Stable isotope analysis and U-Th dating of late glacial and Holocene lacustrine sediments from central Turkey

Water is a politically sensitive resource in the Near East and water stress is increasing. It is therefore vital that there is a strong understanding of past hydrological variability, so that the drivers of change can be better understood, and so that the links between the palaeoclimate and archaeological records in this key region in the development of human civilisation can be investigated. To be of most use, this requires high resolution records and a good understanding of palaeoseasonality. A sediment sequence spanning ~14,000 years has been retrieved from Nar Gölü, a lake in central Turkey. This thesis presents isotope data from carbonates, diatoms and bulk organic matter, in particular focussing on oxygen isotope (δ18O) analysis of carbonates (which detailed monitoring of the modern lake system shows to be a strong proxy for water balance) and comparing δ18Ocarbonate and δ18Odiatom data in order to examine palaeoseasonality. Improved techniques for the interpretation of carbonate isotope records of mixed mineralogies and the mass balance correction of diatom samples contaminated with minerogenic material are also proposed. Due to the high resolution δ18Ocarbonate data, it was possible to show that the rapidity of the Younger Dryas to Holocene transition at Nar Gölü was similar to that seen in North Atlantic records and that centennial scale arid events in the Holocene seem to occur at the time of cold periods in the North Atlantic. Taken together, this suggests a strong teleconnection between the two regions. However, the longer duration of the aridity peaks ~9,300 and ~8,200 years BP at Nar Gölü, compared with the more discrete cooling events at this time in the North Atlantic, suggest that there are additional controls on Near East hydroclimate. There is a multi-millennial scale trend of increasing δ18Ocarbonate values from the early to late Holocene. This ‘Mid Holocene Transition’ has previously been identified in the Near East, however here it is demonstrated that water balance and not a shift in the seasonality of precipitation was the primary cause. Finally, for the first time, the stability of Near East climate in the early Holocene is robustly demonstrated, suggesting that this could have been a key enabler of the development of agriculture at this time

Is there an isotopic signature of the anthropocene?

We consider whether the Anthropocene is recorded in the isotope geochemistry of the atmosphere, sediments, plants and ice cores, and the time frame during which any changes are recorded, presenting examples from the literature. Carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios have become more depleted since the 19th century, with the rate of change accelerating after ~ad 1950, linked to increased emissions from fossil fuel consumption and increased production of fertiliser. Lead isotope ratios demonstrate human pollution histories several millennia into the past, while sulphur isotopes can be used to trace the sources of acid rain. Radioisotopes have been detectable across the planet since the 1950s because of atmospheric nuclear bomb tests and can be used as a stratigraphic marker. We find there is isotopic evidence of widespread human impact on the global environment, but different isotopes have registered changes at different times and at different rates

Stable isotope analysis and U-Th dating of late glacial and Holocene lacustrine sediments from central Turkey

Water is a politically sensitive resource in the Near East and water stress is increasing. It is therefore vital that there is a strong understanding of past hydrological variability, so that the drivers of change can be better understood, and so that the links between the palaeoclimate and archaeological records in this key region in the development of human civilisation can be investigated. To be of most use, this requires high resolution records and a good understanding of palaeoseasonality. A sediment sequence spanning ~14,000 years has been retrieved from Nar Gölü, a lake in central Turkey. This thesis presents isotope data from carbonates, diatoms and bulk organic matter, in particular focussing on oxygen isotope (δ18O) analysis of carbonates (which detailed monitoring of the modern lake system shows to be a strong proxy for water balance) and comparing δ18Ocarbonate and δ18Odiatom data in order to examine palaeoseasonality. Improved techniques for the interpretation of carbonate isotope records of mixed mineralogies and the mass balance correction of diatom samples contaminated with minerogenic material are also proposed. Due to the high resolution δ18Ocarbonate data, it was possible to show that the rapidity of the Younger Dryas to Holocene transition at Nar Gölü was similar to that seen in North Atlantic records and that centennial scale arid events in the Holocene seem to occur at the time of cold periods in the North Atlantic. Taken together, this suggests a strong teleconnection between the two regions. However, the longer duration of the aridity peaks ~9,300 and ~8,200 years BP at Nar Gölü, compared with the more discrete cooling events at this time in the North Atlantic, suggest that there are additional controls on Near East hydroclimate. There is a multi-millennial scale trend of increasing δ18Ocarbonate values from the early to late Holocene. This ‘Mid Holocene Transition’ has previously been identified in the Near East, however here it is demonstrated that water balance and not a shift in the seasonality of precipitation was the primary cause. Finally, for the first time, the stability of Near East climate in the early Holocene is robustly demonstrated, suggesting that this could have been a key enabler of the development of agriculture at this time

A 600 year-long drought index for central Anatolia

We have used sediments from Nar lake in central Turkey to reconstruct climatic variability over timescales longer than can be obtained from direct meteorological observations. Because the sediments of this lake are annually layered and precisely dated, it has been possible to calibrate sedimentary climate proxies against meteorological records to derive a drought index; this has then been applied to time periods before instrumental data are available. In this study, δ18O from Nar lake carbonates have been used to generate a decadal average P/E index for central Anatolia, which highlights major drought events since 1400 AD

Seasonality of Holocene hydroclimate in the Eastern Mediterranean reconstructed using the oxygen isotope composition of carbonates and diatoms from Lake Nar, central Turkey

