Dust storm in Asia continent and its bio-environmental effects in the North Pacific： A case study of the strongest dust event in April, 2001 in central Asia

The iron hypothesis, first proposed by John Martin in 1990[1], suggests that some surface oceans such as North and Equatorial Pacific Oceans have high nutrient but low chlorophyll (HNLC). Thus iron coming from terrestrial dusts is the primary factor limit…     

Effect of natural iron fertilization on carbon sequestration in the Southern Ocean

The availability of iron limits primary productivity and the associated uptake of carbon over large areas of the ocean. Iron thus plays an important role in the carbon cycle, and changes in its supply to the surface ocean may have had a significant effect on atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations over glacial-interglacial cycles. To date, the role of iron in carbon cycling has largely been assessed using short-term iron-addition experiments. It is difficult, however, to reliably assess the magnitude of carbon export to the ocean interior using such methods, and the short observational periods preclude extrapolation of the results to longer timescales. Here we report observations of a phytoplankton bloom induced by natural iron fertilization--an approach that offers the opportunity to overcome some of the limitations of short-term experiments. We found that a large phytoplankton bloom over the Kerguelen plateau in the Southern Ocean was sustained by the supply of iron and major nutrients to surface waters from iron-rich deep water below. The efficiency of fertilization, defined as the ratio of the carbon export to the amount of iron supplied, was at least ten times higher than previous estimates from short-term blooms induced by iron-addition experiments. This result sheds new light on the effect of long-term fertilization by iron and macronutrients on carbon sequestration, suggesting that changes in iron supply from below--as invoked in some palaeoclimatic and future climate change scenarios--may have a more significant effect on atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations than previously thought.     

Reduced mixing generates oscillations and chaos in the oceanic deep chlorophyll maximum

Deep chlorophyll maxima (DCMs) are widespread in large parts of the world's oceans. These deep layers of high chlorophyll concentration reflect a compromise of phytoplankton growth exposed to two opposing resource gradients: light supplied from above and nutrients supplied from below. It is often argued that DCMs are stable features. Here we show, however, that reduced vertical mixing can generate oscillations and chaos in phytoplankton biomass and species composition of DCMs. These fluctuations are caused by a difference in the timescales of two processes: (1) rapid export of sinking plankton, withdrawing nutrients from the euphotic zone and (2) a slow upward flux of nutrients fuelling new phytoplankton production. Climate models predict that global warming will reduce vertical mixing in the oceans. Our model indicates that reduced mixing will generate more variability in DCMs, thereby enhancing variability in oceanic primary production and in carbon export into the ocean interior.     

Doubling of marine dinitrogen-fixation rates based on direct measurements

Biological dinitrogen fixation provides the largest input of nitrogen to the oceans, therefore exerting important control on the ocean's nitrogen inventory and primary productivity. Nitrogen-isotope data from ocean sediments suggest that the marine-nitrogen inventory has been balanced for the past 3,000?years (ref. 4). Producing a balanced marine-nitrogen budget based on direct measurements has proved difficult, however, with nitrogen loss exceeding the gain from dinitrogen fixation by approximately 200?Tg?N?yr?1 (refs 5, 6). Here we present data from the Atlantic Ocean and show that the most widely used method of measuring oceanic N2-fixation rates underestimates the contribution of N2-fixing microorganisms (diazotrophs) relative to a newly developed method. Using molecular techniques to quantify the abundance of specific clades of diazotrophs in parallel with rates of 15N2 incorporation into particulate organic matter, we suggest that the difference between N2-fixation rates measured with the established method and those measured with the new method can be related to the composition of the diazotrophic community. Our data show that in areas dominated by Trichodesmium, the established method underestimates N2-fixation rates by an average of 62%. We also find that the newly developed method yields N2-fixation rates more than six times higher than those from the established method when unicellular, symbiotic cyanobacteria and γ-proteobacteria dominate the diazotrophic community. On the basis of average areal rates measured over the Atlantic Ocean, we calculated basin-wide N2-fixation rates of 14?±?1?Tg?N?yr?1 and 24?±1?Tg?N?yr?1 for the established and new methods, respectively. If our findings can be extrapolated to other ocean basins, this suggests that the global marine N2-fixation rate derived from direct measurements may increase from 103?±?8?Tg?N?yr?1 to 177?±?8?Tg?N?yr?1, and that the contribution of N2 fixers other than Trichodesmium is much more significant than was previously thought.     

