The overlooked role of the ocean in mercury cycling in the Arctic

The rapid and high bioaccumulation of mercury in marine mammals and its spatial and temporal variations have been a major puzzle in the Arctic. While extensive efforts have been focussed on the monitoring and chemistry of atmospheric mercury depletion events, a recent mass budget estimate of mercury in the Arctic suggests that we have overlooked the role of the ocean itself. Only through focussed studies on Hg dynamics in the Arctic Ocean under a changing climate are we going to understand what the risk of mercury is to those marine ecosystems and the people who rely on them.     

海区前新生代残留盆地油气研究的综合地球物理技术

我国前新生代残留盆地油气资源的巨大潜力已为近年的一些勘探实践所证实,但是仍面临许多技术难题.本文介绍了近年在863计划支持下,针对残留盆地油气勘探难题所研究的一些方法与技术.其中包括针对我国海区残留盆地勘探目标的地震采集技术、基于弯曲射线的复杂构造叠前成像技术和残留盆地残余厚度提取技术等.这些技术已在我国海域进行了试验并取得了一定的成效.     

Characteristics and genetic mechanism of deep-buried clastic eureservoir in China

Systematic researches to the clastic reservoirs in various types and various geological ages basins in China indicate that the present burial depth of deep buried clastic eureservoir ranges from 3000 to 6000 m,and its geological ages from Paleozoic,Mesozoic to Cenozoic. It mainly deposited in delta (including braid delta,fan delta,normal delta),river,also shore,shallow lake,gravity flow channel and turbidity fan facies. The quartzose sandstone is the main reservoir rock of deep-buried clastic eureservoir in the shore facies in Paleozoic,but the arenite and arkose sandstones are the main reservoir rock types in delta,river,shallow lake and gravity flow facies in Mesozoic and Cenozoic. The porosity of most of deep-buried clastic eureservoir is more than 10% and permeability more than 10×10?3 μm2. The forma-tion of the deep-buried eureservoir was related to the paleotectonics,paleotemperature,sedimentary environment,the deep dissolution caused by organic acid or carbonic acid,burial style,the abnormal high pore fluid pressure,early hydrocarbon charging,gyprock sealing,hot convective fluid flow and the mode of sand-mud interbedded,etc. The paleotectonics controls the burial style of sandstones,and the paleotemperature controls the diagenesis process. The sedimentary environment is the precondi-tion and foundation,the dissolution is the direct reason to generate the deep buried clastic eureservoir. The abnormal high pore fluid pressure,gyprock sealing,the mode of sand-mud interbedded,early hy-drocarbon charging and the structure fractures were the assistant factors of generating the deep buried clastic eureservoir.     

水泥土搅拌桩桩身质量的电阻率分析

通过对某高速公路软基处理试验段水泥土搅拌桩芯样强度与电阻率指标的分析发现,水泥土搅拌桩的桩身质量与其施工工艺密切相关;在特定的施工工艺条件下,水泥掺入比与搅拌均匀性是影响桩身质量的2个重要因素;在相同深度处,桩身水泥土芯样的竖向电阻率高于其水平向电阻率;桩身水泥土芯样的电阻率与其无侧限抗压强度之间存在着很好的线性相关关系;水泥体芯样水平向电阻率的标准差在一定程度上反映了水泥掺入量和搅拌均匀性。综上所述,利用水泥土的电阻率及其相关指标对大规模施工条件下水泥土搅拌桩的桩身质量进行定量分析是一种经济、无损、简便和科学的方法。     

深基坑双排桩支护结构上的变形和土压力研究

根据某大型深基坑工程的实测资料,对双排桩支护结构上的截面弯矩、变形和土压力分布特征进行了研究,并对基坑开挖的空间效应、冠梁刚度对土压力的影响、支护结构变形与土压力分布的关系、双排桩支护结构与土的相互作用机制等进行分析。研究表明,深基坑双排桩支护结构上的土压力分布是十分复杂的,用传统的土压力计算方法估算双排桩支护结构上的土压力存在较大偏差。其研究结果为双排桩支护结构上土压力设计计算模式的建立提供了依据。     

