Dry and wet atmospheric deposition of organic carbon in coastal and water areas of the northeastern part of the Sea of Azov

The paper reports on new data focusing on organic carbon contained in aeolian material and precipitation falling on coastal and water areas of the northeastern part of the Sea of Azov. Atmospheric deposition was sampled in 2006–2014. The particulate organic carbon content varied from 4 to 27% in aeolian dust samples. The concentration of the organic carbon dissolved in rainwater was from 1.6 to 4.3 mg C/L, and from 0.9 to 16.6 mg C/L in snow. The particulate organic carbon content varied from 2 to 43% in snow. Intensity of aeolian dust settling decreased from 178 to 33 mg/m² per day with distance from a source of dust; in contrast, the relative content of organic matter increased. In a spring–summer season the aeolian organic carbon fluxes varied from 12 to 18 mg C/m² per day in Rostov-on-Don, from 28 to 48 mg C/m² per day on the Gulf of Taganrog coast, and from 20 to 80 mg C/m² per day in the water area of the Gulf of Taganrog.     

Complexation of Gold(III)-Chloride at the Surface of Hematite

The acid/base properties of the hematite/water interface and surfacecomplexation with gold has been studied by potentiometric titrations in thefour component system H⁺ – FeOH –AuCl ₄ ^- – Cl^-. Equilibrium measurementswere performed in NaCl media at 298.2 K. In the evaluation of equilibriummodel from experimental data the constant capacitance model was applied. Theacid/base properties were investigated in 0.1 M NaCl in the range 2.6 pH 7.4. The resulting intrinsic constants for protonation anddeprotonation of hydroxyl groups at the surface were log _1,1,0,0(int) ^s = 7.10 ± 0.06 andlog _{-1,1,0,0(int)} ^s = - 7.80 ±0.06. The density of proton active surface sites was 2.85nm^-2 and the specific capacitance 2.5 C V^-1 m^-2. In the investigation of surface complexation of gold, thepotentiometric titrations were performed in the range 2.0 pH 10.2.Titration data was supplemented with analysis of Au in the aqueous phase byatomic absorbance spectrometry. The equilibrium model proposed consists ofthe following monodentate surface complexes: FeOHAuCl₃(log _0,1,1,-1 ^s = 1.45 ± 0.03),FeOHAuCl₂OH (log _-1,1,1,-2 ^s = -3.89 ± 0.02), FeOHAu(OH)₃ (log _-3,1,1,-4 ^s = -21.94 ± 0.05). Aslightly better fit could be obtained by assuming formation of a bidentatecomplex with the composition(FeO)₂Au(OH)H₂O. However, based onstructural arguments this complex was rejected.     

Phosphate Lu–Hf geochronology

Igneous, metamorphic and biogenic apatite contains Lu and Hf in proportions that make this mineral suitable for dating by the ¹⁷⁶Lu–¹⁷⁶Hf method. We present a new method for separation of Lu and Hf from apatite that involves a single extraction column step for Hf and a second exchange column step for Lu. This procedure allows rapid sample processing prior to analysis by MC-ICP-MS. Results from the igneous Gardiner, Skaergaard and Khibina Intrusions indicate that the closure temperature for the Lu–Hf isotopic system in apatite is relatively high. The Lu–Hf isochron age of 60 Ma for the Skaergaard Intrusion, East Greenland, is older than the generally accepted emplacement age, but does not appear to be a product of mixing. A centimeter-sized apatite from the Otter Lake area, Grenvillian Province, yields high and variable ¹⁷⁶Lu/¹⁷⁷Hf ratios showing that metamorphic apatite may, in some cases, allow for mono-mineral dating. The most important application of the method is undoubtedly its potential use for dating sedimentary formations. Although we find biogenic apatite in porous matrix highly susceptible to post-depositional resetting of the Lu–Hf isotopic system, the preservation of a near-depositional age for a shark tooth from the impermeable London Clay and recent work on crystalline authigenic phosphorites [Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 201 (2002) 203] show the Lu–Hf system to be a promising tool for direct dating of sedimentary formations.     

