Suspended Particulate Loading on the Macrobenthos in a Highly Turbid Fjord: Knight Inlet, British Columbia

1983 ◽  
Vol 40 (S1) ◽  
pp. s273-s288 ◽  
Author(s):  
George E. Farrow ◽  
James P. M. Syvitski ◽  
V. Tunnicliffe

Knight Inlet is a deep, low-energy but well-oxygenated fjord. The effects of turbidity are principally those of seasonally very high vertical flux from the sediment-laden surface layer. Submersible observations of the benthos are related to suspended load and sedimentation rate data. The bayhead delta slope receives a continual rain of glacial silt (30 cm/yr) and has summer sedimentation rates of 4 kg∙m−2∙d−1.The epifauna of the steep fjord walls shows a marked down-inlet increase in abundance, and the number of species increases from 9 to 45. Brachiopods (Laqueus californianus), solitary corals (Caryophyllia/Cyathoceros), and encrusting sponges are remarkably tolerant of high turbidity. The high sedimentation rates affect the epifauna in three ways: (1) subjection to the ubiquitous "gentle rain" of floes and agglomerates; (2) more locally, microturbidity flows set off by biological resuspension of unstable slope sediment; and (3) major slides of rock and/or sediment. Submarine soil-creep limits the slope infauna, by burrows requiring repeated reexcavation.Down-inlet decrease in sedimentation rate is accompanied by a change in feeding type. In the upper inlet, suspension feeders taking particles < 8 μm (e.g. sabellids, brachiopods) probably utilize bacteria associated with the high vertical flux of SPM. In the middle inlet, selective suspension feeders (e.g. crinoids, gorgonians) sort the SPM for larger particles. In the lower inlet, filter feeders (e.g. barnacles, glass sponges) increase, especially where currents are stronger. The soft-bottom detritus feeders also show a change: from epibenthic forms (e.g. pandalid shrimp, spider crabs) in the upper inlet, through burrowing shrimp in the middle inlet, to ophiuroids in the lower inlet. These changes are correlated with the greater amounts of organic carbon preserved in bottom sediments as they are less diluted by glacially derived inorganic material.The modern-day "turbid association" of brachiopods, solitary corals, and sponges recalls typical outer shelf-basinal shale facies of the Palaeozoic. Turbid, low-energy environments were thus colonized early but faunas have since become less diverse.Key words: fjord, benthos, sedimentation, submersible

2020 ◽  
Vol 644 ◽  
pp. 91-103
Author(s):  
D Bearham ◽  
MA Vanderklift ◽  
RA Downie ◽  
DP Thomson ◽  
LA Clementson

Benthic suspension feeders, such as bivalves, potentially have several different food sources, including plankton and resuspended detritus of benthic origin. We hypothesised that suspension feeders are likely to feed on detritus if it is present. This inference would be further strengthened if there was a correlation between δ13C of suspension feeder tissue and δ13C of particulate organic matter (POM). Since detritus is characterised by high particulate organic matter (POC):chl a ratios, we would also predict a positive correlation between POM δ13C and POC:chl a. We hypothesised that increasing depth and greater distance from shore would produce a greater nutritional reliance by experimentally transplanted blue mussels Mytilus edulis on plankton rather than macrophyte-derived detritus. After deployments of 3 mo duration in 2 different years at depths from 3 to 40 m, M. edulis sizes were positively correlated with POM concentrations. POC:chl a ratios and δ13C of POM and M. edulis gill tissue decreased with increasing depth (and greater distance from shore). δ13C of POM was correlated with δ13C of M. edulis. Our results suggest that detritus comprised a large proportion of POM at shallow depths (<15 m), that M. edulis ingested and assimilated carbon in proportion to its availability in POM, and that growth of M. edulis was higher where detritus was present and POM concentrations were higher.


