Assessing impacts of cemeteries on water quality in an urban headwater watershed with mixed human-built infrastructure

Cemeteries are understudied integral components to urban watersheds, which provide ecosystem services but can also export nutrients, trace elements, and other contaminants to nearby water bodies. In this study, we focus on Meadowbrook Creek, an urban headwater stream in Syracuse, New York (USA), which has shown significant nitrate contributions from a local cemetery. We collected biweekly surface water samples over the course of 1 year from 2022 to 2023 for analysis of major and trace elemental concentrations including Na, Ca, Mg, K, F, Cl, sulfate, and nitrate. Here, we aim to assess the impact of various human infrastructures on urban stream water quality with a particular focus on the cemetery and nitrate. A comparison between the new dataset in this study and previously reported water chemistry data in Meadowbrook in 2012 suggests a decade-long impact of road salting and the cemetery on water quality particularly with respect to Na, Cl, and nitrate. Sulfate, Mg, Ca, and K are likely mainly geogenic. Stable nitrogen isotope data, the usage of concrete or steel vaults in the cemetery in the past 50 years, and the lack of correlation between nitrate and fluoride concentrations in stream water argue against burial decay products being a major source of nitrate to the stream. Instead, other nitrate sources that exist in the cemetery such as, fertilizer, decaying plant material, and wastewater, are more viable dominant nitrate sources. In addition, nitrate loading calculations indicate that the groundwater-connected reach, including the cemetery, acts as an annual net sink for nitrate despite the seasonally varying sink-source patterns.     

Colour–magnitude relations and spectral line strengths in the Coma cluster

We use the C₂4668, Fe4383, H γ _A and H δ _A spectral absorption line indices, together with U - and V -band photometry of 101 galaxies in the Coma cluster, to investigate how mean age and metal abundance correlate with galaxy luminosity. In particular, we use the line index measurements to address the origin of the colour–magnitude relation (CMR). We find that the CMR in Coma is driven primarily by a luminosity–metallicity correlation. We additionally show evidence for a relation between age and luminosity, in the direction predicted by the semi-analytic hierarchical clustering models of Kauffmann & Charlot, but this is only present in the C₂4668 index models, and could be an effect of the lack of non-solar abundance ratios in the Worthey models used.
By comparing deviations from the CMR with deviations in absorption index from analogous 'index–magnitude' relations, we find that colour deviations bluewards of the mean relation are strongly correlated with the hydrogen Balmer line series absorption. We show that the properties of these blue galaxies are consistent with the presence of a young stellar population in the galaxies, rather than with a reduced metallicity.     

Growth of subcontinental lithosphere: evidence from repeated dike injections in the Balmuccia lherzolite massif, Italian Alps

The Balmuccia alpine lherzolite massif is a fragment of subcontinental lithospheric mantle emplaced into the lower crust 251 Ma ago during the final, extensional phase of the Hercynian orogeny. The Balmuccia massif consists largely of lherzolite, with subordinate harzburgite and dunite, and an array of dike rocks formed in the mantle before crustal emplacement. Dike rocks include websterite and bronzitite of the Cr-diopside suite, spinel clinopyroxenite and spinel-poor websterite of the Al-augite suite, gabbro and gabbronorite of the late gabbro suite, and hornblendite of the hydrous vein suite. The dike rocks display consistent intrusive relationships with one another, such that Cr-diopside suite dikes are always older than dikes and veins of the Al-augite suite, followed by dikes of the late gabbro suite and veins of the hydrous vein suite. Phlogopite (phl) veinlets that formed during interaction with the adjacent crust are the youngest event. There are at least three generations of Cr-diopside suite dikes, as shown by crosscutting relations. Dikes of the Al-augite suite form a polybaric fractionation series from spinel clinopyroxenite to websterite and feldspathic websterite, which crystallized from aluminous alkaline magmas at relatively high pressures. The late gabbro suite of dikes intruded at lower pressures, where plagioclase saturation occurred before significant mafic phase fractionation. Hornblendite veins have distinct compositional and isotopic characteristics, which show that they are not related to either the Al-augite suite or to the late gabbro dike suite. Cr-diopside suite dikes have Nd and Sr isotopic compositions similar to those of the host lherzolite and within the range of compositions defined by ocean–island basalts. The Al-augite dikes and the hornblendite veins have Sr and Nd isotopic compositions similar to those of Cr-diopside suite lherzolite and websterite. The late gabbro dikes have Nd and Sr isotopic compositions similar to mid-ocean ridge basalt (MORB) asthenosphere. Lead isotopic compositions for all of the samples fall in the present-day MORB field on the ²⁰⁸Pb/²⁰⁴Pb vs. ²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁴Pb diagram but are displaced above this field on the ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁴Pb vs. ²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁴Pb diagram. There is overlap in the data between the Cr-diopside suite and the Al-augite and hydrous vein suites, with the exception that the Cr-diopside websterite dikes have more radiogenic Pb than any of the other samples. In Pb–Pb space as well, the late gabbro suite has the least radiogenic isotopic compositions, reflecting a change in magma source region during uplift. These data show that tectonic thinning of subcontinental lithospheric mantle during extension caused a change in the source regions of mantle-derived magmas from an ocean island basalt (OIB)-like lithosphere to the underlying MORB asthenosphere. They also demonstrate that the upper mantle acquires its heterogeneous isotopic character through several different processes, including in situ radiogenic growth, addition of asthenospheric melts, dike-wall rock ionic exchange, redistribution of the lithospheric dike and vein materials by melting, and in the late stages of emplacement, assimilation of crustal materials.     

