Assessment of δ13C and C/N ratios in bulk organic matter as palaeosalinity indicators in Holocene and Lateglacial isolation basin sediments,northwest Scotland     

Elizabeth A. V. Mackie  Jeremy M. Lloyd  Melanie J. Leng  Michael J. Bentley  Carol Arrowsmith 《第四纪科学杂志》2007,22(6):579-591

Carbon isotopes (δ¹³C) and C/N ratios from bulk organic matter have recently been used as alternative proxies for relative sea‐level (RSL) reconstruction where there are problems associated with conventional biological indictors. A previous study on a single isolation basin (Upper Loch nan Eala) in northwest Scotland has shown a clear relationship between δ¹³C, C/N ratios and palaeosalinity from Younger Dryas and Holocene aged sediments. In this paper we present results of δ¹³C and C/N ratio analyses from other isolation basins in northwest Scotland over the Holocene and the Lateglacial period in order to validate this technique. The results from the Holocene sequences support the earlier findings that this technique can be used to identify RSL change from isolation basins over the Holocene in this region. The relationship between δ¹³C, C/N ratios and RSL change is not apparent in sediments of Lateglacial age. Other environmental variables such as atmospheric CO₂ concentration, poor vegetation development and temperature influence δ¹³C values during this period. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

Volcanic ash clouds affecting Northern Europe: the long view     

Graeme T. Swindles  Ivan P. Savov  Charles B. Connor  Jonathan Carrivick  Elizabeth Watson  Ian T. Lawson 《Geology Today》2013,29(6):214-217

The volcanic ash or ‘tephra’ cloud resulting from the relatively small (volume and VEI) eruption of the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull in 2010 caused major air travel disruption, at substantial global economic cost. On several occasions in the past few centuries, Icelandic eruptions have created ash and/or sulphur dioxide clouds which were detected over Europe (e.g. Hekla in 1947, Askja in 1875, and Laki in 1783). However, these historical observations do not represent a complete record of events serious enough to disrupt aviation in Europe. The only feasible evidence for this is within the geological tephra record. Ash layers are preserved in bogs and lakes where tephra deposited from the atmosphere is incorporated in the peat/mud. In this article we: 1, introduce the analysis of the Northern European sedimentary tephra record; 2, discuss our findings and modelling results; 3, highlight how these were misinterpreted by the popular media; and 4, use this experience to outline several existing problems with current tephra studies and suggest agendas for future research.  相似文献   

Erratum to: “A robust surface matching technique for coastal geohazard assessment and management” [ISPRS J. Photogramm. Remote Sens. 63 (2008) 529–542]     

Pauline Miller  Jon Mills  Stuart Edwards  Paul Bryan  Stuart Marsh  Harvey Mitchell  Peter Hobbs 《ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing》2009,64(2):243-245

  相似文献   

Abrupt climate change as an important agent of ecological change in the Northeast U.S. throughout the past 15,000 years     

Bryan N. Shuman  Paige Newby  Jeffrey P. Donnelly 《Quaternary Science Reviews》2009,28(17-18):1693-1709

We use a series of tests to evaluate two competing hypotheses about the association of climate and vegetation trends in the northeastern United States over the past 15 kyrs. First, that abrupt climate changes on the scale of centuries had little influence on long-term vegetation trends, and second, that abrupt climate changes interacted with slower climate trends to determine the regional sequence of vegetation phases. Our results support the second. Large dissimilarity between temporally close fossil pollen samples indicates large vegetation changes within 500 years across >4° of latitude at ca 13.25–12.75, 12.0–11.5, 10.5, 8.25, and 5.25 ka. The evidence of vegetation change coincides with independent isotopic and sedimentary indicators of rapid shifts in temperature and moisture balance. In several cases, abrupt changes reversed long-term vegetation trends, such as when spruce (Picea) and pine (Pinus) pollen percentages rapidly declined to the north and increased to the south at ca 13.25–12.75 and 8.25 ka respectively. Abrupt events accelerated other long-term trends, such as a regional increase in beech (Fagus) pollen percentages at 8.5–8.0 ka. The regional hemlock (Tsuga) decline at ca 5.25 ka is unique among the abrupt events, and may have been induced by high climatic variability (i.e., repeated severe droughts from 5.7 to 2.0 ka); autoregressive ecological and evolutionary processes could have maintained low hemlock abundance until ca 2.0 ka. Delayed increases in chestnut (Castanea) pollen abundance after 5.8 and 2.5 ka also illustrate the potential for multi-century climate variability to influence species' recruitment as well as mortality. Future climate changes will probably also rapidly initiate persistent vegetation change, particularly by acting as broad, regional-scale disturbances.  相似文献   

