ALBERT

Beschreibung: The annual glacier mass balance of Hallstätter Gletscher in Austria is measured since 2006-10-01 with the direct glaciological method in the fixed date system (1st October to 30th September of the following year). The accumulation of snow is measured by determination of the water equivalent in 6 snow pits, the ice ablation is measured with 15 stakes drilled into the ice. Results are the annual net mass balance in kg, the total accumulation and ablation, the glacier area and the portions of the area which are subject to ablation and accumulation, the elevation of the equilibrium line and the specific mass balance in kg/m**2 (= mm w.e.). The accumulation during the winter is determined by the 1st May. The project is funded by the Amt der Oberösterreichischen Landesregierung and the Energie AG. The measurements are carried out by the Institute for Interdisciplinary Mountain Research (http://www.mountainresearch.at/index.php/en/) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the company Blue Sky in Gmunden, Austria. New data will be added every year.

Beschreibung: Temperature and salinity reconstructions for two 1000-year high-resolution sedimentary records, located at the boundary between Atlantic and Arctic surface waters on the North Icelandic shelf, are based on transfer functions and oxygen isotopes for planktonic and benthic foraminifera. There is a general increase of Arctic Water indicator species at the transition from the Medieval Warm Period into the Little Ice Age (LIA) and a subsequent return of Atlantic Water indicator species towards the end of the LIA and in the 20th century. The timing of the reconstructed temperature changes, both at the beginning and at the end of the LIA, appears to be slightly different for the different water masses. The earliest temperature change is seen in the bottom and subsurface waters, where a cooling is reconstructed as early as AD 1150-1200 at both locations, whereas previously published diatom-based and alkenone-based sea-surface temperature reconstructions show a change at AD 1300, coinciding with the air temperature shift in the area. Our results show the need of a thorough understanding of the oceanography in the study area, as well as the different living habitat for the biological proxies used for the temperature estimates.

Beschreibung: The only low latitude pathway of heat and salt from the Pacific Ocean to the Indian Ocean, known as Indonesian Throughflow (ITF), has been suggested to modulate Global Mean Surface Temperature (GMST) warming through redistribution of surface Pacific Ocean heat. ITF observations are only available since ~1990s, and thus, its multidecadal variability on longer time scales has remained elusive. Here we present a 200 year bimonthly record of geochemical parameters (d18O-Sr/Ca) measured on Cocos (Keeling) corals tracking sea surface temperature (SST; Sr/Ca) and sea surface salinity (SSS; seawater-d18O-d18Osw) in the southeastern tropical Indian Ocean (SETIO). Our results show that SETIO SSS and d18Osw were impacted by ITF transport over the past 60 years, and therefore, reconstructions of Cocos d18Osw hold information on past ITF variability on longer time spans. Over the past 200 years ITF leakage into SETIO is dominated by the interannual climate modes of the Pacific Ocean (El Niño-Southern Oscillation) and Indian Ocean (Indian Ocean Dipole). Pacific decadal climate variability (represented by the Pacific Decadal Oscillation) significantly impacted ITF strength over the past 200 years determining the spatiotemporal SST and SSS advection into the Indian Ocean on multidecadal time scales. A comparison of our SETIO d18Osw record to GMST shows that ITF transport varied in synchrony with global warming rate, being predominantly high/low during GMST warming slowdown/acceleration, respectively. This hints toward an important role for the ITF in global warming rate modulation.

Beschreibung: To study shifts in phytoplankton proxies linked to terrigenous inputs and teleconnections, we analyze the composite core MV99 GC41/PC14 from Soledad Basin, Gulf of Ulloa, NW Mexico. We used biogenic opal (% opal), organic carbon (% TOC) and inorganic carbon (% CaCO3) as proxies of productivity; and opal/TOC and CaCO3/TOC ratios as proxies of nutrient uptake and C-export by siliceous and carbonate organisms. We reconstructed terrestrial inputs using grain size Weibull analyses. Grain size analyses show significant amounts of fine fraction (between 0.06 - 6.6 µm) present during the early- to mid-Holocene in agreement to extreme weather on land, with episodes of aeolian and fluvial transport to the sea. The found that ENSO-like variations influence biological C-export producers on a scale of 1.1-1.8 ka, although PDO-related variability is uncertain. We suggest that Holocene drivers for phytoplankton successions are changes in insolation, ITCZ migration, California Current upwelling, nutrient inputs by advection and terrestrial sources.

