A lacustrine GDGT-temperature calibration from the Scandinavian Arctic to Antarctic: Renewed potential for the application of GDGT-paleothermometry in lakes

Quantitative climate reconstructions are fundamental to understand long-term trends in natural climate variability and to test climate models used to predict future climate change. Recent advances in molecular geochemistry have led to calibrations using glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (GDGTs), a group of temperature-sensitive membrane lipids found in Archaea and bacteria. GDGTs have been used to construct temperature indices for oceans (TEX₈₆ index) and soils (MBT/CBT index). The aim of this study is to examine GDGT-temperature relationships and assess the potential of constructing a GDGT-based palaeo-thermometer for lakes. We examine GDGT-temperature relationships using core top sediments from 90 lakes across a north-south transect from the Scandinavian Arctic to Antarctica including sites from Finland, Sweden, Siberia, the UK, Austria, Turkey, Ethiopia, Uganda, Chile, South Georgia and the Antarctic Peninsula. We examine a suite of 15 GDGTs, including compounds used in the TEX₈₆ and MBT/CBT indices and reflecting the broad range of GDGT inputs to small lake systems.GDGTs are present in varying proportions in all lakes examined. The TEX₈₆ index is not applicable to our sites because of the large relative proportions of soil derived and methanogenic components. Similarly, the MBT/CBT index is also not applicable and predicts temperatures considerably lower than those measured. We examine relationships between individual GDGT compounds and temperature, pH, conductivity and water depth. Temperature accounts for a large and statistically independent fraction of variation in branched GDGT composition. We propose a GDGT-temperature regression model with high accuracy and precision (R² = 0.88; RMSE = 2.0 °C; RMSEP = 2.1 °C) for use in lakes based on a subset of branched GDGT compounds and highlight the potential of this new method for reconstructing past temperatures using lake sediments.     

Remediation scenarios for selenium contamination, Blackfoot watershed, southeast Idaho, USA

Extensive phosphate mining in the Blackfoot watershed of Idaho (USA) has substantially increased the selenium (Se) concentration in the river during both snowmelt and baseflow when groundwater discharge dominates. Phosphate mines create a linkage between Se-laden shale that occurs in the Phosphoria Formation and the underlying regional Wells Formation aquifer. Using a reconnaissance-level transport model, mines in the watershed were prioritized for remediation and for comparing the results of simulations of remediation scenarios with a baseline of no remediation, for which Se concentration in the river will exceed the aquatic standard along an extensive length. An accurate simulation of recharge distribution around the watershed and simulated flux to the river is essential. Remediation of mines north of the river will substantially decrease the size of the Se plume, although significant Se will continue to discharge to the river. Similarly, remediation of three mines south of the river would decrease the Se discharge to the river but allow substantial amounts to remain stored in the groundwater north and far south of the river. A lack of calibration data is not a reason to forgo remediation, but rather ongoing data collection can be used to fine-tune plans as they are implemented.     

Contamination of marine biogenic habitats and effects upon associated epifauna

Habitat-forming organisms are frequently used as biomonitors in marine environments due to a widespread ability to accumulate toxic contaminants. Few studies, however, have considered the consequences of these accumulated contaminants on the abundant and diverse fauna associated with these habitats. In this review, we summarize research which has investigated the contamination of biogenic habitats (including seagrasses, macroalgae, ascidians, sponges and bivalve reefs) and the impact of this contamination on the habitat use, feeding behaviour and survival of associated epifauna. In many cases, ecological impacts upon epifauna are not simply predicted by levels of contamination in their habitat, but are determined by the foraging, feeding and reproductive behaviours of the inhabiting organisms. Thus, a thorough understanding of these ecological processes is essential in order to understand the effects of contaminants upon epifaunal communities. The scope of biomonitoring studies which assess the contamination of biogenic habitats should be expanded to include an assessment of potential effects upon associated epifauna. When combined with manipulative field experiments such an approach would greatly assist in our understanding of indirect effects of contaminants in these important benthic habitats.     

The spatial and temporal patterns of aggradation in a temperate,upland, gravel‐bed river

Intensive field monitoring of a reach of upland gravel‐bed river illustrates the temporal and spatial variability of in‐channel sedimentation. Over the six‐year monitoring period, the mean bed level in the channel has risen by 0·17 m with a maximum bed level rise of 0·5 m noted at one location over a five month winter period. These rapid levels of aggradation have a profound impact on the number and duration of overbank flows with flood frequency increasing on average 2·6 times and overbank flow time increasing by 12·8 hours. This work raises the profile of coarse sediment transfer in the design and operation of river management, specifically engineering schemes. It emphasizes the need for the implementation of strategic monitoring programmes before engineering work occurs to identify zones where aggradation is likely to be problematic. Exploration of the sediment supply and transfer system can explain patterns of channel sedimentation. The complex spatial, seasonal and annual variability in sediment supply and transfer raise uncertainties into the system's response to potential changes in climate and land‐use. Thus, there is a demand for schemes that monitor coarse sediment transfer and channel response. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Tectonics of an extinct ridge-transform intersection,Drake Passage (Antarctica)

