334 results match your criteria: "Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research[Affiliation]"

Thermal behavior of astrophysical amorphous molecular ices.

Faraday Discuss

September 2023

Physikalisches Institut, University of Bern, Sidlerstrasse 5, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland.

Ice is a major component of astrophysical environments - from interstellar molecular clouds through protoplanetary disks to evolved solar systems. Ice and complex organic matter coexist in these environments as well, and it is thought primordial ice brought the molecules of life to Earth four billion years ago, which could have kickstarted the origin of life on Earth. To understand the journey of ice and organics from their origins to becoming a part of evolved planetary systems, it is important to complement high spatial and spectral resolution telescopes such as JWST with laboratory experimental studies that provide deeper insight into the processes that occur in these astrophysical environments.

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We investigated secondary organic aerosol (SOA) from β-caryophyllene oxidation generated over a wide tropospheric temperature range (213-313 K) from ozonolysis. Positive matrix factorization (PMF) was used to deconvolute the desorption data (thermograms) of SOA products detected by a chemical ionization mass spectrometer (FIGAERO-CIMS). A nonmonotonic dependence of particle volatility (saturation concentration at 298 K, ) on formation temperature (213-313 K) was observed, primarily due to temperature-dependent formation pathways of β-caryophyllene oxidation products.

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We report on photoelectron spectra of SiO nanoparticles ( = 157 ± 6 nm) above the Si 2p threshold in the photon energy range 118-248 eV with electron kinetic energy 10-140 eV and analyze the photoelectron yield as a function of photon energy. Comparison of the experimental results with Monte-Carlo simulations on electron transport allows us to quantify the inelastic mean-free path and mean escape depth of photoelectrons in the nanoparticle samples. The influence of the nanoparticle geometry and electron elastic scattering on photoelectron yields is highlighted.

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The Iberian Peninsula is of particular interest for the research on the Neanderthal (NEA) to anatomically modern human (AMH) population transition. The AMHs arrived in Iberia last from Eastern Europe and thus any possible contacts between the two populations occurred here later than elsewhere. The transition process took place in the earlier part of the Marine Isotope Stage 3 (∼60-27 cal ka BP) as repeated and profound climate changes challenged the population stability.

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The surface charge of an open water surface is crucial for solvation phenomena and interfacial processes in aqueous systems. However, the magnitude of the charge is controversial, and the physical mechanism of charging remains incompletely understood. Here we identify a previously overlooked physical mechanism determining the surface charge of water.

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Arable soil continues to be the dominant anthropogenic source of nitrous oxide (N O) emissions owing to application of nitrogen (N) fertilizers and manures across the world. Using laboratory and in situ studies to elucidate the key factors controlling soil N O emissions remains challenging due to the potential importance of multiple complex processes. We examined soil surface N O fluxes in an arable soil, combined with in situ high-frequency measurements of soil matrix oxygen (O ) and N O concentrations, in situ N labeling, and N O N site preference (SP).

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Assessing the environmental sustainability of different soil disinfestation methods used in solar greenhouse vegetable production systems.

Sci Total Environ

August 2023

Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research, Atmospheric Environmental Research (IMK-IFU), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Garmisch-Partenkirchen 82467, Germany; State Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Boundary Layer Physics and Atmospheric Chemistry, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China; Pioneer center Land-CRAFT, Agroecology, Aarhus University, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark. Electronic address:

Overuse of fertilizers and irrigation and continuous monocropping is increasingly jeopardizing vegetable production in solar greenhouses as it causes serious soil degradation and the spread of soil-borne diseases. As a countermeasure, the practice of anaerobic soil disinfestation (ASD) has been recently introduced, which is carried out during the summer fallow period. However, ASD may increase N leaching and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions when large amounts of chicken manure are applied.

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Higher food prices arising from restrictions on exports from Russia or Ukraine have been exacerbated by energy price rises, leading to higher costs for agricultural inputs such as fertilizer. Here, using a scenario modelling approach, we quantify the potential outcomes of increasing agricultural input costs and the curtailment of exports from Russia and Ukraine on human health and the environment. We show that, combined, agricultural inputs costs and food export restrictions could increase food costs by 60-100% in 2023 from 2021 levels, potentially leading to undernourishment of 61-107 million people in 2023 and annual additional deaths of 416,000 to 1.

