Statistical-dynamical downscaling of wind roses over the Czech Republic

The present study describes a new method for statistical-dynamical downscaling that combines two different approaches, namely, a set of patterns simulated with a numerical flow model and a transformation function used to process both calculated data and measurements at a reference station. The combined method produces wind roses and wind speed histograms at an arbitrary location in the model domain. The inflow wind direction represented the key parameter to define a set of wind field simulations. The other two inflow parameters, namely, thermal stratification and geostrophic wind speed, were derived from corresponding averaged soundings. The results showed that in the Czech Republic, there are areas where wind roses are deformed by the surrounding terrain. The deformations occur in relatively shallow and wide valleys, and they are more sensitive to the inflow wind direction. Calculated wind roses are compared to corresponding observations at 22 synoptic stations. The most frequent wind direction sector in simulations agreed with measurements at 17 stations. The resulting error in frequency in that sector was under 5 % at 10 stations. In general, the main features of the wind roses are modelled well, even at a relatively large distance from the reference station. However, better performance was achieved for smaller distances between reference station and the site. In further studies, a more extensive set of flow patterns with reduced intervals of thermal stratification and wind speed will likely improve calculated wind roses.     

Stabilization System for Waste Water Treatment and Use. Part 2. Biology

From the hydrobiological viewpoint the stabilization system represents three different ecosystems with specific biocoenoses. Through natural processes the processed nutrients pass through the anaerobic and semi-aerobic stages to be utilized in the trophic chain in a fishpond. Here, the process of waste water treatment is brought to the state of beta-mesosaprobity with variation towards alpha-mesosaprobity. The annual yield of fishes amounted to 1,060 kg/ha on the average. The economic returnability of the system is 20 years. A critical analysis of the performance of the system allowed the proposal of its optimization. It would consist in the complete separation of the entirely different biocoenoses in three consecutive basins preceding the stabilization pond. When the pond is fished out, the second and the third basin would accumulate the effluent of the first basin until the end of March. In this way the nutrients in incoming waste water would be utilized purposively by the algae during the vegetative period, the algae by the filtering zooplankton and the latter by the fish.     

Rapid climate change in the Upper Palaeolithic: the record of charcoal conifer rings from the Gravettian site of Dolní Vĕstonice,Czech Republic

Precisely how Upper Palaeolithic human ecology was shaped by changing climate during the Pleniglacial remains a matter of debate, for while this generally cold period is now understood to include complex and often rapid flux in climate, there are still considerable difficulties in resolving climatic variations at particular times and places — derived from various lines of proxy evidence — with the high-resolution proxy record of temperature changes from oxygen isotope analysis of the Greenland ice-cores.In this paper we apply the methodology of large-scale flotation to newly excavated contexts from the Upper Palaeolithic (Gravettian) site of Dolní V?stonice II, Czech Republic, to explore the potential of charcoal — as a natural archive of environmental information — to offer information on environmental change towards the end of the middle pleniglacial during Oxygen Isotope Stage 3, between c. 32,500 and 31,200 Cal yr BP. The results of an analysis of ring widths and other anatomical features — interpreted alongside micromorphological data — indicate that this charcoal may capture a higher-resolution record of the changing climatic conditions during which humans were first expanding into these hitherto marginal ecologies and, consequently, shed new light upon the complexity of the lifeways that enabled them to do so.     

Stabilization System for Waste Water Treatment and Use. Part 1. Chemistry

The difficulties arisen in an assimilation pond, as it is called, after 17 years of operation were solved by a stabilization system for the purification of effluents and utilization for fish breeding. It consists of two basins (0.56 and 1.04 ha) and a fish pond (15.58 ha) to which water can flow from a brook by-passing the system. When the stabilization system had worked for 6 years, it was proved that in the case of the average daily intake of milk of 93,846…118,134 litres, effluents flowing out of the dairy plant amounted to 205.28…228.53 m³, on average. The BOD₅ of effluents ranged from 201.33 to 261.73 kg/d and the total solids ranged from 95.5 to 139.3 kg/d on average. The average daily outflow from the pond amounted to 394.7…1567.0 m³ of water with 4.1…23.8 kg of BOD₅ and with 29.3…112.4 kg of total solids. The average decrease of the main nutrients and extractable substances ranged from 62.8% (Ca²⁺) to 100% (NO^?3). Only the BOD₅ value at the end of the growing season in 1984 (8.4…10.3 mg/l) exceeded three times the standards for the admissible pollution of the receiving stream.     

