Sublethal Effects of Crude Oil on the Community Structure of Estuarine Phytoplankton

While the ecological impacts of crude oil exposure have been widely studied, its sublethal effects on phytoplankton community structure in salt marsh estuaries have not been well documented. The purpose of this study was to simulate oil spill conditions using a microcosm design to examine short-term (2 day) changes in phytoplankton community composition and total biomass following exposure to crude oil obtained from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and a mixture of Texas crude oils. Microcosm experiments were performed in situ in North Inlet Estuary near Georgetown, SC. A control and six replicated experimental treatments of crude oil additions at final concentrations of 10, 50, or 100 μl l⁻¹ of either Deepwater Horizon spill oil or the Texas crude mixture were incubated under in situ conditions. Photopigments were analyzed using high-performance liquid chromatography and community composition was determined using ChemTax. Total phytoplankton biomass (as chl a) declined with increasing crude oil concentrations. Prasinophytes, the most abundant microalga in both experiments, showed no response to oil exposure in one experiment and a significant negative response in the other. Diatoms euglenophytes and chlorophytes appeared relatively resistant to oil contamination at the exposure levels used in this study, maintaining or increasing their relative abundance with increasing oil concentrations. Chlorophytes and cyanobacteria increased in relative abundance while cryptophyte abundance decreased with increasing oil concentrations. The results of these experiments suggest that low levels of crude oil exposure may reduce total biomass and alter phytoplankton community composition with possible cascade effects at higher trophic levels in salt marsh estuaries.     

中国海域区古近纪含煤盆地与煤系分布研究

新近纪和古近纪是全球重要的聚煤期。中国古近纪聚煤盆地分布在东部沿海省区,是全球性环太平洋聚煤带的组成部分。中国海域区含煤沉积盆地虽然也属于断陷盆地和坳陷盆地类型,且成群出现,但总体构造背景有利于含煤沉积的持续发展,盆地群连续性好,含煤沉积厚度大,如琼东南盆地、东海海域西湖凹陷,含煤沉积厚度达1 km以上,这是陆上区古近纪含煤盆地所不能相比的。研究表明,海域区的聚煤盆地内大多由若干凹陷组成,为聚煤凹陷,可分为两大类,即半地堑凹陷和地堑凹陷。根据成煤盆地的水体深浅又可分为深水半地堑凹陷和浅水半地堑凹陷,地堑凹陷均为深水凹陷。盆地内表现为明显的两个聚煤带：缓坡聚煤带和陡坡聚煤带,缓坡聚煤带占绝对优势。在潮坪体系的潮上带和潮间带沼泽,利于聚煤作用的广泛发生。泥炭的堆积可能存在两种形式：原地堆积和异地堆积。由于盆地构造的频繁活动异地堆积可能是海域区聚煤盆地成煤作用的重要形式。海域区巨厚的含煤沉积为海域区煤成气成藏提供了丰厚的物质基础。又由于含煤地层埋深大,煤的变质作用程度相对较高,成为良好的烃源岩。     

Groundwater-level response to land-use change and the implications for salinity management in the West Moorabool River catchment, Victoria, Australia

The connection between the removal of native vegetation, rising water tables and increasing stream salinity has been established for many catchments across Australia. However, the West Moorabool River in south west Victoria is an example of a catchment where there has been little discernable effect on groundwater levels following land clearing. Over the past 150 years, a significant portion of the catchment has been cleared of dense forest for agricultural development. Historic standing water-level records from 1870–1871 and 1881 are compared with contemporary measurements (1970s to 2007) recorded in the government bore databases. The data show that the earliest recorded groundwater levels are well within the seasonal range of values observed today. By integrating geology and hydrogeology with historical observations of groundwater levels, climate data and land use, the contemporary field observations of stream salinity are linked to the changed water use and shift in rainfall. In contrast to the normally accepted axiom, reafforestation as a management strategy to mitigate the rising salinity in the West Moorabool River catchment would seem inappropriate.     

