Toxicity Assessment by Microtox® in Sediments,Pore Waters and Sediment Saline Elutriates in the Gulf of Gdansk (Baltic Sea)

The toxicity of sediments in the Gulf of Gdansk is analyzed in relation to the chemical composition of interstitial and near‐bottom waters, and sediment properties. The toxicity of sediments, pore waters and saline elutriates is determined by using the Microtox® test based on changes in light production of the luminescent bacteria Vibrio fischeri. The results indicate considerable toxicity in the majority of examined sediments. Since the sediment elutriates and pore waters are toxic in some cases, the total toxicity of the sediments is likely to be due to both sediment‐bound and water soluble substances. The sediment toxicity is related to the percentage contribution of the fine fraction of sediments. A significant correlation between the toxicity of the sediments and the black carbon content implies anthropogenic contamination. The toxicity of the sediments is seen to increase with the increase of hydrogen sulfide concentration in pore waters. The ammonia in pore waters was found not to be responsible for the toxicity of the sediments.     

Autoscala: an aid for different ionosondes

Autoscala is a software to automatically scale ionospheric characteristics from an ionogram. Initially it was only applied to the ionograms recorded by the AIS-INGV ionosondes installed at Rome and Gibilmanna (Italy), and Tucumán (Argentina), that are not able to record the polarization of the received echo. Recently, Autoscala was also applied to the ionograms recorded by the AIS-Parus ionosonde installed at Moscow (Russia), that is not able to tag the received echo in terms of polarization, and by the VISRC2 ionosonde installed at Warsaw (Poland) that is instead able to perform the polarization tagging of the ordinary and extraordinary echoes. This work shows different examples of processing performed on ionograms recorded by all these three different types of ionosondes.     

Seismic event of January 22, 2010 near Bełchatów,Poland

The paper summarizes the findings about a seismic event on January 22, 2010, near Bełchatów, Poland, in terms of data, event location, magnitude and source parameters.     

Spatial distribution of phosphorus forms in sediments in the Gulf of Gdańsk (southern Baltic Sea)

The paper analyses the concentrations of total phosphorus and its forms in sediments from the Gulf of Gdańsk on the basis of studies conducted at 25 sampling sites in 2001–05. The phosphorus speciation analysis was performed by sequential extraction. The extensive spatial variability of P_tot concentrations and speciation was found to be dependent on the physicochemical properties of the sediments, the oxygen conditions in the water and sediments, and the depth of the water column above the sediment surface. In the coastal zone, the sedimentation of riverine suspended matter and the sorption and chemisorption processes exert a considerable influence on P speciation. Over 70% of variation of total phosphorus concentration in sediments in the Gulf of Gdańsk could be explained by changes of proportion of fine fraction of sediments (grain size <0.0625 mm). Maximum P_tot concentrations were recorded in clays and silts in the deep water, stratified part of the Gulf of Gdańsk. In the coastal zone, where sandy sediments are dominant, phosphorus concentrations were much lower; this was due to the considerable dynamics of the bottom water and intensive sea floor transport. P_tot concentrations in the Gulf of Gdańsk sediments ranged from 1.75 to 957.17 μmol g⁻¹ d.w. Of all the forms of phosphorus, the highest concentrations were found for organic phosphorus (Org-P). Of its inorganic forms, the highest concentrations were of phosphorus bound to clay minerals and aluminium oxides (NaOH-P), the lowest ones were of loosely bound phosphorus (NaCl-P). On the basis of determinations of total phosphorus concentrations in sediments of a given type and the available data on the seabed areas covered by particular sediment types in the Gulf of Gdańsk, the mass of total phosphorus in the surficial sediment layer (0–2 cm) was estimated at ca. 15.6×10³ tonnes.     

Application of Mössbauer spectroscopy,multidimensional discriminant analysis,and Mahalanobis distance for classification of equilibrated ordinary chondrites

Mössbauer spectra of equilibrated ordinary chondrites consist of two doublets due to paramagnetic iron present in olivines and pyroxenes and two sextets due to magnetically ordered iron present in metallic phases and troilite. The spectral areas of the different mineralogical phases found by Mössbauer spectroscopy in meteorites are proportional to the number of iron atoms in this mineralogical phase. This property of Mössbauer spectra can be the basis for constructing a method for the classification of ordinary chondrites. This idea was first explored at the Mössbauer Laboratory in Kanpur. This group suggested a qualitative method based on 2‐dimensional plots of Mössbauer spectral areas and thus classified properly some meteorites. We constructed a quantitative method using Mössbauer spectral areas, multidimensional discriminant analysis, and Mahalanobis distance (4M method) to determine the probability of a meteorite to be of type H, L, or LL. Based on 59 Mössbauer spectra, we calculated by the 4M method, S _cluster , the level of similarity of the Goronyo meteorite to the clusters. On the plot of ferrosilite versus fayalite, the point representing Goronyo is located on the border between H and L areas. Calculated by the 4M method, the meteorite Goronyo is 32% similar to type H, 75% to type L, and 11% to type LL. Additional mineralogical analyses suggested that the Goronyo meteorite would be classified as type L, although it was originally reported as type H in the Meteoritical Bulletin Database.     

