Characteristics of tephra in Holocene lake sediments on King George Island, West Antarctica: implications for deglaciation and paleoenvironment

Several reworked tephra layers in gravity-flow deposits are present in lacustrine core sediments collected from Hotel and Rudy Lakes on King George Island, South Shetland Islands, maritime sub-Antarctica. This study tests the values of tephra for establishing regional tephrochronologies for lakes in ice-covered landscapes in the vicinity of volcanoes. The tephra record is more abundant in a long Hotel Lake core (515 cm long). This study uses volcanic glass samples from five tephra layers of Hotel Lake and from one tephra layer of Rudy Lake. Morphologically, tephras are mixtures of basaltic and pumice shards, both having various degrees of vesicularity. Major element analyses of glass shards reveal that the majority of the glass fragments belong to basic glass (<60 wt% SiO₂), compositionally ranging from basalt to low-silica andesite and subalkaline series medium-K tholeiites, probably sourced from Deception Island located 130 km southwest of King George Island. Less than 20% of tephra belongs to silicic glass and occurs in three tephra horizons E of Hotel Lake. However, source volcano(es) for about 10% of basic tephra and silicic tephra are not readily identified from nearby volcanic centers. Except for the studied tephra in Rudy Lake, all tephra samples in Hotel Lake are not ashfall deposits but reworked and redeposited pyroclasts derived from retreating ice sheet, resulting in the occurrence of geochemically equivalent tephra samples in different tephra horizons. The dating of the studied tephra horizons represents the timing of deglaciation rather than that of volcanic eruptions. The result of this study implies that combined with sedimentological information more chemical criterion is necessary to study tephrochronology and regional correlation and to understand paleoenvironmental changes using tephra.     

Significance of river–aquifer interactions for reach-scale thermal patterns and trout growth potential in the Motueka River, New Zealand

To assess whether reaches of the Motueka River (New Zealand) that gain water from groundwater were likely to represent significant cold-water refugia for brown trout during periods of high water temperatures, water temperature was monitored for more than 18 months in two gaining reaches of the Motueka River and three reaches that were predicted to be losing water to groundwater. These data were used to predict brown trout (Salmo trutta) growth in gaining and losing reaches. Groundwater inputs had a small effect on water temperature at the reach-scale and modelling suggests that the differences observed were unlikely to result in appreciable differences in trout growth. Several coldwater patches were identified within the study reach that were up to 3.5°C cooler than the mainstem, but these were generally shallow and were unlikely to provide refuge for adult trout. The exception was Hinetai Spring, which had a mean water temperature of close to 16°C during the period January–March, when temperatures in the mainstem regularly exceeded 19°C. Trout were observed within the cold-water plume at the mouth of Hinetai Stream, which would allow them to thermoregulate when mainstem temperatures are unfavourable while still being able to capitalise on food resources available in the mainstem.     

Rebuttal to: “A bibliometric review on carbon cycling research during 1993–2013” by Zhi et al. (Environ Earth Sci 2015, 74(7): 6065–6075)

A research paper’s contribution exists not only in its originality and creativity but also in its continuity and development for research that follows. The reference section can play a key role to researchers who are interested in a paper’s statement or who would like to follow the study or find useful information from the paper. This section is as important as the core of a paper; however, it was easily to be ignored by the author. This comment offered information for citing original idea of methods, figures, and tables which Zhi et al. (Environ Earth Sci 74(7):6065–6075, 2015) used. It is also suggested that an author not only must be creative but also must be careful while writing in order to publish more valuable and papers more worthy of reading.     

Internal Microanatomy and Zoological Affinity of the Early Cambrian Olivooides

The early Cambrian pentamerous microfossil Olivooides/Punctatus in South China, which is characterized by a diagnostic stellate tubular apex, has been well-known for its almost complete development sequence that can be confidently traced from embryos and hatched juveniles, to conical adults. However, its zoological affinity remains highly controversial. Here we describe the internal microanatomic structures of the soft-body inside the peridermal theca of Olivooides multisulcatus Qian, 1977, including interradial pairs of tentacles, adradial and perradial frenula, perradial oral marginal lappets and twins of perradial gastric saccule-like humps as well as a circular velarium with striated coronal muscles. Particularly, one specimen shows bifurcated velarial canals along the bell aperture. Both the components of the soft-body and the external theca (or cyst) are arranged in perfect pentaradial symmetry. These characteristics are more compatible with those of living cubomedusans and co-occurring Cambrian athecate embryonic cubozoans. Concerning the presence of peridermal theca, Olivooides most likely represents an extinct thecate stem-group cubomedusae but devoid of both perradial eyes and specialized pedalia. The well-grown soft body inside the peridermal tube displays a set of mixed features of both polyp and medusa.     

