Millennium-long recession of limestone facades in London

Historical data on the temperature and precipitation data for London has been combined with output from the Hadley Model to estimate the climate of London for the period 1100–2100 CE. This has been converted to other parameters such as freeze–thaw frequency and snowfall relevant to the weathering of stone facades. The pollutant concentrations have been estimated for the same period, with the historical values taken from single box modelling and future values from changes likely given current policy within the metropolis. These values are used in the Lipfert model to show that the recession from karst weathering dominates across the period, while the contributions of sulphur deposition seem notable only across a shorter period 1700–2000 CE. Observations of the late seventeenth century suggest London architects witnessed a notable increase in the recession rate and attributed “fretting quality” to “smoaks of the sea-coal”. The recession rates measured in the late twentieth century lend some support to the estimates from the Lipfert model. The recession looks to increase only slightly, and frost shattering will decrease while salt weathering is likely to increase.     

Pliocene and late Pleistocene (MIS 5e) decapod crustaceans from Santa Maria Island (Azores Archipelago: Central Atlantic): systematics,palaeoecology and palaeobiogeography

The presence of decapod crustaceans in the Pliocene and Pleistocene (MIS 5e) fossil record of Santa Maria Island (Azores Archipelago) is herein reviewed. Our study raises the number of fossil decapods from this island from one species to 10 taxa (three for the Pliocene and seven for the Last Interglacial). Four of these 10 taxa are reported for the first time in the fossil record, worldwide. A new species of a mud shrimp is also described (Upogebia azorensis n. sp.). Our study suggests that the Plio–Pleistocene decapod assemblages of the Azores did not differ significantly from modern ones, being dominated by species that are today widespread across the Webbnesia ecoregion, the Mediterranean Sea, and the eastern Atlantic shores, including the Azores. As far as can be judged from the limited fossil record, apparently no tropical crab species with a Cabo Verdean/Senegalese provenance reached the Azores during windows of opportunity associated with Glacial Termination 2 or with the initial setting of the Last Interglacial period. This contribution increases the total number of marine taxa reported for the Pliocene and Pleistocene outcrops of Santa Maria Island to 218 and 155, respectively, highlighting the scientific relevance of its palaeontological heritage.     

Depositional processes on oceanic island shelves – Evidence from storm‐generated Neogene deposits from the mid‐North Atlantic

Oceanic islands – such as the Azores in the mid‐North Atlantic – are periodically exposed to large storms that often remobilize and transport marine sediments along coastlines, and into deeper environments. Such disruptive events create deposits – denominated tempestites – whose characteristics reflect the highly dynamic environment in which they were formed. Tempestites from oceanic islands, however, are seldom described in the literature and little is known about storm‐related sediment dynamics affecting oceanic island shelves. Therefore, the geological record of tempestite deposits at oceanic islands can provide invaluable information on the processes of sediment remobilization, transport and deposition taking place on insular shelves during and after major storms. In Santa Maria Island (Azores), a sequence of Neogene tempestite deposits was incorporated in the island edifice by the ongoing volcanic activity (thus preserved) and later exposed through uplift and erosion. Because it was overlain by a contemporary coastal lava delta, the water depth at the time of deposition could be inferred, constituting an excellent case‐study to gain insight on the still enigmatic processes of insular shelf deposition. Sedimentological, palaeontological, petrographic and palaeo‐water depth information allowed the reconstruction of the depositional environment of these sediments. The sequence typifies the characteristics of a tempestite (or successive tempestites) formed at ca 50 m depth, in a steep, energetic open insular shelf, and with evidence for massive sediment remobilization from the nearshore to the middle or outer shelf. The authors claim that cross‐shelf transport induced by storm events is the main process of sediment deposition acting on steep and narrow shelves subjected to high‐energetic environments, such as the insular shelves of open‐sea volcanic islands.     

Surface changes on crystalline stones due to salt crystallisation

This study assesses the changes on the surface of crystalline stones due to salt crystallisation. Efflorescence was forced to grow on the surface of granite and marbles through 60 cycles of salt crystallisation with sodium sulphate. Changes on surface roughness, gloss and colour were measured every 15 cycles and the specimens were examined with naked eye and SEM. Sodium sulphate produces damage which depends on mineral composition. Results show that granites experience a mechanical decay with an increase in roughness. Peaks of mica can be observed on the surface and cracks widen and grow deeper. Colour and gloss do not show any significant change, although gloss decreases with an increase in surface roughness. In marbles, the decay is mainly chemical. Surface roughness increases due to dissolution of the calcite. White marbles exhibit yellowing. Gloss decreases during the first cycles—as grain boundaries become more visible—but tends to regain almost its initial value as the number of cycles increases. In this case, gloss does not show any relation with surface roughness.     

