Post-fire recovery of Puya raimondii,vegetation and birds in the puna of Huascarán National Park,Perú

A large fire of 233 ha in Huascarán National Park in Peru provided an opportunity to compare plant and bird responses in burned and nearby unburned zones of the puna. Heights and live diameters of flagship Puya raimondii rosettes(assigned to four broad developmental phases), plant communities(66 species in 24 families and nine growth forms) and bird communities(77 species in six trophic guilds) were monitored after the fire. Although no mortality was observed, Puya raimondii plants were affected...     

A simple guideline to apply excitation-emission matrix spectroscopy (EEMs) for the characterization of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in anoxic marine sediments

Marine sediments represent a major carbon reservoir on Earth. Dissolved organic matter(DOM) in pore waters accumulates products and intermediates of carbon cycling in sediments. The application of excitation-emission matrix spectroscopy(EEMs) in the analysis of subseafloor DOM samples is largely unexplored due to the redoxsensitive matrix of anoxic pore water. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the interference caused by the matrix on EEMs and propose a guideline to prepare pore water sam...     

Ground-borne vibrations induced by impact pile driving: experimental assessment and mitigation measures

Impact pile driving is an interesting technique for the construction of deep foundations from a practical and economical point of view. However, the generalization of this technique can be restricted due to the excessive vibration levels that can be generated, which can be especially problematic in residential areas. However, different mitigation measures can be applied to prevent excessive vibration levels inside buildings located near construction sites. To compare its efficiency through a num...     

Bioerosion on Late Pleistocene Marine Mollusks: A Paleoclimatological and Paleoecological Comparison of MIS 7 and MIS 5e with Modern Beaches (Río Negro, Argentina)

The Late Pleistocene littoral ridges of southern South America, especially those of the north of Argentinean Patagonia, contain remains of mollusk shells with bioerosion traces. Eleven sites from marine isotope stages (2 from MIS 7, 4 from MIS 5e) and five sites from modern beaches from northern Río Negro Province, with 40 taxa (17 bivalves and 23 gastropods) were analyzed, in the area between west of Baliza San Matías and Las Grutas (41°S). Three ichnogenera were identified in deposits of MIS 7: Entobia, Gastrochaenolites (Domichnia) and Oichnus (Praedichnia) with one ichnospecies (G. torpedo). Six ichnogenera were identified in deposits of MIS 5e: Entobia, Meandropolydora, Pinaceocladichnus, Iramena, Caulostrepsis and Oichnus with one ichnospecies (O. simplex). Seven ichnogenera were identified from modern beaches: Entobia, Meandropolydora, Iramena, Caulostrepsis, Pinaceocladichnus, Gastrochaenolites (Domichnia) and Oichnus (Praedicnia), with two ichnospecies (O. simplex and O. paraboloides). On this basis, it is inferred that Pleistocene benthic communities were constituted from cheilostome bryzoans and polychaete annelids, together with drilling bivalves, predatory gastropods and overall warm-water species of mollusks. Of these, Chama iudicai was found on Plicatula gibbosa from MIS 7 and MIS 5e. The record of warm temperature species suggests a higher sea surface temperature (SST) than the present one and/or the influence of the warm southward Brazilian Current affecting the waters of Golfo San Matías. On the modern beaches surveyed, there is an increase in polychaete annelids, cheilostome bryzoans, temperate-cold species and drilling bivalves, as well as sandy substrate species, which together with an increase of Gastrochaenolites and Caulostrepsis, suggest a colder climate due to the greater influence of the Malvinas Current during the Holocene.     

Timescales of interface-coupled dissolution-precipitation reactions on carbonates

In the Earth's upper crust, where aqueous fluids can circulate freely, most mineral transformations are controlled by the coupling between the dissolution of a mineral that releases chemical species into the fluid and precipitation of new minerals that contain some of the released species in their crystal structure, the coupled process being driven by a reduction of the total free-energy of the system. Such coupled dissolution-precipitation processes occur at the fluid-mineral interface where the chemical gradients are highest and heterogeneous nucleation can be promoted, therefore controlling the growth kinetics of the new minerals. Time-lapse nanoscale imaging using Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) can monitor the whole coupled process under in situ conditions and allow identifying the time scales involved and the controlling parameters. We have performed a series of experiments on carbonate minerals (calcite, siderite, dolomite and magnesite) where dissolution of the carbonate and precipitation of a new mineral was imaged and followed through time. In the presence of various species in the reacting fluid (e. g. antimony, selenium, arsenic, phosphate), the calcium released during calcite dissolution binds with these species to form new minerals that sequester these hazardous species in the form of a stable solid phase. For siderite, the coupling involves the release of Fe²⁺ ions that subsequently become oxidized and then precipitate in the form of Fe^III oxyhydroxides. For dolomite and magnesite, dissolution in the presence of pure water (undersaturated with any possible phase) results in the immediate precipitation of hydrated Mg-carbonate phases. In all these systems, dissolution and precipitation are coupled and occur directly in a boundary layer at the carbonate surface. Scaling arguments demonstrate that the thickness of this boundary layer is controlled by the rate of carbonate dissolution, the equilibrium concentration of the precipitates and the kinetics of diffusion of species in a boundary layer. From these parameters a characteristic time scale and a characteristic length scale of the boundary layer can be derived. This boundary layer grows with time and never reaches a steady state thickness as long as dissolution of the carbonate is faster than precipitation of the new mineral. At ambient temperature, the surface reactions of these dissolving carbonates occur on time-scales of the order of seconds to minutes, indicating the rapid surface rearrangement of carbonates in the presence of aqueous fluids. As a consequence, many carbonate-fluid reactions in low temperature environments are controlled by local thermodynamic equilibria rather than by the global equilibrium in the whole system.