scholarly journals Historical anthropogenic heavy metal input to the south-eastern North Sea

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-148
Author(s):  
Florian Boxberg ◽  
Sanja Asendorf ◽  
Alexander Bartholomä ◽  
Bernhard Schnetger ◽  
Willem P. de Lange ◽  
...  

Abstract The Helgoland Mud Area (HMA) in the German Bight, covering an area of approximately 500 km2, is one of a few depocentres for finer sediments in the North Sea. Radiocarbon and 210Pb analyses revealed continuous sedimentation over the last several centuries. Zinc (Zn) and lead (Pb) contents in the sediments show a distinct increase towards the youngest most sediments with the thickness of the heavy metal enriched sediments ranging from 15 to 103 cm. Stratigraphic data indicate that the onset of heavy metal enrichment is diachronous progressing north-westward over the depocentre, paralleled by a decrease in the thickness of the enriched layer. Beginning already during medieval times, the enhanced input of Zn and Pb seemingly is related to silver and zinc mining in the Harz Mountains and the Erzgebirge, well-known mining areas since the Bronze Age. Both regions are directly connected to the HMA by the Elbe and Weser rivers. Zn and Pb enrichment began in the south-eastern HMA and progressed subsequently with an average of 10 m per year north-westward, most likely triggered by variations in river discharge and by the hydrodynamic setting. Quantitative assessments of the Zn and Pb content in the sediments suggest that since the onset of enhanced Zn and Pb deposition, the anthropic Zn and Pb input in the HMA amounts to ~ 12,000 t and ~ 4000 t, respectively.

1992 ◽  
pp. 185-193
Author(s):  
R. Van Grieken ◽  
J. Injuk ◽  
P. Otten ◽  
C. Rojas ◽  
H. Van Malderen ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
F. S. Russell

1. Details are given of the types of hooks lost in tunny in the North Sea in the summer of 1933.2. Data are given on the measurements made on thirty-two large migrating fish caught in the North Sea in August and September, 1933.3. In certain body proportions the tunny measured differ from those in the G4 Group (200 to 260 cm. in length) given by Heldt for fish from Tunis and by Frade for fish from Algarve on the south coast of Portugal, while in some characters they resemble the Tunis fish and in others the Algarve fish, but all the North Sea fish were between 232 and 271 cm. in length.4. It was found that there was a tendency for fish with short second dorsal fins to have short first dorsal, anal, and caudal fins, and for those with long second dorsals to have these other three fins long.5. Measurements were made to supply data on the condition of the fish.


1866 ◽  
Vol 3 (26) ◽  
pp. 348-354 ◽  
Author(s):  
Searles V. Wood

In a paper in this Magazine, upon the structure of the Thames Valley, I endeavoured to show that instead of being, as had been asserted, a valley of similar structure to those of the Somme and Seine, and containing deposits of nearly similar order and age, the valley in which the Thames gravel was deposited possessed no outlet to what is now the North Sea, being divided from it by a range of high gravelless country; and that, in lieu of such an outlet, the valley opened, in more than one part, over what is now the bare Chalk country forming the northern boundary of the Valley of the Weald. I also endeavoured to show that all the deposits of the Thames Valley, except the peat and marsh clay, belonged to several successive stages, marking the gradual denudation of the Boulderclay, the lower Bagshot, the London Clay, and the subjacent Tertiaries, which had, at the end of the Glacial period, spread over the south-east of England in a complete order of succession: the sea into which this valley discharged occupying, what is now, the Chalk country of the Counties of Kent, Surrey, Sussex, and Hampshire, inclusive of the interval subsequently scooped out to form the Valley of the Weald: so that, not only was the latter valley newer than that of the Thames, and of the most recent of the Thames Valley deposits, except the peat and marsh clay, but that these deposits in themselves marked a long descent in time from that comparatively remote period of the Boulder-clay.


Author(s):  
J.W. Horwood ◽  
R.S. Millner

Large catches of sole (Solea solea) were made in early 1996 from the south-western North Sea. Sole suffer physiological damage in waters below 3–4 C. In February 1996 cold water of 3–4 C unusually extended from the Continental coast onto the Dogger Bank. It is likely that the increased catches were due to the consequential distribution and behaviour of the sole, making them more susceptible to capture.Exceptionally large catches of mature sole (Solea solea (L.)) were made in February 1996 by Lowestoft fishermen from the south-western North Sea. Surprisingly this was not welcome. The UK allocation of the North Sea sole is -4 % of the EU Total Allowable Catch (TAC), and fishermen are restricted nationally, and by the fishing companies, to a tightly managed ration. The Lowestoft Journal (8 March 1996) reported the suspension of a local fishing skipper for not throwing back 5000 kg of sole caught in the Silver Pits. We will show that the abnormal catches were due to exceptionally cold waters.Sole in the North Sea are at the northern extremity of their range, with sole seldom living in waters below 5°C (Horwood, 1993). In fact, North Sea sole were successfully introduced into Lake Quarun, Egypt, where they lived in temperatures in excess of 30°C (El-Zarka, 1965). Young sole migrate from their shallow inshore nursery grounds, such as the Waddensea, as winter approaches (Creutzberg & Fonds, 1971).


