Temporal variability and composition of settling particle fluxes on the Barcelona continental margin (Northwestern Mediterranean)

The results of a year-long sediment-trap experiment provide the first direct observations of sediment fluxes to the seafloor on the Barcelona continental margin. Time-series of vertical particle fluxes and major constituents (organic carbon, biogenic silica, calcium carbonate and aluminosilicates) were determined inside and in the vicinity of the Foix submarine canyon from May 1993 to April 1994. The spatial and temporal variability of bi-weekly total mass fluxes indicate significant high frequency variability related to physical and biological processes at this site. The Foix submarine canyon acts as an actual conduit for transport of sediment from the shelf to the slope, and as a mid-slope sedimentary depocenter. The shelf-slope sediment transfer through this canyon is sporadic and takes place during and immediately after an important storm event or a river discharge increase. During periods of low cross-margin sediment transfer injected through the canyon, the vertical flux of particles is controlled by the along-slope geostrophic circulation. Breaking of the summer water stratification and vertical mixing also appears to be a major process which contributes to increasing the vertical flux of particles. Particle composition inside the Foix submarine canyon does not reflect any significant seasonal variations, but in the adjacent open slope, summer water stratification controls the composition of settling particulate matter. Retention of shelf-derived suspended particles along isopycnals in summer results in a decrease in total mass fluxes and an enrichment of organic carbon and clay mineral content in the settling particulate matter outside the canyon. During the spring biological bloom, the opal content increases particularly on the open slope, but the calcium carbonate does not because the high input of terrigeneous carbonate dominates that from biogenic carbonate production. The aluminosilicates fraction is the largest constituent of the vertical particle fluxes on the Barcelona continental margin, reaching higher percentages inside the Foix submarine canyon

Correlator of heavy-quark currents at small q^2 in the large-beta_0 limit

The correlator of vector heavy-quark currents at small q^2 is considered in the large-beta_0 limit. The leading IR renormalon ambiguity of the sum of the perturbative series is canceled by the UV renormalon ambiguity of the gluon condensate. Asymptotic behaviour of the perturbative series is obtained in a model-independent way, up to a single unknown normalization factor. Gluon-virtuality distribution functions for the perturbative correction are calculated.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure

Hidromedusas profundas del Mediterráneo: Un estudio que incluye la descripción de dos nuevas especies recolectadas en cañones submarinos del Mediterráneo Occidental

Two new species of hydromedusae (Foersteria antoniae and Cunina simplex) are described from plankton collected in sediment traps placed in the Lacaze-Duthiers Submarine Canyon and along Banyuls-sur-Mer coast (northwestern Mediterranean). The Mediterranean hydromedusan deep-water fauna contains 41 species which represent 45.5 % of the world-wide deep-sea hydromedusae fauna (90) and 20% of the total number of Mediterranean hydromedusae (204). The Mediterranean deep-water hydromedusan fauna is characterised by a large percentage of holoplanktonic species (61%), mainly Trachymedusae. Nevertheless, contrary to the general opinion, the percentage of meroplanktonic species is equally high. The most original features of this fauna lies however in the importance of the number of endemic species (22%) and in the fact that the majority of them are meroplanktonic Leptomedusae with a supposed bathybenthic stage. Some of the endemic species could still represent relics of the primitive Tethys fauna having survived to the Messinian crisis. The origin of the Mediterranean deep-water hydromedusan fauna is discussed and a general hypothesis is proposed.Se describen dos especies nuevas a partir de ejemplares recolectados mediante trampas de sedimento del cañón submarino de Lacaze-Duthiers situado en frente de la costa de Banyuls-sur-Mer (Mediterráneo noroccidental). La fauna profunda de hydromedusas en el Mediterráneo contiene 41 especies que representan 45.5 % de la fauna mundial del grupo y el 20% de la fauna de hydromedusas del Mediterráneo. La fauna Mediterránea de hydromedusas profundas se caracteriza por un gran porcentaje de especies holoplanctónicas (61%), fundamentalmente Trachymedusas, sin embargo, contrario a la opinión generalizada, el porcentaje de especies meroplanctónicas es igualmente importante (39%). La característica más interesante de esta fauna es el número de especies endémicas (22%) y el hecho de que la mayoría de estas especies son meroplanctónicas (Leptomedusas) con una supuesta fase bentónica. Algunas de estas especies endémicas, podrían ser especies relictas (endémica insular) de la fauna primitiva del Tetis que sobrevivieron a la crisis Mesiniana. Se discute el origen de la fauna de hydromedusas profundas en el Mediterráneo y se presenta una nueva hipótesis

