Widespread erosion on high plateaus during recent glaciations in Scandinavia

Glaciers create some of Earth’s steepest topography; yet, many areas that were repeatedly overridden by ice sheets in the last few million years include extensive plateaus. The distinct geomorphic contrast between plateaus and the glacial troughs that dissect them has sustained two long-held hypotheses: first, that ice sheets perform insignificant erosion beyond glacial troughs, and, second, that the plateaus represent ancient pre-glacial landforms bearing information of tectonic and geomorphic history prior to Pliocene–Pleistocene global cooling (~3.5 Myr ago). Here we show that the Fennoscandian ice sheets drove widespread erosion across plateaus far beyond glacial troughs. We apply inverse modelling to 118 new cosmogenic 10Be and 26Al measurements to quantify ice sheet erosion on the plateaus fringing the Sognefjorden glacial trough in western Norway. Our findings demonstrate substantial modification of the pre-glacial landscape during the Quaternary, and that glacial erosion of plateaus is important when estimating the global sediment flux to the oceans

The influence of metallicity on stellar differential rotation and magnetic activity

Observations of Sun-like stars over the last half-century have improved our understanding of how magnetic dynamos, like that responsible for the 11-year solar cycle, change with rotation, mass and age. Here we show for the first time how metallicity can affect a stellar dynamo. Using the most complete set of observations of a stellar cycle ever obtained for a Sun-like star, we show how the solar analog HD 173701 exhibits solar-like differential rotation and a 7.4-year activity cycle. While the duration of the cycle is comparable to that generated by the solar dynamo, the amplitude of the brightness variability is substantially stronger. The only significant difference between HD 173701 and the Sun is its metallicity, which is twice the solar value. Therefore, this provides a unique opportunity to study the effect of the higher metallicity on the dynamo acting in this star and to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the physical mechanisms responsible for the observed photometric variability. The observations can be explained by the higher metallicity of the star, which is predicted to foster a deeper outer convection zone and a higher facular contrast, resulting in stronger variability.Comment: Submitted to Ap

Roadmap for a precision-medicine initiative in the Nordic region

The Nordic region, comprising primarily Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, has many of the necessary characteristics for being at the forefront of genome-based precision medicine. These include egalitarian and universal healthcare, expertly curated patient and population registries, biobanks, large population-based prospective cohorts linked to registries and biobanks, and a widely embraced sense of social responsibility that motivates public engagement in biomedical research. However, genome-based precision medicine can be achieved only through coordinated action involving all actors in the healthcare sector. Now is an opportune time to organize scientists in the Nordic region, together with other stakeholders including patient representatives, governments, pharmaceutical companies, academic institutions and funding agencies, to initiate a Nordic Precision Medicine Initiative. We present a roadmap for how this organization can be created. The Initiative should facilitate research, clinical trials and knowledge transfer to meet regional and global health challenges.Non peer reviewe

Late Pliocene-Pleistocene incision in the Ebro Basin (North Spain)

The Ebro Basin constitutes the central part of the southern foreland of the Pyrenees. It was endorheic during the Cenozoic and accumulated sediments. By the end of the Miocene, erosion and river incision reconnected the basin to the Mediterranean Sea, establishing a post-opening drainage network. Those rivers left terraces that we study in this work. We first synthesize previous works on river terraces that are widely dispersed in the basin. We provide new age constraints, up to 3 Ma, obtained thanks to cosmogenic nuclides using both profile and burial methods. We derive a unified fluvial terrace chronology and a homogenized map of the highest terraces over the entire Ebro Basin. The dated terraces labeled A, B, C, D, and E are dated to 2.8 ± 0.7 Ma, 1.15 ± 0.15 Ma, 850 ± 70 ka, 650 ± 130 ka, and 400 ± 120 ka, respectively. The chronology proposed here is similar to other sequences of river terraces dated in the Iberian Peninsula, around the Pyrenees, and elsewhere in Europe. The oldest terraces (A, B, C) are extensive, indicating they form a mobile fluvial network while from D to present, the network was stable and entrenched in 100 to 200 m-deep valleys. The transition from mobile to fixed fluvial network is likely to have occurred during the Middle Pleistocene Transition (MPT, between 0.7 and 1.3 Ma), when long-period/high-intensity climate fluctuations were established in Europe. We estimate that between 2.8–1.15 Ma and present, the incision rates have tripled

