Evidence for progressive Holocene aridification in southern Africa recorded in Namibian hyrax middens: Implications for African Monsoon dynamics and the ‘‘African Humid Period’’     

Brian M. Chase  Michael E. Meadows  Paula J. Reimer 《Quaternary Research》2010,74(1):36-45

Presented here are stable nitrogen isotope data from a rock hyrax (Procavia capensis) middens from northwestern Namibia that record a series of rapid aridification events beginning at ca. 3800 cal yr BP, and which mark a progressive decrease in regional humidity across the Holocene. Strong correlations exist between this record and other terrestrial and marine archives from southern Africa, indicating that the observed pattern of climate change is regionally coherent. Combined, these data indicate hemispheric synchrony in tropical African climate change during the Holocene, with similar trends characterising the termination of the ‘African Humid Period’ (AHP) in both the northern and southern tropics. These findings run counter to the widely accepted model of direct low-latitude insolation forcing, which requires an anti-phase relationship to exist between the hemispheres. The combined dataset highlights: 1) the importance of forcing mechanisms influencing the high northern latitudes in effecting low-latitude climate change in Africa, and 2) the potential importance of solar forcing and variations in the Earth's geomagnetic shield in determining both long-term and rapid centennial-scale climate changes, identifying a possible mechanism for the variations marking the AHP termination in both the southern and northern tropics.  相似文献   

The impact of sika deer grazing on the vegetation and infauna of Arne saltmarsh     

Hannaford J  Pinn EH  Diaz A 《Marine pollution bulletin》2006,53(1-4):56-62

Arne saltmarsh, an RSPB reserve, is situated in Poole Harbour on the English south coast. In recent years, there has been concern about possible changes in the suitability of the site for Redshank (Trigna totanus) due to sika deer (Cervus nippon) grazing. In order to assess these changes, 50 plots were established in three different locations: 20 in grazed areas, 20 in ungrazed areas and 10 fenced enclosures. Deer grazing was found to significantly affect structural and species diversity of the saltmarsh vegetation. Spartina anglica dominated in ungrazed areas whilst Salicornia ramosissima and, to a lesser extent, Puccinellia maritima dominated in grazed sites. In grazed areas the vegetation cover was significantly lower, as was vegetation height and volume. In addition, significant changes were observed in the root biomass, which was lower in grazed areas. Infaunal diversity was generally low throughout the survey area. However, significant variations were observed. Invertebrates abundance was more abundant in grazed plots than in ungrazed plots, and least abundant in fenced plots. The study indicated that in its current condition, localised areas of Arne saltmarsh do not provide adequate habitat requirements for Tringa totanus.  相似文献   

Observations of Comet 9P/Tempel 1 with the Keck 1 HIRES instrument during Deep Impact     

Anita L. Cochran  William M. Jackson  Micah Glaz 《Icarus》2007,187(1):156-166

We report high-spectral resolution observations of Comet 9P/Tempel 1 before, during and after the impact on 4 July 2005 UT of the Deep Impact spacecraft with the comet. These observations were obtained with the HIRES instrument on Keck 1. We observed brightening of both the dust and gas, but at different rates. We report the behavior of OH, NH, CN, C₃, CH, NH₂ and C₂ gas. From our observations, we determined a CN outflow velocity of at least 0.51 km s⁻¹. The dust color did not change substantially. To date, we see no new species in our spectra, nor do we see any evidence of prompt emission. From our observations, the interior material released by the impact looks the same as the material released from the surface by ambient cometary activity. However, further processing of the data may uncover subtle differences in the material that is released as well as the time evolution of this material.  相似文献   

Investigating the Vesta-vestoid-HED connection     

Anita L Cochran  Faith Vilas 《Icarus》2004,167(2):360-368

We present spectral observations of Minor Planet 4 Vesta, of five V-type asteroids which are physically near Vesta, and of two V-type NEAs. We use these spectra to determine the presence or absence of a weak feature at 506.5 nm which is indicative of the presence of spin-forbidden Fe²⁺ in sixfold coordination. As with our earlier observations [Cochran and Vilas, Icarus 134 (1998) 207-212], we find this feature at all observed rotational phases of Vesta and again see the trend that spectra at longitudes between 240° and 360° have a smaller 506.5 nm feature equivalent width than spectra obtained at other longitudes. Additionally, we searched for this feature in V-class main-belt and NEA asteroids and positively detected the feature in main-belt Asteroid 2579 Spartacus and possibly in 3376 Armandhammer. The other objects lacked the feature. Our results are compared with previous observations of this feature by Vilas et al. [Icarus 147 (2000) 119-128]. The spatial distribution of the bodies as a function of the presence of this feature was investigated. We discuss the implication of the presence of this feature and the depth of the 0.9 μm pyroxene band for the scenario that pieces of Vesta were transported, via the 3:1 and ν₆ resonances, to the NEAs, and thence to inclusion in our meteorite collections as HED meteorites.  相似文献   

Gamma-ray source stacking analysis at low galactic latitudes     

Analía N. Cillis  Olaf Reimer  Diego F. Torres 《Astrophysics and Space Science》2007,309(1-4):51-55

We studied the problematic of uncertainties in the diffuse gamma radiation apparent in stacking analysis of EGRET data at low Galactic latitudes. Subsequently, we co-added maps of counts, exposure and diffuse background, and residuals, in varying numbers for different sub-categories of putatively and known source populations (like PSRs). Finally we tested for gamma-ray excess emission in those maps and attempt to quantify the systematic biases in such approach. Such kind of an analysis will help the classification processes of sources and source populations in the GLAST era.  相似文献   

