Shaping the Australian crust over the last 300 million years: Insights from fission track thermotectonic imaging and denudation studies of key terranes

Apatite fission track thermochronology is a well‐established tool for reconstructing the low‐temperature thermal and tectonic evolution of continental crust. The variation of fission track ages and distribution of fission track lengths are primarily controlled by cooling, which may be initiated by earth movements and consequent denudation at the Earth's surface and/or by changes in the thermal regime. Using numerical forward‐modelling procedures these parameters can be matched with time‐temperature paths that enable thermal and tectonic processes to be mapped out in considerable detail. This study describes extensive Australian regional fission track datasets that have been modelled sequentially and inverted into time‐temperature solutions for visualisation as a series of time‐slice images depicting the cooling history of present‐day surface rocks during their passage through the upper crust. The data have also been combined with other datasets, including digital elevation and heat flow, to image the denudation history and the evolution of palaeotopography. These images provide an important new perspective on crustal processes and landscape evolution and show how important tectonic and denudation events over the last 300 million years can be visualised in time and space. The application of spatially integrated denudation‐rate chronology is also demonstrated for some key Australian terranes including the Lachlan and southern New England Orogens of southeastern Australia, Tasmania, the Gawler Craton, the Mt Isa Inlier, southwestern Australian crystalline terranes (including the Yilgarn Craton) and the Kimberley Block. This approach provides a readily accessible framework for quantifying the otherwise undetectable, timing and magnitude of long‐term crustal denudation in these terranes, for a part of the geological record previously largely unconstrained. Discrete episodes of enhanced denudation occurred principally in response to changes in drainage, base‐level changes and/or uplift/denudation related to far‐field effects resulting from intraplate stress or tectonism at plate margins. The tectonism was mainly associated with the history of continental breakup of the Gondwana Supercontinent from Late Palaeozoic time, although effects related to compression are also recorded in eastern Australia. The results also suggest that the magnitude of denudation of cratonic blocks has been significantly underestimated in previous studies, and that burial and exhumation are significant factors in the preservation of apparent ‘ancient’ features in the Australian landscape.     

Linking soil water balance with flood spatial arrangement in an extremely flat landscape

In areas with very mild relief, water drains in a disordered way due to the lack of a developed drainage network, as it occurs in extremely flat sedimentary regions like the Argentine Pampas. The study analysed the flood spatial arrangements in 2014 by calculating landscape metrics and relating them to soil water balance. The study area is located at Del Azul creek lower basin (Pampa Ecoregion, Argentina). Daily soil water balances were obtained, and seven landscape metrics were calculated in 15 windows in five LandSat images, all along 2014, to explore the relationship between hydrological scenarios and spatial pattern summarized with principal component analysis. Water excess concentrated in winter (June and August); deficits were in late spring and summer (January and November), whereas the beginning of autumn (March) was an intermediate situation. Principal component 1 (44.7%) reflected area and shape metrics and correlated positively with water table level; principal component 2 (32.3%) summarized aggregation ones and was negatively associated with accumulated water excesses or deficits in previous 30 days and useful reserve. Both exhibited possible threshold-driven behaviour. Internal heterogeneity between NW and SE zones within the study area coincided with the existence of ancient alluvial fans. The results highlight the peculiarities of the flood spatial patterns in regions with very mild relief, where landforms usually determine water flows.     

A geostatistical model for estimating edge effects and cumulative human disturbance in wetlands and coastal waters

ABSTRACT

The modification of landscapes for agriculture, residential housing, and other human uses has the potential to alter ecosystem function, reduce native biodiversity, and to diminish the capacity of natural systems to provide essential goods and services. Resultantly, methods aimed at quantifying disturbance intensity at the intersection of anthropogenic and natural lands are important to applied aspects of landscape planning and natural resource management, as well as theoretical facets of spatial ecology. Tools to appraise human disturbance in wetlands and coastal waters are especially needed because the topographic settings of surface waters make them particularly susceptible to pollutant accumulation, hydrologic alteration, and other influences from the surrounding landscape. Assuming a water resources focus, we developed a novel geostatistical method to quantify and visualize edge effects and cumulative human disturbance for all wetlands and coastal waters in the State of Florida (USA). Model validation revealed that estimated disturbance intensity was strongly correlated to species richness, levels of heavy metal contamination, and persistent organic pollutant concentration. The presented modeling framework offers a flexible means to assess human disturbance across spatial scales and could be readily applied to prioritize conservation land acquisition and to anticipate future impacts from the proposed development.     

