Effects of Rainwater Iron and Hydrogen Peroxide on Iron Speciation and Phytoplankton Growth in Seawater near Bermuda

Rainwater is a major source of dissolved iron to much of the world's oceans, including regions where iron may be a limiting nutrient for marine phytoplankton primary production. Rainwater iron is therefore potentially important in regulating global photosynthetic uptake of CO₂, and hence climate. Two rainwater addition bioassay experiments (2% rain) conducted at the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Station (BATS) during March 2000 using 50 or 100 nM FeCl₂ or FeCl₃ in synthetic rain (pH 4.5 H₂SO₄) showed an increase in chlorophyll a 50% greater than controls after three days. Addition of 20 μM hydrogen peroxide, a typical rainwater concentration at BATS, completely removed the chlorophyll a increase with both forms of iron additions, suggesting stimulation of phytoplankton growth by rainwater iron can be limited by rainwater H₂O₂. In laboratory experiments using Gulf Stream seawater, iron-enriched (100 nM Fe(III)) synthetic rain was mixed with seawater in a 5% rain 95% seawater ratio. Dissolved iron concentrations increased two times above concentrations predicted based on dilution alone. The increase in soluble iron probably resulted from release from seawater particles and was maintained for more than 24 hours. No increase was observed in controls that did not have iron added to the synthetic rain, or with synthetic rainwater containing both added iron and H₂O₂. The increase in iron concentration above that predicted by dilution indicates rain may have a larger effect on seawater iron concentrations than that calculated for rainwater iron addition alone.     

Reactions which remove dissolved alumina from seawater

Dissolved alumina can coprecipitate with dissolved silica from seawater enriched with both compounds. This coprecipitation is almost complete within 1h and maintains the concentration of dissolved alumina near naturally occurring oceanic concentrations, well below the alumina concentration of 0.50 ppm A1 found to be stable in filtered Sargasso seawater at 2°C. Only 0.5 ppm Si is necessary to initiate this coprecipitation, which indicates that the concentrations of dissolved alumina that occur in seawater and in interstitial water are a function of the concentration of dissolved silica as well as of the alumina solubility.Dissolved alumina is also quickly removed by solid amorphous silica from solutions of seawater enriched in dissolved alumina and also by several marine sediments in contact with the solution. This process may be an important factor in authigenic mineral formation in marine sediments.     

Downward particle fluxes in the Guadiaro submarine canyon depositional system (north-western Alboran Sea), a river flood dominated system

Three moorings equipped with sediment traps were deployed in the north-western Alboran continental margin to study downward particle fluxes in the Guadiaro submarine canyon depositional system. This area is located close to the Strait of Gibraltar and is influenced by the upwelling induced by the Atlantic Jet and by episodic flood events from the Guadiaro River. Sediment traps were installed in the Guadiaro Canyon, in the Guadiaro Channel and in the adjacent continental slope. The overall duration of the deployment was 12 months (from November 1997 to October 1998). Time-series of downward particle fluxes, major constituents (organic carbon, nitrogen, biogenic opal, calcium carbonate and lithogenics) and ²¹⁰Pb were determined near the surface at mid-depths and near the bottom. Total mass fluxes (TMF) in this area fluctuated more than two orders of magnitude and showed an important seasonal variability with higher fluxes in winter. Increases in TMF and lithogenics together with decreases in ²¹⁰Pb, organic carbon and opal were recorded in all traps coinciding with river floods, indicating a direct response of the system to these events and a rapid offshore transport of suspended matter affecting the entire water column. The channel site received similar particle fluxes to the western open slope site, indicating that this channel did not act as a preferential sediment conduit during the deployment period. In the Guadiaro Canyon, TMF were more than one order of magnitude higher, ²¹⁰Pb concentration was lower (one half) and organic matter was more degraded than at the channel site during spring and summer, as a consequence of receiving particles resuspended by internal waves and occasionally by trawling activities. These particles were mainly retained in the canyon, which works as a trap. Also, during spring and summer, the opal and organic carbon percentages increased in all traps both in magnitude and variability, and peaks seem to be associated with biological blooms.     

Silica-alumina interactions in seawater

Amorphous silica can polymerize in distilled water, in 0.6 N NaCl solution and in seawater to form a colloidal suspension that contains approximately 200 ppm Si. Solid amorphous alumina can prevent this polymerization in seawater and in 0.6 N NaCl, and can inhibit but not prevent it in distilled water. This prevention of polymerization may be an important factor in authigenic mineral formation.The presence of solid amorphous alumina with solid silica in the same solutions causes the final concentrations of dissolved silica to be lower than those attained by solid silica in the absence of solid alumina. The effects are similar whether the final levels are approached from above or below the saturation concentration for amorphous silica. This indicates that the observed concentration of dissolved silica will be a function of available alumina as well as of the silica solubility.The presence of solid amorphous alumina with quartz in seawater, 0.6 N NaCl solution and distilled water causes dissolved silica levels to remain below 0.7 ppm Si for at least 38 days. The same systems in the absence of alumina approach the solubility levels of quartz within that time period.     

Regional Seas Towards Sustainable Development

Reports

Regional Seas Towards Sustainable Development     

Long-term persistence of solar activity

We examine the question of whether or not the non-periodic variations in solar activity are caused by a white-noise, random process. The Hurst exponent, which characterizes the persistence of a time series, is evaluated for the series of¹⁴C data for the time interval from about 6000 BC to 1950 AD. We find a constant Hurst exponent, suggesting that solar activity in the frequency range from 100 to 3000 years includes an important continuum component in addition to the well-known periodic variations. The value we calculate,H 0.8, is significantly larger than the value of 0.5 that would correspond to variations produced by a white-noise process. This value is in good agreement with the results for the monthly sunspot data reported elsewhere, indicating that the physics that produces the continuum is a correlated random process and that it is the same type of process over a wide range of time interval lengths.     

