Search results for "crust"
showing 10 items of 599 documents
Large Blooms of
2018
ABSTRACT Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) account for a substantial portion of primary production in dryland ecosystems. They successionally mature to deliver a suite of ecosystem services, such as carbon sequestration, water retention and nutrient cycling, and climate regulation. Biocrust assemblages are extremely well adapted to survive desiccation and to rapidly take advantage of the periodic precipitation events typical of arid ecosystems. Here we focus on the wetting response of incipient cyanobacterial crusts as they mature from “light” to “dark.” We sampled a cyanobacterial biocrust chronosequence before (dry) and temporally following a controlled wetting event and used high-throug…
Sex in an uncertain world: environmental stochasticity helps restore competitive balance between sexually and asexually reproducing populations
2014
Like many organisms, individuals of the freshwater ostracod species Eucypris virens exhibit either obligate sexual or asexual reproductive modes. Both types of individual routinely co-occur, including in the same temporary freshwater pond (their natural habitat in which they undergo seasonal diapause). Given the well-known two-fold cost of sex, this begs the question of how sexually reproducing individuals are able to coexist with their asexual counterparts in spite of such overwhelming costs. Environmental stochasticity in the form of 'false dawn' inundations (where the first hydration is ephemeral and causes loss of early hatching individuals) may provide an advantage to the sexual subpop…
Metric discrimination and distribution of the species of Crocidura occuring in Tunisia
1992
A recent paper on the occurrence of the genus Crocidura in Tunisia reports a single specimen identified as C. suaveolens. Therefore a third species, besides C. russula and C. whitakeri would occur in the country. However, the presence of C. suaveolens in North-Africa is controversial and was recently ruled out from the other Maghrebi countries (Algieria and Morocco). During the period 1989-90, 71 specimens of shrews were collected from owls pellets or trapped at Tunisian 12 sites. This material was measured and studied both by classic morphometric and multivariate methods (Fuzzy test, Principal Coordinate Analysis and Generalized Procrustes Analysis), considering also reference samples (C. …
Effect ofMicrocystis aeruginosa andNodularia spumigena on survival ofEurytemora affinis and the embryonic and larval development of the Baltic herrin…
2003
Laboratory experiments were carried out to investigate the effect of two strains of Microcystis aeruginosa and a strain of Nodularia spumigena on the survival of Eurytemora affinis (Copepoda) and on the embryonic and larval development of the Baltic spring-spawning herring Clupea harengus membras. The trials were made in water taken from Parnu Bay, at a salinity of 3.7–5.1 psu, a constant temperature (15°C ± 1°C in trials with Eurytemora and herring embryos; 18°C ± 2°C with herring larvae), and an oxygen concentration of 8.8–10.4 ppm. The strains tested had a negative impact on the survival of Eurytemora, as well as on the embryonic development and hatching regime of the Baltic herring. In …
The origin and evolution of breakouts in a cooling-limited rhyolite lava flow
2018
Understanding lava flow processes is important for interpreting existing lavas and for hazard assessments. Although substantial progress has been made for basaltic lavas our understanding of silicic lava flows has seen limited recent advance. In particular, the formation of lava flow breakouts, which represent a characteristic process in cooling-limited basaltic lavas, but has not been described in established models of rhyolite emplacement. Using data from the 2011–2012 rhyolite eruption of Puyehue-Cordón Caulle, Chile, we develop the first conceptual framework to classify breakout types in silicic lavas, and to describe the processes involved in their progressive growth, inflation, and mo…
Geochemical constraints on basalt petrogenesis in the Strait of Sicily Rift Zone (Italy): Insights into the importance of short lengthscale mantle he…
2020
Igneous activity from the late Miocene to historic time (most recently 1891 CE) in the Strait of Sicily has created two volcanic islands (Pantelleria and Linosa) and several seamounts. These volcanoes are dominated by transitional (ol + hy-normative) to alkaline (ne-normative) basaltic lavas and scoriae; volcanic felsic rocks (peralkaline trachyte-rhyolite) crop out only on Pantelleria. Although most likely erupted through continental crust, basalts demonstrate no evidence of crustal contamination and are geochemically similar to oceanic island basalts (OIB). Despite their isotopic similarities, there are considerable compositional differences with respect to major and trace element geochem…
GEOCHEMICAL CONSTRAINTS ON THE ORIGIN OF CALCALKALINE AND ALKALINE MAGMAS OF THE EASTERN TRANS-MEXICAN VOLCANIC BELT
1988
Se presentan datos de elementos mayores, elementos trazas y tierras raras de rocas calco-alcalinas y alcalinas de la parte este del cinturón volcánico transmexicano (TMVB), así como conclusiones acerca de su origen y de su significado tectónico. Las andesitas y dacitas muestran características geoquímicas que descartan su derivación de los magmas basálticos por el proceso de cristalización fraccionada. Las distribuciones gráficas de los elementos LIL y HFS son interpretadas como indicadoras de la formación de magmas en el manto superior modificado por procesos de subducción. Las riolitas se interpretan como resultado de la fusión parcial de la corteza continental.
Metamorphism and melting of picritic crust in the early Earth
2014
Abstract Partial melting experiments with models of Archean oceanic crust (MAOC; with 11, 13 and 15 wt.% MgO) are used to investigate the role of metamorphism and melting of primary picritic compositions in the formation of TTG-like melts and continental crust on the early Earth. The approach investigates the possibility that the average early crust composition was comparatively MgO-rich and evolved to lower magnesium content during the secular cooling of the Earth. High-pressure partial melting experiments indicate a transition of melt compositions from aluminous basaltic melts in MAOC 15 to predominantly tonalitic melts in MAOC 11 and higher melting temperatures with increasing magnesium …
Petrology of mafic lavas within the Onega plateau, central Karelia: evidence for 2.0 Ga plume-related continental crustal growth in the Baltic Shield
1998
The Onega plateau constitutes part of a vast continental flood basalt province in the SE Baltic Shield. It consists of Jatulian-Ludikovian submarine volcanic, volcaniclastic and sedimentary sequences attaining in places 4.5 km in thickness. The parental magmas of the lavas contained ∼10% MgO and were derived from melts generated in the garnet stability field at depths 80–100 km. The Sm-Nd mineral and Pb-Pb whole-rock isochron ages of 1975 ± 24 and 1980 ± 57 Ma for the upper part of the plateau and a SHRIMP U-Pb zircon age of 1976 ± 9 Ma for its lower part imply the formation of the entire sequence within a short time span. These ages coincide with those of picrites in the Pechenga-Imandra b…
Geochemistry, petrogenesis and tectonic setting of the Samothraki mafic suite, NE Greece: Trace-element, isotopic and zircon age constraints
2009
Abstract The Samothraki mafic suite in the north-eastern Aegean Sea, Greece, is an ‘in situ’ magmatic complex comprising gabbros, sparse dykes and basalt flows and pillows cut by late dolerite dykes. We have determined the age of the complex by SHRIMP zircon geochronology of a gabbro as 159.9 ± 4.5 Ma (i.e. Oxfordian; early Late Jurassic), which precludes any correlation with the so-called Lesvos ophiolite further south (253.1 ± 5.6 Ma; Latest Permian). Six distinct, hitherto unrecognised, geochemical groups have been identified among the basalts and dolerites of the Samothraki mafic suite on the basis of trace-element and Nd–Sr isotopic characteristics. All groups show the presence of an e…