New swath bathymetric, multichannel seismic and magnetic data reveal the complexity of the intersection between the extinct West Scotia Ridge (WSR) and the Shackleton Fracture Zone (SFZ), a first-order NW-SE trending high-relief ridge cutting across the Drake Passage. The SFZ is composed of shallow, ridge segments and depressions, largely parallel to the fracture zone with an `en echelon' pattern in plan view. These features are bounded by tectonic lineaments, interpreted as faults. The axial valley of the spreading center intersects the fracture zone in a complex area of deformation, where N120° E lineaments and E–W faults anastomose on both sides of the intersection. The fracture zone developed within an extensional regime, which facilitated the formation of oceanic transverse ridges parallel to the fracture zone and depressions attributed to pull-apart basins, bounded by normal and strike-slip faults.On the multichannel seismic (MCS) profiles, the igneous crust is well stratified, with numerous discontinuous high-amplitude reflectors and many irregular diffractions at the top, and a thicker layer below. The latter has sparse and weak reflectors, although it locally contains strong, dipping reflections. A bright, slightly undulating reflector observed below the spreading center axial valley at about 0.75 s (twt) depth in the igneous crust is interpreted as an indication of the relict axial magma chamber. Deep, high-amplitude subhorizontal and slightly dipping reflections are observed between 1.8 and 3.2 s (twt) below sea floor, but are preferentially located at about 2.8–3.0 s (twt) depth. Where these reflections are more continuous they may represent the Mohorovicic seismic discontinuity. More locally, short (2–3 km long), very high-amplitude reflections observed at 3.6 and 4.3 s (twt) depth below sea floor are attributed to an interlayered upper mantle transition zone. The MCS profiles also show a pattern of regularly spaced, steep-inclined reflectors, which cut across layers 2 and 3 of the oceanic crust. These reflectors are attributed to deformation under a transpressional regime that developed along the SFZ, shortly after spreading ceased at the WSR. Magnetic anomalies 5 to 5 E may be confidently identified on the flanks of the WSR. Our spreading model assumes slow rates (ca. 10–20 mm/yr), with slight asymmetries favoring the southeastern flank between 5C and 5, and the northwestern flank between 5 and extinction. The spreading rate asymmetry means that accretion was slower during formation of the steeper, shallower, southeastern flank than of the northwestern flank.     

An inexpensive, optical (infrared) detector to locate the sediment/water interface in lakes with unconsolidated sediments

Unconsolidated, flocculent sediments that are frequently resuspended by wind action are found in many shallow-water lakes. Collecting sediment/water interface cores in such lakes for paleolimnological study may be problematic because it is difficult to determine the depth to the water/sediment interface. Accurately determining this water depth is necessary to guarantee that a piston corer does not penetrate the sediments prior to the drive and to maximize the core length. A simple instrument constructed with inexpensive, readily available components is described. This infrared floc detector (IFD) is used to sense the increased optical density of unconsolidated sediments as the detector is lowered into a lake. The IFD, in effect, yields a precise as well as an accurate measure of water depth. The depth to the water/sediment interface can be measured with an accuracy of approximately 1 cm, provided surface waters are relatively calm.     

Styles of salt tectonics in the Sab’atayn basin,onshore Yemen

A variety of distinct salt tectonic features are present in the Sab’atayn Basin of western Yemen. Based on the interpretation of regional 2D seismic reflection data and exploration wells in the central part of the basin, an Upper Jurassic evaporite formation produced numerous salt rollers, salt pillows, reactive, flip-flop, and falling diapirs. Due to regional extension, halokinetics began as soon as the early Cretaceous, within just a few million years after the deposition of the Tithonian Sab’atayn evaporite sequence, by formation of salt rollers. The salt locally formed salt pillows which evolved to reactive and active salt diapirs and diapiric salt walls as the result of renewed, but low-strain extension in the basin. Some of the diapiric walls further evolved into falling diapirs due to ongoing extension. As the result of a prominent extensional episode at the end of the Cretaceous, many of the diapiric walls in the basin are controlled by large normal faults on their updip flanks. As the post-Cretaceous sedimentary cover is largely missing in the study area, the assumed reactivation of salt structures during the Cenozoic remains poorly constrained. The interpreted changes in the style of salt tectonics in the Sab’atayn Basin offer a better understanding of the regional-scale tectonic development of the Arabian plate during the late Jurassic and Cretaceous.