Improving together: better science writing through peer learning

Science, in our case the climate and geosciences, is increasingly interdisciplinary. Scientists must therefore communicate across disciplinary boundaries. For this communication to be successful, scientists must write clearly and concisely, yet the historically poor standard of scientific writing does not seem to be improving. Scientific writing must improve, and the key to long-term improvement lies with the early-career scientist (ECS). Many interventions exist for an ECS to improve their writing, like style guides and courses. However, momentum is often difficult to maintain after these interventions are completed. Continuity is key to improving writing. This paper introduces the ClimateSnack project, which aims to motivate ECSs to develop and continue to improve their writing and communication skills. The project adopts a peer-learning framework where ECSs voluntarily form writing groups at different institutes around the world. The group members learn, discuss, and improve their writing skills together. Several ClimateSnack writing groups have formed. This paper examines why some of the groups have flourished and others have dissolved. We identify the challenges involved in making a writing group successful and effective, notably the leadership of self-organized groups, and both individual and institutional time management. Within some of the groups, peer learning clearly offers a powerful tool to improve writing as well as bringing other benefits, including improved general communication skills and increased confidence

Glacier fluctuations and sediment transport at Vestre Blomsterskardsbreen, Folgefonna

Vestre Blomsterskardsbreen is the southernmost glacier outlet of southern Folgefonna, a maritime temperate plateau glacier located on the Folgefonna peninsula in western Norway. It drains into Lake Midtbotnvatn, which is located approximately 5 km from the present glacier terminus.Vestre Blomsterskardsbreen is an adequate area to reconstruct glacier fluctuations based on interpretation of proglacial sediments. A limiting factor is the fact that Lake Midtbotnvatn is regulated for the development of hydroelectrical power since AD 1953, which enlarged the sedimentation rate many times over normal and hence prevents any interpretation of the sediment with respect to glacial activity since then. A continuous record of the relative glacial activity of the glacier outlet has been compiled for the time period AD 1953 to 4235 cal. years BP, based on the DBD record of proglacial sediments and according radiocarbon datings. The reliability of the results was limited by the greatly disturbed sediment structure of the core.Proglacial sediment studies revealed that Vestre Blomsterskardsbreen has been present in the catchment at least during the past 4235 cal. years BP, with remarkable peaks in relative glacial activity around 4200, 2650, 2150, 1800, 1600, 1100 and 140 cal. years BP. Lichen-dated marginal moraines indicate, that the Little Ice Age (LIA) maximum advance occurred during the first half of the 18th century. The latest LIA glacier expansion was dated to AD 1945. The relative glacial activity record of Vestre Blomsterskardsbreen was linked to natural climate archives. As a result, the glacier outlet is considered an indicator for winter climate variability, the winter NAO index and the strengths of the westerlies at the west coast of Norway. Furthermore the glacial record was compared to several selected glacier sites in the Northern Hemisphere; four common glacier advances correspond to the overall relative glacial activity pattern of Vestre Blomsterskardsbreen

Late Glacial and Holocene Glacier Activity in Arctic Norway. Reconstruction of glacier fluctuations using surface exposure dating of moraines and multi-proxy analysis of sediments deposited in distal glacier-fed lakes

