Estimates of lichen growth–rate in northern Sweden

Two lichenometric techniques were compared in a study of lichen growth–rate in northern Sweden. The first technique, based on the maximum lichen diameter on glacier moraines, was identical to the technique used in the 1970s, whereas the other utilized the lichen diameter measured on 100 randomly selected boulders. The results indicate that it does not matter which technique is chosen, as long as the technique is used consistently on both the calibration surfaces and the surfaces to be dated. The use of data from both the 1970s and the 2000s increased the number of calibration surfaces available. The new calibration curve indicates that the age of Little Ice Age moraines was underestimated by up to about 30 years in the study conducted in the 1970s.     

Coherent eddies and temperature structure functions for three contrasting surfaces. Part II: Renewal model for sensible heat flux

Sensible heat, latent heat, and other scalar fluxes cannot be measuredwithin short dense canopies, e.g., straw mulches, with standard approachessuch as eddy correlation, Bowen ratio-energy balance, aerodynamic, andvariance methods. However, recently developed surface renewal models, thatare based on the fact that most of the turbulent transfer within and abovecanopies is associated with large-scale coherent eddies, which are evidentas ramp patterns in scalar time series, offer a feasible solution. Wepresent a new air renewal model that calculates sensible heat flux atdifferent heights within and above a canopy from the average cubictemperature structure function, sampled at a moderate rate, and measuredaverage friction velocity. The model is calibrated and tested with datameasured above and within a Douglas-fir forest and above a straw mulch andbare soil. We show that the model describes half-hour variations ofsensible heat flux very well, both within the canopy and roughnesssublayers and in the inertial sublayer, for stable and unstable atmosphericconditions. The combined empirical coefficient that appears in the modelhas an apparently universal value of about 0.4 for all surfaces andheights, which makes application of the model particularly simple. Themodel is used to predict daytime and nighttime sensible heat flux profileswithin the straw mulch and within a small bare opening in the mulch.     

Contrasting origin of post-collisional high-K calc-alkaline and shoshonitic versus alkaline and peralkaline granitoids. The use of sliding normalization

Abundant high-K calc-alkaline (HKCA) magmatism appears to be post-collisional and often shifts to shoshonitic or alkaline–peralkaline compositions in the final stages of orogeny. The nature and the causes of this transition are studied on the basis of 308 major element and of 86 unpublished trace element (including REE) analyses of the Pan-African granitoids from the Tuareg shield (Adrar des Iforas, Mali and Aïr, Niger). This database covers a wide variety of magmas from subduction-related to intraplate-type including abundant HKCA batholiths. Literature data from geodynamically well-constrained cases are also included. In addition to a conventional geochemical approach of the studied magmatism, the sliding normalization method is proposed. This tool aims at comparing magmatic series: each studied rock is normalized to the interpolated composition of the reference series that has the same SiO₂ content as the sample. This method amplifies differences in sources and in fractionation processes and allows comparison of rocks from basic to acid composition. Two distinct juvenile sources are proposed: a previously enriched phlogopite-K richterite bearing lithospheric mantle or a lower juvenile crustal equivalent for HKCA-shoshonitic magmas, and a lowest lithospheric-upper asthenospheric OIB-type mantle for alkaline-peralkaline magmatism. The first source is melted only shortly after its generation when the lithosphere was still hot, which restricts HKCA magmatism mainly to post-collisional settings. The second asthenospheric/lowest lithosphere source is by definition close to its melting temperature and can generate magma ubiquitously both in space and time. The main melting triggers are lithospheric major structures which are not only operative in a post-collisional setting but also in other environments such as intraplate setting. Geochemistry thus gives indications about the nature of the source and on geotectonic settings. However, the latter is a second rank information, which is partly model-dependant. The post-collisional period differs from other settings by a propensity to generate large amounts of magma of various kinds, among which HKCA magmatism is volumetrically the most prominent.     

