ALBERT

Description: Glacial isostatic adjustment is largely governed by the rheological properties of the Earth's mantle. Large mass redistributions in the ocean–cryosphere system and the subsequent response of the viscoelastic Earth have led to dramatic sea level changes in the past. This process is ongoing, and in order to understand and predict current and future sea level changes, the knowledge of mantle properties such as viscosity is essential. In this study, we present a method to obtain estimates of mantle viscosities by the assimilation of relative sea level rates of change into a viscoelastic model of the lithosphere and mantle. We set up a particle filter with probabilistic resampling. In an identical twin experiment, we show that mantle viscosities can be recovered in a glacial isostatic adjustment model of a simple three-layer Earth structure consisting of an elastic lithosphere and two mantle layers of different viscosity. We investigate the ensemble behaviour on different parameters in the following three set-ups: (1) global observations data set since last glacial maximum with different ensemble initialisations and observation uncertainties, (2) regional observations from Fennoscandia or Laurentide/Greenland only, and (3) limiting the observation period to 10 ka until the present. We show that the recovery is successful in all cases if the target parameter values are properly sampled by the initial ensemble probability distribution. This even includes cases in which the target viscosity values are located far in the tail of the initial ensemble probability distribution. Experiments show that the method is successful if enough near-field observations are available. This makes it work best for a period after substantial deglaciation until the present when the number of sea level indicators is relatively high.

Description: Based on the numerical weather prediction model COSMO of Germany's national meteorological service (Deutscher Wetterdienst, DWD), regional reanalysis datasets have been developed with grid spacing of up to 2 km. This development started as a fundamental research activity within the Hans-Ertel-Centre for Weather Research (HErZ) at the University of Bonn and the University of Cologne. Today, COSMO reanalyses are an established product of the DWD and have been widely used in applications on European and national German level. Successful applications of COSMO reanalyses include renewable energy assessments as well as meteorological risk estimates. The COSMO reanalysis datasets are now publicly available and provide spatio-temporal consistent data of atmospheric parameters covering both near-surface conditions and vertical profiles. This article reviews the status of the COSMO reanalyses, including evaluation results and applications. In many studies, evaluation of the COSMO reanalyses point to an overall good quality and often an added value compared to different contemporary global reanalysis datasets. We further outline current plans for the further development and application of regional reanalyses in the HErZ research group Cologne/Bonn in collaboration with the DWD.

Description: The effective radiative forcing, which includes the instantaneous forcing plus adjustments from the atmosphere and surface, has emerged as the key metric of evaluating human and natural influence on the climate. We evaluate effective radiative forcing and adjustments in 17 contemporary climate models that are participating in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6) and have contributed to the Radiative Forcing Model Intercomparison Project (RFMIP). Present-day (2014) global-mean anthropogenic forcing relative to pre-industrial (1850) levels from climate models stands at 2.00 (±0.23) W m−2, comprised of 1.81 (±0.09) W m−2 from CO2, 1.08 (± 0.21) W m−2 from other well-mixed greenhouse gases, −1.01 (± 0.23) W m−2 from aerosols and −0.09 (±0.13) W m−2 from land use change. Quoted uncertainties are 1 standard deviation across model best estimates, and 90 % confidence in the reported forcings, due to internal variability, is typically within 0.1 W m−2. The majority of the remaining 0.21 W m−2 is likely to be from ozone. In most cases, the largest contributors to the spread in effective radiative forcing (ERF) is from the instantaneous radiative forcing (IRF) and from cloud responses, particularly aerosol–cloud interactions to aerosol forcing. As determined in previous studies, cancellation of tropospheric and surface adjustments means that the stratospherically adjusted radiative forcing is approximately equal to ERF for greenhouse gas forcing but not for aerosols, and consequentially, not for the anthropogenic total. The spread of aerosol forcing ranges from −0.63 to −1.37 W m−2, exhibiting a less negative mean and narrower range compared to 10 CMIP5 models. The spread in 4×CO2 forcing has also narrowed in CMIP6 compared to 13 CMIP5 models. Aerosol forcing is uncorrelated with climate sensitivity. Therefore, there is no evidence to suggest that the increasing spread in climate sensitivity in CMIP6 models, particularly related to high-sensitivity models, is a consequence of a stronger negative present-day aerosol forcing and little evidence that modelling groups are systematically tuning climate sensitivity or aerosol forcing to recreate observed historical warming.

Description: We present the result of the third Marine Ice Sheet Intercomparison project, MISMIP+. MISMIP+ is intended to be a test of ice flow models which include fast sliding marine ice streams and floating ice shelves and in particular a treatment of viscous stress that is sufficient for buttressing, where upstream ice flow is restrained by a downstream ice shelf. A set of idealized experiments test the models in circumstances where buttressing contributes to a stable steady state, and where a reduction in that buttressing causes ice stream acceleration, thinning, and grounding line retreat. We find that the most important distinction between models in this particular type of simulation is in the treatment of sliding at the bed, with other distinctions – notably the difference between the simpler and more complete treatments of englacial stress, but also the differences between numerical methods – taking a secondary role.

Description: Varved lake sediments provide long climatic records with high temporal resolution and low associated age uncertainty. Robust and detailed comparison of well-dated and annually laminated sediment records is crucial for reconstructing abrupt and regionally time-transgressive changes as well as validation of spatial and temporal trajectories of past climatic changes. The VARved sediments DAtabase (VARDA) presented here is the first data compilation for varve chronologies and associated palaeoclimatic proxy records. The current version 1.0 allows detailed comparison of published varve records from 95 lakes. VARDA is freely accessible and was created to assess outputs from climate models with high-resolution terrestrial palaeoclimatic proxies. VARDA additionally provides a technical environment that enables to explore the database of varved lake sediments using a connected data-model and can generate a state-of-the-art graphic representation of multi-site comparison. This allows to reassess existing chronologies and tephra events to synchronize and compare even distant varved lake records. Furthermore, the present version of VARDA permits to explore varve thickness data. In this paper, we report in detail on the data mining and compilation strategies for the identification of varved lakes and assimilation of high-resolution chronologies as well as the technical infrastructure of the database. Additional paleoclimate proxy data will be provided in forthcoming updates. The VARDA graph-database and user interface can be accessed online at https://varve.gfz-potsdam.de, all datasets of version 1.0 are available at http://doi.org/10.5880/GFZ.4.3.2019.003 (Ramisch et al., 2019).

Description: Various observational estimates indicate growing mass loss at Antarctica's margins but also heavier precipitation across the continent. In the future, heavier precipitation fallen on Antarctica will counteract any stronger iceberg discharge and increased basal melting of floating ice shelves driven by a warming ocean. Here, we use from nine CMIP5 models future projections, ranging from strong mitigation efforts to business-as-usual, to run an ensemble of ice-sheet simulations. We test, how the precipitation boundary condition determines Antarctica's sea-level contribution. The spatial and temporal varying climate forcings drive ice-sheet simulations. Hence, our ensemble inherits all spatial and temporal climate patterns, which is in contrast to a spatial mean forcing. Regardless of the applied boundary condition and forcing, some areas will lose ice in the future, such as the glaciers from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet draining into the Amundsen Sea. In general the simulated ice-sheet thickness grows in a broad marginal strip, where incoming storms deliver topographically controlled precipitation. This strip shows the largest ice thickness differences between the applied precipitation boundary conditions too. On average Antarctica's ice mass shrinks for all future scenarios if the precipitation is scaled by the spatial temperature anomalies coming from the CMIP5 models. In this approach, we use the relative precipitation increment per degree warming as invariant scaling constant. In contrast, Antarctica gains mass in our simulations if we apply the simulated precipitation anomalies of the CMIP5 models directly. Here, the scaling factors show a distinct spatial pattern across Antarctica. Furthermore, the diagnosed mean scaling across all considered climate forcings is larger than the values deduced from ice cores. In general, the scaling is higher across the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, lower across the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, and lowest around the Siple Coast. The latter is located on the east side of the Ross Ice Shelf.

Description: A finely laminated lake sediment record with a basal age of 11,619 ± 603 years BP was retrieved from Lake Chatyr Kol (Kyrgyz Republic). Microfacies analysis reveals the presence of seasonal laminae (varves) from the sediment basis to ~ 360 ± 40 years BP. The Chatvd19 floating varve chronology covers the time span from 360 ± 40 years BP to the base and relies on replicate varve counts on overlapping petrographic thin sections with an uncertainty of ± 5 %. The uppermost non-varved interval was chronologically constrained by 210Pb and 137Cs γ-spectrometry and interpolation based on varve thickness measurements of adjacent varved intervals with an assumed uncertainty of 10 %. Six varve types were distinguished, are described in detail and show a changing predominance of clastic-organic, clastic-calcitic or -aragonitic, calcitic-clastic, organic-clastic and clastic-diatom varves throughout the Holocene. Variations in varve thickness and the number and composition of seasonal sublayers are attributed to 1) changes in the amount of summer or winter/spring precipitation affecting local runoff and erosion and/or to 2) evaporative conditions during summer. Radiocarbon dating of bulk organic matter, daphnia remains, aquatic plant remains and Ruppia maritima seeds reveal reservoir ages with a clear decreasing trend up core from ~ 6,150 years in the early Holocene, to ~ 3,000 years in the mid-Holocene, to ~ 1,000 years and less in the late Holocene and modern times. In contrast, two radiocarbon dates from terrestrial plant remains are in good agreement with the varve-based chronology.

Description: Ice flow models of the Antarctic ice sheet are commonly used to simulate its future evolution in response to different climate scenarios and inform on the mass loss that would contribute to future sea level rise. However, there is currently no consensus on estimated the future mass balance of the ice sheet, primarily because of differences in the representation of physical processes and the forcings employed. This study presents results from 18 simulations from 15 international groups focusing on the evolution of the Antarctic ice sheet during the period 2015–2100, forced with different scenarios from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) representative of the spread in climate model results. The contribution of the Antarctic ice sheet in response to increased warming during this period varies between −7.8 and 30.0 cm of Sea Level Equivalent (SLE). The evolution of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet varies widely among models, with an overall mass loss up to 21.0 cm SLE in response to changes in oceanic conditions. East Antarctica mass change varies between −6.5 and 16.5 cm SLE, with a significant increase in surface mass balance outweighing the increased ice discharge under most RCP 8.5 scenario forcings. The inclusion of ice shelf collapse, here assumed to be caused by large amounts of liquid water ponding at the surface of ice shelves, yields an additional mass loss of 8 mm compared to simulations without ice shelf collapse. The largest sources of uncertainty come from the ocean-induced melt rates, the calibration of these melt rates based on oceanic conditions taken outside of ice shelf cavities and the ice sheet dynamic response to these oceanic changes. Results under RCP 2.6 scenario based on two CMIP5 AOGCMs show an overall mass loss of 10 mm SLE compared to simulations done under present-day conditions, with limited mass gain in East Antarctica.

Description: Doppler wind lidars (DWLs) have increasingly been used over the last decade to derive the mean wind in the atmospheric boundary layer. DWLs allow the determination of wind vector profiles with high vertical resolution and provide an alternative to classic meteorological tower observations. They also receive signals from altitudes higher than a tower and can be set up flexibly in any power-supplied location. In this work, we address the question of whether and how wind gusts can be derived from DWL observations. The characterization of wind gusts is one central goal of the Field Experiment on Sub-Mesoscale Spatio-Temporal Variability in Lindenberg (FESSTVaL). Obtaining wind gusts from a DWL is not trivial because a monostatic DWL provides only a radial velocity per line of sight, i.e., only one component of a three-dimensional vector, and measurements in at least three linearly independent directions are required to derive the wind vector. Performing them sequentially limits the achievable time resolution, while wind gusts are short-lived phenomena. This study compares different DWL configurations in terms of their potential to derive wind gusts. For this purpose, we develop a new wind retrieval method that is applicable to different scanning configurations and various time resolutions. We test eight configurations with StreamLine DWL systems from HALO Photonics and evaluate gust peaks and mean wind over 10 min at 90 m a.g.l. against a sonic anemometer at the meteorological tower in Falkenberg, Germany. The best-performing configuration for retrieving wind gusts proves to be a fast continuous scanning mode (CSM) that completes a full observation cycle within 3.4 s. During this time interval, about 11 radial Doppler velocities are measured, which are then used to retrieve single gusts. The fast CSM configuration was successfully operated over a 3-month period in summer 2020. The CSM paired with our new retrieval technique provides gust peaks that compare well to classic sonic anemometer measurements from the meteorological tower.

Description: A challenge of an energy system that nowadays more strongly depends on wind power generation is the spatial and temporal variability in winds. Nocturnal low-level jets (NLLJs) are typical wind phenomena defined as a maximum in the vertical profile of the horizontal wind speed. A NLLJ has typical core heights of 50–500 m a.g.l. (above ground level), which is in the height range of most modern wind turbines. This study presents NLLJ analyses based on new observations from Doppler wind lidars. The aim is to characterize the temporal and spatial variability in NLLJs on the mesoscale and to quantify their impacts on wind power generation. The data were collected during the Field Experiment on Submesoscale Spatio-Temporal Variability (FESSTVaL) campaign from June to August 2020 in Lindenberg and Falkenberg (Germany), located at about 6 km from each other. Both sites have seen NLLJs in about 70 % of the nights with half of them lasting for more than 3 h. Events longer than 6 h occurred more often simultaneously at both sites than shorter events, indicating the mesoscale character of very long NLLJs. Very short NLLJs of less than 1 h occurred more often in Lindenberg than Falkenberg, indicating more local influences on the wind profile. We discussed different meteorological mechanisms for NLLJ formation and linked NLLJ occurrences to synoptic weather patterns. There were positive and negative impacts of NLLJs on wind power that we quantified based on the observational data. NLLJs increased the mean power production by up to 80 % and were responsible for about 25 % of the power potential during the campaign. However, the stronger shear in the rotor layer during NLLJs can also have negative impacts. The impacts of NLLJs on wind power production depended on the relative height between the wind turbine and the core of the NLLJ. For instance, the mean increase in the estimated power production during NLLJ events was about 30 % higher for a turbine at 135 m a.g.l. compared to one at 94 m a.g.l. Our results imply that long NLLJs have an overall stronger impact on the total power production, while short events are primarily relevant as drivers for power ramps.

Description: The reaction between ozone and iodide at the sea surface is now known to be an important part of atmospheric ozone cycling, causing ozone deposition and the release of ozone-depleting reactive iodine to the atmosphere. The importance of this reaction is reflected by its inclusion in chemical transport models (CTMs). Such models depend on accurate sea surface iodide fields, but measurements are spatially and temporally limited. Hence, the ability to predict current and future sea surface iodide fields, i.e. sea surface iodide concentration on a narrow global grid, requires the development of process-based models. These models require a thorough understanding of the key processes that control sea surface iodide. The aim of this study was to explore if there are common features of iodate-to-iodide reduction amongst diverse marine phytoplankton in order to develop models that focus on sea surface iodine and iodine release to the troposphere. In order to achieve this, rates and patterns of changes in inorganic iodine speciation were determined in 10 phytoplankton cultures grown at ambient iodate concentrations. Where possible these data were analysed alongside results from previous studies. Iodate loss and some iodide production were observed in all cultures studied, confirming that this is a widespread feature amongst marine phytoplankton. We found no significant difference in log-phase, cell-normalised iodide production rates between key phytoplankton groups (diatoms, prymnesiophytes including coccolithophores and phaeocystales), suggesting that a phytoplankton functional type (PFT) approach would not be appropriate for building an ocean iodine cycling model. Iodate loss was greater than iodide formation in the majority of the cultures studied, indicating the presence of an as-yet-unidentified “missing iodine” fraction. Iodide yield at the end of the experiment was significantly greater in cultures that had reached a later senescence stage. This suggests that models should incorporate a lag between peak phytoplankton biomass and maximum iodide production and that cell mortality terms in biogeochemical models could be used to parameterise iodide production.

Description: Nitric oxide (NO) is a short-lived intermediate of the oceanic nitrogen cycle. However, our knowledge about its production and consumption pathways in oceanic environments is rudimentary. In order to decipher the major factors affecting NO photochemical production, we irradiated several artificial seawater samples as well as 31 natural surface seawater samples in laboratory experiments. The seawater samples were collected during a cruise to the western tropical North Pacific Ocean (WTNP, a N-S section from 36 to 2 degrees N along 146 to 143 degrees E with 6 and 12 stations, respectively, and a W-E section from 137 to 161 degrees E along the Equator with 13 stations) from November 2015 to January 2016. NO photoproduction rates from dissolved nitrite in artificial seawater showed increasing trends with decreasing pH, increasing temperature, and increasing salinity. In contrast, NO photoproduction rates (average: 0.5 +/- 0.2 x 10(-12) mol L-1 s(-1)) in the natural seawater samples from the WTNP did not show any correlations with pH, water temperature, salinity, or dissolved inorganic nitrite concentrations. The flux induced by NO photoproduction in the WTNP (average: 13 x 10(-12) mol M-2 S-1) was significantly larger than the NO air-sea flux density (average: 1.8 x 10(-12) Mol M-2 S-1), indicating a further NO loss process in the surface layer.

Description: Variations of the solar spectral irradiance (SSI) with the 11-year sunspot cycle have been shown to have a significant impact on temperatures and the mixing ratios of atmospheric constituents in the stratosphere and mesosphere. Uncertainties in modelling the effects of SSI variations arise from uncertainties in the empirical models reconstructing the prescribed SSI data set as well as from uncertainties in the chemistry-climate model (CCM) formulation. In this study CCM simulations with the ECHAM MESSy Atmospheric Chemistry (EMAC) model and the Community Earth System Model 1 (CESM1) – Whole Atmosphere Chemistry Climate Model (WACCM) have been performed to quantify the uncertainties of the solar responses in chemistry and dynamics that are due to the usage of five different SSI data sets or the two CCMs. We apply a two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) to separate the influence of the SSI data sets and the CCMs on the variability of the solar response in shortwave heating rates, temperature and ozone. The ANOVA identifies the SSI data set with the strongest influence on the variability of the solar signal in shortwave heating rates in the upper mesosphere and in the upper stratosphere/lower mesosphere. The strongest influence on the variability of the solar signal in ozone and temperature is identified in the upper stratosphere/lower mesosphere. The largest influence of the CCMs on variability of the solar responses can be identified in the upper mesosphere. The solar response in the lower stratosphere also depends on the CCM used, especially in the tropics and northern hemispheric subtropics and mid latitudes, where the model dynamics modulate the solar responses.

Description: Coastal areas contribute significantly to the emissions of methane (CH4) from the ocean. In order to decipher its temporal variability in the whole water column, dissolved CH4 was measured on a monthly basis at the Boknis Eck Time-series Station (BE) located in the Eckernförde Bay (SW Baltic Sea) from 2006 to 2017. BE has a water depth of about 28 m and dissolved CH4 was measured at six water depths ranging from 0 to 25 m. In general CH4 concentrations increased with depth, indicating a sedimentary release of CH4. Pronounced enhancement of the CH4 concentrations in the bottom layer (15–25 m) was found during February, May–June and October. CH4 was not correlated with Chlorophyll a or O2 over the measurement period. Unusually high CH4 concentrations (of up to 696 nM) were sporadically observed in the upper layer (0–10 m) (e.g. in November 2013 and December 2014) and were coinciding with Major Baltic Inflow (MBI) events. Surface CH4 concentrations were always supersaturated throughout the monitoring period, indicating that the Eckernförde Bay is an intense but highly variable source of atmospheric CH4. We did not detect significant temporal trends in CH4 concentrations or emissions, despite of ongoing environmental changes such as warming and deoxygenation in the Eckernförde Bay. Overall, the CH4 variability at BE is driven by a complex interplay of various biological and physical processes.