Persistence of biogeochemical alterations of deep-sea sediments by bottom trawling

© 2020. The Authors. Bottom trawling grounds have been expanding to deeper areas of the oceans since the mid-XXth century, and mitigating strategies aimed to protect fish stocks, such as temporal trawling closures, have recently been implemented. Here we investigated the biogeochemical properties of sediment from a deep-sea trawling ground in Palamós Canyon (NW Mediterranean) to assess the effects of a 2-months trawling closure in the recovery of sedimentary organic matter. In comparison to untrawled areas, the continuous erosion and sediment mixing in trawling grounds led to coarser reworked sediments impoverished in organic carbon (∼30% loss) and promoted the degradation of labile compounds (52–70% loss). These impacts persisted after the temporal trawling closure, highlighting that this management strategy is insufficient to restore the seafloor. Considering the continuous expansion of bottom trawling grounds, this activity could have significant and irreversible biogeochemical impacts on ocean margins at a global scale, hampering their carbon burial capacity

Quantum Electrodynamics at Extremely Small Distances

The asymptotics of the Gell-Mann - Low function in QED can be determined exactly, \beta(g)= g at g\to\infty, where g=e^2 is the running fine structure constant. It solves the problem of pure QED at small distances L and gives the behavior g\sim L^{-2}.Comment: Latex, 6 pages, 1 figure include

Role of Dense Shelf Water Cascading in the Transfer of Organochlorine Compounds to Open Marine Waters

9 pages, 4 figures, 2 tablesSettling particles were collected by an array of sediment trap moorings deployed along the Cap de Creus (CCC) and Lacaze-Duthiers (LDC) submarine canyons and on the adjacent southern open slope (SOS) between October 2005 and October 2006. This array collected particles during common settling processes and particles transferred to deep waters by dense shelf water cascading (DSWC). Polychlorobiphenyls (PCBs), dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane and its metabolites (DDTs), chlorobenzenes (CBzs)—pentachlorobenzene and hexachlorobenzene—and hexachlorocyclohexanes were analyzed in all samples. The results show much higher settling fluxes of these compounds during DSWC than during common sedimentation processes. The area of highest deposition was located between 1000 and 1500 m depth and extended along the canyons and outside them showing their channelling effects but also overflows of dense shelf water from these canyons. Higher fluxes were observed near the bottom (30 m above bottom; mab) than at intermediate waters (500 mab) which is consistent with the formation and sinking of dense water close to the continental shelf and main displacement through the slope by the bottom. DSWC involved the highest settling fluxes of these compounds ever described in marine continental slopes and pelagic areas, e.g., peak values of PCBs (960 ng·m–2·d–1), DDTs (2900 ng·m–2·d–1), CBzs (340 ng·m–2·d–1) and lindane (180 ng·m–2·d–1)We thank all participants and crews of R/V Garcia del Cid and R/V Universitatis for their help and dedication. We are deeply indepted to Nicole Delsaut (CEFREM) for the prepatation of the trap samples for analysis. This research was supported by the HERMES (GOCE-CT-2005-511234-1) and HERMIONE (FP7-ENV-2008-1-226354) research projects. Financial support from the GRACCIE consolider project (CSD2007-00067) is acknowledged. This work was also sponsored by research groups 2009SGR1178 and 2009SGR1305 from Generalitat de CatalunyaPeer reviewe

Assessing environmental pollution in birds: a new methodological approach for interpreting bioaccumulation of trace elements in feather shafts using geochemical sediment data

