The nature and origin of ureilites

Ureilites are carbon-bearing olivine-pigeonite achondrites which constitute a unique achondrite type. We performed a comprehensive mineralogical and petrological study on eight ureilites (Kenna, Novo Urei, Goalpara, Haverö, Dingo Pup Donga, Dyalpur, North Haig, and ALHA77257) the results of which were used to construct a hypothesis for the origin of ureilites. This hypothesis suggests that ureilites are primarily olivine-pigeonite cumulates which crystallized from a silicate liquid that also contained suspended solid carbon phases, mainly graphite. This carbon caused reduction of the melt and influenced ureilite mineral compositions. Carbonaceous material was trapped by settling cumulus mafic silicates along with other intercumulus material to form the carbon-rich ‘veins’ common to ureilites. Petrofabric analyses show that mafic silicates are oriented in lineated and foliated patterns characteristic of cumulate rocks, specifically adcumulates. Strain state of silicates suggests that ureilites were deformed subsequent to lithification by mild tectonic stress as well as by moderate to severe shock. The latter event caused the formation of micron-sized diamonds and lonsdaleite from graphite and carbon-induced reduction of silicate grain margins during temporal shock-heating.     

Digital close range photogrammetry for measurement of soil erosion

Many of the processes involved in soil erosion have dimensions on the millimetre scale. Modelling and quantification of such processes require information on soil surface topography with adequate resolution. The purpose of this study was to generate digital elevation models (DEMs) from soil surfaces with high spatial and temporal resolution. Digital photogrammetry was applied for measuring erosion rates on complex-shaped soil surfaces under laboratory rainfall conditions. A total of 60 DEMs were generated, covering a planimetric area of 16 m². The DEMs had a grid resolution of 3 mm. A vertical precision of approximately 1 mm was desired for DEM analysis. A consumer-grade digital camera was used for image acquisition. The camera was calibrated using BLUH software. Homologous points in overlapping images were identified with least squares matching software. Irregularly spaced object coordinates were interpolated to a regular grid in a geographic information system. The resulting DEMs represented the soil surface well. A precision of 1·26 mm in the vertical was attained. The precision of DEM production was limited to camera calibration. Improvements of the setup presented could include the use of better control points and more advanced image matching strategies for identification of homologous points. The DEMs allowed for detailed analysis of soil surface evolution.     

Improving hydrodynamic modeling of an estuary in a mixed tidal regime by grid refining and aligning

Water levels and flows in the Singapore coastal waters are driven by the complex interactions of the Indian and Pacific Ocean tides, seasonal monsoon-driven contributions and also forced by local winds. The Singapore Regional Model was developed to simulate hydrodynamics in the Strait of Singapore which produces representative sea level variation in this region. However, resolution and alignment of the grid system of the model with respect to depth contours in some of its subregions, i.e., the Johor Estuary area require further improvement. For this, the grid system of the model was modified and compared the simulated results with field measurements. The computed flow velocities agreed better with field observations when the grid resolution was increased. However, improving the alignment of the grid with the channel boundary (with a much lower increase in grid resolution) provided a substantially larger improvement of the model performance. The grid modification greatly influenced the computed salinity in the estuary, while water levels are slightly affected. Further analysis of model results showed a pronounced ebb tidal asymmetry generated by the O1–K1–M2 tidal constituents in the estuary.     

Spatial variability of chironomid death assemblages in the surface sediments of a fluctuating tropical lake (Lake Naivasha,Kenya)

