bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Smallholder: an inconvenient label in the adoption of water pumping technologies?
Authors: Intriago Zambrano Juan Carlo , van Dijk Ruben , van Beusekom Martin , Diehl Jan-Carel , Ertsen Maurits W.
Published: March 2020

Use of water pumping technologies (WPTs) to drive pressurized systems in smallholder irrigation schemes is one of the key interventions to secure water, hence to increase yields and to potentially alleviate poverty, as well as to foster local and global good security. Whichever the chosen WPT, smallholders face many decision-making variables when considering them: finances, information, technical performance, ease of use, market characteristics, and even environmental concerns are amongst them. We will present evidence that suggests that the way smallholders deal with those factors cannot be predicted based on mere land size-based classifications that are used in many existing policy studies and actual policies. As there are not many specific studies that focus on understanding the influence that the aforementioned variables, directly and indirectly, have on smallholders’ adoption of WPTs, we conducted field work in three different contexts—Nepal, Indonesia and Malawi—to identify the multidimensional gaps and relations between farmer and technology.

Due to the nature of the study, which comprised several (subjective) variables across a number of contexts and individuals, a triangulation of data collection techniques (e.g. direct observations, semi-structured interviews, surveys) was preferred. The main research method was Q-methodology, an increasingly popular inverted technique of factor analysis that combines the strengths of qualitative and quantitative research. Furthermore, one of its main advantages is that representativeness of the subjectivity does not depend on large samples of respondents but rather on their diversity.

By this process, it became evident that clustering farmers under the “smallholders” label—in line with the traditional farm size-based approach—did not reflect their heterogeneity in the WPTs’ adoption process. As a matter of fact, some smallholders are willing (and able, at times) to make substantial investments in WPTs for agricultural irrigation, thus moving away from the “external support-reliant-farmer” image. In conclusion, smallholder’s behaviour, thus decision making, is highly contextualized and cannot be underpinned by solely and simplistically looking at the holding size.
Moisture sources of extreme Vb-floods in Central Europe
Authors: Krug Amelie , Aemisegger Franziska , Sprenger Michael , Primo Cristina , Ahrens Bodo
Published: March 2020

River floods are the most common and devastating natural hazard in Europe. In this study, we focus on a specific flood type which is associated with so-called Vb-cyclones. These extratropical cyclones are defined by their pathway from the western Mediterranean Sea north-eastward over northern Italy along the eastern fringe of the Alps towards Central Europe. Prominent examples of Vb-floods are the July 1954 and the August 2002 floods in the Elbe and Danube catchments as well as the Odra flooding during May/June 2010.

Only a few Vb-cyclones cause extreme flooding in Central Europe, even though about 2-5 follow the Vb pathway on average per year. The processes which intensify these flood triggering Vb-cyclones are only partly understood. One potential mechanism could be the soil-precipitation feedback over the continent. Moreover, the resulting latent heat release could re-enforce the atmospheric blocking conditions, e.g., over eastern Europe, that foster cyclones to follow the Vb-like pathway.

Our study aims to increase knowledge about potential feedback mechanisms by quantifying the role of specific moisture sources. We analysed the moisture uptake for selected extreme events in the 20th century based on backward trajectories in dynamically downscaled ERA-20C reanalysis. The downscaling was performed over Europe with a high-resolution and interactively coupled atmosphere-ocean model setup (COSMO-CLM+NEMO). The Mediterranean Sea contributed to rainfall in the affected river catchments often at the event start. Throughout the events, other main moisture uptake regions were the European continent pointing towards an important role of the soil-moisture precipitation feedback, but also other oceanic sources such as the North Atlantic, the North Sea, and the Baltic Sea were identified. The large variety of the identified sources highlights the complex dynamical interplay of different airmasses leading to convergence of moisture during particularly severe flood producing heavy precipitation events.
CSES monitoring of the interplay between current-sheet and EMIC-wave driven scattering as a proxy of substorm activity
Authors: Parmentier Alexandra , Martucci Matteo , Piersanti Mirko , CSES-Limadou Collaboration the
Published: March 2020

Plasma injections from Earth’s magnetotail to high-latitude ionosphere pro-
vided by substorm activity are known to play a key role in the MeV-electron
acceleration mechanism by resonating interaction of very-low-frequency (VLF)
chorus waves with seed electrons. On the other hand, non-adiabatic motion
of plasma-sheet protons related to current sheet scattering (CSS) causes pitch-
angle diffusion and precipitation to the ionosphere, inducing the formation of
a characteristic energy-latitude dispersion pattern at the equatorward side of
the auroral isotropy boundary (IB), which gets significantly altered during geo-
magnetic storms due to particle precipitation triggered by electromagnetic ion
cyclotron (EMIC) waves.
For these last two years, a moderate geomagnetic storm activity has been affect-
ing the Earth’s environment, with the notable case of Aug 2018 G3-class storm.
The effects of such disturbances - especially in case of prolonged substorm ac-
tivity during the recovery phase - have been clearly spotted by the entire suite
of detectors on board the China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES-01), a
low-Earth-orbit (LEO) mission launched on Feb 2, 2018.
Here, we present long-term storm-time observations by particle, e.m.-field, and
plasma instrumentation on board CSES-01, namely the High-Energy Particle
Detector (HEPD), the Electric Field Detector (EFD), and the High Precision
Magnetometer (HPM), either developed or data-validated by the Italian LI-
MADOU Collaboration. Thanks to magnetosphere-to-ionosphere mapping, re-
sults from HEPD, EFD, and HPM data analysis help track substorm plasma
injections and consequent magnetosphere re-arrangement on a statistical basis.
This further inscribes CSES-01 into the thematic area of space-weather and
space-climate exploration and modeling, which is especially important in a pe-
riod when many key space-weather instruments have been quit or operate well
beyond the end of their scheduled lifetimes.
The temperature and moisture regime of charcoal-enriched land use legacy soils
Authors: Schneider Anna , Hirsch Florian , Bonhage Alexander , Raab Alexandra , Raab Thomas
Published: March 2020

