Beaver dam analogues drive heterogeneous groundwater–surface water interactions

Beaver dam analogues (BDAs) are a cost-effective stream restoration approach that leverages the recognized environmental benefits of natural beaver dams on channel stability and local hydrology. Although natural beaver dams are known to exert considerable influence on the hydrologic conditions of a stream system by mediating geomorphic processes, nutrient cycling, and groundwater–surface water interactions, the impacts of beaver-derived restoration methods on groundwater–surface water exchange are poorly characterized. To address this deficit, we monitored hyporheic exchange fluxes and streambed porewater biogeochemistry across a sequence of BDAs installed along a central Wyoming stream during the summer of 2019. Streambed fluxes were quantified by heat tracing methods and vertical hydraulic gradients. Biogeochemical activity was evaluated using major ion porewater chemistry and principal component analysis. Vertical fluxes of approximately 1.0 m/day were observed around the BDAs, as was the development of spatially heterogeneous zones of nitrate production, groundwater upwelling, and anaerobic reduction. Strong contrasts in hyporheic zone processes were observed across BDAs of differing sizes. This suggests that structures may function with size-dependent behaviour, only altering groundwater–surface water interactions after a threshold hydraulic step height is exceeded. Patterns of hyporheic exchange and biogeochemical cycling around the studied BDAs resemble those around natural beaver dams, suggesting that BDAs may provide comparable benefits to channel complexity and near-stream function over a 1-year period.     

Local ice caps in Finderup Land,North Greenland,survived the Holocene Thermal Maximum

Local glaciers and ice caps (GICs) comprise only ~5.4% of the total ice volume, but account for ~14–20% of the current ice loss in Greenland. The glacial history of GICs is not well constrained, however, and little is known about how they reacted to Holocene climate changes. Specifically, in North Greenland, there is limited knowledge about past GIC fluctuations and whether they survived the Holocene Thermal Maximum (HTM, ~8 to 5 ka). In this study, we use proglacial lake records to constrain the ice‐marginal fluctuations of three local ice caps in North Greenland including Flade Isblink, the largest ice cap in Greenland. Additionally, we have radiocarbon dated reworked marine molluscs in Little Ice Age (LIA) moraines adjacent to the Flade Isblink, which reveal when the ice cap was smaller than present. We found that outlet glaciers from Flade Isblink retreated inland of their present extent from ~9.4 to 0.2 cal. ka BP. The proglacial lake records, however, demonstrate that the lakes continued to receive glacial meltwater throughout the entire Holocene. This implies that GICs in Finderup Land survived the HTM. Our results are consistent with other observations from North Greenland but differ from locations in southern Greenland where all records show that the local ice caps at low and intermediate elevations disappeared completely during the HTM. We explain the north–south gradient in glacier response as a result of sensitivity to increased temperature and precipitation. While the increased temperatures during the HTM led to a complete melting of GICs in southern Greenland, GICs remained in North Greenland probably because the melting was counterbalanced by increased precipitation due to a reduction in Arctic sea‐ice extent and/or increased poleward moisture transport.     

Daily-Seasonal Variation in the Number of Remotely Observed,Pulsed, ULF Electromagnetic Earthquakes and the Spatial Distribution of Their Generation Zones on the Earth’s Surface

Geomagnetism and Aeronomy - Based on data from long-term observations at two geophysical observatories, Borok and College, distantly spaced in latitude and longitude, the results of remote...     

High-frequency monitoring of hydrological and biogeochemical fluxes in forested catchments of southern Chile

