22 research outputs found
The Arctic in the twenty-first century: changing biogeochemical linkages across a paraglacial landscape of Greenland
The Kangerlussuaq area of southwest Greenland encompasses diverse ecological, geomorphic, and climate gradients that function over a range of spatial and temporal scales. Ecosystems range from the microbial communities on the ice sheet and moisture-stressed terrestrial vegetation (and their associated herbivores) to freshwater and oligosaline lakes. These ecosystems are linked by a dynamic glacio-fluvial-aeolian geomorphic system that transports water, geological material, organic carbon and nutrients from the glacier surface to adjacent terrestrial and aquatic systems. This paraglacial system is now subject to substantial change because of rapid regional warming since 2000. Here, we describe changes in the eco- and geomorphic systems at a range of timescales and explore rapid future change in the links that integrate these systems. We highlight the importance of cross-system subsidies at the landscape scale and, importantly, how these might change in the near future as the Arctic is expected to continue to warm
Correction: Expedient synthesis of eumelanin-inspired 5,6-dihydroxyindole-2-carboxylate ethyl ester derivatives (2018)
Correction for ‘Expedient synthesis of eumelanin-inspired 5,6-dihydroxyindole-2-carboxylate ethyl ester derivatives’ by Andrew H. Aebly et al., RSC Adv., 2018, 8, 28323–28328
Expedient synthesis of eumelanin-inspired 5,6-dihydroxyindole-2-carboxylate ethyl ester derivatives
Dihydroxyindoles such as 5,6-dihydroxyindole-2-carboxylic acid (DHICA) are the main monomer units of eumelanin, the black to brown pigment in humans, and have emerging biological roles beyond melanin. Elaboration of commercially available 5,6-dimethoxy-2-carboxylate ethyl ester provides ready access to DHICA-inspired small molecules, including 3-(hetero)aryl-indoles and 4,7-di-(hetero)aryl-indoles
Abrupt Holocene climate change as an important factor for human migration in West Greenland
West Greenland has had multiple episodes of human colonization and cultural transitions over the past 4,500 y. However, the explanations for these large-scale human migrations are varied, including climatic factors, resistance to adaptation, economic marginalization, mercantile exploration, and hostile neighborhood interactions. Evaluating the potential role of climate change is complicated by the lack of quantitative paleoclimate reconstructions near settlement areas and by the relative stability of Holocene temperature derived from ice cores atop the Greenland ice sheet. Here we present high-resolution records of temperature over the past 5,600 y based on alkenone unsaturation in sediments of two lakes in West Greenland. We find that major temperature changes in the past 4,500 y occurred abruptly (within decades), and were coeval in timing with the archaeological records of settlement and abandonment of the Saqqaq, Dorset, and Norse cultures, which suggests that abrupt temperature changes profoundly impacted human civilization in the region. Temperature variations in West Greenland display an antiphased relationship to temperature changes in Ireland over centennial to millennial timescales, resembling the interannual to multidecadal temperature seesaw associated with the North Atlantic Oscillation