RELATIVE AGES OF WETLAND AND UPLAND SURFACES AS INDICATED BY PEDOGENIC DEVELOPMENT     

Jonathan D. Phillips 《自然地理学》2013,34(4):363-378

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HUMAN IMPACTS ON THE ENVIRONMENT: UNPREDICTABILITY AND THE PRIMACY OF PLACE     

Jonathan D. Phillips 《自然地理学》2013,34(4):321-332

Landscapes, environments, and ecosystems (i.e., places) are historically and spatially contingent and therefore unique. Generalizations and laws are based on “all other things being equal.” Owing to historical and spatial contingency, all other things are never completely equal and often do not approach that ideal closely enough to allow for reliable prediction. The problem is illustrated by examining effects of grazing and fire suppression on transitions between grass and woody vegetation communities. In three different environments in the southern United States (central Texas, southwestern Virginia, and eastern North Carolina), three different relationships exist between grazing and fire regime, and vegetation. Other examples are common in the geographic and environmental literature. This suggests that the search for a single applicable generalization or predictive model of a given human-induced environmental change that can be applied without accounting for the particular characteristics of places may be futile. Several general ways to address this issue are suggested. First is the recognition that place matters. Conditions specific to a location or region will influence what, how, or even if generalizations apply. Second is the adoption of a “demographic” approach. This is based on the idea that for places, like people, it is possible to make aggregate or probabilistic generalizations or predictions, but these cannot be applied to deterministic prediction of individuals. Third is a synoptic approach based on forecasting not via simple cause-effect relationships, but based on a typology of situations that recognizes and incorporates the unique characteristics of site and situation. Several converging threads of inquiry in geography and geosciences explicitly or implicitly address the issue of historical and spatial contingency. [Key words: landscape, environment, place, prediction.]  相似文献   

Origin of glacial ridges (OIS 6) in the Kaskaskia Sublobe,southwestern Illinois,USA     

Nathan D. Webb  David A. Grimley  Andrew C. Phillips  Bruce W. Fouke 《Quaternary Research》2012,78(2):341-352

The origin of Illinois Episode (OIS 6) glacial ridges (formerly: ‘Ridged Drift’) in the Kaskaskia Basin of southwestern Illinois is controversial despite a century of research. Two studied ridges, containing mostly fluvial sand (OSL ages: ~ 150 ± 19 ka), with associated debris flows and high-angle reverse faults, are interpreted as ice-walled channels. A third studied ridge, containing mostly fine-grained till, is arcuate and morainal. The spatial arrangement of various ridge types can be explained by a glacial sublobe in the Kaskaskia Basin, with mainly fine-grained ridges along the sublobe margins and coarse-grained glaciofluvial ridges in a paleodrainage network within the sublobe interior. Illinois Episode till fabric and striation data demonstrate southwesterly ice flow that may diverge near the sublobe terminus. The sublobe likely formed as glacial ice thinned and receded from its maximum extent. The Kaskaskia Basin contains some of the best-preserved Illinois Episode constructional glacial landforms in the North American midcontinent. Such distinctive features probably result from ice flow and sedimentation into this former lowland, in addition to minimal postglacial erosion. Other similar OIS 6 glacial landforms may exist in association with previously unrecognized sublobes in the midcontinent, where paleo-lowlands might also have focused glacial sedimentation.  相似文献   

Using a mathematical model to assess the sustainability of proposed bauxite mining in Andhra Pradesh, India from a quantitative-based environmental impact assessment     

Jason Phillips 《Environmental Earth Sciences》2012,67(6):1587-1603

The theory and practice of sustainability involves the understanding and management of the coupled relationship between the environment and humans. This relationship is very evident in respect to mining where the impacts of operations, both positive and negative, are environmental and socioeconomic in nature. In recent years, evaluating the sustainability of a mining operation has grown within the literature due to the impacts that mining has upon a local community. However, the literature has been often characterised by a variety of case study-specific approaches to define and evaluate the sustainability of mining operations. This is due to the fundamental problem of defining what is sustainability. The paper applies, based on our previous research, a mathematical model of sustainability to the environmental impact assessment (EIA) of a proposed bauxite mining project in the Andhra Pradesh province, India. The model??s application to the impact assessment, which used the rapid impact assessment matrix, was undertaken for the purpose of determining the level and nature of sustainability (if appropriate) of the proposed project. The results indicated that the project was considered as unsustainable in its current form, based on an obtained E value of 0.249 and an H _NI value of 0.500. The results suggested that the project would greatly benefit from an environmental management plan in order to mitigate the extensive negative environmental and social impacts of the project. The results also indicated the potential of the model in assisting in the resolution of questions of the sustainability of local projects, which are assessed through quantitative-based EIA.  相似文献   

