Holocene peatland development and hydrological variability inferred from bog‐pine dendrochronology and peat stratigraphy – a case study from southern Sweden

Dendrochronological analysis was applied to subfossil remains of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) buried in a South Swedish peat deposit. In combination with peat stratigraphy, this approach was explored for its potential to provide information on the local hydrological and depositional history at the site, forming the basis for a regional palaeohydrological analysis. A 726‐year ring‐width chronology was developed and assigned an absolute age of 7233–6508 cal a BP (5284–4559 BC) through cross‐dating with German bog‐pine chronologies, whereas two short additional records of older ages were radiocarbon dated. Registration of growth positions of individual trees allowed assessment of the spatial dynamics of the pine population in response to hydrological changes and peatland ontogeny. Annually resolved growth variability patterns in the pine population reveal several establishment and degeneration phases, probably reflecting fluctuations in bog‐surface wetness. A major establishment phase at 7200–6900 cal a BP reflects the onset of a period of lowered groundwater level, also indicated by increased peat humification, and a development consistent with regional temperature and lake level reconstructions revealed from other proxies. This study demonstrates that subfossil bog‐pine populations may provide annually to decadally resolved reconstructions of local groundwater variability, which are highly relevant in a long‐term palaeoclimatic context. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Main Species Characteristics of Phytoplankton Spring Blooms in NE Atlantic and Arctic Waters (68–80° N)

A compilation of phytoplankton species abundance data from the spring bloom along the northern Norwegian coast and in the Barents Sea shows that the quantitatively most important species are the prymnesiophyte Phaeocystis pouchetii and the common cold water to temperate diatoms Chaetoceros socialis, Skeletonema costatum sensu lato, Fragilariopsis oceanica, Thalassiosira spp., Chaetoceros furcellatus, Chaetoceros compressus, Chaetoceros debilis and Bacterosira bathyomphala. The relative abundance of diatoms and Phaeocystis varied highly and apparently stochastically between years. P. pouchetii occurred during all stages of the spring bloom and sometimes completely dominated the phytoplankton community. Along the Norwegian coast, the importance of P. pouchetii increased northwards. The species composition in coastal fjords at 70° N is surprisingly similar to that of shelf waters in the Barents Sea (up to 80° N). An exception is S. costatum sensu lato which was seldom observed in Arctic waters. Small flagellates (<10 μm) other than dinoflagellates and P. pouchetii are also important among the Barents Sea spring phytoplankton. Associations of species seem rigid over time and are dominated by C. socialis and P. pouchetii in northern waters. Biogeographical categories of spring bloom species in relation to environmental conditions are discussed.     

Die rshythmischen Bewegungen der Kreidegeosynklinale der Ostkordillere Kolumbiens

Zusammenfassung Die Schichten, die die 1400 km lange und bis 250 km breite, SSW-NNE streichende Ostkordillere Kolumbiens aufbauen, reichen altersmäßig vom Präkambrium bis ins Quartär. Unter ihnen nehmen die Ablagerungen der Kreide den größten Raum ein. Die größte Mächtigkeit zeigt diese in der Umgebung von Bogotá (Becken von Cundinamarca) mit 16.000 m, nach N sinkt sie allmählich auf 2600 m und gegen das Südende der Kordillere auf wenige hundert Meter ab.Im Becken von Cundinamarca besteht die Kreide zum überwiegenden Teil aus dunklen, bathyalen Schiefertonen, in die sich in mehr oder minder regelmäßigen Abständen Sandsteine, Kalke und andere litorale bis epineritische Schichten einschalten. Bei Berücksichtigung des Fossilinhaltes, vor allem der Ammoniten, ergibt sich, daß die Seichtwasserschichten stets an der Grenze von Stufen oder Unterstufen liegen. Die Absenkung der Kreidegeosynklinale der Ostkordillere erfolgte also zyklisch. Am Beginn jeder Stufe (und Unterstufe) sank sie rasch ab und es bildeten sich bathyale Schiefertone. Dann kam die Absenkung allmählich zum Stillstand, litorale Sedimente rückten ins Beckeninnere vor und vielfach wurde die Sedimentation unterbrochen. Mit Beginn jeder neuen Stufe oder Unterstufe wanderten neue pelagische Faunen in die Geosynklinale ein, während sich die litoralen Faunen mehrere Stufen hindurch erhielten.Aus der gleichartigen lithologischen Beschaffenheit und der nahezu gleichen Mächtigkeit der Stufen läßt sich schließen, daß sie im gleichen Zeitraum von 6 Millionen Jahren (die Unterstufen in 2 Millionen Jahren) abgelagert wurden.Neben den Stufenzyklen lassen sich größere (Großzyklen) von 18–20 Millionen Jahren Dauer erkennen. Sie werden durch tektonische Bewegungen und nachfolgende weiträumige Transgressionen eingeleitet. Diese Großzyklen beginnen mit dem Tithon, Hauterive, Alb und Senon. Die Stufenzyklen setzen in weiten Teilen der Erde gleichzeitig ein, die Großzyklen hingegen gehen wellenförmig über die Erdoberfläche. Es wird deshalb angenommen, daß die Stufenzyklen ihre Ursache in größeren Erdtiefen haben als die Großzyklen.

