Anak Krakatau — a colonization model within a colonization model?

The ppaer re-examines three suggestions previously made concerning the colonization of the Krakatau islands since the extirpating 1883 eruption that involve the more recently emergent volcanic island Anak Krakatau, which itself suffered a devastating eruption in 1952. The suggestions re-addressed in the light of recent comments by other workers are:

REE Biological Metallogeny —A Preliminary Study

Five species of bacteria have been found in granite-weathering profiles of Ore District 701.They tend to decrease in varieties and quantities from the upper part down-ward, and no bacterium has been brought up below the depth of 10 m.The simulating experiments done by using humic acid of small molecular weight ,and decanedioic acid extracted from the samples and the bacteria mentioned above have shown that:(1)The dissolving rates of REEs from humic acid original rock or decanedioic acid original rock are lower than those from humic acid bacteria original rock or decanedioic acid bacteria original rock.The presence of bacteria may accelerate the formation of REE-organic complexes and make the complexes increase in quantity.Aminoacids in the bacteria are involved in coordination balance.The concentrations of the complexes tend to increase as a result of the formation of the complexes,i.e., the dissolution, complexation, migration and accumulation of REEs from the original rocks will be accelerated.(2)The metabolism of microorganisms has contributed a lot to keeping a pH environment in the weathering crust.     

Gravettian environmental changes in a N — S transect of central Europe

The area defined as the N — S transect of Central Europe encompasses Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, southern Slovakia, northern Austria, Moravia and southern Poland. Physical and biological environmental analysis have been undertaken for the Gravettian period of the last glacial, between 31 and 22 ka cal BP. Mammal faunas have been recorded from different provinces, which have climatic differences. These climatic differences are reflected in the sediments, the plant cover and the fauna. Over the course of several warm and cold events from 31–22 ka the biodiversity of the individual provinces has remained roughly the same, but important quantitative changes have occurred in the individual faunas.     

Biological fractionation of Zn isotopes in aquatic invertebrates

Recent advances in analytical instrumentation have made it more feasible to measure isotope ratios of many elements. In particular, modem multicollector-inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometers can measure isotope ratios of many elements with extremely high precision. As a consequence, we can begin to explore biological fractionation in a systematic way and hence develop isotope ratio measurements as a tool to explore the environmental geochemistry of trace metals. In this presentation we will discuss the problems and potential of measuring isotope ratios of zinc in biological samples from systems with non-specific contamination. This will include such issues as the importance of matrix removal to the measurement of valid isotope ratios, mass bias correction and the availability of standard reference materials. Recent data on isotope ratios of Zn in the aquatic invertebrate Mysis relicta will be presented. These animals are of particular interest because they changed their feeding pattern from juveniles to adults. Thus they can be used to test the hypothesis that differences in the isotopic signature of food sources may determine receptor signatures. The data indicate that there are significant differences in signatures at the different life stages. However, the continual uptake and loss of metals over an organism＇s life span may also lead to fractionation.     

Biological reduction of sulfate for wastewater containing copper

A process for the treatment of wastewater containing copper in an anaerobic sludge bed reactor has been studied. Sulfate-reducing bacteria （SRB） were cultivated in an anaerobic sludge bed reactor. When the concentrations of Cu^2＋ in influent were 85 mg/L, the reactor could be successfully operated. Under this condition the removal rates of Cu^2＋ and COD were 98.8% and 78.3%, respectively. When the retention time was 8 h, the removal rate of Cu^2＋ did alter significantly and only can reach 81.9%. When the concentrations of Cu^2＋ was less than 300 mg/L, the reactor operated successfully. When the Cu^2＋ concentration in influent was higher than 400 mg/L, the activity of the sulfate-reducing bacteria was suppressed by Cu^2＋.     

Land use changes in Central Kenya from the 1950s — A possibility to generalise?

