Sedimentology of the continental end‐Permian extinction event in the Sydney Basin,eastern Australia

Upper Permian to Lower Triassic coastal plain successions of the Sydney Basin in eastern Australia have been investigated in outcrop and continuous drillcores. The purpose of the investigation is to provide an assessment of palaeoenvironmental change at high southern palaeolatitudes in a continental margin context for the late Permian (Lopingian), across the end‐Permian Extinction interval, and into the Early Triassic. These basins were affected by explosive volcanic eruptions during the late Permian and, to a much lesser extent, during the Early Triassic, allowing high‐resolution age determination on the numerous tuff horizons. Palaeobotanical and radiogenic isotope data indicate that the end‐Permian Extinction occurs at the top of the uppermost coal bed, and the Permo‐Triassic boundary either within an immediately overlying mudrock succession or within a succeeding channel sandstone body, depending on locality due to lateral variation. Late Permian depositional environments were initially (during the Wuchiapingian) shallow marine and deltaic, but coastal plain fluvial environments with extensive coal‐forming mires became progressively established during the early late Permian, reflected in numerous preserved coal seams. The fluvial style of coastal plain channel deposits varies geographically. However, apart from the loss of peat‐forming mires, no significant long‐term change in depositional style (grain size, sediment‐body architecture, or sediment dispersal direction) was noted across the end‐Permian Extinction (pinpointed by turnover of the palaeoflora). There is no evidence for immediate aridification across the boundary despite a loss of coal from these successions. Rather, the end‐Permian Extinction marks the base of a long‐term, progressive trend towards better‐drained alluvial conditions into the Early Triassic. Indeed, the floral turnover was immediately followed by a flooding event in basinal depocentres, following which fluvial systems similar to those active prior to the end‐Permian Extinction were re‐established. The age of the floral extinction is constrained to 252.54 ± 0.08 to 252.10 ± 0.06 Ma by a suite of new Chemical Abrasion Isotope Dilution Thermal Ionization Mass Spectrometry U‐Pb ages on zircon grains. Another new age indicates that the return to fluvial sedimentation similar to that before the end‐Permian Extinction occurred in the basal Triassic (prior to 251.51 ± 0.14 Ma). The character of the surface separating coal‐bearing pre‐end‐Permian Extinction from coal‐barren post‐end‐Permian Extinction strata varies across the basins. In basin‐central locations, the contact varies from disconformable, where a fluvial channel body has cut down to the level of the top coal, to conformable where the top coal is overlain by mudrocks and interbedded sandstone–siltstone facies. In basin‐marginal locations, however, the contact is a pronounced erosional disconformity with coarse‐grained alluvial facies overlying older Permian rocks. There is no evidence that the contact is everywhere a disconformity or unconformity.     

Late Holocene lake level dynamics inferred from magnetic susceptibility and stable oxygen isotope data: Lake Elsinore, southern California (USA)

Southern California faces an imminent freshwater shortage. To better assess the future impact of this water crisis, it is essential that we develop continental archives of past hydrological variability. Using four sediment cores from Lake Elsinore in Southern California, we reconstruct late Holocene (3800 calendar years B.P.) hydrological change using a twentieth-century calibrated, proxy methodology. We compared magnetic susceptibility from Lake Elsinore deep basin sediments, lake level from Lake Elsinore, and regional winter precipitation data over the twentieth century to calibrate the late Holocene lake sediment record. The comparison revealed a strong positive, first-order relationship between the three variables. As a working hypothesis, we suggest that periods of greater precipitation produce higher lake levels. Greater precipitation also increases the supply of detritus (i.e., magnetic-rich minerals) from the lake's surrounding drainage basin into the lake environment. As a result, magnetic susceptibility values increase during periods of high lake level. We apply this modern calibration to late Holocene sediments from the lake's littoral zone. As an independent verification of this hypothesis, we analyzed ¹⁸O_(calcite), interpreted as a proxy for variations in the precipitation:evaporation ratio, which reflect first order hydrological variability. The results of this verification support our hypothesis that magnetic susceptibility records regional hydrological change as related to precipitation and lake level. Using both proxy data, we analyzed the past 3800 calendar years of hydrological variability. Our analyses indicate a long period of dry, less variable climate between 3800 and 2000 calendar years B.P. followed by a wet, more variable climate to the present. These results suggest that droughts of greater magnitude and duration than those observed in the modern record have occurred in the recent geological past. This conclusion presents insight to the potential impact of future droughts on the over-populated, water-poor region of Southern California.     

