Chemical and microbiological changes at the interface between soil, and wood treated with CCA or ACA wood preservatives were investigated using a series of leaching and soil burial studies. The softwoods Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris, L.), Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis, Carr) and the hardwood lime (Tilia vulgaris, Hayne) were used exclusively. Copper losses from both types of preservative treated wood were negligible, though adjacent soil copper concentrations significantly increased. These copper accumulations were associated with a reduction in dehydrogenase activity around the preservative treated material compared with levels around the untreated blocks, though activity around the treated wood was rarely less than background levels. Relatively large arsenic concentrations accumulated around the most heavily ACA-treated blocks, and were associated with a further reduction in activity of the soil microflora. The wood species also affected the microbial activity in adjacent soil; activity around all lime blocks was generally greater than microbial activity around the softwoods. Treatment of wood with ammonia or ACA solutions increased the wood nitrogen contents. Some of this nitrogen was readily water soluble, though its rapid diffusion into adjacent soil had no effect on microbial activity in this area. Water insoluble nitrogen was also retained within these blocks; this was shown to increase the rate of microbial colonisation and decay of the wood and was also associated with an increased toxic value of copper. Microbial activity was measured in all decaying wood blocks. This activity was influenced by the wood species, and treatment, as were the microbial colonisation and decay rates. The experimental conditions employed were designed to promote soft rot, rather than other forms of wood decay. Activity was greater in the outer wood surface of the buried blocks than in the inner wood, reflecting the surface nature of soft rot decay. Pre-burial leaching reduced the subsequent moisture uptake and increased the durability of CCA-treated wood during soil burial, though untreated wood was unaffected. However, similar rates of microbial decay of untreated wood blocks occurred over a range of different wood moisture contents. The implications of the findings on the relative performances of untreated, ammonia, CCA and ACA-treated wood in soil contact are discussed.

No description available.

Thesis advisor: Robin Fleming / Britain’s long fifth century, 350-550 CE, was a period of transformative change across the island. It was not simply the end of one civilization and the beginning of another, but rather was a period during which people made meaningful choices about how important it was to them to continue acting like Romans or start acting like their new neighbors when the economy and social structures that had defined life in Britain for centuries dissolved. Historians can study material culture and burial practices to make these fifth-century inhabitants of Britain – invisible in the scarce textual accounts of the fifth century – visible in our historical narratives. Where living communities chose to bury their dead, what they chose to send with the deceased, and how they chose to build monuments to their memory can tell historians how they connected with or distanced themselves from the past that was, materially at least, rapidly disappearing and being replaced. Careful analysis of data from 8,602 burials in 102 cemetery populations, as well as burials of dogs and infants on settlements, indicates that changes in burial practices were the result not of migration from the continent nor the “fall” of Roman Britain, but rather were part of a larger shift from a society based upon Britain’s relationship with the Roman Empire to one based upon its local communities, whether composed of natives, or newcomers, or both. No matter where people came from, no two communities reacted to the upheaval of the fifth century in the same way, and there were no monolithic or universal ways of relating the past to the present and future. New practices appeared, and old practices continued, some of which were better suited to some fifth-century inhabitants of Britain than others.

A detailed laboratory study of sandstone samples from outcrops and conventional core samples from the Maastrichtian-Paleocene Scollard-age fluvial strata in the Western Canada foredeep was undertaken to investigate the reservoir characteristics, burial depth history, and sandstone diagenesis. The sandstones are predominantly litharenites and sublitharenites, which accumulated in a variety of fluvial environments. The porosity of the sandstones is both syn-depositional and diagenetic in origin. The potential of a sandstone to serve as a reservoir for producible hydrocarbons is strongly related to the sandstones diagenetic history. Detailed study of the distribution of authigenic minerals of the Scollard sequence suggests that the diversities in the pattern distribution of authigenic clay minerals in the regions are not random but they coincide with the burial depth of these strata and has a well-defined relation to the sequence stratigraphic framework The general absence of dickite, coupled with limited conversion of smectite into illite in the Scollard sandstones, suggests crystallization at a depth less than 1.5 km. In contrast, the occurrence of blocky dickite, fibrous illite and chlorite in the Coalspur and Willow Creek sandstones, coupled with albitized feldspars and quartz cement, suggests that sandstones there underwent a maximum burial depth greater than 3 km. It has been observed that kaolin mineral content increases in sandstones lying below subaerial unconformities, which mark the most significant stratigraphic hiatuses and hence the sequence boundaries in fully fluvial successions. This study demonstrates the effects of burial depth and paleoclimate on pore-water chemistry, which in turn, influenced the mineralogy and the distributions of authigenic minerals in the sandstones. The 13C and 18O compositions of pedogenic carbonate nodules from the Willow Creek Formation associated with the red shale host sediments have been used as a paleoclimate and paleoenvironmental proxy. The isotopic composition of nodules suggests that these formed during drier conditions when C3 vegetation prevailed at the site. The predominance of smectite and illite in fines and the poor floral content point to a low seasonal rainfall in a semi-arid climatic environment.

