Reconstructing flow paths of the Middle Pleistocene British Ice Sheet in central-eastern England: the application of regional soil geochemical data

High-density regional geochemical data for surface soils in central England and East Anglia reveal that much of their geochemical character is inherited from the tills that they are developed upon. Multivariate statistical analysis highlighted three significant element associations of Al–Fe–Ga–K–La–Mg–Rb, Ca–Sr and K–Fe accounting for almost 93% of the geochemical variability of soils derived from tills. Provenancing the geochemical signatures of the latter elements enabled the construction of ice flow paths associated with two different Middle Pleistocene ‘chalky’ till sheets. A lower till sheet relating to ‘Pennine’ ice flowing from west to east across the region, and an upper till sheet deposited by North Sea ice moving into northern East Anglia, and to the west of the Fen Basin, before fanning-out across central England. Overall, geochemical signatures of different till units are largely derived from local bedrock sources, with dilution and a new geochemical signature acquired as the ice flows over and incorporates new bedrock lithologies. The results show that high resolution soil geochemical data provides a further proxy with which the flow paths of former ice sheets can be delineated.     

Particle tracking in the vicinity of Helgoland,North Sea: a model comparison

Station Helgoland Roads in the south-eastern North Sea (German Bight) hosts one of the richest long-term time series of marine observations. Hydrodynamic transport simulations can help understand variability in the local data brought about by intermittent changes of water masses. The objective of our study is to estimate to which extent the outcome of such transport simulations depends on the choice of a specific hydrodynamic model. Our basic experiment consists of 3,377 Lagrangian simulations in time-reversed mode initialized every 7 h within the period Feb 2002–Oct 2004. Fifty-day backward simulations were performed based on hourly current fields from four different hydrodynamic models that are all well established but differ with regard to spatial resolution, dimensionality (2D or 3D), the origin of atmospheric forcing data, treatment of boundary conditions, presence or absence of baroclinic terms, and the numerical scheme. The particle-tracking algorithm is 2D; fields from 3D models were averaged vertically. Drift simulations were evaluated quantitatively in terms of the fraction of released particles that crossed each cell of a network of receptor regions centred at the island of Helgoland. We found substantial systematic differences between drift simulations based on each of the four hydrodynamic models. Sensitivity studies with regard to spatial resolution and the effects of baroclinic processes suggest that differences in model output cannot unambiguously be assigned to certain model properties or restrictions. Therefore, multi-model simulations are needed for a proper identification of uncertainties in long-term Lagrangian drift simulations.     

CBM and CO2-ECBM related sorption processes in coal: A review

This article reviews the state of research on sorption of gases (CO₂, CH₄) and water on coal for primary recovery of coalbed methane (CBM), secondary recovery by an enhancement with carbon dioxide injection (CO₂-ECBM), and for permanent storage of CO₂ in coal seams.Especially in the last decade a large amount of data has been published characterizing coals from various coal basins world-wide for their gas sorption capacity. This research was either related to commercial CBM production or to the usage of coal seams as a permanent sink for anthropogenic CO₂ emissions. Presently, producing methane from coal beds is an attractive option and operations are under way or planned in many coal basins around the globe. Gas-in-place determinations using canister desorption tests and CH₄ isotherms are performed routinely and have provided large datasets for correlating gas transport and sorption properties with coal characteristic parameters.Publicly funded research projects have produced large datasets on the interaction of CO₂ with coals. The determination of sorption isotherms, sorption capacities and rates has meanwhile become a standard approach.In this study we discuss and compare the manometric, volumetric and gravimetric methods for recording sorption isotherms and provide an uncertainty analysis. Using published datasets and theoretical considerations, water sorption is discussed in detail as an important mechanisms controlling gas sorption on coal. Most sorption isotherms are still recorded for dry coals, which usually do not represent in-seam conditions, and water present in the coal has a significant control on CBM gas contents and CO₂ storage potential. This section is followed by considerations of the interdependence of sorption capacity and coal properties like coal rank, maceral composition or ash content. For assessment of the most suitable coal rank for CO₂ storage data on the CO₂/CH₄ sorption ratio data have been collected and compared with coal rank.Finally, we discuss sorption rates and gas diffusion in the coal matrix as well as the different unipore or bidisperse models used for describing these processes.This review does not include information on low-pressure sorption measurements (BET approach) to characterize pore sizes or pore volume since this would be a review of its own. We also do not consider sorption of gas mixtures since the data base is still limited and measurement techniques are associated with large uncertainties.     

