Intermediate school's trip to India: Preparing for competence

In November 2010, students from a Palmerston North intermediate school embarked on a 2‐week excursion to India. Qualitative research was carried out before, during and after the trip. Results discussed in this article focus primarily on the students' account of their trip, especially their perceived cultural competence and their explanation for it. Accounts of their competence are also offered by the parents and teachers, for example, they especially valued the students' extensive school‐based preparation. Insights gained from the experiences of this trip may be applied to other, including older, cohorts of students embarking on overseas school field trips.     

Distinguishing breeding populations of mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) using trace elements

The knowledge of connectivity among breeding and overwintering populations of migratory bird species is critical for the conservation of their habitats. Conventional field work for the tracking of migratory birds involving bird banding often yields poor results due to low recovery rates, or is expensive when satellite tracking methods are used. Intrinsic tools such as genetic markers, stable isotopes, strontium isotopes and trace elements have been successfully used for tracing origins and/or migratory pathways of bird populations. We studied elemental signatures in the tail feathers to group breeding populations and an overwintering population of Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos). Tail feathers from five locations in Canada and the U.S. were analyzed using Laser Ablation-Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). We used 18 elements to discriminate between Mallard populations. Linear discriminant analysis on a selected set of elements demonstrated that 93% of the Mallards could be accurately located back to their predicted locations. Mallard feathers from Arkansas (an important overwintering area), grouped together with any combination of elements as predictors. We predicted the breeding locations of overwintering Mallards from Arkansas. Our results confirm that the LA-ICP-MS technique shows high potential to estimate the origin of migratory animals.     

Unravelling the evolution of an Alpine to post-glacially active fault in the Swiss Alps

The Gemmi fault is a prominent NW–SE striking lineament that crosses the Gemmi Pass in the central Swiss Alps. A multidisciplinary investigation of this structure that included geological mapping, joint profiling, cathodoluminescence and scanning electron microscopy, stable isotope measurements, luminescence- and U-TH-dating, 3D ground penetrating radar (GPR) surveying and trenching reveals a history of fault movements from the Miocene to the Holocene. The main fault zone comprises a 0.5–3 m thick calcite cataclasite formed during several cycles of veining and brittle deformation. Displaced Cretaceous rock layers show an apparent dextral slip of 10 m along the fault.A detailed study of a small sediment-filled depression that crosses the fault provides evidence for a post-glacial reactivation of the fault. A trench excavated across the fault exposed a Late-Glacial-age loess layer and late Holocene colluvial-like slope-wash deposits that showed evidence for fault displacement of a few centimeters, indicating a recent strike-slip reactivation of the fault. Focal mechanisms of recent instrumentally recorded earthquakes are consistent with our findings that show that the fault at the Gemmi Pass, together with other parallel faults in this area, may be reactivated in today's stress field. Taking together all the observations of its ancient and recent activity, the Gemmi fault can be viewed as a window through geological space and time.     

U–Pb dating of calcite–aragonite layers in speleothems from hominin sites in South Africa by MC-ICP-MS

Speleothems are found in association with hominin fossil-bearing cave deposits in South Africa and can be used to provide valuable chronological constraints. Such material is generally too old for U–Th dating and, although U–Pb geochronology presents a suitable alternative, bulk U concentrations are typically too low (<0.05 μg/g) to provide useful ages. For this reason, we used a simple non-invasive beta-scanner imaging screening step to identify U-rich (≥1 μg/g) domains that could be analyzed with MC-ICP-MS techniques to provide U–Pb ages. We demonstrate the technique using samples from Sterkfontein cave that exhibit infrequent <1 cm-thick layers with U concentrations ≥1 μg/g. Relict aragonite needles are found exclusively in these U-rich layers. We analyzed material from the same flowstone suite as Walker et al. (2006) and obtained a U–Pb age of ～2.3 Ma that agrees well with their estimate of 2.24 ± 0.09 Ma. We also obtained similar U–Pb (0.164 ± 0.026 to 0.200 ± 0.052 Ma) and U–Th (0.148 ± 0.003 Ma) ages for another sample exhibiting U-rich layers. We recognize that open-system behaviour during the partial transformation of aragonite to calcite is a potential problem and argue, on the basis of geochemistry and age consistencies, that recrystallization took place rapidly after speleothem formation and did not significantly affect the U–Pb ages.     

Assessment of drought over the past two millennia using near-shore sediment cores from a Canadian boreal lake

Lack of long-term studies on drought in the boreal region of northwest Ontario limits our ability to assess the vulnerability of this region to climate change. We investigated changes in diatoms, scaled chrysophytes, and sedimentary pigments in two near-shore cores from Gall Lake to infer limnological and water-level changes over the last two millennia. The two coring locations, at modern water depths of 7.5 and 11.5 m, were selected to contrast inferences for past lake level based on distance from the modern water-depth boundary between predominantly benthic and planktonic diatom assemblages in surface sediments (6.0 m). Diatom-inferred depth inferences were more variable in the core from 7.5-m water depth, consistent with the hypothesis that the greatest changes occurred at water depths closest to the benthic:planktonic boundary. Both sites revealed a pronounced drought from ~AD 950 to 1300, synchronous with the medieval climate anomaly (MCA). This finding suggests a northeast expansion of the arid MCA into northwest Ontario, extending the known spatial extent of this megadrought. Scaled chrysophytes and sedimentary pigments suggest a recent increase in thermal stratification. Our findings indicate this region is more susceptible to changes in moisture than was previously suspected based on the instrumental record for the past century.