The purposes of this study are to investigate the sources, distributions, fluxes and phosphorus burial efficiency (PBE) of particulate phosphorus in the Gaoping (GP) coastal sea. The GP River carried about 3.14 ¡Ñ 104 ton yr-1 (1.03 ¡Ñ 109 mol yr-1) particulate P into the GP coastal sea. The total P flux was primarily determined by the river runoff during the May-yu (monsoon) and typhoon seasons. The river P was approximately consisted of 90.8% particulate inorganic-P (PIP), 7.4% particulate organic-P (POP), 1.5% dissolved inorganic-P (DIP) and 0.3% dissolved organic-P (DOP). The particulate-P existed mainly in 10-63 £gm particles. In the GP costal sea, particulate P in surface sediments was found to be 80-90% as PIP and 10-20% as POP. The highest distribution of PIP was located on the flanks of GP Canyon at the upper slope (200-600 m) region. This distribution may be caused by plumes of river sediments or turbidity currents overflowing the canyon. The sedimentation rates of sediments ranged from 0.032 to 1.62 g cm-2 yr-1 in the GP coastal sea and the highest rates were also located on both sides of the GP Canyon. The burial fluxes of total phosphorus (TP) ranged from 0.02 to 0.84 g cm-2 yr-1, consisted approximately by 88% PIP and 12% POP. The burial fluxes of this study area were generally similar to those in other continental margins (Bohai Sea, Yellow Sea, Mississippi Delta). The total depositions of sediment and TP were approximately 6.6 ¡Ñ 106 ton yr-1 and 4227 ton yr-1, respectively, in the study area. The burial TP was equivalent to 0.06% of deposited sediments. The buried TP can be proportionate approximately into 15% in the continental shelf (< 200 m), 69% in the continental slope (200-1000 m), and 16% in the slope basin (> 1000 m). The continental shelf (<200 m) region was apparently influenced by wave and tidal processes and prevented from sediment accumulation. The burial efficiency of TP (PBE) in the GP costal sea is estimated accordingly to PBE (%) = 100 ¡Ñ PBF / (PBF+JP), where PBF is the burial flux of TP and JP is the diffusion flux of TP from porewater. The PBE decreases with the depth of sampling location and the maximum PBE locates on the station of southern canyon (779-1), the station of northern canyon (791-L18) and the station within the canyon (732-38). The PBE(s) are similar to those found in the Nazar&#x00E9; Canyon, showing a high PBE in coastal and/or canyon regions. The budget model shows that the major sources of particulate-P are derived from the GP River and the net ecosystem production (NEP) from the euphotic zone of study area. The annual river load and NEP input to the study area are 1.03 ¡Ñ 109 mol P yr-1 and 1.5 ¡Ñ 108 mol P yr-1, respectively. However, annual TP accumulation in the GP costal sea is just 1.48 ¡Ñ 108 mol P yr-1, corresponding to 12.5% of river load and NEP input. In addition, about 80% of GP River loads do not deposit into GP sediments and may be exported out of the study area.

No description available.

This practicum, "Death Perception: Envisioning a cemetery landscape for the 21st century", is a proposal for an alternative cemetery landscape, responding to changes in Western culture. An investigation into the historical, sociological and psychological evolution of Western society’s culture of death followed. Discerned patterns and conclusions were supplemented by sociological research and select interviews with professionals, regarding 20th century Western customs for dying, death and bereavement. The conclusions stemming from this research were then assessed for their implications regarding the landscape, particularly that of the cemetery. Cultural theory was translated into a culturally responsive landscape through further research regarding landscape theories and precedents of therapeutic landscapes, where people connect with nature, themselves and humanity. This research has informed a landscape design for Winnipeg, Manitoba that anticipates and responds to the emerging needs of the dying, the bereaved and the funerary industry of contemporary society.

This practicum, "Death Perception: Envisioning a cemetery landscape for the 21st century", is a proposal for an alternative cemetery landscape, responding to changes in Western culture. An investigation into the historical, sociological and psychological evolution of Western society’s culture of death followed. Discerned patterns and conclusions were supplemented by sociological research and select interviews with professionals, regarding 20th century Western customs for dying, death and bereavement. The conclusions stemming from this research were then assessed for their implications regarding the landscape, particularly that of the cemetery. Cultural theory was translated into a culturally responsive landscape through further research regarding landscape theories and precedents of therapeutic landscapes, where people connect with nature, themselves and humanity. This research has informed a landscape design for Winnipeg, Manitoba that anticipates and responds to the emerging needs of the dying, the bereaved and the funerary industry of contemporary society.

No description available.

No description available.