Middle to early Late Ordovician hydrothermal veining in the Molong Volcanic Belt,northeastern Lachlan Fold Belt: Sedimentological evidence

Detrital volcanic and vein quartz, accompanied by felsic volcanic debris, occur as minor constituents in the Ordovician subduction‐related mafic volcanics of the Molong Volcanic Belt. In the western province of the Molong Volcanic Belt, detrital quartz is present in the three episodes of the mafic Volcanics. Volcanic quartz occurs in allochthonous limestone blocks in the Bendigonian Hensleigh Siltstone overlying the Mitchell Formation. The second volcanic episode (the Fairbridge Volcanics) commenced after a hiatus of approximately 20 million years and lasted around 10 million years from Darriwilian to Gisbornian time. Locally derived vein quartz, volcanic quartz and felsic detritus are concentrated at the bases of autochthonous Wahringa and Yuranigh Limestone Members of the volcanics and are extensive and abundant in basal beds of the regional Eastonian limestone body that transgressed over an eroded volcanic centre at Cargo. This early Eastonian debris, deposited early in an 8 million‐year volcanic hiatus preceding the final Ordovician Bolindian volcanism, establishes a pre‐Eastonian age for mineralisation at Cargo. It is inferred that the pauses in volcanism were preceded by magmatic fractionation, intrusion and hydrothermal activity and followed by erosion, subsidence and deposition of autochthonous limestones. Minor occurrences of vein and volcanic quartz are found in Bolindian volcanogenic sediments of the third volcanic phase. It is concluded that hydrothermal vein formation (and mineralisation by inference) was associated with pauses in volcanic activity throughout the Middle to early Late Ordovician over a wide area in the western province, culminating in the mineralisation at Cargo and Copper Hill near Molong. Volcanism in the eastern province of the Molong Volcanic Belt was continuous from at least Darriwilian to latest Ordovician time. Here, detrital hydrothermal vein quartz and volcanic quartz and felsic detritus are distributed through late Middle and early Late Ordovician turbidites of the Weemalla Formation. The possible existence of cycles in the source area like those of the Fairbridge Volcanics is masked by the distal nature of these deposits. Vein formation occurred in both provinces from late Middle Ordovician to early Late Ordovician, long before the formation of the world‐class mineral deposit at Cadia associated with the latest Ordovician Cadia Monzonite.     

Equilibrium interface segregation in the diopside-forsterite system I: Analytical techniques, thermodynamics, and segregation characteristics

After syntheses of partially molten diopside-forsterite polycrystalline aggregates doped with various solutes, we analyzed the equilibrium segregation of Ni, Mn, Sr, Al, Yb, Y, Nd, La, and Ti at interfaces between diopside/diopside, diopside/forsterite and, forsterite/forsterite grains based on STEM/EDX (scanning transmission electron microscopy/energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry) to examine the effects of ionic size, valence state, co-segregation, and interface type on interface chemistry. We derive relationships between two quantities describing interface segregation and X-ray intensities acquired both from areas that include an interface and from areas that do not. These segregation quantities are (i) interface excess density and (ii) interface enrichment factor, which rely on Gibbsian thermodynamics and the Langmuir-McLean segregation model, respectively. Interface excess densities, which vary from −0.5 to 10 atoms/nm², indicate that the level of interface excess density depends on solutes and sample assemblage. Interface enrichment factors, which range from almost 1 to 130, reveal that the ionic size of the solutes affects their segregation via production of misfit lattice strain due to the difference between the size of a solute ion and that of the ideal strain-free lattice site. The ionic sizes of Yb and Y are almost identical to the size of the strain-free site; however, their segregation is significant indicating that a difference in valence state between the host elements (i.e., Ca and Mg) and the solutes also drives segregation. In contrast to other solutes, segregation characteristics of Al differ from these simple segregation rules. Segregation quantities do not change with interface type, indicating that the number of sites available for segregants and the driving force for segregation are similar among type of interfaces. We compare the element partitioning between diopside-melt and diopside-interfaces within the same sample assemblages. These two partition coefficients coincide if we approximate the number of segregation sites at interfaces as equivalent to 2 mono-atomic layers. Examination of the energetics in crystal-melt partitioning reveals that the interface segregation energy is essentially equal to the solute solution energy in a crystal.     

Influence of the natural organic matter in the removal of caffeine from water by fixed-bed column adsorption

The removal of caffeine from tap water by F-400 granular activated carbon in fixed-bed adsorption experiments was carried out. Textural and chemical characterization of the adsorbent through N₂ adsorption–desorption isotherms, Fourier transform infrared spectrometry, isoelectric point determination and scanning electron microscopy studies was developed in studies previously reported. Caffeine breakthrough curves and total organic carbon profiles at different operation conditions (inlet concentration, volumetric flow rate and mass of adsorbent) were obtained. These experimental results showed a displacement of the natural organic matter from the active sites exerted by caffeine molecules due to their higher affinity to the surface carbon. This behavior led to an overshooting, a local outlet natural organic matter concentration higher than the feed quantity. A competitive effect seems to be observed in the removal of the target compound, decreasing the efficiency of the process. Axial dispersion coefficients and dimensionless numbers were estimated for the caffeine removal onto F-400 activated carbon. Therefore, the regeneration of the adsorbent by adsorption–desorption cycles was studied.     

