Changes in carbon storage and oxygen production in forest timber biomass of Balci Forest Management Unit in Turkey between 1984 and 2006

Decrease in forest areas world wide and the damaging of its structures is hazardous to human health, hinders and dries up the spread of oxygen in the air and also destroys carbon storage. In recent years, global warming and changes in climates depending on the increase in the green house gases have been affecting the whole world. The solution seeking, initiated in the international arena with various treaties and processes, has shown itself around the world and in our country as the concept ofplanning and operation of the forest sources. During the recent ten years in Turkey, in forest management plans, the capacity of carbon storage and the amount of oxygen production by the forest were initiated to be calculated in the planning unit scale. The first forest management plans were prepared and put into force in 1972 in Turkey, where the planned forestry began in 1963. During the period of more than 30 years, neither the structural changes in forests nor their values regarding otherfunctions have been examined enough. In this article, using Balcý Forest Management Units in Borçka Township of Artvin, forests are studied regarding their growing stocks, timber increments, their capacities of carbon storage and oxygen production. The basic management unit scale in the study is standard and the evident standard parameters are tree species, mixture and age class. Balcý Management Unit underwent attacks from bark beetles in the past. After the mechanical struggle, therehave been structural changes in forest ecosystem and the potentials of forests have varied both in quality and quantity. Changes in forest ecosystems during that time, not only through natural ways butalso through human activities, have been shaping the oncoming forestry practices

Multi-phase dolomitization and recrystallization of Middle Triassic shallow marine–peritidal carbonates from the Mecsek Mts. (SW Hungary), as inferred from petrography, carbon, oxygen, strontium and clumped isotope data

Shallow marine to peritidal carbonates of the Triassic Csukma Formation in the Mecsek Mts. of SW Hungary are made up of dolomites, limestones and dolomitic limestones that show evidence of a complex diagenetic history. Integration of petrographic, conventional stable oxygen and carbon isotope, clumped isotope, and strontium isotope data with the paleogeography, paleoclimate, and burial history of the region revealed four major diagenetic stages. Stage 1: The peritidal carbonates were dolomitized penecontemporaneously during the Middle Triassic by refluxing evaporatively concentrated brines. Stage 2: Increasing burial during the Late Triassic–Jurassic resulted in recrystallization of the Kán Dolomite Member in an intermediate burial setting. Stage 3: During the Early Cretaceous seawater was drawn down and circulated through rift-related faults, causing renewed recrystallization of the Kán Dolomite Member as well as dolomitization of the Kozár Limestone Member and the underlying limestones in a deep burial setting, but only in the vicinity of the faults. Stage 4: During the Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic thrusting resulted in tectonic expulsion of basinal fluids and precipitation of multiple saddle dolomite cement phases near the faults. The results of this study imply that the clumped isotope method integrated with other geochemical data can successfully be applied to identify the nature and potential sources of extra-formational diagenetic fluids responsible for dolomitization and recrystallization. This study provides conclusive evidence for multi-phase dolomitization and dolomite recrystallization over several millions of years (Middle Triassic through Early Cretaceous) and several thousands of meters of burial in the Csukma Formation in SW Hungary. Furthermore, this study is the first to identify fault-controlled dolomitization by circulating Cretaceous seawater within Triassic carbonates of central Europe, further supporting the viability of the interpretation of dolomitization by seawater initially drawn down and then geothermally circulated through faults in extensional basins

Acoustic properties in travertines and their relation to porosity and pore types

Sonic velocities of Pleistocene travertines were measured under variable confining pressures. Combined with petrographical characteristics and petrophysical data, i.e. porosity, permeability and density, it was determined that travertine porosity, pore types and cementation control compressional-wave (Vp) and shear-wave velocity (Vs). At 40 MPa confining pressures, Vp ranges between 3695 and 6097 m/s and Vs between 2037 and 3140 m/s. Velocity variations in travertines are, as with all carbonates, primarily linked to sample heterogeneity, i.e. differences in fabric, texture and porosity. They thus not necessarily emanate from changes in mineralogy or composition. Body wave velocities have a positive correlation with sample density and an inverse correlation with porosity. The travertines, sampled in extensional settings with normal faulting activity, define a specific compressional-wave velocity (y-axis) versus porosity (x-axis) equation, i.e. (log(y) = −0.0048x + 3.7844) that differs from the Vp-porosity paths defined by marine carbonates. Acoustic wave velocities are higher for travertines than for marine carbonates. Travertine precipitates form rigid rock frames, often called framestone, with large primary pores. Marine carbonates on the other hand often consist of (cemented) transported sediments, resulting in a rock frame that permits slower wave propagation when compared to the continental limestones.Acoustic velocity variations are linked to variations in pore types. Mouldic pores (macropores) show faster wave propagation than expected from their total porosities. Microporosity, interlaminar and interpeloidal porosity result in slower acoustic velocities. Framework pores and micro-moulds are associated with lowered acoustic velocities, while vug porosity is found above, on and below the general velocity-porosity trend. Not only the pore type, but also pore shapes exert control on body wave velocities. Cuboid-and rod-like pore shapes increase the velocity, while plate-and blade-like pore shapes have a negative effect on the velocity. The study demonstrates how seismic sections in travertine systems can contain seismic reflections that are not caused by non-carbonate intercalations, but relate to geobody boundaries, in which the seismic expression is function of porosity, pore types and shapes. This study provides and relates petrophysical data, i.e. porosity, permeability and acoustic velocities of travertines and is of importance for the interpretation of seismic reflection data in subsurface continental carbonate reservoirs

