Impacts of maintenance channel dredging in a northern Adriatic coastal lagoon. II: Effects on macrobenthic assemblages in channels and ponds     

Massimo Ponti  Andrea PasterisRoberta Guerra  Marco Abbiati 《Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science》2009

Coastal lagoons are ephemeral habitats whose conservation requires human intervention, such as maintenance dredging of inner channels. Dredging can reduce the abundance of benthic species due to the removal of individuals with the sediment, modify sediment properties, and resuspend fine sediment, nutrients and pollutants, which can lead to eutrophication, hypoxic events and increasing toxicity. Both direct effects in the dredged channel and possible indirect effects in surrounding shallow areas could be expected. This study assesses the effects of the channel maintenance dredging, performed between October 2004 and August 2005, on the invertebrate assemblages both in channels and adjacent ponds in the northern Adriatic coastal lagoon of Pialassa Baiona. The lagoon is affected by eutrophication, chemical and thermal pollution from wastewater treatment and power plants. Three impacted sites were located in the dredged channel and three in the adjacent interconnected shallow water ponds, while three non-impacted sites were located in a channel and in a pond far from the dredged area. Replicate samples were collected from each site one time before and one time after the dredging operations. Despite the extent of the intervention, effects of the dredging on macrobenthic assemblages were detected only within the dredged channel, while in the surrounding ponds no clear and unequivocal effects were found. In particular the dredging could have promoted the increase of the abundance of the polychaete Streblospio shrubsolii in the southern and central parts of the dredged channel and the increase in abundance of the amphipod Corophium insidiosum in the northern side, compared to the controls. Instead, species diversity was reduced in the central and northern parts of the dredged channel. These effects on the macrobenthic invertebrate assemblages could be related to the observed changes of sediment characteristics, contamination and toxicity. Overall, direct effects on benthic assemblages in the dredged channels were more detectable than the possible secondary effects in the surrounding shallow ponds, where the higher spatial heterogeneity can mask any relevant effects.  相似文献   

Fundamental physics and absolute positioning metrology with the MAGIA lunar orbiter     

Simone Dell��Agnello  Caterina Lops  Giovanni O. Delle Monache  Douglas G. Currie  Manuele Martini  Roberto Vittori  Angioletta Coradini  Cesare Dionisio  Marco Garattini  Alessandro Boni  Claudio Cantone  Riccardo March  Giovanni Bellettini  Roberto Tauraso  Mauro Maiello  Luca Porcelli  Simone Berardi  Nicola Intaglietta 《Experimental Astronomy》2011,32(1):19-35

MAGIA is a mission approved by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) for Phase A study. Using a single large-diameter laser retroreflector, a large laser retroreflector array and an atomic clock onboard MAGIA we propose to perform several fundamental physics and absolute positioning metrology experiments: VESPUCCI, an improved test of the gravitational redshift in the Earth?CMoon system predicted by General Relativity; MoonLIGHT-P, a precursor test of a second generation Lunar Laser Ranging (LLR) payload for precision gravity and lunar science measurements under development for NASA, ASI and robotic missions of the proposed International Lunar Network (ILN); Selenocenter (the center of mass of the Moon), the determination of the position of the Moon center of mass with respect to the International Terrestrial Reference Frame/System (ITRF/ITRS); this will be compared to the one from Apollo and Lunokhod retroreflectors on the surface; MapRef, the absolute referencing of MAGIA??s lunar altimetry, gravity and geochemical maps with respect to the ITRF/ITRS. The absolute positioning of MAGIA will be achieved thanks to: (1) the laboratory characterization of the retroreflector performance at INFN-LNF; (2) the precision tracking by the International Laser Ranging Service (ILRS), which gives two fundamental contributions to the ITRF/ITRS, i.e. the metrological definition of the geocenter (the Earth center of mass) and of the scale of length; (3) the radio science and accelerometer payloads; (4) support by the ASI Space Geodesy Center in Matera, Italy. Future ILN geodetic nodes equipped with MoonLIGHT and the Apollo/Lunokhod retroreflectors will become the first realization of the International Moon Reference Frame (IMRF), the lunar analog of the ITRF.  相似文献   

A 3‐D study of mineral inclusions in chromite from ordinary chondrites using synchrotron radiation X‐ray tomographic microscopy—Method and applications     

Carl ALWMARK  Birger SCHMITZ  Sanna HOLM  Federica MARONE  Marco STAMPANONI 《Meteoritics & planetary science》2011,46(8):1071-1081

