Improvement of the solute transfer in a conceptual unsaturated zone scheme : a case study of the Seine River Basin

International audienceFor predicting the evolution of solute concentrations in groundwater and testing the impact of remediation policies, a coupling between the agronomical model STICS and the hydrogeological model MODCOU was implemented. Applied to the Seine river basin, this model represents accurately the temporal evolution of average nitrate concentrations in the aquifer, but with large local errors. We propose an improvement of the simple unsaturated zone scheme NonsatSW used in STICS-MODCOU. The modifications are based on a comparison with the mechanistic model Metis considered as a reference as it solves Richards'equation. A more realistic saturation profile and a varying percolation rate are integrated in NonsatSW. This new model, named NonsatVG, is assessed by a comparison with NonsatSW and Metis. In an ideal case, NonsatVG generates a solute transfer and a dispersion closer to that of Metis than NonsatSW. In real cases, without additional calibration, NonsatVG and Metis simulate better the average transfer velocities of the observed nitrate profiles. Furthermore, modifications in NonsatVG give a direct link between the water table depth and the saturation profile. We obtain therefore, as in Metis, an evolution of the solute transfer velocity depending on the piezometric level. These dynamics are not simulated in NonsatSW. Despite a modified water transfer through the unsaturated zone, NonsatVG is also as valid as NonsatSW in the modelling of water transfer to the saturated zone. Finally, an application on the Seine basin show that solute transfer velocities are lower with NonsatVG than with NonsatSW, but in better agreement with literature

Modelling the water budget and the riverflows of the Maritsa basin in Bulgaria

International audienceA soil-vegetation-atmosphere transfer model coupled with a macroscale distributed hydrological model was used to simulate the water cycle for a large region in Bulgaria. To do so, an atmospheric forcing was built for two hydrological years (1 October 1995 to 30 September 1997), at an eight km resolution. The impact of the human activities on the rivers (especially hydropower or irrigation) was taken into account. An improvement of the hydrometeorological model was made: for better simulation of summer riverflow, two additional reservoirs were added to simulate the slow component of the runoff. Those reservoirs were calibrated using the observed data of the 1st year, while the 2nd year was used for validation. 56 hydrologic stations and 12 dams were used for the model calibration while 41 river gauges were used for the validation of the model. The results compare well with the daily-observed discharges, with good results obtained over more than 25% of the river gauges. The simulated snow depth was compared to daily measurements at 174 stations and the evolution of the snow water equivalent was validated at 5 sites. The process of melting and refreezing of snow was found to be important in this region. The comparison of the normalized values of simulated versus measured soil moisture showed good correlation. The surface water budget shows large spatial variations due to the elevation influence on the precipitation, soil properties and vegetation variability. An inter-annual difference was observed in the water cycle as the first year was more influenced by Mediterranean climate, while the second year was characterised by continental influence. The energy budget shows a dominating sensible heat component in summer, due to the fact that the water stress limits the evaporation. This study is a first step for the implementation of an operational hydrometeorological model that could be used for real time monitoring and forecasting of water budget components and river flow in Bulgaria

Modelling the water budget and the riverflows of the Maritsa basin in Bulgaria

International audienceA soil-vegetation-atmosphere transfer model coupled with a macroscale distributed hydrological model was used in order to simulate the water cycle for a large region in Bulgaria. To do so, an atmospheric forcing was built for two hydrological years (1 October 1995 to 30 September 1997), at an eight km resolution. It was based on the data available at the National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology (NIMH) of Bulgaria. Atmospheric parameters were carefully checked and interpolated with a high level of detail in space and time (3-h step). Comparing computed Penman evapotranspiration versus observed pan evaporation validated the quality of the implemented forcing. The impact of the human activities on the rivers (especially hydropower or irrigation) was taken into account. Some improvements of the hydrometeorological model were made: for better simulation of summer riverflow, two additional reservoirs were added to simulate the slow component of the runoff. Those reservoirs were calibrated using the observed data of the 1st year, while the 2nd year was used for validation. 56 hydrologic stations and 12 dams were used for the model calibration while 41 rivergages were used for the validation of the model. The results compare well with the daily-observed discharges, with good results obtained over more than 25% of the rivergages. The simulated snow depth was compared to daily measurements at 174 stations and the evolution of the snow water equivalent was validated at 5 sites. The process of melting and refreezing of snow was found to be important on this region. The comparison of the normalized values of simulated versus measured soil moisture showed good correlation. The surface water budget shows large spatial variations due to the elevation influence on the precipitations, soil properties and vegetation variability. An inter annual difference was observed in the water cycle as the first year was more influenced by Mediterranean climate, while the second year was characterised by continental influence. Energy budget shows a dominating sensible heat component in summer, due to the fact that the water stress limits the evaporation. This study is a first step for the implementation of an operational hydrometeorological model that could be used for real time monitoring and forecast the water budget and the riverflow of Bulgaria

