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Late quaternary tephra layers around Raoul and Macauley islands, Kermadec arc: implications for volcanic sources, explosive volcanism and tephrochronology
No full textA suite of deep-sea cores were collected along transects up to 100?km across the fore-arc and back-arc regions of the predominantly submarine Kermadec arc near Raoul and Macauley islands, southwest Pacific. The cores reveal a macroscopic tephra record extending back >50?ka. This is a significant addition to the dated record of volcanism, previously restricted to fragmented late Holocene records exposed on the two islands. The 27 macroscopic tephra layers display a wide compositional diversity in glass (?50–78?wt% SiO2). Many tephra layers comprise silicic shards with a subordinate mafic shard population. This could arise from magma mingling and may reflect mafic triggering of the silicic eruptions. Broadly, the glass compositions can be distinguished on diverging high-K and low-K trends, most likely arising from different source volcanoes. This distinction is also reflected in the tephra records exposed on Raoul (low-K) and Macauley (high-K) islands, the likely source areas. Heterogeneous tephra comprising shards of both high- and low-K affinity, silicic and mafic compositions, and more homogeneous tephra with subordinate outlier shard compositions, are best explained by post-depositional mixing of separate eruption deposits or contemporaneous eruptions. Evidently, the slow sedimentation rates of the calcareous oozes (?101–102?mm?ka?1) were insufficient to adequately separate and preserve closely spaced eruption deposits. This exemplifies the difficulty in assessing eruption frequencies and magmatic trends, and erecting a tephrostratigraphy, using geochemical fingerprinting in such environments. Despite these difficulties, the ca. 5.7?ka Sandy Bay Tephra erupted from Macauley Island can be correlated over a distance of >100?km, extending east and west of the island, showing that the mostly submerged volcanoes are capable of wide tephra dispersal. Hence there is potential for developing chronostratigraphies for the southwest Pacific beyond the region covered by the extensive rhyolite marker beds from the Taupo Volcanic Zone
Parenchyma abundance in wood of evergreen trees varies independently of nutrients
Get PDFThe abundance of living cells in wood—mainly as interconnected axial and ray
parenchyma networks—varies widely between species. However, the functional
significance of this variation and its role in plant ecological strategies is poorly understood, as is the extent to which different parenchyma fractions are favored in relation to soil nutrients and hydraulic functions. We analyzed wood tissue fractions of 16 Australian angiosperm species sampled from two nearby areas with similar climate but very different soil nutrient profiles and investigated structure-function links with soil and tissue nutrient concentrations and other plant traits. We expected the variation in parenchyma fractions to influence nutrient concentrations in wood xylem, and to find
species with lower parenchyma fractions and accordingly lower nutrient requirements on lower-nutrient soils. Surprisingly, both axial and ray parenchyma fractions were mostly unrelated to tissue and soil nutrient concentrations, except for nitrogen concentration in stem sapwood. Species from low nutrient soils showed higher fractional P translocation from both leaves and sapwood, but little patterning with respect to tissue nitrogen. While species from high and low nutrient soils clearly clustered along the soil-fertility axis, their tissue composition varied independently from plant functional traits related to construction costs and hydraulic anatomy. Our findings imply that there is considerable variation among species in the nutrient concentrations within different parenchyma tissues. The anatomical composition of wood tissue seems unrelated to plant nutrient requirements. Even though xylem parenchyma is involved in metabolic functions such as nutrient translocation and storage, parenchyma abundance on its own does not directly explain variation in these functions, even in co-occurring species. While parenchyma is highly abundant in wood of angiosperm trees, we are still lacking a convincing ecological interpretation of its variability and role in whole-tree nutrient budgets
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe 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
Submarine silicic volcanism of the Healy caldera, southern Kermadec arc (SW Pacific): I - volcanology and eruption mechanisms
No full textThe submarine Healy volcano (southern Kermadec arc), with a 2-2.5 km wide caldera, is pervasively mantled with highly vesicular silicic pumice within a water depth of 1,150-1,800 m. Pumices comprise type 1 white-light grey pumice with h30 mm vesicles and weak-moderate foliation, type 2 grey pumice with millimetre-scale laminae, flow banded foliation, including stretched vesicles h55 mm in length, and a minor finely vesicular type 3 pumice. All types are sparsely porphyritic, with undevitrified glassy groundmass (68-70% SiO2), which is microlite and lithic free. Coexisting pyroxenes yield magma temperatures of ~950 °C. Pumice density is h0.5 g cm-3 and vesicularity is 78-83%. Vesicle size distributions for types 1 and 2 pumice, range from ~20 µm to >20 mm, with a strong power-law relation (with d=-2.5-0.4) for vesicles <1-2 mm. Larger vesicles have variable size modes. The vesicle size distribution and packing indicates rapid magma decompression and ascent. Consideration of the pressure dependent, solubility of H2O at a magma temperature of h950 °C and water content of h6 wt%, with pumice petrography and vesicle granulometry, strongly suggests a pyroclastic eruption. Reconstructions of the submarine edifice between water depths of 1,000 and 550 m constrain the ambient hydrostatic pressure to ~6-9 MPa. Pressures >~9 MPa will limit vesicularity to less than the observed 78-83%, whereas