Purpose The purpose of this study was to conduct a preliminary analysis of the role of higher education institutions (HEIs) in state climate science assessment (CSA) and state climate adaptation plan (CAP) development in the USA. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a content review of US state government and land grant (LG) university websites, including 36 CSAs and CAPs. These data informed the development of a tiered conceptual model of HEI engagement in state climate action planning. The conceptual model is evaluated through the lens of coproduction within knowledge networks. Findings HEI contributions to state-level climate action planning in the USA are highly variable, ranging from minimal engagement to defined roles in the development and implementation of robust state CAPs. Novel approaches to optimize effective exchange between scientists and decision-makers that also increase the engagement of academia are needed. Practical implications This study advocates for and provides a replicable example of HEI engagement in the development of mechanisms that increase the connectivity of in-state climate networks. Such mechanisms optimize information sharing and engagement, consequently building sustained capacity for in-state collaboration at the science–policy interface. Originality/value HEIs, particularly LG universities, are a stable source of state-specific climate science and expert assistance that persist beyond national and state political cycles. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first to examine their unique contributions to climate science policy development and implementation. It investigates specifically the relationships and interactions between HEIs and state governments in the USA and offers a detailed case study from the state of Maine.

The S27 ice core, drilled in the Allan Hills Blue Ice Area of East Antarctica, is located in southern Victoria Land, ∼80 km away from the present-day northern edge of the Ross Ice Shelf. Here, we utilize the reconstructed accumulation rate of S27 covering the Last Interglacial (LIG) period between 129 ka and 116 ka (where ka indicates thousands of years before present) to infer moisture transport into the region. The accumulation rate is based on the ice-age–gas-age differences calculated from the ice chronology, which is constrained by the stable water isotopes of the ice, and an improved gas chronology based on measurements of oxygen isotopes of O2 in the trapped gases. The peak accumulation rate in S27 occurred at 128.2 ka, near the peak LIG warming in Antarctica. Even the most conservative estimate yields an order-of-magnitude increase in the accumulation rate during the LIG maximum, whereas other Antarctic ice cores are typically characterized by a glacial–interglacial difference of a factor of 2 to 3. While part of the increase in S27 accumulation rates must originate from changes in the large-scale atmospheric circulation, additional mechanisms are needed to explain the large changes. We hypothesize that the exceptionally high snow accumulation recorded in S27 reflects open-ocean conditions in the Ross Sea, created by reduced sea ice extent and increased polynya size and perhaps by a southward retreat of the Ross Ice Shelf relative to its present-day position near the onset of the LIG. The proposed ice shelf retreat would also be compatible with a sea-level high stand around 129 ka significantly sourced from West Antarctica. The peak in S27 accumulation rates is transient, suggesting that if the Ross Ice Shelf had indeed retreated during the early LIG, it would have re-advanced by 125 ka.

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High-resolution analysis of the ice core from Colle Gnifetti, Switzerland, allows yearly and sub-annual measurement of pollution for the period of highest lead production in the European Middle Ages, c. AD 1170-1220. Here, the authors use atmospheric circulation analysis and other geoarchaeological records to establish that Britain was the principal source of that lead pollution. The comparison of annual lead deposition at Colle Gnifetti displays a strong similarity to trends in lead production documented in the English historical accounts. This research provides unique new insight into the yearly political economy and environmental impact of the Angevin Empire of Kings Henry II, Richard the Lionheart and John.

Climate-driven retreat of ice shelves on the eastern side of the Antarctic Peninsula has opened up new coastal marine environments, enabling the development of primary productivity. Diatom assemblages in surface sediment samples from the eastern side of the Antarctic Peninsula were analyzed to investigate the use of diatoms as paleoenvironmental indicators of changes in glacial and sea ice extent. Here we present surface sediment diatom assemblage data from samples taken on 5 cruises between 2000-2012 from the northeastern-most tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, Prince Gustav Channel, Larsen A and Larsen B embayments, and a single sample from just east of Larsen C Ice Shelf. Absolute diatom abundance increases to the northeast reflecting greater contribution of diatom valves originating from surface waters that are ice free for a longer period of time. This trend is mirrored by the relative abundance of Chaetoceros subg. Hyalochaete, a spring bloom indicator group. The genus Fragilariopsis is dominated by sea ice-associated species, including Fragilariopsis curta, Fragilariopsis cylindrus, Fragilariopsis obliquecostata, Fragilariopsis sublinearis and Fragilariopsis vanheurckii. Fragilariopsis spp. relative abundance varies inversely with Chaetoceros subg. Hyalochaete. Distributions of Thalassiosira antarctica T1 and Thalassiosira antarctica T2, interpreted as a cooler and warmer forms, respectively, while generally inverse to one another with the T. antarctica T2 more common to the northeast, are not straightforward, with a pocket of high relative abundance in Larsen B embayment. These diatom data and their comparison to modern oceanography of the eastern Antarctic Peninsula provide a basis for further paleoceanographic work in the region.

