ALBERT

Description: Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) will be necessary to fulfil the hundreds of pledges to reach net-zero by 2050. As with any industry, standard methodologies and certification are crucial to guarantee successful and reliable activities. However, buyers and policymakers currently face challenges in evaluating the ecosystem of CDR certification. The issue is not with CDR, nor with individual certifications – some of which may be very robust – but with the lack of transparency in the overall ecosystem. To bring some clarity, we present a snapshot of the CDR certification and standards ecosystem for the year 2021–2022. We find a complex ecosystem with at least 30 standard developing organizations proposing at least 125 standard methodologies for carbon removal from 23 different CDR activities and selling 27 different versions of certification instruments in voluntary and compliance markets. This exercise reveals many more existing standards for nature-based than for engineering-based activities and more diversity from standards serving the voluntary rather than the compliance market. It also highlights a proliferation of standards for the same activity, and a plethora of activities without standards. The process revealed ambiguity on what constitutes carbon removal, with many standards certifying activities that remove CO2 already in the environment as well as activities that avoid or reduce new emissions by sequestering the carbon into reservoirs. This mapping highlights key gaps and potential starting points for reforms to strengthen the CDR certification industry; it also underscores the need for independent oversight.

Description: Sea ice conditions and navigability along four typical routes of the Northeast Passage (NEP) are analysed using remote-sensing data from 1979 to 2019. The influence of air temperature (Tair) and surface wind on the sea ice concentration (SIC) and the navigability of routes is determined. It is found that the annually averaged SICs of the different routes have decreased over the past 41 years. The fastest rate of decrease occurred in the Kara Sea (∼−1% per year), while the slowest rates of decrease occurred in the Laptev/East Siberian Sea (∼−0.42% per year). The number of navigable days for the Kara Sea has become ∼1–2 months longer than the Laptev/East Siberian Sea route as a result. The effect of Tair on SIC, quantified by ΔSIC/ΔTair in the routes through the eastern Kara Sea and Laptev/East Siberian Sea in 2010s was ∼−0.04/°C, two to three times that seen during the 1980s. Air temperature is becoming a significant driving force of melting ice in these routes. Surface winds are also a crucial factor for the navigability of the Vilkitsky Strait and Long Strait, as they drive ice drift, and affect the navigability of the Kara Strait by introducing warm air.

Description: Negative emissions technologies (NETs) are an essential part of most scenarios for achieving the Paris Agreement goal of limiting warming to below 2°C and for all scenarios that limit warming to 1.5 °C. The deployment of these technologies requires carbon accounting methods for a range of different purposes, such as determining the effectiveness of specific technologies or incentivising NETs. Although the need for carbon accounting methods is discussed within the literature on NETs, there does not appear to be a clear understanding of the range of different accounting challenges. Based on a systematic literature review this study identifies five distinct accounting issues related to NETs: 1. estimating total system-wide change in emissions/removals; 2. non-permanence; 3. non-equivalence of ‘no overshoot’ and ‘overshoot and removal’; 4. accounting for incentives for NETs; and 5. the temporal distribution of emissions/removals. Solutions to these accounting challenges are proposed, or alternatively, areas for further research and the development of solutions are highlighted. One key recommendation is that carbon accounting methods should follow a ‘reality principle’ to report emissions and removals when and where they actually occur, and an important overall conclusion is that it is essential to use the correct accounting method for its appropriate purpose. For example, consequential methods that take account of total system-wide changes in emissions/removals should be used if the purpose is to inform decisions on the deployment or incentivisation of NETs. Attributional methods, however, should be used if the purpose is to construct static descriptions of possible net zero worlds.

Description: Touch interaction has established a dominating role in the realisation of Human–Machine Interfaces. However, to be able to use touch effectively and efficiently, users have to comply with particular prerequisites. Due to age-related changes, such as the decline of tactile accuracy and speed, especially elderly users often struggle with the touch modality. Interfaces that adapt to specific user characteristics could be a promising solution to overcome this problem. Notwithstanding the advantages of adaptive systems, perceived changes in the user interface can reduce the system's predictability and transparency. The present study compares three approaches concerning the adaptation of touch button sizes: no adaptation and adaptation with visible and invisible feedback. Results show that especially elderly users substantially benefit from an adaptive approach. Furthermore, data shows that the type of adaptation supports different usage goals. While adaption with visual feedback enables a higher interaction speed, invisible adaptation leads to a higher degree of accuracy.

Description: Pyroxene crystals from recent Central Plateau tephras are used to deduce their formation conditions through two-pyroxene thermobarometry. Crystals return pseudo-pressures and pseudo-temperatures that are artefacts of uptake of antecrysts formed at a range of crustal levels by isobaric cooling of previously intruded magmas. MELTS modelling of tephra glass compositions shows that pseudo-PT conditions are reproduced at oxygen fugacities above the nickel-nickel oxide buffer (NNO+1, NNO+2), mid- to upper crustal pressures (100–400 MPa), and temperatures between c. 900°C and 〉1100°C. Modelled crystals from the deep crust (800 MPa) are restricted to clinopyroxenes. However, these display chemical equilibrium with shallow orthopyroxenes at higher pseudo-PT conditions than observed in Central Plateau pyroxenes. The data indicate uptake of high-temperature pyroxenes at mid- to shallow crustal levels into ascending andesitic melts and thus preclude the presence of long-lived crustal mush zones (〈1000°C) as a source for the crystal cargo of the Central Plateau tephras studied here. Further, the apparent absence of deep crustal pyroxene antecrysts does not preclude models of arc andesite genesis without a ‘deep crustal hot zone’ beneath the Central Plateau. Generation and ascent of primary andesites from a heterogeneous mantle wedge is therefore a possible scenario at the southern Hikurangi margin.

