Macrofaunal communities of threatened subtidal maërl seabeds on Tenerife (Canary Islands, north-east Atlantic Ocean) in summer

This study contributes with the first data on physical and taxonomical structure of macrofaunal assemblages of ma¨erl beds from the Canary Islands. Ma¨erl beds and Cymodocea nodosa meadows of the Canary Islands are considered biodiversity hot-spots in terms of taxonomic and functional biodiversity with a broad geographical and depth ranges. The authors have studied the structure of the macrofaunal assemblages on different habitat types (Cymodocea, Caulerpa, sabellid field, garden eel and ma¨erl beds). Samples were taken at a range of depths between 14 and 46 m. Correlations were performed among abiotic variables (granulometry, organic matter, nitrogen and phosphates) and the most abundant taxa. Similarity analysis was performed to explore the patchiness of seabeds at a local scale. Significant differences were found in macrofaunal assemblages among seabed types, with highest abundances and lowest biodiversity in sabellid fields, where the sabellid Bispira viola dominated. The polychaetes Aponuphis bilineata and Chone filicauda and the mollusc Turritella brochii were the most abundant taxa on ma¨erl beds. The mosaic of granulometric conditions would explain the associated macroinfaunal community structure and contribute to the creation of diversity on these relatively well preserved seabeds at a local scale.     

Role of dewfall in the water balance of a semiarid coastal steppe ecosystem

Dewfall is widely recognized as an important source of water for many ecosystems, especially in arid and semiarid areas, contributing to improve daily and annual water balances and leading to increased interest in its study in recent years. In this study, occurrence, frequency and amount of dewfall were measured from January 2007 to December 2010 (4 years study) to find out its contribution to the local water balance in a Mediterranean semiarid steppe ecosystem dominated by scattered tussocks of Stipa tenacissima (Balsa Blanca, Almería, SE Spain). For this purpose, we developed a dewfall measurement method, ‘The Combined Dewfall Estimation Method’ (CDEM). This method consists of a combination of the potential dewfall model, i.e. the single‐source Penman–Monteith evaporation model simplified for water condensation, with information from leaf wetness sensors, rain gauge data, soil surface temperature and dew point temperature. To assess the reliability of the CDEM, dewfall was measured in situ using weighing microlysimeters during a period of 3 months. Daily micrometeorological variables involved in a dewfall event were analysed in order to assess the significance of dewfall at this site. Dewfall condensation was recorded on 78% of the nights during the study period. Average monthly dewfall duration was 9.6 ± 3.2 h per night. Average dewfall was 0.17 ± 0.10 mm per night and was mostly dependent on dewfall duration. Dewfall episodes were longer in late autumn and winter and shorter during spring. Annual dewfall represented the 16%, 23%, 15% and 9% of rainfall on 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010, respectively. Furthermore, when a wet period was compared to a dry one, the dewfall contribution to the water balance at the site was found to be 8% and 94%, respectively. Our results highlight the relevance of dewfall as a constant source of water in arid ecosystems, as well as its significant contribution to the local water balance, mainly during dry periods where it may represent the only source of water at the site. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A nonlinear mixed model for the assessment of traffic noise levels in urban areas

Quantification of traffic noise levels in urban areas can be especially useful for environmental and public health policies. A statistical model is proposed here for this quantification in small urban areas. The model is nonlinear and mixed, with two components: a fixed component for traffic noise emission (source effect) and a random component for assessing traffic noise propagation. The proposed model requires only sample data and has been used to estimate basic noise indicators established in European standards. A composite indicator, the Lden indicator, has been computed and used to draw up a noise ranking of urban areas. The proposed approach is applied to the city of Leganés (Spain).     