S06: Lead's long-term legacy: what past exposures can tell us about future disease, Room 315, Floor 3, August 27, 2019, 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM Recent literature in public health and toxicology has shown that even extremely low-level exposure to pollutants such as lead (Pb) significantly increases mortality. Current government standards are often based on the assumption that pre-industrial levels of pollution are safe, merely because they occurred before the onset of widespread industrialization. As multiple studies have now shown conclusively, this line of argument is flawed. Our ultra-high-resolution glaciochemical records from the heart of Western Europe in combination with tens of thousands of historical records have allowed us to address the question of what constitutes true natural levels of pollution, and how they compare to post-industrial and current levels which are at least 3 orders of magnitude higher. We have focused in particular on lead (Pb), presenting the most highly resolved record for the past 2000 years, in combination with highly detailed historical records, indicating that lead pollution plummeted to natural levels only once in the last millennium due to a collapse (ca. 50%) of the European population, as a result of greatest pandemic ever to ravage Eurasia. Our ultra-high-resolution glaciochemical records obtained through Laser Ablation ICP-MS—applied for the first time to an ice core—have shown that economic, political and epidemiological events have a much deeper impact on anthropogenic pollution than previously hypothesized. In turn, this new data adds further urgency to the need to reduce ongoing lead emissions. Carefully matching historical data with scientific records has provided a new perspective of what constitute true, natural levels of pollution, how they compare with current standards, and how long we have lived in a "leaded society."

Dust events originating from the Saharan desert have far‐reaching environmental impacts, but the causal mechanism of magnitude and occurrence of Saharan dust events (SDEs) during the preinstrumental era requires further research, particularly as a potential analog for future climate. Using an ultrahigh resolution glacio‐chemical record from the 2013 Colle Gnifetti ice core drilled in the Swiss‐Italian Alps, we reconstructed a 2000‐year‐long summer Saharan dust record. We analyzed both modern (1780–2006) and premodern Common Era (CE) major and trace element records to determine air mass source regions to the Colle Gnifetti glacier and assess similarities to modern and reconstructed climate trends in the Northern Hemisphere. This new proxy SDE reconstruction, produced using measurements from a novel, continuous ultrahigh‐resolution (120‐μm) ice core analysis method (laser ablation‐inductively coupled plasma‐mass spectrometer) is comprised of 316,000 data points per element covering the period 1–1820 CE. We found that the Colle Gnifetti ice core captures an anomalous increase in Saharan dust transport during the onset of the Medieval Climate Anomaly (870–1000 CE) and records other prominent shorter events (CE, 140–170, 370–450, 1320–1370, and 1910–2000), offering a framework for new insights into the implications of Saharan dust variability.

Dust events originating from the Saharan desert are environmental indicators of atmospheric circulation and their feedbacks are important factors in the global climate system. While there is evidence of Saharan dust transport fluctuating in response to climatic changes both in the long-term and short-term, our understanding is poorly constrained with regards to magnitude and occurrence of dust events on a temporal scale. Here we present the first reconstructed summer Saharan dust record based on an ultra-high resolution glacio-chemical record from a European Alps ice core covering the past 2100 years. This unique record was compiled using samples from the 2013 Colle Gnifetti ice core, located in the Swiss-Italian Alps. We analyze both modern (1750-2007 CE) and Common Era (100 BCE-2007 CE) ICP-SFMS major and trace element records to determine airmass source regions to the Colle Gnifetti glacier …

The seventh-century AD switch from gold to silver currencies transformed the socioeconomic landscape of North-west Europe. The source of silver, however, has proven elusive. Recent research, integrating ice-core data from the Colle Gnifetti drill site in the Swiss Alps, geoarchaeological records and numismatic and historical data, has provided new evidence for this transformation. Annual ice-core resolution data are combined with lead pollution analysis to demonstrate that significant new silver mining facilitated the change to silver coinage, and dates the introduction of such coinage to c. AD 660. Archaeological evidence and atmospheric modelling of lead pollution locates the probable source of the silver to mines at Melle, in France.

