Fluvial system response to Late Devensian (Weichselian) aridity,Baston, Lincolnshire,England

Little is known about the impact of Late Devensian (Weichselian) aridity on lowland British landscapes, largely because they lack the widespread coversand deposits of the adjacent continent. The concentration of large interformational ice‐wedge casts in the upper part of many Devensian fluvial sequences suggests that fluvial activity may have decreased considerably during this time. The development of optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating enables this period of ice‐wedge cast formation to be constrained for the first time in eastern England, where a marked horizon of ice‐wedge casts is found between two distinctive dateable facies associations. Contrasts between this horizon and adjacent sediments show clear changes in environment and fluvial system behaviour in response to changing water supply, in line with palaeontological evidence. In addition to providing chronological control on the period of ice‐wedge formation, the study shows good agreement of the radiocarbon and OSL dating techniques during the Middle and Late Devensian, with direct comparison of these techniques beyond 15 000 yr for the first time in Britain. It is suggested that aridity during the Late Devensian forced a significant decrease in fluvial activity compared with preceding and following periods, initiating a system with low peak flows and widespread permafrost development. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Tertiary： a proposal for its formal definition

The term Tertiary, subdivided into the Paleogene and Neogene, is traditionally used to represent the interval of geological time between the Cretaceous and Quaternary. In the 1990s, however, the Neogene and Paleogene were ratified by the International Union of Geological Sciences as periods/systems of the Cenozoic Era/Erathem, leaving the Tertiary officially undefined. The Tertiary nonetheless remains a formal term that has never been officially eliminated, and its widespread use today implies a long future.     

Pigmente phototropher Bakterien in Seesedimenten und ihre Bedeutung für die Seenforschung

Sediments of shallow lakes contain besides plankton pigments as well pigments of purple non-sulfur and purple sulfur bacteria. A thin-layer chromatographic method was developed for the separation of the most important pigments of purple bacteria beside plankton pigments. The new method was examined in three different lakes for a stratigraphic analysis of bacteria pigments beside plankton pigments and the results were discussed subsequently.      

The Global Stratotype Section and Point （GSSP） for the base of the Holocene Series/Epoch （Quaternary System/Period） in the NGRIP ice core

The Greenland ice core from NorthGRIP （NGRIP） contains a proxy climate record across the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary of unprecedented clarity and resolution. Analysis of an array of physical and chemical parameters within the ice enables the base of the Holocene, as reflected in the first signs of climatic warming at the end of the Younger Dryas/Greenland Stadial 1 cold phase, to be located with a high degree of precision.     

Retreived bacteria from Noctiluca miliaris (green) bloom of the northeastern Arabian Sea

In recent years, seasonal blooms of the dinoflagellate Noctiluca miliaris have appeared in the open-waters of the northern Arabian Sea (NAS). This study provides the first characterization of bacteria from a seasonal bloom of green Noctiluca of NAS (20°N?17°N and 64°E–70°E), during the spring-inter-monsoon cruise of Sagar Sampada 253, in March 2007. Bacterial growth as assessed by most-probable number (MPN) and plate counts, revealed ‘variable-physiotypes’ over a wide range of salinities (0%–25% w/v NaCl), pH levels (5–8.5), and organic nutrient strengths, in comparison to non-bloom waters. MPN indices of bacteria in surface waters of bloom stations *DWK and *PRB, corresponded to (3.08–4.41)×10³ cells/mL at 3.5% NaCl (w/v), and (2.82–9.49)×10² cells/mL at 25% (w/v) NaCl in tryptone-yeast extract broth (TYE). Plate counts were (1.12–4)×10⁶ CFU/mL at 0% (w/v) NaCl, (1.28–3.9)×10⁶ CFU/mL at 3.5% (w/v) NaCl, and (0.4–7)×10⁴ CFU/mL at 25% NaCl (w/v) on TYE. One-tenth-strength Zobell’s gave (0.6–3.74)×10⁵ CFU/mL at pH 5 to (3.58–7.5)×10⁵ CFU/mL at pH 8.5. These bacteria were identified to the genera Bacillus, Cellulomonas, Staphylococcus, Planococcus, Dietzia, Virgibacillus, Micrococcus, Sporosarcinae, Leucobacter, and Halomonas. The identity of three strains (GUFBSS253N2, GUFBSS253N30, and GUFBSS253N84) was confirmed through 16S rDNA sequence homology as Bacillus cohnii, Bacillus flexus, and Bacillus cereus. The ～2–3-fold higher plate counts of culturable bacteria from the open-waters of the NAS indicate that these bacteria could critically determine the biogeochemical dynamics of the bloom and its milieu. The role of these bacteria in sustaining/terminating the bloom is under evaluation.     

Late Middle Pleistocene deposits at Norton Farm on the West Sussex coastal plain,southern England

The coastal plain of West Sussex, southern England, is internationally important because of the sequence of discrete high‐sea‐level events preserved at various elevations across it. New evidence is presented from a site at Norton Farm, near Chichester, on the Lower Coastal Plain, where Pleistocene marine sands, fining upwards into silts, occur between 5.3 m and 9.1 m OD. The sequence reflects a regressive tendency at the transition from an interglacial to a cold stage. The marine sands have yielded foraminifera, ostracods and molluscs that indicate a declining marine influence through the sequence, culminating in a tidal mudflat, strongly weathered in places. Cool‐climate foraminifera (including Elphidium clavatum, Cassidulina reniformis and Elphidium albiumbilicatum) and ostracods have been recovered from the marine sands. Some species with an apparent preference for warmer water conditions, however, are also present. Freshwater taxa washed into the terminal marine sediments include some cold climate indicators, such as Pisidium stewarti and P. obtusale lapponicum. Additional evidence for cool climatic conditions during the deposition of the upper part of the marine sequence is provided by the lack of tree taxa in the pollen record and by features of the micromorphology. The marine sediments probably began accumulating during OIS 7, a conclusion based on their elevation, on amino acid ratios from shells, but especially on vertebrate evidence, particularly the presence of a small form of horse, together with a large, distinctive, form of northern vole (Microtus oeconomus). The occurrence of cool climate indicators in these marine sediments may demonstrate a lag between the climatic deterioration and the expected glacio‐eustatic fall in relative sea‐level. This evidence appears to support the conclusions drawn from the study of coral terraces in Barbados. Such a scenario would provide the conditions necessary for the emplacement of the large erratic boulders reported from the Lower Coastal Plain of West Sussex. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.