Advances in mollusc sclerochronology and sclerochemistry: tools for understanding climate and environment

This Special Issue of Geo-Marine Letters compiles papers on marine, estuarine and freshwater mollusc shells as recorders of environmental and climatic conditions. Considering that many past studies have differentiated geochemical investigations from sclerochronological investigations, we propose that the sub-discipline term “sclerochemistry” be used when geochemical investigations are undertaken. This issue starts with two review papers that discuss the importance of physiology or vital effects on both sclerochronology and sclerochemistry. Several sclerochemical calibration studies on modern specimens of both bivalves and gastropods are presented (including δ¹⁸O, Mg/Ca, Sr/Ca and Ba/Ca), which illustrate the usefulness and difficulties associated with using these proxies. Studies on fossil mollusc shells are also provided, with one study that uses Pliocene scallop shells to understand past ocean circulation and another that addresses the problem of diagenesis. Finally, a sclerochronological study of crystal prism width across the shell is presented. This Special Issue demonstrates that many elemental and isotopic proxies contained in mollusc shells are complex. In spite of these complexities, environmental and climatic conditions can be extracted for use in palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental research.     

SCOPED‐W: SCalable Online Platform for extracting Environmental Data and Water‐related model outputs

This article presents SCOPED, an innovative approach for extracting environmental data using OGC services. In the field of water resource management, SCOPED‐W (‘W’ for ‘Water’) is a method that was developed in the framework of EU/FP7 IASON and EOPOWER projects. This platform supports the collection of data required to build a Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model and the uptake, spatialization and dissemination of raw data generated from the outputs of different SWAT models for the Black Sea region. Scientists are documenting the data served by the platform in ISO standardized metadata to support informed use. SCOPED‐W primarily targets the community of SWAT users in the Black Sea region but it can easily be replicated in other geographical areas. Additionally, the SCOPED approach is based on data interoperability that makes it fully compatible with other domains of application as demonstrated here with three original use cases. The article also highlights the benefits of the approach for the GEO community and discusses future improvements for supporting integration with other platforms such as UNEP Live.     

Are flat‐field snow depth measurements representative? A comparison of selected index sites with areal snow depth measurements at the small catchment scale

Single or a limited number of point observations, such as from index stations, are commonly assumed to be representative for the snow cover of larger areas in many applications. This study presents a systematic investigation of the relationship between point observations and areal mean snow depths ranging from the scale of tens of metres to entire catchments. We analyse aerial snow depth information from four mountain regions in the European Alps, one in the Spanish Pyrenees and one in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, obtained from airborne laser scanning surveys. This rich data set allowed to compare point values with snow cover statistics, reflecting the real snow depth distribution of the investigation areas. We present two contrasting approaches in order to assess the representativeness of typical flat‐field snow depth measurements. In the first approach, we define potential index stations based on topographic characteristics as commonly applied for snow cover monitoring stations. The point observations of these index stations are then compared with the mean values in their vicinities. We show that most of the index stations strongly overestimate the snow depth of the catchment and of their surrounding area at distances of several hundreds of metres. Results confirm the expectation that the larger the support area, the smaller the difference to the mean of the complete catchment. The second approach was to analyse topographic characteristics of all cells with snow depths that deviated less than 10% from the catchment mean. It appears that these representative cells are rather randomly distributed and cannot be identified a priori. In summary, our results show large potential biases of index stations with respect to snow distribution and therefore also snow water equivalent. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mesoscale analysis of failure in quasi‐brittle materials: comparison between lattice model and acoustic emission data

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the development and the evolution of the fracture process zone during fracture and damage in quasi‐brittle materials. A model taking into account the material details at the mesoscale is used to describe the failure process at the scale of the heterogeneities. This model is used to compute histograms of the relative distances between damaged points. These numerical results are compared with experimental data, where the damage evolution is monitored using acoustic emissions. Histograms of the relative distances between damage events in the numerical calculations and acoustic events in the experiments exhibit good agreement. It is shown that the mesoscale model provides relevant information from the point of view of both global responses and the local failure process. © 2015 The Authors. International Journal for Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.     

Type I eclogites from Roberts Victor kimberlites: Products of extensive mantle metasomatism

Type I and Type II eclogite xenoliths from the Roberts Victor kimberlite (South Africa) show marked differences in terms of microstructures, mineralogy, major- and trace-element compositions and oxygen-isotope compositions. The unequilibrated microstructures of Type I eclogites, their typical accessory assemblages (phologopite, diamond, sulphides, fluid inclusions) and the ubiquitous presence of “melt pockets” in garnets provide strong evidence of metasomatism. Type II eclogites systematically lack such features and are microstructurally more equilibrated. Type I eclogites are more magnesium-rich than most Type II (mean Mg# = 0.56 vs. 0.46), while Type II eclogites are generally more Ca-rich (mean CaO = 9 vs. 12 wt%) and Fe-rich (mean FeO = 10 vs. 12 wt%). Type I eclogites are systematically enriched in LREE, Sr, Ba, alkali elements, HFSE, Th and U compared to the more depleted Type II eclogites. Calculated trace-element patterns of fluids in equilibrium with Type I eclogites are closely similar to those of volatile-rich small-volume mantle melts in the carbonatite-kimberlite spectrum commonly inferred to be responsible for mantle metasomatism. Although oxygen isotopes are often used to argue for a subduction origin of mantle eclogites, correlations between δ¹⁸O of garnet and typical metasomatic tracers suggest that the metasomatic process also has shifted the oxygen-isotope compositions of the Type I eclogites toward heavier values. Roberts Victor Type I eclogites thus carry the imprint of a metasomatic process that strongly modified their major-element, trace-element and isotopic compositions, while the more pristine Type II eclogites escaped this modification. Therefore, attempts to constrain the origin of Roberts Victor eclogites should not be based on the much more abundant Type I eclogites, which retain little geochemical memory of their protoliths. The most suitable materials for such investigations may be the less metasomatised, but more rare, Type II eclogites.     

Pigments in sediments beneath recently collapsed ice shelves: The case of Larsen A and B shelves,Antarctic Peninsula

In March 2002, 3200 km² of the Larsen B ice shelf collapsed off the Eastern Antarctic Peninsula (EAP). In the austral summer of 2006, sea floor sediment was recovered beneath the extinct Larsen B ice shelf and in a region off the Northern Antarctic Peninsula (NAP), which has been free of ice shelves for more than 1000 yr. To assess changes in the chemical composition of the sediment after ice shelf collapses, chlorophylls and pheophytins were measured in sediment cores at six stations. This is the first time that chlorophyll pigments have been analysed in sediment samples from regions under recently collapsed ice shelves. Five years after the ice shelf collapse, Chla and Chlc concentrations were similar in the interfacial sediment (upper 1 cm) of NAP and EAP regions. However, in EAP Chla and Chlc concentrations decreased more rapidly with depth in the sediment column and were negligible below 2 cm depth. The high Chla to Pheoa ratios indicated that sedimentary pigments found in EAP had undergone limited degradation suggesting that they were locally produced rather than laterally advected. Complementary information from excess ²¹⁰Pb activity and diatom valve distributions provided further evidence that the pigment fluxes to the seabed in EAP took place only after the ice shelf collapse.