Determinants of corporate adaptation to climate change in winter tourism: An econometric analysis

While corporate adaptation strategies in response to climate change have been characterized, the determinants of adaptation have not been comprehensively analyzed. Knowledge of these determinants is particularly useful for policy makers to provide favorable conditions in support of corporate adaptation measures. Based on unique data from a survey of Swiss ski lift operators, this paper empirically examines such determinants at the business level. Our econometric analysis with linear regression and count data models finds a positive influence of the awareness of possible climate change effects on the scope of corporate adaptation. Surprisingly, no significant influence of the vulnerability to climate change effects on the scope of adaptation could be found. Finally, the dependency on the affected business and the ability to adapt influence the specific strategic directions of corporate adaptation.     

Ermittlung der Nachweis-, Erfassungs- und Bestimmungsgrenze nach DIN 32645 mit Hilfe eines Programms Calculation of Detection Limit,Identification Limit and Determination Limit according to DIN 32645 with the Aid of a Computer Programs

The new German standard specification DIN 32645 defines detection, identification and determination limit of analytical experiments and contains formulas for their calculation. The detection limit is a qualitative value, only at the determination limit a quantitative statement is possible. The identification limit is no limit of decision for analyses. The expenditure for calculating these parameters is considerable. Therefore, a computer program was developed and tested at the analysis of herbicides with GC-MS after enrichment with solid phase extraction (SPE). It proved that the program is also very useful at the development of analytical methods, because it allows a quick examination of changes of the analytical method. After optimization detection limits for the herbicides were achieved which amount 10–20% of the limit of the German drinking water regulation.     

Terrace stratigraphy in the Tunica Hills of Louisiana

The age and number of important fossil-producing late Pleistocene terraces in the Tunica Hills have recently become quite controversial. One hypothesis holds that only a single loess-mantled Farmdalian terrace flanks the streams in this area. The other maintains that there are two terraces. The youngest is considered essentially Holocene in age while the older is Sangamon in age. Radiometric and stratigraphic evidence collected for this study indicates that there are two terraces. The youngest is late Woodfordian to Holocene in age while the other is Farmdalian.     

Origin of biotite-hornblende-garnet coronas between oxides and plagioclase in olivine metagabbros,Adirondack region,New York

Complex multivariant reactions involving Fe-Ti oxide minerals, plagioclase and olivine have produced coronas of biotite, hornblende and garnet between ilmenite and plagioclase in Adirondack olivine metagabbros. Both the biotite (6–10% TiO₂) and the hornblende (3–6% TiO₂) are exceptionally Titanium-rich. The garnet is nearly identical in composition to the garnet in coronas around olivine in the same rocks. The coronas form in two stages:

1. Plagioclase+Fe-Ti Oxides+Olivine+water =Hornblende+Spinel+Orthopyroxene±Biotite +more-sodic Plagioclase
2. Hornblende+Orthopyroxene±Spinel+Plagioclase =Garnet+Clinopyroxene+more-sodic Plagioclase

The Orthopyroxene and part of the clinopyroxene form adjacent to olivine. Both reactions are linked by exchange of Mg²⁺ and Fe²⁺ with the reactions forming pyroxene and garnet coronas around olivine in the same rocks. The reactions occur under granulite fades metamorphic conditions, either during isobaric cooling or with increasing pressure at high temperature.     

Development of fluid conduits in the auriferous shear zones of the Hutti Gold Mine, India: evidence for spatially and temporally heterogeneous fluid flow

The gold mineralization of the Hutti Mine is hosted by nine parallel, N–S trending, steeply dipping, 2–10 m wide shear zones, that transect Archaean amphibolites. The shear zones were formed after peak metamorphism during retrograde ductile D₂ shearing in the lower amphibolite facies. They were reactivated in the lower to mid greenschist facies by brittle–ductile D₃ shearing and intense quartz veining. The development of a S₂–S₃ crenulation cleavage facilitates the discrimination between the two deformation events and contemporaneous alteration and gold mineralization. Ductile D₂ shearing is associated with a pervasively developed distal chlorite–sericite alteration assemblage in the outer parts of the shear zones and the proximal biotite–plagioclase alteration in the center of the shear zones. D₃ is characterized by development of the inner chlorite-K-feldspar alteration, which forms a centimeter-scale alteration halo surrounding the laminated quartz veins and replaces earlier biotite along S₃. The average size of the laminated vein systems is 30–50 m along strike as well as down-dip and 2–6 m in width.Mass balance calculations suggest strong metasomatic changes for the proximal biotite–plagioclase alteration yielding mass and volume increase of ca. 16% and 12%, respectively. The calculated mass and volume changes of the distal chlorite–sericite alteration (ca. 11%, ca. 8%) are lower. The decrease in δ¹⁸O values of the whole rock from around 7.5‰ for the host rocks to 6–7‰ for the distal chlorite–sericite and the proximal biotite–plagioclase alteration and around 5‰ for the inner chlorite-K-feldspar alteration suggests hydrothermal alteration during two-stage deformation and fluid flow.The ductile D₂ deformation in the lower amphibolite facies has provided grain scale porosities by microfracturing. The pervasive, steady-state fluid flow resulted in a disseminated style of gold–sulfide mineralization and a penetrative alteration of the host rocks. Alternating ductile and brittle D₃ deformation during lower to mid greenschist facies conditions followed the fault-valve process. Ductile creep in the shear zones resulted in a low permeability environment leading to fluid pressure build-up. Strongly episodic fluid advection and mass transfer was controlled by repeated seismic fracturing during the formation of laminated quartz(-gold) veins. The limitation of quartz veins to the extent of earlier shear zones indicate the importance of pre-existing anisotropies for fault-valve action and economic gold mineralization.     

