Wadi Research Articles

Modeling the Impacts of Land Cover Changes on Stream Flow Response in Thiba River Basin in Kenya

Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) was used to model the impacts of land cover changes on stream flow regime in the Thiba River basin covering a surface area of 1648 km2 in central region of Kenya. The basin is characterized by intensive agricultural activities including the largest rice irrigation scheme in Kenya. A study was undertaken to test the capability of the model in predicting stream flow response under changing land use conditions in a typical tropical river basin. Classified land use maps of 1984, 2004 and 2014 were analyzed to investigate land use changes in the basin. Field based survey, National Irrigation Board (NIB), Kenya Meteorological Department and Water Resources Management Authority (WRMA) provided hydro-meteorological data for the study. The results of the study shows that forest cover in the Thiba River basin has decreased by 18.39 % between 1984 and 2014 while area under rice cultivation increased by 9.38 % in the same period. The SWAT Model results showed that there is a significant relationship between the observed and simulated average monthly stream flows in the Thiba River Basin. The Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) and coefficient of determination (R²) during calibration period (1983-1988) were 0.82 and 0.9, respectively, while for the validation period (1989-1993) they were 0.79 and 0.87, respectively. The average monthly stream flows increased by 6.01 m³/s during the wet season and decreased by 1.92 m³/s during the dry season. The changes in stream flow were attributed to the land cover change and rainfall variability. About 35% of dry season flow and 3% of wet season flow was found to have been directly abstracted from the Thiba River. The study recommends that the basin stakeholders should optimize utilization of abstracted water to avert future catastrophic stream flow fluctuations, possibly flooding during the wet season and low or dry riverbeds during the dry months. The high water demand in the dry months can be met by constructing water storage reservoirs to harvest the high runoff during the wet months. Also, it's important that further research on impact of climate change be conducted to better understand the relationship between catchment hydrology and climate change.

Yatoo and the politics of nature: What ecological thinking discloses of contemporary South Korean art

Abstract Artist collective Yatoo was founded in 1981 on the dry riverbed of Kŭm River near Gongju, South Korea. Yatoo, which means ‘to throw oneself to the wilderness,’ is still active today, but despite the group’s longevity their temporary sculptures and performances outdoors and in natural environments have yet to receive a substantial scholarly attention. This lack of discursive recognition is connected to the challenges posed by the operation of what I call the ‘politics of nature’ in postcolonial Korea – or how discussions of nature in contemporary Korean art often consider ‘nature’ as performing the ‘nation’ or even ‘Eastern metaphysics’, conflating different levels and types of signifiers. Seeing nature as a concept that has been constantly reformulated in its fraught relationship with (neo-)colonial history, this paper situates Yatoo within South Korean art’s historical occupation of nature: namely, the histories of the late 1960s and 70s experimental art in outdoor spaces, the 1970s and 80s politicized ideas of ‘vibrant site (hyŏnjang)’ and ‘residing in wilderness (cheya)’, and monochrome painting called tansaekhwa in the 1970s and its connection with the rhetoric of naturalism (chayŏnjuŭi). The shifts that occurred in Yatoo’s direction during the 1980s and more recently are therefore important because they reflect the contradictions found in the various paradigms and topologies of nature and ecology operating in Korean art. As this case study of Yatoo ultimately reveals, an art historical analysis of art’s relationship with the natural environment (as a physical entity sometimes bound by site-specificity) and discourses of nature (as representation) necessitates an awareness of multiple scales (local and national as much as elemental and universal) and historical (dis)continuities.

