NEITHER BIBLICAL PLAGUE NOR PRISTINE MYTH: A LESSON FROM CENTRAL EUROPEAN SPARROWS*

The historical superabundance of passenger pigeons in North America and of house sparrows in Central Europe is anthropogenic; that is, the result of human actions, in these cases with unintended consequences. In this article we concentrate on the superabundance of sparrows in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and outline the reasons for it. Both the passenger pigeon and the sparrow examples serve as ideal types for misplaced understanding of historical numbers of individuals as indicators of assumed pristine natural situations. Both examples reflect severe human impacts on the metapopulations of the bird species. Historical data on abundance can be misleading when they are used as guides in current conservation efforts. Selections of “right” numbers are arbitrary, because no points of reference exist in natural systems.     

Stratigraphic potential of amino acid ratios in Pleistocene terrestrial gastropods: an example from West-Central Indiana, USA

Miller, Barry B., McCoy, William D. & Bleuer, Ned K. 1987 06 01: Stratigraphic potential of amino acid ratios in Pleistocene terrestrial gastropods: an example frpm West-Central Indiana, USA. Boreas , Vol. 16, pp. 133–138. Oslo. ISSN 0300–9483.
The terrestrial gastropods Catinella spp., Stenotrema leai and Hendersonia occulta have been studied from 10 Wisconsinan and pre-Wisconsinan sites in west-central Indiana to determine if amino acid racemization values from these fossils would have stratigraphic utility in this area. The ages of the samples range from about 20,000 years B.P. for materials collected from radiocarbon-dated deposits of the Trafalgar Formation, to >730,000 years B.P. for fossils obtained from magnetically reversed silts of the Jessup and Banner Formations. The shell samples have yielded four groups or aminozones based on the ratio of D-alloisoleucine to L-isoleucine in both the free fraction and the total acid hydrolysate from the shell samples. The results of this preliminary study appear to be consistent with the previously assumed age of the strata from which the fossils were collected and suggest that the technique has great promise as a chronostratigraphic tool in Quaternary sequences that contain terrestrial pulmonate and prosobranch gastropods.     

Sea-level and tectonic control of middle to late Pleistocene turbidite systems in Santa Monica Basin, offshore California

Small turbidite systems offshore from southern California provide an opportunity to track sediment from river source through the turbidity‐current initiation process to ultimate deposition, and to evaluate the impact of changing sea level and tectonics. The Santa Monica Basin is almost a closed system for terrigenous sediment input, and is supplied principally from the Santa Clara River. The Hueneme fan is supplied directly by the river, whereas the smaller Mugu and Dume fans are nourished by southward longshore drift. This study of the Late Quaternary turbidite fill of the Santa Monica Basin uses a dense grid of high‐resolution seismic‐reflection profiles tied to new radiocarbon ages for Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 1015 back to 32 ka. Over the last glacial cycle, sedimentation rates in the distal part of Santa Monica Basin averaged 2–3 mm yr^?1, with increases at times of extreme relative sea‐level lowstand. Coarser‐grained mid‐fan lobes prograded into the basin from the Hueneme, Mugu and Dume fans at times of rapid sea‐level fall. These pulses of coarse‐grained sediment resulted from river channel incision and delta cannibalization. During the extreme lowstand of the last glacial maximum, sediment delivery was concentrated on the Hueneme Fan, with mean depositional rates of up to 13 mm yr^?1 on the mid‐ and upper fan. During the marine isotope stage (MIS) 2 transgression, enhanced rates of sedimentation of > 4 mm yr^?1 occurred on the Mugu and Dume fans, as a result of distributary switching and southward littoral drift providing nourishment to these fan systems. Longer‐term sediment delivery to Santa Monica Basin was controlled by tectonics. Prior to MIS 10, the Anacapa ridge blocked the southward discharge of the Santa Clara River into the Santa Monica Basin. The pattern and distribution of turbidite sedimentation was strongly controlled by sea level through the rate of supply of coarse sediment and the style of initiation of turbidity currents. These two factors appear to have been more important than the absolute position of sea level.     

Channel formation by flow stripping: large-scale scour features along the Monterey East Channel and their relation to sediment waves

The Monterey East system is formed by large‐scale sediment waves deposited as a result of flows stripped from the deeply incised Monterey fan valley (Monterey Channel) at the apex of the Shepard Meander. The system is dissected by a linear series of steps that take the form of scour‐shaped depressions ranging from 3·5 to 4·5 km in width, 3 to 6 km in length and from 80 to 200 m in depth. These giant scours are aligned downstream from a breech in the levee on the southern side of the Shepard Meander. The floor of the breech is only 150 m above the floor of the Monterey fan valley but more than 100 m below the levee crests resulting in significant flow stripping. Numerical modeling suggests that the steps in the Monterey East system were created by Froude‐supercritical turbidity currents stripped from the main flow in the Monterey channel itself. Froude‐supercritical flow over an erodible bed can be subject to an instability that gives rise to the formation of cyclic steps, i.e. trains of upstream‐migrating steps bounded upstream and downstream by hydraulic jumps in the flow above them. The flow that creates these steps may be net‐erosional or net‐depositional. In the former case it gives rise to trains of scours such as those in the Monterey East system, and in the latter case it gives rise to the familiar trains of upstream‐migrating sediment waves commonly seen on submarine levees. The Monterey East system provides a unique opportunity to introduce the concept of cyclic steps in the submarine environment to study processes that might result in channel initiation on modern submarine fans.     

