Tag-encoded pyrosequencing analysis of bacterial diversity within different alpine grassland ecosystems of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau,China

The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is sensitive to climate change, with ecosystems that are important with respect to scientific research. Here high-throughput DNA pyrosequencing was used to assess bacterial diversity within different alpine grassland ecosystems of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, China. In total, 34,759 sequences were obtained for the three ecosystems––alpine cold swamp meadow (ASM), alpine cold meadow (AM), alpine sandy grassland (ASG), and 31 phyla and a small number of unclassified bacteria were detected. The bacterial community structures were different for each alpine grassland ecosystem. The Proteobacteria and Acidobacteria were the predominant phyla in all three ecosystems. Besides this, Actinobacteria and Chloroflexi were abundant in ASM, Bacteroidetes, Gemmatimonadetes and Verrucomicrobia were abundant in AM, and Actinobacteria were abundant in ASG. In addition, the functional bacterial genera also differed with each alpine grassland ecosystem. The ASM contained more nitrifying bacteria, methane-oxidizing bacteria and sulfur- and sulfate-reducing bacteria, whereas the ASG ecosystem contained more nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Pyrosequencing provided a greater insight into bacterial diversity within different alpine grassland ecosystems than previously possible, and gave key data for the involvement of bacteria in the protection of alpine grassland ecosystems of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, China.     

Scalar Fluxes Near a Tall Building in an Aligned Array of Rectangular Buildings

Scalar dispersion from ground-level sources in arrays of buildings is investigated using wind-tunnel measurements and large-eddy simulation (LES). An array of uniform-height buildings of equal dimensions and an array with an additional single tall building (wind tunnel) or a periodically repeated tall building (LES) are considered. The buildings in the array are aligned and form long streets. The sensitivity of the dispersion pattern to small changes in wind direction is demonstrated. Vertical scalar fluxes are decomposed into the advective and turbulent parts and the influences of wind direction and of the presence of the tall building on the scalar flux components are evaluated. In the uniform-height array turbulent scalar fluxes are dominant, whereas the tall building produces an increase of the magnitude of advective scalar fluxes that yields the largest component. The presence of the tall building causes either an increase or a decrease to the total vertical scalar flux depending on the position of the source with respect to the tall building. The results of the simulations can be used to develop parametrizations for street-canyon dispersion models and enhance their capabilities in areas with tall buildings.     

Climate change and coastal flooding in Metro Boston: impacts and adaptation strategies

Sea level rise (SLR) due to climate change will increase storm surge height along the 825 km long coastline of Metro Boston, USA. Land at risk consists of urban waterfront with piers and armoring, residential areas with and without seawalls and revetments, and undeveloped land with either rock coasts or gently sloping beachfront and low-lying coastal marshes. Risk-based analysis shows that the cumulative 100 year economic impacts on developed areas from increased storm surge flooding depend heavily upon the adaptation response, location, and estimated sea level rise. Generally it is found that it is advantageous to use expensive structural protection in areas that are highly developed and less structural approaches such as floodproofing and limiting or removing development in less developed or environmentally sensitive areas.     

Estimates of gross and net fluxes of carbon between the biosphere and the atmosphere from biomass burning

In order to estimate the production of charcoal and the atmospheric emissions of trace gases volatilized by burning we have estimated the global amounts of biomass which are affected by fires. We have roughly calculated annual gross burning rates ranging between about 5 Pg and 9 Pg (1 Pg = 10¹⁵ g) of dry matter (2–4 Pg C). In comparison, about 9–17 Pg of above-ground dry matter (4–8 Pg C) is exposed to fires, indicating a worldwide average burning efficiency of about 50%. The production of dead below-ground dry matter varies between 6–9 Pg per year. We have tentatively indicated the possibility of a large production of elemental carbon (0.5–1.7 Pg C/yr) due to the incomplete combustion of biomass to charcoal. This provides a sink for atmospheric CO₂, which would have been particularly important during the past centuries. From meager statistical information and often ill-documented statements in the literature, it is extremely difficult to calculate the net carbon release rates to the atmosphere from the biomass changes which take place, especially in the tropics. All together, we calculate an overall effect lof the biosphere on the atmospheric carbon dioxide budget which may range between the possibilities of a net uptake or a net release of about 2 Pg C/yr. The release of CO₂ to the atmosphere by deforestation projects may well be balanced by reforestation and by the production of charcoal. Better information is needed, however, to make these estimates more reliable.Now at the Max-Planck-Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, FRG.The National Center for Atmospheric Research is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.     

Atmospheric effects from post-nuclear fires

During a large nuclear war, the atmosphere would be loaded with huge quantities of pollutants, which are produced by fires in urban and industrial centers, cultivated lands, forests and grasslands. Especially detrimental are the effects of light absorbing airborne particles. An analysis of the amounts of the various types of fuels which could burn in a nuclear war indicates that more than 10¹⁴ g of black smoke could be produced by fires started by the nuclear explosions. Due to this, the penetration of sunlight to the earth's surface would be reduced greatly over extended areas of the northern hemisphere, maybe even globally. This could temporarily cause extreme darkness in large areas in midlatitudes and reduce crop growth and biospheric productivity.This situation would last for several weeks and cause very anomalous meteorological conditions. Much solar radiation would be absorbed in the atmosphere instead of at the earth's surface. The land areas and lower atmosphere would, therefore, cool and the overlying atmosphere warm, creating strong vertical thermal stability in a highly polluted atmosphere. For extended periods and in large parts of the world, weather conditions would be abnormal. The resulting cold, probably freezing, temperatures at the ground would interfere severely with crop production during the growing season and cause extreme conditions for large sections of the biosphere. The combination of lack of sunlight, frost and other adverse meteorological conditions would add enormously to the already huge problems of the survivors.     

