1.
2.
Olsson, Mikael, 1948
(författare)
Polaris : Möten med världens poler www.polarisen.se
2009
Ingår i: http://www.polarisen.se. - Göteborg : University of Gothenburg.
Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
Polaris is a Swedish based web site dealing with Antarctic, Arctic and sub-polar areas around the globe, including sub-Arctic regions of Scandinavia and Eurasia. Polaris is focusing on peoples and places, research and resources on high latitudes. In particular, the site's ambition is to depict the interaction between the components and put them in a context of global environmental and climate change. The web site also addresses the Swedish polar and mountain research, exemplified by the depiction of a number of Swedish polar researchers' work and choice of career. Polaris main target group is high school students. We aim at establishing Polaris as the popular web site in Sweden for polar research. Polaris was a joint production by Gothenburg and Stockholm Universities and others during the International Polar Year 2007-09. The initiative to the website was taken by the Swedish Committee for International Polar Year, the Swedish Research Council and the Universeum Science Center in Gothenburg. There are many scientific contributors, mainly from the Centre of Earth Systems Science at the University of Gothenburg, the Tarfala Research Station at Stockholm University and the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat . Interviews and articles are made by professional science writers. All texts are in Swedish.
3.
Löfgren, Johan, 1983, et al.
(författare)
Sea Level Monitoring Using a GNSS-Based Tide Gauge
2009
Ingår i: 2nd International Colloquium - Scientific and Fundamental Aspects of the Galileo Programme, 14 - 16 October 2009, Padua, Italy.
Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
Global climate change is believed to result in the melting of large masses of ice in Polar Regions, bringing freshwater into the ocean, and changing the sea level. The traditional way to measure the sea level, by tide gauges, results in measurements relative to the Earth’s crust. However, in order to fully understand the sea level changes, absolute measurements (change in sea level in relation to the Earth’s center of gravity) are necessary, in particular in regions affected by post-glacial uplift, e.g., Fennoscandia. Satellite techniques, e.g., GNSS can be used to determine the motion of the Earth’s crust in relation to the center of gravity. By measuring reflected GNSS-signals from the sea surface, information of the sea level change can be obtained. Therefore a GNSS-based tide gauge is proposed.The proposed GNSS-based tide gauge installation consists of two antennas, one zenith looking right hand circular polarized (RHCP) and one nadir looking left hand circular polarized (LHCP), mounted back-to-back on a beam over the ocean. The RHCP antenna receives the GNSS-signals directly, whereas the LHCP antenna receives the signals reflected from the sea surface. Because of the additional path delay of the reflected signal, the LHCP antenna will appear to be a virtual GNSS-antenna located below the sea surface. When the sea level changes, the path delay of the reflected signal changes, thus the LHCP antenna will appear to be in a new position. The vertical position change corresponds to twice the sea level change, and therefore monitors sea level changes.Multiple satellites with different elevation and azimuth angles are observed each epoch and will give rise to reflected signals with different incidence angles from different directions. This means that the estimated sea level change can not be considered to originate from one specific point on the surface, but rather represents the change of an average surface formed by the reflection points.An experimental setup was installed in December 2008 over the ocean at Onsala Space Observatory (OSO) at the west coast of Sweden. Data was collected during three days using two Leica GRX1200+ receivers (one for the direct and one for the reflected signal). The receivers recorded 40 hours of continuous 20Hz data. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) as determined by the two receivers was used as a first data quality check. On average the SNR difference between the directly received and the reflected signals was less than 3dB.The data was analyzed using an in-house developed software in MATLAB. Solutions were made using L1 phase delays for relative positioning. Two approaches to estimate the vertical difference between the RHCP and the LHCP antenna were tested: hourly estimates of the vertical difference, and high-rate estimates of the vertical difference. For the hourly estimates 40 hours of continuous 1Hz data (reduced for faster processing using the TEQC software) were used. Each solution was made using 20 minutes of data every