High-latitude dust over the North Atlantic: inputs from Icelandic proglacial dust storms

Mineral aerosols play an important role in the atmosphere-ocean climate system. Research has focused almost exclusively on sources in low-latitude arid regions, but here we show that there are substantial sources in cold, higher latitudes. A 6-year record of measurements made on Heimaey, an island south of Iceland, reveals frequent dust events with concentrations exceeding 20 micrograms per cubic meter. Much of this potentially iron-rich dust is transported southward and deposited in the North Atlantic. Emissions are highest in spring and spatially and temporally associated with active glacial outwash plains; large dust events appear to be associated with glacial outburst floods. In response to global warming, ice retreat on Iceland and in other glacierized areas is likely to increase dust emissions from these regions.     

Radon-222 from the island of hawaii: deep soils are more important than lava fields or volcanoes

The mean flux of radon-222 atoms from the island of Hawaii is 0.45 atom per square centimeter per second. Lava fields occupy 50 percent of the land area, but their radon flux is only 1 percent of that from deep volcanic soils. The island yields approximately 10 curies of radon-222 per hour to the air surrounding it. The radon-222 contribuition of volcanoes is negligible.     

Sediment-Water Chemical Exchange in the Coastal Zone Traced by in situ Radon-222 Flux Measurements

In situ radon-222 flux experiments conducted in benthic chambers in Cape Lookout Bight, a small marine basin on the North Carolina coast, reveal that enhanced chemical transport across the sediment-water interface during summer months is caused by abiogenic bubble tube structures. Transport rates for dissolved radon, methane, and ammonium more than three times greater than those predicted on the basis of molecular diffusion occur when open tubes are maintained by semi-diurnal low-tide bubbling.     

Asian dust: seasonal transport to the hawaiian islands

Analyses of atmospheric particles collected at Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii from February 1979 through September 1982 reveal strong influxes of Asian dust in the spring of each year. Concentrations of a typical crustal element, aluminum, are more than an order of magnitude greater between February and June than during the remainder of the year (71 +/- 51 versus 6.7 +/- 2.3 nanograms per cubic meter). The mass of crustal material transported during the relatively short dust episodes accounts for an average of 80 percent of the total yearly mass of atmospheric particles at 3400 meters on Mauna Loa.     

Long-range atmospheric transport of soil dust from Asia to the tropical north pacific: temporal variability

The concentration of airborne soil dust at Enewetak Atoll(11 degrees N, 162 degrees E) in April 1979 was 2.3 micrograms per cubic meter but decreased steadily to 0.02 microgram per cubic meter over the next 5 months. The spring dust is probably derived from China; its deposition rate ( approximately 0.3 millimeter per 1000 years) suggests that it may be a significant contributor to the deep-sea sediments of the North Pacific.     

African droughts and dust transport to the Caribbean: climate change implications

Great quantities of African dust are carried over large areas of the Atlantic and to the Caribbean during much of the year. Measurements made from 1965 to 1998 in Barbados trade winds show large interannual changes that are highly anticorrelated with rainfall in the Soudano-Sahel, a region that has suffered varying degrees of drought since 1970. Regression estimates based on long-term rainfall data suggest that dust concentrations were sharply lower during much of the 20th century before 1970, when rainfall was more normal. Because of the great sensitivity of dust emissions to climate, future changes in climate could result in large changes in emissions from African and other arid regions that, in turn, could lead to impacts on climate over large areas.     

Whales before whaling in the North Atlantic

It is well known that hunting dramatically reduced all baleen whale populations, yet reliable estimates of former whale abundances are elusive. Based on coalescent models for mitochondrial DNA sequence variation, the genetic diversity of North Atlantic whales suggests population sizes of approximately 240,000 humpback, 360,000 fin, and 265,000 minke whales. Estimates for fin and humpback whales are far greater than those previously calculated for prewhaling populations and 6 to 20 times higher than present-day population estimates. Such discrepancies suggest the need for a quantitative reevaluation of historical whale populations and a fundamental revision in our conception of the natural state of the oceans.     

Volcanic dust in deep-sea sediments: relationship of microfeatures to explosivity estimates

Particle size variations in a series of volcanic ash layers, deposited in high latitudes of the South Pacific during the past 2.5 million years, were earlier analyzed by using a model in which source cloud height and minimum volcanic paleoexplosivity are derived from downwind ash distribution. Examination of submicrometer morphological features of the volcanic glass shards reveals a clear relationship between what appear to be impact features on the glass surfaces and the independently derived paleoexplosivities, which suggests that this may be a simple means to characterize ash horizons and estimate relative volcanic explosivities.     

Soluble and colloidal iron in the oligotrophic North Atlantic and North Pacific

In the oligotrophic North Atlantic and North Pacific, ultrafiltration studies show that concentrations of soluble iron and soluble iron-binding organic ligands are much lower than previously presumed "dissolved" concentrations, which were operationally defined as that passing through a 0.4-micrometer pore filter. Our studies indicate that substantial portions of the previously presumed "dissolved" iron (and probably also iron-binding ligands) are present in colloidal size range. The soluble iron and iron-binding organic ligands are depleted at the surface and enriched at depth, similar to distributions of major nutrients. By contrast, colloidal iron shows a maximum at the surface and a minimum in the upper nutricline. Our results suggest that "dissolved" iron may be less bioavailable to phytoplankton than previously thought and that iron removal through colloid aggregation and settling should be considered in models of the oceanic iron cycle.     

