ALBERT

Beschreibung: A new 21.3m firn core was drilled in 2015 at a coastal Antarctic high-accumulation site in Adélie Land (66.78◦ S; 139.56◦ E, 602 m a.s.l.), named Terre Adélie 192A (TA192A). The mean isotopic values (−19.3 ‰ ± 3.1 ‰ for δ18O and 5.4 ‰±2.2 ‰ for deuterium excess) are consistent with other coastal Antarctic values. No significant isotope–temperature relationship can be evidenced at any timescale. This rules out a simple interpretation in terms of local temperature. An observed asymmetry in the δ18O seasonal cycle may be explained by the precipitation of air masses coming from the eastern and western sectors in autumn and winter, recorded in the d-excess signal showing outstanding values in austral spring versus autumn. Significant positive trends are observed in the annual d-excess record and local sea ice extent (135–145◦ E) over the period 1998–2014. However, process studies focusing on resulting isotopic compositions and particularly the deuterium excess–δ18O relationship, evidenced as a potential fingerprint of moisture origins, as well as the collection of more isotopic measurements in Adélie Land are needed for an accurate interpretation of our signals.

Beschreibung: The timing and intensity of snowmelt processes on sea ice are key drivers determining the seasonal sea-ice energy and mass budgets. In the Arctic, satellite passive microwave and radar observations have revealed a trend towards an earlier snowmelt onset during the last decades, which is an important aspect of Arctic amplification and sea ice decline. Around Antarctica, snowmelt on perennial ice is weak and very different than in the Arctic, with most snow surviving the summer. Here we compile time series of snowmelt-onset dates on seasonal and perennial Antarctic sea ice from 1992 to 2014/15 using active microwave observations from European Remote Sensing Satellite (ERS-1/2), Quick Scatterometer (QSCAT) and Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT) radar scatterometers. We define two snowmelt transition stages: A weak backscatter rise indicating the initial warming and destructive metamorphism of the snowpack (pre-melt), followed by a rapid backscatter rise indicating the onset of thaw-freeze cycles (snowmelt). Results show large interannual variability with an average pre-melt onset date of 29 November and melt onset of 10 December, respectively, on perennial ice, without any significant trends over the study period, consistent with the small trends of Antarctic sea ice extent. There was a latitudinal gradient from early snowmelt onsets in mid-November in the northern Weddell Sea to late (end-December) or even absent snowmelt conditions in the southern Weddell Sea. We show that QSCAT Ku-band (13.4 GHz signal frequency) derived pre-melt and snowmelt onset dates are earlier by 20 and 18 days, respectively, than ERS and ASCAT C-band (5.6 GHz) derived dates. This offset has been considered when constructing the time series. Snowmelt onset dates from passive microwave observations (37 GHz) are later by 14 and 6 days than those from the scatterometers, respectively. Based on these characteristic differences between melt onset dates observed by different microwave wavelengths, we developed a conceptual model which illustrates how the seasonal evolution of snow temperature profiles may affect different microwave bands with different penetration depths. These suggest that future multi-frequency active/passive microwave satellite missions could be used to resolve melt processes throughout the vertical snow column of thick snow on perennial Antarctic sea ice.

Beschreibung: Although quantitative isotope data from speleothems has been used to evaluate isotope-enabled model simulations, currently no consensus exists regarding the most appropriate methodology through which to achieve this. A number of modelling groups will be running isotope-enabled palaeoclimate simulations in the framework of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6, so it is timely to evaluate different approaches to using the speleothem data for data–model comparisons. Here, we illustrate this using 456 globally distributed speleothem δ18O records from an updated version of the Speleothem Isotopes Synthesis and Analysis (SISAL) database and palaeoclimate simulations generated using the ECHAM5-wiso isotope-enabled atmospheric circulation model. We show that the SISAL records reproduce the first-order spatial patterns of isotopic variability in the modern day, strongly supporting the application of this dataset for evaluating model-derived isotope variability into the past. However, the discontinuous nature of many speleothem records complicates the process of procuring large numbers of records if data–model comparisons are made using the traditional approach of comparing anomalies between a control period and a given palaeoclimate experiment. To circumvent this issue, we illustrate techniques through which the absolute isotope values during any time period could be used for model evaluation. Specifically, we show that speleothem isotope records allow an assessment of a model’s ability to simulate spatial isotopic trends. Our analyses provide a protocol for using speleothem isotope data for model evaluation, including screening the observations to take into account the impact of speleothem mineralogy on δ18O values, the optimum period for the modern observational baseline and the selection of an appropriate time window for creating means of the isotope data for palaeo-time-slices.