A positive shift in the oxygen isotope composition (δ18O) of lake carbonates in the Eastern Mediterranean from the early to late Holocene is usually interpreted as a change to drier (reduced P/E) conditions. However, it has also been suggested that changes in the seasonality of precipitation could explain these trends. Here, Holocene records of δ18O from both carbonates and diatom silica, from Lake Nar in central Turkey, provide insights into palaeoseasonality. We show how Δδ18Olakewater (the difference between spring and summer reconstructed δ18Olakewater) was minimal in the early Holocene and for most of the last millennium, but was greater at other times. For example, between ~4,100-1,600 years BP we suggest that increased Δδ18Olakewater could have been the result of relatively more spring/summer evaporation, amplified by a decline in lake level. In terms of change in annual mean δ18O, isotope mass balance modelling shows that this can be influenced by changes in seasonal P/E as well as inter-annual P/E, but lake level falls inferred from other proxies confirm there was a mid Holocene transition to drier climatic conditions in central Turkey

Lability of Pb in soil: effects of soil properties and contaminant source

Environmental Context: There is growing concern that lead (Pb) in the environment may cause adverse health effects in human populations. We investigated the combined use of isotopic abundance and isotopic dilution to show how the origins of soil Pb and soil characteristics affect lability. Soil pH and soil Pb content are the dominant controls on Pb lability; the lability of recent petrol-derived Pb is similar to that of other sources in urban soils but greater than geogenic Pb in rural roadside topsoils. Lability of lead (Pb) in soils is influenced by both soil properties and source(s) of contamination. We investigated factors controlling Pb lability in soils from (i) land adjacent to a major rural road, (ii) a sewage processing farm and (iii) an archive of the geochemical survey of London. We measured isotopically exchangeable Pb (E-values; PbE), phase fractionation of Pb by a sequential extraction procedure (SEP) and inferred source apportionment from measured Pb isotopic ratios. Isotopic ratios (206Pb/207Pb and 208Pb/207Pb) of total soil Pb fell on a mixing line between those of petrol and UK coal or Pb ore. The main determinant of the isotopically exchangeable Pb fraction (%E-value) was soil pH: %E-values decreased with increasing pH. In rural roadside topsoils and there was also evidence that, petrol-derived Pb remained more labile (35%) than Pb from soil parent material (27%). However, in biosolid-amended and London soils %E-values were low (c. 25%), covered a restricted range, and showed no clear evidence of source-dependent lability

Biohybrid control of general linear systems using the adaptive filter model of cerebellum

© 2015 Wilson, Assaf, Pearson, Rossiter, Dean, Anderson and Porrill. The adaptive filter model of the cerebellar microcircuit has been successfully applied to biological motor control problems, such as the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR), and to sensory processing problems, such as the adaptive cancelation of reafferent noise. It has also been successfully applied to problems in robotics, such as adaptive camera stabilization and sensor noise cancelation. In previous applications to inverse control problems, the algorithm was applied to the velocity control of a plant dominated by viscous and elastic elements. Naive application of the adaptive filter model to the displacement (as opposed to velocity) control of this plant results in unstable learning and control. To be more generally useful in engineering problems, it is essential to remove this restriction to enable the stable control of plants of any order. We address this problem here by developing a biohybrid model reference adaptive control (MRAC) scheme, which stabilizes the control algorithm for strictly proper plants. We evaluate the performance of this novel cerebellar-inspired algorithm with MRAC scheme in the experimental control of a dielectric electroactive polymer, a class of artificial muscle. The results show that the augmented cerebellar algorithm is able to accurately control the displacement response of the artificial muscle. The proposed solution not only greatly extends the practical applicability of the cerebellar-inspired algorithm, but may also shed light on cerebellar involvement in a wider range of biological control tasks

A comparison of classification techniques for the P300 speller

International audienceThis study assesses the relative performance characteristics of five established classification techniques on data collected using the P300 Speller paradigm, originally described by Farwell and Donchin (1988 Electroenceph. Clin. Neurophysiol. 70 510). Four linear methods: Pearson's correlation method (PCM), Fisher's linear discriminant (FLD), stepwise linear discriminant analysis (SWLDA) and a linear support vector machine (LSVM); and one nonlinear method: Gaussian kernel support vector machine (GSVM), are compared for classifying offline data from eight users. The relative performance of the classifiers is evaluated, along with the practical concerns regarding the implementation of the respective methods. The results indicate that while all methods attained acceptable performance levels, SWLDA and FLD provide the best overall performance and implementation characteristics for practical classification of P300 Speller data

A multizone cerebellar chip for bioinspired adaptive robot control and sensorimotor processing:A multizone cerebellar chip for bioinspired adaptive robot control and sensorimotor processing

The cerebellum is a neural structure essential for learning, which is connected via multiple zones to many different regions of the brain, and is thought to improve human performance in a large range of sensory, motor and even cognitive processing tasks. An intriguing possibility for the control of complex robotic systems would be to develop an artificial cerebellar chip with multiple zones that could be similarly connected to a variety of subsystems to optimize performance. The novel aim of this paper, therefore, is to propose and investigate a multizone cerebellar chip applied to a range of tasks in robot adaptive control and sensorimotor processing. The multizone cerebellar chip was evaluated using a custom robotic platform consisting of an array of tactile sensors driven by dielectric electroactive polymers mounted upon a standard industrial robot arm. The results demonstrate that the performance in each task was improved by the concurrent, stable learning in each cerebellar zone. This paper, therefore, provides the first empirical demonstration that a synthetic, multizone, cerebellar chip could be embodied within existing robotic systems to improve performance in a diverse range of tasks, much like the cerebellum in a biological system.</p