Basin Today Research Articles

Anthropogenic Forcing of the Baltic Sea Thallium Cycle.

Anthropogenic activities have fundamentally changed the chemistry of the Baltic Sea. According to results reported in this study, not even the thallium (Tl) isotope cycle is immune to these activities. In the anoxic and sulfidic ("euxinic") East Gotland Basin today, Tl and its two stable isotopes are cycled between waters and sediments as predicted based on studies of other redox-stratified basins (e.g., the Black Sea and Cariaco Trench). The Baltic seawater Tl isotope composition (ε205Tl) is, however, higher than predicted based on the results of conservative mixing calculations. Data from a short sediment core from East Gotland Basin demonstrates that this high seawater ε205Tl value originated sometime between about 1940 and 1947 CE, around the same time other prominent anthropogenic signatures begin to appear in the same core. This juxtaposition is unlikely to be coincidental and suggests that human activities in the surrounding area have altered the seawater Tl isotope mass-balance of the Baltic Sea.

Population structure in Mixornis tit-babblers across Sunda Shelf matches interfluvia of paleo-rivers

Rivers constitute an important biogeographic divide in vast areas of tropical rainforest, such as the Amazon and Congo Basins. Southeast Asia’s rainforests are currently fragmented across islands divided by sea, which has long obscured their extensive history of terrestrial connectivity as part of a vast (but now submerged) subcontinent – Sundaland – during most of the Quaternary. The role of paleo-rivers in determining population structure in Sundaic rainforests at a time when these forests were connected remains little understood. We examined the coloration of museum skins and used the genomic DNA of museum samples and freshly-collected blood tissue of a pair of Sundaic songbird species, the pin-striped and bold-striped tit-babblers (Mixornis gularis and M. bornensis, respectively), to assess the genetic affinity of populations on small Sundaic islands that have largely been ignored by modern research. Our genomic and morphological results place the populations from the Anambas and Natuna Islands firmly within M. gularis from the Malay Peninsula in western Sundaland, even though some of these islands are geographically much closer to Borneo, where M. bornensis resides. Our results reveal genetic structure consistent with the course of Sundaic paleo-rivers and the location of the interfluvia they formed, and add to a small but growing body of evidence that rivers would have been of equal biogeographic importance in Sundaland’s former connected forest landscape as they are in Amazonia and the Congo Basin today.

Pliocene hominins from East Turkana were associated with mesic environments in a semiarid basin

During the middle Pliocene (∼3.8–3.2 Ma), both Australopithecus afarensis and Kenyanthropus platyops are known from the Turkana Basin, but between 3.60 and 3.44 Ma, most hominin fossils are found on the west side of Lake Turkana. Here, we describe a new hominin locality (ET03-166/168, Area 129) from the east side of the lake, in the Lokochot Member of the Koobi Fora Formation (3.60–3.44 Ma). To reconstruct the paleoecology of the locality and its surroundings, we combine information from sedimentology, the relative abundance of associated mammalian fauna, phytoliths, and stable isotopes from plant wax biomarkers, pedogenic carbonates, and fossil tooth enamel. The combined evidence provides a detailed view of the local paleoenvironment occupied by these Pliocene hominins, where a biodiverse community of primates, including hominins, and other mammals inhabited humid, grassy woodlands in a fluvial floodplain setting. Between <3.596 and 3.44 Ma, increases in woody vegetation were, at times, associated with increases in arid-adapted grasses. This suggests that Pliocene vegetation included woody species that were resilient to periods of prolonged aridity, resembling vegetation structure in the Turkana Basin today, where arid-adapted woody plants are a significant component of the ecosystem. Pedogenic carbonates indicate more woody vegetation than other vegetation proxies, possibly due to differences in temporospatial scale and ecological biases in preservation that should be accounted for in future studies. These new hominin fossils and associated multiproxy paleoenvironmental indicators from a single locale through time suggest that early hominin species occupied a wide range of habitats, possibly including wetlands within semiarid landscapes. Local-scale paleoecological evidence from East Turkana supports regional evidence that middle Pliocene eastern Africa may have experienced large-scale, climate-driven periods of aridity. This information extends our understanding of hominin environments beyond the limits of simple wooded, grassy, or mosaic environmental descriptions.

