Comment on ‘Clinoform quantification for assessing the effects of external forcing on continental margin development’

The application of geometric modeling to shelf‐margin stratigraphy has the potential to constrain interpretations of external forcings on margin development. Here we apply such a model to the Ebro margin in order to complement the analysis of Kertznus & Kneller (2009) . Our results suggest that increased mass wasting in the Pleistocene was unlikely to have been a factor in the observed long‐term shelf‐edge trajectory, and that the trajectory can be explained by the interaction of sediment flux, relative sea‐level rise, and basin shape.     

On the use of IPCC-class models to assess the impact of climate on Living Marine Resources

The study of climate impacts on Living Marine Resources (LMRs) has increased rapidly in recent years with the availability of climate model simulations contributed to the assessment reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Collaboration between climate and LMR scientists and shared understanding of critical challenges for such applications are essential for developing robust projections of climate impacts on LMRs. This paper assesses present approaches for generating projections of climate impacts on LMRs using IPCC-class climate models, recommends practices that should be followed for these applications, and identifies priority developments that could improve current projections. Understanding of the climate system and its representation within climate models has progressed to a point where many climate model outputs can now be used effectively to make LMR projections. However, uncertainty in climate model projections (particularly biases and inter-model spread at regional to local scales), coarse climate model resolution, and the uncertainty and potential complexity of the mechanisms underlying the response of LMRs to climate limit the robustness and precision of LMR projections. A variety of techniques including the analysis of multi-model ensembles, bias corrections, and statistical and dynamical downscaling can ameliorate some limitations, though the assumptions underlying these approaches and the sensitivity of results to their application must be assessed for each application. Developments in LMR science that could improve current projections of climate impacts on LMRs include improved understanding of the multi-scale mechanisms that link climate and LMRs and better representations of these mechanisms within more holistic LMR models. These developments require a strong baseline of field and laboratory observations including long time series and measurements over the broad range of spatial and temporal scales over which LMRs and climate interact. Priority developments for IPCC-class climate models include improved model accuracy (particularly at regional and local scales), inter-annual to decadal-scale predictions, and the continued development of earth system models capable of simulating the evolution of both the physical climate system and biosphere. Efforts to address these issues should occur in parallel and be informed by the continued application of existing climate and LMR models.     

Mass fluxes of xenobiotics below cities: challenges in urban hydrogeology

Urban areas are the focus of major ecological, social and economical activity. They are thus also prime locations of increasing conflict with regard to water use and water protection. As a direct and/or indirect consequence of urban land use and human activity, urban water systems are frequently polluted with organic contaminants including waste water-born xenobiotics such as pharmaceuticals, personal care products (collectively known as PPCPs) and endocrine-active substances. This study reviews new integrated methodologies including flux calculations as well as chemical investigations for determining the impact of human activities on urban water systems and on processes within the urban watershed. The use of indicator substances, representing different contaminant sources and pathways, integral pumping tests and mass balance approaches are suitable alternatives within these environments. The issues are explored using contaminant mass balance examples from Halle/Saale and Leipzig, Germany.     

Comparison of Two Methods Used to Model Shape Parameters of Pareto Distributions

Two methods are compared for estimating the shape parameters of Pareto field-size (or pool-size) distributions for petroleum resource assessment. Both methods assume mature exploration in which most of the larger fields have been discovered. Both methods use the sizes of larger discovered fields to estimate the numbers and sizes of smaller fields: (1) the tail-truncated method uses a plot of field size versus size rank, and (2) the log–geometric method uses data binned in field-size classes and the ratios of adjacent bin counts. Simulation experiments were conducted using discovered oil and gas pool-size distributions from four petroleum systems in Alberta, Canada and using Pareto distributions generated by Monte Carlo simulation. The estimates of the shape parameters of the Pareto distributions, calculated by both the tail-truncated and log–geometric methods, generally stabilize where discovered pool numbers are greater than 100. However, with fewer than 100 discoveries, these estimates can vary greatly with each new discovery. The estimated shape parameters of the tail-truncated method are more stable and larger than those of the log–geometric method where the number of discovered pools is more than 100. Both methods, however, tend to underestimate the shape parameter. Monte Carlo simulation was also used to create sequences of discovered pool sizes by sampling from a Pareto distribution with a discovery process model using a defined exploration efficiency (in order to show how biased the sampling was in favor of larger fields being discovered first). A higher (more biased) exploration efficiency gives better estimates of the Pareto shape parameters.     