Phosphate depletion in the western North Atlantic Ocean

Surface waters of the subtropical Sargasso Sea contain dissolved inorganic phosphate (DIP) concentrations of 0.2 to 1.0 nanomolar, which are sufficiently low to result in phosphorus control of primary production. The DIP concentrations in this area (which receives high inputs of iron-rich dust from arid regions of North Africa) are one to two orders of magnitude lower than surface levels in the North Pacific (where eolian iron inputs are much lower and water column denitrification is much more substantial). These data indicate a severe relative phosphorus depletion in the Atlantic. We hypothesize that nitrogen versus phosphorus limitation of primary production in the present-day ocean may be closely linked to iron supply through control of dinitrogen (N2) fixation, an iron-intensive metabolic process. Although the oceanic phosphorus inventory may set the upper limit for the total amount of organic matter produced in the ocean over geological time scales, at any instant in geological time, oceanic primary production may fall below this limit because of a persistent insufficient iron supply. By controlling N2 fixation, iron may control not only nitrogen versus phosphorus limitation but also carbon fixation and export stoichiometry and hence biological sequestration of atmospheric carbon dioxide.     

乳木果油在化妆品中的应用

目的 乳油木(Vitellaria paradoxa C.F.Gaertn.)是原产于非洲的一种重要木本油料植物,20世纪60年代引入云南元江种植,本研究对乳油木引种驯化物候进行观测,为其在西南干热河谷地区的推广奠定基础。 方法 2019年,对元江干热河谷引进种植的100株乳油木进行展叶、开花和结实物候观察,分析其物候特征以及开花同步性。 结果 乳油木的叶片簇生于枝条顶部,成熟时为深绿色,新老叶片的更替现象遍布全年;花朵与叶片的簇生方式一样,成熟时花冠为卵形多裂,花瓣为白色,全缘,开花起始及结束时间分别为3月初—8月初,持续时间约6个月;果实成熟时的颜色标志为亮绿色,单果的平均鲜果质量22.04~24.56 g,平均鲜种仁质量8.128~8.932 g,结果起始及结束时间分别为3月底—10月底,持续时间约6个月。 结论 无论是在个体还是群体水平上,乳油木都具有较高的开花同步性,并且与原产地非洲相比,乳油木在元江干热河谷引种地的生物学特征无明显变化,展叶、开花与结实的各个物候期持续时间基本一致。本研究对乳油木的引种驯化及人工栽培具有重要的指导意义。     

Corrected Late Triassic latitudes for continents adjacent to the North Atlantic

We use a method based on a statistical geomagnetic field model to recognize and correct for inclination error in sedimentary rocks from early Mesozoic rift basins in North America, Greenland, and Europe. The congruence of the corrected sedimentary results and independent data from igneous rocks on a regional scale indicates that a geocentric axial dipole field operated in the Late Triassic. The corrected paleolatitudes indicate a faster poleward drift of approximately 0.6 degrees per million years for this part of Pangea and suggest that the equatorial humid belt in the Late Triassic was about as wide as it is today.     

Interannual variability in the North Atlantic Ocean carbon sink

The North Atlantic is believed to represent the largest ocean sink for atmospheric carbon dioxide in the Northern Hemisphere, yet little is known about its temporal variability. We report an 18-year time series of upper-ocean inorganic carbon observations from the northwestern subtropical North Atlantic near Bermuda that indicates substantial variability in this sink. We deduce that the carbon variability at this site is largely driven by variations in winter mixed-layer depths and by sea surface temperature anomalies. Because these variations tend to occur in a basinwide coordinated pattern associated with the North Atlantic Oscillation, it is plausible that the entire North Atlantic Ocean may vary in concert, resulting in a variability of the strength of the North Atlantic carbon sink of about +/-0.3 petagrams of carbon per year (1 petagram = 10(15) grams) or nearly +/-50%. This extrapolation is supported by basin-wide estimates from atmospheric carbon dioxide inversions.     

The Holocene Asian monsoon: links to solar changes and North Atlantic climate

A 5-year-resolution absolute-dated oxygen isotope record from Dongge Cave, southern China, provides a continuous history of the Asian monsoon over the past 9000 years. Although the record broadly follows summer insolation, it is punctuated by eight weak monsoon events lasting approximately 1 to 5 centuries. One correlates with the "8200-year" event, another with the collapse of the Chinese Neolithic culture, and most with North Atlantic ice-rafting events. Cross-correlation of the decadal- to centennial-scale monsoon record with the atmospheric carbon-14 record shows that some, but not all, of the monsoon variability at these frequencies results from changes in solar output.     

Dilution of the northern North Atlantic Ocean in recent decades

Declining salinities signify that large amounts of fresh water have been added to the northern North Atlantic Ocean since the mid-1960s. We estimate that the Nordic Seas and Subpolar Basins were diluted by an extra 19,000 +/- 5000 cubic kilometers of freshwater input between 1965 and 1995. Fully half of that additional fresh water-about 10,000 cubic kilometers-infiltrated the system in the late 1960s at an approximate rate of 2000 cubic kilometers per year. Patterns of freshwater accumulation observed in the Nordic Seas suggest a century time scale to reach freshening thresholds critical to that portion of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation.     

Radiocarbon variability in the western North Atlantic during the last deglaciation

We present a detailed history of glacial to Holocene radiocarbon in the deep western North Atlantic from deep-sea corals and paired benthic-planktonic foraminifera. The deglaciation is marked by switches between radiocarbon-enriched and -depleted waters, leading to large radiocarbon gradients in the water column. These changes played an important role in modulating atmospheric radiocarbon. The deep-ocean record supports the notion of a bipolar seesaw with increased Northern-source deep-water formation linked to Northern Hemisphere warming and the reverse. In contrast, the more frequent radiocarbon variations in the intermediate/deep ocean are associated with roughly synchronous changes at the poles.