Among ice core drilling sites in the European Alps, Colle Gnifetti (CG) is the only non-temperate glacier to offer climate records dating back at least 1000 years. This unique long-term archive is the result of an exceptionally low net accumulation driven by wind erosion and rapid annual layer thinning. However, the full exploitation of the CG time series has been hampered by considerable dating uncertainties and the seasonal summer bias in snow preservation. Using a new core drilled in 2013 we extend annual layer counting, for the first time at CG, over the last 1000 years and add additional constraints to the resulting age scale from radiocarbon dating. Based on this improved age scale, and using a multi-core approach with a neighbouring ice core, we explore the time series of stable water isotopes and the mineral dust proxies Ca2+ and insoluble particles. Also in our latest ice core we face the already known limitation to the quantitative use of the stable isotope variability based on a high and potentially non-stationary isotope/temperature sensitivity at CG. Decadal trends in Ca2+ reveal substantial agreement with instrumental temperature and are explored here as a potential site-specific supplement to the isotope-based temperature reconstruction. The observed coupling between temperature and Ca2+ trends likely results from snow preservation effects and the advection of dust-rich air masses coinciding with warm temperatures. We find that if calibrated against instrumental data, the Ca2+-based temperature reconstruction is in robust agreement with the latest proxy-based summer temperature reconstruction, including a Little Ice Age cold period as well as a medieval climate anomaly. Part of the medieval climate period around AD 1100–1200 clearly stands out through an increased occurrence of dust events, potentially resulting from a relative increase in meridional flow and/or dry conditions over the Mediterranean.

The current ice core record extends back 800,000 years. Geologic and glaciological evidence suggests that the Allan Hills Blue Ice Area, East Antarctica, may preserve a continuous record that extends further back in time. In this study, we use ice‐penetrating radar and existing age constraints to map the internal stratigraphy and age structure of the Allan Hills Main Ice Field. The dated isochrones provide constraints for an ice flow model to estimate the age of ice near the bed. Previous drilling in the region recovered stratigraphically disturbed sections of ice up to 2.7 million years old. Our study identifies a site ~5 km upstream, which likely preserves a continuous record through Marine Isotope Stage 11 with the possibility that the record extends back 1 million years. Such records would provide new insight into the past climate and glacial history of the Ross Sea Sector.

Abstract Understanding the context from which evidence emerges is of paramount importance in reaching robust conclusions in scientific inquiries. This is as true of the present as it is of the past. In a trans‐disciplinary study such as More et al. (2017, https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GH000064) and many others appearing in this and similar journals, a proper analysis of context demands the use of historical evidence. This includes demographic, epidemiological, and socio‐economic data—common in many studies of the impact of anthropogenic pollution on human health—and, as in this specific case, also geoarchaeological evidence. These records anchor climate and pollution data in the geographic and human circumstances of history, without which we lose a fundamental understanding of the data itself. This article addresses Hinkley (2018, https://doi.org/10.1002/2018GH000105) by highlighting the importance of context, focusing on the historical and archaeological evidence, and then discussing atmospheric deposition and circulation in the specific region of our study. Since many of the assertions in Bindler (2018, https://doi.org/10.1002/2018GH000135) are congruent with our findings and directly contradict Hinkley (2018), this reply refers to Bindler (2018), whenever appropriate, and indicates where our evidence diverges.

Volcanic ash (tephra) provides unique time markers (isochrons) that are often used as an independent age‐control tool for stratigraphic correlations of paleoclimate archives from ice cores. However, little credence has been given to the notion of finding tephra in ice cores collected in the European Alps because of the relatively large distance from volcanic sources and the presumed nature of regional atmospheric circulation patterns. We filtered particles from melted ice core drilling chips gathered roughly every meter during a 2013 drilling operation at Colle Gnifetti glacier in the Swiss‐Italian Alps (45°55.74′N, 7°52.58′E, 4450 m asl). One filter, preliminarily dated to the nineteenth century by annual layer counting, contained a group of six visually similar tephra particles. Analyzing their chemistry using a scanning electron microscope equipped with an energy‐dispersive x‐ray spectrometer established that the six particles were volcanic in origin and are very similar in composition (a distinctive geochemical signature), pointing to a single volcanic eruption source. We proposed that one of several massive nineteenth century Eastern Icelandic eruptions is a potential source given eruption timing, size, tephra dispersion area, and similarities in chemical composition. This first finding of tephra in an Alpine ice core contributes to a regional tephrochronological framework that can be adapted for future correlation among different paleoclimate sequences.

To answer pressing new research questions about the rate and timing of abrupt climate transitions, a robust system for ultrahigh-resolution sampling of glacier ice is needed. Here, we present a multielement method of LA-ICP-MS analysis wherein an array of chemical elements is simultaneously measured from the same ablation area. Although multielement techniques are commonplace for high-concentration materials, prior to the development of this method, all LA-ICP-MS analyses of glacier ice involved a single element per ablation pass or spot. This new method, developed using the LA-ICP-MS system at the W. M. Keck Laser Ice Facility at the University of Maine Climate Change Institute, has already been used to shed light on our flawed understanding of natural levels of Pb in Earth's atmosphere.