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Entsprechend der Zielstellung wurden zunächst verschiedene Varianten der Kompostierung von Holzsubstanz getestet, um eine optimale Technologie, die auch für Entwicklungsländer realisierbar ist, herauszufinden. Hierzu sind in Pflanztöpfe Holzspäne (Woodchips) von zwei verschieden Holzarten (Laub- und Nadelholz) gefüllt und mit verschiedenen natürlichen Stickstoffquellen gemischt worden. Diese Ansätze wurden regelmäßig mit Kompostwasser appliziert. Nach vier Wochen sind zwei verschiedene Wurmarten (Dendrobaena veneta und Eisenia fetida) hinzugegeben worden. Die Feuchthaltung erfolgte ab diesem Zeitpunkt durch Frischwasser. Die qualitativ beste Versuchsvariante ist im nächsten Schritt mit weiteren natürlichen Stickstoffquellen, die in Entwicklungsländern zur Verfügung gestellt werden könnten, getestet worden. Von allen Kompostvarianten sind im Labor eine Vielzahl von bodenphysikalischen (z.B. Dichte, Wasserhaltekapazität) und bodenchemischen Zustandsgrößen (z.B. Elektrische Leitfähigkeit, Totalgehalte biophiler Elemente, Bodenreaktion, organische Substanzgehalte, Kationenaustauschkapazität) bestimmt worden. Die Wiederum qualitativ beste Mischung ist in einer weiteren Versuchsreihe in verschiedenen Mengenverhältnissen mit tertiärerem Abraumsand des Braunkohlebergbaus gemischt worden. In diese Versuchsmischungen wurde die Grasmischung RSM 7.2.1 eingesät und regelmäßig bewässert sowie die Wuchshöhe gemessen. Nach 42 Tagen wurden das Gras geerntet und die biometrischen Parameter, die Nährstoffgehalte (pflanzenverfügbare Fraktionen), die Bodenreaktion, die effektive bzw. potentielle Kationenaustauschkapazität sowie die Pufferkapazitäten der Mischsubstrate bestimmt. Die nächsten Versuchsvarianten sind als Feldversuche in der Niederlausitz durchgeführt worden. Für ihre Realisierung wurde als weiterer Zuschlagsstoff Arkadolith® zugemischt. Die Plotflächen sind sowohl auf Abraumsanden des Tertiärs als auch Quartärs angelegt worden. In jeweils eine Subvariante ist RSM 7.2.1, in die andere eine autochthone Grasmischung eingesät worden. Diese Experimente wurden nach 6 Monaten beendet, die Bestimmung aller Parameter erfolgte in gleicher Weise wie bei den Gewächshausversuchen. Auf Basis aller Versuchsreihen konnten die besten Kompostqualitäten und ihre optimalen Herstellungsvarianten ermittelt werden. Eine weitere Aufgabe war es zu untersuchen, wie im Vergleich zur Verbrennung von Holzmasse die CO2-Emission in die Atmosphäre durch Holzkompostierung verringert werden kann. Hierzu wurde während der verschiedenen Kompostierungsvarianten die CO2-Freisetzung gemessen. Im Vergleich dazu ist jeweils die gleiche Masse an Holzsubstanz verbrannt worden. Die Ergebnisse zeigten, dass im Vergleich zu der thermischen Verwertung von Holsubstanz die CO2-Emission bis zu 50 % verringert werden kann. Dem Boden kann darüber hinaus energiereiche organische Substanz zugeführt werden, die eine Entwicklung der Bodenorganismen ermöglicht. Ein weiteres Experiment zielte darauf ab, die Stabilität der Holzkomposte zu bestimmen. Darüber hinaus sollte untersucht werden, ob durch die Zufuhr von pyrogenem Kohlenstoff eine Vergrößerung der Stabilität zu erreichen ist. Diese Untersuchungen wurden mit Hilfe der Thermogravimetrie vorgenommen. Alle wichtigen Kompostierungsvarianten sind sowohl mit verschiedenen Zusatzmengen als auch ohne Zusatz von pyrogenem Kohlenstoff vermessen worden. Als Vergleichssubstanz diente der Oberboden eines Niedermoorgleys, der naturgemäß einen relativ hohen Anteil an organischer Substanz aufweist. Die Ergebnisse zeigten, dass im Bereich niedriger Temperaturen die Wasserbindung im Naturboden fester ist. In der Fraktion der oxidierbaren organischen Substanz, im mittleren Temperaturbereich gemessen, ist die natürliche Bodensubstanz ebenfalls stabiler, was auf eine intensivere Bindung zwischen den organischen und anorganischen Bestandteilen, also auf stabilere organisch-mineralische Komplexe, schlussfolgern lässt. Im Bereich höherer Temperaturen (T> 550° C) waren im Naturboden keine nennenswerten organischen Bestandteile mehr nachweisbar. Hingegen wiesen die Kompostvarianten einen hohen Anteil stabiler Fraktionen, vor allem aromatische Verbindungen, auf. Diese Aussagen erscheinen vor allem für die praktische Anwendung der Holzkomposte in Hinblick auf ihre Langzeitwirkung bedeutsam. Der Zusatz von pyrogenem Kohlenstoff zeigte keine zusätzliche Stabilisierungswirkung.
Recent large earthquakes put in evidence the need of improving and developing robust and rapid procedures to properly calculate the magnitude of an earthquake in a short time after its occurrence. The most famous example is the 26 December 2004 Sumatra earthquake, when the limitations of the standard procedures adopted at that time by many agencies failed to provide accurate magnitude estimates of this exceptional event in time to launch early enough warnings and appropriate response. Being related to the radiated seismic energy ES, the energy magnitude ME is a good estimator of the high frequency content radiated by the source which goes into the seismic waves. However, a procedure to rapidly determine ME (that is to say, within 15 minutes after the earthquake occurrence) was required. Here it is presented a procedure able to provide in a rapid way the energy magnitude ME for shallow earthquakes by analyzing teleseismic P‑waves in the distance range 20-98. To account for the energy loss experienced by the seismic waves from the source to the receivers, spectral amplitude decay functions obtained from numerical simulations of Greens functions based on the average global model AK135Q are used. The proposed method has been tested using a large global dataset (~1000 earthquakes) and the obtained rapid ME estimations have been compared to other magnitude scales from different agencies. Special emphasis is given to the comparison with the moment magnitude MW, since the latter is very popular and extensively used in common seismological practice. However, it is shown that MW alone provide only limited information about the seismic source properties, and that disaster management organizations would benefit from a combined use of MW and ME in the prompt evaluation of an earthquake’s tsunami and shaking potential. In addition, since the proposed approach for ME is intended to work without knowledge of the fault plane geometry (often available only hours after an earthquake occurrence), the suitability of this method is discussed by grouping the analyzed earthquakes according to their type of mechanism (strike-slip, normal faulting, thrust faulting, etc.). No clear trend is found from the rapid ME estimates with the different fault plane solution groups. This is not the case for the ME routinely determined by the U.S. Geological Survey, which uses specific radiation pattern corrections. Further studies are needed to verify the effect of such corrections on ME estimates. Finally, exploiting the redundancy of the information provided by the analyzed dataset, the components of variance on the single station ME estimates are investigated. The largest component of variance is due to the intra-station (record-to-record) error, although the inter-station (station-to-station) error is not negligible and is of several magnitude units for some stations. Moreover, it is shown that the intra-station component of error is not random but depends on the travel path from a source area to a given station. Consequently, empirical corrections may be used to account for the heterogeneities of the real Earth not considered in the theoretical calculations of the spectral amplitude decay functions used to correct the recorded data for the propagation effects.
The seismically active Alborz mountains of northern Iran are an integral part of the Arabia-Eurasia collision. Linked strike-slip and thrust/reverse-fault systems in this mountain belt are characterized by slow loading rates, and large earthquakes are highly disparate in space and time. Similar to other intracontinental deformation zones such a pattern of tectonic activity is still insufficiently understood, because recurrence intervals between seismic events may be on the order of thousands of years, and are thus beyond the resolution of short term measurements based on GPS or instrumentally recorded seismicity. This study bridges the gap of deformation processes on different time scales. In particular, my investigation focuses on deformation on the Quaternary time scale, beyond present-day deformation rates, and it uses present-day and paleotectonic characteristics to model fault behavior. The study includes data based on structural and geomorphic mapping, faultkinematic analysis, DEM-based morphometry, and numerical fault-interaction modeling. In order to better understand the long- to short term behavior of such complex fault systems, I used geomorphic surfaces as strain markers and dated fluvial and alluvial surfaces using terrestrial cosmogenic nuclides (TCN, 10Be, 26Al, 36Cl) and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL). My investigation focuses on the seismically active Mosha-Fasham fault (MFF) and the seismically virtually inactive North Tehran Thrust (NTT), adjacent to the Tehran metropolitan area. Fault-kinematic data reveal an early mechanical linkage of the NTT and MFF during an earlier dextral transpressional stage, when the shortening direction was oriented northwest. This regime was superseded by Pliocene to Recent NE-oriented shortening, which caused thrusting and sinistral strike-slip faulting. In the course of this kinematic changeover, the NTT and MFF were reactivated and incorporated into a nascent transpressional duplex, which has significantly affected landscape evolution in this part of the range. Two of three distinctive features which characterize topography and relief in the study area can be directly related to their location inside the duplex array and are thus linked to interaction between eastern MFF and NTT, and between western MFF and Taleghan fault, respectively. To account for inferred inherited topography from the previous dextral-transpression regime, a new concept of tectonic landscape characterization has been used. Accordingly, I define simple landscapes as those environments, which have developed during the influence of a sustained tectonic regime. In contrast, composite landscapes contain topographic elements inherited from previous tectonic conditions that are inconsistent with the regional present-day stress field and kinematic style. Using numerical fault-interaction modeling with different tectonic boundary conditions, I calculated synoptic snapshots of artificial topography to compare it with the real topographic metrics. However, in the Alborz mountains, E-W faults are favorably oriented to accommodate the entire range of NW- to NE-directed compression. These faults show the highest total displacement which might indicate sustained faulting under changing boundary conditions. In contrast to the fault system within and at the flanks of the Alborz mountains, Quaternary deformation in the adjacent Tehran plain is characterized by oblique motion and thrust and strike-slip fault systems. In this morphotectonic province fault-propagation folding along major faults, limited strike-slip motion, and en-échelon arrays of second-order upper plate thrusts are typical. While the Tehran plain is characterized by young deformation phenomena, the majority of faulting took place in the early stages of the Quaternary and during late Pliocene time. TCN-dating, which was performed for the first time on geomorphic surfaces in the Tehran plain, revealed that the oldest two phases of alluviation (units A and B) must be older than late Pleistocene. While urban development in Tehran increasingly covers and obliterates the active fault traces, the present-day kinematic style, the vestiges of formerly undeformed Quaternary landforms, and paleo earthquake indicators from the last millennia attest to the threat that these faults and their related structures pose for the megacity.
In den letzten drei Jahrzehnten wurden in einigen Seen und Feuchtgebieten in bewaldeten Einzugsgebieten Nordost-Brandenburgs sinkende Wasserstände beobachtet. In diesen Gebieten bestimmt die Grundwasserneubildung im Einzugsgebiet maßgeblich das Wasserdargebot der Seen und Feuchtgebiete, die deshalb hier als grundwasserabhängige Landschaftselemente bezeichnet werden. Somit weisen die sinkenden Wasserstände auf einen Rückgang der wegen des geringen Niederschlagsdargebotes ohnehin schon geringen Grundwasserneubildung hin. Die Höhe der Grundwasserneubildung ist neben den hydroklimatischen Randbedingungen auch von der Landnutzung abhängig. Veränderungen in der Waldvegetation und der hydroklimatischen Randbedingungen bewirken Änderungen der Grundwasserneubildung und beeinflussen somit auch den Wasserhaushalt der Seen und Feuchtgebiete. Aktuell wird die Waldvegetation durch Kiefernmonokulturen dominiert, mit im Vergleich zu anderen Baumarten höherer Evapotranspiration. Entwicklungen in der Forstwirtschaft streben die Verringerung von Kiefernmonokulturen an. Diese sollen langfristig auf geeigneten Standorten durch Laubmischwälder ersetzt werden. Dadurch lassen sich eine geringere Evapotranspiration und damit eine höhere Grundwasserneubildung erreichen. In der vorliegenden Arbeit werden am Beispiel des Redernswalder Sees und des Briesensees die Ursachen der beobachteten sinkenden Wasserstände analysiert. Ihre Wasserstände nahmen in den letzten 25 Jahren um mehr als 3 Meter ab. Weiterhin wird untersucht, wie die erwarteten Klimaänderungen und Veränderungen in der Waldbewirtschaftung die zukünftige Grundwasserneubildung und den Wasserhaushalt von Seen beeinflussen können. Die Entwicklung der Grundwasserneubildung im Untersuchungsgebiet wurde mit dem Wasserhaushaltsmodell WaSiM-ETH simuliert. Die Analyse der Wechselwirkungen der Seen mit dem regionalen quartären Grundwasserleitersystem erfolgte mit dem 3D-Grundwassermodell FEFLOW. Mögliche zukünftige Veränderungen der Grundwasserneubildung und der Seewasserstände durch Klimaänderungen und Waldumbau wurden mit Szenarienrechnungen bis zum Jahr 2100 analysiert. Die modellgestützte Analyse zeigte, dass die beobachteten abnehmenden Wasserstände zu etwa gleichen Anteilen durch Veränderungen der hydroklimatischen Randbedingungen sowie durch Veränderungen in der Waldvegetation und damit abnehmenden Grundwasserneubildungsraten zu erklären sind. Die zukünftigen Entwicklungen der Grundwasserneubildung und der Wasserstände sind geprägt von sich ändernden hydroklimatischen Randbedingungen und einem sukzessiven Wandel der Kiefernbestände zu Laubwäldern. Der Waldumbau hat positive Wirkungen auf die Grundwasserneubildung und damit auf die Wasserstände. Damit können die Einflüsse des eingesetzten REMO-A1B-Klimaszenarios zum Ende des Modellzeitraumes durch den Waldumbau nicht kompensiert werden, das Sinken des Wasserstandes wird jedoch wesentlich reduziert. Bei dem moderateren REMO-B1-Klimaszenario werden die Wasserstände des Jahres 2008 durch den Waldumbau bis zum Jahr 2100 überschritten.
Gegenstand dieser Arbeit ist die Konzeption, Entwicklung und exemplarische Implementierung eines generischen Verfahrens zur Erfassung, Verarbeitung, Auswertung und kartographischen Visualisierung urbaner Strukturen im altweltlichen Trockengürtel mittels hochauflösender operationeller Fernerkundungsdaten. Das Verfahren wird am Beispiel der jemenitischen Hauptstadt Sanaa einer Vertreterin des Typus der Orientalischen Stadt angewandt und evaluiert. Das zu entwickelnde Verfahren soll auf Standardverfahren und Systemen der raumbezogenen Informationsverarbeitung basieren und in seinen wesentlichen Prozessschritten automatisiert werden können. Daten von hochauflösenden operationellen Fernerkundungssystemen (wie z.B. QuickBird, Ikonos u. a.) erlauben die Erkennung und Kartierung urbaner Objekte, wie Gebäude, Straßen und sogar Autos. Die mit ihnen erstellten Karten und den daraus gewonnenen Informationen können zur Erfassung von Urbanisierungsprozessen (Stadt- und Bevölkerungswachstum) herangezogen werden. Sie werden auch zur Generierung von 3D-Stadtmodellen genutzt. Diese dienen z.B. der Visualisierung für touristische Anwendungen, für die Stadtplanung, für Lärmanalysen oder für die Standortplanung von Mobilfunkantennen. Bei dem in dieser Arbeit erzeugten 3D-Visualisierung wurden jedoch keine Gebäudedetails erfasst. Entscheidend war vielmehr die Wiedergabe der Siedlungsstruktur, die im Vorhandensein und in der Anordnung der Gebäude liegt. In dieser Arbeit wurden Daten des Satellitensensors Quickbird von 2005 verwendet. Sie zeigen einen Ausschnitt der Stadt Sanaa in Jemen. Die Fernerkundungsdaten wurden durch andere Daten, u.a. auch Geländedaten, ergänzt und verifiziert. Das ausgearbeitete Verfahren besteht aus der Klassifikation der Satellitenbild-aufnahme, die u.a. pixelbezogen und für jede Klasse einzeln (pixelbezogene Klassifikation auf Klassenebene) durchgeführt wurde. Zusätzlich fand eine visuelle Interpretation der Satellitenbildaufnahme statt, bei der einzelne Flächen und die Straßen digitalisiert und die Objekte mit Symbolen gekennzeichnet wurden. Die aus beiden Verfahren erstellten Stadtkarten wurden zu einer fusioniert. Durch die Kombination der Ergebnisse werden die Vorteile beider Karten in einer vereint und ihre jeweiligen Schwächen beseitigt bzw. minimiert. Die digitale Erfassung der Konturlinien auf der Orthophotomap von Sanaa erlaubte die Erstellung eines Digitalen Geländemodells, das der dreidimensionalen Darstellung des Altstadtbereichs von Sanaa diente. Die 3D-Visualisierung wurde sowohl von den pixelbezogenen Klassifikationsergebnissen auf Klassenebene als auch von der digitalen Erfassung der Objekte erstellt. Die Ergebnisse beider Visualisierungen wurden im Anschluss in einer Stadtkarte vereint. Bei allen Klassifikationsverfahren wurden die asphaltierten Straßen, die Vegetation und einzeln stehende Gebäude sehr gut erfasst. Die Klassifikation der Altstadt gestaltete sich aufgrund der dort für die Klassifikation herrschenden ungünstigen Bedingungen am problematischsten. Die insgesamt besten Ergebnisse mit den höchsten Genauigkeitswerten wurden bei der pixelbezogenen Klassifikation auf Klassenebene erzielt. Dadurch, dass jede Klasse einzeln klassifiziert wurde, konnte die zu einer Klasse gehörende Fläche besser erfasst und nachbearbeitet werden. Die Datenmenge wurde reduziert, die Bearbeitungszeit somit kürzer und die Speicherkapazität geringer. Die Auswertung bzw. visuelle Validierung der pixel-bezogenen Klassifikationsergebnisse auf Klassenebene mit dem Originalsatelliten-bild gestaltete sich einfacher und erfolgte genauer als bei den anderen durch-geführten Klassifikationsverfahren. Außerdem war es durch die alleinige Erfassung der Klasse Gebäude möglich, eine 3D-Visualisierung zu erzeugen. Bei einem Vergleich der erstellten Stadtkarten ergibt sich, dass die durch die visuelle Interpretation erstellte Karte mehr Informationen enthält. Die von den pixelbezogenen Klassifikationsergebnissen auf Klassenebene erstellte Karte ist aber weniger arbeits- und zeitaufwendig zu erzeugen. Zudem arbeitet sie die Struktur einer orientalischen Stadt mit den wesentlichen Merkmalen besser heraus. Durch die auf Basis der 2D-Stadtkarten erstellte 3D-Visualisierung wird ein anderer räumlicher Eindruck vermittelt und bestimmte Elemente einer orientalischen Stadt deutlich gemacht. Dazu zählen die sich in der Altstadt befindenden Sackgassen und die ehemalige Stadtmauer. Auch die für Sanaa typischen Hochhäuser werden in der 3D-Visualisierung erkannt. Insgesamt wurde in der Arbeit ein generisches Verfahren entwickelt, dass mit geringen Modifikationen auch auf andere städtische Räume des Typus orientalische Stadt angewendet werden kann.
The Greenland Ice Sheet (GIS) contains enough water volume to raise global sea level by over 7 meters. It is a relic of past glacial climates that could be strongly affected by a warming world. Several studies have been performed to investigate the sensitivity of the ice sheet to changes in climate, but large uncertainties in its long-term response still exist. In this thesis, a new approach has been developed and applied to modeling the GIS response to climate change. The advantages compared to previous approaches are (i) that it can be applied over a wide range of climatic scenarios (both in the deep past and the future), (ii) that it includes the relevant feedback processes between the climate and the ice sheet and (iii) that it is highly computationally efficient, allowing simulations over very long timescales. The new regional energy-moisture balance model (REMBO) has been developed to model the climate and surface mass balance over Greenland and it represents an improvement compared to conventional approaches in modeling present-day conditions. Furthermore, the evolution of the GIS has been simulated over the last glacial cycle using an ensemble of model versions. The model performance has been validated against field observations of the present-day climate and surface mass balance, as well as paleo information from ice cores. The GIS contribution to sea level rise during the last interglacial is estimated to be between 0.5-4.1 m, consistent with previous estimates. The ensemble of model versions has been constrained to those that are consistent with the data, and a range of valid parameter values has been defined, allowing quantification of the uncertainty and sensitivity of the modeling approach. Using the constrained model ensemble, the sensitivity of the GIS to long-term climate change was investigated. It was found that the GIS exhibits hysteresis behavior (i.e., it is multi-stable under certain conditions), and that a temperature threshold exists above which the ice sheet transitions to an essentially ice-free state. The threshold in the global temperature is estimated to be in the range of 1.3-2.3°C above preindustrial conditions, significantly lower than previously believed. The timescale of total melt scales non-linearly with the overshoot above the temperature threshold, such that a 2°C anomaly causes the ice sheet to melt in ca. 50,000 years, but an anomaly of 6°C will melt the ice sheet in less than 4,000 years. The meltback of the ice sheet was found to become irreversible after a fraction of the ice sheet is already lost – but this level of irreversibility also depends on the temperature anomaly.
