Dinoflagellate cyst records from the East Greenland continental margin

Late Weichselian and Holocene dinoflagellate cyst assemblages have been investigated at two stations situated close to the modern Polar Front at the continental margin oft East Greenland. Both the concentrations of dinoflagelate cysts and the assemblage composition reflect changes in the surface water conditions, occurring in distinct steps during the past 15,000 years. Low concentrations of dinoflagellate cysts during Termination Ia suggest harsh environmental conditions, most probably caused by an extensive sea-ice cover and/or a high influx of low salinity meltwater. A surface water warming was recorded from 13,000 - 12,000 years BP, related to the inflow of warmer water trom the North Atlantic into the western Norwegian-Greenland Sea. The interval between Terminations la and Ib was characterized by a strong seasonality with an extensive sea-ice cover in winter and relatively warm surface waters in summer. At the transition to the Holocene, a reorganisation of the hydrography resulted in surface water conditions characteristic for the Holocene with three well-defined major water masses and oceanographic fronts The modern water mass conditions at both stations were established at the end of Termination Ib, around 6,400 to 6,800 years BP. In general, the influence of colder surface waters was more pronounced at the location off Scoresby Sund throughout the Holocene. Arctic water had the strongest influence at both stations in the middle Holocene. A progressive cooling with an increase in sea-ice cover is time-transgressivelyrecorded at both stations during the Holocene, indicating that the Polar Front moved to its present position or that branches of the zonal currents expanded from the East Greenland shell eastward during tlie last 3,000 years.

The chemical composition of α cen A: Strong lines and the ABO theory of collisional line broadening

The mean abundances of Mg, Si, Ca, Ti, Cr, and Fe based on both strong and weak lines of alpha CenAare determined by matching the observed line profiles with those synthesised from stellar atmospheric models and comparing these results with a similar analysis for the Sun. There is good agreement between the abundances from strong and weak lines. Strong lines should generally be an excellent indicator of abundance and far easier to measure than the weak lines normally used. Until the development of the Anstee, Barklem, and O'Mara ( ABO) theory for collisional line broadening, the uncertainty in the value of the damping constant prevented strong lines being used for abundance determinations other than in close differential analyses. We found that alpha Cen A has a mean overabundance of 0.12 +/- 0.06 dex compared to solar mean abundances. This result agrees remarkably well with previous studies that did not use strong lines or the ABO theory for collisional line broadening. Our result supports the conclusion that reliable abundances can be derived from strong lines provided this new theory for line broadening is used to calculate the van derWaals damping.

Heteronormativitet och homonationalism : En kritisk diskursanalys av Sverigedemokraternas hbtq-politik

I uppsatsen görs en kritisk diskursanalys ur ett hbtq-perspektiv av Sverigedemokraternas styrdokument, den partianknutna tidningen SD-Kuriren och några andra relevanta texter. Materialet har delats in i tre tidsperioder, 1989-1995, 1996-2002 och 2003-2015 och frågorna som ställs till materialet handlar om vilka problem, orsaker till problem och lösningar på problem som går att identifiera som centrala i de studerade texterna. De identifierade problemen under de olika perioderna är ”den låga nativiteten”, ”osundheten” och ”den hotade kärnfamiljen; samt ”den hotade kärnfamiljen och den därmed hotade nationen”. Alla dessa problem kan kopplas ihop med Sverigedemokraternas hbtq-politik. I ett andra steg i uppsatsen görs en kvantitativ studie över frekvensen av ett antal ur det studerade perspektivet centrala ord i partiets styrdokument och hur användningen av dessa ord varierar över tid. De studerade orden är sund, familj, naturlig, nation, moral, folk och nativitet. Ett par av resultaten är att användningen av ordet ”nation” är som mest frekvent i det senaste styrdokumentet, medan ordet ”sund” var mest vanligt under den mittersta av de studerade perioderna. I analysens sista del görs utblickar mot Sverigedemokraternas agerande på det hbtq-politiska området, under de senaste åren. Med hjälp av begreppen heteronormativitet, homonormativitet och homonationalism görs avslutningsvis ytterligare en läsning av texterna där exempel på alla dessa företeelser går att identifiera i materialet.

Global compilation of benthic data sets I

Approaches to quantify the organic carbon accumulation on a global scale generally do not consider the small-scale variability of sedimentary and oceanographic boundary conditions along continental margins. In this study, we present a new approach to regionalize the total organic carbon (TOC) content in surface sediments (<5 cm sediment depth). It is based on a compilation of more than 5500 single measurements from various sources. Global TOC distribution was determined by the application of a combined qualitative and quantitative-geostatistical method. Overall, 33 benthic TOC-based provinces were defined and used to process the global distribution pattern of the TOC content in surface sediments in a 1°x1° grid resolution. Regional dependencies of data points within each single province are expressed by modeled semi-variograms. Measured and estimated TOC values show good correlation, emphasizing the reasonable applicability of the method. The accumulation of organic carbon in marine surface sediments is a key parameter in the control of mineralization processes and the material exchange between the sediment and the ocean water. Our approach will help to improve global budgets of nutrient and carbon cycles.

Physical properties measured on sediment cores from high latitudes

This collection of 359 data sets represents raw data of physical properties measurements on Polarstern sediment cores from both polar oceans, sampled and measured between 1985 and 1995.