Late Glacial and Holocene glacier activity in Arctic Norway was reconstructed based on high-sensitivity 10Be dating of a moraine sequence deposited by the mountain glacier Rødhetta on the island of Arnøya, and a study of sediments deposited in several distal glacier-fed lakes located down the valley from the northern outlet of the Langfjordjøkelen ice cap on the Bergfjord Peninsula. In Paper I, we present the first comprehensive Late Glacial through Holocene 10Be dated mountain glacier moraine chronology in Arctic Norway. We show that temperature-sensitive mountain glaciers in Arctic Norway reached their maximum Late Glacial extent about 1000 years prior to the onset of the Younger Dryas. Following considerable retreat, glaciers re-stabilized about 12.3 ka ago, showing oscillatory retreat through the rest of the Younger Dryas stadial with the final culmination about 11.5 ka ago. The Younger Dryas glacier advances were significantly smaller in amplitude than the earlier Late Glacial culmination. No subsequent culminations took place during the Holocene until the Little Ice Age. The presented chronology of the Arctic mountain glacier is complemented by the glacier modeling results. The Equilibrium Line Altitude (ELA) lowerings compared to present day related to each moraine are as follows: Late Glacial ~220 m, Younger Dryas ~130 m, and Little Ice Age ~80 m. The most likely climate conditions during the moraine formation periods are represented by summer temperature cooling compared to present-day by ~3.2 °C during the Late Glacial culmination, by ~1.9 °C during the Younger Dryas, and by ~0.8 °C during the Little Ice Age. We show that this pattern is consistent with updated glacier records in the North Atlantic region, with suggested peak Late Glacial ice during the Bølling-Allerød/Antarctic Cold Reversal interval, a considerably smaller culmination early in the Younger Dryas stadial, and slight glacier retreat throughout the Younger Dryas. To explain this Late Glacial pattern and its similarity to southern mid-latitude glacier records, we propose that the Late Glacial bipolar seesaw mechanism was primarily a (northern) winter phenomenon, while summer temperatures were synchronized between the hemispheres by atmospheric CO2 forcing, as documented by the interhemispherically consistent Late Glacial mountain glacier records. In Paper II, we present a high-resolution relative glacier activity record covering the past ~10,000 cal. a BP from the northern outlet of the Langfjordjøkelen ice cap in Arctic Norway, reconstructed from detailed geomorphic mapping, multi-proxy analyses of distal glacier-fed lake sediments, and sedimentary fingerprinting. Principal Component Analysis was used to characterize sediments of glacial origin and trace them in a chain of lakes located down the valley. Of the variations in the sediment record of the uppermost Lake Jøkelvatnet, 73% can be explained by the first Principal Component axis and tied directly to upstream glacier erosion, while the glacial signal becomes weaker in the more distal lakes Store Rundvatnet and Storvatnet. Magnetic susceptibility and titanium count rates were found to be the most suitable indicators of Holocene glacier activity in the distal glacier-fed lakes. The complete deglaciation of the valley of Sør-Tverrfjorddalen occurred ~10,000 cal. a BP, followed by a reduced or absent glacier during the Holocene Thermal Optimum. The Langfjordjøkelen ice cap reformed with the onset of the Neoglacial ~4100 cal. a BP, and a gradually increasing glacier activity culminated during the Little Ice Age in the early 20th century. Over the past 2000 cal. a BP, periods of decreased glacier activity were centered around 1880, 1600, 1250 and 950 cal. a BP, while intervals of increased glacier activity occurred around 1680, 1090, 440 and 25 cal. a BP. The reconstructed Holocene glacier activity at the Langfjordjøkelen ice cap is consistent with regional temperature proxy records and glacier variability reconstructions across Norway. Long-term changes in the extent of the northern outlet of the Langfjordjøkelen ice cap largely followed trends in regional summer temperature, while winter season atmospheric variability may have triggered multidecadal glacier fluctuations and generally affected the amplitude of glacier events

Late Glacial mountain glacier culmination in Arctic Norway prior to the Younger Dryas

Climate changes during the Late Glacial period (LG; 15-11 ka) as recorded in Greenland and Antarctic ice cores show a bipolar pattern. Between 14.5 ka and 13 ka ago, the northern latitudes experienced the Bølling/Allerød (BA) warm period, while southern records feature the Antarctic Cold Reversal (ACR). Between 12.9 ka and 11.7 ka ago, the north was under the Younger Dryas (YD) cold spell while southern latitude temperature rose in parallel to atmospheric CO2 concentrations. While the southern hemisphere pattern is well documented in mountain glacier moraine records from New Zealand and Patagonia, in northern mid-latitudes and the Arctic, the LG glacier culmination has been connected to the YD stadial, apparently confirming the bipolar pattern. We present a geomorphic map of mountain glaciers in Arctic Norway, a cosmogenic nuclide chronology from 71 moraine boulders from the LG and the Holocene, and first-order glacier modeling experiments. The model and dating results show that the studied mountain glaciers are most sensitive to summer-temperature change, that their response to those changes is highly correlated to a wider region and that these mountain glaciers in Arctic Norway reached their maximum LG extent about 14 ka ago, prior to the YD. Following considerable retreat through the first part of the YD, glaciers re-stabilized in the mid-YD and showed slower oscillatory retreat through the latter part of the YD. We compare this glacier pattern to updated earlier glacier records in the wider Arctic and North Atlantic region and propose a pattern of coherent glacier response to climate changes during this interval. The LG results from Arctic glaciers show consistency to the glacier record from New Zealand and Patagonia. This first-order interhemispheric coherency of LG mountain glacier fluctuations driven mainly by summer temperature would support the view that the bipolar seesaw was primarily a northern winter phenomenon during the LG period, and the YD in particular. More similar experiments need to be performed to further test this scenario