Increasing impacts of climate change upon ecosystems with increasing global mean temperature rise

In a meta-analysis we integrate peer-reviewed studies that provide quantified estimates of future projected ecosystem changes related to quantified projected local or global climate changes. In an advance on previous analyses, we reference all studies to a common pre-industrial base-line for temperature, employing up-scaling techniques where necessary, detailing how impacts have been projected on every continent, in the oceans, and for the globe, for a wide range of ecosystem types and taxa. Dramatic and substantive projected increases of climate change impacts upon ecosystems are revealed with increasing annual global mean temperature rise above the pre-industrial mean (ΔT_g). Substantial negative impacts are commonly projected as ΔT_g reaches and exceeds 2°C, especially in biodiversity hotspots. Compliance with the ultimate objective of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (Article 2) requires that greenhouse gas concentrations be stabilized within a time frame “sufficient to allow ecosystems to adapt naturally to climate change”. Unless ΔT_g is constrained to below 2°C at most, results here imply that it will be difficult to achieve compliance. This underscores the need to limit greenhouse gas emissions by accelerating mitigation efforts and by protecting existing ecosystems from greenhouse-gas producing land use change processes such as deforestation.     

Error characteristics of high resolution regional climate models over the Alpine area

This study describes typical error ranges of high resolution regional climate models operated over complex orography and investigates the scale-dependence of these error ranges. The results are valid primarily for the European Alpine region, but to some extent they can also be transferred to other orographically complex regions of the world. We investigate the model errors by evaluating a set of 62 one-year hindcast experiments for the year 1999 with four different regional climate models. The analysis is conducted for the parameters mean sea level pressure, air temperature (mean, minimum and maximum) and precipitation (mean, frequency and intensity), both as an area average over the whole modeled domain (the “Greater Alpine Region”, GAR) and in six subregions. The subregional seasonal error ranges, defined as the interval between the 2.5th percentile and the 97.5th percentile, lie between ?3.2 and +2.0 K for temperature and between ?2.0 and +3.1 mm/day (?45.7 and +94.7%) for precipitation, respectively. While the temperature error ranges are hardly broadened at smaller scales, the precipitation error ranges increase by 28%. These results demonstrate that high resolution RCMs are applicable in relatively small scale climate impact studies with a comparable quality as on well investigated larger scales as far as temperature is concerned. For precipitation, which is a much more demanding parameter, the quality is moderately degraded on smaller scales.     

Coastal Ocean Last Glacial Maximum to 2100 CO2-Carbonic Acid-Carbonate System: A Modeling Approach

Using coupled terrestrial and coastal zone models, we investigated the impacts of deglaciation and anthropogenic inputs on the CO₂–H₂O–CaCO₃ system in global coastal ocean waters from the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM: 18,000 year BP) to the year 2100. With rising sea level and atmospheric CO₂, the carbonate system of coastal ocean water changed significantly. We find that 6 × 10¹² metric tons of carbon were emitted from the coastal ocean, growing due to the sea level rise, from the LGM to late preindustrial time (1700 AD) because of net heterotrophy and calcification processes. This carbon came to reside in the atmosphere and in the growing vegetation on land and in uptake of atmospheric CO₂ through the weathering of rocks on land. It appears that carbonate accumulation, mainly, but not exclusively, in coral reefs from the LGM to late preindustrial time could account for about 24 ppmv of the 100 ppmv rise in atmospheric CO₂, lending some support to the “coral reef hypothesis”. In addition, the global coastal ocean is now, or soon will be, a sink of atmospheric CO₂. The temperature rise of 4–5°C since the LGM led to increased weathering rates of inorganic and organic materials on land and enhanced riverine fluxes of total C, N, and P to the coastal ocean of 68%, 108%, and 97%, respectively, from the LGM to late preindustrial time. During the Anthropocene, these trends have been exacerbated owing to rising atmospheric CO₂, due to fossil fuel combustion and land-use practices, other human activities, and rising global temperatures. River fluxes of total reactive C, N, and P are projected to increase from late preindustrial time to the year 2100 by 150%, 380%, and 257%, respectively, modifying significantly the behavior of these element cycles in the coastal ocean, particularly in proximal environments. Despite the fact that the global shoal water carbonate mass has grown extensively since the LGM, the pH_T (pH values on the total proton scale) of global coastal waters has decreased from ~8.35 to ~8.18 and the carbonate ion concentration declined by ~19% from the LGM to late preindustrial time. The latter represents a rate of decline of about 0.028 μmol CO₃ ^2? per decade. In comparison, the decrease in coastal water pH_T from the year 1900 to 2000 was about 8.18–8.08 and is projected to decrease further from about 8.08 to 7.85 between 2000 and 2100, according to the IS92a business-as-usual scenario of CO₂ emissions. Over these 200 years, the carbonate ion concentration will fall by ~120 μmol kg^?1 or 6 μmol kg^?1 per decade. This decadal rate of decline of the carbonate ion concentration in the Anthropocene is 214 times the average rate of decline for the entire Holocene. Hence, when viewed against the millennial to several millennial timescale of geologic change in the coastal ocean marine carbon system, one can easily appreciate why ocean acidification is the “other CO₂ problem”.     