Modelling Carbon Dynamics of Boreal Forest Ecosystems Using the Canadian Land Surface Scheme

The ecosystem carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) simulations recently implemented in the Canadian Land Surface Scheme (CLASS) are presented. The main calculations include plant photosynthesis, autotrophic respiration, root N uptake, litterfall, plant growth, and soil heterotrophic respiration. Model experiments are made on two boreal forest ecosystems, deciduous (aspen) and conifers (black spruce). Simulated plant, soil, and ecosystem CO₂ exchanges are analysed on half-hourly, daily, and annual time scales and compared with tower eddy correlation flux measurements and estimates from various authors. Modeled daily ecosystem CO₂ exchange explained86% and 54%, respectively, of the observed variance of eddy correlationflux at the aspen site and at the black spruce site. Annual results show that the aspen ecosystem was simulated as a C sink in both 1994 (+164 g Cm^–2) and 1996 (+142 g C m^–2), and the black spruce ecosystem wassimulated as a C sink in 1994 (+39 g C m^–2) and 1995 (+25 g Cm^–2), but as a C source in 1996 (–27 g C m^–2).     

Blueschist ophiolites in the melange zone,northern New Caledonia

A regional melange zone, 150 km long and 30 km wide, forms the southern boundary and structural capping to a high-pressure blueschist belt in northern New Caledonia. The disrupted country rocks in the melange zone are Mesozoic metagrey-wackes and Eocene chert-limestone sequences which have been penetrated from below by tectonically-injected ophiolite slivers containing metamorphosed serpentinite, gabbro, dolerite, basalt, tuff, chert and shale. An ocean crust origin for these rocks is indicated by chemical, mineralogical and radiometric data from coastal outcrops at Anse Ponandou on the northeast coast. The age (41 m.y.), metamorphic environment (350 ° C at 7 kb), and mineral association (acmitic jadeite-riebeckite-pyropic spessartine-pistacitic epidote-lawsonite-high Si phengite) are significantly different from those of the adjacent regional high-pressure schist belt, indicating a separate structural site for blueschist metamorphism of buried ophiolitic ocean crust during early Tertiary orogenesis.     

Oxygen isotope study of metamorphic rocks from the Ouégoa district,New Caledonia

48 minerals from 18 in situ metamorphic rocks (mostly metasediments) from the Ouégoa district have been studied. Particular emphasis was placed on obtaining isotopic data for quartz, calcite and muscovite but some pyroxenes and amphiboles were also examined. Data for Ouégoa rocks show they have tended to be isotopically homogenized by metamorphism and that the effect of increasing metamorphism is to progressively deplete the rocks of heavy C and O isotopes. These results indicate that during metamorphism the rocks isotopically exchanged through the medium of a widespread oxygen-carrying fluid phase. Tentatively assigned temperatures obtained from isotopic data for quartz-calcite and quartz-muscovite pairs, using the calibration curves of Epstein and Taylor (1967), indicate lawsonite in the Ouégoa schists to be stable over a temperature range of 250 to 400° C and epidote from ca. 380° to at least 550° C. Temperatures for metamorphic zones in Ouégoa blueschists closely parallel those obtained for Type III and IV glaucophane-bearing rocks from Ward Creek, California (Taylor and Coleman, 1968). The measured tectonic thickness of lawsonite-bearing schists has been used to calculate a lithostatic pressure increment of 2 Kb and geothermal gradient of 20° C per km for the lawsonite zone. Comparison of lithostatic pressure increment with total pressure increment estimated from the stability relations of lawsonite over the temperature range 250–400° C (3.5 Kb Nitsch, 1972) suggest P _total ≠ P _lithostatic and that that the pressure of the fluid phase may have exceeded lithostatic pressure.     

