Diatoms as indicators of water quality in Western Mongolian lakes: a 54-site calibration set

Mongolia is an arid land with limited freshwater availability. Recent changes in climate as well as changes in livestock management in the post-Soviet era may threaten the quality and availability of these freshwater resources and emphasize the need to characterize current conditions relative to a long-term baseline. Because diatoms are responsive to changes in water chemistry and are commonly preserved in lake sediments, they can be used as indicators of both present and past water quality. To these ends, we have developed a diatom-based calibration set and quantitative inference models for the region. Physical and chemical factors and modern diatom communities were sampled at 54 sites in western Mongolia in the Altai and Khangai mountains and the Valley of the Great Lakes. Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) demonstrated that both salinity and total phosphorus accounted for statistically significant fractions of the variation in 151 diatom taxa across the 54 sampled sites. Diatom-based inference models were developed with weighted averaging (WA) techniques and showed strong predictive capabilities and low prediction errors for salinity and total phosphorus. These models are now available to help identify and interpret historical and future disturbances to this sensitive and globally important eco-region.     

Coordinate mapping of analytical contaminant transport solutions to non-uniform flow fields

Existing analytical solutions to 2D and 3D contaminant transport problems are limited by the mathematically convenient assumption of uniform flow. An approximate method is developed herein for coordinate mapping of 2D (vertically-averaged) transport solutions to non-uniform steady-state irrotational and divergence-free flow fields in single-layer aquifers. The method enables existing analytical transport solutions to be applied to aquifer systems with wells, non-uniform saturated thickness, surface water features, and (to a limited degree) heterogeneous hydraulic conductivity and recharge. This mass-conservative coordinate mapping approach is inexact in its approximation of the dispersion process but is still sufficiently accurate for many simple flow systems. The degree of model error is directly proportional to the variation of velocity magnitude within the domain. These mapped analytical solutions are compared to numerical simulation results and the coordinate mapping errors are investigated. The methods described herein may be used in the traditional capacity of analytical transport models, i.e., screening and preliminary site assessment, without sacrificing accuracy by assuming locally uniform flow conditions or applying an ad-hoc coordinate transformation. The solutions benefit from the traditional advantages of analytical methods, particularly the removal of artifacts due to spatial and temporal discretization: no time-stepping or numerical discretization is required.     

The formation of headland/island sandbanks

There are four extensive sandbanks in the vicinity of the Isle of Portland, a headland in the English Channel. The formation and maintenance of the two most prominent of these sandbanks (one on either side of the headland) can largely be explained by net bedload convergence, driven by instantaneous headland eddies generated by tidal flow past the headland. However, there are also two less prominent sandbanks (again, one on either side of the headland), which are not located in zones of bedload convergence. It is suggested here that these latter two sandbanks were formed when the Isle of Portland was isolated from the mainland by a tidal strait. Relative sea-level data and radiocarbon dates indicate that this would have occurred ca. 9–7 ka BP, prior to the closure of the strait by sedimentation. Tidal flow through this strait generated eddy systems in addition to the headland eddies, leading to the formation of associated headland/island sandbanks. At 7 ka BP, sedimentation resulted in closure of the strait, leading to the present-day headland configuration, and subsequent reworking of these now moribund sandbanks formed by the strait. A series of idealised morphological model experiments, parameterised using bedrock depths and glacial isostatic adjustment model output of relative sea level, are here used to simulate this hypothesised sequence of sandbank evolution over the Holocene. The results of the model experiments are corroborated by in situ observations of bedforms and sediment characteristics, and by acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) data applied to predictions of bedload transport over the sandbanks. In addition to demonstrating the mechanism which leads to the formation of sandbanks by tidal flow through a strait, the model results show that upon subsequent closure of such a strait, these sandbanks will no longer be actively maintained, in contrast to sandbanks which are continuously maintained by headland eddies.     

Comparison of polar mesospheric cloud measurements from the Cloud Imaging and Particle Size experiment and the solar backscatter ultraviolet instrument in 2007

We compare measurements from the Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) Cloud Imaging and Particle Size (CIPS) experiment to the NOAA-17 solar backscatter ultraviolet (SBUV/2) instrument during the 2007 Northern Hemisphere polar mesospheric cloud (PMC) season. Daily average Rayleigh scattering albedos determined from identical footprints from the CIPS nadir camera and SBUV/2 agree to better than ～5% throughout the season. Average PMC brightness values derived from the two instruments agree to within ±10%. PMC occurrence frequencies are on average ～5% to nearly a factor of two higher in CIPS, depending on latitude. Agreement is best at high latitudes where clouds are brighter and more frequent. The comparisons indicate that AIM CIPS data are valid for scientific analyses. They also show that CIPS measurements can be linked to the long time series of SBUV/2 data to investigate long-term variability in PMCs.     

Melting of enriched mantle beneath Pitcairn seamounts: Unusual U–Th–Ra systematics provide insights into melt extraction processes

U-series systematics as well as Sr isotopes were measured on young seamount lavas from the Pitcairn hotspot collected during the Polynaut cruise. The combined U-series and Sr isotope data reveal typical mixing relationships between two endmembers. One typical ‘plume’ endmember with radiogenic ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr and relatively low ²³⁰Th/²³⁸U and a ‘lithosphere’ endmember with less radiogenic ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr and relatively larger ²³⁰Th/²³⁸U. Remarkably, all the lavas, except for a few arguably older samples, are characterized by ²²⁶Ra deficits relative to ²³⁰Th. On the basis of water content and trace element systematics, we argue that this is due to melting in the presence of phlogopite, which is only stable at lithosphere temperatures. A melting model including the diffusive exchange of elements among phlogopite, garnet and melt is used to constrain melting conditions of the lithosphere. These unusual ²²⁶Ra–²³⁰Th signatures can be explained by relatively slow melting rates at low matrix porosity. Our model also demonstrates that the effective partitioning behavior is dependent on the melting rate. A simple thermal model for lithosphere heating and melting is in good agreement with predicted melting rates.     

