Disturbance and Community Pattern of Polychaetes Inhabiting Valle Magnavacca (Valli di Comacchio,Northern Adriatic Sea,Italy)

Abstract. Polychaete community structure in Valle Magnavacca, the largest basin of the Valli di Comacchio (Northern Adriatic Sea) lagoonal ecosystem, was analyzed in a three‐year study. Three shallow‐water stations were sampled at about 3‐month intervals. Univariate and multivariate analyses were utilized to investigate community structure changes in relation to natural and man‐induced disturbance. The polychaete community at station 3, in the central area of the lagoon, was the most disturbed, while that of station 2 was the most well structured. We hypothesize that polychaete community structure results from regular seasonal disturbances which lead to almost predictable fluctuations in species abundance. Superimposed on these regular cycles are acute disturbance events that further reduce species abundance or exclude species from the habitat.     

Natural frequencies of a vibrating repaired panel in an ocean structure

The present work arose from the need of repairing steel plates badly damaged by corrosion in a portion of the structural element of the naval vehicle. The possibility of removing the portion and replacing it by a patch of a composite material was considered. Its dynamic behavior is altered by the introduction of the patch and the prediction of its new behavior is of great interest in many situations. This condition would appear in other real-life situations like as a localized orthotropic effect caused in the panel by a welding procedure or a metallurgical process. The first four natural frequency coefficients of the composite repaired panel with different types of boundary conditions are determined by means of a variational approach. The displacement function is approximated making use of complete sets of beam functions. The eigenvalues have been computed from (225×225) secular determinants. An independent solution is obtained using the finite element method and a reasonably good agreement with the analytical solution is encountered.     

CCD cameras and Spacewire interfaces for HERSCHEL/SCORE suborbital mission

The HERSCHEL/SCORE is a suborbital mission which will observe the solar corona in UV and in visible light for measurements of solar corona. The coronagraph for such observation is an Italian instrument and, in particular, the CCD camera detectors are developed at the XUVLab of the Department of Astronomy and Space Science of Florence University. Such detectors communicate with the onboard computer by means the IEEE1355 Spacewire standard interface (developed in our laboratories) and implement a lot of smart and custom procedures for imaging. The main innovation of SCORE coronagraph is the first use in space of a variable retarder plate based on liquid crystals and the optical design capable of simultaneous observation in UV and Visible light.     

Innovative methods of correlation and orbit determination for space debris

We propose two algorithms to provide a full preliminary orbit of an Earth-orbiting object with a number of observations lower than the classical methods, such as those by Laplace and Gauss. The first one is the Virtual debris algorithm, based upon the admissible region, that is the set of the unknown quantities corresponding to possible orbits for a given observation for objects in Earth orbit (as opposed to both interplanetary orbits and ballistic ones). A similar method has already been successfully used in recent years for the asteroidal case. The second algorithm uses the integrals of the geocentric 2-body motion, which must have the same values at the times of the different observations for a common orbit to exist. We also discuss how to account for the perturbations of the 2-body motion, e.g., the J ₂ effect.     

New data for the kinematic interpretation of the Alps–Apennines junction (Northwestern Italy)

Alps and Apennines are juxtaposed within an approximately 100 km-wide area covered by the Upper Eocene to Miocene successions of the Tertiary Piedmont Basin. The Upper Eocene–Oligocene evolution of this area was characterized to the north and west by the propagation of the SE-verging Southalpine thrust-fold belt that can be traced from the Po Plain subsurface until the Torino Hill-Saluzzese area, and to the south by a high-angle, broadly E–W oriented megashear zone that led to the juxtaposition of different crustal levels and controlled the development of a mosaic of partly independent sub-basins. Since the latest Oligocene the N-verging Apenninic tectonics prevailed in the collisional system and the Tertiary Piedmont Basin evolved as a wide thrust-top basin, bounded to the north by the N-verging Monferrato arc and characterized by a tectono-sedimentary evolution recording changes of subsidence and shift of depocentres in relation to crustal structures.     

Currents and upwelling along the Latium coasts in the Central Tyrrhenian Sea (western Mediterranean)

In this study, springtime coastal currents along the Latium coast and their relation to external forcings, mainly wind stress curl and atmospheric pressure, are analysed. As a main result, we find that hydrographical measurements reveal currents parallel to the bottom isobaths, but with isopycnal sloping upwards towards the coast, suggesting the importance of upwellings in determining the coastal currents. This is confirmed by thermal satellite data showing the presence of a \sim10-km-wide patch of cold water east of Mount Argentario, i.e. a cyclonic vortex. The current meter data give rather small values of the time-averaged alongshore velocities (\sim2 cm s⁻¹ for most current meters and \sim3 cm s⁻¹ for the current meter placed immediately off the Argentario) and also smaller values for the offshore velocities. The correlation between these two types of currents is rather poor; this is also due to the variability characteristic of a wind-induced upwelling. Finally, we obtain a value of 0.74 for the correlation between the alongshore current (first mode of Empirical Orthogonal Functions decomposition) and the wind stress if a 23-h time lag is assumed.     

Crystal-chemistry of a unique jadeite-rich acmite-poor omphacite from the Nybø eclogite pod,Sørpollen,Nordfjord, Norway

An omphacite from the Nybø eclogite pod, Norway, has a chemical composition which plots within the gap, often regarded as a miscibility gap, which is evident in all previous compilations of natural jadeite-rich acmite-poor omphacite compositions. Its cation site populations determined by crystal structure refinement accord well with its chemical composition analysed by electron microprobe. Its disordered space group C2/c symmetry extends the known compositional range of C2/c pyroxene. The postulated miscibility gap is regarded as real and wide at low temperatures, but it appears to narrow with increasing temperature or ultimately with increasing acmite proportion. The adjacent primitive symmetry field appears to initially widen with increasing temperature or increasing acmite proportion, at the expense of the diminishing miscibility gap, before finally closing with further increase.     

The volcanic rocks from the Mount Agnello area (Fiemme Valley,Italy): A contribution to the knowledge of the mid-Triassic magmatism of the Southern Alps

Summary Middle Triassic volcanic rock outcrops in the Mount Agnello area (Fiemme Valley, Italy) are examined in this study. Chemical analyses based on main and trace elements (Rb, Sr, Zr, Y, Nb) allow this volcanism to be defined as shoshonitic. The amphiboles, which occur with thick opacitic rims, were determined as ferroan pargasites. They were often found in volcanites of calcalkaline and/or shoshonitic associations. Consequently, this volcanism can be associated with a newly orogenized area undergoing stabilization. These data support the more recent studies on the mid-Triassic volcanism in the Southern Alps and underline the particular position of this magmatism in the tectonic evolution of this area.

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Les roches volcaniques de l'aire de Mont Agnello (Vallèe de Fiemme, Italie): Une contribution à la connaissance du volcanisme du trias moyen des Alpes Meridionales

Résumé Sont examinées les volcanites du Trias moyen affleurantes dans l'aire de Mont Agnello (Vallèe de Fiemme, Italie). Les déterminations du chimisme, en particulier celles regardant les éléments en traces (Rb, Sr, Zr, Y, Nb), revèlent pour ce volcanisme une affinité shoshonitique qui est bien associable à une aire de recente orogenèse en voie de stabilisation. On a aussi analysé l'amphibole, present dans ces roches, caracterisé par d'epais bords de réaction et on l'à reconnu comme une pargasite riche en fer. Ces amphiboles ont été retrouvé fréquemment dans des volcanites d'association calcoalcaline et/ou shoshonitique.

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With 4 Figures