ALBERT

Description: Several resources and standards for indexing food descriptors currently exist, but their content and interrelations are not semantically and logically coherent. Simultaneously, the need to represent knowledge about food is central to many fields including biomedicine and sustainable development. FoodON is a new ontology built to interoperate with the OBO Library and to represent entities which bear a “food role”. It encompasses materials in natural ecosystems and food webs as well as humancentric categorization and handling of food. The latter will be the initial focus of the ontology, and we aim to develop semantics for food safety, food security, the agricultural and animal husbandry practices linked to food production, culinary, nutritional and chemical ingredients and processes. The scope of FoodON is ambitious and will require input from multiple domains. FoodON will import or map to material in existing ontologies and standards and will create content to cover gaps in the representation of food-related products and processes. As a robust food ontology can only be created by consensus and wide adoption, we are currently forming an international consortium to build partnerships, solicit domain expertise, and gather use cases to guide the ontology’s development. The products of this work are being applied to research and clinical datasets such as those associated with the Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development (CHILD) study which examines the causal factors of asthma and allergy development in children, and the Integrated Rapid Infectious Disease Analysis (IRIDA) platform for genomic epidemiology and foodborne outbreak investigation.

Description: 〈span〉〈div〉Abstract〈/div〉Submerged paleoshorelines and terraces surrounding Santa Catalina Island and the Pilgrim/Kidney Banks in the California Continental Borderland demonstrate late Quaternary tectonic subsidence, in contrast to the other islands of the California Continental Borderland that are experiencing tectonic uplift. We used high-resolution seismic-reflection profiles to map a terrace package containing 16 successive parasequences surrounding Santa Catalina Island, preserved at depths from 30 to 470 m below modern mean sea level. The Pilgrim/Kidney Banks are surrounded by a terrace package containing 13 successive parasequences preserved at 90–310 m depth. The presence of marine terrace (beach) deposits at 〉400 m depth, far below the lowest estimates of Quaternary lowstand sea level (90–130 m), requires significant tectonic subsidence. Within each terrace, we identified the transgressive surface separating subaerial deltaic and shallow-marine deposits originating during sea-level lowstand from overlying subaqueous deltaic deposits emplaced after the lowstand. Remotely operated vehicle samples of sediment recovered from submerged terrace deposits offshore Santa Catalina Island contain faunal assemblages typical of submerged insular terraces in southern California. The distribution of equivalent extant mollusks and benthic foraminifera indicates deposition in water depths between 25 and 45 m. Extinct taxa present within the samples provide coarse (Late Pleistocene) age constraints on Santa Catalina’s deepest subsided terraces. We identified the transgressive surface corresponding to the Last Glacial Maximum and its paleo–sea-level marker at modern depths between –85 and –95 m surrounding Santa Catalina Island. Terraces surrounding Santa Catalina Island and Pilgrim Banks were correlated to lowstands and interstadials on a glacio-isostatic–adjusted, ice-volume–equivalent sea-level curve in order to evaluate subsidence rates. Santa Catalina Island has been tilting north and subsiding together with its surrounding platform at 0.08–0.27 mm/yr since at least 1.15 Ma (marine oxygen isotope stage [MIS] 34). Pilgrim Banks has been subsiding at 0.3 mm/yr for at least 0.35 m.y. but must have subsided no faster than 0.12 mm/yr between 0.35 and 1.15 Ma. We interpret the subsidence and 1.5° northward tilt of Santa Catalina Island as showing continued, although reduced, activity of the Catalina fault system simultaneous with increasing activity on the southern San Pedro Basin–San Diego Trough fault zone.〈/span〉

