scholarly journals Regional-scale lateral carbon transport and CO<sub>2</sub> evasion in temperate stream catchments

Author(s):  
Katrin Magin ◽  
Celia Somlai-Haase ◽  
Ralf B. Schäfer ◽  
Andreas Lorke

Abstract. Inland waters play an important role in regional to global scale carbon cycling by transporting, processing and emitting substantial amounts of carbon, which originate mainly from their catchments. In this study, we analyzed the relationship between terrestrial net primary production (NPP) and the rate at which carbon is exported from the catchments in a temperate stream network. The analysis included more than 200 catchment areas in southwest Germany, ranging in size from 0.8 to 889 km2 for which CO2 evasion from stream surfaces and downstream transport with stream discharge were estimated from water quality monitoring data, while NPP in the catchments was obtained from a global data set based on remote sensing. We found that on average 2.7 % of terrestrial NPP (13.9 g C m2 yr−1) are exported from the catchments by streams and rivers, in which both CO2 evasion and downstream transport contributed about equally to this flux. The average carbon fluxes in the catchments of the study area resembled global and large-scale zonal mean values in many respects, including NPP, stream evasion as well as the catchment-specific total export rate of carbon in the fluvial network. A review of existing studies on aquatic-terrestrial coupling in the carbon cycle suggests that the catchment-specific carbon export varies in a relatively narrow range, despite a broad range of different spatial scales and hydrological characteristics of the study regions.

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (21) ◽  
pp. 5003-5014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katrin Magin ◽  
Celia Somlai-Haase ◽  
Ralf B. Schäfer ◽  
Andreas Lorke

Abstract. Inland waters play an important role in regional to global-scale carbon cycling by transporting, processing and emitting substantial amounts of carbon, which originate mainly from their catchments. In this study, we analyzed the relationship between terrestrial net primary production (NPP) and the rate at which carbon is exported from the catchments in a temperate stream network. The analysis included more than 200 catchment areas in southwest Germany, ranging in size from 0.8 to 889 km2 for which CO2 evasion from stream surfaces and downstream transport with stream discharge were estimated from water quality monitoring data, while NPP in the catchments was obtained from a global data set based on remote sensing. We found that on average 13.9 g C m−2 yr−1 (corresponding to 2.7 % of terrestrial NPP) are exported from the catchments by streams and rivers, in which both CO2 evasion and downstream transport contributed about equally to this flux. The average carbon fluxes in the catchments of the study area resembled global and large-scale zonal mean values in many respects, including NPP, stream evasion and the carbon export per catchment area in the fluvial network. A review of existing studies on aquatic–terrestrial coupling in the carbon cycle suggests that the carbon export per catchment area varies in a relatively narrow range, despite a broad range of different spatial scales and hydrological characteristics of the study regions.


2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (8) ◽  
pp. 5075-5090 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert E. Holz ◽  
Steven Platnick ◽  
Kerry Meyer ◽  
Mark Vaughan ◽  
Andrew Heidinger ◽  
...  

Abstract. Despite its importance as one of the key radiative properties that determines the impact of upper tropospheric clouds on the radiation balance, ice cloud optical thickness (IOT) has proven to be one of the more challenging properties to retrieve from space-based remote sensing measurements. In particular, optically thin upper tropospheric ice clouds (cirrus) have been especially challenging due to their tenuous nature, extensive spatial scales, and complex particle shapes and light-scattering characteristics. The lack of independent validation motivates the investigation presented in this paper, wherein systematic biases between MODIS Collection 5 (C5) and CALIOP Version 3 (V3) unconstrained retrievals of tenuous IOT (< 3) are examined using a month of collocated A-Train observations. An initial comparison revealed a factor of 2 bias between the MODIS and CALIOP IOT retrievals. This bias is investigated using an infrared (IR) radiative closure approach that compares both products with MODIS IR cirrus retrievals developed for this assessment. The analysis finds that both the MODIS C5 and the unconstrained CALIOP V3 retrievals are biased (high and low, respectively) relative to the IR IOT retrievals. Based on this finding, the MODIS and CALIOP algorithms are investigated with the goal of explaining and minimizing the biases relative to the IR. For MODIS we find that the assumed ice single-scattering properties used for the C5 retrievals are not consistent with the mean IR COT distribution. The C5 ice scattering database results in the asymmetry parameter (g) varying as a function of effective radius with mean values that are too large. The MODIS retrievals have been brought into agreement with the IR by adopting a new ice scattering model for Collection 6 (C6) consisting of a modified gamma distribution comprised of a single habit (severely roughened aggregated columns); the C6 ice cloud optical property models have a constant g ≈ 0.75 in the mid-visible spectrum, 5–15 % smaller than C5. For CALIOP, the assumed lidar ratio for unconstrained retrievals is fixed at 25 sr for the V3 data products. This value is found to be inconsistent with the constrained (predominantly nighttime) CALIOP retrievals. An experimental data set was produced using a modified lidar ratio of 32 sr for the unconstrained retrievals (an increase of 28 %), selected to provide consistency with the constrained V3 results. These modifications greatly improve the agreement with the IR and provide consistency between the MODIS and CALIOP products. Based on these results the recently released MODIS C6 optical products use the single-habit distribution given above, while the upcoming CALIOP V4 unconstrained algorithm will use higher lidar ratios for unconstrained retrievals.


