Pilot-Scale Electrochemical Treatment of a 1,4-Dioxane Source Zone

Electrochemical treatment is a promising emerging technology in which direct current is applied to drive the degradation of aqueous contaminants. Several bench-scale studies have demonstrated the capability of electrochemical oxidation to fully mineralize refractory organics such as pesticides and perfluorinated compounds. However, insights into large-scale design and field performance are critically lacking. Here, we designed six pilot-scale reactors and tested their performance and efficiency for the treatment of groundwater contaminated with 1,4-dioxane (1,4-DX) at concentrations exceeding 1000 mg/L. Anode surface area-normalized degradation rates increased with increasing potential applied, while the process was more energy-efficient per mass unit removed at low potentials. While not all 1,4-DX was completely mineralized, the detected ring-opening intermediates are known to be readily biodegradable. Analyses of potential by-products from chloride oxidation revealed the generation of chloromethanes and perchlorate at low mg/L concentrations. Towards the end of the 8.5-month pilot test, decreasing currents and degradation rates indicated progressing passivation of the electrodes, likely due to cathodic carbonate precipitation and/or poisoning by the uniquely high organic carbon load of this source zone groundwater. The findings of our study demonstrate that electrochemical groundwater remediation is a capable approach for the treatment of persistent organic pollutants. Our pilot-scale test provides practitioners with a basis for evaluating its efficiency under site-specific conditions and collecting critical performance metrics for technology scale-up.     

A multi-model comparison of Atlantic multidecadal variability

A multi-model analysis of Atlantic multidecadal variability is performed with the following aims: to investigate the similarities to observations; to assess the strength and relative importance of the different elements of the mechanism proposed by Delworth et al. (J Clim 6:1993–2011, 1993) (hereafter D93) among coupled general circulation models (CGCMs); and to relate model differences to mean systematic error. The analysis is performed with long control simulations from ten CGCMs, with lengths ranging between 500 and 3600 years. In most models the variations of sea surface temperature (SST) averaged over North Atlantic show considerable power on multidecadal time scales, but with different periodicity. The SST variations are largest in the mid-latitude region, consistent with the short instrumental record. Despite large differences in model configurations, we find quite some consistency among the models in terms of processes. In eight of the ten models the mid-latitude SST variations are significantly correlated with fluctuations in the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC), suggesting a link to northward heat transport changes. Consistent with this link, the three models with the weakest AMOC have the largest cold SST bias in the North Atlantic. There is no linear relationship on decadal timescales between AMOC and North Atlantic Oscillation in the models. Analysis of the key elements of the D93 mechanisms revealed the following: Most models present strong evidence that high-latitude winter mixing precede AMOC changes. However, the regions of wintertime convection differ among models. In most models salinity-induced density anomalies in the convective region tend to lead AMOC, while temperature-induced density anomalies lead AMOC only in one model. However, analysis shows that salinity may play an overly important role in most models, because of cold temperature biases in their relevant convective regions. In most models subpolar gyre variations tend to lead AMOC changes, and this relation is strong in more than half of the models.     

Interdecadal North-Atlantic meridional overturning circulation variability in EC-EARTH

The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) in a 600?years pre-industrial run of the newly developed EC-EARTH model features marked interdecadal variability with a dominant time-scale of 50–60?years. An oscillation of approximately 2 Sverdrup (1?Sv?=?10⁶?m³?s^?1) is identified, which manifests itself as a monopole causing the overturning to simultaneously strengthen (/weaken) and deepen (/shallow) as a whole. Eight years before the AMOC peaks, density in the Labrador-Irminger Sea region reaches a maximum, triggering deep water formation. This density change is caused by a counterclockwise advection of temperature and salinity anomalies at lower latitudes, which we relate to the north-south excursions of the subpolar-subtropical gyre boundary and variations in strength and position of the subpolar gyre and the North Atlantic Current. The AMOC fluctuations are not directly forced by the atmosphere, but occur in a delayed response of the ocean to forcing by the North Atlantic Oscillation, which initiates “intergyre”-gyre fluctuations. Associated with the AMOC is a 60-year sea surface temperature variability in the Atlantic, with a pattern and timescale showing similarities with the real-world Atlantic Multidecadal Variability. This good agreement with observations lends a certain degree of credibility that the mechanism that is described in this article could be seen as representative of the real climate system.     

Modelling environmentally friendly fairways using Lagrangian trajectories: a case study for the Gulf of Finland,the Baltic Sea

We address possibilities of minimising environmental risks using statistical features of current-driven propagation of adverse impacts to the coast. The recently introduced method for finding the optimum locations of potentially dangerous activities (Soomere et al. in Proc Estonian Acad Sci 59:156–165, 2010) is expanded towards accounting for the spatial distributions of probabilities and times for reaching the coast for passively advecting particles released in different sea areas. These distributions are calculated using large sets of Lagrangian trajectories found from Eulerian velocity fields provided by the Rossby Centre Ocean Model with a horizontal resolution of 2 nautical miles for 1987–1991. The test area is the Gulf of Finland in the northeastern Baltic Sea. The potential gain using the optimum fairways from the Baltic Proper to the eastern part of the gulf is an up to 44% decrease in the probability of coastal pollution and a similar increase in the average time for reaching the coast. The optimum fairways are mostly located to the north of the gulf axis (by 2–8 km on average) and meander substantially in some sections. The robustness of this approach is quantified as the typical root mean square deviation (6–16 km) between the optimum fairways specified from different criteria. Drastic variations in the width of the ‘corridors’ for almost optimal fairways (2–30 km for the average width of 15 km) signifies that the sensitivity of the results with respect to small changes in the environmental criteria largely varies in different parts of the gulf.     

