Palaeoclimatic studies in South Shetland Islands,Antarctica, based on numerous stratigraphic variables in lake sediments

The hitherto longest found lake sediment sequence on Byers Peninsula, Livingston Island, South Shetland Islands, was analysed with respect to lithology, chronology, diatoms, Pediastrum, pollen and spores, mosses, mineralogy, and sediment chemistry. During the ca. 5000 year long development the sediments were influenced by frequent tephra fall-outs. This volcanic impact played a major role in the lake's history during two periods, 4700–4600 and 2800–2500 BP, but was of importance during the lake's entire history with considerable influence on many of the palaeoenvironmentally significant indicators. The large and complex data set was analysed and zonated with different types of multivariate analysis. This resulted in a subdivision of the sequence into 8 time periods and 21 variables. Redundancy analysis (RDA) of this data set, both without and with the tephra periods, and with 4–6 of the variables as explanatory environmental variables, reveal that climatic/environmental signals are detectable. The palaeoclimatic picture that emerged out of the tephra noise suggests that the first 100 years were characterized by mild, humid conditions. This was followed by a less mild and humid climate until ca. 4000 BP when a gradual warming seems to have started, coupled with increased humidity. These mild and humid conditions seem to have reached an optimum slightly after 3000 BP. At ca. 2500 BP a distinct climatic deterioration occurred with colder and drier conditions and long seasons with ice cover. This arid, cold phase probably reached its optimum conditions at ca. 1500 BP, when slightly warmer conditions might have prevailed for a while. Except for the modern sample with rather mild climate, the last 1400 years seem to have been fairly arid and cold, and the effects of the frequent volcanic activity during this period is only vaguely seen in the records.     

采点和去趋势方法对天山西部云杉上树线树轮宽度年表相关性及其气候信号的影响

针对新疆天山西部伊犁、博州三大山体北坡云杉上树线树木年轮资料,采用区域曲线、负指数曲线、样条函数三种不同生长去趋势方法,研制树轮宽度年表,分析不同采点和树轮去趋势方法对树轮宽度年表在不同频域的相关性及气候信号的影响发现：①采点间的距离和是否位于同一气候区是影响云杉上树线树轮宽度年表间相关性的首要因子。三个采点间的树轮宽度变化,在高频变化方面最为相似,低频变化存在着较大差异,表明它们在揭示和重建大范围的高频气候变化方面可能具有较大的应用潜力。②三种不同去趋势方法对天山西部山脉北坡上树线的云杉树轮宽度年表的研制具有一定影响,负指数和样条函数去趋势方法研制的树轮年表较为相似,而区域曲线去趋势方法研制的树轮宽度年表中则可保留较多的轮宽低频变化信息。③降水是天山西部云杉上树线的树轮宽度生长的主要限制因子,且树轮宽度生长对降水的响应具有显著的滞后性。④在天山西部的云杉上树线采点,使用区域曲线去趋势方法有利于在树轮宽度年表中保留较多的与水分有关的气候信息。     

An anthropo-ecological approach to landscape use optimization

A method of landscape evaluation based on the anthropo-ecological approach is worked out. The procedure consists of three stages, viz., general, special and optimization. Within the general stage, the structural arrangement of the landscape is evaluated by means of the concept of geo-ecological sites (GES), which are distributed into four zones (A, B, C, D) according to the degrees of their anthropic disturbance. The zoning performed makes it possible to select those geo-ecological sites where eco-critical relationships can be expected to appear; in order to eliminate such situations, transition zones are calculated for the geo-ecological sites concerned. The outcome of this approach is a proposal of a new structural arrangement of the geo-ecological sites, solving eco-critical situations and serving as a basis for the special and optimization stages of the anthropo-ecological method.     

Root‐related rhodochrosite and concretionary siderite formation in oxygen‐deficient conditions induced by a ground‐water table rise

Sedimentological, mineralogical, stable carbon and oxygen isotope determinations and biomarker analyses were performed on siderite concretions occurring in terrestrial silts to understand their formation and to characterize the sedimentary and diagenetic conditions favouring their growth. High δ¹³C values (6·4‰ on average) indicate that siderite precipitated in an anoxic environment where bacterial methanogenesis operated. The development of anoxic conditions during shallow burial was induced by a change in sedimentary environment from flood plain to swamp, related to a rise of the ground‐water table. Large amounts of decaying plant debris led to efficient oxygen consumption within the pore‐water in the peat. Oxygen depletion, in combination with a decrease in sedimentation rate, promoted anoxic diagenetic conditions under the swamp and favoured abundant siderite precipitation. This shows how a change in sedimentary conditions can have a profound impact on the early‐diagenetic environment and carbonate authigenesis. The concretions contain numerous rhizoliths; they are cemented with calcium‐rhodochrosite, a feature which has not been reported before. The rhodochrosite cement has negative δ¹³C values (?16·5‰ on average) and precipitated in suboxic conditions due to microbial degradation of roots coupled to manganese reduction. The exceptional preservation of the epidermis/exodermis and xylem vessels of former root tissues indicates that the rhodochrosite formed shortly after the death of a root in water‐logged sediments. Rhodochrosite precipitated during the initial stages of concretionary growth in suboxic microenvironments within roots, while siderite cementation occurred simultaneously around them in anoxic conditions. These suboxic microenvironments developed because oxygen was transported from the overlying oxygenated soil into sediments saturated with anoxic water via roots acting as permeable conduits. This model explains how separate generations of carbonate cements having different mineralogy and isotopic compositions, which would conventionally be regarded as cements precipitated sequentially in different diagenetic zones during gradual burial, can form simultaneously in shallow burial settings where strong redox gradients exist around vertically oriented permeable root structures.     

Temperature-time dependence of the electrical conductivity of garnets

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Sudden ionospheric disturbances and flare activity in the course of the solar cycle no 20

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