Vegetation re-establishment in polar "lichen-kill" landscapes: a case study of the Little Ice Age impact

It has been accepted that the extremely sparse vegetation currently observed in Canadian polar deserts is due to prevailing unfavourable climatic conditions, inhibiting plant establishment, growth and survival. Less considered in the literature is the additional antagonistic factor of episodic adverse climatic anomalies. Such was the most recent Little Ice Age (LIA) cooling which caused a setback to, or even largescale extinction of, high Arctic plant communities that had taken centuries to develop. The LIA brought about new glacial advances, expansion of permanent snow banks and formation of ice crusts over entire landscapes. The newly formed ice (and snow) killed the underlying vegetation, thus creating what is in the geological literature referred to as "lichen-kill zones." In these zones the current plant diversity and abundance are exceedingly low and the plants are all relatively young and even-aged, factors which all point to their recent origin. Here we maintain that this vegetation has not yet reached equilibrium with the present prevailing climate and that it is still in an initial stage of succession. We present results of eight upland sites sampled in the vicinity of Alexandra Fiord Lowland, Ellesmere Island, Canada, to demonstrate the slow recolonization process that has been occurring within the last 100–150 years after the LIA termination. The widespread presence of the "lichen-kill" zones throughout the Canadian polar regions reflects the extent and destructive nature of even minor climatic cooling on vulnerable polar ecosystems.     

The loess sequence of Dolní Věstonice,Czech Republic: A new OSL‐based chronology of the Last Climatic Cycle

The Dolní Věstonice loess section in the Czech Republic is well known for its high‐resolution loess–palaeosol sequence of the last interglacial–glacial climatic cycle (Upper Pleistocene). The loess section is situated in a climatic transition zone between oceanic and continental climates and is therefore of great value in reconstructing past regional climate conditions and their interaction with climate systems, in particular that of the North Atlantic. Based on a combination of optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) ages, stratigraphic field observations and magnetic susceptibility measurements, a chrono‐climatic interpretation of the Dolní Věstonice loess section is presented. To establish a reliable Upper Pleistocene chronology, a quartz OSL approach was applied for equivalent dose (D_e) determination. Monomineralic quartz extracts of three distinct grain sizes, fine (4–11 μm), middle (38–63 μm) and coarse (90–200 μm), were used and compared. Within error limits, the calculated OSL ages are the same for the different grain sizes, and the OSL ages are in stratigraphic order. The established OSL chronology is in agreement with a Weichselian litho‐ and pedostratigraphy. The Dolní Věstonice loess section is characterized by four pedosedimentary subsequences. At the base of the profile, subsequence I is characterized by a distinct Early Glacial soil complex, OSL‐dated to c. 110 to 70 ka, representing one of the most complete records of environmental change in the European loess belt. Subsequence II is allocated to the Lower Pleniglacial and is characterized by laminated sandy loess. Middle Pleniglacial subsequence III is represented by a brown soil complex, and is followed by the uppermost subsequence IV, characterized by a thick body of laminated sandy loess, indicating strong wind activity and a high sedimentation rate of more than ～1 mm a^?1 during the Upper Pleniglacial. According to the OSL chronology, as well as to the sedimentological and palaeopedological investigations, it is likely that the sequence at Dolní Věstonice has recorded most of the climatic events expressed in the NGRIP δ¹⁸O reference record between 110 and 70 ka.     

