Promoting an open research culture Nosek, B. A.; Alter, G.; Banks, G. C. ...
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science),
06/2015, Letnik:
348, Številka:
6242
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Author guidelines for journals could help to promote transparency, openness, and reproducibility
Transparency, openness, and reproducibility are readily recognized as vital features of science (
1
,
...2
). When asked, most scientists embrace these features as disciplinary norms and values (
3
). Therefore, one might expect that these valued features would be routine in daily practice. Yet, a growing body of evidence suggests that this is not the case (
4
–
6
).
A likely important feature of the poorly understood aerosol‐cloud interactions over the Southern Ocean (SO) is the dominant role of sea spray aerosol, versus terrestrial aerosol. Ice nucleating ...particles (INPs), or particles required for heterogeneous ice nucleation, present over the SO have not been studied in several decades. In this study, boundary layer aerosol properties and immersion freezing INP number concentrations (nINPs) were measured during a ship campaign that occurred south of Australia (down to 53°S) in March–April 2016. Ocean surface chlorophyll a concentrations ranged from 0.11 to 1.77 mg/m3, and nINPs were a factor of 100 lower than historical surveys, ranging from 0.38 to 4.6 m−3 at −20 °C. The INP population included organic heat‐stable material, with contributions from heat‐labile material. Lower INP source potentials of SO seawater samples compared to Arctic seawater were consistent with lower ice nucleating site densities in this study compared to north Atlantic air masses.
Plain Language Summary
The Southern Ocean is known for a prevalence of clouds that contain both liquid and ice, which are one of the most poorly understood cloud regimes in the climate system. A large gap in understanding important processes in these clouds is a lack of knowledge regarding particles (e.g., sea spray) required for forming ice crystals, termed ice nucleating particles. In a ship‐based monthlong field study, several instruments were deployed in efforts to characterize the ice nucleating particles present over the Southern Ocean for the first time in over four decades. Abundances of ice nucleating particles throughout the voyage were extremely low compared to other ocean regions, and concentrations were 2 orders of magnitude lower than the most recent survey conducted in the 1970s. We report that the ocean‐derived ice nucleating particles observed in this study were organic in nature, supporting a hypothesized link between ice nucleating particles and organic particles associated with phytoplankton blooms. The data from this study provide a desperately needed benchmark for constraining the number of ice crystals that may form in the remote and poorly understood clouds occurring over the Southern Ocean.
Key Points
Number concentrations of ice nucleating particles over the Southern Ocean in March 2016 were a factor of 100 lower than historical surveys
The ice nucleating particle source strength of Southern Ocean seawater was lower than previous measurements in northern hemisphere seawater
Ice nucleation site densities were lower over the Southern Ocean compared to measurements of pristine air masses from other ocean basins
Surface-based radon (222Rn) measurements can be combined with lidar backscatter to obtain a higher quality time series of mixing height within the planetary boundary layer (PBL) than is possible from ...lidar alone, and a more quantitative measure of mixing height than is possible from only radon. The reason why lidar measurements are improved is that there are times when lidar signals are ambiguous, and reliably attributing the mixing height to the correct aerosol layer presents a challenge. By combining lidar with a mixing length scale derived from a time series of radon concentration, automated and robust attribution is possible during the morning transition. Radon measurements provide mixing information during the night, but concentrations also depend on the strength of surface emissions. After processing radon in combination with lidar, we obtain nightly measurements of radon emissions and are able to normalise the mixing length scale for changing emissions. After calibration with lidar, the radon-derived equivalent mixing height agrees with other measures of mixing on daily and hourly timescales and is a potential method for studying intermittent mixing in nocturnal boundary layers.
Impact of Boreal Forest Fire on Climate Warming Randerson, J.T; Liu, H; Flanner, M.G ...
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science),
11/2006, Letnik:
314, Številka:
5802
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
We report measurements and analysis of a boreal forest fire, integrating the effects of greenhouse gases, aerosols, black carbon deposition on snow and sea ice, and postfire changes in surface ...albedo. The net effect of all agents was to increase radiative forcing during the first year (34 ± 31 Watts per square meter of burned area), but to decrease radiative forcing when averaged over an 80-year fire cycle (-2.3 ± 2.2 Watts per square meter) because multidecadal increases in surface albedo had a larger impact than fire-emitted greenhouse gases. This result implies that future increases in boreal fire may not accelerate climate warming.
► Scope for increasing UK SOC by reduced tillage at best 310
±
180
kg
C
ha
−1
yr
−1. ► Potential sequestration from added OM largely limited by availability and current use. ► Many activities that ...benefit SOC are a part of current practice. ► Green compost offers greatest potential to increase SOC stock. ► Benefits from increasing soil carbon may be offset by N
2O emissions.
