ALBERT

Description: Se caracterizó y evaluó el estado de conservación de los pastos marinos en áreas de interés conservacionista del Archipiélago Sabana-Camagüey en el periodo 2001-2003, considerando variables descriptivas de las angiospermas marinas, de la estructura del macrofitobentos y abióticas para conocer las causas de su afectación. Las áreas estudiadas fueron las bahías de Cárdenas, Santa Clara, Buena Vista, de Perros, Jigüey, La Gloria y Nuevitas, así como algunas lagunas arrecifales. Los pastos marinos mejor conservados se encontraron en las zonas con mayor intercambio con el océano, destacándose las lagunas arrecifales. El deterioro de los pastos marinos se debió principalmente al aumento de la turbidez por contaminación orgánica cerca de la isla principal en sectores costeros de las bahías de Cárdenas, Santa Clara y Buena Vista, y a este factor, junto con el incremento de la salinidad, en las bahías de Perros y Jigüey. Las condiciones más propicias para el desarrollo de los pastos parecen ser: la visibilidad submarina 〉 1 m, la salinidad 〈 43 ups, la variabilidad de salinidad 〈 10 ups, la DQO 〈 5,6 mgO2 L-1 y el nitrógeno total 〈 173 μM en el agua. La especie de angiosperma dominante fue Thalassia testudinum, seguida por Syringodium filiforme y Halodule wrightii, que dominaron donde disminuyó la luz y aumentaron los nutrientes. El inventario del macrofitobentos en el ASC acumuló 227 especies (100 Rhodophyta, 26 Ochrophyta, 96 Chlorophyta y cinco Magnoliophyta), con 66 nuevos registros para la zona y 16, para Cuba. Las macroalgas más frecuentes fueron de los órdenes Bryopsidales (Chlorophyta) y Ceramiales (Rhodophyta). La estructura del macrofitobentos estuvo modulada por los mismos factores que afectan el desarrollo de las angiospermas, con una riqueza específica menor donde está deteriorado el hábitat.

Description: PhD

Description: Upscaling plant biomass distribution and dynamics is essential for estimating carbon stocks and carbon balance. In this respect, the Russian Far East is among the least investigated sub-Arctic regions despite its known vegetation sensitivity to ongoing warming. We representatively harvested above-ground biomass (AGB; separated by dominant taxa) at 40 sampling plots in central Chukotka. We used ordination to relate field-based taxa projective cover and Landsat-derived vegetation indices. A general additive model was used to link the ordination scores to AGB. We then mapped AGB for paired Landsat-derived time slices (i.e. 2000/2001/2002 and 2016/2017), in four study regions covering a wide vegetation gradient from closed-canopy larch forests to barren alpine tundra. We provide AGB estimates and changes in AGB that were previously lacking for central Chukotka at a high spatial resolution and a detailed description of taxonomical contributions. Generally, AGB in the study region ranges from 0 to 16 kg m−2, with Cajander larch providing the highest contribution. Comparison of changes in AGB within the investigated period shows that the greatest changes (up to 1.25 kg m−2 yr−1) occurred in the northern taiga and in areas where land cover changed to larch closed-canopy forest. As well as the notable changes, increases in AGB also occur within the land-cover classes. Our estimations indicate a general increase in total AGB throughout the investigated tundra–taiga and northern taiga, whereas the tundra showed no evidence of change in AGB.

Description: With two exceptions, no general patterns of patchiness of the megabenthos were found on the Antarctic shelf and off northeast Greenland. Underwater videos were used as a sampling method and Morisita's Index of Dispersion for statistical analysis. A gradient from randomness to patchiness occurred for most taxa, whereas the pattern of asteroids could not be distinguished from randomness. In the Antarctic, the totals of other mobile animals were less aggregated than for sessile taxa. The findings are interpreted as a result of ecological complexity within species assemblages.