Description: 〈span〉Submerged paleoshorelines and terraces surrounding Santa Catalina Island and the Pilgrim/Kidney Banks in the California Continental Borderland demonstrate late Quaternary tectonic subsidence, in contrast to the other islands of the California Continental Borderland that are experiencing tectonic uplift. We used high-resolution seismic-reflection profiles to map a terrace package containing 16 successive parasequences surrounding Santa Catalina Island, preserved at depths from 30 to 470 m below modern mean sea level. The Pilgrim/Kidney Banks are surrounded by a terrace package containing 13 successive parasequences preserved at 90–310 m depth. The presence of marine terrace (beach) deposits at 〉400 m depth, far below the lowest estimates of Quaternary lowstand sea level (90–130 m), requires significant tectonic subsidence. Within each terrace, we identified the transgressive surface separating subaerial deltaic and shallow-marine deposits originating during sea-level lowstand from overlying subaqueous deltaic deposits emplaced after the lowstand. Remotely operated vehicle samples of sediment recovered from submerged terrace deposits offshore Santa Catalina Island contain faunal assemblages typical of submerged insular terraces in southern California. The distribution of equivalent extant mollusks and benthic foraminifera indicates deposition in water depths between 25 and 45 m. Extinct taxa present within the samples provide coarse (Late Pleistocene) age constraints on Santa Catalina’s deepest subsided terraces. We identified the transgressive surface corresponding to the Last Glacial Maximum and its paleo–sea-level marker at modern depths between -85 and -95 m surrounding Santa Catalina Island. Terraces surrounding Santa Catalina Island and Pilgrim Banks were correlated to lowstands and interstadials on a glacio-isostatic–adjusted, ice-volume–equivalent sea-level curve in order to evaluate subsidence rates. Santa Catalina Island has been tilting north and subsiding together with its surrounding platform at 0.08–0.27 mm/yr since at least 1.15 Ma (marine oxygen isotope stage [MIS] 34). Pilgrim Banks has been subsiding at 0.3 mm/yr for at least 0.35 m.y. but must have subsided no faster than 0.12 mm/yr between 0.35 and 1.15 Ma. We interpret the subsidence and 1.5° northward tilt of Santa Catalina Island as showing continued, although reduced, activity of the Catalina fault system simultaneous with increasing activity on the southern San Pedro Basin–San Diego Trough fault zone.〈/span〉

Description: 〈span〉〈div〉Abstract〈/div〉To better define the base of the Brahmaputra River paleovalley, we analyzed an extensive borehole data set from the subaerial Bengal delta and a 255-km-long multichannel seismic survey along the modern river. The data reveal that the paleovalley floor is defined by a gravel unit containing boulder-sized clasts up to 30 cm in diameter, deposited after ca. 30 ka but before ca. 9 ka. Paleohydrology during that time and the previous glacial maximum was characterized by a weak monsoon and reduced river discharge, both of which are inconsistent with large valley formation. However, our work indicates that glacial-lake outburst floods sourced from the Tibetan reaches of the Brahmaputra were routed through the lowstand valley, producing megaflood-scale discharge capable of transporting gravel and cannibalizing the valley margins. The timing of these glacial-lake outburst flood–driven discharge events was coincident with valley development and explains the anomalously large width of the valley and basal gravel surface. Despite the underfit scale of Brahmaputra discharge following the last glacial period, a strengthening monsoon and high sediment discharge in the early Holocene subsequently contributed to the efficient infilling of the massive paleovalley by the mid-Holocene. In a sequence stratigraphic context, this work provides an example of a major unconformity that developed late in the eustatic cycle (i.e., during early transgression rather than an earlier, protracted response to sea-level lowering) and in response to a perturbation originating in the catchment instead of changing accommodation in the basin. As such, it represents a geologically instantaneous time surface that can be used as a marker for stratigraphic correlation but one that is not in phase with eustatic sea-level fall.〈/span〉

Description: 〈span〉〈div〉Abstract〈/div〉Accurately reconstructing the paleogeography of the Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS) during Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS 3; ca. 57,000 to ca. 29,000 yr B.P.) is critical for understanding glacial growth toward the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), refining sea-level histories, and studying the Earth system response to rapid climate change events. Here, we present a geochronological data set useful for testing hypotheses of global sea level and refining ice sheet configuration through this interval. Data (〈span〉n〈/span〉 = 735) span the entire MIS 3 interval and consist of 〈sup〉14〈/sup〉C determinations (〈span〉n〈/span〉 = 651), cosmogenic exposure ages (〈span〉n〈/span〉 = 52), and optically stimulated luminescence dates (〈span〉n〈/span〉 = 32). On that basis, we hypothesize that the central region of the LIS underwent a dramatic reduction in ice from ca. 52 to 40 ka. Key to this hypothesis are geological records at sites in the Hudson Bay Lowlands (east central Canada) that suggest a marine incursion and development of terrestrial landscapes. We show that these landscapes are consistent with recently published glacial isostatic adjustment predictions that include widespread deglaciation of the eastern (Labrador) sector of the LIS with ice buildup over the western (Keewatin) sector at 42 ka. Ice growth from this minimum toward the LGM is likely to have been rapid. The agreement between this data set and modeling predictions prompts the reassessment of key Late Pleistocene records, including Heinrich events, loess deposition in the continental United States, and sedimentological records from the Gulf of Mexico.〈/span〉