Changes in saltmarsh surface elevation due to variability in evapotranspiration and tidal flooding

We examine the potential for diurnal variation in elevation of saltmarsh surfaces as a source of error in long-term experiments; errors particularly critical in high precision studies that employ the surface elevation table (SET) as a means to monitor elevations. The field study was carried out along the New Brunswick coast of the Bay of Fundy in high and low zones at three marshes with different tidal ranges. We used a total of 16 benchmark pipes and controlled for daily variability in evapotranspiration (ET), as well as timing of tidal flooding, two factors that affect soil water storage, and consequently soil volumes. In six of nine trials we detected significant elevation change over periods as short as 5 d. Marsh-wide averages ranged from 1.2 to 3.0 mm, greater than the yearly increase in relative sea level in many regions. Wood Point marsh had the highest tidal range, but lowest soil organic matter content, giving its soils the lowest compressibility and little sensitivity to ET during two of three trials; the average change in elevation in Wood Point high marsh stations was 4.0 mm during the last trial. Greater differences later in the growing season (while temperature changes were minor) at Wood Point and another site suggest that plant transpiration drove changes in water storage at those sites. Significantly greater differences in elevation with lower plant cover in the third marsh suggests that evaporation drove changes in water storage there. Surface elevation change due to ET should be of greatest concern to SET users in temperate regions where there are large changes in plant biomass and variable temperatures. Variation due to plant transpiration could be reduced if yearly monitoring is scheduled before the start of the growing season.     

Storage and interaction of compositionally heterogeneous magmas from the 1986 eruption of Augustine Volcano, Alaska

Compositional heterogeneity (56–64 wt% SiO₂ whole-rock) in samples of tephra and lava from the 1986 eruption of Augustine Volcano, Alaska, raises questions about the physical nature of magma storage and interaction beneath this young and frequently active volcano. To determine conditions of magma storage and evolutionary histories of compositionally distinct magmas, we investigate physical and chemical characteristics of andesitic and dacitic magmas feeding the 1986 eruption. We calculate equilibrium temperatures and oxygen fugacities from Fe-Ti oxide compositions and find a continuous range in temperature from 877 to 947°C and high oxygen fugacities (ΔNNO=1–2) for all magmas. Melt inclusions in pyroxene phenocrysts analyzed by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and electron probe microanalysis are dacitic to rhyolitic and have water contents ranging from <1 to ∼7 wt%. Matrix glass compositions are rhyolitic and remarkably similar (∼75.9–76.6 wt% SiO₂) in all samples. All samples have ∼25% phenocrysts, but lower-silica samples have much higher microlite contents than higher-silica samples. Continuous ranges in temperature and whole-rock composition, as well as linear trends in Harker diagrams and disequilibrium mineral textures, indicate that the 1986 magmas are the product of mixing between dacitic magma and a hotter, more mafic magma. The dacitic endmember is probably residual magma from the previous (1976) eruption of Augustine, and we interpret the mafic endmember to have been intruded from depth. Mixing appears to have continued as magmas ascended towards the vent. We suggest that the physical structure of the magma storage system beneath Augustine contributed to the sustained compositional heterogeneity of this eruption, which is best explained by magma storage and interaction in a vertically extensive system of interconnected dikes rather than a single coherent magma chamber and/or conduit. The typically short repose period (∼10 years) between Augustine's recent eruptive pulses may also inhibit homogenization, as short repose periods and chemically heterogeneous magmas are observed at several volcanoes in the Cook Inlet region of Alaska.     

