Radial and rotational velocities of young brown dwarfs and very low-mass stars in the Upper Scorpius OB association and the ρ Ophiuchi cloud core

We present the results of a radial velocity (RV) survey of 14 brown dwarfs (BDs) and very low-mass (VLM) stars in the Upper Scorpius OB association (UScoOB) and three BD candidates in the ρ Ophiuchi dark cloud core. We obtained high-resolution echelle spectra at the Very Large Telescope using the Ultraviolet and Visual Echelle Spectrograph (UVES) at two different epochs for each object, and measured the shifts in their RVs to identify candidates for binary/multiple systems in the sample. The average time separation of the RV measurements is 21.6 d, and our survey is sensitive to the binaries with separation <0.1 au. We found that four out of 17 objects (or 24⁺¹⁶₋₁₃ per cent by fraction) show a significant RV change in 4–33 d time-scale, and are considered as binary/multiple 'candidates'. We found no double-lined spectroscopic binaries in our sample, based on the shape of cross-correlation curves. The RV dispersion of the objects in UScoOB is found to be very similar to that of the BD and VLM stars in Chamaeleon I (Cha I). We also found the distribution of the mean rotational velocities ( v   sin   i ) of the UScoOB objects is similar to that of the Cha I, but the dispersion of v   sin   i is much larger than that of the Cha I objects.     

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Mapping and monitoring of land use changes in post-Soviet western Ukraine using remote sensing data

While agriculture is expanded and intensified in many parts of the world, decreases in land use intensity and farmland abandonment take place in other parts. Eastern Europe experienced widespread changes of agricultural land use after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, however, rates and patterns of these changes are still not well understood. Our objective was to map and analyze changes of land management regimes, including large-scale cropland, small-scale cropland, and abandoned farmland. Monitoring land management regimes is a promising avenue to better understand the temporal and spatial patterns of land use intensity changes. For mapping and change detection, we used an object-based approach with Superpixel segmentation for delineating objects and a Random Forest classifier. We applied this approach to Landsat and ERS SAR data for the years 1986, 1993, 1999, 2006, and 2010 to estimate change trajectories for this time period in western Ukraine. The first period during the 1990s was characterized by post-socialist transition processes including farmland abandonment and substantial subsistence agriculture. Later on, recultivation processes and the recurrence of industrial, large-scale farming were triggered by global food prices that have led to a growing interest in this region.     

Limnological effects of growth and cessation of agricultural land use in Ladoga Karelia: sedimentary pollen and diatom analyses

Reference conditions and changes in limnological conditions during the 20th century have been inferred in a palaeolimnological study of sediments from six lakes of the District of Sortavala, Karelian Republic, Russia. The area is former Finnish territory, which was in intensive use for arable field cultivation until the World War II, when the area was ceded to the Soviet Union. After the war, farming was resumed by cattle sovkhozes, and the fields were mainly used as pasture without regular ploughing. We have studied the history of eutrophication and recovery in some lakes related with the changes of agricultural intensity. The trophic level of the lakes was studied by sedimentary diatom assemblages, including reconstructions of total phosphorus levels in the lakes based on a weighted averaging transfer function. Pollen analyses were used to assess the changes in the land use near the lakes. Valuable background data on all the lakes used in the present study are provided by a doctoral thesis done on their limnology from the 1920s. According to our results, the four lakes situated on the clayey lowlands near the coast of Lake Ladoga were eutrophicating during the first half of the 20th century, and in two of them, a rapid recovery is evident. In two lakes situated in hilly landscape with limited agricultural activities, only minor changes are recorded in the diatom profiles.     