Dry riverbeds: corridors for terrestrial vertebrates

AbstractRiparian areas along rivers are essential movement corridors for terrestrial animals. However, the potential role of the dry bed of intermittent rivers as a movement corridor has been largely ignored. In this study, we investigated the use of the dry riverbed, compared with riparian, upland, and unpaved road habitats, by terrestrial vertebrates (mammals, reptiles, and birds) along two intermittent streams in Spain. Seventy‐two marble dust stations were established to record the identity, number, and direction of vertebrate tracks in spring and summer. We performed generalized linear mixed models to disentangle the environmental factors affecting the frequency of occurrence (tracks per station and visit) of vertebrates. The mean frequency of occurrence was similar in both streams and included mainly small mammals, reptiles, and birds. Dry beds were widely used by vertebrates, especially along the densely vegetated Rogativa catchment. Within dry beds, directional tracks were more frequent than tracks without a recognizable direction or with changing direction; tracks that ran parallel to the riverline were particularly frequent in summer; and upward tracks predominated in one study stream in summer. Our results highlight that dry riverbeds are important movement corridors for a wide range of terrestrial vertebrates, thus enhancing natural connectivity and supporting biodiversity and ecological processes along rivers and within the entire catchment.

Identification of hydrogeochemical processes in groundwater of Dawa River basin, southern Ethiopia.

Dawa River basin in southern Ethiopia is covered by volcanic, basement, and sedimentary rocks. Locating good quality groundwater is a challenge in most parts of the basin. Statistical analysis and graphical plots of 94 hydrochemical data of groundwater were used as a main tool to acquire an insight into the major processes that control groundwater chemistry. In the volcanic terrain groundwater is dilute (mean total dissolved solids (TDS): 152mg/l), while salinity is the highest in the sedimentary terrain (mean TDS: 1750mg/l). NO3 (-) varies from below the detection limit to 433mg/l NO3 (-). In 26% of the water samples, nitrate concentration is above the human-affected value, 5mg/l NO3 (-). In 6% of the samples, NO3 (-) concentration is above the limit recommended in drinking water, 50mg/l NO3 (-), by WHO. Concentration range of the other major ions is also high and hydrochemical water types are diverse, suggesting the effect of various hydrogeochemical processes on the water chemistry. Chemical data analysis revealed that in the volcanic and most parts of the basement terrains silicate hydrolysis is the dominant process. Gypsum dissolution is the main process in the sedimentary terrain. Dissolution of gypsum is also important at few locations along dry riverbeds in the semiarid area where the effect of evaporation on the water chemistry is considerable. Loading of factors with K(+) and SO4 (2-), K(+)and NO3 (-), and NO3 (-) and correlation of SO4 (2-) with Cl(-), along with the observed high nitrate concentration, indicate the effect of surface contamination sources on the water quality.

Land Cover Classification Using ICESat/GLAS Full Waveform Data

In the present study, parameters derived from Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite/Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) full waveform were used for land cover classification in western part of Doon valley, Uttarakhand, India. Three parameters, viz, height, front slope angle (afslope) and canopy return ratio (rCanopy) were extracted from the returned full waveform signals. k-means (KM), partitioning around medoids (PAM), and fuzzy c-means (FCM) with different cluster sizes were used for classifying the land cover types with the help of GLAS-derived parameters. Among the clustering methods, KM performed the best. The overall accuracy (89.41 %) of all methods were quite significant with cluster size three i.e. with three classes forest, mango orchard and other class including agriculture, barren/fallow land, settlement, dry river bed, etc. The accuracy of the PAM (60 %) and the FCM (68.4 %) decreased drastically at four clusters with the separation of agriculture from barren/fallow land. The accuracy of the PAM and the FCM further decreased with increase in the number of clusters whereas KM showed reliable results for all clusters. KM with five clusters was able to distinguish five different land covers, viz, forest, mango orchard, agriculture and barren/fallow land and other class including settlement, dry river bed, etc. with an overall classification accuracy of 72.93 %. The study presents a method for classifying land cover types using GLAS full waveform data.

