Spatiotemporal changes in cadmium contamination in the Seine estuary (France)

Cadmium (Cd) is among the major contaminants in the Seine estuary. In the biota, the RNO (Réseau National d’Observation, the French Mussel-Watch) has shown that Cd concentrations in mussels living at the mouth of the estuary are related to changes in inputs to this area of phosphogypsum, a calcium sulphate that is a by-product of the phosphoric acid naturally enriched with Cd. In the water column, Cd concentrations at several key estuary sites show a very marked trend toward decreased contamination in the particles as well as in the dissolved phase. The behavior of Cd in the estuary has been studied between 1991 and 1998 in the framework of the scientific program Seine-Aval. This program has highlighted punctual Cd inputs in the estuarine water column. The partition of Cd between the dissolved and the particulate phase, previously described in various estuaries, is characterized by an intense phenomenon of solubilization in the mixing zone freshwater-seawater, but the colloidal Cd fraction remains low along the whole salinity gradient, about 5% to 10% of the apparent dissolved fraction. Although the decrease of inputs induced a fall of Cd concentrations in the water column, laboratory experiments show that the estuarine particles are far from being exhausted in Cd. Despite continuous efforts to reduce the urban and industrial inputs into the estuarine and coastal waters, the Seine estuary still remains very contaminated by Cd.     

Taxonomic analysis of the Quaternary archaeofauna found at The Lapa do Santo site,Lagoa Santa region,Brazil

The Lapa do Santo archaeological site, located in the Lagoa Santa region, Brazil, represents an important hunter-gatherer occupation dated from the Early and Middle Holocene. Prior studies of archaeofauna dating to this period are few and most of them only provide basic faunal identification with limited information on taphonomic processes. The main goal of this study is to identify the archaeofauna, record the taphonomic processes, and make inferences about its natural (interpreted as the death of the animal in the rockshelter area due to natural causes or due to predation) or anthropic origins. No extinct species (including megamastofauna) were identified. Taxonomic analysis indicated that most faunal remains consist of taxa that may be of mixed origin (natural or anthropic), such as microvertebrates and carnivorous mammals. The Cervidae are the main vertebrate family found in the studied material and these are likely the result of hunting. The Cervidae Ozotoceros support the presence of a fauna that is typical of savannah environments, although the assemblage contains mostly generalist fauna that can thrive in a variety of environments. Very few remains showed clear evidence for taphonomic processes related to human interaction, such as burnt bones.     

Mg-enriched erythrite from Bou Azzer,Anti-Atlas Mountains,Morocco: geochemical and spectroscopic characteristics

Mineralogy and Petrology - Supergene Mg-enriched erythrite, with an average composition (Co2.25Mg0.58Ni0.14Fe0.04Mn0.02 Zn0.02) (As1.97P<0.01O8)·8H2O, accompanied by skutterudite,...     

Dauphiné twinning and texture memory in polycrystalline quartz. Part 3: texture memory during phase transformation

Samples of quartz-bearing rocks were heated above the α (trigonal)–β (hexagonal) phase transformation of quartz (625–950°C) to explore changes in preferred orientation patterns. Textures were measured both in situ and ex situ with neutron, synchrotron X-ray and electron backscatter diffraction. The trigonal–hexagonal phase transformation does not change the orientation of c- and a-axes, but positive and negative rhombs become equal in the hexagonal β-phase. In naturally deformed quartzites measured by neutron diffraction a perfect texture memory was observed, i.e. crystals returned to the same trigonal orientation they started from, with no evidence of twin boundaries. Samples measured by electron back-scattered diffraction on surfaces show considerable twinning and memory loss after the phase transformation. In experimentally deformed quartz rocks, where twinning was induced mechanically before heating, the orientation memory is lost. A mechanical model can explain the memory loss but so far it does not account for the persistence of the memory in quartzites. Stresses imposed by neighboring grains remain a likely cause of texture memory in this mineral with a very high elastic anisotropy. If stresses are imposed experimentally the internal stresses are released during the phase transformation and the material returns to its original state prior to deformation. Similarly, on surfaces there are no tractions and thus texture memory is partially lost.     

