Negative effects of blue mussel (Mytilus edulis) presence in eelgrass (Zostera marina) beds in Flensborg fjord,Denmark

The effect of blue mussel (Mytilus edulis) presence in eelgrass (Zostera marina) beds was studied from June 2004 to July 2005 in Flensborg fjord, Denmark. The field experiments were conducted at two stations, one with only Z. marina (Eelgrass station) present and one where M. edulis were present in the Z. marina beds (Mixed station). Zostera marina parameters were measured (growth of leaves, shoot density, leaf length, and nutrient content) in combination with epiphyte cover and sediment parameters (sulphate reduction rates, sediment nutrient fluxes, organic content, C, N and P content) to examine possible positive and negative effects of the mussels on eelgrass performance. The fluxes of ammonium from the sediments were stimulated at all sampling dates at the Mixed station, and possibly stimulated epiphyte growth at this station. Further ¹⁵N signals in epiphytes from the Mixed station suggested that excretion products from the mussels were important nitrogen sources at this station. Sulphate reduction rates were enhanced at the Mixed station and also sediment sulphide concentrations increased under mussel influence, which may have resulted in sulphide toxicity and decreased growth of Z. marina at this station. The study indicates that for Z. marina beds in Flensborg Fjord the effects of M. edulis in seagrass beds are primarily negative, and raises the question whether this leads to negative effects on the stability and expansion of Z. marina beds.     

On the role of domain size and resolution in the simulations with the HIRHAM region climate model

We investigate the simulated temperature and precipitation of the HIRHAM regional climate model using systematic variations in domain size, resolution and detailed location in a total of eight simulations. HIRHAM was forced by ERA-Interim boundary data and the simulations focused on higher resolutions in the range of 5.5–12 km. HIRHAM outputs of seasonal precipitation and temperature were assessed by calculating distributed model errors against a higher resolution data set covering Denmark and a 0.25° resolution data set covering Europe. Furthermore the simulations were statistically tested against the Danish data set using bootstrap statistics. The results from the distributed validation of precipitation showed lower errors for the winter (DJF) season compared to the spring (MAM), fall (SON) and, in particular, summer (JJA) seasons for both validation data sets. For temperature, the pattern was in the opposite direction, with the lowest errors occurring for the JJA season. These seasonal patterns between precipitation and temperature are seen in the bootstrap analysis. It also showed that using a 4,000 × 2,800 km simulation with an 11 km resolution produced the highest significance levels. Also, the temperature errors were more highly significant than precipitation. In similarly sized domains, 12 of 16 combinations of variables, observation validation data and seasons showed better results for the highest resolution domain, but generally the most significant improvements were seen when varying the domain size.     

East Asian monsoon intensification promoted weathering of the magnesium-rich southern China upper crust and its global significance

The Oligocene-Miocene boundary Asian climatic reorganization linked to the northward migration of the East Asian monsoon into subtropical China is a potentially important but poorly constrained atmospheric CO_2 consumption process.Here,we performed a first-order estimate of the CO_2 consumption induced by silicate chemical weathering and organic carbon burial in subtropical China related to this climatic reorganization.Our results show that an increase in long-term CO_2 consumption by silicate weathering varies from 0.06×10~(12)to 0.87×10~(12)mol yr~(-1)depending on erosion flux reconstructions,with an~50%contribution of Mg-silicate weathering since the late Oligocene.The organic carbon burial flux is approximately 25% of the contemporary CO_2 consumption by silicate weathering.The results highlight the significant role of weathering of the Mg-rich upper continental crust in East China,which would contribute to the rapid decline in atmospheric CO_2 during the late Oligocene and the Neogene rise in the seawater Mg content.If this climatic reorganization was mainly induced by the Tibetan Plateau uplift,our study suggests that the growth of the Himalayan-Tibetan Plateau can lead to indirect modification of the global carbon and magnesium cycles by changing the regional hydrological cycle in areas of East Asia that are tectonically less active.     

