ALBERT

Notes: Differing molecular profiles of starches were developed by acid treatment of native wheat starch. Molecular weight distribution, branching, and linear chain length distribution was characterized. Starches with fewer large size amylopectin fragments, increased smaller size amylopectin fragments, decreased branch points, decreased overall sizes, and narrower linear chain length distributions, had higher initial retrogradation rates. However, all aged starch gels had similar final crystalline enthalpy levels. Different retrogradation behaviors were due to smaller size amylopectin fragments, narrowed linear chain length distribution, and decreased branching. Retrogradation behavior was modeled using classical Avrami kinetics to allow comparison with other retrogradation studies.

Notes: The investigation of the regional flow characteristics of aquifers is important with respect to aquifer management. To determine regional flows, use can be made of hydraulic and hydrochemical data. In a study of a Chalk Aquifer System in the south of Lincolnshire, England, a combined hydrochemical approach using major, minor and isotope chemistry is described. The chemical data have been used because hydraulic information is difficult to interpret both locally and regionally as a consequence of multi-layered hydraulic zones, nonhomogeneous fissure zones, and variable erosional features. By characterizing ground-water types on the basis of major ion chemistry, and subsequently interrelating with minor ion distributions (notably iodide supported by strontium), a reasonable assessment of operative flow paths and mechanisms has been made. Substantiation of the conclusions reached using major and minor ion chemistry is provided by the environmental isotope data of carbon and tritium.

Notes: Abstract. Field experiments undertaken at 14 sites, on a range of soil types, in lowland England, during the cropping years 1989–1993, tested the effectiveness of cattle or pig slurry as a source of nitrogen for cereal cropping. Slurry was applied in autumn, winter and spring, to autumn and spring sown cereal crops. Assessments included slurry nitrogen efficiency relative to N in spring applied fertilizer in terms of both grain yield and grain protein production, apparent crop recovery and content of mineral nitrogen in soil profiles. Crop response to nitrogen was poor at seven sites where high residues of soil mineral nitrogen (SMN) were present. On the seven responsive sites, spring slurry applications proved more efficient (mean 40%) as a source of N than autumn (mean 24%) or winter applications (mean 32%). These differences were smaller than reported in a number of other studies, probably as a result of relatively low excess winter rainfall, resulting in less nitrate leaching during the period of the investigation. Rapid incorporation into the topsoil of slurry applied in autumn, increased (28 kgN/ha) the SMN of samples taken early in the winter. However this increase did not lead to a consistent improvement in crop N uptake. Slurry dressings, whenever applied, can be expected to make a significant contribution to the N requirement of the succeeding crop and need to be taken into account when calculating the appropriate spring fertilizer application.

Notes: The field relations from a quarry at Nuliyam, South India, illustrate dehydration of an amphibolite facies gneiss to granulite facies charnockite by CO2 influx, over a scale of 30 m. Both the calc-silicate source of the fluids and the full extent of their penetration into the gneiss are preserved in a continuous section. Fluid flow is by a hydraulic fracture mechanism, but is thought to be pervasive. The sharp reaction front predicted by the continuum mechanical theory for advective fluid transport is not observed. The front spreading is on too large a scale for either diffusive or dispersive control and is due to local kinetic disequilibrium between the fluid and rock, although the divariant nature of the reaction may also have a limited effect. The time-integrated fluid flux varies from the instantaneous porosity at the fluid front to 20 vol. % adjacent to the calc-silicate. Carbon isotope budgets suggest that decarbonation of the calc-silicate by a Rayleigh fractionation process provides a sufficient source for the CO2 influxing into the gneiss. Graphite abundances vary from 0.01 to 0.1% (by weight), it is principally derived by precipitation from the fluid and may be modelled from phase equilibria. Carbon isotope fronts coincide with the reaction front on the scale of sampling, although isotopic disequilibrium between graphite and inclusion-CO2 also implies local fluid-rock disequilibrium.

Notes: Experiments were earned out on seven UK sites during 1985–1988 to evaluate the importance of negative effects (smoethering and scorch) of winter and spring-applied cattle slurry on grass yield, assessed at the time of early grazing or first-cut silage. Slurry application has both positive and negative effects on herbage growth. Positive effects, usually associated with herbage yield increases, derive from the nutrient value of the slurry. Negative effects, often resulting in herbage yield decreases, are caused by smothering and/or scorch. The net effect on herbage depends on the balance between these positive and negative effects. These experiments were designed to isolate the negative effects of slurry whilst attempting to minimize the positive effects. Yield reductions of up to 20% for early grazing and 5% for first-cut silage were recorded, following applications of cattle slurry in February and March. Earlier applications smaller yield reductions. The threshold for the occurrence of yield reduction was estimated at 3–4 t ha−1 of slurry solids applied, at 6% solids content. In practice this would mean an application of 50–65 m3 ha−1 at 6% dry matter, which would supply 150–200 kg ha−1 total nitrogen, based on typical slurry analyses. Within the limits of application rates tested in these experiments, yield depression tended to increase with increasing rate of slurry applied above this threshold. Although the results suggest that the effects are more likely to occur following spring applications of slurry, earlier (autumn or winter) applications would increase the risk of losses of slurry nitrogen by leaching and denitrification. These results, therefore, confirm current advice in the UK that, where possible, cattle slurry is best applied to grassland in early spring according to the fertilizer needs of the crop. High rates of application should be avoided after early March for cutting areas and, more especially, for early grazing.

