Conceptual model of recharge to southeastern Badain Jaran Desert groundwater and lakes from environmental tracers

Sources of groundwater recharge to the Badain Jaran Desert in China have been investigated using geochemical and isotopic techniques. Stable isotope compositions (δ¹⁸O and δ²H) of shallow groundwater and surface water from oasis lakes evolve from a starting composition considerably depleted compared to local unsaturated zone moisture, confirming inferences from chloride mass balance that direct infiltration of precipitation is not a volumetrically important source of recharge to the shallow aquifer in the study area. Shallow phreatic and deeper confined groundwater bodies appear unconnected based on chemical composition and radiocarbon activities. Hydrogeologic evidence points toward a bordering mountain range (Yabulai) as a likely recharge zone, which is consistent with tracer results. A mean residence time in the range of 1–2 ka for the desert’s southeastern margin is inferred from radiocarbon. These results reveal that some replenishment to the desert aquifer is occurring but at a rate much lower than previously suggested, which is relevant for water resources planning in this ecologically sensitive area.     

The market(able) place of school geography scholarship, 2007–2016

This report analyses a decade of geography scholarship student entry and achievement data (n = 10,205) to reveal patterns and trends of high‐achieving school students. The study is an exploratory analysis, the aim of which is to describe where the greatest scholarship success has occurred, as well as attendant demographic characteristics of New Zealand's most capable geography students and their schools. Emerging from the regions is a localised story of students from an extremely narrow number of schools achieving disproportionate scholarship success. This raises questions in the wider geography teaching community about the possibility of a broader constituency achieving scholarship awards.     

Hydrologic connectivity at the hillslope scale through intra-snowpack flow paths during snowmelt

The seasonal snowmelt period is a critical component of the hydrologic cycle for many mountainous areas. Changes in the timing and rate of snowmelt as a result of physical hydrologic flow paths, such as longitudinal intra-snowpack flow paths, can have strong implications on the partitioning of meltwater amongst streamflow, groundwater recharge, and soil moisture storage. However, intra-snowpack flow paths are highly spatially and temporally variable and thus difficult to observe. This study utilizes new methods to non-destructively observe spatio-temporal changes in the liquid water content of snow in combination with plot experiments to address the research question: What is the scale of influence that intra-snowpack flow paths have on the downslope movement of liquid water during snowmelt across an elevational gradient? This research took place in northern Colorado with study plots spanning from the rain-snow transition zone up to the high alpine. Results indicate an increasing scale of influence from intra-snowpack flow paths with elevation, showing higher hillslope connectivity producing larger intra-snowpack contributing areas for meltwater accumulation, quantified as the upslope contributing area required to produce observed changes in liquid water content from melt rate estimates. The total effective intra-snowpack contributing area of accumulating liquid water was found to be 17, 6, and 0 m² for the above tree line, near tree line, and below tree line plots, respectively. Dye tracer experiments show capillary and permeability barriers result in increased number and thickness of intra-snowpack flow paths at higher elevations. We additionally utilized aerial photogrammetry in combination with ground penetrating radar surveys to investigate the role of this hydrologic process at the small watershed scale. Results here indicate that intra-snowpack flow paths have influence beyond the plot scale, impacting the storage and transmission of liquid water within the snowpack at the small watershed scale.     

Inter‐comparison of hydro‐climatic regimes across northern catchments: synchronicity,resistance and resilience

The higher mid‐latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere are particularly sensitive to climate change as small differences in temperature determine frozen ground status, precipitation phase, and the magnitude and timing of snow accumulation and melt. An international inter‐catchment comparison program, North‐Watch, seeks to improve our understanding of the sensitivity of northern catchments to climate change by examining their hydrological and biogeochemical responses. The catchments are located in Sweden (Krycklan), Scotland (Mharcaidh, Girnock and Strontian), the United States (Sleepers River, Hubbard Brook and HJ Andrews) and Canada (Catamaran, Dorset and Wolf Creek). This briefing presents the initial stage of the North‐Watch program, which focuses on how these catchments collect, store and release water and identify ‘types’ of hydro‐climatic catchment response. At most sites, a 10‐year data of daily precipitation, discharge and temperature were compiled and evaporation and storage were calculated. Inter‐annual and seasonal patterns of hydrological processes were assessed via normalized fluxes and standard flow metrics. At the annual‐scale, relations between temperature, precipitation and discharge were compared, highlighting the role of seasonality, wetness and snow/frozen ground. The seasonal pattern and synchronicity of fluxes at the monthly scale provided insight into system memory and the role of storage. We identified types of catchments that rapidly translate precipitation into runoff and others that more readily store water for delayed release. Synchronicity and variance of rainfall–runoff patterns were characterized by the coefficient of variation (cv) of monthly fluxes and correlation coefficients. Principal component analysis (PCA) revealed clustering among like catchments in terms of functioning, largely controlled by two components that (i) reflect temperature and precipitation gradients and the correlation of monthly precipitation and discharge and (ii) the seasonality of precipitation and storage. By advancing the ecological concepts of resistance and resilience for catchment functioning, results provided a conceptual framework for understanding susceptibility to hydrological change across northern catchments. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Inferring autogenically induced depositional discontinuities from observations on experimental deltaic shoreline trajectories

