Volume Contents

Volume Contents

Volume Contents     

Sediment records of phosphorus-driven shifts to phytoplanktondominance in shallow Florida lakes

Primary producer community structure (PPCS) in shallow lakes isinfluenced by phosphorus (P) load and water column P concentration.Theoretically PPCS may shift between phytoplankton and macrophyte states withintermediate P loading, but phytoplankton dominate when P loading exceeds acritical threshold. We analyzed sediment cores from five shallow, eutrophiclakes (size range: 0.6 to 125 km²) that arephytoplankton dominated to determine whether the development of the currentstate was associated stratigraphically with an increase in sediment total P(TP) and a shift in PPCS. We used sponge biogenic silica(BSi_Sponges) concentrations and total carbon to total nitrogenratios (TC:TN) as proxies for macrophyte abundance and sediment organic mattersource, respectively. Three stratigraphic groups of sediments were identifiedwith k-means cluster analysis. These samples were grouped by increasing TPconcentrations and decreasing age and identified as macrophyte, transitionaland phytoplankton sediments. Results show that as P loading increased in thelate 19th and early 20th centuries, the lakes producedsediments with an increasing contribution from phytoplankton. Four of our lakesmay represent a subset of shallow lakes because of their large size (30 to 125km²) and relatively rapid historic P enrichment. Inthese Florida lakes, PPCS shifted to phytoplankton dominance with nopaleolimnological record of lake-wide alternating stable states or of lake-widephytoplankton dominance before anthropogenic P enrichment.     

Late Pleistocene variations in Antarctic sea ice I: effect of orbital insolation changes

The effect of orbitally induced insolation changes on Antarctic sea-ice cover are examined by means of a dynamic-thermodynamic seaice model. Results are compared with modified CLIMAP 18 000 B.P. sea-ice reconstructions. Calculations suggest that changes in insolation receipt had only a minor influence on Pleistocene sea-ice distributions. The small response can be explained by a number of factors: albedo effects reduce the insolation perturbation at the surface; some of the shortwave radiation entering the ocean contributes to bottom ablation rather than lateral melting; the radiation perturbation at the upper surface of the ice must go to warming the surface to the melting point before melting ensues; and, finally, the relatively high heat capacity of open water dampens the surface temperature response to altered seasonal insolation perturbations.     

Limnological investigation of biogenic silica sedimentation and silica biogeochemistry in Lake St. Moritz and Lake Zürich

Biogenic silica concentrations were determined from core samples of laminated sediments collected from Lake Zürich and Lake St. Moritz and used to calculate rates of biogenic silica sedimentation. In Lake Zürich biogenic silica sedimentation increased from 65 g SiO₂·^?2·yr^?1 in 1894 to nearly 900 g SiO₂·m^?2·yr^?1 in 1896 and in Lake St. Moritz biogenic silica sedimentation increased about 6-fold during the 1930s. Both periods of increased biogenic silica flux followed increased loadings of domestic sewage to the lakes. In Lake Zürich the period of increased flux only lasted for a few years whereas in Lake St. Moritz high fluxes were maintained to the top of the core. In Lake Zürich increased production and sedimentation of diatoms could be maintained only until the silca reservoir in the water mass was depleted whereas in Lake St. Moritz (0.10 year residence time and a mean depth of 25 m) diatom production and sedimentation was maintained at a high level by rapid replenishment of silica from tributary inputs. Although historical patterns of biogenic silica sedimentation differed for the two lakes, it is hypothesized that increased biogenic silica deposition in both lakes occurred because diatom production was stimulated by phosphorus enrichment of the water mass and that the silica biogeochemistry of both lakes was affected as a result.     

Unbundled security services and urban fragmentation in post-apartheid Johannesburg

The paper questions the pluralization of policing devices and security agents across the Johannesburg metropolitan area, which has been accelerated and actually encouraged by public policies in the post-apartheid period. Are the various security initiatives and networks coordinated in a metropolitan security “system” – the regulation of which would need to be analysed – or does their development lead to urban fragmentation? Based on an analysis of an extensive documentation of security services, as well as a series of interviews with involved (street level) actors, different dimensions of potential urban fragmentation linked to security are examined: spatial fragmentation, with the development of road closures and their contestation; financial fragmentation, emblematised by business improvement districts encouraged by the municipality; and political fragmentation, as reflected by the analysis of the broader security policy framework. The paper argues that although the integrated vision of Johannesburg’s policing creates the basis for redistribution of resources and forms of policing regulation at a metropolitan level (in contrast with the apartheid period), the choice of neo-liberal urban policies, of which security strategies form a part, tends to encourage policing fragmentation, or in other words, the differential and unequal provision of security services according to place, income and race.     

Consumer involvement in fair trade and local food systems: delegation and empowerment regimes

Today, various types of fair trade systems propose new forms of relationships between producers and consumers. If several studies have provided accurate understandings of consumers’ motivations to buy fair trade products, the specific kinds of consumer involvement that are emphasized in those systems remain partly unknown. In France, controversies about the regulation and organization of fair trade with producers from Southern countries has led to broader debates about how consumers can best express their solidarity with producers. In these debates local food networks are often portrayed as good examples of fair trade and as having potential to redefine the role of the consumer in the marketplace (or in commercial relations). Based on examination of the type of mechanisms used to enrol consumers in local and fair trade networks, we have distinguished two main kinds of consumers’ involvement. The first one may be called “delegation” and is based on market mechanisms. The second one is called “empowerment” and is based on contractual mechanisms between consumers and producers and on the construction of collective choices. This latter kind of consumer involvement points out the capacity of alternative food networks to empower consumers in a more broadly political sense.

The impact of pyrite variability, dispersive transport and precipitation of secondary phases on the sulphate release due to pyrite weathering

The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of flow, transport and geochemical parameters in the unsaturated and saturated zones on the release of SO₄ from overburden lignite spoil piles into the adjacent lake. A vertical one-dimensional model was set up using the reactive transport simulator SULFIDOX in order to account for the unsaturated zone. The SULFIDOX model was calibrated for effective diffusion using measured O₂ in the gas phase and SO₄ concentrations in the liquid phase from the unsaturated zone of the heap. The results show high sensitivity to O₂ supply and initially present gypsum, but the inclusion of secondary mineral precipitation in equilibrium is of minor importance for the results. To account for the transport of released SO₄ from the saturated zone into the surface water, scenarios were performed by using SULFIDOX results as input concentration for a two-dimensional vertical model set up with PROCESSING MODFLOW and MT3D. These scenarios indicate a rising discharge of SO₄ into the adjacent lake due to continued pyrite weathering for 80 a. Results are highly sensitive to dispersivity, whereas the spatial variability of pyrite distribution did not show any influence on the results. The consideration of initially present gypsum shows a major effect on the modelled SO₄ release.