Poster Session CATEGORY C. Life and Ecology

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1 Poster Session CATEGORY C Life and Ecology

3 C-1 The Anthropogenic Dreadful Impacts on El-Mallaha Lagoon, Northwest Sinai Peninsula, Egypt Ahmed Gaber*, Fikry Khalaf*, and Motoyuki Sato** *Geology Department, Faculty of Science, Suez Canal University, Port-Said, Egypt **Center for Northeast Asian Studies, Tohoku University, Japan El-Mallah Lagoon is one of the most important water bodies along the northern coast of Egypt for its fisheries resources as well as holds some of the greatest densities of water-birds in the country. It has been suffered from several problems that adversely affect its ecology; The Suez Canal construction and the Port-Said bypass. However, all of these are dwarfed by the recent advent of the East of the Bypass Project, launched in 1998 to establish a port and an industrial zone located precisely where the Mallaha lagoon is. MSS, TM, ETM+ and SPOT-4 multispectral images along different years (1973, 1984, 2000 and 2007; respectively) have been used to detect the changes of El-Mallaha Lagoon. Such spectral images were geo-referenced, atmospherically corrected, clipped, and enhanced by using the histogram matching. The simple density slice classification technique was used to differentiate between the water bodies and the other ground features in each image. Subsequently, each classified image has been converted into Shapefile format to automatically calculate the area of the lagoon. The present work figures out on maps a complete scenario about the previous, current impacts and future threats that might cause rapid and complete disappearance of this important wetland.

4 C-2 Geochemistry of 1.9 Ga sedimentary rocks of the Gunflint Formation, Canada: Oceanic environment and unique biological activities Akizumi Ishida, Masahiro Oba, Takeshi Kakegawa Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University, Japan Paleoproterozoic is considered to be the age of rapid change of oceanic environments in particular for redox state of bottom of oceans. During such transition, ecological system also expected to be changed radically. In order to constrain the microbial ecosystem in Paleoproterozoic oceanic environments, geochemical studies were performed on the 1.9 Ga Gunflint Formation. Examined samples are divided in shallow- and deep-water sequences based on their lithologies. Hematitic oolite was the representative lithology for the shallow-water sequence and the deep-water sequences contain sideritic banded iron formation. Such contrast in Fe-bearing minerals suggests the stratified oxic-anoxic oceans during deposition. S(pyr)/C(org) ratios of examined samples were higher than the results of previous studies. The stable sulfur isotope compositions (δ34scdt) were range from -1.1 to These results indicate the sulfate rich Gunflint ocean. Stable carbon isotope compositions (δ13cpdb) of kerogens were ranging from to α methylhopane were identified by GC-MS analyses. These results suggest that cyanobacteria were major primary producers to support the ecosystem of Gunflint ocean. Nitrogen contents of kerogens were measured. As a result, shallow-water dominant kerogens were more enriched in nitrogen than deep-water dominant kerogens, implying that the different nitrogen-fixation pathway between the shallow- and deep-water ecosystems.

5 C-3 Effects of pressure, temperature, reaction time and clay mineral on the polymerization of glycine-methionine mixture system Hiroto Takahashi, Takeshi Kakegawa Department of the Earth and Planetary Materials Science, Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University, Japan Prebiotic polymerization of amino acid is the most essential process to promote the chemical evolution for origin of life. Several experiments to polymerize amino acids have been attempted by previous investigators, but most of previous study was only performed using single amino acid. It is still uncertain if peptide can be formed from the mixture of methionine and glycine system at high pressure-temperature and non-aqueous conditions. Therefore, anhydrous high P and T experiments were performed under various pressures of 0.5 MPa-150 MPa at 100 C -200 C for 1-8 days. Such conditions may simulate the upper oceanic crustal environment of the primitive Earth. (1) Dimmer of glycine, dimmer of methionine, peptide of glycine and methionine, and those diketopiperazines (DKP) were certainly formed under high temperature and pressure conditions. (2) Gly-DKP is the most abundant products to be polymerized in the series of experiments. (3) In the methionine-glycine system, the highest yield was achieved at 90 MPa. The above results suggest that amino acid polymerization in mixed system is more complicated than the single amino acid system. But peptides can be formed even in the complex system suggesting that chemical evolution could have happened in the primitive Earth oceanic crust.

6 C-4 Solid state peptide formation from valine under high pressure and high temperature condtions Takato Ishiguro Graduate School of Science Tohoku University, Japan It has been debated as to how and where the single amino acids polymerized to peptides on the primitive Earth. Previous studies indicated that alanine and glycine can polymerize effectively in high temperature and pressure conditions simulating environments in deep seafloor sediments. However, it is not certain for other bio-essential amino acids, including valine. High-temperature and pressure experiments for valine were performed in non-aqueous condition using an autoclave. Experiments were performed under various pressures of MPa at 150 C-200 C for 1-32 days, simulating deep seafloor sediments of the primitive Earth. In addition to the simple valine system, a mixture of valine and Na-montmorillonite was also examined. Running products were carefully analyzed using LC/MS. The results of current study show the following three points: (1) Tetra-peptide is identified in high pressure, high temperature and non-aqueous conditions. (2) High-pressure condition is more favorable to promote the polymerization compared to normal pressure. (3) Na-montmorillonite is a good catalyst for the polymerization under high pressure, high temperature and non-aqueous conditions. The above results suggest that chemical evolution could have happened in deep seafloor sediments of the primitive Earth in where pressure, temperature, and clay minerals were available.

