Land–sea carbon and nutrient fluxes and coastal ocean CO2 exchange and acidification: Past,present, and future

Epochs of changing atmospheric CO₂ and seawater CO₂–carbonic acid system chemistry and acidification have occurred during the Phanerozoic at various time scales. On the longer geologic time scale, as sea level rose and fell and continental free board decreased and increased, respectively, the riverine fluxes of Ca, Mg, DIC, and total alkalinity to the coastal ocean varied and helped regulate the C chemistry of seawater, but nevertheless there were major epochs of ocean acidification (OA). On the shorter glacial–interglacial time scale from the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) to late preindustrial time, riverine fluxes of DIC, total alkalinity, and N and P nutrients increased and along with rising sea level, atmospheric PCO₂ and temperature led, among other changes, to a slightly deceasing pH of coastal and open ocean waters, and to increasing net ecosystem calcification and decreasing net heterotrophy in coastal ocean waters. From late preindustrial time to the present and projected into the 21st century, human activities, such as fossil fuel and land-use emissions of CO₂ to the atmosphere, increasing application of N and P nutrient subsidies and combustion N to the landscape, and sewage discharges of C, N, P have led, and will continue to lead, to significant modifications of coastal ocean waters. The changes include a rapid decline in pH and carbonate saturation state (modern problem of ocean acidification), a shift toward dissolution of carbonate substrates exceeding production, potentially leading to the “demise” of the coral reefs, reversal of the direction of the sea-to-air flux of CO₂ and enhanced biological production and burial of organic C, a small sink of anthropogenic CO₂, accompanied by a continuous trend toward increasing autotrophy in coastal waters.     

Economic value of children and fertility preferences in a fishing community in Ghana

Although anecdotal evidence suggests that fertility levels in fishing communities, in Ghana, are very high, the influence of economic and cultural factors on fertility preferences in such communities has not been adequately explored. This article examines the fertility preferences of men and women living at Akplabanya, a fishing community in Ghana. Data were collected from a sample of 354 respondents. The findings of the study show that demand for labour, expectations of long term security, and gendered power relations have contributed to high fertility levels and preferences in the study area. It has been concluded that significant fertility decline in the area will only occur when fertility preferences of men have changed. Family planning programmes must therefore target both men and women. Improving economic status of women will also go a long way to bring about fertility transition in rural communities in Ghana.     

Projection of low flow conditions in Germany under climate change by combining three RCMs and a regional hydrological model

The present study is aimed to: (a) project future low flow conditions in the five largest river basins in Germany, and (b) to account for the projections uncertainties. The eco-hydrological model SWIM was driven by different regional climate models (REMO, CCLM, and Wettreg) to simulate daily river discharges in each study basin. The 50-year low flow was estimated for the period 1961 to 2000, and its return period was assessed for two scenario periods, 2021–2060 and 2061–2100, using the generalized extreme value distribution. The 50-year low flow is likely to occur more frequently in western, southern, and parts of central Germany after 2061, as suggested by more than or equal to 80% of the model runs. The current low flow period (from August to September) may be extended until late autumn at the end of this century. The return period of 50-year deficit volume shows a similar temporal and spatial pattern of change as for the low flow, indicating slightly less severe conditions with lower confidence. When compared with flood projections for the same area using the same models, the severer low flows projected in this study appear more pronounced, consistent, and have lower uncertainty.     

Organic carbon export in the form of wood during an extreme tropical storm,Upper Rio Chagres,Panama

Widespread, intense rainfall over the Upper Rio Chagres watershed (414 km²) in central Panama during December 2010 triggered numerous landslides that introduced large numbers of trees to the river network. We flew by helicopter along the mainstem Upper Chagres and the adjacent margins of Lake Alhajuela, into which the Upper Chagres flows, in February and June 2011. We used low‐elevation video photography from these flights to tally the number of wood pieces stored along the lake margin and within the channel, and the number of landslides reaching the mainstem. We used these tallies with ground‐verified estimates of average wood piece size and landslide surface area, and assumptions about wood density, carbon content, and aboveground biomass, to develop a first‐order estimate of carbon export in the form of wood from the Upper Chagres following the 2010 storms. Based on the wood tally, we estimate 9 · 6 to 16 Mg C/km² export, and from the landslide tally we estimate 24 Mg C/km². We believe the landslide tally provides a more accurate minimum estimate of carbon export from the Upper Chagres during the December 2010 storms. These values are an order of magnitude higher than limited data for average or background rates of wood‐based carbon export from other catchments, but two orders of magnitude lower than wood‐based carbon export during extreme storms in Taiwan. The findings suggest that duration of flood flow above a threshold for mobilizing wood within the channel network exerts a more important control on wood export from the Upper Chagres than magnitude of flood peak. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Advances in Understanding Top-of-Atmosphere Radiation Variability from Satellite Observations

