Removal of terrestrial DOC in aquatic ecosystems of a temperate river network

Surface waters play a potentially important role in the global carbon balance. Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) fluxes are a major transfer of terrestrial carbon to river systems, and the fate of DOC in aquatic systems is poorly constrained. We used a unique combination of spatially distributed sampling of three DOC fractions throughout a river network and modeling to quantify the net removal of terrestrial DOC during a summer base flow period. We found that aquatic reactivity of terrestrial DOC leading to net loss is low, closer to conservative chloride than to reactive nitrogen. Net removal occurred mainly from the hydrophobic organic acid fraction, while hydrophilic and transphilic acids showed no net change, indicating that partitioning of bulk DOC into different fractions is critical for understanding terrestrial DOC removal. These findings suggest that river systems may have only a modest ability to alter the amounts of terrestrial DOC delivered to coastal zones

Temporal and spatial dynamics of CO2 air-sea flux in the Gulf of Maine

Ocean surface layer carbon dioxide (CO2) data collected in the Gulf of Maine from 2004 to 2008 are presented. Monthly shipboard observations are combined with additional higher‐resolution CO2 observations to characterize CO2 fugacity ( fCO2) and CO2 flux over hourly to interannual time scales. Observed fCO2 andCO2 flux dynamics are dominated by a seasonal cycle, with a large spring influx of CO2 and a fall‐to‐winter efflux back to the atmosphere. The temporal results at inner, middle, and outer shelf locations are highly correlated, and observed spatial variability is generally small relative to the monthly to seasonal temporal changes. The averaged annual flux is in near balance and is a net source of carbon to the atmosphere over 5 years, with a value of +0.38 mol m−2 yr−1. However, moderate interannual variation is also observed, where years 2005 and 2007 represent cases of regional source (+0.71) and sink (−0.11) anomalies. We use moored daily CO2 measurements to quantify aliasing due to temporal undersampling, an important error budget term that is typically unresolved. The uncertainty of our derived annual flux measurement is ±0.26 mol m−2 yr−1 and is dominated by this aliasing term. Comparison of results to the neighboring Middle and South Atlantic Bight coastal shelf systems indicates that the Gulf of Maine exhibits a similar annual cycle and range of oceanic fCO2 magnitude but differs in the seasonal phase. It also differs by enhanced fCO2 controls by factors other than temperature‐driven solubility, including biological drawdown, fall‐to‐winter vertical mixing, and river runoff

Preparing for a Northwest Passage: A Workshop on the Role of New England in Navigating the New Arctic

Preparing for a Northwest Passage: A Workshop on the Role of New England in Navigating the New Arctic (March 25 - 27, 2018 -- The University of New Hampshire) paired two of NSF\u27s 10 Big Ideas: Navigating the New Arctic and Growing Convergence Research at NSF. During this event, participants assessed economic, environmental, and social impacts of Arctic change on New England and established convergence research initiatives to prepare for, adapt to, and respond to these effects. Shipping routes through an ice-free Northwest Passage in combination with modifications to ocean circulation and regional climate patterns linked to Arctic ice melt will affect trade, fisheries, tourism, coastal ecology, air and water quality, animal migration, and demographics not only in the Arctic but also in lower latitude coastal regions such as New England. With profound changes on the horizon, this is a critical opportunity for New England to prepare for uncertain yet inevitable economic and environmental impacts of Arctic change

Satellite indices of fluvial influence in coastal waters

In this dissertation a suite of satellite, discharge and in-situ measurements is used to explore the spatio-temporal distribution of terrestrial constituents in coastal environments. The covariance between riverine delivery of optically active constituents and the corresponding optical variability in neighboring coastal waters for the Mississippi and Orinoco Rivers is documented. From this work, satellite-based indices of fluvial influence (IFI), are developed which contain information on the spatial extent of riverine constituents in coastal waters. The IFI is defined as the correlation between time series of riverine discharge and an ocean color satellite-derived property in the region proximal to a river\u27s discharge point. These indices are employed to map the seasonal spatio-temporal variability of the Mississippi\u27s sediment plume in the presence of discharge and wind stress fields. Here it is shown that: (1) the IFI techniques are useful for tracking terrestrial constituents delivered by the Mississippi\u27s discharge; (2) coastal provinces dominated by fluvial influence have a different spatio-temporal distribution than those dominated by wind-driven resuspension, and thus these provinces can be discriminated, and (3) wind and discharge play different roles in the seasonal dynamics of the Mississippi\u27s plume. IFI techniques are used to isolate several individual river plumes in the northern Gulf of Mexico in which the relationship between in situ measurements of salinity and light absorption at 443nm were documented. Salinity vs. absorption relationships within the plumes were compared to modeled dissolved organic carbon fluxes from corresponding drainage basins. The results imply that variability in the flux of dissolved organic carbon across drainage basins imparts distinct variability in the optical characteristics of individual river plumes. Further, it is probable that ocean color sensors can help resolve this variability, and in fact have vast potential in aiding the understanding of the origin, persistence, trajectory and fate of riverine constituents in coastal waters

Altered brain energetics induces mitochondrial fission arrest in Alzheimer's Disease.

