Soil characteristics and decomposition of organic matter on Anchorage, Signy and Falkland Islands

Antarctic terrestrial ecosystems have poorly developed soils and currently experience one of the greatest rates of climate warming on the globe. We investigated the responsiveness of organic matter decomposition in Maritime Antarctic terrestrial ecosystems to climate change, using two study sites in the Antarctic Peninsula region (Anchorage Island, 67°S; Signy Island, 61°S), and contrasted the responses found with those at the cool temperate Falkland Islands (52°S). Our approach consisted of two complementary methods: (1) Laboratory measurements of decomposition at different temperatures (2, 6 and 10 °C) of plant material and soil organic matter from all three locations. (2) Field measurements at all three locations on the decomposition of soil organic matter, plant material and cellulose, both under natural conditions and under experimental warming (about 0.8 °C) achieved using open top chambers. Higher temperatures led to higher organic matter breakdown in the laboratory studies, indicating that decomposition in Maritime Antarctic terrestrial ecosystems is likely to increase with increasing soil temperatures. However, both laboratory and field studies showed that decomposition was more strongly influenced by local substratum characteristics (especially soil N availability) and plant functional type composition than by large-scale temperature differences. The very small responsiveness of organic matter decomposition in the field (experimental temperature increase <1 °C) compared with the laboratory (experimental increases of 4 or 8 °C) shows that substantial warming is required before significant effects can be detected.

Modern and fossil corals from Palmyra and Christmas islands

The relationship between decadal to centennial changes in ocean circulation and climate is difficult to discern using the sparse and discontinuous instrumental record of climate and, as such, represents a large uncertainty in coupled ocean-atmosphere general circulation models. We present new modern and fossil coral radiocarbon (D14C) records from Palmyra (6°N, 162°W) and Christmas (2°N, 157°W) islands to constrain central tropical Pacific ocean circulation changes during the last millennium. Seasonally to annually resolved coral D14C measurements from the 10th, 12th-17th, and 20th centuries do not contain significant interannual to decadal-scale variations, despite large changes in coral d18O on these timescales. A centennial-scale increase in coral radiocarbon from the Medieval Climate Anomaly (~900-1200 AD) to the Little Ice Age (~1500-1800) can be largely explained by changes in the atmospheric D14C, as determined with a box model of Palmyra mixed layer D14C. However, large 12th century depletions in Palmyra coral D14C may reflect as much as a 100% increase in upwelling rates and/or a significant decrease in the D14C of higher-latitude source waters reaching the equatorial Pacific during this time. SEM photos reveal evidence for minor dissolution and addition of secondary aragonite in the fossil corals, but our results suggest that coral D14C is only compromised after moderate to severe diagenesis for these relatively young fossil corals.

(Table 2) Survivorship of transplanted seedlings of Picea glauca inside and outside three tree islands in 1994, 1995, 2009 and after 15 years

The northern boundary of boreal forest and the ranges of tree species are expected to shift northward in response to climate warming, which will result in a decrease in the albedo of areas currently covered by tundra vegetation, an increase in terrestrial carbon sequestration, and an alteration of biodiversity in the current Low Arctic. Central to the prediction of forest expansion is an increase in the reproductive capacity and establishment of individual trees. We assessed cone production, seed viability, and transplanted seedling success of Picea glauca (Moench.) Voss. (white spruce) in the early 1990s and again in the late 2000s at four forest stand sites and eight tree island sites (clonal populations beyond present treeline) in the Mackenzie Delta region of the Northwest Territories, Canada. Over the past 20 years, average temperatures in this region have increased by 0.9 °C. This area has the northernmost forest-tundra ecotone in North America and is one of the few circumpolar regions where the northern limit of conifer trees reaches the Arctic Ocean. We found that cone production and seed viability did not change between the two periods of examination and that both variables decreased northward across the forest-tundra ecotone. Nevertheless, white spruce individuals at the northern limit of the forest-tundra ecotone produced viable seeds. Furthermore, transplanted seedlings were able to survive in the northernmost sites for 15 years, but there were no signs of natural regeneration. These results indicate that if climatic conditions continue to ameliorate, reproductive output will likely increase, but seedling establishment and forest expansion within the forest-tundra of this region is unlikely to occur without the availability of suitable recruitment sites. Processes that affect the availability of recruitment sites are likely to be important elsewhere in the circumpolar ecotone, and should be incorporated into models and predictions of climate change and its effects on the northern forest-tundra ecotone.

Composition of hydrothermal manganese oxide deposits from Galapagos mounds, DSDP Leg 70, Hole 509B

During DSDP Leg 70, a 1.60 m thick manganese oxide layer was sampled in hole 509B. This deposit is formed of alternating layers of hard plates of pure todorokite, about 2 mm thick, and of a more powdery material deeply impregnated with manganese oxide, about 3 mm thick. A SEM study of the plates and the associated powder shows that the powdery material is a transformation of a pre-existing sediment, while the plates are a direct precipitation from a hydrothermal solution. The uranium series disequilibrium method was used to determine the ages of the plates. They are found to be in good chronological sequence and in accordance with the sedimentation rate of the area (4.9 cm/10^3 years) which implies that they have been formed at the sediment-seawater interface during a pulsed injection of hydrothermal solution. The powder presents systematically an "older age" which is explained by a slowing down of the injection while the normal sediment settles; the older age is due to the 230Th excess of the sediment.