A tertiary lamprophyre dike with high pressure xenoliths and megacrysts from Wiedemanns Fjord,East Greenland

Lamprophyric dikes, mainly of camptonite/monchiquite affinities occur in the Wiedemanns Fjord area. One example contains a complex assemblage of olivine-orthopyroxene-chrome spinel nodules, megacrysts of kaersutite, diopside, strongly reverse-zoned green salite and various spinel phases. Microprobe analyses are presented for all these phases and for the lilac-coloured titansalites and strongly-coloured kaersutites of the groundmass. It is concluded that these minerals record evolution under various P, T and oxidation regimes during the formation of a lamprophyric parent magma. The nodules provide evidence for deep fractures in this area supposedly associated with early rifting in the North Atlantic.     

Circulating subbeam systemsand the physics of pulsar emission

The purpose of this paper is to suggest how detailed single-pulse observations of slow radio pulsars may be utilized to construct an empirical model for their emission. It links the observational synthesis developed in a series of papers by Rankin in the 1980s and 90s to the more recent empirical feedback model of Wright (2003a) by regarding the entire pulsar magnetosphere as a non-steady, non-linear interactive system with a natural built-in delay. It is argued that the enhanced role of the outer gap in such a system indicates an evolutionary link to younger pulsars, in which this region is thought to be highly active, and that pulsar magnetospheres should no longer be seen as being driven by events on the neutron stars polar cap, but as having more in common with planetary magnetospheres and auroral phenomena.Received: 8 May 2003, Published online: 14 November 2003 Correspondence to: Joanna M. Rankin. On leave from: Physics Department, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405, USA     

Trees as riparian engineers: the Tagliamento river,Italy

Pristine river corridors were characterized by island and floodplain development driven by the inter‐play of flows, sediments and woody vegetation. Here we explore these relationships within topographically controlled settings within the upper, middle and lower reaches of a large, semi‐natural alpine to mediterranean river. These reaches have expanding or contracting valley floors within which we show that there are more or less predictable patterns of stream power and rates of vegetation growth, reflecting water availability during dry periods and also the availability of sand and finer sediment. We relate these to the pattern of island distribution that is repeated within the three reaches and is indicative of the engineering role of riparian trees. Islands are shown to develop within thresholds defined by stream power, rates of woody vegetation growth and rates of sedimentation, and to develop most quickly where riparian species include those capable of sprouting from driftwood. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Linking vulnerability, adaptation, and resilience science to practice: Pathways, players, and partnerships

Vulnerability, adaptation and resilience are concepts that are finding increasing currency in several fields of research as well as in various policy and practitioner communities engaged in global environmental change science, climate change, sustainability science, disaster risk-reduction and famine interventions. As scientists and practitioners increasingly work together in this arena a number of questions are emerging: What is credible, salient and legitimate knowledge, how is this knowledge generated and how is it used in decision making? Drawing on important science in this field, and including a case study from southern Africa, we suggest an alternative mode of interaction to the usual one-way interaction between science and practice often used. In this alternative approach, different experts, risk-bearers, and local communities are involved and knowledge and practice is contested, co-produced and reflected upon. Despite some successes in the use and negotiation of such knowledge for ‘real’ world issues, a number of problems persist that require further investigation including the difficulties of developing consensus on the methodologies used by a range of stakeholders usually across a wide region (as the case study of southern Africa shows, particularly in determining and identifying vulnerable groups, sectors, and systems); slow delivery of products that could enhance resilience to change that reflects not only a lack of data, and need for scientific credibility, but also the time-consuming process of coming to a negotiated understanding in science–practice interactions and, finally, the need to clarify the role of ‘external’ agencies, stakeholders, and scientists at the outset of the dialogue process and subsequent interactions. Such factors, we argue, all hinder the use of vulnerability and resilience ‘knowledge’ that is being generated and will require much more detailed investigation by both producers and users of such knowledge.     

Mechanical shredding of water hyacinth (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Eichhornia crassipes</Emphasis>): Effects on water quality in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta,California

Management actions to control invasive aquatic species can have significant ecosystem-scale effects. We evaluated the water chemistry and nutrient effects of mechanical shredding to control water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) in an agricultural slough and a tidal wetland on the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, California. Shredding was conducted with two types of shredder boats in fall of 2003 and another boat in spring of 2004. Shredding measurably affected water quality, but specific effects varied as a function of shredding site and season. Significant increases were observed for total Kjeldahl nitrogen and total phosphorus for all experiments. Dissolved oxygen effects varied by site, decreasing after shredding at the agricultural slough but increasing at the tidal wetland. The increase in dissolved oxygen likely resulted from tidal incursions from the adjacent river. A year-long time series of dissolved oxygen data indicated a negative relationship between hyacinth abundance and dissolved oxygen concentrations. Hyacinth contained similar tissue concentrations of mercury to underlying sediments, suggesting that plant harvesting could aid mercury remediation efforts. Simple mass calculations indicated that Delta-wide shredding operations could cause between 0.1% and 9.6% increases in the overall abundance of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus in the Delta water column. Results suggest that local effects of management actions to control invasive aquatic plants will vary widely as a function of site-specific hydrology, but that estuary-wide effects would be limited.     