Controls on tropical Pacific Ocean productivity revealed through nutrient stress diagnostics

In situ enrichment experiments have shown that the growth of bloom-forming diatoms in the major high-nitrate low-chlorophyll (HNLC) regions of the world's oceans is limited by the availability of iron. Yet even the largest of these manipulative experiments represents only a small fraction of an ocean basin, and the responses observed are strongly influenced by the proliferation of rare species rather than the growth of naturally dominant populations. Here we link unique fluorescence attributes of phytoplankton to specific physiological responses to nutrient stress, and use these relationships to evaluate the factors that constrain phytoplankton growth in the tropical Pacific Ocean on an unprecedented spatial scale. On the basis of fluorescence measurements taken over 12 years, we delineate three major ecophysiological regimes in this region. We find that iron has a key function in regulating phytoplankton growth in both HNLC and oligotrophic waters near the Equator and further south, whereas nitrogen and zooplankton grazing are the primary factors that regulate biomass production in the north. Application of our findings to the interpretation of satellite chlorophyll fields shows that productivity in the tropical Pacific basin may be 1.2-2.5 Pg C yr(-1) lower than previous estimates have suggested, a difference that is comparable to the global change in ocean production that accompanied the largest El Ni?o to La Ni?a transition on record.     

Effect of trace metal availability on coccolithophorid calcification

The deposition of atmospheric dust into the ocean has varied considerably over geological time. Because some of the trace metals contained in dust are essential plant nutrients which can limit phytoplankton growth in parts of the ocean, it has been suggested that variations in dust supply to the surface ocean might influence primary production. Whereas the role of trace metal availability in photosynthetic carbon fixation has received considerable attention, its effect on biogenic calcification is virtually unknown. The production of both particulate organic carbon and calcium carbonate (CaCO3) drives the ocean's biological carbon pump. The ratio of particulate organic carbon to CaCO3 export, the so-called rain ratio, is one of the factors determining CO2 sequestration in the deep ocean. Here we investigate the influence of the essential trace metals iron and zinc on the prominent CaCO3-producing microalga Emiliania huxleyi. We show that whereas at low iron concentrations growth and calcification are equally reduced, low zinc concentrations result in a de-coupling of the two processes. Despite the reduced growth rate of zinc-limited cells, CaCO3 production rates per cell remain unaffected, thus leading to highly calcified cells. These results suggest that changes in dust deposition can affect biogenic calcification in oceanic regions characterized by trace metal limitation, with possible consequences for CO2 partitioning between the atmosphere and the ocean.     

Holocene Southern Ocean surface temperature variability west of the Antarctic Peninsula

The disintegration of ice shelves, reduced sea-ice and glacier extent, and shifting ecological zones observed around Antarctica highlight the impact of recent atmospheric and oceanic warming on the cryosphere. Observations and models suggest that oceanic and atmospheric temperature variations at Antarctica's margins affect global cryosphere stability, ocean circulation, sea levels and carbon cycling. In particular, recent climate changes on the Antarctic Peninsula have been dramatic, yet the Holocene climate variability of this region is largely unknown, limiting our ability to evaluate ongoing changes within the context of historical variability and underlying forcing mechanisms. Here we show that surface ocean temperatures at the continental margin of the western Antarctic Peninsula cooled by 3-4 °C over the past 12,000 years, tracking the Holocene decline of local (65° S) spring insolation. Our results, based on TEX(86) sea surface temperature (SST) proxy evidence from a marine sediment core, indicate the importance of regional summer duration as a driver of Antarctic seasonal sea-ice fluctuations. On millennial timescales, abrupt SST fluctuations of 2-4 °C coincide with globally recognized climate variability. Similarities between our SSTs, Southern Hemisphere westerly wind reconstructions and El Ni?o/Southern Oscillation variability indicate that present climate teleconnections between the tropical Pacific Ocean and the western Antarctic Peninsula strengthened late in the Holocene epoch. We conclude that during the Holocene, Southern Ocean temperatures at the western Antarctic Peninsula margin were tied to changes in the position of the westerlies, which have a critical role in global carbon cycling.     