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Climate change is increasingly putting milk production from cattle-based dairy systems in north sub-Saharan Africa (NSSA) under stress, threatening livelihoods and food security. Here we combine livestock heat stress frequency, dry matter feed production and water accessibility data to understand where environmental changes in NSSA's drylands are jeopardizing cattle milk production. We show that environmental conditions worsened for ∼17% of the study area.

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The European Union's Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 seeks to protect 30% of land, with 10% under strict protection, while building a transnational nature network. We explore the effects of the Biodiversity Strategy targets for land use and ecosystem services across the European land system. To do so, we propose a novel approach, combining a methodological framework for improving green network connectivity with an EU-wide land system model.

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The compound event that triggered the destructive fires of October 2017 in Portugal.

iScience

March 2023

Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Instituto Dom Luiz, 1749-016 Lisbon, Portugal.

Portugal is regularly affected by destructive wildfires that have severe social, economic, and ecological impacts. The total burnt area in 2017 (∼540,000 ha) marked the all-time record value since 1980 with a tragic toll of 114 fatalities that occurred in June and October events. The local insurance sector declared it was the costliest natural disaster in Portugal with payouts exceeding USD295 million.

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Validation of 3-day rainfall forecast at the regional scale.

MethodsX

February 2023

Centro de Estudos Geográficos, Instituto de Geografia e Ordenamento do Território, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon 1600-276, Portugal.

Nearly half of the natural disasters in the world are due to hydro-geomorphological hazards. Therefore, rainfall forecast is a key parameter for the implementation of landslides and flash-floods early warning systems. In this work we developed a routine in R software that enables the validation of a 3-day rainfall forecast by comparison with the daily rainfall data recorded in 101 automatic meteorological stations available in mainland Portugal.

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Consideration of compound drivers and impacts are often missing from applications within the Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) cycle, leading to poorer understanding of risk and benefits of actions. The need to include compound considerations is known, but lack of guidance is prohibiting practitioners from including these considerations. This article makes a step toward practitioner guidance by providing examples where consideration of compound drivers, hazards, and impacts may affect different application domains within disaster risk management.

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Networking the forest infrastructure towards near real-time monitoring - A white paper.

Sci Total Environ

May 2023

Forest Ecology and Forest Management Group, Wageningen University and Research, P.O. Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen, the Netherlands. Electronic address:

Forests account for nearly 90 % of the world's terrestrial biomass in the form of carbon and they support 80 % of the global biodiversity. To understand the underlying forest dynamics, we need a long-term but also relatively high-frequency, networked monitoring system, as traditionally used in meteorology or hydrology. While there are numerous existing forest monitoring sites, particularly in temperate regions, the resulting data streams are rarely connected and do not provide information promptly, which hampers real-time assessments of forest responses to extreme climate events.

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A new database of the Entomological Inoculation Rate (EIR) was used to directly link the risk of infectious mosquito bites to climate in Sub-Saharan Africa. Applying a statistical mixed model framework to high-quality monthly EIR measurements collected from field campaigns in Sub-Saharan Africa, we analyzed the impact of rainfall and temperature seasonality on EIR seasonality and determined important climate drivers of malaria seasonality across varied climate settings in the region. We observed that seasonal malaria transmission was within a temperature window of 15°C-40°C and was sustained if average temperature was well above 15°C or below 40°C.

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OH scavengers are extensively used in studies of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) because they create an idealized environment where only a single oxidation pathway is occurring. Here, we present a detailed molecular characterization of SOA produced from α-pinene + O with a variety of OH scavengers using the extractive electrospray time-of-flight mass spectrometer in our atmospheric simulation chamber, which is complemented by characterizing the gas phase composition in flow reactor experiments. Under our experimental conditions, radical chemistry largely controls the composition of SOA.

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More frequent, persistent, and deadly heat waves in the 21st century over the Eastern Mediterranean.

