A 1500-year record of climatic and environmental change in ElkLake, Minnesota I: Varve thickness and gray-scale density     

Walter Dean  Roger Anderson  J. Platt Bradbury  David Anderson 《Journal of Paleolimnology》2002,27(3):287-299

The deepest part (29.5 m) of Elk Lake, ClearwaterCounty, northwestern Minnesota, contains a complete Holocene section that iscontinuously varved. The varve components are predominantly autochthonous(CaCO₃, organic matter, biogenic silica, and several iron andmanganese minerals), but the varves do contain a minor detrital-clastic(aluminosilicate) component that is predominantly wind-borne (eolian) andprovides an important record of atmospheric conditions. Singular spectrumanalysis (SSA) and wavelet analysis of varve thickness recognized significantperiodicities in the multicentennial and multidecadal bands that varied inpower (i.e., variable significance) and position (i.e., variable period) withinthe periodic bands. Persistent periodicities of about 10, 22, 40, and 90 years,and, in particular, multicentennial periodicities in varve thickness and otherproxy variables are similar to those in spectra of radiocarbon production, aproxy for past solar activity. This suggests that there may be a solar control,perhaps through geomagnetic effects on atmospheric circulation. Multicentennialand multidecadal periodicities also occur in wavelet spectra of relativegray-scale density. However, gray-scale density does not appear to correlatewith any of the measured proxy variables, and at this point we do not know whatcontrolled gray scale.  相似文献   

Sedimentary cycles of trace elements in Salawusu River Valley since 150 ka BP   总被引：6，自引：0，他引：6  

Yao Chun-xial  Li Bao-sheng  Jin He-ling  David Dian Zhang  Yan Man-cun  Zhu Yi-zhi  Li Hou-xin  Zhang Yu-hong  Luo Kai-li 《地理学报(英文版)》2002,12(1):65-71

The paper makes some analyses on 11 trace elements in the Milanggouwan stratigraphical section in the Salawusu River valley, which is regarded as a prototype geology-palaeoclimate record since 150 ka BP. The results show that the content and variation of trace elements has experienced remarkably regular changes in the pace with coarse and fine sedimentary cycles of palaeo-aeolian sands to its overlying fluvio-lacustrine facies or/and palaeosols. The trace elements with chemical properties of relatively active (V, Sr, Cu, Ni, As) and relatively stable (P, Pb, Rb, Mn, Nb, Zr) are a manifestation of the corresponding 27 changeable cycles between peak and valley values, appearing a multi-fiuctuational process line of relative gathering and migration since then. The low numerical value distribution of these two types of trace elements in the aeolian sand facies represents erosion and accumulation under wind force during the cold-dry climate. Whereas their enrichments in both fluvio-lacustrine facies and palaeosols are related to the valley’s special low-lying physiognomic position between the Ordos Plateau and the Loess Plateau under the warm and humid climate conditions. The above relatively migrated and gathered change of the trace elements is the result of 27 climatic cycles of cold-dry and warm-humid, which is probably caused by repeated alternations of winter monsoon and summer monsoon in the Mu Us Sandy Land influenced by the climate vicissitudes in northern hemisphere during glacial and interglacial periods since 150 ka BP.  相似文献   

Winter seabird distribution and abundance off south-western Greenland, 1999   总被引：3，自引：0，他引：3  

Flemming Ravn Merkel  ers Mosbech  David Boertmann  Louise Grøndahl 《Polar research》2002,21(1):17-36

South-western Greenland constitutes an internationally important wintering area for many seabird species. Several species of management concern have a predominantly near-coastal distribution, though available information about seabird numbers is mostly confined to offshore waters. Here we report on extensive aerial surveys conducted in March 1999, covering the coastal waters (up to 15-20 km from the mainland coast) and fjords of south-west Greenland. The most widespread and numerous species were estimated as 463 000 common eiders ( Somateria mollissima ), 153000 king eiders ( S. spectabilis ), 125000 thick-billed murres ( Uria lomvia ), 94 000 long-tailed ducks ( Clangula hyemails ), and 12 000 black guillemots ( Cepphus grylle ). A total of 19 bird species were recorded. The estimates for common eider and long-tailed duck approximately represent the entire winter population in south-western Greenland while estimates for the other species represent only an unknown proportion since their distribution continues further offshore. Waters around Nuuk and within the Julianehåbsbugten (Julianehåb Bay) area were identified as areas of high seabird density. A large proportion of the common eider population was aggregated in the fjord systems (22%), calling attention to the importance of fjords for this species. In contrast, pelagic seabird species appear to be absent from the fjords. The large winter population of common eider reveals the importance of south-western Greenland as a key wintering area for the eastern Canadian breeding population. The western Greenland breeding population is the only other contributor, probably amounting to no more than 15 000 pairs.  相似文献   