Description: The extracellular concentration of H2O2 in surface aquatic environments is controlled by a balance between photochemical production and the microbial synthesis of catalase and peroxidase enzymes to remove H2O2 from solution. In any kind of incubation experiment, the formation rates and equilibrium concentrations of reactive oxygen species (ROSs) such as H2O2 may be sensitive to both the experiment design, particularly to the regulation of incident light, and the abundance of different microbial groups, as both cellular H2O2 production and catalase–peroxidase enzyme production rates differ between species. Whilst there are extensive measurements of photochemical H2O2 formation rates and the distribution of H2O2 in the marine environment, it is poorly constrained how different microbial groups affect extracellular H2O2 concentrations, how comparable extracellular H2O2 concentrations within large-scale incubation experiments are to those observed in the surface-mixed layer, and to what extent a mismatch with environmentally relevant concentrations of ROS in incubations could influence biological processes differently to what would be observed in nature. Here we show that both experiment design and bacterial abundance consistently exert control on extracellular H2O2 concentrations across a range of incubation experiments in diverse marine environments. During four large-scale (〉1000 L) mesocosm experiments (in Gran Canaria, the Mediterranean, Patagonia and Svalbard) most experimental factors appeared to exert only minor, or no, direct effect on H2O2 concentrations. For example, in three of four experiments where pH was manipulated to 0.4–0.5 below ambient pH, no significant change was evident in extracellular H2O2 concentrations relative to controls. An influence was sometimes inferred from zooplankton density, but not consistently between different incubation experiments, and no change in H2O2 was evident in controlled experiments using different densities of the copepod Calanus finmarchicus grazing on the diatom Skeletonema costatum (〈1 % change in [H2O2] comparing copepod densities from 1 to 10 L−1). Instead, the changes in H2O2 concentration contrasting high- and low-zooplankton incubations appeared to arise from the resulting changes in bacterial activity. The correlation between bacterial abundance and extracellular H2O2 was stronger in some incubations than others (R2 range 0.09 to 0.55), yet high bacterial densities were consistently associated with low H2O2. Nonetheless, the main control on H2O2 concentrations during incubation experiments relative to those in ambient, unenclosed waters was the regulation of incident light. In an open (lidless) mesocosm experiment in Gran Canaria, H2O2 was persistently elevated (2–6-fold) above ambient concentrations; whereas using closed high-density polyethylene mesocosms in Crete, Svalbard and Patagonia H2O2 within incubations was always reduced (median 10 %–90 %) relative to ambient waters.

Description: Cold-water corals (CWCs) constitute important deep-water ecosystems that are under increasing environmental pressure due to ocean acidification and global warming. The sensitivity of these deep-water ecosystems to environmental change is demonstrated by abundant paleorecords drilled through CWC mounds that reveal characteristic alterations between rapid formation and dormant or erosive phases. Previous studies have identified several central parameters for driving or inhibiting CWC growth such as food supply, oxygenation, and the carbon saturation state of bottom water, yet there are still large uncertainties about the relative importance of the different environmental parameters. To advance this debate we have performed a multiproxy study on a sediment core retrieved from the 25 m high Bowie Mound, located at 866 m water depth on the continental slope off southeastern Brazil, a structure built up mainly by the CWC Solenosmilia variabilis. Our results indicate a multifactorial control on CWC growth at Bowie Mound during the past ∼ 160 kyr, which reveals distinct formation pulses during northern high-latitude glacial cold events (Heinrich stadials, HSs) largely associated with anomalously strong monsoonal rainfall over the continent. The ensuing enhanced runoff elevated the terrigenous nutrient and organic-matter supply to the continental margin and likely boosted marine productivity. The dispersal of food particles towards the CWC colonies during HSs was facilitated by the highly dynamic hydraulic conditions along the continental slope that prevailed throughout glacial periods. These conditions caused the emplacement of a pronounced nepheloid layer above Bowie Mound, thereby aiding the concentration and along-slope dispersal of organic matter. Our study thus emphasizes the impact of continental climate variability on a highly vulnerable deep-marine ecosystem.

Description: Variations in the solar spectral irradiance (SSI) with the 11-year sunspot cycle have been shown to have a significant impact on temperatures and the mixing ratios of atmospheric constituents in the stratosphere and mesosphere. Uncertainties in modelling the effects of SSI variations arise from uncertainties in the empirical models reconstructing the prescribed SSI data set as well as from uncertainties in the chemistry–climate model (CCM) formulation. In this study CCM simulations with the ECHAM/MESSy Atmospheric Chemistry (EMAC) model and the Community Earth System Model 1 (CESM1)–Whole Atmosphere Chemistry Climate Model (WACCM) have been performed to quantify the uncertainties of the solar responses in chemistry and dynamics that are due to the usage of five different SSI data sets or the two CCMs. We apply a two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) to separate the influence of the SSI data sets and the CCMs on the variability of the solar response in shortwave heating rates, temperature, and ozone. The solar response is derived from climatological differences of time slice simulations prescribing SSI for the solar maximum in 1989 and near the solar minimum in 1994. The SSI values for the solar maximum of each SSI data set are created by adding the SSI differences between November 1994 and November 1989 to a common SSI reference spectrum for near-solar-minimum conditions based on ATLAS-3 (Atmospheric Laboratory of Applications and Science-3). The ANOVA identifies the SSI data set with the strongest influence on the variability of the solar response in shortwave heating rates in the upper mesosphere and in the upper stratosphere–lower mesosphere. The strongest influence on the variability of the solar response in ozone and temperature is identified in the upper stratosphere–lower mesosphere. However, in the region of the largest ozone mixing ratio, in the stratosphere from 50 to 10 hPa, the SSI data sets do not contribute much to the variability of the solar response when the Spectral And Total Irradiance REconstructions-T (SATIRE-T) SSI data set is omitted. The largest influence of the CCMs on variability of the solar responses can be identified in the upper mesosphere. The solar response in the lower stratosphere also depends on the CCM used, especially in the tropics and northern hemispheric subtropics and mid-latitudes, where the model dynamics modulate the solar responses. Apart from the upper mesosphere, there are also regions where the largest fraction of the variability of the solar response is explained by randomness, especially for the solar response in temperature.

Description: In Kiel, in the north of Germany, marine research is rooted in a lively research community hosted mainly at Kiel University and the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre. While the ratio of women and men is more or less balanced on all qualification levels with mainly nonpermanent junior positions, women are generally underrepresented in leading research positions. The problem of gender imbalance and inequality has been well-known for a long time. Especially in the last decade, however, manifold efforts were initiated to improve gender equality on a political and institutional level as well as within the research community itself. In our article we focus on the gender equality activities of the two large externally funded marine sciences research alliances: the Cluster of Excellence “The Future Ocean” and the Collaborative Research Centre 754 “Climate–Biogeochemistry Interactions in the Tropical Ocean”. For about a decade they offered both financial provisions and a structural framework to tackle the problem of women's underrepresentation in science and came up with innovative measures. In the following case study, we not only introduce the situation of women in marine sciences in Kiel and the structural arrangement to improve gender equality in general, but we also discuss three specific measures developed within the two collaborative research projects in detail: (i) the mentoring program via:mento_ocean for female postdocs, (ii) hiring policies integrating a gender quota for recruiting postdoctoral researchers and (iii) a code of conduct. Based on these best-practice examples we can show that progress towards gender equality has been made despite some obstacles faced when implementing the measures. This was especially the case for attracting female researchers to work in Kiel marine sciences and bringing the relevance of the topic to the surface of debates within the community. Looking at gender equality activities from a managerial point of view, we conclude from the situation in Kiel, where external funding for both research alliances ended in 2019, that even time-bound activities can initiate change. Initiatives developed by the marine sciences community were taken up by other research groups and inspired new activities at the level of the institutions

Description: The Zero Emissions Commitment (ZEC) is the change in global mean temperature expected to occur following the cessation of net CO2 emissions and as such is a critical parameter for calculating the remaining carbon budget. The Zero Emissions Commitment Model Intercomparison Project (ZECMIP) was established to gain a better understanding of the potential magnitude and sign of ZEC, in addition to the processes that underlie this metric. A total of 18 Earth system models of both full and intermediate complexity participated in ZECMIP. All models conducted an experiment where atmospheric CO2 concentration increases exponentially until 1000 PgC has been emitted. Thereafter emissions are set to zero and models are configured to allow free evolution of atmospheric CO2 concentration. Many models conducted additional second-priority simulations with different cumulative emission totals and an alternative idealized emissions pathway with a gradual transition to zero emissions. The inter-model range of ZEC 50 years after emissions cease for the 1000 PgC experiment is −0.36 to 0.29 ∘C, with a model ensemble mean of −0.07 ∘C, median of −0.05 ∘C, and standard deviation of 0.19 ∘C. Models exhibit a wide variety of behaviours after emissions cease, with some models continuing to warm for decades to millennia and others cooling substantially. Analysis shows that both the carbon uptake by the ocean and the terrestrial biosphere are important for counteracting the warming effect from the reduction in ocean heat uptake in the decades after emissions cease. This warming effect is difficult to constrain due to high uncertainty in the efficacy of ocean heat uptake. Overall, the most likely value of ZEC on multi-decadal timescales is close to zero, consistent with previous model experiments and simple theory.

Description: The last few decades have seen dramatic changes in the hydrography and biogeochemistry of the Mediterranean Sea. The complex bathymetry and highly variable spatial and temporal scales of atmospheric forcing, convective and ventilation processes contribute to generate complex and unsteady circulation patterns and significant variability in biogeochemical systems. Part of the variability of this system can be influenced by anthropogenic contributions. Consequently, it is necessary to document details and to understand trends in place to better relate the observed processes and to possibly predict the consequences of these changes. In this context we report data from an oceanographic cruise in the Mediterranean Sea on the German research vessel Maria S. Merian (MSM72) in March 2018. The main objective of the cruise was to contribute to the understanding of long-term changes and trends in physical and biogeochemical parameters, such as the anthropogenic carbon uptake and to further assess the hydrographical situation after the major climatological shifts in the eastern and western part of the basin, known as the Eastern and Western Mediterranean Transients. During the cruise, multidisciplinary measurements were conducted on a predominantly zonal section throughout the Mediterranean Sea, contributing to the Med-SHIP and GO-SHIP long-term repeat cruise section that is conducted at regular intervals in the Mediterranean Sea to observe changes and impacts on physical and biogeochemical variables.

Description: Decreasing concentrations of dissolved oxygen in the ocean are considered one of the main threats to marine ecosystems as they jeopardize the growth of higher organisms. They also alter the marine nitrogen cycle, which is strongly bound to the carbon cycle and climate. While higher organisms in general start to suffer from oxygen concentrations 〈 ∼ 63 µM (hypoxia), the marine nitrogen cycle responds to oxygen concentration below a threshold of about 20 µM (microbial hypoxia), whereas anoxic processes dominate the nitrogen cycle at oxygen concentrations of 〈 ∼ 0.05 µM (functional anoxia). The Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal are home to approximately 21 % of the total volume of ocean waters revealing microbial hypoxia. While in the Arabian Sea this oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) is also functionally anoxic, the Bay of Bengal OMZ seems to be on the verge of becoming so. Even though there are a few isolated reports on the occurrence of anoxia prior to 1960, anoxic events have so far not been reported from the open northern Indian Ocean (i.e., other than on shelves) during the last 60 years. Maintenance of functional anoxia in the Arabian Sea OMZ with oxygen concentrations ranging between 〉 0 and ∼ 0.05 µM is highly extraordinary considering that the monsoon reverses the surface ocean circulation twice a year and turns vast areas of the Arabian Sea from an oligotrophic oceanic desert into one of the most productive regions of the oceans within a few weeks. Thus, the comparably low variability of oxygen concentration in the OMZ implies stable balances between the physical oxygen supply and the biological oxygen consumption, which includes negative feedback mechanisms such as reducing oxygen consumption at decreasing oxygen concentrations (e.g., reduced respiration). Lower biological oxygen consumption is also assumed to be responsible for a less intense OMZ in the Bay of Bengal. According to numerical model results, a decreasing physical oxygen supply via the inflow of water masses from the south intensified the Arabian Sea OMZ during the last 6000 years, whereas a reduced oxygen supply via the inflow of Persian Gulf Water from the north intensifies the OMZ today in response to global warming. The first is supported by data derived from the sedimentary records, and the latter concurs with observations of decreasing oxygen concentrations and a spreading of functional anoxia during the last decades in the Arabian Sea. In the Arabian Sea decreasing oxygen concentrations seem to have initiated a regime shift within the pelagic ecosystem structure, and this trend is also seen in benthic ecosystems. Consequences for biogeochemical cycles are as yet unknown, which, in addition to the poor representation of mesoscale features in global Earth system models, reduces the reliability of estimates of the future OMZ development in the northern Indian Ocean.

Description: In the current era of rapid climate change, accurate characterization of climate-relevant gas dynamics-namely production, consumption, and net emissions-is required for all biomes, especially those ecosystems most susceptible to the impact of change. Marine environments include regions that act as net sources or sinks for numerous climateactive trace gases including methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O). The temporal and spatial distributions of CH4 and N2O are controlled by the interaction of complex biogeochemical and physical processes. To evaluate and quantify how these mechanisms affect marine CH4 and N2O cycling requires a combination of traditional scientific disciplines including oceanography, microbiology, and numerical modeling. Fundamental to these efforts is ensuring that the datasets produced by independent scientists are comparable and interoperable. Equally critical is transparent communication within the research community about the technical improvements required to increase our collective understanding of marine CH4 and N2O. A workshop sponsored by Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry (OCB) was organized to enhance dialogue and collaborations pertaining to marine CH4 and N2O. Here, we summarize the outcomes from the workshop to describe the challenges and opportunities for near-future CH4 and N2O research in the marine environment.

Description: It is widely accepted that orbital variations are responsible for the generation of glacial cycles during the late Pleistocene. However, the relative contributions of the orbital forcing compared to CO2 variations and other feedback mechanisms causing the waxing and waning of ice sheets have not been fully understood. Testing theories of ice ages beyond statistical inferences, requires numerical modeling experiments that capture key features of glacial transitions. Here, we focus on the glacial buildup from Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 7 to 6 covering the period from 240 to 170 ka (ka: thousand years before present). This transition from interglacial to glacial conditions includes one of the fastest Pleistocene glaciation–deglaciation events, which occurred during MIS 7e–7d–7c (236–218 ka). Using a newly developed three-dimensional coupled atmosphere–ocean–vegetation–ice sheet model (LOVECLIP), we simulate the transient evolution of Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere ice sheets during the MIS 7–6 period in response to orbital and greenhouse gas forcing. For a range of model parameters, the simulations capture the evolution of global ice volume well within the range of reconstructions. Over the MIS 7–6 period, it is demonstrated that glacial inceptions are more sensitive to orbital variations, whereas terminations from deep glacial conditions need both orbital and greenhouse gas forcings to work in unison. For some parameter values, the coupled model also exhibits a critical North American ice sheet configuration, beyond which a stationary-wave–ice-sheet topography feedback can trigger an unabated and unrealistic ice sheet growth. The strong parameter sensitivity found in this study originates from the fact that delicate mass imbalances, as well as errors, are integrated during a transient simulation for thousands of years. This poses a general challenge for transient coupled climate–ice sheet modeling, with such coupled paleo-simulations providing opportunities to constrain such parameters.

Description: In 2015, we have collected more than 60,000 scavenging amphipod specimens during two expeditions to the Clarion-Clipperton fracture Zone (CCZ), in the Northeast (NE) Pacific and to the DISturbance and re-COLonisation (DisCOL) Experimental Area (DEA), a simulated mining impact disturbance proxy in the Peru basin, Southeast (SE) Pacific. Here, we compare biodiversity patterns of the larger specimens (〉15mm) within and between these two oceanic basins. Nine scavenging amphipod species are shared between these two areas, thus indicating connectivity. We further provide evidence that disturbance proxies seem to negatively affect scavenging amphipod biodiversity, as illustrated by a reduced alpha biodiversity in the DEA (Simpson Index (D)=0.62), when compared to the CCZ (D=0.73) and particularly of the disturbance site in the DEA and the site geographically closest to it. Community compositions of the two basins differs, as evidenced by a Non-Metric Dimensional Scaling (NMDS) analysis of beta biodiversity. The NMDS also shows a further separation of the disturbance site (D1) from its neighbouring, undisturbed reference areas (D2, D3, D4 and D5) in the DEA. A single species, Abyssorchomene gerulicorbis, dominates the DEA with 60% of all individuals.

Description: The speciation of dissolved iron (DFe) in the ocean is widely assumed to consist almost exclusively of Fe(III)-ligand complexes. Yet in most aqueous environments a poorly defined fraction of DFe also exists as Fe(II), the speciation of which is uncertain. Here we deploy flow injection analysis to measure in situ Fe(II) concentrations during a series of mesocosm/microcosm/multistressor experiments in coastal environments in addition to the decay rate of this Fe(II) when moved into the dark. During five mesocosm/microcosm/multistressor experiments in Svalbard and Patagonia, where dissolved (0.2 µm) Fe and Fe(II) were quantified simultaneously, Fe(II) constituted 24 %–65 % of DFe, suggesting that Fe(II) was a large fraction of the DFe pool. When this Fe(II) was allowed to decay in the dark, the vast majority of measured oxidation rate constants were less than calculated constants derived from ambient temperature, salinity, pH, and dissolved O2. The oxidation rates of Fe(II) spikes added to Atlantic seawater more closely matched calculated rate constants. The difference between observed and theoretical decay rates in Svalbard and Patagonia was most pronounced at Fe(II) concentrations 〈2 nM, suggesting that the effect may have arisen from organic Fe(II) ligands. This apparent enhancement of Fe(II) stability under post-bloom conditions and the existence of such a high fraction of DFe as Fe(II) challenge the assumption that DFe speciation in coastal seawater is dominated by ligand bound-Fe(III) species.

Description: A strong oxygen-deficient layer is located in the upper layers of the tropical Pacific Ocean and deeper in the North Pacific. Processes related to climate change (upper-ocean warming, reduced ventilation) are expected to change ocean oxygen and nutrient inventories. In most ocean basins, a decrease in oxygen (“deoxygenation”) and an increase in nutrients have been observed in subsurface layers. Deoxygenation trends are not linear and there could be multiple influences on oxygen and nutrient trends and variability. Here oxygen and nutrient time series since 1950 in the Pacific Ocean were investigated at 50 to 300 m depth, as this layer provides critical pelagic habitat for biological communities. In addition to trends related to ocean warming the oxygen and nutrient trends show a strong influence of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) in the tropical and the eastern Pacific, and the North Pacific Gyre Oscillation (NPGO) in particular in the North Pacific. In the Oyashio Region the PDO, the NPGO, the North Pacific Index (NPI) and an 18.6-year nodal tidal cycle overlay the long-term trend. In most eastern Pacific regions oxygen increases and nutrients decrease in the 50 to 300 m layer during the negative PDO phase, with opposite trends during the positive PDO phase. The PDO index encapsulates the major mode of sea surface temperature variability in the Pacific, and oxygen and nutrients trends throughout the basin can be described in the context of the PDO phases. El Niño and La Niña years often influence the oxygen and nutrient distribution during the event in the eastern tropical Pacific but do not have a multi-year influence on the trends.

Description: Deciphering the dynamics of dissolved oxygen in the mid-depth ocean during the last deglaciation is essential to understand the influence of climate change on modern oxygen minimum zones (OMZs). Many paleo-proxy records from the Eastern Pacific Ocean indicate an extension of oxygen depleted conditions during the deglaciation but the degree of deoxygenation has not been quantified to date. The Peruvian OMZ, one of the largest OMZs in the world, is a key area to monitor such changes in near-bottom water oxygenation in relation to changing climatic conditions. Here, we analysed the potential to use the composition of foraminiferal assemblages from the Peruvian OMZ as a quantitative redox-proxy. A multiple regression analysis was applied to a joint dataset of living (rose Bengal stained, fossilizable calcareous species) benthic foraminiferal distributions from the Peruvian continental margin. Bottom-water oxygen concentrations ([O2]BW) during sampling were used as dependant variable. The correlation was significant (R2 = 0.82; p 〈 0.05) indicating that the foraminiferal assemblages are rather governed by oxygen availability than by the deposition of particulate organic matter (R2 = 0.53; p = 0.31). We applied the regression formula to four sediment cores from the northern part of the Peruvian OMZ between 3° S and 8° S and 600 m to 1250 m water depths; thereby recording oxygenation changes at the lower boundary of the Peruvian OMZ. Each core displayed a similar trend of decreasing oxygen levels since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). The overall [O2]BW change from the Last Glacial Maximum and the Holocene was constrained to 30 μmol/kg at the lower boundary of the OMZ, whereas at shallower depths [O2]BW was relatively stable along the deglaciation. The deoxygenation trend was time-transgressive. It commenced at the southern core, and gradually spread to deeper waters and to the northernmost core location. This pattern indicates a gradual expansion of the OMZ during the last deglaciation, as a result of increasing surface productivity in the Eastern Equatorial Pacific and decreasing advective oxygen supply to intermediate waters off Peru.