Results from the UK were reviewed to quantify the impact on climate change mitigation of soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks as a result of (1) a change from conventional to less intensive tillage and (2) addition of organic materials including farm manures, digested biosolids, cereal straw, green manure and paper crumble. The average annual increase in SOC deriving from reduced tillage was 310
kg C
±
180
kg
C
ha
−1
yr
−1. Even this accumulation of C is unlikely to be achieved in the UK and northwest Europe because farmers practice rotational tillage. N
2O emissions may increase under reduced tillage, counteracting increases in SOC. Addition of biosolids increased SOC (in
kg
C
ha
−1
yr
−1
t
−1 dry solids added) by on average 60
±
20 (farm manures), 180
±
24 (digested biosolids), 50
±
15 (cereal straw), 60
±
10 (green compost) and an estimated 60 (paper crumble). SOC accumulation declines in long-term experiments (>50 yr) with farm manure applications as a new equilibrium is approached. Biosolids are typically already applied to soil, so increases in SOC cannot be regarded as mitigation. Large increases in SOC were deduced for paper crumble (>6
t
C
ha
−1
yr
−1) but outweighed by N
2O emissions deriving from additional fertiliser. Compost offers genuine potential for mitigation because application replaces disposal to landfill; it also decreases N
2O emission.
Many extensions of the standard model of particle physics suggest that neutrinos should be Majorana-type fermions-that is, that neutrinos are their own anti-particles-but this assumption is difficult ...to confirm. Observation of neutrinoless double-β decay (0νββ), a spontaneous transition that may occur in several candidate nuclei, would verify the Majorana nature of the neutrino and constrain the absolute scale of the neutrino mass spectrum. Recent searches carried out with (76)Ge (the GERDA experiment) and (136)Xe (the KamLAND-Zen and EXO (Enriched Xenon Observatory)-200 experiments) have established the lifetime of this decay to be longer than 10(25) years, corresponding to a limit on the neutrino mass of 0.2-0.4 electronvolts. Here we report new results from EXO-200 based on a large (136)Xe exposure that represents an almost fourfold increase from our earlier published data sets. We have improved the detector resolution and revised the data analysis. The half-life sensitivity we obtain is 1.9 × 10(25) years, an improvement by a factor of 2.7 on previous EXO-200 results. We find no statistically significant evidence for 0νββ decay and set a half-life limit of 1.1 × 10(25) years at the 90 per cent confidence level. The high sensitivity holds promise for further running of the EXO-200 detector and future 0νββ decay searches with an improved Xe-based experiment, nEXO.
Abstract
We present new
13
CO (1−0), C
18
O (1−0), HCO
+
(1−0), and H
13
CO
+
(1−0) maps from the IRAM 30 m telescope and a spectrally resolved C
ii
158
μ
m map observed with the SOFIA telescope ...toward the massive DR21 cloud. This traces the kinematics from low- to high-density gas in the cloud, which allows us to constrain the formation scenario of the high-mass star-forming DR21 ridge. The molecular line data reveal that the subfilaments are systematically redshifted relative to the dense ridge. We demonstrate that C
ii
unveils the surrounding CO-poor gas of the dense filaments in the DR21 cloud. We also show that this surrounding gas is organized in a flattened cloud with curved redshifted dynamics perpendicular to the ridge. The subfilaments thus form in this curved and flattened mass reservoir. A virial analysis of the different lines indicates that self-gravity should drive the evolution of the ridge and surrounding cloud. Combining all results, we propose that bending of the magnetic field, due to the interaction with a mostly atomic colliding cloud, explains the velocity field and resulting mass accretion on the ridge. This is remarkably similar to what was found for at least two nearby low-mass filaments. We tentatively propose that this scenario might be a widespread mechanism to initiate star formation in the Milky Way. However, in contrast to low-mass clouds, gravitational collapse plays a role on the parsec scale of the DR21 ridge because of the higher density. This allows more effective mass collection at the centers of collapse and should facilitate massive cluster formation.
Episodic acidification during snowmelt is a natural phenomenon that can be intensified by acidic deposition from heavy industry. In Canada's oil sands region, acid deposition is estimated to be as ...much as 5% of the Canadian total and large tracks of northeastern Alberta are considered acid-sensitive because of extensive peatland habitats with poorly weathered soils. To identify the frequency, duration and severity of acidification episodes during snowmelt (the predominant hydrological period for delivery of priority pollutants from atmospheric oil sands emissions to surface waters), a 25-year record (1989 to 2014) of automated water quality data (pH, temperature, conductivity) was assembled for 3 rivers along with a shorter record (2012–2014) for another 2 rivers. Acidic episodes (pH<7, ANC<0) were recorded during 39% of all 83 snowmelt events. The severity (duration x magnitude) of episodic acidification increased exponentially over the study period (r2=0.56, P<0.01) and was strongly correlated (P<0.01) with increasing maximum air temperature and weakly correlated with regional land development (P=0.06). Concentrations of aluminum and 11 priority pollutants (Sb, As, Be, Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, Se, Ag, Tl and Zn) were greatest (P<0.01) during low (<6.5) pH episodes, particularly when coincident with high discharge, such that aluminum and copper concentrations were at times high enough to pose a risk to juvenile rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). Although low pH (pH<6.5) was observed during only 8% of 32 acidification episodes, when present, low pH typically lasted 10days. Episodic surface water acidification during snowmelt, and its potential effects on aquatic biota, is therefore an important consideration in the design of long-term monitoring of these typically alkaline (pH=7.72±0.05) rivers.
Display omitted
•Surface water acidification during snowmelt was assessed using 25 years of automated data from Canada’s oil sands region.•Surface water acidification occurred in 39% of snowmelt events.•Aluminum and 11 priority pollutants were greatest during snowmelt acidification episodes.•Aluminum and copper during these episodes may be high enough to pose a risk to rainbow trout.•Long-term monitoring in the oil sands region will ideally include the snowmelt period.
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