Biogeochemical impact of a model western iron source in the Pacific Equatorial Undercurrent

Trace element distributions in the source waters of the Pacific Equatorial Undercurrent (EUC) show the existence of elevated total acid-soluble iron concentrations. This region has been suggested to contribute enough bioavailable iron to regulate interannual and interglacial variability in biological productivity downstream in the high-nitrate low-chlorophyll upwelling zone of the eastern equatorial Pacific. We investigated the advection and first-order biogeochemical impact of an imposed, data-based iron maximum in the western Pacific EUC using an ecosystem model forced by a global dynamical model. We imposed two source profiles of iron constrained by total acid-soluble iron measurements. Though the data for total acid-soluble iron included both dissolved and acid-soluble particulate iron species, we treated all of the total acid-soluble iron as if it was dissolved and bioavailable. A deeper (270 m) source was centered in the density horizon of the observed iron maximum and a shallower (180 m) source was located in the core of our model's EUC, where a dissolved iron maximum has been frequently postulated. These source runs were compared with a control run that contained no specific source of iron associated with the EUC. In the source runs elevated iron concentrations were simulated in the EUC across its entire zonal span, evident as a subsurface plume of dissolved iron slightly below the core of the EUC. In the control run there was no iron maximum associated with the EUC. Upwelling of iron-replete water in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific increased integrated primary productivity in the Wyrtki box (180°W:90°W, 5°S:5°N, 0:200 m) by 41% and 66% for the deeper and shallower iron perturbation, respectively. The source runs increased the realism of the zonal extent of HNLC conditions and the meridional distributions of biological productivity, relative to the control run. However, in the source simulations surface chlorophyll concentrations were too high by a factor of two and maximum surface nitrate concentrations were too low, relative to climatologies. The relative abundance of diatoms roughly doubled upon the input of additional iron, exceeding field observations. Though biogeochemical data are limited and we did not adjust parameters to optimize the model fits to observations, these results suggest that acid-soluble particulate iron supplied to the EUC in the western equatorial Pacific is unlikely to be entirely bioavailable.     

Lower and Middle Ordovician conodonts of Laurentian affinity from blocks of limestone in the Rosroe Formation,South Mayo Trough,western Ireland and their palaeogeographic implication

The Middle Ordovician Rosroe Formation consists of some 1350 m of coarse, mainly siliciclastic to volcaniclastic sedimentary rocks, deposited in a submarine fan environment, and is restricted to the southern limb of the South Mayo Trough, western Ireland. Discrete allochthonous blocks, reaching 5 m in size, are present in the formation at several localities. Conodonts recovered from these blocks, collected from two separate locations, are of late Early and mid Mid Ordovician age. The conodonts have high conodont‐alteration indices (CAI 5) indicative of temperatures as high as 300^o to max. 480 °C; some found in the Lough Nafooey area have abnormally high indices (CAI 6), which correspond to temperatures of about 360^o to max. 550 °C. The oldest fauna is dominated by Periodon aff. aculeatus and characterized by Oepikodus evae typical of the Oepikodus evae Zone (Floian Stage; Stage Slices Fl2–3, Lower Ordovician). The younger conodont assemblage, characterized by Periodon macrodentatus associated with Oistodella pulchra, is referred to the P. macrodentatus conodont Biozone (lower Darriwilian; Stage Slices Dw1–2). The Rosroe conodont assemblages are of Laurentian affinity; comparable faunas are well known from several locations along the east to south‐eastern platform margin of Laurentia and the Notre Dame subzone of central Newfoundland, Canada. The faunal composition from the limestone blocks suggests a shelf edge to slope (or fringing carbonate) setting. The faunal assemblages are coeval with, respectively, the Tourmakeady Formation (Floian–Dapingian) and Srah Formation (Darriwilian) in the Tourmakeady Volcanic Group in the eastern part of the South Mayo Trough and probably are derived from the same or similar laterally equivalent short‐lived carbonate successions that accumulated at offshore ‘peri‐Laurentian’ islands, close to and along the Laurentian margin. During collapse of the carbonate system in the late Mid Ordovician, the blocks were transported down a steep slope and into deep‐water by debris flows, mixing with other rock types now found in the coarse polymict clastics of the Rosroe Formation. The faunas fill the stratigraphical ‘gap’ between the Lower Ordovician Lough Nafooey Volcanic Group and the upper Middle Ordovician Rosroe Formation in the South Mayo Trough and represent a brief interval conducive to carbonate accumulation in an otherwise siliciclastic‐ and volcaniclastic‐dominated sedimentary environment. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Disc precession in the M31 dipping X-ray binary Bo 158?

