The recent history and future of the subterranean estuary

During the past century, anthropogenic forces changed the composition of water in coastal aquifers. These changes were brought about by excessive mining of coastal groundwater, dredging and pier construction, wetland draining, and hard surface expansion. These forces caused an increase of salinity in the subterranean estuary, which led to a series of biogeochemical reactions. These changes continue today

Taxonomies of Model-theoretically Defined Topological Properties

A topological classification scheme consists of two ingredients: (1) an abstract class K of topological spaces; and (2) a taxonomy , i.e. a list of first order sentences, together with a way of assigning an abstract class of spaces to each sentence of the list so that logically equivalent sentences are assigned the same class.K, is then endowed with an equivalence relation, two spaces belonging to the same equivalence class if and only if they lie in the same classes prescribed by the taxonomy. A space X in K is characterized within the classification scheme if whenever Y E K, and Y is equivalent to X, then Y is homeomorphic to X. As prime example, the closed set taxonomy assigns to each sentence in the first order language of bounded lattices the class of topological spaces whose lattices of closed sets satisfy that sentence. It turns out that every compact two-complex is characterized via this taxonomy in the class of metrizable spaces, but that no infinite discrete space is so characterized. We investigate various natural classification schemes, compare them, and look into the question of which spaces can and cannot be characterized within them

The effect of fiddler crab burrowing on sediment mixing and radionuclide profiles along a topographic gradient in a southeastern salt marsh

Fiddler crabs are one of the principal agents of bioturbation in intertidal salt marshes. The physical, chemical, and biological properties of sediments can be modified by fiddler crab burrowing activity. This study examined the effect of fiddler crab burrowing on sediment reworking and the distributions of 210Pb and 137Cs in salt marsh sediments at North Inlet Estuary, South Carolina. Fiddler crab burrow density, turnover, and volume were measured along a transect from the forest to the creek bank. Burrow density ranged between 40 and 300 burrows m-2 with highest densities at the creek bank. Sediment reworking is related to burrow turnover, density and size. Sediment reworking rates ranged between 4.4 × 103 and 5.7 × 104 cm3 m-2 y-1. Excess 210Pb and 137Cs profiles indicated that fiddler crab burrowing mixed the top 8 to 15 cm of sediment. Direct field measurements of burrow density, turnover, and size were used as input to a modified version of the regeneration model of Gardner et al. (1987) to assess the effect of fiddler crab bioturbation on 210Pb profiles. The modification takes into account the filling of abandoned fiddler crab burrows from both the infilling of surface sediment and the collapse of burrow walls. Model results were in good agreement with the observed 210Pb distributions in the sediments. Overall the results of this study suggest that fiddler crabs directly influence sediment composition and biogeochemical cycles in salt marsh systems

Increased fluxes of shelf-derived materials to the central Arctic Ocean

© The Author(s), 2018. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Science Advances 4 (2018): eaao1302, doi:10.1126/sciadv.aao1302.Rising temperatures in the Arctic Ocean region are responsible for changes such as reduced ice cover, permafrost thawing, and increased river discharge, which, together, alter nutrient and carbon cycles over the vast Arctic continental shelf. We show that the concentration of radium-228, sourced to seawater through sediment-water exchange processes, has increased substantially in surface waters of the central Arctic Ocean over the past decade. A mass balance model for 228Ra suggests that this increase is due to an intensification of shelf-derived material inputs to the central basin, a source that would also carry elevated concentrations of dissolved organic carbon and nutrients. Therefore, we suggest that significant changes in the nutrient, carbon, and trace metal balances of the Arctic Ocean are underway, with the potential to affect biological productivity and species assemblages in Arctic surface waters.This work was funded by NSF awards OCE-1458305 to M.A.C. and OCE-1458424 to W.S.M. The Mackenzie River sampling was supported by a Graduate Student Research Award from the North Pacific Research Board to L.E.K. L.E.K. also acknowledges support from a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship. I.G.R. acknowledges funding by the contributors to the U.S. Interagency Arctic Buoy Program, which include the U.S. Coast Guard, the Department of Energy, NASA, the U.S. Navy, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and NSF

Distribution of catecholamine fibers in the cochlear nucleus of horseshoe bats and mustache bats

The glyoxylic-acid-induced fluorescence technique was applied to demonstrate patterns of catecholaminergic innervation within the auditory brainstem of echolocating bats and the house mouse. In the cochlear nucleus of the rufous horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus rouxi) and the mustache bat (Pteronotus parnelli), species-specific catecholaminergic innervation patterns are found that contrast with the relatively homogeneous innervation in the rodent. In both bats the subnuclei of the cochlear nucleus receive a differentially dense supply of catecholaminergic fibers, and within the subnuclei, the catecholamine innervation densities can be correlated with the tonotopic frequency representation. The areas devoted to the high-frequency echolocation calls are less densely innervated than those regions which are responsive to lower frequencies. Apart from this common scheme, there are noteworthy distinctions between the two bats which correlate with specialized cytoarchitectural features of the cochlear nucleus. The marginal cell group, located medially to the anteroventral cochlear nucleus of Pteronotus, receives the densest supply of catecholaminergic fibers of all auditory nuclei. This plexus is formed by a morphologically distinct population of catecholaminergic fibers

