Bioaccumulation in marine food chains—A kinetic approach     

C.H. Walker 《Marine environmental research》1985,17(2-4)

The risk of bioaccumulation of persistent liposoluble pollutants in marine food chains was highlighted by work done on organochlorine residues in marine organisms in the early 1960s. In one study, concentrations of DDE and dieldrin were determined in species from different trophic levels of the Farne Island ecosystem.¹ Concentrations of pollutants were related to trophic levels, with the highest levels occurring in predators such as the cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) and the shag (Phalacrocorax aristotelis). This paper will consider model systems which may be used to predict bioaccumulation risks from simple in vitro data. Emphasis will be upon persistent liposoluble pollutants with relatively simple patterns of metabolism, and upon the problem of bioaccumulation by marine predators.  相似文献   

Histopathological observations on liver,kidney and gonad of plaice (Pleuronectes platessa) taken from the Mersey estuary     

Simpson MG  Walker P  Helm A  Leah R 《Marine environmental research》2002,54(3-5):543-546

The Mersey estuary is the most contaminated estuary in British waters. Detailed studies are underway on the pathology of flounder (Platichthys flesus) from the Mersey and on flounder from the nearby, but less contaminated, Dee estuary. Flounder breed offshore but spend a lot of time in the estuaries, penetrating into freshwater. These flatfish are in close contact with sediments and will be exposed to exenobiotic stored in the sediments. Plaice (Pleuronectes platessa) are flatfish which enter the Mersey with the tidal flow but spend less time in the estuary than flounder and are less likely to show evidence of pollutant exposure. Over 20 plaice were collected from the Mersey. Samples of the liver, kidney and gonad were fixed in 10% formal saline, processed into paraffin wax and 5 microm sections cut and stained with haematoxylin and eosin. Liver changes consisted of variable amounts of glycogen/lipid storage product, minor perivenular and perivascular fibrosis, and helminth parasitisation. No tumours or foci of cellular alteration, necrosis and inflammation were seen. In the gonad only changes consistent with normal gonadal cycling was seen. These studies provide evidence that plaice show little or no evidence of toxic pathological damage resulting from their stay in the estuary.  相似文献   

Climatic and limnological changes associated with the Younger Dryas in Atlantic Canada     

S. E. Wilson  I. R. Walker  R. J. Mott  J. P. Smol 《Climate Dynamics》1993,8(4):177-187

Pollen, diatom and chironomid fossils from the sediments of a core from Brier Island Bog Lake, Nova Scotia were studied in an attempt to relate changes in microfossil composition to a climatic cooling in Atlantic Canada correlative with the European Younger Dryas ca. 10 to 11 ka. Our paleolimnological data were then compared to similar types of data from Splan Pond, New Brunswick to determine if there were any significant differences between a coastal and a more inland site. Nonarboreal pollen was dominant throughout the Brier Island core and the interval 10.0–11.0 ka did not show the typical decline in Picea and increases in tundra-like vegetation characteristic of many sites in Atlantic Canada. However, the limnological indicators did undergo marked changes in taxon composition. The chironomid assemblage was initially dominated by shallow-water, warm-adapted chironomid taxa followed by abundant Sergentia (a cold stenotherm) during 10–11 ka. Sergentia disappeared in the post Younger Dryas interval and the warm-adapted genera resumed dominance. Chironomid-inferred paleotemperature reconstructions revealed that at both Brier Island Bog Lake and Splan Pond, summer surface-water temperatures dropped abruptly to between 13 and 17°C during the 10–11 ka interval, suggesting that a cooler climate was present in Atlantic Canada correlative with the European Younger Dryas. Diatom assemblage changes during the same period corroborate the occurrence of limnological fluctuations.  相似文献   

A blast of gas in the latest Paleocene: simulating first-order effects of massive dissociation of oceanic methane hydrate   总被引：3，自引：0，他引：3  

Dickens GR  Castillo MM  Walker JC 《Geology》1997,25(3):259-262

Carbonate and organic matter deposited during the latest Paleocene thermal maximum is characterized by a remarkable -2.5% excursion in delta 13C that occurred over approximately 10(4) yr and returned to near initial values in an exponential pattern over approximately 2 x 10(5) yr. It has been hypothesized that this excursion signifies transfer of 1.4 to 2.8 x 10(18) g of CH4 from oceanic hydrates to the combined ocean-atmosphere inorganic carbon reservoir. A scenario with 1.12 x 10(18) g of CH4 is numerically simulated here within the framework of the present-day global carbon cycle to test the plausibility of the hypothesis. We find that (1) the delta 13C of the deep ocean, shallow ocean, and atmosphere decreases by -2.3% over 10(4) yr and returns to initial values in an exponential pattern over approximately 2 x 10(5) yr; (2) the depth of the lysocline shoals by up to 400 m over 10(4) yr, and this rise is most pronounced in one ocean region; and (3) global surface temperature increases by approximately 2 degrees C over 10(4) yr and returns to initial values over approximately 2 x 10(6) yr. The first effect is quantitatively consistent with the geologic record; the latter two effects are qualitatively consistent with observations. Thus, significant CH4 release from oceanic hydrates is a plausible explanation for observed carbon cycle perturbations during the thermal maximum. This conclusion is of broad interest because the flux of CH4 invoked during the maximum is of similar magnitude to that released to the atmosphere from present-day anthropogenic CH4 sources.  相似文献   

