Isotope mixing models require individual isotopic tracer content for correct quantification of sediment source contributions

The use of isotopic tracers for sediment source apportionment is gaining interest with recent introduction of compound‐specific stable isotope tracers. The method relies on linear mixing of source isotopic tracers, and deconvolution of a sediment mixture initially quantifies the contribution of sources to the mixture's tracer signature. Therefore, a correction to obtain real sediment source proportions is subsequently required. As far as we are aware, all published studies to date have used total isotopic tracer content or a proxy (e.g., soil carbon content) for this post‐unmixing correction. However, as the relationship between the isotopic tracer mixture and the source mixture is different for each isotopic tracer, post‐unmixing corrections cannot be carried out with one single factor. This contribution presents an isotopic tracer model structure—the concentration‐dependent isotope mixing model (CD‐IMM)—to overcome this limitation. Herein, we aim to clarify why the “conventional” approach to converting isotopic tracer proportions to source proportions using a single factor is wrong. In an initial mathematical assessment, error incurred by not using CD‐IMM (NCD‐IMM) in unmixing two sources with two isotopic tracers showed a complex relation as a function of relative tracer contents. Next, three artificial mixtures with different proportions of three soil sources were prepared and deconvoluted using ¹³C of fatty acids using CD‐IMM and NCD‐IMM. Using NCD‐IMM affected both accuracy (mean average error increased up to a threefold compared with the CD‐IMM output) and precision (interquartile range was up to 2.5 times larger). Finally, as an illustrative example, the proportional source contribution reported in a published study was recalculated using CD‐IMM. This resulted in changes in estimated source proportions and associated uncertainties. Content of isotopic tracers is seldom reported in published work concerning use of isotopic tracers for sediment source partitioning. The magnitude of errors made by miscalculation in former studies is therefore difficult to assess. With this contribution, we hope the community will acknowledge the limitations of prior approaches and use a CD‐IMM in future studies.     

The Multiscale TROPIcal CatchmentS critical zone observatory M-TROPICS dataset III: Hydro-geochemical monitoring of the Mule Hole catchment,south India

Despite the importance of tropical ecosystems for climate regulation, biodiversity, water and nutrient cycles, only a few Critical Zone Observatories (CZOs) are located in the tropics. Among these, most are in humid climates, while very few data exist for semi-arid and sub-humid climates, due to the difficulty of estimating hydro-geochemical balances in catchments with ephemeral streams. We contribute to fill this gap by presenting a meteorological and hydro-geochemical dataset acquired at the Mule Hole catchment (4.1 km²), a pristine dry deciduous forest located in a biosphere reserve in south India. The dataset consists of time series of variables related to (i) meteorology, including rainfall, air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and direction, and global radiation, (ii) hydrology, including water level and discharge at the catchment outlet, (iii) hydrogeology, including manual (monthly) and/or automated (from 15 min to hourly) groundwater levels in nine piezometers and (iv) geochemistry, including suspended sediment content in the stream and chemical composition of rainfall (event based), groundwater (monthly sampling) and stream water (storm events, 15 min to hourly frequency with an automatic sampler). The time series extend from 2003 to 2019. Measurement errors are minimized by frequent calibration of sensors and quality checks, both in the field and in the laboratory. Despite these precautions, several data gaps exist, due to occasional access restriction to the site and instrument destruction by wildlife. Results show that large seasonal and interannual variations of climatic conditions were reflected in the large variations of stream flow and groundwater recharge, as well as in water chemical composition. Notably, they reveal a long-term evolution of groundwater storage, suggesting hydrogeological cycles on a decadal scale. This dataset, alone or in combination with other data, has already allowed to better understand water and element cycling in tropical dry forests, and the role of forest diversity on biogeochemical cycles. As tropical ecosystems are underrepresented by Critical Zone Observatories, we expect this data note to be valuable for the global scientific community.     

How to evacuate 10 km3 of mud: saturate with gas and decrease the pressure!