Studies addressing within-lake variability of fossil chironomid assemblages are very few, and all deal with hydrologically stable temperate lakes where the question of spatial integration mostly relates to the mixing of faunal assemblages associated with shallow, warm-water habitat and those associated with deeper, cold-water habitat. Here we study within-lake variability of surface-sediment chironomid assemblages in the fairly large (∼100–170 km² since 1983) and shallow (Z _max = 5–8 m) fluctuating tropical lake basin of Lake Naivasha, Kenya, and compare the patterns observed with those in two smaller adjacent basins, one similarly shallow (Lake Oloidien, 5.1–5.7 km2, 5–8 m), the other deep and stratified (Crescent Island Crater, 1.9 km², 14–17 m). Chironomid assemblages were analysed in core-top samples and surface sediments along inshore to offshore transects, and how well individual samples represented the total (basin-wide mean) subfossil assemblage was considered both in terms of taxon richness and taxon percent composition. Within-lake variability of subfossil chironomid concentrations (with generally higher absolute values in nearshore samples) could be explained by effects of sediment winnowing and focusing, whereas between-lake variability reflected their relative susceptibility to wind-driven sediment disturbance or bottom anoxia. In all study lakes, but most significantly in lakes Naivasha and Oloidien, species distribution in the subfossil chironomid assemblages showed a strong nearshore to offshore gradient, which in these shallow lakes, reflects the dominant control of substrate and food quality on species distribution in the living community. Particularly in the larger basins, nearshore samples better represented the total lake assemblage than offshore samples, because the former always contained a component of mud-dwelling species whereas the latter often lacked a component of macrophyte-dwelling species. Our results show that although sedimentation dynamics in the shallow, wind-stressed Lake Naivasha is dominated by frequent resuspension and random sediment redistribution, the near- to offshore gradient in chironomid habitat remains imprinted on subfossil assemblages. We conclude that also in shallow fluctuating lakes, given sufficient size, incomplete pre-burial spatial integration of habitat-specific chironomid assemblages can be exploited for within-lake calibration of environmental gradients.     

Field Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Surfactant Modified Zeolite and Iron-Oxide-Coated Sand for Removing Viruses and Bacteria from Ground Water

Field experiments were conducted to evaluate the efficiency of iron-oxide-coated sand (ICS) and surfactant modified zeolite (SMZ) to remove viruses and bacteria from ground water. The reactive media were employed as filter packs of a pumping well that withdrew sewage effluent from a constructed wetland at a rate of 0.72 L/min. The contact time of the pumped water with the filter pack (10 cm thick) was about two minutes. Upgradient of the pumping well, the sewage effluent was spiked with MS-2 bacteriophage and E. coli. While the employed ICS filter pack failed to remove viruses and bacteria to a significant degree, the SMZ filter pack removed more than 99% of the viruses and 100% of E. coli from the ground water while fresh. In an additional field experiment using the same configuration but leaving the filter pack in place for more than five months, the SMZ filter pack was still removing 100% of E. coli , but failed to reduce virus numbers to a significant degree.     

Transport of U in the Opalinus Clay on centimetre to decimetre scales

The Opalinus Clay formation in North Switzerland is a potential host rock for a deep underground radioactive waste repository. The distribution of ²³⁸U, ²³⁴U and ²³⁰Th was studied in rock samples of the Opalinus Clay from an exploratory borehole at Benken (Canton of Zurich) using MC-ICP-MS. The aim was to assess the in situ, long-term migration behaviour of ²³⁴U in this rock. Very low hydraulic conductivities of the Opalinus Clay, reducing potential of the pore water and its chemical equilibrium with the host rock are expected to render both ²³⁸U and ²³⁰Th immobile. If U is heterogeneously distributed in the Opalinus Clay, gradients in the supply of ²³⁴U from the rock matrix to the pore water by the decay of ²³⁸U will be established. Diffusive redistribution separates ²³⁴U from its immobile parent ²³⁸U resulting in bulk rock ²³⁴U/²³⁸U activity disequilibria. These may provide a means of estimating the mobility of ²³⁴U in the rock if the diffusion rate of ²³⁴U is significant compared to its decay rate. Sampling was carried out on two scales. Drilling of cm-spaced samples from the drill-core was done to study mobility over short distances and elucidate possible small-scale lithological control. Homogenized 25-cm-long portions of a 2-m-long drill-core section were prepared to provide information on transport over a longer distance. Variations in U and/or Th content on the cm-scale between clays and carbonate-sandy layers are revealed by β-scanning, which shows that the (dominant) clay is richer in both elements.     

