The Pechora Sea: Past,recent, and future

The main stages in the development of the Pechora Sea are discussed. It is established that, during the high sea level stand corresponding to the warmest epoch of the Mikulino Interglacial, the Pechora Sea represented a more spacious, as compared with its present-day size, basin owing to the flooded valleys of river lower reaches. No sea in its present-day configuration existed during the last (Valdai) glaciation. At that time, the sea could have occupied only a narrow area along the southern coast of Novaya Zemlya, where marine sedimentation was in progress during the Late Pleistocene and Holocene. During the glaciation and postglacial time, the dried bottom of the former Pechora Sea accumulated large volumes of sand that are now concentrated largely in the accretion structures along its southern coast. In the current century, changes will occur mainly in the coastal zone of the Russkii Zavorot Peninsula, Pesyakov Island, the Varandei Settlement area, and the Medynskii Zavorot Peninsula, where a shoreline retreat for a distance of 0.5 km is expected.     

Shallow-Water Gasohydrothermal Vents of Ushishir Volcano and the Ecosystem of Kraternaya Bight (The Kurile Islands)

Abstract. A marine ecosystem in the crater of the Ushishir Volcano (Kraternaya Bight, Yankich Island, the Kuriles) showing gasothcrmal activity was studied for hydrographical, hydrochemical, and biological characteristics. Maximal changes in chemical and biological characteristics were observed in the surface water layer of 0–5 m. This layer had higher water temperature, was saturated with volcanogcnic carbon dioxide (up to 2000 10^-6 torr), ovcrsaturatcd with oxygen (up to 200 %), and contained high concentrations of chlorophyll a. Hydrogen sulfide was found in the surface water layer and at a depth of 15 m in the area of maximal effect of volcanic effluents.
The planktonic community is characterized by high rates of production and destruction of organic matter only in the 0–5 m layer. Daily vertical migrations of the ciliatc Mesodinium rubrum were observed, which caused "red tides".
Bacterial, algobacterial, and diatom mats developed on the bottom of the bight in the zone of gasohydrothermal vents and in areas of volcanic water seeping. The rate of organic matter production in algobacterial mats reached 33.4g C-rrr²-d^-l, chcmolithotrophy predominating. Bottom settlements had high population density and great animal biomass, which reached 10 kg m^-2 in gasohydrothermal fields. They obtain sufficient energy from primary production of microphy-tobenthos, algobacterial, and bacterial mats. Bcnthic species dominant in the bight were not found off the Ushishir Islands.
Some species of macrobenthos inhabiting the Kraternaya Bight differ markedly in size and biomass from the same species found beyond the bight.     

Kinetics of Disproportionation of Inorganic Polysulfides in Undersaturated Aqueous Solutions at Environmentally Relevant Conditions

The rate of the reversible homogeneous disproportionation of polysulfides was studied by following the optical absorbance of polysulfide solutions in a continuous plug flow reactor equipped with an on-line photometric detector. In order to avoid heterogeneous slow reactions involving sulfur colloids or precipitate, the reaction was initiated by an abrupt pH change from an undersaturated solution containing predominantly tetrasulfide species to a pH where pentasulfide is the dominant species. The disproportionation was found to follow first order reversible reaction dynamics. At environmentally relevant conditions the characteristic time of the disproportionation reaction is of the order of 10 s. This characteristic time implies that necessary conditions for speciation of the different polysulfide species by chromatography or another separation and subsequent quantification scheme should be of the order of 1 s.     

末次盛冰期以来全球湿润状况的地质证据──全球古湖泊数据库及其湖水位变化的大尺度时空分析

介绍了正在建设中的全球湖泊数据库的情况，以及该数据库的水位资料所反映的晚更新世末期以来全球湿润状况的变化。通过大尺度湖水位变化的时空分析，结果显示当今湖泊水位状态较历史时期而言，位于低纬干旱或半干旱地区的湖泊水位较低，而中纬及高纬湿润地区的湖泊水位较高。自末次冰盛期以来，北美大陆中南部地区湖泊水位自高至低，反映出该地区气候条件由湿变干，至早、中全新世达最干旱。而在非洲及南亚季风地区，冷期偏干，暖期偏湿。特别是在早、中全新世的温暖时期，为历史上最湿润时期。北半球中纬度地带的气候干湿变化与北半球冰盖的存在及其消融导致的西风带的南北摆动有关；而北半球季风区在早、中全新世出现的高潮面与北半球夏季辐射的增加有密切联系。     

Anaerobic methane oxidation and a deep H2S sink generate isotopically heavy sulfides in Black Sea sediments

