bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Nexus Between Religion, Environment and Community: The Case of a Nigerian Community
Authors: Isiorho Solomon , Omole David , Akinwumi Isaac , Emenike PraiseGod , Ede Anthony , Aizebeokhai Philips
Published: March 2020

How much care should one have for planet Earth? Most religious groups see the Earth as a place or object that should be taken care of even though some have deified the Earth. Although some religious people think that caring for the Earth amounts to worship, we can show those of that mindset the common good that could accrue from working together. We look at a private Christian University in Ogun State, Nigeria and how it’s activities are working for the common good of the society.

Increase in population leading to greater demand for resources, an increase in industrial waste generation and economic poverty levels, are challenges that geoscientists,  engineers and stakeholders could collaborate on to find solutions for the common good of the society. Several faculty members at this religious institution, Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria, are actively involved in environmental and sustainable research projects that would be important to the good of the general public, especially in the local and rural areas near the location of the University. Particularly, water availability and quality along with generation of waste and waste disposal being the top areas where Earth religious scientists/engineers working with the community could achieve a common good for the society.

Several research works examine procurement of potable water, generation of waste, and how our actions, activities or inactivity could lead to environmental degradation, and adversely affect us now or in the near future. We discuss some of the ongoing research works and align them with religious text as a way of getting the skeptics to work together for the common good. “Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden to Eden to tend and keep it” (Genesis 2:15) and Jesus told his disciples to “Gather all the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost” (John 6:12). The presence or lack of resources and human activities have significant health effect on the community. As part of an ongoing study, we are collaborating with the locals, tapping on their religious belief systems, using science and engineering to benefit the good of the society. The outcomes will be presented during the meetings.
Crust-mantle velocity structure in Shanxi rift, Central North China Craton
Authors: Cai Yan , Wu Jianping
Published: March 2020

North China Craton is the oldest craton in the world. It contains the eastern, central and western part. Shanxi rift and Taihang mountain contribute the central part. With strong tectonic deformation and intense seismic activity, its crust-mantle deformation and deep structure have always been highly concerned. In recent years, China Earthquake Administration has deployed a dense temporary seismic array in North China. With the permanent and temporary stations, we obtained the crust-mantle S-wave velocity structure in the central North China Craton by using the joint inversion of receiver function and surface wave dispersion. The results show that the crustal thickness is thick in the north of the Shanxi rift (42km) and thin in the south (35km). Datong basin, located in the north of the rift, exhibits large-scale low-velocity anomalies in the middle-lower crust and upper mantle; the Taiyuan basin and Linfen basin, located in the central part, have high velocities in the lower crust and upper mantle; the Yuncheng basin, in the southern part, has low velocities in the lower crust and upper mantle velocities, but has a high-velocity layer below 80 km. We speculate that an upwelling channel beneath the west of the Datong basin caused the low velocity anomalies there. In the central part of the Shanxi rift, magmatic bottom intrusion occurred before the tension rifting, so that the heated lithosphere has enough time to cool down to form high velocity. Its current lithosphere with high temperature may indicate the future deformation and damage. There may be a hot lithospheric uplift in the south of the Shanxi rift, heating the crust and the lithospheric mantle. The high-velocity layer in its upper mantle suggests that the bottom of the lithosphere after the intrusion of the magma began to cool down.
LIFE URBANGREEN: Innovative technological platform to improve management of green areas for better climate adaptation
Authors: Viskanic Paolo , Pasquinelli Alice , Fini Alessio , Wezyk Piotr
Published: March 2020

Climate change is a serious and cross-cutting issue: urban areas are particularly sensitive to climate impacts, especially to heatwaves, floods and droughts. Typically, urban phenomena (such as the ‘urban heat island effect’ – where the urban area is significantly warmer than the surrounding rural areas) and the impacts of extreme weather events demonstrate the high vulnerability of cities.

Specific urban adaptation strategies are therefore needed to make cities more resilient. In this context, green areas and green infrastructures are seen among the most widely applicable, economically viable and effective tools to combat the impacts of climate change and help people adapt to or mitigate adverse effects of this change.

LIFE URBANGREEN is a European Funded project dealing with climate adaptation through the maximisation of ecosystem services provided by urban green areas maintained in an innovative way. The main expected result is a smart, integrated, geospatial management system, to monitor and govern all activities related to urban green areas, maximizing ecological benefits.

Five innovative modules are being developed within the project, aimed at:

providing irrigation to trees only when and where actually needed

reducing the carbon footprint of maintenance activities through a more efficient job planning

quantifying ecosystem services provided by green areas

monitoring health conditions of trees using remote sensing data

increasing citizen participation in urban green management

The project involves 5 Italian and Polish partners:

R3 GIS (GIS software company and project coordinator, Bolzano, Italy)

University of Milano (scientific coordinator, Milano, Italy)

ProGea 4D (remote sensing company, Krakow, Poland)

ZZM (manager of urban green areas in Krakow, Poland)

Anthea (manager of urban green areas in Rimini, Italy)

Also, the National Central University (NCU) in Taiwan, under the coordination of Prof Yuei-An Liou, supports the project and participates as external partner and will test some innovations of the LIFE URBANGREEN Project in Taiwan.

