Sediment deposition in the flood plain of Stemple Creek Watershed, northern California

Over the past 150 years, major land use changes have occurred in the Stemple Creek Watershed in northern California that have caused erosion to move soils from the upland to the flood plain, stream channels, and the bay. The purpose of this study is to document the recent (1954 to present) sediment deposition patterns in the flood plain area adjacent to Stemple Creek using the ¹³⁷Cesium technique. Sediment deposition ranged from 0.26 to 1.84 cm year⁻¹ for the period from 1964 to 2002 with an average of 0.85±0.41 cm year⁻¹. Sediment deposition rates were higher for the 1954 to 1964 period with a range of 0.31–3.50 cm year⁻¹ and an average of 1.29±1.04 cm year⁻¹. These data indicate that sediment deposition in the flood plain has decreased since the middle 1950s, probably related to reduction in row crop agriculture and an increase in pasturelands. This study shows that the flood plains in the Stemple Creek Watershed are a significant sink for the soils being eroded from the upland area. Given the significance of the flood plain for trapping eroded materials before they reach the stream channels or the bay, efforts need to be made to manage these flood plain areas to insure that they do not change and become a source rather than a sink for eroded materials as improved management practices on the upland areas reduce sediment input to the flood plain.     

Convergence acceleration of iterative sequences for equilibrium chemistry computations

Computational Geosciences - The modeling of thermodynamic equilibria leads to complex nonlinear chemical systems which are often solved with the Newton-Raphson method. But this resolution can lead...     

Does the Port 2000 harbour construction have an effect on the Seine estuary suprabenthic community?

Using a Before/During/After protocol, the effects of Port 2000 (the Le Havre harbour extension) on the suprabenthic communities in the Northern Channel of the Seine estuary (English Channel) were examined from March 2001 to March 2009. Since the beginning of Port 2000 construction in 2002, there have been several changes in the hydrological and sedimentary characteristics in the North Channel, including changes in current velocity, bottoms salinity and sand accumulation, as well as in the benthic communities themselves, moving from mud to medium and coarse sand communities. For the suprabenthos, changes were moderate, corresponding to an increase in species richness in the upper-part of the North Channel and a decrease in species density in the dominant mysids species (i.e., mainly Mesopodospsis slabberi) over time. Due to hydrological changes since the beginning of the Port 2000 project (several years of low freshwater input) it has been difficult to attribute the biological changes to Port 2000 construction only. In the future, the results obtained for the suprabenthos will have to be compared to those obtained for the macrobenthos. Similarly, since the suprabenthos is known to play an important role in the estuarine trophic chain, it will also be essential to estimate the fish distribution in the North Channel and to examine their stomach contents to evaluate the probable changes since the Port 2000 project began.     

Differences in the crab fauna of mangrove areas at a southwest Florida and a northeast Australia location: Implications for leaf litter processing

Existing paradigms suggest that mangrove leaf litter is processed primarily via the detrital pathway in forests in the Caribbean biogeographic realm whereas herbivorous crabs are relatively more important litter processors in the Indo-West Pacific. To test this hypothesis, we used pitfall traps to collect intertidal crabs to characterize the crab fauna in a mangrove estuary in southwest Florida. We also tethered mangrove leaves to determine if herbivorous crabs are major leaf consumers there. We compared the results with previously published data collected in an analogous manner from forests in northeastern Australia. The crab fauna in Rookery Bay, Florida, is dominated by carnivorous xanthid and deposit-feeding ocypodid crabs whereas that of the Murray River in northeastern Australia is dominated by herbivorous grapsid crabs. No leaves tethered at five sites in the forests in Southwest Florida were taken by crabs. This contrasts greatly with reported values of leaf removal by crabs in Australian forests of 28–79% of the leaves reaching the forest floor. These differences in the faunal assemblages and in the fate of marked or tethered leaves provide preliminary support for the hypothesis that leaf litter is in fact processed in fundamentally different ways in the two biogeographic realms.     

The flume net: A quantitative method for sampling fishes and macrocrustaceans on tidal marsh surfaces

We describe the use of flume nets for passively, quantitatively, and nondestructively sampling fishes and macrocrustaceans on tidal marsh surfaces. We captured 3,765 organisms of 23 species in 118 samples using six such nets in a Virginia tidal freshwater marsh in 1984. Efficiency estimates for four common species of fishes range from 53 to 80%. Flume nets are most suited to the collection of long-term data and are particularly useful in elucidating seasonal trends in species composition and relative abundance. These nets are also useful in comparing different microhabitats within and between marshes. This method is most applicable to intertidal habitats with predictable lunar tides, including mud flats, mangrove swamps, and other wetlands.     

Tectonics and sedimentation in the Fohnsdorf-Seckau Basin (Miocene, Austria): from a pull-apart basin to a half-graben

The Miocene intramontane Fohnsdorf-Seckau Basin is situated at the junction of the sinistral Mur-Mürz-fault system and the dextral Pöls-Lavanttal fault system. The basin comprises a 2,400-m-thick coal-bearing fluviodeltaic-lacustrine succession (Lower to Middle Miocene, Upper Karpatian?/Lower Badenian) which is overlain by a 1,000-m-thick alluvio-deltaic conglomeratic succession (Apfelberg Formation, ?Middle/Upper Badenian) in the south. A three-stage model for the basin evolution has been reconstructed from structural analysis and basin fill geometries. During a first pull-apart phase, subsidence occurred along ENE-trending, sinistral strike-slip faults of the Mur-Mürz fault system and NE-SW to N-S-trending normal faults, forming a composite pull-apart basin between overstepping en-echelon strike-slip faults. The Seckau and Fohnsdorf sub-basins are considered as two adjacent pull-aparts which merged into one basin. During the second phase, N-S to NNW-SSE extension and normal faulting along the southern basin margin fault formed a half-graben, filled by wedge-shaped alluvial strata (Apfelberg Formation). During the third phase, after the end of basin sedimentation, the dextral Pöls-Lavanttal fault system reshaped the western basin margin into a positive flower structure.     

Late-glacial vegetation and environment on the eastern slope foothills of the Rocky Mountains, Alberta, Canada

Stratigraphic pollen analysis done on sediment cores from two sites in the upper North Saskatchewan drainage basin of the eastern slopes foothills of the Rocky Mountains in west central Alberta, Canada combined with sedimentological data provide a local vegetational and environmental history. Radiocarbon AMS dates provide a chronology back to 17960 BP. Reconstruction and interpretation of the local pollen zones includes reevaluation of steppe and grassland as analogs for full- and late-glacial vegetation. Regional vegetation from c. 17960 to 16 100 BP is interpreted as an extremely cold semi-arid Artemisia steppe, the vegetation c. 16 100 to 11 900 BP as an Artemisia-Betula shrubland, and the vegetation c. 11 900–10 200 BP as a Picea woodland, in an environment characterized by consistently arid and windy conditions. This reconstruction emphasizes the significance of aridity, as opposed to simply low temperatures, as the critical factor in determining the late Quaternary vegetation of Alberta.This is the 18th in a series of papers published in this special AMQUA issue. These papers were presented at the 1994 meeting of the American Quaternary Association held 19–22 June, 1994, at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. Dr Linda C. K. Shane served as guest editor for these papers.