Abstract: In December 2019, the 13th revision of the International Geomagnetic Reference Field (IGRF) was released by the International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy (IAGA) Division V Working Group V-MOD. This revision comprises two new spherical harmonic main field models for epochs 2015.0 (DGRF-2015) and 2020.0 (IGRF-2020) and a model of the predicted secular variation for the interval 2020.0 to 2025.0 (SV-2020-2025). The models were produced from candidates submitted by fifteen international teams. These teams were led by the British Geological Survey (UK), China Earthquake Administration (China), Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain), University of Colorado Boulder (USA), Technical University of Denmark (Denmark), GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences (Germany), Institut de physique du globe de Paris (France), Institut des Sciences de la Terre (France), Pushkov Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere and Radio Wave Propagation (Russia), Kyoto University (Japan), University of Leeds (UK), Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (Germany), NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (USA), University of Potsdam (Germany), and Université de Strasbourg (France). The candidate models were evaluated individually and compared to all other candidates as well to the mean, median and a robust Huber-weighted model of all candidates. These analyses were used to identify, for example, the variation between the Gauss coefficients or the geographical regions where the candidate models strongly differed. The majority of candidates were sufficiently close that the differences can be explained primarily by individual modeling methodologies and data selection strategies. None of the candidates were so different as to warrant their exclusion from the final IGRF-13. The IAGA V-MOD task force thus voted for two approaches: the median of the Gauss coefficients of the candidates for the DGRF-2015 and IGRF-2020 models and the robust Huber-weighted model for the predictive SV-2020-2025. In this paper, we document the evaluation of the candidate models and provide details of the approach used to derive the final IGRF-13 products. We also perform a retrospective analysis of the IGRF-12 SV candidates over their performance period (2015–2020). Our findings suggest that forecasting secular variation can benefit from combining physics-based core modeling with satellite observations.

Abstract: In many bird species, reproductive partners sing together each time they meet on the nest. Because these nest ceremonies typically correspond to the return of one partner from foraging and to the subsequent departure of the other partner, we hypothesized that the foraging decisions of departing birds may be facilitated by the vocalizations accompanying their partner's return on the nest, providing these vocalizations reflect foraging conditions. We examined this hypothesis in pairs of Adélie penguins, Pygoscelis adeliae, by longitudinally monitoring their nest vocalizations and their spatial distribution when foraging at sea across the guard stage, when both parents regularly alternate foraging at sea and chick attendance at the nest. We found that the acoustic characteristics of the vocalizations produced during nest relief ceremonies reflected some characteristics of the foraging trips of both the returning and departing partners. However, these acoustic characteristics differed between partners and were differently related to their foraging behaviour. Accordingly, departing individuals did not adopt the same foraging behaviour as that of returning individuals. Nest vocalizations therefore do not appear to represent cues facilitating the foraging decisions of departing birds, but they may rather reflect the arousal of partners, which differently correlates with the foraging behaviour of the returning and departing individuals. Our study highlights an interplay between the vocalizations produced on the nest by reproductive partners and their foraging behaviour, thereby broadening the scope of animal vocalizations and opening a novel perspective on the regulation of foraging strategies. However, our exploratory study also highlights the complexity of examining this interplay, as the effects of nest vocalizations on foraging decisions may be complicated by other factors (e.g. intrinsic foraging capacity). This calls for the use of additional and experimental approaches (e.g. vocalization playbacks) to clarify the role of nest vocalizations as potential mediators of foraging decisions.

Abstract: In the framework of the GreenEdge Project (whose the general objective is to understand the dynamic of the phytoplankton spring bloom in Arctic Ocean), lipid composition and viability and stress state of bacteria were monitored in sea ice and suspended particulate matter (SPM) samples collected in 2016 along a transect from sea ice to open water in Baffin Bay (Arctic Ocean). Lipid analyses confirmed the dominance of diatoms in the bottommost layer of ice and suggested (i) the presence of a strong proportion of micro-zooplankton in SPM samples collected at the western ice covered St 403 and St 409 and (ii) a high proportion of macro-zooplankton (copepods) in SPM samples collected at the eastern ice covered St 413 and open water St 418. The use of the propidium monoazide (PMA) method allowed to show a high bacterial mortality in sea ice and in SPM material collected in shallower waters at St 409 and St 418. This mortality was attributed to the release of bactericidal free fatty acids by sympagic diatoms under the effect of light stress. A strong cis-trans isomerization of bacterial MUFAs was observed in the deeper SPM samples collected at the St 403 and St 409. It was attributed to the ingestion of bacteria stressed by salinity in brine channels of ice by sympagic bacterivorous microzooplankton (ciliates) incorporating trans fatty acids of their preys before to be released in the water column during melting. The high trans/cis ratios also observed in SPM samples collected in the shallower waters at St 413 and St 418 suggest the presence of positively or neutrally buoyant extracellular polymeric substances (EPS)-rich particles retained in sea ice and discharged (with bacteria stressed by salinity) in seawater after the initial release of algal biomass. Such EPS particles, which are generally considered as ideal vectors for bacterial horizontal distribution in the Arctic, appeared to contain a high proportion of dead and non-growing bacteria.

Abstract: In vivo and in vitro evidence for detoxification of methylmercury (MeHg) as insoluble mercury selenide (HgSe) underlies the central paradigm that mercury exposure is not or little hazardous when tissue Se is in molar excess (Se:Hg > 1). However, this hypothesis overlooks the binding of Hg to selenoproteins, which lowers the amount of bioavailable Se that acts as a detoxification reservoir for MeHg, thereby underestimating the toxicity of mercury. This question was addressed by determining the chemical forms of Hg in various tissues of giant petrels Macronectes spp. using a combination of high energy-resolution X-ray absorption near edge structure and extended X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy coupled to elemental mapping. Three main Hg species were identified, a MeHg-cysteinate complex, a four-coordinate selenocysteinate complex (Hg(Sec)4), and a HgSe precipitate, together with a minor dicysteinate complex Hg(Cys)2. The amount of HgSe decreases in the order liver > kidneys > brain = muscle, and the amount of Hg(Sec)4 in the order muscle > kidneys > brain > liver. On the basis of biochemical considerations and structural modeling, we hypothesize that Hg(Sec)4 is bound to the carboxy-terminus domain of selenoprotein P (SelP) which contains 12 Sec residues. Structural flexibility allows SelP to form multinuclear Hgx(Se,Sec)y complexes, which can be biomineralized to HgSe by protein self-assembly. Because Hg(Sec)4 has a Se:Hg molar ratio of 4:1, this species severely depletes the stock of bioavailable Se for selenoprotein synthesis and activity to one μg Se/g dry wet in the muscle of several birds. This concentration is still relatively high because selenium is naturally abundant in seawater, therefore it probably does not fall below the metabolic need for essential selenium. However, this study shows that this may not be the case for terrestrial animals, and that muscle may be the first tissue potentially injured by Hg toxicity.

Abstract: Interspecific feeding refers to behavior where an adult of one species feeds the young of another species, with the exclusion of brood parasitism. In birds, most of observed cases concern passerines and this behavior has so far never been described among seabirds. We report on interspecific feeding provided by an adult gentoo penguin Pygoscelis papua to an Adélie penguin P. adeliae chick on the Antarctic Peninsula.