Book reviews

The Settlement of the American Continents: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Human Biogeography. C. Michael Barton, Geoffrey A. Clark, David R. Yesner, and Georges A. Pearson (Editors), 2004. University of Arizona Press, Tucson, $75 (hardcover).     

Geological processes and site structure: Assessing integrity at a Late Paleolithic open‐air site in northern France

The difficulty of reading the archaeological record of caves and rock shelters is becoming increasingly obvious to Paleolithic researchers. Although some open‐air sites are thought to avoid such taphonomic complications, interpreting their archaeological record is less straightforward than assumed. Postdepositional processes may obscure structure in configurations of features and artifacts. Recently developed techniques for the excavation and analysis of Paleolithic cave sites can be applied to open‐air sites before spatial patterning is interpreted for inferences about prehistoric social organization. Analysis of the orientation of elongated artifacts on the occupation surface of the late Upper Paleolithic site of Verberie, France, is employed for evaluation of the integrity of site structure. Results indicate spatial structure largely undisturbed by geological processes. The lack of disturbance in the configuration of archaeological materials allows for a behavioral interpretation of those remains. The proposition that Verberie was a hunting campsite for initial carcass processing is supported. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Marine cements in mid-Tertiary cool-water shelf limestones of New Zealand and southern Australia

Large areas of southern Australia and New Zealand are covered by mid‐Tertiary limestones formed in cool‐water, shelf environments. The generally destructive character of sea‐floor diagenesis in such settings precludes ubiquitous inorganic precipitation of carbonates, yet these limestones include occasional units with marine cements: (1) within rare in situ biomounds; (2) within some stacked, cross‐bedded sand bodies; (3) at the top of metre‐scale, subtidal, carbonate cycles; and (4) most commonly, associated with certain unconformities. The marine cements are dominated by isopachous rinds of fibrous to bladed spar, interstitial homogeneous micrite and interstitial micropeloidal micrite, often precipitated sequentially in that order. Internal sedimentation of microbioclastic micrite may occur at any stage. The paradox of marine‐cemented limestone units in an overall destructive cool‐water diagenetic regime may be explained by the precipitation of cement as intermediate Mg‐calcite from marine waters undersaturated with respect to aragonite. In some of the marine‐cemented limestones, aragonite biomoulds may include marine cement/sediment internally, suggesting that dissolution of aragonite can at times be wholly marine and not always involve meteoric influences. We suggest that marine cementation occurred preferentially, but not exclusively, during periods of relatively lowered sea level, probably glacio‐eustatically driven in the mid‐Tertiary. At times of reduced sea level, there was a relative increase in both the temperature and the carbonate saturation state of the shelf waters, and the locus of carbonate sedimentation shifted towards formerly deeper shelf sites, which now experienced increased swell wave and/or tidal energy levels, fostering sediment abrasion and reworking, reduced sedimentation rates and freer exchange of sediment pore‐waters. Energy levels were probably also enhanced by increased upwelling of cold, deep waters onto the Southern Ocean margins of the Australasian carbonate platforms, where water‐mass mixing, warming and loss of CO₂ locally maintained critical levels of carbonate saturation for sea‐floor cement precipitation and promoted the phosphate‐glauconite mineralization associated with some of the marine‐cemented limestone units.     

Determination of the REE in Geological Reference Materials DTS-1 (Dunite) and PCC-1 (Peridotite) by Ultrasonic and Microconcentric Desolvating Nebulisation ICP-MS

Inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry is well suited for the precise, accurate and rapid determination of rare earth elements in most geological samples. However, determination of rare earth elements in certain mantle-derived materials, without applying preconcentration techniques, remains problematical due to low natural concentrations (generally < 1 ng g⁻¹). Consequently, USGS reference materials DTS-1 (a dunite) and PCC-1 (a partially serpentinized harzburgite) have only suggested rather than recommended values for the rare earth elements in reference material compilations. We compared results obtained using two ICP-MS instruments: a U-5000AT ultrasonic nebuliser coupled to a PQ2+ quadrupole ICP-MS and an ELEMENT sector field ICP-MS equipped with a MCN-6000 microconcentric desolvating nebuliser, with the suggested literature values for these two reference materials. Precision and accuracy of analytical methods employed by both instruments were demonstrated by excellent relative standard deviations (< 2%) and inter-laboratory agreement (< 5%) for numerous analyses of BHVO-1 and BIR-1, which are well established with rare earth elements contents at the μg g⁻¹ level. Repeat analyses of DTS-1 and PCC-1 at each laboratory indicate that each method is generally precise to better than 5% at sub-g g⁻¹ levels. Furthermore, values from both instruments generally agree to within 10%. Our DTS-1 and PCC-1 values agree reasonably well with selected data reported in the literature (except for Ce and Sm in DTS-1) but exhibit poorer agreement with reported compilation values. With the demonstrated level of precision and accuracy, we contend that these new values for DTS-1 and PCC-1, generated by two different instruments, are the best estimates of the true whole-rock composition of these samples reported to date.