Impact of cirrus on the surface radiative environment at the FIRE ETLA Palisades, NY site

FIRE Extended Time Limited Area (ETLA) observations provide year round information critical to gaining a better understanding of cloud/climate interactions. The Lamont/Rutgers team has participated in the ETLS program through the collection and analysis of shortwave and longwave downwelling irradiances at Palisades, NY. These data are providing useful information on surface radiative fluxes with respect to sky condition, solar zenith angle and season. Their utility extends to the calibration and validation of cloud/radiative models and satellite cloud and radiative retrievals. The impact cirrus clouds have on the surface radiative environment is examined using Palisades ETLA information on atmospheric transmissivities and downwelling longwave fluxes for winter and summer cirrus and clear sky episodes in 1987

FIRE extended time/limited area observations at Palisades, New York

Downwelling shortwave and longwave irradiation are being continuously monitored at Palisades, New York as part of the First International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) Regional Experiment (FIRE) Extended Time/Limited Area Initiative. In addition, fisheye (180 degree) sky photographs are taken at the times of NOAA 9 and LANDSAT satellite overpasses on select days, particularly when cirrus clouds are present. Measurements of incoming shortwave (0.28 to 2.80 microns) hemispheric and diffuse, hemispheric near infrared (0.7 to 2.80 microns), and downwelling hemispheric infrared (4.0 to 50.0 microns) irradiation have been made from a rooftop location on the grounds of the Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory since December 1986. The three Eppley Precision Spectral Pyranometers and the Eppley Pyrgeometer used to measure these variables were calibrated with Colorado State University instruments at Madison, Wisconsin as part of the FIRE Intensive Laboratory. Pyrgeometer output contains an adjustment for body temperature but not for dome temperature. Data are transmitted to a Campbell CR-21 Digital Recorder, where one minute averages of ten second samples are stored and subsequently dumped to a cassette recorder. Using a Campbell C-20 Cassette Interface, these data are transferred to an Apple Macintosh computer for analysis and for archiving on floppy disks. In addition to the raw irradiances collected, variables derived from these data are generated and stored. These include: the ratio of near infrared irradiation to visible irradiation and the fraction of the full shortwave irradiation which is diffuse; and will soon include: shortwave transmissivity and optical depth in the shortwave. Sky photographs are taken with an Olympus OM2-N 35 mm camera and are timed to be coincident with overpassing NOAA and LANDSAT satellites. Palisades is within the field of view of the NOAA 9 daily in the middle to late afternoon. The satellite viewing angle is within 45 degrees of nadir over Palisades on approximately half of the passes

Root Zone of the Bernardston Nappe and the Brennan Hill Thrust Involuted by Backfolds and Gneiss Domes in the Mount Grace Area, North-Central Massachusetts

Guidebook for field trips in southwestern New Hampshire, southeastern Vermont, and north-central Massachusetts: New England Intercollegiate Geological Conference, 80th annual meeting, October 14, 15 and 16, 1988, Keene, New Hampshire: Trip C-

CD8+ T-Cells in Juvenile-Onset SLE: From Pathogenesis to Comorbidities

Diagnosis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in childhood [juvenile-onset (J) SLE], results in a more severe disease phenotype including major organ involvement, increased organ damage, cardiovascular disease risk and mortality compared to adult-onset SLE. Investigating early disease course in these younger JSLE patients could allow for timely intervention to improve long-term prognosis. However, precise mechanisms of pathogenesis are yet to be elucidated. Recently, CD8+ T-cells have emerged as a key pathogenic immune subset in JSLE, which are increased in patients compared to healthy individuals and associated with more active disease and organ involvement over time. CD8+ T-cell subsets have also been used to predict disease prognosis in adult-onset SLE, supporting the importance of studying this cell population in SLE across age. Recently, single-cell approaches have allowed for more detailed analysis of immune subsets in JSLE, where type-I IFN-signatures have been identified in CD8+ T-cells expressing high levels of granzyme K. In addition, JSLE patients with an increased cardiometabolic risk have increased CD8+ T-cells with elevated type-I IFN-signaling, activation and apoptotic pathways associated with atherosclerosis. Here we review the current evidence surrounding CD8+ T-cell dysregulation in JSLE and therapeutic strategies that could be used to reduce CD8+ T-cell inflammation to improve disease prognosis