Development of microporosity,diffusion channels and deuteric coarsening in perthitic alkali feldspars   总被引：9，自引：1，他引：8  

Richard H. Worden  F. David L. Walker  Ian Parsons  William L. Brown 《Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology》1990,104(5):507-515

Turbidity is an almost universal feature of alkali feldspars in plutonic rocks and has been investigated by us in alkali feldspars from the Klokken syenite using SEM and TEM. It is caused by the presence of myriads of tubular micro-inclusions, either fluid-filled micropores or sites of previous fluid inclusions, and is associated with coarsening of microperthite and development of sub-grains. Micropores are abundant in coarsened areas, in which porosities may reach 4.5%, but are almost absent from uncoarsened, pristine braind-microperthite areas. The coarsening is patchy, and involves a scale increase of up to 10³ without change in the composition of the phases, low albite and low microcline, or in the bulk composition of the crystal. It occurs abruptly along an irregular front within individual crystals, which retain their original shapes. The coherent braid microperthite gives way across the front to an irregular semi-coherent film perthite over a few m and then to a highly coarsened irregular patch perthite containing numerous small sub-grains on scales of a few hundred nm, in both phases. The coarsening and micropore formation occured at a T400°–450° C and it is inferred to have been driven by the release of coherent strain energy, low-angle grain-boundary migration being favoured by a fluid. The patchy nature of the coarsening and the absence of a relationship with initial grain boundaries suggest that the fluid was of local origin, possibly arising in part through exsolution of water from the feldspar. The sub-grain texture and microporosity modify profoundly the permeability of the rock, and greatly enhance the subsequent reactivity of the feldspars.  相似文献   

Spectropolarimetry with a cube beamsplitter     

Gordon Walker  Nadine Dinshaw  Leslie Saddlemyer  Frank Younger 《Experimental Astronomy》1992,2(6):391-398

For less than $2000 in materials we have exploited the DAO 1.8 m Cassegrain spectrograph between 430 and 800 nm for differential linear spectropolarimetry at resolutions up to 30,000 by using a beamsplitting cube as single-channel analyser. The position angle of the cube is under microprocessor control and, to counteract the highly erratic response of the spectrograph image-slicer combination to linear polarisation, we convert to circular polarisation by inserting a quarter-wave plate. The analyser has 40% throughput (c.f. 50% ideal) and we can sense polarisation levels as small as 0.01% with a CCD. Incomplete action of the quater-wave plate is probably the ultimate limit to precision. Details of the reduction procedure are given together with illustrative results for the Be star Per.  相似文献   

Luminescence dating of the last earthquake of the Sabzevar thrust fault, NE Iran     

Morteza Fattahi  Richard T. Walker 《Quaternary Geochronology》2007,2(1-4):284-289

Iran is one of the world's most tectonically active regions, yet dating past earthquakes for neotectonic studies has been limited. One of the main reasons for this is that organic material suitable for radiocarbon dating of deformed sediments is rare. We investigate the use of infrared stimulated luminescence (IRSL) from coarse-grained feldspars to date colluvial deposits associated with the Sabzevar thrust fault in northeastern Iran. The single-aliquot regenerative (SAR) dose measurement procedure was used for this study. The current study investigates monitoring and correcting for sensitivity changes, recovering a known laboratory dose and equivalent dose estimation using three SAR IRSL methods. It is shown that SAR has recovered a given laboratory dose using a range of preheat temperatures but D_e determination of natural samples requires its own preheat plateaus for two of these SAR methods. The SAR IRSL method provided an age of 1.7±0.3 ka for colluvium, predating the last earthquake event on the Sabzevar fault. This result suggests that this fault is likely to be responsible for an earthquake that destroyed Sabzevar city in AD 1052.  相似文献   

A decade of the Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN): scientific achievements, new techniques and future directions   总被引：2，自引：0，他引：2  

G. Chisham  M. Lester  S. E. Milan  M. P. Freeman  W. A. Bristow  A. Grocott  K. A. McWilliams  J. M. Ruohoniemi  T. K. Yeoman  P. L. Dyson  R. A. Greenwald  T. Kikuchi  M. Pinnock  J. P. S. Rash  N. Sato  G. J. Sofko  J.-P. Villain  A. D. M. Walker 《Surveys in Geophysics》2007,28(1):33-109

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The European Union Water Framework Directive: opportunities for palaeolimnology   总被引：4，自引：0，他引：4  

Helen Bennion  Rick Battarbee 《Journal of Paleolimnology》2007,38(2):285-295

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Modelling liquefaction-induced building damage in earthquake loss estimation   总被引：5，自引：2，他引：5  

Juliet F. Bird  Julian J. Bommer  Helen Crowley  Rui Pinho 《Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering》2006,26(1):15-30

The assessment of building damage caused by liquefaction-induced ground deformations requires the definition of building capacity and vulnerability as a function of the demand, as well as damage scales to describe the state of the damaged building. This paper presents a framework for resolving these issues within the context of earthquake loss estimations, where large variations in building stock and ground conditions must be considered. The principal modes of building response to both uniform and differential ground movements are discussed and the uncertainties in their evaluation are highlighted. A unified damage scale is proposed for use in both reconnaissance and assessment of all modes of building damage, including ‘rigid body’ response of structures on stiff foundations to uniform or differential ground movements. The interaction of ground shaking and liquefaction in the context of induced structural damage is also briefly considered. The paper raises important aspects of earthquake loss estimations in regions of liquefaction potential, which remain relatively poorly defined at present.  相似文献