Numerical simulation of agricultural sediment and pesticide runoff: RZWQM and PRZM comparison

Agricultural sediment and pesticide runoff is a widespread ecological and human health concern. Numerical simulation models, such as Root Zone Water Quality Model (RZWQM) and Pesticide Root Zone Model (PRZM), have been increasingly used to quantify off‐site agricultural pollutant movement. However, RZWQM has been criticized for its inability to simulate sedimentation processes. The recent incorporation of the sedimentation module of Groundwater Loading Effects of Agricultural Management Systems has enabled RZWQM to simulate sediment and sediment‐associated pesticides. This study compares the sediment and pesticide transport simulation performance of the newly released RZWQM and PRZM using runoff data from 2 alfalfa fields in Davis, California. A composite metric (based on coefficient of determination, Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency, index of agreement, and percent bias) was developed and employed to ensure robust, comprehensive assessment of model performance. Results showed that surface water runoff was predicted reasonably well (absolute percent bias <31%) by RZWQM and PRZM after adjusting important hydrologic parameters. Even after calibration, underestimation bias (?89% ≤ PBIAS  ≤ ?36%) for sediment yield was observed in both models. This might be attributed to PRZM's incorrect distribution of input water and uncertainty in RZWQM's runoff erosivity coefficient. Moreover, the underestimation of sediment might be less if the origin of measured sediment was considered. Chlorpyrifos losses were simulated with reasonable accuracy especially for Field A (absolute PBIAS  ≤ 22%), whereas diuron losses were underestimated to a great extent (?98% ≤ PBIAS  ≤ ?65%) in both models. This could be attributed to the underprediction of herbicide concentration in the top soil due to the limitations of the instantaneous equilibrium sorption model as well as the high runoff potential of herbicide formulated as water‐dispersible granules. RZWQM and PRZM partitioned pesticides into the water and sediment phases similarly. According to model predictions, the majority of pesticide loads were carried via the water phase. On the basis of this study, both RZWQM and PRZM performed well in predicting runoff that carried highly adsorptive pesticides on an event basis, although the more physically based RZWQM is recommended when field‐measured soil hydraulic properties are available.     

Surface complexation of U(VI) on goethite (α-FeOOH)

Sorption of U(VI) to goethite is a fundamental control on the mobility of uranium in soil and groundwater. Here, we investigated the sorption of U on goethite using EXAFS spectroscopy, batch sorption experiments and DFT calculations of the energetics and structures of possible surface complexes. Based on EXAFS spectra, it has previously been proposed that U(VI), as the uranyl cation , sorbs to Fe oxide hydroxide phases by forming a bidentate edge-sharing (E2) surface complex, >Fe(OH)₂UO₂(H₂O)_n. Here, we argue that this complex alone cannot account for the sorption capacity of goethite (α-FeOOH). Moreover, we show that all of the EXAFS signal attributed to the E2 complex can be accounted for by multiple scattering. We propose that the dominant surface complex in CO₂-free systems is a bidentate corner-sharing (C2) complex, (>FeOH)₂UO₂(H₂O)₃ which can form on the dominant {101} surface. However, in the presence of CO₂, we find an enhancement of UO₂ sorption at low pH and attribute this to a (>FeO)CO₂UO₂ ternary complex. With increasing pH, U(VI) desorbs by the formation of aqueous carbonate and hydroxyl complexes. However, this desorption is preceded by the formation of a second ternary surface complex (>FeOH)₂UO₂CO₃. The three proposed surface complexes, (>FeOH)₂UO₂(H₂O)₃, >FeOCO₂UO₂, and (>FeOH)₂UO₂CO₃ are consistent with EXAFS spectra. Using these complexes, we developed a surface complexation model for U on goethite with a 1-pK model for surface protonation, an extended Stern model for surface electrostatics and inclusion of all known UO₂-OH-CO₃ aqueous complexes in the current thermodynamic database. The model gives an excellent fit to our sorption experiments done in both ambient and reduced CO₂ environments at surface loadings of 0.02-2.0 wt% U.     

