| 1. |
- Lewerentz, Alexander, 1987-
(författare)
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Fluid-induced alteration of metasedimentary rocks in the Scottish Highlands
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Fluids, mainly H2O and CO2, are released from H- and C-bearing phases during prograde metamorphism. Because of the buoyancy of these fluids, they rise within the crust towards the surface of the Earth. Metamorphic fluids take advantage of permeable horizons, shear zones, fold hinges, fractures, and are channelled into high-flux zones. Fluid fluxes for channelized fluid flow may exceed background pervasive fluxes by several orders of magnitude. Metamorphic fluids react with the surrounding rock during fluid flow, and altered zones are commonly observed adjacent to high-flux conduits. Fluid-altered rock is texturally, mineralogically, chemically, and isotopically different from rock unaffected by fluid flow. In this thesis, fluid-rock interaction is studied at two localities in the Scottish Highlands: Glen Esk and the Isle of Islay.Glen Esk is one of the type localities used by George Barrow (1853-1932) to propose the concept of metamorphic zones and metamorphic index minerals as an approximate determination of metamorphic grade. In several of the metamorphic zones in Glen Esk, index mineral distribution is highly dependent on proximity to veins. The occurrence of index minerals is therefore not only controlled by pressure and temperature, but also by the availability of metamorphic fluids. Evidence of a retrograde fluid flow event from the North Esk Fault is observed in Glen Esk, for which a time-averaged fluid flux of 0.0003 – 0.0126 m3∙m-2∙yr-1 is calculated. The duration of the fluid event is estimated to between 16 and 334 kyr.On the Isle of Islay, kyanite is observed in rocks of chlorite or lower-biotite metamorphic grade, i.e. much lower temperatures than usually associated with kyanite formation. The favoured explanation for this is retrograde infiltration of extremely high-CO2 fluids, at least locally XCO2 > 0.7, at ~340°C, which altered these rocks and stabilised kyanite in a carbonate-bearing assemblage. Oxygen and carbon stable isotope profiles across the Islay Anticline reveals highly channelized fluid flow along the axial region of this fold, with fluid:rock ratios at least four times higher than in rock farther away from the fold. Although carbon and oxygen isotope ratios of metacarbonate rocks were altered along the Islay Anticline, negative anomalies observed below and above the Port Askaig Tillite Formation cannot solely be attributed to metamorphic fluid flow, which implies that these rocks to varying degree retain their primary paleoclimatological isotopic signatures.
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| 2. |
- Duc, Nguyen Thanh, 1980-
(författare)
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Abiotic and biotic methane dynamics in relation to the origin of life
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Methane (CH4) plays an important role in regulating Earth’s climate. Its atmospheric concentrations are related to both biotic and abiotic processes. The biotic one can be formed either by chemoautotrophic or heterotrophic pathways by methanogens. Abiotic CH4 formation can occur from several sequential reactions starting with H2 production by serpentinization of Fe-bearing minerals followed by Fischer-Tropsch Type reactions or thermogenic reactions from hydrocarbons. In the presence of suitable electron acceptors, microbial oxidation utilizes CH4 and contributes to regulating its emission. From the perspectives of astrobiology and Earth climate regulation, this thesis focuses on: (1) Dynamics of CH4 formation and oxidation in lake sediments (Paper I), (2) Constructing an automatic flux chamber to facilitate its emission measurements (Paper II), (3) dynamics of both abiotic and biotic CH4 formation processes related to olivine water interaction in temperature range 30 - 70°C (Paper III and IV). Paper I showed that potential CH4 oxidation strongly correlated to in situ its formation rates across a wide variety of lake sediments. This means that the oxidation rates could be enhanced in environments having the high formation rates. Thereby, the oxidation would likely be able to keep up with potentially increasing the formation rates, as a result diffusive CH4 release from freshwater sediments might not necessarily increase due to global warming. Paper II presented a new automated approach to assess temporal variability of its aquatic fluxes. Paper III and IV together revealed that H2 can be formed via olivine-water interaction. Abiotic CH4 formation was formed likely by Fischer-Tropsch Type reactions at low inorganic carbon concentration but by thermogenic processes at high inorganic carbon concentration. Paper IV showed that biotic methanogenic metabolism could harvest H2 and produce CH4. The dynamics of these processes seemed strongly affected by carbonate chemistry.