林业碳汇提升的主要原理和途径

降低大气CO₂含量、缓解气候变暖,已成为当今科学界和国际社会广泛关注的前沿热点问题。林业碳汇作为基于自然解决方案实现“碳达峰、碳中和”的一个重要途径,在应对全球气候变化方面发挥着基础性、战略性、独特的作用。林业碳汇不仅是森林碳汇,林产品碳汇也起着不可忽视的重要作用。林业碳汇潜力提升是一个森林生态系统净碳收支平衡和全产业链林产品碳汇的调控过程,主要包括无机碳的植物固定(光合过程、净生产力等)、土壤有机碳的周转与固定(动植物和微生物残体分解与黏土固定)、林产品碳的固持(林产品产量、木材转换效率、种类和使用寿命等)等3方面的调控原理。笔者从森林碳汇和林产品碳汇两个维度阐述了提升林业碳汇的主要原理、方法或途径。提升林业碳汇潜力的主要途径包括:①通过适地适树、适钙适树人工造林,以增加森林面积;②以完善森林经营措施来增加森林净生产力;③利用矿质黏土对有机碳的保护来增加森林土壤碳汇;④提升林产品产量和改进林产品用途以增加其寿命。在全球尺度上,增加森林面积或提高森林净生产力3.4%,或用可再生能源替换薪炭木材,再将薪炭木材用于制造锯材和人造板,都可以连续30 a每年增加1 Pg的碳汇量。减少全球森林火灾面积1/4或增加森林土壤有机碳含量0.23%,也可以增加碳汇1 Pg。此外,林业固碳还有巨大潜力可以挖掘。     

Effect of iron supply on Southern Ocean CO2 uptake and implications for glacial atmospheric CO2

Photosynthesis by marine phytoplankton in the Southern Ocean, and the associated uptake of carbon, is thought to be currently limited by the availability of iron. One implication of this limitation is that a larger iron supply to the region in glacial times could have stimulated algal photosynthesis, leading to lower concentrations of atmospheric CO2. Similarly, it has been proposed that artificial iron fertilization of the oceans might increase future carbon sequestration. Here we report data from a whole-ecosystem test of the iron-limitation hypothesis in the Southern Ocean, which show that surface uptake of atmospheric CO2 and uptake ratios of silica to carbon by phytoplankton were strongly influenced by nanomolar increases of iron concentration. We use these results to inform a model of global carbon and ocean nutrients, forced with atmospheric iron fluxes to the region derived from the Vostok ice-core dust record. During glacial periods, predicted magnitudes and timings of atmospheric CO2 changes match ice-core records well. At glacial terminations, the model suggests that forcing of Southern Ocean biota by iron caused the initial approximately 40 p.p.m. of glacial-interglacial CO2 change, but other mechanisms must have accounted for the remaining 40 p.p.m. increase. The experiment also confirms that modest sequestration of atmospheric CO2 by artificial additions of iron to the Southern Ocean is in principle possible, although the period and geographical extent over which sequestration would be effective remain poorly known.     