景观监测指标体系构建研究

为了进一步研究国家尺度的常态化景观格局变化监测,该文围绕景观监测的内涵、景观建模、指标的逻辑架构和监测尺度等方面探讨构建景观监测系统中应重点关注的问题,并提出一种景观监测指标体系:以地理国情普查成果为主要数据源,基于科学性、易于理解性、数据可获性、应用性的原则甄选了26个指标,涵盖有关景观格局的组成要素和其空间配置的8个监测主题,采用PSR逻辑框架,通过分析各指标及其相互作用关系从生态压力、状况以及响应三个方面对景观格局进行评估、预测。研究结果可为相关领域提供参考。     

基于Skyline黄河流域3维景观的建立

以ADS 40航空影像为数据源,利用Leica数字摄影测量系统制作黄河流域的正射影像及DEM;利用3维GIS软件Skyline将DOM叠加到DEM上构建3维场景;利用3DMAX进行桥梁的精细建模并进行格式转换;利用数码相机对建筑物、桥梁和堤坝的侧面纹理进行采集并进行纹理映射,实现了黄河流域3维景观的可视化。     

A Mirror Cracked: Ten Keys to the Landscape of the Calumet Region

Abstract

Southeast Chicago's Calumet region is many things to many people. Home to wetlands and wildlife, mills and millgate communities, landfills and brownfields, it seems to defy easy characterization. This paper argues that it is the jarring juxtaposition of each of these features that best reflects the area. Ten interpretive “keys” -or significant landscape-shaping elements form an interpretive frame.     

The Global Landscape of GIS in Secondary Education

This study analyzes the status of GIS in schools in thirty-three countries and proposes recommendations for advancing the implementation and effectiveness of GIS in secondary education from an international perspective. Thirty-three countries have been evaluated in the study to assess the global landscape of educational GIS by analyzing how GIS is recognized, approached, and used across the world with chief challenges, opportunities, and case studies. As the study revealed, the current global landscape of GIS remains small for secondary education; however, the convergence of citizen science, emphasis on spatial thinking, mobile devices, open data, and Web-based map services could cause a significant increase in the numbers of schools, educators, and students teaching and learning with GIS.     

Glacier characteristics and sediment transfer system of Longyearbreen and Larsbreen,western Spitsbergen

Two small high-Arctic glaciers (Longyearbreen and Larsbreen) on Svalbard (78°N 15°E) were studied with respect to glaciological and hydrological characteristics. Fieldwork during the melting season of 1993 and 1994 was coupled with digital map analysis based on high-resolution digital elevation models (DEM) to reveal the dynamics and temperature regime of small glaciers in a high-Arctic environment, and its relationship to the material transport and sedimentation of these glaciers. The study showed Longyearbreen and Larsbreen to be low activity glaciers, cold-based with temperate patches, and thus having a low potential of basal erosion. The transport of ions and suspended solids in the glacial meltwater implies storage of material in and around the glacier which comes into contact with the meltwater. The study suggests that small Arctic glaciers couple the slope system with the fluvial system and therefore build a highly effective denudation system. Small polythermal glaciers are therefore important in understanding Pleistocene and Holocene landform development in cold regions.     

Effectiveness of reforestation in erosion mitigation and implications for future sediment yields,East Coast catchments,New Zealand: A review

This paper argues that reforestation of unstable and degraded parts of the East Coast region, predominantly with exotic pines, has successfully stabilised existing erosion forms and prevented the initiation of new ones. Effectiveness is often assessed by capturing erosion scars on aerial photography taken before and after reforestation and any change in scar size is measured in a geographic information system (GIS). Combined with forest age data, modelled reforestation scenarios indicate that sediment generation from earth flows and shallow landslides would be negligible within eight to 10 years after planting, and if all remaining gullies were to be reforested before 2020, sediment yield could halve by 2030 and remain constant thereafter. In a similar time frame, the risk to infrastructure by sedimentation and flooding would likely decrease.