A scenario based analysis of land competition between food and bioenergy production in the US

Greenhouse gas abatement policies will increase the demand for renewable sources of energy, including bioenergy. In combination with a global growing demand for food, this could lead to a food-fuel competition for bio-productive land. Proponents of bioenergy have suggested that energy crop plantations may be established on less productive land as a way of avoiding this potential food-fuel competition. However, many of these suggestions have been made without any underlying economic analysis. In this paper, we develop a long-term economic optimization model (LUCEA) of the U.S. agricultural and energy system to analyze this possible competition for land and to examine the link between carbon prices, the energy system dynamics and the effect of the land competition on food prices. Our results indicate that bioenergy plantations will be competitive on cropland already at carbon taxes about US $20/ton C. As the carbon tax increases, food prices more than double compared to the reference scenario in which there is no climate policy. Further, bioenergy plantations appropriate significant areas of both cropland and grazing land. In model runs where we have limited the amount of grazing land that can be used for bioenergy to what many analysts consider the upper limit, most of the bioenergy plantations are established on cropland. Under the assumption that more grazing land can be used, large areas of bioenergy plantations are established on grazing land, despite the fact that yields are assumed to be much lower (less than half) than on crop land. It should be noted that this allocation on grazing land takes place as a result of a competition between food and bioenergy production and not because of lack of it. The estimated increase in food prices is largely unaffected by how much grazing land can be used for bioenergy production.     

Area-Averaged Surface Fluxes Over the Litfass Region Based on Eddy-Covariance Measurements

Micrometeorological measurements (including eddy-covariance measurements of the surface fluxes of sensible and latent heat) were performed during the LITFASS-2003 experiment at 13 field sites over different types of land use (forest, lake, grassland, various agricultural crops) in a 20 × 20 km² area around the Meteorological Observatory Lindenberg (MOL) of the German Meteorological Service (Deutscher Wetterdienst, DWD). Significant differences in the energy fluxes could be found between the major land surface types (forest, farmland, water), but also between the different agricultural crops (cereals, rape, maize). Flux ratios between the different surfaces changed during the course of the experiment as a result of increased water temperature of the lake, changing soil moisture, and of the vegetation development at the farmland sites. The measurements over grass performed at the boundary-layer field site Falkenberg of the MOL were shown to be quite representative for the farmland part of the area. Measurements from the 13 sites were composed into a time series of the area-averaged surface flux by taking into account the data quality of the single flux values from the different sites and the relative occurrence of each surface type in the area. Such composite fluxes could be determined for about 80% of the whole measurement time during the LITFASS-2003 experiment. Comparison of these aggregated surface fluxes with area-averaged fluxes from long-range scintillometer measurements and from airborne measurements showed good agreement.     

Another Simple Method of Spectral Correction to Obtain Robust Eddy-Covariance Results

The eddy-covariance method is the state-of-the-art tool to measure mass and energy fluxes, though many measuring systems (particularly closed-path systems) show strong spectral attenuation that causes significant underestimates of actual mass fluxes. The standard way to correct these underestimates is to use theoretically derived transfer functions. Practical implementation has shown that the attenuation, especially of closed-path systems, is underestimated by this method, even when the additional tube damping is considered. This paper introduces and tests three alternative site-specific and hardware specific correction methods based on spectral analysis, which typically enhance—additionally to the classical correction—the calculated mass fluxes based on closed-path analysers, as their inevitable tubing and the filters used cause additional flow attenuation. Two of the three methods are based on a site-specific and hardware specific transfer functions, the third uses direct comparison of cospectra. Primarily the methods based on transfer functions proved to be easy-to-handle once established for the specific set-up and measurement site. They represent practical and robust methods to correct for spectral attenuation.     

