The challenge of dating early pleistocene fossil teeth by the combined uranium series–electron spin resonance method: the Venta Micena palaeontological site (Orce,Spain)

The palaeontological site of Venta Micena (Orce, Andalusia, Spain) lies in the eastern sector of the Guadix–Baza basin, one of the best documented areas in Europe for Plio‐Pleistocene biostratigraphy. The combination of biochronological and palaeomagnetic results, combined with the radiometric data obtained for Atapuerca Sima del Elefante, indicated that the Venta Micena stratum was formed between the Jaramillo and Olduvai palaeomagnetic events, most likely between 1.22 and 1.77 Ma. Five fossil teeth from two outcrops (sites A and B) were selected to assess the potential of combined uranium series–electron spin resonance (US‐ESR) dating of Early Pleistocene sites. Although the US‐ESR results of the first outcrop showed a large scatter between the three teeth, the mean age of 1.37 ± 0.24 Ma can be considered a reasonable age estimate for Venta Micena. The mean ESR age of 0.62 ± 0.03 Ma obtained for site B seems to be a severe underestimation when compared with the independent age control. This underestimation is attributed to a relative recent U‐mobilization event that led to some U‐leaching. The results show that any ESR age calculations of old samples are extremely sensitive to variations in the measured ²³⁰Th/²³⁴U ratios in dental tissues. Although the results demonstrate that ESR can in principle be applied to Early Pleistocene sites, they also reveal the complexity of dating such old teeth. It is necessary to continue research in several directions, such as study of the behaviour of ESR signals in old teeth and understanding recent U‐mobilization processes, to improve the reliability of the combined US‐ESR dating method applied to Early Pleistocene times, a period for which the number of available numerical dating techniques is very limited. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

CO2 dilution in the lower atmosphere from temperature and wind speed profiles

Temperature and wind speed profiles obtained from 3?years of radio acoustic sounding system sodar measurements at a rural site in the northern Spanish plateau were fitted to polynomial functions. Depending on the extrema of these fits, several groups of profiles were considered. Daily evolution of temperature profiles corresponded to the lower boundary layer evolution. However, wind speed profiles revealed a frequent low-level jet during the whole day. CO₂ surface concentrations were analysed, and surface CO₂ dilution was also considered by selection of thin canopies with variable depth, resulting in dilution rates of 7 and 18?ppm when the layer increased 100?m for the 95th percentile and temperature and wind speed profiles, respectively.     

Cotton canopy reflectance under variable solar zenith angles: Implications of use in evapotranspiration models

Evapotranspiration (ET) is an important parameter in hydrologic processes and modelling. In agricultural watersheds with competing uses of fresh water including irrigated agriculture, estimating crop evapotranspiration (ET_c) accurately is critical for improving irrigation system and basin water management. The use of remote sensing-based basal crop coefficients is becoming a common method for estimating crop evapotranspiration for multiple crops over large areas. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and the Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI), based on reflectance in the red and near-infrared bands, are commonly used for this purpose. In this paper, we examine the effects of row crop orientation and soil background darkening due to shading and soil surface wetness on these two vegetation indices through modelling, coupled with a field experiment where canopy reflectance of a cotton crop at different solar zenith angles, was measured with a portable radiometer. The results show that the NDVI is significantly more affected than the SAVI by background shading and soil surface wetness, especially in north–south oriented rows at higher latitudes and could lead to a potential overestimation of crop evapotranspiration and irrigation water demand if used for basal crop coefficient estimation. Relationships between the analysed vegetation indices and canopy biophysical parameters such as crop height, fraction of cover and leaf area index also were developed for both indices.     

Daily and annual cycle of CO2 concentration near the surface depending on boundary layer structure at a rural site in Spain

CO₂ in the rural atmosphere is related to respiration–photosynthesis processes, although the evolution of the low atmosphere is also a determinant factor. CO₂ concentrations were measured at surface and meteorological variables obtained from a radio acoustic sounding system sodar at a flat rural site during a 3-year campaign. Yearly and daily cycles of CO₂ were described. Maxima were observed in spring and autumn during the night. Wind speed and thermal structure of the lower atmosphere were analysed. Low level jets were observed during the night, their core proving lower in summer. Surface inversions observed with low winds reached up to 100 m. The turbulence layer which developed during the day extended up to 300–400 m and was capped by a stable layer. Median vertical wind speed reached 1 m s^?1 in super-adiabatic conditions in summer. Determination of decoupled low level jets proved difficult with the device used and corresponding concentrations were slightly higher than medians calculated with all the observations. The bulk Richardson number was calculated in the lower atmosphere and four intervals were considered: drainage, transitional, shear flows and unstable conditions. Median CO₂ concentrations were split according to these intervals. Higher values corresponded to drainage flow, which was associated to more stable conditions being less frequent and lower values to shear flow and unstable conditions, revealing a satisfactory link between the bulk Richardson number as a turbulence indicator in the low atmosphere and CO₂ surface concentrations.     

A population density grid for Spain

This article describes a high-resolution land cover data set for Spain and its application to dasymetric population mapping (at census tract level). Eventually, this vector layer is transformed into a grid format. The work parallels the effort of the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission, in collaboration with Eurostat and the European Environment Agency (EEA), in building a population density grid for the whole of Europe, combining CORINE Land Cover with population data per commune. We solve many of the problems due to the low resolution of CORINE Land Cover, which are especially visible with Spanish data. An accuracy assessment is carried out from a simple aggregation of georeferenced point population data for the region of Madrid. The bottom-up grid constructed in this way is compared to our top-down grid. We show a great improvement over what has been reported from commune data and CORINE Land Cover, but the improvements seem to come entirely from the higher resolution data sets and not from the statistical modeling in the downscaling exercise. This highlights the importance of providing the research community with more detailed land cover data sets, as well as more detailed population data. The dasymetric grid is available free of charge from the authors upon request.     

Gravimetric Determination of Storage Coefficient and Storage Change of Groundwater in an Uncontrolled and Unconfined Aquifer

Natural Resources Research - Adequate management of water resources in aquifer systems implies knowledge of the different parameters of hydrological balance. However, only limited data exist for...     

On the limits of using combined U-series/ESR method to date fossil teeth from two Early Pleistocene archaeological sites of the Orce area (Guadix-Baza basin,Spain)

The combined U-series/electron spin resonance (ESR) dating method was applied to nine teeth from two Early Pleistocene archaeological sites located in the Orce area (Guadix-Baza Basin, Southern Spain): Fuente Nueva-3 (FN-3) and Barranco León (BL). The combination of biostratigraphy and magnetostratigraphy places both sites between the Olduvai and Jaramillo subchrons (1.78–1.07 Ma).Our results highlight the difficulty of dating such old sites and point out the limits of the combined U-series/ESR dating method based on the US model. We identified several sources of uncertainties that may lead to inaccurate age estimates. Seven samples could not be dated because the dental tissues had (²³⁰Th/²³⁴U) activity ratios higher than equilibrium, indicating that uranium had probably leached from these tissues. It was however possible to calculate numerical estimates for two of the teeth, both from FN-3. One yielded a Middle Pleistocene age that seems to be strongly underestimated; the other provided an age of 1.19 ± 0.21 Ma, in agreement with data obtained from independent methods. The latter result gives encouragement that there are samples that can be used for routine dating of old sites.