bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Mainstream NBS in sustainable urban planning, strengthen the European Green Deal and EU recommendations
Authors: Garcia Mateo Maria Carmen
Published: March 2020

It is expected that 80% of the world population will be living in urban areas by 2050, therefore more pressure on natural resources will be exacerbated if we continue with harmful human environmental practices, since pre-industrial era, intensifying the mayor environmental, social and economic challenges in cities. Scientific evidence shows the potential of Nature Based Solution to tackle environmental, societal and economic challenge related to urbanization, climate change, loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services in cities.

The research article analyses EU regulation and framework related to cities, environmental, economic, and aim to discuss the status quo of Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) integration in urban planning Cities in H2020 Project, for better implementation policies on NBS at the city level, identifying gaps and potentials through a comprehensive mapping of the terrain on NBS policies in EU Cities, allowing for upscale and replication of those solutions in a form of a validated roadmap for sustainable cities across Europe and world-wide.

The main findings to shape the sustainability world of tomorrow of the research activities are as follow: to promote the inclusion of NBS in urban planning and decision making processes it was generally perceived that cities with more investment in research and innovation funding are more suitable for enabling cities to design and implement transition pathways to becoming inclusive, resilient, sustainable, low-carbon and resource efficient, to tackle most of the challenges Europe is facing today, such as climate change, health and well-being, loss of biodiversity of unsustainable urbanization.

 Therefore, cities will contribute to improve the environmental, social and economic dimension, providing the way towards a more resource efficient, competitive and green economy with the implemention of the NBS, that might be tackled in an integrated, coherent and holistic approach to enhance sustainability, resilience and quality of life for dwellers.
Ecological memory effects in Norway spruce ring-width chronologies across managed forests of Central-East Germany: Implications for modelling and planning
Authors: Wernicke Jakob , Seltmann Christian Torsten , Körner Michael
Published: March 2020

The combined negative effects of climate change and adverse forest structures currently result in large amounts of random timber use all over Central Europe. Particularly Norway spruce (Picea abies [L.] Karst) is threatened by summer droughts and secondary pests. Hence, achieving insights in the drought tolerance of spruce is highly relevant to reduce the vulnerability of forest systems under climate change. Especially long-living spruce individuals witness several periods of drought in their ring-width variability. A common measure of trees drought tolerance is referred to resistance, resilience and recovery ability. Besides forest management and site characteristic, the ecological memory of trees might distinctly affect spruce drought tolerance.

Therefore we investigate the spatio-temporal variability of the ecological memory effect from more than 1500 individual ring-width time series of spruce trees collected from the managed forests of Central-East Germany. The memory effect is examined via time series first to third autocorrelation. We are particularly interested in the question: ‘can trees with a ‘good memory’ cope better with climate extremes than trees with a ‘bad memory’? If so, is it possible to influence the memory of trees via specific thinning strategies? Finally, how can autocorrelation improve the assessment of site productivity, taking the climate change induced displacement of growth areas into consideration? The study results reveal crucial insights in the drought vulnerability of spruce dominated forests in relation to forest structure and management strategies.
Economic efficiency and physical effectiveness of erosion control systems towards their adoption in the Highlands of Rwanda
Authors: Rutebuka Jules , R. Bizoza Alfred , M. Kagabo Désiré , Vermeir Peter , Verdoodt Ann
Published: March 2020

Despite huge efforts in soil and water conservations such as terraces, little or no evidence of economic efficiency and physical effectiveness is known. Thus, this study aimed to identify whether these investments are economically and technically viable and profitable for smallholder farmers. The economic surplus approach which is rooted in the Double-in-Difference approach was used to assess the economic performance of bench terraces (BT) on potato yields based on two sub-sample populations randomly selected from two datasets collected in two different periods (2004 and 2009) in the Congo-Nile divide (highlands) namely in Nyamagabe District. In terms of physical effectiveness of bench terraces, we compared traditional slope farming practice, referred to as non-protected plots (NP) against bench terraces (BT) in terms of runoff, soil and nutrient losses in the Beburuka highlands (Burera District) using Wischmeier-type bounded erosion plots (22.2x5 m) at 43% slope gradient.

Our findings suggest improved land productivity associated with investment in bench terraces. Potato yields increase for the period 2004 to 2009 is about 60% on bench terraces compared to the change of 40% without BT. However, the change in yield cannot solely be attributed to the fact that a given household has terraced land (or not) but also other multiple variables determinants of the economic performance of household specific characteristics. On the other hand of physical effectiveness of bench terraces, results revealed that bench (BT) terraces effectively control erosion, once they are well established, managed and regularly maintained by land owners. Terraces effectively reduced runoff and soil and nutrient losses with more than 85 and 98%, respectively. Both assessments thus confirmed the huge potential of bench terraces to reduce soil erosion effects and improve land productivity when established within an integrated approach, paying attention to correct installation and fertility-supporting agronomic practices. Bench terracing proved to be most effective but with slow economic efficiency in Rwanda which influences its adoption.

