Sample records for lake catchment area

  1. Extraction and representation of nested catchment areas from digital elevation models in lake-dominated topography

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mackay, D. Scott; Band, Lawrence E.

    1998-04-01

    This paper presents a new method for extracting flow directions, contributing (upslope) areas, and nested catchments from digital elevation models in lake-dominated areas. Existing tools for acquiring descriptive variables of the topography, such as surface flow directions and contributing areas, were developed for moderate to steep topography. These tools are typically difficult to apply in gentle topography owing to limitations in explicitly handling lakes and other flat areas. This paper addresses the problem of accurately representing general topographic features by first identifying distinguishing features, such as lakes, in gentle topography areas and then using these features to guide the search for topographic flow directions and catchment marking. Lakes are explicitly represented in the topology of a watershed for use in water routing. Nonlake flat features help guide the search for topographic flow directions in areas of low signal to noise. This combined feature-based and grid-based search for topographic features yields improved contributing areas and watershed boundaries where there are lakes and other flat areas. Lakes are easily classified from remotely sensed imagery, which makes automated representation of lakes as subsystems within a watershed system tractable with widely available data sets.

  2. Variability of rainfall over Lake Kariba catchment area in the Zambezi river basin, Zimbabwe

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Muchuru, Shepherd; Botai, Joel O.; Botai, Christina M.; Landman, Willem A.; Adeola, Abiodun M.

    2016-04-01

    In this study, average monthly and annual rainfall totals recorded for the period 1970 to 2010 from a network of 13 stations across the Lake Kariba catchment area of the Zambezi river basin were analyzed in order to characterize the spatial-temporal variability of rainfall across the catchment area. In the analysis, the data were subjected to intervention and homogeneity analysis using the Cumulative Summation (CUSUM) technique and step change analysis using rank-sum test. Furthermore, rainfall variability was characterized by trend analysis using the non-parametric Mann-Kendall statistic. Additionally, the rainfall series were decomposed and the spectral characteristics derived using Cross Wavelet Transform (CWT) and Wavelet Coherence (WC) analysis. The advantage of using the wavelet-based parameters is that they vary in time and can therefore be used to quantitatively detect time-scale-dependent correlations and phase shifts between rainfall time series at various localized time-frequency scales. The annual and seasonal rainfall series were homogeneous and demonstrated no apparent significant shifts. According to the inhomogeneity classification, the rainfall series recorded across the Lake Kariba catchment area belonged to category A (useful) and B (doubtful), i.e., there were zero to one and two absolute tests rejecting the null hypothesis (at 5 % significance level), respectively. Lastly, the long-term variability of the rainfall series across the Lake Kariba catchment area exhibited non-significant positive and negative trends with coherent oscillatory modes that are constantly locked in phase in the Morlet wavelet space.

  3. Perylene in Lake Biwa sediments originating from Cenococcum geophilum in its catchment area

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Itoh, Nobuyasu; Sakagami, Nobuo; Torimura, Masaki; Watanabe, Makiko

    2012-10-01

    Perylene, which is composed of five benzene rings, is commonly found in sediments throughout the world at concentrations and distributions that are different from those of other polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The only information available on the origin of perylene comes from 4,9-dihydroxyperylene-3,10-quinone (DHPQ), which originates from fungal component symbiosis or from parasites on plants; however, there is no direct evidence of a mechanism of perylene formation. In this study, we examined the relationship between sedimentary perylene and Cenococcum geophilum (C. geophilum) in a catchment area at Lake Biwa. Sclerotium grains of C. geophilum containing DHPQ were found in this catchment area (approximately 40 balls kg-1 dried soil for >1 mm-ϕ), and small sclerotium grains were frequently found in the sediment. In the sediment sample, we also found broken particles containing perylene, and they had a porous structure characteristic of sclerotium grains. Furthermore, the particles contained DHPQ in different transformation stages to perylene via 3,10-perylenequinone (3,10-PQ). This finding was consistent with results from elemental analysis (oxygen/carbon). Because a remarkable amount of DHPQ originating from C. geophilum also exists in the humic acids of soils and because the inputs of compounds to the lake depend strongly on the rivers, perylene in the Lake Biwa sediment originates mainly from the DHPQ of C. geophilum in its catchment area.

  4. Conifer density within lake catchments predicts fish mercury concentrations in remote subalpine lakes

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Eagles-Smith, Collin A.; Herring, Garth; Johnson, Branden L.; Graw, Rick

    2016-01-01

    Remote high-elevation lakes represent unique environments for evaluating the bioaccumulation of atmospherically deposited mercury through freshwater food webs, as well as for evaluating the relative importance of mercury loading versus landscape influences on mercury bioaccumulation. The increase in mercury deposition to these systems over the past century, coupled with their limited exposure to direct anthropogenic disturbance make them useful indicators for estimating how changes in mercury emissions may propagate to changes in Hg bioaccumulation and ecological risk. We evaluated mercury concentrations in resident fish from 28 high-elevation, sub-alpine lakes in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Fish total mercury (THg) concentrations ranged from 4 to 438 ng/g wet weight, with a geometric mean concentration (±standard error) of 43 ± 2 ng/g ww. Fish THg concentrations were negatively correlated with relative condition factor, indicating that faster growing fish that are in better condition have lower THg concentrations. Across the 28 study lakes, mean THg concentrations of resident salmonid fishes varied as much as 18-fold among lakes. We used a hierarchal statistical approach to evaluate the relative importance of physiological, limnological, and catchment drivers of fish Hg concentrations. Our top statistical model explained 87% of the variability in fish THg concentrations among lakes with four key landscape and limnological variables: catchment conifer density (basal area of conifers within a lake's catchment), lake surface area, aqueous dissolved sulfate, and dissolved organic carbon. Conifer density within a lake's catchment was the most important variable explaining fish THg concentrations across lakes, with THg concentrations differing by more than 400 percent across the forest density spectrum. These results illustrate the importance of landscape characteristics in controlling mercury bioaccumulation in fish.

  5. Conifer density within lake catchments predicts fish mercury concentrations in remote subalpine lakes.

    PubMed

    Eagles-Smith, Collin A; Herring, Garth; Johnson, Branden; Graw, Rick

    2016-05-01

    Remote high-elevation lakes represent unique environments for evaluating the bioaccumulation of atmospherically deposited mercury through freshwater food webs, as well as for evaluating the relative importance of mercury loading versus landscape influences on mercury bioaccumulation. The increase in mercury deposition to these systems over the past century, coupled with their limited exposure to direct anthropogenic disturbance make them useful indicators for estimating how changes in mercury emissions may propagate to changes in Hg bioaccumulation and ecological risk. We evaluated mercury concentrations in resident fish from 28 high-elevation, sub-alpine lakes in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Fish total mercury (THg) concentrations ranged from 4 to 438 ng/g wet weight, with a geometric mean concentration (±standard error) of 43 ± 2 ng/g ww. Fish THg concentrations were negatively correlated with relative condition factor, indicating that faster growing fish that are in better condition have lower THg concentrations. Across the 28 study lakes, mean THg concentrations of resident salmonid fishes varied as much as 18-fold among lakes. We used a hierarchal statistical approach to evaluate the relative importance of physiological, limnological, and catchment drivers of fish Hg concentrations. Our top statistical model explained 87% of the variability in fish THg concentrations among lakes with four key landscape and limnological variables: catchment conifer density (basal area of conifers within a lake's catchment), lake surface area, aqueous dissolved sulfate, and dissolved organic carbon. Conifer density within a lake's catchment was the most important variable explaining fish THg concentrations across lakes, with THg concentrations differing by more than 400 percent across the forest density spectrum. These results illustrate the importance of landscape characteristics in controlling mercury bioaccumulation in fish. Published by Elsevier

  6. Some climatological factors of pine in the lake toba catchment area

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nasution, Z.

    2018-02-01

    The article deals with climatological factors of Pine at the Lake Toba Catchment Area also called drained basin, Pinus merkusii is a plant endemic in Sumatra. A central population of Pine in North Sumatra is located in the Tapanuli region to south of Lake Toba. Junghuhn discovered the species in the mountains range of Sipirok. He provisionally named the species as Pinus sumatrana. The article presents a detail analysis of approaches to climate factors, considers rainfall, air temperature, humidity, stemflow, throughfall and Interception following calculation of regression to determine relationship between precipitation with stemflow and interception. Stemflow, it is highly significant with significance of difference between correlation coefficients and z normal distribution. Temperature and relative humidity are the important components in the climate. These components influence the evaporation process and rainfall in the catchment. Pinus merkusii has the big crown interception. Stemflow and Interception has an opposite relation. Increasing of interception capacity will decrease stemflow. This type of Pine also has rough bark however significant channels so that, it flows water even during the wet season and caused the stemflow in Pinus merkusii relatively bigger.

  7. Simulating Lake-Groundwater Interactions During Decadal Climate Cycles: Accounting For Variable Lake Area In The Watershed

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Virdi, M. L.; Lee, T. M.

    2009-12-01

    The volume and extent of a lake within the topo-bathymetry of a watershed can change substantially during wetter and drier climate cycles, altering the interaction of the lake with the groundwater flow system. Lake Starr and other seepage lakes in the permeable sandhills of central Florida are vulnerable to climate changes as they rely exclusively on rainfall and groundwater for inflows in a setting where annual rainfall and recharge vary widely. The groundwater inflow typically arrives from a small catchment area bordering the lake. The sinkhole origin of these lakes combined with groundwater pumping from underlying aquifers further complicate groundwater interactions. Understanding the lake-groundwater interactions and their effects on lake stage over multi-decadal climate cycles is needed to manage groundwater pumping and public expectation about future lake levels. The interdependence between climate, recharge, changing lake area and the groundwater catchment pose unique challenges to simulating lake-groundwater interactions. During the 10-year study period, Lake Starr stage fluctuated more than 13 feet and the lake surface area receded and expanded from 96 acres to 148 acres over drier and wetter years that included hurricanes, two El Nino events and a La Nina event. The recently developed Unsaturated Zone Flow (UZF1) and Lake (LAK7) packages for MODFLOW-2005 were used to simulate the changing lake sizes and the extent of the groundwater catchment contributing flow to the lake. The lake area was discretized to occupy the largest surface area at the highest observed stage and then allowed to change size. Lake cells convert to land cells and receive infiltration as receding lake area exposes the underlying unsaturated zone to rainfall and recharge. The unique model conceptualization also made it possible to capture the dynamic size of the groundwater catchment contributing to lake inflows, as the surface area and volume of the lake changed during the study

  8. Large catchment area recharges Titan's Ontario Lacus

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dhingra, Rajani D.; Barnes, Jason W.; Yanites, Brian J.; Kirk, Randolph L.

    2018-01-01

    We seek to address the question of what processes are at work to fill Ontario Lacus while other, deeper south polar basins remain empty. Our hydrological analysis indicates that Ontario Lacus has a catchment area spanning 5.5% of Titan's surface and a large catchment area to lake surface area ratio. This large catchment area translates into large volumes of liquid making their way to Ontario Lacus after rainfall. The areal extent of the catchment extends to at least southern mid-latitudes (40°S). Mass conservation calculations indicate that runoff alone might completely fill Ontario Lacus within less than half a Titan year (1 Titan year = 29.5 Earth years) assuming no infiltration. Cassini Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) observations of clouds over the southern mid and high-latitudes are consistent with precipitation feeding Ontario's large catchment area. This far-flung rain may be keeping Ontario Lacus filled, making it a liquid hydrocarbon oasis in the relatively dry south polar region.

  9. Hydrology, nutrient concentrations, and nutrient yields in nearshore areas of four lakes in northern Wisconsin, 1999-2001

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Graczyk, David J.; Hunt, Randall J.; Greb, Steven R.; Buchwald, Cheryl A.; Krohelski, James T.

    2003-01-01

    The effects of shoreline development on water quality and nutrient yields in nearshore areas of four lakes in northern Wisconsin were investigated from October 1999 through September 2001. The study measured surface runoff and ground-water flows from paired developed (sites containing lawn, rooftops, sidewalks, and driveways) and undeveloped (mature and immature woods) catchments adjacent to four lakes in northern Wisconsin. Water samples from surface runoff and ground water were collected and analyzed for nutrients. Coupled with water volumes, loads and subsequent yields of selected constituents were computed for developed and undeveloped catchments. The median runoff from lawn surfaces ranged from 0.0019 to 0.059 inch over the catchment area. Median surface runoff estimates from the wooded catchments were an order of magnitude less than those from the lawn catchments. The increased water volumes from the lawn catchments resulted in greater nutrient loads and subsequent annual nutrient yields from the developed sites. Soil temperature and soil moisture were measured at two sites with mixed lawn and wooded areas. At both of these sites, the area covered with a lawn commonly was warmer than the wooded area. No consistent differences in soil moisture were found. A ground-water model was constructed to simulate the local flow systems at two of the paired catchments. Model simulations showed that much of the ground water delivered to the lake originated from distant areas that did not contribute runoff directly to the lake. Surface runoff and ground-water nutrient concentrations from the lawn and wooded catchments did not have apparent patterns. Some of the median concentrations from lawns were significantly different (at the 0.05 significance level) from those at wooded catchments. Water wells and piezometers were sampled for chemical analyses three times during the study period. Variability in the shallow ground-water chemistry over time in the lawn samples was

  10. Legacy effects of nitrogen and phosphorus in a eutrophic lake catchment: Slapton Ley, SW England

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Burt, T. P.; Worrall, F.; Howden, N. J. K.

    2017-12-01

    Slapton Ley is a freshwater coastal lagoon in SW England. The Ley is part of a National Nature Reserve, which is divided into two basins: the Higher Ley (39 ha) is mainly reed swamp; the Lower Ley (77 ha) is a shallow lake (maximum depth 2.9 m). In the 1960s it became apparent that the Lower Ley was becoming increasingly eutrophic. In order to gauge water, sediment and nutrient inputs into the lake, measurements began on the main catchments in 1969. Continuous monitoring of discharge and a weekly water-sampling programme have been maintained by the Slapton Ley Field Centre ever since. The monitoring programme has been supplemented by a number of research projects which have sought to identify the salient hydrological processes operating within the Slapton catchments and to relate these to the delivery of sediment and solute to the stream system. Long-term monitoring data are also available for the catchment area including the lake from the Environment Agency.The nitrate issue has been of particular interest at Slapton; although many longer series exist for large river basins like the Thames, the long record of nitrate data for the Slapton catchments is unique in Britain for a small rural basin. Recent declines in nitrate concentration may reflect less intensive agricultural activity, lower fertiliser inputs in particular, but there may also be a legacy effect in the shallow groundwater system. Phosphorus concentrations in stream and lake water have also shown declining concentrations but a phosphorus legacy in the surficial lake sediments means that algal blooms continue to develop in most summers, as indicated by a continued rise in summer pH levels. Further field observation at the sediment-water interface is needed to better understand the biogeochemical drivers and the balance between N and P limitation in the lake. Successful management of the Nature Reserve requires better understanding of the links between hydrological and biogeochemical processes operating

  11. Assessment of Wetland Hydrological Dynamics in a Modified Catchment Basin: Case of Lake Buninjon, Victoria, Australia.

    PubMed

    Yihdego, Yohannes; Webb, John A

    2017-02-01

      The common method to estimate lake levels is the water balance equation, where water input and output result in lake storage and water level changes. However, all water balance components cannot always be quickly assessed, such as due to significant modification of the catchment area. A method that assesses general changes in lake level can be a useful tool in examining why lakes have different lake level variation patterns. Assessment of wetlands using the dynamics of the historical hydrological and hydrogeological data set can provide important insights into variations in wetland levels in different parts of the world. A case study from a saline landscape, Lake Buninjon, Australia, is presented. The aim of the present study was to determine how climate, river regime, and lake hydrological properties independently influence lake water levels and salinity, leaving the discrepancy, for the effect of the non-climatic/catchment modification in the past and the model shows that surface inflow is most sensitive variable. The method, together with the analysis and interpretation, might be of interest to wider community to assess its response to natural/anthropogenic stress and decision choices for its ecological, social, scientific value, and mitigation measures to safe guard the wetland biodiversity in a catchment basin.

  12. Lake level fluctuations and catchment dynamics at Lake Ohrid (Macedonia, Albania) during MIS6 and MIS5

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Francke, Alexander; Wagner, Bernd; Just, Janna; Sadori, Laura; Masi, Alessia; Vogel, Hendrik; Lindhorst, Katja; Krastel, Sebastian; Dosseto, Anthony; Rothacker, Leo; Leicher, Niklas; Gromig, Raphael

    2016-04-01

    191 ka and 71 ka can also be seen in the catchment dynamics around the lake. Extraordinary high sedimentation rates, high clastic and negligible authigenic matter concentrations in DEEP site sediments during MIS6 imply enhanced erosion in the catchment. Thereby, elemental ratios (Zr/K) and environmental magnetic data (S-ratio) suggest that predominantly the products of chemical weathered, K-depleted old soils were transported into the lake. In contrast, a low sedimentation rate despite high authigenic matter concentrations during MIS5 implies less erosion in the catchment. In order to obtain more information about the catchment dynamics at Lake Ohrid, future studies will encompass the analyses of uranium and lithium isotopes. U isotopes (234U and 238U) can be used to assess the balance between deep and shallow erosion, while Li isotopes (7Li and 6Li) can inform on the extent of chemical weathering in the sediment source area. The application of these tools on a Late Glacial to Holocene record from Lake Dojran (Macedonia, Greece) has recently shown that climatic perturbations (8.2 and 4.2 cooling event) and anthropogenic land use have a direct impact on the catchment dynamics.

  13. Catchment and atmospheric effects on acidity of lakes in the northeastern United States

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Davis, R.B.; Anderson, D.S.; Rhodes, T.E.

    1995-06-01

    Sedimentary evidence from 12 lakes in northeastern United States reveals that both catchment and atmospheric processes have caused changes in lake acidity. Diatom remains indicate pH 5.2 to 5.8 (one lake 6.8) for one to two centuries before impacts on the catchment by Euro-americans. These low-alkalinity lakes were very sensitive to altered fluxes of base cations and acids. Several lakes increased in pH by 0.2 to 0.6 unit in the 1800s and early 1900s when their catchments were logged. Re-acidification of some of the lakes was initially due to forest succession. Older sediment from one of the lakes also showsmore » alkalization by natural disturbance, and acidification paralleling forest succession. However, much of the recent acidification, to uniquely low levels by the 1970s is due to high sulfur deposition.« less

  14. Modelling catchment hydrological responses in a Himalayan Lake as a function of changing land use and land cover

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Badar, Bazigha; Romshoo, Shakil A.; Khan, M. A.

    2013-04-01

    In this paper, we evaluate the impact of changing land use/land cover (LULC) on the hydrological processes in Dal lake catchment of Kashmir Himalayas by integrating remote sensing, simulation modelling and extensive field observations. Over the years, various anthropogenic pressures in the lake catchment have significantly altered the land system, impairing, inter-alia, sustained biotic communities and water quality of the lake. The primary objective of this paper was to help a better understanding of the LULC change, its driving forces and the overall impact on the hydrological response patterns. Multi-sensor and multi-temporal satellite data for 1992 and 2005 was used for determining the spatio-temporal dynamics of the lake catchment. Geographic Information System (GIS) based simulation model namely Generalized Watershed Loading Function (GWLF) was used to model the hydrological processes under the LULC conditions. We discuss spatio-temporal variations in LULC and identify factors contributing to these variations and analyze the corresponding impacts of the change on the hydrological processes like runoff, erosion and sedimentation. The simulated results on the hydrological responses reveal that depletion of the vegetation cover in the study area and increase in impervious and bare surface cover due to anthropogenic interventions are the primary reasons for the increased runoff, erosion and sediment discharges in the Dal lake catchment. This study concludes that LULC change in the catchment is a major concern that has disrupted the ecological stability and functioning of the Dal lake ecosystem.

  15. Mercury pollution in the lake sediments and catchment soils of anthropogenically-disturbed sites across England.

    PubMed

    Yang, Handong; Turner, Simon; Rose, Neil L

    2016-12-01

    Sediment cores and soil samples were taken from nine lakes and their catchments across England with varying degrees of direct human disturbance. Mercury (Hg) analysis demonstrated a range of impacts, many from local sources, resulting from differing historical and contemporary site usage and management. Lakes located in industrially important areas showed clear evidence for early Hg pollution with concentrations in sediments reaching 400-1600 ng g -1 prior to the mid-19th century. Control of inputs resulting from local management practices and a greater than 90% reduction in UK Hg emissions since 1970 were reflected by reduced Hg pollution in some lakes. However, having been a sink for Hg deposition for centuries, polluted catchment soils are now the major Hg source for most lakes and consequently recovery from reduced Hg deposition is being delayed. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  16. Lake sediment records on climate change and human activities in the Xingyun Lake catchment, SW China.

    PubMed

    Zhang, Wenxiang; Ming, Qingzhong; Shi, Zhengtao; Chen, Guangjie; Niu, Jie; Lei, Guoliang; Chang, Fengqin; Zhang, Hucai

    2014-01-01

    Sediments from Xinyun Lake in central Yunnan, southwest China, provide a record of environmental history since the Holocene. With the application of multi-proxy indicators (total organic carbon (TOC), total nitrogen (TN), δ13C and δ15N isotopes, C/N ratio, grain size, magnetic susceptibility (MS) and CaCO3 content), as well as accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) 14C datings, four major climatic stages during the Holocene have been identified in Xingyun's catchment. A marked increase in lacustrine palaeoproductivity occurred from 11.06 to 9.98 cal. ka BP, which likely resulted from an enhanced Asian southwest monsoon and warm-humid climate. Between 9.98 and 5.93 cal. ka BP, a gradually increased lake level might have reached the optimum water depth, causing a marked decline in coverage by aquatic plants and lake productivity of the lake. This was caused by strong Asian southwest monsoon, and coincided with the global Holocene Optimum. During the period of 5.60-1.35 cal. ka BP, it resulted in a warm and dry climate at this stage, which is comparable to the aridification of India during the mid- and late Holocene. The intensifying human activity and land-use in the lake catchment since the early Tang Dynasty (∼1.35 cal. ka BP) were associated with the ancient Dian culture within Xingyun's catchment. The extensive deforestation and development of agriculture in the lake catchment caused heavy soil loss. Our study clearly shows that long-term human activities and land-use change have strongly impacted the evolution of the lake environment and therefore modulated the sediment records of the regional climate in central Yunnan for more than one thousand years.

  17. Analysis of land use changes over the last 200 years in the catchment of Lake Czechowskie (Pomerania, northern Poland)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tyszkowski, Sebastian; Kaczmarek, Halina

    2014-05-01

    Changes in land cover in the catchment area are, beside climate change, some of the major factors affecting sedimentation processes in lakes. With increasing human impact, changes in land cover no longer depend primarily on climate. In relation to research on sediments of Lake Czechowskie in Pomeranian Province in North Poland, land use changes over the last 200 years were analysed, with particular reference to deforestation or afforestation. The study area was the lake catchment, which covers nearly 20 km2. The analysis was based on archival and contemporary cartographic and photogrammetric materials, georeferenced and rectified using ArcGIS software. The following materials were used: Schrötter-Engelhart, Karte von Ost-Preussen nebst Preussisch Litthauen und West-Preussen nebst dem Netzdistrict, 1:50 000, section 92, 93, 1796-1802; Map Messtishchblatt, 1:25000, sheet Czarnen, (mapping conducted in 1874), 1932; Map WIG (Military Geographical Institute - Wojskowy Instytut Geograficzny), 1:25000, sheet Osowo, (mapping conducted in 1929-31), 1933; aerial photos 1:13000, 1964, 1969; 1:25000, 1987; 1:26000, 1997; aerial ortophotomap , 1:5000, 2010. Today, over 60% of the catchment of Lake Czechowskie is covered with forests, dominated by planted Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris), while the remaining areas are used for agricultural purposes or are built up. The first cartographic materials indicate that in the late 18th c., forest covered almost 50% of the catchment surface. By the year 1870, there was a significant reduction in the forested area, as its contribution fell to 40%. Deforestation took place mainly between the main villages. In the 1920s the forest cover increased to 44%. Today, almost the entire lake is surrounded by forest and a wetland belt (at least 0.5 km wide). Deforestation in the catchment should not be attributed solely to logging because the area of Tuchola Forests (Bory Tucholskie) was repeatedly affected by natural disasters. In the 19th c. these

  18. Remote sensing appraisal of Lake Chad shrinkage connotes severe impacts on green economics and socio-economics of the catchment area.

    PubMed

    Onamuti, Olapeju Y; Okogbue, Emmanuel C; Orimoloye, Israel R

    2017-11-01

    Lake Chad commonly serves as a major hub of fertile economic activities for the border communities and contributes immensely to the national growth of all the countries that form its boundaries. However, incessant and multi-decadal drying via climate change pose greater threats to this transnational water resource, and adverse effects on ecological sustainability and socio-economic status of the catchment area. Therefore, this study assessed the extent of shrinkage of Lake Chad using remote sensing. Landsat imageries of the lake and its surroundings between 1987 and 2005 were retrieved from Global Land Cover Facility website and analysed using Integrated Land and Water Information System version 3.3 (ILWIS 3.3). Supervised classification of area around the lake was performed into various land use/land cover classes, and the shrunk part of its environs was assessed based on the land cover changes. The shrinkage trend within the study period was also analysed. The lake water size reduced from 1339.018 to 130.686 km 2 (4.08-3.39%) in 1987-2005. The supervised classification of the Landsat imageries revealed an increase in portion of the lake covered by bare ground and sandy soil within the reference years (13 490.8-17 503.10 km 2 ) with 4.98% total range of increase. The lake portion intersected with vegetated ground and soil also reduced within the period (11 046.44-10 078.82 km 2 ) with 5.40% (967.62 km 2 ) total decrease. The shrunk part of the lake covered singly with vegetation increased by 2.74% from 1987 to 2005. The shrunk part of the lake reduced to sand and turbid water showed 5.62% total decrease from 1987 to 2005 and a total decrease of 1805.942 km 2 in area. The study disclosed an appalling rate of shrinkage and damaging influences on the hydrologic potential, eco-sustainability and socio-economics of the drainage area as revealed using ILWIS 3.3.

  19. Application of the MAGIC model to the Glacier Lakes catchments

    Treesearch

    John O. Reuss

    1994-01-01

    The MAGIC model (Cosby et al. 1985, 1986) was calibrated for East and West Glacier Lakes, two adjacent high-altitude (3200 m- 3700 m) catchments in the Medicine Bow National Forest of southern Wyoming. This model uses catchment characteristics including weathering rates, soil chemical characteristics, hydrological parameters, and precipitation amounts and composition...

  20. Factors affecting ground-water exchange and catchment size for Florida lakes in mantled karst terrain

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Lee, Terrie Mackin

    2002-01-01

    In the mantled karst terrain of Florida, the size of the catchment delivering ground-water inflow to lakes is often considerably smaller than the topographically defined drainage basin. The size is determined by a balance of factors that act individually to enhance or diminish the hydraulic connection between the lake and the adjacent surficial aquifer, as well as the hydraulic connection between the surficial aquifer and the deeper limestone aquifer. Factors affecting ground-water exchange and the size of the ground-water catchment for lakes in mantled karst terrain were examined by: (1) reviewing the physical and hydrogeological characteristics of 14 Florida lake basins with available ground-water inflow estimates, and (2) simulating ground-water flow in hypothetical lake basins. Variably-saturated flow modeling was used to simulate a range of physical and hydrogeologic factors observed at the 14 lake basins. These factors included: recharge rate to the surficial aquifer, thickness of the unsaturated zone, size of the topographically defined basin, depth of the lake, thickness of the surficial aquifer, hydraulic conductivity of the geologic units, the location and size of karst subsidence features beneath and onshore of the lake, and the head in the Upper Floridan aquifer. Catchment size and the magnitude of ground-water inflow increased with increases in recharge rate to the surficial aquifer, the size of the topographically defined basin, hydraulic conductivity in the surficial aquifer, the degree of confinement of the deeper Upper Floridan aquifer, and the head in the Upper Floridan aquifer. The catchment size and magnitude of ground-water inflow increased with decreases in the number and size of karst subsidence features in the basin, and the thickness of the unsaturated zone near the lake. Model results, although qualitative, provided insights into: (1) the types of lake basins in mantled karst terrain that have the potential to generate small and large

  1. Long-Term Water Quality Studies in a Eutrophic Lake Catchment: Slapton Ley, SW England

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Burt, T. P.; Worrall, F.; Howden, N. J. K.

    2014-12-01

    Monitoring is the process by which we keep the behaviour of the environment in view, an essential way of discovering whether there are significant undesirable changes taking place. Long-term datasets reveal important patterns for scientists to explain and are essential for testing hypotheses undreamt of at the time monitoring scheme was set up. Many environmental processes take place over relatively long periods of time; very often, subtle processes are embedded within highly variable systems so that their weak signal cannot be extracted without a long record. Slapton Ley is a freshwater coastal lagoon in SW England. The Ley is part of a National Nature Reserve, wetland 116 ha in area which is divided into two basins: the Higher Ley (39 ha) is mainly reed swamp; the Lower Ley (77 ha) is open water. In the 1960s it became apparent that the Ley was becoming increasingly eutrophic. In order to gauge water, sediment and nutrient inputs into the lake, measurements began on the main catchments in late 1969. Continuous monitoring of discharge and a weekly water-sampling programme have been maintained by the Slapton Ley Field Centre ever since. The monitoring programme has been supplemented by a number of research projects which have sought to identify the salient hydrological processes operating within the Slapton catchments and to relate these to the delivery of sediment and solute to the stream system. The nitrate issue has been of particular interest at Slapton; although many longer series exist for large rivers like the Thames, the long record of nitrate data for the Slapton catchments is unique in Britain for small rural basins. Other issues to be explored will be the phosphorus legacy in lake sediments and a long-term decline in lake pH. The Slapton water quality record has confirmed that undesirable changes are taking place, revealed evidence of important patterns to be explained, allowed testing of new hypotheses (e.g. links with land-use change) and helped

  2. Memory of the Lake Rotorua catchment - time lag of the water in the catchment and delayed arrival of contaminants from past land use activities

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Morgenstern, Uwe; Daughney, Christopher J.; Stewart, Michael K.; McDonnell, Jeffrey J.

    2013-04-01

    The transit time distribution of streamflow is a fundamental descriptor of the flowpaths of water through a catchment and the storage of water within it, controlling its response to landuse change, pollution, ecological degradation, and climate change. Significant time lags (catchment memory) in the responses of streams to these stressors and their amelioration or restoration have been observed. Lag time can be quantified via water transit time of the catchment discharge. Mean transit times can be in the order of years and decades (Stewart et al 2012, Morgenstern et al., 2010). If the water passes through large groundwater reservoirs, it is difficult to quantify and predict the lag time. A pulse shaped tracer that moves with the water can allow quantification of the mean transit time. Environmental tritium is the ideal tracer of the water cycle. Tritium is part of the water molecule, is not affected by chemical reactions in the aquifer, and the bomb tritium from the atmospheric nuclear weapons testing represents a pulse shaped tracer input that allows for very accurate measurement of the age distribution parameters of the water in the catchment discharge. Tritium time series data from all catchment discharges (streams and springs) into Lake Rotorua, New Zealand, allow for accurate determination of the age distribution parameters. The Lake Rotorua catchment tritium data from streams and springs are unique, with high-quality tritium data available over more than four decades, encompassing the time when the bomb-tritium moved through the groundwater system, and from a very high number of streams and springs. Together with the well-defined tritium input into the Rotorua catchment, this data set allows for the best understanding of the water dynamics through a large scale catchment, including validation of complicated water mixing models. Mean transit times of the main streams into the lake range between 27 and 170 years. With such old water discharging into the lake

  3. Moments of catchment storm area

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Eagleson, P. S.; Wang, Q.

    1985-01-01

    The portion of a catchment covered by a stationary rainstorm is modeled by the common area of two overlapping circles. Given that rain occurs within the catchment and conditioned by fixed storm and catchment sizes, the first two moments of the distribution of the common area are derived from purely geometrical considerations. The variance of the wetted fraction is shown to peak when the catchment size is equal to the size of the predominant storm. The conditioning on storm size is removed by assuming a probability distribution based upon the observed fractal behavior of cloud and rainstorm areas.

  4. Introduction to paleoenvironments of Bear Lake, Utah and Idaho, and its catchment

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Rosenbaum, Joseph G.; Kaufman, Darrell S.

    2009-01-01

    In 1996 a group led by the late Kerry Kelts (University of Minnesota) and Robert Thompson (U.S. Geological Survey) acquired three piston cores (BL96-1, -2, and -3) from Bear Lake. The coring arose from their recognition of Bear Lake as a potential repository of long records of paleoenvironmental change. They recognized that the lake is located in an area that is sensitive to changes in regional climate patterns (Dean et al., this volume), that the lake basin is long lived (see Colman, 2006; Kaufman et al., this volume), and that, unlike many lakes in the Great Basin, Bear Lake was never dry during warm dry periods. Bear Lake lies in the northeastern Great Basin to the northeast of Great Salt Lake, just south of the Snake River drainage, and a short distance west of the Green River drainage that makes up part of the Upper Colorado River Basin (Fig. 1). Similarity among the historic Bear Lake and Great Salt Lake hydrographs and flows on the Green River indicates that the hydrology of Bear Lake reflects regional precipitation (Fig. 2). Therefore, paleorecords from Bear Lake are important to understanding past climate for a large region, including the Upper Colorado River Basin, the source of much of the water for the southwestern United States. Initially, paleoenvironmental studies of Bear Lake sediments focused on cores BL96-1, -2, and -3. Additional coring was conducted to elucidate the spatial distribution of sedimentary units and to extend the record back in time. The study was also expanded to include extensive study of the catchment, including the properties of catchment materials and the processes that could potentially affect the delivery of catchment materials to the lake. Cores BL96-1, -2, and -3 were taken with a Kullenburg piston corer along an east–west profile in roughly 50, 40, and 30 m of water, respectively (Table 1, Fig. 3). These three cores, each taken as a single 4- to 5-m-long segment, provide a nearly complete composite section from ca. 26 cal

  5. Elaboration of a complex GIS application in a catchment area.

    PubMed

    Németh, T; Szabó, J; Pásztor, L; Bakacsi, Zs

    2002-01-01

    Rearrangement of land resources after political changes has not yet been finished in Hungary. It is almost impossible to collect information necessary for planning activities on outer areas of settlements. The data are distributed among various organizations and can be found in diverse forms or there are no available data at all. However water quality protection has become legally ordered concerning municipal activities around Lake Balaton which is considered as the most important recreation area and tourist target in Hungary and is also affected by a number of factors providing sources of environmental conflicts. Settlements in a catchment area (Tetves Creek) on the southern shoreline of Lake Balaton in Central Hungary tendered a complex project for collecting sources of authentic data of the Hungarian rural areas along with systematizing and saving these data in a uniform GIS. An application using Autodesk MapGuide Program for Internet realization was developed. The implemented web-based system can be used in Internet and Intranet environments.

  6. A Tale of Two Lakes: Catchment-Specific Responses to Late Holocene Cooling in Northwest Iceland

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Crump, S. E.; Florian, C. R.; Miller, G. H.; Geirsdottir, A.; Zalzal, K.

    2015-12-01

    Lake sediments are frequently utilized for reconstructing paleoclimate in the Arctic, particularly in Iceland, where high sedimentation rates and abundant tephra layers allow for the development high-resolution, well-dated records. However, when developing climate records using biological proxies, catchment-specific processes must be understood and separated from the primary climate signal in order to develop accurate reconstructions. In this study, we compare proxy records (biogenic silica [BSi], C:N, ∂13C, and algal pigments) of the last 2 ka from two nearby lakes in northwest Iceland in order to elucidate how different catchments respond to similar climate history. Torfdalsvatn and Bæjarvötn are two coastal lakes located 60 km apart; mean summer temperatures are highly correlated between the two sites over the instrumental record, and likely for the past 2 ka as well. Consistent with other Icelandic records, both lakes record cooling as decreasing aquatic productivity (BSi) over the last 2 ka. Both sediment cores also record the onset of landscape destabilization, reflected by increased terrestrial input (C:N and ∂13C), which suggests an intensification of cooling. However, the timing and magnitude of this shift differ markedly between lakes. Biological proxies indicate gradual landscape destabilization beginning ~900 AD at Torfdalsvatn in contrast to a sharper, more intense landscape destabilization at ~1400 AD at Bæjarvötn. Because temperatures at the two lakes are well correlated, contrasting proxy responses are likely the result of catchment-specific thresholds and processes. Specifically, a steeper catchment at Bæjarvötn may allow for a more pronounced influx of terrestrial material as the critical shear stress for soil erosion is surpassed more readily. The impact of human colonization on erosion rates is also critical to assess, and recent developments in lipid biomarkers will allow for more precise reconstructions of human activity in each

  7. Extent and drainage status of organic soils in the Lake Victoria catchment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Barthelmes, Reni; Barthelmes, Alexandra; Joosten, Hans

    2016-04-01

    When considering peatlands and organic soils in the tropics, the huge areas in SE Asia prevail in public and scientific perception, whereas Africa has largely been out of focus. However, East Africa contains large areas of organic soils as well. They basically occur in the high altitudes of the uplifted flanks of the East African Rift System, isolated volcanoes and the Ethiopian highlands, in the Zambezian floodplains (e.g. Zambia), and in coastal environments (e.g. Mozambique and Madagascar). We used a mapping approach that integrates old field data and maps, specialized landscape and peatland-related knowledge, and modern RS and GIS techniques to elaborate a comprehensive and rather reliable overview of organic soils (incl. peatlands) in the Lake Victoria catchment. Maps at a scale of 1:25,000 have been prepared for Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. The land use intensity has been estimated for all organic soil areas based on satellite and aerial imagery. Feeding the Nile River, sustaining a fast growing and widely poor population and already facing climatic changes, organic soils of the Lake Victoria neighbouring countries are partially under heavy threat. We mapped 10,645 km2 of organic soils for the entire area of which 8,860 km2 (83.2%) seem to be in near natural condition. We assume slightly drainage and low degradation for 564 km2 (5.3%) and intensive drainage and heavy degradation for 1,222 km2 (11.5%). Degradation hotspot is Burundi with 522 km2 (79.5%) of heavily drained and degrading organic soils. This area assessment has been quite conservative to not overestimate the extent of organic soils. A reserve of 5-7,000 km2 of wetlands in the Lake Victoria catchment may include peatlands too, which needs to be confirmed in field surveys. Considering the key role of peatlands and organic soils for water provision and regulation and their rapid degradation due to drainage and inappropriate use, this inventory might be a step towards organic soil

  8. Catchment-mediated atmospheric nitrogen deposition drives ecological change in two alpine lakes in SE Tibet.

    PubMed

    Hu, Zhujun; Anderson, Nicholas John; Yang, Xiangdong; McGowan, Suzanne

    2014-05-01

    The south-east margin of Tibet is highly sensitive to global environmental change pressures, in particular, high contemporary reactive nitrogen (Nr) deposition rates (ca. 40 kg ha(-1)  yr(-1) ), but the extent and timescale of recent ecological change is not well prescribed. Multiproxy analyses (diatoms, pigments and geochemistry) of (210) Pb-dated sediment cores from two alpine lakes in Sichuan were used to assess whether they have undergone ecological change comparable to those in Europe and North America over the last two centuries. The study lakes have contrasting catchment-to-lake ratios and vegetation cover: Shade Co has a relatively larger catchment and denser alpine shrub than Moon Lake. Both lakes exhibited unambiguous increasing production since the late 19th to early 20th. Principle component analysis was used to summarize the trends of diatom and pigment data after the little ice age (LIA). There was strong linear change in biological proxies at both lakes, which were not consistent with regional temperature, suggesting that climate is not the primary driver of ecological change. The multiproxy analysis indicated an indirect ecological response to Nr deposition at Shade Co mediated through catchment processes since ca. 1930, while ecological change at Moon Lake started earlier (ca. 1880) and was more directly related to Nr deposition (depleted δ(15) N). The only pronounced climate effect was evidenced by changes during the LIA when photoautotrophic groups shifted dramatically at Shade Co (a 4-fold increase in lutein concentration) and planktonic diatom abundance declined at both sites because of longer ice cover. The substantial increases in aquatic production over the last ca. 100 years required a substantial nutrient subsidy and the geochemical data point to a major role for Nr deposition although dust cannot be excluded. The study also highlights the importance of lake and catchment morphology for determining the response of alpine lakes to

  9. Rock magnetic properties of sediments from Lake Sanabria and its catchment (NW Spain): paleoenvironmental implications

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Larrasoaña, J. C.; Borruel, V.; Gómez-Paccard, M.; Rico, M.; Valero-Garces, B.; Moreno-Caballud, A.; Soto, R.

    2013-12-01

    Lake Sanabria is located in the NW Spanish mountains at 1000 m a.s.l., and constitutes the largest lake of glacial origin in the Iberian Peninsula. Here we present an environmental magnetic study of a Late Pleistocene-Holocene sediment core from Lake Sanabria and from different lithologies that crop out in its catchment, which includes Paleozoic plutonic, metamorphic and vulcanosedimentary rocks, and Quaternary deposits of glacial origin. This study was designed to complement sedimentologic and geochemical studies aimed at unraveling the climatic evolution of the NW Iberian Peninsula during the last deglaciation. Our results indicate that magnetite and pyrrhotite dominate the magnetic assemblage of both the sediments from the lower half of the studied sequence (25.6 - 13 cal kyr BP) deposited in a proglacial environment, and the Paleozoic rocks that make up most of the catchment of the lake. The occurrence of these minerals both in the catchment rocks and in the lake sediments indicates that sedimentation was then driven by the erosion of a glacial flour, which suffered minimal chemical transformation in response to a rapid and short routing to the lake. Sediments from the upper half of the studied sequence, accumulated after 12.4 cal kyr BP in a fluviolacustrine environment, contain magnetite and greigite. This points to a prominent role of post-depositional reductive dissolution, driven by a sharp increase in the accumulation of organic matter into the lake and the creation of anoxic conditions in the sediments, in shaping the magnetic assemblage of Holocene sediments. Pyrrhotite is stable under reducing conditions as opposed to magnetite, which is unstable. We therefore interpret that previous pedogenic processes occurred in the then deglaciated catchment of the lake were responsible for the oxidation of pyrrhotite and authigenic formation of magnetite, which survived subsequent reductive diagenesis given its initial larger concentrations. This interpretation is

  10. An investigation of enhanced recessions in Poyang Lake: Comparison of Yangtze River and local catchment impacts

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhang, Qi; Ye, Xu-chun; Werner, Adrian D.; Li, Yun-liang; Yao, Jing; Li, Xiang-hu; Xu, Chong-yu

    2014-09-01

    Changes in lake hydrological regimes and the associated impacts on water supplies and ecosystems are internationally recognized issues. During the past decade, the persistent dryness of Poyang Lake (the largest freshwater lake in China) has caused water supply and irrigation crises for the 12.4 million inhabitants of the region. There is conjecture as to whether this dryness is caused by climate variability and/or human activities. This study examines long-term datasets of catchment inflow and Lake outflow, and employs a physically-based hydrodynamic model to explore catchment and Yangtze River controls on the Lake's hydrology. Lake water levels fell to their lowest during 2001-2010 relative to previous decades. The average Lake size and volume reduced by 154 km2 and 11 × 108 m3 during the same period, compared to those for the preceding period (1970-2000). Model simulations demonstrated that the drainage effect of the Yangtze River was the primary causal factor. Modeling also revealed that, compared to climate variability impacts on the Lake catchment, modifications to Yangtze River flows from the Three Gorges Dam have had a much greater impact on the seasonal (September-October) dryness of the Lake. Yangtze River effects are attenuated in the Lake with distance from the River, but nonetheless propagate some 100 km to the Lake's upstream limit. Proposals to build additional dams in the upper Yangtze River and its tributaries are expected to impose significant challenges for the management of Poyang Lake. Hydraulic engineering to modify the flow regime between the Lake and the Yangtze River would somewhat resolve the seasonal dryness of the Lake, but will likely introduce other issues in terms of water quality and aquatic ecosystem health, requiring considerable further research.

  11. Modelling cascading and erosional processes for glacial lake outburst floods in the Quillcay catchment, Huaraz, Cordillera Blanca, Peru

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Baer, Patrick; Huggel, Christian; Frey, Holger; Chisolm, Rachel; McKinney, Daene; McArdell, Brian; Portocarrero, Cesar; Cochachin, Alejo

    2016-04-01

    Huaraz as the largest city in Cordillera Blanca has faced a major disaster in 1941, when an outburst flood from Lake Palcacocha killed several thousand people and caused widespread destruction. Recent studies on glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) modelling and early warning systems focussed on Lake Palcacocha which has regrown after the 1941 event, from a volume of half a million m3 in 1974 to a total volume of more than 17 million m3 today. However, little research has been conducted so far concerning the situation of other lakes in the Quillcay catchment, namely Lake Tullparaju (12 mill. m3) and Cuchillacocha (2.5 mill. m3), which both also pose a threat to the city of Huaraz. In this study, we modelled the cascading processes at Lake Tullparaju and Lake Cuchillacocha including rock/ice avalanches, flood wave propagation in the lake and the resulting outburst flood and debris flows. We used the 2D model RAMMS to simulate ice avalanches. Model output was used as input for analytical 2D and 3D calculations of impact waves in the lakes that allowed us to estimate dam overtopping wave height. Since the dimension of the hanging glaciers above all three lakes is comparable, the scenarios in this study have been defined similar to the previous study at Lake Palcacocha. The flow propagation model included sediment entrainment in the steeper parts of the catchment, adding up to 50% to the initial flow volume. The results for total travel time as well as for inundated areas and flow depth and velocity in the city of Huaraz are comparable to the previous studies at Lake Palcacocha. This underlines the importance of considering also these lakes within an integral hazard analysis for the city of Huaraz. A main challenge for modelling GLOFs in the Quillcay catchment using RAMMS is the long runout distance of over 22 km combined with the very low slope gradient of the river. Further studies could improve the process understanding and could focus on more detailed investigations

  12. Application of a Three-Dimensional Water Quality Model as a Decision Support Tool for the Management of Land-Use Changes in the Catchment of an Oligotrophic Lake

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Trolle, Dennis; Spigel, Bob; Hamilton, David P.; Norton, Ned; Sutherland, Donna; Plew, David; Allan, Mathew G.

    2014-09-01

    While expansion of agricultural land area and intensification of agricultural practices through irrigation and fertilizer use can bring many benefits to communities, intensifying land use also causes more contaminants, such as nutrients and pesticides, to enter rivers, lakes, and groundwater. For lakes such as Benmore in the Waitaki catchment, South Island, New Zealand, an area which is currently undergoing agricultural intensification, this could potentially lead to marked degradation of water clarity as well as effects on ecological, recreational, commercial, and tourism values. We undertook a modeling study to demonstrate science-based options for consideration of agricultural intensification in the catchment of Lake Benmore. Based on model simulations of a range of potential future nutrient loadings, it is clear that different areas within Lake Benmore may respond differently to increased nutrient loadings. A western arm (Ahuriri) could be most severely affected by land-use changes and associated increases in nutrient loadings. Lake-wide annual averages of an eutrophication indicator, the trophic level index (TLI) were derived from simulated chlorophyll a, total nitrogen, and total phosphorus concentrations. Results suggest that the lake will shift from oligotrophic (TLI = 2-3) to eutrophic (TLI = 4-5) as external loadings are increased eightfold over current baseline loads, corresponding to the potential land-use intensification in the catchment. This study provides a basis for use of model results in a decision-making process by outlining the environmental consequences of a series of land-use management options, and quantifying nutrient load limits needed to achieve defined trophic state objectives.

  13. The response of sediment source and transfer dynamics to land use (change) in the Lake Manyara catchment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wynants, Maarten; Munishi, Linus; Solomon, Henok; Grenfell, Michael; Taylor, Alex; Millward, Geoff; Boeckx, Pascal; Ndakidemi, Patrick; Gilvear, David; Blake, William

    2017-04-01

    The Lake Manyara basin in the East African Rift Region of Tanzania is considered to be an important driver for sustainable development in northern Tanzania in terms of biodiversity conservation, ecotourism, fisheries, pastoralism and (irrigation) agriculture. Besides local conservation, Lake Manyara National Park and its surroundings also have a vital function as a wildlife corridor connecting the Tarangire and Maasai steppe ecosystem with the entire northern Tanzania and Southern Kenya collective of national parks and ecosystems. However, driven by population pressure, increasing number of farmers are establishing agricultural operations in the catchment, causing a shift of the natural vegetation towards agricultural land. Furthermore, pastoralists with ever growing cattle stocks are roaming the grasslands, causing a decrease in soil structure due to overgrazing and compaction of the soil. We hypothesize that these processes increase the vulnerability to erosion, which presents a credible threat to ecosystem service provision, on the one hand the agricultural- and rangelands where loss of this finite resource threatens food security and people's livelihoods and on the other hand the water bodies, where siltation and eutrophication threatens the water quality and biodiversity. Knowledge of sediment source and transfer dynamics in the main tributaries of Lake Manyara and the response of these dynamics to land use (change) is critical to inform sustainable management policy decisions to maintain and enhance future food and water security. Using geochemical tracing techniques and Bayesian unmixing models we were able to attribute the lake sediment proportionally to its contributing tributaries. Furthermore, we were able to identify differences in erosion processes in different tributary systems using gamma spectrometry measurements of surface-elevated fallout radionuclides (137Cs and 210Pb). In our results we found that almost half of the sediment in the lake could be

  14. A review on the establishment and research in hydrological experimental areas (catchments) in plain areas in China and abroad

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yang, Hai; Wang, Chuanhai; Hua, Wenjuan

    2017-04-01

    This paper reviewed some specific conceptions of hydrological experimental areas (catchments) while found that the traditional definition of 'catchment' may be difficult to meet in plain areas. According to the review of development history and current situation of hydrological experimental areas (catchments) in plain areas in China, 4 stages were shown besides the recent 10 years, i.e., 'golden stage(1952-1966)', 'backward stage(1966-1986)', 'short recovery stage(1986-1989)' and 'stagnant stage(1986-2006)'. It gets new impetus since 2006 with some investigation work promoted by the government. Furthermore, some historic problems during establishing experimental areas (catchments) in plain areas were revealed based on the document literature and a few meaningful lessons were drawn from the past. It was also the first time to collect and classify the details of both 11 representative experimental areas in China and abroad, after that a brief comparison about the measurement level and research directions was made between two regions. Additionally, we took the experimental research work in the plain of Taihu Lake Basin as example and introduced the particular research goals and the corresponding establishing process, including how to design the experimental area, eg, size, location, land use type, arranging the measurement instruments et al. We hope such case can provide a reference for newly-building, recovering and extending hydrological experimental areasin plain areas in the future. Finally, this paper prospected the future development in establishment and research in hydrological experimental areas (catchments) in plain areas. It may be more common to see the cooperation between model scientists and field experts. Because of the comprehensive goals in water problems, researchers from various fields would work together in the future experimental research work. Scale study and modelling in plain areas will be a promising branch after some typical experimental areas

  15. The Stream-Catchment (StreamCat) and Lake-Catchment ...

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    Background/Question/MethodsLake and stream conditions respond to both natural and human-related landscape features. Characterizing these features within contributing areas (i.e., delineated watersheds) of streams and lakes could improve our understanding of how biological conditions vary spatially and improve the use, management, and restoration of these aquatic resources. However, the specialized geospatial techniques required to define and characterize stream and lake watersheds has limited their widespread use in both scientific and management efforts at large spatial scales. We developed the StreamCat and LakeCat Datasets to model, predict, and map the probable biological conditions of streams and lakes across the conterminous US (CONUS). Both StreamCat and LakeCat contain watershed-level characterizations of several hundred natural (e.g., soils, geology, climate, and land cover) and anthropogenic (e.g., urbanization, agriculture, mining, and forest management) landscape features for ca. 2.6 million stream segments and 376,000 lakes across the CONUS, respectively. These datasets can be paired with field samples to provide independent variables for modeling and other analyses. We paired 1,380 stream and 1,073 lake samples from the USEPAs National Aquatic Resource Surveys with StreamCat and LakeCat and used random forest (RF) to model and then map an invertebrate condition index and chlorophyll a concentration, respectively. Results/ConclusionsThe invertebrate

  16. Fate and Transport of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Upland Irish Headwater Lake Catchments

    PubMed Central

    Scott, Heidi E. M.; Aherne, Julian; Metcalfe, Chris D.

    2012-01-01

    Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a concern due to their carcinogenicity and propensity for transboundary atmospheric transport. Ireland is located on the western periphery of Europe and assumed to receive clean Atlantic air. As such, it has been used as an atmospheric reference for comparison to other regions. Nonetheless, few studies have evaluated concentrations of PAHs within the Irish environment. In the current study, PAHs were measured at five upland (500–800 masl) headwater lake catchments in coastal regions around Ireland, remote from industrial point source emissions. Semipermeable membrane devices were deployed in lakes for a 6-month period in July 2009, and topsoils were sampled from each catchment during October 2010. The concentrations of PAHs were low at most study sites with respect to other temperate regions. Homologue groups partitioned between lake and soil compartments based on their molecular weight were: “lighter” substances, such as Phenanthrene and Fluorene, were found in higher proportions in lakes, whereas “heavier” compounds, such as Chrysene and Benz[a]anthracene, were more prominent in soils. Concentrations of PAHs were highest at the east coast sites, potentially due to contributions from historical transboundary and regional combustion sources. PMID:23346024

  17. Impact of land use changes on hydrology of Mt. Kilimanjaro. The case of Lake Jipe catchment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ngugi, Keziah; Ogindo, Harun; Ertsen, Maurits

    2015-04-01

    Mt. Kilimanjaro is an important water tower in Kenya and Tanzania. Land degradation and land use changes have contributed to dwindling surface water resources around Mt. Kilimanjaro. This study focuses on Lake Jipe catchment of about 451Km2 (Ndetei 2011) which is mainly drained by River Lumi, a tributary of river Pangani. River Lumi starts from Mt. Kilimanjaro and flows North east wards to cross the border from Tanzania to Kenya eventually flowing into Lake Jipe which is a trans-boundary lake. The main purpose of this study was to investigate historical land use changes and relate this to reduction in surface water resources. The study will propose measures that could restore the catchment thereby enhancing surface water resources feeding Lake Jipe. A survey was conducted to document community perspectives of historical land use changes. This information was corroborated using Landsat remote sensed images spanning the period 1985-2013 to determine changes in the land cover due to human activities on Lake Jipe Catchment. River Lumi flow data was obtained from Water Resources Management Authority and analyzed for flow trends. The dwindling extent of the Lake was obtained from the community's perspective survey and by Landsat images. Community survey and remote sensing indicated clearing of the forest on the mountain and conversion of the same to crop production fields; damming of river Lumi in Tanzania, conversion of bush land to crop production fields further downstream of river Lumi and irrigation. There is heavy infestation of the invasive species Prosopis juliflora which had aggressively colonized grazing land and blocked irrigation canals. Other land use changes include land fragmentation due to subdivision. Insecure land tenure was blamed for failure by farmers to develop soil and water conservation infrastructure. Available River gauging data showed a general decline in river flow. Heavy flooding occurred during rainy seasons. Towards Lake Jipe after the river

  18. Sources and yields of dissolved carbon in northern Wisconsin stream catchments with differing amounts of Peatland

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Elder, J.F.; Rybicki, N.B.; Carter, V.; Weintraub, V.

    2000-01-01

    In five tributary streams (four inflowing and one outflowing) of 1600-ha Trout Lake in northern Wisconsin, USA, we examined factors that can affect the magnitude of stream flow and transport of dissolved organic and inorganic carbon (DOC and DIC) through the streams to the lake. One catchment, the Allequash Creek basin, was investigated in more detail to describe the dynamics of carbon flow and to identify potential carbon sources. Stream flows and carbon loads showed little or no relation to surface-water catchment area. They were more closely related to ground-water watershed area because ground-water discharge, from both local and regional sources, is a major contributor to the hydrologic budgets of these catchments. An important factor in determining carbon influx to the stream is the area of peatland in the catchment. Peatland porewaters contain DOC concentrations up to 40 mg l-1 and are a significant potential carbon source. Ground-water discharge and lateral flow through peat are the suspected mechanisms for transport of that carbon to the streams. Carbon and nitrogen isotopes suggested that the sources of DOC in Allequash Creek above Allequash Lake were wetland vegetation and peat and that the sources below Allequash Lake were filamentous algae and wild rice. Catchments with high proportions of peatland, including the Allequash Creek catchment, tended to have elevated DOC loads in outflowing stream water. Respiration and carbon mineralization in lakes within the system tend to produce low DOC and low DOC/DIC in lake outflows, especially at Trout Lake. In Allequash Lake, however, the shallow peat island and vegetation-filled west end were sources of DOC. Despite the vast carbon reservoir in the peatlands, carbon yields were very low in these catchments. Maximum yields were on the order of 2.5 g m-2 y-1 DOC and 5.5 g m-2 y-1 DIC. The small yields were attributable to low stream flows due to lack of significant overland runoff and very limited stream channel

  19. Chemical composition of natural waters of contaminated area: The case for the Imandra Lake catchment (the Kola Peninsula)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Evtyugina, Z. A.; Guseva, N. V.; Kopylova, J. G.; A, Vorobeva D.

    2016-03-01

    The study of the current chemical composition of natural waters in the eastern and western parts of the Imandra Lake catchment was performed using ion chromatography, potentiometry and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. It was found that the content of trace elements in the surface water is considerably higher than that in the groundwater. The nickel and copper concentrations exceed the background levels over 19 and 2 times respectively in groundwater, and 175 and 61 times in the surface waters. These data show that the Severonikel influences negatively air and surface water.

  20. Integrative investigations on sediments in the Belauer See catchment (northern Germany)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dreibrodt, Stefan

    2015-04-01

    The Holocene history of lake development, catchment vegetation, soil formation and human impact since the onset of the Neolithic period was reconstructed via the analysis of sediment sequences at Lake Belau (northern Germany). The chronology of the annually laminated lake sediment sequence was established via varve counts, radiocarbon dating and tephra analysis. Sequences of colluvial sediments and buried soils studied in 19 large exposures and supplementing auger cores within the lake catchment area were dated via radiocarbon dating and archaeological dating of embedded artifacts. The long term development of the lake status was found to be strongly influenced by local human activity. This is indicated by coincidence of phases of landscape openness deduced from pollen data with input of detritus and solutes into the lake. A comparison with palaeo-climate reconstructions reveals that calcite precipitation in the lake reflects climate variability at least to a certain degree. Calibrating the sediment record of the sub-recent lake sediments (micro-facies) on limnological and meteorological records discovered the influence of the NAO as well as solar activity on the limnological processes during the last century reflected by distinguished sedimentation patterns. A comparative study of additional laminated surface sediment sequences from northern Germany corroborates the results. A high resolution reconstruction of Neolithic weather conditions in northern Germany based on the varves of Lake Belau and Lake Poggensee was facilitated by the calibration. The quantitative records of sediments originating from soil erosion (colluvial sediments, allochthonous input into the lake) illustrate the dominance of short distance surface processes (slopes) acting in Holocene mid-latitude landscapes. Coincidence of gully incision in the lake catchment area and increased allochthonous input into the lake indicates the former occurrence of hydrological high energy runoff events (e. g

  1. Rock glaciers in crystalline catchments: Hidden permafrost-related threats to alpine headwater lakes.

    PubMed

    Ilyashuk, Boris P; Ilyashuk, Elena A; Psenner, Roland; Tessadri, Richard; Koinig, Karin A

    2018-04-01

    A global warming-induced transition from glacial to periglacial processes has been identified in mountainous regions around the world. Degrading permafrost in pristine periglacial environments can produce acid rock drainage (ARD) and cause severe ecological damage in areas underlain by sulfide-bearing bedrock. Limnological and paleolimnological approaches were used to assess and compare ARDs generated by rock glaciers, a typical landform of the mountain permafrost domain, and their effects on alpine headwater lakes with similar morphometric features and underlying bedrock geology, but characterized by different intensities of frost action in their catchments during the year. We argue that ARD and its effects on lakes are more severe in the alpine periglacial belt with mean annual air temperatures (MAAT) between -2°C and +3°C, where groundwater persists in the liquid phase for most of the year, in contrast to ARD in the periglacial belt where frost action dominates (MAAT < -2°C). The findings clearly suggest that the ambient air temperature is an important factor affecting the ARD production in alpine periglacial environments. Applying the paleoecological analysis of morphological abnormalities in chironomids through the past millennium, we tested and rejected the hypothesis that unfavorable conditions for aquatic life in the ARD-stressed lakes are largely related to the temperature increase over recent decades, responsible for the enhanced release of ARD contaminants. Our results indicate that the ARDs generated in the catchments are of a long-lasting nature and the frequency of chironomid morphological deformities was significantly higher during the Little Ice Age (LIA) than during pre- or post-LIA periods, suggesting that lower water temperatures may increase the adverse impacts of ARD on aquatic invertebrates. This highlights that temperature-mediated modulations of the metabolism and life cycle of aquatic organisms should be considered when reconstructing

  2. Bromine species fluxes from Lake Constance’s catchment, and a preliminary lake mass balance

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gilfedder, B. S.; Petri, M.; Wessels, M.; Biester, H.

    2011-06-01

    Bromine was historically termed a cyclic salt in terrestrial freshwater environments due to its perceived conservative cycling between the oceans and the continents. This basic assumption has been challenged recently, with evidence that bromine is involved in dynamic chemical cycles in soils and freshwaters. We present here a study on dissolved bromine species (bromide, organically bound bromine, DOBr) concentrations and fluxes as well as sediment trap bromine levels and fluxes in Lake Constance, a large lake in southern Germany. Water samples were obtained from all major and some minor inflows and outflows over one year, where-after dissolved bromine species were measured by a combination of ICP-MS and ion chromatography coupled to an ICP-MS (IC-ICP-MS). Sediment traps were deployed at two locations for two years with Br, Ti and Zr levels being measured by μ-XRF. 190 t yr -1 of total dissolved bromine (TDBr) was delivered to the lake via 14 rivers and precipitation, with the rivers Alpenrhein (84 t TDBr yr -1) and the Schussen (50 t TDBr yr -1) providing the largest sources. The estimated particulate bromine flux contributed an extra 24-26 t Br yr -1. In comparison, only 40 t TDBr yr -1 was deposited to the lake's catchment by precipitation, and thus ˜80% of the riverine TDBr flux came from soils and rocks. Bromide was the dominant species accounting for, on average, 78% of TDBr concentrations and 93% of TDBr flux to the lake. Despite some high concentrations in the smaller lowland rivers, DOBr was only a minor component of the total riverine bromine flux (˜12 t yr -1, 7%), most of which came from the rivers Schussen, Bregenzer Ach and Argen. In contrast, most of the bromine in the sediment traps was bound to organic matter, and showed a clear seasonal pattern in concentrations, with a maximum in winter and minimum in summer. The summer minimum is thought to be due to dilution of a high Br autochthonous component by low bromine mineral and organic material from

  3. Sources of core and intact branched tetraether membrane lipids in the lacustrine environment: Anatomy of Lake Challa and its catchment, equatorial East Africa

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Buckles, Laura K.; Weijers, Johan W. H.; Verschuren, Dirk; Sinninghe Damsté, Jaap S.

    2014-09-01

    The MBT/CBT palaeotemperature proxy uses the distribution of branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (brGDGTs), membrane lipids that are supposed to derive from soil bacteria, to reconstruct mean annual air temperature (MAAT). Applied successfully in coastal marine sediments, its extension to lake-sediment records with potentially high time resolution would greatly expand its utility. Over the last years, however, studies have indicated the presence of additional sources of brGDGTs within lake systems. To constrain the factors influencing the MBT/CBT palaeotemperature proxy in lakes, detailed investigation of brGDGT fluxes in a modern lake system is necessary to identify their potential sources. This study concentrates on Lake Challa, a permanently stratified crater lake in equatorial East Africa with limited catchment area. An almost 3-year time series of approximately monthly samples of settling particles, supplemented with a depth profile of suspended particulate matter (SPM) and sets of profundal surface-sediment and catchment soil samples, were analysed for both the 'living' intact polar lipids (IPLs) and 'fossil' core lipids (CLs) of GDGTs. We found that brGDGTs are produced in oxic, suboxic and anoxic zones of the water column, and in substantial amounts compared to influxes from catchment soils. Additional in situ production within the lake sediments is most probable, but cannot be definitely confirmed at this time. These lacustrine brGDGTs display a different response to temperature variation than soil-derived brGDGTs, signifying either a different physiological adaptation to changing conditions within the water column and/or a different composition of the respective bacterial communities. Using this specific relationship with temperature, a local calibration based on brGDGT distributions in SPM generates relatively accurate water temperature estimates from settling particles but fails for surface sediments.

  4. Hydrological Footprints of Urban Developments in the Lake Simcoe Watershed, Canada: A Combined Paired-Catchment and Change Detection Modeling Approach

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Oni, S. K.; Futter, M. N.; Buttle, J. M.; Dillon, P.

    2014-12-01

    Urban sprawl and regional climate variability are major stresses on surface water resources in many places. The Lake Simcoe watershed (LSW) Ontario, Canada, is no exception. The LSW is predominantly agricultural but is experiencing rapid population growth due to its proximity to the greater Toronto area. This has led to extensive land use changes which have impacted its water resources and altered runoff patterns in some rivers draining to the lake. Here, we use a paired-catchment approach, hydrological change detection modelling and remote sensing analysis of satellite images to evaluate the impacts of land use change on the hydrology of the LSW (1994 to 2008). Results show that urbanization increased up to 16% in Lovers Creek, the most-urban impacted catchment. Annual runoff from Lovers Creek increased from 239 to 442 mm/yr in contrast to the reference catchment (Black River at Washago) where runoff was relatively stable with an annual mean of 474 mm/yr. Increased annual runoff from Lovers Creek was not accompanied by an increase in annual precipitation. Discriminant function analysis suggests that early (1992-1997; pre-major development) and late (2004-2009; fully urbanized) periods for Lovers Creek separated mainly based on model parameter sets related to runoff flashiness and evapotranspiration. As a result, parameterization in either period cannot be used interchangeably to produce credible runoff simulations in Lovers Creek due to greater scatter between the parameters in canonical space. Separation of early and late period parameter sets for the reference catchment was based on climate and snowmelt related processes. This suggests that regional climatic variability could be influencing hydrologic change in the reference catchment whereas urbanization amplified the regional natural hydrologic changes in urbanizing catchments of the LSW.

  5. Spatial trends and pollution assessment for mercury in the surface soils of the Nansi Lake catchment, China.

    PubMed

    Ren, Ming-Yi; Yang, Li-Yuan; Wang, Long-Feng; Han, Xue-Mei; Dai, Jie-Rui; Pang, Xu-Gui

    2018-01-01

    Surface soil samples collected from Nansi Lake catchment were analyzed for mercury (Hg) to determine its spatial trends and environmental impacts. Results showed that the average soil Hg contents were 0.043 mg kg -1 . A positive correlation was shown between TOC and soil Hg contents. The main type of soil with higher TOC contents and lower pH values showed higher soil Hg contents. Soil TOC contents and CV values were both higher in the eastern catchment. The eastern part of the catchment, where the industry is developed, had relatively high soil Hg contents and a banding distribution of high Hg contents was corresponded with the southwest-northeast economic belt. Urban soils had higher Hg contents than rural soils. The urbanization pattern that soil Hg contents presented a decreasing trend from city center to suburb was shown clearly especially in the three cities. Soil Hg contents in Jining City showed a good consistency with the urban land expansion. The spatial trends of soil Hg contents in the catchment indicated that the type and the intensity of human activities have a strong influence on the distribution of Hg in soils. Calculated risk indices showed that the western part of the catchment presented moderately polluted condition and the eastern part of the catchment showed moderate to strong pollution level. The area with high ecological risk appeared mainly along the economic belt.

  6. Trace element distribution in the water and sediments of certain storage lakes from the Jijia catchment, (Romania)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dughila, A.; Iancu, O. G.; Romanescu, G. T.

    2012-04-01

    The present study aims at investigating the concentrations and distribution levels of a series of trace elements in water and sediment samples collected from six storage lakes located in the Jijia catchment - NE of Romania. The lakes are multi-purpose water reservoirs, three of them being mainly used as a source of municipal drinking water, or for fishing, irrigation for the farms in the area, protection against floods and the regulation of river flows. By contrast, agricultural wastes, fertilizers, raw sewage effluents and road runoff constitute the predominant anthropogenic sources, which supply the lakes in question with Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn. The present study was conducted on a series of 63 sediment samples and 18 water samples, collected from the same locations, in order to establish the distribution levels of certain trace elements from the water through sediments. Sediment cores were collected from two sections across each lake by means of a motor boat, using a system that consists of a graduated sampling tube (0.9 m in length and 72.5 mm in diameter) made of Plexiglas (Eijkelkamp sample tube guide). Prior to the analyses, the samples were air-dried, ground and homogenized using an agate mortar, oven-dried at 50 °C for 6 days and then sieved through 63 µm sieves. The sediment and water samples were subjected to a digestion technique with concentrated nitric acid using a microwave oven (Berghof type), and analyzed for the following elements: Pb, Zn, Cu, Cd, Cr and Ni. The total concentration of the elements was measured through atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) with an RSD of < 10 % from solutions. The vertical distribution of most elements in the cores examined could be characterized as relatively uniform, with higher concentrations for those collected from the lakes which are more influenced by anthropogenic factors, compared to those situated in forested areas. The lake-water quality characteristics were below the recommended drinking water standards

  7. Using groundwater age to understand sources and dynamics of nutrient contamination through the catchment into Lake Rotorua, New Zealand

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Morgenstern, U.; Daughney, C. J.; Leonard, G.; Gordon, D.; Donath, F. M.; Reeves, R.

    2014-08-01

    The water quality of Lake Rotorua has declined continuously over the past 50 yr despite mitigation efforts over recent decades. Delayed response of the groundwater discharges to historic land-use intensification 50 yr ago was the reason suggested by early tritium measurements, which indicated large transit times through the groundwater system. We use the isotopic and chemistry signature of the groundwater for detailed understanding of the origin, fate, flow pathways, lag times, and future loads of contaminants. A unique set of high-quality tritium data over more than four decades, encompassing the time when the tritium spike from nuclear weapons testing moved through the groundwater system, allows us to determine detailed age distribution parameters of the water discharging into Lake Rotorua. The Rotorua volcanic groundwater system is complicated due to the highly complex geology that has evolved through volcanic activity. Vertical and steeply-inclined geological contacts preclude a simple flow model. The extent of the Lake Rotorua groundwater catchment is difficult to establish due to the deep water table in large areas, combined with inhomogeneous groundwater flow patterns. Hierarchical cluster analysis of the water chemistry parameters provided evidence of the recharge source of the large springs near the lake shore, with discharge from the Mamaku ignimbrite through lake sediment layers. Groundwater chemistry and age data show clearly the source of nutrients that cause lake eutrophication, nitrate from agricultural activities and phosphate from geologic sources. With a naturally high phosphate load reaching the lake continuously via all streams, the only effective way to limit algae blooms and improve lake water quality in such environments is by limiting the nitrate load. The groundwater in the Rotorua catchment, once it has passed through the soil zone, shows no further decrease in dissolved oxygen, indicating absence of electron donors in the aquifer that

  8. Morphology, geology and water quality assessment of former tin mining catchment.

    PubMed

    Ashraf, Muhammad Aqeel; Maah, Mohd Jamil; Yusoff, Ismail

    2012-01-01

    Bestari Jaya, former tin mining catchment covers an area of 2656.31 hectares comprised of four hundred and forty-two different-size lakes and ponds. The present study area comprise of 92 hectares of the catchment that include four large size lakes. Arc GIS version 9.2 used to develop bathymetric map, Global Positioning System (GPS) for hydrographical survey and flow meter was utilized for water discharge analysis (flow routing) of the catchment. The water quality parameters (pH, temperature, electric conductivity, dissolved oxygen DO, total dissolved solids TDS, chlorides, ammonium, nitrates) were analyzed by using Hydrolab. Quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) procedures were strictly followed throughout the field work and data analysis. Different procedures were employed to evaluate the analytical data and to check for possible transcription or dilution errors, changes during analysis, or unusual or unlikely values. The results obtained are compared with interim national water quality standards for Malaysia indicates that water quality of area is highly degraded. It is concluded that Bestri Jaya ex-mining catchment has a high pollution potential due to mining activities and River Ayer Hitam, recipient of catchment water, is a highly polluted river.

  9. Morphology, Geology and Water Quality Assessment of Former Tin Mining Catchment

    PubMed Central

    Ashraf, Muhammad Aqeel; Maah, Mohd. Jamil; Yusoff, Ismail

    2012-01-01

    Bestari Jaya, former tin mining catchment covers an area of 2656.31 hectares comprised of four hundred and forty-two different-size lakes and ponds. The present study area comprise of 92 hectares of the catchment that include four large size lakes. Arc GIS version 9.2 used to develop bathymetric map, Global Positioning System (GPS) for hydrographical survey and flow meter was utilized for water discharge analysis (flow routing) of the catchment. The water quality parameters (pH, temperature, electric conductivity, dissolved oxygen DO, total dissolved solids TDS, chlorides, ammonium, nitrates) were analyzed by using Hydrolab. Quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) procedures were strictly followed throughout the field work and data analysis. Different procedures were employed to evaluate the analytical data and to check for possible transcription or dilution errors, changes during analysis, or unusual or unlikely values. The results obtained are compared with interim national water quality standards for Malaysia indicates that water quality of area is highly degraded. It is concluded that Bestri Jaya ex-mining catchment has a high pollution potential due to mining activities and River Ayer Hitam, recipient of catchment water, is a highly polluted river. PMID:22761549

  10. Phytotoxic substances in runoff from forested catchment areas

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Grimvall, Anders; Bengtsson, Maj-Britt; Borén, Hans; Wahlström, Dan

    Runoff from different catchment areas in southern Sweden was tested in a root bioassay based on solution cultures of cucumber seedlings. Water samples from agricultural catchment areas produced no signs at all or only weak signs of inhibited root growth, whereas several water samples from catchment areas dominated by mires or coniferous forests produced visible root injuries. The most severe root injuries (very short roots, discolouration, swelling of root tips and lack of root hairs) were caused by samples from a catchment area without local emissions and dominated by old stands of spruce. Fractionation by ultrafiltration showed that the phytotoxic effect of these samples could be attributed to organic matter with a nominal molecular-weight exceeding 1000 or to substances associated with organic macromolecules. Experiments aimed at concentrating phytotoxic compounds from surface water indicated that the observed growth inhibition was caused by strongly hydrophilic substances. Previous reports on phytotoxic, organic substances of natural origin have emphasized interaction between plants growing close together. The presence of phytotoxic substances in runoff indicates that there is also a large-scale dispersion of such compounds.

  11. Lithium isotopes and implications on chemical weathering in the catchment of Lake Donggi Cona, northeastern Tibetan Plateau

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Weynell, Marc; Wiechert, Uwe; Schuessler, Jan A.

    2017-09-01

    This study presents lithium (Li) isotope ratios (δ7Li) for rocks, sediments, suspended particulate material, and dissolved Li from the Lake Donggi Cona catchment, located on the northeastern Tibetan Plateau, China. The average δ7Li = +1.9‰ of the bedrocks is estimated from local loess. δ7Li values decrease progressively within the sediment cascade from loess, to river and lake floor sediments. The lake floor sediments average at -0.7‰. The difference between bedrock and lake sediments reflects the preferential fractionation of dissolved 6Li into clay minerals (mostly illite) in the weathering zone and grain-size sorting during fluvial sediment transport. The δ7Li values of stream and lake water samples range from +13.6 to +20.8‰, whereas thermal waters fall between +5.9 and +11.6‰. The δ7Li values of lake water samples are close to +17‰ and reflect mixing of waters from two perennial inflows and thermal waters. Dissolved Li in streams represents an integrated isotopic signal derived from soil solutions in the weathering zone. An apparent isotopic fractionation of -17.8 ± 1.6‰ (αsec-sol ∼ 0.982) between secondary minerals and solution was determined. An inflow that drains a sub-catchment in the north carries a high proportion of thermal waters. Despite of the high proportion of admixed thermal waters with high Li concentrations and low δ7Li, this stream has the highest δ7Li values of about +21‰. This is consistent with admixing of thermal waters to solutions in the weathering zone and subsequent fractionation by preferential uptake of isotopically light dissolved Li into secondary phases. Based on Li isotope ratios of the dissolved and solid export flux from the weathering zone we calculated that around five times more Li is exported in particles than dissolved in streams. An average δ7Li value of about +17‰ of most streams and the lake is reflecting a low weathering intensity and chemical weathering rate of about 4 t/km2/a. Low

  12. Catchment sediment flux: a lake sediment perspective on the onset of the Anthropocene?

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chiverrell, Richard

    2014-05-01

    Definitions of the Anthropocene are varied but from a geomorphological perspective broadly can be described as the interval of recent Earth history during which 'humans have had an 'overwhelming' effect on the Earth system' (Brown et al., 2013). Identifying the switch to a human-dominated geomorphic process regime is actually a challenging process, with in the 'Old World' ramping up of human populations and impacts on earth surface processes since the Neolithic/Mesolithic transition and the onset of agriculture. In the terrestrial realm lakes offer a unique window on changes in human forcing of earth surface processes from a sedimentary flux perspective, because unlike alluvial and hill-slope systems sedimentation is broadly continuous and uninterrupted. Dearing and Jones (2003) showed for a global dataset of lakes a 5-10 fold increase in sediment delivery comparing pre- and post-anthropogenic disturbance. Here sediment records from several lakes in lowland agricultural landscapes are presented to examine the changes in the flux and composition of materials delivered from their catchments. By definition the lakes record the switch to a human dominated system, but not necessary in accelerated sediment accumulation rates with changes in sediment composition equally important. Data from Crose, Hatch and Peckforton Meres, in lowland northwest England are interrogated producing quantitative land-cover reconstructions from pollen spectra calculated using the REVEALS model (Sugita, 2007), geochemical evidence for changes sediment provenance and flux, and 14C and stable Pb pollutant based chronological models detecting changes in sediment accumulation rate. The lake sediment geochemistry points to several phases of heightened human impact within these small agricultural catchments. Following small-in-scale forest cover reductions and limited impacts in terms of sediment flux during the Neolithic, the Bronze to Iron Age saw the first substantial reductions in forest cover

  13. Modelling catchment areas for secondary care providers: a case study.

    PubMed

    Jones, Simon; Wardlaw, Jessica; Crouch, Susan; Carolan, Michelle

    2011-09-01

    Hospitals need to understand patient flows in an increasingly competitive health economy. New initiatives like Patient Choice and the Darzi Review further increase this demand. Essential to understanding patient flows are demographic and geographic profiles of health care service providers, known as 'catchment areas' and 'catchment populations'. This information helps Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) to review how their populations are accessing services, measure inequalities and commission services; likewise it assists Secondary Care Providers (SCPs) to measure and assess potential gains in market share, redesign services, evaluate admission thresholds and plan financial budgets. Unlike PCTs, SCPs do not operate within fixed geographic boundaries. Traditionally, SCPs have used administrative boundaries or arbitrary drive times to model catchment areas. Neither approach satisfactorily represents current patient flows. Furthermore, these techniques are time-consuming and can be challenging for healthcare managers to exploit. This paper presents three different approaches to define catchment areas, each more detailed than the previous method. The first approach 'First Past the Post' defines catchment areas by allocating a dominant SCP to each Census Output Area (OA). The SCP with the highest proportion of activity within each OA is considered the dominant SCP. The second approach 'Proportional Flow' allocates activity proportionally to each OA. This approach allows for cross-boundary flows to be captured in a catchment area. The third and final approach uses a gravity model to define a catchment area, which incorporates drive or travel time into the analysis. Comparing approaches helps healthcare providers to understand whether using more traditional and simplistic approaches to define catchment areas and populations achieves the same or similar results as complex mathematical modelling. This paper has demonstrated, using a case study of Manchester, that when estimating

  14. Sulfur isotope dynamics in a high-elevation catchment, West Glacier Lake, Wyoming

    Treesearch

    J. B. Finley; J. I. Drever; J. T. Turk

    1995-01-01

    Stable isotopes of S are used in conjunction with dissolved SO2-|4 concentrations to evaluate the utility of ä34S ratios in tracing contributions of bedrock-derived S to SO2-|4 in runoff. Water samples were collected over the annual hydrograph from two tributaries in the West Glacier Lake, Wyoming, catchment. Concentrations of SO2-|4 ranged from 12.6 to 43.0 Ìeq L-1;...

  15. The relationship of catchment topography and soil hydraulic characteristics to lake alkalinity in the northeastern United States

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Wolock, D.M.; Hornberger, G.M.; Beven, K.J.; Campbell, W.G.

    1989-01-01

    We undertook the task of determining whether base flow alkalinity of surface waters in the northeastern United States is related to indices of soil contact time and flow path partitioning that are derived from topographic and soils information. The influence of topography and soils on catchment hydrology has been incorporated previously in the variable source area model TOPMODEL as the relative frequency distribution of ln (a/Kb tan B), where ln is the Naperian logarithm, “a” is the area drained per unit contour, K is the saturated hydraulic conductivity, b is the soil depth, and tan B is the slope. Using digital elevation and soil survey data, we calculated the ln (a/Kb tan B) distribution for 145 catchments. Indices of flow path partitioning and soil contact time were derived from the ln (a/Kb tan B) distributions and compared to measurements of alkalinity in lakes to which the catchments drain. We found that alkalinity was, in general, positively correlated with the index of soil contact time, whereas the correlation between alkalinity and the flow path partitioning index was weak at best. A portion of the correlation between the soil contact time index and alkalinity was attributable to covariation with soil base saturation and cation exchange capacity, while another portion was found to be independent of these factors. Although our results indicate that catchments with long soil contact time indices are most likely to produce high alkalinity base flow, a sensitivity analysis of TOPMODEL suggests that surface waters of these same watersheds may be susceptible to alkalinity depressions during storm events, due to the role of flow paths.

  16. Influence of catchment vegetation on mercury accumulation in lake sediments from a long-term perspective.

    PubMed

    Rydberg, Johan; Rösch, Manfred; Heinz, Emanuel; Biester, Harald

    2015-12-15

    Organic matter (OM) cycling has a large impact on the cycling of mercury (Hg) in the environment. Hence, it is important to have a thorough understanding on how changes in, e.g., catchment vegetation - through its effect on OM cycling - affect the behavior of Hg. To test whether shifts in vegetation had an effect on Hg-transport to lakes we investigated a sediment record from Herrenwieser See (Southern Germany). This lake has a well-defined Holocene vegetation history: at ~8700years BP Corylus avellana (hazel) was replaced by Quercus robur (oak), which was replaced by Abies alba (fir) and Fagus sylvatica (beech) ~5700years BP). We were particularly interested in testing if coniferous vegetation leads to a larger export of Hg to aquatic systems than deciduous vegetation. When hazel was replaced by oak, reduced soil erosion and increased transport of DOM-bound mercury from the catchment resulted in increases in both Hg-concentrations and accumulation rates (61ngg(-1) and 5.5ngcm(-2)yr.(-)(1) to 118ngg(-1) and 8.5ngcm(-2)yr.(-)(1)). However, even if Hg-concentrations increased also in association with the introduction of fir and beech (173ngg(-1)), as a result of higher Hg:C, there was no increase in Hg-accumulation rates (7.6ngcm(-2)yr.(-)(1)), because of a decreased input of OM. At around 2500years BP Hg-accumulation rates and Hg-concentration indicated an additional input of Hg to the sediment (316ngg(-1) and 10.3ngcm(-2)yr.(-)(1)), which might be due to increased human activities in the area, e.g., forest burning or mining. Our results contrast those of several paired-catchment studies that suggest a higher release of Hg from coniferous than deciduous forest, and there is a need for studies with a long-term perspective to increase our understanding of the effects of slow and gradual processes on mercury cycling. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  17. Using groundwater age and hydrochemistry to understand sources and dynamics of nutrient contamination through the catchment into Lake Rotorua, New Zealand

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Morgenstern, U.; Daughney, C. J.; Leonard, G.; Gordon, D.; Donath, F. M.; Reeves, R.

