Analysis of drought determinants for the Colorado River Basin

Ongoing drought in the Colorado River Basin, unprecedented urban growth in the watershed, and numerical model simulations showing higher temperatures and lower precipitation totals in the future have all combined to heighten interest in drought in this region. In this investigation, we use principal components analysis (PCA) to independently assess the influence of various teleconnections on Basin-wide and sub-regional winter season Palmer Hydrological Drought Index (PHDI) and precipitation variations in the Basin. We find that the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) explains more variance in PHDI than El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO), and the planetary temperature combined for the Basin as a whole. When rotated PCA is used to separate the Basin into two regions, the lower portion of the Basin is similar to the Basin as a whole while the upper portion, which contains the high-elevation locations important to hydrologic yield for the watershed, demonstrates poorly defined relationships with the teleconnections. The PHDI for the two portions of the Basin are shown to have been out of synch for much of the twentieth century. In general, teleconnection indices account for 19% of the variance in PHDI leaving large uncertainties in drought forecasting.     

Kinetics and Mechanism of Trithionate and Tetrathionate Oxidation at Low pH by Hydroxyl Radicals

The oxidation kinetics of trithionate (S₃O₆^2- ) and tetrathionate (S₄O ₆ ^2- ) with hydroxyl radicals (OH^*) have been investigated in systems analogous to acid mine drainage (AMD) environments. The discovery of hydroxyl radical (OH^*) formation on pyrite surfaces (Borda et al., 2003) suggests hydroxyl radicals may affect the oxidation kinetics of intermediate sulfur species such as tetrathionate. Cyclic voltammetry experiments in acidic solutions indicate that the reaction of S₄O ₆ ^2- with OH^* goes through an unknown intermediate, tentatively assigned as S₃O ₄ ^n- . An outer-sphere electron transfer mechanism for the reaction of S₄O ₆ ^2- with OH^* to form S₃O ₄ ^n- is proposed based on experimental results. Oxidation rates for trithionate and tetrathionate in the presence of Fenton's reagent (which forms hydroxyl radicals) are too fast to be directly measured using UV-Vis spectrophotometry, electrochemical, or stop-flow spectrophotometry methods. Competitive reaction kinetics within the context of the Haber—Weiss mechanism suggests that the rate constant for the oxidation of trithionate and tetrathionate with OH^* is in excess of 10⁸ M^-1 sec^-1.     

Carbohydrate sources in a coastal marine environment

Individual neutral sugars in sediments, sediment trap materials and major biological sources of a coastal marine environment (Dabob Bay, Washington State) were analyzed by capillary gas chromatography of equilibrated isomeric mixtures. Plankton, bacteria, and vascular plant tissues of different types yielded reproducible and biochemically consistent compositional patterns. These patterns, when expressed in simple parameters, allowed distinctions between marine and terrestrial carbohydrate sources as well as among the major different types of vascular plant tissues. Plankton and bacteria, due to their compositional diversity, were not further distinguishable by carbohydrate compositions alone. Carbohydrate compositions of Dabob Bay sediments and sediment trap materials, interpreted using source-indicator parameters, indicate a predominantly marine origin with increased relative input of terrestrially-derived carbohydrates in winter periods of low phytoplankton productivity. Both plankton and grasses are indicated as major carbohydrate sources during spring. Glucose yield enhancement factors, determined by comparative acid pretreatments, confirm the general predominance of α-cellulose-poor marine polysaccharides and increased levels of α-cellulose-rich vascular plant remains in winter sediment trap samples.     

Aerial electromagnetic sounding of the lithosphere of Venus

Electromagnetic (EM) investigation depths are larger on Venus than Earth due to the dearth of water in rocks, in spite of higher temperatures. Whistlers detected by Venus Express proved that lightning is present, so the Schumann resonances ～10–40 Hz may provide a global source of electromagnetic energy that penetrates ～10–100 km. Electrical conductivity will be sensitive at these depths to temperature structure and hence thermal lithospheric thickness. Using 1D analytic and 2D numerical models, we demonstrate that the Schumann resonances—transverse EM waves in the ground-ionosphere waveguide—remain sensitive at all altitudes to the properties of the boundaries. This is in marked contrast to other EM methods in which sensitivity to the ground falls off sharply with altitude. We develop a 1D analytical model for aerial EM sounding that treats the electrical properties of the subsurface (thermal gradient, water content, and presence of conductive crust) and ionosphere, and the effects of both random errors and biases that can influence the measurements. We initially consider specified 1D lithospheric thicknesses 100–500 km, but we turn to 2D convection models with Newtonian temperature-dependent viscosity to provide representative vertical and lateral temperature variations. We invert for the conductivity-depth structure and then temperature gradient. For a dry Venus, we find that the error on temperature gradient obtained from any single local measurement is ～100%—perhaps enough to distinguish “thick” vs. “thin” lithospheres. When averaging over thousands of kilometers, however, the standard deviation of the recovered thermal gradient is within the natural variability of the convection models, <25%. A “wet” interior (hundreds of ppm H₂O) limits EM sounding depths using the Schumann resonances to <20 km, and errors are too large to estimate lithospheric properties. A 30-km conductive crust has little influence on the dry-interior models because the Schumann penetration depths are significantly larger. We conclude that EM sounding of the interior of Venus is feasible from a 55-km high balloon. Lithospheric thickness can be measured if the upper-mantle water content is low. If H₂O at hundreds of ppm is present, the deeper, temperature-sensitive structure is screened, but the “wet” nature of the upper mantle, as well as structure of the upper crust, is revealed.