Description: Oxygen minimum zones (OMZs) show distinct biogeochemical processes that relate to microorganisms being able to thrive under low or even absent oxygen. Microbial degradation of organic matter is expected to be reduced in OMZs, although quantitative evidence is low. Here, we present heterotrophic bacterial production (3H leucine incorporation), extracellular enzyme rates (leucine aminopeptidase/β-glucosidase) and bacterial cell abundance for various in situ oxygen concentrations in the water column, including the upper and lower oxycline, of the eastern tropical South Pacific off Peru. Bacterial heterotrophic activity in the suboxic core of the OMZ (at in situ ≤ 5 µmol O2 kg−1) ranged from 0.3 to 281 µmol C m−3 d−1 and was not significantly lower than in waters of 5–60 µmol O2 kg−1. Moreover, bacterial abundance in the OMZ and leucine aminopeptidase activity were significantly higher in suboxic waters compared to waters of 5–60 µmol O2 kg−1, suggesting no impairment of bacterial organic-matter degradation in the core of the OMZ. Nevertheless, high cell-specific bacterial production was observed in samples from oxyclines, and cell-specific extracellular enzyme rates were especially high at the lower oxycline, corroborating earlier findings of highly active and distinct micro-aerobic bacterial communities. To assess the impact of bacterial degradation of dissolved organic matter (DOM) for oxygen loss in the Peruvian OMZ, we compared diapycnal fluxes of oxygen and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and their microbial uptake within the upper 60 m of the water column. Our data indicate low bacterial growth efficiencies of 1 %–21 % at the upper oxycline, resulting in a high bacterial oxygen demand that can explain up to 33 % of the observed average oxygen loss over depth. Our study therewith shows that microbial degradation of DOM has a considerable share in sustaining the OMZ off Peru.

Description: Small steam-driven volcanic explosions are common at volcanoes worldwide but are rarely documented or monitored; therefore, these events still put residents and tourists at risk every year. Steam-driven explosions also occur frequently (once every 2–5 years on average) at Lascar volcano, Chile, where they are often spontaneous and lack any identifiable precursor activity. Here, for the first time at Lascar, we describe the processes culminating in such a sudden volcanic explosion that occurred on October 30, 2015, which was thoroughly monitored by cameras, a seismic network, and gas (SO2 and CO2) and temperature sensors. Prior to the eruption, we retrospectively identified unrest manifesting as a gradual increase in the number of long-period (LP) seismic events in 2014, indicating an augmented level of activity at the volcano. Additionally, SO2 flux and thermal anomalies were detected before the eruption. Then, our weather station reported a precipitation event, followed by changes in the brightness of the permanent volcanic plume and (10 days later) by the sudden volcanic explosion. The multidisciplinary data exhibited short-term variations associated with the explosion, including (1) an abrupt eruption onset that was seismically identified in the 1–10 Hz frequency band, (2) the detection of a 1.7 km high white-grey eruption column in camera images, and (3) a pronounced spike in sulfur dioxide (SO2) emission rates reaching 55 kg sec−1 during the main pulse of the eruption as measured by a mini-DOAS scanner. Continuous CO2 gas and temperature measurements conducted at a fumarole on the southern rim of the Lascar crater revealed a pronounced change in the trend of the relationship between the carbon dioxide (CO2) mixing ratio and the gas outlet temperature; we believe that this change was associated with the prior precipitation event. An increased thermal anomaly inside the active crater observed through Sentinel-2 images and drone overflights performed after the steam-driven explosion revealed the presence of a fracture ~ 50 metres in diameter truncating the dome and located deep inside the active crater, which coincides well with the location of the thermal anomaly. Altogether, these observations lead us to infer that a lava dome was present and subjected to cooling and inhibited degassing. We conjecture that a precipitation event led to the short-term build-up of pressure inside the shallow dome that eventually triggered a vent-clearing phreatic explosion. This study shows the chronology of events culminating in a steam-driven explosion but also demonstrates that phreatic explosions are difficult to forecast, even if the volcano is thoroughly monitored; these findings also emphasize why ascending to the summits of Lascar and similar volcanoes is hazardous, particularly after considerable rainfall.

Description: The intraseasonal evolution of physical and biogeochemical properties during a coastal trapped wave event off central Peru is analysed using data from an extensive shipboard observational programme conducted between April and June 2017, and remote sensing data. The poleward velocities in the Peru–Chile Undercurrent were highly variable and strongly intensified to above 0.5 m s−1 between the middle and end of May. This intensification was likely caused by a first-baroclinic-mode downwelling coastal trapped wave, excited by a westerly wind anomaly at the Equator and originating at about 95∘ W. Local winds along the South American coast did not impact the wave. Although there is general agreement between the observed cross-shore-depth velocity structure of the coastal trapped wave and the velocity structure of first vertical mode solution of a linear wave model, there are differences in the details of the two flow distributions. The enhanced poleward flow increased water mass advection from the equatorial current system to the study site. The resulting shorter alongshore transit times between the Equator and the coast off central Peru led to a strong increase in nitrate concentrations, less anoxic water, likely less fixed nitrogen loss to N2 and a decrease of the nitrogen deficit compared to the situation before the poleward flow intensification. This study highlights the role of changes in the alongshore advection due to coastal trapped waves for the nutrient budget and the cumulative strength of N cycling in the Peruvian oxygen minimum zone. Enhanced availability of nitrate may impact a range of pelagic and benthic elemental cycles, as it represents a major electron acceptor for organic carbon degradation during denitrification and is involved in sulfide oxidation in sediments.

Description: Carbonyl sulfide (OCS) and carbon disulfide (CS2) are volatile sulfur gases that are naturally formed in seawater and exchanged with the atmosphere. OCS is the most abundant sulfur gas in the atmosphere, and CS2 is its most important precursor. They have gained interest due to their direct (OCS) or indirect (CS2 via oxidation to OCS) contribution to the stratospheric sulfate aerosol layer. Furthermore, OCS serves as a proxy to constrain terrestrial CO2 uptake by vegetation. Oceanic emissions of both gases contribute a major part to their atmospheric concentration. Here we present a database of previously published and unpublished, mainly ship-borne measurements in seawater and the marine boundary layer for both gases, available at https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.905430 (Lennartz et al., 2019). The database contains original measurements as well as data digitalized from figures in publications from 42 measurement campaigns, i.e. cruises or time series stations, ranging from 1982 to 2019. OCS data cover all ocean basins except for the Arctic Ocean, as well as all months of the year, while the CS2 dataset shows large gaps in spatial and temporal coverage. Concentrations are consistent across different sampling and analysis techniques for OCS. The database is intended to support the identification of global spatial and temporal patterns and to facilitate the evaluation of model simulations.

Description: Tephra layers produced by volcanic eruptions are widely used for correlation and dating of various deposits and landforms, for synchronization of disparate paleoenvironmental archives, and for reconstruction of magma origin. Here we present our original database TephraKam, which includes chemical compositions of volcanic glass in tephra and welded tuffs from the Kamchatka volcanic arc. The database contains 7049 major element analyses obtained by electron microprobe and 738 trace element analyses obtained by laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) on 487 samples collected in proximity of their volcanic sources in all volcanic zones in Kamchatka. The samples characterize about 300 explosive eruptions, which occurred in Kamchatka from the Pliocene until historic times. Precise or estimated ages for all samples are based on published 39Ar/40Ar dates of rocks and 14C dates of host sediments, statistical age modelling and geologic relationships with dated units. All data in TephraKam is supported by information about source volcanoes and analytical details. Using the data, we present an overview of geochemical variations of Kamchatka volcanic glasses and discuss application of this data for precise identification of tephra layers, their source volcanoes, temporal and spatial geochemical variations of pyroclastic rocks in Kamchatka.

Description: High-resolution optical and hydroacoustic seafloor data acquired in 2015 enabled the reconstruction of disturbance tracks of a past Benthic Impact Experiment that was conducted in 1989 in the Peru Basin in the course of former German environmental impact studies associated with manganese nodule mining. Based on this information, the disturbance level of the experiment regarding the plough impact and distribution and re-deposition of sediment from the evolving sediment plume was assessed qualitatively. Through this, the evolution over the 26 years of a number of the total 78 disturbance tracks could be analyzed which highlights the considerable difference between natural sedimentation in the deep-sea and sedimentation of a resettled sediment plume. Such plumes are seen as one of the most concerning impact associated with potential Mn-nodule mining. Problems in data processing became eminent while dealing with old data from the late 80s, at a time when GPS was just invented and underwater navigation was in an infant stage. However, even today the uncertainties of underwater navigation and the use of a variety of acoustical and optical sensors at different resolutions require detailed post-processing in terms of absolute geographic positioning to improve the overall accuracy of the data. In this study, a ship-based bathymetric map of the survey area was used as absolute geographic reference and a workflow was applied successfully resulting in the most accurate geo-referenced dataset of the DISCOL Experimental Area to date. The new field data were acquired with sensors attached to GEOMARs AUV Abyss and the 0.5 × 1° EM122 multibeam system of RV SONNE during cruise SO242 -1 while the old data first needed to be found and compiled before they could be digitized and properly georeferenced for the presented joined analyses.

Description: Oxygen-deficient zones (ODZs) are major sites of net natural nitrous oxide (N2O) production and emissions. In order to understand changes in the magnitude of N2O production in response to global change, knowledge on the individual contributions of the major microbial pathways (nitrification and denitrification) to N2O production and their regulation is needed. In the ODZ in the coastal area off Peru, the sensitivity of N2O production to oxygen and organic matter was investigated using 15N tracer experiments in combination with quantitative PCR (qPCR) and microarray analysis of total and active functional genes targeting archaeal amoA and nirS as marker genes for nitrification and denitrification, respectively. Denitrification was responsible for the highest N2O production with a mean of 8.7 nmol L−1 d−1 but up to 118±27.8 nmol L−1 d−1 just below the oxic–anoxic interface. The highest N2O production from ammonium oxidation (AO) of 0.16±0.003 nmol L−1 d−1 occurred in the upper oxycline at O2 concentrations of 10–30 µmol L−1 which coincided with the highest archaeal amoA transcripts/genes. Hybrid N2O formation (i.e., N2O with one N atom from NH+4 and the other from other substrates such as NO−2) was the dominant species, comprising 70 %–85 % of total produced N2O from NH+4, regardless of the ammonium oxidation rate or O2 concentrations. Oxygen responses of N2O production varied with substrate, but production and yields were generally highest below 10 µmol L−1 O2. Particulate organic matter additions increased N2O production by denitrification up to 5-fold, suggesting increased N2O production during times of high particulate organic matter export. High N2O yields of 2.1 % from AO were measured, but the overall contribution by AO to N2O production was still an order of magnitude lower than that of denitrification. Hence, these findings show that denitrification is the most important N2O production process in low-oxygen conditions fueled by organic carbon supply, which implies a positive feedback of the total oceanic N2O sources in response to increasing oceanic deoxygenation.

Description: Seamounts represent ideal systems to study the influence and interdependency of environmental gradients at a single geographic location. These topographic features represent a prominent habitat for various forms of life, including microbiota and macrobiota, spanning benthic as well as pelagic organisms. While it is known that seamounts are globally abundant structures, it still remains unclear how and to which extent the complexity of the sea floor is intertwined with the local oceanographic mosaic, biogeochemistry, and microbiology of a seamount ecosystem. Along these lines, the present study aimed to explore whether and to what extent seamounts can have an imprint on the microbial community composition of seawater and of sessile benthic invertebrates, sponges. For our high-resolution sampling approach of microbial diversity (16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing) along with measurements of inorganic nutrients and other biogeochemical parameters, we focused on the Schulz Bank seamount ecosystem, a sponge ground ecosystem which is located on the Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridge. Seawater samples were collected at two sampling depths (mid-water, MW, and near-bed water, BW) from a total of 19 sampling sites. With a clustering approach we defined microbial microhabitats within the pelagic realm at Schulz Bank, which were mapped onto the seamount's topography and related to various environmental parameters (such as suspended particulate matter, SPM; dissolved inorganic carbon, DIC; silicate, SiO−4; phosphate, PO3−4; ammonia, NH+4; nitrate, NO2−3; nitrite, NO−2; depth; and dissolved oxygen, O2). The results of our study reveal a “seamount effect” (sensu stricto) on the microbial mid-water pelagic community at least 200 m above the sea floor. Further, we observed a strong spatial heterogeneity in the pelagic microbial landscape across the seamount, with planktonic microbial communities reflecting oscillatory and circulatory water movements, as well as processes of bentho-pelagic coupling. Depth, NO2−3, SiO−4, and O2 concentrations differed significantly between the determined pelagic microbial clusters close to the sea floor (BW), suggesting that these parameters were presumably linked to changes in microbial community structures. Secondly, we assessed the associated microbial community compositions of three sponge species along a depth gradient of the seamount. While sponge-associated microbial communities were found to be mainly species-specific, we also detected significant intra-specific differences between individuals, depending on the pelagic near-bed cluster they originated from. The variable microbial phyla (i.e. phyla which showed significant differences across varying depth, NO2−3, SiO−4, O2 concentrations, and different from local seawater communities) were distinct for every sponge species when considering average abundances per species. Variable microbial phyla included representatives of both those taxa traditionally counted for the variable community fraction and taxa counted traditionally for the core community fraction. Microbial co-occurrence patterns for the three examined sponge species Geodia hentscheli, Lissodendoryx complicata, and Schaudinnia rosea were distinct from each other. Over all, this study shows that topographic structures such as the Schulz Bank seamount can have an imprint (seamount effect sensu lato) on both the microbial community composition of seawater and sessile benthic invertebrates such as sponges by an interplay between the geology, physical oceanography, biogeochemistry, and microbiology of seamounts.

Description: The largest and commercially appealing mineral deposits can be found in the abyssal seafloor of the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ), a polymetallic nodule province, in the NE Pacific Ocean, where experimental mining is due to take place. In anticipation of deep-sea mining impacts, it has become essential to rapidly and accurately assess biodiversity. For this reason, ophiuroid material collected during seven scientific cruises from five exploration license areas within CCZ, one area protected from mining (APEI3, Area of Particular Environmental Interest) in the periphery of CCZ and the DIS-turbance and re-COLonisation (DISCOL) Experimental Area (DEA), in the SE Pacific Ocean, was examined. Specimens were genetically analysed using a fragment of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI). Maximum Likelihood and Neighbour Joining trees were constructed, while four tree-based and distance-based methods of species delineation (ABGD, BINs, GMYC, mPTP) were employed to propose Secondary Species Hypotheses (SSHs) within the ophiuroids collected. The species delimitations analyses concordant results revealed the presence of 43 deep-sea brittle stars SSHs, revealing an unexpectedly high diversity and showing that the most conspicuous invertebrates in abyssal plains have been so far considerably under-estimated. The number of SSHs found in each area varied from 5 (IFREMER area) to 24 (BGR area), while 13 SSHs were represented by singletons. None of the SSHs was found to be present in all 7 areas, while the majority of species (44.2 %) had a single-area presence (19 SSHs). The most common species were Ophioleucidae sp. (Species 29), Amphioplus daleus (Species 2) and Ophiosphalma glabrum (Species 3), present in all areas except APEI3. The biodiversity patterns could be mainly attributed to POC fluxes that could explain the highest species numbers found in BGR (German contractor area) and UKSRL (UK contractor area) areas. The five exploration contract areas belong to a mesotrophic province, while in contrary the APEI3 is located in an oligotrophic province which could explain the lowest diversity as well as very low similarity with the other six study areas. Based on these results the representativeness and the appropriateness of APEI3 to meet its purpose of preserving the biodiversity of the CCZ fauna are questioned. Finally, this study provides the foundation for biogeographic and functional analyses that will provide insight into the drivers of species diversity and its role in ecosystem function.

Description: Dissolved Fe (DFe) samples from the GEOVIDE voyage (GEOTRACES GA01, May–June 2014) in the North Atlantic Ocean were analyzed using a seaFAST-pico™ coupled to an Element XR sector field inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (SF-ICP-MS) and provided interesting insights into the Fe sources in this area. Overall, DFe concentrations ranged from 0.09±0.01 to 7.8±0.5 nmol L−1. Elevated DFe concentrations were observed above the Iberian, Greenland, and Newfoundland margins likely due to riverine inputs from the Tagus River, meteoric water inputs, and sedimentary inputs. Deep winter convection occurring the previous winter provided iron-to-nitrate ratios sufficient to sustain phytoplankton growth and lead to relatively elevated DFe concentrations within subsurface waters of the Irminger Sea. Increasing DFe concentrations along the flow path of the Labrador Sea Water were attributed to sedimentary inputs from the Newfoundland Margin. Bottom waters from the Irminger Sea displayed high DFe concentrations likely due to the dissolution of Fe-rich particles in the Denmark Strait Overflow Water and the Polar Intermediate Water. Finally, the nepheloid layers located in the different basins and at the Iberian Margin were found to act as either a source or a sink of DFe depending on the nature of particles, with organic particles likely releasing DFe and Mn particle scavenging DFe.

Description: In the abyssal equatorial Pacific Ocean, most of the seafloor of the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone (CCFZ), a 6 million km2 polymetallic nodule province, has been preempted for future mining. In light of the large environmental footprint that mining would leave and given the diversity and the vulnerability of the abyssal fauna, the International Seabed Authority has implemented a regional management plan that includes the creation of nine Areas of Particular Environmental Interest (APEIs) located at the periphery of the CCFZ. The scientific principles for the design of the APEIs were based on the best – albeit very limited – knowledge of the area. The fauna and habitats in the APEIs are unknown, as are species' ranges and the extent of biodiversity across the CCFZ. As part of the Joint Programming Initiative Healthy and Productive Seas and Oceans (JPI Oceans) pilot action “Ecological aspects of deep-sea mining”, the SO239 cruise provided data to improve species inventories, determine species ranges, identify the drivers of beta diversity patterns and assess the representativeness of an APEI. Four exploration contract areas and an APEI (APEI no. 3) were sampled along a gradient of sea surface primary productivity that spanned a distance of 1440 km in the eastern CCFZ. Between three and eight quantitative box cores (0.25 m2; 0–10 cm) were sampled in each study area, resulting in a large collection of polychaetes that were morphologically and molecularly (cytochrome c oxidase subunit I and 16S genes) analyzed. A total of 275 polychaete morphospecies were identified. Only one morphospecies was shared among all five study areas and 49 % were singletons. The patterns in community structure and composition were mainly attributed to variations in organic carbon fluxes to the seafloor at the regional scale and nodule density at the local scale, thus supporting the main assumptions underlying the design of the APEIs. However, the APEI no. 3, which is located in an oligotrophic province and separated from the CCFZ by the Clarion Fracture Zone, showed the lowest densities, lowest diversity, and a very low and distant independent similarity in community composition compared to the contract areas, thus questioning the representativeness and the appropriateness of APEI no. 3 to meet its purpose of diversity preservation. Among the four exploration contracts, which belong to a mesotrophic province, the distance decay of similarity provided a species turnover of 0.04 species km−1, an average species range of 25 km and an extrapolated richness of up to 240 000 polychaete species in the CCFZ. By contrast, nonparametric estimators of diversity predict a regional richness of up to 498 species. Both estimates are biased by the high frequency of singletons in the dataset, which likely result from under-sampling and merely reflect our level of uncertainty. The assessment of potential risks and scales of biodiversity loss due to nodule mining thus requires an appropriate inventory of species richness in the CCFZ.