Rebuttal to "Unfilterable 'geoaerosols', their use in the search for thermal, mineral and mineralized waters, and their possible influence on the origin of certain types of mineral waters" by B. Krcmar and T. Vylita, published in Environmental Geology 40(6):678–682     

Robert F. Holub  P. Smrz  G. Reimer  P. Hopke  J. Hovorka  B. Honeyman 《Environmental Geology》2002,41(8):984-985

  相似文献   

Modelling of Thermal Stratification and Ice Dynamics with Application to Lake Teletskoye,Altai Republic,Russia     

Koshelev  Konstantin  de Goede  Erik  Zinoviev  Alexander  de Graaff  Reimer 《Water Resources》2021,48(3):368-377

Water Resources - Numerical modelling of ice growth and transport of matter in lakes, estuaries, or coastal seas can provide crucial input for improving the environment. In this paper, the goal is...  相似文献   

The impact of El Ni?o on South American summer climate during different phases of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation     

Gyrlene Aparecida Mendes da Silva  Anita Drumond  T��rcio Ambrizzi 《Theoretical and Applied Climatology》2011,106(3-4):307-319

In austral summer, the observed El Ni?o (EN) events during warm Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) phases (PDO(+)) exhibited large anomalous upper level wave patterns in response to larger Sea Surface Temperature (SST) anomalies in the Equatorial Pacific and Atlantic Oceans compared with SST anomalies in EN events during cold PDO phases (PDO(?)). The precipitation anomalies in PDO(+) EN are increased over Southeastern South America (SESA) associated with the intensification of the moisture flux convergence in this region. The PDO(?) EN events exhibit positive precipitation anomalies only over southern SESA, while negative anomalies were observed in the north. Downward motion and anomalous divergence over central eastern Brazil may have contributed to the weakening of the northwesterly moisture flux convergence associated with the South American Low Level Jet (SALLJ) over the subtropics. The extratropical cyclones showed higher frequency and lower central pressures in southern Brazil, Uruguay, northeastern Argentina, and Southwest Atlantic Ocean during the PDO(+) EN events compared with the PDO(?) EN events. Such increase in the frequency and intensity of cyclogenesis cases seems to be in accordance with the anomalous moisture flux convergence over the SESA and associated reduction in the Sea Level Pressure observed during PDO(+) EN events. In order to investigate the impact of a canonical El Ni?o event over South America under different PDO phases, two numerical experiments were done with an Atmospheric General Circulation Model. Global SST and ice sea fields average over years characterized by (a) PDO(+) and (b) PDO(?) were considered as climatologically fields, and a composite of anomalies of SST of all El Ni?o events observed in 1950?C1999 was added in the region 20oS?C20oN;120oW?C175oW of both ??climatologies.?? The differences in experiments suggest that a canonical EN may produce significant different anomalous atmospheric patterns associated with distinct PDO climatologies. The more significant differences are simulated over extreme northern and eastern Brazil. Additional numerical experiments isolating the observed variability of SST over several oceanic basins during different PDO phases will be conducted to study their particular role on the South American climate.  相似文献   

Sensitivity of DaisyGIS to LAI: Implications for land use based modelling of nitrate leaching     

Anita Veihe  Niels H. Jensen  Eva Boegh  Peter Frederiksen  Michael W. Pedersen 《Geografisk tidskrift / udgivet af Bestyrelsen for Det Kongelige danske geografiske selskab》2013,113(2):75-85

Geografisk Tidsskrift, Danish Journal of Geography 106(2): 75–85, 2006

Scaling is an important issue when measuring, modelling and understanding coupled socio-environmental terrestrial systems. Scaling may be enhanced through the incorporation of remotely sensed data. This paper assesses the sensitivity of DaisyGIS to changes in the Leaf Area Index (LAI) and discusses the implications for land use based modelling of nitrate leaching using remote sensing based LAI estimates. It is shown how DaisyGIS simulates nitrate leaching quite well over the period 2001 to 2004 except for one plot during a season with winter rape. It was found that the model is sensitive to changes in LAI with increases of up to 262% on nitrate leaching rates when reducing LAI by 15%. At the same time, the nitrate leaching rates at the field level vary considerably due to local changes in the water balance determined by soil profile characteristics. DaisyGIS is already an important tool for aiding decision makers and this study has shown how remote sensing based LAI estimates may be a valuable tool for model parameterisation and potentially for model validation.  相似文献   

Power-Law Testing for Fault Attributes Distributions   总被引：2，自引：0，他引：2  

Dmitry Kolyukhin  Anita Torabi 《Pure and Applied Geophysics》2013,170(12):2173-2183

This paper is devoted to statistical analysis of faults’ attributes. The distributions of lengths, widths of damage zones, displacements and thicknesses of fault cores are studied. Truncated power-law (TPL) is considered in comparison with commonly used simple power-law (PL) (or Pareto) distribution. The maximal likelihood and the confidence interval of the exponent for both PL and TPL are estimated by appropriate statistical methods. The Kolmogorov–Smirnov (KS) test and the likelihood ratio test with alternative non-nested hypothesis for exponential distribution are used to verify the statistical approximation. Furthermore, the advantage of TPL is proved by Bayesian information criterion. Our results suggest that a TPL is more suitable for describing fault attributes, and that its condition is satisfied for a wide range of fault scales. We propose that using truncated power laws in general might eliminate or relax the bias related to sampling strategy and the resolution of measurements (such as censoring, truncation, and cut effect) and; therefore, the most reliable range of data can be considered for the statistical approximation of fault attributes.  相似文献