The Bear Brook Watershed in Maine: Multi-decadal whole-watershed experimental acidification

The Bear Brook Watershed in Maine (BBWM) is a long-term research site established to study the response of forest ecosystem function to environmental disturbances of chronic acidic deposition and ecosystem nitrogen enrichment. Starting in 1989, the West Bear (treated) watershed received bimonthly applications of ammonium sulfate [(NH₄)₂SO₄] fertilizer from above the canopy, whereas East Bear (reference) received ambient deposition. The treatments were stopped in 2016, marking the beginning of the recovery phase. Research at the site has focused on soils, streams, and vegetation. Here, we describe data collected over three decades at the BBWM—input and stream output nutrient fluxes, quantitative soil pits and soil chemistry, and soil temperature and moisture.     

Dust supply from river floodplains: the case of the lower Huang He (Yellow River) recorded in a loess–palaeosol sequence from the Mangshan Plateau

The Mangshan Plateau is located on the south bank of the Huang He (Yellow River) just west of the city of Zhengzhou, well outside the Loess Plateau in central China. Mixing models of the grain‐size data indicate that the loess deposits are mixtures of three loess components. Comparison of the mixing model with existing models established for a series of loess–palaeosol sequences from the Loess Plateau indicates that the Mangshan loess has been supplied from a proximal dust source, the Huang He floodplain, during major dust outbreaks. The high accumulation rates, the composition of the loess components, and especially the high proportions of a sandy loess component support this. Owing to the exceptionally high accumulation rates, the Mangshan grain size, magnetic susceptibility and carbonate records provide a high‐resolution archive of environmental and climate change. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Upper Pleistocene to Holocene sediments on the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa (Italy)

The island of Lampedusa lies on the northern edge of the African continental shelf, but during some Quaternary marine lowstands it was joined to the African continent. The study and dating of the aeolian, alluvial, detrital sediments, calcareous crusts and speleothems have established that the climatic–environmental variations recorded on the island can be related chronologically to those known for northern Libya, Tunisia and the Italian peninsula. During the Last Glacial Maximum, phases of Saharan dust accumulation on Lampedusa occurred, and were coeval with dust accumulation in crater lakes and on high mountains in central‐southern Italy, and with phases of glacial advance in the Apennines and in the Alps. During the late Holocene, accumulation of Saharan dust on Lampedusa occurred but there was little accumulation of dust on the northern side of the Mediterranean Sea. With the new data from Lampedusa, it is possible to envisage two different scenarios of atmospheric circulation relating to the Last Glacial Maximum and to the late Holocene. During the Last Glacial Maximum, southerly atmospheric circulation brought rainfall to the southern slopes of the Alps and to the Apennines. During the late Holocene, a prevalent westerly atmospheric circulation became established in the northern Mediterranean. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Brine-pool deposition for the Zn–Pb–Cu massive sulphide deposits of the Bathurst mining camp, New Brunswick, Canada. II. Ocean anoxia during mineralisation

Current models of massive sulphide ore genesis in the Bathurst mining camp, New Brunswick, involve settling of sulphide particles from a stagnating, low-salinity hydrothermal plume spreading laterally in an anoxic ocean layer with minimal sulphate content. There is fragmentary evidence of ocean anoxia in the form of local fine lamination in the shales that host some of the deposits but the total organic carbon, S, Fe, U/Th, Ni/Co, V/Ni and V/Cr relationships indicate deposition under oxic or dysoxic conditions. Vanadium and Mn values range from oxic to anoxic and sulphate-reducing to non-sulphate reducing but Mn may be anomalously low due to derivation by erosion of acidic volcanic rocks. The somewhat equivocal physical and chemical data, combined with the likely disturbing effects of penecontemporaneous volcanism, considerably weaken the case for an anoxic bottom layer in a static ocean. The presence of barite with ambient seawater ³⁴S values in Brunswick no. 12 ore, and the abundance of sulphate in modern euxinic basin waters, make a sulphate-free layer unlikely, even if anoxic. Sulphate-bearing, low-salinity fluids mixing with seawater would lead to growth of barite-bearing chimneys and baritic rubble mounds, which are not observed. A model involving brine-pool deposition better explains the major features of the Bathurst ores.     

