Back to the future: Using long-term observational and paleo-proxy reconstructions to improve model projections of antarctic climate

Quantitative estimates of future Antarctic climate change are derived from numerical global climate models. Evaluation of the reliability of climate model projections involves many lines of evidence on past performance combined with knowledge of the processes that need to be represented. Routine model evaluation is mainly based on the modern observational period, which started with the establishment of a network of Antarctic weather stations in 1957/58. This period is too short to evaluate many fundamental aspects of the Antarctic and Southern Ocean climate system, such as decadal-to-century time-scale climate variability and trends. To help address this gap, we present a new evaluation of potential ways in which long-term observational and paleo-proxy reconstructions may be used, with a particular focus on improving projections. A wide range of data sources and time periods is included, ranging from ship observations of the early 20th century to ice core records spanning hundreds to hundreds of thousands of years to sediment records dating back 34 million years. We conclude that paleo-proxy records and long-term observational datasets are an underused resource in terms of strategies for improving Antarctic climate projections for the 21st century and beyond. We identify priorities and suggest next steps to addressing this.The Antarctic Climate Change in the 21st Century (AntClim21) Scientific Research Programme of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research are thanked for supporting the international scientific workshop at which the writing of this manuscript was initiated. This is a contribution to the PAGES 2k Network (through the CLIVASH 2k project). NJA acknowledges support by the Australian Research Council through a Future Fellowship (FT160100029) and the Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes (CE170100023). SJP was supported under the Australian Research Council’s Special Research Initiative for the Antarctic Gateway Partnership (Project ID SR140300001). JMJ acknowledges support from the Leverhulme Trust through a Research Fellowship (RF-2018-183). FC acknowledges support from the PNRA national Italian projects PNRA16_00016, “WHISPERS” and project PNRA_00002, “ANTIPODE”. TJB, LS, and ERT were supported by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) as part of the British Antarctic Survey Polar Science for Planet Earth Programme. TJB additionally acknowledges support for this work as a contribution to the NERC grant NE/N01829X/1. IW thanks FAPESP 2015/50686-1, Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - Brasil (CAPES) Finance Code 001 and CNPq 300970/2018-8, CNPq INCT Criosfera 704222/200

A life in progress: motion and emotion in the autobiography of Robert M. La Follette

This article is a study of a La Follette’s Autobiography, the autobiography of the leading Wisconsin progressive Robert M. La Follette, which was published serially in 1911 and, in book form, in 1913. Rather than focusing, as have other historians, on which parts of La Follette’s account are accurate and can therefore be trusted, it explains instead why and how this major autobiography was conceived and written. The article shows that the autobiography was the product of a sustained, complex, and often fraught series of collaborations among La Follette’s family, friends, and political allies, and in the process illuminates the importance of affective ties as well as political ambition and commitment in bringing the project to fruition. In the world of progressive reform, it argues, personal and political experiences were inseparable

Complete genome sequence of Isosphaera pallida type strain (IS1B).

Isosphaera pallida (ex Woronichin 1927) Giovannoni et al. 1995 is the type species of the genus Isosphaera. The species is of interest because it was the first heterotrophic bacterium known to be phototactic, and it occupies an isolated phylogenetic position within the Planctomycetaceae. Here we describe the features of this organism, together with the complete genome sequence and annotation. This is the first complete genome sequence of a member of the genus Isosphaera and the third of a member of the family Planctomycetaceae. The 5,472,964 bp long chromosome and the 56,340 bp long plasmid with a total of 3,763 protein-coding and 60 RNA genes are part of the Genomic Encyclopedia of Bacteria and Archaea project

Complete genome sequence of Bacteroides helcogenes type strain (P 36-108).

Bacteroides helcogenes Benno et al. 1983 is of interest because of its isolated phylogenetic location and, although it has been found in pig feces and is known to be pathogenic for pigs, occurrence of this bacterium is rare and it does not cause significant damage in intensive animal husbandry. The genome of B. helcogenes P 36-108(T) is already the fifth completed and published type strain genome from the genus Bacteroides in the family Bacteroidaceae. The 3,998,906 bp long genome with its 3,353 protein-coding and 83 RNA genes consists of one circular chromosome and is a part of the Genomic Encyclopedia of Bacteria and Archaea project