Arctic sea-ice decline archived by multicentury annual-resolution record from crustose coralline algal proxy

Northern Hemisphere sea ice has been declining sharply over the past decades and 2012 exhibited the lowest Arctic summer sea-ice cover in historic times. Whereas ongoing changes are closely monitored through satellite observations, we have only limited data of past Arctic sea-ice cover derived from short historical records, indirect terrestrial proxies, and low-resolution marine sediment cores. A multicentury time series from extremely long-lived annual increment-forming crustose coralline algal buildups now provides the first high-resolution in situ marine proxy for sea-ice cover. Growth and Mg/Ca ratios of these Arctic-wide occurring calcified algae are sensitive to changes in both temperature and solar radiation. Growth sharply declines with increasing sea-ice blockage of light from the benthic algal habitat. The 646-y multisite record from the Canadian Arctic indicates that during the Little Ice Age, sea ice was extensive but highly variable on subdecadal time scales and coincided with an expansion of ice-dependent Thule/Labrador Inuit sea mammal hunters in the region. The past 150 y instead have been characterized by sea ice exhibiting multidecadal variability with a long-term decline distinctly steeper than at any time since the 14th century

Evolution of the northern rockweed, <i>Fucus distichus</i>, in a regime of glacial cycling: implications for benthic algal phylogenetics

Northern hemisphere rockweeds (Fucus) are thought to have evolved in the North Pacific and then spread to the North Atlantic following the opening of the Bering Strait. They have dispersed and widely speciated in the North Atlantic and its tributary seas. Fucus distichus is likely near the ancestral member of this genus, and studies have shown that there are several species/subspecies in this complex (i.e. F. evanescens and F. gardneri). We used phylogenetic and haplotype analyses to test the phylogenetic relationships and biogeography of F. distichus. Our data and subsequent analyses demonstrate that, unlike previous studies that lacked samples from an extensive geographical area of the Arctic and Subarctic, there is a distinct Arctic haplotype that is the source of subspecies in both the North Pacific and North Atlantic. Fucus distichus occupies a low tide zone habitat, and in Arctic/Subarctic regions it is adapted to the severe stress of sea ice coverage and disturbance during many months per year. We hypothesize that the very large geographic area of Arctic and Subarctic rocky shores available to this species during interglacials, supported by large Arctic/Subarctic fringe areas as well as unglaciated refugia during glacial cycles, provided a robust population and gene pool (described by the Thermogeographic Model). This gene pool dilutes that of the more fragmented and area-limited Temperate/Boreal area populations when they are brought together during glacial cycles. We suggest that similar subspecies complexes for a variety of Arctic/Subarctic shore biota should be examined further in this context, rather than arbitrarily being split up into numerous species

Interaction of quasilocal harmonic modes and boson peak in glasses

The direct proportionality relation between the boson peak maximum in glasses, $\omega_b$, and the Ioffe-Regel crossover frequency for phonons, $\omega_d$, is established. For several investigated materials $\omega_b = (1.5\pm 0.1)\omega_d$. At the frequency $\omega_d$ the mean free path of the phonons $l$ becomes equal to their wavelength because of strong resonant scattering on quasilocal harmonic oscillators. Above this frequency phonons cease to exist. We prove that the established correlation between $\omega_b$ and $\omega_d$ holds in the general case and is a direct consequence of bilinear coupling of quasilocal oscillators with the strain field.Comment: RevTex, 4 pages, 1 figur

Dissipation and spontaneous symmetry breaking in brain dynamics

We compare the predictions of the dissipative quantum model of brain with neurophysiological data collected from electroencephalograms resulting from high-density arrays fixed on the surfaces of primary sensory and limbic areas of trained rabbits and cats. Functional brain imaging in relation to behavior reveals the formation of coherent domains of synchronized neuronal oscillatory activity and phase transitions predicted by the dissipative model.Comment: Restyled, slight changes in title and abstract, updated bibliography, J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. Vol. 41 (2008) in prin

Argumentation in school science : Breaking the tradition of authoritative exposition through a pedagogy that promotes discussion and reasoning