A 2000 year varve-based climate record from the central Brooks Range,Alaska

Varved minerogenic sediments from glacial-fed Blue Lake, northern Alaska, are used to investigate late Holocene climate variability. Varve-thickness measurements track summer temperature recorded at Atigun Pass, located 41 km east at a similar elevation (r ² = 0.31, P = 0.08). Results indicate that climate in the Brooks Range from 10 to 730 AD (varve year) was warm with precipitation inferred to be higher than during the twentieth century. The varve-temperature relationship for this period was likely compromised and not used in our temperature reconstruction because the glacier was greatly reduced, or absent, exposing sub-glacial sediments to erosion from enhanced precipitation. Varve-inferred summer temperatures and precipitation decreased after 730 AD, averaging 0.4°C above the last millennial average (LMA = 4.2°C) from 730 to 850 AD, and 0.1°C above the LMA from 850 to 980 AD. Cooling culminated between 980 and 1030 AD with temperatures 0.7°C below the LMA. Varve-inferred summer temperatures increased between 1030 and 1620 AD to the LMA, though the period between 1260 and 1350 AD was 0.2°C below the LMA. Although there is no equivalent to the European Medieval Warm Period in the Blue Lake record, two warm intervals occurred from 1350 to 1450 AD and 1500 to 1620 AD (0.4 and 0.3°C above the LMA, respectively). During the Little Ice Age (LIA; 1620 to 1880 AD), inferred summer temperature averaged 0.2°C below the LMA. After 1880 AD, inferred summer temperature increased to 0.8°C above the LMA, glaciers retreated, but aridity persisted based on a number of regional paleoclimate records. Despite warming and glacial retreat, varve thicknesses have not achieved pre-730 AD levels. This reflects limited sediment availability and transport due to a less extensive retreat compared to the first millennium, and continued relative aridity. Overall, the Blue Lake record is similar to varve records from the eastern Canadian Arctic that document a cool LIA and twentieth century warming. However, the occurrence and timing of events, such as the LIA and Medieval Warm Period, varies considerably among records, suggesting heterogeneous climatic patterns across the North American Arctic.

Paleolimnological evidence of the response of the central Canadian treeline zone to radiative forcing and hemispheric patterns of temperature change over the past 2000 years

Instrumental climate records from the central Canadian treeline zone display a pattern of variation similar to general Northern Hemisphere temperature trends. To examine whether this general correspondence extends back beyond the instrumental record, we obtained a sediment core from Lake S41, a small lake in the Northwest Territories of Canada at 63°43.11′ N, 109°19.07′ W. A radiocarbon-based chronology was developed for the core. The sediments were analyzed for organic-matter content by loss-on-ignition (LOI), biogenic-silica content (BSi), and chironomid community composition to reconstruct July air temperature and summer water temperature. The paleolimnological records were compared with records of atmospheric CO₂ concentration, solar variability, and hemispheric temperature variations over the past 2000 years. The results of the analyses suggest that widely-documented long-term variations in Northern Hemisphere temperature associated with radiative forcing, namely the cooling following the medieval period during the Little Ice Age (LIA), and twentieth century warming, are represented in the central Canadian treeline zone. There is also evidence of a brief episode of warming during the eighteenth century. As evidenced by LOI and BSi, the twentieth century warming is typified by increased lake productivity relative to the LIA. Depending upon the measure, the increased productivity of the twentieth century nearly equals or exceeds that of any other period in the past 2000 years. In contrast, the rate of chironomid head capsule accumulation decreased and remained low during the twentieth century. Although the chironomid-inferred temperature reconstructions indicate cooling during the LIA, they present no evidence of greatly increased temperatures during the twentieth century. Warming during the twentieth century might have enhanced lake stratification, and the response of the chironomid fauna to warming was attenuated by decreased oxygen and lower temperatures in the hypolimnion of the more stratification-prone lake.