Tui Chub (Siphateles bicolor) are Native to the Columbia River Basin in Washington State

Although many modern authorities hold that Tui chub (Siphateles bicolor) are native to the Columbia River basin, they are uncommon in most of the basin today, and others have called their native status into question. Here we provide evidence that the species is indigenous to lakes and streams in the Columbia River basin of Washington State, based on multiple lines of testimony. Evidence includes: 1) no record of introductions by federal or state fish and wildlife management agencies; 2) over 100 museum specimens collected from 1881 to 1930; 3) records of abundance in the tens of thousands in area lakes prior to modern management efforts in the 1940s; and 4) 62 diagnostic bones recovered from four archaeological sites dating before 1850.

Jakarta Groundwater Basin Recharge - Discharge Boundary Area Map: A Preliminary Study

The most important component in groundwater basin are recharge and discharge area. The direction of recharge component is downward while discharge is upward. To discover local recharge and discharge boundary area of the Jakarta groundwater basin, this experimental research is using many cross sections and some hydraulic parameters of many studies that has been conducted before, then simulated it in finite element program SEEP2D (GMS) and finally validated it with bore log and monitoring wells. Ten cross sections selected from 3 studies based on head contour, stratigraphy and groundwater river interaction to be simulated in finite element method SEEP2D (GMS) then the result is validated. Since the result of the investigation is not finished yet, this paper wants to demonstrate the methodology that being conducted in the research with the horizontal map hypothesis. The map hypothesis is evident compare to the real situation of Jakarta groundwater basin today and it is approved that the method that is being used in this research is eligible and appropriate to find the boundary area of recharge and discharge. In the future this recharge and discharge boundary area horizontal map of Jakarta groundwater basin result will encourage many practical solutions in supporting Jakarta groundwater basin management.

Tracing water mass mixing and continental inputs in the southeastern Atlantic Ocean with dissolved neodymium isotopes

In contrast to the vigorous deep ocean circulation system of the north- and southwestern Atlantic Ocean, no systematically sampled datasets of dissolved radiogenic neodymium (Nd) isotope signatures exist to trace water mass mixing and provenance for the more restricted and less well ventilated Angola Basin and the Cape Basin in the southeastern Atlantic Ocean, where important parts of the return flow of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation are generated. Here, to improve our understanding of water mass mixing and provenance, we present the first full water column Nd isotope (expressed as εNd values) and concentration data for a section across the western Angola Basin from 3° to 30° S along the Zero Meridian and along an E-W section across the northern Cape Basin at 30° S sampled during GEOTRACES cruise GA08. Compared with the southwestern Atlantic basin we find overall less radiogenic εNd signatures reaching −17.6 in the uppermost 200 m of the Angola and Cape basins. In the western Angola Basin these signatures are the consequence of the admixture of a coastal plume originating near 13° S and carrying an unradiogenic Nd signal that likely resulted from the dissolution of Fe-Mn coatings of particles formed in river estuaries or near the West African coast. The highly unradiogenic Nd isotope signatures in the upper water column of the northern Cape Basin, in contrast, originate from old Archean terrains of southern Africa and are introduced into the Mozambique Channel via rivers like the Limpopo and Zambezi. These signatures allow tracing the advection of shallow waters via the Agulhas and Benguela currents into the southeastern Atlantic Ocean. The Nd isotope compositions of the deep water masses in both basins primarily reflect conservative water mass mixing with the only exception being the central Angola Basin, where the signatures are significantly overprinted by terrestrial inputs. Bottom waters of the Cape Basin show excess Nd concentrations of up to 6 pmol/kg (20%), originating from resuspended bottom sediments and/or dissolution of dust, but without significantly changing the isotopic composition of the waters due to similar εNd values of particles and bottom waters ranging between −9.6 and −10.5. Given that bottom waters within the Cape Basin today are enriched in Nd, non-conservative Nd isotopic effects may have been resolvable under past glacial boundary conditions when bottom waters were more radiogenic.

