Effects of clear-cutting,meteorological, and physiological factors on evapotranspiration in the Kamabuchi experimental watershed in northern Japan

This study investigated the effects of clear-cutting and the meteorological and physiological factors on forest evapotranspiration (ET), by using the water-budget method in the Kamabuchi experimental watershed (KMB; 38° 56′ 21″ N, 140° 15′ 58″ E) in northern Japan. Meteorological and discharge data collected during no-snow periods (from June to October) from 1939 were used to compare ET in three sub-watersheds: No. 1, where the forest had been left undisturbed, and No. 2 and No. 3, where Cryptomeria japonica was planted after clear-cutting. Paired watershed experiments revealed that clear-cutting caused ET to decrease by approximately 100 mm yr⁻¹, and this reduction continued for more than 20 years, even after C. japonica was planted. ET fluctuated similarly across all watersheds, regardless of clear-cutting or planting. This fluctuation is mainly caused by solar radiation and temperature. Intrinsic water-use efficiency (iWUE) calculated using δ¹³C of tree-ring cellulose in C. japonica increased due to elevated atmospheric CO₂ concentration. We estimated annual carbon fixation in a single tree as the annual net photosynthesis (A). Subsequently, transpiration (E) was calculated from the relationship between iWUE and A. The results showed that A and E per tree increased as the tree grew older; however, the trees' responses to increasing c_a suppress the increase in ET. Moreover, the fluctuation of ET from the watershed was small compared to the fluctuation of P during the observation periods because the increase and decrease in E and interception loss complemented each other.     

Fast computation of Jacobian elliptic functions and incomplete elliptic integrals for constant values of elliptic parameter and elliptic characteristic

In order to accelerate the numerical evaluation of torque-free rotation of triaxial rigid bodies, we present a fast method to compute various kinds of elliptic functions for a series of the elliptic argument when the elliptic parameter and the elliptic characteristic are fixed. The functions we evaluate are the Jacobian elliptic functions and the incomplete elliptic integral of the second and third kinds regarded as a function of that of the first kind. The key technique is the utilization of the Maclaurin series expansion and the addition theorems with respect to the elliptic argument. The new method is around 25 times faster than the method using the incomplete elliptic integral of general kind and around 70 times faster than the method using mathematical libraries given in the latest version of Numerical Recipes.     

An earthquake swarm in the northern part of the Aso caldera and migration of their foci

A seismicity gap was observed in the early stage of the activity of the earthquake swarm which has been taken place in the northern part of the Aso caldera during January 1975. In the following stage, small earthquakes began to occur, until at last the largest earthquake occured within the seismicity gap. The b-value appreciably increased after the largest earthquake. The above-mentioned characteristics of this earthquake swarm may be a typical example of the fracturing phenomena in relatively heterogeneous rocks. From the estimation of the ultimate strain energy that can be stored up in the seismicity gap, it may be concluded that the above-mentioned largest earthquake took place by the release of ultimate strain energy stored within the seismicity gap.     

Generation of hydrogen ions and hydrogen gas in quartz–water crushing experiments: an example of chemical processes in active faults

To understand the fundamental chemical processes of fluid–rock interaction during the pulverization of quartz grains in fault zones, quartz grains were crushed within pure water. The crushing experiments were performed batch style using a shaking apparatus. The crushing process induced a decrease in pH and an increase in hydrogen gas with increased shaking duration. The amount of hydrogen ions generated was five times larger than that of the hydrogen gas, which was consistent with the amount of Si radicals estimated from electron spin resonance measurements by Hochstrasser and Antonini (1972). This indicates that hydrogen gas was generated by consuming most of the Si radicals. The generation of hydrogen ions was most likely related to the presence of silanols on the newly formed mineral surface, implying a change of proton activities in the fluid after pulverization of quartz.     

Transformation from Cartesian to Geodetic Coordinates Accelerated by Halley’s Method

By using Halley’s third-order formula to find the root of a non-linear equation, we develop a new iterative procedure to solve an irrational form of the “latitude equation”, the equation to determine the geodetic latitude for given Cartesian coordinates. With a limit to one iteration, starting from zero height, and minimizing the number of divisions by means of the rational form representation of Halley’s formula, we obtain a new non-iterative method to transform Cartesian coordinates to geodetic ones. The new method is sufficiently precise in the sense that the maximum error of the latitude and the relative height is less than 6 micro-arcseconds for the range of height, −10 km ≤ h ≤ 30,000 km. The new method is around 50% faster than our previous method, roughly twice as fast as the well-known Bowring’s method, and much faster than the recently developed methods of Borkowski, Laskowski, Lin and Wang, Jones, Pollard, and Vermeille.     

Blueschist blocks at Mochimaru in the Tari-Misaka ultramafic complex: Their petrologic characteristics and significance

Blueschist tectonic blocks occur in serpentinites at Mochimaru, Hiroshima Prefecture, Southwest Japan. They contain alkali amphibole coexisting with pumpellyite and chlorite, with or without calcic amphibole. Textural and chemical analyses reveal that the blueschists, together with other mafic schists, have similar metamorphic history. After their capture by serpentinites and before the emplacement of the serpentinites into the present geological position, the tectonic blocks were subjected to high P/T metamorphism around the boundary between the blueschist and pumpellyite–actinolite facies. The amphiboles formed by this metamorphism change from tremolite through glaucophane to ferroglaucophane with increasing FeO/MgO of whole rock compositions. The P–T conditions are estimated to be within 200–350°C and 5–7 kbar. These are higher P/T conditions than those of the regional metamorphism of Southwest Japan. The difference in the P–T conditions implies differences in tectonic situation and timing of metamorphism between the blocks and regional metamorphic rocks. In addition, the high P/T metamorphism of the tectonic blocks probably occurred in more reducing environments than the regional metamorphism. Because the ferric/ferrous iron ratios of the tectonic blocks are within a narrow range, it is stressed that oxygen fugacity was externally buffered during the high P/T metamorphism by the serpentinization process of the host ultramafic rocks. The reducing effect of serpentinization is common throughout the high P/T metamorphic terranes of Southwest Japan.     

Temporal variations of the net Kuroshio transport and its relation to atmospheric variations

Temporal variations of the net Kuroshio transport are investigated using long-term hydrographic data from repeat section of the 137°E meridian from the south of Japan (34°N) to New Guinea (1°S) conducted by the Japan Meteorological Agency. In this study, boundaries of the Kuroshio and the Kuroshio Counter Current (KCC) are defined based on the sea surface dynamic height distribution. Westward flows associated with the KCC and cold-core eddy north of the Kuroshio are removed from the eastward flow associated with the Kuroshio in order to estimate the net Kuroshio transport strictly. The net Kuroshio transport reveals low-frequency variations: significant signals on a decadal (about 10-year) timescale. The variations of net Kuroshio transport are predominantly caused by changes in the magnitude of oceanic current speed fields associated with a vertical movement of the main pycnocline depth around the southern boundary of the Kuroshio: deepening of the main pycnocline around the southern boundary of the Kuroshio forms a sharp northern upward-tilting slope of the isopycnal surfaces at the Kuroshio region, and eventually the net Kuroshio transport increases together with the Kuroshio eastward transport. By using a wind-driven hindcast model, it is found that the main pycnocline depth variation results from the first-mode baroclinic Rossby waves attributable to two types of Aleutian Low (AL) changes: a change in the magnitude of AL and meridional movement of AL.