Integrating Stalagmite, Vertebrate, and Pollen Sequences to Investigate Holocene Vegetation and Climate Change in the Southern Midwestern United States

Speleothem carbon and oxygen isotopic records from Onondaga Cave, south-central Missouri, and Beckham Creek Cave, north-central Arkansas, are compared with the Cupola Pond and Oldfield Swamp pollen series from southeastern Missouri and the Rodgers Shelter and Modoc Shelter vertebrate biostratigraphic sequences from central Missouri and southwestern Illinois. Similar, and roughly contemporaneous, shifts between deciduous forest and steppe indicators throughout the Holocene are revealed in each database. These independent proxies record steppe conditions between approximately 9000 and 1500 cal yr B.P. A shift toward lighter speleothem carbon may reflect a change from warm and dry to cool and dry conditions between 4500 and 3000 yr B.P. The sensitive response of speleothem δ¹³C to changes in vegetation emphasizes their importance as paleoclimate records in an area containing few other millenial-scale climate proxies.     

Probable Neolithic footprints preserved in inter-tidal peat at Kenfig, South Wales (UK)

Holocene footprints have been reported from several locations around the UK coast preserved within inter-tidal sediments. These sediments are normally fine-grained silts, sands and clays. Here we report potential human footprints preserved in the lower of two inter-tidal peat units exposed on the foreshore at Kenfig in South Wales. The lower peat layer pre-dates 3810 ± 40 BP and its maximum age is constrained by two dates, one of 4930 ± 50 BP and another of 5110 ± 50 BP. The prints may have formed at any point within this time interval. Both peat units formed in a salt marsh, or fen environment, as indicated by the analysis of both diatoms and pollen and have been tentatively assigned to the middle Wentlooge Formation within the Holocene lithostratigraphy established for the Severn Estuary Holocene sequence. The footprints were digitised using an optical laser scanner and are compared to other Holocene human footprints exposed on the Sefton Coast in North West England. In comparison the Kenfig prints have poor anatomical form which may be the result of both the substrate and post-depositional modification. The paper demonstrates the value of using optical laser scanning in the data capture and analysis of transitory archaeological and geological trace evidence.     

The Gondwanan Carboniferous-Permian Boundary Revisited: New Data from Australia and Argentina

The identification and correlation of the Carboniferous-Permian (Gzhelian-Asselian) boundary within the sedimentary sequences of Gondwana has always been a topic of debate. Type latest Carboniferous and earliest Permian marine sequences are characterised by warm tropical faunas and come from the Uralian Region of Russia and Kazakhstan. Faunas include conodonts and fusulinid foraminiferids which are prime tools for correlation. Such faunal groups are absent from most Gondwanan sequences where reliance for correlations must be placed primarily on brachiopods, bivalve molluscs and palynology. The Western Australian marine sequences, with their contained ammonoids, provide a pivotal link for the dating and correlating of Early Permian Gondwanan sequences with those of the type regions and their palynostratigraphical record is essential for trans-Australian correlations and correlations elsewhere throughout Gondwanaland.New data from the fully cored DM Tangorin DDHl bore hole, drilled in the Cranky Corner Basin, New South Wales, Australia, reveals a sequence of descending faunal zones. The stratigraphically highest zone with Eurydesrna cordaturn, encompasses the Late Sakmarian (Sterlitamakian). The middle zone with Torniopsis elongata, Sulciplica c r a m and Trigonotreta tangorini straddles the Sterlitamakian-Tastubian boundary, with the palynomorphs Pseudoreticulatispora pseudoreticulata high in the zone and Granulatisporites confluens low in the zone. An impoverished fauna with Trigonotreta nov., low in the Granulatisporites confluens Zone, is probably of latest Asselian or Tastubian age.Significant new data from Argentina has revealed marine faunas from below the occurrence of Granulatisporites confluens. These are considered to be of Asselian age. Outcrops of the Tupe Formation, with a marine fauna, at La Herradura Creek in the western Paganzo Basin, San Juan Province, are best regarded as being of mid to late Asselian age. The Tupe Fauna has been recognised as the Tivertonia jachalensis-Streptorhynchus inaequiornatus Zone. Previously, this fauna was considered to be of Late Carboniferous or Stephanian age. Three faunal associations are known from the Rio del Peii6n Formation, Rio Blanco Basin, La Rioja Province. The middle assemblage with Tivertonia, Costaturnulus, Kochiproductus and Trigonotreta, appears to correlate well with the Tupe Formation fauna. The lower assemblage, with Streptorhynchus, Etherilosia, Costaturnulus, Trigonotreta and a punctate spiriferid, as well as indeterminate productids, probably of Early Asselian age. The youngest assemblage includes a species ofRhynchopora that is close to Rhynchopora australasica from the latest Asselian-early Tastubian of Western Australia. The marine biostratigraphical data from Argentina has enabled a much greater understanding of the earliest Permian marine faunas to be achieved - a story that is apparently absent from the other cold and cool temperate regions of Gondwana.     

