ALBERT

Description: The work describes a method for the determination of the conversion by radical photopolymerization of acrylic coatings that is suitable for an in situ monitoring during the coating process.The applied method is based on the 1620 nm overtone absorption of the acrylate end group. The capability of the sensor to discriminate between polymerized and unpolymerized coatings on metal substrates down to a coating thickness of less than 16µm is demonstrated and and proved by reference measurements.

Description: Natural resources

Description: The autocratic regime of Sani Abacha (1993-1998) stands out as a watershed in the history of independent Nigeria. Nigeria’s darkest years since the civil war resulted from his unrestrained personal rule; very close to the features associated with warlordism. Nepotism, corruption, violation of human rights, procrastination over the implementation of a democratic transition, and the exploitation of ethnic, cultural or religious identities, also resulted in the accumulation of harshly repressed ...

Description: Les clefs des songes du xiiie au xve siècles ne sont pas là pour ouvrir la voie à la parole du rêveur. Bien au contraire, des interprétations stéréotypées et orientées l'enferment à double tour dans un discours dûment orchestré. Les songes foisonnants de ciel ou de terre, d'anges, de saints, d'astres, de nuées, de feu, d'eau, de végétaux, d'animaux, de l'une ou l'autre partie du corps, sont pris dans les réseaux d'une idéologie qui commande la représentation de soi et des autres dans l'intérêt de la classe dominante aristocratique.

Description: Neurology & clinical neurophysiology

Description: Highlights • Decoupling of volatile element enrichment and magmatic volatile influx. • Multiple sulfide generations with distinct trace element signatures. • Boiling-induced pyrite precipitation revealed by textures and Tl/Pb, Sb/Pb and Bi/Pb ratios. • Boiling-induced Au, electrum and Bi-telluride colloids lead to high Au grades. • Metals sources: shallow upflow- (60–80%) and deep reaction (20–40%) zone. Abstract Shallow (〈1500 mbsl) submarine arc-related hydrothermal systems can host base (Cu), precious (Au) and volatile elements (As, Se, Sb, Te, Tl) in significant quantities. Their wide application in the high-tech industry, but a potential eco-toxicological footprint gives them a strategic importance. However, the processes that concentrate these elements in submarine arc-related hydrothermal systems, compared to their mid-ocean ridge counterparts are still debated, and it is unclear whether boiling-related processes and/or the contribution of magmatic volatiles are key for their enrichment. We present bulk sulfide-sulfate, isotope (S and Pb), and high-resolution microanalytical data of hydrothermal sulfides from the Niua South fore-arc volcano in north Tonga, where numerous black-smoker type sulfide-sulfate chimneys emit boiling fluids with temperatures (up to 325 °C) near the seawater boiling curve at ~1170 m water depth. Hence, this system represents an ideal natural laboratory to investigate the effect of fluid boiling on base, precious, and volatile element enrichment associated with hydrothermal seafloor mineralization. At Niua South, textural and chemical variations of multiple pyrite (framboidal, euhedral and massive), chalcopyrite (linings), and sphalerite (dendrites and linings) generations are indicative for sulfide precipitation from early low-temperature (~240 °C) fluids that underwent abundant mixing with ambient seawater (low Se/Tl and Co/Ni ratios in pyrite) and from later high-temperature (up to 325 °C) (high Se/Tl and Co/Ni ratios in pyrite). In addition, crustiform inclusion-rich pyrite that precipitated from high-temperature boiling fluids shows low Bi/Pb, Tl/Pb and Sb/Pb ratios due to volatile element loss (e.g., Tl and Sb) to the vapor phase compared to pyrite that formed during the low temperature stage. By contrast, late sphalerite (~280 °C) is enriched in elements with an affinity to Cl-complexes like Mn, Co, Ni, Ga, Cd, In, and Sn, and therefore precipitated from the corresponding Cl-rich liquid phase. Gold occurs in solid-solution and as boiling-induced particles of native Au, electrum, and Au-rich Bi-tellurides in pyrite (up to 144 ppm Au), sphalerite (up to 60 ppm Au), and chalcopyrite (up to 37 ppm Au). These particles (〈5–10 µm) probably formed during fluid boiling causing an extreme Au enrichment (〉30 ppm) in the mature and late stage of chimney formation. Lead isotope data indicate that the hydrothermal fluids scavenged metals not only from the deeper basement in the reaction zone (20–40%), but also from young dacitic volcanic rocks near the seafloor in the upflow zone (60–80%). Sulfur isotope (δ34S = −0.3 to 4.4‰) and Se/S*106 values (〈1500) of hydrothermal sulfides provide no evidence for a magmatic volatile influx and indicate that S, and most metals and semi-metals were likely leached from the host rocks. Hence, volatile (As, Se, Sb, Te, Tl), and precious (Au) element enrichments in arc-related submarine hydrothermal systems can be decoupled from magmatic volatiles and are instead a result of boiling-induced trace element fractionation – a hydrothermal enrichment process, which has been underestimated to date.