Use of MODIS Snow-Cover Maps for Detecting Snowmelt Trends in North America

Research has shown that the snow season in the Northern Hemisphere has been getting shorter in recent decades, consistent with documented global temperature increases. Specifically, the snow is melting earlier in the spring allowing for a longer growing season and associated land-cover changes. Here we focus on North America. Using the Moderate-Resolution Imaging Radiometer (MODIS) cloud-gap-filled standard snow-cover data product we can detect a trend toward earlier spring snowmelt in the approx 12 years since the MODIS launch. However, not all areas in North America show earlier spring snowmelt over the study period. We show examples of springtime snowmelt over North America, beginning in March 2000 and extending through the winter of 2012 for all of North America, and for various specific areas such as the Wind River Range in Wyoming and in the Catskill Mountains in New York. We also compare our approx 12-year trends with trends derived from the Rutgers Global Snow Lab snow cover climate-data record

Primer and database choice affect fungal functional but not biological diversity findings in a national soil survey

The internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region is the accepted DNA barcode of fungi. Its use has led to a step-change in the assessment and characterisation of fungal communities from environmental samples by precluding the need to isolate, culture, and identify individuals. However, certain functionally important groups, such as the arbuscular mycorrhizas (Glomeromycetes), are better characterised by alternative markers such as the 18S rRNA region. Previous use of an ITS primer set in a nationwide metabarcoding soil biodiversity survey revealed that fungal richness declined along a gradient of productivity and management intensity. Here, we wanted to discern whether this trend was also present in data generated from universal 18S primers. Furthermore, we wanted to extend this comparison to include measures of functional diversity and establish trends with soil types and soil organic matter (SOM) content. Over the 413 individual sites examined (arable, grassland, woodland, moorland, heathland), we found congruent trends of total fungal richness and β-diversity across land uses, SOM class, and soil type with both ITS and 18S primer sets. A total of 24 fungal classes were shared between datasets, in addition to 15 unique to ITS1 and 12 unique to 18S. However, using FUNGUILD, divergent trends of functional group richness became apparent, especially for symbiotrophic fungi, likely driven by an increased detection rate of Glomeromycetes in the 18S dataset. The disparate trends were also apparent when richness and β-diversity were compared to soil properties. Additionally, we found SOM class to be a more meaningful variable than soil type biodiversity for predicting biodiversity analyses because organic matter was calculated for each sample whereas soil type was assigned from a national soil map. We advocate that a combination of fungal primers should be used in large-scale soil biodiversity surveys to capture important groups that can be underrepresented by universal barcodes. Utilising such an approach can prevent the oversight of ubiquitous but poorly described species as well as critically important functional groups

Soil textural heterogeneity impacts bacterial but not fungal diversity

Soils harbour high levels of microbial diversity, underpinning their ability to provide key soil functions and ecosystem services. The extreme variety of soil microbial life is often explained by reference to the physical and chemical heterogeneity of the soil environment. However, detailed understanding of this link is still lacking, particularly as micro-scale studies are difficult to scale up to the soil profile or landscape level. To address this, we used soil samples collected from a wide range of temperate oceanic habitats (e.g. arable, grassland, coniferous and deciduous woodland, heathland; 335 sites in total) to evaluate the link between soil texture and microbial diversity. Soil particle size distribution was measured in each sample using laser granulometry (i.e. sand, silt, clay), while the diversity of bacterial and fungal communities were determined by metabarcoding with an Illumina MiSeq using16S and ITS1 taxonomy marker gene regions, respectively. Multifractal analysis of the soil particle size distribution was then used to describe the heterogeneity of the soil particle sizes. Overall, our results showed no impact of habitat type upon textural heterogeneity indicating that it is an aspect of soil quality resistant to management decisions. Using a structural equation modelling approach, we show that soil textural heterogeneity positively influences bacterial diversity but had little impact upon fungal diversity. We also find that textural composition impacts both bacterial and fungal composition, with many specific microbial taxa showing co-occurrence relationships with clay and fine-silt sized particles. Our results strongly indicate that soil textural heterogeneity influences microbial community diversity regardless of soil management practices and biophysical activities. The close linkages between different groups of soil organisms can obscure the mechanisms driving the development of biodiversity, however, it is clear that the soil physical environment has differential impacts on organisms with different life history strategies