Nitrogen losses through sediment denitrification in Boston Harbor and Massachusetts Bay

Sediment denitrification is a microbial process that converts dissolved inorganic nitrogen in sediment porewaters to N₂ gas, which is subsequently lost to the atmosphere. In coastal waters, it represents a potentially important loss pathway for fixed nitrogen which might otherwise be available to primary producers. Currently, data are lacking to adequately assess the role of denitrification in reducing or remediating the effects of large anthropogenic nitrogen loads to the coastal zone. This study describes the results of 88 individual measurements of denitrification (as a direct flux of N₂ gas) in sediment cores taken over a 3-yr period (1991–1994) from six stations in Boston Harbor, nine stations in Massachusetts Bay, and two stations in Cape Cod Bay. The dataset is unique in its extensive spatial and temporal coverage and includes the first direct measurements of denitrification for North Atlantic shelf sediments. Results showed that rates of denitrification were significantly higher in Boston Harbor (mean=54, range<5–206 μmol N₂ m^?2 h^?1) than in Massachusetts Bay (mean=23, range<5–64 μmol N₂ m^?2 h^?1). Highest rates occurred in areas with organic-rich sediments in the harbor, with slower rates observed for low-organic sandy sediments in the harbor and at shallow shelf stations in the bay. Lowest rates were found at the deepest shelf stations, located in Stellwagen Basin in Massachusetts Bay. Observed rates were correlated with temperature, sediment carbon content, and benthic macrofaunal activity. Seasonally, highest denitrification rates occurred in the summer in Boston Harbor and in the spring and fall in Massachusetts Bay, coincident with peak phytoplankton blooms in the overlying water column. Despite the fact that sediment denitrification rates were high relative to rates reported for other East Coast estuaries, denitrification losses accounted for only 8% of the annual total nitrogen load to Boston Harbor, a consequence perhaps, of the short water-residence times (2–10 d) of the harbor.     

Pastoralists in transition — a case study from Lengijape,Maasai Steppe

The change of the Maasai from pure pastoralists to agropastoralists has brought about serious problems for them. This paper tries to analyse this process of change and to throw some light on the resultant problems. First, it is being shown how the climate of the Maasai Steppe is too dry for a successful cultivation of maize by them, which has become their main food. Successive crop failures and high labour costs have rendered maize-growing a losing-business for the Maasai. Moreover, the State policy of granting certificates of occupancy in the Maasai land to outsiders allowing them to make large-mechanized farms, has alarmed the Maasai so much that many of them rushed back to their home areas to rescue their land from being grapped by other ethnic groups. Thus, they began to abandon their traditional grazing-movements, which are highly adapted to the ecological conditions of the Maasai Steppe. At the same time, the herds of the Maasai were decimated, because of the spread of animal diseases following the deterioration of the State veterinary service system. Added to this are the losses incurred through distress sales of cattle for buying maize for food, at a time at which the maize prices are increasing at a much higher rate than the prices of livestock. This dilemma of the Maasai and their indigenous coping mechanisms are being illustrated by the case of the people of Mokia at Namalulu, with special consideration of the role of women in solving these problems.     

Population growth and its spatial distribution as factors in the deforestation of Nang Rong, Thailand

Frontiers constitute a major source of global land cover change hot spots, with forests and grasslands being converted into agricultural uses. As such, frontiers provide an opportunity to see how people manipulate the land and their lives in the context of social, cultural and environmental constraints. This paper examines frontier settlement and land cover change in Nang Rong district, Northeast Thailand for the last half century. It uses a Cellular Automata (CA) model to explore the land cover consequences of alternative patterns of settlement in a setting where people establish dwelling units in nucleated villages and work agricultural plots that surround villages. Forested land around the center of a village is converted into agricultural uses in an inverse relationship to the distance from the village center, but frequently modified by biophysical conditions. Land at the center of the village may be reforested after the village is established as a source of shade as well as fruit and other products. Model variation in land cover change is more sensitive to the spatial reach of village households than their temporal reach, suggesting the important role that technology plays in how villagers travel to their fields (walking versus motorized transit).     

