Deformation history of the ophiolite sequence from the Balagne Nappe,northern Corsica: insights in the tectonic evolution of Alpine Corsica

In Alpine Corsica, the Jurassic ophiolites represent remnants of oceanic lithosphere belonging to the Ligure‐Piemontese Basin located between the Europe/Corsica and Adria continental margins. In the Balagne area, a Jurassic ophiolitic sequence topped by a Late Jurassic–Late Cretaceous sedimentary cover crops out at the top of the nappe pile. The whole ophiolitic succession is affected by polyphase deformation developed under very low‐grade orogenic metamorphic conditions. The original palaeogeographic location and the emplacement mechanisms for the Balagne ophiolites are still a matter of debate and different interpretations for its history have been proposed. The deformation features of the Balagne ophiolites are outlined in order to provide constraints on their history in the framework of the geodynamic evolution of Alpine Corsica. The deformation history reconstructed for the Balagne Nappe includes five different deformation phases, from D1 to D5. The D1 phase was connected with the latest Cretaceous/Palaeocene accretion into the accretionary wedge related to an east‐dipping subduction zone followed by a Late Eocene D2 phase related to emplacement onto the Europe/Corsica continental margin. The subsequent D3 phase was characterized by sinistral strike‐slip faults and related deformations of Late Eocene–Early Oligocene age. The D4 and D5 phases were developed during the Early Oligocene–Late Miocene extensional processes connected with the collapse of the Alpine belt. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A quantitative assessment of snow shielding effects on surface exposure dating from a western North American 10Be data compilation

To better assess the spatiotemporal variations of the snow shielding effect on surface exposure dating, we compiled a dataset of 1341 ¹⁰Be ages from alpine moraines and glacially eroded valleys across western North America, and conducted a sensitivity test with both modern and time-integrated snow data covering the same region. Our analyses reveal significant differences in snow shielding both across our geographic domain and through time. In our time-integrated experiments we find snow-based exposure age corrections as low as 3.5% in the Great Basin region and high as 28.4% in the Pacific Northwest for samples dating to the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) when no wind-sweeping is assumed. As demonstrated with our time-varying snow conditions with a global climate model and a positive degree day model, modern snow conditions across western North America cannot account for the varying snow patterns under large scale climate shifts since the LGM. The snow-based exposure age corrections from the modern data differ from those calculated by our time-varying model by up to 17% across our model domain. In addition, we find that the ¹⁰Be ages calculated under two end-member scenarios regarding wind-sweeping effects, specifically whether boulders were shielded only when the total snow accumulation exceeded boulder heights or were always shielded when the snow was present, can differ by ∼7.6% on average for LGM aged samples. Our analyses provide a model-based estimates of the spatiotemporal variability and complexity of snow shielding effects on surface exposure dates across western North America and highlight the need to consider snow depth variations both spatially and temporally when conducting surface exposure dating in terrains where snowfall accumulation is significant.     

天山天池水体季节性分层特征

于2014年6-10月,对高山深水湖泊天山天池水温、电导率、溶解氧、p H值、叶绿素a浓度和蓝绿藻细胞密度进行垂直剖面的连续监测,通过对其季节动态和垂直分层结构的分析,探讨天池水体季节性分层特征.天池出现明显水温分层的时间短(6-9月),夏季温跃层变化范围为2~18 m,而秋季温跃层不断下移,10月在18 m水深以下;受水温分层影响,天池水体溶解氧浓度、电导率、p H值、叶绿素a浓度和蓝绿藻细胞密度在垂直剖面表现出明显的季节性分层,尤其是夏季水温分层影响溶解氧浓度、叶绿素a浓度和蓝绿藻细胞密度在水体中的分布,对天池水质变化产生重要影响.天池浅水层(水深小于10 m)溶解氧浓度较高(大于8 mg/L),而深水层(水深超过18 m)溶解氧浓度9月接近4 mg/L,季节性缺氧导致底泥营养盐向上扩散,对水体水质产生不利影响.所以,应在夏、秋季节加强水质监测,以防止天池水华发生;天池叶绿素a浓度与蓝绿藻细胞密度的垂直剖面变化趋势相似,均随水深增加呈先增加后减小的趋势,但叶绿素a浓度在2~12 m水深处较高,蓝绿藻细胞密度在5~15 m水深处较高,表明5~15 m深度适合藻类生长,同时,电导率、p H值的垂直变化也说明藻类的生长情况,这为监测天池水体富营养化取样和分析提供依据.     

Development of a distributed hydrological model to facilitate watershed management

To facilitate precise and cost-effective watershed management, a simple yet spatially and temporally distributed hydrological model (DHM-WM) was developed. The DHM-WM is based on the Mishra-Singh version of the curve number method, with several modifications: The spatial distribution of soil moisture was considered in moisture updating; the travel time of surface runoff was calculated on a grid cell basis for routing; a simple tile flow module was included as an option. The DHM-WM was tested on a tile-drained agricultural watershed in Indiana, USA. The model with the tile flow module performed well in the study area, providing a balanced water budget and reasonable flow partitioning. The daily coefficient of determination and Nash-Sutcliffe coefficient were 0.58 and 0.56, for the calibration period, and 0.63 and 0.62 for the validation period. The DHM-WM also provides detailed information about the source areas of flow components, the travel time and pathways of surface runoff.

