TY - JOUR A1 - Gorum, Tolga A1 - Korup, Oliver A1 - van Westen, Cees J. A1 - van der Meijde, Mark A1 - Xu, Chong A1 - van der Meer, Freek D. T1 - Why so few? Landslides triggered by the 2002 Denali earthquake, Alaska JF - Quaternary science reviews : the international multidisciplinary research and review journal N2 - The 2002 M-w 7.9 Denali Fault earthquake, Alaska, provides an unparalleled opportunity to investigate in quantitative detail the regional hillslope mass-wasting response to strong seismic shaking in glacierized terrain. We present the first detailed inventory of similar to 1580 coseismic slope failures, out of which some 20% occurred above large valley glaciers, based on mapping from multi-temporal remote sensing data. We find that the Denali earthquake produced at least one order of magnitude fewer landslides in a much narrower corridor along the fault ruptures than empirical predictions for an M 8 earthquake would suggest, despite the availability of sufficiently steep and dissected mountainous topography prone to frequent slope failure. In order to explore potential controls on the reduced extent of regional coseismic landsliding we compare our data with inventories that we compiled for two recent earthquakes in periglacial and formerly glaciated terrain, i.e. at Yushu, Tibet (M-w 6.9, 2010), and Aysen Fjord, Chile (2007 M-w 6.2). Fault movement during these events was, similarly to that of the Denali earthquake, dominated by strike-slip offsets along near-vertical faults. Our comparison returns very similar coseismic landslide patterns that are consistent with the idea that fault type, geometry, and dynamic rupture process rather than widespread glacier cover were among the first-order controls on regional hillslope erosional response in these earthquakes. We conclude that estimating the amount of coseismic hillslope sediment input to the sediment cascade from earthquake magnitude alone remains highly problematic, particularly if glacierized terrain is involved. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. KW - Earthquake KW - Landslide KW - Glacial KW - Sediment cascade KW - Denali KW - Alaska Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2014.04.032 SN - 0277-3791 VL - 95 SP - 80 EP - 94 PB - Elsevier CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Haßler, Sibylle Kathrin A1 - Lark, R. M. A1 - Zimmermann, Beate A1 - Elsenbeer, Helmut T1 - Which sampling design to monitor saturated hydraulic conductivity? JF - European journal of soil science N2 - Soil in a changing world is subject to both anthropogenic and environmental stresses. Soil monitoring is essential to assess the magnitude of changes in soil variables and how they affect ecosystem processes and human livelihoods. However, we cannot always be sure which sampling design is best for a given monitoring task. We employed a rotational stratified simple random sampling (rotStRS) for the estimation of temporal changes in the spatial mean of saturated hydraulic conductivity (K-s) at three sites in central Panama in 2009, 2010 and 2011. To assess this design's efficiency we compared the resulting estimates of the spatial mean and variance for 2009 with those gained from stratified simple random sampling (StRS), which was effectively the data obtained on the first sampling time, and with an equivalent unexecuted simple random sampling (SRS). The poor performance of geometrical stratification and the weak predictive relationship between measurements of successive years yielded no advantage of sampling designs more complex than SRS. The failure of stratification may be attributed to the small large-scale variability of K-s. Revisiting previously sampled locations was not beneficial because of the large small-scale variability in combination with destructive sampling, resulting in poor consistency between revisited samples. We conclude that for our K-s monitoring scheme, repeated SRS is equally effective as rotStRS. Some problems of small-scale variability might be overcome by collecting several samples at close range to reduce the effect of small-scale variation. Finally, we give recommendations on the key factors to consider when deciding whether to use stratification and rotation in a soil monitoring scheme. Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/ejss.12174 SN - 1351-0754 SN - 1365-2389 VL - 65 IS - 6 SP - 792 EP - 802 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Tian, Fang A1 - Herzschuh, Ulrike A1 - Mischke, Steffen A1 - Schluetz, Frank T1 - What drives the recent intensified vegetation degradation in Mongolia - Climate change or human activity? JF - The Holocene : an interdisciplinary journal focusing on recent environmental change N2 - This study examines the course and driving forces of recent vegetation change in the Mongolian steppe. A sediment core covering the last 55years from a small closed-basin lake in central Mongolia was analyzed for its multi-proxy record at annual resolution. Pollen analysis shows that highest abundances of planted Poaceae and highest vegetation diversity occurred during 1977-1992, reflecting agricultural development in the lake area. A decrease in diversity