Turning on the heat: ecological response to simulated warming in the sea

Significant warming has been observed in every ocean, yet our ability to predict the consequences of oceanic warming on marine biodiversity remains poor. Experiments have been severely limited because, until now, it has not been possible to manipulate seawater temperature in a consistent manner across a range of marine habitats. We constructed a "hot-plate'' system to directly examine ecological responses to elevated seawater temperature in a subtidal marine system. The substratum available for colonisation and overlying seawater boundary layer were warmed for 36 days, which resulted in greater biomass of marine organisms and a doubling of space coverage by a dominant colonial ascidian. The "hot-plate'' system will facilitate complex manipulations of temperature and multiple stressors in the field to provide valuable information on the response of individuals, populations and communities to environmental change in any aquatic habitat

Subtidal macroalgal richness, diversity and turnover, at multiple spatial scales, along the southwestern Australian coastline

Patterns of species richness are governed by processes that act at vastly different spatial scales. In the marine system of southwest Australia, macroalgal assemblage structure and richness is thought to be strongly influenced by both the Leeuwin Current, which acts at large regional spatial scales, and small-scale processes such as competition, wave disturbance and habitat heterogeneity. We examined macroalgal species richness and diversity at multiple spatial scales using a three-factor hierarchal design. Spatial extents ranged from metres (between quadrats) to many hundreds of kilometres (between regions), and the study encompassed almost 2000 km of temperate coastline. Macroalgal assemblages were highly speciose and the number, identity, and diversity of species varied considerably at all spatial scales. Small scale variability, at the scale of site or quadrat, contributed most to total variation in species richness and diversity, suggesting that small-scale processes are important drivers of ecological pattern in this system. Species richness, diversity and taxonomic distinctness increased sequentially along the coastline, from warmer to cooler waters. Small scale variability was most likely maintained by wave disturbance and habitat heterogeneity at these scales, while regional scale diversity and richness clines were attributed to the fact that most species had cool-water affinities and the southern coast of Australia is a hotspot of floral speciation and diversity. Macroalgal assemblages in southwest Australia are speciose and largely endemic, and biodiversity patterns are structured by multiple processes operating at multiple spatial scale

BENEFITS AND BURDENS: RESEARCHING THE CONSEQUENCES OF MIGRATION IN THE SAHEL

Summary This article is based on research which studied the consequences of out?migration from rural areas of the Sahel for women and environmental management. Research findings show that, although it may lead to an increase in work for women, out?migration is a rational and effective means by which people cope with dramatic environmental change and sustain their rural livelihoods. The research sought to respond to the concerns of development policy?makers. Two major recommendations were, firstly, that while they should not discourage migration, development projects should invest in the creation of alternative income?earning opportunities in rural areas. Secondly, women must be recognized as resource managers whose activities are crucial to family subsistence, and environmental programmes must be made appropriate to, and fully inclusive of them. RESUME Les advantages et les inconvénients: une recherche sur les conséquences de la migration dans le Sahel Le présent article est fondé sur une recherche qui avait pour but d'étudier les conséquences de la migration hors des parties rurales du Sahel, notamment en ce qui concerne les femmes et la gestion de l'environnement. Les résultats de la recherche indiqueraient que, bien qu'elle mène à une augmentation du travail des femmes, cette migration vers l'extérieur est un moyen raisonné et efficace par lequel les gens parviennent à affronter les changements dramatiques dans l'environnement et à préserver leurs moyens de vie ruraux. La recherche voulait s'adresser aux inquiétudes de ceux qui formulent la politique du développement. Deux recommandations majeures sont ressorties de l'étude: tout d'abord, et bien qu'il n'y avait pas lieu d'encourager la migration, les projets de développement devaient investir dans la création de possibilités alternatives pour obtenir des revenus dans les régions rurales. Et dans un deuxième temps les femmes devraient être reconnues en tant que gestionnaires des ressources dont les activités sont cruciales pour la survie des familles. Il découle de ces recommandations que les programmes environnementaux devraient être appropriés pour ces femmes, et tenir compte d'elles à part entière. RESUMEN Ventajas y desventajas: consecuencias de la migración en el Sahel Este artículo se basa en en los resultados de un trabajo de investigación sobre las consecuencias que la emigración de áreas rurales del Sahel ha tenido para las mujeres y para el manejo del medio ambiente. Los hallazgos de la investigación demuestran que la migración es un medio efectivo y racional para enfrentar cambios dramáticos en el medio ambiente y mantener la subsistencia en el área rural, aunque puede llevar a un incremento de trabajo para la mujer. Esta investigación trataba de dar respuesta a las preocupaciones de los encargados de formular pautas de acción. Se efectuaron dos recomendaciones primordiales: 1) Los proyectos de desarrollo deben invertir en la creación de oportunidades alternativas de generar capital en el área rural, pero sin poner freno a la migración; 2) la mujer debe ser reconocida como apta para manejar recursos en estas actividades cruciales para la susbsistencia familiar, y los programas de medio ambiente deben ser apropiados, e incluir su total participación