The variability of rainfall-dependent streamflow at catchment scale modulates many ecosystem processes in wet temperate forests. Runoff in small mountain catchments is characterized by a quick response to rainfall pulses which affects biogeochemical fluxes to all downstream systems. In wet-temperate climates, water erosion is the most important natural factor driving downstream soil and nutrient losses from upland ecosystems. Most hydrochemical studies have focused on water flux measurements at hourly scales, along with weekly or monthly samples for water chemistry. Here, we assessed how water and element flows from broad-leaved, evergreen forested catchments in southwestern South America, are influenced by different successional stages, quantifying runoff, sediment transport and nutrient fluxes during hourly rainfall events of different intensities. Hydrograph comparisons among different successional stages indicated that forested catchments differed in their responses to high intensity rainfall, with greater runoff in areas covered by secondary forests (SF), compared to old-growth forest cover (OG) and dense scrub vegetation (CH). Further, throughfall water was greatly nutrient enriched for all forest types. Suspended sediment loads varied between successional stages. SF catchments exported 455 kg of sediments per ha, followed by OG with 91 kg/ha and CH with 14 kg/ha, corresponding to 11 rainfall events measured from December 2013 to April 2014. Total nitrogen (TN) and phosphorus (TP) concentrations in stream water also varied with rainfall intensity. In seven rainfall events sampled during the study period, CH catchments exported less nutrients (46 kg/ha TN and 7 kg/ha TP) than SF catchments (718 kg/ha TN and 107 kg/ha TP), while OG catchments exported intermediate sediment loads (201 kg/ha TN and 23 kg/ha TP). Further, we found significant effects of successional stage attributes (vegetation structure and soil physical properties) and catchment morphometry on runoff and sediment concentrations, and greater nutrients retention in OG and CH catchments. We conclude that in these southern hemisphere, broad-leaved evergreen temperate forests, hydrological processes are driven by multiple interacting phenomena, including climate, vegetation, soils, topography, and disturbance history.     

Experience with a Water Detector in the Study of the Permafrost Structure

Geomagnetism and Aeronomy - The results of a study of the geoelectric section of the upper layers of the Earth at observation sites in Yakutia via vertical electrical sounding and surface impedance...     

A spectroscopic study of the peculiar galaxy UGC 5600

We present our observations of the galaxy UGS 5600 with a long-slit spectrograph (UAGS) and a multipupil field spectrograph (MPFS) attached to the 6-m Special Astrophysical Observatory telescope. Radial-velocity fields of the stellar and gaseous components were constructed for the central region and inner ring of the galaxy. We proved the existence of two nearly orthogonal kinematic subsystems and conclude that UGC 5600 is a galaxy with an inner polar ring. In the circumnuclear region, we detected noncircular stellar motions and suspected the existence of a minibar. The emission lines are shown to originate in H II regions. We estimated the metallicity from the intensity ratio of the [N II]λ6583 and Hα lines to be nearly solar, which rules out the possibility that the polar ring was produced by the accretion of gas from a dwarf companion.     

Spectroscopic studies of three novae

We present our spectroscopic observations of the novae V1425, V1493, and V1494 Aql carried out with the 125-cm telescope at the Crimean Station of the Sternberg Astronomical Institute in the wavelength range 4000–11000 Å. We measured the emission-line intensities, determined the nova shell expansion velocities from the line profile FWHMs and components, and estimated the interstellar reddening from the first members of the Balmer series. The chemical composition of the nova shells is analyzed. Nitrogen and oxygen were found to be overabundant in V1425 and V1494 Aql; the helium abundance turned out to be normal in the two stars.     

Gamma-Hadron Separation using Čerenkov Photon Density Fluctuations

In the atmospheric Čerenkov technique γ-rays are detected against the abundant background produced by hadronic showers. In order to improve the signal to noise ratio of theexperiment, it is necessary to reject a significant fraction of hadronic showers. Traditional background rejection methods based on image shape parameters have been extensively used for the data from imaging telescopes. However, non-imaging Čerenkov telescopes have to develop very different means of statistically identifying and removing cosmic ray events. Some of the parameters, which could be potentially important for non-imaging arrays, are the temporal and spectral differences, the lateral distributions and density fluctuations of Čerenkov photons generated by γ-ray and hadron primaries. Here we study the differences in fluctuations of Čerenkov photon density in the light pool at the observation level from showers initiated by photons and those initiated by protons or heavier nuclei. The database of simulated events for the PACT array has been used to evaluate the efficiency of the new technique. Various types of density fluctuations like the short range and medium range fluctuations as well as flatness parameter are studied. The estimated quality factors reflect the efficiencies with which the hadrons can be rejected from the data. Since some of these parameters are independent, the cuts may be applied in tandem and we demonstrate that the proton rejection efficiency of ∼90% can be achieved. Use of density fluctuations is particularly suited for wavefront sampling observations and it seems to be a good technique to improve the signal to noise ratio. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.