Based on technological advances made within the past decades, ground-penetrating radar (GPR) has become a well-established, non-destructive subsurface imaging technique. Catalyzed by recent demands for high-resolution, near-surface imaging (e.g., the detection of unexploded ordnances and subsurface utilities, or hydrological investigations), the quality of today's GPR-based, near-surface images has significantly matured. At the same time, the analysis of oil and gas related reflection seismic data sets has experienced significant advances. Considering the sensitivity of attribute analysis with respect to data positioning in general, and multi-trace attributes in particular, trace positioning accuracy is of major importance for the success of attribute-based analysis flows. Therefore, to study the feasibility of GPR-based attribute analyses, I first developed and evaluated a real-time GPR surveying setup based on a modern tracking total station (TTS). The combination of current GPR systems capability of fusing global positioning system (GPS) and geophysical data in real-time, the ability of modern TTS systems to generate a GPS-like positional output and wireless data transmission using radio modems results in a flexible and robust surveying setup. To elaborate the feasibility of this setup, I studied the major limitations of such an approach: system cross-talk and data delays known as latencies. Experimental studies have shown that when a minimal distance of ~5 m between the GPR and the TTS system is considered, the signal-to-noise ratio of the acquired GPR data using radio communication equals the one without radio communication. To address the limitations imposed by system latencies, inherent to all real-time data fusion approaches, I developed a novel correction (calibration) strategy to assess the gross system latency and to correct for it. This resulted in the centimeter trace accuracy required by high-frequency and/or three-dimensional (3D) GPR surveys. Having introduced this flexible high-precision surveying setup, I successfully demonstrated the application of attribute-based processing to GPR specific problems, which may differ significantly from the geological ones typically addressed by the oil and gas industry using seismic data. In this thesis, I concentrated on archaeological and subsurface utility problems, as they represent typical near-surface geophysical targets. Enhancing 3D archaeological GPR data sets using a dip-steered filtering approach, followed by calculation of coherency and similarity, allowed me to conduct subsurface interpretations far beyond those obtained by classical time-slice analyses. I could show that the incorporation of additional data sets (magnetic and topographic) and attributes derived from these data sets can further improve the interpretation. In a case study, such an approach revealed the complementary nature of the individual data sets and, for example, allowed conclusions about the source location of magnetic anomalies by concurrently analyzing GPR time/depth slices to be made. In addition to archaeological targets, subsurface utility detection and characterization is a steadily growing field of application for GPR. I developed a novel attribute called depolarization. Incorporation of geometrical and physical feature characteristics into the depolarization attribute allowed me to display the observed polarization phenomena efficiently. Geometrical enhancement makes use of an improved symmetry extraction algorithm based on Laplacian high-boosting, followed by a phase-based symmetry calculation using a two-dimensional (2D) log-Gabor filterbank decomposition of the data volume. To extract the physical information from the dual-component data set, I employed a sliding-window principle component analysis. The combination of the geometrically derived feature angle and the physically derived polarization angle allowed me to enhance the polarization characteristics of subsurface features. Ground-truth information obtained by excavations confirmed this interpretation. In the future, inclusion of cross-polarized antennae configurations into the processing scheme may further improve the quality of the depolarization attribute. In addition to polarization phenomena, the time-dependent frequency evolution of GPR signals might hold further information on the subsurface architecture and/or material properties. High-resolution, sparsity promoting decomposition approaches have recently had a significant impact on the image and signal processing community. In this thesis, I introduced a modified tree-based matching pursuit approach. Based on different synthetic examples, I showed that the modified tree-based pursuit approach clearly outperforms other commonly used time-frequency decomposition approaches with respect to both time and frequency resolutions. Apart from the investigation of tuning effects in GPR data, I also demonstrated the potential of high-resolution sparse decompositions for advanced data processing. Frequency modulation of individual atoms themselves allows to efficiently correct frequency attenuation effects and improve resolution based on shifting the average frequency level. GPR-based attribute analysis is still in its infancy. Considering the growing widespread realization of 3D GPR studies there will certainly be an increasing demand towards improved subsurface interpretations in the future. Similar to the assessment of quantitative reservoir properties through the combination of 3D seismic attribute volumes with sparse well-log information, parameter estimation in a combined manner represents another step in emphasizing the potential of attribute-driven GPR data analyses.
In the high mountains of Asia, glaciers cover an area of approximately 115,000 km² and constitute one of the largest continental ice accumulations outside Greenland and Antarctica. Their sensitivity to climate change makes them valuable palaeoclimate archives, but also vulnerable to current and predicted Global Warming. This is a pressing problem as snow and glacial melt waters are important sources for agriculture and power supply of densely populated regions in south, east, and central Asia. Successful prediction of the glacial response to climate change in Asia and mitigation of the socioeconomic impacts requires profound knowledge of the climatic controls and the dynamics of Asian glaciers. However, due to their remoteness and difficult accessibility, ground-based studies are rare, as well as temporally and spatially limited. We therefore lack basic information on the vast majority of these glaciers. In this thesis, I employ different methods to assess the dynamics of Asian glaciers on multiple time scales. First, I tested a method for precise satellite-based measurement of glacier-surface velocities and conducted a comprehensive and regional survey of glacial flow and terminus dynamics of Asian glaciers between 2000 and 2008. This novel and unprecedented dataset provides unique insights into the contrasting topographic and climatic controls of glacial flow velocities across the Asian highlands. The data document disparate recent glacial behavior between the Karakoram and the Himalaya, which I attribute to the competing influence of the mid-latitude westerlies during winter and the Indian monsoon during summer. Second, I tested whether such climate-related longitudinal differences in glacial behavior also prevail on longer time scales, and potentially account for observed regionally asynchronous glacial advances. I used cosmogenic nuclide surface exposure dating of erratic boulders on moraines to obtain a glacial chronology for the upper Tons Valley, situated in the headwaters of the Ganges River. This area is located in the transition zone from monsoonal to westerly moisture supply and therefore ideal to examine the influence of these two atmospheric circulation regimes on glacial advances. The new glacial chronology documents multiple glacial oscillations during the last glacial termination and during the Holocene, suggesting largely synchronous glacial changes in the western Himalayan region that are related to gradual glacial-interglacial temperature oscillations with superimposed monsoonal precipitation changes of higher frequency. In a third step, I combine results from short-term satellite-based climate records and surface velocity-derived ice-flux estimates, with topographic analyses to deduce the erosional impact of glaciations on long-term landscape evolution in the Himalayan-Tibetan realm. The results provide evidence for the long-term effects of pronounced east-west differences in glaciation and glacial erosion, depending on climatic and topographic factors. Contrary to common belief the data suggest that monsoonal climate in the central Himalaya weakens glacial erosion at high elevations, helping to maintain a steep southern orographic barrier that protects the Tibetan Plateau from lateral destruction. The results of this thesis highlight how climatic and topographic gradients across the high mountains of Asia affect glacier dynamics on time scales ranging from 10^0 to 10^6 years. Glacial response times to climate changes are tightly linked to properties such as debris cover and surface slope, which are controlled by the topographic setting, and which need to be taken into account when reconstructing mountainous palaeoclimate from glacial histories or assessing the future evolution of Asian glaciers. Conversely, the regional topographic differences of glacial landscapes in Asia are partly controlled by climatic gradients and the long-term influence of glaciers on the topographic evolution of the orogenic system.
Flood design necessitates discharge estimates for large recurrence intervals. However, in a flood frequency analysis, the uncertainty of discharge estimates increases with higher recurrence intervals, particularly due to the small number of available flood data. Furthermore, traditional distribution functions increase unlimitedly without consideration of an upper bound discharge. Hence, additional information needs to be considered which is representative for high recurrence intervals. Envelope curves which bound the maximum observed discharges of a region are an adequate regionalisation method to provide additional spatial information for the upper tail of a distribution function. Probabilistic regional envelope curves (PRECs) are an extension of the traditional empirical envelope curve approach, in which a recurrence interval is estimated for a regional envelope curve (REC). The REC is constructed for a homogeneous pooling group of sites. The estimation of this recurrence interval is based on the effective sample years of data considering the intersite dependence among all sites of the pooling group. The core idea of this thesis was an improvement of discharge estimates for high recurrence intervals by integrating empirical and probabilistic regional envelope curves into the flood frequency analysis. Therefore, the method of probabilistic regional envelope curves was investigated in detail. Several pooling groups were derived by modifying candidate sets of catchment descriptors and settings of two different pooling methods. These were used to construct PRECs. A sensitivity analysis shows the variability of discharges and the recurrence intervals for a given site due to the different assumptions. The unit flood of record which governs the intercept of PREC was determined as the most influential aspect. By separating the catchments into nested and unnested pairs, the calculation algorithm for the effective sample years of data was refined. In this way, the estimation of the recurrence intervals was improved, and therefore the use of different parameter sets for nested and unnested pairs of catchments is recommended. In the second part of this thesis, PRECs were introduced into a distribution function. Whereas in the traditional approach only discharge values are used, PRECs provide a discharge and its corresponding recurrence interval. Hence, a novel approach was developed, which allows a combination of the PREC results with the traditional systematic flood series while taking the PREC recurrence interval into consideration. An adequate mixed bounded distribution function was presented, which in addition to the PREC results also uses an upper bound discharge derived by an empirical envelope curve. By doing so, two types of additional information which are representative for the upper tail of a distribution function were included in the flood frequency analysis. The integration of both types of additional information leads to an improved discharge estimation for recurrence intervals between 100 and 1000 years.
Large-scale volcanic deformation recently detected by radar interferometry (InSAR) provides new information and thus new scientific challenges for understanding volcano-tectonic activity and magmatic systems. The destabilization of such a system at depth noticeably affects the surrounding environment through magma injection, ground displacement and volcanic eruptions. To determine the spatiotemporal evolution of the Lazufre volcanic area located in the central Andes, we combined short-term ground displacement acquired by InSAR with long-term geological observations. Ground displacement was first detected using InSAR in 1997. By 2008, this displacement affected 1800 km2 of the surface, an area comparable in size to the deformation observed at caldera systems. The original displacement was followed in 2000 by a second, small-scale, neighbouring deformation located on the Lastarria volcano. We performed a detailed analysis of the volcanic structures at Lazufre and found relationships with the volcano deformations observed with InSAR. We infer that these observations are both likely to be the surface expression of a long-lived magmatic system evolving at depth. It is not yet clear whether Lazufre may trigger larger unrest or volcanic eruptions; however, the second deformation detected at Lastarria and the clear increase of the large-scale deformation rate make this an area of particular interest for closer continuous monitoring.
Das Parallel-Seismik-Verfahren dient vor allem der nachträglichen Längenmessung von Fundamentpfählen oder ähnlichen Elementen zur Gründung von Bauwerken. Eine solche Messung wird beispielsweise notwendig, wenn ein Gebäude verstärkt, erhöht oder anders als bisher genutzt werden soll, aber keine Unterlagen mehr über die Fundamente vorhanden sind. Das Messprinzip des schon seit einigen Jahrzehnten bekannten Verfahrens ist relativ einfach: Auf dem Pfahlkopf wird meist durch Hammerschlag eine Stoßwelle erzeugt, die durch den Pfahl nach unten läuft. Dabei wird Energie in den Boden abgegeben. Die abgestrahlten Wellen werden von Sensoren in einem parallel zum Pfahl hergestellten Bohrloch registriert. Aus den Laufzeiten lassen sich die materialspezifischen Wellengeschwindigkeiten im Pfahl und im Boden sowie die Pfahllänge ermitteln. Bisher wurde meist ein sehr einfaches Verfahren zur Datenauswertung verwendet, das die Länge der Pfähle systematisch überschätzt. In der vorliegenden Dissertation wurden die mathematisch-physikalischen Grundlagen beleuchtet und durch Computersimulation die Wellenausbreitung in Pfahl und Boden genau untersucht. Weitere Simulationen klärten den Einfluss verschiedener Mess- und Strukturparameter, beispielsweise den Einfluss von Bodenschichtung oder Fehlstellen im Pfahl. So konnte geklärt werden, in welchen Fällen mit dem Parallel-Seismik-Verfahren gute Ergebnisse erzielt werden können (z. B. bei Fundamenten in Sand oder Ton) und wo es an seine Grenzen stößt (z. B. bei Gründung im Fels). Auf Basis dieser Ergebnisse entstand ein neuer mathematischer Formalismus zur Auswertung der Laufzeiten. In Verbindung mit einem Verfahren zur Dateninversion, d. h. der automatischen Anpassung der Unbekannten in den Gleichungen an die Messergebnisse, lassen sich sehr viel genauere Werte für die Pfahllänge ermitteln als mit allen bisher publizierten Verfahren. Zudem kann man nun auch mit relativ großen Abständen zwischen Bohrloch und Pfahl (2 - 3 m) arbeiten. Die Methode wurde an simulierten Daten ausführlich getestet. Die Messmethode und das neue Auswerteverfahren wurden in einer Reihe praktischer Anwendungen getestet – und dies fast immer erfolgreich. Nur in einem Fall komplizierter Fundamentgeometrie bei gleichzeitig sehr hoher Anforderung an die Genauigkeit war schon nach Simulationen klar, dass hier ein Einsatz nicht sinnvoll ist. Dafür zeigte es sich, dass auch die Länge von Pfahlwänden und Spundwänden ermittelt werden kann. Die Parallel-Seismik-Methode funktioniert als einziges verfügbares Verfahren zur Fundamentlängenermittlung zugleich in den meisten Bodenarten sowie an metallischen und nichtmetallischen Fundamenten und kommt ohne Kalibrierung aus. Sie ist nun sehr viel breiter einsetzbar und liefert sehr viel genauere Ergebnisse. Die Simulationen zeigten noch Potential für Erweiterungen, zum Beispiel durch den Einsatz spezieller Sensoren, die zusätzliche Wellentypen empfangen und unterscheiden können.
Temporal gravimeter observations, used in geodesy and geophysics to study variation of the Earth’s gravity field, are influenced by local water storage changes (WSC) and – from this perspective – add noise to the gravimeter signal records. At the same time, the part of the gravity signal caused by WSC may provide substantial information for hydrologists. Water storages are the fundamental state variable of hydrological systems, but comprehensive data on total WSC are practically inaccessible and their quantification is associated with a high level of uncertainty at the field scale. This study investigates the relationship between temporal gravity measurements and WSC in order to reduce the hydrological interfering signal from temporal gravity measurements and to explore the value of temporal gravity measurements for hydrology for the superconducting gravimeter (SG) of the Geodetic Observatory Wettzell, Germany. A 4D forward model with a spatially nested discretization domain was developed to simulate and calculate the local hydrological effect on the temporal gravity observations. An intensive measurement system was installed at the Geodetic Observatory Wettzell and WSC were measured in all relevant storage components, namely groundwater, saprolite, soil, top soil and snow storage. The monitoring system comprised also a suction-controlled, weighable, monolith-filled lysimeter, allowing an all time first comparison of a lysimeter and a gravimeter. Lysimeter data were used to estimate WSC at the field scale in combination with complementary observations and a hydrological 1D model. Total local WSC were derived, uncertainties were assessed and the hydrological gravity response was calculated from the WSC. A simple conceptual hydrological model was calibrated and evaluated against records of a superconducting gravimeter, soil moisture and groundwater time series. The model was evaluated by a split sample test and validated against independently estimated WSC from the lysimeter-based approach. A simulation of the hydrological gravity effect showed that WSC of one meter height along the topography caused a gravity response of 52 µGal, whereas, generally in geodesy, on flat terrain, the same water mass variation causes a gravity change of only 42 µGal (Bouguer approximation). The radius of influence of local water storage variations can be limited to 1000 m and 50 % to 80 % of the local hydro¬logical gravity signal is generated within a radius of 50 m around the gravimeter. At the Geodetic Observatory Wettzell, WSC in the snow pack, top soil, unsaturated saprolite and fractured aquifer are all important terms of the local water budget. With the exception of snow, all storage components have gravity responses of the same order of magnitude and are therefore relevant for gravity observations. The comparison of the total hydrological gravity response to the gravity residuals obtained from the SG, showed similarities in both short-term and seasonal dynamics. However, the results demonstrated the limitations of estimating total local WSC using hydrological point measurements. The results of the lysimeter-based approach showed that gravity residuals are caused to a larger extent by local WSC than previously estimated. A comparison of the results with other methods used in the past to correct temporal gravity observations for the local hydrological influence showed that the lysimeter measurements improved the independent estimation of WSC significantly and thus provided a better way of estimating the local hydrological gravity effect. In the context of hydrological noise reduction, at sites where temporal gravity observations are used for geophysical studies beyond local hydrology, the installation of a lysimeter in combination with complementary hydrological measurements is recommended. From the hydrological view point, using gravimeter data as a calibration constraint improved the model results in comparison to hydrological point measurements. Thanks to their capacity to integrate over different storage components and a larger area, gravimeters provide generalized information on total WSC at the field scale. Due to their integrative nature, gravity data must be interpreted with great care in hydrological studies. However, gravimeters can serve as a novel measurement instrument for hydrology and the application of gravimeters especially designed to study open research questions in hydrology is recommended.
In 1915, Alfred Wegener published his hypotheses of plate tectonics that revolutionised the world for geologists. Since then, many scientists have studied the evolution of continents and especially the geologic structure of orogens: the most visible consequence of tectonic processes. Although the morphology and landscape evolution of mountain belts can be observed due to surface processes, the driving force and dynamics at lithosphere scale are less well understood despite the fact that rocks from deeper levels of orogenic belts are in places exposed at the surface. In this thesis, such formerly deeply-buried (ultra-) high-pressure rocks, in particular eclogite facies series, have been studied in order to reveal details about the formation and exhumation conditions and rates and thus provide insights into the geodynamics of the most spectacular orogenic belt in the world: the Himalaya. The specific area investigated was the Kaghan Valley in Pakistan (NW Himalaya). Following closure of the Tethyan Ocean by ca. 55-50 Ma, the northward subduction of the leading edge of India beneath the Eurasian Plate and subsequent collision initiated a long-lived process of intracrustal thrusting that continues today. The continental crust of India – granitic basement, Paleozoic and Mesozoic cover series and Permo-Triassic dykes, sills and lavas – has been buried partly to mantle depths. Today, these rocks crop out as eclogites, amphibolites and gneisses within the Higher Himalayan Crystalline between low-grade metamorphosed rocks (600-640°C/ ca. 5 kbar) of the Lesser Himalaya and Tethyan sediments. Beside tectonically driven exhumation mechanisms the channel flow model, that describes a denudation focused ductile extrusion of low viscosity material developed in the middle to lower crust beneath the Tibetan Plateau, has been postulated. To get insights into the lithospheric and crustal processes that have initiated and driven the exhumation of this (ultra-) high-pressure rocks, mineralogical, petrological and isotope-geochemical investigations have been performed. They provide insights into 1) the depths and temperatures to which these rocks were buried, 2) the pressures and temperatures the rocks have experienced during their exhumation, 3) the timing of these processes 4) and the velocity with which these rocks have been brought back to the surface. In detail, through microscopical studies, the identification of key minerals, microprobe analyses, standard geothermobarometry and modelling using an effective bulk rock composition it has been shown that published exhumation paths are incomplete. In particular, the eclogites of the northern Kaghan Valley were buried to depths of 140-100 km (36-30 kbar) at 790-640°C. Subsequently, cooling during decompression (exhumation) towards 40-35 km (17-10 kbar) and 630-580°C has been superseded by a phase of reheating to about 720-650°C at roughly the same depth before final exhumation has taken place. In the southern-most part of the study area, amphibolite facies assemblages with formation conditions similar to the deduced reheating phase indicate a juxtaposition of both areas after the eclogite facies stage and thus a stacking of Indian Plate units. Radiometric dating of zircon, titanite and rutile by U-Pb and amphibole and micas by Ar-Ar reveal peak pressure conditions at 47-48 Ma. With a maximum exhumation rate of 14 cm/a these rocks reached the crust-mantle boundary at 40-35 km within 1 Ma. Subsequent exhumation (46-41 Ma, 40-35 km) decelerated to ca. 1 mm/a at the base of the continental crust but rose again to about 2 mm/a in the period of 41-31 Ma, equivalent to 35-20 km. Apatite fission track (AFT) and (U-Th)/He ages from eclogites, amphibolites, micaschists and gneisses yielded moderate Oligocene to Miocene cooling rates of about 10°C/Ma in the high altitude northern parts of the Kaghan Valley using the mineral-pair method. AFT ages are of 24.5±3.8 to 15.6±2.1 Ma whereas apatite (U-Th)/He analyses yielded ages between 21.0±0.6 and 5.3±0.2 Ma. The southern-most part of the Valley is dominated by younger late Miocene to Pliocene apatite fission track ages of 7.6±2.1 and 4.0±0.5 Ma that support earlier tectonically and petrologically findings of a juxtaposition and stack of Indian Plate units. As this nappe is tectonically lowermost, a later distinct exhumation and uplift driven by thrusting along the Main Boundary Thrust is inferred. A multi-stage exhumation path is evident from petrological, isotope-geochemical and low temperature thermochronology investigations. Buoyancy driven exhumation caused an initial rapid exhumation: exhumation as fast as recent normal plate movements (ca. 10 cm/a). As the exhuming units reached the crust-mantle boundary the process slowed down due to changes in buoyancy. Most likely, this exhumation pause has initiated the reheating event that is petrologically evident (e.g. glaucophane rimmed by hornblende, ilmenite overgrowth of rutile). Late stage processes involved widespread thrusting and folding with accompanied regional greenschist facies metamorphism, whereby contemporaneous thrusting on the Batal Thrust (seen by some authors equivalent to the MCT) and back sliding of the Kohistan Arc along the inverse reactivated Main Mantle Thrust caused final exposure of these rocks. Similar circumstances have been seen at Tso Morari, Ladakh, India, 200 km further east where comparable rock assemblages occur. In conclusion, as exhumation was already done well before the initiation of the monsoonal system, climate dependent effects (erosion) appear negligible in comparison to far-field tectonic effects.
