Peatland development at the arctic tree line (Québec, Canada) influenced by flooding and permafrost

In this study, we documented the Holocene history of a peat plateau at the arctic tree line in northern Québec using stratigraphic and macrofossil analyses to highlight the effects of geomorphic setting in peatland development. Paludification of the site began about 6800 cal yr BP. From 6390 to 4120 cal yr BP, the peatland experienced a series of flooding events. The location of the peatland in a depression bounded by two small lakes likely explains its sensitivity to runoff. The proximity of a large hill bordering the peatland to the south possibly favored the inflow of mineral-laden water. The onset of permafrost aggradation in several parts of the peatland occurred after 3670 cal yr BP. Uplifting of the peatland surface caused by permafrost stopped the flooding. According to radiocarbon dating of the uppermost peat layers, permafrost distribution progressed from the east to the west of the peatland, indicating differential timing for the initiation of permafrost throughout the peatland. Most of the peatland was affected by permafrost growth during the Little Ice Age. Picea mariana macroremains at 6450 cal yr BP indicate that the species was present during the early stages of peatland development, which occurred soon after the sea regression.     

西昆仑柳什塔格峰西侧火山岩的特征、时代及地质意义

在西昆仑麻扎-康西瓦-苏巴什结合带的柳什塔格一带发现了一套火山岩建造,主要由强蚀变玄武岩、绿帘阳起石岩、阳起石岩(原岩为玄武岩)组成,上覆少量深水沉积岩。火山岩的岩石地球化学特征表明其主要来源于富集地幔玄武岩浆,形成于洋岛环境,因此它是一个古结合带大洋洋壳的残留。采样作Rb-Sr等时线年龄分析,时代为震旦纪(563±48Ma),说明麻扎-康西瓦-苏巴什结合带所代表的洋盆在震旦纪就已经存在。这个发现对重新认识麻扎-康西瓦-苏巴什结合带的演化时限具有重要意义。     

中国小冰期的气候

在建立了近百年中国10个区的年平均气温序列的基础上,利用史料、冰芯δ18O及树木年轮,重建了各区近400～1000年的10年平均气温序列。分析表明,近千年来中国可能有5次冷期分别出现于1100’s～1150’s,1300’s～1390’s,1450’s～1510’s,1560’s～1690’s及1790’S～1890’S。第4次冷期主要在中国大陆中部最明显,而第5次冷期在中国南部较强。新疆、东北及闽台气温变化与中国其它部分特别是南部及西南有一定差异。如果把最后两次冷期作为中国小冰期的两次主要寒冷阶段,其30年平均气温可能比20世纪中期中国最暖的30年(1920’S～1940’S)低0．6～0．11℃。     

The status of artisanal fishing in El Salvador

El Salvador is one of the most environmentally degraded nations in Latin America, but the declining fishing industry is under-studied compared with deforestation and landuse. This paper examines the reactions to fish stock decline of two generations of fishers in La Union, El Salvador on the Golfo de Fonseca, one of the most important fishing areas in Latin America, using face to face interviews and questionaires. Both older (>35 years) and younger (<36 years) fishers supplemented their income with trading, farming and loans from their relatives in the United States. All older fishers reported larger fish catches five and ten years previously than at present. Previously, fishers caught more fish, but significantly more younger fishers than older fishers reported their fathers caught more fish than they did, indicating an increasing gap in fish catches in recent decades. More younger fishers than older fishers had fathers or male kin who were also fishers, indicating young men were less likely to join fishing without a parent or kin already involved. Minorities of both older and younger fishers engaged in supplementary activities. Environmental degradation disuaded fishers from switching to farming or hunting. The findings are similar to findings elsewhere on the decline of fish resources and generational gaps in environmental knowledge, but differ in that some other studies report fewer opportunities for fishers to access alternative or complementary activities. These findings are relevant to Latin American studies, considering the great value of the Golfo de Fonseca to the livelihoods of Central America.     

普朗斑岩铜矿包裹体、同位素研究及成矿时代

普朗斑岩铜矿产于印支-燕山早期普朗复式斑岩体中。成矿流体来源广、盐度高,成矿温度从高温440℃到低温120℃,集中在160℃-240℃、280℃-320℃、340℃-380℃三阶段,多期次、多阶段性,与斑岩成矿作用特征一致。硫同位素3δ4SCDT‰T为（-2.23-3.75）‰,显示单一深源岩浆硫。岩体黑云母等40Ar-39Ar和矿石石英-辉钼矿Re-Os同位素年龄为206.4M a-213±3.8M a,属岛孤斑岩型铜矿床。     

Late second-early first millennium BC abrupt climate changes in coastal Syria and their possible significance for the history of the Eastern Mediterranean

The alluvial deposits near Gibala-Tell Tweini provide a unique record of environmental history and food availability estimates covering the Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age. The refined pollen-derived climatic proxy suggests that drier climatic conditions occurred in the Mediterranean belt of Syria from the late 13th/early 12th centuries BC to the 9th century BC. This period corresponds with the time frame of the Late Bronze Age collapse and the subsequent Dark Age. The abrupt climate change at the end of the Late Bronze Age caused region-wide crop failures, leading towards socio-economic crises and unsustainability, forcing regional habitat-tracking. Archaeological data show that the first conflagration of Gibala occurred simultaneously with the destruction of the capital city Ugarit currently dated between 1194 and 1175 BC. Gibala redeveloped shortly after this destruction, with large-scale urbanization visible in two main architectural phases during the Early Iron Age I. The later Iron Age I city was destroyed during a second conflagration, which is radiocarbon-dated at circa 2950 cal yr BP. The data from Gibala-Tell Tweini provide evidence in support of the drought hypothesis as a triggering factor behind the Late Bronze Age collapse in the Eastern Mediterranean.     

