The role of biophysical interactions within the ijzermonding tidal flat sediment dynamics

This paper focuses on the importance of biophysical interactions on short-term and long-term sediment dynamics. Therefore, various biological (macrobenthos, photopigments, colloidal EPS) and physical parameters (grain size, water content, sediment stability, bed level) were determined (bi)monthly in nine sampling plots on the IJzermonding tidal flat (Belgium, 51°08′N, 2°44′E) during three consecutive years (July 2005–June 2008). Results showed that sediment stability varied on the short timescale and was directly influenced by biota, while bed level varied mainly on the long-term due to interannual variability. The short-term dynamic relationships between mud content, water content, fucoxanthin and macrobenthos density resulted in a seasonal mud deposition and erosion cycle, and directly influenced sediment stability. Moreover, macrobenthos was proven to be the most important parameter determining sediment stability. On the long-term, a shift was observed from high fucoxanthin/chla concentration, high mud content and zero to moderate densities of Corophium volutator towards low fucoxanthin/chl a and mud content and high Corophium densities, which resulted in a transition from net accretion to net erosion. However, most measured variables proved to be poor predictors for these long-term bed level changes, indicating that external physical forces, such as waves and storminess, probably were the most important factors triggering long-term sediment dynamics. Nevertheless, biota indirectly influenced bed level changes by mediating short-term changes in sediment stability, thereby influencing the erodability of the sediment. The macrobenthos, and especially the mud shrimp Corophium, was suggested as the (indirect) driving destabilising factor for the sampling plots in the IIzermonding when considering the long-term evolution.     

Messung der atmosphärischen Gegenstrahlung und Wasserdampfabsorption auf der Hochalpinen Forschungsstation Jungfraujoch

Zusammenfassung Zur Messung der atmosphärischen Gegenstrahlung im Spektralbereich von 7,5 bis 26 bei geringem Wasserdampfgehalt der Atmosphäre wurde ein Gitterspektrograph auf der Hochalpinen Forschungsstation Jungfraujoch eingesetzt. Gleichzeitig wurde der totale Wasserdampfgehalt der Atmosphäre optisch kontrolliert. Hierzu wurde ein Interferenzfilter-Aktinograph verwendet, der die Absorption der Sonnenstrahlung in der 1,38 -Wasserdampfbande mißt. Die Geräte werden beschrieben und die Eichverfahren erläutert. Als erste Ergebnisse werden einige Emissionsspektren und Tagesgänge des totalen Wasserdampfgehaltes gezeigt.Summary For measuring the atmospheric radiation within the spectral region from 7,5 to 26 at small amounts of precipitable water, a grating spectrometer was put into action at the Hochalpine Forschungsstation Jungfraujoch. At the same time the amount of precipitable water was optically controlled by means of an interference filter actinograph, which measures the absorption of sun radiation within the 1,38 -water vapour band. The equipment and its calibration is described. As first results some emission-spectra and diurnal variations of precipitable water are given.

---

Résumé Un spectrographe à réseau a été utilisé à la station de recherches alpines du Jungfraujoch pour mesurer le rayonnement atmosphérique dans la bande spectrale située entre 7,5 et 26 de longueur d'ondes pour une faible concentration en vapeur d'eau de l'atmosphère. On a contrôlé simultanément, par procédé optique, la teneur totale en vapeur d'eau de l'atmosphère. Pour ce faire, on s'est servi d'un actinographe muni d'un filtre à interférences qui mesure l'absorption du rayonnement solaire dans la bande de 1,38 (vapeur d'eau). Les appareils sont décrits ici ainsi que la méthode d'étalonnage qui s'y rapporte. Comme premiers résultats, on présente quelques spectres d'émission ainsi que des courbes diurnes de la teneur totale de l'atmosphère en vapeur d'eau.

---

---

Mit 6 Textabbildungen

---

Vortrag, gehalten auf der meteorologischen Tagung in Rauris, Österreich, 7. bis 9. September 1961.Die Untersuchungen wurden mit Unterstützung der Cambridge Research Laboratories, OAR, durch das European Office, Aerospace Research, United States Air Force, durchgeführt.     

Recruitment variability in dab (Limanda limanda) in the southeastern North Sea

Data from three annual surveys, covering inshore and offshore waters of the southeastern North Sea, were analysed to study recruitment variability in dab (Limanda limanda) over the period 1978–1997. Geometric mean abundance of 0- to 5-group dab was estimated using general linear models. Juvenile dab (0- and 1-group) were found over the entire area, from inside the estuaries to 50 m depth offshore. Environmental conditions (water temperature, wind stress, turbidity) affected the catch rates. The potential errors in the estimates of year-class strength, caused by differences in catchability, are discussed. The inter-annual pattern of year-class strength appeared to be established between ages 1 and 2, suggesting that factors determining recruitment are not restricted to the pelagic early life phase only, but also operate during the demersal juvenile phase. Recruitment variability at age 2 was in the order of 50–60% and appears to be equal to, or lower than, recruitment variability in plaice and sole. These results contradict expectations based on the concentration hypothesis, which states that the degree of variation in recruitment is inversely related to the degree of concentration during early life phases.     

