Is the Arctic Surface Layer a Source and Sink of NOx in Winter/Spring?

Measurements of NO_x (NO +NO₂) and the sum of reactive nitrogenconstituents, NO_y, were made near the surface atAlert (82.5°N), Canada during March and April1998. In early March when solar insolation was absentor very low, NO_x mixing ratios were frequentlynear zero. After polar sunrise when the sun was abovethe horizon for much or all of the day a diurnalvariation in NO_x and NO_y was observed withamplitudes as large as 30–40 pptv. The source ofactive nitrogen is attributed to release from the snowsurface by a process that is apparently sensitized bysunlight. If the source from the snowpack is a largescale feature of the Arctic then the diurnal trendsalso require a competing process for removal to thesurface. From the diurnal change in the NO/NO₂ratio, mid-April mixing ratios for the sum of peroxyand halogen oxide radicals of 10 pptv werederived for periods when ozone mixing ratios were inthe normal range of 30–50 ppbv. Mid-day ozoneproduction and loss rates with the active nitrogensource were estimated to be 1–2 ppbv/day and in nearbalance. NO_y mixing ratios which averaged only295±66 pptv do not support a large accumulation inthe high Arctic surface layer in the winter and springof 1998. The small abundance of NO_y relative tothe elevated mixing ratios of other long-livedanthropogenic constituents requires that reactivenitrogen be removed to the surface during transport toor during residence within the high Arctic.     

Towards a heterogeneous environmental responsibility: sustainability and cycling fundamentalism

This article explores the urban governmentalities that are emerging through the discursive constitution of cycling as a form of sustainable transport. It has two main aims. The first is to explore and critique the strategies and discourses used to promote cycling as a sustainable form of transport. We argue that cycling advocacy displays totalising tendencies which obscure social and cultural difference, ignore the embodied and affective dimensions of transport practices and fail in part to apprehend the heterogeneity of environmental responsibility. Our second aim is to tentatively suggest a more productive way of knowing and talking about cycling that might be constitutive of a less exclusionary affective ethical sensibility.     

东秦岭石窑沟斑岩钼矿床地质特征及辉钼矿Re-Os年龄

在东秦岭钼成矿带最近探明的石窑沟大型钼矿床位于近东西向马超营断裂带与北东向石窑沟-焦园断裂带的交汇部位,获得钼金属储量10余万吨,平均品位0.068%。钼矿化呈细脉-网脉状分布于花岗斑岩体及其围岩熊耳群火山岩中,与矿化有关的围岩蚀变有钾长石化、硅化、绢云母化、黄铁矿化等,具有斑岩型钼矿床的一些基本特点。在矿床中选取5件不同矿化类型的辉钼矿样品,采用ICP-MS法进行Re-Os同位素定年,获得模式年龄131.3±2.4～134.3±2.6Ma,等时线年龄135.2±1.8Ma(MSWD=0.18),形成于早白垩世,与豫西熊耳山地区雷门沟、鱼池岭等钼矿床形成时代相近。据辉钼矿Re含量(8.242×10-6～30.24×10-6)推测,矿床成矿物质主要来自于下地壳。矿床为东秦岭-大别山地区中生代第三期钼成矿作用产物,形成于早白垩世中国东部岩石圈伸展环境。     

The three screen doors: can marine "protected" areas be effective?

The great majority of marine protected areas (MPAs) fail to meet their management objectives. So MPAs can be effective conservation tools, we recommend two paradigm shifts, the first related to how they are located and the second related to how they are managed. MPAs are unlikely to be effective if they are located in areas that are subject to numerous, and often uncontrollable, external stressors from atmospheric, terrestrial, and oceanic sources, all of which can degrade the environment and compromise protection. MPA effectiveness is also limited by low institutional and community capacity for management and inappropriate size with respect to ecological needs. In particular, the check list approach to management does not ensure that key threats are dealt with, or that management expenditures provide a quantifiable return. We recommend a business planning approach to MPA management, in which managers focus on the viability of the management system, i.e., the ability of the MPA to provide ecological goods and services to its target users over the long term.     