and an increase in Artemisia abundance after 1992 indicate enhanced vegetation degradation in recent times, most probably because of overgrazing and farmland abandonment. Human impact is the main factor for the vegetation degradation within the past decades as revealed by a series of redundancy analyses, while climate change and soil erosion play subordinate roles. High Pediastrum (a green algae) influx, high atomic total organic carbon/total nitrogen (TOC/TN) ratios, abundant coarse detrital grains, and the decrease of C-13(org) and N-15 since about 1977 but particularly after 1992 indicate that abundant terrestrial organic matter and nutrients were transported into the lake and caused lake eutrophication, presumably because of intensified land use. Thus, we infer that the transition to a market economy in Mongolia since the early 1990s not only caused dramatic vegetation degradation but also affected the lake ecosystem through anthropogenic changes in the catchment area. KW - central Mongolia KW - grain size KW - human impact KW - lake eutrophication KW - pollen KW - vegetation degradation Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1177/0959683614540958 SN - 0959-6836 SN - 1477-0911 VL - 24 IS - 10 SP - 1206 EP - 1215 PB - Sage Publ. CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Deplazes, Gaudenz A1 - Lückge, Andreas A1 - Stuut, Jan-Berend W. A1 - Paetzold, Jürgen A1 - Kuhlmann, Holger A1 - Husson, Dorothee A1 - Fant, Mara A1 - Haug, Gerald H. T1 - Weakening and strengthening of the Indian monsoon during Heinrich events and Dansgaard- Oeschger oscillations JF - Paleoceanography N2 - The Dansgaard-Oeschger oscillations and Heinrich events described in North Atlantic sediments and Greenland ice are expressed in the climate of the tropics, for example, as documented in Arabian Sea sediments. Given the strength of this teleconnection, we seek to reconstruct its range of environmental impacts. We present geochemical and sedimentological data from core SO130-289KL from the Indus submarine slope spanning the last similar to 80 kyr. Elemental and grain size analyses consistently indicate that interstadials are characterized by an increased contribution of fluvial suspension from the Indus River. In contrast, stadials are characterized by an increased contribution of aeolian dust from the Arabian Peninsula. Decadal-scale shifts at climate transitions, such as onsets of interstadials, were coeval with changes in productivity-related proxies. Heinrich events stand out as especially dry and dusty events, indicating a dramatically weakened Indian summer monsoon, potentially increased winter monsoon circulation, and increased aridity on the Arabian Peninsula. This finding is consistent with other paleoclimate evidence for continental aridity in the northern tropics during these events. Our results strengthen the evidence that circum-North Atlantic temperature variations translate to hydrological shifts in the tropics, with major impacts on regional environmental conditions such as rainfall, river discharge, aeolian dust transport, and ocean margin anoxia. KW - Indian Monsoon KW - Arabian Sea KW - XRF KW - Dansgaard-Oeschger oscillations KW - Heinrich events KW - Sediment Transport Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/2013PA002509 SN - 0883-8305 SN - 1944-9186 VL - 29 IS - 2 SP - 99 EP - 114 PB - American Geophysical Union CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rieckh, Helene A1 - Gerke, Horst H. A1 - Siemens, Jan A1 - Sommer, Michael T1 - Water and dissolved carbon fluxes in an eroding soil landscape depending on terrain position JF - Vadose zone journal N2 - Leaching of dissolved C in arable hummocky ground moraine soil landscapes is characterized by a spatial continuum of more or less erosion-affected Luvisols, Calcaric Regosols at exposed positions, and Colluvic Regosols in depressions. Our objective was to estimate the fluxes of dissolved C in four differently eroded soils as affected by erosion-induced pedological and soil structural alterations. In this model study, we considered landscape position effects by adapting the water table as the bottom boundary condition and erosion effects by using pedon-specific soil hydraulic properties. The one-dimensional vertical water movement was described with the Richards equation using HYDRUS-1D. Solute fluxes were obtained by combining calculated water fluxes with concentrations of dissolved organic and inorganic C (DOC and DIC, respectively) measured from soil solution extracted by suction cups at biweekly intervals. In the 3-yr period (2010-2012), DOC fluxes in the 2-m soil depth were similar at the three non-colluvic locations with -0.8 +/- 0.1 g m(-2) yr(-1) (i.e., outflow) but were 0.4 g m(-2) yr(-1) (i.e., input) in the depression. The DIC fluxes ranged from -10.2 g m(-2) yr(-1) for the eroded Luvisol, -9.2 g m(-2) yr(-1) for the Luvisol, and -6.1 g m(-2) yr(-1) for the Calcaric Regosol to 3.2 g m(-2) yr(-1) for the Colluvic Regosol. The temporal variations in DOC and DIC fluxes were controlled by water fluxes. The spatially distributed leaching results corroborate the hypothesis that the effects of soil erosion influence fluxes through modified hydraulic and transport properties and terrain-dependent boundary conditions. Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.2136/vzj2013.10.0173 SN - 1539-1663 VL - 13 IS - 7 PB - Soil Science Society of America CY - Madison ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Freundt, A. A1 - Grevemeyer, I. A1 - Rabbel, W. A1 - Hansteen, T. H. A1 - Hensen, C. A1 - Wehrmann, H. A1 - Kutterolf, S. A1 - Halama, Ralf A1 - Frische, M. T1 - Volatile (H2O, CO2, Cl, S) budget of the Central American subduction zone JF - International journal of earth sciences N2 - After more than a decade of multidisciplinary studies of the Central American subduction zone mainly in the framework of two large research programmes, the US MARGINS program and the German Collaborative Research Center SFB 574, we here review and interpret the data pertinent to quantify the cycling of mineral-bound volatiles (H2O, CO2, Cl, S) through this subduction system. For input-flux calculations, we divide the Middle America Trench into four segments differing in convergence rate and slab lithological profiles, use the latest evidence for mantle serpentinization of the Cocos slab approaching the trench, and for the first time explicitly include subduction erosion of forearc basement. Resulting input fluxes are 40-62 (53) Tg/Ma/m H2O, 7.8-11.4 (9.3) Tg/Ma/m CO2, 1.3-1.9 (1.6) Tg/Ma/m Cl, and 1.3-2.1 (1.6) Tg/Ma/m S (bracketed are mean values for entire trench length). Output by cold seeps on the forearc amounts to 0.625-1.25 Tg/Ma/m H2O partly derived from the slab sediments as determined by geochemical analyses of fluids and carbonates. The major volatile output occurs at the Central American volcanic arc that is divided into ten arc segments by dextral strike-slip tectonics. Based on volcanic edifice and widespread tephra volumes as well as calculated parental magma masses needed to form observed evolved compositions, we determine long-term (10(5) years) average magma and K2O fluxes for each of the ten segments as 32-242 (106) Tg/Ma/m magma and 0.28-2.91 (1.38) Tg/Ma/m K2O (bracketed are mean values for entire Central American volcanic arc length). Volatile/K2O concentration ratios derived from melt inclusion analyses and petrologic modelling then allow to calculate volatile fluxes as 1.02-14.3 (6.2) Tg/Ma/m H2O, 0.02-0.45 (0.17) Tg/Ma/m CO2, and 0.07-0.34 (0.22) Tg/Ma/m Cl. The same approach yields long-term sulfur fluxes of 0.12-1.08 (0.54) Tg/Ma/m while present-day open-vent SO2-flux monitoring yields 0.06-2.37 (0.83) Tg/Ma/m S. Input-output comparisons show that the arc water fluxes only account for up to 40 % of the input even if we include an "invisible" plutonic component constrained by crustal growth. With 20-30 % of the H2O input transferred into the deeper mantle as suggested by petrologic modeling, there remains a deficiency of, say, 30-40 % in the water budget. At least some of this water is transferred into two upper-plate regions of low seismic velocity and electrical resistivity whose sizes vary along arc: one region widely envelopes the melt ascent paths from slab top to arc and the other extends obliquely from the slab below the forearc to below the arc. Whether these reservoirs are transient or steady remains unknown. KW - Subduction input KW - Forearc dewatering KW - Arc magmatism KW - Subduction fluids Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00531-014-1001-1 SN - 1437-3254 SN - 1437-3262 VL - 103 IS - 7 SP - 2101 EP - 2127 PB - Springer CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Tronicke, Jens A1 - Hamann, Göran T1 - Vertical radar profiling: Combined analysis of traveltimes, amplitudes, and reflections JF - Geophysics N2 - Vertical radar profiling (VRP) is a single-borehole geophysical technique, in which the receiver antenna is located within a borehole and the transmitter antenna is placed at one or various offsets from the borehole. Today, VRP surveying is primarily used to derive 1D velocity models by inverting the arrival times of direct waves. Using field data collected at a well-constrained test site in Germany, we evaluated a VRP workflow relying on the analysis of direct-arrival traveltimes and amplitudes as well as on imaging reflection events. To invert our VRP traveltime data, we used a global inversion strategy resulting in an ensemble of acceptable velocity models, and thus, it allowed us to appraise uncertainty issues in the estimated velocities as well as in porosity models derived via petrophysical translations. In addition to traveltime inversion, the analysis of direct-wave amplitudes and reflection events provided further valuable information regarding subsurface properties and architecture. The used VRP amplitude preprocessing and inversion procedures were adapted from raybased crosshole ground-penetrating radar (GPR) attenuation tomography and resulted in an attenuation model, which can be used to estimate variations in electrical resistivity. Our VRP reflection imaging approach relied on corridor stacking, which is a well-established processing sequence in vertical seismic profiling. The resulting reflection image outlines bounding layers and can be directly compared to surface-based GPR reflection profiling. Our results of the combined analysis of VRP, traveltimes, amplitudes, and reflections were consistent with independent core and borehole logs as well as GPR reflection profiles, which enabled us to derive a detailed hydro-stratigraphic model as needed, for example, to understand and model groundwater flow and transport. Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1190/GEO2013-0428.1 SN - 0016-8033 SN - 1942-2156 VL - 79 IS - 4 SP - H23 EP - H35 PB - Society of Exploration Geophysicists CY - Tulsa ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Dahm, Torsten A1 - Fischer, Tomas T1 - Velocity ratio variations in the source region of earthquake swarms in NW Bohemia obtained from arrival time double-differences JF - Geophysical journal international N2 - Crustal earthquake swarms are an expression of intensive cracking and rock damaging over periods of days, weeks or month in a small source region in the crust. They are caused by longer lasting stress changes in the source region. Often, the localized stressing of the crust is associated with fluid or gas migration, possibly in combination with pre-existing zones of weaknesses. However, verifying and quantifying localized fluid movement at depth remains difficult since the area affected is small and geophysical prospecting methods often cannot reach the required resolution. We apply a simple and robust method to estimate the velocity ratio between compressional (P) and shear (S) waves (upsilon(P)/upsilon(S)-ratio) in the source region of an earthquake swarm. The upsilon(P)/upsilon(S)-ratio may be unusual small if the swarm is related to gas in a porous or fractured rock. The method uses arrival time difference between P and S waves observed at surface seismic stations, and the associated double differences between pairs of earthquakes. An advantage is that earthquake locations are not required and the method seems lesser dependent on unknown velocity variations in the crust outside the source region. It is, thus, suited for monitoring purposes. Applications comprise three natural, mid-crustal (8-10 km) earthquake swarms between 1997 and 2008 from the NW-Bohemia swarm region. We resolve a strong temporal decrease of upsilon(P)/upsilon(S) before and during the main activity of the swarm, and a recovery of upsilon(P)/upsilon(S) to background levels at the end of the swarms. The anomalies are interpreted in terms of the Biot-Gassman equations, assuming the presence of oversaturated fluids degassing during the beginning phase of the swarm activity. KW - Tomography KW - Earthquake source observations KW - Volcano seismology Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1093/gji/ggt410 SN - 0956-540X SN - 1365-246X VL - 196 IS - 2 SP - 957 EP - 970 PB - Oxford Univ. Press CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Crausbay, Shelley A1 - Genderjahn, Steffi A1 - Hotchkiss, Sara A1 - Sachse, Dirk A1 - Kahmen, Ansgar A1 - Arndt, Stefan K. T1 - Vegetation dynamics at the upper reaches of a tropical montane forest are driven by disturbance over the past 7300 years JF - Arctic, antarctic, and alpine research : an interdisciplinary journal N2 - We assessed tropical montane cloud forest (TMCF) sensitivity to natural disturbance by drought, fire, and dieback with a 7300-year-long paleorecord. We analyzed pollen assemblages, charcoal accumulation rates, and higher plant biomarker compounds (average chain length [ACL] of n-alkanes) in sediments from Wai 'anapanapa, a small lake near the upper forest limit and the mean trade wind inversion ('IWI) in Hawai`i. The paleorecord of ACL suggests increased drought frequency and a lower awl elevation from 2555-1323 cal yr B.P. and 606-334 cal yr B.P. Charcoal began to accumulate and a novel fire regime was initiated ca. 880 cal yr B.P., followed by a decreased fire return interval at ca. 550 cal yr B.P. Diebacks occurred at 2931, 2161, 1162, and 306 cal yr B.P., and two of these were independent of drought or fire. Pollen assemblages indicate that on average species composition changed only 2.8% per decade. These dynamics, though slight, were significantly associated with disturbance. The direction of species composition change varied with disturbance type. Drought was associated with significantly more vines and lianas; fire was associated with an increase in the tree fern Sadleria and indicators of open, disturbed landscapes at the expense of epiphytic ferns; whereas stand-scale dieback was associated with an increase in the tree fern Cibotium. Though this cloud forest was dynamic in response to past disturbance, it has recovered, suggesting a resilient TMCF with no evidence of state change in vegetation type (e.g., grassland or shrubland). Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1657/1938-4246-46.4.787 SN - 1523-0430 SN - 1938-4246 VL - 46 IS - 4 SP - 787 EP - 799 PB - Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado CY - Boulder ER - TY - THES A1 - Tian, Fang T1 - Vegetation and environmental changes on millennial, centennial and decadal time-scales in central Mongolia and their driving forces Y1 - 2014 ER -