1997 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Popeskov

There has recently been much discussion of large-scale interactions of fault zones and the influence of large-scale processes in the preparation and triggering of earthquakes. As a consequence, an official recommendation was issued to set up observational networks at regional scale. In this context, the existing network of standard geomagnetic observatories might play a more important role in future tectonomagnetic studies. The data from standard geomagnetic observatories are basically not appropriate for the detection of small-magnitude and, in most cases, spatially very localized geomagnetic field changes. However, their advantage is a continuity in a long-time period which enables the study of regional tectonomagnetic features and long-term precursory changes. As the first step of a more extensive study aimed at examining the features of observatory data for this purpose, a three-year data set from five European observatories has been analyzed. Some common statistical procedures have been applied along with a simple difference technique and multivariate linear regression to define local geomagnetic field changes. The distribution of M ³ 4.5 earthquakes in Europe, in a corresponding period, was also taken into account. No pronounced field variation, related in time to the M 5.7 Timisoara (Romania) earthquake on July 12, 1991, was found at Grocka observatory at about 80 km from the earthquake epicenter. However, an offset in level of the differences in declination which include Grocka observatory, not seen in the case of differences between other observatories, could be associated with a possible regional effect of the M 4.8 earthquake which occurred in September 1991 at about 70 km SE from Grocka.


Geology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikkel Fruergaard ◽  
Lasse Sander ◽  
Jérôme Goslin ◽  
Thorbjørn J. Andersen

Understanding the coupling between sediment availability and sea-level change is important for forecasting coastal-barrier (barrier islands and barrier spits) response to future sea-level rise (SLR). An extensive data set of sediment cores, seismic profiles, and a high-resolution chronology from the Wadden Sea (southeastern North Sea) documents that long-term barrier-chain progradation was interrupted by a period of widespread barrier deterioration between ca. 3.5 and 2.0 ka. The decay of the barrier islands resulted from a decrease in littoral drift triggered by regional-scale coastal reconfiguration. The formation of a large cuspate foreland updrift caused the depositional locus to shift away from the barrier coast. Our results demonstrate that the resulting reduction in marine sediment availability substantially decreased the stability of the barrier chain, causing the regional SLR thresholds to fall from between 2 and 9 mm yr–1 to ~0.9 mm yr–1, and thus below contemporary rates of SLR. Hence, we argue that predicting the response of barrier coasts to ongoing SLR requires consideration of possible changes in sediment availability and the role of large-scale geomorphological feedbacks due to human and natural causes.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Damiano Righetti ◽  
Meike Vogt ◽  
Niklaus E. Zimmermann ◽  
Nicolas Gruber

