Devonian and Carboniferous stratigraphical correlation and interpretation in the Orcadian area, Central North Sea, Quadrants 7 - 22

This report details the stratigraphy and palaeogeography of Devonian and Carboniferous rocks of the northern sector of the UK Central North Sea (the ‘Orcadian Area’) for the 21CXRM Palaeozoic project. The work integrates the lithostratigraphic framework for the Middle Devonian to Late Carboniferous succession in the region of the Mid North Sea High developed in the first phase of the 21CXRM Palaeozoic project (Kearsey et al., 2015), with the Early Devonian to Early Carboniferous succession present in the north Central North Sea. This report describes the stratigraphical correlation of Devonian and Carboniferous strata of the Orcadian Basin and the northern extension of the Forth Approaches into the Witch Ground Graben (Quadrants 7 – 22). A lithostratigraphic framework for the region is presented, building on the work of Cameron (1993) and Marshall and Hewett (2003). For the Devonian strata, the lithostratigraphic framework developed by Marshall and Hewett (2003) is followed. Their study presented a substantial revision of the previous Devonian stratigraphy for the region, particularly related to (1) reassessment of the Devonian - Permian contact and (2) the identification of the Eday Group offshore in the Inner Moray Firth Basin. In this study, onshore outcrops, well data and seismic interpretation (cf. Arsenikos et al., 2016) verify the key elements of the framework of Marshall and Hewett (2003). In addition, well interpretations further define the extent of the stratigraphical units and form the basis of potential source and reservoir horizon palaeogeographic reconstructions for four time intervals within the Devonian succession. For example, the potential source rock of the Orcadia Formation has been interpreted to the north of the Halibut Horst and into the East Orkney Basin, significantly increasing the extent of this unit outside the Inner Moray Firth. A revised lithostratigraphic framework for the Carboniferous strata of Quadrants 14, 15, 20 and 21 is presented. This framework links the Carboniferous succession of the Orcadian Area with equivalent age strata in areas on and surrounding the Mid North Sea High (Kearsey et al., 2015). Well and seismic interpretations have been integrated to better define the extent of Carboniferous units. Regional facies variations for key time intervals in the Early Carboniferous are presented which highlight relationships between the Carboniferous basins of the Witch Ground Graben and Forth Approaches, and those of the Mid North Sea High and adjacent regions to the south. For example, fluvial channel systems have been interpreted within late Visean age coal-bearing, fluvial and lacustrine deposits of the Firth Coal Formation, that are potential feeder systems for Yoredale Formation fluvio-deltaic to marine deposits farther south. This report forms one of a series of outputs from the 21CXRM Palaeozoic project (Orcadian Area) and provides explanatory information for the associated digital datasets (spreadsheet). The Orcadian Area study follows previous work undertaken in the Mid North Sea High area of the Central North Sea (CNS area; Figure 1). Key elements of the regional petroleum geology of the Orcadian area are summarised in an accompanying synthesis report (Monaghan et al., 2016)

Push-pull fatigue properties of wires in an iridium - 5% tungsten alloy

Introduction This memorandum reports a series of tests to determine the fatigue properties of an iridium - 5% tungsten alloy at 600°c and 700°C. A previous memorandum, Memo. Mat. 61, reports the fatigue properties at room temperature of the same alloy

How many active regions are necessary to predict the solar dipole moment?

We test recent claims that the polar field at the end of Cycle 23 was weakened by a small number of large, abnormally oriented regions, and investigate what this means for solar cycle prediction. We isolate the contribution of individual regions from magnetograms for Cycles 21, 22 and 23 using a 2D surface flux transport model, and find that although the top ~10% of contributors tend to define sudden large variations in the axial dipole moment, the cumulative contribution of many weaker regions cannot be ignored. In order to recreate the axial dipole moment to a reasonable degree, many more regions are required in Cycle 23 than in Cycles 21 and 22 when ordered by contribution. We suggest that the negative contribution of the most significant regions of Cycle 23 could indeed be a cause of the weak polar field at the following cycle minimum and the low-amplitude Cycle 24. We also examine the relationship between a region's axial dipole moment contribution and its emergence latitude, flux, and initial axial dipole moment. We find that once the initial dipole moment of a given region has been measured, we can predict the long-term dipole moment contribution using emergence latitude alone.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

Integrated systems approach for enhancing resilience of arid farming systems in South Asia