Speeding Up the Analytical Workflow for Coltan Fingerprinting by an Integrated Mineral Liberation Analysis/LA‐ICP‐MS Approach

Coltan (the African trade name for columbite‐tantalite, a tantalum ore) is one of several raw materials that finance the civil wars in the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. To improve the transparency along the tantalum trade chain, a ‘certificate of origin’ for so‐called ‘conflict minerals’ has been recommended by the United Nations. Accordingly, the German Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR) has developed an analytical fingerprint procedure for coltan. Mineral formation age, modal mineralogy and chemical composition are important fingerprint parameters. The original workflow to obtain these parameters was streamlined and is now based on mineral liberation analysis and LA‐ICP‐MS. The use of an ICP‐MS instrument with a detector system covering an extended linear dynamic range and the application of an internal standard‐independent calibration strategy allowed data for major and trace element determination and mineral formation age estimates to be obtained simultaneously. The analytical results of this new approach were compared with analytical techniques of the original workflow and showed excellent agreement in terms of mineralogical and chemical characterisation and mineral formation age of coltan samples. Within a test, samples of different origin were allocated correctly and simple, binary mixtures were also identified successfully.     

First record of the leptonectid ichthyosaur <Emphasis Type="Italic">Eurhinosaurus longirostris</Emphasis> from the Early Jurassic of Switzerland and its stratigraphic framework

An incomplete skull of the leptonectid ichthyosaur Eurhinosaurus longirostris found in the Rietheim Member (previously “Posidonienschiefer”; Toarcian, Early Jurassic) of Staffelegg, Canton Aargau, is the first record from Switzerland of this taxon and supports the status of Eurhinosaurus longirostris as a palaeobiogeographic very widespread ichthyosaur species in the Early Toarcian of Western Europe. Being from either the Bifrons or Variabilis zone, it is one of the youngest records of Eurhinosaurus and one of the few diagnostic ichthyosaur finds from this time interval. The partial skull is well articulated and preserved three-dimensionally in a carbonate concretion. Both the mode of preservation of the ichthyosaur and an associated ammonoid (Catacoeloceras raquinianum) provided the age of the concretion, which had been collected from scree. Taphocoenosis and taphonomy show the C. raquinianum to be one of few non re-worked fossils recorded from the Early to Late Toarcian boundary (Bifrons/Variabilis zone) of northern Switzerland in general and of this ammonite species in particular. The Toarcian section at Staffelegg differs from other localities where strata of the same age are exposed with respect to facies variations of the Rietheim Member (previously “Posidonienschiefer”, Early Toarcian) and the extraordinarily high thickness of the Gross Wolf Member (previously “Jurensis-Mergel”, Late Toarcian).     

Origin of high Zn contents in Jurassic limestone of the Jura mountain range and the Burgundy: evidence from Zn speciation and distribution

In order to better understand the origin and enrichment mechanisms leading to elevated Zn concentrations in Jurassic limestone of the Jura mountain range (JMR) and the Burgundy (B), we investigated four locations of Bajocian age (JMR: Lausen–Schleifenberg, Gurnigel; B: Vergisson–Davayé, Lucy-le-Bois) and two locations of Oxfordian age (JMR: Dornach, Pichoux) for their Zn distribution and speciation. Measurements of the acid-extractable and bulk Zn contents showed that Zn is stratigraphically and spatially heterogeneously distributed, in association with permeable carbonate levels. Up to 3,580 and 207 mg/kg Zn was detected in Bajocian and Oxfordian limestone, respectively, with numerous limestone samples having Zn contents above 50 mg/kg. Using X-ray absorption near edge structure spectroscopy and micro-X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, the speciation and micro-scale distribution of Zn was investigated for selected limestone samples. In Bajocian limestone sphalerite and/or Zn-substituted goethite and a minor fraction of Zn-bearing carbonates were identified. In contrast, Zn-bearing carbonates (Zn-substituted calcite and hydrozincite) were accounting for most of the total Zn in Oxfordian limestone. The micro-scale distribution of Zn for Bajocian and Oxfordian limestone was however similar with localized Zn-rich zones in the limestone cement and at the rim of oolites. The stratigraphic sporadicity and microscale heterogeneity of the Zn distribution together with the Zn speciation results point to a hydrothermal origin of Zn. Occurence of Zn-goethite is probably linked to the oxidative transformation of framboidal pyrite and hydrothermal sphalerite in contact with meteoritic waters. Difference in speciation between Bajocian limestone and Oxfordian limestone may be related to differences in rock permeability and/or to various hydrothermal events. Isotopic dating of the different mineralizations will be needed to decipher differences in Zn speciation and the precise chronology of hydrothermal episodes.