    2015-02-01

    The water quality of Lake Rotorua has steadily declined over the past 50 years despite mitigation efforts over recent decades. Delayed response of the groundwater discharges to historic land-use intensification 50 years ago was the reason suggested by early tritium measurements, which indicated large transit times through the groundwater system. We use the isotopic and chemistry signature of the groundwater for detailed understanding of the origin, fate, flow pathways, lag times and future loads of contaminants. A unique set of high-quality tritium data over more than four decades, encompassing the time when the tritium spike from nuclear weapons testing moved through the groundwater system, allows us to determine detailed age distribution parameters of the water discharging into Lake Rotorua. The Rotorua volcanic groundwater system is complicated due to the highly complex geology that has evolved through volcanic activity. Vertical and steeply inclined geological contacts preclude a simple flow model. The extent of the Lake Rotorua groundwater catchment is difficult to establish due to the deep water table in large areas, combined with inhomogeneous groundwater flow patterns. Hierarchical cluster analysis of the water chemistry parameters provided evidence of the recharge source of the large springs near the lake shore, with discharge from the Mamaku ignimbrite through lake sediment layers. Groundwater chemistry and age data show clearly the source of nutrients that cause lake eutrophication, nitrate from agricultural activities and phosphate from geologic sources. With a naturally high phosphate load reaching the lake continuously via all streams, the only effective way to limit algae blooms and improve lake water quality in such environments is by limiting the nitrate load. The groundwater in the Rotorua catchment, once it has passed through the soil zone, shows no further decrease in dissolved oxygen, indicating an absence of bioavailable electron donors along

  18. Catchment tracers reveal discharge, recharge and sources of groundwater-borne pollutants in a novel lake modelling approach

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kristensen, Emil; Madsen-Østerbye, Mikkel; Massicotte, Philippe; Pedersen, Ole; Markager, Stiig; Kragh, Theis

    2018-02-01

    groundwater discharge sites located mainly in the eastern part of the lake with a single site in the southern part. Observations from the eastern part of the lake revealed an impermeable clay layer that promotes discharge during heavy precipitation events, which would otherwise be difficult to identify using traditional hydrological methods. In comparison to the lake concentrations, high tracer concentrations in the southern part showed that only a smaller fraction of water could originate from this area, thereby confirming the model results. A Euclidean cluster analysis of δ18O isotopes identified recharge sites corresponding to areas adjacent to drainage channels, and a cluster analysis of the microbially influenced FDOM component C4 further identified five sites that showed a tendency towards high groundwater recharge rate. In conclusion, it was found that this methodology can be applied to smaller lakes within a short time frame, providing useful information regarding the WRT of the lake and more importantly the groundwater recharge and discharge sites around the lake. Thus, it is a tool for specific management of the catchment.

  19. Climate-landform effects on lateglacial vegetation pattern in northeastern Tuchola Pinewoods (northern Poland): multiproxy evidence from the Lake Czechowskie catchment, northern Poland.

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Noryśkiewicz, Agnieszka M.; Kordowski, Jarosław; Tyszkowski, Sebastian; Kramkowski, Mateusz; Zawiska, Izabela; Rzodkiewicz, Monika; Mirosław-Grabowska, Joanna; Ott, Florian; Słowiński, Michał; Obremska, Milena; Błaszkiewicz, Mirosław; Brauer, Achim

    2016-04-01

    The study area is located in northern Poland in the northeastern part of Tuchola Pinewoods in a young glacially formed and diversified landscape. It comprises the entire lake catchment of Lake Czechowskie (19.76 km2), which comprises a second lake upstream as well as a palaeolake (Trzechowskie) located between the two present-day lakes. Biogenic sediments from eight cores were studied by multiproxy analyses to reconstruct the environmental changes and climate signals during the last Late Glacial and early Holocene. The cores were collected along a W-E transect from Głęboczek Lake to the Czechowskie Lake and were located in different topographic positions (deepest and shallow part of the lake, old lake-bed plains and paleolakes) with a maximum distance of 2.2 km. Detailed and high resolution analyses (pollen, diatoms, cladocera, stable isotopes, geochemistry, varve chronology and radiocarbon dating) to identify the main stages in the development of the natural environment were made. Palynological data indicate melting of the buried ice blocks and the following the onset of biogenic lacustrine sedimentation. The general pattern of vegetation changes in all profiles is similar and includes Late Glacial steppe-tundra plant communities at the onset of organic lake sedimentation. The palynological record of the most profiles shows a high participation of seabuckthorn (Hippophae) in the initial stadium of vegetation history. The lack of this succession in the most western core (Głęboczek Lake) indicates a later period of melt-out processes of the buried dead-ice blocks in the Głęboczek Lake basin. The thickness and type of the accumulated sediments differ significantly during the Bolling-Alerod complex and Younger Dryas Period between our sites. These differences are also reflected in variations of plant species among the different sites. The comparison of different profiles within one catchment allows us to distinguish site specific local responses to climate

  20. Lakes-paleolakes cascade system and its role in shaping the runoff and chemical properties of water in the young-glacial catchment - example from the Tuchola Pinewood Forest (Northern Poland)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gierszewski, Piotr; Brykała, Dariusz; Kaszubski, Michał; Plessen, Birgit

    2016-04-01

    The impact of paleolake basins, filled up with organic mineral deposits, in the transformation of the chemical properties of the outflow is generally ignored. Defining their role and importance in the water and matter cycles is one of the objectives of the hydrological and hydrochemical monitoring, which has been run in the catchment of Lake Czechowskie since mid-2012. The axis of the Lake Czechowskie catchment is a hydrographical system made of river and lake sections. Lake sections are not only present-day lakes (Głęboczek and Czechowskie), but also basins of the lakes functioned in the past, which are now biogenic plains. Lake sections of the system are connected by short valley sections, mostly of a gap character. The size and variability of surface water runoff from the basin is mainly affected by groundwater and the size of evaporation. Stable groundwater table provides stability of the river discharge, even during the periods of significant precipitation deficit. Groundwater fluctuation ranges registered during the period from May 2012 to September 2015 were between 0.17 and 1.25 m. The smallest were in the deepest piezometers located in watershed areas, and the largest in the shallow groundwater of lake terraces. The small dynamics of the groundwater states is reflected by slight fluctuations of water levels in Lake Czechowskie, which in the analyzed period amounted 0.40 cm. The surface of paleolake Trzechowskie, cut by a system of drainage ditches, is the area where an essential part of the surface runoff from the monitored catchment is formed. Large water resources in this part of the catchment are evidenced by the specific runoff value, which amounts to 25 dm3s-1km2. It is much larger than the whole basin specific runoff which reaches 11 dm3s-1km2. The measurements showed that the average surface runoff from Lake Czechowskie in the analyzed period was 0,065 m3s-1 and was similar to the size of the water influx via watercourses supplying the lake. On

  1. Characterizing chromophoric dissolved organic matter in Lake Tianmuhu and its catchment basin using excitation-emission matrix fluorescence and parallel factor analysis.

    PubMed

    Zhang, Yunlin; Yin, Yan; Feng, Longqing; Zhu, Guangwei; Shi, Zhiqiang; Liu, Xiaohan; Zhang, Yuanzhi

    2011-10-15

    Chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) is an important optically active substance that transports nutrients, heavy metals, and other pollutants from terrestrial to aquatic systems and is used as a measure of water quality. To investigate how the source and composition of CDOM changes in both space and time, we used chemical, spectroscopic, and fluorescence analyses to characterize CDOM in Lake Tianmuhu (a drinking water source) and its catchment in China. Parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC) identified three individual fluorophore moieties that were attributed to humic-like and protein-like materials in 224 water samples collected between December 2008 and September 2009. The upstream rivers contained significantly higher concentrations of CDOM than did the lake water (a(350) of 4.27±2.51 and 2.32±0.59 m(-1), respectively), indicating that the rivers carried a substantial load of organic matter to the lake. Of the three main rivers that flow into Lake Tianmuhu, the Pingqiao River brought in the most CDOM from the catchment to the lake. CDOM absorption and the microbial and terrestrial humic-like components, but not the protein-like component, were significantly higher in the wet season than in other seasons, indicating that the frequency of rainfall and runoff could significantly impact the quantity and quality of CDOM collected from the catchment. The different relationships between the maximum fluorescence intensities of the three PARAFAC components, CDOM absorption, and chemical oxygen demand (COD) concentration in riverine and lake water indicated the difference in the composition of CDOM between Lake Tianmuhu and the rivers that feed it. This study demonstrates the utility of combining excitation-emission matrix fluorescence and PARAFAC to study CDOM dynamics in inland waters. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  2. Anthropic influences on the sedimentation rates of lakes situated in different geographic areas.

    PubMed

    Simon, Hedvig; Kelemen, Szabolcs; Begy, Róbert-Csaba

    2017-07-01

    The aim of this study is to determine the effects of natural and anthropic events occurring in the last 30 years in the catchment areas of four Romanian lakes (St. Anna Lake, Red Lake, Vârşolţ Lake and Matiţa Lake) originating from four different geomorphologic areas. A total of eleven sediment cores have been processed for age and sedimentation rate determination using the 210 Pb dating method. Total 210 Pb was measured via alpha spectrometry by 210 Po using PIPS detectors, while supported 210 Pb was measured by 226 Ra using HPGe detectors. Ages and sedimentation rates were calculated using the CRS model. The values of the sedimentation rates have grown multiply in the last three decades: 2.66 times in case of the St. Anna Lake (from 0.06 ± 0.01 g/cm 2 y to 0.16 ± 0.02 g/cm 2 y), up to 6.72 times in case of Red Lake (0.36 ± 0.04 g/cm 2 y to 2.42 ± 0.36 g/cm 2 y), 4.02 times in case of Vârşolţ Lake (04 g/cm 2 y to 1.53 ± 0.18 g/cm 2 y) and up to 16.18 times in case of Matiţa Lake (0.27 ± 0.03 g/cm 2 y to 4.37 ± 0.32). Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  3. A catchment-scale palaeolimnological investigation into multiple forcings of algal community change

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Moorhouse, H. L.; McGowan, S.; Jones, M.; Brayshaw, S.; Barker, P.; Leavitt, P.

    2013-12-01

    catchment: lake area ratio, climate (specifically precipitation) had a more demonstrable impact on algal communities, through enhanced delivery of catchment nutrients. Therefore, we have identified water-bodies likely to be most 'at-risk' from future climate change, in order to advise on tailored management strategies for individual lakes within the catchment.

  4. Assessment of heavy metal contamination in the sediments of Nansihu Lake Catchment, China.

    PubMed

    Liu, Enfeng; Shen, Ji; Yang, Liyuan; Zhang, Enlou; Meng, Xianghua; Wang, Jianjun

    2010-02-01

    At present, anthropogenic contribution of heavy metals far exceeds natural input in some aquatic sediment, but the proportions are difficult to differentiate due to the changes in sediment characters. In this paper, the metal (Al, Fe, K, Mg, Ca, Cr, Cu, Ni, and Zn) concentrations, grain size, and total organic carbon (TOC) content in the surface and core sediments of Nansihu Lake Catchment (the open lake and six inflow rivers) were determined. The chemical speciations of the metals (Al, Fe, Cr, Cu, Ni, and Zn) in the surface sediments were also analyzed. Approaches of factor analysis, normalized enrichment factor (EF) and the new non-residual fractions enrichment factor (K(NRF)) were used to differentiate the sources of the metals in the sediments, from detrital clastic debris or anthropogenic input, and to quantify the anthropogenic contamination. The results indicate that natural processes were more dominant in concentrating the metals in the surface and core sediments of the open lake. High concentration of Ca and deficiency of other metals in the upper layers of the sediment core were attributed to the input of carbonate minerals in the catchment with increasing human activities since 1980s. High TOC content magnified the deficiency of the metals. Nevertheless, the EF and K(NRF) both reveal moderate to significant anthropogenic contamination of Cr, Cu, Ni, and Zn in the surface sediments of Laoyun River and the estuary and Cr in the surface sediments of Baima River. The proportion of non-residual fractions (acid soluble, reducible, and oxidizable fractions) of Cr, Cu, Ni, and Zn in the contaminated sediments increased to 37-99% from the background levels less than 30%.

  5. Characteristics of the water and dissolved matter circulation in the young-glacial catchment of the Czechowskie lake (Tuchola Pinewood Forest, Poland)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Brykala, Dariusz; Gierszewski, Piotr; Kaszubski, Michal

    2014-05-01

    The studies on the conditions of the water and dissolved matter circulation in the young-glacial catchment of the Czechowskie lake (Tuchola Pinewood Forest) have been conducted since 2012. They are implemented on the basis of an organised network monitoring surface water and groundwater. An important aim of the study is to assess the impact of both modern and fossil lakes on the regime of the outflow and the transformation of the water chemical properties. A high stability of the first groundwater table was recorded. During the study period the range of the groundwater level ranged from 0.17 to 0.92 m. In comparison with the small fluctuations in the groundwater level within the sandy outwash areas, a relatively high instability was shown by the shallow waters of the lake terraces. The measurements of the discharge showed that its average value at the outflow from the Czechowskie lake is 30 dm3s-1. It almost equals the total amount of water flowing into the lake through watercourses. The average specific runoff from the basin of the Czechowskie lake was 3 dm3s-1km-2. The total water mineralisation expressed as the sum of the ions is in the range from 70 to 750 mg dm-3. Both surface water, i.e. the water in streams and lakes, and underground water from different depths represent the bicarbonate-calcium-sulphate type characteristic of the young- glacial environment. The results of hydrochemical mapping and the analysis of the ionic composition of the water showed large spatial variability of the physico-chemical properties of the tested waters and, at the same time, high stability of their ionic composition. At the present stage of the research it is possible to identify the water enrichment zones in salts, which are basins of paleolakes filled with the organic-carbonate sediment, and the zones of salt precipitation within the contemporary lakes. The situation described above creates a specific, cascade model of the transformation of chemical properties of water

  6. Patterns and multi-scale drivers of phytoplankton species richness in temperate peri-urban lakes.

    PubMed

    Catherine, Arnaud; Selma, Maloufi; Mouillot, David; Troussellier, Marc; Bernard, Cécile

    2016-07-15

    Local species richness (SR) is a key characteristic affecting ecosystem functioning. Yet, the mechanisms regulating phytoplankton diversity in freshwater ecosystems are not fully understood, especially in peri-urban environments where anthropogenic pressures strongly impact the quality of aquatic ecosystems. To address this issue, we sampled the phytoplankton communities of 50 lakes in the Paris area (France) characterized by a large gradient of physico-chemical and catchment-scale characteristics. We used large phytoplankton datasets to describe phytoplankton diversity patterns and applied a machine-learning algorithm to test the degree to which species richness patterns are potentially controlled by environmental factors. Selected environmental factors were studied at two scales: the lake-scale (e.g. nutrients concentrations, water temperature, lake depth) and the catchment-scale (e.g. catchment, landscape and climate variables). Then, we used a variance partitioning approach to evaluate the interaction between lake-scale and catchment-scale variables in explaining local species richness. Finally, we analysed the residuals of predictive models to identify potential vectors of improvement of phytoplankton species richness predictive models. Lake-scale and catchment-scale drivers provided similar predictive accuracy of local species richness (R(2)=0.458 and 0.424, respectively). Both models suggested that seasonal temperature variations and nutrient supply strongly modulate local species richness. Integrating lake- and catchment-scale predictors in a single predictive model did not provide increased predictive accuracy; therefore suggesting that the catchment-scale model probably explains observed species richness variations through the impact of catchment-scale variables on in-lake water quality characteristics. Models based on catchment characteristics, which include simple and easy to obtain variables, provide a meaningful way of predicting phytoplankton species

  7. Impacts of forestry planting on primary production in upland lakes from north-west Ireland.

    PubMed

    Stevenson, Mark A; McGowan, Suzanne; Anderson, N John; Foy, Robert H; Leavitt, Peter R; McElarney, Yvonne R; Engstrom, Daniel R; Pla-Rabés, Sergi

    2016-04-01

    Planted forests are increasing in many upland regions worldwide, but knowledge about their potential effects on algal communities of catchment lakes is relatively unknown. Here, the effects of afforestation were investigated using palaeolimnology at six upland lake sites in the north-west of Ireland subject to different extents of forest plantation cover (4-64% of catchment area). (210)Pb-dated sediment cores were analysed for carotenoid pigments from algae, stable isotopes of bulk carbon (δ(13)C) and nitrogen (δ(15)N), and C/N ratios. In lakes with >50% of their catchment area covered by plantations, there were two- to sixfold increases in pigments from cryptophytes (alloxanthin) and significant but lower increases (39-116%) in those from colonial cyanobacteria (canthaxanthin), but no response from biomarkers of total algal abundance (β-carotene). In contrast, lakes in catchments with <20% afforestation exhibited no consistent response to forestry practices, although all lakes exhibited fluctuations in pigments and geochemical variables due to peat cutting and upland grazing prior to forest plantation. Taken together, patterns suggest that increases in cyanobacteria and cryptophyte abundance reflect a combination of mineral and nutrient enrichment associated with forest fertilization and organic matter influx which may have facilitated growth of mixotrophic taxa. This study demonstrates that planted forests can alter the abundance and community structure of algae in upland humic lakes of Ireland and Northern Ireland, despite long histories of prior catchment disturbance. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  8. Catchment nitrogen saturation drives ecological change in an alpine lake in SW China (eastern margin of Tibet)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Anderson, N. J.; Hu, Z.; Yang, X.; Zhang, E.

    2011-12-01

    There is substantial evidence for recent (last ca. 120 years) ecological change in remote arctic and alpine lakes (increased productivity, altered biological structure). Initially, these changes were attributed to global warming which has altered the heat budgets of these lakes (stronger stratification, longer ice free periods). The emphasis on temperature, however, ignores that global environmental change is driven by a range of multiple stressors (e.g. altered biogeochemical cycles, land cover change). One of the characteristics of the observed change in remote lakes is the expansion of small species of the planktonic diatom genus Cyclotella. It is increasingly obvious that the recent success of this diatom genus is driven by other factors (nutrients, light, mixing depth) as much as temperature. SE Asia is a major hotspot for the emission of reactive nitrogen as a result of intensive agriculture and fossil fuel combustion. In this study we report recent ecological change in a small, oligotrophic alpine lake (ShadeCo; altitude 4423 m) located in Sichuan Province (SW China), one of many relatively unstudied alpine lakes on the eastern margin of Tibet. The lake is located above the tree-line and there is no cultural land-use; the catchment vegetation is dominated by alpine shrub (predominantly Rhododendron). We used a multi-proxy palaeolimnological approach (diatom, geochemical and stable isotope analyses of a 210-Pb dated core) coupled with regional long-term climate data to understand the pronounced 20th century changes in the diatom record, notably an expansion of Cyclotella spp from around 1920. This initial increase is coincident with warming in SW China but the maximum Cyclotella abundance occurs in in the 1970s and 1980s, a period of regional cooling and major changes in catchment-lake biogeochemistry as indicated by geochemical analyses. The possible drivers of the observed changes (nitrogen deposition, temperature) at this site are discussed in the context

  9. Biomass burning and its relationship with water cycle dynamics of the Chari-Logone catchment of Lake Chad Basin

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Black, F. W.; Lee, J.; Ellison, L.; Gupta, M.; Bolten, J. D.; Gatebe, C. K.; Ichoku, C. M.

    2016-12-01

    The cause of shrinkage of Lake Chad has been of great interest for issues of global warming and climate change. The present study investigates the effect of biomass burning on the water cycle dynamics of Lake Chad Basin in the Northern Sub-Saharan Africa. Burning activities increase from November to April when monsoonal precipitation is at its lowest and decreases dramatically from May to October when precipitation peaks. To circumvent weather station scarcity in the region, a variety of satellite products were used as input into a water balance model. The datasets include TRMM 3B31 for precipitation, SRTM for elevation, and MODIS: MOD11C3 for temperature, MOD12Q1 for land cover, and MOD14A for fire count. Non-satellite based data sources include soil maps from the Harmonized World Soil Database and wind speed from NOAA NCDC stations. The Chari-Logone catchment of the Lake Chad Basin was selected since it supplies over 90% of the water input to the Lake. Fire count data from MOD14A were integrated with land cover albedo changes to determine monthly potential evapotranspiration (PET) using a Penman equation. The resolution of the model is 2 km x 2 km which allows for delineation of physical features such as lakes and other water bodies. Fire counts, also at a resolution of 2 km x 2 km, vary dramatically depending on the season. A separate land cover dataset was created to account for the effect of burning of different vegetative land types, which affects vegetative area, bare area, leaf area index, vegetation height, Manning coefficient, and aerodynamic resistance. Two water balance simulations, one considering burning and one without, were compared from the years 2005 to 2010. Results indicate biomass burning contribute to an increase in average monthly runoff and a decrease in groundwater recharge. Actual evapotranspiration shows variation depending on the month.

  10. RAINBOW LAKE WILDERNESS AND FLYNN LAKE WILDERNESS STUDY AREA, WISCONSIN.

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Cannon, W.F.; Dunn, Maynard L.

    1984-01-01

    The Rainbow Lake Wilderness and Flynn Lake Wilderness study area in Wisconsin are contiguous and were studied as a unit. The rainbow Lake Wilderness contains a demonstrated resource of about 210,000 tons of commercial-quality peat in an area of substantiated peat resource potential. The Flynn Lake Wilderness study area contains a demonstrated resource of about 300,000 tons of commercial-quality peat in an area of substantiated peat resource potential. These deposits, however, are of limited importance because larger deposits of similar material are abundant outside the areas, closer to present markets. Rocks in the subsurface contain a low-grade copper resource identified by mining company exploration drilling. Although this is an area of substantiated copper resource potential, it is a low-grade resource, thin and generally at great depth.

  11. The Lake-Catchment (LakeCat) Dataset for characterizing hydrologically-relevant landscape features for lakes across the conterminous US

    EPA Science Inventory

    Lake conditions, including their biota, respond to both natural and human-related landscape features. Characterizing these features within the contributing areas (i.e., delineated watersheds) of lakes could improve the analysis and the sustainable use and management of these impo...

  12. Hydrochemistry dynamics in remote mountain lakes and its relation to catchment and atmospheric features: the case study of Sabocos Tarn, Pyrenees.

    PubMed

    Santolaria, Zoe; Arruebo, Tomas; Urieta, José Santiago; Lanaja, Francisco Javier; Pardo, Alfonso; Matesanz, José; Rodriguez-Casals, Carlos

    2015-01-01

    Increasing the understanding of high mountain lake dynamics is essential to use these remote aquatic ecosystems as proxies of global environmental changes. With this aim, at Sabocos, a Pyrenean cirque glacial lake or tarn, this study shows the main results of a morphological and catchment characterization, along with statistical analyses of its hydrochemical trends and their concomitant driving factors from 2010 to 2013. Dissolved oxygen, water temperature stratification, and its snow and ice cover composition and dynamics have been also investigated. According to morphological analyses, Sabocos can be classified as a medium-large and deep lake, having a circular contour and a long water retention time as compared to Pyrenean glacial lake average values. Sabocos hydrochemistry is mainly determined by very high alkalinity, pH and conductivity levels, and high Ca(2+), Mg(2+), and SO4(2-) content, coming from the easily weatherable limestone-dolomite bedrock. Thus, lake water is well buffered, and therefore, Sabocos tarn is non-sensitive to acidification processes. On the other hand, the main source of K(+), Na(+), and Cl(-) (sea salts) and nutrients (NH4(+), NO3(-), and phosphorous) to lake water appears to be atmospheric deposition. Primary production is phosphorous limited, and due to the N-saturation stage of the poorly developed soils of Sabocos catchment, NO3(-) is the chief component in the total nitrogen pool. External temperature seems to be the major driver regulating lake productivity, since warm temperatures boot primary production. Although precipitation might also play an important role in lake dynamics, especially regarding to those parameters influenced by the weathering of the bedrock, its influence cannot be easily assessed due to the seasonal isolation produced by the ice cover. Also, as occurs in the whole Pyrenean lake district, chemical composition of bulk deposition is highly variable due to the contribution of air masses with different origin.

  13. Vulnerability of European freshwater catchments to climate change.

    PubMed

    Markovic, Danijela; Carrizo, Savrina F; Kärcher, Oskar; Walz, Ariane; David, Jonathan N W

    2017-09-01

    Climate change is expected to exacerbate the current threats to freshwater ecosystems, yet multifaceted studies on the potential impacts of climate change on freshwater biodiversity at scales that inform management planning are lacking. The aim of this study was to fill this void through the development of a novel framework for assessing climate change vulnerability tailored to freshwater ecosystems. The three dimensions of climate change vulnerability are as follows: (i) exposure to climate change, (ii) sensitivity to altered environmental conditions and (iii) resilience potential. Our vulnerability framework includes 1685 freshwater species of plants, fishes, molluscs, odonates, amphibians, crayfish and turtles alongside key features within and between catchments, such as topography and connectivity. Several methodologies were used to combine these dimensions across a variety of future climate change models and scenarios. The resulting indices were overlaid to assess the vulnerability of European freshwater ecosystems at the catchment scale (18 783 catchments). The Balkan Lakes Ohrid and Prespa and Mediterranean islands emerge as most vulnerable to climate change. For the 2030s, we showed a consensus among the applied methods whereby up to 573 lake and river catchments are highly vulnerable to climate change. The anthropogenic disruption of hydrological habitat connectivity by dams is the major factor reducing climate change resilience. A gap analysis demonstrated that the current European protected area network covers <25% of the most vulnerable catchments. Practical steps need to be taken to ensure the persistence of freshwater biodiversity under climate change. Priority should be placed on enhancing stakeholder cooperation at the major basin scale towards preventing further degradation of freshwater ecosystems and maintaining connectivity among catchments. The catchments identified as most vulnerable to climate change provide preliminary targets for

  14. Differential Millennial-scale Responses of Terrestrial Carbon Cycling Dynamics to Warming from two Contrasting Lake Catchments in Arctic Alaska

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Longo, W. M.; Huang, Y.; Russell, J. M.; Giblin, A. E.; McNichol, A. P.; Xu, L.; Daniels, W.

    2016-12-01

    Earth's permafrost carbon (C) reservoir is more than twice as large as global atmospheric C and its vulnerability to warming makes it a significant potential feedback to climate change. Predicted rates of warming could result in the release of 5 to 15% of permafrost C to the atmosphere by 2100 (Schuur et al., 2015); however the uncertainty around this estimate hinders our ability to quantify the arctic temperature-carbon feedback. To elucidate the long-term response of terrestrial C to warming in regions underlain by continuous permafrost, we present geologic records of changes in temperature and terrestrial C cycling dynamics from sediment cores from two contrasting lake catchments in arctic Alaska. The sediment records feature independent chronologies, biomarker-based temperature reconstructions, and geochemical measurements of vascular plant biomarkers (lignin phenols) that provide insight into terrestrial carbon quality, its release from permafrost soils and its transit time on the landscape. Our results indicate that both abrupt and sustained increases in temperature over the past 20,000 years resulted in increased carbon normalized yields of lignin phenols (Λ8, Λ6), which indicate increased mobilization of terrestrial organic carbon from permafrost soils. Lignin phenol indicators of terrestrial carbon quality (Ad:Al(s), Ad:Al(v)), indicated that carbon quality decreased with increasing temperature. These results demonstrate covariation between temperature and both the decay of terrestrial organic matter and lignin alteration resulting from dissolution and sorption processes. Compound specific radiocarbon analyses of lignin phenols and their offsets from depositional ages quantify transit times of terrestrial carbon on the landscape. These measurements revealed the presence of a persistent "pre-aged" terrestrial organic carbon pool, which is likely sourced from degrading permafrost. We also observe different responses of terrestrial organic carbon cycling to

  15. Anthropogenic Sources of Arsenic and Copper to Sediments of a Suburban Lake, 1964-1998

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rice, K. C.; Conko, K. M.; Hornberger, G. M.

    2002-05-01

    Nonpoint-source pollution from urbanization is becoming a widespread problem. Long-term monitoring data are necessary to document geochemical processes in urban settings and changes in sources of chemical contaminants over time. In the absence of long-term data, lake-sediment cores can be used to reconstruct past processes, because they serve as integrators of sources of pollutants from the contributing airshed and catchment. Lake Anne is a 10.9-ha man-made lake in a 235-ha suburban catchment in Reston, Virginia, with a population density of 1,116 people/km2. Three sediment cores, collected in 1996 and 1997, indicate increasing concentrations of arsenic and copper since 1964, when the lake was formed. The cores were compared to a core collected from a forested catchment in the same airshed that showed no increases in concentrations of these elements. Neither an increase in atmospheric deposition nor diagenesis and remobilization were responsible for the trends in the Lake Anne cores. Mass balances of sediment, arsenic, and copper were calculated using 1998 data on precipitation, streamwater, road runoff, and a laboratory leaching experiment on pressure-treated lumber. Sources of arsenic to the lake in 1998 were in-lake leaching of pressure-treated lumber (52%) and streamwater (47%). Road runoff was a greater (93%) source of copper than leaching of pressure-treated lumber (4%). Atmospheric deposition was an insignificant source (<3%) of both elements. Urbanization of the catchment was confirmed as a major cause of the increasing arsenic and copper in the lake cores through an annual historical reconstruction of the deposition of sediment, arsenic, and copper to the lake for 1964-1997. Aerial photography indicated that the area of roads and parking lots in the catchment increased to 26% by 1997 and that the number of docks on the lake also increased over time. The increased mass of arsenic and copper in the lake sediments corresponded to the increased amount of

  16. The GRASP project - a multidisciplinary study of hydrology and biogeochemistry in a periglacial catchment area

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Johansson, Emma; Lindborg, Tobias

    2017-04-01

    The Arctic region is sensitive to global warming, and permafrost thaw and release of old carbon are examples of processes that may have a positive feedback effect to the global climate system. Quantification and assumptions on future change are often based on model predictions. Such models require cross-disciplinary data of high quality that often is lacking. Biogeochemical processes in the landscape are highly influenced by the hydrology, which in turn is intimately related to permafrost processes. Thus, a multidisciplinary approach is needed when collecting data and setting up field experiments aiming at increase the understanding of these processes. Here we summarize and present data collected in the GRASP, Greenland Analogue Surface Project. GRASP is a catchment-scale field study of the periglacial area in the Kangerlussuaq region, West Greenland, focusing on hydrological and biogeochemical processes in the landscape. The site investigations were initiated in 2010 and have since then resulted in three separate data sets published in ESSD (Earth system and Science Data) each one focusing on i) meteorological data and hydrology, ii) biogeochemistry and iii) geometries of sediments and the active layer. The three data-sets, which are freely available via the PANGAEA data base, enable conceptual and coupled numerical modeling of hydrological and biogeochemical processes. An important strength with the GRASP data is that all data is collected within the same, relatively small, catchment area. This implies that measurements are more easily linked to the right source area or process. Despite the small catchment area it includes the major units of the periglacial hydrological system; a lake, a talik, a supra- and subpermafrost aquifer and, consequently, biogeochemical processes in each of these units may be studied. The new data from GRASP is both used with the aim to increase the knowledge of present day periglacial hydrology and biogeochemistry but also in order to

  17. Determining health-care facility catchment areas in Uganda using data on malaria-related visits

    PubMed Central

    Charland, Katia; Kigozi, Ruth; Dorsey, Grant; Kamya, Moses R; Buckeridge, David L

    2014-01-01

    Abstract Objective To illustrate the use of a new method for defining the catchment areas of health-care facilities based on their utilization. Methods The catchment areas of six health-care facilities in Uganda were determined using the cumulative case ratio: the ratio of the observed to expected utilization of a facility for a particular condition by patients from small administrative areas. The cumulative case ratio for malaria-related visits to these facilities was determined using data from the Uganda Malaria Surveillance Project. Catchment areas were also derived using various straight line and road network distances from the facility. Subsequently, the 1-year cumulative malaria case rate was calculated for each catchment area, as determined using the three methods. Findings The 1-year cumulative malaria case rate varied considerably with the method used to define the catchment areas. With the cumulative case ratio approach, the catchment area could include noncontiguous areas. With the distance approaches, the denominator increased substantially with distance, whereas the numerator increased only slightly. The largest cumulative case rate per 1000 population was for the Kamwezi facility: 234.9 (95% confidence interval, CI: 226.2–243.8) for a straight-line distance of 5 km, 193.1 (95% CI: 186.8–199.6) for the cumulative case ratio approach and 156.1 (95% CI: 150.9–161.4) for a road network distance of 5 km. Conclusion Use of the cumulative case ratio for malaria-related visits to determine health-care facility catchment areas was feasible. Moreover, this approach took into account patients’ actual addresses, whereas using distance from the facility did not. PMID:24700977

  18. Use of modeling to protect, plan, and manage water resources in catchment areas.

    PubMed

    Constant, Thibaut; Charrière, Séverine; Lioeddine, Abdejalil; Emsellem, Yves

    2016-08-01

    The degradation of water resources by diffuse pollution, mainly due to nitrate and pesticides, is an important matter for public health. Restoration of the quality of natural water catchments by focusing on their catchment areas is therefore a national priority in France. To consider catchment areas as homogeneous and to expend an equal effort on the entire area inevitably leads to a waste of time and money, and restorative actions may not be as efficient as intended. The variability of the pedological and geological properties of the area is actually an opportunity to invest effort on smaller areas, simply because every action is not equally efficient on every kind of pedological or geological surface. Using this approach, it is possible to invest in a few selected zones that will be efficient in terms of environmental results. The contributive hydraulic areas (CHA) concept is different from that of the catchment area. Because the transport of most of the mobile and persistent pollutants is primarily driven by water circulation, the concept of the CHA is based on the water pathway from the surface of the soil in the catchment area to the well. The method uses a three-dimensional hydrogeological model of surface and groundwater integrated with a geographic information system called Watermodel. The model calculates the contribution (m(3)/h or %) of each point of the soil to the total flow pumped in a well. Application of this model, partially funded by the Seine Normandy Basin Agency, to the catchment of the Dormelles Well in the Cretaceous chalk aquifer in the Orvanne valley, France (catchment area of 23,000 ha at Dormelles, county 77), shows that 95 % of the water pumped at the Dormelles Well comes from only 26 % of the total surface area of the catchment. Consequently, an action plan to protect the water resource will be targeted at the 93 farmers operating in this source area rather than the total number of farmers (250) across the entire 23,000 ha. Another

  19. Freshwater bacterioplankton richness in oligotrophic lakes depends on nutrient availability rather than on species–area relationships

    PubMed Central

    Logue, Jürg Brendan; Langenheder, Silke; Andersson, Anders F; Bertilsson, Stefan; Drakare, Stina; Lanzén, Anders; Lindström, Eva S

    2012-01-01

    A central goal in ecology is to grasp the mechanisms that underlie and maintain biodiversity and patterns in its spatial distribution can provide clues about those mechanisms. Here, we investigated what might determine the bacterioplankton richness (BR) in lakes by means of 454 pyrosequencing of the 16S rRNA gene. We further provide a BR estimate based upon a sampling depth and accuracy, which, to our knowledge, are unsurpassed for freshwater bacterioplankton communities. Our examination of 22 669 sequences per lake showed that freshwater BR in fourteen nutrient-poor lakes was positively influenced by nutrient availability. Our study is, thus, consistent with the finding that the supply of available nutrients is a major driver of species richness; a pattern that may well be universally valid to the world of both micro- and macro-organisms. We, furthermore, observed that BR increased with elevated landscape position, most likely as a consequence of differences in nutrient availability. Finally, BR decreased with increasing lake and catchment area that is negative species–area relationships (SARs) were recorded; a finding that re-opens the debate about whether positive SARs can indeed be found in the microbial world and whether positive SARs can in fact be pronounced as one of the few ‘laws' in ecology. PMID:22170419

  20. SKY LAKES ROADLESS AREA AND MOUNTAIN LAKES WILDERNESS, OREGON.

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Smith, James G.; Benham, John R.

    1984-01-01

    Based on a mineral survey of the Sky Lakes Roadless Area and the Mountain Lakes Wilderness, Oregon, the areas have little or no promise for the occurrence of metallic-mineral resources or geothermal energy resources. Nonmetallic resources exist in the areas, but other areas outside the roadless area and wilderness also contain resources of volcanic cinders, scoria, ash, breccia, and sand and gravel which are easier to obtain and closer to markets. The roadless area and wilderness are not geologically favorable for metallic deposits, or for coal, oil, or gas resources.

  1. Sediment accumulation rates and high-resolution stratigraphy of recent fluvial suspension deposits in various fluvial settings, Morava River catchment area, Czech Republic

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sedláček, Jan; Bábek, Ondřej; Kielar, Ondřej

    2016-02-01

    We present a comprehensive study concerning sedimentary processes in fluvial sediment traps within the Morava River catchment area (Czech Republic) involving three dammed reservoirs, four meanders and oxbow lakes, and several natural floodplain sites. The objective of the study was to determine sediment accumulation rates (SAR), estimate erosion rates, calculating these using a combination of the 137Cs method and historical data. Another purpose of this study was to provide insight into changing erosion and accumulation rates over the last century. Extensive water course modifications were carried out in the Morava River catchment area during the twentieth century, which likely affected sedimentation rates along the river course. Other multiproxy stratigraphic methods (X-ray densitometry, magnetic susceptibility, and visible-light reflectance spectrometry) were applied to obtain additional information about sediment infill. Sediment stratigraphy revealed distinct distal-to-proximal patterns, especially in reservoirs. Granulometrically, silts and sandy silts prevailed in sediments. Oxbow lakes and meanders contained larger amounts of clay and organic matter, which is the main difference between them and reservoirs. Pronounced 137Cs peaks were recorded in all studied cores (maximum 377 Bq·kg- 1), thus indicating Chernobyl fallout from 1986 or older events. Calculated sediment accumulation rates were lowest in distal parts of reservoirs (0.13-0.58 cm/y) and floodplains (0.45-0.88 cm/y), moderately high rates were found in proximal parts of reservoirs and oxbow lakes (2.27-4.4 cm/y), and the highest rates in some oxbow lakes located near the river (6-8 cm/y). The frequency of the inundation still can be high in some natural areas as in the Litovelské Pomoraví protected area, whereas the decreasing frequency of the inundation in other modified parts can contribute to a lower sedimentation rate. The local effects such as difference between SARs in oxbow lakes and

  2. Flash Flood Type Identification within Catchments in Beijing Mountainous Area

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nan, W.

    2017-12-01

    Flash flood is a common type of disaster in mountainous area, Flash flood with the feature of large flow rate, strong flushing force, destructive power, has periodically caused loss to life and destruction to infrastructure in mountainous area. Beijing as China's political, economic and cultural center, the disaster prevention and control work in Beijing mountainous area has always been concerned widely. According to the transport mechanism, sediment concentration and density, the flash flood type identification within catchment can provide basis for making the hazards prevention and mitigation policy. Taking Beijing as the study area, this paper extracted parameters related to catchment morphological and topography features respectively. By using Bayes discriminant, Logistic regression and Random forest, the catchments in Beijing mountainous area were divided into water floods process, fluvial sediment transport process and debris flows process. The results found that Logistic regression analysis showed the highest accuracy, with the overall accuracy of 88.2%. Bayes discriminant and Random forest had poor prediction effects. This study confirmed the ability of morphological and topography features to identify flash flood process. The circularity ratio, elongation ratio and roughness index can be used to explain the flash flood types effectively, and the Melton ratio and elevation relief ratio also did a good job during the identification, whereas the drainage density seemed not to be an issue at this level of detail. Based on the analysis of spatial patterns of flash flood types, fluvial sediment transport process and debris flow process were the dominant hazards, while the pure water flood process was much less. The catchments dominated by fluvial sediment transport process were mainly distributed in the Yan Mountain region, where the fault belts were relatively dense. The debris flow process prone to occur in the Taihang Mountain region thanks to the abundant

  3. Comparison of Multi-Scale Digital Elevation Models for Defining Waterways and Catchments Over Large Areas

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Harris, B.; McDougall, K.; Barry, M.

    2012-07-01

    Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) allow for the efficient and consistent creation of waterways and catchment boundaries over large areas. Studies of waterway delineation from DEMs are usually undertaken over small or single catchment areas due to the nature of the problems being investigated. Improvements in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) techniques, software, hardware and data allow for analysis of larger data sets and also facilitate a consistent tool for the creation and analysis of waterways over extensive areas. However, rarely are they developed over large regional areas because of the lack of available raw data sets and the amount of work required to create the underlying DEMs. This paper examines definition of waterways and catchments over an area of approximately 25,000 km2 to establish the optimal DEM scale required for waterway delineation over large regional projects. The comparative study analysed multi-scale DEMs over two test areas (Wivenhoe catchment, 543 km2 and a detailed 13 km2 within the Wivenhoe catchment) including various data types, scales, quality, and variable catchment input parameters. Historic and available DEM data was compared to high resolution Lidar based DEMs to assess variations in the formation of stream networks. The results identified that, particularly in areas of high elevation change, DEMs at 20 m cell size created from broad scale 1:25,000 data (combined with more detailed data or manual delineation in flat areas) are adequate for the creation of waterways and catchments at a regional scale.

  4. Investigation of the complexity of streamflow fluctuations in a large heterogeneous lake catchment in China

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ye, Xuchun; Xu, Chong-Yu; Li, Xianghu; Zhang, Qi

    2018-05-01

    The occurrence of flood and drought frequency is highly correlated with the temporal fluctuations of streamflow series; understanding of these fluctuations is essential for the improved modeling and statistical prediction of extreme changes in river basins. In this study, the complexity of daily streamflow fluctuations was investigated by using multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis (MF-DFA) in a large heterogeneous lake basin, the Poyang Lake basin in China, and the potential impacts of human activities were also explored. Major results indicate that the multifractality of streamflow fluctuations shows significant regional characteristics. In the study catchment, all the daily streamflow series present a strong long-range correlation with Hurst exponents bigger than 0.8. The q-order Hurst exponent h( q) of all the hydrostations can be characterized well by only two parameters: a (0.354 ≤ a ≤ 0.384) and b (0.627 ≤ b ≤ 0.677), with no pronounced differences. Singularity spectrum analysis pointed out that small fluctuations play a dominant role in all daily streamflow series. Our research also revealed that both the correlation properties and the broad probability density function (PDF) of hydrological series can be responsible for the multifractality of streamflow series that depends on watershed areas. In addition, we emphasized the relationship between watershed area and the estimated multifractal parameters, such as the Hurst exponent and fitted parameters a and b from the q-order Hurst exponent h( q). However, the relationship between the width of the singularity spectrum (Δ α) and watershed area is not clear. Further investigation revealed that increasing forest coverage and reservoir storage can effectively enhance the persistence of daily streamflow, decrease the hydrological complexity of large fluctuations, and increase the small fluctuations.

  5. Small lakes in big landscape: Multi-scale drivers of littoral ecosystem in alpine lakes.

    PubMed

    Zaharescu, Dragos G; Burghelea, Carmen I; Hooda, Peter S; Lester, Richard N; Palanca-Soler, Antonio

    2016-05-01

    In low nutrient alpine lakes, the littoral zone is the most productive part of the ecosystem, and it is a biodiversity hotspot. It is not entirely clear how the scale and physical heterogeneity of surrounding catchment, its ecological composition, and larger landscape gradients work together to sustain littoral communities. A total of 113 alpine lakes from the central Pyrenees were surveyed to evaluate the functional connectivity between littoral zoobenthos and landscape physical and ecological elements at geographical, catchment and local scales, and to ascertain how they affect the formation of littoral communities. At each lake, the zoobenthic composition was assessed together with geolocation, catchment hydrodynamics, geomorphology and topography, riparian vegetation composition, the presence of trout and frogs, water pH and conductivity. Multidimensional fuzzy set models integrating benthic biota and environmental variables revealed that at geographical scale, longitude unexpectedly surpassed altitude and latitude in its effect on littoral ecosystem. This reflects a sharp transition between Atlantic and Mediterranean climates and suggests a potentially high horizontal vulnerability to climate change. Topography (controlling catchment type, snow coverage and lakes connectivity) was the most influential catchment-scale driver, followed by hydrodynamics (waterbody size, type and volume of inflow/outflow). Locally, riparian plant composition significantly related to littoral community structure, richness and diversity. These variables, directly and indirectly, create habitats for aquatic and terrestrial stages of invertebrates, and control nutrient and water cycles. Three benthic associations characterised distinct lakes. Vertebrate predation, water conductivity and pH had no major influence on littoral taxa. This work provides exhaustive information from relatively pristine sites, and unveils a strong connection between littoral ecosystem and catchment

  6. Biogeochemical fluxes in the Glacier Lakes catchments

    Treesearch

    John O. Reuss; Frank A. Vertucci; Robert C. Musselman; Richard A. Sommerfeld

    1993-01-01

    These lakes are moderately sensitive to acid deposition; acidification would require precipitation at least as acidic as that presently found in the more heavily impacted areas of eastern North America. Because most snowpack contaminants are released early in the melting process, seasonal acidification pulses would probably occur at much lower levels of acidic inputs...

  7. Chemical fractionation of lake sediments to determine the effects of land-use change on nutrient loading

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Heathwaite, A. L.

    1994-07-01

    Lake studies allow contemporary sediment and nutrient dynamics to be placed in a historical context in order that trends and rates of change in catchment inputs may be calculated. Here, a synthesis of the temporal information contained in catchment and lake sediment records is attempted. A chemical fractionation technique is used to isolate the different sediment sources contained in the lake core, and 210Pb dates provide an accurate record of changes in lake sediment sources over the past 100 years. The extent to which land-use records, collated from agricultural census returns, and process-based studies of sediment and nutrient export from different catchment land uses can be used to explain the trends observed in the lake sediments is examined. Sediment influx to the study lake has increased from less than 2 mm year -1 prior to the Second World War to over 10 mm year -1 at present. The source of the sediment is largely unaltered and unweathered allochthonous material eroded from the catchment. Land-use records suggest that the intensification of agriculture, characterized by a shift towards arable land immediately postwar, followed by an increase in the area of temporary grass in the 1960s, may be the cause of accelerated catchment erosion; both land-use changes would have increased the area of ploughed land in the catchment. An increase in the number of cattle and sheep in the catchment from around 2000 and 6000, respectively, in the 1940s, to a peak of nearly 7000 cattle and over 15 000 sheep in the 1980s, provides a further source of sediment and nutrients. Livestock are grazed on permanent grassland which is commonly located on steep hillslopes and in riparian zones where saturation-excess surface runoff may be an important hydrological pathway. Rainfall simulation experiments show that surface runoff from heavily grazed grassland has a high suspended sediment, ammonium-nitrogen and particulate phosphorus load. The combined effect of the long-term increase

  8. Direct versus indirect climate controls on Holocene diatom assemblages in a sub-tropical deep, alpine lake (Lugu Hu, Yunnan, SW China)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, Qian; Yang, Xiangdong; Anderson, Nicholas John; Dong, Xuhui

    2016-07-01

    The reconstruction of Holocene environmental changes in lakes on the plateau region of southwest China provides an understanding of how these ecosystems may respond to climate change. Fossil diatom assemblages were investigated from an 11,000-year lake sediment core from a deep, alpine lake (Lugu Hu) in southwest China, an area strongly influenced by the southwest (or the Indian) summer monsoon. Changes in diatom assemblage composition, notably the abundance of the two dominant planktonic species, Cyclotella rhomboideo-elliptica and Cyclostephanos dubius, reflect the effects of climate variability on nutrient dynamics, mediated via thermal stratification (internal nutrient cycling) and catchment-vegetation processes. Statistical analyses of the climate-diatom interactions highlight the strong effect of changing orbitally-induced solar radiation during the Holocene, presumably via its effect on the lake's thermal budget. In a partial redundancy analysis, climate (solar insolation) and proxies reflecting catchment process (pollen percentages, C/N ratio) were the most important drivers of diatom ecological change, showing the strong effects of climate-catchment-vegetation interactions on lake functioning. This diatom record reflects long-term ontogeny of the lake-catchment ecosystem and suggests that climatic changes (both temperature and precipitation) impact lake ecology indirectly through shifts in thermal stratification and catchment nutrient exports.

  9. Land use changing and land use optimization of Lake Baikal basin on the example of two key areas

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Solodyankina, S.

    2012-04-01

    Lake Baikal contains roughly 20% of the world's unfrozen surface fresh water. It was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996. Today levels of urbanization and economic stress on environmental resources is increasing on the shorts of the lake Baikal. The potential of economic development (industry, local tourism, and mining) of the Severobaykalsky and Sludyansky districts is rather high although they are characterized not only by beneficial features for local economy but also by considerable disadvantages for nature of this world valuable territory. This investigation show human-caused landscape changes during economic development of the two key areas in Baikal water catchment basin during 10 years (point of reference is 2000 year). Key areas are 1) the Baikalo-Patomskoe highland in the north of the Baikal catchment basin (Severobaykalsky district, Republic of Buryatia); 2) Khamar-Daban mountain system in the south of the Baikal catchment basin (Sludyansky districy, Irkutsk region). Since 2000 year land use of the territory has changed. Areas of agriculture were reduced but recreation activity on the bank of the lake was increased. Methods of GIS analysis and local statistic analysis of landscape characteristic were used. Nature, rural and urban areas ratio are estimated. Vegetation and soil condition assessment were made. The essence of this research is in helping to make decisions linked to upcoming problems: situation identification, evaluation and forecasting of the potential landscape condition, optimization of land use, mitigation of impact and mapping of territories and nature resources which have a high ecological value or endangered by industrial impact. For this purpose landscape maps of the territories on the base of the remote sensing information and field investigations were created. They used to calculate potential landscape functions of the territory without taking into account present impact of anthropogenic actions. Land use maps for years

  10. Geohydrology of the lowland lakes area, Anchorage, Alaska

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Zenone, Chester

    1976-01-01

    Unconsolidated deposits, chiefly of glacial origin, make up the surficial geologic materials in the Anchorage lowland lakes area , the western part of the Anchorage glacial outwash plain. Postglacial accumulation of peat, commonly 5 to 10 feet thick, and the presence of ground water at or very near the surface combine to create the swamp-muskeg terrane of much of the area. Deeper, confined ground water is also present beneath thick silt and clay layers that underlie the surficial deposits. Domestic water supply for the lowland lakes area is provided largely by public-supply wells completed in the deep, confined aquifers. No large perennial streams traverse the area, thus streamflow is not a major parameter in the area 's natural water balance. The major uses of surface water are recreational, including fishing and boating at several of the larger lakes, and private and commercial aircraft operations at Hood-Spenard Lakes floatplane base. The hydrology and water balance of these lakes is complex. Water levels in some lakes appear to be closely related to adjacent ground-water levels. Other lakes are evidently perched above the local water table. The relation of lake level to adjacent ground-water level may vary along the shoreline of a single lake. The effect of residential development practices on lake basin water balance is not completely understood. At Sand Lake, the largest lake in this area of rapid urbanization, the water level has declined about 6 feet since the early 1960's. (Woodard-USGS)

  11. Reconnaissance data on lakes in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area, Washington

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Dethier, David P.; Heller, Paul L.; Safioles, Sally A.

    1979-01-01

    Sixty lakes in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area have been sampled from rubber rafts or helicopter to obtain information on their physical setting and on present water-quality conditions. The lakes are located near the crest of the Cascade Range in Chelan and King Counties, Washington. Basic data from these lakes will be useful for planners concerned with lake and wilderness management, and of interest to hikers and other recreationists who use the lakes.

  12. Phosphorus Loadings to the World's Largest Lakes: Sources and Trends

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fink, Gabriel; Alcamo, Joseph; Flörke, Martina; Reder, Klara

    2018-04-01

    Eutrophication is a major water quality issue in lakes worldwide and is principally caused by the loadings of phosphorus from catchment areas. It follows that to develop strategies to mitigate eutrophication, we must have a good understanding of the amount, sources, and trends of phosphorus pollution. This paper provides the first consistent and harmonious estimates of current phosphorus loadings to the world's largest 100 lakes, along with the sources of these loadings and their trends. These estimates provide a perspective on the extent of lake eutrophication worldwide, as well as potential input to the evaluation and management of eutrophication in these lakes. We take a modeling approach and apply the WorldQual model for these estimates. The advantage of this approach is that it allows us to fill in large gaps in observational data. From the analysis, we find that about 66 of the 100 lakes are located in developing countries and their catchments have a much larger average phosphorus yield than the lake catchments in developed countries (11.1 versus 0.7 kg TP km-2 year-1). Second, the main source of phosphorus to the examined lakes is inorganic fertilizer (47% of total). Third, between 2005-2010 and 1990-1994, phosphorus pollution increased at 50 out of 100 lakes. Sixty percent of lakes with increasing pollution are in developing countries. P pollution changed primarily due to changing P fertilizer use. In conclusion, we show that the risk of P-stimulated eutrophication is higher in developing countries.

  13. Impacts of Recent Wetting on Snow Processes and Runoff Generation in a Terminal Lake Basin, Devils Lake, North Dakota.

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mahmood, T. H.; Van Hoy, D.

    2016-12-01

    The Devils Lake Basin, only terminal lake basin in North America, drains to a terminal lake called Devils Lake. Terminal lakes are susceptible to climate and land use changes as their water levels fluctuate to these changes. The streamflow from the headwater catchments of the Devils Lake basin exerts a strong control on the water level of the lake. Since, the mid-1980s, the Devils Lake Basin as well as other basins in the northern Great Plains have faced a large and abrupt surge in precipitation regime resulting in a series of wetter climatic condition and flooding around the Devils Lake area. Nevertheless, the impacts of the recent wetting on snow processes such as snow accumulations, blowing snow transport, in-transit sublimation, frozen soil infiltration and snowmelt runoff generations in a headwater catchment of the Devils Lake basin are poorly understood. In this study, I utilize a physically-based, distributed cold regions hydrological model to simulate the hydrological responses in the Mauvais Coulee basin that drains to Devils Lake. The Mauvais Coulee basin ( 1072 km2), located in the north-central North Dakota, is set in a gently rolling landscape with low relief ( 220 m) and an average elevation of 500 m. Major land covers are forest areas in turtle mountains ( 10%) and crops ( 86%), with wheat ( 25%) and canola ( 20%) as the major crops. The model set up includes ten sub-basins, each of which is divided into several hydrological response units (HRUs): riparian forest, river channel, reservoir, wheat, canola, other crops, and marsh. The model is parameterized using local and regional measurements and the findings from previous scientific studies. The model is evaluated against streamflow observations at the Mauvais Coulee gauge (USGS) during 1994-2013 periods using multiple performance criteria. Finally, the impacts of recent increases in precipitation on hydrologic responses are investigated using modeled hydrologic processes.

  14. Integrated assessment of land use and cover changes in the Malagarasi river catchment in Tanzania

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kashaigili, J. J.; Majaliwa, A. M.

    Malagarasi river catchment represents one of the largest and most significant transboundary natural ecosystems in Africa. The catchment constitutes about one third of the catchment area of Lake Tanganyika and contains ecosystems of both national and international importance (i.e. Muyovozi Wetland Ramsar site). It has been increasingly said that increased anthropogenic activities have had negative impacts on the Muyovozi wetland in particular and other catchment resources. Nevertheless, these beliefs are little supported by quantitative data. A study on the dynamics of land use and cover in the Malagarasi river catchment therefore investigated long-term and seasonal changes that have occurred as a result of human activities in the area for the periods between 1984 and 2001. Landsat TM and ETM+ images were used to locate and quantify the changes. Perceptions of local people on historical changes and drivers for the changes were also collected and integrated in the assessment. The study revealed a significant change in land use and cover within a period of 18 year. Between 1984 and 2001, the woodland and wetland vegetation covers declined by 0.09% and 2.51% per year. Areas with settlements and cultivation increased by 1.05% annually while bushed grassland increased at 1.93% annually. The perceived principal drivers for the changes were found to include fire, cultivation along rivers and lake shores, overgrazing, poor law enforcement, insufficient knowledge on environmental issues, increasing poverty, deforestation and population growth. The human population growth rate stands at 4.8% against a national figure of 2.9%. The most perceived environmental problems include drying of streams and rivers, change in rainfall, loss of soil fertility, soil erosion and reduced crop yield. The study concludes that, there has been significant changes in land use and cover in the catchment and these require concerted actions to reverse the changes. The study highlights the importance

  15. Water balance of a lake with floodplain buffering: Lake Tana, Blue Nile Basin, Ethiopia

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dessie, Mekete; Verhoest, Niko E. C.; Pauwels, Valentijn R. N.; Adgo, Enyew; Deckers, Jozef; Poesen, Jean; Nyssen, Jan

    2015-03-01

    Lakes are very important components of the earth's hydrological cycle, providing a variety of services for humans and ecosystem functioning. For a sustainable use of lakes, a substantial body of knowledge on their water balance is vital. We present here a detailed daily water balance analysis for Lake Tana, the largest lake in Ethiopia and the source of the Blue Nile. Rainfall on the lake is determined by Thiessen polygon procedure, open water evaporation is estimated by the Penman-combination equation and observed inflows for the gauged catchments as well as outflow data at the two lake outlets are directly used. Runoff from ungauged catchments is estimated using a simple rainfall-runoff model and runoff coefficients. Hillslope catchments and floodplains are treated separately, which makes this study unique compared to previous water balance studies. Impact of the floodplain on the lake water balance is analyzed by conducting scenario-based studies. We found an average yearly abstraction of 420 × 106 m3 or 6% of river inflows to the lake by the floodplain in 2012 and 2013. Nearly 60% of the inflow to the lake is from the Gilgel Abay River. Simulated lake levels compare well with the observed lake levels (R2 = 0.95) and the water balance can be closed with a closure error of 82 mm/year (3.5% of the total lake inflow). This study demonstrates the importance of floodplains and their influence on the water balance of the lake and the need of incorporating the effects of floodplains and water abstraction for irrigation to improve predictions.

  16. Impact of papyrus wetland encroachment on spatial and temporal variabilities of stream flow and sediment export from wet tropical catchments.

    PubMed

    Ryken, N; Vanmaercke, M; Wanyama, J; Isabirye, M; Vanonckelen, S; Deckers, J; Poesen, J

    2015-04-01

    During the past decades, land use change in the Lake Victoria basin has significantly increased the sediment fluxes to the lake. These sediments as well as their associated nutrients and pollutants affect the food and water security of millions of people in one of Africa's most densely populated regions. Adequate catchment management strategies, based on a thorough understanding of the factors controlling runoff and sediment discharge are therefore crucial. Nonetheless, studies on the magnitude and dynamics of runoff and sediment discharge are very scarce for the Lake Victoria basin and the African Rift region. We therefore conducted runoff discharge and sediment export measurements in the Upper Rwizi, a catchment in Southwest Uganda, which is representative for the Lake Victoria basin. Land use in this catchment is characterized by grazing area on the high plateaus, banana cropping on the slopes and Cyperus papyrus L. wetlands in the valley bottoms. Due to an increasing population pressure, these papyrus wetlands are currently encroached and transformed into pasture and cropland. Seven subcatchments (358 km2-2120 km2), with different degrees of wetland encroachment, were monitored during the hydrological year June 2009-May 2010. Our results indicate that, due to their strong buffering capacity, papyrus wetlands have a first-order control on runoff and sediment discharge. Subcatchments with intact wetlands have a slower rainfall-runoff response, smaller peak runoff discharges, lower rainfall-runoff ratios and significantly smaller suspended sediment concentrations. This is also reflected in the measured annual area-specific suspended sediment yields (SYs): subcatchments with encroached papyrus swamps have SY values that are about three times larger compared to catchments with intact papyrus vegetation (respectively 106-137 ton km(-2) y(-1) versus 34-37 ton km(-2) y(-1)). We therefore argue that protecting and (where possible) rehabilitating these papyrus wetlands

  17. Rockfall catchment area design guide : metric edition : appendices.

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2001-12-01

    The appendices belong to "Rockfall catchment area design guide : metric edition". : The data gathered from an exhaustive research project consisting of rolling a total of approximately 11,250 rocks off vertical; 4V:1H;2V;1H;1.33V:1H;1.0V:1.0H slopes ...

  18. Evaluation and assessment of water quality in Likangala River and its catchment area

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chidya, R. C. G.; Sajidu, S. M. I.; Mwatseteza, J. F.; Masamba, W. R. L.

    Likangala is one of the perennial rivers in Malawi that flow into a closed Lake Chilwa, a designated wetland ratified by Ramsar Convention in 1997. Earlier work conducted on this river revealed considerable social-economic activities at riverbanks resulting in indiscriminate disposal of wastes. This study intended to evaluate water quality in Likangala River and its catchment area. Water samples were collected thrice (dry, early rainy and mid rainy seasons) and tested for major physico-chemical and microbiological parameters. The EC, pH, and selected ions ( NO3-, PO43-, Na +, K +, Mg 2+, and Ca 2+) were analysed in soil samples obtained in crop fields along the river banks. Elevated EC levels (>1035.00 μS/cm) were measured during mid rainy season at site S15 (Zomba Sewage Works), near and in the lake. Most of the water samples (86%, n = 28) registered phosphate levels above 1.50 mg/L during mid rainy season with a maximum value (10.70 ± 0.01 mg/L) at site S15. Lower amounts (<0.05 mg/L) of Pb 2+, Cd 2+, Cr 3+, Zn 2+ and Mn 2+ were measured at few sites, while Cu 2+ and Ni 2+ were all below detection limits. The water was classified as soft (0-75 mg/L CaCO 3) to moderately hard (75-150 mg/L CaCO 3). The total and fecal coliform counts above the World Health Organisation (2008) and Malawi Bureau of Standards (2005) limits (0 cfu/100 ml) at some sites signified that the water is unsuitable for human consumption without treatment. The study showed that the river is fairly polluted, the effects being significant in the urban area, near and in the lake. This calls for awareness campaigns aiming at behavioural change and integrated control of water, land use and waste management in order to prevent escalation of the effects.

  19. Influence of permafrost on lake terraces of Lake Heihai (NE Tibetan Plateau)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lockot, Gregori; Hartmann, Kai; Wünnemann, Bernd

    2013-04-01

    The Tibetan Plateau (TP) is one of the key regions for climatic global change. Besides the poles the TP is the third highest storage of frozen water in glaciers. Here global warming is three times higher than in the rest of the world. Additionally the TP provides water for billions of people and influences the moisture availability from the Indian and East Asian monsoon systems. During the Holocene extent and intensity of the monsoonal systems changed. Hence, in the last decades, a lot of work was done to reconstruct timing and frequency of monsoonal moisture, to understand the past and give a better forecast for the future. Comparative workings often show very heterogeneous patterns of timing and frequency of the Holocene precipitation and temperature maximum, emphasizing the local importance of catchment dynamics. In this study we present first results of lake Heihai (36°N, 93°15'E, 4500m a.s.l.), situated at the north-eastern border of the TP. The lake is surrounded by a broad band of near-shore lake sediments, attesting a larger lake extent in the past. These sediments were uplifted by permafrost, reaching nowadays heights ca. +8 meters above present lake level. Due to the uplift one of the main inflows was blocked and the whole hydrology of the catchment changed. To quantify the uplift of permafrost Hot Spot Analysis were accomplished at a DEM of the near-shore area. As a result regions of high permafrost uplift and those which mirror the original height of lake ground were revealed. The most obvious uplift took place in the northern and western part of the lake, where the four uplift centers are located. In contrast the southern and eastern areas show a rather degraded pattern (probably by fluvial erosion, thermokarst, etc.). The ancient lake bottom, without permafrost uplift was estimated to be 4-6 meters above the modern lake level. For a better understanding of permafrost interaction inside the terrace bodies a 5m sediment profile was sampled and

  20. Lakes as sentinels of climate change

    PubMed Central

    Adrian, Rita; O’Reilly, Catherine M.; Zagarese, Horacio; Baines, Stephen B.; Hessen, Dag O.; Keller, Wendel; Livingstone, David M.; Sommaruga, Ruben; Straile, Dietmar; Van Donk, Ellen; Weyhenmeyer, Gesa A.; Winder, Monika

    2010-01-01

    While there is a general sense that lakes can act as sentinels of climate change, their efficacy has not been thoroughly analyzed. We identified the key response variables within a lake that act as indicators of the effects of climate change on both the lake and the catchment. These variables reflect a wide range of physical, chemical, and biological responses to climate. However, the efficacy of the different indicators is affected by regional response to climate change, characteristics of the catchment, and lake mixing regimes. Thus, particular indicators or combinations of indicators are more effective for different lake types and geographic regions. The extraction of climate signals can be further complicated by the influence of other environmental changes, such as eutrophication or acidification, and the equivalent reverse phenomena, in addition to other land-use influences. In many cases, however, confounding factors can be addressed through analytical tools such as detrending or filtering. Lakes are effective sentinels for climate change because they are sensitive to climate, respond rapidly to change, and integrate information about changes in the catchment. PMID:20396409

  1. Nitrogen Concentrations and Exports in Baseflow and Stormflow from Three Small Urban Catchments in Central Florida

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Luo, J.; Hochmuth, G.; Clark, M. W.

    2014-12-01

    Export of nitrogen from different watersheds across the United States is receiving increasing attention due to the impairment of water quality in receiving water bodies. Researchers have indicated that different land uses exerted a substantial influence on the water quality. Nitrogen loadings on the watershed scale are being studied in many large ecosystems, such as the Baltimore Ecosystem and Arizona Ecosystem, but only a few focuses in a smaller scale such as catchment scale. Characterization of the land use in catchment scale can better explain the observed environmental phenomena under the watershed scale and enrich the related watershed studies. Nitrogen fluxes have been studied at Lake Alice watershed in Gainesville, Florida with a focus on the rarely studied catchments such as sports fields with intensive fertilization management (SFC), urban area with reclaimed water irrigation (RWC) and urban area without irrigation (CC). The entire study started from May 2013. Discharge was monitored in the three catchments by transducers every 5 minutes. Regular biweekly grab samples in the three catchments were used to estimate the baseflow N loads, composite samples in 13 storms were collected to estimate the stormflow N loads. The results showed that in the baseflow, the average NO3-N concentration in SFC was 12.19 mg/l, which was significantly different from the urban catchments. Also there was a significant difference between the NO3-N concentrations in RWC (1.17 mg/l on average) and CC (0.60 mg/l on average). A separate log-log relationship was developed between discharge and N loads to estimate the baseflow N loads and stormflow N loads. It showed that baseflow contributed more N loads than stormflow in the three catchments in the annual N load. In conclusion, the recreational catchment received the greatest N load compared to the other catchments, so it should be the priority catchment when it comes to adopting nutrient management practices in the Lake Alice

  2. The Population Burden of Cancer: Research Driven by the Catchment Area of a Cancer Center.

    PubMed

    Tai, Caroline G; Hiatt, Robert A

    2017-01-01

    Cancer centers, particularly those supported by the National Cancer Institute, are charged with reducing the cancer burden in their catchment area. However, methods to define both the catchment area and the cancer burden are diverse and range in complexity often based on data availability, staff resources, or confusion about what is required. This article presents a review of the current literature identifying 4 studies that have defined various aspects of the cancer burden in a defined geographical area and highlights examples of how some cancer centers and other health institutions have defined their catchment area and characterized the cancer burden within it. We then present a detailed case study of an approach applied by the University of California, San Francisco, Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center to define its catchment area and its population cancer burden. We cite examples of how the Cancer Center research portfolio addresses the defined cancer burden. Our case study outlines a systematic approach to using publicly available data, such as cancer registry data, that are accessible by all cancer centers. By identifying gaps and formulating future research directions based on the needs of the population within the catchment area, epidemiologic studies and other types of cancer research can be directed to the population served. This review can help guide cancer centers in developing an approach to defining their own catchment area as mandated and applying research findings to this defined population. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  3. Emergent Archetype Hydrological-Biogeochemical Response Patterns in Heterogeneous Catchments

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jawitz, J. W.; Gall, H. E.; Rao, P.

    2013-12-01

    What can spatiotemporally integrated patterns observed in stream hydrologic and biogeochemical signals generated in response to transient hydro-climatic and anthropogenic forcing tell us about the interactions between spatially heterogeneous soil-mediated hydrological and biogeochemical processes? We seek to understand how the spatial structure of solute sources coupled with hydrologic responses affect observed concentration-discharge (C-Q) patterns. These patterns are expressions of the spatiotemporal structure of solute loads exported from managed catchments, and their likely ecological consequences manifested in receiving water bodies (e.g., wetlands, rivers, lakes, and coastal waters). We investigated the following broad questions: (1) How does the correlation between flow-generating areas and biogeochemical source areas across a catchment evolve under stochastic hydro-climatic forcing? (2) What are the feasible hydrologic and biogeochemical responses that lead to the emergence of the observed archetype C-Q patterns? and; (3) What implications do these coupled dynamics have for catchment monitoring and implementation of management practices? We categorize the observed temporal signals into three archetypical C-Q patterns: dilution; accretion, and constant concentration. We introduce a parsimonious stochastic model of heterogeneous catchments, which act as hydrologic and biogeochemical filters, to examine the relationship between spatial heterogeneity and temporal history of solute export signals. The core concept of the modeling framework is considering the types and degree of spatial correlation between solute source zones and flow generating zones, and activation of different portions of the catchments during rainfall events. Our overarching hypothesis is that each of the archetype C-Q patterns can be generated by explicitly linking landscape-scale hydrologic responses and spatial distributions of solute source properties within a catchment. The model

  4. Microplastic pollution in lakes and lake shoreline sediments - A case study on Lake Bolsena and Lake Chiusi (central Italy).

    PubMed

    Fischer, Elke Kerstin; Paglialonga, Lisa; Czech, Elisa; Tamminga, Matthias

    2016-06-01

    Rivers and effluents have been identified as major pathways for microplastics of terrestrial sources. Moreover, lakes of different dimensions and even in remote locations contain microplastics in striking abundances. This study investigates concentrations of microplastic particles at two lakes in central Italy (Lake Bolsena, Lake Chiusi). A total number of six Manta Trawls have been carried out, two of them one day after heavy winds occurred on Lake Bolsena showing effects on particle distribution of fragments and fibers of varying size categories. Additionally, 36 sediment samples from lakeshores were analyzed for microplastic content. In the surface waters 2.68 to 3.36 particles/m(3) (Lake Chiusi) and 0.82 to 4.42 particles/m(3) (Lake Bolsena) were detected, respectively. Main differences between the lakes are attributed to lake characteristics such as surface and catchment area, depth and the presence of local wind patterns and tide range at Lake Bolsena. An event of heavy winds and moderate rainfall prior to one sampling led to an increase of concentrations at Lake Bolsena which is most probable related to lateral land-based and sewage effluent inputs. The abundances of microplastic particles in sediments vary from mean values of 112 (Lake Bolsena) to 234 particles/kg dry weight (Lake Chiusi). Lake Chiusi results reveal elevated fiber concentrations compared to those of Lake Bolsena what might be a result of higher organic content and a shift in grain size distribution towards the silt and clay fraction at the shallow and highly eutrophic Lake Chiusi. The distribution of particles along different beach levels revealed no significant differences. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  5. Mercury in the central European lake district - case study Plešné lake

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Navratil, Tomas; Rohovec, Jan; Novakova, Tereza; Matouskova, Sarka; Kopacek, Jiri; Kana, Jiri

    2017-04-01

    The central European lake district extends within the Bohemian forest and Bavarian forest Mountains. It includes 8 glacial lakes extending in altitudes from 935 to 1087 m a.s.l. All of them have been oligotrophic and forests of the lake catchments are dominated by Norway spruce (Picea abies). Plešné lake (PL) catchment is at 1087 m .a.s.l. and it covers area of 0.67 km2. In 2004, the forest at PL catchment was infested by the bark beetle (Ips typographus) and 88%-99% of trees had died by 2011. In contrast to relatively detailed research of North American and Scandinavian lake ecosystems the information concerning Hg contamination of central European lake ecosystems are rather scarce. The PL ecosystem can provide base for assessment of Hg contamination as well as for changes induced by the bark beetle infestation. In 2016, mean annual Hg concentration in bulk precipitation at Plešné lake reached 3.0 ng/L and bulk Hg deposition flux amounted at 4.6 µg/m2. The most important pathway of Hg deposition to the forest ecosystems has been litterfall. The highest Hg concentrations in litterfall material at PL were found in lichens 205 µg/kg, mixture of unidentifiable organic debris 159 µg/kg and bark 123 µg/kg. Litterfall spruce needles averaged at 56 µg/kg, only. Removal of spruce due to bark beetle infestation caused decrease of litterfall Hg fluxes. Recent litterfall fluxes in the unimpacted stands reached 55.8 µg/m2, while in the impacted dead stands they amounted 23.0 µg/m2, only. The qualitative composition of the litterfall in the infested stands was typical with absence of needles and prevalence of twigs and bark. To assess changes in Hg distribution within the soil profile due to forest dieback the soil data from year 1999 were compared with 2015 data. The mean Hg concentrations in the O horizons decreased from 424 to 311 µg/kg between years 1999 and 2015, and in A horizons the situation was reversed and an increase from 353 to 501 µg/kg occurred. The

  6. Long-term scientific benefits from preserving old-growth hemlock stands at Clear Lake near Minden, Ontario, Canada

    Treesearch

    R. A. Reid; K. M. Somers; J. E. Nighswander; A. M. Zobel

    2000-01-01

    Clear Lake is located in the centre of the 1300 ha Clear Lake Conservation Reserve in Haliburton County, Ontario, Canada. In 1988, the reserve was designated as a protected area representing undisturbed, old-growth ecosystems. The reserve includes several headwater lakes and their associated catchments which support old-growth hemlock stands that are estimated to be up...

  7. Hydrology of the Lake Deaton and Lake Okahumpka area, Northeast Sumter County, Florida

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Simonds, Edward P.; German, E.R.

    1980-01-01

    The Floridan aquifer in the Lake Deaton and Lake Okahumpka area is 50 to 130 feet below land surface. During the 16-year period 1963-78 lake evaporation exceeded rainfall by 0.4 inches. Drainage from Lake Deaton and its surrounding area goes into Chitty Chatty Creek and on the Hogeye Sink when the altitude of the potentiometric surface of the Floridan aquifer is low. During a higher altitude of the Floridan potentiometric surface, Hogeye Sink may discharge water; this water, along with the normal runoff, goes into Lake Okahumpka. Average lake fluctuation is 1.5 to 2.0 feet per year. Lake Deaton supports a large population of blue-green algae and Lake Okahumpka is choked with aquatic plants. The water quality of the two lakes differ, with Lake Deaton having a sodium chloride water and Lake Okahumpka having a calcium bicarbonate water. Analysis of water and bottom material samples showed that only cadmium and mercury exceeded the Florida Department of Environmental Regulation 's criteria for Class III waters; however, the amounts detected were at or slightly above the limits of the analytical method. (USGS)

  8. Effects of acidic deposition on in-lake phosphorus availability: a lesson from lakes recovering from acidification.

    PubMed

    Kopáček, Jiří; Hejzlar, Josef; Kaňa, Jiří; Norton, Stephen A; Stuchlík, Evžen

    2015-03-03

    Lake water concentrations of phosphorus (P) recently increased in some mountain areas due to elevated atmospheric input of P rich dust. We show that increasing P concentrations also occur during stable atmospheric P inputs in central European alpine lakes recovering from atmospheric acidification. The elevated P availability in the lakes results from (1) increasing terrestrial export of P accompanying elevated leaching of dissolved organic carbon and decreasing phosphate-adsorption ability of soils due to their increasing pH, and (2) decreasing in-lake P immobilization by aluminum (Al) hydroxide due to decreasing leaching of ionic Al from the recovering soils. The P availability in the recovering lakes is modified by the extent of soil acidification, soil composition, and proportion of till and meadow soils in the catchment. These mechanisms explain several conflicting observations of the acid rain effects on surface water P concentrations.

  9. The impact of climate and environmental processes on vegetation pattern in the Czechowskie lake catchment Czechowo Region (Northern Tuchola Pinewoods) during the Younger Dryas cooling

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Noryśkiewicz, Agnieszka Maria; Kramkowski, Mateusz; Słowiński, Michał; Zawiska, Izabela; Lutyńska, Monika; Błaszkiewicz, Mirosław; Brauer, Achim

    2014-05-01

    Czechowskie lake is located in the northern part of the Tuchola Pinewoods District (Northern Poland) in a young glacial landscape. At present, the majority of the area is forested or used for agricultural purposes, but among them a high amount of basins filled with biogenic sediments are present. This area is very suitable for the postglacial vegetation development investigation because of the LST ash and laminated sediments which we found in the Trzechowskie palaeolake and Czechowskie Lake (Wulf et. all 2013). The aim of the research was to reconstruct the past landscape and vegetation response to Younger Dryas cooling and we present the results of the palinological analysis done for 6 core of biogenic sediments. Our main objective was to determine whether local factors such as topography and soil cover have a significant impact on the vegetation, eutrophy and sedimentation rate at this time. In the lake Czechowskie lake catchment we have six cores that cover postglacial succession (Lake Czechowskie small basin - profile JC-12-s; Lake Czechowskiego terrace - profile TK; Lake Czechowskie vicinity - profile "Oko and Cz/80; Trzechowskie paleolake - profile T/trz; Valley between paleolake Trzechowskie and Lake Czechowskie - profile DTCZ-4). The paleoecological research carried out involved an analysis of pollen, macrofossils, Cladocera, diatom, loss-on-ignition and CaCO3 content. The results show, that the dominant plant communities during the Youngers Dryas in the region nearby Lake Czechowskie are heliophytes xeric herb vegetation with juniper (Juniperus communis) shrubs and birch (Betula) and pine (Pinus sylvestris). In the pollen diagrams there was the difference noted in the participation of the dominant pollen, the juniper pollen was always high but varied from 18 to 37%, birch average pollen share was between 17-27%. The thickness and type of the sediment accumulated in Younger Dryas in the presented profiles differs significantly. In the profiles which

  10. Assessment of lake sensitivity to acidic deposition in national parks of the Rocky Mountains.

    PubMed

    Nanus, L; Williams, M W; Campbell, D H; Tonnessen, K A; Blett, T; Clow, D W

    2009-06-01

    The sensitivity of high-elevation lakes to acidic deposition was evaluated in five national parks of the Rocky Mountains based on statistical relations between lake acid-neutralizing capacity concentrations and basin characteristics. Acid-neutralizing capacity (ANC) of 151 lakes sampled during synoptic surveys and basin-characteristic information derived from geographic information system (GIS) data sets were used to calibrate the statistical models. The explanatory basin variables that were considered included topographic parameters, bedrock type, and vegetation type. A logistic regression model was developed, and modeling results were cross-validated through lake sampling during fall 2004 at 58 lakes. The model was applied to lake basins greater than 1 ha in area in Glacier National Park (n = 244 lakes), Grand Teton National Park (n = 106 lakes), Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve (n = 11 lakes), Rocky Mountain National Park (n = 114 lakes), and Yellowstone National Park (n = 294 lakes). Lakes that had a high probability of having an ANC concentration <100 microeq/L, and therefore sensitive to acidic deposition, are located in basins with elevations >3000 m, with <30% of the catchment having northeast aspect and with >80% of the catchment bedrock having low buffering capacity. The modeling results indicate that the most sensitive lakes are located in Rocky Mountain National Park and Grand Teton National Park. This technique for evaluating the lake sensitivity to acidic deposition is useful for designing long-term monitoring plans and is potentially transferable to other remote mountain areas of the United States and the world.

  11. SWAT-CS: Revision and testing of SWAT for Canadian Shield catchments

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fu, Congsheng; James, April L.; Yao, Huaxia

    2014-04-01

    Canadian Shield catchments are under increasing pressure from various types of development (e.g., mining and increased cottagers) and changing climate. Within the southern part of the Canadian Shield, catchments are generally characterized by shallow forested soils with high infiltration rates and low bedrock infiltration, generating little overland flow, and macropore and subsurface flow are important streamflow generation processes. Large numbers of wetlands and lakes are also key physiographic features, and snow-processes are critical to catchment modeling in this climate. We have revised the existing, publicly available SWAT (version 2009.10.1 Beta 3) to create SWAT-CS, a version representing hydrological processes dominating Canadian Shield catchments, where forest extends over Precambrian Shield bedrock. Prior to this study, very few studies applying SWAT to Canadian Shield catchments exist (we have found three). We tested SWAT-CS using the Harp Lake catchment dataset, an Ontario Ministry of Environment research station located in south-central Ontario. Simulations were evaluated against 30 years of observational data, including streamflow from six headwater sub-catchments (0.1-1.9 km2), outflow from Harp Lake (5.4 km2) and five years of weekly snow water equivalent (SWE). The best Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE) results for daily streamflow calibration, daily streamflow validation, and SWE were 0.60, 0.65, and 0.87, respectively, for sub-catchment HP4 (with detailed land use and soil data). For this range of catchment scales, land cover and soil properties were found to be transferable across sub-catchments with similar physiographic features, namely streamflow from the remaining five sub-catchments could be modeled well using sub-catchment HP4 parameterization. The Harp Lake outflow was well modeled using the existing reservoir-based target release method, generating NSEs of 0.72 and 0.67 for calibration and verification periods respectively. With

  12. Mechanisms influencing changes in lake area in Alaskan boreal forest

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Roach, Jennifer K.; Griffith, Brad; Verbyla, David; Jones, Jeremy B.

    2011-01-01

    During the past ∼50 years, the number and area of lakes have declined in several regions in boreal forests. However, there has been substantial finer-scale heterogeneity; some lakes decreased in area, some showed no trend, and others increased. The objective of this study was to identify the primary mechanisms underlying heterogeneous trends in closed-basin lake area. Eight lake characteristics (δ18O, electrical conductivity, surface : volume index, bank slope, floating mat width, peat depth, thaw depth at shoreline, and thaw depth at the forest boundary) were compared for 15 lake pairs in Alaskan boreal forest where one lake had decreased in area since ∼1950, and the other had not. Mean differences in characteristics between paired lakes were used to identify the most likely of nine mechanistic scenarios that combined three potential mechanisms for decreasing lake area (talik drainage, surface water evaporation, and terrestrialization) with three potential mechanisms for nondecreasing lake area (subpermafrost groundwater recharge through an open talik, stable permafrost, and thermokarst). A priori expectations of the direction of mean differences between decreasing and nondecreasing paired lakes were generated for each scenario. Decreasing lakes had significantly greater electrical conductivity, greater surface : volume indices, shallower bank slopes, wider floating mats, greater peat depths, and shallower thaw depths at the forest boundary. These results indicated that the most likely scenario was terrestrialization as the mechanism for lake area reduction combined with thermokarst as the mechanism for nondecreasing lake area. Terrestrialization and thermokarst may have been enhanced by recent warming which has both accelerated permafrost thawing and lengthened the growing season, thereby increasing plant growth, floating mat encroachment, transpiration rates, and the accumulation of organic matter in lake basins. The transition to peatlands associated

  13. SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE FOR THE WATER CATCHMENT PROTECTION AREA IN NTISAW, CAMEROON

    EPA Science Inventory

    We expect that the catchment area will increase food output for the community in addition to preserving the water source. Increased food output will benefit needy residents and allow them to focus more on education and economic development. Additionally, an area of sustainable...

  14. Analysing the impact of urban areas patterns on the mean annual flow of 43 urbanized catchments

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Salavati, B.; Oudin, L.; Furusho, C.; Ribstein, P.

    2015-06-01

    It is often argued that urban areas play a significant role in catchment hydrology, but previous studies reported disparate results of urbanization impacts on stream flow. This might stem either from the difficulty to quantify the historical flow changes attributed to urbanization only (and not climate variability) or from the inability to decipher what type of urban planning is more critical for flows. In this study, we applied a hydrological model on 43 urban catchments in the United States to quantify the flow changes attributable to urbanization. Then, we tried to relate these flow changes to the changes of urban/impervious areas of the catchments. We argue that these spatial changes of urban areas can be more precisely characterized by landscape metrics, which enable analysing the patterns of historical urban growth. Landscape metrics combine the richness (the number) and evenness (the spatial distribution) of patch types represented on the landscape. Urbanization patterns within the framework of patch analysis have been widely studied but, to our knowledge, previous research works had not linked them to catchments hydrological behaviours. Our results showed that the catchments with larger impervious areas and larger mean patch areas are likely to have larger increase of runoff yield.

