Variability in Bacteria and Virus‐Like Particle Abundances During Purging of Unconfined Aquifers

Standard methodologies for sampling the physicochemical conditions of groundwater recommend purging a bore for three bore volumes to avoid sampling the stagnant water within a bore and instead gain samples representative of the aquifer. However, there are currently no methodological standards addressing the amount of purging required to gain representative biological samples to assess groundwater bacterial and viral abundances. The objective of this study was to examine how bacterial and viral abundances change during the purging of bore volumes. Six bores infiltrating into unconfined aquifers were pumped for five or six bore volumes each and bacteria and virus‐like particles (VLPs) were enumerated from each bore volume using flow cytometry. In examination of the individual bores trends in bacterial abundances were observed to increase, decrease, or remain constant with each purged bore volume. Furthermore, triplicates taken at each bore volume indicated substantial variations in VLP and bacterial abundances that are often larger than the differences between bore volumes. This indicates a high level of small scale heterogeneity in microbial community abundance in groundwater samples, and we suggest that this may be an intrinsic feature of bore biology. The heterogeneity observed may be driven by bottom up processes (variability in the distribution of organic and inorganic nutrients), top‐down processes (grazing and viral lysis), physical heterogeneities in the bore, or technical artifacts associated with the purging process. We suggest that a more detailed understanding of the ecology underpinning this variability is required to adequately describe the microbiological characteristics of groundwater ecosystems.     

Basalt–trachybasalt samples in Gale Crater,Mars

The ChemCam instrument on the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover, Curiosity, observed numerous igneous float rocks and conglomerate clasts, reported previously. A new statistical analysis of single‐laser‐shot spectra of igneous targets observed by ChemCam shows a strong peak at ~55 wt% SiO₂ and 6 wt% total alkalis, with a minor secondary maximum at 47–51 wt% SiO₂ and lower alkali content. The centers of these distributions, together with the rock textures, indicate that many of the ChemCam igneous targets are trachybasalts, Mg# = 27 but with a secondary concentration of basaltic material, with a focus of compositions around Mg# = 54. We suggest that all of these igneous rocks resulted from low‐pressure, olivine‐dominated fractionation of Adirondack (MER) class‐type basalt compositions. This magmatism has subalkaline, tholeiitic affinities. The similarity of the basalt endmember to much of the Gale sediment compositions in the first 1000 sols of the MSL mission suggests that this type of Fe‐rich, relatively low‐Mg#, olivine tholeiite is the dominant constituent of the Gale catchment that is the source material for the fine‐grained sediments in Gale. The similarity to many Gusev igneous compositions suggests that it is a major constituent of ancient Martian magmas, and distinct from the shergottite parental melts thought to be associated with Tharsis and the Northern Lowlands. The Gale Crater catchment sampled a mixture of this tholeiitic basalt along with alkaline igneous material, together giving some analogies to terrestrial intraplate magmatic provinces.     

Effects of secular variation in seawater Mg/Ca ratio (calcite–aragonite seas) on CaCO3 sediment production by the calcareous algae Halimeda, Penicillus and Udotea– evidence from recent experiments and the geological record

Independent lines of geological evidence suggest that fluctuations in the Mg/Ca ratio of seawater between 1.0 and 5.2 have caused the oceans to alternate between favouring the precipitation of the aragonite and high-Mg calcite polymorphs of calcium carbonate ( m Mg/Ca > 2; aragonite seas) and the low-Mg calcite polymorph ( m Mg/Ca < 2; calcite seas) throughout Phanerozoic time. The rise of aragonite-secreting bryopsidalean algae as major producers of carbonate sediments in middle Palaeogene time, a role that they maintained through to the present, has been attributed to a transition from calcite-to-aragonite seas in early Cenozoic time. Recent experiments on the modern, carbonate-sediment-producing bryopsidales Halimeda , Penicillus and Udotea reveal that their rates of calcification, linear extension and primary production decline when reared in experimental calcite seawaters ( m Mg/Ca < 2). These normally aragonite-secreting algae also began producing at least one-quarter of their CaCO₃ as calcite under calcite sea conditions, indicating that their biomineralogical control can be partially overridden by ambient seawater chemistry. The observation that primary production and linear extension declined along with calcification in the mineralogically unfavourable seawater suggests that photosynthesis within these algae is enhanced by calcification via liberation of CO₂ and/or H⁺. Thus, the reduced fitness of these algae associated with their low rates of calcification in calcite seas may have been exacerbated by concomitant reductions in tissue mass and algal height.     

Intervention and assessment of earthquake knowledge at rural schools near the New Madrid seismic zone,USA

Natural Hazards - Possible recurrence of large earthquakes such as the 1811–1812 New Madrid sequence presents a significant hazard in the Central United States. The efficacy of earthquake...     

GRS evidence and the possibility of paleooceans on Mars

The Gamma Ray Spectrometer (Mars Odyssey spacecraft) has revealed elemental distributions of potassium (K), thorium (Th), and iron (Fe) on Mars that require fractionation of K (and possibly Th and Fe) consistent with aqueous activity. This includes weathering, evolution of soils, and transport, sorting, and deposition, as well as with the location of first-order geomorphological demarcations identified as possible paleoocean boundaries. The element abundances occur in patterns consistent with weathering in situ and possible presence of relict or exhumed paleosols, deposition of weathered materials (salts and clastic minerals), and weathering/transport under neutral to acidic brines. The abundances are explained by hydrogeology consistent with the possibly overlapping alternatives of paleooceans and/or heterogeneous rock compositions from diverse provenances (e.g., differing igneous compositions).     