The stratigraphy and properties of soils can be significantly altered by past land use, even in areas that have been continuously used for forestry. Soils on relict charcoal hearths (RCHs) are a widespread example of such a pedological legacy of past forest use. RCH soils occur in many forest areas and receive increasing attention as model sites to study long-term effects of soil amendment with biochars, however, their physical properties have hardly been studied. The objective of our study was to characterize the soil temperature and moisture regime of RCH soils through comparison to reference forest soils on sandy substrates in woodlands in Brandenburg, Germany. We combined laboratory analyses of bulk density, pore size distribution, thermal conductivity and saturated hydraulic conductivity with sensor-based monitoring of soil temperature, moisture contents and matric potentials. 

The results of laboratory analysis reveal high soil organic matter (SOM) contents, a low bulk density and high porosity of the RCH substrates. Associated with this RCH specific soil structure, RCHs exhibit clearly lower thermal conductivity. However, the higher total porosity of RCH substrates does not necessarily imply higher water retention and plant-available water contents in the RCH soils than in the topsoil horizons of undisturbed forest soils.  The monitoring results reveal distinct differences between the temperature regimes of the RCH and reference profiles, with the RCH soil exhibiting higher daily and seasonal temperature variations within the topmost horizon, but lower variations in deeper parts of the profiles. Soil moisture monitoring shows higher water contents in RCH soils under relatively wet conditions and lower water contents under dry conditions, and increased spatial variation in soil moisture in RCH soils. Overall, the results show increased spatial and temporal variability of soil temperature and moisture on RCHs, which implies an increased variability in ecological site conditions in historic charcoal production areas.

 
Agroclimatic zoning of wine denominations of origin in Portugal: current and future conditions
Authors: Santos João Andrade , Santos Mónica , Fraga Helder , Fonseca André
Published: March 2020

Weather and climatic conditions have a strong implication on wine production and quality. High-Resolution agroclimatic zoning over 50 protected denominations of origin (DOs) in Portugal is carried out using two agroclimatic indices commonly applied in viticultural zoning (dryness and Huglin indices). For this purpose, a high-resolution dataset of climate data over Portugal and for 1981–2015 (baseline) is used. Furthermore, climate change projections are assessed based on two anthropogenic forcing scenarios (RCP4.5 and RCP8.5), retrieved from a 5-member climate model ensemble over two future periods (medium-range: 2041–2070, and long-range: 2071–2100). An optimized compound index was isolated from a principal component analysis applied to the time mean spatial patterns of the two selected indices, for baseline and over vineyard cover areas in each region only. The spatial variability of Portuguese DOs is highlighted. For the future periods, and regardless of the scenario, significant changes in the agroclimatic conditions are projected for most of the DOs. In future scenarios, strong upward trends in the growing-season mean temperatures, along with an overall strengthening of dryness are projected. This is particularly noteworthy in south-eastern Portugal and north-eastern Portugal along the upper Douro Valley. Hence, as Portuguese DOs are projected to become much drier than currently, irrigation or the selection of new varieties are likely adaptation measures to maintain the viability and sustainability of regional viticulture in future decades. New research methods and decision support tools should be applied to assist stakeholders in developing more climate change-resilient viticulture. The Clim4Vitis project (Climate change impact mitigation for European viticulture: knowledge transfer for an integrated approach, WIDESPREAD-05-2017 Twinning, European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, under grant agreement nº 810176) has been very active in promoting capacity building activities and knowledge transfer to the European winemaking sector.
Using a convection permitting model ensemble for projecting future change in high-impact events
Authors: Kendon Elizabeth , Fosser Giorgia , Chan Steven
Published: March 2020

For the first time internationally a model at a resolution on par with operational weather forecast models has been used for national climate scenarios. As part of the UK Climate Projections (UKCP) project, an ensemble of 12 projections at 2.2km resolution have been carried out over the UK. These were launched in September 2019, with the aim of providing an improved simulation of extreme precipitation and also other high-impact events at local scales for the coming decades. At such high (2.2km) resolution, convection can be represented explicitly (‘permitted’) without the need for a parameterisation scheme, leading to a much more realistic representation of hourly precipitation characteristics, including extremes. In this talk initial results from the UKCP local (2.2km) projections will be presented. This includes new understanding of changes in winter mean precipitation, as well as projected changes in hourly precipitation extremes and the frequency of hot spells. I will also discuss remaining outstanding issues and the future outlook for convective-scale climate modelling.
Data Management at CEDA
Authors: Winfield Kate
Published: March 2020