Hubble flow variance and the cosmic rest frame

We characterize the radial and angular variance of the Hubble flow in the COMPOSITE sample of 4534 galaxies, on scales in which much of the flow is in the nonlinear regime. With no cosmological assumptions other than the existence of a suitably averaged linear Hubble law, we find with decisive Bayesian evidence (ln B >> 5) that the Hubble constant averaged in independent spherical radial shells is closer to its asymptotic value when referred to the rest frame of the Local Group, rather than the standard rest frame of the Cosmic Microwave Background. An exception occurs for radial shells in the range 40/h-60/h Mpc. Angular averages reveal a dipole structure in the Hubble flow, whose amplitude changes markedly over the range 32/h-62/h Mpc. Whereas the LG frame dipole is initially constant and then decreases significantly, the CMB frame dipole initially decreases but then increases. The map of angular Hubble flow variation in the LG rest frame is found to coincide with that of the residual CMB temperature dipole, with correlation coefficient -0.92. These results are difficult to reconcile with the standard kinematic interpretation of the motion of the Local Group in response to the clustering dipole, but are consistent with a foreground non-kinematic anisotropy in the distance-redshift relation of 0.5% on scales up to 65/h Mpc. Effectively, the differential expansion of space produced by nearby nonlinear structures of local voids and denser walls and filaments cannot be reduced to a local boost. This hypothesis suggests a reinterpretation of bulk flows, which may potentially impact on calibration of supernovae distances, anomalies associated with large angles in the CMB anisotropy spectrum, and the dark flow inferred from the kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect. It is consistent with recent studies that find evidence for a non-kinematic dipole in the distribution of distant radio sources.Comment: 37 pages, 9 tables, 13 figures; v2 adds extensive new analysis (including additional subsections, tables, figures); v3 adds a Monte Carlo analysis (with additional table, figure) which further tightens the statistical robustness of the dipole results; v4 adds further clarifications, small corrections, references and discussion of Planck satellite results; v5 typos fixed, matches published versio

An integrated sequence stratigraphic, palaeoenvironmental, and chronostratigraphic analysis of the Tangahoe Formation, southern Taranaki coast, with implications for mid-Pliocene (c. 3.4–3.0 Ma) glacio-eustatic sea-level changes

