American Geophysical Union Fall 2015 Meeting

American Geophysical Union Fall 2015 Meeting
Dates: 14-18 December 2015
Location:  San Francisco, California, USA

For further information: http://fallmeeting.agu.org/2015/

GEOTRACES related sessions:

GC067: Trace Metal Cycling in the Environment – 40 Years of Advancements
Convenors: (1) Priya Ganguli (2) Frank Black (3) Sergio Sanudo-Wilhelmy (4) Ed Boyle
Session ID#: 8771
Invited Speakers:
Rob Mason, University of Connecticut
Peter Swarzenski, US Geological Survey
Kristen Buck, University of Southern Florida

Our understanding of metal cycling in the modern environment has been revolutionized by improvements in sample handling (i.e., trace metal clean techniques) and by innovations in technology. These advancements have enabled researchers to accurately quantify trace metal concentrations in a range of media (water, air, sediment, biota), and thereby evaluate system response to key environmental reforms, such as the U.S. Clean Water Act of 1972 and the global effort to phase out leaded gasoline, which began in 1973. It is timely to assess our understanding of trace metal cycling in the modern environment as we embark on new global efforts to protect human and ecosystem health, such as the 2013 Minamata Convention on Mercury. We solicit presentations on trace metal cycling in a variety of systems, including water, atmosphere, sediment, and biota. We are particularly interested in research that evaluates trends and/or draws biogeochemical links among environmental spheres.
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Note: Russ Flegal, who was instrumental in promulgating trace metal clean techniques and advancing our understanding of metal cycling in the environment, is retiring from UC Santa Cruz this academic year. This session will provide an opportunity to celebrate the breadth of his contributions to the field.

A035: Dust in High Latitudes: From its Origins to its Impacts
Primary Convener: Santiago Gasso, GESTAR/NASA, Silver Spring, MD, United States
Session ID#: 8015
Conveners: John Crusius, USGS Western Regional Offices Seattle, Seattle, WA, United States, Gisela Winckler, Lamont -Doherty Earth Observatory, Palisades, NY, United States and Paul A Ginoux, NOAA Princeton, Princeton, NJ, United States

From long records of dust in ice cores to present day satellite imagery of dust blown off the coasts of Alaska, Iceland and the Patagonia desert, observations show how dust in high latitudes is pervasive and sustained over hundreds of thousands of years. High latitudes amplify dust effects on climate through their interactions with ice clouds, reduction of surface albedo, and the transport/supply of micronutrients to the surface ocean, triggering phytoplankton blooms and affecting biogeochemical cycles. Yet, most research on dust has focused on the subtropical regions and the areas around the dust belt. In this session we would like to focus on dust research at high latitudes, and we invite presentations addressing all aspects of emission, transport and impacts of dust (or volcanic ash) , from the geologic past and the present, as well as model simulations of the future.

OS010: Exploring the Dust-Ocean Connection in a Changing Climate
Primary Convener: Maurice Levasseur, Laval University, Quebec-Ocean, Quebec City, QC, Canada
Session ID#: 8749
Conveners: William L Miller, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, United States and Mitsuo Uematsu, University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Japan

Ocean-atmosphere interactions take different forms. Every year, the atmosphere delivers massive amounts of nutrients to the global Ocean, often relieving nutrient limitations and thus altering primary production and various related chemical pathways and feedbacks to the atmosphere. These fertilization events, which include desert dust and volcanic ash depositions, are episodic and mostly unpredictable, hence notoriously difficult to study. While considerable advances have been made during the last few years on the global distribution of these deposition events and on their impact on ocean biogeochemistry the question remains: Can we confidently extrapolate current understanding to a high CO2 world? In this session, we seek contributions on all aspects of this fascinating connection between the continents, the atmosphere and the ocean. Papers exploring the importance of global change (climate warming, change in wind patterns, ocean acidification, ocean stratification, etc.) on dust emission, transport and impact on the ocean are particularly welcomed.