Ethnic and economic regions in Slovakia: A statistical and visual exploration of contemporary patterns

When Czechoslovakia was formed after World War I from the remains of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the national boundaries imposed at the time did not accurately portray the areal extent of some ethnic groups. This was particularly true for the Hungarian minority which was established along the southern border of Slovakia. Because of this boundary arrangement, ethnic and economic divisions have resulted within Czechoslovakia and have continued in the new state of Slovakia. This paper analyzes the contemporary regional extent of the major ethnic groups in Slovakia at the district and commune levels. It also analyzes these ethnic patterns in light of a number of economic characteristics. Methods include mapping and analysis of various statistical tests using 1991 Czechoslovak census data. A strong relationship between Hungarian communes and agricultural employment is shown as well as a connection between employment in industry and Slovak ethnic regions. These findings suggest that the Hungarian minority has experienced a substantial geopolitical shift from the group in power to a peripheral society within Slovakia that continues to exhibit higher levels of agricultural reliance than the majority of ethnic Slovakian regions.     

Latitudinal variations in Jovian stratospheric temperature

Ground-based observations of Jupiter show that the planet's stratospheric and tropospheric thermal emission are anticorrelated. The observations can possibly be explained by latitudinal variations in cloud altitude. These variations cause differential stratospheric heating by sunlight which is reflected off the clouds and then absorbed within the stratosphere by visible and near-infrared bands of methane.     

Infrared polar brightening on Jupiter: III. Spectrometry from the Voyager 1 IRIS experiment

Spectra from the Voyager 1 IRIS experiment confirm the existence of enhanced infrared emission near Jupiter's north magnetic pole in March 1979. The spectral characteristics of the enhanced emission are consistent with a Planck source function. A temperature-pressure profile is derived for the region near the north magnetic pole, from which quantitative abundance estimates of minor species are made. Some species previously detected on Jupiter, including CH₃D, C₂H₂ and C₂H₆, have been observed again near the pole. Newly discovered species, not previously observed on Jupiter, include C₂H₄, C₃H₄, and C₆H₆. All of these species except CH₃D appear to have enhanced abundances at the north polar region with respect to midlatitudes. Upper limits are determined for C₄H₂ and C₃H₈. The quantitative results are compared with model calculations based on ultraviolet results from the IUE satellite. The plausibility of the C₆H₆ identification in discussed in terms of the literature on C₂H₂ polymerization. The relation of C₆H₆ to cuprene is also discussed.     

Survival of the Jovian planets with the Sun a Red Giant

The survival of the Jovian planets and their satellites as the Sun becomes a Red Giant is considered. It is found that the Jovian planets would not lose any matter - not even hydrogen. The satellites would lose their gaseous or volatile envelopes. Their rocky cores would resist melting and survive. Both the planets and the satellites would be unsuited to support human life.