ALBERT

Description: Ambient UV radiation has substantially increased during the last decades, but its impact on marine benthic communities is hardly known. The aim of this study was to globally compare and quantify how shallow hard-bottom communities are affected by UV during early succession. Identical field experiments in 10 different coastal regions of both hemispheres produced a consistent but unexpected pattern: (i) UV radiation affected species diversity and community biomass in a very similar manner, (ii) diversity and biomass were reduced to a larger extent by UVA than UVB radiation, (iii) ambient UV levels did not affect the composition of the communities, and (iv) any UV effects disappeared during species succession after 2–3 months. Thus, current levels of UV radiation seem to have small, predictable, and transient effects on shallow marine hard-bottom communities.

Description: The sediment-buried eastern flank of the Juan de Fuca Ridge provides a unique environment for studying the thermal nature and geochemical consequences of hydrothermal circulation in young ocean crust. Just 18 km east of the spreading axis, where the sea-floor age is 0.62 Ma, sediments lap onto the ridge flank and create a sharp boundary between sediment-free and sediment-covered igneous crust. Farther east, beneath the nearly continuous turbidite sediment cover of Cascadia Basin, the buried basement topography is extremely smooth in some areas and rough in others. At a few isolated locations, small volcanic edifices penetrate the sediment surface. An initial cruise in 1978 and two subsequent cruises in 1988 and 1990 on this sedimented ridge flank have produced extensive single-channel seismic coverage, detailed heat flow surveys co-located with seismic lines, and pore-fluid geochemical profiles of piston and gravity cores taken over heat flow anomalies. Complementary multichannel seismic reflection data were collected across the ridge crest and eastern flank in 1985 and 1989. Preliminary results of these studies provide important new information about hydrothermal circulation in ridge flank environments. Near areas of extensive basement outcrop, ventilated hydrothermal circulation in the upper igneous crust maintains temperatures of less than 10–20 °C; geochemically, basement fluids are virtually identical to seawater. Turbidite sediment forms an effective hydrologic and geochemical seal that restricts greatly any local exchange of fluid between the igneous crust and the ocean. Once sediment thickness reaches a few tens of metres, local vertical fluid flux through the sea floor is limited to rates of less than a few millimetres per year. Fluids and heat are transported over great distances laterally in the igneous crust beneath sediment however. Heat flow, basement temperatures, and basement fluid compositions are unaffected by ventilated circulation only where continuous sediment cover extends more than 15–20 km away from areas of extensive outcrop. Where small basement edifices penetrate the sediment cover in areas that are otherwise fully sealed, fluids discharge at rates sufficient to cause large heat flow and pore-fluid geochemical anomalies in the immediate vicinity of the outcrops. After complete sediment burial, hydrothermal circulation continues in basement. Estimated basement temperatures and, to the limited degree observed, fluid compositions are uniform over large areas despite large local variations in sediment thickness. Because of the resulting strong relationship between heat flow and sediment thickness, it is not possible, in most areas, to detect any systematic pattern of heat flow that might be associated with cellular hydrothermal circulation in basement. However, an exception to this occurs at one location where the sediment thickness is sufficiently uniform to allow detection of a systematic variation in heat flow that can probably be ascribed to cellular circulation. At that location, temperatures at the sediment–basement interface vary smoothly between about 40 and 50 °C, with a half-wavelength of about 700 m. A permeable-layer thickness of similar dimension is inferred by assuming that circulation is cellular with an aspect ratio of roughly one. This thickness is commensurate with the subbasement depth to a strong seismic reflector observed commonly in the region. Seismic velocities in the igneous crustal layer above this reflector have been observed to be low near the ridge crest and to increase significantly where the transition from ventilated to sealed hydrothermal conditions occurs, although no associated reduction in permeability can be ascertained from the thermal data.

Description: Direct measurements of magnitude of the northward flow of the Malvinas (Falkland) Current have recently been made with two types of Lagrangian platforms: ALACE floats which cycled between 750-m depth and the sea surface, and 100-m drogued surface drifters. Each data set clearly delineates the path of the Malvinas Current, and the vertical shears inferred from them are commensurate with historical geostrophic shears. Velocities from the surface drifters are used here to adjust geostrophic shears from historical measurements, and the results confirm a large transport of the current, as previously implied by numerical models and a regional inverse calculation. At 42°S, the northward transport of the Malvinas Current in the upper 3000 m appears to be about 70 Sv, several times larger than estimates obtained by adjusting geostrophic shears to assumed levels of no motion. This large barotropie component may have significance in the cross-frontal transfer of intermediate and deep waters from the circumpolar current to the adjacent flow regimes in the South Atlantic, and thus on the inter-basin exchange of water masses.