The crest of the Absheron anticline in the South Caspian Basin at a few hundred meters below the present seafloor shows a subcircular depression about 8 km in diameter and 200 m deep, bounded by steep edges dipping 15° to 45° into it. The depression and the surrounding series are respectively filled and overlain by a regional mass-transport deposit (MTD) 150 m thick outside the depression and 300 m thick inside, composed mostly of extensional blocks. Geometric and stratigraphic analyses indicate that 150 m of initially deposited sediment were removed from a closed area after burial. Seismic evidence of shallow gas accumulations below the crater-like feature suggests that gas likely played a significant role in its development. The model proposed for the emplacement of the crater is that the gas-bearing cover of a shallow gas reservoir underwent exsolution when its overburden thinned during an episode of extensional slope failure. This resulted in loss of resistance to shear and evacuation of the gas-bearing sediment, likely at the shearing base of the failed mass. This evacuation feature is considered an example where the presence of gas locally governs the morphology of an MTD. The interpreted process shows a positive feedback between slope failure and loss of strength at the base of the resulting MTD.

Time-series analysis of multi-resolution optical imagery for quantifying forest cover loss in Sumatra and Kalimantan,Indonesia

Monitoring loss of humid tropical forests via remotely sensed imagery is critical for a number of environmental monitoring objectives, including carbon accounting, biodiversity, and climate modeling science applications. Landsat imagery, provided free of charge by the U.S. Geological Survey Center for Earth Resources Observation and Science (USGS/EROS), enables consistent and timely forest cover loss updates from regional to biome scales. The Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Kalimantan are a center of significant forest cover change within the humid tropics with implications for carbon dynamics, biodiversity maintenance and local livelihoods. Sumatra and Kalimantan feature poor observational coverage compared to other centers of humid tropical forest change, such as Mato Grosso, Brazil, due to the lack of ongoing acquisitions from nearby ground stations and the persistence of cloud cover obscuring the land surface. At the same time, forest change in Indonesia is transient and does not always result in deforestation, as cleared forests are rapidly replaced by timber plantations and oil palm estates. Epochal composites, where single best observations are selected over a given time interval and used to quantify change, are one option for monitoring forest change in cloudy regions. However, the frequency of forest cover change in Indonesia confounds the ability of image composite pairs to quantify all change. Transient change occurring between composite periods is often missed and the length of time required for creating a cloud-free composite often obscures change occurring within the composite period itself. In this paper, we analyzed all Landsat 7 imagery with <50% cloud cover and data and products from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) to quantify forest cover loss for Sumatra and Kalimantan from 2000 to 2005. We demonstrated that time-series approaches examining all good land observations are more accurate in mapping forest cover change in Indonesia than change maps based on image composites. Unlike other time-series analyses employing observations with a consistent periodicity, our study area was characterized by highly unequal observation counts and frequencies due to persistent cloud cover, scan line corrector off (SLC-off) gaps, and the absence of a complete archive. Our method accounts for this variation by generating a generic variable space. We evaluated our results against an independent probability sample-based estimate of gross forest cover loss and expert mapped gross forest cover loss at 64 sample sites. The mapped gross forest cover loss for Sumatra and Kalimantan was 2.86% of the land area, or 2.86 Mha from 2000 to 2005, with the highest concentration having occurred in Riau and Kalimantan Tengah provinces.     

Adaptive mapping functions to the azimuthal anisotropy of the neutral atmosphere

The anisotropy of propagation of radio waves used by global navigation satellite systems is investigated using high-resolution observational data assimilations produced by the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecast. The geometry and the refractivity of the neutral atmosphere are built introducing accurate geodetic heights and continuous formulations of the refractivity and its gradient. Hence the realistic ellipsoidal shape of the refractivity field above the topography is properly represented. Atmospheric delays are obtained by ray-tracing through the refractivity field, integrating the eikonal differential system. Ray-traced delays reveal the anisotropy of the atmosphere. With the aim to preserve the classical mapping function strategy, mapping functions can evolve to adapt to high-frequency atmospheric fluctuations and to account for the anisotropy of propagation by fitting at each site and time the zenith delays and the mapping functions coefficients. Adaptive mapping functions (AMF) are designed with coefficients of the continued fraction form which depend on azimuth. The basic idea is to expand the azimuthal dependency of the coefficients in Fourier series introducing a multi-scale azimuthal decomposition which slightly changes the elevation functions with the azimuth. AMF are used to approximate thousands of atmospheric ray-traced delays using a few tens of coefficients. Generic recursive definitions of the AMF and their partial derivatives lead to observe that the truncation of the continued fraction form at the third term and the truncation of the azimuthal Fourier series at the fourth term are sufficient in usual meteorological conditions. Delays’ and elevations’ mapping functions allow to store and to retrieve the ray-tracing results to solve the parallax problem at the observation level. AMF are suitable to fit the time-variable isotropic and anisotropic parts of the ray-traced delays at each site at each time step and to provide GPS range corrections at the measurement level with millimeter accuracy at low elevation. AMF to the azimuthal anisotropy of the neutral atmosphere are designed to adapt to complex weather conditions by adaptively changing their truncations.     