Abstract. Marine phytoplankton are responsible for half of the global net primary production and perform multiple other ecological functions and services of the global ocean. These photosynthetic organisms comprise more than 4300 marine species, but their biogeographic patterns and the resulting species diversity are poorly known, mostly owing to severe data limitations. Here, we compile, synthesize, and harmonize marine phytoplankton occurrence records from the two largest biological occurrence archives (Ocean Biogeographic Information System; OBIS, and Global Biodiversity Information Facility; GBIF) and three recent data collections. The resulting PhytoBase data set contains over 1.36 million phytoplankton occurrence records (1.28 million at the level of species) for a total of 1711 species, spanning the principal groups of the Bacillariophyceae, Dinoflagellata, and Haptophyta as well as several other groups. This data compilation increases the amount of marine phytoplankton records available through the single largest contributing archive (OBIS) by 65 %. Data span all ocean basins, latitudes and most seasons. Analyzing the oceanic inventory of sampled phytoplankton species richness at the broadest spatial scales possible, using a resampling procedure, we find that richness tends to saturate in the pantropics at ~ 93 % of all species in our database, at ~64% in temperate waters, and at ~ 35 % in the cold Northern Hemisphere, while the Southern Hemisphere remains underexplored. We provide metadata on the cruise, research institution, depth and date of collection for each record, and we include cell-counts for 195 339 records. We strongly recommend consideration of global spatiotemporal biases in sampling intensity and varying taxonomic sampling scopes between research cruises or institutions when analyzing the occurrence database. Including such information into statistical analysis tools, such as species distribution models may serve to project the diversity, niches, and distribution of species in the contemporary and future ocean, opening the door for a quantification of macroecological phytoplankton patterns. PhytoBase can be downloaded from PANGAEA, https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.904397 (Righetti et al., 2019a).


<em>Abstract</em>.—Mangroves are widely understood to be important habitats for fisheries, supporting resident fish, crustacean, and mollusk populations as well as acting as nursery grounds for species that are targeted by offshore fisheries. There is, however, a lack of quantitative data on fisheries that operate in and around mangroves. We carried out a systematic search to gather data on mangrove fisheries from the scientific literature. We filtered the 4,358 studies returned by the search based on their title and abstract and extracted data from 169 of these. Despite the abundance of literature on mangrove fisheries, we were unable to build a data set of comparable, quantitative data of sufficient size to support numerical modeling approaches. In part, this is due to the variety of mangrove fisheries, which range from small-scale subsistence fishing for mollusks and crabs to large-scale industrialized prawn trawling. This is compounded by the broad range of reporting methods and metrics encountered in the literature. We make a number of recommendations to guide the future reporting of mangrove fisheries to allow for better quantification and comparison of fisheries values at large spatial scales.


2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Resplandy ◽  
J. Boutin ◽  
L. Merlivat

Abstract. The considerable uncertainties in the carbon budget of the Southern Ocean are largely attributed to unresolved variability, in particular at a seasonal timescale and small spatial scale (~ 100 km). In this study, the variability of surface pCO2 and dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) at seasonal and small spatial scales is examined using a data set of surface drifters including ~ 80 000 measurements at high spatiotemporal resolution. On spatial scales of 100 km, we find gradients ranging from 5 to 50 μatm for pCO2 and 2 to 30 μmol kg−1 for DIC, with highest values in energetic and frontal regions. This result is supported by a second estimate obtained with sea surface temperature (SST) satellite images and local DIC–SST relationships derived from drifter observations. We find that dynamical processes drive the variability of DIC at small spatial scale in most regions of the Southern Ocean and the cascade of large-scale gradients down to small spatial scales, leading to gradients up to 15 μmol kg−1 over 100 km. Although the role of biological activity is more localized, it enhances the variability up to 30 μmol kg−1 over 100 km. The seasonal cycle of surface DIC is reconstructed following Mahadevan et al. (2011), using an annual climatology of DIC and a monthly climatology of mixed layer depth. This method is evaluated using drifter observations and proves to be a reasonable first-order estimate of the seasonality in the Southern Ocean that could be used to validate model simulations. We find that small spatial-scale structures are a non-negligible source of variability for DIC, with amplitudes of about a third of the variations associated with the seasonality and up to 10 times the magnitude of large-scale gradients. The amplitude of small-scale variability reported here should be kept in mind when inferring temporal changes (seasonality, interannual variability, decadal trends) of the carbon budget from low-resolution observations and models.


2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (20) ◽  
pp. 29455-29495 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. E. Holz ◽  
S. Platnick ◽  
K. Meyer ◽  
M. Vaughan ◽  
A. Heidinger ◽  
...  

