ALBERT

Description: Extreme events, such as those caused by climate change, economic or geopolitical shocks, and pest or disease epidemics, threaten global food security. The complexity of causation, as well as the myriad ways that an event, or a sequence of events, creates cascading and systemic impacts, poses significant challenges to food systems research and policy alike. To identify priority food security risks and research opportunities, we asked experts from a range of fields and geographies to describe key threats to global food security over the next two decades and to suggest key research questions and gaps on this topic. Here, we present a prioritization of threats to global food security from extreme events, as well as emerging research questions that highlight the conceptual and practical challenges that exist in designing, adopting, and governing resilient food systems. We hope that these findings help in directing research funding and resources toward food system transformations needed to help society tackle major food system risks and food insecurity under extreme events.

Description: "There are no scientifically justified obstacles to protecting biodiversity in all its beauty and diversity. There are only six years left to achieve the biodiversity targets by 2030. We must work together now to get there in time." In the 10 Must Knows from Biodiversity Science 2024, 64 scientists have further developed their well-founded and diverse findings and recommendations from the 10MustKnows22. The content of the ten selected key areas of the Earth-human system is supplemented by relevant publications from 2022 and 2023 and linked to the 23 global goals of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) adopted in December 2022. The authors are aware that the next six years until 2030 are essential for achieving an ecologically sustainable and socially just life on our planet in the medium and long term. With the 10MustKnows24, they want to actively contribute to accelerating the socio-ecological transformation by providing scientifically sound recommendations for politics and society.

Description: This dataset provides annually resolved microfacies data from ICDP core 5017-1-A, retrieved from the deep northern Dead Sea basin in 2010/11, for the last glacial-interglacial transition (ca. 14-13 ka BP). Sediments of the Lisan Formation were investigated between ~94.7 and 91.8 m sediment depth below lake floor (lithozone C2) by continuous thin section microscopy. Thin sections were prepared following the standard procedure by Brauer and Casanova (2001) that was adjusted for salty sediments. Thin section analyses were performed on overlapping large-scale thin sections using a Zeiss Axiolab pol microscope at magnifications of 50-400x. Microfacies analyses included varve counting and measurements of varve and sublayer thickness. The amount of varves in erosional gaps was interpolated and the position of mass flow deposits (MFD) is marked.

Description: These datasets provide sedimentological data partly at annual resolution and an age model for the lateglacial part of (1) the ICDP sediment core 5017-1-A retrieved from the deep northern Dead Sea basin in 2010/11, and (2) for the Masada outcrop located at the southwestern shore of the Dead Sea sampled in 2018. The here investigated two sediment sections cover the last glacial-interglacial transition (ca. 17-11.5 ka BP) in the hydroclimatically sensitive Levant, when the water level of Lake Lisan – the precursor of the Dead Sea – dropped dramatically from its glacial high-stand to the Holocene low levels. Here, we analyze the interval between the last two gypsum units – the Upper Gypsum Unit (UGU) and the Additional Gypsum Unit (AGU) – which were also used to correlate the two sites. In the ICDP core this section is located between ~101 and 88.5 m sediment depth below lake floor and at Masada it encompasses the uppermost ~3.8 m sediments of the Lisan Formation, which form the terminal deposit at this site. Due to the lake level decline, the complete transition into the Holocene is only recorded in the ICDP core, while sedimentation at Masada terminates earlier. The microfacies was investigated by continuous thin section microscopy, while additional macroscopic information is provided from over- and underlying sediment sections. A revised chronology using age modelling in OxCal (Ramsey 2008; Ramsey 2009; Ramsey and Lee 2013) was developed for the ICDP core and a floating varve chronology was constructed at Masada. Using these new microfacies data from marginal (Masada) and deep-water (ICDP core) sediments, the hydroclimatic variability during the final stage of Lake Lisan can be reconstructed, which could provide important insights into the development of human sedentism in the region at this time.

Description: This dataset provides annually resolved microfacies data from ICDP core 5017-1-A, retrieved from the deep northern Dead Sea basin in 2010/11, for the last glacial-interglacial transition (ca. 17-11.5 ka BP). Sediments of the Lisan Formation were investigated between ~101 and 88.5 m sediment depth below lake floor by continuous thin section microscopy, while additional macroscopic information is provided from core catchers, as well as from over- and underlying sediment sections. Thin sections were prepared following the standard procedure by Brauer and Casanova (2001) that was adjusted for salty sediments. Thin section analyses were performed on overlapping large-scale thin sections using a Zeiss Axiolab pol microscope at magnifications of 50-400x. Microfacies analyses included varve counting and measurements of varve and sublayer thickness.