Land use changes in Kenya's central Highlands were examined with the purpose of comparing findings from Murang'a District with a new study carried out in a similar environment, Nyeri District. In addition, a generalisation of the findings was examined and methods were analysed to investigate its use in other areas. Aerial photographs were used to analyse land use and soil and water conservation in form of terraces. Furthermore, farmers were interviewed in order to obtain information about how they perceive environmental changes and how these changes have affected their livelihoods. Interpretation of aerial photographs together with field verification and interviews give information about environmental changes and their effects. Population censuses were investigated and findings were compared. Results from this study show that the two study areas have similar physical conditions with decreasing soil fertility. The main difference is the cultivated cash crops, tea and coffee in Nyeri, but only coffee in Murang'a. Also, more land is terraced in Nyeri than in Murang'a. The reason why there are adequate terraces in Nyeri is because of the multitude of cash crops that require terraces for their establishment. Compared with Murang'a, farmers in Nyeri are more satisfied with their situation, mainly due to regular payment from tea and a lower population pressure. This study shows that generalisation of the findings can be made but in order to extrapolate it further to the whole central Highlands more studies and knowledge about the whole area are required. The study also shows that methods used to examine environmental changes can be used elsewhere. Although the recommendations are to generalise with caution so that the final results are reliable and true.     

Pinios (Peneus) River (Central Greece): Hydrological — Geomorphological elements and changes during the quaternary

The Pinios River is the third longest river of Greece. It drains the entire drainage basin of Thessaly (eastern part of Central Greece), part of which is the largest plain of the country. In this research the hydrological, geomorphological and geological characteristics of the riverine area of Pinios were studied. Classification and grouping of these characteristics were then carried out, which led to the segmentation of the Pinios River into seven sections, each one with its own set of thematic data. These sets assign separate functions and evolutions of the river system during the Quaternary. Specifically, the basin of the present Pinios River, before its evolution into a river basin, comprised three separate and independent systems. The present Pinios River emerged as a river system from the merging of the lacustrine paleoenvironments along with the major tributaries that drained large parts of the present hydrological basin and as soon as the karstic openings of the central hill valley and the Tempi valley took place during the Quaternary. The followed methodology for the segmentation of the river can be used for the study of heterogeneous river systems.     

Deglaciation chronology,sea-level changes and environmental changes from Holocene lake sediments of Germania Havn Sø, Sabine Ø, northeast Greenland

Germania Havn Sø is located at the outermost coast of northeastern Greenland. According to radiocarbon dating, the lake basin was deglaciated in the early Holocene, around 11,000 cal yr BP. At that time the lake was a marine bay, but the lake was isolated soon after deglaciation at ~ 10,600 cal yr BP. The marine fauna was species-poor, indicating harsh conditions with a high sedimentation rate and lowered salinity due to glacial meltwater supply. The pioneer vegetation around the lake was dominated by mosses and herbs. Deposition of relatively coarse sediments during the early Holocene indicates erosion of the newly deglaciated terrain. Remains of the first woody plant (Salix herbacea) appear at 7600 cal yr BP and remains of other woody plants (Salix arctica, Dryas octopetala, Cassiope tetragona and Empetrum nigrum) appear around one millennium later. Declining concentrations of D. octopetala and the caddis fly Apatania zonella in the late Holocene probably imply falling summer temperatures. Only moderate changes in the granulometric and geochemical record during the Holocene indicate relatively stable environmental settings in the lake, which can probably be explained by its location at the outer coast and the buffering effect of the neighboring ocean.     