 

 

 

 
Offshore 1755 CE Lisbon Tsunami Deposit in the Southern Portuguese Continental Shelf
Authors: Kümmerer Vincent , Drago Teresa , Veiga Pires Cristina , Silva Pedro , Lopes Ana , Magalhães Vitor , Roque Cristina , Rodrigues Ana Isabel , Terrinha Pedro , Mena Anxo , Francés Guillermo , Kopf Achim , Völker David , Salgueiro Emília , Alberto Ana , Lopes Cristina , Costa Pedro , Baptista Maria Ana
Published: March 2020

The importance of tsunami hazard assessment is only possible if a complete dataset of events is available, allowing the determination of the recurrence intervals of the tsunamis adapted to local and regional conditions. One possible way to know these intervals is to study the offshore sedimentary record, looking for sediment remobilised and transported by the incoming tsunami waves and generated backwash currents. Even if these deposits are not of easy access (and not so well studied), the tsunami depositional signature has potential to be better preserved than those located onshore.

A multidisciplinary approach was performed to detect the sedimentary imprints left by the 1755 CE Lisbon tsunami event in three cores located in southern Portuguese continental shelf at water depths between 57 and 91 m. Age models based on 14C and 210Pbxs data allowed a probable correspondence with the 1755 CE Lisbon tsunami.

The present study was based in high-resolution analyses using several methodologies such as sand composition, grain size, inorganic geochemistry and microtextural features on quartz grain surfaces. The results yielded evidences for a tsunamigenic origin although no remarkable terrigenous signal is present. Spatial depositional differences of tsunami sediments were detected in the study area by differences in grain size, sand composition and simulated horizontal surface velocities. Also, the heterogeneous and mixing character of the 1755 CE Lisbon offshore tsunami deposits indicate more complex sedimentary conditions compared to the background sedimentation.

This study shows that in fact the sediment layers corresponding to a tsunami event can be preserved in mid to outer continental shelf environments (other extreme events such as storms were excluded trough hydrodynamic calculations), but its identification and characterization can be done only with a good assemblage of different proxies.

This is a contribution of ASTARTE project (FP7-Grant agreement no: 603839) and CIMA project (UID/MAR/00350/2013).
Interactions between energy geostructures in the same aquifer
Authors: Badinier Thibault , de Sauvage Jean , Szymkiewicz Fabien , Regnicoli Benitez Bruno
Published: March 2020

Energy geostructures are a very cost-effective geothermal solution to produce renewable energy for the heating and cooling needs of the buildings. Their principle is to attach heat exchange pipes to the reinforcing cages of geotechnical structures (foundations, retaining walls, …). Mechanical and thermal roles are assigned to the same structures in order to reduce the economic and ecological costs.

Perturbations of the temperature field induced in the soil by this technology are propagated through conduction, diffusion and advection along the water-flow, leading to thermo-hydro-mechanical interactions between neighbouring structures. The behaviour of downstream energy geostructures is affected by the presence of upstream ones. In order to achieve a smart management of the shallow geothermal development at the city scale, it is crucial to characterize these interactions and their influence on the thermal efficiency.

For this purpose, a group of nine energy piles has been studied in Sense-City, a mini city where a specific climate can be imposed and the underground water-flow can be controlled. The piles can be thermally activated separately and are equipped with optic fibre to monitor their temperature evolution through time. Different groundwater conditions were imposed and different combinations of activated piles were studied.

To extrapolate and upscale the results, a numerical model was developed with CESAR-LCPC, a FEM software. Challenged by the experimental observations, the numerical model allowed simulating more complex boundary conditions and thermal infrastructure configurations. Furthermore, numerical modelling are able to simulate a long term experiment and to predict potential multi-year thermal shift.

Using combination of experimental and numerical experiments, observations can be made on the positive or negative consequence of energy geostructures interactions.
The effect of land –atmospheric feedbacks on the intensification and propagation of the 2018 drought in Europe
Authors: Al Hasan Fares , J. van der Ent1 Ruud , C. Steele‐Dunne Susan
Published: March 2020

The recent 2018 summer drought in Europe has been particularly extreme in terms of intensity and impact. However, how did this drought develop in time and space in such an extreme way, and what role did the change in land-atmosphere feedbacks play in the propagation and intensification of the drought in Europe.

To answer those questions, we used remote sensing products of soil moisture and NDVI to see where the 2018 drought started and how it developed over time and space. Then we used the atmospheric water vapour flow tracking method (WAM-2layers) to investigate whether the drought intensification and displacement was related to the lack of water vapour transport from the regions that first experienced the drought. To this end, we identified the anomalies in the atmospheric water vapour imports and exports within Europe during  the spring, summer, and autumn seasons 2018.

