ALBERT

Description: The world's forests store large amounts of carbon (C), and growing forests can reduce atmospheric CO2 by storing C in their biomass. This has provided the impetus for world-wide tree planting initiatives to offset fossil-fuel emissions. However, forests interact with their environment in complex and multifaceted ways that must be considered for a balanced assessment of the value of planting trees. First, one needs to consider the potential reversibility of C sequestration in trees through either harvesting or tree death from natural factors. If carbon storage is only temporary, future temperatures will actually be higher than without tree plantings, but cumulative warming will be reduced, contributing both positively and negatively to future climate-change impacts. Alternatively, forests could be used for bioenergy or wood products to replace fossil-fuel use which would obviate the need to consider the possible reversibility of any benefits. Forests also affect the Earth's energy balance through either absorbing or reflecting incoming solar radiation. As forests generally absorb more incoming radiation than bare ground or grasslands, this constitutes an important warming effect that substantially reduces the benefit of C storage, especially in snow-covered regions. Forests also affect other local ecosystem services, such as conserving biodiversity, modifying water and nutrient cycles, and preventing erosion that could be either beneficial or harmful depending on specific circumstances. Considering all these factors, tree plantings may be beneficial or detrimental for mitigating climate-change impacts, but the range of possibilities makes generalisations difficult. Their net benefit depends on many factors that differ between specific circumstances. One can, therefore, neither uncritically endorse tree planting everywhere, nor condemn it as counter-productive. Our aim is to provide key information to enable appropriate assessments to be made under specific circumstances. We conclude our discussion by providing a step-by-step guide for assessing the merit of tree plantings under specific circumstances.

Description: Seaweed farming contributes substantial amounts of organic carbon to the ocean, part of which can be locked for a long term in the ocean and perform the function of ocean carbon sequestration, and the other part can be converted into inorganic carbon through microbial mineralization and aerobic respiration, affecting the pCO2, pHT and dissolved oxygen of seawater. It is generally believed that seaweed farming will cause the seawater to become a sink of CO2 due to carbon fixation by macroalgal photosynthesis. However, little attention has been paid to the fact that seaweed farming environment may sometimes become a source rather than a sink of CO2. Here, through in-situ mesocosm cultivation experiments and eight field investigations covering different kelp growth stages in an intensive farming area in China, we found that compared with the surrounding seawater without kelps, the seawater at the fast-growth stage of kelp was a sink of CO2 (pCO2 decreased by 17−73 μatm), but became a source of CO2 at the aging stage of kelp (pCO2 increased by 20−37 μatm). Concurrently, seawater pHT experienced a transition from increase (by 0.02−0.08) to decline (by 0.03−0.04). In-situ mesocosm cultivation experiments showed that the positive environmental effects (i.e., pCO2 decrease and pHT increase) induced by kelps at the early growth stage could be offset within only 3 days at the late-growth and aging stages. The release of dissolved organic carbon by kelps at the late growth stage increased significantly, supporting the enhancement in microbial abundance and respiration, which was manifested by the remarkable decrease in seawater dissolved oxygen, ultimately leading to CO2 release exceeding photosynthetic CO2 absorption. This study suggests that mature farmed kelps should be harvested in time to best utilize their carbon sink function and environmental benefits, which has guiding significance for the rational management of seaweed farming.

Description: Highlights: • Inhibitory potential of eelgrass microbiome against aquatic and fecal pathogens • Isolation of epiphytes and endophytes associated with eelgrass leaves and roots • Particularly leaf epibiotic bacteria exhibit significant antimicrobial activity. • Rich secondary metabolite composition by untargeted metabolomics • Potential involvement of eelgrass microbiome in seagrass ecosystem services Seagrass meadows provide crucial ecosystem services for coastal environments and were shown to reduce the abundance of waterborne pathogens linked to infections in humans and marine organisms in their vicinity. Among potential drivers, seagrass phenolics released into seawater have been linked to pathogen suppression, but the potential involvement of the seagrass microbiome has not been investigated. We hypothesized that the microbiome of the eelgrass Zostera marina, especially the leaf epiphytes that are at direct interface between the seagrass host and the surrounding seawater, inhibit waterborne pathogens thereby contributing to their removal. Using a culture-dependent approach, we isolated 88 bacteria and fungi associated with the surfaces and inner tissues of the eelgrass leaves (healthy and decaying) and the roots. We assessed the antibiotic activity of microbial extracts against a large panel of common aquatic, human (fecal) and plant pathogens, and mined the metabolome of the most active extracts. The healthy leaf epibiotic bacteria, particularly Streptomyces sp. strain 131, displayed broad-spectrum antibiotic activity superior to some control drugs. Gram-negative bacteria abundant on healthy leaf surfaces, and few endosphere-associated bacteria and fungi also displayed remarkable activities. UPLC-MS/MS-based untargeted metabolomics analyses showed rich specialized metabolite repertoires with low annotation rates, indicating the presence of many undescribed antimicrobials in the extracts. This study contributes to our understanding on microbial and chemical ecology of seagrasses, implying potential involvement of the seagrass microbiome in suppression of pathogens in seawater. Such effect is beneficial for the health of ocean and human, especially in the context of climate change that is expected to exacerbate all infectious diseases. It may also assist future seagrass conservation and management strategies.

