Pattern,style and timing of British–Irish Ice Sheet advance and retreat over the last 45 000 years: evidence from NW Scotland and the adjacent continental shelf

Predicting the future response of ice sheets to climate warming and rising global sea level is important but difficult. This is especially so when fast-flowing glaciers or ice streams, buffered by ice shelves, are grounded on beds below sea level. What happens when these ice shelves are removed? And how do the ice stream and the surrounding ice sheet respond to the abruptly altered boundary conditions? To address these questions and others we present new geological, geomorphological, geophysical and geochronological data from the ice-stream-dominated NW sector of the last British–Irish Ice Sheet (BIIS). The study area covers around 45 000 km² of NW Scotland and the surrounding continental shelf. Alongside seabed geomorphological mapping and Quaternary sediment analysis, we use a suite of over 100 new absolute ages (including cosmogenic-nuclide exposure ages, optically stimulated luminescence ages and radiocarbon dates) collected from onshore and offshore, to build a sector-wide ice-sheet reconstruction combining all available evidence with Bayesian chronosequence modelling. Using this information we present a detailed assessment of ice-sheet advance/retreat history, and the glaciological connections between different areas of the NW BIIS sector, at different times during the last glacial cycle. The results show a highly dynamic, partly marine, partly terrestrial, ice-sheet sector undergoing large size variations in response to sub-millennial-scale climatic (Dansgaard–Oeschger) cycles over the last 45 000 years. Superimposed on these trends we identify internally driven instabilities, operating at higher frequency, conditioned by local topographic factors, tidewater dynamics and glaciological feedbacks during deglaciation. Specifically, our new evidence indicates extensive marine-terminating ice-sheet glaciation of the NW BIIS sector during Greenland Stadials 12 to 9 – prior to the main ‘Late Weichselian’ ice-sheet glaciation. After a period of restricted glaciation, in Greenland Interstadials 8 to 6, we find good evidence for rapid renewed ice-sheet build-up in NW Scotland, with the Minch ice-stream terminus reaching the continental shelf edge in Greenland Stadial 5, perhaps only briefly. Deglaciation of the NW sector took place in numerous stages. Several grounding-zone wedges and moraines on the mid- and inner continental shelf attest to significant stabilizations of the ice-sheet grounding line, or ice margin, during overall retreat in Greenland Stadials 3 and 2, and to the development of ice shelves. NW Lewis was the first substantial present-day land area to deglaciate, in the first half of Greenland Stadial 3 at a time of globally reduced sea-level c. 26 kabp , followed by Cape Wrath at c. 24 kabp. The topographic confinement of the Minch straits probably promoted ice-shelf development in early Greenland Stadial 2, providing the ice stream with additional support and buffering it somewhat from external drivers. However, c. 20–19 kabp , as the grounding-line migrated into shoreward deepening water, coinciding with a marked change in marine geology and bed strength, the ice stream became unstable. We find that, once underway, grounding-line retreat proceeded in an uninterrupted fashion with the rapid loss of fronting ice shelves – first in the west, then the east troughs – before eventual glacier stabilization at fjord mouths in NW Scotland by ~17 kabp. Around the same time, ~19–17 kabp , ice-sheet lobes readvanced into the East Minch – possibly a glaciological response to the marine-instability-triggered loss of adjacent ice stream (and/or ice shelf) support in the Minch trough. An independent ice cap on Lewis also experienced margin oscillations during mid-Greenland Stadial 2, with an ice-accumulation centre in West Lewis existing into the latter part of Heinrich Stadial 1. Final ice-sheet deglaciation of NW mainland Scotland was punctuated by at least one other coherent readvance at c. 15.5 kabp , before significant ice-mass losses thereafter. At the glacial termination, c. 14.5 kabp , glaciers fed outwash sediment to now-abandoned coastal deltas in NW mainland Scotland around the time of global Meltwater Pulse 1A. Overall, this work on the BIIS NW sector reconstructs a highly dynamic ice-sheet oscillating in extent and volume for much of the last 45 000 years. Periods of expansive ice-sheet glaciation dominated by ice-streaming were interspersed with periods of much more restricted ice-cap or tidewater/fjordic glaciation. Finally, this work indicates that the role of ice streams in ice-sheet evolution is complex but mechanistically important throughout the lifetime of an ice sheet – with ice streams contributing to the regulation of ice-sheet health but also to the acceleration of ice-sheet demise via marine ice-sheet instabilities.     