Application of hydrochemical and isotopic techniques to understand groundwater recharge and flow systems in the Dawa River basin, southern Ethiopia

The study of groundwater recharge and of flow systems is crucial to understand availability and sustainability of groundwater resources. This study uses hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) and various graphical plots of hydrochemical and isotopic data to examine groundwater recharge and the dynamics of flow system in the Dawa River basin. HCA has classified the water samples into five distinctive clusters. Clusters I, II, and III represent the volcanic and most parts of the basement terrain. These clusters are distinguished by low EC, high percentages of HCO3− and Ca2+, Mg2+, or Na+, and dominantly (Ca, Mg, Na, K)–HCO3-type water. Cluster IV contains sulfate-type water with high percentage of Ca2+ + Mg2+ and represents sedimentary terrain. Cluster V, characterized by high EC and abundant Na+ and SO42− + Cl−, is sited at few locations along dry riverbeds. In the basement terrain, the chemical composition of groundwater varies greatly over short distances. In most parts of the basin, groundwater contains elevated levels of tritium at amount comparable to local rainfall. These chemical characteristics supported with tritium data indicate the dominance of groundwater of local flow systems, short residence time, and modern recharge in the basin. Stable isotope data indicate that in the semi-arid region, recharge occurs from high-intensity rainfall. Difference in δ18O and δ2H between the northern and the southern and southeastern groundwater supports distinct recharge sources and the absence of regional groundwater flow between the two regions. Converging evidences reveal that the traditional regional groundwater flow model which is common in most large river basins of Ethiopia does not hold true in the Dawa River basin.

Ancient Egyptian Anchors: New Results from Wadi Gawasis

Ancient Egyptian Anchors: New Results from Wadi Gawasis

Review: Sant Khalsa: Confluence

Sant Khalsa: Confluence PASADENA CITY COLLEGE CENTER FOR THE ARTS PASADENA, CALIFORNIA FEBRUARY 18-APRIL 1, 2016 Confluence, by Southern California based artist, educator, and activist Sant Khalsa, was a modest and intelligently exhibition of selected works spanning from 1989 to 2015. Centered around theme of and its relationship to American West, work on view comprised a personal investigation of spiritual, economic, and environmental concerns around as they pertain to landscape that surrounds her. Khalsa has turned her camera toward changes in landscape over years, poetically and systematically documenting results of fires, floods, and drought. The sixteen black-and-white photographs from larger series Paving Paradise (1990-2012) were shot along ninety-six-mile length of Santa Ana River (a river that flows from San Bernardino mountains to Pacific Ocean). The photographs trace changes in natural landscape due to both environmental and human conditions. As indicated by title, series is critical of what Khalsa terms constructed settings within natural world. Each photograph elegantly captures environmental changes--for example, contrasting dry riverbeds to trees surrounded by flooded waters. The series also documents human presence in landscape, as evidenced by digging equipment, tire-scarred hills, and barricade tape protecting dilapidated houses. Khalsa's disquieting images track these changes over time, depicting river as, according to artist, a place of community, economic resource, recreational site, natural habitat, sanctuary, and both source of life and destruction. (1) The flow of as well as its lack, is a vital issue for desert communities in and around Southern California, and Khalsa's series of photographs Western Waters (2000-2010) calls attention to its commodification. Installed in a loose grid expanding across gallery wall, sixty black-and-white photographs document small stores where is sold in Arizona, New Mexico, Southern California, and Southern Nevada. Arranged to follow Khalsa's road trips through states, layout was clearly a reference to mapping and in direct contrast to photographs of Ed Ruscha and Bernd and Hilla Becher, to whom this work pays homage. The black-and-white photographs depict storefront businesses where is sold. Khalsa positions her camera directly in front of buildings, making straightforward images usually devoid of people, and hones in on each enterprise's name, price of its products (be they pure or ice), and whether they are available inside or outside store. Some storefronts display handwritten signs while others promote good water, land, to go, the wagon, or cactus water through more formal and bombastic typography. Khalsa is fascinated by irony of these enterprises when is available for free from tap and is thoroughly invested in why and to whom is sold in these communities. The has been filtered to taste better, and through that process (a reverse osmosis system), chlorine, fluoride, salts, and other minerals are removed, which might or might not result in health benefits for consumers. …

Application of positivity-preserving well-balanced discontinuous Galerkin method in computational hydrology

Abstract The positivity-preserving well-balanced discontinuous Galerkin (DG) method (Xing et al. J Sci Comput 57 , 2013) is employed to solve the shallow water equations on an unstructured triangular mesh and to study their applications in computational hydrology. The grid convergence of the DG method is verified via the steady state oblique hydraulic jump problem. The dam-breaking problems with wet and dry river beds are conducted to demonstrate the positivity-preserving property of the scheme. The tidal bores in an idealized estuary problem are simulated to study the development and evolution of the tidal bores from different amplitudes of incoming tidal waves and topography of the river bed bottom. The numerical experiments above demonstrate that the DG method can be applied successfully to these class of problems in computational hydrology.

