Biota: sediment partitioning of aluminium smelter related PAHs and pulp mill related diterpenes by intertidal clams at Kitimat, British Columbia

The question of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) bioavailability and its relationship to specific PAH sources with different PAH binding characteristics is an important one, because bioavailability drives PAH accumulation in biota and ultimately the biochemical responses to the PAH contaminants. The industrial harbour at Kitimat (British Columbia, Canada) provides an ideal location to study the bioavailability and bioaccumulation of sediment hydrocarbons to low trophic level biota. Samples of soft shell clams (Mya arenaria) and intertidal sediment collected from multiple sites over six years at various distances from an aluminium smelter and a pulp and paper mill were analysed for 106 PAHs, plant diterpenes and other aromatic fraction hydrocarbons. Interpretation using PAH source ratios and multivariate data analysis reveals six principal hydrocarbon sources: PAHs in coke, pitch and emissions from anode combustion from the aluminium smelter, vascular plant terpenes and aromatised terpenes from the pulp and paper mill, petroleum PAHs from shipping and other anthropogenic activities and PAHs from natural plant detritus. Harbour sediments predominantly contain either pitch or pyrogenic PAHs from the smelter, while clams predominantly contain plant derived PAHs and diterpenes from the adjacent pulp mill. PAHs from the smelter have low bioavailability to clams (Biota-Sediment Accumulation Factors; BSAFs <1 for pitch and coke; <10 for anode combustion, decreasing to ∼0.1 for the mass 300 and 302 PAHs), possibly due to binding to pitch or soot carbon matrices. Decreases in PAH isomer ratios between sediments and clams likely reflect a combination of variation in uptake kinetics of petroleum PAHs and compound specific metabolism, with the importance of petroleum PAHs decreasing with increasing molecular weight. Plant derived compounds exhibit little natural bioaccumulation at reference sites, but unsaturated and aromatised diterpenes released from resins by industrial pulping processes are readily accumulated by the clams (BSAFs >500). Thus while most of the smelter associated PAHs in sediments may not be bioavailable to benthic organisms, the plant terpenes (including retene, totarol, ferruginol, manool, dehydroabietane and other plant terpenes that form the chemical defence mechanism of conifers) released by pulp mills are bioavailable and possess demonstrated toxic properties. The large scale release of plant terpenes by some of the many pulp mills located in British Columbia and elsewhere represents a largely undocumented risk to aquatic biota.     

Long-term regional hurricane hazard analysis for wind and storm surge

This paper introduces a new method to estimate the long-term regional hurricane wind and storm surge hazard. The output is a relatively small set of hurricane scenarios that together represent the regional hazard. For each scenario, the method produces a hazard-consistent annual occurrence probability, and wind speeds and surge levels throughout the study area. These scenarios can be used for subsequent evacuation or loss estimation modeling. This optimization-based probabilistic scenario (OPS) method involves first simulating tens of thousands of candidate hurricane scenarios with wind speeds and approximate surge depths. A mixed-integer linear optimization is then used to select a subset of scenarios and assign hazard-consistent annual occurrence probabilities to each. Finally, a surge model is used to estimate accurate surge depths for the reduced set of events. The method considers the correlation between winds and surge depths and the spatial correlations of each; it is computationally efficient; and it makes explicit the tradeoff between the number of scenarios selected and the errors introduced by using a reduced set of events. A case study for Eastern North Carolina is presented in which a final set of 97 hurricanes provides unbiased results with errors small enough for many practical uses.     

MARKET TRADE IN DECENTRALIZED DEVELOPMENT: THE CASE OF CAJAMARCA,PERU *

Decentralized development views market trade and market towns as part of a comprehensive strategy to divert economic development away from major metropolitan areas. Seventy-one traders were surveyed in the central market of Cajamarca, Peru in 1981. Most are women earning minimal incomes, primarily because of price controls and expensive credit. Stimulating market trade as it is currently organized seems unlikely to assist migrants in secondary towns or to stimulate agricultural development in their hinterlands.     

Limb darkening of meteorites and asteroids

This paper presents the results of a laboratory study of the limb darkening, near opposition, of the carbonaceous chondrites Orgueil (C1), Murchison (C2), and Allende (C3), the ordinary chondrite Bruderheim (L6), and a stainless-steel powder. These materials represent possible analogs for the surface materials of C, S, and M asteroids respectively. At low phase angles, the limb-darkening behavior of all materials studied is well represented by Minnaert's law. For carbonaceous chondrites, the Minnaert limb-darkening parameter k is nearly independent of wavelength for wavelengths between 0.4 and 0.9 μm, with a typical value of k = 0.55. The reflectance parameter, B₀, varies from 0.045 to 0.065 over the same range of wavelengths. Both k and B₀ are larger for the stainless-steel powder and the ordinary chondrite, due to the increased importance of multiple scattering in the surface layer. If no limb darkening were present, k would equal $\text{1}\text{2}$ and the geometric albedo (p) of an asteroid would equal the normal reflectance $\text{(r}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>n</mtext>}}\text{? B}{}_0\text{)}$ of its surface material. For bodies whose surface material is appreciably limb darkened, the geometric albedo measured at the telescope will be lower than the true normal reflectance of surface material; we estimate that for S and M objects r_n ? 1.05 p. In the case of nonspherical asteroids, because the distribution of incidence and emission angles varies as the asteroid rotates, the geometric albedo must change with aspect. If limb darkening is not considered when interpreting asteroid light curves, the values of b/a derived will be too extreme. This effect is probably too small to be observed for C asteroids, because of their intrinsically low reflectances, but could be appreciable for S and M objects.     

The dynamics of a bathymetrically arrested estuarine front

The mixing and circulation associated with a bathymetrically arrested estuarine front was studied using hydrographic and current data. A quasisteady front, exhibiting strongly convergent surface flows, is formed along the steeply sloping inner margins of the flood tide delta during each semidiurnal tide cycle. This front separates the brackish ambient water within a deep estuarine basin from the incoming oceanic tidal water. The position of the front is dependent on the local water depth and the difference in density between the two water masses. Beneath the surface there is an inclined frontal interface where static stability is very low and vertical mixing intense. A vertically integrated horizontal momentum equation was derived for flow in the upper layer and an estimate made as to the value of the associated entrainment coefficient.     

On the Binary Nature of SS 433

We present time–resolved optical spectroscopy of the famous X-ray binary SS 433. We obtained 61 medium resolution spectra spread over three months and thus cover roughly five orbits and about half a precession phase. We used various emission lines, that we attribute to the accretion disc, to determine the radial velocities of the compact component. They are of course modulated with the orbital period but in addition show a variation of the system velocity on a longer time scale. With the present data it is not possible to determine whether this is a transient effect or a periodic variation, although we present various possible interpretations of this effect.     

Spectroscopy of the Candidate Pre-CV LTT 560

We present preliminary results on spectroscopic data of the candidate pre-cataclysmic variable LTT 560. A fit to the flux-calibrated spectrum reveals the temperature of the white-dwarf primary to be T _eff=7000–7500 K, and confirms the result of previous studies on the detection of an M5V secondary star. The analysis of radial velocity data from spectral features attributed to the primary and the secondary star show evidence for low-level accretion.     

A new U–Pb zircon age and a volcanogenic model for the early Permian Chemnitz Fossil Forest

International Journal of Earth Sciences - The Chemnitz Fossil Forest depicts one of the most completely preserved forest ecosystems in late Paleozoic Northern Hemisphere of tropical Pangaea. Fossil...