Search results for "Geosciences"

Scaling carbon fluxes from eddy covariance sites to globe: synthesis and evaluation of the FLUXCOM approach

2020

FLUXNET comprises globally distributed eddy-covariance-based estimates of carbon fluxes between the biosphere and the atmosphere. Since eddy covariance flux towers have a relatively small footprint and are distributed unevenly across the world, upscaling the observations is necessary to obtain global-scale estimates of biosphere–atmosphere exchange. Based on cross-consistency checks with atmospheric inversions, sun-induced fluorescence (SIF) and dynamic global vegetation models (DGVMs), here we provide a systematic assessment of the latest upscaling efforts for gross primary production (GPP) and net ecosystem exchange (NEE) of the FLUXCOM initiative, where different machine learning methods…

A comparison of HONO budgets for two measurement heights at a field station within the boreal forest in Finland

2015

Atmospheric concentrations of nitrous acid (HONO), one of the major precursors of the hydroxyl radical (OH) in the troposphere, significantly exceed the values predicted by the assumption of a photostationary state (PSS) during daytime. Therefore, additional sources of HONO were intensively investigated in the last decades. This study presents budget calculations of HONO based on simultaneous measurements of all relevant species, including HONO and OH at two different measurement heights, i.e. 1 m above the ground and about 2 to 3 m above the canopy (24 m above the ground), conducted in a boreal forest environment. We observed mean HONO concentrations of about 6.5 × 108 molecules cm−3 (26 p…

Nitrous oxide emission budgets and land-use-driven hotspots for organic soils in Europe

2014

Organic soils are a main source of direct emissions of nitrous oxide (N2O), an important greenhouse gas (GHG). Observed N2O emissions from organic soils are highly variable in space and time, which causes high uncertainties in national emission inventories. Those uncertainties could be reduced when relating the upscaling process to a priori-identified key drivers by using available N2O observations from plot scale in empirical approaches. We used the empirical fuzzy modelling approach MODE to identify main drivers for N2O and utilize them to predict the spatial emission pattern of European organic soils. We conducted a meta-study with a total amount of 659 annual N2O measurements, which was…

Morphological determination of the phototrophic community composition of biological soil crusts in coastal sand dunes in northern Germany

2022

This dataset comprises the microbial community composition of biological soil crusts in north-German sand dunes. For this we obtained enrichment cultures of phototrophic microorganisms, by placing fragments of biocrusts of the same Petri dishes as used for sequencing, in Petri dishes with Bold Basal (1N BBM) agarized medium (Bischoff and Bold 1963). Cultures were grown under standard laboratory conditions: with a 12-hour alteration of light and dark phases and irradiation of 25 μmol photons m-2 s-1 at a temperature 20 ± 5 ºС. Microscopic study of these raw cultures began in the third week of cultivation. Morphological examinations were performed using Olympus BX53 light microscope with Noma…

Abrupt Alnus population decline at the end of the first millennium CE in Europe - The event ecology, possible causes and implications

2019

The study, based on the examination of 70 published and unpublished pollen profiles from Poland and supplementary data from the surrounding regions, shows that an abrupt, episodic Alnus population decline at the end of the first millennium CE was a much more widespread event than has been previously reported, spanning large areas of the temperate and boreal zones in Europe. The data from Poland suggest that the decline was roughly synchronous and most likely occurred between the 9th and 10th centuries, with strong indications for the 10th century. The pollen data indicate that human impacts were not a major factor in the event. Instead, we hypothesize that one or a series of abrupt climatic…

A 5500-year oxygen isotope record of high arctic environmental change from southern Spitsbergen

2017

The oxygen isotope composition of chironomid head capsules in a sediment core spanning the past 5500 years from Lake Svartvatnet in southern Spitsbergen was used to reconstruct the oxygen isotope composition of lake water (δ18Olw) and local precipitation. The δ18Olw values display shifts from the baseline variability consistent with the timing of recognized historical climatic episodes, such as the Roman Warm Period, the Dark Ages Cold Period and the ‘Little Ice Age’. The highest values of the record, ca. 3‰ above modern δ18Olw values, occur at ca. 1900–1800 cal. yr BP. Three negative excursions increasing in intensity toward the present, at 3400–3200, 1250–1100, and 350–50 cal. yr BP, are…

Cyanophyte calcification morphotypes and depositional environments (Alenquer oncolite, upper Kimmeridgian?, Portugal)

1985

Terrigenous red siliciclastics of Upper Kimmeridgian(?) to Portlandian age around Alenguer, Portugal, comprise a narrow level of oncoid-bearing limestones. Oncoid cortices are composed of cyanophytes which appear in different calcification morphotypes according to changing physico-chemical parameters. Recent examples reveal that in most cases each calcification morphotype is related to one single species or one defined association. Hence, the characteristic calcification patterns are mostly biologically rather than abiogenetically controlled. Oncoid shapes, sizes and arrangement, on the other hand, are mainly determined by the hydraulic parameter within the depositional environment.

Establishing the representativeness of available surface water scenarios for plant protection products in environmental risk assessment Opinion of th…

2021

Methodology for the estimation of the increase in time loss due to future increase in tropical cyclone intensity in Japan

2009

Published version of an article from the journal: Climatic Change. The original publication is available at Spingerlink. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10584-009-9725-9 The present paper develops a methodology for estimating the risks and consequences of possible future increases in tropical cyclone intensities that would allow policy makers to relatively quickly evaluate the cost of different mitigation strategies. The methodology simulates future tropical cyclones by modifying the intensity of historical tropical cyclones between the years 1978 and 2007. It then uses a Monte Carlo Simulation to obtain the expected number of hours that a certain area can expect to be affected by winds of a giv…

The Raunis section, central Latvia, revisited: first luminescence results and re-evaluation of a key Baltic States stratigraphic site

2020

This is an Accepted Manuscript version of the following article: Kalińska, E., Alexanderson, H. & Krievāns, M. (2020). The Raunis section, central Latvia, revisited: first luminescence results and re-evaluation of a key Baltic States stratigraphic site. Geografiska Annaler: Series A, Physical Geography, 102(4), 376-396. It is deposited under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. In interstadial deposits, sand interbeds gain limited consideration in comparison with organic sediments, and therefore tend to be underrepresented in paleoe…