Dynamic simulation of littoral zone habitats in low Chesapeake Bay. II. Seagrass habitat primary production and water quality relationships

Seagrasses are indicators of ecosystem state because they are sensitive to variations in water composition and clarity resulting from watershed-level impacts. A simulation model designed to studyZostera marina (eelgrass) habitat dynamics in a variable littoral zone environment was used to address the potential ecological responses to eutrophication in lower Chesapeake Bay. The adjacent channel boundary environment is a source of dissolved and particulate materials to the littoral zone. In the simulations, concentrations of key water quality variables in the adjacent estuarine channel boundary were either halved or doubled relative to the base case to investigate light versus nitrogen effects. The role of the seagrass meadow in littoral zone carbon and nitrogen dynamics was evaluated when meadow size was changed in the model. Particulate and dissolved organic carbon accounted for 83% of the submarine light attenuation in the seagrass meadow. In all model runs, the water column concentrations of chlorophylla and dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) were below the habitat criteria proposed as critical to seagrass survival. Eelgrass community production was carefully regulated by the interactive effects of light, nitrogen, and grazing on epiphyte growth. Increased eelgrass coverage in the littoral zone led to a simulated doubling of ecosystem primary production but reduced the fraction of production by planktonic and sediment microalgae. The simulation model presented here demonstrated the importance of material input from the channel in littoral zone biogeochemical dynamics. Submarine ligh regulated primary production more strongly than inorganic nitrogen concentrations in the model. External DIN concentrations influenced seagrass survival indirectly: enrichment stimulated growth of epiphytes and phytoplankton and promoted shading of the seagras leaf. The model was based upon a unimpacted ecosystem and deteriorated water quality negatively influenced primary production greater than the increases triggered by improved condition. Increased material loading to the littoral zone reduced submarine light availability, increased phytoplankton production, lowered ecosystem production, and reduced subtidal vegetated habitat. This simulation model of the estuarine littoral zone model combines hydrodynamics, biogeochemical sources and sinks, and living resources in order to better understand structure, function, and change in aquatic ecosystems.     

The evolution of the terrestrial-terminating Irish Sea glacier during the last glaciation

Here we reconstruct the last advance to maximum limits and retreat of the Irish Sea Glacier (ISG), the only land-terminating ice lobe of the western British Irish Ice Sheet. A series of reverse bedrock slopes rendered proglacial lakes endemic, forming time-transgressive moraine- and bedrock-dammed basins that evolved with ice marginal retreat. Combining, for the first time on glacial sediments, optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) bleaching profiles for cobbles with single grain and small aliquot OSL measurements on sands, has produced a coherent chronology from these heterogeneously bleached samples. This chronology constrains what is globally an early build-up of ice during late Marine Isotope Stage 3 and Greenland Stadial (GS) 5, with ice margins reaching south Lancashire by 30 ± 1.2 ka, followed by a 120-km advance at 28.3 ± 1.4 ka reaching its 26.5 ± 1.1 ka maximum extent during GS-3. Early retreat during GS-3 reflects piracy of ice sources shared with the Irish-Sea Ice Stream (ISIS), starving the ISG. With ISG retreat, an opportunistic readvance of Welsh ice during GS-2 rode over the ISG moraines occupying the space vacated, with ice margins oscillating within a substantial glacial over-deepening. Our geomorphological chronosequence shows a glacial system forced by climate but mediated by piracy of ice sources shared with the ISIS, changing flow regimes and fronting environments.     

Spatio-temporal variability of small copepods (especially Oithona plumifera) in shallow nearshore waters off the south coast of South Africa

Although small copepods are one of the main dietary sources for many commercially important fish, their role in the pelagic trophic dynamics has traditionally been underestimated due to the methodology commonly used in plankton sampling. Temporal variation in abundance of adults and nauplii of small copepods (particularly Oithona plumifera) in nearshore waters on the south coast of South Africa was investigated fortnightly over 14 months at site (km) and location (100 m) scales. Sampling was within <500 m of the shore, where depth was ca. 10 m, using vertical hauls of an 80-μm mesh plankton net from 1 m above the seabed to the surface. Twenty-seven adult copepod taxa were recorded, but Oithona spp. was consistently the most abundant. Taxon richness was 7–19 on each sampling occasion. There was strong temporal variation (Oithona varied between 0 and 2300 m⁻³), but much of this was short-term variability (e.g. between consecutive sampling sessions), with no seasonality or other long-term discernable patterns. There were periods of consistently low numbers, but very high numbers often followed samples with low abundances. Nor was there spatial structure at the location scale, though numbers differed between sites. Despite considerable variability at the location scale within sites, Kenton consistently showed higher densities than High Rocks. Separate analyses, with Bonferroni adjustment, showed that this difference was significant on eight out of 21 occasions for Oithona, six for other pelagic copepods and three for nauplii. This suggests that hydrodynamics favour aggregation of plankton at Kenton. A high degree of short-term variability, with a tendency for aggregation of small zooplankton at certain sites has implications for both pelagic processes and food-web links between the benthic and pelagic environments.