Dwarf elliptical galaxies

Dwarf elliptical (dE) galaxies, with blue absolute magnitudes typically fainter than _MB =?16, are the most numerous type of galaxy in the nearby universe. Tremendous advances have been made over the past several years in delineating the properties of both Local Group satellite dE's and the large dE populations of nearby clusters. We review some of these advances, with particular attention to how well currently available data can constrain

1. models for the formation of dE's
2. the physical and evolutionary connections between different types of galaxies (nucleated and nonnucleated dE's, compact E's, irregulars, and blue compact dwarfs) that overlap in the same portion of the mass-spectrum of galaxies
3. the contribution of dE's to the galaxy luminosity functions in clusters and the field
4. the star-forming histories of dE's and their possible contribution to faint galaxy counts, and
5. the clustering properties of dE's.

In addressing these issues, we highlight the extent to which selection effects temper these constraints, and outline areas where new data would be particularly valuable.     

Dissolved silica budget in the North basin of Lake Lugano

We studied the dissolved silica cycle in the water column of the North basin of Lake Lugano, Switzerland/Italy. Lake Lugano is a meromictic, eutrophic lake, permanently stratified below 100-m depth. A one-box model was used to calculate a silica mass-balance over 1993, based on various lake measurements, such as sediment traps, sediment cores, water analysis and biota countings. We found that the North basin of Lake Lugano is at steady state as far as dissolved silica is concerned. The primary source of dissolved silica in the lake is river input (about 80%), with diffusion from bottom sediments and groundwater input also playing a role. Atmospheric input is negligible. The main export of dissolved silica occurs via biogenic uptake by diatoms and final burial of their frustules in the bottom sediment. Loss of dissolved silica through the lake outflow only represents 15% of the total output. Of the total amount of Si exported to the lake bottom through diatom sinking, less than 20% is re-supplied to the surface water by diffusion. Thus, the lake acts as an important permanent sink for silica. The long residence time of dissolved silica in the lake (7 years) is related to the strong physical stratification of the lake. Only about 10% of the standing stock are available to phytoplankton uptake.     

Characterisation of the Dabla Granitoids, North Khetri Copper Belt, Rajasthan, India: Evidence of Bimodal Anorogenic Felsic Magmatism

The Palaeoproterozoic Dabla granitoid pluton of the North Khetri Copper Belt is located to the east of a NNE-SSW trending lineament with numerous albite-rich intrusives, the intraplate ‘albitite line’. The Dabla pluton is essentially made up of calcic amphibole-bearing granitoids, displaying a concentric bimodal distribution of alkali-feldspar granites, comprising a microcline-albite granite and an albite-granite. The dominant rock type is pink-coloured granite, which is characterised by quartz, microcline, albite and hastingsitic hornblende, and occurs in the marginal parts of the pluton. The volumetrically subordinate albite-granite in the central part of the pluton is invariably white in colour, non-foliated and is mainly composed of quartz, albite and amphibole of actinolite to ferro-actinolite composition. The albite-granite is characterised by low K₂O (0.06-0.09%), Rb (<5 ppm) and Ba (<20 ppm), high Na₂O (7.19-7.36%) and high Na/K ratios (122.4-185.2) as compared to the granite. These rocks are not subjected to any metamorphic overprint, especially the albite-granite, which shows pristine abundances of major and trace elements. The rocks are highly evolved as reflected in their high SiO₂ (72 to 78%) contents and high DI (89.5-97) values. The Dabla granitoids are characterised by similar REE and spider patterns, displaying LREE enriched slopes, flat HREE profiles and strong negative Sr, P, Ti and Eu anomalies suggesting their comagmatic nature. Nevertheless, the granite is relatively more fractionated [(La/Yb)_N = 3.89-8.19] and show higher REE abundances (466-673 ppm) as compared to the albite-granite [(La/Yb)_N = 1.97-2.96; REE = 220-277 ppm]. Distinctive features of these rocks are their low Ca (0.21-1.53%), Mg (<0.02-0.19%), Al (11.84-12.96%) and Sr (12-46 ppm) abundances, high Zr (155-631 ppm), Y (67-156 ppm), Nb (14-91 ppm), and Ga (20-31 ppm) concentrations and high Fe*-number, high Ga/Al ratio and high agpaitic index (AI) values. These features, coupled with their ferroan, alkaline and metaluminous nature, are typical of within-plate aluminous A-type granites. The geochemical data further indicate that the Dabla magma was generated at fairly high temperature, apparently in an upper mantle region, under relatively low H₂O activities and reduced conditions and emplaced at a shallow depth in an extensional tectonic environment.     

