The impact of sea level rise and climate change on inshore wave climate: A case study for East Anglia (UK)

In coastal areas, offshore wave propagation towards the shore is influenced by water depth variations, due to sea bed bathymetry, tides and surges. Considering implications of climate change both on atmospheric forcing and sea level rise, a simple methodology involving numerical modelling is implemented to compute inshore waves from 1960 to 2099. Simulations take into account five scenarios of linear sea level rise and one climatic scenario for storm surges and offshore waves. The methodology is applied to the East Anglia coast (UK). Extreme event analysis is performed to estimate climate change implication on inshore waves and the occurrence of extreme events. It is shown, for this coastal region, that wave statistics are sensitive to the trend in sea level rise, and that the climate change scenario leads to a significant increase of extreme wave heights in the northern part of the domain. For nearshore points, the increase of the mean sea level alters not only extreme wave heights but also the frequency of occurrence of extreme wave conditions.     

Effects of the MV Rena oil spill on intertidal rocky reefs in the Bay of Plenty,New Zealand

In the weeks following the 2011 Rena oil spill, a series of surveys was initiated on eight rocky intertidal reefs to describe the distribution of oil and to assess the impacts of oil on ecological communities. Consistent but relatively low cover of oil occurred at two sites (Mt Maunganui and Moturiki). The area covered by oil had decreased by c. 90% after 5 months due to natural weathering processes. There were immediate effects of oil fouling on the mussel Limnoperna pulex and its associated fauna, with reductions in the number of mussels and infaunal taxonomic richness. However, no ecological effects on any of the communities were detectable after 1 month. Overall, the ecological effects of the Rena oil spill on rocky shore intertidal communities were small and not long-lasting, but we stress that this does not consider potential sublethal effects and their consequences on organisms.     

Analysis of a prehistoric Egyptian iron bead with implications for the use and perception of meteorite iron in ancient Egypt

Tube‐shaped beads excavated from grave pits at the prehistoric Gerzeh cemetery, approximately 3300 BCE, represent the earliest known use of iron in Egypt. Using a combination of scanning electron microscopy and micro X‐ray microcomputer tomography, we show that microstructural and chemical analysis of a Gerzeh iron bead is consistent with a cold‐worked iron meteorite. Thin fragments of parallel bands of taenite within a meteoritic Widmanstätten pattern are present, with structural distortion caused by cold‐working. The metal fragments retain their original chemistry of approximately 30 wt% nickel. The bulk of the bead is highly oxidized, with only approximately 2.4% of the total bead volume remaining as metal. Our results show that the first known example of the use of iron in Egypt was produced from a meteorite, its celestial origin having implications for both the perception of meteorite iron by ancient Egyptians and the development of metallurgical knowledge in the Nile Valley.     

The AVOID programme’s new simulations of the global benefits of stringent climate change mitigation

Quantitative simulations of the global-scale benefits of climate change mitigation are presented, using a harmonised, self-consistent approach based on a single set of climate change scenarios. The approach draws on a synthesis of output from both physically-based and economics-based models, and incorporates uncertainty analyses. Previous studies have projected global and regional climate change and its impacts over the 21st century but have generally focused on analysis of business-as-usual scenarios, with no explicit mitigation policy included. This study finds that both the economics-based and physically-based models indicate that early, stringent mitigation would avoid a large proportion of the impacts of climate change projected for the 2080s. However, it also shows that not all the impacts can now be avoided, so that adaptation would also therefore be needed to avoid some of the potential damage. Delay in mitigation substantially reduces the percentage of impacts that can be avoided, providing strong new quantitative evidence for the need for stringent and prompt global mitigation action on greenhouse gas emissions, combined with effective adaptation, if large, widespread climate change impacts are to be avoided. Energy technology models suggest that such stringent and prompt mitigation action is technologically feasible, although the estimated costs vary depending on the specific modelling approach and assumptions.     

Palaeogeography and diachronous infill of an ancient deep‐marine foreland basin,Upper Cretaceous Cerro Toro Formation,Magallanes Basin

The details of how narrow, orogen‐parallel ocean basins are filled with sediment by large axial submarine channels is important to understand because these depositional systems commonly form in through‐like basins in various tectonic settings. The Magallanes foreland basin is an excellent location to study an orogen‐parallel deep‐marine system. Conglomerate lenses of the Upper Cretaceous Cerro Toro Formation have been previously interpreted to represent the fill of a single submarine channel (4–8 km wide, >100 km long) that funneled coarse detritus southward along the basin axis. This interpretation was based on lithologic correlations. New U/Pb dating of zircons from volcanic ashes and sandstones, coupled with strontium isotope stratigraphy, refine the controls on depositional ages and provenance. Results demonstrate that north‐south oriented conglomerate lenses are contemporaneous within error limits (ca. 84–82 Ma) supporting that they represent parts of an axial channel belt. Channel deposits 20 km west of the axial location are 87–82 Ma in age. These channels are partly contemporaneous with the ones within the axial channel belt, making it likely that they represent feeders to the axial channel system. The northern Cerro Toro Formation spans a Turonian to Campanian interval (ca. 90–82 Ma) whereas the formation top, 70 km to the south, is as young as ca. 76 Ma. Kolmogorov–Smirnoff statistical analysis on detrital zircon age distributions shows that the northern uppermost Cerro Toro Formation yields a statistically different age distribution than other samples from the same formation but shows no difference relative to the overlying Tres Pasos Formation. These results suggest the partly coeval deposition of both formations. Integration of previously acquired geochronologic and stratigraphic data with new data show a pronounced southward younging pattern in all four marine formations in the Magallanes Basin. Highly diachronous infilling may be an important depositional pattern for narrow, orogen‐parallel ocean basins.     

