Human population growth and over-utilization of the biotic resources of the Murray — Darling River system, Australia

Imbalances in aquatic ecosystems of the Murray-Darling Basin reflect 180 years of inappropriate land use practices. Regulation of most rivers in the Basin has reduced frequency or duration of inundation of floodplains, with profound effects on a species-rich, highly specialized aquatic biota. Exotic introductions (e.g. trout, carp) have further modified aquatic ecosystems. Floodplain billabongs (= ox-bow lakes) are critical to maintenance of floodplain biodiversity, yet with isolation of floodplains from the parent rivers, billabongs are being lost or severely degraded. Consideration is given to the apparent carrying-capacity of the Basin, the present over-commitment of its most valuable resource, water, and the prospects for amelioration in view of present conflicting land use and water abstraction requirements.     

Effect of varying sediment organic carbon content upon the dermal bioavailability and disposition of benzo(a)pyrene in the catfish, Ictalurus punctatus

The dermal absorption of ³H-benzo(a) pyrene (BaP) from sediments of varying organic carbon content was examined in the catfish (Ictalurus punctatus). Test sediments of differing organic carbon concentrations were formulated from natural sediments with the addition of quartz sand to provide organic carbon content of 1.8, 3.7 and 6.1%. Sediments (1.0 g dry wt), spiked with BaP to provide 20.4 μCi at a BaP dose of 75 ng/g, were applied for 6 h to the skin surface (12 cm²) of anesthetized fish. Dermal exposure to BaP in formulated sediments at 6.1, 3.7 and 1.8% resulted in 6-h mass balance bioavailability values of 19.4, 21.9 and 23.2%, respectively. In all treatments, skin in direct contact with sediments had the highest concentration followed by the corresponding muscle layer. Muscle and skin not in direct contact with the labeled sediment had values which averaged 7–580 times lower than the corresponding exposed tissues. Other tissue values ranged from 0.44 pg/g in the heart to 64.21 pg/g in blood. These findings demonstrate appreciable uptake of BaP from surface applied sediments. Within the range examined, varying organic carbon content had a small, but inverse effect upon the dermal bioavailability of BaP.     

Water Quality Improvements in Liverpool Docks: The Role of Filter Feeders in Algal and Nutrient Dynamics

Abstract. The redevelopment of disused docks around Liverpool into areas suitable for shops, offices, housing and recreational watersports has necessitated the maintenance of good water quality in these areas. The main source of water to the docks is the River Mersey, which contains high concentrations of nutrients, encouraging algal blooms - including potentially nuisance species - in the enclosed dock basins. Since 1988 an extensive monitoring programme has been run sampling the hydrography, plankton and benthos of the docks. During this period there has been an improvement in water quality, including a reduction in summer phytoplankton biomass and anoxic bottom water. There are strong indications that phytoplankton biomass has been severely reduced by the filter feeding of Mytifus edulis . Changes in the composition of the benthic community since 1988 suggest that the large population of M. edulis is now suffering from limited recruitment. The long-term development and stability of the system is discussed with reference to community succession and its link to ecosystem functioning.     

Tidal asymmetry in suspended sand transport on a macrotidal intermediate beach

Time-series of nearbed horizontal flow velocities and suspended sediment concentrations obtained from a colocated electromagnetic current meter (EMCM) and optical backscatter sensor (OBS), respectively, are used to examine the relative importance of steady and fluctuating components to the total sediment transport over a full tidal cycle on a macrotidal, intermediate beach (Spurn Head, UK). Fluctuating sediment fluxes are decomposed into gravity and infragravity contributions using co-spectral techniques. The relative importance of the oscillatory (gravity and infragravity) and steady (mean) transport components to the total sediment transport is analysed throughout the tidal cycle.

A continuum of 34 discrete suspended sediment-cross-shore velocity co-spectra are computed over a full tidal cycle for the OBS and EMCM measurements 0.10 m above the bed. These net transport spectra vary greatly both with cross-shore location and tidal state. In particular, a marked asymmetry in transport processes is evident between the flood and ebb tides, with high levels of sediment resuspension and transport occurring on the ebbing tide approximately two hours after high water (just seaward of the breakpoint). At this time the dominant transport was directed offshore (co-spectral peak, 0.04 kg/m²/s) at incident wave frequency.

