Pseudo-global warming projections of extreme wave storms in complex coastal regions: the case of the Adriatic Sea

This numerical work aims to better understand the behavior of extreme Adriatic Sea wave storms under projected climate change. In this spirit, 36 characteristic events—22 bora and 14 sirocco storms occurring between 1979 and 2019, were selected and ran in evaluation mode in order to estimate the skill of the kilometer-scale Adriatic Sea and Coast (AdriSC) modelling suite used in this study and to provide baseline conditions for the climate change impact. The pseudo-global warming (PGW) methodology—which imposes an additional climatological change to the forcing used in the evaluation simulations, was implemented, for the very first time, for a coupled ocean–wave–atmosphere model and used to assess the behavior of the selected storms under Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 4.5 and RCP 8.5 greenhouse gas projections. The findings of this experiment are that, on the one hand, the AdriSC model is found capable of reproducing both the Adriatic waves associated with the 36 storms and the northern Adriatic surges occurring during the sirocco events and, on the other hand, the significant wave heights and peak periods are likely to decrease during all future extreme events but most particularly during bora storms. The northern Adriatic storm surges are in consequence also likely to decrease during sirocco events. As it was previously demonstrated that the Adriatic extreme wind-wave events are likely to be less intense in a future warmer climate, this study also proved the validity of applying the PGW methodology to coupled ocean–wave–atmosphere models at the coastal and nearshore scales.

     

Environmental controls on the Late Holocene carbonate sedimentation of a karstic lake in the Middle‐Atlas Mountains (Lake Afourgagh,Morocco)

The Lake Afourgagh sediment record and facies successions provide an outstanding example of environmentally controlled carbonate sedimentation. Afourgagh is a small, shallow permanent lake located in the Middle‐Atlas Mountains in Morocco in a karstic context. It is fed by ground waters that are relatively enriched in Mg resulting from the leaching of the Jurassic dolomitic bedrock of the catchment. This eutrophic lake is episodically restricted and characterized by alkaline waters with a fluctuating high Mg/Ca ratio. The maximum extension of the Holocene shoreline coincides with evidence of a lake stabilization level corresponding to the outflow of the lake through a wadi. Lakeshore terrace sediments deposited on an alluvial fan siltstone during the past ca 2500 cal yr bp comprise four main facies: a littoral crust, palaeosols, palustrine silts and charophyte tufas, which reflect different environments from the shoreline toward the deeper water. In the more distal parts, the charophyte tufas display a well‐expressed lamination punctuated by the development of microstromatolites on algae thalli. The mineralogical composition of the carbonates is linked to the facies. While the charophyte tufas are characterized by a relatively high content in aragonite, in addition to low‐Mg calcite, the littoral crust is mainly composed of magnesite. This pattern is related to the evolving chemistry of water due to the influence of charophyte proliferation during dry summers. Calcium‐carbonate precipitation on algae thalli (both bioinduced and microbially mediated) progressively induces an increase in the Mg/Ca ratio of the lake water, while the capillary evaporation of shallow ground waters causes precipitation of a magnesite precursor on the shoreline, producing magnesite during early diagenesis. This effect is characteristic of two episodes: part of the Roman Warm Period and the beginning of the Dark Age Cold Period. The carbonate mineralogy of the different depositional sequences at Afourgagh indicates lake‐level and water‐chemistry fluctuations under a climatic influence. Therefore, among other regional records, the Lake Afourgagh sedimentary record provides useful evidence for reconstructing these environmental changes.     

Evolutionary history of hoofed mammals during the Oligocene–Miocene transition in Western Europe

