Scale-dependent perspectives on the geomorphology and evolution of beachdune systems

Despite widespread recognition that landforms are complex Earth systems with process-response linkages that span temporal scales from seconds to millennia and spatial scales from sand grains to landscapes, research that integrates knowledge across these scales is fairly uncommon. As a result, understanding of geomorphic systems is often scale-constrained due to a host of methodological, logistical, and theoretical factors that limit the scope of how Earth scientists study landforms and broader landscapes. This paper reviews recent advances in understanding of the geomorphology of beach-dune systems derived from over a decade of collaborative research from Prince Edward Island (PEI), Canada. A comprehensive summary of key findings is provided from short-term experiments embedded within a decade-long monitoring program and a multi-decadal reconstruction of coastal landscape change. Specific attention is paid to the challenges of scale integration and the contextual limitations research at specific spatial and/or temporal scales imposes. A conceptual framework is presented that integrates across key scales of investigation in geomorphology and is grounded in classic ideas in Earth surface sciences on the effectiveness of formative events at different scales. The paper uses this framework to organize the review of this body of research in a 'scale aware' way and, thereby, identifies many new advances in knowledge on the form and function of subaerial beach-dune systems. Finally, the paper offers a synopsis of how greater understanding of the complexities at different scales can be used to inform the development of predictive models, especially those at a temporal scale of decades to centuries, which are most relevant to coastal management issues. Models at this (landform) scale require an understanding of controls that exist at both ‘landscape’ and ‘plot’ scales. Landscape scale controls such as sea level change, regional climate, and the underlying geologic framework essentially provide bounding conditions for independent variables such as winds, waves, water levels, and littoral sediment supply. Similarly, an holistic understanding of the range of processes, feedbacks, and linkages at the finer plot scale is required to inform and verify the assumptions that underly the physical modelling of beach-dune interaction at the landform scale

Pumping test analysis using a layered cylindrical grid numerical model in a complex, heterogeneous Chalk Aquifer

A groundwater investigation including several pumping tests has been carried out by Thames Water Utilities Limited (TWUL) to improve the understanding of the distribution of hydraulic properties of the Chalk in the Swanscombe area of Kent in south-eastern England. The pumping test behaviour is complicated by: the fractured condition of the Chalk, simultaneous pumping from adjacent boreholes, and variable pumping rates during the test. In addition, the groundwater flow system is complicated by quarrying of the Chalk. Analytical solutions for pumping test analysis fail to represent these complex flow processes and cannot reproduce the observed time drawdown curves. A layered cylindrical grid numerical model has been applied to the results of the Swanscombe pumping test. This model can represent the heterogeneity of the aquifer and the detailed flow processes close to the abstraction borehole such as well storage, seepage face and well losses. It also includes a numerical representation of the moving water table using a grid that deforms to eliminate numerical instabilities. The analyses of the test results demonstrate that they are significantly influenced by fracture flow, which needs to be included to improve the simulation of the groundwater system; not withstanding this, the layered cylindrical grid numerical model reproduced many of the features in observed time-drawdown, which allowed an assessment of the hydraulic characteristics of the aquifer as well as the investigation of the impact of quarries on the test results. This has demonstrated that the numerical model is a powerful tool that can be used to analyse complex pumping tests and aid to improvement of the conceptual understanding of a groundwater system

An enigmatic chondrichthyan with Paleozoic affinities from the Lower Triassic of Western Canada

Listracanthus pectenatus sp. nov. represents the youngest record of the enigmatic chondrichthyan Listracanthus. This new species is the only Mesozoic record of this genus and highlights survival of a rare and enigmatic group of cartilaginous fishes across the Paleozoic–Mesozoic boundary. In the Vega−Phroso Siltstone Member of the Sulphur Mountain Formation (western Canada), two kinds of numerous dermal denticles identified as Listracanthus occur predominantly in strata probably of early Smithian age. The new species differs from all other known species of the genus in the structure of the anterior and posterior borders of the large denticles. The small denticles appear to be less diagnostic than the large ones and are readily distinguished from small denticles generally assigned to the genus Petrodus. Histology reveals that the largest denticles were originally hollow, probably secondarily ossified as acellular bone. The conclusion drawn by previous authors that Listracanthus may be a petalodontid shark, based on ambiguous non−skeletal associations with Deltoptychius, Petrodus, or Calopodusis not supported by this study. The large number of denticles, the size of both types of denticles and their arrangement suggest that Listracanthus pectenatus sp. nov. was a large chondrichthyan of aberrant body shape and yet uncertain systematic position

A large marine eosauropterygian reptile with affinities to nothosauroid diapsids from the Early Triassic of British Columbia, Canada

Sauropterygia, one of the main clades of Mesozoic marine reptiles, diversified shortly after the Permo-Triassic biotic crisis and afterwards remained one of the major components of Early Triassic and later Mesozoic marine ecosystems. On the other hand, actual specimens of marine reptiles of Olenekian age are still rare in the fossil record, coming only from a few localities worldwide. Here we describe associated remains of a larger marine reptile of around 4 m body length, with nothosauroidean affinities from the Sulphur Mountain Formation exposed at the L cirque locality of Wapiti Lake area in British Columbia. Although the specimen records only scattered parts of the posterior vertebral column, some gastral ribs and most notably, the proximal portion of one hind limb together with a fan-shaped ischium, it represents one of the oldest records of Sauropterygia and larger representatives of aff. Nothosauroidea specifically, as well as the northernmost occurrence of such animals in the Triassic. As such, the new specimen is important for understanding the biogeography and early evolution of the group and that of Sauropterygia, in general

Reactive uptake coefficients for N2O5 determined from aircraft measuremnts during the Second Texas Air Quality Study: Comparison to current model parameterizations

This paper presents determinations of reactive uptake coefficients for N2O5, gamma( N2O5), on aerosols from nighttime aircraft measurements of ozone, nitrogen oxides, and aerosol surface area on the NOAA P-3 during Second Texas Air Quality Study (TexAQS II). Determinations based on both the steady state approximation for NO3 and N2O5 and a plume modeling approach yielded gamma(N2O5) substantially smaller than current parameterizations used for atmospheric modeling and generally in the range 0.5-6 x 10(-3). Dependence of gamma(N2O5) on variables such as relative humidity and aerosol composition was not apparent in the determinations, although there was considerable scatter in the data. Determinations were also inconsistent with current parameterizations of the rate coefficient for homogenous hydrolysis of N2O5 by water vapor, which may be as much as a factor of 10 too large. Nocturnal halogen activation via conversion of N2O5 to ClNO2 on chloride aerosol was not determinable from these data, although limits based on laboratory parameterizations and maximum nonrefractory aerosol chloride content showed that this chemistry could have been comparable to direct production of HNO3 in some cases