The syringe sampler: An inexpensive alternative borehole sampling technique for CO2-rich fluids during mineral carbon storage

Mineral carbon storage involves the dissolution of injected gaseous or supercritical CO2 followed by interaction of the carbonated solution with the host rock at depth resulting in the precipitation of carbonate minerals. Monitoring of elemental chemistry and tracers is required to evaluate the evolution of the fluid geochemistry and the degree of CO2 mineralization during its injection into the subsurface. To avoid degassing during sampling, which is a common feature of commercial groundwater samplers, especially vacuum samplers, a syringe-like sampler was designed, constructed, and tested in the lab and field. This system was successfully deployed during the injection of 175 tons of pure gaseous CO2 at the CarbFix injection site in Hellisheidi, SW Iceland. This study presents in detail this sampling tool and its application to the monitoring of the CO2-rich fluid evolution during subsurface carbonation. The syringe sampler was developed as a flexible and mobile unit of low investment and operating costs making it an attractive option for deployment at small scale carbon storage demonstration sites that do not command the budgets to deploy commercial alternatives, e.g. from the oil and gas industry

The effect of pH, grain size, and organic ligands on biotite weathering rates

Biotite dissolution rates were determined at 25 °C, at pH 2–6, and as a function of mineral composition, grain size, and aqueous organic ligand concentration. Rates were measured using both open- and closed-system reactors in fluids of constant ionic strength. Element release was non-stoichiometric and followed the general trend of Fe, Mg > Al > Si. Biotite surface area normalised dissolution rates (ri) in the acidic range, generated from Si release, are consistent with the empirical rate law: ri=kH,iaxiH+ where kH,i refers to an apparent rate constant, aH+ designates the activity of protons, and xi stands for a reaction order with respect to protons. Rate constants range from 2.15 × 10−10 to 30.6 × 10−10 (molesbiotite m−2 s−1) with reaction orders ranging from 0.31 to 0.58. At near-neutral pH in the closed-system experiments, the release of Al was stoichiometric compared to Si, but Fe was preferentially retained in the solid phase, possibly as a secondary phase. Biotite dissolution was highly spatially anisotropic with its edges being ∼120 times more reactive than its basal planes. Low organic ligand concentrations slightly enhanced biotite dissolution rates. These measured rates illuminate mineral–fluid–organism chemical interactions, which occur in the natural environment, and how organic exudates enhance nutrient mobilisation for microorganism acquisition

Assessing diverse evidence to improve conservation decision-making

Meeting the urgent need to protect and restore ecosystems requires effective decision‐making through wisely considering a range of evidence. However, weighing and assessing evidence to make complex decisions is challenging, particularly when evidence is of diverse types, subjects, and sources, and varies greatly in its quality and relevance. To tackle these challenges, we present the Balance Evidence Assessment Method (BEAM), an intuitive way to weigh and assess the evidence relating to the core assumptions underpinning the planning and implementation of conservation projects, strategies, and actions. Our method directly tackles the question of how to bring together diverse evidence whilst assessing its relevance, reliability, and strength of support for a given assumption, which can be mapped, for example to a Theory of Change. We consider how simple principles and safeguards in applying this method could help to respectfully, and equitably, include more local forms of knowledge when assessing assumptions, such as by ensuring diverse groups of individuals contribute and assess evidence. The method can be flexibly applied within existing decision‐making tools, platforms, and frameworks whenever assumptions (i.e., claims and hypotheses) are made. This method could greatly facilitate and improve the weighing of diverse evidence to make decisions in a range of situations, from local projects to global policy platforms

The contribution of oceanic methyl iodide to stratospheric iodine

We investigate the contribution of oceanic methyl iodide (CH3I) to the stratospheric iodine budget. Based on CH3I measurements from three tropical ship campaigns and the Lagrangian transport model FLEXPART, we provide a detailed analysis of CH3I transport from the ocean surface to the cold point in the upper tropical tropopause layer (TTL). While average oceanic emissions differ by less than 50% from campaign to campaign, the measurements show much stronger variations within each campaign. A positive correlation between the oceanic CH3I emissions and the efficiency of CH3I troposphere–stratosphere transport has been identified for some cruise sections. The mechanism of strong horizontal surface winds triggering large emissions on the one hand and being associated with tropical convective systems, such as developing typhoons, on the other hand, could explain the identified correlations. As a result of the simultaneous occurrence of large CH3I emissions and strong vertical uplift, localized maximum mixing ratios of 0.6 ppt CH3I at the cold point have been determined for observed peak emissions during the SHIVA (Stratospheric Ozone: Halogen Impacts in a Varying Atmosphere)-Sonne research vessel campaign in the coastal western Pacific. The other two campaigns give considerably smaller maxima of 0.1 ppt CH3I in the open western Pacific and 0.03 ppt in the coastal eastern Atlantic. In order to assess the representativeness of the large local mixing ratios, we use climatological emission scenarios to derive global upper air estimates of CH3I abundances. The model results are compared with available upper air measurements, including data from the recent ATTREX and HIPPO2 aircraft campaigns. In the eastern Pacific region, the location of the available measurement campaigns in the upper TTL, the comparisons give a good agreement, indicating that around 0.01 to 0.02 ppt of CH3I enter the stratosphere. However, other tropical regions that are subject to stronger convective activity show larger CH3I entrainment, e.g., 0.08 ppt in the western Pacific. Overall our model results give a tropical contribution of 0.04 ppt CH3I to the stratospheric iodine budget. The strong variations in the geographical distribution of CH3I entrainment suggest that currently available upper air measurements are not representative of global estimates and further campaigns will be necessary in order to better understand the CH3I contribution to stratospheric iodine