Community Structure of Free-living Marine Nematodes in the Area of Agar-Producing Alga Ahnfeltia To b u c h i e n s i s Field (Starka Strait,Peter the Great Bay,East Sea)

The structure of the nematodes communities has been studied in the sediments on two sites located outside and under the layer ofAhnfeltia tobuchiensis (Kanno and Matsubara 1932; Makijenko 1970). Bottom sediments at the stations were represented by sands with a different degree of silting. Specific structure of nematodes at the stations was significantly different under the similar environmental conditions (water depth, dissolved oxygen saturation, salinity, temperature of the bottom layer and organic carbon content inside of the sediment). Nematodes dominated (75.7 %) in meiobenthos community under the layer of A.tobuchiensis where concentration of silt particles was 12 %. Representatives of the family Comesomatidae were dominant. Low index of species diversity and high Simpson domination index were detected in this community. Under a layer ofA. tobuchiensis with the thickness of 30 cm concentration of the silt particles was 5.39 %; nematodes density was low and made 32.1 % of the general density of meiobenthos. Species of the families Xyalidae and Monoposthiidae were dominant. Outside of A.tobuchiensis, field percentage of silt particles was minimal (3.1 %) and representatives of families Cyatholaimidae and Axonolaimidae dominated. The specific structure of nematodes in this type of the ground is characterized by high index of species diversity and low level of domination.     

Millennium scale environment changes of the Okhotsk Sea during last 80 kyr and their phase relationship with global climate changes

The paper presents the records of several paleoproductivity proxies (PP) (biogenic opal and Ba (Si_bio, Ba_bio), organic carbon (C_org) and carbonate Ca_carb, chlorin and benthic foraminifera abundance (BFA)) in sediments of the Okhotsk Sea for the last 80 kyr with a resolution of ∼100–300 years. The sediment age model was based on the AMS ¹⁴C data, records of benthic foraminifera δ¹⁸O, paleointensity of the Earth’s geomagnetic field and magnetic susceptibility. PP values demonstrate series of severe prolonged productivity drops in the Okhotsk Sea followed by a sharp increase during the last glaciation. On the basis of quantitative estimations of the paleoproductivity in the Okhotsk Sea during the cold MIS 2 and warm Holocene (Gorbarenko and Goldberg, 2005), it is suggested that the millennium scale relationship in productivity-climate changes of this basin was similar: an increase in the sea’s productivity was related with regional climate warming and vice-versa. The PP records of productivity/climate oscillations in the Okhotsk Sea during MIS 2–4 occurred contemporaneously with the North Atlantic cold Heinrich events (HE) and Greenland Dansgaard-Oyeshger interstadial (DOI). Observed successions of prolonged climate cooling events followed by rapid, abrupt warming are similar to climate and environmental oscillations in the N. Atlantic and Greenland, that confirms the millennium-scale climate changes synchronicities in the Northern Hemisphere including the far NW Pacific, the hydrology and climate conditions of which are close to those of the Okhotsk Sea. Synchronism of the N. Hemisphere severe cooling (including the Okhotsk Sea) with the Antarctic warming suggests that mechanisms of the “seesaw” effect (Blunier and Brook, 2001) in the low latitude heat redistribution between high latitudes of both hemispheres were more complicated than direct NADW formation forcing and encompasses the global atmospheric reorganization. Within the PP used a closer connection in the Okhotsk Sea millennium oscillations was observed for the C_org, BFA and chlorin; Ba_bio increases more closely to DOI. Si_bio variability does not show any evident correlation with productivity changes.     

