Retene and resin acid concentrations in sediment profiles of a lake recovering from exposure to pulp mill effluents

The stratigraphy of resin acids (pimaric, isopimaric, sandaracopimaric, dehydroabietic and abietic acids) and base neutral compounds (retene, tetrahydroretene, dehydroabietin and fichtelite) in sediments of a lake recovering after the mill closure from exposure to effluents from sulphite pulp mill was studied. The highest concentrations of these compounds were detected 1.5 km downstream from the effluent pipe in sediment depth of 7–11 cm. This sediment layer is approximately 30 yrs old. The highest concentration of resin acids was 1100 and of retene 3300 g/g d.w. The retene concentration observed is the highest reported in the literature so far. The results imply that high concentrations of retene may be common in sediments of Finnish lakes polluted by pulp mill effluents.     

Changes in zoobenthic community structure after pollution abatement from fish farms in the Archipelago Sea (N. Baltic Sea)

Long-term changes in sediment macrofauna communities at two sites affected by fish farming in the Archipelago Sea, south-west Finland have been investigated. Sampling stations in the S?rk?nsalmi Strait and Kaukolanlahti Bay, previously investigated 1982-1991, were revisited in 1994, 1995 and 1998 to detect signs of recovery following a decrease in organic load since 1990 and 1991, respectively. The results indicate a partial recovery in S?rk?nsalmi during post-pollution years, whereas no improvement has taken place in Kaukolanlahti. The improvement in S?rk?nsalmi is shown by a significant increase in the number of species and total abundance, and by the community structures becoming more similar over time. On the other hand, a significantly decreased number of species, abundance and biomass values over time as well as the occurrence of defaunated anoxic sediments, are clear signs of continued deterioration in Kaukolanlahti. Differences in the recovery potential of the two water areas are interpreted as consequences of topography and water exchange patterns causing differences in oxygen saturation.     

Importance of diffuse nutrient loading and lake level changes to the eutrophication of an originally oligotrophic boreal lake: a palaeolimnological diatom and chironomid analysis

The recent environmental history of Lake Lappajärvi in western Finland (63°00 N, 23°30 E, area 149 km²), a humic, brown water lake with an average phosphorus content of ca. 20 g l^–1, was studied from short core sediment samples taken from the two main basins of the lake. Based on the stratigraphy of diatoms and chironomids and the sediment quality it was possible to distinguish four developmental stages during the past century: (1) a pre-industrial stage covering the time up to about 1935; (2) a stage of increasing nutrient loading (ca. 1936–1960); (3) a stage of pronounced erosion from lake level regulation and extensive ditching of the catchment area (ca. 1960–1970); and (4) a meso-eutrophic stage from ca. 1970 onwards.Acidophilous Aulacoseira distans coll. and other species typical of dystrophic, nutrient-poor lakes characterized the diatom assemblages during the first stage, and the profundal zoobenthic assemblages, characterized by Heterotrissocladius subpilosus and Micropsectra, indicated good hypolimnetic oxygen conditions and a low sedimentation of organic matter (approx. less than 50 g m^–2 a^–1). The increased loading rapidly led to changes both in diatoms and chironomids (e.g., to an early extinction of H. subpilosus in the 1950s). The process finally led to eutrophication with a successive proliferation of diatom species such as Asterionella formosa followed by Aulacoseira ambigua, Fragilaria crotonensis, and finally Melosira varians. The relative proportion of alkaliphilous species reached a maximum in the final stage and the original profundal chironomid fauna was replaced by Chironomus anthracinus gr. and C. plumosus which are typical of profundal areas suffering from temporal oxygen deficit. It is notable that the considerable decrease in waste water loading from the point sources (80–86% ) during the past two decades has not led to a recovery in the lake. This highlights the importance of diffuse loading from agriculture, forestry and other human activities even to this comparatively large lake.     

