Macrofauna Communities in the Eastern Mediterranean Deep Sea

Abstract. During two expeditions with RV ‘Meteor’ in summer 1993 and winter 1997/98 the structural and functional diversity of the benthic system of the highly oligotrophic eastern Mediterranean deep sea was investigated. The macrofauna communities were dominated by polychaetes even at the deepest stations. The fauna at shallow stations was dominated by surface deposit feeders, whereas subsurface deposit feeders and predators generally increased with depth. A high percentage of suspension‐feeding Porifera was found in the Levantine Basin. Mean abundance and number of taxa of both expeditions were significantly correlated to depth and distance to the nearest coast as well as to the total organic carbon (TOC) content in sediments. Numbers of taxa and abundance decreased generally with depth, although lowest numbers were not found at the deepest stations but in the extremely oligotrophic Levantine and Ierapetra Basin. Biomass measured during the second cruise was extremely low in the Ierapetra Basin and comparable to other extreme oligotrophic seas. The significant correlations found for TOC contents and macrofauna with distance to coast during both expeditions apparently reflect the role of hydrographically governed transport of organic matter produced in coastal regions into greater and extreme depths of the Mediterranean Sea. Seasonal differences in macrofauna communities due to seasonal differences in food supply were not found. However, recent large‐scale hydrographic changes (Eastern Mediterranean Transient, EMT) might change the oligotrophy and, thus, the structure of the benthic communities in the Eastern Mediterranean deep sea.     

Ries crater and suevite revisited—Observations and modeling Part I: Observations

We report results of an interdisciplinary project devoted to the 26 km‐diameter Ries crater and to the genesis of suevite. Recent laboratory analyses of “crater suevite” occurring within the central crater basin and of “outer suevite” on top of the continuous ejecta blanket, as well as data accumulated during the past 50 years, are interpreted within the boundary conditions imposed by a comprehensive new effort to model the crater formation and its ejecta deposits by computer code calculations (Artemieva et al. 2013). The properties of suevite are considered on all scales from megascopic to submicroscopic in the context of its geological setting. In a new approach, we reconstruct the minimum/maximum volumes of all allochthonous impact formations (108/116 km³), of suevite (14/22 km³), and the total volume of impact melt (4.9/8.0 km³) produced by the Ries impact event prior to erosion. These volumes are reasonably compatible with corresponding values obtained by numerical modeling. Taking all data on modal composition, texture, chemistry, and shock metamorphism of suevite, and the results of modeling into account, we arrive at a new empirical model implying five main consecutive phases of crater formation and ejecta emplacement. Numerical modeling indicates that only a very small fraction of suevite can be derived from the “primary ejecta plume,” which is possibly represented by the fine‐grained basal layer of outer suevite. The main mass of suevite was deposited from a “secondary plume” induced by an explosive reaction (“fuel‐coolant interaction”) of impact melt with water and volatile‐rich sedimentary rocks within a clast‐laden temporary melt pool. Both melt pool and plume appear to be heterogeneous in space and time. Outer suevite appears to be derived from an early formed, melt‐rich and clast‐poor plume region rich in strongly shocked components (melt ? clasts) and originating from an upper, more marginal zone of the melt pool. Crater suevite is obviously deposited from later formed, clast‐rich and melt‐poor plumes dominated by unshocked and weakly shocked clasts and derived from a deeper, central zone of the melt pool. Genetically, we distinguish between “primary suevite” which includes dike suevite, the lower sublayer of crater suevite, and possibly a basal layer of outer suevite, and “secondary suevite” represented by the massive upper sublayer of crater suevite and the main mass of outer suevite.     

Compositional zoning of garnet porphyroblasts from the polymetamorphic Wölz Complex, Eastern Alps

We employ garnet isopleth thermobarometry to derive the P–T conditions of Permian and Cretaceous metamorphism in the Wölz crystalline Complex of the Eastern Alps. The successive growth increments of two distinct growth zones of the garnet porphyroblasts from the Wölz Complex indicate garnet growth in the temperature interval of 540°C to 560°C at pressures of 400 to 500 MPa during the Permian and temperatures ranging from 550°C to 570°C at pressures in the range of 700 to 800 MPa during the Cretaceous Eo-Alpine event. Based on diffusion modelling of secondary compositional zoning within the outermost portion of the first garnet growth zone constraints on the timing of the Permian and the Eo-Alpine metamorphic events are derived. We infer that the rocks remained in a temperature interval between 570°C and 610°C over about 10 to 20 Ma during the Permian, whereas the high temperature stage of the Eo-Alpine event only lasted for about 0.2 Ma. Although peak metamorphic temperatures never exceeded 620°C, the prolonged thermal annealing during the Permian produced several 100 µm wide alteration halos in the garnet porphyroblasts and partially erased their thermobarometric memory. Short diffusion profiles which evolved around late stage cracks within the first garnet growth zone constrain the crack formation to have occurred during cooling below about 450°C after the Eo-Alpine event.     