Global warming preceded by increasing carbon dioxide concentrations during the last deglaciation

The covariation of carbon dioxide (CO(2)) concentration and temperature in Antarctic ice-core records suggests a close link between CO(2) and climate during the Pleistocene ice ages. The role and relative importance of CO(2) in producing these climate changes remains unclear, however, in part because the ice-core deuterium record reflects local rather than global temperature. Here we construct a record of global surface temperature from 80 proxy records and show that temperature is correlated with and generally lags CO(2) during the last (that is, the most recent) deglaciation. Differences between the respective temperature changes of the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere parallel variations in the strength of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation recorded in marine sediments. These observations, together with transient global climate model simulations, support the conclusion that an antiphased hemispheric temperature response to ocean circulation changes superimposed on globally in-phase warming driven by increasing CO(2) concentrations is an explanation for much of the temperature change at the end of the most recent ice age.     

陆地生态系统生产力模型研究进展

目的 通过净初级生产力(NPP)模型研究回顾,为全球陆地碳循环和全球变化等研究提供方法参考.方法 把生产力模型大致归为3类,分别阐述其研究进展.结果 气候相关模型通过对气候因子与植物干物质生产的相关性分析来估算植被的净初级生产力;生物地球化学循环模型以气候、土壤条件和植被类型为输入变量,主要模拟破、水和营养物质的循环;基于遥感资料的模型基于植被指数与冠层吸收的光合有效辐射部分之间的关系得到吸收光合有效辐射,进而建立大尺度的卫星观测与生物生产力的关系.结论 无论应用哪种生产力模型,都受到较多条件的限制,因此,目前应用模型计算净初级生产力仍存在一些不足之处.     

Prokaryotic cells of the deep sub-seafloor biosphere identified as living bacteria

Chemical analyses of the pore waters from hundreds of deep ocean sediment cores have over decades provided evidence for ongoing processes that require biological catalysis by prokaryotes. This sub-seafloor activity of microorganisms may influence the surface Earth by changing the chemistry of the ocean and by triggering the emission of methane, with consequences for the marine carbon cycle and even the global climate. Despite the fact that only about 1% of the total marine primary production of organic carbon is available for deep-sea microorganisms, sub-seafloor sediments harbour over half of all prokaryotic cells on Earth. This estimation has been calculated from numerous microscopic cell counts in sediment cores of the Ocean Drilling Program. Because these counts cannot differentiate between dead and alive cells, the population size of living microorganisms is unknown. Here, using ribosomal RNA as a target for the technique known as catalysed reporter deposition-fluorescence in situ hybridization (CARD-FISH), we provide direct quantification of live cells as defined by the presence of ribosomes. We show that a large fraction of the sub-seafloor prokaryotes is alive, even in very old (16 million yr) and deep (> 400 m) sediments. All detectable living cells belong to the Bacteria and have turnover times of 0.25-22 yr, comparable to surface sediments.     

Significant decadal-scale impact of volcanic eruptions on sea level and ocean heat content

Ocean thermal expansion contributes significantly to sea-level variability and rise. However, observed decadal variability in ocean heat content and sea level has not been reproduced well in climate models. Aerosols injected into the stratosphere during volcanic eruptions scatter incoming solar radiation, and cause a rapid cooling of the atmosphere and a reduction in rainfall, as well as other changes in the climate system. Here we use observations of ocean heat content and a set of climate simulations to show that large volcanic eruptions result in rapid reductions in ocean heat content and global mean sea level. For the Mt Pinatubo eruption, we estimate a reduction in ocean heat content of about 3 x 10(22) J and a global sea-level fall of about 5 mm. Over the three years following such an eruption, we estimate a decrease in evaporation of up to 0.1 mm d(-1), comparable to observed changes in mean land precipitation. The recovery of sea level following the Mt Pinatubo eruption in 1991 explains about half of the difference between the long-term rate of sea-level rise of 1.8 mm yr(-1) (for 1950-2000), and the higher rate estimated for the more recent period where satellite altimeter data are available (1993-2000).     

The effect of millennial-scale changes in Arabian Sea denitrification on atmospheric CO2.