A novel approach to estimate iron distribution within different pore domains of structured media

The Fe content of soils and aquifer solids is usually quantified using different extraction solutions performed with homogenized samples in a well-mixed batch experiment. For structured media where preferential flow prevails over the matrix flow, however, the Fe content determined from homogenized samples may not well represent the Fe available for biogeochemical reactions. In this study ammonium oxalate extraction was performed on a core of intact saprolite where physical structure was preserved. An unsaturated flow setup was modified with the intent of allowing the extraction under two pore tensions, 15 and 0 cm of water, although a malfunctioning vacuum regulator made this more difficult than anticipated. Approximately 85% of the oxalate-extractable Fe was contained within the finer pore domain (matrix potential larger than 15 cm). Less than 15.5% of the extracted Fe mass (an upper bound) was present in domains of pore tension less than15 cm. To the extent that Fe(III) oxides play an important role in contaminant biogeochemistry and solute transport, their distribution in structured subsurface media is critical to the understanding of these processes.     

The polarimetric nature of HD 108

V -band polarimetric observations of HD 108 were obtained during 1994 August and September. This is the first time that the temporal polarimetric variability of this star has been investigated. Its percentage polarization and position angle vary randomly, and no evidence of its proposed binary nature is detected. The random variability is consistent with that seen for previously observed Wolf–Rayet stars and OB supergiants. Nightly variations do show some systematic behaviour consistent with the blob ejection model of Underhill & Fehey (1984). From the data it is estimated that the mass-loss rate resulting from blobs is ∼1-10⁻⁷ M⊙ yr⁻¹. The total mass-loss rate of the star is estimated to be ∼1-10⁻⁵ M⊙ yr⁻¹. The stellar rotation rate is estimated to be V _rot∼400 km s⁻¹ with an inclination of i <20c. The data are also interpreted in terms of perturbations occurring in an equatorial disc plus bipolar jets viewed equatorially (Underhill 1994). It is found that the perturbation mass-loss rate is about ∼3-10⁻⁷ M⊙ yr⁻¹, giving a total mass-loss rate for the star of 13-10⁻⁵ M⊙ yr⁻¹. Both models are consistent with HD 108 being an OB supergiant or of the class Ofpe/WR9.     

Singularity and Nonnormality in the Classification of Compositional Data

Geologists may want to classify compositional data and express the classification as a map. Regionalized classification is a tool that can be used for this purpose, but it incorporates discriminant analysis, which requires the computation and inversion of a covariance matrix. Covariance matrices of compositional data always will be singular (noninvertible) because of the unit-sum constraint. Fortunately, discriminant analyses can be calculated using a pseudo-inverse of the singular covariance matrix; this is done automatically by some statistical packages such as SAS. Granulometric data from the Darss Sill region of the Baltic Sea is used to explore how the pseudo-inversion procedure influences discriminant analysis results, comparing the algorithm used by SAS to the more conventional Moore–Penrose algorithm. Logratio transforms have been recommended to overcome problems associated with analysis of compositional data, including singularity. A regionalized classification of the Darss Sill data after logratio transformation is different only slightly from one based on raw granulometric data, suggesting that closure problems do not influence severely regionalized classification of compositional data.     

Magma mixing in mafic alkaline volcanic rocks: the evidence from relict phenocryst phases and other inclusions

Green clinopyroxenes, commonly rounded and anhedral and richer in Fe, Na and Mn than the pyroxenes of the surrounding groundmass are a common feature of mafic alkaline volcanic rocks (e.g. basanites, monchiquites, leucitites). Some are accompanied by one or more of the following phases: Fe-rich kaersutite and biotite, anorthoclase, sodic plagioclase, apatite, magnetite, sphene, which are believed to be cognate with the green pyroxenes. We review evidence that these minerals have crystallized from mugearite, trachyte or phonolite magmas, and their presence in mafic alkaline rocks is due to magma mixing. The intermediate and salic magmas may sometimes be generated at mantle depths, possibly by melting of mantle material enriched in Fe, Na and volatiles.