A search for shocked quartz grains in the Allerød‐Younger Dryas boundary layer

The Younger Dryas impact hypothesis suggests that multiple airbursts or extraterrestrial impacts occurring at the end of the Allerød interstadial resulted in the Younger Dryas cold period. So far, no reproducible, diagnostic evidence has, however, been reported. Quartz grains containing planar deformation features (known as shocked quartz grains), are considered a reliable indicator for the occurrence of an extraterrestrial impact when found in a geological setting. Although alleged shocked quartz grains have been reported at a possible Allerød‐Younger Dryas boundary layer in Venezuela, the identification of shocked quartz in this layer is ambiguous. To test whether shocked quartz is indeed present in the proposed impact layer, we investigated the quartz fraction of multiple Allerød‐Younger Dryas boundary layers from Europe and North America, where proposed impact markers have been reported. Grains were analyzed using a combination of light and electron microscopy techniques. All samples contained a variable amount of quartz grains with (sub)planar microstructures, often tectonic deformation lamellae. A total of one quartz grain containing planar deformation features was found in our samples. This shocked quartz grain comes from the Usselo palaeosol at Geldrop Aalsterhut, the Netherlands. Scanning electron microscopy cathodoluminescence imaging and transmission electron microscopy imaging, however, show that the planar deformation features in this grain are healed and thus likely to be older than the Allerød‐Younger Dryas boundary. We suggest that this grain was possibly eroded from an older crater or distal ejecta layer and later redeposited in the European sandbelt. The single shocked quartz grain at this moment thus cannot be used to support the Younger Dryas impact hypothesis.     

The influence of changes in tidal asymmetry on residual sediment transport in the Western Scheldt

This study fits into a wider research program from RWS RIKZ concerning the exchange of sediment between the coast and the tidal basins, Western Scheldt and Wadden Sea, which are the largest basins along the Dutch Coast, over different time-scales. For both basins, questions about the evolution of the import/export at the mouth recently arose. In case of the Western Scheldt, which is the subject of this study, mainly the uncertainty about the future developments after the change from import to export at the mouth was noticed in the 1990s, which necessitated a more detailed study of this area.     

Buchbesprechungen

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

The Apophysis of the Bjerkreim–Sokndal layered intrusion (Rogaland anorthosite province, SW Norway): A composite pluton build up by tectonically-driven emplacement of magmas along the margin of an AMC igneous complex

The Late-Proterozoic Bjerkreim–Sokndal layered intrusion (BKSK) is connected to a foliated, sheet-like igneous body (the Apophysis), that is a potential feeder for the BKSK magma chamber. Field, petrographical, geochemical and structural data are used to demonstrate that the Apophysis is a composite igneous body, constructed by coeval mafic to felsic magmas that were collected in a sub-vertical shear zone. Three liquid lines of descent are distinguished in the main Apophysis component (a felsic series, predominantly quartz mangeritic) and in coeval felsic rocks from the upper part of the BKSK. Minor mineralogical and geochemical discrepancies between these three trends are indicative of distinct sources and crustal contaminants, as well as slight differences in the differentiation mechanisms. Jotunitic to noritic cumulates or crystal-laden magmas, associated with their trapped melts, mingled with the felsic series in two distinct portions of the Apophysis. In one area, this association is dominated by a FTP (Fe–Ti–P-rich) jotunite, interpreted as an accumulation of pyroxenes + Fe – Ti oxides + apatite + plagioclase. In the second area, the melt dominates over the associated cumulate; it is a primitive (MgO-rich and K₂O-poor) jotunite, that was also involved in the genesis of another igneous body in the vicinity of the Apophysis. Magma mixing, in addition to mingling, was also potentially important in the petrogenesis of some jotunite rocks.     

Ecology and fluvial dynamics of an Early Holocene medium‐sized European lowland river valley (Upper Scheldt,northern Belgium)

The fluvial environment of Early Holocene small‐ to middle‐sized lowland rivers in northwest Europe is mostly unstudied due to a lack of preserved and accessible deposits. A rescue excavation in the Scheldt valley in northern Belgium offered the opportunity to study a Boreal alluvial succession in detail. The results of palaeoecological and sedimentological analyses (diatoms, pollen, botanical macro‐remains, molluscs, grain size) characterize the biotic and physical environment in the middle reach of this medium‐sized river system. Although the Early Holocene in the Scheldt Basin has often been portrayed as a period of fluvial stability with marshy conditions and diffuse discharge, this study showed evidence of point bar formation by a small, low‐energy meandering river between ~9.5 and ~8.8 cal. ka BP. The point bar was at least temporarily vegetated and shows a shift from herbaceous riparian vegetation to an open willow‐dominated alluvial forest. This evidence points to a more open vegetation and a more energetic environment than traditionally described for rivers of this size and age. A link to the 9.3 ka BP cooling event is suggested and possible reasons for the scarcity of records of this type of deposits are discussed.     

Optimal Mars transfers for small payload transportation

Interplanetary transfers represent one of the most interesting themes of astrodynamics, because of its complexity and outcomes for human exploration of the Solar System. A wide number of works concerning different aspects of the interplanetary mission have been developed. The examination of these works leads to the conclusion that, by far, there is not a preferential propulsion system or an optimal trajectory to perform an interplanetary mission, but a precise kind of transfer according to a given mission profile. Here, minimum time trajectories to Mars for small payload transportation with different electric propulsion systems have been analyzed; results have been obtained considering the initial impulse given by the Ariane 5 upper stage. Additionally, an adaptative, multiple shooting optimization algorithm is proposed to solve the problem of optimality in interplanetary transfers with a low continuous thrust. The algorithm searches for the optimal set of initial Lagrange multipliers solving the two point problem by adapting the search intervals according to the unsmooth shape of the augmented cost function.