Fluvial sediment transport and deposition following the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Shannon K. Hayes  David R. Montgomery  Christopher G. Newhall 《Geomorphology》2002,45(3-4)

The 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo generated extreme sediment yields from watersheds heavily impacted by pyroclastic flows. Bedload sampling in the Pasig–Potrero River, one of the most heavily impacted rivers, revealed negligible critical shear stress and very high transport rates that reflected an essentially unlimited sediment supply and the enhanced mobility of particles moving over a smooth, fine-grained bed. Dimensionless bedload transport rates in the Pasig–Potrero River differed substantially from those previously reported for rivers in temperate regions for the same dimensionless shear stress, but were similar to rates identified in rivers on other volcanoes and ephemeral streams in arid environments. The similarity between volcanically disturbed and arid rivers appears to arise from the lack of an armored bed surface due to very high relative sediment supply; in arid rivers, this is attributed to a flashy hydrograph, whereas volcanically disturbed rivers lack armoring due to sustained high rates of sediment delivery. This work suggests that the increases in sediment supply accompanying massive disturbance induce morphologic and hydrologic changes that temporarily enhance transport efficiency until the watershed recovers and sediment supply is reduced.  相似文献   

The Space That Race Makes     

David Delaney 《The Professional geographer》2002,54(1):6-14

This essay is a revision of a paper prepared for an NSF workshop on race and geography. Participants in the workshop were asked to offer their views on the topic and our suggestions for further research. This contribution explores some aspects of the relationship and relevance of geography to the question of race in North America. It touches on three “places” that constitute the discipline: the place of research, the place of teaching, and the workplace. With respect to research, it suggests some promising lines of inquiry. Among these are studies of the relationship of scale to the politics of identity and studies of “passing” in connection with studies of geographies of experience and geographies of power.  相似文献   

Use of Noise to Augment Training Data: A Neural Network Method of Mineral–Potential Mapping in Regions of Limited Known Deposit Examples     

Warick M. Brown  Tamás D. Gedeon  David I. Groves 《Natural Resources Research》2003,12(2):141-152

One of the main factors that affects the performance of MLP neural networks trained using the backpropagation algorithm in mineral-potential mapping isthe paucity of deposit relative to barren training patterns. To overcome this problem, random noise is added to the original training patterns in order to create additional synthetic deposit training data. Experiments on the effect of the number of deposits available for training in the Kalgoorlie Terrane orogenic gold province show that both the classification performance of a trained network and the quality of the resultant prospectivity map increasesignificantly with increased numbers of deposit patterns. Experiments are conducted to determine the optimum amount of noise using both uniform and normally distributed random noise. Through the addition of noise to the original deposit training data, the number of deposit training patterns is increased from approximately 50 to 1000. The percentage of correct classifications significantly improves for the independent test set as well as for deposit patterns in the test set. For example, using ±40% uniform random noise, the test-set classification performance increases from 67.9% and 68.0% to 72.8% and 77.1% (for test-set overall and test-set deposit patterns, respectively). Indices for the quality of the resultant prospectivity map, (i.e. D/A, D × (D/A), where D is the percentage of deposits and A is the percentage of the total area for the highest prospectivity map-class, and area under an ROC curve) also increase from 8.2, 105, 0.79 to 17.9, 226, 0.87, respectively. Increasing the size of the training-stop data set results in a further increase in classification performance to 73.5%, 77.4%, 14.7, 296, 0.87 for test-set overall and test-set deposit patterns, D/A, D × (D/A), and area under the ROC curve, respectively.  相似文献   

Ethanol Fuels: Energy Balance, Economics, and Environmental Impacts Are Negative   总被引：13，自引：0，他引：13  

David Pimentel 《Natural Resources Research》2003,12(2):127-134

Several studies suggest that the $1.4 billion in government subsidies are encouraging the ethanol program without substantial benefits to the U.S. economy. Large ethanol industries and a few U.S. government agencies, such as the USDA, support the production of ethanol. Corn-farmers receive minimal profits. In the U.S. ethanol system, considerably more energy, including high-grade fossil fuel, is required to produce ethanol than is available in the energy-ethanol output. Specifically about 29% more energy is used to produce a gallon of ethanol than the energy in a gallon of ethanol. Fossil energy powers corn production and the fermentation/distillation processes. Increasing subsidized ethanol production will take more feed from livestock production, and is estimated to currently cost consumers an additional $1 billion per year. Ethanol production increases environmental degradation. Corn production causes more total soil erosion than any other crop. Also, corn production uses more insecticides, herbicides, and nitrogen fertilizers than any other crop. All these factors degrade the agricultural and natural environment and contribute to water pollution and air pollution. Increasing the cost of food and diverting human food resources to the costly inefficient production of ethanol fuel raise major ethical questions. These occur at a time when more than half of the world's population is malnourished. The ethical priority for corn and other food crops should be for food and feed. Subsidized ethanol produced from U.S. corn is not a renewable energy source.  相似文献   