Sending data to a secure long-term archive is increasingly a necessity for science projects due to the funding body and publishing requirements. It is also good practice for long term scientific aims and to enable the preservation and re-use of valuable research data. The Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA) hosts a data archive holding vast atmospheric and earth observation data from sources including aircraft campaigns, satellites, pollution, automatic weather stations, climate models, etc. The CEDA archive currently holds 14 PB data, in over 250 millions of files, which makes it challenging to discover and access specific data. In order to manage this, it is necessary to use standard formats and descriptions about the data. This poster will explore best practice in data management in CEDA and show tools used to archive and share data.
Interannual monsoon wind variability over the South tropical Indian ocean drives East African small pelagic fisheries
Authors: Jebri Fatma , Jacobs Zoe , Raitsos Dionysios , Srokosz Meric , Painter Stuart , Kelly Stephen , Roberts Mike , Scott Lucy , Taylor Sarah , Palmer Matthew , Kizenga Hellen , Shaghude Yohana , Wihsgott Juliane , Popova Ekaterina
Published: March 2020

Small pelagic fisheries play a critical role in food security and economic stability for East African coastal communities ― a region of least developed countries. Using satellite and field observations together with modelling, we show the links between the small pelagic fisheries along the East African coast and the changes in Western Indian Ocean currents due to the interannual variability of the monsoonal wind field. The annual variations in phytoplankton biomass and fisheries yield are strongly associated. During the Northeast monsoon, the enhanced phytoplankton biomass is triggered by local wind-driven upwelling. During the Southeast monsoon, however, the enhanced phytoplankton biomass is due to two current induced mechanisms: coastal “dynamic uplift” upwelling; and westward advection of waters with higher nutrient concentrations. This biological response to the Southeast monsoon is greater than that to the Northeast monsoon. Interannually, an extreme increase (decrease) in chlorophyll concentrations is induced by strengthened (weakened) surface currents, which occur during anomalously “strong” (“weak”) Southeast monsoon years. For years where the effects of El Niño / La Niña are weak, the Southeast monsoon wind strength over the south tropical Indian Ocean is the main driver of year-to-year variability. Such changes have important implications for the predictability of fisheries yield, its response to climate change, policy and resource management.  
Trace analysis of levoglucosan and lignin-phenols in speleothems by HILIC-UHPLC-ESI-HRMS: A new method
Authors: Homann Julia , Beschnitt Anja , Hoffmann Thorsten
Published: March 2020

Secondary mineral deposits in caves like stalagmites, stalactites, or flowstones are valuable paleoclimate archives. Advantages of organic trace analysis in such deposits are stable conditions in a cave, protecting compounds from external influences, as well as the possibility to precisely date samples up to 600,000 years using the uranium/thorium method.[1]

Lignin, a biopolymer, is one of the main constituents of higher plants and consists of three monomeric units: sinapyl-, coniferyl-, and coumaryl alcohol. Lignin can be degraded into its monomeric units by alkaline CuSO4-oxidation. The oxidized monomer units can be analysed by UHPLC-ESI-HRMS with limits of quantification in the ng/g range. By determination of the ratios among different oxidation products in a speleothem, conclusions can be drawn on the type of vegetation above the cave. [2,3]

Levoglucosan, an anhydrosugar, naturally only originates from the combustion of cellulose and can thus be used as a biomass burning marker. Analysis of levoglucosan in sediments shows good correlation with traditional burning markers like black charcoal. [4] Mannosan and galactosan, stereoisomers of levoglucosan, are formed during the combustion of hemicellulose. Literature suggests that the ratio of levoglucosan to its isomers rather than absolute levoglucosan concentrations should be considered when characterizing burning events. [5] To date, no data on levoglucosan or its isomers in speleothems is published.

As the anhydrosugars are highly polar molecules, extraction and analysis with traditional reversed phase systems proved difficult. An optimized sample preparation to access both lignin and levoglucosan in speleothems is presented. Furthermore, a HILIC-UHPLC-ESI-HRMS method was developed to analyze the lignin oxidation products (LOPs) and anhydrosugars.

The methods were applied to a flowstone from a cave of the Dolomites in Southern Tyrol.