The biostratigraphy and diversity patterns of terrestrial, hoofed mammals help to understand the transition between the Palaeogene and the Neogene in Western Europe. Three phases are highlighted: (1) the beginning of the Arvernian (Late Oligocene, MP25-27) was characterised by a “stable” faunal composition including the last occurrences of taxa inherited from the Grande Coupure and of newly emerged ones; (2) the latest Arvernian (Late Oligocene, MP28-30) and the Agenian (Early Miocene, MN1-2) saw gradual immigrations leading to progressive replacement of the Arvernian, hoofed mammals towards the establishment of the “classical” Agenian fauna; (3) the beginning of the Orleanian (Early Miocene, MN3-4) coincided with the African-Eurasian faunal interchanges of the Proboscidean Datum Events and led to complete renewal of the Agenian taxa and total disappearance of the last Oligocene survivors. Faunal balances, poly-cohorts and particularly cluster analyses emphasise these three periods and define a temporally well-framed Oligocene–Miocene transition between MP28 and MN2. This transition started in MP28 with a major immigration event, linked to the arrival in Europe of new ungulate taxa, notably a stem group of “Eupecora” and the small anthracothere Microbunodon. Due to its high significance in the reorganisation of European, hoofed-mammal communities, we propose to name it the Microbunodon Event. This first step was followed by a phase of extinctions (MP29-30) and later by a phase of regional speciation and diversification (MN1-2). The Oligocene–Miocene faunal transition ended right before the two-phased turnover linked to the Proboscidean Datum Events (MN3-4). Locomotion types of rhinocerotids and ruminants provide new data on the evolution of environments during the Oligocene–Miocene transition and help understand the factors controlling these different phases. Indeed, it appears that the faunal turnovers were primarily directed by migrations, whereas the Agenian transitional phase mainly witnessed speciations.     

Evidence for geographic variation in the diets of late Pleistocene and early Holocene Bison in North America, and differences from the diets of recent Bison

During the late Pleistocene and early Holocene, Bison was widely dispersed across North America and occupied most regions not covered by ice sheets. A dietary study on Bison paleopopulations from Alaska, New Mexico, Florida, and Texas was performed using two methods that relate dental wear patterns to diet, mesowear analysis and microwear analysis. These data were compared to a mixed sample of extant Bison from the North American central plains, extant wood Bison from Alberta (Canada) and a variety of other modern ungulates. Mesowear relates macroscopic molar facet shape to levels of dietary abrasion. The mesowear signature observed on fossil Bison differs significantly from the hyper-abrasive grazing diet of extant Bison. Tooth microwear examines wear on the surface of enamel at a microscopic scale. The microwear signal of fossil samples resembles to modern Bison, but the fossil samples show a greater diversity of features, suggesting that fossil Bison populations regularly consumed food items that are texturally inconsistent with the short-grass diet typical of modern plains Bison. Mesowear and microwear signals of fossil Bison samples most closely resemble a variety of typical mixed feeding ungulates, all with diets that are substantially less abrasive than what is typical for modern plains Bison. Furthermore, statistical tests suggest significant differences between the microwear signatures of the fossil samples, thus revealing geographic variability in Pleistocene Bison diets. This study reveals that fossils are of value in developing an understanding of the dietary breadth and ecological versatility of species that, in recent times, are rare, endangered, and occupy only a small remnant of their former ranges.     

Differential regional responses in drought length, intensity and timing to recent climate changes in a Mediterranean forested ecosystem

The Mediterranean area is one of the regions of the world where GCMs agree the most on precipitation changes due to climate change. In this study we aim to assess the impact of recent climate change on drought features of Mediterranean ecosystems in Southern France. Regional climatic trends for the 1971–2006 period are compared to drought trends based on a water balance model accounting for soil properties, vegetation structure and functioning. Drought, defined here as periods when soil water potentials drop below ??0.5 MPa, is described in terms of intensity, duration and timing, which are integrative of both climate variability and site conditions. Temporal trends in precipitation, temperature and solar radiation lead altogether to drier and warmer conditions over the region but with a high spatial heterogeneity; for similar climatic trends, a significant increase in drought intensity was detected in the wettest areas of the region, whereas drought intensity in the driest areas did not change. Indeed, in the wettest areas, we observed an earlier onset of drought by about 1 month, but a constant end of drought. In the driest areas of the region, we observed the same earlier onset of drought but combined with an earlier end of drought, thus leading to a shift of the dry season without increasing its duration. The definition of drought features both in terms of intensity but also of seasonal timing appears relevant to capture historical or forecasted changes in ecosystem functioning. Studies concerning climate change impacts on forested ecosystems should be interpreted with caution when using climate proxies alone.     