Altered brain metabolism is associated with progression of Alzheimer's Disease (AD). Mitochondria respond to bioenergetic changes by continuous fission and fusion. To account for three dimensional architecture of the brain tissue and organelles, we applied 3-dimensional electron microscopy (3D EM) reconstruction to visualize mitochondrial structure in the brain tissue from patients and mouse models of AD. We identified a previously unknown mitochondrial fission arrest phenotype that results in elongated interconnected organelles, "mitochondria-on-a-string" (MOAS). Our data suggest that MOAS formation may occur at the final stages of fission process and was not associated with altered translocation of activated dynamin related protein 1 (Drp1) to mitochondria but with reduced GTPase activity. Since MOAS formation was also observed in the brain tissue of wild-type mice in response to hypoxia or during chronological aging, fission arrest may represent fundamental compensatory adaptation to bioenergetic stress providing protection against mitophagy that may preserve residual mitochondrial function. The discovery of novel mitochondrial phenotype that occurs in the brain tissue in response to energetic stress accurately detected only using 3D EM reconstruction argues for a major role of mitochondrial dynamics in regulating neuronal survival

Using present-day observations to detect when anthropogenic change forces surface ocean carbonate chemistry outside preindustrial bounds

© The Author(s), 2016. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Biogeosciences 13 (2016): 5065-5083, doi:10.5194/bg-13-5065-2016.One of the major challenges to assessing the impact of ocean acidification on marine life is detecting and interpreting long-term change in the context of natural variability. This study addresses this need through a global synthesis of monthly pH and aragonite saturation state (Ωarag) climatologies for 12 open ocean, coastal, and coral reef locations using 3-hourly moored observations of surface seawater partial pressure of CO2 and pH collected together since as early as 2010. Mooring observations suggest open ocean subtropical and subarctic sites experience present-day surface pH and Ωarag conditions outside the bounds of preindustrial variability throughout most, if not all, of the year. In general, coastal mooring sites experience more natural variability and thus, more overlap with preindustrial conditions; however, present-day Ωarag conditions surpass biologically relevant thresholds associated with ocean acidification impacts on Mytilus californianus (Ωarag < 1.8) and Crassostrea gigas (Ωarag < 2.0) larvae in the California Current Ecosystem (CCE) and Mya arenaria larvae in the Gulf of Maine (Ωarag < 1.6). At the most variable mooring locations in coastal systems of the CCE, subseasonal conditions approached Ωarag =  1. Global and regional models and data syntheses of ship-based observations tended to underestimate seasonal variability compared to mooring observations. Efforts such as this to characterize all patterns of pH and Ωarag variability and change at key locations are fundamental to assessing present-day biological impacts of ocean acidification, further improving experimental design to interrogate organism response under real-world conditions, and improving predictive models and vulnerability assessments seeking to quantify the broader impacts of ocean acidification.The CO2 and ocean acidification observations were funded by NOAA’s Climate Observation Division (COD) in the Climate Program Office and NOAA’s Ocean Acidification Program. The maintenance of the Stratus and WHOTS Ocean Reference Stations were also supported by NOAA COD (NA09OAR4320129). Additional support for buoy equipment, maintenance, and/or ancillary measurements was provided by NOAA through the US Integrated Ocean Observing System office: for the La Parguera buoy under a Cooperative Agreement (NA11NOS0120035) with the Caribbean Coastal Ocean Observing System, for the Chá b˘a buoy under a Cooperative Agreement (NA11NOS0120036) with the Northwest Association of Networked Ocean Observing System, for the Gray’s Reef buoy under a Cooperative Agreement (NA11NOS0120033) with the Southeast Coastal Ocean Observing Regional Association, and for the Gulf of Main buoy under a Cooperative Agreement (NA11NOS0120034) with the Northeastern Regional Association of Coastal and Ocean Observing Systems

Warm‐air advection, air mass transformation and fog causes rapid ice melt

Direct observations during intense warm-air advection over the East Siberian Sea reveal a period of rapid sea-ice melt. A semi-stationary, high-pressure system north of the Bering Strait forced northward advection of warm, moist air from the continent. Air-mass transfor-mation over melting sea ice formed a strong, surface-based temperature inversion in which dense fog formed. This induced a positive net longwave radiation at the surface, while reduc-ing net solar radiation only marginally; the inversion also resulted in downward turbulent heat flux. The sum of these processes enhanced the surface energy flux by an average of ~15 W m-2 for a week. Satellite images before and after the episode show sea-ice concentrations decreasing from > 90% to ~50% over a large area affected by the air-mass transformation. We argue that this rapid melt was triggered by the increased heat flux from the atmosphere due to the warm-air advection

Atmospheric conditions during the Arctic Clouds in Summer Experiment (ACSE): Contrasting open-water and sea-ice surfaces during melt and freeze-up seasons

The Arctic Clouds in Summer Experiment (ACSE) was conducted during summer and early autumn 2014, providing a detailed view of the seasonal transition from ice melt into freeze-up. Measurements were taken over both ice-free and ice-covered surfaces near the ice edge, offering insight into the role of the surface state in shaping the atmospheric conditions. The initiation of the autumn freeze-up was related to a change in air mass, rather than to changes in solar radiation alone; the lower atmosphere cooled abruptly, leading to a surface heat loss. During melt season, strong surface inversions persisted over the ice, while elevated inversions were more frequent over open water. These differences disappeared during autumn freeze-up, when elevated inversions persisted over both ice-free and ice-covered conditions. These results are in contrast to previous studies that found a well-mixed boundary layer persisting in summer and an increased frequency of surface-based inversions in autumn, suggesting that knowledge derived from measurements taken within the pan-Arctic area and on the central ice pack does not necessarily apply closer to the ice edge. This study offers an insight into the atmospheric processes that occur during a crucial period of the year; understanding and accurately modeling these processes is essential for the improvement of ice-extent predictions and future Arctic climate projections