EXPLORING MARKET‐BASED DEVELOPMENT: MARKET INTERMEDIARIES AND FARMERS IN CALAKMUL,MEXICO*

ABSTRACT. Market intermediaries play important roles in the development of tropical‐forest frontiers but are often overlooked in the assessment of land‐change dynamics. Consistent with research beyond land‐change studies, intermediaries are found to be a pivotal element in land‐use and land‐cover change in southeastern Mexico. They have stimulated commercial chili cultivation in this development frontier, providing transportation and other services to smallholders who could otherwise not enter the chili market. This role comes at the cost of a near monopoly on chili marketing. The various roles played by these intermediaries, or coyotes, the means by which they operate, and the consequences for smallholders and land use are detailed for the Calakmul Municipality, Campeche, Mexico.     

The Substitution of Al and F in Titanite at High Pressure and Temperature: Experimental Constraints on Phase Relations and Solid Solution Properties

Experimental studies were carried out to evaluate phase relationsinvolving titanite–F–Al-titanite solid solutionin the system CaSiO₃–Al₂SiO₅–TiO₂–CaF₂. Theexperiments were conducted at 900–1000°C and 1·1–4·0GPa. The average F/Al ratio in titanite solid solution in theexperimental run products is 1·01 ± 0·06,and X_Al ranges from 0·33 ± 0·02 to 0·91± 0·05, consistent with the substitution [TiO²⁺]_–1[AlF²⁺]₁.Analysis of the phase relations indicates that titanite solidsolutions coexisting with rutile are always low in X_Al, whereasthe maximum X_Al of titanite solid solution occurs with fluoriteand either anorthite or Al₂SiO₅. Reaction displacement experimentswere performed by adding fluorite to the assemblage anorthite+ rutile = titanite + kyanite. The reaction shifts from 1·60GPa to 1·15 ± 0·05 GPa at 900°C, from1·79 GPa to 1·375 ± 0·025 GPa at1000°C, and from 1·98 GPa to 1·575 ±0·025 GPa at 1100°C. The data show that the activityof CaTiSiO₄O is very close to the ideal molecular activity model(X_Ti) at 1100°C, but shows a negative deviation at 1000°Cand 900°C. The results constrain     

Phase Equilibria for Calcic Scapolite, and Implications of Variable Al-Si Disorder for P-T, T-XCO2, and a-X Relations

Carbonate scapolite is a potentially powerful mineral for calculatingCO₂ activities in non-calcareous rocks, but an analysis of thethermodynamics and phase equilibria of carbonate scapolite isfirst necessary. This includes an evaluation of Al-Si disorderin meionite, as this has the greatest effect on derived phaserelations. Available experimental data on meionite stability,X-ray diffraction refinements and nuclear magnetic resonancespectra for calcic scapolite do not uniquely constrain the Al-Siordering state of synthetic meionite. However, the data aremost consistent with a high degree of Al-Si disorder and inconsistentwith long-range Al-Si order. An internally consistent thermodynamicdata set was derived and used to calculate P-T and T-X_CO2 equilibriainvolving meionite in the CaO-Al₂O₃-SiO₂-CO₂-H₂O (CASCH) system.The effect of Al-Si disorder is illustrated by calculating thephase equilibria using an ordered, an arbitrary intermediatedisordered, and a completely Al-Si disordered standard statefor meionite. The Gibbs free energy of meionite was calculatedfrom reversals (at 790–815?C, 2–15 kb) on the reaction 3 Anorthite +Calcite =Meionite The _fG?_{m, 298} for each of the standard states is –13 146?6,–13128?8, and –130930kJ/mol, respectively. Becauseof the steep slope of reaction (1) and limited temperature rangeover which it breaks down, meionite used in the experimentsto constrain reaction (1) must possess a limited range of Al-Sidisorder. The P-T slope of reaction (1) increases, and the slopeof meionite decarbonation equilibria changes from positive tonegative in T-X_CO2 and P-T space, as a function of increasingAl-Si disorder. Meionite has a wide stability field at highT in T-X space at 5 and 10 kb (P_Total=P_Fluid), being stableto X_CO2=0?06. Meionite alone breaks down to undersaturated gehleniteand/or corundum-bearing assemblages at 5 kb, and to clinozoisiteat 10 kb. The effect of solid solutions on the T-X stabilityof meionite is similar to that of increasing pressure, stabilizingmeionite to lower temperature. Variable Al-Si disorder doesnot significantly affect the upper limit of meionite stabilityin T-X_CO2 space. Activity-composition relations for meionitein carbonate scapolite were calculated relative to reaction(1) from data on natural scapolite-plagioclase-calcite assemblages.The extent of departure from ideality varies as a function ofAl-Si disorder. Negative deviations from ideality are indicatedfor natural scapolite solid solutions at T<750?C, based ona disordered Al-Si standard state for meionite. This is likelyto reflect a more ordered Al-Si distribution in natural scapolitescompared with the synthetic endmember standard state. Present address: Department of Earth and Space Sciences, State University of New York, Stony Brook, New York 11794-2100     