Subcellular Distribution of Heavy Metals in Organs of BivalveModiolus Modiolus Living Along a Metal Contamination Gradient

Concentration and distribution of Fe, Zn, Cu, Cd, Mn, Pb, Ni among subcellular fractions (cellular membrane structures and cytosol) and Zn, Cu, Cd among cytoplasmic proteins in the kidney and digestive gland of musselModiolus modiolus living along a polymetallic concentration gradient were studied. It was found in the kidney ofM. modiolus from contaminated sites that the Fe percent increased in the “membrane” fraction, whereas Zn, Pb, Ni and Mn percent increased in the cytosol compared to the kidney of the control mussel. Note kidney cytosol ofM. modiolus from clean and contaminated sites sequestered major parts of Cu and Cd. In the digestive gland ofM. modiolus from contaminated sites Fe, Zn, Cd, Mn, Ni percent increased in the “membrane” fraction, whereas Cu, Pb percent increased in the cytosol compared to digestive gland of control mussel. Gel-filtration chromatography shows kidney ofM. modiolus contains increased metallothionein-like protein levels irrespective of ambient dissolved metal concentrations. It was shown that the metal detoxification system in the kidney and digestive gland ofM. modiolus was efficient under extremely high ambient metal levels. However, under complex environmental contamination in the kidney ofM. modiolus, the metal detoxification capacity of metallothionein-like proteins was damaged.     

State University and Russian Academy of Sciences as contributors to the innovative restructuring of Moscow

Both University and Academy of Sciences have traditionally been important economic actors of the Russian capital city, although their research activity was covered mostly from the federal budget. Links with Moscow city authorities have been regulated from the top (Communist party directives etc.) and channelled within focused research programs, hardly financed extra to stable budget salaries. At the present stage, when more and more financial mechanisms are involved, their links with Moscow Government are based on initiative from the bottom and look rather like a survival strategy than as a real motivated innovative activity. Academy seems to be more successful in establishing network of contract research for the city: in 1993– 95 out of 83 proposals 55 have been financed through the cooperation program Academy to Moscow, Moscow to the Academy (most of them in the field of environment, industry, transport, cultural heritage and healthcare). Out of 159 university proposals only 9 were selected and none really financed. In reality links between scientists and Moscow government are much more intensive than officially registered due to their participation in expert commissions, consultancies and research contracts, developed on the basis of informal networks. University science park is a special case-study in this paper, providing an example of a successful innovative activity in Moscow. The main barriers for the use of innovative potential of the main Russian fundamental science centres in Moscow are 1) the lack of economic innovative policy by the city authorities, 2) weakly developed mechanisms of bringing the results of fundamental research into practice, 3) rising taxes, other intermediate charges and bureaucratic obstacles, making any kind of research activity for the benefit of Moscow economically disadvantageous, 4) low synergy effect of technologically innovative research, 5) conservatism of a big part of the personnel (especially in the University) and negative attitude to any kind of commercial activity in cathedrals of science. Nevertheless, there are evident signs that the role of Academy and University in creation of innovative millieu in Moscow is growing, both as producing new knowledge and labour force training, and as centres of direct enterpreneurial activity (see Castells and Hall 1994).     

Analysis of the annual mean energy cycle of the Black Sea circulation for the climatic,basin-scale and eddy regimes

Ocean Dynamics - This work presents an analysis of the Lorenz energy cycles derived from the simulation results of the Black Sea circulation. Three numerical experiments are carried out based on an...     

The Oldest Evidence for Human Habitation in the Baltic Region: A Preliminary Report on the Chronology and Archaeological Context of the Riadino‐5 Archaeological Site

We report the discovery of the oldest evidence for human presence in the southeastern Baltic Sea region. This paper presents an overview of the Riadino‐5 archaeological site in the lower course of the Šešupė River (Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia) and direct infrared stimulated luminescence (IRSL) ages for the culture‐bearing sediments from the site, which place the time of occupation well within the range of Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3 (ca 57–26 ka). Luminescence ages were determined using the multiple‐aliquot additive‐dose technique, applied to sand‐sized potassium feldspar. Four of the six IRSL samples from the site come from the cultural deposits, while two are from the surrounding sediments. The luminescence age of the deposits implies that human occupation of the southeastern Baltic Sea region occurred at least between 50 ka and 44 ka during the first half of MIS 3 and the Middle‐Upper Paleolithic.