Beschreibung: We present here the first results, for the preindustrial and mid-Holocene climatological periods, of the newly developed isotope-enhanced version of the fully coupled Earth system model MPI-ESM, called hereafter MPI-ESM-wiso. The water stable isotopes H16O, H18O and HDO have been implemented into all components of the coupled model setup. The mid-Holocene provides the opportunity to evaluate the model response to changes in the seasonal and latitudinal distribution of insolation induced by different orbital forcing conditions. The results of our equilibrium simulations allow us to evaluate the performance of the isotopic model in simulating the spatial and temporal variations of water isotopes in the different compartments of the hydrological system for warm climates. For the preindustrial climate, MPI-ESM-wiso reproduces very well the observed spatial distribution of the isotopic content in precipitation linked to the spatial variations in temperature and precipitation rate. We also find a good model–data agreement with the observed distribution of isotopic composition in surface seawater but a bias with the presence of surface seawater that is too 18O-depleted in the Arctic Ocean. All these results are improved compared to the previous model version ECHAM5/MPIOM. The spatial relationships of water isotopic composition with temperature, precipitation rate and salinity are consistent with observational data. For the preindustrial climate, the interannual relationships of water isotopes with temperature and salinity are globally lower than the spatial ones, consistent with previous studies. Simulated results under mid-Holocene conditions are in fair agreement with the isotopic measurements from ice cores and continental speleothems. MPI-ESM-wiso simulates a decrease in the isotopic composition of precipitation from North Africa to the Tibetan Plateau via India due to the enhanced monsoons during the mid-Holocene. Over Greenland, our simulation indicates a higher isotopic composition of precipitation linked to higher summer temperature and a reduction in sea ice, shown by positive isotope–temperature gradient. For the Antarctic continent, the model simulates lower isotopic values over the East Antarctic plateau, linked to the lower temperatures during the mid-Holocene period, while similar or higher isotopic values are modeled over the rest of the continent. While variations of isotopic contents in precipitation over West Antarctica between mid-Holocene and preindustrial periods are partly controlled by changes in temperature, the transport of relatively 18O-rich water vapor near the coast to the western ice core sites could play a role in the final isotopic composition. So, more caution has to be taken about the reconstruction of past temperature variations during warm periods over this area. The coupling of such a model with an ice sheet model or the use of a zoomed grid centered on this region could help to better describe the role of the water vapor transport and sea ice around West Antarctica. The reconstruction of past salinity through isotopic content in sea surface waters can be complicated for regions with strong ocean dynamics, variations in sea ice regimes or significant changes in freshwater budget, giving an extremely variable relationship between the isotopic content and salinity of ocean surface waters over small spatial scales. These complicating factors demonstrate the complexity of interpreting water isotopes as past climate signals of warm periods like the mid-Holocene. A systematic isotope model intercomparison study for further insights on the model dependency of these results would be beneficial.

Beschreibung: The deglacial history of CO2 release from the deep North Pacific remains unresolved. This is due to conflicting indications about subarctic Pacific ventilation changes based on various marine proxies, especially for Heinrich Stadial 1 (HS-1) when a rapid atmospheric CO2 rise occurs. Here, we use a complex Earth System Model to investigate the deglacial North Pacific overturning and its control on ocean stratification. Our results show an enhanced intermediate-to-deep ocean stratification coeval with intensified North Pacific Intermediate Water (NPIW) formation during HS-1, compared to the Last Glacial Maximum. The stronger NPIW formation causes lower salinities and higher temperatures at intermediate depths. By lowering NPIW densities, this enlarges vertical density gradient and thus enhances intermediate-to-deep ocean stratification during HS-1. Physically, this process prevents the North Pacific deep waters from a better communication with the upper oceans, thus prolongs the existing isolation of glacial Pacific abyssal carbons during HS-1.

Beschreibung: An approach is presented for high-field MRI studies of the cardiovascular system (CVS) of a marine crustacean, the edible crab Cancer pagurus, submerged in highly conductive seawater. Structure and function of the CVS were investigated at 9.4 T. Cardiac motion was studied using self-gated CINE MRI. Imaging protocols and radio-frequency coil arrangements were tested for anatomical imaging. Haemolymph flow was quantified using phase-contrast angiography. Signal-to-noise-ratios and flow velocities in afferent and efferent branchial veins were compared with Student’s t test (n = 5). Seawater induced signal losses were dependent on imaging protocols and RF coil setup. Internal cardiac structures could be visualized with high spatial resolution within 8 min using a gradient-echo technique. Variations in haemolymph flow in different vessels could be determined over time. Maximum flow was similar within individual vessels and corresponded to literature values from Doppler measurements. Heart contractions were more pronounced in lateral and dorso-ventral directions than in the anterior–posterior direction. Choosing adequate imaging protocols in combination with a specific RF coil arrangement allows to monitor various parts of the crustacean CVS with exceptionally high spatial resolution despite the adverse effects of seawater at 9.4 T.

Beschreibung: In this study, we present results obtained from modelling the mid-Pliocene warm period using the Community Earth System Models (COSMOS, version: COSMOS-landveg r2413, 2009) with the two different sets of boundary conditions prescribed for the two phases of the Pliocene Model Intercomparison Project (PlioMIP). Boundary conditions, model forcing, and modelling methodology of the two phases of PlioMIP, tagged PlioMIP1 and PlioMIP2,differ considerably in palaeogeography, in particular with regards to the state of ocean gateways, ice-masks, vegetation and topography. Further differences between model setups as suggested for PlioMIP1 and PlioMIP2 consider updates to the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), that is specified as 405 and 400 parts per million by volume (ppmv) for PlioMIP1 and PlioMIP2, respectively, as well as minor differences in the concentrations of methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) due to changes in the protocol of the Paleoclimate Model Intercomparison Project (PMIP) from phase 3 to phase 4. With this manuscript, we bridge the gap between our contributions to PlioMIP1 (Stepanek and Lohmann, 2012) and PlioMIP2 (Stepanek et al., 2019). We highlight some of the effects that differences in the chosen Mid-Pliocene model setup (PlioMIP2 vs. PlioMIP1) have on the climate state as derived with the COSMOS, as this information will be valuable in the framework of the model-model and model-data-comparison within PlioMIP2. We evaluate the model sensitivity to improved mid-Pliocene boundary conditions using PlioMIP’s core mid-Pliocene experiments for PlioMIP1 and PlioMIP2, and present further simulations where we test model sensitivity to variations in palaeogeography, orbit and concentration of CO2. Firstly,we highlight major changes in boundary conditions from PlioMIP1 to PlioMIP2 and also the limitations recorded from the initial effort. The results derived from of our simulations show that COSMOS simulates a mid-Pliocene climate state that is 0.08 K colder in PlioMIP2, if compared to PlioMIP1. On one hand, high-latitude warming,which is supported by proxy evidence of the mid-Pliocene, is underestimated in simulations of both PlioMIP1 andPlioMIP2. On the other hand, spatial variations in surface air temperature (SAT), sea surface temperature (SST) as well as the distribution of sea ice suggest improvement of simulated SAT and SST in PlioMIP2 if employing the updated palaeogeography. The PlioMIP2 Mid-Pliocene simulation produces warmer SSTs in the Arctic and North Atlantic Ocean than derived from the respective PlioMIP1 climate state. The difference in prescribed CO2accountsfor 1.1 K of warming in the Arctic, leading to an ice-free summer in the PlioMIP1 simulation, and a quasi-ice-free summer in PlioMIP2. Furthermore, employing different orbital forcings in simulating the Mid-Pliocene lead to pronounced annual and seasonal variations, which is not accounted for by marine and terrestrial reconstruction of the time-slice.