Shelf-basin interactions and water mass residence times in the western Arctic Ocean: Insights provided by radium isotopes

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2019. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research-Oceans 124(5), (2019): 3279-3297, doi: 10.1029/2019JC014988.Radium isotopes are produced through the decay of thorium in sediments and are soluble in seawater; thus, they are useful for tracing ocean boundary‐derived inputs to the ocean. Here we apply radium isotopes to study continental inputs and water residence times in the Arctic Ocean, where land‐ocean interactions are currently changing in response to rising air and sea temperatures. We present the distributions of radium isotopes measured on the 2015 U.S. GEOTRACES transect in the Western Arctic Ocean and combine this data set with historical radium observations in the Chukchi Sea and Canada Basin. The highest activities of radium‐228 were observed in the Transpolar Drift and the Chukchi shelfbreak jet, signaling that these currents are heavily influenced by interactions with shelf sediments. The ventilation of the halocline with respect to inputs from the Chukchi shelf occurs on time scales of ≤19–23 years. Intermediate water ventilation time scales for the Makarov and Canada Basins were determined to be ~20 and >30 years, respectively, while deep water residence times in these basins were on the order of centuries. The radium distributions and residence times described in this study serve as a baseline for future studies investigating the impacts of climate change on the Arctic Ocean.We thank the captain and crew of the USCGC Healy (HLY1502) and the chief scientists D. Kadko and W. Landing for coordinating a safe and successful expedition. We thank the members of the pump team, P. Lam, E. Black, S. Pike, X. Yang, and M. Heller for their assistance with sample collection and for their unfailingly positive attitudes during this 65‐day expedition. We also appreciate sampling assistance from P. Aguilar and M. Stephens, and MATLAB assistance from B. Corlett, A. Pacini, P. Lin, and M. Li. The radium data from the HLY1502 expedition are available through the Biological & Chemical Oceanography Data Management Office (https://www.bco‐dmo.org/dataset/718440) and the radium measurements from the SHEBA, AWS‐2000, and SBI expeditions can be found in the supporting information. This work was funded by NSF awards OCE‐1458305 to M.A.C., OCE‐1458424 to W.S.M., and PLR‐1504333 to R.S.P. This research was conducted with Government support under and awarded by a DoD, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship awarded to L.E.K., 32 CFR 168a.2019-10-2

Erratum : GEOTRACES radium isotopes interlaboratory comparison experiment

Author Posting. © Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography, 2012. This article is posted here by permission of Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Limnology and Oceanography: Methods 10 (2012): 617, doi:10.4319/lom.2012.10.617.In our original paper, Charette, M. A., H. Dulaiova, M. E. Gonneea, P. B. Henderson, W. S. Moore, J. C. Scholten, and M. K. Pham. 2012. GEOTRACES radium isotopes interlaboratory comparison experiment. Limonol. Oceanogr.: Methods 10:451, the incorrect headers were used for Table 9

Observational and modeling evidence of seasonal trends in sediment-derived material inputs to the Chukchi Sea

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2020. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 125(5), (2020): e2019JC016007, doi:10.1029/2019JC016007.Benthic inputs of nutrients help support primary production in the Chukchi Sea and produce nutrient‐rich water masses that ventilate the halocline of the western Arctic Ocean. However, the complex biological and redox cycling of nutrients and trace metals make it difficult to directly monitor their benthic fluxes. In this study, we use radium‐228, which is a soluble radionuclide produced in sediments, and a numerical model of an inert, generic sediment‐derived tracer to study variability in sediment inputs to the Chukchi Sea. The 228Ra observations and modeling results are in general agreement and provide evidence of strong benthic inputs to the southern Chukchi Sea during the winter, while the northern shelf receives higher concentrations of sediment‐sourced materials in the spring and summer due to continued sediment‐water exchange as the water mass traverses the shelf. The highest tracer concentrations are observed near the shelfbreak and southeast of Hanna Shoal, a region known for high biological productivity and enhanced benthic biomass.This study presents data from multiple Arctic expeditions over the past two decades, and we are indebted to the captains, crews, and scientific parties that made this data collection possible. This work was funded by NSF awards OCE‐1458305 to M. Charette, OCE‐1458424 to W. Moore, OCE‐1434085 to D. Kadko, PLR‐1504333 to R. Pickart, and OPP‐1822334 to M. Spall. Funding was also provided by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Grant NA14‐OAR4320158 to R. Pickart. L. Kipp was supported by an Ocean Frontier Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship. Radium data used in this manuscript are available in Table S1.2020-10-2