During the EGU conference, results obtained during the first two years of the project will be presented. More information on the project is available at www.lifeurbangreen.eu
Estimate hydrodynamic connectivity and probability of contamination through Lagrangian experiments in a high resolution shelf sea model
Authors: Bendoni Michele , Brandini Carlo , Fattorini Maria , Lapucci Chiara , Pretti Carlo
Published: March 2020

Coastal areas are experiencing an increasing anthropic pressure worldwide, especially due to port activities. In addition, valuable ecosystems such as Marine Protected Areas (MPA) might be located close to ports and be potentially subject to pollutant driven by the local current pattern. It is then fundamental to develop tools to analyze and quantify the tendency of a MPA to be affected by generic pollutant released from a port. Present work is based on a series of Lagrangian experiments carried out on a domain containing the port of Livorno and the Meloria Sholas MPA, located in the Tuscany Archipelago (Italy). The flow field employed to force the experiments is obtained from a downscaling modelling chain implemented with the 3D ROMS software. The top level is a 1.2 km low-resolution model covering the North-West portion of the Mediterranean basin which feeds with a one-way nesting algorithm a 400 m mid-resolution model for the Tuscany Archipelago, extending West of Corsica Island and up to the Gulf of Genova. The inner level of the modelling chain is a 50 m high-resolution coastal model (offline nesting) which covers the area of Meloria Shoals, the port, and their surroundings. Hydrodynamic simulations are carried out for one year. Initial conditions are provided by the CMEMS (1/24° res) model Analysis, as well as boundary conditions for the low-resolution model. Atmospheric forcing comes from the downscaling of the ERA-5 reanalysis dataset, consisting on the BOLAM model implemented on a 7 km grid of the Med-CORDEX domain, in which the MOLOCH model is nested on a 2.5 km spaced grid. Lagrangian numerical experiments are carried out considering the consecutive release of passive particles in the port area, at finite intervals for one year, following the trajectories for ten days. To estimate the degree of hydrodynamic connectivity between the port and the MPA and give a measure of the probability of contamination, the “oceanographic distance” is computed in several ways from the calculated trajectories. Preliminary results show the main transport pattern is mostly distributed alongshore, making the MPA less connected to the port compared to areas placed at the same distance.
Macrobenthic community response to long-term climate change in the Adriatic Sea (Italy)
Authors: Scarponi Daniele , Azzarone Michele , Nawrot Rafal , Kowalewski Michal
Published: March 2020

The ecological consequences of climate change on marine ecosystems remains poorly understood, particularly for ecological communities that reside in enclosed basins, which limit marine species in their ability to migrate. Here we use assemblages of late Quaternary fossils mollusks preserved in nearshore sediments to explore how nearshore marine benthic communities responded to past climate changes in the northern Adriatic.   We focus on three time periods: (1) the last interglacial (<125ka BP), when regional temperatures were higher than today, representing a possible analogue for the near-future global warming; (2) the last late glacial 14.5-18.0 ka BP; and (3) the mid-Holocene 6.0-1.0 ka BP, when conditions were similar to today but with a minimal human impact. Temporal dynamics of benthic communities was assessed by applying multivariate and resampling approaches to abundance data for core-derived samples of fossil mollusks. Results demonstrate that the penultimate interglacial benthic assemblages shifted to a new community state during the subsequent glacial period. The shift represented a decline in abundance of exclusively Mediterranean nearshore species and a concurrent increase in abundance of nearshore species of cosmopolitan and boreal affinity. This shift was, most likely, driven by global climate cooling. Following this major community restructuring, the local nearshore communities had reversed back to their previous state during the mid-Holocene, when interglacial climate conditions were fully reestablished again. We conclude that the nearshore community responded to long-term climate changes by displaying a resilient (rather than persistent or stochastic) behavior, with Holocene biota reversing back to the pre-existing interglacial state. However, regional pollution, trawling and the threat of spreading invasive species are already taking their toll and the present-day communities are shifting to a novel, historical unprecedented community state. Nonetheless, our findings indicate that if local and regional threats can be mitigated, the coastal marine communities of the northern Adriatic would be resilient against limited climate warming in the near future.
Micro-seismicity of the Northern Sea of Galilee - Before and During the July-August 2018 Seismic Swarm
Authors: Kurzon Ittai
Published: March 2020