The main terminal processes of organic matter mineralization in anoxic Black Sea sediments underlying the sulfidic water column are sulfate reduction in the upper 2-4 m and methanogenesis below the sulfate zone. The modern marine deposits comprise a ca. 1-m-deep layer of coccolith ooze and underlying sapropel, below which sea water ions penetrate deep down into the limnic Pleistocene deposits from >9000 years BP. Sulfate reduction rates have a subsurface maximum at the SO₄²⁻-CH₄ transition where H₂S reaches maximum concentration. Because of an excess of reactive iron in the deep limnic deposits, most of the methane-derived H₂S is drawn downward to a sulfidization front where it reacts with Fe(III) and with Fe²⁺ diffusing up from below. The H₂S-Fe²⁺ transition is marked by a black band of amorphous iron sulfide above which distinct horizons of greigite and pyrite formation occur. The pore water gradients respond dynamically to environmental changes in the Black Sea with relatively short time constants of ca. 500 yr for SO₄²⁻ and 10 yr for H₂S, whereas the FeS in the black band has taken ca. 3000 yr to accumulate. The dual diffusion interfaces of SO₄²⁻-CH₄ and H₂S-Fe²⁺ cause the trapping of isotopically heavy iron sulfide with δ³⁴S = +15 to +33‰ at the sulfidization front. A diffusion model for sulfur isotopes shows that the SO₄²⁻ diffusing downward into the SO₄²⁻-CH₄ transition has an isotopic composition of +19‰, close to the +23‰ of H₂S diffusing upward. These isotopic compositions are, however, very different from the porewater SO₄²⁻ (+43‰) and H₂S (−15‰) at the same depth. The model explains how methane-driven sulfate reduction combined with a deep H₂S sink leads to isotopically heavy pyrite in a sediment open to diffusion. These results have general implications for the marine sulfur cycle and for the interpretation of sulfur isotopic data in modern sediments and in sedimentary rocks throughout earth’s history.     

Paleontological records indicate the occurrence of open woodlands in a dry inland climate at the present-day Arctic coast in western Beringia during the Last Interglacial

Permafrost records, accessible at outcrops along the coast of Oyogos Yar at the Dmitry Laptev Strait, NE-Siberia, provide unique insights into the environmental history of Western Beringia during the Last Interglacial. The remains of terrestrial and freshwater organisms, including plants, coleopterans, chironomids, cladocerans, ostracods and molluscs, have been preserved in the frozen deposits of a shallow paleo-lake and indicate a boreal climate at the present-day arctic mainland coast during the Last Interglacial. Terrestrial beetle and plant remains suggest the former existence of open forest-tundra with larch (Larix dahurica), tree alder (Alnus incana), birch and alder shrubs (Duschekia fruticosa, Betula fruticosa, Betula divaricata, Betula nana), interspersed with patches of steppe and meadows. Consequently, the tree line was shifted to at least 270 km north of its current position. Aquatic organisms, such as chironomids, cladocerans, ostracods, molluscs and hydrophytes, indicate the formation of a shallow lake as the result of thermokarst processes. Steppe plants and beetles suggest low net precipitation. Littoral pioneer plants and chironomids indicate intense lake level fluctuations due to high evaporation. Many of the organisms are thermophilous, indicating a mean air temperature of the warmest month that was greater than 13 °C, which is above the minimum requirements for tree growth. These temperatures are in contrast to the modern values of less than 4 °C in the study area. The terrestrial and freshwater organism remains were found at a coastal exposure that was only 3.5 m above sea level and in a position where they should have been under sea during the Last Interglacial when the global sea level was 6–10 m higher than the current levels. The results suggest that during the last warm stage, the site was inland, and its modern coastal situation is the result of tectonic subsidence.     

The multiple chronological techniques applied to the Lake Suigetsu SG06 sediment core,central Japan

The varved sediment of Lake Suigetsu (central Japan) provides a valuable opportunity to obtain high‐resolution, multi‐proxy palaeoenvironmental data across the last glacial/interglacial cycle. In order to maximize the potential of this archive, a well‐constrained chronology is required. This paper outlines the multiple geochronological techniques being applied – namely varve counting, radiocarbon dating, tephrochronology (including argon–argon dating) and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) – and the approaches by which these techniques are being integrated to form a single, coherent, robust chronology. Importantly, we also describe here the linkage of the floating Lake Suigetsu (SG06) varve chronology and the absolute (IntCal09 tree‐ring) time scale, as derived using radiocarbon data from the uppermost (non‐varved) portion of the core. This tie‐point, defined as a distinct (flood) marker horizon in SG06 (event layer B‐07–08 at 1397.4 cm composite depth), is thus derived to be 11 255 to 11 222 IntCal09 cal. years BP (68.2% probability range).     

On the nonlinear dynamics of the boundary layer of intense atmospheric vortex

The paper describes a stationary model of the boundary layer of a large-scale vortex. The model takes into account two types of nonlinearities: (1) advection of the momentum and centrifugal accelerations, that is related to large values of the Rossby number; (2) a nonlinear turbulent friction on the lower boundary (generally speaking, not only quadratic, but also more complicated). Nevertheless, the model may be studied analytically. This approach allows discovery and analysis of several universal regularities, which are not revealed by numerical modeling. The model provides the actual values for the speed of the surface wind and the angle of cross-isobar surface flow in the tropical cyclones.