Simplification of a Sequential Extraction Scheme To Determine the Mobilisable Heavy Metal Pool in Soils

This investigation had the purpose of evaluating the reliability of a sequential extraction procedure according to Zeien and Brümmer (1989) which is performed routinely to analyse the distribution of heavy metals to different soil phases. Reliability was tested by two hypotheses. According to the first hypothesis an error propagation increased during a morefold extraction of heavy metals from a single soil sample to such an extend that it does not allow a statistical comparison of different analyses. This assumption was confirmed in an interlaboratory study of five participants applying the sequential extraction scheme on two different soils. The heavy metal amounts extracted by the different partners were of the same magnitude, but from the results no statistical correspondence at the 95% confidence level could be observed. The second hypothesis stated that also weak extraction agents were able to release metals from the more immobile soil fractions, especially if the amount of easily soluble metals was comparatively small. To answer this question the sequential extraction was modified by carrying out selected weak extraction steps several times. As expected the intensified extraction conditions caused a decrease of the element content within the more resistant phases. However, the additional release in the first four extraction steps of Pb, Mn, Fe, and Zn was only in the range of 5 to 10%. Furthermore, it was observed that a single EDTA extraction (step four within the sequential extraction scheme) was capable to extract the same amount of metals as the first four extraction steps of the original scheme at a variation of about 15%. From these results it was concluded that the EDTA step alone already represents a reliable pool of mobilisable metals. Thus it can be maintained that such a simple single EDTA extraction can be used to assess the environmental risk from heavy metal contaminated soils or to predict the potential heavy metal release of soil remediation processes.     

Palaeobotanical evidence for warm summers in the East Siberian Arctic during the last cold stage

Plant macrofossils from the “Mamontovy Khayata” permafrost sequence (71°60′N, 129°25′E) on the Bykovsky Peninsula reflect climate and plant biodiversity in west Beringia during the last cold stage. 70 AMS and 20 conventional ¹⁴C dates suggest sediment accumulation between about 60,000 and 7500 ¹⁴C yr B.P. The plant remains prove that during the last cold-stage arctic species (Minuartia arctica, Draba spp., Kobresia myosuroides) coexisted with aquatic (Potamogeton vaginatus, Callitriche hermaphroditica), littoral (Ranunculus reptans, Rumex maritimus), meadow (Hordeum brevisubulatum, Puccinellia tenuiflora) and steppe taxa (Alyssum obovatum, Silene repens, Koeleria cristata, Linum perenne). The reconstructed vegetation composition is similar to modern vegetation mosaics in central and northeast Yakutian relict steppe areas. Thus, productive meadow and steppe communities played an important role in the Siberian Arctic vegetation during the late Pleistocene and could have served as food resource for large populations of herbivores. The floristic composition reflects an extremely continental, arid climate with winters colder and summers distinctly warmer than at present. Holocene macrofossil assemblages indicate a successive paludification possibly connected with marine transgression, increased oceanic influence and atmospheric humidity. Although some steppe taxa were still present in the early Holocene, they disappeared completely before 2900 ¹⁴C yr B.P.     

Temperature Tolerance of Early Life History Stages of Black Mangrove <Emphasis Type="Italic">Avicennia germinans</Emphasis>: Implications for Range Expansion

Avicennia germinans (L.) L. (black mangrove) grows at its North American latitudinal limit in coastal salt marshes of Louisiana, USA. To assess low-temperature tolerance of A. germinans, we evaluated the survival and developmental progress of three early life history stages (dispersal, stranded, and seedling stages) to three temperatures (5.7°C, 2.5°C, and −6.5°C) of four durations (2, 6, 12, and 24 h). Duration and temperature of exposure decreased mangrove survivorship, particularly 24-h exposure at −6.5°C. Although there was not a significant effect of stage on survivorship overall, both survival analysis and final mortality analysis indicate that dispersal stage had the greatest survivorship. Treatments had little impact on developmental progress of surviving propagules, but propagules exposed to −6.5°C were most susceptible to fungal infection. Greater cold temperature tolerance of the dispersal stage may be a mechanism for northward range expansion in Louisiana.     

The occurrence of distal Icelandic and Italian tephra in the Lateglacial of Lake Bled,Slovenia

The discovery of sites preserving tephra layers from multiple volcanic centres is key to constructing a single European tephrostratigraphic framework for the Late Quaternary. Until now, the tephrostratigraphy of Europe has been divided into two halves: sites in the North Atlantic and northern Europe regions link the Icelandic, Eifel, and the Massif Central volcanic histories; whilst sites in southern Europe record the sequence of tephra layers produced by circum-Mediterranean volcanic provinces. The missing link, able to tie together these two halves, is found in the tephrostratigraphic record of Lake Bled, Slovenia.Lake Bled, in the Julian Alps, Slovenia, holds a high resolution multi-proxy palaeoenvironmental archive for the Lateglacial of south-central Europe. Cryptotephra investigations have revealed three tephra layers: two closely spaced within Younger Dryas stadial sediments and one shortly after the start of the Bølling-Allerød interstadial warming. Two of the tephra layers (Bld_T120 and Bld_T240) are of Campanian origin and are correlated to deposits of the Pomici Principali (PP) and Neapolitan Yellow Tuff (NYT) eruptions, respectively. The third layer (Bld_T122) correlates to the Icelandic Vedde Ash (VA), extending the known fallout of this widespread marker layer farther to the southeast.The Lake Bled record also allows the stratigraphic relationship and relative ages of the VA and the PP eruption to be discerned for the first time. Whilst existing numerical age estimates for these two deposits are indistinguishable within errors, their close occurrence in the same lacustrine sediment sequence shows that the VA was erupted shortly prior to the PP eruption.The tephrostratigraphy of Lake Bled developed here helps us to tie together regional volcanic stratigraphies into a broader, continental-scale lattice of sites, with the potential to allow the transfer of dates between remote sequences and the construction of relative chronologies, beneficial in particular for environmental and archaeological research.     