Flow field downstream of individual aquatic plants—Experiments in a natural river with Potamogeton crispus L. and Myriophyllum spicatum L.

Flow disturbances generated by individual patches of submerged, flexible aquatic vegetation were investigated for two naturally growing macrophyte species, Potamogeton crispus L. and Myriophyllum spicatum L., in a sandy lowland river. Through acoustic Doppler velocimetry, 24 vertical profiles of the 3D velocity field were recorded downstream of each of the patches. The morphological features and biomechanical properties of the plants were also evaluated. The experiments showed the relationship between biomechanical characteristics and turbulence statistics. M. spicatum, which was stiffer and therefore less prone to dynamic reconfiguration, showed a greater effect on velocity damping, causing an increase in Reynold stresses, turbulence intensities, and turbulent kinetic energy downstream of the patch. These effects were present in regions both above and below plant height. In contrast for P. crispus, these effects were present only below plant height. The stiffer plant produced a mixing layer in its wake similar to that of dense plant canopies. The patch of less stiff and more streamlined P. crispus with longer leaves presented a much weaker effect on the flow. In contrast to previous studies conducted with rigid plant surrogates, we concluded that reconfiguration of the living flexible plants allows the plants to minimize drag forces, and therefore, their influence on the flow field was weaker than the effects reported for rigid surrogates.     

SPECIFIC EROSIONAL AND DEPOSITIONAL PROCESSES IN A PLEISTOCENE SUBGLACIAL TUNNEL IN THE WIELKOPOLSKA REGION,POLAND

The Pleistocene Cie?le succession accumulated in a subglacial tunnel and shows three sedimentological units: (1) trough cross‐stratified sand with granules deposited in deep channels up to 5.4 m, (2) trough stratified and massive gravels deposited in a very deep channel up to 6.2 m eroded by a catastrophic hyperconcentrated flow, and (3) a massive diamicton, interpreted as a basal till of melt‐out type. We focus on angular and deformed sandy clasts that occur in the second unit. It appears that thermal erosion, short transport in a sediment‐laden current and sudden sedimentation were responsible for the oversized sandy clasts that occur in the gravel glaciofluvial deposits. The deposits are characterized by large‐scale erosional scours, massive structure, and fluid‐escape deformations. This combination of features can be used as a key tool for the interpretation of hyperconcentrated‐flow conditions beneath Pleistocene ice sheets.     

Reliability of selected procedures of stress inversion and data separation for inhomogeneous populations of calcite twins and striated faults: insights from numerical experiments

In the course of numerical experiments selected algorithms for stress tensor inversion and separation of heterogeneous populations of calcite twins and striated faults were tested. Artificial data sets were created in a manner simulating natural processes. They were composed of data, dynamically compatible with one or two stress tensors and chaotic “noise” imitating natural imperfections. For calcite twins the classical inversion procedure is considered valid, with restrictions regarding a high proportion of chaotic data, when shape ratio of the stress tensor Φ is poorly constrained. The algorithm of Etchecopar (1984 fide Tourneret and Laurent in Tectonophysics 180:287–302, 1990) devised originally for calcite twins has been modified and applied to fault/slip data, facilitating a rejection of incompatible outliers. Two main classes of data separation procedures were tested: separation contemporary with inversion and separation prior to inversion, utilising hierarchical clustering. The separation contemporary with inversion performs moderately but often fails with complex calcite twin sets. The performance of hierarchical clustering is high, but only with a σ ₁ orientation as a similarity criterion—the new strategy introduced in this contribution. For fault/slip data the hierarchical clustering with the right-dihedra construction as the similarity criterion (Nemcok et al. 1999) is satisfactory. Additionally, a new approach is proposed for fault/slip data, utilising principles of the classical algorithm for heterogeneous populations of calcite twins. Validated algorithms for striated faults were successfully applied to a natural data set from the Holy Cross Mts (central Poland).