  15. Relationship between catchment events (earthquake and heavy rain) and sediment core analysis result in Taiwan.

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chen, Hsin-Ying; Lin, Jiun-Chuan

    2015-04-01

    Lake sediments contains material from the catchment. In those sediments, there are some features which can indicate characteristic or status of the catchment. These features were formed by different mechanisms, including some events like earthquakes or heavy rain, which are very common in Taiwan. By analyzing and discussing features of sediments there is a chance to identify historical events and rebuild catchment history. In this study, we compare features of sediment core ( including density, mineral grain size, whole grain size, and biogenic silica content) and earthquake, precipitation records. Sediment cores are collected from Emerald peak lake (24.514980, 121.605844; 77.5, 77.2, 64cm depth), Liyutan lake (23.959878, 120.996585; 43.2, 78.1 cm depth), Sun Moon Lake (23.847043, 120.909869; 181 cm depth), and Dongyuan lake (22.205742, 120.854984; 45.1, 44.2cm depth) in 2014. We assume that there are regular material and organic output in catchments. And rain will provide impetus to move material into lakes. The greater the rain is the larger the material can move. So, if there is a heavy rainfall event, grain size of lake sediment may increase. However, when earthquakes happen, it will produce more material which have lower organic composition than ordinary. So we suggest that after earthquakes there will be more material stored in catchment than often. And rainfall event provides power to move material into lakes, cause more sediment and mineral content higher than usual. Comparing with earthquake record(from 1949, by USGS) and precipitation record(from1940, by Central Weather Bureau,Taiwan), there were few earthquakes which happened near lakes and scale were more than 7 ML. There were 28 rainfall events near Emerald peak lake; 32 near Liyutan lake and Sun Moon Lake; 58 near Dongyuan lake ( rainfall event: >250 mm/day ). In sediment analytical results, ratio of whole and mineral grain size indeed have similar trends with earthquake record. However, rainfall

  16. A late Holocene record of solar-forced atmospheric blocking variability over Northern Europe inferred from varved lake sediments of Lake Kuninkaisenlampi

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Saarni, Saija; Muschitiello, Francesco; Weege, Stefanie; Brauer, Achim; Saarinen, Timo

    2016-12-01

    This study presents a new varved lake sediment sequence from Lake Kuninkaisenlampi, Eastern Finland. The record is constituted by alternations of clastic and biogenic laminae and provides a precise chronology extending back to 3607 ± 94 varve yrs. BP. The seasonality of the boreal climatic zone, with cold winters and mild summers, is reflected in the varve structure as a succession of three laminae from bottom to top, (i) a coarse to fine-grained detrital lamina marked by detrital catchment material transported by spring floods; (ii) a biogenic lamina with diatoms, plant and insect remnants reflecting biological productivity during the season of lake productivity; and (iii) a very fine amorphous organic lamina deposited during the winter stratification. The thickness of the detrital lamina in the lake reflects changes in the rate of spring snow melt in the catchment and is, therefore, considered a proxy for winter conditions. Hence, the record allows reconstructing local climate and environmental conditions on inter-annual to the multi-centennial timescales. We find that minerogenic accumulation reflected in the detrital lamina exhibits a high multi-decadal to centennial-scale spectral coherency with proxies for solar activity, such as Δ14C, and Total Solar Irradiance, suggesting a strong link between solar variability and sediment transport to the lake basin. Increased catchment erosion is observed during periods of low solar activity, which we ascribe to the development of more frequent atmospheric winter blocking circulation induced by solar-forced changes in the stratosphere. We suggest that soil frost in the catchment of Lake Kuninkaisenlampi related to more frequent winter blocking led to increased surface run-off and ultimately to increased catchment erosion during spring. We conclude that, during the past ca 3600 years, solar forcing may have modulated multi-decadal to centennial variations in sedimentation regimes in lakes from Eastern Finland and

  17. Chemical fluxes and sensitivity to acidification of two high elevation catchments in southern Wyoming

    Treesearch

    J. O. Reuss; F. A. Vertucci; R. C. Musselman; R. A. Sommerfeld

    1995-01-01

    Hydrological and chemical fluxes were examined for East and West Glacier Lakes and their adjacent high-elevation (3200-3700 m) catchments in the Snowy Range of southern Wyoming. Both lakes are approximately 3 ha, but the East Glacier catchment (29 ha) is about half the size of West Glacier. Bedrock is primarily quartzite that has been heavily fractured and crossed with...

  18. Water stable isotope shifts of surface waters as proxies to quantify evaporation, transpiration and carbon uptake on catchment scales

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Barth, Johannes; van Geldern, Robert; Veizer, Jan; Karim, Ajaz; Freitag, Heiko; Fowlwer, Hayley

    2017-04-01

    Comparison of water stable isotopes of rivers to those of precipitation enables separation of evaporation from transpiration on the catchment scale. The method exploits isotope ratio changes that are caused exclusively by evaporation over longer time periods of at least one hydrological year. When interception is quantified by mapping plant types in catchments, the amount of water lost by transpiration can be determined. When in turn pairing transpiration with the water use efficiency (WUE i.e. water loss by transpiration per uptake of CO2) and subtracting heterotrophic soil respiration fluxes (Rh), catchment-wide carbon balances can be established. This method was applied to several regions including the Great Lakes and the Clyde River Catchments ...(Barth, et al., 2007, Karim, et al., 2008). In these studies evaporation loss was 24 % and 1.3 % and transpiration loss was 47 % and 22 % when compared to incoming precipitation for the Great Lakes and the Clyde Catchment, respectively. Applying WUE values for typical plant covers and using area-typical Rh values led to estimates of CO2 uptake of 251 g C m-2 a-1 for the Great Lakes Catchment and CO2 loss of 21 g C m2 a-1 for the Clyde Catchment. These discrepancies are most likely due to different vegetation covers. The method applies to scales of several thousand km2 and has good potential for improvement via calibration on smaller scales. This can for instance be achieved by separate treatment of sub-catchments with more detailed mapping of interception as a major unknown. These previous studies have shown that better uncertainty analyses are necessary in order to estimate errors in water and carbon balances. The stable isotope method is also a good basis for comparison to other landscape carbon balances for instance by eddy covariance techniques. This independent method and its up-scaling combined with the stable isotope and area-integrating methods can provide cross validation of large-scale carbon budgets

  19. Does historical wildfire activity alter metal fluxes to northern lakes?

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pelletier, N.; Chetelat, J.; Vermaire, J. C.; Palmer, M.; Black, J.; Pellisey, J.; Tracz, B.; van der Wielen, S.

    2017-12-01

    Current drought conditions in northwestern Canada are conducive to more frequent and severe wildfires that may mobilize mercury and other metals accumulated in soil and biomass. There is evidence that wildfires can remobilize and transport mercury within and outside catchments by atmospheric volatilization, particulate emissions and catchment soil erosion. However, the effect of fires on mercury fluxes to nearby lake sediments remains unclear. In this study, we use a combination of 10 dated lake sediment cores and four nearby ombrotrophic peatland cores to investigate the effects of wildfires on mercury fluxes to lake sediments. Lakes varying in catchment size and distance from recent fire events were sampled. Mercury concentrations in the environmental archives were measured, and macroscopic charcoal particles (>100 um) were counted at high resolution in the sediments to observe the co-variation of the local fire history and mercury fluxes. Mercury flux recorded in ombrotrophic peat cores provided an estimate of the historical atmospheric mercury flux from local and regional atmospheric deposition. The mercury flux recorded in lake sediments corresponds to the sum of direct atmospheric deposition and catchment transport. In combination, these archives will allow for the partitioning of mercury loading attributable to catchment transport from direct atmospheric deposition. After correcting the fluxes for particle focusing and terragenic elements input, flux from different lakes will be compared based on their catchment size and their temporal and spatial proximity known fire events. Altogether, our preliminary results using these paleolimnological methods will provide new insights on mercury transport processes that are predicted to become more important under a changing climate.

  20. Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis in Lake Catchments, in River Water Abstracted for Domestic Use, and in Effluent from Domestic Sewage Treatment Works: Diverse Opportunities for Environmental Cycling and Human Exposure

    PubMed Central

    Pickup, R. W.; Rhodes, G.; Bull, T. J.; Arnott, S.; Sidi-Boumedine, K.; Hurley, M.; Hermon-Taylor, J.

    2006-01-01

    Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis from infected animals enters surface waters and rivers in runoff from contaminated pastures. We studied the River Tywi in South Wales, United Kingdom, whose catchment comprises 1,100 km2 containing more than a million dairy and beef cattle and more than 1.3 million sheep. The River Tywi is abstracted for the domestic water supply. Between August 2002 and April 2003, 48 of 70 (68.8%) twice-weekly river water samples tested positive by IS900 PCR. In river water, the organisms were associated with a suspended solid which was depleted by the water treatment process. Disposal of contaminated slurry back onto the land established a cycle of environmental persistence. A concentrate from 100 liters of finished water tested negative, but 1 of 54 domestic cold water tanks tested positive, indicating the potential for these pathogens to access domestic outlets. In the separate English Lake District region, with hills up to 980 m, tests for M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis in the high hill lakes and sediments were usually negative, but streams and sediments became positive lower down the catchment. Sediments from 9 of 10 major lakes receiving inflow from these catchments were positive, with sediment cores indicating deposition over at least 40 to 50 years. Two of 12 monthly 1-liter samples of effluent and a single 100-liter sample from the Ambleside sewage treatment works were positive for M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis. Since Lake Ambleside discharges into Lake Windermere, which is available for domestic supply, there is a potential for these organisms to cycle within human populations. PMID:16751517

  1. The Distribution of Antarctic Subglacial Lake Environments With Implications for Their Origin and Evolution

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Blankenship, D. D.; Young, D. A.; Carter, S. P.

    2006-12-01

    Ice-penetrating radar records across the Antarctic Ice Sheet show regions with strong flat mirror-like reflections from the subglacial interface that are interpreted to be from subglacial lakes. The majority of subglacial lakes are found in East Antarctica, primarily in topographically low areas of basins beneath the thick ice divides. Occasionally lakes are observed "perched" at higher elevations within local depressions of rough morphological regions. In addition, a correlation between the "onset" of enhanced glacial flow and subglacial lakes was identified. The greatest concentration of known lakes was found in the vicinity of Dome C. A second grouping of lakes lying near Ridge B includes Lake Vostok and several smaller lakes. Subglacial lakes were also discovered near the South Pole, within eastern Wilkes Land, west of the Transantarctic Mountains, and within West Antarctica's Whitmore Mountains. Aside from Lake Vostok, typical lengths of subglacial lakes were found to range from a few to about 20 kilometers. A recent inventory includes 145 subglacial lakes. Approximately 81% of detected lakes lie at elevations less than a few hundred meters above sea level while the majority of the remaining lakes are "perched" at higher elevations. We present the locations from the subglacial lake inventory on local "ice divides" calculated from the satellite derived surface elevations with and find the distance of each lake from these divides. Most significantly, we found that 66% of the lakes identified lie within 50 km of a local ice divide and 88% lie within 100 km of a local divide. In particular, note that lakes located far from the Dome C/Ridge B cluster and even those associated with very narrow catchments lie either on or within a few tens of kilometers of the local divide marked by the catchment boundary. The distance correlation of subglacial lakes with local ice divides leads to a fundamental question for the evolution of subglacial lake environments: Does the

  2. Critical level of water recharges in the catchment areas of Manna watershed Bengkulu Province Indonesia

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Amri, Khairul; Nugraha, Loparedo; Barchia, Muhammad Faiz

    2017-11-01

    Land use changes in Manna watershed are caused degradation in the watershed functions. When water infiltration goes down, some water runs off flowing to Manna River cause submerged on the downstream. The aim of this study is to analyze how the Manna watershed overcoming environmentally degraded conditions. The critical level of the Manna catchment areas was determined by overlaying some digital maps based on procedure applying in the Ministry of Forestry, Republic of Indonesia (P.32/MENHUT-II/2009). Measuring the critical level of the catchment also needed natural and actual infiltrations map, and the interpretation process of the analysis used ArcGIS 10.1 software. Based on the spatial data analysis by overlaying maps of slope, soils, and rainfall, the natural infiltration rate in the Manna watershed categorized high level (44.1%). While, the critical level of the catchment areas of the Manna watershed classified in good condition cover about 64,5 % of the areas, and starting to degraded state cover about 35,5 % of the watershed areas. The environment degradation conditions indicated the land use changes in the Manna watershed could deteriorate infiltration rates. The cultivated agricultural activities neglected conservation rule could accelerate the critical catchment areas in the Manna watershed.

  3. Sensitivity of the East African rift lakes to climate variability

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Olaka, L.; Trauth, M. H.

    2009-04-01

    Lakes in the East African Rift have provided excellent proxies to reconstruct past climate changes in the low latitudes. The lakes occupy volcano-tectonic depressions with highly variable climate and hydrological setting, that present a good opportunity to study the climatic and hydrogeological influences on the lake water budget. Previous studies have used lake floor sediments to establish the sensitivity of the East African rift lakes. This study focuses on geomorphology and climate to offer additional or alternative record of lake history that are key to quantifying sensitivity of these lakes as archives to external and internal climatic forcings. By using the published Holocene lake areas and levels, we analyze twelve lakes on the eastern arm of the East African rift; Ziway, Awassa, Turkana, Suguta, Baringo, Nakuru, Elmenteita, Naivasha, Natron, Manyara and compare with Lake Victoria, that occupies the plateau between the east and the western arms of the rift. Using the SRTM data, Hypsometric (area-altitude) analysis has been used to compare the lake basins between latitude 80 North and 30 South. The mean elevation for the lakes, is between 524 and 2262 meters above sea level, the lakes' hypsometric integrals (HI), a measure of landmass volume above the reference plane, vary from 0.31 to 0.76. The aridity index (Ai), defined as Precipitation/ Evapotranspiration, quantifies the water available to a lake, it encompasses land cover and climatic effects. It is lowest (arid) in the basin between the Ethiopian rift and the Kenyan rift and at the southern termination of the Kenyan Rift in the catchments of lake Turkana, Suguta, Baringo and Manyara with values of 0.55, 0.43, 0.43 and 0.5 respectively. And it is highest (wet) in the catchments of, Ziway, Awassa, Nakuru and Naivasha as 1.33,1.03 and 1.2 respectively, which occupy the highest points of the rift. Lake Victoria has an index of 1.42 the highest of these lakes and receives a high precipitation. We use a

  4. School Catchment Area Evasion: The Case of Berlin, Germany

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Noreisch, Kathleen

    2007-01-01

    This paper seeks to examine the ways in which school segregation plays out in a pure catchment area system and to what extent residential composition is directly mirrored in schools. The research examines the data for the districts in Berlin and, more specifically at the school level, for the district of Tempelhof-Schoneberg. The research is based…

  5. The impact of lake and reservoir parameterization on global streamflow simulation.

    PubMed

    Zajac, Zuzanna; Revilla-Romero, Beatriz; Salamon, Peter; Burek, Peter; Hirpa, Feyera A; Beck, Hylke

    2017-05-01

    Lakes and reservoirs affect the timing and magnitude of streamflow, and are therefore essential hydrological model components, especially in the context of global flood forecasting. However, the parameterization of lake and reservoir routines on a global scale is subject to considerable uncertainty due to lack of information on lake hydrographic characteristics and reservoir operating rules. In this study we estimated the effect of lakes and reservoirs on global daily streamflow simulations of a spatially-distributed LISFLOOD hydrological model. We applied state-of-the-art global sensitivity and uncertainty analyses for selected catchments to examine the effect of uncertain lake and reservoir parameterization on model performance. Streamflow observations from 390 catchments around the globe and multiple performance measures were used to assess model performance. Results indicate a considerable geographical variability in the lake and reservoir effects on the streamflow simulation. Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) and Kling-Gupta Efficiency (KGE) metrics improved for 65% and 38% of catchments respectively, with median skill score values of 0.16 and 0.2 while scores deteriorated for 28% and 52% of the catchments, with median values -0.09 and -0.16, respectively. The effect of reservoirs on extreme high flows was substantial and widespread in the global domain, while the effect of lakes was spatially limited to a few catchments. As indicated by global sensitivity analysis, parameter uncertainty substantially affected uncertainty of model performance. Reservoir parameters often contributed to this uncertainty, although the effect varied widely among catchments. The effect of reservoir parameters on model performance diminished with distance downstream of reservoirs in favor of other parameters, notably groundwater-related parameters and channel Manning's roughness coefficient. This study underscores the importance of accounting for lakes and, especially, reservoirs and

  6. View of the Salt Lake City, Utah area

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1973-01-01

    An oblique view of the Salt Lake City, Utah area as photographed from Earth orbit by one of the six lenses of the Itek-furnished S190-A Multispectral Photographic Facility Experiment aboard the Skylab space station. Approximately two-thirds of the Great Salt Lake is in view. The smaller body of water south of Salt Lake City is Utah Lake. The Wasatch Range is on the east side of the Great Salt Lake.

  7. 33 CFR 334.820 - Lake Michigan; naval restricted area, U.S. Naval Training Center, Great Lakes, Ill.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 33 Navigation and Navigable Waters 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Lake Michigan; naval restricted area, U.S. Naval Training Center, Great Lakes, Ill. 334.820 Section 334.820 Navigation and Navigable... REGULATIONS § 334.820 Lake Michigan; naval restricted area, U.S. Naval Training Center, Great Lakes, Ill. (a...

  8. 33 CFR 334.820 - Lake Michigan; naval restricted area, U.S. Naval Training Center, Great Lakes, Ill.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... 33 Navigation and Navigable Waters 3 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Lake Michigan; naval restricted area, U.S. Naval Training Center, Great Lakes, Ill. 334.820 Section 334.820 Navigation and Navigable... REGULATIONS § 334.820 Lake Michigan; naval restricted area, U.S. Naval Training Center, Great Lakes, Ill. (a...

  9. The Stream-Catchment (StreamCat) and Lake-Catchment (LakeCat) Datasets: leveraging existing geospatial frameworks and data to characterize lotic and lentic ecosystems across the conterminous US for ecological and environmental modeling

    EPA Science Inventory

    Background/Question/MethodsLake and stream conditions respond to both natural and human-related landscape features. Characterizing these features within contributing areas (i.e., delineated watersheds) of streams and lakes could improve our understanding of how biological conditi...

  10. Soil surface lowering due to soil erosion in villages near Lake Victoria, Uganda

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    de Meyer, A.; Deckers, J.; Poesen, J.; Isabirye, M.

    2009-04-01

    In the effort to pinpoint the sources of sediment pollution in Lake Victoria, the contribution of sedi-ment from compounds, landing sites, main roads and footpaths is determined in the catchment of Na-bera Bay and Kafunda Bay at the northern shore of Lake Victoria in southern Uganda. The amount of soil loss in compounds and landing sites is determined by the reconstruction of the original and current soil surface according to botanical and man-made datable objects. The soil erosion rate is then deter-mined by dividing the eroded soil volume (corrected for compaction) by the age of the oldest datable object. In the study area, the average soil erosion rate in compounds amounts to 107 Mg ha-1 year-1 (per unit compound) and in landing sites to 207 Mg ha-1 year-1 (per unit landing site). Although com-pounds and landing sites occupy a small area of the study area (1.1 %), they are a major source of sediment to Lake Victoria (63 %). The soil loss on footpaths and main roads is calculated by multip-lying the total length of footpaths and main roads with the average width and depth (measured towards a reference surface). After the correction for compaction is carried out, the soil erosion rate on foot-paths amounts to 34 Mg ha-1 year-1 and on main roads to 35 Mg ha-1 year-1. Also footpaths and main roads occupy a small area of the study area (1.1 %), but contribute disproportionately to the total soil loss in the catchment (22 %). In this research, the information about the village/compound given by the villager/owner is indispensable. In accordance to an adaptation of the model of McHugh et al. (2002), 32 % of the sediment that is generated in the catchment, is deposited in Lake Victoria (i.e. 2 209 Mg year-1 or 0.7 Mg ha-1 year-1). The main buffer in the study area is papyrus at the shore of Lake Victoria. Also sugarcane can be a major buffer. However, the sugarcane-area is intersected by com-pounds, landing sites, footpaths and main roads that generate large amounts of

  11. Permafrost and lakes control river isotope composition across a boreal Arctic transect in the Western Siberian lowlands

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ala-aho, P.; Soulsby, C.; Pokrovsky, O. S.; Kirpotin, S. N.; Karlsson, J.; Serikova, S.; Manasypov, R.; Lim, A.; Krickov, I.; Kolesnichenko, L. G.; Laudon, H.; Tetzlaff, D.

    2018-03-01

    The Western Siberian Lowlands (WSL) store large quantities of organic carbon that will be exposed and mobilized by the thawing of permafrost. The fate of mobilized carbon, however, is not well understood, partly because of inadequate knowledge of hydrological controls in the region which has a vast low-relief surface area, extensive lake and wetland coverage and gradually increasing permafrost influence. We used stable water isotopes to improve our understanding of dominant landscape controls on the hydrology of the WSL. We sampled rivers along a 1700 km South-North transect from permafrost-free to continuous permafrost repeatedly over three years, and derived isotope proxies for catchment hydrological responsiveness and connectivity. We found correlations between the isotope proxies and catchment characteristics, suggesting that lakes and wetlands are intimately connected to rivers, and that permafrost increases the responsiveness of the catchment to rainfall and snowmelt events, reducing catchment mean transit times. Our work provides rare isotope-based field evidence that permafrost and lakes/wetlands influence hydrological pathways across a wide range of spatial scales (10-105 km2) and permafrost coverage (0%-70%). This has important implications, because both permafrost extent and lake/wetland coverage are affected by permafrost thaw in the changing climate. Changes in these hydrological landscape controls are likely to alter carbon export and emission via inland waters, which may be of global significance.

  12. Mercury concentrations in fish from forest harvesting and fire-impacted Canadian Boreal lakes compared using stable isotopes of nitrogen.

    PubMed

    Garcia, Edenise; Carignan, Richard

    2005-03-01

    Total mercury (Hg) concentration was determined in several piscivorous and nonpiscivorous species of fish from 38 drainage lakes with clear-cut, burnt, or undisturbed catchments located in the Canadian Boreal Shield. Mercury concentrations increased with increasing fish trophic position as estimated using stable isotopes of nitrogen (N; r2 = 0.52, 0.49, and 0.30 for cut, reference, and burnt lakes, respectively; p < 0.01). Mercury biomagnification per thousand delta15N varied from 22 to 29% in the three groups of lakes. Mercury availability to organisms at the base of the food chain in lakes with cut catchments was higher than that in reference lakes. In cut lakes, Hg concentrations in fish were significantly related to ratio of the clear-cut area to lake area (or lake volume; r = +0.82 and +0.74, respectively, p < 0.01). Both impact ratios were, in turn, significantly correlated with dissolved organic carbon. These findings suggest that differential loading of organic matter-bound Hg to lakes can affect Hg cycling. In addition, Hg concentrations exceeded the advisory limit for human consumption (0.5 microg/g wet wt) from the World Health Organization in all top predatory species (northern pike, walleye, and burbot) found in cut and in two partially burnt lakes. Thus, high Hg concentrations in fish from forest-harvested and partially burnt lakes may reflect increased exposure to Hg relative to that in lakes not having these watershed disturbances.

  13. Holocene evolution of a montane lake catchment inferred from multiproxy sediment analysis : climatic and anthropic impacts in french prealps

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bajard, Manon; Sabatier, Pierre; Poulenard, Jérôme; David, Fernand; Arnaud, Fabien; Develle, Anne-Lise; Reyss, Jean-Louis; Fanget, Bernard; Malet, Emmanuel; Crouzet, Christian

    2015-04-01

    Lake La Thuile in the Massif des Bauges (874 m a.s.l. French Alps) provides a 18 meters sedimentary sequence. Due to its mid-altitude position, this lake is one of the first to be formed through the glacial retreat and documents the evolution of its catchment since the Late Glacial Maximum. The first 6 meters of the core cover the last 12 000 years, and allowed to study human/climate/environment interactions in a carbonated environment. This study is the first one to investigate a mid-altitude lake in the French Alps for paleoenvironment reconstruction from lake sediment archive. Its altitudinal position presents the advantage to be very accessible to human activities and allows more developed agriculture than in higher altitude. This study aims to determined how and when is expressed the erosive response of such an environment to human settlement. High resolution multiproxy analysis of the first 6 meters including sedimentological, palynological and geochemical data associated to a well-constrained chronology over the Holocene period allows us to understand the respective impacts of both climate and human on the evolution of Lake La Thuile environment. Five major phases of evolution have been highlighted over this period. From 12 000 to 10 000 yr cal. BP, the vegetation is developing with the onset of hardwood species and the disappearance of Pinus. From 10 000 to 4500 yr cal. BP the warmer climatic conditions of the middle of the Holocene allows the forest to densify and the very low sedimentation rate indicates that the forest stabilizes slopes and prevents from the erosion on the watershed. The climate cooling of the Neoglacial period triggers a first erosive phase with a decreasing of the forest around 3300 cal. BP. Human settlements are suggested at La Thuile from 2500 yr cal. BP by palynological evidence of anthropic taxa. The triggered clearing is accompanied by a second erosive phase related to anthropic activities during the Roman period. Erosion

  14. Simulation of 1998-Big Flood in Changjiang River Catchment, China

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nakayama, T.; Watanabe, M.

    2006-05-01

    Almost every year, China is affected by severe flooding, which causes considerable economic loss and serious damage to towns and farms. Big floods are mainly concentrated in the middle and lower reaches of the "seven big rivers", which include the Changjiang (Yangtze) River, the Yellow (Huanghe) River, and the Huaihe River. The Changjiang River is the fourth largest water resource to the oceans after the Amazon, Zaire, and Orinoco Rivers. In addition to abnormal weather, artificial effects were considered as main causes of the big flood disaster in the Changjiang River catchment by the previous researches; (i) extreme deforestation and soil erosion in the upper reaches, (ii) shrinking of lake water volumes and their reduced connection with the Changjiang River due to reclamation of lakes that retarded water in the middle reaches, and (iii) restriction of channel capacity following levee construction. Because there is an urgent need to quantify these relations on the spatial scale of the whole catchment in order to prevent flood damage as small as possible, it is very important to evaluate the complicated phenomena of water/heat dynamics in the Changjiang River catchment by using process-based models. The present research focuses on simulating the water/heat dynamics for 1998 big-flood with 60-year recurrent period in the Changjiang River catchment. We compared the flood period of 1998 with the normal period of 1987-1988. We expanded the NIES Integrated Catchment-based Eco-hydrology (NICE) model (Nakayama and Watanabe, 2004; Nakayama et al., 2006) for the application to broader catchments in order to evaluate large- scale flooding in the Changjiang River (NICE-FLD). We simulated the water/heat dynamics in the entire catchment (3,000 km wide by 1,000 km long) with a resolution of 10 km mesh by using the NICE-FLD. The model reproduced excellently the river discharge, soil moisture, evapotranspiration, groundwater level, et al. Furthermore, we evaluated the role of

  15. Lost Lake Research Natural Area: guidebook supplement 48

    Treesearch

    Reid Schuller; Bryan Wender

    2016-01-01

    This guidebook describes major biological and physical attributes of the 155-ha (384-ac) Lost Lake Research Natural Area (RNA), in Jackson County, Oregon. The RNA has been designated because it contains examples of a landslide-dammed lake; and a low-elevation lake with aquatic beds and fringing marsh, surrounded by mixed-conifer forest (ONHAC 2010).

  16. DINKEY LAKES ROADLESS AREA, CALIFORNIA.

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Dodge, F.C.W.; Federspiel, F.E.

    1984-01-01

    The Dinkey Lakes Roadless Area occupies an area of about 184 sq mi on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada, California. The results of a mineral survey show that parts of the area have substantiated resource potential for tungsten and marble and probable resource potential for quartz crystal gemstones. A probable resource potential for geothermal energy exists in one small area. No potential for other metallic mineral or energy resources was identified in this study.

  17. Fungicides transport in runoff from vineyard plot and catchment: contribution of non-target areas.

    PubMed

    Lefrancq, Marie; Payraudeau, Sylvain; García Verdú, Antonio Joaquín; Maillard, Elodie; Millet, Maurice; Imfeld, Gwenaël

    2014-04-01

    Surface runoff and erosion during the course of rainfall events are major processes of pesticides transport from agricultural land to aquatic ecosystem. These processes are generally evaluated either at the plot or the catchment scale. Here, we compared at both scales the transport and partitioning in runoff water of two widely used fungicides, i.e., kresoxim-methyl (KM) and cyazofamid (CY). The objective was to evaluate the relationship between fungicides runoff from the plot and from the vineyard catchment. The results show that seasonal exports for KM and CY at the catchment were larger than those obtained at the plot. This underlines that non-target areas within the catchment largely contribute to the overall load of runoff-associated fungicides. Estimations show that 85 and 62 % of the loads observed for KM and CY at the catchment outlet cannot be explained by the vineyard plots. However, the partitioning of KM and CY between three fractions, i.e., the suspended solids (>0.7 μm) and two dissolved fractions (i.e., between 0.22 and 0.7 µm and <0.22 µm) in runoff water was similar at both scales. KM was predominantly detected below 0.22 μm, whereas CY was mainly detected in the fraction between 0.22 and 0.7 μm. Although KM and CY have similar physicochemical properties and are expected to behave similarly, our results show that their partitioning between two fractions of the dissolved phase differs largely. It is concluded that combined observations of pesticide runoff at both the catchment and the plot scales enable to evaluate the sources areas of pesticide off-site transport.

  18. Detection of Critical LUCC Indices and Sensitive Watershed Regions Related to Lake Algal Blooms: A Case Study of Taihu Lake

    PubMed Central

    Lin, Chen; Ma, Ronghua; Su, Zhihu; Zhu, Qing

    2015-01-01

    Taihu Lake in China has suffered from severe eutrophication over the past 20 years which is partly due to significant land use/cover change (LUCC). There is an increasing need to detect the critical watershed region that significantly affects lake water degradation, which has great significance for environmental protection. However, previous studies have obtained conflicting results because of non–uniform lake indicators and inadequate time periods. To identify the sensitive LUCC indices and buffer distance regions, three lake divisions (Meiliang Lake, Zhushan Lake and Western Coastal region) and their watershed region within the Taihu Lake basin were chosen as study sites, the algal area was used as a uniform lake quality indicator and modeled with LUCC indices over the whole time series. Results showed that wetland (WL) and landscape index such as Shannon diversity index (SHDI) appeared to be sensitive LUCC indices when the buffer distance was less than 5 km, while agricultural land (AL) and landscape fragmentation (Ci) gradually became sensitive indices as buffer distances increased to more than 5 km. For the relationship between LUCC and lake algal area, LUCC of the WC region seems to have no significant effect on lake water quality. Conversely, LUCC within ML and ZS region influenced algal area of corresponding lake divisions greatly, while the most sensitive regions were found in 3 km to 5 km, rather than the whole catchment. These results will be beneficial for the further understanding of the relationship between LUCC and lake water quality, and will provide a practical basis for the identification of critical regions for lake. PMID:25642691

  19. 3D simulation of the influence of internal mixing dynamics on the propagation of river plumes in Lake Constance

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pflugbeil, Thomas; Pöschke, Franziska; Noffke, Anna; Winde, Vera; Wolf, Thomas

    2017-04-01

    Lake Constance is one of most important drinking water resources in southern Germany. Furthermore, the lake and its catchment is a meaningful natural habitat as well as economical and cultural area. In this context, sustainable development and conservation of the lake ecosystem and drinking water quality is of high importance. However, anthropogenic pressures (e.g. waste water, land use, industry in catchment area) on the lake itself and its external inflows are high. The project "SeeZeichen" (ReWaM-project cluster by BMBF, funding number 02WRM1365) is investigating different immission pathways (groundwater, river, superficial inputs) and their impact on the water quality of Lake Constance. The investigation includes the direct inflow areas as well as the lake-wide context. The present simulation study investigates the mixing dynamics of Lake Constance and its impacts on river inflows and vice versa. It considers different seasonal (mixing and stratification periods), hydrological (flood events, average and low discharge) and transport conditions (sediment loads). The simulations are focused on two rivers: The River Alpenrhein delivers about 60 % of water and material input into Lake Constance. The River Schussen was chosen since it is highly anthropogenic influenced. For this purpose, a high-resolution three-dimensional hydrodynamic model of the Lake Constance is set up with Delft3D-Flow model system. The model is calibrated and validated with long term data sets of water levels, discharges and temperatures. The model results will be analysed for residence times of river water within the lake and particle distributions to evaluate potential impacts of river plume water constituents on the general water quality of the lake.

  20. A framework for profiling a lake's riparian area development potential

    Treesearch

    Pamela J. Jakes; Ciara Schlichting; Dorothy H. Anderson

    2003-01-01

    Some of the greatest challenges for managing residential development occur at the interface between the terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems -in a lake`s riparian area. Land use planners need a framework they can use to identify development hotspots, areas were the next push for development will most likely occur. Lake riparian development profiles provide a framework...

  1. Linkage between Three Gorges Dam impacts and the dramatic recessions in China’s largest freshwater lake, Poyang Lake

    PubMed Central

    Mei, Xuefei; Dai, Zhijun; Du, Jinzhou; Chen, Jiyu

    2015-01-01

    Despite comprising a small portion of the earth’s surface, lakes are vitally important for global ecosystem cycling. However, lake systems worldwide are extremely fragile, and many are shrinking due to changing climate and anthropogenic activities. Here, we show that Poyang Lake, the largest freshwater lake in China, has experienced a dramatic and prolonged recession, which began in late September of 2003. We further demonstrate that abnormally low levels appear during October, 28 days ahead of the normal initiation of the dry season, which greatly imperiled the lake’s wetland areas and function as an ecosystem for wintering waterbirds. An increase in the river-lake water level gradient induced by the Three Gorges Dam (TGD) altered the lake balance by inducing greater discharge into the Changjiang River, which is probably responsible for the current lake shrinkage. Occasional episodes of arid climate, as well as local sand mining, will aggravate the lake recession crisis. Although impacts of TGD on the Poyang Lake recession can be overruled by episodic extreme droughts, we argue that the average contributions of precipitation variation, human activities in the Poyang Lake catchment and TGD regulation to the Poyang Lake recession can be quantified as 39.1%, 4.6% and 56.3%, respectively. PMID:26657816

  2. Linkage between Three Gorges Dam impacts and the dramatic recessions in China’s largest freshwater lake, Poyang Lake

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mei, Xuefei; Dai, Zhijun; Du, Jinzhou; Chen, Jiyu

    2015-12-01

    Despite comprising a small portion of the earth’s surface, lakes are vitally important for global ecosystem cycling. However, lake systems worldwide are extremely fragile, and many are shrinking due to changing climate and anthropogenic activities. Here, we show that Poyang Lake, the largest freshwater lake in China, has experienced a dramatic and prolonged recession, which began in late September of 2003. We further demonstrate that abnormally low levels appear during October, 28 days ahead of the normal initiation of the dry season, which greatly imperiled the lake’s wetland areas and function as an ecosystem for wintering waterbirds. An increase in the river-lake water level gradient induced by the Three Gorges Dam (TGD) altered the lake balance by inducing greater discharge into the Changjiang River, which is probably responsible for the current lake shrinkage. Occasional episodes of arid climate, as well as local sand mining, will aggravate the lake recession crisis. Although impacts of TGD on the Poyang Lake recession can be overruled by episodic extreme droughts, we argue that the average contributions of precipitation variation, human activities in the Poyang Lake catchment and TGD regulation to the Poyang Lake recession can be quantified as 39.1%, 4.6% and 56.3%, respectively.

  3. The impact of papyrus wetland encroachment on the spatial and temporal variability of stream flow and sediment export in the upper Rwizi catchment, Southwest Uganda

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ryken, Nick; Vanmaercke, Matthias; Wanyama, Joshua; Deckers, Jozef; Isabirye, Moses; Poesen, Jean

    2014-05-01

    During the past 30 years, human activities in the Lake Victoria basin are responsible for eutrophication of Lake Victoria via sediment-bound nutrients. This affects food security for millions on people. Addressing this problem in this densely populated region will require adequate catchment management strategies. However, sediment yield and runoff data to develop such a strategy are currently unavailable. Also in general, sediment yields for catchments in tropical environments are very scarce, especially in East-Africa. Therefore, runoff discharge and sediment export measurements were conducted in the upper Rwizi, a representative catchment for the Lake Victoria basin which is located in Southwest Uganda. Land use in this catchment is characterized by grazing area on the high plateaus, banana cropping on the slopes and Cyperus papyrus L. wetlands in the river valleys. These papyrus wetlands are currently encroached and transformed into cropland. Eight subcatchments (99 km2 - 2120 km2), with different degrees of wetland encroachment, were monitored during the hydrological year June 2009 - May 2010. Temporal and spatial variations in runoff discharge give strong indications that papyrus wetlands are crucial for buffering runoff and sediment discharge towards Lake Victoria. Subcatchments with intact wetlands show a slower runoff response to rainfall, smaller peak runoff discharges and lower runoff coefficients. Yearly runoff depths of subcatchment with intact wetlands are three to four times smaller compared to subcatchments with encroached wetlands. Suspended sediment concentrations (SSC) show a similar result, with significant smaller SSC in the subcatchments having intact papyrus wetlands. In the subcatchments where no encroachment occurred, annual area-specific suspended sediment yields (SSY) varied between 0,26 ton ha-1 yr-1and 0,33 ton ha-1 yr-1 , while the SSY of the encroached subcatchments varied between 1,20 ton ha-1 yr-1and 2,61 ton ha-1 yr-1. This study

  4. Flash flood warning in mountainaious areas: using damages reports to evaluate the method at small ungauged catchments

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Defrance, Dimitri; Javelle, Pierre; Ecrepont, Stéphane; Andreassian, Vazken

    2013-04-01

    In Europe, flash floods mainly occur in the Mediterranean area on small catchments with a short concentration time. Anticipating this kind of events is a major issue in order to reduce the resulting damages. But for many of the impacted catchments, no data are available to calibrate and evaluate hydrological models. In this context, the aims of this study is to develop and evaluate a warning method for the Southern French Alps. This area is of particular interest, because it regroups different hydrological regimes, from purely Mediterranean to purely Alpine influences. Two main issues should be addressed: - How to define the hydrological model and its parameterization for an application in an ungauged context? - How to evaluate the final results on 'real' ungauged catchments? The first issue is a classic one. Using a 'observed' data set (154 streamflow stations with catchment areas ranging from 5 to 1000 km² and distributed rainfall available on the 1997-2006 period), we developed a regional model specifically for the studied area. For this purpose, the AIGA method, initially developed for Mediterranean catchments was adapted, in order to take into account snowmelt and to produce baseflows. Then, different parameterizations were tested, derived from different simple regionalisation techniques: - the same parameters set for the whole area defined as the median of the local calibrated parameters; - the same technique as the previous case, but by considering different sub-areas, defined as "hydro-climatically" homogeneous by previous studies; - and finally the neighbour's method. The second issue is more original. Indeed, in most studies the final evaluation is done using gauged stations as they were 'ungauged', ie keeping the at-site discharge data only for validation ant not for calibration. The main disadvantage of this approach is that the evaluation is made at the scale of the gauged catchments, which are in general greater than the catchments impacted by flash

  5. Changes in discharge dynamics under the constraints of local and global changes in the Chao Lake basin (China)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chu, Y.; Salles, C.; Rodier, C.; Crès, F.-N.; Huang, L.; Tournoud, M.-G.

    2012-04-01

    Located on the Yangtze basin, the Chao Lake is the fifth largest freshwater lake in China and of great importance in terms of water resources and aquaculture. Its catchment (9130 km2) includes the city of Hefei and large extends of agricultural and rural areas. Fast changes are expected in land uses and agricultural practices for the future, due to the touristic appeal of the Chao Lake shore and the growth of the city of Hefei. Climate changes are also expected in this region, with a high impact on rainfall regime. The consequences of these changes on the sustainability of the water inflows into the lake are a major issue for the economical development of the Chao Lake area even though they are little-known. Our study aims to give tools for estimating such consequences, accounting for uncertainties in scenario data and model parameters. The dynamics of rivers flowing into the Chao Lake is not very well-known, except for the Fengle River. The Fengle catchment (1480 km2) is mainly rural. River discharges are recorded at Taoxi station, upstream its outlet into the lake. 20-year records of daily discharges are available. Nine rain gauges, with daily data, daily temperature and evapotranspiration data are also available. The current dynamics of the Fengle River is characterized in terms of flood frequencies on discharge-duration-frequency curves. The ATHYS freely available hydrological tool (www.athys-soft.org) is used to calibrate and validate a distributed model of the Fengle catchment. Four calibration runs are done on four independent 5-year discharge records. Four different sets of model parameters are discussed. The model is then run for validation. The uncertainties in model predictions are evaluated in terms of errors in the simulated discharges during the validation period, with regards to the 5-year period used for calibration. The model is then applied on scenarios of changes in land uses and climate. Uncertainties in scenarios of changes are estimated

  6. Morphology and morphometry of upland lakes over lateritic crust, Serra dos Carajás, southeastern Amazon region.

    PubMed

    Silva, Marcio S DA; Guimarães, José T F; Souza Filho, Pedro W M; Nascimento Júnior, Wilson; Sahoo, Prafulla K; Costa, Francisco R DA; Silva Júnior, Renato O; Rodrigues, Tarcísio M; Costa, Marlene F DA

    2018-01-01

    High-resolution satellite images, digital elevation models, bathymetric and sedimentological surveys coupled with statistical analysis were used to understand the physical environment and discuss their influence on water quality of the five upland lakes of Serra Sul dos Carajás, southeast Amazonia. The lakes have mid-altitude ranges (elevation), very small (catchment) and shallow to very shallow (central basins). Based on the length, area and volume, Violão and TI (Três Irmãs)-3 lakes may present large vertical movements of the water due to wind action and weakly stratified waters. Trophic conditions based on depth and shore development (Ld) parameters must be used with caution, since Amendoim Lake is relatively deep, but it is oligotrophic to ultra-oligotrophic. Ld values suggest that the lakes are circular to subcircular and are likely formed by solution process, as also suggested by volume development. TI-2 Lake is only presenting convex central basin and has highest dynamic ratio (DR), thus it may have high sedimentation and erosion rates. Based on the relationship between studied parameters, morphometric index and DR likely influence temperature and dissolved oxygen of waters of TI-2 Lake due to its depth profile and wind-induced surface mixing. Nevertheless, water quality parameters are controlled by catchment characteristics of the lakes.

  7. Monitoring Lake Victoria Water Quality from Space: Opportunities for Strengthening Trans-boundary Information Sharing for Effective Resource Management

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mugo, R. M.; Korme, T.; Farah, H.; Nyaga, J. W.; Irwin, D.; Flores, A.; Limaye, A. S.; Artis, G.

    2014-12-01

    Lake Victoria (LV) is an important freshwater resource in East Africa, covering 68,800 km2, and a catchment that spans 193,000km2. It is an important source of food, energy, drinking and irrigation water, transport and a repository for agricultural, human and industrial wastes generated from its catchment. For such a lake, and a catchment transcending 5 international boundaries, collecting data to guide informed decision making is a hard task. Remote sensing is currently the only tool capable of providing information on environmental changes at high spatio-temporal scales. To address the problem of information availability for LV, we tackled two objectives; (1) we analyzed water quality parameters retrieved from MODIS data, and (2) assessed land cover changes in the catchment area using Landsat data. We used L1A MODIS-Aqua data to retrieve lake surface temperature (LST), total suspended matter (TSM), chlorophyll-a (CHLa) and diffuse attenuation coefficient (KD490) in four temporal periods i.e. daily, weekly, monthly and seasonal scales. An Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF) analysis was done on monthly data. An analysis of land cover change was done using Landsat data for 3 epochs in order to assess if land degradation contributes to water quality changes. Our results indicate that MODIS-Aqua data provides synoptic views of water quality changes in LV at different temporal scales. The Winam Gulf in Kenya, the shores of Jinja town in Uganda, as well as the Mwanza region in Tanzania represent water quality hotspots due to their relatively high TSM and CHLa concentrations. High levels of KD490 in these areas would also indicate high turbidity and thus low light penetration due to the presence of suspended matter, algal blooms, and/or submerged vegetation. The EOF analysis underscores the areas where LST and water color variability are more significant. The changes can be associated with corresponding land use changes in the catchment, where for instance wetlands are

  8. Importance of diffuse pollution control in the Patzcuaro Lake Basin in Mexico.

    PubMed

    Carro, Marco Mijangos; Dávila, Jorge Izurieta; Balandra, Antonieta Gómez; López, Rubén Hernández; Delgadillo, Rubén Huerto; Chávez, Javier Sánchez; Inclán, Luís Bravo

    2008-01-01

    In the catchment area of the Lake Patzcuaro in Central Mexico (933 km2) the apportionments of erosion, sediment, nutrients and pathogen coming from thirteen micro basins were estimated with the purpose of identifying critical areas in which best management practices need to be implemented in order to reduce their contribution to the lake pollution and eutrophication. The ArcView Generalized Watershed Loading Functions model (AV-GWLF) was applied to estimate the loads and sources of nutrients. The main results show that the total annual contribution of nitrogen from point sources were 491 tons and from diffuse pollution 2,065 tons, whereas phosphorus loads where 116 and 236 tons, respectively during a thirty year simulation period. Micro basins with predominant agricultural and animal farm land use (56% of the total area) accounts for a high percentage of nitrogen load 33% and phosphorus 52%. On the other hand, Patzcuaro and Quiroga micro basins which comprise approximately 10% of the total catchment area and are the most populated and visited towns by tourist 686,000 people every year, both contributes with 10.1% of the total nitrogen load and 3.2% of phosphorus. In terms of point sources of nitrogen and phosphorus the last towns contribute with 23.5% and 26.6% respectively. Under this situation the adoption of best management practices are an imperative task since the sedimentation and pollution in the lake has increased dramatically in the last twenty years. Copyright (c) IWA Publishing 2008.

  9. DOLUS LAKES ROADLESS AREA, MONTANA.

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Elliott, James E.; Avery, Dale W.

    1984-01-01

    A mineral survey of the Dolus Lakes Roadless Area in southwestern Montana, was conducted. Much of the roadless area has probable and substantiated potential for resources of gold, silver, molybdenum, and tungsten. The nature of the geologic terrain indicates that there is little promise for the occurrence of coal, oil, gas, or geothermal resources. Detailed geologic and geochemical studies are suggested to delineate exploration targets that could be tested by drilling.

  10. Predicting forested catchment evapotranspiration and streamflow from stand sapwood area and Aridity Index

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lane, Patrick

    2016-04-01

    Estimating the water balance of ungauged catchments has been the subject of decades of research. An extension of the fundamental problem of estimating the hydrology is then understanding how do changes in catchment attributes affect the water balance component? This is a particular issue in forest hydrology where vegetation exerts such a strong influence on evapotranspiration (ET), and consequent streamflow (Q). Given the primacy of trees in the water balance, and the potential for change to species and density through logging, fire, pests and diseases and drought, methods that directly relate ET/Q to vegetation structure, species, and stand density are very powerful. Plot studies on tree water use routinely use sapwood area (SA) to calculate transpiration and upscale to the stand/catchment scale. Recent work in south eastern Australian forests have found stand-wide SA to be linearly correlated (R2 = 0.89) with long term mean annual loss (P-Q), and hence, long term mean annual catchment streamflow. Robust relationships can be built between basal area (BA), tree density and stand SA. BA and density are common forest inventory measurements. Until now, no research has related the fundamental stand attribute of SA to streamflow. The data sets include catchments that have been thinned and with varying age classes. Thus far these analyses have been for energy limited systems in wetter forest types. SA has proven to be a more robust biometric than leaf area index which varies seasonally. That long term ET/Q is correlated with vegetation conforms to the Budyko framework. Use of a downscaled (20 m) Aridity Index (AI) has shown distinct correlations with stand SA, and therefore T. Structural patterns at a the hillslope scale not only correlate with SA and T, but also with interception (I) and forest floor evaporation (Es). These correlations between AI and I and Es have given R2 > 0.8. The result of these studies suggest an ability to estimate mean annual ET fluxes at sub

  11. Influence of the Little Ice Age on the biological structure of lakes in South West Greenland

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    McGowan, S.; Hogan, E. J.; Jones, V.; Anderson, N. J.; Simpson, G.

    2013-12-01

    Arctic lakes are considered to be particularly sensitive to environmental change, with biological remains in lake sediment records being interpreted as reflecting climate forcing. However the influence that differences in catchment properties and lake morphometries have on the sedimentary record is rarely considered. We investigated sediment cores from three lakes located close to the inland ice sheet margin in the Kangerlussuaq area of South West Greenland but within a few kilometres of one another. This regional replication allowed for direct comparisons of biological change in lakes exposed to identical environmental pressures (cooling, increased wind speeds) over the past c.2000 years. Sedimentary pigments were used as a proxy for whole-lake production and to investigate differences in phytoplankton community structure whilst fossil diatom assemblages were studied to determine differences in ecological responses during this time. We noted several major effects of the Little Ice Age cooling (LIA, c. 1400-1850AD). The organic content of sediments in all three lakes declined, and this effect was most pronounced in lakes closest to the inland ice sheet margin, which suggests that aeolian inputs derived from the glacial outwash plains (sandurs), and wind-scouring of the thin catchment soils by strong katabatic winds associated with the regional cooling might have both contributed to this sedimentary change. During the LIA total algal production (as indicated by chlorophyll and carotenoid pigments) was lower in all three lakes, most likely because of extended ice-cover and shorter growing seasons, and the ratio of planktonic: benthic diatom taxa increased, possibly because of lower light availability or fertilization from loess material. Despite this coherence in lake response to the LIA, diatom community composition changes in individual lakes differed, reflecting individual lake morphometry and catchment characteristics. These findings highlight the importance of

  12. Predicting risk of rill initiation in a sub-catchment of Lake Balaton, Hungary

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hausner, C.; Sisák, I.

    2009-04-01

    Rill erosion is an accelerated form of soil degradation. It removes much more soil and nutrients from the agricultural land than sheet erosion. Soils in the southern sub-watershed of Lake Balaton are especially prone to rill erosion and they contribute to siltation of ditches, to muddy floods and to eutrofication of the lake. The parent material in this region is mainly (sandy) loess and the soils are already moderately or strongly eroded thus, the low tolerance of loess against erosion determines erodibility. Identification of soils with high risk of rill erosion is crucial to plan mitigation measures. Soil erodibility has been investigated in this study in the catchment of Tetves stream. The USLE soil erodibility factor and soil slaking are widely accepted indicators for soil erosion. Both of them are published for all soil texture classes in handbooks of soil mapping. We have found that erodibility derived from our physical model has a close linear correlation with the product of the USLE soil erodibility factor and soil slaking grade thus, USLE could be directly used to assess parameters for physical based models. Rill erosion is highly probable if the product of KUSLE X slaking grade is above 2. Digital maps were produced to delineate soils with high potential for rill erosion. The basic data for the soil properties were drawn from the 1:10,000 soil map. Soil texture classes were used to assign KUSLE and slaking grade to the soil units. Beyond soil properties, other factors also influence rill formation: slope, surface cover, rainfall intensity. However, identifying soil properties, which make soils prone to rill erosion, is an important initial step for the reduction of diffuse agricultural loads to Lake Balaton. It might be the objective of River Basin Management Plans in the Water Framework Directive to prevent rill erosion and our study provides scientific evidence for targeting this policy.

  13. Bathymetric map and area/capacity table for Castle Lake, Washington

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Mosbrucker, Adam R.; Spicer, Kurt R.

    2017-11-14

    The May 18, 1980, eruption of Mount St. Helens produced a 2.5-cubic-kilometer debris avalanche that dammed South Fork Castle Creek, causing Castle Lake to form behind a 20-meter-tall blockage. Risk of a catastrophic breach of the newly impounded lake led to outlet channel stabilization work, aggressive monitoring programs, mapping efforts, and blockage stability studies. Despite relatively large uncertainty, early mapping efforts adequately supported several lake breakout models, but have limited applicability to current lake monitoring and hazard assessment. Here, we present the results of a bathymetric survey conducted in August 2012 with the purpose of (1) verifying previous volume estimates, (2) computing an area/capacity table, and (3) producing a bathymetric map. Our survey found seasonal lake volume ranges between 21.0 and 22.6 million cubic meters with a fundamental vertical accuracy representing 0.88 million cubic meters. Lake surface area ranges between 1.13 and 1.16 square kilometers. Relationships developed by our results allow the computation of lake volume from near real-time lake elevation measurements or from remotely sensed imagery.

  14. Sediment yield during typhoon events in relation to landslides, rainfall, and catchment areas in Taiwan

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chen, Chi-Wen; Oguchi, Takashi; Hayakawa, Yuichi S.; Saito, Hitoshi; Chen, Hongey; Lin, Guan-Wei; Wei, Lun-Wei; Chao, Yi-Chiung

    2018-02-01

    Debris sourced from landslides will result in environmental problems such as increased sediment discharge in rivers. This study analyzed the sediment discharge of 17 main rivers in Taiwan during 14 typhoon events, selected from the catchment area and river length, that caused landslides according to government reports. The measured suspended sediment and water discharge, collected from hydrometric stations of the Water Resources Agency of Taiwan, were used to establish rating-curve relationships, a power-law relation between them. Then sediment discharge during typhoon events was estimated using the rating-curve method and the measured data of daily water discharge. Positive correlations between sediment discharge and rainfall conditions for each river indicate that sediment discharge increases when a greater amount of rainfall or a higher intensity of rainfall falls during a typhoon event. In addition, the amount of sediment discharge during a typhoon event is mainly controlled by the total amount of rainfall, not by peak rainfall. Differences in correlation equations among the rivers suggest that catchments with larger areas produce more sediment. Catchments with relatively low sediment discharge show more distinct increases in sediment discharge in response to increases in rainfall, owing to the little opportunity for deposition in small catchments with high connectivity to rivers and the transportation of the majority of landslide debris to rivers during typhoon events. Also, differences in geomorphic and geologic conditions among catchments around Taiwan lead to a variety of suspended sediment dynamics and the sediment budget. Positive correlation between average sediment discharge and average area of landslides during typhoon events indicates that when larger landslides are caused by heavier rainfall during a typhoon event, more loose materials from the most recent landslide debris are flushed into rivers, resulting in higher sediment discharge. The high

  15. An assessment of mean annual precipitation in Rajasthan, India needed to maintain Mid-Holocene lakes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gill, E.; Rajagopalan, B.; Molnar, P. H.

    2013-12-01

    Paleo-climate literature reports evidence of freshwater lakes over Rajasthan, a region of northwestern India, during the mid-Holocene (~6ka), where desert conditions prevail in present time. It's suggested that mid-Holocene temperatures were warmer, precipitation was nearly double current levels, and there was an enhanced La Niña-like state. While previous analyses infer the lakes were sustained by generally high precipitation and low evaporation, we provide a systematic analysis on the relevant energy budget quantities and the dynamic relationships between them. We have built a hydrological lake model to reconstruct lake levels throughout the Holocene. Model output is evaporation from the lake. Inputs are precipitation over the lake and catchment runoff, determined using precipitation, Preistley-Taylor evapotranspiration, interception and infiltration. Initial tests of the model have been completed with current climate conditions to ensure accurate behavior. Contemporary runs used station precipitation and temperature data [Rajeevan et al., 2006] for the region surrounding Lake Didwana (27°N 74°E). Digital elevation maps were used to compile lake bathymetry for Lake Didwana. Under current climate conditions, a full Lake Didwana (~ 9 m) empties over the first several years. While lake depth varies yearly, increasing with each monsoon season, variations following the initial decline are minimal (~ × 1.0 m). We ran the model with a 2000-year sequence of precipitation and temperature generated by resampling the observed weather sequences, with a suite of base line fractions of vegetation cover and increased precipitation, with solar insolation appropriate during the mid-Holocene period. Initial runs revealed that precipitation amount and percent of vegetated catchment area influence lake levels, but insolation alone does not. Incrementally changing precipitation (between current levels and a 75% increase) and percent of vegetated area (between 10-90%) reveals that

  16. Temporal 222Rn distributions to reveal groundwater discharge into desert lakes: Implication of water balance in the Badain Jaran Desert, China

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Luo, Xin; Jiao, Jiu Jimmy; Wang, Xu-sheng; Liu, Kun

    2016-03-01

    How lake systems are maintained and water is balanced in the lake areas in the Badain Jaran Desert (BJD), northeast of China have been debated for about a decade. In this study, continuous 222Rn measurement is used to quantify groundwater discharge into two representative fresh and brine water lakes in the desert using a steady-state mass-balance model. Two empirical equations are used to calculate atmospheric evasion loss crossing the water-air interface of the lakes. Groundwater discharge rates yielded from the radon mass balance model based on the two empirical equations are well correlated and of almost the same values, confirming the validity of the model. The fresh water and brine lakes have a daily averaged groundwater discharge rate of 7.6 ± 1.7 mm d-1 and 6.4 ± 1.8 mm d-1, respectively. The temporal fluctuations of groundwater discharge show similar patterns to those of the lake water level, suggesting that the lakes are recharged from nearby groundwater. Assuming that all the lakes have the same discharge rate as the two studied lakes, total groundwater discharge into all the lakes in the desert is estimated to be 1.59 × 105 m3 d-1. A conceptual model of water balance within a desert lake catchment is proposed to characterize water behaviors within the catchment. This study sheds lights on the water balance in the BJD and is of significance in sustainable regional water resource utilization in such an ecologically fragile area.

  17. 78 FR 63868 - Amendment of Restricted Area R-2515; Muroc Lake, CA

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-10-25

    ...-0802; Airspace Docket No. 13-AWP-7] RIN 2120-AA66 Amendment of Restricted Area R-2515; Muroc Lake, CA... using agency name for Restricted Area R-2515 Muroc Lake, CA, to read ``Commander, 412th Test Wing (412... using agency name for Restricted Area R-2515 Muroc Lake, CA, from ``Commander Air Force Flight Test...

  18. Source identification and mass balance studies of mercury in Lake An-dong, S. Korea

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Han, J.; Byeon, M.; Yoon, J.; Park, J.; Lee, M.; Huh, I.; Na, E.; Chung, D.; Shin, S.; Kim, Y.

    2009-12-01

    In this study, mercury and methylmercury were measured in atmospheric, tributary, open-lake water column, sediment, planktons and fish samples in the catchments area of Lake An-dong, S. Korea. Lake An-dong, an artificial freshwater lake is located on the upstream of River Nak-dong. It has 51.5 km2 of open surface water and 1.33 year of hydraulic residence time. It is a source of drinking water for 0.3 million S. Koreans. Recently, the possibilities of its mercury contamination became an issue since current studies showed that the lake had much higher mercury level in sediment and certain freshwater fish species than any other lakes in S. Korea. This catchments area has the possibilities of historical mercury pollution by the location of more than 50 abandoned gold mines and Young-poong zinc smelter. The objective of this study was to develop a mercury mass balance and identify possible mercury sources in the lake. The results of this study are thus expected to offer valuable insights for the sources of mercury loading through the watershed. In order to estimate the mercury flux, TGM, RGM and particulate mercury were measured using TEKRAN 2537 at the five sites surrounding Lake An-dong from May, 2009 with wet and dry deposition. The fate and transport of mercury in water body were predicted by using EFDC (Environmental Dynamic Fluid Code) and Mercury module in WASP7 (Water quality analysis program) after subsequent distribution into water body, sediments, followed by bioaccumulation and ultimate uptake by humans. The mercury mass balance in Young-poong zinc smelter was also pre-estimated by measuring mercury content in zinc ores, emission gases, sludge, wastewater and products.

  19. Hydro-meteorological trends in the Gidabo catchment of the Rift Valley Lakes Basin of Ethiopia

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Belihu, Mamuye; Abate, Brook; Tekleab, Sirak; Bewket, Woldeamlak

    2018-04-01

    The global and regional variability and changes of climate and stream flows are likely to have significant influence on water resource availability. The magnitude and impacts of climate variability and change differs spatially and temporally. This study examines the long term hydroclimatic changes, analyses of the hydro-climate variability and detect whether there exist significant trend or not in the Gidabo catchment, rift valley lakes basin of Ethiopia. Precipitation, temperature and stream flow time series data were used in monthly, seasonal and annual time scales. The precipitation and temperature data span is between 1982 and 2014 and that of stream flow is between 1976 and 2006. To detect trends the analysis were done by using Mann Kendal (MK), Sen's graphical method and to detect change point using the Pettit test. The comparison of trend analysis between MK trend test and Sen graphical method results depict mostly similar pattern. The annual rainfall trends exhibited a significant decrease by about 12 mm per year in the upstream, which is largely driven by the significant decrease in the peak season rainfall. The Pettit test revealed that the years 1997 and 2007 were the change points. It is noted that the rise of temperature over a catchment might have decreased the availability of soil moisture which resulted in less runoff. The temperature analyses also revealed that the catchment was getting warmer; particularly in the upstream. The minimum temperature trend showed a significant increase about 0.08°c per annum. There is generally a decreasing trend in stream flow. The monthly stream flow also exhibited a decreasing trend in February, March and September. The decline in annual and seasonal rainfall and the increase in temperature lead to more evaporation and directly affecting the stream flow negatively. This trend compounded with the growth of population and increasing demand for irrigation water exacerbates the competing demand for water resources. It

  20. View of the Salt Lake City, Utah area

    NASA Image and Video Library

    1973-08-30

    SL3-22-0322 (July-September 1973) --- An oblique view of the Salt Lake City, Utah area as photographed from Earth orbit by one of the six lenses of the Itek-furnished S190-A Multispectral Photographic Facility Experiment aboard the Skylab space station. Approximately two-thirds of the Great Salt Lake is in view. The smaller body of water south of Salt Lake City is Utah Lake. The Wasatch Range is on the east side of the Great Salt Lake. Federal agencies participating with NASA on the EREP project are the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Corps of Engineers. All EREP photography is available to the public through the Department of Interior?s Earth Resources Observations Systems Data Center, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, 57198. Photo credit: NASA

  1. Land use change impacts on discharge analysis using SWAT model at Ciherang Pondok DAM catchment area

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Utamahadi, M. A.; Pandjaitan, N. H.; Rau, M. I.

    2018-05-01

    The prompt increase of population influenced the requirement for new regions to fulfill people’s primary needs. Its increased land use change and caused many impacts on the environment, including watersheds as well. Ciherang Pondok DAM catchment area is part of Cisadane watershed and was selected as the research area. This research aimed to analyse the water supply and water discharge change caused by the Urban Planning (RTRW) in 2020. The analysis was conducted using soil and water assessment tools (SWAT) model. Stages of this research were catchment area delineation, HRU identification, calibration and validation of models, and prediction of discharge and water demand. The result showed that RTRW of 2020 increased the maximum discharge of 1.6 m3/s and decreased the minimum discharge of 0.01 m3/s, hence the maximum and minimum discharge ratio increased 0.26% from 2016. Output discharge in 2020 at Ciherang Pondok Dam Catchment Area was classified as well, with discharge of 6.72 – 126.2 m3/s, and could fulfil water demand. For the best result, it is better to use climate data from weather stations inside the study area and it is required an improvement in data archiving system.

  2. Long-term chloride concentrations in North American and European freshwater lakes

    PubMed Central

    Dugan, Hilary A.; Summers, Jamie C.; Skaff, Nicholas K.; Krivak-Tetley, Flora E.; Doubek, Jonathan P.; Burke, Samantha M.; Bartlett, Sarah L.; Arvola, Lauri; Jarjanazi, Hamdi; Korponai, János; Kleeberg, Andreas; Monet, Ghislaine; Monteith, Don; Moore, Karen; Rogora, Michela; Hanson, Paul C.; Weathers, Kathleen C.

    2017-01-01

    Anthropogenic sources of chloride in a lake catchment, including road salt, fertilizer, and wastewater, can elevate the chloride concentration in freshwater lakes above background levels. Rising chloride concentrations can impact lake ecology and ecosystem services such as fisheries and the use of lakes as drinking water sources. To analyze the spatial extent and magnitude of increasing chloride concentrations in freshwater lakes, we amassed a database of 529 lakes in Europe and North America that had greater than or equal to ten years of chloride data. For each lake, we calculated climate statistics of mean annual total precipitation and mean monthly air temperatures from gridded global datasets. We also quantified land cover metrics, including road density and impervious surface, in buffer zones of 100 to 1,500 m surrounding the perimeter of each lake. This database represents the largest global collection of lake chloride data. We hope that long-term water quality measurements in areas outside Europe and North America can be added to the database as they become available in the future. PMID:28786983

  3. Long-term chloride concentrations in North American and European freshwater lakes.

    PubMed

    Dugan, Hilary A; Summers, Jamie C; Skaff, Nicholas K; Krivak-Tetley, Flora E; Doubek, Jonathan P; Burke, Samantha M; Bartlett, Sarah L; Arvola, Lauri; Jarjanazi, Hamdi; Korponai, János; Kleeberg, Andreas; Monet, Ghislaine; Monteith, Don; Moore, Karen; Rogora, Michela; Hanson, Paul C; Weathers, Kathleen C

    2017-08-08

    Anthropogenic sources of chloride in a lake catchment, including road salt, fertilizer, and wastewater, can elevate the chloride concentration in freshwater lakes above background levels. Rising chloride concentrations can impact lake ecology and ecosystem services such as fisheries and the use of lakes as drinking water sources. To analyze the spatial extent and magnitude of increasing chloride concentrations in freshwater lakes, we amassed a database of 529 lakes in Europe and North America that had greater than or equal to ten years of chloride data. For each lake, we calculated climate statistics of mean annual total precipitation and mean monthly air temperatures from gridded global datasets. We also quantified land cover metrics, including road density and impervious surface, in buffer zones of 100 to 1,500 m surrounding the perimeter of each lake. This database represents the largest global collection of lake chloride data. We hope that long-term water quality measurements in areas outside Europe and North America can be added to the database as they become available in the future.

  4. GloboLakes: A global observatory of lake responses to environmental change.

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Groom, Steve; Tyler, Andrew; Hunter, Peter; Spyrakos, Evangelos; Martinez-Vicente, Victor; Merchant, Chris; Cutler, Mark; Rowan, John; Dawson, Terry; Maberly, Stephen; Cavalho, Laurence; Elliot, Alex; Thackery, Stephen; Miller, Claire; Scott, Marian

    2014-05-01

    The world's freshwater ecosystems are vital components of the global biosphere, yet are vulnerable to climate and other human-induced change. There is increasing recognition that lakes play an important role in global biogeochemical cycling and provide key ecosystem services. However, our understanding of how lakes respond to environmental change at a global scale, and how this impacts on their status and function, is hampered by limited information on their chemical, physical and ecological condition. There are estimated to be over 300 million lakes globally, of which over 17,000 are greater than 10 km2 in surface area. These numbers have limited the systematic study of lake ecosystems. GloboLakes is a five-year UK research programme investigating the state of lakes and their response to climatic and other environmental drivers of change. It will establish a satellite-based observatory with archive and near-real time data processing to produce a time series of observed biogeochemical parameters and lake temperature for over 1000 lakes globally. This will be supported by linked ancillary data on climate and catchment land-use. The ability to monitor a large number of lakes consistently at high frequency and globally will facilitate a paradigm shift in our understanding of how lakes respond to environmental change at different spatial and temporal scales. A key requirement is to validate satellite retrieval algorithms and test the time-series of resulting lake properties such as chlorophyll-a by comparison with in situ data. To support the former extensive bio-optical and constituent data were taken in year 1 of the project in a number of UK lakes with a variety of trophic states. Furthermore, for wider validation activities GloboLakes has established the LIMNADES initiative to create a centralised database of ground bio-optical measurements of worldwide lakes through voluntary cooperation across the international scientific community. This presentation will

  5. Roger Lake research natural area: guidebook supplement 29.

    Treesearch

    J. Dana Visalli

    2006-01-01

    Roger Lake Research Natural Area (RNA), a 174.7-ha reserve in north-central Washington, contains a rich diversity of landforms, plant communities, and wildlife habitats. Spreading outward from the lake itself, sedge and sphagnum fens give way to upland coniferous forest, granitic cliffs, and a relictual, high-altitude big sagebrush-whitebark pine (Artemisia tridentata-...

  6. Photochemical Reactivity of Dissolved Organic Matter in Boreal Lakes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gu, Y.; Vuorio, K.; Tiirola, M.; Perämäki, S.; Vahatalo, A.

    2016-12-01

    Boreal lakes are rich in dissolved organic matter (DOM) that terrestrially derived from forest soil and wetland, yet little is known about potential for photochemical transformation of aquatic DOM in boreal lakes. Transformation of chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) can decrease water color and enhance microbial mineralization, affecting primary production and respiration, which both affect the CO2 balance of the lakes. We used laboratory solar radiation exposure experiments with lake water samples collected from 54 lakes located in Finland and Sweden, representing different catchment composition and watershed location to assess photochemical reactivity of DOM. The pH of water samples ranged from 5.4 to 8.3, and the concentrations of dissolved iron (Fe) were between < 0.06 and 22 μmol L-1. The filtered water samples received simulated solar radiation corresponding to a daily dose of sunlight, and photomineralization of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) to dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) was measured for determination of spectral apparent quantum yields (AQY). During irradiation, photobleaching decreased the absorption coefficients of CDOM at 330 nm between 4.9 and 79 m-1 by 0.5 to 11 m-1. Irradiation generated DIC from 2.8 to 79 μmol C L-1. The AQY at 330 nm ranged between 31 and 273 ×10-6 mol C mol photons-1 h-1, which was correlated positively with concentration of dissolved Fe, and negatively with pH. Further statistical analyze indicated that the interaction between pH and Fe may explain much of the photochemical reactivity of DOM in the examined lakes, and land cover concerns main catchment areas also can have impact on the photoreaction process. This study may suggest how environmental conditions regulate DOM photomineralization in boreal lakes.

  7. Rural plastic emissions into the largest mountain lake of the Eastern Carpathians.

    PubMed

    Mihai, Florin-Constantin

    2018-05-01

    The lack of proper waste collection systems leads to plastic pollution in rivers in proximity to rural communities. This environmental threat is more widespread among mountain communities which are prone to frequent flash floods during the warm season. This paper estimates the amounts of plastic bottles dumped into the Izvoru Muntelui lake by upstream rural communities. The plastic pollution dimension between seasonal floods which affected the Bistrita catchment area during 2005-2012 is examined. The floods dumped over 290 tonnes of plastic bottles into the lake. Various scenarios are tested in order to explain each amount of plastic waste collected by local authorities during sanitation activities. The results show that rural municipalities are responsible for 85.51% of total plastic bottles collected during 2005-2010. The source of plastic pollution is mainly local. The major floods of July 2008 and June 2010 collected most of the plastic bottles scattered across the Bistrita river catchment (56 villages) and dumped them into the lake. These comparisons validate the proposed method as a reliable tool in the assessment process of river plastic pollution, which may also be applied in other geographical areas. Tourism and leisure activities are also found to be responsible for plastic pollution in the study area. A new regional integrated waste management system should improve the waste collection services across rural municipalities at the county level when it is fully operational. This paper demonstrates that rural communities are significant contributors of plastics into water bodies.

  8. The recent climatic change of subarctic zone recorded in lake sediments in Hokkaido, Japan

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Seto, K.; Takata, H.; Saito, M.; Katsuki, K.; Sonoda, T.; Kawajiri, T.; Watanabe, T.

    2010-12-01

    In the coastal area of the Sea of Okhotsk in the east part of Hokkaido located to for subarctic zone, many brackish-water lakes are distributed. Especially, the Okhotsk brackish-water lake group around Abashiri City is constituted by major lake in Japan such as Lake Abashiri, Lake Mokoto, Lake Tofutsu, and Lake Notoro. The each lake shows a different present environment and history. Therefore, the change that is common in those lakes seems to be the change concerning the climate. In this study, recent environment change in Abashiri region (after the Little Ice Age) is discussed by sedimentologic and geochemical high-resolution analysis of the cores collected from the Okhotsk brackish-water lake group. The cores collected from four lake shows the length of 1 to 3m. In Lake Mokoto, there was the Ta-a tephra (AD 1739) at the 350cm depth. The Ta-a tephra are found at the horizon of 250 cm in Lake Abashiri, of 78 cm in Lake Notoro, and of 44 cm in Lake Tofutsu. The differences of the sedimentation rate of that lake are caused by the size of lake and catchment area. In Lake Mokoto, the catchment area is most large, and the size of lake is smallest among the four lake of Abashiri City. The cores collected from Lake Abashiri and Lake Mokoto consist of organic mud with the lamination in all cores. The core top 56 cm shows the black (N1.5/0, L value: < 5), and it seems to indicate the euxinic environment as present. The organic mud of 56-77cm-depth show black (2.5GY2/1, L values = ca 20), and it is considered that it shows the freshwater environment. In history of Lake Abashiri, the lake water changes to brackish-water from freshwater in 1930’s. It is considered that the change of the lightness in 56 cm depth is correspondent to this timing. In the observation by the soft X-ray photograph, the pattern of the lamination of Lake Abashiri is similar to the Lake Mokoto. The cyclic lamination set is observed in the core from Lake Mokoto. It is considered that this cyclic

  9. Estimation of design floods in ungauged catchments using a regional index flood method. A case study of Lake Victoria Basin in Kenya

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nobert, Joel; Mugo, Margaret; Gadain, Hussein

    Reliable estimation of flood magnitudes corresponding to required return periods, vital for structural design purposes, is impacted by lack of hydrological data in the study area of Lake Victoria Basin in Kenya. Use of regional information, derived from data at gauged sites and regionalized for use at any location within a homogenous region, would improve the reliability of the design flood estimation. Therefore, the regional index flood method has been applied. Based on data from 14 gauged sites, a delineation of the basin into two homogenous regions was achieved using elevation variation (90-m DEM), spatial annual rainfall pattern and Principal Component Analysis of seasonal rainfall patterns (from 94 rainfall stations). At site annual maximum series were modelled using the Log normal (LN) (3P), Log Logistic Distribution (LLG), Generalized Extreme Value (GEV) and Log Pearson Type 3 (LP3) distributions. The parameters of the distributions were estimated using the method of probability weighted moments. Goodness of fit tests were applied and the GEV was identified as the most appropriate model for each site. Based on the GEV model, flood quantiles were estimated and regional frequency curves derived from the averaged at site growth curves. Using the least squares regression method, relationships were developed between the index flood, which is defined as the Mean Annual Flood (MAF) and catchment characteristics. The relationships indicated area, mean annual rainfall and altitude were the three significant variables that greatly influence the index flood. Thereafter, estimates of flood magnitudes in ungauged catchments within a homogenous region were estimated from the derived equations for index flood and quantiles from the regional curves. These estimates will improve flood risk estimation and to support water management and engineering decisions and actions.

  10. Hydrologic response to modeled snowmelt input in alpine catchments in the Southwestern United States

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Driscoll, J. M.; Molotch, N. P.; Jepsen, S. M.; Meixner, T.; Williams, M. W.; Sickman, J. O.

    2012-12-01

    Snowmelt from high elevation catchments is the primary source of water resources in the Southwestern United States. Timing and duration of snowmelt and resulting catchment response can show the physical and chemical importance of storage at the catchment scale. Storage of waters in subsurface materials provides a physical and chemical buffer to hydrologic input variability. We expect the hydrochemistry of catchments with less storage capacity will more closely reflect input waters than a catchment with more storage and therefore more geochemical evolution of waters. Two headwater catchments were compared for this study; Emerald Lake Watershed (ELW) in the southern Sierra Nevada and Green Lake 4 (GL4) in the Colorado Front Range. These sites have geochemically similar granitic terrane, and negligible evaporation and transpiration due to their high-elevation setting. Eleven years of data (1996-2006) from spatially-distributed snowmelt models were spatially and temporally aggregated to generate daily values of snowmelt volume for each catchment area. Daily storage flux was calculated as the difference between snowmelt input and catchment outflow at a daily timestep, normalized to the catchment area. Daily snowmelt values in GL4 are more consistent (the annual standard deviation ranged from 0.19 to 0.76 cm) than the daily snowmelt in ELW (0.60 to 1.04 cm). Outflow follows the same trend, with an even narrower range of standard deviations from GL4 (0.27 to 0.54 cm) compared to the standard deviation of outflow in ELW (0.38 to 0.98 cm). The dampening of the input variability could be due to storage in the catchment; the larger effect would mean a larger storage capacity in the catchment. Calculations of storage flux (the input snowmelt minus the output catchment discharge) show the annual sum of water into storage in ELW ranges from -0.9200 to 1.1124 meters, in GL4 the ranger is narrower, from -0.655 to 0.0992 meters. Cumulative storage for each year can be negative

  11. High mountain lake Research Natural Areas in Idaho

    Treesearch

    Fred W. Rabe

    2001-01-01

    High mountain lakes in Idaho total about 1800 and represent one of the most pristine type ecosystems in the country. Limnological characteristics are described for 27 lakes and 20 ponds in 32 established and proposed Research Natural Areas (RNA) representing seven subregions in the state. Field collections were made from the 1960s through 1999 by different researchers...

  12. A geographical information system (GIS) as a tool for microbial risk assessment in catchment areas of drinking water reservoirs.

    PubMed

    Kistemann, T; Dangendorf, F; Exner, M

    2001-03-01

    The main tributaries of three drinking water reservoirs of Northrhine-Westfalia (Germany) were monitored within a 14-month period mainly for bacterial and parasitic contamination. In this context a detailed geo-ecological characterisation within the differing catchment areas was carried out to reveal a reliable informational basis for tracing back the origin of microbial loads present in the watercourses. To realise a microbial risk assessing geo-ecological information system (MRA-GIS), a Geographical Information System (GIS) has been implemented for the study areas. The results of the microbiological investigations of the watercourses showed an input of pathogens into all three of the tributaries. It could be demonstrated that the use of MRA-GIS database and some GIS-techniques substantially support the spatial analysis of the microbial contamination patterns. From the hygienic point of view, it is of the utmost importance to protect catchment areas of surface water reservoirs from microbial contamination stemming from human activities and animal sources. This constitutes essential part of the multi-barrier concept which stresses the importance of reducing diffuse and point pollution in catchment areas of water resources intended for human consumption. MRA-GIS proves to be helpful to manage multi-barrier water protection in catchment areas and ideally assists the application of the HACCP concept on drinking water production.

  13. 33 CFR 165.1171 - Copper Canyon, Lake Havasu, Colorado River-Regulated Navigation Area.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... 33 Navigation and Navigable Waters 2 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Copper Canyon, Lake Havasu... Guard District § 165.1171 Copper Canyon, Lake Havasu, Colorado River—Regulated Navigation Area. (a) Location. The following is a regulated navigation area: (1) In the water area of Copper Canyon, Lake Havasu...

  14. 33 CFR 165.1171 - Copper Canyon, Lake Havasu, Colorado River-Regulated Navigation Area.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 33 Navigation and Navigable Waters 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Copper Canyon, Lake Havasu... Guard District § 165.1171 Copper Canyon, Lake Havasu, Colorado River—Regulated Navigation Area. (a) Location. The following is a regulated navigation area: (1) In the water area of Copper Canyon, Lake Havasu...

  15. 33 CFR 334.520 - Lake George, Fla.; naval bombing area.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... 33 Navigation and Navigable Waters 3 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Lake George, Fla.; naval bombing....; naval bombing area. (a) The danger zone. An area in the eastern part of Lake George described as follows.... (2) Prior to each bombing operation the danger zone will be patrolled by naval aircraft which will...

  16. 33 CFR 334.520 - Lake George, Fla.; naval bombing area.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 33 Navigation and Navigable Waters 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Lake George, Fla.; naval bombing....; naval bombing area. (a) The danger zone. An area in the eastern part of Lake George described as follows.... (2) Prior to each bombing operation the danger zone will be patrolled by naval aircraft which will...

  17. ALPINE LAKES WILDERNESS STUDY AREA, WASHINGTON.

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Gualtieri, J.L.; Thurber, H.K.

    1984-01-01

    The Alpine Lakes Wilderness study area, located in the central part of the Cascade Mountains of Washington was examined for its mineral-resource potential. On the basis of that study the area was found to contain deposits of copper, other base metals, and gold and silver. Probable or substantiated mineral-resource potential exists for these commodities in the southwest-central, northwest, and southeast-central parts of the area. The geologic terrane precludes the occurrence of fossil fuel resources.

  18. Catchment-fed cyanobacterial blooms in brownified temperate lakes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Senar, O.; Creed, I. F.

    2017-12-01

    One of the most significant impacts of global atmospheric change is the alteration of hydrological regimes and the associated disruption of hydrological connectivity within watersheds. We show how changes in the frequency, magnitude, and duration of hydrological connectivity and disconnectivity is compromising the capacity of forest soils to store organic carbon, and increasing its export to both aquatic and atmospheric systems. Increases in dissolved organic matter (DOM) loads from forested landscapes to aquatic systems and the shift of the DOM pool to a more refractory mixture of organic compounds, a process known as brownification, alters the physical and chemical characteristics of lake environments. Furthermore, by characterizing the stages of brownification (from low to high concentrations of refractory DOM), we show a shift in the limiting factors for phytoplankton growth from macronutrients (nitrogen -N- and phosphorus -P) to micronutrients (iron -Fe) and light availability. This shift is driven by the low concentrations of DOM supplying N and P in early stages of brownification, to the strong Fe-binding capacity of refractory DOM in brownified lakes. As lakes undergo brownification, cyanobacteria adapted to scavenge Fe from DOM-Fe complexes have a competitive advantage leading to the formation of cyanobacterial blooms. Our findings provide evidence that brownification is a driving force leading to cyanobacterial blooms in lakes on forested landscapes, with expected cascading consequences to lake food webs.

  19. A Global Classification System for Catchment Hydrology

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Woods, R. A.

    2004-05-01

    It is a shocking state of affairs - there is no underpinning scientific taxonomy of catchments. There are widely used global classification systems for climate, river morphology, lakes and wetlands, but for river catchments there exists only a plethora of inconsistent, incomplete regional schemes. By proceeding without a common taxonomy for catchments, freshwater science has missed one of its key developmental stages, and has leapt from definition of phenomena to experiments, theories and models, without the theoretical framework of a classification. I propose the development of a global hierarchical classification system for physical aspects of river catchments, to help underpin physical science in the freshwater environment and provide a solid foundation for classification of river ecosystems. Such a classification scheme can open completely new vistas in hydrology: for example it will be possible to (i) rationally transfer experimental knowledge of hydrological processes between basins anywhere in the world, provided they belong to the same class; (ii) perform meaningful meta-analyses in order to reconcile studies that show inconsistent results (iii) generate new testable hypotheses which involve locations worldwide.

  20. Derivation of Lake Areas and Elevations for the Mackenzie Basin Using Satellite Remote Sensing

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Birkett, Charon; Kite, Geoff

    1997-01-01

    Modelling hydrological processes in large watersheds flowing to the Arctic ocean is one step towards larger-scale modelling of the global water and energy cycles. Models of the Mackenzie River Basin (Northern Canada) are currently available but omit explicit routing of river flows through the three main lakes - Athabasca, Great Slave Lake and Great Bear Lake (Kite et al, 1994). These lakes occupy an area of 65,000 sq km but little gauge information is available. The levels of the lakes are only measured at a few points on the circumferences and river flows are only measured downstream. The hydraulic relationships between level/discharge and level/area/volume are uncertain. It has been previously shown that satellite remote sensing can be utilised in providing measurements of both lake surface area using imaging techniques and lake level using radar altimetry (Birkett, 1994). Here, we explore the application of these techniques to derive the lake levels and areas for the Mackenzie Basin lakes.

  1. Lake-sediment evidence for the date of deglaciation of the Hidden Lake area, Kenai Peninsula, Alaska

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rymer, Michael J.; Sims, John D.

    1982-06-01

    An abrupt environmental change is reflected in a core from Hidden Lake, Alaska, by differences in sediment type, chlorite crystallinity, and content of organic carbon and water of the sediments. This abrupt change in the sedimentary record occurred about 14,500 14C yr ago and probably marks the time of recession of the glacier from the Hidden Lake drainage basin. Deglaciation of the area was then underway, and rock flour was being deposited in the lake. After recession of the glacier from the Hidden Lake drainage basin, rock flour was no longer introduced, and organic-matter content of the sediment increased. By the dating of these changes in sediment type, we show that retreat of glaciers in this area took place significantly earlier than previously estimated; this agrees with the timing of retreat of alpine glaciers elsewhere in western North America.

  2. Improved methods to estimate the effective impervious area in urban catchments using rainfall-runoff data

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ebrahimian, Ali; Wilson, Bruce N.; Gulliver, John S.

    2016-05-01

    Impervious surfaces are useful indicators of the urbanization impacts on water resources. Effective impervious area (EIA), which is the portion of total impervious area (TIA) that is hydraulically connected to the drainage system, is a better catchment parameter in the determination of actual urban runoff. Development of reliable methods for quantifying EIA rather than TIA is currently one of the knowledge gaps in the rainfall-runoff modeling context. The objective of this study is to improve the rainfall-runoff data analysis method for estimating EIA fraction in urban catchments by eliminating the subjective part of the existing method and by reducing the uncertainty of EIA estimates. First, the theoretical framework is generalized using a general linear least square model and using a general criterion for categorizing runoff events. Issues with the existing method that reduce the precision of the EIA fraction estimates are then identified and discussed. Two improved methods, based on ordinary least square (OLS) and weighted least square (WLS) estimates, are proposed to address these issues. The proposed weighted least squares method is then applied to eleven urban catchments in Europe, Canada, and Australia. The results are compared to map measured directly connected impervious area (DCIA) and are shown to be consistent with DCIA values. In addition, both of the improved methods are applied to nine urban catchments in Minnesota, USA. Both methods were successful in removing the subjective component inherent in the analysis of rainfall-runoff data of the current method. The WLS method is more robust than the OLS method and generates results that are different and more precise than the OLS method in the presence of heteroscedastic residuals in our rainfall-runoff data.

  3. Catchment Area Treatment (CAT) Plan and Crop Area Optimization for Integrated Management in a Water Resource Project

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jaiswal, R. K.; Thomas, T.; Galkate, R. V.; Ghosh, N. C.; Singh, S.

    2013-09-01

    A scientifically developed catchment area treatment (CAT) plan and optimized pattern of crop areas may be the key for sustainable development of water resource, profitability in agriculture and improvement of overall economy in drought affected Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh (India). In this study, an attempt has been made to develop a CAT plan using spatial variation of geology, geomorphology, soil, drainage, land use in geographical information system for selection of soil and water conservation measures and crop area optimization using linear programming for maximization of return considering water availability, area affinity, fertilizers, social and market constraints in Benisagar reservoir project of Chhatarpur district (M.P.). The scientifically developed CAT plan based on overlaying of spatial information consists of 58 mechanical measure (49 boulder bunds, 1 check dam, 7 cully plug and 1 percolation tank), 2.60 km2 land for agro forestry, 2.08 km2 land for afforestation in Benisagar dam and 67 mechanical measures (45 boulder bunds and 22 gully plugs), 7.79 km2 land for agro forestry, 5.24 km2 land for afforestation in Beniganj weir catchment with various agronomic measures for agriculture areas. The linear programming has been used for optimization of crop areas in Benisagar command for sustainable development considering various scenarios of water availability, efficiencies, affinity and fertilizers availability in the command. Considering present supply condition of water, fertilizers, area affinity and making command self sufficient in most of crops, the net benefit can be increase to Rs. 1.93 crores from 41.70 km2 irrigable area in Benisagar command by optimizing cropping pattern and reducing losses during conveyance and application of water.

