The hydrothermal sediments of Guaymas Basin, an active spreading center in the Gulf of California (Mexico), are rich in porewater methane, short-chain alkanes, sulfate and sulfide, and provide a model system to explore habitat preferences of microorganisms, including sulfate-dependent, methane- and short chain alkane-oxidizing microbial communities. In this study, hot sediments (above 60°C) cov...

Recent concern about survival and recovery of highelevation white pine ecosystems has returned white pine blister rust (caused by Cronartium ribicola) to prominence as a significant threat to forest health in the western U.S. (Samman et al., 2003). This, in turn, has spurred new research into potential rustresistance mechanisms in high-elevation white pines, including whitebark (Pinus albicauli...

Unconventional shale-gas plays are formed by fine-grained organic-rich shales of tight-porosity and ultralow permeability which act as the source, seal, and the reservoir rock. The shale-as-reservoir has its beginnings in 1820 but commercial shale-gas wells were drilled in 1990s in Mississippian Barnett Shale of USA by Mitchell Energy after prolonged (about 17 years) experimentations and advanc...

Hydrothermal vent communities are distributed along mid-ocean spreading ridges as isolated patches. While distance is a key factor influencing connectivity among sites, habitat characteristics are also critical. The Pescadero Basin (PB) and Alarcón Rise (AR) vent fields, recently discovered in the southern Gulf of California, are bounded by previously known vent localities (e.g. Guaymas Basin a...

One of the efficient factors in comprehensive development of an area is to provide water sources and on the other hand the appropriate management of them. Population growth and nourishment security for such a population necessitate the achievement of constant development besides the reforming of traditional management in order to increase the profit of sources; In this case, the constant exploi...

Introduction Precipitation is one of the major factors in the water balance of a catchment and as such the water cycle is most sensitive to changes in rainfall (Petheram et al. 2002). In sub-humid, semi-arid and arid regions, evapotranspiration is the second largest component of the water balance, and is affected not only by the availability of water but also by any change in other aspects of c...

The ability to determine the pyrrolic nitrogen compounds, which present in trace quantities in oils, exhibit changes in both absolute and relative concentrations that correlate with migration distance. Such molecules appear promising as empirical but quantitative indicators of the relative distances of oils and present a first step towards true source to oil reservoir distance indicators. Quant...

The Maroni basin, an isolated region delineating the border between Suriname and French Guiana has been affected by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic 10 years after coastal French Guiana. However, the rise in HIV prevalence was sharp, exceeding 1% within 10 years. The aim of the present study is to compare, using the first quantitative data from the general population in remote vi...