Formation of feldspathic and metallic melts by shock in enstatite chondrite Reckling Peak A80259

Abstract— The enstatite chondrite reckling peak (rkp) a80259 contains feldspathic glass, kamacite, troilite, and unusual sets of parallel fine‐grained enstatite prisms that formed by rapid cooling of shock melts. Metallic Fe,Ni and troilite occur as spherical inclusions in feldspathic glass, reflecting the immiscible Fe‐Ni‐S and feldspathic melts generated during the impact. The Fe‐Ni‐S and feldspathic liquids were injected into fractures in coarse‐grained enstatite and cooled rapidly, resulting in thin (≤ 10 μm) semicontinuous to discontinuous veins and inclusion trails in host enstatite. Whole‐rock melt veins characteristic of heavily shocked ordinary chondrites are conspicuously absent. Raman spectroscopy shows that the feldspathic material is a glass. Elevated MgO and SiO₂ contents of the glass indicate that some enstatite and silica were incorporated in the feldspathic melt. Metallic Fe,Ni globules are enclosed by sulfide and exhibit Nienrichment along their margins characteristic of rapid crystallization from a Fe‐Ni‐S liquid. Metal enclosed by sulfide is higher in Si and P than metal in feldspathic glass and enstatite, possibly indicating lower O fugacities in metal/sulfide than in silicate domains. Fine‐grained, elongate enstatite prisms in troilite or feldspathic glass crystallized from local pyroxene melts that formed along precursor grain boundaries, but most of the enstatite in the target rock remained solid during the impact and occurs as deformed, coarsegrained crystals with lower CaO, Al₂O₃, and FeO than the fine‐grained enstatite. Reckling Peak A80259 represents an intermediate stage of shock melting between unmelted E chondrites and whole‐rock shock melts and melt breccias documented by previous workers. The shock petrogenesis of RKPA80259 reflects the extensive impact processing of the enstatite chondrite parent bodies relative to those of other chondrite types.     

Are trends in SeaWiFS chlorophyll time-series unusual relative to historic variability

For selected locations in the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean, we compared surface ocean chlorophyll time series extracted from SeaWiFS imagery from 1997–2004 with the results of an ocean coupled circulation and biogeochemical model covering the period 1958–2004. During the 1997–2004 time period, linear trends in model and satellite time series were significantly correlated at most of the 44 sites we studied. Eleven sites were selected for further study, and we used the longer time series of the model to assess whether trends observed during the SeaWiFS period at these 11 sites were unusual in relation to those observed over the longer historical period covered by the model. The results show that the trends observed during the SeaWiFS period were not unusual and fell well within the range in magnitude of linear trends observed in other 8-year periods of model output. This result implies that the SeaWiFS satellite ocean color time series is not yet sufficiently long, on its own, to directly observe any long term changes in phytoplankton chlorophyll that may be occurring in the surface waters of the open ocean as a result of increased ocean stratification linked to global climate changed.     

Lithostratigraphy of the Windermere Supergroup,Northern England

A formal lithostratigraphy is erected for the Late Ordovician and Silurian rocks of northern England. The scheme presented herein emphasizes natural depositional sequences within the supergroup and defines new type sections or cites existing definitions where appropriate. It is intended to be sufficiently flexible and comprehensive to apply to all the inliers, and to bear some rational relationship to lithostratigraphical usage in other British Lower Palaeozoic inliers.     

The impact of changing climate on phenology,productivity, and benthic–pelagic coupling in Narragansett Bay

The timing and magnitude of phytoplankton blooms have changed markedly in Narragansett Bay, RI (USA) over the last half century. The traditional winter–spring bloom has decreased or, in many years, disappeared. Relatively short, often intense, diatom blooms have become common in spring, summer, and fall replacing the summer flagellate blooms of the past. The annual and summer mean abundance (cell counts) and biomass (chl a) of phytoplankton appear to have decreased based on almost 50 years of biweekly monitoring by others at a mid bay station. These changes have been related to warming of the water, especially during winter, and to increased cloudiness. A significant decline in the winter wind speed may also have played a role. The changes in the phenology of the phytoplankton and the oligotrophication of the bay appear to have decreased greatly the quantity and (perhaps) quality of the organic matter being deposited on the bottom of the bay. This decline has resulted in a very much reduced benthic metabolism as reflected in oxygen uptake, nutrient regeneration, and the magnitude and direction of the net flux of N₂ gas. Based on many decades of standard weekly trawls carried out by the Graduate School of Oceanography, the winter biomass of bottom feeding epibenthic animals has also declined sharply at the mid bay station. After decades of relatively constant anthropogenic nitrogen loading (and declining phosphorus loading), the fertilization of the bay will soon be reduced during May–October due to implementation of advanced wastewater treatment. This is intended to produce an oligotrophication of the urban Providence River estuary and the Upper Bay. The anticipated decline in the productivity of the upper bay region will probably decrease summer hypoxia in that area. However, it may have unanticipated consequences for secondary production in the mid and lower bay where climate-induced oligotrophication has already much weakened the historically strong benthic–pelagic coupling.     