Winter daily precipitation variability over Cumbria, Northwest England     

Robert A. Neal  Ian D. Phillips 《Theoretical and Applied Climatology》2011,106(1-2):245-262

Daily precipitation totals at 55 sites were used to investigate geographic variability in winter (DJF) rainfall over Cumbria, NW England, over an 11-year period. Winter is the wettest season (>800?mm in the mountainous Lake District), with rainfall mechanisms closely linked to North Atlantic forcing. The Lamb weather type catalogue was used to identify rainfall distributions under different wind directions. Precipitation magnitude over Cumbria is much more sensitive to a change in wind direction than the geographic pattern in rainfall, with southwesterly (easterly) winds producing the highest (lowest) spatially averaged daily rainfall totals of 8.2?mm (0.6?mm). S-mode principal components analysis was used to identify the main patterns of precipitation variability. Three principal components (PCs) were retained as being statistically significant (cumulative explained variance for unrotated PCs?=?84.3%), with a correlated PC structure (direct oblimin rotation) best describing the spatial variance in rainfall. PC 1 has a very high index of strength (variance measure?=?40.9), indicating that there is one dominant rainfall pattern. PC 1 shows a gradient between wetter conditions in southwest Cumbria and over the central Lake District and drier conditions in NE Cumbria, and is usually caused by active zonal west to southwest flows. Almost of equal importance to PC 1 is PC 3 (variance measure?=?39.3), which has a more uniform rainfall distribution than PC 1 and is usually caused by fronts stalling over the region. PC 2, which shows an east to west decline in rainfall totals, is much less important than PCs 1 and 3 (variance measure?=?18.6). PC 2??s rainfall pattern can be caused by easterly flows with high pressure over Scandinavia and low pressure over the Continent, or by strong southwesterly flows, with depressions often centred over Scotland. Finally, cluster analysis was carried out to identify precipitation regions for all days and for each wind direction. Clusters were found to be largely stable to changes in wind direction, with stations in the central Lake District often clustered together, thus highlighting the importance of orographic enhancement of rainfall in this region.  相似文献   

Modelling tidal current turbine wakes using a coupled RANS-BEMT approach as a tool for analysing power capture of arrays of turbines     

Stephen R. Turnock  Alexander B. Phillips  Joe Banks  Rachel Nicholls-Lee 《Ocean Engineering》2011,38(11-12):1300-1307

An improved method is developed to couple an inner domain solution of the blade element momentum theory with an outer domain solution of the Reynolds averaged Navier Stokes equations for evaluating performance of tidal current turbines. A mesh sensitivity study shows that a mesh of at least 6 M cells with at least 40% of these within the turbine wake is required to ensure satisfactory convergence of the velocity deficit. In addition to the usually applied axial momentum source terms, angular momentum and turbulence intensity source terms are shown to be required to model the near wake evolution. Three different lateral turbine spacing of 2, 4 and 6 turbine diameters are used to demonstrate the influence of the effective channel blockage on the velocity distribution in the turbine bypass region, the rate of spread of the wake and the recovery of velocity distribution. A final study shows that for a fixed number of turbines minimising the lateral spacing within each row, with a small number of staggered rows spaced as longitudinally as far apart as practical, is the most effective strategy for energy capture.  相似文献   

Contrasting modes of eclogite and blueschist exhumation in a retreating subduction system: The Tasmanides,Australia     

G. Phillips  R. Offler 《Gondwana Research》2011,19(3):800-811

Blueschists and eclogites located in the Tasmanides of eastern Australia preserve evidence of contrasting modes of exhumation. A review of structural, metamorphic, geochronological and geochemical data indicates that these HP metamorphic rocks can be sub-divided into three main groups: (i) eclogite–blueschists with calc-alkaline and tholeiitic affinities contained within thick sedimentary sequences (called continental HP rocks); (ii) moderate-pressure (< 9 kbar) blueschist of arc to MORB-type composition within sedimentary or serpentinite mélange zones (called accretionary HP rocks) and (iii) eclogites of MORB-type composition with or without a pervasive blueschist overprint contained within serpentinite (called exotic HP rocks). Three different modes of exhumation can be ascribed to the different rock types, namely: (i) exhumation influenced by the buoyancy of continental slabs; (ii) exhumation of accretionary HP rocks by corner flow and/or extensional collapse in the accretionary wedge or (iii) discontinuous exhumation of eclogites triggered by slab rollback and trench retreat. We suggest that a dominant west-dipping, eastward migrating subduction zone can explain the distribution and formation of HP metamorphic rocks in the Tasmanides.Thermobarometric and geochronological data from eclogites and blueschists in the Peel–Manning Fault System (New England Orogen) also provide evidence for discontinuous exhumation of subducted oceanic rocks. These data indicate that eclogites were exhumed from depths of ~ 70 km to ~ 30 km during the Ordovician (490–470 Ma), with terminal exhumation and exposure along the Peel–Manning Fault system probably occurring during the Permian. Based on these timing constraints, we suggest a model where HP rocks reside between depth-dependant exhumation circuits for considerable lengths of time.  相似文献   