Description: Climate change in Siberia is currently receiving a lot of attention because large permafrost-covered areas could provide a strong positive feedback to global warming through the release of carbon that has been sequestered there on glacial–interglacial timescales. Geological evidence and climate model experiments show that the Siberian region also played an exceptional role during glacial periods. The region that is currently known for its harsh cold climate did not experience major glaciations during the last ice age, including its severest stages around the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). On the contrary, it is thought that glacial summer temperatures were comparable to the present day. However, evidence of glaciation has been found for several older glacial periods. We combine LGM experiments from the second and third phases of the Paleoclimate Modelling Intercomparison Project (PMIP2 and PMIP3) with sensitivity experiments using the Community Earth System Model (CESM). Together, these climate model experiments reveal that the intermodel spread in LGM summer temperatures in Siberia is much larger than in any other region of the globe and suggest that temperatures in Siberia are highly susceptible to changes in the imposed glacial boundary conditions, the included feedbacks and processes, and to the model physics of the different components of the climate model. We find that changes in the circumpolar atmospheric stationary wave pattern and associated northward heat transport drive strong local snow and vegetation feedbacks and that this combination explains the susceptibility of LGM summer temperatures in Siberia. This suggests that a small difference between two glacial periods in terms of climate, ice buildup or their respective evolution towards maximum glacial conditions can lead to strongly divergent summer temperatures in Siberia, allowing for the buildup of an ice sheet during some glacial periods, while during others, above-freezing summer temperatures preclude a multi-year snowpack from forming.

Description: In this paper we introduce a Bayesian framework, which is explicit about prior assumptions, for using model ensembles and observations together to constrain future climate change. The emergent constraint approach has seen broad application in recent years, including studies constraining the equilibrium climate sensitivity (ECS) using the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and the mid-Pliocene Warm Period (mPWP). Most of these studies were based on ordinary least squares (OLS) fits between a variable of the climate state, such as tropical temperature, and climate sensitivity. Using our Bayesian method, and considering the LGM and mPWP separately, we obtain values of ECS of 2.7 K (0.6–5.2, 5th–95th percentiles) using the PMIP2, PMIP3, and PMIP4 datasets for the LGM and 2.3 K (0.5–4.4) with the PlioMIP1 and PlioMIP2 datasets for the mPWP. Restricting the ensembles to include only the most recent version of each model, we obtain 2.7 K (0.7–5.2) using the LGM and 2.3 K (0.4–4.5) using the mPWP. An advantage of the Bayesian framework is that it is possible to combine the two periods assuming they are independent, whereby we obtain a tighter constraint of 2.5 K (0.8–4.0) using the restricted ensemble. We have explored the sensitivity to our assumptions in the method, including considering structural uncertainty, and in the choice of models, and this leads to 95 % probability of climate sensitivity mostly below 5 K and only exceeding 6 K in a single and most uncertain case assuming a large structural uncertainty. The approach is compared with other approaches based on OLS, a Kalman filter method, and an alternative Bayesian method. An interesting implication of this work is that OLS-based emergent constraints on ECS generate tighter uncertainty estimates, in particular at the lower end, an artefact due to a flatter regression line in the case of lack of correlation. Although some fundamental challenges related to the use of emergent constraints remain, this paper provides a step towards a better foundation for their potential use in future probabilistic estimations of climate sensitivity.

Description: Rivers are a major source of nutrients, carbon and alkalinity to the global ocean. In this study, we firstly estimate pre-industrial riverine loads of nutrients, carbon and alkalinity based on a hierarchy of weathering and terrestrial organic matter export models, while identifying regional hotspots of the riverine exports. Secondly, we implement the riverine loads into a global ocean biogeochemical model to describe their implications for oceanic nutrient concentrations, net primary production (NPP) and air–sea CO2 fluxes globally, as well as in an analysis of coastal regions. Thirdly, we quantitatively assess the terrestrial origins and the long-term fate of riverine carbon in the ocean. We quantify annual bioavailable pre-industrial riverine loads of 3.7 Tg P, 27 Tg N, 158 Tg Si and 603 Tg C delivered to the ocean globally. We thereby identify the tropical Atlantic catchments (20 % of global C), Arctic rivers (9 % of global C) and Southeast Asian rivers (15 % of global C) as dominant suppliers of carbon for the ocean. The riverine exports lead to a simulated net global oceanic CO2 source of 231 Tg C yr−1 to the atmosphere, which is mainly caused by inorganic carbon (source of 183 Tg C yr−1) and by organic carbon (source of 128 Tg C yr−1) riverine loads. Additionally, a sink of 80 Tg C yr−1 is caused by the enhancement of the biological carbon uptake from dissolved inorganic nutrient inputs from rivers and the resulting alkalinity production. While large outgassing fluxes are simulated mostly in proximity to major river mouths, substantial outgassing fluxes can be found further offshore, most prominently in the tropical Atlantic. Furthermore, we find evidence for the interhemispheric transfer of carbon in the model; we detect a larger relative outgassing flux (49 % of global riverine-induced outgassing) in the Southern Hemisphere in comparison to the hemisphere's relative riverine inputs (33 % of global C inputs), as well as an outgassing flux of 17 Tg C yr−1 in the Southern Ocean. The addition of riverine loads in the model leads to a strong NPP increase in the tropical west Atlantic, Bay of Bengal and the East China Sea (+166 %, +377 % and +71 %, respectively). On the light-limited Arctic shelves, the NPP is not strongly sensitive to riverine loads, but the CO2 flux is strongly altered regionally due to substantial dissolved inorganic and organic carbon supplies to the region. While our study confirms that the ocean circulation remains the main driver for biogeochemical distributions in the open ocean, it reveals the necessity to consider riverine inputs for the representation of heterogeneous features in the coastal ocean and to represent riverine-induced pre-industrial carbon outgassing in the ocean. It also underlines the need to consider long-term CO2 sources from volcanic and shale oxidation fluxes in order to close the framework's atmospheric carbon budget.

Description: Southern hemisphere lower stratospheric ozone depletion has been shown to lead to a poleward shift of the tropospheric jet stream during austral summer, influencing surface atmosphere and ocean conditions, such as surface temperatures and sea ice extent. The characteristics of stratospheric and tropospheric responses to ozone depletion, however, differ largely among climate models depending on the representation of ozone in the models. The most accurate way to represent ozone in a model is to calculate it interactively. However, due to computational costs, in particular for long-term coupled ocean-atmosphere model integrations, the more common way is to prescribe ozone from observations or calculated model fields. Here, we investigate the difference between an interactive and a specified chemistry version of the same atmospheric model in a fully-coupled setup using a 9-member chemistry-climate model ensemble. In the specified chemistry version of the model the ozone fields are prescribed using the output from the interactive chemistry model version. In contrast to earlier studies, we use daily-resolved ozone fields in the specified chemistry simulations to achieve a better comparability between the ozone forcing with and without interactive chemistry. We find that although the short-wave heating rate trend in response to ozone depletion is the same in the different chemistry settings, the interactive chemistry ensemble shows a stronger trend in polar cap stratospheric temperatures (by about 0.7 K per decade) and circumpolar stratospheric zonal mean zonal winds (by about 1.6 m/s per decade) as compared to the specified chemistry ensemble. This difference between interactive and specified chemistry in the stratospheric response to ozone depletion also affects the tropospheric response, namely the poleward shift of the tropospheric jet stream. We attribute part of these differences to the missing representation of feedbacks between chemistry and dynamics in the specified chemistry ensemble, which affect the dynamical heating rates, and part of it to the lack of spatial asymmetries in the prescribed ozone fields. This effect is investigated using a sensitivity ensemble that was forced by a three-dimensional instead of a two–dimensional ozone field. This study emphasizes the value of interactive chemistry for the representation of the southern hemisphere tropospheric jet response to ozone depletion and infers that for periods with strong ozone variability (trends) the details of the ozone forcing can be crucial for representing southern hemispheric climate variability.

Description: Morphological changes in coccoliths, tiny calcite platelets covering the outer surface of coccolithophores, can be induced by physiological responses to environmental changes. Coccoliths recovered from sedimentary successions may therefore provide information on paleo-environmental conditions prevailing at the time when the coccolithophores were alive. To calibrate the biomineralization responses of ancient coccolithophore to environmental changes, studies often compared the biological responses of living coccolithophore species with paleo-data from calcareous nannofossils. However, there is uncertainty whether the morphological responses of living coccolithophores are representative of those of the fossilized ancestors. To investigate this, we exposed four living coccolithophore species (Emiliania huxleyi, Gephyrocapsa oceanica, Coccolithus pelagicus subsp. braarudii, and Pleurochrysis carterae) that have been evolutionarily distinct for hundreds of thousands to millions of years, to a range of environmental conditions (i.e., changing light intensity, Mg∕Ca ratio, nutrient availability, temperature, and carbonate chemistry) and evaluated their responses in coccolith morphology (i.e., size, length, width, malformation). The motivation for this study was to test if there is a consistent morphological response of the four species to changes in any of the tested abiotic environmental factors. If this was the case, then this could suggest that coccolith morphology can serve as a paleo-proxy for that specific factor because this response is conserved across species that have been evolutionary distinct over geological timescales. However, we found that the four species responded differently to changing light intensity, Mg∕Ca ratio, nutrient availability, and temperature in terms of coccolith morphology. The lack of a common response reveals the difficulties in using coccolith morphology as a paleo-proxy for these environmental drivers. However, a common response was observed under changing seawater carbonate chemistry (i.e., rising CO2), which consistently induced malformations. This commonality provides some confidence that malformations found in the sedimentary record could be indicative of adverse carbonate chemistry conditions.

Description: An optimized method is presented to determine dissolved free (DFCHO) and dissolved combined carbohydrates (DCCHO) in saline matrices, such as oceanic seawater, Arctic ice core samples or brine using a combination of a desalination with electro-dialysis (ED) and high-performance anion exchange chromatography coupled to pulsed amperometric detection (HPAEC-PAD). Free neutral sugars, such as glucose and galactose, were found with 95 %–98 % recovery rates. Free amino sugars and free uronic acids were strongly depleted during ED at pH=8, but an adjustment of the pH could result in higher recoveries (58 %–59 % for amino sugars at pH=11; 45 %–49 % for uronic acids at pH=1.5). The applicability of this method for the analysis of DCCHO was evaluated with standard solutions and seawater samples compared with another established desalination method using membrane dialysis. DFCHO in field samples from different regions on Earth ranged between 11 and 118 nM and DCCHO between 260 and 1410 nM. This novel method has the potential to contribute to a better understanding of biogeochemical processes in the oceans and sea–air transfer processes of organic matter into the atmosphere in future studies.

Description: The Labrador Sea is important for the modern global thermohaline circulation system through the formation of intermediate Labrador Sea Water (LSW) that has been hypothesized to stabilize the modern mode of North Atlantic deep-water circulation. The rate of LSW formation is controlled by the amount of winter heat loss to the atmosphere, the expanse of freshwater in the convection region and the inflow of saline waters from the Atlantic. The Labrador Sea, today, receives freshwater through the East and West Greenland currents (EGC, WGC) and the Labrador Current (LC). Several studies have suggested the WGC to be the main supplier of freshwater to the Labrador Sea, but the role of the southward flowing LC in Labrador Sea convection is still debated. At the same time, many paleoceanographic reconstructions from the Labrador Shelf focussed on late deglacial to early Holocene meltwater run-off from the Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS), whereas little information exists about LC variability since the final melting of the LIS about 7000 years ago. In order to enable better assessment of the role of the LC in deep-water formation and its importance for Holocene climate variability in Atlantic Canada, this study presents high-resolution middle to late Holocene records of sea surface and bottom water temperatures, freshening, and sea ice cover on the Labrador Shelf during the last 6000 years. Our records reveal that the LC underwent three major oceanographic phases from the mid- to late Holocene. From 6.2 to 5.6 ka, the LC experienced a cold episode that was followed by warmer conditions between 5.6 and 2.1 ka, possibly associated with the late Holocene thermal maximum. While surface waters on the Labrador Shelf cooled gradually after 3 ka in response to the neoglaciation, Labrador Shelf subsurface or bottom waters show a shift to warmer temperatures after 2.1 ka. Although such an inverse stratification by cooling of surface and warming of subsurface waters on the Labrador Shelf would suggest a diminished convection during the last 2 millennia compared to the mid-Holocene, it remains difficult to assess whether hydrographic conditions in the LC have had a significant impact on Labrador Sea deep-water formation.

Description: Nowadays various methods and sensors are available for 3D reconstruction tasks; however, it is still necessary to integrate advantages of different technologies for optimizing the quality 3D models. Computed tomography (CT) is an imaging technique which takes a large number of radiographic measurements from different angles, in order to generate slices of the object, however, without colour information. The aim of this study is to put forward a framework to extract colour information from photogrammetric images for corresponding Computed Tomography (CT) surface data with high precision. The 3D models of the same object from CT and photogrammetry methods are generated respectively, and a transformation matrix is determined to align the extracted CT surface to the photogrammetric point cloud through a coarse-to-fine registration process. The estimated pose information of images to the photogrammetric point clouds, which can be obtained from the standard image alignment procedure, also applies to the aligned CT surface data. For each camera pose, a depth image of CT data is calculated by projecting all the CT points to the image plane. The depth image is in principle should agree with the corresponding photogrammetric image. The points, which cannot be seen from the pose, but are also projected on the depth image, are excluded from the colouring process. This is realized by comparing the range values of neighbouring pixels and finding the corresponding 3D points with larger range values. The same procedure is implemented for all the image poses to obtain the coloured CT surface. Thus, by using photogrammetric images, we achieve a coloured CT dataset with high precision, which combines the advantages from both methods. Rather than simply stitching different data, we deep-dive into the photogrammetric 3D reconstruction process and optimize the CT data with colour information. This process can also provide an initial route and more options for other data fusion processes.

Description: The coastal ocean is strongly affected by ocean acidification because of its shallow water depths, low volume, and the closeness to terrestrial dynamics. Earlier observations of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and total alkalinity (TA) in the southern part of the North Sea, a northwest European shelf sea, revealed lower acidification effects than expected. It has been assumed that anaerobic degradation and subsequent TA release in the adjacent back-barrier tidal areas (Wadden Sea) in summertime is responsible for this phenomenon. In this study the exchange rates of TA and DIC between the Wadden Sea tidal basins and the North Sea and the consequences for the carbonate system in the German Bight are estimated using a 3D ecosystem model. The aim of this study is to differentiate the various sources contributing to observed high summer TA in the southern North Sea. Measured TA and DIC in the Wadden Sea are considered as model boundary conditions. This procedure acknowledges the dynamic behaviour of the Wadden Sea as an area of effective production and decomposition of organic material. According to the modelling results, 39 Gmol TA yr−1 were exported from the Wadden Sea into the North Sea, which is less than a previous estimate but within a comparable range. The interannual variabilities in TA and DIC, mainly driven by hydrodynamic conditions, were examined for the years 2001–2009. Dynamics in the carbonate system are found to be related to specific weather conditions. The results suggest that the Wadden Sea is an important driver for the carbonate system in the southern North Sea. On average 41 % of TA inventory changes in the German Bight were caused by riverine input, 37 % by net transport from adjacent North Sea sectors, 16 % by Wadden Sea export, and 6 % were caused by internal net production of TA. The dominant role of river input for the TA inventory disappears when focusing on TA concentration changes due to the corresponding freshwater fluxes diluting the marine TA concentrations. The ratio of exported TA versus DIC reflects the dominant underlying biogeochemical processes in the Wadden Sea. Whereas aerobic degradation of organic matter played a key role in the North Frisian Wadden Sea during all seasons of the year, anaerobic degradation of organic matter dominated in the East Frisian Wadden Sea. Despite the scarcity of high-resolution field data, it is shown that anaerobic degradation in the Wadden Sea is one of the main contributors of elevated summer TA values in the southern North Sea.

Description: Eastern boundary upwelling systems (EBUS) are among the most productive marine ecosystems on Earth. The production of organic material is fueled by upwelling of nutrient-rich deep waters and high incident light at the sea surface. However, biotic and abiotic factors can modify surface production and related biogeochemical processes. Determining these factors is important because EBUS are considered hotspots of climate change, and reliable predictions of their future functioning requires understanding of the mechanisms driving the biogeochemical cycles therein. In this field experiment, we used in situ mesocosms as tools to improve our mechanistic understanding of processes controlling organic matter cycling in the coastal Peruvian upwelling system. Eight mesocosms, each with a volume of ∼55 m3, were deployed for 50 d ∼6 km off Callao (12∘ S) during austral summer 2017, coinciding with a coastal El Niño phase. After mesocosm deployment, we collected subsurface waters at two different locations in the regional oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) and injected these into four mesocosms (mixing ratio ≈1.5 : 1 mesocosm: OMZ water). The focus of this paper is on temporal developments of organic matter production, export, and stoichiometry in the individual mesocosms. The mesocosm phytoplankton communities were initially dominated by diatoms but shifted towards a pronounced dominance of the mixotrophic dinoflagellate (Akashiwo sanguinea) when inorganic nitrogen was exhausted in surface layers. The community shift coincided with a short-term increase in production during the A. sanguinea bloom, which left a pronounced imprint on organic matter C : N : P stoichiometry. However, C, N, and P export fluxes did not increase because A. sanguinea persisted in the water column and did not sink out during the experiment. Accordingly, export fluxes during the study were decoupled from surface production and sustained by the remaining plankton community. Overall, biogeochemical pools and fluxes were surprisingly constant for most of the experiment. We explain this constancy by light limitation through self-shading by phytoplankton and by inorganic nitrogen limitation which constrained phytoplankton growth. Thus, gain and loss processes remained balanced and there were few opportunities for blooms, which represents an event where the system becomes unbalanced. Overall, our mesocosm study revealed some key links between ecological and biogeochemical processes for one of the most economically important regions in the oceans.

Description: We present a new framework for global ocean- sea-ice model simulations based on phase 2 of the Ocean Model Intercomparison Project (OMIP-2), making use of the surface dataset based on the Japanese 55-year atmospheric reanalysis for driving ocean-sea-ice models (JRA55-do).We motivate the use of OMIP-2 over the framework for the first phase of OMIP (OMIP-1), previously referred to as the Coordinated Ocean-ice Reference Experiments (COREs), via the evaluation of OMIP-1 and OMIP-2 simulations from 11 state-of-the-science global ocean-sea-ice models. In the present evaluation, multi-model ensemble means and spreads are calculated separately for the OMIP-1 and OMIP-2 simulations and overall performance is assessed considering metrics commonly used by ocean modelers. Both OMIP-1 and OMIP-2 multi-model ensemble ranges capture observations in more than 80% of the time and region for most metrics, with the multi-model ensemble spread greatly exceeding the difference between the means of the two datasets. Many features, including some climatologically relevant ocean circulation indices, are very similar between OMIP-1 and OMIP- 2 simulations, and yet we could also identify key qualitative improvements in transitioning from OMIP-1 to OMIP- 2. For example, the sea surface temperatures of the OMIP- 2 simulations reproduce the observed global warming during the 1980s and 1990s, as well as the warming slowdown in the 2000s and the more recent accelerated warming, which were absent in OMIP-1, noting that the last feature is part of the design of OMIP-2 because OMIP-1 forcing stopped in 2009. A negative bias in the sea-ice concentration in summer of both hemispheres in OMIP-1 is significantly reduced in OMIP-2. The overall reproducibility of both seasonal and interannual variations in sea surface temperature and sea surface height (dynamic sea level) is improved in OMIP-2. These improvements represent a new capability of the OMIP-2 framework for evaluating processlevel responses using simulation results. Regarding the sensitivity of individual models to the change in forcing, the models show well-ordered responses for the metrics that are directly forced, while they show less organized responses for those that require complex model adjustments. Many of the remaining common model biases may be attributed either to errors in representing important processes in ocean-sea-ice models, some of which are expected to be reduced by using finer horizontal and/or vertical resolutions, or to shared biases and limitations in the atmospheric forcing. In particular, further efforts are warranted to resolve remaining issues in OMIP-2 such as the warm bias in the upper layer, the mismatch between the observed and simulated variability of heat content and thermosteric sea level before 1990s, and the erroneous representation of deep and bottom water formations and circulations. We suggest that such problems can be resolved through collaboration between those developing models (including parameterizations) and forcing datasets. Overall, the present assessment justifies our recommendation that future model development and analysis studies use the OMIP-2 framework.