Water quality and phytoplankton communities in Lake Pontchartrain during and after the Bonnet Carré Spillway opening,April to October 2008, in Louisiana,USA

The Bonnet Carré Spillway, located 28 miles northwest of New Orleans, was constructed in the early 1930s as part of an integrated flood-control system for the lower Mississippi River system. From 11 April to 8 May 2008, Mississippi River water was diverted through the spillway into the 629-square-mile Lake Pontchartrain, which is hydraulically connected to the Gulf of Mexico. On 8 April, prior to the opening of the spillway, water-quality instruments were deployed and recorded hourly measurements of water temperature, dissolved oxygen, specific conductance, pH, and nitrate. Discrete water-quality and phytoplankton (algae) samples were collected in Lake Pontchartrain from 8 April to 3 October 2008 to assess the water-quality nutrient enrichment effects of the diversion on the lake. The maximum influence of river water in the southern portion of the lake was captured with continuous (hourly) monitoring of nitrate concentrations, and field measurements such as of specific conductance during the critical period in late April to early May. By late May, the deployed instruments had recorded the arrival, peak, and decline of selected constituents associated with the freshwater influx from the Mississippi River/Bonnet Carré Spillway diversion. The continuous monitoring data showed the short-term interactions of high-nitrate, low-specific conductance river water and low-nitrate, high-specific conductance lake water. The phytoplankton community composition, as an indicator of water quality, illustrated an extended response from the river water evident even after the continuous and discrete samples indicated that the lake had returned to pre-diversion conditions. The initial phytoplankton community response to nutrient increases was related to accumulations of diatoms. During periods of low nutrient concentrations, accumulations of blue-greens occurred by July and August. As blue-green algae cell densities and biovolumes increased in the summer, so did the species richness of blue-green algae, particularly the harmful algae bloom taxa. Cell densities and biovolume of the phytoplankton lake indicator taxa Skeletonema costatum, Anabaena sp., and Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii were highest and dominated the diatom and blue-green algae communities during the period of most river water influence on the lake and immediately following the freshwater inflows. The dominance and recession of these indictor taxa reflect the dramatic changes that occurred in the phytoplankton community in response to an increase in nutrient-rich freshwater from the diversion into the lake, and not normal seasonal phytoplankton compositional differences. Water-quality data indicated a gradual reversion to pre-diversion lake conditions by June to July, but shifts in the phytoplankton composition were still evident through August 2008. Observations from this study were similar to results from previous studies of Mississippi River/Bonnet Carré Spillway diversion opening in 1997.     

Planning the use of fish for food security in the Pacific

Fish is a mainstay of food security for Pacific island countries and territories (PICTs). Recent household income and expenditure surveys, and socio-economic surveys, demonstrate that subsistence fishing still provides the great majority of dietary animal protein in the region. Forecasts of the fish required in 2030 to meet recommended per capita fish consumption, or to maintain current consumption, indicate that even well-managed coastal fisheries will only be able to meet the demand in 6 of 22 PICTs. Governments of many PICTs will need to increase local access to tuna, and develop small-pond aquaculture, to provide food security. Diversifying the supply of fish will also make rural households in the Pacific more resilient to natural disasters, social and political instability, and the uncertainty of climate change.     

Time-series measurements of Th in water column and sediment trap samples from the northwestern Mediterranean Sea

