High latitude, boreal watersheds are nitrogen (N)-limited ecosystems that export large amounts of organic carbon (C). Key controls on C cycling in these environments are the biogeochemical processes ...affecting the N cycle. A study was conducted in Nome Creek, an upland tributary of the Yukon River, and two headwater tributaries to Nome Creek, to examine the relation between seasonal and transport-associated changes in C and N pools and N-cycling processes using laboratory bioassays of water and sediment samples and in-stream tracer tests. Dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) exceeded dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) in Nome Creek except late in the summer season, with little variation in organic C:N ratios with time or transport distance. DIN was dominant in the headwater tributaries. Rates of organic N mineralization and denitrification in laboratory incubations were positively correlated with sediment organic C content, while nitrification rates differed greatly between two headwater tributaries with similar drainages. Additions of DIN or urea did not stimulate microbial activity. In-stream tracer tests with nitrate and urea indicated that uptake rates were slow relative to transport rates; simulated rates of uptake in stream storage zones were higher than rates assessed in the laboratory bioassays. In general, N-cycle processes were more active and had a greater overall impact in the headwater tributaries and were minimized in Nome Creek, the larger, higher velocity, transport-dominated stream. Given expectations of permafrost thaw and increased hydrologic cycling that will flush more inorganic N from headwater streams, our results suggest higher N loads from these systems in the future.
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•DIN/TDN decreased with downstream transport in a stream network.•DIN/TDN ratios increased over the summer.•Microcosm benthic N-cycle rates were higher downstream than in headwaters.•Areal in-stream DIN and DON uptake rates using tracers were higher in headwaters.•DIN uptake rates differed in two headwater streams with similar drainages.
Analyses of the sulfur (S) and oxygen (O) stable isotope ratios (δ34SSO4 and δ18OSO4) of dissolved sulfate in streams and groundwater in Yukon Territory (YT, Canada) indicates that the dominant ...source of this major ion is oxidation of sulfide minerals. In these streams, sulfate has a large range in δ34SSO4 values (−19 to +10‰), which is consistent with the lower portion of the documented range for δ34S of sulfides in bedrock in YT (∼ −35 to +55‰). Furthermore, the large majority of the δ18OSO4 data plot within the expected field for sulfide oxidation in cross-plots of δ18OSO4 versus the O isotope ratios of ambient water (δ18OH2O). δ18OSO4 values plotting above that field were likely affected by microbial sulfate reduction, a process that enriches residual sulfate in both 34S and 18O. The stable isotope data indicate that dissolution of marine-evaporite gypsum, which has higher δ34SSO4 and δ18OSO4 values compared to all stream and groundwater samples, is a minor to negligible source of sulfate in the YT streams. Association of sulfate with other solutes indicates release of various metals from sulfide minerals, and suggests dominance of silicate weathering in response to oxidation of the sulfides. Variations in sulfate concentrations in YT streams are largely related to geology, while terrain and climate, including extent of permafrost, are also important factors. Long-term monitoring of sulfate concentrations in YT streams indicates increasing concentrations over time, in both streams impacted by mining, and in streams that have not been affected much by historical in-catchment industrial activities. Increases were largest in streams in northern and central-south YT in the presence of thawing continuous to discontinuous permafrost.
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•Sulfate concentrations in Yukon Territory streams have increased over time.•Sulfide oxidation is the dominant source of sulfate in streams and groundwater.•Marine-evaporite gypsum is a minor to negligible source of stream sulfate.•Other solutes suggest silicate weathering as dominant response to sulfide oxidation.•Variations in sulfate concentrations in streams are largely related to geology.
Black shales are sedimentary rocks containing >0.5% of organic carbon. They host polymetallic deposits which have been mined for Cu, Ni, Zn, Mn, P, Mo, V, U, Au and PGE (platinum group elements). ...Even sub-economic occurrences provide potential risk of acid rock drainage when exposed to oxic surface environment. The natural acid neutralisation potential varies depending on the adjacent rock units, especially on the presence of calcareous rocks. The chemical and mineralogical composition of black shale is reflected in the quality of the surface waters and groundwater. Cu, Ni, Pb, U and Zn are recognised as major pollutants though the environmental impact is characteristically polymetallic just like the black shale occurrences. Hence, the environmental impacts have to be evaluated in each occurrence.