full hour, solving for differences in the local vertical components together with receiver clock and phase ambiguities differences for each epoch.The solution for the high-rate vertical component was made in two steps. First, the phase ambiguity differences were determined. This was done using equally distributed short intervals of ~1 second (21 epochs) from ~20 minutes of 20Hz data, solving for difference in phase ambiguities and receiver clocks every epoch together with differences in vertical coordinate for each short interval. The processing was done based on the assumptions that the sea surface does not change significantly during ~1 second and that the satellite geometry changes considerably in ~20 minutes. Second, the differences in phase ambiguities were rounded to the nearest integer and inserted as known values for a reprocessing of the 20Hz data. In this reprocessing the receiver clock parameters were estimated every epoch and the vertical coordinate difference with different time resolutions (e.g. 0.05s, 1s, 30s).The resulting time-series for the sea level change from the hourly solutions were compared to data from two traditional tide gauges operated by the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute at Ringhals and Göteborg, about 18 km south of and 33 km north of OSO, respectively. The GNSS-derived sea level change resembles reasonably well the independently observed sea level change. This indicates that the GNSS-tide gauge gives valuable results for sea level monitoring. Furthermore, the use of the high-rate GNSS-receivers additionally allows a flexible time resolution for sea level monitoring.
4.
Brandt, S. Anders, 1970-, et al.
(författare)
3D geovisualization as a communication and analysis tool in fluvial geomorphology
2004
Ingår i: Geoinformatics 2004. - Gävle : Gävle University Press. - 919749481X ; , s. 339-346
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat) abstract
The fields of hydrology and fluvial geomorphology get more and more attention in the general public. The reason for this is changed climate patterns with increased frequencies of storms and river flooding and as a result changed geomorphology and living conditions for the inhabitants of the area. With the development of 3D geovisualization, hydrological and geomorphological processes can be better simulated and visualized. Thus not only the domain specialists, but also the general public can appreciate very complex hydrological processes and resulting geomorphology. This is of great value since a high frequency of storms and flooding has been a big issue for politicians, planners, and the general public. It is in this sense that 3D geovisualization can be an important tool for analysis and communication. Complex hydrological and geomorphological processes can be effectively simulated and analyzed by the domain specialists while efficient and effective visualization provides a common platform for communication among domain specialists and the general public. This paper will discuss and illustrate these issues using a case study of geomorphology along the Reventazón River, downstream from the Cachí Reservoir in Costa Rica, due to the release of extreme amounts of sediment during flushing of the reservoir.
5.
Brandt, S. Anders, 1970-
(författare)
Conceptualization of hydraulic and sedimentary processes in downstream reaches during flushing of reservoirs
2005
Ingår i: Proceedings of the XXXI IAHR Congress [Elektronisk resurs]. - Seoul : Korea Water Resources Association. - 8987898237 ; , s. 2577-2588
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat) abstract
The main focus of this paper is to describe the active hydraulic and sedimentary processes in downstream river reaches during flushing of sediments from reservoirs. During flushing extreme amounts of sediment may be released. Therefore, these processes are different than those downstream from dams and reservoirs not subjected to flushing. Hence, also the effects differ, which knowledge of may be of value for biologists, etc. During flushing of a reservoir a wave will be released to the downstream reaches. This wave can be divided into one water part and one sediment part. Initially they are in phase with each other, but with increased distance downstream from the dam, the transported sediment lags behind the water due to different traveling velocities. The paper treats when and where sedimentation occurs, and how this is related to the different traveling velocities of water and sediment. Also included are discussions on how the downstream effects during flushing differ from non-flushing effects, how visualization of effects can enhance both the analysis and communication with planners, politicians, etc., as well as discussions on how the studies of these effects can benefit from improved field-work methods.
6.
Baresel, Christian, et al.
