Large‐scale anomaly patterns associated to temperature variability inside Scarisoara Ice Cave

Rîmbu, Norel; Onac, Bogdan P.; Racovita, Gheorghe

doi:10.1002/joc.2369

Cited by 8 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…We have also investigated the influence of the East Atlantic/Western Russia (EAWR) index (Barnston and Livezey, ), a zonally oriented pattern that was found to influence the climatic variability in southeastern Europe and in Central and Eastern Mediterranean (Krichak and Alpert, ; Ziv et al ., ; Rimbu et al ., ).…”

Section: Datamentioning

confidence: 97%

Snow variability in Romania in connection to large-scale atmospheric circulation

Bîrsan

Dumitrescu

2013

Int. J. Climatol.

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Daily measurements of snow depth, cumulated precipitation and mean temperature from 105 meteorological stations with continuous record over the 1961-2010 period were analysed for trends with the Mann-Kendall nonparametric test. Trends in the number of days with snow cover, and in the mean snow depth are decreasing at 29 and 18% of the stations, respectively. The decrease in snow depth affects the intra-Carpathian region and Northeastern Romania. The most dramatic change concerns the number of snowfall days, which is decreasing at 82% of the locations. There is a slight decrease in precipitation amount, significant at only 8% of the stations. The mean temperature is increasing at 47% of the stations, while the number of days with temperature over 0 • C shows upward trends at 63% of the stations. Overall, the winter season in Romania has changed substantially. All snow-related parameters show significant negative correlations with the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index for winter. The NAO has a strong impact throughout the country suggesting that the winter variability in Romania is driven by the large-scale circulation over the North Atlantic.

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Section: Datamentioning

confidence: 97%

Snow variability in Romania in connection to large-scale atmospheric circulation

Bîrsan

Dumitrescu

2013

Int. J. Climatol.

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“…The relative contribution of these sources is controlled by the strength of the NAO and East Atlantic-Western Russia (EA-WR) pattern modes of atmospheric variability and the blocking activity of the Siberian High 13, 14 . δ 18 O and δ 2 H values of local precipitation plot along a Local Meteoric Water Line being defined by the equation δ 2 H = 7.9*δ 18 O + 8.14 15 , similar to the Global Meteoric Water Line 16, 17 .…”

Section: Present-day Climatic Conditions and Ice Genesismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The mean annual temperature at Scărișoara Ice Cave (SIC) is ~6 °C and precipitation amounts reach 1200 mm/year, with two maxima, one represented by Atlantic-sourced rainfalls in May-June and another of Mediterranean origin in late autumn 12 . The relative contribution of these sources is controlled by the strength of the NAO and East Atlantic-Western Russia (EA-WR) pattern modes of atmospheric variability and the blocking activity of the Siberian High 13 , 14 . δ 18 O and δ 2 H values of local precipitation plot along a Local Meteoric Water Line being defined by the equation δ 2 H = 7.9*δ 18 O + 8.14 15 , similar to the Global Meteoric Water Line 16 , 17 .…”

Section: Present-day Climatic Conditions and Ice Genesismentioning

confidence: 99%

Holocene winter climate variability in Central and Eastern Europe

Perşoiu

Onac

Wynn

et al. 2017

Sci Rep

104

101

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Among abundant reconstructions of Holocene climate in Europe, only a handful has addressed winter conditions, and most of these are restricted in length and/or resolution. Here we present a record of late autumn through early winter air temperature and moisture source changes in East-Central Europe for the Holocene, based on stable isotopic analysis of an ice core recovered from a cave in the Romanian Carpathian Mountains. During the past 10,000 years, reconstructed temperature changes followed insolation, with a minimum in the early Holocene, followed by gradual and continuous increase towards the mid-to-late-Holocene peak (between 4-2 kcal BP), and finally by a decrease after 0.8 kcal BP towards a minimum during the Little Ice Age (AD 1300–1850). Reconstructed early Holocene atmospheric circulation patterns were similar to those characteristics of the negative phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), while in the late Holocene they resembled those prevailing in the positive NAO phase. The transition between the two regimes occurred abruptly at around 4.7 kcal BP. Remarkably, the widespread cooling at 8.2 kcal BP is not seen very well as a temperature change, but as a shift in moisture source, suggesting weaker westerlies and increased Mediterranean cyclones penetrating northward at this time.