Most global biogeochemical processes are known to respond to climate change, some of which have the capacity to produce feedbacks through the regulation of atmospheric greenhouse gases. Marine denitrification-the reduction of nitrate to gaseous nitrogen-is an important process in this regard, affecting greenhouse gas concentrations directly through the incidental production of nitrous oxide, and indirectly through modification of the marine nitrogen inventory and hence the biological pump for CO2. Although denitrification has been shown to vary with glacial-interglacial cycles, its response to more rapid climate change has not yet been well characterized. Here we present nitrogen isotope ratio, nitrogen content and chlorin abundance data from sediment cores with high accumulation rates on the Oman continental margin that reveal substantial millennial-scale variability in Arabian Sea denitrification and productivity during the last glacial period. The detailed correspondence of these changes with Dansgaard-Oeschger events recorded in Greenland ice cores indicates rapid, century-scale reorganization of the Arabian Sea ecosystem in response to climate excursions, mediated through the intensity of summer monsoonal upwelling. Considering the several-thousand-year residence time of fixed nitrogen in the ocean, the response of global marine productivity to changes in denitrification would have occurred at lower frequency and appears to be related to climatic and atmospheric CO2 oscillations observed in Antarctic ice cores between 20 and 60 kyr ago.     

Phosphorus limitation of nitrogen fixation by Trichodesmium in the central Atlantic Ocean

Marine fixation of atmospheric nitrogen is believed to be an important source of biologically useful nitrogen to ocean surface waters, stimulating productivity of phytoplankton and so influencing the global carbon cycle. The majority of nitrogen fixation in tropical waters is carried out by the marine cyanobacterium Trichodesmium, which supplies more than half of the new nitrogen used for primary production. Although the factors controlling marine nitrogen fixation remain poorly understood, it has been thought that nitrogen fixation is limited by iron availability in the ocean. This was inferred from the high iron requirement estimated for growth of nitrogen fixing organisms and the higher apparent densities of Trichodesmium where aeolian iron inputs are plentiful. Here we report that nitrogen fixation rates in the central Atlantic appear to be independent of both dissolved iron levels in sea water and iron content in Trichodesmium colonies. Nitrogen fixation was, instead, highly correlated to the phosphorus content of Trichodesmium and was enhanced at higher irradiance. Furthermore, our calculations suggest that the structural iron requirement for the growth of nitrogen-fixing organisms is much lower than previously calculated. Although iron deficiency could still potentially limit growth of nitrogen-fixing organisms in regions of low iron availability-for example, in the subtropical North Pacific Ocean-our observations suggest that marine nitrogen fixation is not solely regulated by iron supply.     

The significance of nitrification for oceanic new production

The flux of organic material sinking to depth is a major control on the inventory of carbon in the ocean. To first order, the oceanic system is at equilibrium such that what goes down must come up. Because the export flux is difficult to measure directly, it is routinely estimated indirectly by quantifying the amount of phytoplankton growth, or primary production, fuelled by the upward flux of nitrate. To do so it is necessary to take into account other sources of biologically available nitrogen. However, the generation of nitrate by nitrification in surface waters has only recently received attention. Here we perform the first synthesis of open-ocean measurements of the specific rate of surface nitrification and use these to configure a global biogeochemical model to quantify the global role of nitrification. We show that for much of the world ocean a substantial fraction of the nitrate taken up is generated through recent nitrification near the surface. At the global scale, nitrification accounts for about half of the nitrate consumed by growing phytoplankton. A consequence is that many previous attempts to quantify marine carbon export, particularly those based on inappropriate use of the f-ratio (a measure of the efficiency of the 'biological pump'), are significant overestimates.     

