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Species traits have been used extensively in invasion science, providing common metrics across taxa and ecosystems that enable comparisons based on the functional responses and effects of biota. However, most work on traits in invasion science has focused on terrestrial plants, despite the vulnerability of aquatic ecosystems to invasive species, such as invasive seaweeds. Research that focuses on individual species of invasive seaweeds has intensified in recent years, yet few studies have synthesised the information learned on species traits to identify commonalities or knowledge gaps in invasion science. Through a systematic review of 322 papers that investigate the traits of seaweed species from across the globe, here we ask – what are the trends and gaps in research that investigates traits of invasive seaweeds? To address this question, we aimed to: (1) identify publication rates and characteristics of the studies examining traits of invasive seaweeds; (2) clarify which and how many species have been investigated; and (3) assess which traits have been measured and how those traits have been used. Our review revealed that study regions for research on invasive seaweed traits were concentrated in Europe and North America. In addition, we found a total of 158 species that have been investigated, with a large proportion of studies (35%) focusing on just two species, Sargassum muticum and Undaria pinnatifida. Our study revealed that the most researched traits were morphological, which were used to address a wide range of research questions. Key research gaps included relatively few studies from Africa, Asia and South America, a lack of papers researching more than one species and a lack of measurements of biomechanical traits. Altogether, this review provides a thorough overview of research progress on species traits of invasive seaweeds and highlights the existing knowledge gaps that may lead to new ways in which the traits of invasive seaweeds can be used to answer important ecological questions.

Nitrous oxide (N$_{2}$O) is the third most abundant anthropogenous greenhouse gas (after carbon dioxide and methane), with a long atmospheric lifetime and a continuously increasing concentration due to human activities, making it an important gas to monitor. In this work, we present a new method to retrieve N$_{2}$O concentration profiles (with up to two degrees of freedom) from each cloud-free satellite observation by the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI), using spectral micro-windows in the N$_{2}$O ν$_{3}$ band, the Radiative Transfer for TOVS (RTTOV) tools and the Tikhonov regularization scheme. A time series of ten years (2011–2020) of IASI N$_{2}$O profiles and integrated partial columns has been produced and validated with collocated ground-based Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change (NDACC) and Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON) data. The importance of consistency in the ancillary data used for the retrieval for generating consistent time series has been demonstrated. The Nitrous Oxide Profiling from Infrared Radiances (NOPIR) N$_{2}$O partial columns are of very good quality, with a positive bias of 1.8 to 4% with respect to the ground-based data, which is less than the sum of uncertainties of the compared values. At high latitudes, the comparisons are a bit worse, due to either a known bias in the ground-based data, or to a higher uncertainty in both ground-based and satellite retrievals.

Underwater kelp forests have provided valuable ecosystem services for millennia. However, the global economic value of those services is largely unresolved. Kelp forests are also diminishing globally and efforts to manage these valuable resources are hindered without accurate estimates of the services kelp forests provide to society. We present the first global economic estimation of services - fisheries production, nutrient cycling, and carbon removal - provided by four major forest forming kelp genera (Macrocystis, Nereocystis, Ecklonia, and Laminaria). Each of these genera provides between $135,200 and $177,100/ ha/ year. Collectively, they contribute $684 billion/year worldwide. These values are primarily driven by fisheries and nitrogen removal, but kelp forests also have the potential to sequester 2.7 megatons of carbon from the atmosphere/year and may be considered blue carbon systems valuable for climate change mitigation. These findings highlight the value of kelp forests to society and will enable informed marine management decisions.

This is the data used in the for the publication Global seaweed productivity

An increase of 0.31 ± 0.03 % year−1 of atmospheric methane is reported using 10 years of solar observations performed at 10 ground-based stations since 2005. These trend agree with a GEOS-Chem-tagged simulation that accounts for the contribution of each emission source and one sink in the total methane. The GEOS-Chem simulation shows that anthropogenic emissions from coal mining and gas and oil transport and exploration have played a major role in the increase methane since 2005. E. Mahieu is Research Associate with the F.R.S. – FNRS. The F.R.S. 20 – FNRS further supported this work under Grant nº J.0093.15 and the Fédération Wallonie Bruxelles contributed to observational activities support.The Centre for Atmospheric Chemistry at the University of Wollongong involvement in this work is funded by Australian Research Council projects DP1601021598 and LE0668470.

