ALBERT

Description: Light attraction impacts nocturnally active fledgling seabirds worldwide and is a particularly acute problem on Kaua‘i (the northern-most island in the main Hawaiian Island archipelago) for the Critically Endangered Newell’s shearwater Puffinus newelli. The Save Our Shearwaters (SOS) program was created in 1979 to address this issue and to date has recovered and released to sea more than 30500 fledglings. Although the value of the program for animal welfare is clear, as birds cannot simply be left to die, no evaluation exists to inform post-release survival. We used satellite transmitters to track 38 fledglings released by SOS and compared their survival rates (assessed by tag transmission duration) to those of 12 chicks that fledged naturally from the mountains of Kaua‘i. Wild fledglings transmitted longer than SOS birds, and SOS birds with longer rehabilitation periods transmitted for a shorter duration than birds released immediately or rehabilitated for only 1 d. Although transmitter durations from grounded fledglings were shorter (indicating impacts to survivorship), some SOS birds did survive and dispersed out to sea. All surviving birds (wild and SOS) traveled more than 2000 km to the southwest of Kaua‘i, where they concentrated mostly in the North Pacific Equatorial Countercurrent Province, revealing a large-scale annual post-breeding aggregation zone for fledgling Newell’s shearwaters. While there was reduced survival among birds undergoing rehabilitation, SOS remains an important contribution toward the conservation of Newell’s shearwater because a proportion of released birds do indeed survive. However, light attraction, the root cause of fallout, remains a serious unresolved issue on Kaua’i.

Description: The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) curated consensus somatic mutation calls using whole exome sequencing (WES) and whole genome sequencing (WGS), respectively. Here, as part of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium, which aggregated whole genome sequencing data from 2,658 cancers across 38 tumour types, we compare WES and WGS side-by-side from 746 TCGA samples, finding that ~80% of mutations overlap in covered exonic regions. We estimate that low variant allele fraction (VAF 

Description: Sparse pollen and spores from the lower Miocene section of CRP-1 derive from at least three sources. A low-diversity but persitent angiosperm-moss-liverwort assemblage may reflect contemporaneous herb-moss tundra and a climate with summer temperatures similar to that of islands in the vicinity of the Antarctic Convergence today. More diverse Nothofagus-podocarp-Proteaceae assemblages at c. 70 mbsf and 100- 116 mbsf may rcflect woody vegetation growing nearby in warmer sites or periods, long distance transport, or redeposition from older strata. A contemporaneous local origin is preferred: although it is not possible to determine the precise form of this vegetation from palynological data, a conservative model with low-growing shrubs would imply July mean temperatures of at least 7°C. Reworked Permian-Triassic miospores are present in low numbers throughout the sequence. Pleistocene samples contain assemblages likely to have been reworked from older strata, mostly having similar taxa to the lower Miocene section, although one sample contains a Nothofagus-dominated pollen assemblage (also interpreted as reworked) similar to that of the Sirius Group of the Transantarctic Mountains

