Radiocarbon Age of Soils in Oases of East Antarctica

Radiocarbon ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
pp. 489-503 ◽  
Author(s):  
E Zazovskaya ◽  
N Mergelov ◽  
V Shishkov ◽  
A Dolgikh ◽  
V Miamin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
Vascular Plants ◽  
High Arctic ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
East Antarctica ◽  
Radiocarbon Age ◽  
Antarctic Soils ◽  
Larsemann Hills ◽  
Arctic Soils ◽  
Organic Horizons

AbstractThis article discusses radiocarbon dating results for soils and soil-like systems in the East Antarctic oases, including Schirmacher, Thala Hills, and Larsemann Hills. The organic matter of endolithic and hypolithic systems, soils of wind shelters, and soils under moss-algae vegetation were dated along with micro- and macroprofiles. Organic matter pools formed under extreme climatic conditions and originated not from vascular plants but from cryptogamic organisms, and photoautotrophic microbes have been identified within the oases of the East Antarctica. The organic matter of the most of East Antarctic soils is young and cannot reach a steady state because of the high dynamism in the soil cover due to active erosion. The oldest soil organic matter in East Antarctica was found in the soils formed in wind shelters and endolithic soil-like systems under the protection of consolidated rock surfaces. According to our data, the maximal duration for the formation of organic matter profiles within the oases of East Antarctica is ~500 yr, which is similar to the age determined for High Arctic soils in Eurasia. The absence of older soils, comparable with the Holocene deglaciation, can be due to the extreme conditions resulting in occasional catastrophic events that destroyed the soil organic horizons.

Studies of Glacial History in Arctic Canada. II. Interglacial Peat Deposits on Bathurst Island

1974 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 1025-1042 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weston Blake Jr.
Keyword(s):  
Vascular Plants ◽  
Organic Materials ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Glacial History ◽  
Organic Layers ◽  
Radiocarbon Age ◽  
Peat Deposits ◽  
Organic Deposits ◽  
Age Determinations

Sixteen radiocarbon age determinations on peat deposits and buried organic layers at 10 localities within the Queen Elizabeth Islands have resulted in ages between >30 000 and >51 000 years. Similar results have been obtained from the southern Arctic islands, and as yet only one meaningful finite date in the 50 000 to 25 000 year-range has resulted from the dating of driftwood or in situ terrestrial organic materials in the entire archipelago.On Bathurst Island, where two dates of >50 000 years have been obtained, evidence from the assemblages of mosses, vascular plants, and insects in peat and organic layers indicates that climatic conditions were somewhat more favorable than at present when these deposits were forming. The available data are such that all deposits cannot necessarily be related to the same non-glacial interval, but the extensive deposits along the Stuart River are hereby assigned to the Stuart River Interglaciation.The lack of organic materials dating between 50 000 and 25 000 years in the Queen Elizabeth Islands may be because: (1) the area was ice-covered throughout Wisconsin time; (2) any mid-Wisconsin non-glacial interval was too short or had too severe a climate for deposits to accumulate; (3) organic deposits relating to this interval have been eroded; or (4) deposits of this age do exist but they have not been collected.

Optimum liquid density in separation of the physically uncomplexed organic matter in Arctic soils

2011 ◽  
Vol 91 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maxime Charles Paré ◽  
Angela Bedard-Haughn
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
High Arctic ◽  
Liquid Density ◽  
Density Fractionation ◽  
Arctic Soils ◽  
Arctic Soil ◽  
Low Arctic ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Heavy Fractions ◽  
The Right

Paré, M. C. and Bedard-Haughn, A. 2011. Optimum liquid density in separation of the physically uncomplexed organic matter in Arctic soils. Can. J. Soil Sci. 91: 65–68. Using an appropriate density to separate the soil light fraction (LF) and heavy fraction (HF) is an important aspect of the density fractionation technique. The effect of liquid density when separating the physically uncomplexed Arctic soil organic matter (SOM) was tested on three Arctic sites: High-Arctic, Low-Arctic, and Sub-Arctic. Our results showed that selecting the right density to use for Arctic soils is not unequivocal. Nevertheless, based on these two criteria: (1) the difference between the C:N values of the LF and HF needs to be as large as possible, and (2) the C:N value of the whole soil needs to be different from the C:N values of the LF and HF, the optimum density for all of our Arctic sites was between 1.49 and 1.55 g mL−1. We concluded that 1.55g mL−1 was the conservative optimum liquid density to use to separate Arctic SOM light and heavy fractions.

A MID- TO LATE-HOLOCENE LAKE BIOMASS RECORD IN THE LARSEMANN HILLS, EAST ANTARCTICA

2013 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-167
Author(s):  
Yuhan Luo ◽  
Yi Liu ◽  
Liguang Sun
Keyword(s):  
Late Holocene ◽  
East Antarctica ◽  
Larsemann Hills

Characterisation of production of organic rich topsoil from sludge

2000 ◽  
Vol 42 (9) ◽  
pp. 195-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Andreasen ◽  
P. B. Mortensen ◽  
A. Stubsgaard ◽  
B. Langdahl
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
Oxygen Consumption ◽  
Oxygen Transport ◽  
Mineral Soil ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Growth Media ◽  
Soil Mixture ◽  
Water Suspension ◽  
Aerobic Process ◽  
Stable Product

The stabilisation of a sludge-mineral soil mixture and a method to evaluate the state of stabilisation were investigated. The organic matter and nitrogen content are reduced up to 50% during a stabilisation process of three months under Danish climatic conditions. The stabilisation was shown to be an aerobic process limited by oxygen transport within the mixture. The degree of stabilisation was evaluated by oxygen consumption in a water suspension and the results showed that a stable product was achieved when oxygen consumption was stable and in the level of natural occurring aerobic soils (0.1 mgO2/(g DS*hr). The study thereby demonstrates that a stability of a growth media can be controlled by the oxygen consumption method tested.