Use of Fuzzy Membership Input Layers to Combine Subjective Geological Knowledge and Empirical Data in a Neural Network Method for Mineral-Potential Mapping   总被引：3，自引：0，他引：3  

Brown  Warick  Groves  David  Gedeon  Tamás 《Natural Resources Research》2003,12(3):183-200

Use of GIS layers, in which the cell values represent fuzzy membership variables, is an effective method of combining subjective geological knowledge with empirical data in a neural network approach to mineral-prospectivity mapping. In this study, multilayer perceptron (MLP), neural networks are used to combine up to 17 regional exploration variables to predict the potential for orogenic gold deposits in the form of prospectivity maps in the Archean Kalgoorlie Terrane of Western Australia. Two types of fuzzy membership layers are used. In the first type of layer, the statistical relationships between known gold deposits and variables in the GIS thematic layer are used to determine fuzzy membership values. For example, GIS layers depicting solid geology and rock-type combinations of categorical data at the nearest lithological boundary for each cell are converted to fuzzy membership layers representing favorable lithologies and favorable lithological boundaries, respectively. This type of fuzzy-membership input is a useful alternative to the 1-of-N coding used for categorical inputs, particularly if there are a large number of classes. Rheological contrast at lithological boundaries is modeled using a second type of fuzzy membership layer, in which the assignment of fuzzy membership value, although based on geological field data, is subjective. The methods used here could be applied to a large range of subjective data (e.g., favorability of tectonic environment, host stratigraphy, or reactivation along major faults) currently used in regional exploration programs, but which normally would not be included as inputs in an empirical neural network approach.  相似文献   

Distribution and effectiveness of nivation in Mediterranean mountains: Peñalara (Spain)     

David Palacios  Nuria de Andrs  Enrique Luengo 《Geomorphology》2003,54(3-4):157-178

Snow accumulation is responsible for geomorphic and biogeographic processes taking place in the southern sector of the Peñalara massif in central Spain (40°51′N, 3°57′W; max. altitude 2428 m at Pico de Peñalara). This work compares the intensity of nivation on the eastern slope, leeward of the prevailing westerly winds and heavily eroded by glacial activity during the Pleistocene, to that of the western slope on the windward side, unaffected by glacial erosion and completely covered by a thick weathering mantle. On the eastern slope, nivation is effective only where the weathering mantle is exposed or on morainic formations. It does not occur on the landforms derived from glacial erosion. In contrast, the western side shows almost no evidence of snow action except where catastrophic mass movements have altered the regularity of the slope. During the post-glacial epoch, nivation cirques formed in the scars left by mass wasting. In the last 30 years, spring temperatures have increased and this activity has diminished. The pattern of evolution observed at Peñalara can be extrapolated to other Mediterranean mountains with similar characteristics such as marginal glacial activity during the Pleistocene, unconsolidated formations on the summits caused by chemical weathering, and dry, hot summers that can increase the effectiveness of nivation.  相似文献   

Exploring some relationships between biological soil crusts, soil aggregation and wind erosion   总被引：5，自引：0，他引：5  

David J. Eldridge  John F. Leys 《Journal of Arid Environments》2003,53(4):457-466

A portable wind tunnel was used to test the contribution of biological and physical elements to overall soil aggregation on a soil dominated by biological soil crusts in south-eastern Australia. After moderate disturbance and simulated wind erosion, 90% of surface aggregates on the loamy soil and 76% on the sandy soil were dominated by biological elements (cryptogams). Lower levels of biological bonding were observed on the severely disturbed treatment. Linear regression indicated a significant positive relationship (r²=0·72) between biological soil crust cover and dry aggregation levels greater than 0·85mm. To maintain sediment transport below an erosion control target of 5gm⁻¹s⁻¹ for a 65kmh⁻¹ wind at 10m height, a crust cover of approximately 20% is required. When a multiple regression model which sequentially fitted biological crust cover and dry aggregation greater than 0·85mm was applied to the data, dry aggregation accounted for more of the variation in sediment transport rate than biological crust cover. These data were used to develop a conceptual model which integrates crust cover and dry aggregation, and provides a useful framework within which to predict the likely impacts of changes in soil crust cover and aggregation.  相似文献