The Maasai Herbalists in Arusha Town, Tanzania

This paper presents the findings of a case-study carried out on the Maasai herbalists of Arusha town, whose social and economic situation, both in their villages of origin and in town is being analysed. Special emphasis is laid on the struggle of women herbalists to upgrade their low economic and social status in their home villages and, at the same time, satisfy their most basic needs in town. In this, they depend on their asset of indigenous ethnomedical knowledge, which they commercialise. They do not consider themselves professional experts among their own people, but they become ones when they are in town. A major aim of this paper is also to illustrate the wealth of indigenous knowledge concerning the biodiversity of people's environment. A survey of the medical plants most frequently sold by the herbalists is presented with the intention of identifying those species which are endangered, although the herbalists themselves do not yet perceive the seriousness of the situation. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Cretaceous evolution of the Andean margin between 36°S and 40°S latitude through a multi‐proxy provenance analysis of Neuquén Basin strata (Argentina)

During the Cretaceous, the Neuquén Basin transitioned from an extensional back‐arc to a retroarc foreland basin. We present a multi‐proxy provenance study of Aptian to Santonian (125–84 Ma) continental sedimentary rocks preserved in the Neuquén Basin used to resolve changes of sediment drainage pattern in response to the change in tectonic regime. Sandstone petrology and U–Pb detrital zircon geochronology constrain the source units delivering detritus to the basin; apatite U–Pb and fission track dating further resolve provenance and determine the age and patterns of exhumation of the source rocks. Sandstone provenance records a sharp change from a mixed orogenic source during Aptian time (ca. 125 Ma), to a magmatic arc provenance in the Cenomanian (ca. 100 Ma). We interpret this provenance change as the result of the drainage pattern reorganisation from divergent to convergent caused by tectonic basin inversion. During this inversion and early stages of contraction, a transient phase of uplift and basin erosion, possibly due to continental buckling, caused the pre‐Cenomanian unconformity dividing the Lower from Upper Cretaceous strata in the Neuquén Basin. This phase was followed by the development of a retroarc foreland basin characterised by a volcanic arc sediment provenance progressively shifting to a mixed continental basement provenance during Turonian‐Santonian (90–84). According to multi‐proxy provenance data and lag times derived from apatite fission track analysis, this trend is the result of a rapidly exhuming source within the Cordillera to the west, in response to active compressional tectonics along the western margin of South America, coupled with the increasing contribution of material from the stable craton to the east; this contribution is thought to be the result of the weak uplift and exhumation of the foreland due to eastward migration of the forebulge.     

Footprints and Fetches for Fluxes over Forest Canopies with Varying Structure and Density

A stochastic trajectory model was used to estimate scalar fluxfootprints in neutral stabilityfor canopies of varying leaf area distributions andleaf area indices. An analytical second-order closure model wasused to predict mean wind speed, second moments and the dissipationrate of turbulent kinetic energy within a forest canopy.The influence of source vertical profile on the flux footprint wasexamined. The fetch is longer for surface sourcesthan for sources at higher levels in the canopy. In order tomeasure all the flux components, and thus the total flux, with adesired accuracy, sources were located at the forest floor in thefootprint function estimation. The footprint functions werecalculated for five observation levels above the canopy top. Itwas found that at low observation heights both canopy density andcanopy structure affect the fetch. The higher abovethe canopy top the flux is measured, the more pronounced is the effectof the canopy structure. The forest fetch for flux measurements isstrongly dependent on the required accuracy: The 90% flux fetchis greater by a factor of two or more compared to the 75% fetch. Theupwind distance contributing 75% of flux is as large as 45 timesthe difference between canopy height and the observation heightabove the canopy top, being even larger for low observationlevels.