Beschreibung: The Antarctic temperature changes over the past millennia remain more uncertain than in many other continental regions. This has several origins: (1) the number of high-resolution ice cores is small, in particular on the East Antarctic plateau and in some coastal areas in East Antarctica; (2) the short and spatially sparse instrumental records limit the calibration period for reconstructions and the assessment of the methodologies; (3) the link between isotope records from ice cores and local climate is usually complex and dependent on the spatial scales and timescales investigated. Here, we use climate model results, pseudo-proxy experiments and data assimilation experiments to assess the potential for reconstructing the Antarctic temperature over the last 2 millennia based on a new database of stable oxygen isotopes in ice cores compiled in the frame- work of Antarctica2k (Stenni et al., 2017). The well-known covariance between δ18O and temperature is reproduced in the two isotope-enabled models used (ECHAM5/MPI-OM and ECHAM5-wiso), but is generally weak over the different Antarctic regions, limiting the skill of the reconstructions. Furthermore, the strength of the link displays large variations over the past millennium, further affecting the potential skill of temperature reconstructions based on statistical methods which rely on the assumption that the last decades are a good estimate for longer temperature reconstructions. Using a data assimilation technique allows, in theory, for changes in the δ18O–temperature link through time and space to be taken into account. Pseudoproxy experiments confirm the benefits of using data assimilation methods instead of statistical methods that provide reconstructions with unrealistic variances in some Antarctic subregions. They also confirm that the relatively weak link between both variables leads to a limited potential for reconstructing temperature based on δ18O. However, the reconstruction skill is higher and more uniform among reconstruction methods when the reconstruction target is the Antarctic as a whole rather than smaller Antarctic subregions. This consistency between the methods at the large scale is also observed when reconstructing temperature based on the real δ18O regional composites of Stenni et al. (2017). In this case, temperature reconstructions based on data assimilation confirm the long-term cooling over Antarctica during the last millennium, and the later onset of anthropogenic warming compared with the simulations without data assimilation, which is especially visible in West Antarctica. Data assimilation also allows for models and direct observations to be reconciled by reproducing the east–west contrast in the recent temperature trends. This recent warming pattern is likely mostly driven by internal variability given the large spread of individual Paleoclimate Modelling Intercomparison Project (PMIP)/Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) model realizations in simulating it. As in the pseudoproxy framework, the reconstruction methods perform differently at the subregional scale, especially in terms of the variance of the time series produced. While the potential benefits of using a data assimilation method instead of a statistical method have been highlighted in a pseudoproxy framework, the instrumental series are too short to confirm this in a realistic setup.

Beschreibung: Ice-wedge polygons are common features of lowland tundra in the continuous permafrost zone and prone to rapid degradation through melting of ground ice. There are many interrelated processes involved in ice-wedge thermokarst and it is a major challenge to quantify their influence on the stability of the permafrost underlying the landscape. In this study we used a numerical modelling approach to investigate the degradation of ice wedges with a focus on the influence of hydrological conditions. Our study area was Samoylov Island in the Lena River delta of northern Siberia, for which we had in situ measurements to evaluate the model. The tailored version of the CryoGrid 3 land surface model was capable of simulating the changing microtopography of polygonal tundra and also regarded lateral fluxes of heat, water, and snow. We demonstrated that the approach is capable of simulating ice-wedge degradation and the associated transition from a low-centred to a high-centred polygonal microtopography. The model simulations showed ice-wedge degradation under recent climatic conditions of the study area, irrespective of hydrological conditions. However, we found that wetter conditions lead to an earlier onset of degradation and cause more rapid ground subsidence. We set our findings in correspondence to observed types of ice-wedge polygons in the study area and hypothesized on remaining discrepancies between modelled and observed ice-wedge thermokarst activity. Our quantitative approach provides a valuable complement to previous, more qualitative and conceptual, descriptions of the possible pathways of ice-wedge polygon evolution. We concluded that our study is a blueprint for investigating thermokarst landforms and marks a step forward in understanding the complex interrelationships between various processes shaping ice-rich permafrost landscapes.