[1] D. Scholz, D. Hoffmann, Quat. Sci. J. 57 (2008) 52–76 [2] C.N. Jex et al. Quat. Sci. Rev. 87 (2014) 46–59. [3] G. Yan, K. Kaiser, Anal. Chem. 90 (2018) 9289–9295. [4] V. O. Elias et al. Geochim. et Cosmochim. Acta 65 (2001) 267-272. [5] D. Fabbri et al. Atmos. Env. 43 (2009) 2286–2295
Recent behavior of the Nares Strait ice arches: anomalous collapses and enhanced export of multi-year ice from the Arctic Ocean
Authors: Moore Kent , Howell Stephen , Brady Mike , Xu Xiaoyong , McNeil Kaitlin
Published: March 2020

The ice arches that usually develop at the northern and southern ends of Nares Strait play an important role in modulating the export of multi-year sea ice out of the Arctic Ocean.   As a result of global warming, the Arctic Ocean is evolving towards an ice pack that is younger, thinner and more mobile and the fate of its multi-year ice is becoming of increasing interest to both the scientific and policy communities.  Here, we use sea ice motion retrievals derived from Sentinel-1 imagery to report on recent behaviour of these ice arches and the associated ice flux. In addition to the previously identified early collapse of the northern ice arch in May 2017, we report that this arch failed to develop during the winters of 2018 and 2019.  In contrast, we report that the southern ice arch was only present for a short period of time during the winter of 2018.  We also show that the duration of arch formation has decreased over the past 20 years as ice in the region has thinned, while the ice area and volume fluxes have both increased.  These results suggest that a transition is underway towards a state where the formation of these arches will become atypical with a concomitant increase in the export of multi-year ice accelerating the transition towards a younger and thinner Arctic ice pack.
What can Hall-MHD simulations tell us about the transition region in the solar wind proton density spectrum?
Authors: Montagud-Camps Victor , Němec František , Šafránková Jana , Němeček Zdeněk , Grappin Roland , Verdini Andrea , Pitňa Alexander
Published: March 2020

Similarly to the power density spectrum of magnetic field fluctuations in the solar wind, the spectrum of density fluctuations also shows multiple spectral slopes. Both of them present a spectral index varying between –3/2 and –5/3 in the inertial range and close to –2.8 between the proton and electron gyrofrequencies.

Despite these similarities, the spectrum of density fluctuations has a significant difference with respect to the magnetic and velocity fluctuations spectra: it shows a transition region between the inertial and the kinetic ranges with spectral index typically around –1.

We have combined the results of compressible Hall-MHD numerical simulations and measurements of the BMSW instrument onboard Spektr-R satellite to study the possible causes of the flattening in the density spectrum. Both numerical and experimental approaches point towards an important role played by Kinetic Alfvén Waves.
Swiss Geophone Plate system: Quantification of the variability of signal response and of the signal propagation across plates using field-based impact experiments
Authors: Antoniazza Gilles , Nicollier Tobias , Wyss Carlos R. , Boss Stefan , Rickenmann Dieter
Published: March 2020

Impact sensors are increasingly used to indirectly monitor bedload transport in streams. Among them, the Swiss geophone impact plate system has notably proved its efficiency to continuously record bed load transport rates. Nevertheless, this approach still requires a robust calibration of the sensors to transform the relative signal of the geophones into an absolute mass of sediment in transport. Typically, the calibration is performed through the sampling during natural bedload transport events of all the particles that impact the plates, in order to build up rating curves between the signal recorded by the geophone sensors and the characteristics of the sediment that impact them (e.g. mass, grain size).  To better understand the system behavior it is important to quantify to what extent the signal response is similar (i) between sensors of a same geophone measuring station and (ii) between different geophone measuring stations. Also (iii), the amount of signal that propagates from impacted plates towards non-impacted plates (or ‘neighbouring noise’) needs to be quantified to improve the understanding of the system.

In this study, we investigate the above three elements by performing an impact experiment on the Swiss geophone plate system, and systematically record the signals produced at different plates by defined impacts of similar magnitude, and how the signal (maximum amplitude) propagates through neighbouring non-impacted plates. Each Swiss Geophone Plate of four measuring stations in the Swiss Alps – Vallon de Nant (VD), Albula (GR), Naviscence (VS) and Riedbach (VS) – were hit alternatively with impacts of increasing magnitude, and the signal they produced was systematically recorded over all the sensors of a given measuring station. Results of the study allow (i) to quantify the neighbouring noise that propagates from impacted plates towards non-impacted plates; (ii) to evaluate the attenuation rate of the signal for an impact of a given magnitude and (iii) to evaluate the variability in the propagation of neighbouring noise between sensors at a given measuring station and between different measuring stations.
Mountain-wave Induced Polar Stratospheric Clouds with ICON-ART: An Example at the Antarctic Peninsula
Authors: Weimer Michael , Schröter Jennifer , Hoffmann Lars , Kirner Oliver , Ruhnke Roland , Braesicke Peter
Published: March 2020

Polar Stratospheric Clouds (PSCs) play a key role in explaining ozone depletion on large
scales as well as on regional scales. Mountain waves can be formed in the lee of a mountain
in a stably stratified atmosphere. They can propagate upwards into the stratosphere and
induce temperature changes in the order of 10 to 15 K. Thus, large PSCs localised around the
mountain ridge can be formed, leading to increased chlorine activation and subsequently to
a larger ozone depletion. It was estimated that 30 % of the southern hemispheric PSCs can
be explained by mountain waves. However, for the direct simulation of mountain-wave
induced PSCs, the mountains have to be represented adequately in global chemistry climate
models which was a challenge in the past due to too low horizontal resolution.

