A variable lacustrine environment in Lake Winnipeg, Manitoba: Evidence from modern thecamoebian distribution

Thecamoebians (testate protozoan) were examined in 18 surface sediment samples from the North and South basins and the Narrows of Lake Winnipeg, Manitoba. Significantly higher numbers of thecamoebians and tintinnids in the North Basin compared to the Narrows and South Basin are attributed to the effects of urban development around the South Basin of Lake Winnipeg. Human population growth in this area has led to increased nutrient concentration in runoff, causing eutrophication of the southern lake, which in turn allows for increased algal productivity. Cucurbitella tricuspis is found in large abundances in the South Basin, particularly close to the inlet of the Red and Assiniboine rivers. High abundances of this species have been attributed to eutrophic conditions, which this species appears to withstand more successfully than other species. Increases in domestic waste output, that have led to elevated heavy metal concentrations in lake bottom sediments of the South Basin, may have resulted in lower abundances of thecamoebians, further reducing competition.Strong currents in the Narrows cause a slightly coarser substrate and sweep away food sources such as phytoplankton. This results in a lower faunal abundance and slightly lower species richness of thecamoebians. Robust species such as the coarse-grained Difflugia viscidula and species which feed on bacteria such as Centropyxis aculeata show increased abundances.Modern thecamoebian assemblages are comparable to Late Holocene faunal associations in terms of species composition. Individual species abundances, however, have changed. For example, in the North Basin the Late Holocene dominance of Difflugia manicata is replaced by various strains of Difflugia oblonga during recent times. A common species of the South Basin from Late Holocene to recent times is Difflugia globulus. It would appear that faunal differences between basins are the result of differences in algal food sources.     

Integrated-light VRI imaging photometry of globular clusters in the Magellanic Clouds

We compare the conclusions reached using the coarse-graining technique employed by Henriksen for a one degree of freedom (per particle) collisionless system to those presented in a paper by Binney based on an exact one degree of freedom model. We find agreement in detail, but in addition we show that the isolated 1D system is self-similar and therefore unrelaxed. Fine graining of this system recovers much less prominent wave-like structure than in a spherically symmetric isotropic 3D system. The rate of central flattening is also reduced in the 1D system. We take this to be evidence that relaxation of collisionless systems proceeds ultimately by way of short wavelength Landau damping. N -body systems, both real and simulated, can be trapped in an incompletely relaxed state because of a break in the cascade of energy to small scales. This may be due to the rapid dissipation of the small-scale oscillations in an isolated system to the existence of conserved quantities such as angular momentum, or to the failure in simulations to resolve sub-Jeans length scales. Such a partially relaxed state appears to be the Navarro, Frenk and White (NFW) state and is to be expected especially in young systems. The NFW core is shown to be isolated. In non-isolated systems, continuing coarse-grained relaxation should be towards a density core in solid body rotation.     

High-resolution mm interferometry and the search for massive protostellar disks: the case of Cep-A HW2

The direct detection of accretion onto massive protostars through rotating disks constitutes an important tile in the massive-star-formation-theory mosaic. This task is however observationally very challenging. A very interesting example is Cepheus A HW2. The properties of the molecular emission around this YSO seems to suggest the presence of a massive rotating disk (cf. Patel et al. in Nature 437:109, 2005). We have carried out sub-arcsec-resolution PdBI observations of high-density and shock tracers such as SO₂, SiO, CH₃CN, and CH₃OH towards the center of the outflow. A detailed analysis of the spatial distribution and of the velocity field traced by all observed species leads us to conclude that, on a ∼700 AU scale, the Cep-A “disk” is actually the result of the superposition of multiple hot-core-type objects, at least one of them ejecting an outflow at a small angle with respect to the line of sight. Together with the well-known large-scale outflow ejected by HW2, this setup makes for a very complex spatial and kinematic picture. Based on observations carried out with the IRAM Plateau de Bure Interferometer. IRAM is supported by INSU/CNRS (France), MPG (Germany) and IGN (Spain).     

Combination of multi-mission altimetry data along the Mekong River with spatio-temporal kriging

River water-level time series at fixed geographical locations, so-called virtual stations, have been computed from single altimeter crossings for many years. Their temporal resolution is limited by the repeat cycle of the individual altimetry missions. The combination of all altimetry measurements along a river enables computing a water-level time series with improved temporal and spatial resolutions. This study uses the geostatistical method of spatio-temporal ordinary kriging to link multi-mission altimetry data along the Mekong River. The required covariance models reflecting the water flow are estimated based on empirical covariance values between altimetry observations at various locations. In this study, two covariance models are developed and tested in the case of the Mekong River: a stationary and a non-stationary covariance model. The proposed approach predicts water-level time series at different locations along the Mekong River with a temporal resolution of 5 days. Validation is performed against in situ data from four gauging stations, yielding RMS differences between 0.82 and 1.29 m and squared correlation coefficients between 0.89 and 0.94. Both models produce comparable results when used for combining data from Envisat, Jason-1, and SARAL for the time period between 2002 and 2015. The quality of the predicted time series turns out to be robust against a possibly decreasing availability of altimetry mission data. This demonstrates that our method is able to close the data gap between the end of the Envisat and the launch of the SARAL mission with interpolated time series.     

