There is a broad correlation between the εNd values for rivers (including both the water and the particulate material it carries) and the age of the source terrain. This paper presents Nd isotope distribution data for soil, soil water, groundwater, and stream water samples gathered in a small catchment in northern Sweden. The results show that the release of Nd and Sm from boreal forests into streams and, eventually, into the oceans is more complicated than previously realized. The weathering of till causes changes in both the Nd isotopic composition and Sm/Nd ratios. Both the Sm/Nd ratio and εNd were higher in strongly weathered soils horizons than in less weathered till, since minerals with high Sm/Nd ratios were, on average, more resistant to weathering than those with low Sm/Nd ratios. In contrast to the situation for the main minerals and the major elements, the weathering of rare earth elements (REE) was not restricted to the E-horizon: the measured REE concentrations continued to increase with depth in the C-horizon. In addition, REE released by weathering in the upper parts of the soil profile were partly secondarily retained at deeper levels. Therefore, the dissolved Nd released by weathering in the upper soil horizons was trapped and did not enter the groundwater directly. Rather, the Nd in the groundwater largely originated from weathering within the groundwater zone. However, this was not the only source of Nd in the stream water. The Nd isotope composition and Sm/Nd ratio were determined by the mixing between of Nd and Sm in the groundwater and REE-carrying organic material washed out of the soil profile. The groundwater close to the stream reaches the upper soil horizons during high discharge events such as snowmelts, and organic matter carrying Nd and Sm is washed out of the soils and thus released into the stream. Therefore, the Nd exported from catchment is derived from both the weathering within the groundwater zone, and the organic matter washed out from the soil. If longer timescales with more advanced weathering stages in the groundwater zone are considered, it cannot be ruled out that there will be a shift towards more radiogenic values in the exported Nd. Recorded shifts in the Nd isotopic composition in the ocean may thus not only reflect changed source regions, but also the weathering history of the same source region. 相似文献
Adaptation to climate change in agricultural settings depends on understanding farmers’ perceptions of the nature of climate change, their agency in adapting and the efficacy of adaptive measures themselves. Such knowledge can improve mitigation and adaptation strategies. This study addresses the limited understanding of how farmers appraise their private adaptive measures and influential factors. It uses data from structured interviews with 598 rice farmers in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. Based on protection motivation theory, farmers’ assessments of private adaptive measures were measured by perceived self-efficacy, perceived adaptation efficacy and perceived adaptation cost. Multiple regressions were used to understand significant factors affecting those assessments. Some demographic and socio-economic factors, belief in climate change, information and objective resources were found to influence farmers’ adaptation assessments. It is shown that the sources and quality of information are particularly important. The improvement of both the accessibility and usefulness of local services (e.g. irrigation, agricultural extension, credit and health care) is deemed a necessity for successful adaptation strategies in the Mekong Delta. The paper also shows the application of PMT in measuring farmers’ appraisals of private adaptive measures to climate change, thereby opening this area for further research. 相似文献
Dissolution experiments in batch and flow-through reactors were combined with data on sediment composition and pore water silicic acid profiles to identify processes controlling the solubility of biogenic silica and the build-up of silicic acid in marine sediments. The variability of experimentally determined biogenic silica solubilities is due, in part, to variations in specific surface area and Al content of biosiliceous materials. Preferential dissolution of delicate skeletal structures and frustules with high surface areas leads to a progressive decrease of the specific surface area. This may cause a reduction of the solubility of deposited biosiliceous debris by 10–15%, relative to fresh planktonic assemblages. Dissolution of lithogenic (detrital) minerals in sediments releases dissolved aluminum to the pore waters. This aluminum becomes structurally incorporated into deposited biogenic silica, further decreasing its solubility. Compared to Al-free biogenic silica, the solubility of diatom frustules is lowered by as much as 25% when one out of every 70 Si atoms is substituted by an Al(III) ion.The build-up of silicic acid in pore waters of sediments with variable proportions of detrital matter and biogenic silica was simulated in batch experiments using kaolinite and basalt as model detrital constituents. The steady-state silicic acid concentrations measured in the experiments decreased with increasing detrital-to-opal ratios of the mixtures. This trend is similar to the observed inverse relationship between asymptotic pore water silicic acid concentrations and detrital-to-opal ratios in Southern Ocean sediments. Flow-through reactor experiments further showed that in detrital-rich sediments, precipitation of authigenic alumino-silicates may prevent the pore waters from reaching equilibrium with the dissolving biogenic silica. This agrees with data from Southern Ocean sediments where, at sites containing more than 30 wt.