Description: The quasi‐biennial oscillation (QBO) of the equatorial zonal wind leads to zonally symmetric temperature variations in the stratosphere that descend downward. Here we investigate the QBO‐induced temperature anomalies in the tropical tropopause layer (TTL) and detect pronounced longitudinal variations of the signal. In addition, the QBO temperature anomalies show a strong seasonal variability. The magnitude of these seasonal and longitudinal QBO variations is comparable to the magnitude of the well‐known zonal mean QBO signal in the TTL. At the cold point tropopause, the strongest QBO variations of around ±1.6 K are found over regions of active convection such as the West Pacific and Africa during boreal winter. The weakest QBO variations of ±0.25 K are detected over the East Pacific during boreal summer, while the zonal mean signal ranges around ±0.7 K. The longitudinal variations are associated with enhanced convective activity that occurs during QBO cold phases and locally enhances the cold anomalies.

Description: Control strategies for established populations of invasive alien species can be costly and complex endeavours, which are frequently unsuccessful. Therefore, rapid-reaction techniques that are capable of maximising efficacy whilst minimising environmental damage are urgently required. The Asian clam (Corbicula fluminea Müller, 1774), and the zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha Pallas, 1771), are invaders capable of adversely affecting the functioning and biodiversity of freshwater ecosystems. Despite efforts to implement substantial population-control measures, both species continue to spread and persist within freshwater environments. As bivalve beds often become exposed during low-water conditions, this study examined the efficacy of steam-spray (≥100 °C, 350 kPa) and open-flame burn treatments (~1000 °C) to kill exposed individuals. Direct steam exposure lasting for 5 min caused 100% mortality of C. fluminea buried at a depth of 3 cm. Further, combined rake and thermal shock treatments, whereby the substrate is disturbed between each application of either a steam or open flame, caused 100% mortality of C. fluminea specimens residing within a 4-cm deep substrate patch, following three consecutive treatment applications. However, deeper 8-cm patches and water-saturated substrate reduced maximum bivalve species mortality rates to 77% and 70%, respectively. Finally, 100% of D. polymorpha specimens were killed following exposure to steam and open-flame treatments lasting for 30 s and 5 s, respectively. Overall, our results confirm the efficacy of thermal shock treatments as a potential tool for substantial control of low-water-exposed bivalves. Although promising, our results require validation through upscaling to field application, with consideration of other substrate types, increased substrate depth, greater bivalve densities, non-target and long-term treatment effects.

Description: Planktonic Foraminifera are unique paleo-environmental indicators through their excellent fossil record in ocean sediments. Their distribution and diversity are affected by different environmental factors including anthropogenically forced ocean and climate change. Until now, historical changes in their distribution have not been fully assessed at the global scale. Here we present the FORCIS (Foraminifera Response to Climatic Stress) database on foraminiferal species diversity and distribution in the global ocean from 1910 until 2018 including published and unpublished data. The FORCIS database includes data collected using plankton tows, continuous plankton recorder, sediment traps and plankton pump, and contains similar to 22,000, similar to 157,000, similar to 9,000, similar to 400 subsamples, respectively (one single plankton aliquot collected within a depth range, time interval, size fraction range, at a single location) from each category. Our database provides a perspective of the distribution patterns of planktonic Foraminifera in the global ocean on large spatial (regional to basin scale, and at the vertical scale), and temporal (seasonal to interdecadal) scales over the past century.