Our soil moisture and NDVI analysis shows that the 2018 drought started in June in the Scandinavian countries and the British Isles and with time started to intensify and to move toward the west of Europe and after that to the southeast of Europe. The lack of land water vapour transportation from upwind regions (Scandinavian countries and British Isles) was partly responsible for the lack of re-precipitated water vapour in the downwind regions (West, South, Southeast, and East of Europe). From this study, we can conclude that extreme drought events propagate and intensify with time from upwind regions to downwind regions.

 
Land plants and terrestrial environmental changes during the onset of the end-Triassic event
Authors: Lindström Sofie , Nytoft Hans Peter , Pedersen Gunver K. , Niedzwiedzki Grzegorz , Dybkjær Karen , Johansson Leif , Petersen Henrik I. , Sanei Hamed , Tegner Christian , Weibel Rikke
Published: March 2020

The end-Triassic mass extinction is considered to have been caused by voluminous and repeated emissions of CO2 and/or methane and other gases from magmatic activity in the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province. Despite improved geochronological dating and correlation between the magmatic activity and the extinctions, exactly how the biotic crisis commenced remains poorly understood. Here, we compile palynological and palaeobotanical data, bulk organic δ13C, biomarkers, mercury and other geochemical proxies, charcoal, and sedimentology, from a Rhaetian terrestrial succession in southern Sweden. Our results provide an insight into the climatic, environmental and ecosystem changes that took place at the onset of the mass extinction event.
Tsunami modelling on lake scales - a sensitivity analysis
Authors: Bacigaluppi Paola , Boes Robert M. , Vetsch David F.
Published: March 2020

When simulating tsunamis, one of the major questions that arises in the coastal community is whether a certain set of equations is adequate to predict the behavior of generated waves and their effective impact on the shoreline. This aspect has been analyzed in several studies during the past decades in the context of ocean scales, focusing, for example, on the 2004 Sumatra and 2011 Tohoku events. 

Investigations concerning lake scales, which appear to be very different from ocean ones, have not been considered in-depth yet, to the authors' knowledge. Nevertheless, the urge to have ready-to-use tools to allow a prediction of possible hazardous events due to tsunamis in lakes has grown in the past decades (e.g. Laguna Palcacocha, Peru), especially due to climate warming that tends to enhance slope instabilities.

This contribution provides a sensitivity analysis on lake scales, considering different typologies of modeling equations and softwares. The goal is to allow for an overview and a quantification of possible errors that might occur for specific choices of modeling equations.
This study is part of an ongoing project that aims at investigating the workflow of the processes linked with the tsunami hazard of lakes, triggered by submerged and subaerial landslides.
Late Cenozoic exhumation of the French Massif Central: constraints to long wavelength uplift from thermochronology analysis
Authors: Olivetti Valerio , Balestrieri Maria Laura , Godard Vincent , Bellier Olivier , Gautheron Cécile , Valla Pierre , Zattin Massimiliano , Faccenna Claudio , Pinna-Jamme Rosella , Manchuel Kevin
Published: March 2020

The French Massif Central is a portion of the Variscan belt that exhibits a present-day high topography associated with a potential Cenozoic rejuvenation. Despite other Variscan massifs in Central Europe, such as the Bohemian, Rhenish and Vosges/Black Forest Massifs, show similar topography, the French Massif Central is higher, wider and with evidence of more intense late Cenozoic volcanism. Deep-seated processes controlled by mantle upwelling are generally invoked for the origin of Cenozoic uplift, although the timing and quantification of the relief formation remain unclear. Here we present

a thermochronological study based on new apatite (U-Th)/He and fission-track data that have been integrated with published data (Barbarand et al., 2001; Gautheron et al., 2009) to reconstruct the exhumation history of the eastern margin of the massif. Apatite (U-Th)/He and fission-track data show Cretaceous ages from the high elevation samples and Eocene ages from the lower samples. Although the thermochronological ages do not allow to clearly constrain the onset of Cenozoic exhumation, the regional distribution of the mean track length is essential for the interpretation of the eastern margin evolution: mean track length-elevation relationships show a complex and non-linear trend consisting in a general decrease of MTL from high elevation/old age toward intermediate elevations and then a slight increase for the lowermost and youngest samples. We integrated inverse and forward modelling approach to test different hypothesis of margin evolution. The best fit between observed and predicted data is obtained with a Cretaceous cooling followed by a phase of thermal stability around 40°C and a renewed (lower amplitude) cooling during late Cenozoic. These two cooling events represent two main tectonic phases, the first in the Cretaceous and a minor one in late Cenozoic.

The limited amount of erosion coupled with the occurrence of Cretaceous deposits on top of the massif and in the Rhône river valley floor and no evidence for faulting suggest a long-wavelength ﬂexure of the lithosphere, which has produced a margin topography characterized by a broad monocline with a very low gradient. This topography is consistent with a surface growth induced by mantle upwelling.
Assessing simultaneous mono- and bistatic airborne radar observations for soil moisture retrieval
Authors: Tronquo Emma , Lievens Hans , Verhoest Niko E.C.
Published: March 2020

 

Current radar systems are generally monostatic. However, some theoretical research indicated the potential of bistatic radar measurements to improve applications. In the research presented, we explore the use of InSAR/PolInSAR mono- and bistatic measurements acquired in L-band for soil moisture monitoring. The main objective of this study is to compare the performance of soil moisture retrieval from monostatic with that obtained through bistatic observations.

