Bildung bromhaltiger Desinfektionsnebenprodukte nach Chlorung von Bodenseewasser in Abhängigkeit von Aufbereitungsschritten und der Bromidkonzentration

Formation of Brominated Disinfection By-products after Chlorination of Water from Lake Constance Depending on Treatment Steps and Bromide Concentration The formation of halogenated disinfection by-products (DNP) (trihalomethanes (THM), haloacetic acids (HES), haloacetonitriles (HAN), haloketones (HKE) and chloropicrin (TCNM)) was studied after chlorination (0.5 mg/L) of raw water and drinking water from Lake Constance. The objectives of this study were to investigate the effect of bromide ion on the distribution of DNP-species resulting from chlorination and to draw up a bromide mass-balance. The treatment of water from Lake Constance with ozone decreased the formation of DNP about 35% and of total organic halogens (AOX) about 45%. This decline in DNP-formation is mainly due to the formation of chloroform, dichloro- and trichloroacetic acid. Though there is only a small amount of bromide (6.2 μg/L) in water from Lake Constance, about 32% of THM, 16% of HES, and 30% of HAN contained bromine after chlorination of treated water. The addition of bromide ion (up to 1 mg/L) shifted the DNP-composition to more brominated species. The distribution of the DNP-species depends on the initial molar bromide-to-chlorine ratio. A mathematic model showed the same pattern of DNP-species depending on the initial molar bromide-to-chlorine ratio that was observed experimentally in microstrained raw water and drinking water from Lake Constance. After chlorination of microstrained raw water, 27% of the bromide were incorporated in known DNP, 34% in unknown substances, and about 39% of bromide were not converted to organic bromine. After chlorination of treated water, only 16% of the bromide were incorporated in unknown substances, whereas 34% were found in known DNP. About 50% were found as bromide again. After addition of bromide (up to 25 μg/L) to ozonated and treated water from Lake Constance, between 60 and 72% of the bromide that had reacted after chlorination were found in analyzed low-molecular DNP.     

The Okavango giant mafic dyke swarm (NE Botswana): its structural significance within the Karoo Large Igneous Province

The structural organization of a giant mafic dyke swarm, the Okavango complex, in the northern Karoo Large Igneous Province (LIP) of NE Botswana is detailed. This N110°E-oriented dyke swarm extends for 1500 km with a maximum width of 100 km through Archaean basement terranes and Permo-Jurassic sedimentary sequences. The cornerstone of the study is the quantitative analysis of N>170 (exposed) and N>420 (detected by ground magnetics) dykes evidenced on a ca. 80-km-long section lying in crystalline host-rocks, at high-angle to the densest zone of the swarm (Shashe area). Individual dykes are generally sub-vertical and parallel to the entire swarm. Statistical analysis of width data indicates anomalous dyke frequency (few data <5.0 m) and mean dyke thickness (high value of 17 m) with respect to values classically obtained from other giant swarms. Variations of mean dyke thicknesses from 17 (N110°E swarm) to 27 m (adjoining and coeval N70°E giant swarm) are assigned to the conditions hosting fracture networks dilated as either shear or pure extensional structures, respectively, in response to an inferred NNW–SSE extension. Both fracture patterns are regarded as inherited brittle basement fabrics associated with a previous (Proterozoic) dyking event. The Okavango N110°E dyke swarm is thus a polyphase intrusive system in which total dilation caused by Karoo dykes (estimated frequency of 87%) is 12.2% (6315 m of cumulative dyke width) throughout the 52-km-long projected Shashe section. Assuming that Karoo mafic dyke swarms in NE Botswana follow inherited Proterozoic fractures, as similarly applied for most of the nearly synchronous giant dyke complexes converging towards the Nuanetsi area, leads us to consider that the resulting triple junction-like dyke/fracture pattern is not a definitive proof for a deep mantle plume in the Karoo LIP.     

Dating megafaunal extinction on the Pleistocene Darling Downs,eastern Australia: the promise and pitfalls of dating as a test of extinction hypotheses