Notes: Abstract Incipient charnockite formation within amphibolite facies gneisses is observed in South India and Sri Lanka both as isolated sheets, associated with brittle fracture, and as patches forming interconnected networks. For each mode of formation, closely spaced drilled samples across charnockite/gneiss boundaries have been obtained and δ13C and CO2 abundances determined from fluid inclusions by stepped-heating mass spectrometry.Isolated sheets of charnockite (c.50 mm wide) within biotite–garnet gneiss at Kalanjur (Kerala, South India) have developed on either side of a fracture zone. Phase equilibria indicate low-pressure charnockite formation at pressures of 3.4 ± 1.0 kbar and temperatures of about 700°C (for XH2O= 0.2). Fluid inclusions from the charnockite are characterized by δ13C values of −8% and from the gneiss, 2 m from the charnockite, by values of −15%. The large CO2 abundances and relatively heavy carbon-isotope signature of the charnockite can be traced into the gneiss over a distance of at least 280 mm from the centre of the charnockite, whereas the reaction front has moved only 30 mm. This suggests that fluid advection has driven the carbon-isotope front through the rock more rapidly than the reaction front. The carbon-front/reaction-front separation at Kalanjur is significantly larger than the value determined from a graphite-bearing incipient charnockite nearby, consistent with the predictions of one-dimensional advection models.Incipient charnockites from Kurunegala (Sri Lanka) have developed as a patchy network within hornblende–biotite gneiss. CO2 abundances rise to a peak near one limb of the charnockite, and isotopic values vary from δ13C of c.−5.5% in the gneiss to −9.5% in the charnockite. The shift to lighter values in the charnockite can be ascribed to the formation of a CO2-saturated partial melt in response to influx of an isotopically light carbonic fluid.Thus, incipient charnockites from the high-grade terranes of South India and Sri Lanka reflect a range of mechanisms. At shallower structural levels non-pervasive CO2 influxed along zones of brittle fracture, possibly associated with the intrusion of charnockitic dykes. At deeper levels, in situ melting occurred under conditions of ductile deformation, leading to the development of patchy charnockites.

Notes: Granulite facies anorthosites on Holsenøy Island in the Bergen Arcs region of western Norway are transected by shear zones 0.1–100 m wide characterized by eclogite facies assemblages. Eclogite formation is related to influx of fluid along the shears at temperatures of c. 700d̀C and pressures in excess of 1.7 GPa. Combined carbon and nitrogen stable isotope, 40Ar/36Ar, trace-element and petrological data have been used to determine the nature and distribution of fluids across the anorthosite-eclogite transition.A metre-wide drilled section traverses the eclogitic centre of the shear into undeformed granulite facies garnet-clinopyroxene anorthosite. Clinozoisite occurs along grain boundaries and microcracks in undeformed anorthosite up to 1 m from the centre of the shear and clinozoisite increases in abundance as the edge of the shear zone is approached. The eclogite-granulite transition, marked by the appearance of sodic pyroxene and loss of albite, occurs within the most highly sheared section of the traverse. The jadeite-in reaction coincides with increased paragonite activity in mica. The separation between paragonite and clinozoisite reaction fronts can be semiquantitatively modelled assuming advective fluid flow perpendicular to the shear zone. The inner section of the traverse (0.25 m wide) is marked by retrogressive replacement of omphacite by plagioclase + paragonite accompanied by veins of quartz-phengite-plagioclase.C-N-Ar characteristics of fluid inclusions in garnet show that fluids associated with precursor granulite, eclogite and retrogressed eclogite are isotopically distinct. The granulite-eclogite transition coincides with a marked change in CO2 abundance and δ13C (〈36ppm, δ13C=-2% in the granulite; 〈180 ppm, δ13C=-10% in the eclogite). The distribution of Ar indicates mixing between influxed fluid (40Ar/36Ar 〉 25 times 103) and pre-existing Ar in the granulite (40Ar/36Ar 〈 8 times 103). δ15N values decrease from +6% in the anorthosite to +3% within the eclogite shear. The central zone of retrogressed eclogite post-dates shearing and is characterised by substantial enrichment of Si, K, Ba and Rb. Fluids are CO2-rich (δ13C ∼ -5%) with variable N2 and Ar abundances and isotopic compositions.Both Ar and H2O have penetrated the underformed granulite fabric more than 0.5m beyond the granulite/eclogite transition during eclogite formation. Argon isotopes show a mixing profile consistent with diffusion through an interconnecting H2O-rich fluid network. In contrast, a carbon-isotope front coincides with the deformation boundary layer, indicating that the underformed anorthosite was impervious to CO2-rich fluids. This is consistent with the high dihedral angle of carbonic fluids, and may be interpreted in terms of evolving fluid compositions within the shear zone.

Notes: A new aeolian sediment trap is described which can give up to 1 Hz measurement frequency in field conditions. The trap adopts a circular, horizontal trap design with a load cell connection to give continuous, unobtrusive trap measurement of sediment flux. Simultaneous velocity recording is carried out using an anemometer. Trap construction costs are approximately £200. Initial results in field conditions using a direct comparison of wind velocity data, sampled at an equivalent frequency, have given a first-order relationship between sediment flux and velocity. The trap enables simultaneous sampling of wind velocity and sediment flux at a sufficiently short interval to enable investigation of sediment transport dynamics under a variety of field conditions.

Notes: Abstract. Current opinion is divided on whether the free IAA in cereal shoots is derived from the coleoptile tip or from the grain. To date these hypotheses have been considered to be mutually exclusive. In this paper the idea is advanced that both sources may function in the supply of IAA in the shoot. Critical review of the literature shows that such an explanation best fits all the available evidence. It is argued that the relative importance of each source may vary between species of the Gramineae, with the supply of IAA in Avena shoots being derived predominantly from the grain, whereas in Zea the coleoptile tip is the more important source.