Sediments of the mid-Pliocene (c. 3.4–3.0 Ma) Tangahoe Formation exposed in cliffs along the South Taranaki coastline of New Zealand comprise a 270 m thick, cyclothemic shallow-marine succession that has been gently warped into a north to south trending, low angle anticline. This study examines the sedimentologic, faunal, and petrographic characteristics of 10 Milankovitch-scale (6th order), shallow-marine depositional sequences exposed on the western limb of the anticline. The sequences are recognised on the basis of the cyclic vertical stacking of their constituent lithofacies, which are bound by sharp wave cut surfaces produced during transgressive shoreface erosion. Each sequence comprises three parts: (1) a 0.2–2 m thick, deepening upwards, basal suite of reworked bioclastic lag deposits (onlap shellbed) and/or an overlying matrix supported, molluscan shellbed of offshore shelf affinity (backlap shellbed); (2) a 5–20 m thick, gradually shoaling, aggradational siltstone succession; and (3) a 5–10 m thick, strongly progradational, well sorted “forced regressive” shoreline sandstone. The three-fold subdivision corresponds to transgressive, highstand, and regressive systems tracts (TSTs, HSTs, and RSTs) respectively, and represents deposition during a glacio-eustatic sea-level cycle. Lowstand systems tract sediments are not recorded because the outcrop is situated c. 100 km east of the contemporary shelf edge and was subaerially exposed at that time. Well developed, sharp- and gradational-based forced regressive sandstones contain a variety of storm-emplaced sedimentary structures, and represent the rapid and abrupt basinward translation of the shoreline on to a storm dominated, shallow shelf during eustatic sea-level fall. Increased supply of sediment from north-west South Island during “forced regression” is indicated from petrographic analyses of the heavy mineralogy of the sandstones. A chronology based on biostratigraphy and the correlation of a new magnetostratigraphy to the magnetic polarity timescale allows: (1) identification of the Mammoth (C2An.2r) and Kaena (C2An.1r) subchrons; (2) correlation of the coastal section to the Waipipian Stage; and (3) estimation of the age of the coastal section as 3.36–3.06 Ma. Qualitative assessment of foraminiferal census data and molluscan palaeoecology reveals cyclic changes in water depth from shelf to shoreline environments during the deposition of each sequence. Seven major cycles in water depth of between 20 and 50m have been correlated to individual 40 ka glacio-eustatic sea-level cycles on the marine oxygen isotope timescale. The coastal Tangahoe Formation provides a shallow-marine record of global glacio-eustasy prior to the development of significant ice sheets on Northern Hemisphere continents, and supports evidence from marine δ18O archives that changes in Antarctic ice volume were occurring during the Pliocene

Retrievals of XCO2_{CO2}, XCH4_{CH4} and XCO_{CO} from portable, near-infrared Fourier transform spectrometer solar observations in Antarctica

The COllaborative Carbon Column Observing Network (COCCON) uses low-resolution, portable EM27/SUN Fourier transform spectrometers (FTSs) to make retrievals of column-averaged dry-air mole fractions (DMFs, represented as X$_{gas}$) of CO$_{2}$, CH$_{4}$, CO and H$_{2}$O from near-infrared solar absorption spectra. The COCCON has developed rapidly over recent years and complements the Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON). In this work, we provide details of the first seasonal time series of near-infrared X$_{CO2}$, X$_{CH4}$ and X$_{CO}$ retrievals from measurements made in Antarctica during the deployment of an EM27/SUN to the Arrival Heights laboratory on Ross Island over the austral summer of 2019–2020 under the auspices of the COCCON. The DMFs of all three species were lower in Antarctica than at mid-latitude, and for X$_{CO2}$ and X$_{CO}$, the retrieved values were less variable. For X$_{CH4}$ however, the variability was significantly greater and it was found that this was strongly correlated to the proximity of the polar vortex. In order to ensure the stability of the instrument and the traceability of the retrievals, side-by-side comparisons to the TCCON station at Lauder, New Zealand and retrievals of the instrument line shape (ILS) were made before and after the measurements in Antarctica. These indicate that, over the course of the deployment, the instrument stability was such that the change in retrieved X$_{CO2}$ was well below 0.1%. The value of these data for satellite validation is demonstrated by making comparisons with the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) on the Sentinel-5 precursor (S5P) satellite. The dataset is available from the COCCON central facility hosted by the ESA Atmospheric Validation Data Centre (EVDC): https://doi.org/10.48477/coccon.pf10.arrivalheights.R02 (Pollard, 2021)

Remembering Raoul Bott (1923–2005)

Physic