This study presents observations and analysis from a high-sampling-rate micro-seismic network, located at the north of the Sea of Galilee, Israel. Stations’ locations were chosen following the seismic swarm at the North of the Sea of Galilee, in October 2013, aiming to perceive a better understanding of the seismicity and structure of this area, in light of that anomaly seismic swarm, and of the seismic activity along the Dead Sea Fault. The micro-seismic network was active between May 2016 to August 2018, with six stations altogether, in distances of 3-5km around the northern Sea of Galilee.  Each of the micro-seismic stations had two collocated sensors: 1) GS-1 Geospace, 1 Hz vertical seismometers, sampled at 500 samples per second, and 2) 3-channel Episensor embedded in a Rock+ Kinemetrics datalogger, sampled at 200 samples per second. Towards the dismantling of the network, another swarm, stronger in magnitude, and longer in duration, has occurred in July-August 2018, roughly at the same location. Meanwhile, a significant upgrade of the Israel Seismic Network (ISN) was taking place, also densifying the number of stations around the Sea of Galilee.

The seismic processing presented here has many steps of verification, at all levels: detection, association, and location.  Processing begins with the local high-sampling-rate micro-seismic stations, tuning the most appropriate micro-seismic detectors, and association, location and magnitude parameters. Then this new generated micro-seismic catalogue is used to reveal lower magnitude events within the ISN stations, followed by relocation and re-magnitude estimations, done to those events that have additional information from the ISN stations. Running this process for increasing time-windows, it is demonstrated how the use of micro-seismic instrumentation can increase the seismic catalogue by an order of magnitude, providing higher resolution of the seismicity, both in space and time.

These efforts, of increasing the seismic catalogue, and improving their locations, are utilised for two main goals: a) obtaining a clearer picture of the seismicity and structure in the area before and during the seismic swarm of July-August 2018, b) Zooming into the interesting micro-seismic activity just before the initiation of the swarm.
Preliminary plume-mode stratigraphic framework maps of Central Europe
Authors: Friedrich Anke M. , Duzingisimana Mugabo Wilson , Rieger Stefanie
Published: March 2020

Deformation patterns of continental interiors cannot be explained by the plate-mode of mantle convection and standard plate-boundary processes. In order to understand the occurrence of spatial and temporal patterns of earthquakes, active deformation, uplift and erosion, diking, rifting, and volcanism, other mechanisms need to be invoked. We explore the role, the plume-mode of mantle convection may play to explain the above mentioned features for the Cenozoic of central Europe. We ask whether geological maps at the continental scale are useful to distinguish between the two basic mantle-flow directions, i.e., vertical versus horizontal flow.  The French Massif Central and the German Eifel are highlands in Central Europe that were characterized by intense volcanic activities during the Cenozoic Era. The origin of the distinctive topographically high and volcanically active regions, and, therefore, the evolution of the Cenozoic geology of Central Europe has been enigmatic. In an effort to address the problem, the Cenozoic geological series of Central Europe as displayed on the geological maps of France and Germany at 1 : 1 000 000 was reconstructed. The plume-mode stratigraphic framework mapping followed the Plume-Event-based Stratigraphic Model proposed by Friedrich et al. (2018) to evaluate the contribution of a mantle plume to the generation of the Central European volcanic province, and the influence of a mantle plume versus asthenospheric flow on the evolution of Cenozoic geology of the region. The resultant plume-stratigraphic map-patterns yields a NE-SW-oriented, narrow (200 - 400 km), elongated (up to c. 1200 km) region of uplift and erosion, from the Massif Central to the Rhenish Massif.  The best fit patterns are obtained by assuming an onset of uplift and erosion some 40 Myrs prior to Miocene volcanism. Given that the temporal resolution of the input maps is restricted to geological series, these numbers carry a large uncertainty and depend on the assumption that the series boundaries relate to geological events, which need not be the case. Future applications of this plume-stratigraphic mapping is promising to reveal mantle-parameters,  particularly once the temporal resolution of the input maps improves from series to stages.
Beyond the Mass Balance: Watershed phosphorus legacies and the evolution of the current water quality policy challenge
Authors: Basu Nandita , Van Meter Kimberly , Van Cappellen Phillipe , Liu Yuhe , McLeod Meghan , Hall Roland , Tenkuano Guy
Published: March 2020

Increased use of phosphorus (P) fertilizers and detergents, as well as the growth of animal feeding operations, have more than doubled P inputs to human-impacted watersheds over pre-industrial levels. While P fertilizer use and manure application help to maximize crop yields, excess P is lost to runoff, leading to eutrophication of downstream waters—a phenomenon of great concern in the North American Great Lakes region. Excess P also accumulates across the landscape, leading to legacies that serve as long-term sources of P to surface waters, even after inputs to the watershed are reduced. We developed, for the first time, a process-based model, ELEMeNT-P, designed to capture legacy P accumulation and depletion trajectories along the land-aquatic continuum. To drive the model, we reconstructed a more than 100-year trajectory of P inputs to the Grand River Watershed (GRW), Canada’s largest river basin draining directly to Lake Erie. Our results show that since 1900 the GRW has served as a net P sink, with an estimated accumulation of more than 480 ktons P, of which 89% resides in soils and 6% in reservoirs and riparian areas. Future simulations suggest that while a 40% reduction in P discharge to Lake Erie is possible under aggressive management scenarios, legacy P will continue to elevate P loads to Lake Erie for centuries.
Towards multi-method and multi-scale attribution of global wildfire danger
Authors: Liu Zhongwei , Eden Jonathan , Dieppois Bastien , Blackett Matthew
Published: March 2020