Description: The aim of the expedition CACOON Sea was to investigate the transition from fresh water to salt water and its impact on fate and quality on dissolved and particulate organic and inorganic carbon and nitrogen. This is in accordance with the main Changing Arctic Carbon cycle in the cOastal Ocean Near-shore (CACOON, https://www.changing-arctic-ocean.ac.uk/project/cacoon/) project goal to investigate the changing freshwater export and impact of terrestrial permafrost thaw into the near-shore zone of the Laptev Sea.

Description: With the Arctic rapidly changing, the needs to observe, understand, and model the changes are essential. To support these needs, an annual cycle of observations of atmospheric properties, processes, and interactions were made while drifting with the sea ice across the central Arctic during the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) expedition from October 2019 to September 2020. An international team designed and implemented the comprehensive program to document and characterize all aspects of the Arctic atmospheric system in unprecedented detail, using a variety of approaches, and across multiple scales. These measurements were coordinated with other observational teams to explore cross- cutting and coupled interactions with the Arctic Ocean, sea ice, and ecosystem through a variety of physical and biogeochemical processes. This overview outlines the breadth and complexity of the atmospheric research program, which was organized into 4 subgroups: atmospheric state, clouds and precipitation, gases and aerosols, and energy budgets. Atmospheric variability over the annual cycle revealed important influences from a persistent large-scale winter circulation pattern, leading to some storms with pressure and winds that were outside the interquartile range of past conditions suggested by long-term reanalysis. Similarly, the MOSAiC location was warmer and wetter in summer than the reanalysis climatology, in part due to its close proximity to the sea ice edge.The comprehensiveness of the observational program for characterizing and analyzing atmospheric phenomena is demonstrated via a winter case study examining air mass transitions and a summer case study examining vertical atmospheric evolution. Overall, the MOSAiC atmospheric program successfully met its objectives and was the most comprehensive atmospheric measurement program to date conducted over the Arctic sea ice. The obtained data will support a broad range of coupled-system scientific research and provide an important foundation for advancing multiscale modeling capabilities in the Arctic.

Description: Future precipitation levels remain uncertain because climate models have struggled to reproduce observed variations in temperature-precipitation correlations. Our analyses of Holocene proxy-based temperature-precipitation correlations and hydrological sensitivities from 2,237 Northern Hemisphere extratropical pollen records reveal a significant latitudinal dependence and temporal variations among the early, middle, and late Holocene. These proxy-based variations are largely consistent with patterns obtained from transient climate simulations (TraCE21k). While high latitudes and subtropical monsoon areas show mainly stable positive correlations throughout the Holocene, the mid-latitude pattern is temporally and spatially more variable. In particular, we identified a reversal from positive to negative temperature-precipitation correlations in the eastern North American and European mid-latitudes from the early to mid-Holocene that mainly related to slowed down westerlies and a switch to moisture-limited convection under a warm climate. Our palaeoevidence of past temperature-precipitation correlation shifts identifies those regions where simulating past and future precipitation levels might be particularly challenging.

Description: With the CACOON project, we aim to quantify the effect of changing freshwater export and terrestrial permafrost thaw on the type and fate of river-borne organic matter (OM) delivered to Arctic coastal waters, and resultant changes on ecosystem functioning in the coastal Arctic Ocean. The CACOON ice expedition was the first step to set the observational basis for the projects combined observational, experimental and modelling approach. With the gained sample material, we will conduct laboratory experiments to parameterise the susceptibility of terrigenous carbon to abiotic and biotic transformation and losses, and then use the results from these to deliver a marine ecosystem model capable of representing the major biogeochemical cycles of carbon, nutrients and OM cycling in these regions. We will apply this model to assess how future changes to freshwater runoff and terrigenous carbon fluxes alter the biogeochemical structure and function of shelf ecosystems. Our aims for the project are the following: • generate novel seasonally-explicit datasets of OM source and transformation across the Lena River nearshore environments • identify and parameterise key abiotic and biotic processes affecting terrestrial organic matter fluxes from land-to-ocean • deliver projections of how future changes to freshwater runoff and terrestrial organic matter fluxes will alter the biogeochemical structure and function of shelf ecosystems.