The recent BelSAR campaign (in 2018) provided time series of airborne mono- and bistatic measurements at L-band, recorded during the growing season including bare soil conditions. In addition, in situ measurements of soil moisture and surface roughness were acquired concurrently with the airborne flights. Here, we provide an initial assessment of the sensitivity of the scatter observations with respect to soil moisture and surface roughness. The literature suggests that the impact of surface roughness on the retrieval of soil moisture decreases due to the simultaneous use of the mono- and bistatic measurements. However, our preliminary results show that the bistatic data do not provide substantial added value to reduce the impact of surface roughness on soil moisture retrieval. Further, we validate both mono- and bistatic scatter simulations from the Advanced Integral Equation Model (AIEM) using the airborne measurements. The AIEM allows additional investigations with respect to the sensitivity towards surface roughness and soil moisture of both mono- and bistatic scattering signals, as well as the impacts of sensor-related parameters such as the incidence angle, the bistatic configuration (e.g. the location of the second sensor), the frequency and the polarization.

 

 
Modeling the impact of oceanic circulation and marine productivity on Cretaceous seafloor anoxia
Authors: Donnadieu Yannick , Laugie Marie , Ladant Jean-Baptiste , Raisson François , Bopp Laurent
Published: March 2020

Oceanic anoxic events (OAEs) are abrupt events of widespread deposition of organic-rich sediments and extensive seafloor anoxia. Mechanisms usually invoked as drivers of oceanic anoxia are various and still debated today. They include a rise of the CO2 atmospheric level due to increased volcanic activity, a control by the paleogeography, changes in oceanic circulation or enhanced marine productivity. In order to assess the role of these mechanisms, we use an IPCC-class model, the IPSL-CM5A2 Earth System Model, which couples the atmosphere, land surface, and ocean components, this last one including sea ice, physical oceanography and marine biogeochemistry which allows to simulate oceanic oxygen.

We focus here on OAE2, which occurs during the Cretaceous at the Cenomanian-Turonian boundary (93.5 Ma), and is identified as a global event with evidence for seafloor anoxia in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, the Southwest Tethys Sea and the Equatorial Pacific Ocean. Using a set of simulations from 115 to 70 Ma, we analyze the long-term paleogeographic control on oceanic circulation and consequences on oceanic oxygen concentration and anoxia spreading. Short-term controls such as an increase of pCO2, nutrients, or orbital configurations are also studied with a second set of simulations with a Cenomano-Turonian (90 Ma) paleogeographic configuration. The different simulated maps of oxygen are used to study the evolution of marine productivity and oxygen minimum zones as well as the spreading of seafloor anoxia, in order to unravel the interlocking of the different mechanisms and their specific impact on anoxia through space and time.
Edge effects on water table dynamics in tropical peatlands
Authors: Cobb Alex , Thamilselvam Surin Kumar , Zulkiflee Ramasamy , Incham Jeffery Muli , Ideris Khalish , Metali Faizah , Sukri Rahayu S. , Harvey Charles
Published: March 2020

Water level fluctuations affect many ecosystem processes in tropical peatlands, and have important practical implications because low water tables cause decomposition and flammability.  In recent work, we showed that a simplified model driven by precipitation and evapotranspiration can work surprisingly well at predicting water table fluctuations in the interior of ombrotrophic tropical peatlands.  However, a model driven only by precipitation and evaporation cannot give accurate predictions of water table dynamics at the dome edge, where important fire and flood processes occur. Further, changing boundary conditions from tides and seasonal changes in river stage can drive fluctuations that propagate towards the dome interior.  Classic studies of how such fluctuations at edges propagate into the interior of a domain provide solid theory for simple aquifers with constant and uniform transmissivity or conductivity, but tropical peatlands are not described well by these models because of the much higher conductivity of peat near the surface. We explore how precipitation, evapotranspiration, and changes in river or channel stage interact to drive water table fluctuations in tropical peat domes using an exponential transmissivity model previously validated for a tropical peatland.  We discuss these "edge effects" and their frequency-dependent range of influence from fluctuations on diurnal, monthly, annual, and superannual time scales.
UAS-based hyperspectral and magnetic mineral exploration targeting Ni-PGE mineralization on Northern Disko Island, West Greenland.
Authors: Jackisch Robert , Zimmermann Robert , Heincke Björn H. , Karinen Arto , Salmirinne Heikki , Pirttijärvi Markku , Lorenz Sandra , Madriz Yuleika , Gloaguen Richard
Published: March 2020

Geologic mapping in arctic regions faces demanding challenges, from accessibility to weather, light and infrastructure conditions. Field expeditions need to cover substantial area, and mostly are supported by satellite and airborne data. While named methods offer large-scaled insights, they often lack the required resolution for precise ground investigations. The rise of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) as new state-of-the-art platform in geoscience provides the means needed to close that scale gap.