The role of pedogenesis in palaeosols of Mexico basin and its implication in the paleoenvironmental reconstruction

Most of the paleoenvironmental information for the Basin of Mexico comes from sedimentary proxies, which unfortunately are incomplete for the terminal Pleistocene and the Holocene. In this paper, we present a temporal and spatial reconstruction of past soil cover in the south and north of the Basin of Mexico, during the MIS 2 and 1 (Marine Isotope Stage 2 and 1). Palaeosol profiles were selected from three locations (Cuicuilco, Copilco, and Avon) in the south basin, and compared with soils studied in the Teotihuacan valley, Pachuca, and Texcoco at north of the basin. The results show that the Pleistocene soil cover is more homogeneous, dominated by the presence of Luvisol type soils with secondary carbonates, dated to around 20,000 cal yr BP. During the Holocene, the soil distribution changes, with Andosols developing in the south while Vertisols and Calcisols form in the north. The new soil distribution reflects differing climate conditions during the Holocene, conditions which characterize the basin today. The Andosol cover in south basin, however, represents the result of short term pedogenesis; Andosols are considered high quality soils that were attractive to settlers and were a factor in the development of sedentary villages.

Hozu-gawa River and the flood control function of the Kameoka basin today

Hozu-gawa River and the flood control function of the Kameoka basin today

Cranial shape variation in jacarean caimanines (Crocodylia, Alligatoroidea) and its implications in the taxonomic status of extinct species: The case of Melanosuchus fisheri.

Melanosuchus niger (Crocodylia, Alligatoroidea) is one of the six living caimanine species widely distributed throughout the Amazon River basin today. Although there is only one extant species of Melanosuchus, fossil material assigned to this genus, represented by M. fisheri, has been reported from the late Miocene in South America. However, the validity of this taxon has been questioned and a recent investigation indicates that the referred specimen of M. fisheri (MCZ 4336) actually belongs to Globidentosuchus brachyrostris, while those diagnostic characters present in the holotype (MCNC 243) fall into the spectrum of intraspecific variation of M. niger. Here, we compare the skull shape of the holotype of M. fisheri with the ontogenetic series of the four jacarean species (M. niger, Caiman yacare, Caiman crocodilus, and Caiman latirostris) using 2D-geometric morphometric analyses in two different views. The analyses indicate that MCNC 243 falls into the morphospace of M. niger and C. latirostris. Despite strong shape similarities between juveniles of C. latirostris and MCNC 243, further anatomical comparisons reveal notable differences between them. In contrast, no concrete anatomical differences can be found between MCNC 243 and M. niger, although shape analyses indicate that MCNC 243 is relatively robust for its size. Thus, this study is able to confirm that the genus Melanosuchus was present in the late Miocene, but it still remains unclear if MCNC 243 should be treated as a junior synonym or probably a sister species of M. niger. Its Miocene age favors the second option, but as the shape analyses were also not able to extract any diagnostic characters, it should be retained as Melanosuchus cf. niger.

Shedding Light on the Taxonomic Diversity of the South American Miocene Caimans: The Status of Melanosuchus fisheri (Crocodylia, Alligatoroidea)

Melanosuchus niger Spix is distributed throughout the Amazon River basin today. The extinct Melanosuchus fisheri Medina from the late Miocene of Venezuela was erected based on two almost complete, but heavily deformed skulls (the holotype MCNC 243 and the referred specimen MCZ 4336), which show morphological differences from each other. The comparison indicates that only the holotype can be referred to Melanosuchus Gray. We propose MCZ 4336 is a representative of the caimanine Globidentosuchus brachyrostris Scheyer, Aguilera, Delfino, Fortier, Carlini, Sanchez, Carrillo-Briceno, Quiroz and Sanchez-Villagra. Although the taxonomy of M. fisheri is taken into question herein, the classification of the holotype still sustains the hypothesis that the genus is registered in South America since the late Miocene.

