice‐free conditions in northern Sweden have been retrieved from kettleholes in the Riipiharju esker. In an earlier study, the Riipiharju I core was described as containing two Weichselian interstadials and Riipiharju was chosen as type site for the second Weichselian interstadial in northern Sweden. Here, we present a palynological investigation of two new sediment cores (Riipiharju II and III) retrieved from Riipiharju. Together, the new cores comprise a late cold part of the first Weichselian interstadial recorded in northeastern Sweden (Tärendö I, earlier correlated with Peräpohjola in Finland) as well as a long sequence of the second Weichselian interstadial (Tärendö II, earlier named Tärendö). The results indicate that the climate during deposition of the Tärendö II sequence was more variable than earlier suggested. According to the present interpretation it was relatively warm in the early part of Tärendö II; thereafter a long cold phase persisted, and finally the climate was warmer again in the late part of Tärendö II. The warm phases are characterized by Betula‐dominant pollen assemblages, while the cold phase is characterized by high percentages of Artemisia and Gramineae pollen. Since there is still no firm chronology established of the interstadials in northeastern Sweden, two possible correlations are discussed; either Tärendö I and II are correlated with Brörup (MIS 5c) and Odderade (MIS 5a), or, perhaps more likely, they are correlated with Odderade and early Middle Weichselian (MIS 3) time.