The agricultural revolution as environmental catastrophe: Implications for health and lifestyle in the Holocene

One of the most fundamental developments in the history of our species—and one having among the most profound impacts on landscapes and the people occupying them—was the domestication of plants and animals. In addition to altering landscapes around the globe from the terminal Pleistocene and early Holocene, the shift from foraging to farming resulted in negative and multiple consequences for human health. Study of human skeletal remains from archaeological contexts shows that the introduction of grains and other cultigens and the increase in their dietary focus resulted in a decline in health and alterations in activity and lifestyle. Although agriculture provided the economic basis for the rise of states and development of civilizations, the change in diet and acquisition of food resulted in a decline in quality of life for most human populations in the last 10,000 years.     

Double funnelling in a mature coastal British Columbia forest: spatial patterns of stemflow after infiltration

Many studies have focused on the amount of stemflow in different forests and for different rainfall events, but few studies have focused on how stemflow intensity varies during events or the infiltration of stemflow into the soil. Stemflow may lead to higher water delivery rates at the base of the tree compared with throughfall over the same area and fast and deeper infiltration of this water along roots and other preferential flow pathways. In this study, stemflow amounts and intensities were measured and blue dye experiments were conducted in a mature coniferous forest in coastal British Columbia to examine double funnelling of stemflow. Stemflow accounted for only 1% of precipitation and increased linearly with event total precipitation. Funnelling ratios ranged from less than 1 to almost 20; smaller trees had larger funnelling ratios. Stemflow intensity generally was highest for periods with high‐intensity rainfall later in the event. The maximum stemflow intensities were higher than the maximum precipitation intensities. Dye tracer experiments showed that stemflow infiltrated primarily along roots and was found more frequently at depth than near the soil surface. Lateral flow of stemflow was observed above a dense clay layer for both the throughfall and stemflow experiments. Stemflow appeared to infiltrate deeper (122 cm) than throughfall (85 cm), but this difference was in part a result of site‐specific differences in maximum soil depth. However, the observed high stemflow intensities combined with preferential flow of stemflow may lead to enhanced subsurface stormflow. This suggests that even though stemflow is only a very minor component of the water balance, it may still significantly affect soil moisture, recharge, and runoff generation. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Rainfall uncertainty for extreme events in NWP downscaling model

Limited area numerical weather predication (NWP) models such as MM5 have become a popular method for generating rainfall estimates for hydrological analysis, particularly for catchments where rainfall data are sparse. Although several studies have been undertaken to investigate the appropriateness of MM5 parameterization schemes for hydrological applications, the size of the nested domains and the distance between them have been overlooked as a source of uncertainty in model precipitation estimates for hydrological purposes. This study examines the uncertainty of model rainfall estimates derived from MM5 by varying the domain size and the distance between the domains. The results from this study show that domain size and buffer zone have a significant impact on model rainfall estimates, which should not be overlooked by hydrologists. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mineralogy and petrogenesis of a Ba–Ti–Zr-rich peralkaline dyke from Šebkovice (Czech Republic): Recognition of the most lamproitic Variscan intrusion

A peralkaline, ultrapotassic dyke found at ?ebkovice (T?ebí? district, western Moravia) is a mineralogically extreme member of a dyke swarm occurring along the south-eastern border of the Moldanubian Region of the Bohemian Massif. The dyke shows a simple zoning, with a very fine-grained marginal zone grading into a medium-grained central zone. It has a primary mineral assemblage of microcline and potassic amphiboles, with accessory apatite and altered phlogopite. The microcline exhibits an unusual red luminescence colour and pronounced substitution of Fe³⁺ for Al, with measured contents of Fe₂O₃ up to 8.5 wt.% (0.31 apfu Fe³⁺). Amphiboles have very high K (up to 0.99 apfu) and Si contents; their compositions follow an alkaline fractionation trend from potassic-richterite to potassic-magnesio-arfvedsonite, characterized by an increase of Na/K and a decrease of Ca, Mg, Fe²⁺ and Ti via heterovalent substitutions ^[B]Ca + ^[C](Mg,Fe²⁺) → ^[B]Na + ^[C]Fe³⁺ and Ti + Mg → 2Fe³⁺. The most evolved apatite is significantly enriched in SrO (up to 9.7 wt.%; 0.49 apfu Sr). The core of the dyke and late veinlets contain unique late- to post-magmatic Ba–Ti–Zr-bearing mineral assemblages of baotite, henrymeyerite, titanite, rutile, benitoite and bazirite. Anhedral baotite fills interstices distributed inhomogeneously in the dyke centre; it is locally replaced by a Ba-bearing titanite + henrymeyerite + rutile + quartz assemblage. Henrymeyerite (the second record in a lamproite) shows variable Fe/Ti ratios and represents a solid solution of the hepta- and hexatitanate components. Euhedral crystals of benitoite and bazirite are enclosed in the late-stage quartz–titanite–apatite veinlets in the fine-grained margin of the intrusion. In terms of a mineralogical–genetic classification, the ?ebkovice dyke can be considered as a new high-silica (~ 57 wt.% SiO₂) variety of lamproite (variety ?ebkovice), and represents a unique expression of post-collisional potassic magmatism on the south-eastern border of the Bohemian Massif. The peralkaline dykes from this area show mineralogical and geochemical features similar to those of silica-rich orogenic lamproites emplaced at destructive plate margins. In terms of the modern classification of lamproites, the ?ebkovice dyke is the first lamproite recognised in the Variscan orogenic belt.     

