Lithium isotope systematics of lavas from the Cook–Austral Islands: Constraints on the origin of HIMU mantle

Radiogenic isotope variations in lavas from the Cook–Austral volcanic chain have delineated three distinct mantle sources: a HIMU component, a depleted component (DM), and an enriched component (EM). To better constrain the mantle sources for South Pacific hot spot volcanism, we determined lithium isotopic compositions of lavas from Raivavae, Rapa, Mangaia and Tubuai of the volcanic chain. The study includes whole rock and mineral analyses. In general, δ⁷Li of most olivines resemble bulk rock composition whereas clinopyroxenes are variably lighter. This implies that clinopyroxene is more susceptible to diffusion-induced fractionation, in agreement with previous studies. Olivine δ⁷Li values span a narrower range than whole rock values, and do not extend to the very heavy compositions previously reported in HIMU bulk lavas. This discrepancy likely reflects alteration of bulk lavas, and suggests that Li-isotope analyses of bulk lavas should be interpreted with caution. Olivines from HIMU lavas have heavy δ⁷Li values (up to 6.2‰), and extend beyond the range reported for fresh MORB. Correlations between Li-isotopes and radiogenic isotopes suggest that the heavy δ⁷Li values in HIMU olivines are a source characteristic and not the result of post-magmatic alteration. Although the Li-isotope composition of recycled, dehydrated oceanic crust is currently under debate, our results suggest that HIMU lavas derive from a source containing recycled dehydrated oceanic crust, and that the “heavy” Li-isotope signature of altered oceanic crust is partially preserved during passage through the subduction factory.     

Present-day and future precipitation in the Baltic Sea region as simulated in a suite of regional climate models

Here we investigate simulated changes in the precipitation climate over the Baltic Sea and surrounding land areas for the period 2071–2100 as compared to 1961–1990. We analyze precipitation in 10 regional climate models taking part in the European PRUDENCE project. Forced by the same global driving climate model, the mean of the regional climate model simulations captures the observed climatological precipitation over the Baltic Sea runoff land area to within 15% in each month, while single regional models have errors up to 25%. In the future climate, the precipitation is projected to increase in the Baltic Sea area, especially during winter. During summer increased precipitation in the north is contrasted with a decrease in the south of this region. Over the Baltic Sea itself the future change in the seasonal cycle of precipitation is markedly different in the regional climate model simulations. We show that the sea surface temperatures have a profound impact on the simulated hydrological cycle over the Baltic Sea. The driving global climate model used in the common experiment projects a very strong regional increase in summertime sea surface temperature, leading to a significant increase in precipitation. In addition to the common experiment some regional models have been forced by either a different set of Baltic Sea surface temperatures, lateral boundary conditions from another global climate model, a different emission scenario, or different initial conditions. We make use of the large number of experiments in the PRUDENCE project, providing an ensemble consisting of more than 25 realizations of climate change, to illustrate sources of uncertainties in climate change projections.     

Wave-induced steady streaming,mass transport and net sediment transport in rough turbulent ocean bottom boundary layers

The interaction between two important mechanisms which causes streaming has been investigated by numerical simulations of the seabed boundary layer beneath both sinusoidal waves and Stokes second order waves, as well as horizontally uniform bottom boundary layers with asymmetric forcing. These two mechanisms are streaming caused by turbulence asymmetry in successive wave half-cycles (beneath asymmetric forcing), and streaming caused by the presence of a vertical wave velocity within the seabed boundary layer as earlier explained by Longuet-Higgins. The effect of wave asymmetry, wave length to water depth ratio, and bottom roughness have been investigated for realistic physical situations. The streaming induced sediment dynamics near the ocean bottom has been investigated; both the resulting suspended load and bedload are presented. Finally, the mass transport (wave-averaged Lagrangian velocity) has been studied for a range of wave conditions. The streaming velocities beneath sinusoidal waves (Longuet-Higgins streaming) is always in the direction of wave propagation, while the streaming velocities in horizontally uniform boundary layers with asymmetric forcing are always negative. Thus the effect of asymmetry in second order Stokes waves is either to reduce the streaming velocity in the direction of wave propagation, or, for long waves relative to the water depth, to induce a streaming velocity against the direction of wave propagation. It appears that the Longuet-Higgins streaming decreases as the wave length increases for a given water depth, and the effect of wave asymmetry can dominate, leading to a steady streaming against the wave propagation. Furthermore, the asymmetry of second order Stokes waves reduces the mass transport (wave-averaged Lagrangian velocity) as compared with sinusoidal waves. The boundary layer streaming leads to a wave-averaged transport of suspended sediments and bedload in the direction of wave propagation.     

