Catálogo de publicaciones - revistas

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>This paper presents a high-level overview of site characterization, risk analysis and monitoring priorities for underground energy-related product storage or sequestration facilities. The siting of an underground storage or sequestration facility depends on several important factors beginning with the area of review. Collection of all existing and available records and data from within the rock volume, including potential vulnerabilities such as prior containment issues, proximity to infrastructure and/or population centres, must be evaluated. Baselining of natural processes before storage or sequestration operations begin provides the basis for assessing the effects of storage or sequestration on the surroundings. These initial investigations include geological, geophysical and geochemical analyses of the suitability of the geological host rock and environs for storage or sequestration. A risk analysis identifies and evaluates threats and hazards, the potential impact should they develop into unwanted circumstances or events and the consequences to the facility should any of them occur. This forms the basis for framing effective mitigation measures. A comprehensive monitoring programme that may include downhole well surveillance, observation wells, geochemical sampling and well testing ensures that the facility operates as designed and that unforeseen issues, such as product migration or loss of integrity, can be identified and mitigated. In addition to these technical issues, human factors and public perception of a project are a critical part of the site characterization, construction and operational phases of a project. Despite differences between underground storage and sequestration, the characterization, risk analysis and monitoring approaches that were developed for underground natural gas storage or for carbon dioxide sequestration could be used for underground storage or sequestration of any type of energy-related product. Recommendations from this work include: (1) develop an industry-standard evaluation protocol (workflow) for the evaluation of salt beds, saline aquifers, depleted hydrocarbon reservoirs, underground mines and cased wellbores for potential underground storage or sequestration development beyond those in use today; and (2) develop an industry-wide collaborative process whereby incident and near-miss data related to underground storage or sequestration operations can be reported, documented and shared for use in refining risk analysis modelling.</jats:p>

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Hydrogen is considered as a fuel of the future, primarily due to the advantage of zero carbon emissions during its combustion and electricity generation. India's geographic location in the tropics and the country's government policies, which favour hydrogen, render it a potential pioneer as a hydrogen economy. Therefore, identifying suitable storage mechanisms for hydrogen in the country is crucial. In this study, we have reviewed different methodologies to estimate the potential for underground hydrogen storage in depleted hydrocarbon fields and saline aquifers. Based on our analysis, we have then estimated a first-order storage potential for underground hydrogen storage in India after applying suitable constraints. We conclude that India can store up to 22610 terrawatt-hour (TWh) of hydrogen in deep saline aquifers. We found that the major Indian sedimentary basins, such as the Mumbai offshore, Krishna-Godavari, Rajasthan, Cauvery, and Cambay basins, have high storage capacities for hydrogen to the order of 2163, 1788.8, 1211.5, 1666.6, and 342.9 TWh, respectively. We have also presented an overview of the storage potential of salt structures that are present in India. In addition to storage pathways, we have also delineated the sources that can be used in electrolysis to generate hydrogen.</jats:p> <jats:p content-type="supplementary-material"> Supplementary material at <jats:ext-link xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" ext-link-type="uri" specific-use="dataset is-supplemented-by" xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.6176274">https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.6176274</jats:ext-link> </jats:p>

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>This paper reviews the Environment Agency chalk groundwater level monitoring network. The network has evolved over many years to enable management of the resource and to assess the impact of abstractions on the environment. The paper considers the strengths and weaknesses of the network, the use and accessibility of the data and how the network supports, and works with, the Environment Agency's regional groundwater models. It concludes with the suggestion that the network is suffering from a degree of lack of maintenance and that there is a disparity between the ambitions of the modelling programme with its Modflow6-driven shift to multi-layer conceptualization and a largely open-hole, single-layer monitoring installation.</jats:p>