1978 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 431-437 ◽  
Author(s):  
John G. Farmer

The 210Pb dating method has been applied successfully to the determination of recent sedimentation rates at four sites distributed among the three major sedimentary basins (Niagara, Mississauga and Rochester) of Lake Ontario. Following correction for effects due to compaction of the sediments, mean sedimentation rates ranging from 0.02 cm/year at the periphery of the Mississauga basin to 0.11 cm/year in the Niagara and Rochester basins were determined. Allowance for compaction reduced the non-compaction-corrected sedimentation rates by 20–35%. Neither 210Pb nor fallout 137Cs profiles indicated surface mixing of sediment sufficient to noticeably affect the calculated sedimentation rates. At all four sites, the sedimentation rate seems to have remained constant during the last 100–150 years.


2021 ◽  
pp. 20-20
Author(s):  
Yam Morales ◽  
Nelson Herrera ◽  
Kevin Pérez

Lithium has become a metal of enormous interest worldwide. The extensive use of rechargeable batteries for a range of applications has pushed for rapid growth in demand for lithium carbonate. This compound is produced by crystallization, by reaction with lithium chloride (in solution) and by adding sodium carbonate. Low sedimentation rates in the evaporation pools present a problem in the crystallization process. For this reason, in this work, mineral sedimentation tests were carried out with the use of two flocculant types with different ionic charges. The tests were carried out at a laboratory level using different dosages for each flocculant and measurements were performed to obtain the increase in the content of solids in the sediment. The anionic flocculant had better performance as compared to that of the cationic flocculant, increasing the sedimentation rate of lithium carbonate by up to 6.5. However, similar solids contents were obtained with the use of the cationic flocculant at 3.5 times lower dosage making it the flocculant of choice regarding the economic point of view.


2010 ◽  
Vol 84 (4) ◽  
pp. 730-738 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noelia B. Carmona ◽  
María Gabriela Mángano ◽  
Luis A. Buatois ◽  
Juan José Ponce

Lower Miocene tide-influenced deltaic deposits from the Chenque Formation, Patagonia, Argentina, contain abundant and well-preserved biogenic structures attributed to locomotion of deposit-feeder protobranch bivalves. These trace fossils, assigned to the ichnogenus Protovirgularia, consist of delicate, inclined-to-horizontal, chevronate structures, mostly symmetrical with respect to a median axis. Identification of Protovirgularia at sandstone sole beds (hypichnion) is quite straightforward. Endichnial, exichnial and epichnial preservation in heterolithic facies, however, provides a wide variety of forms that depart from the archetypal Protovirgularia and challenges ichnotaxonomic classification. Specimens in prodelta and delta-front facies display morphologic features controlled by substrate fluidity, toponomy, and sedimentation rate. Most specimens show sharp, closely spaced chevrons and occur along sandstone/mudstone interfaces of the proximal prodelta and distal delta-front deposits. These forms reflect how tracemakers experienced significant friction while advancing through the sediment, which resulted in relatively smaller increments of movements. In contrast, variants of Protovirgularia formed in muddier beds, such as in prodeltaic facies, show irregular, poorly defined and unevenly spaced chevrons, and are locally asymmetric in relation to the axis, reflecting softer, water-rich, and plastic substrates. This sediment offered relatively low friction but poor anchorage for the foot. These occurrences of Protovirgularia in tide-influenced, marginal-marine deposits suggests that protobranchs were tolerant of fluctuations in salinity, sedimentation rates, turbidity, and oxygen depletion, displaying opportunistic strategies in stressed nearshore environments. Our evaluation of taphonomic controls and appropriate identification of Protovirgularia can provide valuable information for expanding our knowledge of the ethology and paleoecology of protobranch bivalves.


1988 ◽  
Vol 25 (7) ◽  
pp. 1037-1048 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mel A. Reasoner ◽  
Nathaniel W. Rutter

Lake O'Hara (subalpine) and Opabin Lake (alpine) are situated directly adjacent to a high section of the Continental Divide in the central Canadian Rocky Mountains. Core samples recovered from the lakes show a consistent stratigraphy comprising gyttja and underlying inorganic clastic sediments. The gyttja contains Bridge River (2350 years BP) and Mazama (6800 years BP) tephras and is separated from the lower clastic sediments by a sharp, conformable contact. Radiocarbon dates obtained from conifer needles, extracted from directly above the contact, indicate that deglaciation had proceeded upvalley from the O'Hara basin priorto ca. 10 100 years BP. Preliminary palaeobotanical and macrofossil data suggest that a Pinus–Abies forest with lesser Picea was established in the vicinity of Lake O'Hara by this time. Consequently, the minimum age of moraine systems situated downvalley from Lake O'Hara is Late Wisconsinan.Mean annual sedimentation rates were derived from sediment thickness data from 14 Lake O'Hara and 2 Opabin Lake cores. Averaged total sedimentation rate values from the Lake O'Hara cores are 0.13 mm/year (post-Bridge River), 0.13 mm/year (Mazama – Bridge River) and 0.05 mm/year (11 000 years BP – Mazama). Averaged total sedimentation rate values from the Opabin Lake cores are 0.19 mm/year (post-Bridge River), 0.07 mm/year (Mazama – Bridge River), and 0.06 mm/year (8530 years BP – Mazama). Higher total sedimentation rates in post-Bridge River sediments of Opabin Lake are presumably related to climatic conditions associated with more extensive upvalley ice during the last ca. 2300 years. Highly variable sedimentation rate data obtained from the Lake O'Hara cores suggest that the use of sedimentation rate data as a proxy record of upvalley glacial activity is inappropriate in the Lake O'Hara setting where inflowing glacial stream systems are interrupted by upvalley lake basins.Aspartic acid D/L ratios were derived from bulk gyttja samples of known age from seven Lake O'Hara and one Opabin Lake core. In all but two cases, aspartic acid D/L ratios increase consistently with respect to sediment age. The increasing downcore trends in the aspartic acid D/L ratios suggest the possibility of using amino acid data from bulk gyttja samples as a check for reworking in cases where chronostratigraphic markers are absent.


1976 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. W. Tribe ◽  
A. E. Welburn

2 batches of baboon infected with tuberculosis were subjected to serial tests with human and bovine tuberculin, while erythrocyte sedimentation rates were estimated concurrently. In the very early stages most but not all reacted to human tuberculin while fewer responded to bovine material. After further development of the disease, tuberculin tests remained positive while sedimentation rates were raised by 10-30 mm per hour. By the time early spread had occurred response to tuberculin was absent but sedimentation rates tended to increase. Advanced cases were always tuberculin negative but sedimentation rates were in excess of 50 mm per hour. Such animals were always in good physical condition and represented an insidious danger to other animals and staff in contact with them. Clinical examination failed to reveal cases of tuberculosis except in the terminal stages and no cases were diagnosed by radiography. 2 animals died from apparent anaphylaxis following inoculation of both types of tuberculin. Results showed that use of one or other of these tests alone would not have made possible the elimination of infection.


1983 ◽  
Vol 20 (12) ◽  
pp. 1761-1779 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. K. Pickerill ◽  
J. M. Hurst

Six facies are recognised in the Beechill Cove Formation. These are: (1) conglomerate facies deposited as a transgressive beach lag; (2) red shale facies deposited in shoreface environments; (3) mottled mudstone facies; extensively bioturbated sediments indicative of shallow subtidal areas influenced by low sedimentation rates; (4) regular layered facies; shelf turbidites generated by storm activity and superimposed on quiescent subtidal environments; (5) lenticular facies, including a thinner bedded more persistent and a thicker bedded lenticular subfacies, induced by storm activity and deposited in shallow subtidal environments; and (6) laminated shale facies produced by sediment fallout from suspension in a low-energy environment where the oxygen, minimum layer intersected the sediment–water interface. Three faunal associations occur, which have distinct distributional patterns. The Lingula clintoni association, which is characterized by L. clintoni in life position and a moderately diverse but abundant trace-fossil assemblage, is restricted to the mottled mudstone facies. The Leptostrophia beechillensis association, a transported residue, is dominated by brachiopods and restricted to the regular layered facies. The low-diversity Dalmanella primitiva association is transported and restricted to the lenticular facies. No faunas are known from the conglomerate or laminated shale facies, and only rare trace fossils occur in the red shale facies.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zoe Cumberpatch ◽  
Emma Finch ◽  
Ian Kane ◽  
Christopher Jackson ◽  
David Hodgson ◽  
...  

