Hydraulic conditions,oxygenation, temperatures and sediment relationships of bedwork watermeadows

This study investigates the interactions of water, oxygen, temperature, suspended sediment and topsoil texture of bedwork watermeadows. These ancient grassland irrigation systems survive on the floodplain around Salisbury, England but recent interest in their conservation and rehabilitation is not matched by detailed understanding of their operation. The dominant ‘bedwork’ form, by which water runs along the top of ridges and down ‘panes’, enables water to move swiftly through the sward and drain to avoid stagnation. This investigation demonstrates that condition of surface flow and rates of infiltration encourage the solution of atmospheric oxygen in the water, offsetting potentially anaerobic conditions in the root zone. Temperature conditions imparted by the flow were measured and found to be conducive to the early growth of grass. Whereas the sediment budget was found to be conservative under a steady‐state hydraulic regime, there is substantial ingress of suspended sediment at the start of an irrigation event and the sward traps coarse to medium‐sized silt particle fractions and influences topsoil texture. It is concluded that a study of watermeadow operation permits insights into the operation of floodplain processes in general. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Streaming motions of galaxy clusters within 12 000 km s−1– II. New photometric data for the Fundamental Plane

We present new R -band photometric data for 447 galaxies, gathered for the 'Streaming Motions of Abell Clusters' (SMAC) project. The data comprise 629 individual measurements of the Fundamental Plane (FP) parameters effective radius ( R _e) and surface brightness (〈 μ 〉_e), derived from r ^1/4-law profile fitting. More than a third of the galaxies were observed more than once. The photometric precision is ∼0.02 mag as judged from comparisons of aperture photometry between repeat observations of galaxies. The combination     which enters into the Fundamental Plane relation, has internal uncertainties of ∼0.008, corresponding to < 2 per cent in estimated distance. Taken individually, the (correlated) internal errors in R _e and 〈 μ 〉_e are ∼8 per cent and ∼0.12 mag respectively. Comparisons with literature data constrain the external random errors to ≲5 per cent in distance (per observation), which is small in comparison to the ∼20 per cent scatter in the FP. The data will form part of a merged catalogue of FP parameters, presented in a companion paper.     

Nitrogen on Triton

The near-infrared spectrum of Triton is characterized by strong absorption bands of methane, probably in the solid state. An additional absorption band at 2.16 μm is tentatively identified as the density-induced (2-0) band of molecular nitrogen in the liquid state. The fundamental overtones of this band system cannot presently be observed because of limitations of the terrestrial atmosphere or spectral signal precision. Using the absorption coefficient for this band derived from laboratory observations and from the literature, it is calculated that Triton must have a layer of nitrogen at least tens of centimeters deep over much of its surface; this quantity is plausible in terms of the cosmic abundance of nitrogen and by comparison with Titan where a massive atmosphere of nitrogen exists. The Triton spectrum has been modeled with liquid nitrogen and solid methane, and it is found that the shape of the continuum in two spectral regions can be properly accounted for by adding a spectral component corresponding to fine-grained water frost. It is speculated that yet another component, a dark, solid, photochemical derivative of methane, may occur as a trace contaminant of the surface materials. If much of the surface of Triton is liquid, the radiometric observations of the satellite must be reinterpreted to derive the radius and surface albedo. If there is liquid nitrogen exposed on the surface, the atmosphere of Triton is probably dominated by nitrogen rather than methane because of the much higher vapor pressure of the former. At the calculated subsolar temperature of Triton, the vapor pressure of nitrogen implies a surface atmospheric pressure in the range 0.13 to 0.30 atm.     

Arrival-time analysis for a millisecond pulsar

Arrival times from a fast, quiet pulsar can be used to obtain accurate determinations of pulsar parameters. In the case of the millisecond pulsar, PSR 1937 + 214, the remarkably small rms residual to the timing fit indicates that precise measurements of position, proper motion and perhaps even trigonometric parallax will be possible (Backer 1984). The variances in these parameters, however, will depend strongly on the nature of the underlying noise spectrum. We demonstrate that for very red spectrai.e. those dominated by low-frequency noise, the uncertainties can be larger than the present estimates (based on a white-noise model) and can even grow with the observation period. The possibility of improved parameter estimation through prewhitening’ the data and the application of these results to other pulsar observations are briefly discussed. The post-fit rms residual of PSR 1937 + 214 may be used to limit the energy density of a gravitational radiation background at periods of a few months to years. However, fitting the pulsar position and pulse-emission times filters out significant amounts of residual power, especially for observation periods of less than three years. Consequently the present upper bound on the energy density of gravitational waves Ω_g <3 × 10^-4 R _Μs ² , though already more stringent than any other available, is not as restrictive as had been previously estimated. The present limit is insufficient to exclude scenarios which use primordial cosmic strings for galaxy formation, but should improve rapidly with time. On leave from Raman Research Institute, Bangalore 560080, India.     