Palaeo shoreline is a commonly used proxy for palaeo sea level, but only if deposition is continuous and constant will shoreline trajectory T(l) completely capture sea‐level time‐series E(t). Artificial deltas were generated in the Eurotank flume facility under stepwise tectonic subsidence, periodic sea‐level fluctuation and two periodic water‐discharge scenarios, one in‐phase and the other out‐of‐phase with sea level. Independent input variables tectonic subsidence Y, sea level E and water discharge Q (controlling sediment supply S) were varied and dependent output variable shoreline trajectory T was monitored. These experiments confirm that deposition is discontinuous even for continuous sediment supply, and this hinders the inference of sea‐level curve from shoreline trajectory. These results justify the here‐developed methodology for converting shoreline trajectory from the space domain to the time domain, thereby improving the accuracy of the inferred sea‐level curve.     

The Hogarth initiative on the future of the International Whaling Commission

Dr Bill Hogarth of the USA was the Chairman of the International Whaling Commission from 2006 to 2009. In a typical masterpiece of understatement, at the beginning of his term, he launched an initiative to reform the IWC with the words “it would be useful for the Commission to have a general discussion concerning the future of the IWC, given…the number of issues for which polarisation rather than consensus appears to be the norm”. This paper follows his initiative through three annual, and two intersessional meetings of the IWC, commenting on the major issues and events as well as the actions of the main players. It concludes with an analysis of the results of the initiative, and makes some predictions for the future of the IWC.     

Soil profile evolution following land‐use change: implications for groundwater quantity and quality

Soil and vadose zone profiles are used as an archive of changes in groundwater recharge and water quality following changes in land use in an area of the Loess Plateau of China. A typical rain‐fed loess‐terrace agriculture region in Hequan, Guyuan, is taken as an example, and multiple tracers (chloride mass balance, stable isotopes, tritium and water chemistry) are used to examine groundwater recharge mechanisms and to evaluate soil water chloride as an archive for recharge rate and water quality. Results show that groundwater recharge beneath natural uncultivated grassland, used as a baseline, is about 94–100 mm year^?1 and that the time it takes for annual precipitation to reach water table through the thick unsaturated zone is from decades to hundreds of years (tritium free). This recharge rate is 2–3 orders of magnitude more than in the other semiarid areas with similar annual rainfall but with deep‐rooted vegetation and relatively high temperature. Most of the water that eventually becomes recharge originally infiltrated in the summer months. The conversion from native grassland to winter wheat has reduced groundwater recharge by 42–50% (50–55 mm year^?1 for recharge), and the conversion from winter wheat to alfalfa resulted in a significant chloride accumulation in the upper soil zone, which terminated deep drainage. The paper also evaluates the time lag between potential recharge and actual recharge to aquifer and between increase in solute concentration in soil moisture and that in the aquifer following land‐use change due to the deep unsaturated zone. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Geology of London,UK

The population of London is around 7 million. The infrastructure to support this makes London one of the most intensively investigated areas of upper crust. However construction work in London continues to reveal the presence of unexpected ground conditions. These have been discovered in isolation and often recorded with no further work to explain them. There is a scientific, industrial and commercial need to refine the geological framework for London and its surrounding area. This paper reviews the geological setting of London as it is understood at present, and outlines the issues that current research is attempting to resolve.     

Population MCMC methods for history matching and uncertainty quantification

This paper presents the application of a population Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) technique to generate history-matched models. The technique has been developed and successfully adopted in challenging domains such as computational biology but has not yet seen application in reservoir modelling. In population MCMC, multiple Markov chains are run on a set of response surfaces that form a bridge from the prior to posterior. These response surfaces are formed from the product of the prior with the likelihood raised to a varying power less than one. The chains exchange positions, with the probability of a swap being governed by a standard Metropolis accept/reject step, which allows for large steps to be taken with high probability. We show results of Population MCMC on the IC Fault Model—a simple three-parameter model that is known to have a highly irregular misfit surface and hence be difficult to match. Our results show that population MCMC is able to generate samples from the complex, multi-modal posterior probability distribution of the IC Fault model very effectively. By comparison, previous results from stochastic sampling algorithms often focus on only part of the region of high posterior probability depending on algorithm settings and starting points.