Hydrological trends and the evolution of catchment research in the Alptal valley,central Switzerland

When the observation of small headwater catchments in the pre-Alpine Alptal valley (central Switzerland) started in the late 1960s, the researchers were mainly interested in questions related to floods and forest management. Investigations of geomorphological processes in the steep torrent channels followed in the 1980s, along with detailed observations of biogeochemical and ecohydrological processes in individual forest stands. More recently, research in the Alptal has addressed the impacts of climate change on water supply and runoff generation. In this article, we describe, for the first time, the evolution of catchment research at Alptal, and present new analyses of long-term trends and short-term hydrologic behaviour. Hydrometeorological time series from the past 50 years show substantial interannual variability, but only minimal long-term trends, except for the ~2°C increase in mean annual air temperature over the 50-year period, and a corresponding shift towards earlier snowmelt. Similar to previous studies in larger Alpine catchments, the decadal variations in mean annual runoff in Alptal's small research catchments reflect the long-term variability in annual precipitation. In the Alptal valley, the most evident hydrological trends were observed in late spring and are related to the substantial change in the duration of the snow cover. Streamflow and water quality are highly variable within and between hydrological events, suggesting rapid shifts in flow pathways and mixing, as well as changing connectivity of runoff-generating areas. This overview illustrates how catchment research in the Alptal has evolved in response to changing societal concerns and emerging scientific questions.     

Modelling the effect of changing precipitation inputs on deep soil water utilization

Forests in the Southeastern United States are predicted to experience future changes in seasonal patterns of precipitation inputs as well as more variable precipitation events. These climate change‐induced alterations could increase drought and lower soil water availability. Drought could alter rooting patterns and increase the importance of deep roots that access subsurface water resources. To address plant response to drought in both deep rooting and soil water utilization as well as soil drainage, we utilize a throughfall reduction experiment in a loblolly pine plantation of the Southeastern United States to calibrate and validate a hydrological model. The model was accurately calibrated against field measured soil moisture data under ambient rainfall and validated using 30% throughfall reduction data. Using this model, we then tested these scenarios: (a) evenly reduced precipitation; (b) less precipitation in summer, more in winter; (c) same total amount of precipitation with less frequent but heavier storms; and (d) shallower rooting depth under the above 3 scenarios. When less precipitation was received, drainage decreased proportionally much faster than evapotranspiration implying plants will acquire water first to the detriment of drainage. When precipitation was reduced by more than 30%, plants relied on stored soil water to satisfy evapotranspiration suggesting 30% may be a threshold that if sustained over the long term would deplete plant available soil water. Under the third scenario, evapotranspiration and drainage decreased, whereas surface run‐off increased. Changes in root biomass measured before and 4 years after the throughfall reduction experiment were not detected among treatments. Model simulations, however, indicated gains in evapotranspiration with deeper roots under evenly reduced precipitation and seasonal precipitation redistribution scenarios but not when precipitation frequency was adjusted. Deep soil and deep rooting can provide an important buffer capacity when precipitation alone cannot satisfy the evapotranspirational demand of forests. How this buffering capacity will persist in the face of changing precipitation inputs, however, will depend less on seasonal redistribution than on the magnitude of reductions and changes in rainfall frequency.     

Smectite formation in metalliferous sediments near the East Pacific Rise at 13°N

A 43 cm long E271 sediment core collected near the East Pacific Rise(EPR) at 13°N were studied to investigate the origin of smectite for understanding better the geochemical behavior of hydrothermal material after deposition.E271 sediments are typical metalliferous sediments. After removal of organic matter, carbonate, biogenic opal,and Fe-Mn oxide by a series of chemical procedures, clay minerals(2 μm) were investigated by X-ray diffraction,chemical analysis and Si isotope analysis. Due to the influence of seafloor hydrothermal activity and close to continent, the sources of clay minerals are complex. Illite, chlorite and kaolinite are suggested to be transported from either North or Central America by rivers or winds, but smectite is authigenic. It is enriched in iron, and its contents are highest in clay minerals. Data show that smectite is most likely formed by the reaction of hydrothermal Fe-oxyhydroxide with silica and seawater in metalliferous sediments. The Si that participates in this reaction may be derived from siliceous microfossils(diatoms or radiolarians), hydrothermal fluids, or detrital mineral phases. And their δ30 Si values are higher than those of authigenic smectites, which implies that a Si isotope fractionation occurs during the formation because of the selective absorption of light Si isotopes onto Feoxyhydroxides. Sm/Fe mass ratios(a proxy for overall REE/Fe ratio) in E271 clay minerals are lower than those in metalliferous sediments, as well as distal hydrothermal plume particles and terrigenous clay minerals. This result suggests that some REE are lost during the smectite formation, perhaps because their large ionic radii of REE scavenged by Fe-oxyhydroxides preclude substitution in either tetrahedral or octahedral lattice sites of this mineral structure, which decreases the value of metalliferous sediments as a potential resource for REE.     

深水铺管船托管架疲劳分析及动态监测点选取研究

作为S型铺管作业的关键性装备,托管架长期承受着交变载荷的作用,随着海洋开发向超深水发展,结构疲劳破坏问题不容忽视。采用疲劳谱分析的方法并结合线性累积损伤理论,对托管架结构频域下的变形进行了分析,计算了正常海况下和极端海况下托管架疲劳损伤度并对疲劳寿命进行了评估。研究发现托管架在正常海况下作业符合安全要求,在极端海况下局部结构会受到破坏。并从托管架结构安全监测角度,筛选了结构疲劳分析关键点位,为监测点位的选取提供了依据。     

察尔汗盐湖西北部典型采区地下卤水赋存状态的地面核磁探测与数值模拟研究

察尔汗盐湖地下晶间卤水蕴藏了宝贵的盐湖矿产资源,如何确定地下卤水的赋存规律以制定科学合理的卤水开采和补给方案,正成为盐湖资源大规模可持续利用亟需解决的重要问题。本文以察尔汗盐湖西北部的典型采卤区作为研究区域,1)利用新型的地面核磁共振找水仪,通过在研究区布设两条十字交叉的测线,探测并反演解译测区地下60米深度内的卤水静态赋存形式,2)结合OpenGeoSys(OGS)多物理场耦合地下水数值模拟软件,对测区地下卤水的动态运移形式进行数值模拟计算。地面核磁探测结果表明研究区含水量整体偏低,最大含水量约0.8%,平均含水量约0.4%。测点结果给出的含水层位分界面与邻近钻孔的地层层位分界面的一致性较高,浅部的层位误差在10%以下,达到了0.5米的精度。考虑到测区南北两边均有采卤渠正在汲取地下卤水,且在测区中心存在两条废弃的采卤渠,OGS地下水数值模拟研究结果表明采卤渠造成测区浅部卤水较大空缺,与研究区浅部含水量总体偏低的探测特征一致。研究结果表明地面核磁共振技术能准确探测卤水当前的赋存状态,地下水运移模拟技术可以深入认识采补活动引起卤水赋存状态的变化规律。探测和模拟结合的联合研究是确定卤水赋存规律的重要手段,研究成果可为盐湖资源合理开采高效利用提供基础资料和相关科学支撑。