Ozone structure over the equatorial Andes from balloon-borne observations and zonal connection with two tropical sea level sites

In this paper we present first-time measurements of ozone profiles from a high altitude station in Quito, Ecuador (0.19°S, 78.4°W, and 2391 masl) taken from June 2014 to September 2015. We interpret ozone observations in the troposphere, tropopause, and stratosphere through a zonal comparison with data from stations in the Atlantic and Pacific (Natal and San Cristobal from the SHADOZ network). Tropospheric ozone concentrations above the Andes are lower than ozone over San Cristobal and Natal for similar time periods. Ozone variability and pollution layers are also reduced in the troposphere above the Andes. We explain these differences in terms of reduced contributions from the boundary layer and from horizontal transport. In the tropical tropopause layer, ozone is well-mixed up to near the cold point tropopause level. In this regard, our profiles do not show constraints to deep mixing above 14 km, as has been consistently observed at other tropical stations. Total column ozone and stratospheric column ozone are comparable among the three sites. However, the contribution of tropospheric column ozone to total column ozone is significantly lower above the Andes. Our comparisons provide a connection between observations from tropical stations in equatorial South America separated by the wide continental mass. Identified differences in ozone throughout the atmospheric column demonstrate the global benefit of having an ozone sounding station at the equatorial Andes in support of global monitoring networks.     

Climate change adaptation of coffee production in space and time

Savannas constitute the most fire-prone vegetation type on earth and are a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions. Most savanna fires are lit by people for a variety of livelihood applications. ‘Savanna burning’ is an accountable activity under the Kyoto Protocol, but only Australia, as a developed economy, accounts for emissions from this source in its national accounts. Over the past decade considerable effort has been given to developing savanna burning projects in northern Australia, combining customary indigenous (Aboriginal) approaches to landscape-scale fire management with development of scientifically robust emissions accounting methodologies. Formal acceptance by the Australian Government of that methodology, and its inclusion in Australia’s developing emissions trading scheme, paves the way for Aboriginal people to commercially benefit from savanna burning projects. The paper first describes this Australian experience, and then explores options for implementing community-based savanna burning emissions reduction projects in other continental savanna settings, specifically in Namibia and Venezuela. These latter examples illustrate that savanna fire management approaches potentially have broader application for contributing to livelihood opportunities in other fire-prone savanna regions.     

The impacts of a plume-rise scheme on earth system modeling: climatological effects of biomass aerosols on the surface temperature and energy budget of South America

Theoretical and Applied Climatology - Seasonal forest fires in the Amazon are the largest source of pollutants in South America. The impacts of aerosols due to biomass burning on the temperature...     

The influence of elevation on soil properties and forest litter in the Siliceous Moncayo Massif,SW Europe

Understanding the effects of elevation and related factors (climate, vegetation) on the physical and chemical soil properties can help to predict changes in response to future climate or afforestation forcings. This work aims to contribute to the knowledge of soil evolution and the classification of forest soils in relation to elevation in the montane stage, with special attention to podzolization and humus forms. The northern flank of the Moncayo Massif (Iberian Range, SW Europe) provides a unique opportunity to study a forest soils catena within a consistent quartzitic parent material over a relatively steep elevation gradient. With increasing elevation, pH, base saturation, exchangeable potassium, and fine silt-sized particles decrease significantly, while organic matter, the C/N ratio, soil aggregate stability, water repellency and coarse sand-sized particles increase significantly. The soil profiles shared a set of properties in all horizons: loamy-skeletal particle-size, extreme acidity (pH-H₂O<5.6) and low base saturation (<50%). The most prevalent soil forming processes in the catena include topsoil organic matter accumulation and even podzolization, which increases with elevation. From the upper to lower landscape positions of wooded montane stage of the Moncayo Massif, mull-moder-mor humus and an Umbrisol-Cambisol-Podzol soil unit sequences were found.     