Methodology for comparing source and plume remediation alternatives

It is often difficult at contaminated sites to decide whether remediation effort should be focused on the contaminant source, the dissolved plume, or on both zones. The decision process at these sites is hampered by a lack of quantitative tools for comparing remediation alternatives. A new screening-level mass balance approach is developed for simulating the transient effects of simultaneous ground water source and plume remediation. The contaminant source model is based on a power function relationship between source mass and source discharge, and it can consider partial source remediation at any time after the initial release. The source model serves as a time-dependent mass flux boundary condition to a new analytical plume model, where flow is assumed to be one dimensional, with three-dimensional dispersion. The plume model simulates first-order sequential decay and production of several species, and the decay rates and parent/daughter yield coefficients are variable functions of time and distance. This new method allows for flexible simulation of natural attenuation or remediation efforts that enhance plume degradation. The plume remediation effort may be temporary or delayed in time, limited in space, and it may have different chemical effects on different contaminant species in the decay chain.     

The relationship of Irgarol and its major metabolite to resident phytoplankton communities in a Maryland marina, river and reference area

The objectives of this study were to: (1) measure water column concentrations of Irgarol 1051 and its major metabolite GS26575 annually (2004-2006) during mid-June and mid-August at 14 sites in a study area comprised of three sub-regions chosen to reflect a gradient in Irgarol exposure (Port Annapolis marina, Severn River and Severn River reference area); (2) use a probabilistic approach to determine ecological risk of Irgarol and its major metabolite in the study area by comparing the distribution of exposure data with toxicity-effects endpoints; and (3) measure both functional and structural resident phytoplankton parameters concurrently with Irgarol and metabolite concentrations to assess relationships and determine ecological risk at six selected sites in the three study areas described above. The three-year summer mean Irgarol concentrations by site clearly showed a gradient in concentrations with greater values in Back Creek (400-500 ng/L range), lower values in the Severn River sites near the confluence with Back Creek (generally values less than 100 ng/L) and still lower values (<10 ng/L) at the Severn River reference sites at the confluence with Chesapeake Bay. A similar spatial trend, but with much lower concentrations, was also reported for GS26575. The probability of exceeding the Irgarol plant 10th centile of 193 ng/L and the microcosm NOEC (323 ng/L) suggested high ecological risk from Irgarol exposure at Port Annapolis marina sites but much lower risk at the other sites. There were no statistically significant differences among the three site types (marina, river and reference) with all years combined or among years within a site type for the following functional and structural phytoplankton endpoints: algal biomass, gross photosynthesis, biomass normalized photosynthesis, chlorophyll a, chlorophyll a normalized photosynthesis and taxa richness. Therefore, based on the above results, Irgarol adverse effects predicted from the plant 10th centile and the microcosm NOEC in the high Irgarol exposure area (Back Creek/Port Annapolis marina) were not confirmed with the actual field data for the receptor species (phytoplankton). These results also highlight the importance of unconfined field studies with a chemical gradient in providing valuable information regarding the responses of resident phytoplankton to herbicides.     

