Speciation of naturally-accumulated uranium in an organic-rich soil of an alpine region (Switzerland)     

Simona Regenspurg  Camille Margot-Roquier  Pascal Froidevaux  Pilar Junier 《Geochimica et cosmochimica acta》2010,74(7):2082-2098

Very high concentrations of uranium (up to 4000 ppm) were found in a natural soil in the Dischma valley, an alpine region in the Grisons canton in Switzerland. The goal of this study was to examine the redox state and the nature of uranium binding in the soil matrix in order to understand the accumulation mechanism. Pore water profiles collected from Dischma soil revealed the establishment of anoxic conditions with increasing soil depth. A combination of chemical extraction methods and spectroscopy was applied to characterize the redox state and binding environment of uranium in the soil. Bicarbonate extraction under anoxic conditions released most of the uranium indicating that uranium occurs predominantly in the hexavalent form. Surprisingly, the uranium redox state did not vary greatly as a function of depth. X-ray absorption near edge spectroscopy (XANES), confirmed that uranium was present as a mixture of U(VI) and U(IV) with U(VI) dominating. Sequential extractions of soil samples showed that the dissolution of solid organic matter resulted in the simultaneous release of the majority of the soil uranium content (>95%). Extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) spectroscopy also revealed that soil-associated uranium in the soil matrix was mainly octahedrally coordinated, with an average of 1.7 axial (at about 1.76 Å) and 4.6 to 5.3 equatorial oxygen atoms (at about 2.36 Å) indicating the dominance of a uranyl-like (UO₂²⁺) structure presumably mixed with some U(IV). An additional EXAFS signal (at about 3.2 Å) identified in some spectra suggested that uranium was also bound (via an oxygen atom) to a light element such as carbon, phosphorus or silicon. Gamma spectrometric measurements of soil profiles failed to identify uranium long-life daughter products in the soil which is an indication that uranium originates elsewhere and was transported to its current location by water. Finally, it was found that the release of uranium from the soil was significantly promoted at very low pH values (pH 2) and increased with increasing pH values (between pH 5 and 9).  相似文献   

Trophic ecology of Pomatoschistus microps within an intertidal bay (Roscoff,France), investigated through gut content and stable isotope analyses     

Jean‐Charles Leclerc  Pascal Riera  Laure M.‐L. J. Noël  Cédric Leroux  Ann C. Andersen 《Marine Ecology》2014,35(2):261-270

The diet of Pomatoschistus microps has been studied using both gut content and stable isotope analyses. In the Roscoff Aber Bay (Brittany, France), this fish is commonly found on sandy muddy intertidal flats. Gut content analyses were also interpreted using trophic indices. Owing to the large diversity of prey consumed, these indices emphasised the opportunistic feeding behaviour of P. microps. Here, this species fed mainly on endofauna with meiofauna being of high relative importance. The main biotic components of its trophic habitat, characterized by δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N, provided evidence of a major trophic pathway based on drift Enteromorpha sp. Trophic positions estimated by both diet analyses and isotopic analyses led to similar results. In this bay, P. microps is a first‐order predator with a low degree of omnivory. Despite a preferential consumption of the amphipod Corophium arenarium, we assumed that this goby behaves as a generalist feeding on a uniform variety of endofauna taxa.  相似文献   

Impacts of Indian Ocean SST biases on the Indian Monsoon: as simulated in a global coupled model     

Chloé Prodhomme  Pascal Terray  Sébastien Masson  Takeshi Izumo  Tomoki Tozuka  Toshio Yamagata 《Climate Dynamics》2014,42(1-2):271-290

In this study, the impact of the ocean–atmosphere coupling on the atmospheric mean state over the Indian Ocean and the Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM) is examined in the framework of the SINTEX-F2 coupled model through forced and coupled control simulations and several sensitivity coupled experiments. During boreal winter and spring, most of the Indian Ocean biases are common in forced and coupled simulations, suggesting that the errors originate from the atmospheric model, especially a dry islands bias in the Maritime Continent. During boreal summer, the air-sea coupling decreases the ISM rainfall over South India and the monsoon strength to realistic amplitude, but at the expense of important degradations of the rainfall and Sea Surface Temperature (SST) mean states in the Indian Ocean. Strong SST biases of opposite sign are observed over the western (WIO) and eastern (EIO) tropical Indian Ocean. Rainfall amounts over the ocean (land) are systematically higher (lower) in the northern hemisphere and the south equatorial Indian Ocean rainfall band is missing in the control coupled simulation. During boreal fall, positive dipole-like errors emerge in the mean state of the coupled model, with warm and wet (cold and dry) biases in the WIO (EIO), suggesting again a significant impact of the SST errors. The exact contributions and the distinct roles of these SST errors in the seasonal mean atmospheric state of the coupled model have been further assessed with two sensitivity coupled experiments, in which the SST biases are replaced by observed climatology either in the WIO (warm bias) or EIO (cold bias). The correction of the WIO warm bias leads to a global decrease of rainfall in the monsoon region, which confirms that the WIO is an important source of moisture for the ISM. On the other hand, the correction of the EIO cold bias leads to a global improvement of precipitation and circulation mean state during summer and fall. Nevertheless, all these improvements due to SST corrections seem drastically limited by the atmosphere intrinsic biases, including prominently the unimodal oceanic position of the ITCZ (Inter Tropical Convergence Zone) during summer and the enhanced westward wind stress along the equator during fall.  相似文献   