Fuzzy logic based melting layer recognition from 3 GHz dual polarization radar: appraisal with NWP model and radio sounding observations

The advent of polarimetry makes it possible to categorize hydrometeor inferences more accurately by providing detailed information of the scattering properties. In light of this, the authors have developed a fuzzy logic based system for the recognition of melting layer in the atmosphere. The fuzzy system is based on characterizing melting layer scatterers from non-melting scatterers using five crisp inputs, namely, horizontal reflectivity (Z _H), differential reflectivity (Z _DR), co-polar correlation coefficient (ρ _HV), linear depolarization ratio (LDR) and height of radar measurements (H). For the implementation of melting layer recognition, the study employs the dual polarized signatures from the 3 GHz Chilbolton Advanced Meteorological Radar (CAMRA). Furthermore, a simple but effective averaging procedure for melting level estimation from a volume RHI scan is proposed. The proposed scheme has been evaluated with Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model simulated and radio soundings retrieved melting level height over a total of 84 RHI scan-based bright band cases. The results confirm that the estimated melting level heights from the proposed method are in good agreement with the WRF model and radio sounding observations. The 3 GHz radar melting level height estimates correspond with the R ² and RMSE values of 0.92 and 0.24 km, respectively, when compared to the radio soundings, and 0.93 and 0.21 km, respectively, when compared to the WRF model results. Moreover, the related R ² and RMSE values are reported as 0.93 and 0.22 km respectively between the WRF and radio soundings retrievals. This implies that the downscaled WRF modelled melting level height may also be used for operational or research needs.     

The high latitude circulation and temperature structure of the thermosphere near solstice

The neutral gas temperature and circulation of the thermosphere are calculated for December solstice conditions near solar cycle maximum using NCAR's thermospheric general circulation model (TGCM). High-latitude heat and momentum sources significantly alter the basic solar-driven circulation during solstice. At F-region heights, the increased ion density in the summer hemisphere results in a larger ion drag momentum source for the neutral gas than in the winter hemisphere. As a result there are larger wind velocities and a greater tendency for the neutral gas to follow the magnetospheric convection pattern in the summer hemisphere than in the winter hemisphere. There is about three times more Joule heating in the summer than the winter hemisphere for moderate levels of geomagnetic activity due to the greater electrical conductivity in the summer E-region ionosphere.

The results of several TGCM runs are used to show that at F-region heights it is possible to linearly combine the solar-driven and high-latitude driven solutions to obtain the total temperature structure and circulation to within 10–20%. In the lower thermosphere, however, non-linear terms cause significant departures and a linear superposition of fields is not valid.

The F-region winds at high latitudes calculated by the TGCM are also compared to the meridional wind derived from measurements by the Fabry-Perot Interferometer (FPI) and the zonal wind derived from measurements by the Wind and Temperature Spectrometer (WATS) instruments onboard the Dynamics Explorer (DE−2) satellite for a summer and a winter day. For both examples, the observed and modeled wind patterns are in qualitative agreement, indicating a dominant control of high latitude winds by ion drag. The magnitude of the calculated winds (400–500 m s⁻¹) for the assumed 60 kV cross-tail potential, however, is smaller than that of the measured winds (500–800 m s⁻¹). This suggests the need for an increased ion drag momentum source in the model calculations due to enhanced electron densities, higher ion drift velocities, or some combination that needs to be further denned from the DE−2 satellite measurements.     

A joint hypocentre location and velocity inversion technique applied to the Central Aleutians

Summary. Travel times of seismic waves from teleseismically recorded events that occurred within the Adak Island region of the Central Aleutian Islands are used to constrain both the velocity structure of the region and the locations of events. It is found that the P-wave velocity within the descending lithosphere is approximately 7–8 per cent faster than that in the surrounding mantle for a slab length of 300–400 km.
The velocity structure so determined is then used as a model for the relocation of events recorded only locally. It is found that features of the Benioff zone seen in locations made with a spherically symmetric model can be seriously in error. In particular, an apparent increase in dip of the zone with depth disappears when the locations are made with the inhomogeneous model. The new locally determined hypocentres are now also more consistent with the locations based on teleseismic data.