Beschreibung: Warming of the Arctic led to an increase in permafrost temperatures by about 0.3 �C during the last decade. Permafrost warming is associated with increasing sediment water content, permeability, and diffusivity and could in the long term alter microbial community composition and abundance even before permafrost thaws. We studied the long-term effect (up to 2500 years) of submarine permafrost warming on microbial communities along an onshore–offshore transect on the Siberian Arctic Shelf displaying a natural temperature gradient of more than 10 �C. We analysed the in situ development of bacterial abundance and community composition through total cell counts (TCCs), quantitative PCR of bacterial gene abundance, and amplicon sequencing and correlated the microbial community data with temperature, pore water chemistry, and sediment physicochemical parameters. On timescales of centuries, permafrost warming coincided with an overall decreasing microbial abundance, whereas millennia after warming microbial abundance was similar to cold onshore permafrost. In addition, the dissolved organic carbon content of all cores was lowest in submarine permafrost after millennial-scale warming. Based on correlation analysis, TCC, unlike bacterial gene abundance, showed a significant rank-based negative correlation with increasing temperature, while bacterial gene copy numbers showed a strong negative correlation with salinity. Bacterial community composition correlated only weakly with temperature but strongly with the pore water stable isotopes �18O and �D, as well as with depth. The bacterial community showed substantial spatial variation and an overall dominance of Actinobacteria, Chloroflexi, Firmicutes, Gemmatimonadetes, and Proteobacteria, which are amongst the microbial taxa that were also found to be active in other frozen permafrost environments. We suggest that, millennia after permafrost warming by over 10 �C, microbial community composition and abundance show some indications for proliferation but mainly reflect the sedimentation history and paleoenvironment and not a direct effect through warming.

Beschreibung: © The Author(s), 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Gruen, D. S., Wolfe, J. M., & Fournier, G. P.. Paleozoic diversification of terrestrial chitin-degrading bacterial lineages. BMC Evolutionary Biology, 19, (2019): 34, doi:10.1186/s12862-019-1357-8.

Beschreibung: Background Establishing the divergence times of groups of organisms is a major goal of evolutionary biology. This is especially challenging for microbial lineages due to the near-absence of preserved physical evidence (diagnostic body fossils or geochemical biomarkers). Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) can serve as a temporal scaffold between microbial groups and other fossil-calibrated clades, potentially improving these estimates. Specifically, HGT to or from organisms with fossil-calibrated age estimates can propagate these constraints to additional groups that lack fossils. While HGT is common between lineages, only a small subset of HGT events are potentially informative for dating microbial groups. Results Constrained by published fossil-calibrated studies of fungal evolution, molecular clock analyses show that multiple clades of Bacteria likely acquired chitinase homologs via HGT during the very late Neoproterozoic into the early Paleozoic. These results also show that, following these HGT events, recipient terrestrial bacterial clades likely diversified ~ 300–500 million years ago, consistent with established timescales of arthropod and plant terrestrialization. Conclusions We conclude that these age estimates are broadly consistent with the dispersal of chitinase genes throughout the microbial world in direct response to the evolution and ecological expansion of detrital-chitin producing groups. The convergence of multiple lines of evidence demonstrates the utility of HGT-based dating methods in microbial evolution. The pattern of inheritance of chitinase genes in multiple terrestrial bacterial lineages via HGT processes suggests that these genes, and possibly other genes encoding substrate-specific enzymes, can serve as a “standard candle” for dating microbial lineages across the Tree of Life.

Beschreibung: This work was supported by a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program Award to DSG., and Simons Collaboration on the Origins of Life Award #339603 and NSF Integrated Earth Systems Program Award #1615426 to GPF. The funding agencies for this study had no role in study design, data collection, data analysis and interpretation, or in writing the manuscript.

Beschreibung: 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 water samples. This update of GLODAPv2, v2.2019, adds data from 116 cruises to the previous version, extending its coverage in time from 2013 to 2017, while also adding some data from prior years. GLODAPv2.2019 includes measurements from more than 1.1 million water samples from the global oceans collected on 840 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, especially 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 116 new cruises with the data from the 724 quality-controlled cruises of the GLODAPv2 data product. They correct for errors related to measurement, calibration, and data handling practices, taking into account any known or likely time trends or variations. 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, and 5 % in the halogenated transient tracers. The compilation also includes data for several other variables, such as isotopic tracers. These were not subjected to bias comparison or adjustments. The original data, their documentation and DOI codes are available in the Ocean Carbon Data System of NOAA NCEI (https://www.nodc.noaa.gov/ocads/oceans/GLODAPv2_2019/, last access: 17 September 2019). This site also provides access to the merged data product, which is provided as a single global file and as four regional ones – the Arctic, Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific oceans – under https://doi.org/10.25921/xnme-wr20 (Olsen et al., 2019). The product files also include significant ancillary and approximated data. These were obtained by interpolation of, or calculation from, measured data. This paper documents the GLODAPv2.2019 methods and provides a broad overview of the secondary quality control procedures and results.

