The unique mosaic of ecosystems of the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve, comprising an extensive network of channels, shallow pools and hundreds of lakes, combined with marshes, reed-beds, lagoons, islands and floodplains, form a valuable natural area, sheltering a high biodiversity. One of the main drivers of the functionality of these ecosystems is the climate change, affecting especially the s...

Together, climate and litter quality strongly regulate decomposition rates. Although these two factors and their interaction have been studied across species in continent-scale experiments, few researchers have studied how labile and recalcitrant compounds interact to influence decomposition, or the climate sensitivity of decomposition, within a litter type. Over a period of 3 yr, we studied th...

Three detailed meteorological case studies are conducted with the global and regional atmospheric chemistry model system ECHAM5/MESSy(→COSMO/MESSy), shortly named MECO(n). The aim of this article is to assess the general performance of the on-line coupling of the regional model COSMO to the global model ECHAM5. The cases are characterised by intense weather systems in Central Europe: a cold fro...

Introduction Conclusions References Tables Figures Back Close Full Screen / Esc Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions This discussion paper is/has been under review for the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP). Please refer to the corresponding final paper in ACP if available. Abstract Introduction Conclusions References Tables Figures Back Close Full Screen / Esc Abstract Co...

[1] The GeoengineeringModel Intercomparison Project (GeoMIP) was designed to determine robust climate system model responses to solar geoengineering. GeoMIP currently consists of four standardized simulations involving reduction of insolation or increased amounts of stratospheric sulfate aerosols. Three more experiments involving marine cloud brightening are planned. This project has improved c...

A method was developed to determine whether microorganisms mediate the precipitation of manganese(II) in the marine environment. Radioactive Mn(II) was used as a tracer to measure the precipitation (binding and oxidation) of Mn(II) [i.e., the Mn(II) trapped on 0.2-mum membrane filters] in the presence and absence of biological poisons. A variety of antibiotics, fixatives, and metabolic inhibito...

The Hydrologic Benchmark Network (HBN) is a long-term monitoring program established by the US Geological Survey in the 1960s to track changes in the streamflow and stream chemistry in undeveloped watersheds across the USA. Trends in stream chemistry were tested at 15 HBN stations over two periods (1970-2010 and 1990-2010) using the parametric Load Estimator (LOADEST) model and the nonparametri...

The radiative forcing of dust and its impact on precipitation over the West Africa monsoon (WAM) region is simulated using a coupled meteorology and aerosol/chemistry model (WRF-Chem). During the monsoon season, dust is a dominant contributor to aerosol optical depth (AOD) over West Africa. In the control simulation, on 24-h domain average, dust has a cooling effect (−6.11 W m−2) at the surface...

This paper examines the incremental global climate response of black carbon (BC), the main component of soot, due to absorption and scattering by BC inclusions within cloud and precipitation particles. Modeled soot is emitted as an externally mixed aerosol particle. It evolves to an internal mixture through condensation, hydration, dissolution, dissociation, crystallization, aqueous chemistry, ...