Sedentary urchins influence benthic community composition below the macroalgal zone

Sea urchins are important ecosystem engineers in subtidal ecosystems worldwide, providing biogenic structure and altering nutrient dynamics through intensive grazing and drift algal capture. The current work evaluates red urchin (Strongylocentrotus franciscanus) density on fixed transects through time, individual displacement, and urchin‐associated benthic community composition using a field‐based approach at multiple depths (in and outside of the macroalgal zone) and replicated across sites in the San Juan Archipelago, Washington. Urchins exhibited no large‐scale, temporal or directional changes in density among depths. Furthermore, 87% of individual urchins observed in repeated small‐scale surveys over 3 weeks exhibited no change in position. Individual displacement was negatively correlated to drift algal capture. Evidence of sedentary behavior from the displacement surveys was supported by the sessile and mobile community composition in areas directly under versus adjacent to (control) urchins. The benthos under urchins had a higher percentage of bare space, crustose coralline algae, and increased density of snails, crabs and shrimp relative to associated control plots. Abundance of mobile organisms associating with urchins increased relative to control plots at the deepest survey depth (30 m), indicating a greater strength of interaction with distance from macroalgal production. This work presents evidence of food availability‐related behavior in red urchins and indicates that even when sedentary, urchins have a strong influence on ecosystem structure through increasing availability of shelter and macroalgal detritus to the benthos.     

Direct comparison of UK temperatures and Greenland snow accumulation rates, 15000—12000 yr ago

A palaeotemperature record based on fossil coleopteran evidence and dated by accelerator mass spectroscopy (AMS) ¹⁴C determinations on plant macrofossils has been obtained for the last glacial-interglacial transition from the site of Gransmoor in eastern England. Calibration of the radiocarbon measurements enabled a direct comparison to be made between this palaeotemperature curve and the snow accumulation record from the GISP-2 Greenland ice-core. The similarity between the two data sets suggests a degree of correspondence in the pattern and timing of climatic change in Greenland and the British Isles at the end of the last cold stage.     

Preliminary Sunyaev–Zel'dovich observations of galaxy clusters with OCRA-p

We present 30-GHz Sunyaev–Zel'dovich (SZ) observations of a sample of four galaxy clusters with a prototype of the One Centimetre Receiver Array (OCRA-p) which is mounted on the Torun 32-m telescope. The clusters (Cl 0016+16, MS 0451.6–0305, MS 1054.4–0321 and Abell 2218) are popular SZ targets and serve as commissioning observations. All four are detected with clear significance  (4 –6σ)  and values for the central temperature decrement are in good agreement with measurements reported in the literature. We believe that systematic effects are successfully suppressed by our observing strategy. The relatively short integration times required to obtain these results demonstrate the power of OCRA-p and its successors for future SZ studies.     

Dating the Kawakawa/Oruanui eruption: Comment on “Optical luminescence dating of a loess section containing a critical tephra marker horizon,SW North Island of New Zealand” by R. Grapes et al.

An IRSL age of 17.0 ± 2.2 ka (and a “mean age” of ca. 19 ka) reported by Grapes et al. [Grapes, R., Rieser, U., Wang, N. Optical luminescence dating of a loess section containing a critical tephra marker horizon, SW North Island of New Zealand. Quaternary Geochronology 5(2-3), 164–169.] for the Kawakawa/Oruanui tephra, and other ages associated with a loess section in New Zealand are untenable: age data presented are inconsistent, no formal statistical treatments or error determinations were undertaken in age analysis, and the ages proposed are seriously at odds with multiple radiocarbon age determinations on tephra sequences bracketing the Kawakawa/Oruanui tephra and with palaeoenvironmental evidence elsewhere for the time period concerned. We suggest that the bulk polymineral IRSL ages on the tephra and encapsulating loess deposits were underestimated in part because of contamination of the loess by the integration of younger materials during slow deposition and continuous modification by upbuilding pedogenesis. Single-grain luminescence assays may reveal such contamination. A ¹⁴C-based age of ca. 27 ± 1 ka cal BP (2σ), reported in 2008, currently remains the best estimate for the age of eruption of the Kawakawa/Oruanui tephra.