Ostreopsis cf. ovata bloom in the northern Adriatic Sea during summer 2009: ecology, molecular characterization and toxin profile

Intense blooms of the benthic dinoflagellate Ostreopsis cf. ovata have occurred in the northern Adriatic Sea since 2006. These blooms are associated with noxious effects on human health and with the mortality of benthic organisms because of the production of palytoxin-like compounds. The O. cf. ovata bloom and its relationships with nutrient concentrations at two stations on the Conero Riviera (northern Adriatic Sea) were investigated in the summer of 2009. O. cf. ovata developed from August to November, with the highest abundances in September (1.3 × 10⁶ cells g⁻¹ fw corresponding to 63.8 × 10³ cells cm⁻²). The presence of the single O. cf. ovata genotype was confirmed by a PCR assay. Bloom developed when the seawater temperature was decreasing. Nutrient concentrations did not seem to affect bloom dynamics. Toxin analysis performed by high resolution liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry revealed a high total toxin content (up to 75 pg cell⁻¹), including putative palytoxin and all the ovatoxins known so far.     

Impact of grid resolution on the integrated and distributed response of a coupled surface–subsurface hydrological model for the des Anglais catchment,Quebec

Digital elevation models (DEMs) at different resolutions (180, 360, and 720 m) are used to examine the impact of different levels of landscape representation on the hydrological response of a 690‐km² catchment in southern Quebec. Frequency distributions of local slope, plan curvature, and drainage area are calculated for each grid size resolution. This landscape analysis reveals that DEM grid size significantly affects computed topographic attributes, which in turn explains some of the differences in the hydrological simulations. The simulations that are then carried out, using a coupled, process‐based model of surface and subsurface flow, examine the effects of grid size on both the integrated response of the catchment (discharge at the main outlet and at two internal points) and the distributed response (water table depth, surface saturation, and soil water storage). The results indicate that discharge volumes increase as the DEM is coarsened, and that coarser DEMs are also wetter overall in terms of water table depth and soil water storage. The reasons for these trends include an increase in the total drainage area of the catchment for larger DEM cell sizes, due to aggregation effects at the boundary cells of the catchment, and to a decrease in local slope and plan curvature variations, which in turn limits the capacity of the watershed to transmit water downslope and laterally. The results obtained also show that grid resolution effects are less pronounced during dry periods when soil moisture dynamics are mostly controlled by vertical fluxes of evaporation and percolation. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Monitored Natural Attenuation of Manufactured Gas Plant Tar Mono- and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Ground Water: A 14-Year Field Study

Site 24 was the subject of a 14-year (5110-day) study of a ground water plume created by the disposal of manufactured gas plant (MGP) tar into a shallow sandy aquifer approximately 25 years prior to the study. The ground water plume in 1988 extended from a well-defined source area to a distance of approximately 400 m down gradient. A system of monitoring wells was installed along six transects that ran perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the plume centerline. The MGP tar source was removed from the site in 1991 and a 14-year ground water monitored natural attenuation (MNA) study commenced. The program measured the dissolved mono- and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (MAHs and PAHs) periodically over time, which decreased significantly over the 14-year period. Naphthalene decreased to less than 99% of the original dissolved mass, with mass degradation rates of 0.30 per year (half-life 2.3 years). Bulk attenuation rate constants for plume centerline concentrations over time ranged from 0.33 ± 0.09 per year (half-life 2.3 ± 0.8 years) for toluene and 0.45 ± 0.06 per year (half-life 1.6 ± 0.2 years) for naphthalene. The hydrogeologic setting at Site 24, having a sandy aquifer, shallow water table, clay confining layer, and aerobic conditions, was ideal for demonstrating MNA. However, these results demonstrate that MNA is a viable remedial strategy for ground water at sites impacted by MAHs and PAHs after the original source is removed, stabilized, or contained.     

Solar activity and life: a review

During the early stages of the study of the origin of life, not enough attention was paid to the question of the correlation of chemical evolution on Earth and the all-important evolution of the still-to-be understood early Sun. Today, due to the advent of a significant fleet of space missions and the possibility of performing experiments in the International Space Station (ISS), a meaningful study begins to be possible concerning factors that led to an early onset of life on Earth. We wish to review and update recent work concerning the frontier between Space Weather (SpW) and Astrobiology. We argue that the present robust programs of various space agencies reinforce our hope for a better understanding of the bases of Astrobiology. Eventually, with a more realistic model of the Sun, more reliable discussions of all the factors influencing the origin of life on Earth, and hence Astrobiology, will be possible.     

