Spatial and temporal variability of deep-water algal assemblages in the Northwestern Mediterranean: The effects of an exceptional storm

There are deep-water populations of the endemic and threatened Mediterranean brown alga Cystoseira zosteroides in the Medes Islands Marine Reserve (NW Mediterranean). Here, the distribution, population structure, individual growth, mortality and recruitment rates of this species over two years are described in relation to the effects of an exceptional storm. We found a high spatial variability in the structure and dynamics of C. zosteroides populations at small geographical scales, suggesting that environmental factors acting at the population level display a key role in population size structure, mortality and recruitment. The elevated mortality rates recorded at some locations (almost 80%) is amongst the highest recorded for perennial algae as a consequence of a single storm, emphasizing the importance of episodic catastrophic events in the maintenance of these deep-water, slow-growing populations. These findings are of particular importance not only to fully understand the ecology of C. zosteroides, but also for its conservation.     

The heating history of Vesta and the onset of differentiation

In this work, we study the link between the evolution of the internal structure of Vesta and thermal heating due to ²⁶Al and ⁶⁰Fe and long‐lived radionuclides, taking into account the chemical differentiation of the body and the affinity of ²⁶Al with silicates. We explored several thermal and structural scenarios differing in the available strength of energy due to the radiogenic heating and in the postsintering macroporosity. By comparing them with the data supplied by the HEDs and the Dawn NASA mission, we use our results to constrain the accretion and differentiation time as well as the physical properties of the core. Differentiation takes place in all scenarios in which Vesta completes its accretion in <1.4 Ma after the injection of ²⁶Al into the solar nebula. In all those scenarios where Vesta completes its formation in <1 Ma from the injection of ²⁶Al, the degree of silicate melting reaches 100 vol% throughout the whole asteroid. If Vesta completed its formation between 1 and 1.4 Ma after ²⁶Al injection, the degree of silicate melting exceeds 50 vol% over the whole asteroid, but reaches 100 vol% only in the hottest, outermost part of the mantle in all scenarios where the porosity is lower than 5 vol%. If the formation of Vesta occurred later than 1.5 Ma after the injection of ²⁶Al, the degree of silicate melting is always lower than 50 vol% and is limited only to a small region of the asteroid. The radiation at the surface dominates the evolution of the crust, which ranges in thickness from 8 to about 30 km after 5 Ma: a layer about 3–20 km thick is composed of primitive unmelted chondritic material, while a layer of about 5–10 km is eucritic.     

Dawn; the Vesta–HED connection; and the geologic context for eucrites,diogenites, and howardites

The Dawn mission has provided new evidence strengthening the identification of asteroid Vesta as the parent body of the howardite, eucrite, and diogenite (HED) meteorites. The evidence includes Vesta's petrologic complexity, detailed spectroscopic characteristics, unique space weathering, diagnostic geochemical abundances and neutron absorption characteristics, chronology of surface units and impact history, occurrence of exogenous carbonaceous chondritic materials in the regolith, and dimensions of the core, all of which are consistent with HED observations and constraints. Global mapping of the distributions of HED lithologies by Dawn cameras and spectrometers provides the missing geologic context for these meteorites, thereby allowing tests of petrogenetic models and increasing their scientific value.     

A spatiotemporal calculus for reasoning about land-use trajectories

Earth observation images are a powerful source of data about changes in our planet. Given the magnitude of global environmental changes taking place, it is important that Earth Science researchers have access to spatiotemporal reasoning tools. One area of particular interest is land-use change. Using data obtained from images, researchers would like to express abstractions such as ‘land abandonment’, ‘forest regrowth’, and ‘agricultural intensification’. These abstractions are specific types of land-use trajectories, defined as multi-year paths from one land cover into another. Given this need, this paper introduces a spatiotemporal calculus for reasoning about land-use trajectories. Using Allen’s interval logic as a basis, we introduce new predicates that express cases of recurrence, conversion and evolution in land-use change. The proposed predicates are sufficient and necessary to express different kinds of land-use trajectories. Users can build expressions that describe how humans modify Earth’s terrestrial surface. In this way, scientists can better understand the environmental and economic effects of land-use change.     