Climbing‐ripple successions in turbidite systems: depositional environments,sedimentation rates and accumulation times

Climbing‐ripple cross‐lamination is most commonly deposited by turbidity currents when suspended load fallout and bedload transport occur contemporaneously. The angle of ripple climb reflects the ratio of suspended load fallout and bedload sedimentation rates, allowing for the calculation of the flow properties and durations of turbidity currents. Three areas exhibiting thick (>50 m) sections of deep‐water climbing‐ripple cross‐lamination deposits are the focus of this study: (i) the Miocene upper Mount Messenger Formation in the Taranaki Basin, New Zealand; (ii) the Permian Skoorsteenberg Formation in the Tanqua depocentre of the Karoo Basin, South Africa; and (iii) the lower Pleistocene Magnolia Field in the Titan Basin, Gulf of Mexico. Facies distributions and local contextual information indicate that climbing‐ripple cross‐lamination in each area was deposited in an ‘off‐axis’ setting where flows were expanding due to loss of confinement or a decrease in slope gradient. The resultant reduction in flow thickness, Reynolds number, shear stress and capacity promoted suspension fallout and thus climbing‐ripple cross‐lamination formation. Climbing‐ripple cross‐lamination in the New Zealand study area was deposited both outside of and within channels at an inferred break in slope, where flows were decelerating and expanding. In the South Africa study area, climbing‐ripple cross‐lamination was deposited due to a loss of flow confinement. In the Magnolia study area, an abrupt decrease in gradient near a basin sill caused flow deceleration and climbing‐ripple cross‐lamination deposition in off‐axis settings. Sedimentation rate and accumulation time were calculated for 44 climbing‐ripple cross‐lamination sedimentation units from the three areas using TDURE, a mathematical model developed by Baas et al. (2000) . For T_c divisions and T_bc beds averaging 26 cm and 37 cm thick, respectively, average climbing‐ripple cross‐lamination and whole bed sedimentation rates were 0·15 mm sec^?1 and 0·26 mm sec^?1 and average accumulation times were 27 min and 35 min, respectively. In some instances, distinct stratigraphic trends of sedimentation rate give insight into the evolution of the depositional environment. Climbing‐ripple cross‐lamination in the three study areas is developed in very fine‐grained to fine‐grained sand, suggesting a grain size dependence on turbidite climbing‐ripple cross‐lamination formation. Indeed, the calculated sedimentation rates correlate well with the rate of sedimentation due to hindered settling of very fine‐grained and fine‐grained sand–water suspensions at concentrations of up to 20% and 2·5%, respectively. For coarser grains, hindered settling rates at all concentrations are much too high to form climbing‐ripple cross‐lamination, resulting in the formation of massive/structureless S₃ or T_a divisions.     

Turbidite deposition on the glacially influenced,canyon‐dominated Southwest Grand Banks Slope,Canada

The deeply dissected Southwest Grand Banks Slope offshore the Grand Banks of Newfoundland was investigated using multiple data sets in order to determine how canyons and intercanyon ridges developed and what sedimentary processes acted on glacially influenced slopes. The canyons are a product of Quaternary ice‐related processes that operated along the margin, such as ice stream outwash and proglacial plume fallout. Three types of canyon are defined based on their dimensions, axial sedimentary processes and the location of the canyon head. There are canyons formed by glacial outwash with aggradational and erosional floors, and canyons formed on the slope by retrogressive failure. The steep, narrow intercanyon ridges that separate the canyons are composite morphological features formed by a complex history of sediment aggradation and degradation. Ridge aggradation occurred as a result of mid to late Quaternary background sedimentation (proglacial plume fallout and hemipelagic settling) and turbidite deposition. Intercanyon ridge degradation was caused mainly by sediment removal due to local slump failures and erosive sediment gravity flows. Levée‐like deposits are present as little as 15 km from the shelf break. At 30 km from the shelf, turbidity currents spilled over a 400 m high ridge and reconfined in a canyon formed by retrogressive failure, where a thalweg channel was developed. These observations imply that turbidity currents evolved rapidly in this slope‐proximal environment and attained flow depths of hundreds of metres over distances of a few tens of kilometres, suggesting turbulent subglacial outwash from tunnel valleys as the principal turbidity current‐generating mechanism.     

组合表面Bragg散射模型共极化SAR海表面风速反演

组合表面布拉格散射模型CSBS（Composite Surface Bragg Scattering）由布拉格（Bragg）散射模型和几何光学模型组成，是海洋微波散射的经典模型，可用于星载合成孔径雷达SAR（Synthetic Aperture Radar）海表面风场反演。研究指出，Bragg散射模型仅适用于中等入射角条件，几何光学模型则更适用于小入射角情形。然而，如何确定中等和小入射角的阈值，即CSBS模型最优入射角的选取目前尚无定论。基于142景成像于美国东西海岸和中国东海的RADARSAT-2精细四极化SAR影像数据和海洋浮标数据，本文提出了一种最优局地入射角查找算法，分别对VV和HH极化SAR数据进行最优入射角阈值的选取。结果显示，局地入射角14°和16°分别为VV和HH极化影像CSBS模型反演风速最优入射角。基于最优入射角的选取，本文在0—15 m/s海况区间内利用CSBS模型对VV和HH极化SAR影像开展风速反演实验，并将反演风速与浮标风速进行对比。结果显示，基于VV和HH极化数据的CSBS模型反演风速与浮标风速均方根误差分别为2.15 m/s和2.32 m/s，相关系数分别为0.79和0.75，两者具有良好的一致性。本文研究结论表明基于最优入射角设置后的CSBS模型在海面风速小于15 m/s条件下具有良好的应用性，后续研究将更加关注CSBS模型在高海况以及交叉极化SAR数据情况下的应用。