A GIS‐based Approach in Support of an Assessment of Food Safety Risks

A Geographical Information System (GIS)‐based approach was developed for the identification of vulnerabilities and the measurement of risks associated with contamination of food systems with biological agents. In this research work, a tight integration of ArcGIS with the Arena simulation tool has been implemented. Arena was used to simulate and track contamination in a food distribution network and transmit the time dependent information to GIS. ArcGIS was employed to provide the primary user interface, process network data, and visualize the results. In addition, the GIS, through its powerful capabilities to process spatial data, could allow decision‐ makers to quickly determine the potential impact of a contamination event, at any stage, as a function of both time and geography. Two contamination scenarios along the farm‐to‐fork chain were examined to show the geographic zone and the proportion of the population affected by the contamination. A constraint Voronoi data structure was developed to define influence zones (these were color coded according to a dynamic risk index), to identify those areas that are at greatest immediate risk as time progresses, and to estimate the population affected by these contamination events. This approach thus appears to have general application to many GIS‐based risk assessment problems.     

用于GNSS的SpT星载原子钟及时间系统介绍

研究了空间铷钟和被动型氢钟的地面批量和寿命试验测试结果,以及卫星在轨试验所达到的最新性能结果。基于这些星载钟的试验结果,对全球卫星导航系统的地面时间站的关键设备及其相关算法作了简要描述,并介绍了一种新颖的在轨技术,即从星载原子钟组（ONCLE）直接产生高度稳健的时间频率信号。     

Comparing surface energy, water and carbon cycle in dry and wet regions simulated by a land-surface model

In this study, we analyze results from 47-year (1954?C2000) offline simulations using an Australian land-surface model CSIRO Atmosphere Biosphere Land Exchange. We focus on exploring its surface mean climatology, interannual and decadal variations in Australia and Amazonia basin in South America which are distinguished by dry and wet climates respectively. Its skill is assessed by using observational datasets and four model products from the Global Land-surface Data Assimilation System. Surface evaporation and runoff climatologies are satisfactorily simulated, including surface energy and water partitions in dry and wet climates. In the Australian continent dominated by dry climate, slowly varying soil moisture processes are simulated in the southeast during austral winter. The model is skilful in reproducing the nonlinear relationship between rainfall and runoff variations in the southwestern part of the Australia. It shows that the significant downward trend of river inflow in the region is associated with enhanced surface evaporation which is caused by increased surface radiation and wind speed. In its carbon-cycle modeling, the model simulates an upward trend of NPP by about 0.69%/year over the Amazonia forest region in the 47-year period. By comparing two sets of the model results with/without CO₂ variations, it shows that 35% of such increases are caused by changes in climatic conditions, while 65% is due to the increase in atmospheric CO₂ concentration. Given the close linkage between climate, water and vegetation (carbon cycle), this work promotes an integrated modeling and evaluation approach for better representation of land-surface processes in Earth system studies.     

Optimal removal of topological artefacts in microtomographic images of porous materials

The analysis of flow at the pore scale in porous media has been facilitated with the use of microtomography. A powerful tool for quantifying the fluid structure using these tomographic 3D reconstructions is skeletonisation, but the significant disadvantage of this method is its sensitivity to noise, resulting in artefacts in the skeleton. A pre-processing of the 3D image is therefore required, but no method has yet proven to completely solve this problem. By developing a new procedure that, by construction, directly identifies the voxels and only those that are responsible for topological artefacts in the skeleton, we are able to remove all artefacts, and furthermore can prove that we do so by modifying a minimal amount of voxels in the segmented 3D image (i.e. the tomographic image in which each voxel has been assigned to either the porous or the solid phase). This is possible by identifying the three fundamental types of artefacts that can arise in a 3D skeleton, and dealing with each appropriately. Application to a microtomographic image of a sintered glass powder is presented. Impact of the different processing methods on the flow within its porosity is measured through the computed permeability deviations.