Abstract. Despite its importance as one of the key radiative properties that determines the impact of upper tropospheric clouds on the radiation balance, ice cloud optical thickness (IOT) has proven to be one of the more challenging properties to retrieve from space-based remote sensing measurements. In particular, optically thin upper tropospheric ice clouds (cirrus) have been especially challenging due to their tenuous nature, extensive spatial scales, and complex particle shapes and light scattering characteristics. The lack of independent validation motivates the investigation presented in this paper, wherein systematic biases between MODIS Collection 5 (C5) and CALIOP Version 3 (V3) unconstrained retrievals of tenuous IOT (< 3) are examined using a month of collocated A-Train observations. An initial comparison revealed a factor of two bias between the MODIS and CALIOP IOT retrievals. This bias is investigated using an infrared (IR) radiative closure approach that compares both products with MODIS IR cirrus retrievals developed for this assessment. The analysis finds that both the MODIS C5 and the unconstrained CALIOP V3 retrievals are biased (high and low, respectively) relative to the IR IOT retrievals. Based on this finding, the MODIS and CALIOP algorithms are investigated with the goal of explaining and minimizing the biases relative to the IR. For MODIS we find that the assumed ice single scattering properties used for the C5 retrievals are not consistent with the mean IR COT distribution. The C5 ice scattering database results in the asymmetry parameter (g) varying as a function of effective radius with mean values that are too large. The MODIS retrievals have been brought into agreement with the IR by adopting a new ice scattering model for Collection 6 (C6) consisting of a modified gamma distribution comprised of a single habit (severely roughened aggregated columns); the C6 ice cloud optical property models have a constant g ~ 0.75 in the mid-visible spectrum, 5–15 % smaller than C5. For CALIOP, the assumed lidar ratio for unconstrained retrievals is fixed at 25 sr for the V3 data products. This value is found to be inconsistent with the constrained (predominantly nighttime) CALIOP retrievals. An experimental data set was produced using a modified lidar ratio of 32 sr for the unconstrained retrievals (an increase of 28 %), selected to provide consistency with the constrained V3 results. These modifications greatly improve the agreement with the IR and provide consistency between the MODIS and CALIOP products. Based on these results the recently released MODIS C6 optical products use the single habit distribution given above, while the upcoming CALIOP V4 unconstrained algorithm will use higher lidar ratios for unconstrained retrievals.


2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (32) ◽  
pp. 77
Author(s):  
Thorsten Albers ◽  
Dagmar Much ◽  
Nino Ohle ◽  
Nicole Von Lieberman ◽  
Eva Falke

Tidal flat areas in estuaries are affected by strong morphodynamics. Changes of sedimentation and erosion occur on different temporal and spatial scales. These changes challenge the responsible authorities due to the high importance of sufficient navigation channel depths and the ecological importance of those unique zones. In cooperation with the Hamburg Port Authority the Hamburg University of Technology runs broad field measurements on tidal flat areas in the Elbe estuary. The results provide a fundamental data set to improve the knowledge about morphodynamic processes. For more than 3 years water levels, waves, current parameters and suspended sediment concentrations are being recorded continuously and in a high resolution at different positions on a marine investigation area. Therefore, ADCP’s, optical backscatter sensors (OBS) and pressure transducers (PT) are used. To observe the consequences of the morphodynamic processes, the bathymetry of the investigation areas is determined with a multi-beam echo sounder (MBES) in frequent intervals as well as after extreme events like storm surges. Derived from the field data certain patterns of erosion, sediment transport and sedimentation could be observed depending on tidal currents, waves and large scale weather conditions. Seasonal effects are analyzed as well as the influence of extreme events. The observed processes are compared with data from a limnic investigation area, where a second, shorter field study was carried out.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiem van Straaten ◽  
Kirien Whan ◽  
Dim Coumou ◽  
Bart van den Hurk ◽  
Maurice Schmeits

&lt;p&gt;The succession of European surface weather patterns has limited predictability because disturbances quickly transfer to the large scale flow. Some aggregated statistic however, like the average temperature exceeding a threshold, can have extended predictability when adequate spatial scales, temporal scales and thresholds are chosen. This study benchmarks how the forecast skill horizon of probabilistic 2-meter temperature forecasts from the ECMWF sub-seasonal forecast system evolves with varying scales and thresholds. We apply temporal aggregation by rolling window averaging and spatial aggregation by hierarchical clustering. We verify 20 years of re-forecasts against the E-OBS data set and find that European predictability extends at maximum up to week 4. Simple aggregation and standard statistical post-processing extend the forecast skill horizon with two and three skillful days on average, respectively.&lt;br&gt;The intuitive notion that higher levels of aggregation capture the larger scale and lower frequency variability and therefore tap into an extended predictability, holds in many cases. However, we show that the effect can saturate and that regional optimums exist, beyond which extra aggregation reduces the forecast skill horizon. We expect that such windows of predictability result from specific physical mechanisms that only modulate and extend predictability locally. To optimize sub-seasonal forecasts for Europe, aggregation should in certain cases thus be limited.&lt;/p&gt;


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