Nitrogen Retention in Coastal Marine Sediments—a Field Study of the Relative Importance of Biological and Physical Removal in a Danish Estuary

The aim of this study was to elucidate the relative importance of physical versus biological loss processes for the removal of microphytobenthic (MPB) bound nitrogen in a coastal environment at different times of the year via a dual isotope labeling technique. We used ⁵¹Cr, binding to inorganic sediment particles but not participating in any biological processes, and ¹⁵N–NO₃ ^?, taken up by the MPB and turned over as part of the MPB nitrogen pool. Retention, down-mixing, and export of ¹⁵N were due to both biological and physical processes, so that by comparing retention of the two isotopes, we were able to discern the relative importance of physical and biological processes. The isotope marking was supplemented with measurements of sediment chlorophyll biomass and oxygen fluxes, allowing us to evaluate MPB biomass as well as primary production vs. respiration in the sediment. In spring/early summer, the system was characterized by tight N cycling and high N retention: any remineralized N was immediately taken up and retained in the MPB biomass. In late summer and autumn, the system was still physically stable, but high biological mediated N losses were observed. In early winter, the system was physically dominated due to low MPB biomasses and activity combined with a significant storm event. Our data support the hypothesis that the relative balance between physical and biological processes in determining retention and removal of MPB-bound nitrogen changes seasonally.     

Late Ordovician Reefs and the Biological Crisis at the Ordovician–Silurian Boundary

Reef formation in the Late Ordovician was relatively widespread in the Sandbian and Katian times. In the late Katian, it gradually reduced and ended in the Hirnantian, before the end of the Ordovician. In parallel, reef-building skeleton frame-building biota disappeared and was replaced with algae and calcimicrobes.     

Can an annual flood induce changes in channel geomorphology?

The present study has been a pioneering effort examining the role of an annual flood as a potent stimulus inducing changes in channel geomorphology of the Mayurakshi River, India. Twenty cross sections have been considered for the measurement of various hydro-geomorphic attributes of the river in both the pre- and post-flood conditions in 2018. The study sensed an escalating trend for channel width, width/depth ratio, and wetted perimeter while the reverse was also detected for average depth, maximum depth, cross-sectional area, and hydraulic radius. For example, the width/depth ratio recorded an increase of?~?11%, and the hydraulic radius depicted a decrease of?~?8%. Furthermore, channel asymmetry, bed asymmetry and bed relief index experienced a decrease after the flood. The sudden hydraulic impulse during monsoon flood as manifested in velocity, discharge, specific stream power, Reynolds number, Froude number increases the erosivity of the fluid. Besides the hydraulic factors, bank material (massive sandbank susceptible to hydraulic action and mixed bank constituted by alternate bands of sand and silt, and vulnerable to failure by piping action) brings substantial changes in channel morphology. Moreover, anthropogenic interventions such as sand mining are found to play a significant role in channel behaviour. The role of the multiple factors driving the morphological changes of the cross sections has been unpacked using canonical component analysis.

     

Tropospheric pyruvate changes in the remote area of northwestern China

Pyruvate is a light carboxylate in the troposphere and can act as potential cloud condensation nuclei. Due to its low concentrations, however, little work has been done on the species in precipitation. Past 43-year record of pyruvate was recovered from an ice core of Glacier 1 at 43°06′N and 86°49′E in the remote East Tianshan, northwestern China. It was revealed that pyruvate varied over a relatively large range with some below the detection limit, while part of it is so high as to be up to 70 ng·g-1. With an average concentration of 4.1 ± 8.1 ng·g-1 (mean ± 1σ, N=543), pyruvate is a minor species in comparison with other carboxylates. It is also low as compared with its precipitation in other parts of the world, suggesting a difference in its major source flux. The record revealed high pyruvate concentrations in the late halves of the 1950s and 1980s, but low in the late 1950s, late 1970s, and middle 1990s. The variation trend in the past 43 years is closely correlated with that of acetate, a major carboxylate from anthropogenic pollution to the atmosphere, indicating that tropospheric pyruvate in the remote area of northwestern China is probably a by-product in acetate formation.     