Geochemical speciation of chromium related to sediments properties in the riverbed contaminated by tannery effluents

Guadalentin River (SE Spain) has been affected by tannery industries, where their effluents, containing Cr, were spilled until 2003. The untreated tannery effluent is characterized by the presence of inorganic and organic substances including a basic chromium (III) sulfate salt. Chromium contents in sediments represent permanent environmental and human health risks. The main objectives of this research were to evaluate the contamination, the spatial distribution, and the speciation of chromium in the sediments. In order to determine the degree of Cr pollution and to evaluate the influence of sediment properties in the behavior of total Cr, Cr(VI), and Cr(III) concentrations, a sediment sampling was carried out in a stretch of 1500 m of the dry riverbed, from 0 to 100 cm deep. Total, soluble, and exchangeable Cr(III+IV) and Cr(III) were measured using graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (GFAAS), and Cr(VI) was selectively extracted by EPA 3060A method. A physicochemical characterization of the riverbed sediments was done with the aim of evaluating the influence of some sediment properties related to the contents of total Cr and its speciation. Chromium total concentration was high in the riverbed (11–11099 mg kg−1) up to 100 cm deep, exceeding in almost all the study stretch, the background level, and the generic reference values of Cr for Murcia Province. The highest degrees of sediment pollution (over 10,000 mg Cr kg−1) are located 20–50 cm deep, at the first 600 m east of the city center, and in the last 300 m of the studied area, which reveals that the Cr contents in sediments are relatively higher near the discharge point of the tannery facilities. Chromium(III) is the predominant oxidation state with 95.87 % (mean value) of total Cr in the sediments. The results (maximum values 11099 Cr mg kg−1 and 79 Cr(VI) mg kg−1) indicated Cr leaching from the surface until 100 cm deep. Chromium(VI) represents 4.13 % of total Cr, so Cr(III) was the predominant oxidation state. The riverbed sediment pollution by Cr (total) and Cr(VI) was caused by an anthropogenic activity (tannery industry).

Forty years' channel change on the Yongdinghe River, China: patterns and causes

ABSTRACTIn the last 40 years, the Beijing section of the Yongdinghe River evolved from a perennial and wandering river reach to a channellized and fragmentation dry river channel. Such changes threatened the local safety, eco-environment health, and economy development. In order to clarify the channel change patterns and its mechanisms, the spatial and temporal changes of the river channel and the causes are analysed. The results show that the river channel was greatly reshaped by the intensive land using, with a total of 66.95 km2 degraded area including the overflow land, water area, and agricultural land. The overflow land was mainly changed to dry riverbed, agricultural land, water conservancy construction land, planted woodland, and bare land. The water area was mainly replaced by dry riverbed, channellized watercourse, water conservancy construction land, and agricultural land. Agricultural land was mainly changed to residential land, dry riverbed, and bare land. The abrupt river runoff and sediment change after construction of the Guanting Reservoir (the largest reservoir in the Yongdinghe River) indicates a potential trigger for the river channel changes. The river channel change processes are finally concluded: before 1980, the large number of the water conservancy projects' construction including the reservoirs, check dams, and sluice in the Guanting Gorge (upstream of the study river reach) changed the river connectivity and the flow continuity of the upstream river channel. Together with the water use, the soil and water conservation activities, and the variable precipitation, almost all the runoff and sediment to the study river reach were intercepted; then the perennial dry up river and the increased land requirement impelled people to occupy the downstream river space.

SaudiVeg ecoinformatics: Aims, current status and perspectives.

