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Global peatlands store more carbon than is naturally present in the atmosphere1,2. However, many peatlands are under pressure from drainage-based agriculture, plantation development and fire, with the equivalent of around 3% of all anthropogenic greenhouse gases emitted from drained peatland3–5. Efforts to curb such emissions are intensifying through the conservation of undrained peatlands and rewetting of drained systems6. Here we report CO2 eddy covariance data from 16 locations and CH4 data from 41 locations in the British Isles, and combine them with published data from sites across all major peatland biomes. We find that the mean annual effective water-table depth (WTDe; that is, the average depth of the aerated peat layer) overrides all other ecosystem- and management-related controls on greenhouse gas fluxes. We estimate that every 10 cm of reduction in WTDe could reduce the net warming impact of CO2 and CH4 emissions (100-year Global Warming Potentials) by at least 3 t CO2e ha-1 yr-1, until WTDe is < 30 cm. Raising water levels further would continue to have a net cooling effect until WTDe is < 10 cm. Our results suggest that greenhouse gas emissions from peatlands drained for agriculture could be greatly reduced without necessarily halting their productive use. Halving WTDe in all drained agricultural peatlands, for example, could reduce emissions by the equivalent of over 1% of global anthropogenic emissions.

This dataset contains time series observations of land surface-atmosphere net ecosystem carbon dioxide exchange (NEE) and supporting micrometeorological observations collected at 13 peatland eddy covariance (EC) flux observation sites located across Wales, Scotland and England. Sites were active at different timescales between 2008 and 2020. The dataset represents a subset of the variables measured at each site.

Pedotransfer functions are used to relate gridded databases of soil texture information to the soil hydraulic and thermal parameters of land surface models. The parameters within these pedotransfer functions are uncertain and calibrated through analyses of point soil samples. How these calibrations relate to the soil parameters at the spatial scale of modern land surface models is unclear because gridded databases of soil texture represent an area average. We present a novel approach for calibrating such pedotransfer functions to improve land surface model soil moisture prediction by using observations from the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite mission within a data assimilation framework. Unlike traditional calibration procedures, data assimilation always takes into account the relative uncertainties given to both model and observed estimates to find a maximum likelihood estimate. After performing the calibration procedure, we find improved estimates of soil moisture and heat flux for the Joint UK Land Environment Simulator (JULES) land surface model (run at a 1 km resolution) when compared to estimates from a cosmic-ray soil moisture monitoring network (COSMOS-UK) and three flux tower sites. The spatial resolution of the COSMOS probes is much more representative of the 1 km model grid than traditional point-based soil moisture sensors. For 11 cosmic-ray neutron soil moisture probes located across the modelled domain, we find an average 22 % reduction in root mean squared error, a 16 % reduction in unbiased root mean squared error and a 16 % increase in correlation after using data assimilation techniques to retrieve new pedotransfer function parameters.

Contains fulltext : 221562.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)

Under the INCOMPASS project, state of the art eddy‐covariance based surface flux measurement systems were installed at eight locations across India. These sites cover different climatic conditions, land use and land cover, and water management practices. Here we present the initial analysis of the measurements taken at seven sites mainly focusing on the year 2017, quantifying for the first time the remarkable contrasts in evaporative fraction across the seasons, climate zones and land management practices of the Indian subcontinent. With the exception of Jaisalmer which is the driest of the places studied, all the sites maintain values of evaporative fraction above 0.5 after the monsoon through to November. By contrast, for those sites with natural vegetation or rain‐fed agriculture, evaporative fraction remains below 0.3 for the dry January–May period. In the middle Gangetic Plain area, irrigation and pre‐monsoon showers together maintain evaporative fraction above 0.5 between January and June. It is also observed that different variables exhibit different intraseasonal variation characteristics even at one site. Except for Samastipur which is situated in the middle Indo‐Gangetic Plains, wind speed shows spectral peak at a smaller time‐scale compared to sensible and latent heat fluxes.

The INCOMPASS field campaign combines airborne and ground measurements of the 2016 Indian monsoon, towards the ultimate goal of better predicting monsoon rainfall. The monsoon supplies the majority of water in South Asia, but forecasting from days to the season ahead is limited by large, rapidly developing errors in model parametrizations. The lack of detailed observations prevents thorough understanding of the monsoon circulation and its interaction with the land surface: a process governed by boundary‐layer and convective‐cloud dynamics. INCOMPASS used the UK Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements (FAAM) BAe‐146 aircraft for the first project of this scale in India, to accrue almost 100 h of observations in June and July 2016. Flights from Lucknow in the northern plains sampled the dramatic contrast in surface and boundary‐layer structures between dry desert air in the west and the humid environment over the northern Bay of Bengal. These flights were repeated in pre‐monsoon and monsoon conditions. Flights from a second base at Bengaluru in southern India measured atmospheric contrasts from the Arabian Sea, over the Western Ghats mountains, to the rain shadow of southeast India and the south Bay of Bengal. Flight planning was aided by forecasts from bespoke 4 km convection‐permitting limited‐area models at the Met Office and India's NCMRWF. On the ground, INCOMPASS installed eddy‐covariance flux towers on a range of surface types, to provide detailed measurements of surface fluxes and their modulation by diurnal and seasonal cycles. These data will be used to better quantify the impacts of the atmosphere on the land surface, and vice versa. INCOMPASS also installed ground instrumentation supersites at Kanpur and Bhubaneswar. Here we motivate and describe the INCOMPASS field campaign. We use examples from two flights to illustrate contrasts in atmospheric structure, in particular the retreating mid‐level dry intrusion during the monsoon onset.

