GGR Biennial Critical Review: Analytical Developments Since 2010

Advances in the chemical and isotopic characterisation of geological and environmental materials can often be ascribed to technological improvements in analytical hardware. Equally, the creation of novel methods of data acquisition and interpretation, including access to better reference materials, can also be crucial components enabling important breakthroughs. This biennial review highlights key advances in either instrumentation or data acquisition and treatment, which have appeared since January 2010. This review is based on the assessments by scientists prominent in each of the given analytical fields; it is not intended as an exhaustive summary, but rather provides insight from experts of the most significant advances and trends in their given field of expertise. In contrast to earlier reviews, this presentation has been formulated into a unified work, providing a single source covering a broad spectrum of geoanalytical techniques. Additionally, some themes that were not previously emphasised, in particular thermal ionisation mass spectrometry, accelerator‐based methods and vibrational spectroscopy, are also presented in detail.     

Palaeogeographic reconstruction of the 1.55 Ma synchronous isolation of the Ryukyu Islands,Japan, and Taiwan and inflow of the Kuroshio warm current

In the Quaternary, the Ryukyu Islands evolved from a continental margin arc to an island arc by backarc spreading of the Okinawa Trough, accompanied by subsidence and isolation of the islands, a process that has continued to the present. Trough-parallel half grabens were filled with marine siltstone. Similar sediments filling orthogonal fault-controlled and west-draining non-tectonic valleys record island separation. New Quaternary nannofossil biostratigraphic data date the deposition of the marine siltstone at 1.552 ± 0.154 Ma. At that time, the entire 1000 km-long island chain comprising the Ryukyu Islands separated from the Asian continent by rifting extending from the Okinawa Trough to the Tsushima Strait. The Tokara, Kerama, and Yonaguni gaps, branched or transverse rifts of the Okinawa Trough, separate the island chain into subgroups of the Osumi, Amami, Okinawa, and Yaeyama islands, and Taiwan. The shallow Taiwan Strait separated Taiwan from the Chinese mainland. The Kuroshio warm current that previously ran offshore of the continental margin arc began to enter the opening backarc basin through the Yonaguni gap and to exit through the Tokara gap, flowing along the axis of the Okinawa Trough. Under influence of the warm current and because of entrapment of continentally sourced detrital sediments by the Okinawa Trough, coral reefs formed around each island. These reefs make up a unit called the Ryukyu limestone. Subsidence continued through the deposition of this limestone, resulting in further isolation of each island. Some islands did not separate from the mainland but emerged above sea level later as a result of volcanic edifice construction or forearc uplift. Following initial isolation, the Japanese islands and Taiwan may have been connected to the mainland by land bridges during some sea level low stands related to glacial periods, whereas the other islands remained isolated. Based on ages of isolation of each island, a Quaternary palaeogeographic map and ‘phylogenetic tree’ of the islands can be drawn showing the separation time of each island from the mainland and from each other. This information should be useful for phylogenetic molecular biologists studying evolution of Ryukyu endemic species and vicariant speciation and could facilitate analysis of the DNA substitution rate.     

Geochemical-geomorphological Evidence for the Provenance of Aeolian Sands and Sedimentary Environments in the Hunshandake Sandy Land, Eastern Inner Mongolia, China

Identifying the provenance of aeolian sediments in the Hunshandake Sandy Land is of great importance for understanding the formation of the dune fields in the mid-latitudes and for deciphering information about desert’s responses to global change. By determining the major and trace elements concentrations of aeolian sands in three grain size fractions from the central and western parts of the Hunshandake Sandy Land, we systematically study the provenance and the depositional history of aeolian sands in this desert environment. Our results show that aeolian sands from the Hunshandake Sandy Land are enriched in SiO2 and are depleted in many other elements compared to those of the Upper Continent Crust (UCC). Variations of the immobile elements ratios like Zr/Hf, La/Yb, Th/Nb, La/Nb,LaN/YbN , GdN/YbN are relatively large in the coarse and medium fractions but minor in the fine fractions. Eu anomalies are quite different in the coarse fractions, but mostly positive in the medium fractions and all negative in the fine fractions. Decreasing tendency of Zr concentrations from the west to the east in the Hunshandake Sandy Land is evident in the coarse sands but rather weak in the fine grain size fractions. Our geochemical data indicate that the sources for the coarse and medium fractions of aeolian sands are diverse, influenced by local geology and geomorphology, while the fine sand fractions are more homogenous due to intensive mixture mainly by aeolian processes. Various ratios of immobile elements suggest that these sands should be sourced primarily from the surrounding mountains by fluvial/alluvial processes rather than from any remote territories. Aeolian sands with Ce negative anomalies are widely distributed in the Hunshandake Sandy Land, indicating that aquatic environments have occurred extensively prior to the occurrence of the dune field.     