Sorption and Chemical Reactions of PAHs with Dissolved Humic Substances and Related Model Polymers

Sorption coefficients measured for PAHs on dissolved humic substances by SPME and FQT were found to be inevitably different and method‐dependent – SPME provides activity‐based and FQT concentration‐based sorption coefficients. Poly(acrylic acid) esters as well‐defined model polymers were used in sorption experiments, leading to the conclusion that short aliphatic chains are more effective in binding PAHs than aromatic moieties. FQT was inappropriate to measure sorption coefficients for the interaction of pyrene with poly(acrylic acid) esters but the experiments revealed a characteristic shift in the fluorescence spectrum. Using pyrene as a probe for the molecular environment in the sorbed state, the observed spectral shift indicated a highly hydrophobic microenvironment. The empirical relationships between lg K_DOC and lg K_OW were generalized on the basis of a modified Flory‐Huggins concept. Introducing only one sorbent‐specific parameter, the solubility parameter δ_DOM, the calculation of sorption coefficients became possible for a wide range of HOCs using fundamental data readily available from the literature. Long‐term experiments showed that reactive PAHs (such as acenaphthylene and 9‐methylanthracene) are able to react with HAs under strictly abiotic and anoxic conditions, whereas less reactive PAHs (such as naphthalene and dihydroanthracene) do not form bound residues. The HA reveals two functions in the interaction, behaving as a reaction partner and as a protecting ligand.     

Palaeobotanical evidence of wildfires in the Late Palaeozoic of South America – Early Permian, Rio Bonito Formation, Paraná Basin, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

Fossil charcoal, as direct evidence of palaeowildfires, has repeatedly been reported from several plant-bearing deposits from the Late Palaeozoic of the Northern Hemisphere. In contrast charcoal reports from the Late Palaeozoic deposits of the Southern Hemisphere are relatively rare in comparison to the Northern Hemisphere. Although the presence of pyrogenic coal macerals has repeatedly been reported from Late Palaeozoic coals from South America, no detailed anatomical investigations of such material have been published so far. Here is presented an anatomical analysis of charcoal originating from Early Permian sediments of the Quitéria Outcrop, Rio Bonito Formation, Paraná Basin, located in the central-eastern portion of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. This charcoal comes from two different coaly facies, and it was possible to scrutinize between three types, based on anatomical characters of the charcoal. Two of these charcoal types can be correlated to gymnosperm woods, and the other type corresponds to strongly permineralized bark with characteristic features of lycopsids. The presence of charcoal in different facies, ranging from parautochtonous to allochtonous origin, indicates that different vegetation types, i.e. plants which grew under wet conditions in the lowland as well as in the more dry hinterland, have experienced wildfires. Taking into account previous petrographic and lithological analyses from the facies in which the charcoal occurs and from the conditions of the wood and bark fragments, it was possible to speculate that the intensity of such wildfires most probably corresponds to forest-crown fires. Moreover, it is possible to state that wildfires have been a more or less common element in distinct Late Palaeozoic terrestrial ecosystems in the South American part of Gondwana. The data support previous assumptions on the occurrence of wildfires in the Early Permian of the Paraná Basin which were based solely on coal-petrographic data.     

Seismic images of a collision zone offshore NW Sabah/Borneo

Multichannel reflection seismic data from the southern South China Sea, refraction and gravity modelling were used to investigate the compressional sedimentary structures of the collision-prone continental margin off NW Borneo. An elongated imbricate deepwater fan, the toe Thrust Zone bounds the Northwest Borneo Trough to the southeast. The faults separating the individual imbricates cut through post-Early Miocene sediments and curve down to a carbonate platform at the top of the subsiding continental Dangerous Grounds platform that forms the major detachment surface. The age of deformation migrates outward toward the front of the wedge. We propose crustal shortening mechanisms as the main reason for the formation of the imbricate fan. At the location of the in the past defined Lower Tertiary Thrust Sheet tectonostratigraphic province a high velocity body was found but with a much smaller extend than the previously defined structure. The high velocity structure may be interpreted either as carbonates that limit the transfer of seismic energy into the sedimentary layers beneath or as Paleogene Crocker sediments dissected by remnants of a proto-South China Sea oceanic crust that were overthrust onto a southward migrating attenuated continental block of the Dangerous Grounds during plate convergence.     

南、北半球的沙漠和沙漠化

世界自然地理图显示,除寒漠外全球大沙漠大部分位于热带。科学文献划分出极端干旱沙漠、半干旱沙漠和边缘沙漠带,但这些带之间的界线并非固定不变,并且常常受不同的观察者的主观和经验所影响。例如,相对于撒哈拉大沙漠区的居民来说,北美沙漠的许多地方似乎有很丰茂的植被。可见人们对于沙漠的理解有多大的相对性。     

Empirical Relationships for Debris Flows

The assessment of the debris flow hazard potential has to rely on semi-quantitative methods. Due to the complexity of the debris-flow process, numerical simulation models of debris flows are still limited with regard to practical applications. Thus, an overview is given of empirical relationships that can be used to estimate the most important parameters of debris-flow behavior. In a possible procedure, an assessment of a maximum debris-flow volume may be followed by estimates of the peak discharge, the mean flow velocity, the total travel distance, and the runout distance on the fan. The applicability of several empirical equations is compared with available field and laboratory data, and scaling considerations are used to discuss the variability of the parameters over a large range of values. Some recommendations are made with regard to the application of the presented relationships by practicing engineers, apart from advocating field reconnaissance and searching for historic events wherever possible.     

Comment on the inhomogeneous Bianchi type-VI0 solution

The inhomogeneous Bianchi type-VI₀ perfect fluid solution given recently by Roy and Narain (1985) is shown to be identical with the solution first given by Tomita (1978).