Description: Publications on temperate deciduous tree refugia in Europe are abundant, but little is known about the patterns of temperate tree refugia in eastern Asia, an area where biodiversity survived Quaternary glaciations and which has the world's most diverse temperate flora. Our goal is to compare climate model simulations with pollen data in order to establish the location of glacial refugia during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Limits in which temperate deciduous trees can survive are taken from the literature. The model outputs are first tested for the present by comparing climate models with published modern pollen data. As this method turned out to be satisfactory for the present, the same approach was used for the LGM. Climate model simulations (ECHAM5 T106), statistically further downscaled, are used to infer the temperate deciduous tree distribution during the LGM. These were compared with available fossil temperate tree pollen occurrences. The impact of the LGM on the eastern Asian climate was much weaker than on the European climate. The area of possible tree growth shifts only by about 2∘ to the south between the present and the LGM. This contributes to explaining the greater biodiversity of forests in eastern Asia compared to Europe. Climate simulations and the available, although fractional, fossil pollen data agree. Therefore, climate estimations can safely be used to fill areas without pollen data by mapping potential refugia distributions. The results show two important areas with population connectivity: the Yellow Sea emerged shelf and the southern Himalayas. These two areas were suitable for temperate deciduous tree growth, providing corridors for population migration and connectivity (i.e. less population fragmentation) in glacial periods. Many tree populations live in interglacial refugia, not glacial ones. The fact that the model simulation for the LGM fits so well with observed pollen distribution is another indication that the model used is good enough to also simulate the LGM period.

Description: Lipids, in their function as trophic markers in food webs and organic matter source indicators in the water column and sediments, provide a tool for reconstructing the complexity of global change effects on aquatic ecosystems. It remains unclear how ongoing changes in multiple environmental drivers affect the production of key lipid biomarkers in marine phytoplankton. Here, we tested the responses of sterols, alkenones and fatty acids (FAs) in the diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum, the cryptophyte Rhodomonas sp. and the haptophyte Emiliania huxleyi under a full-factorial combination of three temperatures (12, 18 and 24 ∘C), three N : P supply ratios (molar ratios 10 : 1, 24 : 1 and 63 : 1) and two pCO2 levels (560 and 2400 µatm) in semicontinuous culturing experiments. Overall, N and P deficiency had a stronger effect on per-cell contents of sterols, alkenones and FAs than warming and enhanced pCO2. Specifically, P deficiency caused an overall increase in biomarker production in most cases, while N deficiency, warming and high pCO2 caused nonsystematic changes. Under future ocean scenarios, we predict an overall decrease in carbon-normalized contents of sterols and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) in E. huxleyi and P. tricornutum and a decrease in sterols but an increase in PUFAs in Rhodomonas sp. Variable contents of lipid biomarkers indicate a diverse carbon allocation between marine phytoplankton species in response to changing environments. Thus, it is necessary to consider the changes in key lipids and their consequences for food-web dynamics and biogeochemical cycles, when predicting the influence of global change on marine ecosystems.

Description: The gridded sea ice thickness (SIT) climate data record (CDR) produced by the European Space Agency (ESA) Sea Ice Climate Change Initiative Phase 2 (CCI-2) is the longest available, Arctic-wide SIT record covering the period from 2002 to 2017. SIT data are based on radar altimetry measurements of sea ice freeboard from the Environmental Satellite (ENVISAT) and CryoSat-2 (CS2). The CCI-2 SIT has previously been validated with in situ observations from drilling, airborne remote sensing, electromagnetic (EM) measurements and upward-looking sonars (ULSs) from multiple ice-covered regions of the Arctic. Here we present the Laptev Sea CCI-2 SIT record from 2002 to 2017 and use newly acquired ULS and upward-looking acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) sea ice draft (VAL) data for validation of the gridded CCI-2 and additional satellite SIT products. The ULS and ADCP time series provide the first long-term satellite SIT validation data set from this important source region of sea ice in the Transpolar Drift. The comparison of VAL sea ice draft data with gridded monthly mean and orbit trajectory CCI-2 data, as well as merged CryoSat-2–SMOS (CS2SMOS) sea ice draft, shows that the agreement between the satellite and VAL draft data strongly depends on the thickness of the sampled ice. Rather than providing mean sea ice draft, the considered satellite products provide modal sea ice draft in the Laptev Sea. Ice drafts thinner than 0.7 m are overestimated, while drafts thicker than approximately 1.3 m are increasingly underestimated by all satellite products investigated for this study. The tendency of the satellite SIT products to better agree with modal sea ice draft and underestimate thicker ice needs to be considered for all past and future investigations into SIT changes in this important region. The performance of the CCI-2 SIT CDR is considered stable over time; however, observed trends in gridded CCI-2 SIT are strongly influenced by the uncertainties of ENVISAT and CS2 and the comparably short investigation period.

Description: There has been a steady increase in interest in mining of deep-sea minerals in the Clarion–Clipperton Zone (CCZ) in the eastern Pacific Ocean during the last decade. This region is known to be one of the most eddy-rich regions in the world ocean. Typically, mesoscale eddies are generated by intense wind bursts channeled through gaps in the Sierra Madre mountains in Central America. Here, we use a combination of satellite and in situ observations to evaluate the relationship between deep-sea current variability in the region of potential future mining and eddy kinetic energy (EKE) in the vicinity of gap winds. A geometry-based eddy detection algorithm has been applied to altimetry sea surface height data for a period of 24 years, from 1993 to 2016, in order to analyze the main characteristic parameters and the spatiotemporal variability of mesoscale eddies in the northeast tropical Pacific Ocean (NETP). Significant differences between the characteristics of eddies with different polarity (cyclonic vs. anticyclonic) were found. For eddies with lifetimes longer than 1 d, cyclonic polarity is more common than anticyclonic rotation. However, anticyclonic eddies are larger in size, show stronger vorticity, and survive longer in the ocean than cyclonic eddies (often 90 d or more). Besides the polarity of eddies, the location of eddy formation should be taken into consideration when investigating the impacted deep-ocean region as we found eddies originating from the Tehuantepec (TT) gap winds lasting longer in the ocean and traveling farther distances in a different direction compared to eddies produced by the Papagayo (PP) gap winds. Long-lived anticyclonic eddies generated by the TT gap winds are observed to travel distances up to 4500 km offshore, i.e., as far as west of 110∘ W. EKE anomalies observed in the surface of the central ocean at distances of ca. 2500 km from the coast correlate with the seasonal variability of EKE in the region of the TT gap winds with a time lag of 5–6 months. A significant seasonal variability of deep-ocean current velocities at water depths of 4100 m was observed in multiple-year time series data, likely reflecting the energy transfer of the surface EKE generated by the gap winds to the deep ocean. Furthermore, the influence of mesoscale eddies on deep-ocean currents is examined by analyzing the deep-ocean current measurements when an anticyclonic eddy crosses the study region. Our findings suggest that despite the significant modulation of dominant current directions driven by the bottom-reaching eddy, the current magnitude intensification was not strong enough to trigger local sediment resuspension in this region. A better insight into the annual variability of ocean surface mesoscale activity in the CCZ and its effects on deep-ocean current variability can be of great help to mitigate the impact of future potential deep-sea mining activities on the benthic ecosystem. On an interannual scale, a significant relationship between cyclonic eddy characteristics and El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) was found, whereas a weaker correlation was detected for anticyclonic eddies.

Description: Understanding and quantifying the global methane (CH4) budget is important for assessing realistic pathways to mitigate climate change. Atmospheric emissions and concentrations of CH4 continue to increase, making CH4 the second most important human-influenced greenhouse gas in terms of climate forcing, after carbon dioxide (CO2). The relative importance of CH4 compared to CO2 depends on its shorter atmospheric lifetime, stronger warming potential, and variations in atmospheric growth rate over the past decade, the causes of which are still debated. Two major challenges in reducing uncertainties in the atmospheric growth rate arise from the variety of geographically overlapping CH4 sources and from the destruction of CH4 by short-lived hydroxyl radicals (OH). To address these challenges, we have established a consortium of multidisciplinary scientists under the umbrella of the Global Carbon Project to synthesize and stimulate new research aimed at improving and regularly updating the global methane budget. Following Saunois et al. (2016), we present here the second version of the living review paper dedicated to the decadal methane budget, integrating results of top-down studies (atmospheric observations within an atmospheric inverse-modelling framework) and bottom-up estimates (including process-based models for estimating land surface emissions and atmospheric chemistry, inventories of anthropogenic emissions, and data-driven extrapolations). For the 2008–2017 decade, global methane emissions are estimated by atmospheric inversions (a top-down approach) to be 576 Tg CH4 yr−1 (range 550–594, corresponding to the minimum and maximum estimates of the model ensemble). Of this total, 359 Tg CH4 yr−1 or ∼ 60 % is attributed to anthropogenic sources, that is emissions caused by direct human activity (i.e. anthropogenic emissions; range 336–376 Tg CH4 yr−1 or 50 %–65 %). The mean annual total emission for the new decade (2008–2017) is 29 Tg CH4 yr−1 larger than our estimate for the previous decade (2000–2009), and 24 Tg CH4 yr−1 larger than the one reported in the previous budget for 2003–2012 (Saunois et al., 2016). Since 2012, global CH4 emissions have been tracking the warmest scenarios assessed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Bottom-up methods suggest almost 30 % larger global emissions (737 Tg CH4 yr−1, range 594–881) than top-down inversion methods. Indeed, bottom-up estimates for natural sources such as natural wetlands, other inland water systems, and geological sources are higher than top-down estimates. The atmospheric constraints on the top-down budget suggest that at least some of these bottom-up emissions are overestimated. The latitudinal distribution of atmospheric observation-based emissions indicates a predominance of tropical emissions (∼ 65 % of the global budget, 〈 30∘ N) compared to mid-latitudes (∼ 30 %, 30–60∘ N) and high northern latitudes (∼ 4 %, 60–90∘ N). The most important source of uncertainty in the methane budget is attributable to natural emissions, especially those from wetlands and other inland waters. Some of our global source estimates are smaller than those in previously published budgets (Saunois et al., 2016; Kirschke et al., 2013). In particular wetland emissions are about 35 Tg CH4 yr−1 lower due to improved partition wetlands and other inland waters. Emissions from geological sources and wild animals are also found to be smaller by 7 Tg CH4 yr−1 by 8 Tg CH4 yr−1, respectively. However, the overall discrepancy between bottom-up and top-down estimates has been reduced by only 5 % compared to Saunois et al. (2016), due to a higher estimate of emissions from inland waters, highlighting the need for more detailed research on emissions factors. Priorities for improving the methane budget include (i) a global, high-resolution map of water-saturated soils and inundated areas emitting methane based on a robust classification of different types of emitting habitats; (ii) further development of process-based models for inland-water emissions; (iii) intensification of methane observations at local scales (e.g., FLUXNET-CH4 measurements) and urban-scale monitoring to constrain bottom-up land surface models, and at regional scales (surface networks and satellites) to constrain atmospheric inversions; (iv) improvements of transport models and the representation of photochemical sinks in top-down inversions; and (v) development of a 3D variational inversion system using isotopic and/or co-emitted species such as ethane to improve source partitioning.

Description: Reconstructions of global hydroclimate during the Common Era (CE; the past ∼2000 years) are important for providing context for current and future global environmental change. Stable isotope ratios in water are quantitative indicators of hydroclimate on regional to global scales, and these signals are encoded in a wide range of natural geologic archives. Here we present the Iso2k database, a global compilation of previously published datasets from a variety of natural archives that record the stable oxygen (δ18O) or hydrogen (δ2H) isotopic compositions of environmental waters, which reflect hydroclimate changes over the CE. The Iso2k database contains 759 isotope records from the terrestrial and marine realms, including glacier and ground ice (210); speleothems (68); corals, sclerosponges, and mollusks (143); wood (81); lake sediments and other terrestrial sediments (e.g., loess) (158); and marine sediments (99). Individual datasets have temporal resolutions ranging from sub-annual to centennial and include chronological data where available. A fundamental feature of the database is its comprehensive metadata, which will assist both experts and nonexperts in the interpretation of each record and in data synthesis. Key metadata fields have standardized vocabularies to facilitate comparisons across diverse archives and with climate-model-simulated fields. This is the first global-scale collection of water isotope proxy records from multiple types of geological and biological archives. It is suitable for evaluating hydroclimate processes through time and space using large-scale synthesis, model–data intercomparison and (paleo)data assimilation. The Iso2k database is available for download at https://doi.org/10.25921/57j8-vs18 (Konecky and McKay, 2020) and is also accessible via the NOAA/WDS Paleo Data landing page: https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/study/29593 (last access: 30 July 2020).

Description: With the mining of polymetallic nodules from the deep-sea seafloor once more evoking commercial interest, decisions must be taken on how to most efficiently regulate and monitor physical and community disturbance in these remote ecosystems. Image-based approaches allow non-destructive assessment of the abundance of larger fauna to be derived from survey data, with repeat surveys of areas possible to allow time series data collection. At the time of writing, key underwater imaging platforms commonly used to map seafloor fauna abundances are autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) and towed camera “ocean floor observation systems” (OFOSs). These systems are highly customisable, with cameras, illumination sources and deployment protocols changing rapidly, even during a survey cruise. In this study, eight image datasets were collected from a discrete area of polymetallic-nodule-rich seafloor by an AUV and several OFOSs deployed at various altitudes above the seafloor. A fauna identification catalogue was used by five annotators to estimate the abundances of 20 fauna categories from the different datasets. Results show that, for many categories of megafauna, differences in image resolution greatly influenced the estimations of fauna abundance determined by the annotators. This is an important finding for the development of future monitoring legislation for these areas. When and if commercial exploitation of these marine resources commences, robust and verifiable standards which incorporate developing technological advances in camera-based monitoring surveys should be key to developing appropriate management regulations for these regions.

Description: Sediments in oxygen-depleted marine environments can be an important sink or source of bio-essential trace metals in the ocean. However, the key mechanisms controlling the release from or burial of trace metals in sediments are not exactly understood. Here, we investigate the benthic biogeochemical cycling of Fe and Cd in the oxygen minimum zone off Peru. We combine bottom water profiles, pore water profiles, as well as benthic fluxes determined from pore water profiles and in-situ from benthic chamber incubations along a depth transect at 12° S. In agreement with previous studies, both concentration-depth profiles and in-situ benthic fluxes indicate a Fe release from sediments into bottom waters. Diffusive Fe fluxes and Fe fluxes from benthic chamber incubations are roughly consistent (0.3–17.1 mmol m−2 y−1), indicating that diffusion is the main transport mechanism of dissolved Fe across the sediment-water interface. The occurrence of mats of sulfur oxidizing bacteria on the seafloor represents an important control on the spatial distribution of Fe fluxes by regulating hydrogen sulfide (H2S) concentrations and, potentially, Fe sulfide precipitation within the surface sediment. Removal of dissolved Fe after its release to anoxic bottom waters is rapid in the first 4 m away from the seafloor (half-life 〈 3 min) which hints to oxidative removal by nitrite or interaction with particles in the benthic boundary layer. Benthic flux estimates of Cd are indicative of a flux into the sediment within the oxygen minimum zone. Fluxes from benthic chamber incubations (up to 22.6 µmol m−2 y−1) exceed the diffusive fluxes (〈 1 µmol m−2 y−1) by a factor 〉 25, indicating that downward diffusion of Cd across the sediment-water interface is of subordinate importance for Cd removal from benthic chambers. As Cd removal in benthic chambers co-varies with H2S concentrations in the pore water of surface sediments, we argue that Cd removal is mediated by precipitation of CdS within the chamber. A mass balance approach, taking into account the contributions of diffusive fluxes and fluxes measured in benthic chambers as well as Cd delivery with organic material suggests that CdS precipitation in the near-bottom water could make an important contribution to the overall Cd mass accumulation in the sediment solid phase. According to our results, the solubility of trace metal sulfide minerals (Cd 〈〈 Fe) is a key-factor controlling trace metal removal and consequently the magnitude as well as the temporal and spatial heterogeneity of sedimentary fluxes. We argue that depending on their sulfide solubility, sedimentary source or sink fluxes of trace metals will change differentially as a result of declining oxygen concentrations and an associated expansion of sulfidic surface sediments. Such a trend could cause a change in the trace metal stoichiometry of upwelling water masses with potential consequences for marine ecosystems in the surface ocean.

Description: Oceanic Anoxic Events (OAEs) document major perturbations of the global carbon cycle with repercussions on the Earth’s climate and ocean circulation that are relevant to understand future climate trends. Here, we compare sedimentation patterns, nutrient cycling, organic carbon accumulation and carbon isotope variability across Cretaceous Oceanic Anoxic Events OAE1a and OAE2 in two drill cores with unusually high sedimentation rates from the Vocontian Basin (southern France) and Tarfaya Basin (southern Morocco). OAE1a and OAE2 exhibit remarkable similarities in the evolution of their δ13C excursion with long-lasting negative carbon isotope excursions preceding the onset of both anoxic events, supporting the view that OAEs were triggered by massive emissions of volcanic CO2 into the atmosphere. Based on analysis of cyclic sediment variations, we estimated the duration of the individual phases within the carbon isotope excursions. For both events, we identify: (1) a precursor phase lasting ~ 430 kyr and ~ 130 kyr, (2) an onset phase of ~ 390 and ~ 70 kyr, (3) a peak phase of ~ 600 and ~ 90 kyr, (4) a plateau phase of ~ 1400 and ~ 200 kyr and (5) a recovery phase of ~ 630 and ~ 440 kyr, respectively. The total duration of the positive carbon isotope excursion is estimated as 3400 kyr and 790 kyr and that of the main carbon accumulation phase as 980 kyr and 180 kyr, for OAE1a and OAE 2 respectively. The extended duration of the peak, plateau and recovery phases requires fundamental changes in global nutrient cycles either (1) through excess nutrient inputs to the oceans by increasing continental weathering and river discharge or (2) through nutrient-recycling from the marine sediment reservoir. We investigated the role of phosphorus on the development of carbon accumulation by analysing phosphorus speciation across OAE2 and the mid-Cenomanian Event (MCE) in the Tarfaya Basin. The ratios of organic carbon and total nitrogen to reactive phosphorus (Corg/Preact and Ntotal/Preact) prior to OAE2 and the MCE hover close to or below the Redfield ratio characteristic of marine organic matter. Decreases in reactive phosphorus resulting in Corg/Preact and Ntotal/Preact above the Redfield ratio during the later phase of OAE2 and the MCE indicate leakage from the sedimentary column into the water column under the influence of intensified and expanded oxygen minimum zones. These results suggest that a positive feedback loop, rooted in the benthic phosphorus cycle, contributed to increased marine productivity and carbon burial over an extended period of time during OAEs.

Description: Controlled manipulation of environmental conditions within large enclosures in the ocean, so-called pelagic mesocosms, has become a standard method to explore potential responses of marine plankton communities to anthropogenic change. Among the challenges of interpreting mesocosm data is the often uncertain role of vertical mixing, which usually is not observed directly. To account for mixing nonetheless, two pragmatic assumptions are common: either that the water column is homogeneously mixed or that it is divided into two water bodies with a horizontal barrier inhibiting turbulent exchange. In this study, we present a model-based reanalysis of vertical turbulent diffusion in the mesocosm experiments PeECE III and KOSMOS 2013. Our diffusivity estimates indicate intermittent mixing events along with stagnating periods and yield simulated temperature and salinity profiles that are consistent with the observations. Here, we provide the respective diffusivities as a comprehensive data product in the Network Common Data Format (NetCDF). This data product will help to guide forthcoming model studies that aim at deepening our understanding of biogeochemical processes in the PeECE III and KOSMOS 2013 mesocosms, such as the CO2-related changes in marine carbon export. In addition, we make our model code available, providing an adjustable tool to simulate vertical mixing in any other pelagic mesocosm. The data product and the model code are available at https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.905311 (Mathesius et al., 2019).

Description: Due to its accurate and precise character, spectrophotometric pH detection is a common technique applied in measurement methods for carbonate system parameters. However, impurities in the used pH indicator dyes can influence the measurements quality. During our work described here, we focused on impacts of impurities in the pH indicator dye bromocresol green (BCG) on spectrophotometric seawater total alkalinity (AT) measurements. In order to evaluate the extent of such influences, purified BCG served as a reference. First, a high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) purification method for BCG was developed as such a method did not exist at the time of this study. An analysis of BCG dye from four different vendors with this method revealed different types and quantities of impurities. After successful purification, AT measurements with purified and unpurified BCG were carried out using the novel autonomous analyzer CONTROS HydroFIA® TA. Long-term measurements in the laboratory revealed a direct influence of impurity types and quantities on the drift behavior of the analyzer. The purer the BCG, the smaller was the AT increase per measurement. The observed drift is generally caused by deposits in the optical pathway mainly generated by the impurities. However, the analyzers drift behavior could not be fully overcome. Furthermore, we could show that a certain impurity type in some indicator dyes changed the drift pattern from linear to nonlinear, which can impair long-term deployments of the system. Consequently, such indicators are impractical for these applications. Laboratory performance characterization experiments revealed no improvement of the measurement quality (precision and bias) by using purified BCG as long as the impurities of the unpurified dye do not exceed a quantity of 2 % (relationship of peak areas in the chromatogram). However, BCG with impurity quantities higher than 6 % provided AT values which failed fundamental quality requirements. In conclusion, to gain optimal AT measurements especially during long-term deployments, an indicator purification is not necessarily required as long as the purchased dye has a purity level of at least 98 % and is free of the named impurity type. Consequently, high-quality AT measurements do not require pure but the purest BCG that is purchasable.

