Progress in isotope paleohydrology using lake sediment cellulose     

Brent B. Wolfe  Matthew D. Falcone  Ken P. Clogg-Wright  Cherie L. Mongeon  Yi Yi  Bronwyn E. Brock  Natalie A. St. Amour  William A. Mark  Thomas W. D. Edwards 《Journal of Paleolimnology》2007,37(2):221-231

Recent advances in sample preparation techniques and mass spectrometry have fostered more routine oxygen isotope analysis of aquatic cellulose in lake sediment cores, a proxy for lake water oxygen isotope history. These methodological developments have significantly increased the feasibility of incorporating this approach into high-resolution, multi-site, and multi-proxy studies, which are frequently necessary to answer complex hydrological, hydroecological and hydroclimatic questions requiring a paleoenvironmental perspective. Direct translation of lake sediment aquatic cellulose oxygen isotope composition into lake water oxygen isotope composition offers appreciable opportunity for quantitative paleohydrological reconstructions, as evidenced by studies conducted over the past 15 years that span Holocene and pre-historical timescales.  相似文献   

Integration of Remote Sensing and GIS to Detect Pockets of Urban Poverty: The Case of Rosario, Argentina   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

G. Brent Hall  Neil W. Malcolm  & Joseph M. Piwowar 《Transactions in GIS》2001,5(3):235-253

The advent of high spatial resolution, multispectral satellite imagery has allowed analysis of remotely sensed images of urban land cover to become more useful to urban planning and decision making than in the past. The addition of radar imagery at relatively high spatial resolution (6 metres at best), with the advantages that it is not affected by cloud and diurnal light conditions and that it is sensitive to the target's geometric shape, surface roughness and moisture content offers additional capability in this regard. This paper incorporates analysis of Canadian RADARSAT-1 and American Landsat TM satellite imagery and ground-based GIS data to identify known pockets of urban poverty. Poverty is defined, based on a limited number of census variables related to dwelling construction materials and per household overcrowding. The objective is to provide a proof of concept that remote sensing data, especially from synthetic aperture radar, and ground-based GIS data can be successfully integrated for urban planning purposes. The results suggest that the approach used is reasonable and that, with future refinement, it offers planners and decision makers a timely and cost effective means to locate and monitor poverty pockets in urban areas. This is especially important in large, rapidly urbanising areas in the developing world.  相似文献   

River flow mass exponents with fractal channel networks and rainfall     

Brent M. Troutman  Thomas M. Over   《Advances in water resources》2001,24(9-10)

An important problem in hydrologic science is understanding how river flow is influenced by rainfall properties and drainage basin characteristics. In this paper we consider one approach, the use of mass exponents, in examining the relation of river flow to rainfall and the channel network, which provides the primary conduit for transport of water to the outlet in a large basin. Mass exponents, which characterize the power-law behavior of moments as a function of scale, are ideally suited for defining scaling behavior of processes that exhibit a high degree of variability or intermittency. The main result in this paper is an expression relating the mass exponent of flow resulting from an instantaneous burst of rainfall to the mass exponents of spatial rainfall and that of the network width function. Spatial rainfall is modeled as a random multiplicative cascade and the channel network as a recursive replacement tree; these fractal models reproduce certain types of self-similar behavior seen in actual rainfall and networks. It is shown that under these modeling assumptions the scaling behavior of flow mirrors that of rainfall if rainfall is highly variable in space, and on the other hand flow mirrors the structure of the network if rainfall is not so highly variable.  相似文献   

Chemical assembly of Archean anorthosites from amphibolite- and granulite-facies terranes, SW Greenland     

Robert F. Dymek  Brent E. Owens 《Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology》2001,141(5):513-528

