A ~565 Ma old glaciation in the Ediacaran of peri-Gondwanan West Africa

International Journal of Earth Sciences - In the Cadomian orogen of the NE Bohemian Massif and of SW Iberia, a post-Gaskiers glacial event dated at c. 565 Ma has been detected. Such...     

Effects of Hypoxia on Fish Survival and Oyster Growth in a Highly Eutrophic Estuary

Human land use activities around estuaries can result in high levels of eutrophication. At Elkhorn Slough estuary, a highly eutrophic California estuary, we investigated the effects of impaired water quality on two stress-tolerant estuarine species, a common fish, the staghorn sculpin, Leptocottus armatus and a foundational invertebrate, the Olympia oyster, Ostrea lurida. We caged the two indicator species at six wetlands with different levels of water quality impairment, four of which had restricted tidal flow. We also recorded water quality parameters simultaneously at all sites using YSI sondes, and sampled nutrients and chlorophyll-a monthly, building on the National Estuarine Research Reserve System-wide Monitoring Program. We found that the monitored environmental variables predicted ecological responses by the indicator species. In particular, we found that the duration and severity of hypoxia were negatively correlated with fish survival and oyster growth. Further, our results corroborate previous studies that artificial tidal restriction leads to increased hypoxia stress. We conclude that large diurnal fluctuations in dissolved oxygen and extended nighttime hypoxia can have lethal and sub-lethal effects even on stress-tolerant organisms in the estuary. While laboratory experiments have often shown such effects, it is relatively rare to demonstrate negative effects of oxygen variation with in situ experiments, which provide stakeholders with concrete evidence for impaired water quality at local wetlands. Tidally restricted sites, which experience the largest fluctuations in dissolved oxygen and longest periods of hypoxia, harbor conditions harmful to vertebrates and invertebrates in the estuary. Reversing the anthropogenically induced low oxygen levels, by restoring more natural tidal exchange and by decreasing agricultural runoff, could improve the survival and growth of important estuarine organisms.     

Diagenetic Alteration of Magnetic Signals by Anaerobic Oxidation of Methane Related to a Change in Sedimentation Rate

Geochemical and rock magnetic investigations of sediments from three sites on the continental margin off Argentina and Uruguay were carried out to study diagenetic alteration of iron minerals driven by anaerobic oxidation of methane (AOM). The western Argentine Basin represents a suitable sedimentary environment to study nonsteady-state processes because it is characterized by highly dynamic depositional conditions. Mineralogic and bulk solid phase data document that the sediment mainly consists of terrigenous material with high contents of iron minerals. As a typical feature of these deposits, distinct minima in magnetic susceptibility (κ) are observed. Pore water data reveal that these minima in susceptibility coincide with the current depth of the sulfate/methane transition (SMT) where HS⁻ is generated by the process of AOM. The released HS⁻ reacts with the abundant iron (oxyhydr)oxides resulting in the precipitation of iron sulfides accompanied by a nearly complete loss of magnetic susceptibility. Modeling of geochemical data suggest that the magnetic record in this area is highly influenced by a drastic change in mean sedimentation rate (SR) which occurred during the Pleistocene/Holocene transition. We assume that the strong decrease in mean SR encountered during this glacial/interglacial transition induced a fixation of the SMT at a specific depth. The stagnation has obviously enhanced diagenetic dissolution of iron (oxyhydr)oxides within a distinct sediment interval. This assumption was further substantiated by numerical modeling in which the mean SR was decreased from 100 cm kyr⁻¹ during glacial times to 5 cm kyr⁻¹ in the Holocene and the methane flux from below was fixed to a constant value. To obtain the observed geochemical and magnetic patterns, the SMT must remain at a fixed position for ∼9000 yrs. This calculated value closely correlates to the timing of the Pleistocene/Holocene transition. The results of the model show additionally that a constant high mean SR would cause a concave-up profile of pore water sulfate under steady state conditions.     