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Within the 1400 kms. long and up to 250 kms. wide SSW-striking Eastern Cordillera of Columbia Precambrian to Recent members are met with. Cretaceous sediments are thickest (Cundinamarca-Basin near Bogota: 16 000 metres). This Cretaceous consists mainly of dark shales with litoral to epineritic sandstones etc.Cyclic subsidence of this geosyncline took place 3-times within about 2 Million years. Megacycles amount to 18–20 Million years. They begin with transgression in Tithonian, Hauterive, Albian and Senonian times.

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Résumé Les couches qui forment la cordillère orientale de la Colombie de direction SSW-NNE, sur une longueur de 1400 km et avec une largeur atteignant 250 km, ont un âge qui va du Précambrien au Quaternaire. Les dépots du Crétacé en occupent la plus grande partie; leur épaisseur la plus forte (16.000 mètres) a lieu dans les environs de Bogotá (Bassin de Cundinamarca); elle diminue progressivement vers le Nord jusqu'à 2.600 m, et à l'extrémité sud de la cordillère elle se réduit à quelques centaines de mètres.Dans le bassin de Cundinamarca le Crétacé est formé essentiellement de schistes bathyaux, foncés, entre lesquels s'intercalent à des distances plus ou moins régulières des grès, des calcaires et d'autres strates littorales ou épinéritiques. L'examen des fossiles, en premier lieu les ammonites, montre que les couches de faible profondeur d'eau se trouvent toujours à la limite d'étages ou de sous-étages. La subsidence du géosynclinal crétacé de la cordillère occidentale s'est faite de façon cyclique. Au début de chaque étage (ou sous-étage) la subsidence était rapide et il se formait des schistes bathyaux. Puis la subsidence s'arrêtait peu à peu; des sédiments littoraux envahissaient l'intérieur du bassin et souvent la sédimentation était interrompue. Au début de chaque nouvel étage ou sousétage, des nouvelles faunes pélagiques envahissaient le géosynclinal, tandis que les faunes littorales se maintenaient durant plusieurs étages. De la similitude des propriétés lithologiques et de la puissance sensiblement égale des étages, on peut déduire que ceux-ci se sont déposés au cours d'une période égale à 6 millions d'années (2 millions pour les sous-étages). En plus des cycles d'étages, on peut distinguer des cycles majeurs d'une durée de 18–20 millions d'années. Ils sont amenés par des mouvements tectoniques et les transgressions de grande ampleur qui les suivent. Ces cycles majeurs débutent au Tithonique, é l'Hauterivien, à l'Albien et au Sénonien. Les cycles d'étages débutent en même temps dans de grandes parties du monde; les cycles majeurs par contre se déplacent comme des ondes sur la surface terrestre. C'est pourquoi nous admettons que les cycles d'étages ont leur cause dans des parties plus profondes de la terre que les cycles majeurs.

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, SSW NNE. . .

     

Effects of groundwater flow on mineral diagenesis, with emphasis on carbonate aquifers

 This article provides a critical synopsis of the effects of groundwater flow on mineral diagenesis. Emphasis is placed on those aspects and processes that change porosity and permeability in carbonate aquifers, because they are of particular importance to human societies as sources of supplies of water for human consumption (drinking, irrigation) and of crude oil and natural gas. Diagenetic settings in carbonates as well as clastics are generally ill defined. This paper proposes a new comprehensive classification of diagenetic settings into near-surface, shallow-, intermediate-, and deep-burial diagenetic settings; hydrocarbon-contaminated plumes; and fractures. These settings are defined on the basis of mineralogy, petroleum, hydrogeochemistry, and hydrogeology. This classification is applicable to all sedimentary basins. Diagenesis is governed by various intrinsic and extrinsic factors that include thermodynamic and kinetic constraints, as well as microstructural factors that may override the others. These factors govern diagenetic processes, such as dissolution, compaction, recrystallization, replacement, and sulfate–hydrocarbon redox-reactions. Processes such as cementation, dissolution, and dolomitization require significant flow of groundwater driven by an externally imposed hydraulic gradient. Other processes, such as stylolitization and thermochemical sulfate reduction, commonly take place without significant groundwater flow in hydrologically nearly or completely stagnant systems that are geochemically "closed." Two major effects of groundwater flow on mineral diagenesis are enhancement and reduction of porosity and permeability, although groundwater flow can also leave these rock properties essentially unchanged. In extreme cases, an aquifer or hydrocarbon reservoir rock can have highly enhanced porosity and permeability due to extensive mineral dissolution, or it can be plugged up due to extensive mineral precipitation. Received, April 1998 · Revised, July 1998 · Accepted, September 1998     