The Tibetan Plateau is the largest elevated landmass in the world and profoundly influences atmospheric circulation patterns such as the Asian monsoon system. Therefore this area has been increasingly in focus of palaeoenvironmental studies. This thesis evaluates the applicability of organic biomarkers for palaeolimnological purposes on the Tibetan Plateau with a focus on aquatic macrophyte-derived biomarkers. Submerged aquatic macrophytes have to be considered to significantly influence the sediment organic matter due to their high abundance in many Tibetan lakes. They can show highly 13C-enriched biomass because of their carbon metabolism and it is therefore crucial for the interpretation of δ13C values in sediment cores to understand to which extent aquatic macrophytes contribute to the isotopic signal of the sediments in Tibetan lakes and in which way variations can be explained in a palaeolimnological context. Additionally, the high abundance of macrophytes makes them interesting as potential recorders of lake water δD. Hydrogen isotope analysis of biomarkers is a rapidly evolving field to reconstruct past hydrological conditions and therefore of special relevance on the Tibetan Plateau due to the direct linkage between variations of monsoon intensity and changes in regional precipitation / evaporation balances. A set of surface sediment and aquatic macrophyte samples from the central and eastern Tibetan Plateau was analysed for composition as well as carbon and hydrogen isotopes of n-alkanes. It was shown how variable δ13C values of bulk organic matter and leaf lipids can be in submerged macrophytes even of a single species and how strongly these parameters are affected by them in corresponding sediments. The estimated contribution of the macrophytes by means of a binary isotopic model was calculated to be up to 60% (mean: 40%) to total organic carbon and up to 100% (mean: 66%) to mid-chain n-alkanes. Hydrogen isotopes of n-alkanes turned out to record δD of meteoric water of the summer precipitation. The apparent enrichment factor between water and n-alkanes was in range of previously reported ones (≈-130‰) at the most humid sites, but smaller (average: -86‰) at sites with a negative moisture budget. This indicates an influence of evaporation and evapotranspiration on δD of source water for aquatic and terrestrial plants. The offset between δD of mid- and long-chain n-alkanes was close to zero in most of the samples, suggesting that lake water as well as soil and leaf water are affected to a similar extent by those effects. To apply biomarkers in a palaeolimnological context, the aliphatic biomarker fraction of a sediment core from Lake Koucha (34.0° N; 97.2° E; eastern Tibetan Plateau) was analysed for concentrations, δ13C and δD values of compounds. Before ca. 8 cal ka BP, the lake was dominated by aquatic macrophyte-derived mid-chain n-alkanes, while after 6 cal ka BP high concentrations of a C20 highly branched isoprenoid compound indicate a predominance of phytoplankton. Those two principally different states of the lake were linked by a transition period with high abundances of microbial biomarkers. δ13C values were relatively constant for long-chain n-alkanes, while mid-chain n-alkanes showed variations between -23.5 to -12.6‰. Highest values were observed for the assumed period of maximum macrophyte growth during the late glacial and for the phytoplankton maximum during the middle and late Holocene. Therefore, the enriched values were interpreted to be caused by carbon limitation which in turn was induced by high macrophyte and primary productivity, respectively. Hydrogen isotope signatures of mid-chain n-alkanes have been shown to be able to track a previously deduced episode of reduced moisture availability between ca. 10 and 7 cal ka BP, indicated by a 20‰ shift towards higher δD values. Indications for cooler episodes at 6.0, 3.1 and 1.8 cal ka BP were gained from drops of biomarker concentrations, especially microbial-derived hopanoids, and from coincidental shifts towards lower δ13C values. Those episodes correspond well with cool events reported from other locations on the Tibetan Plateau as well as in the Northern Hemisphere. To conclude, the study of recent sediments and plants improved the understanding of factors affecting the composition and isotopic signatures of aliphatic biomarkers in sediments. Concentrations and isotopic signatures of the biomarkers in Lake Koucha could be interpreted in a palaeolimnological context and contribute to the knowledge about the history of the lake. Aquatic macrophyte-derived mid-chain n-alkanes were especially useful, due to their high abundance in many Tibetan Lakes and their ability to record major changes of lake productivity and palaeo-hydrological conditions. Therefore, they have the potential to contribute to a fuller understanding of past climate variability in this key region for atmospheric circulation systems.
The origin and evolution of granites has been widely studied because granitoid rocks constitute a major portion of the Earth ́s crust. The formation of granitic magma is, besides temperature mainly triggered by the water content of these rocks. The presence of water in magmas plays an important role due to the ability of aqueous fluids to change the chemical composition of the magma. The exsolution of aqueous fluids from melts is closely linked to a fractionation of elements between the two phases. Then, aqueous fluids migrate to shallower parts of the Earth ́s crust because of it ́s lower density compared to that of melts and adjacent rocks. This process separates fluids and melts, and furthermore, during the ascent, aqueous fluids can react with the adjacent rocks and alter their chemical signature. This is particularly impor- tant during the formation of magmatic-hydrothermal ore deposits or in the late stages of the evolution of magmatic complexes. For a deeper insight to these processes, it is essential to improve our knowledge on element behavior in such systems. In particular, trace elements are used for these studies and petrogenetic interpretations because, unlike major elements, they are not essential for the stability of the phases involved and often reflect magmatic processes with less ambiguity. However, for the majority of important trace elements, the dependence of the geochemical behavior on temperature, pressure, and in particular on the composition of the system are only incompletely or not at all experimentally studied. Former studies often fo- cus on the determination of fluid−melt partition coefficients (Df/m=cfluid/cmelt) of economically interesting elements, e.g., Mo, Sn, Cu, and there are some partitioning data available for ele- ments that are also commonly used for petrological interpretations. At present, no systematic experimental data on trace element behavior in fluid−melt systems as function of pressure, temperature, and chemical composition are available. Additionally, almost all existing data are based on the analysis of quenched phases. This results in substantial uncertainties, particularly for the quenched aqueous fluid because trace element concentrations may change upon cooling. The objective of this PhD thesis consisted in the study of fluid−melt partition coefficients between aqueous solutions and granitic melts for different trace elements (Rb, Sr, Ba, La, Y, and Yb) as a function of temperature, pressure, salinity of the fluid, composition of the melt, and experimental and analytical approach. The latter included the refinement of an existing method to measure trace element concentrations in fluids equilibrated with silicate melts di- rectly at elevated pressures and temperatures using a hydrothermal diamond-anvil cell and synchrotron radiation X-ray fluorescence microanalysis. The application of this in-situ method enables to avoid the main source of error in data from quench experiments, i.e., trace element concentration in the fluid. A comparison of the in-situ results to data of conventional quench experiments allows a critical evaluation of quench data from this study and literature data. In detail, starting materials consisted of a suite of trace element doped haplogranitic glasses with ASI varying between 0.8 and 1.4 and H2O or a chloridic solution with m NaCl/KCl=1 and different salinities (1.16 to 3.56 m (NaCl+KCl)). Experiments were performed at 750 to 950◦C and 0.2 or 0.5 GPa using conventional quench devices (externally and internally heated pressure vessels) with different quench rates, and at 750◦C and 0.2 to 1.4 GPa with in-situ analysis of the trace element concentration in the fluids. The fluid−melt partitioning data of all studied trace elements show 1. a preference for the melt (Df/m < 1) at all studied conditions, 2. one to two orders of magnitude higher Df/m using chloridic solutions compared to experiments with H2O, 3. a clear dependence on the melt composition for fluid−melt partitioning of Sr, Ba, La, Y, and Yb in experiments using chloridic solutions, 4. quench rate−related differences of fluid−melt partition coefficients of Rb and Sr, and 5. distinctly higher fluid−melt partitioning data obtained from in-situ experiments than from comparable quench runs, particularly in the case of H2O as starting solution. The data point to a preference of all studied trace elements for the melt even at fairly high salinities, which contrasts with other experimental studies, but is supported by data from studies of natural co-genetically trapped fluid and melt inclusions. The in-situ measurements of trace element concentrations in the fluid verify that aqueous fluids will change their composition upon cooling, which is in particular important for Cl free systems. The distinct differences of the in-situ results to quench data of this study as well as to data from the literature signify the im- portance of a careful fluid sampling and analysis. Therefore, the direct measurement of trace element contents in fluids equilibrated with silicate melts at elevated PT conditions represents an important development to obtain more reliable fluid−melt partition coefficients. For further improvement, both the aqueous fluid and the silicate melt need to be analyzed in-situ because partitioning data that are based on the direct measurement of the trace element content in the fluid and analysis of a quenched melt are still not completely free of quench effects. At present, all available data on element complexation in aqueous fluids in equilibrium with silicate melts at high PT are indirectly derived from partitioning data, which involves in these experiments assumptions on the species present in the fluid. However, the activities of chemical components in these partitioning experiments are not well constrained, which is required for the definition of exchange equilibria between melt and fluid species. For example, the melt-dependent variation of partition coefficient observed for Sr imply that this element can not only be complexed by Cl− as suggested previously. The data indicate a more complicated complexation of Sr in the aqueous fluid. To verify this hypothesis, the in-situ setup was also used to determine strontium complexation in fluids equilibrated with silicate melts at desired PT conditions by the application of X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy. First results show a strong effect of both fluid and melt composition on the resulting XANES spectra, which indicates different complexation environments for Sr.
Calibration of the global hydrological model WGHM with water mass variations from GRACE gravity data
(2010)
Since the start-up of the GRACE (Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment) mission in 2002 time dependent global maps of the Earth's gravity field are available to study geophysical and climatologically-driven mass redistributions on the Earth's surface. In particular, GRACE observations of total water storage changes (TWSV) provide a comprehensive data set for analysing the water cycle on large scales. Therefore they are invaluable for validation and calibration of large-scale hydrological models as the WaterGAP Global Hydrology Model (WGHM) which simulates the continental water cycle including its most important components, such as soil, snow, canopy, surface- and groundwater. Hitherto, WGHM exhibits significant differences to GRACE, especially for the seasonal amplitude of TWSV. The need for a validation of hydrological models is further highlighted by large differences between several global models, e.g. WGHM, the Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS) and the Land Dynamics model (LaD). For this purpose, GRACE links geodetic and hydrological research aspects. This link demands the development of adequate data integration methods on both sides, forming the main objectives of this work. They include the derivation of accurate GRACE-based water storage changes, the development of strategies to integrate GRACE data into a global hydrological model as well as a calibration method, followed by the re-calibration of WGHM in order to analyse process and model responses. To achieve these aims, GRACE filter tools for the derivation of regionally averaged TWSV were evaluated for specific river basins. Here, a decorrelation filter using GRACE orbits for its design is most efficient among the tested methods. Consistency in data and equal spatial resolution between observed and simulated TWSV were realised by the inclusion of all most important hydrological processes and an equal filtering of both data sets. Appropriate calibration parameters were derived by a WGHM sensitivity analysis against TWSV. Finally, a multi-objective calibration framework was developed to constrain model predictions by both river discharge and GRACE TWSV, realised with a respective evolutionary method, the ε-Non-dominated-Sorting-Genetic-Algorithm-II (ε-NSGAII). Model calibration was done for the 28 largest river basins worldwide and for most of them improved simulation results were achieved with regard to both objectives. From the multi-objective approach more reliable and consistent simulations of TWSV within the continental water cycle were gained and possible model structure errors or mis-modelled processes for specific river basins detected. For tropical regions as such, the seasonal amplitude of water mass variations has increased. The findings lead to an improved understanding of hydrological processes and their representation in the global model. Finally, the robustness of the results is analysed with respect to GRACE and runoff measurement errors. As a main conclusion obtained from the results, not only soil water and snow storage but also groundwater and surface water storage have to be included in the comparison of the modelled and GRACE-derived total water budged data. Regarding model calibration, the regional varying distribution of parameter sensitivity suggests to tune only parameter of important processes within each region. Furthermore, observations of single storage components beside runoff are necessary to improve signal amplitudes and timing of simulated TWSV as well as to evaluate them with higher accuracy. The results of this work highlight the valuable nature of GRACE data when merged into large-scale hydrological modelling and depict methods to improve large-scale hydrological models.
Die visuelle Kommunikation ist eine effiziente Methode, um dynamische Phänomene zu beschreiben. Informationsobjekte präzise wahrzunehmen, einen schnellen Zugriff auf strukturierte und relevante Informationen zu ermöglichen, erfordert konsistente und nach dem formalen Minimalprinzip konzipierte Analyse- und Darstellungsmethoden. Dynamische Raumphänomene in Geoinformationssystemen können durch den Mangel an konzeptionellen Optimierungsanpassungen aufgrund ihrer statischen Systemstruktur nur bedingt die Informationen von Raum und Zeit modellieren. Die Forschung in dieser Arbeit ist daher auf drei interdisziplinäre Ansätze fokussiert. Der erste Ansatz stellt eine echtzeitnahe Datenerfassung dar, die in Geodatenbanken zeitorientiert verwaltet wird. Der zweite Ansatz betrachtet Analyse- und Simulationsmethoden, die das dynamische Verhalten analysieren und prognostizieren. Der dritte Ansatz konzipiert Visualisierungsmethoden, die insbesondere dynamische Prozesse abbilden. Die Symbolisierung der Prozesse passt sich bedarfsweise in Abhängigkeit des Prozessverlaufes und der Interaktion zwischen Datenbanken und Simulationsmodellen den verschiedenen Entwicklungsphasen an. Dynamische Aspekte können so mit Hilfe bewährter Funktionen aus der GI-Science zeitnah mit modularen Werkzeugen entwickelt und visualisiert werden. Die Analyse-, Verschneidungs- und Datenverwaltungsfunktionen sollen hierbei als Nutzungs- und Auswertungspotential alternativ zu Methoden statischer Karten dienen. Bedeutend für die zeitliche Komponente ist das Verknüpfen neuer Technologien, z. B. die Simulation und Animation, basierend auf einer strukturierten Zeitdatenbank in Verbindung mit statistischen Verfahren. Methodisch werden Modellansätze und Visualisierungstechniken entwickelt, die auf den Bereich Verkehr transferiert werden. Verkehrsdynamische Phänomene, die nicht zusammenhängend und umfassend darstellbar sind, werden modular in einer serviceorientierten Architektur separiert, um sie in verschiedenen Ebenen räumlich und zeitlich visuell zu präsentieren. Entwicklungen der Vergangenheit und Prognosen der Zukunft werden über verschiedene Berechnungsmethoden modelliert und visuell analysiert. Die Verknüpfung einer Mikrosimulation (Abbildung einzelner Fahrzeuge) mit einer netzgesteuerten Makrosimulation (Abbildung eines gesamten Straßennetzes) ermöglicht eine maßstabsunabhängige Simulation und Visualisierung des Mobilitätsverhaltens ohne zeitaufwendige Bewertungsmodellberechnungen. Zukünftig wird die visuelle Analyse raum-zeitlicher Veränderungen für planerische Entscheidungen ein effizientes Mittel sein, um Informationen übergreifend verfügbar, klar strukturiert und zweckorientiert zur Verfügung zu stellen. Der Mehrwert durch visuelle Geoanalysen, die modular in einem System integriert sind, ist das flexible Auswerten von Messdaten nach zeitlichen und räumlichen Merkmalen.
Foreland-basin systems are excellent archives to decipher the feedbacks between surface and tectonic processes in orogens. The sedimentary architecture of a foreland-basin system reflects the balance between tectonic subsidence causing long-term accommodation space and sediment influx corresponding to efficiency of erosion and mass-redistribution processes. In order to explore the effects of climatic and tectonic forcing in such a system, I investigated the Oligo-Miocene foreland-basin sediments of the southern Alborz mountains, an intracontinental orogen in northern Iran, related to the Arabia-Eurasia continental collision. This work includes absolute dating methods such as 40Ar/39Ar and zircon (U-Th)/He thermochronology, magnetostratigraphy, sedimentological analysis, sandstone and conglomerate provenance study, carbon and oxygen isotope analysis, and clay mineralogy study. Results show a systematic correlation between coarsening-upward cycles and sediment accumulation rates in the basin on 105 to 106yr time scales. During thrust loading phases, the coarse-grained fraction supplied by the uplifting range is stored in the proximal part of the basin (sedimentary facies retrogradation), while fine-grained sediments are deposited in distal sectors. Variations in sediment provenance during these phases of enhanced tectonic activity give evidence for erosional unroofing phases and/or drainage-reorganization events. In addition, enhanced tectonic activity promoted the growth of topography and associated orographic barrier effects, as demonstrated by sedimentologic indicators and the analysis of stable C and O isotopes from calcareous paleosols and lacustrine/palustrine samples. Extensive progradation of coarse-grained deposits occurs during phases of decreased subsidence, when the coarse-grained fraction supplied by the uplifting range cannot be completely stored in the proximal part of the basin. In this environment, a reduction in basin subsidence is associated with laterally stacked fluvial channel deposits, and is related to intra-foreland uplift, as documented by growth strata, tectonic tilting, and sediment reworking. Increase in sediment accumulation rate associated with progradation of vertically-stacked coarse-grained fluvial channels also occurs. Paleosol O-isotope data shows that this increase is related to wetter climatic phases, suggesting that surface processes are more efficient and exhumation rates increase, giving rise to a positive feedback. Furthermore, isotopic and sedimentologic data show that starting from 10-9 Ma, climate became less arid with an increase in seasonality of precipitation. Because important changes were also recorded in the Mediterranean Sea and Asia at that time, the evidence for climatic variability observed in the Alborz mountains most likely reflects changes in Northern Hemisphere atmospheric circulation patterns. This study has additional implications for the evolution of the Alborz mountains and the Arabia-Eurasia continental collision zone. At the orogenic scale, the locus of deformation did not move steadily southward, but stepped forward and backward since Oligocene time. In particular, from ~ 17.5 to 6.2 Ma the orogen grew by a combination of frontal accretion and wedge-internal deformation on time scales of ca. 0.7 to 2 m.y. Moreover, the provenance data suggest that prior to 10-9 Ma the shortening direction changed from NW-SE to NNE-SSW, in agreement with structural data. On the scale of the entire collision zone, the evolution of the studied basins and adjacent mountain ranges suggests a new geodynamic model for the evolution of the Arabia-Eurasia continental collision zone. Numerous sedimentary basins in the Alborz mountains and in other locations of the Arabia-Eurasia collision zone record a change from a tensional (transtensional) to a compressional (transpressional) tectonic setting by ~ 36 Ma. I interpret this to reflect the onset of subduction of the stretched Arabian continental lithosphere beneath central Iran, leading to moderate plate coupling and lower- and upper-plate deformation (soft continental collision). The increase in deformation rates in the southern Alborz mountains from ~ 17.5 Ma suggests that significant upper-plate deformation must have started by the early Miocene most likely in response to an increase in degree of plate coupling. I suggest that this was related to the subduction of thicker Arabian continental lithosphere and the consequent onset of hard continental collision. This model reconciles the apparent lag time of 15-20 m.y between the late Eocene to early Oligocene age for the initial Arabia-Eurasia continental collision and the onset of widespread deformation across the collision zone to the north in early to late Miocene time.
