Environmental changes, groundwater-level fluctuations and small-scale vegetation patterns during the Lateglacial at Rieme, northwestern Belgium

2012 ◽  
Vol 279-280 ◽  
pp. 60-61
Author(s):  
Johanna A.A. Bos
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 3553
Author(s):  
Magdalena Worsa-Kozak ◽  
Radosław Zimroz ◽  
Anna Michalak ◽  
Christian Wolkersdorfer ◽  
Agnieszka Wyłomańska ◽  
...  

Long-term groundwater level analysis, which is usually based on traditionally defined hydrological years is essential in an era of global warming and other climatic and environmental changes, especially in urban areas. A complex interplay of multiple factors influencing the groundwater level makes the investigation of their interdependencies a challenge. Based on multiple data sets and a long time series available as well as specific geological and hydrological conditions, a semi-urban district of Wrocław/Poland was selected as a case study for investigating these dependencies. This paper presents an interdisciplinary approach to the analysis of groundwater level fluctuations by combining mathematics, signal processing, hydrogeology, and meteorology. Applying well-known methods from disciplines other than hydrogeology, the authors investigated seasonal behavior and similarity of groundwater level fluctuations during 15 hydrological years. Based on segmentation and agglomerative clustering (AHP), five classes of groundwater levels fluctuations for predefined hydrologic years and the corresponding seasons were identified and compared to the classification scheme by Pleczyński. Additionally, the relationship between precipitation and groundwater level was investigated using Pearson, Kendall and Spearman correlations. This led to the identification of “typical” and “untypical” seasons for the correlation between the cumulative precipitation sum and groundwater levels. The results presented here will be used for further investigations of groundwater level fluctuations using additional factors and statistical methods. These aim to identify periods that describe similarities better than the commonly used hydrological year.


2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 1835-1847 ◽  
Author(s):  
U. Riebesell ◽  
J. Czerny ◽  
K. von Bröckel ◽  
T. Boxhammer ◽  
J. Büdenbender ◽  
...  

Abstract. One of the great challenges in ocean change research is to understand and forecast the effects of environmental changes on pelagic communities and the associated impacts on biogeochemical cycling. Mesocosms, experimental enclosures designed to approximate natural conditions, and in which environmental factors can be manipulated and closely monitored, provide a powerful tool to close the gap between small-scale laboratory experiments and observational and correlative approaches applied in field surveys. Existing pelagic mesocosm systems are stationary and/or restricted to well-protected waters. To allow mesocosm experimentation in a range of hydrographic conditions and in areas considered most sensitive to ocean change, we developed a mobile sea-going mesocosm facility, the Kiel Off-Shore Mesocosms for Future Ocean Simulations (KOSMOS). The KOSMOS platform, which can be transported and deployed by mid-sized research vessels, is designed for operation in moored and free-floating mode under low to moderate wave conditions (up to 2.5 m wave heights). It encloses a water column 2 m in diameter and 15 to 25 m deep (∼50–75 m3 in volume) without disrupting the vertical structure or disturbing the enclosed plankton community. Several new developments in mesocosm design and operation were implemented to (i) minimize differences in starting conditions between mesocosms, (ii) allow for extended experimental duration, (iii) precisely determine the mesocosm volume, (iv) determine air–sea gas exchange, and (v) perform mass balance calculations. After multiple test runs in the Baltic Sea, which resulted in continuous improvement of the design and handling, the KOSMOS platform successfully completed its first full-scale experiment in the high Arctic off Svalbard (78°56.2′ N, 11°53.6′ E) in June/July 2010. The study, which was conducted in the framework of the European Project on Ocean Acidification (EPOCA), focused on the effects of ocean acidification on a natural plankton community and its impacts on biogeochemical cycling and air–sea exchange of climate-relevant gases. This manuscript describes the mesocosm hardware, its deployment and handling, CO2 manipulation, sampling and cleaning, including some further modifications conducted based on the experiences gained during this study.


1968 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 264-274
Author(s):  
D.T. Edwards

Two very different cases of small-scale farm development in the Commonwealth Caribbean are reviewed. One is Jamaican small farming, which responded little to considerable efforts made for its improvement by the Government agencies. The other is market gardening at Aranjuez, Trinidad where production grew at an extremely rapid rate in the face of intense and antagonistic competition between the market gardeners and without significant direct assistance by official agencies. The conclusions include a number of possible strategies for farm development, comprising individual or collective persuasion, coercion, creation of new farms, and environmental changes. T. A. (Abstract retrieved from CAB Abstracts by CABI’s permission)


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Femi Emmanuel Ikuemonisan ◽  
Vitalis Chidi Ozebo ◽  
Olawale Babatunde Olatinsu

Abstract Lagos has a history of long-term groundwater abstraction that is often compounded by the rising indiscriminate private borehole and water well proliferation. This has resulted in various forms of environmental degradation, including land subsidence. Prediction of the temporal evolution of land subsidence is central to successful land subsidence management. In this study, a triple exponential smoothing algorithm was applied to predict the future trend of land subsidence in Lagos. Land subsidence time series is computed with SBAS-InSAR technique with Sentinel-1 acquisitions from 2015 to 2019. Besides, Matlab wavelet tool was implemented to investigate the periodicity within land displacement signal components and to understand the relationship between the observed land subsidence, and groundwater level change and that of soil moisture. Results show that land subsidence in the LOS direction varied approximately between –94 and 15 mm/year. According to the wavelet-based analysis result, land subsidence in Lagos is partly influenced by both groundwater level fluctuations and soil moisture variability. Evaluation of the proposed model indicates good accuracy, with the highest residual of approximately 8%. We then used the model to predict land subsidence between the years 2020 and 2023. The result showed that by the end of 2023 the maximum subsidence would reach 958 mm which is approximately 23% increase.