22-Ma eolian deposits in China and long-term climate changes

The history of eolian dust deposition in northern China has been traced back to 22 million years ago （Ma） and the combination of different eolian formations provides a nearly continuous terrestrial climate record since the early Neogene. The spatial distribution of environmental indicators define a roughly EW zonal climate pattern in Asia throughout the Paleogene, attributable to a circulation pattern dominated by a Planetary Wind System （PWS）. A major rearrangement occurred near the Miocene/Oligocene boundary, characterized by a replacement of the zonal PWS by a monsoon circulation similar to that of the present day. This event is also marked by the onset of loess deposition in northern China. The Asian summer monsoon was likely rather weak during the Paleogene. The loess deposition and formation of numerous well-developed paleosols since the Early Miocene indicate that the following features of the modem-day circulation already existed 22 Ma ago： sizeable deserts in the Asian inlands as dust sources, the winter monsoon as dust carrier, and an energetic summer monsoon as a supply of moisture. Uplift of the Himalayan-Tibetan complex and changes in land-sea distribution were likely responsible for these joint changes in circulation and aridity. From 22 to 6 Ma, loess accumulation rates were much lower, suggesting moderate levels of ar/dity and winter monsoon strength. Evolution of the aridity was not strongly correlative with the cooling trends indicated by marine oxygen isotope records, suggesting a smaller impact of global cooling on drying of the Asian interior during this time interval. However, the general aridification history since about 6 Ma matches the ongoing high-latitude cooling and the consequent expansion of Arctic sea-ice/ice sheets. Some increases in aridification also coincide with proposed uplift of portions of the Tibetan Plateau.     

Modeling of prograde mineral δ18O changes in metamorphic systems

A general model has been developed to calculate changes of ¹⁸O of minerals in addition to their composition and modal abundance in metamorphic systems. A complete set of differential equations can be written to describe any chemical system in terms of the variables dP, dT, dX, dM, and d¹⁸O (X, M, and ¹⁸O refer to the chemical composition, number of moles, and oxygen isotope composition of each phase respectively). This set is composed of the differentials of five subsets of equations: (1) conditions of heterogeneous equilibrium; (2) compositional stoichiometry for each mineral; (3) mass balance for each oxide component; (4) oxygen isotope partitioning between phases; (5) conservation of the oxygen isotope ratio of the system. The variance of the complete set of equations is 2, and changes of ¹⁸O, composition, and modal abundance for each mineral can be calculated for arbitrary changes of P and T. Applications to a typical pelitic bulk composition at amphibolite and lower granulite facies conditions suggest that for systems dominated by continuous reactions such as: (a) chlorite + quartz = garnet+H₂O; (b) staurolite + biotite = garnet + muscovite + H₂O; or (c) garnet + muscovite = sillimanite + biotite, isopleths of mineral ¹⁸O are nearly independent of pressure, and have a spacing of about 0.1 per 10–20°C. For nearly discontinuous reactions such as: (d) garnet + chlorite + muscovite = biotite + staurolite+H₂O; (e) staurolite + muscovite = biotite + aluminosilicate + garnet+H₂O; or (f) muscovite + quartz = sillimanite + K-feldspar+H₂O, isopleths of mineral ¹⁸O have slopes more nearly parallel to endmember reaction boundaries and ¹⁸O of phases can have a greater temperature dependence (e.g., 0.1 per 2°C for reaction d). This behavior results from relatively large amounts of reaction progress for small changes of P or T. However, the calculated exhaustion of a reactant within 0.1–5°C ensures that the predicted effects of such reactions on mineral ¹⁸O will not exceed 0.25 for typical bulk compositions. Models that allow for fractional crystallization of garnet suggest that prograde garnet zoning in pelitic assemblages will be relatively smooth until staurolite becomes unstable. At higher temperatures, garnet may develop a step of as much as 0.6 in its core-rim zoning as a result of combined garnet resorption during the continuous reaction garnet + muscovite = sillimanite + biotite and repartitioning of the garnet rim composition to relatively heavy ¹⁸O. The models are insensitive to the degree to which garnet fractionally crystallizes and to the isotope fractionation factors used; only extreme changes in modal abundance or bulk composition for a given mineral assemblage can produce significant changes in the predicted trends. In the absence of infiltration, isotopic shifts resulting from net transfer reactions for minerals in typical amphibolite, eclogite, and lower granulite facies metapelites and metabasites are inferred from the models to be 1 or less for 150°C of heating.     

