ALBERT

Description: Five manganese nodules from a range of deep-sea and fossil environments were selected for this study. Most samples were prepared for bulk analysis by grinding the material finely with a pestle in a porcelain mortar. However for samples Z2140 (ELT36.039-BT) and Timor (Wai_Bua_A) the nodule cores were discarded. Depending upon the chemical elements a varied range of analytical methods were used: X-Ray fluorescence, neutron activation, mass spectrometry and atomic absorption spectrometry. All samples were dried at 110°C for the determination of H2O+ loss. Structural water H2O- was determined by ignition at 1200°C (LOI) and total CO2 was measured by a Leco gasometric technique.

Description: Northern Patagonia (41–44°S) is affected by climatic, hydrological and oceanographic anomalies, which in synergy with processes such as global warming and acidification of the coastal oceans may affect the frequency and intensity of harmful algal blooms (HABs). Greater frequency of HABs has been reported in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, including blooms of the toxic dinoflagellate Karenia selliformis, causing massive mortality of marine fauna in the oceanic and coastal areas of Patagonia. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of temperature and pH interaction on the growth of K. selliformis (strain CREAN_KS02), since these factors have wide seasonal fluctuations in the Patagonian fjord ecosystem. The CREAN_KS02 strain isolated from the Aysén Region (43°S) was used in a factorial experiment with five pH levels (7.0, 7.4, 7.7, 8.1 and 9.0) and two temperatures (12 and 17 °C) during a period of 18–21 days. Results indicated a significant effect of temperature and pH interaction on growth rate (range 0.22 ± 0.00 to 0.08 ± 0.01 d−1) and maximum density (range 13,710 ± 2,616 to 2,385 ± 809 cells mL−1) of K. selliformis. The highest density and growth of K. selliformis was found at 12 °C with a reduced pH (7.0–7.7). The results suggest that the current environmental conditions of coastal Patagonia, waters of low temperature and relatively low pH, may be favorable for the development of blooms of this species during autumn. We suggest that there is natural plasticity of K. selliformis in a wide pH range (7.0–8.1) but in a narrow low temperature range (10.6–12.9 °C), values that are typically recorded in the oceanic region of northern Patagonia. In contrast, in an extreme climate change scenario (ocean warming and coastal acidification) in northern Patagonia, a negative effect on the growth of K. selliformis may be expected due to amplification of the acidification effects caused by the thermal stress of high temperature water.

Description: Recent marine climate change research has largely focused on the response of individual species to environmental changes including warming and acidification. The response of communities, driven by the direct effects of ocean change on individual species as well the cascade of indirect effects, has received far less study. We used several rocky intertidal species including crabs, whelks, juvenile abalone, and mussels to determine how feeding, growth, and interactions between species could be shifted by changing ocean conditions. Our 10 wk experiment revealed many complex outcomes which highlight the unpredictability of community-level responses. Contrary to our predictions, the largest impact of elevated CO2 was reduced crab feeding and survival, with a pH drop of 0.3 units. Surprisingly, whelks showed no response to higher temperatures or CO2 levels, while abalone shells grew 40% less under high CO2 conditions. Massive non-consumptive effects of crabs on whelks showed how important indirect effects can be in determining climate change responses. Predictions of species outcomes that account solely for physiological responses to climate change do not consider the potentially large role of indirect effects due to species interactions. For strongly linked species (e.g. predator-prey or competitor relationships), the indirect effects of climate change are much less known than direct effects, but may be far more powerful in reshaping future marine communities.

Description: Urban studies often rely on urban boundaries that have been defined by administrative units or by land use or land cover classification of satellite images. The final results of those boundaries is the categorization of urban/non-urban units in the form of a binary layer used to extract additional information (e.g., zonal statistic) from other geographical layers (e.g., land surface temperature or population density). Given the heterogeneous and continuous nature of the built-up area, binary representations contain a mixture of urban/non-urban areas that influence the results of following analyses. Here we present a way to move beyond the limitations of the binary urban/non-urban representations with a hierarchical watershed-based thresholding and segmentation approach that partitions the built-up area into more homogeneous units. The proposed algorithm, applied to the Global Human Settlement Layer, enables researchers and planners to define urban computational units in three ways - bin-unit, watershed-unit, and agglomeration-unit - depending on need and scale of analyses. We provide suggested terminology and notation style for this cross-over application of a specialized watershed algorithm. Among other possible applications, the resulting segmented, binned and agglomeration units offer alternatives to existing patch analysis methods for drawing relationships between patterns of urban development and ecological or environmental attributes.

Description: Manganese nodules were selected from various potential mining sites of the Pacific ocean. They were dried by heating at 1000°C until total evaporation and ground to powder before their chemical analysis by atomic absorption spectrophotometry.

Description: Manganese nodules and crusts samples analyzed in this work were chosen to represent a range of marine environments both oceanic and epicontinental. They were analysed by atomic-absorption spectrometry and optical-emission spectrometry to display a range of chemical compositions.

Description: Samples of manganese nodules from the south Penrhyn Basin were analyzed for a number of elemental concentrations. Chemical analyses were performed by the Australian Mineral Development Laboratories (AMDEL), with funds contributed to CCOP/SOPAC by the Australian government, using XRF. Au and Pt were analyzed for using fire assay collection and emission spectrography. The overall chemical composition of nodulesfrom the south Penrhyn Basin is fairly uniform throughout the area sampled. The total spread of data is small and generally amounts to less than t. 20% of the mean, as measured by standard deviation except in the case of elements present in lower concentrations where analytical errors become more significant.

Description: Manganese crusts and nodules were retrieved from dredges and grabs performed during Cruise D16 of R.R.S. Discovery. Samples were analysed by a combination of atomic absorption spectrometry and direct-reading optical emission spectrography. Samples were first crushed in an agate mortarand pestle to pass 300 mesh and stored in sealed Polythene tubes. 'Salting' from previoussamples was minimised by washing the mortar and pestle with HC1, de-ionised water, andacetone, and, in order to minimise the effects of sampling errors, care was taken not toincorporate the nodule nucleus into the sample. Samples were ignited at 420°c for 4 h, cooled in a desiccator. The ignited material was then prepared for analysis. All analytical results except are presented on an air-dried basis.

Description: Four hundred and twenty kilograms of manganese nodules were recovered at Station U205 in the Tasman Sea. They were sorted by size class. Representative subsets for each size class were chemically analysed and their avearge composition is presented in the published table. Samples were alaysed by X-ray fluorescence spectrometry. For this purpose, samples were ground to 80 mesh, dried at 105°C for at least 24 hours and fused with "Spectromelt A 12" (Merck 11802, containing 66% lithium tetraborate and 34% lithium metaborate). To prepare glass beads, 1 g of Mn nodule materail was mixed with 1 g of flux and heated in a RF-furnace for about 5 minutes.

Description: The chemical composition of sediments at various levels inside core 710KH also show a clear distinction between the overlying calcareous, siliceous-bearing to siliceous-rich muds and the underlaying dark brown clay. In particular, the dark brown clay is characterized by significantly higher contents of Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Mg and P and lower contents of Ca and Ba than the overlying sediments. This distribution of elements probably reflects the presence of abundant micronodules, a lower content of barite and an almost complete absence of carbonate tests in the dark brown clays. The P content of the dark brown clays is higher than that of other typical deep-sea sediments from the equatorial N. Pacific or the SW Pacific. The organic-carbon content of the sediments is generally low and decreases from 0.3 to 0.1% with depth in the core.