% detrital material, the pore waters remain undersaturated with respect to the experimentally determined in situ solubility of biogenic silica.The results of the study show that interactions between deposited biogenic silica and detrital material cause large variations in the asymptotic silicic acid concentration of marine sediments. The production of Al(III) by the dissolution of detrital minerals affects the build-up of silicic acid by reducing the apparent silica solubility and dissolution kinetics of biosiliceous materials, and by inducing precipitation of authigenic alumino-silicate minerals. 相似文献
This is Part II of two papers on man-induced regime shifts in small, narrow, and converging estuaries, with focus on the interaction between effective hydraulic drag, fine sediment import, and tidal amplification, induced by river engineering works, e.g., narrowing and deepening. Paper I describes a simple linear analytical model for the tidal movement in narrow, converging estuaries and a conceptual model on the response of tidal rivers to river engineering works. It is argued that such engineering works may set in motion a snowball effect bringing the river into an alternative steady state. Part II analyses the historic development in tidal range in four rivers, e.g., the Elbe, Ems, Loire, and Scheldt, all in northwest Europe; data are available for many decades, up to a century. We use the analytical model derived in Part I, showing that the effective hydraulic drag in the Ems and Loire has decreased considerably over time, as anticipated in Part I. We did not find evidence that the Upper Sea Scheldt is close to its tipping point towards hyperturbid conditions, but risks have been identified. In the Elbe, tidal reflections against the profound step in bed level around Hamburg seem to have affected the tidal evolution in the last decades. It is emphasized that the conceptual picture sketched in these papers is still hypothetical and needs to be validated, for instance through hind-cast modeling of the evolution of these rivers. This will not be an easy task, as historical data for a proper calibration of the models required are scarce.
The concept of apparent thermal diffusivity in soil is discussed and defined as consisting of an intrinsic and a pseudo part. A method that uses a numerical model of heat conduction and measured soil temperatures to estimate apparent thermal diffusivity is introduced. The method requires measurement of temperatures at three depths to make an estimate for diffusivity between the lowest and uppermost depths. This method is applied to a five-day data set obtained in Sweden. Time-dependent apparent diffusivities are estimated for periods of five days, one day, and three hours. An empirical method is used to determine the intrinsic diffusivity. Values close to those calculated for the empirical relationships have been obtained for the one- and five-day periods, whereas values of the three-hour period show wider variation. The results indicate that the outlined method is feasible and satisfactory for estimating the intrinsic thermal diffusivity in soils near the surface on a daily basis. It also is argued that the root-mean-square error (RMSE) of a simulation using the estimated diffusivity, together with the diffusivity, is a better indicator for non-conductive processes than diffusivity alone. 相似文献
We have investigated the conditions for simultaneous meteor observations with the EISCAT UHF radar system and telescopic optical
devices. The observed characteristics of 410 meteors detected by all three UHF receivers are compared with model simulations
and their luminosity is calculated as a part of a meteoroid ablation model using a fifth order Runge–Kutta numerical integration
technique. The estimated absolute visual magnitudes are in the range of +9 to +5. The meteors should therefore be observable
using intensified CCD or EMCCD (Electron Multiplying CCD) cameras with telephoto lenses. A possible setup of a coordinated
radar and optical campaign is suggested. 相似文献
The Arecibo UHF radar is able to detect the head-echos of micron-sized meteoroids up to velocities of 75 km/s over a height
range of 80–140 km. Because of their small size there are many uncertainties involved in calculating their above atmosphere
properties as needed for orbit determination. An ab initio model of meteor ablation has been devised that should work over