EDITOR A. Castellarin; ASSOCIATE EDITOR F.-J. Chang     

天目湖流域丘陵山区典型土地利用类型氮流失特征

天目湖丘陵山区农业综合开发持续推进,大量林地转变为茶园,迫切需要认识茶园扩张对流域氮流失的影响.本研究选取茶园、次生马尾松林和毛竹林开展自然降雨条件下的径流小区实验,分析天目湖丘陵山区典型用地类型径流氮流失规律,为评估丘陵山区综合开发的水环境影响提供实测参数.研究表明:茶园、次生马尾松林和毛竹林地表径流TN浓度分别为11.25、2.83和3.60 mg/L,均以溶解态为主;壤中流TN浓度分别为27.16、3.59和1.06 mg/L,茶园和次生马尾松林均以溶解性无机氮(尤其是硝态氮)为主,毛竹林以溶解性有机氮为主;茶园、次生马尾松林和毛竹林的小区尺度地表径流系数均不到0.03,壤中流是丘陵山区径流的主要来源;茶园开发加剧了丘陵山区的氮素流失,茶园径流TN流失强度高达103.08 kg/(hm²·a),分别是次生马尾松林和毛竹林的7.6和23.2倍,壤中流贡献了流失总量的86.7%~99.7%.防治茶园径流氮流失需重点关注壤中流输出,在减量施肥的基础上,采取坡脚构建毛竹林生态缓冲带/在小流域出口布设塘坝等原位拦截措施,实现流域氮流失综合防控.     

GIS‐based modelling of soil erosion processes using the modified‐MMF (MMMF) model in a large watershed having vast agro‐climatological differences

The present study demonstrates a spatially distributed application of a field‐scale annual soil loss model, the modified‐MMF (MMMF), to a large watershed using hydrological routing techniques, remote sensing data and geospatial technologies. In this study, the MMMF model is implemented after incorporating the corrections suggested in recent literature along with appropriate modifications of the model to suit the agro‐climatological conditions prevailing in most parts of India. Sensitivity analysis carried out through an Average Linear Sensitivity approach indicates that the model outputs are highly sensitive to soil moisture (MS), bulk density (BD), effective hydraulic depth (EHD), ground cover (GC) and settling velocity for clay (VS_c). During calibration and validation, the performance evaluation statistics are mostly in the range of very good to satisfactory for both runoff and soil loss at the watershed outlet. Even spatial validation of the results of intermediate processes in the water phase and the sediment phase, although qualitative, seems to be reasonable and rational. Furthermore, the soil erosion severity analysis for different land‐uses existing in the watershed indicates that about 90% of the watershed area, especially that occupied by agricultural lands, is vulnerable to the long‐term effects of soil erosion. Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A regime shift in sediment export from a coastal watershed during a record wet winter,California: Implications for landscape response to hydroclimatic extremes

Small, steep watersheds are prolific sediment sources from which sediment flux is highly sensitive to climatic changes. Storm intensity and frequency are widely expected to increase during the 21st century, and so assessing the response of small, steep watersheds to extreme rainfall is essential to understanding landscape response to climate change. During record winter rainfall in 2016–2017, the San Lorenzo River, coastal California, had nine flow peaks representing 2–10‐year flood magnitudes. By the third flood, fluvial suspended sediment showed a regime shift to greater and coarser sediment supply, coincident with numerous landslides in the watershed. Even with no singular catastrophic flood, these flows exported more than half as much sediment as had a 100‐year flood 35 years earlier, substantially enlarging the nearshore delta. Annual sediment load in 2017 was an order of magnitude greater than during an average‐rainfall year, and 500‐fold greater than in a recent drought. These anomalous sediment inputs are critical to the coastal littoral system, delivering enough sediment, sometimes over only a few days, to maintain beaches for several years. Future projections of megadroughts punctuated by major atmospheric‐river storm activity suggest that interannual sediment‐yield variations will become more extreme than today in the western USA, with potential consequences for coastal management, ecosystems, and water‐storage capacity. The occurrence of two years with major sediment export over the past 35 years that were not associated with extremes of the El Niño Southern Oscillation or Pacific Decadal Oscillation suggests caution in interpreting climatic signals from marine sedimentary deposits derived from small, steep, coastal watersheds, to avoid misinterpreting the frequencies of those cycles. Published 2018. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.     

Near-bankfull floods in an Alpine stream: Effects on the sediment mobility and bedload magnitude

In a mountain environment, the transport of coarse material is a key factor for many fields such as geomorphology, ecology, hazard assessment, and reservoir management. Despite this, there have been only a few field investigations of bedload, in particular using multiple monitoring methods. In this sense, attention has frequently focused on the effects of “high magnitude/low frequency floods” rather than on “ordinary events”. This study aims to analyze the sediment dynamics triggered by three high-frequency floods (recurrence interval “RI” between 1.1 and 1.7 yr) that occurred in the Rio Cordon basin during 2014. The flood events were investigated in terms of both sediment mobility and bedload magnitude. The Rio Cordon is an Alpine basin located in northeastern Italy. The catchment has a surface area of 5 km², ranging between 1763 and 2763 m above sea level. The Rio Cordon flows on an armored streambed layer, with a stable step-pool configuration and large boulders. Since 1986, the basin has been equipped with a permanent station to continuously monitor water discharge and sediment flux. To investigate sediment mobility, 250 PIT-tags were installed in the streambed in 2012. The 2014 floods showed a clear difference in terms of tracer displacement. The near-bankfull events showed equal mobility conditions, with mean travel distance one order of magnitude higher than the below-bankfull event. Furthermore, only the near-bankfull events transported coarse material to the monitoring station. Both events had a peak discharge up to 2.06 m³ s^-1, but the bedload transport rates differed by more than one order of magnitude, proving that under the current supply-limited condition, the bedload appears more related to the sediment supply than to the magnitude of the hydrological features. In this sense, the results demonstrated that near-bankfull events can mobilize large amounts of material for long distances, and that floods of apparently similar magnitude may lead to different sediment dynamics, depending on the type and amount of sediment supply.