Effect of polychromatic X‐ray microtomography imaging on the amino acid content of the Murchison CM chondrite     

Jon M. Friedrich  Hannah L. McLain  Jason P. Dworkin  Daniel P. Glavin  W. Henry Towbin  Morgan Hill  Denton S. Ebel 《Meteoritics & planetary science》2019,54(1):220-228

X‐ray microcomputed tomography (μCT) is a useful means of characterizing cosmochemical samples such as meteorites or robotically returned samples. However, there are occasional concerns that the use of μCT may be detrimental to the organic components of a chondrite. Small organic compounds such as amino acids comprise up to ~10% of the total solvent extractable carbon in CM carbonaceous chondrites. We irradiated three samples of the Murchison CM carbonaceous chondrite under conditions akin to and harsher than those typically used during typical benchtop X‐ray μCT imaging experiments to determine if detectable changes in the amino acid abundance and distribution relative to a nonexposed Murchison control sample occurred. After subjecting three meteorite samples to ionizing radiation dosages between ~300 Gray (Gy) and 3 kGy with bremstrahlung X‐rays, we analyzed the amino acid content of each sample. Within sampling and analytical errors, we cannot discern differences in the amino acid abundances and amino acid enantiomeric ratios when comparing the control samples (nonexposed Murchison) and the irradiated samples. We conclude that a polychromatic X‐ray μCT experiment does not alter the abundances of amino acids to a degree greater than how well those abundances are measured with our techniques and therefore any damage to amino acids is minimal.  相似文献   

Rapid climate change-induced collapse of hunter-gatherer societies in the lower Mississippi River valley between ca. 3300 and 2780 cal yr BP     

Tristram R. Kidder  Edward R. Henry  Lee J. Arco 《中国科学:地球科学(英文版)》2018,61(2):178-189

Hunter-gatherer communities in the American Southeast reached an apogee of social and political complexity in the period between ca. 4200 and 3000 cal yr BP. In the lower Mississippi Valley(LMV) the Poverty Point culture defined this period of socio-political elaboration. However, following a significant period of climate change that led to exceptional flooding and a major reorganization of the course of the Mississippi River, this culture collapsed beginning ca. 3300–3200 cal yr BP and the LMV was abandoned for the subsequent 500 years. In this study, we use data from the Jaketown site in the Yazoo Basin of west-central Mississippi to refine the chronology of the climate event that caused the collapse of the Poverty Point culture. A large flood buried Poverty Point-era occupation deposits at Jaketown around 3310 cal yr BP. Lateral migration of the Mississippi River during flooding led to inundation of the Yazoo Basin and re-occupation of ancient river courses. A coarse sand stratum topped by a more than a meter-thick fining upward sediment package marks a crevasse deposit caused by a rupture of the natural levee at Jaketown. This levee breach was part of a larger pattern of erratic flooding throughout the LMV and is associated with major landscape evolution and the abandonment of Poverty Point sites within the valley. Early Woodland peoples re-colonized the crevasse surface after ca. 2780 cal yr BP. Following this event, the Jaketown site and the eastern Yazoo Basin witnessed a period of landscape stability that lasts to this day. These archaeological data demonstrate how climate change and natural disasters can lead to socio-political dissolution and reorganization even in relatively small-scale hunter-gatherer populations.  相似文献   

Marine Macrophyte Wrack Inputs and Dissolved Nutrients in Beach Sands     

Jenifer E. Dugan  David M. Hubbard  Henry M. Page  Joshua P. Schimel 《Estuaries and Coasts》2011,34(4):839-850