Catchment precipitation processes in the San Francisco valley in southern Ecuador: combined approach using high-resolution radar images and in situ observations

The precise estimation of precipitation quantities in tropical mountain regions is in great demand by ecological and hydrological studies, due to the heterogeneity of the rainfall distribution and the lack of meteorological station data. This study uses radar images and ground station data to provide the required high-resolution precipitation maps. Also wind data are taken into account, due to its influence on the precipitation formation and to demonstrate the relation between synoptic wind, topography and the precipitation distribution inside small mountain valleys. The study analyses the rainfall distribution and amounts of 4 days inside the San Francisco Valley, a small catchment in the tropical Andes of southern Ecuador, representing different seasons and the typical atmospheric flows, which are correlated to the annual precipitation map. The results show that the rainfall distribution and amounts are generally defined by the wind direction and velocity, besides the topographic location in relation to the main barriers and pathways. The dominant wind direction causes a division of the catchment in a wetter eastern and a dryer western part. Moreover, the annual seasons are reversed; the main rainy season for the eastern part occurs between June and August, while the western part reaches the precipitation maximum between January and March. This may have influence on the species composition at the different slopes and the annual hydrological cycle inside the catchment.     

Summer precipitation variability over South America on long and short intraseasonal timescales

A dipole pattern in convection between the South Atlantic convergence zone and the subtropical plains of southeastern South America characterizes summer intraseasonal variability over the region. The dipole pattern presents two main bands of temporal variability, with periods between 10 and 30 days, and 30 and 90 days; each influenced by different large-scale dynamical forcings. The dipole activity on the 30–90-day band is related to an eastward traveling wavenumber-1 structure in both OLR and circulation anomalies in the tropics, similar to that associated with the Madden–Julian oscillation. The dipole is also related to a teleconnection pattern extended along the South Pacific between Australia and South America. Conversely, the dipole activity on the 10–30-day band does not seem to be associated with tropical convection anomalies. The corresponding circulation anomalies exhibit, in the extratropics, the structure of Rossby-like wave trains, although their sources are not completely clear.     

Stable isotope paleohydrology and chemostratigraphy of the Albian Wayan Formation from the wedge-top depozone,North American Western Interior Basin

Understanding of the role of atmospheric moisture and heat transport in the climate system of the Cretaceous greenhouse world represents a major challenge in Earth system science.Stable isotopic paleohydrologic data from mid-Cretaceous paleosols in North America,from paleoequatorial to paleoArctic latitudes,have been used to constrain the oxygen isotope mass balance of the Albian hydrologic cycle.Over the range from 40°-50°N paleolatitude,sideritic paleosols predominate,indicating paleoenvironments with positive precipitation-evaporation(P-E)balances.Local exceptions occur on leeward side of the Sevier Orogen,where calcic paleosols in the wedge-top depozone record paleoenvironments with negative P-E balances in the orographic rain shadow.Stratigraphic sections in the Wayan Formation of Idaho(WF)were sampled from the wedge-top depozone.The units consist of stacked m-scale mudstone paleosols separated by m-scale sandstone-siltstone beds.Sections were sampled for organic carbon isotope profiles,and B-horizons from 6 well-developed paleosols were sampled for detrital zircons to determine maximum depositional ages.The first of these from the WF has produced a U-Pb concordia age of 101.0±1.1 Ma.This same WF section has produced a stratigraphic trend of upwardly decreasingδ~(13)C values ranging from-24‰upwards to-27‰VPDB,suggesting correlation to the late Albian C15 C-isotope segment.Pedogenic carbonates from the WF principally consist of micritic calcite,with carbon-oxygen isotope values that array along meteoric calcite lines(MCLs)withδ~(18)O values that range from-9.47‰up to-8.39‰VPDB.At approximately 42°N paleolatitude,these MCL values produce calculated paleoprecipitation values of-8.12‰to-7.04‰VSMOW,a range that is consistent with the estimates produced from other proxies at the same paleolatitudes across North America.These results indicate that despite the orographic rain shadow effect,the processes of meridional atmospheric moisture transport in this locale were similar to those in more humid mid-latitude paleoenvironments elsewhere in the continent.