LA‐ICP‐MS Analysis of Small Samples: Carbonate Reference Materials and Larval Fish Otoliths     

Angélique V. Lazartigues  Pascal Sirois  Dany Savard 《Geostandards and Geoanalytical Research》2014,38(2):225-240

This article proposes a methodology to analyse the composition of very small carbonate samples such as larval fish otoliths. The chemical composition of otoliths, which are carbonate structures in the inner ear, is often used to explore population dynamics in fishes. Recent advances in laser ablation‐inductively coupled plasma‐mass spectrometry have suggested its potential application to this field. In this study, analyses were performed using a 193 nm ArF Resonetics LA system, coupled to an Agilent 7700X‐ICP‐MS, with the following ablation parameters: a beam diameter of 5 μm, energy of 3 mJ, 2.7 J cm^?2, laser repetition rate of 10 Hz and translation speed of 2.5 μm s^?1. NIST SRM 610 glass was used as the primary calibration material. Performing this protocol, characterisation of a USGS GP‐4 reference material was achieved with suitable precision and accuracy, but the USGS MACS‐3 reference material appeared more heterogeneous under the ablation conditions tested. Calibration was performed using two different beam diameters (5 and 11 μm). Capelin (Mallotus villosus) otoliths measuring between 10 and 20 μm in diameter were tested. Even though a smaller beam diameter and lower energy were used compared with those normally employed to analyse larger otoliths, the method was successful.  相似文献   

A Comprehensive Framework for Intrinsic OpenStreetMap Quality Analysis   总被引：5，自引：2，他引：3  

Christopher Barron  Pascal Neis  Alexander Zipf 《Transactions in GIS》2014,18(6):877-895

OpenStreetMap (OSM) is one of the most popular examples of a Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) project. In the past years it has become a serious alternative source for geodata. Since the quality of OSM data can vary strongly, different aspects have been investigated in several scientific studies. In most cases the data is compared with commercial or administrative datasets which, however, are not always accessible due to the lack of availability, contradictory licensing restrictions or high procurement costs. In this investigation a framework containing more than 25 methods and indicators is presented, allowing OSM quality assessments based solely on the data's history. Without the usage of a reference data set, approximate statements on OSM data quality are possible. For this purpose existing methods are taken up, developed further, and integrated into an extensible open source framework. This enables arbitrarily repeatable intrinsic OSM quality analyses for any part of the world.  相似文献   

Towards a 4D topographic view of the Norwegian sea margin   总被引：1，自引：1，他引：0  

Morten Smelror  John Dehls  Jrg Ebbing  Eiliv Larsen  Erik R. Lundin   ystein Nordgulen  Per Terje Osmundsen  Odleiv Olesen  Dag Ottesen  Christophe Pascal  Thomas F. Redfield  Leif Rise 《Global and Planetary Change》2007,58(1-4):382

The present-day topography/bathymetry of the Norwegian mainland and passive margin is a product of complex interactions between large-scale tectonomagmatic and climatic processes that can be traced back in time to the Late Silurian Caledonian Orogeny. The isostatic balance of the crust and lithosphere was clearly influenced by orogenic thickening during the Caledonian Orogeny, but was soon affected by post-orogenic collapse including overprinting of the mountain root, and was subsequently affected by a number of discrete extensional events eventually leading to continental break-up in Early Eocene time. In the mid-Jurassic the land areas experienced deep erosion in the warm and humid climate, forming a regional paleic surface. Rift episodes in the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous, with differential uplift along major fault zones, led to more pronounced topographic contrasts during the Cretaceous, and thick sequences of clastic sediments accumulated in the subsiding basins on the shelf. Following renewed extension in the Late Cretaceous, a new paleic surface developed in the Paleocene. Following break-up the margin has largely subsided thermally, but several Cenozoic shortening events have generated positive contraction structures. On the western side of the on-shore drainage divide, deeper erosion took place along pre-existing weakness zones, creating the template of the present day valleys and fjords. In the Neogene the mainland and large portions of the Barents Sea were uplifted. It appears that this uplift permitted ice caps to nucleate and accumulate during the Late Pliocene northern hemisphere climatic deterioration. The Late Pliocene to Pleistocene glacial erosion caused huge sediment aprons to be shed on to the Norwegian Sea and Barents Sea margins. Upon removal of the ice load the landmass adjusted isostatically, and this still continues today.  相似文献   

