Comparison of radiocarbon and uranium-series dating methods as applied to marine apatite

A comparison of uranium-series geochronology and radiocarbon dating, the first systematic test of its kind applied to authigenic marine apatite, has been made for nine seafloor phosphate nodules sampled from the Peruvian and Chilean shelves. Radiocarbon ages agree well with the ²³⁰Th ages for all six samples with ²³⁰Th ages younger than the practical dating limit of the ¹⁴C technique for marine samples. Two of three “old” samples contain no significant ¹⁴C activities, as expected. However, one sample with a high concentration of phosphate pellets contains more than 30% of the modern ¹⁴C activity. The discrepancy between the ¹⁴C and U-series age for this sample is thought to be due to post-depositional adsorption of the particle-reactive elements thorium and protactinium onto pellet surfaces.     

Community structures of coral reefs around Peninsular Malaysia

Coral community structures at eleven fringing reef sites were investigated along the coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Estimated coverage of coral communities is examined by applying quantitative digital image analysis to the line transect method. Four coral community types were characterized by dominant genera and lifeforms: Acropora branching community, Montipora-Acropora community, Porites massive community, and Heliopora community. Live coral coverage in all study sites ranged from 17.9% to 68.6%. Most reefs were in “fair” condition while some reefs were shown to be in “poor” condition. Coral community structures among the study sites were divided into the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia with a dominant Porites massive lifeform, and the east coast with a variety of lifeform categories of Montipora and Acropora. Physical effects such as the monsoon wind regime and sedimentation are likely to influence the formation of dominant coral communities around Peninsular Malaysia.     

Rock Magnetic Approaches Used on Deep-sea Sediments in the Northeastern Equatorial Pacific

Rock magnetic properties of unconsolidated sediments from the Korea Deep Ocean Study area of the northeastern equatorial Pacific were analyzed to trace the time-dependent variations of sedimentary environments. For upper Pleistocene sediments, light-brown sediments predominate, whereas the lower sediments deposited in the late Pliocene are dark brown. Rock magnetic properties also clearly differ among the two distinct color environments. Values of anhysteretic remanent magnetization and low-field magnetic susceptibility are highly responsive to changes in the color of the sediment. For example, comparatively low values denote a dominance of coarse-grained magnetic minerals as observed in the lower dark-brown layers. With respect to the content of magnetic minerals, coarse magnetic grains are highly concentrated in the darker-colored sediment layers. However, both the magnetic mineral dependent parameter (S ratio) and results of the scanning electron microscope observation indicate that magnetic mineral changes did not occur along the core depth, which means that there was no apparent source change. Without distinctive source changes, the variations in the rock magnetic properties likely reflect a process by which the magnetic grains were primarily transported by enhanced wind and bottom currents and affected by diagenetic dissolution as a function of both the time from burial and the extremely low sedimentation rates after deposition.     

A review of precision fertilization research

Precision agriculture plays an important role in sustainable development. Precision fertilization is the core of this field. Three methods of precision fertilization are introduced in this paper. They are: testing soil for formulated fertilization technology, decision support system and expert decision support system. Their development situations are also examined. Some suggestions in the agriculture sustainable development are also provided. The review summarized that 3S technology will become the main data source in the decision support system and in development process of expert decision support system. The MIII technology can raise the soil testing efficiency. The development of precision fertilization has great utility in sustainable development of agriculture.     

Deriving a practical form of IDF formula using transformed rainfall intensities

A general form of formula is presented for the rainfall Intensity–Duration–Frequency (IDF) relationship. This formula is derived from the nearly normal probability distribution function of transformed intensities. In order to transform the raw intensities, a correcting non‐constant spread technique, the Kruskal–Wallis statistic, and the Box–Cox transformation are adopted. These transformations enable to express a simpler model for the IDF formula that agrees well with traditional IDF relationships. Since the proposed method allows the estimation of any percentile value of intensities with a single equation, the intensity percentile at arbitrary duration can be generated easily. The validity of the formula derived by means of the proposed method is assessed using data from major weather stations in Korea. The results show that the percentile intensities produced using the proposed method are in good agreement with those of traditional frequency analysis. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.