Abrupt onset of carbonate deposition in Lake Kivu during the 1960s: response to recent environmental changes

This study interprets the recent history of Lake Kivu, a tropical lake in the East African Rift Valley. The current gross sedimentation was characterized from a moored sediment trap array deployed over 2 years. The past net sedimentation was investigated with three short cores from two different basins. Diatom assemblages from cores were interpreted as reflecting changes in mixing depth, surface salinity and nutrient availability. The contemporary sediment trap data indicate seasonal variability, governed by diatom blooms during the annual mixing in the dry season, similar to Lakes Malawi and Tanganyika. The ratio of settling fluxes to net sediment accumulation rates implies mineralization rates of 80–90% at the sediment-water interface. The sediment cores revealed an abrupt change ~40 years ago, when carbonate precipitation started. Since the 1960s, deep-water methane concentrations, nutrient fluxes and soil mineral inputs have increased considerably and diatom assemblages have altered. These modifications probably resulted from a combination of three factors, commonly altering lake systems: the introduction of a non-native fish species, eutrophication, and hydrological changes inducing greater upwelling. Both the fish introduction and increased rainfall occurred at the time when the onset of carbonate precipitation was observed, whereas catchment population growth accompanied by intensified land use increased the flux of soil minerals already since the early twentieth century due to more intense erosion.     

Clustering and visualization of earthquake data in a grid environment

We present a web client-server service WEB-IS, which we have developed for remote analysis and visualization of seismic data consisting of both small magnitude events and large earthquakes. We show that the problem-solving environment (PSE) intended for prediction of large magnitude earthquakes can be based on this WEB-IS idea. The clustering schemes, feature generation, feature extraction techniques and rendering algorithms form a computational framework of this environment. On the other hand, easy and fast access both to the seismic data distributed among distant computing resources and to computational and visualization resources can be realized in a GRID framework. We discuss the usefulness of NaradaBrokering (iNtegrated Asynchronous Real-time Adaptive Distributed Architecture) as a middleware, allowing for flexibility and high throughput for remote visualization of geophysical data. The WEB-IS functionality was tested both on synthetic and the actual earthquake catalogs. We consider the application of similar methodology for tsunami alerts.     

THERMOLUMINESCENCE AND THE TERRESTRIAL AGE OF METEORITES

The use of thermoluminescence (TL) to determine the terrestrial age of meteorites is investigated. It is found that meteorites can be divided into two groups. One group, in which members lose their low temperature TL rather rapidly (the “low retentivity” group), may be dated up to about 100 years after fall, although with little accuracy. The other (the “high” group) is more retentive, and may still be dated several hundred years after fall. A meteorite of unknown date of fall may be assigned to the high or low group by laboratory determination of the rate of decay of the low temperature TL. Weathering coats the grains with limonite and lowers the intensity of the TL. The percentage reduction is constant for various intensities, but the peak height ratio is changed. Therefore, for weathered specimens, a method which examines the decrease in the intensity of a single peak is preferred to one which depends upon peak height ratios: this is made possible by artificially irradiating the meteorites. The following terrestrial ages for finds were obtained: Plainview 225–300 years; Dimmitt 280–330 years; Calliham 350–400 years. Bluff, Etter, Potter, Shields and Wellman (c) proved to be too old to be dated by our methods (≥ 500 years). None of the low group finds available to us proved to be young enough to be dated precisely. Terrestrial ages indicate an extremely low efficiency of recovery (≤ 1%) for meteorites that are not seen to fall. Artificially irradiating the meteorites also revealed the fact that 9 of our 19 meteorites were saturated with respect to thermoluminescence when they entered the atmosphere, and therefore that a technique based on this phenomenon would not be applicable to such specimens to obtain their cosmic ray exposure age.     

“We will go side-by-side with you.” Labour union engagement with Aboriginal peoples in Canada

The inclusion of new groups of workers has been an important component of union renewal efforts. Several unions in Canada have begun to dedicate significant resources to better organize and represent Aboriginal workers. Drawing on interviews with union activists, organizers and representatives from two national public sector unions in Canada, we present an overview of union strategies to engage with Aboriginal peoples. Results suggest that understanding the distinct territorial context of Aboriginal peoples’ relationships to work and unions has been necessary to the success of these union strategies. This approach begins by drawing connections between Aboriginal peoples’ present-day relationships to work and their prior occupancy of, and dispossession from, lands and resources. Because of the geographical specificity of how the colonial experience affected Aboriginal peoples’ relationships to work and unions, unions have had to adopt non-normative approaches to their engagements with Aboriginal peoples. In workplaces where settlers were dominant, addressing racism in the workplace and gaining support for initiatives to hire and train Aboriginal workers were important. Alternatively, in Aboriginal workplaces, organizing was a priority. Here questions of union legitimacy have taken precedence and the focus of unions has been on partnership building. Most importantly, however, engagement with Aboriginal peoples has brought attention to the colonial practices within unions and helped to foster growing Aboriginal voice within the labour movement.     

Science-based and stakeholder-driven marine protected area network planning: A successful case study from north central California

The planning process for California's Marine Life Protection Act in north central California represents a case study in the design of a regional component of a statewide network of marine protected areas (MPAs) for improved ecosystem protection. We describe enabling factors, such as a legislative mandate, political will, and adequate capacity and funding that fostered a successful planning process. We identify strategic principles that guided the design of a transparent public planning process that delivered regional MPA network proposals, which both met science guidelines and achieved a high level of support among stakeholders. We also describe key decision support elements (spatial data, planning tools, and scientific evaluation) that were essential for designing, evaluating, and refining alternative MPA network proposals and for informing decision-makers.     

Upper Ordovician graptolites from the Wagonga Beds near Batemans Bay,New South Wales

Two graptolite faunas are described from outcrops of the Wagonga Beds near Batemans Bay on the south coast of N.S.W. They are of late Eastonian and early Bolindian age. The faunas have been found in two geographically separate localities and, in spite of structural complexities, it is now suggested that the greater part of the Wagonga Beds was deposited in the Late Ordovician. The chert and volcanicrich Wagonga Beds were accumulated prior to, or as contemporaneous lateral facies equivalents of, the thick undifferentiated Upper Ordovician ‘slates and grey‐wackes unit’ that crops out in the same general region.