Cultivation and human impact at 6000 cal yr B.P. in tropical lowland forest at Niah, Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo

This paper describes palynological evidence for what appears to be comparatively large-scale human impact in the catchment of the Sungai Niah in the wet tropical lowland swamp forests of Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo close to the Great Cave of Niah. Pollen associated with cleared landscapes and rice cultivation is evident in the sedimentary record from before 6000 cal yr B.P. Human activity seems to have been associated with changes in sedimentary regime, with peat-dominated environments being replaced diachronously by clay-dominated deposition. This may reflect anthropogenic soil erosion in the catchment of the Sungai Niah.     

可可西里西段羊湖盆地沉积、构造特征及其动力学意义

对可可西里西段新生代盆地缺乏了解是导致该区新生代地质演化存在争议的重要原因.本文以沉积学和构造变形分析为主要手段,对可可西里西段羊湖盆地时代、充填序列、物源区和变形特征进行了分析,结果表明,羊湖盆地新生界沉积厚度大于1302m,主要由下部雅西错组冲积扇相碎屑岩和上部五道梁群湖泊相碳酸盐岩组成,其岩石组合和充填序列与可可西里东段具有一致性,同时古流向和碎屑锆石U-Pb年代学分析显示盆地物源来南部的羌塘地块,盆地形成演化受南部褶皱冲断带制约,盆地构造变形强烈,沿褶皱冲断带和羊湖盆地地壳分别发生51％和41％的缩短.沉积充填结构和变形特征表明,羊湖盆地与东段可可西里盆地具有相同的演化历史和性质,预示青藏高原中部在渐新世-中新世在存在一个大的、统一的可可西里盆地.     

Spatially discontinuous modern sedimentation in Georgian Bay, Huron Basin, Great Lakes

High-resolution seismic reflection profile data show that the modern sediment cover (over the last 150 years) in Georgian Bay is thin and spatially discontinuous. Sediments rich in ragweed pollen, largely derived from siltation linked to land clearing and European settlement, form a thin, discontinuous veneer on the lakebed. Much of the lakebed consists of exposed sediments deposited during the late glacial or early postglacial. Accumulation rates of modern sediments range from < 0 mm/year (net erosion) to ∼3.2 mm/year, often within a few hundred metres spatially. These rates are much lower than those reported for the main basin of Lake Huron and the other Great Lakes, and are attributed to the low sediment supply. Only a few small rivers flow into Georgian Bay, and most of the basin is surrounded by bedrock of Precambrian gneiss and granite to the east, and Silurian dolostone, limestone and shale to the west. Thick deposits of Pleistocene drift, found on the Georgian Bay shoreline only between Meaford and Port Severn, are the main sediment source for the entire basin at present. Holocene to modern sediments are even absent from some deep basins of Georgian Bay. These findings have implications for the ultimate fate of anthropogenic contaminants in Georgian Bay. While microfossil assemblages in the ragweed-rich sediments record increased eutrophication over the last 150 years, most pollutants generated in the Georgian Bay catchment are not accumulating on the lakebed and are probably exported from the Bay.     

Meteorological Observations 2002 at the Arctic Station,Qeqertarsuaq (69°15'N), Central West Greenland

An automatic meteorological station has been operating at the Arctic Station (69°15'N, 53°31'W) in West Greenland since 1990. This paper summarises meteorological parameters during 2002, including snow cover, ground temperatures and active layer development, and air temperatures at the Station during the last 12 years are compared to large scale trends during the last century.

A compilation of 93 sedimentation rate determinations based on ²¹⁰Pb dating has been carried out for the North Sea-Baltic Sea transition area from a database containing 165 determinations carried out by Danish institutions. In the depositional parts of the area sedimentation rates generally range 25–6403 g m^?2 y^?1. An extreme rate of 13351 g m^?2 y^?1 is observed on a station in the Skagerrak. Sedimentation rates significantly increase with depth indicating that the Skagerrak and northern parts of the Kattegat as well as the deep basins in the Baltic Sea act as depocentres for fine-grained sediments. Apparently, sedimentation rates have increased in recent years.     

Processes affecting deposition of sediment in a small, morphologically complex lake

Devil Lake is morphologically complex as a result of Pleistocene glacial erosion of the Frontenac Axis of the Canadian Shield. In order to assess the processes causing highly variable sedimentation in the lake, we monitored currents, suspended sediment and temperature in the lake before and during autumn overturn in 2002. Strong summer thermal stratification (stability number to 0.11 s^–1 declining with the approach of overturn) was insufficient to prevent a dynamic response in the hypolimnion to wind forcing. Superimposed on a gradual increase in suspended sediment concentration in the last weeks of stratification from less than 2 g/l to about 30 g/l were shorter-term rises lasting up to several days. Associated with these events was an increase in particle size of the sediment from a mode of 40–50 to 150–200 m ascribed to flocculation from primary particles. These events culminated in rapid (<1 h) clearing of the water associated with strong, sustained winds over the lake, especially from the southwest. After overturn, the events were more frequent, and flocculation was unable to develop as well in the more vigorous circulation. However, currents in the hypolimnion occurred throughout the period before, during and after overturn with speed related to wind speed, but direction largely independent of wind direction. The results represent an approach to understanding the nature of sedimentary processes and thus to strengthening the use of sedimentary records as proxy in environmental and paleoenvironmental assessment.     