We investigated the role of sandy beaches in nearshore nutrient cycling by quantifying macrophyte wrack inputs and examining relationships between wrack accumulation and pore water nutrients during the summer dry season. Macrophyte inputs, primarily giant kelp Macrocystis pyrifera, exceeded 2.3 kg m⁻¹ day⁻¹. Mean wrack biomass varied 100-fold among beaches (range = 0.41 to 46.43 kg m⁻¹). Mean concentrations of dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN), primarily NO_x⁻-N, and dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) in intertidal pore water varied significantly among beaches (ranges = 1 to 6,553 μM and 7 to 2,006 μM, respectively). Intertidal DIN and DON concentrations were significantly correlated with wrack biomass. Surf zone concentrations of DIN were also strongly correlated with wrack biomass and with intertidal DIN, suggesting export of nutrients from re-mineralized wrack. Our results suggest beach ecosystems can process and re-mineralize substantial organic inputs and accumulate dissolved nutrients, which are subsequently available to nearshore waters and primary producers.  相似文献   

Contrasting effects of ecosystem engineering by the cordgrass Spartina maritima and the sandprawn Callianassa kraussi in a marine-dominated lagoon     

D. Pillay  G.M. BranchJ. Dawson  D. Henry 《Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science》2011

Ecosystem engineering by plants and animals significantly influences community structure and the physico-chemical characteristics of marine habitats. In this paper we document the contrasting effects of ecosystem engineering by the cordgrass Spartina maritima and the burrowing sandprawn Callianassa kraussi on physico-chemical characteristics, microflora, macrofaunal community structure and morphological attributes in the high shore intertidal sandflats of Langebaan Lagoon, a marine-dominated system on the west coast of South Africa. Comparisons were made at six sites in the lagoon within Spartina and Callianassa beds, and in a “bare zone” of sandflat between these two habitats that lacks both sandprawns and cordgrass. Sediments in Spartina habitats were consolidated by the root-shoot systems of the cordgrass, leading to low sediment penetrability, while sediments in beds of C. kraussi were more penetrable, primarily due to the destabilising effects of sandprawn bioturbation. Sediments in the “bare zone” had intermediate to low values of penetrability. Sediment organic content was lowest in bare zones and greatest in Spartina beds, while sediment chl-a levels were greatest on bare sand, but were progressively reduced in the Spartina and Callianassa beds. These differences among habitats induced by ecosystem engineering in turn affected the macrofauna. Community structure was different between all three habitats sampled, with species richness being surprisingly greater in Callianassa beds than either the bare zone or Spartina beds. In general, the binding of surface sediments by the root systems of Spartina favoured rigid-bodied, surface-dwelling and tube-building species, while the destabilising effect of bioturbation by C. kraussi favoured burrowing species. The contrasting effects of these ecosystem engineers suggest that they play important roles in increasing habitat heterogeneity. Importantly, the role of bioturbation by C. kraussi in enhancing macrofaunal richness was unexpected. By loosening sediments, reducing anoxia and enhancing organic content, C. kraussi may engineer these high shore habitats to ameliorate environmental stresses or increase food availability.  相似文献   

Cool water geyser travertine: Crystal Geyser,Utah, USA          下载免费PDF全文

Jennifer A. Barth  Henry S. Chafetz 《Sedimentology》2015,62(3):607-620

A sloping travertine mound, approximately 85 m across and a few metres thick is actively forming from cool temperature waters issuing out of Crystal Geyser, east‐central Utah, USA. Older travertine deposits exist at the site, the waters having used the Little Grand Wash Fault system as conduits. In contrast, the present Crystal Geyser travertine mound forms from 18°C waters which have been erupting for the last 80 years from an abandoned oil well. The present Crystal Geyser travertine accumulation forms from a ‘man‐made’ cool temperature geyser system; nevertheless, the constituents are an analogue for ancient geyser‐fed carbonate deposits. The travertine primary fabric is composed of couplets of highly porous, thin micritic laminae intercalated with thicker iron oxide rich laminae. Low Mg‐calcite is the dominant mineralogy; however, aragonite is a major constituent in deposits proximal to the vent and decreases in abundance distally. Cements exhibit a variety of fabrics, isopachous being common. Constituents include micro‐stromatolites, clasts, pisoids and the common occurrence of Frutexites‐like iron oxide precipitates. Leptothrix, a common iron‐oxidizing bacterium, is believed to be responsible for the production of the dense iron‐rich laminae. Pisoids litter the ground around the vent and rapidly decrease distally in abundance and size.  相似文献   