This paper aims to share the methods and processes of designing resilient farming systems to improve livelihoods under the drylands in South-Asia. The study is based on 250 randomly selected farm households along the rainfall gradient from Jodhpur- Barmer-Jaisalmer districts in Western Rajasthan in India. Our analysis demonstrates that the dryland smallholder farming systems occur within diverse agro-ecological and socio-economic environments and develop different livelihood strategies driven by opportunities and constraints encountered. Multiple livelihood assets determine different land use patterns and agricultural management practices in dryland systems in south Asia. Well-designed household survey on socio-economic and agroecological variables and statistical approach helped capture the diversity of livelihood assets to categorize households into homogenous farm types. The follow up FDG’s with farmers and stakeholder were equally important to validate farm typologies and prioritization of interventions. Engaging the innovation platform for identification of potential innovation options and their prioritization at district level; involving farmers for each farm typology, and ex-ante assessment of promising options led to the on-farm assessment of farm type specific most appropriate interventions in the action villages. Landscape and community level options were prioritized with the village development committee and proactive farmers. The institutional platforms experimented at village to regional level has strengthened the capacity of the community/stakeholders to innovate to improve the farming systems resilience and economic viability. An ex-post assessment demonstrates significant increase in farming systems productivity, household income and development of value chains as well as sustainable management of natural resource including common pastures. This study contributes to the understanding of how research for development through integrated systems approach can contribute towards stabilizing farm incomes, sustainable intensification and smoothening livelihood of resource poor farmers in vulnerable dry regions

Restoring degraded landscapes and fragile food systems in sub-Saharan Africa: synthesis of best practices

Communities in the dryland systems of East Africa regularly suffer from the devastating impacts of climate variability and change, commonly manifested through torrential floods and recurrent droughts. More than 50% of the natural disasters recorded in East African region have occurred during the past decade affecting nearly 30 million people. For instance, in Ethiopia as recently as 2017, more than 5.6 million people were categorized as being in either crisis or emergency situations and requiring urgent humanitarian assistance (WFP, 2017). Such communities, already struggling to cope with the impacts of unpredictable weather, will face a daunting task in adapting to future climate change unless they adapt improved landscape management practices

Project Groundwater Northumbria (FCRIP) - phase 1 geological cross-sections

The British Geological Survey (BGS) has interpreted nine cross-sections to underpin the Conceptual Hydrogeological Model for the Project Groundwater Northumbria. This ‘Task 1’ work has been delivered to the Environment Agency (EA) for Project Groundwater Northumbria, the Flood and Coastal Resilience Innovation Programme (FCRIP) project led by Gateshead Council. This report is intended as brief accompanying text and describes the data used, the geological units included, and the constraints and limitations of the interpretations. The outputs are summarised. The cross-section interpretations are planned to be followed by more detailed 3D geological modelling work in future tasks. This report and the outputs described in section 5 are provided by BGS to EA under the terms of a non-commercial Government licence. The cross-section interpretation is BGS©UKRI 2023, incorporating BGS and Coal Authority data. Reproduced with the permission of © The Coal Authority. All rights reserved. The cross-section interpretations are planned to be followed by more detailed 3D geological modelling work in future tasks. This report and the outputs described in section 5 are provided by BGS to EA under the terms of a non-commercial Government licence. The cross-section interpretation is BGS©UKRI 2023, incorporating BGS and Coal Authority data. Reproduced with the permission of © The Coal Authority. All rights reserved

Integrated ecosystems approach for sustainable intensification of community based silvo-patoral systems in arid western Rajasthan, India: implications for upscaling

The common pastures in arid Rajasthan, India though are critically important for sustaining livestock dominant smallholder rural livelihoods and ecosystems services, but have been severely degraded due to several factors. Among others, the stakeholders’ perception of low returns on any investment of time or other resources for restoring these degraded common property resources (CPRs) is resulting into their continuous neglect. Generating sufficient on-farm evidence of enhanced biomass productivity and returns from CPRs employing integrated natural resource management and appropriate governance mechanisms are suggested strategies for enhancing community participation and influencing policies for their sustainable development. The present study aims to understand the key drivers of CPRs management and assess the potential of sustainable intensification of community silvo-pastoral systems for increased biomass production and returns in arid western Rajasthan, India. The study was undertaken in Jodhpur, Barmer and Jaisalmer districts across the annual rainfall gradient from 170 mm to 280 mm. The case-study analyses and the group-discussions were used as a starting point for facilitated community elaborations on how to adopt appropriate by-laws and identify opportunities and challenges of sustainable intensification of community pastures. Action-sites of 10 ha degraded common pastures were identified in each of the three communities to test silvo-pastoral rehabilitation options. Participatory Mozer-framework matrix accounted for local preferences and climate in selecting the plant species. The community was involved in in-situ and ex-situ water and soil conservation, species selection and monitoring, fencing, cut and carry systems and output sharing. The biomass assessment with respect to yield, species diversity, share of edible and non-edible species was carried out in pasture and control plots. The integrated ecosystems approach for rehabilitation of severely degraded community silvo-pastoral systems under arid region resulted in many-fold increase in biomass yield from 0.25-0.40 t/ha to 1.6–4.6 t/ha in the second year. The proportion of edible species increased from 15 -24% to 55 – 73%. The ex-ante analysis for a 10 year time horizon indicates payback period of about three years and over 30% IRR. Paper explores the potential to upscale the approach to at least one quarter of the common lands in west Rajasthan (1 m ha) producing about 2.5 million tons additional biomass. The study highlights the role of the structure and functions of the production system as well as social ecological system in designing appropriate NRM interventions, species selection, grazing system, market integration and institutional mechanisms