Abstract– A method is described for imaging in 3‐D the interiors of meteoritic chromite grains and their inclusions using synchrotron radiation X‐ray tomographic microscopy. In ordinary chondrites, chromite is the only common mineral that survives long‐term weathering on Earth. Information about the silicate matrix of the original meteorite, however, can be derived from mineral inclusions preserved in the protecting chromite. The inclusions are crucial in the classification of fossil meteorites as well as sediment‐dispersed chromite grains from decomposed meteorites and larger impacts, as these are used for characterizing the past influx of material to Earth, but have previously been difficult to locate. The method is non‐destructive and time efficient for locating inclusions. The method allowed quantitative and morphological studies of both host chromite grains and inclusions in three dimensions. The study of 385 chromite grains from eight chondrites (H4–6, L4–6, LL4, LL6) reveals that inclusions are abundant and equally common in all samples. Almost two‐thirds of all chromite grains contain inclusions, regardless of group and type. The study also shows that the size of the inclusions and the host chromite grains, as well as the number of inclusions, within the host chromite grains vary with petrographic type. Thus, the petrographic type of the host of a suite of chromite grains can be determined based solely on inclusion content. The study also revealed that the amount of fractures in the host chromite can be correlated to previously assigned shock stages for the various chondrites. The study has thus shown that the features and inclusions of fossil chromite grains can give similar information about a former host meteorite as do studies of an unweathered whole meteorite, meaning that this technique is essential in the studies of ancient meteorite flux to Earth.  相似文献   

POLARIX: a pathfinder mission of X-ray polarimetry     

Enrico Costa  Ronaldo Bellazzini  Gianpiero Tagliaferri  Giorgio Matt  Andrea Argan  Primo Attinà  Luca Baldini  Stefano Basso  Alessandro Brez  Oberto Citterio  Sergio Di Cosimo  Vincenzo Cotroneo  Sergio Fabiani  Marco Feroci  Antonella Ferri  Luca Latronico  Francesco Lazzarotto  Massimo Minuti  Ennio Morelli  Fabio Muleri  Lucio Nicolini  Giovanni Pareschi  Giuseppe Di Persio  Michele Pinchera  Massimiliano Razzano  Luigia Reboa  Alda Rubini  Antonio Maria Salonico  Carmelo Sgro’  Paolo Soffitta  Gloria Spandre  Daniele Spiga  Alessio Trois 《Experimental Astronomy》2010,28(2-3):137-183

Since the birth of X-ray astronomy, spectral, spatial and timing observation improved dramatically, procuring a wealth of information on the majority of the classes of the celestial sources. Polarimetry, instead, remained basically unprobed. X-ray polarimetry promises to provide additional information procuring two new observable quantities, the degree and the angle of polarization. Polarization from celestial X-ray sources may derive from emission mechanisms themselves such as cyclotron, synchrotron and non-thermal bremsstrahlung, from scattering in aspheric accreting plasmas, such as disks, blobs and columns and from the presence of extreme magnetic field by means of vacuum polarization and birefringence. Matter in strong gravity fields and Quantum Gravity effects can be studied by X-ray polarimetry, too. POLARIX is a mission dedicated to X-ray polarimetry. It exploits the polarimetric response of a Gas Pixel Detector, combined with position sensitivity, that, at the focus of a telescope, results in a huge increase of sensitivity. The heart of the detector is an Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) chip with 105,600 pixels each one containing a full complete electronic chain to image the track produced by the photoelectron. Three Gas Pixel Detectors are coupled with three X-ray optics which are the heritage of JET-X mission. A filter wheel hosting calibration sources unpolarized and polarized is dedicated to each detector for periodic on-ground and in-flight calibration. POLARIX will measure time resolved X-ray polarization with an angular resolution of about 20 arcsec in a field of view of 15 × 15 arcmin and with an energy resolution of 20% at 6 keV. The Minimum Detectable Polarization is 12% for a source having a flux of 1 mCrab and 10⁵ s of observing time. The satellite will be placed in an equatorial orbit of 505 km of altitude by a Vega launcher. The telemetry down-link station will be Malindi. The pointing of POLARIX satellite will be gyroless and it will perform a double pointing during the earth occultation of one source, so maximizing the scientific return. POLARIX data are for 75% open to the community while 25% + SVP (Science Verification Phase, 1 month of operation) is dedicated to a core program activity open to the contribution of associated scientists. The planned duration of the mission is one year plus three months of commissioning and SVP, suitable to perform most of the basic science within the reach of this instrument. A nice to have idea is to use the same existing mandrels to build two additional telescopes of iridium with carbon coating plus two more detectors. The effective area in this case would be almost doubled.  相似文献   

