Bioenhancement of cadmium transfer along a multi-level food chain

Previous studies have shown that metal partitioned to a subcellular compartment containing trophically available metal (TAM) is readily available to predators and may be enhanced by increased binding of metal to heat-stable proteins (HSP - e.g., metallothioneins). The aim of the current investigation was to determine the influence of TAM on the trophic transfer of Cd along an experimental, three-level food chain: Artemia franciscana (brine shrimp)-->Palaemonetes pugio (grass shrimp)-->Fundulus heteroclitus (mummichog). P. pugio were fed for 7 days on A. franciscana exposed to Cd in solution (including (109)Cd as radiotracer) and subjected to subcellular fractionation or fed to F. heteroclitus. An HSP-driven increase in the percentage of Cd associated with TAM (TAM-Cd%) in A. franciscana exposed to 1 muM Cd resulted in a bioenhancement (i.e., a greater than linear increase with respect to A. franciscana exposure) of Cd trophic transfer to P. pugio. Increased dietary Cd exposure did not affect TAM-Cd% in P. pugio nor trophic transfer to F. heteroclitus.     

High heat flow anomalies on an old oceanic plate observed seaward of the Japan Trench

Thirty-three new measurements on the seaward slope and outer rise of the Japan Trench along a parallel of 38°45′N revealed the existence of high heat flow anomalies on the subducting Pacific plate, where the seafloor age is about 135 m.y.. The most prominent anomaly with the highest value of 114 mW/m² is associated with a small mound on the outer rise, which was reported to be a kind of mud volcano. On the seaward slope of the trench, heat flow is variable: high (70–90 mW/m²) at some locations and normal for the seafloor age (about 50 mW/m²) at others. The spatial variation of heat flow may be related to development of normal faults and horst/graben structures due to bending of the Pacific plate before subduction, with fluid flow along the fault zones enhancing the vertical heat transfer. Possible heat sources of the high heat flow anomalies are intra-plate volcanism in the last several million years like that discovered recently on the Pacific plate east of the Japan Trench.     

Development and installation of bedload monitoring systems with submerged load cells

Bedload governs riverbed channel variations and morphology, it is necessary to determine bedload discharge through an arbitrary cross section in a mountain river. A new system with submerged load cells has been developed to directly measure bedload discharge. The system consists of: (1) an iron box which is 1 m long, 0.5 m wide and 0.1 m in depth, (2) two submerged load cells 0.7 m apart, (3) a pressure sensor and, (4) an electromagnetic velocity meter. This system has been designed to exclude the effect of the hydraulic pressure of water on direct measurements of bedload particle weight. Initial tests in a laboratory were conducted to examine the accuracy of measurements with the system under aerial conditions. The system has been installed in the supercritical flume in Ashi-arai-dani River of the Hodaka Sedimentation Observatory of the Disaster Prevention Research Institute (DPRI) of Kyoto University to obtain bedload discharge under natural conditions. Flume tests were conducted in this channel by artificial supply of uniform sediment particles of several grain sizes. The average velocity of the sediment particles near the bed was estimated using cross-correlation functions for weight waves obtained by the two load cells. Bedload discharge calculations were based on time integration of the product of sediment velocity and sediment weight obtained by the two load cells. This study clarifies the reasons why bedload measurements are difficult, and provides some solutions using the monitoring systems with submerged load cells through the field measurements. Additionally, the applicability of bedload measurement with the submerged load cells is explained based on experimental artificial sediment supply data.     

Relevance of intracellular partitioning of metals in prey to differential metal bioaccumulation among populations of mummichogs (Fundulus heteroclitus)

