A combined field,laboratory and numerical study of the forces applied to,and the potential for removal of,bar top vegetation in a braided river

Vegetation can have an important role in controlling channel planform, through its effects on channel roughness, and root‐reinforcement of bank and bar materials. Along the Platte River in central Nebraska, USA, The Platte River Recovery Implementation Program (PRRIP) has been tasked with managing the planform of the river to benefit endangered species. To investigate the potential use of planned short duration high flow (SDHF) events to manage bar vegetation, this study combined several approaches to determine whether flows of up to 227 m³s^?1 through the central Platte River, could remove cottonwood, Phragmites and reed canarygrass stands of various ages and densities from in‐channel bars. First, fieldwork was carried out to measure the uprooting resistance, and resistance to bending for each species. Second, a set of flume experiments was carried out to measure the forces exerted on the three species of interest under different flow conditions. Finally, a numerical study comparing drag forces (driving) measured in the flume study, with uprooting forces (resisting) measured in the field, was carried out for each species to determine the likelihood of plant removal by SDHF events. Results showed that plants with more than a year of root growth, likely cannot be removed through drag and local scour alone, even at the 100‐year recurrence interval discharge. At most, a few cottonwood seedlings could be removed from bars through drag, scour and undercutting, where rooting depths are still small. The results presented here help us further understand the positive feedbacks that lead to the creation of permanent, vegetated bars rather than mobile braided channels. As such, the findings could help inform management decisions for other braided rivers, and the combined field, flume and modeling techniques used in this study could be applied to other fluvial systems where vegetation and planform dynamics are of interest. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Influence of Ambient Temperature,Precipitation, and Groundwater Level on Natural Source Zone Depletion Rates at a Large Semiarid LNAPL Site

Natural source zone depletion (NSZD) is increasingly being integrated into management strategies for petroleum release sites. Measurements of NSZD rates can be used to evaluate naturally occurring hydrocarbon (HC) mass losses, and provide a baseline for evaluating engineered recovery systems. Here, nominal saturated and unsaturated zone HC losses were quantified by groundwater sampling and ground surface CO₂ effluxes approximately monthly over a 1-year period. In addition, subsurface gas profiles and temperature, precipitation, and groundwater elevation were evaluated to elucidate dominant environmental factors controlling NSZD rates. Results showed that NSZD rates estimated by surface CO₂ effluxes were, on average, more than a factor of 3 greater than those estimated by uptake of electron acceptors (primarily sulfate) in extracted groundwater. This may indicate that vadose zone mass loss mechanisms (e.g., volatilization and subsequent biodegradation) were dominant in this system, but possible transfer of gases from the saturated zone to the vadose zone confounds this interpretation. Results for this semiarid site revealed that increasing NSZD rates tended to occur with increasing ambient monthly precipitation and temperature when accounting for time lags associated with subsurface transport. However, groundwater elevation was not found to be significantly related to NSZD rates. This result is counter to an expectation that increased smear zone exposure increases HC mass losses, and suggests that the pump-and-treat system did not greatly influence total NSZD rates directly through smear zone flushing or indirectly by lowering the regional water table.     

Assessment of chemical and physical treatments to selectively kill non-indigenous freshwater zooplankton species

Non-indigenous zooplankton species pose a biosecurity threat to New Zealand’s freshwater native taxa. Nine species are known to have established in New Zealand lakes to date. The spread of some zooplankton taxa is linked to the translocation of farmed fish, principally grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella), and recreational vessel movements. The aims of this study were to assess the effectiveness of a range of chemical and physical treatments for transport water and associated equipment to kill freshwater cladoceran, copepod, and rotifer zooplankton species, and their risk to non-target fish. Sodium chloride was the most effective and applicable chemical treatment tested at length in the cladoceran and, combined with physical treatment via mechanical filtration of water or hot water immersion of equipment (to also manage the risk of diapausing eggs), represents an effective option for the control of non-indigenous zooplankton, with limited impact on stenohaline fish.     

New quantitative approaches for classifying and predicting local-scale habitats in estuaries

This study has developed quantitative approaches for firstly classifying local-scale nearshore habitats in an estuary and then predicting the habitat of any nearshore site in that system. Both approaches employ measurements for a suite of enduring environmental criteria that are biologically relevant and can be easily derived from readily available maps. While the approaches were developed for south-western Australian estuaries, with a focus here on the Swan and Peel-Harvey, they can easily be tailored to any system.     