The largest Cretaceous podocnemidoid turtle (Pleurodira) revealed by an isolated plate from the Bauru Basin, south-central Brazil

The Bauru Basin (south-central Brazil) fossils have largely contributed to understand the faunal composition of South American Cretaceous. Among those, several turtle specimens were retrieved from those deposits, all belonging to Podocnemidoidae, the single group known from the Basin. On the other hand, only incomplete shell elements indicate large turtles such as ‘Peirópolis A’. Another shell fragment, a large peripheral plate from the Marília Formation, is described here. Its lack of surface ornamentation, and deep sulci are generally typical for podocnemidoids. The plate exhibits a narrow knob slightly projected onto the pleuro-marginal sulcus, absent in any other Bauru Basin turtle. According to extant and fossil podocnemidoids measures, we estimated this individual reached 1 m of carapace length, exceeding in size all other taxa known from the Basin. This new report reveals a broader size variation among podocnemidoids from the Late Cretaceous of Bauru Basin and a morphological diversity previously unknown for the period, comparable to those of the Amazon Basin today, in which inhabits the largest extant podocnemidoid Podocnemis expansa. Furthermore, the occurrence of such large turtles implies the presence of perennial streams on the northeastern portion of the Bauru Basin during the Maastrichtian and a richer environment than previously thought.

Late Miocene vegetation dynamics under monsoonal climate in southwestern China

To better understand vegetation dynamics and the Asian monsoonal climate in the Neogene, we reconstructed the vegetational succession and climate of Wenshan basin in southwestern China during the late Miocene (11.62-5.33 Ma). We used newly available palynological data and the results of a quantitative bioclimatic analysis. The late Miocene palynoflora in Wenshan basin resembles that of modern evergreen broadleaf vegetation in subtropical East Asia. Based on pollen elements and reconstructed palaeoclimates in 72 samples, we found the composition of the vegetation in the Wenshan basin fluctuated during the late Miocene and was likely driven by natural climate variability. Quantitative estimates suggest that the mean annual temperature (MAT) ranged from 16.6 to 17.5 degrees C; the mean annual precipitation (MAP) was similar to 1500 mm; and the monsoon intensity index (MSI) ranged from 11.3 to 17.1. Our results indicate that the Wenshan basin experienced a warm, wet, and temperate to subtropical climate. By comparison with other late Miocene sites in Yunnan, we show that temperatures differed slightly from region to region and, overall, annual and seasonal precipitation levels were higher in the late Miocene than at present, but with a weaker monsoon intensity than in the Wenshan basin today. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

ÇAYAĞZI (RİVA) HAVZASI’NIN DOĞAL ORTAM KOŞULLARI (JEOLOJİK-JEOMORFOLOJİK-HİDROGRAFİK AÇIDAN) VE SÜRDÜRÜLEBİLİR KULLANIM ÜZERİNDEKİ ROLÜ

Kocaeli Platosu uzerinde yer alan Cayagzi (Riva) Havzasi, yaklasik olarak 853 km²’lik bir su toplama alanina sahiptir (Sekil 1). Jeolojik, jeomorfoljik anlamda bir havza unitesi olusturan saha, ayni zamanda Istanbul’un onemli su havzalarindan bir tanesini karsilamaktadir. Havzayi drene eden Cayagzi (Riva) Deresi, guneydoguda Kocaeli Ili topraklarindan kaynaklanarak, kuzeyde Cayagzi (Riva) Koyu yakininda Karadeniz’e dokulur. Havzanin orta bolumlerine yerlesmis olan Omerli Baraj Golu, basta Anadolu Yakasi olmak uzere, Istanbul Ili’nin su ihtiyacini karsilayan en onemli kaynaktir. Havzanin gunumuzde ve gelecekte surdurulebilir bir bicimde kullanimi acisindan dogal ortam kosullarinin sundugu firsatlarin ve risklerin analiz edilmesi onem tasimaktadir. Bu hususta, jeolojik kapsamda; tektonik tehditlerle birlikte litolojik potansiyelin belirlenip kullanim imkânlarinin ve bu alandaki risklerin degerlendirilmesi gerekir. Ayrica jeomorfolojik potansiyelin sorunlariyla (egim, heyelan, vs) birlikte belirlenmesi ve onlem alinmasi, su varliginin tespiti, kalitesinin korunarak yonetilmesi, taskin-cekik ve sel gibi risklerin incelenmesi ve cozum uretilmesi onem tasimaktadir.

