Impact of climate and CO2 on a millennium-long tree-ring carbon isotope record

We present one millennium-long (1171-year), and three 100 year long annually resolved δ¹³C tree-ring chronologies from ecologically varying Juniperus stands in the Karakorum Mountains (northern Pakistan), and evaluate their response to climatic and atmospheric CO₂ changes. All δ¹³C records show a gradual decrease since the beginning of the 19th century, which is commonly associated with a depletion of atmospheric δ¹³C due to fossil fuel burning. Climate calibration of high-frequency δ¹³C variations indicates a pronounced summer temperature signal for all sites. The low-frequency component of the same records, however, deviates from long-term temperature trends, even after correction for changes in anthropogenic CO₂. We hypothesize that these high-elevation trees show a response to both climate and elevated atmospheric CO₂ concentration and the latter might explain the offset with target temperature data. We applied several corrections to tree-ring δ¹³C records, considering a range of potential CO₂ discrimination changes over the past 150 years and calculated the goodness of fit with the target via calibration/verification tests (R², residual trend, and Durbin-Watson statistics). These tests revealed that at our sites, carbon isotope fixation on longer timescales is affected by increasing atmospheric CO₂ concentrations at a discrimination rate of about 0.012‰/ppmv. Although this statistically derived value may be site related, our findings have implications for the interpretation of any long-term trends in climate reconstructions using tree-ring δ¹³C, as we demonstrate with our millennium-long δ¹³C Karakorum record. While we find indications for warmth during the Medieval Warm Period (higher than today’s mean summer temperature), we also show that the low-frequency temperature pattern critically depends on the correction applied. Patterns of long-term climate variation, including the Medieval Warm Period, the Little Ice Age, and 20th century warmth are most similar to existing evidence when a strong influence of increased atmospheric CO₂ on plant physiology is assumed.     

Numerical simulations of granular dynamics II: Particle dynamics in a shaken granular material

Surfaces of planets and small bodies of our Solar System are often covered by a layer of granular material that can range from a fine regolith to a gravel-like structure of varying depths. Therefore, the dynamics of granular materials are involved in many events occurring during planetary and small-body evolution thus contributing to their geological properties.We demonstrate that the new adaptation of the parallel N-body hard-sphere code pkdgrav has the capability to model accurately the key features of the collective motion of bidisperse granular materials in a dense regime as a result of shaking. As a stringent test of the numerical code we investigate the complex collective ordering and motion of granular material by direct comparison with laboratory experiments. We demonstrate that, as experimentally observed, the scale of the collective motion increases with increasing small-particle additive concentration.We then extend our investigations to assess how self-gravity and external gravity affect collective motion. In our reduced-gravity simulations both the gravitational conditions and the frequency of the vibrations roughly match the conditions on asteroids subjected to seismic shaking, though real regolith is likely to be much more heterogeneous and less ordered than in our idealised simulations. We also show that collective motion can occur in a granular material under a wide range of inter-particle gravity conditions and in the absence of an external gravitational field. These investigations demonstrate the great interest of being able to simulate conditions that are to relevant planetary science yet unreachable by Earth-based laboratory experiments.     

Chemical and structural relations of epitaxial xenotime and zircon substratum in sedimentary and hydrothermal environments: a TEM study