Consequences of climate change for the soil climate in Central Europe and the central plains of the United States

This study aims to evaluate soil climate quantitatively under present and projected climatic conditions across Central Europe (12.1°–18.9° E and 46.8°–51.1° N) and the U.S. Central Plains (90°–104° W and 37°–49° N), with a special focus on soil temperature, hydric regime, drought risk and potential productivity (assessed as a period suitable for crop growth). The analysis was completed for the baselines (1961–1990 for Europe and 1985–2005 for the U.S.) and time horizons of 2025, 2050 and 2100 based on the outputs of three global circulation models using two levels of climate sensitivity. The results indicate that the soil climate (soil temperature and hydric soil regimes) will change dramatically in both regions, with significant consequences for soil genesis. However, the predicted changes of the pathways are very uncertain because of the range of future climate systems predicted by climate models. Nevertheless, our findings suggest that the risk of unfavourable dry years will increase, resulting in greater risk of soil erosion and lower productivity. The projected increase in the variability of dry and wet events combined with the uncertainty (particularly in the U.S.) poses a challenge for selecting the most appropriate adaptation strategies and for setting adequate policies. The results also suggest that the soil resources are likely be under increased pressure from changes in climate.     

Les mouvements de l'ecorce terrestre et leur observation geodesique

Conclusion Les exemples cités dans cet article et étudiés en Tchécoslovaquie montrent que sur la terre entière, se produisent des mouvements de l'écorce terrestre, horizontaux et verticaux, positifs et négatifs. En même temps on peut constater que ce sont les régions de tectonique jeune qui subissent ces mouvements et qu'ils s'y manifestent beaucoup plus intensivement (système slovaco—carpathien) que sur les masses de continent plus stables de l'écorce terrestre (Bohême et Moravie—Massif de Bohême) et que dans les régions séismiquement actives (bassin de Komarno en Slovaquie du Sud) leur direction peut changer. On peut supposer que ces mouvements provoquent certaines tensions dans les roches de l'écorce terrestre. Si une réserve suffisante d'énergie potentielle s'accumule en forme de tensions élastiques, il suffit d'une impulsion insignifiante (par ex. des dérangements aux lieux, fatigués tectoniquement, une altération du milieu minier par l'exploitation, etc..) pour transformer l'énergie potentielle accumulée en énergie cinétique. Ensuite se produisent des pressions des roches, des secousses et des dérangements différents de la structure des roches et par suite des mouvements secondaires. A. PELNAR conclut également que les secousses dans les mines de Pribram en Bohême peuvent être causées par des mouvements verticaux petits, mais bien impétueux des massifs, montagneux, moyennant quoi une énergie considérable se libère par un, écrasement des établissements miniers. Comme les mouvements mentionnés sont fonction du temps, les changements de tension et les déformations dans les roches et leurs conséquences se présentent comme une fonction du temps. L'importance des études de l'écorce terrestre est immense non seulement au point de vue scientifique (géologie, géodésie, géophysique), mais aussi au point de vue pratique (géologie d'ingénieur, industrie minière). L'étude détaillée des mouvements de l'écorce terrestre, de leurs causes, de l'énergétique, de l'action, de la connection et des conséquences de leurs marques permettra de résoudre un nombre de problèmes, parmi les autres même le problème des pressions et des couches montagneuses et aidera à résoudre maintes discussions à cet égard (voir par ex. la discussion entre le savant tchèque A. PELNAR et le spécialiste G. SPACKELLER sur la question de savoir si les secousses à Ostrava sont causées par les dernières manifestations du plissement varisque ou si elles sont provoquées par l'exploitation des mines ou toute autre cause inconnue. Les mouvements du groupe B joueront aussi un r?le important dans la solution de ces problèmes.     

A theoretical approach to the magnetic flocculation of weakly magnetic minerals

Energy of interaction of a system of mineral paramagnetic and diamagnetic particles of colloidal dimensions is calculated under the influence of external magnetic field according to DLVO theory. Conditions of rapid flocculation into a potential well are derived in terms of threshold magnetic field as a function of particle size and magnetic susceptibility. The effect of surface potential, Debye-Hückel reciprocal length parameter and Hamaker constant is briefly discussed. The values of the flocculating magnetic field correspond more closely to reality than other theoretical models.