Precise geodesy with the Very Long Baseline Array

We report on a program of geodetic measurements between 1994 and 2007 which used the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) and up to ten globally distributed antennas. One of the goals of this program was to monitor positions of the array at a 1 mm level of accuracy and to tie the VLBA into the international terrestrial reference frame. We describe the analysis of these data and report several interesting geophysical results including measured station displacements due to crustal motion, earthquakes, and antenna tilt. In terms of both formal errors and observed scatter, these sessions are among the very best geodetic very long baseline interferometry experiments.     

Spectral properties of volcanic materials from hyperspectral field and satellite data compared with LiDAR data at Mt. Etna

Spectral properties of volcanic materials in the optical region (350–2500 nm) of the electromagnetic spectrum are analyzed. The goal is to characterize air-fall deposits, recent lava flows, and old lava flows based on their spectral reflectance properties and on the textural characteristics (grain size) of pyroclastic deposits at an active basaltic volcano. Data were acquired during a spectroradiometric field survey at Mt. Etna (Italy) in summer 2003 and combined with hyperspectral satellite (Hyperion) and airborne LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) data. In addition, air-fall deposits produced by the highly explosive 2002–2003 eruption have been sampled and spectrally characterized at different distances from the new vents. The spectral analysis shows that air-fall deposits are characterized by low reflectance values besides variations in grain size. This distinguishes them from other surface materials. Old lava flows show highest reflectance values due to weathering and vegetation cover. The spectral data set derived from the field survey has been compared to corrected satellite hyperspectral data in order to investigate the Hyperion capabilities to differentiate the surface cover using the reflectance properties. This has allowed us to identify the 2002–2003 air-fall deposits in a thematic image just few months after their emplacement. Moreover, the observed differences in the field spectra of volcanic surfaces have been compared with differences in the signal intensity detected by airborne LiDAR survey showing the possibility to include information on the texture of volcanic surfaces at Mt. Etna. The approach presented here may be particularly useful for remote and inaccessible volcanic areas and also represents a potentially powerful tool for the exploration of extraterrestrial volcanic surfaces.     

Did Humankind Prevent a Holocene Glaciation?

Recently, W.F. Ruddiman (2003, Climatic Change, Vol. 61, pp. 261–293) suggested that the anthropocene, the geological epoch of significant anthropospheric interference with the natural Earth system, has started much earlier than previously thought (P. I. Crutzen and E. F. Stoermer, 2000, IGBP Newsletter, Vol. 429, pp. 623–628). Ruddiman proposed that due to human land use, atmospheric concentrations of CO₂ and CH₄ began to deviate from their natural declining trends some 8000 and 5000 years ago, respectively. Furthermore, Ruddiman concluded that greenhouse gas concentrations grew anomalously thereby preventing natural large-scale glaciation of northern North America that should have occurred some 4000–5000 years ago without human interference. Here we would like to comment on (a) natural changes in atmospheric CO₂ concentration during the Holocene and (b) on the possibility of a Holocene glacial inception. We substantiate our comments by modelling results which suggest that the last three interglacials are not a proper analogue for Holocene climate variations. In particular, we show that our model does not yield a glacial inception during the last several thousand years even if a declining trend in atmospheric CO₂ was assumed.     

Assessment of environmental hazards at abandoned mining sites: A case study in Sardinia,Italy

In the last two centuries, several Pb–Zn mines were active in the Rio Mannu basin near Narcao (SW Sardinia, Italy), but are now abandoned. These abandoned mines pose a serious risk to the population and required an assessment of the hazard sources and the contaminant pathways in the area. The characterization plan of the Rio Mannu basin was carried out according to Italian protocols. Specifically, samples of soil, stream sediment, fine-grained ore-processing waste (from washery and flotation processes), surface water and groundwater have been analyzed in order to assess the levels of contamination in each mine area and the risks in the plains surrounding the site. Several potential chemical contaminants were considered both in solid materials and water samples. The Rosas mine was recognized as the most contaminated area in the basin, due to the presence of a large tailing pond, some fine-grained waste piles and two mine adits with concentrations of the toxic elements As, Cd, Cu, Pb, Sb and Zn exceeding Italian regulatory standards. The dispersion of contaminants occurs downstream from the small stream draining the area. In case of heavy rain the runoff into the streamlet transports the contaminated material far into the plain. The results of this study show that the characterization plan is a relatively cheap tool for establishing mitigation actions, prior to the realization of a complete, and usually expensive, remediation project at abandoned mine sites. Urgent recommended actions in the Rio Mannu basin include the treatment of the adit water prior to its discharge into the Rio Barisonis; the construction of drainage barriers on waste piles to reduce runoff and solid transport into the Rio Barisonis; the consolidation of the earthen dam containing the tailing pond of Rosas to avoid the deepening of erosion furrows that may threaten its stability.