Lessons for fisheries management from the EU cod recovery plan

The performance of the EU long-term management plan for cod stocks, in force since 2009, is analysed focusing on the human and institutional factors. The plan operates through landings quotas (TACs) and effort restrictions following a Harvest Control Rule, and deploys a novel instrument allowing Member States to ‘buy back’ or increase fishing effort for fleet segments engaged in cod-avoidance measures. The stipulated fishing mortality reductions have not been achieved. On the positive side, the ‘buy-back’ instrument has led to increased uptake of selective gear and implementation of permanent and real- time temporary closures. On the negative side, ignoring the dimension of fishers as reactive agents in the design, the impact assessment, and the annual implementation of the measures has contributed to the failure to adequately implement the plan and achieve its objectives.JRC.G.4-Maritime affair

Variability of humidity conditions in the Arctic during the first International Polar Year, 1882-83

Of all the early instrumental data for the Arctic, the meteorological data gathered during the first International Polar Year, in 1882–83 (IPY-1), are the best in terms of coverage, quality and resolution. Research carried out during IPY-1 scientific expeditions brought a significant contribution to the development of hygrometry in polar regions at the end of the 19th century. The present paper gives a detailed analysis of a unique series of humidity measurements that were carried out during IPY-1 at hourly resolutions at nine meteorological stations, relatively evenly distributed in the High Arctic. It gives an overall view of the humidity conditions prevalent in the Arctic at that time. The results show that the spatial distribution of atmospheric water vapour pressure (e) and relative humidity (RH) in the Arctic during IPY-1 was similar to the present. In the annual course the highest values of e were noted in July and August, while the lowest occurred in the cold half of the year. In comparison to present-day conditions (1961–1990), the mean values of RH in the IPY-1 period (September 1882 to July 1883) were higher by 2.4–5.6%. Most of the changes observed between historical and modern RH values are not significant. The majority of historical daily RH values lie between a distance of less than two standard deviations from current long-term monthly means

Volcanic synchronisation between the EPICA Dome C and Vostok ice cores (Antarctica) 0–145 kyr BP

This study aims at refining the synchronisation between the EPICA Dome C (EDC) and Vostok ice cores in the time interval 0–145 kyr BP by using the volcanic signatures. 102 common volcanic events were identified by using continuous electrical conductivity (ECM), di-electrical profiling (DEP) and sulfate measurements while trying to minimize the distortion of the glaciological chronologies. This is an update and a continuation of previous works performed over the 0–45 kyr interval that provided 56 tie points to the ice core chronologies (Udisti et al., 2004). This synchronisation will serve to establish Antarctic Ice Core Chronology 2012, the next synchronised Antarctic dating. A change of slope in the EDC-depth/Vostok-depth diagram is probably related to a change of accumulation regime as well as to a change of ice thickness upstream of the Lake Vostok, but we did not invoke any significant temporal change of surface accumulation at EDC relative to Vostok. No significant phase difference is detected between the EDC and Vostok isotopic records, but depth shifts between the Vostok 3G and 5G ice cores prevent from looking at this problem accurately. Three possible candidates for the Toba volcanic super-eruption �73 kyr ago are suggested in the Vostok and EDC volcanic records. Neither the ECM, DEP nor the sulfate fingerprints for these 3 events are significantly larger than many others in the records

Nitrate leaching from organic farming systems with rotational grass-clover and arable crops

Organic farming is considered an effective mean of reducing nitrogen losses compared with more intensive conventional farming systems. However, under certain conditions organic farming may also be susceptible to high nitrogen (N) losses. This is especially the case for organic dairy farms on sandy soils that use grazed grass-clover in rotation with cereals, which may lead to high rates of nitrate leaching. A study was conducted on two commercial organic farms on sand and loamy sand soils. On each farm a three year old grass-clover field was selected. Half of the field was ploughed the first year and the other half was ploughed the next year. Spring barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) was sown after the spring ploughing. Measurements showed a low N leaching during the pasture period (9-64 kg N ha-1) but a high leaching the first (63-216 kg N ha-1) and second (61-235 kg N ha-1) year after ploughing. In addition, a high residual N effect of the pasture was observed on the barley yields in both years. There was thus a low response to manure application on the sandy soil both during the first and second year after ploughing. To study the underlying processes affecting the residual effects of the pasture and the N leaching, the dynamic whole farm model FASSET was used to simulate all the treatments on both farms. The simulations agreed with the observed barley yields. However, for the sandy soil the simulation of nitrate leaching and mineral nitrogen in the soil deviated from the measurements. Three scenarios with changes in model parameters were constructed to investigate this discrepancy. These scenarios suggested that the organic matter turnover model should include a pool with a half-life of about 2-3 years. There may also be a need to include effects of soil disturbance (tillage) on soil organic matter turnover

Recent changes in north-west Greenland climate documented by NEEM shallow ice core data and simulations, and implications for past-temperature reconstructions

International audienceCombined records of snow accumulation rate, δ 18 O and deuterium excess were produced from several shallow ice cores and snow pits at NEEM (North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling), covering the period from 1724 to 2007. They are used to investigate recent climate variability and characterise the isotope–temperature relationship. We find that NEEM records are only weakly affected by inter-annual changes in the North Atlantic Oscillation. Decadal δ 18 O and accumulation variability is related to North Atlantic sea surface temperature and is enhanced at the beginning of the 19th century. No long-term trend is observed in the accumulation record. By contrast, NEEM δ 18 O shows multidecadal increasing trends in the late 19th century and since the 1980s. The strongest annual positive δ 18 O values are recorded at NEEM in 1928 and 2010, while maximum accumulation occurs in 1933. The last decade is the most enriched in δ 18 O (warmest), while the 11-year periods with the strongest depletion (coldest) are depicted at NEEM in 1815–1825 and 1836–1846, which are also the driest 11-year periods. The NEEM accumulation and δ 18 O records are strongly correlated with outputs from atmospheric models, nudged to atmospheric reanalyses. Best performance is observed for ERA reanalyses. Gridded temperature reconstructions, instrumental data and model outputs at NEEM are used to estimate the multidecadal accumulation–temperature and δ 18 O– temperature relationships for the strong warming period in 1979–2007. The accumulation sensitivity to temperature is estimated at 11 ± 2 % • C −1 and the δ 18 O–temperature slope at 1.1 ± 0.2 ‰ • C −1 , about twice as large as previously used to estimate last interglacial temperature change from the bottom part of the NEEM deep ice core. Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union. 1482 V. Masson-Delmotte et al.: Recent changes in northwest Greenland climate Figure 1. Map of Greenland showing the position of ice core records (red) and meteorological stations (green) used to establish a SW Greenland instrumental temperature record. The grey/white shading indicates elevation (source: NOAA/GLOBE, http://www. ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/topo/globe.html)