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Major Control (major + control)
Selected AbstractsHigh resolution quantification of gully erosion in upland peatlands at the landscape scaleEARTH SURFACE PROCESSES AND LANDFORMS, Issue 8 2010Martin Evans Abstract The upland peatlands of the UK are severely eroded, with large areas affected by gully erosion. The peatlands are important areas of carbon storage and provide a range of other ecosystem services including water supply and biodiversity all of which are negatively impacted by erosion of the upland surface. The magnitude of the gully erosion, and consequent adjustment of the peatland morphology, is such that in degraded peatlands the extent and magnitude of erosion is a major control on peatland function. Accurate mapping of gully form is therefore a necessary precondition to the understanding and management of these systems. This paper develops an approach to extracting gully maps from high resolution digital elevation models (DEMs). Gully maps of the Bleaklow Plateau in northern England were derived from a 2,m LiDAR DEM by combining areas of low difference from mean elevation and high positive plan curvature. Gully depth was modelled by interpolating between gully edges. Testing of the gully mapping and depth modelling against aerial photography, manual interpretation of the DEM and ground survey revealed that gully plan form is well represented and gully width and depth are modelled with tolerances close to the horizontal and vertical resolution of the LiDAR imagery. Estimates of gully width and depth were less reliable for gullies with total width of less than four pixels. The approach allows for the first time the derivation of accurate estimates of gully extent and magnitude over large areas and provides the basis for modelling a range of processes controlled by gullying. The approach has wider applicability to mapping gully erosion in a wide range of environments. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Linking the composition of bacterioplankton to rapid turnover of dissolved dimethylsulphoniopropionate in an algal bloom in the North SeaENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY, Issue 5 2001Mikhail V. Zubkov The algal osmolyte, dimethylsulphoniopropionate (DMSP), is abundant in the surface oceans and is the major precursor of dimethyl sulphide (DMS), a gas involved in global climate regulation. Here, we report results from an in situ Lagrangian study that suggests a link between the microbially driven fluxes of dissolved DMSP (DMSPd) and specific members of the bacterioplankton community in a North Sea coccolithophore bloom. The bacterial population in the bloom was dominated by a single species related to the genus Roseobacter, which accounted for 24% of the bacterioplankton numbers and up to 50% of the biomass. The abundance of the Roseobacter cells showed significant paired correlation with DMSPd consumption and bacterioplankton production, whereas abundances of other bacteria did not. Consumed DMSPd (28 nM day,1) contributed 95% of the sulphur and up to 15% of the carbon demand of the total bacterial populations, suggesting the importance of DMSP as a substrate for the Roseobacter -dominated bacterioplankton. In dominating DMSPd flux, the Roseobacter species may exert a major control on DMS production. DMSPd turnover rate was 10 times that of DMS (2.7 nM day,1), indicating that DMSPd was probably the major source of DMS, but that most of the DMSPd was metabolized without DMS production. Our study suggests that single species of bacterioplankton may at times be important in metabolizing DMSP and regulating the generation of DMS in the sea. [source] Benthic metabolism in two turbid dryland riversFRESHWATER BIOLOGY, Issue 2 2009CHRISTINE S. FELLOWS Summary 1.,Australian dryland rivers have among the most variable discharge of any rivers worldwide and are characterized by extended periods of no flow during which aquatic habitat contracts into isolated waterholes. Despite naturally high turbidity, benthic primary production is known to be the main source of carbon to waterhole food webs. The objective of this study was to quantify rates of benthic metabolism and identify factors influencing these rates in two Australian dryland rivers, the Cooper Creek and the Warrego River. 2.,Both rivers have similar variable hydrology and high levels of turbidity (photic depths < 0.4 m), but fish abundance in Cooper Creek is 10 times than that of the Warrego River. Therefore, an additional aim of the study was to determine if fish abundances reflected underlying differences in benthic primary production. 3.,Benthic gross primary production (GPP), benthic respiration, nutrient concentrations and light penetration were measured immediately after flow had ceased (,post-flow') and after at least 2 months of zero flow (,no-flow') in 15 waterholes from each river. A subset of four waterholes from each river was sampled on two additional occasions to determine if patterns were consistent over time. 4. Cooper Creek generally had higher rates of GPP and a more autotrophic benthic zone than the Warrego River. As a result, the expected positive relationship between fish abundance and GPP was generally observed at a broad catchment scale. 4.,Light was the major control in benthic GPP in both rivers, as nutrient concentrations were high on all sampling occasions. However, for similar values of photic depth, GPP was greater in Cooper Creek than in the Warrego River. This suggests that more frequent disturbance of the littoral zone may inhibit biofilm development in waterholes of the Warrego River. 