一次攀西地区飑线天气过程形成机制分析

利用地面气象常规观测资料、区域自动站观测资料、雷达及卫星资料和NCEP 1°×1°的逐6h再分析资料,对2018年5月13日攀西地区南部的飑线天气过程的形成机制进行分析。结果表明:飑线发生在高空槽前,高空槽逐渐东移推动冷性气流沿背风坡东移,然后与前方低层暖空气汇合抬升形成对流;露点锋触发了飑线天气过程的形成;产生飑线天气区域的大气具有上干下湿、不稳定能量高、垂直风切变强、高层风速大和形成之前存在逆温层的特点;高空急流和动量下传对飑线的发生和加强具有促进作用;地形对飑线的形成和天气现象的分布有影响。     

3S技术在神农架滑雪场生态环境影响评价中的应用

神农架滑雪场位于国家级自然保护区的边缘地带。运用景观生态学原理和方法,采用3S技术,对滑雪场景观生态体系的结构和功能状况进行评价,通过景观多样性指数、景观聚集度指数等指标量化计算及比较分析,预测了项目建成后对所在区域生态完整性的影响程度及将造成的敏感生态问题。结果表明,评价区自然系统的生物量将减少430.26 t,平均净生产力降低为881.55 g/m2.a,项目建设不会改变林地的模地地位,其对生态环境质量仍有较强的调控能力。3S技术结合景观生态学方法将生态环境影响评价由定性评价转向定量预测,为建设项目生态影响评价研究作了有益的探索。     

攀西水系沉积物铂、钯异常及对找寻铂、钯矿的启示

利用攀枝花幅（永仁幅）、会理幅、盐边幅、米易幅、盐源幅和西昌幅共6个1：20万图幅的区域铂、钯地球化学资料,运用了数据滤波处理方法圈定铂族元素异常.讨论了水系沉积物中铂、钯地球化学背景和异常与峨眉山玄武岩、基性-超基性岩等地质体的空间关系,并做了该地区铂族矿产的找矿远景预测.     

Ex situ cultivation of Aplysinaaerophoba close to in situ conditions: ecological, biochemical and histological aspects

Sponges provide the largest number of biologically active natural products known from the marine environment and continue to be a very well studied phylum of marine fauna. The Mediterranean sponge Aplysina aerophoba accumulates brominated isoxazoline alkaloids such as Aplysinamisin-1, Aerophobin-2, Isofistularin-3 and the biotransformation product Aeroplysinin-1, which possesses, for example, antibiotic and cytotoxic properties. Until now, it is still being discussed which organisms – the sponge itself or associated microorganisms – are responsible for metabolite production. For cultivating Aplysina individuals under ex situ conditions, we surveyed relevant ecological factors in situ and controlled them in our aquarium system. We maintained A. aerophoba for more than 9 months and analysed changes of metabolite content and composition, microbial association as well as morphology in situ and ex situ under different light exposure. Although sponges showed slight reduction during maintenance, ex situ cultivation similar to in situ conditions provides a promising method to keep sponges and obtain their bioactive metabolites.     

水生动物热休克蛋白研究进展

由于栖息环境的特殊性,水生动物热休克蛋白的诱导及其生态意义具有不同于陆生动物的特性.本文总结了近年来水生动物热休克蛋白方面的研究进展,介绍热休克蛋白的调节机制及其功能,归纳水生动物热休克蛋白对温度、环境污染和其他因子的反应,着重分析热休克蛋白表达在水生动物中热耐受性和交叉保护中的作用,及其对水生动物分布和适合度的影响.     

基于遥感的城市景观生态环境格局分析

借助RS和GIS技术,获取研究区城市的景观生态格局指标,运用定量分析的方法对各种生态类型在城市化进程中对景观格局的作用进行了研究。揭示了部分生态类型持续减少将对生态平衡造成破坏的情况,为城市的职能部门提出生态环境建设的建议和措施。     

MICROHABITAT DISTRIBUTION OF METAZOAN PARASITES ON GILLS OF SILURUS ASOTUS IN JIANGKOU RESERVOIR, JIANGXI PROVINCE, CHINA

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