The period between the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous on the southernmost part of the Paraná Basin was characterized by the accumulation of the aeolian system from the Botucatu Formation, which ...was entirely preserved by the volcanic flows of the Serra Geral Formation. To a lesser extent, intense basic and acid magmas covered an extensive aeolian continental environment. However, in the central region of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, in the southernmost part of the Paraná Basin, data from 29 outcrops, 13 vertical stratigraphic profiles, and 334 paleocurrent measurements exposed fluvial–aeolian deposits of the Guará Formation in contact with volcanic rocks of the Serra Geral Formation. This study considers new temporal and spatial relationships between the fluvial–aeolian, aeolian, and volcanic systems developed in this temporal range. For this purpose, facies analysis and architectural elements were used to reconstruct the evolution of this volcano-sedimentary record. Nineteen facies grouped into five facies associations (braided fluvial channel, ephemeral braided fluvial channel, aeolian sand sheets, aeolian dunes, and volcanic plain) were identified according to their architectural elements in the Guará, Botucatu, and Serra Geral formations. The contacts between the deposits of the Guará and Botucatu Formations and their boundaries between Serra Geral Formation flows demonstrate that these sedimentary environments remained active during the onset of volcanism, and there was no hiatus between these units. Therefore, the Guará and Botucatu Formations present ages between Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous.
•The period between the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous an intense magmatism covered an extensive aeolian environment.•A new temporal and spatial relationships understanding between the Guará, Botucatu and Serra Geral Formations.•Facies analysis and architectural elements used to reconstruct the volcanic-sedimentary record.•Guará and Botucatu Formations with ages between Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous.
•Actual ET of almond trees under different irrigation regimes was calculated with water balance.•Deficit irrigated almonds were able to extract up to 200mm from the soil down to the 2.10m depth.•A ...strong relation was found between transpiration calculated with water balance and sap-flow.
Recently planted intensive almond plantations may have access to limited water supply due to water scarcity thus, information on almond water use under limited irrigation is needed. Here, the soil water balance was used to assess the consumptive use (ET) of full irrigated, moderately stressed and severely stressed almond trees over a three-year study, as well as the relation between applied water and ET. Sap flow measurements in eight experimental trees were used to obtain independent transpiration (T) measurements. Evaporation from soil (ES) was modelled to estimate tree T from the water balance. Relative consumptive use in the deficit irrigation (DI) treatments largely exceeded the relative applied water, highlighting the need to measure ET in stressed treatments for hydrologic purposes. The moderately stressed treatments (irrigated at 65.5% of full irrigation) consumed 79.0% of maximum evapotranspiration (ET of 897mm), while the severely stressed treatment consumed 63.6% of ETc (ET of 722mm) when applied water was only 39.6% of control. On average, almond ETc approached 1200mm, Seasonal evolution of the transpiration coefficient yielded maximum peak values ranging from 0.99 to 1.08, and minimum peak values of 0.33 attained with a severe deficit irrigation strategy. Transpiration measured by Compensated Heat Pulse-Calibrated Average Gradient sap-flow (x), was compared to water balance T estimates (y), and yielded a very good relation over the three years of study (y=0.90x+4.23, r2=0.81). The sap flow measurements proved to be useful to overcome the limitations of the soil water balance technique, revealing that almond trees were able to extract water from below the monitored depths and suggesting that deep percolation event must have occurred in spring and autumn.
Modern almond growing travels on the tracks of super-high density (SHD). Born in 2010, it has already reached 6700 ha planted all over the world. This new cultivation system needs to define efficient ...agronomic techniques in order to identify it as a “Super-Efficient System”. Among these, the choice of cultivar is a crucial technique and a key factor for sustainability. The purpose of this study was to compare different cultivars in terms of vegetative, productive, and efficiencies parameters in order to gain applicable relevant knowledge about the SHD almond cultivation technique. For this, 3 years of research was carried out during 2017–2019, on a young almond grove made in 2014 with row spacing of 3.80 m × 1.20 m (2190 trees/ha), to evaluate the agronomic behavior of the two most planted cultivars in Italy, Guara-Tuono and Lauranne® Avijor, grafted on the Rootpac®20 dwarfing rootstock. The main biometric, productive, yield, mechanical harvesting efficiencies, and almond quality parameters were evaluated. Cv Lauranne® showed greater vigor, greater fruit yield, and damaged axes by mechanical harvesting, while higher values of yield efficiencies were observed for cv Tuono. Harvesting efficiency was related to canopy size and tree age. On the contrary, almonds quality parameters were strongly related to the cultivar, confirming the good performance of Tuono as varietal characters. Then, this cultivar seems to be the most suitable for an efficient SHD planting system, in line with the objectives of modern sustainable fruit growing. The better performance of cv Tuono could be related to the positive influence of the terroir as well.
BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Research on manganese (Mn) toxicity and tolerance indicates that Mn toxicity develops apoplastically through increased peroxidase activities mediated by phenolics and Mn, and Mn ...tolerance could be conferred by sequestration of Mn in inert cell compartments. This comparative study focuses on Mn-sensitive barley (Hordeum vulgare) and Mn-tolerant rice (Oryza sativa) as model organisms to unravel the mechanisms of Mn toxicity and/or tolerance in monocots. METHODS: Bulk leaf Mn concentrations as well as peroxidase activities and protein concentrations were analysed in apoplastic washing fluid (AWF) in both species. In rice, Mn distribution between leaf compartments and the leaf proteome using 2D isoelectic focusing IEF/SDS-PAGE and 2D Blue native BN/SDS-PAGE was studied. KEY RESULTS: The Mn sensitivity of barley was confirmed since the formation of brown spots on older leaves was induced by low bulk leaf and AWF Mn concentrations and exhibited strongly enhanced H₂O₂-producing and consuming peroxidase activities. In contrast, by a factor of 50, higher Mn concentrations did not produce Mn toxicity symptoms on older leaves in rice. Peroxidase activities, lower by a factor of about 100 in the rice leaf AWF compared with barley, support the view of a central role for these peroxidases in the apoplastic expression of Mn toxicity. The high Mn tolerance of old rice leaves could be related to a high Mn binding capacity of the cell walls. Proteomic studies suggest that the lower Mn tolerance of young rice leaves could be related to Mn excess-induced displacement of Mg and Fe from essential metabolic functions. CONCLUSIONS: The results provide evidence that Mn toxicity in barley involves apoplastic lesions mediated by peroxidases. The high Mn tolerance of old leaves of rice involves a high Mn binding capacity of the cell walls, whereas Mn toxicity in less Mn-tolerant young leaves is related to Mn-induced Mg and Fe deficiencies.
The Tiermas low temperature geothermal system, hosted in the Paleocene-Eocene carbonates of the Jaca-Pamplona basin, has been studied to evaluate the geochemistry and the temperature of the waters in ...the deep reservoir. These waters are of chloride-sodium type and emerge with a temperature of about 37°C. Two hydrogeochemical groups of waters have been distinguished: one with lower sulphate concentration and lower TDS (about 7500ppm) and the other with higher sulphate content and TDS values (close to 11,000ppm). There are also slight differences in the reservoir temperature estimated for each group. These temperatures have been determined by combining several geothermometrical techniques: (1) classical chemical geothermometers (SiO2-quartz, Na-K, K-Mg and Na-K-Ca), (2) specific geothermometers for carbonate systems (Ca-Mg), (3) isotopic geothermometers and, (4) geothermometrical modelling.
The good agreement in the temperature obtained by these techniques, including the cationic geothermometers which are not usually considered suitable for this type of systems, allows establishing a reliable range of temperature of 90±20°C for the low-sulphate waters and 82±15°C for the high-sulphate waters.
The mineral assemblage in equilibrium in the reservoir is assumed to be the same for both groups of waters (calcite, dolomite, quartz, anhydrite, albite, K-feldspar and other aluminosilicate phases); therefore, the differences found in the reservoir temperature and, mostly, in the geochemical characteristics of each group of waters must be due to the existence of two flow paths, with slightly different temperatures and intensity of water-rock interaction.
Anhydrite is at equilibrium in the reservoir suggesting that, although this system is hosted in carbonates, evaporites may also be present. The dissolution of halite (and the consequent increase in the chloride concentration) conditions the chemical characteristics of the waters and the equilibrium situations in the reservoir and waters acquire their chloride-sodium affinity at depth and not during their ascent to the surface.
Finally, a favourable tectonic structure for CO2 storage has been recognised in the Paleocene-Eocene carbonates of this area. Therefore, considering the characteristics of these waters (in equilibrium with calcite, dolomite and anhydrite in the reservoir), the results of this work are useful to understand some of the geochemical processes that might take place during the CO2 injection: 1) precipitation of carbonates and sulphates in the vicinity of the injection well due to desiccation of the waters and, 2) carbonate dissolution and sulphate precipitation in the long term.
•The carbonate-evaporitic geothermal system of Tiermas has been studied.•Several geothermometrical approaches have been used to obtain the reservoir T.•Although unusual, some cationic geothermometers have provided consistent results.•Halite dissolution affects the chemistry imposed by mineral equilibria at depth.•This system can be used as an analogue of a CO2 storage site.
Upper Jurassic sedimentary rocks of Guará Formation record the environmental and geotectonic changes of the early break-up stages in the southwestern portion of Gondwana. Newly-described occurrences ...of this formation allow the expansion of its areal distribution to the central part of the Paraná Basin, Brazil. Four vertical sections are presently described in Paraná State, Brazil. Nineteen lithofacies were grouped in five facies associations, through the classical method of facies analysis. The facies analysis included Guará Formation and the adjacent portions of the underlying Pirambóia Formation and the overlying Botucatu Formation. The depositional system of Pirambóia Formation was wet aeolian fluvial-influenced and is composed by aeolian dunes, aeolian sandsheets/interdunes and ephemeral fluvial deposits facies associations. The Guará Formation is composed of multistorey fluvial facies association constituting a highly amalgamated perennial fluvial system. It is overlaid by the Botucatu Formation, characterized as a dry aeolian system formed by aeolian dune deposits. The stratigraphic units are separated by regional unconformities marked by a shift in facies and depositional systems that reflect climatic changes. The Guará Formation depositional model, established in correlation with southern sections, represents a broad fluvial system with aeolian interaction deposited in a wide basin with more than 800 km in extension. This large depositional paleoenvironment, together with other Upper Jurassic records in southwestern Gondwana, represents the early rift stage of Gondwana break-up.
•The area of Guará Formation (Upper Jurassic) is expanded to the central part of Paraná Basin.•The Guará Formation is correlated in >800 km long dip section through southern Brazil and northwestern Uruguay.•The Guará Formation records a big distributive fluvial system with aeolian influence.•The Guará Formation is the record of a wide endorheic basin related with the first tectonic efforts of Gondwana break-up.
Estimation of soil sorptivity (S) and hydraulic conductivity (K) is fundamental to model the water infiltration into the soil. This process can be affected by soil water repellency, which is defined ...as a reduction in soil wettability due to coating of soil particles by hydrophobic substances. Unlike to wettable soils, this phenomenon can generate infiltration curves with double-slope shape: a transient infiltration curve followed by a steady-state section. Because the topsoil final volumetric water content (θ1) of the transient phase of the double-slope curve is not a measurable data, in principle, the standard model based on the Haverkamp et al. (1994) model cannot be used to estimate S and K. This work presents two different approaches based on the Haverkamp et al. (1994) equation, which allow estimating S and K from the first phase of a double-slope infiltration curve, when θ1 data are not available. The methods, which are based on the analysis of both short-medium time transient infiltration curve (Tr) and the combination of both short-medium transient and steady-state infiltration steps (Mx), were applied on 20 soils affected by different degrees of water repellency. The Haverkamp et al. (1994) model was also valid for infiltration curves measured on hydrophobic soils, and the final volumetric water content was not an essential data to estimate K and S. Although the steady-state infiltration rate (q1) calculated with Mx was about 26% larger than that estimated with Tr, comparable K and S values were obtained with both methods. Overall, a large dispersion on the estimate of θ1 was observed with both methods. The gravimetric time, tgrav, estimated in the studied soils was low, <500 s. While the Mx method required simpler numerical calculus, Tr looked like to be more robust and less subjective.
