Contrasting climatic histories for the Snake River Plain, Idaho, resulting from multiple thermal maxima

Ten sites near the Snake River Plain have consistent differences in their climatic histories. Sites at low elevation reflect the “early Holocene xerothermic” of the Pacific Northwest, whereas most climatic chronologies at high elevation indicate maximum warmth or aridity somewhat later, ca. 6000 yr ago. This elevational contrast in climatic histories is duplicated at three sites from the central Snake River Plain. For sites in such close proximity, the different chronologies cannot be explained by changes in atmospheric circulation during the late Quaternary. Rather, the differences are best explained by the autecology of the plants involved and the changing seasonal climate. The seasonal climatic sequence predicted by multiple thermal maxima explains the high- and low-elevation chronologies. During the early Holocene, maximum insolation and intensified summer drought in July forced low-elevation vegetation upward. However, moisture was not a limiting factor at high elevation, where vegetation moved upward in response to increased length of growing season coincident with maximum September insolation 6000 yr ago.     

Biological and physical events involved in the origin,effects, and control of organic matter in solar saltworks

Aspects of communities and events in the concentrating ponds (S.G. 1.130 to 1.214) and salt crystallizing ponds (S.G. 1.215 to 1.264) of solar saltworks pertinent to salt manufacture are described. Communities that aid salt manufacture enable continuous and efficient production of high quality salt at a saltworks' design capacity, and they provide important controls on levels of organic matter in the brine. Fluctuating salinities, high concentrations of nutrients, and petroleum products are disturbances that causeAphanothece halophytica andDunaliella salina to release excessive quantities of organic matter, and that suppress or cause death to nutrient stripping organisms. Disturbances result in decreased quality and quantity of salt and increased costs for salt harvest, washing, and pond upkeep. Organic matter can be controlled by management techniques that keep nutrient stripping communities at proper levels and maintain a narrow and unchanging range of salinities in each pond, by constructing pond dikes able to withstand wind and water erosion, and by preventing spills of petroleum products in the ponds.     

Rio Tinto estuary (Spain): 5000 years of pollution

 Mining of massive sulfide deposits in southwestern Spain extending back to the Copper and Bronze Ages has resulted in the pollution of the Rio Tinto fluvial-estuarine complex, the site of Columbus' departure for the New World in 1492. Additional sources of potential pollution include the large industrial complex at Huelva near the lower portion of the estuary. Extensive analysis of surface sediment samples and cores has established that there are no geographic trends in the distribution of the pollutants, which include Cu, Fe, Pb, Zn, Ti, Ba, Cr, V and Co. These data have, however, demonstrated that tidal flux within the estuary carries phosphorus and perhaps other elements from the industrial complex at Huelva to the tidal limit of the system, several kilometers upstream from the discharge site. Radiometric analysis of short cores shows that sedimentation rates over at least the past couple of centuries have been about 0.3 cm/year. These data and that from a single deep core demonstrate that the estuary was polluted from mining activity long before the large-scale operations began in the late nineteenth century. Received: 3 May 1999 · Accepted: 18 October 1999     

Predicted signatures of pulsed reconnection in ESR data

Early in 1996, the latest of the European inco-herent-scatter (EISCAT) radars came into operation on the Svalbard islands. The EISCAT Svalbard Radar (ESR) has been built in order to study the ionosphere in the northern polar cap and in particular, the dayside cusp. Conditions in the upper atmosphere in the cusp region are complex, with magnetosheath plasma cascading freely into the atmosphere along open magnetic field lines as a result of magnetic reconnection at the dayside magnetopause. A model has been developed to predict the effects of pulsed reconnection and the subsequent cusp precipitation in the ionosphere. Using this model we have successfully recreated some of the major features seen in photometer and satellite data within the cusp. In this paper, the work is extended to predict the signatures of pulsed reconnection in ESR data when the radar is pointed along the magnetic field. It is expected that enhancements in both electron concentration and electron temperature will be observed. Whether these enhancements are continuous in time or occur as a series of separate events is shown to depend critically on where the open/closed field-line boundary is with respect to the radar. This is shown to be particularly true when reconnection pulses are superposed on a steady background rate.     

Evidence for phosphorus limitation in carbonate sediments of the seagrass Syringodium filiforme

The seagrass Syringodium filiforme was examined in an ecological analysis of plant nutrient requirements and nutrient resource availability. Assessment of the sediment geochemistry in a San Salvador Island seagrass bed indicated that phosphorus was not readily accessible to the plants. Ammonium regeneration in the fine-grained carbonate sediments was high, and interstitial concentrations averaged ca. 100 μM while phosphate replenishment to interstitial water was low, and concentrations were generally less than 2 μM. Analysis of the seagrass leaf tissue content (C : N : P = 1390 : 47 : 1, atomic wt) suggested that nitrogen and phosphorus were both depleted relative to carbon. However, this high N : P for S. filiforme and the low concentration of phosphate available in the interstitial water established the likelihood that plant acquisition of phosphorus was limited. The finding of high root biomass relative to leaf biomass in these seagrass beds corroborates this evidence by depicting a method of plant adaptation that increases nutrient absorptive root surface area.     

A unique ultrarefractory inclusion from the Murchison meteorite

Abstract— Through freeze-thaw disaggregation of the Murchison meteorite, we have recovered a refractory inclusion, HIB-11, that is unique in terms of its texture, mineral compositions, and bulk composition. It consists of anhedral, Y-rich (1.6 wt% Y₂O₃) perovskite and lathlike spinel grains enclosed in a matrix of fine-grained, Sc-rich (10.5 wt% SC₂O₃ avg.), Ti-rich (12.6 wt% TiO₂ avg., reporting all Ti as TiO₂) clinopyroxene. The chondrite-normalized rare earth element (REE) pattern is complex, with light REE (LREE) at ～10× C1, abundances increasing from Gd through Ho (the latter at ～10⁴× C1), decreasing through Yb at 200× C1, and Lu at ～400× C1. The pattern reflects several stages of high-temperature volatility fractionation. Removal of Lu and Er from the source gas in the first condensation event was followed by partial to complete removal of the somewhat less refractory heavy REE, Gd through Ho, in the HIB-11 precursors by condensation from the fractionated residual gas in a second event. Both of these events probably reflect condensation of REE into ZrO₂ or a mixed Zr-, Sc-, Ti-, Y-oxide at temperatures too high for hibonite stability. A second, lower-temperature component, which was subsequently added, had fractionated (Nd-poor, Ce-rich) LREE abundances that resulted from condensation from a gas that had undergone prior removal of the more refractory LREE, resulting in enrichment in Ce and the most volatile REE, Eu and Yb. The aggregate was then melted and quickly cooled, forming a fine-grained spherule. This is the first reported inclusion in which the two most refractory REE, Lu and Er, are strongly fractionated from the other REE. An absence of mass fractionation among the Ti isotopes indicates that HIB-11 is not an evaporative residue, implying that volatility fractionation of trace elements took place during condensation. The fact that the two most refractory heavy REE could be separated from the other, only slightly less refractory heavy REE suggests that a wide variety of REE patterns is possible, and that ultrarefractory inclusions with other unusual REE patterns, important recorders of nebular condensation, may yet be discovered.