Connectivity from source to sink in a lowland area: the Loire river basin (France)

Sediment connectivity relates to the transfer of sediments from sources to sinks via runoff and in channel transport. It is highly dependent on spatial variability of landscape properties such as differences in morphology, land use and infiltration/runoff characteristics but may also vary in time due to differences in rainfall amount/intensity and changes in vegetation cover throughout the year. In the Loire river basin, we found that sediment fluxes displayed strong variations in space but also at the interannual and seasonnal time scales (Gay et al. 2013). In this context, our goal is to better understand and quantify hillslope sediment redistributions within this lowland area thanks to the use of semi distributed connectivity approach. To this aim, Borselli's index of connectivity (IC, Borselli et al., 2008) is selected to assess hillslope connectivity at annual and seasonal time scales. Several improvements are proposed to take into account the coupling of the structural landscape connectivity and its hydrosedimentary response. Parameters such as rainfall intensity and differences in seasonal land cover are integrated into the model to account for landscape variations through time. Infiltration and runoff indices were also tested. Preliminary results confirm the variability of landscape connectivity throughout the year. The integration of the index of infiltration and runoff properties of landscape (IDPR) as defined by Mardhel et al. 2004 seems to improve the IC model outputs. From this first step, in-stream sediment connectivity index should be developed for a better understanding and assessment of sediment redistributions at the entire catchment scal

Study of overland flow with uncertain infiltration using stochastic tools

The saturated hydraulic conductivity is one of the key parameters in the modelling of overland flow water fluxes. In this study, this parameter is defined as a stochastic parameter, idealized as a piecewise constant random field with uniform distribution. This paper aims at investigating the effects of the spatial and temporal scales in uncertainty propagation within overland flow models, and at identifying the localization of the most influential saturated hydraulic conductivity using sensitivity analysis. The results show that the influence of saturated hydraulic conductivity depends on the soil saturation and its spatial localization. For instance, in case of low saturated soils, the most influent parameter is the one located downslope, whereas in case of high saturated soils, the most influent one is either the most infiltrating or the intermediate one. The results indicate where efforts should be concentrate when collecting input parameters to reduce modelling uncertainties

Overland flow modelling with the Shallow Water Equation using a well balanced numerical scheme: Adding efficiency or just more complexity?

In the last decades, more or less complex physically-based hydrological models, have been developed that solve the shallow water equations or their approximations using various numerical methods. Model users may not necessarily know the different hypothesis lying behind these development and simplifications, and it might therefore be difficult to judge if a code is well adapted to their objectives and test case configurations. This paper aims at comparing the predictive abilities of different models and evaluating potential gain by using advanced numerical scheme for modelling runoff. We present four different codes, each one based on either shallow water or kinematic waves equations, and using either finite volume or finite difference method. We compare these four numerical codes on different test cases allowing to emphasize their main strengths and weaknesses. Results show that, for relatively simple configurations, kinematic waves equations solved with finite volume method represent an interesting option. Nevertheless, as it appears to be limited in case of discontinuous topography or strong spatial heterogeneities, for these cases we advise the use of shallow water equations solved with the finite volume method

A review of physically based models for soil erosion by water

International audiencePhysically-based models rely on fundamental physical equations describing stream flow and sediment and associated nutrient generation in a catchment. This paper reviews several existing erosion and sediment transport approaches. The process of erosion include soil detachment, transport and deposition, we present various forms of equations and empirical formulas used when modelling and quantifying each of these processes. In particular, we detail models describing rainfall and infiltration effects and the system of equations to describe the overland flow and the evolution of the topography. We also present the formulas for the flow transport capacity and the erodibility functions. Finally, we present some recent numerical schemes to approach the shallow water equations and it's coupling with infiltration and erosion source terms

A method to calculate sediment fluxes from infrequent data: application to 65 rivers of the French river quality database

