Tracing variability of run‐off generation in mountainous permafrost of semi‐arid north‐eastern Mongolia

The headwaters of mountainous, discontinuous permafrost regions in north‐eastern Mongolia are important water resources for the semi‐arid country, but little is known about hydrological processes there. Run‐off generation on south‐facing slopes, which are devoid of permafrost, has so far been neglected and is totally unknown for areas that have been affected by recent forest fires. To fill this knowledge gap, the present study applied artificial tracers on a steppe‐vegetated south‐facing and on two north‐facing slopes, burned and unburned. Combined sprinkling and dye tracer experiments were used to visualize processes of infiltration and water fluxes in the unsaturated zone. On the unburned north‐facing slope, rapid and widespread infiltration through a wet organic layer was observed down to the permafrost. On the burned profile, rapid infiltration occurred through a combusted organic and underlying mineral layer. Stained water seeped out at the bottom of both profiles suggesting a general tendency to subsurface stormflow (SSF). Ongoing SSF could directly be studied 24 h after a high‐intensity rainfall event on a 55‐m hillslope section in the burned forest. Measurements of water temperature proved the role of the permafrost layer as a base horizon for SSF. Repeated tracer injections allowed direct insights into SSF dynamics: A first injection suggested rather slow dispersive subsurface flow paths; whereas 18 h later, a second injection traced a more preferential flow system with 20 times quicker flow velocities. We speculate that these pronounced SSF dynamics are limited to burned slopes where a thermally insulating organic layer is absent. On three south‐facing soil profiles, the applied tracer remained in the uppermost 5 cm of a silt‐rich mineral soil horizon. No signs of preferential infiltration could be found, which suggested reduced biological activity under a harsh, dry and cold climate. Instead, direct observations, distributed tracers and charcoal samples provided evidence for the occurrence of overland flow. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Deducing the spatial variability of exchange within a longitudinal channel water balance

Developing an appropriate data collection scheme to infer stream–subsurface interactions is not trivial due to the spatial and temporal variability of exchange flowpaths. Within the context of a case study, this paper presents the results from a number of common data collection techniques ranging from point to reach scales used in combination to better understand the spatial complexity of subsurface exchanges, infer the hydrologic conditions where individual influences of hyporheic and groundwater exchange components on stream water can be characterized, and determine where gaps in information arise. We start with a tracer‐based, longitudinal channel water balance to quantify hydrologic gains and losses at a sub‐reach scale nested within two consecutive reaches. Next, we look at groundwater and stream water surface levels, shallow streambed vertical head gradients, streambed and aquifer hydraulic conductivities, water chemistry, and vertical flux rates estimated from streambed temperatures to provide more spatially explicit information. As a result, a clearer spatial understanding of gains and losses was provided, but some limitations in interpreting results were identified even when combining information collected over various scales. Due to spatial variability of exchanges and areas of mixing, each technique frequently captured a combination of groundwater and hyporheic exchange components. Ultimately, this study provides information regarding technique selection, emphasizes that care must be taken when interpreting results, and identifies the need to apply or develop more advanced methods for understanding subsurface exchanges. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Balancing trade‐off issues in land use change and the impact on streamflow and salinity management

The south‐west region of the Goulburn–Broken catchment in the south‐eastern Murray–Darling Basin in Australia faces a range of natural resource challenges. A balanced strategy is required to achieve the contrasting objectives of remediation of land salinization and reducing salt export, while maintaining water supply security to satisfy human consumption and support ecosystems. This study linked the Catchment Analysis Tool (CAT), comprising a suite of farming system models, to the catchment‐scale CATNode hydrological model to investigate the effects of land use change and climate variation on catchment streamflow and salt export. The modelling explored and contrasted the impacts of a series of different revegetation and climate scenarios. The results indicated that targeted revegetation to only satisfy biodiversity outcomes within a catchment is unlikely to have much greater impact on streamflow and salt load in comparison with simple random plantings. Additionally, the results also indicated that revegetation to achieve salt export reduction can effectively reduce salt export while having a disproportionately smaller affect on streamflows. Furthermore, streamflow declines can be minimized by targeting revegetation activities without significantly altering salt export. The study also found that climate change scenarios will have an equal if not more significant impact on these issues over the next 70 years. Uncertainty in CATNode streamflow predictions was investigated because of the effect of parameter uncertainty. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Assessing soil salinity using WorldView-2 multispectral images in Timpaki,Crete, Greece

