Using C, C, O and O isotopic variations to provide insights into the high northern latitude surface CO inventory T. Röckmann1,2, P. Jöckel2, V. Gros2, M. Bräunlich2, G. Possnert3, and C. A. M. Brenninkmeijer2 1Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Bereich Atmosphärenphysik, Heidelberg, Germany 2Max-Planck-Institut für Chemie, Abteilung Luftchemie, Mainz, Germany 3Uppsala University, Angdtrömlabor...

In 1999, Typhoon 9918 struck Kyushu Island, which is located in Western Japan. During the strongest stage of the typhoon, the central pressure was 930 hPa and the maximum wind speed was 45 m/s near the center of the typhoon. The maximum storm tide was over 2 m along the coast of Kumamoto Prefecture on Kyushu Island. Due to the storm surges and wind waves, the typhoon caused enormous damage to m...

The search for a common cause of species richness gradients has spawned more than 100 explanatory hypotheses in just the past two decades. Despite recent conceptual advances, further refinement of the most plausible models has been stifled by the difficulty of compiling high-resolution databases at continental scales. We used a database of the geographic ranges of 2,869 species of birds breedin...

Climate change is resulting in rapid poleward shifts in the geographical distribution of tropical and subtropical fish species. We can expect that such range shifts are likely to be limited by species-specific resource requirements, with temperate rocky reefs potentially lacking a range of settlement substrates or specific dietary components important in structuring the settlement and success o...

BACKGROUND Coral reefs face increasing pressures particularly when on the edge of their distributions. The Houtman Abrolhos Islands (Abrolhos) are the southernmost coral reef system in the Indian Ocean, and one of the highest latitude reefs in the world. These reefs have a unique mix of tropical and temperate marine fauna and flora and support 184 species of coral, dominated by Acropora species...

Drosophila subobscura is geographically widespread in the Old World. Around the late 1970s, it was accidentally introduced into both South and North America, where it spread rapidly over broad latitudinal ranges. This invading species offers opportunities to study the speed and predictability of trait evolution on a geographic scale. One trait of special interest is body size, which shows a str...

Previous paleomagnetic studies of the glaciogenic Gowganda and Lorrain formations have identified several low-inclination magnetic components of high thermal stability, which suggest low-latitude glaciation during deposition of the Huronian Supergroup, Canada. While extraordinary claims demand extraordinary proof, prior authors have been unable to support their interpretations of these componen...

Human activities are altering many factors that determine the fundamental properties of ecological and social systems. Is sustainability a realistic goal in a world in which many key process controls are directionally changing? To address this issue, we integrate several disparate sources of theory to address sustainability in directionally changing social-ecological systems, apply this framewo...

High latitude benthos are globally important in terms of accumulation and storage of ocean carbon, and the feedback this is likely to have on regional warming. Understanding this ecosystem service is important but difficult because of complex taxonomic diversity, history and geography of benthic biomass. Using South Georgia as a model location (where the history and geography of benthic biology...

According to some treatises, arctic and alpine sub-biomes are ecologically similar, whereas others find them highly dissimilar. Most peculiarly, large areas of northern tundra highlands fall outside of the two recent subdivisions of the tundra biome. We seek an ecologically natural resolution to this long-standing and far-reaching problem. We studied broad-scale patterns in climate and vegetati...