Multi‐year water balance assessment of a newly constructed wetland,Fort McMurray,Alberta          下载免费PDF全文

Erin M. Nicholls  Sean K. Carey  Elyn R. Humphreys  M. Graham Clark  Gordon B. Drewitt 《水文研究》2016,30(16):2739-2753

Oil sands mining in Alberta transforms the boreal landscape of forests and wetlands into open pits, tailings ponds and overburden piles. Whereas reclamation efforts have primarily focused on upland forests, rebuilding wetland systems has recently become a motivation for research. Wetland creation and sustainability in this region is complicated by the sub‐humid climate and salinity of underlying mining material. In 2012, Syncrude Canada Ltd. completed the construction of the Sandhill Fen Watershed (SFW), a 52‐ha upland‐wetland system to evaluate wetland reclamation strategies on soft tailings. SFW includes an active pumping system, upland hummocks, a fen wetland and underdrains. To evaluate the influence of management practices on the hydrology of the system, this study reports the water balance from January 2013 to December 2014, the first 2 years after commissioning. A semi‐distributed approach was taken to examine the fluxes and stores of water in uplands and lowlands. Natural and artificial inputs and outputs were measured using a series of precipitation gauges and pumps, and evapotranspiration was quantified using three eddy covariance towers. A series of near surface wells recorded water table position. Both 2013 and 2014 were normal rainfall years, with 2013 having more and 2014 less snow than normal. In 2013, inflow/outflow from pumping was the predominant hydrological fluxes, resulting in considerable variability in water table position and storage changes throughout the summer. In 2014, the artificial addition of water was negligible, yet the water table remained near the surface in lowland locations, suggesting that wetland conditions could be maintained under current conditions. Evapotranspiration rates between uplands and lowlands were similar between years and sites, ranging from 2.2 ± 1.8 to 2.5 ± 1.2 mm/day and were largely controlled by climate. These rates were less than nearby older upland systems, suggesting that water balance partitioning will change as vegetation develops. Comparison between years and with natural systems provides insight on how management practices influence hydrologic dynamics and the overall water balance of the SFW. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

A comparison of the main methods for estimating probabilities of extreme still water levels     

Ivan D. Haigh  Robert Nicholls  Neil Wells 《Coastal Engineering》2010

Sea-level return periods are estimated at 18 sites around the English Channel using: (i) the annual maxima method; (ii) the r-largest method; (iii) the joint probability method; and (iv) the revised joint probability method. Tests are undertaken to determine how sensitive these four methods are to three factors which may significantly influence the results; (a) the treatment of the long-term trends in extreme sea level; (b) the relative magnitudes of the tidal and non-tidal components of sea level; and (c) the frequency, length and completeness of the available data. Results show that unless sea-level records with lengths of at least 50 years are used, the way in which the long-term trends is handled in the different methods can lead to significant differences in the estimated return levels. The direct methods (i.e. methods i and ii) underestimate the long (> 20 years) period return levels when the astronomical tidal variations of sea level (relative to a mean of zero) are about twice that of the non-tidal variations. The performance of each of the four methods is assessed using prediction errors (the difference between the return periods of the observed maximum level at each site and the corresponding data range). Finally, return periods, estimated using the four methods, are compared with estimates from the spatial revised joint probability method along the UK south coast and are found to be significantly larger at most sites along this coast, due to the comparatively short records originally used to calibrate the model in this area. The revised joint probability method is found to have the lowest prediction errors at most sites analysed and this method is recommended for application wherever possible. However, no method can compensate for poor data.  相似文献   

Saqqar: A 34 km diameter impact structure in Saudi Arabia          下载免费PDF全文

Thomas Kenkmann  Abdulkader M. Afifi  Simon A. Stewart  Michael H. Poelchau  Douglas J. Cook  Allen S. Neville 《Meteoritics & planetary science》2015,50(11):1925-1940

Here we present the first proof of an impact origin for the Saqqar circular structure in northwestern Saudi Arabia (Neville et al. 2014 ), with an apparent diameter of 34 km, centered at 29°35′N, 38°42′E. The structure is formed in Cambrian–Devonian siliciclastics and is unconformably overlain by undeformed Cretaceous and Paleogene sediments. The age of impact is not well constrained and lies somewhere between 410 and 70 Ma. The subsurface structure is constrained by 2‐D reflection seismic profiles and six drilled wells. First‐order structural features are a central uplift that rises approximately 2 km above regional datums, surrounded by a ring syncline. The crater rim is defined by circumferential normal faults. The central uplift and ring syncline correspond to a Bouguer gravity high and an annular ring‐like low, respectively. The wells were drilled within the central uplift, the deepest among them exceed 2 km depth. Sandstone core samples from these wells show abundant indicators of a shock metamorphic overprint. Planar deformation features (PDFs) were measured with orientations along (0001), {103}, and less frequently along {101} and {104}. Planar fractures (PFs) predominantly occur along (0001) and {101}, and are locally associated with feather features (FFs). In addition, some shocked feldspar grains and strongly deformed mica flakes were found. The recorded shock pressure ranges between 5 and 15 GPa. The preserved level of shock and the absence of an allochthonous crater fill suggest that Saqqar was eroded by 1–2 km between the Devonian and Maastrichtian. The documentation of unequivocal shock features proves the formation of the Saqqar structure by a hypervelocity impact event.  相似文献   

