Herbicides implicated as the cause of severe mangrove dieback in the Mackay region, NE Australia: consequences for marine plant habitats of the GBR World Heritage Area

Herbicides, particularly diuron, were correlated with severe and widespread dieback of the dominant mangrove, Avicennia marina (Forsk.) Vierh. var. eucalyptifolia (Val.) N.C. Duke (Avicenniaceae), its reduced canopy condition, and declines in seedling health within three neighbouring estuaries in the Mackay region of NE Australia. This unusual species-specific dieback, first observed in the early 1990s, had gotten notably worse by 2002 to affect >30 km(2) of mangroves in at least five adjacent estuaries in the region. Over the past century, agricultural production has responded well to the demands of increasing population with improvements in farm efficiency assisted by significant increases in the use of agricultural chemicals. However, with regular and episodic river flow events, these chemicals have sometimes found their way into estuarine and nearshore water and sediments where their effects on marine habitats have been largely unquantified. Investigations over the last three years in the Mackay region provide compelling evidence of diuron, and possibly other agricultural herbicides, as the most likely cause of the severe and widespread mangrove dieback. The likely consequences of such dieback included declines in coastal water quality with increased turbidity, nutrients and sediment deposition, as well as further dispersal of the toxic chemicals. The implications of such findings are immense since they describe not only the serious deterioration of protected and beneficial mangrove habitat but also the potential for significant direct and indirect effects on other highly-valued estuarine and marine habitats in the region, including seagrass beds and coral reefs of the Great Barrier Reef lagoon. This article reviews all key findings and observations to date and describes the essential correlative and causative evidence.     

Detection of Polarized Millimeter and Submillimeter Emission from Sagittarius A*

We report the detection of linear polarization from Sgr A* at 750, 850, 1350, and 2000 μm which confirms the contribution of synchrotron radiation. From the lack of polarization at longer wavelengths, it appears to arise in the millimeter/submillimeter excess. There are large position angle changes between the millimeter and submillimeter results, and these are discussed in terms of a polarized dust contribution in the submillimeter and various synchrotron models. In the model that best explains the data, the synchrotron radiation from the excess is self-absorbed in the millimeter region and becomes optically thin in the submillimeter. This implies that the excess arises in an extremely compact source of approximately 2 Schwarzschild radii.     

用海底地震仪在大洋中脊地区记录远震

尽管由海底地震仪（ＯＢＳ）记录的现存远震资料并不多，但是用这些资料分析在各种背景噪声条件下地震检测的阈值却已足够了，对于震级５．７～６＾＋，震中距大于１００°的地震，其长周期Ｐ波，Ｓ波及面波已由海底地震台站系统地记录到，记录到甚大地震的勒夫波和瑞利波，在１５～７０ｓ的周期内这些波具有高相干性，１５～３５ｓ范围内的高相干性是５．５～６＾＋级地震的典型情况，另一方面，短周期体波（１Ｈｚ）仅在北大西洋气     

A matched filter method for ground-based sub-noise detection of terrestrial extrasolar planets in eclipsing binaries: application to CM Draconis

The photometric detection of extrasolar planets by transits in eclipsing binary systems can be significantly improved by cross-correlating the observational light curves with synthetic models of possible planetary transit features, essentially a matched filter approach. We demonstrate the utility and application of this transit detection algorithm for ground-based detections of terrestrial-sized (Earth-to-Neptune radii) extrasolar planets in the dwarf M-star eclipsing binary system CM Draconis. Preliminary photometric observational data of this system demonstrate that the observational noise is well characterized as white and Gaussian at the observational time steps required for precision photometric measurements. Depending on planet formation scenarios, terrestrial-sized planets may form quite close to this low-luminosity system. We demonstrate, for example, that planets as small as 1.4 Earth radii with periods on the order of a few months in the CM Draconis system could be detected at the 99.9% confidence level in less than a year using 1-m class telescopes from the ground. This result contradicts commonly held assumptions limiting present ground-based efforts to, at best, detections of gas giant planets after several years of observation. This method can be readily extended to a number of other larger star systems with the utilization of larger telescopes and longer observing times. Its extension to spacecraft observations should also allow the determination of the presence of terrestrial-sized planets in nearly 100 other known eclipsing binary systems.     