江浪矿田主成矿元素及伴生金银的赋存状态

运用扫描电子显微镜（SEM）及其配套的背散射电子像功能、能谱仪（EDS）鉴定功能以及电子探针波谱分析功能,初步查明了江浪矿田内里伍矿床、黑牛铜矿床、挖金沟矿床、笋叶林矿床、中咀矿床中的主要成矿元素Cu、Zn、Fe、S及其重要伴生元素Au、Ag的赋存状态。该研究成果可为矿产资源的选矿、资源的合理充分利用、环境保护等提供有价值的参考资料。     

利用DEMETER卫星数据分析强震前后的电离层异常

基于法国DEMETER卫星观测的离子温度(T_i)、 VLF电磁场单频点频谱数据探索了2008年5月12日汶川M_S8.0、 2010年1月12日海地M_S7.3和2010年2月27日智利M_S8.8等3次强震前后与地震有关的电离层异常现象. 结果发现, 汶川地震前3天(5月9日)震中北偏西方向离子温度明显升高, 震前4天(5月8日)VLF磁场低于200 Hz的频段范围频谱在震中2°以内有明显突升; 智利地震前9天(2月18日)震中北东方向离子温度有剧烈扰动, 震前4天(2月23日)VLF磁场100—160 Hz频段范围内出现突升; 海地地震震前没有观测到明显的异常现象, 但地震发生当天(震后约4—5小时)的T_i, 40—160 Hz频段电场频谱, 以及120—480 Hz磁场频谱均有明显突升, 应为地震发生后能量释放所引起. 分析认为, 不同地震由于发震机制等各种情况的不同, 其地震前后的表现也各不相同. 虽然目前没有直接的证据表明本文研究的异常变化是由地震的孕育和发生引起的, 但在数据处理中已尽可能排除了太阳、 地磁等因素的影响, 并且研究结果与前人的研究经验吻合, 因此本文发现的异常可能与地震发生的关系较大.      

THE POTENTIAL IMPLEMENTATION OF BIOGEOCHEMICAL CYCLES IN BIOGEOGRAPHY

As professional geographers we ask the above question in terms of problem solving, but undergraduate students ask it in regards to employment. To determine what exactly our recent majors have done, we prepared a questionnaire on careers, salary, and the utility of the major. Responses indicate they held a wide variety of employment opportunities and annual salaries from under $8,000 to well above $20,000 in 1981. Particularly useful courses include cartography, quantitative techniques and field course work. Special interest was shown in our new Internship Program.     

国家主体功能区战略背景下东北地区城市经济增长的动力与路径——基于城市暂住人口视角

经济、人口、资源与环境的协调发展是新型城市化战略的核心,也是国家主体功能区规划的重要内容。鉴于各类主体功能区在东北地区并存,考察其经济增长与城市化开发路径,可为全国提供较好借鉴。以东北地区城市暂住人口为切入点,探讨了城市暂住人口与经济增长相互影响的作用机制,进而构建暂住人口与经济增长联立方程,并使用东北地区34个地级城市的面板数据进行实证分析,考量以暂住人口吸纳与承载能力为标志的城市化潜力与经济增长的动力。研究表明:在国家主体功能区战略背景下,需充分尊重和考虑东北地区各类开发区域与城市的经济、社会、自然与生态状况,应通过中心城市产业结构调整、生态功能区人口迁出等途径进行集中均衡式的城市化开发,积极加快推进基本公共服务均等化和城市内部基础设施完善。     

Improved method for measuring the δ15N compound-specific amino acids: Application on mesopelagic fishes in the South China Sea

Compound-specific stable isotope analysis of individual amino acids（CSIA-AA） has been widely used in ecological and biogeochemical studies. It has been proven to be powerful in tracing the diet sources and trophic interactions. However, assessing the N sources of mesopelagic fishes has been inconclusive because the mesopelagic fishes’ unique domain（water depth ranged from 0 to 1 000 m） and unresolved nitrogen isotopes of various forms. This study proposes a new method for coupling instruments（io...     

