Prehistoric raised-field agriculture in the maya lowlands

The ground pattems found in Pulitrouser Swamp, northern Belize, are vestiges of raised and channelized fields, types of wetland cultivation used by the ancient Maya. This form of hydraulic cultivation was apparently employed sometime between 200 B.C. and A.D. 850. The environment of the swamp, the fields and canals, and one nearby settlement, Kokeal, are described. The evidence indicates that the large number of well-defined ground patterns reported in other areas in the central Maya lowlands are probably vestiges of Maya wetland cultivation.     

The nature of pristine noble gases in mantle plumes

High-precision noble gas data show that the Hawaiian and Icelandic mantle plume sources contain uniquely primitive neon that is composed of moderately nucleogenic neon-21 and a primordial component indistinguishable from the meteoritic occurrence of solar neon. This suggests that Earth's solar-type rare gas inventory was acquired during accretion from small planetesimals previously irradiated by solar wind from the early sun. However, nonradiogenic argon, krypton, and xenon isotopes derived from the mantle display nonsolar compositions and indicate an atmosphere-like fingerprint that is not due to recent subduction.     

Cosmic rays,clouds, and climate

It has been proposed that Earth's climate could be affected by changes in cloudiness caused by variations in the intensity of galactic cosmic rays in the atmosphere. This proposal stems from an observed correlation between cosmic ray intensity and Earth's average cloud cover over the course of one solar cycle. Some scientists question the reliability of the observations, whereas others, who accept them as reliable, suggest that the correlation may be caused by other physical phenomena with decadal periods or by a response to volcanic activity or El Ni?o. Nevertheless, the observation has raised the intriguing possibility that a cosmic ray-cloud interaction may help explain how a relatively small change in solar output can produce much larger changes in Earth's climate. Physical mechanisms have been proposed to explain how cosmic rays could affect clouds, but they need to be investigated further if the observation is to become more than just another correlation among geophysical variables.     

Rapid wastage of Alaska glaciers and their contribution to rising sea level

We have used airborne laser altimetry to estimate volume changes of 67 glaciers in Alaska from the mid-1950s to the mid-1990s. The average rate of thickness change of these glaciers was -0.52 m/year. Extrapolation to all glaciers in Alaska yields an estimated total annual volume change of -52 +/- 15 km3/year (water equivalent), equivalent to a rise in sea level (SLE) of 0.14 +/- 0.04 mm/year. Repeat measurements of 28 glaciers from the mid-1990s to 2000-2001 suggest an increased average rate of thinning, -1.8 m/year. This leads to an extrapolated annual volume loss from Alaska glaciers equal to -96 +/- 35 km3/year, or 0.27 +/- 0.10 mm/year SLE, during the past decade. These recent losses are nearly double the estimated annual loss from the entire Greenland Ice Sheet during the same time period and are much higher than previously published loss estimates for Alaska glaciers. They form the largest glaciological contribution to rising sea level yet measured.     

Transplantation of fetal hematopoietic stem cells in utero: the creation of hematopoietic chimeras

Transplantation of normal, immature, fetal hematopoietic cells into a preimmune fetal recipient with a congenital hemoglobinopathy may allow partial reconstitution of normal hemoglobin production without the complications associated with postnatal bone marrow transplantation (immunosuppression and the occurrence of graft versus host disease). In order to test this hypothesis the naturally occurring polymorphism at the beta-hemoglobin locus of the sheep was used as a marker for engraftment and hematopoietic chimerism. Intraperitoneal injection of allogeneic fetal stem cells into normal fetal lambs resulted in hematopoietic chimerism in three of four surviving recipients. This chimerism has been sustained for 6 months after birth and 9 months after engraftment, without evidence of graft versus host disease, and without the use of immunosuppressive therapy.     

Calcium carbonate production of the mare incognitum, the upper windward reef slope, at enewetak atoll

Corals and algal pavement produce calcium carbonate more slowly on the windward reef slope of Enewetak Atoll than on the reef flat despite the high standing crop of reef-building organisms on the slope. The capacity of reefs to remain at or near sea level is therefore not determined primarily by growth on the seaward slope.     

Stratospheric ozone with added water vapor: influence of high-altitude aircraft

Simple, steady-state models for ozone photochemistry, radiative heat balance, and eddy-diffusive mass transport can be combined to estimate water-induced changes in the stratospheric ozone concentrations and temperatures, the integrated ozone column, the solar power transmitted to the earth's surface, and the surface temperature. These changes have been computed parametrically for mixing fractions of water vapor between 3 x 10(-6) and 6.5 x 10(-6). With added water from the exhausts of projected fleets of stratospheric aircraft, the ozone column may diminish by 3.8 percent, the transmitted solar power increase by 0.07 percent, and the surface temperature rise by 0.04 degrees K in the Northern Hemisphere. Due to a cancellation of terms, temperatures in the lower stratosphere remain essentially unchanged. These results are sensitive to the form of the water profile and emphasize the potential role of convective transients near 30 kilometers.     

Vertical nitrate fluxes in the oligotrophic ocean

The vertical flux of nitrate across the thermocline in the upper ocean imposes a rigorous constraint on the rate of export of organic carbon from the surface layer of the sea. This export is the primary means by which the oceans can serve as a sink for atmospheric carbon dioxide. For the oligotrophic open ocean regions, which make up more than 75% of the world's ocean, the rate of export is currently uncertain by an order of magnitude. For most of the year, the vertical flux of nitrate is that due to vertical turbulent transport of deep water rich in nitrate into the relatively impoverished surface layer. Direct measurements of rates of turbulent kinetic energy dissipation, coupled with highly resolved vertical profiles of nitrate and density in the oligotrophic eastern Atlantic showed that the rate of transport, averaged over 2 weeks, was 0.14 (0.002 to 0.89, 95% confidence interval) millimole of nitrate per square meter per day and was statistically no different from the integrated rate of nitrate uptake as measured by incorporation of (15)N-labeled nitrate. The stoichiometrically equivalent loss of carbon from the upper ocean, which is the relevant quantity for the carbon dioxide and climate question, is then fixed at 0.90 (0.01 to 5.70) millimole of carbon per square meter per day. These rates are much lower than recent estimates based on in situ changes in oxygen over annual scales; they are consistent with a biologically unproductive oligotrophic ocean.