A diatom‐inferred record of lake variability during the last 900 years in Lützow–Holm Bay,East Antarctica

Decadal–centennial‐scale climate variability in coastal Antarctica remains poorly understood due to the limited number of highly resolved, well‐dated records. We present a 900‐year, decadal‐scale reconstruction based on sedimentary diatoms from Lake Abi in Lützow–Holm Bay, East Antarctica. Hydrological change is inferred from diatom ecological preferences in conjunction with an existing regional training set and implies that lake water specific conductivity, depth and nitrogen availability are the key drivers of diatom assemblage change. Lake Abi underwent a series of subtle environmental changes related to these environmental variables, possibly driven by changes in catchment snow melt and the duration of seasonal ice cover. Ordination is used to trace the major patterns of change in the diatom community, with notable shifts identified between 470 and 400 and at ～350 cal a BP (where present = CE 1950). The frequency of environmental variability at Lake Abi is broadly consistent with a record of the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation during the last millennium, but contrasts with the apparent climate stability elsewhere in eastern Antarctica. Further research is required to constrain the limnological and ecological responses of lakes in coastal Antarctica to obtain more rigorous palaeoclimate reconstructions from these sites of immense potential.     

Phylogenetic position and systematics of the wood‐associate limpet genus Caymanabyssia and implications for ecological radiation into deep‐sea organic substrates by lepetelloid gastropods

The gastropod superfamily Lepetelloidea represents an extremely diverse lineage in terms of their utilization of different deep‐sea organic substrates that include sunken wood, leaves, whale and fish bones, egg cases of sharks and rays, annelid tubes and detrital cephalopod beaks among others. They also inhabit cold seeps and hydrothermal vents, thus presenting an interesting case for the evaluation of such organic substrates as ‘stepping stones’ into these chemosynthetically nourished environments. Here we show the first molecular phylogeny of the Pseudococculinidae, a primarily wood‐dwelling family and the most speciose in Lepetelloidea. Special emphasis is placed on the genus Caymanabyssia, for which the only subfamily Caymanabyssiinae has been established, and a new species Caymanabyssia solis is described herein and compared with previously known taxa in order to reconsider the morphological characteristics of lepetelloids on wood. Bayesian and likelihood trees reconstructed using four‐gene sequences reveal that Pseudococculinidae sensu auctt. is a polyphyletic taxon that is grouped by shared plesiomorphic conditions of characters including the radula, a digestive organ, the morphology of which is often governed strongly by diet and feeding ecology. The newly reinterpreted families Pseudococculinidae and Caymanabyssiidae represent reciprocal sister clades as a basal radiation in Lepetelloidea. Sunken wood might thus have served as an ancestral habitat from which species on other substrates and vent and seep taxa were derived.     

Different thermal preferences for brooding and larval dispersal of two neighboring shrimps in deep‐sea hydrothermal vent fields

Temperature is an important factor affecting the distributions and life‐history traits of marine animals. Deep‐sea hydrothermal vents are suitable environments to examine ecologic differences related to temperature, due to the steep temperature gradients around the vents. Rearing experiments under various temperature conditions (5–30 °C) at atmospheric pressure demonstrated a difference in thermal effects on egg hatching and larva in two co‐occurring, vent‐associated alvinocaridid shrimps – the peripherally distributed Alvinocaris longirostris and the centrally distributed Shinkaicaris leurokolos. The duration before hatching became shorter as temperature increased, while the maximum hatching rate occurred at higher temperatures in S. leurokolos (10–20 °C) than in A. longirostris (10 °C). Hatched larvae of both species were negatively buoyant, and larva with normal abdominal length could actively swim and stay suspended in the mid‐ or surface water layers of the culture plates under our experimental conditions. However, no larvae settled or metamorphosed into juveniles under the rearing conditions used in this study. Larvae with shortened abdomens occurred under most of the experimental conditions, although they were less frequent at 10 °C in A. longirostris and 20 °C in S. leurokolos. The maximum survival periods at these temperatures were 88 days in A. longirostris and 30 days in S. leurokolos. These characteristics may cause differences in the distributional ranges of the two species. The present results indicate that temperature is an important factor controlling life‐history traits of vent shrimps.     

Destructive near-fault strong ground motion from the 2016 Kumamoto prefecture,Japan, M7.3 earthquake

The sequence of the 2016 Kumamoto, Japan, earthquake, which included an initial M6.5 foreshock on April 14, followed by a larger M7.3 mainshock on April 16, and subsequently occurred high aftershock activity, caused significant damage in Kumamoto and neighboring regions. The near-field strong motion record by strong motion network (K-NET and KiK-net) and the intensity meter network demonstrated clearly the characteristics of the strong ground motion developed by the shallow (H = 12 km), inland earthquake comprising short-time duration (<15–20 s) but large (>1G) ground accelerations. The velocity response spectra of the near-fault motion at Mashiki and Nishihara showed large levels (>300–550 cm/s) in the short-period range (T = 1–2 s), several times larger than that of the near-field record of the destructive 1995 Kobe earthquake (M7.3) and that of the 2004 Mid-Niigata earthquake (M6.8). This period corresponds to the collapse vulnerability of Japanese wooden-frame houses, and is the major cause of severe damage during the Kumamoto earthquake. The response spectra also showed extremely large levels (>240–340 cm/s) in the long-period (T > 3 s) band, which is potentially disastrous for high-rise buildings, large oil storage tanks, etc. to have longer resonant period. Such long-period motion was, for the most parts, developed by the static displacement of the fault movement rather than by the seismic waves radiating from the source fault. Thus, the extreme near-fault long-period motion was hazardous only close to the fault but it attenuated very rapidly away from the fault.     

