Ce travail multidisciplinaire vise à exploiter les enregistrements de l'évolution des enveloppes fluides terrestres au Précambrien (altération continentale et de la sédimentation marine). Des BIFs archéens (Carajás, Brésil) attestent de l'oxydation incomplète du fer dissous océanique, alors que des grès à pyrites indiquent la pauvreté en sulfates océaniques. Des expériences annuelles d'altération de roches en conditions précambriennes, support d'un modèle numérique, encadrent le temps requis pour que la pCO2 atm diminue de 300 PAL (Present Atmospheric Level) à 1 PAL entre 200 000 et 500 000 ans suite aux glaciations globales néoprotérozoïques. La consommation précambrienne de CO2atm, inférieure à l'Actuel, s'explique par l'absence de végétaux terrestres. Enfin, la modélisation de la précipitation abiotique des cap carbonates néoprotérozoïques montre que le dégazage et/ou l'évaporation d'un océan riche en CO2 expliquent la formation de ces roches au sortir des glaciations globales.

R.D. Haun. / "January 18, 1957." Based on a thesis, M.I.T. Dept. of Physics, January 7, 1957. / Bibliography: p. 63. / Army Signal Corps Contract DA36-039-sc-64637. Dept. of the Army Task 3-99-06-108 and Project 3-99-00-100.

A. Roberts, Y. Beers [and] A.G. Hill. / "June 6, 1949." / Includes bibliographical references. / Army Signal Corps Contract No. W-36-039-sc-32037 Project No. 102B. Dept. of the Army Project No. 3-99-10-022.

The boreal chorus frog (Pseudacris maculata) is a widespread species but we know little of its ecology. I examined the nature and existence of competitive mechanisms operating between larvae of the boreal chorus frog and wood frog (Lithobates sylvaticus) from field, mesocosm and laboratory venues spanning nutrient concentrations. I assessed larval performance and diet of tadpoles at natural ponds by measuring tadpole growth and size at metamorphosis, and stable isotope ratios for carbon and nitrogen in tadpole tissue to examine if patterns were consistent with the operation of interspecific competition. In mesocosms I measured chorus frog performance in relation to wood frog presence and nutrient enrichment to confirm the occurrence of competition and examine whether nutrient conditions typical of agriculture ponds impact tadpole performance. In the field I compared larval performance and relative abundance between agricultural ponds and those in Elk Island National Park, to examine whether habitat features surrounding ponds in farmlands reduces the abundance of tadpoles and whether tadpole performance results in reduced abundances. Lastly, I examined whether chemical interference by wood frogs occurs by raising chorus frog tadpoles with caged wood frog tadpoles and/or their feces in the laboratory. Chorus frog performance was reduced by presence and abundance of wood frog tadpoles. Resource partitioning in natural ponds and overlap in mesocosms, based on stable isotopic analysis, suggest that resource competition occurs. In mesocosms chorus frog performance was reduced by wood frog tadpoles in fertilized treatments and nutrient conditions at agricultural sites are not in themselves detrimental to these anurans. Performance of chorus frog tadpoles in agricultural ponds was unaffected, whereas wood frogs were larger at metamorphosis in crop ponds. Reduced tadpole abundances of both species at these ponds may be related to habitat features or conditions in croplands. The existence of chemical interference in the absence of physical interaction was confirmed, as chorus frogs exposed to wood frog tadpoles and/or feces had reduced growth and were smaller at metamorphosis which could reduce terrestrial survival and future reproduction. My research contributes to our knowledge on boreal chorus frog ecology and our general understanding of competition between larval anurans. / Ecology

This thesis addresses the utility of deep-water coral geochemistry and its potential to reconstruct oceanographic conditions in the Straits of Florida. Through stable isotope and elemental analyses of the carbonate skeletons and use of available geochemical proxy calibration equations, present and past environmental parameters were determined. Over the last several years, scientific expeditions to the bottom of the Straits of Florida have revealed hundreds of deep-water coral mounds and led to the collection of extensive oceanographic data, sediment samples, and deep-water coral specimens. In 2005-2006, an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) was used to map the coral mound fields at five sites with the use of geophysical imaging technology, and the manned Johnson-Sea-Link II submersible was deployed for further exploration and sample collection. The AUV and the submersible CTD also measured numerous environmental parameters, including temperature and salinity. With the goal of reconstructing environmental parameters across the Straits of Florida, Scleractinian and gorgonian deep-water coral specimens were selected from three sites spanning the Straits. Each coral was sampled at the highest resolution possible and analyzed for stable isotopes and elemental concentrations. Resulting geochemical data, specifically d18O, d13C, Sr/Ca, and Mg/Ca, was then used with previously published and newly developed calibration equations to calculate temperature, salinity, and seawater density. Kinetic and vital effects were also examined and taken into account while reconstructing environmental parameters using the coral geochemistry. Additional reconstructions using stable isotopic values from benthic foraminifera corroborated the geochemical reconstructions, and analyses of pteropods and surface sediment samples provided further insight into the oceanographic conditions at the bottom of the Straits of Florida. Results from geochemical reconstructions agreed with in situ data, indicating that slightly warmer bottom temperatures exist on the eastern side of the Straits and salinity variability among the three sites is minimal. This suggests that the deep-water coral skeletons are sensitive recorders of the environmental conditions in which they lived. Ultimately, in situ measurements and reconstructed parameters showed that there is little variability across the bottom of the Straits and that Antarctic Intermediate Water (AAIW) is the only apparent water mass in the area at that depth. Moreover, comparison of the coral habitat from this study with others from around the world demonstrated that certain conditions are required for deep-water coral growth, and that these same parameters are common to deep-water reef systems throughout the globe. Further sampling and geochemical analyses of deep-water corals in the region may be used to gain additional insight into the oceanographic conditions surrounding the coral mounds both presently and in the past. As with other previously studied deep-water coral systems, this highlights the potential for the reconstruction of paleo environmental records from deep-water corals in the Straits of Florida.

