A public health frame arouses hopeful emotions about climate change

Communication researchers and practitioners have suggested that framing climate change in terms of public health and/or national security may make climate change more personally relevant and emotionally engaging to segments of the public who are currently disengaged or even dismissive of the issue. To evaluate these assumptions, using a nationally representative online survey of U.S. residents (N?=?1,127) conducted in December, 2010, we randomly assigned six previously identified audience segments on climate change to one of three experimental conditions. Subjects were asked to read uniquely framed news articles about climate change emphasizing either the risks to the environment, public health, or national security and the benefits of mitigation and adaptation-related actions. Results show that across audience segments, the public health focus was the most likely to elicit emotional reactions consistent with support for climate change mitigation and adaptation. Findings also indicated that the national security frame may possibly boomerang among audience segments already doubtful or dismissive of the issue, eliciting unintended feelings of anger.     

The Mid-Atlantic Ridge at 37 and 45° N: some geophysical and petrological constraints

Summary. At present there is a strong conflict between, on the one hand, seismological and thermal models of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which indicate that no large crustal magma chamber can exist, and on the other hand petrological models many of which stress the importance of such a chamber. We review the available geophysical and petrological information from the FAMOUS area and 45° N in an attempt to resolve this conflict and demonstrate that a model (the infinite leek) can be constructed which satisfies all the available seismological, thermal, petrographic, major element and trace-element information from these two areas. This mode is as follows: mantle rising from depth begins to melt at about 60 km, and rises in equilibrium with its melt to about 15–25 km below the sea surface. At this level melt segregates and rises rapidly to the base of the crust. Magma injection above this takes place by a process of crack propagation, or by the development of a narrow vertical magma chamber, but no large crustal chamber is present. This model successfully explains the marked petrographic zonation of the floor of the median valley (Hekinian, Moore & Bryan).     

Petrography and stable isotope ratios from Archaean stromatolites,Mushandike Formation,Zimbabwe

The Mushandike Sanctuary, near Masvingo (Fort Victoria), Zimbabwe, contains well-preserved, but metamorphosed stromatolitic limestones of Archaean age. Despite the metamorphism, textural preservation is excellent to a scale as fine as c. 100–200μ. Cores recovered from the stromatolites have $\text{δ}{}^{18}\text{O = ?15‰}$ (PDB), approximately, and δ¹³C = 0.0 to 0.5‰ (PDB), in less weathered samples. The results are consistent with a metamorphic history involving volatile loss at 200°C or less, from an original source rock which may have been isotopically similar to the Cheshire stromatolites, Belingwe.     

Snapper (Chrysophrys auratus): a review of life history and key vulnerabilities in New Zealand

Snapper (Chrysophrys auratus) is an important coastal fish species in New Zealand for a variety of reasons, but the large amount of research conducted on snapper has not been reviewed. Here, we review life history information and potential threats for snapper in New Zealand. We present information on snapper life history, defining stages (eggs and larvae, juvenile and adult), and assess potential threats and knowledge gaps. Overall we identify six key points: 1. post-settlement snapper are highly associated with certain estuarine habitats that are under threat from land-based stressors. This may serve as a bottleneck for snapper populations; 2. the largest knowledge gaps relate to the eggs and larvae. Additional knowledge may help to anticipate the effects of climate change, which will likely have the greatest influence on these early life stages; 3. ocean acidification, from land-based sources and from climate change, may be an important threat to larval snapper; 4. a greater understanding of population connectivity would improve certainty around the sustainability of fishery exploitation; 5. the collateral effects of fishing are likely to be relevant to fishery productivity, ecosystem integrity and enduser value; 6. our understanding of the interrelationships between snapper and other ecosystem components is still deficient.     

Organochlorine residues in common terns and associated estuarine organisms,Massachusetts, USA, 1971–81

