The early Quaternary North Sea Basin

The onset of the Quaternary (2.58 Ma) corresponds to significant paleo-environmental events, such as the intensification and southward extension of Northern Hemisphere glaciation. In the North Sea Basin a significant late Cenozoic succession has been identified as a high-resolution archive of paleo-environmental changes during the Pliocene and Pleistocene. However, the identification of the base of the Quaternary has been a long-standing issue owing to lack of stratigraphic calibration. This study incorporates continuous, regional 3D seismic data with high-quality chronostratigraphic markers to map the base-Quaternary surface at high resolution across the entire North Sea. Depth conversion, backstripping, seismic geomorphology and sedimentation rate calculations are integrated to analyse the paleogeographical evolution of the North Sea Basin and its infill of c. 83 × 103 km3 of northward prograding marine to deltaic sediments. The basin is 600 km long from SSE to NNW and largely localized above residual topography of the Mesozoic graben system. During the earliest Quaternary (2.58 – 2.35 Ma) paleo-water depths were c. 300 ± 50 m and solid sedimentation rates (calculated from 0% porosity) c. 32 km3 ka−1. The base-Quaternary provides an important marker for further studies of the changing environment of the Quaternary of NW Europe as well as resource and shallow geohazard analysis. Supplementary material: A base Quaternary two-way travel time structure map is available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.390034

Assessing urinary flow rate, creatinine, osmolality and other hydration adjustment methods for urinary biomonitoring using NHANES arsenic, iodine, lead and cadmium data

Background There are numerous methods for adjusting measured concentrations of urinary biomarkers for hydration variation. Few studies use objective criteria to quantify the relative performance of these methods. Our aim was to compare the performance of existing methods for adjusting urinary biomarkers for hydration variation. Methods Creatinine, osmolality, excretion rate (ER), bodyweight adjusted ER (ERBW) and empirical analyte-specific urinary flow rate (UFR) adjustment methods on spot urinary concentrations of lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), non-arsenobetaine arsenic (AsIMM) and iodine (I) from the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) (2009–2010 and 2011–2012) were evaluated. The data were divided into a training dataset (n = 1,723) from which empirical adjustment coefficients were derived and a testing dataset (n = 428) on which quantification of the performance of the adjustment methods was done by calculating, primarily, the correlation of the adjusted parameter with UFR, with lower correlations indicating better performance and, secondarily, the correlation of the adjusted parameters with blood analyte concentrations (Pb and Cd), with higher correlations indicating better performance. Results Overall performance across analytes was better for Osmolality and UFR based methods. Excretion rate and ERBW consistently performed worse, often no better than unadjusted concentrations. Conclusions Osmolality adjustment of urinary biomonitoring data provides for more robust adjustment than either creatinine based or ER or ERBW methods, the latter two of which tend to overcompensate for UFR. Modified UFR methods perform significantly better than all but osmolality in removing hydration variation, but depend on the accuracy of UFR calculations. Hydration adjustment performance is analyte-specific and further research is needed to establish a robust and consistent framework

Identification of mantle peridotite as a possible Iapetan ophiolite sliver in south Shetland, Scottish Caledonides

The Neoproterozoic Dunrossness Spilite Subgroup of south Shetland, Scotland, has been interpreted as a series of komatiitic and mafic lava flows formed in a marginal basin in response to Laurentian continental margin rifting. We show that ultramafic rocks previously identified as komatiites are depleted mantle peridotites that experienced seafloor hydrothermal alteration. The presence of positive Bouguer gravity and aeromagnetic anomalies extending from the Dunrossness Spilite Subgroup northward to the Shetland Ophiolite Complex suggests instead that these rocks may form part of an extensive ophiolite sliver, obducted during Iapetus Ocean closure in a forearc setting

Plant profit maximisation improves predictions of European forest responses to drought

- Knowledge of how water stress impacts the carbon and water cycles is a key uncertainty in terrestrial biosphere models. - We tested a new profit maximisation model, where photosynthetic uptake of CO2 is optimally traded against plant hydraulic function, as an alternative to the empirical functions commonly used in models to regulate gas exchange during periods of water stress. We conducted a multi-site evaluation of this model at the ecosystem scale, before and during major droughts in Europe. Additionally, we asked whether the maximum hydraulic conductance in the soil-plant continuum

Raman lidar data from Capel Dewi, May 23 - 30 2016

These lidar data show the passage of smoke from forest fires in Canada over the lidar site at Capel Dewi near Aberystwyth in Wales. A description of the event is provided in Vaughan et al, Atmos. Chem. Phys., DOI: 10.5194/acp-2017-1181. The files contain the photon-counting signals from the lidar as count-rate*height in km squared (corrected for background and pulse pileup), statistical errors in those signals, and synthetic molecular atmosphere profiles derived from two representative radiosonde stations in the vicinity. The counts have been integrated in time over a night, as follows: May23: 2148 on 23 May to 0309 on 24 May May24: 2126 on 24 May to 2206 on 24 May May26: 2304 on 26 May to 2344 on 26 May May29: 2111 on 29 May to 0331 on 30 May May30: 0036 on 31 May to 0257 on 31 May Cloud prevented night-long observations on these nights - cloud-free profiles were selected and combined by visual examination of the raw data

Siberian Xenoliths

Halogen (Cl, Br and I) and noble gas isotope data for Siberian (Udachnaya and Obnazhennaya kimberlites) xenoliths. Data were obtained using in vacuo crushing and laser fusion extraction techniques. Halogens were determined using neutron irradiation noble gas mass spectrometry

Long-Term Immobilization of Technetium via Bioremediation with Slow-Release Substrates

Data for the manuscript 'Long-Term Immobilization of Technetium via Bioremediation with Slow-Release Substrates'. Files.dat are raw XAS data

GRA 06128 - H & Cl isotopes

Raw H and Cl isotope data obtained by NanoSIMS on phosphates in meteorite GRA 0612

NanoSIMS imaging of extracellular electron transport processes during microbial iron(III) reduction

Geochemical and NanoSIMS data for "NanoSIMS imaging of extracellular electron transport processes during microbial iron(III) reduction

The impact of iron nanoparticles of technetium-contaminated groundwater and sediment microbial communities

Data collected for the manuscript 'The impact of iron nanoparticles on technetium-contaminated groundwater and sediment microbial communities