Fieldwork within the frame of the EIT project MULSEDRO focused on the Paleocene flood basalt province of Disko Island (West Greenland). On the example of the Qullissat area, we demonstrate how UAS can bring new insights into strategies for magmatic Ni-PGE exploration in the area. Mineralization is associated to basalt sills of the Asuk Member, emplaced locally in coal-bearing cretaceous sandstones.  We conducted photogrammetric outcrop modelling, interpretation of orthoimagery, multi- and hyperspectral based lithological classification and analysis of magnetic data. While magnetics give the location, orientation and subsurface extension of the basaltic sills, spectral imaging, in particular with focus on the iron absorption feature, reveals mineral proxies due to sulphide weathering. A total of 216 line-km for magnetics and 18.5 km2 of multi- and hyperspectral data was covered.

First results show that integration of drone-borne spectroscopic and magnetic data highlights potential local mineralization. Based on our results, possible indications for mineralization are linear features in the first vertical derivative of the magnetic data and specific iron absorptions in the spectral data. Resulting maps are validated using handheld spectroscopy, ground magnetics, susceptibility measurements, combined with geochemistry and mineralogy of rock samples examined in the laboratory. Conclusively, the study solidifies UAS as highly valuable tool for exploration.
Openness in geoscience - a quantitative assessment
Authors: Bosman Jeroen
Published: March 2020

There is growing consensus that making our research process and outputs more open is necessary to increase transparency, efficiency, reproducibility and relevance of research. With that we should be better able to contribute to answering important questions and overcoming grand challenges. Despite considerable attention for open science, including citizen science, there is no overall baseline showing the current state of openness in our field. This presentation shows results from research that quantitatively charts the adoption of open practices across the geosciences, mostly globally and across the full research workflow. They range from setting research priorities, collaboration with global south researchers and researchers in other disciplines, sharing code and data, sharing posters online, sharing early versions of papers as preprints, publishing open access, opening up peer review, using open licenses when sharing, to engaging with potential stakeholders of research outcomes and reaching out to the wider public. The assessment uses scientometric data, publication data, data from sharing platforms and journals, altmetrics data, and mining of abstracts and other outputs, aiming to address the breadth of open science practices. The resulting images show that open science application is not marginal anymore, but at the same time certainly not mainstream. It also shows that limited sharing, limited use of open licenses and limited use of permanent IDs makes this type of assessment very hard. Insights derived from the study are relevant inputs in science policy discussions on data requirements, open access, researcher training and involvement of societal partners.
Aspromonte Geopark Project: a natural laboratory to show the slow movement of the Earth system
Authors: Ortolano Gaetano , Santagati Sabrina , Gravina Damiano , Tralongo Sergio , Parisi Chiara , CIrrincione Rosolino
Published: March 2020

The Aspromonte Geopark project rises from the peculiar geological history of this sector of the southern Italian peninsula, apparently in continuity with the rest of the thin-skinned thrust-sheet system of the Apennine-Magrebian orogenic system, although characterized by deep-seated crystalline basement rocks, interpreted as fragmented relics of a sector of the original southern European Variscan chain (Cirrincione et al., 2015). These rocks are the result of an ancient geological history rooted since the Paleozoic to arrive up to the already active seismogenic tectonic activity, passing through the Oligocene-Miocene syn-orogenic clastic deposition of the Stilo Capo d’Orlando Formation and the evaporitic deposits, which testifies the Messinian salinity crisis. This peculiar geological heritage allows the preservation of an articulated geodiversity that contribute to the unraveling of two orogenesis (i.e. Variscan and Alpine), testified by the presence of intensively deformed metamorphic rocks, involved in two orogenic cycles (Ortolano et al., 2005; 2014; 2020), as well as in the occurrence of syn-orogenic sedimentary deposits covered in turn by the back thrusting of the Varicolori Clays and the final deposition of the Gessoso-solfifera succession. At the moment, the growing Aspromonte Geopark counts 89 geosites, eight of which are of international importance and five inserted within territorial and cultural landscape units. Many of these geosites are able to experiment new ways to communicate, with the aid of new technologies (i.e. GIS, 3D Virtual outcrop reconstruction and VR), the slow movement of the Earth crust, testified and preserved in different geosites, where is possible to observe clearly the presence of mylonitic rocks (i.e. rocks involved in high strain-rate regime undergoing plastic deformation) as well as the occurrence of several types of folding system activation, such as flow perturbation fold system evolving to sheath folds (Fazio et al., 2017; 2018; Ortolano et al., 2020). This geological peculiarity can communicate as a metamorphic outcrop can be read as an Earth-moving view where are enclosed pieces of the memory of the rock incessant slow movement of Earth interior.