Scenarios with MIT integrated global systems model: significant global warming regardless of different approaches   总被引：1，自引：1，他引：0  

Ronald Prinn  Sergey Paltsev  Andrei Sokolov  Marcus Sarofim  John Reilly  Henry Jacoby 《Climatic change》2011,104(3-4):515-537

A wide variety of scenarios for future development have played significant roles in climate policy discussions. This paper presents projections of greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations, sea level rise due to thermal expansion and glacial melt, oceanic acidity, and global mean temperature increases computed with the MIT Integrated Global Systems Model (IGSM) using scenarios for twenty-first century emissions developed by three different groups: intergovernmental (represented by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), government (represented by the U.S. government Climate Change Science Program) and industry (represented by Royal Dutch Shell plc). In all these scenarios the climate system undergoes substantial changes. By 2100, the CO₂ concentration ranges from 470 to 1020 ppm compared to a 2000 level of 365 ppm, the CO₂-equivalent concentration of all greenhouse gases ranges from 550 to 1780 ppm in comparison to a 2000 level of 415 ppm, oceanic acidity changes from a current pH of around 8 to a range from 7.63 to 7.91, in comparison to a pH change from a preindustrial level by 0.1 unit. The global mean temperature increases by 1.8 to 7.0°C relative to 2000. Such increases will require considerable adaptation of many human systems and will leave some aspects of the earth??s environment irreversibly changed. Thus, the remarkable aspect of these different approaches to scenario development is not the differences in detail and philosophy but rather the similar picture they paint of a world at risk from climate change even if there is substantial effort to reduce emissions.  相似文献   

The impact of logging on the surrounding flow in a managed forest     

Gengsheng Zhang  Monique Y. Leclerc  Anandakumar Karipot  Henrique F. Duarte  Erich Mursch-Radlgruber  Henry L. Gholz 《Theoretical and Applied Climatology》2011,106(3-4):511-521

The influence of a freshly logged area in a managed pine forest on the flow field is investigated by comparing sodar wind profile data over the forest canopy with the synoptic wind field extracted from North American Regional Reanalysis, National Centers for Environmental Prediction. As a consequence of the pressure gradient arising from the sharp temperature difference between the clearcut and the surrounding uncut forests, the local wind direction over the forest measured with the sodar departs dramatically from the prevailing synoptic wind direction when the latter is transverse to the clearcut-sodar direction. Sodar measurements also indicate systematic strong updrafts during daytime followed by nighttime downdrafts with wind coming from the logged area. This suggests the presence of horizontal advection carrying daytime warm air (or nighttime cool air) from the clearcut to the forested area. This paper also examines the influence of wind velocity, clearcut fetch, and solar radiation on locally generated circulations and advection. The presence of local circulations arising from contrasting neighboring surface characteristics well outside the footprint is of particular relevance for atmospheric flux sites where robust surface?Catmosphere exchange values are sought. This study highlights the high level of circumspection required at the time of identifying locations for flux sites. It also suggests vigilant monitoring of the surrounding landscape during eddy?Cflux measurements particularly in actively managed landscapes.  相似文献   

The multiple chronological techniques applied to the Lake Suigetsu SG06 sediment core,central Japan     

Richard A. Staff  Takeshi Nakagawa  Gordon Schlolaut  Michael H. Marshall  Achim Brauer  Henry F. Lamb  Christopher Bronk Ramsey  Charlotte L. Bryant  Fiona Brock  Hiroyuki Kitagawa  Johannes van der Plicht  Rebecca L. Payne  Victoria C. Smith  Darren F. Mark  Alison Macleod  Simon P. E. Blockley  Jean‐Luc Schwenninger  Pavel E. Tarasov  Tsuyoshi Haraguchi  Katsuya Gotanda  Hitoshi Yonenobu  Yusuke Yokoyama  Suigetsu Project Members 《Boreas: An International Journal of Quaternary Research》2013,42(2):259-266