A survey of mycorrhizal plants on Truelove Lowland, Devon Island, N.W.T., Canada

1990 ◽  
Vol 68 (9) ◽  
pp. 1848-1856 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Bledsoe ◽  
P. Klein ◽  
L. C. Bliss
Keyword(s):  
Plant Species ◽  
High Arctic ◽  
Cenococcum Geophilum ◽  
Soil Extracts ◽  
Vaccinium Uliginosum ◽  
Devon Island ◽  
Ericoid Mycorrhizae ◽  
Arctic Regions ◽  
Arctic Soils ◽  
Mycorrhizal Associations

Although mycorrhizal associations are commonly found on roots of most plant species, little is known about the presence or absence of mycorrhizae in arctic regions. In the Canadian High Arctic, roots of 55 herbaceous and woody plant species were examined for mycorrhizae during the summers of 1987 and 1988 on Devon Island, N.W.T. Ectomycorrhizal associations were found on roots of Salix arctica, Dryas integrifolia, and Potentilla hyparctica; ericoid mycorrhizae formed on Cassiope tetragona and Vaccinium uliginosum. Ectomycorrhizal roots were often covered with black hyphae resembling the fungus Cenococcum geophilum; sclerotia characteristic of this fungus were found in soil extracts. Plants expected to have endomycorrhizal associations were apparently nonmycorrhizal in the traditional sense, since no arbuscules, vesicles, or pelotons were found on any roots during two field seasons. Although extensive fungal hyphae were often present on and within roots, these hyphae could not be conclusively identified as endomycorrhizal. Some dark, septate hyphae were present; their function, although unknown, may be beneficial to the host. In a series of greenhouse bioassays using arctic soils, no endomycorrhizal associations developed on test plants. Spores of vesicular–arbuscular fungi were not found in soil extracts. Thus in this survey, only ectomycorrhizal associations were observed, suggesting that the cold, dry winter and cold, wet summer climates in this area of the High Arctic severely limit formation of endomycorrhizae. Key words: roots, fungi, ectomycorrhizae, endomycorrhizae, arctic.

Monazite petrochronology of polymetamorphic granulite‐facies rocks of the Larsemann Hills, Prydz Bay, East Antarctica

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven K. Spreitzer ◽  
Jesse B. Walters ◽  
Alicia Cruz‐Uribe ◽  
Michael L. Williams ◽  
Martin G. Yates ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Granulite Facies ◽  
East Antarctica ◽  
Prydz Bay ◽  
Larsemann Hills

scholarly journals Archaeal ammonia oxidizers respond to soil factors at smaller spatial scales than the overall archaeal community does in a high Arctic polar oasis

2016 ◽  
Vol 62 (6) ◽  
pp. 485-491 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samiran Banerjee ◽  
Nabla Kennedy ◽  
Alan E. Richardson ◽  
Keith N. Egger ◽  
Steven D. Siciliano
Keyword(s):  
Community Structure ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Archaeal Community ◽  
Diversity Indices ◽  
High Arctic ◽  
Total Carbon ◽  
Spatial Dependency ◽  
Edaphic Factors ◽  
Total Carbon Content ◽  
Arctic Soils

Archaea are ubiquitous and highly abundant in Arctic soils. Because of their oligotrophic nature, archaea play an important role in biogeochemical processes in nutrient-limited Arctic soils. With the existing knowledge of high archaeal abundance and functional potential in Arctic soils, this study employed terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (t-RFLP) profiling and geostatistical analysis to explore spatial dependency and edaphic determinants of the overall archaeal (ARC) and ammonia-oxidizing archaeal (AOA) communities in a high Arctic polar oasis soil. ARC communities were spatially dependent at the 2–5 m scale (P < 0.05), whereas AOA communities were dependent at the ∼1 m scale (P < 0.0001). Soil moisture, pH, and total carbon content were key edaphic factors driving both the ARC and AOA community structure. However, AOA evenness had simultaneous correlations with dissolved organic nitrogen and mineral nitrogen, indicating a possible niche differentiation for AOA in which dry mineral and wet organic soil microsites support different AOA genotypes. Richness, evenness, and diversity indices of both ARC and AOA communities showed high spatial dependency along the landscape and resembled scaling of edaphic factors. The spatial link between archaeal community structure and soil resources found in this study has implications for predictive understanding of archaea-driven processes in polar oases.

Human influences on breeding of south polar skuas in the eastern Larsemann Hills, Princess Elizabeth Land, East Antarctica

Polar Record ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 32 (180) ◽  
pp. 43-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Z. Wang ◽  
F.I. Norman ◽  
J.S. Burgess ◽  
S.J. Ward ◽  
A.P. Spate ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Breeding Success ◽  
Human Activities ◽  
Annual Variation ◽  
East Antarctica ◽  
Larsemann Hills ◽  
Catharacta Maccormicki ◽  
Area Development ◽  
South Polar ◽  
Made In ◽  
Area Data

AbstractBreeding activity of pairs of south polar skuas (Catharacta maccormicki) in the eastern Larsemann Hills, Princess Elizabeth Land, East Antarctica, was recorded in five of six austral summers between 1988 and 1994. More detailed observations of breeding success were made in the 1989/90 and 1993/94 summers. Although relatively few skuas nest in the study area, data suggest that there was inter-annual variation in numbers and locations of territories and chicks fledged. This variation is discussed in relation to increased human activities in the area (development of a summer base and more permanent stations) and to an enhanced access to human-derived foods. It is concluded that there has been some human impact on this species in the Larsemann Hills.

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