5.,Although flow variability in dryland rivers is extreme compared with other rivers worldwide, cycles of expansion and contraction of aquatic habitat in these two rivers were associated with a shift in the dominance of regional scale (subcatchments contributing to river flow) versus local scale (waterhole morphology) influences on ecosystem functioning, similar to floodplain rivers in tropical and temperate regions. [source] Recharge and Preservation of Laurentide Glacial Melt Water in the Canadian ShieldGROUND WATER, Issue 5 2000Ian D. Clark Ground water inflows to drifts ranging from 700 to 1615 m below ground surface at the Con Mine, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada, were used to study deep hydrogeological flow regimes in Shield terrain. Salinity trends are due to mixing between low-TDS ground water and deep Ca(Na)-C1 brines (>290 g/L) likely derived from Devonian sea water. C1 - ,,18O relationships demonstrate that all inflows are a mixture of three distinct components: modern meteoric ground water (,18O ,,18.9 ± 0.1%o), brine (,18O ,,10%o), and an isotopically depleted water (,18O ,,28%o). The origin of this third endmember is attributed to glacial melt water injected into the subsurface during ablation of the Laurentide Ice Sheet at ca. 10 ka. A mechanism is proposed where high hydrostatic pressure in the ablation zone imposes strong downward gradients beneath the ice sheet margin. Numerical simulation with the SWIFT II finite-difference code recreates the observed salinity gradients within a modeled 50-year interval, corresponding with the rate of retreat of the ice sheet across the landscape at this time. The persistence of this melt water in the subsurface for some 10,000 years following retreat of the ice and decay of the steep hydraulic gradients highlights the importance of gradient, in addition to permeability, as a major control on ground water flow and transport in deep crystalline settings. [source] Composite suspended sediment particles and flocculation in glacial meltwaters: preliminary evidence from Alpine and Himalayan basinsHYDROLOGICAL PROCESSES, Issue 9 2002J. C. Woodward Abstract Research over the last decade has shown that the suspended sediment loads of many rivers are dominated by composite particles. These particles are also known as aggregates or flocs, and are commonly made up of constituent mineral particles, which evidence a wide range of grain sizes, and organic matter. The resulting in situ or effective particle size characteristics of fluvial suspended sediment exert a major control on all processes of entrainment, transport and deposition. The significance of composite suspended sediment particles in glacial meltwater streams has, however, not been established. Existing data on the particle size characteristics of suspended sediment in glacial meltwaters relate to the dispersed mineral fraction (absolute particle size), which, for certain size fractions, may bear little relationship to the effective or in situ distribution. Existing understanding of composite particle formation within freshwater environments would suggest that in-stream flocculation processes do not take place in glacial meltwater systems because of the absence of organic binding agents. However, we report preliminary scanning electron microscopy data for one Alpine and two Himalayan glaciers that show composite particles are present in the suspended sediment load of the meltwater system. The genesis and structure of these composite particles and their constituent grain size characteristics are discussed. We present evidence for the existence of both aggregates, or composite particles whose features are largely inherited from source materials, and flocs, which represent composite particles produced by in-stream flocculation processes. In the absence of organic materials, the latter may result solely from electrochemical flocculation in the meltwater sediment system. This type of floc formation has not been reported previously in the freshwater fluvial environment. Further work is needed to test the wider significance of these data and to investigate the effective particle size characteristics of suspended sediment associated with high concentration outburst events. Such events make a major contribution to suspended sediment fluxes in meltwater streams and may provide conditions that are conducive to composite particle formation by flocculation. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Garnet,chloritoid,kyanite assemblages: eclogite facies indicators of subduction constraints in orogenic beltsJOURNAL OF METAMORPHIC GEOLOGY, Issue 7 2010A. J. SMYE Abstract The assemblage garnet,chloritoid,kyanite is shown to be quite common in high-pressure eclogite facies metapelites from orogenic belts around the world, and occurs over a narrowly restricted range of temperature ,550,600 °C, between 20 and 25 kbar. This assemblage is favoured particularly by large Al2O3:K2O ratios allowing the development of kyanite in addition to garnet and chloritoid. Additionally, ferric iron and manganese also help stabilize chloritoid in this assemblage. Pseudosections for several bulk compositions illustrate these high-pressure assemblages, and a new thermodynamic model for white mica to include calcium and ferric iron was required to complete the calculations. It is extraordinary that so many orogenic eclogite facies rocks, both mafic eclogites sensu stricto as well as metapelites with the above assemblage, all yield temperatures within the range of 520,600 °C and peak pressures ,23±3 kbar. Subduction of oceanic crust and its entrained associated sedimentary material must involve the top of the slab, where mafic and pelitic rocks may easily coexist, passing through these P,T conditions, such that rocks, if they proceed to further depths, are generally not returned to the surface. This, together with the tightly constrained range in peak temperatures which such eclogites