1,721,098 research outputs found

    Stable isotopic composition of three foraminifera species in ODP Hole 160-963D

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    Carbon-rich layers exist at both sides of the Mediterranean Sea sedimentary record and are called sapropels and organic rich layers (ORLs), respectively in the eastern and western basins. They have different levels of organic carbon accumulation and seafloor oxygen deprivation. The most recent sapropel and ORL deposition have a different timing, 10.8-6.1 and 14.5-9.0 ka respectively. Here we investigate oxygen isotopic records of three foraminifera species that occupy different habitats within the Sicily Channel water column since ~ 12.0 ka, thus in the sill between the eastern and western Mediterranean basins. These data are ice volume-corrected, to get information on water masses density variability, and are accompanied by benthic foraminifera 13C measurements to establish Sicily Channel seafloor ventilation. Our results, and the comparison with other chronologically well-constrained Mediterranean records, highlight the connection of the two sub-basins due to monsoon activity. The end of the maximum Nile River flooding at ~ 9.2 ka, and eastern Mediterranean seafloor reventilation above 1800-1500 m depth at ~ 8.2 and 7.2 ka, left a clear signature in the intermediate water isotopic record of the Sicily Channel. Concurrently, the western Mediterranean deep water circulation experienced a significant recovery after a long period of slowdown. We argue that African monsoon weakening was transmitted into the western Mediterranean, through the intermediate layer of circulation, where promoted deep water formation and brought oxygen to the seafloor

    Photosymbiont associations persisted in planktic foraminifera during early Eocene hyperthermals at Shatsky Rise (Pacific Ocean)

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    Understanding the sensitivity of species-level responses to long-term warming will become increasingly important as we look towards a warmer future. Here, we examine photosymbiont associations in planktic foraminifera at Shatsky Rise (ODP Site 1209, Pacific Ocean) across periods of global warming of differing magnitude and duration. We compare published data from the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM; ~55.9 Ma) with data from the less intense Eocene Thermal Maximum 2 (ETM2; ~54.0 Ma), and H2 events (~53.9 Ma). We use a positive relationship between test size and carbon isotope value (size-δ13C) in foraminifera shells as a proxy for photosymbiosis in Morozovella subbotinae and Acarinina soldadoensis, and find no change in photosymbiont associations during the less intense warming events, in contrast with PETM records indicating a shift in symbiosis in A. soldadoensis (but not M. subbotinae). Declines in abundance and differing preservation potential of the asymbiotic species Subbotina roesnaesensis along with sediment mixing likely account for diminished differences in δ13C between symbiotic and asymbiotic species from the PETM and ETM2. We therefore conclude that photosymbiont associations were maintained in both A. soldadoensis and M. subbotinae across ETM2 and H2. Our findings support one or both of the hypotheses that 1) changing symbiotic associations in response to warming during the PETM allowed A. soldadoensis and perhaps other acarininids to thrive through subsequent hyperthermals or 2) some critical environmental threshold value was not reached in these less intense hyperthermals.ET recognizes funding by National Science Foundation (NSF) OCE 1536611. PMH, SD, and JOS recognize funding by NSF OCE 1536604 and a Sloan Research Fellowship

    High-frequency modification of the central Mediterranean seafloor environment over the last 74 ka

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    Here we present a high-resolution record of benthic foraminiferal assemblages for the last 74 kyr from the Sicily Channel Ocean Drilling Program Leg 160 Site 963. Benthic foraminiferal results are compared with geochemical (benthic and planktic δ18O and δ13C) and calcareous plankton data, previously acquired on the same marine core sediments. Within the succession, three benthic foraminifera compositional zones were defined. Temporal changes in the assemblages are interpreted in the context of the modification of subtropical and temperate climate systems that affected the Mediterranean thermohaline circulation. A close connection between bottom conditions in the Sicily Channel and eastern Mediterranean Sea is evident in two intervals, characterized in the ODP Site 963 by reduced oxygen conditions. The first one, around 53–51 ka, is tentatively attributed to the ‘missing’ sapropel S2 while the second, between 35 and 29 ka, is marked by short and recurrent episodes of bottom-water oxygen decrease. Both are related to a weakening of the intermediate circulation in the Sicily Channel connected with relatively high northern hemisphere summer insolation and increase in Nile River discharge, which inhibited vertical mixing and intermediate water ventilation in Eastern Mediterranean Sea. Over the last deglaciation, the African humid period (AHP) and the sea level rise, also influenced the water mass structure in the Sicily Channel and a reduction of the bottom ventilation is suggested by a strong reduction of deep-water Miliolids. Decreased bottom oxygen levels, which testifies for a weakening of intermediate circulation in Sicily Strait, also characterized the interval corresponding to S1 deposition. Yet, the strong decrease of benthic foraminiferal abundance related to a low surface water trophic level, appears to be conditioned by the reduction of trophic levels in the western Mediterranean. The very high relative abundance of U. mediterranea recorded during this interval is explained by the availability of organic matter during a limited short year period and/or the availability of more degraded organic matter from river runoff. In general, compositional data analysis highlighted a quite complex response of benthic foraminifera to paleoclimatic changes. However, changes in the benthic foraminiferal assemblages recorded during the last glacial are coherent with surface paleoproductivity dynamics connected with D-O oscillation, and support oligotrophic, meso-eutrophic and oligo-mesotrophic conditions during the early interstadials, late interstadials and stadials, respectively