Atmospheric turbulence within and above a douglas-fir stand. Part II: Eddy fluxes of sensible heat and water vapour

This is the second paper describing a study of the turbulence regimes and exchange processes within and above an extensive Douglas-fir stand. The experiment was conducted on Vancouver Island during a two-week rainless period in July and August 1990. Two eddy correlation units were operated in the daytime to measure the fluxes of sensible heat and water vapour and other turbulence statistics at various heights within and above the stand. Net radiation was measured above the overstory using a stationary net radiometer and beneath the overstory using a tram system. Supplementary measurements included soil heat flux, humidity above and beneath the overstory, profiles of wind speed and air temperature, and the spatial variation of sensible heat flux near the forest floor.The sum of sensible and latent heat fluxes above the stand accounted for, on average, 83% of the available energy flux. On some days, energy budget closure was far better than on others. The average value of the Bowen ratio was 2.1 above the stand and 1.4 beneath the overstory. The mid-morning value of the canopy resistance was 150–450 s/m during the experiment and mid-day value of the Omega factor was about 0.20. The daytime mean canopy resistance showed a strong dependence on the mean saturation deficit during the two-week experimental period.The sum of sensible and latent heat fluxes beneath the overstory accounted for 74% of the available energy flux beneath the overstory. One of the reasons for this energy imbalance was that the small number of soil heat flux plates and the short pathway of the radiometer tram system was unable to account for the large horizontal heterogeneity in the available energy flux beneath the overstory. On the other hand, good agreement was obtained among the measurements of sensible heat flux made near the forest floor at four positions 15 m apart.There was a constant flux layer in the trunk space, a large flux divergence in the canopy layer, and a constant flux layer above the stand. Counter-gradient flux of sensible heat constantly occurred at the base of the canopy.The transfer of sensible heat and water vapour was dominated by intermittent cool downdraft and warm updraft events and dry downdraft and moist updraft events, respectively, at all levels. For sensible heat flux, the ratio of the contribution of cool downdrafts to that of warm updrafts was greater than one in the canopy layer and less than one above the stand and near the forest floor.     

Searching for sustainability in aquaculture: An investigation into the economic prospects for an integrated salmon–mussel production system

The pollution effects of cage aquaculture represent an external cost to society, and the challenge for environmental economists has been to estimate the magnitude of these costs and to suggest ways in which they can be mitigated or ‘internalised’. One possible mitigation strategy involves the development of integrated production systems based on polyculture, and this paper examines the financial viability of such a system that integrates the farming of salmon and mussels. The results demonstrate the commercial potential of an integrated salmon–mussel production system under present market conditions, but highlight the critical role played by future price trends.     

Behavioural responses of the bivalve Scrobicularia plana (da Costa) subjected to short-term copper (Cu II) concentrations

Short-term (6 h) behavioural responses and mortality of Scrobicularia exposed to low concentrations of copper in sea water (31%, S) have been investigated.Scrobicularia can detect copper at a concentration of 0·01 ppm. The initial response is valve closure resulting in a rapid drop in heart rate. In concentrations of 0·05, 0·01 and, to a lesser extent, 0·1 ppm copper added to sea water, the clams begin to interact with the polluted water after 2–3 h. In 0·5 ppm, the valves remain closed and the heart rate is maintained at a low level over the 6-h exposure period.Mortality increases with time in 0·5 ppm copper concentration, reaching 50% in 5–7 days. In 0·05 and 0·01 ppm, no mortality was recorded over this period.There is an increase in mantle cavity water calcium concentration after 6 h in 0·5 ppm, in contrast to 0·1, 0·05 and 0·01 ppm. Aspects of anaerobiosis, accumulation of heavy metals and survival are discussed in relation to the behaviour of Scrobicularia exposed to various copper concentrations.     

Is the present stellar birthrate really determined by gas density?

Observed supernovae rates in Sb and Sc galaxies, and a recent re-examination of the mean gas density in these galactic types, implies that if the clumpiness of gas in the disks of Sb and Sc galaxies is similar, the gas density isnot the primary factor in determining the overall present stellar birthrate.