A key to understanding Late Pleistocene megafaunal extinction dynamics is knowledge of megafaunal ecological response(s) to long-term environmental perturbations. Strategically, that requires targeting fossil deposits that accumulated during glacial and interglacial intervals both before and after human arrival, with subsequent palaeoecological models underpinned by robust and reliable chronologies. Late Pleistocene vertebrate fossil localities from the Darling Downs, eastern Australia, provide stratigraphically-intact, abundant megafaunal sequences, which allows for testing of anthropogenic versus climate change megafauna extinction hypotheses. Each stratigraphic unit at site QML796, Kings Creek Catchment, was previously shown to have had similar sampling potential, and the basal units contain both small-sized taxa (e.g., land snails, frogs, bandicoots, rodents) and megafauna. Importantly, sequential faunal horizons show stepwise decrease in taxonomic diversity with the loss of some, but not all, megafauna in the geographically-small palaeocatchment. The purpose of this paper is to present the results of our intensive, multidisciplinary dating study of the deposits (>40 dates). Dating by means of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) ¹⁴C (targeting bone, freshwater molluscs, and charcoal) and thermal ionisation mass spectrometry U/Th (targeting teeth and freshwater molluscs) do not agree with each other and, in the case of AMS ¹⁴C dating, lack internal consistency. Scanning electron microscopy and rare earth element analyses demonstrate that the dated molluscs are diagenetically altered and contain aragonite cements that incorporated secondary young C, suggesting that such dates should be regarded as minimum ages. AMS ¹⁴C dated charcoals provide ages that occur out of stratigraphic order, and cluster in the upper chronological limits of the technique (～40–48 ka). Again, we suggest that such results should be regarded as suspicious and only minimum ages. Subsequent OSL and U/Th (teeth) dating provide complimentary results and demonstrate that the faunal sequences actually span ～120–83 ka, thus occurring beyond the AMS ¹⁴C dating window. Importantly, the dates suggest that the local decline in biological diversity was initiated ～75,000 years before the colonisation of humans on the continent. Collectively, the data are most parsimoniously consistent with a pre-human climate change model for local habitat change and megafauna extinction, but not with a nearly simultaneous extinction of megafauna as required by the human-induced blitzkrieg extinction hypothesis. This study demonstrates the problems inherent in dating deposits that lie near the chronological limits of the radiocarbon dating technique, and highlights the need to cross-check previously-dated archaeological and megafauna deposits within the timeframe of earliest human colonisation and latest megafaunal survival.     

Significance of shallow core transects for reef models and sea‐level curves,Heron Reef,Great Barrier Reef

A sequence of shallow reef cores from Heron Reef, Great Barrier Reef, provides new insights into Holocene reef growth models. Isochron analysis of a leeward core transect suggests that the north‐western end of Heron Reef reached current sea‐level by ca 6·5 kyr bp and then prograded leeward at a rate of ca 19·6 m/kyr between 5·1 kyr and 4·1 kyr bp (pre‐1950) to the present reef margin. A single short core on the opposing margin of the reef is consistent with greater and more recent progradation there. Further to the east, one windward core reached modern sea‐level by ca 6·3 kyr bp , suggesting near ‘keep‐up’ behaviour at that location, but the opposing leeward margin behind the lagoon reached sea‐level much more recently. Hence, Heron Reef exhibited significantly different reef growth behaviour on different parts of the same margin. Mean reef accretion rates calculated from within 20 m of one another in the leeward core transect varied between ca 2·9 m and 4·7 m/kyr depending on relative position in the prograding wedge. These cores serve as a warning regarding the use of isolated cores to inform reef growth rates because apparent aggradation at any given location on a reef varies depending on its location relative to a prograding margin. Only transects of closely spaced cores can document reef behaviour adequately so as to inform reef growth models and sea‐level curves. The cores also emphasize potential problems in U‐series dates for corals within a shallow (ca 1·5 m) zone beneath the reef flat. Apparent age inversions restricted to that active diagenetic zone may reflect remobilization and concentration of Th in irregularly distributed microbialites or biofilms that were missed during sample vetting. Importantly, the Th‐containing contaminant causes ages to appear too old, rather than too young, as would be expected from younger cement.     

Benthic nutrient fluxes along the Laurentian Channel: Impacts on the N budget of the St. Lawrence marine system

Water column concentrations and benthic fluxes of dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) and oxygen (DO) were measured in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Upper and Lower St. Lawrence Estuary (USLE and LSLE, respectively) to assess the nitrogen (N) budget in the St. Lawrence (SL) system, as well as to elucidate the impact of bottom water hypoxia on fixed-N removal in the LSLE. A severe nitrate deficit, with respect to ambient phosphate concentrations (N*∼−10 μmol L⁻¹), was observed within and in the vicinity of the hypoxic bottom water of the LSLE. Given that DO concentrations in the water column have remained above 50 μmol L⁻¹, nitrate reduction in suboxic sediments, rather than in the water column, is most likely responsible for the removal of fixed N from the SL system. Net nitrate fluxes into the sediments, derived from pore water nitrate concentration gradients, ranged from 190 μmol m⁻² d⁻¹ in the hypoxic western LSLE to 100 μmol m⁻² d⁻¹ in the Gulf. The average total benthic nitrate reduction rate for the Laurentian Channel (LC) is on the order of 690 μmol m⁻² d⁻¹, with coupled nitrification-nitrate reduction accounting for more than 70%. Using average nitrate reduction rates derived from the observed water column nitrate deficit, the annual fixed-N elimination within the three main channels of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and LSLE was estimated at 411 × 10⁶ t N, yielding an almost balanced N budget for the SL marine system.     