Melt water driven stream and groundwater stage fluctuations on a glacier forefield (Dammagletscher,Switzerland)

In many mountain regions, large land areas with heterogeneous soils have become ice‐free with the ongoing glacier retreat. On these recently formed proglacial fields, the melt of the remaining glaciers typically drives pronounced diurnal stream level fluctuations that propagate into the riparian zone. This behaviour was measured on the Damma glacier forefield in central Switzerland with stage recorders in the stream and groundwater monitoring wells along four transects. In spite of the large groundwater stage variations, radon measurements in the near‐stream riparian zone indicate that there is little mixing between stream water and groundwater on daily time scales. At all four transects, including both losing and gaining reaches, the groundwater level fluctuations lagged the stream stage variations and were often damped with distance from the stream. Similar behaviours have been modelled using the diffusion equation in coastal regions influenced by tidal sea level variations. We thus tested the ability of such a model to predict groundwater level fluctuations in proglacial fields. The model reproduced several key features of the observed fluctuations at three of four locations, although discrepancies also arise due to non representative input data and model simplifications. Nevertheless, calibration of the model for the individual transects yielded realistic estimates of hydraulic diffusivities between the stream and groundwater monitoring wells. We conclude that studying diurnal groundwater fluctuations can provide important information about the subsurface hydrology of alpine watersheds dominated by glacier melt. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Signatures of Restoration and Management Changes in the Water Quality of a Central California Estuary

Coastal managers and policy-makers are concerned with tracking improvements to water quality linked to management changes. Long-term water quality data acquired from two wetland areas in the upper reaches of the Elkhorn Slough estuary in central California were analyzed for signatures of land restoration or water control structure management. Post-restoration averaged NO₃, NH₃, and PO₄ concentrations were 50–70% less than before-restoration concentrations. Assessment of watershed-scale effects revealed that proximity of restoration to sampling locations had almost as strong an effect on water quality as the percentage of land restored relative to watershed size. Results also suggest that restoration of even 1% of an agriculturally intensive watershed such as that of the Elkhorn Slough may result in improvements to water quality. Finally, results indicate that tide gate function can dominate water quality in managed wetlands and must be carefully tracked and managed in the context of estuarine conservation targets.     

Fluid mud dynamics in the Weser estuary turbidity zone tracked by high-resolution side-scan sonar and parametric sub-bottom profiler

Fluid mud in estuarine turbidity maximum zones (TMZ) can pose considerable navigation risks due to potentially substantial reductions in nautical depth, coupled with an inherent difficulty of detection by conventional echo-sounders. Despite intensive research efforts, however, our knowledge about the spatial and temporal dynamics of fluid mud is still not sufficient. In this study, the combined use of a side-scan sonar (Sportscan®, Imagenex) and a parametric sub-bottom profiler (SES-2000®, Innomar Technology GmbH) has proved successful for high-resolution fluid mud detection and volumetric quantification in an estuarine environment. In 2004 and 2005, repeated surveys were conducted in the navigation channel of the upper meso- to lower macrotidal Weser estuary TMZ (German North Sea coast) at different tidal stages and river discharges. Current velocity data were simultaneously collected by 1,200-kHz broadband ADCP (RDInstruments) measurements. Ground-truthing was carried out by means of grab sampling and gravity coring, adapted to fluid mud conditions. It was found that fluid mud occurrence in the Weser estuary is highly variable on time scales of a few hours and spatial scales of several metres. The riverbed is characterised by sand and mud deposits, and a complex morphology including subaqueous dunes and smooth bed deposits intermittently overlain by fluid mud. Thus, a continuous, coherent fluid mud body covering the entire TMZ riverbed was not observed. Rather, spatial distribution was patchy and highly dependent on suspended particulate matter (SPM) concentrations in the water column, as a result of which local fluid mud deposits varied in thickness from centimetres to metres. The formation of fluid mud was largely restricted to slack water, although slack-water conditions were not necessarily associated with large-scale fluid mud appearance. Advective SPM transport of resuspended fluid mud seems to be the most plausible explanation for the high spatial variability observed, even between two successive tides. The amount of fluid mud deposited and resuspended in the course of a tidal cycle can reach several 10s of tons even in small riverbed depressions.     