Late Pliocene-Pleistocene incision in the Ebro Basin (North Spain)

The Ebro Basin constitutes the central part of the southern foreland of the Pyrenees. It was endorheic during the Cenozoic and accumulated sediments. By the end of the Miocene, erosion and river incision reconnected the basin to the Mediterranean Sea, establishing a post-opening drainage network. Those rivers left terraces that we study in this work. We first synthesize previous works on river terraces that are widely dispersed in the basin. We provide new age constraints, up to 3 Ma, obtained thanks to cosmogenic nuclides using both profile and burial methods. We derive a unified fluvial terrace chronology and a homogenized map of the highest terraces over the entire Ebro Basin. The dated terraces labeled A, B, C, D, and E are dated to 2.8 ± 0.7 Ma, 1.15 ± 0.15 Ma, 850 ± 70 ka, 650 ± 130 ka, and 400 ± 120 ka, respectively. The chronology proposed here is similar to other sequences of river terraces dated in the Iberian Peninsula, around the Pyrenees, and elsewhere in Europe. The oldest terraces (A, B, C) are extensive, indicating they form a mobile fluvial network while from D to present, the network was stable and entrenched in 100 to 200 m-deep valleys. The transition from mobile to fixed fluvial network is likely to have occurred during the Middle Pleistocene Transition (MPT, between 0.7 and 1.3 Ma), when long-period/high-intensity climate fluctuations were established in Europe. We estimate that between 2.8–1.15 Ma and present, the incision rates have tripled

High-resolution OSL dating of loess in Adventdalen, Svalbard : Late Holocene dust activity and permafrost development

There is considerable uncertainty over the nature and causes of Holocene dust activity in the Arctic, and its links to climatic changes. Loess deposits act as near-source archives of dust deposition and provide a means to address these uncertainties. Here we develop a fully independent age model for a loess core taken in Adventdalen, Svalbard, based on 136 quartz luminescence ages taken at 2 cm intervals. This represents the most detailed luminescence dating analysis undertaken to date on a sedimentary archive. Extensive laboratory tests and stratigraphic consistency indicate that the quartz luminescence ages are reliable. Together with grain size and cryostratigraphic analyses, as well as stratigraphic investigation of an adjacent loess exposure, the exceptional detail of the chronology combined with Bayesian age modelling uniquely allows changes in loess accumulation rates, particle size and permafrost development to be reconstructed over the last 3000 yrs on 101–103 yr timescales. The results show that loess deposition was mostly continuous over this interval, albeit with a short period of reworking or non-aeolian sedimentation during the Little Ice Age. Permafrost development in the loess is dominantly syngenetic, with ice contents increasing with depth. There is considerable variability in loess mass accumulation rate over the late Holocene, with peaks occurring during the last 250 yrs, as well as at 750–900, 1050–1200, 1400–1600, 1900–2450 and possibly 2700–3000 a. These peaks generally coincide with increased coarse silt deposition, potentially suggesting a link with greater wind activity. However, the peaks also seem to coincide with possible warm phases on Svalbard, which would rather imply that temperature-driven sediment availability in glaciofluvial source areas is the main control on dustiness in Adventdalen. In any case, the rates of loess deposition in the Adventdalen core are exceptionally high globally (up to 0.35 cm yr−1/2900 g m−2 yr−1 sedimentation and mass accumulation rates, respectively), and if representative of wider patterns across Svalbard, may suggest that the archipelago is a more important high latitude dust source than previously realised

Solar forcing of Holocene summer sea-surface temperatures in the northern North Atlantic

Mounting evidence from proxy records suggests that variations in solar activity have played a significant role in triggering past climate changes. However, the mechanisms for sun-climate links remain a topic of debate. Here we present a high-resolution summer sea-surface temperature (SST) record covering the past 9300 yr from a site located at the present-day boundary between polar and Atlantic surface-water masses. The record is age constrained via the identification of 15 independently dated tephra markers from terrestrial archives, circumventing marine reservoir age variability problems. Our results indicate a close link between solar activity and SSTs in the northern North Atlantic during the past 4000 yr; they suggest that the climate system in this area is more susceptible to the influence of solar variations during cool periods with less vigorous ocean circulation. Furthermore, the high-resolution SST record indicates that climate in the North Atlantic regions follows solar activity variations on multidecadal to centennial time scales