Filtyp
The knowledge of desert locust plagues goes back to biblical times but it is just as relevant in 2020 with an ongoing outbreak in East Africa and the Middle East. The locusts pose a threat to agriculture, and by extent food availability, due to their high appetite, diverse diet and ability to migrate long distances in large swarms. More knowledge of the aftermath is required by the international d
Climate reconstructions from data sensitive to past climates provide estimates of what these climates were like. Comparing these reconstructions with simulations from climate models allows to validate the models used for future climate prediction. It has been shown that for fossil pollen data, gaining estimates by inverting a vegetation model allows inclusion of past changes in carbon dioxide valu
We have incorporated a semi-mechanistic isoprene emission module into the JULES land-surface scheme, as a first step towards a modelling tool that can be applied for studies of vegetation - atmospheric chemistry interactions, including chemistry-climate feedbacks. Here, we evaluate the coupled model against local above-canopy isoprene emission flux measurements from six flux tower sites as well as
The capacity for volatile isoprenoid production under standardized environmental conditions at a certain time (E-S, the emission factor) is a key characteristic in constructing isoprenoid emission inventories. However, there is large variation in published E-S estimates for any given species partly driven by dynamic modifications in E-S due to acclimation and stress responses. Here we review addit
Exchange of non-CO2 trace gases between the land surface and the atmosphere plays an important role in atmospheric chemistry and climate. Recent studies have highlighted its importance for interpretation of glacial-interglacial ice-core records, the simulation of the pre-industrial and present atmosphere, and the potential for large climate-chemistry and climate-aerosol feedbacks in the coming cen
The measured net ecosystem exchange (NEE) of CO2 between the ecosystem and the atmosphere reflects the balance between gross CO2 assimilation [gross primary production (GPP)] and ecosystem respiration (R-eco). For understanding the mechanistic responses of ecosystem processes to environmental change it is important to separate these two flux components. Two approaches are conventionally used: (1)
Femtosecond and nanosecond photolysis of CH2I2 in acetonitrile at an excitation wavelength of 266-nm yield the ground-state CH2I-I isomer product in similar to70% quantum yield. High isomer formation quantum yields (> 70%) were measured also in n-hexane, dichloromethane, methanol, and ethanol using nanosecond photolysis. The CH2I-I product is formed biphasically within similar to15 ps after excita
The work presented here is based on two papers, both pertaining to perturbation-based control strategies in industrial fed-batch fermentation processes. The first paper describes a new control strategy for avoiding overflow metabolism in the exponential growth phase of a fermentation, based on analysis of the frequency spectrum of the dissolved oxygen measurement following a periodic perturbation
The associations between floristic and palynological richness and landscape structure were studied based on modern pollen-vegetation data from a patchy cultural landscape in southern Estonia (northern temperate vegetation zone). Nine study sites (small lakes and their surrounding vegetation) represent land cover gradient from closed forest to semi-open vegetation. Floristic richness (number of spe
Here we present results from a field experiment in an Arctic wetland situated in Zackenberg, NE Greenland. During one growing season we investigated how dominance of the sedge Eriophorum scheuchzeri affected the below-ground concentrations of low molecular weight carbon compounds (LMWOC) and the fluxes of CO2 and CH4 in comparison to dominance of other sedges (Carex stans and Dupontia psilosantha)
This paper reviews the currently available optical sensors, their limitations and opportunities for deployment at Eddy Covariance (EC) sites in Europe. This review is based on the results obtained from an online survey designed and disseminated by the Co-cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Action ESO903-"Spectral Sampling Tools for Vegetation Biophysical Parameters and Flux Measurements i
The purpose of this study was to evaluate 10 process-based terrestrial biosphere models that were used for the IPCC fifth Assessment Report. The simulated gross primary productivity (GPP) is compared with flux-tower-based estimates by Jung etal. [Journal of Geophysical Research 116 (2011) G00J07] (JU11). The net primary productivity (NPP) apparent sensitivity to climate variability and atmospheric
Aim The forest steppe of the Transylvanian Plain is a landscape of exceptionally diverse steppe-like and semi-natural grasslands. Is this vegetation a remnant of a once continuous temperate forest extensively cleared by humans, or has the area, since the last glacial, always been a forest steppe? Understanding the processes that drive temperate grassland formation is important because effective ma
Regional climate models (RCMs) primarily represent physical components of the climate system, omitting vegetation dynamics, ecosystem biogeochemistry and their associated feedbacks. To account for such feedbacks, we implemented a novel plant individual-based vegetation dynamics-ecosystem biogeochemistry scheme within the RCA3 RCM. Variations in leaf area index (LAI) of seven plant functional type
Modeling soil thermal dynamics at high latitudes and altitudes requires representations of physical processes such as snow insulation, soil freezing and thawing and subsurface conditions like soil water/ice content and soil texture. We have compared six different land models: JSBACH, ORCHIDEE, JULES, COUP, HYBRID8 and LPJ-GUESS, at four different sites with distinct cold region landscape types, to
In this study we examined ecosystem respiration (R-ECO) data from 104 sites belonging to FLUXNET, the global network of eddy covariance flux measurements. The goal was to identify the main factors involved in the variability of R-ECO: temporally and between sites as affected by climate, vegetation structure and plant functional type (PFT) (evergreen needleleaf, grasslands, etc.). We demonstrated t
We analyse global and regional changes in CO2 fluxes using two simple models, an airborne fraction of anthropogenic emissions and a linear relationship with CO2 concentrations. We show that both models are able to fit the non-anthropogenic (hereafter natural) flux over the length of the atmospheric concentration record. Analysis of the linear model (including its uncertainties) suggests no signifi
The separation of abiotic and biotic factors affecting populations and communities is an important step in understanding how climate change can influence ecological processes, but quantifying their relative contribution to community changes is a challenge. We assessed the effect of temperature and species interactions on the population dynamics of a forest bird community with a hierarchical dynami
Digital image correlation (DIC) can measure full-field surface strains during mechanical testing of hard and soft tissues. When compared to traditional methods, such as strain gauges, DIC offers larger validation data (similar to 50,000 points) for, e.g., finite element models. Our main aim was to evaluate the repeatability of surface strain measurements with DIC during compressive testing of comp