Bioaccumulation of 14C-PCB 101 and 14C-PBDE 99 in the marine planktonic copepod Calanus finmarchicus under different food regimes

Bioaccumulation factors (BAFs) were determined for (14)C-PCB 101 and (14)C-PBDE 99 in the pelagic copepod Calanus finmarchicus after exposure to either contaminated water or after being fed contaminated phytoplankton (the dinoflagellate Prorocentrum minimum or the diatom Thalassiosira weissflogii). BAFs in algae range from 7.6 to 8.0 for PCB 101 and from 8.5 to 8.6 for PBDE 99. BAFs in copepods were significantly lower, 6.3-6.8 for PCB 101 and 7.6 for PBDE 99. For each compound, the BAFs in copepods were independent of what algal species they had consumed, even though the bioaccumulation of both compounds were higher in P. minimum than in T. weissflogii. The ratios between BAF and the K(ow) for PCB 101 and PBDE 99 were similar within each of the three species, but varied between species. For copepods the ratios were 2-4, for T. weissfloggii 15-22 and for P. minimum 32-40. The data strongly suggest that the two compounds bioaccumulate in a similar manner and that there is no biomagnification in the transfer between phytoplankton and herbivorous copepods.     

Climate changes during the last glacial termination inferred from diatom-based temperatures and pollen in a sediment core from Längsee (Austria)

A sediment core section from Längsee, a small meromictic lake in the southern Alpine lowland (Carinthia, Austria) close to the Würmian ice margin, was investigated by means of diatoms and pollen. The main aims of the study were to reconstruct water temperature as a signal of climate change during the last glacial termination, compare the aquatic and terrestrial response to the changing climate, and place our findings into a climatic frame on the northern hemispheric scale. A calibration data set (ALPS06) of 116 lakes was constructed using data from newly studied lakes and from two previously published data sets and we established a transfer function for predicting summer epilimnetic water temperatures (SEWT). A locally weighted weighted average regression and calibration model (R _jack ²  = 0.89; RSMEP = 1.82°C) was applied to the fossil diatom assemblages in order to reconstruct SEWT. Three major sections were distinguished in the time window of approximately 19–13 cal ka BP, which fitted well with the oxygen isotope curve and the isotope-event stratigraphy from the Greenland ice-core GRIP. The first section was a warming period (SEWT range from 11.6 to 18.0°C; average 15.8°C = ca. 6°C below present) called the Längsee oscillation, which probably correlates with the warmer sub-section (GS-2b) of the Greenland Stadial 2. The subsequent section represents a climate cooling, called the Längsee cold period (SEWT range between 10.6 and 15.9°C; average 12.9°C), which probably corresponds with the sub-section GS-2a of the Greenland Stadial 2, the Heinrich 1 cold event of the North Atlantic, and partially the Gschnitz Stadial in the Alps. The Längsee cold period shows a tri-partition: Two colder phases are separated by a warmer inter-phase. The passive ordination of the core sample scores along maximum water depth indicated that the Längsee cold period was drier than the Längsee oscillation. Strong short-term fluctuations during the Längsee oscillation and the Längsee cold period indicate climate instability. The third section represented climate warming during the Längsee late glacial interstadial (=Greenland Interstadial 1, GI-1) with an average SEWT of 17.5°C. From the minor climatic fluctuations during this interstadial, mainly indicated by pollen, the fluctuation most likely related to the Gerzensee oscillation showed a SEWT decline. During the early immigration and expansion period of shrubs and trees, aquatic and terrestrial records showed distinct discrepancies that might have arose because of time lags in response and differences in sensitivity.