Pb isotopic variability in the modern-Pleistocene Indus River system measured by ion microprobe in detrital K-feldspar grains   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Anwar Alizai  Peter D. Clift  Sam VanLaningham  Ali R. Tabrez  The Edinburgh Ion Microprobe Facility 《Geochimica et cosmochimica acta》2011,75(17):4771-4795

The western Himalaya, Karakoram and Tibet are known to be heterogeneous with regard to Pb isotope compositions in K-feldspars, which allows this system to be used as a sediment provenance tool. We used secondary ion mass spectrometry to measure the isotopic character of silt and sand-sized grains from the modern Sutlej and Chenab Rivers, together with Thar Desert sands, in order to constrain their origin. The rivers show a clear Himalayan provenance, contrasting with grains from the Indus Suture Zone, but with overlap to known Karakoram compositions. The desert dunes commonly show ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁴Pb and ²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁴Pb values that are much higher than those seen in the rivers, most consistent with erosion from Nanga Parbat. This implies at least some origin from the trunk Indus, probably reworked by summer monsoon winds from the SW, a hypothesis supported by bulk Nd and U-Pb zircon dating. Further data collected from Holocene and Pleistocene sands shows that filled and abandoned channels on the western edge of the Thar Desert were sourced from Himalayan rivers before and at 6-8 ka, but that after that time the proportion of high isotopic ratio grains rose, indicating increased contribution from the Thar Desert dunes prior to ∼4.5 ka when flow ceased entirely. This may be linked to climatic drying, northward expansion of the Thar Desert, or changes in drainage style including regional capture, channel abandonment, or active local Thar tributaries. Our data further show a Himalayan river channel east of the present Indus, close to the delta, in the Nara River valley during the middle Holocene. While this cannot be distinguished from the Indus it is not heavily contaminated by reworking from the desert. The Pb system shows some use as a provenance tool, but is not effective at demonstrating whether these Nara sediments represent a Ghaggar-Hakra stream independent from the Indus. Our study highlights an important role for eolian reworking of floodplain sediments in arid rivers such as the Indus.  相似文献   

Annual floods in New England (USA) and Atlantic Canada: synoptic climatology and generating mechanisms   总被引：1，自引：1，他引：0  

Mathias J. Collins  Johnathan P. Kirk  Joshua Pettit  Arthur T. DeGaetano  M. Sam McCown  Thomas C. Peterson 《自然地理学》2014,35(3):195-219

New England and Atlantic Canada are characterized by mixed flood regimes that reflect different storm types, antecedent land surface conditions, and flood seasonality. Mixed flood regimes are known to complicate flood risk analyses, yet the synoptic climatology and precipitation mechanisms that generate annual floods in this region have not been described in detail. We analyzed a set of long-term annual flood records at climate-sensitive stream gauges across the region and classified the synoptic climatology of each annual flood, quantitatively describing the precipitation mechanisms, and characterize flood seasonality. We find that annual floods here are dominantly generated by Great Lakes-sourced storms and Coastal lows, known locally as ‘nor’easters.’ Great Lakes storms tend to be associated with lower magnitude annual floods (<75th percentile) and Coastal lows are more clearly associated with higher magnitude events (>75th percentile). Tropical cyclones account for few of all annual floods, including extreme events, despite causing some of the region’s largest and most destructive floods. Late winter/early spring is when the greatest number of annual floods occur region wide, and rainfall is the dominant flood-producing mechanism. Rainfall in combination with snowmelt is also important. Both mechanisms are expected to be impacted by projected regional climate change. We find little evidence for associations between flood-producing synoptic storm types or precipitation mechanisms and large-scale atmospheric circulation indices or time periods, despite upward trends in New England annual flood magnitudes. To more completely investigate such associations, partial duration flood series that include more floods than just the largest of each year, and their associated synoptic climatologies and precipitation mechanisms, should be analyzed.  相似文献   

Exhibitions     

Jiří Pánek  Alex Gekker  Sam Hind  Jana Wendler  Chris Perkins  Sybille Lammes 《The Cartographic journal》2013,50(3):285-301

In this paper we propose the use of ‘Encountering’ a location-based game (LBG) based on the Wherigo platform to facilitate interdisciplinary student learning about places on field courses. Deploying a mobile, digital map-based platform addresses significant challenges – such as the sacrifice of context specificity and methodological applicability and depth. It also runs the danger of ‘gamifying’ the fieldwork, blinding the participant to their own agency and emergent encounters. Interactive and layered digital map interfaces have affordances that can potentially overcome such challenges. We claim that one such affordance is the ability to play through the map. In other words, maps – and digital maps in particular – offer the possibility of decoupling results-orientated actions from free-form serendipitous engagement with the field. Our argument is two-fold. First, that LBG toolsets such as Wherigo can provide a ‘common ground’ for students engaging in place-based interdisciplinary research, by providing a material, cartographic basis for playful investigation. Second, that they can facilitate the production of ‘spaces of epistemological failure’, allowing students to challenge taken-for-granted conceptual and methodological axioms within and across disciplines.  相似文献   