Organochlorine residues were measured in eggs of common terns Sterna hirundo at nine stations and in Atlantic silversides Menidia menidia at 11 stations in coastal Massachusetts, 1973–74. Tern eggs were sampled at one station from 1971 to 1981 and at another from 1973 to 1978. Mussels Mytilus edulis and various fish were sampled in 1975–76. PCBs were the predominant residues in all samples. DDE, TDE, DDT and HEOD were detected in most samples of fish. HE, Alpha-chlordane, oxychlordane and HCB were also detected in most samples of tern eggs. Concentrations of DDE, TDE and PCBs in tern eggs were highly correlated with those in fish at the same stations. Concentrations of PCBs in tern lipids were about 10 times those in the lipids of their prey. Except for HCB, concentrations of organochlorines were highest in urban areas (Boston Harbor and Buzzards Bay) and lowest in remote areas (outer Cape Cod). In Buzzards Bay, levels of DDE, HEOD, HCB and PCBs declined significantly between 1971 and 1981. However, on outer Cape Cod, only PCBs clearly declined after 1973, and by 1976 most of the urban-rural differences in levels of other organochlorines had disappeared. The geographical patterns in pesticide residue levels were associated both with urban uses and with specific agricultural uses. The highest levels of PCBs were associated with industrial effluents at New Bedford and Boston. Hatching failure in common terns was associated with elevated residues of DDE in one sample, but population effects of DDE were only marginal after 1971.     

Komatiites and the structure of the Archaean mantle

The existence of Archaean komatiites with eruption temperatures greater than 1650°C requires that the mantle be vertically differentiated by the time of komatiite eruption. If in the unlikely event that undifferentiated mantle had survived primordial planetary differentiation and had been hot enough to deliver 1650°C komatiite, it would have been extensively molten to depths of ～250 km, resulting in rapid, profound, vertical differentiation anyway. During primordial differentiation (or Archaean komatiite petrogenesis) the high density and compressibility of ultrabasic melt allowed storage of a global melt layer beneath a buoyant residue of dunite and/or harzburgite. This refractory cap segregated by extraction of melt both upwards and downwards from the depth at which the density contrast between crystals and liquid vanishes. Eruption of komatiite from the melt layer by corrosion of the cap was the Archaean earth's principal means of dissipating excess heat. This subterranean magma ocean precluded vertical homogenization of the Archaean mantle by convection but effectively absorbed lateral mantle heterogeneities and imposed the relative uniformity of maximum eruption temperature and MgO contents (～32%) seen in primitive Archaean komatiites on all continents.Verification of the postulated density relations of liquids and crystals to 100 kbar becomes a pressing concern in view of the expected consequences these relations may have had.     

Sedimentary basin development in the Archaean

The time history and magnitude of the subsidence in a sedimentary basin depends on the extent to which the lithosphere is thinned by stretching and on its original thickness. Hence the history and stratigraphic thickness of early Precambrian sedimentary basins, preserved as greenstone belts, should provide estimates of lithospheric thickness during the first half of the earth's history. Only the thickness of shallow-water sediments deposited without faulting is of relevance, and the best available estimates are compatible with all lithospheric thicknesses which have been suggested. The same is true of the estimates of the duration of the subsidence. Nonetheless radiometric dating can probably now provide estimates of the duration of the subsidence which are sufficiently accurate to constrain the models of the earth's thermal history if carried out for this purpose.     

Global exospheric temperatures and densities under active solar conditions

Temperatures measured by the OGO-6 satellite using the 6300 Å airglow spectrum are compared with temperatures derived from total densities and N₂ densities. It is shown that while the variation of the total densities with latitude and magnetic activity agree well with values used for CIRA (1972), the temperature behavior is very different. While the temperatures derived from the N₂ density were in much better agreement there were several important differences which radically affect the pressure gradients. The variation of temperature with magnetic activity showed seasonal and local time variations. Neutral temperature, density, pressure and boundary oxygen variations for the storm of 8 March 1970 are presented.     

The effects of a pelletised limestone treatment on drainage water acidity within a forest catchment in mid-Wales

Three headwater source areas were identified within a strongly acidified forest catchment in the Llyn Brianne area of central Wales. Each received an aerial application of between 10 and 16 t ha⁻¹ of limestone pellets (composed of powdered chalk, starch and bentonite) in November 1988. The pH, calcium and aluminium levels within soil water and stream water were assessed at fortnightly intervals over a 3 year period to determine the impact of the treatment on drainage water acidity. The results demonstrated the importance of identifying the effective source areas within a catchment and treating these with a readily available form of powdered limestone. Treatment with a pelletised form was unsuccessful in eliminating periods of low pH and high aluminium concentrations within the headwaters of the forested catchment. This was attributed to the slow breakdown and dissolution of the limestone pellets under the forest canopy and the reduced importance of the surface runoff pathways owing to pre-afforestation cultivation and drainage, and soil drying by the forest crop.