Nurturing Relationships: the gardens of Greek and Vietnamese migrants in Marrickville,Sydney

First- and second-generation migrants represent about 40 per cent of the Australian population. With such a large and also diverse immigrant population, urban landscapes are significantly shaped by the gardens created by migrants. Two groups of Vietnamese and Greek migrants, in the inner suburb of Marrickville South in Sydney, were interviewed to examine the relationship between migration history and garden-making practices. Garden composition was influenced by migrants’ relationship with their homeland, in terms of length of time since migration, previous garden ownership, reason for migration and desire for cultural continuity, and by the size of the garden. Gardens also varied according to country of migration. The actual garden produce and type of environment created by the garden helped to emphasise and maintain cultural relationships, provide a space of nostalgia, and give a sense of ownership and control.     

Particle recycling in volcanic plumes

We have developed a new theoretical model of an eruption column that accounts for the re-entrainment of particles as they fall out of the laterally spreading umbrella cloud. The model illustrates how the mass flux of particles in the plume may increase with height in the plume, by a factor as large as 2.5 because of this recycling. Three important consequences are that (1) the critical velocity required to generate a buoyant eruption column for a given mass flux increases, (2) the total height of rise of the column may decrease, and (3) we infer that in relatively wind-free environments, for eruption columns near the conditions for collapse, the recycling of particles may lead to an unsteady oscillating motion of the plume, which, in time, may lead to the formation of interleaved fall and flow deposits.     

Wind erosion from military training lands in the Mojave Desert, California, U.S.A.

Military training activities reduce vegetation cover, disturb crusts, and degrade soil aggregates, making the land more vulnerable to wind erosion. The objective of this study was to quantify wind erosion rates for typical conditions at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms, CA, U.S.A. Five Big Spring Number Eight (BSNE) sampler stations were installed at each of five sites. Each BSNE station consisted of five BSNE samplers with the lowest sampler at 0·05 m and the highest sampler at 1·0 m above the soil surface. Once a month, sediment was collected from the samplers for analysis. Occurrence of saltating soil aggregates was recorded every hour using Sensits, one at each site. The site with the most erosion had a sediment discharge of 311 kg m⁻¹ over a period of 17 months. Other sites eroded much less because of significant rock cover or the presence of a crust. Hourly sediment discharge was estimated combining hourly Sensit count and monthly sediment discharge measured using BSNE samplers. More simultaneously measured data are needed to better characterize the relationship between these two and reconstruct a detailed time-series of wind erosion. This measured time-series can then be used for comparison with simulation results from process-based wind erosion models such as the Wind Erosion Prediction System (WEPS), once it has been adapted to the unique aspects of military lands.     

A reconstruction of Archean biological diversity based on molecular fossils from the 2.78 to 2.45 billion-year-old Mount Bruce Supergroup, Hamersley Basin, Western Australia

Bitumens extracted from 2.7 to 2.5 billion-year-old (Ga) shales of the Fortescue and Hamersley Groups in the Pilbara Craton, Western Australia, contain traces of molecular fossils. Based on a combination of molecular characteristics typical of many Precambrian bitumens, their consistently and unusually high thermal maturities, and their widespread distribution throughout the Hamersley Basin, the bitumens can be characterized as ‘probably of Archean age’. Accepting this interpretation, the biomarkers open a new window on Archean biodiversity. The presence of hopanes in the Archean rocks confirms the antiquity of the domain Bacteria, and high relative concentrations of 2α-methylhopanes indicate that cyanobacteria were important primary producers. Oxygenic photosynthesis therefore evolved > 2.7 Ga ago, and well before independent evidence suggests significant levels of oxygen accumulated in the atmosphere. Moreover, the abundance of cyanobacterial biomarkers in shales interbedded with oxide-facies banded iron formations (BIF) indicates that although some Archean BIF might have been formed by abiotic photochemical processes or anoxygenic phototrophic bacteria, those in the Hamersley Group formed as a direct consequence of biological oxygen production. Biomarkers of the 3β-methylhopane series suggest that microaerophilic heterotrophic bacteria, probably methanotrophs or methylotrophs, were active in late Archean environments. The presence of steranes in a wide range of structures with relative abundances like those from late Paleoproterozoic to Phanerozoic sediments is convincing evidence for the existence of eukaryotes in the late Archean, 900 Ma before visible fossil evidence indicates that the lineage arose. Sterol biosynthesis in extant eukaryotes requires molecular oxygen. The presence of steranes together with biomarkers of oxygenic photosynthetic cyanobacteria suggests that the concentration of dissolved oxygen in some regions of the upper water column was equivalent to at least ∼1% of the present atmospheric level (PAL) and may have been sufficient to support aerobic respiration.     

Atmospheric deposition of Be and Be in New Zealand rain (1996-98)

Beryllium isotope concentrations were determined in monthly rainfall collections at three sites across New Zealand (36 to 45° S), from October 1996 to November 1998. At the northern sites of Leigh (near Auckland) and Gracefield (near Wellington), ⁷Be and ¹⁰Be concentrations are relatively constant at 1.2 to 1.4 × 10⁷ atoms kg⁻¹ rain and 2.1 to 2.6 × 10⁷ atoms kg⁻¹ rain, respectively. These concentrations correspond to annual flux rates of ∼15 and ∼27 × 10⁹ atoms m⁻² y⁻¹, respectively. At the southern site of Dunedin, concentrations are similar to those at the northern sites, but flux rates are significantly lower at ∼ 9 and ∼19 × 10⁹ atoms m⁻² y⁻¹, respectively, because of lower average rainfall east of the Southern Alps mountain range. These results are broadly similar to those reported by Brown et al. (1989) and Knies et al. (1994) for rain from midlatitude sites in the USA sampled from 1986 to 1994. Mean ⁷Be/¹⁰Be ratios for New Zealand (0.47 to 0.61) are, however, significantly lower than for the USA (0.69 to 0.78), due in part to the addition of ¹⁰Be from re-suspended dust. Subtraction of the dust component increases the New Zealand ⁷Be/¹⁰Be ratios to 0.70 (Leigh), 0.65 (Gracefield) and 0.50 (Dunedin). The adjusted results provide evidence for transfer of older stratospheric air to the troposphere in late-spring-summer, an effect which is strongest in the north. The overall reduction of ⁷Be/¹⁰Be from north to south implies an increase in residence time from ∼ 80 to ∼100 d for Be isotopes in the atmosphere above New Zealand.     