This study presents noble gas compositions (He, Ne, Ar, Kr, and Xe) of lavas from several Hawaiian volcanoes. Lavas from the Hawaii Scientific Drilling Project (HSDP) core, surface samples from Mauna Kea, Mauna Loa, Kilauea, Hualalai, Kohala and Haleakala as well as lavas from a deep well on the summit of Kilauea were investigated. Noble gases, especially helium, are used as tracers for mantle reservoirs, based on the assumption that high 3He/4He ratios (>8 RA) represent material from the deep and supposedly less degassed mantle, whereas lower ratios (~ 8 RA) are thought to represent the upper mantle. Shield stage Mauna Kea, Kohala and Kilauea lavas yielded MORB-like to moderately high 3He/4He ratios, while 3He/4He ratios in post-shield stage Haleakala lavas are MORB-like. Few samples show 20Ne/22Ne and 21Ne/22Ne ratios different from the atmospheric values, however, Mauna Kea and Kilauea lavas with excess in mantle Ne agree well with the Loihi-Kilauea line in a neon three-isotope plot, whereas one Kohala sample plots on the MORB correlation line. The values in the 4He/40Ar* (40Ar* denotes radiogenic Ar) versus 4He diagram imply open system fractionation of He from Ar, with a deficiency in 4He. Calculated 4He/40Ar*, 3He/22Nes (22NeS denotes solar Ne) and 4He/21Ne ratios for the sample suite are lower than the respective production and primordial ratios, supporting the observation of a fractionation of He from the heavier noble gases, with a depletion of He with respect to Ne and Ar. The depletion of He is interpreted to be partly due to solubility controlled gas loss during magma ascent. However, the preferential He loss suggests that He is more incompatible than Ne and Ar during magmatic processes. In a binary mixing model, the isotopic He and Ne pattern are best explained by a mixture of a MORB-like end-member with a plume like or primordial end-member with a fractionation in 3He/22Ne, represented by a curve parameter r of 15 (r=(³He/²²Ne)MORB/(³He/²²Ne)PLUME or PRIMORDIAL). Whether the high 3He/4He ratios in Hawaiian lavas are indicative of a primitive component within the Hawaiian plume or are rather a product of the crystal-melt- partitioning behavior during partial melting remains to be resolved.
Flood hazard estimations are conducted with a variety of methods. These include flood frequency analysis (FFA), hydrologic and hydraulic modelling, probable maximum discharges as well as climate scenarios. However, most of these methods assume stationarity of the used time series, i.e., the series must not exhibit trends. Against the background of climate change and proven significant trends in atmospheric circulation patterns, it is questionable whether these changes are also reflected in the discharge data. The aim of this PhD thesis is therefore to clarify, in a spatially-explicit manner, whether the available discharge data derived from selected German catchments exhibit trends. Concerning the flood hazard, the suitability of the currently used stationary FFA approaches is evaluated for the discharge data. Moreover, dynamics in atmospheric circulation patterns are studied and the link between trends in these patterns and discharges is investigated. To tackle this research topic, a number of different analyses are conducted. The first part of the PhD thesis comprises the study and trend test of 145 discharge series from catchments, which cover most of Germany for the period 1951–2002. The seasonality and trend pattern of eight flood indicators, such as maximum series and peak-over-threshold series, are analyzed in a spatially-explicit manner. Analyses are performed on different spatial scales: at the local scale, through gauge-specific analyses, and on the catchment-wide and basin scales. Besides the analysis of discharge series, data on atmospheric circulation patterns (CP) are an important source of information, upon which conclusions about the flood hazard can be drawn. The analyses of these circulation patterns (after Hess und Brezowsky) and the study of the link to peak discharges form the second part of the thesis. For this, daily data on the dominant CP across Europe are studied; these are represented by different indicators, which are tested for trend. Moreover, analyses are performed to extract flood triggering circulation patterns and to estimate the flood potential of CPs. Correlations between discharge series and CP indicators are calculated to assess a possible link between them. For this research topic, data from 122 meso-scale catchments in the period 1951–2002 are used. In a third part, the Mulde catchment, a mesoscale sub-catchment of the Elbe basin, is studied in more detail. Fifteen discharge series of different lengths in the period 1910–2002 are available for the seasonally differentiated analysis of the flood potential of CPs and flood influencing landscape parameters. For trend tests of discharge and CP data, different methods are used. The Mann-Kendall test is applied with a significance level of 10%, ensuring statistically sound results. Besides the test of the entire series for trend, multiple time-varying trend tests are performed with the help of a resampling approach in order to better differentiate short-term fluctuations from long-lasting trends. Calculations of the field significance complement the flood hazard assessment for the studied regions. The present thesis shows that the flood hazard is indeed significantly increasing for selected regions in Germany during the winter season. Especially affected are the middle mountain ranges in Central Germany. This increase of the flood hazard is attributed to a longer persistence of selected CPs during winter. Increasing trends in summer floods are found in the Rhine and Danube catchments, decreasing trends in the Elbe and Weser catchments. Finally, a significant trend towards a reduced diversity of CPs is found causing fewer patterns with longer persistence to dominate the weather over Europe. The detailed study of the Mulde catchment reveals a flood regime with frequent low winter floods and fewer summer floods, which bear, however, the potential of becoming extreme. Based on the results, the use of instationary approaches for flood hazard estimation is recommended in order to account for the detected trends in many of the series. Through this methodology it is possible to directly consider temporal changes in flood series, which in turn reduces the possibility of large under- or overestimations of the extreme discharges, respectively.
Recent years witnessed a vast advent of stalagmites as palaeoclimate archives. The multitude of geochemical and physical proxies and a promise of a precise and accurate age model greatly appeal to palaeoclimatologists. Although substantial progress was made in speleothem-based palaeoclimate research and despite high-resolution records from low-latitudinal regions, proving that palaeo-environmental changes can be archived on sub-annual to millennial time scales our comprehension of climate dynamics is still fragmentary. This is in particular true for the summer monsoon system on the Indian subcontinent. The Indian summer monsoon (ISM) is an integral part of the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ). As this rainfall belt migrates northward during boreal summer, it brings monsoonal rainfall. ISM strength depends however on a variety of factors, including snow cover in Central Asia and oceanic conditions in the Indic and Pacific. Presently, many of the factors influencing the ISM are known, though their exact forcing mechanism and mutual relations remain ambiguous. Attempts to make an accurate prediction of rainfall intensity and frequency and drought recurrence, which is extremely important for South Asian countries, resemble a puzzle game; all interaction need to fall into the right place to obtain a complete picture. My thesis aims to create a faithful picture of climate change in India, covering the last 11,000 ka. NE India represents a key region for the Bay of Bengal (BoB) branch of the ISM, as it is here where the monsoon splits into a northwestward and a northeastward directed arm. The Meghalaya Plateau is the first barrier for northward moving air masses and receives excessive summer rainfall, while the winter season is very dry. The proximity of Meghalaya to the Tibetan Plateau on the one hand and the BoB on the other hand make the study area a key location for investigating the interaction between different forcings that governs the ISM. A basis for the interpretation of palaeoclimate records, and a first important outcome of my thesis is a conceptual model which explains the observed pattern of seasonal changes in stable isotopes (d18O and d2H) in rainfall. I show that although in tropical and subtropical regions the amount effect is commonly called to explain strongly depleted isotope values during enhanced rainfall, alone it cannot account for observed rainwater isotope variability in Meghalaya. Monitoring of rainwater isotopes shows no expected negative correlation between precipitation amount and d18O of rainfall. In turn I find evidence that the runoff from high elevations carries an inherited isotopic signature into the BoB, where during the ISM season the freshwater builds a strongly depleted plume on top of the marine water. The vapor originating from this plume is likely to memorize' and transmit further very negative d18O values. The lack of data does not allow for quantication of this plume effect' on isotopes in rainfall over Meghalaya but I suggest that it varies on seasonal to millennial timescales, depending on the runoff amount and source characteristics. The focal point of my thesis is the extraction of climatic signals archived in stalagmites from NE India. High uranium concentration in the stalagmites ensured excellent age control required for successful high-resolution climate reconstructions. Stable isotope (d18O and d13C) and grey-scale data allow unprecedented insights into millennial to seasonal dynamics of the summer and winter monsoon in NE India. ISM strength (i. e. rainfall amount) is recorded in changes in d18Ostalagmites. The d13C signal, reflecting drip rate changes, renders a powerful proxy for dry season conditions, and shows similarities to temperature-related changes on the Tibetan Plateau. A sub-annual grey-scale profile supports a concept of lower drip rate and slower stalagmite growth during dry conditions. During the Holocene, ISM followed a millennial-scale decrease of insolation, with decadal to centennial failures resulting from atmospheric changes. The period of maximum rainfall and enhanced seasonality corresponds to the Holocene Thermal Optimum observed in Europe. After a phase of rather stable conditions, 4.5 kyr ago, the strengthening ENSO system dominated the ISM. Strong El Nino events weakened the ISM, especially when in concert with positive Indian Ocean dipole events. The strongest droughts of the last 11 kyr are recorded during the past 2 kyr. Using the advantage of a well-dated stalagmite record at hand I tested the application of laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) to detect sub-annual to sub-decadal changes in element concentrations in stalagmites. The development of a large ablation cell allows for ablating sample slabs of up to 22 cm total length. Each analyzed element is a potential proxy for different climatic parameters. Combining my previous results with the LAICP- MS-generated data shows that element concentration depends not only on rainfall amount and associated leaching from the soil. Additional factors, like biological activity and hydrogeochemical conditions in the soil and vadose zone can eventually affect the element content in drip water and in stalagmites. I present a theoretical conceptual model for my study site to explain how climatic signals can be transmitted and archived in stalagmite carbonate. Further, I establish a first 1500 year long element record, reconstructing rainfall variability. Additionally, I hypothesize that volcanic eruptions, producing large amounts of sulfuric acid, can influence soil acidity and hence element mobilization.
Die Untersuchung widmet sich der aktuellen Bedeutung von Ethnizität im ländlichen Raum der rumänischen Dobrudscha unter dem Einfluss der politischen und ökonomischen Dimension von Globalisierung. Im Mittelpunkt der Betrachtung von Ethnizität stehen die Aspekte von Inklusion und Exklusion sowie Selbst- und Fremdbeschreibung, die dem sozialen Wandel unterliegen. Mit einem Überblick über die Geschichte der räumlich, wirtschaftlich und sozial peripheren Untersuchungsregion Dobrudscha und der ausgewählten Minderheitengruppen wird die Entwicklung der ethnischen Zusammensetzung der Bevölkerung in der Region dargestellt. Als Fallbeispiele werden sechs Minderheitengruppen gewählt: Aromunen, Roma, russische Lipowaner, Tataren, Türken und Ukrainer. Zentrales Element der Studie bilden qualitative Interviews mit professionellen Beobachtern und Akteuren einerseits, die selbst Einfluss auf die soziale Bedeutung von Ethnizität nehmen, und andererseits mit Einwohnern in 15 ausgewählten Untersuchungsorten in der Dobrudscha. Die erhobenen Daten werden mit Blick auf die soziale Rolle von Ethnizität anhand von drei Faktorengruppen ausgewertet: Globalisierung der Ökonomie, Minderheiten- und Kulturpolitik sowie internationale Beziehungen. Auf dieser Grundlage wird die regionale und lokale Bedeutung ethnischer Kategorisierungen analysiert, um die Wahrnehmung und Bewertung ethnischer Zuordnungen im örtlichen Lebensumfeld zu erfassen.
Vor dem Hintergrund der Auffassung, dass ethnische Minderheiten eine Form so-zialer Organisation darstellen, verfolgt die Studie – unter Berücksichtigung der Mehr-deutigkeit des Raumbegriffs – das Ziel, anhand von Beispielen aus Rumänien ein Konzept zu entwickeln, mit dem sich die aktuelle Beziehung von Ethnizität und Raum im Transformationsprozess adäquat analysieren und beschreiben lässt.
Active continental margins are affected by complex feedbacks between tectonic, climate and surface processes, the intricate relations of which are still a matter of discussion. The Chilean convergent margin, forming the outstanding Andean subduction orogen, constitutes an ideal natural laboratory for the investigation of climate, tectonics and their interactions. In order to study both processes, I examined marine and lacustrine sediments from different depositional environments on- and offshore the south-central Chilean coast (38-40°S). I combined sedimentological, geochemical and isotopical analyses to identify climatic and tectonic signals within the sedimentary records. The investigation of marine trench sediments (ODP Site 1232, SONNE core 50SL) focused on frequency changes of turbiditic event layers since the late Pleistocene. In the active margin setting of south-central Chile, these layers were considered to reflect periodically occurring earthquakes and to constitute an archive of the regional paleoseismicity. The new results indicate glacial-interglacial changes in turbidite frequencies during the last 140 kyr, with short recurrence times (~200 years) during glacial and long recurrence times (~1000 years) during interglacial periods. Hence, the generation of turbidites appears to be strongly influenced by climate and sea level changes, which control on the amount of sediment delivered to the shelf edge and therewith the stability of the continental slope: more stable slope conditions during interglacial periods entail lower turbidite frequencies than in glacial periods. Since glacial turbidite recurrence times are congruent with earthquake recurrence times derived from the historical record and other paleoseismic archives of the region, I concluded that only during cold stages the sediment availability and slope instability enabled the complete series of large earthquakes to be recorded. The sediment transport to the shelf region is not only driven by climate conditions but also influenced by local forearc tectonics. Accelerating uplift rates along major tectonic structures involved drainage anomalies and river flow inversions, which seriously altered the sediment supply to the Pacific Ocean. Two examples for the tectonic hindrance of fluvial systems are the coastal lakes Lago Lanalhue and Lago Lleu Lleu. Both lakes developed within former river valleys, which once discharged towards the Pacific and were dammed by tectonically uplifted sills at ~8000 yr BP. Analyses of sediment cores from the lakes showed similar successions of marine/brackish deposits at the bottom, covered by lacustrine sediments on top. Dating of the transitions between these different units and the comparison with global sea level curves allowed me to calculate local Holocene uplift rates, which are distinctly higher for the upraised sills (Lanalhue: 8.83 ± 2.7 mm/yr, Lleu Lleu: 11.36 ± 1.77 mm/yr) than for the lake basins (Lanalhue: 0.42 ± 0.71 mm/yr, Lleu Lleu: 0.49 ± 0.44 mm/yr). I hence considered the sills to be the surface expression of a blind thrust associated with a prominent inverse fault that is controlling regional uplift and folding. After the final separation of Lago Lanalhue and Lago Lleu Lleu from the Pacific, a constant deposition of lacustrine sediments preserved continuous records of local environmental changes. Sequences from both lakes indicate a long-term climate trend with a significant shift from more arid conditions during the Mid-Holocene (8000 – 4200 cal yr BP) to more humid conditions during the Late Holocene (4200 cal yr BP – present). This trend is consistent with other regional paleoclimatic data and interpreted to reflect changes in the strength/position of the Southern Westerly Winds. Since ~5000 years, sediments of Lago Lleu Lleu are marked by numerous intercalated detrital layers that recur with a mean frequency of ~210 years. Deposition of these layers may be triggered by local tectonics (i.e. earthquakes), but may also originate from changes in the local climate (e.g. onset of modern ENSO conditions). During the last 2000 years, pronounced variations in the terrigenous sediment supply to both lakes suggest important hydrological changes on the centennial time-scale as well. A lower input of terrigenous matter points to less humid phases between 200 cal yr B.C. - 150 cal yr A.D., 900 - 1350 cal yr A.D. and 1850 cal yr A.D. to present (broadly corresponding to the Roman, Medieval, and Modern Warm Periods). More humid periods persisted from 150 - 900 cal yr A.D. and 1350 - 1850 cal yr A.D. (broadly corresponding to the Dark Ages and the Little Ice Age). In conclusion, the combined investigation of marine and lacustrine sediments is a feasible method for the reconstruction of climatic and tectonic processes on different time scales. My approach allows exploring both climate and tectonics in one and the same archive, and is largely transferable to other active margins worldwide.
Submarine landslides can generate local tsunamis posing a hazard to human lives and coastal facilities. Two major related problems are: (i) quantitative estimation of tsunami hazard and (ii) early detection of the most dangerous landslides. This thesis focuses on both those issues by providing numerical modeling of landslide-induced tsunamis and by suggesting and justifying a new method for fast detection of tsunamigenic landslides by means of tiltmeters. Due to the proximity to the Sunda subduction zone, Indonesian coasts are prone to earthquake, but also landslide tsunamis. The aim of the GITEWS-project (German-Indonesian Tsunami Early Warning System) is to provide fast and reliable tsunami warnings, but also to deepen the knowledge about tsunami hazards. New bathymetric data at the Sunda Arc provide the opportunity to evaluate the hazard potential of landslide tsunamis for the adjacent Indonesian islands. I present nine large mass movements in proximity to Sumatra, Java, Sumbawa and Sumba, whereof the largest event displaced 20 km³ of sediments. Using numerical modeling, I compute the generated tsunami of each event, its propagation and runup at the coast. Moreover, I investigate the age of the largest slope failures by relating them to the Great 1977 Sumba earthquake. Continental slopes off northwest Europe are well known for their history of huge underwater landslides. The current geological situation west of Spitsbergen is comparable to the continental margin off Norway after the last glaciation, when the large tsunamigenic Storegga slide took place. The influence of Arctic warming on the stability of the Svalbard glacial margin is discussed. Based on new geophysical data, I present four possible landslide scenarios and compute the generated tsunamis. Waves of 6 m height would be capable of reaching northwest Europe threatening coastal areas. I present a novel technique to detect large submarine landslides using an array of tiltmeters, as a possible tool in future tsunami early warning systems. The dislocation of a large amount of sediment during a landslide produces a permanent elastic response of the earth. I analyze this response with a mathematical model and calculate the theoretical tilt signal. Applications to the hypothetical Spitsbergen event and the historical Storegga slide show tilt signals exceeding 1000 nrad. The amplitude of landslide tsunamis is controlled by the product of slide volume and maximal velocity (slide tsunamigenic potential). I introduce an inversion routine that provides slide location and tsunamigenic potential, based on tiltmeter measurements. The accuracy of the inversion and of the estimated tsunami height near the coast depends on the noise level of tiltmeter measurements, the distance of tiltmeters from the slide, and the slide tsunamigenic potential. Finally, I estimate the applicability scope of this method by employing it to known landslide events worldwide.
Die Zielsetzung der vorliegenden Arbeit ist die Beschreibung hydrophober Bodeneigenschaften und deren Auswirkungen auf Oberflächenabfluss und Erosion auf verschiedenen Skalen. Die dazu durchgeführten Untersuchungen fanden auf einer Rekultivierungsfläche im Braunkohlegebiet Welzow Süd (Südostdeutschland) statt. Die Prozesse wurden auf drei Skalen untersucht, die von der Plotskala (1m²) über die Hangskala (300m²) bis zur Betrachtung eines kleinen Einzugsgebietes (4ha) reichen. Der Grad der hydrophoben Bodeneigenschaften wurde sowohl direkt, über die Bestimmung des Kontaktwinkel, als auch indirekt, über die Bestimmung der Persistenz, ermittelt. Dabei zeigte sich, dass der Boden im Winterhalbjahr hydrophil reagierte, während er im Sommerhalbjahr hydrophobe Bodeneigenschaften aufwies. Die Ergebnisse deuten darauf hin, dass ansteigende Bodenwassergehalte, die in der Literatur häufig als Ursache für einen Wechsel der Bodeneigenschaften angegeben werden, auf dieser Fläche nicht zu einem Umbruch der Bodenbedingungen führen. Stattdessen kam es als Folge des Auftauens von gefrorenem Boden zu hydrophilen Bodeneigenschaften, die zu einem Anstieg des Bodenwassergehalts führten. Räumliche Unterschiede zeigten sich in den geomorphologischen Einheiten. Rinnen und Rillen wiesen seltener hydrophobe Eigenschaften als die Zwischenrillenbereiche und Kuppen auf. Diese räumlichen und zeitlichen Variabilitäten wirkten sich auch auf den Oberflächenabfluss aus, der als Abflussbeiwert (ABW: Quotient aus Abfluss und Niederschlag) untersucht wurde. Der ABW liegt auf Böden mit hydrophoben Bodeneigenschaften (ABW=0,8) deutlich höher als bei jenen mit hydrophilen Eigenschaften(ABW=0,2), wie sie im Winter oder auf anderem Substrat vorzufinden sind (diese Werte beziehen sich auf die Plotskala). Betrachtet man die Auswirkungen auf unterschiedlichen Skalen, nimmt der Abflussbeiwert mit zunehmender Flächengröße ab (ABW = 0,8 auf der Plotskala, ABW = 0,5 auf der Hangskala und ABW = 0,2 im gesamten Gebiet), was in den hydrophil reagierenden Rillen und Rinnen auf der Hangskala und dem hydrophilen Substrat im Einzugsgebiet begründet ist. Zur Messung der Erosion wurden verschiedene, zum Teil neu entwickelte Methoden eingesetzt, um eine hohe zeitliche und räumliche Auflösung zu erreichen. Bei einer neu entwickelten Methode wird der Sedimentaustrag ereignisbezogen über eine Waage bestimmt. In Kombination mit einer Kippwaage ermöglicht sie die gleichzeitige Messung des Oberflächenabflusses. Die Messapparatur wurde für Gebiete entwickelt, die eine überwiegend grobsandige Textur aufweisen und nur geringe Mengen Ton und Schluff enthalten. Zusätzlich wurden zwei Lasersysteme zur Messung der räumlichen Verteilung der Erosion eingesetzt. Für die erste Methode wurde ein punktuell messender Laser in einer fest installierten Apparatur über die Fläche bewegt und punktuell Höhenunterschiede in einem festen Raster bestimmt. Durch Interpolation konnten Bereiche mit Sedimentabtrag von Akkumulationsbereiche unterschieden werden. Mit dieser Methode können auch größere Flächen vermessen werden (hier 16 m²), allerdings weisen die Messungen in den Übergangsbereichen von Rinne zu Zwischenrille große Fehler auf. Bei der zweiten Methode wird mit einer Messung ein Quadratmeter mit einer hohen räumlichen Auflösung komplett erfasst. Um ein dreidimensionales Bild zu erstellen, müssen insgesamt vier Aufnahmen von jeweils unterschiedlichen Seiten aufgenommen werden. So lassen sich Abtrag und Akkumulation sehr genau bestimmen, allerdings ist die Messung relativ aufwendig und erfasst nur eine kleine Fläche. Zusätzlich wurde der Sedimentaustrag noch auf der Plotskala erfasst. Die Messungen zeigen, korrespondierend zu den Bodeneigenschaften, große Sedimentausträge während des Sommerhalbjahrs und kaum Austräge im Winter. Weiterhin belegen die Ergebnisse eine größere Bedeutung der Rillenerosion gegenüber der Zwischenrillenerosion für Niederschlagsereignisse hoher Intensität (>25 mm/h in einem zehnminütigem Intervall). Im Gegensatz dazu dominierte die Zwischenrillenerosion bei Ereignissen geringerer Intensität (<20 mm/h in einem zehnminütigem Intervall), wobei mindestens 9 mm Niederschlag in einer Intensität von mindesten 3,6 mm/h nötig sind, damit es zur Erosion kommt. Basierend auf den gemessenen Abflüssen und Sedimentausträgen wurden Regressiongleichungen abgeleitet, die eine Berechnung dieser beiden Prozesse für die untersuchte Fläche ermöglichen. Während die Menge an Oberflächenabfluss einen starken Zusammenhang zu der Menge an gefallenem Niederschlag zeigt (r² = 0,9), ist die Berechnung des ausgetragenen Sedimentes eher ungenau (r² = 0,7). Zusammenfassend beschreibt die Arbeit Einflüsse hydrophober Bodeneigenschaften auf verschiedenen Skalen und arbeitet die Auswirkungen, die vor allem auf der kleinen Skala von großer Bedeutung sind, heraus.