Bias in hydraulic head measurements from multilevel vibrating-wire piezometers with excessively permeable backfill     

Young  Nathan L.  Lemieux  Jean-Michel  Locat  Pascal  Demers  Denis  Delottier  Hugo  Mony  Laura 《Hydrogeology Journal》2022,30(4):1337-1344

Hydrogeology Journal - An extensive network of multilevel vibrating-wire piezometers (VWP) was recently created to monitor the spatial and temporal variation of pore pressure (and hydraulic head)...  相似文献   

Assessing the Completeness of Bicycle Trail and Lane Features in OpenStreetMap for the United States   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1       下载免费PDF全文

Hartwig H. Hochmair  Dennis Zielstra  Pascal Neis 《Transactions in GIS》2015,19(1):63-81

This article assesses the completeness of bicycle trail and on‐street lane features in OpenStreetMap (OSM). Comparing OSM cycling features with reference data from local planning agencies for selected US Urbanized Areas shows that OSM bicycle trails tend to be more completely mapped than bicycle lanes. Manual evaluation of mapped cycling features in OSM and Google Maps for selected test areas within the Central Business Districts of Portland (OR) and Miami (FL) through comparison with governmental datasets, satellite imagery, and Google Street View, shows that the Bicycle layer in Google Maps can help to identify some missing or erroneously mapped OSM cycling links. However, Google Maps was also found to have some gaps in its data layers, suggesting that consultation of current trail and lane data from local planning authorities, if available, should be considered as an additional data source for bicycle related planning projects.  相似文献   

Measuring the Reliability of Wheelchair User Route Planning based on Volunteered Geographic Information   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1       下载免费PDF全文

Pascal Neis 《Transactions in GIS》2015,19(2):188-201

The development of a wheelchair user friendly route planning application inherits a number of special requirements and details that need to be considered during the generation of the routing graph and the corresponding algorithm, making this task much more complex than car or pedestrian related applications. Each wheelchair type and, more importantly, each individual user might have different needs with regards to the way condition or other criteria. This study proposes a new approach to route planning for wheelchair users tailored for individual and personal requirements provided by the user and the calculation of a reliability factor of the computed wheelchair path. The routing graph is based on the freely available Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) retrieved from the OpenStreetMap (OSM) project. The newly created algorithm is evaluated and tested for a selected area in Bonn, Germany. A new reliability factor is introduced that gives direct feedback about the quality of the generated path. Similar factor estimations can also be utilized for multiple route planning applications where VGI or other commercial or administrative data is implemented and more detailed factors than a simple geometric representation of a street network are of importance.  相似文献   

Intraseasonal SST-precipitation relationship and its spatial variability over the tropical summer monsoon region   总被引：1，自引：1，他引：0  

Mathew Roxy  Youichi Tanimoto  B. Preethi  Pascal Terray  R. Krishnan 《Climate Dynamics》2013,41(1):45-61

The SST-precipitation relationship in the intraseasonal variability (ISV) over the Asian monsoon region is examined using recent high quality satellite data and simulations from a state of the art coupled model, the climate forecast system version 2 (CFSv2). CFSv2 demonstrates high skill in reproducing the spatial distribution of the observed climatological mean summer monsoon precipitation along with its interannual variability, a task which has been a conundrum for many recent climate coupled models. The model also exhibits reasonable skill in simulating coherent northward propagating monsoon intraseasonal anomalies including SST and precipitation, which are generally consistent with observed ISV characteristics. Results from the observations and the model establish the existence of spatial variability in the atmospheric convective response to SST anomalies, over the Asian monsoon domain on intraseasonal timescales. The response is fast over the Arabian Sea, where precipitation lags SST by ~5 days; whereas it is slow over the Bay of Bengal and South China Sea, with a lag of ~12 days. The intraseasonal SST anomalies result in a similar atmospheric response across the basins, which consists of a destabilization of the bottom of the atmospheric column, as observed from the equivalent potential temperature anomalies near the surface. However, the presence of a relatively strong surface convergence over the Arabian Sea, due to the presence of a strong zonal gradient in SST, which accelerates the upward motion of the moist air, results in a relatively faster response in terms of the local precipitation anomalies over the Arabian Sea than over the Bay of Bengal and South China Sea. With respect to the observations, the ocean–atmosphere coupling is well simulated in the model, though with an overestimation of the intraseasonal SST anomalies, leading to an exaggerated SST-precipitation relationship. A detailed examination points to a systematic bias in the thickness of the mixed layer of the ocean model, which needs to be rectified. A too shallow (deep) mixed layer enhances (suppress) the amplitude of the intraseasonal SST anomalies, thereby amplifying (lessening) the ISV and the active-break phases of the monsoon in the model.  相似文献