Orbital and thermal evolutions of four potential targets for a sample return space mission to a primitive near-Earth asteroid     

Patrick Michel  Marco Delbo 《Icarus》2010,209(2):520-534

In this paper, we present our study of the orbital and thermal evolutions, due to solar radiative heating, of four near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) considered as potential target candidates for sample return space missions to primitive asteroids. We used a dynamical model of the NEA population to estimate the most likely source region and orbital history of these objects. Then, for each asteroid, we integrated numerically over their entire lifetime a set of 14 initially indistinguishable orbit (clones), obtained by small variations of the nominal initial conditions. Using a thermal model, we then computed surface and sub-surface temperatures of these bodies during their dynamical history. Our aim is to determine whether these bodies are likely to have experienced high temperature level, and whether great temperature changes can be expected due to the orbital changes as well as their maximum and minimum values. Such information is important in the framework of sample return space missions whose goal is to bring back pristine materials. The knowledge of the temperature range of materials at different depth over the orbital evolution of potential targets can help defining sampling strategies that ensure the likelihood that unaltered material will be brought back. Our results suggest that for all the considered potential targets, the surface has experienced for some time temperatures greater than 400 K and at most 500 K with 50% probability. This probability drops rapidly with increasing temperature. Sub-surface materials at a depth of only 3 cm are much more protected from high temperature and generally do not reach temperatures exceeding 450 K (with 50% probability). They should thus be unaltered at this depth at least from a Sun-driven heating point of view. On the other hand, surface material for some of the considered objects can have a range of temperature which can make them less reliable as pristine materials. However, it is assumed here that the same material is constantly exposed to solar heat, while regolith turnover may occur. The latter can be caused by different processes such as seismic shaking and/or impact cratering. This would reduce the total time that materials are exposed to a certain temperature. Thus, it is very likely that a sample collected from any of the four considered targets, or any primitive NEA with similar dynamical properties, will have components that will be thermally unaltered as long as some of it comes from only 3 to 5 cm depth. Such a depth is not considered difficult to reach with some of the current designs of sampling devices.  相似文献   

Experimental Validation of Modified Barton’s Model for Rock Fractures   总被引：2，自引：2，他引：0  

Pooyan Asadollahi  Marco C. A. Invernizzi  Simone Addotto  Fulvio Tonon 《Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering》2010,43(5):597-613

Among the constitutive models for rock fractures developed over the years, Barton’s empirical model has been widely used. Although Barton’s failure criterion predicts peak shear strength of rock fractures with acceptable precision, it has some limitations in estimating the peak shear displacement, post-peak shear strength, dilation, and surface degradation. The first author modified Barton’s original model in order to address these limitations. In this study, the modified Barton’s model (the peak shear displacement, the shear stress–displacement curve, and the dilation displacement) is validated by conducting a series of direct shear tests.  相似文献   

Sardignaite, a new mineral, the second known bismuth molybdate: description and crystal structure     

Paolo Orlandi  Marco Pasero  Simona Bigi 《Mineralogy and Petrology》2010,100(1-2):17-22

The new mineral sardignaite, a bismuth molybdate with formula BiMo₂O₇(OH)·2H₂O, occurs in quartz veins within a granitic rock at Su Senargiu, near Sarroch, Sardegna, Italy. The name is after the locality. Sardignaite occurs a thin prismatic crystals up to 1 mm in length, with pale yellow color and a white streak. It is transparent with adamantine lustre, non fluorescent, and brittle with a conchoidal fracture. It is associated with bismuthinite, bismoclite, molybdenite, ferrimolybdite, koechlinite, wulfenite, and the new mineral IMA 2009–022. Mohs hardness is ca. 3. D _calc is 4.82 g/cm³. The mineral is monoclinic, space group P2₁/m, with a 5.7797(7), b 11.567(1), c 6.3344(8) Å, β 113.360(9)°, V 388.8(1) ų. The strongest lines in the powder X-ray diffraction pattern are d(I)(hkl): 3.206(100)(031), 5.03(80)(?101), 1.992(45)(221), 3.120(32)(130). The crystal structure of sardignaite was solved to R(F) 0.056 using single-crystal X-ray diffraction data, and is characterized by edge-sharing dimers of [MoO₅(H₂O)] octahedra, linked to each other through corner-sharing to give rise to corrugated columns running along b. Such columns are held together by Bi³⁺ cations, eight-fold coordinated by 7 O + 1 (OH). Both the mineral and its name were approved by the IMA-CNMNC.  相似文献   

