Editorial     

Malcolm G. Anderson  Des E. Walling 《水文研究》1993,7(2):i-i

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Life's origin: the cosmic, planetary and biological processes     

Scattergood T  Des Marais D  Jahnke L 《The Planetary report》1987,7(6):4-5

From elements formed in interstellar furnaces to humans peering back at the stars, the evolution of life has been a long, intricate and perhaps inevitable process. Life as we know it requires a planet orbiting a star at just the right distance so that water can exist in liquid form. It needs a rich supply of chemicals and energy sources. On Earth, the combination of chemistry and energy generated molecules that evolved ways of replicating themselves and of passing information from one generation to the next. Thus, the thread of life began. This chart traces the thread, maintained by DNA molecules for much of its history, as it weaves its way through the primitive oceans, gaining strength and diversity along the way. Organisms eventually moved onto the land, where advanced forms, including humans, ultimately arose. Finally, assisted by a technology of its own making, life has reached back out into space to understand its own origins, to expand into new realms, and to seek other living threads in the cosmos.  相似文献   

Inner part observation of theβ pictoris disk     

R. Ferlet  A. Lecavelier Des Etangs  G. Perrin  A. Vidal-Madjar  F. Sèvre  F. Colas  J. E. Arlot  C. Buil  H. Beust  A. M. Lagrange-Henri  J. Lecacheux  M. Deleuil  C. Gry 《Astrophysics and Space Science》1994,212(1-2):173-180

The inner regions of the circumstellar disk around Pictoris might be dust-free due to a possible planet which may have cleared up dust particles. We present a new observational technique based on the use of an anti-blooming CCD in order to directly image this zone. The structure of the disk is revealed down to 2 arcsec from the star (30 AU). We show that the Pic disk brightness is neutral inV, R, andI _C , but drops down when going inward inB, possibly related to a change in the dust composition. Also, a slight disk asymmetry is present but inverted from the outer to the inner zones.Paper presented at the Conference onPlanetary Systems: Formation, Evolution, and Detection held 7–10 December, 1992 at CalTech, Pasadena, California, U.S.A.  相似文献   

Biogeochemical cycles of carbon, sulfur, and free oxygen in a microbial mat   总被引：11，自引：0，他引：11  

Canfield DE  Des Marais DJ 《Geochimica et cosmochimica acta》1993,57(16):3971-3984

Complete budgets for carbon and oxygen have been constructed for cyanobacterial mats dominated by Microcoleus chthonoplastes from the evaporating ponds of a salt works located in Guerrero Negro, Baja California Sur, Mexico. Included in the budget are measured rates of O2 production, sulfate reduction, and elemental exchange across the mat/brine interface, day and night, at various temperatures and times of the year. We infer from this data the various sinks for O2, as well as the sources of carbon for primary production. To summarize, although seasonal variability exists, a major percentage of the O2 produced during the day did not diffuse out of the mat but was used within the mat to oxidize both organic carbon and the sulfide produced by sulfate reduction. At night, most of the O2 that diffused into the mat was used to oxidize sulfide, with O2 respiration of minor importance. During the day, the internal mat processes of sulfate reduction and O2 respiration generated as much or more inorganic carbon (DIC) for primary production as diffusion into the mat. Also, oxygenic photosynthesis was the most important process of carbon fixation, although anoxygenic photosynthesis may have been important at low light levels during some times of the year. At night, the DIC lost from the mat was mostly from sulfate reduction. Elemental fluxes across the mat/brine interface indicated that carbon with an oxidation state of greater than zero was taken up by the mat during the day and liberated from the mat at night. Overall, carbon with an average oxidation state of near zero accumulated in the mat. Both carbon fixation and carbon oxidation rates varied with temperature by a similar amount. These mats are thus closely coupled systems where rapid rates of photosynthesis both require and fuel rapid rates of heterotrophic carbon oxidation.  相似文献   