HTLP metamorphism and fluid-fluxed melting during multistage anatexis of continental crust (N Sardinia,Italy)

The Variscan high-grade metamorphic basement of northern Sardinia and southern Corsica record lower Carboniferous anatexis related to post-collisional decompression of the orogen. Migmatites exposed in the Punta Bianca locality (Italy) consist of quartz + biotite + plagioclase + K-feldspar orthogneisses, garnet and cordierite-bearing diatexite and metatexites, derived from metasediments. Field evidence, petrographic observations, ELA-ICP-MS zircon and monazite dating and pseudosection modelling suggest that anatexis was apparently episodic involving two main stages of partial melting. Using pseudosection modelling, we infer that the first stage of partial melting is in the upper amphibolite facies (~0.45 GPa at ~740°C). Cordierite overgrowths replacing sillimanite, combined with the composition of plagioclase and K-feldspar, suggest decompression followed cooling below the solidus at low pressures of ~0.3 GPa. The age of the first anatectic event is not precisely constrained because of extensive resetting of the isotopic systems during the second melting stage, yet few zircons preserve a lower Carboniferous age which is consistent with the regional dataset. This lower Carboniferous migmatitic fabric is offset by a network of pseudotachylyte-bearing faults suggestive of cooling to greenschist facies conditions. Garnet/cordierite-bearing diatexites incorporate fragments of pseudotachylite-bearing orthogneiss and metatexites. Pseudosection modelling indicates nearly isobaric re-heating up to ~750°C, followed by further cooling below the solidus. The inferred P–T path is consistent with decompression and cooling of the Variscan crust through post-collisional extension and collapse of the thickened orogenic crust, followed by nearly isobaric re-heating at low pressures (~0.3 GPa) yielding to a second melting stage under LP-HT conditions. U/Th-Pb monazite ages for diatexite migmatites indicate an upper bound of 310–316 Ma for the second melting stage, suggesting that the second melting stage is coincident with the regional phase of crustal shearing. The cause of the high geothermal gradient required for re-heating during the second melting stage is unknown but likely requires some heat source that was probably related to dissipation of mechanical work within crustal-scale shear zones. According to this interpretation, some upper Carboniferous peraluminous granite precursors of the Corsica–Sardinia Batholith could be the outcome rather than the cause of the late-Variscan high-T metamorphism.     

Numerical Simulation of Crown Pillar Behaviour in Transition from Open Pit to Underground Mining

Geotechnical and Geological Engineering - Crown pillars provide regional and local support by isolating the ground surface from underground mine workings. Topography above the underground mine may...     

Enhancing integrated indoor/outdoor mobility in a smart campus

A Smart City relies on six key factors: Smart Governance, Smart People, Smart Economy, Smart Environment, Smart Living and Smart Mobility. This paper focuses on Smart Mobility by improving one of its key components: positioning. We developed and deployed a novel indoor positioning system (IPS) that is combined with an outdoor positioning system to support seamless indoor and outdoor navigation and wayfinding. The positioning system is implemented as a service in our broader cartography-based smart university platform, called SmartUJI, which centralizes access to a diverse collection of campus information and provides basic and complex services for the Universitat Jaume I (Spain), which serves as surrogate of a small city. Using our IPS and based on the SmartUJI services, we developed, deployed and evaluated two end-user mobile applications: the SmartUJI APP that allows users to obtain map-based information about the different facilities of the campus, and the SmartUJI AR that allows users to interact with the campus through an augmented reality interface. Students, university staff and visitors who tested the applications reported their usefulness in locating university facilities and generally improving spatial orientation.     

Using hyperspectral imagery to predict post-wildfire soil water repellency

A principal task of evaluating large wildfires is to assess fire's effect on the soil in order to predict the potential watershed response. Two types of soil water repellency tests, the water drop penetration time (WDPT) test and the mini-disk infiltrometer (MDI) test, were performed after the Hayman Fire in Colorado, in the summer of 2002 to assess the infiltration potential of the soil. Remotely sensed hyperspectral imagery was also collected to map post-wildfire ground cover and soil condition. Detailed ground cover measurements were collected to validate the remotely sensed imagery and to examine the relationship between ground cover and soil water repellency. Percent ash cover measured on the ground was significantly correlated to WDPT (r = 0.42; p-value < 0.0001), and the MDI test (r = − 0.37; p-value < 0.0001). A Mixture Tuned Matched Filter (MTMF) spectral unmixing algorithm was applied to the hyperspectral imagery, which produced fractional cover maps of ash, soil, and scorched and green vegetation. The remotely sensed ash image had significant correlations to the water repellency tests, WDPT (r = 0.24; p-value = 0.001), and the MDI test (r = − 0.21; p-value = 0.005). An iterative threshold analysis was also applied to the ash and water repellency data to evaluate the relationship at increasingly higher levels of ash cover. Regression analysis between the means of grouped data: MDI time vs. ash cover data (R² =0.75) and vs. Ash MTMF scores (R² = 0.63) yielded significantly stronger relationships. From these results we found on-the-ground ash cover greater than 49% and remotely sensed ash cover greater than 33% to be indicative of strongly water repellent soils. Combining these results with geostatistical analyses indicated a spatial autocorrelation range of 15 to 40 m. Image pixels with high ash cover (> 33%), including pixels within 15 m of these pixel patches, were used to create a likelihood map of soil water repellency. This map is a good indicator of areas where soil experienced severe fire effects—areas that likely have strong water repellent soil conditions and higher potential for post-fire erosion.