Motivations and research objectives: During the passage of rain water through a forest canopy two main processes take place. First, water is redistributed; and second, its chemical properties change substantially. The rain water redistribution and the brief contact with plant surfaces results in a large variability of both throughfall and its chemical composition. Since throughfall and its chemistry influence a range of physical, chemical and biological processes at or below the forest floor the understanding of throughfall variability and the prediction of throughfall patterns potentially improves the understanding of near-surface processes in forest ecosystems. This thesis comprises three main research objectives. The first objective is to determine the variability of throughfall and its chemistry, and to investigate some of the controlling factors. Second, I explored throughfall spatial patterns. Finally, I attempted to assess the temporal persistence of throughfall and its chemical composition. Research sites and methods: The thesis is based on investigations in a tropical montane rain forest in Ecuador, and lowland rain forest ecosystems in Brazil and Panama. The first two studies investigate both throughfall and throughfall chemistry following a deterministic approach. The third study investigates throughfall patterns with geostatistical methods, and hence, relies on a stochastic approach. Results and Conclusions: Throughfall is highly variable. The variability of throughfall in tropical forests seems to exceed that of many temperate forests. These differences, however, do not solely reflect ecosystem-inherent characteristics, more likely they also mirror management practices. Apart from biotic factors that influence throughfall variability, rainfall magnitude is an important control. Throughfall solute concentrations and solute deposition are even more variable than throughfall. In contrast to throughfall volumes, the variability of solute deposition shows no clear differences between tropical and temperate forests, hence, biodiversity is not a strong predictor of solute deposition heterogeneity. Many other factors control solute deposition patterns, for instance, solute concentration in rainfall and antecedent dry period. The temporal variability of the latter factors partly accounts for the low temporal persistence of solute deposition. In contrast, measurements of throughfall volume are quite stable over time. Results from the Panamanian research site indicate that wet and dry areas outlast consecutive wet seasons. At this research site, throughfall exhibited only weak or pure nugget autocorrelation structures over the studies lag distances. A close look at the geostatistical tools at hand provided evidence that throughfall datasets, in particular those of large events, require robust variogram estimation if one wants to avoid outlier removal. This finding is important because all geostatistical throughfall studies that have been published so far analyzed their data using the classical, non-robust variogram estimator.
It has always been enigmatic which processes control the accretion of the North American terranes towards the Pacific plate and the landward migration of the San Andreas plate boundary. One of the theories suggests that the Pacific plate first cools and captures the uprising mantle in the slab window, and then it causes the accretion of the continental crustal blocks. The alternative theory attributes the accretion to the capture of Farallon plate fragments (microplates) stalled in the ceased Farallon-North America subduction zone. Quantitative judgement between these two end-member concepts requires a 3D thermomechanical numerical modeling. However, the software tool required for such modeling is not available at present in the geodynamic modeling community. The major aim of the presented work is comprised basically of two interconnected tasks. The first task is the development and testing of the research Finite Element code with sufficiently advanced facilities to perform the three-dimensional geological time scale simulations of lithospheric deformation. The second task consists in the application of the developed tool to the Neogene deformations of the crust and the mantle along the San Andreas Fault System in Central and northern California. The geological time scale modeling of lithospheric deformation poses numerous conceptual and implementation challenges for the software tools. Among them is the necessity to handle the brittle-ductile transition within the single computational domain, adequately represent the rock rheology in a broad range of temperatures and stresses, and resolve the extreme deformations of the free surface and internal boundaries. In the framework of this thesis the new Finite Element code (SLIM3D) has been successfully developed and tested. This code includes a coupled thermo-mechanical treatment of deformation processes and allows for an elasto-visco-plastic rheology with diffusion, dislocation and Peierls creep mechanisms and Mohr-Coulomb plasticity. The code incorporates an Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian formulation with free surface and Winkler boundary conditions. The modeling technique developed is used to study the aspects influencing the Neogene lithospheric deformation in central and northern California. The model setup is focused on the interaction between three major tectonic elements in the region: the North America plate, the Pacific plate and the Gorda plate, which join together near the Mendocino Triple Junction. Among the modeled effects is the influence of asthenosphere upwelling in the opening slab window on the overlying North American plate. The models also incorporate the captured microplate remnants in the fossil Farallon subduction zone, simplified subducting Gorda slab, and prominent crustal heterogeneity such as the Salinian block. The results show that heating of the mantle roots beneath the older fault zones and the transpression related to fault stepping, altogether, render cooling in the slab window alone incapable to explain eastward migration of the plate boundary. From the viewpoint of the thermomechanical modeling, the results confirm the geological concept, which assumes that a series of microplate capture events has been the primary reason of the inland migration of the San Andreas plate boundary over the recent 20 Ma. The remnants of the Farallon slab, stalled in the fossil subduction zone, create much stronger heterogeneity in the mantle than the cooling of the uprising asthenosphere, providing the more efficient and direct way for transferring the North American terranes to Pacific plate. The models demonstrate that a high effective friction coefficient on major faults fails to predict the distinct zones of strain localization in the brittle crust. The magnitude of friction coefficient inferred from the modeling is about 0.075, which is far less than typical values 0.6 – 0.8 obtained by variety of borehole stress measurements and laboratory data. Therefore, the model results presented in this thesis provide additional independent constrain which supports the “weak-fault” hypothesis in the long-term ongoing debate over the strength of major faults in the SAFS.
This thesis presents investigations on sediments from two African lakes which have been recording changes in their surrounding environmental and climate conditions since more than 200,000 years. Focus of this work is the time of the last Glacial and the Holocene (the last ~100,000 years before present [in the following 100 kyr BP]). One important precondition for this kind of research is a good understanding of the present ecosystems in and around the lakes and of the sediment formation under modern climate conditions. Both studies therefore include investigations on the modern environment (including organisms, soils, rocks, lake water and sediments). A 90 m long sediment sequence was investigated from Lake Tswaing (north-eastern South Africa) using geochemical analyses. These investigations document alternating periods of high detrital input and low (especially autochthonous) organic matter content and periods of low detrital input, carbonatic or evaporitic sedimentation and high autochthonous organic matter content. These alternations are interpreted as changes between relatively humid and arid conditions, respectively. Before c. 75 kyr BP, they seem to follow changes in local insolation whereas afterwards they appear to be acyclic and are probably caused by changes in ocean circulation and/or in the mean position of the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). Today, these factors have main influence on precipitation in this area where rainfall occurs almost exclusively during austral summer. All modern organisms were analysed for their biomarker and bulk organic and compound-specific stable carbon isotope composition. The same investigations on sediments from the modern lake floor document the mixed input of the investigated individual organisms and reveal additional influences by methanotrophic bacteria. A comparison of modern sediment characteristics with those of sediments covering the time 14 to 2 kyr BP shows changes in the productivity of the lake and the surrounding vegetation which are best explained by changes in hydrology. More humid conditions are indicated for times older than 10 kyr BP and younger than 7.5 kyr BP, whereas arid conditions prevailed in between. These observations agree with the results from sediment composition and indications from other climate archives nearby. The second lake study deals with Lake Challa, a small, deep crater lake on the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro. In this lake form mm-scale laminated sediments which were analyses with micro-XRF scanning for changes in the element composition. By comparing these results with investigations on thin sections, results from ongoing sediment trap studies, meteorological data, and investigations on the surrounding rocks and soils, I develop a model for seasonal variability in the limnology and sedimentation of Lake Challa. The lake appears to be stratified during the warm rain seasons (October – December and March – May) during which detrital material is delivered to the lake and carbonates precipitate. On the lake floor forms a dark lamina with high contents of Fe and Ti and high Ca/Al and low Mn/Fe ratios. Diatoms bloom during the cool and windy season (June – September) when mixing down to c. 60 m depth provides easily bio-available nutrients. Contemporaneously, Fe and Mn-oxides are precipitating which cause high Mn/Fe ratios in the light diatom-rich laminae of the sediments. Trends in the Mn/Fe ratio of the sediments are interpreted to reflect changes in the intensity or duration of seasonal mixing in Lake Challa. This interpretation is supported by parallel changes in the organic matter and biogenic silica content observed in the 22 m long profile recovered from Lake Challa. This covers the time of the last 25 kyr BP. It documents a transition around 16 kyr BP from relatively well-mixed conditions with high detrital input during glacial times to stronger stratified conditions which are probably related to increasing lake levels in Challa and generally more humid conditions in East Africa. Intensified mixing is recorded for the time of the Younger Dryas and the period between 11.4 and 10.7 kyr BP. For these periods, reduced intensity of the SW monsoon and intensified NE monsoon are reported from archives of the Indian-Asian Monsoon region, arguing for the latter as a probable source for wind mixing in Lake Challa. This connection is probably also responsible for contemporaneous events in the Mn/Fe ratios of the Lake Challa sediments and in other records of northern hemisphere monsoon intensity during the Holocene and underlines the close interaction of global low latitude atmospheric circulation.
The Earth’s magnetic field (EMF) is generated by convections in the electrically conducting liquid iron-rich outer core, modified by the Earth’s rotation. A drastic manifestation of the dynamics of this fluid body is the occurrence of geomagnetic field reversals in the Earth’s history but also geomagnetic excursions, which are more frequent features of otherwise stable polarity chrons, but often poorly constrained in the geological record. To better understand the origin of the field, we need to know how the field has varied on different geological timescales. This includes not only information about changes in the ancient field’s direction but also about the absolute intensity (palaeointensity) and the age. This palaeointensity record is needed for compiling a full-vector description of the field. A palaeomagnetic and palaeointensity study on lava flows allows gaining insights about the evolution of the EMF through time and space. However, constraining the EMF evolution over different geological timescales remains a difficult objective due to the paucity of available palaeointensity data. One new alternative approach in palaeointensity studies is the recently proposed multispecimen parallel differential pTRM (MS) method, which has potentially several advantages over the commonly used Thellier method, because it is in theory independent of magnetic domain state, less prone to biasing effects, such as thermal alteration and significantly faster to perform in the laboratory. A study of highly active volcanic regions, such as the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt, seems promising when attempting a full-vector reconstruction or when looking for field excursions. One aim of this thesis was to gain new information about the occurrence and global validity of geomagnetic excursions from the Brunhes- or Matuyama Chron. For this purpose some 75 lava flows from within the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt were sampled for palaeomagnetic analyses. The scatter of virtual geomagnetic poles from lavas younger than 1.7 Ma was used for estimating palaeosecular variation and was found to be consistent with latitude dependent Model G and other high quality palaeomagnetic data from Mexico. The palaeomagnetic mean-vectors of 56 lavas were correlated to the Geomagnetic Polarity Timescale supplemented with information on geomagnetic excursions. On the grounds of their associated radioisotopic ages, four lavas were tentatively correlated with known excursions from marine records. Two lava flows dating of Brunhes Chron were associated with the Big Lost and Delts/Stage 17 excursions, respectively. From further two flows dating of Matuyama Chron, one flow was associated with either the Santa Rosa- or Kamikatsura excursions, while the other could have been emplaced during the Gilsa excursion. The most significant outcome was the finding that both Brunhes excursional flows display nearly fully reversed directions that deviate almost 180°C from the expected normal polarity direction. This observation could indicate that in particular the Big Lost and Delta/Stage17 excursions may represent other short periods during which the field completed a full reversal for a short time, such as was previously found for other older cryptochrons or tiny wiggles. Another focus of this thesis was set on estimating the feasibility of the new MS method for routine palaeointensity determination. This was accomplished by applying the MS method to samples from 11 historical lava flows from Mexico and Iceland from which the actual field intensity was either known from contemporary observatory data, or deduced from magnetic field models. Comparing observed with expected intensity values allowed to test the accuracy of the MS method. It a was found that the majority of palaeointensity estimates after the MS method yielded results that were very close or indistinguishable within the range of uncertainty from the expected values. However, a general trend towards an overestimate in the palaeointensity was also observed, which, on the grounds of corroborating rock magnetic analyses, was associated with multidomain material. This observation was taken as first evidence that the MS method is not entirely independent of magnetic domain state, as was originally claimed. However, a second experiment in which a modification of the most widely used Thellier method was applied to sister samples from 5 Icelandic flows revealed that, in comparison to the MS method, the latter produced more accurate and statistically better defined palaeointensities. Thus, from these first results, the MS method appeared as a viable alternative for future palaeointensity studies. Subsequently it was attempted to corroborate the directional record from Mexican lavas with palaeointensity data. It was possible to acquire palaeointensity estimates for 32 out of 51 investigated lava flows. These new results revealed that the new MS palaeointensities for Mexico are, with a high degree of statistical significance, around 30% higher than expected. The generally high palaeointensities seem to corroborate the results obtained from historical lava flows in this study and other previous studies on synthetic samples where domain state effects were found to cause overestimates in the palaeointensity of up to 30 per cent in the MS method. The primary process that leads to this overestimate is assigned to an asymmetry in the demagnetisation and remagnetisation process. Yet, this overestimate is expected to be no larger than what might be expected from Thellier experiments performed on samples with a given degree of multidomain behaviour.
Modern anthropogenic forcing of atmospheric chemistry poses the question of how the Earth System will respond as thousands of gigatons of greenhouse gas are rapidly added to the atmosphere. A similar, albeit nonanthropogenic, situation occurred during the early Paleogene, when catastrophic release of carbon to the atmosphere triggered abrupt increase in global temperatures. The best documented of these events is the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM, ~55 Ma) when the magnitude of carbon addition to the oceans and atmosphere was similar to those expected for the future. This event initiated global warming, changes in hydrological cycles, biotic extinction and migrations. A recently proposed hypothesis concerning changes in marine ecosystems suggests that this global warming strongly influenced the shallow-water biosphere, triggering extinctions and turnover in the Larger Foraminifera (LF) community and the demise of corals. The successions from the Adriatic Carbonate Platform (SW Slovenia) represent an ideal location to test the hypothesis of a possible causal link between the PETM and evolution of shallow-water organisms because they record continuous sedimentation from the Late Paleocene to the Early Eocene and are characterized by a rich biota, especially LF, fundamental for detailed biostratigraphic studies. In order to reconstruct paleoenvironmental conditions during deposition, I focused on sedimentological analysis and paleoecological study of benthic assemblages. During the Late Paleocene-earliest Eocene, sedimentation occurred on a shallow-water carbonate ramp system characterized by enhanced nutrient levels. LF represent the common constituent of the benthic assemblages that thrived in this setting throughout the Late Paleocene to the Early Eocene. With detailed biostratigraphic and chemostratigraphic analyses documenting the most complete record to date available for the PETM event in a shallow-water marine environment, I correlated chemostratigraphically for the first time the evolution of LF with the δ¹³C curves. This correlation demonstrated that no major turnover in the LF communities occurred synchronous with the PETM; thus the evolution of LF was mainly controlled by endogenous biotic forces. The study of Late Thanetian metric-sized microbialite-coral mounds which developed in the middle part of the ramp, documented the first Cenozoic occurrence of microbially-cemented mounds. The development of these mounds, with temporary dominance of microbial communities over corals, suggest environmentally-triggered “phase shifts” related to frequent fluctuations of nutrient/turbidity levels during recurrent wet phases which preceding the extreme greenhouse conditions of the PETM. The paleoecological study of the coral community in the microbialites-coral mounds, the study of corals from Early Eocene platform from SW France, and a critical, extensive literature research of Late Paleocene – Early Eocene coral occurrences from the Tethys, the Atlantic, the Caribbean realms suggested that these corals types, even if not forming extensive reefs, are common in the biofacies as small isolated colonies, piles of rubble or small patch-reefs. These corals might have developed ‘alternative’ life strategies to cope with harsh conditions (high/fluctuating nutrients/turbidity, extreme temperatures, perturbation of aragonite saturation state) during the greenhouse times of the early Paleogene, representing a good fossil analogue to modern corals thriving close to their thresholds for survival. These results demonstrate the complexity of the biological responses to extreme conditions, not only in terms of temperature but also nutrient supply, physical disturbance and their temporal variability and oscillating character.
Water shortage is a serious threat for many societies worldwide. In drylands, water management measures like the construction of reservoirs are affected by eroded sediments transported in the rivers. Thus, the capability of assessing water and sediment fluxes at the river basin scale is of vital importance to support management decisions and policy making. This subject was addressed by the DFG-funded SESAM-project (Sediment Export from large Semi-Arid catchments: Measurements and Modelling). As a part of this project, this thesis focuses on (1) the development and implementation of an erosion module for a meso-scale catchment model, (2) the development of upscaling and generalization methods for the parameterization of such model, (3) the execution of measurements to obtain data required for the modelling and (4) the application of the model to different study areas and its evaluation. The research was carried out in two meso-scale dryland catchments in NE-Spain: Ribera Salada (200 km²) and Isábena (450 km²). Adressing objective 1, WASA-SED, a spatially semi-distributed model for water and sediment transport at the meso-scale was developed. The model simulates runoff and erosion processes at the hillslope scale, transport processes of suspended and bedload fluxes in the river reaches, and retention and remobilisation processes of sediments in reservoirs. This thesis introduces the model concept, presents current model applications and discusses its capabilities and limitations. Modelling at larger scales faces the dilemma of describing relevant processes while maintaining a manageable demand for input data and computation time. WASA-SED addresses this challenge by employing an innovative catena-based upscaling approach: the landscape is represented by characteristic toposequences. For deriving these toposequences with regard to multiple attributes (eg. topography, soils, vegetation) the LUMP-algorithm (Landscape Unit Mapping Program) was developed and related to objective 2. It incorporates an algorithm to retrieve representative catenas and their attributes, based on a Digital Elevation Model and supplemental spatial data. These catenas are classified to provide the discretization for the WASA-SED model. For objective 3, water and sediment fluxes were monitored at the catchment outlet of the Isábena and some of its sub-catchments. For sediment yield estimation, the intermittent measurements of suspended sediment concentration (SSC) had to be interpolated. This thesis presents a comparison of traditional sediment rating curves (SRCs), generalized linear models (GLMs) and non-parametric regression using Random Forests (RF) and Quantile Regression Forests (QRF). The observed SSCs are highly variable and range over six orders of magnitude. For these data, traditional SRCs performed poorly, as did GLMs, despite including other relevant process variables (e.g. rainfall intensities, discharge characteristics). RF and QRF proved to be very robust and performed favourably for reproducing sediment dynamics. QRF additionally excels in providing estimates on the accuracy of the predictions. Subsequent analysis showed that most of the sediment was exported during intense storms of late summer. Later floods yielded successively less sediment. Comparing sediment generation to yield at the outlet suggested considerable storage effects within the river channel. Addressing objective 4, the WASA-SED model was parameterized for the two study areas in NE Spain and applied with different foci. For Ribera Salada, the uncalibrated model yielded reasonable results for runoff and sediment. It provided quantitative measures of the change in runoff and sediment yield for different land-uses. Additional land management scenarios were presented and compared to impacts caused by climate change projections. In contrast, the application for the Isábena focussed on exploring the full potential of the model's predictive capabilities. The calibrated model achieved an acceptable performance for the validation period in terms of water and sediment fluxes. The inadequate representation of the lower sub-catchments inflicted considerable reductions on model performance, while results for the headwater catchments showed good agreement despite stark contrasts in sediment yield. In summary, the application of WASA-SED to three catchments proved the model framework to be a practicable multi-scale approach. It successfully links the hillslope to the catchment scale and integrates the three components hillslope, river and reservoir in one model. Thus, it provides a feasible approach for tackling issues of water and sediment yield at the meso-scale. The crucial role of processes like transmission losses and sediment storage in the river has been identified. Further advances can be expected when the representation of connectivity of water and sediment fluxes (intra-hillslope, hillslope-river, intra-river) is refined and input data improves.