Wildfires constitute a major natural hazard and pose huge risk to many regions of the world. The series of large fires across both hemispheres in recent years have led to inevitable questions about how human-induced climate change may be altering the character of such events. Providing answers to these questions is a crucial step to increasing resilience to major wildfires.

Long-term projections produced by state-of-the-art climate models, even when reliable, are not always a suitable means of communicating risk. Methodologies to attribute trends in meteorological phenomena associated with high-impact events to anthropogenic influence have the potential to better communicate risk and guide adaptation strategies. While the link between a warming world and heat-related extremes (e.g. heatwaves and droughts) is reasonably well-understood, there is a lack of consensus on the most appropriate and effective methodological approach for many variables, potentially impacted by warming climate, such as wildfire attribution. The link with climate change remains poorly understood and wildfires have been largely ignored by attribution studies to date.

As a first step towards the development of a seamless, globally-applicable framework for assessing past, present and future risk in wildfire danger, we present a global attribution analysis of wildfire danger. With initial focus on observational records, we use both established and novel empirical-statistical methods to attribute historical trends in episodes of extreme weather and climate conducive to wildfire ignition and spread. Particular consideration is given to the sensitivity of attribution findings to the spatial scale upon which the analysis is conducted. We also draw attention to a series of important, often overlooked, conceptual and technical challenges in event attribution, including validation and bias-correction of climate models and discuss the value of linking attribution of recent wildfire events with future risk assessment.
Integrated modelling based on shallow cross-gradient joint inversion and deep petrological approach on 2D/3D data in the Western Carpathians
Authors: Vozár Ján , Bezák Vladimír , Bielik Miroslav , Fullea Javier , Moorkamp Max
Published: March 2020

We present the integrated geophysical modelling based on magnetotelluric (MT) method included in the crustal joint inversion with gravity data performed by JIF3D code and geophysical-petrological LitMod3D thermaly-selfconsistent mantle modelling. Performed geophysical modeling is primarily based on MT and regional gravity data with supporting information from seismic methods and geothermal data like Moho and lithospheric-asthenospheric boundary (LAB) depth used for building of the starting models. The integration among geophysical models is provided by the cross-gradient coupling method for the crustal structures and in the mantle, the coupling is provided petrological relationship based on compositional, temperature and pressure distribution information. The case study is focused on 3D modelling of the seismic 2T profile in central Slovakia crossing the major Carpathian tectonic units and the contact zone between European platform and Inner Carpathian block, which coincide with Carpathian Conductivity Anomaly (CCA).

The geoelectrical models from the 3D integrated modeling image the CCA in depths of about 10 - 20km and shows great improvement in comparison with 2D MT models. The CCA exhibits 3D features represented by the offset, along the fault, in the northsouth direction in the northern part of the modelled area. The four basic segments were identified in the crust structure of the central Slovakia part of the Western Carpathians. The southernmost physically distinctive segment with high full crust conductivity caused by young volcanic activity shows the presence of the partial melt, with high geoelectrical conductivity, in the middle and lower crust caused by higher heat flow. These structures are situated to the southwest from the profile and finger type conductors indicate its penetration in northeast direction. These volcanic processes in the south are not connected with CCA presence and its origin, which is supposed to be the presence of graphite or mineralized water in mylonitized rocks on the sheer contact zones of European platform and Inner Western Carpathians.

For mantle part of the integrated models, we studied different mantle compositions and fluid content within the lithospheric mantle to explain differences in electrical and seismic LAB. The calculated petrological conductivity model shows sensitivity of MT data on the LAB depth change, the correct input of composition parameters of lithospheric mantle and thermal field. The thermal steady state approximation was used to calculate surface heat flow in the area is lower than measured and estimated values from previous thermal studies. The differences between calculated and measured heat flow is primarily caused by high radiogenic production within the crust and not by the contribution from mantle.
Methane emission and oxidation in canals draining tropical peatlands
Authors: Somers Lauren , Hoyt Alison , Bte Isnin Suhailah , Cobb Alex , Harvey Charles
Published: March 2020