During the last decade many electronic databases of vegetation plots were established in many countries around the world. These databases contain valuable phytosociological information assisting both governmental and NGO (Non-governmental organizations) agencies to formulate strategies and on-ground plans to manage and protect nature resources. This paper provides an account on aims, current status and perspectives of building of a vegetation database for the Central Region (Najd) of Saudi Arabia – the founding element of the Saudi Vegetation Database (SVD). The data stored by the database are sample plots (vegetation relevés) collected according to the field techniques of the Braun-Blanquet approach (lists of taxa accompanied by semi-quantitative cover assessment), and are accompanied by general vegetation characteristics such as vegetation layering and cover, information on life-form of the recorded species, geographical coordinates, altitude, soil typology, topography and many more. More than 2900 vegetation-plot records (relevés) have so far been collected in the Najd region; of these more than 2000 have already been stored using the Turboveg database platform. These field records cover many habitats such as depressions, wadis (dry river beds), agricultural lands, sand dunes, sabkhas, and ruderal habitats. The ecological information collected in the database is currently the largest set of vegetation data collated into a database in the Middle East. These data are of great importance for biodiversity studies in Saudi Arabia, since the region is recording a loss of biodiversity at a fast rate due to environmental problems such as global warming and land-use changes. We envisage that this database would catalyze further data collection on vegetation of the entire Arabian Peninsula, and shall serve as one of the most important datasets for classification and mapping of the vegetation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

A landscape approach to advance intermittent river ecology

Summary Intermittent rivers are increasingly viewed as shifting mosaics of lotic (flowing water), lentic (standing water) and terrestrial (dry riverbed) habitats. The diversity, spatial arrangement, temporal turnover and connectivity of these habitats are controlled by the magnitude, frequency, duration and extent of drying and rewetting events, which maintain habitat heterogeneity and control biodiversity and biogeochemical processes in intermittent rivers. We consider intermittent rivers as spatiotemporal landscape mosaics to identify the implications such a view has for empirical and theoretical developments in landscape and river ecology. Using observational data of flow states collected by citizen scientists along 1400 km of river channels in western France, we used landscape metrics and ecologically scaled indices for four hypothetical, aquatic species (two fish and two insects) to describe the dynamics of intermittent river mosaics for five catchments. Dry patches dominated most observation dates but flowing patches had the longest average length and occupied the greatest proportion of channel length. At the start of each summer, catchments were almost entirely composed of flowing patches but lentic and dry patches could represented up to 80% of the catchments as summer progressed. Patch dynamics were typified by high levels of spatiotemporal variability. In contrast, ecologically scaled indices did not vary greatly among catchments within species. The ecologically scaled indices representing small fish were the most affected by habitat fragmentation. Such a landscape perspective could affect understanding of biodiversity patterns and biogeochemical processes in intermittent rivers. We outline the methodological developments required to integrate landscape approaches into intermittent river research, the associated challenges and current limitations in landscape ecology tools and models and the benefits of citizen science data sets. The continued quantification of shifting habitat mosaics in intermittent rivers will provide multiple opportunities to advance river and landscape ecology.

Spatio-temporal patterns of an anthrax outbreak in white-tailed deer, Odocoileus virginanus, and associated genetic diversity of Bacillus anthracis.

BackgroundAnthrax, a soil-borne zoonosis caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis, is enzootic in areas of North America with frequent outbreaks in west Texas. Despite a long history of study, pathogen transmission during natural outbreaks remains poorly understood. Here we combined case-level spatio-temporal analysis and high resolution genotyping to investigate anthrax transmission dynamics. Carcass locations from a single white-tailed deer, Odocoileus virginanus, outbreak were analyzed for spatial clustering using K-function analysis and directionality with trend surface analysis and the direction test.ResultsThe directionalities were compared to results of high resolution genotyping. The results of the spatial clustering analyses, combined with deer movement data, suggest anthrax transmission events occur within limited spatial areas, with carcass locations occurring within the activity space of adjacent cases. The directionality of the outbreak paralleled adjacent dry river beds. Isolates from the outbreak were represented by a single genotype based on multiple locus variable number tandem repeat analysis (MLVA); four sub-genotypes were identified using single nucleotide repeat (SNR) analysis.ConclusionsAreas of high transmission agreed spatially with areas of higher SNR genetic diversity; however, SNRs did not provide clear evidence of linear transmission. Overlap of case home ranges provides spatial and temporal support for localized transmission, which may include the role of necrophagous or hematophagous flies in outbreaks in this region. These results emphasize the need for active surveillance and prompt cleanup of anthrax carcasses to control anthrax both during outbreaks and between seasons.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12898-015-0054-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Suppression of near‐surface scattered body‐to‐surface waves: a steerable and nonlinear filtering approach

