Spatially explicit estimates of length and biomass of Micromesistius poutassou (Blue Whiting) from acoustic and trawl surveys in the North-East Atlantic in May 2012

Acoustic estimates of herring and blue whiting abundance were obtained during the surveys using the Simrad ER60 scientific echosounder. The allocation of NASC-values to herring, blue whiting and other acoustic targets were based on the composition of the trawl catches and the appearance of echo recordings. To estimate the abundance, the allocated NASC -values were averaged for ICES-squares (0.5° latitude by 1° longitude). For each statistical square, the unit area density of fish (rA) in number per square nautical mile (N*nm-2) was calculated using standard equations (Foote et al., 1987; Toresen et al., 1998). To estimate the total abundance of fish, the unit area abundance for each statistical square was multiplied by the number of square nautical miles in each statistical square and then summed for all the statistical squares within defined subareas and over the total area. Biomass estimation was calculated by multiplying abundance in numbers by the average weight of the fish in each statistical square then summing all squares within defined subareas and over the total area. The Norwegian BEAM soft-ware (Totland and Godø 2001) was used to make estimates of total biomass.

ELPA (European Leaf Physiognomic Approach): Grid data set of the leaf physiognomic composition of the extant European hardwood vegetation

Physiognomic traits of plant leaves such as size, shape or margin are decisively affected by the prevailing environmental conditions of the plant habitat. On the other hand, if a relationship between environment and leaf physiognomy can be shown to exist, vegetation represents a proxy for environmental conditions. This study investigates the relationship between physiognomic traits of leaves from European hardwood vegetation and environmental parameters in order to create a calibration dataset based on high resolution grid cell data. The leaf data are obtained from synthetic chorologic floras, the environmental data comprise climatic and ecologic data. The high resolution of the data allows for a detailed analysis of the spatial dependencies between the investigated parameters. The comparison of environmental parameters and leaf physiognomic characters reveals a clear correlation between temperature related parameters (e.g. mean annual temperature or ground frost frequency) and the expression of leaf characters (e.g. the type of leaf margin or the base of the lamina). Precipitation related parameters (e.g. mean annual precipitation), however, show no correlation with the leaf physiognomic composition of the vegetation. On the basis of these results, transfer functions for several environmental parameters are calculated from the leaf physiognomic composition of the extant vegetation. In a next step, a cluster analysis is applied to the dataset in order to identify "leaf physiognomic communities". Several of these are distinguished, characterised and subsequently used for vegetation classification. Concerning the leaf physiognomic diversity there are precise differences between each of these "leaf physiognomic classes". There is a clear increase of leaf physiognomic diversity with increasing variability of the environmental parameters: Northern vegetation types are characterised by a more or less homogeneous leaf physiognomic composition whereas southern vegetation types like the Mediterranean vegetation show a considerable higher leaf physiognomic diversity. Finally, the transfer functions are used to estimate palaeo-environmental parameters of three fossil European leaf assemblages from Late Oligocene and Middle Miocene. The results are compared with results obtained from other palaeo-environmental reconstructing methods. The estimates based on a direct linear ordination seem to be the most realistic ones, as they are highly consistent with the Coexistence Approach.

Modelled spatial and seasonal distribution of Blue Whiting (Micromesistius poutassou) larvae in the North-East Atlantic (1951 to 2005)