Description: Afferent activity in the stellar nerves of Octopus vulgaris has been recorded in response to a probe applying a mechanical stimulus of approximately 5 gm/mm2 to the inner surface of the mantle. Mechanical sensitivity is distributed throughout the mantle surface and there is a large degree of overlap between the peripheral fields of nearby stellar nerves but no overlap of either ventral or dorsal midline. The afferent activity probably results from stimulation of sensory receptors located in the mantle and skin, but antidromic discharge in motor fibres is also possible.

Description: Six lakes of the Wadi Natrun, Egypt, were studied with respect to the chemical composition of their brines and the occurrence of microbial mass developments. All investigated lakes showed pH values of approximately 11 and a total salt content of generally more than 30%. The main components were sulfate, carbonate, chloride, sodium, and minor amounts of potassium. Only traces of magnesium and calcium were present, but unusually high concentrations of organic carbon compounds, nitrogen compounds, and phosphate were found. Mass developments of phototrophic sulfur bacteria, halobacteria, cyanobacteria, and green algae were observed. The functions of complete nitrogen and sulfur cycles in the alkaline brines are discussed. The properties of the lakes and their ecology are compared with data on the Dead Sea and Great Salt Lake, Utah.

Description: Microbiological transformations of sulfur compounds discriminate to various degrees between the stable sulfur isotopes 32S and 34S. Comparatively little is known on isotopic effects associated with sulfur‐oxidizing organisms, and the interpretation of results is complicated since the sulfur pathways are poorly defined and compounds containing two or more sulfur atoms at different oxidation states may be involved. Dissimilatory reduction of sulfate, and sulfite reduction by certain assimilatory microorganisms, causes particularly marked isotopic effects, the expression of which depends on the extent of reaction and other incompletely defined environmental conditions. Models have been proposed to account for these effects based on current knowledge of the reduction pathways. Many of the trends observed during dissimilatory sulfate reduction in the laboratory can also be found in the modern environment leaving little doubt that microbiological factors play a significant role in determining sulfur isotope distributions in nature. However, unusually large isotopic effects, rarely approached in the laboratory, are often observed in nature. The reasons for this are not entirely clear, but in sediments it is possible that diffusional isotopic effects are imposed on biological effects.

Description: Intracellular and extracellular recordings from the stem, gastrozooids, palpons, tentacles and nectophores of physonectid siphonophores are presented. The stem organization previously described for Nanomia applies with only minor differences to Forskalia and Agalma. The endodermal epithelium of the stem is shown to be the pathway for slow potentials. Pumping cycles and feeding activities are organized locally in gastrozooids and palpons. Protective retractions are coordinated, probably through a direct nervous link with the stem. This is also true of tentacles. The ectoderm of bracts is a conducting epithelium; excitation in it can induce nervous activity in the stem, but the mechanism is unknown. Impulse traffic between stem and zooids is erratic and breaks down rapidly with repeated stimulation. The motor centres of the nectophores are connected to the stem by a labile nervous link, but an alternative epithelial pathway exists.

Description: A report of the R/V Shoyo-Maru Expedition to the Gulf of Arabia described the existence of a large school of S. oualaniensis from the waters off Karachi, Pakistan (document from Far Seas Fisheries Research Laboratory, 1976).

Description: From a series of direct shear and laboratory vane shear tests conducted on natural pelagic and terrigenous marine soils, we have proposed a combined shear test procedure that involves obtaining the total stress failure envelope from tests on only two submarine soil samples. On one of the samples, both the direct shear and vane tests are conducted at zero normal stress. The second soil sample is consolidated under normal stress σn greater than the precompression stress Pc and sheared in a direct shear device under normal stress equal to the above consolidation pressure σn , the laboratory vane shear test on the same sample is conducted under zero normal stress. The combined test program results in four datum points (two from direct shear and two from laboratory vane shear tests. By connecting the two vane test datum points, the cohesion line (the failure envelope corresponding to vane shear tests) is obtained. By connecting the direct shear test datum points (from the soil consolidated under cn 〉 Pc) to the origin of the r vs. σn plane, the part of the failure envelope that lies beyond the precompression load is determined. The part of the failure envelope curve below the precompression stress is obtained by drawing a line parallel to the cohesion line through the direct shear datum point (corresponding to zero normal stress). The data and procedure reported herein indicate that the investigator can realize considerable time savings as well as conservation of sometimes expensive and limited submarine soil samples by using the proposed combined test procedure.

Description: Stomach contents of 68 black petrels, Procellaria parkinsoni, 12 Westland black petrels, P. westlandica, and 3 white‐chinned petrels, P. aequinoctialis, were compared. The main prey were Cephalopoda and fish, and these indicated predominantly nocturnal feeding with selection for bioluminescent forms. There is marked latitudinal variation in the Cephalopoda available to these petrels.

Description: Fifty-two species of Ostracoda are distinguished in the Palaeogene succession of Soekor borehole Jc-1 on the continental shelf off Natal. Two species and one new genus are described, and the ostracod faunas can be grouped into four well-defined assemblages. Vertical variations in the make-up of the ostracod faunas, together with various parameters measured in the forminifera populations, are used to discriminate changes in the conditions of deposition and rates of sediment accumulation. These can be summarized: lower Palaeocene environments were hyposaline, restricted circulation, with rapid accumulation; upper Palaeocene through Eocene conditions were normal marine, alternating restricted and open water circulation, with rapid accumulation in the Palaeocene, and slower accumulation in the Eocene; Oligocene conditions were normal marine, with open water given way to restricted circulation, shallow water environments in the upper part. Sediment accumulation rates in the Oligocene vary rapidly, major changes in the composition of the ostracod populations are recognized as important local biostratigraphical events.