Seismic anisotropy — the state of the art: II

Summary. The theory, causes, observations, and possible applications of seismic anisotropy in the Earth have developed considerably since the previous state of the art paper was published in 1977. The behaviour of waves in layered anisotropic media is now much better understood and the evidence for seismic anisotropy indicates that anisotropy is likely to be present throughout much of the crust and upper mantle. The top few hundred kilometres of the mantle appears to be anisotropic with the orientations aligned by the present or palaeo stress-field. The upper part of the crust is frequently anisotropic, probably due to cracks differentially aligned by the non-lithostatic stresses. The possibility of being able to monitor crack geometry by seismic techniques opens a wide range of applications in currently important activities.     

Morphology, sedimentation processes, and growth pattern of the Amazon Deep-Sea Fan

The Amazon Deep-Sea Fan began to form in the Early Miocene and is characterized by a highly meandering distributary channel system. On the middle fan, these leveed channels coalesce to form two broad levee complexes. Older, now buried levee complexes are also observed within the fan. These levee complexes grow through channel migration, branching, and avulsion. Probably only one or two channels are active at any given time. Sediments reach the fan only during glacio-eustatic low stands of sea level. Coarse sediments largely by-pass the upper and middle fan via the channels and are deposited on the lower fan. Margin setting represents fan and/or source area     

Global patterns in cloud forms on Mars

Mariner 9 images and all Viking orbiter images through July 1979 were searched for cloud forms. A computer-accessible catalog was assembled, consisting of a classification of cloud type (lee wav wave, for example) and properties (directionality, wavelength, for example). Lee wave directionality shows a pattern and seasonal variation at high latitudes which is consistent with predictions of theoretical modeling. Fog and haze occurrence shows no obvious correlation with water abundance or any other simple causal factor. Lee waves are rare at equatorial latitudes. Plumes (probably dust) occur preferentially at locations where strong boundary layer convection is expected.     

Modeling seagrass density and distribution in response to changes in turbidity stemming from bivalve filtration and seagrass sediment stabilization

In many areas of the North American mid-Atlantic coast, seagrass beds are either in decline or have disappeared due, in part, to high turbidity that reduces the light reaching the plant surface. Because of this reduction in the areal extent of seagrass beds there has been a concomitant diminishment in dampening of water movement (waves and currents) and sediment stabilization. Due to ongoing declines in stocks of suspension-feeding eastern oysters (Crassostrea virginica) in the same region, their feeding activity, which normally serves to improve water clarity, has been sharply reduced. We developed and parameterized a simple model to calculate how changes in the balance between sediment sources (wave-induced resuspension) and sinks (bivalve filtration, sedimentation within seagrass beds) regulate turbidity. Changes in turbidity were used to predict the light available for seagrass photosynthesis and the amount of carbon available for shoot growth. We parameterized this model using published observations and data collected specifically for this purpose. The model predicted that when sediments were resuspended, the presence of even quite modest levels of eastern oysters (25 g dry tissue weight m^?2) distributed uniformly throughout the modeled domain, reduced suspended sediment concentrations by nearly an order of magnitude. This increased water clarity, the depth to which seagrasses were predicted to grow. Because hard clams (Mercenaria mercenaria) had a much lower weight-specific filtration rate than eastern oysters; their influence on reducing turbidity was much less than oysters. Seagrasses, once established with sufficiently high densities (>1,000 shoots m^?2), damped waves, thereby reducing sediment resuspension and improving light conditions. This stabilizing effect was minor compared to the influence of uniformly distributed eastern oysters on water clarity. Our model predicted that restoration of eastern oysters has the potential to reduce turbidity in shallow estuaries, such as Chesapeake Bay, and facilitate ongoing efforts to restore seagrasses. This model included several simplifiying assumptions, including that oysters were uniformly distributed rather than aggregated into offshore reefs and that oyster feces were not resuspended.     

Comparison between TVD-MacCormack and ADI-type solvers of the shallow water equations

A total variation diminishing (TVD) modification of the MacCormack scheme is developed for simulating shallow water dynamics on a uniform Cartesian grid. Results obtained using conventional and deviatoric forms of the conservative non-linear shallow water equations (SWEs) are compared for cases where the bed has a varying topography. The comparisons demonstrate that the deviatoric form of the SWEs gives more accurate results than the conventional form, in the absence of numerical balancing of the flux-gradient and source terms. A further comparison is undertaken between the TVD-MacCormack model and an alternating direction implicit (ADI) model for cases involving steep-fronted shallow flows. It is demonstrated that the ADI model is unable to predict trans-critical flows correctly, and artificial viscosity has to be introduced to remove spurious oscillations. The TVD-MacCormack model reproduces all flow regimes accurately. Finally, the TVD-MacCormack model is used to predict a laboratory-scale dyke break undertaken at Delft University of Technology. The predictions agree closely with the experimental data, and are in excellent agreement with results from an alternative Godunov-type model.