experience, suggests thermal weakening being a major control on the depths at which crustal material is decoupled from the downgoing slab. [source] Fold evolution and drainage development in the Zagros mountains of Fars province, SE IranBASIN RESEARCH, Issue 1 2008Lucy A. Ramsey ABSTRACT A central question in structural geology is whether, and by what mechanism, active faults (and the folds often associated with them) grow in length as they accumulate displacement. An obstacle in our understanding of these processes is the lack of examples in which the lateral growth of active structures can be demonstrated definitively, as geomorphic indicators of lateral propagation are often difficult, or even impossible to distinguish from the effects of varying lithology or non-uniform displacement and slip histories. In this paper we examine, using the Zagros mountains of southern Iran as our example, the extent to which qualitative analysis of satellite imagery and digital topography can yield insight into the growth, lateral propagation, and interaction of individual fold segments in regions of active continental shortening. The Zagros fold-and-thrust belt contains spectacular whaleback anticlines that are well exposed in resistant Tertiary and Mesozoic limestone, are often >100 km in length, and which contain a large proportion of the global hydrocarbon reserves. In one example, Kuh-e Handun, where an anticline is mantled by soft Miocene sediments, direct evidence of lateral fold propagation is recorded in remnants of consequent drainage patterns on the fold flanks that do not correspond to the present-day topography. We suggest that in most other cases, the soft Miocene and Pliocene sediments that originally mantled the folds, and which would have recorded early stages in the growth histories, have been completely stripped away, thus removing any direct geomorphic evidence of lateral propagation. However, many of the long fold chains of the Zagros do appear to be formed from numerous segments that have coalesced. If our interpretations are correct, the merger of individual fold segments that have grown in length is a major control on the development of through-going drainage and sedimentation patterns in the Zagros, and may be an important process in other regions of crustal shortening as well. Abundant earthquakes in the Zagros show that large seismogenic thrust faults must be present at depth, but these faults rarely reach the Earth's surface, and their relationship to the surface folding is not well constrained. The individual fold segments that we identify are typically 20,40 km in length, which correlates well with the maximum length of the seismogenic basement faults suggested from the largest observed thrusting earthquakes. This correlation between the lengths of individual fold segments and the lengths of seismogenic faults at depth suggest that it is possible, at least in some cases, that there may be a direct relationship between folding and faulting in the Zagros, with individual fold segments underlain by discrete thrusts. [source] Water uptake and nutrient concentrations under a floodplain oak savanna during a non-flood period, lower Cedar River, Iowa,HYDROLOGICAL PROCESSES, Issue 21 2009Keith E. Schilling Abstract Floodplains during non-flood periods are less well documented than when flooding occurs, but non-flood periods offer opportunities to investigate vegetation controls on water and nutrient cycling. In this study, we characterized water uptake and nutrient concentration patterns from 2005 to 2007 under an oak savanna located on the floodplain of the Cedar River in Muscatine County, Iowa. The water table ranged from 0·5 to 2·5 m below ground surface and fluctuated in response to stream stage, plant water demand and rainfall inputs. Applying the White method to diurnal water table fluctuations, daily ET from groundwater averaged more than 3·5 mm/day in June and July and approximately 2 mm/day in May and August. Total annual ET averaged 404 mm for a growing season from mid-May to mid-October. Savanna groundwater concentrations of nitrate-N, ammonium-N, and phosphate-P were very low (mean <0·18, <0·14, <0·08 mg/l, respectively), whereas DOC concentrations were high (7·1 mg/l). Low concentrations of N and P were in contrast to high nutrient concentrations in the nearby Cedar River, where N and P averaged 7·5 mg/l and 0·13, respectively. In regions dominated by intensive agriculture, study results document valuable ecosystem services for native floodplain ecosystems in reducing watershed-scale nutrient losses and providing an oasis for biological complexity. Improved understanding of the environmental conditions of regionally significant habitats, including major controls on water table elevations and water quality, offers promise for better management aimed at preserving the ecology of these important habitats. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Hydrometeorological controls and erosive response of an extreme alpine debris flowHYDROLOGICAL PROCESSES, Issue 19 2009Lorenzo Marchi Abstract On 29 August, 2003, an intense convective storm system affected the Fella River basin, in the eastern Italian Alps, producing rainfall peaks of approximately 390 mm in 12 h. The storm triggered an unusually large debris flow in the ungauged Rio Cucco basin (0·65 km2), with a volume of approximately 78 000 m3. The analysis of the time evolution of the rainstorm over the basin has been based on rainfall estimates from radar observations and data recorded by a raingauge network. Detailed geomorphological field surveys, carried out both before and after the flood of August 2003, and the application of a distributed hydrological model have enabled assessment of flood response, estimation of erosion volumes and sediment