Salinization is one of the major soil degradation threats occurring worldwide. This study evaluates the feasibility of operational surface soil salinity mapping based on state-of-the-art Earth Observation (EO) products captured by sensors on-board WorldView-2 (WV2) and Landsat 8 satellites. The proposed methods are tested in Timpaki, south-central Crete,Greece, where brackish water irrigation puts soil health at risk of soil salinization. In all cases, EO products are calibrated against soil samples collected from bare soil locations. Results indicate a moderate correlation of observed EC_e values with the investigated remote sensing parameters. Regarding sensitivity to saline soil, the yellow band displays higher values. Comparison between methods used in the literature shows that those developed specifically for soil salinity, and especially index S5, perform better. The proposed ‘detection index’ and 3D PCA transformation methodology perform reasonably well in detecting areas with high EC_e values and provide a simple and effective operational alternative for saline topsoil detection and mapping.     

Spatial changes in a macrozoobenthic community along environmental gradients in a shallow brackish lagoon facing Sendai Bay, Japan

The spatial distribution, abundance, and assemblage structure of macrozoobenthos were examined at 45 stations in a brackish lagoon (Idoura Lagoon, Japan) to examine the animal–environmental relations in estuarine soft-bottom habitats. We found a total of 23 taxa; the polychaetes Heteromastus sp., Hediste spp., and Prionospio japonica and the isopod Cyathura muromiensis numerically dominated the community. Cluster analysis and one-way analysis of similarity (ANOSIM) identified seven groups of stations that had significantly different macrozoobenthic communities; these were subsequently consolidated into five habitat groups according to their association with environmental characteristics. Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) showed that salinity, silt-clay content, and the oxidation–reduction potential (ORP) of the sediment strongly affected the macrozoobenthos distribution pattern in the lagoon, whereas other factors (e.g., relative elevation of the habitat and sediment organic content) had much weaker effects. Similarity percentages (SIMPER) procedures indicated that the polychaete Notomastus sp. and the bivalve Macoma contabulata were specific to habitats with low salinity and reduced mud, whereas the bivalve Nuttallia olivacea was specific to sandy bottoms. Heteromastus sp. and Hediste spp. achieved their highest densities in rather oxidized sediments. The acid-volatile sulfide (AVS) content in the sediment was suggested as another possible factor affecting macrozoobenthic density. Our results clearly demonstrate that macrozoobenthic assemblages in estuarine soft-bottoms have high spatial heterogeneity on a small scale (e.g., hundreds of meters) related to physical and chemical environmental changes. Our data also suggested the importance of sediment redox condition (e.g., ORP and AVS content) and sediment grain size as structuring factors in estuarine soft-bottom communities as well as the salinity in the habitat.     

Decline of Pseudodiaptomus hessei (Copepoda, Calanoida) in two water bodies located in the Senegal River hydrosystem (West Africa): Hypotheses and perspectives

Pseudodiaptomus hessei is a key species in many water bodies in the Senegal River hydrosystem but it became rare or completely disappeared from two ecosystems (Lake Guiers and Dakar Bango Reservoir; Senegal, West Africa) after major hydrological changes caused by human action, mainly impoundments on the river in 1985, and the opening of a new estuary mouth in 2003. Kâ et al. [Kâ, S., Pagano, M., Ba, N., Bouvy, M., Leboulanger, C., Arfi, R., Thiaw, O.T., Ndour, E.H.M., Corbin, D., Defaye, D., Cuoc, C., Kouassi, E., 2006. Zooplankton distribution related to environmental factors and phytoplankton in a shallow tropical lake (Lake Guiers, Senegal, West Africa). International Review of Hydrobiology 91(5), 389–405] put forward several hypotheses to explain the reasons for this decline: salinity and chemical changes in the water, predation by a cyclopid predator Mesocyclops ogunnus and/or the inhibiting effects of cyanobacteria and/or diatoms (allelopathy). This study assessed these hypotheses by studying the distribution of P. hessei in 13 stations (including the Dakar Bango reservoir and Lake Guiers) in relation to physical, chemical and biological (phyto- and zooplanktons) factors at each station. We produced a distribution pattern for this species in the Senegal River hydrosystem. Rank correlations and principal component analysis showed that P. hessei was not correlated with conductivity but was positively correlated with pH and alkalinity, suggesting chemical effects. The clear association with two filamentous cyanobacteria (Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii and Anabaena sp.) did not appear to support the hypothesis of cyanobacteria inhibition but blooming conditions were never encountered during the study. Negative correlation with diatoms (especially with Fragilaria sp.) suggested that aldehyde producing diatoms had a negative effect. Negative correlations with cyclopids such as Mesocyclops supported the hypothesis of cyclopid predation to explain the decline of P. hessei. This study proposes several lines of research for future studies to test these hypotheses.     