A novel index to evaluate discretization methods:A case study of flood susceptibility assessment based on random forest

The selection of a suitable discretization method(DM)to discretize spatially continuous variables(SCVs)is critical in ML-based natural hazard susceptibility assessment.However,few studies start to consider the influence due to the selected DMs and how to efficiently select a suitable DM for each SCV.These issues were well addressed in this study.The information loss rate(ILR),an index based on the informa-tion entropy,seems can be used to select optimal DM for each SCV.However,the ILR fails to show the actual influence of discretization because such index only considers the total amount of information of the discretized variables departing from the original SCV.Facing this issue,we propose an index,infor-mation change rate(ICR),that focuses on the changed amount of information due to the discretization based on each cell,enabling the identification of the optimal DM.We develop a case study with Random Forest(training/testing ratio of 7:3)to assess flood susceptibility in Wanan County,China.The area under the curve-based and susceptibility maps-based approaches were presented to compare the ILR and ICR.The results show the ICR-based optimal DMs are more rational than the ILR-based ones in both cases.Moreover,we observed the ILR values are unnaturally small(＜1％),whereas the ICR values are obviously more in line with general recognition(usually 10％-30％).The above results all demonstrate the superiority of the ICR.We consider this study fills up the existing research gaps,improving the ML-based natural hazard susceptibility assessments.     

Liquid bridge contribution to shear behavior of unsaturated soil: modeling and application to a micromechanics model

Acta Geotechnica - Liquid bridges in unsaturated soils attach to grain contacts and contribute to strengthening microscopic bonding forces, which leads to macroscopic high strength and stiffness...     

In-situ survey of nanomolar manganese in seawater using an autonomous underwater vehicle around a volcanic crater at Teishi Knoll,Sagami Bay,Japan

We present the results of a chemical survey at a submarine volcano, Teishi Knoll, obtained using a submersible in-situ Mn analyzer (GAMOS) mounted on an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) platform. During this survey, high-resolution data of dissolved Mn were obtained in three dimensions in nearly real time. The AUV enabled continuous detailed observations along a preprogrammed pathway, which could not have been performed with conventional CTD hydrocasts. During this observation, anomalously high dissolved Mn concentrations were obtained within the crater, corresponding to high water temperatures. The anomalies might be a hydrothermal signature due to volcanic activity from the crater.     

Petrological,petrofabric, and oxygen isotopic study of five ungrouped meteorites related to brachinites

Northwest Africa (NWA) 6112, Miller Range (MIL) 090206 (plus its pairs: MIL 090340 and MIL 090405), and Divnoe are olivine‐rich ungrouped achondrites. We investigated and compared their petrography, mineralogy, and olivine fabrics. We additionally measured the oxygen isotopic compositions of NWA 6112. They show similar petrography, mineralogy, and oxygen isotopic compositions and we concluded that these five meteorites are brachinite clan meteorites. We found that NWA 6112 and Divnoe had a c axis concentration pattern of olivine fabrics using electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD). NWA 6112 and Divnoe are suggested to have been exposed to magmatic melt flows during their crystallization on their parent body. On the other hand, the three MIL meteorites have b axis concentration patterns of olivine fabrics. This indicates that the three MIL meteorites may be cumulates where compaction of olivine grains was dominant. Alternatively, they formed as residues and were exposed to olivine compaction. The presence of two different olivine fabric patterns implies that the parent body(s) of brachinite clan meteorites experienced diverse igneous processes.     

Fine‐structures of planar deformation features in shocked olivine: A comparison between Martian meteorites and experimentally shocked basalts as an indicator for shock pressure

We performed shock recovery experiments on an olivine‐phyric basalt at shock pressures of 22.2–48.5 GPa to compare with shock features in Martian meteorites (RBT 04261 and NWA 1950). Highly shocked olivine in the recovered basalt at 39.5 and 48.5 GPa shows shock‐induced planar deformation features (PDFs) composed of abundant streaks of defects. Similar PDFs were observed in olivine in RBT 04261 and NWA 1950 while those in NWA 1950 were composed of amorphous lamellae. Based on the present results and previous studies, the width and the abundance of lamellar fine‐structures increased with raising shock pressure. Therefore, these features could be used as shock pressure indicators while the estimated pressures may be lower limits due to no information of temperature dependence. For Martian meteorites that experienced heavy shocks, the minimum peak shock pressures of RBT 04261 and NWA 1950 are estimated to be 39.5–48.5 GPa and 48.5–56 GPa, respectively, which are found consistent with those estimated by postshock temperatures expected by the presence of brown olivine. We also investigated shock‐recovered basalts preheated at 750 and 800 °C in order to check the temperature effects on shock features. The results indicate a reduction in vitrifying pressure of plagioclase and a pressure increase for PDFs formation in olivine. Further temperature‐controlled shock recovery experiments will provide us better constraints to understand and to characterize various features found in natural shock events.