Southeastern U.S. Vegetation Response to ENSO Events (1989–1999)

El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is considered one of the most powerful forces driving anomalous global weather patterns. Large-scale seasonal precipitation and temperature changes influenced by ENSO have been examined in many areas of the world. The southeastern United States is one of the regions affected by ENSO events. In this study, remote sensing detection of vegetation response to ENSO phases is demonstrated with one-kilometer biweekly Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data (1989–1999) derived from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer(AVHRR). The impacts of three ENSO phases, cold, warm and neutral, on vegetation were analyzed with a focus on two vegetation cover types, two seasons and two geographic regions within the southeastern U.S. Significant ENSO effects on vegetation were found in cropland and forest vegetation cover types based on image and statistical analysis of the NDVI data. The results indicate that vegetation condition was optimal during the ENSO neutral phase for both agricultural and natural vegetation.     

Fingerprinting the Origin of Fluvial Suspended Sediment in Larger River Basins: Combining Assessment of Spatial Provenance and Source Type

Investigation of the potential for using sediment fingerprinting to integrate both spatial provenance and source type information for larger drainage basins appears to be desirable. This contribution presents the results of adopting a composite fingerprinting procedure incorporating statistically verified multicomponent signatures and a multivariate mixing model to provide a preliminary integration of spatial provenance and source type information for the upper and middle reaches of the drainage basins of the Rivers Exe (601 km²) and Severn (4325 km²), UK. A nested approach is employed, whereby spatial provenance is addressed in terms of the distinct sub-basin zones constituting each study area as an entirety, and source type is then characterised within each of these distinct spatial zones in terms of surface (woodland, pasture, cultivated) and subsurface (channel bank) materials. The results demonstrate that the fingerprinting approach possesses considerable potential for integrating spatial provenance and source type information, and hence for improving the resolution of existing sediment source information for larger drainage basins.     

Ion microprobe analysis of oxygen isotope ratios in quartz from Skye granite: healed micro-cracks,fluid flow,and hydrothermal exchange

 Quartz grains in hydrothermally altered granites from the Isle of Skye are highly heterogeneous and not equilibrated in oxygen isotope ratio at the 20 μm scale. Ion microprobe analysis of one grain shows a gradient of 13‰ over 400 μm and a greater range in δ ¹⁸O than all quartz previously analyzed on the Isle of Skye. Other crystals from the same outcrop are homogeneous. Digitized cathodoluminescence images reveal patterns of magmatic zoning and brittle fracturing not otherwise detectable. The ion probe analysis correlates low δ ¹⁸O values on a micro-scale to one set of healed cracks. Thus, quartz exchanges oxygen isotopes primarily by solution and reprecipitation along fractures, in contrast to more reactive feldspar that appears to exchange from the grain boundary inward. Macroscopic models of isotope exchange are not realistic for these rocks; the flow of hydrothermal fluids was heterogeneous, anisotropic and crack controlled. Received: 23 October 1995/Accepted: 9 April 1996     

Melting of albite and dehydration of brucite in H2O–NaCl fluids to 9 kbars and 700–900°C: implications for partial melting and water activities during high pressure metamorphism

 The melting reaction: albite_(solid)+ H₂O_(fluid) =albite-H₂O_(melt) has been determined in the presence of H₂O–NaCl fluids at 5 and 9.2 kbar, and results compared with those obtained in presence of H₂O–CO₂ fluids. To a good approximation, albite melts congruently at 9 kbar, indicating that the melting temperature at constant pressure is principally determined by water activity. At 5 kbar, the temperature (T)- mole fraction (X _(H2O) ) melting relations in the two systems are almost coincident. By contrast, H₂O–NaCl mixing at 9 kbar is quite non-ideal; albite melts ∼70 ^°C higher in H₂O–NaCl brines than in H₂O–CO₂ fluids for X _(H2O) =0.8 and ∼100 ^°C higher for X _(H2O) =0.5. The melting temperature of albite in H₂O–NaCl fluids of X _(H2O)=0.8 is ∼100 ^°C higher than in pure water. The P–T curves for albite melting at constant H₂O–NaCl show a temperature minimum at about 5 kbar. Water activities in H₂O–NaCl fluids calculated from these results, from new experimental data on the dehydration of brucite in presence of H₂O–NaCl fluid at 9 kbar, and from previously published experimental data, indicate a large decrease with increasing fluid pressure at pressures up to 10 kbar. Aqueous brines with dissolved chloride salt contents comparable to those of real crustal fluids provide a mechanism for reducing water activities, buffering and limiting crustal melting, and generating anhydrous mineral assemblages during deep crustal metamorphism in the granulite facies and in subduction-related metamorphism. Low water activity in high pressure-temperature metamorphic mineral assemblages is not necessarily a criterion of fluid absence or melting, but may be due to the presence of low a _(H2O) brines. Received: 17 March 1995/Accepted: 9 April 1996