Petrology and Geochemistry of MORB from 25?E to 46?E along the Southwest Indian Ridge: Evidence for Contrasting Styles of Mantle Enrichment

The 1984 PROTEA expedition, leg 5, to the central SouthwestIndian Ridge recovered basaltic lavas from fracture zones andridge segments between 25?E and 48?E. In terms of petrographyand major element variations the samples are unremarkable forocean ridge basalts and range from aphyric to highly plagioclasephyric and from primitive (mg-number = 70) to moderately evolved(mg-number = 40) in composition. Multiply saturated (i.e., olivine,plagioclase, and clinopyroxene) basalts are common within thisregion. There is no systematic difference in compositional characteristicsbetween basalts dredged from fracture zone walls and those dredgedfrom ridge segments, and fractional crystallization has playedan important role in controlling the overall range in lava compositionin both tectonic environments. Incompatible element abundance ratios in the basalts are morenotable and distinguish between geochemically depleted (N-type)MORB with high Zr/Nb (1668) and Y/Nb (4?723) ratios and low(La/Sm)^m, ratios (0-?76–1?00), and geochemically enriched(E-type) MORB with low Zr/Nb (3?4–15?8) and Y/Nb (0?5–8?8)and high (La/Sm). ratios (1?07–3?8). N-type MORB appearsto be absent in the immediate vicinity of Marion Island, butoccurs further along the ridge to the northeast and southwest.Geochemically enriched MORB occurs at scattered localities alongthe ridge but is particularly abundant along the section ofthe ridge closest to the Marion hotspot. In detail, two distinct varieties of E-type MORB can be recognized.The one type has incompatible element and isotopic ratios similarto, although slightly less enriched than, those characteristicof the Marion hotspot (Zr/Nb=5?8–8?6; Y/Nb=0?5–0?8;Ba/Nb=5?1–9?0). The second type can be distinguished byhaving high Ba/Nb ratios (9–22), unlike any lavas directlyassociated with the Marion hotspot, but similar to those characteristicof DUPAL ocean island basalts (OIB). A single sample from thisgroup for which there are isotopic data indicates derivationfrom an isotopically anomalous source region. A model is proposed whereby the sub-oceanic mantle below thisportion of the southwest Indian Ocean has experienced at leasttwo distinct enrichment events. The one is associated with theupwelling of the Marion mantle plume (geochemically characterizedby having low Ba/Nb ratios and normal OIB isotopic ratios).The other is associated with upwelling from a DUPAL source (characterizedby having high Ba/Nb ratio and unusual isotopic ratios) whichhas been proposed to exist beneath this portion of the southwestIndian Ocean (Hart, 1984). On the basis of Ba/Nb and Nb/U ratios,recycled oceanic lithosphere is favoured as a source for theMarion hotspot, while recycled oceanic lithosphere plus ancientpelagic sediment appears to be the most likely source for theDUPAL anomaly and the DUPAL E-type MORB in this region.     

青藏高原东缘晚新生代成都盆地物源分析与水系演化

成都盆地位于青藏高原东缘,夹于龙门山与龙泉山之间,盆地中充填了3.6Ma以来的大邑砾岩、雅安砾石层和晚更新世—全新世砾石层,其物源均来源于盆地西侧的龙门山,具横向水系和单向充填的特征。本次以物源区分析作为切入点,以岷江和青衣江水系为重点,采用砾岩成分分析、砂岩岩屑成分分析、重矿物分析和砾石的地球化学分析等基本方法,开展青藏高原东缘晚新生代以来的古水系重建工作,研究结果表明,成都盆地主要有两个物源区,其中成都盆地北部的都江堰街子场、崇州白塔山、大邑白岩沟、大邑氮肥厂、彭州丁家湾、彭州葛仙山等剖面中的砾石层在碎屑成分、重矿物和花岗岩砾石的地球化学成分等方面相似,应为古岷江的产物,而其与现代岷江在砾岩成分和重矿物特征等方面的差异性则表明古岷江可能存在改道的现象;成都盆地南部的庙坡剖面和熊坡东剖面中的砾石层在碎屑成分、重矿物和花岗岩砾石的地球化学成分等方面相似,应为古青衣江的产物,但其流向却与现代青衣江的流向不同,表明熊坡背斜是在大邑砾岩沉积之后隆起的,它的隆起迫使古青衣江改道。     

Main results of recent investigations into the physical mechanisms of the interaction of tropical cyclones and the ionosphere

Izvestiya, Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics - International investigations into the correlation between tropical cyclones (TCs) and the ionosphere are associated with great difficulties in proving...