A method for uncertainty constraint of catchment discharge and phosphorus load estimates

River discharge and nutrient measurements are subject to aleatory and epistemic uncertainties. In this study, we present a novel method for estimating these uncertainties in colocated discharge and phosphorus (P) measurements. The “voting point”‐based method constrains the derived stage‐discharge rating curve both on the fit to available gaugings and to the catchment water balance. This helps reduce the uncertainty beyond the range of available gaugings and during out of bank situations. In the example presented here, for the top 5% of flows, uncertainties are shown to be 139% using a traditional power law fit, compared with 40% when using our updated “voting point” method. Furthermore, the method is extended to in situ and lab analysed nutrient concentration data pairings, with lower uncertainties (81%) shown for high concentrations (top 5%) than when a traditional regression is applied (102%). Overall, for both discharge and nutrient data, the method presented goes some way to accounting for epistemic uncertainties associated with nonstationary physical characteristics of the monitoring site.     

Treatment of Malting Wastewater in a Granular Sludge Sequencing Batch Reactor (SBR)

Aerobic granular sludge was successfully cultivated in a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) treating wastewater from the malting process with a high content of particulate organic matter. At an organic loading rate of 3.2 kg/(m³ d) COD_total and an influent particle concentration of 0.95 g/L MLSS an average removal of 50% in COD_total and 80% in COD_dissolved could be achieved. A comparison of granular and flocculent sludge grown under the same operating conditions showed no significant difference in removal efficiency although granules exhibited a higher metabolic activity in terms of specific oxygen uptake rate (r_{O2, X}). Two distinct mechanisms of particle removal were observed for granular sludge: during initial granule formation, particles were incorporated into the biofilm matrix. For mature granules, a high level of protozoa growth on the granule surface accounted for the ability to remove particulate COD. Combined evaluation of the development in MLSS content and sludge bed settling rate (i.e., mean derivative of the normalized sludge volume) was found to be an adequate method for monitoring the characteristic settling properties of a granulizing sludge bed. By means of this method, a distinct substrate gradient out of several operating conditions was concluded to have the biggest impact on the formation of aerobic granular sludge.     

Bioremediation perspective of historically contaminated sediment with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

The purpose of the current study is to compare the influence of different aerobic conditions(biostimulation(BS),bioaugmentation(BA),and a combination of biostimulation and bioaugmentation(BB))on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons(PAH)degradation and compare the degraded amount with single step XAD-4 extraction as a new tool for bioavailability assessment for chronically contaminated sediment samples obtained from territory of Autonomous Province Vojvodina of Serbia(S1,S2,and S3).A great number of papers dealing with biodegradation of PAHs in spiked sediment or soil have been published,but to the authors’knowledge,a limited number of papers studied aged,historically polluted sediment and a sum of chosen U.S.Environmental Protection Agency(USEPA)PAHs.A significant reduction(up to67%)in PAH concentration was observed,while the percentage of reduction varied depending on the sediment sample and treatment used.BS treatment successfully stimulated growth of indigenous bacteria.Further,PAH-degrading strain Sphingomonas paucimobilis F8 inoculated in BA and BB treatment survived for up to 7 weeks after it was suppressed by unfavorable conditions or native microbes.Degraded amounts generally showed good correlation with results obtained from XAD-4 extraction.Results obtained in the current study represent a good start for standardizing a XAD-4 extraction technique as a simplified,easier,and lower cost method for bioavailability assessment.     

Upright crinoids of the Thornton Reef,Wenlock (Silurian) of Illinois,USA

The rare preservation of columns perpendicular to bedding may provide convincing evidence that ancient crinoids adopted an upright attitude during life. However, taphonomic and sedimentological analyses are important in determining whether such occurrences are truly in situ or represent unusual allochthonous accumulations. The Crinoid Biosome of the Thornton Reef Complex, Silurian of Illinois, USA, includes pluricolumnals preserved perpendicular to bedding, in association with more common specimens parallel or angled to bedding. Upright pluricolumnals are relatively shorter (<150 mm) than the longest non-upright specimens; they sometimes occur as imbricate accumulations and lack attachment structures (although these are preserved separately). Brachiopod valves and colonial corals may also be preserved perpendicular to bedding. These features suggest that the Thornton beds were formed as viscous mass flow deposits and that the upright crinoid columns are allochthonous or, at best, parautochthonous. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dissolved oxygen as an indicator of bioavailable dissolved organic carbon in groundwater

Concentrations of dissolved oxygen (DO) plotted vs. dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in groundwater samples taken from a coastal plain aquifer of South Carolina (SC) showed a statistically significant hyperbolic relationship. In contrast, DO-DOC plots of groundwater samples taken from the eastern San Joaquin Valley of California (CA) showed a random scatter. It was hypothesized that differences in the bioavailability of naturally occurring DOC might contribute to these observations. This hypothesis was examined by comparing nine different biochemical indicators of DOC bioavailability in groundwater sampled from these two systems. Concentrations of DOC, total hydrolysable neutral sugars (THNS), total hydrolysable amino acids (THAA), mole% glycine of THAA, initial bacterial cell counts, bacterial growth rates, and carbon dioxide production/consumption were greater in SC samples relative to CA samples. In contrast, the mole% glucose of THNS and the aromaticity (SUVA(254)) of DOC was greater in CA samples. Each of these indicator parameters were observed to change with depth in the SC system in a manner consistent with active biodegradation. These results are uniformly consistent with the hypothesis that the bioavailability of DOC is greater in SC relative to CA groundwater samples. This, in turn, suggests that the presence/absence of a hyperbolic DO-DOC relationship may be a qualitative indicator of relative DOC bioavailability in groundwater systems.     