ABSTRACTWe present an approach based on local‐slope estimation for the separation of scattered surface waves from reflected body waves. The direct and scattered surface waves contain a significant amount of seismic energy. They present great challenges in land seismic data acquisition and processing, particularly in arid regions with complex near‐surface heterogeneities (e.g., dry river beds, wadis/large escarpments, and karst features). The near‐surface scattered body‐to‐surface waves, which have comparable amplitudes to reflections, can mask the seismic reflections. These difficulties, added to large amplitude direct and back‐scattered surface (Rayleigh) waves, create a major reduction in signal‐to‐noise ratio and degrade the final sub‐surface image quality. Removal of these waves can be difficult using conventional filtering methods, such as an filter, without distorting the reflected signal. The filtering algorithm we present is based on predicting the spatially varying slope of the noise, using steerable filters, and separating the signal and noise components by applying a directional nonlinear filter oriented toward the noise direction to predict the noise and then subtract it from the data. The slope estimation step using steerable filters is very efficient. It requires only a linear combination of a set of basis filters at fixed orientation to synthesize an image filtered at an arbitrary orientation. We apply our filtering approach to simulated data as well as to seismic data recorded in the field to suppress the scattered surface waves from reflected body waves, and we demonstrate its superiority over conventional techniques in signal preservation and noise suppression.

Mimic pulse-base flows and groundwater in a regulated river in semiarid land: Riparian restoration issues

Abstract River regulation in semiarid lands often results in a dry riverbed, which conducts to serious ecological degradation. Given the numerous hydraulic control structures, in the U.S. area, and the water diversions for consumptive uses, in Mexican territory, nowadays the Colorado River Delta region shows runoff only during wetting years when surplus water is available. Due to concerns related to the ecological health of this Delta, an international agreement (Minute 319) was signed between Mexico and the U.S. in November 2012. This agreement contemplates, among other issues, the release of water for environmental restoration purposes in the Colorado River Delta riparian corridor. The purpose of this study is to propose feasible discharge flows, timing, and extension of flooded areas for riparian restoration. This is accomplished through the analysis of sediments texture, soil salinity, and groundwater levels, which were conducted in conjunction with diverse base and pulse flow modeling scenarios in a 10-mile reach of the Colorado River. Infiltration from irrigation channels, irrigation returns, and river discharge flows was recognized and the depth to water table and its influence on riparian vegetation was analyzed. Under a pulse flow of 200 m 3 s −1 , the resulting flood will cover 65% of the entire study area, similarly to the inundation observed in 1997, the year of the last natural flood. Modeling results further suggest that, the mainstream of the river will be flooded by mimic base flows of 10 m 3 s −1 . In addition, the timing and elapsed time of discharges that mimic base and pulse flows could play an important role to maintain shallow groundwater levels and to promote native riparian vegetation establishment.