Beschreibung: We present a Lagrangian convective transport scheme developed for global chemistry and transport models, which considers the variable residence time that an air parcel spends in convection. This is particularly important for accurately simulating the tropospheric chemistry of short-lived species, e.g., for determining the time available for heterogeneous chemical processes on the surface of cloud droplets. In current Lagrangian convective transport schemes air parcels are stochastically redistributed within a fixed time step according to estimated probabilities for convective entrainment as well as the altitude of detrainment. We introduce a new scheme that extends this approach by modeling the variable time that an air parcel spends in convection by estimating vertical updraft velocities. Vertical updraft velocities are obtained by combining convective mass fluxes from meteorological analysis data with a parameterization of convective area fraction profiles. We implement two different parameterizations: a parameterization using an observed constant convective area fraction profile and a parameterization that uses randomly drawn profiles to allow for variability. Our scheme is driven by convective mass fluxes and detrainment rates that originate from an external convective parameterization, which can be obtained from meteorological analysis data or from general circulation models. We study the effect of allowing for a variable time that an air parcel spends in convection by performing simulations in which our scheme is implemented into the trajectory module of the ATLAS chemistry and transport model and is driven by the ECMWF ERA-Interim reanalysis data. In particular, we show that the redistribution of air parcels in our scheme conserves the vertical mass distribution and that the scheme is able to reproduce the convective mass fluxes and detrainment rates of ERA-Interim. We further show that the estimated vertical updraft velocities of our scheme are able to reproduce wind profiler measurements performed in Darwin, Australia, for velocities larger than 0.6 m s−1. SO2 is used as an example to show that there is a significant effect on species mixing ratios when modeling the time spent in convective updrafts compared to a redistribution of air parcels in a fixed time step. Furthermore, we perform long-time global trajectory simulations of radon-222 and compare with aircraft measurements of radon activity.

Beschreibung: Seismological findings show a complex scenario of plume upwellings from a deep thermo-chemical anomaly (superplume) beneath the East African Rift System (EARS). It is unclear if these geophysical observations represent a true picture of the superplume and its influence on magmatism along the EARS. Thus, it is essential to find a geochemical tracer to establish where upwellings are connected to the deep-seated thermo-chemical anomaly. Here we identify a unique non-volatile superplume isotopic signature (‘C’) in the youngest (after 10 Ma) phase of widespread EARS rift-related magmatism where it extends into the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea. This is the first sound evidence that the superplume influences the EARS far from the low seismic velocities in the magma-rich northern half. Our finding shows for the first time that superplume mantle exists beneath the rift the length of Africa from the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean offshore southern Mozambique

Beschreibung: © The Author(s), 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in ISME Journal (2019), doi:10.1038/s41396-019-0373-4.

Beschreibung: The benthos in estuarine environments often experiences periods of regularly occurring hypoxic and anoxic conditions, dramatically impacting biogeochemical cycles. How oxygen depletion affects the growth of specific uncultivated microbial populations within these diverse benthic communities, however, remains poorly understood. Here, we applied H218O quantitative stable isotope probing (qSIP) in order to quantify the growth of diverse, uncultured bacterial populations in response to low oxygen concentrations in estuarine sediments. Over the course of 7- and 28-day incubations with redox conditions spanning from hypoxia to euxinia (sulfidic), 18O labeling of bacterial populations exhibited different patterns consistent with micro-aerophilic, anaerobic, facultative anaerobic, and aerotolerant anaerobic growth. 18O-labeled populations displaying anaerobic growth had a significantly non-random phylogenetic distribution, exhibited by numerous clades currently lacking cultured representatives within the Planctomycetes, Actinobacteria, Latescibacteria, Verrucomicrobia, and Acidobacteria. Genes encoding the beta-subunit of the dissimilatory sulfate reductase (dsrB) became 18O labeled only during euxinic conditions. Sequencing of these 18O-labeled dsrB genes showed that Acidobacteria were the dominant group of growing sulfate-reducing bacteria, highlighting their importance for sulfur cycling in estuarine sediments. Our findings provide the first experimental constraints on the redox conditions underlying increased growth in several groups of “microbial dark matter”, validating hypotheses put forth by earlier metagenomic studies.

Beschreibung: This work was supported by a grant OR 417/1-1 from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, and a Junior Researcher Fund grant from LMU Munich to WDO. This work was performed in part, through the Master’s Program in Geobiology and Paleontology (MGAP) at LMU Munich.

Beschreibung: © The Author(s), 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Trembath-Reichert, E., Butterfield, D. A., & Huber, J. A. Active subseafloor microbial communities from Mariana back-arc venting fluids share metabolic strategies across different thermal niches and taxa. Isme Journal, 13(9), (2019): 2264-2279, doi: 10.1038/s41396-019-0431-y.

Beschreibung: There are many unknowns regarding the distribution, activity, community composition, and metabolic repertoire of microbial communities in the subseafloor of deep-sea hydrothermal vents. Here we provide the first characterization of subseafloor microbial communities from venting fluids along the central Mariana back-arc basin (15.5–18°N), where the slow-spreading rate, depth, and variable geochemistry along the back-arc distinguish it from other spreading centers. Results indicated that diverse Epsilonbacteraeota were abundant across all sites, with a population of high temperature Aquificae restricted to the northern segment. This suggests that differences in subseafloor populations along the back-arc are associated with local geologic setting and resultant geochemistry. Metatranscriptomics coupled to stable isotope probing revealed bacterial carbon fixation linked to hydrogen oxidation, denitrification, and sulfide or thiosulfate oxidation at all sites, regardless of community composition. NanoSIMS (nanoscale secondary ion mass spectrometry) incubations at 80 °C show only a small portion of the microbial community took up bicarbonate, but those autotrophs had the highest overall rates of activity detected across all experiments. By comparison, acetate was more universally utilized to sustain growth, but within a smaller range of activity. Together, results indicate that microbial communities in venting fluids from the Mariana back-arc contain active subseafloor communities reflective of their local conditions with metabolisms commonly shared across geologically disparate spreading centers throughout the ocean.