Evaluation of oceanic transport parameters using transient tracers from observations and model output

A method is presented to find the age distribution of ocean waters, the transit-time distribution (TTD), by combining an eddying global ocean model’s estimate of the TTD with hydrographic observations of CFC-11, temperature, and salinity. The method uses a mixture model of an assumed form of the TTD, an inverse Gaussian (IG), and an established Bayesian statistical method. All known significant sources of uncertainty are propagated to arrive at estimates of two oceanic transport parameters associated with the IG TTD, the mean age (Γ) and either the half-variance (${\mathrm{\Delta }}^2$) or the Peclet number ($\mathit{Pe}={\mathrm{\Gamma }}^2/{\mathrm{\Delta }}^2$). It is found that the uncertainties on Γ do not overlap zero in most locations using only CFC-11, temperature, and salinity. However, the uncertainty on the other IG parameter does not overlap zero in only a few locations. With the inclusion of another transient tracer (³He/³H), the uncertainty on this other IG parameter does not overlap zero in just a few additional locations in the deep North Atlantic Ocean. Neither a single- nor mixture-IG representation is adequate for representing the full TTD in the ocean, particularly in the Southern Ocean.Differences between the IG parameters estimated using the model’s tracers as data (BayesPOP) and those estimated using tracer observations as data (BayesObs) provide information about the sources of model biases, and give a more nuanced picture than can be found by comparing the simulated CFCs with observed CFCs. Using the differences between each of the oceanic transport parameters from BayesObs and those from BayesPOP with and without a constant Pe assumption along each of the hydrographic cross-sections considered here, it is found that the model’s eddy mixing biases often lead to larger model errors than the model’s mean advection time biases. It is also found that mean advection time biases in the model can be statistically significant at the 95% level where mode water is found in the Southern Ocean.     

Sea ice volume and age: Sensitivity to physical parameterizations and thickness resolution in the CICE sea ice model

New dynamics parameterizations in Version 5 of the Los Alamos Sea Ice Model, CICE, feature an anisotropic rheology and variable drag coefficients. This study investigates their effect on Arctic sea ice volume and age simulations, along with the effects of several pre-existing model options: a parameter that represents the mean cumulative area of ice participating in ridging, the resolution of the ice thickness distribution, and the resolution of the vertical temperature and salinity profiles.By increasing shear stress between floes, the anisotropic rheology slows the ice motion, producing a thicker, older ice pack. The inclusion of variable drag coefficients, which depend on modeled roughness elements such as deformed ice and melt pond edges, leads to thinner ice and a more realistic simulation of sea ice age. Several feedback processes act to enhance differences among the runs. Notably, if less open water is produced mechanically through ice deformational processes, the simulated ice thins relative to runs with more mechanically produced open water. Thermodynamic processes can have opposing effects on ice age and volume; for instance, growth of new ice increases the volume while decreasing the age of the pack. Therefore, age data provides additional information useful for differentiating among process parameterization effects and sensitivities to other model parameters.Resolution of thicker ice types is crucial for proper modeling of sea ice volume, because the volume of ice in the thicker ice categories determines the total ice volume. Model thickness categories tend to focus resolution for thinner ice; this paper demonstrates that 5 ice thickness categories are not enough to accurately resolve the ice thickness distribution for simulations of ice volume.     

A 2000-yr reconstruction of air temperature in the Great Basin of the United States with specific reference to the Medieval Climatic Anomaly

A sediment core representing the past two millennia was recovered from Stella Lake in the Snake Range of the central Great Basin in Nevada. The core was analyzed for sub-fossil chironomids and sediment organic content. A quantitative reconstruction of mean July air temperature (MJAT) was developed using a regional training set and a chironomid-based WA-PLS inference model (r²_jack = 0.55, RMSEP = 0.9°C). The chironomid-based MJAT reconstruction suggests that the interval between AD 900 and AD 1300, corresponding to the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA), was characterized by MJAT elevated 1.0°C above the subsequent Little Ice Age (LIA), but likely not as warm as recent conditions. Comparison of the Stella Lake temperature reconstruction to previously published paleoclimate records from this region indicates that the temperature fluctuations inferred to have occurred at Stella Lake between AD 900 and AD 1300 correspond to regional records documenting hydroclimate variability during the MCA interval. The Stella Lake record provides evidence that elevated summer temperature contributed to the increased aridity that characterized the western United States during the MCA.     

A 7000-year record of environmental change,including early farming impact,based on lake-sediment geochemistry and pollen data from County Sligo,western Ireland

Detailed, chronologically tightly constrained, lake-sediment-based geochemical and pollen records have enabled local changes in soil erosion, woodland cover and composition, and prehistoric farming impact to be reconstructed in considerable detail. The profile opens shortly after 7800 BC when tall canopy trees were well-established and presumably in equilibrium with their environment. A distinct perturbation that involved an increase in pine and birch, a decrease in oak and a minor opening-up of the woodland is regarded as the local expression of the 8.2 ka climate anomaly. Lack of response in the geochemical erosional indicators is interpreted as evidence for drier conditions. A short-lived, over-compensation in climate recovery followed the 8.2 ka event. Neolithic farming impact is clearly expressed in both the pollen and geochemical data. Both datasets indicate that Neolithic impact was concentrated in the early Neolithic (3715–3440 BC). In the interval 3000–2700 BC there appears to have been a break in farming activity. The pollen data suggest substantially increased farming impact (both arable and pastoral) in the Bronze Age, with maximum farming and woodland clearances taking place in the late Bronze Age (1155–935 BC). These developments are poorly expressed in the geochemical record, possibly due to within-lake changes.