The varved sediment of Lake Suigetsu (central Japan) provides a valuable opportunity to obtain high‐resolution, multi‐proxy palaeoenvironmental data across the last glacial/interglacial cycle. In order to maximize the potential of this archive, a well‐constrained chronology is required. This paper outlines the multiple geochronological techniques being applied – namely varve counting, radiocarbon dating, tephrochronology (including argon–argon dating) and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) – and the approaches by which these techniques are being integrated to form a single, coherent, robust chronology. Importantly, we also describe here the linkage of the floating Lake Suigetsu (SG06) varve chronology and the absolute (IntCal09 tree‐ring) time scale, as derived using radiocarbon data from the uppermost (non‐varved) portion of the core. This tie‐point, defined as a distinct (flood) marker horizon in SG06 (event layer B‐07–08 at 1397.4 cm composite depth), is thus derived to be 11 255 to 11 222 IntCal09 cal. years BP (68.2% probability range).  相似文献   

Subsurface flow processes in sloping cropland of purple soil   总被引：3，自引：1，他引：2  

LIN Henry 《山地科学学报》2012,9(1):1-9

Subsurface flow is a prominent runoff process in sloping lands of purple soil in the upper Yangtze River basin.However,it remains difficult to identify and quantify.In this study,in situ runoff experimental plots were used to measure soil moisture dynamics using an array of time domain reflectometry(TDR) together with overland flow and subsurface flow using isolated collecting troughs.Frequency of preferential flow during rainfall events and the controls of subsurface flow processes were investigated through combined analysis of soil properties,topography,rainfall intensity,initial wetness,and tillage.Results showed that subsurface flow was ubiquitous in purple soil profiles due to welldeveloped macropores,especially in surface soils while frequency of preferential flow occurrence was very low(only 2 cases in plot C) during all 22 rainfall events.Dry antecedent moisture conditions promoted the occurrence of preferential flow.However,consecutive real-time monitoring of soil moisture at different depths and various slope positions implied the possible occurrence of multiple subsurface lateral flows during intensive storms.Rainfall intensity,tillage operation,and soil properties were recognized as main controls of subsurface flow in the study area,which allows the optimization of management practices for alleviating adverse environmental effects of subsurface flow in the region.  相似文献   

ESR dating of dental enamel from Middle Palaeolithic levels at Lazaret Cave,France     

Véronique Michel  Guanjun Shen  Patricia Valensi  Henry de Lumley 《Quaternary Geochronology》2009,4(3):233-240

ESR dating was carried out on Cervus elaphus tooth enamel samples from the depositional sequence of Lazaret Cave, Nice, France. The deposits contain Anteneandertal hominid fossils associated with abundant lithic artefacts and faunal remains. Three samples from the Mousterian occupations in complex CIII (Fouille d'entrée) yielded early uptake (EU) ages between 108 and 125 ka and linear uptake (LU) ages between 133 and 160 ka. Seven samples from the Acheulian levels in the upper part of the complex CII (Fouille d'entrée and Fouille centre) gave EU ages between 113 and 165 ka and LU ages between 147 and 210 ka, with weighted means at 131 ± 7 and 165 ± 9 ka, respectively. The results of six enamel samples from the lower Acheulian levels at Locus VIII, another place in the cave, were discarded because of their decreasing tendency with depth. The US–ESR combination method was also applied and the CSUS–ESR dates were calculated using the ESR-DATA program. Altogether, the data suggest that the Lazaret Acheulian and Mousterian occupations were rapidly formed during OIS 6.  相似文献