Beschreibung: This work was funded by the NOAA Ocean Exploration and Research (OER) Program, the NSF Center for Dark Energy Biosphere Investigations (C-DEBI) (OCE-0939564), and NOAA/PMEL and JISAO under NOAA Cooperative Agreement NA15OAR4320063. ETR was supported by a NASA Postdoctoral Fellowship with the NASA Astrobiology Institute and a L’Oréal USA For Women in Science Fellowship. The data collected in this study includes work supported by the Schmidt Ocean Institute during cruise FK161129 aboard R/V Falkor. We thank the captains and crews of the R/V Falkor and ROV SuBastian. Critical support in cruise planning and sampling at sea was carried out by Andra Bobbitt, Bill Chadwick, Bob Embley, Ben Larson, and Kevin Roe. Caroline Fortunato, Connor Skennerton, Rika Anderson, Karthik Anantharaman, Jaclyn Saunders, Hank Yu, Lewis Ward, Elaina Graham, and Ben Tully aided bioinformatics pipeline development and Victoria Orphan and Yunbin Guan aided with NanoSIMS analysis. This is C-DEBI Contribution 470, JISAO Contribution 2018-0173, and PMEL Contribution 4867.

Beschreibung: Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2019. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Springer Nature for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Zakroff, C., Mooney, T.A. & Wirth, C. Ocean acidification responses in paralarval squid swimming behavior using a novel 3D tracking system. Hydrobiologia, 808(1),(2018):83-106, doi:10.1007/s10750-017-3342-9.

Beschreibung: Chronic embryonic exposure to ocean acidification (OA) has been shown to degrade the aragonitic statolith of paralarval squid, Doryteuthis pealeii, a key structure for their swimming behavior. This study examined if day-of-hatching paralarval D. pealeii from eggs reared under chronic OA demonstrated measurable impairments to swimming activity and control. This required the development of a novel, cost-effective, and robust method for 3D motion tracking and analysis. Squid eggs were reared in pCO2 levels in a dose-dependent manner ranging from 400 - 2200 ppm. Initial 2D experiments showed paralarvae in higher acidification environments spent more time at depth. In 3D experiments, velocity, particularly positive and negative vertical velocities, significantly decreased from 400 to 1000 ppm pCO2, but showed non-significant decreases at higher concentrations. Activity and horizontal velocity decreased linearly with increasing pCO2, indicating a subtle impact to paralarval energetics. Patterns may have been obscured by notable individual variability in the paralarvae. Responses were also seen to vary between trials on cohort or potentially annual scales. Overall, paralarval swimming appeared resilient to OA, with effects being slight. The newly developed 3D tracking system provides a powerful and accessible method for future studies to explore similar questions in the larvae of aquatic taxa.

Beschreibung: We thank D. Remsen, the MBL Marine Resources Center staff, and MBL Gemma crew for their support in acquiring squid. R. Galat and the facilities staff of the WHOI ESL provided system support. D. McCorkle, KYK Chan, and M. White provided valuable insight on the OA system. E. Moberg, A. Beet, and A. Solow assisted in the development and coding of the 3D model system. We also thank E. Bonk, K. Hoering, M. Lee, D. Weiler, and A. Schlunk for their assistance and input with the experiments. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under Grant No. 1122374. This project is funded by NSF Grant No. 1220034.

Beschreibung: © The Author(s), 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Chen, R.; Park, H. A.; Mnatsakanyan, N.; Niu, Y.; Licznerski, P.; Wu, J.; Miranda, P.; Graham, M.; Tang, J.; Boon, A. J. W.; Cossu, G.; Mandemakers, W.; Bonifati, V.; Smith, P. J. S.; Alavian, K. N.; Jonas, E. A. Parkinson's disease protein DJ-1 regulates ATP synthase protein components to increase neuronal process outgrowth. Cell Death & Disease, 10(6), (2019):469, doi:10.1038/s41419-019-1679-x.

Beschreibung: Familial Parkinson’s disease (PD) protein DJ-1 mutations are linked to early onset PD. We have found that DJ-1 binds directly to the F1FO ATP synthase β subunit. DJ-1’s interaction with the β subunit decreased mitochondrial uncoupling and enhanced ATP production efficiency while in contrast mutations in DJ-1 or DJ-1 knockout increased mitochondrial uncoupling, and depolarized neuronal mitochondria. In mesencephalic DJ-1 KO cultures, there was a progressive loss of neuronal process extension. This was ameliorated by a pharmacological reagent, dexpramipexole, that binds to ATP synthase, closing a mitochondrial inner membrane leak and enhancing ATP synthase efficiency. ATP synthase c-subunit can form an uncoupling channel; we measured, therefore, ATP synthase F1 (β subunit) and c-subunit protein levels. We found that ATP synthase β subunit protein level in the DJ-1 KO neurons was approximately half that found in their wild-type counterparts, comprising a severe defect in ATP synthase stoichiometry and unmasking c-subunit. We suggest that DJ-1 enhances dopaminergic cell metabolism and growth by its regulation of ATP synthase protein components.

Beschreibung: The research was supported by NIH (NS081746) to E.A.J., W.M. and V.B. are supported by the Stichting Parkinson Fonds (The Netherlands).

Beschreibung: © The Author(s), 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Millette, N. C., Kelble, C., Linhoss, A., Ashby, S., & Visser, L. Using spatial variability in the rate of change of chlorophyll a to improve water quality management in a subtropical oligotrophic estuary. Estuaries and Coasts, 42(7), (2019): 1792-1803, doi:10.1007/s12237-019-00610-5.

