Bound and mobile soil water isotope ratios are affected by soil texture and mineralogy,whereas extraction method influences their measurement

Questions persist about interpreting isotope ratios of bound and mobile soil water pools, particularly relative to clay content and extraction conditions. Interactions between pools and resulting extracted water isotope composition are presumably related to soil texture, yet few studies have manipulated the bound pool to understand its influence on soil water processes. Using a series of drying and spiking experiments, we effectively labelled bound and mobile water pools in soils with varying clay content. Soils were first vacuum dried to remove residual water, which was then replaced with heavy isotope-enriched water prior to oven drying and spiking with heavy isotope-depleted water. Water was extracted via centrifugation or cryogenic vacuum distillation (at four temperatures) and analysed for oxygen and hydrogen isotope ratios via isotope ratio mass spectrometry. Water from centrifuged samples fell along a mixing line between the two added waters but was more enriched in heavy isotopes than the depleted label, demonstrating that despite oven drying, a residual pool remains and mixes with the mobile water. Soils with higher clay + silt content appeared to have a larger bound pool. Water from vacuum distillation samples have a significant temperature effect, with high temperature extractions yielding progressively more heavy isotope-enriched values, suggesting that Rayleigh fractionation occurred at low temperatures in the vacuum line. By distinctly labelling bound and mobile soil water pools, we detected interactions between the two that were dependent on soil texture. Although neither extraction method appeared to completely extract the combined bound and mobile (total water) pool, centrifugation and high temperature cryogenic vacuum distillations were comparable for both δ²H and δ¹⁸O of soil water isotope ratios.     

Potential of mosques to serve as evacuation shelters for foreign Muslims during disasters: a case study in Gunma,Japan

Natural Hazards - Foreigners tend to be vulnerable to disasters due to religious and cultural differences. In Japan, Muslim foreign residents, who are minorities, likely face difficulties in terms...     

Spatial partitioning between species of the phytoplankton-feeding guild on an estuarine intertidal sand flat and its implication on habitat carrying capacity

The fishery yield of Manila clams, Ruditapes philippinarum, increased considerably in the 1970s but has decreased rapidly since the middle 1980s on extensive intertidal sand flats in Ariake Sound (Kyushu, Japan). A survey conducted in 2004 on a 3.4-km² sand flat located in the central part of the Sound (Shirakawa sand flat) revealed four dominant species: two thalassinidean shrimps (Upogebia major and Nihonotrypaea japonica), which are deep-reaching burrow dwellers with strong bioturbation activities, and two bivalves (Mactra veneriformis and R. philippinarum). All four species belong to a phytoplankton (diatom)-feeding guild. In the late 1970s, the Manila clam population prevailed in high densities over the entire sand flat, whereas its distribution was restricted to the lowest quarter of the shore in 2004. In contrast, the population sizes and zones of occurrence of the other phytoplankton feeders have expanded in the absence of R. philippinarum, perhaps an indication of competitive release. After establishment, effects of the thalassinidean shrimps on sediment stability appear to have further reduced clam abundances. Across the sand flat in 2004, wet weight population biomass estimates for N. japonica, U. major, M. veneriformis, and R. philippinarum (whole body for shrimps and soft tissue for bivalves) were 304, 111, 378, and 234 tonnes, respectively. Based on Manila clam fishery yield records from Shirakawa, the carrying capacity of the Shirakawa sand flat in the late 1970s was estimated to be two times greater than the sum value for the whole phytoplankton-feeding guild in 2004. It is hypothesized that (1) the amount of phytoplankton determines the carrying capacity for the benthic community on the Shirakawa sand flat, with both phytoplankton and benthic biomass at maxima in the late 1970s, and (2) the subsequent increases in competition for space have caused further declines in the Manila clam population biomass to approximately one-eighth of its past value.     

ASCA observations of the Galactic superluminal sources GRO J1655–40 and GRS 1915+105

We summarize the ASCA observations of the two Galactic superluminal sources GRO J1655–40 and GRS 1915+105, focusing on theabsorption line features.The high spectroscopic capability of ASCA enabled us to detectiron-K absorption line features from both objects. This is direct evidence for the presence of highly ionized plasma in a non-spherical configuration around a black hole, and is considered to be a unique signature of superluminal jet systems. The candidate of the line-absorber would be a part of an accretion disk at a distance of 10^9-11 cm from the central X-ray source.     