2004 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 2057 ◽  
Author(s):  
Φ. Πλιάκας ◽  
I. Διαμαντής ◽  
A. Καλλιώρας ◽  
Χ. Πεταλάς

This paper investigates the progress of seawater intrusion within the plain area of Xylagani - Imeros, in SW part of Rhodope Prefecture, as well as the suitability of groundwater for several purposes, after qualitative valuation of groundwater samples from selective wells of the study area. The conclusions also include some managerial suggestions for the confrontation of seawater intrusion. The investigation in question took place between 1994-1997 and 2002-2003, and involves the installation of piezometric wells, geoelectric sounding measurements, grain size analyses, monitoring of the groundwater level fluctuations in selective wells, specific electrical conductivity measurements and chemical analyses of water samples from selective wells of the study area.


2019 ◽  
pp. 47-67
Author(s):  
A. A. Lyubushin ◽  
O. S. Kazantseva ◽  
A. B. Manukin

The results of the analysis of continuous precise time series of atmospheric pressure and groundwater level fluctuations in a well drilled to a depth of 400 m in the territory of Moscow are presented. The observations are remarkable in terms of their duration of more than 22 years (from February 2, 1993 to April 4, 2015) and by the sampling interval of 10 min. These long observations are suitable for exploring the stationarity of the properties of hydrogeological time series in a seismically quiet region, which is important from the methodological standpoint for interpreting the similar observations in seismically active regions aimed at earthquake prediction. Factor and cluster analysis applied to the sequence of multivariate vectors ofthe statistical properties of groundwater level time series in the successive 10-day windows after adaptive compensation for atmospheric pressure effects distinguish five different statistically significant states of the time series with the transitions between them. An attempt to geophysically interpret the revealed states is made. Two significant periods – 46 and 275 days – are established by spectral analysis of the sequence of the transitions times between the clusters.


1992 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 229-239
Author(s):  
Maj-Lis Follér

Two different health projects are evaluated in this paper. The Koster Health project taking place at the Koster Islands in Sweden and the Ametra project going on among the Shipibo-Conibo in Peru. Both projects focus more on the determinants of health than on sickness and more on the individual's subjective feeling of illness than on the biomedically "objectively" recognizable disease. "Mobilization" and "responsibility"for the individual's own health are central concepts in both projects. In the theoretical part of the paper a human ecological perspective is suggested to analyse the interaction between human health and environmental changes. The author emphasizes the importance of interdisciplinary research when evaluating how the external determinants from the natural and social environment affect human beings and health. The human ecological approach is seen as a complement to the biomedical research. Health and disease are two poles in a continuum. In a pluralistic society we should struggle towards the pole of health.


Healthcare ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 386
Author(s):  
Max Toepfer ◽  
Alejandra Padilla ◽  
Kevin Ponto ◽  
Andrea H Mason ◽  
Kristen A Pickett

Quantification of gait changes in response to altered environmental stimuli may allow for improved understanding of the mechanisms that influence gait changes and fall occurrence in older adults. This study explored how systematic manipulation of a single dimension of one’s environment affects spatiotemporal gait parameters. A total of 20 older adult participants walked at a self-selected pace in a constructed research hallway featuring a mobile wall, which allowed manipulation of the hallway width between three conditions: 1.14 m, 1.31 m, and 1.48 m. Spatiotemporal data from participants’ walks were captured using an instrumented GAITRite mat. A repeated measures ANOVA revealed older adults spent significantly more time in double support in the narrowest hallway width compared to the widest, but did not significantly alter other spatiotemporal measures. Small-scale manipulations of a single dimension of the environment led to subtle, yet in some cases significant changes in gait, suggesting that small or even imperceptible environmental changes may contribute to altered gait patterns for older adults.


Land ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (12) ◽  
pp. 190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Poeplau ◽  
Julia Schroeder ◽  
Ed Gregorich ◽  
Irina Kurganova

Climate change may increase the importance of agriculture in the global Circumpolar North with potentially critical implications for pristine northern ecosystems and global biogeochemical cycles. With this in mind, a global online survey was conducted to understand northern agriculture and farmers’ perspective on environmental change north of 60° N. In the obtained dataset with 67 valid answers, Alaska and the Canadian territories were dominated by small-scale vegetable, herbs, hay, and flower farms; the Atlantic Islands were dominated by sheep farms; and Fennoscandia was dominated by cereal farming. In Alaska and Canada, farmers had mostly immigrated with hardly any background in farming, while farmers in Fennoscandia and on the Atlantic Islands mostly continued family traditions. Accordingly, the average time since conversion from native land was 28 ± 28 and 25 ± 12 years in Alaska and Canada, respectively, but 301 ± 291 and 255 ± 155 years on the Atlantic Islands and in Fennoscandia, respectively, revealing that American northern agriculture is expanding. Climate change was observed by 84% of all farmers, of which 67% have already started adapting their farming practices, by introducing new varieties or altering timings. Fourteen farmers reported permafrost on their land, with 50% observing more shallow permafrost on uncultivated land than on cultivated land. Cultivation might thus accelerate permafrost thawing, potentially with associated consequences for biogeochemical cycles and greenhouse gas emissions. About 87% of the surveyed farmers produced for the local market, reducing emissions of food transport. The dynamics of northern land-use change and agriculture with associated environmental changes should be closely monitored. The dataset is available for further investigations.


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