Preliminary investigations on the occurrence of diagenetic dolomite in surface sediments of Lagoa Vermelha,Brazil

Studies on the precipitation of carbonates in a hypersaline lagoon revealed the presence of diagenetic dolomite at very shallow sediment depths. The relation of magnesium to calcium concentration both in interstitial and surface waters are within the range predicted in the literature for this occurence. Lower values encountered in some samples were linked to interactions with fresh groundwater.     

Tides and Wind-Driven Circulation in the Tropical and Southern Atlantic Ocean:The BRAZCOAST System

The Brazilian coast is characterized by dif- ferent tidal regimes and distinct meteorological influ- ences. The northern part has larger tidal amplitudes and is permanently affected by trade winds and tropical distur- bances; the southern portion has smaller tidal amplitudes and is frequently influenced by extratropical cyclone ac- tivity. Besides these aspects, many features regarding current structure and behavior are also present, such as the equatorial system of currents, the subtropical gyre and the corresponding western boundary currents, and the Bra- zil-Malvinas confluence region. Within this context, ef- forts were made to develop the BRAZCOAST system, capable of describing the processes that determine the oceanic circulation from large to coastal scales. A cus- tomized version of the Princeton Ocean Model （POM） was implemented in a basin-scale domain covering the whole of the tropical and southern Atlantic Ocean, with 0.5° spatial resolution, as well as three nested grids with （1/12）° resolution covering the different parts of the Bra- zilian shelf, in a one-way procedure. POM was modified to include tidal potential generator terms and a par- tially-clamped boundary condition for tidal elevations. The coarse grid captured large-scale features, while the nested grids detailed local circulations affected by bathymetry and coastal restrictions. An interesting aspect at the coarse grid level was the relevance of the Weddell Sea to the location of the tidal amphidromic systems.     

An improved methodology to measure flag performance for the shipping industry

The subject of measuring the performance of registries has been a topic of policy discussions in recent years at the regional level due to the recasting of the European Union (EU) port state control (PSC) directive which introduces incentives for flags which perform better. Since the current method used in the EU region entails some shortcomings, it has therefore been the subject of substantial scrutiny. Furthermore, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) developed a set of performance indicators which however lacks the ability to measure compliance as set out in one of its strategic directions towards fostering global compliance. This article develops a methodology to measure flag state performance which can be applied on the regional or global level and to other areas of legislative interest (e.g. recognized organizations, Document of Compliance Companies). The proposed methodology overcomes some of the shortcomings of the present method and presents a more refined, less biased approach of measuring performance. To demonstrate its usefulness, it is applied to a sample of 207,821 observations for a 3-year time frame and compared to the current method.     

Characterization of particulate matter in the Apulia Region (South of Italy): features and critical episodes

The chemical composition of PM₁₀ and PM_2.5 samples collected during two seasonal monitoring campaigns at residential, urban and industrial Apulia Region- sites was investigated. Ionic fraction, carbonaceous compounds and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons were determined for all samples. High correlations among PM data collected in the investigated sites suggested the regional character of particulate matter. It was also confirmed by five days back trajectories analysis. Moreover, no significant seasonal trend in PM mass concentration was observed in the investigated sites. These results, relevant for the area under investigations, were not observed in the North of Italy and Europe and allow to conclude that PM₁₀ and PM_2.5 cannot be considered ‘good’ indicators for the evaluation of local anthropic contributions to air quality. On the contrary, the high levels of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons found in Taranto sampling sites suggested that PAHs can be a better indicator for this purpose. This result is also relevant in order to weigh the importance of industrial area and to suggest right policy control to decision makers.     

Submarine Groundwater Discharge to a High-Energy Surf Zone at Stinson Beach,California, Estimated Using Radium Isotopes

Two 14-day experiments conducted in the dry summer (July 2006) and wet winter (March 2007) seasons, respectively, examined tidal, wave-driven, and seasonal variability of submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) at Stinson Beach, CA, using natural radium tracers. Tide stage, tide range, breaker height, and season each explained a significant degree of radium variability in the surf zone. A mass balance of excess radium in the surf zone was used to estimate SGD for each season, confirming larger discharge rates during the wet season. Our results indicate median groundwater discharge rates of 6 to 8 L min⁻¹ m⁻¹ in July 2006 and 38 to 43 L min⁻¹ m⁻¹ in March 2007. SGD from 200 m of Stinson Beach in March 2007 contributed a flux of phosphate and dissolved inorganic nitrogen approximately equal to that associated with all local creeks and streams within 6 km of the study site at that time.     

Clinker formation in basaltic and trachybasaltic lava flows

Clinker is a term used to describe massive or scoriaceous fragments commonly associated with ‘a‘ā lava flows. Clinker is generally considered to form by fragmentation of an upper vesiculated crust, due to an increase in apparent viscosity and/or to an increase in shear strain rate. Surface clinker is considered to be transported to the flow front and incorporated at the base by caterpillar motion. Clinker that we have observed on a variety of lava flows has very variable textures, which suggests several different mechanisms of formation. In order to study clinker formation, we examined several lava flows from the Chaîne des Puys Central France, where good sections, surface morphology and surface textures are widespread and clearly visible. We observed basal and surface ‘a‘ā clinker that has fragmentation textures similar to those observed in ash formed in eruptions under dry conditions. In two pāhoehoe flows we have observed basal clinker that formed in-situ. Two other flows display clinker features identical to those commonly observed in phreatomagmatic ash, such as adhering particles, blocky shapes, spherical glass and attached microphenocrysts. Another pāhoehoe flow has a flakey, angular basal breccia, with microfaulted and abraded clasts. These were probably formed at a cooled lava base by large amounts of simple shear and consequent intra-lava brittle faulting. Using these observations we propose three different ways of fragmentation. (1) Clinker can form at the surface and eventually produce roll-over basal breccia. (2) Water/lava interactions can form basal clinker by phreatomagmatic fragmentation. Water/lava ratio variations may produce different clinker structures, in a manner similar to observed textural changes in phreatomagmatic eruptions. (3) Clinker can be formed by brittle brecciation during basal simple shear. The different clinker can provide information about the mechanisms and environmental conditions during lava flow emplacement.     

