The state of the Martian climate

60°N was +2.0°C, relative to the 1981–2010 average value (Fig. 5.1). This marks a new high for the record. The average annual surface air temperature (SAT) anomaly for 2016 for land stations north of starting in 1900, and is a significant increase over the previous highest value of +1.2°C, which was observed in 2007, 2011, and 2015. Average global annual temperatures also showed record values in 2015 and 2016. Currently, the Arctic is warming at more than twice the rate of lower latitudes

Dividends from investing in ocean observations: a European perspective.

An ocean observing system to provide the data for climate research, modelling, and forecasting must be designed to high standards of accuracy and continuity. The observations are maintained for many years to develop the criteria for climate forecasting, and hence, in the meantime many of the data can and should be used for short and medium term purposes. When combined with other observations, usually of a local or regional nature, the combined data set provides the full suite of marine and coastal observations needed to serve a wide range of socio-economic and environmental objectives. The diagnostic and forecasting models on different scales are interfaced or nested to produce different analyses and products. This paper reviews the policy analysis which has taken place in Europe, using documentary data also from outside Europe, to develop the case for European investment in ocean observations. The short and medium term systems provide an economic and social return which helps to cover the cost of the long term system. Although there are insufficient economic data to conduct a strictly controlled cost-benefit analysis at present, the effect of this strategy is, in economic terms, to ensure that the net discounted value of benefits minus costs never goes too heavily into deficit, and it may even be possible to maximise short and medium term returns so as to recoup the costs of the permanent long term system. In practice, expenditure and incomes for the various parts of the system to not occur in the same places, or agencies, and so a national or regional view is required, to maximise the net short-term benefits in terms of public good at the European level. Complete global integration of ocean observations is needed for climat

The next frontiers in research on submerged prehistoric sites and landscapes on the continental shelf

Submerged prehistory has emerged as a key topic within archaeology over the last decade. During this period the broader academic community has become aware of its potential for revolutionising our understanding of the past. With recent technological and scientific developments has come an opportunity to investigate larger areas and learn more than previously thought possible. When charting the future of the subject, however, it is also necessary to consider its historical trajectory. This sense of opportunity and optimism has been experienced before, but not sustained. As such, our greatest challenge lies not in adopting technological developments, but in maintaining momentum

The North Sea

Chapter 7 in the 'SPLASHCOS Taphonomy book', on the landscape-archaeological inventory of the North Sea as a regional sea (covering British, Dutch, Belgian, German and Danish sectors of the southern and central North Sea). Abstract: This chapter gives a general overview of knowledge regarding the North Sea area in the context of Quaternary prehistory. The North Sea is one of the larger continental shelf seas in the world. Much of it was exposed and potentially habitable during periods of lower sea-level. It is one of the world’s better researched shelf, and the research history stared relatively early. The discovery of hydrocarbons in the mid-1960s triggered both commercial exploration and state-governed mapping. In later years, the search for sand and gravel reserves and large-scale windfarm development brought a second wave of research that continues to today. It is practically impossible to give an exhaustive review of the data, maps and publications that are available. Hence this chapter will only give a general overview based on recent geological-archaeological publications. It will focus on Quaternary palaeogeographical change since the first hominin occupation of the North Sea, outline the evidence for preservation of archaeological sites and landscapes and discuss taphonomic issues relating to preservation. Where preserved, surfaces of Lateglacial and Early Holocene landscapes are part of the upper few meters of the sea floor. Remnants of earlier inhabitable landscapes occur at a larger range of depths. To surveying the North Sea floor for preserved fossil landscapes and to forecasting the taphonomy as part of predictive mapping, geological mapping and palaeogeographical reconstruction are important prior steps. Knowledge on landscape preservation further helps to understand the taphonomy of encountered submerged archaeological sites. The key point to be made for the North Sea is that while there is confirmation that remnants of Pleistocene and Holocene landscapes and their associated archaeological record are preserved, the overall evidence base is complex, patchy and fragmented, reflecting a range of spatio-temporally variable formative and destructive processes. In most cases the existing types of data do not suffice for confident taphonomic assessments, despite their great density. For offshore areas, it is easier to predict what past depositional environments and hominin habitats once occurred, than to locally predict the state of preservation of archaeology today. Yet, that second step is important in seafloor heritage research and management decisions and designs of underwater surveying and excavation plans. The chapter therefore works towards identifying the taphonomic variables, in applications at at local, regional and superregional scale. This is done by providing an overview of geological history and a landform inventory for the North Sea, highlighting links with taphonomy through the text