Barotropic and baroclinic processes in the transport variability of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current

Synoptic scale variability of the Southern Ocean wind field in the high-frequency range of barotropic Rossby waves results in transport variations of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), which are highly coherent with the bottom pressure field all around the Antarctic continent. The coherence pattern, in contrast to the steady state ACC, is steered by the geostrophic f/h contours passing through Drake Passage and circling closely around the continent. At lower frequencies, with interannual and decadal periods, the correlation with the bottom pressure continues, but baroclinic processes gain importance. For periods exceeding a few years, variations of the ACC transport are in geostrophic balance with the pressure field associated with the baroclinic potential energy stored in the stratification, whereas bottom pressure plays a minor role. The low-frequency variability of the ACC transport is correlated with the baroclinic state variable in the entire Southern Ocean, mediated by baroclinic topographic–planetary Rossby waves that are not bound to f/h contours. To clarify the processes of wave dynamics and pattern correlation, we apply a circulation model with simplified physics (the barotropic–baroclinic-interaction model BARBI) and use two types of wind forcing: the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) wind field with integrations spanning three decades and an artificial wind field constructed from the first three empirical orthogonal functions of NCEP combined with a temporal variability according to an autoregressive process. Experiments with this Southern Annular Mode type forcing have been performed for 1,800 years. We analyze the spin-up, trends, and variability of the model runs. Particular emphasis is placed on coherence and correlation patterns between the ACC transport, the wind forcing, the bottom pressure field and the pressure associated with the baroclinic potential energy. A stochastic dynamical model is developed that describes the dominant barotropic and baroclinic processes and represents the spectral properties for a wide range of frequencies, from monthly periods to hundreds of years.     

A new approach to overcome shortcomings with multiple testing of reproduction data in ecotoxicology

In ecotoxicology species reproduction tests and multiple testing of reproduction data are wide spread. While normal approximation of the data is a minor problem often the requirement of variance homogeneity is not fulfilled. Variance homogeneity is necessary to assure the proper application of statistical procedures like pairwise t tests, Dunnett t test, and Williams t test. A Poisson model can solve this issue preserving meaningful results and rendering statistical analysis more reliable. Moreover, sequential application of pairwise statistical “control vs. treatment” tests is a drawback concerning \(\alpha \)-inflation. The closure principle (CP) for hypothesis testing is used to generate a step-wise approach for detection of the No/Lowest Observed Effect Concentration using the computational approach test (CAT). The advantages and disadvantages of the combined CPCAT approach compared to the widely used t tests are pointed out and results of real data and fictitious data analysis are compared revealing the superiority of the Poisson model and CPCAT.     

Fidelity and repeatability of wave fields reconstructed from multicomponent streamer data

Wave field reconstruction – the estimation of a three‐dimensional (3D) wave field representing upgoing, downgoing or the combined total pressure at an arbitrary point within a marine streamer array – is enabled by simultaneous measurements of the crossline and vertical components of particle acceleration in addition to pressure in a multicomponent marine streamer. We examine a repeated sail line of North Sea data acquired by a prototype multicomponent towed‐streamer array for both wave field reconstruction fidelity (or accuracy) and reconstruction repeatability. Data from six cables, finely sampled in‐line but spaced at 75 m crossline, are reconstructed and placed on a rectangular data grid uniformly spaced at 6.25 m in‐line and crossline. Benchmarks are generated using recorded pressure data and compared with wave fields reconstructed from pressure alone, and from combinations of pressure, crossline acceleration and vertical acceleration. We find that reconstruction using pressure and both crossline and vertical acceleration has excellent fidelity, recapturing highly aliased diffractions that are lost by interpolation of pressure‐only data. We model wave field reconstruction error as a linear function of distance from the nearest physical sensor and find, for this data set with some mismatched shot positions, that the reconstructed wave field error sensitivity to sensor mispositioning is one‐third that of the recorded wave field sensitivity. Multicomponent reconstruction is also more repeatable, outperforming single‐component reconstruction in which wave field mismatch correlates with geometry mismatch. We find that adequate repeatability may mask poor reconstruction fidelity and that aliased reconstructions will repeat if the survey geometry repeats. Although the multicomponent 3D data have only 500 m in‐line aperture, limiting the attenuation of non‐repeating multiples, the level of repeatability achieved is extremely encouraging compared to full‐aperture, pressure‐only, time‐lapse data sets at an equivalent stage of processing.