Coupled finite‐element simulation of injection well testing in unconsolidated oil sands reservoir

This paper presents a finite‐element (FE) model for simulating injection well testing in unconsolidated oil sands reservoir. In injection well testing, the bottom‐hole pressure (BHP) is monitored during the injection and shut‐in period. The flow characteristics of a reservoir can be determined from transient BHP data using conventional reservoir or well‐testing analysis. However, conventional reservoir or well‐testing analysis does not consider geomechanics coupling effects. This simplified assumption has limitations when applied to unconsolidated (uncemented) oil sands reservoirs because oil sands deform and dilate subjected to pressure variation. In addition, hydraulic fracturing may occur in unconsolidated oil sands when high water injection rate is used. This research is motivated in numerical modeling of injection well testing in unconsolidated oil sands reservoir considering the geomechanics coupling effects including hydraulic fracturing. To simulate the strong anisotropy in mechanical and hydraulic behaviour of unconsolidated oil sands induced by fluid injection in injection well testing, a nonlinear stress‐dependent poro‐elasto‐plastic constitutive model together with a strain‐induced anisotropic permeability model are formulated and implemented into a 3D FE simulator. The 3D FE model is used to history match the BHP response measured from an injection well in an oil sands reservoir. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

New interpretation of the Franciscan mélange at San Simeon coast,California: tectonic intrusion into an accretionary prism

Many concepts and interpretations on the formation of the Franciscan mélange have been proposed on the basis of exposures at San Simeon, California. In this paper, we show the distribution of chaotic rocks, their internal structures and textures, and the interrelationship between the chaotic rocks and the surrounding sandstones (turbidites). Mélange components, particularly blueschists, oceanic rocks, including greenstone, pillow lava, bedded chert, limestone, sandstone, and conglomerate, have all been brecciated by retrograde deformation. The Cambria Slab, long interpreted as a trench slope basin, is also strongly deformed by fluidization, brecciation, isoclinal folding, and thrusting, leading us to a new interpretation that turbiditic rocks (including the Cambria Slab) represent trench deposits rather than slope basin sediments. These rocks form an accretionary prism above mélanges that were diapirically emplaced into these rocks first along sinistral-thrust faults, and then along dextral-normal faults. Riedel shear systems are observed in several orders of scale in both stages. Although the exhumation of the blueschist blocks is still controversial, the common extensional fractures and brecciation in most of the blocks in the mélanges and further mixture of various lithologies into one block with mélange muddy matrix indicate that once deeply buried blocks were exhumed from considerable depths to the accretionary prism body, before being diapirically intruded with their host mélange along thrust and normal faults, during which retrograde deformation occurred together with retrograde metamorphism. Recent similar examples of high-pressure rock exhumation have been documented along the Sofugan Tectonic Line in the Izu forearc areas, in the Mineoka belt in the Boso Peninsula, and as part of accretionary prism development in the Nankai and Sagami troughs of Japan. These modern analogues provide actively forming examples of the lithological and deformational features that characterize the Franciscan mélange processes.     

The Upper Pliocene Bowden shell beds,southeast Jamaica

The Neogene fossil record of the Antilles is particularly rich and can satisfy the interests of most collectors, from foraminifers to vertebrates. The molluscs are among the commonest and most diverse groups, being found in both terrestrial and marine deposits. The Pliocene Bowden shell beds of southeast Jamaica, best known for its hundreds of species of molluscs, also yields diverse members of other groups, the total exceeding 800 species from a mere 5 m of stratigraphical section.     

Evaluating a process‐based model for use in streambank stabilization: insights on the Bank Stability and Toe Erosion Model (BSTEM)

Streambank retreat is a complex cyclical process involving subaerial processes, fluvial erosion, seepage erosion, and geotechnical failures and is driven by several soil properties that themselves are temporally and spatially variable. Therefore, it can be extremely challenging to predict and model the erosion and consequent retreat of streambanks. However, modeling streambank retreat has many important applications, including the design and assessment of mitigation strategies for stream revitalization and stabilization. In order to highlight the current complexities of modeling streambank retreat and to suggest future research areas, this paper reviewed one of the most comprehensive streambank retreat models available, the Bank Stability and Toe Erosion Model (BSTEM), which has recently been integrated with several popular hydrodynamic and sediment transport models including the Hydrologic Engineering Center's River Analysis System (HEC‐RAS). The objectives of this paper were to: (i) comprehensively review studies that have utilized BSTEM and report their findings, (ii) address the limitations of the model so that it can be applied appropriately in its current form, and (iii) suggest directions of research that will help make the model a more useful tool in future applications. The paper includes an extensive overview of peer reviewed studies to guide future users of BSTEM. The review demonstrated that the model needs further testing and evaluation outside of the central United States. Also, further development is needed in terms of accounting for spatial and temporal variability in geotechnical and fluvial erodibility parameters, incorporating subaerial processes, and accounting for the influence of riparian vegetation on streambank pore‐water pressure dynamics, applied shear stress, and erodibility parameters. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.