Beschreibung: The open source Video In Situ Snowfall Sensor (VISSS) is a novel instrument for the characterization of particle shape and size in snowfall. The VISSS consists of two cameras with LED backlights and telecentric lenses that allow accurate sizing and combine a large observation volume with relatively high resolution and a design that limits wind disturbance. Here, movies and images of falling precipitation particles are provided for station Ny-Ålesund from July 2022 to December 2023. For further details on the VISSS Sensor see Maahn et al. (2024).

Beschreibung: The North American monsoon (NAM), an onshore wind shift occurring between July and September, has evolved in character during the Holocene largely due to changes in Northern Hemisphere insolation. Published paleoproxy and modeling studies suggest that prior to ~8000 cal years BP, the NAM affected a broader region than today, extending westward into the Mojave Desert of California. Holocene proxy SST records from the Gulf of California (GoC) and the adjacent Pacific provide constraints for this changing NAM climatology. Prior to ~8000 cal years BP, lower GoC SSTs would not have fueled northward surges of tropical moisture up the GoC, which presently contribute most of the monsoon precipitation to the western NAM region. During the early Holocene, the North Pacific High was further north and SSTs in the California Current off Baja California were warmer, allowing monsoonal moisture flow from the subtropical Pacific to take a more direct, northwesterly trajectory into an expanded area of the southwestern U.S. west of 114°W. A new upwelling record off southwest Baja California reveals that enhanced upwelling in the California Current beginning at ~7500 cal year BP may have triggered a change in NAM climatology, focusing the geographic expression of NAM in the southwest USA into its modern core region east of ~114°W, in Arizona and New Mexico. Holocene proxy precipitation records from the southwestern U.S. and northwestern Mexico, including lakes, vegetation/pollen, and caves are reviewed and found to be largely supportive of this hypothesis of changing Holocene NAM climatology.

Beschreibung: Piston, gravity, and multicores as well as hydrographic data were collected along the Pacific margin of Baja California to reconstruct past variations in the intensity of the oxygen-minimum zone (OMZ). Gravity cores collected from within the OMZ north of 24°N did not contain laminated surface sediments even though bottom water oxygen (BWO) concentrations were close to 5 µmol/kg. However, many of the cores collected south of 24°N did contain millimeter- to centimeter-scale, brown to black laminations in Holocene and older sediments but not in sediments deposited during the Last Glacial Maximum. In addition to the dark laminations, Holocene sediments in Soledad Basin, silled at 290 m, also contain white coccolith laminae that probably represent individual blooms. Two open margin cores from 430 and 700 m depth that were selected for detailed radiocarbon dating show distinct transitions from bioturbated glacial sediment to laminated Holocene sediment occurring at 12.9 and 11.5 ka, respectively. The transition is delayed and more gradual (11.3-10.0 ka) in another dated core from Soledad Basin. The observations indicate that bottom-water oxygen concentrations dropped below a threshold for the preservation of laminations at different times or that a synchronous hydrographic change left an asynchronous sedimentary imprint due to local factors. With the caveat that laminated sections should therefore not be correlated without independent age control, the pattern of older sequences of laminations along the North American western margin reported by this and previous studies suggests that multiple patterns of regional productivity and ventilation prevailed over the past 60 kyr.

Beschreibung: Gravity surveying is challenging in Antarctica because of its hostile environment and inaccessibility. Nevertheless, many ground-based, airborne, and shipborne gravity campaigns have been completed by the geophysical and geodetic communities since the 1980s. We present the first modern Antarctic-wide gravity data compilation derived from 13 million data points covering an area of 10 million km**2, which corresponds to 73% coverage of the continent. The remove-compute-restore technique was applied for gridding, which facilitated leveling of the different gravity data sets with respect to an Earth gravity model derived from satellite data alone. The resulting free-air and Bouguer gravity anomaly grids of 10 km resolution are publicly available. These grids will enable new high-resolution combined Earth gravity models to be derived and represent a major step forward toward solving the geodetic polar data gap problem. They provide a new tool to investigate continental-scale lithospheric structure and geological evolution of Antarctica.