Disequilibrium between ²³⁴Th and ²³⁸U in water column profiles has been used to estimate the settling flux of Th (and, by proxy, of particulate organic carbon); yet potentially major non-steady-state influences on ²³⁴Th profiles are often not able to be considered in estimations of flux. We have compared temporal series of ²³⁴Th distributions in the upper water column at both coastal and deep-water sites in the northwestern Mediterranean Sea to coeval sediment trap records at the same sites. We have used sediment trap records of ²³⁴Th fluxes to predict temporal changes in water column ²³⁴Th deficits and have compared the predicted deficits to those measured to determine whether the time-evolution of the two coincide. At the coastal site (327 m water depth), trends in the two estimates of water column ²³⁴Th deficits are in fairly close agreement over the 1-month deployment during the spring bloom in 1999. In contrast, the pattern of water column ²³⁴Th deficits is poorly predicted by sediment trap records at the deep-water site (DYFAMED, 2300 m water depth) in both 2003 and 2005. In particular, the transition from a mesotrophic to an oligotrophic system, clearly seen in trap fluxes, is not evident in water column ²³⁴Th profiles, which show high-frequency variability. Allowing trapping efficiencies to vary from 100% does not reconcile the differences between trap and water column deficit observations; we conclude that substantial lateral and vertical advective influences must be invoked to account for the differences.Advective influences are potentially greater on ²³⁴Th fluxes derived from water column deficits relative to those obtained from traps because the calculation of deficits in open-ocean settings is dominated by the magnitude of the “dissolved” ²³⁴Th fraction. For observed current velocities of 5–20 cm s⁻¹, in one radioactive mean-life of ²³⁴Th, the water column at the DYFAMED site can reflect ²³⁴Th scavenging produced tens to hundreds of kilometers away. In contrast, most of the ²³⁴Th flux collected in shallow sediment traps at the DFYFAMED site was in the fraction settling >200 m d⁻¹; in effect the sediment trap can integrate the ²³⁴Th flux over distances 40-fold less than water column ²³⁴Th distributions. In some sense, sediment trap and water column sampling for ²³⁴Th provide complementary pictures of ²³⁴Th export. However, because the two methods can be dominated by different processes and are subject to different biases, their comparison must be treated with caution.     

Increasing nutrient concentrations and the rise and fall of a coastal fishery; a review of data from the Nile Delta,Egypt

There is a conceptual basis, and some empirical evidence, that increasing nutrient loads to coastal waterbodies will initially increase ecosystem productivity up to a threshold, beyond which secondary productivity and fishery yields will decline. Here we have compiled data from the Egyptian and international literature for fish landings and inorganic nutrient (nitrogen and phosphorus) data from four large coastal lagoons (63–500 km²) on Egypt's Nile Delta to provide evidence for the initially positive, but then negative, response of fishery yields to increased nutrient supply across a very wide range of enrichment (up to 1 mM dissolved organic nitrogen, DIN). Taking the data from the four lagoons as an aggregate, fish landings increase with increased nutrients up to a peak in landings at approximately 100 μM DIN, beyond which there was an exponential decline in landings. It appears that pesticide and heavy metal contamination and overfishing played only minor roles in the lowered fishery yield at highest DIN concentrations. We do not have sufficient evidence about the specific mechanisms that led to the decline of the fishery, but suspect that some feature of eutrophication—low oxygen, for example, may have been involved.     

Contributions of mineral and organic components to tidal freshwater marsh accretion

Vertical accretion in tidal marshes is necessary to prevent submergence due to rising sea levels. Mineral materials may be more important in driving vertical accretion in tidal freshwater marshes, which are found near the heads of estuaries, than has been reported for salt marshes. Accretion rates for tidal freshwater marshes in North America and Europe (n = 76 data points) were compiled from the literature. Simple and multiple linear regression analyses revealed that both organic and mineral accumulations played a role in driving tidal freshwater marsh vertical accretion rates, although a unit mass of organic material contributed ∼4 times more to marsh volume than the same mass input of mineral material. Despite the higher mineral content of tidal freshwater marsh soils, this ability of organic matter to effectively hold water and air in interstitial spaces suggests that organic matter is responsible for 62% of marsh accretion, with the remaining 38% from mineral contributions. The organic material that helps to build marsh elevation is likely a combination of in situ production and organic materials that are deposited in association with mineral sediment particles. Regional differences between tidal freshwater marshes in the importance of organic vs. mineral contributions may reflect differences in sediment availability, climate, tidal range, rates of sea level rise, and local-scale factors such as site elevation and distance to tidal creeks. Differences in the importance of organic and mineral accumulations between tidal freshwater and salt marshes are likely due to a combination of factors, including sediment availability (e.g., proximity to upland sources and estuarine turbidity maxima) and the lability of freshwater vs. salt marsh plant production.     

Coordinated mineralogical and isotopic analyses of a cosmic symplectite discovered in a comet 81P/Wild 2 sample

We have discovered in a Stardust mission terminal particle a unique mineralogical assemblage of symplectically intergrown pentlandite ((Fe,Ni)₉S₈) and nanocrystalline maghemite (γ‐Fe₂O₃). Mineralogically similar cosmic symplectites (COS) have only been found in the primitive carbonaceous chondrite Acfer 094 and are believed to have formed by aqueous alteration. The O and S isotopic compositions of the Wild 2 COS are indistinguishable from terrestrial values. The metal and sulfide precursors were thus oxidized by an isotopically equilibrated aqueous reservoir either inside the snow line, in the Wild 2 comet, or in a larger Kuiper Belt object. Close association of the Stardust COS with a Kool mineral assemblage (kosmochloric Ca‐rich pyroxene, FeO‐rich olivine, and albite) that likely originated in the solar nebula suggests the COS precursors also had a nebular origin and were transported from the inner solar system to the comet‐forming region after they were altered.