  4. Evaluation of catchment delineation methods for the medium-resolution National Hydrography Dataset

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Johnston, Craig M.; Dewald, Thomas G.; Bondelid, Timothy R.; Worstell, Bruce B.; McKay, Lucinda D.; Rea, Alan; Moore, Richard B.; Goodall, Jonathan L.

    2009-01-01

    Different methods for determining catchments (incremental drainage areas) for stream segments of the medium-resolution (1:100,000-scale) National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) were evaluated by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA). The NHD is a comprehensive set of digital spatial data that contains information about surface-water features (such as lakes, ponds, streams, and rivers) of the United States. The need for NHD catchments was driven primarily by the goal to estimate NHD streamflow and velocity to support water-quality modeling. The application of catchments for this purpose also demonstrates the broader value of NHD catchments for supporting landscape characterization and analysis. Five catchment delineation methods were evaluated. Four of the methods use topographic information for the delineation of the NHD catchments. These methods include the Raster Seeding Method; two variants of a method first used in a USGS New England study-one used the Watershed Boundary Dataset (WBD) and the other did not-termed the 'New England Methods'; and the Outlet Matching Method. For these topographically based methods, the elevation data source was the 30-meter (m) resolution National Elevation Dataset (NED), as this was the highest resolution available for the conterminous United States and Hawaii. The fifth method evaluated, the Thiessen Polygon Method, uses distance to the nearest NHD stream segments to determine catchment boundaries. Catchments were generated using each method for NHD stream segments within six hydrologically and geographically distinct Subbasins to evaluate the applicability of the method across the United States. The five methods were evaluated by comparing the resulting catchments with the boundaries and the computed area measurements available from several verification datasets that were developed independently using manual methods. The results of the evaluation indicated that the two

  5. Climate Change Increasing Calcium and Magnesium Leaching from Granitic Alpine Catchments.

    PubMed

    Kopáček, Jiří; Kaňa, Jiří; Bičárová, Svetlana; Fernandez, Ivan J; Hejzlar, Josef; Kahounová, Marie; Norton, Stephen A; Stuchlík, Evžen

    2017-01-03

    Climate change can reverse trends of decreasing calcium and magnesium [Ca + Mg] leaching to surface waters in granitic alpine regions recovering from acidification. Despite decreasing concentrations of strong acid anions (-1.4 μeq L -1 yr -1 ) during 2004-2016 in nonacidic alpine lakes in the Tatra Mountains (Central Europe), the average [Ca + Mg] concentrations increased (2.5 μeq L -1 yr -1 ), together with elevated terrestrial export of bicarbonate (HCO 3 - ; 3.6 μeq L -1 yr -1 ). The percent increase in [Ca + Mg] concentrations in nonacidic lakes (0.3-3.2% yr -1 ) was significantly and positively correlated with scree proportion in the catchment area and negatively correlated with the extent of soil cover. Leaching experiments with freshly crushed granodiorite, the dominant bedrock, showed that accessory calcite and (to a lesser extent) apatite were important sources of Ca. We hypothesize that elevated terrestrial export of [Ca + Mg] and HCO 3 - resulted from increased weathering caused by accelerated physical erosion of rocks due to elevated climate-related mechanical forces (an increasing frequency of days with high precipitation amounts and air temperatures fluctuating around 0 °C) during the last 2-3 decades. These climatic effects on water chemistry are especially strong in catchments where fragmented rocks are more exposed to weathering, and their position is less stable than in soil.

  6. Using isotopes to quantify evaporation and non-stationary transit times distributions in lake water budgets

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Smith, A. A.; Tetzlaff, D.; Soulsby, C.

    2017-12-01

    Evaporative fluxes from northern lakes are essential components of catchment water balances, providing large supplies of water to the atmosphere, and affecting downstream water availability. However, measurement of lake evaporation is difficult in many catchments due to remoteness and inaccessibility. Evaporative flux may also influence mean transit times of lakes and catchments, identified through water- and tracer mass-balance. We combined stable water isotopes (δ2H and δ18O), transit, and residence time distributions in a non-stationary transit time model to estimate the evaporative flux from two lakes in the Scottish Highlands. The lakes were in close proximity to each other ( 2km), shallow (mean depth, 1.5 m) with one large (0.88km2) and one small (0.4km2). Model calibration used measurements of precipitation, air temperature, water level, and isotopic stream compositions of lake inflow and outflows. Evaporation flux was identified using lake fractionation of δ2H and δ18O. Mixing patterns of the lakes and their respective outlet isotopic compositions were accounted for by comparing three probability distributions for discharge and evaporation. We found that the evaporation flux was strongly influenced by these discharge and evaporation distributions. Decreased mixing within the lake resulted in greater evaporation fluxes. One of the three distributions yielded similar mean daily evaporation and uncertainty for both lakes (max 5mm/day), while evaporation using the other two distributions was inconsistent between the lakes. Importantly, our approach also estimated distributions of evaporation age, which were significantly different between the lakes, reflecting a combination of inflow stream magnitude and the mixing regimes. The mean evaporation flux age of the large lake was 160 days, and 14 days for the small lake. Our integrated approach of stable isotopes, time variant transit time distributions has shown to be a useful tool for quantifying evaporative

  7. Assessment of lake sensitivity to acidic deposition in national parks of the Rocky Mountains

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Nanus, L.; Williams, M.W.; Campbell, D.H.; Tonnessen, K.A.; Blett, T.; Clow, D.W.

    2009-01-01

    The sensitivity of high-elevation lakes to acidic deposition was evaluated in five national parks of the Rocky Mountains based on statistical relations between lake acid-neutralizing capacity concentrations and basin characteristics. Acid-neutralizing capacity (ANC) of 151 lakes sampled during synoptic surveys and basin-characteristic information derived from geographic information system (GIS) data sets were used to calibrate the statistical models. The explanatory basin variables that were considered included topographic parameters, bedrock type, and vegetation type. A logistic regression model was developed, and modeling results were cross-validated through lake sampling during fall 2004 at 58 lakes. The model was applied to lake basins greater than 1 ha in area in Glacier National Park (n = 244 lakes), Grand Teton National Park (n = 106 lakes), Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve (n = 11 lakes), Rocky Mountain National Park (n = 114 lakes), and Yellowstone National Park (n = 294 lakes). Lakes that had a high probability of having an ANC concentration 3000 m, with 80% of the catchment bedrock having low buffering capacity. The modeling results indicate that the most sensitive lakes are located in Rocky Mountain National Park and Grand Teton National Park. This technique for evaluating the lake sensitivity to acidic deposition is useful for designing long-term monitoring plans and is potentially transferable to other remote mountain areas of the United States and the world.

  8. Determining the groundwater potential recharge zone and karst springs catchment area: Saldoran region, western Iran

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Karami, Gholam Hossein; Bagheri, Rahim; Rahimi, Fahimeh

    2016-12-01

    Assessing the groundwater recharge potential zone and differentiation of the spring catchment area are extremely important to effective management of groundwater systems and protection of water quality. The study area is located in the Saldoran karstic region, western Iran. It is characterized by a high rate of precipitation and recharge via highly permeable fractured karstic formations. Pire-Ghar, Sarabe-Babaheydar and Baghe-rostam are three major karstic springs which drain the Saldoran anticline. The mean discharge rate and electrical conductivity values for these springs were 3, 1.9 and 0.98 m3/s, and 475, 438 and 347 μS/cm, respectively. Geology, hydrogeology and geographical information system (GIS) methods were used to define the catchment areas of the major karstic springs and to map recharge zones in the Saldoran anticline. Seven major influencing factors on groundwater recharge rates (lithology, slope value and aspect, drainage, precipitation, fracture density and karstic domains) were integrated using GIS. Geology maps and field verification were used to determine the weights of factors. The final map was produced to reveal major zones of recharge potential. More than 80 % of the study area is terrain that has a recharge rate of 55-70 % (average 63 %). Evaluating the water budget of Saldoran Mountain showed that the total volume of karst water emerging from the Saldoran karst springs is equal to the total annual recharge on the anticline. Therefore, based on the geological and hydrogeological investigations, the catchment area of the mentioned karst springs includes the whole Saldoran anticline.

  9. Eutrophication of the Strzeszyńskie Lake: Sources, Consequences and Remedies

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zawadzki, Paweł; Murat-Błażejewska, Sadżide; Błażejewski, Ryszard

    2016-06-01

    The paper presents history and recent review of investigations on ecological status of the Strzeszyńskie Lake, located within borders of town Poznań. The lake is a popular rest place, also for bathing and angling, therefore its state concerns many institutions and inhabitants. Recently, a deterioration of its ecological state has been observed due to pollution from a tributary catchment (Row Złotnicki), lake's direct catchment, precipitation and fallen leaves. Phosphorus balance for an average year was estimated. A review of applied remedies was provided but an assessment of their effectiveness was unfeasible due to simultaneity and relatively short duration of their application.

  10. the observation, simulation and evaluation of lake-air interaction process over a high altitude small lake on the Tibetan Plateau

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, Binbin; Ma, Yaoming; Ma, Weiqiang; Su, Bob

    2017-04-01

    Lakes are an important part of the landscape on the Tibetan Plateau. The area that contains most of the plateau lakes has been expanding in recent years, but the impact of lakes on lake-atmosphere energy and water interactions is poorly understood because of a lack of observational data and adequate modeling systems. Furthermore, Precise measurements of evaporation and understanding of the physical controls on turbulent heat flux over lakes at different time scales have fundamental significance for catchment-scale water balance analysis and local-scale climate modeling. To test the performance of lake-air turbulent exchange models over high-altitude lakes and to understanding the driving forces for turbulent heat flux and obtain the actual evaporation over the small high-altitude lakes, an eddy covariance observational system was built above the water surface of the small Nam Co Lake (with an altitude of 4715 m and an area of approximately 1 km2) in April 2012. Firstly, we proposed the proper Charnock coefficient (0.031) and the roughness Reynolds number (0.54) for simulation using turbulent data in 2012, and validated the results using data in 2013 independently; secondly, wind speed shows significance at half-hourly time scales, whereas water vapor and temperature gradients have higher correlations over daily and monthly time scales in lake-air turbulent heat exchange; thirdly, the total evaporation in this small lake (812 mm) is approximately 200 mm larger than that from adjacent Nam Co (approximately 627 mm) during their ice-free seasons. Moreover, the energy stored during April to June is mainly released during September to November, suggesting an energy balance closure value of 0.97 over the entire ice-free season; lastly, 10 evaporation estimation methods are evaluated with the prepared datasets.

  11. Mercury bioaccumulation in fishes from subalpine lakes of the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest, northeastern Oregon and western Idaho

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Eagles-Smith, Collin A.; Herring, Garth; Johnson, Branden L.; Graw, Rick

    2013-01-01

    Mercury (Hg) is a globally distributed pollutant that poses considerable risks to human and wildlife health. Over the past 150 years since the advent of the industrial revolution, approximately 80 percent of global emissions have come from anthropogenic sources, largely fossil fuel combustion. As a result, atmospheric deposition of Hg has increased by up to 4-fold above pre-industrial times. Because of their isolation, remote high-elevation lakes represent unique environments for evaluating the bioaccumulation of atmospherically deposited Hg through freshwater food webs, as well as for evaluating the relative importance of Hg loading versus landscape influences on Hg bioaccumulation. The increase in Hg deposition to these systems over the past century, coupled with their limited exposure to direct anthropogenic disturbance make them useful indicators for estimating how changes in Hg emissions may propagate to changes in Hg bioaccumulation and ecological risk. In this study, we evaluated Hg concentrations in fishes of high-elevation, sub-alpine lakes in the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest in northeastern Oregon and western Idaho. Our goals were to (1) assess the magnitude of Hg contamination in small-catchment lakes to evaluate the risk of atmospheric Hg to human and wildlife health, (2) quantify the spatial variability in fish Hg concentrations, and (3) determine the ecological, limnological, and landscape factors that are best correlated with fish total mercury (THg) concentrations in these systems. Across the 28 study lakes, mean THg concentrations of resident salmonid fishes varied as much as 18-fold among lakes. Importantly, our top statistical model explained 87 percent of the variability in fish THg concentrations among lakes with four key landscape and limnological variables— catchment conifer density (basal area of conifers within a lake’s catchment), lake surface area, aqueous dissolved sulfate, and dissolved organic carbon. The basal area of conifers

  12. Disentangling Holocene lake level changes with a transect of lake sediment cores - a case study from Lake Fürstenseer See, northeastern Germany

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dietze, Elisabeth; Slowinski, Michal; Kienel, Ulrike; Zawiska, Izabela; Brauer, Achim

    2014-05-01

    Deciphering the main processes contributing to lake and landscape evolution in the northern central European lowlands on different temporal scales is one of the main targets of the Virtual Institute of Integrated Climate and Landscape Evolution Analysis (ICLEA) of the Helmholtz Association. In the context of future climatic changes especially the hydrological system is a vulnerable landscape component that showed considerably large changes in the recent past. The analysis of lake sediment archives can help to infer long-term dynamics of regional lake and groundwater levels, although available proxy information needs to be studied carefully, as water level changes are only one trigger. Lake Fürstenseer See (53°19'N, 13°12'E, lake level in 2009: 63.3 m a.s.l.) formed after the retreat of the Weichselian ice sheet in a subglacial channel in the direct forefront of the Pommerian ice margin. The ~2 km2 large lake (zmax = 24.5 m) has a (sub-) surficial catchment area of ~(20) 40 km2 including other smaller lakes and peatlands. In the past, the lake system was artificially dammed for the operation of water mills. Located within the well-drained sandur substrate, the lake levels vary with groundwater levels in response to hydrological and catchment-related groundwater recharge. Detrital matter input from fluvial activity can be excluded. Lake sediment cores at four sites along a transect down to 23 m water depth show distinct sediment facies patterns. Stratigraphic descriptions and non-destructive continuous micro-XRF scanning allowed the differentiation of the main sediment facies, which were microscopically described using thin sections. Quantification of total organic and inorganic matter (TOC, TIC, C/N-composition) and discontinuous macrorest, diatom and Cladocera analysis helped to approach the sedimentation history. Stable isotopes of (delta-180, delta-13C) were used for characterization of carbonates. A high amount of non-reworked terrestrial plant remains from

  13. Rural plastic emissions into the largest mountain lake of the Eastern Carpathians

    PubMed Central

    2018-01-01

    The lack of proper waste collection systems leads to plastic pollution in rivers in proximity to rural communities. This environmental threat is more widespread among mountain communities which are prone to frequent flash floods during the warm season. This paper estimates the amounts of plastic bottles dumped into the Izvoru Muntelui lake by upstream rural communities. The plastic pollution dimension between seasonal floods which affected the Bistrita catchment area during 2005–2012 is examined. The floods dumped over 290 tonnes of plastic bottles into the lake. Various scenarios are tested in order to explain each amount of plastic waste collected by local authorities during sanitation activities. The results show that rural municipalities are responsible for 85.51% of total plastic bottles collected during 2005–2010. The source of plastic pollution is mainly local. The major floods of July 2008 and June 2010 collected most of the plastic bottles scattered across the Bistrita river catchment (56 villages) and dumped them into the lake. These comparisons validate the proposed method as a reliable tool in the assessment process of river plastic pollution, which may also be applied in other geographical areas. Tourism and leisure activities are also found to be responsible for plastic pollution in the study area. A new regional integrated waste management system should improve the waste collection services across rural municipalities at the county level when it is fully operational. This paper demonstrates that rural communities are significant contributors of plastics into water bodies. PMID:29892426

  14. Before and After Integrated Catchment Management in a Headwater Catchment: Changes in Water Quality

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hughes, Andrew O.; Quinn, John M.

    2014-12-01

    Few studies have comprehensively measured the effect on water quality of catchment rehabilitation measures in comparison with baseline conditions. Here we have analyzed water clarity and nutrient concentrations and loads for a 13-year period in a headwater catchment within the western Waikato region, New Zealand. For the first 6 years, the entire catchment was used for hill-country cattle and sheep grazing. An integrated catchment management plan was implemented whereby cattle were excluded from riparian areas, the most degraded land was planted in Pinus radiata, channel banks were planted with poplar trees and the beef cattle enterprise was modified. The removal of cattle from riparian areas without additional riparian planting had a positive and rapid effect on stream water clarity. In contrast, the water clarity decreased in those sub-catchments where livestock was excluded but riparian areas were planted with trees and shrubs. We attribute the decrease in water clarity to a reduction in groundcover vegetation that armors stream banks against preparatory erosion processes. Increases in concentrations of forms of P and N were recorded. These increases were attributed to: (i) the reduction of instream nutrient uptake by macrophytes and periphyton due to increased riparian shading; (ii) uncontrolled growth of a nitrogen fixing weed (gorse) in some parts of the catchment, and (iii) the reduction in the nutrient attenuation capacity of seepage wetlands due to the decrease in their areal coverage in response to afforestation. Our findings highlight the complex nature of the water quality response to catchment rehabilitation measures.

  15. Regional versus local drivers of water quality in the Windermere catchment, Lake District, UK: the dominant influence of wastewater pollution over the past 200 years.

    PubMed

    Moorhouse, Heather L; McGowan, Suzanne; Taranu, Zofia E; Gregory-Eaves, Irene; Leavitt, Peter R; Jones, Matthew D; Barker, Philip; Brayshaw, Susan A

    2018-05-10

    Freshwater ecosystems are threatened by multiple anthropogenic stressors acting over different spatial and temporal scales, resulting in toxic algal blooms, reduced water quality, and hypoxia. However, while catchment characteristics act as a 'filter' modifying lake response to disturbance, little is known of the relative importance of different drivers and possible differentiation in the response of upland remote lakes in comparison to lowland, impacted lakes. Moreover, many studies have focussed on single lakes rather than looking at responses across a set of individual, yet connected lake basins. Here we used sedimentary algal pigments as an index of changes in primary producer assemblages over the last ~200 years in a northern temperate watershed consisting of 11 upland and lowland lakes within the Lake District, UK, to test our hypotheses about landscape drivers. Specifically, we expected that the magnitude of change in phototrophic assemblages would be greatest in lowland rather than upland lakes due to more intensive human activities in the watersheds of the former (agriculture, urbanization). Regional parameters, such as climate dynamics, would be the predominant factors regulating lake primary producers in remote upland lakes and thus, synchronize the dynamic of primary producer assemblages in these basins. We found broad support for the hypotheses pertaining to lowland sites as wastewater treatment was the main predictor of changes to primary producer assemblages in lowland lakes. In contrast, upland headwaters responded weakly to variation in atmospheric temperature, and dynamics in primary producers across upland lakes were asynchronous. Collectively, these findings show that nutrient inputs from point sources overwhelm climatic controls of algae and nuisance cyanobacteria, but highlights that large-scale stressors do not always initiate coherent regional lake response. Further, a lake's position in its landscape, its connectivity and proximity to point

  16. Potential area for floating net fishery in Lake Toba

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rustini, H. A.; Harsono, E.; Ridwansyah, I.

    2018-02-01

    Lake Toba in North Sumatera, Indonesia, is now designated to be a world-class tourism destination. Aside from its infrastructure development, this largest lake in the Southeast Asia needs to be restored, especially its water quality. While an oligotrophic status is required for tourism purposes, several studies showed that Toba is mesotrophic at its best and hyper-eutrophic at its worst. Numerous studies and reports blame floating net fishery (FNF) for water quality decline in Lake Toba and propose limitation for its production. While the central government allowed FNF to be positioned in certain areas according to its depth and distance from the lakeshore, increasing number of FNF means adding more nutrients to the lake and thus may inhibit the lake’s restoration process. Hence, it is important to identify which areas are potential for FNF location to assist the authorities to regulate FNF. This study used SPOT-6, SPOT-7, and Pleiades satellite imagery to locate the position of existing FNF and to analyse the result to identify a potential location for FNF.

  17. Adaptations of a physical-based hydrological model for alpine catchments. Application to the upper Durance catchment.

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lafaysse, Matthieu; Hingray, Benoit

    2010-05-01

    The impact of global change on water resources is expected to be especially pronounced in mountainous areas. Future hydrological scenarios required for impact studies are classically simulated with hydrological models from future meteorological scenarios based on GCMs outputs. Future hydrological regimes of French rivers were estimated following this methodology by Boé et al. (2009) with the physical-based hydrological model SAFRAN-ISBA-MODCOU (SIM), developed by Météo-France. Scenarios obtained for the Alps seem however not very reliable due to the poor performance achieved by the model for the present climate over this region. This work presents possible improvements of SIM for a more relevant simulation of alpine catchments hydrological behavior. Results obtained for the upper Durance catchment (3580 km2) are given for illustration. This catchment is located in Southern French Alps. Its outlet is the Serre-Ponçon lake, a large dam operated for hydropower production, with a key role for water supply in southeastern France. With altitudes ranging from 700 to 4100 meters, the catchment presents highly seasonal flows: minimum and maximum discharges are observed in winter and spring respectively due to snow accumulation and melt, low flows are sustained by glacier melt in late summer (39 km2 are covered by glaciers), major floods can be observed in fall due to large liquid precipitation amounts. Two main limitations of SIM were identified for this catchment. First the 8km-side grid discretization gives a bad representation of the spatial variability of hydrological processes induced by elevation and orientation. Then, low flows are not well represented because the model doesn't include deep storage in aquifers nor ice melt from glaciers. We modified SIM accordingly. For the first point, we applied a discretization based on topography : we divided the catchment in 9 sub-catchments and further 300 meters elevation bands. The vertical variability of meteorological

  18. The role of metabolism in modulating CO2 fluxes in boreal lakes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bogard, Matthew J.; del Giorgio, Paul A.

    2016-10-01

    Lake CO2 emissions are increasingly recognized as an important component of the global CO2 cycle, yet the origin of these emissions is not clear, as specific contributions from metabolism and in-lake cycling, versus external inputs, are not well defined. To assess the coupling of lake metabolism with CO2 concentrations and fluxes, we estimated steady state ratios of gross primary production to respiration (GPP:R) and rates of net ecosystem production (NEP = GPP-R) from surface water O2 dynamics (concentration and stable isotopes) in 187 boreal lakes spanning long environmental gradients. Our findings suggest that internal metabolism plays a dominant role in regulating CO2 fluxes in most lakes, but this pattern only emerges when examined at a resolution that accounts for the vastly differing relationships between lake metabolism and CO2 fluxes. Fluxes of CO2 exceeded those from NEP in over half the lakes, but unexpectedly, these effects were most common and typically largest in a subset ( 30% of total) of net autotrophic lakes that nevertheless emitted CO2. Equally surprising, we found no environmental characteristics that distinguished this category from the more common net heterotrophic, CO2 outgassing lakes. Excess CO2 fluxes relative to NEP were best predicted by catchment structure and hydrologic properties, and we infer from a combination of methods that both catchment inputs and internal anaerobic processes may have contributed this excess CO2. Together, our findings show that the link between lake metabolism and CO2 fluxes is often strong but can vary widely across the boreal biome, having important implications for catchment-wide C budgets.

  19. Seasonal variation of oxygen-18 in precipitation and surface water of the Poyang Lake Basin, China.

    PubMed

    Hu, Chunhua; Froehlich, Klaus; Zhou, Peng; Lou, Qian; Zeng, Simiao; Zhou, Wenbin

    2013-06-01

    Based on the monthly δ(18)O value measured over a hydrology period in precipitation, runoff of five tributaries and the main lake of the Poyang Lake Basin, combined with hydrological and meteorological data, the characteristics of δ(18)O in precipitation (δ(18)OPPT) and runoff (δ(18)OSUR) are discussed. The δ(18)OPPT and δ(18)OSUR values range from-2.75 to-14.12 ‰ (annual mean value=-7.13 ‰ ) and from-2.30 to-8.56 ‰, respectively. The seasonal variation of δ(18)OPPT is controlled by the air mass circulation in this region, which is dominated by the Asian summer monsoon and the Siberian High during winter. The correlation between the wet seasonal averages of δ(18)OSUR in runoff of the rivers and δ(18)OPPT of precipitation at the corresponding stations shows that in the Poyang Lake catchment area the river water consists of 23% direct runoff (precipitation) and 77% base flow (shallow groundwater). This high proportion of groundwater in the river runoff points to the prevalence of wetland conditions in the Poyang Lake catchment during rainy season. Considering the oxygen isotopic composition of the main body of Poyang Lake, no isotopic enrichment relative to river inflow was found during the rainy season with maximum expansion of the lake. Thus, evaporation causing isotopic enrichment is a minor component of the lake water balance in the rainy period. During dry season, a slight isotopic enrichment has been observed, which suggests a certain evaporative loss of lake water in that period.

  20. Study of the wide area of a lake with remote sensing

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lazaridou, Maria A.; Karagianni, Aikaterini C.

    2016-08-01

    Water bodies are particularly important for environment and development issues. Their study requires multiple information. Remote sensing has been proven useful in the above study. This paper concerns the wide area of Lake Orestiada in the region of Western Macedonia in Greece. The area is of particular interest because Lake Orestiada is included in the Natura 2000 network and is surrounded by diverse landcovers as built up areas and agricultural land. Multispectral and thermal Landsat 5 satellite images of two time periods are being used. Their processing is being done by Erdas Imagine software. The general physiognomy of the area and the lake shore are examined after image enhancement techniques and image interpretation. Directions of the study concern geomorphological aspects, land covers, estimation of surface temperature as well as changes through time.

  1. Foreseen hydrological changes drive efforts to formulate water balance improvement measures as part of the management options of adaptation at Lake Balaton, Hungary

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Molnar, Gabor; Kutics, Karoly

    2013-04-01

    Located in Western Hungary, Lake Balaton (LB) is one of the shallowest large lakes of the world. The catchment area including the lake is 5775 km2, only 10 times more than the lake surface area of 593 km2. This relatively small catchment area and the relatively dry climate results in high vulnerability of the lake water budget to any hydro-meteorological changes. Due to the combined effects of planned water quality protection measures (refer to adjoining article on LB water quality) water quality was not as serious a concern over the last 15 years. However, a new and potentially more damaging threat, decreasing water level started to emerge in 2000. The natural water budget was negative half of the time, i.e. 6 years in the last 12 years. It hadn't occurred in the previous 80 years, since 1921, the year from which detailed meteorological data on the area are available. This new phenomenon raised and continues to raise serious sustainability concerns in the Lake Balaton area requiring better understanding of climatic changes and their foreseen impacts on hydrological and ecological processes that would lead decision makers to formulate the appropriate vulnerability and adaptation policies. Based on the common methodologies of the EULAKES project, present state of the hydrological conditions was analyzed as well as qualitative vulnerability assessment carried out to the area. Using the climate scenarios developed by the project partner Austrian Institute of Technology, calculations on water budget changes was possible. It is estimated that by the middle of the 21st century the lake will experience a drastic drop in the inflow and, accompanied by the increased evaporation, it is likely that years without outflow and serious drops in water-level would occur. The increased frequency of unfavorable water deficit will cause not only ecological, but also socio-economic conflicts in the multipurpose usage of the lake. Therefore, a qualitative vulnerability assessment was

  2. Validation of a simple distributed sediment delivery approach in selected sub-basins of the River Inn catchment area

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Reid, Lucas; Kittlaus, Steffen; Scherer, Ulrike

    2015-04-01

    For large areas without highly detailed data the empirical Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) is widely used to quantify soil loss. The problem though is usually the quantification of actual sediment influx into the rivers. As the USLE provides long-term mean soil loss rates, it is often combined with spatially lumped models to estimate the sediment delivery ratio (SDR). But it gets difficult with spatially lumped approaches in large catchment areas where the geographical properties have a wide variance. In this study we developed a simple but spatially distributed approach to quantify the sediment delivery ratio by considering the characteristics of the flow paths in the catchments. The sediment delivery ratio was determined using an empirical approach considering the slope, morphology and land use properties along the flow path as an estimation of travel time of the eroded particles. The model was tested against suspended solids measurements in selected sub-basins of the River Inn catchment area in Germany and Austria, ranging from the high alpine south to the Molasse basin in the northern part.

  3. New estimated Holocene denudation rates for non-glaciated areas in the southernmost Patagonian Andes (53°S), Chile

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Breuer, Sonja; Kilian, Rolf; Baeza, Oscar; Arz, Helge

    2010-05-01

    Cenozoic denudation rates are sparsely known for the southernmost Patagonian Andes. One of the scientific approaches is to calculate long-term denudation rates based on fission track analyses. Though, these average rates comprise a long period with distinct climate conditions and very different extend of glaciation. These integrated denudation rates include extensive surface areas with different morphological, glacial and vegetational properties. In contrast, our approach is restricted to relative short Holocene periods and small catchment areas, for which the denudation and its controlling surface characteristics could be defined more precisely. Thus a more precise evaluation of the influencing parameters like climate, morphology and vegetation cover was possible. We concentrated on three restricted and nearly closed areas of denudation and accumulation. In those catchments we determined the sediment masses of lakes, based on sediment drilling, echosounding and computer based interpolation of the siliciclastic sediment masses. These masses were transferred to the denudation areas which have been characterised and measured by remote sensing. The westernmost Tamar Lake is located on the Tamar Island in the western part of the Magellan Strait, where the annual precipitation is about 4,000 mm. The catchment area has a dense vegetation cover. The lake surrounding slopes reach an elevation of 400 m a.s.l and they are up to 60° steep. The calculated denudation rate for this catchment is about 2.56 mm/ka, which represents a minimum value, because the postglacial weathering horizon is only partly removed into the lake. The highest elevated lake Muy Profundo (500 m a.s.l.) possesses a denudation area with a nearly vegetation-free zone up to 750 m a.s.l. within the Patagonian Batholith. The catchment area of this lake is characterised by a roche moutonnée landform with steep slopes and active fracture zones. The precipitation varies between 5,000 and 8,000 mm/a. The

  4. BUCKS LAKE AND CHIPS CREEK ROADLESS AREAS, CALIFORNIA.

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Sorensen, Martin L.; Linne, J. Mitchell

    1984-01-01

    The results of a mineral-resource assessment of the Bucks Lake and Chips Creek Roadless Areas, California indicate several areas with mineral-resource potential. The presence or absence of these potentially auriferous deposits can best be determined by drilling through the relatively thin cover of volcanic rocks.

  5. Ecosystem responses during Late Glacial period recorded in the sediments of Lake Łukie (East Poland)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zawiska, Izabela; Słowiński, Michał; Correa-Metrio, Alex; Obremska, Milena; Luoto, Tomi; Nevalainen, Liisa; Woszczyk, Michał; Milecka, Krystyna

    2014-05-01

    The main objectives of this study was to reconstruct climate impact on the functioning of Lake Łukie and its catchment (Łęczna Włodawa Lake District, East European Plain) during Late Glacial period. In order to reconstruct climatic fluctuations and corresponding ecosystem responses, we analysed lake sediments for pollen, subfossil Cladocera, plant macrofossils and chemical composition of the sediment. Of these, plant macrofossils and Cladocera were used to infer minimum and mean July temperatures and ordination analysis was used to examine biotic community shifts. Multiproxy analyses of late-glacial sediments of Lake Łukie clearly show that the main driver of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems as well as geomorphological processes in the catchment was climate variation. The history of the lake initiated during the Older Dryas. In that period, Łęczna Włodawa Lake District was covered by open habitats dominated by grasses (Poaceae), humid sites were occupied by tundra plant communities with less clubmoss (Selaginella selaginoides), dry sites by dominated by steppe-like vegetation with light-demanding species such as Helianthemum, Artemisia, Chenopodiaceae, and juniper bushes (Juniperus). Cold climate limited the growth and development of organisms in the lake, Cladocera community species composition was poor, with only few species present there all the time. During this time period, permafrost was still present in the ground limiting infiltration of rainwater and causing high erosion in the catchment area. Surface runoff is confirmed by the presence of sclerotia of Cenococcum geophilum and high terrigenous silica content. The warming of the early Allerød caused a remarkable change in the natural environment of this area. This is in accordance with the temperature rise reconstructed with the use of plant macrofossils though the Cladocera reconstruction did not recorded the rise than. This temperature increase resulted in turnover of vegetation in the

  6. Special places in the Lake Calumet area.

    Treesearch

    Herbert W. Schroeder

    2004-01-01

    An open-ended, qualitative survey was conducted to identify special places in the Lake Calumet area of northeastern Illinois and northwestern Indiana, and to learn what kinds of experiences and environmental features make these places memorable and important to people.

  7. Lake-level stratigraphy and geochronology revisited at Lago (Lake) Cardiel, Argentina, and changes in the Southern Hemispheric Westerlies over the last 25 ka

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Quade, J.; Kaplan, M. R.

    2017-12-01

    Paleoshorelines around Lago (Lake) Cardiel in southern Argentina (S48.9°, W71.3°; ∼275 m) record substantial changes in lake area over the past 25 ka. Our results combined with previous research show that during the last glacial maximum (or LGM, 23-21 ka), the lake stood at near modern levels, but had nearly dried up by ∼13 ka. Between 11.3 and 10.1 ka the lake reached its highest point (+54-58 m) and greatest extent in at least the last 40 ka. Lake levels dropped thereafter and experienced two lower-lake periods: 8.5-7.5 ka and 5-3.3 ka; and two higher-lake periods: 7.4-6 and ∼5.2 ka. In the last 3.5 ka, the lake has remained generally near or slightly above its present level. The depth and surface area of Lago Cardiel are controlled mainly by precipitation onto the lake and surrounding catchment, air and water temperature, and wind-speed related to local strength of the Southern Hemispheric Westerlies (SHW). Our lake-level reconstruction combined with evidence from other studies suggest that on average the core of the SHW was located well to the north (<45°S) of the Cardiel basin during the deep lake phase associated with the LGM, and was well to the south (>55°S?) during the hydrologic maximum of Cardiel in the early Holocene. The lower phases of the lake at 20.0-11.5, 8.5-7.5, and 5.0-3.3 ka generally correspond to cold conditions in other records, when we infer that the SHW were strongly focused around the latitudes of Cardiel at 49°S.

  8. Pleistocene lake level changes in Western Mongolia

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Borodavko, P. S.

    2009-04-01

    Global cooling in the Early Pleistocene caused extensive continental glaciation in the northern hemisphere including the arid areas of Central Asia. The reduction of temperatures (particularly summer temperatures) reduced evaporation and strengthened the importance of precipitation. The simultaneity of "lakes periods" (pluvials) and stages of glaciation is established experience confirmed by investigations in the west of North America and Russia. In the Mongolian Great Lakes Depression new evidence for similar conditions is found. The Great Lakes Depression is one of the largest in Central Asia, and is divided into 2 main Lakes basins: Hyargas Lake Basin and Uvs Lake Basin. The basin is 600-650 km in length with a width of 200-250 km in the north and 60-100 km in the south. Total catchment area is about 186600 km2. The elevation of the basin floor is from 1700 m a.s.l. to 760 m a.s.l., decreasing to the north and south-east. The depression extends south-north and is bounded by mountains: Tannu-Ola to the north, Hangai to the east; Gobi Altai to the south and Mongolian Altay to the west. The maximum elevation of the mountains is 4000 m a.s.l. There are some mountains with an elevation between 2000 and 3000 m a.s.l in the lake catchment. These mountains are not glaciated today. The geological record [1] suggests the Great Lakes Depression already existed in the Mesozoic, but assumed its modern form only during the Pliocene-Quaternary when tectonic movements caused the uplift of the surrounding mountains. A phase of tectonic stability occurred during the Late Quaternary. The depression is filled by Quaternary fluvial, aeolian and lacustrine deposits (e.g. sand, pebbles). The Neogene deposits are represented by coloured clay, marl, sand and sandstone [1]. Hyargas Lake is the end base level of erosion of the lake group consisting of the Hara-Us Nur, Dorgon, Hara Nur and Airag lakes. Hyargas is one of the largest lakes in Mongolia, with a water surface of 1,407 km2. The

  9. The use of total lake-surface area as an indicator of climatic change: Examples from the Lahontan basin

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Benson, L.V.; Paillet, Frederick L.

    1989-01-01

    Variation in the size of lakes in the Lahontan basin is topographically constrained. River diversion also has played a major role in regulating lake size in Lahontan subbasins. The proper gage of lake response to change in the hydrologic balance is neither lake depth (level) nor lake volume but instead lake-surface area. Normalization of surface area is necessary when comparing surface areas of lakes in basins having different topographies. To a first approximation, normalization can be accomplished by dividing the paleosurface area of a lake by its mean-historical, reconstructed surface area. ?? 1989.

  10. Biological studies of atmospheric deposition impact on biota in Kola North Mountain Lakes, Russia

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Yakovlev, V.; Sharov, A.; Vandysh, O.

    1996-12-31

    In the framework of the AL:PE projects, biological studies of phyto-, zooplankton and zoobenthos communities of a small lakes situated in Chuna tundra and Chibiny mountains in Murmansk region were performed in 1993-1995. The lakes are the typical oligotrophic mountain lakes. In the Chibiny lake phytoplankton were presented mostly by species from rock catchment area. Summer phytoplankton state in the lakes showed no acidification in 1993-1995. However, the great number dead cells of acid tolerance diatoms, such as Tabellaria flocculosa found in the Chuna lake in summer period, may indicate a presence of acid episodes. Zooplankton of the lakes ismore » typical for high oligotrophic mountain lakes. However, lack of the acid sensitive daphniidae cladocerans seems to be a result of acidification effects. There were no significant relationships between benthic invertebrates species composition and present water acidity of the lakes. The typical for mountain lakes taxa (Prodiamesinae chironomids, stone flies and mayflies) were found in lake shore and streams. Despite the only little evidence of damage in biota, the further biological studies would be useful for long-term monitoring of the mountain lakes.« less

  11. Seabird guano is an efficient conveyer of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) to Arctic lake ecosystems.

    PubMed

    Evenset, A; Carroll, J; Christensen, G N; Kallenborn, R; Gregor, D; Gabrielsen, G W

    2007-02-15

    Migratory seabirds have been linked to localized "hotspots" of contamination in remote Arctic lakes. One of these lakes is Lake Ellasjøen on Bjørnøya in the Barents Sea. Here we provide quantitative evidence demonstrating that even relatively small populations of certain seabird species can lead to major impacts for ecosystems. In the present example, seabird guano accounts for approximately 14% of the contaminant inventory of the Lake Ellasjøen catchment area, approximately 80% of the contaminant inventory of the lake itself, and is approximately thirty times more efficient as a contaminant transport pathway compared to atmospheric long-range transport. We have further shown that this biological transport mechanism is an important contaminant exposure route for ecosystems, responsible for POPs levels in freshwater fish that are an order of magnitude higher than those in Arctic top predators. Given the worldwide presence of seabird colonies in coastal marine areas where resources are also harvested by humans, this biological transport pathway may be a greater source of dietary contamination than is currently recognized with consequent risks for human health.

  12. ROUND LAKE WILDERNESS STUDY AREA, WISCONSIN.

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Cannon, W.F.; Williams, Bradford B.

    1984-01-01

    The Round Lake Wilderness study area in Wisconsin was studied using geophysical and geochemical surveys, examination of a few bedrock exposures near the area (none are known within the area) and augering and testing of peat deposits. The only direct indication of potential mineral resource is about 760,000 tons of commercial quality peat contained in several bogs. Larger deposits of similar material are abundant closer to markets and although the peat in this area is classified as a demonstrated resource within an area of substantiated peat resource potential, it is considered to be of little importance. The study area lies within a belt of ancient volcanic rocks extending across northern Wisconsin in which several important copper, zinc, and lead deposits were discovered but no indication of such deposits was found within the area.

  13. 75 FR 22228 - Regulated Navigation Area; Lake Champlain Bridge Construction Zone, NY and VT

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-04-28

    ...-AA11 Regulated Navigation Area; Lake Champlain Bridge Construction Zone, NY and VT AGENCY: Coast Guard... establishing a regulated navigation area around the construction zone of the Lake Champlain Bridge between... on all vessels transiting the navigable waters of Lake Champlain in the vicinity of the bridge...

  14. Impacts of Spatial Distribution of Impervious Areas on Runoff Response of Hillslope Catchments: Simulation Study

    EPA Science Inventory

    This study analyzes variations in the model-projected changes in catchment runoff response after urbanization that stem from variations in the spatial distribution of impervious areas, interevent differences in temporal rainfall structure, and antecedent soil moisture (ASM). In t...

  15. Lakes in the greater Denver area, Front Range Urban Corridor

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Danielson, T.W.

    1975-01-01

    The purpose of this report is to present the results of an inventory of the lakes in the central one-third of the Colorado Front Range Urban Corridor. This inventory provides information that might be helpful in planning the best and most beneficial use of lakes in an area of rapid population growth. The report includes data on lake size and water quality. Size data are included on most of the lakes of 2 hectares (20,000 m2, or about 5 acres) or greater, and water-quality data are provided on most lakes larger than 10 hectares (about 25 acres). Bodies of water resulting form excavation of gravel (borrow pits) were generally not included in the inventory.

  16. Assessing risk of non-compliance of phosphorus standards for lakes in England and Wales

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Duethmann, D.; Anthony, S.; Carvalho, L.; Spears, B.

    2009-04-01

    High population densities, use of inorganic fertilizer and intensive livestock agriculture have increased phosphorus loads to lakes, and accelerated eutrophication is a major pressure for many lakes. The EC Water Framework Directive (WFD) requires that good chemical and ecological quality is restored in all surface water bodies by 2015. Total phosphorus (TP) standards for lakes in England and Wales have been agreed recently, and our aim was to estimate what percentage of lakes in England and Wales is at risk of failing these standards. With measured lake phosphorus concentrations only being available for a small number of lakes, such an assessment had to be model based. The study also makes a source apportionment of phosphorus inputs into lakes. Phosphorus loads were estimated from a range of sources including agricultural loads, sewage effluents, septic tanks, diffuse urban sources, atmospheric deposition, groundwater and bank erosion. Lake phosphorus concentrations were predicted using the Vollenweider model, and the model framework was satisfactorily tested against available observed lake concentration data. Even though predictions for individual lakes remain uncertain, results for a population of lakes are considered as sufficiently robust. A scenario analysis was carried out to investigate to what extent reductions in phosphorus loads would increase the number of lakes achieving good ecological status in terms of TP standards. Applying the model to all lakes in England and Wales greater than 1 ha, it was calculated that under current conditions roughly two thirds of the lakes would fail the good ecological status with respect to phosphorus. According to our estimates, agricultural phosphorus loads represent the most frequent dominant source for the majority of catchments, but diffuse urban runoff also is important in many lakes. Sewage effluents are the most frequent dominant source for large lake catchments greater than 100 km². The evaluation in terms of

  17. Characteristics and causal factors of hysteresis in the hydrodynamics of a large floodplain system: Poyang Lake (China)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhang, X. L.; Zhang, Q.; Werner, A. D.; Tan, Z. Q.

    2017-10-01

    A previous modeling study of the lake-floodplain system of Poyang Lake (China) revealed complex hysteretic relationships between stage, storage volume and surface area. However, only hypothetical causal factors were presented, and the reasons for the occurrence of both clockwise and counterclockwise hysteretic functions were unclear. The current study aims to address this by exploring further Poyang Lake's hysteretic behavior, including consideration of stage-flow relationships. Remotely sensed imagery is used to validate the water surface areas produced by hydrodynamic modeling. Stage-area relationships obtained using the two methods are in strong agreement. The new results reveal a three-phase hydrological regime in stage-flow relationships, which assists in developing improved physical interpretation of hysteretic stage-area relationships for the lake-floodplain system. For stage-area relationships, clockwise hysteresis is the result of classic floodplain hysteretic processes (e.g., restricted drainage of the floodplain during recession), whereas counterclockwise hysteresis derives from the river hysteresis effect (i.e., caused by backwater effects). The river hysteresis effect is enhanced by the time lag between the peaks of catchment inflow and Yangtze discharge (i.e., the so-called Yangtze River blocking effect). The time lag also leads to clockwise hysteresis in the relationship between Yangtze River discharge and lake stage. Thus, factors leading to hysteresis in other rivers, lakes and floodplains act in combination within Poyang Lake to create spatial variability in hydrological hysteresis. These effects dominate at different times, in different parts of the lake, and during different phases of the lake's water level fluctuations, creating the unique hysteretic hydrological behavior of Poyang Lake.

  18. Temporal coherence of two alpine lake basins of the Colorado Front Range, USA

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Baron, Jill S.; Caine, N.

    2000-01-01

    1. Knowledge of synchrony in trends is important to determining regional responses of lakes to disturbances such as atmospheric deposition and climate change. We explored the temporal coherence of physical and chemical characteristics of two series of mostly alpine lakes in nearby basins of the Colorado Rocky Mountains. Using year-to-year variation over a 10-year period, we asked whether lakes more similar in exposure to the atmosphere be-haved more similarly than those with greater influence of catchment or in-lake processes.2. The Green Lakes Valley and Loch Vale Watershed are steeply incised basins with strong altitudinal gradients. There are glaciers at the heads of each catchment. The eight lakes studied are small, shallow and typically ice-covered for more than half the year. Snowmelt is the dominant hydrological event each year, flushing about 70% of the annual discharge from each lake between April and mid-July. The lakes do not thermally stratify during the period of open water. Data from these lakes included surface water temper-ature, sulphate, nitrate, calcium, silica, bicarbonate alkalinity and conductivity.3. Coherence was estimated by Pearson's correlation coefficient between lake pairs for each of the different variables. Despite close geographical proximity, there was not a strong direct signal from climatic or atmospheric conditions across all lakes in the study. Individual lake characteristics overwhelmed regional responses. Temporal coherence was higher for lakes within each basin than between basins and was highest for nearest neighbours.4. Among the Green Lakes, conductivity, alkalinity and temperature were temporally coherent, suggesting that these lakes were sensitive to climate fluctuations. Water tem-perature is indicative of air temperature, and conductivity and alkalinity concentrations are indicative of dilution from the amount of precipitation flushed through by snowmelt.5. In Loch Vale, calcium, conductivity, nitrate, sulphate and

  19. Calibration of a transient transport model to tritium data in streams and simulation of groundwater ages in the western Lake Taupo catchment, New Zealand

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gusyev, M. A.; Toews, M.; Morgenstern, U.; Stewart, M.; White, P.; Daughney, C.; Hadfield, J.

    2013-03-01

    Here we present a general approach of calibrating transient transport models to tritium concentrations in river waters developed for the MT3DMS/MODFLOW model of the western Lake Taupo catchment, New Zealand. Tritium has a known pulse-shaped input to groundwater systems due to the bomb tritium in the early 1960s and, with its radioactive half-life of 12.32 yr, allows for the determination of the groundwater age. In the transport model, the tritium input (measured in rainfall) passes through the groundwater system, and the simulated tritium concentrations are matched to the measured tritium concentrations in the river and stream outlets for the Waihaha, Whanganui, Whareroa, Kuratau and Omori catchments from 2000-2007. For the Kuratau River, tritium was also measured between 1960 and 1970, which allowed us to fine-tune the transport model for the simulated bomb-peak tritium concentrations. In order to incorporate small surface water features in detail, an 80 m uniform grid cell size was selected in the steady-state MODFLOW model for the model area of 1072 km2. The groundwater flow model was first calibrated to groundwater levels and stream baseflow observations. Then, the transient tritium transport MT3DMS model was matched to the measured tritium concentrations in streams and rivers, which are the natural discharge of the groundwater system. The tritium concentrations in the rivers and streams correspond to the residence time of the water in the groundwater system (groundwater age) and mixing of water with different age. The transport model output showed a good agreement with the measured tritium values. Finally, the tritium-calibrated MT3DMS model is applied to simulate groundwater ages, which are used to obtain groundwater age distributions with mean residence times (MRTs) in streams and rivers for the five catchments. The effect of regional and local hydrogeology on the simulated groundwater ages is investigated by demonstrating groundwater ages at five model

  20. Vegetation, climate and lake changes over the last 7000 years at the boreal treeline in north-central Siberia

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Klemm, Juliane; Herzschuh, Ulrike; Pestryakova, Luidmila A.

    2016-09-01

    Palaeoecological investigations in the larch forest-tundra ecotone in northern Siberia have the potential to reveal Holocene environmental variations, which likely have consequences for global climate change because of the strong high-latitude feedback mechanisms. A sediment core, collected from a small lake (radius ∼100 m), was used to reconstruct the development of the lake and its catchment as well as vegetation and summer temperatures over the last 7100 calibrated years. A multi-proxy approach was taken including pollen and sedimentological analyses. Our data indicate a gradual replacement of open larch forests by tundra with scattered single trees as found today in the vicinity of the lake. An overall trend of cooling summer temperature from a ∼2 °C warmer-than-present mid-Holocene summer temperatures until the establishment of modern conditions around 3000 years ago is reconstructed based on a regional pollen-climate transfer function. The inference of regional vegetation changes was compared to local changes in the lake's catchment. An initial small water depression occurred from 7100 to 6500 cal years BP. Afterwards, a small lake formed and deepened, probably due to thermokarst processes. Although the general trends of local and regional environmental change match, the lake catchment changes show higher variability. Furthermore, changes in the lake catchment slightly precede those in the regional vegetation. Both proxies highlight that marked environmental changes occurred in the Siberian forest-tundra ecotone over the course of the Holocene.

  1. Lake Pontchartrain Area/New Orleans (Louisiana) Meetings & Events

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    Lake Pontchartrain Area/New Orleans (Louisiana) of the Urban Waters Federal Partnership (UWFP) reconnects urban communities with their waterways by improving coordination among federal agencies and collaborating with community-led efforts

  2. Increased atmospheric deposition of mercury in reference lakes near major urban areas

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Van Metre, P.C.

    2012-01-01

    Atmospheric deposition of Hg is the predominant pathway for Hg to reach sensitive ecosystems, but the importance of emissions on near-field deposition remains unclear. To better understand spatial variability in Hg deposition, mercury concentrations were analyzed in sediment cores from 12 lakes with undeveloped watersheds near to (<50 km) and remote from (>150 km) several major urban areas in the United States. Background and focusing corrected Hg fluxes and flux ratios (modern to background) in the near-urban lakes (68 ?? 6.9 ??g m -2 yr -1 and 9.8 ?? 4.8, respectively) greatly exceed those in the remote lakes (14 ?? 9.3 ??g m -2 yr -1 and 3.5 ?? 1.0) and the fluxes are strongly related to distance from the nearest major urban area (r 2 = 0.87) and to population and Hg emissions within 50-100 km of the lakes. Comparison to monitored wet deposition suggests that dry deposition is a major contributor of Hg to lakes near major urban areas. ?? 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  3. Identification of hot spot area of sediment contamination in a lake system using texture characteristics.

    PubMed

    Sheela, A M; Letha, J; Joseph, Sabu; Thomas, Jobin

    2013-04-01

    Texture plays an important role in the identification of polluted stretch in a lake system. The organic matter as well as toxic elements get accumulated in the finer sediments. The aim of the work is to show the spatio-temporal distribution of texture of the lake sediment (Akkulam-Veli lake, Kerala) and to identify the hot spot areas of contamination. Hot spot areas vary with seasons. During PRM, (premonsoon), the upstream portion of the Akkulam lake is the hot spot. During MON (monsoon), the downstream portion of the Akkulam lake and the upstream portion of the Veli lake are the hot spots. During POM (postmonsoon), hot spot area is the downstream portion of the Akkulam lake. This methodology can be used for the quick identification of hot spots in water bodies.

  4. The Archaeology of Coralville Lake, Iowa. Volume 4. Recreation Area Survey. (Interim Report 2).

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1985-09-01

    THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF CORALVILLE LAKE, IOWA VOLUME IV: RECREATION AREA SURVEY (INTERIM REPORT II) p - [ JAN 1 4 1986 WAUWATOSA. WISCONSIN 86 1.13 117...THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF CORALVILLE LAKE, IOWA ; VOLUME IV: RECREATION AREA SURVEY (INTERIM REPORT II) Submitted To: Rock Island District Corps of Engineers...presents the results of intensive archaeological and geomorphic investigations at 14 special use or recreation areas at Coralville Lake, Iowa . The

  5. Effectiveness of terrestrial protected areas for conservation of lake fish communities.

    PubMed

    Chu, Cindy; Ellis, Lucy; de Kerckhove, Derrick T

    2018-06-01

    Freshwater protected areas are rare even though freshwater ecosystems are among the most imperiled in the world. Conservation actions within terrestrial protected areas (TPAs) such as development or resource extraction regulations may spill over to benefit freshwater ecosystems within their boundaries. Using data from 175 lakes across Ontario, Canada, we compared common indicators of fish-assemblage status (i.e., species richness, Shannon diversity index, catch per unit effort, and normalized-length size spectrum slopes) to evaluate whether TPAs benefit lake fish assemblages. Nearest neighbor cluster analysis was used to generate pairs of lakes: inside versus outside, inside versus bordering, and bordering versus outside TPAs based on lake characteristics. The diversity and abundance indicators did not differ significantly across comparisons, but normalized-length size spectrum slopes (NLSS) were significantly steeper in lakes outside parks. The latter indicated assemblage differences (greater abundances of small-bodied species) and less-efficient energy transfer through the trophic levels of assemblages outside parks. Although not significantly different, pollution- and turbidity-tolerant species were more abundant outside parks, whereas 3 of the 4 pollution-intolerant species were more abundant within parks. Twenty-one percent of the difference in slopes was related to higher total dissolved solids concentrations and angling pressure. Our results support the hypothesis that TPAs benefit lake fish assemblages and suggest that NLSS slopes are informative indicators for aquatic protected area evaluations because they represent compositional and functional aspects of communities. © 2017 Society for Conservation Biology.

  6. Source Areas of Water and Nitrate in a Peatland Catchment, Minnesota, USA

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sebestyen, S. D.

    2017-12-01

    In nitrogen polluted forests, stream nitrate concentrations increase and some unprocessed atmospheric nitrate may be transported to streams during stormflow events. This understanding has emerged from forests with upland mineral soils. In contrast, catchments with northern peatlands may have both upland soils and lowlands with deep organic soils, each with unique effects on nitrate transport and processing. While annual budgets show nitrate yields to be relatively lower from peatland than upland-dominated catchments, little is known about particular runoff events when stream nitrate concentrations have been higher (despite long periods with little or no nitrate in outlet streams) or the reasons why. I used site knowledge and expansive/extensive monitoring at the Marcell Experimental Forest in Minnesota, along with a targeted 2-year study to determine landscape areas, water sources, and nitrate sources that affected stream nitrate variation in a peatland catchment. I combined streamflow, upland runoff, snow amount, and frost depth data from long-term monitoring with nitrate concentration, yield, and isotopic data to show that up to 65% of stream nitrate during snowmelt of 2009 and 2010 was unprocessed atmospheric nitrate. Up to 46% of subsurface runoff from upland soils during 2009 was unprocessed atmospheric nitrate, which shows the uplands to be a stream nitrate source during 2009, but not during 2010 when upland runoff concentrations were below the detection limit. Differences are attributable to variations in water and nitrate sources. Little snow (a nitrate source), less upland runoff relative to peatland runoff, and deeper soil frost in the peatland caused a relatively larger input of nitrate from the uplands to the stream during 2009 and the peatland to the stream during 2010. Despite the near-absence of stream nitrate during much of rest of the year, these findings show an important time when nitrate transport affected downstream aquatic ecosystems, reasons

  7. The evaluation of water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassiper) control program in Rawapening Lake, Central Java Indonesia

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hidayati, N.; Soeprobowati, T. R.; Helmi, M.

    2018-03-01

    The existence of water hyacinths and other aquatic plants have been a major concern in Rawapening Lake for many years. Nutrient input from water catchment area and fish feed residues suspected to leads eutrophication, a condition that induces uncontrolled growth of aquatic plants. In dry season, aquatic plants cover almost 70% of lake area. This problem should be handled properly due to wide range of lake function such as water resources, fish farming, power plants, flood control, irrigation and many other important things. In 2011, Rawapening Lake was appointed as pilot project of Save Indonesian Lake Movement: the Indonesian movement for lakes ecosystem conservation and rehabilitation. This project consists of 6 super priority programs and 11 priority programs. This paper will evaluate the first super priority program which aims to control water hyacinth bloom. Result show that the three indicators in water hyacinth control program was not achieved. The coverage area of Water hyacinth was not reduced, tend to increase during period 2012 to 2016. We suggesting better coordination should be performed in order to avoid policies misinterpretation and to clarify the authority from each institution. We also give a support to the establishment of lake zonation plan and keep using all the three methods of cleaning water hyacinth with a maximum population remained at 20%.

  8. An inventory of glacial lakes in the Austrian Alps

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Buckel, Johannes; Otto, Jan-Christoph; Keuschnig, Markus; Götz, Joachim

    2016-04-01

    The formation of lakes is one of the consequences of glacier retreat due to climate change in mountain areas. Numerous lakes have formed in the past few decades in many mountain regions around the globe. Some of these lakes came into focus due to catastrophic hazard events especially in the Himalayas and the Andes. Glacial lake development and lifetime is controlled by the complex interplay of glacier dynamics, geomorphological process activity and geological boundary conditions. Besides the hazard potential new lakes in formerly glaciated areas will significantly contribute to a new landscape setting and to changing geomorphologic, hydrologic and ecologic conditions at higher alpine altitudes. We present an inventory of high alpine lakes in the Austrian Alps located above an altitude of 1700 m asl. Most of these lakes are assumed to be of glacial origin, but other causes for development, like mass movements are considered as well. The inventory is a central part of the project FUTURELAKES that aims at modelling the potential development of glacial lakes in Austria (we refer to the presentation by Helfricht et al. during the conference for more details on the modelling part). Lake inventory data will serve as one basis for model validation since modelling is performed on different time steps using glacier inventory data. The purpose of the lake inventory is to get new insights into boundary conditions for lake formation and evolution by analysing existing lake settings. Based on these information the project seeks to establish a model of lake sedimentation after glacier retreat in order to assess the potential lifetime of the new lakes in Austria. Lakes with a minimum size of 1000 m² were mapped using multiple aerial imagery sources. The dataset contains information on location, geometry, dam type, and status of sedimentation for each lake. Additionally, various geologic, geomorphic and morphometric parameters describe the lake catchments. Lake data is related to

  9. High resolution analysis of northern Patagonia lake sediments

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jarvis, S. W.; Croudace, I. W.; Langdon, P. G.; Rindby, A.

    2009-04-01

    Sediment cores covering the period from the last glacial maximum through the Holocene to the present have been collected from sites in the Chacubuco valley, southern Chile (around 47°08'S, 72°25'W, to the east of the North Patagonian Icecap). Cores were taken from five lakes and one recently dried lake bed. Short cores (0.2 to 0.5m), covering approximately the last two hundred years, were taken from all the lakes. Additionally, long sequences were obtained from one of the lakes and from the dried lake bed, the latter sequence extending back to the last glacial maximum as indicated by thick clay at the base. Each of the lakes are small-medium sized and are open systems situated at 300-1000m above sea level. The shorter cores comprise predominantly clastic gyttja but show a number of distinct changes in colour and chemical composition that suggest major environmental changes over the period of sediment accumulation. This is also reflected in variations in the loss on ignition of samples from the cores and in elemental profiles produced by scanning the cores with the Itrax micro-XRF corescanner at 200μm resolution. The long sequence from the dried lake bed has very low organic content glacial clay at the base, interpreted as last glacial maximum basal clay following determination in the field that this layer exceeded 2m in thickness. Similar sediments occur within a stratigraphically discrete section of approximately 14cm and may relate to a stadial event. The latter section also shows a drop in organic content and appears to be glacial clay incorporating some coarse sandy components indicative of detrital input from the catchment. The second long sequence, from a carbonate lake, includes two mineral layers indicating increased detrital input from the catchment. The deeper and thicker of these layers appears similar to the 14cm layer in the first long sequence, while the upper layer comprises a fine grain size indicative of rock flour and hence also of glacial

  10. Radio-echo sounding of 'active' Antarctic subglacial lakes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Siegert, M. J.; Ross, N.; Blankenship, D. D.; Young, D. A.; Greenbaum, J. S.; Richter, T.; Rippin, D. M.; Le Brocq, A. M.; Wright, A.; Bingham, R.; Corr, H.; Ferraccioli, F.; Jordan, T. A.; Smith, B. E.; Payne, A. J.; Dowdeswell, J. A.; Bamber, J. L.

    2013-12-01

    Repeat-pass satellite altimetry has revealed 124 discrete surface height changes across the Antarctic Ice Sheet, interpreted to be caused by subglacial lake discharges (surface lowering) and inputs (surface uplift). Few of these active lakes have been confirmed by radio-echo sounding (RES) despite several attempts, however. Over the last 5 years, major geophysical campaigns have acquired RES data from several 'active' lake sites, including the US-UK-Australian ICECAP programme in East Antactica and the UK survey of the Institute Ice Stream in West Antarctica. In the latter case, a targeted RES survey of one 'active' lake was undertaken. RES evidence of the subglacial bed beneath 'active' lakes in both East and West Antarctica will be presented, and the evidence for pooled subglacial water from these data will be assessed. Based on this assessment, the nature of 'active' subglacial lakes, and their associated hydrology and relationship with surrounding topography will be discussed, as will the likelihood of further 'active' lakes in Antarctica. Hydraulic potential map of the Byrd Glacier catchment with contours at 5 MPa intervals. Predicted subglacial flowpaths are shown in blue. Subglacial lakes known from previous geophysical surveys are shown as black triangles while the newly discovered 'Three-tier lakes' are shown in dashed black outline. Surface height change features within the Byrd subglacial catchment are shown in outline and are shaded to indicate whether they were rising or falling during the ICESat campaign. Those features are labelled in-line with the numbering system of Smith et al. (J. Glac. 2009).

  11. A Novel Low-Cost Approach to Estimate the Incidence of Japanese Encephalitis in the Catchment Area of Three Hospitals in Bangladesh

    PubMed Central

    Paul, Repon C.; Rahman, Mahmudur; Gurley, Emily S.; Hossain, M. Jahangir; Diorditsa, Serguei; Hasan, ASM Mainul; Banu, Sultana S.; Alamgir, ASM; Rahman, Muhammad Aziz; Sandhu, Hardeep; Fischer, Marc; Luby, Stephen P.

    2011-01-01

    Acute meningoencephalitis syndrome surveillance was initiated in three medical college hospitals in Bangladesh in October 2007 to identify Japanese encephalitis (JE) cases. We estimated the population-based incidence of JE in the three hospitals' catchment areas by adjusting the hospital-based crude incidence of JE by the proportion of catchment area meningoencephalitis cases who were admitted to surveillance hospitals. Instead of a traditional house-to-house survey, which is expensive for a disease with low frequency, we attempted a novel approach to identify meningoencephalitis cases in the hospital catchment area through social networks among the community residents. The estimated JE incidence was 2.7/100,000 population in Rajshahi (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.8–4.9), 1.4 in Khulna (95% CI = 0.9–4.1), and 0.6 in Chittagong (95% CI = 0.4–0.9). Bangladesh should consider a pilot project to introduce JE vaccine in high-incidence areas. PMID:21813862

  12. Advancing Land-Sea Conservation Planning: Integrating Modelling of Catchments, Land-Use Change, and River Plumes to Prioritise Catchment Management and Protection.

    PubMed

    Álvarez-Romero, Jorge G; Pressey, Robert L; Ban, Natalie C; Brodie, Jon

    2015-01-01

    Human-induced changes to river loads of nutrients and sediments pose a significant threat to marine ecosystems. Ongoing land-use change can further increase these loads, and amplify the impacts of land-based threats on vulnerable marine ecosystems. Consequently, there is a need to assess these threats and prioritise actions to mitigate their impacts. A key question regarding prioritisation is whether actions in catchments to maintain coastal-marine water quality can be spatially congruent with actions for other management objectives, such as conserving terrestrial biodiversity. In selected catchments draining into the Gulf of California, Mexico, we employed Land Change Modeller to assess the vulnerability of areas with native vegetation to conversion into crops, pasture, and urban areas. We then used SedNet, a catchment modelling tool, to map the sources and estimate pollutant loads delivered to the Gulf by these catchments. Following these analyses, we used modelled river plumes to identify marine areas likely influenced by land-based pollutants. Finally, we prioritised areas for catchment management based on objectives for conservation of terrestrial biodiversity and objectives for water quality that recognised links between pollutant sources and affected marine areas. Our objectives for coastal-marine water quality were to reduce sediment and nutrient discharges from anthropic areas, and minimise future increases in coastal sedimentation and eutrophication. Our objectives for protection of terrestrial biodiversity covered species of vertebrates. We used Marxan, a conservation planning tool, to prioritise interventions and explore spatial differences in priorities for both objectives. Notable differences in the distributions of land values for terrestrial biodiversity and coastal-marine water quality indicated the likely need for trade-offs between catchment management objectives. However, there were priority areas that contributed to both sets of objectives. Our

  13. A Needs Assessment of Phoenix South Catchment Area Children: The Responses of Parents, Neighbors, and Teachers.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Balk, David

    Summarized in this document are results from a survey conducted from 1975 to 1977 with parents, neighbors, and fifth-grade teachers as part of a needs assessment of Phoenix, Arizona, South Catchment Area children. A questionnaire consisting of 34 items, generated from studies reviewed in the area of children's behavioral symptoms and strengths,…

  14. Geochemical evolution of groundwater in the Mud Lake area, eastern Idaho, USA

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Rattray, Gordon W.

    2015-01-01

    Groundwater with elevated dissolved-solids concentrations—containing large concentrations of chloride, sodium, sulfate, and calcium—is present in the Mud Lake area of Eastern Idaho. The source of these solutes is unknown; however, an understanding of the geochemical sources and processes controlling their presence in groundwater in the Mud Lake area is needed to better understand the geochemical sources and processes controlling the water quality of groundwater at the Idaho National Laboratory. The geochemical sources and processes controlling the water quality of groundwater in the Mud Lake area were determined by investigating the geology, hydrology, land use, and groundwater geochemistry in the Mud Lake area, proposing sources for solutes, and testing the proposed sources through geochemical modeling with PHREEQC. Modeling indicated that sources of water to the eastern Snake River Plain aquifer were groundwater from the Beaverhead Mountains and the Camas Creek drainage basin; surface water from Medicine Lodge and Camas Creeks, Mud Lake, and irrigation water; and upward flow of geothermal water from beneath the aquifer. Mixing of groundwater with surface water or other groundwater occurred throughout the aquifer. Carbonate reactions, silicate weathering, and dissolution of evaporite minerals and fertilizer explain most of the changes in chemistry in the aquifer. Redox reactions, cation exchange, and evaporation were locally important. The source of large concentrations of chloride, sodium, sulfate, and calcium was evaporite deposits in the unsaturated zone associated with Pleistocene Lake Terreton. Large amounts of chloride, sodium, sulfate, and calcium are added to groundwater from irrigation water infiltrating through lake bed sediments containing evaporite deposits and the resultant dissolution of gypsum, halite, sylvite, and bischofite.

  15. A new perspective on catchment storage gained from a nested catchment experiment in Luxembourg (Europe)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pfister, Laurent; Klaus, Julian; Hissler, Christophe; François Iffly, Jean; Gourdol, Laurent; Martinez-Carreras, Nuria; McDonnell, Jeffrey J.

    2014-05-01

    Recent hydrological process research focussed on how much water a catchment can store and how these catchments store and release water. Storage can be a valuable metric for catchment description, inter-comparison, and classification. Further storage controls catchment mixing, non-linearities in rainfall-runoff transformation and eco-hydrological processes. Various methods exist to determine catchment storage (e.g. natural tracer, soil moisture and groundwater data, hydrological models). Today it remains unclear what parts of the catchment storage are measured with the different models. Here we present a new hydrometric approach to answer the question how much water a catchment can store. We tested our approach in a dense hydro-climatological monitoring network that encompasses 16 recording streamgauges and 21 pluviographs in the Alzette River basin in Luxembourg (Europe). Catchment scales are ranging from 0.47 to 285 km2 and they have clean- and mixed combinations of distinct geologies ranging from schists to marls, sandstone, dolomite and limestone. Previous investigations in the area of interest have shown that geology largely controls winter runoff coefficients. Here, we focus at how catchment geology is ultimately affecting catchment storage. We used the approach of Sayama et al. (2011) to compute catchment dynamic storage changes for each winter season over the period 2002-2012 (based on precipitation as input; discharge and evapotranspiration as output). We determined dynamic storage changes for each winter semester (October to March) in all 16 catchments over the period 2002-2012. At the beginning of each hydrological winter season, all catchments showed similar trends in storage change. A few weeks into the winter season, catchments with lowest permeability (e.g. marls) started to plateau. The highest storage values were reached several months later in the season in catchments dominated by permeable substrate (e.g. sandstone). For most catchments, we found

  16. Hydrogeology and water chemistry of Infranz catchment springs, Bahir Dar Area, Lake Tana Basin, Ethiopia

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Abera, F. N.

    2017-12-01

    The major springs in the Infranz catchment are a significant source of water for Bahir city and nearby villages, while they help to sustain Infranz River and the downstream wetlands. The aim of the research was to understand the hydrogeological conditions of these high-discharge springs, and to explain the hydrochemical composition of spring waters. Water samples from rainwater and springs were collected and analyzed and compared for major cations and anions. The hydrochemical data analysis showed that all water samples of the springs have freshwater chemistry, Ca-HCO3 type, while deep groundwater shows more evolved types. This indicates limited water-rock interaction and short residence time for the spring waters. The rise of NO3- and PO43- may indicate future water quality degradation unless the anthropogenic activities upgradient and nearby are restricted. The uptake of 75% of spring water for water supply of Bahir Dar results in wetland degradation. Key words: Spring water, Infranz River, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia, hydrochemistry

  17. Mountain lakes of Russian subarctic as markers of air pollution: Acidification, metals and paleoecology

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Moiseenko, T.I.; Dauvalter, V.A.; Kagan, L.Y.

    1996-12-31

    The Kola Peninsula mountain lakes reflect a real situation not only of the local air pollution but also polluted transborder emissions from Europe to Arctic and they are of interest for early detection and monitoring for acidification and pollution by heavy metals. Two monitoring mountain lakes had a discrepancy by their resistance to acidification: the Chuna lake is vulnerable and the Chibiny one is not, respectively. Despite the Chuna and Chibiny lakes are close tone of the main heavy metal pollution sources of the Kola Peninsula - smelters of the Severonickel Company, local emissions very slightly affect the mountain lakes,more » because heavily polluted air masses do not rise in altitude. Sulfur deposition on the Chuna lake catchment is 0.4 gSm{sup -2}, Chibiny lake is 0.6 gSm{sup -2}. In comparison with area at the foot of the mountain (less than 200 m above the sea level) sulfur deposition is 1.0-1.5 gSm{sup -2}. Water quality, sediment chemistry, and diatoms in sediment cores were studied.« less

  18. One century sedimentary record of lead and zinc pollution in Yangzong Lake, a highland lake in southwestern China.

    PubMed

    Zhang, Enlou; Liu, Enfeng; Shen, Ji; Cao, Yanmin; Li, Yanling

    2012-01-01

    Reconstruction of trace metal pollution histories and sources may help us to regulate current pollutant discharge. This is especially important for the highland lakes in southwestern China, which are facing trace metals pollution. We present sedimentary records of 11 metals accumulated in Yangzong Lake since the 1870's, a highland lake in southwestern China. Pollution of lead and zinc (Pb and Zn) was differentiated based on principal component analysis, geochemical normalization, and lead isotope ratios. Nearly all the metals as well as grain size composition show generally constant values before the mid-1980's, denoting stable detrital input in the catchment. Fluctuations in the concentrations of the metals as well as grain size composition since the mid-1980's indicate an increase in soil erosion with strengthened human disturbance in the catchment. After geochemical normalization, Pb and Zn showed constant values before 1990 AD and then a gradual increase in parallel with the variations in 208Pb/206Pb and 207Pb/206Pb ratios, indicating that Pb and Zn pollution occurred. Combining the data of 208pb/206Pb and 207Pb/6Pb ratios in the sediments of Yangzong Lake, leaded gasoline, Pb-Zn ore and coal, and consumption or production historical trends, we deduced that the enhanced Pb and Zn pollution in Yangzong Lake is caused primarily by ore mining and refining.

  19. Substrate conditions and abundance of lake trout eggs in a traditional spawning area in southeastern Lake Michigan

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Dorr, John A.; O'Connor, Daniel V.; Foster, Neal R.; Jude, David J.

    1981-01-01

    Spawning by planted lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) was documented by sampling with a diver-assisted pump in a traditional spawning area in southeastern Lake Michigan near Saugatuck, Michigan in mid-November in 1978 and 1979. Bottom depths at the 11 locations sampled ranged from 3 to 12 m and substrate size from boulders to sand. Periphyton (Cladophora and associated biota) was several millimeters thick at most stations but sparse at the shallowest. The most eggs recovered from a single sample occurred at the shallowest depth (3 m). In both years, some of the small numbers of eggs collected (9 in 1978, 14 in 1979) were alive and fertilized. Laboratory incubation of viable eggs resulted in successful hatching of larvae. When compared with egg densities measured at spawning sites used by self-sustaining populations of lake trout in other lakes, densities in the study are (0-13/m2) appeared to be critically low. Insufficient numbers of eggs, combined with harsh incubation conditions (turbulence, ice scour, sedimentation), were implicated as prime causes for lake trout reproductive failure in the study area, although other factors, such as inappropriate spawning behavior (selection of suboptimal spawning location, depth, or substrate) also may have reduced survival of eggs and larvae.

  20. Role of the Lakes in Groundwater Recharge and Discharge in the Young Glacial Area, Northern Poland.

    PubMed

    Jaworska-Szulc, Beata

    2016-07-01

    The aim of this research was to delineate characteristic hydrogeological lake types in the Young Glacial Area (YGA). The YGA is in the central and east part of the Kashubian Lake District (KLD) in Northern Poland, an area covered by deposits of Quaternary glaciation. All the bigger lakes were investigated in the area of about 1500 km(2) (39 lakes). The role of lakes in groundwater recharge and discharge was determined from total dissolved solids (TDS) in lake waters and also from groundwater flow simulation. The general trend was that gaining lakes, as determined by flow modeling, had higher values of TDS than losing lakes. In addition to typical gaining lakes (with TDS > 250 mg/l), there were losing lakes perched on glacial till deposits with very low TDS (<100 mg/l). Two groups of losing lakes were delineated: ones with very low TDS and another group with slightly higher TDS (due to local contact with groundwater). Flow-through lakes with TDS of 170-200 mg/l were also delineated. © 2015, National Ground Water Association.

  1. An enhanced two-step floating catchment area (E2SFCA) method for measuring spatial accessibility to primary care physicians.

    PubMed

    Luo, Wei; Qi, Yi

    2009-12-01

    This paper presents an enhancement of the two-step floating catchment area (2SFCA) method for measuring spatial accessibility, addressing the problem of uniform access within the catchment by applying weights to different travel time zones to account for distance decay. The enhancement is proved to be another special case of the gravity model. When applying this enhanced 2SFCA (E2SFCA) to measure the spatial access to primary care physicians in a study area in northern Illinois, we find that it reveals spatial accessibility pattern that is more consistent with intuition and delineates more spatially explicit health professional shortage areas. It is easy to implement in GIS and straightforward to interpret.

  2. Spatial and Temporal Variability of Dust Deposition in the San Juan Mountains, CO: A Network of Late Holocene Lake Sediment Records

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Arcusa, S.; Routson, C.; McKay, N.

    2017-12-01

    ratio of lake surface to drainage area, on dust flux levels. Lakes with a larger catchment compared to the lake surface area receive more dust, possibly including secondary deposition. The results support the hypothesis that past megadroughts occurred in a dustier setting with implications for future drought adaptation and water management.

  3. The Role of Dynamic Storage in the Response to Snowmelt Conditions in the Southwestern United States: Flux Hysteresis at the Catchment Scale

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Driscoll, J. M.; Meixner, T.; Ferré, T. P. A.; Williams, M. W.; Sickman, J. O.; Molotch, N. P.; Jepsen, S. M.

    2014-12-01

    The role of dynamic storage in catchment discharge response to earlier snowmelt timing has not been fully quantified. Green Lake 4 (GL4) and Emerald Lake Watershed (ELW) have similar high-elevation settings but GL4 has greater estimated storage capacity relative to ELW due to differences in physical structure. Daily catchment area-normalized input (modelled snowmelt estimates) and output (measured discharge) in conjunction with mineral weathering products (hydrochemical data) for eleven snowmelt seasons from GL4 (more storage) and ELW (less storage) were used to determine the role of dynamic storage at the catchment scale. Daily fluxes generally show snowmelt is greater than discharge initially, changing mid-season to discharge being greater than snowmelt, creating a counter-clockwise hysteresis loop for each snowmelt season. This hysteresis loop can be approximated with a least-squares fitted ellipse. The properties of fitted ellipses were used to quantify catchment response, which were then compared between catchments with different storage capacities (GL4 and ELW). The eccentricity of the fitted ellipses can be used to quantify delay between snowmelt and discharge due to connection to subsurface storage; narrower loops show minimal storage delay whereas wider loops show greater storage delay. Variability of mineral weathering products shows changes in contribution from stored water over the snowmelt season. Both catchments show a moderate linear correlation between fitted ellipse area and total snowmelt volume (GL4 R2=0.516, ELW R2=0.614). Ellipse eccentricity is more consistent among years in ELW (range=0.81-0.94) than in GL4 (range=0.54-0.95), indicating a more consistent hydrologic structure and connectivity to shallow storage at ELW. The linear correlation between seasonal eccentricity versus snowmelt timing is stronger in ELW than GL4 (R2=0.741 and 0.223, respectively). ELW shows hydrochemical response independent of snowmelt timing, whereas GL4 shows more

  4. Monitoring mountain lakes in a changing Alpine cryosphere: the Lago Nero project (Ticino, Switzerland)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Scapozza, Cristian; Bruder, Andreas; Domenici, Mattia; Lepori, Fabio; Pera, Sebastian; Pozzoni, Maurizio; Rioggi, Stefano; Colombo, Luca

    2017-04-01

    Mountain lakes and their catchments of the Alpine cryosphere are facing global pressures including climate warming and deposition of atmospheric pollutants. Due to their remoteness, often low buffer capacities and sensitive biotic communities, alpine lake catchments are particularly well suited as sentinels of environmental change. Lago Nero is the object of an intensive survey, aimed at developing predictive models of catchment-wide ecosystem responses to environmental change (Bruder et al. 2016). Lago Nero is located at the head of Val Bavona (Canton Ticino, southern Switzerland), in a southwest-facing catchment, with altitude ranging from 2385 to 2842 m asl. The substrate is dominated by gneissic bedrock with patches of grassy vegetation and shallow soils. The catchment is snow-covered approximately from November to May. For a similar period, the lake is ice-covered. Lago Nero is an oligotrophic, soft-water lake with a surface of approximatively 13 ha and a maximal depth of 73 m. According to the regional model of potential permafrost distribution in the southern Swiss Alps (Scapozza & Mari 2010), the presence of discontinuous permafrost is probable in almost the entire surface of the catchment covered by loose debris. A direct evidence of permafrost occurrence is the presence of a small active/inactive rock glacier in the south-eastern part of the catchment (front altitude: 2560 m asl). Monitoring of the site began in summer 2014, with an initial phase aimed at developing and testing methodologies and at evaluating the suitability of the catchment and the feasibility of the monitoring program. The intensive survey at Lago Nero measures a wide array of ecosystem responses, including runoff quantity and chemistry, catchment soil temperature (also on the rock glacier) and composition of terrestrial vegetation. Sampling frequency depends on the parameter measured, varying from nearly continuous (e.g. runoff and temperature) to five-year intervals (e.g. soil and

  5. Hydrogeology, hydrologic budget, and water chemistry of the Medina Lake area, Texas

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Lambert, Rebecca B.; Grimm, Kenneth C.; Lee, Roger W.

    2000-01-01

    A three-phase study of the Medina Lake area in Texas was done to assess the hydrogeology and hydrology of Medina and Diversion Lakes combined (the lake system) and to determine what fraction of seepage losses from the lake system might enter the regional ground-water-flow system of the Edwards and (or) Trinity aquifers. Phase 1 consisted of revising the geologic framework for the Medina Lake area. Results of field mapping show that the upper member of the Glen Rose Limestone underlies Medina Lake and the intervening stream channel from the outflow of Medina Lake to the midpoint of Diversion Lake, where the Diversion Lake fault intersects Diversion Lake. A thin sequence of strata consisting primarily of the basal nodular and dolomitic members of the Kainer Formation of the Edwards Group, is present in the southern part of the study area. On the southern side of Medina Lake, the contact between the upper member of the Glen Rose Limestone and the basal nodular member is approximately 1,000 feet above mean sea level, and the contact between the basal nodular member and the dolomitic member is approximately 1,050 feet above mean sea level. The most porous and permeable part of the basal nodular member is about 1,045 feet above mean sea level. At these altitudes, Medina Lake is in hydrologic connection with rocks in the Edwards aquifer recharge zone, and Medina Lake appears to lose more water to the ground-water system along this bedding plane contact. Hydrologic budgets calculated during phase 2 for Medina Lake, Diversion Lake, and Medina/Diversion Lakes combined indicate that: (1) losses from Medina and Diversion Lakes can be quantified; (2) a portion of those losses are entering the Edwards aquifer; and (3) losses to the Trinity aquifer in the Medina Lake area are minimal and within the error of the hydrologic budgets. Hydrologic budgets based on streamflow, precipitation, evaporation, and change in lake storage were used to quantify losses (recharge) to the ground

  6. Glacial lakes amplify glacier recession in the central Himalaya

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    King, Owen; Quincey, Duncan; Carrivick, Jonathan; Rowan, Ann

    2016-04-01

    The high altitude and high latitude regions of the world are amongst those which react most intensely to climatic change. Across the Himalaya glacier mass balance is predominantly negative. The spatial and temporal complexity associated with this ice loss across different glacier clusters is poorly documented however, and our understanding of the processes driving change is limited. Here, we look at the spatial variability of glacier hypsometry and glacial mass loss from three catchments in the central Himalaya; the Dudh Koshi basin, Tama Koshi basin and an adjoining section of the Tibetan Plateau. ASTER and SETSM digital elevation models (2014/15), corrected for elevation dependant biases, co-registration errors and along or cross track tilts, are differenced from Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (SRTM) data (2000) to yield surface lowering estimates. Landsat data and a hypsometric index (HI), a classification scheme used to group glaciers of similar hypsometry, are used to examine the distribution of glacier area with altitude in each catchment. Surface lowering rates of >3 m/yr can be detected on some glaciers, generally around the clean-ice/debris-cover boundary, where dark but thin surface deposits are likely to enhance ablation. More generally, surface lowering rates of around 1 m/yr are more pervasive, except around the terminus areas of most glaciers, emphasising the influence of a thick debris cover on ice melt. Surface lowering is only concentrated at glacier termini where glacial lakes have developed, where surface lowering rates are commonly greater than 2.5 m/yr. The three catchments show contrasting hypsometric distributions, which is likely to impact their future response to climatic changes. Glaciers of the Dudh Koshi basin store large volumes of ice at low elevation (HI > 1.5) in long, debris covered tongues, although their altitudinal range is greatest given the height of mountain peaks in the catchment. In contrast, glaciers of the Tama Koshi

  7. Modeling the Hydrological Regime of Turkana Lake (Kenya, Ethiopia) by Combining Spatially Distributed Hydrological Modeling and Remote Sensing Datasets

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Anghileri, D.; Kaelin, A.; Peleg, N.; Fatichi, S.; Molnar, P.; Roques, C.; Longuevergne, L.; Burlando, P.

    2017-12-01

    Hydrological modeling in poorly gauged basins can benefit from the use of remote sensing datasets although there are challenges associated with the mismatch in spatial and temporal scales between catchment scale hydrological models and remote sensing products. We model the hydrological processes and long-term water budget of the Lake Turkana catchment, a transboundary basin between Kenya and Ethiopia, by integrating several remote sensing products into a spatially distributed and physically explicit model, Topkapi-ETH. Lake Turkana is the world largest desert lake draining a catchment of 145'500 km2. It has three main contributing rivers: the Omo river, which contributes most of the annual lake inflow, the Turkwel river, and the Kerio rivers, which contribute the remaining part. The lake levels have shown great variations in the last decades due to long-term climate fluctuations and the regulation of three reservoirs, Gibe I, II, and III, which significantly alter the hydrological seasonality. Another large reservoir is planned and may be built in the next decade, generating concerns about the fate of Lake Turkana in the long run because of this additional anthropogenic pressure and increasing evaporation driven by climate change. We consider different remote sensing datasets, i.e., TRMM-V7 for precipitation, MERRA-2 for temperature, as inputs to the spatially distributed hydrological model. We validate the simulation results with other remote sensing datasets, i.e., GRACE for total water storage anomalies, GLDAS-NOAH for soil moisture, ERA-Interim/Land for surface runoff, and TOPEX/Poseidon for satellite altimetry data. Results highlight how different remote sensing products can be integrated into a hydrological modeling framework accounting for their relative uncertainties. We also carried out simulations with the artificial reservoirs planned in the north part of the catchment and without any reservoirs, to assess their impacts on the catchment hydrological

  8. Attributes for MRB_E2RF1 Catchments by Major River Basins in the Conterminous United States: Bedrock Geology

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Wieczorek, Michael; LaMotte, Andrew E.