Drainage canals are a potentially important source of methane from tropical peatlands. Groundwater flow transports dissolved methane to canals, where it has the potential to escape to the atmosphere. However, these emissions are poorly characterized, and the extent to which methane is oxidised before being emitted to the atmosphere is unknown. In this study, we present preliminary data from a deforested tropical peatland in Brunei Darussalam. We use measurements of stable carbon isotopes to track methane production in the peatland. To determine the fraction of methane which is emitted vs. oxidized in a canal draining the site, we use measurements of the δ13C and δD of CH4 in ditch water samples as well as surface gas samples. In addition, we monitor outflow and oxygen content in the ditch. Together, these measurements, in combination with a reactive transport hydrological model will enable us to estimate methane production, oxidation and fluvial export.
Managing the water resources of the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia
Authors: Post David
Published: March 2020

The Murray-Darling Basin in south-eastern Australia is one of the world’s largest rivers, draining an area of just over 1 million square kilometres. The basin drains about one-seventh of the Australian land mass and is the 16th longest river in the world. However, being located on the driest continent on Earth, its discharge is relatively small, averaging just 767 m3/s, far smaller than the discharge from any other similarly sized river worldwide. 

Despite the relative lack of water, the Murray-Darling Basin is one of the most significant agricultural areas in Australia. In order to manage the water in the basin, in 2008 the Murray-Darling Basin Authority was formed with a mandate to manage the Murray-Darling Basin in an integrated and sustainable manner. Water reform in the basin has been a world-first in terms of the scale of intervention, but it has led to numerous conflicts in terms of access to water. The ability to manage the basin adequately relies on appropriate research being carried out in order to determine how much water is currently available, where it is currently being used, and how water availability and use are likely to change into the future.

Like much of southern Australia, the Murray-Darling Basin is already feeling the impacts of climate change, with more hotter days, fewer cold days, and a reduction in cool-season precipitation. These changes are only likely to increase over the coming decades. Additionally, as of January 2020, the Murray-Darling Basin finds itself in the grip of the worst drought in 120 years of records. This follows on the back of the second worst drought on record, the Millennium drought from 1997-2009.

This presentation will summarise the research being carried out by CSIRO in order to assist the MDBA to appropriately manage the water resources of the basin.
Temporal and spatial variations of sub-surface ocean temperatures in fjord systems, Western Svalbard
Authors: Schulthess Martin , Otto Jacqueline , Berntell Ellen , Zhang Qiong
Published: March 2020

Frontal ablation processes and resulting mass loss at tidewater glaciers are a key uncertainty in future predictions of sea level rise. As recent studies have shown, frontal ablation is most importantly influenced by the sub-surface and surface water temperatures, at the same time interlinked with complex ice-ocean interactions. Since in the last years warm water masses from the West Spitsbergen Current are increasingly affecting the fjords of Western Svalbard, referred to as the process of Atlantification, the relevance to improve our knowledge about water temperature dynamics as well as the interactions with frontal ablation is rising. In this study, the temporal and spatial variations of sub-surface ocean temperatures in three fjord systems in Western Svalbard were investigated by reanalysing data from previous studies. A high variability of water temperatures on a temporal as well as spatial scale were found, reflecting the complex dynamics between different factors, such as fjord bathymetry, ongoing Atlantification, influence from different ocean currents, salinity, mixing of water masses, and tides.

Measurements at different depths are revealing temperature value ranges of up to ± 25% of the annual temperature range for a divergence of 10m in the measurement depth. Profile measurements are therefore strongly recommended for future observations. Tidal variations occur in only one of three fjord system, with temperature variations of up to 2.5°C per day. The analysis of the influence of these warm water peaks, enduring only a few hours, on frontal ablation should be part of future research projects, since the difference to the daily mean water temperature can be up to 1°C. Differences in domination of certain water masses, such as cold or warm waters, can vary strongly in different locations within the fjord system, depending on the interplay of the different impacting factors. Concluding from the results, the depth and location of water temperature measurements, play a key role for making reliable assumptions concerning ice-ocean interactions, since water temperatures can vary strongly with depth and distance from the glacier front.
MAX-DOAS measurements of atmospheric rural and urban NO2 gradients during the TROLIX'19 campaign
Authors: Kreher Karin , Spinei Elena , Piters Ankie , Apituley Arnoud , Bais Alkis , Doerner Steffen , Fayt Caroline , Friedrich Martina , Frumau Arnoud , Hendrick Francois , Hermans Christian , Karagkiozidis Dimitris , Querel Richard , Van Roozendael Michel , Vonk Jan , Wagner Thomas
Published: March 2020

As part of the TROLIX'19 (TROpomi vaLIdation eXperiment) campaign (2 September to 4 October 2019), measurements of tropospheric NO2 columns and surface concentrations were made using the MAX-DOAS (Multi-AXis Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy) technique. To characterise any TROPOMI sub pixel (less than 3.5 km x 7 km) heterogeneity, four MAX-DOAS instruments were deployed at rural locations close to Cabauw (51.97°N, 4.93°E) and further six instruments were operated within the highly industrialized area of Rotterdam (51.92°N, 4.48°E) in the Netherlands. All instruments performed sky scanning from the horizon (from approximately 1°) to the zenith. In addition, two of the MAX-DOAS instruments (Pandoras) also measured total NO2 columns in direct sun mode.

