Total waterborne carbon export and DOC composition from ten nested subarctic peatland catchments—importance of peatland cover,groundwater influence,and inter‐annual variability of precipitation patterns

Waterborne carbon (C) export from terrestrial ecosystems is a potentially important flux for the net catchment C balance and links the biogeochemical C cycling of terrestrial ecosystems to their downstream aquatic ecosystems. We have monitored hydrology and stream chemistry over 3 years in ten nested catchments (0.6–15.1 km²) with variable peatland cover (0%–22%) and groundwater influence in subarctic Sweden. Total waterborne C export, including dissolved and particulate organic carbon (DOC and POC) and dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), ranged between 2.8 and 7.3 g m^–2 year^–1, representing ~10%–30% of catchment net ecosystem exchange of CO₂. Several characteristics of catchment waterborne C export were affected by interacting effects of peatland cover and groundwater influence, including magnitude and timing, partitioning into DOC, POC, and DIC and chemical composition of the exported DOC. Waterborne C export was greater during the wetter years, equivalent to an average change in export of ~2 g m^–2 year^–1 per 100 mm of precipitation. Wetter years led to a greater relative increase in DIC export than DOC export due to an inferred relative shift in dominance from shallow organic flow pathways to groundwater sources. Indices of DOC composition (SUVA₂₅₄ and a₂₅₀/a₃₆₅) indicated that DOC aromaticity and average molecular weight increased with catchment peatland cover and decreased with increased groundwater influence. Our results provide examples on how waterborne C export and DOC composition might be affected by climate change. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The crustal evolution of South America from a zircon Hf‐isotope perspective

Hf‐isotope data of >1100 detrital zircon grains from the Palaeozoic, south‐central Andean Gondwana margin record the complete crustal evolution of South America, which was the predominant source. The oldest grains, with crustal residence ages of 3.8–4.0 Ga, are consistent with complete recycling of existing continental crust around 4 Ga. We confirm three major Archaean, Palaeoproterozoic (Transamazonian) and late Mesoproterozoic to early Neoproterozoic crust‐addition phases as well as six igneous phases during Proterozoic to Palaeozoic time involving mixing of juvenile and crustally reworked material. A late Mesoproterozoic to early Neoproterozoic, Grenville‐age igneous belt can be postulated along the palaeo‐margin of South America. This belt was the basement for later magmatic arcs and accreted allochthonous microcontinents as recorded by similar crustal residence ages. Crustal reworking likely dominated over juvenile addition during the Palaeozoic era, and Proterozoic and Archaean zircon was mainly crustally reworked from the eroding, thickened Ordovician Famatinian arc.     

Flux comparison of Eulerian and Lagrangian estimates of Agulhas leakage: A case study using a numerical model

Estimating the magnitude of Agulhas leakage, the volume flux of water from the Indian to the Atlantic Ocean, is difficult because of the presence of other circulation systems in the Agulhas region. Indian Ocean water in the Atlantic Ocean is vigorously mixed and diluted in the Cape Basin. Eulerian integration methods, where the velocity field perpendicular to a section is integrated to yield a flux, have to be calibrated so that only the flux by Agulhas leakage is sampled. Two Eulerian methods for estimating the magnitude of Agulhas leakage are tested within a high-resolution two-way nested model with the goal to devise a mooring-based measurement strategy. At the GoodHope line, a section halfway through the Cape Basin, the integrated velocity perpendicular to that line is compared to the magnitude of Agulhas leakage as determined from the transport carried by numerical Lagrangian floats. In the first method, integration is limited to the flux of water warmer and more saline than specific threshold values. These threshold values are determined by maximizing the correlation with the float-determined time series. By using the threshold values, approximately half of the leakage can directly be measured. The total amount of Agulhas leakage can be estimated using a linear regression, within a 90% confidence band of 12 Sv. In the second method, a subregion of the GoodHope line is sought so that integration over that subregion yields an Eulerian flux as close to the float-determined leakage as possible. It appears that when integration is limited within the model to the upper 300 m of the water column within 900 km of the African coast the time series have the smallest root-mean-square difference. This method yields a root-mean-square error of only 5.2 Sv but the 90% confidence band of the estimate is 20 Sv. It is concluded that the optimum thermohaline threshold method leads to more accurate estimates even though the directly measured transport is a factor of two lower than the actual magnitude of Agulhas leakage in this model.     