    2010-01-01

    This tabular data set represents the area of bedrock geology types in square meters compiled for every catchment of MRB_E2RF1 catchments for Major River Basins (MRBs, Crawford and others, 2006). The source data set is the "Geology of the Conterminous United States at 1:2,500,000 Scale--A Digital Representation of the 1974 P.B. King and H.M. Beikman Map" (Schuben and others, 1994). The MRB_E2RF1 catchments are based on a modified version of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (USEPA) ERF1_2 and include enhancements to support national and regional-scale surface-water quality modeling (Nolan and others, 2002; Brakebill and others, 2011). Data were compiled for every MRB_E2RF1 catchment for the conterminous United States covering New England and Mid-Atlantic (MRB1), South Atlantic-Gulf and Tennessee (MRB2), the Great Lakes, Ohio, Upper Mississippi, and Souris-Red-Rainy (MRB3), the Missouri (MRB4), the Lower Mississippi, Arkansas-White-Red, and Texas-Gulf (MRB5), the Rio Grande, Colorado, and the Great basin (MRB6), the Pacific Northwest (MRB7) river basins, and California (MRB8).

  9. Evolution of salt and hydrocarbon migration: Sweet Lake area, Cameron Parish, Louisiana

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Spencer, J.A.; Sharpe, C.L.

    The interpretation of seismic, gravity, and well data in northern Cameron Parish, Louisiana suggest that lateral salt flow has influenced the area`s structural evolution, depositional patterns, and hydrocarbon migration. Sweet Lake Field has produced over 46 MMBO and 15 BCFG from Middle Miocene deltaic sands. The structural closure is a downthrown anticline on a fault controlled by the underlying salt feature. Sweet Lake Field overlies an allochthonous salt mass that was probably once part of an ancestral salt ridge extending from Hackberry to Big Lake fields. Nine wells encountering top of salt and several seismic lines define a detached saltmore » feature underlying over twenty square miles at depths from 8500-18,000 ft. Salt withdrawal in the East Hackberry-Big Lake area influenced the depositional patterns of the Oligocene lower Hackberry channel systems. Progradation of thick Middle Oligocene Camerina (A) and Miogypsinoides sands into the area caused salt thinning and withdrawal resulting in the development and orientation of the large Marginulina-Miogypsinoides growth fault northwest of Sweet Lake. Additional evidence for the southeast trend of the salt is a well approximately two miles southeast of Sweet Lake which encountered salt at approximately 19,800 ft. High quality 2-D and 3-D seismic data will continue to enhance the regional understanding of the evolving salt structures in the onshore Gulf Coast and the local understanding of hydrocarbon migration. Additional examples of lateral salt flow will be recognized and some may prove to have subsalt hydrocarbon potential.« less

  10. Allogenic sedimentary components of Bear Lake, Utah and Idaho

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Rosenbaum, J.G.; Dean, W.E.; Reynolds, R.L.; Reheis, M.C.

    2009-01-01

    Bear Lake is a long-lived lake filling a tectonic depression between the Bear River Range to the west and the Bear River Plateau to the east, and straddling the border between Utah and Idaho. Mineralogy, elemental geochemistry, and magnetic properties provide information about variations in provenance of allogenic lithic material in last-glacial-age, quartz-rich sediment in Bear Lake. Grain-size data from the siliciclastic fraction of late-glacial to Holocene carbonate-rich sediments provide information about variations in lake level. For the quartz-rich lower unit, which was deposited while the Bear River fl owed into and out of the lake, four source areas are recognized on the basis of modern fluvial samples with contrasting properties that reflect differences in bedrock geology and in magnetite content from dust. One of these areas is underlain by hematite-rich Uinta Mountain Group rocks in the headwaters of the Bear River. Although Uinta Mountain Group rocks make up a small fraction of the catchment, hematite-rich material from this area is an important component of the lower unit. This material is interpreted to be glacial fl our. Variations in the input of glacial flour are interpreted as having caused quasi-cyclical variations in mineralogical and elemental concentrations, and in magnetic properties within the lower unit. The carbonate-rich younger unit was deposited under conditions similar to those of the modern lake, with the Bear River largely bypassing the lake. For two cores taken in more than 30 m of water, median grain sizes in this unit range from ???6 ??m to more than 30 ??m, with the coarsest grain sizes associated with beach or shallow-water deposits. Similar grain-size variations are observed as a function of water depth in the modern lake and provide the basis for interpreting the core grain-size data in terms of lake level. Copyright ?? 2009 The Geological Society of America.

  11. Stable isotopes and Digital Elevation Models to study nutrient inputs in high-Arctic lakes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Calizza, Edoardo; Rossi, David; Costantini, Maria Letizia; Careddu, Giulio; Rossi, Loreto

    2016-04-01

    Ice cover, run-off from the watershed, aquatic and terrestrial primary productivity, guano deposition from birds are key factors controlling nutrient and organic matter inputs in high-Arctic lakes. All these factors are expected to be significantly affected by climate change. Quantifying these controls is a key baseline step to understand what combination of factors subtends the biological productivity in Arctic lakes and will drive their ecological response to environmental change. Basing on Digital Elevation Models, drainage maps, and C and N elemental content and stable isotope analysis in sediments, aquatic vegetation and a dominant macroinvertebrate species (Lepidurus arcticus Pallas 1973) belonging to Tvillingvatnet, Storvatnet and Kolhamna, three lakes located in North Spitsbergen (Svalbard), we propose an integrated approach for the analysis of (i) nutrient and organic matter inputs in lakes; (ii) the role of catchment hydro-geomorphology in determining inter-lake differences in the isotopic composition of sediments; (iii) effects of diverse nutrient inputs on the isotopic niche of Lepidurus arcticus. Given its high run-off and large catchment, organic deposits in Tvillingvatnet where dominated by terrestrial inputs, whereas inputs were mainly of aquatic origin in Storvatnet, a lowland lake with low potential run-off. In Kolhamna, organic deposits seem to be dominated by inputs from birds, which actually colonise the area. Isotopic signatures were similar between samples within each lake, representing precise tracers for studies on the effect of climate change on biogeochemical cycles in lakes. The isotopic niche of L. aricticus reflected differences in sediments between lakes, suggesting a bottom-up effect of hydro-geomorphology characterizing each lake on nutrients assimilated by this species. The presented approach proven to be an effective research pathway for the identification of factors subtending to nutrient and organic matter inputs and transfer

  12. Reservoirs as hotspots of fluvial carbon cycling in peatland catchments.

    PubMed

    Stimson, A G; Allott, T E H; Boult, S; Evans, M G

    2017-02-15

    Inland water bodies are recognised as dynamic sites of carbon processing, and lakes and reservoirs draining peatland soils are particularly important, due to the potential for high carbon inputs combined with long water residence times. A carbon budget is presented here for a water supply reservoir (catchment area~9km 2 ) draining an area of heavily eroded upland peat in the South Pennines, UK. It encompasses a two year dataset and quantifies reservoir dissolved organic carbon (DOC), particulate organic carbon (POC) and aqueous carbon dioxide (CO 2 (aq)) inputs and outputs. The budget shows the reservoir to be a hotspot of fluvial carbon cycling, as with high levels of POC influx it acts as a net sink of fluvial carbon and has the potential for significant gaseous carbon export. The reservoir alternates between acting as a producer and consumer of DOC (a pattern linked to rainfall and temperature) which provides evidence for transformations between different carbon species. In particular, the budget data accompanied by 14 C (radiocarbon) analyses provide evidence that POC-DOC transformations are a key process, occurring at rates which could represent at least ~10% of the fluvial carbon sink. To enable informed catchment management further research is needed to produce carbon cycle models more applicable to these environments, and on the implications of high POC levels for DOC composition. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  13. Effects of lakes and reservoirs on annual river nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment export in agricultural and forested landscapes

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Powers, Stephen M.; Robertson, Dale M.; Stanley, Emily H.

    2014-01-01

    Recently, effects of lakes and reservoirs on river nutrient export have been incorporated into landscape biogeochemical models. Because annual export varies with precipitation, there is a need to examine the biogeochemical role of lakes and reservoirs over time frames that incorporate interannual variability in precipitation. We examined long-term (~20 years) time series of river export (annual mass yield, Y, and flow-weighted mean annual concentration, C) for total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), and total suspended sediment (TSS) from 54 catchments in Wisconsin, USA. Catchments were classified as small agricultural, large agricultural, and forested by use of a cluster analysis, and these varied in lentic coverage (percentage of catchment lake or reservoir water that was connected to river network). Mean annual export and interannual variability (CV) of export (for both Y and C) were higher in agricultural catchments relative to forested catchments for TP, TN, and TSS. In both agricultural and forested settings, mean and maximum annual TN yields were lower in the presence of lakes and reservoirs, suggesting lentic denitrification or N burial. There was also evidence of long-term lentic TP and TSS retention, especially when viewed in terms of maximum annual yield, suggesting sedimentation during high loading years. Lentic catchments had lower interannual variability in export. For TP and TSS, interannual variability in mass yield was often >50% higher than interannual variability in water yield, whereas TN variability more closely followed water (discharge) variability. Our results indicate that long-term mass export through rivers depends on interacting terrestrial, aquatic, and meteorological factors in which the presence of lakes and reservoirs can reduce the magnitude of export, stabilize interannual variability in export, as well as introduce export time lags.

  14. Current threats to the Lake Texcoco globally important bird area

    Treesearch

    Jose L. Alcantara; Patricia Escalante Pliego

    2005-01-01

    Lake Texcoco was reported as almost dry in the late 1960s, and as a consequence the aquatic life has been considered gone since then. However, the government undertook a reclamation/restoration project in the area beginning in 1971 to help alleviate some of the environmental problems of Mexico City. Although Lake Texcoco was not completely dry in that period, the basin...

  15. Transposing Concentration-Discharge Curves onto Unmonitored Catchments to Estimate Seasonal Nutrient Loads

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Minaudo, C.; Moatar, F.; Abbott, B. W.; Dupas, R.; Gascuel-Odoux, C.; Pinay, G.; Roubeix, V.; Danis, P. A.

    2017-12-01

    Many lakes and reservoirs in Europe suffer from severe eutrophication. Accurate quantification of nutrient loads are critical for effective mitigation measures, but this information is often unknown. For example, in France, only 50 out of 481 lakes and reservoirs have national monitoring allowing estimation of interannual nitrogen and phosphorus loads, and even these loads are computed from low-frequency data. To address this lack of data, we developed a straightforward method to predict seasonal loads in lake tributaries. First, we analyzed concentration-discharge (C-Q) curves in monitored catchments and identified slopes, intercepts, and coefficient of variation of the log(C)-log(Q) regressions determined for both low and high flows, separated by the median daily flow [Moatar et al., 2017]. Then, we used stepwise multiple linear regression models to empirically link the characteristics of C-Q curves with a set of catchment descriptors such as land use, lithology, morphology indices, climate, and hydrological indicators. Modeled C-Q relationships were then used to estimate annual and seasonal nutrient loads in nearby and similar unmonitored catchments. We implemented this approach on a large dataset from France where stream flow was surveyed daily and water quality (suspended solids, nitrate, total phosphorus, and orthophosphate concentrations) was measured on a monthly basis at 233 stations over the past 20 years in catchments from 10 to 3000 km². The concentration at the median daily flow (seen here as a metric of the general level of contamination in a catchment) was predicted with uncertainty ranging between 30 and 100 %, depending on the variable. C-Q slopes were predicted with large errors, but a sensitivity analysis was conducted to determine the impact of C-Q slopes uncertainties on computed annual and seasonal loads. This approach allows estimation of seasonal and annual nutrient loads and could be potentially implemented to improve protection and

  16. USE OF A LUMPED MODEL (MAGIC) TO BOUND THE ESTIMATION OF POTENTIAL FUTURE EFFECTS OF SULFUR AND NITROGEN DEPOSITION ON LAKE CHEMISTRY IN THE ADIRONDACK MOUNTAINS

    EPA Science Inventory

    Leaching of atmospherically deposited nitrogen from forested watersheds can acidify lakes and streams. Using a modified version of the Model of Acidification of Groundwater in Catchments, we made computer simulations of such effects for 36 lake catchments in the Adirondack Mount...

  17. Groundwater impacts on surface water quality and nutrient loads in lowland polder catchments: monitoring the greater Amsterdam area

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yu, Liang; Rozemeijer, Joachim; van Breukelen, Boris M.; Ouboter, Maarten; van der Vlugt, Corné; Broers, Hans Peter

    2018-01-01

    The Amsterdam area, a highly manipulated delta area formed by polders and reclaimed lakes, struggles with high nutrient levels in its surface water system. The polders receive spatially and temporally variable amounts of water and nutrients via surface runoff, groundwater seepage, sewer leakage, and via water inlets from upstream polders. Diffuse anthropogenic sources, such as manure and fertiliser use and atmospheric deposition, add to the water quality problems in the polders. The major nutrient sources and pathways have not yet been clarified due to the complex hydrological system in lowland catchments with both urban and agricultural areas. In this study, the spatial variability of the groundwater seepage impact was identified by exploiting the dense groundwater and surface water monitoring networks in Amsterdam and its surrounding polders. A total of 25 variables (concentrations of total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), NH4, NO3, HCO3, SO4, Ca, and Cl in surface water and groundwater, N and P agricultural inputs, seepage rate, elevation, land-use, and soil type) for 144 polders were analysed statistically and interpreted in relation to sources, transport mechanisms, and pathways. The results imply that groundwater is a large source of nutrients in the greater Amsterdam mixed urban-agricultural catchments. The groundwater nutrient concentrations exceeded the surface water environmental quality standards (EQSs) in 93 % of the polders for TP and in 91 % for TN. Groundwater outflow into the polders thus adds to nutrient levels in the surface water. High correlations (R2 up to 0.88) between solutes in groundwater and surface water, together with the close similarities in their spatial patterns, confirmed the large impact of groundwater on surface water chemistry, especially in the polders that have high seepage rates. Our analysis indicates that the elevated nutrient and bicarbonate concentrations in the groundwater seepage originate from the decomposition of

  18. Critical loads of acidity for 90,000 lakes in northern Saskatchewan: A novel approach for mapping regional sensitivity to acidic deposition

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cathcart, H.; Aherne, J.; Jeffries, D. S.; Scott, K. A.

    2016-12-01

    Atmospheric emissions of sulphur dioxide (SO2) from large point sources are the primary concern for acidic deposition in western Canada, particularly in the Athabasca Oil Sands Region (AOSR) where prevailing winds may potentially carry SO2 over acid-sensitive lakes in northern Saskatchewan. A novel catchment-scale regression kriging approach was used to assess regional sensitivity and critical loads of acidity for the total lake population of northern Saskatchewan (89,947 lakes). Lake catchments were delineated using Thiessen polygons, and surface water chemistry was predicted for sensitivity indicators (calcium, pH, alkalinity, and acid neutralizing capacity). Critical loads were calculated with the steady state water chemistry model using regression-kriged base cations, sulphate, and dissolved organic carbon concentrations modelled from surface water observations (n > 800) and digital landscape-scale characteristics, e.g., climate, soil, vegetation, landcover, and geology maps. A large region (>13,726 km2) of two or more indicators of acid sensitivity (pH < 6 and acid neutralizing capacity, alkalinity, calcium < 50 μeq L-1) and low critical loads < 5 meq m-2 yr-1 were predicted on the Athabasca Basin. Exceedance of critical loads under 2006 modelled total sulphate deposition was predicted for 12% of the lakes (covering an area of 3742 km2), primarily located on the Athabasca Basin, within 100 km of the AOSR. There have been conflicting scientific reports of impacts from atmospheric emissions from the AOSR; the results of this study suggest that catchments in the Athabasca Basin within 100 km of the AOSR have received acidic deposition in excess of their critical loads and many of them may be at risk of ecosystem damage owing to their sensitivity.

  19. Hydrologic relations between lakes and aquifer in a recharge area near Orlando, Florida

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Lichtler, William F.; Hughes, G.H.; Pfischner, F.L.

    1976-01-01

    The three lakes investigated in Orange County, Florida, gain water from adjoining water-table aquifer and lose water to Floridan aquifer by downward leakage. Net seepage (net exchange of water between lake and aquifers) can be estimated by equation S = AX + BY, where S is net seepage, X represents hydraulic gradient between lake and water-table aquifer, A is lumped parameter representing effect of hydraulic conductivity and cross-sectional area of materials in flow section of water-table aquifer, Y is head difference between lake level and potentiometric surface of Floridan aquifer, and B is lumped parameter representing effect of hydraulic conductivity, area, and thickness of materials between lake bottom and Floridan aquifer. If values of S, X, and Y are available for two contrasting water-level conditions, coefficients A and B are determinable by solution of two simultaneous equations. If the relation between lake and ground-water level is the same on all sides of the lake--with regard to each aquifer--and if X and Y are truly representative of these relations, then X and Y terms of equation provide valid estimates of inflow to lake from water-table aquifer and outflow from lake to Floridan aquifer. (Woodard-USGS)

  20. Chromophoric Dissolved Organic Matter in Southwestern Greenland Lakes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Osburn, C. L.; Giles, M. E.; Underwood, G. J. C.

    2014-12-01

    Dissolved organic matter (DOM) is an important property of Arctic lake ecosystems, originating from allochthonous inputs from catchments and autochthonous production by plankton in the water column. Little is known about the quality of DOM in Arctic lakes that lack substantial inputs from catchments and such lakes are abundant in southwestern Greenland. Colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM), the fraction that absorbs ultraviolet (UV) and visible light, is the controlling factor for the optical properties of many surface waters and as well informs on the quality of DOM. We examined the quality of CDOM in 21 lakes in southwestern Greenland, from the ice sheet to the coast, as part of a larger study examining the role of DOM in regulating microbial communities in these lakes. DOM was size fractioned and absorbance and fluorescence was measured on each size fraction, as well as on bulk DOM. The specific ultraviolet absorbance (SUVA) at 254 nm (SUVA254), computed by normalizing absorption (a254) to dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentration, provided an estimate of the aromatic carbon content of DOM. SUVA values were generally <2, indicating low aromatic content. Parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC) of CDOM fluorescence was used to determine the relative abundance of allochthonous and autochthonous DOM in all size fractions. Younger lakes near the ice sheet and lakes near the coast had lower amounts of CDOM and appeared more microbial in quality. However, lakes centrally located between the ice sheet and the coast had the highest CDOM concentrations and exhibited strong humic fluorescence. Overall distinct differences in CDOM quality were observed between lake locations and among DOM size fractions.

  1. Contemporary suspended sediment fluxes and accumulation processes in the small proglacial Sætrevatnet sub-catchment, Bødalen, Western Norway

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liermann, S.; Beylich, A. A.

    2012-04-01

    A combination of different process monitoring, lake sediment coring and sediment analysis methods and techniques were applied in order (i) to ascertain the hydro-meteorological controls of runoff generation, suspended sediment transport and sediment accumulation on the delta and in Lake Sætrevatnet and (ii) to define the role of the small proglacial lake Sætrevatnet within the basin-wide catchment routing system of the Bødalen valley-fjord system (Nordfjord area, western Norway). Within the Bødalen valley investigations of sediment transfer and sediment accumulation processes were focused on the small proglacial Sætrevatnet area in upper Bødalen. The proglacial Sætrevatnet valley segment shows the characteristic seasonal weather-depended runoff variation for glacierized drainage basins. Suspended sediment concentration varied closely related to water discharge. Hence, significant suspended sediment transport is associated to high runoff conditions during thermally induced summer glacier melt (when 61.9% of the annual suspended sediment yield was recorded in 2010) as well as to single extreme rainfall events (19.8% of the annual suspended sediment yield was recorded during a single extreme rainfall event in 2010). Solar radiation and the magnitude and frequency of extreme rainfall events were found to be crucial for the rate of sediment transport within the Sætrevatnet sub-catchment. Altogether, the annual suspended sediment yield is with 24.2 t km-2 notable lower as compared to other glacierized basins worldwide. Delta accumulation rates at the inlet of Lake Sætrevatnet of 4 cm yr-1 in 2009 and 3.5 cm yr-1 in 2010 as well as a mean annual delta advance of about 3 - 4 m as calculated from comparisons of aerial photographs point to an ongoing and rapid sediment infill of the Sætrevatnet valley basin. Lacustrine sediment sequence analysis and 210-Pb and 137-Cs dating of samples taken from the Lake Sætrevatnet confirm high annual accumulation rates. Based on

  2. Advancing Land-Sea Conservation Planning: Integrating Modelling of Catchments, Land-Use Change, and River Plumes to Prioritise Catchment Management and Protection

    PubMed Central

    Álvarez-Romero, Jorge G.; Pressey, Robert L.; Ban, Natalie C.; Brodie, Jon

    2015-01-01

    Human-induced changes to river loads of nutrients and sediments pose a significant threat to marine ecosystems. Ongoing land-use change can further increase these loads, and amplify the impacts of land-based threats on vulnerable marine ecosystems. Consequently, there is a need to assess these threats and prioritise actions to mitigate their impacts. A key question regarding prioritisation is whether actions in catchments to maintain coastal-marine water quality can be spatially congruent with actions for other management objectives, such as conserving terrestrial biodiversity. In selected catchments draining into the Gulf of California, Mexico, we employed Land Change Modeller to assess the vulnerability of areas with native vegetation to conversion into crops, pasture, and urban areas. We then used SedNet, a catchment modelling tool, to map the sources and estimate pollutant loads delivered to the Gulf by these catchments. Following these analyses, we used modelled river plumes to identify marine areas likely influenced by land-based pollutants. Finally, we prioritised areas for catchment management based on objectives for conservation of terrestrial biodiversity and objectives for water quality that recognised links between pollutant sources and affected marine areas. Our objectives for coastal-marine water quality were to reduce sediment and nutrient discharges from anthropic areas, and minimise future increases in coastal sedimentation and eutrophication. Our objectives for protection of terrestrial biodiversity covered species of vertebrates. We used Marxan, a conservation planning tool, to prioritise interventions and explore spatial differences in priorities for both objectives. Notable differences in the distributions of land values for terrestrial biodiversity and coastal-marine water quality indicated the likely need for trade-offs between catchment management objectives. However, there were priority areas that contributed to both sets of objectives. Our

  3. 36 CFR 7.62 - Lake Chelan National Recreation Area.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ..., and depending on local weather conditions, the superintendent may designate as open to the use of snowmobiles the following locations within the Lake Chelan National Recreation Area: (1) All open areas..., except cross-country ski trails and within the perimeter of the Buckner Orchard. Snowmobile use on open...

  4. Phosphorus Export Model Development in a Terminal Lake Basin using Concentration-Streamflow Relationship

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jeannotte, T.; Mahmood, T. H.; Matheney, R.; Hou, X.

    2017-12-01

    Nutrient export to streams and lakes by anthropogenic activities can lead to eutrophication and degradation of surface water quality. In Devils Lake, ND, the only terminal lake in the Northern Great Plains, the algae boom is of great concern due to the recent increase in streamflow and consequent rise in phosphorus (P) export from prairie agricultural fields. However, to date, very few studies explored the concentration (c) -streamflow (q) relationship in the headwater catchments of the Devils Lake basin. A robust watershed-scale quantitative framework would aid understanding of the c-q relationship, simulating P concentration and load. In this study, we utilize c-q relationships to develop a simple model to estimate phosphorus concentration and export from two headwater catchments of different size (Mauvais Coulee: 1032 km2 and Trib 3: 160 km2) draining to Devils Lake. Our goal is to link the phosphorus export model with a physically based hydrologic model to identify major drivers of phosphorus export. USGS provided the streamflow measurements, and we collected water samples (filtered and unfiltered) three times daily during the spring snowmelt season (March 31, 2017- April 12, 2017) at the outlets of both headwater catchments. Our results indicate that most P is dissolved and very little is particulate, suggesting little export of fine-grained sediment from agricultural fields. Our preliminary analyses in the Mauvais Coulee catchment show a chemostatic c-q relationship in the rising limb of the hydrograph, while the recession limb shows a linear and positive c-q relationship. The poor correlation in the rising limb of the hydrograph suggests intense flushing of P by spring snowmelt runoff. Flushing then continues in the recession limb of the hydrograph, but at a more constant rate. The estimated total P load for the Mauvais Coulee basin is 193 kg/km2, consistent with other catchments of similar size across the Red River of the North basin to the east. We expect

  5. 36 CFR 7.57 - Lake Meredith National Recreation Area.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 1 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false Lake Meredith National Recreation Area. 7.57 Section 7.57 Parks, Forests, and Public Property NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF.... (iv) PWC may not operate at greater than flat wake speed in the following designated areas: North...

  6. 36 CFR 7.57 - Lake Meredith National Recreation Area.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 1 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false Lake Meredith National Recreation Area. 7.57 Section 7.57 Parks, Forests, and Public Property NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF.... (iv) PWC may not operate at greater than flat wake speed in the following designated areas: North...

  7. 36 CFR 7.57 - Lake Meredith National Recreation Area.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 1 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Lake Meredith National Recreation Area. 7.57 Section 7.57 Parks, Forests, and Public Property NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF.... (iv) PWC may not operate at greater than flat wake speed in the following designated areas: North...

  8. 36 CFR 7.57 - Lake Meredith National Recreation Area.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 1 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false Lake Meredith National Recreation Area. 7.57 Section 7.57 Parks, Forests, and Public Property NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF.... (iv) PWC may not operate at greater than flat wake speed in the following designated areas: North...

  9. 36 CFR 7.57 - Lake Meredith National Recreation Area.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Lake Meredith National Recreation Area. 7.57 Section 7.57 Parks, Forests, and Public Property NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF.... (iv) PWC may not operate at greater than flat wake speed in the following designated areas: North...

  10. Assessing Seasonal and Inter-Annual Variations of Lake Surface Areas in Mongolia during 2000-2011 Using Minimum Composite MODIS NDVI

    PubMed Central

    Kang, Sinkyu; Hong, Suk Young

    2016-01-01

    A minimum composite method was applied to produce a 15-day interval normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) dataset from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) daily 250 m reflectance in the red and near-infrared bands. This dataset was applied to determine lake surface areas in Mongolia. A total of 73 lakes greater than 6.25 km2in area were selected, and 28 of these lakes were used to evaluate detection errors. The minimum composite NDVI showed a better detection performance on lake water pixels than did the official MODIS 16-day 250 m NDVI based on a maximum composite method. The overall lake area detection performance based on the 15-day minimum composite NDVI showed -2.5% error relative to the Landsat-derived lake area for the 28 evaluated lakes. The errors increased with increases in the perimeter-to-area ratio but decreased with lake size over 10 km2. The lake area decreased by -9.3% at an annual rate of -53.7 km2 yr-1 during 2000 to 2011 for the 73 lakes. However, considerable spatial variations, such as slight-to-moderate lake area reductions in semi-arid regions and rapid lake area reductions in arid regions, were also detected. This study demonstrated applicability of MODIS 250 m reflectance data for biweekly monitoring of lake area change and diagnosed considerable lake area reduction and its spatial variability in arid and semi-arid regions of Mongolia. Future studies are required for explaining reasons of lake area changes and their spatial variability. PMID:27007233

  11. Assessing Seasonal and Inter-Annual Variations of Lake Surface Areas in Mongolia during 2000-2011 Using Minimum Composite MODIS NDVI.

    PubMed

    Kang, Sinkyu; Hong, Suk Young

    2016-01-01

    A minimum composite method was applied to produce a 15-day interval normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) dataset from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) daily 250 m reflectance in the red and near-infrared bands. This dataset was applied to determine lake surface areas in Mongolia. A total of 73 lakes greater than 6.25 km2in area were selected, and 28 of these lakes were used to evaluate detection errors. The minimum composite NDVI showed a better detection performance on lake water pixels than did the official MODIS 16-day 250 m NDVI based on a maximum composite method. The overall lake area detection performance based on the 15-day minimum composite NDVI showed -2.5% error relative to the Landsat-derived lake area for the 28 evaluated lakes. The errors increased with increases in the perimeter-to-area ratio but decreased with lake size over 10 km(2). The lake area decreased by -9.3% at an annual rate of -53.7 km(2) yr(-1) during 2000 to 2011 for the 73 lakes. However, considerable spatial variations, such as slight-to-moderate lake area reductions in semi-arid regions and rapid lake area reductions in arid regions, were also detected. This study demonstrated applicability of MODIS 250 m reflectance data for biweekly monitoring of lake area change and diagnosed considerable lake area reduction and its spatial variability in arid and semi-arid regions of Mongolia. Future studies are required for explaining reasons of lake area changes and their spatial variability.

  12. Runoff and Solute Mobilisation in a Semi-arid Headwater Catchment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hughes, J. D.; Khan, S.; Crosbie, R.; Helliwell, S.; Michalk, D.

    2006-12-01

    Runoff and solute transport processes contributing to stream flow were determined in a small headwater catchment in the eastern Murray-Darling Basin of Australia using hydrometric and tracer methods. Stream flow and electrical conductivity were monitored from two gauges draining a portion of upper catchment area (UCA), and a saline scalded area respectively. Results show that the bulk of catchment solute export, occurs via a small saline scald (< 2% of catchment area) where solutes are concentrated in the near surface zone (0-40 cm). Non-scalded areas of the catchment are likely to provide the bulk of catchment runoff, although the scalded area is a higher contributor on an areal basis. Runoff from the non-scalded area is about two orders of magnitude lower in electrical conductivity than the scalded area. This study shows that the scalded zone and non-scalded parts of the catchment can be managed separately since they are effectively de-coupled except over long time scales, and produce runoff of contrasting quality. Such differences are "averaged out" by investigations that operate at larger scales, illustrating that observations need to be conducted at a range of scales. EMMA modelling using six solutes shows that "event" or "new" water dominated the stream hydrograph from the scald. This information together with hydrometric data and soil physical properties indicate that saturated overland flow is the main form of runoff generation in both the scalded area and the UCA. Saturated areas make up a small proportion of the catchment, but are responsible for production of all run off in conditions experienced throughout the experimental period. The process of saturation and runoff bears some similarities to the VSA concept (Hewlett and Hibbert 1967).

  13. Effects of warming on groundwater flow in mountainous snowmelt-dominated catchments

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Evans, S. G.; Ge, S.; Molotch, N. P.

    2015-12-01

    In mountainous regions, warmer air temperatures have led to an earlier onset of spring snowmelt and lower snowmelt rates; i.e. because snowmelt has shifted earlier when energy availability is lower. These changes to snowmelt will likely affect the partitioning of snowmelt water between surface runoff and groundwater flow, and therefore, the lag time between snowmelt and streamflow. While the connection between snowmelt and surface runoff has been well-studied, the impact of snowmelt variability on groundwater flow processes has received limited attention, especially in mountainous catchments. We construct a two-dimensional, finite element, coupled flow and heat transport hydrogeologic model to evaluate how changes in snowmelt onset and rate may alter groundwater discharge to streams in mountainous catchments. The coupled hydrogeologic model simulates seasonally frozen ground by incorporating permeability variation as a function of temperature and allows for modeling of pore water freeze and thaw. We apply the model to the Green Lakes Valley (GLV) watershed in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, a representative snowmelt-dominated catchment. Snowmelt for the GLV catchment is reconstructed from a 12 year (1996-2007) dataset of hydrometeorological records and satellite-derived snow covered area. Modeling results suggest that on a yearly cycle, groundwater infiltration and discharge is limited by the seasonally frozen subsurface. Under average conditions from 1996 to 2007, maximum groundwater discharge to the surface lags maximum snowmelt by approximately two months. Ongoing modeling is exploring how increasing air temperatures affect lag times between snowmelt and groundwater discharge to streams. This study has implications for water resource availability and its temporal variability in a warming global climate.

  14. Estimating the SCS runoff curve number in forest catchments of Korea

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Choi, Hyung Tae; Kim, Jaehoon; Lim, Hong-geun

    2016-04-01

    To estimate flood runoff discharge is a very important work in design for many hydraulic structures in streams, rivers and lakes such as dams, bridges, culverts, and so on. So, many researchers have tried to develop better methods for estimating flood runoff discharge. The SCS runoff curve number is an empirical parameter determined by empirical analysis of runoff from small catchments and hillslope plots monitored by the USDA. This method is an efficient method for determining the approximate amount of runoff from a rainfall even in a particular area, and is very widely used all around the world. However, there is a quite difference between the conditions of Korea and USA in topography, geology and land use. Therefore, examinations in adaptability of the SCS runoff curve number need to raise the accuracy of runoff prediction using SCS runoff curve number method. The purpose of this study is to find the SCS runoff curve number based on the analysis of observed data from several experimental forest catchments monitored by the National Institute of Forest Science (NIFOS), as a pilot study to modify SCS runoff curve number for forest lands in Korea. Rainfall and runoff records observed in Gwangneung coniferous and broad leaves forests, Sinwol, Hwasoon, Gongju and Gyeongsan catchments were selected to analyze the variability of flood runoff coefficients during the last 5 years. This study shows that runoff curve numbers of the experimental forest catchments range from 55 to 65. SCS Runoff Curve number method is a widely used method for estimating design discharge for small ungauged watersheds. Therefore, this study can be helpful technically to estimate the discharge for forest watersheds in Korea with more accuracy.

  15. Photo Gallery for Lake Pontchartrain Area/New Orleans (Louisiana)

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    Lake Pontchartrain Area/New Orleans (Louisiana) of the Urban Waters Federal Partnership (UWFP) reconnects urban communities with their waterways by improving coordination among federal agencies and collaborating with community-led efforts.

  16. Program Contacts for Lake Pontchartrain Area/New Orleans (Louisiana)

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    Lake Pontchartrain Area/New Orleans (Louisiana) of the Urban Waters Federal Partnership (UWFP) reconnects urban communities with their waterways by improving coordination among federal agencies and collaborating with community-led efforts

  17. Links Related to Lake Pontchartrain Area/New Orleans (Louisiana)

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    Lake Pontchartrain Area/New Orleans (Louisiana) of the Urban Waters Federal Partnership (UWFP) reconnects urban communities with their waterways by improving coordination among federal agencies and collaborating with community-led efforts

  18. Repeat synoptic sampling reveals drivers of change in carbon and nutrient chemistry of Arctic catchments

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zarnetske, J. P.; Abbott, B. W.; Bowden, W. B.; Iannucci, F.; Griffin, N.; Parker, S.; Pinay, G.; Aanderud, Z.

    2017-12-01

    Dissolved organic carbon (DOC), nutrients, and other solute concentrations are increasing in rivers across the Arctic. Two hypotheses have been proposed to explain these trends: 1. distributed, top-down permafrost degradation, and 2. discrete, point-source delivery of DOC and nutrients from permafrost collapse features (thermokarst). While long-term monitoring at a single station cannot discriminate between these mechanisms, synoptic sampling of multiple points in the stream network could reveal the spatial structure of solute sources. In this context, we sampled carbon and nutrient chemistry three times over two years in 119 subcatchments of three distinct Arctic catchments (North Slope, Alaska). Subcatchments ranged from 0.1 to 80 km2, and included three distinct types of Arctic landscapes - mountainous, tundra, and glacial-lake catchments. We quantified the stability of spatial patterns in synoptic water chemistry and analyzed high-frequency time series from the catchment outlets across the thaw season to identify source areas for DOC, nutrients, and major ions. We found that variance in solute concentrations between subcatchments collapsed at spatial scales between 1 to 20 km2, indicating a continuum of diffuse- and point-source dynamics, depending on solute and catchment characteristics (e.g. reactivity, topography, vegetation, surficial geology). Spatially-distributed mass balance revealed conservative transport of DOC and nitrogen, and indicates there may be strong in-stream retention of phosphorus, providing a network-scale confirmation of previous reach-scale studies in these Arctic catchments. Overall, we present new approaches to analyzing synoptic data for change detection and quantification of ecohydrological mechanisms in ecosystems in the Arctic and beyond.

  19. Spatial variability of soil water content in the covered catchment at Gårdsjön, Sweden

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nyberg, Lars

    1996-01-01

    The spatial variability of soil water content was investigated for a 6300 m2 covered catchment on the Swedish west coast. The catchment podzol soil is developed in a sandy - silty till with a mean depth of 43 cm and the dominant vegetation is Norway spruce. The acid precipitation is removed by a plastic roof and replaced with lake water irrigated under the tree canopies. On two occasions, in April and May 1993, TDR measurements were made at 57-73 points in the catchment using 15 and 30 cm long vertically installed probes. The water content pattern at the two dates, which occurred during a relatively dry period, were similar. The range of water content was large, from 5 to 60%. In May 1993 measurements also were made in areas of 10 × 10 m, 1 × 1 m and 0·2 × 0·2 m. The range and standard deviation for the 10 × 10 m area, which apart from a small-scale variability in soil hydraulic properties and fine root distribution also had a heterogeneous micro- and macro-topography, was similar to the range and standard deviation for the catchment. The 1 × 1 m and 0·2 × 0·2 m areas had considerably lower variability. Semi-variogram models for the water content had a range of influence of about 20 m. If data were paired in the east--west direction the semi-variance reflected the topography of the central valley and had a maximum for data pairs with internal distances of 20-40 m. The correlation between soil water content and topographic index, especially when averaged for the eight topographically homogeneous subareas, indicated the macro-topography as the cause of a large part of the water content variability.

  20. 36 CFR 7.55 - Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 1 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area. 7.55 Section 7.55 Parks, Forests, and Public Property NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF... except in designated swimming areas. (4) PWC may not be operated at greater than flat-wake speeds in the...

  1. 36 CFR 7.55 - Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 1 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area. 7.55 Section 7.55 Parks, Forests, and Public Property NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF... except in designated swimming areas. (4) PWC may not be operated at greater than flat-wake speeds in the...

  2. 36 CFR 7.55 - Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 1 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area. 7.55 Section 7.55 Parks, Forests, and Public Property NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF... except in designated swimming areas. (4) PWC may not be operated at greater than flat-wake speeds in the...

  3. 36 CFR 7.55 - Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 1 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area. 7.55 Section 7.55 Parks, Forests, and Public Property NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF... except in designated swimming areas. (4) PWC may not be operated at greater than flat-wake speeds in the...

  4. 36 CFR 7.55 - Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area. 7.55 Section 7.55 Parks, Forests, and Public Property NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF... except in designated swimming areas. (4) PWC may not be operated at greater than flat-wake speeds in the...

  5. Anthropopression markers in lake bottom sediments

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nadolna, Anna; Nowicka, Barbara

    2014-05-01

    Lakes are vulnerable to various types of anthropogenic disturbances. Responses of lake ecosystems to environmental stressors are varied and depend not only on the type of a factor but also on the lake natural resistance to degradation. Within the EULAKES project an evaluation of anthropogenic stress extent in a flow-through, postglacial, ribbon lake (Lake Charzykowskie) was carried out. It was assumed, that this impact manifests unevenly, depending on a type and degree of the pressure on the shore zones, water quality of tributaries, lake basin shape and dynamics of a water movement. It was stated, that anthropogenic markers are substances accumulated in bottom sediments as a result of allochthonous substances inflow from the catchment and atmosphere. Along the selected transects 105 samples from the top layer of sediments (about 20 cm) was collected representing the contemporary accumulation (about 15 years). The content of selected chemical elements and compounds was examined, including nutrients (TN and TP), heavy metals (arsenic, cadmium, lead, chromium, nickel, copper, zinc, mercury, iron, and manganese) and pesticides (DDT, DDD, DDE, DMDT , γ-HCH). The research was conducted in the deepest points of each lake basin and along the research transects - while choosing the spots, the increased intensity of anthropogenic impact (ports, roads with heavy traffic, wastewater discharge zones, built-up areas) was taken into consideration. The river outlets to the lake, where there are ecotonal zones between limnic and fluvial environment, were also taken into account. Analysis of the markers distribution was carried out against the diversity of chemical characteristics of limnic sediments. Ribbon shape of the lake basin and the dominant wind direction provide an opportunity of easy water mixing to a considerable depth. Intensive waving processes cause removal of the matter from the littoral zone towards lake hollows (separated by the underwater tresholds), where the

  6. Is the destabilisation of lake peipsi ecosystem caused by increased phosphorus loading or decreased nitrogen loading?

    PubMed

    Nõges, T; Laugaste, R; Loigu, E; Nedogarko, I; Skakalski, B; Nõges, P

    2005-01-01

    Lake Peipsi (3555 km2, mean depth 7.1 m) located on the border of Estonia and Russia is the largest transboundary lake in Europe. L. Peipsi consists of three parts. The shared largest northern part L. Peipsi s.s. (2611 km2, 8.3 m) and the southern L. Pihkva (708 km2, 3.8 m) which belongs mainly to Russia are connected by the river-shaped L. Lämmijärv (236 km2, 2.5 m). The catchment area (44,245 km2 without lake area) is shared between Estonia (33.3%), Russia (58.6%) and Latvia (8%). Intensive eutrophication of L. Peipsi started in the 1970s. The biomass of N2-fixing cyanobacteria was low at heavy nutrient loading in the 1980s. After the collapse of soviet-type agriculture in the early 1990s, the loading of nitrogen sharply decreased. A certain improvement of L. Peipsi s.s. was noticed at the beginning of the 1990s together with the temporary reduction of phosphorus loading from Estonian catchment while in recent years a destabilisation of the ecosystem has been observed. This deterioration has been expressed mainly as intensive blue-green blooms and fish-kills in summer. Reappearance of blooms has been explained by the decrease in N/P loading ratio due to reduced N discharge while in some periods increased phosphorus loading could have supported this trend.

  7. Modeling the effects of climatic and land use changes on phytoplankton and water quality of the largest Turkish freshwater lake: Lake Beyşehir.

    PubMed

    Bucak, Tuba; Trolle, Dennis; Tavşanoğlu, Ü Nihan; Çakıroğlu, A İdil; Özen, Arda; Jeppesen, Erik; Beklioğlu, Meryem

    2018-04-15

    Climate change and intense land use practices are the main threats to ecosystem structure and services of Mediterranean lakes. Therefore, it is essential to predict the future changes and develop mitigation measures to combat such pressures. In this study, Lake Beyşehir, the largest freshwater lake in the Mediterranean basin, was selected to study the impacts of climate change and various land use scenarios on the ecosystem dynamics of Mediterranean freshwater ecosystems and the services that they provide. For this purpose, we linked catchment model outputs to the two different processed-based lake models: PCLake and GLM-AED, and tested the scenarios of five General Circulation Models, two Representation Concentration Pathways and three different land use scenarios, which enable us to consider the various sources of uncertainty. Climate change and land use scenarios generally predicted strong future decreases in hydraulic and nutrient loads from the catchment to the lake. These changes in loads translated into alterations in water level as well as minor changes in chlorophyll a (Chl-a) concentrations. We also observed an increased abundance of cyanobacteria in both lake models. Total phosphorus, temperature and hydraulic loading were found to be the most important variables determining cyanobacteria biomass. As the future scenarios revealed only minor changes in Chl-a due to the significant decrease in nutrient loads, our results highlight that reduced nutrient loading in a warming world may play a crucial role in offsetting the effects of temperature on phytoplankton growth. However, our results also showed increased abundance of cyanobacteria in the future may threaten ecosystem integrity and may limit drinking water ecosystem services. In addition, extended periods of decreased hydraulic loads from the catchment and increased evaporation may lead to water level reductions and may diminish the ecosystem services of the lake as a water supply for irrigation and

  8. Downscaling catchment scale flood risk to contributing sub-catchments to determine the optimum location for flood management.

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pattison, Ian; Lane, Stuart; Hardy, Richard; Reaney, Sim

    2010-05-01

    The recent increase in flood frequency and magnitude has been hypothesised to have been caused by either climate change or land management. Field scale studies have found that changing land management practices does affect local runoff and streamflow, but upscaling these effects to the catchment scale continues to be problematic, both conceptually and more importantly methodologically. The impact on downstream flood risk is highly dependent upon where the changes are in the catchment, indicating that some areas of the catchment are more important in determining downstream flood risk than others. This is a major flaw in the traditional approach to studying the effect of land use on downstream flood risk: catchment scale hydrological models, which treat every cell in the model equally. We are proposing an alternative ideological approach for doing flood management research, which is underpinned by downscaling the downstream effect (problem i.e. flooding) to the upstream causes (contributing sub-catchments). It is hoped that this approach could have several benefits over the traditional upscaling approach. Firstly, it provides an efficient method to prioritise areas for land use management changes to be implemented to reduce downstream flood risk. Secondly, targets for sub-catchment hydrograph change can be determined which will deliver the required downstream effect. Thirdly, it may be possible to detect the effect of land use changes in upstream areas on downstream flood risk, by weighting the areas of most importance in hydrological models. Two methods for doing this downscaling are proposed; 1) data-based statistical analysis; and 2) hydraulic modelling-based downscaling. These will be outlined using the case study of the River Eden, Cumbria, NW England. The data-based methodology uses the timing and magnitude of floods for each sub-catchment. Principal components analysis (PCA) is used to simplify sub-catchment interactions and optimising stepwise regression is

  9. Attributes for MRB_E2RF1 Catchments by Major River Basins in the Conterminous United States: Physiographic Provinces

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Wieczorek, Michael; LaMotte, Andrew E.

    2010-01-01

    This tabular data set represents the area of each physiographic province (Fenneman and Johnson, 1946) in square meters, compiled for every MRB_E2RF1 catchment of selected Major River Basins (MRBs, Crawford and others, 2006). The source data are from Fenneman and Johnson's Physiographic Provinces of the United States, which is based on 8 major divisions, 25 provinces, and 86 sections representing distinctive areas having common topography, rock type and structure, and geologic and geomorphic history (Fenneman and Johnson, 1946).The MRB_E2RF1 catchments are based on a modified version of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (USEPA) ERF1_2 and include enhancements to support national and regional-scale surface-water quality modeling (Nolan and others, 2002; Brakebill and others, 2011). Data were compiled for every MRB_E2RF1 catchment for the conterminous United States covering New England and Mid-Atlantic (MRB1), South Atlantic-Gulf and Tennessee (MRB2), the Great Lakes, Ohio, Upper Mississippi, and Souris-Red-Rainy (MRB3), the Missouri (MRB4), the Lower Mississippi, Arkansas-White-Red, and Texas-Gulf (MRB5), the Rio Grande, Colorado, and the Great basin (MRB6), the Pacific Northwest (MRB7) river basins, and California (MRB8).

  10. Attributes for MRB_E2RF1 Catchments by Major River Basins in the Conterminous United States: Surficial Geology

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Wieczorek, Michael; LaMotte, Andrew E.

    2010-01-01

    This tabular data set represents the area of surficial geology types in square meters compiled for every MRB_E2RF1 catchment of selected Major River Basins (MRBs, Crawford and others, 2006). The source data set is the "Digital data set describing surficial geology in the conterminous US" (Clawges and Price, 1999).The MRB_E2RF1 catchments are based on a modified version of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (USEPA) ERF1_2 and include enhancements to support national and regional-scale surface-water quality modeling (Nolan and others, 2002; Brakebill and others, 2008). Data were compiled for every MRB_E2RF1 catchment for the conterminous United States covering New England and Mid-Atlantic (MRB1), South Atlantic-Gulf and Tennessee (MRB2), the Great Lakes, Ohio, Upper Mississippi, and Souris-Red-Rainy (MRB3), the Missouri (MRB4), the Lower Mississippi, Arkansas-White-Red, and Texas-Gulf (MRB5), the Rio Grande, Colorado, and the Great basin (MRB6), the Pacific Northwest (MRB7) river basins, and California (MRB8).

  11. Insight into dissolved organic matter fractions in Lake Wivenhoe during and after a major flood.

    PubMed

    Aryal, Rupak; Grinham, Alistair; Beecham, Simon

    2016-03-01

    Dissolved organic matter is an important component of biogeochemical processes in aquatic environments. Dissolved organic matter may consist of a myriad of different fractions and resultant processing pathways. In early January 2011, heavy rainfall occurred across South East Queensland, Australia causing significant catchment inflow into Lake Wivenhoe, which is the largest water supply reservoir for the city of Brisbane, Australia. The horizontal and vertical distributions of dissolved organic matter fractions in the lake during the flood period were investigated and then compared with stratified conditions with no catchment inflows. The results clearly demonstrate a large variation in dissolved organic matter fractions associated with inflow conditions compared with stratified conditions. During inflows, dissolved organic matter concentrations in the reservoir were fivefold lower than during stratified conditions. Within the dissolved organic matter fractions during inflow, the hydrophobic and humic acid fractions were almost half those recorded during the stratified period whilst low molecular weight neutrals were higher during the flood period compared to during the stratified period. Information on dissolved organic matter and the spatial and vertical variations in its constituents' concentrations across the lake can be very useful for catchment and lake management and for selecting appropriate water treatment processes.

  12. Glacial lakes in the Indian Himalayas--from an area-wide glacial lake inventory to on-site and modeling based risk assessment of critical glacial lakes.

    PubMed

    Worni, Raphael; Huggel, Christian; Stoffel, Markus

    2013-12-01

    Glacial lake hazards and glacial lake distributions are investigated in many glaciated regions of the world, but comparably little attention has been given to these topics in the Indian Himalayas. In this study we present a first area-wide glacial lake inventory, including a qualitative classification at 251 glacial lakes >0.01 km(2). Lakes were detected in the five states spanning the Indian Himalayas, and lake distribution pattern and lake characteristics were found to differ significantly between regions. Three glacial lakes, from different geographic and climatic regions within the Indian Himalayas were then selected for a detailed risk assessment. Lake outburst probability, potential outburst magnitudes and associated damage were evaluated on the basis of high-resolution satellite imagery, field assessments and through the use of a dynamic model. The glacial lakes analyzed in the states of Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh were found to present moderate risks to downstream villages, whereas the lake in Sikkim severely threatens downstream locations. At the study site in Sikkim, a dam breach could trigger drainage of ca. 16×10(6)m(3) water and generate maximum lake discharge of nearly 7000 m(3) s(-). The identification of critical glacial lakes in the Indian Himalayas and the detailed risk assessments at three specific sites allow prioritizing further investigations and help in the definition of risk reduction actions. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  13. A spatial classification and database for management, research, and policy making: The Great Lakes aquatic habitat framework

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Wang, Lizhu; Riseng, Catherine M.; Mason, Lacey; Werhrly, Kevin; Rutherford, Edward; McKenna, James E.; Castiglione, Chris; Johnson, Lucinda B.; Infante, Dana M.; Sowa, Scott P.; Robertson, Mike; Schaeffer, Jeff; Khoury, Mary; Gaiot, John; Hollenhurst, Tom; Brooks, Colin N.; Coscarelli, Mark

    2015-01-01

    Managing the world's largest and most complex freshwater ecosystem, the Laurentian Great Lakes, requires a spatially hierarchical basin-wide database of ecological and socioeconomic information that is comparable across the region. To meet such a need, we developed a spatial classification framework and database — Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat Framework (GLAHF). GLAHF consists of catchments, coastal terrestrial, coastal margin, nearshore, and offshore zones that encompass the entire Great Lakes Basin. The catchments captured in the database as river pour points or coastline segments are attributed with data known to influence physicochemical and biological characteristics of the lakes from the catchments. The coastal terrestrial zone consists of 30-m grid cells attributed with data from the terrestrial region that has direct connection with the lakes. The coastal margin and nearshore zones consist of 30-m grid cells attributed with data describing the coastline conditions, coastal human disturbances, and moderately to highly variable physicochemical and biological characteristics. The offshore zone consists of 1.8-km grid cells attributed with data that are spatially less variable compared with the other aquatic zones. These spatial classification zones and their associated data are nested within lake sub-basins and political boundaries and allow the synthesis of information from grid cells to classification zones, within and among political boundaries, lake sub-basins, Great Lakes, or within the entire Great Lakes Basin. This spatially structured database could help the development of basin-wide management plans, prioritize locations for funding and specific management actions, track protection and restoration progress, and conduct research for science-based decision making.

  14. Assessment of heavy metal enrichment and its human impact in lacustrine sediments from four lakes in the mid-low reaches of the Yangtze River, China.

    PubMed

    Bing, Haijian; Wu, Yanhong; Liu, Enfeng; Yang, Xiangdong

    2013-07-01

    Sediments from four lakes in the mid-low reaches of the Yangtze River, Taibai Lake, Longgan Lake, Chaohu Lake and Xijiu Lake, were chosen to evaluate their enrichment state and history. The state of heavy metal enrichment was at a low level in the sediment of Taibai Lake and Longgan Lake. The enrichment state of Co, Cr and Ni was also low in the sediment of Chaohu Lake and Xijiu Lake, while Cu, Pb and Zn enrichment reached a higher level. Mass accumulation fluxes were calculated to quantitatively evaluate the anthropogenic contribution to heavy metals in the sediment. The anthropogenic accumulation fluxes were lower in the sediment of Taibai Lake and Longgan Lake compared with the other two lakes, where heavy metals, especially Cu, Pb and Zn, were mainly from anthropogenic sources. Heavy metal accumulation did not vary greatly in the sediment of Taibai Lake and Longgan Lake, while that in Chaohu Lake and Xijiu Lake increased since the 1950s and substantially increased since the 1980s, although a decrease occurred since 2000 AD in Xijiu Lake. Heavy metal enrichment was strongly related to human activities in the catchment. The development of urbanization and industrialization was much more rapid in the catchments of Chaohu Lake and Xijiu Lake than of the other two lakes, and thus large amounts of anthropogenically sourced heavy metals were discharged into the lakes, which resulted in a higher contamination risk. However, human activities in the Longgan Lake and Taibai Lake catchments mainly involved agriculture, which contributed a relatively small portion of heavy metals to the lakes.

  15. Impacts of urban sprawl on the area of downtown lakes in a highly developing city on central China

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhang, W.; Zhang, Y.

    2016-12-01

    Wuhan city in central China is full of water resources and numerous lakes are located. Downtown lakes have significant ecological value and ornamental value for urban inhabitants in Wuhan. Under the rapid process of urban sprawl, downtown lakes are occupied by impervious areas. This research uses Landsat images to extract land uses from 1991 to 2013 in Wuhan city , and attempts to find out how urban sprawl affects the water body area decline in space. Two largest downtown lakes in Wuhan city, Donghu Lake located in central city and Tangxunhu Lake located in suburbs, are taken as case study area. A direction change index (DCI) is proposed to evaluate the changes of a specific land use in different directions. The results reveal that two downtown lakes are undergoing rapid water body area decline from 1991 to 2013, with decline rate are -0.022 in Donghu watershed and -0.011 in Tangxunhu watershed. 68.26% and 62.50% of the reduced water body is occupied by built-up land in Donghu watershed and Tangxunhu watershed, respectively. According to DCI, the water body reduce is highly correlated with built-up land increase in all direction. Moreover, it is found that in the Donghu watershed the north-west part suffered significant water body area decline, which is close to central city. While in Tangxunhu watershed, the area of water body declined in north-west, south-west and north-east part, and the area obstructed from central city by the lake was suffering less water body area decline. It is concluded that the water body area of downtown lakes are highly affected by the process of urban sprawl, and the lakes in central districts trends to suffer higher descend than that of the downtown lake located in suburbs. Meanwhile, even for the same downtown lake, the area orientating and close to the central city may suffer more rapid decline than the area that does not orientate to the central city.

  16. The Great Lakes Hydrography Dataset: Consistent, binational ...

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    Ecosystem-based management of the Laurentian Great Lakes, which spans both the United States and Canada, is hampered by the lack of consistent binational watersheds for the entire Basin. Using comparable data sources and consistent methods we developed spatially equivalent watershed boundaries for the binational extent of the Basin to create the Great Lakes Hydrography Dataset (GLHD). The GLHD consists of 5,589 watersheds for the entire Basin, covering a total area of approximately 547,967 km2, or about twice the 247,003 km2 surface water area of the Great Lakes. The GLHD improves upon existing watershed efforts by delineating watersheds for the entire Basin using consistent methods; enhancing the precision of watershed delineation by using recently developed flow direction grids that have been hydrologically enforced and vetted by provincial and federal water resource agencies; and increasing the accuracy of watershed boundaries by enforcing embayments, delineating watersheds on islands, and delineating watersheds for all tributaries draining to connecting channels. In addition, the GLHD is packaged in a publically available geodatabase that includes synthetic stream networks, reach catchments, watershed boundaries, a broad set of attribute data for each tributary, and metadata documenting methodology. The GLHD provides a common set of watersheds and associated hydrography data for the Basin that will enhance binational efforts to protect and restore the Great

  17. Decadal and Seasonal Variations of Alpine Lakes in Glacierized areas of Central Asia during 1990-2015

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Li, J.; Warner, T.; Chen, X.; Bao, A.

    2016-12-01

    Central Asia is one of the world's most vulnerable areas responding to global change. Glacier lakes in the alpine regions remain sensitive to climatic change and fluctuate with temperature and precipitation variations. Study shows that glaciers in Central Asia have retreated dramatically, leading to the expansion of the existing glacial lakes and the emergence of many new glacier lakes. The existence of these lakes increases the possibility of outburst flood during the ice melting season, which can bring a disaster to the downstream area. Mapping glacial lakes and monitoring their changes would improve our understanding of regional climate change and glacier-related hazards. Glacial lakes in Central Asia are mainly located at the Tianshan Mountains, the Altai Mountains, the Kunlun Mountains and the Pamirs with average elevation more than 1500 meters. Most of these lakes are supplied with the glaciers or snowmelt water during the summer seasons. Satellite remote sensing provides an efficient and objective tool to analyze the status and variations of glacial lakes. The increased availability of remote sensing sensors with appropriate spatial and temporal resolutions, broad coverage makes lake investigations more feasible and cost-effective. The paper intends to map glacier lake changes in glacierized alpine mountains with Landsat TM/ETM+ imagery. More than 600 scenes of Landsat images in circa 1990, circa 2000, circa 2010 and circa 2015 are used to map the decadal glacial lake changes over the Central Asia, and about 8 expanding glacial lakes are selected to map seasonal changes. Over 12000 glacial lakes were mapped in circa 1990, and in 2015, lake number are more than 16000, most of these new lakes are emerging in the last 10 years. The result shows that the number and area of the glacial lakes in the Altain Mountain remain stable, while the Tianshan Mountain have experienced expanding changes in the last two decades, and about a half number of lake areas are

  18. Integrating limnological characteristics of high mountain lakes into the landscape of a natural area

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Larson, Gary L.; Wones, A.; McIntire, C.D.; Samora, B.

    1994-01-01

    A general conceptual watershed-lake model of the complex interactions among climatic conditions, watershed location and characteristics, lake morphology, and fish predation was used to evaluate limnological characteristics of high mountain lakes. Our main hypothesis was that decreasing elevation in mountainous terrain corresponds to an increase in diversity of watershed size and lake area, depth, temperature, nutrient concentrations, and productivity. A second hypothesis was that watershed location and aspect relative to climatic gradients within mountainous terrain influences the limnological characteristics of the lakes. We evaluated these hypotheses by examining watershed location, aspect and size; lake morphology; water quality; and phytoplankton and zooplankton community characteristics among high mountain forest and subalpine lakes in Mount Rainier National Park. Although many of the comparisons between all forest and subalpine lakes were statistically insignificant, the results revealed trends that were consistent with our hypotheses. The forest lake group included more lakes with larger watersheds, larger surface areas, greater depths, higher concentrations of nutrients, and higher algal biovolumes than did the group of subalpine lakes. Deep lakes, which were mostly of the forest lake type, exhibited thermal stratification and relatively high values of some of the water-quality variables near the lake bottoms. However, the highest near-surface water temperatures and phytoplankton densities and the taxonomic structures of the phytoplankton and zooplankton assemblages were more closely related to geographical location, which corresponded to a west-east climate gradient in the park, than to lake type. Some crustacean and rotifer taxa, however, were limited in distribution by lake type. Fish predation did not appear to play an important role in the structure of the crustacean zooplankton communities at the genus level with the exception of Mowich Lake, where

  19. The flora of the Cottonwood Lake Study Area, Stutsman County, North Dakota

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Mushet, D.M.; Euliss, N.H.; Lane, S.P.; Goldade, C.M.

    2004-01-01

    The 92 ha Cottonwood Lake Study Area is located in south-central North Dakota along the eastern edge of a glacial stagnation moraine known as the Missouri Coteau. The study area has been the focus of biologic and hydrologic research since the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service purchased the site in 1963. We studied the plant communities of the Cottonwood Lake Study Area from 1992 to 2001. During this time period, the vascular flora of the study area consisted of 220 species representing 51 families. Over half of the species were perennial forbs (117 species). Perennial grasses (26 species) and annual forbs (22 species) made up the next two largest physiognomic groupings. The flora, having a mean Coefficient of Conservatism of 4.6 and a Floristic Quality Index of 62, consisted of 187 native species. Thirty-three species were non-natives. Our annotated list should provide information useful to researchers, graduate students, and others as they design and implement future studies in wetlands and uplands both in and around the Cottonwood Lake Study Area.

  20. The combined effects of topography and vegetation on catchment connectivity

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nippgen, F.; McGlynn, B. L.; Emanuel, R. E.

    2012-12-01

    The deconvolution of whole catchment runoff response into its temporally dynamic source areas is a grand challenge in hydrology. The extent to which the intersection of static and dynamic catchment characteristics (e.g. topography and vegetation) influences water redistribution within a catchment and the hydrologic connectivity of hillslopes to the riparian and stream system is largely unknown. Over time, patterns of catchment storage shift and, because of threshold connectivity behavior, catchment areas become disconnected from the stream network. We developed a simple but spatially distributed modeling framework that explicitly incorporates static (topography) and dynamic (vegetation) catchment structure to document the evolution of catchment connectivity over the course of a water year. We employed directly measured eddy-covariance evapotranspiration data co-located within a highly instrumented (>150 recording groundwater wells) and gauged catchment to parse the effect of current and zero vegetation scenarios on the temporal evolution of hydrologic connectivity. In the absence of vegetation, and thus in the absence of evapotranspiration, modeled absolute connectivity was 4.5% greater during peak flow and 3.9% greater during late summer baseflow when compared to the actual vegetation scenario. The most significant differences in connected catchment area between current and zero vegetation (14.9%) occurred during the recession period in early July, when water and energy availability were at an optimum. However, the greatest relative difference in connected area occurs during the late summer baseflow period when the absence of evapotranspiration results in a connected area approximately 500% greater than when vegetation is present, while the relative increase during peak flow is just 6%. Changes in connected areas ultimately lead to propose a biologically modified geomorphic width function. This biogeomorphic width function is the result of lateral water

  1. A Demographic and Epidemiological Study of Naval Hospital Charleston’s Catchment Area Population

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1993-08-01

    Management Project examines the military beneficiary population in the Naval Hospital Charleston Catchment Area to determine what demographic attributes...are exhibited, and what medical demands the beneficiaries have placed on the Military Health Service System between 01 and 30 June 1992. Various data...closure or realignment of the military treatment facility. 14. SUBJECT TERMS 15. NUMBER OF PAGES 304Demographic and Epidemiological Study 16. PRICE CODE 17

  2. Synchronicity of long-term nitrate patterns in forested catchments across the northeastern U.S.

    EPA Science Inventory

    Nitrogen movement through minimally-disturbed catchments can be affected by a variety of biogeochemical processes, climatic effects, hydrology and in-stream or in-lake processes. These combine to create dizzying complexity in long-term and seasonal nitrate patterns, with adjacen...

  3. Catchment-scale evaluation of pollution potential of urban snow at two residential catchments in southern Finland.

    PubMed

    Sillanpää, Nora; Koivusalo, Harri

    2013-01-01

    Despite the crucial role of snow in the hydrological cycle in cold climate conditions, monitoring studies of urban snow quality often lack discussions about the relevance of snow in the catchment-scale runoff management. In this study, measurements of snow quality were conducted at two residential catchments in Espoo, Finland, simultaneously with continuous runoff measurements. The results of the snow quality were used to produce catchment-scale estimates of areal snow mass loads (SML). Based on the results, urbanization reduced areal snow water equivalent but increased pollutant accumulation in snow: SMLs in a medium-density residential catchment were two- to four-fold higher in comparison with a low-density residential catchment. The main sources of pollutants were related to vehicular traffic and road maintenance, but also pet excrement increased concentrations to a high level. Ploughed snow can contain 50% of the areal pollutant mass stored in snow despite its small surface area within a catchment.

  4. Landscape drivers of regional variation in the relationship between total phosphorus and chlorophyll in lakes

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Wagner, Tyler; Soranno, Patricia A.; Webster, Katherine E.; Cheruvelil, Kendra Spence

    2011-01-01

    1. For north temperate lakes, the well-studied empirical relationship between phosphorus (as measured by total phosphorus, TP), the most commonly limiting nutrient and algal biomass (as measured by chlorophyll a, CHL) has been found to vary across a wide range of landscape settings. Variation in the parameters of these TP–CHL regressions has been attributed to such lake variables as nitrogen/phosphorus ratios, organic carbon and alkalinity, all of which are strongly related to catchment characteristics (e.g. natural land cover and human land use). Although this suggests that landscape setting can help to explain much of the variation in ecoregional TP–CHL regression parameters, few studies have attempted to quantify relationships at an ecoregional spatial scale.2. We tested the hypothesis that lake algal biomass and its predicted response to changes in phosphorus are related to both local-scale features (e.g. lake and catchment) and ecoregional-scale features, all of which affect the availability and transport of covarying solutes such as nitrogen, organic carbon and alkalinity. Specifically, we expected that land use and cover, acting at both local and ecoregional scales, would partially explain the spatial pattern in parameters of the TP–CHL regression.3. We used a multilevel modelling framework and data from 2105 inland lakes spanning 35 ecoregions in six US states to test our hypothesis and identify specific local and ecoregional features that explain spatial heterogeneity in TP–CHL relationships. We include variables such as lake depth, natural land cover (for instance, wetland cover in the catchment of lakes and in the ecoregions) and human land use (for instance, agricultural land use in the catchment of lakes and in the ecoregions).4. There was substantial heterogeneity in TP–CHL relationships across the 35 ecoregions. At the local scale, CHL was negatively and positively related to lake mean depth and percentage of wooded wetlands in the

  5. Changes in the area of inland lakes in arid regions of central Asia during the past 30 years.

    PubMed

    Bai, Jie; Chen, Xi; Li, Junli; Yang, Liao; Fang, Hui

    2011-07-01

    Inland lakes are major surface water resource in arid regions of Central Asia. The area changes in these lakes have been proved to be the results of regional climate changes and recent human activities. This study aimed at investigating the area variations of the nine major lakes in Central Asia over the last 30 years. Firstly, multi-temporal Landsat imagery in 1975, 1990, 1999, and 2007 were used to delineate lake extents automatically based on Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) threshold segmentation, then lake area variations were detailed in three decades and the mechanism of these changes was analyzed with meteorological data and hydrological data. The results indicated that the total surface areas of these nine lakes had decreased from 91,402.06 km(2) to 46,049.23 km(2) during 1975-2007, accounting for 49.62% of their original area of 1975. Tail-end lakes in flat areas had shrunk dramatically as they were induced by both climate changes and human impacts, while alpine lakes remained relatively stable due to the small precipitation variations. With different water usage of river outlets, the variations of open lakes were more flexible than those of other two types. According to comprehensive analyses, different types of inland lakes presented different trends of area changes under the background of global warming effects in Central Asia, which showed that the increased human activities had broken the balance of water cycles in this region.

  6. [Soil Phosphorus Forms and Leaching Risk in a Typically Agricultural Catchment of Hefei Suburban].

    PubMed

    Fan, Hui-hui; Li, Ru-zhong; Pei, Ting-ting; Zhang, Rui-gang

    2016-01-15

    To investigate the soil phosphorus forms and leaching risk in a typically agricultural catchment of Ershibu River in Hefei Suburban, Chaohu Lake basin, 132 surface soil samples were collected from the catchment area. The spatial distribution of total phosphorus (TP) and bio-available phosphorus (Bio-P), and the spatial variability of soil available phosphorus (Olsen-P) and easy desorption phosphorus (CaCl2-P) were analyzed using the Kriging technology of AreGIS after speciation analysis of soil phosphorus. Moreover, the enrichment level of soil phosphorus was studied, and the phosphorus leaching risk was evaluated through determining the leaching threshold value of soil phosphorus. The results showed that the samples with high contents of TP and Bio-P mainly located in the upstream of the left tributary and on the right side of local area where two tributaries converged. The enrichment rates of soil phosphorus forms were arranged as follows: Ca-P (15.01) > OP (4.16) > TP (3. 42) > IP (2.94) > Ex-P (2.76) > Fe/Al-P (2.43) > Olsen-P (2.34). The critical value of Olsen-P leaching was 18.388 mg x kg(-1), and the leaching samples with values higher than the threshold value accounted for 16.6% of total samples. Generally, the high-risk areas mainly occurred in the upstream of the left tributary, the middle of the right tributary and the local area of the downstream of the area where two tributaries converged.

  7. Monitoring the lake area changes of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau using coarse-resolution time series remote sensing data

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ma, M.

    2015-12-01

    The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) is the world's highest and largest plateau and is occasionally referred to as "the roof of the world". As the important "water tower", there are 1,091 lakes of more than 1.0 km2 in the QTP areas, which account for 49.4% of the total area of lakes in China. Some studies focus on the lake area changes of the QTP areas, which mainly use the middle-resolution remote sensing data (e.g. Landsat TM). In this study, the coarse-resolution time series remote sensing data, MODIS data at a spatial resolution of 250m, was used to monitor the lake area changes of the QTP areas during the last 15 years. The dataset is the MOD13Q1 and the Normal Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) is used to identify the lake area when the NDVI is less than 0. The results show the obvious inner-annual changes of most of the lakes. Therefore the annually average and maximum lake areas are calculated based on the time series remote data, which can better quantify the change characteristics than the single scene of image data from the middle-resolution data. The results indicate that there are big spatial variances of the lake area changes in the QTB. The natural driving factors are analyzed for revealing the causes of changes.

  8. Influences of climate change on area variation of Qinghai Lake on Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau since 1980s.

    PubMed

    Tang, Lingyi; Duan, Xiaofang; Kong, Fanjin; Zhang, Fan; Zheng, Yangfan; Li, Zhen; Mei, Yi; Zhao, Yanwen; Hu, Shuijin

    2018-05-09

    Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau is the most sensitive region to global warming on Earth. Qinghai Lake, the largest lake on the plateau, has experienced evident area variation during the past several decades. To quantify the area changes of Qinghai Lake, a satellite-based survey based on Landsat images from the 1980s to 2010s has been performed. In addition, meteorological data from all the seven available stations on Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau has been analyzed. Area of Qinghai Lake shrank ~2% during 1987-2005, and then increased ~3% from 2005-2016. Meanwhile, the average annual temperature increased 0.319 °C/10 y in the past 50 years, where the value is 0.415 °C/10 y from 2005-2016. The structural equation modeling (SEM) shows that precipitation is the primary factor influencing the area of Qinghai Lake. Moreover, temperature might be tightly correlated with precipitation, snow line, and evaporation, thereby indirectly causes alternations of the lake area. This study elucidated the significant area variation of water body on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau under global warming since 1980s.

  9. Adequacy of TRMM satellite rainfall data in driving the SWAT modeling of Tiaoxi catchment (Taihu lake basin, China)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Li, Dan; Christakos, George; Ding, Xinxin; Wu, Jiaping

    2018-01-01

    Spatial rainfall data is an essential input to Distributed Hydrological Models (DHM), and a significant contributor to hydrological model uncertainty. Model uncertainty is higher when rain gauges are sparse, as is often the case in practice. Currently, satellite-based precipitation products increasingly provide an alternative means to ground-based rainfall estimates, in which case a rigorous product assessment is required before implementation. Accordingly, the twofold objective of this work paper was the real-world assessment of both (a) the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) rainfall product using gauge data, and (b) the TRMM product's role in forcing data for hydrologic simulations in the area of the Tiaoxi catchment (Taihu lake basin, China). The TRMM rainfall products used in this study are the Version-7 real-time 3B42RT and the post-real-time 3B42. It was found that the TRMM rainfall data showed a superior performance at the monthly and annual scales, fitting well with surface observation-based frequency rainfall distributions. The Nash-Sutcliffe Coefficient of Efficiency (NSCE) and the relative bias ratio (BIAS) were used to evaluate hydrologic model performance. The satisfactory performance of the monthly runoff simulations in the Tiaoxi study supports the view that the implementation of real-time 3B42RT allows considerable room for improvement. At the same time, post-real-time 3B42 can be a valuable tool of hydrologic modeling, water balance analysis, and basin water resource management, especially in developing countries or at remote locations in which rainfall gauges are scarce.

  10. Water Quality Investigations at Lake Merritt in Oakland, California

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Carter, G.; Casino, C.; Johnson, K.; Huang, J.; Le, A.; Truisi, V. M.; Turner, D.; Yanez, F.; Yu, J. F.; Unigarro, M.; Vue, G.; Garduno, L.; Cuff, K.

    2005-12-01

    Lake Merritt is a saltwater tidal lagoon that forms a portion of a wildlife refuge in downtown Oakland, California. The general area was designated as the nation's first wildlife refuge in 1869, and is currently the home to over 90 species of migrating waterfowl, as well as a variety of aquatic wildlife. Situated within an area composed of compacted marine sediment located near the center of Oakland, Lake Merritt also serves as a major local catchment basin, receiving significant urban runoff from a 4,650 acre local watershed through 60 storm drains and four culverted creeks. Due to factors related to its geographical location, Lake Merritt has suffered from poor water quality at various times throughout its history. In fact, in May of 1999 the US Environmental Protection Agency designated Lake Merritt as a body of water whose beneficial uses are impaired, mainly due to high levels of trash and low levels of dissolved oxygen. As a contribution to continuing efforts to monitor and assess water quality of the Lake, we began a water quality investigation during the Summer of 2005, which included the measurement of dissolved oxygen concentrations of samples collected near its surface at over 85 different locations. These measurements were made using a sensor attached to a PASCO data- logger. The sensor measures the electric current produced by a chemical reaction in its probe, which is composed of a platinum cathode and a silver anode surrounded by an electrolyte solution. Results of these measurements were statistically analyzed, mapped, and then used in assessing the quality of Lake Merritt's water, particularly in relation to supporting aquatic biota. Preliminary analysis of results obtained so far indicates that the highest quality waters in Lake Merritt occur in areas that are closest to a source of San Francisco Bay water, as well as those areas nearby where water circulation is robust. Significantly high levels of dissolved oxygen were measured in an area that

  11. How size matters: exploring the association between quality of mental health services and catchment area size.

    PubMed

    Ala-Nikkola, Taina; Sadeniemi, Minna; Kaila, Minna; Saarni, Samuli; Kontio, Raija; Pirkola, Sami; Joffe, Grigori; Oranta, Olli; Wahlbeck, Kristian

    2016-08-12

    The diversity of mental health and substance abuse services (MHS) available to service users is seen as an indicator of the quality of the service system. In most countries MHS are provided by a mix of public, private and third sector providers. In Finland, officially, the municipalities are responsible for organizing the services needed, but the real extent and roles of private and third sector service providers are not known. Our previous study showed that the catchment area population size was strongly associated with diversity of mental health services. It is not known whether this was due to some types of services or some provider types being more sensitive to the size effect than others. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between area population size and diversity of mental health services, i.e. which types of services and which service providers' contributions are sensitive to population size. To map and classify services, we used the ESMS-R. The diversity of services was defined as the count of main types of care. Providers were classified as public, private or third sectors. The diversity of outpatient, residential and voluntary services correlated positively with catchment area population size. The strongest positive correlation between the size of population and services available was found in third sector activities followed by public providers, but no correlation was found for diversity of private services. The third sector and public corporations each provided 44 % of the service units. Third sector providers produced all self-help services and most of the day care services. Third sector and private companies provided a significant part (59 %) of the residential care service units. Significant positive correlations were found between size of catchment area population and diversity of residential, outpatient and voluntary services, indicating that these services concentrate on areas with larger population bases. The third sector

  12. Holocene glacier activity reconstructed from proglacial lake Gjøavatnet on Amsterdamøya, NW Svalbard

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    de Wet, Gregory A.; Balascio, Nicholas L.; D'Andrea, William J.; Bakke, Jostein; Bradley, Raymond S.; Perren, Bianca

    2018-03-01

    Well-dated and highly resolved paleoclimate records from high latitudes allow for a better understanding of past climate change. Lake sediments are excellent archives of environmental change, and can record processes occurring within the catchment, such as the growth or demise of an upstream glacier. Here we present a Holocene-length, multi-proxy lake sediment record from proglacial lake Gjøavatnet on the island of Amsterdamøya, northwest Svalbard. Today, Gjøavatnet receives meltwater from the Annabreen glacier and contains a record of changes in glacier activity linked to regional climate conditions. We measured changes in organic matter content, dry bulk density, bulk carbon isotopes, elemental concentrations via Itrax core-scanning, and diatom community composition to reconstruct variability in glacier extent back through time. Our reconstruction indicates that glacially derived sedimentation in the lake decreased markedly at ∼11.1 cal kyr BP, although a glacier likely persisted in the catchment until ∼8.4 cal kyr BP. During the mid-Holocene (∼8.4-1.0 cal kyr BP) there was significantly limited glacial influence in the catchment and enhanced deposition of organic-rich sediment in the lake. The deposition of organic rich sediments during this time was interrupted by at least three multi-centennial intervals of reduced organic matter accumulation (∼5.9-5.0, 2.7-2.0, and 1.7-1.5 cal kyr BP). Considering our chronological information and a sedimentological comparison with intervals of enhanced glacier input, we interpret these intervals not as glacial advances, but rather as cold/dry episodes that inhibited organic matter production in the lake and surrounding catchment. At ∼1.0 cal kyr BP, input of glacially derived sediment to Gjøavatnet abruptly increased, representing the rapid expansion of the Annabreen glacier.

  13. Lake-specific responses to elevated atmospheric nitrogen deposition in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, U.S.A.

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Nydick, K.R.; LaFrancois, B.M.; Baron, Jill S.; Johnson, B.M.

    2003-01-01

    We explored variability among subalpine lakes sharing very similar climate and atmospheric conditions, but differing in watershed characteristics, hydrology, and food web structure. Special attention was given to nitrogen (N) dynamics because the study area receives some of the highest levels of atmospheric N deposition in the Rocky Mountains. We asked if the effect of regional N deposition would be manifested uniformly among neighboring lakes both in terms of ambient conditions and responses to greater nutrient inputs. Catchment vegetation appeared to be the main determinant of ambient nitrate (NO3), phosphate (PO4), and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations, although in-lake differences in recycling produced variable and contrasting NH4 levels. Phytoplankton chlorophyll a temporarily responded to early season NO3 peaks in the lakes with rocky watersheds, but chlorophyll means over the ice-free season were remarkably similar among lakes despite differences in both nutrient supply and zooplankton grazing. In most cases, phosphorus was limiting to phytoplankton growth, although the importance of N deficiencies was greater in lakes with forested watersheds and fringing wetlands.

  14. Lake-specific responses to elevated atmospheric nitrogen deposition in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, U.S.A

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Nydick, K.R.; LaFrancois, B.M.; Baron, Jill S.; Johnson, B.M.

    2003-01-01

    We explored variability among subalpine lakes sharing very similar climate and atmospheric conditions, but differing in watershed characteristics, hydrology, and food web structure. Special attention was given to nitrogen (N) dynamics because the study area receives some of the highest levels of atmospheric N deposition in the Rocky Mountains. We asked if the effect of regional N deposition would be manifested uniformly among neighboring lakes both in terms of ambient conditions and responses to greater nutrient inputs. Catchment vegetation appeared to be the main determinant of ambient nitrate (NO3), phosphate (PO4), and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations, although in-lake differences in recycling produced variable and contrasting NH4 levels. Phytoplankton chlorophyll atemporarily responded to early season NO3 peaks in the lakes with rocky watersheds, but chlorophyll means over the ice-free season were remarkably similar among lakes despite differences in both nutrient supply and zooplankton grazing. In most cases, phosphorus was limiting to phytoplankton growth, although the importance of N deficiencies was greater in lakes with forested watersheds and fringing wetlands.

  15. Origin of middle rare earth element enrichments in acid waters of a Canadian high Arctic lake.

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Johannesson, Kevin H.; Zhou, Xiaoping

    1999-01-01

    -Middle rare earth element (MREE) enriched rock-normalized rare earth element (REE) patterns of a dilute acidic lake (Colour Lake) in the Canadian High Arctic, were investigated by quantifying whole-rock REE concentrations of rock samples collected from the catchment basin, as well as determining the acid leachable REE fraction of these rocks. An aliquot of each rock sample was leached with 1 N HNO 3 to examine the readily leachable REE fraction of each rock, and an additional aliquot was leached with a 0.04 M NH 2OH · HCl in 25% (v/v) CH 3COOH solution, designed specifically to reduce Fe-Mn oxides/oxyhydroxides. Rare earth elements associated with the leachates that reacted with clastic sedimentary rock samples containing petrographically identifiable Fe-Mn oxide/oxyhydroxide cements and/or minerals/amorphous phases, exhibited whole-rock-normalized REE patterns similar to the lake waters, whereas whole-rock-normalized leachates from mafic igneous rocks and other clastic sedimentary rocks from the catchment basin differed substantially from the lake waters. The whole-rock, leachates, and lake water REE data support acid leaching or dissolution of MREE enriched Fe-Mn oxides/oxyhydroxides contained and identified within some of the catchment basin sedimentary rocks as the likely source of the unique lake water REE patterns. Solution complexation modelling of the REEs in the inflow streams and lake waters indicate that free metal ions (e.g., Ln 3+, where Ln = any REE) and sulfate complexes (LnSO 4+) are the dominant forms of dissolved REEs. Consequently, solution complexation reactions involving the REEs during weathering, transport to the lake, or within the lake, cannot be invoked to explain the MREE enrichments observed in the lake waters.

  16. Attributes for MRB_E2RF1 Catchments by Major River Basins in the Conterminous United States: Level 3 Ecoregions

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Wieczorek, Michael; LaMotte, Andrew E.

    2010-01-01

    This tabular data set represents the estimated area of level 3 ecological landscape regions (ecoregions), as defined by Omernik (1987), compiled for every MRB_E2RF1 catchment of the Major River Basins (MRBs, Crawford and others, 2006). The source data set is Level III Ecoregions of the Continental United States (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2003). The MRB_E2RF1 catchments are based on a modified version of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (USEPA) ERF1_2 and include enhancements to support national and regional-scale surface-water quality modeling (Nolan and others, 2002; Brakebill and others, 2011). Data were compiled for every MRB_E2RF1 catchment for the conterminous United States covering New England and Mid-Atlantic (MRB1), South Atlantic-Gulf and Tennessee (MRB2), the Great Lakes, Ohio, Upper Mississippi, and Souris-Red-Rainy (MRB3), the Missouri (MRB4), the Lower Mississippi, Arkansas-White-Red, and Texas-Gulf (MRB5), the Rio Grande, Colorado, and the Great basin (MRB6), the Pacific Northwest (MRB7) river basins, and California (MRB8).

  17. An approach to predict water quality in data-sparse catchments using hydrological catchment similarity

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pohle, Ina; Glendell, Miriam; Stutter, Marc I.; Helliwell, Rachel C.

    2017-04-01

    An understanding of catchment response to climate and land use change at a regional scale is necessary for the assessment of mitigation and adaptation options addressing diffuse nutrient pollution. It is well documented that the physicochemical properties of a river ecosystem respond to change in a non-linear fashion. This is particularly important when threshold water concentrations, relevant to national and EU legislation, are exceeded. Large scale (regional) model assessments required for regulatory purposes must represent the key processes and mechanisms that are more readily understood in catchments with water quantity and water quality data monitored at high spatial and temporal resolution. While daily discharge data are available for most catchments in Scotland, nitrate and phosphorus are mostly available on a monthly basis only, as typified by regulatory monitoring. However, high resolution (hourly to daily) water quantity and water quality data exist for a limited number of research catchments. To successfully implement adaptation measures across Scotland, an upscaling from data-rich to data-sparse catchments is required. In addition, the widespread availability of spatial datasets affecting hydrological and biogeochemical responses (e.g. soils, topography/geomorphology, land use, vegetation etc.) provide an opportunity to transfer predictions between data-rich and data-sparse areas by linking processes and responses to catchment attributes. Here, we develop a framework of catchment typologies as a prerequisite for transferring information from data-rich to data-sparse catchments by focusing on how hydrological catchment similarity can be used as an indicator of grouped behaviours in water quality response. As indicators of hydrological catchment similarity we use flow indices derived from observed discharge data across Scotland as well as hydrological model parameters. For the latter, we calibrated the lumped rainfall-runoff model TUWModel using multiple

  18. Archaeological Investigations in the Gainesville Lake Area of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway. Volume II. Gainesville Lake Area Ceramic Description and Chronology.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1981-10-01

    D- A126 469 RCH EOLOGICAL INVESTIO TIONS IN THE G INESVILLE L KE /5 AREA OF THE TENNESS..(U) ALABAMA UNIV UNIVERSITY OFFICE S OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL...Entered) "._".__ _ _ _ REPORT DOCUMENTATION PAGE READ ISTRUCTIONSBEFORE COMPLETING FORM 1. REPORT NUMBER 2. GOVT ACCESSION NO. S . RECIPIENT’$ CATALOG...Archaeological Investi- Final May 1976-October 1981 gations in the Gainesville Lake Area of the S . PERFORMING ORG. REPORT NUMBER Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway 7

  19. Consumptive Water-Use Coefficients for the Great Lakes Basin and Climatically Similar Areas

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Shaffer, Kimberly H.; Runkle, Donna L.