The ICOsahedral Nonhydrostatic (ICON) modelling framework with its extension for Aerosols
and Reactive Trace gases (ART) includes a PSC scheme coupled to the atmospheric chemistry
in the model. The PSC scheme calculates the formation of all three PSC types independently
resulting in the calculation of the heterogeneous reaction rates of chlorine and bromine
species on the surface of PSCs. ICON-ART provides the possibility of local grid refinement
with two-way interaction. With this, the grid around a mountain can be refined so that
mountain waves can be directly simulated in this region with a feedback to the coarser
global resolution.

In this study, we show the formation of mountain-wave induced PSCs with ICON-ART for the
example of a mountain wave event in July 2008 around the Antarctic Peninsula. It is
evaluated with satellite measurements of AIRS and CALIOP and its impact on chlorine and
bromine activation as well as on the ozone depletion in the southern hemisphere are
analysed. We demonstrate that the effect of mountain-wave induced PSCs can be
represented in the coarser global grid by using local grid refinement with two-way
interaction. Thus, this study bridges the gap between directly simulated mountain-wave
induced PSCs and their representation in a global simulation.
Effects of vegetation restoration on soil organic carbon redistribution along the Loess slope
Authors: Zhang Xiaoxia , Li Xiang , Liang Yipeng , Zha Tonggang
Published: March 2020

Soil organic carbon (SOC) redistribution along the Loess slope under the effect of soil erosion plays an important role in understanding mechanism of SOC spatial distribution and turnover, hence to its effects on global carbon cycle. Vegetation restoration has been taken as an effective method to alleviate soil erosion on the Loess Plateau, while little research focused on the impact of vegetation restoration on the redistribution processes, especially the spatial distribution and stability of SOC. Here, we quantified the SOC stock and pool distribution on the loess slopes along geomorphic gradients under naturally regenerating forests (NF) and artificial black locust plantation (BP), using corn field as a control (CK).The results were as follows:  (1) vegetation restoration, especially NF, effectively slowed down the migration of SOC resulting from soil erosion and reduced the heterogeneity of SOC distribution. The ratios of topsoil SOC in the sedimentary area to the stable area were 109%, 143%, and 210% under the NF, BP, and CK, respectively. And (2) Vegetation restoration reduced the loss of labile organic carbon by alleviating the loss of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and easily oxidized organic carbon (EOC) during migration. Both DOC/SOC and EOC/SOC ratios under NF and BP presented far less differences between the sedimentary and erosion zones than CK.A schematic diagram of SOC cycle patterns and redistribution along the loess slope under vegetation restoration based on our findings and discussions. The results suggested that vegetation restoration in the Loess slope, NF in particular, was an effective means for alleviating the redistribution and spatial heterogeneity of SOC and reducing soil erosion. Information from this study is useful for understanding the carbon cycles in restored ecosystems and evaluating the ecosystem services of natural and managed forests in soil erosion control and carbon sequestration.
A new easy-to-use tool for grain size distribution analysis
Authors: Liu Yuming , Liu Xingxing , Sun Youbin
Published: March 2020

Grain size distribution (GSD) data have been widely used in Earth sciences, especially Quaternary Geology, due to its convenience and reliability. However, the usages of GSD are still oversimplified. The geological information contained in GSD is very abundant, but only some simplified proxies (e.g. mean grain size) are widely used. The most important reason is that GSD data are hard to interpret and visualize directly.

To overcome this, some researchers have developed the methods to unmix the mixed multi-modal GSD to some components to make the interpretation and visualization easier. These methods can be divided into two routes. One is end-member analysis (EMA) which takes a batch of samples for the calculation of the end-members. Another is called single-specimen unmixing (SSU) (Sun et al., 2002) which treats each sample as an individual. The key difference between the two routes is that whether the end-members of a batch of samples are consistent. EMA believes that the end-members between different samples are consistent, the variations of GSD are only caused by the changing of fractions of the end-members. On the contrary, SSU has no assumption on the end-members, i.e. it admits that the end-members may vary between different samples. Some mature tools (Paterson and Heslop, 2015; Dietze and Dietze, 2019) taking the EMA route have appeared, but there is no available public and easy-to-use tool for SSU.

Here we introduce a free and open-source GUI tool which is called QGrain, it can help researchers to analyze the GSD data easily and bring new insights for the interpretation of GSD. QGrain is based on SSU but applied some algorithms (e.g. data preprocessing and global optimization) to improve its precision and robustness. It supports Lognormal or Weibull as the base distribution and it is easy to add more base distributions. QGrain can handle different types of sediments (e.g. aeolian, fluvial and lacustrine deposits). QGrain can export all detailed data and generate the charts automatically.
Soil conservation risk assessment based on land use scenarios in the Nile River Basin
Authors: Liu Yanxu , Liu Hua
Published: March 2020