Shallow-burial dolomite cement: a major component of many ancient sucrosic dolomites

Dolomite cement is a significant and widespread component of Phanerozoic sucrosic dolomites. Cements in dolomites that were never deeply buried are limpid, have planar faces (non‐saddle forms), often distinct zonation in cathodoluminescence and form syntaxial overgrowths on crystals facing pores. Five samples of sucrosic dolomites, interpreted as having had mostly lime‐mudstone or wackestone precursors in four carbonate aquifers, provide insights into the abundance of planar cements in sucrosic dolomites. Such cement comprises 11% to 45% (32% mean) of peritidal to sub‐tidal dolomites on an outcrop in the Edwards aquifer (Early Cretaceous) of central Texas; 19% to 33% (25% mean) of ramp dolomites in the Hawthorn Group (Oligo‐Miocene) and 50% to 70% in shelf dolomites of the Avon Park Formation (Eocene) in the Upper Floridan aquifer of sub‐surface peninsular Florida; 18% to 45% (32+% mean) of sub‐tidal shelf dolomites in quarry sections of the Burlington‐Keokuk Formation (Early Mississippian) in south‐eastern Iowa; and 18% to 76% (50% mean) in shallow cores and outcrops of outer‐shelf dolomites from the Gambier Limestone (Oligo‐Miocene) of South Australia. Backstripping the cement phases revealed by cathodoluminescence colour photomicrographs documents the effects of cements on textural coarsening, pore‐space reduction, induration and general ‘maturation’ of these dolomites. Most pre‐Holocene dolomites are multiphase crystalline rocks composed of: (i) seed crystals or ‘cores’; (ii) crystal cortices that concentrically enlarged the cores; and (iii) free‐space, syntaxial precipitates of limpid cement around the crystals. Remaining CaCO₃ grains and micrite can be replaced by dolomite, but typically they are dissolved between stages (ii) and (iii), creating systems of intercrystal and mouldic pores typical of sucrosic dolomites. Networks of cement overgrowths, aided by water‐filled pore systems under hydrostatic to lithostatic pressure, are judged to slow or prevent compaction in sucrosic dolomites. It can be argued that cortex growth involves both replacement of CaCO₃ particles and microcementation of their interparticle pores. This interpretation, and the abundance of cements in so many dolomites, would obviate the controversy over the volumetrics of ‘replacement dolomitization’. Limpid, planar and syntaxial dolomite cements of early diagenetic origin are interpreted to have precipitated from clear pore waters, at low temperatures (<30 to 35 °C) and shallow burial depths (<100 m), in water‐saturated networks of dolomite ‘silt’ and ‘sand’. Cements in many dolomites in island and continental–aquifer systems appear to result from event‐driven processes related to sea‐level highstands. Cementation events can follow ‘replacement dolomitization’ events by time intervals ranging from geologically ‘instantaneous’ to tens of million years.     

Meridional zonation of the Barents Sea ecosystem inferred from satellite remote sensing and in situ bio-optical observations

The Barents Sea is a productive, shallow, high-latitude marine ecosystem with complex hydrographic conditions. Zonal hydrographic bands defined by a coastal current. North Atlantic Water, the Polar Front, and the seasonally variable marginal ice edge zone create a meridional zonation of the ecosystem during the spring-summer transition. The features reveal themselves in satellite imagery and by high-resolution (vertical and horizontal) physical-optical-biological sampling.
Surprisingly, the long-term (7-year) mean of Coastal Zone Color Scanner (CZCS) imagery reveals the Barents Sea as an anomalous "blue-water" regime at high latitudes that are otherwise dominated by satellite-observed surface blooms. A combination of satellite imagery and in situ bio-optical analyses indicate that this pattern is caused by strong stratification in summer with surface nutrient depletion. The onset of stratification of the entire region is linked to the extent of the winter ice edge: cold years with extensive sea ice apparently stratify early due to ice melt; warm years stratify later, perhaps due to weaker thermal stratification of the Atlantic waters (e.g. Skjoldal et al. 1987). The apparent "low chlorophyll" indicated by the CZCS 7-year mean is partly due to sampling error whereby the mean is dominated by images taken later in the summer. In fact, massive blooms of subsurface phytoplankton embedded in the pycnocline persist throughout the summer and maintain substantial rates of primary production. Further, these subsurface blooms that are not observed by satellite are responsible for dramatic gradients in the beam (c₁) and spectral diffuse (k) attenuation coefficients. The Barents Sea exemplifies the need to couple satellite observations with spatially and temporally resolved biogeographic ecosystem models in order to estimate the integrated water column primary production, mass flux or spectral light attenuation coefficients.