Description: Accurate estimates of past global mean surface temperature (GMST) help to contextualise future climate change and are required to estimate the sensitivity of the climate system to CO2 forcing through Earth's history. Previous GMST estimates for the latest Paleocene and early Eocene (∼57 to 48 million years ago) span a wide range (∼9 to 23 ∘C higher than pre-industrial) and prevent an accurate assessment of climate sensitivity during this extreme greenhouse climate interval. Using the most recent data compilations, we employ a multi-method experimental framework to calculate GMST during the three DeepMIP target intervals: (1) the latest Paleocene (∼57 Ma), (2) the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM; 56 Ma), and (3) the early Eocene Climatic Optimum (EECO; 53.3 to 49.1 Ma). Using six different methodologies, we find that the average GMST estimate (66 % confidence) during the latest Paleocene, PETM, and EECO was 26.3 ∘C (22.3 to 28.3 ∘C), 31.6 ∘C (27.2 to 34.5 ∘C), and 27.0 ∘C (23.2 to 29.7 ∘C), respectively. GMST estimates from the EECO are ∼10 to 16 ∘C warmer than pre-industrial, higher than the estimate given by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 5th Assessment Report (9 to 14 ∘C higher than pre-industrial). Leveraging the large “signal” associated with these extreme warm climates, we combine estimates of GMST and CO2 from the latest Paleocene, PETM, and EECO to calculate gross estimates of the average climate sensitivity between the early Paleogene and today. We demonstrate that “bulk” equilibrium climate sensitivity (ECS; 66 % confidence) during the latest Paleocene, PETM, and EECO is 4.5 ∘C (2.4 to 6.8 ∘C), 3.6 ∘C (2.3 to 4.7 ∘C), and 3.1 ∘C (1.8 to 4.4 ∘C) per doubling of CO2. These values are generally similar to those assessed by the IPCC (1.5 to 4.5 ∘C per doubling CO2) but appear incompatible with low ECS values (〈1.5 per doubling CO2).

Description: Butanetriol and pentanetriol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (BDGTs and PDGTs) are membrane lipids, recently discovered in sedimentary environments and in the methanogenic archaeon Methanomassiliicoccus luminyensis. They possess an unusual structure, which challenges fundamental assumptions in lipid biochemistry. Indeed, they bear a butanetriol or a pentanetriol backbone instead of a glycerol at one end of their core structure. In this study, we unambiguously located the additional methyl group of the BDGT compound on the C3 carbon of the lipid backbone via high-field nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) experiments. We further systematically explored the abundance, distribution and isotopic composition of BDGTs and PDGTs as both intact polar and core lipid forms in marine sediments collected in contrasting environments of the Mediterranean Sea and Black Sea. High proportions of intact polar BDGTs and PDGTs in the deeper methane-laden sedimentary layers and relatively C-13-depleted BDGTs, especially in the Rhone Delta and in the Black Sea, are in agreement with a probable methanogenic source for these lipids. However, contributions from heterotrophic Archaea to BDGTs (and PDGTs) cannot be excluded, particularly in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, and contrasting BDGT and PDGT headgroup distribution patterns were observed between the different sites studied. This points to additional, non-methanogenic, archaeal sources for these lipids.

Description: The University of Victoria Earth system climate model of intermediate complexity has been a useful tool in recent assessments of long-term climate changes including paleo-climate modelling. Since the last official release of the UVic ESCM 2.9, and the two official updates during the last decade, a lot of model development has taken place in multiple groups. The new version 2.10 of the University of Victoria Earth System Climate Model (UVic ESCM), to be used in the 6th phase of the coupled model intercomparison project (CMIP6), presented here combines and brings together multiple model developments and new components that have taken place since the last official release of the model. To set the foundation of its use, we here describe the UVic ESCM 2.10 and evaluate results from transient historical simulations against observational data. We find that the UVic ESCM 2.10 is capable of reproducing well changes in historical temperature and carbon fluxes, as well as the spatial distribution of many ocean tracers, including temperature, salinity, phosphate and nitrate. This is connected to a good representation of ocean physical properties. For the moment, there remain biases in ocean alkalinity and dissolved inorganic carbon, which will be addressed in the next updates to the model.

Description: The Bay of Bengal (BoB) has long stood as a biogeochemical enigma, with subsurface waters containing extremely low, but persistent, concentrations of oxygen in the nanomolar range which – for some, yet unconstrained, reason – are prevented from becoming anoxic. One reason for this may be the low productivity of the BoB waters due to nutrient limitation and the resulting lack of respiration of organic material at intermediate waters. Thus, the parameters determining primary production are key in understanding what prevents the BoB from developing anoxia. Primary productivity in the sunlit surface layers of tropical oceans is mostly limited by the supply of reactive nitrogen through upwelling, riverine flux, atmospheric deposition, and biological dinitrogen (N2) fixation. In the BoB, a stable stratification limits nutrient supply via upwelling in the open waters, and riverine or atmospheric fluxes have been shown to support only less than one-quarter of the nitrogen for primary production. This leaves a large uncertainty for most of the BoB's nitrogen input, suggesting a potential role of N2 fixation in those waters. Here, we present a survey of N2 fixation and carbon fixation in the BoB during the winter monsoon season. We detected a community of N2 fixers comparable to other oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) regions, with only a few cyanobacterial clades and a broad diversity of non-phototrophic N2 fixers present throughout the water column (samples collected between 10 and 560 m water depth). While similar communities of N2 fixers were shown to actively fix N2 in other OMZs, N2 fixation rates were below the detection limit in our samples covering the water column between the deep chlorophyll maximum and the OMZ. Consistent with this, no N2 fixation signal was visible in δ15N signatures. We suggest that the absence of N2 fixation may be a consequence of a micronutrient limitation or of an O2 sensitivity of the OMZ diazotrophs in the BoB. Exploring how the onset of N2 fixation by cyanobacteria compared to non-phototrophic N2 fixers would impact on OMZ O2 concentrations, a simple model exercise was carried out. We observed that both photic-zone-based and OMZ-based N2 fixation are very sensitive to even minimal changes in water column stratification, with stronger mixing increasing organic matter production and export, which can exhaust remaining O2 traces in the BoB.

Description: Global biogeochemical ocean models are often tuned to match the observed distributions and fluxes of inorganic and organic quantities. This tuning is typically carried out “by hand”. However, this rather subjective approach might not yield the best fit to observations, is closely linked to the circulation employed and is thus influenced by its specific features and even its faults. We here investigate the effect of model tuning, via objective optimisation, of one biogeochemical model of intermediate complexity when simulated in five different offline circulations. For each circulation, three of six model parameters have been adjusted to characteristic features of the respective circulation. The values of these three parameters – namely, the oxygen utilisation of remineralisation, the particle flux parameter and potential nitrogen fixation rate – correlate significantly with deep mixing and ideal age of North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) and the outcrop area of Antarctic Intermediate Waters (AAIW) and Subantarctic Mode Water (SAMW) in the Southern Ocean. The clear relationship between these parameters and circulation characteristics, which can be easily diagnosed from global models, can provide guidance when tuning global biogeochemistry within any new circulation model. The results from 20 global cross-validation experiments show that parameter sets optimised for a specific circulation can be transferred between similar circulations without losing too much of the model's fit to observed quantities. When compared to model intercomparisons of subjectively tuned, global coupled biogeochemistry–circulation models, each with different circulation and/or biogeochemistry, our results show a much lower range of oxygen inventory, oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) volume and global biogeochemical fluxes. Export production depends to a large extent on the circulation applied, while deep particle flux is mostly determined by the particle flux parameter. Oxygen inventory, OMZ volume, primary production and fixed-nitrogen turnover depend more or less equally on both factors, with OMZ volume showing the highest sensitivity, and residual variability. These results show a beneficial effect of optimisation, even when a biogeochemical model is first optimised in a relatively coarse circulation and then transferred to a different finer-resolution circulation model.

Description: Palaeoclimate data hold the unique promise of providing a long-term perspective on climate change and as such can serve as an important benchmark for climate models. However, palaeoclimate data have generally been archived with insufficient standardisation and metadata to allow for transparent and consistent uncertainty assessment in an automated way. Thanks to improved computation capacity, transient palaeoclimate simulations are now possible, calling for data products containing multi-parameter time series rather than information on a single parameter for a single time slice. Efforts are underway to simulate a complete glacial–interglacial cycle using general circulation models (https://www.palmod.de/, last access: 6 May 2020), and to confront these simulations with palaeoclimate data, we have compiled a multi-parameter marine palaeoclimate data synthesis that contains time series spanning 0 to 130 000 years ago. We present the first version of the data product that focuses exclusively on time series for which a robust chronology based on benthic foraminifera δ18O and radiocarbon dating is available. The product contains 896 time series of eight palaeoclimate parameters from 143 individual sites, each associated with rich metadata, age–depth model ensembles, and information to refine and update the chronologies. This version contains 205 time series of benthic foraminifera δ18O; 169 of benthic foraminifera δ13C; 131 of seawater temperature; 174 and 119 of planktonic foraminifera δ18O and δ13C; and 44, 38 and 16 of carbonate, organic carbon and biogenic silica content, respectively. The data product is available in three formats (R, LiPD and netCDF) facilitating use across different software and operating systems and can be downloaded at https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.908831 (Jonkers et al., 2019). This data descriptor presents our data synthesis strategy and describes the contents and format of the data product in detail. It ends with a set of recommendations for data archiving.

Description: We converted the radiation part of the atmospheric model ECHAM to a single-precision arithmetic. We analyzed different conversion strategies and finally used a step-by-step change in all modules, subroutines and functions. We found out that a small code portion still requires higher-precision arithmetic. We generated code that can be easily changed from double to single precision and vice versa, basically using a simple switch in one module. We compared the output of the single-precision version in the coarse resolution with observational data and with the original double-precision code. The results of both versions are comparable. We extensively tested different parallelization options with respect to the possible runtime reduction, at both coarse and low resolution. The single-precision radiation itself was accelerated by about 40 %, whereas the runtime reduction for the whole ECHAM model using the converted radiation achieved 18 % in the best configuration. We further measured the energy consumption, which could also be reduced.

Description: In September 2019, the research icebreaker Polarstern started the largest multidisciplinary Arctic expedition to date, the MOSAiC (Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate) drift experiment. Being moored to an ice floe for a whole year, thus including the winter season, the declared goal of the expedition is to better understand and quantify relevant processes within the atmosphere–ice–ocean system that impact the sea ice mass and energy budget, ultimately leading to much improved climate models. Satellite observations, atmospheric reanalysis data, and readings from a nearby meteorological station indicate that the interplay of high ice export in late winter and exceptionally high air temperatures resulted in the longest ice-free summer period since reliable instrumental records began. We show, using a Lagrangian tracking tool and a thermodynamic sea ice model, that the MOSAiC floe carrying the Central Observatory (CO) formed in a polynya event north of the New Siberian Islands at the beginning of December 2018. The results further indicate that sea ice in the vicinity of the CO (〈40 km distance) was younger and 36 % thinner than the surrounding ice with potential consequences for ice dynamics and momentum and heat transfer between ocean and atmosphere. Sea ice surveys carried out on various reference floes in autumn 2019 verify this gradient in ice thickness, and sediments discovered in ice cores (so-called dirty sea ice) around the CO confirm contact with shallow waters in an early phase of growth, consistent with the tracking analysis. Since less and less ice from the Siberian shelves survives its first summer (Krumpen et al., 2019), the MOSAiC experiment provides the unique opportunity to study the role of sea ice as a transport medium for gases, macronutrients, iron, organic matter, sediments and pollutants from shelf areas to the central Arctic Ocean and beyond. Compared to data for the past 26 years, the sea ice encountered at the end of September 2019 can already be classified as exceptionally thin, and further predicted changes towards a seasonally ice-free ocean will likely cut off the long-range transport of ice-rafted materials by the Transpolar Drift in the future. A reduced long-range transport of sea ice would have strong implications for the redistribution of biogeochemical matter in the central Arctic Ocean, with consequences for the balance of climate-relevant trace gases, primary production and biodiversity in the Arctic Ocean.

Description: Herein, we introduce HydrothermalFoam, a three dimensional hydro-thermo-transport model designed to resolve fluid flow within submarine hydrothermal circulation systems. HydrothermalFoam has been developed on the OpenFOAM platform, which is a Finite Volume based C++ toolbox for fluid-dynamic simulations and for developing customized numerical models that provides access to state-of-the-art parallelized solvers and to a wide range of pre- and post-processing tools. We have implemented a porous media Darcy-flow model with associated boundary conditions designed to facilitate numerical5 simulations of submarine hydrothermal systems. The current implementation is valid for single-phase fluid states and uses a pure water equation-of-state (IAPWS-97). We here present the model formulation, OpenFOAM implementation details, and a sequence of 1-D, 2-D and 3-D benchmark tests. The source code repository further includes a number of tutorials that can be used as starting points for building specialized hydrothermal flow models. The model is published under the GNU General Public License v3.0.

Description: Anthropogenic emissions of CO2 to the atmosphere have modified the carbon cycle for more than 2 centuries. As the ocean stores most of the carbon on our planet, there is an important task in unraveling the natural and anthropogenic processes that drive the carbon cycle at different spatial and temporal scales. We contribute to this by designing a global monthly climatology of total dissolved inorganic carbon (TCO2), which offers a robust basis in carbon cycle modeling but also for other studies related to this cycle. A feedforward neural network (dubbed NNGv2LDEO) was configured to extract from the Global Ocean Data Analysis Project version 2.2019 (GLODAPv2.2019) and the Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) datasets the relations between TCO2 and a set of variables related to the former's variability. The global root mean square error (RMSE) of mapping TCO2 is relatively low for the two datasets (GLODAPv2.2019: 7.2 µmol kg−1; LDEO: 11.4 µmol kg−1) and also for independent data, suggesting that the network does not overfit possible errors in data. The ability of NNGv2LDEO to capture the monthly variability of TCO2 was testified through the good reproduction of the seasonal cycle in 10 time series stations spread over different regions of the ocean (RMSE: 3.6 to 13.2 µmol kg−1). The climatology was obtained by passing through NNGv2LDEO the monthly climatological fields of temperature, salinity, and oxygen from the World Ocean Atlas 2013 and phosphate, nitrate, and silicate computed from a neural network fed with the previous fields. The resolution is 1∘×1∘ in the horizontal, 102 depth levels (0–5500 m), and monthly (0–1500 m) to annual (1550–5500 m) temporal resolution, and it is centered around the year 1995. The uncertainty of the climatology is low when compared with climatological values derived from measured TCO2 in the largest time series stations. Furthermore, a computed climatology of partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2) from a previous climatology of total alkalinity and the present one of TCO2 supports the robustness of this product through the good correlation with a widely used pCO2 climatology (Landschützer et al., 2017). Our TCO2 climatology is distributed through the data repository of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC; https://doi.org/10.20350/digitalCSIC/10551, Broullón et al., 2020).

Description: The tropical tropopause layer (TTL) is the transition region between the well-mixed convective troposphere and the radiatively controlled stratosphere with air masses showing chemical and dynamical properties of both regions. The representation of the TTL in meteorological reanalysis data sets is important for studying the complex interactions of circulation, convection, trace gases, clouds, and radiation. In this paper, we present the evaluation of climatological and long-term TTL temperature and tropopause characteristics in the reanalysis data sets ERA-Interim, ERA5, JRA-25, JRA-55, MERRA, MERRA-2, NCEP-NCAR (R1), and CFSR. The evaluation has been performed as part of the SPARC (Stratosphere–troposphere Processes and their Role in Climate) Reanalysis Intercomparison Project (S-RIP). The most recent atmospheric reanalysis data sets (ERA-Interim, ERA5, JRA-55, MERRA-2, and CFSR) all provide realistic representations of the major characteristics of the temperature structure within the TTL. There is good agreement between reanalysis estimates of tropical mean temperatures and radio occultation data, with relatively small cold biases for most data sets. Temperatures at the cold point and lapse rate tropopause levels, on the other hand, show warm biases in reanalyses when compared to observations. This tropopause-level warm bias is related to the vertical resolution of the reanalysis data, with the smallest bias found for data sets with the highest vertical resolution around the tropopause. Differences in the cold point temperature maximize over equatorial Africa, related to Kelvin wave activity and associated disturbances in TTL temperatures. Interannual variability in reanalysis temperatures is best constrained in the upper TTL, with larger differences at levels below the cold point. The reanalyses reproduce the temperature responses to major dynamical and radiative signals such as volcanic eruptions and the quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO). Long-term reanalysis trends in temperature in the upper TTL show good agreement with trends derived from adjusted radiosonde data sets indicating significant stratospheric cooling of around −0.5 to −1 K per decade. At 100 hPa and the cold point, most of the reanalyses suggest small but significant cooling trends of −0.3 to −0.6 K per decade that are statistically consistent with trends based on the adjusted radiosonde data sets. Advances of the reanalysis and observational systems over the last decades have led to a clear improvement in the TTL reanalysis products over time. Biases of the temperature profiles and differences in interannual variability clearly decreased in 2006, when densely sampled radio occultation data started being assimilated by the reanalyses. While there is an overall good agreement, different reanalyses offer different advantages in the TTL such as realistic profile and cold point temperature, continuous time series, or a realistic representation of signals of interannual variability. Their use in model simulations and in comparisons with climate model output should be tailored to their specific strengths and weaknesses.

Description: Halogenated very short-lived substances (VSLSs), such as bromoform (CHBr3), can be transported to the stratosphere and contribute to the halogen loading and ozone depletion. Given their highly variable emission rates and their short atmospheric lifetimes, the exact amount as well as the spatio-temporal variability of their contribution to the stratospheric halogen loading are still uncertain. We combine observational data sets with Lagrangian atmospheric modelling in order to analyse the spatial and temporal variability of the CHBr3 injection into the stratosphere for the time period 1979–2013. Regional maxima with mixing ratios of up to 0.4–0.5 ppt at 17 km altitude are diagnosed to be over Central America (1) and over the Maritime Continent–west Pacific (2), both of which are confirmed by high-altitude aircraft campaigns. The CHBr3 maximum over Central America is caused by the co-occurrence of convectively driven short transport timescales and strong regional sources, which in conjunction drive the seasonality of CHBr3 injection. Model results at a daily resolution reveal isolated, exceptionally high CHBr3 values in this region which are confirmed by aircraft measurements during the ACCENT campaign and do not occur in spatially or temporally averaged model fields. CHBr3 injection over the west Pacific is centred south of the Equator due to strong oceanic sources underneath prescribed by the here-applied bottom-up emission inventory. The globally largest CHBr3 mixing ratios at the cold point level of up to 0.6 ppt are diagnosed to occur over the region of India, Bay of Bengal, and Arabian Sea (3); however, no data from aircraft campaigns are available to confirm this finding. Inter-annual variability of stratospheric CHBr3 injection of 10 %–20 % is to a large part driven by the variability of coupled ocean–atmosphere circulation systems. Long-term changes, on the other hand, correlate with the regional sea surface temperature trends resulting in positive trends of stratospheric CHBr3 injection over the west Pacific and Asian monsoon region and negative trends over the east Pacific. For the tropical mean, these opposite regional trends balance each other out, resulting in a relatively weak positive trend of 0.017±0.012 ppt Br per decade for 1979–2013, corresponding to 3 % Br per decade. The overall contribution of CHBr3 together with CH2Br2 to the stratospheric halogen loading accounts for 4.7 ppt Br, in good agreement with existing studies, with 50 % and 50 % being injected in the form of source and product gases, respectively.