The Afragola settlement near Vesuvius,Italy: The destruction and abandonment of a Bronze Age village revealed by archaeology,volcanology and rock-magnetism

Public works in progress in the Campanian plain north of Somma-Vesuvius recently encountered the remains of a prehistoric settlement close to the town of Afragola. Rescue excavations brought to light a Bronze Age village partially destroyed and buried by pyroclastic density currents (PDCs) of the Vesuvian Pomici di Avellino eruption (3.8 ¹⁴C ka BP) and subsequently sealed by alluvial deposits. Volcanological and rock-magnetic investigations supplemented the excavations.Careful comparison between volcanological and archaeological stratigraphies led to an understanding of the timing of the damage the buildings suffered when they were struck by a series of PDCs. The first engulfed the village, located some 14 km to the north of the inferred vent, and penetrated into the dwellings without causing major damage. The buildings were able to withstand the weak dynamic pressure of the currents and deviate their path, as shown by the magnetic fabric analyses. Some later collapsed under the load of the deposits piled up by successive currents. Stepwise demagnetization of the thermal remanent magnetization (TRM) carried by potsherds embedded in the deposits yields deposition temperatures in the order of 260–320 °C, fully consistent with those derived from pottery and lithic fragments from other distal and proximal sites. The fairly uniform temperature of the deposits is here ascribed to the lack of pervasive air entrainment into the currents. This, in turn, resulted from the lack of major topographical obstacles along the flat plain.The coupling of structural damage and sedimentological analyses indicates that the currents were not destructive in the Afragola area, but TRM data indicate they were still hot enough to cause death or severe injury to humans and animals. The successful escape of the entire population is apparent from the lack of human remains and from thousands of human footprints on the surface of the deposits left by the first PDCs. People were thus able to walk barefoot across the already emplaced deposits and escape the subsequent PDCs. The rapid cooling of the deposits was probably due to both their thinness and heat dissipation due to condensation of water vapour released in the mixture by magma–water interaction.     

Depth profiles of bacterioplankton assemblages and their activities in the Ross Sea

The identification of bacterial community structure has led, since the beginning of the 1990s, to the idea that bacterioplankton populations are stratified in the water column and that diverse lineages with mostly unknown phenotypes dominate marine microbial communities. The diversity of depth-related assemblages is also reflected in their patterns of activities, as bacteria affiliated to different groups can express different activities in a given ecosystem. We analysed bacterial assemblages (DGGE fingerprinting) and their activities (prokaryotic carbon production, protease, phosphatase, chitinase, beta-glucosidase and lipase activities) in two areas in the Ross Sea, differing mainly in their productivity regime: two stations are located in the Terra Nova Bay polynya area (highly productive during summer) and two close to Cape Adare (low phytoplankton biomass and activity). At every station a pronounced stratification of bacterial assemblages was identified, highlighting epipelagic communities differing substantially from the mesopelagic and the bathypelagic communities. Multivariate analysis suggested that pressure and indirectly light-affected variables (i.e. oxygen and fluorescence) had a great effect on the bacterial communities outcompeting the possible influences of temperature and dissolved organic carbon concentration. Generally activities decreased with depth even though a signal of the Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW) at one of the northern stations corresponded to an increase in some of the degradative activities, generating some ‘hot spots’ in the profile. We also found that similar assemblages express similar metabolic requirements reflected in analogous patterns of activity (similar degradative potential and leucine uptake rate). Furthermore, the presence of eukaryotic chloroplasts’ 16S rDNA in deep samples highlighted how in some cases the dense surface-water formation (in this case High Salinity Shelf Water—HSSW) and downwelling can affect, at least for some phylotypes, the bacterial (16S rDNA based) community structure of the dark ocean.     

85 Peg A: what age for a low-metallicity solar-like star?

We explore the possible evolutionary status of the primary component of the binary 85 Pegasi, listed as a target for asteroseismic observations by the MOST satellite. In spite of the assessed 'subdwarf' status, and of the accurate distance determination from the Hipparcos data, the uncertainties in the metallicity and age, coupled with the uncertainty in the theoretical models, lead to a range of predictions on the oscillation frequency spectrum. Nevertheless, the determination of the ratio between the small separation in frequency modes, and the large separation as suggested by Roxburgh, provides a very good measure of the star age, quite independent of the metallicity in the assumed uncertainty range. In this range, the constraint on the dynamical mass and the further constraint provided by the assumption that the maximum age is 14 Gyr limits the mass of 85 Peg A to the range from 0.75 to  0.82 M_⊙  . This difference of a few hundredths of a solar mass leads to well detectable differences both in the evolutionary stage (age) and in the asteroseismic properties. We show that the age determination which will be possible through the asteroseismic measurements for this star is independent either of the convection model adopted or the microscopic metal diffusion. The latter conclusion is strengthened by the fact that, although metal diffusion is still described in an approximate way, recent observations suggest that real stars suffer a smaller metal sedimentation compared with the models.     