The electrical structure of the Slave craton

The Slave craton in northwestern Canada, a relatively small Archean craton (600×400 km), is ideal as a natural laboratory for investigating the formation and evolution of Mesoarchean and Neoarchean sub-continental lithospheric mantle (SCLM). Excellent outcrop and the discovery of economic diamondiferous kimberlite pipes in the centre of the craton during the early 1990s have led to an unparalleled amount of geoscientific information becoming available.

Over the last 5 years deep-probing electromagnetic surveys were conducted on the Slave, using the natural-source magnetotelluric (MT) technique, as part of a variety of programs to study the craton and determine its regional-scale electrical structure. Two of the four types of surveys involved novel MT data acquisition; one through frozen lakes along ice roads during winter, and the second using ocean-bottom MT instrumentation deployed from float planes.

The primary initial objective of the MT surveys was to determine the geometry of the topography of the lithosphere–asthenosphere boundary (LAB) across the Slave craton. However, the MT responses revealed, completely serendipitously, a remarkable anomaly in electrical conductivity in the SCLM of the central Slave craton. This Central Slave Mantle Conductor (CSMC) anomaly is modelled as a localized region of low resistivity (10–15 Ω m) beginning at depths of 80–120 km and striking NE–SW. Where precisely located, it is spatially coincident with the Eocene-aged kimberlite field in the central part of the craton (the so-called “Corridor of Hope”), and also with a geochemically defined ultra-depleted harzburgitic layer interpreted as oceanic or arc-related lithosphere emplaced during early tectonism. The CSMC lies wholly within the NE–SW striking central zone defined by Grütter et al. [Grütter, H.S., Apter, D.B., Kong, J., 1999. Crust–mantle coupling; evidence from mantle-derived xenocrystic garnets. Contributed paper at: The 7th International Kimberlite Conference Proceeding, J.B. Dawson Volume, 1, 307–313] on the basis of garnet geochemistry (G10 vs. G9) populations.

Deep-probing MT data from the lake bottom instruments infer that the conductor has a total depth-integrated conductivity (conductance) of the order of 2000 Siemens, which, given an internal resistivity of 10–15 Ω m, implies a thickness of 20–30 km. Below the CSMC the electrical resistivity of the lithosphere increases by a factor of 3–5 to values of around 50 Ω m. This change occurs at depths consistent with the graphite–diamond transition, which is taken as consistent with a carbon interpretation for the CSMC.

Preliminary three-dimensional MT modelling supports the NE–SW striking geometry for the conductor, and also suggests a NW dip. This geometry is taken as implying that the tectonic processes that emplaced this geophysical–geochemical body are likely related to the subduction of a craton of unknown provenance from the SE (present-day coordinates) during 2630–2620 Ma. It suggests that the lithospheric stacking model of Helmstaedt and Schulze [Helmstaedt, H.H., Schulze, D.J., 1989. Southern African kimberlites and their mantle sample: implications for Archean tectonics and lithosphere evolution. In Ross, J. (Ed.), Kimberlites and Related Rocks, Vol. 1: Their Composition, Occurrence, Origin, and Emplacement. Geological Society of Australia Special Publication, vol. 14, 358–368] is likely correct for the formation of the Slave's current SCLM.     