Description: The first core of the Cape Roberts Project, CRP-1, penetrated a Quaternary and lower Miocene section rather than the anticipated Palaeogene sediments. Initial palynologic study was conducted at the Crary Science and Engineering Laboratory, McMurdo Station, concurrent with drilling. Rapid and environmentally safe sample processing was made possible by the use of a focused microwave digestion unit that scrubbed acid fumes. In situ and/or reworked dinocysts (dinoflagellate cysts), acritarchs (leiospheres and acanthomorphs), and prasinophyte phycomata are present in the 35 samples studied. Overall, the CRP-1 assemblages are similar to Arctic marine palynomorph assemblages that are used there as ice margin indicators. Some of the acanthomorph acritarchs recovered from the CRP-1 core closely resemble cysts of extant Antarctic autotrophic sea-ice dinoflagellates. It is possible that some of these acanthomorphs are actually dinocysts, and could be used as indicators of sea-ice conditions similar to today. Most of the in situ marine palynomorphs are undescribed taxa and thus are presently of little biostratigraphic value. Dating of the core was based on diatom, palaeomagnetic and strontium isotope studies. The upper 43.55 mbsf of the core are Quaternary in age and the rest of the core, down to the bottom at 147.69 mbsf, is of early Miocene age. Although not biostratigraphically significant, the dinocysts are the first in situ Quaternary and Miocene dinocysts reported from East Antarctica, and constitute the most diverse assemblage recovered from any firmly dated Neogene section from Antarctica. In addition, they confirm that cyst-producing dinoflagellates were present in Antarctic waters during the Neogene and Quaternary. The core can be divided into three intervals based on their palynomorph assemblages (Quaternary, 0-43.55 mbsf; lower Miocene, 43.55-99.10 mbsf; and lower Miocene, 99.10- 147.69 mbsf). The distinctive palynomorph assemblages are interpreted to reflect changing climatic conditions that prevailed at the time of deposition. Overall, conditions appear to have deteriorated up-section.

Description: Sparse terrestrial palynomorphs (spores and pollen) were recovered from glacigene Lower Miocene and Oligocene core samples from the Cape Roberts Project (CRP) drillhole CRP-2/2A, Victoria Land Basin, Antarctica. Rarity of palynomorphs probably results from the spares periglacial vegetation in the surrounding landscape at the time of deposition, as well as dilution from rapid sediment accumulation. The Miocene and Late Oligocene vegetation is interpreted as including herb-moss tundra with low-growing woody plants (including Nothofagus and podocarp conifers) in more protected areas, similar to that encountered in the Miocene of CRP-1. Species richness and numbers of specimens increase downhole, a trend that begins very gradually below ~307 mbsf, and increases below ~443 mbsf through the Early Oligocene. These lower assemblages reflect low diversity woody vegetation dominated by several species of Nofhofagus and podocarps, growing in somewhat milder conditions, though still cold temperate to periglacial in the Early Oligocene. The CRP-2/2A core provides new biostratigraphical information, such as the First Appearance Datums (FADS) of Tricolpites sp. a near the Oligocene/Miocene boundary, and Marchantiaceae in the Early/Late Oligocene transition: these are taxa that along with N. lachlaniae, Coptospora spp. and Podocarpidites sp.b characterize assemblages recovered from outcrops of the Pliocene Sirius Group in the Transantarctic Mountains. Some elements of the extremely hardy periglacial tundra vegetation that survived in Antarctica into the Pliocene had their origin in the Oligocene during a time of deteriorating (colder, drier) climatic conditions. The CRP results highlight the long persistence of this tundra vegetation, through approximately 30 million years of dynamically changing climatic conditions. Rare Jurassic and more common Permian-Triassic spores and pollen occur sporadically throughout the core. These are derived from Jurassic Ferrar Group sediments, and from the Permian-Triassic Victoria Group, upper Beacon Supergroup. Higher frequencies of reworked Beacon palynomorphs and coaly organic matter below ~307 mbsf indicate greater erosion of the Beacon Supergroup for this lower part of the core. A color range from black, severely metamorphosed specimens, to light-colored, yellow (indicating low thermal alteration), reworked Permian palynomorphs, indicates local provenance in the dolerite-intruded Beacon strata of the Transantarctic Mountains, as well as areas (now sub-ice) of Beacon strata with little or no associated dolerite well inland (cratonwards) of the present Transantarctic Mountains.

