A New Geochemical Classification of Elements

The geochemical classification proposed by Goldschmidt was based on meteoritic analysis and elemental partition in blast furnace. There are many surprises when applied to the discussion of natural occurrences. A modified classification of elements based on basic chemical properties and their occurrences. A modified classification of elements based on basic chemical properties and their occurrences in nature is, therefore, proposed for students learning geochemistry and geologists working in the field. Elements are classified into six groups including lithophile, oxyphile, siderophile, chalcophile, biophile, and atmophile elements. Five terms are taken from Goldshcmidt's original classification. Oxyphile is a new term.     

What can ecological science tell us about opportunities for carbon sequestration on arid rangelands in the United States?

Scientific interest in carbon sequestration on rangelands is largely driven by their extent, while the interest of ranchers in the United States centers on opportunities to enhance revenue streams. Rangelands cover approximately 30% of the earth's ice-free land surface and hold an equivalent amount of the world's terrestrial carbon. Rangelands are grasslands, shrublands, and savannas and cover 312 million hectares in the United States. On the arid and semi-arid sites typical of rangelands annual fluxes are small and unpredictable over time and space, varying primarily with precipitation, but also with soils and vegetation. There is broad scientific consensus that non-equilibrium ecological models better explain the dynamics of such rangelands than equilibrium models, yet current and proposed carbon sequestration policies and associated grazing management recommendations in the United States often do not incorporate this developing scientific understanding of rangeland dynamics. Carbon uptake on arid and semi-arid rangelands is most often controlled by abiotic factors not easily changed by management of grazing or vegetation. Additionality may be impossible to achieve consistently through management on rangelands near the more xeric end of a rangeland climatic gradient. This point is illustrated by a preliminary examination of efforts to develop voluntary cap and trade markets for carbon credits in the United States, and options including payment for ecosystem services or avoided conversion, and carbon taxation. A preliminary analysis focusing on cap and trade and payment for avoided conversion or ecosystem services illustrates the misalignment between policies targeting vegetation management for enhanced carbon uptake and non-equilibrium carbon dynamics on arid United States rangelands. It is possible that current proposed carbon policy as exemplified by carbon credit exchange or offsets will result in a net increase in emissions, as well as investment in failed management. Rather than focusing on annual fluxes, policy and management initiatives should seek long-term protection of rangelands and rangeland soils to conserve carbon, and a broader range of environmental and social benefits.     

Unravelling the mystery of the M31 bar

The inclination of M31 is too close to edge-on for a bar component to be easily recognized and is not sufficiently edge-on for a boxy/peanut bulge to protrude clearly out of the equatorial plane. Nevertheless, a sufficient number of clues allow us to argue that this galaxy is barred. We use fully self-consistent N -body simulations of barred galaxies and compare them with both photometric and kinematic observational data for M31. In particular, we rely on the near-infrared photometry presented in a companion paper. We compare isodensity contours to isophotal contours and the light profile along cuts parallel to the galaxy major axis and offset towards the north, or the south, to mass profiles along similar cuts on the model. All these comparisons, as well as position–velocity diagrams for the gaseous component, give us strong arguments that M31 is barred. We compare four fiducial N -body models to the data and thus set constraints on the parameters of the M31 bar, as its strength, length and orientation. Our 'best' models, although not meant to be exact models of M31, reproduce in a very satisfactory way the main relevant observations. We present arguments that M31 has both a classical and a boxy/peanut bulge. Its pseudo-ring-like structure at roughly 50 arcmin is near the outer Lindblad resonance of the bar and could thus be an outer ring, as often observed in barred galaxies. The shape of the isophotes also argues that the vertically thin part of the M31 bar extends considerably further out than its boxy bulge, that is, that the boxy bulge is only part of the bar, thus confirming predictions from orbital structure studies and from previous N -body simulations. It seems very likely that the backbone of M31's boxy bulge is families of periodic orbits, members of the x₁-tree and bifurcating from the x₁ family at its higher order vertical resonances, such as the x1v3 or x1v4 families.     

On the experimental silicification of microorganisms. III. Implications of the preservation of the green prokaryotic alga prochloron and other coccoids for interpretation of the microbial fossil record

Evidence for Precambrian fossil eukaryotic microorganisms has been based on: (1) the presence of internal ‘spots’ which have been variously interpreted to be remains of nuclei or pyrenoids of photosynthetic plastids or other organelles; (2) tetrahedral tetrad arrangement of cells; (3) trilete scars interpreted to be indicative of meiotic division: (4) large cell diameters; and (5) putative mitotic cell divisions. These features have been reported in fossils preserved in Precambrian cherts. We have studied modern microbial mats, thought to be analogues of Precambrian fossil communities, and found they may be silicified by laboratory procedures. In microbial mats from Baja California we have found many ‘spot cells’ that we could identify as remains of cyanophytes. We have silicified the newly discovered large prokaryotic coccoid green alga Prochloron and have found that it, like many cyanophytes previously silicified, preserves its structure and maintains its initial dimensions. In laboratory-silicified prokaryotic organisms we have found that all of the above criteria, supposedly characteristic of eukaryotes, can be observed. We conclude that there is no compelling morphological evidence for fossil eukaryotic microbes from Precambrian cherts.     