We report whole-rock, major- and trace-element compositions (obtained by XRF and INA methods) for the amphibolite-facies Buksefjorden and granulite-facies Nordland anorthosites, SW Greenland. In a previous petrologic study on the same sample suite, we documented differences in texture, mineralogy, and mineral compositions between these two anorthosite bodies. Chemical analyses confirm differences in composition between the two bodies, but these differences cannot be explained by variations in metamorphic conditions, and point towards differences in the nature of their protoliths. Analyzed Nordland samples are anorthosites and leucogabbros with 88-98% normative plagioclase, whereas those from Buksefjorden include anorthosite, leucogabbro, and gabbro with ~55-95% normative plagioclase. Two or more compositional groupings can be recognized at each site, which correspond to differences in color and mineralogy of the hand samples. Samples from Buksefjorden are mainly quartz-normative, whereas those from Nordland are olivine (- nepheline) normative. Other differences include higher Ni/Co ratio and REE contents in the granulite-facies anorthosites from Nordland. REE pattern shapes are similar, however, being moderately fractionated at ~0.5-102 chondrites with positive Eu-anomalies. Calculated equilibrium melt patterns are similar for both anorthosites, being relatively flat at ~50-1502 chondrites, suggesting unfractionated (but evolved) parental magmas. Olivine must have been present in the protoliths of the Nordland rocks compared with Buksefjorden. Otherwise, the protoliths contained plagioclase with variable An-content (~An₆₂-An₉₂) and a mafic component with variable Fe/Mg (mg ~0.3-0.8). This mafic component was either hornblende or a combination of ortho- and clinopyroxene in fixed proportions, plus a small amount of magnetite. Mixing calculations demonstrate that some Buksefjorden anorthosites contain two varieties of plagioclase: a calcic type that may correspond to cumulus crystals, and a sodic-type that may correspond to a trapped-melt component. On plots of normative whole-rock An versus mg, compositions of the Buksefjorden and Nordland anorthosites form crude negative arrays that differ from the generally positive trends of mafic layered intrusions (Kiglapait, Skaergaard) and from the generally flats trends of plagioclase-rich cumulate rocks (St. Urbain and Stillwater anorthosites). This difference provides further evidence for the distinctive nature of Archean calcic-anorthosite complexes compared with other types of mafic intrusions. Moreover, this distribution of data points is consistent with the assembly of the protolith of the SW Greenland anorthosites mainly as mixtures of plagioclase and hornblende. Finally, the field for the Buksefjorden and Nordland anorthosites overlaps only slightly with that for the Fiskenaesset Complex, thus extending the known range of compositions for Archean anorthosites in West Greenland.  相似文献   

Forced vibration of a tall steel-frame building     

P. C. Jennings  R. B. Matthiesen  J. Brent Hoerner 《地震工程与结构动力学》1972,1(2):107-132

The dynamic properties of the twenty-two-story, steel-frame San Diego Gas and Electric Company Building in San Diego, California, have been determined experimentally in a series of co-operative tests between the California Institute of Technology and the University of California at Los Angeles. The building was vibrated by two eccentric mass exciters capable of frequencies up to 10 c/sec and forces as much as 5000 Ib each. The natural frequencies, associated mode shapes and the amounts of damping were determined for the first six modes of vibration in each of the two translational directions, and also in torsion. The mode shapes and frequencies showed, in general, the regularity and uniformity that appears typical of many tall buildings, but the three fundamental modes (nominally NS, EW and torsion) of the structure showed a coupling of translational and rotational components to a degree that was unexpected in a building whose structural frame is essentially symmetric. It is believed that this may be a consequence of the exceptionally small differences among the three fundamental frequencies. The damping in the first eighteen modes of the structure varied from 1.6 to 4.4 per cent, with a slight tendency for the larger values to be associated with the higher modes. Of the simpler damping models that might be used for analysis of the building, constant modal damping appears most appropriate and stiffness or mass proportional damping would not be realistic.  相似文献   

Building comparable global change vulnerability assessments: The vulnerability scoping diagram   总被引：29，自引：1，他引：29  

Colin Polsky  Rob Neff  Brent Yarnal 《Global Environmental Change》2007,17(3-4):472-485

Advancing vulnerability science depends in part on identifying common themes from multiple, independent vulnerability assessments. Such insights are difficult to produce when the assessments use dissimilar, often qualitative, measures. The Vulnerability Scoping Diagram is presented to facilitate the comparison of assessments with dissimilar measures. The diagram is illustrated with recent research on drought vulnerabilities, showing that common insights into vulnerability may emerge if independent research teams use a common structure for organizing information about exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity—even if the underlying measures differ between assessments. Broadly adopting this technique, which is grounded in the “Eight Steps” methodological protocol [Schröter, D., Polsky, C., Patt, A., 2005. Assessing vulnerabilities to the effects of global change: an eight step approach. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change 10(4), 573–595], will enable a vulnerability meta-analysis, the lessons from which may permit places to identify helpful adaptation or mitigation options without first having to conduct their own vulnerability assessments.  相似文献   

Economic consequences of consideration of permanence, leakage and additionality for soil carbon sequestration projects     

Brian C. Murray  Brent Sohngen  Martin T. Ross 《Climatic change》2007,80(1-2):127-143

This paper introduces, explains, and describes methods for addressing the issues of permanence, leakage, and additionality (PLA) of agricultural soil carbon sequestration (ASCS) activities at the project level. It is important to cast these as project-level issues, because they relate to the integrity and consistency of using location-specific ASCS projects as an offset against GHG emissions generated in other sectors (e.g., energy). The underlying objective is to understand and quantify what the net carbon benefits of an ASCS project are once we account for the fact that (1) the sequestered carbon may be stored impermanently, (2) the project may displace emissions outside the project boundaries (leakage), and (3) the project’s carbon sequestration may not be entirely additional to what would have occurred anyway under business-as-usual (no project) conditions. This article evaluates methods for identifying and estimating PLA and gauges the potential magnitude of these effects on the economic returns to a project. This work reflects ongoing collaborative efforts of the authors and Bruce McCarl (Texas A&M University), Allan Sommer, Jui-Chen Yang, and Laurel Clayton (RTI International), Sandra Brown (Winrock International), Ken Andrasko and Ben DeAngelo (US EPA), and various participants in the World Resources Institute/World Business Council workgroup to develop GHG project reporting protocols. All opinions, errors and omissions are those of the authors only.  相似文献   