•This work analyzes the first part of a bi-slope infiltration curve affected by SWR.•A first method (Tr) estimates K and S from the transient infiltration curve.•The second one (Mx) combines short-transient and steady-state infiltration analysis.•The methods were applied on 20 soils affected by SWR.•Mx requires less numerical calculus, but Tr was more robust and less subjective.
A detailed sedimentological and magnetostratigraphic analysis of three selected sections of the Eocene carbonate platforms of the South Pyrenean Jaca-Pamplona foreland basin has been carried out in ...the Aragonese External Sierras (Huesca, Spain). The stratigraphic record spans from the middle-late Lutetian (Chron 20r, SBZ15) to the Bartonian (Chron 18r, SBZ17). The Lutetian-Bartonian transition was characterized by a major paleogeographic change, from a turbiditic foredeep with associated peripheral carbonate ramps to deltaic sedimentation. In most of the outcrops of the External Sierras, the peripheral carbonate platforms (Guara Formation) are overlained by prodelta and outer ramp marls (Arguis Formation). The drowning unconformity between these two formations in the outcrops located in the westernmost tip of the External Sierras is documented herein for the first time. In this area, the Guara Formation is overlain by glauconitic limestones deposited in a carbonate ramp setting. Between these units a characteristic unconformity is observed, with hard-ground formation and local evidence of subaerial exposure in the shallowest domains of the study area. The abundant glauconite found on top of this unconformity records a starvation period in the basin, followed by the development of a new carbonate ramp system during Bartonian times (Santo Domingo Member of the Arguis Formation). Magnetostratigraphic and sedimentological data show that tectonic tilting occurred in latest Lutetian times, prior to the drowning process. This suggests the influence of the flexural subsidence in the cratonic margin of the foreland as a result of the advance of a basement thrust in the hinterland. Nevertheless, the correlation of the uppermost Lutetian drowning unconformity with a basinwide regional sea level rise, which may have further been global, suggests an interplay between tectonic and eustatic processes in the drowning of the late Lutetian South Pyrenean carbonate ramps. In this work we point out a narrowing of the carbonate ramp, together with a relative sea level rise, as the processes responsible for the drowning of the Upper Guara Mb carbonate ramp. These processes could be responsible for the development of drowning unconformities in cratonic margins of other foreland basins. As carbonate ramps have a high sediment production potential, the narrowing of the carbonate factory could provide the conditions for the drowning of the carbonate ramp system in a subsequent sea level rise.
The Pyrenean triton (Calotriton asper) is a Pyrenean
endemism which has colonized an unusual habitat, the Palomo Ravine. This
research analyses the presence of the species and the availability of ...food. In
the two samples carried out, individuals of Calotriton asper were detected
in almost all the pools, although the full phenological process stages could
only be observed during the second sampling. In the rain season, Calotriton
asper fed mainly on land dams. This was also reflected in the other secondary
producers, which took advantage of allochthons resources. During the summer the energy coming from the base of the food chain was limited to the primary production of each pool. This was a limiting factor for higher levels,
forcing them to reduce energy consumption or move away from the pool to
obtain it. The adaptation of Calotriton asper to the poor conditions of this
habitat, such as droughts and avenues, is evident after analyzing the results.
El tritón pirenaico (Calotriton asper) es un endemismo de los Pirineos que ha colonizado un hábitat poco habitual, la Canal del Palomo. En este artículo se estudia la presencia de la especie y su disponibilidad de alimento. En los dos muestreos realizados se detectaron individuos de Calotriton asper en casi todas las pozas, aunque solamente durante el segundo muestreo se observaron todos los estados fenológicos. En la época de lluvias Calotriton asper se alimentó principalmente de presas terrestres; esto se reflejó también en los otros productores secundarios, los cuales aprovecharon recursos alóctonos. Durante el verano la entrada de energía en la base de la cadena trófica se limitó a la producción primaria de cada poza; fue un factor limitante para los niveles superiores, obligándolos a reducir el consumo de energía o a alejarse de la poza para obtenerla. La capacidad de Calotriton asper para adaptarse a las condiciones poco idóneas de este hábitat, tales como sequías y avenidas, se evidencia tras analizar los resultados.
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