Description: Total alkalinity (TA) is an important variable of the ocean carbonate system. In coastal oceans, carbonate system dynamics are controlled by a range of processes including photosynthesis and respiration, calcification, mixing of water masses, continental inputs, temperature changes, and seasonal upwelling. Assessments of diel, seasonal and interannual variations in TA are required to understand the carbon cycle in coastal oceans. However, our understanding of these variations remains underdeveloped due to limitations in observational techniques. Autonomous TA measurements are therefore required. In this study, an in situ TA analyzer (ISA-TA) based on a single-point titration with spectrophotometric pH detection was deployed in Tong'an Bay, Xiamen, China, over a five-month period in 2021 to determine diel and seasonal TA variations. The TA observations were combined with an artificial neural network (ANN) model to construct TA prediction models for this area. This provided a simple method to investigate TA variations in this region and was applied to predict surface water TA between March and April 2021. The in situ TA observations showed that TA values in Tong'an Bay varied within a range from 1931 to 2294 μmol kg−1 over the study period, with low TA in late winter, early summer and late summer, and high TA in early winter. The TA variations in late summer and early winter were mainly controlled by mixing of water bodies. The diel variations of TA were greatly determined by tides, with a diel amplitude of 9 to 247 μmol kg−1. The ANN model used temperature, salinity, chlorophyll, and dissolved oxygen to estimate TA, with a root-mean-square error (RMSE) of ∼14 μmol kg−1, with salinity as the input variable with the greatest weight. The approach of combining ISA-TA observations with an ANN model can be extended to study the carbonate system in other coastal regions.

Description: Cephalopods are well known for their cognitive capabilities and unique behavioural repertoires. Yet, certain life strategies and behaviours are still not fully understood. For instance, coastal octopuses have been documented (mainly through citizen science and TV documentaries) to occasionally leave the water and crawl in intertidal areas. Yet, there is a complete lack of knowledge on this behaviour's physiological and biochemical basis. Within this context, this study aimed to investigate, for the first time, physiological (routine and maximum metabolic rates and aerobic scope) and biochemical (i.e., antioxidant enzymes activities, heat shock protein and ubiquitin levels, DNA damage, lipid peroxidation) responses of the common octopus, Octopus vulgaris, to emersion. The octopuses’ physiological performance was determined by measuring metabolic rates in different emersion treatments and biochemical markers. The size-adjusted maximum metabolic rates (MMRadj) of octopuses exposed to 2:30 min of air exposure followed by re-immersion did not differ significantly from the MMRadj of the chased individuals (control group). Yet, most biochemical markers revealed no significant differences among the different emersion treatments. Our findings showed that O. vulgaris could tolerate exposure to short-term emersion periods due to an efficient antioxidant machinery and cellular repair mechanisms. Alongside, we argue that the use of atmospheric air through the mucus-covered gills and/or cutaneous respiration may also help octopus withstand emersion and crawling on land.

Description: Projections of precipitation extremes over land are crucial for socioeconomic risk assessments, yet model discrepancies limit their application. Here we use a pattern-filtering technique to identify low-frequency changes in individual members of a multimodel ensemble to assess discrepancies across models in the projected pattern and magnitude of change. Specifically, we apply low-frequency component analysis (LFCA) to the intensity and frequency of daily precipitation extremes over land in 21 CMIP-6 models. LFCA brings modest but statistically significant improvements in the agreement between models in the spatial pattern of projected change, particularly in scenarios with weak greenhouse forcing. Moreover, we show that LFCA facilitates a robust identification of the rates at which increasing precipitation extremes scale with global temperature change within individual ensemble members. While these rates approximately match expectations from the Clausius-Clapeyron relation on average across models, individual models exhibit considerable and significant differences. Monte Carlo simulations indicate that these differences contribute to uncertainty in the magnitude of projected change at least as much as differences in the climate sensitivity. Last, we compare these scaling rates with those identified from observational products, demonstrating that virtually all climate models significantly underestimate the rates at which increases in precipitation extremes have scaled with global temperatures historically. Constraining projections with observations therefore amplifies the projected intensification of precipitation extremes as well as reducing the relative error of their distribution.

Description: Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) moves atmospheric carbon to geological or land-based sinks. In a first-best setting, the optimal use of CDR is achieved by a removal subsidy that equals the optimal carbon tax and marginal damages. We derive second-best policy rules for CDR subsidies and carbon taxes when no global carbon price exists but a national government implements a unilateral climate policy. We find that the optimal carbon tax differs from an optimal CDR subsidy because of carbon leakage and a balance of resource trade effect. First, the optimal removal subsidy tends to be larger than the carbon tax because of lower supply-side leakage on fossil resource markets. Second, net carbon exporters exacerbate this wedge to increase producer surplus of their carbon resource producers, implying even larger removal subsidies. Third, net carbon importers may set their removal subsidy even below their carbon tax when marginal environmental damages are small, to appropriate producer surplus from carbon exporters.

Description: RV Meteor M197 EMS-PS ('Eastern Mediterranean Sea - Process Study'), 30.12.2023 – 06.02.2024

Description: We investigate the drivers of global and regional changes in the potential for photovoltaic (PV) power production from the pre-industrial (1850) to present-day (1985-2014) and until the end of the century (2071-2100), based on output from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase six (CMIP6). Our assessment separates regional contributions from changes in clouds, humidity, temperature, aerosols, and wind speed to the changes in PV power potentials for the first time. Present-day PV power potentials are adversely affected by anthropogenic aerosols compared to the pre-industrial, with a global decrease of the PV power potential by -1.3%. Our results highlight a globally averaged decrease in future PV power potentials primarily driven by temperature and humidity increases by -1.2% to more than -3.5%, depending on the scenario. Regionally different contributions of changes in clouds and aerosols cause heterogeneous spatial patterns in changes of PV potentials, with typically stronger (weaker) influences from clouds (aerosols) in SSP5-8.5 compared to SSP1-2.6. Our results imply that the uncertain response of clouds to warming and aerosol effects are hurdles in quantifying changes in the regional potentials for PV power production.

Description: RV Meteor M197 EMS-PS ('Eastern Mediterranean Sea - Process Study'), 30.12.2023 – 06.02.2024