An ozone depletion event in the sub-arctic surface layer over Hudson Bay,Canada

During the Tropospheric Ozone Production about the Spring Equinox (TOPSE) program, aircraft flights during April 7–11, 2000 revealed a large area air mass capped below ∼500 m altitude over Hudson Bay, Canada in which ozone was reduced from normal levels of 30–40 ppbv to as low as 0.5 ppbv. From some of the in-situ aircraft measurements, back-trajectory calculations, the tropospheric column of BrO derived from GOME satellite measurements, and results from a regional model, we conclude that the event did not originate from triggering of reactive halogen release in the sub-Arctic region of Hudson Bay but resulted from such an event occurring at higher latitudes over the islands of the northern Canada Archipelago and nearby Arctic Ocean with subsequent transport over a distance of 1,000–1,500 km to Hudson Bay. BrO _x remained active during this transport despite considerable changes in the conditions of the underlying surface suggesting that chemical recycling during transport dominated any local halogen input from the surface. If all of the tropospheric column density of BrO is distributed uniformly within the surface layer, then the mixing ratio of BrO derived from the satellite measurements is at least a factor of 2–3 larger than derived indirectly from in situ aircraft measurements of the NO/NO₂ ratio.     

Sampling Plan Optimization: A Data Review and Sampling Frequency Evaluation Process

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) uses a cost-effective sampling (CES) methodology to evaluate and review ground water contaminant data and optimize the site's ground water monitoring plan. The CES methodology is part of LLNL's regulatory approved compliance monitoring plan (Lamarre et al. 1996). It allows LLNL to adjust the ground water sampling plan every quarter in response to changing conditions at the site. Since the use of the CES methodology has been approved by the appropriate regulatory agencies, such adjustments do not need additional regulatory approval. This permits LLNL to respond more quickly to changing conditions. The CES methodology bases the sampling frequency for each location on trend, variability, and magnitude statistics describing the contaminants at that location, and on the input of the technical staff (hydrologists, chemists, statisticians, and project leaders). After initial setup is complete, each application of CES takes only a few days for as many as 400 wells. Effective use of the CES methodology requires sufficient data, an understanding of contaminant transport at the site, and an adequate number of monitoring wells downgradient of the contamination. The initial implementation of CES at LLNL in 1992 produced a 40% reduction in the required number of annual routine ground water samples at LLNL. This has saved LLNL $390,000 annually in sampling, analysis, and data management costs.     

A combined chemical-petrological study of separated chondrules from the Richardton meteorite

Individual chondrules have been separated from the H5 chondrite Richardton and subjected to a detailed chemical-petrological study. A portion of each chondrule has been examined petrographically and phase chemistry determined by electron microprobe analysis. Of the remaining portion an aliquot was taken for measurement of major element abundances by microprobe using a microfusion technique. Rb, Sr,⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr and REE were determined by mass spectrometric isotope dilution.The chondrules define a Rb-Sr isochron age of 4.39 ± 0.03Ga(λ = 1.42 × 10^?11 a^?1) and an initial ratio of 0.7003 ± 7. The age is interpreted as a metamorphic age and indicates that Sr isotope equilibration occurred in the Richardton parent body for some 100 Ma or more after condensation of the solar system. Metamorphism had little effect on chondrule textures but effected Fe/Mg exchange to produce highly uniform olivine and pyroxene compositions, and may have caused some redistribution of REE.The major element compositions of Richardton chondrules are mostly constant and close to reported averages for Tieschitz, Bishunpur and Chainpur. They contain high-temperature condensate elements in close to cosmic proportions, but are deficient in Fe. Theories of chondrule origin are briefly reviewed, and while it is difficult to distinguish between direct condensation and dust fusion by impacting, it is postulated that iron was fractionated from silicate prior to or during chondrule formation.