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p> Short-lived biological invasions may leave lasting impacts on ecosystems well after they have concluded, yet the nature of such events is difficult to elucidate in the absence of monitoring efforts. Here, the ability for surficial death assemblages to recount such invasion events and their ecological legacies was tested using mangrove-dwelling bivalves from Kingston Harbour, Jamaica, where the Asian green mussel ( <jats:italic>Perna viridis</jats:italic> ) was introduced <jats:italic>c.</jats:italic> 20 years ago. While rare in Kingston Harbour today, relative densities of dead <jats:italic>P. viridis</jats:italic> shells mapped well to historical surveys from early into the invasion and thus help reconstruct spatial variations in invasion intensity. Live–dead discordance for the bivalve community further indicated that species have not returned to pre-invasion relative abundance distributions such that the economically-important mangrove oyster ( <jats:italic>Crassostrea rhizophorae</jats:italic> ) declined while the flat tree oyster ( <jats:italic>Isognomon alatus</jats:italic> ) rose to dominance. Finally, we report the presence of the charru mussel ( <jats:italic>Mytella strigata</jats:italic> ) in Kingston Harbour, a newly introduced species that has not yet been significantly incorporated into the subfossil record. This case study exemplifies the utility of underexploited sources of geohistorical data for informing the growing problem of human-assisted biological invasion. </jats:p>

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Non-living and living nature are inherently connected. Geodiversity, which consists of the variation in geology, soils, topography, geomorphology and hydrology, is seen as the foundation and stage for biodiversity. Underlying theory suggests that the increasing variation in the abiotic foundation creates and maintains available niche space for different organisms to thrive, resulting in higher biodiversity. Emerging scientific observations support this premise, indicating a positive influence of geodiversity on biodiversity across different environments, regions and spatial scales. Inclusion of geodiversity into biodiversity research and conservation therefore has capacity to improve our understanding of biodiversity patterns and dynamics. Current challenges that need to be overcome in this relatively new field of science are related to defining and measuring geodiversity and gaining more empirical evidence on the link between geodiversity and biodiversity. Despite these challenges, connecting these two concepts and embracing the interdisciplinary cooperation have great potential in advancing our understanding of diversity of nature and integrating geodiversity in conservation assessments across scales.</jats:p>

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p> Inferring the composition of pre-Anthropocene baseline communities on the basis of death assemblages (DAs) preserved in a surface mixed layer requires discriminating among recently-dead shells sourced by living populations and older shells from extirpated populations. Here, we assess the distribution of postmortem ages in the DA formed by the brachiopod <jats:italic>Gryphus vitreus</jats:italic> at 580 m depth in the Bari Canyon (Adriatic Sea), with no individuals collected alive. The <jats:italic>Gryphus</jats:italic> DA exhibits millennial time averaging (inter-quartile range = 1250 years) and two modes in abundance at 500 and 1750 years BP. As high abundance of species in time-averaged DAs can reflect passive accumulation of shells sourced by populations with low standing population density, we reconstruct changes in annual density on the basis of the abundance maxima detected in the distribution of postmortem ages and on the basis of estimates of per-specimen disintegration rate. We find that adults (&gt;20 mm) achieved densities of at least 10–20 individuals/m <jats:sup>2</jats:sup> (assuming lifespan is 10 years), and the pulses in abundance were thus associated with a high population density in the past, followed by the decline over the last few centuries. We infer that bathyal populations were volatile during the Late Holocene, with brachiopods sensitive to siltation that was induced by temporal changes in sediment dispersal into the Bari Canyon due to deforestation and climatic changes. </jats:p>

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Bivalve shells from shelf and slope environments of the Benguela upwelling system were examined for their state of preservation for the first time, and were used to test whether their preservation is a proxy for spatially variable seafloor taphonomic conditions that lead to different degrees of time averaging. Distinctive shell damage -profiles show increasing shell damage further from the center of the upwelling cells affected by anoxic conditions (opal and organic-rich) and towards the carbonate- and phosphate-rich facies (with slower sedimentation rates at the margins of the cells. Discrete taphofacies range from a very low damage profile (opal and organic-rich, facies 1) to very high damage (phosphate, facies 3), with elevated numbers of rounded, fragmented and bored shells as well as very little associated sedimentary matrix. This gradient in taphofacies is associated with a gradient from census assemblages with low damage to (within-habitat time-averaged) assemblages in carbonate and (environmentally-condensed) phosphate facies of moderate and higher species richness that are associated with increasing time averaging. This pattern follows the upwelling facies gradient of high opal and organic matter in areas of most intense upwelling cells and outward to aerated but food-abundant carbonate-rich seafloors and spatially coexisting phosphorite-rich concentrations. Thus, the taphonomic gradient ranges from stressful, oxygen-depleted seafloor environment under upwelling regimes that limit metazoan predators and borers (and thus minimize destruction), to well-oxygenated seafloors with increased predators and micro-boring animals that all foster post-mortem shell destruction. The rarity of encrusters is a conspicuous feature of these facies across the whole gradient that may reflect temporary recurrence of oxygen-depleting conditions even at the carbonatic and phosphatic facies. The state of preservation of these shells can serve as a modern analog for identifying similar settings in the geological record but also for Anthropocene settings affected by eutrophication and expanding oxygen minimum zones. Molluscan taphofacies with unusually low levels of skeletal damage from borers and encrusters can thus represent sensitive proxies of conditions affected by Anthropocene deoxygenation and eutrophication.</jats:p> <jats:p content-type="supplementary-material"> Supplementary material at <jats:ext-link xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" ext-link-type="uri" specific-use="dataset is-supplemented-by" xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.6294540">https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.6294540</jats:ext-link> </jats:p>