Description: 〈span〉〈div〉Abstract〈/div〉Data from an amphibious seismic network in Cascadia (northwest North America) provide unique near-source observations to assess the influence of subducting topography on seismicity. Using subspace detection, we detect and locate 222 events in two separate clusters, near a subducted seamount and a possibly accreted seamount. Seismicity in both clusters is largely shallower than the plate interface and exhibits occasional swarm-like behavior. This implies that the seamount is subducting aseismically via weak coupling with the overriding plate, while earthquakes in the upper plate arise from a high degree of fracturing due to seamount interaction, and the accreted seamount induced similar fracturing before off-scraping.〈/span〉

Description: 〈span〉〈div〉Abstract〈/div〉Fluvial strata of the Tornillo Group preserve a succession of Late Cretaceous, Paleocene, and early Eocene continental faunas and floras and provide a record of the Laramide orogeny in the southern part of the North American Cordillera. Contacts between units in the Tornillo Group (Javelina, Black Peaks, and Hannold Hill formations) have proven difficult to identify, but minor adjustments to the stratigraphy allow each to be readily mapped and provide a means to assess intraformational thickness variation and syndepositional deformation within the Tornillo Basin. The Javelina Formation is thin in the southwestern part of the basin, and the Black Peaks Formation thins toward both southwestern and northeastern sides, suggesting that development of the monoclines that bound the basin began in latest Cretaceous through Paleocene time. An obscure structure extending southeastward from Grapevine anticline divides the basin into northeastern and southwestern segments. The Javelina Formation thins southwest of this structure and lacks lacustrine facies found to the northeast. The upper half of the Black Peaks Formation is absent southwest of this line, and northeast-facing monoclinal folds that affect the Hannold Hill Formation in the same vicinity are truncated at the base of the overlying Canoe Formation. Depositional limits of the Hannold Hill Formation probably did not extend to the southwest. The middle Eocene Canoe Formation is largely unaffected by contractive deformation that affects the Tornillo Group. Although incipient Laramide-age deformation broadly defined the Tornillo Basin during latest Cretaceous through Paleocene time, deformation here occurred mostly during the early Eocene.〈/span〉

Description: 〈span〉Accurately reconstructing the paleogeography of the Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS) during Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS 3; ca. 57,000 to ca. 29,000 yr B.P.) is critical for understanding glacial growth toward the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), refining sea-level histories, and studying the Earth system response to rapid climate change events. Here, we present a geochronological data set useful for testing hypotheses of global sea level and refining ice sheet configuration through this interval. Data (〈span〉n〈/span〉 = 735) span the entire MIS 3 interval and consist of 〈sup〉14〈/sup〉C determinations (〈span〉n〈/span〉 = 651), cosmogenic exposure ages (〈span〉n〈/span〉 = 52), and optically stimulated luminescence dates (〈span〉n〈/span〉 = 32). On that basis, we hypothesize that the central region of the LIS underwent a dramatic reduction in ice from ca. 52 to 40 ka. Key to this hypothesis are geological records at sites in the Hudson Bay Lowlands (east central Canada) that suggest a marine incursion and development of terrestrial landscapes. We show that these landscapes are consistent with recently published glacial isostatic adjustment predictions that include widespread deglaciation of the eastern (Labrador) sector of the LIS with ice buildup over the western (Keewatin) sector at 42 ka. Ice growth from this minimum toward the LGM is likely to have been rapid. The agreement between this data set and modeling predictions prompts the reassessment of key Late Pleistocene records, including Heinrich events, loess deposition in the continental United States, and sedimentological records from the Gulf of Mexico.〈/span〉