A Model for Holocene Retreat of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet

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Abstract

Marine ice sheets are grounded on land which was below sea level before it became depressed under the ice-sheet load. They are inherently unstable and, because of bedrock topography after depression, the collapse of a marine ice sheet may be very rapid. In this paper equations are derived that can be used to make a quantitative estimate of the maximum size of a marine ice sheet and of when and how rapidly retreat would take place under prescribed conditions. Ice-sheet growth is favored by falling sea level and uplift of the seabed. In most cases the buttressing effect of a partially grounded ice shelf is a prerequisite for maximum growth out to the edge of the continental shelf. Collapse is triggered most easily by eustatic rise in sea level, but it is possible that the ice sheet may self-destruct by depressing the edge of the continental shelf so that sea depth is increased at the equilibrium grounding line.

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Heterologous production of different styrene oxide isomerases for the highly efficient synthesis of phenylacetaldehyde.

Michel Oelschlägel, Lysann Richter, Anna Stuhr … (2017)

The styrene oxide isomerase (SOI, StyC) represents a key enzyme of the styrene-degrading pathway and has been discussed as promising biocatalyst during recent studies. The enzyme enables the synthesis of pure phenylacetaldehyde from styrene oxide. In this study the native as well as the corresponding codon-optimized genes of three different SOIs from Rhodococcus opacus 1CP (StyC-1CP), Sphingopyxis fribergensis Kp5.2 (StyC-Kp5.2), and Pseudomonas fluorescens ST (StyC-ST) were investigated for the expression in Escherichia coli BL21(DE3)pLysS. Specific enzyme activities of 61.9±7.5Umg(-1), 23.2±2.8Umg(-1), and 10.9±1.2Umg(-1) were achieved after 6-9h for the codon-optimized gene of strain 1CP and the native genes of Kp5.2 and ST, respectively. Afterwards, these enzymes were enriched and applied for biotransformation studies. A complete conversion of 150mM styrene oxide to phenylacetaldehyde was observed for the enzyme StyC-Kp5.2 indicating a significantly improved stability towards product inactivation. Remarkably, more than 300mM product (>36gL(-1), yield of about 80%) were finally synthesized from 400mM substrate with 150U of this enzyme within 60-120min. This represents the highest product concentration which has been reached with this type of enzymes, so far.

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Sea Levels during the Past 35,000 Years.

Eduardo Emery, Eric Milliman (1968)

A sea-level curve of the past 35,000 years for the Atlantic continental shelf of the United States is based on more than 80 radiocarbon dates, 15 of which are older than 15,000 years. Materials include shallow-water mollusks, oolites, coralline algae, beachrock, and salt-marsh peat. Sea level 30,000 to 35,000 years ago was near the present one. Subsequent glacier growth lowered sea level to about -130 meters 16,000 years ago. Holocene transgression probably began about 14,000 years ago, and continued rapidly to about 7000 years ago. Dates from most shelves of the world agree with this curve, suggesting that it is approximately the eustatic curve for the period.