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Evidence for changes in stratospheric transport and mixing over the past three decades based on multiple data sets and tropical leaky pipe analysis

Variability in the strength of the stratospheric Lagrangian mean meridional or Brewer-Dobson circulation and horizontal mixing into the tropics over the past three decades are examined using observations of stratospheric mean age of air and ozone. We use a simple representation of the stratosphere, the tropical leaky pipe (TLP) model, guided by mean meridional circulation and horizontal mixing changes in several reanalyses data sets and chemistry climate model (CCM) simulations, to help elucidate reasons for the observed changes in stratospheric mean age and ozone. We find that the TLP model is able to accurately simulate multiyear variability in ozone following recent major volcanic eruptions and the early 2000s sea surface temperature changes, as well as the lasting impact on mean age of relatively short-term circulation perturbations. We also find that the best quantitative agreement with the observed mean age and ozone trends over the past three decades is found assuming a small strengthening of the mean circulation in the lower stratosphere, a moderate weakening of the mean circulation in the middle and upper stratosphere, and a moderate increase in the horizontal mixing into the tropics. The mean age trends are strongly sensitive to trends in the horizontal mixing into the tropics, and the uncertainty in the mixing trends causes uncertainty in the mean circulation trends. Comparisons of the mean circulation and mixing changes suggested by the measurements with those from a recent suite of CCM runs reveal significant differences that may have important implications on the accurate simulation of future stratospheric climate

First discovery of Holocene cryptotephra in Amazonia

The use of volcanic ash layers for dating and correlation (tephrochronology) is widely applied in the study of past environmental changes. We describe the first cryptotephra (non-visible volcanic ash horizon) to be identified in the Amazon basin, which is tentatively attributed to a source in the Ecuadorian Eastern Cordillera (0–1°S, 78-79°W), some 500-600 km away from our field site in the Peruvian Amazon. Our discovery 1) indicates that the Amazon basin has been subject to volcanic ash fallout during the recent past; 2) highlights the opportunities for using cryptotephras to date palaeoenvironmental records in the Amazon basin and 3) indicates that cryptotephra layers are preserved in a dynamic Amazonian peatland, suggesting that similar layers are likely to be present in other peat sequences that are important for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction. The discovery of cryptotephra in an Amazonian peatland provides a baseline for further investigation of Amazonian tephrochronology and the potential impacts of volcanism on vegetation

The Wor1-like Protein Fgp1 Regulates Pathogenicity, Toxin Synthesis and Reproduction in the Phytopathogenic Fungus Fusarium graminearum

WOR1 is a gene for a conserved fungal regulatory protein controlling the dimorphic switch and pathogenicity determents in Candida albicans and its ortholog in the plant pathogen Fusarium oxysporum, called SGE1, is required for pathogenicity and expression of key plant effector proteins. F. graminearum, an important pathogen of cereals, is not known to employ switching and no effector proteins from F. graminearum have been found to date that are required for infection. In this study, the potential role of the WOR1-like gene in pathogenesis was tested in this toxigenic fungus. Deletion of the WOR1 ortholog (called FGP1) in F. graminearum results in greatly reduced pathogenicity and loss of trichothecene toxin accumulation in infected wheat plants and in vitro. The loss of toxin accumulation alone may be sufficient to explain the loss of pathogenicity to wheat. Under toxin-inducing conditions, expression of genes for trichothecene biosynthesis and many other genes are not detected or detected at lower levels in Δfgp1 strains. FGP1 is also involved in the developmental processes of conidium formation and sexual reproduction and modulates a morphological change that accompanies mycotoxin production in vitro. The Wor1-like proteins in Fusarium species have highly conserved N-terminal regions and remarkably divergent C-termini. Interchanging the N- and C- terminal portions of proteins from F. oxysporum and F. graminearum resulted in partial to complete loss of function. Wor1-like proteins are conserved but have evolved to regulate pathogenicity in a range of fungi, likely by adaptations to the C-terminal portion of the protein