The insoluble carbonaceous material of CM chondrites: A possible source of discrete organic compounds under hydrothermal conditions

Abstract— We report on the molecular analyses of the water‐ and solvent‐soluble organic compounds released from the insoluble organic material (IOM) of the Murray meteorite upon treatment with weight‐equivalent amounts of water and under conditions of elevated temperature and pressure. A varied suite of compounds was identified by gas chromatography‐mass spectrometry (GC‐MS). C₃‐C₁₇ alkyl dicarboxylic acids and N‐ and O‐containing hydroaromatic and aromatic compounds were found in the water extracts. The solvent extracts contained N‐, O‐, and S‐containing aromatic compounds, a large number of their isomers and homologs, and a series of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) of up to five rings, together with noncondensed aromatic species such as substituted benzenes, biphenyl, and terphenyls as well as their substituted homologs, and hydrated PAHs. Isotopic analyses showed that residue IOMs after hydrothermal treatment had lower deuterium and ¹⁵N content than the untreated material (ΔD = ?833‰ and Δ¹⁵N = ?24.1) but did not differ from it in ¹³C composition. The effect of the hydrothermolytic release was recorded in significant differences between the NMR spectra of untreated and residue IOM. A possible relation to common precursors for the dicarboxylic acids found in the IOM and bulk extracts is discussed.     

Limitations of Current Approaches for Predicting Groundwater Vulnerability from PFAS Contamination in the Vadose Zone

Published literature for reported sorption coefficients (K_d) of eight anionic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in soil was reviewed. K_d values spanned three to five log units indicating that no single value would be appropriate for use in estimating PFAS impacts to groundwater using existing soil-water partition equations. Regression analysis was used to determine if the soil or solution parameters might be used to predict K_d values. None of the 15 experimental parameters collected could individually explain variability in reported K_d values. Significant associations between K_d and soil calcium and sodium content were found for many of the selected PFAS, suggesting that soil cation content may be critical to PFAS sorption, as previously noted in sources like Higgins and Luthy (2006), while organic carbon content was significant only at elevated levels (>5%). Unexplained discrepancies between the results from studies where PFAS were introduced to soil and desorbed in the laboratory and those that used material from PFAS-impacted sites suggest that laboratory experiments may be overlooking some aspects critical to PFAS sorption. Future studies would benefit from the development and use of standardized analytical methods to improve data quality and the establishment of soil parameters appropriate for collection to produce more complete data sets for predictive analysis.     

Effects of human-induced alteration of groundwater flow on concentrations of naturally-occurring trace elements at water-supply wells

The effects of human-induced alteration of groundwater flow patterns on concentrations of naturally-occurring trace elements were examined in five hydrologically distinct aquifer systems in the USA. Although naturally occurring, these trace elements can exceed concentrations that are considered harmful to human health. The results show that pumping-induced hydraulic gradient changes and artificial connection of aquifers by well screens can mix chemically distinct groundwater. Chemical reactions between these mixed groundwaters and solid aquifer materials can result in the mobilization of trace elements such as U, As and Ra, with subsequent transport to water-supply wells. For example, in the High Plains aquifer near York, Nebraska, mixing of shallow, oxygenated, lower-pH water from an unconfined aquifer with deeper, confined, anoxic, higher-pH water is facilitated by wells screened across both aquifers. The resulting higher-O₂, lower-pH mixed groundwater facilitated the mobilization of U from solid aquifer materials, and dissolved U concentrations were observed to increase significantly in nearby supply wells. Similar instances of trace element mobilization due to human-induced mixing of groundwaters were documented in: (1) the Floridan aquifer system near Tampa, Florida (As and U), (2) Paleozoic sedimentary aquifers in eastern Wisconsin (As), (3) the basin-fill aquifer underlying the California Central Valley near Modesto (U), and (4) Coastal Plain aquifers of New Jersey (Ra). Adverse water-quality impacts attributed to human activities are commonly assumed to be related solely to the release of the various anthropogenic contaminants to the environment. The results show that human activities including various land uses, well drilling, and pumping rates and volumes can adversely impact the quality of water in supply wells, when associated with naturally-occurring trace elements in aquifer materials. This occurs by causing subtle but significant changes in geochemistry and associated trace element mobilization as well as enhancing advective transport processes.     