Here we present first results focusing on the measurements of NO2 spatial gradients made at sites within approximately 3-10 km distance in a rural and an urban environment. The data analysis was done in two steps. Differential slant column densities were calculated using the data processing procedures established during the CINDI-2 intercomparison campaign (Kreher et al., in review, 2019) in UV and VIS spectral ranges. Tropospheric columns, near surface concentrations and profiles were then calculated using the Pandora real time algorithm as well as the NDACC UV-Vis Central Processing system developed in the ESA FRM4DOAS project. Local heterogeneity at the surface level was evaluated using in-situ NO2 measurements available from several routine monitoring stations within the area of interest. The local NO2 heterogeneity effect on TROPOMI validation is also discussed.

Reference:

Kreher, K. et al.: Intercomparison of NO2, O4, O3 and HCHO slant column measurements by MAX-DOAS and zenith-sky UV-Visible spectrometers during the CINDI-2 campaign, Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2019-157, in review, 2019.

 
Analysis of heat wave features and urban heat island effect under climate change
Authors: Tian Ye , Fraedrich Klaus , Ma Feng
Published: March 2020

Extreme events such as heat waves occurred in urban have a large influence on human life due to population density. For urban areas, the urban heat island effect could further exacerbate the heat stress of heat waves. Meanwhile, the global climate change over the last few decades has changed the pattern and spatial distribution of local-scale extreme events. Commonly used climate models could capture broad-scale spatial changes in climate phenomena, but representing extreme events on local scales requires data with finer resolution. Here we present a deep learning based downscaling method to capture the localized near surface temperature features from climate models in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project 6 (CMIP6) framework. The downscaling is based on super-resolution image processing methods which could build relationships between coarse and fine resolution. This downscaling framework will then be applied to future emission scenarios over the period 2030 to 2100. The influence of future climate change on the occurrence of heat waves in urban and its interaction with urban heat island effect for ten most densely populated cities in China are studied. The heat waves are defined based on air temperature and the urban heat island is measured by the urban-rural difference in 2m-height air temperature. Improvements in data resolution enhanced the utility for assessing the surface air temperature record. Comparisons of urban heat waves from multiple climate models suggest that near-surface temperature trends and heat island effects are greatly affected by global warming. High resolution climate data offer the potential for further assessment of worldwide urban warming influences.
Soil organic carbon dynamics and controlling factors in typical ecosystems of the Qinghai-Tibet Platea critical zone
Authors: Yao Hongyun , Wang Pei , Yang Chao , Xu Xuebao , Wei Junqi , Shi Fangzhong , Guo Na , Yao Hongyun , Li Xiaoyan
Published: March 2020

The interface of the Earth’s critical zone is the place where organic carbon is dramatically decomposed and transformed．The dynamics and fate of organic carbon serve as an important foundation to reveal the material transportation in the Qinghai-Tibet Platea critical zones. This research analyzed temperature, soil moisture and stable carbon isotope values (δ13C) of CO2 in different soil layers, measure soil surface respiration using soil respiration measurement system (LI-8100) , and analyzed carbon storage , carbon dynamics and its controlling factors in critical zones in seven typical ecosystems of the Qinghai-Tibet Platea. The results found that the underground carbon content and its controlling factors were very different in different ecosystems on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The main controlling factor of carbon changes was water in alpine steppe and desert ecosystem while it was temperature in alpine meadow. In the meanwhile, this research also measured the maximum carboxylation rate (Vcmax) of dominant plants in each ecosystem, trying to explore the different carbon inputs in different ecosystems. Understanding the impacts of environmental changes on the geochemical cycling of critical zone’s organic carbon in the Qinghai-Tibet Platea would benefit the optimization of carbon cycling model and climate change predictions．
The Gran Sasso National Laboratory
Authors: Laubenstein Matthias
Published: March 2020

In order to explore the highest energy scales that cannot be reached with accelerators, underground laboratories provide the low radioactive background environment necessary to search for extremely rare phenomena. Experiments range from the direct search for dark matter that constitutes the largest fraction of matter in the Universe, to the exploration of the properties of the neutrinos, the most elusive of the known particles and which might be particle and antiparticle at the same time, and to the investigation on why our universe contains only matter and almost no antimatter, and much more.