International audienceImproving knowledge of sediment exports represents one major challenge for environmental sciences considering their role in geochemical cycles and their link with Earth's surface processes. Because suspended sediment (SS) fluxes in rivers reflect the integration of combined erosion, transport and deposition processes that occur within the drained area, their calculation is thus essential in surface processes studies. Suspended sediment fluxes are estimated from discharge measurements and SS concentrations, either by averaging methods or by predicting sediment concentration values from continuous discharge data. In the latter case, a power function (or power law relation) is often defined between the observed SS concentrations and the corresponding discharge data. However it seems unrealistic to consider a single relation between SS concentrations and river discharges. The reason is hat sediment production processes are not homogeneous in time, showing local and seasonal effects for example in agricultural areas where land cover varies inside a year or in mountainous regions where snow melting has a strong influence. Moreover, these processes are also spatially heterogeneous, due to spatial patterns in landscape characteristics, meteorological phenomena and geomorphology. In addition, important gaps persist when calculating SS fluxes, mainly due to SS measurements are not always carried out with high frequency. Based on 65 river basins in France, with various sizes, geomorphologies and land uses, this study aims at testing methods for an estimation of annual sediment loads, based on infrequent SPM concentration data spanning over several decades

Gully erosion prediction in a Sahelian context

In Sahelian region, concentrated overland flow often leads to the formation of gullies. Although this phenomenon is widespread in those regions, research efforts are still needed to be able to model their spatial distribution and the role of the different parameters involved in this process. In this context, the objectives of this study are twofold. The first step is to investigate to what extent the role of Sahelian soil surface crusts (biological and/or physical) on soil surface infiltrability and detachment affect the formation and development of gullies. The second step is to integrate the results of these investigations in a simple geomorphological model to predict gully location at the watershed scale. The evaluation of the resulting model on two test catchments demonstrated that the integration of soil crusting is a key parameter to insure the quality and relevance of gully prediction. The model is able to distinguish between two types of gullies, those whose width range between 0.5m and 4m and those whose width exceeds 4m. The application of the model at the regional scale is however limited by the resolution of available regional digital elevation model (i.e. the 90m resolution SRTM DEM) which only permits the prediction of large gullies

Establishment of Mouse Embryonic Stem Cell-Derived Erythroid Progenitor Cell Lines Able to Produce Functional Red Blood Cells

BACKGROUND: The supply of transfusable red blood cells (RBCs) is not sufficient in many countries. If erythroid cell lines able to produce transfusable RBCs in vitro were established, they would be valuable resources. However, such cell lines have not been established. To evaluate the feasibility of establishing useful erythroid cell lines, we attempted to establish such cell lines from mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We developed a robust method to obtain differentiated cell lines following the induction of hematopoietic differentiation of mouse ES cells and established five independent hematopoietic cell lines using the method. Three of these lines exhibited characteristics of erythroid cells. Although their precise characteristics varied, each of these lines could differentiate in vitro into more mature erythroid cells, including enucleated RBCs. Following transplantation of these erythroid cells into mice suffering from acute anemia, the cells proliferated transiently, subsequently differentiated into functional RBCs, and significantly ameliorated the acute anemia. In addition, we did not observe formation of any tumors following transplantation of these cells. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report to show the feasibility of establishing erythroid cell lines able to produce mature RBCs. Considering the number of human ES cell lines that have been established so far, the intensive testing of a number of these lines for erythroid potential may allow the establishment of human erythroid cell lines similar to the mouse erythroid cell lines described here. In addition, our results strongly suggest the possibility of establishing useful cell lines committed to specific lineages other than hematopoietic progenitors from human ES cells

Analyse et modélisation du transfert de particules solides à l'échelle de petits bassins versants cultivés

300 ref. *INRA d'Orléans, Documentation, Ardon 45166 Olivet Diffusion du document : INRA d'Orléans, Documentation, Ardon 45166 Olivet Diplôme : Dr. d'Universit