Relaciones entre operaciones diferenciales del Cálculo vectorial y paréntesis de Lagrange,con aplicatión a la Hidrodinámica

Resumen Como aplicación hidrodinámica de un problema más general, tratado al principio, demostraremos el siguiente teorema:El rotacional del campo de la variación unitaria del torbellino de las partículas que se mueven rotacionalmente en líquidos ideales y homogéneos puede representarse por medio de paréntesis deLagrange.

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Zusammenfassung Als hydrodynamische Anwendung eines eingangs behandelten allgemeineren Problems wird folgender Satz bewiesen:Der Rotor des Feldes der individuellen Ableitung des Wirbelvektors der sich drehend bewegenden Partikel idealer und homogener inkompressibler Flüssigkeiten läßt sich mittels der Klammersymbole vonLagrange darstellen.

     

Meeresoptische Messungen während schwerer Stürme auf der Forschungsplattform “Nordsee” vom 14. November bis zum 8. Dezember 1980

Ocean Dynamics - Meeresoptische Messungen auf der Forschungsplattform “Nordsee” haben gezeigt, daß dort während schwerer Stürme, hauptsächlich durch den Einfluß...     

4He diffusion in specular hematite

In order to test the chronometer qualities of speculante for the (U + Th)/He dating method, ⁴He release experiments by stepwise heating of two specularites from the Rimbach mineralization locality in the southern Vosgues (France) have been carried out. The diffusion coefficients define linear Arrhenius plots within a temperature interval of 250 to 830 °C, which is suggestive of volume diffusion. Extrapolation of the diffusion behavior to 20° C yields diffusion coefficients (D₂₀ values) smaller than 10^?26 [cm² s^?1] for both hematites with activation energies at 116 [kJ/mole]. The results of our study suggest that specularite is a very helium retentive hematite variety which is capable of quantitatively retaining radiogenic helium over geologic periods of time.     

The fall and rise of metropolitan government in Copenhagen

In this paper it is argued that the re-establishment of a metropolitan government in the Greater Copenhagen Area in 2000 (Greater Copenhagen Authority) is not to be seen as a return to the kind of regional, coordinative authority (Greater Copenhagen Council) that was abolished in the Thatcherite climate of the 1980s. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s new forms of urban governance, entrepreneurialism and a higher national priority to the capital region were introduced, which changed the conditions under which the new metropolitan government is operating. This `contextualization' of the analysis of the two generations of metropolitan government points to the fact that typologies of metropolitan government, such as the one put forward by Sharpe (1995), often lacks analytical cogency. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Zircon fission‐track ages from Newfoundland—A proxy for high geothermal gradients and exhumation before opening of the Central Atlantic Ocean

Following Appalachian orogenesis, metamorphic rocks in central Newfoundland were exhumed and reburied under Tournaisian strata. New zircon fission‐track (ZFT) ages of metamorphic rocks below the Tournaisian unconformity yield post‐depositionally reset ages of 212–235 Ma indicating regional fluid‐absent reheating to at least ≥220°C. Post‐Tournaisian sedimentary thicknesses in surrounding basins show that burial alone cannot explain such temperatures, thus requiring that palaeo‐geothermal gradients increased to ≥30–40°C/km before final late Triassic accelerated cooling. We attribute these elevated palaeo‐geothermal gradients to localized thermal blanketing by insulating sediments overlying radiogenic high‐heat‐producing granitoids. Late Triassic rifting and magmatism before break up of Pangaea likely also contributed to elevated heat flow, as well as uplift, triggering late Triassic accelerated cooling and exhumation. Thermochronological ages of 240–200 Ma are seen throughout Atlantic Canada, and record rifting and basaltic magmatism on the conjugate margins of the Central Atlantic Ocean preceding the onset of oceanic spreading at ~190 Ma.