The Gran Sasso underground laboratory is one of the four Italian national laboratories run by the INFN (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare). It is located under the Gran Sasso massif, in central Italy. To date it is one of the largest underground laboratories for astroparticle physics in the world and the most advanced in terms of complexity and completeness of its infrastructures. The scientific program at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory (Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, LNGS) is mainly focused on astroparticle, particle and nuclear physics. The laboratory presently hosts many experiments as well as R&D activities, including world-leading research in the fields of solar neutrinos, dark matter, neutrinoless double-beta decay and nuclear cross-section measurements of astrophysical interest. Other branches of sciences like earth science, biology and fundamental physics complement the activities carried out. The laboratory is operated as an international science facility and hosts experiments whose scientific merit is assessed by an international advisory Scientific Committee. A review of the main experiments carried out at LNGS will be given, together with the most recent and relevant scientific results achieved.
Proxies, drivers, and impact of macrofaunal transport in sediment of the southern North Sea.
Authors: Neumann Andreas , van Beusekom Justus , Eisele Annika , Emeis Kay-Christian , Friedrich Jana , Kröncke Ingrid , Meyer Julia , Schückel Ulrike , Wrede Alexa
Published: March 2020

Coastal sediments play an important role in the nutrient cycling, and the intensities of exchange processes between bottom water and pore water control the balance between sequestration and recycling of nutrients. Pore water advection as one major exchange mechanism is determined by physical parameters and thus well describable with models. By contrast, biotransport (bioirrigation, bioturbation) as the other major transport mechanism is much more complex and observational data are often scarce to quantify these processes.

We present ex-situ observations of oxygen and nutrient fluxes, sediment characteristics, and fauna composition over the past six years from all benthic provinces of the German Bight, which enable us to describe the spatial and seasonal variability of the benthic- pelagic coupling. We employ this dataset to detect environmental drivers of the observed variability and to test several proxies of faunal activity.

Our results show that abiotic parameters (sediment type, local primary production) explain the spatial variability while the dynamics of temperature and faunal activity explain the temporal variability. Effects of the complex benthic communities on benthic exchange rates can be parameterized by surprisingly simple proxies, which may help to improve benthic exchange models. By comparing in-situ measurements of pore water advection with ex situ observations, we conclude that biotransport approximately doubles the benthic- pelagic exchange rates in the German Bight.
The effects of organic matter concentration on sediment reworking of Perinereis aibuhitensis : a mesocosm study
Authors: Seo Jaehwan , Koo Bon Joo
Published: March 2020

The organic matter (OM) concentration is one of the most important factors influencing benthic organism sediment reworking during bioturbation. This study was designed to evaluate differences in sediment reworking rate of Perinereis aibuhitensis based on quantification of its pellet production (PP) and OM transport rate from ambient sediment to the surface due to its feeding. The mesocosm experiment was conducted in acrylic container (15×1×20 cm) with two treatments (high OM treatment and low OM treatment) and each treatment had ten replicates. The pellets in each container were removed 2h before the beginning of the pellet collection, and then newly produced pellets were collected every 2 h during 24 h at each treatment. The mean grain size of pellets (5.1 ∅) was smaller than that of ambient sediment particles (5.9 ∅), and the mean OM concentration was much higher in pellet (0.69% for C and 0.06% for N) than in ambient sediment (0.46% for C and 0.05% for N). Since an organism cannot produce more organic matter than it ingests, production of organically enriched pellets by this species indicates selective ingestion. The overall OM transport rate was 0.7 g C m-2 day-1 in carbon and 0.06 g N m-2 day-1 in nitrogen, respectively. The daily PP was much higher in high OM treatment than that of low OM treatment with mean values of 0.007 and 0.002 g ind.-1 h-1, respectively. It is expected that Perinereis feeding activity strongly depended on OM concentrations. The overall sediment reworking rate based on the pellet production was much higher in high OM concentration (0.005 mm day-1) than in low OM (0.001 mm day-1) concentration.
Kriging Approach to Quantile Delta Mapping (QDM) for Spatial Downscaling of Climate Change Scenario
Authors: Kim Yong-Tak , Lima Carlos H R , Kwon Hyun-Han
Published: March 2020

Rainfall simulation by climate model is generally provided at coarse grids and bias correction is routinely needed for the hydrological applications. This study aims to explore an alternative approach to downscale daily rainfall simulated by the regional climate model (RCM) at any desired grid resolution along with bias correction using a Kriging model, which better represents spatial dependencies of distribution parameters across the watershed. The Kringing model also aims to reproduce the spatial variability observed in the ground rainfall gauge. The proposed model is validated through the entire weather stations in South Korea and climate change scenarios simulated by the five different RCMs informed by two GCMs. The results confirmed that the proposed spatial downscaling model could reproduce the observed rainfall statistics and spatial variability of rainfall. The proposed model further applied to the climate change scenario. A discussion of the potential uses of the mode is offered.