Pleistocene stratigraphy in the southern Lower Mississippi Valley

Scientific inquiry into Pleistocene stratigraphy of the Lower Mississippi Valley (LMV) dates to early writings of European naturalists in the late 19th century. By the early 20th century, landscape evolution concepts, stratigraphic models, and regional syntheses had developed for most areas. The 1944 monograph of H.N. Fisk marks the advent of a predictive stratigraphic and landscape evolution model that links form and process to a predominantly glacioeustatic mechanism. The Fiskian model gained widespread acceptance, and decades passed before significant alternate models began to emerge. Revised stratigraphic and geomorphic concepts are presently developing from newly acquired environmental and engineering data. Present scenarios classify Pleistocene outcrop areas into erosional and constructional landscapes, and veneers of eolian, colluvial, fluvial, coastal, and marine origin can drape both types of surfaces.

The southern LMV and adjacent Gulf Coastal Plain (GCP) experienced significant landscape change during the Pleistocene. Late Tertiary (Pliocene?) to Early Pleistocene deposition of the Upland Complex was by streams with a high sand and gravel load relative to its mud load. The regional drainage network and fluvial system behavior was probably significantly different from the modern. Braided stream alluvial fan complexes received sediment from highland source areas adjacent to the LMV and the glaciated mid-continent. It is plausible that part of Upland Complex deposition predates initial glacial advances.

From Early to Middle Pleistocene, an erosional landscape formed during a dissection period that chiefly postdates soil formation on stable landscape positions of the Upland Complex. Slope evolution truncated a regionally extensive geosol in multiple phases, and parts of the erosion surface complex are graded to the oldest preserved constructional alluvial plains in present valleys. Toe and foot slope positions of the erosion surface complex and its correlative alluvial plains are presently delineated as the Intermediate Complex. Constructional landscapes formed at this time are sparsely preserved; Fisk's Montgomery Terrace in the Lower Red River Valley (LRRV) is the best preserved example. Influences on the development of erosion surfaces in the LMV are not well understood; however interactions of relative sea level fall, climate change, and epirogenic crustal movement are plausible factors.

From the latter part of Middle Pleistocene to the Holocene, there was widespread evolution of modern constructional landscapes. Constructional alluviation preserved lithofacies of mixed load, laterally accreting, meandering streams that developed over large areas of the southern LMV to form parts of the Prairie Complex. Lateral planation in valleys and stable rates of upland sediment generation were dominant processes during Prairie Complex deposition.

Pleistocene stratigraphic examples considered important by Fisk are still considered relevant to modern stratigraphic investigators. Presently, Pleistocene units of the southern LMV, the adjacent LRRV, and central GCP can be correlated only by relative stratigraphic relationships. Refined chronostratigraphic and paleoenvironmental models for these areas would help improve the understanding of the geomorphic influences on Quaternary landscape evolution in the region.     

Archaea mediate anaerobic oxidation of methane in deep euxinic waters of the Black Sea

We evaluate anaerobic oxidation of methane (AOM) in the Black Sea water column by determining distributions of archaea-specific glyceryl dialkyl glyceryl tetraethers (GDGTs) and ¹³C isotopic compositions of their constituent biphytanes in suspended particulate matter (SPM), sinking particulate matter collected in sediment traps, and surface sediments. We also determined isotopic compositions of fatty acids specific to sulfate-reducing bacteria to test for biomarker and isotopic evidence of a syntrophic relationship between archaea and sulfate-reducing bacteria in carrying out AOM. Bicyclic and tricyclic GDGTs and their constituent ¹³C-depleted monocyclic and bicyclic biphytanes (down to −67‰) indicative of archaea involved in AOM were present in SPM in the anoxic zone below 700 m depth. In contrast, GDGT-0 and crenarchaeol derived from planktonic crenarchaeota dominated the GDGT distributions in the oxic surface and shallow anoxic waters. Fatty acids indicative of sulfate-reducing bacteria (i.e., iso- and anteiso-C₁₅) were not strongly isotopically depleted (e.g., −32 to −25‰), although anteiso-C₁₅ was 5‰ more depleted in ¹³C than iso-C₁₅. Our results suggest that either AOM is carried out by archaea independent of sulfate-reducing bacteria or those sulfate-reducing bacteria involved in a syntrophy with methane-oxidizing archaea constitute a small enough fraction of the total sulfate-reducing bacterial community that an isotope depletion in their fatty acids is not readily detected. Sinking particulate material collected in sediment traps and the underlying sediments in the anoxic zone contained the biomarker and isotope signature of upper-water column archaea. AOM-specific GDGTs and ¹³C-depleted biphytanes characteristic of the SPM in the deep anoxic zone are not incorporated into sinking particles and are not efficiently transported to the sediments. This observation suggests that sediments may not always record AOM in overlying euxinic water columns and helps explain the absence of AOM-derived biomarkers in sediments deposited during past periods of elevated levels of methane in the ocean.