ALBERT

Description: The climate signal imprinted in the snow isotopic composition allows to infer past climate variability from ice core stable water isotope records. The concurrent evolution of vapor and surface snow isotopic composition between precipitation events indicates that post-depositional atmosphere-snow humidity exchange influences the snow and hence the ice core isotope signal. To date, however, this is not accounted for in paeleoclimate reconstructions from isotope records. Here we show that vapor-snow exchange explains 36% of the summertime day-to-day δ18O variability of the surface snow between precipitation events, and 53% of the δD variability. Through observations from the Greenland Ice Sheet and accompanying modeling we demonstrate that vapor-snow exchange introduces a warm bias on the summertime snow isotope value relevant for ice core records. In case of long-term variability in atmosphere-snow exchange the relevance for the ice core signal is also variable and thus paleoclimate reconstructions from isotope records should be revisited.

Description: This paper outlines the contributions of social science to the study of interactions between urbanization patterns and processes and the carbon cycle, and identifies gaps in knowledge and priority areas for future social scientific research contributions. While previously studied as a uni-dimensional process, we conceptualize urbanization as a multi-dimensional, social and biophysical process driven by continuous changes across space and time in various sub-systems including biophysical, built environment and socio-institutional (e.g. economic, political, demographic, behavioral and sociological). We review research trends and findings focused on the socio-institutional subsystem of the urbanization process, and particularly the dynamics, relationships and predictions relevant to energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. Our findings suggest that a multi-dimensional perspective of urbanization facilitates a wider spectrum of research relevant to carbon cycle dynamics, even within the socio-institutional sub-system. However, there is little consensus around the details and mechanisms underlying the relationship between urban socio-institutional subsystems and the carbon cycle. We argue that progress in understanding the relationship between urbanization and the carbon cycle may be achieved if social scientists work collaboratively with each other as well as with scientists from other disciplines. From this review we identify research priorities where collaborative social scientific efforts are necessary in conjunction with other disciplinary approaches to generate a more complete understanding of urbanization as a process and its relationship to the carbon cycle.

Description: Independent lines of research on urbanization, urban areas and carbon have advanced our understanding of some of the processes through which energy and land uses affect carbon. This synthesis integrates some of these diverse viewpoints as a first step towards a co-produced, integrated framework for understanding urbanization, urban areas and their relationships to carbon. It suggests the need for approaches that complement and combine the plethora of existing insights into interdisciplinary explorations of how different urbanization processes, and socio-ecological and technological components of urban areas affect the spatial and temporal patterns of carbon emissions, differentially over time and within and across cities. It also calls for a more holistic approach to examining the carbon implications of urbanization and urban areas, based not only on demographics or income, but also on such other interconnected features of urban development pathways as urban form, economic function, economic growth policies and other governance arrangements. It points to a wide array of uncertainties around the urbanization processes, their interactions with urban socio-institutional and built-environment systems, how these impact the exchange of carbon flows within and outside urban areas. We must also understand in turn how carbon feedbacks, including carbon impacts and potential impacts of climate change, can affect urbanization processes. Finally, the paper explores options, barriers and limits to transitioning cities to low-carbon trajectories, and suggests the development of an end-to-end, co-produced and integrated scientific understanding that can more effectively inform the navigation of transitional journeys and the avoidance of obstacles along the way.