氟硅酸钾容量法中沉淀条件的改进

近十年来,我室一直采用氟硅酸钾法测定岩石矿物中的二氧化硅。在工作中我们发现,沉淀体系中大量钾盐的存在是保证分析质量的一个十分重要的环节。这一点资料中均有介绍。采用氢氧化钾熔矿,在试样熔块提取酸化后,须加入固体氯化钾至饱和。由手册可知,氯化钾在水中的溶解度随温度而异,氯化钾的加入量难以控制,少了会使     

加利福尼亚海湾蒙特雷地层储层中钻杆测试前石油比重的预测

本文讨论了南加利福尼亚海湾蒙特雷地层储集层中，在钻杆测试前，预测ＡＰＩ石油比重的经验。通过确定含有低比重、无生产能力石油（＜１４ＡＰＩ）的层段，以避免昂贵的钻井测试。在整个桑塔巴巴拉和桑塔玛丽亚海湾地区，证明此关系在精确预测范围在３°～３５°ＡＰＩ的石油比重上是非常成功的。主要资料包括硫的重量百分比和储层岩样化学抽提沥青的岩石评价热解数据。一般来说，在含有较高比重、可生产的石油储层中，沥青有机硫含量小于５ｗｔ．％，岩石评价沥青的民值大于４５０ｍｇＨＣ／ｇ沥青，岩石评价沥青Ｓ＿１／Ｓ＿２比值大于１．０。这些资料通常由储层岩石的岩石评价热解分析获得，岩石的Ｓ＿１／Ｓ＿２比值大于０．３，通常指示伴生油比重大于１４°ＡＰＩ，这种分析组合给出了在设计的钻杆测试层段内预测石油比重的综合方法。应用该方法，精确预测了南加利福尼亚海湾地区５０多个钻杆测试层段的石油比重。这项技术也被用来重新评价老井的ＡＰＩ石油比重，在这些井中，蒙特雷地层储层不是主要的勘探目标。此外，若石油比重的范围不是由于明显的生物降解作用的结果，而且可以获得足够的岩石和石油样品来建立适当的关系，则这项技术还有其它的应用。     

Evidence for equilibrium iron isotope fractionation by nitrate-reducing iron(II)-oxidizing bacteria

Iron isotope fractionations produced during chemical and biological Fe(II) oxidation are sensitive to the proportions and nature of dissolved and solid-phase Fe species present, as well as the extent of isotopic exchange between precipitates and aqueous Fe. Iron isotopes therefore potentially constrain the mechanisms and pathways of Fe redox transformations in modern and ancient environments. In the present study, we followed in batch experiments Fe isotope fractionations between Fe(II)_aq and Fe(III) oxide/hydroxide precipitates produced by the Fe(III) mineral encrusting, nitrate-reducing, Fe(II)-oxidizing Acidovorax sp. strain BoFeN1. Isotopic fractionation in ⁵⁶Fe/⁵⁴Fe approached that expected for equilibrium conditions, assuming an equilibrium Δ⁵⁶Fe_{Fe(OH)3-Fe(II)aq} fractionation factor of +3.0‰. Previous studies have shown that Fe(II) oxidation by this Acidovorax strain occurs in the periplasm, and we propose that Fe isotope equilibrium is maintained through redox cycling via coupled electron and atom exchange between Fe(II)_aq and Fe(III) precipitates in the contained environment of the periplasm. In addition to the apparent equilibrium isotopic fractionation, these experiments also record the kinetic effects of initial rapid oxidation, and possible phase transformations of the Fe(III) precipitates. Attainment of Fe isotope equilibrium between Fe(III) oxide/hydroxide precipitates and Fe(II)_aq by neutrophilic, Fe(II)-oxidizing bacteria or through abiologic Fe(II)_aq oxidation is generally not expected or observed, because the poor solubility of their metabolic product, i.e. Fe(III), usually leads to rapid precipitation of Fe(III) minerals, and hence expression of a kinetic fractionation upon precipitation; in the absence of redox cycling between Fe(II)_aq and precipitate, kinetic isotope fractionations are likely to be retained. These results highlight the distinct Fe isotope fractionations that are produced by different pathways of biological and abiological Fe(II) oxidation.