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Geodiversity and geoheritage play an increasingly important role in the tourism industry, although visitors’ interest in natural phenomena is much older than these two, relatively modern concepts. This chapter reviews several key issues emerging at the interface of geoheritage and the needs and expectations of the tourism industry, both tourists and service providers. Specific themes discussed include evaluation of geodiversity and geoheritage resources for tourism purposes, problems of interpreting Earth heritage for the general public, accessibility issues related to conservation, and the role of geoparks and allied initiatives in fostering local development. More general overviews are supplemented by case studies, illustrating each theme. These are taken from various localities globally, from Europe, South America and Oceania. It is concluded that the coverage of thematic studies at the interface between geoheritage resources and tourism science is uneven. Inventories and assessments of geoheritage and geodiversity sites for geotourism are widely reported and new resources for geotourism development are commonly explored, whereas much less is known about the actual perception of geoheritage values among visitors and the quality and effectiveness of their interpretation. Likewise, the positive impact of geotourism on local economies seems to be more hypothesized or anticipated than actually demonstrated.</jats:p>

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Sandstone districts are among the most visited and popular geosites in the Czech Republic. Unfortunately, they are often affected by the harmful effects of mass tourism, referred to as overtourism. Sandstone geosites are very vulnerable owing to the rock's relative softness, and large numbers of visitors can be a threat to them as they accelerate the intensity of their degradation. The overtourism situation then brings other negatives not only to the geosites but also to their surroundings. This paper describes the reasons for the overtourism situation in Czech rock cities, the effects of overtourism on geosites and communities living in their vicinity, and possible solutions from the perspective of nature conservation and tourism management. The data come from field observations, interviews, and publicly available data on the development of the number of visitors to tourist destinations. The results showed that overtourism is a widespread problem in the Czech rock cities, damaging these geosites and negatively affecting the residents of the surrounding villages. In addition, it is necessary to act quickly because the number of visitors to these geosites is continuing to grow in the long term. The article proposes three measures that should mitigate the harmful effects of mass tourism: communication with the visitors, destination management and the protection of geosites. However, for these measures to work, a strategy must be developed that will be respected by all of the main actors in the local tourism industry, and these measures should be targeted at specific problems. This example is typical of the general problems encountered in any geotourism site, and such remedial strategies provide an example of what could be applied to avoid problems elsewhere.</jats:p>

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Chalk groundwater is the main renewable drinking water resource for many cities of the Paris-London Basin. The groundwater motion Upper Normandy is a unique hydrogeological region where both stratigraphy and hydrogeology can be studied together. In this paper, we focus on field observations and their direct application to scientific theory. Eight hydrogeological surfaces, linked to sequence boundaries or key event surfaces are identified. They introduce enough porosity and permeability increases to develop karstic features, hereinafter called karstogenic horizons. These field observations lead us to propose a new stratified chalk groundwater model. Palaeokarsts and perched springs not aligned to the current base level could be explained in a geodynamic perspective. Global eustatism and regional uplift during the Quaternary Period have to be taken into account with the hydrogeological stratified model, as the controlling factors of the groundwater motion and the karstogenic horizon development.  This theory could help hydrogeologists to determine the probability of encountering palaeokarsts above the piezometric level and thereby define well locations with a greater degree of confidence according to karstogenic horizon drilled. Chemical studies may also be applied to show if this stratified model could enhance water quality by a new well design.</jats:p>