Potential paleocirculation implications by coupling Pb and Nd isotope analyses on different grain-size fractions from Labrador Sea sediments

The production of deep water in the North Atlantic is one of the puzzle in understanding oceanic influence in climate changes. In this work, Nd and Pb isotopes were measured on the fine fraction of Labrador Sea sediments. Our aim is to record the relative contribution of fine particle supplies carried by the North Atlantic deep components into Labrador Sea. Based on characterization of potential geographical sources of particles, three main sources contribute to sediment mixture at core location: an old Precambrian crustal material from Canada, Greenland and Scandinavia (NAS), a Paleozoic or younger crustal material from East Greenland, Europa, and Scandinavia (YC) and a volcanic source from Iceland, Faeroe and Reykjanes Ridge (MAR). For the last 12 kyr, clay isotope signatures indicate two mixtures of sediment sources. The first mixture is composed of proximal material from Labrador Sea margins and distal deep current-driven crustal source. From 6.5 kyr onward, the mixture is characterized by the crustal and volcanic components. Since the significant decrease in proximal deglacial supplies, the evolution of the relative contributions of sediment sources suggests major changes in relative contributions of the deep water masses carried by the Western Boundary Undercurrent (WBUC) over the past 8.4 kyr. The progressive intensification of WBUC was associated mainly with the transport of North East Atlantic Deep Water mass until 6.5 kyr and with Denmark Strait Overflow Water thereafter. The establishment of the modern circulation at 3 kyr suggests a reduced influence of the Denmark Strait Overflow Water, synchronous with the full appearance of the Labrador Sea Water mass. Our isotopic dataset emphasizes several changes in the relative contribution of the two major components of North Atlantic Deep Water throughout the Holocene. However, if the clay-size fraction gives informations about the inception and presence of a deep current, it does tell nothing about the strength of this current. Moreover, clays are not likely to be deposited in case of high-strength deep current, resulting in an uncomplete and/or biased reconstruction of deep current evolution. To overcome this problem, it is necessary to look also at coarser fractions. Pb and Nd isotope compositions were thus analysed by MC-ICP-MS on different grain-size fractions (clay-size < 2 `µm, cohesive silt 2-10 µm, fine silt 10-30 µm and coarse silt 30-60 µm) on Late Glacial and Holocene sediments. Four grain-size fractions were investigated for a set of 12 samples from core MD99-2227:. Our results show a clear variation of Pb concentration and isotopic signatures according to grain-size (Nd data still in progress). The observed shifts are interpreted in terms of changes in deep current strength. This approach allows to monitor deep current changes through time, whatever the strength of paleocurrent

Chemical weather and chemical climate

Progress in fundamental understanding of atmospheric chemistry in the past decades has enabled the development of advanced environmental predictive capability. Accurate chemical weather forecasts and source attribution information can play a decisive role in mitigating the short‐term exposure of the public to acute air pollution episodes. Chemical climate projections will allow investigation of the long‐term consequences of human choices and their impact on the future evolution of the Earth system. This commentary stresses the importance of integrating atmospheric chemistry in operational environmental prediction and projection system

Grey seal tracking reveals different behaviours of resident and transient population components

Grey seals recently recolonised the Dutch coasts. The exponential population growth is fuelled by immigrating grey seals from the UK, who subsequently breed in the Netherlands. In addition, population survey data suggested that a number of grey seals use the Dutch area to forage, but return to the UK to breed. Although such population surveys can provide insight into discrepancies and regional imbalances in the number of seals observed on land, the data are insufficient to measure the actual underlying migration processes. Using an extensive data set on individually tracked grey seals, we study the movement of grey seals in relation to where they forage and breed. The tracked seals of different age and sex classes were recognised to be either resident or transient based on where they went during and outside the breeding season. The grey seals breeding in the Netherlands also only haul-out in the Netherlands throughout the period between the moult and next breeding season. Only animals that bred elsewhere (respectively 50% of the adult females and 67% of the adult males tracked in this study) visited regions other than Dutch waters during the rest of the year. Some however, remained in Dutch waters continuously between the breeding trips to other countries. The tracking data suggest a higher number of grey seals might be visiting the Dutch waters than was estimated in a population analysis based on aerial surveys. These results might also have consequences for the population modelling used to estimate the grey seal population size in the UK. As eastern Atlantic grey seals in the North Sea are a mixed meta-population, coordinated, international collaborations are needed to assess their status and trends. Since transient seals might be driven by intraspecific competition, ecological studies on for example, the role of grey seals as a top predator, need to consider the entire North Sea grey seal population

In search of virus carriers of the 1988 and 2002 phocine distemper virus outbreaks in European harbour seals

European harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) populations decreased substantially during the phocine distemper virus (PDV) outbreaks of 1988 and 2002. Different hypotheses have stated that various seals and terrestrial carnivore species might be the source of infection. To further analyse these hypotheses, grey (Halichoerus grypus) and ringed (Phoca hispida) seals, polar bears (Ursus maritimus) and minks (Mustela lutreola) were sampled from the North Sea and East Greenland coasts between 1988 and 2004 and investigated by RT-PCR using a panmorbillivirus primer pair. However, all samples were negative for morbillivirus nucleic acid

Ozone Response to Aircraft Emissions: Sensitivity Studies with Two-dimensional Models

Our first intercomparison/assessment of the effects of a proposed high-speed civil transport (HSCT) fleet on the stratosphere is presented. These model calculations should be considered more as sensitivity studies, primarily designed to serve the following purposes: (1) to allow for intercomparison of model predictions; (2) to focus on the range of fleet operations and engine specifications giving minimal environmental impact; and (3) to provide the basis for future assessment studies. The basic scenarios were chosen to be as realistic as possible, using the information available on anticipated developments in technology. They are not to be interpreted as a commitment or goal for environmental acceptability