Vulnerability assessment for loss of access to drinking water due to extreme weather events   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Jeanne Luh  Elizabeth C. Christenson  Aizhan Toregozhina  David A. Holcomb  Tucker Witsil  Laura R. Hamrick  Edema Ojomo  Jamie Bartram 《Climatic change》2015,133(4):665-679

  相似文献   

A rare reflection effect eclipsing sdB+dM binary: 2M 1533+3759     

Bi-Qing For  Elizabeth M. Green  Gilles Fontaine  Scott Shaw 《Astrophysics and Space Science》2010,328(1-2):87-90

In this paper, we report a rare reflection effect eclipsing sdB+dM binary, 2M?1533+3759. It is the seventh eclipsing sdB+dM binary that has been discovered to date. This system has an orbital period of 0.16177042 day and a velocity semi-amplitude of 71.1 km?s^?1. Using a grid of zero-metallicity NLTE model atmospheres, we derived T _eff=29250 K, log?g=5.58 and [He/H]=?2.37 from spectra taken near the reflection effection minimum. Lightcurve modeling resulted in a system mass ratio of 0.301 and an orbital inclination angle of 86.6°. The derived primary mass for 2M?1533+3759, 0.376±0.055 M _⊙, is significantly lower than the canonical mass (0.48 M _⊙) found for most previously investigated sdB stars. This implies an initial progenitor mass >1.8 M _⊙, at least a main sequence A star and perhaps even one massive enough to undergo non-degenerate helium ignition.  相似文献   

Detecting infiltration and impacts of introduced water using strontium isotopes   总被引：3，自引：0，他引：3  

Brinck EL  Frost CD 《Ground water》2007,45(5):554-568

Water introduced to surface drainages, such as agricultural and roadway runoff, mine drainage, or coalbed natural gas (CBNG)-produced water, potentially can be of environmental concern. In order to mitigate potential environmental effects, it may be important to be able to trace water discharged to the surface as it infiltrates and interacts with near-surface aquifers. We have chosen to study water withdrawn during CBNG production for isotope tracing in the hyporheic zone because it poses a variety of economic, environmental, and policy issues in the Rocky Mountain states. Ground water quality must be protected as CBNG water is added to semiarid ecosystems. Strontium (Sr) isotopes are effective fingerprints of the aquifer from which water originates. In this study, CBNG water was found to have a higher (87)Sr/(86)Sr ratio than the local alluvial aquifer water. This measurable difference allows the strontium isotope ratio and concentration to be used as tracers of CBNG water following its discharge to the surface. The dissolution and mobilization of salts from soil are an important contributor to ground water quality degradation. In the Powder River basin of Wyoming, the soils are calcium carbonate-buffered systems. The chemical similarity of strontium to calcium allows it to substitute into calcium minerals and enabled us to use strontium isotopes to identify calcium salts mobilized from the soil. Strontium isotopes are an effective monitor of the source of ions and the volume and direction of introduced water flow in the hyporheic zone.  相似文献   

Interviewing landed elites in post-war Guatemala   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Elizabeth Oglesby 《Geoforum》2010,41(1):23-25