Quantitative vulnerability estimation for scenario-based landslide hazards   总被引：4，自引：1，他引：3  

Zhihong Li  Farrokh Nadim  Hongwei Huang  Marco Uzielli  Suzanne Lacasse 《Landslides》2010,7(2):125-134

Within the engineering profession and natural sciences, vulnerability is widely accepted to be defined as the degree of loss (or damage) to a given element or set of elements within the area affected by a threat. The value of vulnerability is expressed nondimensionally between 0 and 1. It is a fundamental component in the evaluation of landslide risk, and its accurate estimation is essential in making a reasonable prediction of the landslide consequences. Obviously, vulnerability to landslides depends not only on the characteristics of the element(s) at risk but also on the landslide intensity. This paper summarizes previous research on vulnerability to landslides and proposes a new quantitative model for vulnerability of structures and persons based on landslide intensity and resistance of exposed elements. In addition, an approximate function is suggested for estimating the vulnerability of persons in structures. Different methods for estimating the vulnerability of various elements to slow or rapid landslides are discussed. Finally, the application of the new model is illustrated through an example.  相似文献   

The catalog of the meteorite collection of the Italian Museum of Planetary Sciences in Prato (Italy)     

Marco Morelli  Annarita Franza  Daniela Faggi  Giovanni Pratesi 《Meteoritics & planetary science》2023,58(7):945-954

For the first time, this paper presents to the planetary scientists' community the catalog of the meteorite collection preserved at the Italian Museum of Planetary Sciences (Museo Italiano di Scienze Planetarie, henceforth MISP) in Prato (Italy). Founded in 2005, MISP is a type specimen official repository approved by the Nomenclature Committee of the Meteoritical Society. It represents one of the few museums worldwide entirely devoted to planetary sciences. The catalog of its meteorite collection encompasses 430 meteorites for a total of 1536 specimens, including 291 thin sections, 184 thick sections, and 278 specimens that MISP has classified. Furthermore, MISP is currently classifying 57 other meteorites. Some samples were found during meteorite recovery expeditions in hot deserts, promoted by MISP in collaboration with diverse Italian universities and national research institutions. MISP also keeps an impact rocks collection comprising 257 samples. In a country like Italy, where most of the collected meteorites are housed in museums whose catalogs are not available online, the publication of the MISP meteorite collection catalog, together with the catalog of the impact rocks collection, represents not only a significant scientific primary source but also a remarkable tool for disseminating meteoritics to nonresearch audiences in educational activities and citizen science projects.  相似文献   

Short- and long-term response of phytoplankton to ENSO in Prydz Bay,Antarctica: Evidences from field measurements,remote sensing data and stratigraphic biomarker records     

Jun Zhao  Hans-Ulrich Peter  Haisheng Zhang  Zhengbing Han  Chuanyu Hu  Peisong Yu  Bing Lu  Thomas S. Bianchi 《中国海洋大学学报(英文版)》2014,13(3):437-444

The study provides one of the first lines of evidence showing linkages between Antarctic phytoplankton abundance and composition in response to ENSO, based on historical reconstruction of sediment biomarkers. In addition to sediment biomarkers, field measured and remote sensing data of phytoplankton abundance were also recorded from Prydz Bay, Eastern Antarctica. Com-munity structure of field measured phytoplankton showed significant El Ni？o/La Ni？a-related succession during 1990 to 2002. In general, the number of algae species decreased during El Ni？o and La Ni？a years compared to normal years. Austral summer monthly variation of remotely sensed chlorophyll-a （Chl-a）, particulate organic carbon （POC）, and sea surface temperature （SST） indicated that ENSO impacted the timing of phytoplankton blooms during 2007 to 2011. Phytoplankton blooms （indicated by Chl-a and POC） preceded the increases in SST during El Ni？o years, and lagged behind the SST increases during La Ni？a years. Stratigraphic record of marine sedimentary lipid （brassicasterol, dinosterol and alkenones） biomarkers inferred that the proportions of different algae （diatoms, dinoflagellates and haptophytes） changed significantly between El Ni？o and La Ni？a events. The relative proportion of diatoms increased, with that of dinoflagellates being decreased during El Ni？o years, while it was reversed during La Ni？a years.  相似文献