This experiment assessed the efficacy of the cauterisation procedure with or without pain relief (injectable meloxicam) in mitigating the acute stress response to tail docking. Male piglets (n = 432) were allocated to the following treatments at 2-d post-farrowing: (1) no handling, (2) sham handling, (3) tail docked using clippers, (4) tail docked using a cauteriser, (5) meloxicam + clipper, and (6) meloxicam + cauteriser. Meloxicam treatments used Metacam® at 5 mg/mL injected i.m. 1 h prior to tail docking. Blood samples were collected at 15 and 30 min post-treatment and analysed for total plasma cortisol. Behaviours indicative of pain such as escape attempts, vocalisations and standing with head lowered were measured. The duration of vocalisations and frequency of escape attempts during treatment were greater in all tail docking treatments compared to the sham treatment. Piglets in the clipper treatment had higher (p < 0.05) cortisol concentrations at 30 min but not 15 min after treatment and stood for longer (p < 0.001) with head lowered in the first 60 min after treatment than those in the cauterisation treatment. Meloxicam reduced (p < 0.05) both the cortisol response at 30 min after tail docking with the clipper as well as the behavioural response in the first 60 min after tail docking with the clipper. In comparison to the sham treatment, cortisol concentrations at 15 min were higher in the two tail docking treatments whereas the tail docking treatments with meloxicam were similar to the sham handling treatment. In comparison to the sham handling treatment, cortisol concentrations at 30 min post-docking were higher (p < 0.05) only in the clipper treatment. While cauterisation appears to be less aversive than the clipper procedure, the administration of meloxicam did not mitigate the behavioural response during tail docking using either procedure, but reduced standing with head lowered in the first hour after docking for both methods. The commercial viability

This experiment compared the stress responses of piglets to tail docking. Two hundred and eighty-eight piglets were allocated to the following treatments at 2 d post-farrowing: (1) sham handling treatment; (2) surgical castration; (3) tail docking using clippers; (4) tail docking using a cauterising iron. Blood samples were collected at 15 min, 30 min and 24 h post-treatment and analysed for total plasma cortisol. Behaviours indicative of pain, such as escape attempts, vocalisations and standing with head lowered were measured. Cortisol concentrations at 15 min post-treatment were higher (p < 0.001) in the tail docking and castration treatment groups than the sham handling treatment group, but at 30 min post-treatment, only the clipper and castration treatment groups had higher (p < 0.001) cortisol concentrations than the sham handling treatment. Duration of vocalisations and escape attempts were greater (p < 0.0001) during the castration treatment than the sham and tail docking treatments, but these behaviours occurred less (p < 0.05) in tail-docked piglets than those that were castrated. Piglets undergoing the tail-docked treatments and the castration treatment exhibited more behaviours indicative of pain, such as standing longer (p < 0.05) with the head lowered in the 60 min after treatment, than those in the sham handling treatment group. There were no treatment effects on cortisol concentrations and behaviour at 23–24 h post-treatment. The physiological results at 30 min post-treatment indicate that tail docking with cauterisation may be less aversive than tail docking with clippers

Despite extensive research, the behaviour of the key nutrient element, phosphorus (P), in soil is not yet fully understood. This study focussed on the outstanding issue of the co-adsorption of protons (H+) and P by soils. We developed a congruent set of measures to determine the net H+:P co-adsorption ratio and tested it on goethite, for which a ratio of 1.6:1 had been estimated under CO2-free conditions for additions of NaH2PO4. Under our conditions, and using additions of KH2PO4, the net H+:P co-adsorption ratio was estimated to be 1.44:1, i.e., in passable agreement with the published value. Application of the protocol to acidic soils resulted in a net H+:P co-adsorption ratio of 1.92:1, and substitution of H3PO4 for KH2PO4 gave a ratio of 1.96:1. These ratios for soils differ significantly from that for goethite. The soils for which we estimated net H+:P co-adsorption ratios had a wide range of properties and two had received previous applications of P fertiliser (Ca(H2PO4)2), which does not appear to have affected the net H+:P co-adsorption ratios. The H+:P co-adsorption ratio method could benefit from refinement, and further study is required to explore how these findings may apply to commercial P fertilisers under field conditions.

Mollisols are naturally fertile soils with a thick, friable, very dark coloured, organic rich, surface layer (mollic epipedon). Soils literature for 20 South Pacific island countries was examined for information on Mollisols; of these countries, 16 had confirmed Mollisols. Given the basic concept of Mollisols (continental grassland soils), this was an unexpected prevalence. Classifications using the USDA Soil Taxonomy identified 4 suborders, 10 great groups, and 33 subgroups of Mollisols occurring in the South Pacific region. Some taxonomic issues were identified, and these are addressed and changes to better accommodate Mollisols important for the South Pacific region are suggested. The importance of Mollisols in the region is summarised by reviewing their occurrence and uses, especially in food production.