Physical and chemical changes of water in the deep interior of the Earth—Decrepitation-style mud-volcano-earthquake—A bright lamp to shed light on the mysteries of the deep interior of the Earth

The 2008-05-12 Wenchuan mud-volcano-earthquake was accompanied with eruption of a huge volume of gas and stone, revealing that earthquakes generally result from instant reverse phase explosion of supercritical water (SCW) at the supercritical point. In the deep parts of the crust and mantle there still exists a large amount of supercritical water equivalent in order of magnitude to that of the Earth’s hydrosphere. Soft fluids which exist in the MOHO at the top of the upper mantle are the so-called deep supercritical fluids (SCWD). Supercritical water (SCW) has n×10³ times strong capability to dissolve gas. Its viscosity is extremely low and its diffusivity is extremely strong. Therefore, it can naturally migrate toward a region with relatively negative pressure. In the steep break zone of the MOHO at the 57–65 km depth beneath the earthquake belt, due to mutation of overburden pressure, SCWD can automatically separate out CaSiO₃ and other inorganic salts, evolving into the SCW (H₂O-CO₂-CH₄O system. In going upwards to the 10–20-km depth of the crust SCW will be accumulated as an earthquake-pregnant reservoir in the broken terrain. The phase-transition heat of SCW is estimated at 606.62 kJ/kg and the reverse phasing kinetic energy is 2350.8 kJ/kg. When automatic exhaust at the time of decompression reaches the critical pressure (Pc), the instant explosion reverse phase will be normal-state air water. It will release a huge volume of energy and high-kinetic-energy gas which has been expanded by a factor of 1000, leading to the breaking of the country rocks overlying the earthquake-pregnant reservoir, thus giving rise to a Ms 8.0 earthquake. As a result, there were formed eruptive and air-driven (pneumatic) debris flows whose volumatric flow rate reaches n×10¹⁴ m³/s, and their force greatly exceeds the power of INT explosive of the same equivalent value.     

A review of changes monitoring in the Antarctic ice shelves北大核心CSCD

冰架是南极冰盖物质损失的主要出口。南极冰架动态变化和物质平衡的研究对揭示南极地区的气候变化具有重要的参考价值。本文从表面融化、冰流速、前缘崩解、底部融化和物质平衡五个方面入手,对近些年来南极冰架变化监测的研究进展进行梳理和归纳总结,综述了它们的观测方法、观测结果、机制分析及当前面临的问题。极地观测卫星和现场观测网络的发展、冰架多维度综合分析及数值模拟研究的推进,将有助于进一步揭示冰架变化因子之间的耦合作用及其演变机制,为全球增温影响南极冰盖/冰架的物理机制研究及其变化预测提供重要依据。     

Early–Middle Pleistocene environmental changes and human evolution in the Italian peninsula

This paper is aimed to elucidate the ecological scenario in Italy in the Early to Middle Pleistocene, when species of the genus Homo are known to spread across Europe in two distinct waves: earlier than 1.2 Ma and at about 600 ka, respectively. This topic represents both (1) a fundamental aspect for a better understanding of the factors that allowed humans to colonize the middle latitudes of Eurasia, and (2) a reasonable frontier for current Quaternary palaeobiology, thanks to increasing knowledge of regional and local patterns. As for Italy, a combination of palaeobotanical and palaeontological data sets shows on the one hand a general complexity in both space and time, and on the other hand changes of considerable importance within and among the biological communities. These changes had a major importance during the worldwide change in the Earth climatic system known as “Middle Pleistocene Revolution”, which according to our data culminates with crucial effects of the extreme conditions of MIS 16. Subsequently, during great part of the Middle Pleistocene, the peculiar features of the Italian territory may have favoured isolation and a local persistence of plant populations and possibly mammal taxa, humans included, as for instance suggested by the corrected chronology of the Ceprano calvarium.