Magnesium isotopic composition of igneous rock standards measured by MC-ICP-MS

To provide inter-lab comparison for high-precision Mg isotope analysis, Mg isotope compositions (expressed as δ²⁶Mg relative to DSM-3) for commercially accessible peridotite, basalt, andesite, and granite geo-standards have been measured by multi-collector inductively coupled mass-spectrometry (Nu-Plasma) using sample-standard bracketing method. There is a large tolerance of matrix cations during the measurement of Mg isotopes, as intensity ratios of ²³Na/²⁴Mg and ²⁷Al/²⁴Mg of about 20% only change the δ²⁶Mg by less than 0.1‰, and low ⁵⁵Mn/²⁴Mg (<0.1) and ⁵⁸Ni/²⁴Mg (<0.01) do not cause significant mass bias either. Concentration match between samples and standards within 90% is adequate to obtain accurate isotope analysis, which also mitigates the isobaric interference of ¹²C¹⁴N⁺ on ²⁶Mg. Organic matrix from chemical purification can cause significant analytical errors when the mass of Mg processed is small. The long-term reproducibility of δ²⁶Mg_DSM-3 for samples with relatively higher MgO content is about 0.11‰ (2SD), and granites with lower MgO content is about 0.2‰ (2SD). Although the standards in this study have wide ranges of major element compositions with SiO₂ from 40 to 70 wt.% and MgO from 0.75 to 49.6 wt.%, they exhibit a variation of Mg isotopic compositions with δ²⁶Mg from −0.07 to −0.40‰. δ²⁶Mg do not correlate with SiO₂ or MgO contents, suggesting homogenous Mg isotope compositions in igneous rocks at the level of current precision, relative to low temperature samples including sediments and riverine and sea waters. Our data do not support a non-chondritic Mg isotope composition of the Earth.     

Long-lived transpression in the Archean Bird River greenstone belt, western Superior Province, Southeastern Manitoba

The Archean Bird River greenstone belt (BRGB) is located on the southwestern edge of the Superior Province between the 3.2 Ga old Winnipeg River subprovince to the south and the metasedimentary belt of the English River subprovince (ERSP) to the north. This position between two major subprovinces makes the BRGB a primary target for investigating the geodynamic and kinematic evolution of a major structural boundary. New structural and geochronological data have allowed us to present an evolutionary framework for the southern boundary of the North Caribou superterrane. The BRGB underwent 3 main deformation phases. The D1 event took place ca. 2698 Ma and displays a north-side-up shearing. The D2 event, occurring at ca. 2684 Ma in a transpressive context, presents a complex structural pattern mixing vertical tectonics in the BRGB and strike-slip tectonics along the boundaries of the greenstone belt with other subprovinces. Between the BRGB and the ERSP, the 2832–2858 Ma old Maskwa batholith acted as a rigid passive block during the collision and marks the boundary between pure dextral strike-slip tectonics along his northern boundary with the ERSP and vertical south-side-up motion in the BRGB. The BRGB can be considered as a pop-up structure with anastomosed shear zones displaying different horizontal offset according to the orientation of the shear zones. The southern boundary with the Winnipeg River subprovince is represented by a sinistral south-side-up shear zone. The same pattern is found at the regional scale where major shear zones acted as a conjugate set in the horizontal plane. At ca. 2640 Ma, the D3 event occurred in a general dextral transpressive tectonic regime coeval with the emplacement of rare-elements pegmatitic plutons in a still hot (400–500 °C) country rock. The geodynamical and mechanical significance of the partitioning between pure strike-slip tectonics in the English River subprovince and vertical motion in the BRGB can be explained by the rheological behaviour of a hot and weak lithosphere undergoing transpressive strain. The structural framework of the BRGB is the result of strong interactions between hot and weak domains, coeval with widespread plutonism, and a rigid older domain (Maskwa batholith) during the D2 transpressive event.     

Downscaling large-scale NCEP CFS to resolve fine-scale seasonal precipitation and extremes for the crop growing seasons over the southeastern United States

Seasonally predicted precipitation at a resolution of 2.5° was statistically downscaled to a fine spatial scale of ~20 km over the southeastern United States. The downscaling was conducted for spring and summer, when the fine-scale prediction of precipitation is typically very challenging in this region. We obtained the global model precipitation for downscaling from the National Center for Environmental Prediction/Climate Forecast System (NCEP/CFS) retrospective forecasts. Ten member integration data with time-lagged initial conditions centered on mid- or late February each year were used for downscaling, covering the period from 1987 to 2005. The primary techniques involved in downscaling are Cyclostationary Empirical Orthogonal Function (CSEOF) analysis, multiple regression, and stochastic time series generation. Trained with observations and CFS data, CSEOF and multiple regression facilitated the identification of the statistical relationship between coarse-scale and fine-scale climate variability, leading to improved prediction of climate at a fine resolution. Downscaled precipitation produced seasonal and annual patterns that closely resemble the fine resolution observations. Prediction of long-term variation within two decades was improved by the downscaling in terms of variance, root mean square error, and correlation. Relative to the coarsely resolved unskillful CFS forecasts, the proposed downscaling drove a significant reduction in wet biases, and correlation increased by 0.1–0.5. Categorical predictability of seasonal precipitation and extremes (frequency of heavy rainfall days), measured with the Heidke skill score (HSS), was also improved by the downscaling. For instance, domain averaged HSS for two category predictability by the downscaling are at least 0.20, while the scores by the CFS are near zero and never exceed 0.1. On the other hand, prediction of the frequency of subseasonal dry spells showed limited improvement over half of the Georgia and Alabama region.