The value of argumentation in science education has become internationally recognised and has been the subject of many research studies in recent years. Successful introduction of argumentation activities in learning contexts involves extending teaching goals beyond the understanding of facts and concepts, to include an emphasis on cognitive and metacognitive processes, epistemic criteria and reasoning. The authors focus on the difficulties inherent in shifting a tradition of teaching from one dominated by authoritative exposition to one that is more dialogic, involving small-group discussion based on tasks that stimulate argumentation. The paper builds on previous research on enhancing the quality of argument in school science, to focus on how argumentation activities have been designed, with appropriate strategies, resources and modelling, for pedagogical purposes. The paper analyses design frameworks, their contexts and lesson plans, to evaluate their potential for enhancing reasoning through foregrounding the processes of argumentation. Examples of classroom dialogue where teachers adopt the frameworks/plans are analysed to show how argumentation processes are scaffolded. The analysis shows that several layers of interpretation are needed and these layers need to be aligned for successful implementation. The analysis serves to highlight the potential and limitations of the design frameworks

Establishing temperate crustose early Holocene coralline algae as archives for palaeoenvironmental reconstructions of the shallow water habitats of the Mediterranean Sea

Over the past decades, coralline algae have increasingly been used as archives of palaeoclimate information due to their seasonal growth bands and their vast distribution from high latitudes to the tropics. Traditionally, these reconstructions have been performed mainly on high latitude species, limiting the geographical area of their potential use. Here we assess the use of temperate crustose fossil coralline algae from shallow water habitats for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction to generate records of past climate change. We determine the potential of three different species of coralline algae, Lithothamnion minervae, Lithophyllum stictaeforme and Mesophyllum philippii, with different growth patterns, as archives for pH (δ11B) and temperature (Mg/Ca) reconstruction in the Mediterranean Sea. Mg concentration is driven by temperature but modulated by growth rate, which is controlled by species‐specific and intraspecific growth patterns. L. minervae is a good temperature recorder, showing a moderate warming trend in specimens from 11.37 cal ka BP (from 14.2 ± 0.4°C to 14.9 ± 0.15°C) to today. In contrast to Mg, all genera showed consistent values of boron isotopes (δ11B) suggesting a common control on boron incorporation. The recorded δ11B in modern and fossil coralline specimens is in agreement with literature data about early Holocene pH, opening new perspectives of coralline‐based, high‐resolution pH reconstructions in deep time

Molecular gyroscopes and biological effects of weak ELF magnetic fields

Extremely-low-frequency magnetic fields are known to affect biological systems. In many cases, biological effects display `windows' in biologically effective parameters of the magnetic fields: most dramatic is the fact that relatively intense magnetic fields sometimes do not cause appreciable effect, while smaller fields of the order of 10--100 $\mu$T do. Linear resonant physical processes do not explain frequency windows in this case. Amplitude window phenomena suggest a nonlinear physical mechanism. Such a nonlinear mechanism has been proposed recently to explain those `windows'. It considers quantum-interference effects on protein-bound substrate ions. Magnetic fields cause an interference of ion quantum states and change the probability of ion-protein dissociation. This ion-interference mechanism predicts specific magnetic-field frequency and amplitude windows within which biological effects occur. It agrees with a lot of experiments. However, according to the mechanism, the lifetime $\Gamma^{-1}$ of ion quantum states within a protein cavity should be of unrealistic value, more than 0.01 s for frequency band 10--100 Hz. In this paper, a biophysical mechanism has been proposed that (i) retains the attractive features of the ion interference mechanism and (ii) uses the principles of gyroscopic motion and removes the necessity to postulate large lifetimes. The mechanism considers dynamics of the density matrix of the molecular groups, which are attached to the walls of protein cavities by two covalent bonds, i.e., molecular gyroscopes. Numerical computations have shown almost free rotations of the molecular gyros. The relaxation time due to van der Waals forces was about 0.01 s for the cavity size of 28 angstr\"{o}ms.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figure