Fundamental physics and absolute positioning metrology with the MAGIA lunar orbiter

MAGIA is a mission approved by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) for Phase A study. Using a single large-diameter laser retroreflector, a large laser retroreflector array and an atomic clock onboard MAGIA we propose to perform several fundamental physics and absolute positioning metrology experiments: VESPUCCI, an improved test of the gravitational redshift in the Earth?CMoon system predicted by General Relativity; MoonLIGHT-P, a precursor test of a second generation Lunar Laser Ranging (LLR) payload for precision gravity and lunar science measurements under development for NASA, ASI and robotic missions of the proposed International Lunar Network (ILN); Selenocenter (the center of mass of the Moon), the determination of the position of the Moon center of mass with respect to the International Terrestrial Reference Frame/System (ITRF/ITRS); this will be compared to the one from Apollo and Lunokhod retroreflectors on the surface; MapRef, the absolute referencing of MAGIA??s lunar altimetry, gravity and geochemical maps with respect to the ITRF/ITRS. The absolute positioning of MAGIA will be achieved thanks to: (1) the laboratory characterization of the retroreflector performance at INFN-LNF; (2) the precision tracking by the International Laser Ranging Service (ILRS), which gives two fundamental contributions to the ITRF/ITRS, i.e. the metrological definition of the geocenter (the Earth center of mass) and of the scale of length; (3) the radio science and accelerometer payloads; (4) support by the ASI Space Geodesy Center in Matera, Italy. Future ILN geodetic nodes equipped with MoonLIGHT and the Apollo/Lunokhod retroreflectors will become the first realization of the International Moon Reference Frame (IMRF), the lunar analog of the ITRF.     

Kinematic evolution of thrust-related structures in the Umbro-Romagnan parautochthon (northern Apennines, Italy)

In the internal part of the Umbro-Marchean-Romagnan Apennines, the foredeep clastic wedge constituting the Neogene part of the sedimentary cover is completely detached from the underlying Mesozoic–Palaeogene succession. The resulting (Umbro-Romagnan) parautochthon consists of tectonostratigraphic units with a general geometry of broad synclinal blocks separated by narrow faulted anticlines.
Thrust-related structures observed in the field require thrust ramp propagation to have occurred within already folded rocks; therefore, they cannot be restored using simple fault-bend fold or fault-propagation folding models. Evidence for a passive fold origin in the studied rocks suggests that an early detachment folding episode preceded ramp propagation. The latter was facilitated by the enhanced thickness of incompetent material in the cores of detachment anticlines, which became the preferential sites where thrust ramps cut up-section. Depending on the trajectory of such thrust ramps, different types of fault-related structures could develop. Hanging-wall anticlines which give way to monoclinal structures higher up in the section are associated with listric thrust ramps, whereas hanging wall monoclines approximately parallel to the underlying fault surface are associated with straight-trajectory ramps.
This kinematic evolution, which occurred partly during syn-depositional compression, also accounts for the observed lithofacies distribution. The latter reflects an early differentiation of the foredeep trough into sub-basins that are progressively younger towards the foreland. The detachment anticlines that originally bounded such sub-basins were the site of later thrust propagation, leading to a tectonic juxtaposition of different tectonostratigraphic units consisting of broad NW-SE elongate synclinal blocks.     

The Italian guidelines for seismic risk classification of constructions: technical principles and validation

The Italian “Guidelines for the seismic risk classification of constructions” approved in February 2017 define the technical principles for exploiting tax deductions with respect to seismic strengthening interventions on existing buildings (Sismabonus). Tax deductions represent a unique opportunity to improve the seismic safety of the existing Italian building stock. The guidelines are very simple and allow practitioners to deal with the sophisticated concepts behind modern seismic design, such as expected annual losses (EAL) and repair costs (expressed as a fraction of the Reconstruction Cost: %RC). The seismic risk classes of buildings and the class upgrade due to strengthening interventions can be assessed using the principles included in the guidelines. The seismic risk class is the minimum between the class defined by the building safety index at the ultimate limit state and the one related to the EAL. The latter class depends on the area under the curve of the expected losses, which is easily obtained by computing the safety index converted in the return period (annual frequency) at different limit states and the relevant %RC. This paper illustrates the technical principles at the base of the guidelines and the procedure used to calibrate the repair costs associated with the different limit states using the actual repair costs monitored in the reconstruction process following recent Italian earthquakes. Finally, simple tools to estimate the cost of the strengthening interventions to improve the seismic capacity at the life-safety limit states are provided.