References

Cirrincione, R., Fazio, E., Fiannacca, P., Ortolano, G., Pezzino, A., Punturo, R. (2015) - Periodico di Mineralogia, 84 (3B)

Fazio, E., Ortolano, G., Visalli, R., Alsop, I., Cirrincione, R., Pezzino, A. (2018) Italian Journal of Geosciences, 137 (2), pp. 208-218.

Fazio, E., Ortolano, G., Cirrincione, R. (2017) International Journal of Earth Sciences, 106 (6), pp. 2039-2040.

Ortolano, G., Cirrincione, R., Pezzino, A. 2005 Schweizerische Mineralogische und Petrographische Mitteilungen, 85 (1), pp. 31-56.
Atlas of European ornamental stone resources
Authors: Heldal Tom , Carvalho Jorge , Dedić Željko , Laskarides Kostas
Published: March 2020

Ornamental stone is today a raw material produced with great skills all over Europe, SME's and larger enterprises exploiting the vast diversity of European ornamental stone resources. Today's European stone industry is not only large and important but also highly dispersed throughout Europe, making a backbone industry for particularly rural areas. In Italy alone, there are more than 1000 stone quarrying enterprises and the sector in total employed more than 50 000 in 2011. Ornamental stone has contributed significantly in shaping our rural and urban landscapes, through its use in our built heritage from different historical periods. Yet, the actual use of local and regional stone resources in Europe is under threat due to sterilization of resources by urbanisation, infrastructure development and other land uses. Consequently, important resources are “unknowingly” lost for future production, and so are vital geological knowledge and skills for producing them. Loss of such resources will not only make it more difficult to maintain and restore our architectural heritage, but also prevent the use of traditional materials in the future.

The motivation behind the EuroLithos project, as a part of the GeoERA partnership, was to reverse this gradual process of loss, by providing a European scale knowledge base for ornamental stone resources; their spatial occurrence and distribution, their technical properties and quality, as well as providing guidelines for how to assess economic and non-economic values.

A major challenge in the project is to collect data from many national repositories and display them in a harmonised way. The spatial extent of ornamental stone resources can basically be measured by the spatial distribution of the geological units containing the valuable quarries and future resources of same quality. Another challenge is how to link geological units with ornamental stone commodities of the INSPIRE standard, and a third is how to collect and display technical information about ornamental stone and how to link that to the spatial data. So far, EuroLithos has provided agreement among 15 partners in 14 countries on how to meet these challenges, and guidelines on how to deliver data according to this agreement. Ongoing, 12 case studies across Europe covering different aspects of resource valorisation are currently running. Eurolithos will be running until July 2021, and more results can be viewed at www.eurolithos.org.
Yet another in-situ cosmogenic 10-Be local production rate for the British Isles : Llyn Arenig Fach, North Wales
Authors: Fink David , Hughes Philip , Fulop Reka , Wilcken Klaus , Adams Patrick , Ryan Peter
Published: March 2020

Cosmogenic production rates (PRs) are the essential conversion factor between AMS cosmogenic concentrations and absolute exposure ages. The accuracy of cosmogenic glacial chronologies and reliability in their comparison to other plaeoclimate systems  is largely contingent on the precision and accuracy of the adopted production rate. This is particularly critical in determining past glacial geochronologies at the scale of millennial temporal resolution. Most PR calibrations are carried out at deglaciation sites where radiocarbon provides the independent chronometric control usually based on calibrated 14C ages in basal sediments or varves  from lake or bog cores which is assumed to represent the minimum age for glacial retreat. Under these conditions PRs should be considered as maximum-limiting values. Given that today most AMS facilities can deliver 10-Be, 26-Al and 36-Cl data with analytical errors less than 2%, the accuracy of a PR for a given scaling method (ie transfer function of the site-specific production rate to a reference sea-level high latitude (SLHL) PR) remains largely dependent  on the error in the independent chronology and accuracy of AMS standards. The history over the past 20 years of the ever-changing value of  SLHL 10-Be cosmogenic spallation PRs  with a continual decreasing value from initial estimates of about 7 atoms/g/a to the current  ‘accepted ‘ value of ~4 atoms/g/a,   is an interesting story in itself and demonstrates the complexity in such determinations.  