Evolution from a freshwater to saline lake: a climatic or hydrogeological change? The case of Gallocanta Lake (northeast Spain)

Sedimentological and hydrogeological studies are combined in order to investigate the environmental conditions of the lacustrine sedimentation during the Holocene in Gallocanta Lake in Spain. Six units have been identified in the sedimentary succession, based on sedimentological facies and mineralogy, and three depositional stages have been defined: (1) alluvial, (2) carbonate lake system, (3) ephemeral carbonate–saline lake system. The transition between stages 2 and 3 implies a reduction in water inflows to the lake. The δ¹³C isotopical analysis of dolomites points to decaying organic matter as a source of carbon for the dissolved inorganic carbon and evinces that the δ¹³C variations in the lake were probably controlled by organic processes. On the other hand, δ¹⁸O values could be controlled by modifications in the hydrological system and not necessarily by climatic changes. In this sense, from the hydrological study, three aquifers can be defined: Triassic, Jurassic–Cretaceous and Cenozoic aquifers. The lack of coincidence between the surface and subterranean watershed suggests that the transition between the second and third stages is controlled by a shift of the subterranean watershed. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Statistical characterization of impact of system variables on temporal dynamics of groundwater in highly weathered regoliths

In situations where the water table fluctuates during the rainy season the characterization of the impact of system variables on the temporal dynamics of the groundwater (GW) is essential to improve the understanding at catchment or regional scale behaviour of GW. In this study the appropriateness of the statistical parameters; mean, median, the 80^th percentile (PC80), coefficient of variation (CV), correlation coefficient (r), and multiple regression models were assessed to characterize the impact of system variables on the temporal dynamics of hydraulic head relative to ground surface (HH) during rainy seasons. The study was conducted from 1999 to 2003 in the wet tropical Johnstone River catchment (JRC) in north‐east Queensland, Australia. Piezometer wells were installed at 32 sites under cropping to 5–90 m depth on different soil types, landscape positions, and varying proximity to surface water bodies (i.e. four system variables). The HH was measured, at least at 10–15 day intervals during 1–5 consecutive rainy seasons. The HH in the 32 wells fluctuated throughout each of the five rainy seasons. The mean HH averaged over the seasons ranged from 1·1 to 17·2 m across the wells, the median from 0·9 to 17·3 m, and the PC80 from 0·3 to 16·1 m. The temporal behaviour of HH characterization by mean of means of HH, the mean of medians of HH, and the mean of PC80 of HH, indicated the HH can be classified to belong to three different groups for each one of these parameters. The impact of the system variables on temporal dynamics, explored using multiple regression procedure, indicated that the model for median was marginally better than mean. The CV was found to be most appropriate parameter to characterize the impact of GW system variable (aquifer type), a component of the system variables, on temporal dynamics. The interactions of GW (i) belonging to different GW system and (ii) at shoulder with footslope in a landscape were best characterized by simple linear correlations. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Further discussion on the intercomparison of the trace metal concentrations and particle size of fluvial sediment recovered from two centrifuge systems

A single large volume water sample taken at the mouth of the Upper Rhone River on Lake Geneva was processed directly in parallel through two continuous flow centrifuges, a Westphalia and an Alfa-Laval. Sediment was recovered from the Westphalia, and separately from the bowl and brass core of the Alfa-Laval. The three sediment samples were analyzed for particle size and the following elements: Zn, Cu, Mn, Cr, P, Co, B, V, Be, Sr, Na, Pb, Ni, Ba, Fe, Ca, and Mg. Results indicate that the particle size recovery of both machines is similar when sediment from the brass core and bowl of the Alfa-Laval are combined, and that the recovery for all elements other than Cu, V, B, and Pb are the same when the particle size differences are taken into account. Sediment from the Alfa-Laval brass core is clearly contaminated by Cu, B and is also elevated in V and Pb but not to a significant extent. The sediment recovered from the bowl of the Alfa-Laval is contaminated only with Cu, with a 10 ppm increase over the 52 ppm recovered in the Westphalia sediment. Operating procedures involve the discarding of the brass core sediment and the mixing of the Alfa-Laval bowl sediment with that from the Westphalia. The consequent increase in Cu is estimated at less than 5 ppm or within the confidence level of the analysis. These procedures are recommended to all operators of non modified Alfa-Laval units.     