Blue whiting (Micromesistius poutassou, http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=126439) is a small mesopelagic planktivorous gadoid found throughout the North-East Atlantic. This data contains the results of a model-based analysis of larvae captured by the Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) during the period 1951-2005. The observations are analysed using Generalised Additive Models (GAMs) of the the spatial, seasonal and interannual variation in the occurrence of larvae. The best fitting model is chosen using the Aikaike Information Criteria (AIC). The probability of occurrence in the continous plankton recorder is then normalised and converted to a probability distribution function in space (UTM projection Zone 28) and season (day of year). The best fitting model splits the distribution into two separate spawning grounds north and south of a dividing line at 53 N. The probability distribution is therefore normalised in these two regions (ie the space-time integral over each of the two regions is 1). The modelled outputs are on a UTM Zone 28 grid: however, for convenience, the latitude ("lat") and longitude ("lon") of each of these grid points are also included as a variable in the NetCDF file. The assignment of each grid point to either the Northern or Southern component (defined here as north/south of 53 N), is also included as a further variable ("component"). Finally, the day of year ("doy") is stored as the number of days elapsed from and included January 1 (ie doy=1 on January 1) - the year is thereafter divided into 180 grid points.

Radiocarbon dates of peatland initiation across the northern high latitudes

A compilation of basal dates of peatland initiation across the northern high latitudes, associated metadata including location, age, raw and calibrated radiocarbon ages, and associated references. Includes previously published datasets from sources below as well as 365 new data points.

Mineralogy and petrology of Black Sea Basin sediments

The origin and modes of transportation and deposition of inorganic sedimentary material of the Black Sea were studied in approximately 60 piston, gravity, and Kasten cores. The investigation showed that the sediment derived from the north and northwest (especially from the Danube) has a low calcite-dolomite ratio and a high quartz-feldspar ratio. Rock fragments are generally not abundant; garnet is the principal heavy mineral and illite is the predominant clay mineral. This sedimentary material differs markedly from that carried by Anatolian rivers, which is characterized by a high calcite-dolomite ratio and a low quartz-feldspar ratio. Rock fragments are abundant; pyroxene is the principal heavy mineral and montmorillonite is the predominant clay mineral. In generel, the clay fraction is large in all sediments (27.6-86.9 percent), and the lateral distributian indicates an increase in clay consent from the coasts toward two centers in the western and eastern Black Sea basin. Illite is the most common clay mineral in the Black Sea sediments. The lateral changes in composition of the clay mineral can easily be traced to the petrologic character of northern (rich in illite) and southern (rich in montmorillonite) source areas. In almost all cores, a rhythmic change of the montmorillonite-illite ratio with depth was observed. These changes may be related to the changing influence of the two provinces during the Holocene and late Pleistocene. Higher montmorillonite content seems to indicate climctic changes, probably stages of glaciation end permafrost in the northern area, at which time the illite supply was diminished to a large extent. The composition of the sand fraction is relatad to the different petrologic and morphologic characteristics of two major source provimces: (1) a northern province (rich in quartz, feldspars, and garnet) characterized by a low elevation, comprising the Danube basin area and the rivers draining the Russian platform; and (2) a southern province (rich in pyroxene and volcanic and metamorphic rocks) in the mountainous region of Anatolia and the Caucasus, characterized by small but extremely erosive rivers. The textural properties (graded bedding) of the deep-sea send layers clearly suggest deposition from turbidity currents. The carbonate content of the contemporary sediments ranges from 5 to 65 percent. It increases from the coast to a maximum in two centers in the western and eastern basin. This pattern reflects the distribution of the <2-µm fraction. The contemporary mud sedimentation is governed by two important factors: (1) the deposition of terrigenous allochthonous material of low carbonate content originating from the surrounding hinterland (northern and southern source areas), and (2) the autochthonous production of large quantities of biogenic calcite by coccolithophores during the last period of about 3,000-4,000 years.