Classifying coastal waters: Current necessity and historical perspective

Coastal ecosystems are ecologically and commercially valuable, productive habitats that are experiencing escalating compromises of their structural and functional integrity. The Clean Water Act (USC 1972) requires identification of impaired water bodies and determination of the causes of impairment. Classification simplifies these determinations, because estuaries within a class are more likely to respond similarly to particular stressors. We reviewed existing classification systems for their applicability to grouping coastal marine and Great Lakes water bodies based on their responses to aquatic stressors, including nutrients, toxic substances, suspended sediments, habitat alteration, and combinations of stressors. Classification research historically addressed terrestrial and freshwater habitats rather than coastal habitats. Few efforts focused on stressor response, although many well-researched classification frameworks provide information pertinent to stressor response. Early coastal classifications relied on physical and hydrological properties, including geomorphology, general circulation patterns, and salinity. More recent classifications sort ecosystems into a few broad types and may integrate physical and biological factors. Among current efforts are those designed for conservation of sensitive habitats based on ecological processes that support patterns of biological diversity. Physical factors, including freshwater inflow, residence time, and flushing rates, affect sensitivity to stressors. Biological factors, such as primary production, grazing rates, and mineral cycling, also need to be considered in classification. We evaluate each existing classification system with respect to objectives, defining factors, extent of spatial and temporal applicability, existing sources of data, and relevance to aquatic stressors. We also consider classification methods in a generic sense and discuss their strengths and weaknesses for our purposes. Although few existing classifications are based on responses to stressors, may well-researched paradigms provide important information for improving our capabilities for classification, as an investigative and predictive management tool.     

Local government, local economic development and quality of life in Poland

The establishment of local self-government was a key part of the post-1989 transformation in East and Central Europe. Local government in both Western and East and Central Europe has increasingly been expected to play a role in local economic development (LED). Local government is one important agent in the complex processes of building 'institutional thickness' to ensure the development of local economies and the quality of life of inhabitants. This paper presents the results of a national postal questionnaire survey of the LED role of the lowest level of local self-government in Poland, the gmina or commune. The paper establishes a baseline of knowledge regarding: the local economic problems faced by communes; their attitudinal, strategic and organisational responses; and the main factors which are hindering the communes' LED role. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Central England temperature since AD 1850: the potential of stable carbon isotopes in British oak trees to reconstruct past summer temperatures

In regions with seasonal temperate climatic regimes, tree growth is rarely controlled by any single environmental factor. As a consequence, the development of robust palaeoclimate reconstructions has proved challenging. Tree‐ring stable carbon isotope ratios (δ¹³C), however, are controlled primarily by photosynthetic rate, not by net growth. Therefore, at sites where climatic controls on tree‐ring growth are not strongly expressed, a robust (isotopic) palaeoclimate signal may still potentially be preserved. This hypothesis was tested using a 160‐year record of δ¹³C measured from the pooled latewood cellulose of six Quercus petraea L. (sessile oak) trees from Allt Lan‐las in West Wales, UK. Raw δ¹³C values were corrected for changes in the isotopic ratio of atmospheric carbon dioxide and for changes in the behaviour of trees due to the increasing availability of atmospheric CO₂ since AD 1850. Strong correlations with local summer temperature and sunshine are reported, and also with the Central England Temperature record over the full length of the isotopic chronology (AD 1850–2010) (r = 0.69, P < 0.001). We conclude that tree‐ring stable isotopes can be used to extract strong palaeoclimate signals even from oak trees growing in a temperate maritime climate. This demonstrates the potential for extracting robust palaeoclimatic information from the very long and well‐replicated oak chronologies which have been developed in western and central Europe primarily for dating rather than palaeoclimatic research purposes. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Initialization and data assimilation experiments with a primitive equation model

The process of combining models of the ocean circulation with large data sets is known in meteorology as model initialization and data assimilation. This process is new to oceanographers, who only now are on the verge of having available world-wide synoptic maps of dynamic variables. In this paper we carry out a series of idealized initialization/assimilation experiments with a primitive equation (PE) model, which constitute a first step in developing a realistic process model and data assimilation techniques for the Gulf Stream system. The PE model is used in a spin-down mode and initialized with an analytic jet profile with geostrophically balanced fields.Two major questions are addressed in the present study. The first concerns the initialization process of a PE model during which internal/inertial gravity wave noise is produced. We ask: are the initialization shocks equally crucial for ocean models as they have been for their atmospheric counterparts? The results of an extensive series of balanced versus unbalanced initializations indicate that, for a PE model with a rigid lid, a brutally unbalanced initialization is required to produce strong internal gravity wave shocks. A geostrophically balanced initialization is sufficient to ensure smooth jet evolutions, with no apparent gravity waves, over long time durations in the spin-down mode. No sophisticated initialization procedures seem, therefore, to be required.The second question addressed is: which component of the flow is the most important in data assimilation to drive the model response towards a baseline reference ocean? We specifically compare the knowledge of the depth-integrated flow only, corresponding to measurements of the total transport, with the knowledge of the density field only, or equivalently the velocity shear. The knowledge of the interior density field is much more effective in decreasing the root-mean-square (r.m.s.) errors relative to the reference ocean. If the baroclinic structure is known, coarse horizontal resolutions of data insertion can be reached before significantly worsening the model estimates. If only the depth-averaged flow is known, a decrease in the horizontal resolution of data assimilation has an immediate effect: the r.m.s. errors sharply increase and the assimilation run diverges from the reference ocean. In the assimilation of the barotropic flow alone, even with dense resolution, the errors in the deep layers always show an increasing trend. The relative effectiveness of baroclinic versus barotropic data insertion can be rationalized in the context of geostrophic adjustment theory.