Monitoring In Situ Biodegradation of MTBE Using Multiple Rounds of Compound‐Specific Stable Carbon Isotope Analysis

At a large industrial facility, methyl tert‐butyl ether (MTBE) was released to the subsurface and dispersed into the light, non‐aqueous phase liquids (LNAPL), in the first aquifer, with the LNAPL serving as a continuous source of MTBE in groundwater. Compound‐specific isotope analysis was conducted on both MTBE and tert‐butyl alcohol (TBA) in groundwater samples collected in 2008, 2011, and 2013 from wells located along and off the center line of the MTBE plume. The study demonstrated the onset and progress of biodegradation of MTBE between 2008 and 2013. The TBA observed in 2008 appears to be derived only in part from MTBE transformation while a significant portion of TBA might be contributed directly from LNAPL sources. In 2011 to 2013, the dominant source of TBA in the mid‐gradient plume was MTBE transformation. A contribution of an offsite LNAPL source, in particular to the down‐gradient area of the plume, is possible but could not be unequivocally confirmed. The time series provided direct evidence for MTBE biodegradation, but also a valuable insight on the sources of TBA.     

Confirming geomorphological interpretations based on portable OSL reader data

Portable optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) readers are increasingly being used in geomorphological and archaeological investigations, but information regarding data reproducibility and the reliability of interpretations based on portable OSL reader data has not yet been presented to the wider geomorphological community. This Letter addresses these two issues by returning to Grabben Gullen Creek in the southeastern Australian Tablelands where we remeasure a sediment profile that was first measured by other researchers 3 years earlier. We also compare portable OSL reader data measured on sediment interpreted to have been deposited in swampy meadow wetlands and flood alluvium settings with data measured on known swampy meadow and flood deposits. Our data show that portable OSL reader data are reproducible. Moreover, we confirm the earlier interpretation that stratigraphies commonly exposed in southeastern Australian Tablelands valley bottoms reflect pre‐European swampy meadow wetlands and flood alluvium. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Modeling acid-gas generation from boiling chloride brines

Background  

This study investigates the generation of HCl and other acid gases from boiling calcium chloride dominated waters at atmospheric pressure, primarily using numerical modeling. The main focus of this investigation relates to the long-term geologic disposal of nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, where pore waters around waste-emplacement tunnels are expected to undergo boiling and evaporative concentration as a result of the heat released by spent nuclear fuel. Processes that are modeled include boiling of highly concentrated solutions, gas transport, and gas condensation accompanied by the dissociation of acid gases, causing low-pH condensate.     

新疆准噶尔盆地北部中——新生代地层与古生物

新疆准噶尔盆地北部中-新生代地层分布广,化石类型多样,成为古生物、古气候、古环境研究理想地区.乌伦古河组和依希白拉组分别发现恐龙与哺乳动物等脊椎动物化石,证实它们不存在混生现象,对恐龙是否延续至新生代提出初步意见.     

Potential evidence of fossilised Neoproterozoic deep life: SEM observations on calcite veins from Oppaminda Creek,Arkaroola, South Australia

Scanning electron microscopy revealed micron-sized globular and coccoid objects, associated with filaments and mucus-like patches in antitaxial fibrous calcite veins from Oppaminda Creek, Northern Flinders Ranges, South Australia. Chemically the objects only differ from their calcite (CaCO₃) matrix by a higher sulphur content. The ∼585 Ma veins formed at about 3–6 km below the surface. Fluid inclusions indicate a temperature of formation of about 60–80°C, and not exceeding 100°C. A non-biogenic origin of the objects is discussed, but considered unlikely. Instead, morphology, chemistry and size distribution all indicate that the objects are fossilised microbes that lived in the veins at the time and depth of vein formation.     

Differential modulation of eastern oyster (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Crassostrea virginica</Emphasis>) disease parasites by the El-Niño-Southern Oscillation and the North Atlantic Oscillation

The eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) is affected by two protozoan parasites, Perkinsus marinus which causes Dermo disease and Haplosporidium nelsoni which causes MSX (Multinucleated Sphere Unknown) disease. Both diseases are largely controlled by water temperature and salinity and thus are potentially sensitive to climate variations resulting from the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), which influences climate along the Gulf of Mexico coast, and the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), which influences climate along the Atlantic coast of the United States. In this study, a 10-year time series of temperature and salinity and P. marinus infection intensity for a site in Louisiana on the Gulf of Mexico coast and a 52-year time series of air temperature and freshwater inflow and oyster mortality from Delaware Bay on the Atlantic coast of the United States were analyzed to determine patterns in disease and disease-induced mortality in C. virginica populations that resulted from ENSO and NAO climate variations. Wavelet analysis was used to decompose the environmental, disease infection intensity and oyster mortality time series into a time–frequency space to determine the dominant modes of variability and the time variability of the modes. For the Louisiana site, salinity and Dermo disease infection intensity are correlated at a periodicity of 4 years, which corresponds to ENSO. The influence of ENSO on Dermo disease along the Gulf of Mexico is through its effect on salinity, with high salinity, which occurs during the La Niña phase of ENSO at this location, favoring parasite proliferation. For the Delaware Bay site, the primary correlation was between temperature and oyster mortality, with a periodicity of 8 years, which corresponds to the NAO. Warmer temperatures, which occur during the positive phase of the NAO, favor the parasites causing increased oyster mortality. Thus, disease prevalence and intensity in C. virginica populations along the Gulf of Mexico coast is primarily regulated by salinity, whereas temperature regulates the disease process along the United States east coast. These results show that the response of an organism to climate variability in a region is not indicative of the response that will occur over the entire range of a particular species. This has important implications for management of marine resources, especially those that are commercially harvested.     

Darkness on the Edge of Town: Mapping Urban and Peri-Urban Australia Using Nighttime Satellite Imagery

This article explores the use of nighttime satellite imagery for mapping urban and peri-urban areas of Australia. A population-weighted measure of urban sprawl is used to characterize relative levels of sprawl for Australia's urban areas. In addition, the expansive areas of low light surrounding most major metropolitan areas are used to map the urban–bush interface of exurban land use. Our findings suggest that 82 percent of the Australian population lives in urban areas, 15 percent live in peri-urban or exurban areas, and 3 percent live in rural areas. This represents a significantly more concentrated human settlement pattern than presently exists in the United States.     

Developing the Commons: The Contradictions of Growth in Exurban Montana

Property development in exurban areas has the capacity to undermine the amenity values that undergird that development. Predicated on that contradiction, this research seeks to explain the emergence of local, informal, planning-based regulations in the traditionally antiregulatory context of rural Montana. Adopting both the insights of institutional common property theory and those of critical materialist analysis of economic growth, the work reconciles accounts of development as inherently ecologically self-destructive with those stressing creative development and adoption of rules for collective self-governance. Using a detailed case analysis of a Montana county undergoing rapid growth, it examines what drives localized land use regulation, what controls are enacted, and whether such controls are resisted or facilitated by development capital. Findings suggest that informal regulations seek to control externalities of development on valuable amenity commons and that they are adopted with the acceptance, if not encouragement, of the development community. These fragile instruments are vulnerable to opposition, however, highlighting problems of more general relevance: Growth depends on a deregulated development regime, which produces externalities that undermine the valorization of property. Localized regulatory planning regimes are therefore both a solution to contradictions inherent in growth and a potential source of future planning problems.