Lipids and nitrogen isotopes of deep-water corals

The lipid and organic nitrogen isotopic (delta15N) compositions of two common deep-water corals (Lophelia pertusa and Madrepora oculata) collected from selected locations of the NE Atlantic are compared to the composition of suspended particulate organic matter, in order to determine their principle food source. Initial results suggest that they may feed primarily on zooplankton. This is based on the increased abundances of mono-unsaturated fatty acids and alcohols and the different ratios of the polyunsaturated fatty acids, 22:6/20:5 of the corals when compared to those of the suspended particulate organic matter. There is enrichment in L. pertusa of mono-unsaturated fatty acids and of delta15N relative to M. oculata. It is unclear whether this reflects different feeding strategies or assimilation/storage efficiencies of zooplankton tissue or different metabolism in the two coral species.

CIPWFULL: A FORTRAN Program for Calculation of Comprehensive CIPW Norms of Igneous Rocks

CIPWFULL is a user-friendly, stand-alone FORTRAN software program that is designed to calculate the comprehensive CIPW normative mineral composition of igneous rocks and strictly adheres to the original formulation of the CIPW protocol. This faithful adherence alleviates inaccuracies in normative mineral calculations by programs commonly used by petrologists. Additionally, several of the most important petrological and mineralogical parameters of igneous rocks are calculated by the program. Along with all the regular major oxide elements, all the significant minor elements whose contents can potentially effect the CIPW normative mineral composition are included. CIPWFULL also calculates oxidation ratios for igneous rock samples that have only one oxidation state of iron reported in the specimen analysis. It also provides an option for normalization of analyses to unity on a hydrous-free basis in order to facilitate comparison of norms among rock groups. Other capabilities of the program cater for rare situations, like the presence of cancrinite or exclusion from the norm calculation of rare rocks like carbonatite. Several mineralogical, petrological and discriminatory parameters and indexes are additionally calculated by the CIPWFULL program. The CIPWFULL program is very efficient and flexible and allows for a user-defined free-format input of all the chemical species, and it permits feeding of minor elements as parts per million or oxide percentages. Results of calculations are printed in a formatted ASCII text file and may be optionally casted into a space-delimited text files that are ready to be imported to general spreadsheet programs. CIPWFULL is DOS-based and is implemented on WINDOWS and mainframe platforms.