Description: The westerly phase of the stratospheric Quasi-Biennial Oscillation (QBO) was reversed during Northern Hemisphere winter 2015/2016 for the first time since records began in 1953. Recent studies proposed that Rossby waves propagating from the extratropics played an important role during the reversal event in 2015/2016. Building upon these studies, we separated the extratropical Rossby waves into different wavenumbers and timescales by analyzing the combined ERA-40 and ERA-Interim reanalysis zonal wind, meridional wind, vertical velocity, and potential vorticity daily mean data from 1958 to 2017. We find that both synoptic and quasi-stationary Rossby waves are dominant contributors to the reversal event in 2015/2016 in the tropical lower stratosphere. By comparing the results for 2015/2016 with two additional events (1959/1960 and 2010/2011), we find that the largest differences in Rossby wave momentum fluxes are related to synoptic-scale Rossby waves of periods from 5 to 20 d. We demonstrate for the first time, that these enhanced synoptic Rossby waves at 40 hPa in the tropics in February 2016 originate from the extratropics as well as from local wave generation. The strong Rossby wave activity in 2016 in the tropics happened at a time with weak westerly zonal winds. This coincidence of anomalous factors did not happen in any of the previous events. In addition to the anomalous behavior in the tropical lower stratosphere in 2015/2016, we explored the forcing of the unusually long-lasting westerly zonal wind phase in the middle stratosphere (at 20 hPa). Our results reveal that mainly enhanced Kelvin wave activity contributed to this feature. This was in close relation with the strong El Niño event in 2015/2016, which forced more Kelvin waves in the equatorial troposphere. The easterly or very weak westerly zonal winds present around 30–70 hPa allowed these Kelvin waves to propagate vertically and deposit their momentum around 20 hPa, maintaining the westerlies there.

Description: Freshwater discharge from glaciers is increasing across the Arctic in response to anthropogenic climate change, which raises questions about the potential downstream effects in the marine environment. Whilst a combination of long-term monitoring programmes and intensive Arctic field campaigns have improved our knowledge of glacier–ocean interactions in recent years, especially with respect to fjord/ocean circulation, there are extensive knowledge gaps concerning how glaciers affect marine biogeochemistry and productivity. Following two cross-cutting disciplinary International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) workshops addressing the importance of glaciers for the marine ecosystem, here we review the state of the art concerning how freshwater discharge affects the marine environment with a specific focus on marine biogeochemistry and biological productivity. Using a series of Arctic case studies (Nuup Kangerlua/Godthåbsfjord, Kongsfjorden, Kangerluarsuup Sermia/Bowdoin Fjord, Young Sound and Sermilik Fjord), the interconnected effects of freshwater discharge on fjord–shelf exchange, nutrient availability, the carbonate system, the carbon cycle and the microbial food web are investigated. Key findings are that whether the effect of glacier discharge on marine primary production is positive or negative is highly dependent on a combination of factors. These include glacier type (marine- or land-terminating), fjord–glacier geometry and the limiting resource(s) for phytoplankton growth in a specific spatio-temporal region (light, macronutrients or micronutrients). Arctic glacier fjords therefore often exhibit distinct discharge–productivity relationships, and multiple case-studies must be considered in order to understand the net effects of glacier discharge on Arctic marine ecosystems.

Description: Deeply rooted thrust zones are key features of tectonic processes and the evolution of mountain belts. Exhumed and deeply-eroded orogens like the Scandinavian Caledonides allow to study such systems from the surface. Previous seismic investigations of the Seve Nappe Complex have shown indications for a strong but discontinuous reflectivity of this thrust zone, which is only poorly understood. The correlation of seismic properties measured on borehole cores with surface seismic data constrains the origin of this reflectivity. In this study, we compare seismic velocities measured on cores to in situ velocities measured in the borehole. The core and downhole velocities deviate by up to 2 km/s. However, velocities of mafic rocks are generally in close agreement. Seismic anisotropy increases from about 5 to 26 % at depth, indicating a transition from gneissic to schistose foliation. We suggest that differences in the core and downhole velocities are most likely the result of microcracks mainly due to depressurization. Thus, seismic velocity can help to identify mafic rocks on different scales whereas the velocity signature of other lithologies is obscured in core-derived velocities. Metamorphic foliation on the other hand has a clear expression in seismic anisotropy. These results will aid in the evaluation of core-derived seismic properties of high-grade metamorphic rocks at the COSC-1 borehole and elsewhere. In particular, they show that core log seismic integration via synthetic seismograms requires wireline logging data in any but mafic lithologies.

Description: A new Earth system model, the Flexible Ocean and Climate Infrastructure (FOCI), is introduced. A first version of FOCI consists of a global high-top atmosphere (ECHAM6.3) and an ocean model (NEMO3.6) as well as sea ice (LIM2) and land surface model components (JSBACH), which are coupled through the OASIS3-MCT software package. FOCI includes a number of optional modules which can be activated depending on the scientific question of interest. In the atmosphere, interactive stratospheric chemistry can be used (ECHAM6-HAMMOZ) to study, for example, the effects of the ozone hole on the climate system. In the ocean, a biogeochemistry model (MOPS) is available to study the global carbon cycle. A unique feature of FOCI is the ability to explicitly resolve mesoscale ocean eddies in specific regions. This is realized in the ocean through nesting; first examples for the Agulhas Current and the Gulf Stream systems are described here. FOCI therefore bridges the gap between coarse-resolution climate models and global high-resolution weather prediction and ocean-only models. It allows to study the evolution of the climate system on regional and seasonal to (multi-) decadal scales. The development of FOCI resulted from a combination of the long-standing expertise in ocean and climate modeling in several research units and divisions at GEOMAR. FOCI will thus be used to complement and interpret long-term observations in the Atlantic, enhance the process understanding of the role of mesoscale oceanic eddies for large-scale oceanic and atmospheric circulation patterns, study feedback mechanisms with stratospheric processes, estimate future ocean acidification, improve the simulation of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation changes and their influence on climate, ocean chemistry and biology. In this paper we present both the scientific vision for the development of FOCI as well as some technical details. This includes a first validation of the different model components using several configurations of FOCI. Results show that the model in its basic configuration runs stably under pre-industrial control as well as under historical forcing, and produces a mean climate and variability which compares well with observations, reanalysis products and other climate models. The nested configurations reduce some long-standing biases in climate models and are an important step forward to include the atmospheric response in multi-decadal eddy-rich configurations.

Description: Benthic fluxes of dissolved silica (Si) from sediments into the water column are driven by the dissolution of biogenic silica (bSiO2) and terrigenous Si minerals and modulated by the precipitation of authigenic Si phases. Each of these processes has a specific effect on the isotopic composition of silica dissolved in sediment pore waters such that the determination of pore water δ30Si values can help to decipher the complex Si cycle in surface sediments. In this study, the δ30Si signatures of pore fluids and bSiO2 in the Guaymas Basin (Gulf of California) were analyzed, which is characterized by high bSiO2 accumulation and hydrothermal activity. The δ30Si signatures were investigated in the deep basin, in the vicinity of a hydrothermal vent field, and at an anoxic site located within the pronounced oxygen minimum zone (OMZ). The pore fluid δ30Sipf signatures differ significantly depending on the ambient conditions. Within the basin, δ30Sipf is essentially uniform averaging +1.2 ± 0.1 ‰ (1SD). Pore fluid δ30Sipf values from within the OMZ are significantly lower (0.0 ± 0.5 ‰, 1SD), while pore fluids close to the hydrothermal vent field are higher (+2.0 ± 0.2 ‰, 1SD). Reactive transport modelling results show that the δ30Sipf is mainly controlled by silica dissolution (bSiO2 and terrigenous phases) and Si precipitation (authigenic aluminosilicates). Precipitation processes cause a shift to high pore fluid δ30Sipf signatures, most pronounced at the hydrothermal site. Within the OMZ however, additional dissolution of isotopically depleted Si minerals (e.g. clays) facilitated by high mass accumulation rates of terrigenous material (MARterr) is required to promote the low δ30Sipf signatures while precipitation of authigenic aluminosilicates seems to be hampered by high water / rock ratios. Guaymas OMZ δ30Sipf values are markedly different from those of the Peruvian OMZ, the only other marine setting where Si isotopes have been investigated to constrain early diagenetic processes. These differences highlight the fact that δ30Sipf signals in OMZs worldwide are not alike and each setting can result in a range of δ30Sipf values as a function of the environmental conditions. We conclude that the benthic silica cycle is more complex than previously thought and that additional Si isotope studies are needed to decipher the controls on Si turnover in marine sediment and the role of sediments in the marine silica cycle.

Description: We analyse 400 perturbed-parameter simulations for two configurations of an optimality-based plankton-ecosystem model (OPEM), implemented in the University of Victoria Earth-System Climate Model (UVic-ESCM), using a Latin-Hypercube sampling method for setting up the parameter ensemble. A likelihood-based metric is introduced for model assessment and selection of the model solutions closest to observed distributions of NO3−, PO43−, O2, and surface chlorophyll a concentrations. According to our metric the optimal model solutions comprise low rates of global N2 fixation and denitrification. These two rate estimates turned out to be poorly constrained by the data. For identifying the “best” model solutions we therefore also consider the model’s ability to represent current estimates of water-column denitrification. We employ our ensemble of model solutions in a sensitivity analysis to gain insights into the importance and role of individual model parameters as well as correlations between various biogeochemical processes and tracers, such as POC export and the NO3− inventory. Global O2 varies by a factor of two and NO3− by more than a factor of six among all simulations. Remineralisation rate is the most important parameter for O2, which is also affected by the subsistence N quota of ordinary phytoplankton (QN0,phy) and zooplankton maximum specific ingestion rate. QN0,phy is revealed as a major determinant of the oceanic NO3− pool. This indicates that unraveling the driving forces of variations in phytoplankton physiology and elemental stoichiometry, which are tightly linked via QN0,phy, is a prerequisite for understanding the marine nitrogen inventory.

Description: Oxygen minimum zones (OMZs) in the open ocean occur below the surface in regions of weak ventilation and high biological productivity with associated sinking organic matter. Very low levels of dissolved oxygen alter biogeochemical cycles and significantly affect marine life. One of the most intense though poorly understood OMZs in the world ocean is located in the Arabian Sea between 300 and 1000 m of depth. An improved understanding of the physical processes that have an impact on the OMZ in the Arabian Sea is expected to increase the reliability of assessments of its future development. This study uses reanalysis velocity fields from the ocean model HYCOM (Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model), which are verified with observational data, to investigate advective pathways of Lagrangian particles into the Arabian Sea OMZ at intermediate depths between 200 and 800 m. In the eastern basin, the vertical expansion of the OMZ is strongest during the winter monsoon, revealing a core thickness 1000 m deep and oxygen values below 5 µmol kg−1. The minimum oxygen concentration might be favoured by a maximum water mass advection that follows the main advective pathway of Lagrangian particles along the perimeter of the basin into the eastern basin of the Arabian Sea during the winter monsoon. These water masses pass regions of high primary production and respiration, contributing to the transport of low-oxygenated water into the eastern part of the OMZ. The maximum oxygen concentration in the western basin of the Arabian Sea in May coincides with a maximum southward water mass advection in the western basin during the spring intermonsoon, supplying the western core of the OMZ with high-oxygenated water. The maximum oxygen concentration in the eastern basin of the Arabian Sea in May might be associated with the northward inflow of water across 10∘ N into the Arabian Sea, which is highest during the spring intermonsoon. The Red Sea outflow of advective particles into the western and eastern basin starts during the summer monsoon associated with the northeastward current during the summer monsoon. On the other hand, waters from the Persian Gulf are advected with little variation on seasonal timescales. As the weak seasonal cycle of oxygen concentration in the eastern and western basin can be explained by seasonally changing advection of water masses at intermediate depths into the Arabian Sea OMZ (ASOMZ), the simplified backward-trajectory approach seems to be a good method for prediction of the seasonality of advective pathways of Lagrangian particles into the ASOMZ.

Description: The present study describes Rossby wave packet (RWP) properties in the upper-troposphere and lower-stratosphere (UTLS) with the use of Global Navigation Satellite System radio occultation (GNSS-RO) measurements. This global study covering both hemisphere's extratropics is the first to tackle medium and synoptic-scale waves with GNSS-RO. We use one decade of GNSS-RO temperature and pressure data from the CHAMP, COSMIC, GRACE, Metop-A, Metop-B, SAC-C and TerraSAR-X missions; combining them into one gridded dataset for the years 2007–2016. Our approach to extract RWP anomalies and their envelope uses Fourier and Hilbert transforms over longitude without pre- or post-processing the data. Our study is purely based on observations, only using ERA-Interim winds to provide information about the background wind regimes. The RWP structures that we obtain in the UTLS agree well with theory and earlier studies, in terms of coherent phase/group propagation, zonal scale and distribution over latitudes. Furthermore, we show that RWP pressure anomalies maximize around the tropopause, while RWP temperature anomalies maximize right above tropopause height with a contrasting minimum right below. RWP activity follows the zonal-mean tropopause during all seasons. RWP anomalies in the lower stratosphere are dynamically coupled to the upper troposphere. They are part of the same system with a quasi-barotropic structure across the UTLS. RWP activity often reaches up to 20 km height and occasionally higher, defying the Charney–Drazin criterion. We note enhanced amplitude and upward propagation of RWP activity during sudden stratospheric warmings. We provide observational support for improvements in RWP diagnostics and wave trend analysis in models and reanalyses. Wave quantities follow the tropopause, and diagnosing them on fixed pressure levels (which the tropopause does not follow) can lead to aliasing. Our novel approach analysing GNSS-RO pressure anomalies provides wave signals with better continuity and coherence across the UTLS and the stratosphere, compared to temperature anomalies. Thus, RWP vertical propagation is much easier to analyse with pressure data.

Description: The eastern boundary region of the southeastern Pacific Ocean hosts one of the world's most dynamic and productive upwelling systems with an associated oxygen minimum zone (OMZ). The variability in downward export fluxes in this region, with strongly varying surface productivity, upwelling intensities and water column oxygen content, is however poorly understood. Thorium-234 (234Th) is a powerful tracer to study the dynamics of export fluxes of carbon and other elements, yet intense advection and diffusion in nearshore environments impact the assessment of depth-integrated 234Th fluxes when not properly evaluated. Here we use vessel-mounted acoustic Doppler current profiler (VmADCP) current velocities, satellite wind speed and in situ microstructure measurements to determine the magnitude of advective and diffusive fluxes over the entire 234Th flux budget at 25 stations from 11 to 16∘ S in the Peruvian OMZ. Contrary to findings along the GEOTRACES P16 eastern section, our results showed that weak surface wind speed during our cruises induced low upwelling rates and minimal upwelled 234Th fluxes, whereas vertical diffusive 234Th fluxes were important only at a few shallow shelf stations. Horizontal advective and diffusive 234Th fluxes were negligible because of small alongshore 234Th gradients. Our data indicated a poor correlation between seawater 238U activity and salinity. Assuming a linear relationship between the two would lead to significant underestimations of the total 234Th flux by up to 40 % in our study. Proper evaluation of both physical transport and variability in 238U activity is thus crucial in coastal 234Th flux studies. Finally, we showed large temporal variations on 234Th residence times across the Peruvian upwelling zone and cautioned future carbon export studies to take these temporal variabilities into consideration while evaluating carbon export efficiency.

Description: Rapid monsoon changes since the last deglaciation remain poorly constrained due to the scarcity of geological archives. Here we present a high-resolution scanning X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis of a 13.5 m terrace succession on the western Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP) to infer rapid monsoon changes since the last deglaciation. Our results indicate that Rb∕Sr and Zr∕Rb are sensitive indicators of chemical weathering and wind sorting, respectively, which are further linked to the strength of the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) and the East Asian winter monsoon (EAWM). During the last deglaciation, two cold intervals of the Heinrich event 1 and Younger Dryas were characterized by intensified winter monsoon and weakened summer monsoon. The EAWM gradually weakened at the beginning of the Holocene, while the EASM remained steady till 9.9 ka and then grew stronger. Both the EASM and EAWM intensities were relatively weak during the Middle Holocene, indicating a mid-Holocene climatic optimum. Rb∕Sr and Zr∕Rb exhibit an antiphase relationship between the summer and winter monsoon changes on a centennial timescale during 16–1 ka. Comparison of these monsoon changes with solar activity and North Atlantic cooling events reveals that both factors can lead to abrupt changes on a centennial timescale in the Early Holocene. During the Late Holocene, North Atlantic cooling became the major forcing of centennial monsoon events.

Description: We developed a coupling scheme for the Community Earth System Model version 1.2 (CESM1.2) and the Model of Early Diagenesis in the Upper Sediment of Adjustable complexity (MEDUSA), and explored the effects of the coupling on solid components in the upper sediment and on bottom seawater chemistry by comparing the coupled model's behaviour with that of the uncoupled CESM having a simplified treatment of sediment processes. CESM is a fully coupled atmosphere–ocean–sea-ice–land model and its ocean component (the Parallel Ocean Program version 2; POP2) includes a biogeochemical component (the Biogeochemical Elemental Cycling model; BEC). MEDUSA was coupled to POP2 in an offline manner so that each of the models ran separately and sequentially with regular exchanges of necessary boundary condition fields. This development was done with the ambitious aim of a future application for long-term (spanning a full glacial cycle; i.e. ∼105 years) climate simulations with a state-of-the-art comprehensive climate model including the carbon cycle, and was motivated by the fact that until now such simulations have been done only with less-complex climate models. We found that the sediment–model coupling already had non-negligible immediate advantages for ocean biogeochemistry in millennial-timescale simulations. First, the MEDUSA-coupled CESM outperformed the uncoupled CESM in reproducing an observation-based global distribution of sediment properties, especially for organic carbon and opal. Thus, the coupled model is expected to act as a better “bridge” between climate dynamics and sedimentary data, which will provide another measure of model performance. Second, in our experiments, the MEDUSA-coupled model and the uncoupled model had a difference of 0.2 ‰ or larger in terms of δ13C of bottom water over large areas, which implied a potentially significant model uncertainty for bottom seawater chemical composition due to a different way of sediment treatment. For example, an ocean model that does not treat sedimentary processes depending on the chemical composition of the ambient water can overestimate the amount of remineralization of organic matter in the upper sediment in an anoxic environment, which would lead to lighter δ13C values in the bottom water. Such a model uncertainty would be a fundamental issue for paleo model–data comparison often relying on data derived from benthic foraminifera.

Description: The Sea Surface Microlayer (SML) is known to be enriched by trace metals relative to the underlying water and harbor diverse microbial communities (i.e., neuston). However, the processes linking metals and biota in the SML are not yet fully understood. The metal (Cd, Co, Cu, Fe, Ni, Mo, V, Zn and Pb) concentrations in aerosol samples in the SML (dissolved and total fractions) and in subsurface waters (SSWs; dissolved fraction at ∼1 m depth) from the western Mediterranean Sea were analyzed in this study during a cruise in May–June 2017. The composition and abundance of the bacterial community in the SML and SSW, the primary production, and Chl a in the SSW were measured simultaneously at all stations during the cruise. Residence times in the SML of metals derived from aerosol depositions were highly variable and ranged from minutes for Fe (3.6±6.0 min) to a few hours for Cu (5.8±6.2 h). Concentrations of most of the dissolved metals in both the SML and SSW were positively correlated with the salinity gradient and showed the characteristic eastward increase in the surface waters of the Mediterranean Sea (MS). In contrast, the total fraction of some reactive metals in the SML (i.e., Cu, Fe, Pb and Zn) showed a negative correlation with salinity and a positive correlation with microbial abundance, which might be associated with microbial uptake. Our results show a strong negative correlation between the dissolved and total Ni concentration and heterotrophic bacterial abundance in the SML and SSW, but we cannot ascertain whether this correlation reflects a toxicity effect or is the result of some other process.