A GPS-Based Online Control and Alarm System

A global positioning system (GPS)-based online control and alarm system (GOCA) for monitoring of three-dimensional movements has been developed at the Karlsruhe University of Technology. The GOCA hardware consists of an array of GPS sensors and communication units to be placed in the monitoring area. The hardware-dependent control software communicates with the GPS sensors and provides the GPS baseline data and covariance information to the GOCA deformation analysis software. The GOCA center, which comprises both the control software and the GOCA software, may be linked – for example, over a long distance – to another personal computer (PC) that serves as a remote control station. GOCA is able to provide the full capabilities of classical deformation analysis online (with stations grouped into stable points and moving object points). Both types of points may be occupied either continuously or over short periods at different times. The object points are determined with respect to the stable points. A network adjustment is performed for each interval of data collection, and the coordinate and covariance information may optionally be transformed into a specific reference system (e. g., the building system). Unstable reference points are to be detected by statistical tests. The estimated object point time series are filtered with respect to gross errors using robust estimation techniques. Online filters are used to smooth the time series data of critical displacements and to predict other deformation functions. The time series data, as well as prediction results, are displayed graphically for each object point. An example concerning the online monitoring of a slag heap in a coal-mining area is included. ? 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Seismic Attenuation in Partially Saturated Dime-shaped Cracks

—We have examined the effect of surface contamination on the attenuation and stiffness of compressional seismic waves in artificial cylindrical glass cracks that are partially saturated with water. The compression of the gap perpendicularly to its plane reduces the gap volume and forces the water to redistribute within the gap (conservation of volume of an incompressible liquid). On clean surfaces, the water can flow without significant resistance across the glass. This leads to a very low and almost constant attenuation over a wide frequency range (approx. 3 mHz to 10 Hz), while the sample stiffness is constant. In the case of propanol contaminated surfaces, both the attenuation and the stiffness are considerably higher than in the clean case, and display a considerable frequency dependence. Both effects can be explained with the Restricted Meniscus Motion Model. In this model, the redistribution of the liquid in the gap first leads to a change (increase) of the contact angle. The change of the meniscus curvature results in an increase of the pressure in the liquid and thus to a stiffening of the sample. When the resistive force, that prevents the contact line from sliding along the surface, is finally overcome, the contact line starts moving across the contaminated surface. The motion against the resistive force dissipates energy and increases the attenuation. The calculated data are in good agreement for both the clean and the contaminated case; the model parameters fall in the range that was established by independent experiments (e.g. ).     

Wind-induced baroclinic response of Lake Constance

We present results of various circulation scenarios for the wind-induced three-dimensional currents in Lake Constance, obtained with the aid of a semi-spectral semi-implicit finite difference code developed in Haidvogel et al. and Wang and Hutter. Internal Kelvin and Poincaré-type oscillations are demonstrated in the numerical results, whose periods depend upon the stratification and the geometry of the basin and agree well with measured data. By solving the eigenvalue problem of the linearized shallow water equations in the two-layered stratified Lake Constance, the interpretation of the oscillations as Kelvin and Poincaré-type waves is corroborated.     

Exceptionally Cr-rich basalts in the komatiitic volcanic association of the Archaean Kuhmo greenstone belt, eastern Finland

Summary Exceptionally Cr-rich metabasalts related to a komatiite-dominant volcanic sequence occur in the Archaean Kuhmo greenstone belt, eastern Finland. These basalts contain more chromium (1300–4500 ppm) than any other terrestrial basalts analysed so far, and also have high nickel concentrations (200–1700 ppm). In stratigraphy, these Cr-rich basalts occur above the komatiite and komatiitic basalt units forming the uppermost units of the komatiite sequence. Extremely reducing conditions during magma generation or fractional crystallization are suggested as a reason for these exceptional compositions. Low oxygen fugacity has prevented crystallization of chromite and decreased the olivine/liquid partition coefficient for nickel in olivine fractionation, thus causing the enrichment of Cr and Ni in the residual melt.