The concentration and isotopic composition of carbon in basaltic glasses from the Juan de Fuca Ridge, Pacific Ocean     

Blank JG  Delaney JR  Des Marais DJ 《Geochimica et cosmochimica acta》1993,57(4):875-887

The abundance and 13C/12C ratios of carbon were analyzed in basaltic glass from twenty locations along the Juan de Fuca Ridge using a 3-step combustion/extraction technique. Carbon released during the first two combustion steps at 400-500 degrees C and 600-650 degrees C is interpreted to be secondary, and only the carbon recovered during a final combustion step at approximately 1200 degrees C is thought to be indigenous to the samples. For carbon released at approximately 1200 degrees C, glasses analyzed as 1-2 mm chips contained 23-146 ppm C with delta 13C values of -4.8 to -9.3%, whereas samples crushed to 38-63 microns or 63-90 microns yielded 56-103 ppm C with delta 13C values of -6.1 to -9.2%. The concentrations and isotopic compositions of the primary carbon dissolved in the glasses and present in the vesicles are similar to those previously reported for other ocean-ridge basalts. The Juan de Fuca basaltic magmas were not in equilibrium with respect to carbon when they erupted and quenched on the sea floor. Evidence of disequilibrium includes (1) a large range of carbon contents among glasses collected at similar depths, (2) a highly variable calculated carbon isotopic fractionation between melt and vapor determined by comparing crushed and uncrushed splits of the same sample, and (3) a lack of correlation between vesicle abundance, carbon concentration, and depth of eruption. Variations in carbon concentration and delta 13C ratios along the ridge do not correlate with major element chemistry. The observed relationship between carbon concentrations and delta 13C values may be explained by late-stage, variable degrees of open-system (Rayleigh-like) degassing.  相似文献   

Preservation of biological information in thermal spring deposits: developing a strategy for the search for fossil life on Mars   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Walter MR  Des Marais DJ 《Icarus》1993,101(1):129-143

Current interpretations of the early history of Mars suggest many similarities with the early Earth and therefore raise the possibility that the Archean and Proterozoic history of life on Earth could have a counterpart on Mars. Terrestrial experience suggests that, with techniques that can be employed remotely, ancient springs, including thermal springs, could well yield important information. By delivering water and various dissolved species to the sunlit surface of Mars, springs very likely created an environment suitable for life, which could have been difficult, if not impossible, to attain elsewhere. The chemical and temperature gradients associated with thermal springs sort organisms into sharply delineated, distinctive and different communities, and so diverse organisms are concentrated into relatively small areas in a predictable and informative fashion. A wide range of metabolic strategies are concentrated into small areas, thus furnishing a useful and representative sampling of the existing biota. Mineral-charged springwaters frequently deposit chemical precipitates of silica and/or carbonate which incorporate microorganisms and preserve them as fossils. The juxtaposition of stream valley headwaters with volcanoes and impact craters on Mars strongly implies that subsurface heating of groundwater created thermal springs. On Earth, thermal springs create distinctive geomorphic features and chemical signatures which can be detected by remote sensing. Spring deposits can be quite different chemically from adjacent rocks. Individual springs can be hundreds of meters wide, and complexes of springs occupy areas up to several kilometers wide. Benthic microbial mats and the resultant stromatolites occupy a large fraction of the available area. The relatively high densities of fossils and microbial mat fabrics within these deposits make them highly prospective in any search for morphological evidence of life, and there are examples of microbial fossils in spring deposits as old as 300 Myr.  相似文献   

Geo–ecology and management of sensitive montane landscapes     

John E. Gordon  Igor J. Dvorák  Christer Jonasson  Melanie Josefsson  Milena Kociánová  & Des B.A. Thompson 《Geografiska Annaler: Series A, Physical Geography》2002,84(3&4):193-203