Comparisons of Salinity Adaptation in Terms of Growth,Body Composition,and Energy Budget in Juveniles of Rainbow and Steelhead Trouts (Oncorhynchus mykiss)

This study examined the effect of different salinities(0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30) on the growth performance and energy budget of juveniles of two different ecotypes of Oncorhynchus mykiss, landlocked rainbow trout and anadromous steelhead trout. In the 42 d experiment, fish were cultured in three replicate tanks per salinity treatment(eight fish per tank). At the end of the experiment, the growth of rainbow and steelhead trouts was significantly higher at salinities of 5 and 10, respectively, than at all other salinities. The protein, lipid and energy content of both ecotypes declined with the increase of salinity. Based on their energy budgets, the percentage of energy consumed for growth by rainbow and steelhead trouts were significantly higher at salinities of 5(34.00% ±1.69%) and 10(43.76% ± 1.29%), respectively, than at all other salinities. The percentage of energy consumed for respiration by rainbow and steelhead trouts was lower at salinities of 5(54.90% ± 1.77%) and 10(46.73% ± 0.62%), respectively, than at all other salinities. Our results indicated that the salinity adaptation ability of juvenile steelhead trout was slightly better than that of juvenile rainbow trout, and salinities of 10 and 5, respectively, were most suitable for growth of these two fishes.     

九龙江口浮游植物群体对盐度胁迫的快速适应

Mixing of freshwater and seawater creates the well-known salinity gradients along the estuaries. In order to investigate how phytoplankton respond to the acute salinity changes, we exposed natural phytoplankton assemblies from the Jiulong River Estuary to differential saline field water while continuously monitoring their photosynthetic performances under both indoor-and outdoor-growth conditions. When the natural cell assemblies from salinity 30 field water were exposed to series low saline field water(salinity 25, 17, 13 and 7.5), the effective Photosystem II quantum yield(ΔF/F_m′) decreased sharply, e.g., to one-fifth of its initials after 5 min exposure to salinity 7.5 field water, and then increased fast during the following 40 min and almost completely recovered after 320 min. During such an exposure process, non-photochemical quenching(NPQ) sharply increased from 0 to 0.85 within 5 min, and then decreased to nearly 0 within the following 70 min. When these cells re-acclimated to salinity 7.5 field water were exposed to series high saline field water(salinity 13, 17, 25 and 30), a similar response pattern was observed, with the decreased ΔF/F_m′ accompanied with increased NPQ, and followed by the recovery-induced increase in ΔF/F_m′ and decrease in NPQ. A similar response pattern as ΔF/F_m′to the acute osmotic stress was also observed in the photosynthetic carbon fixation capacity according to radiocarbon(~(14)C) incorporation. Our results indicate that estuarine phytoplankton assemblies could rapidly recover from the acute osmotic stress, implying a potential cause for their frequent blooms in coastal-estuarine waters where despite drastically varying salinity, available nutrients are abundant due to the land-derived runoffs or mixing-caused relaxations from sediments.     

SH波入射时多个半圆形沉积谷地附近浅埋圆形孔洞的动力分析

本文采用辅助函数的思想,利用复变函数和多级坐标的方法给出了SH波入射条件下多个半圆形沉积谷地附近浅埋圆形孔洞动力分析问题的解答。将整个求解区域分割成两部分来处理,区域I为多个半圆形沉积谷地,区域II为浅埋圆形孔洞附近带半圆形凹陷的半无限弹性空间。在区域I和II中分别构造位移解,并在二个区域的“公共边界”上实施位移应力的连续条件,建立求解该问题的无穷代数方程组。最后,本文给出了算例和数值结果,并对其进行了讨论。     

Analysis on the effect of salinity in underwater wireless optical communication

Abstract

This article deals with the effect of salinity variation on underwater wireless optical communication (UWOC). Effect of different concentration of salt on underwater optical communication has been carried out experimentally in terms of received power at different link lengths. Based on the analysis of experimental data, a mathematical model has been proposed to describe the saline water channel. A simulation study is performed for different data rates and link lengths. It is seen that with increased salinity the attenuation is higher and the UWOC system performance degrades with higher data rate and increased link length.