Detection of turbulent coherent motions in a forest canopy part I: Wavelet analysis

Turbulence measurements performed at high frequencies yield data revealing intermittent and multi-scale processes. Analysing time series of turbulent variables thus requires extensive numerical treatment capable, for instance, of performing pattern recognition. This is particularly important in the case of the atmospheric surface layer and specifically in the vicinity of plant canopies, where largescale coherent motions play a major role in the dynamics of turbulent transport processes. In this paper, we examine the ability of the recently developedwavelet transform to extract information on turbulence structure from time series of wind velocities and scalars. It is introduced as a local transform performing a time-frequency representation of a given signal by a specific wavelet function; unlike the Fourier transform, it is well adapted to studying non-stationary signals. After the principles and the most relevant mathematical properties of wavelet functions and transform are given, we present various applications of relevance for our purpose: determination of time-scales, data reconstruction and filtering, and jump detection. Several wavelet functions are inter-compared, using simple artificially generated data presenting large-scale features similar to those observed over plant canopies. Their respective behaviour in the time-frequency domain leads us to assign a specific range of applications for each.     

Ammonium excretion by benthic invertebrates and sediment-water nitrogen flux in the Gulf of Mexico near the Mississippi River outflow

Benthic macroinvertebrate biomass and ammonium excretion rates were measured at four stations in the Gulf of Mexico near the Mississippi River mouth. Calculated areal excretion rates were then compared to sediment-water nitrogen fluxes measured in benthic bottom lander chambers at similar stations to estimate the potential importance of macroinvertebrate excretion to sediment nitrogen mineralization. Excretion rates for individual crustaceans (amphipods and decapods) was 2–21 nmoles NH₄ ⁺ (mg dry weight)^?1 h^?1. The mean excretion rates for the polychaetes, Paraprionaspio pinnata [6–12 nmoles NH₄ ⁺ (mg dry weight)^?1h^?1] and Magelona sp. [27–53 nmoles NH₄ ⁺ (mg dry weight)^?1h^?1], were comparable or higher than previous measurements for similar size benthic or pelagic invertebrates incubated at the same temperature (22±1°C). Although the relatively high rates of excretion by these selective feeders may have been partially caused by experimental handling effects (e.g., removal from sediment substrates), they probably reflected the availability of nitrogen-rich food supplies in the Mississippi River plume. When the measured weight-specific rates were extrapolated to total areal biomass, areal macroinvertebrate excretion estimates ranged from 7 μmole NH₄ ⁺ m^?2h^?1 at a 40-m deep station near the river mouth to 18 μmole NH₄ ⁺ m^?2h^?1 at a shallower (28-m deep) station further from the river mouth. The net flux of ammonium and nitrate from the sediments to the water measured in bottom lander chambers in the same region were 15–53 μmole NH₄ ⁺ m^?2h^?1 and ?25–21 μmole NO₃ ^? m^?2h^?1. These results suggest that excretion of NH₄ ⁺ by macroinvertebrates could be a potentially important component of benthic nitrogen regeneration in the Mississippi River plume-Gulf shelf region.     

The Politics of Location: Doing Feminist Research at “Home”*

Feminist research methodologies have many advantages over more traditional positivist methodologies. Feminist research is differentiated from nonfeminist research in terms of its critiques of universality and objectivity and its emancipatory purpose. Drawing on my own research on the survival strategies of low-waged women workers in Worcester, Massachusetts, I argue that we need to examine more critically our feminist research methods in terms of the unequal power relationships on which the research process necessarily rests.     

A water column sampler for invertebrates in salt-marsh tidal pools

A column sampler for use in shallow (1 m) pools is described. The apparatus is a 10-cm diameter PVC pipe mounted on a base plate. A sliding trap on the base plate is attached to a cable which runs over a pulley to the upper part of the sampler. A whole water column of 78 cm² is sampled and 1–2 cm of substrate can be included as desired. The sampler has been used successfully in salt marsh pools to census gastropods, amphipods, and copepods.