Carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios in surface sediments from lakes of western Ireland: implications for inferring past lake productivity and nitrogen loading

We used statistical analyses to determine which subset of 36 environmental variables best explained variations in surface sediment δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N from 50 lakes in western Ireland that span a human-impact gradient. The factors controlling lake sediment δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N depended on whether organics in the lake sediment were mostly derived from the lake catchment (allochthonous) or from productivity within the lake (autochthonous). Lake sediments with a dominantly allochthonous organic source (high C:N ratio sediments) produced δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N measurements similar to values from catchment vegetation. δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N measurements from lake sediments with a dominantly autochthonous organic source (low C:N ratio sediments) were influenced by fractionation in the lake and catchment leading up to assimilation of carbon and nitrogen by lacustrine biota. δ¹³C values from lake sediment samples in agricultural catchments were more negative than δ¹³C values from lake sediment samples in non-impacted, bogland catchments. Hypolimnetic oxygen concentrations and methane production had a greater influence on δ¹³C values than fractionation due to algal productivity. δ¹⁵N from lake sediment samples in agricultural catchments were more positive than δ¹⁵N in non-impacted bogland catchments. Lower δ¹⁵N values from non-impacted lake catchments reflected δ¹⁵N values of catchment vegetation, while higher δ¹⁵N values in agricultural catchments reflected the high δ¹⁵N values of cattle manure and inorganic fertilisers. The influence of changing nitrogen sources and lake/catchment fractionation processes were more important than early diagenesis for lake sediment δ¹⁵N values in this dataset. The results from this study suggest a possible influence of bound inorganic nitrogen on the bulk sediment δ¹⁵N values. We recommend using a suitable method to control for bound inorganic nitrogen in lake sediments, especially when working with clay-rich sediments. This study confirms the usefulness of δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N from bulk lake sediments, as long as we are mindful of the multiple factors that can influence these values. This study also highlights how stable isotope datasets from lake surface sediments can complement site-specific isotope source/process studies and help identify key processes controlling lake sediment δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N in a study area.     

Correlation of the Rockland ash bed,a 400,000-year-old stratigraphic marker in northern California and western Nevada,and implications for middle Pleistocene paleogeography of central California

Outcrops of an ash bed at several localities in northern California and western Nevada belong to a single air-fall ash layer, the informally named Rockland ash bed, dated at about 400,000 yr B.P. The informal Rockland pumice tuff breccia, a thick, coarse, compound tephra deposit southwest of Lassen Peak in northeastern California, is the near-source equivalent of the Rockland ash bed. Relations between initial thickness of the Rockland ash bed and distances to eruptive source suggest that the eruption was at least as great as that of the Mazama ash from Crater Lake, Oregon. Identification of the Rockland tephra allows temporal correlation of associated middle Pleistocene strata of diverse facies in separate depositional basins. Specifically, marine, littoral, estuarine, and fluvial strata of the Hookton and type Merced formations correlate with fluvial strata of the Santa Clara Formation and unnamed alluvium of Willits Valley and the Hollister area, in northwestern and west-central California, and with lacustrine beds of Mohawk Valley, fluvial deposits of the Red Bluff Formation of the eastern Sacramento Valley, and fluvial and glaciofluvial deposits of Fales Hot Spring, Carson City, and Washoe Valley areas in northeastern California and western Nevada. Stratigraphic relations of the Rockland ash bed and older tephra layers in the Great Valley and near San Francisco suggest that the southern Great Valley emerged above sea level about 2 my ago, that its southerly outlet to the ocean was closed sometime after about 2 my ago, and that drainage from the Great Valley to the ocean was established near the present, northerly outlet in the vicinity of San Francisco Bay about 0.6 my ago.     

泾河流域生态系统服务消耗及变化认知分析：基于农户问卷调查和参与式社区评估

本文以黄土高原泾河流域上游固原市为例,采用农户问卷调查和参与式社区评估方法,研究农户对生态系统服务认知及消费,并对两种方法认知结果进行比较分析。研究发现,农户问卷调查方法农户认知到食物供给、净化空气、净化环境、水土保持、供给洁净水、减少自然灾害、提高收入、薪柴供给、景观愉悦、牧草供给和防风固沙11项生态系统服务,农户日常对生态系统服务的占有和消耗及生态系统服务对农户的重要性程度影响农户对生态系统服务的认知;参与式社区评估（PRA）方法农户可以充分进行信息交流与讨论,与农户问卷调查法相比对生物多样性服务有了认知。研究区生态系统服务发生很大变化,食物供给和薪柴供给服务明显减弱,收入增加;受生态系统服务变化及收入水平的影响,农户食物和能源消费存在明显时空差异,总体而言,农户食物消费总量下降,大部分农户薪柴消费数量减少,农户对蔬菜、肉类、煤炭、天然气等的消费量增加。     

