Vegetation dynamics during the late Pleistocene in the Barreirinhas region, Maranhão State, northeastern Brazil, based on carbon isotopes in soil organic matter

The study place is in the Barreirinhas region, Maranhão State, northeastern Brazil. A vegetation transect of 78 km was studied among four vegetation types: Restinga (coastal vegetation), Cerrado (woody savanna), Cerradão (dense woody savanna), and Forest, as well as three forested sites around Lagoa do Caçó, located approximately 10 km of the transect. Soil profiles in this transect were sampled for δ¹³C analysis, as well as buried charcoal fragments were used for ¹⁴C dating. The data interpretation indicated that approximately between 15,000 and ∼9000 ¹⁴C yr B.P., arboreal vegetation prevailed in the whole transect, probably due to the presence of a humid climate. Approximately between ∼9000 and 4000-3000 ¹⁴C yr B.P., there was the expansion of the savanna, probably related to the presence of drier climate. From ∼4000-3000 ¹⁴C yr B.P. to the present, the results indicated an increase in the arboreal density in the area, due to the return to a more humid and probably similar climate to the present. The presence of buried charcoal fragments in several soil depths suggested the occurrence of palaeofires during the Holocene. The vegetation dynamic inferred in this study for northeastern Brazil is in agreement with the results obtained in areas of Amazon region, based on pollen analysis of lake sediments and carbon isotope analysis of soil organic matter (SOM), implying than similar climatic conditions have affected these areas during the late Pleistocene until the present.     

Electrodialytic remediation of CCA-treated waste wood in pilot scale

When chromated copper arsenate (CCA)-treated wood is removed from service and turns into waste, the contents of Cu, Cr and As remain high due to the strong fixation of CCA in the wood. This high content of toxic compounds presents a disposal challenge. Incineration of CCA-treated waste wood is not allowed in Denmark; instead, the wood is to be land-filled until new methods for handling the wood are available. Since the amounts of CCA-treated wood being removed from service is expected to increase in the years to come, the need for finding alternative handling methods is very relevant. In this study, the usefulness of Electrodialytic Remediation was demonstrated for handling of CCA-treated waste wood in pilot scale. The electrodialytic remediation method, which uses a low-level direct current (DC) as the cleaning agent, combines electrokinetic movement of ions in the wood matrix with the principles of electrodialysis. It has previously been shown that it is possible to remove Cu, Cr and As from CCA-treated wood using electrodialytic remediation in laboratory scale, but until now, the method had not been studied in large scale. The pilot-scale plant used in this study was designed to contain up to 2 m³ wood chips. Six remediation experiments were carried out. In these experiments, the process was up-scaled stepwise by increasing the distance between the electrodes from initially 60 cm to finally 150 cm. The remediation time was varied between 11 and 21 days, and phosphoric acid and/or oxalic acid was used to facilitate the desorption of CCA from the wood. In the most successful of the experiments carried out, the concentration of CCA in the wood was reduced by up to 82% for Cr, 88% for Cu and at least 96% for As.     

Case study on the strategy and application of enhancement solutions to improve remediation of soils contaminated with Cu, Pb and Zn by means of electrodialysis

Numerous studies have been conducted with electrochemical removal of heavy metals from spiked kaolinite. Meanwhile, when moving from kaolinite to real soils, new factors must be taken into account—factors influencing, e.g., the buffering capacity of the soil against acidification and the adsorption/desorption processes of the heavy metals. The present study gives some examples where it is necessary to use an enhancement solution to aid desorption of Cu, Zn and Pb during electrodialytic treatment. Dependent on the composition of the pollution, different choices can be made. In the case of a Cu-polluted calcareous soil, ammonia may be used as enhancement solution, due to the formation of charged complexes between ammonia and Cu. Thus, Cu is mobile at high pH when ammonia is added and Cu can be removed without dissolving the calcareous parts. Zn is also mobilized by ammonia, but to a lesser extent than Cu. In the case of Cu, Zn and Pb at the same time, alkaline ammonium citrate may be a solution. It was shown that this enhancement solution could mobilize these three pollutants, but optimization of concentration and pH of the ammonium citrate is still needed. When choosing a remediation scheme for electrochemical treatment of an actual industrially polluted soil, this scheme must be chosen on basis of characterization of soil and pollution combination.     