Resolution issues in numerical models of oceanic and coastal circulation

The baroclinic and barotropic properties of ocean processes vary on many scales. These scales are determined by various factors such as the variations in coastline and bottom topography, the forcing meteorology, the latitudinal dependence of the Coriolis force, and the Rossby radius of deformation among others. In this paper we attempt to qualify and quantify scales of these processes, with particular attention to the horizontal resolution necessary to accurately reproduce physical processes in numerical ocean models. We also discuss approaches taken in nesting or down-scaling from global/basin-scale models to regional-scale or shelf-scale models. Finally we offer comments on how vertical resolution affects the representation of stratification in these numerical models.     

The Paris CM chondrite: Secondary minerals and asteroidal processing

We report a petrographic and mineralogical survey of Paris, a new CM chondrite considered to be the least‐altered CM identified so far (Hewins et al. 2014 ). Compared to other CMs, Paris exhibits (1) a higher concentration of Fe‐Ni metal beads, with nickel contents in the range 4.1–8.1 wt%; (2) the systematic presence of thin lamellae and tiny blebs of pentlandite in pyrrhotite grains; and (3) ubiquitous tochilinite/cronstedtite associations with higher FeO/SiO₂ and S/SiO₂ ratios. In addition, Paris shows the highest concentration of trapped ³⁶Ar reported so far for a CM chondrite (Hewins et al. 2014 ). In combination with the findings of previous studies, our data confirm the reliability of (1) the alteration sequence based on the chemical composition of tochilinite/cronstedtite associations to quantify the fluid alteration processes and (2) the use of Cr content variability in type II ferroan chondrule olivine as a proxy of thermal metamorphism. In contrast, the scales based on (1) the Fe³⁺ content of serpentine in the matrix to estimate the degree of aqueous alteration and (2) the chemical composition of Fe‐Ni metal beads for quantifying the intensity of the thermal metamorphism are not supported by the characteristics of Paris. It also appears that the amount of trapped ³⁶Ar is a sensitive indicator of the secondary alteration modifications experienced by chondrites, for both aqueous alteration and thermal metamorphism. Considering Paris, our data suggest that this chondrite should be classified as type 2.7 as it suffered limited but significant fluid alteration and only mild thermal metamorphism. These results point out that two separated scales should be used to quantify the degree of the respective role of aqueous alteration and thermal metamorphism in establishing the characteristics of CM chondrites.     

Broad-scale spatial pattern of forest landscape types in the Guiana Shield

Detecting broad scale spatial patterns across the South American rainforest biome is still a major challenge. Although several countries do possess their own, more or less detailed land-cover map, these are based on classifications that appear largely discordant from a country to another. Up to now, continental scale remote sensing studies failed to fill this gap. They mostly result in crude representations of the rainforest biome as a single, uniform vegetation class, in contrast with open vegetations. A few studies identified broad scale spatial patterns, but only when they managed to map a particular forest characteristic such as biomass. The main objective of this study is to identify, characterize and map distinct forest landscape types within the evergreen lowland rainforest at the sub-continental scale of the Guiana Shield (north-east tropical South-America 10° North-2° South; 66° West-50° West). This study is based on the analysis of a 1-year daily data set (from January 1st to December 31st, 2000) from the VEGETATION sensor onboard the SPOT-4 satellite (1-km spatial resolution). We interpreted remotely sensed landscape classes (RSLC) from field and high resolution remote sensing data of 21 sites in French Guiana. We cross-analyzed remote sensing data, field observations and environmental data using multivariate analysis. We obtained 33 remotely sensed landscape classes (RSLC) among which five forest-RSLC representing 78% of the forested area. The latter were classified as different broad forest landscape types according to a gradient of canopy openness. Their mapping revealed a new and meaningful broad-scale spatial pattern of forest landscape types. At the scale of the Guiana Shield, we observed a spatial patterns similarity between climatic and forest landscape types. The two most open forest-RSLCs were observed mainly within the north-west to south-east dry belt. The three other forest-RSLCs were observed in wetter and less anthropized areas, particularly in the newly recognized “Guianan dense forest arch”. Better management and conservation policies, as well as improvement of biological and ecological knowledge, require accurate and stable representations of the geographical components of ecosystems. Our results represent a decisive step in this way for the Guiana Shield area and contribute to fill one of the major shortfall in the knowledge of tropical forests.