Mineral mediated isotope fractionation of soil water.

RATIONALE: The ability to recover the isotopic signature of water added to soil samples that have previously been oven-dried decreases with the increasing presence of silt and clay. The effects on the isotopic signature of water associated with physicochemical soil properties are not yet fully understood, for either hydration or dehydration of soil samples. METHODS: The soil sample chemistry and the crystallinity of minerals were measured by X-ray fluorescence and X-ray diffraction. The organic carbon and the cation-exchange capacity were also determined. Water of known isotopic signature was used to spike an oven-dried substrate and subsequently extracted by cryogenic vacuum extraction at a temperature of 105°C. In addition, the soils were oven-dried at 205°C and water extractions were also performed at 205°C. The isotopic signatures of the water samples were determined by cavity-ring-down spectrometry. RESULTS: The isotope effects caused by the cryogenic vacuum extraction method applied to soils with elevated clay content were reduced. First, by increasing the extraction temperature to 205°C, we improved the precision of the cryogenic vacuum extraction method and the recovery of the known isotopic signature of the spike water. Secondly, the post-correction of data based on the physicochemical soil properties and a common extraction temperature of 105°C improved the measurement trueness. CONCLUSIONS: The isotopic signature of soil water is influenced by mineral-water interaction. During the hydration of clay, different minerals deplete free water in heavy isotopes. The extracted soil water (dehydration water) gathered from clay-rich soils is generally more depleted in the heavy isotopes than the spike water, making results obtained for different soil types difficult to compare. Isotope effects observed at the mineral-water interface highlight potential explanations for eco-hydrological separation of water pools. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Generalization of Seidel astigmatism and Petzval curvature.

In a paper probably to be published in Optika i Spektroskopiya the wave aberration for sagittal focus for the arbitrary surface of rotational symmetry has been carried out on the base of the astigmatic beam invariant D(s) = nu(s)d(s). The resulting expression for the wave aberration has been reformulated into three terms which, in the Seidel region, go over into astigmatism (the first) and into the Petzval curvature (the second) while the third disappears.

Fifth-order field aberration coefficients for an optical surface of rotational symmetry.

The approximate formulas for the principal ray parameters, such as directional cosines and heights of incidence, as well as for the paraxial sagittal quantities h(s) and H (s) have been expressed by paraxial quantities and Seidel aberrations to fifth-order accuracy. On the basis of these relations an expression for the sagittal radius of curvature r(s), (for a given y ) has been obtained. These quantities are used to derive fifth-order field aberration coefficients for arbitrary surfaces of rotational symmetry by using the wave aberration formula for sagittal focus {M. Gaj, Opt. Spectrosk. 21, 373 (1966) [Opt. Spectrosc. 21, 209 (1966)]}. The resulting expression has four terms. The first one depends only on asphericity and tends to equal zero when the surface becomes spherical. The second is a disturbance term and disappears in the Seidel region. The third and fourth terms may be treated as a generalization of the Petzval curvature and of the Seidel astigmatism, respectively. The limits of the terms, when h tends to zero, has been examined.

Minimal astigmatism surfaces.

It has been pointed out that the meridional object and image foci as well as the meridional center of curvature will lie on the same straight line if the condition Delta (n cos(2)i/t) = Delta (n/t) is satisfied. The surfaces fulfilling this condition do not introduce astigmatism; hence they have been called minimal astigmatism surfaces. The generalized aplanatic points are defined and discussed, and the conditions for the incidence angle, which make it possible to replace the aspheric surfaces by spherical ones, are considered. A general method for the calculation of the minimal astigmatism surfaces is described.