Geochronology of anthropogenic pollutants in riparian wetland sediments of the Lippe River (Germany)

Anthropogenic pollutants were determined in a dated sediment core, collected from a riparian wetland of the Lippe River (Ruhr district, Germany). The historical trend in heavy metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, organochlorines, polychlorinated biphenyls and linear alkylbenzenes as well as more recent contaminants such as industrial additives, organotins, synthetic musks, methyltriclosan and some other compounds were determined for the time period between 1930 and 1986. Emission sources, information on technical production and usage, as well as on the individual pollution pathways, with appropriate environmental stability, were considered in the interpretation of the sediment contamination over the past 50 years.Contaminants were analysed and interpreted according to two different criteria: (a) the origin of the main contaminants as related to mining and industrial activities as well as municipal sewage and agricultural effluents and (b) the pollution history. Due to a significant appearance of formerly missing contaminants in sediments deposited since 1970, we suggest classifying contaminants as either common (predating 1970) or modern (postdating 1970).In summary, the study provided a comprehensive reconstruction of the pollution history of the Lippe River system.     

Aspects of Laboratory Dust Aggregation with Relevance to the Formation of Planetesimals

Earth, Moon, and Planets -     

Assembly and concept of a web-based GIS within the paleolimnological project CONTINENT (Lake Baikal,Russia)

Web-based Geographical Information Systems (GIS) are excellent tools within interdisciplinary and multi-national geoscience projects to exchange and visualize project data. The web-based GIS presented in this paper was designed for the paleolimnological project ‘High-resolution CONTINENTal paleoclimate record in Lake Baikal’ (CONTINENT) (Lake Baikal, Siberia, Russia) to allow the interactive handling of spatial data. The GIS database combines project data (core positions, sample positions, thematic maps) with auxiliary spatial data sets that were downloaded from freely available data sources on the world wide web. The reliability of the external data was evaluated and suitable new spatial datasets were processed according to the scientific questions of the project. GIS analysis of the data was used to assist studies on sediment provenance in Lake Baikal, or to help answer questions such as whether the visualization of present-day vegetation distribution and pollen distribution supports the conclusions derived from palynological analyses. The refined geodata are returned back to the scientific community by using online data publication portals. Data were made citeable by assigning persistent identifiers (DOI) and were published through the German National Library for Science and Technology (TIB Hannover, Hannover, Germany).     

Das Problem der Kreide -Nummuliten in Ostschweiz und Vorarlberg

International Journal of Earth Sciences -     

Beobachtungen über die Entstehung der tertiären Kohlen (Humolithe und Saprohumolithe) in Zentralsumatra

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Über die Feldspäte im Germanischen Buntsandstein,ihre Korngrößenabhängigkeit Verbreitung und paläogeographische Bedeutung

The feldspars of the Buntsandstein, their postdepositional alterations, dependance of grain size, their regional distribution and palaeogeographic significance were investigated. The work was based on X-Ray, optical and chemical investigations of about 1100 samples from the Buntsandstein areas in Western Germany and the Vosges. By statistical means feldspar portions independent from grain size were calculated and four different sedimentstreams were identified. The relation of these streams to stratigraphic units is discussed. One stream originated from the south-western margins of the basin, it is very poor in plagioklase and it reached most likely northern Hessen during Lower and Upper Buntsandstein time. During the Middle Buntsandstein it reached the centre of the Weser Basin in southern Niedersachsen. It was ?oppressed“ at its southeastern and eastern flankes by sediment streams originating from the Bohemian Massif. They are characterised by a different granulation, by different feldspar content, and by increasing plagioklase content. In northern Hessen and southern Niedersachsen they reached the western flank of the Weser Basin. During the Middle Buntsandstein this basin had partly been an interference area of S-N and SE-NW sediment flows.     

Über das Verhältnis von Westalpen und Ostalpen

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Sorption of selenium(VI) onto anatase: Macroscopic and microscopic characterization

The sorption of selenium(VI) onto pure anatase, a polymorph of titanium dioxide, was investigated. At the macroscopic level, batch experiments and electrophoretic mobility measurements were performed. Selenium(VI) retention was found to be pH-dependent, i.e. sorption of selenium(VI) decreases with increasing pH (pH range 3.5-11). Selenium(VI) sorption dependence on the ionic strength was also evidenced, i.e. sorption increases while the ionic strength decreases. Electrophoretic mobility measurements showed that selenium(VI) sorption had no effect on the isoelectric point of anatase. At the microscopic level, XPS (X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy) measurements evidenced the absence of reduction of selenium(VI) during the sorption process. Furthermore, the nature of the sorbed surface species at the anatase/liquid interface was elucidated using Attenuated Total Reflection Fourier-Transform Infrared (ATR FT-IR) spectroscopy. The spectroscopic results strongly suggested the formation of outer-sphere complexes on the whole pH range, in agreement with batch sorption experiments and electrophoretic mobility findings.     

Study of nuclear decays during a solar eclipse: Thule Greenland 2008

A new prediction technique based on logarithmic values is proposed to predict the maximum amplitude (R _m) of a solar cycle from the preceding minimum aa geomagnetic index (aa _min). The correlation between lnR _m and lnaa _min (r=0.92) is slightly stronger than that between R _m and aa _min (r=0.90). From this method, cycle 24 is predicted to have a peak size of R _m(24)=81.7(1±13.2%). If the suggested error in aa (3 nT) before 1957 is corrected, the correlation coefficient between R _m and aa _min (r=0.94) will be slightly higher, and the peak of cycle 24 is predicted much lower, R _m(24)=52.5±13.1. Therefore, the prediction of R _m based on the relationship between R _m and aa _min depends greatly on the accurate measurement of aa.     

Mercury Dynamics in a San Francisco Estuary Tidal Wetland: Assessing Dynamics Using In Situ Measurements

We used high-resolution in situ measurements of turbidity and fluorescent dissolved organic matter (FDOM) to quantitatively estimate the tidally driven exchange of mercury (Hg) between the waters of the San Francisco estuary and Browns Island, a tidal wetland. Turbidity and FDOM??representative of particle-associated and filter-passing Hg, respectively??together predicted 94?% of the observed variability in measured total mercury concentration in unfiltered water samples (UTHg) collected during a single tidal cycle in spring, fall, and winter, 2005?C2006. Continuous in situ turbidity and FDOM data spanning at least a full spring-neap period were used to generate UTHg concentration time series using this relationship, and then combined with water discharge measurements to calculate Hg fluxes in each season. Wetlands are generally considered to be sinks for sediment and associated mercury. However, during the three periods of monitoring, Browns Island wetland did not appreciably accumulate Hg. Instead, gradual tidally driven export of UTHg from the wetland offset the large episodic on-island fluxes associated with high wind events. Exports were highest during large spring tides, when ebbing waters relatively enriched in FDOM, dissolved organic carbon (DOC), and filter-passing mercury drained from the marsh into the open waters of the estuary. On-island flux of UTHg, which was largely particle-associated, was highest during strong winds coincident with flood tides. Our results demonstrate that processes driving UTHg fluxes in tidal wetlands encompass both the dissolved and particulate phases and multiple timescales, necessitating longer term monitoring to adequately quantify fluxes.