An early Palaeozoic supra-subduction lithosphere in the Variscides: new evidence from the Maures massif

Petrographic and geochemical studies of peridotites and melagabbros from the Maures massif (SE France) provide new constraints on the Early Palaeozoic evolution of the continental lithosphere in Western Europe. Peridotites occur as lenses along a unit rooted in the main Variscan suture zone. They are dominantly spinel peridotites and minor garnet–spinel peridotites. Spinel peridotites represent both residual mantle and ultramafic cumulates. Mantle-related dunites and harzburgites display high temperature textures, with olivine (Mg#_0.90), orthopyroxene (Mg#_0.90) and spinel (TiO₂ < 0.2%; Cr#_0.64–0.83) compositions typical of fore-arc upper mantle. Ultramafic cumulates are dunite adcumulates, harzburgite heteradcumulates and mesocumulates, melagabbro heteradcumulates and amphibole peridotites, with olivine (Mg#_0.85–0.89), orthopyroxene (Mg#_0.86–0.89) and Cr-spinel (TiO₂ = 0.5–3.3%; Cr#_0.7–0.98) compositions typical of ultramafic cumulates. Cr-spinel compositions of both spinel peridotite types suggest their genesis in a supra-subduction zone lithosphere. Core to rim zoning in spinel is related to the incomplete influence of regional metamorphism and serpentinisation. The covariation of major and minor elements with Al₂O₃ for cumulates is consistent with igneous processes involving crystal accumulation. Both mantle and cumulate dunites and harzburgites have U-shaped REE patterns and extremely low trace element contents, similar to peridotites from modern fore-arc peridotites (South Atlantic) and from ophiolites related to supra-subduction zones (Semail, Cyclops, Pindos, Troodos). Melagabbros also have U-shaped REE patterns similar to xenoliths from the Philippine island arc, but also similar to intrusive ultramafic cumulates from the Semail nappe of Oman related to a proto-subduction setting. A wehrlite has a REE pattern similar to that of amphibole peridotites reflecting metasomatism of clinopyroxene-bearing peridotites due to subduction-related fluids. The Maures spinel peridotites and melagabbros are therefore interpreted as the lowermost parts of a crustal sequence and minor residual mantle of lithosphere generated in a supra-subduction zone during Early Palaeozoic time. Garnet–spinel peridotites are chemically close to melagabbros, but have recorded high pressure metamorphism before their retrogression similar to spinel peridotites into amphibolites to greenschists facies metamorphism. They indicate burial to mantle depths of the margin of the supra-subduction lithosphere during the Early Palaeozoic continental subduction. Both peridotite types were exhumed during the Upper Palaeozoic continental collision. Comparable observations from other Variscan-related peridotites, in particular of the Speik complex of the Autroalpine basement, and a common age for the subduction stage allow extension of these regional conclusions to a broad area sharing the Cambrian suture zone, extending from the Ossa-Morena to the Bohemian massif.     

A luminescence‐based chronology for the Harletz loess sequence,Bulgaria

The Harletz loess‐palaeosol sequence is located in northwestern Bulgaria and represents an important link between well‐studied loess sequences in eastern Romania and further sites to the west of the Carpathians (e.g. Serbia and Hungary). The aim of this study was to establish a chronostratigraphy of the deposits, using various methods of luminescence dating, together with basic stratigraphical field observations as well as magnetic properties. Luminescence dating was carried out using the quartz fine grain fraction and a SAR protocol, and the feldspar coarse grain fraction, applying the MET‐pIRIR protocol. Due to underestimation of the quartz fine grain fraction in the lower parts of the sequence, the resulting chronology is mainly based on the feldspar ages, which are derived from the stimulation temperature at 150 °C. A comparison with nearby sequences from Serbia, Hungary and Romania, and interpretations obtained through the stratigraphical and sedimentological signature of the sequence, supports the established chronology. Our data suggest that the prominent palaeosol (soil complex) in the upper quarter of the sequence was formed during MIS 5. It would follow that large parts of the Last Glacial loess overlying this palaeosol were probably eroded, and that the thick loess accumulation underlying this soil complex can be allocated to the penultimate glacial (MIS 6). A prominent MIS 6 tephra, which has been reported from other sequences in the area, is also present at Harletz.     

Spatial Variation of Sea-Spray Fluxes over a Mediterranean Coastal Zone Using a Sea-State Model

We first deal with sea-spray flux estimates for short fetch conditions in coastal Mediterranean areas. To this end, a sea-state dependent model for the whitecap fraction was included in three different formulations for the sea-spray source function. A comparison with the sea-spray fluxes, calculated on the basis of aerosol size distributions measured at the island of Porquerolles located south off the French Riviera, evaluates the predictions of different whitecap dependant flux formulations. Then we deal with the spatial distribution of the whitecap fraction and the sea-spray fluxes in the study area. To achieve this, a whitecap dependant flux formulation was forced by a wave numerical model that was implemented in the study area. Experimental results on wave conditions have been used to adjust the model in the Mediterranean coastal area. Numerical simulations of wave and whitecap coverage have been carried out during typical regional wind events, and they show a nonhomogeneous distribution of the sea-surface production over the northern Mediterranean as a consequence of the spatial variation of the sea state. In particular, we note the occurrence of a narrow band of high sea-surface production following the northern coast and along the east part of the Gulf of Lions.