KEYWORDS: Climate Change Scenario, Global Climate Models, Regional Climate Models, Statistical Downscaling, Spatial-Temporal Bias

 

Acknowledgement

This work was funded by the Korea Meteorological Administration Research and Development Program under Grant KMI(KMI2018-01215)
Antarctic sea ice decline delayed well into the 21st century in a high-resolution climate projection
Authors: Rackow Thomas , Danilov Sergey , Goessling Helge F. , Hellmer Hartmut H. , Sein Dmitry V. , Semmler Tido , Jung Thomas
Published: March 2020

Despite ongoing global warming and strong sea ice decline in the Arctic, the sea ice extent around the Antarctic continent has not declined during the satellite era since 1979. This is in stark contrast to existing climate models that tend to show a strong negative sea ice trend for the same period; hence the confidence in projected Antarctic sea-ice changes is considered to be low. In the years since 2016, there has been significantly lower Antarctic sea ice extent, which some consider a sign of imminent change; however, others have argued that sea ice extent is expected to regress to the weak decadal trend in the near future.

In this presentation, we show results from climate change projections with a new climate model that allows the simulation of mesoscale eddies in dynamically active ocean regions in a computationally efficient way. We find that the high-resolution configuration (HR) favours periods of stable Antarctic sea ice extent in September as observed over the satellite era. Sea ice is not projected to decline well into the 21st century in the HR simulations, which is similar to the delaying effect of, e.g., added glacial melt water in recent studies. The HR ocean configurations simulate an ocean heat transport that responds differently to global warming and is more efficient at moderating the anthropogenic warming of the Southern Ocean. As a consequence, decrease of Antarctic sea ice extent is significantly delayed, in contrast to what existing coarser-resolution climate models predict.

Other explanations why current models simulate a non-observed decline of Antarctic sea-ice have been put forward, including the choice of included sea ice physics and underestimated simulated trends in westerly winds. Our results provide an alternative mechanism that might be strong enough to explain the gap between modeled and observed trends alone.
A Spatial and Temporal Continuum Remotely Sensed Soil Moisture Dataset of the Tibet Plateau From 2002 to 2015
Authors: Cui Yaokui , Zeng Chao , Zhou Jie , Chen Xi
Published: March 2020

Abstract:

Surface soil moisture plays an important role in the exchange of water and energy between the land surface and the atmosphere, and critical to climate change study. The Tibetan Plateau (TP), known as “The third pole of the world” and “Asia’s water towers”, exerts huge influences on and sensitive to global climates. Long time series of and spatio-temporal continuum soil moisture is helpful to understand the role of TP in this situation. In this study, a dataset of 14-year (2002–2015) Spatio-temporal continuum remotely sensed soil moisture of the TP at 0.25° resolution is obtained, combining MODIS optical products and ESA (European Space Agency) ECV (Essential Climate Variable) combined soil moisture products based on General Regression Neural Network (GRNN). The validation of the dataset shows that the soil moisture is well reconstructed with R2 larger than 0.65, and RMSE less than 0.08 cm3 cm-3 and Bias less than 0.07 cm3 cm-3 at 0.25° and 1° spatial scale, compared with the in-situ measurements in the central of TP. And then, spatial and temporal characteristics and trend of SM over TP were analyzed based on this dataset.

Keywords: Soil moisture; Remote Sensing; Dataset; GRNN; ECV; Tibetan Plateau
Equality of opportunities in geosciences: The EGU Awards Committee experience
Authors: Karatekin Özgür
Published: March 2020

EGU, the European Geosciences Union, is Europe’s premier geosciences union, dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in the Earth, planetary, and space sciences for the benefit of humanity, worldwide. Every year, the EGU awards & medals programme recognises eminent scientists for their outstanding research contribution in the Earth, planetary and space sciences. In addition, it identifies the awardees as role models for the next generation of early career scientists to foster geoscience research.

Nominations for all the medals and awards are submitted every year online by 15 June by the members of the EGU scientific community. Any person can be nominated except the EGU president, vice-president council mem- bers (not including ex-officio members) and chair of the EGU committees. Then, each EGU medal or award is selected through a rigorous assessment of the candidates and their merits. The EGU Council, the medal and award committees members and the Union and division officers are committed to soliciting the nomination of deserving individuals by avoiding conflicts of interest. Proposal, selection of candidates and the time schedule are described in detail at EGU website.

It is a strict necessity when recognizing scientific excellence by any scientific association providing equal oppor- tunities and ensuring balance. The processes and procedures that lead to the recognition of excellence has to be transparent and free of gender biases. However, establishment of clear and transparent evaluation criteria and per- formance metrics in order to provide equal opportunities to researchers across gender, continents and ethnic groups can be challenging since the definition of scientific excellence is often elusive.

This presentation aims to present the experience and the efforts of the European Geosciences Union to ensure equal opportunities, Data and statistics will be presented in the attempt to provide constructive indications to get to the target of giving equal opportunities to researchers across gender, continents and ethnic groups.