Primary production and nutrient assimilation in the Iberian upwelling in August 1998

Primary production was measured during two Lagrangian experiments in the Iberian upwelling. The first experiment, in a body of upwelled water, measured day-to-day changes in phytoplankton activity as the water mass moved south along the shelf break. Nutrient concentrations decreased over a five day period, with concomitant increases in phytoplankton biomass. Initially the maximum phytoplankton biomass was in the upper 10m but after four days, a sub-surface chlorophyll maximum was present at 30m. Depth-integrated primary production at the beginning of the experiment was 70mmolC.m⁻².d⁻¹ (838mgC.m⁻².d⁻¹) and reached a maximum of 88mmolC.m⁻².d⁻¹ (1053mgC.m⁻².d⁻¹) on day 3. On day 1, the picoplankton fraction (<2μm) was slightly more productive than larger (>5μm) phytoplankton, but the increase in overall production during the drift experiment was by these larger cells. Nitrate was the dominant nitrogen source. As nutrient concentrations declined, ammonium became increasingly more important as a nitrogen source and the f-ratio decreased from 0.7 to 0.5. Picoplankton cells (<2μm) were responsible for most (65–80%) of the ammonium uptake. The C:N:P uptake ratios were very close to the Redfield ratio for the first four days but as nutrients became depleted high C:N uptake ratios (11 to 43) were measured. Over the period of the experiment, nitrate concentration within the upper 40m decreased by 47.91mmolN.m⁻². In vitro estimates, based on ¹⁵N nitrate uptake, accounted for 56% of the decrease in nitrate concentration observed in the drifting water mass. Ammonium uptake over the same four day period was 16.28mmolN.m⁻², giving a total nitrogen uptake of 43.18mmolN.m⁻².In the second experiment, an offshore filament was the focus and a water mass was sampled as it moved offshore. Nutrient concentrations were very low (nitrate was <10nmol l⁻¹ and ammonium was 20–40nmol l⁻¹). Primary production rate varied between 36mmolC.m⁻².d⁻¹ (436mgC.m⁻².d⁻¹) and 21mmolC.m⁻².d⁻¹ (249mgC.m⁻².d⁻¹). Picophytoplankton was the most productive fraction and was responsible for a constant proportion (ca 0.65) of the total carbon fixation. Uptake rates of both nitrate and ammonium were between 10 and 20% of those measured in the upwelling region. Urea could be a very significant nitrogen source in these waters with much higher uptake rates than nitrate or ammonium; urea turnover times were ca. one day but the source of the urea remains unknown. Urea uptake had a profound effect on calculated f ratios. If only nitrate and ammonium uptake was considered, f ratios were calculated to be 0.42–0.46 but inclusion of urea uptake reduced the f ratio to <0.1. The primary production of this oligotrophic off-shore filament was driven by regenerated nitrogen.     

Off-shelf fluxes of labile materials by an upwelling filament in the NW Iberian Upwelling System

Daily changes in the concentrations of carbon and nitrogen species were monitored during the course of a Lagrangian drifter experiment in a recurrent upwelling filament south of Cape Finisterre (NW Iberian Upwelling System). A drifting buoy released at the southern edge of the upwelling centre generated by the Cape moved 60km southwestwards from 3 to 7 August 1998. Organic matter in the 50m deep study water mass (average 77±2 μM C) consisted of: 57μM C of dissolved organic matter (DOM) with a C/N molar ratio of 19±2; 6μM C of DOM with a C/N ratio of 9±2, and 14μM C of 50% DOM and 50% suspended organic matter (POM_susp) with a C/N ratio of 6.0±0.4.Net conversion of consumed inorganic salts into accumulated TOM=POM_susp+DOM was 40% for nitrogen and 30% for carbon. Since the parcel of water crossed the shelf-edge, these conversion efficiencies are equivalent to net horizontal export-ratio of 0.4 and 0.3 respectively. A second drifter was deployed in the offshore-end of the filament, and was displaced 20km west between 14 and 17 August 1998. Nitrate was exhausted in the surface water and no significant changes were observed in the variables measured during the course of the second experiment. Low C/N ratios (6.5±0.4) and rapid POM_susp/DOM inter-conversion in the 20 μM C excess observed in the study volume points to the persistence of the labile materials formed on the shelf during transport to the ocean. Our data demonstrate

a) the key role of upwelling filaments in off-shelf export of organic materials and

b) the major contribution of DOM to this horizontal export, a previously unaccounted amount.

The high nitrogen content of the materials exported make them attractive organic substrates for use by microbial populations in the adjacent oligotrophic ocean.