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| 3. |
- Gleisner, Magdalena, 1972-
(författare)
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Quantification of mineral weathering rates in sulfidic mine tailings under water-saturated conditions
- 2005
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Tailings are a fine-grained waste product produced during the metal recovery process. Tailings consist mostly of different silicates but also sulfides (e.g. pyrite), since 100 % metal recovery is not possible. Freshly processed tailings are deposited in large impoundments. If the mine tailings in the impoundments are exposed to water and oxygen, the sulfides will oxidize and release acidity and metals such as Fe, Cu, Zn, and Pb. The sulfide mineral oxidation reactions are catalyzed by sulfur and iron oxidizing bacteria (principally Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans) that oxidize ferrous iron to ferric iron, which then oxidizes pyrite. When the leachate produced by this process discharges from the impoundment, it is called acid mine drainage, which may lead to the pollution of adjacent streams and lakes.The intention with this thesis is to investigate and quantify mineral weathering processes and element release rates occurring in water-saturated and soil-covered sulfidic mine tailings. The study was performed in different batch and column experiments in room temperature and in the laboratory. The batch experiments were conducted for ca. three months and investigated: a) microbial and abiotic sulfide oxidation in freshly processed tailings under oxic conditions at pH 2-3 and pH 8, b) microbial oxidation of pure pyrite grains at pH 2-3 under different oxygen concentrations ranging from anoxic to oxic conditions. The column experiments, consisting of unoxidized tailings in water-saturated columns, were conducted for up to three years. In these experiments, an oxygen-saturated solution was continually pumped into the column inlet, and investigated: a) differences in oxidation rates between tailings of two different grain sizes, b) factors affecting element discharge rates, acid neutralization, and sulfide oxidation, c) the effect of ions released in a soil cover on release rates in the tailings.Sulfide oxidation processes within the batch experiments were limited by surface kinetics. The microbial oxidation of pure pyrite at atmospheric conditions produced the most rapid rate, while the microbial oxidation of pure pyrite at anoxic conditions was slower by 1.8 orders of magnitude. Microbial and abiotic oxidation of pyrite in freshly-processed tailings resulted in pyrite oxidation rates that were intermediate between these two extremes. The results from the microbial experiments with pure pyrite indicated a positive correlation between the concentration of dissolved oxygen, ferric iron and bacterial cells (at a total cell concentration > 106 cells/mL and a dissolved oxygen concentration ≥ 13.2 µM), which implies an interdependence of these factors. The results from these batch experiments support the indirect mechanism for microbial oxidation by the ferric oxidation pathway. Pyrite oxidation rates estimated from the batch experiments may be comparable with oxidation rates in the unsaturated zone and at the groundwater table in a tailings impoundment.Acid neutralization reactions in the column experiments resulted in the release of base cations to the column leachate. Calcite was the most important neutralizing mineral despite that it was only present in minor amounts in the tailings. It was confirmed that acidity forced the calcite dissolution. Element release rates in the column experiments were controlled by the availability of dissolved oxygen, which was a function of the water flow rate into the column. These column experiments also showed that the results are comparable with results from field studies, justifying the use of column experiments to study processes within tailings impoundments.
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| 4. |
- Jansen, Joachim, 1989-
(författare)
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Carbon trace gas dynamics in subarctic lakes
- 2020
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Northern lakes are important sources of greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane to the atmosphere. Emissions are expected to increase as the climate continues to warm. Even so, lake carbon budgets are currently poorly constrained. This is in part because of a limited understanding of the processes that govern the flux. This thesis focuses on the physical and biogeochemical drivers of carbon trace gas emissions from three small, post-glacial lakes situated within the Stordalen Mire, a subarctic peatland underlain by thawing permafrost in northern Sweden. A unique, multiyear dataset is used to quantify the importance of different emission pathways – ebullition, turbulence-driven diffusion and release from storage – on short and long timescales. In summer and on seasonal to interannual timescales, emissions are robust functions of thermal energy input. Short-term storage-and-release cycles are governed by kinetic drivers, such as turbulence fuelled by wind shear and, to a lesser extent, by thermal convection. In winter, when the lakes are ice-covered, persistent anoxia and density-driven currents enable methane accumulation at rates exceeding summer emissions. Release at ice-off in spring can constitute the majority of annual methane emissions and scales predictably with ice-cover season length, except in warm winters when snowmelt displaces lake water. Most lake flux studies focus on the warmest summer months and omit the spring efflux, as well as emissions in the colder ice-free months which, because of the well-known temperature-dependency of carbon cycling processes, tend to be low. The latter sampling bias may lead to a substantial overestimation of the ice-free flux in regional and global lake emission budgets. Temperature proxies, potentially combined with gas transfer models, can efficiently gap-fill colder months to arrive at a more representative flux estimate, but important feedbacks, such as lake degassing with increasing wind speed, must be taken into account. The mechanisms emerging from intense study of the Stordalen lakes are likely to be found in a majority of northern lakes, which are small, seasonally ice-covered and of post-glacial origin. However, because gas transfer velocity and temperature sensitivity are spatiotemporally variable, field observations remain essential for the development and calibration of models, and to predict future emissions.