    2007-01-01

    Consumptive water use is the portion of water withdrawn (for a particular use) that is evaporated, transpired, incorporated into products or crops, consumed by humans or livestock, or otherwise removed from the immediate water environment. This report, which is organized by water?use categories, includes consumptive?use coefficients for the Great Lakes Basin (including Canada) and for areas climatically similar to the Great Lakes Basin. This report also contains an annotated bibliography of consumptive water?use coefficients. Selected references are listed for consumptive?use data from elsewhere in the world. For the industrial water?use category, the median consumptive?use coefficients were 10 percent for the Great Lakes Basin, climatically similar areas, and the world; the 25th and 75th percentiles for these geographic areas were comparable within 6 percent. The combined domestic and public?supply consumptive?use statistics (median, 25th and 75th percentiles) were between 10 to 20 percent for the various geographic areas. Although summary statistics were similar for coefficients in the livestock and irrigation water?use categories for the Great Lakes Basin and climatically similar areas, statistic values for the world on a whole were substantially lower (15 to 28 percent lower). Commercial and thermoelectric power consumptive?use coefficient statistics (median, 25th, and 75th percentile) also were comparable for the Great Lakes Basin and climatically similar areas, within 2 percent. References for other countries were not found for commercial and thermoelectric power water?use categories. The summary statistics for the mining consumptive?use coefficients varied, likely because of differences in types of mining, processes, or equipment.

  20. The Concept of Directly Connected Impervious Areas and Its Implication on Sustainable Development in Urban Catchments

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Seo, Yongwon; Hwang, Junsik; Choi, Hyun Il

    2017-04-01

    The concept of directly connected impervious area (DCIA) or efficient impervious areas (EIA) refers to a subset of impervious cover, which is directly connected to a drainage system or a water body via continuous impervious surfaces. The concept of DCIA is important in that it is regarded as a better predictor of stream ecosystem health than the total impervious area (TIA). DCIA is a key concept for a better assessment of green infrastructures introduced in urban catchments. Green infrastructure can help restore water cycle; it improves water quality, manages stormwater, provides recreational environment even at lower cost compared to conventional alternatives. In this study, we evaluated several methods to obtain the DCIA based on a GIS database and showed the importance of the accurate measurement of DCIA in terms of resulting hydrographs. We also evaluated several potential green infrastructure scenarios and showed how the spatial planning of green infrastruesture affects the shape of hydrographs and reduction of peak flows. These results imply that well-planned green infrastructure can be introduced to urban catchments for flood risk managements and quantitative assessment of spatial distribution of DCIA is crucial for sustainable development in urban environment.

  1. Construction, Geologic, and Hydrologic Data for Observation Wells in the Reelfoot Lake Area, Tennessee and Kentucky

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1987-01-01

    AND HYDROLOGIC DATA FOR OBSERVATION WELLS IN THE REELFOOT LAKE AREA, TENNESSEE AND KENTUCKY ($3 1 .cz Prepared in cooperation with the...Observation Wells in The Reelfoot Lake Area, Tennessee and Kentucky 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER 5b. GRANT NUMBER 5c. PROGRAM ELEMENT NUMBER 6. AUTHOR(S) 5d...Prescribed by ANSI Std Z39-18 CONSTRUCTION, GEOLOGIC, AND HYDROLOGIC DATA FOR OBSERVATION WELLS IN THE REELFOOT LAKE AREA, TENNESSEE AND KENTUCKY Michael

  2. Paleoenvironmental reconstructions of Nettilling Lake area (Baffin Island, Nunavut): A multi-proxy analysis.

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Beaudoin, Anne; Pienitz, Reinhard; Francus, Pierre; Zdanowicz, Christian; St-Onge, Guillaume

    2014-05-01

    The paleoclimate and paleolimnological history of several Arctic regions remains poorly known. This is the case for the area around Nettilling Lake (Baffin Island, Nunavut), the largest lake of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. To reconstruct the past environmental history of this area, a highly innovative multi-proxy approach combining physical, magnetic, chemical and biological properties preserved in lake sediments was used. One particular goal of this study was to investigate the possible coupling between sedimentation processes observed in the lake and melt rates of nearby Penny Ice Cap. A 1-m long sediment core was retrieved from a small bay in the northeastern part of Nettilling Lake during the summer of 2010. This sampling area was chosen based on the hypothesis that incoming glacial meltwaters from Penny Ice Cap would leave a strong climate-modulated signal that would be reflected in the sedimentary sequence. The core was analyzed by both non-destructive (X-radiography (X-ray), microfluorescence-X (µ-XRF), magnetic susceptibility) and destructive (Loss On Ignition, grain size, water content, thin sections, diatoms) techniques. Radiometric AMS 14C and 210Pb/137Cs age determinations, as well as paleomagnetic measurements, were used to develop the core chronology, yielding an estimated bottom age of approximately 1365 AD. The sedimentation rate (0.15 cm.yr-1) in Nettilling Lake was found to be high compared to other Arctic lakes, due to inputs of highly turbid meltwaters from Penny Ice Cap with high suspended sediment loads. Significant correlations were found between geochemical profiles of elements linked to detrital inputs (Si, Ti, K, Ca) and melt rates from Penny Ice Cap since the 19th century. This suggests that variations in detrital elements in Nettilling Lake sediments might be used as an indirect indicator of regional climate fluctuations (e.g., summer temperatures) that determine glacier melt rates.

  3. The High Arctic's Only Great Lake Is Succumbing To Climate Warming

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    St Louis, V. L.; Lehnherr, I.; Schiff, S. L.; Sharp, M. J.; Smol, J. P.; Muir, D.; Gardner, A. S.; Tarnocai, C.; St Pierre, K.; Michelutti, N.; Emmerton, C. A.; Mortimer, C.; Talbot, C.; Wiklund, J.

    2016-12-01

    Lake Hazen, located within Quttinirpaaq National Park on northern Ellesmere Island (Nunavut, Canada), is the largest lake by volume north of the Arctic Circle and the High Arctic's only true Great Lake. Lake Hazen has a maximum depth of 267 m, a surface area of 540 km2 and a 8400 km2 watershed that is 1/3 glaciated. The climate of the Lake Hazen watershed has experienced a recent strong warming trend of 0.21 °C yr-1 from 2000-2012. During this period, modeled glacier mass-balance values showed a distinct shift from net annual mass gain of 0.3 Gt to a net annual mass loss of up to 1.4 Gt beginning in 2007-2008. Recent warming of soils (0.14 oC yr-1) and deepening of the active layer in the Lake Hazen watershed have also occurred. Rising temperatures had important consequences for summer lake ice cover: the ice-free area on the lake increased by an average of 3 km2 yr-1 from 2000 to 2012, and full ice-off on Lake Hazen became more frequent, from 60% of the years between 1985-95 to 88% of the years between 2006-12. The 250 year sediment record obtained from the floor of Lake Hazen showed that, in the past 15 years, changes in diatom species % abundance, sedimentation rates, geological inputs from the catchment, the abundance of redox sensitive elements such as Fe and Mn in the sediments, and fluxes of organic carbon and contaminants are historically unprecedented and consistent with the observed trends of rising surface temperatures, increasing glacial melt and runoff, and decreasing summer lake ice cover. These changes have important implications for in-lake processes that pertain to ecosystem net productivity, and the cycling of carbon, nutrients and contaminants. We demonstrate that even more resilient ecosystems such as very large lakes are exhibiting regime shifts due to climate change and entering new ecological states.

  4. A 500 year sediment lake record of anthropogenic and natural inputs to Windermere (English Lake District) using double-spike lead isotopes, radiochronology, and sediment microanalysis.

    PubMed

    Miller, Helen; Croudace, Ian W; Bull, Jonathan M; Cotterill, Carol J; Dix, Justin K; Taylor, Rex N

    2014-07-01

    A high-resolution record of pollution is preserved in recent sediments from Windermere, the largest lake in the English Lake District. Data derived from X-ray core scanning (validated against wavelength dispersive X-ray fluorescence), radiochronological techniques ((210)Pb and (137)Cs) and ultrahigh precision, double-spike mass spectrometry for lead isotopes are combined to decipher the anthropogenic inputs to the lake. The sediment record suggests that while most element concentrations have been stable, there has been a significant increase in lead, zinc, and copper concentrations since the 1930s. Lead isotope down-core variations identify three major contributory sources of anthropogenic (industrial) lead, comprising gasoline lead, coal combustion lead (most likely source is coal-fired steam ships), and lead derived from Carboniferous Pb-Zn mineralization (mining activities). Periods of metal workings do not correlate with peaks in heavy metals due to the trapping efficiency of up-system lakes in the catchment. Heavy metal increases could be due to flood-induced metal inwash after the cessation of mining and the weathering of bedrock in the catchment. The combination of sediment analysis techniques used provides new insights into the pollutant depositional history of Windermere and could be similarly applied to other lake systems to determine the timing and scale of anthropogenic inputs.

  5. Sediment budget for Rediu reservoir catchment, North-Eastern Romania

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Todosi, Cristian; Niculita, Mihai

    2016-04-01

    Sediment budgets are a useful tool for geomorphologic analysis, catchment management and environmental assessment, despite the uncertainties related to their assessment. We present the sediment budget construction and validation for a small catchment of 9.5319 kmp (953.19 ha) situated in the North-Eastern part of Romania. The Rediu reservoir was built between 1986 and 1988, on Rediu valley, a left tributary of Bahlui river, north-west from Iasi city. The catchment of the reservoir has 6.5 km in length and 2.5 km in maximum width, the altitudes decreasing from 170 m in the northern part, to 52 m in the southern part. The valley is symmetric, the altitude of the hillslopes going between 200 m to 75 m in one km length, in the transversal section with the maximum width. The floodplain is narrow having between 20 m to 210 m (in the area of confluence with Breazu tributary). The mean slope of the catchment is 6.4 degree, the maximum slope being 24.6 degrees. The length of channels which show banks of up to 2 m is 19.98 km. The land is used predominantly as crops (58.1 %), 16.7 % being covered by pastures (from which over half are eroded), 11.5 % percent of the catchment being covered by planted forests, 9.2 % by rural constructions and roads, 2.9 % by hayfields, 1.5 % by lakes and 0.1 % by orchards. Beside the Rediu reservoir, there are three ponds (15 771, 1761 and 751 sqm) in the catchment. We considered the trap efficiency for the reservoir and the ponds to be 95%. Aerial images from 1963, 1978 , 1984, 2005, 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2014 were used to assess the state of geomorphological processes before and after the reservoir construction. After 1970 a gully system situated in Breazu tributary sub-catchment and several active landslides along the main valley left side were forested. Beside these processes, soil erosion and human impact by constructions are the main processes generating sediment in the study area. The sediment yields were quantified by estimating the

  6. Dramatic water-level fluctuations in lakes under intense human impact: modelling the effect of vegetation, climate and hydrogeology

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Vainu, M.

    2012-04-01

    Lakes form a highly important ecosystem in the glacial terrain of northern Europe and America, but their hydrology remains understudied. When the water-level of a lake drops significantly and rises again in a time span of half a century and the widespread explanation of the fluctuations seems insufficient, then it raises a question: how do different anthropogenic and natural processes actually affect the formation of a lakes' water body. The abovementioned scenario applies to three small closed-basin Estonian lakes (L. Ahnejärv, L. Kuradijärv and L. Martiska) analysed in the current study. These lakes suffered a major water-level drop (up to 3.8 m) between 1946 and 1987 and a major rise between 1987 and 2010, from 1 m (L. Ahnejärv) to 2.5 m (L. Kuradijärv). Decreasing and increasing groundwater abstraction near the lakes has been widely considered to be the only reason for the fluctuations. It is true that the most severe drop in the lake levels did occur after 1972 when groundwater abstraction for drinking water started in the vicinity of the lakes. However, the lake levels started to fall before the groundwater abstraction began and for the time being the lake levels have risen to a higher level than in the 1970s when the quantity of annually abstracted groundwater was similar to nowadays. Therefore the processes affecting the formation of the lakes' water body prove to be more complex than purely the hydrogeological change caused by groundwater abstraction. A new deterministic water balance model (where the evaporation from the lake surface was calculated by Penman equation and the catchment runoff by Thornthwaite-Mather soil-moisture model), compiled for the study, coupled with LiDAR-based GIS-modelling of the catchments was used to identify the different factors influencing the lakes' water level. The modelling results reveal that the moderate drop in lake water levels before the beginning of groundwater abstraction was probably caused by the growth of a

  7. Temporal patterns of glacial lake evolution in high-mountain environments

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mergili, Martin; Emmer, Adam; Viani, Cristina; Huggel, Christian

    2017-04-01

    Lakes forming at the front of retreating glaciers are characteristic features of high-mountain areas in a warming climate. Typically, lakes shift from the proglacial phase (lake is in direct contact with glacier) to a glacier-detached (no direct contact) and finally to a non-glacial phase (lake catchment is completely deglaciated) of lake evolution. Apart from changing glacier-lake interactions, each stage is characterized by particular features of lake growth, and by the lake's susceptibility to sudden drainage (lake outburst flood). While this concept appears to be valid globally, some mountain areas are rich in dynamically evolving proglacial lakes, while in others most lakes have already shifted to the glacier-detached or even non-glacial phase. In the present contribution we (i) explore and quantify the history of glacial lake formation and evolution over the past up to 70 years; (ii) assess the current situation of selected contrasting mountain areas (eastern and western European Alps, southern and northern Pamir, Cordillera Blanca); and (iii) link the patterns of lake evolution to the prevailing topographic and glaciological characteristics in order to improve the understanding of high-mountain geoenvironmental change. In the eastern Alps we identify only very few lakes in the proglacial stage. While many lakes appeared and dynamically evolved until the 1980s between 2550 m and 2800 m asl, most of them have lost glacier contact until the 2000s, whereas very few new proglacial lakes appeared at the same time. Even though a similar trend is observed in the higher western Alps, a more dynamic glacial lake evolution is observed there. The arid southern Pamir is characterized by a high number of proglacial lakes, mainly around 4500 m asl. There is strong evidence that glacial lake evolution is, after a highly dynamic phase between the 1970s and approx. 2000, decelerating. Few proglacial lakes exist in the higher and more humid, heavily glacierized northern Pamir

  8. Glacier lake outburst floods caused by glacier shrinkage: case study of Ala-Archa valley, Kyrgyz Ala Too, northern Tian Shan, Kyrgyzstan

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Petrakov, D.; Erochin, S. A.; Harbor, J.; Ivanov, M.; Rogozhina, I.; Stroeven, A. P.; Usubaliev, R.

    2012-12-01

    Changes in glacier extent and runoff in Central Asia increase socio-economic stress and may result in political conflict between donors of freshwater (Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan) and recipients of freshwater (Uzbekistan, China). Glaciers in the Pamir and Tian Shan regions have experienced an unprecedented downwasting due to regional climate changes over the past decades. This is because air temperature increases are in some areas accompanied by a decrease in precipitation. Such conditions have already resulted in a reduction of glacier runoff, especially in the northern and western Tian Shan, and an increase of the number and area of glacial lakes in Kyrgyzstan. Even though glacial lakes in the mountains are in general relatively small and located far from densely populated areas, their outbursts often produce destructive debris flows. Such debris flows are especially common in Kyrgyzstan because of its steep river channels and abundance of Holocene and Quaternary glacier deposits that can be remobilized. The glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) in the Shakhimardan river catchment in 1999, for example, resulted in 100 fatalities in Uzbekistan, and the GLOF from the Zyndan glacial lake led to substantial economic losses in 2009. According to the latest inventory, there are more than 350 glacial lakes in Kyrgyzstan of which about 70 occur in the Kyrgyz Ala Too. The Ala-Archa valley is among the most important glacierized catchments in Kyrgyzstan. Despite the presence of a relatively small glacier-covered area of 36 km2, the Ala-Archa river is of critical importance to the Bishkek area, its agriculture, and its population which currently exceeds one million. GLOFs are therefore a threat to both numerous settlements of touristic value in the Ala-Archa headwaters and to Bishkek. The Teztor lake in the Adygene catchment of the Ala-Archa river system experienced an outburst during 1988 and 2005. On the early morning of July 31, 2012, this lake began draining through a dam

  9. Multi-modal two-step floating catchment area analysis of primary health care accessibility.

    PubMed

    Langford, Mitchel; Higgs, Gary; Fry, Richard

    2016-03-01

    Two-step floating catchment area (2SFCA) techniques are popular for measuring potential geographical accessibility to health care services. This paper proposes methodological enhancements to increase the sophistication of the 2SFCA methodology by incorporating both public and private transport modes using dedicated network datasets. The proposed model yields separate accessibility scores for each modal group at each demand point to better reflect the differential accessibility levels experienced by each cohort. An empirical study of primary health care facilities in South Wales, UK, is used to illustrate the approach. Outcomes suggest the bus-riding cohort of each census tract experience much lower accessibility levels than those estimated by an undifferentiated (car-only) model. Car drivers' accessibility may also be misrepresented in an undifferentiated model because they potentially profit from the lower demand placed upon service provision points by bus riders. The ability to specify independent catchment sizes for each cohort in the multi-modal model allows aspects of preparedness to travel to be investigated. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  10. Terrain representation impact on periurban catchment morphological properties

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rodriguez, F.; Bocher, E.; Chancibault, K.

    2013-04-01

    SummaryModelling the hydrological behaviour of suburban catchments requires an estimation of environmental features, including land use and hydrographic networks. Suburban areas display a highly heterogeneous composition and encompass many anthropogenic elements that affect water flow paths, such as ditches, sewers, culverts and embankments. The geographical data available, either raster or vector data, may be of various origins and resolutions. Urban databases often offer very detailed data for sewer networks and 3D streets, yet the data covering rural zones may be coarser. This study is intended to highlight the sensitivity of geographical data as well as the data discretisation method used on the essential features of a periurban catchment, i.e. the catchment border and the drainage network. Three methods are implemented for this purpose. The first is the DEM (for digital elevation model) treatment method, which has traditionally been applied in the field of catchment hydrology. The second is based on urban database analysis and focuses on vector data, i.e. polygons and segments. The third method is a TIN (or triangular irregular network), which provides a consistent description of flow directions from an accurate representation of slope. It is assumed herein that the width function is representative of the catchment's hydrological response. The periurban Chézine catchment, located within the Nantes metropolitan area in western France, serves as the case study. The determination of both the main morphological features and the hydrological response of a suburban catchment varies significantly according to the discretization method employed, especially on upstream rural areas. Vector- and TIN-based methods allow representing the higher drainage density of urban areas, and consequently reveal the impact of these areas on the width function, since the DEM method fails. TINs seem to be more appropriate to take streets into account, because it allows a finer

  11. The distribution of catchment coverage by stationary rainstorms

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Eagleson, P. S.

    1984-01-01

    The occurrence of wetted rainstorm area within a catchment is modeled as a Poisson arrival process in which each storm is composed of stationary, nonoverlapping, independent random cell clusters whose centers are Poisson-distributed in space and whose areas are fractals. The two Poisson parameters and hence the first two moments of the wetted fraction are derived in terms of catchment average characteristics of the (observable) station precipitation. The model is used to estimate spatial properties of tropical air mass thunderstorms on six tropical catchments in the Sudan.

  12. Bathymetric map, area/capacity table, and sediment volume estimate for Millwood Lake near Ashdown, Arkansas, 2013

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Richards, Joseph M.; Green, W. Reed

    2013-01-01

    Millwood Lake, in southwestern Arkansas, was constructed and is operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) for flood-risk reduction, water supply, and recreation. The lake was completed in 1966 and it is likely that with time sedimentation has resulted in the reduction of storage capacity of the lake. The loss of storage capacity can cause less water to be available for water supply, and lessens the ability of the lake to mitigate flooding. Excessive sediment accumulation also can cause a reduction in aquatic habitat in some areas of the lake. Although many lakes operated by the USACE have periodic bathymetric and sediment surveys, none have been completed for Millwood Lake. In March 2013, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the USACE, surveyed the bathymetry of Millwood Lake to prepare an updated bathymetric map and area/capacity table. The USGS also collected sediment thickness data in June 2013 to estimate the volume of sediment accumulated in the lake.

  13. Importance of bottom-up approach in water management - sustainable development of catchment areas in Croatia

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pavic, M.; Cosic-Flajsig, G.; Petricec, M.; Blazevic, Z.

    2012-04-01

    Association for preservation of Croatian waters and sea SLAP is a non-governmental organization (NGO) that gathers more than 150 scientist, hydrologist and civil engineers. SLAP has been established in 2006 and since then had organized many conferences and participated in projects dealing with water management. We have started our work developing plans to secure water supply to the 22 (21) villages in the rural parts of Dubrovnik (Pozega) area and trough the years we have accumulated knowledge and experience in dealing with stakeholders in hydrology and water management. Within this paper we will present importance of bottom-up approach to the stakeholders in water management in Croatia on two case studies: (1) Management of River Trebizat catchment area - irrigation of the Imotsko-Bekijsko rural parts; (2) Development of multipurpose water reservoirs at the River Orljava catchment area. Both projects were designed in the mid and late 1980's but due to the war were forgotten and on halt. River Trebizat meanders between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina and acquires joint management by both countries. In 2010 and 2011 SLAP has organized conferences in both countries gathering all the relevant stakeholders from representatives of local and state governments, water management companies and development agencies to the scientist and interested NGO's. The conferences gave firm scientific background of the topic including presentation of all previous studies and measurements as well as model results but presented in manner appropriate to the stakeholders. The main result of the conference was contribution to the development of joint cross-border project sent to the EU Pre-Accession funds in December 2011 with the aim to strengthen capacities of both countries and prepare larger project dealing with management of the whole Trebizat catchment area to EU structural funds once Croatia enters EU in 2013. Similar approach was taken for the Orljava catchment in the northern

  14. Lake ecosystem response to rapid lateglacial climate changes in lake sediments from northern Poland

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Słowiński, Michał; Zawiska, Izabela; Ott, Florian; Noryśkiewicz, Agnieszka M.; Apolinarska, Karina; Lutyńska, Monika; Michczyńska, Danuta J.; Brauer, Achim; Wulf, Sabine; Skubała, Piotr; Błaszkiewicz, Mirosław

    2013-04-01

    During the Late Glacial Period environment changes were triggered by climatic oscillations which in turn controlled processes like, for example, permafrost thawing, vegetation development and ground water circulation. These environmental changes are ideally recorded in lake sediments and thus can be reconstructed applying a multi-poxy approach. Here, we present the results from the Trzechowskie paleolake, located in the northern Polish lowlands (eastern part of the Pomeranian Lakeland). The site is situated on the outwash plain of the Wda River, which was formed during the Pomeranian phase of the Vistulian glaciation ca 16,000 14C yrs BP. The depression of the Trzechowskie lake basin formed after melting of a buried ice block during the Allerød (13903±170 cal yrs BP). We reconstructed environmental changes in the Trzechowskie paleolake and its catchment using biotic proxies (macrofossils, pollen, cladocera, diatoms, oribatidae mite) and geochemical proxies (δ18O, δ13C, loss-on-ignition (LOI), CaCO3 content). In addition, we carried out µ-XRF element core scanning. The chronology has been established by means of biostratigraphyAMS14C dating on plant macro remains, varve counting in laminated intervals and the late Allerød Laacher See Tephra isochrone. Our results showed that biogenic accumulation in the lake started during the Bølling. Development of coniferous forest during the Allerød with dominance of Pinus sylvestris lead to leaching of carbonates in the catchment due to low pH increasing the flux of Ca ions into the lake. In consequence calcite precipitating in the lake increased as evidences by increasing CaCO3 contents. Both biotic and physical proxies clearly reflect the rapid decrease in productivity at the onset of the Younger Dryas. We compare the data from the Trzechowskie paleolake with the Meerfelder Maar and Rehwiese lake records based on tephrochronological synchronization using the Laacher See Tephra. This study is a contribution to the

  15. Spatial and temporal variations of Rb/Sr ratios of the bulk surface sediments in Lake Qinghai

    PubMed Central

    2010-01-01

    The Rb/Sr ratios of lake sediments have been suggested as indicators of weathering intensity by increasing work. However, the geochemistry of Rb/Sr ratios of lake sediments is variable between different lakes. In this study, we investigated the spatial and temporal patterns of Rb/Sr ratios, as well as those of other major elements in surface sediments of Lake Qinghai. We find that the spatial pattern of Rb/Sr ratios of the bulk sediments correlates well with that of the mass accumulation rate, and those of the terrigenous fractions, e.g., SiO2, Ti, and Fe. The temporal variations of Rb/Sr ratios also synchronize with those of SiO2, Ti, and Fe of each individual core. These suggest that Rb/Sr ratios of the surface sediments are closely related to terrigenous input from the catchment. Two out of eight cores show similar trends between Rb/Sr ratios and precipitation indices on decadal scales; however, the other cores do not show such relationship. The result of this study suggests that physical weathering and chemical weathering in Lake Qinghai catchment have opposite influence on Rb/Sr ratios of the bulk sediments, and they compete in dominating the Rb/Sr ratios of lake sediments on different spatial and temporal scales. Therefore, it is necessary to study the geochemistry of Rb/Sr ratio of lake sediments (especially that on short term timescales) particularly before it is used as an indicator of weathering intensity of the catchment. PMID:20615264

  16. Catchment area-based evaluation of the AMC-dependent SCS-CN-based rainfall-runoff models

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mishra, S. K.; Jain, M. K.; Pandey, R. P.; Singh, V. P.

    2005-09-01

    Using a large set of rainfall-runoff data from 234 watersheds in the USA, a catchment area-based evaluation of the modified version of the Mishra and Singh (2002a) model was performed. The model is based on the Soil Conservation Service Curve Number (SCS-CN) methodology and incorporates the antecedent moisture in computation of direct surface runoff. Comparison with the existing SCS-CN method showed that the modified version performed better than did the existing one on the data of all seven area-based groups of watersheds ranging from 0.01 to 310.3 km2.

  17. Remote sensing and GIS for mapping groundwater recharge and discharge areas in salinity prone catchments, southeastern Australia

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tweed, Sarah O.; Leblanc, Marc; Webb, John A.; Lubczynski, Maciek W.

    2007-02-01

    Identifying groundwater recharge and discharge areas across catchments is critical for implementing effective strategies for salinity mitigation, surface-water and groundwater resource management, and ecosystem protection. In this study, a synergistic approach has been developed, which applies a combination of remote sensing and geographic information system (GIS) techniques to map groundwater recharge and discharge areas. This approach is applied to an unconfined basalt aquifer, in a salinity and drought prone region of southeastern Australia. The basalt aquifer covers ~11,500 km2 in an agriculturally intensive region. A review of local hydrogeological processes allowed a series of surface and subsurface indicators of groundwater recharge and discharge areas to be established. Various remote sensing and GIS techniques were then used to map these surface indicators including: terrain analysis, monitoring of vegetation activity, and mapping of infiltration capacity. All regions where groundwater is not discharging to the surface were considered potential recharge areas. This approach, applied systematically across a catchment, provides a framework for mapping recharge and discharge areas. A key component in assigning surface and subsurface indicators is the relevance to the dominant recharge and discharge processes occurring and the use of appropriate remote sensing and GIS techniques with the capacity to identify these processes.

  18. The Cottonwood Lake study area, a long-term wetland ecosystem monitoring site

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Mushet, David M.; Euliss, Ned H.

    2012-01-01

    The Cottonwood Lake study area is one of only three long-term wetland ecosystem monitoring sites in the prairie pothole region of North America; the other two are Orchid Meadows in South Dakota and St. Denis in Saskatchewan. Of the three, Cottonwood Lake has, by far, the longest continuous data-collection record. Research was initiated at the study area in 1966, and intensive investigations of the hydrology, chemistry, and biology of prairie pothole wetlands continue at the site today. This fact sheet describes the study area, provides an overview of wetland ecology research that has been conducted at the site in the past, and provides an introduction to current work being conducted at the study area by USGS scientists.

  19. 77 FR 30320 - General Management Plan/Environmental Impact Statement, Ross Lake National Recreation Area, North...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-05-22

    ... Management Plan/Environmental Impact Statement, Ross Lake National Recreation Area, North Cascades National... Impact Statement for the new General Management Plan (GMP) for Ross Lake National Recreation Area, part... Wilderness Act of 1988. The full range of foreseeable environmental consequences from implementing the...

  20. Relict rock glaciers in alpine catchments: A regional study in Central Austria

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kellerer-Pirklbauer, Andreas; Pauritsch, Marcus; Winkler, Gerfried

    2013-04-01

    Alpine catchments represent an important freshwater source in many regions. Catchments in the subalpine to nival altitudinal levels are generally characterised by higher precipitation, lower evapotranspiration and consequently higher discharge rates compared to lower elevated areas of the montane and foothill levels of the same region. Particularly in crystalline mountain regions in the mid- to high latitudes glacial and periglacial sediments cover larger areas and form important aquifers in alpine catchments. Typical periglacial landforms in mountain areas are rock glaciers. Relict rock glaciers consist of sediment accumulations without permafrost at present. This rock glacier type has a strong influence on water storage capacities and discharge behaviour of the catchments. The hydraulic properties of rock glaciers have a positive impact on flood-risk reduction and the riparian ecology below rock glacier springs during dry periods. Furthermore, the exceptional high discharge rates at springs at the front of relict rock glaciers compared to nearby non-rock glacier springs are also of economic interest. Knowledge about morphometric characteristics of rock glacier catchments helps to increase the understanding of the groundwater system and discharge dynamics of rock glaciers. In this context the main objectives of our study are (a) to assess and quantitatively describe rock glacier catchments at a regional scale by analysing different morphometric parameters of the catchments and (b) to combine the rock glacier catchment properties with water balance data. In doing so, at first an inventory of 295 rock glacier catchments was established for the 2440 km² large study area (Niedere Tauern Range, Styria) in Central Austria ranging from 590 to 2862 m a.s.l.. In a second step, the inventory data were combined with area-wide precipitation, discharge and evapotranspiration data. Results reveal that 108 km² or 4.4% of the entire study area belongs to rock glacier catchments

  1. The Lake-Catchment (LakeCat) Dataset: Characterizing landscape features for lake basins within the conterminous USA

    EPA Science Inventory

    Natural and human-related landscape features influence the ecology and water quality within lakes. It is critical, therefore, to quantify landscape features in a hydrologically meaningful way to effectively manage these important ecosystems. Such summaries of the landscape are of...

  2. Reviewing Landmark Nitrogen Cap and Trade Legislation in New Zealand's Taupo Catchment: What Have We Learned after 5+ Years?

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Baisden, W. T.; Hamilton, D. P.

    2014-12-01

    In 2007, the first cap and trade legislation for a catchment nitrogen (N) budget was enacted to protect water quality in New Zealand's iconic Lake Taupo. The clarity of the 616 km² N-limited oligotrophic lake was declining due to human-induced increases in N losses from the 3,487 km² catchment. Focus was placed on reversing increases in N inputs from agriculture, and to a lesser degree sewerage sources. The legislation imposed a cap equal to 20% reduction in the N inputs to the lake, and enabled trading. The landmark legislation could have failed during appeal. Sources of disagreement included the N budgeting model and grand-parenting method that benchmarked the N leaching of individual farms. The N leaching rates for key land uses were also a major battleground, with strong effects on the viability of trading and relative value of enterprises. Sufficient science was applied to resolve the substantive issues in the appeal by 2008. Crucially, the decision recognized that N inputs to the "N cascade" mattered more than leaching evidence including land-use legacies. Other catchment cap-and-trade schemes followed. Rotorua Lakes had already capped inputs and established a ~33% N input reduction target after acceptance of a trading scheme compatible with groundwater lag times. In the Upper Manawatu catchment, a cap-and-trade scheme now governs river N loads in a more typical farming region, with an innovative allocation scheme based on the natural capital of soils. Collectively, these schemes have succeeded in imposing a cap, and signaling the intention of reductions over time. I conclude with common themes in the successes, and examine the role of science in the success and ongoing implementation. Central to success has been the role of science in framing N budgets at farm and catchment scales. Long-term data has been invaluable, despite the need to correct biases. Cap-and-trade policies alter future science needs toward reducing uncertainty in overall budgets, the

  3. Mass-movement and flood-induced deposits in Lake Ledro, southern Alps, Italy: implications for Holocene palaeohydrology and natural hazards

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Simonneau, A.; Chapron, E.; Vannière, B.; Wirth, S. B.; Gilli, A.; Di Giovanni, C.; Anselmetti, F. S.; Desmet, M.; Magny, M.

    2013-03-01

    High-resolution seismic profiles and sediment cores from Lake Ledro combined with soil and riverbed samples from the lake's catchment area are used to assess the recurrence of natural hazards (earthquakes and flood events) in the southern Italian Alps during the Holocene. Two well-developed deltas and a flat central basin are identified on seismic profiles in Lake Ledro. Lake sediments have been finely laminated in the basin since 9000 cal. yr BP and frequently interrupted by two types of sedimentary events (SEs): light-coloured massive layers and dark-coloured graded beds. Optical analysis (quantitative organic petrography) of the organic matter present in soil, riverbed and lacustrine samples together with lake sediment bulk density and grain-size analysis illustrate that light-coloured layers consist of a mixture of lacustrine sediments and mainly contain algal particles similar to the ones observed in background sediments. Light-coloured layers thicker than 1.5 cm in the main basin of Lake Ledro are synchronous to numerous coeval mass-wasting deposits remoulding the slopes of the basin. They are interpreted as subaquatic mass-movements triggered by historical and pre-historical regional earthquakes dated to AD 2005, AD 1891, AD 1045 and 1260, 2545, 2595, 3350, 3815, 4740, 7190, 9185 and 11 495 cal. yr BP. Dark-coloured SEs develop high-amplitude reflections in front of the deltas and in the deep central basin. These beds are mainly made of terrestrial organic matter (soils and lignocellulosic debris) and are interpreted as resulting from intense hyperpycnal flood event. Mapping and quantifying the amount of soil material accumulated in the Holocene hyperpycnal flood deposits of the sequence allow estimating that the equivalent soil thickness eroded over the catchment area reached up to 5 mm during the largest Holocene flood events. Such significant soil erosion is interpreted as resulting from the combination of heavy rainfall and snowmelt. The recurrence of

  4. Identification of phosphorus emission hotspots in agricultural catchments

    PubMed Central

    Kovacs, Adam; Honti, Mark; Zessner, Matthias; Eder, Alexander; Clement, Adrienne; Blöschl, Günter

    2012-01-01

    An enhanced transport-based management approach is presented, which is able to support cost-effective water quality management with respect to diffuse phosphorus pollution. Suspended solids and particulate phosphorus emissions and their transport were modeled in two hilly agricultural watersheds (Wulka River in Austria and Zala River in Hungary) with an improved version of the catchment-scale PhosFate model. Source and transmission areas were ranked by an optimization method in order to provide a priority list of the areas of economically efficient (optimal) management alternatives. The model was calibrated and validated at different gauges and for various years. The spatial distribution of the emissions shows that approximately one third of the catchment area is responsible for the majority of the emissions. However, only a few percent of the source areas can transport fluxes to the catchment outlet. These effective source areas, together with the main transmission areas are potential candidates for improved management practices. In accordance with the critical area concept, it was shown that intervention with better management practices on a properly selected small proportion of the total area (1–3%) is sufficient to reach a remarkable improvement in water quality. If soil nutrient management is also considered in addition to water quality, intervention on 4–12% of the catchment areas can fulfill both aspects. PMID:22771465

  5. An evaluation of catchment-scale phosphorus mitigation using load apportionment modelling.

    PubMed

    Greene, S; Taylor, D; McElarney, Y R; Foy, R H; Jordan, P

    2011-05-01

    Functional relationships between phosphorus (P) discharge and concentration mechanisms were explored using a load apportionment model (LAM) developed for use in a freshwater catchment in Ireland with fourteen years of data (1995-2008). The aim of model conceptualisation was to infer changes in point and diffuse sources from catchment P loading during P mitigation, based upon a dataset comprising geospatial and water quality data from a 256km(2) lake catchment in an intensively farmed drumlin region of the midlands of Ireland. The model was calibrated using river total P (TP), molybdate reactive P (MRP) and runoff data from seven subcatchments. Temporal and spatial heterogeneity of P sources existed within and between subcatchments; these were attributed to differences in agricultural intensity, soil type and anthropogenically-sourced effluent P loading. Catchment rivers were sensitive to flow regime, which can result in eutrophication of rivers during summer and lake enrichment from frequent flood events. For one sewage impacted river, the LAM estimated that point sourced P contributed up to of 90% of annual MRP load delivered during a hydrological year and in this river point P sources dominated flows up to 92% of days. In the other rivers, despite diffuse P forming a majority of the annual P exports, point sources of P dominated flows for up to 64% of a hydrological year. The calibrated model demonstrated that lower P export rates followed specific P mitigation measures. The LAM estimated up to 80% decreases in point MRP load after enhanced P removal at waste water treatments plants in urban subcatchments and the implementation of septic tank and agricultural bye-laws in rural subcatchments. The LAM approach provides a way to assess the long-term effectiveness of further measures to reduce P loadings in EU (International) River Basin Districts and subcatchments. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  6. Area characteristics and admission rates of people with schizophrenia and affective disorders in a German rural catchment area.

    PubMed

    Losert, C; Schmauß, M; Becker, T; Kilian, R

    2012-12-01

    Studies in urban areas identified environmental risk factors for mental illness, but little research on this topic has been performed in rural areas. Hospital admission rates were computed for 174 rural municipalities in the catchment area of the state psychiatric hospital in Günzburg in years 2006 to 2009 and combined with structural and socio-economic data. Relationships of overall and diagnosis-specific admission rates with municipality characteristics were analysed by means of negative binomial regression models. Admission rates of patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia and affective disorder combined decrease with increasing population growth, population density, average income and green areas, while admission rates are positively correlated with commuter balance, income inequality, unemployment rates and traffic areas. Admission rates for schizophrenia are negatively related to population growth, average income and agricultural areas, but positively related to mobility index, income inequality and unemployment rate. Admission rates for affective disorders are negatively related to population growth, population density, average income and green areas, while higher admission rates are correlated with commuter balance, high income inequality, unemployment rate and traffic-related areas. Effects of wealth, economic inequality, population density and structural area characteristics influence psychiatric admission rates also in rural areas.

  7. Impact of Holocene terrestrial vegetation succession on the biogeochemical structure and function of an Arctic lake, Alaska

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Langdon, P. G.; Whiteford, E.; Hopla, E.; van Hardenbroek, M.; Turner, S.; Edwards, M. E.; Jones, V.; McGowan, S.; Wiik, E.; Anderson, N. J.

    2016-12-01

    Vegetation changes are occurring in the Arctic as warming progresses, a process often referred to as "greening". The northward expansion of woody shrubs influence nutrient cycling in soils, including carbon (C) cycling, but the extent to which they will change the storage or release of carbon at a landscape scale is uncertain. The role that lakes play in this system is not fully understood, but it is known that many lakes in the tundra and northern forests are today releasing carbon dioxide (and methane) into the atmosphere in significant amounts, and a proportion of this carbon comes into the lake from the vegetation and soils of the surrounding landscape. Furthermore, the number of lakes contributing to this gas release has been hitherto underestimated, and it is thus likely that lakes play a far greater role in terms of total gas emissions. In order to assess the relationships between vegetation succession and lake biogeochemical cycling we have studied palaeoenvironmental change in a suite of lakes across the Arctic in a NERC funded project LAC (Lakes and the Arctic Carbon Cycle). This abstract is focused on a full Holocene sequence from an Alaskan Lake (Woody Bottom Pond), with palaeo records of major elements (scanning XRF), diatoms, pollen, stable isotopes and pigments. The small size of the catchment likely leads to strong coupling between catchment processes such as vegetation succession and fire and aquatic biogeochemical responses. For example the arrival of alder is followed by marked shift in diatom assemblage and pigments associated with changes in N cycling. This approach allows us to assess how catchment change affects aquatic ecosystems and the resultant balance between heterotrophy and autotrophy in arctic lakes over long timescales.

  8. Effects of model structure and catchment discretization on discharge simulation in a small forest catchment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Spieler, Diana; Schwarze, Robert; Schütze, Niels

    2017-04-01

    In the past a variety of different modeling approaches has been developed in catchment hydrology. Even though there is no argument on the relevant processes taking place, there is no unified theory on how best to represent them computationally. Thus a vast number of models has been developed, varying from lumped models to physically based models. Most of them have a more or less fixed model structure and follow the "one fits all" paradigm. However, a more flexible approach could improve model realism by designing catchment specific model structures based on data availability. This study focuses on applying the flexible hydrological modelling framework RAVEN (Craig et al., 2013), to systematically test several conceptual model structures on the 19 km2 Große Ohe Catchment in the Bavarian Forest (Germany). By combining RAVEN with the DREAM algorithm (Vrugt et al., 2009), the relationship between catchment characteristics, model structure, parameter uncertainty and data availability are analyzed. The model structure is progressively developed based on the available data of the well observed forested catchment area. In a second step, the impact of the catchment discretization is analyzed by testing different spatial resolutions of topographic input data.

  9. Heavy Metal Pollution of Lakes along the Mid-Lower Reaches of the Yangtze River in China: Intensity, Sources and Spatial Patterns

    PubMed Central

    Zeng, Haiao; Wu, Jinglu

    2013-01-01

    Lakes in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River form a shallow lake group unique in the World that is becoming increasingly polluted by heavy metals. Previous studies have largely focused on individual lakes, with limited exploration of the regional pattern of heavy metal pollution of the lake group in this area. This paper explores the sources, intensity and spatial patterns of heavy metal pollution of lake sediments. A total of 45 sample lakes were selected and the concentrations of key metal elements in the sediments of each lake were measured. The cluster analysis (CA), principal component analysis (PCA) and Geo-accumulation index (Ig) analysis permitted analysis of the source and pollution intensity of the target lakes. Results suggested a notable spatial variation amongst the sample lakes. Lakes in the upper part of the lower reach of the Yangtze River surrounded by typical urban landscapes were strongly or extremely polluted, with high concentrations of Pb, Zn, Cu and Cd in their sediments. This was attributed to large amount of untreated industrial discharges and municipal sewage produced within the lake catchments. In contrast, the heavy-metal pollution of lakes in the Taihu Delta area was notably lower due to industrial restructuring and implementation of effective environmental protection measures. Lakes along the middle reach of Yangtze River surrounded by agricultural areas were unpolluted to moderately polluted by heavy metals overall. Our results suggested that lakes in the central part of China require immediate attention and efforts should be made to implement management plans to prevent further degradation of water quality in these lakes. PMID:23442559

  10. Spatially distributed rockfall activity inferred from talus deposits and corresponding rockwall areas in the Gradenbach catchment (Schober Mountains, Austria)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Götz, Joachim; Buckel, Johannes; Heckmann, Tobias

    2013-04-01

    The analysis of alpine sediment cascades requires the identification, differentiation and quantification of sediment sources, storages, and transport processes. This study deals with the origin of alpine sediment transfer and relates primary talus deposits to corresponding rockwall source areas within the Gradenbach catchment (Schober Mountains, Austrian Alps). Sediment storage landforms are based on a detailed geomorphological map of the catchment which was generated to analyse the sediment transfer system. Mapping was mainly performed in the field and supplemented by post-mapping analysis using LIDAR data and digital orthophotos. A fundamental part of the mapping procedure was to capture additional landform-based information with respect to morphometry, activity and connectivity. The applied procedure provides a detailed inventory of sediment storage landforms including additional information on surface characteristics, dominant and secondary erosion and deposition processes, process activity and sediment storage coupling. We develop the working hypothesis that the present-day surface area ratio between rockfall talus (area as a proxy for volume, backed by geophysical analysis of selected talus cones) and corresponding rockwall source area is a measure of rockfall activity since deglaciation; large talus cones derived from small rockwall catchments indicate high activity, while low activity can be inferred where rockfall from large rock faces has created only small deposits. The surface area ratio of talus and corresponding rockwalls is analysed using a landform-based and a process-based approach. For the landform-based approach, we designed a GIS procedure which derives the (hydrological) catchment area of the contact lines of talus and rockwall landforms in the geomorphological map. The process-based approach simulates rockfall trajectories from steep (>45°) portions of a DEM generated by a random-walk rockfall model. By back-tracing those trajectories that

  11. Changes in surface area of the Böön Tsagaan and Orog lakes (Mongolia, Valley of the Lakes, 1974-2013) compared to climate and permafrost changes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Szumińska, Danuta

    2016-07-01

    The main aim of the study is the analysis of changes in surface area of lake Böön Tsagaan (45°35‧N, 99°8‧E) and lake Orog (45°3‧N, 100°44‧E) taking place in the last 40 years in the context of climate conditions and permafrost degradation. The lakes, located in Central Mongolia, at the borderline of permafrost range are fed predominantly by river waters and groundwater from the surrounding mountain areas, characterized by continuous and discontinuous permafrost occurrence - mostly the Khangai. The analysis of the Böön Tsagaan and Orog lake surface area in 1974-2013 was conducted based on satellite images, whereas climate conditions were analysed using the NOAA climate data and CRU dataset. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used to study the relationship patterns between the climatic factors and changes in the surface area of the lakes. A tendency for a decrease in surface area, intermittent with short episodes of resupply, was observed in both studied lakes. Climate changes recorded in the analysed period had both direct and indirect impacts on water supply to lakes. Taking into account the results of PCA analysis, the most significant factors include: fluctuation of annual precipitation, increase in air temperature and thickness of snow cover. The extended duration of snow cover in the last decades of the 20th century may constitute a key factor in relation to permafrost degradation.

  12. Archaeological Investigations in the Gainesville Lake Area of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway. Volume I. The Gainesville Lake Area Excavations.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1981-01-01

    97 71. Site 1Pi61, Removing Trees ........ .................. . 97 72. Site lPi6l, Testing the Midden ....... ................ . 97 6...the use of plant and animal species changes through time. Volume IV also describes the human skeletal remains from all excavated sites and discusses the...Gainesville Lake area were cultural features. A few 5 features resulted from forces other than human behavior ( tree roots, ro- dent burrows, erosional gullies

  13. Climatic and lake temperature data for Wetland P1, Cottonwood Lake Area, Stutsman County, North Dakota, 1982-87

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Parkhurst, Renee S.; Sturrock, A.M.; Rosenberry, D.O.; Winter, T.C.

    1995-01-01

    Research on the hydrology of Wetland P1 and the Cottonwood Lake Area includes the study of evaporation. Presented here in a graphical format are those data collected during the open-water seasons of 1982-87 that were needed for energy- budget and mass-transfer evaporation studies. The data include air temperatures, water surface and lake-bottom temperatures, windspeed, radiation, humidity, and precipitation. Data were collected at a raft station and two land stations.

  14. Modelling metaldehyde in catchments: a River Thames case-study.

    PubMed

    Lu, Q; Whitehead, P G; Bussi, G; Futter, M N; Nizzetto, L

    2017-04-19

    The application of metaldehyde to agricultural catchment areas to control slugs and snails has caused severe problems for drinking water supply in recent years. In the River Thames catchment, metaldehyde has been detected at levels well above the EU and UK drinking water standards of 0.1 μg l -1 at many sites across the catchment between 2008 and 2015. Metaldehyde is applied in autumn and winter, leading to its increased concentrations in surface waters. It is shown that a process-based hydro-biogeochemical transport model (INCA-contaminants) can be used to simulate metaldehyde transport in catchments from areas of application to the aquatic environment. Simulations indicate that high concentrations in the river system are a direct consequence of excessive application rates. A simple application control strategy for metaldehyde in the Thames catchment based on model results is presented.

  15. Non-Linear Response to Holocene Insolation Forcing Recorded by High-Resolution Lake Sediment Records Across Iceland

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Geirsdottir, A.; Miller, G. H.; Axford, Y.

    2009-12-01

    Many Icelandic lakes have sedimentation rates in excess of 1 m ka-1 throughout the Holocene. Such high rates offer the potential for decadally resolved (or better) records of environmental change at this sensitive North Atlantic site. Abundant well-defined tephra provide a secure geochronology. The fidelity of the common climate proxies biogenic silica (BSi) and total organic carbon (TOC), was tested by comparing these proxies in three lakes with very different catchment characteristics. Hestvatn (HST, 60 m deep) in southern Iceland receives overflow from a large river originating in the glaciated highlands of central Iceland, whereas the nearby lake Vestra Gislholtsvatn (VGHV, 15 m deep) has a small, low elevation catchment without glaciers. Haukadalsvatn (HAK, 42 m deep), in northwestern Iceland, has a large, high relief catchment. The BSi record from HAK has been shown to reflect April-May temperatures, with BSi highest when spring temperatures are at their maximum. The first- and second-order trends in BSi are similar in all three lakes for most of the Holocene. This supports the contention that BSi reflects primary productivity, and is less influenced by changes in sedimentation rate. In all three lakes, BSi reaches a maximum value shortly after 8 ka, and then declines gradually toward present, reflecting a relatively late Holocene thermal maximum, potentially due to the influence of meltwater from the lingering Laurentide Ice Sheet. A steady reduction in summer insolation determines this first-order trend towards lower BSi through the middle and late Holocene. Large, abrupt departures from the overall decrease in BSi characterize all three records after 8 ka. Following each rapid BSi decrease, BSi usually exhibits a step-function change, re-equilibrating at a lower BSi value. Some of the strongest departures (ca. 6 ka, 4 to 4.5 ka and ca. 3 ka) may be related to Icelandic volcanism, but the lack of a full recovery to pre-existing values after the eruptions

  16. Changes in water and sediment exchange between the Changjiang River and Poyang Lake under natural and anthropogenic conditions, China.

    PubMed

    Gao, Jian Hua; Jia, Jianjun; Kettner, Albert J; Xing, Fei; Wang, Ya Ping; Xu, Xia Nan; Yang, Yang; Zou, Xin Qing; Gao, Shu; Qi, Shuhua; Liao, Fuqiang

    2014-05-15

    To study the fluvial interaction between Changjiang River and Poyang Lake, we analyze the observed changes of riverine flux of the mid-upstream of Changjiang River catchment, the five river systems of Poyang Lake and Poyang Lake basin. Inter-annual and seasonal variations of the water discharge and sediment exchange processes between Changjiang River and Poyang Lake are systematically explored to determine the influence of climate change as well as human impact (especially the Three Gorges Dam (TGD)). Results indicate that climate variation for the Changjiang catchment and Poyang Lake watershed is the main factor determining the changes of water exchanges between Changjiang River and Poyang Lake. However, human activities (including the emplacement of the TGD) accelerated this rate of change. Relative to previous years (1956-1989), the water discharge outflow from Poyang Lake during the dry season towards the Changjiang catchment increased by 8.98 km(3)y(-1) during 2003-2010. Evidently, the water discharge flowing into Poyang Lake during late April-late May decreased. As a consequence, water storage of Poyang Lake significantly reduced during late April-late May, resulting in frequent spring droughts after 2003. The freshwater flux of Changjiang River towards Poyang Lake is less during the flood season as well, significantly lowering the magnitude and frequency of the backflow of the Changjiang River during 2003-2010. Human activities, especially the emplacement and operation of the TGD and sand mining at Poyang Lake impose a major impact on the variation of sediment exchange between Changjiang main river and Poyang Lake. On average, sediments from Changjiang River deposited in Poyang Lake before 2000. After 2000, Changjiang River no longer supplied sediment to Poyang Lake. As a consequence, the sediment load of Changjiang River entering the sea increasingly exists of sediments from Lake Poyang during 2003-2010. As a result, Poyang Lake converted from a

  17. 75 FR 6218 - New Melones Lake Area Resource Management Plan, Tuolumne and Calaveras Counties, CA

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-02-08

    ... DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Bureau of Reclamation New Melones Lake Area Resource Management Plan...) has made available for public review a Final RMP/EIS for the New Melones Lake Area. The Final RMP/EIS... Dan Holsapple, Acting New Melones Resource Manager, Bureau of Reclamation, at 209-536- 9094...

  18. Comorbid mental disorders in substance users from a single catchment area - a clinical study

    PubMed Central

    2011-01-01

    Background The optimal treatment of patients with substance use disorders (SUDs) requires an awareness of their comorbid mental disorders and vice versa. The prevalence of comorbidity in first-time-admitted SUD patients has been insufficiently studied. Diagnosing comorbidity in substance users is complicated by symptom overlap, symptom fluctuations, and the limitations of the assessment methods. The aim of this study was to diagnose all mental disorders in substance users living in a single catchment area, without any history of treatment for addiction or psychiatric disorders, admitted consecutively to the specialist health services. The prevalence of substance-induced versus substance-independent disorders according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV), in SUD patients will be described. Methods First-time consecutively admitted patients from a single catchment area, aged 16 years or older, admitted to addiction clinics or departments of psychiatry as outpatients or inpatients will be screened for substance-related problems using the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test and the Drug Use Disorder Identification Test. All patients with scores above the cutoff value will be asked to participate in the study. The patients included will be diagnosed for SUD and other axis I disorders by a psychiatrist using the Psychiatric Research Interview for Substance and Mental Disorders. This interview was designed for the diagnosis of primary and substance-induced disorders in substance users. Personality disorders will be assessed according to the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV axis II disorders. The Symptom Checklist-90-Revised, the Inventory of Depressive Symptoms, the Montgomery Asberg Depression Rating Scale, the Young Mania Rating Scale, and the Angst Hypomania Check List will be used for additional diagnostic assessments. The sociodemographic data will be recorded with the Stanley Foundation's Network Entry

  19. Long-Term Remote Monitoring of Three Typical Lake Area Variations in the Northwest China Over the Past 40 Years

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liu, Y.; Lu, Y.; Li, Y.; Yue, H.

    2018-04-01

    water resources management and sustainable development strategy, but also provide reference for assessing the impact of climate change and human activities. This paper selects three inland lakes in Northwest China, using Landsat MSS/TM/ETM+/OLI data from 1970 to 2015, Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) and Modified Normalized Difference Water Index (MNDWI) were used to extract lake area and analysed the dynamic trends. Meteorological station rainfall, evaporation and other meteorological data of the lakes were used to analyse reasons for the area change. The results showed that area of Hongjiannao Lake in the past 40 a was reduced, the groundwater impoundment and underground coal mining are the main cause of area reduction; the area of Bosten Lake in recent 40 a showed a decreasing trend after the first increase, the area was mainly affected by the surface runoff and snowmelt; the area of Qinghai Lake in the past 40 a shows a trend of decreasing first and then increasing, the change of its area is mainly affected by regional precipitation and the inflow.

  20. View of Lake Mead and Las Vegas, Nevada area from Sklyab

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1973-01-01

    A vertical view of the Lake Mead and Las Vegas, Nevada area as photographed from Earth orbit by one of the six lenses of the Itek-furnished S190-A Multispectral Photographic Facility Experiment aboard the Skylab space station. Lake Mead is water of the Colorado River impounded by Hoover Dam. Most of the land in the picture is Nevada, however, a part of the northwest corner of Arizona can be seen.

  1. [Fleas on small mammals in the surrounding area of Erhai Lake].

    PubMed

    Dong, Wen-Ge; Guo, Xian-Guo; Men, Xing-Yuan; Gong, Zheng-Da; Wu, Dian; Zhang, Zheng-Kun; Zhang, Li-Yun

    2009-12-01

    To investigate the distribution pattern, species diversity and community structure of fleas on small mammals in the surrounding area of Erhai Lake, and the relationship between fleas and their hosts. Different geographical areas surrounding the Erhai Lake in Yunnan were selected as investigated spots. Small mammals were captured with baited cages. The cage-traps were examined and re-baited each morning. All fleas on the hosts were collected and identified. The richness (S), evenness (J'), diversity index (H'), dominance index (C'), total ectoparasite infestation rate (Rpt), total ectoparasite infestation index (Ipt), and constituent ratio (Cr) were used to measure the community structure. Altogether, 3,303 small mammals and 3,243 fleas were collected. From the 21 species of small mammal hosts, 13 species of fleas were identified. In southern area of the Lake, the species richness (21 species of small mammals & 12 species of fleas) was highest among the three selected areas. Seventeen species of small mammals and 8 species of fleas were found in eastern area, and only 13 species of small mammals and 7 species of fleas found in the west. This implied the probable influences of ecological environments on the fleas and their corresponding hosts. The community structure of fleas on small mammals was complex. The species diversity, species composition, community structure and distribution pattern of fleas were simultaneously influenced by the hosts' body surface microenvironment and the macroenvironment (habitat). The fleas are commonly distributed in small mammals in the areas and their communities are related to host species and the habitats.

  2. National Surface Water Survey, western wilderness area lakes: environmental assessment. Draft

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Not Available

    1985-03-01

    The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to sample 498 lakes in federally designated wilderness areas and national parks during the western part of the National Surface Water Survey (NSW). The NSWS has been undertaken to provide high quality data for evaluating the nature and extent of acid deposition throughout the United States. Sampling protocols established for the national survey call for the use of helicopters to gain access to lakes for sampling. Helicopters have already been used in the eastern and midwestern parts of the survey. The US Forest Service (FS) and the National Park Service (NPS) willmore » have to decide which sampling plan for wilderness areas, if any, can be approved under the Wilderness Act of 1964. This Environmental Assessment (EA) has been prepared to evaluate the environmental consequences of alternative means of gaining access to wilderness areas to meet the objectives of the NSWS. Based on this evaluation, EPA has reviewed the possible sampling alternatives and reached a conclusion on the preferred alternative. This assessment is being provided to the FS and the NPS for their use in evaluating the alternatives, including EPA's preferred one. As a result of its evaluation, EPA believes that wilderness area lakes should be included in the survey and that the preferred means of access is using helicopters. 94 references, 14 figures, 18 tables.« less

  3. Modeling pluvial flooding damage in urban environments: spatial relationships between citizens' complaints and overland catchment areas

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gaitan, Santiago; ten Veldhuis, Marie-Claire; van de Giesen, Nick

    2013-04-01

    Extreme weather events such as floods and storms are expected to cause severe economic losses in The Netherlands. Cumulative damage due to pluvial flooding can be considerable, especially in lowland areas where this type of floods occurs relatively frequently. Currently, in The Netherlands, water-related damages to property and contents are covered through private insurance. As pluvial flooding is becoming heavier and more likely to occur, sound modelling of damages is required to ensure that insurance systems are able to stand as an adaptation measure. Current damage models based on rainfall intensity, registries of insurance claims, and classifications of building types are unable to fully explain damage variability. Further developments assessing additional explanatory factors and reducing uncertainties, are required in order to significantly explain damage. In this study, urban topography is used as an explanatory factor for modelling of urban pluvial flooding. Flood damage is evaluated based on complaints data, a valuable resource for assessing vulnerability to urban pluvial flooding. Though previous research has shown coincidences between the localization of high complaint counts and large size catchments areas in Rotterdam, additional research is needed to establish the precise spatial relationship of those two variables. This additional task is the focus of the presented work. To that end a data base of complaints, that was made available by the Municipality Administration of the City, will be analysed. It comprises close to 36800 complaints from 2004 to 2011. The geographical position of the registries is aggregated into 4 to 6-digit Postal Code zones, which represents entire streets or relative positions along a street, respectively. The Municipality also provided the DEM, characterized by a spatial resolution of 0.5 m × 0.5 m, a vertical precision of 5 cm, and an accuracy better than two standard deviations of 15 cm. First the localization of complaints

  4. Aspects of the bottom sediment of Lake Nakaumi and Honjo area ~ featuring with organic matter and the Sulfides ~

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shinohara, R.

    2015-12-01

    Lake Nakaumi is a brackish water located at southwest Japan. Seawater from the Sea of Japan inflows through Sakai-strait, and river water flows through the Oohashi River into this lake. Lake Nakaumi is characterized with hypoxic and/or anoxic condition of bottom water derived with the distinct stratification of salinity in summer season. In this lake, a public project had been carried out for land reclamation since 1963. Honjo Area located to the north part of Lake Nakaumi, was semi-separated from Lake Nakaumi by reclamation dikes constructed for this project at 1981. However, this public project was aborted with the change of social conditions. To the effective utilization of the area, the partial removal of dike was carried out. Seawater from Sakai-strait flows directly into Honjo Area again. Environmental change of the lake is expected by this inflow of the seawater in Lake Nakaumi and Honjo Area after this restoration. It is well known that the surface sediment reflects the environment of lake bottom. The organic matter and the sulfides in sediment are good indicators of sedimentation environment. In this study, we analyzed them by several methods and grasped the bottom environment of both areas after the removal of dikes. We examined the impact of the restoration to both areas by comparing the observations with the past data. Surface sediment samples in Lake Nakaumi and Honjo Area were obtained at 77 and 40 stations, respectively. We collected surface sediment (about 1cm) were for each station, and analyzed total organic carbon (TOC) and total nitrogen (TN) as organic matter, and hydrogen sulfide (H2S) in pore water, total sulfide (TS) and acid volatile sulfide (AVS) as sulfides. TOC contents of Lake Nakaumi and Honjo Area range within 0.0-5.1% and 0.2-4.9%, respectively. TN contents range within 0.0-0.6 % and 0.1-0.6 %. TS contents range within 0.1-2.6% and 0.0-2.0 %. H2S contents range within 0.3-119.0 ppm and 0.5-140.4 ppm. AVS contents range within 0

  5. Lake levels, streamflow, and surface-water quality in the Devils Lake area, North Dakota

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Wiche, Gregg J.

    1996-01-01

    The Devils Lake Basin is a 3,810-square-mile (mi2) closed basin (fig. 1) in the Red River of the North Basin. About 3,320 mi2 of the total 3,810 mi2 is tributary to Devils Lake; the remainder is tributary to Stump Lake.Since glaciation, the lake level of Devils Lake has fluctuated from about 1,457 feet (ft) above sea level (asl), the natural spill elevation of the lake to the Sheyenne River, to 1,400 ft asl (Aronow, 1957). Although no documented records of lake levels are available before 1867, Upham (1895, p. 595), on the basis of tree-ring chronology, indicated that the lake level was 1,441 ft asl in 1830. Lake levels were recorded sporadically from 1867 to 1901 when the U.S. Geological Survey established a gaging station on Devils Lake. From 1867 to the present (1996), the lake level has fluctuated between a maximum of 1,438.4 ft asl in 1867 and a minimum of 1,400.9 ft asl in 1940 (fig. 2). On July 31, 1996, the lake level was 1,437.8 ft asl, about 15.2 ft higher than the level recorded in February 1993 and the highest level in about 120 years.Since 1993, the lake level of Devils Lake (fig. 2) has risen rapidly in response to above-normal precipitation from the summer of 1993 to the present, and 30,000 acres of land around the lake have been flooded. The above-normal precipitation also has caused flooding elsewhere in the Devils Lake Basin. State highways near Devils Lake are being raised, and some local roads have been closed because of flooding.In response to the flooding, the Devils Lake Basin Interagency Task Force, comprised of many State and Federal agencies, was formed in 1995 to find and propose intermediate (5 years or less) solutions to reduce the effects of high lake levels. In addition to various planning studies being conducted by Federal agencies, the North Dakota State Water Commission has implemented a project to store water on small tracts of land and in the chain of lakes (Sweetwater Lake, Morrison Lake, Dry Lake, Mikes Lake, Chain Lake

  6. Airport Catchment Area- Example Warsaw Modlin Airport

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Błachut, Jakub

    2017-10-01

    The form and functions of airports change over time, just like the form and function of cities. Historically, airports are understood as places of aircraft landing, control towers operation and location of other facilities used for communication and transport. This traditional model is giving way to the concept of so-called Airport Cities, based on the assumption that, in addition to its infrastructure and air services, also non-air services are performed, constituting a source of income. At the same time, their reach and impact on the economy of the areas around the airport are expanding. Idea City Airport appeared in the United States in the late twentieth century. The author is J. D. Kasarda, he believes that it is around these big air ports that airport cities develop. In the world, there are currently 45 areas which can be classified in this category, out of which 12 are located in Europe. Main air traffic hubs in Europe are not only the most important passenger traffic junctions, but also largest centres dispatching goods (cargo). It can be said that, among the 30 largest airports, 24 are the largest in terms of both passenger and freight traffic. These airports cover up to 89.9% of the total freight transport of all European airports. At the same time, they serve 56.9% of all passengers in Europe. Based on the concept of Airport City was developed document THE INTEGRATED REGIONAL POLYCENTRIC DEVELOPMENT PLANS FOR THE WARSAW MODLIN AIRPORT CATCHMENT AREA. The plan developed takes into account the findings of the Mazovian voivodeship spatial development plan, specifying the details of its provisions where possible. The development is the first step for the implementation of the concept of the Modlin Airport City. The accomplishment of this ambitious vision will only be possible with hard work of a number of entities, as well as taking into account the former Modlin Fortress, currently under revitalisation, in concepts and plans.

  7. Quaternary geology of the Boston area: Glacial events from Lake Charles to Lake Aberjona

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Stone, Byron D.; Lane, John W.

    2014-01-01

    The multiple-glacial and glaciomarine Quaternary history of the Boston, Massachusetts area has been known generally since the earliest studies of the then newly recognized glacial deposits described by Prof. Louis Agassiz in the late1840’s and fossil marine shells in the drift in the 1850’s. Attention then turned to possible glacial erosional effects on the preglacial bedrock physiography, as related to rock units and structure, and to the challenges of defining useful physical and lithic characteristics of the drift by Prof. W.O. Crosby and others, 1880-1900. The problems of deducing the relative stratigraphic order among such small, fossil-barren surficial sedimentary deposits, and extending knowledge gained from studies of postulated ancient glacial lakes to a regional understanding of the history of many lakes during the retreat of the ice sheet required field work and use of geologic maps. With the advent of modern topographic maps in the 1880’s, the early period of discovery included field studies of glacial lake deposits in local river basins in the Boston region, basins that drain northward, thereby creating glacial lake basins dammed by the ice margin as it retreated to the north. Guided by M.I.T. and Harvard professors W.O. Crosby, N.S. Shaler, J.B. Woodworth, W.M. Davis, and others in the 1880-1920 period, the first Quaternary glacial stratigraphers were students (e.g. Crosby and Grabau, 1896, Clapp, 1905, Fuller 1905, Goldthwaite 1906, Grabau, 1906, Taylor, Tight).

  8. Monitoring the water balance of Lake Victoria, East Africa, from space

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Swenson, Sean; Wahr, John

    2009-05-01

    SummaryUsing satellite gravimetric and altimetric data, we examine trends in water storage and lake levels of multiple lakes in the Great Rift Valley region of East Africa for the years 2003-2008. GRACE total water storage estimates reveal that water storage declined in much of East Africa, by as much as 60 {mm}/{year}, while altimetric data show that lake levels in some large lakes dropped by as much as 1-2 m. The largest declines occurred in Lake Victoria, the Earth's second largest freshwater body. Because the discharge from the outlet of Lake Victoria is used to generate hydroelectric power, the role of human management in the lake's decline has been questioned. By comparing catchment water storage trends to lake level trends, we confirm that climatic forcing explains only about 50decline. This analysis provides an independent means of assessing the relative impacts of climate and human management on the water balance of Lake Victoria that does not depend on observations of dam discharge, which may not be publically available. In the second part of the study, the individual components of the lake water balance are estimated. Satellite estimates of changes in lake level, precipitation, and evaporation are used with observed lake discharge to develop a parameterization for estimating subsurface inflows due to changes in groundwater storage estimated from satellite gravimetry. At seasonal timescales, this approach provides closure to Lake Victoria's water balance to within 17 {mm}/{month}. The third part of this study uses the water balance of a downstream water body, Lake Kyoga, to estimate the outflow from Lake Victoria remotely. Because Lake Kyoga is roughly 20 times smaller in area than Lake Victoria, its water balance is strongly influenced by inflow from Lake Victoria. Lake Kyoga has been shown to act as a linear reservoir, where its outflow is proportional to the height of the lake. This model can be used with satellite altimetric lake levels to estimate a

  9. Application of the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) to predict the impact of best management practices in Jatigede Catchment Area

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ridwansyah, Iwan; Fakhrudin, M.; Wibowo, Hendro; Yulianti, Meti

    2018-02-01

    Cimanuk watershed is one of the national priority watersheds for rehabilitation considering its critical condition. In this area, Jatigede Reservoir operates, which is the second largest reservoir in Indonesia, after Jatiluhur Reservoir. The reservoir performs several functions, including flood control, irrigation for 90.000 ha of rice fields, water supply of 3.500 litres per second, and power generation of 110 MW. In 2004 the Jatigede Reservoir catchment area had a critical land area of 40.875 ha (28% of the catchment area). The sedimentation rate in Cimanuk River at Eretan station shows a high rate (5.32 mm/year), which potentially decreases the function of Jatigede Reservoir. Therefore, a strategy of Best Management Practice’s (BMP’s) is required to mitigate the problem by using SWAT hydrology modelling. The aim of this study is to examine the impact of BMP’s on surface runoff and sediment yield in Jatigede Reservoir Catchment Area. Simulations were conducted using land use in 2011. The results of this study suggest that SWAT model is considered as a reasonable modelling of BMP’s simulation concerning Nash-Sutcliffe Coefficients (0.71). The simulation is using terraces, silt pit, and dam trenches as BMP’s techniques. The BMP’s application can reduce surface runoff from 99.7 mm to 75.8 mm, and decrease sediment yield from 61.9 ton/ha/year to 40.8 ton/ha/year.

  10. Spatially explicit exposure assessment for small streams in catchments of the orchard growing region `Lake Constance

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Golla, B.; Bach, M.; Krumpe, J.

    2009-04-01

    1. Introduction Small streams differ greatly from the standardised water body used in the context of aquatic risk assessment for the regulation of plant protection products in Germany. The standard water body is static, with a depth of 0.3 m and a width of 1.0 m. No dilution or water replacement takes place. Spray drift happens always in direction to the water body. There is no variability in drift deposition rate (90th percentile spray drift deposition values [2]). There is no spray drift filtering by vegetation. The application takes place directly adjacent to the water body. In order to establish a more realistic risk assessment procedure the Federal Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) and the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) aggreed to replace deterministic assumptions with data distributions and spatially explicit data and introduce probabilistic methods [3, 4, 5]. To consider the spatial and temporal variability in the exposure situations of small streams the hydraulic and morphological characteristics of catchments need to be described as well as the spatial distribution of fields treated with pesticides. As small streams are the dominant type of water body in most German orchard regions, we use the growing region Lake Constance as pilot region. 2. Materials and methods During field surveys we derive basic morphological parameters for small streams in the Lake Constance region. The mean water width/depth ratio is 13 with a mean depth of 0.12 m. The average residence time is 5.6 s/m (n=87) [1]. Orchards are mostly located in the upper parts of the catchments. Based on an authoritative dataset on rivers and streams of Germany (ATKIS DLM25) we constructed a directed network topology for the Lake Constance region. The gradient of the riverbed is calculated for river stretches of > 500 m length. The network for the pilot region consists of 2000 km rivers and streams. 500 km stream length are located within a distance of 150 m to orchards. Within

  11. High temporal resolution water chemistry information for catchment understanding and management

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Reaney, S. M.; Deasy, C.; Ockenden, M.; Perks, M.; Quinton, J.

    2013-12-01

    Many rivers and lakes are currently not meeting their full ecological potential due to environmental pressures including non-point source pollution from the catchment. These pressures include sediment, nitrogen and phosphorus from agriculture and other sources. Each of these pollutants is transferred through the landscape with different hydrological processes and along different pathways. Therefore, to effectively select and spatially target mitigation actions in the landscape, an understanding of the dominant hydrological processes and dynamics which are causing the transfer of material is required. Recent advances in environmental monitoring have enabled the collection of new rich datasets with a high temporal sampling frequency. In the UK, these techniques have been implemented in the Defra Demonstration Test Catchments project and with Natural England for targeted site investigations. Measurements include weather, hydrological flows, sediment, oxygen isotopes, nitrogen and phosphorus from a combination of in-field labs, water chemistry sondes and storm samplers. The detailed time series data can then be analysed to give insights into catchment processes through the analysis of the measured process dynamics. For example, evidence of the transfer of material along surface (or pipe) flow paths can be found from the co-incident timing of the sediment and flow record, or the timing of temperature variations after a storm event can give insight into the contribution of shallow groundwater. Given this evidence of catchment hydrological dynamics it is possible to determine the probable pathways which are transferring pollutants and hence it is possible to select suitable mitigation options in the landscape to improve the river or lake. For example, evidence of a pollutant transfer occurring as shallow soil flows suggests that buffer strips would not be an effective solution since these measures intercept surface pathways. Information on catchment residence time not

  12. Geologic map database of the El Mirage Lake area, San Bernardino and Los Angeles Counties, California

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Miller, David M.; Bedford, David R.

    2000-01-01

    This geologic map database for the El Mirage Lake area describes geologic materials for the dry lake, parts of the adjacent Shadow Mountains and Adobe Mountain, and much of the piedmont extending south from the lake upward toward the San Gabriel Mountains. This area lies within the western Mojave Desert of San Bernardino and Los Angeles Counties, southeastern California. The area is traversed by a few paved highways that service the community of El Mirage, and by numerous dirt roads that lead to outlying properties. An off-highway vehicle area established by the Bureau of Land Management encompasses the dry lake and much of the land north and east of the lake. The physiography of the area consists of the dry lake, flanking mud and sand flats and alluvial piedmonts, and a few sharp craggy mountains. This digital geologic map database, intended for use at 1:24,000-scale, describes and portrays the rock units and surficial deposits of the El Mirage Lake area. The map database was prepared to aid in a water-resource assessment of the area by providing surface geologic information with which deepergroundwater-bearing units may be understood. The area mapped covers the Shadow Mountains SE and parts of the Shadow Mountains, Adobe Mountain, and El Mirage 7.5-minute quadrangles. The map includes detailed geology of surface and bedrock deposits, which represent a significant update from previous bedrock geologic maps by Dibblee (1960) and Troxel and Gunderson (1970), and the surficial geologic map of Ponti and Burke (1980); it incorporates a fringe of the detailed bedrock mapping in the Shadow Mountains by Martin (1992). The map data were assembled as a digital database using ARC/INFO to enable wider applications than traditional paper-product geologic maps and to provide for efficient meshing with other digital data bases prepared by the U.S. Geological Survey's Southern California Areal Mapping Project.

  13. The regional and global significance of nitrogen removal in lakes and reservoirs

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Harrison, J.A.; Maranger, R.J.; Alexander, Richard B.; Giblin, A.E.; Jacinthe, P.-A.; Mayorga, Emilio; Seitzinger, S.P.; Sobota, D.J.; Wollheim, W.M.

    2009-01-01

    Human activities have greatly increased the transport of biologically available nitrogen (N) through watersheds to potentially sensitive coastal ecosystems. Lentic water bodies (lakes and reservoirs) have the potential to act as important sinks for this reactive N as it is transported across the landscape because they offer ideal conditions for N burial in sediments or permanent loss via denitrification. However, the patterns and controls on lentic N removal have not been explored in great detail at large regional to global scales. In this paper we describe, evaluate, and apply a new, spatially explicit, annual-scale, global model of lentic N removal called NiRReLa (Nitrogen Retention in Reservoirs and Lakes). The NiRReLa model incorporates small lakes and reservoirs than have been included in previous global analyses, and also allows for separate treatment and analysis of reservoirs and natural lakes. Model runs for the mid-1990s indicate that lentic systems are indeed important sinks for N and are conservatively estimated to remove 19.7 Tg N year-1 from watersheds globally. Small lakes (<50 km2) were critical in the analysis, retaining almost half (9.3 Tg N year -1) of the global total. In model runs, capacity of lakes and reservoirs to remove watershed N varied substantially at the half-degree scale (0-100%) both as a function of climate and the density of lentic systems. Although reservoirs occupy just 6% of the global lentic surface area, we estimate they retain ~33% of the total N removed by lentic systems, due to a combination of higher drainage ratios (catchment surface area:lake or reservoir surface area), higher apparent settling velocities for N, and greater average N loading rates in reservoirs than in lakes. Finally, a sensitivity analysis of NiRReLa suggests that, on-average, N removal within lentic systems will respond more strongly to changes in land use and N loading than to changes in climate at the global scale. ?? 2008 Springer Science

  14. Guidance for Delisting Michigan’s Great Lakes Areas of Concern

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    A useful tool for guidance in delisting Michigan’s Areas of Concern. Technical staff in the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (MDNR), USEPA Great Lakes National Program Office, among others.

  15. Geohydrologic reconnaissance of Lake Mead National Recreation Area; Las Vegas Wash to Opal Mountain, Nevada

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Laney, R.L.

    1981-01-01

    The study is a geohydrologic reconnaissance of about 170 square miles in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area from Las Vegas Wash to Opal Mountain, Nevada. The study is one of a series that describes the geohydrology of the recreation area and that indentifies areas where water supplies can be developed. Precipitation in this arid area is about 5 inches per year. Streamflow is seasonal and extremely variable except for that in the Colorado River, which adjoins the area. Pan evaporation is more than 20 times greater than precipitation; therefore, regional ground-water supplies are meager except near the Colorado River, Lake Mead, and Lake Mohave. Large ground-water supplies can be developed near the river and lakes, and much smaller supplies may be obtained in a few favorable locations farther from the river and lakes. Ground water in most of the areas probably contains more than 1,000 milligrams per liter of dissolved solids, but water that contains less than 1,000 milligrams per liter of dissolved solids can be obtained within about 1 mile of the lakes. Crystalline rocks of metamorphic, intrusive and volcanic origin crop out in the area. These rocks are overlain by conglomerate and mudstone of the Muddy Creek Formation, gravel and conglomerate of the older alluvium, and sand and gravel of the Chemehuevi Formation and younger alluvium. The crystalline rocks, where sufficiently fractured, yield water to springs and would yield small amounts of water to favorably located wells. The poorly cemented and more permeable beds of the older alluvium, Chemehuevi Formation, and younger alluvium are the better potential aquifers, particularly along the Colorado River and Lakes Mead and Mohave. Thermal springs in the gorge of the Colorado River south of Hoover Dam discharge at least 2,580 acre-feet per year of water from the volcanic rocks and metamorphic and plutonic rocks. The discharge is much greater than could be infiltrated in the drainage basin above the springs

  16. The glacial/deglacial history of sedimentation in Bear Lake, Utah and Idaho

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Rosenbaum, J.G.; Heil, C.W.

    2009-01-01

    Bear Lake, in northeastern Utah and southern Idaho, lies in a large valley formed by an active half-graben. Bear River, the largest river in the Great Basin, enters Bear Lake Valley ???15 km north of the lake. Two 4-m-long cores provide a lake sediment record extending back ???26 cal k.y. The penetrated section can be divided into a lower unit composed of quartz-rich clastic sediments and an upper unit composed largely of endogenic carbonate. Data from modern fluvial sediments provide the basis for interpreting changes in provenance of detrital material in the lake cores. Sediments from small streams draining elevated topography on the east and west sides of the lake are characterized by abundant dolomite, high magnetic susceptibility (MS) related to eolian magnetite, and low values of hard isothermal remanent magnetization (HIRM, indicative of hematite content). In contrast, sediments from the headwaters of the Bear River in the Uinta Mountains lack carbonate and have high HIRM and low MS. Sediments from lower reaches of the Bear River contain calcite but little dolomite and have low values of MS and HIRM. These contrasts in catchment properties allow interpretation of the following sequence from variations in properties of the lake sediment: (1) ca. 26 cal ka-onset of glaciation; (2) ca. 26-20 cal ka-quasicyclical, millennial-scale variations in the concentrations of hematite-rich glacial fl our derived from the Uinta Mountains, and dolomite- and magnetite-rich material derived from the local Bear Lake catchment (reflecting variations in glacial extent); (3) ca. 20-19 cal ka-maximum content of glacial fl our; (4) ca. 19-17 cal ka-constant content of Bear River sediment but declining content of glacial fl our from the Uinta Mountains; (5) ca. 17-15.5 cal ka-decline in Bear River sediment and increase in content of sediment from the local catchment; and (6) ca. 15.5-14.5 cal ka-increase in content of endogenic calcite at the expense of detrital material. The onset

  17. Attributes for MRB_E2RF1 Catchments by Major River Basins in the Conterminous United States: Hydrologic Landscape Regions

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Wieczorek, Michael; LaMotte, Andrew E.

    2010-01-01

    This tabular data set represents the area of Hydrologic Landscape Regions (HLR) compiled for every MRB_E2RF1 catchment of the Major River Basins (MRBs, Crawford and others, 2006). The source data set is a 100-meter version of Hydrologic Landscape Regions of the United States (Wolock, 2003). HLR groups watersheds on the basis of similarities in land-surface form, geologic texture, and climate characteristics. The MRB_E2RF1 catchments are based on a modified version of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (USEPA) ERF1_2 and include enhancements to support national and regional-scale surface-water quality modeling (Nolan and others, 2002; Brakebill and others, 2011). Data were compiled for every MRB_E2RF1 catchment for the conterminous United States covering New England and Mid-Atlantic (MRB1), South Atlantic-Gulf and Tennessee (MRB2), the Great Lakes, Ohio, Upper Mississippi, and Souris-Red-Rainy (MRB3), the Missouri (MRB4), the Lower Mississippi, Arkansas-White-Red, and Texas-Gulf (MRB5), the Rio Grande, Colorado, and the Great basin (MRB6), the Pacific Northwest (MRB7) river basins, and California (MRB8).

  18. Recreation Carrying Capacity Facts and Considerations. Report 2. Benbrook Lake Project Area.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1980-07-01

    Lake and the representa- tives from the Fort Worth District Office. Their contributions of practical experi- ence and knowledge , along with their...Acceptability of techniques - Table 8 indicates the acceptability of different techniques for solving problems to the boaters and water- skiers surveyed at...boats near swimming areas. Boater/water- Boaters, especially jet e consider lake zoning, e.g. restrict skier conflicts boaters, are sometimes waterskiing

  19. The Geysers-Clear Lake geothermal area, California - an updated geophysical perspective of heat sources

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Stanley, W.D.; Blakely, R.J.

    1995-01-01

    The Geysers-Clear Lake geothermal area encompasses a large dry-steam production area in The Geysers field and a documented high-temperature, high-pressure, water-dominated system in the area largely south of Clear Lake, which has not been developed. An updated view is presented of the geological/geophysical complexities of the crust in this region in order to address key unanswered questions about the heat source and tectonics. Forward modeling, multidimensional inversions, and ideal body analysis of the gravity data, new electromagnetic sounding models, and arguments made from other geophysical data sets suggest that many of the geophysical anomalies have significant contributions from rock property and physical state variations in the upper 7 km and not from "magma' at greater depths. Regional tectonic and magmatic processes are analyzed to develop an updated scenario for pluton emplacement that differs substantially from earlier interpretations. In addition, a rationale is outlined for future exploration for geothermal resources in The Geysers-Clear Lake area. -from Authors

  20. Mechanisms underlying export of N from high-elevation catchments during seasonal transitions

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Sickman, J.O.; Leydecker, A.L.; Chang, Cecily C.Y.; Kendall, C.; Melack, J.M.; Lucero, D.M.; Schimel, J.

    2003-01-01

    Mechanisms underlying catchment export of nitrogen (N) during seasonal transitions (i.e., winter to spring and summer to autumn) were investigated in high-elevation catchments of the Sierra Nevada using stable isotopes of nitrate and water, intensive monitoring of stream chemistry and detailed catchment N-budgets. We had four objectives: (1) determine the relative contribution of snowpack and soil nitrate to the spring nitrate pulse, (2) look for evidence of biotic control of N losses at the catchment scale, (3) examine dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) export patterns to gain a better understanding of the biological and hydrological controls on DON loss, and (4) examine the relationship between soil physico-chemical conditions and N export. At the Emerald Lake watershed, nitrogen budgets and isotopic analyses of the spring nitrate pulse indicate that 50 to 70% of the total nitrate exported during snowmelt (ca. April to July) is derived from catchment soils and talus; the remainder is snowpack nitrate. The spring nitrate pulse occurred several weeks after the start of snowmelt and was different from export patterns of less biologically labile compounds such as silica and DON suggesting that: (1) nitrate is produced and released from soils only after intense flushing has occurred and (2) a microbial N-sink is operating in catchment soils during the early stages of snowmelt. DON concentrations varied less than 20-30% during snowmelt, indicating that soil processes tightly controlled DON losses.

  1. Groundwater discharge to lakes (GDL) - the disregarded component of lake nutrient budgets

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lewandowski, J.; Meinikmann, K.; Pöschke, F.; Nützmann, G.