Closing down bars in the inner city centre: Informal urban planning,civil insecurity and subjectivity in Bolivia

The paper presents an ethnographic analysis of a group of secondary school students' protests against (illegal) bars in the city centre of El Alto, Bolivia. It shows how informal and formal practices are entangled through the state's dependence on the (illegal) actions of the citizenry in order to ensure civil security. The paper suggests that urban intervention is coproduced by state and nonstate actors at the margins of the state and that urban transformation entails subject formation, in this case that of political youth. Following Hansen and Verkaaik's (2009) argument that the city is essentially multilayered and unknowable, I argue that urban life, as well as state‐citizen relations, is indeterminate, and that it is due to this indeterminacy that the students succeeded in transforming a common association between Alteño youth, alcohol consumption and potential criminal conduct into an alternative notion of youth as responsible citizens of the New Bolivia. This conceptualization permits us to understand the urban sphere as a space not only of conflict but also of endurance and hope, and hence as a zone that allows for the imaginative production of the otherwise (Povinelli, 2011).     

The planet Jupiter

Summary. The exploration of Jupiter, the closest and biggest giant planet, has provided key information about the origin and evolution of the outer Solar system. Our knowledge has strongly benefited from the Voyager and Galileo space missions. We now have a good understanding of Jupiter's thermal structure, chemical composition and magnetospheric environment. There is still debate about the nature of the heating source responsible for the high thermospheric temperatures (precipitating particles and/or gravity waves). The measurement of elemental abundance ratios (C/H, N/H, S/H) gives strong support to the “nucleation” formation model, according to which giant planets formed from the accretion of an initial core and the collapse of the surrounding gaseous protosolar nebula. The D/H and He/He ratios are found to be representative of their protosolar value. The helium abundance, in contrast, appears to be slightly depleted in the outer envelope with respect to the protosolar value; this departure is interpreted as an evolutionary effect, due to the condensation of helium droplets in the liquid hydrogen ocean inside Jupiter's interior. The cloud structure of Jupiter, characterized by the belt-zone system, is globally understood; also present are specific features like regions of strong infrared radiation (“hot spots”), colder regions (“white ovals”) and the Great Red Spot (GRS). Clouds were surprisingly absent at the hot spot corresponding to the Galileo probe entry site, and the water abundance measured there was strongly depleted with respect to the solar O/H value. This probably implies that hot spots are dry, cloud-free regions of subsidence, while “normal” air, rich in condensibles, is transported upward by convective motions. As a result, the Jovian meteorology, still based on Halley-type cells, seems to be much more complex than a simple zone-belt system. The nature of the GRS, a giant anticyclonic storm, colder and higher than its environment, has been confirmed by the Galileo observations, but its internal structure appears to be very complex. Strong winds, probably driven by the Jovian internal source, were measured at deep tropospheric levels. The troposphere might be statically stable at pressures higher than 18 bars, but the extent of this putative radiative layer is still unknown. Received 23 November 1998     

Quaternary charophytes from Salina del Bebedero, Argentina: their relation with extant taxa and palaeolimnological significance

Charophyte (Charales, green macroscopic algae) assemblages found in Quaternary shoreline sediments from Salina del Bebedero, Argentina, are described in detail, illustrated, and statistically analysed. Fossil gyrogonites, Late Pleistocene and Holocene in age, of Chara cf. hispida var. major (Hartman) Wood, Chara halina García, Chara hornemannii Wallmann, Chara bulbillifera (Donterberg) García, Lamprothamnium haesseliae Donterberg and Lamprothamnium succinctum (Braun ex Ascherson) Wood were identified. A comparison with extant charophyte species of similar ecological requirements allowed for an accurate systematical determination and provided useful data for complementary palaeoecological and palaeobiogeographical approaches. On this basis, a reconstruction of palaeo-salinities for the Salina del Bebedero lake, represented by eleven palaeo-beaches, is proposed. Also the associations of charophytes with the ostracods Cyprideis sp., Limnocythere sp., Pampacythere sp., Cypridopsis sp., Darwinula sp., Ilyocypris gibba (Randohr) Brady and Norman, and the foraminifers Ammonia sp., Elphidium gunteri Cole, Quinqueloculina sp., and one species of Discorbacea are analysed, since they are present in both the fossil and modern environments.     