Efficient organic carbon burial in the Bengal fan sustained by the Himalayan erosional system

Continental erosion controls atmospheric carbon dioxide levels on geological timescales through silicate weathering, riverine transport and subsequent burial of organic carbon in oceanic sediments. The efficiency of organic carbon deposition in sedimentary basins is however limited by the organic carbon load capacity of the sediments and organic carbon oxidation in continental margins. At the global scale, previous studies have suggested that about 70 per cent of riverine organic carbon is returned to the atmosphere, such as in the Amazon basin. Here we present a comprehensive organic carbon budget for the Himalayan erosional system, including source rocks, river sediments and marine sediments buried in the Bengal fan. We show that organic carbon export is controlled by sediment properties, and that oxidative loss is negligible during transport and deposition to the ocean. Our results indicate that 70 to 85 per cent of the organic carbon is recent organic matter captured during transport, which serves as a net sink for atmospheric carbon dioxide. The amount of organic carbon deposited in the Bengal basin represents about 10 to 20 per cent of the total terrestrial organic carbon buried in oceanic sediments. High erosion rates in the Himalayas generate high sedimentation rates and low oxygen availability in the Bay of Bengal that sustain the observed extreme organic carbon burial efficiency. Active orogenic systems generate enhanced physical erosion and the resulting organic carbon burial buffers atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, thereby exerting a negative feedback on climate over geological timescales.     

Cretaceous oceanic anoxic event 2 triggered by a massive magmatic episode

Oceanic anoxic events (OAEs) were episodes of widespread marine anoxia during which large amounts of organic carbon were buried on the ocean floor under oxygen-deficient bottom waters. OAE2, occurring at the Cenomanian/Turonian boundary (about 93.5 Myr ago), is the most widespread and best defined OAE of the mid-Cretaceous. Although the enhanced burial of organic matter can be explained either through increased primary productivity or enhanced preservation scenarios, the actual trigger mechanism, corresponding closely to the onset of these episodes of increased carbon sequestration, has not been clearly identified. It has been postulated that large-scale magmatic activity initially triggered OAE2 (refs 4, 5), but a direct proxy of magmatism preserved in the sedimentary record coinciding closely with the onset of OAE2 has not yet been found. Here we report seawater osmium isotope ratios in organic-rich sediments from two distant sites. We find that at both study sites the marine osmium isotope record changes abruptly just at or before the onset of OAE2. Using a simple two-component mixing equation, we calculate that over 97 per cent of the total osmium content in contemporaneous seawater at both sites is magmatic in origin, a approximately 30-50-fold increase relative to pre-OAE conditions. Furthermore, the magmatic osmium isotope signal appears slightly before the OAE2-as indicated by carbon isotope ratios-suggesting a time-lag of up to approximately 23 kyr between magmatism and the onset of significant organic carbon burial, which may reflect the reaction time of the global ocean system. Our marine osmium isotope data are indicative of a widespread magmatic pulse at the onset of OAE2, which may have triggered the subsequent deposition of large amounts of organic matter.     

Termination of global warmth at the Palaeocene/Eocene boundary through productivity feedback

The onset of the Palaeocene/Eocene thermal maximum (about 55 Myr ago) was marked by global surface temperatures warming by 5-7 degrees C over approximately 30,000 yr (ref. 1), probably because of enhanced mantle outgassing and the pulsed release of approximately 1,500 gigatonnes of methane carbon from decomposing gas-hydrate reservoirs. The aftermath of this rapid, intense and global warming event may be the best example in the geological record of the response of the Earth to high atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and high temperatures. This response has been suggested to include an intensified flux of organic carbon from the ocean surface to the deep ocean and its subsequent burial through biogeochemical feedback mechanisms. Here we present firm evidence for this view from two ocean drilling cores, which record the largest accumulation rates of biogenic barium--indicative of export palaeoproductivity--at times of maximum global temperatures and peak excursion values of delta13C. The unusually rapid return of delta13C to values similar to those before the methane release and the apparent coupling of the accumulation rates of biogenic barium to temperature, suggests that the enhanced deposition of organic matter to the deep sea may have efficiently cooled this greenhouse climate by the rapid removal of excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.