Description: Sparse low diversity early Oligocene spore-pollen assemblages above c. 410 mbsf (meters blow sea floor) in CRP-3 are dominated by Nothofagus pollen, and are very similar in composition to those from the lower part of CRP-2A. Anther-derived pollen aggregates, and a Nothofagus leaf at 44.12 mbsf show that the palynomorphs were derived from vegetation growing at the time of deposition. This woody vegetation included several species of Nothofagus and podocarpaceous conifers, a few other angiosperm families, and few cryptogams except for bryophytes, In favourable sites the vegetation may have comprised a low scrub or closed forest intermediate stature and floristic richness between that of the Eocene and the limited vegetation of the late Oligocene to earl Miocene. It may have similar to Nothofagus woodland of the present-day Magellanic region, with summer mean daily temperatures at sea level of c. 10-12° C. More stunted vegetation would have existed in exposed and upland sites. Wetland vegetation appears to have been minor, although Coptospora may in part represent a mire community. Below c. 410 mbsf samples are mostly barren, probably due to non-deposition of fine particles and dilution by high sediment deposition. A meagre but relatively high diversity assemblage at 781.36 mbsf contains Casuarina-type pollen, unknown in the higher CRP sequence in Eocene strata of CIROS-1 and glacial erratics of the McMurdo Sound region. This limited data is consistent with Eocene dating of basal CRP-3 Cenozoic sediments from magnetostratigraphy.

Description: The early Eocene epoch was characterized by extreme global warmth, which in terrestrial settings was characterized by an expansion of near-tropical vegetation belts into the high latitudes. During the middle to late Eocene, global cooling caused the retreat of tropical vegetation to lower latitudes. In high-latitude settings, near-tropical vegetation was replaced by temperate floras. This floral change has recently been traced as far south as Antarctica, where along the Wilkes Land margin paratropical forests thrived during the early Eocene and temperate Nothofagus forests developed during the middle Eocene. Here we provide both qualitative and quantitative palynological data for this floral turnover based on a sporomorph record recovered at Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Site U1356 off the Wilkes Land margin. Following the nearest living relative concept and based on a comparison with modern vegetation types, we examine the structure and diversity patterns of the Eocene vegetation along the Wilkes Land margin. Our results indicate that the early Eocene forests along the Wilkes Land margin were characterized by a diverse canopy composed of plants that today occur in tropical settings; their richness pattern was similar to that of present-day forests from New Caledonia. The middle Eocene forests were characterized by a canopy dominated by Nothofagus and exhibited richness patterns similar to modern Nothofagus forests from New Zealand.

Description: The warmest global climates of the past 65 million years occurred during the early Eocene epoch (about 55 to 48 million years ago), when the Equator-to-pole temperature gradients were much smaller than today (doi:10.1130/0091-7613(1995)023〈1044:ECCALT〉2.3.CO;2, doi:10.1038/nature08399) and atmospheric carbon dioxide levels were in excess of one thousand parts per million by volume (doi:10.1016/j.gca.2003.09.002, doi:10.1038/ngeo1186). Recently the early Eocene has received considerable interest because it may provide insight into the response of Earth's climate and biosphere to the high atmospheric carbon dioxide levels that are expected in the near future (doi:10.1007/s10584-011-0156-z) as a consequence of unabated anthropogenic carbon emissions (doi:10.1038/ngeo1186, doi:10.1038/nature06588). Climatic conditions of the early Eocene 'greenhouse world', however, are poorly constrained in critical regions, particularly Antarctica. Here we present a well-dated record of early Eocene climate on Antarctica from an ocean sediment core recovered off the Wilkes Land coast of East Antarctica. The information from biotic climate proxies (pollen and spores) and independent organic geochemical climate proxies (indices based on branched tetraether lipids) yields quantitative, seasonal temperature reconstructions for the early Eocene greenhouse world on Antarctica. We show that the climate in lowland settings along the Wilkes Land coast (at a palaeolatitude of about 70° south) supported the growth of highly diverse, near-tropical forests characterized by mesothermal to megathermal floral elements including palms and Bombacoideae. Notably, winters were extremely mild (warmer than 10 °C) and essentially frost-free despite polar darkness, which provides a critical new constraint for the validation of climate models and for understanding the response of high-latitude terrestrial ecosystems to increased carbon dioxide forcing.