---

Zusammenfassung Au?ergew?hnlich Cr-reiche Basalte in der komatiitischen vulkanischen Assoziation des Archaischen Kuhmo-Grünsteingürtels in Ostfinnland Im archaischen Kuhmo-Grünsteingürtel in Ostfinnland treten au?ergew?hnlich Cr-reiche Metabasalte auf, die mit einer komatiitdominanten vulkanischen Sequenz verbunden sind. Diese Basalte enthalten mehr Chrom (1300–4500 ppm) als alle anderen terrestrischen Basalte, die bislang analysiert worden sind, und sie weisen zudem auch hohe Nickelkonzentrationen auf (200–1700 ppm). In der Stratigraphie treten die Cr-reichen Basalte über dem Komatiit und den komatiitischen Basalteinheiten auf und bilden die obersten Einheiten der Komatiitsequenz. Extrem reduzierende Bedingungen w?hrend der Magmabildung oder fraktionierte Kristallisation werden als eine Ursache für diese au?ergew?hnlichen Zusammensetzungen vorgeschlagen. Die niedrige Sauerstoff-Fugazit?t hat die Kristallisation des Chromits gehemmt, den Verteilungskoeffizienten Olivin/Schmelze für Nickel bei der Olivinfraktionierung herabgesetzt und dadurch die Anreicherung von Cr und Ni in der Restschmelze verursacht.

---

---

Received November 24, 1997; revised version accepted July 22, 1999     

Are solar cycles predictable?

Various methods (or recipes) have been proposed to predict future solar activity levels – with mixed success. Among these, some precursor methods based upon quantities determined around or a few years before solar minimum have provided rather high correlations with the strength of the following cycles. Recently, data assimilation with an advection-dominated (flux-transport) dynamo model has been proposed as a predictive tool, yielding remarkably high correlation coefficients. After discussing the potential implications of these results and the criticism that has been raised, we study the possible physical origin(s) of the predictive skill provided by precursor and other methods. It is found that the combination of the overlap of solar cycles and their amplitude-dependent rise time (Waldmeier's rule) introduces correlations in the sunspot number (or area) record, which account for the predictive skill of many precursor methods. This explanation requires no direct physical relation between the precursor quantity and the dynamo mechanism (in the sense of the Babcock-Leighton scheme or otherwise). (© 2007 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Investigating the excitation of acoustic modes using homomorphic deconvolution

Properties of the convection zone are encrypted in the behavior of acoustic modes (p modes) and also in the excitation mechanism. The goal of this study is to reconstruct the pattern of the excitation (e.g., the rate and strength of the excitation) from an observed signal. The method, homomorphic deconvolution, has been tested on several sets of artificial signals. The preliminary results presented here are promising. Further rigorous tests and the eventual application to a real signal will be carried out in the near future.     

Changes over time in near-saturated hydraulic conductivity of peat soil following reclamation for agriculture

Reclamation of peat bogs for agriculture changes the physical and chemical characteristics of the peat matrix, for example, drainage and tillage accelerate decomposition, altering peat porosity, pore size distribution, and hydraulic properties. This study investigated changes in near-saturated hydraulic conductivity over time after drainage of peat soil for agricultural use by conducting tension infiltrometer measurements in a mire that has been gradually drained and reclaimed for agriculture during the past 80 years (with fields drained 2, 12, 40, and 80 years before the measurements). At pore water pressure closest to saturation (pressure head −1 cm), hydraulic conductivity in the newest field was approximately nine times larger than that in the oldest field, and a decreasing trend with field age was observed. A similar (but weaker) trend was observed with −3 cm pressure head (approximately four times larger in the newest field in comparison to the oldest), but at −6 cm head, there were no significant differences. These results indicate that peat degradation reduces the amount of millimetre-sized pores in particular. They also indicate that changes in peat macroporosity continue for several decades before a new steady state is reached.