(författare)
Uncertainty-Accounting Environmental Policy and Management of Water Systems
2007
Ingår i: Environmental Science & Technology. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 0013-936X .- 1520-5851. ; 41:10, s. 3653–3659-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat) abstract
Environmental policies for water quality and ecosystemmanagement do not commonly require explicit stochasticaccounts of uncertainty and risk associated with thequantification and prediction of waterborne pollutant loadsand abatement effects. In this study, we formulate andinvestigate a possible environmental policy that does requirean explicit stochastic uncertainty account. We compareboth the environmental and economic resource allocationperformance of such an uncertainty-accounting environmentalpolicy with that of deterministic, risk-prone and riskaverseenvironmental policies under a range of differenthypothetical, yet still possible, scenarios. The comparisonindicates that a stochastic uncertainty-accountingpolicy may perform better than deterministic policies overa range of different scenarios. Even in the absence ofreliable site-specific data, reported literature values appearto be useful for such a stochastic account of uncertainty.
7.
8.
Humborg, Christoph, et al.
(författare)
Silicon and the Baltic Sea Long-term Si decrease in the Baltic Sea - A conceivable ecological risk?
2008
Ingår i: Journal of Marine Systems. - : Elsevier. - 0924-7963 .- 1879-1573. ; 73:3-4, s. 221-222
Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
Since the pioneering work of Schelske and Stoermer (1971) and Schelske et al., 1983 C.L. Schelske, E.F. Stoermer, D.J. Conley, J.A. Robbins and R.M. Glover, Early eutrophication in the Lower Great-Lakes — new evidence from biogenic silica in sediments, Science 222 (1983), pp. 320–322. View Record in Scopus | Cited By in Scopus (56)Schelske et al. (1983) it has been known that eutrophication of aquatic systems leads to depletion in dissolved silicate (DSi). Early studies on the Nile River have shown that the construction of dams leads to DSi decrease downstream due to the formation of additional deposition sites of biogenic silica (BSi) that was thought to consist mainly of diatoms. In the Baltic Sea there was a perception in the scientific community that DSi concentrations were high and therefore, that DSi concentrations were not limiting for diatom growth. Long-term trend analyses on DSi concentrations in the Baltic have shown decreasing trends in the 1970s and 1980s, whereas similar analysis for the 1990s concluded that DSi concentrations were no longer decreasing, but rather levelling off. Consequently, observations of reduced abundance of diatoms in the early 1990s were attributed to mild winters rather than low DSi concentrations, i.e., a low turbulence regime in the water column favouring non-siliceous algae. However, decadal nutrient trends in the Baltic Sea are significantly influenced by the large and varying internal Si pools in the sediments and deep water masses similar to that described for P dynamics in the Baltic Sea. No one seriously addressed the longer trends in DSi concentrations over the last century, whereas many studies estimated these changes for N and P.The EU funded research project SIBER (Silicate and Baltic Sea Ecosystem Response; EVK3-CT-2002-00069) began in 2002 with the objectives of understanding the major changes in Si dynamics in the Baltic Sea during the last century. The SIBER project addressed various aspects of the biogeochemical Si cycle in the Baltic Sea including constraining Si budgets for the Baltic Sea and its catchment, experiments describing the growth characteristics of Baltic diatoms related to the long-term trends in monitoring data of Baltic Sea diatoms.Si budgets are addressed by several papers in this special issue. Humborg et al. and Sferratore et al. describe riverine Si fluxes. Pastuszak et al. address estuarine Si fluxes. Redfield ratios including DSi and their development in the Baltic Sea are described by Danielsson et al.Possible ecosystem effects of changes in Redfield nutrient ratios are analysed in the paper by Olli et al. who examine phytoplankton responses in the Gulf of Riga and by Wasmund et al. who investigate long-term trends in phytoplankton species in the Kiel Bight. Spilling and Markager describe growth characteristics of Baltic Sea diatoms. Finally, in their paper Conley et al. present a long-term Si budget for the entire Baltic Sea for the first time.The Baltic Sea biogeochemical Si cycle has been fundamentally changed within the last century not only as a consequence of river regulation and lake eutrophication, but also through increases in the sediment accumulation of BSi (Conley