    2012-04-01

    Eutrophication is a major threat to lakes in temperate climatic zones. It is necessary to determine the relevance of different nutrient sources to conduct effective management measures, to understand in-lake processes and to model future scenarios. A prerequisite for such nutrient budgets are water budgets. While most components of the water budget can be determined quite accurate the quantification of groundwater discharge to lakes (GDL) and surface water infiltration into the aquifer are much more difficult. For example, it is quite common to determine the groundwater component as residual in the water and nutrient budget which is extremely problematic since in that case all errors of the budget terms are summed up in the groundwater term. In total, we identified 10 different reasons for disregarding the groundwater path in nutrient budgets. We investigated the fate of the nutrients nitrogen and phosphorus on their pathway from the catchment through the reactive aquifer-lake interface into the lake. We reviewed the international literature and summarized numbers reported for GDL of nutrients. Since literature is quite sparse we also had a look at numbers reported for submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) of nutrients for which much more literature exists and which is despite some fundamental differences in principal comparable to GDL.

  2. Variation in reciprocal subsidies between lakes and land: perspectives from the mountains of California

    Treesearch

    Jonah Piovia-Scott; Steven Sadro; Roland A. Knapp; James Sickman; Karen L. Pope; Sudeep Chandra

    2016-01-01

    Lakes are connected to surrounding terrestrial habitats by reciprocal flows of energy and nutrients. We synthesize data from California’s mountain lake catchments to investigate how these reciprocal subsidies change along an elevational gradient and with the introduction of a top aquatic predator. At lower elevations, well-developed terrestrial vegetation provides...

  3. Catchment land use predicts benthic vegetation in small estuaries

    PubMed Central

    Warry, Fiona Y.; Reich, Paul; Mac Nally, Ralph; Woodland, Ryan J.

    2018-01-01

    Many estuaries are becoming increasingly eutrophic from human activities within their catchments. Nutrient loads often are used to assess risk of eutrophication to estuaries, but such data are expensive and time consuming to obtain. We compared the percent of fertilized land within a catchment, dissolved inorganic nitrogen loads, catchment to estuary area ratio and flushing time as predictors of the proportion of macroalgae to total vegetation within 14 estuaries in south-eastern Australia. The percent of fertilized land within the catchment was the best predictor of the proportion of macroalgae within the estuaries studied. There was a transition to a dominance of macroalgae once the proportion of fertilized land in the catchment exceeded 24%, highlighting the sensitivity of estuaries to catchment land use. PMID:29473004

  4. Environmental changes and the Migration Period in northern Germany as reflected in the sediments of Lake Dudinghausen

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dreßler, Mirko; Selig, Uwe; Dörfler, Walter; Adler, Sven; Schubert, Hendrik; Hübener, Thomas

    2006-07-01

    Paleolimnological techniques were used to identify environmental changes in and around Lake Dudinghausen (northern Germany) over the past 4800 yr. Diatom-inferred total phosphorus (DI-TP) changes identify four phases of high nutrient levels (2600-2200 BC, 1050-700 BC, 500 BC-AD 100 and AD 1850-1970). During these high DI-TP phases, fossil pollen, sediment geochemistry and archaeological records indicate human activities in the lake catchment. Although the same paleo-indicators suggest increased human settlement and agriculture activity during the late Slavonic Age, the Medieval Time and the Modern Time (AD 1000-1850), DI-TP levels were low during this period. In the sediments, iron and total phosphorus were high from ˜AD 100 to 1850, likely due to increased inflow of iron-rich groundwater into the lake. Increased iron input would have lead to a simultaneous binding and precipitation of phosphate in the upper sediment and overlying water column. As a result, anthropogenic impact on Lake Dudinghausen was masked by these phosphorus-controlling processes from AD 1000 to 1850 and was not evident by means of DI-TP. In accordance with fossil pollen, sediment geochemistry and limited archaeological records, DI-TP levels were low from AD 100-1000. Groundwater levels likely rose during this period as the climate gradually changed toward colder and/or moister conditions. Such climate change likely led to reduced settlement activities and forest regeneration in the catchment area. Our results are concordant with similar studies from central Europe which indicate rapid decreasing settlement activities from AD 100 to 1000.

  5. Surficial geologic map of the Red Rock Lakes area, southwest Montana

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Pierce, Kenneth L.; Chesley-Preston, Tara L.; Sojda, Richard L.

    2014-01-01

    The Centennial Valley and Centennial Range continue to be formed by ongoing displacement on the Centennial fault. The dominant fault movement is downward, creating space in the valley for lakes and the deposition of sediment. The Centennial Valley originally drained to the northeast through a canyon now represented by a chain of lakes starting with Elk Lake. Subsequently, large landslides blocked and dammed the drainage, which created Lake Centennial, in the Centennial Valley. Sediments deposited in this late Pleistocene lake underlie much of the valley floor and rest on permeable sand and gravel deposited when the valley drained to the northeast. Cold Pleistocene climates enhanced colluvial supply of gravelly sediment to mountain streams and high peak flows carried gravelly sediment into the valley. There, the lower gradient of the streams resulted in deposition of alluvial fans peripheral to Lake Centennial as the lake lowered through time to the level of the two present lakes. Pleistocene glaciers formed in the high Centennial Range, built glacial moraines, and also supplied glacial outwash to the alluvial fans. Winds from the west and south blew sand to the northeast side of the valley building up high dunes. The central part of the map area is flat, sloping to the west by only 0.6 meters in 13 kilometers (2 feet in 8 miles) to form a watery lowland. This lowland contains Upper and Lower Red Rock Lakes, many ponds, and peat lands inside the “water plane,” above which are somewhat steeper slopes. The permeable sands and gravels beneath Lake Centennial sediments provide a path for groundwater recharged from the adjacent uplands. This groundwater leaks upward through Lake Centennial sediments and sustains wetland vegetation into late summer. Upper and Lower Red Rock Lakes are formed by alluvial-fan dams. Alluvial fans converge from both the south and the north to form outlet thresholds that dam the two shallow lakes upstream. The surficial geology aids in

  6. A simple distributed sediment delivery approach for rural catchments

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Reid, Lucas; Scherer, Ulrike

    2014-05-01

    The transfer of sediments from source areas to surface waters is a complex process. In process based erosion models sediment input is thus quantified by representing all relevant sub processes such as detachment, transport and deposition of sediment particles along the flow path to the river. A successful application of these models requires, however, a large amount of spatially highly resolved data on physical catchment characteristics, which is only available for a few, well examined small catchments. For the lack of appropriate models, the empirical Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) is widely applied to quantify the sediment production in meso to large scale basins. As the USLE provides long-term mean soil loss rates, it is often combined with spatially lumped models to estimate the sediment delivery ratio (SDR). In these models, the SDR is related to data on morphological characteristics of the catchment such as average local relief, drainage density, proportion of depressions or soil texture. Some approaches include the relative distance between sediment source areas and the river channels. However, several studies showed that spatially lumped parameters describing the morphological characteristics are only of limited value to represent the factors of influence on sediment transport at the catchment scale. Sediment delivery is controlled by the location of the sediment source areas in the catchment and the morphology along the flow path to the surface water bodies. This complex interaction of spatially varied physiographic characteristics cannot be adequately represented by lumped morphological parameters. The objective of this study is to develop a simple but spatially distributed approach to quantify the sediment delivery ratio by considering the characteristics of the flow paths in a catchment. We selected a small catchment located in in an intensively cultivated loess region in Southwest Germany as study area for the development of the SDR approach. The

  7. Projecting the impact of regional land-use change and water management policies on lake water quality: an application to periurban lakes and reservoirs.

    PubMed

    Catherine, Arnaud; Mouillot, David; Maloufi, Selma; Troussellier, Marc; Bernard, Cécile

    2013-01-01

    As the human population grows, the demand for living space and supplies of resources also increases, which may induce rapid change in land-use/land-cover (LULC) and associated pressures exerted on aquatic habitats. We propose a new approach to forecast the impact of regional land cover change and water management policies (i.e., targets in nutrient loads reduction) on lake and reservoir water eutrophication status using a model that requires minimal parameterisation compared with alternative methods. This approach was applied to a set of 48 periurban lakes located in the Ile de France region (IDF, France) to simulate catchment-scale management scenarios. Model outputs were subsequently compared to governmental agencies' 2030 forecasts. Our model indicated that the efforts made to reduce pressure in the catchment of seepage lakes might be expected to be proportional to the gain that might be obtained, whereas drainage lakes will display little improvement until a critical level of pressure reduction is reached. The model also indicated that remediation measures, as currently planned by governmental agencies, might only have a marginal impact on improving the eutrophication status of lakes and reservoirs within the IDF region. Despite the commitment to appropriately managing the water resources in many countries, prospective tools to evaluate the potential impacts of global change on freshwater ecosystems integrity at medium to large spatial scales are lacking. This study proposes a new approach to investigate the impact of region-scale human-driven changes on lake and reservoir ecological status and could be implemented elsewhere with limited parameterisation. Issues are discussed that relate to model uncertainty and to its relevance as a tool applied to decision-making.

  8. Projecting the Impact of Regional Land-Use Change and Water Management Policies on Lake Water Quality: An Application to Periurban Lakes and Reservoirs

    PubMed Central

    Catherine, Arnaud; Mouillot, David; Maloufi, Selma; Troussellier, Marc; Bernard, Cécile

    2013-01-01

    As the human population grows, the demand for living space and supplies of resources also increases, which may induce rapid change in land-use/land-cover (LULC) and associated pressures exerted on aquatic habitats. We propose a new approach to forecast the impact of regional land cover change and water management policies (i.e., targets in nutrient loads reduction) on lake and reservoir water eutrophication status using a model that requires minimal parameterisation compared with alternative methods. This approach was applied to a set of 48 periurban lakes located in the Ile de France region (IDF, France) to simulate catchment-scale management scenarios. Model outputs were subsequently compared to governmental agencies’ 2030 forecasts. Our model indicated that the efforts made to reduce pressure in the catchment of seepage lakes might be expected to be proportional to the gain that might be obtained, whereas drainage lakes will display little improvement until a critical level of pressure reduction is reached. The model also indicated that remediation measures, as currently planned by governmental agencies, might only have a marginal impact on improving the eutrophication status of lakes and reservoirs within the IDF region. Despite the commitment to appropriately managing the water resources in many countries, prospective tools to evaluate the potential impacts of global change on freshwater ecosystems integrity at medium to large spatial scales are lacking. This study proposes a new approach to investigate the impact of region-scale human-driven changes on lake and reservoir ecological status and could be implemented elsewhere with limited parameterisation. Issues are discussed that relate to model uncertainty and to its relevance as a tool applied to decision-making. PMID:23991066

  9. Measuring Spatial Accessibility of Health Care Providers – Introduction of a Variable Distance Decay Function within the Floating Catchment Area (FCA) Method

    PubMed Central

    Groneberg, David A.

    2016-01-01

    We integrated recent improvements within the floating catchment area (FCA) method family into an integrated ‘iFCA`method. Within this method we focused on the distance decay function and its parameter. So far only distance decay functions with constant parameters have been applied. Therefore, we developed a variable distance decay function to be used within the FCA method. We were able to replace the impedance coefficient β by readily available distribution parameter (i.e. median and standard deviation (SD)) within a logistic based distance decay function. Hence, the function is shaped individually for every single population location by the median and SD of all population-to-provider distances within a global catchment size. Theoretical application of the variable distance decay function showed conceptually sound results. Furthermore, the existence of effective variable catchment sizes defined by the asymptotic approach to zero of the distance decay function was revealed, satisfying the need for variable catchment sizes. The application of the iFCA method within an urban case study in Berlin (Germany) confirmed the theoretical fit of the suggested method. In summary, we introduced for the first time, a variable distance decay function within an integrated FCA method. This function accounts for individual travel behaviors determined by the distribution of providers. Additionally, the function inherits effective variable catchment sizes and therefore obviates the need for determining variable catchment sizes separately. PMID:27391649

  10. Crystalline rocks of the Strawberry Lake area, Front Range, Colorado

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Young, Edward J.

    1991-01-01

    This report is a petrographic and geochemical study of the bedrock and a petrologic discussion based on felsic-mafic and silica-saturation ratios of the Strawberry Lake area. This volume is published as chapters A and B. These chapters are not available separatelyThe Strawberry lake area lies between the Continental Divide and Granby, Colorado, just north of Tabernash. It is underlain by Proterozoic rocks composed of biotite gneiss and two plutons-Boulder Creek Granodiorite of the Routt Plutonic Suite and Silver Plume Granite of the Berthoud Plutonic Suite. Relict enclaves of biotite gneiss are not uncommon in the Boulder Creek Granodiorite, in the Silver Plume Granite, and in the granitic enclaves in the biotite gneiss. Granitic and mafic enclaves in the Boulder Creek Granodiorite, granitic enclaves in the Silver Plume Granite and in the biotite gneiss, and a Tertiary andesite porphyry dike complete the rock types.

  11. The relative influence of climate and catchment properties on hydrological drought

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Van Loon, Anne; Laaha, Gregor; Koffler, Daniel

    2014-05-01

    Studying hydrological drought (a below-normal water availability in groundwater, lakes and streams) is important to society and the ecosystem, but can also reveal interesting information about catchment functioning. This information can later be used for predicting drought in ungauged basins and to inform water management decisions. In this study, we used an extensive Austrian dataset of discharge measurements in clusters of catchments and combine this dataset with thematic information on climate and catchment properties. Our aim was to study the relative effects of climate and catchment characteristics on drought duration and deficit and on hydrological drought typology. Because the climate of the region is roughly uniform, our hypothesis was that the effect of differences of catchment properties would stand out. From time series of precipitation and discharge we identified droughts with the widely-used threshold level approach, defining a drought when a variable falls below a pre-defined threshold representing the regime. Drought characteristics that were analysed are drought duration and deficit. We also applied the typology of Van Loon & Van Lanen (2012). To explain differences in drought characteristics between catchments we did a correlation analysis with climate and catchment characteristics, based on Pearson correlation. We found very interesting patterns in the correlations of drought characteristics with climate and catchment properties: 1) Droughts with long duration (mean and maximum) and composite droughts are related to catchments with a high BFI (high baseflow) and a high percentage of shallow groundwater tables. 2) The deficit (mean and maximum) of both meteorological droughts and hydrological droughts is strongly related to catchment humidity, in this case quantified by average annual precipitation. 3) The hydrological drought types that are related to snow, i.e. cold snow season drought and snow melt drought, occur in catchments that are have a

  12. Catchment scale multi-objective flood management

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rose, Steve; Worrall, Peter; Rosolova, Zdenka; Hammond, Gene

    2010-05-01

    techniques will include: controlling headwater drainage, increasing evapotranspiration and interception by creating new woodlands in the upper catchment areas, enabling coarse woody debris dams to slow down water flows through steep valleys, improving soil water storage potential by appropriate soil and crop management, retaining water on lowland flood meadows and wet woodland creation within the floodplain. The project, due to run from 2009 until 2013, incorporates hydrometric and water quality monitoring, together with hydrologic and hydraulic modelling in order to attempt to demonstrate the effect of land management changes on flood dynamics and flood risk management. To date, the project team have undertaken the fundamental catchment characterisation work to understand its physical setting and the interaction of the physical processes that influence the hydrological response of the catchment to incident precipitation. The results of this initial work has led to the identification of a suitably robust hydrometric monitoring network within the catchments to meet the needs of providing both quantitative evidence of the impacts of land management change on flood risk, together with generating good quality datasets for the validation and testing of the new hydrologic models. As the project aims to demonstrate ‘best practice' in all areas, the opportunity has been taken to install a network of automatic hydrometric monitoring equipment, together with an associated telemetry system, in order to maximise data coverage, accuracy and reliability. Good quality datasets are a critical requirement for reliable modelling. The modelling will also be expanded to incorporate climate change scenarios. This paper will describe the catchment characterisation work undertaken to date, the proposed land management changes in relation to flood risk management, the initial catchment hydraulic modelling work and the implementation of the new hydrometric monitoring network within the study area.

  13. Study on the relationship between the lake area variations of Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau and the corresponding climate change in their basins

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Guozhuang, Shen; Jingjuan, Liao; Huadong, Guo; Yingkui, Li

    2014-03-01

    Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau is the largest lake area in China, with a total area of existing lakes of 36,900km2, accounting for 52% of the total lake area of China. Lakes on the Tibetan Plateau play critical roles in the water cycle and ecological and environment systems of the Plateau. The global trend of warming up is increasing obviously, which has led to major changes in the climate conditions in China, even in the world. Whereas, when they analyse the relationship they just use the weather station's recording data, without any spatial analysis of the climate data. Here, we will do some researches on the relationship between the 10 selected lakes' area variation and the corresponding climate change in their drainage basin and discuss how the lakes changes in recent 40 years using the climate data processed using the spatial kriging. Thus, the drainage area can be taken into account and a real relationship can be pointed out. In order to study the relationship, Landsat MSS data, Landsat TM, Landsat ETM images, the topographic map have been collected to extract the variation of lake area. The 131 weather stations climate data, including precipitation, temperature, sun shine duration, evaporation are chosen to study the relationship. After extraction of the area of the lakes, a multivariate statistical analysis method was used to test the relationship between the area of the lakes and the global climate change, including the change of the temperature, the precipitation, and other factors. The variation of lakes in Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau is related to the mean temperature, the precipitation and saturation vapour pressure. But the frozen soil may affect the lake area variation to some extent.

  14. Solar Output Controls Periodicity in Lake Productivity and Wetness at Southernmost South America

    PubMed Central

    Pérez-Rodríguez, Marta; Gilfedder, Benjamin-Silas; Hermanns, Yvonne-Marie; Biester, Harald

    2016-01-01

    Cyclic changes in total solar irradiance (TSI) during the Holocene are known to affect global climatic conditions and cause cyclic climatic oscillations, e.g., Bond events and related changes of environmental conditions. However, the processes how changes in TSI affect climate and environment of the Southern Hemisphere, especially in southernmost South America, a key area for the global climate, are still poorly resolved. Here we show that highly sensitive proxies for aquatic productivity derived from sediments of a lake near the Chilean South Atlantic coast (53 °S) strongly match the cyclic changes in TSI throughout the Holocene. Intra-lake productivity variations show a periodicity of ~200–240 years coherent with the time series of TSI-controlled cosmogenic nuclide 10Be production. In addition TSI dependent periodicity of Bond events (~1500 years) appear to control wetness at the LH site indicated by mineral matter erosion from the catchment to the lake assumingly through shifts of the position of the southern westerly wind belt. Thus, both intra-lake productivity and wetness at the southernmost South America are directly or indirectly controlled by TSI. PMID:27869191

  15. Understanding and Predicting the Fate of Semivolatile Organic Pesticides in a Glacier-Fed Lake Using a Multimedia Chemical Fate Model.

    PubMed

    Wu, Xiaolin; Davie-Martin, Cleo L; Steinlin, Christine; Hageman, Kimberly J; Cullen, Nicolas J; Bogdal, Christian

    2017-10-17

    Melting glaciers release previously ice-entrapped chemicals to the surrounding environment. As glacier melting accelerates under future climate warming, chemical release may also increase. This study investigated the behavior of semivolatile pesticides over the course of one year and predicted their behavior under two future climate change scenarios. Pesticides were quantified in air, lake water, glacial meltwater, and streamwater in the catchment of Lake Brewster, an alpine glacier-fed lake located in the Southern Alps of New Zealand. Two historic-use pesticides (endosulfan I and hexachlorobenzene) and three current-use pesticides (dacthal, triallate, and chlorpyrifos) were frequently found in both air and water samples from the catchment. Regression analysis indicated that the pesticide concentrations in glacial meltwater and lake water were strongly correlated. A multimedia environmental fate model was developed for these five chemicals in Brewster Lake. Modeling results indicated that seasonal lake ice cover melt, and varying contributions of input from glacial melt and streamwater, created pulses in pesticide concentrations in lake water. Under future climate scenarios, the concentration pulse was altered and glacial melt made a greater contribution (as mass flux) to pesticide input in the lake water.

  16. SCOPSCO: Scientific Collaboration On Past Speciation Conditions in Lake Ohrid

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wagner, B.; Wilke, T.; Grazhdani, A.; Kostoski, G.; Krastel-Gudegast, S.; Reicherter, K.; Zanchetta, G.

    2009-04-01

    recorded. A deep drilling in Lake Ohrid would help (i) to obtain more precise information about the age and origin of the lake, (ii) to unravel the seismotectonic history of the lake area including effects of major earthquakes and associated mass wasting events, (iii) to obtain a continuous record containing information on volcanic activities and climate changes in the central northern Mediterranean region, and (iv) to better understand the impact of major geological/environmental events on general evolutionary patterns and shaping an extraordinary degree of endemic biodiversity as a matter of global significance. For this purpose, five primary drill sites were selected based on the results obtained from sedimentological studies, tectonic mapping in the catchment and detailed seismic surveys conducted between 2004 and 2008. For the recovery of the up to ca. 680 m long sediment sequences the GLAD800 shall be used.

  17. Holocene multi-proxy environmental reconstruction from lake Hakluytvatnet, Amsterdamøya Island, Svalbard (79.5°N)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gjerde, Marthe; Bakke, Jostein; D'Andrea, William J.; Balascio, Nicholas L.; Bradley, Raymond S.; Vasskog, Kristian; Ólafsdóttir, Sædis; Røthe, Torgeir O.; Perren, Bianca B.; Hormes, Anne

    2018-03-01

    High resolution proxy records of past climate are sparse in the Arctic due to low organic production that restricts the use of radiocarbon dating and challenging logistics that make data collection difficult. Here, we present a new lake record from lake Hakluytvatnet at Amsterdamøya island (79.5°N), the northwesternmost island on Svalbard. Multi-proxy analyses of lake sediments in combination with geomorphological mapping reveal large environmental shifts that have taken place at Amsterdamøya during the Holocene. A robust chronology has been established for the lake sediment core through 28 AMS radiocarbon ages, and this gives an exceptionally well-constrained age control for a lake at this latitude. The Holocene was a period with large changes in the Hakluytvatnet catchment, and the onset of the Neoglacial (ca. 5 ka) marks the start of modern-day conditions in the catchment. The Neoglacial is characterized by fluctuations in the minerogenic input to the lake as well as internal productivity, and we suggest that these fluctuations are driven by atmospherically forced precipitation changes as well as sea ice extent modulating the amount of moisture that can reach Hakluytvatnet.

  18. Sediment tracing by `customised' magnetic fingerprinting: from the sub-catchment to the ocean scale

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Maher, B.

    2009-04-01

    Robust identification of catchment suspended sediment sources is a prerequisite both for understanding sediment delivery processes and targeting of effective mitigation measures. Fine sediment delivery can pose management problems, especially with regard to nutrient run-off and siltation of water courses and bodies. Suspended sediment load constitutes the dominant mode of particulate material loss from catchments but its transport is highly episodic. Identification of suspended sediment sources and fluxes is therefore a prerequisite both for understanding of fluvial geomorphic process and systems and for designing strategies to reduce sediment transport, delivery and yields. Here will be discussed sediment ‘fingerprinting', using the magnetic properties of soils and sediments to characterise sediment sources and transport pathways over a very wide variety of spatial scales, from Lake Bassenthwaite in the English Lake District to the Burdekin River in Queensland and even the North Atlantic Ocean during the last glacial maximum. The applicability of magnetic ‘fingerprinting' to such a range of scales and environments has been significantly improved recently through use of new and site-appropriate magnetic measurement techniques, statistical processing and sample treatment options.

  19. Calculation of area and volume for the south part of Great Salt Lake, Utah

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Baskin, Robert L.

    2005-01-01

    The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Utah Department of Natural Resources, Division of Wildlife Resources, collected bathymetric data for the south part of Great Salt Lake during 2002-04 using a single-beam, high-definition fathometer and real-time differential global positioning system. About 7.6 million depth measurements were collected along more than 930 miles (1,690 kilometers) of survey transects. Sound-velocity profiles were obtained in conjunction with the bathymetric data to provide time-of-travel corrections to the depth calculations. Data were processed with commercial hydrographic software and exported into geographic information system (GIS) software for mapping and calculation of area and volume. Area and volume calculations show a maximum area of about 508,000 acres (2,056 square kilometers) and a maximum volume of about 9,257,000 acre-feet (11.42 cubic kilometers) at a water-surface altitude of 4,200 feet (1,280 meters). Minimum water-surface altitude of the south part of Great Salt Lake is just below 4,167 feet (1,279 meters) in the area just south of the Union Pacific railroad causeway halfway between Promontory Point and the western edge of the lake. At this altitude, and continuing up to about 4,176 feet (1,279 meters), the south part of the lake is separated into two areas by a ridge extending from Promontory Point to Hat Island. Calculations for area and volume are based on a low altitude of 4,167 feet (1,279 meters) to a high altitude of 4,200 feet (1,280 meters).

  20. Water regime of Playa Lakes from southern Spain: conditioning factors and hydrological modeling.

    PubMed

    Moral, Francisco; Rodriguez-Rodriguez, Miguel; Beltrán, Manuel; Benavente, José; Cifuentes, Victor Juan

    2013-07-01

    Andalusia's lowland countryside has a network of small geographically isolated playa lakes scattered across an area of 9000 km2 whose watersheds are mostly occupied by clayey rocks. The hydrological model proposed by the authors seeks to find equilibrium among usefulness, simplicity, and applicability to isolated playas in a semiarid context elsewhere. Based in such model, the authors have used monthly climatic data, water stage measurements, and the basin morphometry of a particular case (Los Jarales playa lake) to calibrate the soil water budget in the catchment and the water inputs from the watershed (runoff plus groundwater flow) at different scales, from monthly to daily. After the hydrologic model was calibrated, the authors implemented simulations with the goal of reproducing the past hydrological dynamics and forecasting water regime changes that would be caused by a modification of the wetland morphometry.

  1. 36 CFR 7.48 - Lake Mead National Recreation Area.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 1 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false Lake Mead National Recreation Area. 7.48 Section 7.48 Parks, Forests, and Public Property NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF THE... watercraft at a speed in excess of flat wake speed within 200 feet of any beach occupied by bathers, boats at...

  2. 36 CFR 7.48 - Lake Mead National Recreation Area.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 1 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Lake Mead National Recreation Area. 7.48 Section 7.48 Parks, Forests, and Public Property NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF THE... watercraft at a speed in excess of flat wake speed within 200 feet of any beach occupied by bathers, boats at...

  3. 36 CFR 7.48 - Lake Mead National Recreation Area.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 1 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false Lake Mead National Recreation Area. 7.48 Section 7.48 Parks, Forests, and Public Property NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF THE... watercraft at a speed in excess of flat wake speed within 200 feet of any beach occupied by bathers, boats at...

  4. 36 CFR 7.48 - Lake Mead National Recreation Area.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Lake Mead National Recreation Area. 7.48 Section 7.48 Parks, Forests, and Public Property NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF THE... watercraft at a speed in excess of flat wake speed within 200 feet of any beach occupied by bathers, boats at...

  5. 36 CFR 7.48 - Lake Mead National Recreation Area.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 1 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false Lake Mead National Recreation Area. 7.48 Section 7.48 Parks, Forests, and Public Property NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF THE... watercraft at a speed in excess of flat wake speed within 200 feet of any beach occupied by bathers, boats at...

  6. Methane and carbon dioxide emissions from 40 lakes along a north–south latitudinal transect in Alaska

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Sepulveda-Jauregui, A.; Walter Anthony, K. M.; Martinez-Cruz, K.

    Uncertainties in the magnitude and seasonality of various gas emission modes, particularly among different lake types, limit our ability to estimate methane (CH 4) and carbon dioxide (CO 2) emissions from northern lakes. Here we assessed the relationship between CH 4 and CO 2 emission modes in 40 lakes along a latitudinal transect in Alaska to lakes' physicochemical properties and geographic characteristics, including permafrost soil type surrounding lakes. Emission modes included direct ebullition, diffusion, storage flux, and a newly identified ice-bubble storage (IBS) flux. We found that all lakes were net sources of atmospheric CH 4 and CO 2, butmore » the climate warming impact of lake CH 4 emissions was 2 times higher than that of CO 2. Ebullition and diffusion were the dominant modes of CH 4 and CO 2 emissions, respectively. IBS, ~10% of total annual CH 4 emissions, is the release to the atmosphere of seasonally ice-trapped bubbles when lake ice confining bubbles begins to melt in spring. IBS, which has not been explicitly accounted for in regional studies, increased the estimate of springtime emissions from our study lakes by 320%. Geographically, CH 4 emissions from stratified, mixotrophic interior Alaska thermokarst (thaw) lakes formed in icy, organic-rich yedoma permafrost soils were 6-fold higher than from non-yedoma lakes throughout the rest of Alaska. The relationship between CO 2 emissions and geographic parameters was weak, suggesting high variability among sources and sinks that regulate CO 2 emissions (e.g., catchment waters, pH equilibrium). Total CH 4 emission was correlated with concentrations of soluble reactive phosphorus and total nitrogen in lake water, Secchi depth, and lake area, with yedoma lakes having higher nutrient concentrations, shallower Secchi depth, and smaller lake areas. In conclusion, our findings suggest that permafrost type plays important roles in determining CH 4 emissions from lakes by both supplying organic matter to

  7. Methane and carbon dioxide emissions from 40 lakes along a north–south latitudinal transect in Alaska

    DOE PAGES

    Sepulveda-Jauregui, A.; Walter Anthony, K. M.; Martinez-Cruz, K.; ...

    2015-06-02

    Uncertainties in the magnitude and seasonality of various gas emission modes, particularly among different lake types, limit our ability to estimate methane (CH 4) and carbon dioxide (CO 2) emissions from northern lakes. Here we assessed the relationship between CH 4 and CO 2 emission modes in 40 lakes along a latitudinal transect in Alaska to lakes' physicochemical properties and geographic characteristics, including permafrost soil type surrounding lakes. Emission modes included direct ebullition, diffusion, storage flux, and a newly identified ice-bubble storage (IBS) flux. We found that all lakes were net sources of atmospheric CH 4 and CO 2, butmore » the climate warming impact of lake CH 4 emissions was 2 times higher than that of CO 2. Ebullition and diffusion were the dominant modes of CH 4 and CO 2 emissions, respectively. IBS, ~10% of total annual CH 4 emissions, is the release to the atmosphere of seasonally ice-trapped bubbles when lake ice confining bubbles begins to melt in spring. IBS, which has not been explicitly accounted for in regional studies, increased the estimate of springtime emissions from our study lakes by 320%. Geographically, CH 4 emissions from stratified, mixotrophic interior Alaska thermokarst (thaw) lakes formed in icy, organic-rich yedoma permafrost soils were 6-fold higher than from non-yedoma lakes throughout the rest of Alaska. The relationship between CO 2 emissions and geographic parameters was weak, suggesting high variability among sources and sinks that regulate CO 2 emissions (e.g., catchment waters, pH equilibrium). Total CH 4 emission was correlated with concentrations of soluble reactive phosphorus and total nitrogen in lake water, Secchi depth, and lake area, with yedoma lakes having higher nutrient concentrations, shallower Secchi depth, and smaller lake areas. In conclusion, our findings suggest that permafrost type plays important roles in determining CH 4 emissions from lakes by both supplying organic matter to

  8. Geomorphic responses of lower Bega River to catchment disturbance, 1851?1926

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Brooks, Andrew P.; Brierley, Gary J.

    1997-03-01

    Prior to significant European settlement of the area in the 1850s, lower Bega River on the South Coast of NSW had a narrow, relatively deep channel lined by river oaks. The river had a suspended or mixed load, with platypus habitat available in pools. Banks were fine-grained and relatively cohesive (silts and clays), as was the floodplain, which graded to a series of valley-marginal swamps and lakes. Extensive evidence from maps and portion plans, archival photographs, bridge surveys, and anecdotal sources, complemented by field analysis of floodplain sedimentology (including radiocarbon-dated samples) and vegetation remnants are used to document the dramatic metamorphosis in the character and behaviour of lower Bega River in the latter half of the nineteenth century. By 1926 the channel had widened extensively (up to 340%) and shallowed in association with bed aggradation by coarse sandy bedload. Floodplain accretion was dominated by fine to medium sands, with some coarse sand splays. In contrast with most other studies of channel metamorphosis in Australia, which have emphasised river responses to climatically-induced flood histories, relegating human impacts to a secondary role, the profound changes to the geomorphic condition and behaviour of Bega River reflect indirect human disturbance of Bega catchment, and direct but non point source disturbance to the channel. Extensive clearance of catchment, floodplain, and channel-marginal vegetation occurred within a few decades of European settlement, altering the hydrologic and sediment regime of the river, and transforming the geomorphic effectiveness of floods. Although this study is situated in a relatively sensitive, granitic catchment, catchment clearance is likely to have induced equally significant responses in many other river systems in eastern Australia. In some instances the diffuse aspects of human disturbance on landscapes induce impacts on river character that are just as profound as major direct

  9. Quantifying nonpoint source emissions and their water quality responses in a complex catchment: A case study of a typical urban-rural mixed catchment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chen, Lei; Dai, Ying; Zhi, Xiaosha; Xie, Hui; Shen, Zhenyao

    2018-04-01

    As two key threats to receiving water bodies, the generation mechanisms and processes of urban and agricultural nonpoint sources (NPSs) show clear differences, which lead to distinct characteristics of water quality responses with mixed land-uses catchments compared to single land-use ones. However, few studies have provided such insights in these characteristic or quantified different water environment responses to NPS pollution. In this study, an integrated modelling approach was developed for those complex catchments by combining three commonly used models: SWMM (Storm Water Management Model), SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) and MIKE 11. A case study was performed in a typical urban-rural catchment of Chao Lake, China. The simulated results indicated that urban NPS pollution responded sensitively to rainfall events and was greatly affected by the antecedent dry days. Compare to urban NPS, agricultural NPS pollution was characterized with the time-lag to rainfall depended on soil moisture and the post-rain-season emissions carried by lateral flows, and were also affected by the local farm-practice schedule. With comprehensive impacts from urban-rural land-uses, the time-interleaved urban and agricultural NPS pollution emissions and more abundant pollution accumulation both led to a decrease in the responsive time and an increase in the frequency of peak pollution concentration values even during the dry season. These obtained characteristics can provide guidance for drafting watershed management plans in similar mixed land use catchments.

  10. Multidisciplinary distinction of mass-movement and flood-induced deposits in lacustrine environments: implications for Holocene palaeohydrology and natural hazards (Lake Ledro, Southern Alps, Italy)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Simonneau, A.; Chapron, E.; Vannière, B.; Wirth, S. B.; Gilli, A.; Di Giovanni, C.; Anselmetti, F. S.; Desmet, M.; Magny, M.

    2012-08-01

    High-resolution seismic profiles and sediment cores from Lake Ledro combined with soil and river-bed samples from the lake's catchment area are used to assess the recurrence of natural hazards (earthquakes and flood events) in the southern Italian Alps during the Holocene. Two well-developed deltas and a flat central basin are identified on seismic profiles in Lake Ledro. Lake sediments are finely laminated in the basin since 9000 cal. yr BP and frequently interrupted by two types of sedimentary events: light-coloured massive layers and dark-coloured graded beds. Optical analysis (quantitative organic petrography) of the organic matter occurring in soils, river beds and lacustrine samples together with lake-sediment bulk density and grain-size analysis illustrate that light-coloured layers consist of a mixture of lacustrine sediments and mainly contain algal particles similar to the ones observed in background sediments. Light-coloured layers thicker than 1.5 cm in the main basin of Lake Ledro are dense and synchronous to numerous coeval mass-wasting deposits remoulding the slopes of the basin. They are interpreted as subaquatic mass movements triggered by historical and pre-historical regional earthquakes dated to 2005 AD, 1891 AD, 1045 AD and 1260, 2545, 2595, 3350, 3815, 4740, 7190, 9185 and 11495 cal. yr BP. Dark-coloured sedimentary event are dense and develop high-amplitude reflections in front of the deltas and in the deep central basin. These beds are mainly made of terrestrial organic matter (soils and ligno-cellulosic debris) and are interpreted as resulting from intense hyperpycnal flood events. Mapping and quantifying the amount of soil material accumulated in the Holocene hyperpycnal flood deposits of the sequence and applying the De Ploey erosion model allow estimating that the equivalent soil thickness eroded over the catchment area reached up to 4 mm during the largest Holocene flood events. Such significant soil erosion is interpreted as resulting

  11. Glacialmorphological reconstruction of glacier advances and glacial lake outburst floods at the Cachapoal glacier in the Dry Central Andes of Chile (34°S)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Iturrizaga, Lasafam; Charrier, Reynaldo

    2013-04-01

    Throughout the Andes Mountain range of South America a general trend of glacier shrinkage has taken place in the last century. Only a few glaciers have shown a rather non-continuous trend of glacier retreat and temporally advanced or even surged during the mid-19th to 20th century. One of the earliest assumed glacier surges has occurred in the upper Cachapoal catchment area at the homonymous glacier. In climatic respect the Cachapoal glacier is located in the transition zone from the most southern part of the Dry Central Andes of Chile to the more humid zone of the Wet Andes. The region is affected mainly by winter precipitation deriving from the Westerlies. The debris-covered, 12 km-long Cachapoal glacier represents one of the largest valley glaciers in the Central Andes. It is an avalanche-fed glacier with an almost 1500 m-high head wall in its upper catchment area flowing down from Picos del Barroso (5180 m) and terminates at an elevation of 2630 m a.s.l. with a bifurcated glacier tongue. A large moraine complex, almost 2 km in length and 500 m in width, separates the two glacier lobes. During times of advanced glacier tongue positions the Ríos Molina and Cachapoal may be have blocked independently at two distinct localities which are situated about 2300 m apart from each other. A blockage with temporal lake formation has occurred at least in the years 1848, 1955 and 1981 (cf. Plagemann 1887, Peña 1981), from which the rupture of the earliest glacier barrier has been the most devastating. This event is locally reminded as "la gran avenida en seco" in the historical record. Geomorphological evidence of the past historical and modern glacier expansions is given in the proglacial area by a fresh dead-ice hummocky topography and glacial trimlines at the valley flanks. More down valley broad outwash plains and boulder clusters indicate past high energy floods produced by glacier lake outbursts. Regarding the small size of the catchment area of the Río Molina

  12. DYNAMICS OF NUTRIENTS AND HYDROLOGY IN A LAKE SUPERIOR COASTAL WETLAND

    EPA Science Inventory

    Coastal wetlands are hydrologically complex ecosystems situated at the interface of upland catchments and oligotrophic Lake Superior. Little is known about nutrient dynamics within coastal wetlands or their role in modifying or contributing to nutrient fluxes from watersheds to ...

  13. Water levels and groundwater and surface-water exchanges in lakes of the northeast Twin Cities Metropolitan Area, Minnesota, 2002 through 2015

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Jones, Perry M.; Trost, Jared J.; Erickson, Melinda L.

    2016-10-19

    OverviewThis study assessed lake-water levels and regional and local groundwater and surface-water exchanges near northeast Twin Cities Metropolitan Area lakes applying three approaches: statistical analysis, field study, and groundwater-flow modeling.  Statistical analyses of lake levels were completed to assess the effect of physical setting and climate on lake-level fluctuations of selected lakes. A field study of groundwater and surface-water interactions in selected lakes was completed to (1) estimate potential percentages of surface-water contributions to well water across the northeast Twin Cities Metropolitan Area, (2) estimate general ages for waters extracted from the wells, and (3) assess groundwater inflow to lakes and lake-water outflow to aquifers downgradient from White Bear Lake.  Groundwater flow was simulated using a steady-state, groundwater-flow model to assess regional groundwater and surface-water exchanges and the effects of groundwater withdrawals, climate, and other factors on water levels of northeast Twin Cities Metropolitan Area lakes.

  14. Towards a catchment-scale macro-ecological model to support integrated catchment management in Europe

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lerner, R. N.; Lerner, D. N.; Surridge, B.; Paetzold, A.; Harris, B.; Anderson, C. W.

    2005-12-01

    In Europe, the Water Framework Directive (WFD) is providing a powerful regulatory driver to adopt integrated catchment management, and so pressurizing researchers to build suitable supporting tools. The WFD requires agencies to drive towards `good ecological quality' by 2015. After the initial step of characterising water bodies and the pressures on them, the next substantive step is the preparation of river basin management plans and proposed programmes of measures by 2009. Ecological quality is a complex concept and poorly defined, unless it is taken as a simple measure such as the abundance of a particular species of organism. There is clearly substantial work to do to build a practical but sound definition of ecological quality; practical in the sense of being easy to measure and explain to stakeholders, and sound in the sense that it reflects ecological complexity within catchments, the variability between catchments, and the conflicts demands for goods and services that human society places upon the ecological system. However ecological quality is defined, it will be driven by four interacting groups of factors. These represent the physical, chemical, ecological and socio-economic environments within and encompassing the catchment. Some of these groupings are better understood than others, for example hydrological processes and the transport of solutes are reasonably understood, even though they remain research areas in their own right. There are much larger gaps in our understanding at the interfaces, i.e. predicting how, for example, hydrological processes such as flow and river morphology influence ecological quality. Overall, it is clear we are not yet in a position to build deterministic models of the overall ecological behaviour of catchment. But we need predictive tools to support catchment management agencies in preparing robust plans. This poster describes our current exploration of soft modelling options to build a comprehensive macro

  15. Attributes for MRB_E2RF1 Catchments by Major River Basins in the Conterminous United States: Level 3 Nutrient Ecoregions, 2002

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Wieczorek, Michael; LaMotte, Andrew E.

    2010-01-01

    This tabular data set represents the area of each level 3 nutrient ecoregion in square meters compiled for every MRB_E2RF1 catchment of the Major River Basins (MRBs, Crawford and others, 2006). The source data are from the 2002 version of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (USEPA) Aggregations of Level III Ecoregions for National Nutrient Assessment & Management Strategy (USEPA, 2002). The MRB_E2RF1 catchments are based on a modified version of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (USEPA) ERF1_2 and include enhancements to support national and regional-scale surface-water quality modeling (Nolan and others, 2002; Brakebill and others, 2011). Data were compiled for every MRB_E2RF1 catchment for the conterminous United States covering New England and Mid-Atlantic (MRB1), South Atlantic-Gulf and Tennessee (MRB2), the Great Lakes, Ohio, Upper Mississippi, and Souris-Red-Rainy (MRB3), the Missouri (MRB4), the Lower Mississippi, Arkansas-White-Red, and Texas-Gulf (MRB5), the Rio Grande, Colorado, and the Great basin (MRB6), the Pacific Northwest (MRB7) river basins, and California (MRB8).

  16. Modeling relationships between catchment attributes and river water quality in southern catchments of the Caspian Sea.

    PubMed

    Hasani Sangani, Mohammad; Jabbarian Amiri, Bahman; Alizadeh Shabani, Afshin; Sakieh, Yousef; Ashrafi, Sohrab

    2015-04-01

    Increasing land utilization through diverse forms of human activities, such as agriculture, forestry, urban growth, and industrial development, has led to negative impacts on the water quality of rivers. To find out how catchment attributes, such as land use, hydrologic soil groups, and lithology, can affect water quality variables (Ca(2+), Mg(2+), Na(+), Cl(-), HCO 3 (-) , pH, TDS, EC, SAR), a spatio-statistical approach was applied to 23 catchments in southern basins of the Caspian Sea. All input data layers (digital maps of land use, soil, and lithology) were prepared using geographic information system (GIS) and spatial analysis. Relationships between water quality variables and catchment attributes were then examined by Spearman rank correlation tests and multiple linear regression. Stepwise approach-based multiple linear regressions were developed to examine the relationship between catchment attributes and water quality variables. The areas (%) of marl, tuff, or diorite, as well as those of good-quality rangeland and bare land had negative effects on all water quality variables, while those of basalt, forest land cover were found to contribute to improved river water quality. Moreover, lithological variables showed the greatest most potential for predicting the mean concentration values of water quality variables, and noting that measure of EC and TDS have inversely associated with area (%) of urban land use.

  17. Development of catchment research, with particular attention to Plynlimon and its forerunner, the East African catchments

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Blackie, J. R.; Robinson, M.

    2007-01-01

    Dr J.S.G. McCulloch was deeply involved in the establishment of research catchments in East Africa and subsequently in the UK to investigate the hydrological consequences of changes in land use. Comparison of these studies provides an insight into how influential his inputs and direction have been in the progressive development of the philosophy, the instrumentation and the analytical techniques now employed in catchment research. There were great contrasts in the environments: tropical highland (high radiation, intense rainfall) vs. temperate maritime (low radiation and frontal storms), contrasting soils and vegetation types, as well as the differing social and economic pressures in developing and developed nations. Nevertheless, the underlying scientific philosophy was common to both, although techniques had to be modified according to local conditions. As specialised instrumentation and analytical techniques were developed for the UK catchments many were also integrated into the East African studies. Many lessons were learned in the course of these studies and from the experiences of other studies around the world. Overall, a rigorous scientific approach was developed with widespread applicability. Beyond the basics of catchment selection and the quantification of the main components of the catchment water balance, this involved initiating parallel process studies to provide information on specific aspects of catchment behaviour. This information could then form the basis for models capable of extrapolation from the observed time series to other periods/hydrological events and, ultimately, the capability of predicting the consequences of changes in catchment land management to other areas in a range of climates.

  18. Hydrological Dynamics In High Mountain Catchment Areas of Central Norway

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Löffler, Jörg; Rößler, Ole

    Large-scaled landscape structure is regarded as a mosaic of ecotopes where process dynamics of water and energy fluxes are analysed due to its effects on ecosystem functioning. The investigations have been carried out in the continental most Vågå/Oppland high mountains in central Norway since 1994 (LÖFFLER &WUNDRAM 1999, 2000, 2001). Additionally, comparable investigations started in 2000 dealing with the oceanic high mountain landscapes on same latitudes (LÖFFLER et al. 2001). The theoretical and methodological framework of the project is given by the Landscape-Ecological Complex Analysis (MOSIMANN 1984, 1985) and its variations due to technical and principle methodical challenges in this high mountain landscape (KÖHLER et al. 1994, LÖFFLER 1998). The aim of the project is to characterize high mountain ecosystem structure, functioning and dynamics within small catchment areas, that are chosen in two different altitudinal belts each in the eastern continental and the western oceanic region of central Norway. In the frame of this research project hydrological and meteorological measurements on ground water, percolation and soil moisture dynamics as well as on evaporation, air humidity and air-, surface- and soil-temperatures have been conducted. On the basis of large-scaled landscape-ecological mappings (LÖFFLER 1997) one basic meteorological station and several major data logger run stations have been installed in representative sites of each two catchment areas in the low and mid alpine belts of the investigation regions ( JUNGet al. 1997, LÖFFLER &WUNDRAM 1997). Moreover, spatial differentiations of groundwater level, soil moisture and temperature profiles have been investigated by means of hand held measurements at different times of the day, during different climatic situations and different seasons. Daily and annual air-, surface- and soil-temperature dynamics are demonstrated by means of thermoisopleth-diagrams for different types of ecotopes of the

  19. How does precipitation become runoff? Comparison of hydrologic thresholds across hillslope and catchment scales

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ross, C.; Ali, G.; Oswald, C. J.; McMillan, H. K.; Walter, K.

    2017-12-01

    A hydrologic threshold is a critical point in time when runoff behavior rapidly changes, often in response to the activation of specific storage-driven or intensity-driven processes. Hydrologic thresholds can be viewed as characteristic signatures of hydrosystems, which makes them useful for site comparison as long as their presence (or lack thereof) can be evaluated in a standard manner across a range of environments. While several previous studies have successfully identified thresholds at a variety of individual sites, only a limited number have compared dynamics prevailing at the hillslope versus catchment scale, or distinguished the role of storage versus intensity thresholds. The objective of this study was therefore to examine precipitation input thresholds as well as "precipitation minus evapotranspiration" thresholds in environments with contrasted climatic and geographic characteristics. Historical climate and hydrometric datasets were consolidated for one hillslope site located at the Panola Mountain Research Watershed (Southeastern USA) and catchments located in the HJ Andrew's Experimental Forest (Northwestern USA), the Catfish Creek Watershed (Canadian prairies), the Experimental Lakes Area (Canadian boreal ecozone), the Tarrawarra catchment (Australia) and the Mahurangi catchment (New Zealand). Individual precipitation-runoff events were delineated using the newly introduced software HydRun to derive event-specific hydrograph parameters as well surrogate measures of antecedent moisture conditions and evapotranspiration in an automated and consistent manner. Various hydrograph parameters were then plotted against those surrogate measures to detect and evaluate site-specific threshold dynamics. Preliminary results show that a range of threshold shapes (e.g., "hockey stick", heaviside and dirac) were observed across sites. The influence of antecedent precipitation on threshold magnitude and shape also appeared stronger at sites with lower topographic

  20. Lake System Development on the northern Tibetan Plateau during the last 12 ka

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ramisch, A. C.; Lockot, G.; Kasper, T.; Schulte, P.; Zhang, Y.; Daut, G.; Haberzettl, T.; Stauch, G.; Hartmann, K.; Zhu, L.; Lehmkuhl, F.; Maeusbacher, R.; Wuennemann, B.; Diekmann, B.

    2013-12-01

    Lake systems and their drainage basins provide valuable information of late Quaternary palaeo-environmental conditions on the Tibetan Plateau (TP). This information is often difficult to interpret because of a complex forcing-response mechanism of lake systems and their environment. Here we present an analysis of the endogenic mineral precipitation of Lake Heihai (northern TP) and its environmental constrains expressed by the exogenic mineral input. The mineralogical analysis of carbonate phases by means of X-ray diffraction revealed three distinct stages of carbonate precipitation: Aragonite (late Glacial), Monohydrocalcite (early to mid-Holocene) and Mg bearing Calcite (late Holocene). Each phase precipitates under steady state conditions of exogenic mineral input, as determined by a phase space analysis. This suggests a self-organized precipitation process driven by interactions of different ions. Hence, under steady environmental conditions carbonate precipitation is strongly dependent on the ionic compositions of the lake water and thus controlled by sources of the exogenic mineral input. To analyze the provenance of the exogenic mineral input, a Fuzzy C-Means (FCM) Clustering algorithm was performed on the minerogenic detrital fraction of the total mineral content of 57 surface reference samples. Three major sources can be distinguished: (a) glacially mediated, far distant transport originating from SE catchment (b) precipitation generated, close distant runoff originating from the SW catchment and (c) close distant transport of granite weathering products in the northern parts of the drainage basin. A change from the compositional dominance of (b) over (a) to (a) over (b) in lake sediments suggests a transition from rainfall to glacier dominated runoff production and hence drier climate conditions in the study area during the late Holocene. The environmentally controlled changes in the exogenic mineral input are compared to two different lake systems: Lake

  1. SCOPSCO - Scientific Collaboration On Past Speciation Conditions in Lake Ohrid

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wagner, B.; Wilke, T.; Grazhdani, A.; Kostoski, G.; Krastel, S.; Reicherter, K. R.; Zanchetta, G.

    2009-12-01

    of the lake area including effects of major earthquakes and associated mass wasting events, (iii) to obtain a continuous record containing information on volcanic activities and climate changes in the central northern Mediterranean region, and (iv) to better understand the impact of major geological/environmental events on general evolutionary patterns and shaping an extraordinary degree of endemic biodiversity as a matter of global significance. For this purpose, five primary drill sites were selected based on the results obtained from sedimentological studies, tectonic mapping in the catchment and detailed seismic surveys conducted between 2004 and 2008. For the recovery of the up to c. 680 m long sediment sequences the GLAD800 shall be used. The drilling operation is planned to take place in 2011.

  2. Ecological, biogeochemical and salinity changes in coastal lakes and wetlands over the last 200 years

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Roberts, Lucy; Holmes, Jonathan; Horne, David

    2016-04-01

    Shallow lakes provide extensive ecosystem services and are ecologically important aquatic resources supporting a diverse flora and fauna. In marginal-marine areas, where such lakes are subjected to the multiple pressures of coastal erosion, sea level rise, increasing sea surface temperature and increasing frequency and intensity of storm surges, environments are complex and unstable. They are characterised by physico-chemical variations due to climatic (precipitation/evaporation cycles) and dynamic factors (tides, currents, freshwater drainage and sea level changes). Combined with human activity in the catchment these processes can alter the salinity, habitat and ecology of coastal fresh- to brackish water ecosystems. In this study the chemical and biological stability of coastal lakes forming the Upper Thurne catchment in the NE of the Norfolk Broads, East Anglia, UK are seriously threatened by long-term changes in salinity resulting from storm surges, complex hydrogeology and anthropogenic activity in the catchment. Future management decisions depend on a sound understanding of the potential ecological impacts, but such understanding is limited by short-term observations and measurements. This research uses palaeolimnological approaches, which can be validated and calibrated with historical records, to reconstruct changes in the aquatic environment on a longer time scale than can be achieved by observations alone. Here, salinity is quantitatively reconstructed using the trace-element geochemistry (Sr/Ca and Mg/Ca) of low Mg-calcite shells of Ostracoda (microscopic bivalved crustaceans) and macrophyte and macroinvertebrate macrofossil remains are used as a proxy to assess ecological change in response to variations in salinity. δ13C values of Cladocera (which are potentially outcompeted by the mysid Neomysis integer with increasing salinity and eutrophication) can be used to reconstruct carbon cycling and energy pathways in lake food webs, which alongside

  3. Distribution of native mussel (unionidae) assemblages in coastal areas of Lake Erie, Lake St. Clair, and connecting channels, twenty-five years after a dreissenid invasion

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Zanatta, David T.; Bossenbroek, Jonathan M.; Burlakova, Lyubov E.; Crail, Todd D.; Szalay, Ferenc de; Griffith, Traci A.; Kapusinski, Douglas; Karatayev, Alexander Y.; Krebs, Robert A.; Meyer, Elizabeth S.; Paterson, Wendy L.; Prescott, Trevor J.; Rowe, Matthew T.; Schloesser, Donald W.; Walsh, Mary C.

    2015-01-01

    Over the past 25 years, unionid mussels in the Laurentian Great Lakes of North America have been adversely impacted by invasive dreissenid mussels, which directly (e.g., by attachment to unionid shells) and indirectly (e.g., by competing for food) cause mortality. Despite the invasion, unionids have survived in several areas in the presence of dreissenid mussels. We investigated current spatial patterns in these native mussel refuges based on surveys for unionid mussels across 48 sampling locations (141 sites) in 2011 and 2012, and documented species abundance and diversity in coastal areas of lakes St. Clair and Erie. The highest-quality assemblages of native mussels (densities, richness, and diversity) appear to be concentrated in the St. Clair delta, where abundance continues to decline, as well as in in Thompson Bay of Presque Isle in Lake Erie and in just a few coastal wetlands and drowned river-mouths in the western basin of Lake Erie. The discovery of several new refuge areas suggests that unionids have a broader distribution within the region than previously thought.

  4. Calculation of area and volume for the north part of Great Salt Lake, Utah

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Baskin, Robert L.

    2006-01-01

    The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Utah Department of Natural Resources, Division of Forestry, Fire, and State Lands, collected bathymetric data for the north part of Great Salt Lake during the spring and early summer of 2006 using a single-beam, high-definition fathometer and real-time differential global positioning system. About 5.2 million depth measurements were collected along more than 765 miles (1,230 kilometers) of survey transects. Sound-velocity profiles were obtained in conjunction with the bathymetric data to provide time-of-travel corrections to the depth calculations. Data were processed with commercial hydrographic software and exported into geographic information system (GIS) software for mapping and calculation of area and volume. Area and volume calculations show a maximum area of about 385,000 acres (1,560 square kilometers) and a maximum volume of about 5,693,000 acre-feet (about 7 cubic kilometers) at a water-surface altitude of 4,200 feet (1,280 meters). Minimum natural water-surface altitude of the north part of Great Salt Lake is just below 4,167 feet (1,270 meters) in the area just north of the Union Pacific railroad causeway halfway between Saline and the western edge of the lake. The north part of Great Salt Lake generally grades gradually to the west and north and is bounded by steep scarps along its eastern border. Calculations for area and volume are based on a low altitude of 4,167 feet (1,270 meters) to a high altitude of 4,200 feet (1,280 meters).

  5. In-lake carbon dioxide concentration patterns in four distinct phases in relation to ice cover dynamics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Denfeld, B. A.; Wallin, M.; Sahlee, E.; Sobek, S.; Kokic, J.; Chmiel, H.; Weyhenmeyer, G. A.

    2014-12-01

    Global carbon dioxide (CO2) emission estimates from inland waters include emissions at ice melt that are based on simple assumptions rather than evidence. To account for CO2 accumulation below ice and potential emissions into the atmosphere at ice melt we combined continuous CO2 concentrations with spatial CO2 sampling in an ice-covered small boreal lake. From early ice cover to ice melt, our continuous surface water CO2 concentration measurements at 2 m depth showed a temporal development in four distinct phases: In early winter, CO2 accumulated continuously below ice, most likely due to biological in-lake and catchment inputs. Thereafter, in late winter, CO2 concentrations remained rather constant below ice, as catchment inputs were minimized and vertical mixing of hypolimnetic water was cut off. As ice melt began, surface water CO2 concentrations were rapidly changing, showing two distinct peaks, the first one reflecting horizontal mixing of CO2 from surface and catchment waters, the second one reflecting deep water mixing. We detected that 83% of the CO2 accumulated in the water during ice cover left the lake at ice melt which corresponded to one third of the total CO2 storage. Our results imply that CO2 emissions at ice melt must be accurately integrated into annual CO2 emission estimates from inland waters. If up-scaling approaches assume that CO2 accumulates linearly under ice and at ice melt all CO2 accumulated during ice cover period leaves the lake again, present estimates may overestimate CO2 emissions from small ice covered lakes. Likewise, neglecting CO2 spring outbursts will result in an underestimation of CO2 emissions from small ice covered lakes.

  6. Pronounced chemical response of Subarctic lakes to climate-driven losses in surface area

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Lewis, Tyler L.; Lindberg, Mark S.; Schmutz, Joel A.; Heglund, Patricia J.; Rover, Jennifer R.; Koch, Joshua C.; Bertram, Mark R.

    2015-01-01

    Losses in lake area have been observed for several Arctic and Subarctic regions in recent decades, with unknown consequences for lake ecosystems. These reductions are primarily attributed to two climate-sensitive mechanisms, both of which may also cause changes in water chemistry: (i) increased imbalance of evaporation relative to inflow, whereby increased evaporation and decreased inflow act to concentrate solutes into smaller volumes; and (ii) accelerated permafrost degradation, which enhances sublacustrine drainage while simultaneously leaching previously frozen solutes into lakes. We documented changes in nutrients [total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP)] and ions (calcium, chloride, magnesium, sodium) over a 25 year interval in shrinking, stable, and expanding Subarctic lakes of the Yukon Flats, Alaska. Concentrations of all six solutes increased in shrinking lakes from 1985–1989 to 2010–2012, while simultaneously undergoing little change in stable or expanding lakes. This created a present-day pattern, much weaker or absent in the 1980s, in which shrinking lakes had higher solute concentrations than their stable or expanding counterparts. An imbalanced evaporation-to-inflow ratio (E/I) was the most likely mechanism behind such changes; all four ions, which behave semiconservatively and are prone to evapoconcentration, increased in shrinking lakes and, along with TN and TP, were positively related to isotopically derived E/I estimates. Moreover, the most conservative ion, chloride, increased >500% in shrinking lakes. Conversely, only TP concentration was related to probability of permafrost presence, being highest at intermediate probabilities. Overall, the substantial increases of nutrients (TN >200%, TP >100%) and ions (>100%) may shift shrinking lakes towards overly eutrophic or saline states, with potentially severe consequences for ecosystems of northern lakes.

  7. Understanding catchment scale sediment sources using geochemical tracers

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ferreira, Carla S. S.; Walsh, Rory P. D.; Shakesby, Richard A.; Steenhuis, Tammo S.; Ferreira, António J. D.; Coelho, Celeste O. A.

    2013-04-01

    It is well-established that urbanization leads to increased erosion (at least locally) as well as enhanced overland flow and streamflow peaks. Less is known about how the spatial distribution of erosion sources and scale of increases in erosion vary with the nature of urbanization in different climatic and socio-economic settings. This is important in order to prevent or reduce adverse impacts of erosion on downstream sedimentation, channel siltation and shifting, and river pollution. This paper adopts a sediment fingerprinting approach to assess the impact of partial urbanization and associated land-use change on sediment sources within a peri-urban catchment (6 km2), Ribeira dos Covões on the outskirts of the city of Coimbra in central Portugal. Urban land-use has increased from just 6% in 1958 to 30% in 2009. The urban pattern includes some well-defined urban residential centres, but also areas of discontinuous urban sprawl, including educational, health and small industrial facilities, numerous new roads and an enterprise park is under construction on the upper part of the catchment. The catchment has a wet Mediterranean climate and the lithology comprises sandstone in the west and limestone in the east. Soil depth is generally >40cm. The average slope angle is 8° (maximum 47°). Altitude ranges from 30m to 205m. A sediment fingerprinting approach was adopted to help establish the relative importance of sediment inputs from different urban areas. During September 2012 current bed-sediment samples (0-3 cm depth) were collected from 11 channel sites along the main stream and in different tributaries. At sites where bed-sediment was deeper, additional samples were taken at 3cm intervals to a maximum depth of around 42cm. In addition, overbank sediment samples (0-3cm depth) were collected at 11 locations around the catchment. All samples were oven-dried (at 38°C) and different particle size fractions (0.125-2mm, 0.063-0.125mm and <0.063mm) obtained, where the <0

  8. Terrestrial organic matter as subsidies that aid in the recovery of macroinvertebrates in industrially damaged lakes.

    PubMed

    Szkokan-Emilson, E J; Wesolek, B E; Gunn, J M

    2011-09-01

    The importance of allochthonous carbon to the productivity of stream ecosystems in temperate ecozones is well understood, but this relationship is less established in oligotrophic lakes. The nearshore littoral zones, at the interface of terrestrial and aquatic systems, are areas where the influence of terrestrial subsidies is likely greatest. We investigated the response of nearshore communities to variation in the quantity and composition of allochthonous materials, determined the landscape characteristics that regulate the variation of this subsidy, and explored the potential for terrestrial restoration practices to influence the export of organic matter to lakes. Stepwise multiple regressions revealed that diversity of nearshore macroinvertebrate families increased with the amount of fine particulate organic matter (FPOM) captured in sediment traps. The quantity of FPOM (g) increased with forest cover, and the relative amount of FPOM (percentage of total particulate material) in the traps increased with surface area of wetland in the catchments. These models suggest that terrestrially derived subsidies are important in smelter-impacted watersheds, and that the restoration of forests and wetlands will speed the return of nearshore consumer community diversity in industrially damaged lakes.

  9. VITELLOGENIN GENE EXPRESSION IN FATHEAD MINNOWS AND PEARL DACE FROM CONTROL (NON-DOSED) AND LAKES DOSED WITH EE2 IN THE CANADIAN EXPERIMENTAL LAKES AREA

    EPA Science Inventory

    A whole-lake endocrine disruption experiment was conducted by Fisheries and Oceans Canada at the Experimental Lakes Area (ELA) in northwestern Ontario for three years beginning in 2001. This experiment examined population, organismal, biochemical and cellular-level effects in la...

  10. Comparison of three methods for long-term monitoring of boreal lake area using Landsat TM and ETM+ imagery

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Roach, Jennifer K.; Griffith, Brad; Verbyla, David

    2012-01-01

    Programs to monitor lake area change are becoming increasingly important in high latitude regions, and their development often requires evaluating tradeoffs among different approaches in terms of accuracy of measurement, consistency across multiple users over long time periods, and efficiency. We compared three supervised methods for lake classification from Landsat imagery (density slicing, classification trees, and feature extraction). The accuracy of lake area and number estimates was evaluated relative to high-resolution aerial photography acquired within two days of satellite overpasses. The shortwave infrared band 5 was better at separating surface water from nonwater when used alone than when combined with other spectral bands. The simplest of the three methods, density slicing, performed best overall. The classification tree method resulted in the most omission errors (approx. 2x), feature extraction resulted in the most commission errors (approx. 4x), and density slicing had the least directional bias (approx. half of the lakes with overestimated area and half of the lakes with underestimated area). Feature extraction was the least consistent across training sets (i.e., large standard error among different training sets). Density slicing was the best of the three at classifying small lakes as evidenced by its lower optimal minimum lake size criterion of 5850 m2 compared with the other methods (8550 m2). Contrary to conventional wisdom, the use of additional spectral bands and a more sophisticated method not only required additional processing effort but also had a cost in terms of the accuracy and consistency of lake classifications.

  11. Influence of catchment-scale military land use on stream physical and organic matter variables in small Southeaster Plains Catchments (USA)

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Maloney, Kelly

    2005-01-01

    We conducted a 3-year study designed to examine the relationship between disturbance from military land use and stream physical and organic matter variables within 12 small (<5.5 km2) Southeastern Plains catchments at the Fort Benning Military Installation, Georgia, USA. Primary land-use categories were based on percentages of bare ground and road cover and nonforested land (grasslands, sparse vegetation, shrublands, fields) in catchments and natural catchments features, including soils (% sandy soils) and catchment size (area). We quantified stream flashiness (determined by slope of recession limbs of storm hydrographs), streambed instability (measured by relative changes in bed height over time), organicmore » matter storage [coarse wood debris (CWD) relative abundance, benthic particulate organic matter (BPOM)] and stream-water dissolved organic carbon concentration (DOC). Stream flashiness was positively correlated with average storm magnitude and percent of the catchment with sandy soil, whereas streambed instability was related to percent of the catchment containing nonforested (disturbed) land. The proportions of in-stream CWD and sediment BPOM, and stream-water DOC were negatively related to the percent of bare ground and road cover in catchments. Collectively, our results suggest that the amount of catchment disturbance causing denuded vegetation and exposed, mobile soil is (1) a key terrestrial influence on stream geomorphology and hydrology and (2) a greater determinant of in-stream organic matter conditions than is natural geomorphic or topographic variation (catchment size, soil type) in these systems.« less

  12. Aquatic balance in Vegoritis Lake, West Macedonia, Greece, relating to lignite mining works in the area

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dimitrakopoulos, D.; Grigorakou, E.; Koumantakis, J.

    2003-04-01

    Vegoritis Lake, which is located at Vegoritis closed Basin in West Macedonia, Greece, is the biggest lake in Greece. In 1994 the area of the lake was 35 Km2 with maximum depth 42 m at the northwestern part of the lake. It is the final receiving body of the surface runoff of the hydrological basin. Moreover, it is the surficial appearance of an enormous and not well-known karstic aquifer. Being a closed hydrological basin any interference in surface or groundwater conditions in every part of its area affects the level of the lake. The level of the lake in 1900 was 525 masl, in 1942 was 542 masl reaching the higher level of 543 masl in 1956. The increase of the level of the lake was due to the drainage of Ptolemais (Sarigiol) swamp through Soulou drain ditches that transfer the water in the lake. Since then, a continuous drawdown took place with small periods of rising of water level. Today, the level of the lake is declined in a smaller rate having reached the level of 510 masl. Water coming from the lake has been used in the past, and in some cases still does, for agricultural, industrial and domestic use, for hydropower generation and for the cooling system of power plants. Moreover, P.P.C. (Public Power Corporation of Greece) develops an intense activity in the area with the exploitation of the lignite deposits of the basin and power generation in several Power Plants. Few years ago significant quantities from Vegoritis Lake were used for hydro power of Agras Power Plant. With the elaboration of the existent data (water level measurements, recharge, discharge) the connection between the lowering of the surface of the lake and the subtracted quantities through the Arnissa Tunel the first years of its use, is obvious. The last twenty years the condition has change. Outflow through the Arnissa Tunnel for hydropower has stopped. The continued lowering of the level of the lake is caused, mainly, by overexploitation due to the intense increase of the irrigating land

  13. Long term response of acid-sensitive Vermont Lakes to sulfate deposition

    EPA Science Inventory

    Atmospheric deposition of sulfur can negatively affect the health of lakes and streams, particularly in poorly buffered catchments. In response to the Clean Air Act Amendments, wet deposition of sulfate decreased more than 35% in Vermont between 1990 and 2008. However, most of ...

  14. Catchments of general practice in different countries– a literature review

    PubMed Central

    2014-01-01

    The purpose of this paper is to review the current research on catchment areas of private general practices in different developed countries because healthcare reform, including primary health care, has featured prominently as an important political issue in a number of developed countries. The debates around health reform have had a significant health geographic focus. Conceptually, GP catchments describe the distribution, composition and profile of patients who access a general practitioner or a general practice (i.e. a site or facility comprising one or more general practitioners). Therefore, GP catchments provide important information into the geographic variation of access rates, utilisation of services and health outcomes by all of the population or different population groups in a defined area or aggregated area. This review highlights a wide range of diversity in the literature as to how GP catchments can be described, the indicators and measures used to frame the scale of catchments. Patient access to general practice health care services should be considered from a range of locational concepts, and not necessarily constrained by their place of residence. An analysis of catchment patterns of general practitioners should be considered as dynamic and multi-perspective. Geographic information systems provide opportunities to contribute valuable methodologies to study these relationships. However, researchers acknowledge that a conceptual framework for the analysis of GP catchments requires access to real world data. Recent studies have shown promising developments in the use of real world data, especially from studies in the UK. Understanding the catchment profiles of individual GP surgeries is important if governments are serious about patient choice being a key part of proposed primary health reforms. Future health planning should incorporate models of GP catchments as planning tools, at the micro level as well as the macro level, to assist policies on the

  15. The impact of soil redistribution on SOC pools in a Mediterranean agroforestry catchment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Quijano, Laura; Gaspar, Leticia; Lizaga, Iván; Navas, Ana

    2017-04-01

    Soil redistribution processes play an important role influencing the spatial distribution patterns of soil and associated soil organic carbon (SOC) at landscape scale. Information on drivers of SOC dynamics is key for evaluating both soil degradation and SOC stability that can affect soil quality and sustainability. 137Cs measurements provide a very effective tool to infer spatial patterns of soil redistribution and quantify soil redistribution rates in different landscapes, but to date these data are scarce in mountain Mediterranean agroecosystems. We evaluate the effect of soil redistribution on SOC and SOC pools in relation to land use in a Mediterranean mountain catchment (246 ha). To this purpose, two hundred and four soil bulk cores were collected on a 100 m grid in the Estaña lakes catchment located in the central sector of the Spanish Pyrenees (31T 4656250N 295152E). The study area is an agroforestry and endorheic catchment characterized by the presence of evaporite dissolution induced dolines, some of which host permanent lakes. The selected landscape is representative of rainfed areas of Mediterranean continental climate with erodible lithology and shallow soils, and characterized by an intense anthropogenic activity through cultivation and water management. The cultivated and uncultivated areas are heterogeneously distributed. SOC and SOC pools (the active and decomposable fraction, ACF and the stable carbon fraction SCF) were measured by the dry combustion method and soil redistribution rates were derived from 137Cs measurements. The results showed that erosion predominated in the catchment, most of soil samples were identified as eroded sites (n=114) with an average erosion rate of 26.9±51.4 Mg ha-1 y-1 whereas the mean deposition rate was 13.0±24.2 Mg ha-1 y-1. In cultivated soils (n=54) the average of soil erosion rate was significantly higher (78.5±74.4 Mg ha-1 y-1) than in uncultivated soils (6.8±10.4 Mg ha-1 y-1). Similarly, the mean of soil

  16. Midcontinent microcosm: Geology of the Atkins lake - Marengo falls area (Field trip 2)

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Bjørnerud, Marcia; Cannon, William F.

    2011-01-01

    Archean and Proterozoic rocks exposed over about 16km2 between Atkins Lake and Coffee Lake in southeastern Bayfield County (Fig. 1) chronicle almost all of the major Precambrian geologic events in the history of the southern Superior Craton. The oldest rocks are part of a locally gneissic quartz monzonite complex, the Puritan Batholith, with an igneous Rb-Sr age of 2710+140 Ma (Sims et al., 1977). At the regional scale, this complex is part of one of the youngest Archean granite-greenstone belts in the Superior Province, and it intrudes greenstones of the Neoarchean Ramsay Formation. In the Atkins Lake – Marengo River area, the Puritan Batholith is nonconformably overlain by the Paleoproterozoic (ca. 2200 Ma) Bad River Dolomite. The Bad River Dolomite is in turn separated by an unconformity from rocks of the ca. 1875 Ma Menominee Group (Palms Formation and Ironwood Iron-formation), which locally contain mafic volcanic rocks and diabase sills (Cannon et al., 2008). These Paleoproterozoic rocks provide insight into climate and biogeochemical cycles during the transition to an oxidizing atmosphere (Bekker et al., 2006) and have deformational fabrics (folds, strong cleavage, local mylonite zones) that record the ca. 1850 Ma Penokean Orogeny. The youngest rocks in the area are Mesoproterozoic basaltic lava flows (Siemens Creek Volcanics, ca. 1110 Ma) and a layered mafic complex (the Mineral Lake Intrusion, also ca. 1100 Ma), both related to the Mid-continent Rift. All of the stratified units show static contact metamorphic textures near their contacts with the Mineral Lake Intrusion. Thus the area constitutes a microcosm of the regional bedrock geology, and the cross-cutting relationships among the units provide clear constraints on the relative timing of different phases of deformation and magmatism (Cannon etal., 2008, Bjørnerud, 2010a).

  17. Bathymetric contour map, surface area and capacity table, and bathymetric difference map for Clearwater Lake near Piedmont, Missouri, 2017

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Richards, Joseph M.; Huizinga, Richard J.

    2018-06-19

    Clearwater Lake, on the Black River near Piedmont in Reynolds County, Missouri, was constructed in 1948 and is operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for flood-risk reduction, recreation, and fish and wildlife habitat. The lake area is about 1,800 acres with about 34 miles of shoreline at the conservation pool elevation of 498 feet. Since the completion of the lake in 1948, sedimentation likely has caused the storage capacity of the lake to decrease gradually. The loss of storage capacity can decrease the effectiveness of the lake to mitigate flooding, and excessive sediment accumulation also can reduce aquatic habitat in some areas of the lake. Many lakes operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have periodic bathymetric and sediment surveys to monitor the status of the lake. The U.S. Geological Survey completed one such survey of Clearwater Lake in 2008 during a period of high lake level using bathymetric surveying equipment consisting of a multibeam echosounder, a singlebeam echosounder, 1/3 arc-second National Elevation Dataset data (used outside the multibeam echosounder survey extent), and the waterline derived from 2008 aerial light detection and ranging (lidar) data. In May 2017, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, surveyed the bathymetry of Clearwater Lake to prepare an updated bathymetric map and a surface area and capacity table. The 2008 survey was contrasted with the 2017 survey to document the changes in the bathymetric surface of the lake.

  18. Evidence of Lake Trout reproduction at Lake Michigan's mid-lake reef complex

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Janssen, J.; Jude, D.J.; Edsall, T.A.; Paddock, R.W.; Wattrus, N.; Toneys, M.; McKee, P.

    2006-01-01

    The Mid-Lake Reef Complex (MLRC), a large area of deep (> 40 m) reefs, was a major site where indigenous lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) in Lake Michigan aggregated during spawning. As part of an effort to restore Lake Michigan's lake trout, which were extirpated in the 1950s, yearling lake trout have been released over the MLRC since the mid-1980s and fall gill net censuses began to show large numbers of lake trout in spawning condition beginning about 1999. We report the first evidence of viable egg deposition and successful lake trout fry production at these deep reefs. Because the area's existing bathymetry and habitat were too poorly known for a priori selection of sampling sites, we used hydroacoustics to locate concentrations of large fish in the fall; fish were congregating around slopes and ridges. Subsequent observations via unmanned submersible confirmed the large fish to be lake trout. Our technological objectives were driven by biological objectives of locating where lake trout spawn, where lake trout fry were produced, and what fishes ate lake trout eggs and fry. The unmanned submersibles were equipped with a suction sampler and electroshocker to sample eggs deposited on the reef, draw out and occasionally catch emergent fry, and collect egg predators (slimy sculpin Cottus cognatus). We observed slimy sculpin to eat unusually high numbers of lake trout eggs. Our qualitative approaches are a first step toward quantitative assessments of the importance of lake trout spawning on the MLRC.

  19. The Effect of Catchment Urbanization on Nutrient Uptake and Biofilm Enzyme Activity in Lake Superior (USA) Tributary Streams

    EPA Science Inventory

    We used landscape, habitat, and chemistry variables, along with nutrient spiraling metrics and biofilm extracellular enzyme activity (EEA), to assess the response of streams to the level of urbanization within their catchments. For this study nine streams of similar catchment are...

  20. The catchment based approach using catchment system engineering

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jonczyk, Jennine; Quinn, Paul; Barber, Nicholas; Wilkinson, Mark

    2015-04-01

    The catchment based approach (CaBa) has been championed as a potential mechanism for delivery of environmental directives such as the Water Framework Directive in the UK. However, since its launch in 2013, there has been only limited progress towards achieving sustainable, holistic management, with only a few of examples of good practice ( e.g. from the Tyne Rivers trust). Common issues with developing catchment plans over a national scale include limited data and resources to identify issues and source of those issues, how to systematically identify suitable locations for measures or suites of measures that will have the biggest downstream impact and how to overcome barriers for implementing solutions. Catchment System Engineering (CSE) is an interventionist approach to altering the catchment scale runoff regime through the manipulation of hydrological flow pathways throughout the catchment. A significant component of the runoff generation can be managed by targeting hydrological flow pathways at source, such as overland flow, field drain and ditch function, greatly reducing erosive soil losses. Coupled with management of farm nutrients at source, many runoff attenuation features or measures can be co-located to achieve benefits for water quality and biodiversity. A catchment, community-led mitigation measures plan using the CSE approach will be presented from a catchment in Northumberland, Northern England that demonstrate a generic framework for identification of multi-purpose features that slow, store and filter runoff at strategic locations in the landscape. Measures include within-field barriers, edge of field traps and within-ditch measures. Progress on the implementation of measures will be reported alongside potential impacts on the runoff regime at both local and catchment scale and costs.

  1. Coupling of Markov chains and cellular automata spatial models to predict land cover changes (case study: upper Ci Leungsi catchment area)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Marko, K.; Zulkarnain, F.; Kusratmoko, E.

    2016-11-01

    Land cover changes particular in urban catchment area has been rapidly occur. Land cover changes occur as a result of increasing demand for built-up area. Various kinds of environmental and hydrological problems e.g. floods and urban heat island can happen if the changes are uncontrolled. This study aims to predict land cover changes using coupling of Markov chains and cellular automata. One of the most rapid land cover changes is occurs at upper Ci Leungsi catchment area that located near Bekasi City and Jakarta Metropolitan Area. Markov chains has a good ability to predict the probability of change statistically while cellular automata believed as a powerful method in reading the spatial patterns of change. Temporal land cover data was obtained by remote sensing satellite imageries. In addition, this study also used multi-criteria analysis to determine which driving factor that could stimulate the changes such as proximity, elevation, and slope. Coupling of these two methods could give better prediction model rather than just using it separately. The prediction model was validated using existing 2015 land cover data and shown a satisfactory kappa coefficient. The most significant increasing land cover is built-up area from 24% to 53%.

  2. Spatial heterogeneity in statistical power to detect changes in lake area in Alaskan National Wildlife Refuges

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Nicol, Samuel; Roach, Jennifer K.; Griffith, Brad

    2013-01-01

    Over the past 50 years, the number and size of high-latitude lakes have decreased throughout many regions; however, individual lake trends have been variable in direction and magnitude. This spatial heterogeneity in lake change makes statistical detection of temporal trends challenging, particularly in small analysis areas where weak trends are difficult to separate from inter- and intra-annual variability. Factors affecting trend detection include inherent variability, trend magnitude, and sample size. In this paper, we investigated how the statistical power to detect average linear trends in lake size of 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 %/year was affected by the size of the analysis area and the number of years of monitoring in National Wildlife Refuges in Alaska. We estimated power for large (930–4,560 sq km) study areas within refuges and for 2.6, 12.9, and 25.9 sq km cells nested within study areas over temporal extents of 4–50 years. We found that: (1) trends in study areas could be detected within 5–15 years, (2) trends smaller than 2.0 %/year would take >50 years to detect in cells within study areas, and (3) there was substantial spatial variation in the time required to detect change among cells. Power was particularly low in the smallest cells which typically had the fewest lakes. Because small but ecologically meaningful trends may take decades to detect, early establishment of long-term monitoring will enhance power to detect change. Our results have broad applicability and our method is useful for any study involving change detection among variable spatial and temporal extents.

  3. Representing macropore flow at the catchment scale: a comparative modeling study

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liu, D.; Li, H. Y.; Tian, F.; Leung, L. R.

    2017-12-01

    Macropore flow is an important hydrological process that generally enhances the soil infiltration capacity and velocity of subsurface water. Up till now, macropore flow is mostly simulated with high-resolution models. One possible drawback of this modeling approach is the difficulty to effectively represent the overall typology and connectivity of the macropore networks. We hypothesize that modeling macropore flow directly at the catchment scale may be complementary to the existing modeling strategy and offer some new insights. Tsinghua Representative Elementary Watershed model (THREW model) is a semi-distributed hydrology model, where the fundamental building blocks are representative elementary watersheds (REW) linked by the river channel network. In THREW, all the hydrological processes are described with constitutive relationships established directly at the REW level, i.e., catchment scale. In this study, the constitutive relationship of macropore flow drainage is established as part of THREW. The enhanced THREW model is then applied at two catchments with deep soils but distinct climates, the humid Asu catchment in the Amazon River basin, and the arid Wei catchment in the Yellow River basin. The Asu catchment has an area of 12.43km2 with mean annual precipitation of 2442mm. The larger Wei catchment has an area of 24800km2 but with mean annual precipitation of only 512mm. The rainfall-runoff processes are simulated at a hourly time step from 2002 to 2005 in the Asu catchment and from 2001 to 2012 in the Wei catchment. The role of macropore flow on the catchment hydrology will be analyzed comparatively over the Asu and Wei catchments against the observed streamflow, evapotranspiration and other auxiliary data.

  4. Effects of 500 years of eutrophication and flooding control on lowland lake development

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kirilova, E.; van Hardenbroek, M.; Heiri, O.; Cremer, H.; Lotter, A. F.

    2009-04-01

    Nutrient enrichment and the ecology of surface waters have been intensively studied in lowland regions. However, detailed palaeolimnological reconstructions of the trophic and flooding history of floodplain lakes are still rare. In the Netherlands dike-breaches caused by high floods of the river Rhine formed a new type of lake since the Middle Ages. These dike-breach lakes were strongly impacted by the development of channel systems in their catchment, agriculture, and repeated flooding events. Here we present a multiproxy palaeolimnological study of past nutrient loading and ecology of the dike-breach lake De Waay which is located on the Rhine-Meuse delta (The Netherlands). The lake was created in A.D. 1496 as a result of damage done to a dike by floating ice and the subsequent dike-breach due to a flooding event. A sediment core of 11.5 m was recovered from Lake De Waay and diatoms, Cladocera, and geochemistry were analyzed in the sediment. From the beginning of the lake's existence to the end of the 18th century diatom-inferred total phosphorus (TP) concentrations were above 300 µg/l, suggesting hypertrophic conditions. Cladoceran assemblages reflect the lake's pioneer stage and suggest a lack of rooted aquatic macrophytes resulting from low water-transparency, possibly caused by frequent floods. Until the late 18th century floods occurred regularly in the area, as shown by the elevated Ti values in the sediments, indicative of high erosion from the floodplain and runoff from the surrounding agricultural catchment. This caused the exceptionally high sedimentation rates and elevated nutrient contents of the lake waters. Since the beginning of the 19th century sewage input and flooding frequency were strongly reduced by the construction of new ditches, canals, and dikes. The improved sewage and dike systems are reflected by decreased TP concentrations of 40-150 µg/l. The increased stability of littoral habitats led to an increased diversity in the Cladocera

  5. Sedimentology and geochemistry of a perennially ice-covered epishelf lake in Bunger Hills Oasis, East Antarctica.

    PubMed

    Doran, P T; Wharton, R A; Lyons, W B; Des Marais, D J; Andersen, D T

    2000-01-01

    A process-oriented study was carried out in White Smoke lake, Bunger Hills, East Antarctica, a perennially ice-covered (1.8 to 2.8 m thick) epishelf (tidally-forced) lake. The lake water has a low conductivity and is relatively well mixed. Sediments are transferred from the adjacent glacier to the lake when glacier ice surrounding the sediment is sublimated at the surface and replaced by accumulating ice from below. The lake bottom at the west end of the lake is mostly rocky with a scant sediment cover. The east end contains a thick sediment profile. Grain size and delta 13C increase with sediment depth, indicating a more proximal glacier in the past. Sedimentary 210Pb and 137Cs signals are exceptionally strong, probably a result of the focusing effect of the large glacial catchment area. The post-bomb and pre-bomb radiocarbon reservoirs are c. 725 14C yr and c. 1950 14C yr, respectively. Radiocarbon dating indicates that the east end of the lake is >3 ka BP, while photographic evidence and the absence of sediment cover indicate that the west end has formed only over the last century. Our results indicate that the southern ice edge of Bunger Hills has been relatively stable with only minor fluctuations (on the scale of hundreds of metres) over the last 3000 years.

  6. Trace element distribution in waters of the northern catchment area of Lake Linneret, northern Israel

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sandler, A.; Brenner, I. B.; Halicz, L.