Comparison of alternative upscaled model formulations for simulating DNAPL source dissolution and biodecay

This paper compares the performance of analytical and numerical approaches for modeling DNAPL dissolution with biodecay. A solution derived from a 1-D advective transport formulation (“Parker” model) is shown to agree very closely with high resolution numerical solutions. A simple lumped source mass balance solution in which with decay is assumed proportional to DNAPL mass (“Falta1” model) over- or underpredicts aqueous phase biodecay depending on the magnitude of the exponential factor governing the relationship between dissolution rate and DNAPL mass. A modification of the Falta model that assumes decay proportional to the source exit concentration is capable of accurately simulating source behavior with strong aqueous phase biodecay if model parameters are appropriately selected or calibrated (“Falta2” model). However, parameters in the lumped models exhibit complex interdependencies that cannot be quantified without consideration of transport processes within the source zone. Combining the Falta2 solution with relationships derived from the Parker model was found to resolve these limitations and track the numerical model results. A method is presented to generalize the analytical solutions to enable simulation of partial mass removal with changes in source parameters over time due to various remedial actions. The algorithm is verified by comparison with numerical simulation results. An example application is presented that demonstrates the interactions of partial mass removal, enhanced biodecay, enhanced mass transfer and source zone flow reduction applied at various time periods on contaminant flux reduction. Increasing errors that arise in numerical solutions with coarse discretization and high decay rates are shown to be controlled by using an adjusted decay coefficient derived from the Parker analytical solution.     

Optically stimulated luminescence dating of aeolian sand in the Otindag dune field and Holocene climate change

The dune system in Otindag sand field of northern China is sensitive to climate change, where effective moisture and related vegetation cover play a controlling role for dune activity and stability. Therefore, aeolian deposits may be an archive of past environmental changes, possibly at the millennial scale, but previous studies on this topic have rarely been reported. In this study, thirty-five optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) ages of ten representative sand-paleosol profiles in Otindag sand field are ob-tained, and these ages provide a relatively complete and well-dated chronology for wet and dry varia-tions in Holocene. The results indicate that widespread dune mobilization occurred from 9.9 to 8.2 ka, suggesting a dry early Holocene climate. The dunes were mainly stabilized between 8.0 and 2.7 ka, implying a relatively wet climate, although there were short-term penetrations of dune activity during this wet period. After ~2.3 ka, the region became dry again, as inferred from widespread dune activity. The "8.2 ka" cold event and the Little Ice Age climatic deterioration are detected on the basis of the dune records and OSL ages. During the Medieval Warm Period and the Sui-Tang Warm Period (570-770 AD), climate in Otindag sand field was relatively humid and the vegetation was denser, and the sand dunes were stabilized again. These aeolian records may indicate climate changes at millennial time scale during Holocene, and these climatic changes may be the teleconnection to the climate changes elsewhere in the world.     

Analysis of burnt schist outcrops in the alps: Relation to historical archaeology and Hannibal's crossing in 218 B.C.

Identification of the exact route followed by Hannibal during his invasion of Italia in the Second Punic War is one of the major questions of antiquity and one that historians/archaeologists have long studied. One of the many clues in the ancient literature that can help answer this question is the mention of fired rock, the result of a conflagration Hannibal is reputed to have employed to reduce the size of boulders in a blocking rockslide some distance down from the high col on the Italian side. The only route with evidence of fired rock along the roadway leading into Italia follows the Col du Clapier, one of the possible northern routes discussed by historians. Radiocarbon dating of calcined rocks is not possible, but whereas Time‐of‐Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (ToF‐SIMS), Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM‐EDS), backscatter electron scanning microscopy (BSE), High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscope (HRTEM), and Raman Spectroscopic data do not provide an age for the burnt rock, compositional evidence of the conflagration derived from these analyses may shed light on Hannibal's actual route. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

青海湖国际环境钻探信息系统(DIS)

1背景位于亚洲内陆的青海湖是我国最大的内陆咸水湖,坐落于青藏高原东北缘,其东邻黄土高原,西连荒漠和沙漠,处于东亚季风湿润区和内陆干旱区的过渡带上,对气候和全球环境变化十分敏感,是研究我国西部环境变化、青藏高原隆升过程、环境效应及它们与全球联系的极佳场所。以中国科