Effect of sulfate aerosol on tropospheric NOx and ozone budgets: Model simulations and TOPSE evidence

The distributions of NOx and O3 are analyzed during TOPSE (Tropospheric Ozone Production about the Spring Equinox). In this study these data are compared with the calculations of a global chemical/transport model (Model for OZone And Related chemical Tracers (MOZART)). Specifically, the effect that hydrolysis of N2O5 on sulfate aerosols has on tropospheric NOx and O3 budgets is studied. The results show that without this heterogeneous reaction, the model significantly overestimates NOx concentrations at high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere (NH) in winter and spring in comparison to the observations during TOPSE; with this reaction, modeled NOx concentrations are close to the measured values. This comparison provides evidence that the hydrolysis of N2O5 on sulfate aerosol plays an important role in controlling the tropospheric NOx and O3 budgets. The calculated reduction of NOx attributed to this reaction is 80 to 90% in winter at high latitudes over North America. Because of the reduction of NOx, O3 concentrations are also decreased. The maximum O3reduction occurs in spring although the maximum NOx reduction occurs in winter when photochemical O3 production is relatively low. The uncertainties related to uptake coefficient and aerosol loading in the model is analyzed. The analysis indicates that the changes in NOxdue to these uncertainties are much smaller than the impact of hydrolysis of N2O5 on sulfate aerosol. The effect that hydrolysis of N2O5 on global NOx and O3 budgets are also assessed by the model. The results suggest that in the Northern Hemisphere, the average NOx budget decreases 50% due to this reaction in winter and 5% in summer. The average O3 budget is reduced by 8% in winter and 6% in summer. In the Southern Hemisphere (SH), the sulfate aerosol loading is significantly smaller than in the Northern Hemisphere. As a result, sulfate aerosol has little impact on NOx and O3 budgets of the Southern Hemisphere

Optimal adjustment of the atmospheric forcing parameters of ocean models using sea surface temperature data assimilation

In ocean general circulation models, near-surface atmospheric variables used to specify the atmospheric boundary condition remain one of the main sources of error. The objective of this research is to constrain the surface forcing function of an ocean model by sea surface temperature (SST) data assimilation. For that purpose, a set of corrections for ERAinterim (hereafter ERAi) reanalysis data is estimated for the period of 1989–2007, using a sequential assimilation method, with ensemble experiments to evaluate the impact of uncertain atmospheric forcing on the ocean state. The control vector of the assimilation method is extended to atmospheric variables to obtain monthly mean parameter corrections by assimilating monthly SST and sea surface salinity (SSS) climatological data in a low resolution global configuration of the NEMO model. In this context, the careful determination of the prior probability distribution of the parameters is an important matter. This paper demonstrates the importance of isolating the impact of forcing errors in the model to perform relevant ensemble experiments. <br><br> The results obtained for every month of the period between 1989 and 2007 show that the estimated parameters produce the same kind of impact on the SST as the analysis itself. The objective is then to evaluate the long-term time series of the forcing parameters focusing on trends and mean error corrections of air–sea fluxes. Our corrections tend to equilibrate the net heat-flux balance at the global scale (highly positive in ERAi database), and to remove the potentially unrealistic negative trend (leading to ocean cooling) in the ERAi net heat flux over the whole time period. More specifically in the intertropical band, we reduce the warm bias of ERAi data by mostly modifying the latent heat flux by wind speed intensification. Consistently, when used to force the model, the corrected parameters lead to a better agreement between the mean SST produced by the model and mean SST observations over the period of 1989–2007 in the intertropical band

Simulations over South Asia using the Weather Research and Forecasting model with Chemistry (WRF-Chem): set-up and meteorological evaluation

The configuration and evaluation of the meteorology is presented for simulations over the South Asian region using the Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with Chemistry (WRF-Chem). Temperature, water vapor, dew point temperature, zonal and meridional wind components, precipitation and tropopause pressure are evaluated against radiosonde and satellite-borne (AIRS and TRMM) observations along with NCEP/NCAR reanalysis fields for the year 2008. Chemical fields, with focus on tropospheric ozone, are evaluated in a companion paper. The spatial and temporal variability in meteorological variables is well simulated by the model with temperature, dew point temperature and precipitation showing higher values during summer/monsoon and lower during winter. The index of agreement for all the parameters is estimated to be greater than 0.6 indicating that WRF-Chem is capable of simulating the variations around the observed mean. The mean bias (MB) and root mean square error (RMSE) in modeled temperature, water vapor and wind components show an increasing tendency with altitude. MB and RMSE values are within &amp;pm;2 K and 1–4 K for temperature, 30% and 20–65% for water vapor and 1.6 m s&lt;sup&gt;−1&lt;/sup&gt; and 5.1 m s&lt;sup&gt;−1&lt;/sup&gt; for wind components. The spatio-temporal variability of precipitation is also reproduced reasonably well by the model but the model overestimates precipitation in summer and underestimates precipitation during other seasons. Such a behavior of modeled precipitation is in agreement with previous studies on South Asian monsoon. The comparison with radiosonde observations indicates a relatively better model performance for inland sites as compared to coastal and island sites. The MB and RMSE in tropopause pressure are estimated to be less than 25 hPa. Sensitivity simulations show that biases in meteorological simulations can introduce errors of &amp;pm;(10–25%) in simulations of tropospheric ozone, CO and NO&lt;sub&gt;x&lt;/sub&gt;. Nevertheless, a comparison of statistical metrics with benchmarks indicates that the model simulated meteorology is of sufficient quality for use in chemistry simulations