The Influence of Digital Surface Model Choice on Visibility‐based Mobile Geospatial Applications     

Sam Meek  James Goulding  Gary Priestnall 《Transactions in GIS》2013,17(4):526-543

In this work we investigate the effectiveness of different types of visibility models for use within location‐based services. This article outlines the methodology and results for our experiments, which were designed to understand the accuracy and effects of model choices for mobile visibility querying. Harnessing a novel mobile media consumption and authoring application called Zapp, the levels of accuracy of various digital surface representations used by a line of sight visibility algorithm are extensively examined by statistically assessing randomly sampled viewing sites across the 1 km² study area, in relation to points of interest (POI) across the University of Nottingham campus. Testing was carried out on three different surface models derived from 0.5 m LiDAR data by visiting physical sites on each surface model with 14 random point of interest masks being viewed from between 10 and 16 different locations, totalling 190 data points. Each site was ground‐truthed by determining whether a given POI could be seen by the user and could also be identified by the mobile device. Our experiments in a semi‐urban area show that choice of surface model has important implications for mobile applications that utilize visibility in geospatial query operations.  相似文献   

An integrative method for the evaluation,monitoring, and comparison of seagrass habitat structure     

Andrew D. Irving  Jason E. Tanner  Sam G. Gaylard 《Marine pollution bulletin》2013,66(1-2):176-184

Assessing environmental condition is essential for the management of coasts and their resources, but better management decisions occur when large databases are simplified into more manageable units of information. Here we present the habitat structure index (HSI), which enables rapid assessment and direct comparison of seagrass habitat structure using scores of 0 (poor) to 100 (excellent) based on integrating five habitat variables: area, continuity, proximity, percentage cover, and species identity. Acquiring data to calculate the HSI can be done in situ or from video recordings, and requires relatively simple methodology of belt transects, estimating percentage cover, and basic taxonomy. Spatiotemporal comparisons can usefully identify locations and periods of seagrass habitat change, potentially providing an early warning indicator of habitat damage and decline in environmental quality. Overall, the integrative approach of the HSI represents a step toward simplifying the exchange of environmental information among researchers, coastal managers, and governing bodies.  相似文献   

Bioconcentration of triclosan and methyl-triclosan in marine mussels (Mytilus galloprovincialis) under laboratory conditions and in metropolitan waters of Gulf St Vincent,South Australia     

Rai S. Kookana  Ali Shareef  Milena B. Fernandes  Sonja Hoare  Sam Gaylard  Anu Kumar 《Marine pollution bulletin》2013

The anti-microbial agent triclosan (TCS), and its derivative methyl-triclosan (Me-TCS), are discharged with treated effluents from wastewater treatment plants to receiving environments. We investigated the bioconcentration of TCS and Me-TCS in mussels (Mytilus galloprovincialis) exposed to TCS (100 ng L⁻¹) for 30 days in seawater aquaria (19 ± 2 °C) with fresh phytoplankton as a food source. Bioconcentration increased with time reaching a steady-state around 24–30 days. The bioconcentration factor (log BCF) for TCS were 2.81 L kg⁻¹ (dry weight) and 4.13 L kg⁻¹, when lipid normalised concentrations were used. Mussels were also deployed in cages at four marine locations receiving effluents from WWTPs. The mean (±SD) TCS and Me-TCS concentrations for mussels from these sites were 9.87 (±1.34) and 6.99 (±2.44) μg kg⁻¹. The study showed that mussels can be a useful tool for monitoring pollution of TCS and Me-TCS in marine and estuarine environments.  相似文献   

The generation of optical emission-line filaments in galaxy clusters     

Edward C. D. Pope  Julian M. Pittard  Thomas W. Hartquist  Sam A. E. G. Falle 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2008,385(4):1779-1791

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The influence of Pacific salmon decay products on near‐field streambed sediment and organic matter dynamics: a flume simulation          下载免费PDF全文

John F. Rex  Ellen L. Petticrew  Sam J. Albers  Neil D. Williams 《地球表面变化过程与地形》2014,39(10):1378-1385