Soil conservation is one of the most important ecosystem services, as it has a positive impact on soil fertility and land productivity. Soil conservation has multiple facets, while the current research on soil conservation has rarely considered combining the soil displacement conservation ability and river sediment transport conservation. On the basis of the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) and the Sediment Delivery Ratio (SDR) module of Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST), this study developed an indicator, named soil conservation risk, by introducing the soil displacement risk and the river sediment transport risk. The natural growth scenario and reforestation scenario of land use change in the Nile River Basin from 2010 to 2100 were estimated as the input parameters. Three main results were obtained. (1) From 2000 to 2010, the grassland increased by 4.34%, and the forest decreased by 4.91%. (2) From 2000 to 2100, the soil conservation presents a declining tendency in the two scenarios, and the soil conservation amounts based on soil displacement conservation and river sediment transport conservation were 1550.48±177.12 and 100.93±6.24 (t ha-1 y-1) in a natural growth scenario, respectively, and 1576.78±63.21 and 104.41±0.30 (t ha-1 y-1) in a reforestation scenario, respectively. (3) We compared the soil displacement risk and river sediment transport risk, and the reforestation scenario can effectively relieve the soil displacement risk in the first fifty years, while the river sediment transport risk can be relieved from 2010 to 2100. Overall, when reducing the conversion rate of the forest by 0.5 times and increasing the rate of conversion to forest by 0.5 times, the effect of land use changes to the river sediment transport risk has a longer-term effect than do changes to the soil displacement risk.
Fragility and an extremely low shear modulus of high porosity silicic magma
Authors: Namiki Atsuko , Tanaka Yukie , Okumura Satoshi , Sasaki Osamu , Sano Kyohei , Takeuchi Shingo
Published: March 2020

The rheology and strength of bubbly magma govern eruption dynamics by determining the possibility of fragmentation of ascending magmas. The rheology of magma also regulates the propagation velocity and attenuation of seismic waves, and are required parameters for understanding seismic monitoring. We measured the rheology and strength of high porosity (>0.86) rhyolitic magma at 500-950 degrees C. The measured shear modulus and strength are several orders of magnitude lower than bubble-free rhyolite melt, implying that high porosity magma cannot avoid fracturing during magma ascent. The occurrence of fractures is observed in the low-temperature magma (<800 degrees C). In this temperature range, the measured attenuation is low (Q>1). That is, the elastic energy originated by deformations avoids attenuation and is stored in the bubbly magma to cause fracturing. The newly found porosity-dependent strength based on our measurements comprehensively explains three different fragmentation criteria that have been previously proposed independently. Our measurements also show that the shear modulus becomes lower by increasing porosity, which can slow the shear wave velocity. These results suggest that knowing the attenuation of the seismic wave is useful to evaluate magma temperature and the possibility of a fragmentation event that may determine subsequent volcanic activities.

Reference: Namiki et al. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research (2020).
Joint inversion of InSAR and GPS for fine slip rate and locking degree distribution along the Haiyuan fault zone
Authors: Qu Chunyan , Qiao Xin
Published: March 2020

The left-lateral strike-slip Haiyuan fault system is a major boundary fault zone on the northeast margin of the Qinghai -Tibet Plateau，separating active Tibet block and stable Alaxan & rdos blocks, and accommodating the eastward motion of Tibet Plateau. It consists of several sections, including Lenglongling segment (LLL), the Jinqianghe segment (JQH), the Maomaoshan segment (MMS), the Laohushan segment (LHS) and the rupture of the Haiyuan earthquake in 1920 from the west to the east. In 1920, a M8.5 Haiyuan earthquake occurred in the eastern segment of the fault zone, resulting in a surface rupture zone of about 240 km, with a maximum left-lateral coseismic displacement of 10 m. In the past 100 years after the earthquake, Haiyan fault is in a state of calm, no destructive earthquake of M 6.0 or above occurred. It is worth studying that how the fault activity and seismic hazard of each section of Haiyuan fault zone are at present.

We use geodetic data (High density InSAR and wide scale GPS) to study the present slip rate and locking degree of Haiyuan fault zone. we first use the Envisat/ASAR long-strip data of five tracks and the PSInSAR time series processing technology based on high coherence point target to obtain the average deformation rate field of the fault system during 2003~2010, and transform the deformation rate from line-of-sight (LOS) direction to the parallel fault direction. Then,we use two-dimensional screw dislocation model to fit the cross-fault deformation rate profiles, and obtain the fault kinematic parameters such as the fault slip rate and the locking depth. At the same time, we adopt the three-dimensional block model to invert the distribution characteristics of fault locking degree and slip rate deficit along the Haiyuan fault zone. We compare the difference of inversion results of different data individually and jointly, including large-scale sparse GPS data, high-density InSAR data and the combination of them. Finally we get the continuous strain accumulation state of the fault zone. The results show that from west to east, the slip rate decreases gradually, while the locking depth changes along the fault. The Laohushan section shows shallow surface creep. The analysis of the high-density cross-fault deformation rate profile of the Laohushan segment indicates that the creep length is about 19 km. Other segments in a locked state. But in the middle of the 1920 erathquake fracture section, the locking degree is weaker and shallower than other segments. These results are helpful to understand the present activity and assess regional seismic risk of Haiyuan fault zone.
The evaluation of AMSR-E soil moisture data in atmospheric modeling using a suitable time series iteration to derive land surface fluxes over the Tibetan Plateau
Authors: Ma Weiqiang , Ma Yaoming , Han Yizhe , Hu Wei , Zhong Lei
Published: March 2020

Firstly, based on the difference of model and in-situ observations, a serious of sensitive experiments were done by using WRF. In order to use remote sensing products, a land-atmosphere model was initialized by ingesting AMSR-E RS products, and the results were compared with the default model configuration and with in-situ long-term CAMP/Tibet observations.