Identification of Dust Hot Spots from Multi-Resolution Remotely Sensed Data in Eastern China and Mongolia

Aeolian dust from hot spots in eastern China and Mongolia can be carried downwind to provinces in China, neighboring countries, the Pacific islands, and cities far beyond the source region. Although dust sources of huge extent have been identified in several countries, few effective countermeasures are available to combat dust emissions in arid regions. We analyzed Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) images (1 km spatial resolution) that captured dust emission and dispersion during 2000–2013 to determine dust sources in eastern China and Mongolia. MODIS level 1B data and the brightness temperature difference (BTD) algorithm provided efficient discrimination of dust in this study. The derived dust information, in conjunction with the MODIS land cover product (1 km spatial resolution) and high-resolution Landsat data (30 m spatial resolution; Landsat 8, Operational Land Imager sensor) were used to identify the locations and specific sources of dust. Dust emissions appear to be sporadic in time and space, controlled by both environmental factors and human activity, although past studies have indicated that many dust emissions are from consistently active hot spots. Analysis of MODIS data indicated that three subregions of the eastern China and Mongolia source region are the dominant sources of dust: Horqin Sandy Land, Otintag Sandy Land, and the southeastern Mongolian Gobi; each of these subregions contains dust emission hot spots. We identified the locations of consistent hot spots and verified that some individual dust emissions originated from those hot spots. Our data also indicated that hot spots in southeastern Mongolia have migrated northward since 2006. Our study showed that hot spots such as dry lakes, river beds, mines, and croplands contribute to dust emissions in the eastern China and Mongolia source region. Dust hot spots coincide with regions of expanding industry in Otintag Sandy Land and in some areas of the Mongolian Gobi and with agricultural areas in Horqin Sandy Land and in some parts of the Mongolian Gobi. In Horqin and Otintag sandy lands, dust sources are associated with ephemeral water bodies. Water conservation can be an important countermeasure for initial dust emissions in the Horqin Sandy Land. In the Otintag Sandy Land, attention should be paid to human activities, for example, minimizing the effects of mining disturbances, improving dust suppression in industrial areas, and controlling water use by industry. In Mongolia, protective farming techniques and water conservation in dust emitting basins, and dust suppression and water resource protection in mining zones, must be considered to combat dust emission. MODIS level 1B data can be used to locate dust hot spots and to identify future sources of dust entrainment. Dust hot spots identified from MODIS level 1B data provide small-scale information about dust emission that can be used to locate pollution hot spots, increase understanding of the global dust cycle, and improve dust modeling.

Southwest Pattern

44 WLT JANUARY/ FEBRUARY 2015 photo : qq li I CLIMB TO THE PEAK of the mound in the middle of the Bisti Badlands—at least, the part of the badlands open to the public. The Navajo Nation has charted paths between headless, mushroom-like rocks for people to independently wander and has fenced off a lake reservoir and the more rugged terrain. A wide, dry riverbed is such a path, littered today with bentover small salt cedars with their wigs of branches pulled in the direction of a recent flood that came through the Bisti, all the water running quickly off. I am alone in the badlands at this hour. I step forward with Orso close by, weaving between a giant patch of rocks that look like fingers of a crowd pointing up to the sky. I look upward and see where they are pointing now—a wholly blue lateafternoon sky with two paintbrush-made dashes of cloud, one short in the shape of a cedilla, the other a long tilde. The finger rocks loom overhead against the pure and deep blue. For a little while, I can imagine that the rocks are alive, that I am walking on a creature, that I am a small bug discreetly inching my way across an animal hoping not to be discovered, and smashed by the animal, before finding safety on a floor or a wall. Maybe it is the smallness of myself in the desert of the Southwest that has kept me living and working here for fourteen years. The smaller you are, the greater the patterns. As a lawyer , I look for patterns in everything . If you see someone at a textile convention transfixed by simple repeating patterns, that person is not insane; he or she is a lawyer. The oral stories that form the backbone of the traditional laws of the Navajo people among whom I work defeat this yearning for patterns at first, since standing alone they are not laws. They become laws when fit delicately by the storyteller into the problem they are intended to resolve. The oral laws don’t become laws until married to the problem by a trusted elder. People who don’t work in traditional oral laws don’t understand this, and even those who come to it from laws of rules and violations may take the rest of their lives to accept it. Soon the fingers curling around back to the start give way to a fortress, then to a field of what looks like midget, man-made rock tombs of posts and caps, like Paleolithic tombs in the Irish Burren, but which are entirely natural. The line of bent trees in the dry riverbed points toward the fenced reservoir, on which someone has left a plaid shirt. Everywhere on the soft path are imprints of hooves of horses. They seem to lead toward the November sun sitting three and a half of my fists above the horizon in the western half of the sky. My mind feels at peace; serene is the word I think of. Suddenly I think of seeing through blindness . I think of the blind Argentine poet Jorge Luis Borges who wrote in Labyrinths, “it is not darkness, yet.” I am asked sometimes why I immigrated to America from Malaysia just to work in the middle of a desert so empty that school buses seem to leave small tribal children sometimes in the middle of nowhere. In this place, poverty and hopelessness shout loudly in remarkable quiet. The pride of a people wanting to be selfsufficient and retrieve for themselves their own lost culture is barely a whisper. It’s the law of life, maybe, that you just follow your unfolding life, and that you believe everything is as it should be, and that you are where you ought to be. That law is a river you don’t swim against. The peace of mind in being gentle and responsive to your life is why I am here. As Orso lounges thirsty in a long shadow , I pour him some water in a fold-a-bowl special section flash nonfiction Southwest Pattern by Josey Foo It’s the law...

