Abstract: Climatic changes can induce geographic expansion and altitudinal shifts in the distribution of invasive species by offering more thermally suitable habitats. At the remote sub-Antarctic Kerguelen Islands, the predatory insect Merizodus soledadinus (Coleoptera: Carabidae), introduced in 1913, rapidly invaded coastal habitats. More recent colonisation of higher elevation habitats by this species could be underlain by their increased thermal suitability as the area has warmed. This study compared the effect of elevational range shift on the morphology and physiology of adult M. soledadinus sampled along two altitudinal transects (from the foreshore to 250?m a.s.l.) and a horizontal lowland transect orthogonal to the seashore (400?m length). Although high inter-individual and inter-transect variations in the traits examined were present, we observed that body mass of males and females tended to decrease with elevation, and that triglyceride contents decreased with distance from the shore. Moreover, protein contents of females as well as those of 26 metabolites were influenced significantly by distance to the foreshore. These results suggest that future climate change at the Kerguelen Islands will further assist the colonisation of lowland inland and higher altitude habitats by this aggressively invasive predator, by making previously sub-optimal habitats progressively more suitable.

Abstract: The ancient solar energetic particle (SEP) events of 774/775 CE and 993/994 CE were characterized thanks to radionuclide productions stored in environmental archives as ice cores or tree rings. Primary cosmic ray spectra deduced from these cosmogenic isotope data indicate that the impact of these extreme SEP events would have been much more significant than any of the ones observed during the modern era. However, the impact of these should be studied more accurately in the framework of the ambient dose equivalent impacting aircrew and passengers in the air traffic context by considering physical parameters such as time profile or anisotropy properties. In this study, the impact that 774/775 CE and 993/994 CE past extreme SEP events could have had on modern air traffic is discussed. Possible event spectra for these ancient events are derived from the spectra ground-level enhancement (GLE) 5 and GLE 69, which have been observed during the modern era and have been widely studied/characterized using measurements. The investigations include the impact of the SEP activity on ambient dose equivalent, including detailed analyses considering route, airplane characteristics (departure, arrival, continent, airplane type), and the time occurrence of the SEP event. Statistical analyses show that additional dose levels can reach values on the order of 70 mSv, which is absolutely significant considering the current air traffic recommendations. The orders of magnitude of the ambient dose equivalent induced during past extreme SEP events raises a number of issues, both for aircrews and for avionics hardware. This study demonstrates that simulations can be useful for the evaluation of risks in case of extreme SEP events.

Abstract: Ocean tides have been observed to be changing worldwide for nonastronomical reasons, which can combine with rising mean sea level (MSL) to increase the long-term impact to coastal regions. Tides can also exhibit variability at shorter timescales, which may be correlated with short-term variability in MSL. This short-term coupling may yield higher peak water levels and increased impacts of exceedance events that may be equally significant as long-term sea level rise. Previous studies employed the tidal anomaly correlation (TAC) method to quantify the sensitivity of tides to MSL fluctuations at long-period (>20 years) tide gauges in basin-scale surveys of the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean, finding that TACs exist at most locations. The Indian Ocean also experiences significant sea level rise and tidal variability yet has been less studied due to a sparse network of tide gauges. However, since the beginning of the 21st century, more tide gauges have been established in a wider geographical range, bringing the possibility of better estimates of tidal and MSL variability. Here, we improve the TAC approach, using the ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) method to analyze tidal amplitudes and sea level at multiple frequency bands, allowing a more effective use of shorter record tide gauges and better understanding of multiple timescales of tidal variability. We apply this approach to 73 tide gauges in the Indian Ocean to better quantify tidal variability in these under-studied regions, finding that the majority of locations exhibit significant correlations of tides and MSL.