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

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    The present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed

    Planktonic foraminifera response to the azores high and industrial-era global warming in the central-western Mediterranean Sea

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    The Mediterranean Sea is warming about 20 % more rapidly than global ocean and this phenomenon is impacting ecosystems and biodiversity. Planktonic foraminifera are an important component of surface and subsurface water ecosystems and food chains. Their species communities have been altering across the oceans since the Industrial Era, in response to the ongoing climate change, especially in the western Mediterranean Sea, where a significant productivity decrease has been recently reported. Here we show planktonic foraminifera and multispecies stable isotopes from three short sediment cores, recovered on the eastern flank of the Sicily Channel, central Mediterranean Sea. Results fully confirm the planktonic foraminifera productivity decrease in the Industrial Era, which is especially relevant for the second half of the 20th century. The planktonic foraminifera productivity decrease matches with a higher number of Large Azores High events, i.e., the establishment of an exceptional and persistent winter atmospheric highpressure ridge over the western-central Mediterranean Sea. This is an unprecedented atmospheric phenomenon for the last millennia Mediterranean Sea history, as a direct response of the global warming. Surface productivity and DCM species are especially declining since ~1960 CE, at expenses of winter mixed layer taxa, suggesting that the Azores High activity prevents a sustained water column vertical mixing and surface water nutrient fuelling. Our results document and confirm that the climate change has already been affecting Mediterranean marine ecosystems and the basic level of the trophic chain, by extending the surface water stratification period

    Relative abundance of planktonic foraminiferal species in sediment core MedSeA-S3 retrieved from the Alboran Sea during the MedSeA Cruise 2013

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    Relative abundance of planktonic foraminiferal species in MedSeA-S3 sediment core, spanning from 378 to 1995 years of the Common Era, examined under a stereo microscope (size fraction >125um) at least 300 speciments were counted and identified

    Middle-Late Pleistocene Eastern Mediterranean nutricline depth and coccolith preservation linked to Monsoon activity and Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation

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    The eastern Mediterranean Sea lies under the influence of high- and low-latitude climatic systems. The northern part of the basin is affected by Atlantic depressions and continental and polar air masses that promote intermediate and deep-water formation. The southern part is influenced by subtropical conditions and monsoon activity. Monsoon intensification results in enhanced freshwater discharge from the Nile River and other (now dry) systems along the North African margin. This freshwater influx into the Mediterranean Sea reduces surface water buoyancy loss. Disentangling the influences of these diverse climatic forcings is hindered by inherent proxy data limitations and by interactions between the climatic forcings. Here we use a wealth of published and new paleoclimate records across Termination II to understand the impacts of the higher latitude and subtropical/monsoon climate influences on coccolithophore ecology and holococcolith preservation in Aegean Sea sediment core LC21. We then use these findings to interpret coccolith assemblage variations at Ocean Drilling Program Site 967 (located nearby LC21, at the Eratosthenes Seamount) during multiple glacial-interglacial cycles across the Middle Pleistocene (marine isotopic stages 14–9). The LC21 analysis suggests that holococcolith preservation was enhanced during Heinrich Stadial 11 (∼133 ka) and cold spell C26 (∼119 ka). These two events have been previously linked to cold conditions in the North Atlantic and Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation weakening. We propose that associated atmospheric perturbations over the Mediterranean Sea promoted deep-water formation, and thus holococcolith preservation. Similarly, in the Middle Pleistocene (MIS 14-9) of Site 967, we observe temporal coincidence between ten episodes of enhanced holococcolith preservation and episodes of Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation slowdown. In Site 967, we also identified repeated fluctuations in placoliths and in Florisphaera profunda, which indicate nutricline depth variations. The development of a deep chlorophyll maximum is associated with the North Africa and wet phases, as recently observed using elemental proxy records at Site 967, during the deposition of sapropel layers. A further deep chlorophyll maximum development is identified during MISs 12 and 10, as a result of pycnocline and nutricline shoaling within the lower part of the photic zone due to glacial sea-level lowering and water mass transport reduction at both the Gibraltar and Sicily Straits. Finally, enhanced holococcolith preservation during cold/dry events is clearly correlated to weakened monsoon activity in both Africa and Asia.</p

    Variations on the Author

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    “Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship

    Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis

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    We provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
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