Estuarine Habitat and Demographic Factors Affect Juvenile Chinook (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Oncorhynchus tshawytscha</Emphasis>) Growth Variability in a Large Freshwater Tidal Estuary

Estuarine rearing has been shown to enhance within watershed biocomplexity and support growth and survival for juvenile salmon (Oncorhynchus sp.). However, less is known about how growth varies across different types of wetland habitats and what explains this variability in growth. We focused on the estuarine habitat use of Columbia River Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha), which are listed under the Endangered Species Act. We employed a generalized linear model (GLM) to test three hypotheses: (1) juvenile Chinook growth was best explained by temporal factors, (2) habitat, or (3) demographic characteristics, such as stock of origin. This study examined estuarine growth rate, incorporating otolith microstructure, individual assignment to stock of origin, GIS habitat mapping, and diet composition along ~130 km of the upper Columbia River estuary. Juvenile Chinook grew on average 0.23 mm/day in the freshwater tidal estuary. When compared to other studies in the basin our growth estimates from the freshwater tidal estuary were similar to estimates in the brackish estuary, but ~4 times slower than those in the plume and upstream reservoirs. However, previous survival studies elucidated a possible tradeoff between growth and survival in the Columbia River basin. Our GLM analysis found that variation in growth was best explained by habitat and an interaction between fork length and month of capture. Juvenile Chinook salmon captured in backwater channel habitats and later in the summer (mid-summer and late summer/fall subyearlings) grew faster than salmon from other habitats and time periods. These findings present a unique example of the complexity of understanding the influences of the many processes that generate variation in growth rate for juvenile anadromous fish inhabiting estuaries.     

In situ LA-ICPMS Isotopic and Geochronological Studies on Carbonatites and Phoscorites from the Guli Massif,Maymecha-Kotuy,Polar Siberia

In this study we present a fresh isotopic data, as well as U–Pb ages from different REE-minerals in carbonatites and phoscorites of Guli massif using in situ LA-ICPMS technique. The analyses were conducted on apatites and perovskites from calcio-carbonatite and phoscorite units, as well as on pyrochlores and baddeleyites from the carbonatites. The ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios obtained from apatites and perovskites from the phoscorites are 0.70308–0.70314 and 0.70306–0.70313, respectively; and 0.70310–0.70325 and 0.70314–0.70327, for the pyrochlores and apatites from the carbonatites, respectively.Furthermore, the in situ laser ablation analyses of apatites and perovskites from the phoscorite yield εNd from 3.6 (±1) to 5.1 (±0.5) and from 3.8 (±0.5) to 4.9 (±0.5), respectively; εNd of apatites, perovskites and pyrochlores from carbonatite ranges from 3.2 (±0.7) to 4.9 (±0.9), 3.9 (±0.6) to 4.5 (±0.8) and 3.2 (±0.4) to 4.4 (±0.8), respectively. Laser ablation analyses of baddeleyites yielded an eHf(t)d of +8.5 (± 0.18); prior to this study Hf isotopic characteristic of Guli massif was not known. Our new in situ εNd, ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr and eHf data on minerals in the Guli carbonatites imply a depleted source with a long time integrated high Lu/Hf, Sm/Nd, Sr/Rb ratios.In situ U–Pb age determination was performed on perovskites from the carbonatites and phoscorites and also on pyrochlores and baddeleyites from carbonatites. The co-existing pyrochlores, perovskites and baddeleyites in carbonatites yielded ages of 252.3 ± 1.9, 252.5 ± 1.5 and 250.8 ± 1.4 Ma, respectively. The perovskites from the phoscorites yielded an age of 253.8 ± 1.9 Ma. The obtained age for Guli carbonatites and phoscorites lies within the range of ages previously reported for the Siberian Flood Basalts and suggest essentially synchronous emplacement with the Permian-Triassic boundary.     

Galaxy formation and evolution – I. The Padua tree-sph code (pd-sph)

In this paper we report on pd-sph , the new tree-sph code developed in Padua. The main features of the code are described and the results of a new and independent series of 1D and 3D tests are shown. The paper is mainly dedicated to the presentation of the code and to the critical discussion of its performance. In particular, great attention is devoted to the convergency analysis. The code is highly adaptive in space and time by means of individual smoothing lengths and individual time-steps. At present it contains both dark and baryonic matter, this latter in the form of gas and stars, cooling, thermal conduction, star formation, feedback from Type I and II supernovae, stellar winds, and ultraviolet flux from massive stars, and finally chemical enrichment. New cooling rates that depend on the metal abundance of the interstellar medium are employed, and the differences with respect to the standard ones are outlined. Finally, we show the simulation of the dynamical and chemical evolution of a disc-like galaxy with and without feedback. The code is suitably designed to study in a global fashion the problem of formation and evolution of elliptical galaxies, and in particular to feed a spectrophotometric code from which the integrated spectra, magnitudes and colours (together with their spatial gradients) can be derived.     

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.