Winter climate anomalies in Europe and their associated circulation at 500 hPa

Regional anomalies of the surface climate over Europe are defined by a simultanous EOF-analysis of the normalized monthly mean sea level pressure, temperature and precipitation fields of 100 winters (December–February, 1887–1986) at 40 stations. The monthly amplitudes of the first EOF (about 25% of the total variance) are used as an index for the monthly winter climate anomaly. They characterize a high (low) pressure cell over central Europe associated with a positive (negative) temperature and precipitation anomaly over northern (central-southern) Europe as indicated by a northward (southward) shift of the tail end of the cross-Atlantic cyclone track. These patterns resemble the phenomenological anticyclonic (cyclonic) Grosswetter classification and the European blocking (enhanced zonal flow) regime. The second EOF is of similar magnitude and gives latitudinal corrections to these two basic flow regimes. The joint probability distribution of both amplitudes shows a weak bimodality mainly associated with the first EOF. Further insight into the underlying physical processes of the climate anomaly patterns in Europe is obtained from the extended Eliassen-Palm flux diagnostics of the barotropic transient eddy-mean flow interaction (Hoskins et al. 1983) and the stationary wave propagation (Plumb 1985). The diagnostics confined to the barotropic components and applied to the regression and the composite anomaly fields of the transient and stationary eddy flows of the 500 hPa geopotential (1946–87, north of 20°N) leads to the following results: (1) The bandpass filtered transient eddy variances of the 500 hPa geopotential show a shift of the cross-Atlantic storm track: In high (low) pressure situations over Europe the cross-Atlantic storm track intensity is enhanced (reduced) and its tail end is shifted northward (remains zonal); the North Pacific storm track extends further (less) eastward and thus closer to the west coast of North America. (2) The extreme high pressure system over Europe tends to be supported by an anomalous transient eddy forcing of the mean flow stream-function: it enhances the zonal wind to its north and generates anticyclonic vorticity about 10° upstream from its center. In the low pressure composite the anomalous cyclonic vorticity is generated reducing the zonal flow to its north. (3) The occurrence (lack) of a strong eastward stationary wave activity flux over the Atlantic is associated with the high (low) pressure situations over Europe. Finally, a positive feedback is conjectured between the stationary wavetrain modifying the tail end of the cross-Atlantic storm track and the transient eddies intensifying this anomaly.     

The Energy Balance Experiment EBEX-2000. Part I: overview and energy balance

An overview of the Energy Balance Experiment (EBEX-2000) is given. This experiment studied the ability of state-of-the-art measurements to close the surface energy balance over a surface (a vegetative canopy with large evapotranspiration) where closure has been difficult to obtain. A flood-irrigated cotton field over uniform terrain was used, though aerial imagery and direct flux measurements showed that the surface still was inhomogeneous. All major terms of the surface energy balance were measured at nine sites to characterize the spatial variability across the field. Included in these observations was an estimate of heat storage in the plant canopy. The resultant imbalance still was 10%, which exceeds the estimated measurement error. We speculate that horizontal advection in the layer between the canopy top and our flux measurement height may cause this imbalance, though our estimates of this term using our measurements resulted in values less than what would be required to balance the budget. The National Center for Atmospheric Research is supported by the National Science Foundation     

New Thorium Isotope Ratio Measurements in Silicate Reference Materials: A‐THO,AGV‐2, BCR‐2, BE‐N,BHVO‐2 and BIR‐1

A two‐step Th isolation protocol, involving micro‐columns of TRU‐Spec extraction chromatography material and AG1 resin, was evaluated. The MC‐ICP‐MS procedure included ²³²Th tailing characterisation and correction, and calibrator bracketing using an in‐house standard solution (ThS1) to correct for instrumental mass bias and Faraday cup to secondary electron multiplier relative gain. Repeated analyses of reference solutions (UCSC Th ‘A’, WUN, OU Th ‘U’, IRMM‐36) were consistent with published data. Six reference materials (A‐THO, BCR‐2, AGV‐2, BHVO‐2, BE‐N and BIR‐1) were processed. The average ²³⁰Th/²³²Th values obtained for these samples are in excellent agreement with published data. In addition, we report the first ²³⁰Th/²³²Th values for BE‐N and BIR‐1. The intermediate precisions for rock samples ranged from ± 0.24 to ± 0.49% (2 RSD) and were similar to those achieved for synthetic solutions, thereby supporting the overall validity of the chemical separation, data acquisition and reduction procedures. Counting statistics on the ²³⁰Th isotope was the most significant source of uncertainty. The intermediate precision of the mean ²³⁰Th/²³²Th for the Th‐depleted BIR‐1 (5.64 × 10^?6 ± 0.27%, 2 RSD) is in the range of the analyses of other reference materials analysed in this study.