Lateglacial and Holocene relative sea‐level changes and first evidence for the Storegga tsunami in Sutherland,Scotland

We reconstruct one of the longest relative sea‐level (RSL) records in north‐west Europe from the north coast of mainland Scotland, using data collected from three sites in Loch Eriboll (Sutherland) that we combine with other studies from the region. Following deglaciation, RSL fell from a Lateglacial highstand of +6?8 m OD (Ordnance Datum = ca. mean sea level) at ca. 15 k cal a BP to below present, then rose to an early Holocene highstand and remained at ca. +1 m OD between ca. 7 and 3 k cal a BP, before falling to present. We find no evidence for significant differential Holocene glacio‐isostatic adjustment between sites on the north‐west (Lochinver, Loch Laxford), north (Loch Eriboll) and north‐east (Wick) coast of mainland Scotland. This suggests that the region was rapidly deglaciated and there was little difference in ice loads across the region. From one site at the head of Loch Eriboll we report the most westerly sedimentary evidence for the early Holocene Storegga tsunami on the Scottish mainland. The presence of the Storegga tsunami in Loch Eriboll is predicted by a tsunami wave model, which suggests that the tsunami impacted the entire north coast of Scotland and probably also the Atlantic coastline of north‐west Scotland.

     

Reservoir Potential Assessment of the Tortonian–Calabrian Sediments from Offshore Makran(Southwest Pakistan) through a Multidisciplinary Approach

The Tortonian–Calabrian strata of Offshore Makran(Pakistan) is investigated for the purpose of reservoir assessment. The stratigraphy and petrophysics indicate that the Neogene sediments have tight reservoir potential with porosities in the range of 3%–9% and 40%–50% water saturation. The mineralogical cross plots indicate a mixed lithology with an abundance of dolomite and calcite, together with minor quartz content and shale. The seismic interpretation demonstrates medium–high amplitude reflec...     

A propensity for n‐ω‐amino acids in thermally altered Antarctic meteorites

Abstract– Asteroids and their fragments have impacted the Earth for the last 4.5 Gyr. Carbonaceous meteorites are known to contain a wealth of indigenous organic molecules, including amino acids, which suggests that these meteorites could have been an important source of prebiotic organic material during the origins of life on Earth and possibly elsewhere. We report the detection of extraterrestrial amino acids in thermally altered type 3 CV and CO carbonaceous chondrites and ureilites recovered from Antarctica. The amino acid concentrations of the thirteen Antarctic meteorites ranged from 300 to 3200 parts‐per‐billion (ppb), generally much less abundant than in amino acid‐rich CI, CM, and CR carbonaceous chondrites that experienced much lower temperature aqueous alteration on their parent bodies. In contrast to low‐temperature aqueously altered meteorites that show complete structural diversity in amino acids formed predominantly by Strecker–cyanohydrin synthesis, the thermally altered meteorites studied here are dominated by small, straight‐chain, amine terminal (n‐ω‐amino) amino acids that are not consistent with Strecker formation. The carbon isotopic ratios of two extraterrestrial n‐ω‐amino acids measured in one of the CV chondrites (δ¹³C approximately ?25‰) are consistent with ¹³C‐depletions observed previously in hydrocarbons produced by Fischer‐Tropsch type reactions. The predominance of n‐ω‐amino acid isomers in thermally altered meteorites hints at cosmochemical mechanisms for the preferential formation and preservation of a small subset of the possible amino acids.     

Regional projections of the likelihood of very large wildland fires under a changing climate in the contiguous Western United States

Seasonal changes in the climatic potential for very large wildfires (VLWF?≥?50,000 ac?~?20,234 ha) across the western contiguous United States are projected over the 21st century using generalized linear models and downscaled climate projections for two representative concentration pathways (RCPs). Significant (p?≤?0.05) increases in VLWF probability for climate of the mid-21st century (2031–2060) relative to contemporary climate are found, for both RCP 4.5 and 8.5. The largest differences are in the Eastern Great Basin, Northern Rockies, Pacific Northwest, Rocky Mountains, and Southwest. Changes in seasonality and frequency of VLWFs d7epend on changes in the future climate space. For example, flammability-limited areas such as the Pacific Northwest show that (with high model agreement) the frequency of weeks with VLWFs in a given year is 2–2.7 more likely. However, frequency of weeks with at least one VLWF in fuel-limited systems like the Western Great Basin is 1.3 times more likely (with low model agreement). Thus, areas where fire is directly associated with hot and dry climate, as opposed to experiencing lagged effects from previous years, experience more change in the likelihood of VLWF in future projections. The results provide a quantitative foundation for management to mitigate the effects of VLWFs.     

Analysis of wave propagation in dry granular soils using DEM simulations

In this paper, a three-dimensional particle-based technique utilizing the discrete element method (DEM) is proposed to study wave propagation in a dry granular soil column. Computational simulations were conducted to investigate the soil response to sinusoidal motions with different amplitudes and frequencies. Three types of soil deposits with different void ratios were employed in these simulations. Different boundary conditions at the base such as rigid bedrock, elastic bedrock, and infinite medium were also considered. Analysis is done in time domain while taking into account the effects of soil nonlinear behavior. The computational approach is able to capture a number of essential characteristics of wave propagation including motion amplification and resonance. Dynamic soil properties were then extracted from conducted simulations and used to predict the response of the soil using the widely used equivalent linear method program SHAKE and compare its predictions to DEM results. Generally, there was a good agreement between SHAKE and DEM results except when the exciting frequency was close to the resonance frequency of the deposit where significant discrepancy in computed shear strains between SHAKE predictions and DEM results was observed.