Unforeseen importance of historical collections as baselines to determine biotic change of coral reefs: the Saba Bank case

Botanical and zoological collections may serve as archives for historical ecological research on the effects of global change and human impact on coral reef biota. Museum collections may harbour old specimens of reef‐dwelling species that have become locally extinct. Such collections also help to determine whether early records of invasive species can be obtained from times when they were not yet recognized as such. A case study (2006) involving Saba Bank, Caribbean Netherlands (former Netherlands Antilles), suggests that the coral reef fauna here may have become impoverished when compared with data obtained during an earlier expedition in 1972. However, the 1972 sampling may have been incomplete, as it was performed by professional divers who were not trained taxonomists, whereas the collecting in 2006 was done by experienced marine biologists who knew the taxa they were sampling. As Saba Bank has been under stress due to the anchoring of large vessels, and invasive species have been a potential threat as well, future studies are needed to obtain more insights into the changing reef biota of Saba Bank. Using this Saba Bank example, we want to address the importance of natural history collections as reservoirs of valuable data relevant to coral reef biodiversity studies in a time of global change. As such, these collections are still underexplored and underexploited.     

Challenges From Solid Earth Dynamics for Satellite Gravity Field Missions in the Post-Goce Era

Examples from four main categories of solid-earth deformation processes are discussed for which the GOCE and GRACE satellite gravity missions will not provide a high enough spatial or temporal resolution or a sufficient accuracy. Quasi-static and episodic solid-earth deformation would benefit from a new satellite gravity mission that would provide a higher combined spatial and temporal resolution. Seismic and core periodic motions would benefit from a new satellite mission that would be able to detect gravity variations with a higher temporal resolution combined with very high accuracies.     

Transient response of a thick beam of bimodular material

Certain materials have different elastic behaviour when they are loaded in tension as compared to compression. As an engineering approximation, they are usually modelled as a bimodular material, i.e. a bilinear material having different Young's moduli in tension and in compression. All of the previous analyses of bimodular beams known to the present investigators have been concerned with either static loading or harmonic vibration. Thus, the present work is believed to be the first to consider transient response of such beams. The transfer-matrix method is used to discretize spatially, while the timewise discretization is accomplished by use of the Newmark beta method.     

Climate variability and physical forcing of the food webs and the carbon budget on panarctic shelves

Brief overviews of the Arctic’s atmosphere, ice cover, circulation, primary production and sediment regime are given to provide a conceptual framework for considering panarctic shelves under scenarios of climate variability. We draw on past ‘regional’ studies to scale-up to the panarctic perspective. Within each discipline a synthesis of salient distributions and processes is given, and then functions are noted that are critically poised and/or near transition and thereby sensitive to climate variability and change. The various shelf regions are described and distinguished among three types: inflow shelves, interior shelves and outflow shelves. Emphasis is on projected climate changes that will likely have the greatest impact on shelf-basin exchange, productivity and sediment processes including (a) changes in wind fields (e.g. currents, ice drift, upwelling and downwelling); (b) changes in sea ice distribution (e.g. radiation and wind regimes, enhanced upwelling and mixing, ice transport and scour resuspension, primary production); and (c) changes in hydrology (e.g. sediment and organic carbon delivery, nutrient supplies). A discussion is given of the key rate-controlling processes, which differ for different properties and shelf types, as do the likely responses; that is, the distributions of nutrients, organic carbon, freshwater, sediments, and trace minerals will all respond differently to climate forcing.A fundamental conclusion is that the changes associated with light, nutrients, productivity and ice cover likely will be greatest at the shelf-break and margins, and that this forms a natural focus for a coordinated international effort. Recognizing that the real value of climate research is to prepare society for possible futures, and that such research must be based both on an understanding of the past (e.g. the palaeo-record) as well as an ability to reliably predict future scenarios (e.g. validated models), two recommendations emerge: firstly, a comprehensive survey of circumpolar shelf-break and slope sediments would provide long-term synchronous records of shelf-interior ocean exchange and primary production at the shelf edge; secondly, a synoptic panarctic ice and ocean survey using heavy icebreakers, aircraft, moorings and satellites would provide the validation data and knowledge required to properly model key forcing processes at the margins.     

Current estimates of freshwater flux through Arctic and subarctic seas

As the world warms, the expectation is that the freshwater outflows from the Arctic Ocean to the North Atlantic will strengthen and may act to suppress the rate of the climatically-important Atlantic meridional overturning circulation. Hitherto, however, we have lacked the system of measurements required to estimate the totality of the freshwater flux through subarctic seas. Though observations remain patchy and rudimentary in places, we piece-together the results from recent large-scale observational programmes together with associated modelling, to establish preliminary maps of the rates and pathways of freshwater flux through subarctic seas. These fluxes are calculated according to two reference salinities, S = 34.8 to conform with the majority of estimates reported in the literature, and S = 35.2, the salinity of the inflowing Atlantic water, to calculate the freshwater balance of the ‘Arctic Mediterranean’. We find that 148 mSv of freshwater enters the Nordic Seas across its northern boundary. There it is supplemented by around 54 mSv of freshwater from Baltic runoff, Norwegian runoff, P − E and Greenland ice melt, so that the total freshwater contribution to the Nordic Seas from all sources is 202 mSv. Of this, around 51 mSv of freshwater is estimated to pass south to the deep Atlantic in the dense water overflows leaving an assumed balance of 151 mSv to leave the Nordic Seas in the upper water export through Denmark Strait. The corresponding estimate for the freshwater outflow west of Greenland is 103 mSv relative to 35.2 so that the total freshwater flux reaching the North Atlantic through subarctic seas is around 300 mSv.