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| 5. |
- Wik, Martin, 1982-
(författare)
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Emission of methane from northern lakes and ponds
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Northern lakes and ponds are abundant and emit large amounts of the potent climate forcer methane to the atmosphere at rates prone to change with amplified Arctic warming. In spite of being important, fluxes from surface waters are not well understood. Long-term measurements are lacking and the dominant and irregular transport mode ebullition (bubbling) is rarely quantified, which complicate the inclusion of lakes and ponds in the global methane budget. This thesis focuses on variations in emissions on both local and regional scales. A synthesis of methane fluxes from almost all studied sites constrains uncertainties and demonstrates that northern lakes and ponds are a dominant source at high latitudes. Per unit area variations in flux magnitudes among different types of water bodies are mainly linked to water depth and type of sediment. When extrapolated, total area is key and thus post-glacial lakes dominate emissions over water bodies formed by peat degradation or thermokarst processes. Further, consistent multiyear measurements in three post-glacial lakes in Stordalen, northern Sweden, reveal that seasonal ebullition, primarily driven by fermentation of acetate, can be predicted by easily measured parameters such as temperature and heat energy input over the ice-free season. Assuming that most water bodies respond similarly to warming, this thesis also suggests that northern lakes and ponds will release substantially more methane before the end of the century, primarily as a result of longer ice-free seasons. Improved uncertainty reductions of both current and future estimates rely on increased knowledge of landscape-level processes related to changes in aquatic systems and organic loading with permafrost thaw, as well as more high-quality measurements, seldom seen in contemporary data. Sampling distributed over entire ice-free seasons and across different depth zones is crucial for accurately quantifying methane emissions from northern lakes and ponds.
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| 6. |
- Bäckstrand, Kristina, 1979-
(författare)
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Carbon gas biogeochemistry of a northern peatland - in a dynamic permafrost landscape
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis is about biogeochemical processes of a northern peatland and their importance as a link between the climate and the terrestrial system. Increased temperatures on a global level, and particularly in the Arctic, have led to melting permafrost and changes in hydrology. In turn, this affect the natural exchange of radiatively important trace gases between land and atmosphere that may reinforce climate change. The aim of this thesis is to increase the understanding about the exchange of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs) occurring in northern peatlands, to decrease uncertainty about their future carbon (C) balance. In order to pursue this aim, we designed a study that allowed measuring the C exchange at a subarctic peatland, accounting for spatial and temporal analysis at several levels. The field site was the Stordalen mire, northern Sweden. Exchange rates of CO2, and total hydrocarbons (THCs; CH4 and NMVOCs) were measured using an automatic chamber system for up to six years, at three different types of vegetation communities and permafrost regimes. The gas exchange was found to relate to different environmental and biological variables at different vegetation communities and at different temporal scales. Differences in flux rates and controls between sites could be explained with biological and environmental variables in a better way than the seasonal and interannual variability within a site.Snow season flux measurements were determined to be of high importance regarding the annual C budget. By excluding the snow season, the potential C source strength of a peatland is likely to be underestimated. The importance of combining the THCs with the CO2 to estimate the annual C balance was demonstrated as THC could be sufficient to shift the mire from a sink to a source of C to the atmosphere. Again, the C source strength may be significantly underestimated if only focusing on CO2 fluxes in wet peatland environments.
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