Typical patterns are observed in transport spectra outside the surf zone and within the inner surf zone. Outside the narrow surf zone cross-shore transport spectra show weak offshore transport (co-spectral peak = 0.002 kg/m²/s) associated with bound long waves and stronger onshore transport (co-spectral peak = 0.006 kg/m²/s) at incident wave frequencies. Conversely, co-spectra computed within the inner surf zone show the offshore sediment fluxes (spectral peak = 0.010 kg/m²/s) at infragravity frequencies to be greater in magnitude than the corresponding onshore transport (co-spectral peak = 0.008 kg/m²/s) occurring at incident wave frequencies.     

The emergence of life from iron monosulphide bubbles at a submarine hydrothermal redox and pH front

Here we argue that life emerged on Earth from a redox and pH front at c. 4.2 Ga. This front occurred where hot (c. 150 degrees C), extremely reduced, alkaline, bisulphide-bearing, submarine seepage waters interfaced with the acid, warm (c. 90 degrees C), iron-hearing Hadean ocean. The low pH of the ocean was imparted by the ten bars of CO2 considered to dominate the Hadean atmosphere/hydrosphere. Disequilibrium between the two solutions was maintained by the spontaneous precipitation of a colloidal FeS membrane. Iron monosulphide bubbles comprising this membrane were inflated by the hydrothermal solution upon sulphide mounds at the seepage sites. Our hypothesis is that the FeS membrane, laced with nickel, acted as a semipermeable catalytic boundary between the two fluids, encouraging synthesis of organic anions by hydrogenation and carboxylation of hydrothermal organic primers. The ocean provided carbonate, phosphate, iron, nickel and protons; the hydrothermal solution was the source of ammonia, acetate, HS-, H2 and tungsten, as well as minor concentrations of organic sulphides and perhaps cyanide and acetaldehyde. The mean redox potential (delta Eh) across the membrane, with the energy to drive synthesis, would have approximated to 300 millivolts. The generation of organic anions would have led to an increase in osmotic pressure within the FeS bubbles. Thus osmotic pressure could take over from hydraulic pressure as the driving force for distension, budding and reproduction of the bubbles. Condensation of the organic molecules to polymers, particularly organic sulphides, was driven by pyrophosphate hydrolysis. Regeneration of pyrophosphate from the monophosphate in the membrane was facilitated by protons contributed from the Hadean ocean. This was the first use by a metabolizing system of protonmotive force (driven by natural delta pH) which also would have amounted to c. 300 millivolts. Protonmotive force is the universal energy transduction mechanism of life. Taken together with the redox potential across the membrane, the total electrochemical and chemical energy available for protometabolism amounted to a continuous supply at more than half a volt. The role of the iron sulphide membrane in keeping the two solutions separated was appropriated by the newly synthesized organic sulphide polymers. This organic take-over of the membrane material led to the miniaturization of the metabolizing system. Information systems to govern replication could have developed penecontemporaneously in this same milieu. But iron, sulphur and phosphate, inorganic components of earliest life, continued to be involved in metabolism.     

The Nevados de Payachata volcanic region (18°S/69°W,N. Chile) II. Evidence for widespread crustal involvement in Andean magmatism