Sci Total Environ

April 2023

Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research, Department of Tropospheric Research (IMK-TRO), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe, Germany; Fredy and Nadine Hermann Institute of Earth Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI), Jerusalem, Israel. Electronic address:

Heat waves are extreme events characterized by sweltering weather over an extended period. Skillful projections of heat waves and their impacts on human mortality can help develop appropriate adaptation strategies. Here, we provide nuanced projections of heat wave characteristics and their effect on human mortality over the Eastern Mediterranean based on ERA5 reanalysis and CORDEX ensemble simulations.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates how high relative humidity (RH) influences the partitioning of biogenic oxidized organic molecules into secondary organic aerosols (SOA) using real-time measurements in a controlled lab setting.
  • Results show significant increases in SOA mass (45%-85%) as RH rises from low to high levels, with semi-volatile compounds playing a key role in this process.
  • The research explains that higher RH alters the chemical composition of aerosols, shifting toward more volatile species, and emphasizes the critical role of water content in promoting organic aerosol growth.
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Chemical characterization of marine aerosols from two cruises over the South China Sea: Importance of biomass burning and secondary formation.

Sci Total Environ

April 2023

The Key Lab of Pollution Control and Ecosystem Restoration in Industry Clusters, Ministry of Education, School of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China. Electronic address:

Total suspended particle (TSP) samples were collected during June-July 2015 in the northern South China Sea (NSCS) and August-September 2016 in the western South China Sea (WSCS). Water-soluble ions (WSIs), organic carbon (OC), elemental carbon (EC), and organic compounds were measured. The average concentrations of WSIs, OC, EC and organic compounds were 19.

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The Brewer-Dobson Circulation (BDC) determines the distribution of long-lived tracers in the stratosphere; therefore, their changes can be used to diagnose changes in the BDC. We evaluate decadal (2005-2018) trends of nitrous oxide (NO) in two versions of the Whole Atmosphere Chemistry-Climate Model (WACCM) by comparing them with measurements from four Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) ground-based instruments, the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment Fourier Transform Spectrometer (ACE-FTS), and with a chemistry-transport model (CTM) driven by four different reanalyses. The limited sensitivity of the FTIR instruments can hide negative NO trends in the mid-stratosphere because of the large increase in the lowermost stratosphere.

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Iran has experienced a drastic increase in water scarcity in the last decades. The main driver has been the substantial unsustainable water consumption of the agricultural sector. This study quantifies the spatiotemporal dynamics of Iran's hydrometeorological water availability, land cover, and vegetation growth and evaluates their interrelations with a special focus on agricultural vegetation developments.

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Reactive Uptake of Gas-Phase NO by Urban Road Dust in the Dark.

ACS Earth Space Chem

November 2022

Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, 80 St. George Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 3H6.

Road dust constitutes a prominent source of anthropogenic particulate matter, making its heterogeneous interactions with common atmospheric gas-phase compounds important. Here, we show that three distinct samples of urban road dust-including dust samples collected from city streets in summer and winter, and an urban park in summer-react with NO in the dark, forming NO and surface nitrite. The loss of NO ranged from ∼2 to 13% of its gas-phase concentration and scaled with its concentration as well as with the mass of the road dust sample.

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Macroporous Silicone Chips for Decoding Microbial Dark Matter in Environmental Microbiomes.

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces

October 2022

Institute for Biological Interfaces 1 (IBG-1), Biomolecular Micro- and Nanostructures, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Hermann-von-Helmholtz-Platz 1, D-76344 Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany.

Natural evolution has produced an almost infinite variety of microorganisms that can colonize almost any conceivable habitat. Since the vast majority of these microbial consortia are still unknown, there is a great need to elucidate this "microbial dark matter" (MDM) to enable exploitation in biotechnology. We report the fabrication and application of a novel device that integrates a matrix of macroporous elastomeric silicone foam (MESIF) into an easily fabricated and scalable chip design that can be used for decoding MDM in environmental microbiomes.

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Low-cost adaptation options to support green growth in agriculture, water resources, and coastal zones.

Sci Rep

October 2022

Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique/IPSL, École Normale Supérieure, PSL Research University, Sorbonne, Université, École Polytechnique, IP Paris, CNRS, Paris, France.

The regional climate as it is now and in the future will put pressure on investments in sub-Saharan Africa in water resource management, fisheries, and other crop and livestock production systems. Changes in oceanic characteristics across the Atlantic Ocean will result in remarkable vulnerability of coastal ecology, littorals, and mangroves in the middle of the twenty-first century and beyond. In line with the countries' objectives of creating a green economy that allows reduced greenhouse gas emissions, improved resource efficiency, and prevention of biodiversity loss, we identify the most pressing needs for adaptation and the best adaptation choices that are also clean and affordable.

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