The Proterozoic Ni–Zn–Cu–Co deposit at Talvivaara, Finland, is reviewed in more detail as an example of a large, low-grade deposit that is currently exploited with open pit mining and a bioleaching process, together with the Proterozoic Central African Copperbelt, the Cambrian U-Mo deposits in Sweden, the Cambrian Ni–Mo–PGE deposits in China and the Cambrian-Ordovician U deposits in South-Korea, the Devonian Ni–Zn–PGE occurrences in Yukon, Canada, and Kentucky, USA, and the Permian Cu-Ag deposits in Poland and Germany. The mineralised horizons may be merely few centimetres thick like in Yukon or hundreds of metres thick like at Talvivaara. Both natural and anthropogenic environmental impacts of black shales are reviewed world-wide, and based on the overview of the state-of-the-art an integrated research approach is suggested for the comprehensive assessment of the risk.
Black shales are natural sources of soil and water contamination. At Talvivaara, the geochemical background includes higher than average concentrations of Ni, Cu, Zn and Mn in glacial till, peat, surface waters and groundwater as well as in stream and lake sediments. Bioaccumulation by plants has been reported in China and Korea. Even endemic diseases have been proposed to be linked with the contamination derived from the weathering and leaching of harmful elements from black shale. Anthropogenic actions exposing the black shale bedrock and associated soils to oxic conditions further intensifies acid rock drainage.
Regional or nation-wide mapping of the black shales is recommended to detect potential risk areas. Finland has recently completed the country-wide mapping program of black shales with airborne geophysics integrated with geological, petrophysical and geochemical studies. The black shale database is actively used in regional planning and by environmental authorities, research institutes and consulting companies. In the case of the historical black shale mining areas like in the Kupferschiefer in Germany, restoration measures have been applied to prevent further acid mine drainage. In active and future mining projects, a comprehensive environmental impact assessment with effective monitoring programmes and closure plans play a crucial role in the prevention of acid mine drainage from the black shale -associated deposits.
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An anomalous reduction in forest growth indices and temperature sensitivity has been detected in tree-ring width and density records from many circumpolar northern latitude sites since around the ...middle 20th century. This phenomenon, also known as the “divergence problem”, is expressed as an offset between warmer instrumental temperatures and their underestimation in reconstruction models based on tree rings. The divergence problem has potentially significant implications for large-scale patterns of forest growth, the development of paleoclimatic reconstructions based on tree-ring records from northern forests, and the global carbon cycle. Herein we review the current literature published on the divergence problem to date, and assess its possible causes and implications. The causes, however, are not well understood and are difficult to test due to the existence of a number of covarying environmental factors that may potentially impact recent tree growth. These possible causes include temperature-induced drought stress, nonlinear thresholds or time-dependent responses to recent warming, delayed snowmelt and related changes in seasonality, and differential growth/climate relationships inferred for maximum, minimum and mean temperatures. Another possible cause of the divergence described briefly herein is ‘global dimming’, a phenomenon that has appeared, in recent decades, to decrease the amount of solar radiation available for photosynthesis and plant growth on a large scale. It is theorized that the dimming phenomenon should have a relatively greater impact on tree growth at higher northern latitudes, consistent with what has been observed from the tree-ring record. Additional potential causes include “end effects” and other methodological issues that can emerge in standardization and chronology development, and biases in instrumental target data and its modeling. Although limited evidence suggests that the divergence may be anthropogenic in nature and restricted to the recent decades of the 20th century, more research is needed to confirm these observations.
Metasomatism occurs when fluid interacts with rock to add, or remove, its chemical constituents; these processes form mineral deposits where economic element(s) are concentrated into small volumes of ...rock. It can be difficult, or impossible, to visually determine original rock types for samples that are significantly altered, e.g., when rocks have experienced texturally destructive metasomatism or deformation. A typical solution using chemical data involves the separation and labelling of chemically distinct rocks using discrimination diagrams. However, such approaches can be subjective, and manual sample-by-sample consideration of large mining or exploration databases is untenable. Here we present an example workflow to facilitate relating rocks with similar origins but differing geological histories. We employ a combination of unsupervised and supervised machine learning algorithms to automate classification tasks typically undertaken manually by a geologist with domain expertise. In this study, data are first normalised and then clustered into natural groupings that represent protolith lithologies or rock-type subunits. These clusters are then used to inform a classification algorithm that assigns protolith equivalent labels to samples of altered rocks. Applied to problems involving large chemical datasets, machine learning provides objectivity, reproducibility and rapidity; useful advantages as compared to geostatistical domaining methods that involve manual determination and selection of geochemically similar regions. We utilise k-means++ unsupervised clustering to create objective and reproducible groupings of data points, with many geochemical variables considered simultaneously. Subsequently, Random Forests supervised classification is used to label samples while accommodating interactions and/or correlations between data points. We present a case study from the Minto Cu-Au-Ag mine, Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada. Interpretation of multi-element geochemical data using the approach that we have outlined here allows reconstruction of protolith geometry and an understanding of how rock type may have influenced later partitioning of hydrothermal fluids and ductile deformation.