Identification of physical processes inherent in artificial neural network rainfall runoff models

The emergence of artificial neural network (ANN) technology has provided many promising results in the field of hydrology and water resources simulation. However, one of the major criticisms of ANN hydrologic models is that they do not consider/explain the underlying physical processes in a watershed, resulting in them being labelled as black‐box models. This paper discusses a research study conducted in order to examine whether or not the physical processes in a watershed are inherent in a trained ANN rainfall‐runoff model. The investigation is based on analysing definite statistical measures of strength of relationship between the disintegrated hidden neuron responses of an ANN model and its input variables, as well as various deterministic components of a conceptual rainfall‐runoff model. The approach is illustrated by presenting a case study for the Kentucky River watershed. The results suggest that the distributed structure of the ANN is able to capture certain physical behaviour of the rainfall‐runoff process. The results demonstrate that the hidden neurons in the ANN rainfall‐runoff model approximate various components of the hydrologic system, such as infiltration, base flow, and delayed and quick surface flow, etc., and represent the rising limb and different portions of the falling limb of a flow hydrograph. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Facies and depositional architecture according to a jet efflux model of a late Paleozoic tidewater grounding-line system from the Itararé Group (Paraná Basin), southern Brazil

During the Late Paleozoic, the Gondwana supercontinent was affected by multiple glacial and deglacial episodes known as “The Late Paleozoic Ice Age” (LPIA). In Brazil, the evidence of this episode is recorded mainly by widespread glacial deposits preserved in the Paraná Basin that contain the most extensive record of glaciation (Itararé Group) in Gondwana. The Pennsylvanian to early Permian glaciogenic deposits of the Itararé Group (Paraná Basin) are widely known and cover an extensive area in southern Brazil. In the Doutor Pedrinho area (Santa Catarina state, southern Brazil), three glacial cycles of glacier advance and retreat were described. The focus of this article is to detail the base of the second glacial episodes or Sequence II. The entire sequence records a deglacial system tract that is represented by a proximal glacial grounding-line system covered by marine mudstones and shales associated with a rapid flooding of the proglacial area. This study deals with the ice proximal grounding-line systems herein interpreted according to lab model named plane-wall jet with jump. Detailed facies analysis allowed the identification of several facies ranging from boulder-rich conglomerates to fine-grained sandstones. No fine-grained deposits such as siltstone or shale were recorded. According to this model, the deposits are a product of a supercritical plane-wall outflow jet that changes to a subcritical jet downflow from a hydraulic jump. The hydraulic jump forms an important energy boundary that is indicated by an abrupt change in grain size and cut-and-fill structures that occur at the middle-fan. The sedimentary facies and facies associations show a downflow trend that can be subdivided into three distinct stages of flow development: (1) a zone of flow establishment (ZFE), (2) a zone of transition (ZFT), and (3) an established zone (ZEF). The proximal discharge is characterized by hyperconcentrated-to-concentrated flow due to the high energy and sediment-laden nature of the flows. At the transitional zone, a hydraulic jump produces a rapid shift of conglomeratic to sandy facies with associated scour features. Towards the distal zones, the jet detaches to originate a vertical turbulent jet characterized by more diluted flows. Discussion of fan facies and architecture within a framework of jet-efflux dynamics provides an improved understanding of grounding-line fans systems that produce coarse-grained strata commonly enclosed by fine-grained rocks. The results have clear implication in terms of prediction of facies tract and geometry of oil and gas reservoirs deposited under similar conditions. And also can be useful to identifying the position of a glacial terminus through time.     

The influence of topography and land use on water quality of Xiangxi River in Three Gorges Reservoir region

A self-organizing map (SOM) was used to cluster the water quality data of Xiangxi River in the Three Gorges Reservoir region. The results showed that 81 sampling sites could be divided into several groups representing different land use types. The forest dominated region had low concentrations of most nutrient variables except COD, whereas the agricultural region had high concentrations of NO₃N, TN, Alkalinity, and Hardness. The sites downstream of an urban area were high in NH₃N, NO₂N, PO₄P and TP. Redundancy analysis was used to identify the individual effects of topography and land use on river water quality. The results revealed that the watershed factors accounted for 61.7% variations of water quality in the Xiangxi River. Specifically, topographical characteristics explained 26.0% variations of water quality, land use explained 10.2%, and topography and land use together explained 25.5%. More than 50% of the variation in most water quality variables was explained by watershed characteristics. However, water quality variables which are strongly influenced by urban and industrial point source pollution (NH₃N, NO₂N, PO₄P and TP) were not as well correlated with watershed characteristics.