The ichthyofauna and abiotic hydrological environment of the Ria de Aveiro,Portugal

The abiotic hydrological environment and the community dynamics of the fish fauna were investigated in the Ria de Aveiro, an estuarine coastal lagoon system (43 km²), which has both marine and fluvial influences. Abiotic hydrological and fish community parameters were recorded routinely during 12 months at ten stations. Temperature ranged between 9.5°C and 26.0°C, salinity between 0.0‰ and 32.0‰, dissolved oxygen between 0.8 mg 1^?1 and 15.4 mg 1^?1, pH between 6.1 and 9.4, and transparency between 4.4% and 100.0%. No significant differences were observed in temperature and dissolved oxygen among stations, or in seasonal variation in transparency. Nineteen thousand thirty-one fish specimens comprising 55 species were sampled. Abundance, biomass, and species richness were highest in summer and late winter at stations near the lagoon entrance. Sedentary species were most numerous, marine migratory species had the highest biomass, and the category “occasional species” had the highest number of species. Atherinidae, Mugilidae, and Gobiidae were the most important families. Eight species represented about 80% of the total fish abundance and biomass but only six species occurred in all the months and at all the stations. It was concluded that the Ria de Aveiro, with high seasonal and spatial abiotic variation, has a very rich and representative fish community compared with temperate and tropical estuaries and estuarine coastal lagoons around the world.     

Bioaccumulation and depuration of Zn and Cd in mangrove oysters (Crassostrea rhizophorae, Guilding, 1828) transplanted to and from a contaminated tropical coastal lagoon

In order to study Zn and Cd accumulation and depuration, a set of oysters, Crassostrea rhizophorae, were transplanted to a metal contaminated coastal lagoon and another one was harvested there and transplanted to a non-polluted site. C. rhizophorae oysters and Perna perna mussels native from both sites were collected in order to monitor variability of metal concentration in resident populations. After three months exposure, oysters transplanted to the polluted site accumulated fourfold Zn (307-1319 microgg(-1)) without reaching the concentration level of resident oysters (9770 microgg(-1)). Cadmium concentrations had a slight but significant decrease during the same period (1.25-0.54 microgg(-1)). Oysters transplanted to the non-polluted site, showed threefold Zn depuration (6727-2404 microgg(-1)), while Cd had no significant variation (0.90-1.45 microgg(-1)). Results showed that transplanted oysters do not reach heavy metal concentrations in indigenous populations suggesting transplanted organisms would be better used to evaluate bioavailability instead of environmental concentrations.     

Gulf of Mexico Ecosystem Service Valuation Database (GecoServ): Gathering ecosystem services valuation studies to promote their inclusion in the decision-making process

The main goals of the Gulf of Mexico Ecosystem Service Valuation Database (GecoServ), an inventory of ecosystem services (ES) valuation studies applicable to the Gulf of Mexico, are to allow for the distribution and sharing of information about said studies and to identify current gaps in the ES valuation literature.The utility of GecoServ (http://www.gecoserv.org) lies in that it fills a void left by non-ES specific environmental databases, highlights the lack of studies for some ecosystems and associated services, and provides background information for future ES valuation studies.GecoServ functions as a uniquely centralized source of information for both researchers and natural resource managers. Researchers can find information for different study sites to be used in value transfer methods. For managers, instead, GecoServ is a tool that provides them with ES values to inform their decision-making process.     

Predicting twenty-first century recession of architectural limestone in European cities

Cities of the twenty-first century will expose buildings to environments that are quite different from those experienced over preceding periods. The recent reduction in sulfur dioxide in cities and continued pressure to lower the emissions of combustion generated pollutants creates a potential for climate induced deterioration, by contrast, to be more important. Given that climate will likely change over the next hundred years, recession rates of calcareous stones have been predicted for Oviedo (Spain), Paris and Prague over the period 1981–2099. This can give guidance as to the likely change in balance of future threat. The Lipfert, ICP, and MULTI-ASSESS functions were used to calculate recession from estimates of climate and air quality. It is likely that under a continued decline or stable levels of pollution, recession rates having reached low values will remain largely unchanged over the coming century, despite likely changes in climate. Although the functions adopted disagree in a quantitative sense, there is evidence that they were reasonably concordant in the last decades of the twentieth century. In a cleaner future their different underlying assumptions lead to poorer agreement.     

Dynamics of Kepler problem with linear drag

We study the dynamics of Kepler problem with linear drag. We prove that motions with nonzero angular momentum have no collisions and travel from infinity to the singularity. In the process, the energy takes all real values and the angular velocity becomes unbounded. We also prove that there are two types of linear motions: capture–collision and ejection–collision. The behaviour of solutions at collisions is the same as in the conservative case. Proofs are obtained using the geometric theory of ordinary differential equations and two regularizations for the singularity of Kepler problem equation. The first, already considered in Diacu (Celest Mech Dyn Astron 75:1–15, 1999), is mainly used for the study of the linear motions. The second, the well known Levi-Civita transformation, allows to complete the study of the asymptotic values of the energy and to prove the existence of collision solutions with arbitrary energy.