The future of chemical in situ sensors

Many of the sampling methods used in oceanographic sciences today date back decades, if not centuries. Although there has been a marked change in how sampling for chemical oceanography is carried out it still relies on taking samples of seawater from a research vessel in most cases. Assessing processes on small timescales as well as transient events requires higher temporal and spatial resolution of measurements; long time series stations require high duration deployments of instruments. Both requirements can only be adequately satisfied by in situ sensors; for the physical parameters off the shelf instruments are available, in the field of chemical oceanography only a few parameters, such as oxygen, are covered by off the shelf instruments, for most parameters adequate instrumentation only exists in the form of prototypes, if at all. Chemical in situ sensors are needed to gain new insights in how the oceans and the life in it works.     

Reduced Sensitivity of Tropical Cyclone Intensity and Size to Sea Surface Temperature in a Radiative-Convective Equilibrium Environment

It has been challenging to project the tropical cyclone(TC) intensity,structure and destructive potential changes in a warming climate.Here,we compare the sensitivities of TC intensity,size and destructive potential to sea surface warming with and without a pre-storm atmospheric adjustment to an idealized state of Radiative-Convective Equilibrium(RCE).Without RCE,we find large responses of TC intensity,size and destructive potential to sea surface temperature(SST) changes,which is in line with some previous studies.However,in an environment under RCE,the TC size is almost insensitive to SST changes,and the sensitivity of intensity is also much reduced to 3%?C-1–4%?C-1.Without the pre-storm RCE adjustment,the mean destructive potential measured by the integrated power dissipation increases by about 25%?C-1 during the mature stage.However,in an environment under RCE,the sensitivity of destructive potential to sea surface warming does not change significantly.Further analyses show that the reduced response of TC intensity and size to sea surface warming under RCE can be explained by the reduced thermodynamic disequilibrium between the air boundary layer and the sea surface due to the RCE adjustment.When conducting regional-scale sea surface warming experiments for TC case studies,without any RCE adjustment the TC response is likely to be unrealistically exaggerated.The TC intensity–temperature sensitivity under RCE is very similar to those found in coupled climate model simulations.This suggests global mean intensity projections under climate change can be understood in terms of a thermodynamic response to temperature with only a minor contribution from any changes in large-scale dynamics.     

Source rock potential of the Middle Jurassic to Middle Pliocene,onshore Nile Delta Basin,Egypt

Organic geochemical characterization of cutting samples from the Abu Hammad-1 and Matariya-1 wells elucidates the depositional environment and source rock potential of the Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous successions and the Middle Miocene to Pleistocene section in the southern and eastern Nile Delta Basin. The burial and thermal histories of the Mesozoic and Miocene sections were modeled using 1D basin modeling based on input data from the two wells. This study reveals fair to good gas-prone source rocks within the Upper Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous sections with total organic carbon (TOC) averaging 2.7% and hydrogen index (HI) up to 130 mg HC/g TOC. The pristane/n-C₁₇ versus phytane/n-C₁₈ correlation suggests mixed marine and terrestrial organic matter with predominant marine input. Burial and thermal history modeling reveals low thermal maturity due to low heat flow and thin overburden. These source rocks can generate gas in the western and northern parts of the basin where they are situated at deeper settings. In contrast, the thick Middle Miocene shows fair source rock quality (TOC averaging at 1.4%; HI maximizing at 183 mg HC/g TOC). The quality decreases towards the younger section where terrestrial organic matter is abundant. This section is similar to previously studied intervals in the eastern Nile Delta Basin but differs from equivalents in the central parts where the quality is better. Based on 1D modeling, the thick Middle Miocene source rocks just reached the oil generation stage, but microbial gas, however, is possible.     

Determination of the conduit structure in a karst aquifer based on tracer data—Lurbach system,Austria

A structure model was used to analyse solute‐transport parameter estimates based on tracer breakthrough curves. In the model system, groundwater flow is envisioned to be organised in a complex conduit network providing a variety of short circuits with relative small carrying capacities along different erosion levels. The discharge through the fully filled conduits is limited owing to void geometries and turbulent flow; thus, a hierarchic overflow system evolves where conduits are (re‐)activated or dried up depending on the flow condition. Exemplified on the Lurbach–Tanneben karst aquifer, the applicability of the model approach was tested. Information derived from multi‐tracer experiments performed at different volumetric flow rates enabled to develop a structural model of the karst network, under constraint of the geomorphological and hydrological evolution of the site. Depending on the flow rate, groundwater is divided into up to eight flow paths. The spatial hierarchy of flow paths controls the sequence of flow path activation. Conduits of the topmost level are strongly influenced by reversible alteration processes. Sedimentation or blocking causes an overflow of water to the next higher conduit. Flow path specific dissolutional denudation rates were estimated using the temporal development of the partial discharge. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Impact of two DNA repair pathways, homologous recombination and non-homologous end joining, on bacterial spore inactivation under simulated martian environmental conditions

Spores of Bacillus subtilis were used as a model system to study the impact of the two major DNA double-strand break (DSB) repair mechanisms [homologous recombination (HR) and non-homologous end-joining (NHEJ)] on the survivability of air-dried mono- and multilayers of bacterial spores under a simulated martian environment; i.e., an environment with low temperature (−10 °C), pure CO₂ atmosphere (99.99% CO₂), 200-1100 nm UV-VIS-NIR radiation, and 0.69 kPa pressure. Spores in multilayers exhibited low inactivation rates compared to monolayers, mainly due to shadowing effects of overlying spores. Simulated martian UV irradiation reduced dramatically spore viability, whereas when shielded from martian UV radiation, spores deficient in NHEJ- and HR-mediated DNA repair were significantly more sensitive to simulated martian environmental conditions than were wild-type spores. In addition, NHEJ-deficient spores were consistently more sensitive than HR-deficient spores to simulated Mars environmental conditions, suggesting that DSBs were an important type of DNA damage. The results indicated that both HR and NHEJ provide an efficient set of DNA repair pathways ensuring spore survival after exposure to simulated martian environmental conditions.     

Shock experiments in support of the Lithopanspermia theory: The influence of host rock composition,temperature, and shock pressure on the survival rate of endolithic and epilithic microorganisms

Abstract– Shock recovery experiments were performed with an explosive set‐up in which three types of microorganisms embedded in various types of host rocks were exposed to strong shock waves with pressure pulse lengths of lower than 0.5 μs: spores of the bacterium Bacillus subtilis, Xanthoria elegans lichens, and cells of the cyanobacterium Chroococcidiopsis sp. 029. In these experiments, three fundamental parameters were systematically varied (1) shock pressures ranging from 5 to 50 GPa, (2) preshock ambient temperature of 293, 233 and 193 K, and (3) the type of host rock, including nonporous igneous rocks (gabbro and dunite as analogs for the Martian shergottites and chassignites, respectively), porous sandstone, rock salt (halite), and a clay‐rich mineral mixture as porous analogs for dry and water‐saturated Martian regolith. The results show that the three parameters have a strong influence on the survival rates of the microorganisms. The most favorable conditions for the impact ejection from Mars for microorganisms would be (1) low porosity host rocks, (2) pressures <10–20 GPa, and (3) low ambient temperature of target rocks during impact. All tested microorganisms were capable of surviving to a certain extent impact ejection in different geological materials under distinct conditions.