Environmental trace element composition can have an important impact on ecosystem and population health as well individual fitness. Therefore, carefully assessing bioaccumulation of trace elements is central to studies investigating the ecological impact of pollution. Colonial birds are important bioindicators since non-invasive sampling can easily be achieved through sampling of chick feathers, which controls for some confounding factors of variability (age and environmental heterogeneity). However, an additional confounding factor, external contamination (ExCo), which remains even after washing feathers, has frequently been overlooked in the literature. We developed a new method to reliably interpret bioaccumulation of 10 trace elements (As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, Se, Sn and Zn) in feathers using chicks of a colonial species: the Greater Flamingo, Phoenicopterus roseus. First, only shafts were used to remove ExCo retained in vanes. Secondly, we applied a thorough washing procedure. Thirdly, we applied a new analytical method to control for ExCo, which assumes that ExCo is mainly due to adhered sediment particles and that the relative concentration of each trace element will be similar to the sediment geochemical composition of sampling sites. We validated this new methodology by comparing trace element composition and particle composition (by scanning electron microscopy and mass spectrometry) of washed and unwashed feathers. The washing procedure removed >99% of K indicating that most of the ExCo from salt was removed. Scanning electron microscopy and mass spectrometry revealed that some sediment particles remained after washing, especially clays which are likely to severely bias bioaccumulation interpretation. We successfully controlled for ExCo by calculating the ratio of ExCo due to sediment using the geochemical fingerprint of sediment samples. Our methodology leads to conservative estimates of bioaccumulation for As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, Se, Sn and Zn. We have validated a new more reliable method of analysing trace element concentrations in feathers, which effectively controls for ExCo, if geochemical sediment data can be meaningfully compared to ExCo of feathers. We have demonstrated that overlooking ExCo leads to potentially erroneous conclusions, and we urge that the method applied in this study be considered in future studies.Peer Reviewe

O(1/N_f) Corrections to the Thirring Model in 2<d<4

The Thirring model, that is, a relativistic field theory of fermions with a contact interaction between vector currents, is studied for dimensionalities 2<d<4 using the 1/N_f expansion, where N_f is the number of fermion species. The model is found to have no ultraviolet divergences at leading order provided a regularization respecting current conservation is used. Explicit O(1/N_f) corrections are computed, and the model shown to be renormalizable at this order in the massless limit; renormalizability appears to hold to all orders due to a special case of Weinberg's theorem. This implies there is a universal amplitude for four particle scattering in the asymptotic regime. Comparisons are made with both the Gross-Neveu model and QED.Comment: 22 pages in plain TeX, with 7 figs included using psfig.tex (Minor conceptual changes - algebra unaffected

A multiloop improvement of non-singlet QCD evolution equations

An approach is elaborated for calculation of "all loop" contributions to the non-singlet evolution kernels from the diagrams with renormalon chain insertions. Closed expressions are obtained for sums of contributions to kernels $P(z)$ for the DGLAP equation and $V(x,y)$ for the "nonforward" ER-BL equation from these diagrams that dominate for a large value of $b_0$, the first $\beta$-function coefficient. Calculations are performed in the covariant $\xi$-gauge in a MS-like scheme. It is established that a special choice of the gauge parameter $\xi=-3$ generalizes the standard "naive nonabelianization" approximation. The solutions are obtained to the ER-BL evolution equation (taken at the "all loop" improved kernel), which are in form similar to one-loop solutions. A consequence for QCD descriptions of hard processes and the benefits and incompleteness of the approach are briefly discussed.Comment: 13 pages, revtex, 2 figures are enclosed as eps-file, the text style and figures are corrected following version, accepted for publication to Phys. Rev.

Non-Equilibrium Quantum Fields in the Large N Expansion

An effective action technique for the time evolution of a closed system consisting of one or more mean fields interacting with their quantum fluctuations is presented. By marrying large $N$ expansion methods to the Schwinger-Keldysh closed time path (CTP) formulation of the quantum effective action, causality of the resulting equations of motion is ensured and a systematic, energy conserving and gauge invariant expansion about the quasi-classical mean field(s) in powers of $1/N$ developed. The general method is exposed in two specific examples, $O(N)$ symmetric scalar \l\F^4 theory and Quantum Electrodynamics (QED) with $N$ fermion fields. The \l\F^4 case is well suited to the numerical study of the real time dynamics of phase transitions characterized by a scalar order parameter. In QED the technique may be used to study the quantum non-equilibrium effects of pair creation in strong electric fields and the scattering and transport processes in a relativistic $e^+e^-$ plasma. A simple renormalization scheme that makes practical the numerical solution of the equations of motion of these and other field theories is described.Comment: 43 pages, LA-UR-94-783 (PRD, in press), uuencoded PostScrip