Description: Suppression of established populations of invasive alien species can be a complex and expensive process, which is frequently unsuccessful. The Asian clam, Corbicula fluminea (Müller, 1774), is considered a high impact invader that can adversely alter freshwater ecosystems and decrease their socioeconomic value. To date, C. fluminea continues to spread and persist within freshwater environments worldwide, despite repeated management attempts to prevent dispersal and suppress established populations. As extensive C. fluminea beds can often become exposed during low-water conditions, the direct application of hot or cold thermal shock treatments has been proposed as suitable mechanism for their control. Further, mechanical substrate disturbance may enhance the efficacy of thermal shock treatments by facilitating exposures to multiple layers of buried clams. In the present study, we advanced these methods by assessing combined applications of both hot and cold thermal shock treatments for control of C. fluminea, using steam spray (≥100 °C; 350 kPa), low- or high-intensity open-flame burns (~1000 °C) and dry ice (−78 °C). In a direct comparison of raking combined with hot thermal shock applications, both steam and high-intensity open-flame treatments tended to be most effective, especially following multiple applications. In addition, when hot thermal treatments are followed by a final cold shock (i.e. dry ice), steam treatments tended to be most effective. Further, when dry ice was applied either alone or prior to an application of a hot shock treatment, substantial if not complete C. fluminea mortality was observed. Overall, this study demonstrated that combined applications of hot and cold thermal shock treatments, applied following the disruption of the substrate, can substantially increase C. fluminea mortality compared to separate hot or cold treatments.

Description: As alien invasive species are a key driver of biodiversity loss, understanding patterns of rapidly changing global species compositions depends upon knowledge of invasive species population dynamics and trends at large scales. Within this context, the Ponto-Caspian region is among the most notable donor regions for aquatic invasive species in Europe. Using macroinvertebrate time series collected over 52 years (1968–2020) at 265 sites across 11 central and western European countries, we examined the occurrences, invasion rates, and abundances of freshwater Ponto-Caspian fauna. We examined whether: (i) successive Ponto-Caspian invasions follow a consistent pattern of composition pioneered by the same species, and (ii) Ponto-Caspian invasion accelerates subsequent invasion rates. In our dataset, Ponto-Caspian macroinvertebrates increased from two species in 1972 to 29 species in 2012. This trend was parallelled by a non-significant increasing trend in the abundances of Ponto-Caspian taxa. Trends in Ponto-Caspian invader richness increased significantly over time. We found a relatively uniform distribution of Ponto-Caspian macroinvertebrates across Europe without any relation to the distance to their native region. The Ponto-Caspian species that arrived first were often bivalves (46.5% of cases), particularly Dreissena polymorpha, followed secondarily by amphipods (83.8%; primarily Chelicorophium curvispinum and Dikerogammarus villosus). The time between consecutive invasions decreased significantly at our coarse regional scale, suggesting that previous alien establishments may facilitate invasions of subsequent taxa. Should alien species continue to translocate from the Ponto-Caspian region, our results suggest a high potential for their future invasion success highly connected central and western European waters. However, each species’ population may decline after an initial ‘boom’ phase or after the arrival of new invasive species, resulting in different alien species dominating over time.

Description: The zebra mussel Dreissena polymorpha is one of the most successful, notorious, and detrimental aquatic invasive non-native species worldwide, having invaded Europe and North America while causing substantial ecological and socio-economic impacts. Here, we investigated the spatiotemporal trends in this species' invasion success using 178 macroinvertebrate abundance time series, containing 1451 records of D. polymorpha collected across nine European countries between 1972–2019. Using these raw (absolute) abundance data, we examined trends and drivers of occurrences and relative abundances of D. polymorpha within invaded communities. Meta-regression models revealed non-significant trends both at the European level and for the majority of the invaded countries, except for France (significant decreasing trend) and Hungary (marginally positive trend). At the European level, the number of D. polymorpha occurrences over time followed a flat-top bell-shaped distribution, with a steep increase between 1973–1989 followed by a plateau phase prior to significantly declining post-1998. Using a series of climatic and hydromorphological site-specific characteristics of invaded and uninvaded sites from two periods (1998–2002; 2011–2015), we found that native richness, non-native abundance, distance to the next barrier, and elevation were associated with the occurrence of D. polymorpha. We also found that higher native richness and lower latitude were related to lower relative abundances. Using Cohen's D as a measure of D. polymorpha impact, we found that biodiversity within the invaded sites was initially higher than in uninvaded ones, but then declined, suggesting differences in biodiversity trends across invaded and uninvaded sites. While our results emphasise the high invasion success of D. polymorpha, increasing stressors within the context of global change – particularly ongoing climate change – are likely to enhance invasion rates and the impact of D. polymorpha in the near future, exacerbated by the lack of timely and effective management actions.