Prediction and experimental evidence of the optimisation of the angular branching process in the thallus growth of Podospora anserina

Based upon apical growth and hyphal branching, the two main processes that drive the growth pattern of a fungal network, we propose here a two-dimensions simulation based on a binary-tree modelling allowing us to extract the main characteristics of a generic thallus growth. In particular, we showed that, in a homogeneous environment, the fungal growth can be optimized for exploration and exploitation of its surroundings with a specific angular distribution of apical branching. Two complementary methods of extracting angle values have been used to confront the result of the simulation with experimental data obtained from the thallus growth of the saprophytic filamentous fungus Podospora anserina. Finally, we propose here a validated model that, while being computationally low-cost, is powerful enough to test quickly multiple conditions and constraints. It will allow in future works to deepen the characterization of the growth dynamic of fungal network, in addition to laboratory experiments, that could be sometimes expensive, tedious or of limited scope.Comment: Submitted to Scientific Repor

Assessing the water balance of the Upper Rhine Graben hydrosystem

International audienceThe Upper Rhine alluvial aquifer is an important transboundary water resource. However, as in many alluvial systems, the aquifer inflows and outflows are not precisely known because of the difficulty of estimating the river infiltration flux and the boundary subsurface flow. To provide a thorough representation of the aquifer system, a coupled surface-subsurface model was applied to the whole aquifer basin, and several parameter sets were tested to investigate the uncertainty due to poorly known parameters (e.g. aquifer transmissivity computed by an inverse model, river bed characteristics). Twelve simulations were run and analyzed using standard statistical criteria and also a more advanced statistical method, the Karhunen Loève transform (KLT). This analysis showed that, although the model performed reasonably well, some piezometric level underestimations persisted in the south of the basin. An accurate representation of the aquifer behaviour would require river infiltration and the functioning of irrigation canals in the Hardt area to be taken into account. It also appeared that increasing the maximum river infiltration flow deteriorated the quality of the results. River infiltration to the aquifer was estimated to represent about 80% of the aquifer inflows with a mean annual value around 115 ± 16.5 m3/s, thus with an uncertainty of 14%. This quantity is larger than estimated in previous studies but is in agreement with some results obtained during low water periods. This important conclusion highlights the vulnerability of the Upper Rhine Graben aquifer to pollution from the rivers and to climate change since it is highly probable that the rivers' regimes will be affected by reduced snow cover on the neighbouring mountain ranges

The SAFRAN-ISBA-MODCOU hydrometeorological model applied over France

An edited version of this paper was published by AGU. Copyright (2008) American Geophysical UnionThe hydrometeorological model SIM consists in a meterological analysis system (SAFRAN), a land surface model (ISBA) and a hydrogeological model (MODCOU). It generates atmospheric forcing at an hourly time step, and it computes water and surface energy budgets, the river ow at more than 900 rivergauging stations, and the level of several aquifers. SIM was extended over all of France in order to have a homogeneous nation-wide monitoring of the water resources: it can therefore be used to forecast flood risk and to monitor drought risk over the entire nation. The hydrometeorologival model was applied over a 10-year period from 1995 to 2005. In this paper the databases used by the SIM model are presented, then the 10-year simulation is assessed by using the observations of daily stream-flow, piezometric head, and snow depth. This assessment shows that SIM is able to reproduce the spatial and temporal variabilities of the water fluxes. The efficiency is above 0.55 (reasonable results) for 66 % of the simulated rivergages, and above 0.65 (rather good results) for 36 % of them. However, the SIM system produces worse results during the driest years, which is more likely due to the fact that only few aquifers are simulated explicitly. The annual evolution of the snow depth is well reproduced, with a square correlation coeficient around 0.9 over the large altitude range in the domain. The stream ow observations were used to estimate the overall error of the simulated latent heat ux, which was estimated to be less than 4 %

