Search results for " Sediments"
showing 10 items of 217 documents
Sulfur isotope's signal of nanopyrites enclosed in 2.7 Ga stromatolitic organic remains reveal microbial sulfate reduction.
2018
18 pages; International audience; Microbial sulfate reduction (MSR) is thought to have operated very early on Earth and is often invoked to explain the occurrence of sedimentary sulfides in the rock record. Sedimentary sulfides can also form from sulfides produced abiotically during late diagenesis or metamorphism. As both biotic and abiotic processes contribute to the bulk of sedimentary sulfides, tracing back the original microbial signature from the earliest Earth record is challenging. We present in situ sulfur isotope data from nanopyrites occurring in carbonaceous remains lining the domical shape of stromatolite knobs of the 2.7-Gyr-old Tumbiana Formation (Western Australia). The anal…
OSL dating of Middle Weichselian age shallow basin sediments in Western Latvia, Eastern Baltic
2012
Abstract This paper presents the results of the first attempt to date the Quaternary sediments of western Latvia in the southeast Baltic region, using luminescence. The analyses have been carried out on sandy sediments of the Jurkalne Formation that are located between upper and lower Scandinavian sourced tills. Previous publications on the origin of the Quaternary sediments in the region are reviewed and it is found that there are a wide range of explanations for their processes of formation and their age of formation. It is concluded that although the sandy sediments were deposited in freshwater environment although they contain both marine and freshwater fauna and flora, a property that …
Investigating the influence of climate changes on rodent communities at a regional-scale (MIS 1-3, southwestern France).
2016
25 pages; International audience; Terrestrial ecosystems have continuously evolved throughout the Late Pleistocene and theHolocene, deeply affected by both progressive environmental and climatic modifications, aswell as by abrupt and large climatic changes such as the Heinrich or Dansgaard-Oeschgerevents. Yet, the impacts of these different events on terrestrial mammalian communities arepoorly known, as is the role played by potential refugia on geographical species distributions.This study examines community changes in rodents of southwestern France between50 and 10 ky BP by integrating 94 dated faunal assemblages coming from 37 archaeologicalsites. This work reveals that faunal distributi…
New stratigraphical data on the Middle-Late Jurassic biosiliceous sediments from the Sicanian basin, Western Sicily (Italy)
2008
The reported data present the stratigraphy of several sections across a Middle–Late Jurassic Radiolaritic Unit, well exposed in different thrust sheets pertaining to the Maghrebian chain of Southwestern Sicily. The aim was to define the chronostratigraphical distribution of the Jurassic biosiliceous sedi- mentation in the Sicanian palaeogeographical zone, a deep water basin belonging to the Southern Tethys continental margin. The radiolarian biostratigraphy indicates that the switching from carbonate to siliceous sedimentation in the Sicanian Basin is referable to the Bajocian, as shown by the section of Campofiorito, near Corleone. The biostratigraphical dataset allows the correlation betw…
The Spirit Rover's Athena science investigation at Gusev Crater, Mars.
2004
The Mars Exploration Rover Spirit and its Athena science payload have been used to investigate a landing site in Gusev crater. Gusev is hypothesized to be the site of a former lake, but no clear evidence for lacustrine sedimentation has been found to date. Instead, the dominant lithology is basalt, and the dominant geologic processes are impact events and eolian transport. Many rocks exhibit coatings and other characteristics that may be evidence for minor aqueous alteration. Any lacustrine sediments that may exist at this location within Gusev apparently have been buried by lavas that have undergone subsequent impact disruption.
GEOCHEMICAL AND MINERALOGICAL FINGERPRINTS OF THE SEDIMENTS SUPPLY AND EARLY DIAGENETIC PROCESSES IN THE BIZERTE LAGOON (TUNISIA)
2016
International audience; The Bizerte Lagoon (Tunisia) functions as a sedimentation environment characterized by receiving allochthonous sediments mainly transported by the Ben Hassine, Rharek and Guenich streams, as well as marine sediments from the Mediterranean Sea. It is subjected to significantenvironmental changes due to the natural and anthropic influences altering the natural patterns of circulation, extraction and/or deposition of mineralogical materials. The aim of this investigation is to analyze the sediments supply and early diagenetic processes in Bizerte Lagoon. Thephyicochemical parameter of the sediment pore water, as well as their texture, mineralogical composition (X-Ray di…
Spatial distribution of N-cycling microbial communities showed complex patterns in constructed wetland sediments.
2013
International audience; Constructed wetlands are used for biological treatment of wastewater from agricultural lands carrying pollutants such as nitrates. Nitrogen removal in wetlands occurs from direct assimilation by plants and through microbial nitrification and denitrification. We investigated the spatial distribution of N-cycling microbial communities and genes involved in nitrification and denitrification in constructed wetland sediments receiving irrigation water. We used quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) to characterize microbial communities. Geostatistical variance analysis was used to relate them with vegetation cover and biogeochemical sediment properties. The spatial distributio…
Shallow water marine sediment bacterial community shifts along a natural CO2 gradient in the Mediterranean Sea off Vulcano, Italy.
2014
The effects of increasing atmospheric CO2 on ocean ecosystems are a major environmental concern, as rapid shoaling of the carbonate saturation horizon is exposing vast areas of marine sediments to corrosive waters worldwide. Natural CO2 gradients off Vulcano, Italy, have revealed profound ecosystem changes along rocky shore habitats as carbonate saturation levels decrease, but no investigations have yet been made of the sedimentary habitat. Here, we sampled the upper 2 cm of volcanic sand in three zones, ambient (median pCO(2) 419 mu atm, minimum Omega(arag) 3.77), moderately CO2-enriched (median pCO(2) 592 mu atm, minimum Omega(arag) 2.96), and highly CO2-enriched (median pCO(2) 1611 mu at…
Archaea in boreal Swedish lakes are diverse, dominated by Woesearchaeota and follow deterministic community assembly
2020
Despite their key role in biogeochemical processes, particularly the methane cycle, archaea are widely underrepresented in molecular surveys because of their lower abundance compared to bacteria and eukaryotes. Here, we use parallel high‐resolution small subunit rRNA gene sequencing to explore archaeal diversity in 109 Swedish lakes and correlate archaeal community assembly mechanisms to large‐scale latitudinal, climatic (nemoral to arctic), and nutrient (oligotrophic to eutrophic) gradients. Sequencing with universal primers showed the contribution of archaea was on average 0.8% but increased up to 1.5% of the three domains in forest lakes. Archaea‐specific sequencing revealed that freshwa…
Diuron environmental levels effects on marine nematodes: Assessment of ecological indices, taxonomic diversity, and functional traits
2021
Abstract Coastal marine systems are the most sensitive zones to emerging pollutants. The present study aims to investigate the effect of Diuron on the meiofaunal assemblages, collected from the Bizerte channel (Tunisia). Microcosm experiments were set up using four increasing Diuron concentrations [D1 (10 ng g−1 dry weight (DW)), D2 (50 ng g−1 DW), D3 (250 ng g−1 DW) and (1250 ng g−1 DW)] compared to non-contaminated sediments (controls) and all plots were incubated for 30 days. Our results show that Diuron-supplemented sediments provoked the significant decrease of meiofaunal abundance as well as a change in nematodes' diversity and structure composition. All univariate indices, as well as…