Compound response of marine and terrestrial ecosystems to varying climate: pre-anthropogenic perspective from bivalve shell growth increments and tree-rings

Annual growth increments were examined from shells of the ocean quahog (Arctica islandica L.) from northwest Norway and from tree-ring samples of the Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) from nearby coastal areas. The reconstructed annual growth increments were used to compare growth variability in marine and terrestrial ecosystems. Spatiotemporal comparison of the growth records showed statistically significant correlation during the 19th century A.D., indicative of ecosystem-independent response to pre-anthropogenic climate variations. Geographical correlation between marine and terrestrial records was only observed at the local scale. Years with particularly low winter or high summer North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) indices showed the best synchronization of marine and terrestrial growth. Despite strong correlation during historical time, our palaeoecological evidence suggests that marine and terrestrial ecosystems may show dissimilar growth reaction to recently observed positive winter-NAO phases.     

Die gitter-, netz- und wabenförmige Verwitterung der Sandsteine

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Über die neogene Geosynklinale von Südsumatra und das Entstehen der Braunkohle

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

The influence of the construction process on the deformation behaviour of diaphragm walls in soft clayey ground

Conventional numerical predictions of deep excavations normally neglect the construction process of the retaining structure and choose the earth pressure at rest as initial condition at the beginning of the simulation. The presented results of simulation and measurements during the construction process of the Taipei National Enterprise Center show, that such an assumption leads to an underestimation of the horizontal wall deflection, the surface ground settlements as well as the loading of the struts in case of normally to slightly over‐consolidated clayey soil deposits. The stepwise installation process of the individual diaphragm wall panels results in a substantial modification of the lateral effective stresses in the adjacent ground. Especially the pouring process of the panel and the fresh concrete pressure causes a partial mobilization of the passive earth pressure and a distinct stress level increase in the upper half of the wall. As a consequence of the increased stresses prior to the pit excavation, up to 15% greater ground and wall movements are predicted. Moreover, the increased stress level due to the installation process of the diaphragm wall leads to substantial higher strut loadings during the excavation of the pit. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The FORS Deep Field: the photometric catalog

The FORS Deep Field project is a multi-colour, multi-object spectroscopical investigation of a ∼ 7′ × ′' region near the south galactic pole based mostly on observations carried out with the FORS instruments attached to the VLT telescopes. It includes the QSO Q 0103-260 (z = 3.36). The goal of this study is to improve our understanding of the formation and evolution of galaxies in the young Universe. In this contribution, the photometric observations are presented. In particular, a combined B and I selected UBgRIJKs photometric catalog of 8753 objects in the FDF is presented and its content is briefly described. The formal 50% completeness limits for point sources, derived from the coadded images, are 25.64, 27.69, 26.86, 26.68, 26.37, 23.60 and 21.57in U, B, g, R, I, J and Ks, respectively. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Can Jupiters be found by monitoring Galactic bulge microlensing events from northern sites?

In 1998 the EXPORT team monitored microlensing event light curves using a charge-coupled device (CCD) camera on the IAC 0.8-m telescope on Tenerife to evaluate the prospect of using northern telescopes to find microlens anomalies that reveal planets orbiting the lens stars. The high airmass and more limited time available for observations of Galactic bulge sources make a northern site less favourable for microlensing planet searches. However, there are potentially a large number of northern 1-m class telescopes that could devote a few hours per night to monitor ongoing microlensing events. Our IAC observations indicate that accuracies sufficient to detect planets can be achieved despite the higher airmass.     

The impact of a merger episode in the galactic disc white dwarf population

In this paper we analyse the consequences in the white dwarf population of a hypothetical merger episode in our Galactic disc. We have studied several different merging scenarios with our Monte Carlo simulator. For each one of these scenarios we have derived the main characteristics of the resulting white dwarf population and we have compared them with the available observational data, namely the white dwarf luminosity function and the kinematic properties of the white dwarf population. Our results indicate that very recent (less than ∼6 Gyr ago) and massive (∼16 per cent of the mass of our Galaxy) merger episodes are quite unlikely in view of the available kinematical properties of the disc white dwarf population. Smaller merger episodes (of the order of ∼4 per cent of the mass of our Galaxy) are, however, compatible with our current knowledge of those kinematical properties. Finally, we prove that the white dwarf luminosity function is quite insensitive to such a merger episode.