Author(s):  
Robert Van de Noort

Movements between different lands around the North Sea have always been taking place. While the North Sea was evolving gradually, over the millennia, following the melting of the Devensian ice sheet, close contacts across what remained of the North Sea Plain never ceased, as evidenced by near-parallel developments of the Maglemosian-type tools in southern Scandinavia and Britain (Clark 1936), and by particular practices such as the deliberate deposition of barbed points (see chapter 3). Connections across the North Sea throughout the Mesolithic and the beginning of the Neolithic would have been made easier because of the number of islands surviving within the rising sea. The polished axes from Dogger Bank and Brown Bank either represent human presence on these islands in the early Neolithic or else indicate that the existence of these islands sometime in the pre-Neolithic past was embedded in the social memory of later periods. Both possibilities emphasize the fact that the North Sea was a knowable and visited place. Movements across the North Sea took various forms: as exchange between elites from different regions of exotic or ‘prestige’ goods, and possibly of marriage partners; as trade in both luxury and bulk commodities; and in the transfer of people, in some cases as individuals such as pilgrims and missionaries, and in other cases as groups of pirates or as part of larger-scale migrations. Over time, connectedness across the North Sea changed both in nature and in intensity; this was due in no small part to changes in the nature of the craft available. An outline of the movement of goods from the Neolithic through to the end of the Middle Ages illustrates this. Contacts across the North Sea for the Neolithic and the Bronze Age are demonstrated in the long-distance exchange of exotic objects and artefacts, including Beaker pottery, jewellery, or other adornments of gold, amber, faience, jet, and tin; also copper and bronze weapons and tools, and flint daggers, arrowheads, and wrist guards (e.g. Butler, 1963; O’Connor, 1980; Bradley 1984; Clarke, Cowie, and Foxon 1985).


2004 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-25
Author(s):  
Roger Stonehouse

Located in Northumberland, 35km north of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and 3km from the North Sea, the mid-nineteenth-century East Lodge to Togston Hall was originally a simple, linear, rectangular single-storey cottage of whinstone with a dual pitch roof. It had acquired an accumulation of ugly, pebble-dashed, flat-roofed extensions to the south and was in poor condition.


2012 ◽  
Vol 69 (8) ◽  
pp. 1338-1346 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard D. M. Nash ◽  
Peter J. Wright ◽  
Iveta Matejusova ◽  
Stefan Petev Dimitrov ◽  
Martha O'Sullivan ◽  
...  

Abstract Nash, R. D. M., Wright, P. J., Matejusova, I., Dimitrov, S. P., O'Sullivan, M., Augley, J., and Höffle, H. 2012. Spawning location of Norway pout (Trisopterus esmarkii Nilsson) in the North Sea. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 69: . The northern region of the North Sea (56–62°N) was sampled in February/March 2009 for eggs and in May 2010 for larvae. To aid in the identification of Norway pout stage I eggs and distinguish them from other ‘cod-like’ eggs, a Taq-Man probe was designed for this species and used here. Stage I Norway pout egg diameters collected from the field were in the range 1.03–1.28 mm and largely overlapped with the size range determined for whiting (Merlangius merlangus). The distribution of Norway pout stage I eggs in 2009 revealed the distribution of spawning in the North Sea and showed that it was similar to the distribution of 2 + Norway pout taken during the International Bottom Trawl Surveys (IBTS) over the same period covering the whole North Sea. The larvae sampled in 2010 were largely in the same area; however, larger larvae occurred to the south-east of the survey area, suggesting advection of young stages from the principal spawning areas in the north-western North Sea to the south-east and toward the Skagerrak.


2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 387-402
Author(s):  
Anar Mirsamid Agalarzade

The paper deals with the results of excavations carried out in recent years in the Early Bronze Age kurgans in the mountainous part of the south-eastern region of Azerbaijan. It has been determined that there are several types of burial customs of this period in these small kurgans located on the Komani plateau between Kurekchi and Arvana villages of Yardimly district, on the Azerbaijan - Iran border. Although the Early Bronze Age Telmankend kurgans were excavated in the foothills of the region in the 1960s, such monuments were not excavated or even registered in the highlands. at these grave monuments, which were first discovered by us in the summer pastures in 2014, archaeological excavations began in 2018, and four kurgans were excavated here. Komani kurgans, built at an altitude of 2000 m above sea level, are important in terms of studying the burial customs of the Early Bronze Age semi-nomadic cattle-breeding population. Excavations of Komani kurgans have revealed that the high mountainous area of the south-eastern region of Azerbaijan had been used by the cattle-breeding population since the Early Bronze Age, where they were engaged in seasonal farming and carried out their burials. The lack of grave goods during the burial is explained by their temporary residence in the summer pastures. Undoubtedly, the presence of short-term settlements of cattle-breeding tribes near the kurgans is no exception. Building of Early Bronze Age Komani kurgans in the afore-said area from the chronological viewpoint is distinguished due to their small size. As for the later stages of the Bronze Age, dozens of big kurgans can be found here. However, no archeological excavations have been carried out in any of them so far. Similar burial customs and materials of Komani kurgans are mostly found in the Early Bronze Age monuments of Nakhchivan. Similar burials can be found in other coeval grave monuments of Azerbaijan and in the north-eastern provinces of Iran.


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