Long-term ice sheet–climate interactions under anthropogenic greenhouse forcing simulated with a complex Earth System Model

Several multi-century and multi-millennia simulations have been performed with a complex Earth System Model (ESM) for different anthropogenic climate change scenarios in order to study the long-term evolution of sea level and the impact of ice sheet changes on the climate system. The core of the ESM is a coupled coarse-resolution Atmosphere–Ocean General Circulation Model (AOGCM). Ocean biogeochemistry, land vegetation and ice sheets are included as components of the ESM. The Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) decays in all simulations, while the Antarctic ice sheet contributes negatively to sea level rise, due to enhanced storage of water caused by larger snowfall rates. Freshwater flux increases from Greenland are one order of magnitude smaller than total freshwater flux increases into the North Atlantic basin (the sum of the contribution from changes in precipitation, evaporation, run-off and Greenland meltwater) and do not play an important role in changes in the strength of the North Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (NAMOC). The regional climate change associated with weakening/collapse of the NAMOC drastically reduces the decay rate of the GrIS. The dynamical changes due to GrIS topography modification driven by mass balance changes act first as a negative feedback for the decay of the ice sheet, but accelerate the decay at a later stage. The increase of surface temperature due to reduced topographic heights causes a strong acceleration of the decay of the ice sheet in the long term. Other feedbacks between ice sheet and atmosphere are not important for the mass balance of the GrIS until it is reduced to 3/4 of the original size. From then, the reduction in the albedo of Greenland strongly accelerates the decay of the ice sheet.     

Numerical model simulations of boundary-layer dynamics during winter conditions

Summary  A mesoscale numerical model, incorporating a land-surface scheme based on Deardorffs’ approach, is used to study the diurnal variation of the boundary layer structure and surface fluxes during four consecutive days with air temperatures well below zero, snow covered ground and changing synoptic forcing. Model results are evaluated against in-situ measurements performed during the WINTEX field campaign held in Sodankyl?, Northern Finland in March 1997. The results show that the land-surface parameterization employed in the mesoscale model is not able to reproduce the magnitude of the daytime sensible heat fluxes and especially the pronounced maximum observed in the afternoon. Additional model simulations indicate that this drawback is to a large extent removed by the implementation of a shading factor in the original Deardorff scheme. The shading factor, as discussed in Gryning et al. (2001), accounts for the fact that in areas with sparse vegetation and low solar angles, both typical for the northern boreal forests in wintertime, absorption of direct solar radiation is due to an apparent vegetation cover which is much greater than the actual one (defined as the portion of the ground covered by vegetation projected vertically). Moreover, the observed asymmetry in the diurnal variation of the sensible heat flux indicates that there might be a significant heat storage in the vegetation. The implementation of an objective heat storage scheme in the mesoscale model explains part of the observed diurnal variation of the sensible heat flux. Received November 12, 1999 Revised October 4, 2000     

Trace metals in fucoid algae and purple sea urchins near a high Arctic lead/zinc ore deposit

Seaweed and urchins accumulate Fe and Zn to higher concentrations near a lead/zinc ore body than further away. The concentration of three metals (Cu, Fe and Zn) in seaweed increase with age of tissue. As and Cd are lowest in tissue of intermediate age, suggesting a reversible bonding mechanism for the two elements.Concentrations of Fe in whole urchins, and Zn in the gonads, are higher than concentrations in Fucus tips, which represent a lower level in the food web. Fe is higher in whole sea urchins than in their gonads. For As and Zn the relationship is reversed.     

The convergence of harmonic reduction to an internal sphere

The boundary value problem of physical geodesy has been solved with the use of a harmonic reduction down to an internal sphere using a discrete procedure. (For gravity cf. Bjerhammar 1964 and for the potential cf. Bjerhammar 1968). This was a finite-dimensional approach mostly with one-to-one correspondence between observations and unknowns on the sphere. Earlier studies were made with the use of surface elements (on the sphere) with constantgravity. Integration over the surface elements was replaced by a discrete approach with the use of the distance to a point in the centre of the surface element. See Bjerhammar (1968) and (1969). This approach was later presented as a “reflexive prediction” technique for a weakly stationary stochastic process. Bjerhammar (1974, 1976). Krarup (1969) minimized the L²-norm of the potential on the internal sphere. It will here be proved that the two solutions are identical for a proper choice of the radii of the internal spheres. The proof is given for a spherical earth with selected choice of “carrier points”. The convergence problem is discussed. The L²-norm solution is found convergent for the fully harmonic case. Uniform convergence is obtained in the non-harmonic case with the use of the original procedure applied in accordance with the theorems of Keldych-Lavrentieff and Yamabe.     

Arsenic in marine organisms from West Greenland

Natural background levels of trace metals in marine organisms from a West Greenland inlet were studied during the summer of 1972 and 1973. Dry weight arsenic levels ranged from 11.1 to 307 ppm in fish fillets and from 7.6 to 512 ppm in fish livers. Prawns had arsenic levels ranging up to 80.2 ppm, contrasting with 6.0 ppm in planktonic copepods. The results suggest that in certain marine organisms organo-arsenics predominate and are less toxic than inorganic arsenic compounds.