We present results from three XMM–Newton observations of the M31 low mass X-ray binary (LMXB) XMMU J004314.4+410726.3 (Bo 158), spaced over 3 d in 2004 July. Bo 158 was the first dipping LMXB to be discovered in M31. Periodic intensity dips were previously seen to occur on a 2.78-h period, due to absorption in material that is raised out of the plane of the accretion disc. The report of these observations stated that the dip depth was anticorrelated with source intensity. In light of the 2004 XMM–Newton observations of Bo 158, we suggest that the dip variation is due to precession of the accretion disc. This is to be expected in LMXBs with a mass ratio ≲0.3 (period ≲4 h), as the disc reaches the 3:1 resonance with the binary companion, causing elongation and precession of the disc. A smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulation of the disc in this system shows retrograde rotation of a disc warp on a period of  ∼11 P _orb  , and prograde disc precession on a period of  29 ± 1 P _orb  . This is consistent with the observed variation in the depth of the dips. We find that the dipping behaviour is most likely to be modified by the disc precession, hence we predict that the dipping behaviour repeats on an  81 ± 3 h  cycle.     

A global 3-D simulation of interplanetary dynamics in June 1991

The global dynamics of the solar wind and interplanetary magnetic field in June 1991 is simulated based on a fully three-dimensional, time-dependent numerical MHD model. The numerical simulation includes eight transient disturbances associated with the major solar flares of June 1991. The unique features of the present simulation are: (i) the disturbances are originated at the coronal base (1R _s) and their propagation through inhomogeneous ambient solar wind is simulated out to 1.5 AU; (ii) as a background for the transients, the global steady-state solar wind structure inferred from the 3-D steady-state model (Usmanov, 1993c) is used. The parameters of the initial pulses are prescribed in terms of the near-Sun shock velocities (as inferred from the metric Type II radio burst observations) relative to the preshock steady-state flow parameters at the flare sites. The computed parameters at the Earth's location for the period 1–18 June, 1991 are compared with the available observations of the interplanetary magnetic field, solar wind velocity, density, and with variation of the geomagnetic activityK _pindex.     

The NASA Astrophysics Data System: Free Access to the Astronomical Literature On-line and through Email

The Astrophysics Data System (ADS) provides access to the astronomical literature through the World Wide Web. It is a NASA funded project and access to all the ADS services is free to everybody world-wide. The ADS Abstract Service allows the searching of four databases with abstracts in Astronomy, Instrumentation, Physics/Geophysics, and the LANL Preprints with a total of over 2.2 million references. The system also provides access to reference and citation information, links to on-line data, electronic journal articles, and other on-line information. The ADS Article Service contains the full articles for most of the astronomical literature back to volume 1. It contains the scanned pages of all the major journals (Astrophysical Journal, Astronomical Journal, Astronomy & Astrophysics, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, and Solar Physics), as well as most smaller journals back to volume 1.The ADS can be accessed through any web browser without signup or login. Alternatively an email interface is available that allows our users to execute queries via email and to retrieve scanned articles via email. This might be interesting for users on slow or unreliable links, since the email system will retry sending information automatically until the transfer is complete. There are now 9 mirror sites of the ADS available in different parts of the world to improve access. The ADS is available at: http://ads.harvard.edu This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Forgotten coast,forgotten people: sustainable development and disproportionate impacts from Hurricane Michael in Gulf County,Florida

Natural Hazards - A central challenge for sustainable development is how societies are to avoid, minimize or address impacts from anthropogenic climate change. However, competing perspectives on...