Many large terrestrial ecosystems have patterned landscapes as a result of a positive feedback system between vegetation communities and environmental factors. One example is tree island habitats in the Florida Everglades. Although they only occupy a small portion of the Everglades landscape, tree islands are important features as the focus of nutrient accumulation and wildlife biodiversity in the Everglades ecosystem. The hardwood hammock community on the elevated head of tree island habitats can accumulate high phosphorus concentration in the otherwise P-limited Everglades ecosystem. In this dissertation, I examined two hypotheses derived from the chemohydrodynamic nutrient accumulation model, which suggests that high transpiration of tree island hammock plants is the driving force for nutrient accumulation in tree island soil. According to this model, I hypothesized that tree islands with lower dry season transpiration should have less phosphorus accumulated than the tree islands with higher dry season transpiration. By examining the water use and nutrient status from 18 tree islands in both slough (perennially wet) and prairie (seasonally wet) locations, I was able to compare water availability and nutrient accumulation in slough and prairie tree islands with different marsh hydroperiods. Chapter 1 uses elemental and stable isotope analysis to look at water stress and nutrient concentration in tree island plants. I showed that the prairie tree island plants suffer from drought stress during the dry season, when the marshes in the prairies dry out. Prairie tree islands also have lower soil and plant P concentration than the slough tree islands. Moreover, I showed that foliar N isotope ratio serves as a stable proxy for community level P availability for tree island plants, and prairie tree island plants have less P available than slough tree island plants. In Chapter 2, I showed that the satellite imagery derived normalized difference water index (NDWI) provides a robust indicator of community level canopy water content of these tree islands. NDWI, used as a proxy for water status, was positively related to foliar N isotope ratio, which suggests that water availability is linked to nutrient availability in the tree island hardwood hammock plant communities. These findings are consistent to the chemohydrodynamic nutrient accumulation model. In Chapter 3, I used sap flow sensors on individual trees to provide a real-time measurement of plant transpiration. I showed that tree island plant transpiration is affected by multiple factors including weather fluctuations, marsh water depth regulated by local water management, and canopy structure of different tree islands. Overall, my dissertation establishes a link between tree island plant water use and nutrient accumulation. It could be potentially important for future restoration plan of tree islands and Everglades hydrological management.

In 1987, Burney and collaborators (Journal of Archaeological Science (1994) 21, 273–281) recovered a ca. 8 m sediment core from the western basin of Laguna Tortuguero, Puerto Rico that spanned the last ca. 7000 calibrated years. They produced a detailed microscopic charcoal record, and from an initial peak in charcoal at ca. 5300 cal yr B.P. suggested that humans had colonized the island some 2000 years earlier than documented by the archaeological evidence then available. In 2008, two sediment cores were recovered from the eastern basin of Laguna Tortuguero. AMS dates on macrofossils indicate the profile extends to 7600 calibrated years, but it includes an interval with missing sediment marked by a layer of shell hash and bracketed by radiocarbon dates of 5144 and 1648 cal yr B.P. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic analyses show evidence for a drastic change in depositional environment following this event. Microscopic charcoal concentrations peak just below and at the contact of the shell hash, with the first of three high-charcoal levels positioned immediately above the date of 5144 cal yr B.P. The microscopic charcoal record appears to support the interpretations of Burney et al. (1994) of human colonization around 5300 cal yr B.P., although the fires recorded in the Laguna Tortuguero sediments may also be driven by regional climate shifts. Desiccation of Laguna Tortuguero, a hurricane or multiple hurricanes, or a tsunami could explain the missing sediments and the large change in depositional environment that occurs above the shell hash. AMS dating of sediment from the mud-water interface at the 2008 core site suggests a possible hard-water effect of ca. 1200 cal yr for dates on the algal gyttja above the shell hash, which if true would mean that the event that deposited the shell hash may have occurred as late as ca. 448 cal yr B.P. (A.D. 1502).