Pathways to Sustainable Intensification: Participatory Designing of Adapted Farming System Innovations

Most farmers in Western Rajasthan, India face an uncertain, impoverished future. The region is affected by frequent droughts, over-exploitation of groundwater, deteriorating soil and water quality, low productivity, weak institutions, malnutrition, continuously decreasing landholding size, and a burgeoning population of 28 million. With negative water balance for all but a few months of the year, Rajasthani farmers are on the cutting edge of climate change. In this situation, common property resources, such as fodder, herbs, and water, ease stress on livelihoods. By the same token, the social and environmental cost of the poor management of these resources is keenly felt. That is why the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), as part of the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) Program on Dryland Systems, has teamed up with rural dryland communities to find integrated approaches to resource management..

Institutionalizing Systems Approaches for Improving Agricultural Livelihoods in an Arid Ecoregion of South Asia

The arid agro-ecosystems of South Asia are affected by severe resource degradation, low and unstable farm-based livelihoods and persistent poverty. In these environments, a major research program, the CGIAR Research Program (CRP) Dryland Systems, is underway that utilises multi-disciplinary and systems approaches that build on the indigenous coping and adaptation strategies. The objectives of this study were: to identify relatively homogeneous farm typologies among dryland farmers in the extensive to intensive agricultural systems of Indian Thar desert to target context specific technologies for increased impacts, and prioritize interventions across different farm typologies and facilitate appropriate institutional machenism for future trajectory development for resilience building and or intensification

Institutionalizing governance arrangements for sustainable management of community based silvi-pasture systems in arid ecoregions in Rajasthan, India

In arid parts of Rajasthan rural households heavily depend on Common Property Resources (CPRs) especially community silvi-pastures systems. Such common grazing areas have, however, become severely degraded making in particular the rural poor more vulnerable. While efforts have been made to improve management and rehabilitate community pastures, post-project sustainability remains uncertain due to cumbersome social dynamics, neglect of communities involved and institutional arrangements. This study seeks to understand how common property institutional arrangements can result in efficient use, equitable allocation, and sustainable conservation of pasture resources. It also facilitated the community to design and pilot governance arrangements for sustainable management of common silvi-pastures to provide evidence based policy options. The institutional analysis was structured on the basis of the SES framework as well as the design principles for self-organization. On the basis of multiple methods (e.g. literature review, PRAs, field-surveys, transect walks, and key-informant interviews) critical SES second tier variables have been identified. Data was collected on a list of both social-economic and bio-physical variables. Farmers perception on role and potential of CPRs were also recorded. The study was undertaken 2014-2015 in three representative village clusters in three arid districts: Govindpura/Jodhpur, Dhok/Barmer, and Damodara/Jaisalmer. The study was implemented as action research encouraging the community to design and experiment with governance arrangements for sustainable management of CPRs. Analyses of SES second tier variables and indicators for design principles for self-organization reveal that the lack of clarity of boundaries, poor monitoring, inflexible rules, very-low productivity, inequity in access, heterogeneity of group interests and lack of involvement of smallholders and women were major factors for poor management of CPRs. Different users had different perceptions on different SES variables influenced by social dynamics and property rights regime hampering community cohesion. Poor governance resulted into a situation which is close to open-access eventually leading to over-extraction. The study created awareness amongst key stakeholders for the challenges in the CPR management. Improved germplam of native grasses (Lasuirus scindicus, cenchrus ciliaris) and trees (P. cineraria, A. Senegal, Z. rotundifolia) were adopted into CPRs. New collective choice rules related to management decisions were agreed upon. The communities designed rules which gave every sub-group of the community equitable but restricted access and use rights to the land. The scale of decision making was decreased to the hamlet level. New rules related to cut and carry system were introduced. Overall, the institutional-changes improved cooperation and eventually the state of pastures