Apports des phyllosilicates dans la différenciation entre altération hypogène et altération supergène dans le basalte triasique du Moyen Atlas (Maroc)Contribution of phyllosilicates to distinguish between hypogene alteration and weathering in Triassic basalt from Middle Atlas (Morocco)

Triassic basalt of the Middle Atlas has been subject to metamorphic transformation then weathering. Occurrence in both metabasalt and saprolite of ubiquitous clay minerals, such as smectite and mixed layers chlorite–smectite, makes it difficult to distinguish between the two alteration facies and explains the interest of complementary sources of information. In the Bhallil weathering profile, petrographical and mineralogical analyses of primary igneous minerals and their alteration products coupled with Fe oxidation state determination in clay fractions allow to identify three alteration facies: (i) metamorphic basalt, where iron occurs mainly as the ferrous form; (ii) the lower part of saprolite, where iron is partially oxidized to its ferric form; (iii) the upper part of saprolite, where iron is completely oxidized. To cite this article: A. Dekayir et al., C. R. Geoscience 334 (2002) 877–884.     

An assessment study of heavy metal distribution within soil in upper course of Zarqa River basin/Jordan

Levels of heavy metals are found in soils and waters of the major tributary valleys of the Jordan Valley. Heavy metal content in soils irrigated by treated waste water were measured for a 40 km reach of Zarqa River. Soil samples from eight different sites along the upper course of this river were analyzed to determine the concentration of selected heavy metals (CO, Cr, Cu, Pb, Ni, Zn). Silt forms the major component of the soils with an average of 54%. Clay fractions show an increase with depth from 17 to 41%. Trends in particle size distribution and metal contents were compared across sample sites. Samples contained moderate to considerable levels of Pb and Ni. Concentrations of Cu and Cr ranged between 33–59 and 65–90 ppm, respectively. These values represent a slight to moderate class of pollution. The concentration of Cr shows a decrease with depth and distance from the waste water plant. Cu, Zn, and Ni show increasing concentrations with depth but Pb and CO do not. The concentrations of the measured heavy metals increases near the waste water treatment plant but decreases with distance from the plant due to precipitation in the stream bed and dilution with stream water. This decline in metal content with distance from the treatment plant suggests that most metals reaching floodplain soils may derive from the same source. Although current metal concentrations are low to moderate, floodplain surface soils in this area should be regarded as a potential source for future heavy metal pollution downstream.     

Immune deficiency causes annual late summer brown trout (Salmo trutta) mortality in Austrian prealpine river systems

For several years, severe brown trout (Salmo trutta) mortality has been observed in different prealpine river systems of Austria, Southern Germany, and Switzerland during late summer and early autumn. Often, the skin of the effected fish shows a medium to intense black pigmentation, and therefore this phenomenon is called “Schwarze Bachforelle Phänomen” or “proliferative darkening syndrom”. The present study was conducted to gain insight about its presence. From middle of May to end of August, brown trout and rainbow trout were kept in experimental tanks supplied with water from an effected river system. In brown trout, samples for blood diagnostics and histological investigations were taken after 0, 47, 62, and 77 days, and in rainbow trout after 0 and 107 days. Brown trout from a wild population were investigated for comparative purposes. Brown trout showed no abnormalities till the end of June. All fish sampled in the second half of July suffered from severe immune deficiency as the numbers of peripheral blood granulocytes and lymphocytes, plasma lysozyme activity, and plasma immunoglobulin levels significantly decreased. During August, the number of erythrocytes decreased and the osmotic fragility of the erythrocytes increased. Senescent erythrocytes became more frequent and the hematopoietic tissue of spleen and kidney enlarged. Also, the cellular composition of the spleen changed as the number of hemoblasts and normal erythroblasts decreased while the number of atypical erythroblasts increased. In the pronephros and hematopoietic tissue of the mesonephros, aggregation of macrophages and tissue disintegration was frequently observed. This was similar for brown trout from the field experiment and from the wild population. High mortality occurred in the end of July and during August. Death of the fishes might have been caused by secondary infections with microorganisms. Almost similar changes were observed in rainbow trout, however, the mortality was lower.     

Nonlinear multivariate rainfall–stage model for large wetland systems

Wetland restoration is often measured by how close the spatial and temporal water level (stage) patterns are to the pre-drainage conditions. Driven by rainfall, such multivariate conditions are governed by nonstationary, nonlinear, and nonGaussian processes and are often simulated by physically based distributed models which are difficult to run in real time due to extensive data requirements. The objective of this study is to provide the wetland restorationists with a real time rainfall–stage modeling tool of simpler input structure and capability to recognize the wetland system complexity. A dynamic multivariate Nonlinear AutoRegressive network with eXogenous inputs (NARX) combined with Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was developed. An implementation procedure was proposed and an application to Florida Everglade’s wetland systems was presented. Inputs to the model are time lagged rainfall, evapotranspiration and previously simulated stages. Data locations, preliminary time lag selection, spatial and temporal nonstationarity are identified through exploratory data analysis. PCA was used to eliminate input variable interdependence and to reduce the problem dimensions by more than 90% while retaining more than 80% of the process variance. A structured approach to select optimal time lags and network parameters was provided. NARX model results were compared to those of the linear Multivariate AutoRegressive model with eXogenous inputs. While one step ahead prediction shows comparable results, recursive prediction by NARX is far more superior to that of the linear model. Also, NARX testing under drastically different climatic conditions from those used in the development demonstrates a very good and robust performance. Driven by net rainfall, NARX exhibited robust stage prediction with an overall Efficiency Coefficient of 88%, Mean Square Error less than 0.004 m², a standard error less than 0.06 m, a bias close to zero and normal probability plots show that the errors are close to normal distributions.     