Artificial neural networks and geostatistical models for housing valuations in urban residential areas

Property valuation studies often use classical statistics techniques. Among these techniques, the Artificial Neural Networks are the most applied, overcoming the inflexibility and the linearity of the hedonic models. Other researchers have used Geostatistics techniques, specifically the Kriging Method, for interpreting spatial-temporal variability and to predict housing unit prices. The innovation of this study is to highlight how the Kriging Method can help to better understand the urban environment, improving the results obtained by classical statistics. This study presents two different methods that share the general objective of extracting information regarding a city’s housing from datasets. The procedures applied are Ordinary Kriging (Geostatistics) and Multi-Layer Perceptron algorithm (Artificial Neural Networks). These methods were used to predict housing unit prices in the municipality of Pozuelo de Alarcon (Madrid). The implementation of both methods provides us with the urban characteristics of the study area and the most significant variables related to price. The main conclusion is that the Ordinary Kriging models and the Neural Networks models, applied to predicting housing unit prices are necessary methodologies to improve the information obtained in classical statistical techniques.

Abbreviations: ANN: Artificial Neural Networks; OK: ordinary Kriging; MLP: multi-layer perceptron     

Macrobenthos and multi-molecular markers as indicators of environmental contamination in a South American port (Mar del Plata,Southwest Atlantic)

We evaluated benthic habitat quality along a presumed contamination gradient in the Mar del Plata port (Southwestern Atlantic) by coupling biological and chemical proxies in a multidisciplinary approach. Organic matter and photosynthetic pigment contents were higher in silty-clay bottoms of the inner port sites. Levels of all fecal steroids decreased from the inner sites to the port inlet. High concentrations of coprostanol in the inner sites seemed to derive from a permanent population of sea lions rather than from sewage outfalls due to coprostanol/epicoprostanol ratio (IV) values <2.5. PAHs levels were also higher in the inner sector, related to both biomass combustion and petroleum combustion associated to local marine traffic. High disturbance and low ecological status were reflected in low benthic diversity and high AMBI values in the inner sites.     

Impact of Pleistocene–Holocene climate shifts on vegetation and fire dynamics and its implications for Prearchaic humans in the central Great Basin,USA

The effects of climate change during the Terminal Pleistocene–Early Holocene transition on ecosystems and early Prearchaic hunter-gatherers in the central Great Basin of North America are not well understood. We present a palynological reconstruction of regional vegetation and fire history in Grass Valley, central Nevada, from ~14 to ~7.5k cal a BP showing that Pinus-dominated woodlands were replaced by dry-adapted steppe and desert vegetation accompanied by an increase in regional fire activity at the beginning of the Holocene, in response to summer warming and a drying climate. Following a severe drought period peaking ~10.2–9.3k cal a BP, Pinus woodlands partially recovered contemporaneously with the 8.2k cal a BP climate anomaly. Local wetlands provided important resource patches for human foraging societies, and periodic declines of wetlands in response to changing local hydrological conditions may have necessitated adjustments in subsistence and settlement practices and technology.     

Sensitivity analysis of a morphodynamic modelling system applied to a coastal lagoon inlet

This work investigates the recent morphological changes at the inlet of a complex coastal system (Ria de Aveiro lagoon, Portugal). This study was carried out using bathymetric data analysis and numerical simulations obtained with the 2DH morphodynamic modelling system MORSYS2D. The present simulations considered only tidal forcing, and a sensitivity analysis was performed by tuning the formula used to compute the sediment transports. A non-uniform sediment grain size distribution for the Ria de Aveiro inlet is considered in the numerical simulations, based on surveys performed in this area. The model results are analysed to assess if they resemble the observed trends of erosion and deposition, as calculated from bathymetric data. A quantitative analysis of the differences between the bathymetric changes obtained through surveys and the numerical results over a period of 3 years considering different sediment transport formulations shows that the formulations of Ackers and White (1973) and Engelund and Hansen (1967) are the ones that best describe the morphodynamic changes driven by tides in the Ria de Aveiro inlet.