Beschreibung: Anthropogenic eutrophication threatens numerous aquatic ecosystems across the globe. Proactive management that prevents a system from becoming eutrophied is more effective and cheaper than restoring a eutrophic system, but detecting early warning signs and problematic nutrient sources in a relatively healthy system can be difficult. The goal of this study was to investigate if rates of change in chlorophyll a and nutrient concentrations at individual stations can be used to identify specific areas that need to be targeted for management. Biscayne Bay is a coastal embayment in southeast Florida with primarily adequate water quality that has experienced rapid human population growth over the last century. Water quality data collected at 48 stations throughout Biscayne Bay over a 20-year period (1995–2014) were examined to identify any water quality trends associated with eutrophication. Chlorophyll a and phosphate concentrations have increased throughout Biscayne Bay, which is a primary indicator of eutrophication. Moreover, chlorophyll a concentrations throughout the northern area, where circulation is restricted, and in nearshore areas of central Biscayne Bay are increasing at a higher rate compared to the rest of the Bay. This suggests increases in chlorophyll a are due to local nutrient sources from the watershed. These areas are also where recent seagrass die-offs have occurred, suggesting an urgent need for management intervention. This is in contrast with the state of Florida listing of Biscayne Bay as a medium priority impaired body of water.

Beschreibung: Data provided by the SERC-FIU/SFWMD Water Quality Monitoring Network is supported by SFWMD/SERC Cooperative Agreement #4600000352 as well as EPA Agreement #X7-96410603-3. This research was also funded by a NOAA/Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory grant to the Northern Gulf Institute (award number NA160AR4320199).

Beschreibung: Holocene permafrost from ice wedge polygons in the vicinity of large seabird breeding colonies in the Thule District, NW Greenland, was drilled to explore the relation between permafrost aggradation and seabird presence. The latter is reliant on the presence of the North Water Polynya (NOW) in the northern Baffin Bay. The onset of peat accumulation associated with the arrival of little auks (Alle alle) in a breeding colony at Annikitisoq, north of Cape York, is radiocarbon-dated to 4400 cal BP. A thick-billed murre (Uria lomvia) colony on Appat (Saunders Island) in the mouth of the Wolstenholme Fjord started 5650 cal BP. Both species provide marine-derived nutrients (MDNs) that fertilize vegetation and promote peat growth. The geochemical signature of organic matter left by the birds is traceable in the frozen Holocene peat. The peat accumulation rates at both sites are highest after the onset, decrease over time, and were about 2-times faster at the little auk site than at the thick-billed murre site. High accumulation rates induce shorter periods of organic matter (OM) decomposition before it enters the perennially frozen state. This is seen in comparably high C=N ratios and less depleted 13C, pointing to a lower degree of OM decomposition at the little auk site, while the opposite pattern can be discerned at the thick-billed murre site. Peat accumulation rates correspond to 15N trends, where decreasing accumulation led to increasing depletion in 15N as seen in the little-auk-related data. In contrast, the more decomposed OM of the thick-billed murre site shows almost stable 15N. Late Holocene wedge ice fed by cold season precipitation was studied at the little auk site and provides the first stable-water isotopic record from Greenland with mean 18O of 8:00:8, mean D of 36:25:7, mean d excess of 7:70:7, and a 18O-D slope of 7.27, which is close to those of the modern Thule meteoric water line. The syngenetic ice wedge polygon development is mirrored in testacean records of the little auk site and delineates polygon low-center, dry-out, and polygon-high-center stages. The syngenetic permafrost formation directly depending on peat growth (controlled by bird activity) falls within the period of neoglacial cooling and the establishment of the NOW, thus indirectly following the Holocene climate trends.

Beschreibung: Organisms in shallow waters at high latitudes are under pressure due to climate change. These areas are typically inhabited by microphytobenthos (MPB) communities, composed mainly of diatoms. Only sparse information is available on the ecophysiology and acclimation processes within MPBs from Arctic regions. The physico-chemical environment and the ecology and ecophysiology of benthic diatoms in Kongsfjorden (Svalbard, Norway) are addressed in this review. MPB biofilms cover extensive areas of sediment. They show high rates of primary production, stabilise sediment surfaces against erosion under hydrodynamic forces,and affect the exchange of oxygen and nutrients across the sediment-water interface. Additionally, this phototrophic community represents a key component in the functioning of the Kongsfjorden trophic web, particularly as a major food source for benthic suspension- or deposit-feeders. MPB in Kongsfjorden is confronted with pronounced seasonal variations in solar radiation, low temperatures, and hyposaline (meltwater) conditions in summer, as well as long periods of ice and snow cover in winter. From the few data available, it seems that these organisms can easily cope with these environmental extremes. The underlying physiological mechanisms that allow growth and photosynthesis to continue under widely varying abiotic parameters, along with vertical migration and heterotrophy, and biochemical features such as a pronounced fatty-acid metabolism and silicate incorporation are discussed. Existing gaps in our knowledge of benthic diatoms in Kongsfjorden, such as the chemical ecology of biotic interactions, need to be filled. In addition, since many of the underlying molecular acclimation mechanisms are poorly understood, modern approaches based on transcriptomics, proteomics, and/or metabolomics, in conjunction with cell biological and biochemical techniques, are urgently needed. Climate change models for the Arctic predict other multifactorial stressors, such as an increase in precipitation and permafrost thawing, with consequences for the shallow-water regions. Both precipitation and permafrost thawing are likely to increase nutrient-enriched, turbid freshwater runoff and may locally counteract the expected increase in coastal radiation availability. So far, complex interactions among factors, as well as the full genetic diversity and physiological plasticity of Arctic benthic diatoms, have only rarely been considered. The limited existing information is described and discussed in this review.

