The Puesto Piris Formation: Evidence of basin-development in the North Patagonian Massif during crustal extension associated with Gondwana breakup

The Marifil Volcanic Complex, exposed in the eastern North Patagonian Massif, Argentina, includes up to 550 m of red conglomerates, sandstones, black siltstones, limestones, and reworked tuff of the Puesto Piris Formation. The basal part of this unit, which was deposited in high-gradient topographic relief, is composed of conglomerates and sandstones with thin layers of reworked tuffs. The lithofacies associations of the basal part indicate that the depositional mechanisms were mantled and gravitational flows.The middle part of the unit consists of fine sandstones, limestones, and black siltstones that were deposited in low-energy fluvial and lacustrine environments. The outcrops are located along the NEe SW direction and the major thickest units represented by limestones and siltstones, occur near the southeastern border of this NEeS W depocenter. Since the rhyolitic and trachytic lava flows and tuffs of the Marifil Volcanic Complex are interbedded with the sedimentary sequences of the Puesto Piris Formation,both units are coeval. Zircon Ue Pb age was obtained for a trachytic lava flow(193.4 ±3.1 Ma) suggesting that sedimentation and volcanism are Sinemurian. This extensional episode was recorded in the eastern,western, and southwestern sectors of the North Patagonian Massif, and is possibly associated with the Gondwana supercontinent breakup.     

Clinopyroxenes as geobarometric indicators in mafic and ultramafic rocks from Canary Islands

This paper describes the use of pyroxene compounds of clinopiroxene in mafic and ultramafic rocks (inclusions and layered outcrops) in the Canary Islands as geobarometric indicators of the depth of formation of different rock types. The upper mantle origin of peridotite and gabbro inclusions was confirmed, while a crustal character is proposed for the layered complexes. Finally, a scheme of Canary substrate is outlined.     

Ancient pine forest on inland dunes in the Spanish northern meseta

We present a new stratigraphic (pollen and nonpollen microfossils and charcoal particle) sequence with five AMS dates, covering about the last 9000 yr, of a core collected from the Spanish northern meseta, one of the territories of the Iberian Peninsula for which little paleobotanical information is available. The results support the hypothesis of the permanence of the pine forests, in more or less pure masses or large timber stands, during the Holocene in some Iberian continental zones. The typical substitution in postglacial dynamics of heliophyllous species, such as pines or Cupressaceae, by broadleaf trees did not occur in this inland region. Presumably, factors linked to the substrate, in this case very deep sand dunes covering vast areas, may have contributed to the scarce local competitiveness of the broadleaf trees, which would account for the hegemony of pines in this region. Based on the dynamics of aquatic plants and nonpollen microfossils, an initial phase previous to 7500 ¹⁴C yr B.P. of high levels in the lake can be identified by high percentages of hydrophytes. A progressive increase in helophytes and the gradual infilling of the lake over the last 5000 yr appear to indicate a phase of aridification similar to those established for the western Mediterranean. Study of charcoal particles, more abundant in the last 2500 yr, has given rise to certain hypotheses regarding the incidence of recurring fires of a local or regional nature.     

Global optimization of the Gauss conformal mappings of an ellipsoid to a sphere

The Gauss conformal mappings (GCMs) of an oblate ellipsoid of revolution to a sphere are those that transform the meridians into meridians, and the parallels into parallels of the sphere. The infinitesimal-scale function associated with these mappings depends on the geodetic latitude and contains three parameters, including the radius of the sphere. Gauss derived these constants by imposing local optimum conditions on certain parallel. We deal with the problem of finding the constants to minimize the Chebyshev or maximum norm of the logarithm of the infinitesimal-scale function on a given ellipsoidal segment (the region contained between two parallels). We show how to solve this minimax problem using the intrinsic function fminsearch of Matlab. For a particular ellipsoidal segment, we get the solution and show the alternation property characteristic of best Chebyshev approximations. For a pair of points relatively close in the ellipsoid at different latitudes, the best minimax GCM on the segment defined by these points is used to approximate the geodesic distance between them by the spherical distance between their projections on the corresponding sphere. This approach, combined with the best locally GCM if the points are on the same parallel, is illustrated by applying it to some case studies but specially to a 10° × 10° region contained between portions of two parallels and two meridians. In this case, the maximum absolute error of this spherical approximation is equal to 2.9 mm occurring at a distance about 1,360 km. This error decreases up to 0.94 mm on an 8° × 8° region of this type. So, the spherical approximation to the solution of the inverse geodesic problem by best GCM can be acceptable in many practical geodetic activities.     