HOLOCENE PALEOENVIRONMENT AND PREHISPANIC LANDSCAPE EVOLUTION IN THE BASIN OF MEXICO

AbstractPaleoenvironmental and geoarchaeological data generated over the past three decades for parts of the Basin of Mexico are little known among archaeologists working in the region. This paper summarizes and evaluates what is currently known about the prehistoric environment, landscape development, and human impact in the region. Archaeological evidence indicates that human activity became important in ecosystem evolution in the basin during the Middle-Late Holocene. Most traditional paleoenvironmental studies based on lake sediments, however, generalize results corresponding to this period simply asevidence for human impact. Essentially the same vegetation communities extant in the basin today appear to have been present during most of the Holocene, albeit with broader distributions and variability in secondary taxa. Recognizing potential contributions of archaeology to understanding human adaptation to climatic and ecosystemic change, past and present, should stimulate future research on paleoenvironment in the region.

Table of Contents, Masthead, and Editor's Note

Why Write Poetry About Art? A special section curated by Lauren Camp Political Voices from the Maghreb Orhan Pamuk’s Novelistic Eye Porochista Khakpour on neglected Iranian masterpieces World LiteratureToday Your passport to great reading REVIEWS OF NEW BOOKS BY Amitav Ghosh, Minae Mizumura, & Tomas Tranströmer The Nomads, My Brothers, Go Out to Drink from the Big Dipper ABDOURAHMAN A. WABERI Translated by Nancy Naomi Carlson “Waberi, the best-known contemporary writer from Djibouti, evokes‘an entire life in the echo of my tongue’ in his first collection of poems.”—Publishers Weekly Cloth $21.00 Distributed by the University of Chicago Press www.press.uchicago.edu LITERATURE IN TRANSLATION From 30 April 1945 The Day Hitler Shot Himself and Germany’s Integration with the West Began ALEXANDER KLUGE With additional text by Reinhard Jirgl, translated by Iain Galbraith “A compelling translation of a vertiginous descent into a world-shaping cataclysm.” —Booklist, starred review Cloth $27.50 Mr Adamson URS WIDMER Translated by Donal McLaughlin “Widmer’s writing, though serious and finely crafted, is full of tomfoolery, wry deadpan humor, and implausible plot twists.”—New Criterion Cloth $25.00 www.upress.virginia.edu ginia .edu VIRGINIA Memory at Bay Évelyne Trouillot Translated by Paul Curtis Daw $24.50 | PAPER | CARAF BOOKS: CARIBBEAN AND AFRICAN LITERATURE TRANSLATED FROM FRENCH “One of the first things I was told in Haiti is that all families have at least one member in the army, at least one member in the Macoutes, and at least one member killed by the army or the Macoutes. Memory at Bay is a distressingly beautiful evocation of this eerie symbiosis between oppressor and victim, by one of the best writers in the Caribbean basin today. As one of Évelyne Trouillot’s characters says to another, My only inheritance from you was your torment.” —Madison Smartt Bell The Leopard Boy Daniel Picouly Translated by Jeanne Garane $29.50 | PAPER | CARAF BOOKS: CARIBBEAN AND AFRICAN LITERATURE TRANSLATED FROM FRENCH “Daniel Picouly is an award-winning author who explores contemporary issues through historical fiction. In The Leopard Boy, the slave trade and its legacies link Africa, Europe, and the Americas during the French Revolution. Jeanne Garane has done an excellent job of interpreting Picouly’s words and worlds.” —Chantal Kalisa, University of Nebraska WorldLiteratureToday Q&A 10 A Conversation with Orhan Pamuk by Erkut Tokman Fiction 14 Gray by Dung Kai-cheung 19 Boy out of Time by Lois Taylor Crime & Mystery 16 The Evaporation of the Extraordinary Gentleman by J. Madison Davis special section 24 Political Voices from the Maghreb Curated and introduced by André Naffis-Sahely Featuring Rashid Boudjedra, Ahmed Bouanani, and Christopher Schaefer on Matoub Lounès about the cover Fiona Hall, Wrong Way Time, 2012–15 (detail). Courtesy of the artist and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney, Australia.