Associations between outdoor air quality and birth weight: a geostatistical sequential simulation approach in Coastal Alentejo,Portugal

Several environmental health studies suggest birth weight is associated with outdoor air pollution during gestation. In these studies, exposure assignments are usually based on measurements collected at air quality monitoring stations that do not coincide with health data locations. So, estimated exposures can be misleading if they do not take into account the uncertainty of exposure estimates. In this article we conducted a semi-ecological study to analyze associations between air quality during gestation and birth weight. Air quality during gestation was measured using a biomonitor, as an alternative to traditional air quality monitoring stations data, in order to increase spatial resolution of exposure measurements. To our knowledge this is the first time that the association between air quality and birth weight is studied using biomonitors. To address exposure uncertainty at health locations, we applied geostatistical simulation on biomonitoring data that provided multiple equally probable realizations of biomonitoring data, with reproduction of observed histogram and spatial covariance while matching for conditioning data. Each simulation represented a measure of exposure at each location. The set of simulations provided a measure of exposure uncertainty at each location. To incorporate uncertainty in our analysis we used generalized linear models, fitted simulation outputs and health data on birth weights and assessed statistical significance of exposure parameter using non-parametric bootstrap techniques. We found a positive association between air quality and birth weight. However, this association was not statistically significant. We also found a modest but significant association between air quality and birth weight among babies exposed to gestational tobacco smoke.     

Paleomagnetism of early cretaceous arapey formation (Northern Uruguay)

We report detailed rock-magnetic and paleomagnetic directional data from 35 lava flows (302 standard paleomagnetic cores) sampled in the Central-Northern region of Uruguay in order to contribute to the study of the paleosecular variation of the Earth’s magnetic field during early Cretaceous and to obtain precise Cretaceous paleomagnetic pole positions for stable South America. The average unit direction is rather precisely determined from 29 out of 35 sites. All A₉₅ confidence angles are less than 8°, which points to small within-site dispersion and high directional stability. Normal polarity magnetizations are revealed for 19 sites and 10 are reversely magnetized. Two other sites yield well defined intermediate polarities. The mean direction, supported by a positive reversal test is in reasonably good agreement with the expected paleodirection for Early Cretaceous stable South America and in disagreement with a 10° clockwise rotation found in the previous studies. On the other hand, paleomagnetic poles are significantly different from the pole position suggested by hotspot reconstructions, which may be due to true polar wander or the hotspot motion. Our data suggest a different style of secular variation during (and just before) the Cretaceous Normal Superchron and the last 5 Ma, supporting a link between paleosecular variation and reversal frequency.     

Magnetic properties and Archeointensity of Earth’s magnetic field recovered from El Opeño,earliest funeral architecture known in Western Mesoamerica

Despite of the impressive cultural heritage and abundant archaeological sites, absolute geomagnetic intensity data from Mesoamerica are still sparse. Archeointensity determinations using the Coe variant of the Thellier and Thellier method have been carried out on some selected pottery fragments from the El Opeño archeological site which has the earliest funeral architecture known in western Mesoamerica. The El Opeño chronology is supported by six C¹⁴ datings performed on carbon-bearing materials. Detailed rock magnetic experiments including susceptibility vs. temperature curves, hysteresis cycles and thermal demagnetization procedures were carried out in order to estimate the magnetic carriers and their stability. Cooling rate and anisotropy remanence corrected intensity values range from 25.0 ± 2.3 to 40.2 ± 3.0 μT and corresponding virtual axial dipole moments (VADM) range from 5.6 ± 0.5 to 8.9 ± 0.7 × 10²² Am². In addition, we present here a new compilation and analysis of existing absolute intensity data in order to try to estimate the variation of the Earth’s magnetic field over the past three millennia. The mean archeointensity obtained in the present study agrees reasonably well with the predicted absolute intensities retrieved from the CALS7K main field model. Other available Mesoamerican data, however, differ from this model. Most of available archeointensity data from Mesoamerica agree reasonably well with the ARCH3K main field model prediction. The broad peak defined at about 50 A.D. by our data is also predicted by the CALS3k.3 main field model but slightly displaced to the right while two smaller peaks are observed on the ARCH3K curve for the same time interval. The intensity value obtained at about 200 B.C. is a clear outlier and thus its geomagnetic significance should be confirmed by further investigations.