the mass range 10−16 kg to 10−7 kg, but the faint end of this range cannot be observed by any other method and so direct verification is not possible. On
the other hand, the EISCAT UHF radar system detects micrometeors in the high mass part of this range and its observations
can be fit to a “standard” ablation model and calibrated to optical observations (Szasz et al. 2007). In this paper, we present a preliminary comparison of the two models, one observationally confirmable. Among the features
of the ab initio model that are different from the “standard” model are: (1) uses the experimentally based low pressure vaporization
theory of O’Hanlon (A users’s guide to vacuum technology, 2003) for ablation, (2) uses velocity dependent functions fit from
experimental data on heat transfer, luminosity and ionization efficiencies measured by Friichtenicht and Becker (NASA Special
Publication 319: 53, 1973) for micron sized particles, (3) assumes a density and temperature dependence of the micrometeoroids
and ablation product specific heats, (4) assumes a density and size dependent value for the thermal emissivity and (5) uses
a unified synthesis of experimental data for the most important meteoroid elements and their oxides through least square fits
(as functions of temperature, density, and/or melting point) of the tables of thermodynamic parameters given in Weast (CRC
Handbook of Physics and Chemistry, 1984), Gray (American Institute of Physics Handbook, 1972), and Cox (Allen’s Astrophysical
Quantities 2000). This utilization of mostly experimentally determined data is the main reason for calling this an ab initio
model and is made necessary by the fact that individual average meteoroid mass densities are now derivable from Arecibo observations. 相似文献
To inform the future practices to be employed for handling waste water and grey water at the Swedish Antarctic station, Wasa, in Dronning Maud Land, the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat took the initiative to survey the practices of the 28 nations with stations in Antarctica. A questionnaire was sent out to all members of the Antarctic Environment Officers Network during the autumn of 2005. Questions were asked about the handling of waste water and grey water, the type of sewage treatment, and installation and operational costs. The response to the questionnaire was very good (79%), and the results showed that 37% of the permanent stations and 69% of the summer stations lack any form of treatment facility. When waste water and grey water containing microorganisms are released, these microorganisms can remain viable in low-temperature Antarctic conditions for prolonged periods. Microorganisms may also have the potential to infect and cause disease, or become part of the gut flora of local bird and mammal populations, and fish and marine invertebrates. The results from 71 stations show that much can still be done by the 28 nations operating the 82 research stations in Antarctica. The technology exists for effective waste water treatment in the challenging Antarctic conditions. The use of efficient technology at all permanent Antarctic research stations would greatly reduce the human impact on the pristine Antarctic environment. In order to protect the Antarctic environment from infectious agents introduced by humans, consideration should also be given to preventing the release of untreated waste water and grey water from the smaller summer stations. 相似文献
The purpose of this paper is to establish a relation between a few measurable quantities (the so-called ζ potential, organic matter content, and shear rate) and the flocculation behavior of mud. The results obtained with small-scale
flocculation experiments (mixing jar) are compared to results of large-scale experiments (settling column). The mud used for
all experiments has been collected in October 2007 in the lower Western Schelde, near Antwerp, Belgium. From this study, it
was found that the mean floc size and the Kolmogorov microscale vary in a similar way with the shear rate for suspensions
with different pH and salt concentrations. The size of flocs at a given shear rate depends on the properties of the suspension,
which affect the electrokinetic properties of the sediment; these can be described by means of the ζ potential. The main findings of this paper are: (1) In saline suspensions at pH = 8, the mean floc size increases when the
salt concentration and the ζ potential increase. (2) For a given ζ potential, the mean floc size at low pH is larger than observed at pH = 8 for any added salt. (3) The mean floc size increases
with increasing organic matter content. (4) Mud with no organic matter at pH = 8 and no added salt flocculates very little.
The response of mud suspensions to variations in salinity and pH is similar to that of kaolinite. This suggests that a general
trend can be established for different and complex types of clays and mud. This systematic study can therefore be used for
further development of flocculation models. 相似文献