    1988-02-01

    Waters of the northern watershed of Lake Kineret, sampled during the period 1978 1983, were analyzed for their major and trace element contents. The trace element concentrations of the major water sources of the watershed (the Dan and Banias springs) represent background values. After emergence, the waters are subjected to human activity. In crossing the populated and cultivated Hula Basin in man-made canals, the major and trace element contents increase. In comparison to the trace element concentrations, those of the major elements have narrow ranges and small temporal fluctuations. Trace element concentrations varied by 3 orders of magnitude, and temporal variations were large but not neccessarily seasonal. Point sources of trace elements were urban effluents, fish pond wastes, and peat soil drainage. The trace element concentrations decrease in the waters of the last segment of the Jordan River. All measured trace elements were below the criteria levels established by regulatory agencies. Several, however, were of the same order of magnitude. Addition of wastes from enhanced recycling, and morphologic modification of the final course of the Jordan River could result in increase in the trace element concentrations in the water.

  7. Lake evolution of the terminal area of Shiyang River drainage in arid China since the last glaciation

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Shi, Q.; Chen, F.-H.; Zhu, Y.; Madsen, D.

    2002-01-01

    Investigations of geomorphology and sedimentology, and analyses of radiocarbon dates, grain size and carbonate of the sediment at the present-dry closed basin in the terminal area of Shiyang River in arid China were conducted to recover the history of palaeolake change since the last glacial. The terminal area was covered by eolian sand before 13,000 14C BP. Lacustrine deposits covered the eolian sand after 13,000 14C BP, but were succeeded rapidly by eolian or fluvial deposits ca. 11,200-10,000 BP. This fact plus the grain-size distribution and CaCO3 content showed that climate was extremely dry during the last glacial, but wet-dry oscillations characterized the late glacial. A single coalescent lake, over 45 m deep and 2130 km2, formed between 10,000-6400 14C BP in the basin. The lake disintegrated into several shallow carbonate lakes or swamps gradually after 6400 14C BP. Eolian sand reached into the most part of the basin during the period. The lake evolution in the area generally reflects the East Asian summer monsoon history forced by Northern hemisphere insolation. Short time-scale lake fluctuations also existed in the area since the last glacial. ?? 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved.

  8. Factors controlling mercury transport in an upland forested catchment

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Scherbatskoy, T.; Shanley, J.B.; Keeler, G.J.

    1998-01-01

    Total mercury (Hg) deposition and input/output relationships were investigated in an 11-ha deciduous forested catchment in northern Vermont as part of ongoing evaluations of rig cycling and transport in the Lake Champlain basin. Atmospheric Hg deposition (precipitation + modeled vapor phase downward flux) was 425 mg ha-1 during the one-year period March 1994 through February 1995 and 463 mg ha-1 from March 1995 through February 1996. In the same periods, stream export of total Hg was 32 mg ha-1 and 22 mg ha-1, respectively. Thus, there was a net retention of Hg by the catchment of 92% the first year and 95% the second year. In the first year, 16.9 mg ha-1 or about half of the annual stream export, occurred on the single day of peak spring snowmelt in April. In contrast, the maximum daily export in the second year, when peak stream flow was somewhat lower, was 3.5 mg ha-1 during a January thaw. The fate of file Hg retained by this forested catchment is not known. Dissolved (< 0.22 ??m) Hg concentrations in stream water ranged from 0.5-2.6 ng L-1, even when total (unfiltered) concentrations were greater than 10 ng L-1 during high flow events. Total Hg concentrations in stream water were correlated with the total organic fraction of suspended sediment, suggesting the importance of organic material in Hg transport within the catchment. High flow events and transport with organic material may be especially important mechanisms for the movement of Hg through forested ecosystems.

  9. Quantitative assessment of glacial fluctuations in the level of Lake Lisan, Dead Sea rift

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rohling, Eelco J.

    2013-06-01

    A quantitative understanding of climatic variations in the Levant during the last glacial cycle is needed to support archaeologists in assessing the drivers behind hominin migrations and cultural developments in this key region at the intersection between Africa and Europe. It will also foster a better understanding of the region's natural variability as context to projections of modern climate change. Detailed documentation of variations in the level of Lake Lisan - the lake that occupied the Dead Sea rift during the last glacial cycle - provides crucial climatic information for this region. Existing reconstructions suggest that Lake Lisan highstands during cold intervals of the last glacial cycle represent relatively humid conditions in the region, but these interpretations have remained predominantly qualitative. Here, I evaluate realistic ranges of the key climatological parameters that controlled lake level, based on the observed timing and amplitudes of lake-level variability. I infer that a mean precipitation rate over the wider catchment area of about 500 mm y-1, as proposed in the literature, would be consistent with observed lake levels if there was a concomitant 15-50% increase in wind speed during cold glacial stadials. This lends quantitative support to previous inferences of a notable increase in the intensity of Mediterranean (winter) storms during glacial periods, which tracked eastward into the Levant. In contrast to highstands during ‘regular’ stadials, lake level dropped during Heinrich Events. I demonstrate that this likely indicates a further intensification of the winds during those times.

  10. Glacial lake inventory and lake outburst potential in Uzbekistan.

    PubMed

    Petrov, Maxim A; Sabitov, Timur Y; Tomashevskaya, Irina G; Glazirin, Gleb E; Chernomorets, Sergey S; Savernyuk, Elena A; Tutubalina, Olga V; Petrakov, Dmitriy A; Sokolov, Leonid S; Dokukin, Mikhail D; Mountrakis, Giorgos; Ruiz-Villanueva, Virginia; Stoffel, Markus

    2017-08-15

    Climate change has been shown to increase the number of mountain lakes across various mountain ranges in the World. In Central Asia, and in particular on the territory of Uzbekistan, a detailed assessment of glacier lakes and their evolution over time is, however lacking. For this reason we created the first detailed inventory of mountain lakes of Uzbekistan based on recent (2002-2014) satellite observations using WorldView-2, SPOT5, and IKONOS imagery with a spatial resolution from 2 to 10m. This record was complemented with data from field studies of the last 50years. The previous data were mostly in the form of inventories of lakes, available in Soviet archives, and primarily included localized in-situ data. The inventory of mountain lakes presented here, by contrast, includes an overview of all lakes of the territory of Uzbekistan. Lakes were considered if they were located at altitudes above 1500m and if lakes had an area exceeding 100m 2 . As in other mountain regions of the World, the ongoing increase of air temperatures has led to an increase in lake number and area. Moreover, the frequency and overall number of lake outburst events have been on the rise as well. Therefore, we also present the first outburst assessment with an updated version of well-known approaches considering local climate features and event histories. As a result, out of the 242 lakes identified on the territory of Uzbekistan, 15% are considered prone to outburst, 10% of these lakes have been assigned low outburst potential and the remainder of the lakes have an average level of outburst potential. We conclude that the distribution of lakes by elevation shows a significant influence on lake area and hazard potential. No significant differences, by contrast, exist between the distribution of lake area, outburst potential, and lake location with respect to glaciers by regions. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  11. Modelling the Loktak Lake Basin to Assess Human Impact on Water Resources

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Eliza, K.

    2015-12-01

    Loktak Lake is an internationally important, Ramsar designated, fresh water wetland system in the state of Manipur, India. The lake was also listed under Montreux Record on account of the ecological modifications that the lake system has witnessed over time. A characteristic feature of this lake is the extensive occurrence of coalesced, naturally or otherwise, vegetative masses floating over it. A contiguous 40 km2 area of Phumdis, as these vegetative masses are locally referred to, also constitutes the only natural home of the endemic and endangered species of Manipur's brow-antlered deer popularly known as Sangai. Appropriately notified as Keibul Lamjao National Park by Government of India, this natural feature is known to be the world's largest floating park. Water quality and sediment deposition on account of soil erosion in its catchments are some of the emerging concerns along with a reported enhanced frequency and duration of flooding of the shore areas, reduced fish catch within a visibly deteriorated overall natural ecosystem. Disturbances of watershed processes, command area management practices, ineffective as indeed largely absent, waste management practices and management interventions linked to the Loktak Hydroelectric Project are often cited as the principal triggers that are seen to be responsible for the damage. An effective management protocol for the Lake requires a rigorous understanding of its hydrobiology and eco-hydrodynamics. The present study is carried out to establish such a characterization of the various rivers systems draining directly into the Lake using MIKE SHE, MIKE 11 HD and MIKE 11 ECO Lab modelling platforms. Water quality modelling was limited to dissolved oxygen (DO), biological oxygen demand (BOD) and water temperature. Model calibration was done using the available measured water quality data. The derived results were then investigated for causal correlation with anthropogenic influences to assess human impact on water

  12. Sedimentary chronology reinterpreted from Changshou Lake of the Three Gorges Reservoir Area reveals natural and anthropogenic controls on sediment production.

    PubMed

    Anjum, Raheel; Tang, Qiang; Collins, Adrian L; Gao, Jinzhang; Long, Yi; Zhang, Xinbao; He, Xiubin; Shi, Zhonglin; Wen, Anbang; Wei, Jie

    2018-04-17

    Sedimentary archives preserved in geomorphic sinks provide records of historical sediment dynamics and its related natural and anthropogenic controls. This study reinterpreted sedimentary processes in Changshou Lake of the Three Gorges Reservoir Area in China by combining a rainfall erosivity index with multiple tracing proxies, and the impacts of natural and anthropogenic drivers on sediment production were also explored. Erosive rainfalls with low frequency and large magnitude in the rainy season contribute to a substantial proportion of annual total rainfall, which thus can be used to infer erosion and sediment yield events. The sedimentary chronology was determined by comparing rainfall erosivity index with depth distribution of 137 Cs and absolute particle size, which revealed annual sedimentation rates ranging from 1.1 to 2.3 cm a -1 . The multi-proxy dating index and variation of sedimentation rate divided the sediment profile into three major periods. The reference period (1956-1982) displays low variability of TOC, TN, trace metal concentrations, and mean sedimentation rate. In the stressed period (1982-1998), industrial and sewerage discharge led to input and deposition of TOC, TN, and trace metals (e.g., Cd, Co, Cu, Cr, and Ni). The highest annual sediment accumulation rate of 2.3 cm a -1 may be ascribed to the 1982 big flood event. In the present period (1998-2013), increased TOC, TN and decreased trace metals in the top layers of the sediment core indicated changes in lake ecology. Fish farming promoted algal growth and primary productivity which caused eutrophication until 2004-2005. The reduced mean sedimentation rate of 1.7 cm a -1 between 1998 and 2004, and thereafter, may be attributed to soil and water conservation and reforestation policies implemented in the Longxi catchment. Human activities such as deforestation, cultural and industrial revolution, and lake eutrophication associated with fish farming since 1989, therefore led to

  13. The Upper Laacher See Tephra in Lake Geneva sediments: Paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatological implications

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Moscariello, A.; Costa, F.

    1997-01-01

    Microstratigraphical analysis of Late glacial lacustrine sediments from Geneva Bay provided evidence of a tephra layer within the upper Aller??d biozone. The layer consists of alkali feldspar, quartz, plagioclase. amphibole, pyroxene, opaques, titanite and glass shards. Electron microprobe analyses and morphological study of glass shards allowed correlation with the upper part of the Laacher See Tephra of the Laacher See volcano (Eifel Mountains, Germany). Sedimentological features of enclosing lacustrine sediments suggest that a momentary decrease in precipitation occurred in the catchment area and consequent reduction in detrital supply in the lake, after the ash fall-out. This has been interpreted as the environmental response to a momentary cooling following the Laacher See Tephra aerosols emission. Comparison with Sedimentological features characterizing the Aller??d-Younger Dryas transition highlights the sensitivity of Lake Geneva system in recording both short and long-terms climate-induced environmental changes.

  14. Timberland area change in the Lake States: past trends, causes, and projections.

    Treesearch

    Andrew Plantinga; Joseph Buongiorno; Ralph J. Alig; John S. Jr. Spencer

    1989-01-01

    Between the early 1960's and the mid-1980's, the area of timberland in the Lake States declined by about 3 million acres. This study confirms the influences of population, economics, ownership, and trends in other land uses on timberland area. Future declines are expected, but probably at a slower rate.

  15. SCOPSCO - Scientific Collaboration On Past Speciation Conditions in Lake Ohrid

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Vogel, Hendrik; Wagner, Bernd; Wilke, Thomas; Grazhdani, Andon; Kostoski, Goce; Krastel-Gudegast, Sebastian; Reicherter, Klaus; Zanchetta, Giovanni

    2010-05-01

    recorded. A deep drilling in Lake Ohrid would help (i) to obtain more precise information about the age and origin of the lake, (ii) to unravel the seismotectonic history of the lake area including effects of major earthquakes and associated mass wasting events, (iii) to obtain a continuous record containing information on volcanic activities and climate changes in the central northern Mediterranean region, and (iv) to better understand the impact of major geological/environmental events on general evolutionary patterns and shaping an extraordinary degree of endemic biodiversity as a matter of global significance. For this purpose, five primary drill sites were selected based on the results obtained from sedimentological studies, tectonic mapping in the catchment and detailed seismic surveys conducted between 2004 and 2008. For the recovery of up to ca. 680 m long sediment sequences at water depths of more than 260 m a newly developed platform operated by DOSECC shall be used. The drilling operation is planned to take place in 2011.

  16. Simulation and assessment of groundwater flow and groundwater and surface-water exchanges in lakes of the northeast Twin Cities Metropolitan Area, Minnesota, 2003 through 2013: Chapter B of Water levels and groundwater and surface-water exchanges in lakes of the northeast Twin Cities Metropolitan Area, Minnesota, 2002 through 2015

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Jones, Perry M.; Roth, Jason L.; Trost, Jared J.; Christenson, Catherine A.; Diekoff, Aliesha L.; Erickson, Melinda L.

    2017-09-05

    Water levels during 2003 through 2013 were less than mean water levels for the period 1925–2013 for several lakes in the northeast Twin Cities Metropolitan Area in Minnesota. Previous periods of low lake-water levels generally were correlated with periods with less than mean precipitation. Increases in groundwater withdrawals and land-use changes have brought into question whether or not recent (2003–13) lake-water-level declines are solely caused by decreases in precipitation. A thorough understanding of groundwater and surface-water exchanges was needed to assess the effect of water-management decisions on lake-water levels. To address this need, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Metropolitan Council and the Minnesota Department of Health, developed and calibrated a three-dimensional, steady-state groundwater-flow model representing 2003–13 mean hydrologic conditions to assess groundwater and lake-water exchanges, and the effects of groundwater withdrawals and precipitation on water levels of 96 lakes in the northeast Twin Cities Metropolitan Area.Lake-water budgets for the calibrated groundwater-flow model indicated that groundwater is flowing into lakes in the northeast Twin Cities Metropolitan Area and lakes are providing water to underlying aquifers. Lake-water outflow to the simulated groundwater system was a major outflow component for Big Marine Lake, Lake Elmo, Snail Lake, and White Bear Lake, accounting for 45 to 64 percent of the total outflows from the lakes. Evaporation and transpiration from the lake surface ranged from 19 to 52 percent of the total outflow from the four lakes. Groundwater withdrawals and precipitation were varied from the 2003‒13 mean values used in the calibrated model (30-percent changes in groundwater withdrawals and 5-percent changes in precipitation) for hypothetical scenarios to assess the effects of groundwater withdrawals and precipitation on water budgets and levels in Big Marine Lake, Snail Lake

  17. Interannual lake level fluctuations (1993 1999) in Africa from Topex/Poseidon: connections with ocean atmosphere interactions over the Indian Ocean

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mercier, Franck; Cazenave, Anny; Maheu, Caroline

    2002-04-01

    Water level fluctuations of continental lakes are related to regional to global scale climate changes. Water level fluctuations reflect variations in evaporation and precipitation over the lake area and its catchment area. Over such inland water bodies, the satellite altimetry technique offers both a world-wide coverage and a satisfying accuracy. We present here results of lake level variations of 12 African lakes based on 7 years of Topex/Poseidon (T/P) altimetry data acquired between 1993 and 1999. Among the 12 African lakes presented in this study, three are reservoirs whose level fluctuations are mainly driven by anthropogenic usage of the water. Either closed or open, the nine remaining lakes are sensitive indicators of the climate evolution over Africa during the 1990s. Seasonal signals of each lake are clearly identified and filtered out to focus on the interannual fluctuations. Clear correlated regional variations are reported among the east African lakes: several lakes exhibit a regular level decrease between 1993 and 1997, probably due to intense droughts. However, the most spectacular feature is an abrupt water level rise occurring in late 1997-early 1998 and affecting most of the lakes located within the Rift Valley. This major anomalous pattern, explained by a large excess rainfall anomaly occurring in late 1997, is quantified in both space and time domains through an EOF analysis of the lake level height time series. The spatial distribution of the leading mode of lake level height correlates with the dominant mode of precipitation computed over the same time span. Nevertheless, similar rainfall anomaly, but with lesser intensity, occurred in late 1994 without any noticeable consequence on lake level. The precipitation anomaly appears related to the equatorial Indian Ocean warming reported during the 1997-1998 ENSO event.

  18. Hydro-economic modelling in mining catchments

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ossa Moreno, J. S.; McIntyre, N.; Rivera, D.; Smart, J. C. R.

    2017-12-01

    Hydro-economic models are gaining momentum because of their capacity to model both the physical processes related to water supply, and socio-economic factors determining water demand. This is particularly valuable in the midst of the large uncertainty upon future climate conditions and social trends. Agriculture, urban uses and environmental flows have received a lot of attention from researchers, as these tend to be the main consumers of water in most catchments. Mine water demand, although very important in several small and medium-sized catchments worldwide, has received less attention and only few models have attempted to reproduce its dynamics with other users. This paper describes an on-going project that addresses this gap, by developing a hydro-economic model in the upper Aconcagua River in Chile. This is a mountain catchment with large scale mining and hydro-power users at high altitudes, and irrigation areas in a downstream valley. Relevant obstacles to the model included the lack of input climate data, which is a common feature in several mining areas, the complex hydrological processes in the area and the difficulty of quantifying the value of water used by mines. A semi-distributed model developed within the Water Evaluation and Planning System (WEAP), was calibrated to reproduce water supply, and this was complemented with an analysis of the value of water for mining based on two methods; water markets and an analysis of its production processes. Agriculture and other users were included through methods commonly used in similar models. The outputs help understanding the value of water in the catchment, and its sensitivity to changes in climate variables, market prices, environmental regulations and changes in the production of minerals, crops and energy. The results of the project highlight the importance of merging hydrology and socio-economic calculations in mining regions, in order to better understand trade-offs and cost of opportunity of using

  19. Movements of hatchery-reared lake trout in Lake Superior

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Pycha, Richard L.; Dryer, William R.; King, George R.

    1965-01-01

    The history of stocking of lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) in the Great Lakes is reviewed. The study of movements is based on capture of 24,275 fin-clipped lake trout taken in experimental gill nets and trawls and commercial gill nets. Yearling lake trout planted from shore dispersed to 15-fath (27-m) depths in 3A? hr. Most fish remained within 2 miles (3.2 km) of the planting site 2 months, but within 4 months some fish had moved as much as 17 miles (27 km). The highest abundance of planted lake trout was in areas 2-4 miles (3.2-6.4 km) from the planting site even 3 years after release. Distance moved and size of fish were not correlated. Dispersal of lake trout begins at planting and probably continues until the fish are mature. Most movement was eastward in southern Lake Superior and followed the counterclockwise surface currents. Movement is most rapid in areas of strong currents and slowest in areas of weak currents or eddies. Movement to areas west of the Keweenaw Peninsula was insignificant from plantings in Keweenaw Bay and nil from other plantings farther east. Lake trout planted in the eastern third of the lake dispersed more randomly than those planted farther west. Few fish moved farther offshore than the 50-fath (91-m) contour. Lake trout planted in Canadian waters made insignificant contributions to populations in US waters.

  20. Impact of lake breezes on ozone and nitrogen oxides in the Greater Toronto Area

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wentworth, G. R.; Murphy, J. G.; Sills, D. M. L.

    2015-05-01

    Meteorological and air quality datasets from summertime (May to September, 2010-2012) were analysed in order to assess the influence of lake-breeze circulations on pollutant levels in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). While previous estimates of the frequency of summer days experiencing lake breezes range between 25 and 32 % for the GTA, a simple algorithm using surface meteorological observations suggested Lake Ontario breezes occurred on 56% of summer days, whereas a more reliable multiplatform approach yielded a frequency of 74%. Data from five air quality stations across the GTA were used to compare air quality on days during which a lake-breeze circulation formed ("lake breeze days") versus days when one did not ("non-lake breeze days"). Average daytime O3 maxima were 13.6-14.8 ppb higher on lake breeze days relative to non-lake breeze days. Furthermore, the Ontario Ambient Air Quality Criteria (AAQC) for 1-h average O3 (80 ppb) and 8-h average O3 (65 ppb) were exceeded only on lake breeze days and occurred on a total of 30 and 54 days throughout the study period, respectively. A causal link between lake-breeze circulations and enhanced O3 was identified by examining several days in which only some of the air quality sites were inside the lake-breeze circulation. O3 mixing ratios at sites located within the circulation were at least 30 ppb higher than sites outside the circulation, despite similar temperatures, cloud conditions and synoptic regimes across the region. Rapid O3 increases were concurrent with the arrival of the lake-breeze front, suggesting O3-rich air from over the lake is being advected inland throughout the day. Lake-breeze circulations were found to have less impact on nitrogen oxide (NOx) levels. Morning NOx was greater on lake breeze days, probably due to the stagnant conditions favourable for lake breeze formation. During the late afternoon, only inland sites experience increased NOx on lake breeze days, likely as a result of being downwind

  1. Water and salt balance modelling to predict the effects of land-use changes in forested catchments. 3. The large catchment model

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sivapalan, Murugesu; Viney, Neil R.; Jeevaraj, Charles G.

    1996-03-01

    This paper presents an application of a long-term, large catchment-scale, water balance model developed to predict the effects of forest clearing in the south-west of Western Australia. The conceptual model simulates the basic daily water balance fluxes in forested catchments before and after clearing. The large catchment is divided into a number of sub-catchments (1-5 km2 in area), which are taken as the fundamental building blocks of the large catchment model. The responses of the individual subcatchments to rainfall and pan evaporation are conceptualized in terms of three inter-dependent subsurface stores A, B and F, which are considered to represent the moisture states of the subcatchments. Details of the subcatchment-scale water balance model have been presented earlier in Part 1 of this series of papers. The response of any subcatchment is a function of its local moisture state, as measured by the local values of the stores. The variations of the initial values of the stores among the subcatchments are described in the large catchment model through simple, linear equations involving a number of similarity indices representing topography, mean annual rainfall and level of forest clearing.The model is applied to the Conjurunup catchment, a medium-sized (39·6 km2) catchment in the south-west of Western Australia. The catchment has been heterogeneously (in space and time) cleared for bauxite mining and subsequently rehabilitated. For this application, the catchment is divided into 11 subcatchments. The model parameters are estimated by calibration, by comparing observed and predicted runoff values, over a 18 year period, for the large catchment and two of the subcatchments. Excellent fits are obtained.

  2. Sanctuaries for lake trout in the Great Lakes

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Stanley, Jon G.; Eshenroder, Randy L.; Hartman, Wilbur L.

    1987-01-01

    Populations of lake trout, severely depleted in Lake Superior and virtually extirpated from the other Great Lakes because of sea lamprey predation and intense fishing, are now maintained by annual plantings of hatchery-reared fish in Lakes Michigan, Huron, and Ontario and parts of Lake Superior. The extensive coastal areas of the Great Lakes and proximity to large populations resulted in fishing pressure on planted lake trout heavy enough to push annual mortality associated with sport and commercial fisheries well above the critical level needed to reestablish self-sustaining stocks. The interagency, international program for rehabilitating lake trout includes controlling sea lamprey abundance, stocking hatchery-reared lake trout, managing the catch, and establishing sanctuaries where harvest is prohibited. Three lake trout sanctuaries have been established in Lake Michigan: the Fox Island Sanctuary of 121, 500 ha, in the Chippewa-Ottawa Treaty fishing zone in the northern region of the lake; the Milwaukee Reef Sanctuary of 160, 000 ha in midlake, in boundary waters of Michigan and Wisconsin; and Julian's Reef Sanctuary of 6, 500 ha, in Illinois waters. In northern Lake Huron, Drummond Island Sanctuary of 55, 000 ha is two thirds in Indian treaty-ceded waters in Michigan and one third in Ontario waters of Canada. A second sanctuary, Six Fathom Bank-Yankee Reef Sanctuary, in central Lake Huron contains 168, 000 ha. Sanctuary status for the Canadian areas remains to be approved by the Provincial government. In Lake Superior, sanctuaries protect the spawning grounds of Gull Island Shoal (70, 000 ha) and Devils Island Shoal (44, 000 ha) in Wisconsin's Apostle Island area. These seven sanctuaries, established by the several States and agreed upon by the States, Indian tribes, the U.S. Department of the Interior, and the Province of Ontario, contribute toward solving an interjurisdictional fishery problem.

  3. Lumped parameter, isotopic model simulations of closed-basin lake response to drought in the Pacific Northwest and implications for lake sediment oxygen isotope records.

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Steinman, B. A.; Rosenmeier, M.; Abbott, M.

    2008-12-01

    The economy of the Pacific Northwest relies heavily on water resources from the drought-prone Columbia River and its tributaries, as well as the many lakes and reservoirs of the region. Proper management of these water resources requires a thorough understanding of local drought histories that extends well beyond the instrumental record of the twentieth century, a time frame too short to capture the full range of drought variability in the Pacific Northwest. Here we present a lumped parameter, mass-balance model that provides insight into the influence of hydroclimatological changes on two small, closed-basin systems located in north- central Washington. Steady state model simulations of lake water oxygen isotope ratios using modern climate and catchment parameter datasets demonstrate a strong sensitivity to both the amount and timing of precipitation, and to changes in summertime relative humidity, particularly at annual and decadal time scales. Model tests also suggest that basin hypsography can have a significant impact on lake water oxygen isotope variations, largely through surface area to volume and consequent evaporative flux to volume ratio changes in response to drought and pluvial sequences. Additional simulations using input parameters derived from both on-site and National Climatic Data Center historical climate datasets accurately approximate three years of continuous lake observations (seasonal water sampling and continuous lake level monitoring) and twentieth century oxygen isotope ratios in sediment core authigenic carbonate recovered from the lakes. Results from these model simulations suggest that small, closed-basin lakes in north-central Washington are highly sensitive to changes in the drought-related climate variables, and that long (8000 year), high resolution records of quantitative changes in precipitation and evaporation are obtainable from sediment cores recovered from water bodies of the Pacific Northwest.

  4. DEM-based analysis of landscape organization: 2) Application to catchment comparison

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Seibert, J.; McGlynn, B.

    2003-04-01

    The delineation of homogeneous landscape elements (or "hydrologic response units") is often a prerequisite in field investigations and the application of semi-distributed hydrologic (or coupled hydrologic and biogeochemical) models. Delineation and quantification of dominant landscape elements requires methods to extract the features from digital elevation data or other readily available information. It is often assumed that hillslope and riparian areas constitute the two most important and identifiable landscape units contributing to catchment runoff in upland humid catchments. In addition, we have found that that the degree of hillslope water expression in stormflow is partially a function of riparian to hillslope reservoir ratios and landscape organization. Therefore, we developed a simple approach for quantifying landscape organization and distributed riparian to hillslope area ratios (riparian buffer ratios), as described in the accompanying contribution. Here we use this method as a framework for comparing and classifying diverse catchments located in Europe, the U.S., and New Zealand. Based on the three catchments Maimai (New Zealand), Panola (Georgia) and Sleepers (Vermont) we obtained the following preliminary results: (1) Local area entering the stream channels was most variable at Maimai and consistently diffuse at Sleepers and Panola. Also the median local area entering the channel network was largest at Maimai and smallest at Sleepers and Panola. This demonstrates the degree of landscape dissection (highest for Maimai) and the concentration of hillslope inputs along the stream network. (2) Riparian areas were smallest at Maimai, larger at Sleepers, and largest at Panola. The combination of riparian zone extent and focused (Maimai) versus diffuse (Sleepers and Panola) hillslope inputs to riparian zones controls local riparian to hillslope area ratios (riparian buffer capacities). (3) Area was accumulated to a large extend in the channel heads in all

  5. Combining XAS speciation and Zn isotopes to track past eutrophication in lake sediments : The example of Baldeggersee (Switzerland)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Noël, V. S.; Voegelin, A.; Jouvin, D.; Louvat, P.; gelabert, A.; Mueller, B.; Benedetti, M. F.; Juillot, F.

    2011-12-01

    Among transition elements, Zn has attracted a great deal of interest because it is an essential nutrient at low concentrations, but it can also be toxic when present at high concentrations in ecosystems (Morel et al., 2003). In the present study, the isotopic signature and crystal-chemical of Zn were followed along a sediment core from a prealpine lake that experienced a marked eutrophication in order to explore the potential of this approach at tracking past environmental conditions of continental lake-catchment systems. Lake Baldeggersee (Luzern, Switzerland) is located at an elevation of 900 m in the Swiss Prealps. It experienced a period of strong eutrophication due to intensive farming in its catchment (Lotter et al., 1997). These led to the formation of varved sediments over one century prior to artificial lake aeration (Wehrli et al., 1997). This enabled us to correlate Zn speciation and isotopic signatures to the history of the water column. Results indicate that both Zn speciation and isotopes are distinct between sediments deposited during mesotrophic and eutrophic conditions in the water column: During the mesotrophic period, sedimentation was mainly detrital and Zn is mainly found associated with clay minerals in the sediments. During the eutrophic period, sedimentation was dominated by biological activity in the lake and Zn mainly occurs as ZnS in the sediments. Zn isotopes recorded these changes in the sedimentation regime, with δ66ZnJMC values around +0.2 % for the sediments of the mesotrophic period and δ66ZnJMC values around 0 % for the sediments of the eutrophic period. Comparison with the results from a study on the seasonal variation of the isotope signature of Zn in settling sediment of another prealpine lake (Peel et al., 2010) suggests that the enrichment in light Zn isotopes in the eutrophic sediments is in line with predominant Zn input with settling biomass (algae). Since lake eutrophication is mainly related to hydrological conditions

  6. Construction, geologic, and hydrologic data for observation wells in the Reelfoot Lake area, Tennessee and Kentucky

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Bradley, M.W.

    1987-01-01

    Twenty-three observation wells were installed at 12 sites in the Reelfoot Lake area of Kentucky and Tennessee during July 1986. The wells were installed to supplement an existing water level network and to provide additional data on the hydraulic characteristics and vertical hydraulic gradients in the alluvial aquifer near Reelfoot Lake. Well yields ranged from less than 20 gallons per minute to about 140 gallons per minute. The specific capacities of the wells ranged from less than 1 to 17.1 gallons per minute per foot of drawdown. Dissolved-solids concentrations ranged from 153 to 475 milligrams per liter at six wells. Three lithological sequences were encountered during drilling. Deep clay and silty clay occurred near the southwest corner of Reelfoot Lake. Predominantly medium- to coarse-grained sand occurred below about 15 feet of silt and clay near the west and northwest sides of the Lake. Along the western limit of the study area, near Lake No. 9 and the Mississippi River, at least about 50 feet of silt and silty sand occurred below land surface. (USGS)

  7. New Insights Into the Climate and Vegetation History of the subtropical Crater Lake 'Tswaing', South Africa, for the Last 300,000 Year

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kristen, I.; Fuhrmann, A.; Haug, G. H.; Horsfield, B.; Oberhänsli, H.; Partridge, T. C.; Thorpe, J.; Wilkes, H.

    2005-12-01

    Deeper time palaeoclimate reconstructions are still rare on the continental southern hemisphere. Here we present new biogeochemical data from a core retrieved in crater lake 'Tswaing' (formerly 'Pretoria saltpan'). This opens a novel chance to get a more detailed view into climate variability of the subtropical region of South Africa on the glacial/interglacial time scale. The crater 'Tswaing' was formed around 220±52 kyr ago by a meteorite impact. However, new U/Th analyses of authigenic carbonates provide preliminary evidence that the lake might be older than 300 kyr. Today the basin contains a shallow (< 3 m water depth), hypersaline (pH ~10) lake with a diameter of about 300 m in an about 1 km wide crater. Hence, the lake catchment is small with no water in- or outflow. Therefore, the lake is sensitive for variations in rainfall and probably wind stress. Our 90 m composite core profile consists of partly fine-laminated lake sediments intercalated with mudflow deposits. Previous investigations and our new data reveal a considerable variability of bulk geochemical proxies such as total inorganic carbon (TIC), total organic carbon (TOC) and the C/N ratio. The upper half of the core is dominated by fluctuations in TOC while TIC controls the variation in the lower half of the core. These data argue for substantial changes in the depositional environment of the lake system. They are complemented by facies analyses in thin sections, major element patterns derived from μXRF scanning , the carbon isotopic composition of the bulk sediment, maceral analysis, and lipid biomarkers of the organic material in the sediments. First results allow to distinguish intervals with completely different ecosystems and hydrology during lake history. Intervals with dinoflagellates and algae as main primary producers alternate with phases dominated by bacteria and ciliates feeding on them. Future detailed analyses will provide new insights into the development of these climate sensitive

  8. Magnetic Signature of Glacial Flour in Sediments From Bear Lake, Utah/Idaho

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rosenbaum, J. G.; Dean, W. E.; Colman, S. M.; Reynolds, R. L.

    2002-12-01

    Variations in magnetic properties within an interval of Bear Lake sediments correlative with oxygen isotope stage 2 (OIS 2) and OIS 3 provide a record of glacial flour production for the Uinta Mountains. Like sediments of the same age from Upper Klamath Lake (OR), these Bear Lake sediments have high magnetic susceptibilities (MS) relative to non-glacial-age sediments and contain well-defined millennial-scale variations in magnetic properties. In contrast to glacial flour derived from volcanic rocks surrounding Upper Klamath Lake, glacial flour derived from the Uinta Mountains and deposited in Bear Lake by the Bear River has low magnetite content but high hematite content. The relatively low MS values of younger and older non-glacial-age sediments are due entirely to dilution by non-magnetic endogenic carbonate and to the effects of sulfidic alteration of detrital Fe-oxides. Analysis of samples from streams entering Bear Lake and from along the course of the Bear River demonstrates that, in comparison to other areas of the catchment, sediment derived from the Uinta Mountains is rich in hematite (high HIRM) and aluminum, and poor in magnetite (low MS) and titanium. Within the glacial-age lake sediments, there are strong positive correlations among HIRM, Al/Ti, and fine sediment grain size. MS varies inversely with theses three variables. These relations indicate that the observed millennial-scale variations in magnetic and chemical properties arise from varying proportions of two detrital components: (1) very fine-grained glacial flour derived from Proterozoic metasedimentary rocks in the Uinta Mountains and characterized by high HIRM and low MS, and (2) somewhat coarser material, characterized by higher MS and lower HIRM, derived from widespread sedimentary rocks along the course of the Bear River and around Bear Lake. Measurement of glacial flour incorporated in lake sediments can provide a continuous history of alpine glaciation, because the rate of accumulation

  9. Effects of land use on lake nutrients: The importance of scale, hydrologic connectivity, and region

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Soranno, Patricia A.; Cheruvelil, Kendra Spence; Wagner, Tyler; Webster, Katherine E.; Bremigan, Mary Tate

    2015-01-01

    Catchment land uses, particularly agriculture and urban uses, have long been recognized as major drivers of nutrient concentrations in surface waters. However, few simple models have been developed that relate the amount of catchment land use to downstream freshwater nutrients. Nor are existing models applicable to large numbers of freshwaters across broad spatial extents such as regions or continents. This research aims to increase model performance by exploring three factors that affect the relationship between land use and downstream nutrients in freshwater: the spatial extent for measuring land use, hydrologic connectivity, and the regional differences in both the amount of nutrients and effects of land use on them. We quantified the effects of these three factors that relate land use to lake total phosphorus (TP) and total nitrogen (TN) in 346 north temperate lakes in 7 regions in Michigan, USA. We used a linear mixed modeling framework to examine the importance of spatial extent, lake hydrologic class, and region on models with individual lake nutrients as the response variable, and individual land use types as the predictor variables. Our modeling approach was chosen to avoid problems of multi-collinearity among predictor variables and a lack of independence of lakes within regions, both of which are common problems in broad-scale analyses of freshwaters. We found that all three factors influence land use-lake nutrient relationships. The strongest evidence was for the effect of lake hydrologic connectivity, followed by region, and finally, the spatial extent of land use measurements. Incorporating these three factors into relatively simple models of land use effects on lake nutrients should help to improve predictions and understanding of land use-lake nutrient interactions at broad scales.

  10. Modeling the Sedimentary Infill of Lakes in the East African Rift: A Case Study of Multiple versus Single Rift Basin Segments

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhang, C.; Scholz, C. A.

    2016-12-01

    The sedimentary basins in the East African Rift are considered excellent modern examples for investigating sedimentary infilling and evolution of extensional systems. Some lakes in the western branch of the rift have formed within single-segment systems, and include Lake Albert and Lake Edward. The largest and oldest lakes developed within multi-segment systems, and these include Lake Tanganyika and Lake Malawi. This research aims to explore processes of erosion and sedimentary infilling of the catchment area in single-segment rift (SSR) and multi-segment rift (MSR) systems. We consider different conditions of regional precipitation and evaporation, and assess the resulting facies architecture through forward modeling, using state-of-the-art commercial basin modeling software. Dionisos is a three-dimensional numerical stratigraphic forward modeling software program, which simulates basin-scale sediment transport based on empirical water- and gravity-driven diffusion equations. It was classically used to quantify the sedimentary architecture and basin infilling of both marine siliciclastic and carbonate environments. However, we apply this approach to continental rift basin environments. In this research, two scenarios are developed, one for a MSR and the other for a SSR. The modeled systems simulate the ratio of drainage area and lake surface area observed in modern Lake Tanganyika and Lake Albert, which are examples of MSRs and SSRs, respectively. The main parameters, such as maximum subsidence rate, water- and gravity-driven diffusion coefficients, rainfall, and evaporation, are approximated using these real-world examples. The results of 5 million year model runs with 50,000 year time steps show that MSRs are characterized by a deep water lake with relatively modest sediment accumulation, while the SSRs are characterized by a nearly overfilled lake with shallow water depths and thick sediment accumulation. The preliminary modeling results conform to the features

  11. Modelling remediation scenarios in historical mining catchments.

    PubMed

    Gamarra, Javier G P; Brewer, Paul A; Macklin, Mark G; Martin, Katherine

    2014-01-01

    Local remediation measures, particularly those undertaken in historical mining areas, can often be ineffective or even deleterious because erosion and sedimentation processes operate at spatial scales beyond those typically used in point-source remediation. Based on realistic simulations of a hybrid landscape evolution model combined with stochastic rainfall generation, we demonstrate that similar remediation strategies may result in differing effects across three contrasting European catchments depending on their topographic and hydrologic regimes. Based on these results, we propose a conceptual model of catchment-scale remediation effectiveness based on three basic catchment characteristics: the degree of contaminant source coupling, the ratio of contaminated to non-contaminated sediment delivery, and the frequency of sediment transport events.

  12. Characterization and comparison of phytoplankton in selected lakes of five Great Lakes area national parks

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Nevers, Meredith Becker; Whitman, Richard L.

    2004-01-01

    Phytoplankton species have been widely used as indicators of lake conditions, and they may be useful for detecting changes in overall lake condition. In an attempt to inventory and monitor its natural resources, the National Park Service wants to establish a monitoring program for aquatic resources in the Great Lakes Cluster National Parks. This study sought to establish baseline information on the phytoplankton and water chemistry of selected lakes in five national parks in a preliminary effort toward establishing a long-term monitoring program. Phytoplankton and water chemistry samples were collected from ten lakes in five national parks over a two-year period. A total of 176 taxa were identified during the study. Northern lakes generally had higher Shannon-Wiener diversity and clustered together in similarity. Lakes exhibited a south to north gradient of many water chemistry variables, with northern lakes having lower hardness, sulfate, turbidity, and temperature and higher dissolved oxygen. Chloride and sulfate concentrations were the variables that best explained variation among phytoplankton in the ten lakes. A monitoring plan will have to incorporate the differences among lakes, but by coordinating the effort, comparisons within and among parks and other regions will prove useful for determining environmental change.

  13. Applying Thiessen Polygon Catchment Areas and Gridded Population Weights to Estimate Conflict-Driven Population Changes in South Sudan

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jordan, L.

    2017-10-01

    Recent violence in South Sudan produced significant levels of conflict-driven migration undermining the accuracy and utility of both national and local level population forecasts commonly used in demographic estimates, public health metrics and food security proxies. This article explores the use of Thiessen Polygons and population grids (Gridded Population of the World, WorldPop and LandScan) as weights for estimating the catchment areas for settlement locations that serve large populations of internally displaced persons (IDP), in order to estimate the county-level in- and out-migration attributable to conflict-driven displacement between 2014-2015. Acknowledging IDP totals improves internal population estimates presented by global population databases. Unlike other forecasts, which produce spatially uniform increases in population, accounting for displaced population reveals that 15 percent of counties (n = 12) increased in population over 20 percent, and 30 percent of counties (n = 24) experienced zero or declining population growth, due to internal displacement and refugee out-migration. Adopting Thiessen Polygon catchment zones for internal migration estimation can be applied to other areas with United Nations IDP settlement data, such as Yemen, Somalia, and Nigeria.

  14. Changes in catchment hydrology in relation to vegetation recovery: a comparative modelling experiment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lana-Renault, Noemí; Karssenberg, Derek; Latron, Jérôme; Serrano, Mā Pilar; Regüés, David; Bierkens, Marc F. P.

    2010-05-01

    Mediterranean mountains have been largely affected by land abandonment and subsequent vegetation recovery, with a general expansion of shrubs and forests. Such a large scale land-cover change has modified the hydrological behavior of these areas, with significant impact on runoff production. Forecasting the trend of water resources under future re-vegetation scenarios is of paramount importance in Mediterranean basins, where water management relies on runoff generated in these areas. With this purpose, a modelling experiment was designed based on the information collected in two neighbouring research catchments with a different history of land use in the central Spanish Pyrenees. One (2.84 km2) is an abandoned agricultural catchment subjected to plant colonization and at present mainly covered by shrubs. The other (0.92 km2) is a catchment covered by dense natural forest, representative of undisturbed environments. Here we present the results of the analysis of the hydrological differences between the two catchments, and a description of the approach and results of the modelling experiment. In a statistical analysis of the field data, significant differences were observed in the streamflow response of the two catchments. The forested catchment recorded fewer floods per year compared to the old agricultural catchment, and its hydrological response was characterised by a marked seasonality, with autumn and spring as the only high flow periods. Stormflow was generally higher in the old agricultural catchment, especially for low to intermediate size events; only for large events the stormflow in the forested catchment was sometimes greater. Under drier conditions, the relative differences in the stormflow between the two catchments tended to increase whereas under wet conditions they tended to be similar. The forested catchment always reacted more slowly to rainfall, with lower peakflows (generally one order of magnitude lower) and longer recession limbs. The modelling

  15. Exploring elements that influence stewardship in the eastern Lake Ontario dune and wetland area

    Treesearch

    Diane Kuehn; James Smahol

    2010-01-01

    Th e Eastern Lake Ontario Dune and Wetland Area (ELODWA) is a 17-mile stretch of sand dunes, wetlands, and woodlands along the eastern shore of Lake Ontario in New York State. Reductions in negative, visitor-caused impacts on the dunes (e.g., trampling of dune vegetation and sand erosion) are thought to be due in part to the extensive visitor education efforts of...

  16. Analysis, Evaluation and Measures to Reduce Environmental Risk within Watershed Areas of the Eastern Zauralye District Lakes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rasskasova, N. S.; Bobylev, A. V.; Malaev, A. V.

    2017-11-01

    The authors have performed an analysis for the use of watershed areas of the lakes of the Eastern Zauralye district (the territory to the east of Ural) for national economic purposes. The analysis gave a possibility to assess the impact of watersheds depending on the applied technologies on the dump of various runoff into the reservoir waters. The watershed areas of all lakes have been found to be actively used as pastures, farmland and recreational resources. Some of the main sources of solid and liquid industrial waste are cattle farms and agricultural land using outdated equipment and technologies. The study of 26 km of the watershed line areas showed that pollutants (household garbage, fuels and lubricants) and organic substances (phosphorus and nitrogen) got into the waters of the reservoirs. The maximum runoff of solid and liquid waste into the waters of the lakes happens in summer which leads to increased concentrations of organic substances, an increase in productivity of alga and higher aquatic flora determining the degree of eutrophication and trophy in the reservoirs. The average annual trophic status of TSI lakes of the Eastern Zauralye district is 56 which corresponds to the typical phase of eutrophy. The reduced transparency of lakes is also the evidence of an increase in biological productivity of reservoirs, their eutrophication and, as a result, the water quality deterioration. The intensive eutrophication of reservoirs, in its turn, most significantly affects the concentration of the ammonium form of nitrogen, total phosphorus and total nitrogen, increase in pH and deterioration of oxygen condition. The authors have developed various activities to reduce a technogenic risk in the watershed areas of the lakes in the Eastern Zauralye district which can be applied to other areas using the analogy method.

  17. Climatic and lacustrine morphometric controls of diatom paleoproductivity in a tropical Andean lake

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bao, R.; Hernández, A.; Sáez, A.; Giralt, S.; Prego, R.; Pueyo, J. J.; Moreno, A.; Valero-Garcés, B. L.

    2015-12-01

    The coupling of lake dynamics with catchment biogeochemistry is considered the key element controlling primary production in mountain lakes at time scales of a few decades to millennia, yet little is known on the impacts of the morphometry of lakes throughout their ontogeny. As Lake Chungará (Central Andean Altiplano, northern Chile) experienced long-term lake-level fluctuations that strongly modified its area:volume ratio, it is an ideal system for exploring the relative roles that long-term climatic shifts and lake morphometry play on biosiliceous lacustrine productivity. In this paper, we review previous data on the percent contents of total organic carbon, total inorganic carbon, total nitrogen, total biogenic silica, isotopic composition of organic matter, carbonates, and diatom frustules, as well as data on the abundance of the chlorophycean Botryococcus braunii in this lake for the period 12,400-1300 cal yr BP. We also include new data on organic carbon and biogenic silica mass accumulation rates and the diatom assemblage composition of an offshore core dated using 14C and U/Th. Biosiliceous productivity in Lake Chungará was influenced by shifts in allochthonous nutrient inputs related to variability in precipitation. Humid phases dated at approx. 12,400 to 10,000 and 9600 to 7400 cal yr BP coincide with periods of elevated productivity, whereas decreases in productivity were recorded during arid phases dated at approx. 10,000 to 9600 and 7400 to 3550 cal yr BP (Andean mid-Holocene Aridity Period). However, morphometry-related in-lake controls led to a lack of a linear response of productivity to precipitation variability. During the late Glacial to early Holocene, lowstands facilitated complete water column mixing, prompting episodic massive blooms of a large centric diatom, Cyclostephanos cf. andinus. Thus, moderate productivity could be maintained, regardless of aridity, by this phenomenon of morphometric eutrophy during the early history of the lake

  18. Pre-aged plant waxes in tropical lake sediments and their influence on the chronology of molecular paleoclimate proxy records

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Douglas, Peter M. J.; Pagani, Mark; Eglinton, Timothy I.; Brenner, Mark; Hodell, David A.; Curtis, Jason H.; Ma, Keith F.; Breckenridge, Andy

    2014-09-01

    Sedimentary records of plant-wax hydrogen (δDwax) and carbon (δ13Cwax) stable isotopes are increasingly applied to infer past climate change. Compound-specific radiocarbon analyses, however, indicate that long time lags can occur between the synthesis of plant waxes and their subsequent deposition in marginal marine sediments. The influence of these time lags on interpretations of plant-wax stable isotope records is presently unconstrained, and it is unclear whether such time lags also affect lacustrine sediments. We present compound-specific radiocarbon (14Cwax) data for n-alkanoic acid plant waxes (n-C26 to n-C32) from: (1) a sediment core from Lake Chichancanab, Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico, (2) soils in the Lake Chichancanab catchment, and (3) surface sediments from three other lakes in southeastern Mexico and northern Guatemala. 14Cwax ages in the surface sediments are consistently older than modern, and may be negatively correlated with mean annual precipitation and positively correlated with lake catchment area. 14Cwax ages in soils surrounding Lake Chichancanab increase with soil depth, consistent with deep, subsoil horizons being the primary source of lacustrine aged plant waxes, which are likely delivered to lake sediments through subsurface transport. Plant waxes in the Lake Chichancanab core are 350-1200 years older than corresponding ages of bulk sediment deposition, determined by 14C dates on terrestrial plant macrofossils in the core. A δDwax time series is in closer agreement with other regional proxy hydroclimate records when a plant-wax 14C age model is applied, as opposed to the macrofossil-based core chronology. Inverse modeling of plant-wax age distribution parameters suggests that plant waxes in the Lake Chichancanab sediment core derive predominantly from millennial-age soil carbon pools that exhibit relatively little age variance (<200 years). Our findings demonstrate that high-temporal-resolution climate records inferred from stable isotope

  19. Statistical analysis of lake levels and field study of groundwater and surface-water exchanges in the northeast Twin Cities Metropolitan Area, Minnesota, 2002 through 2015: Chapter A of Water levels and groundwater and surface-water exchanges in lakes of the northeast Twin Cities Metropolitan Area, Minnesota, 2002 through 2015

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Jones, Perry M.; Trost, Jared J.; Diekoff, Aliesha L.; Rosenberry, Donald O.; White, Eric A.; Erickson, Melinda L.; Morel, Daniel L.; Heck, Jessica M.

    2016-10-19

    Water levels declined from 2003 to 2011 in many lakes in Ramsey and Washington Counties in the northeast Twin Cities Metropolitan Area, Minnesota; however, water levels in other northeast Twin Cities Metropolitan Area lakes increased during the same period. Groundwater and surface-water exchanges can be important in determining lake levels where these exchanges are an important component of the water budget of a lake. An understanding of groundwater and surface-water exchanges in the northeast Twin Cities Metropolitan Area has been limited by the lack of hydrologic data. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Metropolitan Council and Minnesota Department of Health, completed a field and statistical study assessing lake-water levels and regional and local groundwater and surface-water exchanges near northeast Twin Cities Metropolitan Area lakes. This report documents the analysis of collected hydrologic, water-quality, and geophysical data; and existing hydrologic and geologic data to (1) assess the effect of physical setting and climate on lake-level fluctuations of selected lakes, (2) estimate potential percentages of surface-water contributions to well water across the northeast Twin Cities Metropolitan Area, (3) estimate general ages for waters extracted from the wells, and (4) assess groundwater inflow to lakes and lake-water outflow to aquifers downgradient from White Bear Lake. Statistical analyses of lake levels during short-term (2002–10) and long-term (1925–2014) periods were completed to help understand lake-level changes across the northeast Twin Cities Metropolitan Area. Comparison of 2002–10 lake levels to several landscape and geologic characteristics explained variability in lake-level changes for 96 northeast Twin Cities Metropolitan Area lakes. Application of several statistical methods determined that (1) closed-basin lakes (without an active outlet) had larger lake-level declines than flow-through lakes with an outlet; (2

  20. Understanding fine sediment and phosphorous delivery in upland catchments

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Perks, M. T.; Reaney, S. M.

    2013-12-01

    The uplands of UK are heavily impacted by land management including; farming and forestry operations, moorland burning, peat extraction, metal mining, artificial drainage and channelisation. It has been demonstrated that such land management activity may modify hillslope processes, resulting in enhanced runoff generation and changing the spatial distribution and magnitude of erosion. Resultantly, few upland river systems of the UK are operating in a natural state, with land management activity often resulting in increased fluxes of suspended sediment (< 2 mm) and associated pollutants (such as phosphorous). Most recent Environment Agency (EA) data reveals that 60% of monitored water bodies within upland areas of the UK are currently at risk of failing the Water Framework Directive (WFD) due to poor ecological status. In order to prevent the continual degradation of many upland catchments, riverine systems and their diverse ecosystems, a range of measures to control diffuse pollution will need to be implemented. Future mitigation options and measures in the UK may be tested and targeted through the EA's catchment pilot scheme; DEFRA's Demonstration Test Catchment (DTC) programmes and through the catchment restoration fund. However, restoring the physical and biological processes of past conditions in inherently sensitive upland environments is extremely challenging requiring the development of a solid evidence base to determine the effectiveness of resource allocation and to enable reliable and transparent decisions to be made about future catchment operations. Such evidence is rarely collected, with post-implementation assessments often neglected. This paper presents research conducted in the Morland sub-catchment of the River Eden within Cumbria; UK. 80% of this headwater catchment is in upland areas and is dominated by improved grassland and rough grazing. The catchment is heavily instrumented with a range of hydro-meteorological equipment. A high-tech monitoring

  1. Hydrological Dynamics In High Mountain Catchment Areas of Central Norway

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Löffler, J.; Rössler, O.

    Large-scaled landscape structure is regarded as a mosaic of ecotopes where pro- cess dynamics of water and energy fluxes are analysed due to its effects on ecosys- tem functioning. The investigations have been carried out in the continental most Vågå/Oppland high mountains in central Norway since 1994 (LÖFFLER WUN- DRAM 1999, 2000, 2001). Additionally, comparable investigations started in 2000 dealing with the oceanic high mountain landscapes on same latitudes (LÖFFLER et al. 2001). The theoretical and methodological framework of the project is given by the Landscape-Ecological Complex Analysis (MOSIMANN 1984, 1985) and its variations due to technical and principle methodical challenges in this high moun- tain landscape (KÖHLER et al. 1994, LÖFFLER 1998). The aim of the project is to characterize high mountain ecosystem structure, functioning and dynamics within small catchment areas, that are chosen in two different altitudinal belts each in the eastern continental and the western oceanic region of central Norway. In the frame of this research project hydrological and meteorological measurements on ground water, percolation and soil moisture dynamics as well as on evaporation, air humidity and air-, surface- and soil-temperatures have been conducted. On the basis of large-scaled landscape-ecological mappings (LÖFFLER 1997) one basic meteorological station and several major data logger run stations have been installed in representative sites of each two catchment areas in the low and mid alpine belts of the investigation re- gions (JUNG et al. 1997, LÖFFLER WUNDRAM 1997). Moreover, spatial differ- entiations of groundwater level, soil moisture and temperature profiles have been in- vestigated by means of hand held measurements at different times of the day, during different climatic situations and different seasons. Daily and annual air-, surface- and soil-temperature dynamics are demonstrated by means of thermoisopleth-diagrams for different types of

  2. Landslide susceptibility in the Tully Valley area, Finger Lakes region, New York

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Jager, Stefan; Wieczorek, Gerald E.

    1994-01-01

    As a consequence of a large landslide in the Tully Valley, Onondaga County, New York, an investigation was undertaken to determine the factors responsible for the landslide in order to develop a model for regional landslide susceptibility. The April 27, 1993 Tully Valley landslide occurred within glacial lake clays overlain by till and colluvium on gentle slopes of 9-12 degrees. The landslide was triggered by extreme climatic events of prolonged heavy rainfall combined with rapid melting of a winter snowpack. A photoinventory and field checking of landslides within a 415 km2 study area, including the Tully Valley, revealed small recently-active landslides and other large dormant prehistoric landslides, probably Pleistocene in age. Similar to the larger Tully Valley landslide, the smaller recently-active landslides occurred in red, glacial lake clays very likely triggered by seasonal rainfall. The large dormant landslides have been stable for long periods as evidenced by slope denudational processes that have modified the landslides. These old and ancient landslides correspond with proglacial lake levels during the Pleistocene, suggesting that either inundation or rapid drainage was responsible for triggering these landslides. A logistic regression analysis was performed within a Geographic Information System (GIS) environment to develop a model of landslide susceptibility for the Tully Valley study area. Presence of glacial clays, slope angle, and glacial lake levels were used as explanatory variables for landslide incidence. The spatial probability of landsliding, categorized as low, moderate and high, is portrayed within 90-m square cells on the susceptibility map.

  3. Rock glacier outflows may adversely affect lakes: lessons from the past and present of two neighboring water bodies in a crystalline-rock watershed.

    PubMed

    Ilyashuk, Boris P; Ilyashuk, Elena A; Psenner, Roland; Tessadri, Richard; Koinig, Karin A

    2014-06-03

    Despite the fact that rock glaciers are one of the most common geomorphological expressions of mountain permafrost, the impacts of their solute fluxes on lakes still remain largely obscure. We examined water and sediment chemistry, and biota of two neighboring water bodies with and without a rock glacier in their catchments in the European Alps. Paleolimnological techniques were applied to track long-term temporal trends in the ecotoxicological state of the water bodies and to establish their baseline conditions. We show that the active rock glacier in the mineralized catchment of Lake Rasass (RAS) represents a potent source of acid rock drainage that results in enormous concentrations of metals in water, sediment, and biota of RAS. The incidence of morphological abnormalities in the RAS population of Pseudodiamesa nivosa, a chironomid midge, is as high as that recorded in chironomid populations inhabiting sites heavily contaminated by trace metals of anthropogenic origin. The incidence of morphological deformities in P. nivosa of ∼70% persisted in RAS during the last 2.5 millennia and was ∼40% in the early Holocene. The formation of RAS at the toe of the rock glacier most probably began at the onset of acidic drainage in the freshly deglaciated area. The present adverse conditions are not unprecedented in the lake's history and cannot be associated exclusively with enhanced thawing of the rock glacier in recent years.

  4. A 1000-year record of dry conditions in the eastern Canadian prairies reconstructed from oxygen and carbon isotope measurements on Lake Winnipeg sediment organics

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Buhay, W.M.; Simpson, S.; Thorleifson, H.; Lewis, M.; King, J.; Telka, A.; Wilkinson, Philip M.; Babb, J.; Timsic, S.; Bailey, D.

    2009-01-01

    A short sediment core (162 cm), covering the period AD 920-1999, was sampled from the south basin of Lake Winnipeg for a suite of multi-proxy analyses leading towards a detailed characterisation of the recent millennial lake environment and hydroclimate of southern Manitoba, Canada. Information on the frequency and duration of major dry periods in southern Manitoba, in light of the changes that are likely to occur as a result of an increasingly warming atmosphere, is of specific interest in this study. Intervals of relatively enriched lake sediment cellulose oxygen isotope values (??18Ocellulose) were found to occur from AD 1180 to 1230 (error range: AD 1104-1231 to 1160-1280), 1610-1640 (error range: AD 1571-1634 to 1603-1662), 1670-1720 (error range: AD 1643-1697 to 1692-1738) and 1750-1780 (error range: AD 1724-1766 to 1756-1794). Regional water balance, inferred from calculated Lake Winnipeg water oxygen isotope values (??18Oinf-lw), suggest that the ratio of lake evaporation to catchment input may have been 25-40% higher during these isotopically distinct periods. Associated with the enriched d??18Ocellulose intervals are some depleted carbon isotope values associated with more abundantly preserved sediment organic matter (d??13COM). These suggest reduced microbial oxidation of terrestrially derived organic matter and/or subdued lake productivity during periods of minimised input of nutrients from the catchment area. With reference to other corroborating evidence, it is suggested that the AD 1180-1230, 1610-1640, 1670-1720 and 1750-1780 intervals represent four distinctly drier periods (droughts) in southern Manitoba, Canada. Additionally, lower-magnitude and duration dry periods may have also occurred from 1320 to 1340 (error range: AD 1257-1363), 1530-1540 (error range: AD 1490-1565 to 1498-1572) and 1570-1580 (error range: AD 1531-1599 to 1539-1606). ?? 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  5. Accounting for inter-annual and seasonal variability in regionalization of hydrologic response in the Great Lakes basin

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kult, J. M.; Fry, L. M.; Gronewold, A. D.

    2012-12-01

    Methods for predicting streamflow in areas with limited or nonexistent measures of hydrologic response typically invoke the concept of regionalization, whereby knowledge pertaining to gauged catchments is transferred to ungauged catchments. In this study, we identify watershed physical characteristics acting as primary drivers of hydrologic response throughout the US portion of the Great Lakes basin. Relationships between watershed physical characteristics and hydrologic response are generated from 166 catchments spanning a variety of climate, soil, land cover, and land form regimes through regression tree analysis, leading to a grouping of watersheds exhibiting similar hydrologic response characteristics. These groupings are then used to predict response in ungauged watersheds in an uncertainty framework. Results from this method are assessed alongside one historical regionalization approach which, while simple, has served as a cornerstone of Great Lakes regional hydrologic research for several decades. Our approach expands upon previous research by considering multiple temporal characterizations of hydrologic response. Due to the substantial inter-annual and seasonal variability in hydrologic response observed over the Great Lakes basin, results from the regression tree analysis differ considerably depending on the level of temporal aggregation used to define the response. Specifically, higher levels of temporal aggregation for the response metric (for example, indices derived from long-term means of climate and streamflow observations) lead to improved watershed groupings with lower within-group variance. However, this perceived improvement in model skill occurs at the cost of understated uncertainty when applying the regression to time series simulations or as a basis for model calibration. In such cases, our results indicate that predictions based on long-term characterizations of hydrologic response can produce misleading conclusions when applied at shorter

  6. Community managed forests dominate the catchment sediment cascade in the mid-hills of Nepal: A compound-specific stable isotope analysis.

    PubMed

    Upadhayay, Hari Ram; Smith, Hugh G; Griepentrog, Marco; Bodé, Samuel; Bajracharya, Roshan Man; Blake, William; Cornelis, Wim; Boeckx, Pascal

    2018-05-08

    Soil erosion by water is critical for soil, lake and reservoir degradation in the mid-hills of Nepal. Identification of the nature and relative contribution of sediment sources in rivers is important to mitigate water erosion within catchments and siltation problems in lakes and reservoirs. We estimated the relative contribution of land uses (i.e. sources) to suspended and streambed sediments in the Chitlang catchment using stable carbon isotope signature (δ 13 C) of long-chain fatty acids as a tracer input for MixSIAR, a Bayesian mixing model used to apportion sediment sources. Our findings reveal that the relative contribution of land uses varied between suspended and streambed sediment, but did not change over the monsoon period. Significant over- or under-prediction of source contributions could occur due to overlapping source tracer values, if source groups are classified on a catchment-wide basis. Therefore, we applied a novel deconvolutional framework of MixSIAR (D-MixSIAR) to improve source apportionment of suspended sediment collected at tributary confluences (i.e. sub-catchment level) and at the outlet of the entire catchment. The results indicated that the mixed forest was the dominant (41 ± 13%) contributor of sediment followed by broadleaf forest (15 ± 8%) at the catchment outlet during the pre-wet season, suggesting that forest disturbance as well as high rainfall and steep slopes interact for high sediment generation within the study catchment. Unpaved rural road tracks located on flat and steep slopes (11 ± 8 and 9 ± 7% respectively) almost equally contributed to the sediment. Importantly, agricultural terraces (upland and lowland) had minimal contribution (each <7%) confirming that proper terrace management and traditional irrigation systems played an important role in mitigating sediment generation and delivery. Source contributions had a small temporal, but large spatial, variation in the sediment cascade of Chitlang stream

  7. How wet is wet? Strontium isotopes as paleo-lake level indicators in the Chew Bahir basin (S-Ethiopia)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Junginger, A.; Vonhof, H.; Foerster, V. E.; Asrat, A.; Cohen, A. S.; Lamb, H. F.; Schaebitz, F.; Trauth, M. H.

    2016-12-01

    A major challenge in paleo-anthropology is to understand the impact of climatic changes on human evolution. The Hominin Sites and Paleo-lakes Drilling Project (HSPDP) is currently meeting that challenge by providing records that cover the last 3.7 Ma of paleoenvironmental change all located in close proximity to key paleo-anthropological findings in East Africa. One of the cored climatic archives comes from the dried up Chew Bahir basin in southern Ethiopia, where duplicate sediment cores, each 280 m long, are expected to provide valuable insights about East African environmental variability during the last >500 ka. The lake basins in the eastern branch of the East African Rift System today contain mainly shallow and alkaline lakes. However, paleo-shorelines in the form of wave cut notches, shell beds, and beach ridges are common morphological evidences for deep freshwater lakes that have filled the basins up to their overflow level during pronounced humid episodes, such as the African Humid Period (AHP, 15-5 ka). Unfortunately, further back in time, many of those morphological features disappear due to erosion and the estimation of paleo-water depths depend merely on qualitative proxies from core analyses. We here present a new method that shows high potential to translate qualitative proxy signals from sediment core analyses to quantitative climate signals in the Ethiopian Rift. The method aims at water level reconstruction of multiple paleo-lake episodes in the Chew Bahir basin using strontium isotope ratios (87Sr/86Sr, SIR) in lacustrine fossils and microfossils. SIR preserved in lacustrine fossils reflect the lithology of the drained catchment. The catchment of Chew Bahir consists mainly of Precambrian basement rocks producing high SIR in the lake waters. During humid periods, its catchment enlarged when higher elevated paleo-lakes Abaya, Chamo and Awassa were cascading down into Chew Bahir. These basins drain mainly volcanic rocks producing low SIR. First

  8. Modeling Antarctic Subglacial Lake Filling and Drainage Cycles

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Dow, Christine F.; Werder, Mauro A.; Nowicki, Sophie; Walker, Ryan T.

    2016-01-01

    The growth and drainage of active subglacial lakes in Antarctica has previously been inferred from analysis of ice surface altimetry data. We use a subglacial hydrology model applied to a synthetic Antarctic ice stream to examine internal controls on the filling and drainage of subglacial lakes. Our model outputs suggest that the highly constricted subglacial environment of our idealized ice stream, combined with relatively high rates of water flow funneled from a large catchment, can combine to create a system exhibiting slow-moving pressure waves. Over a period of years, the accumulation of water in the ice stream onset region results in a buildup of pressure creating temporary channels, which then evacuate the excess water. This increased flux of water beneath the ice stream drives lake growth. As the water body builds up, it steepens the hydraulic gradient out of the overdeepened lake basin and allows greater flux. Eventually this flux is large enough to melt channels that cause the lake to drain. Lake drainage also depends on the internal hydrological development in the wider system and therefore does not directly correspond to a particular water volume or depth. This creates a highly temporally and spatially variable system, which is of interest for assessing the importance of subglacial lakes in ice stream hydrology and dynamics.

  9. The Impact of Eutrophication on Mercury Cycling in Lake 227 at the Experimental Lakes Area in Northwestern Ontario

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kirk, J.; Lehnherr, I.; Gleason, A.; St. Louis, V. L.; Muir, D.

    2012-12-01

    Mercury (Hg) is a pollutant of global concern as concentrations of methyl mercury (MeHg), the toxic and bioaccumulative form of Hg, are often present in fish at levels high enough to pose health risks to consumers. Although we are beginning to understand the factors controlling MeHg production in freshwater lakes, the impacts of environmental disturbances, such as eutrophication, on Hg cycling are not known. As part of a larger project examining controls on eutrophication, we are studying Hg cycling and MeHg production in the artificially eutrophied Lake 227 at the Experimental Lakes Area in northwestern Ontario. In addition to 40 years of ancillary data, Lake 227 is ideal for this study as it has an anoxic hypolimnion which may be an important zone of microbial MeHg production. To determine sources and losses of inorganic Hg(II) and MeHg from the lake, we are using a mass balance approach including: detailed lake profiles to determine the water column pools of Hg(II) and MeHg, Hg(II) and MeHg inputs via precipitation, and losses of Hg(II) and MeHg from the lake via gaseous elemental Hg(0) evasion and MeHg photodemethylation, respectively. Rates of water column MeHg production are also being determined using Hg stable isotope tracer experiments. 2010-2011 water column profiles demonstrated that although total Hg (THg) and MeHg concentrations were fairly low in Lake 227 surface waters (2.42 ± 0.64 and 0.11 ± 0.06 ng/L, respectively), MeHg concentrations (1.08 ± 0.39 ng/L) and the % THg that was MeHg (16 ± 5%) were high in deep regions of the water column (6-9 m). The zone of elevated water column MeHg expanded throughout summers 2010-2011, closely following the zone of anoxia, suggesting MeHg is produced in the anoxic hypolimnion. The zone of high particulate-bound THg (62 ± 6%) also migrated with the zone of anoxia over the summer suggesting that particle sinking and sediment resuspension, which are controlled by the timing of algal blooms, are important

  10. A synoptic survey of ecosystem services from headwater catchments in the United States

    Treesearch

    Brian H. Hill; Randall K. Kolka; Frank H. McCormick; Matthew A. Starry

    2014-01-01

    Ecosystem production functions for water supply, climate regulation, and water purification were estimated for 568 headwater streams and their catchments. Results are reported for nine USA ecoregions. Headwater streams represented 74-80% of total catchment stream length. Water supply per unit catchment area was highest in the Northern Appalachian Mountains ecoregion...

  11. Influence of hydroclimatic variations on solute concentration dynamics in nested subtropical catchments with heterogeneous landscapes.

    PubMed

    Piazza, Gustavo Antonio; Dupas, Rémi; Gascuel-Odoux, Chantal; Grimaldi, Catherine; Pinheiro, Adilson; Kaufmann, Vander

    2018-04-20

    Despite global efforts to monitor water quality in catchments worldwide, tropical and subtropical zones still lack data to study the influence of human activities and climate variations on solute dynamics. In this study, we monitored ten solutes every two weeks for six years (2010-2015) in three nested catchments (2 to30 km 2 ), which contained heterogeneous landscapes composed of forests and agricultural land, and one small neighboring forested catchment (0.4 km 2 ). Data analysis revealed that i) rainfall, discharge and solute concentrations displayed no clear seasonal patterns, unlike many catchments of the temperate zone; ii) solute concentrations in the agricultural area were higher than those in the forested area, but both areas displayed similar temporal patterns due to a common hydroclimatic driver; iii) all four catchments displayed a chemostatic export regime for most of the solutes, similar to catchments of the temperate zone; and iv) a positive correlation was observed between anion concentrations and ENSO (El Niño-Southern Oscillation) index. ENSO appeared to influence both hydroclimatic and anion dynamics in these subtropical catchments. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  12. Release of PCBs from Silvretta glacier (Switzerland) investigated in lake sediments and meltwater.

    PubMed

    Pavlova, P A; Zennegg, M; Anselmetti, F S; Schmid, P; Bogdal, C; Steinlin, C; Jäggi, M; Schwikowski, M

    2016-06-01

    This study is part of our investigations about the release of persistent organic pollutants from melting Alpine glaciers and the relevance of the glaciers as secondary sources of legacy pollutants. Here, we studied the melt-related release of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in proglacial lakes and glacier streams of the catchment of the Silvretta glacier, located in the Swiss Alps. To explore a spatial and temporal distribution of chemicals in glacier melt, we combined two approaches: (1) analysing a sediment record as an archive of past remobilization and (2) passive water sampling to capture the current release of PCBs during melt period. In addition, we determined PCBs in a non-glacier-fed stream as a reference for the background pollutant level in the area. The PCBs in the sediment core from the Silvretta lake generally complied with trends of PCB emissions into the environment. Elevated concentrations during the most recent ten years, comparable in level with times of the highest atmospheric input, were attributed to accelerated melting of the glacier. This interpretation is supported by the detected PCB fractionation pattern towards heavier, less volatile congeners, and by increased activity concentrations of the radioactive tracer (137)Cs in this part of the sediment core. In contrast, PCB concentrations were not elevated in the stream water, since no significant difference between pollutant concentrations in the glacier-fed and the non-glacier-fed streams was detected. In stream water, no current decrease of the PCBs with distance from the glacier was observed. Thus, according to our data, an influence of PCBs release due to accelerated glacier melt was only detected in the proglacial lake, but not in the other compartments of the Silvretta catchment.

  13. Lake surface area variation and its responses to climatic change in Yamzhog Yumco Basin, South Tibet during 1970-2010

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhang, X.; Tian, Y.; Sun, R.

    2015-12-01

    The research on lake extraction from multi-source and multi-temporal satellite images and the lake size variation can provide reliable method and indispensable information to deepen the understanding about alpine lake changes with the accelerating warming. With field survey experience in the Yamzhog Yumco Basin, South Tibet, the outlines of five lakes (i.e., Yamzhog Yumco, Chen Co, Kongmu Co, Bajiu Co and Puma Yumco) were delineated by the adoption of 42 scenes of satellite images from Landsat, CBERS and HJ from 1970 to 2010, basing on which the responses of alpine lakes to climate change at different timescales were explored. The results are summarized as follows. (1) The seasonal fluctuation of lake surface area was similar with different trend for the five alpine lakes. As for the last 41 years, the annual variation of lake surface area exhibited two kinds of patterns for the five alpine lakes. And the Yamzhog Yumco declined by 9.41%, while the rest four lakes expanded. (2) The responses of alpine lakes to climate change rely on different timescale and water replenishment types. On the one hand, the precipitation change was the predominant driving forces for the seasonal fluctuation and variation trend of lake size, and the rising temperature accounted for the inter-annual lake surface variation. On the other hand, the two kinds of alpine lakes behaviors were well correspondent with the warming temperature over the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. The lakes supplied mainly by precipitation shrunk as a result of increased evaporation, and lakes supplied mainly by glacier and snow meltwater, however, expanded because of the remarkable glacier recession. (3) The quantification of hydrological components would hopefully be improved, according to uncertainties analysis, with the adoption of microwave satellite images and higher resolution ones to disclose the interaction mechanism among climate, glacier, and lake in alpine regions.

  14. Preliminary tephra-fall records from three lakes in the Anchorage, Alaska area: advances towards a regional tephrochronostratigraphic framework

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wallace, K. L.; Kaufman, D. S.; Schiff, C. J.; Kathan, K.; Werner, A.; Hancock, J.; Hagel, L. A.

    2010-12-01

    Sediment cores recovered from three kettle lakes, all within 10 km of Anchorage, Alaska contain a record of tephra fall from major eruptive events of Cook Inlet volcanoes during the past 11250 yr. Prominent tephra layers from multiple cores within each lake were first correlated within each basin using physical properties, major-oxide glass geochemistry, and constrained by bracketing radiocarbon age. Distinct tephra from each lake were then correlated among all three lakes using the same criteria to develop a composite tephrostratigraphic framework for the Anchorage area. Lorraine Lake, the northern-most lake contains 17 distinct tephra layers; Goose Lake, the eastern most lake contains 10 distinct tephra layers; and Little Campbell Lake, to the west, contains 7 distinct tephra layers. Thinner, less-prominent tephra layers, reflecting smaller or more distant eruptions, also occur but are not included as part of this study. Of the 33 tephra layers, only two could be confidently correlated among all three lakes, and four other correlative deposits were recognized in two of the three lakes. The minimum number of unique major tephra-fall events in the Anchorage area is 22 in the past 11200 years, or about 1 event every 500 years. This number underestimates the actual number of eruptions because not attempt was made to locate crypto-tephra. All but perhaps one tephra deposit originated from Cook Inlet volcanoes with the most prolific source being Mount Spurr/Crater Peak, which is accountable for at least 8 deposits. Combining radiocarbon ages to produce an independent age model for each lake is in progress and will aid in confirming correlations and assigning detailed modeled-tephra age and uncertainty to each tephra layer.

  15. Effects of Land Use on Lake Nutrients: The Importance of Scale, Hydrologic Connectivity, and Region

    PubMed Central

    Soranno, Patricia A.; Cheruvelil, Kendra Spence; Wagner, Tyler; Webster, Katherine E.; Bremigan, Mary Tate

    2015-01-01

    Catchment land uses, particularly agriculture and urban uses, have long been recognized as major drivers of nutrient concentrations in surface waters. However, few simple models have been developed that relate the amount of catchment land use to downstream freshwater nutrients. Nor are existing models applicable to large numbers of freshwaters across broad spatial extents such as regions or continents. This research aims to increase model performance by exploring three factors that affect the relationship between land use and downstream nutrients in freshwater: the spatial extent for measuring land use, hydrologic connectivity, and the regional differences in both the amount of nutrients and effects of land use on them. We quantified the effects of these three factors that relate land use to lake total phosphorus (TP) and total nitrogen (TN) in 346 north temperate lakes in 7 regions in Michigan, USA. We used a linear mixed modeling framework to examine the importance of spatial extent, lake hydrologic class, and region on models with individual lake nutrients as the response variable, and individual land use types as the predictor variables. Our modeling approach was chosen to avoid problems of multi-collinearity among predictor variables and a lack of independence of lakes within regions, both of which are common problems in broad-scale analyses of freshwaters. We found that all three factors influence land use-lake nutrient relationships. The strongest evidence was for the effect of lake hydrologic connectivity, followed by region, and finally, the spatial extent of land use measurements. Incorporating these three factors into relatively simple models of land use effects on lake nutrients should help to improve predictions and understanding of land use-lake nutrient interactions at broad scales. PMID:26267813

  16. Temporal Dynamics and Decay of Putatively Allochthonous and Autochthonous Viral Genotypes in Contrasting Freshwater Lakes

    PubMed Central

    Barbosa, Jorge G.; Brown, Julia M.; Donelan, Ryan P.; Eaglesham, James B.; Eggleston, Erin M.; LaBarre, Brenna A.

    2012-01-01

    Aquatic viruses play important roles in the biogeochemistry and ecology of lacustrine ecosystems; however, their composition, dynamics, and interactions with viruses of terrestrial origin are less extensively studied. We used a viral shotgun metagenomic approach to elucidate candidate autochthonous (i.e., produced within the lake) and allochthonous (i.e., washed in from other habitats) viral genotypes for a comparative study of their dynamics in lake waters. Based on shotgun metagenomes prepared from catchment soil and freshwater samples from two contrasting lakes (Cayuga Lake and Fayetteville Green Lake), we selected two putatively autochthonous viral genotypes (phycodnaviruses likely infecting algae and cyanomyoviruses likely infecting picocyanobacteria) and two putatively allochthonous viral genotypes (geminiviruses likely infecting terrestrial plants and circoviruses infecting unknown hosts but common in soil libraries) for analysis by genotype-specific quantitative PCR (TaqMan) applied to DNAs from viruses in the viral size fraction of lake plankton, i.e., 0.2 μm > virus > 0.02 μm. The abundance of autochthonous genotypes largely reflected expected host abundance, while the abundance of allochthonous genotypes corresponded with rainfall and storm events in the respective catchments, suggesting that viruses with these genotypes may have been transported to the lake in runoff. The decay rates of allochthonous and autochthonous genotypes, assessed in incubations where all potential hosts were killed, were generally lower (0.13 to 1.50% h−1) than those reported for marine virioplankton but similar to those for freshwater virioplankton. Both allochthonous and autochthonous viral genotypes were detected at higher concentrations in subsurface sediments than at the water-sediment interface. Our data indicate that putatively allochthonous viruses are present in lake plankton and sediments, where their temporal dynamics reflect active transport to the lake during

  17. Holocene pollen and sediment record from the tangle lakes area, central Alaska

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Ager, Thomas A.; Sims, John D.

    1981-01-01

    Pollen and sediments have been analyzed from a 5.5 meter‐length core of lacustrine sediments from Tangle Lakes, in the Gulkana Upland south of the Alaska Range (63 ° 01 ‘ 46”; N. latitude, 146° 03 ‘ 48 “ W. longitude). Radiocarbon ages indicate that the core spans the last 4700 years. The core sediments are sandy silt and silty clay; the core shows distinct rhythmic laminations in the lower 398 cm. The laminae appear to be normally graded; peat fibers and macerated plant debris are more abundant near the tops of the laminae. Six volcanic‐ash layers are present in the upper 110 cm of the core.Present‐day vegetation of the Tangle Lakes area is mesic shrub tundra and open spruce woodland, with scattered patches of shrub willow (Salix), balsam poplar (P. balsamifera), spruce (Picea), paper birch (Betula papyrifera), and alder (Alnus). Pollen analysis of 27 core samples suggests that this vegetation type has persisted throughout the past 4700 years, except for an apparently substantial increase in Picea beginning about 3500 years B.P. Percentages of Picea pollen are very low (generally 1–3 percent) in the lower 2 meters of core (ca. 4700 to 3500 years B.P.), but rise to 13–18 percent in the upper 3.4 meters (ca. 3500 years B.P. to present). Previously reported data from this area indicate that Picea trees initially arrived in the Tangle Lakes area about 9100 years B.P., at least 2.5 to 3 thousand years after deglaciation of the region. The present investigation suggests that Picea trees became locally scarce or died out sometime after about 9000 years B.P. but before 4700 years B.P., then reinvaded the area about 3500 years B.P. If this extrapolated age for the Picea reinvasion is accurate it suggests that local expansion of the Picea population coincides with the onset of a Neoglacial interval of cooler, moister climate. This is an unexpected result, because intervals of cooler climate generally coincide with lowering of the altitudinal limit of

  18. Modeling nonlinear responses of DOC transport in boreal catchments in Sweden

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kasurinen, Ville; Alfredsen, Knut; Ojala, Anne; Pumpanen, Jukka; Weyhenmeyer, Gesa A.; Futter, Martyn N.; Laudon, Hjalmar; Berninger, Frank

    2016-07-01

    Stream water dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations display high spatial and temporal variation in boreal catchments. Understanding and predicting these patterns is a challenge with great implications for water quality projections and carbon balance estimates. Although several biogeochemical models have been used to estimate stream water DOC dynamics, model biases common during both rain and snow melt-driven events. The parsimonious DOC-model, K-DOC, with 10 calibrated parameters, uses a nonlinear discharge and catchment water storage relationship including soil temperature dependencies of DOC release and consumption. K-DOC was used to estimate the stream water DOC concentrations over 5 years for eighteen nested boreal catchments having total area of 68 km2 (varying from 0.04 to 67.9 km2). The model successfully simulated DOC concentrations during base flow conditions, as well as, hydrological events in catchments dominated by organic and mineral soils reaching NSEs from 0.46 to 0.76. Our semimechanistic model was parsimonious enough to have all parameters estimated using statistical methods. We did not find any clear differences between forest and mire-dominated catchments that could be explained by soil type or tree species composition. However, parameters controlling slow release and consumption of DOC from soil water behaved differently for small headwater catchments (less than 2 km2) than for those that integrate larger areas of different ecosystem types (10-68 km2). Our results emphasize that it is important to account for nonlinear dependencies of both, soil temperature, and catchment water storage, when simulating DOC dynamics of boreal catchments.

  19. Geologic map of the Bartlett Springs Fault Zone in the vicinity of Lake Pillsbury and adjacent areas of Mendocino, Lake, and Glenn Counties, California

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Ohlin, Henry N.; McLaughlin, Robert J.; Moring, Barry C.; Sawyer, Thomas L.

    2010-01-01

    The Lake Pillsbury area lies in the eastern part of the northern California Coast Ranges, along the east side of the transform boundary between the Pacific and North American plates (fig. 1). The Bartlett Springs Fault Zone is a northwest-trending zone of faulting associated with this eastern part of the transform boundary. It is presently active, based on surface creep (Svarc and others, 2008), geomorphic expression, offset of Holocene units (Lienkaemper and Brown, 2009), and microseismicity (Bolt and Oakeshott, 1982; Dehlinger and Bolt, 1984; DePolo and Ohlin, 1984). Faults associated with the Bartlett Springs Fault Zone at Lake Pillsbury are steeply dipping and offset older low to steeply dipping faults separating folded and imbricated Mesozoic terranes of the Franciscan Complex and interleaved rocks of the Coast Range Ophiolite and Great Valley Sequence. Parts of this area were mapped in the late 1970s and 1980s by several investigators who were focused on structural relations in the Franciscan Complex (Lehman, 1978; Jordan, 1975; Layman, 1977; Etter, 1979). In the 1980s the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) mapped a large part of the area as part of a mineral resource appraisal of two U.S. Forest Service Roadless areas. For evaluating mineral resource potential, the USGS mapping was published at a scale of 1:62,500 as a generalized geologic summary map without a topographic base (Ohlin and others, 1983; Ohlin and Spear, 1984). The previously unpublished mapping with topographic base is presented here at a scale of 1:30,000, compiled with other mapping in the vicinity of Lake Pillsbury. The mapping provides a geologic framework for ongoing investigations to evaluate potential earthquake hazards and structure of the Bartlett Springs Fault Zone. This geologic map includes part of Mendocino National Forest (the Elk Creek Roadless Area) in Mendocino, Glenn, and Lake Counties and is traversed by several U.S. Forest Service Routes, including M1 and M6 (fig. 2). The study

  20. Environmental care in agricultural catchments: Toward the communicative catchment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Martin, Peter

    1991-11-01

    Substantial land degradation of agricultural catchments in Australia has resulted from the importation of European farming methods and the large-scale clearing of land. Rural communities are now being encouraged by government to take responsibility for environmental care. The importance of community involvement is supported by the view that environmental problems are a function of interactions between people and their environment. It is suggested that the commonly held view that community groups cannot care for their resources is due to inappropriate social institutions rather that any inherent disability in people. The communicative catchment is developed as a vision for environmental care into the future. This concept emerges from a critique of resource management through the catchment metaphors of the reduced, mechanical, and the complex, evolving catchment, which reflect the development of systemic and people-centered approaches to environmental care. The communicative catchment is one where both community and resource managers participate collaboratively in environmental care. A methodology based on action research and systemic thinking (systemic action research) is proposed as a way of moving towards the communicative catchment of the future. Action research is a way of taking action in organizations and communities that is participative and informed by theory, while systemic thinking takes into account the interconnections and relationships between social and natural worlds. The proposed vision, methodology, and practical operating principles stem from involvement in an action research project looking at extension strategies for the implementation of total catchment management in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales.