non marine permian biostratigraphy and biochronology during the permian the single supercontinent pangaea stretched from pole to pole early permian glacial deposits are found in southern gondwana along the sutures of pangaea mountain ranges towered over vast tropical lowlands interior areas included dry deserts where dune sands accumulated gypsum and halite beds document the evaporation of hot shallow seas that formed the most extensive salt deposits in the geological record the permian period 251 to 299 ma encompasses nine ages stages arranged into three epochs series most of the permian marine timescale has been defined by global stratotype sections and points for the stage boundaries this volume presents new data regarding the biostratigraphy and biochronology of the non marine permian and provides a basis for temporally ordering permian geological and biotic history on land and correlating that history to events in the marine realm

permian and triassic greenhouse crises paleoclimatic time series from permian and triassic paleosols reveal transient episodes of unusually warm and wet conditions interrupting long periods of cool and dry conditions usual for calcareous red paleosols some of these paleoclimatic events are known from stomatal index of fossil lepidopteris leaves to have been episodes of elevated global atmospheric co2 the magnitude of 19 known permian and triassic greenhouse crises varied considerably and they offer new evidence for the relationship between paleoclimate and atmospheric co2 levels these greenhouse crises also had marked effects on global lowland vegetation introducing frost sensitive tropical lycopsids to high latitudes and drought tolerant conifers to low latitude lowlands greenhouse events punctuate phases in plant evolution ottokaria callipteris plumsteadia rufloria lidgettonia tatarina pleuromeia and dicroidium scytophyllum floras greenhouse events also punctuate the evolution of reptilian dynasties successive pelycosaur dinocephalian dicynodont rhynchosaur and dinosaur faunas and respiratory adaptations such as enlarged bony secondary palate greenhouse crises of the late and middle permian were the most severe known and suggest a role for atmospheric pollution with ch4 and co2 in those mass extinction events probably from thermogenic cracking of coals by intrusive feeder dikes of flood basalts because of formalities in boundary definition these mass extinctions are neither end permian nor end guadalupian but upper changhsingian and mid capitanian respectively

radioisotopic and biostratigraphic constraints on the classical middle upper permian succession and tetrapod fauna of the moscow syneclise russia

mode of occupation of tabun cave mt carmel israel during the mousterian period a study of the sediments and phytoliths alternative modes of occupation of tabun cave during the deposition of the mousterian levels b and c have been proposed garrod bate 1937 excavations at the wady el mughara volume 1 oxford clarendon press interpreted the archaeological record of both levels as being indicative of domestic occupational activities jelinek et al 1973 palaeorient 1 151 183 proposed that the presence of articulated limb bones of dama mesopotamica in the level b sediments below the cave chimney indicated that the cave was used as a natural game trap they also noted that the white ash layers in level c extended across the whole cave and proposed that this was due to the burning of natural vegetation in the cave this study aims at clarifying the modes of occupation during these periods level b sediments closely resemble the terra rossa soil that is common in this region burning activity is inferred from charcoal fragments seen in thin sections a minor wood ash component is present based on the preponderance of phytoliths with a variable morphology as compared to those with a consistent morphology as well as phytoliths with shapes characteristic of those formed in wood and bark of local trees thus fires were produced in the cave during this period the cave may also have been used as a game trap level c is composed of multiple layers of brown black and white sediments micromorphology mineralogy and phytolith analyses all show that these layers are mixtures of terra rossa soil and ash with the latter being abundant in the white layers the phytoliths in these layers are derived almost entirely from wood and bark and not from grasses these observations are consistent with a domestic occupational mode 1999 academic press

cation exchange and caco3 dissolution during artificial recharge of effluent to a calcareous sandstone aquifer summary this research describes a field study and laboratory simulations of the geochemical evolution of groundwater following a recharge of effluent into aquifers the study was conducted in the soil aquifer treatment sat system of the shafdan sewage reclamation plant israel the sat system recharges secondary effluent into the calcareous sandstone sediments of the israeli coastal aquifer as a tertiary treatment the reclaimed effluent is recovered ca 500 m off the recharge basin and is used for unlimited irrigation the laboratory simulations in which effluent was pumped through experimental columns packed with pristine shafdan sediment showed that the chemical composition of the outflowing water was controlled mainly by cation exchange and caco 3 dissolution na k and mg 2 were adsorbed and ca 2 was desorbed during the initial stage of recharge the equilibrium distribution of the adsorbed cations was ca 2 60 mg 2 20 and na and k 10 each the ca 2 in the shafdan production wells and in the experimental columns outflow 5 meq l 1 was always higher than the ca 2 in the recharged effluent 3 5 meq l 1 indicating continuous caco 3 dissolution this study demonstrates that besides mixing a suite of geochemical processes should be considered when assessing groundwater quality following artificial recharge of aquifers

tetrapod localities from the triassic of the se of european russia abstract fossil tetrapods amphibians and reptiles have been discovered at 206 localities in the lower and middle triassic of the southern urals area of european russia the first sites were found in the 1940s and subsequent surveys from the 1960s to the present day have revealed many more broad scale stratigraphic schemes have been published but full documentation of the rich tetrapod faunas has not been presented before the area of richest deposits covers some 900 000 km 2 of territory between samara on the river volga in the nw and orenburg and sakmara in the sw continental sedimentary deposits consisting of mudstones siltstones sandstones and conglomerates deposited by rivers flowing off the ural mountain chain span much of the lower and middle triassic induan olenekian anisian ladinian the succession is divided into seven successive svitas or assemblages kopanskaya induan staritskaya kzylsaiskaya gostevskaya and petropavlovskaya all olenekian donguz anisian and bukobay ladinian this succession comprising up to 3 5 km of fluvial and lacustrine sediments documents major climatic changes at the beginning of the early triassic arid zone facies were widely developed aeolian piedmont and proluvium these were replaced by fluvial facies with some features indicating aridity at the end of the middle triassic deltaic and lacustrine marsh formations were dominant indicating more humid conditions the succession of early to mid triassic tetrapod faunas documents the recovery of life after the end permian mass extinction the earliest faunas consist only of small aquatic tetrapods in low diversity low abundance assemblages climbing the succession through the early triassic more terrestrially adapted tetrapods appear and larger herbivorous and carnivorous reptiles come to dominate in the mid triassic as ecosystems were rebuilt

pedology of archaeological soils in tells of the judean foothills israel abstract tells archaeological mounds predominantly consist of poorly consolidated to unconsolidated sediments and soils that are highly anthropogenic this study examines pedogenic processes related to carbonate mobilization in tells in comparison with their peripheral soils reference soil profiles the key objective of this study is to test the hypothesis that tell deposits evolve through concurrent processes of sedimentation and pedogenesis synlithogenic pedogenesis and further explain it case studies are presented from three tells in semi arid and mediterranean climatic zones of the levant the methods applied included field survey analyses of particle size distribution ph caco3 and organic carbon content and soil micromorphology soils of the tells contain miscellaneous cultural materials that derive mainly from degraded mud bricks pottery and burnt wood chemical data show basic ph values high caco3 content and minor amounts of organic carbon field observations and lab analyses both indicate high similarity amongst the tells and their reference soil profiles buried tell soils show same characteristics as near surface soils however the reference soil profiles show incipient horizonation slightly darker colours and more developed structure micromorphology of both the tells and the reference profiles show cohesively welded peds in a vughy microstructure groundmass with an open porphyric c f related distribution and discontinuous carbonate recrystallization relative rates of soil formation in the tells can be estimated when archaeological records are established contrary to the tells the reference soil profiles show lower porosity and only minor remnants related to earth construction materials we classify the soils of the studied tells as archaeological calcareous anthraltic xerorthents the correlative wrb classification would be calcic urbic technosols archaic the anthropogenic materials are as calcareous as the natural soils but due to human action carbonates in the tells are distributed differently based on these observations ancient human actions and the dry climate have led to very little mobilization and accumulation of carbonates the information provided in this study adds to the pedological understanding of archaeological environments specifically it can be useful for the study of site formation processes of tells

magnetostratigraphy of permian triassic boundary sequences in the cis urals russia no evidence for a major temporal hiatus during the last five years there has been considerable doubt over the age of the continental uppermost permian russian stages the kazanian and tatarian traditionally they have been regarded as late permian but were re dated as middle permian in the 2004 international time scale despite fossil evidence that the tatarian at least is late permian these debated ages are tested by magnetostratigraphic study of five sections spanning the permian triassic boundary ptb of the se urals in the orenburg region of russia the upper permian and lower triassic of this region have a well documented vertebrate fauna whose evolution has a significant bearing on our understanding of the ptb mass extinction event if the tatarian is viewed as mid permian then the late permian in russia is marked by a 9 10 ma stratigraphic gap the palaeomagnetic data yield a distinct series of polarity zones that provide clear local and regional correlation and are readily tied to a recently compiled global magnetostratigraphic record on the basis of this correlation the sampled sections span the upper guadalupian to induan stages without any obvious break so confirming the traditional view that the tatarian is late permian in age anomalies in the magnetic inclination are consistent with sediment compaction inclination shallowing a common phenomenon of red beds but declination anomalies between these sites and elsewhere in russia may suggest localised vertical axis rotation

permian and triassic palaeolatitudes of the ukrainian shield with implications for pangea reconstructions summary a collection of 306 oriented samples from 43 permian and triassic intrusions from the ukrainian shield the southwest portion of the east european craton has yielded valuable palaeomagnetic directions with new ages obtained using the 40ar 39ar method andesitic intrusions have late triassic ages six dating samples of 204 2 1 6 ma to 215 7 2 0 ma and dual polarity dec inc 60 1 64 4 k 96 95 4 5 derived from n 12 sites trachyte dykes have an early artinskian mid early permian age one dating sample of 282 6 2 6 ma and yielded dec inc 204 3 23 8 k 27 7 95 6 5 from n 19 sites the palaeolatitude of the trachyte intrusions is 12 4 3 7 n because the artinskian and younger permian palaeopoles obtained from the gondwana continents are subject to uncertainties some studies have adopted a palaeopole at 41 s 61 e largely based on results from 280 ma permian quartzporphyries in the southern alps of italy as proxy to position gondwana at that time with this palaeoposition and our new 280 ma palaeolatitude for baltica a pangea a reconstruction cannot be supported to avoid its inherent continental overlap of africa and eurasia a pangea b reconstruction has been favoured wherein eurasia s southern margin faces the northcoast of south america instead however the 280 10 ma palaeomagnetic data from the gondwana continents themselves give a mean palaeopole at 30 s 59 e which results in a palaeogeographic position of gondwana that allows a pangea a type reconstruction thus the choice between pangea a versus b in the artinskian hinges on data selection and reliability criteria and the assumptions about tectonic coherence of northern adria i e the southern alps with africa in permian times a more reliable mid early permian palaeopole from cratonic gondwana would provide a more definitive conclusion

phytolith rich layers from the late bronze and iron ages at tel dor israel mode of formation and archaeological significance the presence of many phytolith rich layers in late bronze and iron age deposits at tel dor israel are indicative of specific locations where plants were concentrated detailed studies of six of these phytolith rich layers and associated sediments from tel dor show that the phytoliths were derived mainly from wild and domestic grasses the most common domestic grass was the cereal triticum aestivum bread wheat three of these layers have a microlaminated microstructure associated dung spherulites and phosphate nodules characteristics that all point to the phytolith rich layers having formed from dung in animal enclosures in two of the layers the microlaminated structure is absent while dung spherulites and phosphate nodules are present suggesting that these too originate from dung that was not deposited in an enclosure the sixth layer is microlaminated but does not contain spherulites we thus cannot suggest a parsimonious explanation of its observed properties concentrations of burnt phytoliths are present in three locations implying that dung was either burnt in situ or the ashes from burnt dung were redeposited the transformation of dung accumulations into phytolith rich layers involves a loss of organic material and hence a significant reduction in sediment volume which is clearly apparent in the stratigraphy of some of the locations examined the volume reduction can be observed in the macrostratigraphy and has important implications with regard to macrostratigraphic interpretation the presence of abundant phytolith rich layers on the tell has significant implications for the concept of urbanism during these periods 2007 elsevier ltd all rights reserved

no gap in the middle permian record of terrestrial vertebrates during the permian tetrapods showed a major transition from basal synapsid dominated faunas in the first half to therapsid dominated faunas in the second the transition was significant in marking the beginning of richer and more complex communities a precursor to modern terrestrial ecosystems this changeover may have been gradual or abrupt but its study has been complicated by the postulated occurrence of a substantial hiatus in the fossil record termed olson9s gap which obscured the nature of the turnover new evidence from redating of key tetrapod bearing units of the american southwest and european russia confirms that there is no gap in the fossil record of permian tetrapods indeed evidence for substantial sampling bias in the permian tetrapod fossil record as a whole is queried

upper permian vertebrates and their sedimentological context in the south urals russia fossil fishes and tetrapods amphibians and reptiles have been discovered at 81 localities in the upper permian of the southern urals area of european russia the first sites were found in the 1940s and subsequent surveys have revealed many more broad scale stratigraphic schemes have been published but full documentation of the rich tetrapod faunas has not been presented before the area of richest deposits covers some 900 000 km2 of territory between samara on the river volga in the nw and orenburg and sakmara in the sw a continental succession some 3 km thick of mudstones siltstones and sandstones deposited on mudflats and in small rivers flowing off the ural mountain chain span the last two stages of the permian kazanian tatarian the succession is divided into seven successive units of kazanian kalinovskaya osinovskaya and belebey svitas in succession and tatarian age which is further subdivided into the early tatatian urzhumian gorizont bolshekinelskaya and amanakskaya svitas in succession and the late tatarian severodvinian vyazovskaya and malokinelskaya svitas of equivalent age and vyatkian gorizonts kulchumovskaya and kutulukskaya svitas of equivalent age this succession documents major climatic changes with increasing aridity through the late permian the climate changes are manifested in changing sedimentation and the spread of dryland plants and peak aridity was achieved right at the permo triassic ptr boundary coincident with global warming uplift of the urals and extinction of land plants led to stripping of soils and massive run off from the mountains these phenomena have been identified at the ptr boundary elsewhere south africa australia and this may be a key part of the end permian mass extinction the succession of late permian fish and tetrapod faunas in russia documents their richness and diversity before the mass extinction the terminal permian kulchomovskaya and kutulukskaya svitas have yielded respectively some 6 and 13 species of fishes sharks bony fishes lungfishes and 11 and 14 species of tetrapods aquatic amphibians herbivorous and carnivorous reptiles of all sizes up to the hippo sized pareiasaurs and sabre toothed gorgonopsians immediately following the end permian environmental catastrophe earliest triassic faunas consisted only of a few fish taxa and small aquatic tetrapods in low diversity low abundance assemblages

fate of organic matter during aquifer storage and recovery asr of reclaimed water in a carbonate aquifer abstract understanding the fate of injected organic matter and the consequences of subsequent redox processes is essential to assess the viability of using reclaimed water in aquifer storage and recovery asr a full scale field trial was undertaken at bolivar south australia where two asr cycles injected approximately 3 6 105 m3 of reclaimed water into a carbonate aquifer over a 3 a period organic c within reclaimed water was predominantly in the dissolved fraction ranging from 1 to 2 mmol l 1 10 20 mg l 1 markedly higher than potable supply and stormwater previously reported as source waters for asr between 20 and 24 of the injected dissolved organic c doc was mineralised through reaction with injected o2 and no3 furthermore this was achieved mainly within the first 4 m of aquifer passage despite the presence of residual doc so4 reduction was not induced within the bulk of the injected plume it was only near the asr well during an extended storage phase where deeply reduced methanogenic conditions developed indicating variable redox zones within the injectant plume the quality of water recovered from the asr well indicated that the organic c content of reclaimed water does not restrict its application as a recharge source for asr

pattern of vertebrate extinctions across an event bed at the permian triassic boundary in the karoo basin of south africa the extinction of vertebrates around the time of the permian triassic boundary has long been regarded as a gradual event occurring over millions of years our new field investigations of fluvial strata in the central and southern karoo basin of south africa have revealed the presence of an event bed coinciding with a mass extinction of terrestrial fauna and flora the bed is in a sedimentary sequence that is marked by a reddening of flood plain mud rocks and a change from high to low sinuosity river channel systems here we show that the pattern of vertebrate taxa disappearing below this boundary and the subsequent appearance of new taxa above the boundary are consistent with a relatively sudden possibly catastrophic event perhaps of 50 000 yr duration or less

the taphonomy and preservation of wood and dung ashes found in archaeological cooking installations case studies from iron age israel cooking installations are among the most abundant features in bronze and iron age archaeological sites in the southern levant yet until now their study has been mostly descriptive we present a study of 11 purported archaeological cooking installations from three different bronze and iron age sites in israel in which we deployed a variety of microarchaeological techniques we provide direct physical evidence based on fourier transform infrared ftir spectroscopy demonstrating that the archaeological installations were operated with temperatures as high as 900 c using this technique we also demonstrate that all the mud constructed installations studied by us were internally fueled and therefore should be identified as tannurs rather than the externally fueled tabuns we studied in detail the quantities of ash related microscopic remains including opaline phytoliths calcitic wood ash pseudomorphs and dung spherulites we show that phytolith morphotype analysis cannot distinguish between wood dominated and dung dominated fuel materials while a newly developed method that calculates the ratio of ash pseudomorphs to dung spherulites psr method makes such a distinction possible moreover we experimented with the effect of partial dissolution on fuel ash psr values and utilize the results to explain taphonomy and diagenesis associated with two types of archaeological cooking installations pebble hearths and baking ovens in addition we identified micromorphological criteria that can be used to assess whether ash deposits in or above a cooking installations are in situ and or disturbed taken together all lines of evidence used in this study indicate that wood was the major fuel material across time and space in the studied archaeological contexts while dung was a secondary source of fuel this observation also cross cuts different culture historical entities philistines canaanites israelites and egyptians in addition wood was preferred as fuel irrespective of environmental differences among the studied sites this study is yet another demonstration of the value of integrating microarchaeological techniques and approaches to traditional macroscopic archaeology

sediments exposed to high temperatures reconstructing pyrotechnological processes in late bronze and iron age strata at tel dor israel many of the sediments analysed from tel dor israel show structural alterations indicating that they were exposed to high temperatures this observation is consistent with the abundant evidence for use of pyrotechnology from the earliest exposed middle bronze age strata through the roman period such structurally altered sediments may well represent one of the more widespread and durable records of pyrotechnology and as such could be invaluable for reconstructing past human activities the specific aims of this research are therefore to develop the means for identifying local sediments that were altered by different pyrotechnological activities and to elucidate the varying circumstances whereby sediments were exposed to high temperatures in a late bronze and iron age 1 section we first characterize natural sediments sampled on and in the proximity of the tell and monitor their transformations due to exposure to high temperatures in an oven and in open fires focusing in particular on the transformations of the clay mineral components of mud brick materials the analytical techniques used include micromorphology fourier transform infrared spectrometry ftir x ray powder diffractometry xrd and x ray fluorescence xrf spectrometry using the temperature calibrated data we confirm that large volumes of sediments at tel dor were exposed to high temperatures in area g we identify three fundamentally different ways that heat affected sediments were produced and accumulated 1 inthelatebronzeage phases11e12 thesedimentswereheatedtotemperaturesbetween800and900 candwerethendeposited in the area under investigation a plausible scenario is that these sediments were exposed to heat from ovens or kilns 2 during the early iron age phase 10 the heat affected sediments heated above 1000 c formed in close association with casting pits for the working of copper containing bronze objects 3 duringphase9oftheironage heat affectedsedimentswereproducedinsituatthislocationduetoamajorconflagration the temperatures reached around 1000 c this study shows that analysis of high temperature exposed sediments may be an invaluable means of reconstructing fire associated activities even when the actual installations have not been identified during the excavation or were not preserved

an assessment of techniques for the deflocculation and removal of clays from sediments used in phytolith analysis this paper describes an experiment in which a comparison is made between two techniques of deflocculation and clay removal generally used for palynological extraction in the experiment methods used commonly for pollen extraction are applied to phytolith extraction the palynological products of the different preparation techniques are compared by reference to several attributes the time and efficiency in the preparation method the weight of residue resulting from each method the palynological composition clarity of the palynomorphs on the slides and measures of differential loss and selection by palynomorph shape and size the results are compared and discussed in relation to the still settling technique which is most commonly used for phytolith extraction it is concluded that centrifugation is a reliable and fast method that can be used to remove clays from fine grained sediments for the extraction of phytoliths and other silica microfossils high levels of diversity were recorded for morphotypes across all size classes it produced superior results to the sieving technique and there is no reason to assume that it cannot be used to produce results comparable with still settling if calculations of settling times consider the implications of sediment density on fluid viscosity adoption of the centrifugation method for clay removal from palynological sediment samples can greatly reduce extraction times and therefore it is a recommended procedure

an integrated study of dark earth from the alluvial valley of the senne river brussels belgium abstract the present article discusses the integration of urban geoarchaeological and archaeobotanical data of a series of dark earth deposits situated in the alluvial valley of the senne river in brussels belgium due to their homogeneous character their interpretation is a huge challenge for archaeologists through a case by case approach a detailed picture of the sequence of different activities and semi natural events leading to the build up of dark earth at each individual site has been obtained among the activities agricultural practices and waste management which are rarely archaeologically recorded in urban contexts have been identified despite being situated in a valley context none of the sites presented an excellent preservation of the organic plant remains however through the integration of geoarchaeological and botanical data the taphonomical history of the botanical remains could better be understood allowing us to document the evolution of the environment surrounding the sites additionally it has been demonstrated that the botanical study of dark earth units can also provide valuable information on vegetal consumption in particular fruits on a broader scale this integrated geoarchaeologial and archaeobotanical study sheds some light on the process of urbanisation of the senne alluvial valley between the 11th 12th and the 16th century ad

impacts of global warming on permo triassic terrestrial ecosystems geologists and palaeontologists have expressed mixed views about the effects of the end permian mass extinction on continental habitats and on terrestrial life current work suggests that the effects on land were substantial with massive erosion following the stripping of vegetation associated with long term aridification and short term bursts of warming and acid rain wildfires at the permo triassic boundary contributed to the removal of forests and the prolonged absence of forests from the earth s surface for up to 10 myr these physical crises on land impinged on the oceans suggesting tight interlocking of terrestrial and marine crises levels of extinction on land may well have been as high as in the sea and this is certainly the case for tetrapods the mass extinction seems to have been less profound for plants and insects but it is hard at present to disentangle issues of data quality from reductions in abundance and diversity several killing agents have been proposed and of these tetrapods may have succumbed primarily to acid rain mass wasting and aridification plants may have been more affected by the sudden effects of heating and wildfires and the crisis for insects has yet to be explored

mass extinction of peat forming plants and the effect on fluvial styles across the permian triassic boundary northern bowen basin australia abstract the most spectacular extinction event in earth s history occurred across the permian triassic boundary in the northern bowen basin a major coal bearing sedimentary basin in eastern australia a long lived c 9 myr cold climate peat mire ecosystem collapsed at the permian triassic boundary when the vast majority c 95 of peat producing plants became extinct the environmental change marked by the permian triassic boundary is expressed as an abrupt and sharp change in sedimentary regime at the contact between the rangal coal measures and the sagittarius sandstone the stratigraphic record shows no diminution in the thickness lateral extent or spatial distribution of coal seams prior to the boundary event the abrupt ecological shift at the permian triassic boundary was coincident with and interrelated to a change in landscape attributes and fluvial style the boundary shift is considered to reflect a short period radical atmospheric change accompanied by an abrupt change in plant ecosystems however palynological data indicate that it was preceded by a more gradual gross taxonomic progression in the floral succession the boundary shift is unlikely to reflect change in the tectonic setting of the northern bowen basin because the detrital character of clastic sediment supply shows no provenance change within the boundary sequence the late permian fluvial style is characterised by large scale up to 1 km wide sandstone dominated low sinuosity trunk river channel deposits the trunk river channels were flanked by extensive levee composite crevasse splay systems channel tracts were relatively stationary in position over enduring periods and developed stacked sediment accumulations up to 30 m thick the constrained character of the late permian trunk river systems was most likely due to progressive compaction of thick tracts of peat substrate and the stabilising effect of vegetation adjacent to the channel complex the well developed crevasse splays coupled with the low sinuosity style of the fluvial channels might suggest a perennial fluvial system characterised by short discharge periods as common in high latitude settings the fluvial architecture of the sagittarius sandstone the basal formation of the lower triassic rewan group is characterised by sheet like elements suggestive of broad shallow channels in a deforested braid plain setting the channel deposits are considered to represent highly mobile sandy systems dominated by a flashy runoff regime the mass extinction of plants in the northern bowen basin at the permian triassic boundary thus had a significant impact on the early triassic landscape and fluvial architecture

human impact around settlement sites a phytolith and mineralogical study for assessing site boundaries phytolith preservation and implications for spatial reconstructions using plant remains abstract defining the extent of human activity around settlement sites is of particular significance in archaeology as it may define peripheral activity areas and thus the site s boundary in near eastern archaeology site boundaries are usually defined by the presence of architectural and other macroscopic archaeological remains here we use the phytolith concentrations and morphotype assemblages as well as changes in the mineralogical composition of the sediments in and around the small iron age site of izbet sartah in central israel to determine the site boundaries the site has a shallow stratigraphy and highly bioturbated sediments coincidental changes in the clay quartz ratio and phytolith concentrations define the boundary between high and low impact anthropogenic activities this boundary is generally some 20 m away from the architectural remains in addition we note that the phytoliths in the site s core show clear evidence of having been affected by chemical dissolution i e diagenesis while those in the vicinity of the site s boundary have undergone severe diagenesis these observations indicate that phytolith diagenesis will affect site boundaries determination as well as phytolith based reconstructions of activity areas we propose that phytolith preservation depends on the initial amount of available silica the depth of burial with respect to the active root area of modern vegetation and the presence of fresh phytoliths in the soil

an integrated biomarker isotopic and palaeoenvironmental study through the late permian event at lusitaniadalen spitsbergen abstract the largest extinction of the phanerozoic occurred near the permian triassic p tr boundary some 252 ma ago several scenarios and drivers have been proposed for this event here we report for the first time an integrated study comprising sedimentological data biomarker distributions abundances and selected stable carbon and hydrogen isotopes along with bulk isotopes 34spyrite 13ccarb 13corg for a late permian section from lusitaniadalen spitsbergen norway sedimentological and geochemical data support a marine transgression and collapse of the marine ecosystem in the late permian strong evidence for waxing and waning of photic zone euxinia throughout the late permian is provided by chlorobiaceae derived biomarkers including 13c data and 34spyrite implying multiple phases of h2s outgassing and potentially several pulses of extinction a rapid decrease in abundance of various land plant biomarkers prior to the marine collapse event indicates a dramatic decline of land plants during the late permian and or increasing distance from palaeoshoreline as a consequence of sea level rise changes in d of selected biomarkers also suggest a change in source of organic matter om or sea level rise we also found biomarker and isotopic evidence for a phytoplanktonic bloom triggered by eutrophication as a consequence of the marine collapse compound specific isotope analyses csia of algal and land plant derived biomarkers as well as 13c of carbonate and bulk om provide strong evidence for synchronous changes in 13c of marine and atmospheric co2 attributed to a 13c depleted source the source could be associated with isotopically depleted methane released from the melting of gas clathrates and or from respired om due to collapse of the marine ecosystem

water quality effects on clogging rates during reclaimed water asr in a carbonate aquifer summary well clogging remains a major operational issue particularly in light of the increased attention being given to the reuse of reclaimed water through the method of aquifer storage and recovery asr in seasonally arid regions at a reclaimed water asr trial site in a limestone aquifer at bolivar in south australia rates of clogging were related to the quality of the injectant over a 4 year study period during which time water quality generally improved due to advancements in pretreatment rates of clogging within a 4 m radius of the asr well defined by changes in the relative intrinsic permeability of the aquifer were enhanced at higher levels of turbidity total nitrogen ntot and ph due to their resultant effects on particle filtration microbial growth and calcite dissolution respectively water quality changes due to the movement of the injectant to an observation well at a radius of 4 m verified these processes at this site acceptably low rates of short and long term clogging were achieved for turbidity

stability of phytoliths in the archaeological record a dissolution study of modern and fossil phytoliths opaline phytoliths are important microfossils used in archaeological and ecological research relatively little is known about the stability of phytoliths after burial under alkaline ph conditions they can dissolve and mechanical disturbances can cause a loss of their more delicate appendages here we present an experimental study of phytolith stability combination of solubility and abrasion modern and fossil phytoliths were extracted from wheat using new methods to minimize dissolution and by burning in an oven these assemblages were placed in a solution buffered to ph 10 and maintained under constant temperature and shaking conditions the silicon concentrations in the solution were monitored once a week for 5 weeks the phytolith morphologies in each assemblage were determined at the outset of the experiment and after 5 weeks the results show that there are differences in stability between various assemblages modern inflorescence wheat phytolith assemblages are more unstable than those from leaves stems burnt assemblages are less stable than unburnt assemblages and a fossil phytolith assemblage about 3000 years old is more stable than the modern wheat assemblages the results also show that individual phytolith morphotypes have different stabilities and as a result of dissolution and abrasion some morphotypes may resemble others this study further shows that archaeological and or paleo environmental interpretation of phytolith assemblages may change with the assemblage s state of preservation

quantitative phytolith study of hearths from the natufian and middle palaeolithic levels of hayonim cave galilee israel abstract a study of the mineralogy and phytolith assemblages of hearths and their associated sediments in hayonim cave israel shows that wood ash is a major component of the sediments of both the natufian approximately 12 000 bp and the mousterian deposits approximately 100 to 250 000 bp interestingly phytolith analyses show that in the natufian deposits grasses are the second most abundant form of vegetation preserved whereas in the mousterian deposits leaves of dicotyledonous plants are the second most abundant form of vegetation preserved significant differences were repeatedly observed in phytolith assemblages from closely associated but different stratigraphic layers showing that vertical mixing of intact sediments is not intensive and that there was a diverse input of vegetation over relatively short time periods no consistent differences were observed in the mineralogy and the phytolith assemblages between hearths and their associated sediments both contain abundant ash components this study demonstrates that quantitative analyses of phytoliths together with mineralogical analyses can provide much information on the use of plants for fuel and other purposes by the cave occupants

a comparison of three methods for the extraction of phytoliths from sediments abstract this paper compares three methods commonly used to extract fossil phytoliths from sediments a basic procedure using heavy liquid flotation and oxidation is compared with two other procedures across a range of sediment types commonly encountered in archaeological studies the three procedures are 1 a heavy liquid flotation method hlf 2 a burning method pow and 3 another heavy liquid flotation method hlfpol similar to hlf but adapted to allow the extraction of pollen and spores as well as phytoliths within a single process comparisons of the resulting output using these three techniques for phytolith extraction show that different methods can produce different results and therefore basic techniques should be modified according to the characteristics of the sediments for which they are used while all the techniques showed similarities in assemblage results there were problems associated with disaggregation and effective separation of light and heavy fractions in particular with the pow procedure the evidence suggests that morphotype selection occurred both within the physical sorting process and in the process of inverting slides to shed excess residue in both cases it is difficult to suggest a solution to the problem the results show clearly that the advantages gained by using the pow procedure are largely outweighed by the problems encountered with its use and because of possible size shape selection it is not recommended for general extraction procedures the heavy liquid flotation procedures on the other hand are shown to produce more concentrated residues with higher levels of clarity and less potential than the pow procedure for sample bias the use of a non toxic heavy liquid sodium polytungstate now allows the process to be used in relative safety it is recommended that analysts use heavy liquid flotation procedures with chemical treatments specific to sediment requirements

new constraints on the upper permian and lower triassic geomagnetic polarity timescale from the abadeh section central iran we present the magnetostratigraphy of the abadeh section central iran thermal demagnetization shows two magnetic components one at low unblocking temperatures which corresponds to a present day field direction and another at high temperatures this second component which contains both polarities is interpreted as a primary magnetization acquired during sediment deposition at a paleolatitude of about 7 7 s a sequence of 14 magnetic polarity zones is obtained in the intervals during the upper dzhulfian lower changhsingian upper permian and during the griesbachian lower triassic combining data from south china canada pakistan and iran we propose a composite but still uncomplete upper permian and lower triassic geomagnetic polarity timescale

magnetostratigraphy of the sherwood sandstone group lower and middle triassic south devon uk detailed correlation of the marine and non marine anisian the sherwood sandstone group in south devon consists of the budleigh salterton pebble beds and the otter sandstone formation the otter sandstone formation comprises four lithostratigraphic sub units from the base labelled a d and contains tetrapods corresponding to the perovkan land vertebrate faunachron and is consequently a key european non marine anisian succession a total of 181 palaeomagnetic specimens from 92 horizons were measured to determine the palaeomagnetic signal the magnetic properties and characteristic remanence is predominantly carried by haematite most of which probably formed early in the depositional and diagenetic history the lower part of the sherwood sandstone group budleigh salterton pebble beds and otter sandstone formation unit a lower part of unit b has predominantly normal polarity magnetozones bs1 bs2 and bs3n with three thin reversed polarity magnetozones the lower part of unit b to the lower part of unit c of the otter sandstone formation is predominantly reverse polarity magnetozones bs3r bs4 and bs5 but includes three short normal polarity intervals the upper ca 50 m of unit c shows a mix of normal and reverse polarity bs6 bs7 with normal dominating the ca 15 m thick unit d is entirely of normal polarity bs8n the magnetostratigraphy allows unambiguous comparison with conodont and ammonite calibrated magnetostratigraphies from elsewhere in europe these show that the bs2 and bs3n magnetozones of the otter sandstone formation are lower aegean to middle pelsonian lower to middle anisian the bs3r to bs5r magnetozone interval is middle pelsonian to lower illyrian middle to upper anisian and the bs6 to bs8n magnetozone interval is middle illyrian to lower fassanian the top of unit d is correlated to an interval in the middle of the nevadites zone close to the anisian ladinian boundary consequently the otter sandstone formation correlates with the muschelkalk in the polish basin but is equivalent to only part of the germanic basin muschelkalk the continuous magnetostratigraphy from the sherwood sandstone group provides additional details of the polarity pattern through the pelsonian to illyrian interval which appears to be lacking in discontinuous marine sections a synthesis of adjacent european sedimentary basins in combination with the magnetostratigraphy suggests that the budleigh salterton pebble beds are probably late spathian to lower aegean

altered river morphology in south africa related to the permian triassic extinction the permian triassic transition in the karoo basin of south africa was characterized by a rapid and apparently basin wide change from meandering to braided river systems as evidenced by preserved sedimentary facies this radical changeover in river morphology is consistent with geomorphic consequences stemming from a rapid and major die off of rooted plant life in the basin evidence from correlative nonmarine strata elsewhere in the world containing fluvial permian triassic boundary sections suggests that a catastrophic terrestrial die off of vegetation was a global event producing a marked increase in sediment yield as well as contributing to the global 13 c excursion across the permian triassic boundary

the black layer of middle palaeolithic combustion structures interpretation and archaeostratigraphic implications certain aspects of the formation processes of simple flat archaeological combustion structures such as those present in the middle palaeolithic record remain unexplained such kind of combustion structures are commonly affected by postdepositional agents and often their only distinct well preserved component is a thin black lens on the ground hence understanding the nature of this black lens is essential towards archaeological interpretation from an interdisciplinary microstratigraphic approach we present a case study in which for an entire experimental series of flat combustion structures the black layer represents the fire altered topsoil on which the fire was made parallel analysis of archaeological middle palaeolithic combustion structures from the site of el salt alicante spain reveal similar patterns leading to significant implications for archaeological interpretation in the light of these results special attention must be paid to the formation processes of flat middle palaeolithic combustion features as black layers and the material contained in them are not necessarily linked with combustion but with preceding activities or events in such cases black layers represent intact remnants of occupation surfaces concealing significant behavioural and palaeoenvironmental information relevant to the reconstruction of middle palaeolithic societies

calcretes fluviolacustrine sediments and subsidence patterns in permo triassic salt walled minibasins of the south urals russia the south uralian foreland basin forms part of the giant yet sparsely documented precaspian salt tectonic province the basin can potentially add much to the understanding of fluviolacustrine sedimentation within salt walled minibasins where the literature has been highly reliant on only a few examples such as the paradox basin of utah this paper describes the late permian terrestrial fill of the kul chumovo salt minibasin near orenburg in the south urals in which sediments were deposited in a range of channel overbank and lacustrine environments palaeomagnetic stratigraphy shows that during the late permian the basin had a relatively slow and uniform subsidence pattern with widespread pedogenesis and calcrete development angular unconformities or halokinetic sequence boundaries cannot be recognized within the relatively fine grained fill and stratigraphic and spatial variations in facies are therefore critical to understanding the subsidence history of the salt minibasin coarse grained channel belts show evidence for lateral relocation within the minibasin while the development of a thick stack of calcrete hardpans indicates that opposing parts of the minibasin became largely inactive for prolonged periods possibly in the order of one million years the regular vertical stacking of calcrete hardpans within floodplain mudstones provides further evidence that halokinetic minibasin growth is inherently episodic and cyclical

permian triassic boundary magnetostratigraphy from the southern alps italy palaeomagnetic investigations of permian triassic boundary sections in the dolomites provided a magnetostratigraphy for the uppermost part of the permian bellerophon formation to the lower triassic werfen formation magnetite was the dominant magnetic component in most of the samples while the presence of hematite was characteristic for the tesero horizon which is regarded as the immediate permian triassic boundary layer the palaeomagnetic results are consistent with earlier studies of permian and triassic sediments and volcanites in the southern alps the mean characteristic remanence directions indicate deposition and remanence acquisition at a shallow northerly palaeolatitude and a counterclockwise rotation a zone of reversed polarity occurs at the top of the permian sequence and a polarity change from reverse to normal polarity shortly above the base of the werfen formation the onset of a tectonically controlled sedimentary cycle marks the beginning of the basal triassic normal polarity zone which corresponds to most of griesbachian time the record of geomagnetic polarity across the permian triassic boundary confirms the apparent continuity as found by sedimentologic biostratigraphic investigations which emphasise a gradual lithic transition with no evidence for a time gap at the boundary

modern soil phytolith assemblages used as proxies for paleoscape reconstruction on the south coast of south africa south africa continues to receive substantial attention from scholars researching modern human origins the importance of this region lies in the many caves and rock shelters containing well preserved evidence of human activity cultural material complexity and a growing number of early modern human fossils dating to the middle stone age msa south africa also hosts the world s smallest floral kingdom now called the greater cape floristic region gcfr with high species richness and endemism in paleoanthropological research improving our capacity to reconstruct past climatic and environmental conditions can help us to shed light on survival strategies of hunter gatherers to do this one must use actualistic studies of modern assemblages from extant habitats to develop analogies for the past and improve paleoenvironmental reconstructions here we present a phytolith study of modern surface soil samples from different gcfr vegetation types of the south coast of south africa in this study the phytolith concentration and morphological distribution are related to the physicochemical properties of soils the environmental conditions and the characterization of the vegetation for the different study areas our results show that phytolith concentration relates mostly to vegetation types and the dominant vegetation rather than to the type of soils more abundant phytoliths from restionaceae and woody shrubby vegetation are also noted from fynbos vegetation and grass phytoliths are a recurrent component in all the vegetation types in spite of being a minor component in the modern vegetation the grass silica short cells from these plants however suggest a mix of c3 and c4 grasses in most of the vegetation types with a major presence of the rondels ascribed to c3 grasses the exceptions are riparian coastal thicket and coastal forest vegetation which are characterized by the dominance of c4 grass phytoliths

degradation of mud brick houses in an arid environment a geoarchaeological model a common assumption in near eastern tell archaeology is that the majority of sediments originate from degraded mud bricks little is known about the mechanism of mud brick wall degradation here we present a detailed macro and microscopic ethnoarchaeological study of the degradation of a mud brick house and propose a comprehensive mechanism for tell formation processes in arid environments the study took place in southern israel by trenching a ca 60 year old abandoned mud brick house followed by extensive sediment sampling macroscopic observations showed that mud brick walls degrade by collapse of single bricks and or collapse of intact wall parts either inwards or outwards in addition infill sediments within the house and outside it in close proximity to its walls form alternating sedimentary layers of various colors and textures the degraded mud brick material lost its distinctive macroscopic structure which makes it impossible to accurately identify this material by field observations alone mineralogical and elemental analyses established the sources of the house infill sediments namely mud bricks and wind blown sediments alternating layers mostly originate from mixing between degraded mud brick material and wind blown sediments micromorphological observations revealed microscopic mechanisms of mud brick degradation and include processes of mud slurry gravity flows sediment coatings and infillings wind abrasion of walls small scale puddling and bioturbation this study provides a working scheme for site formation of abandoned mud brick structures in arid environments it provides a set of criteria by which it is possible to differentiate floors from post abandonment sedimentary features and thus improves the reliability of activity area research

preservation of exceptional vertebrate assemblages in middle permian fluviolacustrine mudstones of kotel nich russia stratigraphy sedimentology and taphonomy the kotel nich locality in european russia has long been a rich source of high quality tetrapod fossils including pareiasaurs dicynodonts gorgonopsians and theriodonts the age of the kotel nich locality has been debated but it corresponds to early severodvinian in the russian stratigraphic scheme equivalent to the late capitanian late middle permian on the international time scale remarkably the majority of specimens are complete quite unlike those from most russian permo triassic red bed localities commonest of all are 1 2 metre long pareiasaur skeletons of the genus deltavjatia preserved in hollows on top of a consolidated palaeosol horizon previous taphonomic scenarios in the russian literature have included suggestions that the animals were overwhelmed beneath sand dunes mired in soft fluviatile sediments caught at the bottom of a deep lake trapped in burrows or dumped in fluviatile scours it is probable that the pareiasaurs were searching for water in a time of catastrophic aridification and died weakened in shallow hollows in this case we also emphasise the importance of floodplain microtopography in creating the sedimentary conditions necessary for the preservation of exceptional vertebrate assemblages in a slowly aggrading fluviolacustrine setting

rapid phytolith extraction for analysis of phytolith concentrations and assemblages during an excavation an application at tell es safi gath israel abstract a rapid phytolith extraction procedure is described that allows phytolith concentrations and morphotype assemblages to be analyzed within hours this procedure enables the results of these analyses to be used during an archaeological excavation in order to better understand how plants were used the new procedure was tested using a standard phytolith extract and two experimental phytolith sediment blends and found to be both accurate and precise the reliability of partial slide counting was evaluated and found to be as accurate and precise as existing phytolith quantification methods the new extraction and counting procedures were applied to an archaeological site tell es safi gath israel the results demonstrate how information on phytolith concentrations in sediments that are available from one day to the next can be used during an excavation to more effectively document the local features of interest and obtain better information

evidence for the repeated use of a central hearth at middle pleistocene 300 ky ago qesem cave israel abstract a major debate in prehistory revolves around the time and place of the earliest habitual use of fire and the hominin species responsible for it here we present a newly discovered hearth at qesem cave israel that was repeatedly used and was the focus of hearth centered human activities as early as three hundred thousand years ago the hearth identified based on mineralogical and microscopic criteria contains two superimposed use cycles each composed of shorter episodes possibly the earliest superimposed hearth securely identified to date the hearth covers ca 4 m 2 in area making it a uniquely large hearth in comparison to any contemporaneous hearth identified thus far possibly indicating it has been used by a relatively large group of people in addition the hearth is located in the center of the cave and is associated with butchered animal remains and a dense flint assemblage the flint assemblage indicates spatially differentiated meat cutting and hide working activity areas the central location of the hearth within the cave and the activities associated with it may reflect an embedded perception of space organization of the qesem cave inhabitants since fire was habitually used throughout the 420 200 ky sequence of qesem cave where preservation conditions are alike throughout we suggest that this unique hearth may reflect a development in nature and most probably in the intensity of fire use in qesem cave from ca 300 ka ago onwards

microbial mats in the terrestrial lower triassic of north china and implications for the permian triassic mass extinction abstract evidence for microbial mats has been reported repeatedly from marine lower triassic rocks but scarcely mentioned in post mass extinction terrestrial facies here we report from the terrestrial lower triassic liujiagou formation in north china the presence of five kinds of microbially induced sedimentary structures miss or sedimentary surface textures including old elephant skin textures wrinkle structures palimpsest ripples manchuriophycus structures and sand cracks terrestrial microbial communities that produced these miss adapted not only to periodically desiccated conditions but also to the storm dominated palaeoenvironments in the liujiagou formation the permian triassic mass extinction ptme in north china is marked by the die off of plants disappearance of coal beds extinction of pareiasaurs among tetrapods decreased bioturbation levels and a dramatic change of sedimentary systems through the sunjiagou formation the sunjiagou formation recorded the turnover from an ever wet to a progressively drier and hotter climate and it spans the ptme in north china following this mass extinction miss became much more common and widespread suggesting that the mass extinction provided favourable biological and environmental conditions for the development of the miss in terrestrial ecosystems especially the decreased bioturbation intensity and grazing pressure associated with increased temperature and climatic drying in the upper part of the liujiagou formation and overlying heshanggou formation the disappearance of miss coupled with increased bioturbation might indicate an improvement of terrestrial ecosystems and the beginning of the triassic biotic recovery however as the investigation of miss in space and time through the geological record is in its early stages further geobiologic and geochemical studies as well as high precision isotopic dating from permian triassic terrestrial successions are needed to fully reveal the timing and pattern of the early triassic terrestrial ecosystem reconstruction

injection of fresh river water into a saline floodplain aquifer in an attempt to improve the condition of river red gum eucalyptus camaldulensis dehnh the delivery of environmental flows to riverine floodplains is often constrained by water scarcity and infrastructure this means that areas of floodplain are unable to receive environmental water through mechanisms like dam release weir pool surcharge and artificial flooding of low lying areas this study trials aquifer injection as a method of providing environmental flows to areas of stressed river red gum eucalyptus camaldulensis on the floodplain of the lower river murray the objective was to inject fresh river water at the top of the saline alluvial aquifer to reduce root zone salinity and improve the condition of e camaldulensis localized radial freshening of 10 m was observed at each of the five injection wells when 4 9 ml megalitres of river water was injected into the aquifer over 45 days injection was abandoned after 45 days due to aquifer and well clogging and increases in groundwater head which caused four of the five wells to breach the confining clay layer the trial resulted in localized and short lived freshening of the groundwater which reduced salinity in the associated capillary fringe this did not result in an improvement in the tree condition as they lay beyond the lateral extent of the freshening and were unable to access the water solutions to technical issues such as aquifer clogging and well breaching as well as a need to increase the lateral extent of freshening are required before shallow aquifer injection can be recommended as a method of delivering environmental flows copyright 2009 john wiley sons ltd

latest permian to middle triassic cyclo magnetostratigraphy from the central european basin germany implications for the geomagnetic polarity timescale in central germany the about 1 km thick mainly clastic germanic lower triassic buntsandstein consists of about 60 sedimentary cycles which are considered to reflect variability in precipitation within the epicontinental central european basin most probably due to solar induced short eccentricity cycles they provide a high resolution cyclostratigraphic framework that constitutes the base for creating a composite geomagnetic polarity record in which this paper presents a middle buntsandstein to lowermost muschelkalk magnetostratigraphy obtained from 6 outcrops and 2 wells where a total of 471 samples was collected combined with recently established records a well documented magnetostratigraphy for the upper zechstein to lowermost muschelkalk latest permian to middle triassic of central germany has been constructed encompassing an overall stratigraphic thickness of about 1 3 km and 22 magnetozones derived from about 2050 paleomagnetic samples along with available biostratigraphy this multi disciplinary study facilitates detailed links to the marine realm in order to directly refer biostratigraphically calibrated triassic stage boundaries as well as radioisotopic ages to the buntsandstein cyclostratigraphy and conversely to contribute to calibrating the geologic timescale 2007 elsevier b v all rights reserved

geochemical and flow modelling as tools in monitoring managed aquifer recharge abstract due to a growing world population and the effects of anthropogenic climate change access to clean water is a growing global concern managed aquifer recharge mar is a method that can help society s response to this increasing demand for pure water in mar the groundwater resources are replenished and the quality of the recharged surface water is improved through effects such as the removal of organic matter this removal occurs through mechanisms such as microbial decomposition which can be monitored by studying the isotopic composition of dissolved inorganic carbon dic nevertheless the monitoring can be difficult when there are other factors like dissolving calcite affecting the isotopic composition of dic the aims of this study were to establish a method for monitoring the decomposition of organic matter dissolved organic carbon doc in cases where calcite dissolution adds another component to the dic pool and to use this method to monitor the beginning and amount of doc decomposition on a mar site at virttaankangas southwestern finland to achieve this we calculated the mean residence times of infiltrated water in the aquifer and the fractions of this water reaching observation wells we conducted geochemical modelling using phreeqc to estimate the amount of doc decomposition and the mineral reactions affecting the quality of the water

early triassic conchostracans crustacea branchiopoda from the terrestrial permian triassic boundary sections in the moscow syncline abstract the permian triassic boundary marks the greatest mass extinction in earth s history in order to understand the real causes of this severe extinction event multidisciplinary investigations around the globe are required here the terrestrial permian triassic boundary sections in the vladimir region central russia were sampled bed by bed for conchostracan study in the early triassic intervals the following taxa were recognized for the first time cornia germari beyrich 1857 euestheria gutta lutkevitch 1937 magniestheria mangaliensis jones 1862 palaeolimnadiopsis vilujensis varentsov 1955 and rossolimnadiopsis novozhilov 1958 the wide distribution of c germari demonstrates their high value for biostratigraphy since this species was also reported from the lower buntsandstein subgroup in the germanic basin as well as from early triassic deposits in hungary greenland and siberia the assumption of an early triassic age of the studied sections is also supported by associated tupilakosaurus bone fragments which point to the tupilakosaurus wetlugensis zone in the earliest triassic

a review of the guadalupian middle permian global tetrapod fossil record abstract until recently the guadalupian middle permian tetrapod fossil record was known almost exclusively from the karoo basin of south africa and the cis urals region of russia limiting progress towards understanding global middle permian tetrapod biogeography recent work has shed light on several new or under explored guadalupian tetrapod bearing basins and we review and synthesize these findings here we also review changes to the international and russian guadalupian time scales and present updated biostratigraphic correlations for all of the basins discussed in general there are few tetrapod genera or species shared between mid permian basins a pattern starkly different from the generic cosmopolitanism seen during lopingian late permian times the parana basin of brazil has produced a unique fauna that combines typical south african and russian clades suggesting a pathway for faunal interchange between the northern and southern portions of pangea the dashankou fauna of china yields basal therapsids that suggest a northern pangean origin for this clade the sundyr assemblage of russia preserves a latest guadalupian fauna that seems to illustrate patterns of faunal turnover across the guadalupian lopingian boundary continued field work in the lesser known mid permian strata will facilitate testing hypotheses about the transition between early and middle permian faunas the end guadalupian extinction event pangean tetrapod biogeography and the origins of widespread late permian clades

the first half of tetrapod evolution sampling proxies and fossil record quality abstract the first half of tetrapod evolution witnessed substantial diversification of the clade and several major turnovers and mass extinctions in the time since their origin more than 380 myr ago to the beginning of the middle jurassic 175 myr ago tetrapods apparently diversified fitfully reaching their highest level in the middle permian and showing major diversity declines in the late moscovian early permian wordian lower wuchiapingian end permian lower anisian lower ladinian late triassic lower norian to upper rhaetian end triassic and early jurassic upper sinemurian lower pliensbachian of these diversity drops only the end permian and end triassic correspond to recognised mass extinctions and the late moscovian and early norian drops to other previously identified environmental crises the remainder could be real extinction or turnover events or partially artefacts of biased sampling there are strong correlations between formation counts and tetrapod palaeodiversity suggesting a sampling component in the raw data but the covariation is not uniform through the whole time span being poor from devonian to middle permian and better from late permian to early jurassic there is limited evidence for covariation between the tetrapod palaeodiversity time series and other putative sampling metrics such as specimen completeness numbers of publications map areas gap bounded sedimentary units rock volumes formations and fossil collections modelling by multiple correlations shows that formation count is generally the best explanatory model either on its own or combined with other sampling time series however it is not clear that formation count is independent of the palaeodiversity time series because rises and falls in both signals could reflect variations in original diversity or in preservation or in sampling

has the utility of dicynodon for late permian terrestrial biostratigraphy been overstated dicynodont therapsids have long played an important role in global late permian and triassic biostratigraphy including recent studies of the effects of the extinction at the permian triassic boundary on terrestrial vertebrates in particular the last appearance of the late permian taxon dicynodon has been used to mark the permian triassic boundary in the karoo basin of south africa and to correlate this basin with others in africa europe and asia these practices assume that the named taxon dicynodon corresponds to a biologically real entity here we present the results of a phylogenetic analysis that suggests that this is not the case our analysis includes two species referred to dicynodon that occur only in russia and the type species that occurs in southern africa our results suggest that these three species do not form a clade to the exclusion of all other dicynodonts the alternative hypothesis of a monophyletic dicynodon is more weakly supported although preliminary our analysis challenges the use of dicynodon for biostratigraphic correlations between russia and south africa and we urge caution in using this taxon to correlate other widely separated basins this study also emphasizes that without phylogenetic information there is no guarantee that named taxa represent biologically real entities and the uncritical use of named taxa can easily lead to spurious biostratigraphic correlations

the 9th century bce destruction layer at tell es safi gath israel integrating macro and microarchaeology abstract destruction events in multi period sites are valuable marker horizons that represent time synchronous events across the site and sometimes between sites destruction layers often preserve rich finds that provide insights into site use here we use both macro and microarchaeological methods to study a destruction event from the late 9th century at tell es safi gath in israel a major conflagration at this specific location resulted in the consolidation of parts of the roof construction materials thus enabling us to differentiate between roof walls and floor materials we could reconstruct the events which lead to the formation of an approximately 80 cm thick layer the base of this layer that overlies the floor surface is a thin charred organic material rich ash layer as the clays in this layer were not altered by heat and the ceramics still have preserved residues we conclude that the ash was produced elsewhere and was redistributed to this location ceramics that are associated with burnt roof sediments do not have preserved residues we also estimate the time that each of the accumulation events might have taken and conclude that this accumulation occurred over decades the architecture and artifacts found within and beneath the destruction do not allow us to unequivocally identify the function of this area prior to destruction we do however identify an unusual bin and associated stone pavement and a corner rich in artifacts phytoliths and charred organic material we also show that a wall was built of fired mud bricks a most unusual occurrence for this time period in the levant this study demonstrates well the usefulness of an integrated macro and microarchaeological approach to understanding the archaeological record as well as the benefits of using an on site laboratory

fungus plant interaction in a thuringian late permian dadoxylon sp in the se iberian ranges eastern spain abstract this report describes an anatomical and taphonomical study of a large exceptionally well preserved late permian dadoxylon sp trunk the specimen found in siliciclastic red bed sediments of fluvial origin of the landete formation iberian ranges eastern spain includes the first described fungus plant interaction for this time interval in europe this finding is all the more significant since a fungi enriched layer recently reported in sediments of different continents corresponding to the end of the permian has been related to a world wide crisis whereby fungi were responsible for the breakdown of massive amounts of vegetation already suffered by a possible catastrophic event or events leading to a global drop in photosynthesis the well known humid temperate climatic conditions of the late permian sediments and the sedimentary environment represented by the landete formation would have favoured the proliferation of fungi which was probably unaffected by any other significant biotic activity fungal activity is likely to have started soon after the fall of the plants indicated by the good preservation state of areas of the trunk unaffected by the fungal infection later diagenesis suggests different fluid migration stages clearly conditioned by the original anatomical characteristics of the trunk and the results of fungal activity physical signs left by the enzyme action of wood decay fungi can be recognised in the fossilised wood using this information and sedimentological data we reconstructed the taphonomic processes incurred by the specimen including both biostratinomic and diagenetic stages ullmania sp and pollen grains such as lueckisporites and nuscoisporites dulhuntyi produced by species of late permian walchiaceae or ullmanniaceae that did not cross the permian triassic boundary were also found in levels stratigraphically below the fossil specimen none occurred above the trunk site this flora and fungal activity could relate this level of iberian permian sediments to the level or one of the levels associated with the worldwide late permian crisis and fungal proliferation

nucleation of aragonite upon carbonation of calcium oxide and calcium hydroxide at ambient temperatures and pressures a new indicator of fire related human activities wood ash found at archaeological sites is the most direct evidence of the presence of combustion features the preservation of wood ash within archaeological deposits is often poor due to diagenetic processes and therefore its identification requires the use of spectroscopic methods ftir spectrometry is able to detect the main calcite component of wood ash unless this is mixed with other calcitic phases of geologic origin using ftir spectrometry we identified non biogenic aragonite in archaeological heat altered sediments and lime plasters the presence of aragonite in such conditions is unusual as it is unlikely to crystallize at ambient temperatures and pressures or in absence of mg the experimental conditions which favor the nucleation of this aragonite phase were investigated with ftir spectrometry xrpd and sem imaging of modern lime plaster and quicklime samples prepared in the laboratory using different calcium carbonate starting materials we show that aragonite forms at ambient temperatures and pressures upon carbonation of calcium oxide and calcium hydroxide together with calcite and its nucleation and growth are influenced by environmental parameters such as carbon dioxide partial pressure relative humidity and temperature this pyrogenic aragonite is a reliable indicator for calcareous materials exposed to temperatures above 600 c and therefore it can be used to determine the presence of heat altered sediments and ash in the absence of structured combustion features this mineral phase could have applications in radiocarbon dating as well

a geomagnetic polarity timescale for the permian calibrated to stage boundaries the reverse polarity kiaman superchron has strong evidence for at least three or prob ably four normal magnetochrons during the early permian normal magnetochrons are during the early asselian base ci1r 1n at 297 94 0 33 ma late artinskian ci2n at 281 24 2 3 ma mid kungurian ci3n at 275 86 2 0 ma and roadian ci3r an at 269 54 1 6 ma the mixed polarity illawarra superchron begins in the early wordian at 266 66 0 76 ma the wordian capitanian interval is biased to normal polarity but the basal wuchiapingian begins the beginning of a significant reverse polarity magnetochron lp0r with an overlying mixed polarity interval through the later lopingian no significant magnetostratigraphic data gaps exist in the permian geomagnetic polarity record the early cisuralian magnetochrons are calibrated to a succession of fusulinid zones the later cisuralian and guadalupian to a conodont and fusulinid biostratigraphy and lopingian magnetochrons to conodont zonations age calibration of the magnetochrons is obtained through a bayesian approach using 35 radiometric dates and 95 confidence intervals on the ages and chron durations are obtained the dating control points are most numerous in the gzhelian asselian wordian and changhsingian intervals this significant advance should provide a framework for better correlation and dating of the marine and non marine permian

a comparison of the geochemical response to different managed aquifer recharge operations for injection of urban stormwater in a carbonate aquifer abstract managed aquifer recharge mar is increasingly being considered as a means of reusing urban stormwater and wastewater to supplement the available water resources subsurface storage is advantageous as it does not impact on the area available for urban development while the aquifer also provides natural treatment however subsurface storage can also have deleterious effects on the recovered water quality through water rock interactions which can also impact on the integrity of the aquifer matrix a recent investigation into the potential for stormwater recycling via aquifer storage transfer and recovery astr in a carbonate aquifer is used to determine the important hydrogeochemical processes that impact on the recovered water quality an extensive period of aquifer flushing allows observation of water quality changes under two operating scenarios 1 separate wells for injection and recovery representing astr and 2 a single well for injection and recovery representing aquifer storage and recovery asr calcite dissolution produces the dominant inorganic chemical change to the quality of stormwater following storage in the carbonate aquifer independent of the mode of mar operation astr or asr the magnitude of calcite dissolution in response to the injection of urban stormwater exceeds that previously reported within the same aquifer using both stormwater and reclaimed wastewater while some dissolution is induced in response to redox processes the primary influence on dissolution is the reactivity of the source water itself as indicated by the sub saturation with respect to calcite cation exchange is evident through the astr mode of operation producing a marginal increase in the na concentration during freshening of the storage zone this increase in na concentration is not evident in the asr mode as cation exchange is limited to the initial pore flushes of the storage zone aquifer storage provides some treatment through nutrient removal mainly through removal of 35 of the dissolved organic c doc doc removal is greatest when the mar operation involves separate injection and recovery wells as astr allows enhanced removal by sorption asr can lead to nutrient recycling around the injection well which can produce water quality that is atypical of the quality in the bulk of the storage zone water recovered from asr shows some removal of doc through microbial oxidation coincident with removal of o2 from the source water which is considered to be a sustainable process during subsurface treatment during astr enhanced doc removal is attributed to adsorption but as with cation exchange this removal may be limited to the initial period of aquifer conditioning oxidation of pyrite is evident during the initial stages of injection until the pool of reactive pyrite within the storage zone is consumed affecting the quality of water recovered via the astr mode only

disruption of playa lacustrine depositional systems at the permo triassic boundary evidence from vyazniki and gorokhovets on the russian platform abstract permo triassic sections at vyazniki and gorokhovets provide evidence on terrestrial events at or close to the permo triassic boundary the time of the largest ever mass extinction the sedimentary succession records the overrun of a muddy playa lacustrine depositional system by major channel belts transporting sand grade sediments biostratigraphy of sections at vyazniki and gorokhovets zhukov ravine shows that this event occurred either at the very end of the permian or 8 m above in the sections the timing and nature of this event which records increased sediment flux from the ural mountains is closely comparable with that from the southern uralian foreland basin the vyazniki and gorokhovets sections are 800 km from the mountain front and in a separate depositional basin which strengthens the case that increased sediment flux from the urals at the permo triassic boundary is related to devegetation of upland catchments increasing sediment yield and a switch toward low frequency but high magnitude discharge events increasing sediment delivery the interbedding of fluvial and aeolian deposits provides further evidence for climatic instability and extremes in the early triassic supplementary material detailed reports on the ostracodes and fossil fish remains from the zhukov ravine sections are available at http www geolsoc org uk sup18402

formation processes through archaeobotanical remains the case of the bronze age levels in el mirador cave sierra de atapuerca spain el mirador site has a sequence formed by burnt dung resulting from pastoral activities during the bronze age and the neolithic period because there is a high sediment variation in the profile facies descriptions were used to guide the archaeologists in their work paleobotanical and mineralogical analyses were used to describe and understand the formation of the facies from the mir 4 level furthermore the paleobotanical results serve to reconstruct the landscape in atapuerca during the bronze age most seeds recovered are from triticum aestivum durum but other cereals and also leguminoseae and fruits have been identified charcoal analysis has yielded mainly deciduous and evergreen quercus pollen analysis has revealed a low arboreal cover with pinus quercus and riverside trees most of the pollen record corresponds to herbs such as poaceae and asteraceae all these results indicate a mosaic of different biota with forest pastureland and cultivated fields near the site most of the phytoliths come from the leaves and stems of festucoid grasses however there are some differences in the phytolith type and number the amount of faecal spherulites the mineralogical composition and the percentage of multicellular structures that indicate that not all the facies in the site have been formed in the same way thus the work carried out has demonstrated that some facies are related more to agricultural activities than to pastoralism activities and that other facies have been affected by incipient diagenetic processes

mixed continental marine biotas following the permian triassic mass extinction in south and north china abstract correlation between marine and continental permian triassic p tr strata is crucial for full understanding of the nature of this global extinction event but it has proved difficult to achieve here we show that two sections in south china and north china record similar mixed continental marine biota in the post extinction stratigraphic interval including conchostracans plants insects marine bivalves and lingulid brachiopods in addition the continental p tr mass extinction was represented by a sharp decrease in the diversity and abundance of the gigantopteris flora in south china but eliminated the palaeozoic type conifer flora and herbivorous pareiasaurs in north china these mixed continental marine biota provide the biological evidence for stratigraphic correlation between marine and continental p tr transitional beds in south china and north china especially the co occurrence of the pteria towapteria eumorphotis bivalve assemblage and the euestheria gutta bearing conchostracan fauna or euestheria gutta magniestheria mangaliensis palaeolimnadiopsis vilujensis conchostracan assemblage we propose that these specific marine bivalve and continental conchostracan assemblages could be considered as markers of p tr transitional beds in marine continental siliciclastic settings

late permian tatarian fluvio lacustrine successions in nw anatolia zonguldak terrane turkey palaeogeographic implications late permian fluvio lacustrine successions of the cakraz formation in the zonguldak terrane between the regions of akcakoca and eregli were investigated in order to describe the litho and biostratigraphic properties and explain the depositional environment the studied succession with black dark grey to greenish grey shales siltstones and limestones is named the alapli member to distinguish it from the classical red clastic successions which are tentatively named the eregli member of the cakraz formation the organic rich black shales mudstones and limestones of the alapli member yielded palynological assemblages suggesting a lopingian tatarian age the lack of any marine macro or microfossils the fine grained character of the lithofacies with abundant plant material and the association of poorly sorted conglomerates in the middle part of the succession indicate possible deposition in a broad range of fluvial and lacustrine environments successions of similar age and depositional environment are known from the east european variscan belt in bulgaria and romania common successions were also developed in actively extending shallow marine platforms on the nw palaeotethyan margin at the end of the permian period

global time scale and regional stratigraphic reference scales of central and west europe east europe tethys south china and north america as used in the devonian carboniferous permian correlation chart 2003 dcp 2003 the boundaries of the devonian carboniferous and permian stages of the global stratigraphic reference scale abbreviated to global stratigraphic scale gss are described in relation to the biostratigraphic and or lithostratigraphic units of the regional stratigraphic reference scales abbreviated to regional stratigraphic scales rss of central and west europe east europe tethys south china eastern tethys and north america in their type regions the boundaries of gss units rarely coincide with those of homonymous rss units moreover the definitions of some rss units have changed several times over the last decades and subsequent misunderstanding of the stratigraphical significance of these changes has often introduced errors into proposed global correlation charts the stratigraphic framework proposed in our global devonian carboniferous permian correlation chart 2003 dcp 2003 devonian carboniferous permian correlation chart 2003 menning m schneider j w alekseev a s amon e o becker g von bitter p h boardman d r bogoslovskaya m braun a brocke r chernykh v chuvashov b i clayton g dusar m davydov v i dybova jachowicz s forke h c gibling m gilmour e h goretzki j grunt t a hance l heckel p h izokh n g jansen u jin y g jones p kading k ch kerp h kiersnowski h klets a klug ch korn d kossovaya o kotlyar g v kozur h w laveine j p martens th nemyrovska t l nigmadganov a l paech h j peryt t m rohn r roscher m rubidge b schiappa t a schindler e skompski s ueno k utting j vdovenko m v villa e voigt s wahlman g p wardlaw b r warrington g weddige k werneburg r weyer d wilde v winkler prins c f work d m 2004 abschlusskolloquium dfg schwerpunktprogramm 1054 evolution des systems erde wahrend des jungeren palaozoikums im spiegel der sedimentgeochemie abstracts univ erlangen germany 2004 p 43 herein abbreviated to dcp 2003 and cited as dcp 2003 in references is an attempt to reduce these errors the dcp 2003 is the stratigraphic base for project 1054 of the deutsche forschungsgemeinschaft dfg the evolution of the late palaeozoic in the light of sedimentary geochemistry this composite time scale has been carefully balanced as far as data allows to remove unnecessary artificial compression and expansion of time intervals biozonations and depositional events the ages selected in dcp 2003 are markedly different to those in the geologic time scale 1989 gts 1989 harland w b armstrong r l cox a v craig l e smith a g smith d g 1990 a geologic time scale 1989 cambridge univ press cambridge harland w b armstrong r l cox a v craig l e smith a g smith d g 1990 a geologic time scale 1989 cambridge univ press cambridge pp 1 263 and in gradstein and ogg gradstein f m ogg j 1996 a phanerozoic time scale episodes 19 1 2 3 4 insert whereas they are closer to those of the geologic time scale 2004 gts 2004 gradstein f m ogg j g smith a g 2004 a geologic time scale 2004 cambridge univ press cambridge pp 1 589 mostly the ages are rounded to the nearest 0 5 ma in order to avoid estimates of questionable accuracy whereas ages of 0 1 ma in the gts 2004 and their error bars of 0 4 ma to 2 8 ma for the devonian to permian stage boundaries suggest an improved accuracy in contrast in the dcp 2003 questionable ages and positions of stratigraphic boundaries are marked by arrows c 2006 elsevier b v all rights reserved

modeling of carbon cycling and biogeochemical changes during injection and recovery of reclaimed water at bolivar south australia 1 managed aquifer recharge is an increasingly popular technique to secure and enhance water supplies among a range of recharging techniques single well aquifer storage and recovery asr is becoming a common option to either augment drinking water supplies or facilitate reuse of reclaimed water for the present study a conceptual biogeochemical model for reclaimed water asr was developed and incorporated into an existing reactive multicomponent transport model the conceptual and numerical model for carbon cycling includes various forms of organic and inorganic carbon and several reactive processes that transfer carbon within and across different phases the major geochemical processes considered in the model were microbially mediated redox reactions driven by the mineralization of organic carbon mineral dissolution precipitation and ion exchange the numerical model was tested and applied for the analysis of observed data collected during an asr field experiment at bolivar south australia the model simulation of this experiment provides a consistent interpretation of the observed hydrochemical changes the results suggest that during the storage phase dynamic changes in bacterial mass have a significant influence on the local geochemistry in the vicinity of the injection extraction well farther away from the injection extraction well breakthrough of cations is shown to be strongly affected by exchange reactions and in the case of calcium by calcite dissolution

geochemical and organic carbon isotope studies across the continental permo triassic boundary of raniganj basin eastern india abstract organic carbon isotope and geochemical changes across a continental interior permo triassic boundary section from the raniganj basin india indicate a 9 drop in organic carbon 13c in the early triassic and synchroneity of this event throughout the pangea the study demands a common causative mechanism for the perturbation of the global carbon reservoir and not a combination of multiple causes a global sea level fall and oxidation of marine gas hydrates possibly increased the 12co2 input in the ocean atmosphere system which caused a climatic shift from humid to warm semi arid type and consequent extinction of land plants simultaneous increase in erosion from near barren lands change in the erosional base level and provenance deposited the boundary sandstone with positive europium anomaly and debris flow type matrix rich conglomerate no extraterrestrial source therefore is needed to explain this eu anomaly the response of the terrestrial plant community to this perturbation of the carbon reservoir was however sluggish and the 13c drop took place slowly being maximal in the early triassic only

reconstructions of the continents around the north atlantic at about the 60th parallel abstract late carboniferous early tertiary apparent polar wander apw paths 300 40 ma for north america and europe have been tested in various reconstructions these paths demonstrate that the 500 fathom bullard et al fit is excellent from late carboniferous to late triassic times but the continental configuration in northern pangea changed systematically between the late triassic ca 214 ma and the mid jurassic ca 170 ma due to pre drift extension best fit north atlantic reconstructions minimize differences in the late carboniferous early jurassic and late cretaceous tertiary segments of the apw paths but an enigmatic difference exists in the paths for most of the jurassic whereas for the early cretaceous the data from europe are nearly non existent greenland s position is problematic in a bullard et al fit because of a late triassic early jurassic regime of compression 300 km that would be inherently required for the norwegian shelf and the barents sea but which is geologically not defensible we suggest a radically new fit for greenland in between europe and north america in the early mesozoic this fit keeps greenland locked to europe for the late paleozoic early mesozoic and maintains a reconstruction that better complies with the offshore geological history of the norwegian shelf and the barents sea pre drift a24 extension amounted to approximately 450 km on the mid norwegian shelf but with peak extension in the late cretaceous

catastrophic soil erosion during the end permian biotic crisis organic geochemical analyses of sedimentary organic matter from a marine permian triassic transition sequence in northeastern italy reveal a significant influx of land derived diagenetic products of polysaccharides this unique event reflects massive soil erosion resulting from destruction of land vegetation due to volcanogenic disturbance of atmospheric chemistry the excessive supply of soil materials to the oceans provides a direct link between terrestrial and marine ecological crises suggesting that ecosystem collapse on land could have contributed to the end permian marine extinctions

late permian palaeomagnetic data east and west of the urals summary we studied upper permian redbeds from two areas one between the urals and the volga river in the southeastern part of baltica and the other in north kazakhstan within the ural mongol belt which are about 900 km apart a limited collection of lower middle triassic volcanics from north kazakhstan was also studied a high temperature component that shows rectilinear decay to the origin was isolated from most samples of all three collections for the late permian of north kazakhstan the area mean direction of this component is d 224 3 i 56 8 k 161 95 2 7 n 18 sites palaeopole at 53 4 n 161 3 e the fold test is positive the triassic result d 55 9 i 69 1 k 208 95 4 2 n 7 sites pole at 57 0 n 134 1 e is confirmed by a positive reversal test the corresponding palaeomagnetic poles from north kazakhstan show good agreement with the apwp for baltica thus indicating no substantial motion between the two areas that are separated by the urals our new mean late permian direction for se baltica d 42 2 i 39 2 k 94 95 3 5 n 17 sites palaeopole at 45 6 n 170 2 e is confirmed as near primary by a positive tilt test and the presence of dual polarity directions the corresponding pole also falls on the apwp of baltica but is far sided with respect to the coeval reference poles as the observed mean inclination is shallower than expected by 13 4 in principle lower than expected inclinations may be attributed to one or more of the following causes relative tectonic displacements quadrupole and octupole terms in the geomagnetic field higher order harmonics incl secular variation of the same field random scatter non removed overprints or inclination error during remanence acquisition and or diagenetic compaction our analysis shows that most mechanisms from the above list cannot explain the observed pattern leaving as the most likely option that it must be accounted for by inclination shallowing comparison with selected coeval results from eastern baltica all within russia shows that all of them are biased in the same way this implies that they cannot be used for analysis of geomagnetic field characteristics such as non dipole contributions without a more adequate knowledge of the required correction for inclination shallowing

arsenic mobility and impact on recovered water quality during aquifer storage and recovery using reclaimed water in a carbonate aquifer abstract arsenic release from aquifers can be a major issue for aquifer storage and recovery asr schemes and understanding the processes that release and attenuate as during asr is the first step towards managing this issue this study utilised the first and fourth cycles of a full scale field trial to examine the fate of as within the injectant plume during all stages of the asr cycle and the resultant water quality the average recovered as concentration was greater than the source concentration by 0 19 mol l 14 g as l in cycle 1 and by 0 34 mol l 25 g as l in cycle 4 indicating that as was being released from the aquifer sediments during asr and the extent of as mobilisation did not decline with subsequent cycles in the injection phase as mobilisation due to oxidation of reduced minerals was limited to an oxic zone in close proximity to the asr well while desorption from fe oxyhydroxide or oxide surfaces by injected p occurred further in the near well zone 0 4 m from the asr well with further aquifer passage during injection and greater availability of sorption sites there was evidence of attenuation via adsorption to fe oxyhydroxides which reduced concentrations on the outer fringes of the injectant plume during the period of aquifer storage microbial activity resulting from the injection of organic matter resulted in increased as mobility due to reductive fe oxyhydroxide dissolution and the subsequent loss of sorption sites and partial reduction of as v to the more mobile as iii a reduced zone directly around the asr well produced the greatest as concentration and illustrated the importance of fe oxyhydroxides for controlling as concentrations given the small spatial extent of this zone this process had little effect on the overall recovered water quality

a simple preparation technique for the study of opal phytoliths from archaeological and quaternary sediments abstract this note describes a simple and inexpensive method for the extraction and counting of opal phytoliths from archaeological and quaternary sediments

permian tetrapod extinction events abstract four substantial tetrapod extinctions have been identified during the permian but only one of these is an apparent mass extinction analyses of global compilations of the family level diversity of permian tetrapods have been confounded by incorrect and compiled correlations instead analyzing diversity patterns at the genus level in best sections identifies only one apparent mass extinction of permian tetrapods much evolutionary turnover took place among tetrapods during the latter part of the early permian and had been identified as a single mass extinction at the artinskian kungurian boundary however the only stratigraphically dense tetrapod record of the late early permian from the southwestern usa indicates a succession of extinctions spread out from redtankian through littlecrontonian kungurian time not a single mass extinction olson s gap remains a hiatus in the global record of permian tetrapods equivalent to part of the kungurian roadian across the gap eupelycosaur dominated assemblages were replaced by therapsid dominated assemblages but the claim that this is associated with a mass extinction olson s extinction has been based on compressing all of the extinctions of the redtankian littlecrotonian and olson s gap into one event recognition of olson s gap does not preclude the possibility of an extinction at the early middle permian boundary olson s extinction however the gap in the tetrapod fossil record makes it impossible to establish the magnitude precise timing and structure of the extinctions that took place across olson s gap the only permian mass extinction of tetrapods is the dinocephalian extinction event during the gamkan near the end of the guadalupian which saw the total extinction of dinocephalians and major diversity drop in therocephalians in the karoo basin of south africa this extinction is the loss of at least 64 of generic diversity the changeover from dinocephalian assemblages to assemblages without dinocephalians in other parts of permian pangea suggests that the dinocephalian extinction event was a global event the late permian tetrapod extinctions are older than the end permian marine extinctions furthermore the magnitude of the diversity drop and ecological severity of the end permian tetrapod extinctions have been greatly overstated best sections analysis in the karoo basin indicates a stepwise late permian tetrapod extinction during deposition of the upper dicynodon assemblage zone that took at least 250 000 and perhaps more than a million years the culmination of this stepwise extinction across the highest occurrence of dicynodon boundary of platbergian and lootsbergian land vertebrate faunachrons is a loss of genera not much above an inferred background extinction rate of permian tetrapod genera and resembles the amount of turnover seen at several other boundaries of permian and triassic land vertebrate faunachrons the case for coeval land plant insect and tetrapod extinctions during the permian is a weak one the first coeval marine and nonmarine mass extinctions of the phanerozoic were likely the end guadalupian extinction climate change notably greenhouse climates may have driven permian tetrapod extinctions but that hypothesized relationship needs better documentation

the timing and pattern of biotic recovery following the end permian mass extinction the aftermath of the great end permian period mass extinction 252 myr ago shows how life can recover from the loss of 90 species globally the crisis was triggered by a number of physical environmental shocks global warming acid rain ocean acidification and ocean anoxia and some of these were repeated over the next 5 6 myr ammonoids and some other groups diversified rapidly within 1 3 myr but extinctions continued through the early triassic period triassic ecosystems were rebuilt stepwise from low to high trophic levels through the early to middle triassic and a stable complex ecosystem did not re emerge until the beginning of the middle triassic 8 9 myr after the crisis a positive aspect of the recovery was the emergence of entirely new groups such as marine reptiles and decapod crustaceans as well as new tetrapods on land including eventually dinosaurs the stepwise recovery of life in the triassic could have been delayed either by biotic drivers complex multispecies interactions or physical perturbations or a combination of both this is an example of the wider debate about the relative roles of intrinsic and extrinsic drivers of large scale evolution from a much more devastated planet and biota than the others with only some 10 of species surviving the epme was much harsher than the other mass extinctions during which global species diversity reduced to only about 50 of the pre extinction total 1 2 24 26 this means that the triassic recovery has two profound implications first it may show qualitative as well as quantitative differences from the other post extinction recoveries and second it can act as an exemplar of what to expect at its most extreme when global biodiversity is pushed to the brink there are obvious implications for current concerns about biodiversity loss and recovery resulting from human impacts 27 28 in the past ten years attention has focused on the sedimentary successions in south china these are enormously laterally extensive with some formations extending more than 2 000 km from the zhejiang to yunnan provinces the huge exposures length of the sections and improving dating open up the opportunity to explore physical environmental and biotic changes through the extinction and recovery times in varied marine habitats and compare these with patterns elsewhere in the world fig 1 a fine scale forensic analysis of this extraordinary time in earth s history now becomes possible the end permian mass extinction the epme killed 80 96 of marine animal species and 70 of terrestrial vertebrate species

progress problems and prospects an overview of the guadalupian series of south china and north america abstract the guadalupian epoch is marked by the formation of the pangean supercontinent global sea level change rifting and drifting of the cimmerian continents formation of large igneous provinces and dramatic biotic changes a high resolution biostratigraphic chemostratigraphic and high precision geochronologic framework of this critical transition is fundamental to understanding these events extensive studies of the latest cisuralian and guadalupian series in both south china and north america reveal the same conodont lineages but the conodont interval zones based on jinogondolella within the guadalupian series are slightly diachronous high precision u pb geochronological studies ca id tims method calibrate the base of the guadalupian series base roadian at 273 01 0 14 ma a previously reported age from an ash bed overlying the emeishan flood basalts 259 51 0 21 ma is adopted for the guadalupian lopingian boundary glb based on recently published geochronology and bayesian age modeling from the guadalupian series the base of the capitanian is constrained at 264 28 0 16 ma and the base of the wordian is interpolated to be 266 9 0 4 ma the illawarra reversal is of early middle wordian age both north america and south china possess a distinct negative 13ccarb excursion of 3 5 at the latest kungurian and early roadian lk er cie which coincides with the early stages of a significant 3rd order sea level rise the large end guadalupian 13ccarb negative excursion may have been affected by post depositional diagenesis or a warming event associated with the emeishan volcanism the 87sr 86sr ratios in both regions declined from the latest kungurian to the late capitanian but have different ratios and reveal several fluctuations in the middle guadalupian measured 18oapatite values suggest that the delaware basin was 3 4 c cooler than the eastern yangtze block analysis of a new high resolution database of marine taxa indicates only a minor pre lopingian diversity drop from 261 04 ma to 259 98 ma which coincides with the peak emeishan volcanism the widely perceived end guadalupian mass extinction in north america is evidently masked by and possibly an artefact of a stratigraphic truncation effect due to rapid lithofacies changes from limestone to laminated evaporites with the closure of the west texas basins

aquifer geochemistry at potential aquifer storage and recovery sites in coastal plain aquifers in the new york city area usa abstract the effects of injecting oxic water from the new york city nyc drinking water supply and distribution system into a nearby anoxic coastal plain aquifer for later recovery during periods of water shortage aquifer storage and recovery or asr were simulated by a 3 dimensional reactive solute transport model the cretaceous aquifer system in the nyc area of new york and new jersey usa contains pyrite goethite locally occurring siderite lignite and locally varying amounts of dissolved fe and salinity sediment from cores drilled on staten island and western long island had high extractable concentrations of fe mn and acid volatile sulfides avs plus chromium reducible sulfides crs and low concentrations of as pb cd cr cu and u similarly water samples from the lloyd aquifer cretaceous in western long island generally contained high concentrations of fe and mn and low concentrations of other trace elements such as as pb cd cr cu and u all of which were below us environmental protection agency usepa and ny maximum contaminant levels mcls in such aquifer settings asr operations can be complicated by the oxidative dissolution of pyrite low ph and high concentrations of dissolved fe in extracted water the simulated injection of buffered oxic city water into a hypothetical asr well increased the hydraulic head at the well displaced the ambient groundwater and formed a spheroid of injected water with lower concentrations of fe mn and major ions in water surrounding the asr well than in ambient water both the dissolved o 2 concentrations and the ph of water near the well generally increased in magnitude during the simulated 5 a injection phase the resultant oxidation of fe 2 and attendant precipitation of goethite during injection provided a substrate for sorption of dissolved fe during the 8 a extraction phase the baseline scenario with a low 0 001 m concentration of pyrite in aquifer sediments indicated that nearly 190 more water with acceptably low concentrations of dissolved fe could be extracted than was injected scenarios with larger amounts of pyrite in aquifer sediments generally resulted in less goethite precipitation increased acidity and increased concentrations of dissolved fe in extracted water in these pyritic scenarios the lower amounts of goethite precipitated and the lower ph during the extraction phase resulted in decreased sorption of fe 2 and a decreased amount of extractable water with acceptably low concentrations of dissolved fe 5 4 10 6 m a linear decrease in recovery efficiency with respect to dissolved fe concentrations is caused by pyrite dissolution and the associated depletion of dissolved o 2 do and increase in acidity simulations with more than 0 0037 m of pyrite which is the maximum amount dissolved in the baseline scenario had just over a 50 recovery efficiency the precipitation of ferric hydroxide minerals goethite at the well screen and a possible associated decrease in specific capacity of the asr well was not apparent during the extraction phase of asr simulations but the model does not incorporate the microbial effects and biofouling associated with ferric hydroxide precipitation the host groundwater chemistry in calcite poor cretaceous aquifers of the nyc area consists of low alkalinity and moderate to low ph the dissolution of goethite in scenarios with unbuffered injectate indicates that corrosion of the well could occur if the injectate is not buffered simulations with buffered injectate resulted in greater precipitation of goethite and lower concentrations of dissolved fe in the extracted water dissolved fe concentrations in extracted water were highest in simulations of aquifers 1 in which pyrite and siderite in the aquifer were in equilibrium and 2 in coastal areas affected by saltwater intrusion where high dissolved cation concentrations provide a greater exchange of fe 2 fex 2 results indicate that asr in pyrite bearing cretaceous aquifers of the nyc area can be a cost effective way to both store drinking water supplies and significantly reduce ambient concentrations of dissolved fe

δ13c values of carbonate nodules across the permian triassic boundary in the karoo supergroup south africa reflect a stinking sulfurous swamp not atmospheric co2 abstract paleosol macromorphology petrography and stable isotope geochemistry of carbonate nodules from permo triassic p t boundary strata of the central karoo basin south africa are presented in order to evaluate their utility as geochemical archives of permian triassic paleoatmospheric chemistry and their potential to provide a terrestrial carbon isotope chemostratigraphy for correlation with contemporaneous global marine 13 c records paleosol morphologies across p t boundary strata of the central karoo basin indicate the region was a poorly drained seasonally to continuously flooded bottomland radiaxial calcite microspar and micrite microtextures are observed in the calcite nodules associated with p t paleosol profiles micritic calcite is typical of soil carbonate that forms in well drained soils characterized by open system gaseous diffusion between the soil and global atmosphere whereas more coarsely crystalline textures and radiaxial calcite are more typical of crystallization in phreatic environments with limited gaseous diffusion between the soil and global atmosphere in this regard only those nodules composed of micritic calcite can be considered as a potentially reliable source of proxy information for paleoatmospheric 13 c values across the p t boundary the 13 c values of all carbonate nodules from two overlapping measured sections near carlton heights south africa range from 24 4 to 1 8 whereas micritic calcite nodule 13 c values range from 7 0 to 21 3 comparison of calcite 13 c values with penecontemporaneous organic matter 13 c values indicate that calcite 13 c values 13 c values rather these more negative carbonate nodule 13 c values likely reflect calcite crystallization under poorly drained swampy conditions characterized by a semi closed chemical system that evolved independently of earth s troposphere therefore previously reported negative carbon isotope shift s measured from carbonate nodules in the karoo basin p t strata do not provide a record of atmospheric 13 c and probably do not provide a viable carbon isotope stratigraphy that can be realistically correlated with global p t marine carbon isotope stratigraphies

management of residues and natural resources at san cristobal rock shelter contribution to the characterisation of chalcolithic agropastoral groups in the iberian peninsula abstract use of the space and settlement patterns at the deposit of san cristobal are characterised anthropogenic activities at the site are revealed through an interdisciplinar approach based on microstratigraphic and palaeobotanical studies correlation of micromorphological silica phytolith charcoal pollen and non pollen palynomorph analyses and calcitic pseudomorph and faecal spherulite quantification are coupled with excavation data and macroscopic observations results provide insights into livestock keeping practices at the rock shelter animal feeding strategies management of residues and occupation mode of the site they also contribute to reconstruct the formation processes of the deposits and to outline the ecological frame of the site during its use as herding facility over the chalcolithic the immediate chrono cultural context of the investigated sequence is outlined allowing discussion on the possible role of the activities at the rock shelter in the territorial organisation of local early agropastoral groups at the time of megalithism development from a methodological point of view this work shows that high resolution sedimentary contextualisation of archaeological remains is essential to build up more accurate and reliable interpretations on livestock management and the use of natural resources in prehistoric deposits it also highlights the contribution of excavation strategies adapted to the particularities of pen deposits to better understand the archaeological evidence of early pastoral practices in cave and rock shelters during fieldwork

numerical assessment of asr recharge using small diameter wells and surface basins summary aquifer storage and recovery asr methods are increasingly used to overcome the temporal imbalance between water demand and availability common asr recharge methods utilize large diameter injection wells or surface infiltration basins and trenches and can be costly to implement a new low cost asr recharge method is currently being developed this approach is based on recharge via gravity in small diameter wells installed with direct push dp technology numerical modeling is used here to assess the potential of this new approach under conditions commonly faced in field settings the primary objective is to investigate if a battery of small diameter dp wells can serve as a viable alternative to a surface basin under typical field conditions while the secondary objective is to assess which subsurface parameters have the greatest control on dp well performance simulation results indicate that gravity recharge via small diameter wells appears to have a distinct advantage over recharge via surface infiltration basins for example two 0 05 m shallow vadose zone wells with 9 m screens can recharge water at a greater rate than a 60 m 2 basin also results reveal that contrary to an infiltration basin the recharge rate in a dp well has a much stronger dependence on the horizontal component of hydraulic conductivity than on the vertical component moreover near surface layers of low hydraulic conductivity which can significantly reduce the recharge capacity of a surface basin have a relatively small impact on the recharge capacity of a well as long as a significant portion of the well screen is installed below those layers given that installation and operation costs can be low in comparison to common asr recharge methods this new approach appears to have great potential for recharging good quality water in shallow unconsolidated aquifers a field investigation has recently been initiated to follow up the findings of this simulation assessment

charred micro particles characterization in archaeological contexts identifying mixing between sediments with implications for stratigraphy abstract charred micro remains in archaeological sediments vary from large destruction layers to localized lenses and they are invaluable stratigraphic anchors when found in situ visual observations of black sediments are a good marker for primary depositions of burning events however an independent criteria is necessary to verify these sediments were not mixed with other contexts in this study a microarchaeological approach was used to quantify charred micro components in sediments from a pyrotechnological pit at qubur el walaydah allowing the assessment of their diffusion between sediments organic micro particles were purified from black lenses in situ and their surrounding sediments based on their density showing the organic fraction is composed of particles that are lighter than a density of 1 7 g ml and smaller than 1 mm3 thermal and structural characterizations show that the micro particles from black lenses are charred between 30 and 40 compared with 5 in the surrounding sediments a new method to quantify the charred micro particles was developed based on microscopy showing black lenses and hearths have between 40 000 110 000 charred micro particles per gram of sediments while their surrounding archaeological sediments have less than 20 000 these results show micro particles could be purified and characterized providing a quantifiable approach for assessing mixing between sediments based on particles concentrations one application is micro stratigraphic interpretations of primary depositions allowing portable microscopes on site to assess the mixing between sediments another application is to include the charred micro particles in the radiocarbon dating assemblage as evidence for in situ burning dating charred micro remains should be used only to solve chronological questions that do not require high resolution accuracy when cultural material and macro charred remains are not found

the origin and significance of pedogenic dolomite from the upper permian of the south urals of russia pedogenic carbonate nodules from six sections spanning the continental permian triassic boundary in the south urals russia were analysed morphological petrographic sem and xrd analyses have demonstrated that many of the latest permian palaeosols are dolomitic this dolomite forms the microcrystalline 5 16 m groundmass of the nodules later diagenetic phases represented by coarser crystalline textures were identified as calcite isotopic analysis of the microcrystalline dolomite has revealed it to be similar in isotopic composition to authigenic dolomite forming today in saline soils in alberta canada these data indicate that the dolomite found in these nodules is pedogenic and formed in equilibrium with the atmosphere upper permian pedogenic dolocretes in the studied sections are most frequent in a palaeosols that formed on palaeo highs and b in the latest permian period changhsingian which may indicate that there was an increase in seasonality and evaporation in the south urals region at this time the presence of only calcitic palaeosols in the earliest triassic may reflect a subsequent dramatic change in the basin conditions possibly relating to the permian triassic mass extinction which stopped the conditions that are necessary for dolomite formation

plio pleistocene macroplant fossil remains and phytoliths from lowermost bed ii in the eastern palaeolake margin of olduvai gorge tanzania abstract fossil macroplants and phytoliths occur in the sediments of the palaeoanthropological site of olduvai gorge northern tanzania current research on hominin land use in the basin during the plio pleistocene has a strong palaeoenvironmental emphasis on the palaeovegetation in particular the occurrence of macroplants and phytoliths at olduvai and their usefulness and reliability for palaeovegetation interpretation are assessed here for the first time modern reference collections from analogous environments have been established and used to identify the fossil taxa from the eastern palaeolake margin of lowermost bed ii as the test case for very detailed spatially and temporally constrained vegetation reconstruction fourier transform infrared spectrometry ftir analysis was used to identify the minerals of the fossil sediments modern plants produce more phytoliths than are preserved in the fossil soils but there were sufficient numbers to show diverse and changing vegetation over short time periods silicified macroplant fragments of sedge culms and dicot stems occur with phytoliths but do not always represent the same plant taxa a more complex flora was shown when using both forms of fossil plants during lowermost bed ii times at the locality of flkn monocots and dicots occurred indicating the presence of marshland and grassland after the deposition of tuff if at vek the phytoliths indicate a shift in dominance from dicots to monocots to a mixture of the two and including palms at hwkee initially palms dominated then there was a mixture of palms grasses and dicots the vegetation at mck comprised dicots monocots sedges and grasses this detailed vegetation data complements the more broad scale vegetation interpretations that have been deduced from the pollen isotopes and faunal data sets