Sustainable regional development: Reconciling global and local dynamics and stakes in the Swiss Alps

This article explores how global and local dynamics and stakes can be brought together when trying to combine conservation and regional development. For this purpose we analyse a series of studies carried out in the area of the Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch World Heritage Site (WHS). The approaches used in these studies to analyse the diversity and development of the region included data collection and evaluation of indicators such as population development, number of working places, occupation rates in various economic sectors and commuter balance, as well as interviews with key informants and assessment of existing planning tools. The major challenge of the newly declared World Heritage Region is that it is neither a political or administrative nor a cultural unit but constitutes a completely new type of space that breaks up and crosses traditional boundaries. The studies revealed an economic tertiarisation process and migration of the population from remote areas to regional centres. Tourism was identified as the key economic sector in the region. Regarding regional sustainability, the studies identified a need for quality dialogue and negotiation of interests and stakes. It was shown that in dealing with sustainability at the local level, many key issues cannot be resolved on the ground, as they depend on regional or national decisions, e.g. the conditions for tourism promotion in the region or economic validation of agricultural activity. We conclude from these findings that national or even international factors do not provide a basis for location-specific solutions, as they are often too general, and that the global label does not ensure sustainability in a designated WHS region; this depends entirely on local and regional dynamics.

Global ocean storage of anthropogenic carbon

The global ocean is a significant sink for anthropogenic carbon (Cant), absorbing roughly a third of human CO2 emitted over the industrial period. Robust estimates of the magnitude and variability of the storage and distribution of Cant in the ocean are therefore important for understanding the human impact on climate. In this synthesis we review observational and model-based estimates of the storage and transport of Cant in the ocean. We pay particular attention to the uncertainties and potential biases inherent in different inference schemes. On a global scale, three data-based estimates of the distribution and inventory of Cant are now available. While the inventories are found to agree within their uncertainty, there are considerable differences in the spatial distribution. We also present a review of the progress made in the application of inverse and data assimilation techniques which combine ocean interior estimates of Cant with numerical ocean circulation models. Such methods are especially useful for estimating the air–sea flux and interior transport of Cant, quantities that are otherwise difficult to observe directly. However, the results are found to be highly dependent on modeled circulation, with the spread due to different ocean models at least as large as that from the different observational methods used to estimate Cant. Our review also highlights the importance of repeat measurements of hydrographic and biogeochemical parameters to estimate the storage of Cant on decadal timescales in the presence of the variability in circulation that is neglected by other approaches. Data-based Cant estimates provide important constraints on forward ocean models, which exhibit both broad similarities and regional errors relative to the observational fields. A compilation of inventories of Cant gives us a "best" estimate of the global ocean inventory of anthropogenic carbon in 2010 of 155 ± 31 PgC (±20% uncertainty). This estimate includes a broad range of values, suggesting that a combination of approaches is necessary in order to achieve a robust quantification of the ocean sink of anthropogenic CO2.

Assessing traditional knowledge on forest uses to understand forest ecosystem dynamics

Forest ecosystems worldwide are heavily influenced by human activities. Information on these human activities are key for understanding ecosystem dynamics, especially as some of these human activities have long-term consequences, i.e. legacy effects. We assessed the diversity of forest uses across the Swiss Alps and the respective traditional forest-related knowledge (TFRK) by conducting 56 oral history interviews in five regions. As TFRK tends to be underrepresented in written records, oral history proves to be a very valuable approach. We classified the information gathered in 61 specific forest use practices, characterized by activity, product and use, in order to gain a comprehensive picture of the regional variability but also cross-regional ubiquity of certain forest uses. Based on these results we are able to name the ecologically most relevant forest uses which were most likely, or potentially occurring in Central European forests. We suggest a simple, systematic historical assessment of these relevant forest uses to be applied in all studies on forest ecosystems. This procedure will enable scientists to better evaluate to what degree human activities had an impact on forest ecosystem dynamics in their study area.

Modelled global ocean temperature from 6 ka to present

We compare the ocean temperature evolution of the Holocene as simulated by climate models and reconstructed from marine temperature proxies. This site provides informations about the Holocene temperature trends as simulated by the models. We use transient simulations from a coupled atmosphere-ocean general circulation model, as well as an ensemble of time slice simulations from the Paleoclimate Modelling Intercomparison Project. The general pattern of sea surface temperature (SST) in the models shows a high latitude cooling and a low latitude warming. The proxy dataset comprises a global compilation of marine alkenone- and Mg/Ca-derived SST estimates. Independently of the choice of the climate model, we observe significant mismatches between modelled and estimated SST amplitudes in the trends for the last 6000 years. Alkenone-based SST records show a similar pattern as the simulated annual mean SSTs, but the simulated SST trends underestimate the alkenone-based SST trends by a factor of two to five. For Mg/Ca, no significant relationship between model simulations and proxy reconstructions can be detected. We tested if such discrepancies can be caused by too simplistic interpretations of the proxy data. We tested different seasons and depths in the model to compare the proxy data trends, and can reconcile only part of the mismatches on a regional scale. We therefore considered the additional environmental factor changes in the planktonic organisms' habitat depth and a time-shift in the recording season to diagnose whether invoking those environmental factors can help reconciling the proxy records and the model simulations. We find that invoking shifts in the living season and habitat depth can remove some of the model-data discrepancies in SST trends. Regardless whether such adjustments in the environmental parameters during the Holocene are realistic, they indicate that when modeled temperature trends are set up to allow drastic shifts in the ecological behavior of planktonic organisms, they do not capture the full range of reconstructed SST trends. Our findings indicate that climate model and reconstructed temperature trends are to a large degree only qualitatively comparable, thus providing a challenge for the interpretation of proxy data as well as the models' sensitivity to orbital forcing.