© The artist. Image credit: Clayton Glen. You can see more of Fiona Hall’s work in our special section about Art Poetry, which starts on page 35. cover feature 35 Art Poetry Curated and introduced by Lauren Camp Featuring Circe Maia Hedy Habra Ravi Shankar Lola Créïs Rita Malikonyte Mockus Lauren Camp Wafaa S. Jdeed Tatiana Oroño Ramón Gaya Eduardo Mitre Andrés Sánchez Robayna Mario Arteca José Mateos Contents In Every Issue | 03 Editor’s Note | 05 Notebook | 15 World Music | 23 Editor’s Pick | 58 Reviews | 80 Outpost NOVEMBER – DECEMBER 2015 19 40 28 tali : renaud camus lang illustration : marla johnson mukherjee : bobo lin worldliteraturetoday.org Web Exclusive Join the WLT community Join us on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, GoodReads, and Flickr to share ideas, view photos, and read book reviews. Facebook facebook.com/ worldlittoday Twitter @worldlittoday YouTube @worldlit GoodReads goodreads.com/ worldlittoday Visit worldliteraturetoday.org for exclusive content you won’t want to miss, including web exclusives, photo galleries, blog posts, and much more. Marjorie Agosín on artist Raquel Rabinovich’s “Rivers of Letters, Rivers of Mud” Join our community of readers and writers on Twitter. Use the hashtag #IReadWLT and tell us about your favorite features from this issue! @andothertweets After Coetzee recommends Ivan Vladislavić & his 101 Detectives in @worldlittoday, now Jacky Kay does in the Observer! @NicholeLReber My heart soared when I opened the mailbox today and...

Diet and environment of a mid-Pliocene fauna from southwestern Himalaya: Paleo-elevation implications

A mid-Pliocene fauna (4.2–3.1 Ma) was recently uncovered in the Zanda (Zhada) Basin in the southwestern Himalaya, at an elevation of about 4200 m above sea level. These fossil materials provide a unique window for examining the linkage among tectonic, climatic and biotic changes. Here we report the results from isotopic analyses of this fauna and of modern herbivores and waters as well as paleo-temperature estimates from the Zanda Basin. The δ13C values of enamel samples from modern wild Tibetan asses, and domesticated horses, cows and goats in the area are −9.4±1.8‰, which indicate a diet comprising predominantly of C3 plants and are consistent with the current dominance of C3 vegetation in the region. The enamel-δ13C values of the fossil horses, rhinos, deer, and bovids are −9.6±0.8‰, indicating that these ancient mammals, like modern herbivores in the area, also fed primarily on C3 vegetation and lived in an environment dominated by C3 plants. The lack of significant C4 plants in the basin suggests that the area had reached high elevations (>2.5 km) by at least the mid-Pliocene. Taking into account the changes in the δ13C of atmospheric CO2 in the past, the enamel-δ13C values suggest that the average modern-equivalent δ13C value of C3 vegetation in the Zanda Basin in the mid-Pliocene was ∼1–2‰ lower than that of the C3 biomass in the basin today. This would imply a reduction in annual precipitation by about 200–400 mm in the area since then (assuming that the modern C3δ13C–precipitation relationship applied to the past). Consistent with this inference from the δ13C data, the enamel-δ18O data show a significant shift to higher values after the mid-Pliocene, which also suggests a shift in climate to much drier conditions after ∼4–3 Ma.Paleo-temperature estimates derived from a fossil bone-based oxygen isotope temperature proxy as well as the carbonate clumped isotope thermometer for the mid-Pliocene Zanda Basin are higher than the present-day mean annual temperature in the area. After accounting for late Cenozoic global cooling, these paleo-temperature estimates suggest that the paleo-elevation of the Zanda Basin in the mid-Pliocene was similar to or slightly (less than ∼1 km) lower than its present-day elevation, which is consistent with the inference from the δ13C data.