8000-year history of palaeoproductivity in a large boreal lake

An 8000-year record of palaeoproductivity, based on the chemical and chironomid stratigraphies from Lake Päijänne, S. Finland, was assessed with respect to known morphometric, climatic and anthropogenic events. A gradual trend of dystrophication and an associated decrease in aquatic production was detected during the Holocene, with the following exceptions: (1) high diatom and chironomid production around 8000-6000 cal yr BP, (2) eutrophication around 2000 cal yr BP, and (3) an anthropogenic signal during the last few decades.The changes in chironomid assemblages, before the past few decades, have mainly been shifts in concentration, but not in species composition. Variation in chironomid production was mainly explained by the accumulations of biogenic silicon, carbon and organic matter. Nutrient availability seems to be important in controlling biogenic silicon, which we use to infer past diatom production. The high production ca. 8000-6000 cal yr BP and the fluctuation in chironomid influx after ca. 2000 cal yr BP, however, were probably caused by the proposed warm/dry and cold/wet conditions during these times, respectively. These results highlight the sensitivity of boreal shield lake ecosystems to climatic forcing. In contrast, the pronounced change in the morphometry of the basin around 7000 cal yr BP had little effect on the trophic state of the lake. The human-induced trophic change during the past few decades has affected the Lake Päijänne ecosystem to an extent never experienced before during the last 8000-years.     

Impact of Climate Change on Hydrological Regimes and Water Resources Management in the Rhine Basin

The International Commission for the Hydrology of the Rhine basin (CHR) hascarried out a researchproject to assess the impact of climate change on the river flow conditionsin the Rhine basin. Along abottom-up line, different detailed hydrological models with hourly and dailytime steps have beendeveloped for representative sub-catchments of the Rhine basin. Along atop-down line, a water balancemodel for the entire Rhine basin has been developed, which calculates monthlydischarges and which wastested on the scale of the major tributaries of the Rhine. Using this set ofmodels, the effects of climatechange on the discharge regime in different parts of the Rhine basin werecalculated using the results ofUKHI and XCCC GCM-experiments. All models indicate the same trends in thechanges: higher winterdischarge as a result of intensified snow-melt and increased winterprecipitation, and lower summerdischarge due to the reduced winter snow storage and an increase ofevapotranspiration. When the resultsare considered in more detail, however, several differences show up. These canfirstly be attributed todifferent physical characteristics of the studied areas, but different spatialand temporal scales used in themodelling and different representations of several hydrological processes(e.g., evapotranspiration,snow melt) are responsible for the differences found as well. Climate changecan affect various socio-economicsectors. Higher temperatures may threaten winter tourism in the lower wintersport areas. The hydrologicalchanges will increase flood risk during winter, whilst low flows during summerwill adversely affectinland navigation, and reduce water availability for agriculture and industry.Balancing the required actionsagainst economic cost and the existing uncertainties in the climate changescenarios, a policy of `no-regretand flexibility' in water management planning and design is recommended, whereanticipatory adaptivemeasures in response to climate change impacts are undertaken in combinationwith ongoing activities.     

Estimation of Mining Tremor Occurrence by Using Neural Networks

—Changes of the primary strain-stress state (caused by interaction between natural conditions and mining activity) can result, under special circumstances, to the origin of seismic induced events. The question of induced seismic activity prediction was treated as a problem of time series extrapolation of maximum cumulative amplitudes and numbers of seismic events recorded per day. The treatment was carried out by means of Multilayered Perceptron Neural Networks (MLP NN). The application to mining tremor prediction has been tested and methodological conditions have been obtained. It was proved that the prediction of the number of mining tremors per day is more precise than the prediction of future energy (maximum amplitudes). Further advance, based on the processing of seismo-acoustic activity series, is introduced.