Controls of δS and δO in dissolved sulphate: Learning from a detailed survey in the Llobregat River (Spain)

The S and O isotopic composition of dissolved SO₄, used as a tracer for SO₄ sources, was applied to the water of the Llobregat River system (NE Spain). The survey was carried out at 30 sites where surface water was sampled on a monthly basis over a period of 2a. The concentration of dissolved SO₄ varied from 20 to 1575 mg L⁻¹. Sulphur isotopic compositions clustered in two populations: one – 93% of the samples – had positive values with a mode of +9‰; the other had negative values and a mode of −5‰. Data for δ¹⁸O_SO4 showed a mean value of +11‰, with no bi-modal distribution, though lower values of δ¹⁸O corresponded to samples with negative δ³⁴S. These values can not be explained solely by the contribution of bedrock SO₄ sources: that is, sulphide oxidation and the weathering of outcrops of sulphates, though numerous chemical sediments exist in the basin. Even in a river with a high concentration of natural sources of dissolved SO₄, such as the Llobregat River, the δ³⁴S values suggest that dissolved SO₄ is controlled by a complex mix of both natural and anthropogenic sources. The main anthropogenic sources in this basin are fertilizers, sewage, potash mine effluent and power plant emissions. Detailed river water sampling, together with the chemical and isotopic characterisation of the main anthropogenic inputs, allowed determination of the influence of redox processes, as well as identification of the contribution of natural and anthropogenic SO₄ sources and detection of spatial variations and seasonal changes among these sources. For instance, in the Llobregat River the input of fertilisers is well marked seasonally. Minimum values of δ³⁴S are reported during fertilization periods – from January to March – indicating a higher contribution of this source. The dual isotope approach, δ³⁴S and δ¹⁸O, is useful to better constrain the sources of SO₄. Moreover, in small-scale studies, where the inputs are well known and limited, the mixing models can be enhanced and the contribution of the different sources can be quantified to some extent.     

Pervasive wetland flooding in the glacial drift prairie of North Dakota (USA)

This article describes a unique flood hazard, produced by the dramatic expansion of wetlands in Nelson County, located within the North American Prairie Pothole Region of North Dakota, USA. There has been an unprecedented increase in the number, average size, and permanence of prairie wetlands, and a significant increase in the size of a closed lake (Stump Lake) due to a decade-long wet spell that began in 1993 following a prolonged drying trend. Base-line land cover information from the 1992 USGS National Land Cover Characterization dataset, and a Landsat TM scene acquired 9 July 2001 are used to assess the growth of the closed lake and wetland pond surface areas, and to analyze the type and area of various land cover classes inundated between 1992 and 2001. The open water profile in Nelson County changed from one marked by relatively comparable coverage of closed lake and wetland pond areas in 1992, to one in which wetland open water accounted for the vast majority of total open water in 2001. The bulk of the wetland pond area expansion occurred by displacing existing wetland vegetation and agricultural cropland. Producers responded to the flood hazard by filing Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC) claims and enrolling cropland in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), a federal land retirement program. Land taken out of agricultural production has had an enormous impact upon the agricultural sector that forms the economic base of the rural economy. In 2001 the land taken out of production due to CRP enrollment and preventive planting claims represented nearly 42% of Nelson County’s 205.2 K ha base agricultural land. The patterns obtained from this detailed study of Nelson County are likely to be the representative of the more publicized flood disaster occurring within the Devils Lake Basin of North Dakota.     

Zinc concentration effect at the organismal,cellular and subcellular levels in the eastern oyster

The purpose of this research was to demonstrate a concentration effect of zinc exposure at organismal, cellular and sub-cellular levels in the eastern oyster and to find associated protein expression signatures (PES) for each concentration of zinc. Oysters were exposed to six concentrations of zinc for 48 h in a controlled environment. At the organismal level, fecal material was observed as a measure of physiological health during metal exposures. At the cellular level, lysosomal destabilization was measured using hemolymph. This cellular response was significant only at the highest concentration, when the fecal index was lowest. Protein responses were monitored in the oyster following exposure to zinc. Gill tissue was excised and homogenized, and then analyzed using two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2D-PAGE) and digital image analysis. Protein expression signatures were found to be specific to each concentration. The protein responses were linked to the other biological parameters measured, each of which followed a concentration gradient of zinc.     

Genetic Relationships Among One Non-Endemic and Two Endemic Mediterranean Triplefin Blennies (Pisces, Blennioidei)

Abstract. Three triplefin blennies occur sympatrically in the Mediterranean Sea; Tripterygion tripteronotus and T. melanurus are endemic, whereas T. delaisi is also found in the Eastern Atlantic. Although very similar in morphology, ecology and behaviour, some striking differences exist among reproductive strategies. Several authors proposed hypotheses on the evolution of these species. In order to enhance insight into the genetic structure of this genus, an enzyme electrophoretic survey was performed. Samples of 40 to 45 specimens of each species were collected near Calvi (Corsica, France). Twenty-four enzyme loci were analysed, of which 17 appeared polymorphic. T. delaisi showed a high level of average observed heterozygosity (H_o) of 0.140, as opposed to very low levels of 0.009 and 0.021 in T. tripteronotus and T. melanurus , respectively. Nei's genetic distance was 0.21 between T. delaisi and T. tripteronotus , 0.35 between T. delaisi and T. melanurus and 0.45 between T. tripteronotus and T. melanurus . We hypothesise that divergence of these species started before the Pleistocene and that the endemic species survived the Pleistocene glaciations in refugia within the Mediterranean. The possibility that T. tripteronotus and T. delaisi diverged through sympatric speciation is discussed.     

Accurate local upscaling with variable compact multipoint transmissibility calculations

We propose a new single-phase local upscaling method that uses spatially varying multipoint transmissibility calculations. The method is demonstrated on two-dimensional Cartesian and adaptive Cartesian grids. For each cell face in the coarse upscaled grid, we create a local fine grid region surrounding the face on which we solve two generic local flow problems. The multipoint stencils used to calculate the fluxes across coarse grid cell faces involve the six neighboring pressure values. They are required to honor the two generic flow problems. The remaining degrees of freedom are used to maximize compactness and to ensure that the flux approximation is as close as possible to being two-point. The resulting multipoint flux approximations are spatially varying (a subset of the six neighbors is adaptively chosen) and reduce to two-point expressions in cases without full-tensor anisotropy. Numerical tests show that the method significantly improves upscaling accuracy as compared to commonly used local methods and also compares favorably with a local–global upscaling method.     

The Taconite Inlet Lakes Project: a systems approach to paleoclimatic reconstruction

A comprehensive study of meteorological, hydrological, limnological and sedimentological conditions in the watersheds of density-stratified (meromictic) lakes around Taconite Inlet, Northern Ellesmere Island, N.W.T., Canada was carried out from 1990–1992. Lakes C1 and C2 contain seawater trapped by isostatic uplift as the former embayments became isolated from the sea. These lakes, and Lake C3, contain varved sediments which provide an annually resolvable paleoclimatic record. By studing the major systems influencing sedimentation in one of these lakes (Lake C2) a better understanding of the climatic controls on varve formation, and hence on the paleoclimatic signal in the varved sediment record, was obtained. The varves of Lake C2 provide a proxy record of summer temperature for the region.This is the first in a series of papers published in this issue on the Taconite Inlet Lakes Project. These papers were collected by Dr R. S. Bradley.