Rapid vegetation change during the early Holocene in the Faroe Islands detected in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems

High‐resolution pollen, plant macrofossil and sedimentary analyses from early Holocene lacustrine sediments on the Faroe Islands have detected a significant vegetation perturbation suggesting a rapid change in climate between ca. 10 380 cal. yr BP and the Saksunarvatn ash (10 240±60 cal. yr BP). This episode may be synchronous with the decline in δ¹⁸O values in the Greenland ice‐cores. It also correlates with a short, cold event detected in marine cores from the North Atlantic that has been ascribed to a weakening of thermohaline circulation associated with the sudden drainage of Lake Agassiz into the northwest Atlantic, or, alternatively, a period with distinctly decreased solar forcing. The vegetation sequence begins at ca. 10 500 cal. yr BP with a succession from tundra to shrub‐tundra and increasing lake productivity. Rapid population increases of aquatic plants suggest high summer temperatures between 10 450 and 10 380 cal. yr BP. High pollen percentages, concentrations and influx of Betula, Juniperus and Salix together with macrofossil leaves indicate shrub growth around the site during the initial phases of vegetation colonisation. Unstable conditions followed ca. 10 380 cal. yr BP that changed both the upland vegetation and the aquatic plant communities. A decrease in percentage values of shrub pollen is recorded, with replacement of both aquatics and herbaceous plants by pioneer plant communities. An increase in total pollen accumulation rates not seen in the concentration data suggests increased sediment delivery. The catchment changes are consistent with less seasonal, moister conditions. Subsequent climatic amelioration reinitiated a warmth‐driven succession and catchment stabilisation, but retained high precipitation levels influencing the composition of the post‐event communities. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The impact of the M2 internal tide on data-assimilative model estimates of the surface tide

We use a synthetic data experiment to assess the accuracy of ocean tides estimated from satellite altimetry data, with emphasis on the impact of the phase-locked internal tide, which has a surface expression of several centimeters near its sites of genesis. Previous tidal estimates have regarded this signal as a random measurement error; however, it is deterministic and not scale-separated from the barotropic (surface) tide around complex bathymetric features. The synthetic data experiments show that the internal tide has a negligible impact on the barotropic tidal fields inferred under these circumstances, and the barotropic dissipation (a quadratic functional of the tidal fields) is in good agreement with the energetics of the three-dimensional regional primitive equations model which is the source of the synthetic data.     

北黄海长山群岛海域沉积环境初步研究

本文在获取１９８９－１９９３年黄海北部长山群岛海域沉积物大量数据基础上，借助沉积物粒度分析（Ｑ型），揭示出该海域具有在“岛屿效应”影响下的４种环境能量类型，分析了与其适应的环岛沉积环境及其分布特征。     

Sub-wavebase cross-bedded grainstones on a distally steepened carbonate ramp, Upper Miocene, Menorca, Spain

Cross‐bedded grainstones on carbonate ramps and shelves are commonly related to the locus of major wave energy absorption such as shorelines, shoals or shelf breaks. In contrast, on the Early Tortonian carbonate platform of Menorca (Balearic Islands), coarse‐grained, cross‐bedded grainstones are found at a distance from the palaeoshoreline where they were deposited below the wavebase. Excellent exposures along continuous outcrops on the sea cliffs of Menorca reveal the depositional profile and three‐dimensional distribution of the different facies belts of the Tortonian ramp depositional system. Basinward from the palaeoshoreline, fan deltas and beach deposits pass into 5‐km‐wide gently dipping bioturbated dolopackstone (inner and middle ramp), then into 12–20°‐dipping dolograinstone/rudstone clinobeds (ramp slope) and, finally, into subhorizontal fine‐grained basinal dolowackestone to dolopackstone (outer ramp). In this Miocene example, coarse‐grained grainstones exist in five different settings other than beach deposits: (1) on the middle ramp, where cross‐bedded grainstones were deposited by currents roughly parallel to the shoreline at 40–70 m estimated water depth and are interbedded with gently dipping bioturbated dolomitized packstones; (2) on the upper slope, where clinobeds are composed mostly of in situ rhodoliths and red‐algae fragments; (3) on the lower slope, as small‐scale bedforms (small three‐dimensional subaqueous dunes) migrating parallel to the slope; (4) at the transition between the lower slope and the outer ramp, where mollusc‐rich and rhodolithic rudstones and grainstones, interbedded in dolomitized laminated wackestones containing abundant planktonic foraminifera, infill slide/slump scars as upslope‐backstepping bodies (backsets); (5) at the toe of the slope, where coarse skeletal grainstones indicate bedform migration parallel to the platform margin, induced by currents at more than 150 m estimated water depth. This Late Miocene example also illustrates how changes in intrabasinal environmental conditions (nutrients and/or temperature) may produce changes in stratal patterns and facies architecture if they affect the biological system. Two depositional sequences compose the Miocene platform on Menorca, where a reef‐rimmed platform prograded onto an earlier distally steepened ramp. The transition from the ramp to the reef‐rimmed platform was effected by an increase in accommodation space caused by ecological changes, promoting a shift from a grain‐ to a framework‐producing biota.     

ARE ISLANDERS INSULAR? A PERSONAL VIEW*

ABSTRACT. I use my personal experience as an islander doing fieldwork among islanders in the West Indies to explore the meaning of “insularity.” I then expand on that personal experience by drawing on literary sources, particularly Homer's the Odyssey and Herman Melville's Moby Dick, both of which express an island worldview. The island worldview is contrasted and compared with the continental worldview on the basis of differing modes of navigation and cartography and differing modes of orientation as defined by cognitive psychologists.     

Seismic hazard assessment in the Ionian Islands based on observed macroseismic intensities

Catalogues of actual observed intensities are constructed for three towns in the Ionian Islands. They are used for seismic hazard assessment and the results are compared with those obtained by standard approaches; that is, by statistics applied to the data computed from epicentral parameters. The results show that seismic hazard is better assessed using observed rather than computed data, but preparation of the local catalogue presents non-trivial difficulties.     

Light regime and components of turbidity in a Mediterranean coastal lagoon

The underwater light regime of a Mediterranean coastal lagoon (Albufera des Grau, Balearic Islands) was studied during four years in order to characterise the spatial and temporal variations in the light attenuation coefficient (K) and to assess the relative contribution of the different water components to total light attenuation.     

南沙海区中生界岩相分布及构造特征

为了了解南中国海南部南沙群岛陆架-陆坡区中生代地层发育情况,作者通过综合分析该海区钻井、拖网及1987年以来采集的20000多公里的多道反射地震勘探等资料,得到了对该区中生界基本特征的如下新认识:空间分布上,南沙的中生界具有从北部的郑和-礼乐隆起南缘向南增厚的趋势;沉积岩相方面,东部三叠纪时为深海相,侏罗纪为浅海与三角洲相,白垩纪为浅海-内浅海相,而往西南部中生代的海水深度有变深的趋势;中-新生代变形上,在南沙西部的曾母盆地,中生界褶皱为复式的、非协调性的,南沙中部多为舒缓褶皱,东部仅在近巴拉望海槽地带出现小幅度的褶皱。结合围区中生界及特提斯构造域的发育特征,作者提出南沙地块上的海相中生界在大地构造上归属于残留在中特提斯洋北部减薄陆缘地壳上的中特提斯期海相沉积地层,是该海域油气资源勘探不可忽视的对象。