近20年渤海叶绿素a浓度时空变化

浮游植物作为食物链的基础,对海洋生态系统具有重要作用。渤海作为我国最大的内海和重要渔业生物的产卵场、育幼场和索饵场,该区浮游植物研究具有重要意义。叶绿素a浓度是反映浮游植物生物量的重要指标。利用Google Earth Engine平台,对1997–2010年的宽视场海洋观测传感器(SeaWiFS)叶绿素a浓度数据和2002–2018年的水色卫星中分辨率成像光谱仪传感器(MODIS Aqua)叶绿素a浓度数据进行合并,并研究其时空变化特征。研究表明,近20年来,渤海全年叶绿素a浓度增加了14.1%,且增加显著。叶绿素a浓度在所有季节都呈现增加趋势;除11月外,其他各月都呈现稳定或增加趋势。从滦河入河口沿岸至渤海海峡的渤海中部,叶绿素a浓度增加较明显。同时也分析了海洋表面温度、风速和降水量数据。夏季渤海周边区域降水量和风速增加以及秋季海表温度的降低都有助于同季叶绿素a浓度的升高。渤海浮游植物可能受陆源营养物质输入影响较大。     

A constitutive model for mechanical and chemo‐mechanical compaction in sedimentary basins and finite element analysis

Compaction and associated fluid flow are fundamental processes in sedimentary basin deformation. Purely mechanical compaction originates mainly from pore fluid expulsion and rearrangement of solid particles during burial, while chemo‐mechanical compaction results from Intergranular Pressure‐Solution (IPS) and represents a major mechanism of deformation in sedimentary basins during diagenesis. The aim of the present contribution is to provide a comprehensive 3D framework for constitutive and numerical modeling of purely mechanical and chemo‐mechanical compaction in sedimentary basins. Extending the concepts that have been previously proposed for the modeling of purely mechanical compaction in finite poroplasticity, deformation by IPS is addressed herein by means of additional viscoplastic terms in the state equations of the porous material. The finite element model integrates the poroplastic and poroviscoplastic components of deformation at large strains. The corresponding implementation allows for numerical simulation of sediments accretion/erosion periods by progressive activation/deactivation of the gravity forces within a fictitious closed material system. Validation of the numerical approach is assessed by means of comparison with closed‐form solutions derived in the context of a simplified compaction model. The last part of the paper presents the results of numerical basin simulation performed in one dimensional setting, demonstrating the ability of the modeling to capture the main features in elastoplastic and viscoplastic compaction. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Present, Past, and Future Contributions to Global Warming of CO2 Emissions from Fuels

The objective of this paper is to emphasize theresponsibility of developed countries to implement the Climate Convention, as well as the role ofdeveloping countries in CO₂ emissions controlwhile sustaining their rights to increase energyconsumption per capita during the development process. Itis shown that the growth in CO₂$ emissions fromfossil fuel consumption in North America, excludingMexico, from 1990 to 1996 was 3.7 times higherthan that of Latin America in absolute terms. Thecumulative contribution to global warming, expressedas the mass of the gas multiplied by time (GtCy), can becalculated as the integration of the atmosphericconcentration of the emitted gas along time, witha weight function in the integrand to simulate theclimate response. To simulate climate response,we used the superposition of exponential decay functions with different decay constants. Thehistorical contributions of the OECD countries,the Eastern European countries and theex-Soviet Union, and from all developingcountries are considered. The future contributionsare computed in three scenarios. All of them showthat emissions from Non-Annex I countrieswill become higher than those of Annex I countriessoon after 2010, while the curves of atmosphericconcentration will cross one another later, not muchbefore 2050, and the respective contributions toglobal temperature increase will cross about 2090.     

The geoid: From geodesy to geophysics and from geophysics to geodesy

The word geoid appeared for the first time in 1873 in a work by Listing, at a time when an increasing number of measurements of meridian arcs were made, in order to determine the figure of the Earth.From that time, the mathematical methods (least squares, inverse methods ...) and the observation and modelling methods (collecting data, precision ...) have made concurrently great progress. Owing to these advances, the geometric method first, and the dynamic method next were developed by geodesy for the computation of the geoid. In particular, the increasing of data brought by satellites since the 60's led to a detailed knowledge of the geoid.The determination of the geoid is, for geodesy, a goal in itself. The geophysical viewpoint is to study the inner structure and the internal dynamics of the Earth, by the interpretation of the shape of the geoid and its anomalies. The two approaches are complementary to one another and react one on the other: from geodesy to geophysics and from geophysics to geodesy. The geoid has three advantages that can be stated in a few words each, although the third advantage brings in a complex subject. They are: first, the advantage of thinking in terms of small numbers; second, the fact that we know or can know directly the form of the geoid as a physical reality over much of the earth's surface; third, the geophysical implications of a knowledge of the geoid. Walter D. Lambert, 1961