From Survival to Revival: The Riga Summit 2015 and the revised ENP. Egmont Security policy Brief No. 65, July 2015

With the European Parliament’s July report on the revision of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) calling on the Commission to ‘go back to basics’, this article argues that such a move would be counter-productive and that instead, the ENP needs to move towards the future and break away with the historical elusiveness of this overarching policy. The Riga Summit serves as an illustration of what will not suffice if the EU is to strengthen or even maintain its role in its neighbourhoods. The revision of the ENP is described as 3Dimensional process which needs to yield a concrete and forward-looking new ENP. The recommendations put forth herein map out what a truly revised ENP would entail.

Core correlation data and revised composite depth scale of Exp302 (ACEX) cores

Expedition 302 of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP), also known as the Arctic Coring Expedition (ACEX), successfully penetrated a sequence of Cenozoic sediments draping the crest of the Lomonosov Ridge in the central Arctic Ocean. The cumulative sedimentary record spans the last 57 m.y. and was recovered from three sites located within 15 km of each other. Merging the recovered cores onto a common depth scale that accurately reflects their stratigraphic placement below the seafloor is a fundamental step toward interpreting this unique sedimentary record. However, the lack of overlapping recovery in adjacent holes and intervals of high core disturbance complicated traditional methods of stratigraphic correlation. Here we present a revised composite depth scale for the ACEX sediments, generated in part by performing a regional stratigraphic correlation with sediments recovered from previous expeditions to the Lomonosov Ridge. The revised depth scale also reassesses the offsets for cores in the upper 55 meters below seafloor, where no overlapping recovery was acquired, and proposes modifications to these depths.

Revised age model of DSDP Site 95-612

Alkenone-based Cenozoic records of the partial pressure of atmospheric carbon dioxide (pCO2) are founded on the carbon isotope fractionation that occurred during marine photosynthesis (epsilon [p37:2]). However, the magnitude of epsilon [p37:2] is also influenced by phytoplankton cell size - a consideration lacking in previous alkenone-based CO2 estimates. In this study, we reconstruct cell size trends in ancient alkenone-producing coccolithophores (the reticulofenestrids) to test the influence that cell size variability played in determining epsilon [p37:2] trends and pCO2 estimates during the middle Eocene to early Miocene. At the investigated deep-sea sites, the reticulofenestrids experienced high diversity and largest mean cell sizes during the late Eocene, followed by a long-term decrease in maximum cell size since the earliest Oligocene. Decreasing haptophyte cell sizes do not account for the long-term increase in the stable carbon isotopic composition of alkenones and associated decrease in epsilon [p37:2] values during the Paleogene, supporting the conclusion that the secular pattern of epsilon [p37:2] values is primarily controlled by decreasing CO2 concentration since the earliest Oligocene. Further, given the physiology of modern alkenone producers, and considering the timings of coccolithophorid cell size change, extinctions, and changes in reconstructed pCO2 and temperature, we speculate that the selection of smaller reticulofenestrid cells during the Oligocene primarily reflects an adaptive response to increased [CO2(aq)] limitation.

Revised chronology of Neogene DSDP holes from the World Ocean

After nearly 30 years of growth in geochronologic knowledge, the originally published age models for many older deep sea marine sections have become badly outdated. In this report we present newly revised age models for Neogene sediments from 94 DSDP holes. Biostratigraphic data for planktonic foraminifers, calcareous nannofossils, diatoms and radiolarians, paleomagnetic and other stratigraphic data were compiled from the original Initial Reports volumes of DSDP. The Berggren et al. (1985 doi:10.1130/0016-7606(1985)96<1407:CG>2.0.CO;2) scale was used for the age of magnetic reversals, and a variety of recent papers were used to establish a standard modern set of calibrations for marine microfossil events to the magnetic reversal scale. New age vs depth plots were made for each hole, and for each a new line of correlation was created. All tabulated stratigraphic data, new age models, and age depth plots are given as appendices to the report.