Pacific salmon are biogeomorphic agents shown to induce positive feedbacks on their natal watersheds. However, the literature documenting their ecological effects on in‐stream natal environments is more divisive. The disturbance salmon create during redd construction has the potential to reduce stream productivity. The pulse of salmon organic matter (SOM) and marine derived nutrients (MDNs) released during carcass decay has been reported as either stimulating in‐stream productivity or having no local effect. To evaluate the ecological costs and benefits of salmon spawning events, MDN delivery and storage processes need to be identified and quantified. A simulation was conducted in three flow‐through flumes (2 m × 2 m × 30 m) over a 33‐day period (consisting of 15 baseline, four MDN exposure, and 14 post‐exposure days) to assess near‐field sediment and organic matter dynamics during active and post‐spawn simulations. The objective of the study was to measure changes in the amounts and particle sizes of suspended and gravel‐stored fine sediment, in order to elucidate the process and significance of SOM recruitment to the gravel bed via sedimentation. Gravel beds in all flumes were enriched with SOM following treatments but the response was highest in the active spawn simulation. The more effective delivery in the active spawn simulation was attributed to its higher inorganic sediment concentration, which is known to enhance floc formation. Although the active spawn simulation delivered more SOM to the gravel bed, the post‐spawn phase may be equally important to natural streams because its decay phase is longer than the active spawn and consequently can provide SOM to the streambed as long as carcasses remain in‐stream. The delivery, and potential retention, of SOM to spawning streambeds and the intergravel environment may be particularly important for interior streams, which experience low flow conditions during the spawning phase and accordingly have the potential for hyporheic nutrient recruitment and storage. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

Changing growing season observed in Canada   总被引：1，自引：1，他引：0  

Budong Qian  Sam Gameda  Xuebin Zhang  Reinder De Jong 《Climatic change》2012,112(2):339-353

It is theoretically interesting for climate change detection and practically important for agricultural producers to know whether climate change has influenced agroclimatic conditions and, if so, what the potential impacts are. We present analyses on statistical differences in means and variances of agroclimatic indices between three 30-year periods in the 20th century (i.e., 1911–1940, 1941–1970 and 1971–2000). We found many occurrences of statistically significant changes in means between pairs of the three 30-year periods. The findings consistently support agroclimatic trends identified from trend analysis as an earlier growing season start and an earlier end to spring frost (SF), together with an extended growing season, more frost-free days (FFD) and more available heat units were often found in the later 30-year periods as compared to the earlier ones. In addition, this study provides more detailed quantitative information than the trend signals for the practical interests of agricultural applications. Significant changes were detected for SF and FFD at a much larger percentage of stations between the latter two 30-year periods (1941–1970 vs. 1971–2000) as compared to the earlier two periods (1911–1940 vs. 1941–1970). In contrast, changes in variances of the selected agroclimatic indices were less evident than changes in their means, based on the percentage of stations showing significant differences. We also present new climate averages of the selected agroclimatic indices that can be useful for agricultural planning and management.  相似文献   

Quantification of initial steps of nucleation and growth of silica nanoparticles: An in-situ SAXS and DLS study     

Dominique J. Tobler  Sam Shaw  Liane G. Benning 《Geochimica et cosmochimica acta》2009,73(18):5377-5393

The initial steps of silica polymerization and silica nanoparticle formation have been studied in-situ and in real-time. The experiments were carried out in near neutral pH (7–8) solutions with initial silica concentrations of 640 and 1600 ppm ([SiO₂]) and ionic strengths (IS) of 0.02, 0.05, 0.11 and 0.22 M. The polymerization reactions were induced by neutralizing a high pH silica solution (from pH 12 to 7) and monitored by the time-dependent depletion in monosilicic acid concentration over time. The accompanied nucleation and growth of silica nanoparticles (i.e., change in particle size over time) was followed in-situ using time-resolved synchrotron-based Small Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS) and conventional Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) combined with scanning and (cryo)-transmission electron microscopy (SEM/cryo-TEM).The critical nucleus diameter was quantified (1.4–2 nm) and results from SAXS and DLS showed that over 3 h the particle diameter increased to a final size of 8 nm. SEM and TEM photomicrographs verified the SAXS and DLS data and confirmed the spherical and hydrous structure of the forming silica nanoparticles. Furthermore, fractal analysis (i.e., fractal dimension, D_m  2.2) indicated that the formed particles consisted of open, polymeric, low-density structures.For the nucleation and growth of silica nanoparticles a 3-stage growth process is proposed: (1) homogeneous and instantaneous nucleation of silica nanoparticles, (2) 3-D, surface-controlled particle growth following 1st order reaction kinetics and (3) Ostwald ripening and particle aggregation.  相似文献