Mineralium Deposita Referees 1992

Mineralium Deposita Referees 1992     

Using analytic element models to delineate drinking water source protection areas

Since 1999, Ohio EPA hydrogeologists have used two analytic element models (AEMs), the proprietary software GFLOW and U.S. EPA's WhAEM, to delineate protection areas for 535 public water systems. Both models now use the GFLOW2001 solution engine, integrate well with Geographic Information System (GIS) technology, have a user-friendly graphical interface, are capable of simulating a variety of complex hydrogeologic settings, and do not rely upon a model grid. These features simplify the modeling process and enable AEMs to bridge the gap between existing simplistic delineation methods and more complex numerical models. Ohio EPA hydrogeologists demonstrated that WhAEM2000 and GFLOW2000 were capable of producing capture zones similar to more widely accepted models by applying the AEMs to eight sites that had been previously delineated using other methods. After the Ohio EPA delineated protection areas using AEMs, more simplistic delineation methods used by other states (volumetric equation and arbitrary fixed radii) were applied to the same water systems to compare the differences between various methods. GIS software and two-tailed paired t-tests were used to quantify the differences in protection areas and analyze the data. The results of this analysis demonstrate that AEMs typically produce significantly different protection areas than the most simplistic delineation methods, in terms of total area and shape. If the volumetric equation had been used instead of AEMs, Ohio would not have protected 265 km2 of critical upgradient area and would have overprotected 269 km2 of primarily downgradient land. Since an increasing number of land-use restrictions are being tied to drinking water protection areas, this analysis has broad policy implications.     

U.S. National Forests adapt to climate change through Science–Management partnerships

Developing appropriate management options for adapting to climate change is a new challenge for land managers, and integration of climate change concepts into operational management and planning on United States national forests is just starting. We established science–management partnerships on the Olympic National Forest (Washington) and Tahoe National Forest (California) in the first effort to develop adaptation options for specific national forests. We employed a focus group process in order to establish the scientific context necessary for understanding climate change and its anticipated effects, and to develop specific options for adapting to a warmer climate. Climate change scientists provided the scientific knowledge base on which adaptations could be based, and resource managers developed adaptation options based on their understanding of ecosystem structure, function, and management. General adaptation strategies developed by national forest managers include: (1) reduce vulnerability to anticipated climate-induced stress by increasing resilience at large spatial scales, (2) consider tradeoffs and conflicts that may affect adaptation success, (3) manage for realistic outcomes and prioritize treatments that facilitate adaptation to a warmer climate, (4) manage dynamically and experimentally, and (5) manage for structure and composition. Specific adaptation options include: (1) increase landscape diversity, (2) maintain biological diversity, (3) implement early detection/rapid response for exotic species and undesirable resource conditions, (4) treat large-scale disturbance as a management opportunity and integrate it in planning, (5) implement treatments that confer resilience at large spatial scales, (6) match engineering of infrastructure to expected future conditions, (7) promote education and awareness about climate change among resource staff and local publics, and (8) collaborate with a variety of partners on adaptation strategies and to promote ecoregional management. The process described here can quickly elicit a large amount of information relevant for adaptation to climate change, and can be emulated for other national forests, groups of national forests with similar resources, and other public lands. As adaptation options are iteratively generated for additional administrative units on public lands, management options can be compared, tested, and integrated into adaptive management. Science-based adaptation is imperative because increasing certainty about climate impacts and management outcomes may take decades.     

Testing GISS-MM5 physics configurations for use in regional impacts studies

The Mesoscale Modeling System Version 5 (MM5) was one-way nested to the Goddard Institute for Space Studies global climate model (GISS GCM), which provided the boundary conditions for present (1990s) and future (IPCC SRES A2 scenario, 2050s) five-summer “time-slice” simulations over the continental and eastern United States. Five configurations for planetary boundary layer, cumulus parameterization, and radiation scheme were tested, and one set was selected for use in the New York City Climate and Health Project—a multi-disciplinary study investigating the effects of climate change and land-use change on human health in the New York metropolitan region. Although hourly and daily data were used in the health project, in this paper we focus on long-term current and projected mean climate change. The GISS-MM5 was very sensitive to the choice of cumulus parameterization and planetary boundary layer scheme, leading to significantly different temperature and precipitation outcomes for the 1990s. These differences can be linked to precipitation type (convective vs. non-convective), to their effect on solar radiation received at the ground, and ultimately to surface temperature. The projected changes in climate (2050s minus 1990s) were not as sensitive to choice of model physics combination. The range of the projected surface temperature changes at a given grid point among the model versions was much less than the mean change for all five model configurations, indicating relative consensus for simulating surface temperature changes among the different model projections. The MM5 versions, however, offer less consensus regarding 1990s to 2050s changes in precipitation amounts. All of the projected 2050s temperature changes were found to be significant at the 95th percent confidence interval, while the majority of the precipitation changes were not.     

A Mariner 9 atlas of the moons of Mars

This paper contains a complete set of the best enhancements of Mariner 9 high resolution television pictures of Phobos and Deimos, consisting of 27 different views of Phobos, and 9 of Deimos. Pertinent data about the pictures are arranged in convenient tabular and graphical form.