CONFERENCE AND ANNUAL MEETING OF THE NEW ZEALAND DEMOGRAPHIC SOCIETY, Wellington, July 1975     

Warwick  Neville 《New Zealand geographer》1976,32(1):92-92

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Regimes and the history of the major fisheries off Canada's west coast     

R. J. Beamish  A. J. Benson  R. M. Sweeting  C. M. Neville 《Progress in Oceanography》2004,60(2-4):355

The major fisheries on the Pacific coast of Canada can be grouped into 12 species that have consistently represented about 80–90% of the total catch from the past to the present. A review of population dynamics of these species indicates that climate and the ocean environment have a major impact on their productivity. We review the history of Canada's Pacific coast fishery to show that trends in catch were similar to trends in the climate and ocean environment. Decadal scale patterns in climate and the ocean are termed regimes and we show that it is the regime scale of climate variability that most influences the long-term trends in the catches in these major fisheries. Ignoring the impacts of regime shifts on the abundance trends in the future could result in collapses of major fisheries. The difficulty of knowing when a regime shift will occur may be overcome as we discover more about the mechanisms that affect the decadal-scale trends in the rotational velocity of the solid earth which is measured as the length of day (LOD).  相似文献   

Acoustic stratigraphy and hydrothermal activity within Epi Submarine Caldera,Vanuatu, New Hebrides Arc     

H. Gary Greene  Neville F. Exon 《Geo-Marine Letters》1988,8(3):121-129

Geological and geophysical surveys of active submarine volcanoes offshore and southeast of Epi Island, Vanuatu, New Hebrides Arc, have delineated details of the structure and acoustic stratigraphy of three volcanic cones. These submarine cones, named Epia, Epib, and Epic, are aligned east-west and spaced 3.5 km apart on the rim of a submerged caldera. At least three acoustic sequences, of presumed Quaternary age, can be identified on single-channel seismic-reflection profiles. Rocks dredged from these cones include basalt, dacite, and cognate gabbroic inclusions with magmatic affinities similar to those of the Karua (an active submarine volcano off the southeastern tip of Epi) lavas.  相似文献   

Modelling the influences of climate change-associated sea-level rise and socioeconomic development on future storm surge mortality     

Simon J. Lloyd  R. Sari Kovats  Zaid Chalabi  Sally Brown  Robert J. Nicholls 《Climatic change》2016,134(3):441-455

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Spatial Variations in New Zealand's Infant Mortality Rate, 1970–1972     

Graeme V. Aitken  Warwick Neville 《New Zealand geographer》1978,34(1):41-52

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Shifts in the synoptic systems influencing southwest Western Australia   总被引：1，自引：1，他引：1  

Pandora K. Hope  Wasyl Drosdowsky  Neville Nicholls 《Climate Dynamics》2006,26(7-8):751-764

A self-organising map is used to classify the winter circulation affecting southwest Western Australia (SWWA) into 20 different synoptic types. The changes in the frequency of these types and their links to observed rainfall are analysed to further understand the significant, prolonged, rainfall drop observed in this region since 1975. The temporal variability of the different synoptic types link well with the observed rainfall changes. The frequency of the troughs associated with wet conditions across SWWA has declined markedly since 1975 while the frequency of the synoptic types with high pressure over the continent, associated with dry conditions, has increased. Combining the frequency of the synoptic systems with the amount of observed rainfall allows a quantitative analysis of the rainfall decline. The decreased frequency of the troughs associated with very wet conditions accounts for half of the decline. Reductions in the amount of rainfall precipitating from each system also contribute to the decline. Large-scale circulation changes, including increases in the mean sea-level pressure and a decrease in the general baroclinicity of the region have been associated with the rainfall decline. These changes are suggested to be linked to increasing levels of greenhouse gases. Due to the strong link between the number of trough types and the rainfall over SWWA, the shifts in the frequency of these synoptic types could be used as a tool to assess simulated rainfall changes, particularly into the future.  相似文献   

Containment criterion for contaminant isolation by cutoff walls     

Neville CJ  Andrews CB 《Ground water》2006,44(5):682-686

A rigorous solution is developed from first principles to guide the preliminary design of cutoff walls installed to contain the migration of contaminants from source zones. The full analytic solution is used to develop a criterion for determining the configuration and hydraulics of optimal wall designs. The solution is used to demonstrate the interaction between the properties of the wall, the Darcy flux, and the concentration of contaminants at the outside face of the well. For a particular wall design, the containment criterion can be used to estimate the long-term concentration that will develop at the outside face of the wall. Alternatively, for a given concentration on the outside face of the cutoff wall, the containment criterion can be used to estimate the Darcy flux required to balance the outward diffusion of contaminants. The results of numerical simulations are presented to evaluate the analytic approach. The numerical results confirm that for a wall with known transport properties, a specified Darcy flux is associated with a unique outside contaminant concentration.  相似文献