Scale mismatches and their ecological and economic effects on landscapes: A spatially explicit model

Mismatches between the spatial scales of human decision-making and natural processes contribute to environmental problems such as global warming and biodiversity losses. People damage the environment through local activities like clearing land or burning fossil fuels, but the damages only become manifest at larger regional or global scales where no one pays for them. Payments for ecological services like carbon sequestration can correct for these damages caused by scale mismatches. This paper presents a spatially explicit land-use model to investigate the consequences of scale mismatches for pollination and carbon storage services and examine the effect of payment for only carbon storage services. The model integrates processes in multiple spatial scales ranging from the parcel level used by landowners’ decision about deforestation, to the larger scale used by animals to pollinate plants, and finally to the global scale where carbon storage services are supplied. We show that payment for carbon storage services can become an effective mechanism to protect forests at the same time that it creates inequities among landowners in income level.These findings suggest that market-based approaches that focus on conservation of a single ecosystem service may reproduce unequal power relations among landowners.     

Fractionation of hydrogen isotopes during phytol biosynthesis

Deuterium (D) depletion in phytol relative to ambient water as well as other lipids has been widely observed in various biological and geological samples; however, the mechanism for the depletion remains unknown. We have determined the hydrogen isotopic compositions of phytol and its precursors in cucumber cotyledons and have evaluated the fractionation of hydrogen isotopes during phytol biosynthesis. The hydrogen isotopic compositions of geranylgeraniol, dihydrogeranylgeraniol, tetrahydrogeranylgeraniol and phytol are ?281‰, ?302‰, ?325‰ and ?345‰, respectively. The results suggest that significantly D-depleted hydrogen is incorporated stepwise during hydrogenation of geranylgeraniol to phytol. We conclude that hydrogenation is important in controlling D depletion in phytol.     

Measurements of air-ice drag coefficient over the ice-covered Sea of Okhotsk

The air-ice drag coefficient under neutral stratification C _DN was measured with the eddy correlation method in the southern Sea of Okhotsk. The disturbance of the wind field caused by the ship’s structure was evaluated by computational fluid dynamics (CFD), and two types of correction methods were applied to estimate the error span of C _DN : one is based on the results of CFD, and the other is based on the parameterization of C _DN over open water suggested by Taylor and Yelland (2001). The C _DN × 10³ values finally obtained ranged from 1.9 to 5.4 with a mean value of 2.7 by the CFD correction and from 1.5 to 5.0 with a mean value of 3.1 by the other method. This is somewhat larger than the value of 2.5 suggested by Shirasawa (1981), and in the same range as 2.2–4.0 over rough ice and 3.1–5.0 over very rough ice, values which were complied by Guest and Davidson (1991) for first year ice. Most of the ice conditions were characterized by broken floes with a diameter less than 100 m and raised rims, which made the surface rougher than flat, level ice. The relation between C _DN and ice concentration was not clear, mainly because the contribution of the form drag caused at the freeboard was undetectable due to the great variation of ice surface condition. The roughness length z _M was also evaluated using the model developed for snow covered ice in a previous study.     

Modeling changes in ice dynamics and subsurface thermal structure in Lake Michigan-Huron between 1979 and 2021

Ocean Dynamics - The world’s largest lakes, including the Laurentian Great Lakes, have experienced significant surface warming and loss of ice cover over the last several decades. Although...     

Climatic impacts on crop yield and its variability in Nepal: do they vary across seasons and altitudes?

A rapid change in climate patterns potentially driven by global warming is considered to be greatest threats to agriculture. However, little is known about how the change in climate concretely affects agricultural production especially in Nepal with respect to seasons and regions of different altitudes. To examine this issue, we seek to empirically identify the impact of climatic variation on agricultural yield and its variability by utilizing the data of rice, wheat and climate variables in the central region of Nepal. The main focus is on whether the impacts vary across seasons, altitudes and the types of crops. For this purpose, we employ a stochastic production function approach by controlling a novel set of season-wise climatic and geographical variables. The result shows that an increase in the variance of both temperature and rainfall has adverse effects on crop productions in general. On the other hand, a change in the mean levels of the temperature and rainfall induces heterogeneous impacts, which can be considered beneficial, harmful or negligible, depending on the altitudes and the kinds of crops. These results imply that adaptation strategies must be tailor-made in Nepalese agriculture, considering growing seasons, altitudes and the types of crops.