Depositional architecture, facies character and geochemical signature of the Tivoli travertines (pleistocene, acque albule basin, central Italy)

Facies character, diagenesis, geochemical signature, porosity, permeability, and geometry of the upper Pleistocene Tivoli travertines were investigated integrating information from six borehole cores, drilled along a 3 km N-S transect, and quarry faces, in order to propose a revised depositional model. Travertines overlie lacustrine and alluvial plain marls, siltstones, sandstones and pyroclastic deposits from the Roman volcanic districts. In the northern proximal area, with respect to the inferred hydrothermal vents, travertines accumulated in gently-dipping, decametre-scale shallow pools of low-angle terraced slopes. The intermediate depositional zone, 2 km southward, consisted of smooth and terraced slopes dipping S and E. In the southernmost distal zone, travertine marshes dominated by coated vegetation and Charophytes interfingered with lacustrine siltstones and fluvial sandstones and conglomerates. Travertine carbon and oxygen stable isotope data confirm the geothermal origin of the precipitating spring water. The travertine succession is marked by numerous intraclastic/extraclastic wackestone to rudstone beds indicative of non-deposition and erosion during subaerial exposure, due to temporary interruption of the vent activity or deviation of the thermal water flow. These unconformities identify nine superimposed travertine units characterized by aggradation in the proximal zone and southward progradation in the intermediate to distal zones. The wedge geometry of the travertine system reflects the vertical and lateral superimposition of individual fan-shaped units in response to changes in the vent location, shifting through time to lower elevations southward. The complexity of the travertine architecture results from the intermittent activity of the vents, their locations, the topographic gradient, thermal water flow paths and the rates and modes of carbonate precipitation

A Model of Bacterial Intestinal Infections in Drosophila melanogaster

Serratia marcescens is an entomopathogenic bacterium that opportunistically infects a wide range of hosts, including humans. In a model of septic injury, if directly introduced into the body cavity of Drosophila, this pathogen is insensitive to the host's systemic immune response and kills flies in a day. We find that S. marcescens resistance to the Drosophila immune deficiency (imd)-mediated humoral response requires the bacterial lipopolysaccharide O-antigen. If ingested by Drosophila, bacteria cross the gut and penetrate the body cavity. During this passage, the bacteria can be observed within the cells of the intestinal epithelium. In such an oral infection model, the flies succumb to infection only after 6 days. We demonstrate that two complementary host defense mechanisms act together against such food-borne infection: an antimicrobial response in the intestine that is regulated by the imd pathway and phagocytosis by hemocytes of bacteria that have escaped into the hemolymph. Interestingly, bacteria present in the hemolymph elicit a systemic immune response only when phagocytosis is blocked. Our observations support a model wherein peptidoglycan fragments released during bacterial growth activate the imd pathway and do not back a proposed role for phagocytosis in the immune activation of the fat body. Thanks to the genetic tools available in both host and pathogen, the molecular dissection of the interactions between S. marcescens and Drosophila will provide a useful paradigm for deciphering intestinal pathogenesis

Defining quantitative stream disturbance gradients and the additive role of habitat variation to explain macroinvertebrate taxa richness

Most studies dealing with the use of ecological indicators and other applied ecological research rely on some definition or concept of what constitutes least-, intermediate- and most-disturbed condition. Currently, most rigorous methodologies designed to define those conditions are suited to large spatial extents (nations, ecoregions) and many sites (hundreds to thousands). The objective of this study was to describe a methodology to quantitatively define a disturbance gradient for 40 sites in each of two small southeastern Brazil river basins. The assessment of anthropogenic disturbance experienced by each site was based solely on measurements strictly related to the intensity and extent of anthropogenic pressures. We calculated two indices: one concerned site-scale pressures and the other catchment-scale pressures. We combined those two indices into a single integrated disturbance index (IDI) because disturbances operating at both scales affect stream biota. The local- and catchment-scale disturbance indices were weakly correlated in the two basins (r = 0.21 and 0.35) and both significantly (p \u3c 0.05) reduced site EPT (insect orders Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, Trichoptera) richness. The IDI also performed well in explaining EPT richness in the basin that presented the stronger disturbance gradient (R2 = 0.39, p \u3c 0.001). Natural habitat variability was assessed as a second source of variation in EPT richness. Stream size and microhabitats were the key habitat characteristics not related to disturbances that enhanced the explanation of EPT richness over that attributed to the IDI. In both basins the IDI plus habitat metrics together explained around 50% of EPT richness variation. In the basin with the weaker disturbance gradient, natural habitat explained more variation in EPT richness than did the IDI, a result that has implications for biomonitoring studies. We conclude that quantitatively defined disturbance gradients offer a reliable and comprehensive characterization of anthropogenic pressure that integrates data from different spatial scales