7 C-5 Formation of precursors for biomolecules in post-impact plume on the early Earth Taro Samejima, Yoshihiro Furukawa, Takeshi Kakegawa Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University, Japan Oceanic impact of meteorite might have produced various organic compounds during late heavy bombardment using atmospheric N2. Syntheses of organic molecules were successful when oceanic impact event was simulated in shock-recovery experiments. On the other hand, difficulty exists to simulate various physical processes in the post-impact plume by the shock-recovery experiments. A new gas-flow glass line attached with a furnace was constructed to simulate the chemical reaction in the post impact plume. A mixture of solid carbon, iron and nickel with gold boat were placed in a furnace, and steam water and nitrogen gases were supplied to glass line continuously during the experiment. As a result, carbon monoxide, ammonia and hydrogen cyanide were detected. Yields of ammonia and carbon monoxide depend on iron concentrations in starting materials and reaction temperature respectively. It is suggested that: (1) interaction of water and iron produced hydrogen: (2) this hydrogen reacted with nitrogen then formed ammonia: and (3) interaction of water and carbon produced carbon monoxide. Because these products are very important precursors for the synthesis of biomolecules such as amino acids, results of the present study further suggest that post-impact plume might be the place suitable for various organic syntheses.

8 C-6 Development of Multi-phase and Multi-component Numerical Model for Risk Assessment on Soil Contamination due to Mineral Oil Yasuhide Sakamoto, Junko Nishiwaki, Junko Hara, Yoshishige Kawabe, Takeshi Komai National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Institute for Geo-Resources and Environment, Japan In late years, soil contamination due to mineral oil in vacant lots of oil factory and oil field has become obvious. Measure for soil contamination and risk assessment are necessary for sustainable development of industrial activity. Especially, in addition to contaminated sites, various exposure paths for human body such as well water, soil and farm crop are supposed. So it is very important to comprehend the transport phenomena of contaminated material under the environments of soil and ground water. In this study, mineral oil as contaminated material consisting of multi-component such as aliphatic and aromatic series was modeled. Then numerical model for transport phenomena in surface soil and aquifer was constructed. On the basis of modeling for mineral oil, our numerical model consists of three-phase (oil, water and gas) forty three-component. Furthermore, relative permeability as a parameter for multi-phase flow was experimentally measured and formulated as a function of specific gravity of oil and soil particle size.

9 C-7 Analyses of arsenic influx and the efflux of As-hyperaccumulating plant root Huang Yi,Takahiko Sato,Hastune Kojima.Masayoshi Hatayama,Chihiro Inoue Gradate School of Environmental Studies, Tohoku University, Japan Recently, an arsenic-hyperaccumulator, Pteris vittata, has been found from the arsenic-contaminated soil and expected to be used for phytoremediation. This fern has been shown to accumulate 22,630 mg/kg DW of arsenic into its plant body when it planted on As-spiked soil(1,500ppm). Of its arsenic accumulation, almost all of arsenic could be found in aboveground biomass. To date, some researches about uptake and accumulation of this fern have been reported, however, it is not clear about the behavior of arsenic after uptake and accumulation by the fern. In this study, we investigated arsenic efflux of Pteris vittata during and after the arsenic uptake. In hydroponic cultivation experiment, arsenic export from root was observed not only after the arsenate uptake but also during its uptake. Based on the speciation analysis of arsenic in the hydroponic culture, arsenite was considered to be the main species that is exported from the root.

10 C-8 Formation of organic molecules by the impact reactions among meteoritic minerals, water and nitrogen Yoshihiro Furukawa, Toshimori Sekine, Masahiro Oba, Takeshi Kakegawa, Hiromoto Nakazawa Department of the Earth and Planetary Materials Science, Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University, Japan Frequent impacts of extraterrestrial objects melted the embryonic Earth, forming an inorganic body with a CO2 and N2-rich atmosphere. How and when abundant organic molecules appeared in such an inorganic world are fundamental inquiries into the origin of life. Here we report a facile impact synthesis of some biomolecules and their precursors from solid carbon (13C), iron, nickel, water, and nitrogen all of which would have been available during impact events on Earth s early oceans. Geological and geochemical studies on the terrestrial, lunar and meteoritic materials suggest that such impacts were frequent on the Hadean Earth and indicate that ordinary chondrite, the most abundant meteorite, contains a substantial amount of iron-nickel and small quantities of solid carbon. Biomolecules and their precursors identified in the present shock recovery experiments are carboxylic acids (fatty acids), amines, and an amino acid. Therefore impacts of extraterrestrial objects on Hadean oceans might have prepared organic molecules in necessary abundance, variety, and complexity for life s origin, because there might be additional, as yet undetermined, products in the recovered samples and because natural impacts necessarily have greater duration and pressure than those of the experiment.

Effect of Life on the Atmosphere: The Rise of Oxygen and Ozone

Some preliminary chemistry Chapter 11 Effect of Life on the Atmosphere: The Rise of Oxygen and Ozone Chemical reactions involve the giving and taking of electrons between atoms. the nucleus is not affected