Projected shifts of wine regions in response to climate change

This research simulates the impact of climate change on the distribution of the most important European wine regions using a comprehensive suite of spatially informative layers, including bioclimatic indices and water deficit, as predictor variables. More specifically, a machine learning approach (Random Forest, RF) was first calibrated for the present period and applied to future climate conditions as simulated by HadCM3 General Circulation Model (GCM) to predict the possible spatial expansion and/or shift in potential grapevine cultivated area in 2020 and 2050 under A2 and B2 SRES scenarios. Projected changes in climate depicted by the GCM and SRES scenarios results in a progressive warming in all bioclimatic indices as well as increasing water deficit over the European domain, altering the climatic profile of each of the grapevine cultivated areas. The two main responses to these warmer and drier conditions are 1) progressive shifts of existing grapevine cultivated area to the north–northwest of their original ranges, and 2) expansion or contraction of the wine regions due to changes in within region suitability for grapevine cultivation. Wine regions with climatic conditions from the Mediterranean basin today (e.g., the Languedoc, Provence, Cotes Rhone Meridionales, etc.) were shown to potentially shift the most over time. Overall the results show the potential for a dramatic change in the landscape for winegrape production in Europe due to changes in climate.

Ten fundamental questions for water resources development in the Ganges: myths and realities

This paper summarizes the results of the Ganges Strategic Basin Assessment (SBA), a 3-year, multi-disciplinary effort undertaken by a World Bank team in cooperation with several leading regional research institutions in South Asia. It begins to fill a crucial knowledge gap, providing an initial integrated systems perspective on the major water resources planning issues facing the Ganges basin today, including some of the most important infrastructure options that have been proposed for future development. The SBA developed a set of hydrological and economic models for the Ganges system, using modern data sources and modelling techniques to assess the impact of existing and potential new hydraulic structures on flooding, hydropower, low flows, water quality and irrigation supplies at the basin scale. It also involved repeated exchanges with policy makers and opinion makers in the basin, during which perceptions of the basin could be discussed and examined. The study's findings highlight the scale and complexity of the Ganges basin. In particular, they refute the broadly held view that upstream water storage, such as reservoirs in Nepal, can fully control basin-wide flooding. In addition, the findings suggest that such dams could potentially double low flows in the dry months. The value of doing so, however, is surprisingly unclear and similar storage volumes could likely be attained through better groundwater management. Hydropower development and trade are confirmed to hold real promise (subject to rigorous project level assessment with particular attention to sediment and seismic risks) and, in the near to medium term, create few significant tradeoffs among competing water uses. Significant uncertainties – including climate change – persist, and better data would allow the models and their results to be further refined.

