Diverse and abundant Middle and Late Triassic elasmobranch ichthyoliths (microscopic shark teeth and scales) coexisting with conodonts, ammonoids, and bivalves were recovered from carbonates of the Pardonet, Baldonnel, Ludington, and Liard formations in the Peace River area of British Columbia. These faunas provide an excellent biostratigraphical framework for Triassic strata. Results from this study demonstrate that ichthyoliths can be used in basin analyses to date and correlate strata. The following summarizes the main achievements of this project. 1. Systematic description and illustration of Triassic elasmobranch ichthyoliths include seven species of teeth and nineteen new form genera and fifty-three new form species of scales. 2. Ichthyolith distributions consist of distinct faunal assemblages for the Ladinian, Upper Carnian, and Middle Norian. The Carnian/Norian boundary is marked by the disappearance of many Ladinian and Carnian elasmobranch species. In the Middle Norian, elasmobranch faunas reached a new peak of diversity and abundance. 3. A provisional ichthyolith zonation for the Middle and Upper Triassic is proposed for the Peace River area. The sequence of coeval conodonts and (or) ammonoids indicate that the Coniunctio aequirugosa ichthyolith Zone is Ladinian, the Synechodus multinodosus ichthyolith Zone is Upper Carnian, and the Synechodus incrementum ichthyolith Zone is Lower and Middle Norian. 4. New approaches to ichthyolith identification include recognizing diagnostic characteristics of scale and tooth bases, and using binomial, form, and utilitarian taxonomic systems. 5. Interpretations of histological and morphological features of elasmobranch teeth suggest that more derived neoselachian species than were originally known are present in the Triassic.

Our findings indicate that the amount of shrinkage is driven by variation in leaf area, leaf thickness, evergreenness, and woodiness and can be reversed by rehydration. The amount of shrinkage may also be a useful trait related to ecologically and physiological differences in drought tolerance and plant life history.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

NEPTUNE (North-East Pacific UnderseaNetworked Experiments) will be the world's first regional cabled ocean observatory, covering most of the 200,000 km2 Juan de Fuca tectonic plate. After several years of planning, NEPTUNE Canada should complete the installation of the northern part with five observatory nodes in late 2008; the US Congress may approve 6-year installation funding for NSF's Ocean Observatories Initiative this year, resulting in the NEPTUNE US portion becoming operational in about 2013 with probably four observatory nodes. The abundant power, high bandwidth communications, and hundreds of sensors delivering data and imagery in real or near real time will revolutionize our knowledge of the ocean environment and interacting processes. With the world's oceans in a state of crisis, the development of cabled observatory technology is most timely and will offer a data archive of unparalleled importance for new discoveries. NEPTUNE Canada has secured over $85M, mainly from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and the BC Knowledge development Fund, and $17M in-kind support. Several government departments, NSERC, and CANARIE have provided other grants and contributions. The University of Victoria (UVic) leads a consortium of 12 Canadian universities, and is required both to own and operate the observatory. UVic also leads the coastal observatory, VENUS (www.uvic.ca/venus). It has established Ocean Networks Canada as a wholly owned, not-for-profit agency to manage the NEPTUNE Canada and VENUS cabled observatory projects as national facilities. Alcatel-Lucent was contracted to design, manufacture and install the NEPTUNE Canada subsea infrastructure, with a 25-year lifespan. An 800km loop of backbone cable/repeaters/branching units is being installed in fall 2007 connecting with UVic's Port Alberni shore station, with the nodes added in 2008. NEPTUNE Canada will then install the secondary cables, junction boxes and instruments in late 2008, possibly with some in 2009, followed by testing, security protocols and commissioning.Significant challenges have been faced with: securing adequate funding; the innovative design of the nodes, junction boxes and vertical profiler; the route survey over challenging topography; building in-house a Data Management and Archive System that also incorporates an observatory control system; periodic reduction in scope and aspirations; and developing collaborative relationships, including those with the Canadian and US navies, the commercial fisheries, and the First Nations. A series of science workshops during the conceptual design and construction phases, along with external reviews, helped shape a program of community experiments with many focused on the five (with a sixth currently unfunded) sites and others plate-wide in scope. The five principal research themes are: plate tectonics and earthquake dynamics; fluid fluxes in the oceanic crust and gas hydrates in the accretionary margin; ocean-climate dynamics and impact on fisheries; dynamics of the deep sea ecosystems; and engin...