Description: Proxy records represent an invaluable source of information for reconstructing past climatic variations, but they are associated with considerable uncertainties. For a systematic quantification of these reconstruction errors, however, knowledge is required not only of their individual sources but also of their auto-correlation structure as this determines the timescale dependence of their magnitude, an issue that has been often ignored until now. Here a spectral approach to uncertainty analysis is provided for paleoclimate reconstructions obtained from single sediment proxy records. The formulation in the spectral domain rather than the time domain allows for an explicit demonstration and quantification of the timescale dependence that is inherent in any proxy-based reconstruction uncertainty. This study is published in two parts. In this first part, the theoretical concept is presented, and analytic expressions are derived for the power spectral density of the reconstruction error of sediment proxy records. The underlying model takes into account the spectral structure of the climate signal, seasonal and orbital variations, bioturbation, sampling of a finite number of signal carriers, and uncorrelated measurement noise, and it includes the effects of spectral aliasing and leakage. The uncertainty estimation method, based upon this model, is illustrated by simple examples. In the second part of this study, published separately, the method is implemented in an application-oriented context, and more detailed examples are presented.

Description: Enhanced summer insolation during the early and mid-Holocene drove increased precipitation and widespread expansion of vegetation across the Sahara during the African humid period (AHP). While changes in atmospheric dynamics during this time have been a major focus of palaeoclimate modelling efforts, the transient nature of the shift back to the modern desert state at the end of this period is less well understood. Reconstructions reveal a spatially and temporally complex end of the AHP, with an earlier end in the north than in the south and in the east than in the west. Some records suggest a rather abrupt end, whereas others indicate a gradual decline in moisture availability. Here we investigate the end of the AHP based on a transient simulation of the last 7850 years with the comprehensive Earth system model MPI-ESM1.2. The model largely reproduces the time-transgressive end of the AHP evident in proxy data, and it indicates that it is due to the regionally varying dynamical controls on precipitation. The impact of the main rain-bringing systems, i.e. the summer monsoon and extratropical troughs, varies spatially, leading to heterogeneous seasonal rainfall cycles that impose regionally different responses to the Holocene insolation decrease. An increase in extratropical troughs that interact with the tropical mean flow and transport moisture to the western Sahara during the mid-Holocene delays the end of the AHP in that region. Along the coast, this interaction maintains humid conditions for a longer time than further inland. Drying in this area occurs when this interaction becomes too weak to sustain precipitation. In the lower latitudes of west Africa, where the rainfall is only influenced by the summer monsoon dynamics, the end of the AHP coincides with the retreat of the monsoonal rain belt. The model results clearly demonstrate that non-monsoonal dynamics can also play an important role in forming the precipitation signal and should therefore not be neglected in analyses of north African rainfall trends.

Description: The supereruption of Los Chocoyos (14.6°N, 91.2°W) in Guatemala ∼84kyr ago was one of the largest volcanic events of the past 100000 years. Recent petrologic data show that the eruption released very large amounts of climate-relevant sulfur and ozone-destroying chlorine and bromine gases (523±94Mt sulfur, 1200±156Mt chlorine, and 2±0.46Mt bromine). Using the Earth system model (ESM) of the Community Earth System Model version 2 (CESM2) coupled with the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model version 6 (WACCM6), we simulated the impacts of the sulfur- and halogen-rich Los Chocoyos eruption on the preindustrial Earth system. Our simulations show that elevated sulfate burden and aerosol optical depth (AOD) persists for 5 years in the model, while the volcanic halogens stay elevated for nearly 15 years. As a consequence, the eruption leads to a collapse of the ozone layer with global mean column ozone values dropping to 50DU (80% decrease) and leading to a 550% increase in surface UV over the first 5 years, with potential impacts on the biosphere. The volcanic eruption shows an asymmetric-hemispheric response with enhanced aerosol, ozone, UV, and climate signals over the Northern Hemisphere. Surface climate is impacted globally due to peak AOD of 〉6, which leads to a maximum surface cooling of 〉6K, precipitation and terrestrial net primary production decrease of 〉25%, and sea ice area increases of 40% in the first 3 years. Locally, a wetting (〉100%) and strong increase in net primary production (NPP) (〉700%) over northern Africa is simulated in the first 5 years and related to a southward shift of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) to the southern tropics. The ocean responds with pronounced El Niño conditions in the first 3 years that shift to the southern tropics and are coherent with the ITCZ change. Recovery to pre-eruption ozone levels and climate takes 15 years and 30 years, respectively. The long-lasting surface cooling is sustained by an immediate increase in the Arctic sea ice area, followed by a decrease in poleward ocean heat transport at 60°N which lasts up to 20 years. In contrast, when simulating Los Chocoyos conventionally by including sulfur and neglecting halogens, we simulate a larger sulfate burden and AOD, more pronounced surface climate changes, and an increase in column ozone. By comparing our aerosol chemistry ESM results to other supereruption simulations with aerosol climate models, we find a higher surface climate impact per injected sulfur amount than previous studies for our different sets of model experiments, since the CESM2(WACCM6) creates smaller aerosols with a longer lifetime, partly due to the interactive aerosol chemistry. As the model uncertainties for the climate response to supereruptions are very large, observational evidence from paleo archives and a coordinated model intercomparison would help to improve our understanding of the climate and environment response.

Description: We investigate the changes in terrestrial natural methane emissions between the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and preindustrial (PI) periods by performing time-slice experiments with a methane-enabled version of MPI-ESM, the Max Planck Institute Earth System Model. We consider all natural sources of methane except for emissions from wild animals and geological sources, i.e. emissions from wetlands, fires, and termites. Changes are dominated by changes in tropical wetland emissions, with mid-to-high-latitude wetlands playing a secondary role, and all other natural sources being of minor importance. The emissions are determined by the interplay of vegetation productivity, a function of CO2 and temperature; source area size, affected by sea level and ice sheet extent; and the state of the West African monsoon, with increased emissions from northern Africa during strong monsoon phases. We show that it is possible to explain the difference in atmospheric methane between LGM and PI purely by changes in emissions. As emissions more than double between LGM and PI, changes in the atmospheric lifetime of CH4, as proposed in other studies, are not required.

Description: A compilation of the published literature on dust content in terrestrial and marine sediment cores was synchronized with pollen data and speleothem growth phases on the Greenland Ice Core Chronology 2005 (GICC05) time axis. Aridity patterns for eight key areas of the global climate system have been reconstructed for the last 60 000 years. These records have different time resolutions and different dating methods, i.e. different types of stratigraphy. Nevertheless, all regions analysed in this study show humid conditions during early Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS3) and the early Holocene or deglaciation, but not always at the same time. Such discrepancies have been interpreted as regional effects, although stratigraphic uncertainties may affect some of the proposed interpretations. In comparison, most of the MIS2 interval becomes arid in all of the Northern Hemisphere records, but the peak arid conditions of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and Heinrich event 1 differ in duration and intensity among regions. In addition, we also compare the aridity synthesis with modelling results using a global climate model (GCM). Indeed, geological archives and GCMs show agreement on the aridity pattern for the Holocene or deglaciation, for the LGM and for late MIS3.

Description: The Global Ocean Data Analysis Project (GLODAP) is a synthesis effort providing regular compilations of surface-to-bottom ocean biogeochemical data, with an emphasis on seawater inorganic carbon chemistry and related variables determined through chemical analysis of seawater samples. GLODAPv2.2020 is an update of the previous version, GLODAPv2.2019. The major changes are data from 106 new cruises added, extension of time coverage to 2019, and the inclusion of available (also for historical cruises) discrete fugacity of CO2 (fCO2) values in the merged product files. GLODAPv2.2020 now includes measurements from more than 1.2 million water samples from the global oceans collected on 946 cruises. The data for the 12 GLODAP core variables (salinity, oxygen, nitrate, silicate, phosphate, dissolved inorganic carbon, total alkalinity, pH, CFC-11, CFC-12, CFC-113, and CCl4) have undergone extensive quality control with a focus on systematic evaluation of bias. The data are available in two formats: (i) as submitted by the data originator but updated to WOCE exchange format and (ii) as a merged data product with adjustments applied to minimize bias. These adjustments were derived by comparing the data from the 106 new cruises with the data from the 840 quality-controlled cruises of the GLODAPv2.2019 data product using crossover analysis. Comparisons to empirical algorithm estimates provided additional context for adjustment decisions; this is new to this version. The adjustments are intended to remove potential biases from errors related to measurement, calibration, and data-handling practices without removing known or likely time trends or variations in the variables evaluated. The compiled and adjusted data product is believed to be consistent to better than 0.005 in salinity, 1 % in oxygen, 2 % in nitrate, 2 % in silicate, 2 % in phosphate, 4 µmol kg−1 in dissolved inorganic carbon, 4 µmol kg−1 in total alkalinity, 0.01–0.02 in pH (depending on region), and 5 % in the halogenated transient tracers. The other variables included in the compilation, such as isotopic tracers and discrete fCO2, were not subjected to bias comparison or adjustments.

Description: Accurate assessment of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and their redistribution among the atmosphere, ocean, and terrestrial biosphere in a changing climate – the “global carbon budget” – is important to better understand the global carbon cycle, support the development of climate policies, and project future climate change. Here we describe and synthesize data sets and methodology to quantify the five major components of the global carbon budget and their uncertainties. Fossil CO2 emissions (EFOS) are based on energy statistics and cement production data, while emissions from land-use change (ELUC), mainly deforestation, are based on land use and land-use change data and bookkeeping models. Atmospheric CO2 concentration is measured directly and its growth rate (GATM) is computed from the annual changes in concentration. The ocean CO2 sink (SOCEAN) and terrestrial CO2 sink (SLAND) are estimated with global process models constrained by observations. The resulting carbon budget imbalance (BIM), the difference between the estimated total emissions and the estimated changes in the atmosphere, ocean, and terrestrial biosphere, is a measure of imperfect data and understanding of the contemporary carbon cycle. All uncertainties are reported as ±1σ. For the last decade available (2010–2019), EFOS was 9.6 ± 0.5 GtC yr−1 excluding the cement carbonation sink (9.4 ± 0.5 GtC yr−1 when the cement carbonation sink is included), and ELUC was 1.6 ± 0.7 GtC yr−1. For the same decade, GATM was 5.1 ± 0.02 GtC yr−1 (2.4 ± 0.01 ppm yr−1), SOCEAN 2.5 ±  0.6 GtC yr−1, and SLAND 3.4 ± 0.9 GtC yr−1, with a budget imbalance BIM of −0.1 GtC yr−1 indicating a near balance between estimated sources and sinks over the last decade. For the year 2019 alone, the growth in EFOS was only about 0.1 % with fossil emissions increasing to 9.9 ± 0.5 GtC yr−1 excluding the cement carbonation sink (9.7 ± 0.5 GtC yr−1 when cement carbonation sink is included), and ELUC was 1.8 ± 0.7 GtC yr−1, for total anthropogenic CO2 emissions of 11.5 ± 0.9 GtC yr−1 (42.2 ± 3.3 GtCO2). Also for 2019, GATM was 5.4 ± 0.2 GtC yr−1 (2.5 ± 0.1 ppm yr−1), SOCEAN was 2.6 ± 0.6 GtC yr−1, and SLAND was 3.1 ± 1.2 GtC yr−1, with a BIM of 0.3 GtC. The global atmospheric CO2 concentration reached 409.85 ± 0.1 ppm averaged over 2019. Preliminary data for 2020, accounting for the COVID-19-induced changes in emissions, suggest a decrease in EFOS relative to 2019 of about −7 % (median estimate) based on individual estimates from four studies of −6 %, −7 %, −7 % (−3 % to −11 %), and −13 %. Overall, the mean and trend in the components of the global carbon budget are consistently estimated over the period 1959–2019, but discrepancies of up to 1 GtC yr−1 persist for the representation of semi-decadal variability in CO2 fluxes. Comparison of estimates from diverse approaches and observations shows (1) no consensus in the mean and trend in land-use change emissions over the last decade, (2) a persistent low agreement between the different methods on the magnitude of the land CO2 flux in the northern extra-tropics, and (3) an apparent discrepancy between the different methods for the ocean sink outside the tropics, particularly in the Southern Ocean. This living data update documents changes in the methods and data sets used in this new global carbon budget and the progress in understanding of the global carbon cycle compared with previous publications of this data set (Friedlingstein et al., 2019; Le Quéré et al., 2018b, a, 2016, 2015b, a, 2014, 2013). The data presented in this work are available at https://doi.org/10.18160/gcp-2020 (Friedlingstein et al., 2020).

Description: Seamounts are abundant and prominent features on the deep-sea floor and intersperse with the nodule fields of the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone (CCZ). There is a particular interest in characterising the fauna inhabiting seamounts in the CCZ because they are the only other ecosystem in the region to provide hard substrata besides the abundant nodules on the soft-sediment abyssal plains. It has been hypothesised that seamounts could provide refuge for organisms during deep-sea mining actions or that they could play a role in the (re-)colonisation of the disturbed nodule fields. This hypothesis is tested by analysing video transects in both ecosystems, assessing megafauna composition and abundance. Nine video transects (ROV dives) from two different license areas and one Area of Particular Environmental Interest in the eastern CCZ were analysed. Four of these transects were carried out as exploratory dives on four different seamounts in order to gain first insights into megafauna composition. The five other dives were carried out in the neighbouring nodule fields in the same areas. Variation in community composition observed among and along the video transects was high, with little morphospecies overlap along intra-ecosystem transects. Despite the observation of considerable faunal variations within each ecosystem, differences between seamounts and nodule fields prevailed, showing significantly different species associations characterising them, thus calling into question their use as a possible refuge area.

Description: The eastern tropical South Pacific (ETSP) represents one of the most productive areas in the ocean that is characterized by a pronounced oxygen minimum zone (OMZ). Particulate organic matter (POM) that sinks out of the euphotic zone is supplied to the anoxic sediments and utilized by microbial communities. The degradation of POM is associated with dissolved organic matter (DOM) production and reworking. The release of recalcitrant DOM to the overlying waters may represent an important organic matter escape mechanism from remineralization within sediments but received little attention in OMZ regions so far. Here, we combine measurements of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) with DOM optical properties in the form of chromophoric (CDOM) and fluorescent (FDOM) DOM from pore waters and near-bottom waters of the ETSP off Peru. We evaluate diffusion–driven fluxes and net in situ fluxes of DOC and DON in order to investigate processes affecting DOM cycling at the sediment–water interface along a transect 12° S. To our knowledge, these are the first data for sediment release of DON and pore water CDOM and FDOM for the ETSP off Peru. Pore-water DOC and DON accumulated with increasing sediment depth, suggesting an imbalance between DOM production and remineralization within sediments. High DON accumulation resulted in very low pore water DOC / DON ratios (〉 1) which could be caused by either an "imbalance" in DOC and DON remineralization, or to the presence of an additional nitrogen source. Diffusion driven fluxes of DOC and DON exhibited high spatial variability. They varied from 0.2–0.1 mmol m−2 d−1 to 2.52–1.3 mmol m−2 d−1 and from −0.042–0.02 mmol m−2 d−1 to 3.32–1.7 mmol m−2 d−1, respectively. Generally low net in situ DOC and DON fluxes as well as steepening of spectral slope (S) of CDOM and accumulation of humic-like FDOM at the near-bottom waters over time indicated active microbial DOM utilization at the sediment–water interface, potentially stimulated by nitrate (NO3−) and nitrite (NO2−). The microbial DOC utilization rates, estimated in our study, may be sufficient to support denitrification rates of 0.2–1.4 mmol m−2 d−1, suggesting that sediment release of DOM contributes substantially to nitrogen loss processes in the ETSP off Peru.

Description: Marine aggregates are the vector for biogenically bound carbon and nutrients from the euphotic zone to the interior of the oceans. To improve the representation of this biological carbon pump in the global biogeochemical HAMburg Ocean Carbon Cycle (HAMOCC) model, we implemented a novel Microstructure, Multiscale, Mechanistic, Marine Aggregates in the Global Ocean (M4AGO) sinking scheme. M4AGO explicitly represents the size, microstructure, heterogeneous composition, density and porosity of aggregates and ties ballasting mineral and particulate organic carbon (POC) fluxes together. Additionally, we incorporated temperature-dependent remineralization of POC. We compare M4AGO with the standard HAMOCC version, where POC fluxes follow a Martin curve approach with (i) linearly increasing sinking velocity with depth and (ii) temperature-independent remineralization. Minerals descend separately with a constant speed. In contrast to the standard HAMOCC, M4AGO reproduces the latitudinal pattern of POC transfer efficiency, as recently constrained by Weber et al. (2016). High latitudes show transfer efficiencies of ≈0.25±0.04, and the subtropical gyres show lower values of about 0.10±0.03. In addition to temperature as a driving factor for remineralization, diatom frustule size co-determines POC fluxes in silicifier-dominated ocean regions, while calcium carbonate enhances the aggregate excess density and thus sinking velocity in subtropical gyres. Prescribing rising carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations in stand-alone runs (without climate feedback), M4AGO alters the regional ocean atmosphere CO2 fluxes compared to the standard model. M4AGO exhibits higher CO2 uptake in the Southern Ocean compared to the standard run, while in subtropical gyres, less CO2 is taken up. Overall, the global oceanic CO2 uptake remains the same. With the explicit representation of measurable aggregate properties, M4AGO can serve as a test bed for evaluating the impact of aggregate-associated processes on global biogeochemical cycles and, in particular, on the biological carbon pump.

Description: With increasing pressure to extract minerals from the deep-sea bed, understanding the ecological and evolutionary processes that limit the spatial distribution of species is critical to assessing ecosystem resilience to mining impacts. The aim of our study is to gain a better knowledge about the abyssal isopod crustacean fauna of the central Pacific manganese nodule province (Clarion–Clipperton Fracture Zone, CCZ). In total, we examined 22 epibenthic sledge (EBS) samples taken at five abyssal areas located in the central northern Pacific including four contracting areas and one Area of Particular Environmental Interest (APEI3). Additional samples come from the DISturbance and reCOLonization experiment (DISCOL) area situated in the Peru Basin, southeastern Pacific. Using an integrative approach that combined morphological and genetic methods with species delimitation analyses (SDs) we assessed patterns of species range size, diversity, and community composition for four different isopod families (Munnopsidae Lilljeborg, 1864; Desmosomatidae Sars, 1897; Haploniscidae Hansen, 1916; and Macrostylidae Hansen, 1916) displaying different dispersal capacities as adults. Isopods are brooders, so their distribution and connectivity cannot be explained by larval dispersal but rather by adult locomotion. In particular, our objectives were to (1) identify potential differences in the distributional ranges of isopod families relative to their locomotory potential and to (2) evaluate the representativeness of the APEI for the preservation of regional biodiversity in the CCZ following mining disturbances. From 619 specimens, our SD analysis could distinguish 170 species, most of which were new to science (94.1 %). We found that increased locomotory ability correlated with higher species diversity with 9 species of Macrostylidae, 23 of Haploniscidae, 52 of Desmosomatidae, and 86 of Munnopsidae. This is supported by family-level rarefaction analyses. As expected, we found the largest species ranges in the families with swimming abilities, with a maximum recorded species range of 5245 and 4480 km in Munnopsidae and Desmosomatidae, respectively. The less motile Haploniscidae and Macrostylidae had maximal species ranges of 1391 and 1440 km, respectively. Overall, rarefaction analyses indicated that species richness did not vary much between areas, but the real number of species was still not sufficiently sampled. This is also indicated by the large proportion of singletons (40.5 %) found in this study. The investigated contractor areas in the CCZ were more similar in species composition and had a higher proportion of shared species between each other than the closely located APEI3 and the distantly located DISCOL area. In fact, the DISCOL area, located in the Peru Basin, had more species in common with the core CCZ areas than APEI3. In this regard, APEI3 does not appear to be representative as serving as a reservoir for the fauna of the investigated contractor areas, at least for isopods, as it has a different species composition. Certainly, more data from other APEIs, as well as preservation reference zones within contractor areas, are urgently needed in order to assess their potential as resources of recolonization of impacted seabed.

Description: Northern peatlands have been a persistent natural carbon sink since the Last Glacial Maximum. The continued growth and expansion of these carbon-rich ecosystems could offset a large portion of anthropogenic carbon emissions before the end of the present interglacial period. Here we used an impeded drainage model and gridded data on the depth to bedrock and the fraction of histosol-type soils to evaluate the limits to the growth of northern peatland carbon stocks. Our results show that the potential carbon stock in northern peatlands could reach a total of 875±125 Pg C before the end of the present interglacial, which could, as a result, remove 330±200 Pg C of carbon from the atmosphere. We argue that northern peatlands, together with the oceans, will potentially play an important role in reducing the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration over the next 5000 years.