Today there are both global (average) SLHL PRs and also regional-specific PR values (referenced to SLHL). For the British Isles, there are a number of 10-Be ‘British Isles’ choices that, for the Lm scaling scheme, range between 3.92±0.11  atoms/g/a  (Putnam et al., QG, v50, 2019) to 4.41±0.25 atoms/g/a (Small et al., JQS, v30, 2015). This range in 10-Be spallation PRs has recently raised some debate and challenges for the assumed extent and timing of the local-LGM and demise of the British Ice Sheet. This work provides a new  British Isles site specific 10-Be PR from the  Arenig Mountains in North Wales. We have measured 10-Be concentrations in 13 selected moraine boulders that are tentatively mapped as outer and inner Younger Dryas deglacial deposits hugging a cirque lake,  Llyn Arenig Fach,  just below the head wall  at  Arenig Fach.   Radiocarbon dating of basal sediments from a number of intermorainal core bogs has provided independent age control.  We will present our results and compare them to the current collection of other British Isles 10-Be production rates.  
Slumps Mass-Transport Deposits in the Brazilian Continental Margin Deep Water: Offshore Potiguar Basin, NE Brazil.
Authors: Perez Yoe , Fonseca Julia , Vital Helenice , Silva Andre , Castro David
Published: March 2020

The Brazilian Continental Margin (BEM) deep-water regions contain important geological features that need advance in their characterization. Mass-transport deposits (MTD) are important not only by their significance in the sedimentary but also because of their negative impact economically. A slump is a coherent mass of sediment that moves on a concave-up glide plane and undergoes rotational movements causing internal deformation and one of the basic types of MTD. The study area comprises part of the offshore Potiguar Basin in NE Brazil, on the distal eastern portion of the Touros High and Fernando de Noronha Ridge. This portion of the Potiguar Basin comprises a transform rift system that has evolved into a continental passive margin. This basin represents an important location related to the breakup between South America and Africa. The database used in this work included 2D post-stack time-migrated seismic profiles from the Brazilian Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas, and Biofuels (ANP). The slumps reflectors are identified on the continental shelf profiles in form of present clinoform configuration, medium to high continuity, high amplitudes, and medium to high frequencies, representing a sigmoidal oblique complex prograding reflector. The slump scars at the continental slope indicate that this is a gravitationally unstable area that will eventually collapse, resulting in erosional features on the continental slope and deposition on the continental rise. Our results provide some insights regarding MDT slumps sedimentary evolution in the BEM deep water area as well as their interrelation with other sedimentary deposits.
Winter wheat growth dynamics and their relationship with the field productivity using Sentinel-1 SAR polarimetry
Authors: Vavlas Nikolaos-Christos , Waine Toby , Meersmans Jeroen , Richter Goetz
Published: March 2020

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is sensitive to the surface structure as well as dielectric properties, so can be used to quantify the canopy characteristics and surface moisture. High temporal frequency SAR backscatter data are useful in terms of quantifying crop phenological development, growth and yield formation. The aim of this research is to identify the growth dynamics of winter wheat from SAR at field scale, validated using farm sites with different productivity between two years (2018-2019). We identify and explore the parameters which characterize crop performance from SAR temporal curves and use these to improve and automate the monitoring of wheat fields. Our novel methodology includes the extraction of crop indicators using the VH/VV ratio temporal curve from Sentinel-1. Sigmoid curve fitting is used to simulate the VH/VV response and the extracted parameters are related to the field development. The results show that specific indicators, such as the duration of the high vegetation (stem elongation to dough development) as well as the timing of the booting stage of wheat significantly correlate with the final yield. Other indicators can provide information about the canopy characteristics of wheat (e.g. above ground biomass and plant water content). The combination of selected indicators can provide a more robust analysis of the fields. These results demonstrate the potential of SAR to remotely quantify yield without using any management data from the farm.
An evaluation of the CESM Decadal Climate Prediction Large Ensemble with application to regional studies
Authors: Rosa Cánovas Juan José , García Valdecasas-Ojeda Matilde , Yeste Patricio , Romero Jiménez Emilio , Gámiz Fortís Sonia Raquel , Esteban Parra María Jesús , Castro Díez Yolanda
Published: March 2020

The decadal climate prediction (DCP) is one of the major challenges addressed by the research community focused on climate studies during the last years. DCPs try to fill the gap between seasonal-to-interannual predictions and multidecadal-to-centennial climate change projections by taking advance of not only the forced climate change signal provided by boundary information, but also the initialization of the climate system components which exhibit longer memory, such as the ocean.

Climate modelling for DCP is a very expensive activity in terms of computing resources since many initialized experiments are needed to properly assess the predictive skill at such time scales. In the context of dynamical downscaling (DS), this problem becomes even more important. Hence, the aim of this study is to evaluate some output variables from the Decadal Climate Prediction Large Ensemble (DPLE) and to explore the issue of reducing the number of ensemble members in consideration to make DS more affordable. The DPLE is a set of decadal simulations carried out at NCAR by using the Community Earth System Model (CESM). The DPLE encompasses 62 decadal experiments initialized every year (from 1954 to 2015) for each of the 40 members of the ensemble. Despite the ensemble size, only 10 members provide an adequate set of variables with the proper time aggregation to run a regional model.

Results obtained from this study could be helpful for those researchers who decide to address the regional DCP through a DS approach. Because of high computing resources, conducting DS simulations is restricted to a small number of research groups or institutes which can afford that large investment. It potentially limits the progress on this important and relatively recent branch of the climate science.