Exploration Tries To Answer Questions About the Lower Silurian Longmaxi Shale in China

This article, written by Editorial Manager Adam Wilson, contains highlights of paper IPTC 14487, ’Sichuan Basin Shale Gas, China: Exploring the Lower Silurian Longmaxi Shale,’ by Claudia Hackbarth, SPE, Danny Soo, and Navpreet Singh, SPE, Shell, prepared for the 2011 International Petroleum Technology Conference, Bangkok, Thailand, rescheduled to 7-9 February 2012. The paper has not been peer reviewed. Shale-gas exploration in China is already under way and rapidly increasing in activity level. The Sichuan basin, one of the most prolific petroleum basins in China, is at the forefront. However, exploration and assessment of an untested shale-gas play is typically lengthy and expensive. Compared with conventional oil and gas projects, shale-gas projects may require a number of early wells to prove the existence and distribution of the gas but then many more wells to test and optimize engineering techniques until a commercially viable combination is found. This process could be summarized into two overarching questions: “Is there a material amount of gas?” and, if yes, “Can it be produced economically?” Sichuan Basin Structure The topographic Sichuan basin today is a remnant of the originally much larger Upper Yangtze cratonic sedimentary basin (Fig. 1). In the southern Sichuan basin, structures are characterized by thin-skinned faulting and thrusting, often above an Upper Cambrian detachment surface, likely an evaporitic ductile layer that now cores the folds. The Sichuan-area stratigraphic column contains several potential source-rock intervals. Industry has so far focused attention on the Lower Cambrian Qiongzhusi and the Ordovician-Silurian boundary as potential shale-gas reservoirs. The Upper Ordovician Wufeng shale and Lower Silurian Longmaxi formation are generally regarded as belonging to the same black-shale succession, but an erosional surface and regional disconformity separate the two intervals. The Longmaxi formation is not as widespread as the Wufeng formation and is restricted to the Yangtze region. From the bottom up, the Ordovician/Silurian succession consists of A lower graptolite-bearing, black or dark-gray, carbonaceous/siliceous shale (Wufeng formation), generally several meters thick The Guoyinchao limestone or calcareous siltstone with abundant Hirnantian fauna and other shelly fossils, typically 0.5–3 m thick The Lower Longmaxi black, graptolite-bearing, carbonaceous/siliceous shale with cherty slate The Upper Longmaxi gray calcareous mudstones and siltstones, interbedded with an increasing number of thin limestone layers toward the top of the formation Regional studies indicate that Wufeng and Longmaxi shales were buried deeply enough over a large area of the Sichuan basin to have reached the gas-generation window.

Dissolved iron anomaly in the deep tropical–subtropical Pacific: Evidence for long-range transport of hydrothermal iron

Dissolved iron profiles along a north–south transect along 158°W in the tropical Pacific show evidence of two deepwater anomalies. The first extends from Station ALOHA (22.78°N) to the equator at ∼1000–1500 m and lies below the maximum apparent oxygen utilization and nutrient (N, P) concentrations. The feature is not supported by vertical export processes, but instead corresponds with the lateral dilution field of δ 3He derived from the Loihi seamount, Hawaii, though a sediment source associated with the Hawaiian Island Chain cannot be entirely ruled out. The second, deeper (2000–3000 m) anomaly occurs in tropical South Pacific waters (7°S) and also does not correlate with the depths of maximum nutrient concentrations or apparent oxygen utilization, but it does coincide closely with δ 3He emanating from the East Pacific Rise, more than 5000 km to the east. We hypothesize that these anomalies represent the long-range (>2000 km) transport of hydrothermal iron residuals, stabilized against scavenging by complexation with excess organic ligands in the plume source regions. Such trace leakage of hydrothermal iron to distal plume regions would have been difficult to identify in most hydrothermal vent mapping studies because low analytical detection limits were not needed for the proximal plume regions. These findings suggest that hydrothermal activity may represent a major source of dissolved iron throughout the South Pacific deep basin today, as well as other regions having high mid-ocean spreading rates in the geologic past. In particular, we hypothesize that high spreading rates along the South Atlantic and Southern Ocean mid-oceanic ridges, combined with the upwelling ventilation of these distal hydrothermal plumes, may have increased ocean productivity and carbon export in the Southern Ocean. Assessing the magnitude and persistence of dissolved hydrothermal iron in basin scale deep waters will be important for understanding the marine biogeochemistry of iron and, potentially, on ocean productivity and climate change during the geologic past.