Beschreibung: Identifying stabilizing factors in foodwebs is a long standing challenge with wide implications for community ecology and conservation. Here, we investigate the stability of spatially resolved meta-foodwebs with far-ranging super-predators for whom the whole meta-foodwebs appears to be a single habitat. By using a combination of generalized modeling with a master stability function approach, we are able to efficiently explore the asymptotic stability of large classes of realistic many-patch meta-foodwebs. We show that meta-foodwebs with far-ranging top predators are more stable than those with localized top predators. Moreover, adding far-ranging generalist top predators to a system can have a net stabilizing effect. These results highlight the importance of top predator conservation.

Beschreibung: We evaluated whether the central nervous system (CNS) chooses muscle activations not only to achieve behavioral goals but also to minimize stresses and strains within joints. We analyzed the coordination between quadriceps muscles during locomotion in rats before and after imposing a lateral force on the patella. Vastus lateralis (VL) and vastus medialis (VM) in the rat produce identical knee torques but opposing mediolateral patellar forces. If the CNS regulates internal joint stresses, we predicted that after imposing a lateral patellar load by attaching a spring between the patella and lateral femur, the CNS would reduce the ratio between VL and VM activation to minimize net mediolateral patellar forces. Our results confirmed this prediction, showing that VL activation was reduced after attaching the spring whereas VM and rectus femoris (RF) activations were not significantly changed. This adaptation was reversed after the spring was detached. These changes were not observed immediately after attaching the spring but only developed after 3–5 days, suggesting that they reflected gradual processes rather than immediate compensatory reflexes. Overall, these results support the hypothesis that the CNS chooses muscle activations to regulate internal joint variables.

Beschreibung: Pesticide use is one of the main causes of pollinator declines in agricultural ecosystems. Traditionally, most laboratory studies on bee ecotoxicology test acute exposure to single compounds. However, under field conditions, bees are often chronically exposed to a variety of chemicals, with potential synergistic effects. We studied the effects of field-realistic concentrations of three pesticides measured in pollen and nectar of commercial melon fields on the solitary bee Osmia bicornis L. We orally exposed females of this species throughout their life span to 8 treatments combining two neonicotinoid insecticides (acetamiprid, imidacloprid) and a triazole fungicide (myclobutanil) via pollen and sugar syrup. We measured pollen and syrup consumption, longevity, ovary maturation and thermogenesis. Although bees consumed larger amounts of syrup than pollen, pesticide intake via syrup and pollen were similar. At the tested concentrations, no synergistic effects emerged, and we found no effects on longevity and ovary maturation. However, all treatments containing imidacloprid resulted in suppressed syrup consumption and drastic decreases in thoracic temperature and bee activity. Our results have important implications for pesticide regulation. If we had measured only lethal effects we would have wrongly concluded that the pesticide combinations containing imidacloprid were safe to O. bicornis. The incorporation of tests specifically intended to detect sublethal effects in bee risk assessment schemes should be an urgent priority. In this way, the effects of pesticide exposure on the dynamics of bee populations in agroecosystems will be better assessed.

Beschreibung: Phosphorylation of the translation initiation factor eIF2α within the mediobasal hypothalamus is known to suppress food intake, but the role of the eIF2α phosphatases in regulating body weight is poorly understood. Mice deficient in active PPP1R15A, a stress-inducible eIF2α phosphatase, are healthy and more resistant to endoplasmic reticulum stress than wild type controls. We report that when female Ppp1r15a mutant mice are fed a high fat diet they gain less weight than wild type littermates owing to reduced food intake. This results in healthy leaner Ppp1r15a mutant animals with reduced hepatic steatosis and improved insulin sensitivity, albeit with a possible modest defect in insulin secretion. By contrast, no weight differences are observed between wild type and Ppp1r15a deficient mice fed a standard diet. We conclude that female mice lacking the C-terminal PP1-binding domain of PPP1R15A show reduced dietary intake and preserved glucose tolerance. Our data indicate that this results in reduced weight gain and protection from diet-induced obesity.

Beschreibung: Damage to the corticospinal tract is widely studied following unilateral subcortical stroke, whereas less is known about changes to other sensorimotor pathways. This may be due to the fact that many studies investigated morphological changes in the brain, where the majority of descending and ascending brain pathways are overlapping, and did not investigate the brainstem where they separate. Moreover, these pathways continue passing through separate regions in the spinal cord. Here, using a high-resolution structural MRI of both the brainstem and the cervical spinal cord, we were able to identify a number of microstructurally altered pathways, in addition to the corticospinal tract, post stroke. Moreover, decreases in ipsi-lesional corticospinal tract integrity and increases in contra-lesional medial reticulospinal tract integrity were correlated with motor impairment severity in individuals with stroke.

Beschreibung: Migratory birds usually respond to climate change by modifying breeding and/or wintering areas, as well as by reproducing earlier. In addition, changes in winter habitat use or breeding phenology could have important carry-over effects on subsequent breeding success. Here, we studied age- and sex-dependent carry-over effects from wintering to the breeding stage of a small aerial insectivorous long-distance migratory bird, the barn swallows (Hirundo rustica) breeding in Denmark during 1984–2013. First, we used stable isotope analyses combined with ringing recoveries to identify wintering areas. Second, we found that environmental conditions as inferred by Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) have improved at the wintering grounds. Third, we used confirmatory path analysis to quantify the indirect effect of winter conditions on subsequent breeding success. Males delayed onset of breeding and raised fewer fledglings in the first brood when ecological conditions during the previous winter improved. This response was age dependent, since yearlings did not respond to this environmental cue but the response was increasingly stronger as males aged. Females showed a similar response to winter conditions, although not statistically significant. These results highlight the importance of studying carry-over effects within the context of climate change, especially in relation to age of individuals.