Secondly, a land-atmosphere model was initialized by ingesting AMSR-E products, and the results were compared with the default model configuration and with in-situ long-term CAMP/Tibet observations. The differences between the AMSR-E initialized model runs with the default model configuration and in situ data showed an apparent inconsistency in the model-simulated land surface heat fluxes. The results showed that the soil moisture was sensitive to the specific model configuration. To evaluate and verify the model stability, a long-term modeling study with AMSR-E soil moisture data ingestion was performed. Based on test simulations, AMSR-E data were assimilated into an atmospheric model for July and August 2007. The results showed that the land surface fluxes agreed well with both the in-situ data and the results of the default model configuration. Therefore, the simulation can be used to retrieve land surface heat fluxes from an atmospheric model over the Tibetan Plateau.

All of the different methods will clarify the land surface heating field in complex plateau, it also can affect atmospheric cycle over the Tibetan Plateau even all of the global atmospheric cycle pattern.
Exploration of Potential Areas for Managed Aquifer Recharge in the Eastern Lower Jordan Valley Area
Authors: Salameh Elias , Abdallat Ghaida
Published: March 2020

Water storage in surface reservoirs in arid and semiarid areas is afflicted with a variety of issues such as high evaporation, eutrophication processes and exposure to contamination and accidents. Dams to capture all rare-event floods are, generally, big and expensive structures.  Artificially recharging aquifers and storing the water in the underground offer a competing alternative. In this study, hydrogeological, geological, geophysical and hydrochemical investigations were carried out to study the potentials of the eastern side of the Lower Jordan Valley for artificial recharge. The results reveal that relatively extended areas on the eastern side of the Lower Jordan Valley have the potential to accommodate large amounts of recharge water and that the impacts of artificially storing the water in aquifers are to be judged very positive compared to surface storage, especially when the amounts of available recharge water can quantitatively be accommodated in recharge facilities.  In addition, the study shows, the advantages of underground water storage compared to surface storage in dams.  The potential storage capacities in the different parts of the Lower Jordan Valley are quantified based on rechargeable aquifer volumes and porosities. The potential uses of the recharged water are also elaborated on depending on recharge and aquifer water qualities.
Are peatlands cool humid islands in a landscape?
Authors: Worrall Fred , Boothroyd Ian , Howden Nicholas , Burt Tim , Kohler Tim , Gregg Ruth
Published: March 2020

This study proposed that due to their high standing water tables that peatlands would be cold humid islands within their landscape relative to farmland on mineral soils. Long term satellite observation of across England’s largest raised bog (t km2 former raised bog - Thorne Moors, northern England) showed that as the bog was restored the air temperature over the bog decreased by 1.7 oC relative to the surrounding farmland. So this study set out to test this hypothesis with real field observations.

We measured air temperature and humidity at 17 locations along a 7.8 km transect across the Thorne Moors site. Air temperature and humidity were measured hourly for 1 year and supported with spot albedo measurements. The study represented a factorial experiment with respect to sites of measurement; the type of land use (peat vs arable land); and time of sampling over both the seasonal and diurnal cycles. We could show:

That although mean annual temperature was not significantly different between arable and peatlands the arable land showed a decreased amplitude to its seasonal cycle – this is the reverse of the expected pattern.

The peatland was colder at night and warmer during the day than the surrounding land.

The albedo of the peatland was significantly lower than that of arable land showing that vegetated peatland still absorbed more solar radiation.

The specific humidity was lower on the peatland than on the surrounding arable land.

The study therefore could show that whilst shrubby vegetation exists over a peatland then energy budgets are more likely to be dominated by the greater surface roughness and lower albedo of the vegetated peatland relative to arable land. Thus, shrub-dominated peatlands will not be a cold humid island in their landscape.
Short-duration infrasound signals observed at the array PVCI
Authors: Sindelarova Tereza , Czanik Csenge , Kozubek Michal , Podolska Katerina , Base Jiri , Kouba Dan
Published: March 2020

We present the most interesting cases from observations of short-duration infrasound signals at the array PVCI (50.53°N 14.57°E).  The array is equipped with three sensors and it has an aperture of 200 m. The optimum detection range of the array is 0.02-4 Hz.

On 24 August 2016 at 01:36:32 UTC, a strong earthquake occurred in Central Italy; the epicentre was located at 42.75°N and 13.22°E. The azimuth from PVCI to the epicentre was 187° and the distance was 871 km. At 02:23-02:40 UTC, signals from the azimuths around 195° were recorded at the array. The time interval corresponds to the expected stratospheric signal arrival.

On 3 March 2016 at 21:51-21:53 UTC, PVCI registered signal from the azimuth of 199°. The signal elevation was 30-35°. We assume that the signal source was the bolide EN060316 that entered the atmosphere above Upper Austria and Bavaria. 