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“…The Scarisoara ice cave located in the Apuseni Mountains (NW Romania) ( Figure 1A ) harbors one of the largest and oldest underground perennial ice blocks, 14 C-dated to more than 10,500 years before present (BP) ( Holmlund et al, 2005 ; Hubbard, 2017 ). The particular climate of the cave due to local temperate conditions and the large size of the entrance ( Figure 1B ) ensure underground constant negative temperatures, thus favoring the formation of a stable ice deposit ( Racovita and Onac, 2000 ; Rimbu et al, 2012 ). The accumulated ice resulted from the annual freezing of precipitation and infiltration water constitute the alternating ice layers of organic-rich and clear ice deposits, with recent strata forming the floor of the Great Hall area and with an exposed side wall of up to 1,000 years BP ice in the Little Reserve sector ( Figure 1C ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Scarisoara ice cave (Romania) harbors the oldest and largest perennial ice block accumulated in a cave worldwide ( Holmlund et al, 2005 ), representing a model habitat for studying paleoclimate processes ( Perşoiu et al, 2011 , 2017 ; Persoiu and Pazdur, 2011 ; Perşoiu and Onac, 2012 ; Rimbu et al, 2012 ) and the role and response to environmental stress factors of microbiomes preserved in underground ice from caves ( Purcarea, 2018 ). The presence of ice-contained microorganisms in Scarisoara cave was first mentioned in the ice stalagmites formed in the Little Reserve area ( Hillebrand-Voiculescu et al, 2013 ), followed by studies of the cultured/uncultured microbial communities from the perennial ice block ( Hillebrand-Voiculescu et al, 2015 ) and the chronological distribution of cultured bacteria in ice layers up to 900 years old ( Itcus et al, 2016 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Heat Shock Response of the Active Microbiome From Perennial Cave Ice

Mondini¹,

Anwar²,

Ellegaard-Jensen³

et al. 2022

Front. Microbiol.

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Ice caves constitute the newly investigated frozen and secluded model habitats for evaluating the resilience of ice-entrapped microbiomes in response to climate changes. This survey identified the total and active prokaryotic and eukaryotic communities from millennium-old ice accumulated in Scarisoara cave (Romania) using Illumina shotgun sequencing of the ribosomal RNA (rRNA) and messenger RNA (mRNA)-based functional analysis of the metatranscriptome. Also, the response of active microbiome to heat shock treatment mimicking the environmental shift during ice melting was evaluated at both the taxonomic and metabolic levels. The putatively active microbial community was dominated by bacterial taxa belonging to Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes, which are highly resilient to thermal variations, while the scarcely present archaea belonging to Methanomicrobia was majorly affected by heat shock. Among eukaryotes, the fungal rRNA community was shared between the resilient Chytridiomycota and Blastocladiomycota, and the more sensitive Ascomycota and Basidiomycota taxa. A complex microeukaryotic community highly represented by Tardigrada and Rotifera (Metazoa), Ciliophora and Cercozoa (Protozoa), and Chlorophyta (Plantae) was evidenced for the first time in this habitat. This community showed a quick reaction to heat shock, followed by a partial recovery after prolonged incubation at 4°C due to possible predation processes on the prokaryotic cluster. Analysis of mRNA differential gene expression revealed the presence of an active microbiome in the perennial ice from the Scarisoara cave and associated molecular mechanisms for coping with temperature variations by the upregulation of genes involved in enzyme recovery, energy storage, carbon and nitrogen regulation, and cell motility. This first report on the active microbiome embedded in perennial ice from caves and its response to temperature stress provided a glimpse into the impact of glaciers melting and the resilience mechanisms in this habitat, contributing to the knowledge on the functional role of active microbes in frozen environments and their response to climatic changes.

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Large‐scale anomaly patterns associated to temperature variability inside Scarisoara Ice Cave

Cited by 8 publications

References 29 publications

Snow variability in Romania in connection to large-scale atmospheric circulation

Snow variability in Romania in connection to large-scale atmospheric circulation

Holocene winter climate variability in Central and Eastern Europe

Heat Shock Response of the Active Microbiome From Perennial Cave Ice

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