Vulnerable or Resilient? A Multi-Scale Assessment of Climate Impacts and Vulnerability in Norway

This paper explores the issue of climate vulnerability in Norway, an affluent country that is generally considered to be resilient to the impacts of climate change. In presenting a multi-scale assessment of climate change impacts and vulnerability in Norway, we show that the concept of vulnerability depends on the scale of analysis. Both exposure and the distribution of climate sensitive sectors vary greatly across scale. So do the underlying social and economic conditions that influence adaptive capacity. These findings question the common notion that climate change may be beneficial for Norway, and that the country can readily adapt to climate change. As scale differences are brought into consideration, vulnerability emerges within some regions, localities, and social groups. To cope with actual and potential changes in climate and climate variability, it will be necessary to acknowledge climate vulnerabilities at the regional and local levels, and to address them accordingly. This multi-scale assessment of impacts and vulnerability in Norway reinforces the importance of scale in global change research.     

Palaeobiotechnology

The majority of organisms that ever lived on the Earth, and hence the majority of evolutionary innovations, are now extinct. Only fragments of this past diversity are observable in the form of the fossil record. Biomimicry and biotechnology seek to utilize the astonishing diversity of living organism's solutions to complex biological problems as inspiration for human technology. This feature reviews the potential industrial applications of fossil-inspired technologies, an emerging area of research here referred to as ‘palaeobiotechnology’ or ‘brown biotechnology’. Examples from vertebrate, invertebrate and molecular palaeontology illustrate the diverse potential applications of extinct organisms, including the design of new materials such as bone substitutes, development of pharmaceuticals, robots and anchoring devices for submarines. Palaeobiotechnological approaches are able to both inspire modern sustainable technologies and at the same time illuminate the biology of ancient organisms.     

Interactive visualization of 3D mantle convection

The current availability of thousands of processors at many high performance computing centers has made it feasible to carry out, in near real time, interactive visualization of 3D mantle convection temperature fields, using grid configurations having 10–100 million unknowns. We will describe the technical details involved in carrying out this endeavor, using the facilities available at the Laboratory of Computational Science and Engineering (LCSE) at the University of Minnesota. These technical details involve the modification of a parallel mantle convection program, ACuTEMan; the usage of client–server socket based programs to transfer upwards of a terabyte of time series scientific model data using a local network; a rendering system containing multiple nodes; a high resolution PowerWall display, and the interactive visualization software, DSCVR. We have found that working in an interactive visualizastion mode allows for fast and efficient analysis of mantle convection results. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

The biosphere: A homogeniser of Pb-isotope signals

Rock, soil, and plant (terrestrial moss, European mountain ash leaves, mountain birch leaves, bark and wood, and spruce needles and wood) samples, collected at 3 km intervals along a 120 km long transect (40 sites) cutting the city of Oslo, Norway, were analysed for their Pb concentration and Pb-isotope ratios. A general decrease in ²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁷Pb, ²⁰⁸Pb/²⁰⁷Pb and ²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁸Pb ratios, with a characteristic low variability in all plant materials and the plant-derived O-horizon of soil profiles, compared to rocks and mineral soils, is observed along the transect. It is demonstrated that minerogenic and biogenic sample materials belong to two different spheres, the lithosphere and biosphere, and that geochemical processes determining their chemical and isotopic compositions differ widely. Background variation for both sample materials needs to be established and documented at the continental and global scale before the anthropogenic influence on the geochemistry of the earth’s surface can be reliably estimated.