Extraterrestrial coastal geomorphology

Earth is the only planet in the solar system where large amounts of liquid water have been stable at the surface throughout geologic time. This unique trait has resulted in the production of characteristic landforms and massive accumulations of aqueous sediments, as well as enabled the evolution of advanced and diverse forms of life. But while Earth is the only planet with large bodies of water on its surface today, Venus and Mars may have once had lakes or oceans as well. More exotic fluids may be stable in the outer solar system. Prior to the Voyager flybys of the outer planets during the 1970s and 1980s, the moon of Neptune, Triton, was thought to be much larger than the Voyager cameras revealed it to be, and predictions that liquid nitrogen lakes or oceans might be found were made. The moon of Saturn, Titan, however, was found to have a massive atmosphere, so the possibility remains that it may have, or may once have had, lakes or oceans of liquid hydrocarbons. The recent, high-resolution synthetic aperture radar imaging of Venus has failed to reveal any evidence of any putative clement period, but the results for Mars are much more intriguing. Herein, we briefly review work on this subject by a number of investigators, and discuss problems of identifying and recognizing martian landforms as lacustrine or marine. In addition, we present additional examples of possible martian coastal landforms. The former presence of lakes or oceans on Mars has profound implications with regard to the climate history of that planet.     

Geochemical implications of induced changes in C13 fractionation by blue-green algae

The photosynthetic fractionation of carbon isotopes by blue-green algae in laboratory culture is dependent in a non-linear fashion on the CO₂ concentration in the feed gas. For the three species tested, the minimum fractionation occurred at a CO₂ concentration of 0.2% in air and was approximately zero for the two marine species tested. Enrichment of C¹² in the reduced carbon is not an inevitable result of photosynthetic carbon fixation. Temperature and pH had no detectable effect on fractionation. The maximum fractionation observed in the laboratory cultures or in recent blue-green algal mats was 18‰. Differences in the isotope ratio of coexisting oxidized and reduced carbon in Precambrian stromatolites are as great as 31‰. Present carbon isotopic evidence is not consistent with the idea that blue-green algae were major contributors to the organic matter in Precambrian sediments.     

A parcel theory approach to β-plane inertial stability

The problem of the orbit of a parcel from its initial location at which there might be a momentum anomaly is here considered for a β-plane. The solutions represent a generalisation of the recent work of Wan and Yang (1990, Adv. Atmos. Sci., 7:409–422). A physical interpretation of the orbits, in which they are related to flow stability, is given for both extratropics and tropics. The possible effect of dissipation on these results is also discussed.     

Maximum carbon isotope fractionation in photosynthesis by blue-green algae and a green alga

The maximum carbon isotope fractionation occurring in photosynthetic fixation of carbon dioxide in pure cultures of blue-green algae was ?23.9%. and for a green alga was ?22.6%., Maximum fractionations were obtained where cell densities were low and carbon dioxide concentrations were greater than 0.5%. Fractionation was reduced at higher temperatures using a thermophilic blue-green alga. For filamentous blue-green algae wherein clumping occurs and localized cell concentrations were high, fractionation was also lower. Fractionations reported in literature for Precambrian organic materials are comparable to the maximum fractionations reported here. This suggests that the early photosynthetic organisms developed under conditions of high carbon dioxide availability, i.e. slow growth rates and/or low population densities.     

Genetic differentiation and speciation in the estuarine isopodsCyathura polita andCyathura burbancki

We investigated the electrophoretically detectable variation at nine protein loci in seven populations ofCyathura polita and one population of the closely relatedC. burbancki from the Atlantic coast of North America. The average proportion of the genome heterozygous per individual \((\bar H)\) inC. polita ranges from about 0% in New Brunswick and Massachusetts to 9.3% in a Georgia population. \(\bar H\) in the population ofC. burbancki was 2.6%. On the basis of our results,C. polita can be separated into two geographic forms,northern (New Brunswick, Massachusetts, and Maryland) andsouthern (Georgia and Florida). The genetic distances between the southern and northernC. polita are similar to the genetic distances reported between species of several other invertebrate groups. Our genetic data support the idea that the northern and southern forms ofC. polita andC. burbancki comprise a triad of species that diverged from each other 2–3 million years ago. Since we know nothing about the genetic structure of populations ofCyathura between Georgia and Maryland, this interpretation must be considered preliminary.     

Stable carbon isotope ratio variations of organic matter in Orca Basin sediments

Orca Basin is a highly reducing basin on the slope of the Gulf of Mexico. Stable carbon isotope ratios and total organic carbon percentages were determined for two cores within the basin and one control core outside the basin. The results show that the organic carbon content of the basin cores is consistently 2–3 times greater than that of the control core. The Pleistocene-Holocene boundary, indicated by a break in the δ¹³C depth profile, occurs at a greater sediment depth in the basin cores than in the control core. A small sampling interval has made it possible to detect an unexplained fine structure in the δ¹³C profile not previously observed.