Tidal-induced inorganic carbon dynamics in the Strait of Gibraltar

This study presents the distribution of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) along the Strait of Gibraltar, its tidal-induced variability, as well as the inorganic carbon exchange between the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. During November 2003, water column samples were collected at nine stations to measure total alkalinity (TA), pH, and dissolved oxygen (DO) for the spatial characterization of the carbonate system. At the same time, anchored samplings were carried out, above the Camarinal Sill and in the Eastern Section of the Strait, in order to assess the tidal mixing effects for oxygen and DIC distribution on the water column. Three distinct water masses can be discerned in this area: the Surface Atlantic Water (SAW), the Mediterranean Water (MW), and the less abundant North Atlantic Central Water (NACW). The observations show an increase in the DIC and a decrease in oxygen concentration with depth, related to the different physico-chemical features of each water mass. The results show the high time-dependence of the vertical distribution of DIC with the interface oscillation, affected by the intense mixing processes taking place in the Strait. Intense mixing episodes over the Camarinal Sill are responsible for an increase in the DIC concentrations in the upper layer of the Eastern Section of the Strait. Higher DIC concentrations in the Mediterranean than in the Atlantic waters are responsible for a net DIC transport of 1.47×10¹² mol C yr⁻¹ to the Atlantic Ocean. Nevertheless, the net exchange is highly sensitive to the interface definition, as well as to the estimate of water volume transport used.     

Antifouling activity of commercial biocides vs. natural and natural-derived products assessed by marine bacteria adhesion bioassay

Biofilm formation is a key step during marine biofouling, the natural colonization of immersed substrata, leading to major economic and ecological consequences. Consequently, bacteria have been used for the screening of new non-toxic antifoulants: the adhesion of five strains isolated on three French locations was monitored using a fluorescence-based assay and toxicity was also evaluated. Nine biocides including commercial, natural and natural-derived products were tested. The commercial antifoulants, TBTO and Sea Nine showed low EC₅₀ but high toxicity. The non-commercial products TFA-Z showed significant anti-adhesion activities and appeared to be non-toxic, suggesting a specific anti-adhesion mechanism. In addition, the strains could be classified depending on their sensitivity to the molecules used even if strain sensitivity also depended on the molecules tested. In conclusion, TFA-Z would be a promising candidate as non-toxic antifoulant and our results strengthen the need to perform antifouling bioassays with a panel of strains showing different response profiles.     

Joint implementation and EU accession countries

The EU accession countries have a high potential for low cost greenhouse gas emission reduction. As they cannot join the “bubble” agreement for the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, project-based Joint Implementation (JI) could be a powerful strategy to integrate them into the EU climate policy strategy. An important question is whether the acquis communautaire will be used to define the baseline for the calculation of emission reductions from JI projects. A problem is that the grace periods for several environmental sectors differ considerably among countries. The EU should help accession countries to establish a predictable legal framework for JI preventing in this way the current legal uncertainty regarding JI procedures.     

Homographic solutions in the planar <Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis> + 1 body problem with quasi-homogeneous potentials

We prove that for generalized forces which are function of the mutual distance, the ring n + 1 configuration is a central configuration. Besides, we show that it is a homographic solution. We apply the above results to quasi-homogeneous potentials.     

Estimating greenhouse gas emissions from cattle raising in Brazil

The study estimated, for the first time, the greenhouse gas emissions associated with cattle raising in Brazil, focusing on the period from 2003 to 2008 and the three principal sources: 1) portion of deforestation resulting in pasture establishment and subsequent burning of felled vegetation; 2) pasture burning; and 3) bovine enteric fermentation. Deforestation for pasture establishment was only considered for the Amazon and Cerrado. Emissions from pasture burning and enteric fermentation were accounted for the entire country. The consolidated emissions estimate lies between approximately 813 Mt CO₂eq in 2008 (smallest value) and approximately 1,090 Mt CO₂eq in 2003 (greatest value). The total emissions associated with Amazon cattle ranching ranged from 499 to 775 Mt CO₂eq, that of the Cerrado from 229 to 231 Mt CO₂eq, and that of the rest of the country between 84 and 87 Mt CO₂eq. The full set of emissions originating from cattle raising is responsible for approximately half of all Brazilian emissions (estimated to be approximately 1,055 Mt CO₂eq in 2005), even without considering cattle related sources not explicitly estimated in this study, such as energy use for transport and refrigeration along the beef and derivatives supply chain. The potential for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions offered by the Brazilian cattle industry is very high and might constitute Brazil’s most important opportunity for emissions mitigation. The study offers a series of policy recommendations for mitigation that can be implemented by public and private administrators at a low cost relative to other greenhouse gas reduction options.