Two large accidental explosions occurred in the region recently; both of them were recorded by PVCI and other member stations of the CEEIN network. On 26-27 September 2017, an ammunition depot exploded in Kalynivka, Central Ukraine. Signals from the azimuths of 85-90° were recorded on 26 September 2017 at 21:02-21:05 UTC and at 23:16-23:21 UTC. On 1 September 2018 around 03:15 UTC, an explosion occurred in the refinery near Ingolstadt, Germany. A high amplitude signal arrived at PVCI at 03:30:48 UTC from the azimuth of 243°.
Contractional rejuvenation of syn-rift salt-bearing minibasins by numerical simulations
Authors: Granado Pablo , B. Ruh Jonas
Published: March 2020

Contractional rejuvenation of syn-rift salt-bearing minibasins by numerical simulations

Pablo Granado1, Jonas B. Ruh2

1 Institut de Recerca Geomodels, Departament de Dinàmica de la Terra i de l'Oceà, Universitat de Barcelona, Martí i Franquès s/n, 08028 Barcelona, Spain

2 Structural Geology and Tectonics Group, Geological Institute, Department of Earth Sciences, ETH Zurich, Switzerland

This work presents numerical experiments of contractional rejuvenation of passive margin minibasins and related diapiric structures and the involvement in inverted rift and fold-and-thrust belt systems. We use 2D finite difference numerical experiments with a temperature-dependent Maxwell-type visco-elasto-plastic rheology. Our experiments consist of a first phase of extension controlled by basement faults overlaid by a thick salt-bearing unit covered by a pre-kinematic layer. Extension led to forced folding and stretching of the pre-kinematic layer triggering diapirism, fixing the lateral dimensions of minibasins, whereas syn-rift accommodation space was controlled by extension of the basement faults plus salt evacuation provided by sediment load. Rate of extension controlled: i) internal growth geometries of minibasins; ii) the amount of downbuilding, and iii) the timing and extent of primary welds. Contractional reactivation was then carried out as end member modes of thin-skinned shortening over the basement steps, full inversion of extensional faults (i.e. thick-skinned), and combinations of both, always including erosion and syn-contractional sedimentation. Results provide an extensive template of structural styles and related kinematic evolutions including minibasin rotation and imbrication, squeezing of salt structures and surface flaring, and development of deep contractional growth synclines. Modelling results will be compared to natural case studies.
The parametrisation of statistical models of change in extremes and its impact on the description of change
Authors: Prosdocimi Ilaria , Kjeldsen Thomas
Published: March 2020

The impact of climate change on environmental extremes such as high flows or rainfall, is routinely investigated by fitting non-stationary extreme value distributions to long-term observational records. These investigations often use regression models in which one or more distribution parameters is allowed to change as a function of time or some other preocess-related covariate. The changes in quantiles implied by different regression model are quantified in this study using different quantile change metrics. We expose the mathematical structure of these change metrics for various commonly used non-stationary models, showing how for most commonly used models the resulting changes in the estimated quantiles are a non-intuitive function of the distribution parameters, leading to results which are difficult to interpret and therefore of little practical use in engineering design. Further, it is posited that the most commonly used non-stationary models do not preserve fundamental scaling properties of environmental extremes. 

A new (parsimonious) model is proposed which results in changes in the quantile function that are easy to interpret, and for which the scaling properties are maintained, so that when the location parameter is allowed to change so is the scale. The proposed parameterization is applicable within a range of commonly used distributions (e.g. GEV, GLO, Kappa, ...) and is better suited for investigating changes in environmental extremes as it provides more interpretable description of changes in design events under a non-stationary model. The empirical behaviour of the quantile change metrics under different modelling frameworks when applied to river flow data in the UK is investigated to showcase the usefulness of the proposed model. 
How do high school students teach geosciences to elementary students?
Authors: Larose Carole
Published: March 2020

I am Biology and Geology teacher in a high school and I teach for students between 15 and 18 years old. Geosciences are not very easy to understand because the concepts are complex. I try to interest my students by using different pedagogical materials including hands-on. At the end of the course, to make sure that they have a good understanding, I sometimes organize a meeting between my students and the children of a primary school. It is a way to assess them because if they are able to explain some geological issues to young children, they must before understand them.

Before the meeting, the elementary school teacher and I did an educational notebook for young children. We have planned 5 activities on the topic "plate tectonics"

Explosive and effusive volcanism : children identify different types of volcanism by watching two short videos

Study the volcanic rocks : children observe the rocks and look under a polarizing microscope

Earthquake-resistant buildings: children use a model to understand how a building can withstand an earthquake

The different kind of faults: children use a model to create different types of faults.

Identify the movement of Plate tectonics: children use software to do this exercise

The meeting lasted two hours. It was a great moment for all the students. My student's job was to help the youngest to answer the questions on their notebooks. They had to explain clearly and simply and it was a very interesting exercise for them because they needed knowledge to do it. Young students asked a lot of questions, they were very curious and interested in this topic.

Here is an article in French. http://svt.spip.ac-rouen.fr/spip.php?article396

 