This paper highlights how the emerging record of satellite observations from the Earth Observation System (EOS) and A-Train constellation are advancing our ability to more completely document and understand the underlying processes associated with variations in the Earth’s top-of-atmosphere (TOA) radiation budget. Large-scale TOA radiation changes during the past decade are observed to be within 0.5?Wm^?2 per decade based upon comparisons between Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) instruments aboard Terra and Aqua and other instruments. Tropical variations in emitted outgoing longwave (LW) radiation are found to closely track changes in the El Ni?o-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). During positive ENSO phase (El Ni?o), outgoing LW radiation increases, and decreases during the negative ENSO phase (La Ni?a). The coldest year during the last decade occurred in 2008, during which strong La Nina conditions persisted throughout most of the year. Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) observations show that the lower temperatures extended throughout much of the troposphere for several months, resulting in a reduction in outgoing LW radiation and an increase in net incoming radiation. At the global scale, outgoing LW flux anomalies are partially compensated for by decreases in midlatitude cloud fraction and cloud height, as observed by Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer and Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer, respectively. CERES data show that clouds have a net radiative warming influence during La Ni?a conditions and a net cooling influence during El Ni?o, but the magnitude of the anomalies varies greatly from one ENSO event to another. Regional cloud-radiation variations among several Terra and A-Train instruments show consistent patterns and exhibit marked fluctuations at monthly timescales in response to tropical atmosphere-ocean dynamical processes associated with ENSO and Madden–Julian Oscillation.     

Carbon dioxide fluxes and DOC concentrations of eroding blanket peat gullies

UK peatlands are affected by severe gully erosion with consequent impacts on ecosystem services from these areas. Incision into the peat can damage the vegetation and hydrology and lead to increases in carbon loss and sediment transfer downstream. Gullies represent then a conduit for and a hotspot of carbon loss but the relatively high water tables of gullies have meant that they have been identified as areas with a high restoration potential because of easily restored peat‐forming conditions. This study uses a series of gully sites, subject to different restoration interventions, to investigate differences in carbon pathways (DOC, CO₂) and hydrology between restoration strategies and gully position. The results show that the position within the gully (interfluve, gully side, or gully floor) does not significantly affect water quality but that it plays a significant role in CO₂ exchange. Gully floors are areas of high photosynthesis and ecosystem respiration, though net ecosystem exchange is not significantly different across the gully. While gully position plays a role in the cycling of some carbon species, this study highlights the importance of vegetation as a key control on carbon cycling. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mesospheric temperatures derived from three decades of hydroxyl airglow measurements from Longyearbyen, Svalbard (78°N)

The airglow hydroxyl temperature record from Longyearbyen, Svalbard, is updated with data from the last seven seasons (2005/2006–2011/2012). The temperatures are derived from ground-based spectral measurements of the hydroxyl airglow layer, which ranges from 76 to 90 km height. The overall daily average mesospheric temperature for the whole temperature record is 206 K. This is by 3 K less than what Dyrland and Sigernes (2007) reported in their last update on the temperature series. This temperature difference is due to cold winter seasons from 2008 to 2010. 2009/2010 was the coldest winter season ever recorded over Longyearbyen, with a seasonal average of 185 K. Temperature variability within the winter seasons is investigated, and the temperature difference between late December (local minimum) and late January (local maximum) is approximately 8 K.     

Is there evolution in the infrared Tully–Fisher relation? Comparing two linear regressions

In a recent paper, Puech and co-workers compared K -band Tully–Fisher relations derived for nearby and distant galaxies, respectively. They concluded that the two relations differ, and deduced that there is evolution in the Tully–Fisher relations. The statistical comparison between the two regression lines is re-examined, and it is shown that the statistical test used gives non-significant results. It is argued that better results can be obtained by comparing the 'inverse' Tully–Fisher relations, and it is demonstrated by two different methods that the nearby- and distant-sample relations do indeed differ at a very high significance level. One of the statistical methods described is non-parametric, and can be applied very generally to compare linear regressions from two different samples.     

Dynamics of high‐temperature materials delivered by jets to the outer solar nebula

Abstract— The presence of high‐temperature materials in the Stardust collection that are isotopically similar to those seen in chondritic meteorites argues for the outward transport of materials from the hot, inner region of the solar nebula to the region where comets formed. A number of mechanisms have been proposed to be responsible for this transport, with a number of models being developed to show that such outward transport is possible. However, these models have not examined in detail how these grains are transported after they have been delivered to the comet formation region or how they may be distributed in the cometary nuclei that form. Here, the dynamical evolution of crystalline silicates injected onto the surface of the solar nebula as proposed by jet models for radial transport is considered. It is generally found that crystalline grains should be heterogeneously distributed within the population of comets and within individual cometary nuclei. In order to achieve a homogeneous distribution of such grains, turbulence must be effective at mixing the crystalline silicates with native, amorphous grains on fine scales. However, this turbulent mixing would serve to dilute the crystalline silicates as it would redistribute them over large radial distances. These results suggest that it is difficult to infer the bulk properties of Wild 2 from the Stardust samples, and that the abundance of crystalline grains in these samples cannot alone be used to rule out or in favor of any of the different radial transport models that have been proposed.     

Dew Formation,Eddy-Correlation Latent Heat Fluxes,and the Surface Energy Imbalance at Cabauw During Stable Conditions

Observations collected between 2000 and 2008 at the Cabauw meteorological measurement platform in the Netherlands were conditionally sampled to select nights with stably stratified atmospheric conditions, clear skies and weak horizontal wind speeds (<3 m s⁻¹). For these conditions the eddy-correlation latent heat fluxes are found to be negligibly small, while the conditionally sampled surface energy balance exhibits a maximum residual. However, inspection of the specific humidities for these conditions reveals systematic drying trends that are a maximum at the lowest measurement level above the surface. These drying trends occur for any prevailing wind direction. Latent heat fluxes are calculated from the humidity budget equation and from a Penman-Monteith dewfall model, with the results suggesting that during clear, stable nights the observed latent heat fluxes as obtained from the eddy-correlation technique are erroneously small.