pressure <~6 MPa require a more shallower reconstruction of the edifice and larger-volume syn-eruptive collapse. Uniformly high vesicularity is interpreted as evidence of insulation within an eruption column comprising steam and hot pyroclasts. Most pyroclasts cool, condensing and ingesting water into steam-inflated vesicles, and then sink. Progression into pyroclastic mode would expand the eruption column, displace ambient water, reduce the hydrostatic load, and further promote vesiculation and fragmentation. Pyroclasts within the column would quench at these reduced pressures. We argue that Healy eruptions deeper than ~1,000 m cannot be pyroclastic. Volumes for the lower and upper bounds of edifice size are 2.36 and 3.58 km3, respectively, but do not account for intra-caldera pumice fill. These volumes are considered to be predominantly primary eruption output, as shown by a dearth of accessory lithics in all pumice, yielding (at an average 81% vesicularity) eruptive pumice volumes of between 10 and 15 km3. Some pyroclasts may have risen to the sea surface and be a correlative of the sea-rafted Loisels pumice; the latter occurs in some New Zealand Holocene beach sequences and has a estimated age of 590-80 calendar years.<br/
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“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
Get PDFWe 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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[Memoirs]: Colin Trevor Pillinger. 9 May 1943—7 May 2014
No full textColin Pillinger was a larger-than-life planetary scientist with an infectious enthusiasm for science. He was a founding member of the Planetary and Space Sciences Research Institute at the Open University in Milton Keynes. He was a mass spectroscopist who applied these techniques with great success to the study of extraterrestrial rock samples from both meteorites and the Moon. He helped identify a class of meteorite found on Earth that originated from Mars. In turn, this led to leadership of the Beagle 2 Mars lander project, which was designed to take scientific instruments to Mars in order to search for evidence of past life. Against all odds, the landing on Mars was successful, but communication with the lander was never established. Colin was a brilliant innovator, both in his science and in adopting a somewhat unconventional approach to funding the ambitious Beagle 2 project. He enjoyed the fact that, even though it was possible to purchase off-the-shelf instrumentation, the truly creative aspect of his analytic method was in the details of how it was applied, for which the rule book was still being written. Throughout his career he continued to ride the wave of new developments and was always keen to push the limits. He was a brilliant communicator, always full of engaging enthusiasm
A roadmap to plant functional island biogeography
No full textIsland biogeography is the study of the spatio-temporal distribution of species, communities, assemblages or ecosystems on islands and other isolated habitats. Island diversity is structured by five classes of process: dispersal, establishment, biotic interactions, extinction and evolution. Classical approaches in island biogeography focused on species richness as the deterministic outcome of these processes. This has proved fruitful, but species traits can potentially offer new biological insights into the processes by which island life assembles and why some species perform better at colonising and persisting on islands. Functional traits refer to morphological and phenological characteristics of an organism or species that can be linked to its ecological strategy and that scale up from individual plants to properties of communities and ecosystems. A baseline hypothesis is for traits and ecological strategies of island species to show similar patterns as a matched mainland environment. However, strong dispersal, environmental and biotic-interaction filters as well as stochasticity associated with insularity modify this baseline. Clades that do colonise often embark on distinct ecological and evolutionary pathways, some
because of distinctive evolutionary forces on islands, and some because of the opportunities offered by freedom from competitors or herbivores or the absence of mutualists. Functional traits are expected to be shaped by these processes.
Here, we review and discuss the potential for integrating functional traits into island biogeography. While we focus on plants, the general considerations and concepts may be extended to other groups of organisms. We evaluate how functional traits on islands relate to core principles of species dispersal, establishment, extinction, reproduction, biotic interactions, evolution and conservation. We formulate existing knowledge as 33 working hypotheses. Some of these are grounded on firm empirical evidence, others provide opportunities for future research. We organise our hypotheses under five overarching sections. Section A focuses on plant functional traits enabling species dispersal to islands. Section B discusses how traits help to predict species establishment, successional trajectories and natural extinctions on islands. Section C reviews how traits indicate species biotic interactions and reproduction strategies
and which traits promote intra-island dispersal. Section D discusses how evolution on islands leads to predictable changes in trait values and which traits are most susceptible to change. Section E debates how functional ecology can be used to study multiple drivers of global change on islands and to formulate effective conservation measures. Islands have a justified reputation as research models. They illuminate the forces operating within mainland communities by showing what happens when those forces are released or changed. We believe that the lens of functional ecology can shed more light on these forces than research approaches that do not consider functional differences among species
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