Fingerprinting of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation in climate models to aid in the design of proxy investigations

It is desirable to design proxy investigations that target regions where properties reconstructed from calibrated parameters potentially carry high-fidelity information concerning changes in large-scale climate systems. Numerical climate models can play an important role in this task, producing simulations that can be analyzed to produce spatial “fingerprints” of the expected response of various properties under a variety of different scenarios. We will introduce a new method of fingerprinting the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) that not only provides information concerning the sensitivity of the response at a given location to changes in the large-scale system, but also quantifies the linearity, monotonicity and symmetry of the response. In this way, locations that show high sensitivities to changes in the AMOC, but that exhibit, for example, strongly nonlinear behavior can be avoided during proxy investigations. To demonstrate the proposed approach we will use the example of the response of seawater temperatures to changes in the strength of the AMOC. We present results from an earth-system climate model which has been perturbed with an idealized freshwater forcing scenario in order to reduce the strength of the AMOC in a systematic manner. The seawater temperature anomalies that result from the freshwater forcing are quantified in terms of their sensitivity to the AMOC strength in addition to the linearity and monotonicity of their response. A first-order reversal curve (FORC) approach is employed to investigate and quantify the irreversibility of the temperature response to a slowing and recovering AMOC. Thus, FORCs allow the identification of areas that are unsuitable for proxy reconstructions because their temperature versus AMOC relationship lacks symmetry.     

Evolution of a Holocene banner bank controlled by morphodynamics and structural setting of a macrotidal coast: Saint-Brieuc Bay(NW-Europe)

The morphology and internal structure of the Horaine Bank(Bay of Saint-Brieuc, NW France) are described based on multibeam echosounder and high-resolution seismic datasets coupled with vibro-core data. The Horaine Bank shows large-scale bedforms in the lee of a submerged rocky shoal, which allowed defining it as a Banner Bank.The internal structure of the sandbank reveals four seismic units(U1–U4) on a Cambrian basement(U0). The basal unit U1 is interpreted as reworked lowstand fluvial sediments those infilled micro incised valleys during a rise in sea level. This unit is overlain by paleo-coastal barrier sand-spit(U2) whose development was controlled by swell in the context of a rapid rise in sea level. The successive prograding unit(U3) is interpreted as flooding deposits in continuity with unit U2. The unit U4 is characterized by oblique reflectors oriented in two opposite directions. This last unit, dated post 3500 yr BP, corresponds to migrating dunes superimposed on the bank and observable in the high-resolution bathymetric data. The strong correlation between tidal currents and the apparent clockwise migration of dune crests suggests the presence of a tidal gyre controlling the present-day dynamics of most of the Horaine bank dunes. This study proposes a new model for the construction of banner banks characterized by the gradual transition of a sand spit to a banner bank during marine transgression and ensuing hydrodynamic variability.     

A multi‐proxy record of changing environments from ca. 30 000 to 9000 cal. a BP: Onepoto maar palaeolake,Auckland, New Zealand

We present a high‐resolution record of lacustrine sedimentation spanning ca. 30 000 to 9000 cal. a BP from Onepoto maar, northern North Island, New Zealand. The multi‐proxy record of environmental change is constrained by tephrochronology and accelerator mass spectrometric ¹⁴C ages and provides evidence for episodes of rapid environmental change during the Last Glacial Coldest Period (LGCP) and Last Glacial–Interglacial Transition (LGIT) from northern New Zealand. The multi‐proxy palaeoenvironmental record from Onepoto indicates that the LGCP was cold, dry and windy in the Auckland region, with vegetation dominated by herb and grass in a beech forest mosaic between ca. 28 500 and 18 000 cal. a BP. The LGCP was accompanied by more frequent fires and influx of clastic sediment indicating increased erosion during the LGCP, with a mid‐LGCP interstadial identified between ca. 25 000 and 23 000 cal. a BP. Rapid climate amelioration at ca. 18 000 cal. a BP was accompanied by increased terrestrial biomass exemplified by the expansion of lowland podocarp forest, especially Dacrydium cupressinum. Increasing biomass production is reversed briefly by LGIT perturbations which are apparent in many of the proxies that span ca. 14 000–10 500 cal. a BP, suggesting generally increased wetness and higher in situ aquatic plant productivity with reduced terrestrial organic matter and terrigenous detrital influx. Furthermore, conditions at that time were probably warmer and frosts rare based on the increasing importance of Ascarina. The subsequent early Holocene is characterised by podocarp conifer forest and moist mild conditions. Postglacial sea‐level rise breached the crater rim and deposited 36 m of estuarine mud after ca. 9000 cal. a BP. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.