Sedimentary pellets as an ice-cover proxy in a High Arctic ice-covered lake

Sediment aggregates (“sedimentary pellets”) within the sedimentary record of Lake A (83°00′ N, 75°30′ W), Ellesmere Island, Canada, are used to construct a 1000 year proxy record of ice-cover extent and dynamics on this perennially ice-covered, High Arctic lake. These pellets are interpreted to form during fall or early winter when littoral sediment adheres to ice forming around the lake’s periphery or during summer through the development of anchor ice. The sediment likely collects in ice interstices and is concentrated in the upper ice layers through summer surface ice melt and winter basal ice growth. The pellets remain frozen in the ice until a summer or series of summers with reduced ice cover allows for their deposition across the lake basin. Sedimentary pellet frequency within multiple sediment cores is used to develop a chronology of ice-cover fluctuations. This proxy ice-cover record is largely corroborated by a record of unusual sedimentation in Lake A involving iron-rich, dark-orange to red laminae overlying more diffuse laminae with a lighter hue. This sediment sequence is hypothesized to represent years with reduced ice cover through increased chemocline ventilation and iron deposition. During the past millennium, the most notable period of inferred reduced ice cover is ca. 1891 AD to present. Another period of ice cover mobility is suggested ca. 1582–1774 AD, while persistent ice cover is inferred during the 1800s and prior to 1582 AD. The proxy ice-cover record corresponds well with most regional melt-season proxy temperature and paleoecological records, especially during the 1800s and 1900s.

北冰洋西部楚科奇海盆晚第四纪生源沉积物及其古海洋学意义

通过北冰洋西部楚科奇海盆M03孔晚第四纪以来生源沉积物,有孔虫丰度和冰筏碎屑(Ice．Rafted Detritus,IRD)的综合研究表明,海洋氧同位素(Marine Isotope Stage,MIS)7期以来,碳酸钙(CaCO )含量和浮游有孔虫丰度在间冰期的增加和冰期的降低,分别指示大西洋水输入的加强和减弱。而有机碳(TOC)和生源蛋白石(Biogenic Opa1)含量的变化可能主要与输入到海底的TOC降解和Opal溶解作用与底层水中的溶解氧有关。间冰期低的TOC和Opal含量可能反映楚
科奇海盆海冰覆盖减少,营养盐供给多,表层生产力增加,通气作用好,底层水富氧,降解和溶解作用增强,保存在沉积物中的TOC和Opal减少;而冰期相对高的TOC和Opal含量可能反映楚科奇海盆海冰覆盖时间较长,营养盐供给少,表层生产力较低,通气作用差,底层水少氧,降解和溶解作用减弱,保存在沉积物中的TOC和Opal增多。     

Hydrodynamics and sediment dynamics in the German Bight. A focus on observations and numerical modelling in the East Frisian Wadden Sea

This work deals with analysis of hydrographic observations and results of numerical simulations. The data base includes acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCP) observations, continuous measurements on data stations and satellite data originating from the medium resolution imaging spectrometer (MERIS) onboard the European Space Agency (ESA) satellite ENVISAT with a spatial resolution of 300 m. Numerical simulations use nested models with horizontal resolutions ranging from 1 km in the German Bight to 200 m in the East Frisian Wadden Sea coupled with a suspended matter transport model. Modern satellite observations have now a comparable horizontal resolution with high-resolution numerical model of the entire area of the East Frisian Wadden Sea allowing to describe and validate new and so far unknown patterns of sediment distribution. The two data sets are consistent and reveal an oscillatory behaviour of sediment pools to the north of the back-barrier basins and clear propagation patterns of tidally driven suspended particulate matter outflow into the North Sea. The good agreement between observations and simulations is convincing evidence that the model simulates the basic dynamics and sediment transport processes, which motivates its further use in hindcasting, as well as in the initial steps towards forecasting circulation and sediment dynamics in the coastal zone.