Chlorophyll fluorescence lifetimes and variable fluorescence parameters from phytoplankton in the global ocean

In situ data was collected between 2008-2014 in upper ocean. This data set includes the date, local time, coordinate, lifetime value, and variable fluorescence values.

The CMCC Eddy-permitting Global Ocean Physical Reanalysis (C-GLORS v5, 1980-2014), links to NetCDF files

The CMCC Global Ocean Physical Reanalysis System (C-GLORS) is used to simulate the state of the ocean in the last decades. It consists of a variational data assimilation system (OceanVar), capable of assimilating all in-situ observations along with altimetry data, and a forecast step performed by the ocean model NEMO coupled with the LIM2 sea-ice model. KEY STRENGTHS: - Data are available for a large number of ocean parameters - An extensive validation has been conducted and is freely available - The reanalysis is performed at high resolution (1/4 degree) and spans the last 30 years KEY LIMITATIONS: - Quality may be discontinuos and depend on observation coverage - Uncertainty estimates are simply derived through verification skill scores

Global Ocean Biomes: Mean and time-varying maps (NetCDF 7.8 MB)

Large-scale studies of ocean biogeochemistry and carbon cycling have often partitioned the ocean into regions along lines of latitude and longitude despite the fact that spatially more complex boundaries would be closer to the true biogeography of the ocean. Herein, we define 17 open-ocean biomes classified from four observational data sets: sea surface temperature (SST), spring/summer chlorophyll a concentrations (Chl a), ice fraction, and maximum mixed layer depth (maxMLD) on a 1° × 1° grid. By considering interannual variability for each input, we create dynamic ocean biome boundaries that shift annually between 1998 and 2010. Additionally we create a core biome map, which includes only the grid cells that do not change biome assignment across the 13 years of the time-varying biomes. These biomes can be used in future studies to distinguish large-scale ocean regions based on biogeochemical function.

Global Ocean Particulate Organic Carbon flux merged with satellite parameters

The efficiency of the biological pump of carbon to the deep ocean depends largely on the biologically mediated export of carbon from the surface ocean and its remineralization with depth. Global satellite studies have primarily focused on chlorophyll concentration and net primary production (NPP) to understand the role of phytoplankton in these processes. Recent satellite retrievals of phytoplankton composition now allow for the size of phytoplankton cells to be considered. Here, we improve understanding of phytoplankton size structure impacts on particle export, remineralization and transfer. Particulate organic carbon (POC) flux observations from sediment traps and 234Th are compiled across the global ocean. Annual climatologies of NPP, percent microplankton, and POC flux at four time series locations and within biogeochemical provinces are constructed, and sinking velocities are calculated to align surface variables with POC flux at depth. Parameters that characterize POC flux vs. depth (export flux ratio, labile fraction, remineralization length scale) are then fit to the aligned dataset. Times of the year dominated by different size compositions are identified and fit separately in regions of the ocean where phytoplankton cell size showed enough dynamic range over the annual cycle. Considering all data together, our findings support the paradigm of high export flux but low transfer efficiency in more productive regions and vice versa for oligotrophic regions. However, when parsing by dominant size class, we find periods dominated by small cells to have both greater export flux and lower transfer efficiency than periods when large cells comprise a greater proportion of the phytoplankton community.

International Collection of JGOFS (Joint Global Ocean Flux Study), Volume 2: Integrated Data Sets (1989-2003)

The JGOFS International Collection Volume 2: Integrated Data Sets CD is a coherent, organised compilation of existing data sets produced by member countries which participated in JGOFS. In most cases, the data were gathered from the JGOFS International Collection, Volume 1: Discrete Datasets DVD. To produce Vol. 1 data were taken from the original sources and copied "as is" on the DVD. For Vol. 2 data and metadata have been harmonized using the conversion software PanTool and the import routine of PANGAEA checking for completeness of metadata and defining the relations between data and metadata. Prior to the import, data had performed a technical quality control, i.e. format and readability of the file, availability and combination of parameters and units, range of values.

Abundance of large protists from the Infrakingdom Rhizaria in the global ocean

The present data set is a worldwide compilation from 11 oceanographic expeditions during which an underwater vision profiler (UVP) was deployed in situ to determine the vertical distribution (abundance) of 10 taxonomic/morphological groups of plankton larger than 600 µm, belonging to the Infrakingdom Rhizaria, including Phaeodaria, Radiolaria, Collodaria and Acantharia.