Sex expression and growth rates in natural populations of the desert soil crustal mossSyntrichia caninervis     

Lloyd R. Stark  Brent D. Mishler  D.Nicholas McLetchie 《Journal of Arid Environments》1998,40(4):401-416

The low elevation Mojave Desert cryptobiotic crust is dominated by the mossSyntrichia caninervis. In 16 populations of this moss, stem height and population were significantly associated with sex expression, with longer stems expressing sex more frequently and producing more perichaetia. The above-ground age of stems ranged up to 10 years, with a mean growth rate across populations of 0.36 mm year⁻¹. The overall stem sex ratio, as a proportion of the total number of stems, was 0.30♀: 0♂: 0.70 non-expressing. The probability of expressing sex in a given season was 0.09. The absence of sexual reproduction (no sporophytes) and likely absence of the male sex from the area indicate that the non-expressing plants are female individuals. The slow growth rates, low rates of sex expression, absence of male plants, and absence of sexual reproduction in this crustal species may help explain why re-establishment of mosses on desert soils can take decades.  相似文献   

Mineral chemistry constraints on the evolution of the 1.88–1.87 Ga post-kinematic granite plutons in the Central Finland Granitoid Complex     

Brent A. Elliott  O. Tapani Rm  Mikko Nironen 《Lithos》1998,45(1-4):109-129

A suite of post-kinematic, 1.88–1.87 Ga, silicic plutons crosscut 1.89–1.88 Ga synkinematic granitoids in the Central Finland Granitoid Complex (CFGC) in south-central Finland. The plutons range from biotite±hornblende quartz monzonite to syenogranite and include pyroxene- and olivine-bearing varieties. Mineral chemical data on feldspars, biotite, amphibole, pyroxenes, olivine, and oxides of the post-kinematic plutons are presented. The data are interpreted to show that these plutons register (1) a considerable range in pressure from 2–4 kbar (amphibole barometry) to 5–7 kbar (olivine–pyroxene barometry), (2) temperatures mostly reflecting resetting during cooling (450–800°C; QUIlF thermometry), and (3) low fO₂ (log fO₂ ΔFMQ −0.3 to −1.5; QUIlF equilibria). In particular, plutons with olivine- and pyroxene-bearing margins and amphibole-dominated central parts record progressive oxidation and hydration upon cooling, shifting from the QUIlF equilibrium toward KUIlB. The post-kinematic granites can be considered post-collisional in regard to compressional events in the CFGC and display many of the characteristics of the anorogenic 1.6 Ga rapakivi granites further south. They were presumably derived from a deep and dry crustal source, like the rapakivi granites.  相似文献   

Seasonal uranium distributions in the coastal waters off the Amazon and Mississippi Rivers     

Peter W. Swarzenski  Brent A. McKee 《Estuaries and Coasts》1998,21(3):379-390

The chemical reactivity of uranium was investigated across estuarine gradients from two of the world’s largest river systems: the Amazon and Mississippi. Concentrations of dissolved (<0.45 μm) uranium (U) were measured in surface waters of the Amazon shelf during rising (March 1990), flood (June 1990) and low (November 1991) discharge regimes. The dissolved U content was also examined in surface waters collected across estuarine gradients of the Mississippi outflow region during April 1992, August 1993, and November (1993). All water samples were analyzed for U by isotope dilution inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). In Amazon shelf surface waters uranium increased nonconservatively from about 0.01 μg I^?1 at the river’s mouth to over 3 μg I^?1 at the distal site, irrespective of river discharge stage. Observed large-scale U removal at salinities generally less than 15 implies a) that riverine dissolved U was extensively adsorbed by freshly-precipitated hydrous metal oxides (e.g., FeOOH, MnO₂) as a result of flocculation and aggregation, and b) that energetic resuspension and reworking of shelf sediments and fluid muds on the Amazon shelf released a chemically reactive particle/colloid to the water column which can further scavenge dissolved U across much of the estuarine gradient. In contrast, the estuarine chemistry of U is inconclusive within surface waters of the Mississippi shelf-break region. U behavior is most likely controlled less by traditional sorption and/or desorption reactions involving metal oxides or colloids than by the river’s variable discharge regime (e.g., water parcel residence time during estuarine mixing, nature of particulates, sediment storage and resuspension in, the confined lower river), and plume dispersal. Mixing of the thin freshwater lens into ambient seawater is largely defined by wind-driven rather than physical processes. As a consequence, in the Mississippi outflow region uranium predominantly displays conservative behavior; removal is evident only during anomalous river discharge regimes. ‘Products-approach’ mixing experiments conducted during the Flood of 1993 suggest the importance of small particles and/or colloids in defining a depleted U versus salinity distribution.  相似文献