Characteristics of samples obtained during Pokhodsk 2012-2013 campaigns in the joint Russian-German POLYGON Project

Polygonal tundra, thermokarst basins and pingos are common and characteristic periglacial features of arctic lowlands underlain by permafrost in Northeast Siberia. Modern polygonal mires are in the focus of biogeochemical, biological, pedological, and cryolithological research with special attention to their carbon stocks and greenhouse-gas fluxes, their biodiversity and their dynamics and functioning under past, present and future climate scenarios. Within the frame of the joint German-Russian DFG-RFBR project Polygons in tundra wetlands: state and dynamics under climate variability in Polar Regions (POLYGON) field studies of recent and of late Quaternary environmental dynamics were carried out in the Indigirka lowland and in the Kolyma River Delta in summer 2012 and summer 2013. Using a multidisciplinary approach, several types of polygons and thermokarst lakes were studied in different landscapes units in the Kolyma Delta in 2012 around the small fishing settlement Pokhodsk. The floral and faunal associations of polygonal tundra were described during the fieldwork. Ecological, hydrological, meteorological, limnological, pedological and cryological features were studied in order to evaluate modern and past environmental conditions and their essential controlling parameters. The ecological monitoring and collection program of polygonal ponds were undertaken as in 2011 in the Indigirka lowland by a former POLYGON expedition (Schirrmeister et al. [eds.] 2012). Exposures, pits and drill cores in the Kolyma Delta were studied to understand the cryolithological structures of frozen ground and to collect samples for detailed paleoenvironmental research of the late Quaternary past. Dendrochronological and ecological studies were carried out in the tree line zone south of the Kolyma Delta. Based on previous work in the Indigirka lowland in 2011 (Schirrmeister et al. [eds.] 2012), the environmental monitoring around the Kytalyk research station was continued until the end of August 2012. In addition, a classical exposure of the late Pleistocene permafrost at the Achchaygy Allaikha River near Chokurdakh was studied. The ecological studies near Pokhodsk were continued in 2013 (chapter 13). Other fieldwork took place at the Pokhodsk-Yedoma-Island in the northwestern part of the Kolyma Delta.

Pigments of sediment cores of the Northwest European Continental Margin

In the context of the European OMEX Programme this investigation focused on gradients in the biomass and activity of the small benthic size spectrum along a transect across the Goban Spur from the outer Celtic Sea into Porcupine Abyssal Plain. The effects of food pulses (seasonal, episodic) on this part of the benthic size spectrum were investigated. Sediments sampled during eight expeditions at different seasons covering a range from 200 m to 4800 m water depth were assayed with biochemical bulk measurements: determinations of chloroplastic pigment equivalents (CPE), the sum of chlorophyll a and its breakdown products, provide information concerning the input of phytodetrital matter to the seafloor; phospholipids were analyzed to estimate the total biomass of small benthic organisms (including bacteria, fungi, flagellata, protozoa and small metazoan meiofauna). A new term 'small size class biomass' (SSCB) is introduced for the biomass of the smallest size classes of sediment-inhabiting organisms; the reduction of fluorescein-di-acetate (FDA) was determined to evaluate the potential activity of ester-cleaving bacterial exoenzymes in the sediment samples. At all stations benthic biomass was predominantly composed of the small size spectrum (90% on the shelf; 97-98% in the bathyal and abyssal parts of the transect). Small size class biomass (integrated over a 10 cm sediment column) ranged from 8 g C/m**2 on the shelf to 2.1 g C/m**2 on the adjacent Porcupine Abyssal Plain, exponentially decreasing with increasing water depth. However, a correlation between water depth and SSCB, macrofauna biomass as well as metazoan meiofauna biomass exhibited a significantly flatter slope for the small size classes in comparison to the larger organisms. CPE values indicated a pronounced seasonal cycle on the shelf and upper slope with twin peaks of phytodetrital deposition in mid spring and late summer. The deeper stations seem to receive a single annual flux maximum in late summer. SSCB and heterotrophic activity are significantly correlated to the amount of sediment-bound pigments. Seasonality in pigment concentrations is clearly followed by SSCB and activity. In contrast to macro- and megafauna which integrate over larger periods (months/years), the small benthic size classes, namely bacteria and foraminifera, proved to be the most reactive potential of the benthic communities to any perturbations on short time scales (days/weeks). The small size classes, therefore, occupy a key role in early diagenetic processes.