Effects of sand-mulch thickness on soil evaporation during the freeze–thaw period

Control of evaporation from seasonally frozen soil is an important method for alleviating water shortages in arid and semi-arid areas. To investigate the inhibition of soil evaporation by sand and the major factors that influence soil evaporation, a series of field experiments with five sand-mulch thicknesses (0 cm, bare soil [BS], 1 cm [T1], 2 cm [T2], 3 cm [T3] and 4 cm [T4], with an average diameter of 1 mm) were conducted during the freeze–thaw period in Northern China. Soil evaporation characteristics in the three freeze–thaw stages were revealed and the major factors influencing soil evaporation were analysed using grey correlation analysis. The results showed that the cumulative soil evaporation decreased with increasing sand-mulch thickness during the freeze–thaw period, and only small differences in soil evaporation were observed between the T3 and T4 treatments. The reduction in soil evaporation under different sand-mulch thicknesses was 19.2–62.6% in the unstable freezing stage (P1), 2.0–28.3% in the stable freezing stage (P2) and 4.8–20.4% in the thawing stage (P3). In P1, solar radiation was a major factor influencing soil evaporation in all treatments and vapour pressure was a major factor in the sand-mulch treatments, and the influence of relative humidity on soil evaporation decreased in the T4 treatment. During the coldest P2, solar radiation was lowest so that relative humidity and wind speed became the more dominant influence factors on soil evaporation in all treatments, and surface soil water content was a major factor in the sand-mulch treatments. In P3, average air temperature and solar radiation were major factor influencing soil evaporation in all treatments and vapour pressure was a major factor in the BS and T1 treatments, whereas water surface evaporation was the major factor in the T2, T3 and T4 treatments. The results suggest that the addition of sand mulch in agricultural fields may be a beneficial practice to reduce water stress in arid and semi-arid areas.     

Spatio‐temporal patterns of major ions in urban stormwater under cold climate

Multiple natural and anthropogenic factors affect urban water chemistry. However, little is known about the abundance or temporal variation of major ions in urban runoff. This study explores the spatio‐temporal variation of major dissolved ions (Na, K, Ca, Mg, Cl, NO₃, and SO₄) and total dissolved solids (TDS) in cold climate urban stormwater. Three watersheds with varying degrees of urban land use intensity and imperviousness (from 36% to 66%) in Helsinki, Finland, were continuously monitored for 5 years using an automated sampling procedure to obtain stormwater discharge and ion concentrations and, thus, loadings. High‐resolution datasets, including long‐term continuous discharge, both measured and simulated (using Storm Water Management Model), and automatic water quality sampling enabled the accurate calculation of loads of ions and TDS. Water quality was related to explanatory watershed characteristics (e.g., watershed physiography and sampling time) using hierarchical clustering, nonmetric multidimensional scaling, and hierarchical partitioning methods. Urban land use contributed to increased ion concentrations and loads year‐round. This study highlights how stormwater ion concentrations are elevated across seasons, indicating chronic pollution phenomena. The greatest loads occurred during summer (except for Na and Cl), while the highest variation in loads was observed in autumn. Significant clusters among ions were found in the hierarchical cluster analysis, suggesting similar temporal patterns and sources for the ions in each cluster. The importance of land use was evident, though in the most urbanized watershed, concentrations were not linked to any of the investigated watershed characteristics. Based on our results, only Na and Cl are manageable by alternative winter road antiskid practices, whereas other ions resulted from diffuse pollution sources, being therefore more difficult to control. Finally, this study contributes to an increased understanding of the temporal and spatial patterns of ions in stormwater and highlights the need for consistent time series data for ion monitoring under cold climatic conditions in order to enable reliable estimates of their loads to adjacent water bodies. Finally, year‐round stormwater treatment is highly recommended.