VULNERABILITY OF TOURISM IN KILIMANJARO NATIONAL PARK AND THE LIVELIHOODS OF ADJACENT COMMUNITIES TO THE IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE AND VARIABILITY

The study examined the vulnerability of tourism and the livelihoods of communities adjacent to Kilimamnjaro National Park in Tanzania to the impacts of climate change. Specifically the study identified tourism resources and assessed the potential factors affecting tourism resources and activities in Kilimanjaro National Park. Further, it examined the perception of local communities on patterns of climate change and variability impacts and vulnerability in the area. Both purposeful and random sampling was used for village and household selection in the area. Both qualitative and quantitative primary and secondary data were used in this study. Primary data were mainly collected using structured household questionnaires. Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) methods such as questionnaires, Focus Group Discussions (FGD), key informants, timeline drivers of change and direct field observation were used to obtain data for CC&V impacts on, and vulnerability of tourism resources, activities, peoples perceptions on climate change and variability in the area. Findings revealed that climate change and variability affects tourism and resources in diverse ways. Increased drought due to CC&V fosters forest fires, melting of the glacier and decreased hydrology. People perceived CC&V as changes in both rainfall and temperature patterns over time. Decreased glacier, dry-river beds, forest fires and outbreaks of malaria were perceived as indicators of CC&V. Education, capacity building, soft loans, grants were strategies adopted to facilitate adaptation to the impacts of climate change. It is anticipated that the information obtained from this study will enable researchers, policy makers and conservation officers in National parks in Tanzania to streamline effective mitigation, coping and adaptation strategies for sustainable tourism and ecosystem protection.

Mass Dispersal of Terrestrial Organisms During First Flush Events in a Temporary Stream

AbstractTemporary streams expand and contract seasonally, forming a complex mosaic of aquatic, amphibic and terrestrial habitats. We studied the terrestrial arthropod fauna at the surface of the dry river bed as well as the fauna of Coarse Particulate Organic Matter (CPOM) deposits 0, 5 and 10 days after first flush events (years 2004–2006) along the Pardiela stream (SE Portugal). During the dry period, large amounts of organic material accumulated at the surface of the dry bed, colonized by abundant terrestrial arthropods (mean density: 13.3 ± 15.29 Ind g DM (Dry Mass of CPOM)). Arthropod density peaked in fresh flood deposits (mean density: 35.8 ± 33.4 Ind g DM), and subsequently decreased within time. Concurrently, the relative composition of the arthropod community changed from Day 0 to Day 10. The present results demonstrated that the dry bed of temporary streams served as a major habitat for terrestrial arthropods. During the first flush events, a mass dispersal of terrestrial arthropods, rafting on floating CPOM, occurred, subsequently forming distinct deposits along the channel margin. These deposits may constitute critical habitats, refugia and food resources for local and regional terrestrial arthropod assemblages. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.