Intracellular partitioning of trace metals is critical to metal tolerance in aquatic organisms and may also influence metal trophic transfer in ecosystems. In this study, we tested the relevance of metal (Cd, Cu, Pb, and Zn) intracellular partitioning in prey as an indicator of metal trophic availability to benthic forage fish, mummichogs (Fundulus heteroclitus), in chronically metal-polluted salt marshes in New York, USA. Two common prey of mummichogs in the study area, Palaemonetes pugio and Nereis acuminata, generally stored increasingly higher proportions of non-essential metals (particularly Pb) in insoluble (less trophically available) cellular components, as the whole body burdens increased. In contrast, intracellular partitioning of essential metals (Cu and Zn) in invertebrate prey varied relatively little among sites. Differential Cd and Pb intracellular partitioning patterns within P. pugio among sites were significantly associated with Cd and Pb whole body burdens in mummichogs, respectively (i.e., prey-driven bioreduction of metals), while bioaccumulation of Cu and Zn in mummichogs was similar among populations. The findings in this study suggest that metal intracellular partitioning within prey may be partially responsible for metal trophic availability to a predator in metal-polluted habitats, while there was also evidence that some predator-dependent processes may offset differential trophic availabilities from prey.     

Chemical gradient at diffusive interfaces in magma chambers

The results of high pressure experiments on diffusion and Soret separation in natural silicate melts show that the diffusive behaviour between natural silicic and mafic magmas can be approximately modelled as if the system were a binary mixture of SiO₂ and other components such as MgO+FeO+CaO. Steady state compositional profiles across a diffusive interface between silicic and mafic magma layers are calculated on the basis of phenomenological relationships for the fluxes of chemical species and heat in the binary mixtures, using the experimental data of diffusion and Soret coefficients in natural silicate melts. The compositional profiles show a curvature with a minimum SiO₂ value within the interface due to the Soret effect and temperature dependence of diffusion coefficient. The compositional gradient at the lower half of the diffusive interface is similar to that resulting from the Soret separation of a mafic melt regardless of the composition of the silicic magmas. These results suggest that picritic magma can be formed in the interfacial region between the mafic and silicic magma layers. The compositional gradient explains chemical variation of mafic to picritic inclusions in a mixed andesite of the Abu Volcano Group, Japan.     

Measured elastic moduli of single-crystal MgO up to 1800 K

Using the rectangular parallelepiped resonance method we measured the temperature dependence of the adiabatic elastic moduli of single-crystal MgO over the temperature range 300–1800 K. The high temperature limit of our measurements extends by 500 K the upper limit over which elasticity data on MgO are now available. Although our measured temperature dependence of C _ij ^s are generally in good agreement with previous measurements over a more narrow range in temperature, we found that C ₄₄ ^s decreases more rapidly with temperature, for T > 1000 K, than previous studies suggest. We also found that each of the slopes (?C ₁₁ ^s /?T)_p, (?K_s/?T)_p, and (C ₄₄ ^s /?T)_p become less negative with increasing temperature for T > 1400 K. From our measurements on elasticity we are able to confirm that the Grüneisen parameter at zero pressure is nearly constant with temperature up to 1800 K, with only a slight decrease above 1000 K. Utilizing our new data we present calculations showing the temperature dependence of thermodynamic parameters important in studies of earth's interior.     

Life-time of a stratified magma chamber recorded in ultramafic xenoliths from Ichinomegata volcano,northeastern Japan

Variations in major-element chemistry and modal compositions of the mantle xenolith-bearing calc-alkalic ejecta from Ichinomegata volcano are inferred to be due to mixing of three magmatic end members: Basalt I (SiO₂ 51 wt% , MgO 8.5 wt%), Basalt II (SiO₂ 54 wt%, MgO 5 wt%), and Dacite (SiO₂ 65 wt%, MgO₂ wt%). Ultramafic xenoliths are found in mafic mixtures of Dacite-Basalt I and Dacite-Basalt II. The thermal histories of the xenoliths in both mixtures are compared with each other. Chemical compositions of olivine and orthopyroxene in xenoliths suggest that xenoliths in Basalt I were equilibrated at about 800 °C, while those in Basalt II were also equilibrated originally at about 800 °C but were subsequently annealed at about 1000 °C for more than 10^2–3 years prior to the eruption.The chemical composition of Basalt I indicates that it can coexist with upper mantle peridotite and it is an appropriate candidate for a carrier of ultramafic xenoliths from the upper mantle. On the other hand, Basalt II is fractionated and it cannot be directly derived from the upper mantle. Two pulses of xenolith-bearing basalt injection into a dacite magma chamber are inferred to have occurred. The first injection did not lead to eruption and subsequently formed a dacite/basalt stratified magma chamber. In the lower layer, the basalt was slightly differentiated to become Basalt II and ultramafic xenoliths carried by the first pulse were annealed at the bottom of the layer. The duration of the annealing of the xenoliths implies a minimum life-time of the Dacite-Basalt II stratification in the magma chamber beneath Ichinomegata of 10^2–3 years. The second injection of the xenolith-bearing basalt (Basalt I) was immediately followed by eruption, and all the magmas were effused with mixing in a conduit. Consequently, the ultramafic xenoliths carried by the second pulse are not annealed.     