This study investigated the warm-temperate to tropical shallow-water Miocene carbonates of the Perfugas basin (Anglona area), northern Sardinia, Italy (Central Mediterranean). The aim of this study was to identify and document the existence and significance of early diagenesis in this carbonate system, especially the diagenetic history, which reflects the diagenetic potential in terms of skeletal mineralogy. The motivation behind the present study was to investigate the role that early cementation has over facies stabilization linked to differences in biotic associations in shallow-water settings. Principal to this was to unravel the amount, kind and distribution of early cements in this type of carbonates, in order to complement previous studies, and hence acquire a more global perspective on non-tropical carbonate settings. The shallow-buried Sedini Limestone Unit was investigated for variations on early diagenetic features, as well as for the type of biotic association, and oxygen and carbon stable isotope stratigraphy. Results showed, that particularly at the Perfugas basin (< 15 km2), which evolves in time from a ramp into a steep-flanked platform, shallow-water facies are characterized by a “transitional” type of biotic association. The biotic assemblages change gradually over time from a heterozoan-rich into a photozoan-rich depositional system. This transition implies a change in the depositional environmental control factors such as temperature. It is considered that sedimentation took place under warm-temperate waters, which shifted to more warmer or tropical waters through time. Moreover, it was noticed that along with these changes, marine early syn-depositional cements (high-Mg calcite), with particular fabrics (e.g. fibrous), gradually contributed to the early lithification of rocks, favoring a steepening of the platform relief. The major controls for the shift of the depositional geometry was triggered by the change of the type of biotic associations (carbonate factory), related with the shift towards warmer conditions, and the development of early marine cementation. The identification of the amount and distribution of different cement phases, porosities and early diagenetic features, within facies and stratigraphy, showed that diagenesis is differential along depth, and within the depositional setting. High-Mg calcite cements (micrite, fibrous and syntaxial inclusion-rich) are early syn-depositional, facies-related (shallow-water), predominant at the platform phase, and marine in origin. Low-Mg calcite cements (bladed, syntaxial inclusionpoor and blocky) are early to late post-depositional, non-facies related (shallow- to deep-water) and shallow-burial marine in origin. However, a particular difference exists when looking at the amount and distribution of low-Mg calcite bladed cements. They become richer in shallow-water facies at the platform phase, suggesting that the enrichment of bladed cementation is linked to the appearance of metastable grains (e.g. aragonite). In both depositional profiles, the development of secondary porosity is the product of fabric-selective dissolution of grains (aragonite, high-Mg calcite) and/or cements (syntaxial inclusion-rich). However, stratigraphy and stable isotopes (oxygen and carbon), indicate that the molds found at shallower facies located beneath, and close to stratigraphic boundaries, have been produced by the infiltration of meteoric-derived water, which caused recrystallization without calcite cementation. Away from these stratigraphic locations, shallow- and deep-water facies show molds, and recrystallization, as well as low-Mg calcite cementation, interpreted as occurring during burial of these sediments by marine waters. The main cement source is suggested to be aragonite. Our results indicate that the Sedini Limestone Unit was transformed in three different diagenetic environments (marine, meteoric and shallow-burial marine); however, the degree of transformation in each diagenetic environment differs in the heterozoan-dominated ramp from the photozoan-dominated platform. It is suggested that the sediments from the ramp follow a diagenetic pathway similar to their heterozoan counterparts (i.e. lack of marine cementation, and loss of primary porosity by compaction), and the sediments from the platform follow a diagenetic pathway similar to their photozoan counterparts (i.e. marine cementation occluding primary porosity). However, in this carbonate setting, cements are Mg-calcite, no meteoric cementation was produced, and secondary porosity at shallow-water facies of the platform phase is mostly open and preserved. Despite the temporal and transitional change in biotic associations, ramp and platform facies (shallow- to deep-water facies) showed an oxygen isotope record overprinted by diagenesis. Oxygen primary marine signatures were not found. It is believed that burial diagenesis (recrystallization and low-Mg calcite cementation) was the main reason. This was unexpected at the ramp, since heterozoan-rich carbonates can hold isotope values close to primary marine signals due to their low-Mg calcite original composition. Ramp and platform facies (shallow- to deep-water facies) showed a carbon isotope record that was less affected by diagenesis. However, only at deep-water facies, did the carbon record show positive values comparable with carbon primary marine signals. The positive carbon values were noticed with major frequency at the platform deep-water facies. Moreover, these values usually showed a covariant trend with the oxygen isotope record; even that the latter did not hold positive values. The main conclusion of this work is that carbonates, deposited under warm-temperate to tropical conditions, have a unique facies, diagenesis and chemostratigraphic expression, which is different from their cool-water heterozoan or warm-water photozoan counterparts, reflecting the “transitional” nature of biotic association.
Modern acquisition of seismic data on receiver networks worldwide produces an increasing amount of continuous wavefield recordings. Hence, in addition to manual data inspection, seismogram interpretation requires new processing utilities for event detection, signal classification and data visualization. Various machine learning algorithms, which can be adapted to seismological problems, have been suggested in the field of pattern recognition. This can be done either by means of supervised learning using manually defined training data or by unsupervised clustering and visualization. The latter allows the recognition of wavefield patterns, such as short-term transients and long-term variations, with a minimum of domain knowledge. Besides classical earthquake seismology, investigations of temporal patterns in seismic data also concern novel approaches such as noise cross-correlation or ambient seismic vibration analysis in general, which have moved into focus within the last decade. In order to find records suitable for the respective approach or simply for quality control, unsupervised preprocessing becomes important and valuable for large data sets. Machine learning techniques require the parametrization of the data using feature vectors. Applied to seismic recordings, wavefield properties have to be computed from the raw seismograms. For an unsupervised approach, all potential wavefield features have to be considered to reduce subjectivity to a minimum. Furthermore, automatic dimensionality reduction, i.e. feature selection, is required in order to decrease computational cost, enhance interpretability and improve discriminative power. This study presents an unsupervised feature selection and learning approach for the discovery, imaging and interpretation of significant temporal patterns in seismic single-station or network recordings. In particular, techniques permitting an intuitive, quickly interpretable and concise overview of available records are suggested. For this purpose, the data is parametrized by real-valued feature vectors for short time windows using standard seismic analysis tools as feature generation methods, such as frequency-wavenumber, polarization, and spectral analysis. The choice of the time window length is dependent on the expected durations of patterns to be recognized or discriminated. We use Self-Organizing Maps (SOMs) for a data-driven feature selection, visualization and clustering procedure, which is particularly suitable for high-dimensional data sets. Using synthetics composed of Rayleigh and Love waves and three different types of real-world data sets, we show the robustness and reliability of our unsupervised learning approach with respect to the effect of algorithm parameters and data set properties. Furthermore, we approve the capability of the clustering and imaging techniques. For all data, we find improved discriminative power of our feature selection procedure compared to feature subsets manually selected from individual wavefield parametrization methods. In particular, enhanced performance is observed compared to the most favorable individual feature generation method, which is found to be the frequency spectrum. The method is applied to regional earthquake records at the European Broadband Network with the aim to define suitable features for earthquake detection and seismic phase classification. For the latter, we find that a combination of spectral and polarization features favor S wave detection at a single receiver. However, SOM-based visualization of phase discrimination shows that clustering applied to the records of two stations only allows onset or P wave detection, respectively. In order to improve the discrimination of S waves on receiver networks, we recommend to consider additionally the temporal context of feature vectors. The application to continuous recordings of seismicity close to an active volcano (Mount Merapi, Java, Indonesia) shows that two typical volcano-seismic events (VTB and Guguran) can be detected and distinguished by clustering. In contrast, so-called MP events cannot be discriminated. Comparable results are obtained for selected features and recognition rates regarding a previously implemented supervised classification system. Finally, we test the reliability of wavefield clustering to improve common ambient vibration analysis methods such as estimation of dispersion curves and horizontal to vertical spectral ratios. It is found, that in general, the identified short- and long-term patterns have no significant impact on those estimates. However, for individual sites, effects of local sources can be identified. Leaving out the corresponding clusters, yields reduced uncertainties or allows for improving estimation of dispersion curves.
The modern foreland basin straddling the eastern margin of the Andean orogen is the prime example of a retro-arc foreland basin system adjacent to a subduction orogen. While widely studied in the central and southern Andes, the spatial and temporal evolution of the Cenozoic foreland basin system in the northern Andes has received considerably less attention. This is in part due to the complex geodynamic boundary conditions, such as the oblique subduction and accretion of the Caribbean plates to the already complex interaction between the Nazca and the South American plates. In the Colombian Andes, for example, a foreland basin system has been forming since ~80 Ma over an area previously affected by rift tectonics during the Mesozoic. This setting of Cenozoic contractile deformation superposed on continental crust pre-strained by extensional processes thus represents a natural, yet poorly studied experimental set-up, where the role of tectonic inheritance on the development of foreland basin systems can be evaluated. However, a detailed documentation of the early foreland basin evolution in this part of the Andes has thus far only been accomplished in the more internal sectors of the orogen. In this study, I integrate new structural, sedimentological and biostratigraphic data with low-temperature thermochronology from the eastern sector of the Colombian Andes, in order to provide the first comprehensive account of mountain building and related foreland basin sedimentation in this part of the orogen, and to assess as to what extent pre-existent basement anisotropies have conditioned the locus of foreland deformation in space and time. In the Medina Basin, along the eastern flank of the Eastern Cordillera, I integrated detailed structural mapping and new sedimentological data with a new chronostratigraphic framework based on detailed palynology that links an eastward-thinning early Oligocene to early Miocene syntectonic wedge containing rapid facies changes with an episode of fast tectonic subsidence starting at ~30 Ma. This record represents the first evidence of topographic loading generated by slip along the principal basement-bounding thrusts in the Eastern Cordillera to the west of the basin and thus constrains the onset of mountain building in this area. A comprehensive assessment of exhumation patterns based on zircon fission-track (ZFT), apatite fission-track (AFT) analysis and thermal modelling reveals the location of these thrust loads to have been located along the contractionally reactivated Soapaga Fault in the axial sector of the Eastern Cordillera. Farther to the east, AFT and ZFT data also document the onset of thrust-induced exhumation associated with contractional reactivation of the main range-bounding Servita Fault at ~20 Ma. Associated with this episode of orogenic growth, peak burial temperature estimates based on vitrinite reflectance data in the Cenozoic sedimentary record of the adjacent Medina Basin documents earlier incorporation of the western sector of the basin into the advancing fold and thrust belt. I combined these new thermochronological data with published AFT analyses and known chronologic indicators of brittle deformation in order to evaluate the patterns of orogenic-front migration in the Andes of central Colombia. This spatiotemporal analysis of deformation reveals an episodic pattern of eastward migration of the orogenic front at an average rate of 2.5-2.7 mm/yr during the Late Cretaceous-Cenozoic. I identified three major stages of orogen propagation. First, following initiation of mountain building in the Central Cordillera during the Late Cretaceous, the orogenic front propagate eastward at slow rates (0.5-3.1 mm/yr) until early Eocene times. Such slow orogenic advance would have resulted from limited accretionary flux related to slow and oblique (SW-NE-oriented) convergence of the Farallon and South American plates during that time. A second stage of rapid orogenic advance (4.0-18.0 mm/yr) during the middle-late Eocene, and locally of at least 100 mm/yr in the middle Eocene, resulted from initial tectonic inversion of the Eastern Cordillera. I correlate this episode of rapid orogen-front migration with an increase in the accretionary flux triggered by acceleration in convergence and a rotation of the convergence vector to a more orogen-perpendicular direction. Finally, stagnation of the Miocene deformation front along former rift-bounding reactivated faults in the eastern flank of the Eastern Cordillera led to a decrease in the rates of orogenic advance. Post-late Miocene-Pliocene thrusting along the actively deforming front of the Eastern Cordillera at this latitude suggests averaged Miocene-Holocene orogen propagation rates of 1.2-2.1 mm/yr. In addition, ZFT data suggest that exhumation along the eastern flank of the orogen occurred at moderate rates of ~0.3 mm/yr during the Miocene, prior to an acceleration of exhumation since the Pliocene, as suggested by recently published AFT data. In order to evaluate the relations between thrust loading and sedimentary facies evolution in the foreland, I analyzed gravel progradation in the foreland basin system. In particular, I compared one-dimensional Eocene to Pliocene sediment accumulation rates in the Medina basin with a three-dimensional sedimentary budget based on the interpretation of ~1800 km of industry-style seismic reflection profiles and borehole data tied to the new chronostratigraphic framework. The sedimentological data from the Medina Basin reveal rapid accumulation of fluvial and lacustrine sediments at rates of up to ~ 0.5 mm/yr during the Miocene. Provenance data based on gravel petrography and paleocurrents reveal that these Miocene fluvial systems were sourced by Upper Cretaceous and Paleocene sedimentary units exposed to the west, in the Eastern Cordillera. Peak sediment-accumulation rates in the upper Carbonera Formation and the Guayabo Group occur during episodes of gravel progradation in the proximal foredeep in the Early and Late Miocene. I interpreted this positive correlation between sediment accumulation and gravel deposition as the direct consequence of thrust activity in the Servita-Lengupá Fault. This contrasts with current models relating gravel progradation to episodes of tectonic quiescence in more distal portions of foreland basin systems and calls for a re-evaluation of tectonic history interpretations inferred from sedimentary units in other mountain belts. In summary, my results document a late Eocene-early Miocene eastward advance of the topographic loads associated with the leading edge of deformation in the northern Andes of Colombia. Crustal thickening of the Eastern Cordillera associated with initiation of thrusting along the Servitá Fault illustrates that this sector of the Andean orogen acquired ~90% of its present width already by the early Miocene (~20 Ma). My data thus demonstrate that inherited crustal anisotropies, such as the former rift-bounding faults of the Eastern Cordillera, favour a non-systematic progression of foreland basin deformation through time by preferentially concentrating accommodation of slip and thrust-loading. These new chronology of exhumation and deformation associated with specific structures in the Colombian Andes also constitutes an important advance towards the understanding of models for hydrocarbon maturation, migration and trap formation along the prolific petroleum province of the Llanos Basin in the modern foredeep area.
Forests are a key resource serving a multitude of functions such as providing income to forest owners, supplying industries with timber, protecting water resources, and maintaining biodiversity. Recently much attention has been given to the role of forests in the global carbon cycle and their management for increased carbon sequestration as a possible mitigation option against climate change. Furthermore, the use of harvested wood can contribute to the reduction of atmospheric carbon through (i) carbon sequestration in wood products, (ii) the substitution of non-wood products with wood products, and (iii) through the use of wood as a biofuel to replace fossil fuels. Forest resource managers are challenged by the task to balance these multiple while simultaneously meeting economic requirements and taking into consideration the demands of stakeholder groups. Additionally, risks and uncertainties with regard to uncontrollable external variables such as climate have to be considered in the decision making process. In this study a scientific stakeholder dialogue with forest-related stakeholder groups in the Federal State of Brandenburg was accomplished. The main results of this dialogue were the definition of major forest functions (carbon sequestration, groundwater recharge, biodiversity, and timber production) and priority setting among them by the stakeholders using the pair-wise comparison technique. The impact of different forest management strategies and climate change scenarios on the main functions of forest ecosystems were evaluated at the Kleinsee management unit in south-east Brandenburg. Forest management strategies were simulated over 100 years using the forest growth model 4C and a wood product model (WPM). A current climate scenario and two climate change scenarios based on global circulation models (GCMs) HadCM2 and ECHAM4 were applied. The climate change scenario positively influenced stand productivity, carbon sequestration, and income. The impact on the other forest functions was small. Furthermore, the overall utility of forest management strategies were compared under the priority settings of stakeholders by a multi-criteria analysis (MCA) method. Significant differences in priority setting and the choice of an adequate management strategy were found for the environmentalists on one side and the more economy-oriented forest managers of public and private owned forests on the other side. From an ecological perspective, a conservation strategy would be preferable under all climate scenarios, but the business as usual management would also fit the expectations under the current climate. In contrast, a forest manager in public-owned forests or a private forest owner would prefer a management strategy with an intermediate thinning intensity and a high share of pine stands to enhance income from timber production while maintaining the other forest functions. The analysis served as an example for the combined application of simulation tools and a MCA method for the evaluation of management strategies under multi-purpose and multi-user settings with changing climatic conditions. Another focus was set on quantifying the overall effect of forest management on carbon sequestration in the forest sector and the wood industry sector plus substitution effects. To achieve this objective, the carbon emission reduction potential of material and energy substitution (Smat and Sen) was estimated based on a literature review. On average, for each tonne of dry wood used in a wood product substituting a non-wood product, 0.71 fewer tonnes of fossil carbon are emitted into to the atmosphere. Based on Smat and Sen, the calculation of the carbon emission reduction through substitution was implemented in the WPM. Carbon sequestration and substitution effects of management strategies were simulated at three local scales using the WPM and the forest growth models 4C (management unit level) or EFISCEN (federal state of Brandenburg and Germany). An investigation was conducted on the influence of uncertainties in the initialisation of the WPM, Smat, and basic conditions of the wood product sector on carbon sequestration. Results showed that carbon sequestration in the wood industry sector plus substitution effects exceeded sequestration in the forest sector. In contrast to the carbon pools in the forest sector, which acted as sink or source, the substitution effects continually reduced carbon emission as long as forests are managed and timber is harvested. The main climate protection function was investigated for energy substitution which accounted for about half of the total carbon sequestration, followed by carbon storage in landfills. In Germany, the absolute annual carbon sequestration in the forest and wood industry sector plus substitution effects was 19.9 Mt C. Over 50 years the wood industry sector contributed 70% of the total carbon sequestration plus substitution effects.
River reaches protected by dikes exhibit high damage potential due to strong value accumulation in the hinterland areas. While providing an efficient protection against low magnitude flood events, dikes may fail under the load of extreme water levels and long flood durations. Hazard and risk assessments for river reaches protected by dikes have not adequately considered the fluvial inundation processes up to now. Particularly, the processes of dike failures and their influence on the hinterland inundation and flood wave propagation lack comprehensive consideration. This study focuses on the development and application of a new modelling system which allows a comprehensive flood hazard assessment along diked river reaches under consideration of dike failures. The proposed Inundation Hazard Assessment Model (IHAM) represents a hybrid probabilistic-deterministic model. It comprises three models interactively coupled at runtime. These are: (1) 1D unsteady hydrodynamic model of river channel and floodplain flow between dikes, (2) probabilistic dike breach model which determines possible dike breach locations, breach widths and breach outflow discharges, and (3) 2D raster-based diffusion wave storage cell model of the hinterland areas behind the dikes. Due to the unsteady nature of the 1D and 2D coupled models, the dependence between hydraulic load at various locations along the reach is explicitly considered. The probabilistic dike breach model describes dike failures due to three failure mechanisms: overtopping, piping and slope instability caused by the seepage flow through the dike core (micro-instability). The 2D storage cell model driven by the breach outflow boundary conditions computes an extended spectrum of flood intensity indicators such as water depth, flow velocity, impulse, inundation duration and rate of water rise. IHAM is embedded in a Monte Carlo simulation in order to account for the natural variability of the flood generation processes reflected in the form of input hydrographs and for the randomness of dike failures given by breach locations, times and widths. The model was developed and tested on a ca. 91 km heavily diked river reach on the German part of the Elbe River between gauges Torgau and Vockerode. The reach is characterised by low slope and fairly flat extended hinterland areas. The scenario calculations for the developed synthetic input hydrographs for the main river and tributary were carried out for floods with return periods of T = 100, 200, 500, 1000 a. Based on the modelling results, probabilistic dike hazard maps could be generated that indicate the failure probability of each discretised dike section for every scenario magnitude. In the disaggregated display mode, the dike hazard maps indicate the failure probabilities for each considered breach mechanism. Besides the binary inundation patterns that indicate the probability of raster cells being inundated, IHAM generates probabilistic flood hazard maps. These maps display spatial patterns of the considered flood intensity indicators and their associated return periods. Finally, scenarios of polder deployment for the extreme floods with T = 200, 500, 1000 were simulated with IHAM. The developed IHAM simulation system represents a new scientific tool for studying fluvial inundation dynamics under extreme conditions incorporating effects of technical flood protection measures. With its major outputs in form of novel probabilistic inundation and dike hazard maps, the IHAM system has a high practical value for decision support in flood management.