Delineating and defining the boundaries of an active landslide in the rainforest of Puerto Rico using a combination of airborne and terrestrial LIDAR data   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Guoquan Wang  James Joyce  David Phillips  Ramesh Shrestha  William Carter 《Landslides》2013,10(4):503-513

Light detection and ranging (LIDAR) is a remote sensing technique that uses light, often using pulses from a laser to measure the distance to a target. Both terrestrial- and airborne-based LIDAR techniques have been frequently used to map landslides. Airborne LIDAR has the advantage of identifying large scarps of landslides covered by tree canopies and is widely applied in identifying historical and current active landslides hidden in forested areas. However, because landslides naturally have relatively small vertical surface deformation in the foot area, it is practically difficult to identify the margins of landslide foot area with the limited spatial resolution (few decimeters) of airborne LIDAR. Alternatively, ground-based LIDAR can achieve resolution of several centimeters and also has the advantages of being portable, repeatable, and less costly. Thus, ground-based LIDAR can be used to identify small deformations in landslide foot areas by differencing repeated terrestrial laser scanning surveys. This study demonstrates a method of identifying the superficial boundaries as well as the bottom boundary (sliding plane) of an active landslide in National Rainforest Park, Puerto Rico, USA, using the combination of ground-based and airborne LIDAR data. The method of combining terrestrial and airborne LIDAR data can be used to study landslides in other regions. This study also indicates that intensity and density of laser point clouds are remarkably useful in identifying superficial boundaries of landslides.  相似文献   

Tectonic influences on ground water quality: insight from complementary methods   总被引：2，自引：0，他引：2  

Earman S  McPherson BJ  Phillips FM  Ralser S  Herrin JM  Broska J 《Ground water》2008,46(3):354-371

A study using multiple techniques provided insight into tectonic influences on ground water systems; the results can help to understand ground water systems in the tectonically active western United States and other parts of the world. Ground water in the San Bernardino Valley (Arizona, United States and Sonora, Mexico) is the main source of water for domestic use, cattle ranching (the primary industry), and the preservation of threatened and endangered species. To improve the understanding of ground water occurrence, movement, and sustainability, an investigation was conducted using a number of complementary methods, including major ion geochemistry, isotope hydrology, analysis of gases dissolved in ground water, aquifer testing, geophysics, and an examination of surface and subsurface geology. By combining information from multiple lines of investigation, a more complete picture of the basin hydrogeology was assembled than would have been possible using fewer methods. The results show that the hydrogeology of the San Bernardino Valley is markedly different than that of its four neighboring basins in the United States. The differences include water quality, chemical evolution, storage, and residence time. The differences result from the locally unique geology of the San Bernardino Valley, which is due to the presence of a magmatically active accommodation zone (a zone separating two regions of normal faults with opposite dips). The geological differences and the resultant hydrological differences between the San Bernardino Valley and its neighboring basins may serve as a model for the distinctive nature of chemical evolution of ground water in other basins with locally distinct tectonic histories.  相似文献   

An evaluation of the health status of the Lavaca Bay, Texas ecosystem using Crassostrea virginica as the sentinel species     

Wesley Bissett Jr.  Roger Smith  Robert Field  Tim Phillips  Terry Wade  James A. Thompson 《Marine pollution bulletin》2009,58(2):280-286

Locational risks for compromised ecosystem health for the eastern oysters (Crassostrea virginica) harvested from Lavaca Bay, Texas were estimated. Flow cytometric evaluation of variations in DNA content and the lysosomal destabilization assay were used for evaluation of genotoxicity and stress, respectively. Bayesian geo-statistical methods were utilized to estimate and evaluate spatial effects. For models with spatial risks, continuous surface maps of predicted parameter values were created to evaluate risk location. Lysosomal destabilization assay results were spatially oriented whereas flow cytometry results were fit best with the random effects model. While not spatially oriented, the highest levels of variations in DNA content were also present near industrial facilities. Locational risks of increased biomarkers of genotoxicity and stress in the eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) were increased with proximity to industrial facilities  相似文献