Description: This dataset provides the results from Bayesian age depth modelling in OxCal for ICDP core 5017-1-A, retrieved from the deep northern Dead Sea basin in 2010/11, for the last glacial-interglacial transition between ~101 and 88.5 m sediment depth below lake floor (ca. 17-11.5 ka BP). The model was performed in OxCal v.4.4 using a P_Sequence (1,1,C(-2,2)) (Ramsey 2008; Ramsey 2009; Ramsey and Lee 2013) and includes three tephrochronological ages from Neugebauer et al. (2021) and three radiocarbon ages from Kitagawa et al. (2017).

Description: This dataset provides lithological data from ICDP core 5017-1-A, retrieved from the deep northern Dead Sea basin in 2010/11, for the last glacial-interglacial transition (ca. 17-11.5 ka BP). The microfacies of the Lisan Formation was investigated between ~101 and 88.5 m sediment depth below lake floor by continuous thin section microscopy, while additional macroscopic information is provided from core catchers, as well as from over- and underlying sediment sections. Thin sections were prepared following the standard procedure by Brauer and Casanova (2001) that was adjusted for salty sediments. Thin section analyses were performed on overlapping large-scale thin sections using a Zeiss Axiolab pol microscope at magnifications of 50-400x.

Description: This dataset provides microfacies data from the sediment profile at Masada (MAS), located at the southwestern shore of the Dead Sea for the last glacial-interglacial transition (ca. 17-11.5 ka BP). The uppermost ~3.8 m sediments of the Lisan Formation were analyzed, which form the terminal deposit at this site. About 1.37 m from the uppermost UGU to the lowermost AGU were sampled continuously for thin section analyses, while macroscopic information is provided for most of the gypsum units. Sampling was performed in 2018 and followed the subsequent procedure: after smoothing the outcrop surface with a sharp knife, stainless steel boxes (~34 cm x 5 cm) with removable side walls were pressed into the sediment along a vertical profile. The boxes were overlapping by several centimeters and a battery-operated dovetail saw was used to cut the hard gypsum sections. At the GFZ in Potsdam, the sediments were carefully transferred into aluminum boxes and impregnated with epoxy resin. Thin sections (10x2 cm) with 2 cm overlap were prepared subsequently. Thin section analyses were performed using a Zeiss Axiolab pol microscope at magnifications of 50-400x. A floating varve chronology was established between the UGU and AGU and anchored at the bottom of the AGU using the transferred age from the new OxCal age model from the ICDP core. Uncertainties are derived from the age model and varve counting. Microfacies analyses included varve counting and measurements of varve and sublayer thickness.

Description: In December 2018, the Anak Krakatau volcano was destroyed in a cascade of eruptions following a flank destabilization. A tsunami triggered by these events devastated coastal areas and caused loss of lives, highlighting the importance of better understanding destabilization processes and possible structural weaknesses. Satellite remote sensing data provided by Planet Labs, Pleiades, and TerraSAR-X allow us to monitor volcanic evolution stages at high temporal resolution and to catalog events for the period 2018-2023. We aim to identify possible zones of structural weakness in the newly forming volcanic building, that may pose risks in future development, by focusing on activity patterns like surface degassing and sealing processes. Posteruptive degassing, observed in the crater lake and on the western shore of the island highlights an off-centered activity. Several periods of coverage and reoccurrence of the surficial degassing pattern by tephra and ashes are observed until June 2020, when a lava flow largely covered and effectively sealed the open degassing surface. A second lava flow covers all of the original open degassing surfaces and degassing now exclusively occurs on the eastern margin of the new lava flow. The alternate layering of tephra and lava flows, acting as inclined sealing planes, indicates the possibility of a critical evolution where pressurization and hydrothermal alteration effects of the lateral gas flow might create future zones of structural weakness. We suggest a close monitoring and cataloging of Krakatau’s structural evolution, and investigation of the gas-rock interactions to assess their potential to create future sliding planes.

Description: Hydrothermal alteration of volcanic rocks is considered a driving factor in volcano instability by altering their strength and permeability. La Fossa of Vulcano Island (Italy), the most southern exposure of the Aeolian volcanic archipelago, is known for its intermittent hydrothermal activity, fumarole locations and volcanic unrest. Here we explore if events such as the 1988 landslide on the northeastern flank, causing a small-scale tsunami, may be facilitated by hydrothermal activity. Due to La Fossa's location, accessibility, altered flanks and periods of escalating fumarole activity, such as the most recent 2021 crisis, La Fossa acts as a great natural laboratory to monitor and observe the effects of hydrothermal alteration. We used remote sensing methods and field-based rock physical property measurements to assess areas that preserve different degrees of hydrothermal alteration. In detail, we (1) acquired close-range photogrammetric data using unmanned aerial surveys and performed a structure-from-motion and classification approach to map alteration areas and (2) performed field-based measurements to provide estimations of rock strength and permeability of the variably altered rocks. Correlating our observations allows us to explore the link between alteration and strength, and therewith between hydrothermal activity and flank instability.