supply to the channel network. The accounts of two eyewitnesses have provided useful elements for reconstructing the time evolution and the flow processes involved in the event. Liquid peak discharge estimates cluster around 20 m3 s,1 km,2, placing this event on the flood envelope curve for the eastern Italian Alps. The hydrological analysis has shown that the major controls of the flood response were the exceptional cumulated rainfall amount, required to exceed the large initial losses, and the large rainfall intensities at hourly temporal scales, required to generate high flood response at the considered basin scale. Observations on the deposits accumulated on the alluvial fan indicate that, although the dominant flow process was a debris flow, sheetflood also contributed to fan aggradation and fluvial reworking had an important role in winnowing debris-flow lobes and redistributing sediment on the fan surface. This points out to the large discharge values during the recession phase of the flood, implying an important role for subsurface flow on runoff generation of this extreme flash flood event. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Hydrology and nitrogen balance of a seasonally inundated Danish floodplain wetlandHYDROLOGICAL PROCESSES, Issue 3 2004Hans Estrup Andersen Abstract This paper characterizes a seasonally inundated Danish floodplain wetland in a state close to naturalness and includes an analysis of the major controls on the wetland water and nitrogen balances. The main inputs of water are precipitation and percolation during ponding and unsaturated conditions. Lateral saturated subsurface flow is low. The studied floodplain owes its wetland status to the hydraulic properties of its sediments: the low hydraulic conductivity of a silt,clay deposit on top of the floodplain maintains ponded water during winter, and parts of autumn and spring. A capillary fringe extends to the soil surface, and capillary rise from groundwater during summer maintains near-saturated conditions in the root zone, and allows a permanently very high evapotranspiration rate. The average for the growing season of 1999 is 3·6 mm day,1 and peak rate is 5·6 mm day,1. In summer, the evapotranspiration is to a large degree supplied by subsurface storage in a confined peat layer underlying the silt,clay. The floodplain sediments are in a very reduced state as indicated by low sulphate concentrations. All nitrate transported into the wetland is thus denitrified. However, owing to modest water exchange with surrounding groundwater and surface water, denitrification is low; 71 kg NO3,N ha,1 during the study period of 1999. Reduction of nitrate diffusing into the sediments during water ponding accounts for 75% of nitrate removal. Biomass production and nitrogen uptake in above-ground vegetation is high,8·56 t dry matter ha,1 year,1 and 103 kg N ha,1 year,1. Subsurface ammonium concentrations are high, and convective upward transport into the root zone driven by evapotranspiration amounted to 12·8 kg N ha,1year,1. The floodplain wetland sediments have a high nitrogen content, and conditions are very favourable for mineralization. Mineralization thus constitutes 72% of above-ground plant uptake. The study demonstrates the necessity of identifying controlling factors, and to combine surface flow with vadose and groundwater flow processes in order to fully comprehend the flow and nitrogen dynamics of this type of wetland. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Tectonic and climatic control on growth and demise of the Phanh Rang Carbonate Platform offshore south VietnamBASIN RESEARCH, Issue 2 2009Michael B. W. Fyhn The Phan Rang Carbonate Platform located offshore south Vietnam covers more than 15 000 km2, making it one of the largest carbonate platforms in the South China Sea. Based on 2-D seismic analysis, this paper outlines the platform evolution and analyzes the regional tectonic, climatic and oceanic factors that controlled the platform growth and demise. This study of the Phan Rang Carbonate Platform therefore provides an analogue to the regions late Neogene carbonates that form important targets for petroleum exploration. Platform growth initiated during the late middle Miocene along the open marine Vietnamese margin and continued throughout the late synrift to early postrift period of the area terminating around Pliocene time. During this period, the structural grain, local and regional tectonics as well as oceanographic effects exerted major controls on carbonate deposition. Optimal growth conditions existed during initial platform deposition and locally accumulation rates reached ca. 230 m Ma,1. Late Miocene regional uplift caused subaerial exposure that interrupted platform growth and caused intense karstification. A gradual reestablishment of marine conditions promoted renewed platform growth. However, carbonate production was stressed by increased terrigenous input caused by onshore uplift and by inorganic nutrification of the surface waters. Nutrification probably occurred in response to increased nutrient influx derived from onshore denudation, enhanced periodically by soil ravinement during transgression. The onset or intensification of summer upwelling along the southern platform margin occurred in response to the onshore uplift and most likely contributed to the nutrification. The deteriorated growth conditions and fast subsidence resulted in platform split-up, backstepping and local drowning. Subsequently, isolated platforms nucleated on structural highs as transgression continued. The remaining platforms thrived for a period but eventually failed to keep pace with subsidence, backstepped and drowned. The longest surviving platform now crops out at the seafloor at ca. 500 m depth. [source] | ||||||||||||||||