The Cellular Prion Protein Interacts with the Tissue Non-Specific Alkaline Phosphatase in Membrane Microdomains of Bioaminergic Neuronal Cells

BACKGROUND: The cellular prion protein, PrP(C), is GPI anchored and abundant in lipid rafts. The absolute requirement of PrP(C) in neurodegeneration associated to prion diseases is well established. However, the function of this ubiquitous protein is still puzzling. Our previous work using the 1C11 neuronal model, provided evidence that PrP(C) acts as a cell surface receptor. Besides a ubiquitous signaling function of PrP(C), we have described a neuronal specificity pointing to a role of PrP(C) in neuronal homeostasis. 1C11 cells, upon appropriate induction, engage into neuronal differentiation programs, giving rise either to serotonergic (1C11(5-HT)) or noradrenergic (1C11(NE)) derivatives. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The neuronal specificity of PrP(C) signaling prompted us to search for PrP(C) partners in 1C11-derived bioaminergic neuronal cells. We show here by immunoprecipitation an association of PrP(C) with an 80 kDa protein identified by mass spectrometry as the tissue non-specific alkaline phosphatase (TNAP). This interaction occurs in lipid rafts and is restricted to 1C11-derived neuronal progenies. Our data indicate that TNAP is implemented during the differentiation programs of 1C11(5-HT) and 1C11(NE) cells and is active at their cell surface. Noteworthy, TNAP may contribute to the regulation of serotonin or catecholamine synthesis in 1C11(5-HT) and 1C11(NE) bioaminergic cells by controlling pyridoxal phosphate levels. Finally, TNAP activity is shown to modulate the phosphorylation status of laminin and thereby its interaction with PrP. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: The identification of a novel PrP(C) partner in lipid rafts of neuronal cells favors the idea of a role of PrP in multiple functions. Because PrP(C) and laminin functionally interact to support neuronal differentiation and memory consolidation, our findings introduce TNAP as a functional protagonist in the PrP(C)-laminin interplay. The partnership between TNAP and PrP(C) in neuronal cells may provide new clues as to the neurospecificity of PrP(C) function

Modélisation du fonctionnement de l'aquifère alluvial du fossé rhénan supérieur, vulnérabilité sous l'impact du changement climatique

Ce travail de thèse s'est intéressé à la modélisation de l'aquifère alluvial du fossé rhénan supérieur, un hydrosystème de grande importance régionale, situé dans la partie franco-allemande du bassin du Rhin. Cet aquifère est caractérisé par des interactions nappes-rivières très importantes, qui sont encore relativement mal quantifiées du fait des fortes variations spatiales et temporelles qui les affectent. La modélisation hydrogéologique réalisée avec le logiciel MODCOU s'étend à la fois sur la plaine alluviale, et les bassins versants montagneux caractérisés par de fortes précipitations et des écoulements de subsurface vers la nappe alluviale du Rhin. La sensibilité du modèle à plusieurs paramètres hydrodynamiques a été testée, et la comparaison des simulations avec les observations piézométriques et hydrométriques grâce à des méthodes statistiques a permis d'estimer que l'infiltration des rivières représente plus des trois quarts de la recharge de la nappe. L'impact du changement climatique sur le fonctionnement de ce bassin a ensuite été estimé en prenant en compte plusieurs modèles de circulation générale, scénarios d'émission de gaz à effet de serre (SRES), et jeux de paramètres hydrodynamiques. Les projections climatiques utilisées conduisent à une assez forte dispersion des réponses en termes de débits et de piézométrie. Cependant, on constate une diminution généralisée de la recharge de la nappe, qui s'accentue à l'horizon 2100. L'évolution de la saisonnalité des écoulements est assez homogène pour l'ensemble des projections. L'analyse des incertitudes indique que la variance associée aux paramètres hydrodynamiques est assez faible, les principales sources d'incertitudes provenant des modèles de climat et des scénarios d'émission de gaz à effet de serre.PARIS-MINES ParisTech (751062310) / SudocSudocFranceF

Assessing the contribution of the main aquifer units of the Loire basin to river discharge during low flow

International audienc