Description: Coastal water quality in urban cities is increasingly impacted by human activities such as agricultural runoff, sewage discharges, and poor sanitation. However, environmental factors controlling bacteria abundance remain poorly understood. The study employed multiple indicators to assess ten beach water qualities in Ghana during minor wet seasons. Environmental parameters (e.g. temperature, electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids) were measured in situ using the Horiba multiple parameter probe. Surface water samples were collected to measure total suspended solids, nutrients, and chlorophyll-a via standard methods and bacteria determination through membrane filtration. Environmental parameters measured showed no significant variation for the sample period. However, bacteria loads differ significantly (p = 0.024) among the beaches and influenced significantly by nitrate (55.3%, p = 0.02) and total dissolved solids (17.1%, p = 0.017). The baseline study detected an increased amount of total coliforms and faecal indicator bacteria (Escherichia coli and Enterococcus spp.) in beach waters along the coast of Ghana, suggesting faecal contamination, which can pose health risks. The mean ± standard deviations of bacteria loads in beach water are total coliforms (4.06 × 103 ± 4.16 × 103 CFU/100 mL), E. coli (7.06 × 102 ± 1.72 × 103 CFU/100 mL), and Enterococcus spp. (6.15 × 102 ± 1.75 × 103 CFU/100 mL). Evidence of pollution calls for public awareness to prevent ecological and health-related risks and policy reforms to control coastal water pollution. Future research should focus on identifying the sources of contamination in the tropical Atlantic region.

Description: Digital infrastructures have become indispensable in the field of modern research and science. These technological frameworks play a crucial role for the entire research cycle, supporting literature searches, aiding in data collection and analysis, facilitating the creation and publication of scholarly works, and ensuring the thorough documentation and long-term storage of research findings. Additionally, these infrastructures serve as a vital means for networking and communication among peers, creating the essential foundation of an open and transparent science and research ecosystem. Helmholtz employees were invited to join the Helmholtz Open Science Forum "Towards Open Digital Research Ecosystems - Interconnection Infrastructures" on February 14, 2024, where options for the seamless integration of these digital infrastructures have been discussed. Speakers presented insights into diverse efforts to the provision of open infrastructure structures and how their interconnection offers new possibilities for seamless and integrated workflows within the increasingly digitized research. Further, it was examined how such an integrated ecosystem can support open science practices and vice versa

Description: Mit der Nationalen Forschungsdateninfrastruktur (NFDI) verfolgen Bund und Länder das Ziel, Datenbestände aus der Forschung für das deutsche Wissenschaftssystem nach den FAIR-Prinzipien systematisch zu erschließen, damit diese für Dritte besser zugänglich gemacht werden. Die NFDI wird als Netzwerk von Konsortien über einen Zeitraum von drei Jahren ab 2020 in drei aufeinanderfolgenden Förderphasen aufgebaut. Eine wichtige Rolle spielt dabei auch die Abdeckung disziplinübergreifender Querschnittsthemen. Zur Förderung des Dialogs zur NFDI in der Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft veranstaltete das Helmholtz Open Science Office am 4. Mai 2021 ein digitales Helmholtz Open Science Forum unter dem Motto „Helmholtz in der Nationalen Forschungsdateninfrastruktur (NFDI)“. Als Impuls für die weitere Diskussion lud das Helmholtz Open Science Office alle interessierten Mitarbeitenden der Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft zu diesem virtuellen Helmholtz Open Science Forum ein. Neben einer Einführung durch das NFDI-Direktorat stellten Vorträge die Bandbreite der NFDI-Beteiligung in Helmholtz dar (z. B. Praxisberichte bereits bewilligter Konsortien sowie Vorträge zum Umgang mit der NFDI aus Perspektive eines Zentrums, eines Forschungsbereichs und einer Plattform des Inkubators “Information & Data Science”); auch wurde das Zusammenspiel von NFDI und European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) vom Büro Brüssel der Gemeinschaft beleuchtet. Im Kern stand die Identifikation und Diskussion zu Helmholtz-spezifischen Aspekten bei der Realisierung der NFDI.

Description: Zum Austausch von Best Practices aus den Zentren und zur Förderung der FDM-Community in Helmholtz veranstaltete das Helmholtz Open Science Office am 3. Februar 2022 das erste „Helmholtz Open Science Praxisforum Forschungsdatenmanagement“. In dem Helmholtz-internen Forum wurden exemplarisch verschiedene Herangehensweisen aus Zentren zur Organisation des FDM vorgestellt. Darüber hinaus standen konkrete Service-Angebote zu FDM im Mittelpunkt. Außerdem wurde die Vernetzung mit externen Akteuren, z. B. im Rahmen der NFDI, EOSC oder der RDA, beleuchtet. Die regen Diskussionen verdeutlichten den hohen Bedarf nach übergreifendem Community-Building im Bereich des FDM innerhalb von Helmholtz und darüber hinaus.