Montane (alpine) areas are generally of high value for nature conservation. Such environments and the habitats they support are dynamic and often fragile. They are vulnerable to disturbance from a range of human activities and are responsive to climate changes over short and long timescales. Biodiversity and conservation values are closely linked to geological history, geomorphological processes and soils, and it is crucial that management systems are based on understanding these links.
There are many similarities between the Cairngorm Mountains (Scotland), the Giant Mountains (Czech Republic) and Abisko Mountains (Sweden) in terms of geology, geomorphology, ecology, links with biodiversity and high conservation importance. Comparable pressures and management issues involve, to varying degrees, a history of human use and impacts from deforestation, pasturing, grazing, recreation and atmospheric pollution. Landscape change therefore involves a complex interplay between natural and anthropogenic factors. Managing such change requires better understanding of the geo–ecological processes involved and the factors that determine landscape sensitivity. This is illustrated through a simple framework and examples from the three areas. Comparison of landscape sensitivity between similar montane areas, but in different geographic locations and climatic environments, should allow more informed management planning and a precautionary approach in advance of further changes in human activity and from predicted global warming scenarios.  相似文献   

On the concept of delivery of sediment and nutrients to stream channels     

Keith Beven  Louise Heathwaite  Phil Haygarth  Des Walling  Rich Brazier  Paul Withers 《水文研究》2005,19(2):551-556

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Hydrogeochemical modelling of an active system of uranium fixation by organic soils and sediments (Needle's Eye,Scotland)     

P. Jamet  P. J. Hooker  J. M. Schmitt  E. Ledoux  P. Escalier Des Orres 《Mineralium Deposita》1993,28(1):66-76

Uranium accumulation in organic-rich sediments can be closely modelled by assuming that the dominant effect of the uranium-organic matter interaction is the direct or indirect reduction of uranyl compounds to form U(IV) minerals, especially uraninite-pitchblende. Application of this model to the Needle's Eye (Scotland) site where uranium is actively accumulating in Quaternary sediments demonstrates that uranium accumulation is both effective and rapid in environments involving shallow, organic-rich, reducing horizons. The period of uranium deposit formation at Needle's Eye is estimated to be as short as 5000 years. The transport of uranium to the site of deposition by oxidizing groundwaters and the channelling of these oxidizing uraniferous groundwaters are identified as important factors involved in the rapid accumulation of uranium. The regional hydrogeological model indicates that a fault in the area appears to act as a hydraulic screen for the uraniferous groundwaters. On one side of the fault the Quaternary sediments are well drained whilst on the other the flow of groundwater seeps out creating a major flux just at the bottom of the organic-rich layers. The local hydrogeological model shows that the groundwater flow is vertical in this area. A third significant factor in the development of these uranium accumulations is the presence of a significant nearby source of leachable primary uranium. In the case of the Needle's Eye site this is in the form of some thirty 185 ±20 Ma, pitchblende-bearing veins.  相似文献   

Stratigraphic and structural setting of the Griqualand West and the Olifantshoek Sequences at Black Rock,Beeshoek and Rooinekke Mines,Griqualand West,South Africa     

W. S. Grobbelaar  M. A. Burger  A. I. Pretorius  W. Marais  I. J. M. van Niekerk 《Mineralium Deposita》1995,30(2):152-161

The Black Rock to Rooinekke area has been influenced by the Kheis and Namaqua orogenies. Thrusting associated with the Kheis orogeny is well documented throughout the mining area. Thrusting at Rooinekke resulted in the Griqualand West Sequence rocks overlying parts of the Olifantshoek Sequence. At Black Rock lithologies of the Voëlwater Subgroup have been thrusted onto the Olifantshoek Sequence. A prominent N-S trending graben structure has been observed in the Rooinekke, Beeshoek and Black Rock mining areas. The thrusts are disrupted by these N-S faults. At Rooinekke supergene replacement and enrichment of the iron ore is associated with pre-Olifantshoek N-S faulting. The Namaqua orogeny may also have played a part in upgrading the existing ore bodies under discussion.  相似文献