Le sommet du Frasnien est une époque difficile pour la biodiversité sur la Terre, en particulier pour les organismes d’eaux chaudes et peu profondes. Cette étude vise à établir un lien entre l’activité tectonique et la crise biologique. Trois coupes d’Amérique du Nord, de la marge ouest du paléocontinent Laurentia, liées au front orogénique Antler ont été étudiées pour leurs rapports isotopiques 87Sr/86Sr dans les carbonates. La coupe de Devils Gate dans le centre Nevada (USA) présente au sommet du Frasnien des faciès de turbidites carbonatées de bassin. Trois pics successifs de 87Sr/86Sr s’observent au sommet du Frasnien, entre le deux niveaux anoxiques Kellwasser. Le dernier pic est le plus élevé, il est contemporain du début du second Kellwasser et présente un rapport isotopique de 0,7094. La coupe de North Antelope Range proche de celle de Devils Gate, présente des dépôts extrêmement homogènes et réguliers de “debris-flow” carbonatés dans un bassin d’avant-pays. Un pic du 87Sr/86Sr plus modéré y est enregistré. La coupe de Mount Cinquefoil est située dans l’Alberta (Canada), dans un contexte de rampe formant une transition entre un important complexe récifal et un bassin. A nouveau un pic de 87Sr/86Sr est enregistré au début de l’événement anoxique alors que le reste de la coupe est fort homogène. Un autre pic important du 87Sr/86Sr est présent dans la partie inférieure de la coupe à la base du premier niveau Kellwasser identifié par l’étude sédimentologique. Les différents pics du 87Sr/86Sr enregistrés dans la Zone à conodontes linguiformis sur les trois coupes présentent des points communs. D’une part ils occupent la même position par rapport à la courbe de susceptibilité magnétique enregistrée dans les trois coupes, ce qui tend à montrer qu’ils sont contemporains. D’autre part ils sont systématiquement liés à des teneurs plus fortes en éléments (Al, Ti, Si, ...) de la phase détritique dans les roches, ce qui permet d’établir un lien direct entre l’activité tectonique régionale, l’érosion continentale accentuée et les rapports isotopiques élevés du Sr. De plus ces pics du 87Sr/86Sr semblent liés à la mise en place des périodes d’anoxie des horizons Kellwasser par eutrophisation des eaux. La chemostratigraphie permet de reconnaître des phases bien distinctes de la sédimentologie détritique, en lien avec le contexte tectonique de chaque coupe. Enfin, la comparaison avec d’autres données de la littérature pose la question de la simultanéité des événements à la surface de la Terre.

Lead has a more than three-millennia-long pollution history in Europe. Metal production, burning of coal and use of leaded petrol resulted in a significant pollution of the atmosphere. As a consequence of atmospheric fallout, the Swedish boreal forest is strongly contaminated by airborne lead pollution. High levels of lead in the soil and soil pore water are of concern because the soil fauna, plants and aquatic biota may respond negatively to this toxic element. The fate of the accumulated pool of pollution in the soil is not well known. In this thesis, I determine four variables of importance for increasing our knowledge about the past, present and future lead levels in the boreal forest soil: 1) the pre-pollution atmospheric deposition rate of lead; 2) the upward flux of lead from deeper soil layers to near-surface horizons as a result of plant uptake; 3) the mean residence time of lead in the mor layer (the organic horizon at the surface of forest soils); and 4) the vertical and lateral transport of pollution lead within the mineral soil and to streams. Lead concentration measurements and stable lead isotope analyses were used for distinguishing pollution lead from natural lead in cores from ombrotrophic bogs, forest soil profiles, forest mosses, soil-water and stream-water samples. The results clearly stress that the boreal forest ecosystem is totally dominated by pollution lead. This is proved by low 206Pb/207Pb ratios (mainly between 1.14 and 1.20) in the mor layer, forest plants and stream water, while the local geogenic lead of the mineral soil (C-horizon) has high ratios (> 1.30). The dominance of pollution in the mor layer is caused by high deposition rates of airborne lead pollution, minute transport rates of lead from the mineral soil by forest plants (about 0.02 mg lead m-2 year-1) and a long mean residence time of the deposited lead (~250 years for mature forest). In the pristine pre-pollution environment, lead was a rare element due to low atmospheric deposition rates (0.001 to 0.01 mg m-2 year-1). It is estimated that the present lead inventory in the mor layer is up to 100 times higher than in the pristine environment where ≤ 8 mg m-2 was present in the mor. The levels in this biologically important horizon will decrease at a very slow rate and it will take centuries for the deeper part of the mor layer to fully respond to decreasing atmospheric inputs. In a hypothetic scenario with a ceased atmospheric lead deposition, the pool of pollution lead will ultimately be redistributed to deeper water-saturated soil layers from where a lateral transport to surface waters occurs. In the studied catchment, the export of pollution lead from the soil to the stream is estimated to peak slightly about one thousand years from now.

No description available.