Beschreibung: has to be submitted by author

Beschreibung: Calcifying marine organisms provide a valuable means to access high-resolution historical records of the marine environment captured within their skeletal geochemistry. These records are essential for comprehending the effects of human-induced climate change and reducing uncertainties in future projections. Integrating investigations across various taxa, depths, and geographic locations can help identify universal environmental proxies and serve as a basis for targeted studies in the future. Here, we provide a comprehensive georeferenced database of measured values of Li/Mg, Mg/Ca, Sr/Ca, Ba/Ca, U/Ca and Sr-U in coral and coralline algae compiled from the scientific literature (1950-2021; http://www.webofknowledge.com, accessed 2022-09-30) for the purpose of interrogating and refining global, mineralogy specific and/or taxon-specific proxies for seawater temperature and barium. We include metadata relating to the source, timing and location of each study, the methodology used, and environmental and experimental information. The dataset presents an opportunity to quantify uncertainty and test the robustness of trace and minor element proxies for past environmental conditions, of which will be of value within the fields of geochemistry, ecology, climate, and palaeobiology. Full methodology and additional information provided in Williams et al. (2024).

Beschreibung: A major uncertainty in determining the mass balance of the Antarctic ice sheet from measurements of satellite gravimetry, and to a lesser extent satellite altimetry, is the poorly known correction for the ongoing deformation of the solid Earth caused by glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA). In the past decade, much progress has been made in consistently modelling the ice sheet and solid Earth interactions; however, forward-modelling solutions of GIA in Antarctica remain uncertain due to the sparsity of constraints on the ice sheet evolution, as well as the Earth's rheological properties. An alternative approach towards estimating GIA is the joint inversion of multiple satellite data - namely, satellite gravimetry, satellite altimetry and GPS, which reflect, with different sensitivities, trends of recent glacial changes and GIA. Crucial to the success of this approach is the accuracy of the space-geodetic data sets. Here, we present reprocessed rates of surface-ice elevation change (Envisat/ICESat; 2003-2009), gravity field change (GRACE; 2003-2009) and bedrock uplift (GPS; 1995-2013). The data analysis is complemented by the forward-modelling of viscoelastic response functions to disc load forcing, allowing us to relate GIA-induced surface displacements with gravity changes for different rheological parameters of the solid Earth. The data and modelling results presented here form the basis for the joint inversion estimate of present-day ice-mass change and GIA in Antarctica. This paper presents the first of two contributions summarizing the work carried out within a European Space Agency funded study, REGINA, (http://www.regina-science.eu).

Beschreibung: The Mg/Ca of planktic foraminifera Globigerinoides ruber (white) is a widely applied proxy for tropical and sub-tropical sea-surface temperature. The accuracy with which temperature can be reconstructed depends on how accurately relationships between Mg/Ca and temperature and the multiple secondary controls on Mg/Ca are known; however, these relationships remain poorly quantified under oceanic conditions. Here, we present new calibrations based on 440 sediment trap/plankton tow samples from the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans, including 130 new samples from the Bay of Bengal/Arabian Sea and the tropical Atlantic Ocean. Our results indicate temperature, salinity and the carbonate system all significantly influence Mg/Ca in G. ruber (white). We propose two calibration models: The first model assumes pH is the controlling carbonate system parameter. In this model, Mg/Ca has a temperature sensitivity of 6.0 ± 0.8 %/°C (2 Sigma), a salinity sensitivity of 3.3 ± 2.2%/PSU and a pH sensitivity of -8.3 ± 7.7%/0.1 pH units; The second model assumes carbonate ion concentration ([CO3**2-]) is the controlling carbonate system parameter. In this model, Mg/Ca has a temperature sensitivity of 6.7 ± 0.8%/°C, a salinity sensitivity of 5.0 ± 3.0%/PSU and a [CO3**2-] sensitivity of -0.24 ± 0.11/µmol kg**1. In both models, the temperature sensitivity is significantly lower than the widely-applied sensitivity of 9.0 ± 0.6%/°C. Application of our new calibrations to down-core data from the Last Glacial Maximum, considering whole ocean changes in salinity and carbonate chemistry, indicate a cooling of 2.4 ± 1.6 °C in the tropical oceans if pH is the controlling parameter and 1.5 ± 1.4 °C if [CO3**2-] is the controlling parameter.

Beschreibung: Planktic and benthic foraminifera 14C measurements, published in Rafter et al. (2019) in GRL. These are a companion dataset to the benthic foraminifera 14C measurements published by Rafter et al. (2018) in Climate of the Past.