This thesis aims to quantify the human impact on the natural resource water at the landscape scale. The drivers in the federal state of Brandenburg (Germany), the area under investigation, are land-use changes induced by policy decisions at European and federal state level. The water resources of the federal state are particularly sensitive to changes in land-use due to low precipitation rates in the summer combined with sandy soils and high evapotranspiration rates. Key elements in landscape hydrology are forests because of their unique capacity to transport water from the soil to the atmosphere. Given these circumstances, decisions made at any level of administration that may have effects on the forest sector in the state are critical in relation to the water cycle. It is therefore essential to evaluate any decision that may change forest area and structure in such a sensitive region. Thus, as a first step, it was necessary to develop and implement a model able to simulate possible interactions and feedbacks between forested surfaces and the hydrological cycle at the landscape scale. The result is a model for simulating the hydrological properties of forest stands based on a robust computation of the temporal and spatial LAI (leaf area index) dynamics. The approach allows the simulation of all relevant hydrological processes with a low parameter demand. It includes the interception of precipitation and transpiration of forest stands with and without groundwater in the rooting zone. The model also considers phenology, biomass allocation, as well as mortality and simple management practices. It has been implemented as a module in the eco-hydrological model SWIM (Soil and Water Integrated Model). This model has been tested in two pre-studies to verify the applicability of its hydrological process description for the hydrological conditions typical for the state. The newly implemented forest module has been tested for Scots Pine (Pinus sylvestris) and in parts for Common Oak (Quercus robur and Q. petraea) in Brandenburg. For Scots Pine the results demonstrate a good simulation of annual biomass increase and LAI in addition to the satisfactory simulation of litter production. A comparison of the simulated and measured data of the May sprout for Scots pine and leaf unfolding for Oak, as well as the evaluation against daily transpiration measurements for Scots Pine, does support the applicability of the approach. The interception of precipitation has also been simulated and compared with weekly observed data for a Scots Pine stand which displays satisfactory results in both the vegetation periods and annual sums. After the development and testing phase, the model is used to analyse the effects of two scenarios. The first scenario is an increase in forest area on abandoned agricultural land that is triggered by a decrease in European agricultural production support. The second one is a shift in species composition from predominant Scots Pine to Common Oak that is based on decisions of the regional forestry authority to support a more natural species composition. The scenario effects are modelled for the federal state of Brandenburg on a 50m grid utilising spatially explicit land-use patterns. The results, for the first scenario, suggest a negative impact of an increase in forest area (9.4% total state area) on the regional water balance, causing an increase in mean long-term annual evapotranspiration of 3.7% at 100% afforestation when compared to no afforestation. The relatively small annual change conceals a much more pronounced seasonal effect of a mean long-term evapotranspiration increase by 25.1% in the spring causing a pronounced reduction in groundwater recharge and runoff. The reduction causes a lag effect that aggravates the scarcity of water resources in the summer. In contrast, in the second scenario, a change in species composition in existing forests (29.2% total state area) from predominantly Scots Pine to Common Oak decreases the long-term annual mean evapotranspiration by 3.4%, accompanied by a much weaker, but apparent, seasonal pattern. Both scenarios exhibit a high spatial heterogeneity because of the distinct natural conditions in the different regions of the state. Areas with groundwater levels near the surface are particularly sensitive to changes in forest area and regions with relatively high proportion of forest respond strongly to the change in species composition. In both cases this regional response is masked by a smaller linear mean effect for the total state area. Two critical sources of uncertainty in the model results have been investigated. The first one originates from the model calibration parameters estimated in the pre-study for lowland regions, such as the federal state. The combined effect of the parameters, when changed within their physical meaningful limits, unveils an overestimation of the mean water balance by 1.6%. However, the distribution has a wide spread with 14.7% for the 90th percentile and -9.9% for the 10th percentile. The second source of uncertainty emerges from the parameterisation of the forest module. The analysis exhibits a standard deviation of 0.6 % over a ten year period in the mean of the simulated evapotranspiration as a result of variance in the key forest parameters. The analysis suggests that the combined uncertainty in the model results is dominated by the uncertainties of calibration parameters. Therefore, the effect of the first scenario might be underestimated because the calculated increase in evapotranspiration is too small. This may lead to an overestimation of the water balance towards runoff and groundwater recharge. The opposite can be assumed for the second scenario in which the decrease in evapotranspiration might be overestimated.
Flood polders are part of the flood risk management strategy for many lowland rivers. They are used for the controlled storage of flood water so as to lower peak discharges of large floods. Consequently, the flood hazard in adjacent and downstream river reaches is decreased in the case of flood polder utilisation. Flood polders are usually dry storage reservoirs that are typically characterised by agricultural activities or other land use of low economic and ecological vulnerability. The objective of this thesis is to analyse hydraulic, environmental and economic impacts of the utilisation of flood polders in order to draw conclusions for their management. For this purpose, hydrodynamic and water quality modelling as well as an economic vulnerability assessment are employed in two study areas on the Middle Elbe River in Germany. One study area is an existing flood polder system on the tributary Havel, which was put into operation during the Elbe flood in summer 2002. The second study area is a planned flood polder, which is currently in the early planning stages. Furthermore, numerical models of different spatial dimensionality, ranging from zero- to two-dimensional, are applied in order to evaluate their suitability for hydrodynamic and water quality simulations of flood polders in regard to performance and modelling effort. The thesis concludes with overall recommendations on the management of flood polders, including operational schemes and land use. In view of future changes in flood frequency and further increasing values of private and public assets in flood-prone areas, flood polders may be effective and flexible technical flood protection measures that contribute to a successful flood risk management for large lowland rivers.
Im Rahmen der Dissertation wurden an Wässern und freien Gasen aus Thermalquellen sowie an weniger als 5 Millionen Jahre alten basischen Vulkaniten des zentralandinen Puna-Hochplateaus (NE-Argentinien) umfangreiche element- und isotopengeochemische Untersuchungen durchgeführt und die Edelgasgehalte und -isotopensignaturen in diesen Medien bestimmt. Damit soll ein Beitrag zum besseren Verständnis der jüngeren Subduktionsgeschichte im Bereich der südlichen Zentralanden geleistet, die Wechselwirkungen zwischen ozeanischer Unter- und kontinentaler Oberplatte sichtbar gemacht und die Edelgassystematik verbessert werden. Wie die Ergebnisse der Untersuchungen an Gasen aus den Thermalquellen der Puna-Region zeigen, ist der Anteil an Mantel-Helium in den Thermalquellen dieser Region mit bis zu 67 % wesentlich höher als in der westlich gelegenen vulkanisch aktiven Westkordillere und den anderen angrenzenden Gebieten. In einigen Quellen konnten sogar Anteile an Mantel-Neon nachgewiesen werden, was aufgrund von Überlagerungen mit Neon atmosphärischen und krustalen Ursprungs weltweit bisher nur vereinzelt gelungen ist. Für kontinentale Bereiche mit großer Krustendicke ist ein solch starker Mantelgasfluss äußerst ungewöhnlich und bedeutet, dass Mantelschmelzen bis in die Kruste aufgedrungen sind und tief reichende Wegsamkeiten existieren, so dass die Mantelgase aufsteigen können, ohne stark krustal beeinflusst zu werden. Dass im Bereich der Puna rezent Mantelmaterial in die Kruste aufsteigt, zu diesem Ergebnis kommen auch aktuelle seismologische Untersuchungen. Zudem wurden junge, vorwiegend monogenetische Basalte bis basaltische Andesite geochemisch auf ihre Haupt-, Neben- und Spurenbestandteile sowie ihre Gehalte an Seltenenerdenelementen hin untersucht. Auch wurden die Isotopenverhältnisse von Sr, Nd und Pb in den Gesteinen bestimmt und petrographisch-mineralogische Analysen der darin enthaltenen Olivine und Pyroxene durchgeführt. Wie die Resultate belegen, haben die Magmen bei ihrem Aufstieg durch die Erdkruste insbesondere Material aus der Oberkruste assimiliert und sind zudem durch Fluide aus der abtauchenden Platte beeinflusst worden. Damit konnte gezeigt werden, dass einfache geochemische Methoden allein nicht ausreichen, um die Mantelquelle der Magmen ermitteln oder Aussagen über die Asthenosphärendynamik in der Region machen zu können. Im Gegensatz dazu zeigen die Messungen der Edelgasisotopenverhältnisse in den Fluideinschlüssen der Olivine und Pyroxene, dass deren Edelgaszusammensetzung nicht durch Krustenkontamination beeinflusst wurde, weil die Magmen erst nach der Olivin- bzw. Pyroxen-Kristallisation Schmelzen aus der Oberkruste assimiliert haben. Darüber hinaus konnten durch die Edelgasisotopenmessungen die bisher höchsten magmatischen He- und Ne-Isotopenverhältnisse von ganz Südamerika nachgewiesen werden. Aus der unterschiedlichen Höhe der Messwerte ist zu schließen, dass die im Osten der Puna vorkommenden älteren Laven aus einem nichtkonvektiven (lithosphärischen) Mantel stammen, während die am vulkanischen Bogen und Westrand der Puna gelegenen jüngeren Laven, ihren Ursprung in einer konvektiven (asthenosphärischen) Mantelquelle haben. Zudem konnte gezeigt werden, dass der Mantelgasfluss in der Region in den letzten 5 Millionen Jahren stark zunahm und sich die Eruption von mantelstämmigen basischen Laven in dieser Zeit kontinuierlich in westliche Richtung zum aktiven Vulkanbogen hin verlagerte. Im daraus abgeleiteten Modell beruht dieser Prozess (1) auf einer an die Kontinentalverschiebung gekoppelten W-Drift des Kontinents und (2) auf einem mit der Versteilung der Unterplatte verbundenen Vordringen des subkontinentalen asthenosphärischen Mantels nach W, nach dem Ende der Subduktion des unterseeischen aseismischen Juan Fernández-Rückens in der Region. Zudem gibt es starke Argumente dafür, dass die asthenosphärischen Magmen aus einer fluidreichen Zone in 500 – 600 km Tiefe parallel zur subduzierten Platte aufsteigen und nicht, wie bisher angenommen, durch Schmelzbildung in Bereichen unter 200 km Tiefe, allein durch Entwässerung der abtauchenden Platte erzeugt werden. Zu diesem Resultat führt vor allem die Kombination der He-Isotopenverhältnisse mit Ergebnissen seismologischer Untersuchungen.
Landscapes evolve in a complex interplay between climate and tectonics. Thus, the geomorphic characteristics of a landscape can only be understood if both, climatic and tectonic signals of past and ongoing processes can be identified. In order to evaluate the impact of both forcing factors it is crucial to quantify the evolution of geomorphic markers in natural environments. The Cenozoic Andes are an ideal setting to evaluate tectonic and climatic aspects of landscape evolution at different time and length scales in different natural compartments. The Andean Cordillera constitutes the type subduction orogen and is associated with the subduction of the oceanic Nazca Plate beneath the South American continent since at least 200 million years. In Chile and the adjacent regions this convergent margin is characterized by active tectonics, volcanism, and mountain building. Importantly, along the coast of Chile megathrust earthquakes occur frequently and influence landscape evolution. In fact, the largest earthquake ever recorded occurred in south-central Chile in 1960 and comprised a rupture zone of ~ 1000 km length. However, on longer time scales beyond historic documentation of seismicity it is not well known, how such seismotectonic segments have behaved and how they influence the geomorphic evolution of the coastal realms. With several semi-independent morphotectonic segments, recurrent megathrust earthquakes, and a plethora of geomorphic features indicating sustained tectonism, the margin of Chile is thus a key area to study relationships between surface processes and tectonics. In this study, I combined geomorphology, geochronology, sedimentology, and morphometry to quantify the Pliocene-Pleistocene landscape evolution of the tectonically active south-central Chile forearc. Thereby, I provide (1) new results about the influence of seismotectonic forearc segmentation on the geomorphic evolution and (2) new insights in the interaction between climate and tectonics with respect to the morphology of the Chilean forearc region. In particular, I show that the forearc is characterized by three long-term segments that are not correlated with short-lived earthquake-rupture zones that may. These segments are the Nahuelbuta, Toltén, and Bueno segments, each recording a distinct geomorphic and tectonic evolution. The Nahuelbuta and Bueno segments are undergoing active tectonic uplift. The long-term behavior of these two segments is manifested in form of two doubly plunging, growing antiforms that constitute an integral part of the Coastal Cordillera and record the uplift of marine and river terraces. In addition, these uplifting areas have caused major changes in flow directions or rivers. In contrast, the Toltén segment, situated between the two other segments, appears to be quasi-stable. In order to further quantify uplift and incision in the actively deforming Nahuelbuta segment, I dated an erosion surface and fluvial terraces in the Coastal Cordillera with cosmogenic 10Be and 26Al and optically stimulated luminescence, respectively. According to my results, late Pleistocene uplift rates corresponding to 0.88 mm a-1 are faster than surface-uplift rates averaging over the last 5 Ma, which are in the range of 0.21 mm a-1. This discrepancy suggests that surface uplift is highly variable in time and space and might preferably concentrate along reverse faults as indicated by a late Pleistocene flow reversal. In addition, the results of exposure dating with cosmogenic 10Be and 26Al indicate that the morphotectonic segmentation of this region of the forearc has been established in Pliocene time, coeval with the initiation of uplift of the Coastal Cordillera about 5 Ma ago, inferred to be related to a shift in subduction mode from erosion to accretion. Finally, I dated volcanic clasts obtained from alluvial surfaces in the Central Depression, a low-relief sector separating the Coastal from the Main Cordillera, with stable cosmogenic 3He and 21Ne, in order to reveal the controls of sediment accumulation in the forearc. My results document that these gently sloping surfaces have been deposited 150 to 300 ka ago. This deposition may be related to changes in the erosional regime during glacial episodes. Taken together, the data indicates that the overall geomorphic expression of the forearc is of post-Miocene age and may be intimately related to a climatic overprint of the tectonic system. This climatic forcing is also reflected in the topography and local relief of the Central and Southern Andes that vary considerably along the margin, determined by the dominant surface process that in turn is eventually controlled by climate. However, relief also partly reflects surface processes that have taken place under past climatic conditions. This emphasizes that due care has to be exercised when interpreting landscapes as mirrors of modern climates.
The arctic region is undergoing the most rapid environmental change experienced on Earth, and the rate of change is expected to increase over the coming decades. Arctic coasts are particularly vulnerable because they lie at the interface between terrestrial systems dominated by permafrost and marine systems dominated by sea ice. An increased rise in sea level and degradation of sea-ice as predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in its most recent report and as observed recently in the Arctic will likely result in greater rates of coastal retreat. An increase in coastal erosion would result in dramatic increases in the volume of sediment, organic carbon and contaminants to the Arctic Ocean. These in turn have the potential to create dramatic changes in the geochemistry and biodiversity of the nearshore zone and affect the Arctic Ocean carbon cycle. To calculate estimates of organic carbon input from coastal erosion to the Arctic Ocean, current methods rely on the length of the coastline in the form of non self-similar line datasets. This thesis however emphasizes that using shorelines drawn at different scales can induce changes in the amount of sediment released by 30% in some cases. It proposes a substitute method of computations of erosion based on areas instead of lengths (i.e. buffers instead of shoreline lengths) which can be easily implemented at the circum-Arctic scale. Using this method, variations in quantities of eroded sediment are, on average, 70% less affected by scale changes and are therefore a more reliable method of calculation. Current estimates of coastal erosion rates in the Arctic are scarce and long-term datasets are a handful, which complicates assessment and prognosis of coastal processes, in particular the occurrence of coastal hazards. This thesis aims at filling the gap by providing the first long-term dataset (1951-2006) of coastal erosion on the Bykovsky Peninsula, North-East Siberia. This study shows that the coastline, which is made of ice-rich permafrost, retreated at a mean annual rate of 0.59 m/yr between 1951and 2006. Rates were highly variable: 97.0 % of the rates observed were less than 2 m/yr and 81.6% were less than 1m/yr. However, no significant trend in erosion could be recorded despite the study of five temporal subperiods within 1951-2006. The juxtaposition of wind records could not help to explain erosion records either and this thesis emphasizes the local controls on erosion, in particular the cryostratigraphy, the proximity of the Peninsula to the Lena River Delta freshwater plume and the local topographical constraints on swell development. On ice-rich coastal stretches of the Artic, the interaction of coastal dynamics and permafrost leads to the occurrence of spectacular “C-shaped” depressions termed retrogressive thaw slumps which can reach lengths of up to 650 m. On Herschel Island and at King Point (Yukon Coastal Plain, northern Canada), topographical, sedimentological and biogeochemical surveys were conducted to investigate the present and past activity of these landforms. In particular, undisturbed tundra areas were compared with zones of former slump activity, now stabilized and re-vegetated. This thesis shows that stabilized areas are drier and less prone to plant growth than undisturbed areas and feature fundamentally different geotechnical properties. Radiocarbon dating and topographical surveys indicated until up to 300 BP a likely period of dramatic slump activity on Herschel Island, similar to the one currently observed, which led to the creation of these surfaces. This thesis hypothesizes the occurrence of a ~250 years cycle of slump activity on the Herschel Island shoreline based on the surveyed topography and cryostratigraphy and anticipates higher frequency of slump activity in the future. The variety of processes described in this thesis highlights the changing nature of the intensity and frequency of physical processes acting upon the arctic coast. It also challenges current perceptions of the threats to existing industry and community infrastructure in the Arctic. The increasing presence of humans on Artic coasts coupled with the expected development of shipping will drive an increase in economical and industrial activity on these coasts which remains to be addressed scientifically.
The South Chilean subduction zone between 41° and 43.5°S : seismicity, structure and state of stress
(2008)
While the northern and central part of the South American subduction zone has been intensively studied, the southern part has attracted less attention, which may be due to its difficult accessibility and lower seismic activity. However, the southern part exhibits strong seismic and tsunamogenic potential with the prominent example of the Mw=9.5 May 22, 1960 Valdivia earthquake. In this study data from an amphibious seismic array (Project TIPTEQ) is presented. The network reached from the trench to the active magmatic arc incorporating the Island of Chiloé and the north-south trending Liquiñe-Ofqui fault zone (LOFZ). 364 local events were observed in an 11-month period from November 2004 until October 2005. The observed seismicity allows to constrain for the first time the current state of stress of the subducting plate and magmatic arc, as well as the local seismic velocity structure. The downgoing Benioff zone is readily identifiable as an eastward dipping plane with an inclination of ~30°. Main seismic activity occurred predominantly in a belt parallel to the coast of Chiloé Island in a depth range of 12-30 km, which is presumably related to the plate interface. The down-dip termination of abundant intermediate depth seismicity at approximately 70 km depth seems to be related to the young age (and high temperature) of the oceanic plate. A high-quality subset of events was inverted for a 2-D velocity model. The vp model resolves the sedimentary basins and the downgoing slab. Increased velocities below the longitudinal valley and the eastern part of Chiloé Island suggest the existence of a mantle bulge. Apart from the events in the Benioff Zone, shallow crustal events were observed mainly in different clusters along the magmatic arc. These crustal clusters of seismicity are related to the LOFZ, as well as to the volcanoes Chaitén, Michinmahuida and Corcovado. Seismic activity up to a magnitude of 3.8 Mw reveals the recent activity of the fault zone. Focal mechanisms for the events along the LOFZ were calculated using a moment tensor inversion of amplitude spectra for body waves which mostly yield strike-slip mechanisms indicating a SW-NE striking of sigma_1 for the LOFZ. Focal mechanism stress inversion indicates a strike-slip regime along the arc and a thrust regime in the Benioff zone. The observed deformation - which is also revealed by teleseismic observations - suggests a confirmation for the proposed northward movement of a forearc sliver acting as a detached continental micro-plate.
