Royal Holloway, University of London

About: Royal Holloway, University of London is a education organization based out in Egham, Surrey, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Large Hadron Collider. The organization has 7156 authors who have published 20961 publications receiving 851244 citations. The organization is also known as: Royal Holloway College & Royal Holloway and Bedford New College.

Plant community responses to simulated environmental change at a high arctic polar semi-desert

Abstract: Impacts of climate change were simulated over five summer seasons in a high arctic polar semi-desert at Ny Alesund, Svalbard, by using polythene tents to increase temperature, and by increasing precipitation and soil nutrient (NPK) availability. The effects of these treatments on vegetation cover were assessed at the start of the 1991, 1993, and 1995 field seasons, and at peak biomass in the same years. Over the first season of the experiment (1991), changes in percentage total living vegetation cover were significantly greater, and changes in dead vegetation cover significantly lower, in the tented treatments. In subsequent seasons, changes in total living cover were also greater under treatments simulating climate change, although the significant factors and interactions were year- specific. Between years, at both the early and mid-season sampling periods, the fertilizer application had the strongest effect on changes in plant cover, significantly decreasing cover of living Dryas octopetala, Saxifraga oppositifolia, and bare ground between 1991 and 1995, while increasing cover of bryophytes, Salix Polaris, Polygonum viviparum, and total dead vegetation. Although cover of D. octopetala was greater during the first three years of fertilizer addition, marked winter injury occurred in this species on fertilized plots during winter 1993-1994. This resulted in reductions in total live cover and D. octopetala cover and an increase in total dead cover (by up to 22%) in watered and fertilized plots between 1991 and 1995. Seedlings of nitrophilous "immigrant" species were established naturally on bare ground in fertilized plots in the third year of the study and subsequently increased in number, so that after five seasons the community tended more toward bird-cliff vegetation rather than polar semi-desert vegetation. The tent treatment and the simulated increase in summer precipitation had little effect between seasons on the plant community, in com- parison with the fertilizer treatment.

What Happened to the ‘Development’ in Sustainable Development? Business Guidelines Two Decades After Brundtland

Abstract: Over 20 years ago Our Common Future presented a conceptualization and explanation of the concept of sustainable development. Since then, numerous alternative definitions of the concept have been offered, of which at least some are exclusive to each other. At the same time, the role of business in the transition to sustainable development has increasingly received attention. Bringing these two trends in sustainable development together, this paper returns to the Brundtland version of the concept to examine to what extent the original principles of sustainable development are still embedded within key business guidelines, namely the UN Global Compact, the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, the ICC Business Charter for Sustainable Development, the CAUX Principles, the Global Sullivan Principles and the CERES Principles. The findings suggest that these business guidelines tend to emphasize environmental rather than social aspects of sustainable development, in particular to the detriment of the original Brundtland prioritization of the needs of the poorest. Furthermore, the attention to environmental aspects stresses win-win situations and has a clear managerialist focus; whereas more conceptual environmental issues concerning systems interdependencies, critical thresholds or systemic limits to growth find little attention. The normative codes and principles targeted at the private sector therefore not only add another voice to the multiple discourses on sustainable development but also contribute to a reinterpretation of the original agenda set by Brundtland towards conceptualizations of sustainable development around the needs of industrialized rather than developing countries.

Volcanic ash reveals time-transgressive abrupt climate change during the Younger Dryas

Abstract: Knowledge of regional variations in response to abrupt climatic transitions is essential to understanding the climate system and anticipating future changes. Global climate models typically assume that major climatic changes occur synchronously over continental to hemispheric distances. The last major reorganization of the ocean-atmosphere system in the North Atlantic realm took place during the Younger Dryas (YD), an ∼1100 yr cold period at the end of the last glaciation. Within this region, several terrestrial records of the YD show at least two phases, an initial cold phase followed by a second phase of climatic amelioration related to a resumption of North Atlantic overturning. We show that the onset of climatic amelioration during the YD cold period was locally abrupt, but time-transgressive across Europe. Atmospheric proxy signals record the resumption of thermohaline circulation midway through the Younger Dryas, occurring 100 yr before deposition of ash from the Icelandic Vedde eruption in a German varve lake record, and 20 yr after the same isochron in western Norway, 1350 km farther north. Synchronization of two high-resolution continental records, using the Vedde Ash layer (12,140 ± 40 varve yr B.P.), allows us to trace the shifting of the polar front as a major control of regional climate amelioration during the YD in the North Atlantic realm. It is critical that future climate models are able to resolve such small spatial and chronological differences in order to properly encapsulate complex regional responses to global climate change.

Halogen activation via interactions with environmental ice and snow in the polar lower troposphere and other regions

Abstract: The role of ice in the formation of chemically active halogens in the environment requires a full understanding because of its role in atmospheric chemistry, including controlling the regional atmospheric oxidizing capacity in specific situations. In particular, ice and snow are important for facilitating multiphase oxidative chemistry and as media upon which marine algae live. This paper reviews the nature of environmental ice substrates that participate in halogen chemistry, describes the reactions that occur on such substrates, presents the field evidence for ice-mediated halogen activation, summarizes our best understanding of ice-halogen activation mechanisms, and describes the current state of modeling these processes at different scales. Given the rapid pace of developments in the field, this paper largely addresses advances made in the past five years, with emphasis given to the polar boundary layer. The integrative nature of this field is highlighted in the presentation of work from the molecular to the regional scale, with a focus on understanding fundamental processes. This is essential for developing realistic parameterizations and descriptions of these processes for inclusion in larger scale models that are used to determine their regional and global impacts.