Description: Reconstructions of global hydroclimate during the Common Era (CE; the past ∼2000 years) are important for providing context for current and future global environmental change. Stable isotope ratios in water are quantitative indicators of hydroclimate on regional to global scales, and these signals are encoded in a wide range of natural geologic archives. Here we present the Iso2k database, a global compilation of previously published datasets from a variety of natural archives that record the stable oxygen (δ18O) or hydrogen (δ2H) isotopic compositions of environmental waters, which reflect hydroclimate changes over the CE. The Iso2k database contains 759 isotope records from the terrestrial and marine realms, including glacier and ground ice (210); speleothems (68); corals, sclerosponges, and mollusks (143); wood (81); lake sediments and other terrestrial sediments (e.g., loess) (158); and marine sediments (99). Individual datasets have temporal resolutions ranging from sub-annual to centennial and include chronological data where available. A fundamental feature of the database is its comprehensive metadata, which will assist both experts and nonexperts in the interpretation of each record and in data synthesis. Key metadata fields have standardized vocabularies to facilitate comparisons across diverse archives and with climate-model-simulated fields. This is the first global-scale collection of water isotope proxy records from multiple types of geological and biological archives. It is suitable for evaluating hydroclimate processes through time and space using large-scale synthesis, model–data intercomparison and (paleo)data assimilation. The Iso2k database is available for download at https://doi.org/10.25921/57j8-vs18 (Konecky and McKay, 2020) and is also accessible via the NOAA/WDS Paleo Data landing page: https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/study/29593 (last access: 30 July 2020).

Description: Riverine nutrient export is an important process in marine coastal biogeochemistry and also impacts global marine biology. The nitrogen cycle is a key player here. Internal feedbacks regulate not only nitrogen distribution, but also primary production and thereby oxygen concentrations. Phosphorus is another essential nutrient and interacts with the nitrogen cycle via different feedback mechanisms. After a previous study of the marine nitrogen cycle response to riverine nitrogen supply, we here additionally include phosphorus from river export with different phosphorus burial scenarios and study the impact of phosphorus alone and in combination with nitrogen in a global 3-D ocean biogeochemistry model. Again, we analyse the effects on near coastal and open ocean biogeochemistry. We find that the addition of bio-available riverine phosphorus alone or together with nitrogen affects marine biology on millennial timescales more than riverine nitrogen alone. Biogeochemical feedbacks in the marine nitrogen cycle are strongly influenced by the additional phosphorus. Where bio-available phosphorus is increased by river input, nitrogen concentrations increase as well, except for regions with high denitrification rates. High phosphorus burial rates decrease biological production significantly. Globally, riverine phosphorus leads to elevated primary production rates in the coastal and open oceans.

Description: Spatial predictions of total organic carbon (TOC) concentrations and stocks are crucial for understanding marine sediments’ role as a significant carbon sink in the global carbon cycle. In this study, we present a geospatial prediction of TOC concentrations and stocks at a 5 x 5 arc minute grid scale, using a deep learning model — a novel machine learning approach based on a new compilation of over 22,000 global TOC measurements and a new set of predictors, such as seafloor lithologies, grain size distribution, and an alpha-chlorophyll satellite data. In our study, we compared the predictions and discuss the limitations from various machine learning methods. Our findings reveal that the neural network approach outperforms methods such as k Nearest Neighbors and random forests, which tend to overfit to the training data, especially in highly heterogeneous and complex geological settings. We provide estimates of mean TOC concentrations and total carbon stock in both continental shelves and deep sea settings across various marine regions and oceans. Our model suggests that the upper 10 cm of oceanic sediments harbors approximately 171 Pg of TOC stock and has a mean TOC concentration of 0.68 %. Furthermore, we introduce a standardized methodology for quantifying predictive uncertainty using Monte Carlo dropout and present a map of information gain, that measures the expected increase in model knowledge achieved through in-situ sampling at specific locations which is pivotal for sampling strategy planning.

Description: Marine particulate organic carbon-13 stable isotope ratios (δ13CPOC) provide insights in understanding carbon cycling through the atmosphere, ocean, and biosphere. They have been used to trace the input of anthropogenic carbon in the marine ecosystem due to the distinct isotopically light signature of anthropogenic emissions. However, δ13CPOC is also significantly altered during photosynthesis by phytoplankton, which complicates its interpretation. For such purposes, robust spatio-temporal coverage of δ13CP OC observations is essential. We collected all such available data sets, merged and homogenized them to provide the largest available marine δ13CPOC data set (Verwega et al., 2021). The data set consists of 4732 data points covering all major ocean basins beginning in the 1960s. We describe the compiled raw data, compare different observational methods, and provide key insights in the temporal and spatial distribution that is consistent with previously observed patterns. The main different sample collection methods (bottle, intake, net, trap) are generally consistent with each other when comparing within regions. An analysis of 1990s mean δ13CP OC values in an meridional section accross the Atlantic Ocean shows relatively high values (≥ −22 ‰) in the low latitudes (〈 30°) trending towards lower values in the Arctic Ocean (∼ −24 ‰) and Southern Ocean (≤ −28 ‰). The temporal trend since the 1960s shows a decrease of mean δ13CPOC by more than 3 ‰ in all basins except for the Southern Ocean which shows a weaker trend but contains relatively poor multi-decadal coverage.