Volcanism extending over 11 Ma is represented in the rocks of the Nevados de Payachata region, culminating in the formation of two large composite stratocones within the last 500 000 years. Chemically distinct mafic magmas are erupted at a number of parasitic centers. These cannot be related to each other by crystal fractionation and do not appear to be direct parents for the differentiated suites of the composite cones. Two distinct trends are defined by the intermediate and evolved rocks; a high LILE (large ion lithophile element), TiO₂ and Ce/Yb lineage among the youngest rocks (including the two major stratocones), and a more typical calc-alkaline trend among the older (>1 Ma) rock types. Within individual volcanic centers, differentiation involves fractionation of plagioclase, pyroxene and hornblende, with biotite and K-feldspar in the more-evolved rock types. Isotopic compositions (Sr, Pb, Nd, O) vary little with differentiation from basaltic andesite to rhyolite, or with age. Contamination during differentiation from basalt to rhyolite may occur, but the most mafic rocks erupted in the region are already enriched in incompatible trace elements and therefore may be insensitive to the effects of interaction with the crust. The majority of data are similar to baseline compositions (Cenozoic parental magmas) from other parts of the central Andes and may reflect a relatively homogeneous magma source (or source mixture) throughout this central volcanic zone (CVZ), which is distinct from the southern and northern Andes, and from island-arc volcanic rocks.The detailed study of Nevados de Payachata serves as a useful reference against which to assess magmatism in general in the CVZ. The possibility that central Andean magmas are generated from an enriched subcontinental-lithosphere mantle wedge is rejected on the basis of: (1) thermal considerations (subcontinental mantle lithosphere is probably cold and refractory); (2) lack of consistency between the tectonic history of the region and geochemical variations through time. Instead, parental magmas in the CVZ are thought to be generated by mixing between normal arc magmas originating in the depleted mantle wedge followed by contamination and homogenization with lower crustal melts. In the central Andes, the extent of contamination increased greatly as the crust thickened due to crustal shortening within the last 20 Ma, the thicker crust providing an effective filter to trap and differentiate magma batches repeatedly during ascent.     

Geo- and cosmochemistry of the twin elements yttrium and holmium

We have analyzed the Y/Ho-ratios in bulk chondrites, chondrules and four Ca- and Al-rich inclusions (CAIs) from carbonaceous and unequilibrated ordinary and enstatite chondrites (EC) by laser ablation inductively coupled mass spectrometry (LA-ICPMS). We demonstrate that bulk rock sample preparation by containerless melting is a suitable method for preparation of bulk rock samples for high-precision LA-ICPMS. Bulk chondrites have variable Y/Ho-ratios. Carbonaceous chondrites (CI1, CM2, CV3, and CK4) have a common Y/Ho-ratio (25.94 ± 0.08, 2σ) that is regarded as the solar system Y/Ho-ratio. The Y/Ho-ratio increases from carbonaceous, through ordinary (LL, L, H) to enstatite chondrites (EL6), which show the highest Y/Ho-ratio of 27.25. We discuss the result with respect to the origin of fractionation of Re and Os between chondrite groups. Within analytical error, Y and Ho show a good correlation in OC and CV3 chondrules and define an Y/Ho-ratio of 26.22 ± 0.40 (2σ). Y/Ho-fractionation in Ca- and Al-rich inclusions is related to differences in volatility. The bulk silicate Earth is suggested to have a solar Y/Ho-ratio and links the Earth with carbonaceous chondrites. Y/Ho variations in primitive and differentiated terrestrial igneous rocks are discussed in framework of incompatibility of Y and Ho during partial melting. Applicability of Y/Ho as tracer for or against a sedimentary origin of the putative host rock of the Earth’s oldest traces of life from the island of Akilia is briefly discussed.     

Climate simulations for 1880–2003 with GISS modelE

We carry out climate simulations for 1880–2003 with GISS modelE driven by ten measured or estimated climate forcings. An ensemble of climate model runs is carried out for each forcing acting individually and for all forcing mechanisms acting together. We compare side-by-side simulated climate change for each forcing, all forcings, observations, unforced variability among model ensemble members, and, if available, observed variability. Discrepancies between observations and simulations with all forcings are due to model deficiencies, inaccurate or incomplete forcings, and imperfect observations. Although there are notable discrepancies between model and observations, the fidelity is sufficient to encourage use of the model for simulations of future climate change. By using a fixed well-documented model and accurately defining the 1880–2003 forcings, we aim to provide a benchmark against which the effect of improvements in the model, climate forcings, and observations can be tested. Principal model deficiencies include unrealistically weak tropical El Nino-like variability and a poor distribution of sea ice, with too much sea ice in the Northern Hemisphere and too little in the Southern Hemisphere. Greatest uncertainties in the forcings are the temporal and spatial variations of anthropogenic aerosols and their indirect effects on clouds. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.