Monitoring the multi-year carbon balance of a subarctic palsa mire with micrometeorological techniques

This article reports a dataset on 8 years of monitoring carbon fluxes in a subarctic palsa mire based on micrometeorological eddy covariance measurements. The mire is a complex with wet minerotrophic areas and elevated dry palsa as well as intermediate sub-ecosystems. The measurements document primarily the emission originating from the wet parts of the mire dominated by a rather homogenous cover of Eriophorum angustifolium. The CO(2)/CH(4) flux measurements performed during the years 2001-2008 showed that the areas represented in the measurements were a relatively stable sink of carbon with an average annual rate of uptake amounting to on average -46 g C m(-2) y(-1) including an equally stable loss through CH(4) emissions (18-22 g CH(4)-C m(-2) y(-1)). This consistent carbon sink combined with substantial CH(4) emissions is most likely what is to be expected as the permafrost under palsa mires degrades in response to climate warming.     

Echoes from the Past: A Healthy Baltic Sea Requires More Effort

Integrated sediment multiproxy studies and modeling were used to reconstruct past changes in the Baltic Sea ecosystem. Results of natural changes over the past 6000 years in the Baltic Sea ecosystem suggest that forecasted climate warming might enhance environmental problems of the Baltic Sea. Integrated modeling and sediment proxy studies reveal increased sea surface temperatures and expanded seafloor anoxia (in deep basins) during earlier natural warm climate phases, such as the Medieval Climate Anomaly. Under future IPCC scenarios of global warming, there is likely no improvement of bottom water conditions in the Baltic Sea. Thus, the measures already designed to produce a healthier Baltic Sea are insufficient in the long term. The interactions between climate change and anthropogenic impacts on the Baltic Sea should be considered in management, implementation of policy strategies in the Baltic Sea environmental issues, and adaptation to future climate change.     

An Experiment with Forced Oxygenation of the Deepwater of the Anoxic By Fjord,Western Sweden

In a 2.5-year-long environmental engineering experiment in the By Fjord, surface water was pumped into the deepwater where the frequency of deepwater renewals increased by a factor of 10. During the experiment, the deepwater became long-term oxic, and nitrate became the dominating dissolved inorganic nitrogen component. The amount of phosphate in the water column decreased by a factor of 5 due to the increase in flushing and reduction in the leakage of phosphate from the sediments when the sediment surface became oxidized. Oxygenation of the sediments did not increase the leakage of toxic metals and organic pollutants. The bacterial community was the first to show changes after the oxygenation, with aerobic bacteria also thriving in the deepwater. The earlier azoic deepwater bottom sediments were colonized by animals. No structural difference between the phytoplankton communities in the By Fjord and the adjacent Havsten Fjord, with oxygenated deepwater, could be detected during the experiment.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s13280-014-0524-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Revealing the factors affecting occurrence and distribution of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in water and sediments of Lake Baikal and its tributaries

The concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), total carbon (TC), total organic carbon (TOC), total nitrogen (TN) and dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) in water and sediments of Lake Baikal and its tributaries were measured. It was found that according to existing water and sediment quality standards limiting permissible PAH concentrations, both surface waters and sediments in Lake Baikal watershed can be considered as unpolluted with PAHs compounds. Nevertheless, the spatial distribution of PAH concentrations in lake water indicates the existence of some point PAH sources in and around the lake. These sources were natural oil seeps and communal facilities such as residential coal-fired and oil-fired boilers. It was observed that concentrations of PAHs in both water and sediments are controlled by organic matter content and organic matter mineralisation degree, as indicated by PAH-to-carbon and nitrogen-to-carbon ratios respectively. It was found that PAH/TOC and PAH/TC ratios characterise PAH loading on water and sediments respectively, whereas DIN/TOC and TN/TC ratios characterise self-purification of water and sediments respectively. It was proved that PAH/TOC and DIN/TOC ratios can be used as tracers to evaluate the PAH contributions from tributaries to Lake Baikal.     

High-Biomass Forests of the Pacific Northwest: Who Manages Them and How Much is Protected?

To examine ownership and protection status of forests with high-biomass stores (>200 Mg/ha) in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) region of the United States, we used the latest versions of publicly available datasets. Overlay, aggregation, and GIS-based computation of forest area in broad biomass classes in the PNW showed that the National Forests contained the largest area of high-biomass forests (48.4 % of regional total), but the area of high-biomass forest on private lands was important as well (22.8 %). Between 2000 and 2008, the loss of high-biomass forests to fire on the National Forests was 7.6 % (236,000 ha), while the loss of high-biomass forest to logging on private lands (364,000 ha) exceeded the losses to fire across all ownerships. Many remaining high-biomass forest stands are vulnerable to future harvest as only 20 % are strictly protected from logging, while 26 % are not protected at all. The level of protection for high-biomass forests varies by state, for example, 31 % of all high-biomass federal forests in Washington are in high-protection status compared to only 9 % in Oregon. Across the conterminous US, high-biomass forest covers <3 % of all forest land and the PNW region holds 56.8 % of this area or 5.87 million ha. Forests with high-biomass stores are important to document and monitor as they are scarce, often threatened by harvest and development, and their disturbance including timber harvest results in net C losses to the atmosphere that can take a new generation of trees many decades or centuries to offset.     

Assessing the organic composition of urban surface films using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy

Recently it has been shown that urban surfaces are covered with a thin film which mediates the fate, distribution and accumulation of semi-volatile organic compounds in the environment. In this study we apply a combination of solution, semi-solids, and solid state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) methods to provide a general overview of the organic constituents. In surface film collected from 30 m2 of outside windows over an area of 12 km2 in downtown Toronto, we roughly estimate that the organic carbon is approximately 35% carbohydrate, approximately 35% aliphatics, approximately 20% aromatics, and approximately 10% carbonyl groups. Various aliphatic groups can be identified including a number of acids, alcohols, alkanes, and alkenes. Also, numerous intact aliphatic esters are apparent that have not been observed before, as well as carbohydrates. The aromatic species include a small portion that appears to be derived from a polymer of styrene, in addition a larger fraction is consistent with polyhydroxylated PAH derived material, although this assignment is tentative and based solely on 1-D NMR data only. In addition, signals from polybutadiene are present and while accurate quantification is not possible, it appears that this polymer may be up to a few percents by weight of the total organic material.     

Fluorescence-based evidence for adsorptive binding of pyrene to effluent dissolved organic matter

Using fluorescence intensity measurements, pyrene interactions with different types of effluent dissolved organic matter (EDOM) originated from treated municipal wastewater are examined. Multiple observations show that fluorescence intensity of pyrene–EDOM solutions is non-linearly related to pyrene concentration, with distinct concave-up dependence. Testing the effect of pyrene concentration on fluorescence intensity of pyrene–EDOM solutions provides a tool to examine whether binding of an organic compound to EDOM follows linear or non-linear isotherm. Possible coupling between static and dynamic quenching effects was addressed while analyzing fluorescence data. Limited number of EDOM binding sites results in a non-linear binding isotherm such that the concept of pyrene “partitioning” between aqueous phase and “bulky” EDOM organic phase is hardly relevant. Maximal EDOM capacity for pyrene binding is estimated approximately as 0.1% w w⁻¹. Examination of the differences between the total fluorescence intensity of pyrene–EDOM solution and the fluorescence intensities of separated constituents (pyrene and EDOM) was used to illustrate the accumulation of pyrene–EDOM complexes and saturation of some EDOM binding sites. Strong interactions between pyrene and EDOM binding sites may result in pyrene distribution coefficients differing at least by a factor 3.5–7 at varying pyrene concentrations.