Sediment origin and budget in Sepetiba Bay (Brazil) - an approach based on multielemental analysis

 Sediment origin and transport were determined in a shallow 447 km² coastal lagoon in Brazil, using the distribution of major elements in bottom and suspended sediments. Applying multivariate analysis, the sum of normalized concentrations of Ti, Fe, and Al in sediments was selected to trace the terrigenous influence in bottom sediments, whereas Ca, Si, and K were used as indicators of marine influence. Sepetiba Bay bottom sediments are dominated by up to 80% terrigenous inputs. The open bay sediments are enriched in P, Mg, K, and Ca because of the intensive water column primary production. The inner bay forms an independent circulation cell with a predominance of terrigenous sediments. The results suggest a long residence time for particles in the bay, demonstrated by the magnitude of resuspension flux compared to the total sediment input to the bay. Received: 29 May 1996 · Accepted: 17 December 1996     

Modern sedimentation and hydrology in Lake Tyrrell,Victoria

Lake Tyrrell is a large ephemeral salt lake, the level of which is controlled by climate and groundwater. Up to a metre of water fills the basin during the wetter and cooler winter season, but evaporates during the summer, precipitating up to 10 cm of halite. Each year essentially the same pool of ions is redissolved by this annual freshening. The small percentage of gypsum precipated (< 2%) in the surface salt crust reflects the low calcium content of the brine which, in turn, is a function of the negligible net discharge of calcium from the groundwater system. The small influx of fine‐grained clastic sediment to the lake floor comes from surface runoff, wind, and reworking of older sediment from the shoreline.

The Lake Tyrrell basin lies in a setting in which three different groundwater types, identified by distinct salinities, interact with surface waters. A refluxing cycle that goes from discharging groundwater at the basin margin, to surface evaporation on the lake floor, to recharge through the floor of the lake, controls the major chemical characteristics of the basin. In this process, salts are leached downward from the lake floor to join a brine pool below the lake. This provides an outlet from the lake, especially under conditions that have been both drier and wetter than those of today. Enhanced discharge occurs under drier conditions, when the enclosing regional groundwater divide is lowered, whereas a rise in lake level increases the hydraulic head over that of the sub‐surface brine and promotes an increase in brine loss from the lake.

Sulphate‐reducing bacteria in a zone of black sulphide‐rich mud beneath the salt crust help prevent gypsum from being incorporated into the recent sedimentary record. However, below the upper 5 to 10 cm zone of bacterial activity, discoidal gypsum is being precipitated within the mud from the groundwater. These crystals have grown by displacing the mud and typically “float” in a clay matrix; in some zones, they form concentrations exceeding 50% of the sediment. The occasional laminae of more prismatic gypsum that occur within the upper metre of mud have crystallised from surface brines. The scarcity of these comparatively pure prismatic‐crystal concentrations probably is a function of unfavourable chemical conditions in the lake brine and of the role that sulphate‐reducing bacteria have played.     

Variability in oceanographic and ecological processes in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago

This paper brings together unpublished historical data sets and published literature to review the role of climatic, oceanographic and ecological processes in the marine ecosystem of the eastern Canadian Archipelago. Physical data include characteristics of the water masses, circulation patterns, sea ice conditions, and climatic records from 1950s onward. Biological data include unpublished data sets on nutrients, primary and secondary production, and sedimentation, which were collected during the 1980–1990s in the eastern Canadian Archipelago. These results show high year-to-year variability in nutrient inventories and ratios, the magnitude of the ice algae and phytoplankton bloom, the timing of ice algae sedimentation in the spring, and the composition of the zooplankton community. The significance of this high interannual variability and its effect on pelagic–benthic coupling processes is discussed in the context of climatic and oceanographic forcing, with emphasis on recent (past decade) Arctic changes. An estimate of total primary production in the Archipelago is also presented, along with published production estimates for other Arctic shelves, showing that the Archipelago may support up to 32% of the total primary production of Arctic shelves. The high year-to-year variability in production and carbon transfer pathways (e.g. pelagic versus benthic) in the Archipelago suggest that the system might be resilient to the increased variability in climatic conditions occurring in the past decade. However, this increased variability combined with directional change in climatic and oceanographic conditions might also modify the existing balance of ecological processes. For example, shifts in the timing of events appear to have already occurred in the past decade, with potential cascading effects throughout the ecosystem.     

基于神经网络的建筑物沉降原因分析

在我们应用回归方法对建筑物沉降原因分析及沉降趋势的预测中，由于实际情况的复杂性及主观认识的局限性，这样所得的结果含有较多的人为因素，可能会与实际情况有所差异。针对这种情况，讨论了应用神经网络方法来发现和验证引起建筑物沉降的因素及对沉降趋势的预测。实例表明，该方法能取得较好的效果。     

Topographic monitoring of a middle estuary mudflat, Humber estuary, UK – Anthropogenic impacts and natural variation

Annual topographic surveys were carried out at the Saltend mudflat (Humber estuary, UK) between 1998 and 2006. These surveys formed part of an ongoing monitoring programme to examine the potential effects on the mudflat topography of the construction and operation of a waste water treatment works (WwTW) development by Yorkshire Water. Of particular concern was the potential disruption to the sedimentological regime within the special protection area (SPA) and candidate special area of conservation (cSAC) which could affect the invertebrate communities and ornithological functioning of the site. In addition to the development of the WwTW located to the extreme north-west of the site, a port extension removing 10 ha of the Saltend intertidal mudflat (outside the SPA but immediately south east of the WwTW) also occurred between 1999 and 2006. Minimal change was noted across the site following the construction and operation of the WwTW between 1998 and 2000. However, the construction of the bund in closer proximity to the SPA and cSAC masked any potential impact the WwTW could have had across the site after 2000. Profiles and contour mapping indicate that significant mudflat accretion occurred in the immediate area of the bund, with a general increase recorded across the western section of the site since 2000. In contrast the alternations to channel planform and subsequent rapid accretion of the mudflat to the east of the jetty, being a significant distance from the developments, are attributed to natural cyclical changes.