Phylogeography of the pelagic fish Seriola lalandi at different scales: confirmation of inter-ocean population structure and evaluation of southern African genetic diversity

The study investigated the global and regional phylogeography of the yellowtail kingfish Seriola lalandi by examining genetic diversity and population genetic structure of this species at inter-and intra-ocean level and on a regional scale. DNA fragments of two mitochondrial genes, cytochrome b (Cytb) and cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) and one nuclear gene, recombination activating gene 1 (RAG1), were sequenced to investigate the global-scale phylogeography of this species. The population genetic structure within the South Pacific, as well as along the South African coastline, was examined further using six microsatellite markers. Three distinct clades were identified for S. lalandi, which correspond with previously described subspecies of the North-East Pacific, North-West Pacific and the Southern Hemisphere. Within the latter, additional divergence was observed between the South Pacific and the South-East Atlantic regions. Divergence estimates were indicative of a Pacific origin for S. lalandi populations, because of Pleistocene vicariant events. Microsatellite analyses revealed overall significant genetic differentiation between South African and South Pacific samples. This corroborates recent findings on the global phylogeography of the species. No population differentiation was observed within South Africa, indicating high levels of gene flow.     

Effect of the processing methodology on satellite altimetry-based global mean sea level rise over the Jason-1 operating period

Determining how the global mean sea level (GMSL) evolves with time is of primary importance to understand one of the main consequences of global warming and its potential impact on populations living near coasts or in low-lying islands. Five groups are routinely providing satellite altimetry-based estimates of the GMSL over the altimetry era (since late 1992). Because each group developed its own approach to compute the GMSL time series, this leads to some differences in the GMSL interannual variability and linear trend. While over the whole high-precision altimetry time span (1993–2012), good agreement is noticed for the computed GMSL linear trend (of $3.1\pm 0.4$  mm/year), on shorter time spans (e.g., ${<}10~\hbox {years}$ ), trend differences are significantly larger than the 0.4 mm/year uncertainty. Here we investigate the sources of the trend differences, focusing on the averaging methods used to generate the GMSL. For that purpose, we consider outputs from two different groups: the Colorado University (CU) and Archiving, Validation and Interpretation of Satellite Oceanographic Data (AVISO) because associated processing of each group is largely representative of all other groups. For this investigation, we use the high-resolution MERCATOR ocean circulation model with data assimilation (version Glorys2-v1) and compute synthetic sea surface height (SSH) data by interpolating the model grids at the time and location of “true” along-track satellite altimetry measurements, focusing on the Jason-1 operating period (i.e., 2002–2009). These synthetic SSH data are then treated as “real” altimetry measurements, allowing us to test the different averaging methods used by the two processing groups for computing the GMSL: (1) averaging along-track altimetry data (as done by CU) or (2) gridding the along-track data into $2^{\circ }\times 2^{\circ }$ meshes and then geographical averaging of the gridded data (as done by AVISO). We also investigate the effect of considering or not SSH data at shallow depths $({<}120~\hbox {m})$ as well as the editing procedure. We find that the main difference comes from the averaging method with significant differences depending on latitude. In the tropics, the $2^{\circ }\times 2^{\circ }$ gridding method used by AVISO overestimates by 11 % the GMSL trend. At high latitudes (above $60^{\circ }\hbox {N}/\hbox {S}$ ), both methods underestimate the GMSL trend. Our calculation shows that the CU method (along-track averaging) and AVISO gridding process underestimate the trend in high latitudes of the northern hemisphere by 0.9 and 1.2 mm/year, respectively. While we were able to attribute the AVISO trend overestimation in the tropics to grid cells with too few data, the cause of underestimation at high latitudes remains unclear and needs further investigation.     

Observational estimate of climate sensitivity from changes in the rate of ocean heat uptake and comparison to CMIP5 models

Climate sensitivity is estimated based on 0–2,000 m ocean heat content and surface temperature observations from the second half of the 20th century and first decade of the 21st century, using a simple energy balance model and the change in the rate of ocean heat uptake to determine the radiative restoration strength over this time period. The relationship between this 30–50 year radiative restoration strength and longer term effective sensitivity is investigated using an ensemble of 32 model configurations from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 5 (CMIP5), suggesting a strong correlation between the two. The mean radiative restoration strength over this period for the CMIP5 members examined is 1.16 Wm^?2K^?1, compared to 2.05 Wm^?2K^?1 from the observations. This suggests that temperature in these CMIP5 models may be too sensitive to perturbations in radiative forcing, although this depends on the actual magnitude of the anthropogenic aerosol forcing in the modern period. The potential change in the radiative restoration strength over longer timescales is also considered, resulting in a likely (67 %) range of 1.5–2.9 K for equilibrium climate sensitivity, and a 90 % confidence interval of 1.2–5.1 K.     

Observational constraints on the chemical and thermal structure of the Earth's deep interior

Summary. The observations of the periods of free oscillation of the Earth provide direct constraints on the density distribution in the Earth. These in turn allow constraints to be placed on the size of departures from a state of adiabaticity and chemical homogeneity. These departures are quantified in terms of a stratification parameter '8' first introduced as an index of chemical homogeneity. The resolving power theory of Backus & Gilbert is used to determine the ability of the observed free oscillations to constrain η in the lower mantle and outer core. The results suggest that the outer core is not strongly chemically stratified although a significantly thermally stable core cannot be excluded. The free oscillations also apparently require a compositional difference between the inner and outer cores.