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: JJRC acknowledges the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities for the predoctoral fellowship (grant code: PRE2018-083921). This research has been carried out in the framework of the project CGL2017-89836-R, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness with additional FEDER funds.
Investigation of long-term variation of atmospheric oxidation in background areas of China
Authors: Wang Junhua , Ge Baozhu , Yao Bo , Lin Weili , Liu Ying , Wang Zifa
Published: March 2020

The atmospheric oxidizing capacity (AOC) is closely related to the self-cleaning ability of the atmosphere in which the air pollutants were removed through reacting with oxidations such as OH radical. The level of OH radical is a dominant indicator to the AOC in clean regions characterized as low levels of NOx which is another factor that influences AOC. Due to a lack of VOCs-related mechanisms in model simulation and high cost of the direct observations of OH radical, the long-term trend of OH radical in China is still unclear, especially under the circumstance of significant reduction of Chinese emissions in recent years. In this study, three methods based on a proxy gas CH3CCl3 from 5 regional background stations in China have been developed to investigate the long-term variation of OH radical in China. The concentration of OH radical in the background area of China is approximately (0.8±0.1)*106 molecular/cm3, lower than the results in other background regions of the world. This could be explained by the larger depletion of OH radical in China due to the higher concentrations of polluted gases (i.e., NOx, CO and CH4). The different methods showed almost consistent results for the long-term trends of OH radical in China. From 2006 to 2017, the annual averaged OH concentration showed a slow downward but insignificant trend with the anomalous annual changes ranging from -0.1% to 0.15%. However, significant inter-annual fluctuations were also detected concurrently with a period about two years. This is consistent with the 2-3 years Quasi-biennial Oscillation (QBO) in the long-term variation of surface O3 concentrations. These results provide the new insights into the annual variation of OH radical in China, which could help improve our understanding of the long-term characteristics of atmospheric oxidation in background areas of China.
Interaction of titanium dioxide nanoparticles with kaolinite clay particles in the presence of quartz sand
Authors: Chrysikopoulos Constantinos V. , Fasouletou Dimitra
Published: March 2020

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is one of the most frequently employed nanoparticles (NPs) in consumer products. The rapid development of nanotechnology has led to the inevitable introduction of NPs in the natural environment, which subsequently may reach underground formations. Also, kaolinite is one of the most common minerals, which can be found in the subsurface. Numerous experimental and theoretical studies have shown that kaolinite clay particles can impact on the transport behavior of colloids, biocolloids (bacteria, viruses) and engineered nanoparticles. Therefore, the aim of this study is to examine the interaction of kaolinite (KGa-1b) particles with suspended TiO2 NPs in the presence of quartz sand.Static and dynamic batch experiments were performed with three different TiO2 concentrations (50, 100, 200 mg/L) and four different ionic strength values ​​(1, 25, 50, 100 mM). All of the experiments were conducted at room temperature (22 °C) and pH=7.The experimental results clearly suggested that TiO2 attachment onto KGa-1b particles was slightly enhanced with increasing TiO2 concentrations,but significantly increased with increasing ionic strength. Consequently, the presence of suspended KGa-1b particles can retard the TiO2 transport in water saturated porous media.
Ion Cyclotron Waves on Lunar Surface: Apollo Observations and Implications for Future Lunar Missions
Authors: Armstrong Cassandra , Chi Peter
Published: March 2020

Our previous study of the restored Apollo Lunar Surface Magnetometer (LSM) data discovered that narrowband ion cyclotron waves were often observed at the Apollo 15 and 16 landing sites when the Moon was in the Earth’s magnetotail (Chi et al., 2013). Two mechanisms have been proposed to explain the excitation of ion cyclotron waves at the Moon: the absorption of ions at the lunar surface and the pickup ions from the lunar exosphere. Either process can lead to an ion velocity distribution unstable to ion cyclotron instability, but it is of particular interest to investigate which ion cyclotron waves are associated with the latter mechanism so that the observations of them can provide hints to the type and the number of pickup ions escaped from the lunar exosphere. More recently, Nakagawa et al. (2018) examined the Kaguya data and found similar ion cyclotron waves in the Earth’s magnetotail but at a very low occurrence rate.

In this study, we perform statistical analysis on the full set of the restored LSM data, including those from the Apollo 12, 15, and 16 missions between 1969 and 1975, that were only partially available to our previous study. We find that the ion cyclotron waves were observed by Apollo 15 LSM approximately 5% of the time, which is about six times more frequently than that found in Kaguya observations. A slightly lower occurrence rate of ion cyclotron waves is found in the Apollo 16 LSM data because of the strong local crustal magnetic field at the Apollo 16 site and the conservation of the Poynting flux. Future joint measurements by lunar landers and orbiters can enable a true comparison of the ion cyclotron waves on the lunar surface and at different altitudes of the exosphere.