•Machine learning combined with domain expertise can rapidly label geochemical data.•A workflow to relate altered rock samples to corresponding protoliths is presented.•Results of the workflow give insight into original protolith geometry.
Long‐term studies of wild animals provide the opportunity to investigate how phenotypic plasticity is used to cope with environmental fluctuations and how the relationships between phenotypes and ...fitness can be dependent upon the ecological context.
Many previous studies have only investigated life‐history plasticity in response to changes in temperature, yet wild animals often experience multiple environmental fluctuations simultaneously. This requires field experiments to decouple which ecological factor induces plasticity in fitness‐relevant traits to better understand their population‐level responses to those environmental fluctuations.
For the past 32 years, we have conducted a long‐term integrative study of individually marked North American red squirrels Tamiasciurus hudsonicus Erxleben in the Yukon, Canada. We have used multi‐year field experiments to examine the physiological and life‐history responses of individual red squirrels to fluctuations in food abundance and conspecific density.
Our long‐term observational study and field experiments show that squirrels can anticipate increases in food availability and density, thereby decoupling the usual pattern where animals respond to, rather than anticipate, an ecological change.
As in many other study systems, ecological factors that can induce plasticity (such as food and density) covary. However, our field experiments that manipulate food availability and social cues of density (frequency of territorial vocalizations) indicate that increases in social (acoustic) cues of density in the absence of additional food can induce similar life‐history plasticity, as does experimental food supplementation.
Changes in the levels of metabolic hormones (glucocorticoids) in response to variation in food and density are one mechanism that seems to induce this adaptive life‐history plasticity.
Although we have not yet investigated the energetic response of squirrels to elevated density or its association with life‐history plasticity, energetics research in red squirrels has overturned several standard pillars of knowledge in physiological ecology.
We show how a tractable model species combined with integrative studies can reveal how animals cope with resource fluctuations through life‐history plasticity.
Infographic summarizing key insights about life‐history responses of North American red squirrels in the Yukon, Canada to variation in food availability and population density as well as experimental manipulations of food and density.
This study tested the initial and continued effects of cancer warning labels on drinkers' recall and knowledge that alcohol can cause cancer.
A quasi-experiment was conducted to examine changes in ...the intervention versus comparison site for three outcomes: unprompted and prompted recall of the cancer warning, and knowledge that alcohol can cause cancer. The intervention site applied cancer warning labels to alcohol containers in its liquor store for 1 month, and the two liquor stores in the comparison site did not apply cancer labels. In total, 2,049 unique cohort participants (1,056 male) were recruited at liquor stores in the intervention and comparison sites to participate in surveys 4 months before labels were applied and 2 and 6 months after the cancer label was halted because of alcohol industry interference. Generalized estimating equations tested differences in outcomes between sites over time adjusting for socio-demographics and other covariates.
Two months after the cancer label, unprompted (+24.2% vs. +0.6%; adjusted odds ratio AOR = 32.7, 95% CI 5.4, 197.7) and prompted (+35.7% vs. +4.1%; AOR = 6.2, 95% CI 3.6, 10.9) recall increased to a greater extent in the intervention versus comparison site. There was a 10% greater increase in knowledge (+12.1% vs. +11.6%; AOR = 1.1, 95% CI 0.7, 1.5) 2 months after the cancer label in the intervention versus comparison site. Similar results were found 6 months after the cancer label for all three outcomes.
In a real-world setting, cancer warning labels get noticed and increase knowledge that alcohol can cause cancer. Additional cancer label intervention studies are required that are not compromised by industry interference.
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