&lt;p&gt;Complicated structural-stratigraphic traps at the salt-sediment interface have historically hosted large hydrocarbon discoveries. Understanding sediment-routing around active salt bodies, is now vital for carbon capture and storage projects due to salt being a &amp;#8216;near-perfect&amp;#8217; seal. Despite advances in subsurface visualisation, the salt-sediment interface remains difficult to image due to steep-bedding, bed-thickness changes and lithological contrasts. Outcropping examples provide depositional facies understanding, but are limited, largely due to the dissolution of associated halites. Studied analogues represent specific sedimentation rates and salt rise rates, which are difficult to accurately constrain and decipher.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Discrete Element Modelling (DEM) provides an efficient and inexpensive tool to analyse how depositional architectures around salt structures vary with sedimentation rate. Model input parameters are taken from the Bakio diapir, Basque Cantabrian Basin and the Pierce diapirs, eastern Central Graben and their adjacent, halokinetically influenced stratigraphic successions.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Six experiments were run, lasting for a total of 4.6 Myr. After a 2.2 Myr calibration period sediment was added to the model over three 800,000 year stages: 1) 2.2-3 Myr, 2) 3-3.8 Myr 3) 3.8-4.6 Myr. Sedimentation rate was varied to study the effects of sedimentation on mini-basin individualisation and extent of halokinetic modulation. The six experiments represent: no sedimentation, slow, intermediate and fast sediment input, increasing sedimentation and decreasing sedimentation. Outputs are validated by comparison to subsurface and outcropping examples globally.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Results show that: &lt;br&gt;1) Diapir growth is increased with some sedimentation, compared to no sedimentation, in agreement with models of passive diapirism by sediment loading, however growth is inhibited by increasing sedimentation rate.&lt;br&gt;2) Salt withdrawal mini-basins of 4-5 diapir-widths are formed and are controlled by the width of the diapir; outside of this, the overburden is undeformed. &lt;br&gt;3) Strata, at least initially, onlap and thin towards the topographic high created by the diapir.&lt;br&gt;4) Slow aggradation results in rotation of onlaps and sedimentation being restricted to mini-basins, making individualisation more probable, while sedimentation on the diapir roof eventually occurs in all other experiments.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;5) Under high sedimentation rates, halokinetic influences on stratigraphy are &amp;#8216;buried&amp;#8217; quicker, which could make the upper part of the syn-kinematic sequence difficult to decipher from the post-kinematic sequence.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The increasing sedimentation scenario simulates progradation, and is integrated with findings from the halokinetically-influenced successions around the Bakio (N.Spain) and Pierce (UK North Sea) diapirs. At Bakio, stratigraphy deposited above the diapir was removed by Pyrenean inversion. Incorporating outcrop-based sedimentary facies analysis with numerical modelling indicates that deposits experience facies changes towards stratigraphic pinch outs, mass failures could be common closest to diapirs and allows for the development of &amp;#8216;zones&amp;#8217; of variably severe halokinetic influence. Combining Pierce core data and model results highlights a trade-off between reservoir quality and stratigraphic trap integrity that may aid development of hydrocarbon fields and carbon capture and storage sites in salt-bearing sedimentary basins.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Our innovative, iterative, integrated approach is capable of improving understanding of the variables influencing sediment-routing and stratigraphic trap configuration around extensional-passive diapirs, and can be applied to a multitude of depositional settings.&lt;/p&gt;


1989 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 309-317 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edouard Bard ◽  
Laurent Labeyrie ◽  
Maurice Arnold ◽  
Monique Labracherie ◽  
Jean-Jacques Pichon ◽  
...  

Abstract14C dates obtained by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) on monospecific foraminiferal samples from two deep-sea sediment cores raised in the Indian sector of the Southern Ocean have been corrected for the difference in 14C composition between atmosphere and sea surface by using a reconstruction of the latitudinal 14C gradient which existed in the Southern Ocean prior to 1962. The corrected AMS-14C data show a reduced sedimentation rate in core MD 84-527 between 25,000 and 10,000 yr BP. For core MD 84-551 the available data suggest that the sedimentation rate was higher during the Holocene than during the glacial period. These changes in sedimentation rates may be attributed to an increased opal dissolution during the last glacial maximum.


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