Distribution and characteristics of marine habitats in a subpolar bay based on hydroacoustics and bed shear stress estimates—Potter Cove,King George Island,Antarctica

Marine habitats worldwide are increasingly pressurized by climate change, especially along the Antarctic Peninsula. Well-studied areas in front of rapidly retreating tidewater glaciers like Potter Cove are representative for similar coastal environments and, therefore, shed light on habitat formation and development on not only a local but also regional scale. The objective of this study was to provide insights into habitat distribution in Potter Cove, King George Island, Antarctica, and to evaluate the associated environmental processes. Furthermore, an assessment concerning the future development of the habitats is provided. To describe the seafloor habitats in Potter Cove, an acoustic seabed discrimination system (RoxAnn) was used in combination with underwater video images and sediment samples. Due to the absence of wave and current measurements in the study area, bed shear stress estimates served to delineate zones prone to sediment erosion. On the basis of the investigations, two habitat classes were identified in Potter Cove, namely soft-sediment and stone habitats that, besides influences from sediment supply and coastal morphology, are controlled by sediment erosion. A future expansion of the stone habitat is predicted if recent environmental change trends continue. Possible implications for the Potter Cove environment, and other coastal ecosystems under similar pressure, include changes in biomass and species composition.     

Benthic foraminiferal distribution and sedimentary structures suggest tectonic erosion at the Costa Rica convergent plate margin

ABSTRACT Distribution patterns of benthic foraminiferal faunas from ODP Leg 170 Sites 1041 and 1042 show that the Costa Rican convergent margin subsided from coastal to abyssal depth from Middle Miocene to Present. This favours the model of a margin undergoing active subduction erosion. We propose that subduction erosion leads to the removal of material from the base of the forearc wedge and, as a consequence, to progressive subsidence of the forearc. A mean subsidence rate is estimated to be approximately 0.4 mm yr⁻¹.     

Winter-to-spring temperature dynamics in Turkey derived from tree rings since AD 1125

In the eastern Mediterranean in general and in Turkey in particular, temperature reconstructions based on tree rings have not been achieved so far. Furthermore, centennial-long chronologies of stable isotopes are generally also missing. Recent studies have identified the tree species Juniperus excelsa as one of the most promising tree species in Turkey for developing long climate sensitive stable carbon isotope chronologies because this species is long-living and thus has the ability to capture low-frequency climate signals. We were able to develop a statistically robust, precisely dated and annually resolved chronology back to AD 1125. We proved that variability of δ¹³C in tree rings of J. excelsa is mainly dependent on winter-to-spring temperatures (January–May). Low-frequency trends, which were associated with the medieval warm period and the little ice age, were identified in the winter-to-spring temperature reconstruction, however, the twentieth century warming trend found elsewhere could not be identified in our proxy record, nor was it found in the corresponding meteorological data used for our study. Comparisons with other northern-hemispherical proxy data showed that similar low-frequency signals are present until the beginning of the twentieth century when the other proxies derived from further north indicate a significant warming while the winter-to-spring temperature proxy from SW-Turkey does not. Correlation analyses including our temperature reconstruction and seven well-known climate indices suggest that various atmospheric oscillation patterns are capable of influencing the temperature variations in SW-Turkey.     

An ESA NEOCC Effort to Eliminate High Palermo Scale Virtual Impactors

In this work we summarize the initial results of a targeted effort of the ESA NEO Coordination Centre to obtain additional observational data in order to eliminate or reduce the impact probability estimate of a subset of the known near-Earth objects representing the highest fraction of the total known impact risk, as measured by the Palermo Scale.     

Solar irradiance below 120 nm and its variations

The solar irradiance below 120 nm was first predicted by astronomers. Since its accurate measurement required the solution of a variety of technological problems, little is known about the variability before 1972, though for more than two decades data have been collected. Therefore, on a quantitative basis only a very rough picture can be given for the solar cycle 19. Also, not enough data with sufficient absolute accuracy are available to describe the solar EUV flux variations of the solar cycle 20, especially during the period of solar maximum. However, due to technological improvements of space and laboratory instrumentations, an almost complete set of data has been obtained from 1972 to date. These observations exhibit strong differences of the flux variations from solar cycle 20 to 21. - For the theoretical and for semi-empirical treatments of many aeronomic processes controlled by the solar EUV radiation, its adequate representation e.g. as indices is required. The problems involved and possible solutions are discussed. Results from some relevant aeronomically oriented computations based on variable solar EUV fluxes are presented.Proceedings of the 14th ESLAB Symposium on Physics of Solar Variations, 16–19 September 1980, Scheveningen, The Netherlands.