An experimental study on the effects of phenocrysts on convection in magmas

The effect of phenocrysts on convection in magma chambers is investigated experimentally using small heavy particles in convecting fluids. The particles are initially uniformly distributed in a fluid which is either heated from below or cooled from above. The system is allowed to evolve, and temperature and particle concentration profiles are measured as functions of time. When the concentration of particles is sufficiently small, convection is basically unaffected by their presence. When the concentration is above a critical value, however, the convective motion is considerably altered. The effect of particles on the subsequent fluid behaviour is different in the cases of heating from below and cooling from above. In the former case, there are strong convective motions confined to a sedimentary layer of decreasing thickness beneath a clear layer which displays rather weak convective motions. With time, the destabilizing increase of temperature in the lower layer overcomes the stabilizing contribution to the bulk density due to the particles and the layer overturns quite suddenly. In the situation of cooling from above, a critical condition separates a case of continual overturn from a case of no overturn at all, with the sedimentary layer falling unimpeded to the bottom. Theoretical analysis suggests that the critical value is determined primarily by the ratio of the contribution to the bulk density of the suspension due to particles to the change in fluid density due to the thermal effect. The size distribution of the particles can also modify the fluid behaviour. Applying our general results to geological situations, we suggest that the presence of relatively small concentrations of phenocrysts can critically influence the mode of convection in magmas.     

Empirical shear wave velocity equations in terms of characteristic soil indexes

An investigation to systematize empirical equations for the shear wave velocity of soils was made in terms of four characteristic indexes. The adopted indexes are the N-value of the Standard Penetration Test, depth where the soil is situated, geological epoch and soil type. As some of these indexes are variates belonging to interval scales while others belong to nominal or ordinal scales, the technique known as a multivariate analysis cannot be employed. A new approach to the theory of quantification, after C. Hayashi, was introduced and developed for solving this difficulty. Fifteen sets of empirical equations to estimate low strain shear wave velocity theoretically may be obtained by combining the above four indexes. All of these sets were derived by use of about 300 data, and their accuracies were evaluated by means of correlation coefficients between the measured and estimated shear wave velocities. The best equation was found to be the one which included all the indexes, and its correlation coefficient was 0.86. The empirical equation relating the standard penetration N-value to the shear wave velocity provided a correlation of only 0.72, and is one of the lowest ranking among the 15 sets of equations.     

Absorption spectra of Cr3+ in Al2O3 under shock compression

Unpolarized absorption spectra of single crystals of Cr³⁺ doped Al₂O₃ (synthetic ruby) have measured using a new, time-resolving, dispersive, streak photographic system over the range ～350 to ～700 nm during a series of shock loading experiments. The crystal field absorptions assigned to the transition ⁴ A _2g→⁴ T _2g were observed to shift in a series of experiments from 555±1 nm at atmospheric pressure to 503±5 nm at 46 GPa. In a single experiment at 32 GPa the ⁴ A _2g→⁴ T _1g transition was observed to shift from 405±1 to 386±5 nm. The present data extrapolate downwards in compression toward the 10 GPa data of Stephens and Drickamer (1961) although both crystal field absorption energies increase considerably less with compression than predicted by the simple ionic point charge model. The single datum observed for the Racah parameter B, 588±38 cm^?1 at 32 GPa, is consistant with previous results to 10 GPa and the trend of decreasing B, with compression expected from the divergence of the data from the point charge model due to increasing covalancy.