Description: The formation of isolated seamounts distant from active plate boundaries and mantle plumes remains unsolved. The solitary intraplate volcano Vesteris Seamount is located in the Central Greenland Basin and rises ∼3,000 m above the seafloor with a total eruptive volume of ∼800 km3. Here, we present a new high-resolution bathymetry of Vesteris Seamount and a detailed raster terrain analysis, distinguishing cones, irregular volcanic ridges, volcanic debris fans, U-shaped channels and lava flows. The slope angles, ruggedness index and slope direction were combined with backscatter images to aid geologic interpretation. The new data show that the entire structure is a northeast to southwest elongated stellar-shaped seamount with an elongated, narrow summit surrounded by irregular volcanic ridges, separated by volcanic debris fans. Whole-rock geochemical data of 78 lava samples form tight liquid lines of descent with MgO concentrations ranging from 12.6 to 0.1 wt%, implying that all lavas evolved from a similar parental magma composition. Video footage from Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) dives shows abundant pyroclastic and hyaloclastite deposits on the summit and on the upper flanks, whereas lavas are restricted to flank cones. The seamount likely formed above a weak zone of the lithosphere possibly related to initial rifting parallel to the nearby Mohns Ridge, but the local stress field increasingly affected the structure of the volcano as it grew larger. Thus, we conclude that the evolution of Vesteris Seamount reflects the transition from deep, regional lithospheric stresses in the older structures to shallower, local stresses within the younger volcanic structures similar to other oceanic intraplate volcanoes. Our study shows how the combination of bathymetric, visual and geochemical data can be used to decipher the geological evolution of oceanic intraplate volcanoes.

Description: Ocean acidification (OA) will affect marine biotas from the organism to the ecosystem level. Yet, the consequences for the biological carbon pump and thereby the oceanic sink for atmospheric CO2 are still unclear. Here we show that OA considerably alters the C/N ratio of organic-matter export (C/Nexport), a key factor determining efficiency of the biological pump. By synthesizing sediment-trap data from in situ mesocosm studies in different marine biomes, we find distinct but highly variable impacts of OA on C/Nexport, reaching up to a 20% increase/decrease under partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2) conditions projected for 2100. These changes are driven by pCO2 effects on a variety of plankton taxa and corresponding shifts in food-web structure. Notably, our findings suggest a pivotal role of heterotrophic processes in controlling the response of C/Nexport to OA, thus contradicting the paradigm of primary producers as the principal driver of biogeochemical responses to ocean change.

Description: Dinitrogen (N2) fixation is a major source of bioavailable nitrogen to oligotrophic ocean communities. Yet, we have limited understanding how ongoing climate change could alter N2 fixation. Most of our understanding is based on short-term laboratory experiments conducted on individual N2-fixing species whereas community-level approaches are rare. In this longer-term in situ mesocosm study, we aimed to improve our understanding on the role of rising atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) and simulated deep water upwelling on N2 and carbon (C) fixation rates in a natural oligotrophic plankton community. We deployed nine mesocosms in the subtropical North Atlantic Ocean and enriched seven of these with CO2 to yield a range of treatments (partial pressure of CO2, pCO2 = 352–1025 μatm). We measured rates of N2 and C fixation in both light and dark incubations over the 55-day study period. High pCO2 negatively impacted light and dark N2 fixation rates in the oligotrophic phase before simulated upwelling, while the effect reversed in the light N2 fixation rates in the bloom decay phase after added nutrients were consumed. Dust deposition and simulated upwelling of nutrient-rich deep water increased N2 fixation rates and nifH gene abundances of selected clades including the unicellular diazotrophic cyanobacterium clade UCYN-B. Elevated pCO2 increased C fixation rates in the decay phase. We conclude that elevated pCO2 and pulses of upwelling have pronounced effects on diazotrophy and primary producers, and upwelling and dust deposition modify the pCO2 effect in natural assemblages.