This essay explores the methodological challenges of conducting ethnographic research among economic and managerial elites in Guatemala’s landed sector during the country’s post-war transition. Guatemala’s 34-year civil war ended with peace accords in 1996. From the mid 1990s through 2001, I conducted interviews with leading representatives of the private sector in Guatemala, including the owners and top managers of the country’s sugar plantations. The Guatemalan sugar elite describes itself as the new face of the private sector in Central America, implementing “corporate social responsibility” programs linked to the World Bank and other international agencies. Questions of access and interview dynamics are often discussed in relation to qualitative research on “elites.” Yet, I found the interview process to be less complicated than I anticipated. Of greater concern were the problems of research dissemination and praxis. The experience discussed here raises questions about whether research on particular elite groups can be sustained over long periods of time.  相似文献   

Solar shield: forecasting and mitigating space weather effects on high-voltage power transmission systems     

Antti Pulkkinen  Michael Hesse  Shahid Habib  Luke Van der Zel  Ben Damsky  Fritz Policelli  David Fugate  William Jacobs  Elizabeth Creamer 《Natural Hazards》2010,53(2):333-345

In this paper, central elements of the Solar Shield project, launched to design and establish an experimental system capable of forecasting the space weather effects on high-voltage power transmission system, are described. It will be shown how Sun–Earth system data and models hosted at the Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC) are used to generate two-level magnetohydrodynamics-based forecasts providing 1–2 day and 30–60 min lead-times. The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) represents the end-user, the power transmission industry, in the project. EPRI integrates the forecast products to an online display tool providing information about space weather conditions to the member power utilities. EPRI also evaluates the economic impacts of severe storms on power transmission systems. The economic analysis will quantify the economic value of the generated forecasting system. The first version of the two-level forecasting system is currently running in real-time at CCMC. An initial analysis of the system’s capabilities has been completed, and further analysis is being carried out to optimize the performance of the system. Although the initial results are encouraging, definite conclusions about system’s performance can be given only after more extensive analysis, and implementation of an automatic evaluation process using forecasted and observed geomagnetically induced currents from different nodes of the North American power transmission system. The final output of the Solar Shield will be a recommendation for an optimal forecasting system that may be transitioned into space weather operations.  相似文献   

Historical trends of mercury and spheroidal carbonaceous particle deposition in sub-alpine lakes in the Great Basin,United States     

Scott A. Reinemann  David F. Porinchu  Mae Sexauer Gustin  Bryan G. Mark 《Journal of Paleolimnology》2014,52(4):405-418

The geochemistry of lake sediments was used to identify anthropogenic factors influencing aquatic ecosystems of sub-alpine lakes in the western United States during the past century. Sediment cores were recovered from six high-elevation lakes in the central Great Basin of the United States. The proxies utilized to examine the degree of recent anthropogenic environmental change include spheroidal carbonaceous particle (SCP), mercury (Hg), and sediment organic content estimated using loss-on-ignition. Chronologies for the sediment cores, developed using ²¹⁰Pb, indicate the cores span the twentieth century. Mercury flux varied between lakes but all exhibited increasing fluxes during the mid-twentieth century. The mean ratio of modern (post-A.D. 1985) to preindustrial (pre-A.D. 1880) Hg flux was 5.2, which is comparable to the results from previous studies conducted in western North America. Peak SCP flux for all lakes occurred between approximately A.D. 1940 and A.D. 1970, after which time the SCP flux was greatly reduced. The reduction in SCP input is likely due to better controls on combustion sources. Measured Hg concentrations and calculated sedimentation rates suggest atmospheric Hg flux increased in the early 1900s, from A.D. 1920 to A.D. 1990, and at present. Atmospheric deposition is the primary source of the anthropogenic inputs of Hg and SCPs to these high elevation lakes. The input of SCPs, which is largely driven by regional sources, has declined with the implementation of national pollution control regulations. Mercury deposition in the Great Basin has most likely been influenced more by regional inputs.  相似文献