et al.). Sediment accumulation of BSi has increased by a factor on 1.9 due to increased diatom growth from marine eutrophication. Results from the SIBER project indicate that DSi concentration were ca. 36 µM a century ago in the Baltic proper compared to ca. 13 µM observed today (Conley et al.). In fact, DSi concentrations have changed much more dramatically compared to N and P regarding the total changes in the available nutrient stocks. Similar changes have occurred in other large water bodies with respect to size and volume, i.e. the North American Great Lakes with long residence times where DSi decreased from 80–100 µM to ca. 25 µM. Surprisingly, such a major change in nutrient inventories has not been reported earlier in this well investigated coastal system. We are only starting to understand the possible ecological consequences, such as the occurrence of different diatom species that are less silicified and its implication for the sedimentation fluxes and carbon flux to benthic communities. The SIBER project has shown that a dramatic change in DSi concentrations is possible within a very short time period, although the situation appears stable today, perhaps since the drivers for this change, i.e. eutrophication and river regulation, have not changed within the last 30 years. However, even a slight increase in N and P loads and/or further damming of rivers may drive the Baltic Sea into Si-limitation.
9.
Löwemark, Ludvig, et al.
(författare)
Arctic Ocean manganese contents and sediment colour cycles
2008
Ingår i: Polar Research. - : Norwegian Polar Institute. - 0800-0395 .- 1751-8369. ; 27:2, s. 105-113
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat) abstract
Cyclical variations in colour and Mn content in sediments from the central Arctic Ocean have been interpreted to represent climatically controlled changes in the input of Mn from the Siberian hinterland and/or variations in the intermediate and deep water ventilation of the Arctic basins, although a diagenetic origin has not been excluded. A reinvestigation of core 96/12-1pc using an Itrax XRF core scanner confirms that these colour cycles are indeed controlled by variations in Mn content, although changes in the source region of the sediment may override the Mn-colour signal in certain intervals. The prominent Mn cycles show no correspondence to any of the other measured elements. This decoupling of the Mn and the bulk chemistry of the sediment is taken to indicate that the cycles observed are caused by variations in water column ventilation and riverine input rather than variations in sediment source or diagenesis. We therefore conclude that the Mn cycles do represent warm phases with increased ventilation and/or riverine input, and that they therefore could be used for chronostratigraphic correlation between cores from the central Arctic Ocean where traditional isotope stratigraphy is difficult or impossible to establish due to the lack of calcareous microfossils.
10.
Seibert, Jan, et al.
(författare)
Linking soil- and stream-water chemistry based on a Riparian Flow-Concentration Integration Model
2009
Ingår i: Hydrology and earth system sciences. - : Copernicus Publications. - 1607-7938 .- 1027-5606. ; 13:12, s. 2287-2297
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat) abstract
The riparian zone, the last few metres of soil through which water flows before entering a gaining stream, has been identified as a first order control on key aspects of stream water chemistry dynamics. We propose that the distribution of lateral flow of water across the vertical profile of soil water chemistry in the riparian zone provides a conceptual explanation of how this control functions in catchments where matrix flow predominates. This paper presents a mathematical implementation of this concept as well as the model assumptions. We also present an analytical solution, which provides a physical basis for the commonly used power-law flow-load equation. This approach quantifies the concept of riparian control on stream-water chemistry providing a basis for testing the concept of riparian control. By backward calculation of soil-water-chemistry profiles, and comparing those with observed profiles we demonstrate that the simple juxtaposition of the vertical profiles of water flux and soil water chemistry provides a plausible explanation for observed variations in stream water chemistry of several major stream components such as Total Organic Carbon (TOC), magnesium, calcium and chloride. The "static" implementation of the model structure presented here provides a basis for further development to account for seasonal influences and hydrological hysteresis in the representation of hyporheic, riparian, and hillslope processes.