Carbonaceous chondrites as analogs for the composition and alteration of Ceres

The mineralogy and geochemistry of Ceres, as constrained by Dawn's instruments, are broadly consistent with a carbonaceous chondrite (CM/CI) bulk composition. Differences explainable by Ceres’s more advanced alteration include the formation of Mg‐rich serpentine and ammoniated clay; a greater proportion of carbonate and lesser organic matter; amounts of magnetite, sulfide, and carbon that could act as spectral darkening agents; and partial fractionation of water ice and silicates in the interior and regolith. Ceres is not spectrally unique, but is similar to a few other C‐class asteroids, which may also have suffered extensive alteration. All these bodies are among the largest carbonaceous chondrite asteroids, and they orbit in the same part of the Main Belt. Thus, the degree of alteration is apparently related to the size of the body. Although the ammonia now incorporated into clay likely condensed in the outer nebula, we cannot presently determine whether Ceres itself formed in the outer solar system and migrated inward or was assembled within the Main Belt, along with other carbonaceous chondrite bodies.     

Effects of ocean acidification and high temperatures on the bryozoan Myriapora truncata at natural CO2 vents

There are serious concerns that ocean acidification will combine with the effects of global warming to cause major shifts in marine ecosystems, but there is a lack of field data on the combined ecological effects of these changes due to the difficulty of creating large‐scale, long‐term exposures to elevated CO₂ and temperature. Here we report the first coastal transplant experiment designed to investigate the effects of naturally acidified seawater on the rates of net calcification and dissolution of the branched calcitic bryozoan Myriapora truncata (Pallas, 1766). Colonies were transplanted to normal (pH 8.1), high (mean pH 7.66, minimum value 7.33) and extremely high CO₂ conditions (mean pH 7.43, minimum value 6.83) at gas vents off Ischia Island (Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy). The net calcification rates of live colonies and the dissolution rates of dead colonies were estimated by weighing after 45 days (May–June 2008) and after 128 days (July–October) to examine the hypothesis that high CO₂ levels affect bryozoan growth and survival differently during moderate and warm water conditions. In the first observation period, seawater temperatures ranged from 19 to 24 °C; dead M. truncata colonies dissolved at high CO₂ levels (pH 7.66), whereas live specimens maintained the same net calcification rate as those growing at normal pH. In extremely high CO₂ conditions (mean pH 7.43), the live bryozoans calcified significantly less than those at normal pH. Therefore, established colonies of M. truncata seem well able to withstand the levels of ocean acidification predicted in the next 200 years, possibly because the soft tissues protect the skeleton from an external decrease in pH. However, during the second period of observation a prolonged period of high seawater temperatures (25–28 °C) halted calcification both in controls and at high CO₂, and all transplants died when high temperatures were combined with extremely high CO₂ levels. Clearly, attempts to predict the future response of organisms to ocean acidification need to consider the effects of concurrent changes such as the Mediterranean trend for increased summer temperatures in surface waters. Although M. truncata was resilient to short‐term exposure to high levels of ocean acidification at normal temperatures, our field transplants showed that its ability to calcify at higher temperatures was compromised, adding it to the growing list of species now potentially threatened by global warming.     

Fossilisation of a silica diagenesis reaction front on the mid-Norwegian margin

The diagenetic transformation of biogenic silica from opal-A to opal-CT was recognised on seismic reflection data over an area of 78 × 10³ km² on the mid-Norwegian margin. The opal-A/CT diagenetic boundary appears as a positive, high amplitude reflection that generally cross-cuts the hosting stratigraphy. We demonstrate that it is not a sea bottom simulating reflection (BSR) and also that is not in thermal equilibrium with the present day isotherms. We present arguments that three styles of deformation associated with the opal-A/CT reflection – polygonal faulting, regional anticlines and synclines and differential compaction folding – indicate that the silica diagenesis reaction front is fossilised at a regional scale. Isochore maps demonstrate the degree of conformity between the opal-A/CT reflection and three seismic horizons of Late Miocene to Early Pliocene age that potentially represent the paleo-seabed when ‘fossilisation’ of the reaction front took place. The seismic interpretational criteria for recognition of a fossilised diagenetic front are evaluated and the results of our study are integrated with previous studies from other basins of the NE Atlantic in order to determine if the arrest of silica diagenesis was diachronous along this continental margin.