Xenotime overgrowths on detrital zircon in siliciclastic sediments have been reported in numerous studies. However, in natural samples, solid solution of zircon and xenotime is limited to near-end-member compositions. In order to characterize the interface region between both minerals and to draw inferences on the growth mechanisms of authigenic xenotime, we studied xenotime overgrowths on detrital zircon grains from two Phanerozoic sandstone samples with contrasting post-depositional histories. In one sample, the small (≤10 μm), pyramidal xenotime overgrowths are of diagenetic origin and grew without major discontinuity on the detrital zircon grain. The second sample shows up to >50-μm-wide, porous and inclusion-rich, hydrothermal xenotime overgrowths on detrital zircon, whereas the transition zone between both minerals is accompanied by large pore volume. Chemical compositions of the xenotime precipitates from the two samples differ particularly in Y, REE, Th and Sc concentrations, whereas high MREE availability in the diagenetic sample and the presence of Sc in the hydrothermal sample, respectively, appear to have promoted xenotime growth. Transmission electron microscopy on electron-transparent foils cut from the interface region shows that both the diagenetic xenotime and the hydrothermal xenotime are crystalline and grew in optical and crystallographic continuity to their detrital zircon substrata. Only a narrow transition zone (≤90 nm—diagenetic sample, 200–300 nm—hydrothermal sample) between zircon and xenotime is in part made up of nanometre-scale crystalline domains that are slightly distorted and may have formed from dissolution–re-precipitation processes at the zircon rim along with precipitation from the respective fluid.     

Forest Beliefs in an Urbanizing World: Views on and Usage of Forest Areas Among Persons with and Without a Migration Biography in Germany and Sweden

Previous studies have shown that environmental values of inhabitants of urban areas differ to some extent from those of people living in rural contexts. In the light of increasing urbanization, it is sometimes argued that these differences are becoming even greater, as people are becoming more and more alienated from nature. In the context of a larger survey study on beliefs about forests and forest management among the general public in Germany and Sweden, the influences of people’s migration biographies on their patterns of forest usage, their environmental concerns about forests, and the expectations and values they ascribe to forests are explored. While previous findings on differences between urban and rural populations are confirmed, we also find variation within these groups depending on their history of moving between the two spatial categories. This study thus adds a dynamic aspect to the discussion on the urban–rural perspective on beliefs about forests.     

The East African Rift System and the impact of orographic changes on regional climate and the resulting aridification

Several proxy data indicate an aridification of the East African climate during the Neogene, which might be influenced by the orographic changes of the East African Rift System (EARS) induced by tectonic forcing during the last 20 million years. To investigate the impact of the orography and especially of the rifts, the regional climate model CCLM is used, covering the EARS with Lake Victoria in the centre of the model domain. CCLM is driven by the ERA-Interim reanalysis and applied with a double-nesting method resulting in a very high spatial resolution of 7 km. The resolution clearly shows the shoulders and rifts of the western and eastern branch of the EARS and the Rwenzoris within the western branch. To analyse the orographic influence on climate, a new technique of modifying the orography is used in this sensitivity study. The shoulders of the branches are lowered and the rifts are elevated, resulting in a smoothed orography structure with less altitude difference between the shoulders and rifts. The changes in 2 m-temperature are very local and associated with the changes in the orography. The vertically integrated moisture transport is characterised by less vortices, and its zonal component is increased over the branches. The resulting amount of precipitation is mainly decreased west of the western branch and increased in the rift of the western branch. In the eastern branch, however, the changes in the amount of precipitation are not significant. The changes in the precipitation and temperature patterns lead to a shift of biomes towards a vegetation coverage characterised by more humid conditions in the northern part of the model domain and more arid conditions in the South. Thus, the aridification found in the proxy data can be attributed to the orographic changes of the rifts only in the northern model domain.     

Molecular investigations into pollutant impact on roundnose grenadier (C. rupestris) and transplanted common mussel (M. edulis) in Skagerrak, the North Sea

The use of a suite of different biochemical markers in the deep sea fish Roundnose grenadier and caged common mussels, and analyses of contaminant levels in the mussels, indicate that Skagerrak are more polluted than waters around the Faroe Islands. In Roundnose, induction of ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylase (EROD) is consistent with increased benzo(a)pyrene hydroxylase (BPH) in mussels and elevated levels of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in mussels and sediment from Skagerrak. This evidence of a large-scale environmental impact of pollutants should lead to further efforts to decrease transport into, and deposition of, waste compounds in the Skagerrak area.