Impacts of Drought, Flow Regime, and Fishing on the Fish Assemblage in Southern Australia’s Largest Temperate Estuary

We analysed a 25-year time series of fishery catch and effort data, and age/size information for four large-bodied, native fish species to investigate the hypotheses that under conditions of reduced freshwater inflows and high fishing pressure: (1) the structure of fish assemblages in the lower Murray River system have changed, (2) species diversity of fishes has declined and (3) population age structures of large-bodied, late-maturing, native fish (Macquaria ambigua, Argyrosomus japonicus, Rhombosolea tapirina and Acanthopagrus butcheri) have been reduced. Annual catches and effort in the lower Murray River system were stable for 25 years, but proportional contribution to the total catch from each of freshwater, estuarine and adjacent marine habitats, and the species within them varied. Fish assemblages generally differed between subsequent 5-year periods, with the exception of 1989–1993 when floods occurred in 4 out of 5 years, and the following 5-year period (1994–1998). Species richness declined steeply over 25 years in freshwater and estuarine habitat and species diversity (Hill’s H ₂) also declined after 2001 in estuarine habitat. Species with rapid growth and early maturation (opportunistic strategists), increasingly dominated catches, whilst species with slow growth and late maturation (periodic strategists) declined. Truncated population age structures suggested longevity overfishing of three periodic strategist species: golden perch (M. ambigua), black bream (A. butcheri), mulloway (A. japonicus) and a fourth species with an intermediate strategy, greenback flounder (R. tapirina). This has implications for management because loss of older/larger individuals suggests reduced capacity to withstand or recover from deteriorated environmental conditions associated with a historically extreme drought in the lower Murray River system. Management of these species should seek to preserve the remnant population age structures and then to rebuild age structures by allowing recruits to become established in the adult population. We recommend that assessment of multi-species fisheries in changeable environments, such as occur in estuaries and other end-river environments, requires a suite of indicators that address changes in fish assemblages and populations.     

Consequences of change and variability in sea ice on marine ecosystem and biogeochemical processes during the 2007–2008 Canadian International Polar Year program

Change and variability in the timing and magnitude of sea ice geophysical and thermodynamic state have consequences on many aspects of the arctic marine system. The changes in both the geophysical and thermodynamic state, and in particular the timing of the development of these states, have consequences throughout the marine system. In this paper we review the ??consequences?? of change in sea ice state on primary productivity, marine mammal habitats, and sea ice as a medium for storage and transport of contaminants and carbon exchange across the ocean-sea-ice-atmosphere interface based upon results from the International Polar Year. Pertinent results include: 1) conditions along ice edges can bring deep nutrient-rich ??pacific?? waters into nutrient-poor surface waters along the arctic coast, affecting local food webs; 2) both sea ice thermodynamic and dynamic processes ultimately affect ringed seal/polar bear habitats by controlling the timing, location and amount of surface deformation required for ringed seal and polar bear preferred habitat 3) the ice edges bordering open waters of flaw leads are areas of high biological production and are observed to be important beluga habitat. 4) exchange of climate-active gases, including CO₂, is extremely active in sea ice environments, and the overall question of whether the Arctic Ocean is (or will be) a source or sink for CO₂ will be dependent on the balance of competing climate-change feedbacks.     

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.     

A field comparison of two methods for the determination of copper complexation: Bacterial bioassay and fixed-potential amperometry

Complexation of copper added to seawater was determined by bacterial bioassay and fixedpotential amperometry. Consistent results were obtained by these two fundamentally different methods. The results of this study support the validity of both techniques and the field applicability of fixed-potential amperometry.The intercomparison studies were performed on samples collected at the N.Y.C. sewage sludge dumpsite and in relatively unpolluted coastal waters. In this limited study, the calculated free cupric ion concentrations at ambient total copper concentrations were similar at both sites.     

Slope-induced changes in channel character along a gravel-bed stream: The Allt Dubhaig,Scotland

Changes in channel character along a small river in the Scottish Highlands are described using measurements in seven reaches over a 3 km length with no significant tributaries but a decline in slope from 0.02 to 0.00015 because of local baselevel control. This decline in slope is associated with rapid downstream fining of the gravel bed followed by an abrupt transition to a sand bed. The channel pattern alters progressively rather than abruptly, in the sequence (1) near-braided, (2) meandering with active point-bar chutes, (3) meandering with active outer-bank talweg, (4) stable equiwidth sinuous. The changes in channel pattern and hydraulic geometry are predicted better by rational approaches based on critical shear stress or other physical concepts than by purely empirical discriminant or trend equations. Measurements in five reaches confirm a downstream decrease in shear stress and the amount and calibre of bedload. It is argued that the downstream changes in channel character in this stream are induced by profile concavity inherited from deglacial conditions, are typical of many streams in mountainous areas and can be understood in terms of slope-induced changes in hydraulic properties.