洛川黄土-红粘土序列铁氧化物组成及其古气候指示

对洛川黄土、古土壤和红粘土中磁性矿物组成、成因和相关系进行了研究。结果表明:黄土磁性矿物以风尘磁铁矿为主,少量的成土赤铁矿和成土磁赤铁矿;古土壤磁性矿物以成土磁赤铁矿为主,成土赤铁矿次之,少量的风尘磁铁矿和赤铁矿;红粘土磁性矿物以成土赤铁矿为主,风尘磁铁矿和成土磁赤铁矿次之,少量风尘赤铁矿。黄土、古土壤和红粘土磁性矿物组成差异,反映了其形成期不同的古气候特性以及不同气候条件下生物地球化学作用强度的差异。干冷的冰期,黄土弱成土作用形成了以粗颗粒的风尘磁铁矿核 赤铁矿边的磁化率载体。间冰期的温暖湿润的古气候最有利于生物活动,强烈生物活动导致古土壤中大量纳米超细磁赤铁矿/磁铁矿产生,形成以磁赤铁矿为主,风尘磁铁矿核 赤铁矿边为辅的磁化率载体。红粘土成壤期,强降雨强蒸发的长干短湿的高温炎热的古气候使得红粘土化学风化强烈,生物地球化学活动较弱,形成以磁铁矿核 赤铁矿边和磁赤铁矿核 赤铁矿边的磁化率载体。黄土、古土壤和红粘土磁性矿物组成、磁性矿物相关系是其形成期独特的古气候指示。     

Characteristics of Scour and Deposition in Front of Breakwaters Under Irregular Broken Clapotis

First the scour and deposition patterns of the sandy seabed in front of a vertical breakwater under the action of irregular broken clapotis are investigated experimentally and classified into five types: scour type Ⅰ , scour type Ⅱ, scour type Ⅲ, deposition type Ⅰ, and deposition type Ⅱ . Secondly, the processes of formation of scour and deposition patterns are probed in comparison with those induced by regular broken clapotis and standing waves. Thirdly, the criteria for distinguishing scour and deposition patterns under irregular broken clapotis are presented.     

安徽宣城地区中晚更新世风成堆积与环境变迁

通过对宣城向阳中晚更新世沉积剖面的综合研究,认为该剖面与中国北方同时代的黄土—古土壤剖面相比较,虽然长江下游以南地区中晚更新世多个冰期中风成堆积的单层厚度与累积厚度,亦即风成物质的沉积通量与沉积速率均比北方黄土区要小,但它们所反映的气候与环境的变化具有明显的可比性。     

黄、渤海海岸风沙地貌类型及其分布规律和发育模式

于１９９０－１９９４年，对黄，渤海海岸风沙地貌，风沙沉积，风沙灾害和土地沙漠化现象进行详细的外业调查，测量和填图，在此基础上，利用ＧＩＳ技术原理，对海岸岗沙地貌进行系统的分类研究，对海岸风沙地貌分布规律和发育模式进行较深入的探讨，结果表明，研究区风沙地貌，风沙灾害和土地沙漠化现象主要分布在冬，春季气候干旱，风力强而持久，砂源丰富的渤海海岸和山东半岛半岸的砂质海岸地区，海岸沙丘和风成砂地总面积达７０     

Atmospheric input of trace elements to the western Pacific Ocean and the Kuroshio ocean area

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Atmospherically-promoted photosynthetic activity in a well-mixed ecosystem: Significance of wet deposition events of nitrogen compounds

Wet atmospheric deposition of dissolved N, P and Si species is studied in well-mixed coastal ecosystem to evaluate its potential to stimulate photosynthetic activities in nutrient-depleted conditions. Our results show that, during spring, seawater is greatly depleted in major nutrients: Dissolved Inorganic Nitrogen (DIN), Dissolved Inorganic Phosphorus (DIP) and Silicic acid (Si), in parallel with an increase of phytoplanktonic biomass. In spring (March–May) and summer (June–September), wet atmospheric deposition is the predominant source (>60%, relative to riverine contribution) for nitrates and ammonium inputs to this N-limited coastal ecosystem. During winter (October–February), riverine inputs of DIN predominate (>80%) and are annually the most important source of DIP (>90%). This situation allows us to calculate the possibility for a significant contribution to primary production in May 2003, from atmospheric deposition (total input for DIN ≈300 kg km⁻² month⁻¹). Based on usual Redfield ratios and assuming that all of the atmospheric-derived N (AD-N) in rainwater is bioavailable for phytoplankton growth, we can estimate new production due to AD-N of 950 mg C m⁻² month⁻¹, during this period of depletion in the water column. During the same episode (May 2003), photosynthetic activity rate, considered as gross primary production, was estimated to approximately 30 300 mg C m⁻² month⁻¹. Calculation indicates that new photosynthetic activity due to wet atmospheric inputs of nitrogen could be up to 3%.