Paleoenvironmental records provide ample information on the Late Quaternary climatic evolution. Due to the great diversity of continental mid-latitude environments the synthetic picture of the past mid-latitudinal climate changes is, however, far from being complete. Owing to its significant size and landlocked setting the Black Sea constitutes a perfect location to study patterns and mechanisms of climate change along the continental interior of Central and Eastern Europe and Asia Minor. Presently, the southern drainage area of the Black Sea is characterized by a Mediterranean-type climate while the northern drainage is under the influence of Central and Northern European climate. During the Last Glacial a decrease in the global sea level disconnected the Black Sea from the Mediterranean Sea transforming it into a giant closed lake. At that time atmospheric precipitation and related with it river run-off were the most important factors driving sediment supply and water chemistry of the Black ‘Lake’. Therefore studying properties of the Black Sea sediments provides important information on the interactions and development of the Mediterranean and Central and North European climate in the past. One significant outcome of my thesis is an improved chronostraphigraphical framework for the glacial lacustrine unit of the Black Sea sediment cores, which allowed to refine the environmental history of the Black Sea region and enabled a reliable correlation with data from other marine and terrestrial archives. Data gathered along a N-S transect presented on a common time scale revealed coherent changes in the basin and its surrounding. During the glacial, the southward-shifted Polar Front reduced moisture transport to the northern drainage of the Black Sea and let the southern drainage become dominant in freshwater and sediment supply into the basin. Changes in NW Anatolian precipitation reconstructed from the variability of the terrigenous input imply that during the glacial the regional rainfall variability was strongly influenced by Mediterranean sea surface temperatures and decreased in response to the cooling associated with the North Atlantic Heinrich Events H1 and H2. In contrast to regional precipitation changes, the hydrological properties of the Black Sea remained relatively stable under full glacial conditions. First significant modification in the freshwater/sediment sources reconstructed from changes in the sediment composition, lithology, and 18O of ostracods took place at around 16.4 cal ka BP, simultaneous to the early deglacial northward retreat of the oceanic and atmospheric polar fronts. Meltwater pulses, most probably derived from the disintegrating European ice sheets, changed the isotopic composition of the Black Sea and increased the supply from northern sediment sources. While these changes signalized a mitigation of the Northern European and Mediterranean climate, a decisive increase in local temperature was indicated only later at the transition from the Oldest Dryas to the Bølling around 14.6 cal ka BP. At that time the warming of the Black Sea surface initiated massive phytoplankton blooms, which in turn, induced the precipitation of inorganic carbonates. This biologically triggered process significantly changed the water chemistry and was recorded by simultaneous shifts in the elemental composition of ostracod shells and in the isotopic composition of the inorganically-precipitated carbonates. Starting with the B/A warming and continuing through the YD cold interval and the Early Holocene warming, the Black Sea temperature signal corresponds to the precipitation and temperature changes recorded in the wider Mediterranean region. Early Holocene conditions, similar to those of the Bølling/Allerød, were punctured by the marine inflow from the Mediterranean at ~ 9.3 cal ka BP, which terminated the lacustrine phase of the Black Sea and had a substantial impact on the chemical and physical properties of its water.
Human transformation of the Earth’s land surface has far-reaching and important consequences for the functioning of hydrological and hydrochemical processes in watersheds. In nowadays land-use change from forest to pasture is a major issue in particular in the tropics. A sustainable management of deforested areas requires an in-depth understanding of the water and nutrient cycle. On this basis we compared the involved hydrological pathways for rainfall to reach streams and the nutrient budgets of a tropical rainforest and a pasture. In addition we studied the links of hydrochemical differences to differences of the relative importance of flowpaths. This study was conducted in the southwestern part of the Brazilian Amazon basin. An intensive hydrological and hydrochemical sampling and monitoring network was set up. The results indicate that the hydrology was modified in many ways due to land-use change. The most important alteration was the increased importance of the fast flowpath overland flow. Solute exports were in particular linked to the increased volume of overland flow that resulted from the land-use change. An additional reason for the increased nutrient exports from the pasture are the high concentrations of these nutrients in pasture overland flow probably as a due to cattle excrements. Tight nutrient cycles with minimal nutrient losses could not be maintained after the land-use change. This study provides the first attempt to quantify the respective nutrient losses.
This PhD thesis presents the spatio-temporal distribution of terrestrial carbon fluxes for the time period of 1982 to 2002 simulated by a combination of the process-based dynamic global vegetation model LPJ and a 21-year time series of global AVHRR-fPAR data (fPAR – fraction of photosynthetically active radiation). Assimilation of the satellite data into the model allows improved simulations of carbon fluxes on global as well as on regional scales. As it is based on observed data and includes agricultural regions, the model combined with satellite data produces more realistic carbon fluxes of net primary production (NPP), soil respiration, carbon released by fire and the net land-atmosphere flux than the potential vegetation model. It also produces a good fit to the interannual variability of the CO2 growth rate. Compared to the original model, the model with satellite data constraint produces generally smaller carbon fluxes than the purely climate-based stand-alone simulation of potential natural vegetation, now comparing better to literature estimates. The lower net fluxes are a result of a combination of several effects: reduction in vegetation cover, consideration of human influence and agricultural areas, an improved seasonality, changes in vegetation distribution and species composition. This study presents a way to assess terrestrial carbon fluxes and elucidates the processes contributing to interannual variability of the terrestrial carbon exchange. Process-based terrestrial modelling and satellite-observed vegetation data are successfully combined to improve estimates of vegetation carbon fluxes and stocks. As net ecosystem exchange is the most interesting and most sensitive factor in carbon cycle modelling and highly uncertain, the presented results complementary contribute to the current knowledge, supporting the understanding of the terrestrial carbon budget.
Wälder haben im Bezug zum Klimawandel mehrere Rollen: Sie sind Kohlenstoffspeicher, -senken, sowie Lieferanten von Holz als Rohstoff für die Kohlenstoffspeicher in Produkten und für Substitution fossiler Energieträger. Unter Klimaschutzgesichtspunkten ist es wünschenswert, die Kohlenstoffbindung im Gesamtsystem aus Senken, Speichern und Substitution zu maximieren und zu entscheiden, welche Maßnahme an welchem Ort und unter welchen Rahmenbedingungen den größten positiven Effekt auf die CO2-Bilanz hat. Um die Speicherung in den verschiedenen Kompartimenten erfassen zu können müssen geeignete Inventurverfahren zur Verfügung stehen. Die IPCC – GPG benennen die Speicher und geben zum Teil Anforderungen an die zu erreichende Inventurgenauigkeit. Aus der klassischen Forsteinrichtung stehen genügend Methoden zur Verfügung, um das oberirdische Volumen sehr genau zu erheben. Um den Anforderungen an ein umfassendes Kohlenstoffmonitoring genügen zu können, müssen diese Verfahren in den Bereichen Erfassung von Störungsfolgen, Totholzdynamik, Boden und der Berechnung von Gesamt-Kohlenstoffvorräten aus dem Holzvolumen ergänzt werden. Zusätzlich bietet sich an, Bewirtschaftungsmaßnahmen entsprechend zu erfassen, um ihre Auswirkung auf die Kohlenstoffdynamik ebenfalls feststellen zu können. Dies ist für die Berichterstattung zwischen Inventuren sowie für die Herausrechnung von nicht-menschenverursachter erhöhter Kohlenstoffspeicherung („factoring out“ im Sinne des KP) wünschenswert. Wenn Bewirtschaftungsmaßnahmen unterschieden werden können und ihre Auswirkungen auf C-Vorräte bestimmbar sind, ist eine Verifizierung erhöhter Speicherung auch z. B. für Projekte nach Art. 3.4 des KP durchführbar. Diese Arbeiten stecken jedoch noch in der Anfangsphase. Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit wurde die erste verfügbare qualitative Übersicht zu dieser Thematik erstellt. Die Optimierung der Wald-Holz-Option wird durch die im Kyoto-Protokoll (und den zugehörigen Folgeabkommen) vereinbarten Regelungen erschwert, da einerseits zwischen Wald und Produkten eine Trennung besteht und andererseits die Maßnahmenverantwortlichem im Wald nicht direkt durch das KP angesprochen werden. Eingeschlagenes Holz wird im Wald als Emission betrachtet und dem entsprechenden Sektor zugerechnet, was jedoch keine Auswirkungen auf den Forstbetrieb hat. Dieser profitiert im Gegenteil derzeit von der durch die – auch von KP Regelungen beeinflussten – Holzpreise und erhöht die Nutzungen, was zu Vorratsabsenkungen im Wald führt. Ob diese Absenkungen durch die Substitutionseffekte des geernteten Holzes kompensiert werden ist derzeit noch nicht geklärt. Um die Trennung zwischen Wald und Produktpool aufzuweichen bietet es sich an, die Waldbesitzer am Emissionsrechtehandel teilhaben zu lassen, damit nicht nur die Ernte sondern auch der Ernteverzicht finanziell bewertbar sind. Sozio-ökonomische Szenarien zur künftigen Entwicklung der Landwirtschaft zeigen große Flächenpotentiale, die für die Nahrungs- und Futtermittelproduktion nicht mehr benötigt werden oder nicht mehr rentabel sein werden. Eine mögliche Nutzung in Zukunft sind Energieholzplantagen. Informationen zu möglichen Erträgen sind zur Zeit noch unzureichend und Analysen zur Nachhaltigkeit dieser Erträge unter Klimawandel sind nicht vorhanden. In dieser Arbeit wurde mit dem ökophysiologischen Waldwachstumsmodell 4C an Beispielsstandorten in Brandenburg das Wachstum von Energieholzplantagen unter derzeitigem Klima und unter verschiedenen regionalisierten Klimawandelszenarien bis 2055 simuliert. Ertragspotentiale liegen derzeit auf der Mehrzahl der Standorte im positiven Bereich, auf einigen Standorten ist jedoch nur begrenzt mit positiven Deckungsbeiträgen zu rechnen. Bis 2055 ist in allen Szenarien mit einem leichten Rückgang der Erträge und einer deutlicheren Verringerung der Grundwasserneubildung unter Energieholzplantagen zu rechnen. Die Unterschiede zwischen Standorten sind jedoch derzeit und unter zukünftig möglichem Klima stärker als klimabedingte Änderungen. Bei der großflächigen Anlage von Energieholzplantagen können negative Auswirkungen auf die Biodiversität und andere Naturschutzbelange eintreten. Eine diese Effekte abmildernde Flächengestaltung, die trotzdem Erträge auf dem Niveau heutiger Vollerwerbslandwirtschaft erreicht, ist möglich. Insgesamt lässt sich für die Optimierung der Wald-Holz-Option feststellen, dass eine Nicht-Nutzung bestehender Waldflächen unter Klimaschutzgesichtspunkten negativ ist. Der Substitutionseffekt geernteten Holzes beträgt zusätzliche ca. 70 Prozent Kohlenstoff, die in dieser Form in nicht bewirtschafteten mitteleuropäischen Wäldern nicht zusätzlich gespeichert werden. Es ist davon auszugehen, dass sich durch die Berücksichtigung von Substitutionseffekten andere – wahrscheinlich kürzere – als die heute üblichen Produktionszeiten ergeben. Auf bisher waldfreien Flächen ist die Anlage von Energieholzplantagen positiver zu werten als eine normale Aufforstung.
The objective of this thesis is to improve the knowledge of control mechanisms of hydrological induced mass movements. To this end, detailed hydrological process studies and physically-based hydrological modelling were applied. The study site is a hillslope in the Dornbirn Ache valley near Bregenz, Austria. This so called Heumös slope features a deep-seated translational shear zone and surface near creep movements of up to 10 cm a year. The Cretaceous marlstones of the Austrian Helveticum have a high susceptibility for weathering and might form clay-rich cohesive sediments. In addition, glacial and post-glacial processes formed an unstable hillslope. High yearly precipitation depths of about 2100 mm and rainstorms with both high intensities and precipitation depths govern surface and subsurface hydrological processes. Pressure propagation induced in hydrological active areas influences laterally the groundwater reactions of the moving mass. A complex three-dimensional subsurface pressure system is the cause for fast groundwater reactions despite low hydraulic conductivities. To understand hillslope scale variability, hydrotopes representing specific dominating processes were mapped using vegetation association distribution and soil core analysis. Detailed small-scale soil investigations followed to refine the understanding of these hydrotopes. A perceptional model was developed from the hydrotope distribution and was corroborated by these detailed investigations. The moving hillslope is dominated by surface-runoff generation. Infiltration and deep percolation of water is inhibited through clay-rich gleysols; the yearly average soil moisture is close to saturation. Steep slopes adjacent to the moving hillslope are far more active concerning infiltration, preferential flow and groundwater fluctuations. Spring discharge observations at the toe of the steep slopes are in close relation to groundwater table observations on the moving hillslope body. Evidence of pressure propagation from the steep slopes towards the hillslope body is gathered by comparison of dominating structures and processes. The application of the physically-based hydrological model CATFLOW substantiates the idea of pressure propagation as a key process for groundwater reactions and as a possible trigger for movement in the hillslope.
Semiaride Gebiete sind hauptsächlich durch geringe Wasserressourcen gekennzeichnet und unterliegen häufig dem Risiko der Wasserknappheit. In diesen Gebieten ist die Wasserbereitstellung für Bewässerung und Trinkwasserversorgung stark von der oberflächlichen Speicherung in Stauseen abhängig, deren Wasserverfügbarkeit nachteilig durch Sedimentablagerung beeinflusst wird. Zur Wiedergabe des komplexen Sedimentablagerungsverhaltens in Stauseen von semiariden Gebieten und die Auswirkungen von Sedimentmanagementmaßnahmen wird ein Sedimentationsmodell entwickelt und mit dem WASA-SED Modell gekoppelt, das für die Modellierung der Abflussbildung und des Sedimenttransportes in Einzugsgebieten geeignet ist. Das Sedimentationsmodell beinhaltet zwei Ansätze, die unter der Berücksichtigung verschiedener Stauseengrößenklassen und Datenverfügbarkeit eingesetzt werden können. Für die Stauseen mit verfügbaren Informationen über ihre geometrischen Eigenschaften (wie Stauseetopographie und Höhe-Fläche-Volumen-Beziehung) und weitere Kenngrößen wie Ablagerungsmächtigkeit, Korngrößenverteilung und Sedimentdichte, kann ein detaillierter Modellansatz für die Sedimentablagerung verwendet werden. Wo diese Informationen nicht verfügbar sind, wird auf einen vereinfachten Ansatz zurückgegriffen. Der detaillierte Modellansatz ermöglicht die Betrachtung von Ablagerungsmustern im Stausee und Einschätzungen über die Effektivität von Sedimentmanagementmaßnahmen hinsichtlich der Sedimententlastung. Dieser Ansatz beruht auf der Simulation des Sedimenttransportes entlang eines Stauseelängsprofils. Für die Berechnung des Sedimenttransfers wird der Stauseekörper in einer Folge von Querprofilen repräsentiert. Der Sedimenttransport wird dabei korngrößenspezifisch entsprechend der Transportkapazität berechnet. Dafür stehen vier verschiedenen Sedimenttransportgleichungen zur Verfügung. Der vereinfachte Modellansatz ist für die Simulation des Sedimenttransfers in Gebieten mit hoher Stauseedichte geeignet, jedoch können weder Sedimentmanagementmaßnahmen noch die räumliche Verteilung der Ablagerungen berücksichtigt werden. Dafür werden die Stauseen in Abhängigkeit von ihrer Größe und Position in kleine und strategische Stauseen unterteilt. Dabei sind strategische Stausseen solche mit mittlerem bis großem Volumen sowie einer Lage im Hauptgerinne oder solche mit sonstiger besonderer Bedeutung. Kleine Stauseen hingegen befinden sich an den Nebenflüssen und werden im Modell in aggregierter Form durch ihre Einteilung in Stauseegrößenklassen repräsentiert. Ein Kaskadenverfahren wird für den Wasser- und Sedimentlauf zwischen den Stauseeklassen verwendet. Dabei werden für jede Stauseeklasse der Wasser- sowie Sedimenthaushalt für einen hypothetischen repräsentativen Stausee mit mittleren Eigenschaften berechnet. Die Sedimentaufnahme und die Korngrößenverteilung des abgegebenen Sediments werden mit dem Überlaufanteil-Ansatz berechnet. In dieser Studie werden drei Modellanwendungen vorgestellt: • Für den 92,2 Mio.m³-großen Barasona-Stausee (Vorland der Zentralpyrenäen, Aragon, Spanien) wird die Modellierung der Sedimentablagerung mit dem detaillierten Modellansatz vorgenommen. Die Kalibrierung dafür wurde in zwei Schritten durchgeführt, um Änderungen im Stauseemanagement Rechnung zu tragen. Die ModellValidierung wird schließlich für eine andere Simulationsperiode vorgenommen. Dabei wird ersichtlich, dass die Prozesse der Sedimentablagerung gut durch das Modell wiedergegeben werden. • Das Modell wird auf das 933 km²-große Benguê-Einzugsgebiet, das sich im semiariden Nordosten Brasiliens befindet, angewendet. Dieses Einzugsgebiet ist durch eine hohe Dichte an kleinen Stauseen, charakterisiert, die fast 45% des Gebietes umfasst, wofür jedoch wenige Messdaten verfügbar sind. Deshalb werden der Wasser- und Sedimenttransport mit dem vereinfachten Modellansatz berechnet. Dabei werden drei Konfigurationen des Kaskadenverfahrens getestet. • Die Modellanwendung erfolgt erneut für den Barasona-Stausee bezüglich der Effektivität der Sedimentmanagementmaßnahmen. Eine Kostenanalyse ermöglicht die Auswahl geeigneter Maßnahmen für den Stausee. Dadurch wird eine Beurteilung der verschiedenen Sedimentmanagementstrategien ermöglicht. Im Allgemeinen unterliegen die Simulationsergebnisse großen Unsicherheiten, teilweise wegen der geringen Datenverfügbarkeit, andererseits durch die Unsicherheiten in der Modellstruktur zur korrekten Wiedergabe der Sedimentablagerungsprozesse.
Streamflow dynamics in mountainous environments are controlled by runoff generation processes in the basin upstream. Runoff generation processes are thus a major control of the terrestrial part of the water cycle, influencing both, water quality and water quantity as well as their dynamics. The understanding of these processes becomes especially important for the prediction of floods, erosion, and dangerous mass movements, in particular as hydrological systems often show threshold behavior. In case of extensive environmental changes, be it in climate or in landuse, the understanding of runoff generation processes will allow us to better anticipate the consequences and can thus lead to a more responsible management of resources as well as risks. In this study the runoff generation processes in a small undisturbed catchment in the Chilean Andes were investigated. The research area is characterized by steep hillslopes, volcanic ash soils, undisturbed old growth forest and high rainfall amounts. The investigation of runoff generation processes in this data scarce area is of special interest as a) little is known on the hydrological functioning of the young volcanic ash soils, which are characterized by extremely high porosities and hydraulic conductivities, b) no process studies have been carried out in this area at either slope or catchment scale, and c) understanding the hydrological processes in undisturbed catchments will provide a basis to improve our understanding of disturbed systems, the shift in processes that followed the disturbance and maybe also future process evolution necessary for the achievement of a new steady state. The here studied catchment has thus the potential to serve as a reference catchment for future investigations. As no long term data of rainfall and runoff exists, it was necessary to replace long time series of data with a multitude of experimental methods, using the so called "multi-method approach". These methods cover as many aspects of runoff generation as possible and include not only the measurement of time series such as discharge, rainfall, soil water dynamics and groundwater dynamics, but also various short term measurements and experiments such as determination of throughfall amounts and variability, water chemistry, soil physical parameters, soil mineralogy, geo-electrical soundings and tracer techniques. Assembling the results like pieces of a puzzle produces a maybe not complete but nevertheless useful picture of the dynamic ensemble of runoff generation processes in this catchment. The employed methods were then evaluated for their usefulness vs. expenditures (labour and financial costs). Finally, the hypotheses - the perceptual model of runoff generation generated from the experimental findings - were tested with the physically based model Catflow. Additionally the process-based model Wasim-ETH was used to investigate the influence of landuse on runoff generation at the catchment scale. An initial assessment of hydrologic response of the catchment was achieved with a linear statistical model for the prediction of event runoff coefficients. The parameters identified as best predictors give a first indication of important processes. Various results acquired with the "multi-method approach" show that response to rainfall is generally fast. Preferential vertical flow is of major importance and is reinforced by hydrophobicity during the summer months. Rapid lateral water transport is necessary to produce the fast response signal, however, while lateral subsurface flow was observed at several soil moisture profiles, the location and type of structures causing fast lateral flow on the hillslope scale is still not clear and needs to be investigated in more detail. Surface runoff has not been observed and is unlikely due to the high hydraulic conductivities of the volcanic ash soils. Additionally, a large subsurface storage retains most of the incident rainfall amount during events (>90%, often even >95%) and produces streamflow even after several weeks of drought. Several findings suggest a shift in processes from summer to winter causing changes in flow patterns, changes in response of stream chemistry to rainfall events and also in groundwater-surface water interactions. The results of the modelling study confirm the importance of rapid and preferential flow processes. However, due to the limited knowledge on subsurface structures the model still does not fully capture runoff response. Investigating the importance of landuse on runoff generation showed that while peak runoff generally increased with deforested area, the location of these areas also had an effect. Overall, the "multi-method approach" of replacing long time series with a multitude of experimental methods was successful in the identification of dominant hydrological processes and thus proved its applicability for data scarce catchments under the constraint of limited resources.