Comparison of polynomial chaos and Gaussian process surrogates for uncertainty quantification and correlation estimation of spatially distributed open-channel steady flows

Data assimilation is widely used to improve flood forecasting capability, especially through parameter inference requiring statistical information on the uncertain input parameters (upstream discharge, friction coefficient) as well as on the variability of the water level and its sensitivity with respect to the inputs. For particle filter or ensemble Kalman filter, stochastically estimating probability density function and covariance matrices from a Monte Carlo random sampling requires a large ensemble of model evaluations, limiting their use in real-time application. To tackle this issue, fast surrogate models based on polynomial chaos and Gaussian process can be used to represent the spatially distributed water level in place of solving the shallow water equations. This study investigates the use of these surrogates to estimate probability density functions and covariance matrices at a reduced computational cost and without the loss of accuracy, in the perspective of ensemble-based data assimilation. This study focuses on 1-D steady state flow simulated with MASCARET over the Garonne River (South-West France). Results show that both surrogates feature similar performance to the Monte-Carlo random sampling, but for a much smaller computational budget; a few MASCARET simulations (on the order of 10–100) are sufficient to accurately retrieve covariance matrices and probability density functions all along the river, even where the flow dynamic is more complex due to heterogeneous bathymetry. This paves the way for the design of surrogate strategies suitable for representing unsteady open-channel flows in data assimilation.     

A new instability mechanism related to high-angle waves

Waves with a large incidence angle in deep water can drive a morphodynamic instability on a sandy coast whereby shoreline sand waves, cuspate forelands, and spits can emerge. This instability is related to bathymetric perturbations extending offshore in the shoaling zone. Here, we explore a different mechanism where the large incidence angle is supposed to occur at breaking and the bathymetric perturbations occur only in the surf zone. For wave incidence angles at breaking above ≈?45^°, the one-line approximation of coastal dynamics predicts an unstable shoreline. This instability (EHAWI) is scale-free and the growth rate increases without bound for decreasing wavelength. Here we use a 2DH morphodynamic model resolving surf zone instabilities to investigate whether EHAWI could approximate a real instability in nature with a characteristic length scale. Assuming very idealized conditions on the bathymetric profile and sediment transport, we find a 2DH instability mode consisting of shore-oblique up-current bars coupled to a meandering of the longshore current. This mode grows for high-angle waves, above about 30^° (offshore) and the maximum growth rate occurs for the angle maximizing the angle at breaking, about 70^° (offshore). The dominant wavelength is of the order of the surf zone width. Interestingly, for long sand waves, the growth rate never becomes negative and it matches very well the anti-diffusive behavior of EHAWI. This distinguishes the present instability mode from other modes found in previous studies for other bathymetric and sediment transport conditions. Thus, we conclude that EHAWI approximates a real morphodynamic instability only for quite particular conditions. In such case, a characteristic length scale of the instability emerges thanks to surf zone processes that damp short wavelengths.     

Evaluating sediment yield at King Talal Reservoir from landslides along Irbid–Amman Highway

With a capacity of 86 MCM, King Talal Reservoir is considered a major water supply in Jordan. It was built exclusively to irrigate the land in the Jordan Valley. Unexpectedly, the design capacity of the reservoir was confronted by the elevated sediment inflows during and after the construction of the Irbid–Amman Highway in 1987. Since then the annual sediment inflow measured at the mouth of the reservoir was higher than expected in a similar year. Notably, the over-wet season of 1991/2, as a result of six major landslides along the highway, registered the highest sediment inflow into the reservoir. In the present work the fractional contribution of these landslides to total sediment yield at the reservoir was evaluated. The evaluation was made by applying the well-known erosion model, AGNPS (Young et al., USDA Conservation Research Report 35, 1987). To calibrate the model, it was successively applied from 1980/1 to 1990/1 on the measured sediment data before the occurrence of landslides. With a slight tune-up of some of the King Talal watershed erosion variables, fairly good agreement was obtained in some years. However, the disagreement noticed in other years might be attributed to some conservation measures practised in the watershed. Because the serious landslides occurred in the wet season of 1991/2, the model was run for the two scenarios in this year: with and without landslides. The difference in results represents the contribution of landslides to sediment yield at the reservoir. It is concluded, based on these results, that landslides, if continued without control, will definitely jeopardize the design capacity of the reservoir.     

Heavy metal content in coral reef sediments from Red Sea of Yemen and its significance on marine environment

In order to determine and assess the concentrations of trace elements in coral reefs sediments from Red Sea of Yemen, sediment samples were collected, treated and analyzed for cadmium, chromium, cobalt, copper, manganese, nickel, iead, iron, zinc and vanadium by the atomic absorption spectrometric analysis. The result is that cadmium, cobalt and lead concentrations were high and other elements are low or the same as natural background. It is concluded that the high cadmium, cobalt and lead levels in coral reefs sediments will have negative effects on marine life of the sites, so further researches are needed to characterize the sources fate, biogeochemical processes and impacts of these trace elements on coral reefs and marine of the region.     

Heavy metal content in coral reef sediments from Red Sea of Yemen and its significance on marine environment

In order to determine and assess the concentrations of trace elements in coral reefs sediments from Red Sea of Yemen, sediment samples were collected, treated and analyzed for cadmium, chromium, cobalt, copper, manganese, nickel, lead, iron, zinc and vanadium by the atomic absorption spectrometric analysis. The result is that cadmium, cobalt and lead concentrations were high and other elements are low or the same as natural background. It is concluded that the high cadmium, cobalt and lead levels in coral reefs sediments will have negative effects on marine life of the sites, so further researches are needed to characterize the sources fate, biogeochemical processes and impacts of these trace elements on coral reefs and marine of the region.