Calibration and application of a continuum damage model on the simulation of stone masonry structures: Gondar church as a case study

The conservation and rehabilitation of monuments is a matter of important investigation, and the need for accurate structural analysis, capable of effectively predicting the structural behaviour of this type of constructions, under static and dynamic loads, is increasing. Currently there are numerous computational methods and tools, supported by different theories and strategies with different levels of complexity, computation time and cost which are available to perform such analyses. A complex analysis is not always synonym of a better result and the choice of a method over another depends mostly on the purpose of the analysis. This work aims at evaluating the capacity of a non linear continuum damage model (Faria et al. in Int J Solids Struct 35(14):1533–1558, 1998), originally developed for concrete structures, to simulate the behaviour of stone masonry structures. In particular, the seismic response of an old stone masonry construction, the Gondar church, is analysed considering different levels of geometrical and material complexity. The verification and calibration procedures use the experimental results from tests performed on stone masonry walls at the Laboratory for Earthquake and Structural Engineering of the Faculty of Engineering of Porto University and from other tests found in the bibliography (Vasconcelos in Experimental investigations on the mechanics of stone masonry: Characterization of granites and behaviour of ancient masonry shear walls. PhD Thesis, Universidade do Minho, Guimar?es, Portugal, 2005). The results are compared, assessing the differences and the importance of using complex tools, such as the continuum damage model, to better simulate and understand the global behaviour of such constructions.     

The Milky Way’s stellar disk

A suite of vast stellar surveys mapping the Milky Way, culminating in the Gaia mission, is revolutionizing the empirical information about the distribution and properties of stars in the Galactic stellar disk. We review and lay out what analysis and modeling machinery needs to be in place to test mechanism of disk galaxy evolution and to stringently constrain the Galactic gravitational potential, using such Galactic star-by-star measurements. We stress the crucial role of stellar survey selection functions in any such modeling; and we advocate the utility of viewing the Galactic stellar disk as made up of ‘mono-abundance populations’ (MAPs), both for dynamical modeling and for constraining the Milky Way’s evolutionary processes. We review recent work on the spatial and kinematical distribution of MAPs, and point out how further study of MAPs in the Gaia era should lead to a decisively clearer picture of the Milky Way’s dark-matter distribution and formation history.     

Biomarker lipids of the freshwater fern Azolla and its fossil counterpart from the Eocene Arctic Ocean

Eocene sediments recovered from the Lomonosov Ridge in the central Arctic Ocean during Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 302 contain high amounts of fossil remains of the free floating freshwater fern Azolla. Both extant Azolla and the sediments from the Arctic Azolla interval were found to contain relatively high quantities of compounds identified as 1,ω20 C₃₀–C₃₆ diols. Furthermore, structurally related mid-chain hydroxy fatty acids, long chain n-alkanols and keto-ols were discovered. The different series have a common feature: there is always a hydroxy group at the ω20 position. In addition, structurally related C₂₉ ω20,ω21 diols, C₂₉ 1,20,21 triols, C₂₉ dihydroxy fatty acids as well as a series of wax esters containing these mono- and dihydroxy lipids are reported. Selective extraction of Azolla surface lipids revealed that these compounds are most likely present in the leaf waxes of the fern. The suite of long-chain, mid-chain ω20 hydroxy wax constituents is described for the first time. As they are well preserved in the Eocene sediments, these lipids may serve as palaeo-environmental indicators of the Arctic Azolla interval and as markers for the past occurrence of Azolla in general.     

Zooplankton succession during extraordinary drought–flood cycles: A case study in a South American floodplain lake

We examined the zooplankton abundance and composition of Laguna Grande, a floodplain wetland of the Lower Paraná Basin (Argentina), during an extraordinary drought–flood cycle that affected both the environment and the biological conditions of the lake. Low waters were characterised by remarkably high conductivities and pH values, and high phytoplankton and bacterioplankton abundances with cyanobacterial blooms, while high waters showed opposite features. In relation to zooplankton, the mean abundances of all the taxonomic groups (rotifers, cladocerans, copepods, ciliates, and heterotrophic nanoflagellates) were slightly higher at low waters. Major changes were observed in the specific composition of metazooplankton: the euryhaline species assemblage that dominated in the dry warm period was replaced by several oligohaline littoral and planktonic species characteristic of the Paraná River Basin, when the water level rose. Mean species richness values at high waters doubled those of low waters and were directly correlated to water depth. Most of the rotifers of the genus Brachionus and the cladoceran Moina micrura switched from parthenogenetic to sexual reproduction during low waters, as a response to a harsh environment and crowding. We suggest that the main changes in the environmental conditions in this eutrophic floodplain lake are driven by the hydrology, which regulates the zooplankton succession. The herein described shifts in the zooplankton structure and dynamics of Laguna Grande over an extraordinary drought–flood cycle contribute to the understanding of the processes that might occur under the scenarios predicted by climate change models.