Seaweed and seagrass communities in the northeast Atlantic have been profoundly impacted by humans, and the rate of change is accelerating rapidly due to runaway CO2 emissions and mounting pressures on coastlines associated with human population growth and increased consumption of finite resources. Here, we predict how rapid warming and acidification are likely to affect benthic flora and coastal ecosystems of the northeast Atlantic in this century, based on global evidence from the literature as interpreted by the collective knowledge of the authorship. We predict that warming will kill off kelp forests in the south and that ocean acidification will remove maerl habitat in the north. Seagrasses will proliferate, and associated epiphytes switch from calcified algae to diatoms and filamentous species. Invasive species will thrive in niches liberated by loss of native species and spread via exponential development of artificial marine structures. Combined impacts of seawater warming, ocean acidification, and increased storminess may replace structurally diverse seaweed canopies, with associated calcified and noncalcified flora, with simple habitats dominated by noncalcified, turf-forming seaweeds. In this study, predictions are made as to how rapid warming and ocean acidification are likely to affect benthic flora and coastal ecosystems of the north-east Atlantic in this century based on global evidence from the literature as interpreted by the collective knowledge of the authorship. We predict that kelp forests will die out in the south due to warming, maerl habitat lost in the north through acidification, seagrasses will proliferate, associated epiphytes will switch from calcified algae to diatoms and filamentous species, and invasive species will thrive. Thus, structurally diverse seaweed canopies with associated calcified and noncalcified flora may be replaced with simple habitats dominated by noncalcified, turf-forming seaweeds. © 2014 The Authors.

We present lower/middle tropospheric column-averaged CH4 mole fraction time series measured by nine globally distributed ground-based FTIR (Fourier transform infrared) remote sensing experiments of the Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change (NDACC). We show that these data are well representative of the tropospheric regional-scale CH4 signal, largely independent of the local surface small-scale signals, and only weakly dependent on upper tropospheric/lower stratospheric (UTLS) CH4 variations. At Ny-Ålesund and Izaña, the FTIR work has received funding from the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme ([FP7/2007–2013]) under grant agreement no. 284421 (see Article II.30. of the Grant Agreement). At Izaña has also received funding from the Ministerio de Economía and Competitividad from Spain for the project CGL2012-37505 (NOVIA project). This study has strongly benefited from work made in the framework of the project MUSICA, which is funded by the European Research Council under the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013)/ERC grant agreement number 256961.

Ground-based Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) measurements of solar absorption spectra can provide ozone total columns with a precision of 2% but also independent partial column amounts in about four vertical layers, one in the troposphere and three in the stratosphere up to about 45km, with a precision of 5–6%. We use eight of the Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change (NDACC) stations having a long-term time series of FTIR ozone measurements to study the total and vertical ozone trends and variability, namely, Ny-Ålesund (79° N), Thule (77° N), Kiruna (68° N), Harestua (60° N), Jungfraujoch (47° N), Izaña (28° N), Wollongong (34° S) and Lauder (45° S). This study has been supported by the EU FP7 project NORS, the ESA PRODEX project A3C, as well as the AGACC-II project within the Science for a Sustainable Development research program funded by the Belgian Science Policy Office.

The ENVISAT validation programme for the atmospheric instruments MIPAS, SCIAMACHY and GOMOS is based on a number of balloon-borne, aircraft, satellite and ground-based correlative measurements. In particular the activities of validation scientists were coordinated by ESA within the ENVISAT Stratospheric Aircraft and Balloon Campaign or ESABC. As part of a series of similar papers on other species [this issue] and in parallel to the contribution of the individual validation teams, the present paper provides a synthesis of comparisons performed between MIPAS CH4 and N2O profiles produced by the current ESA operational software (Instrument Processing Facility version 4.61 or IPF v4.61, full resolution MIPAS data covering the period 9 July 2002 to 26 March 2004) and correlative measurements obtained from balloon and aircraft experiments as well as from satellite sensors or from ground-based instruments. In the middle stratosphere, no significant bias is observed between MIPAS and correlative measurements, and MIPAS is providing a very consistent and global picture of the distribution of CH4 and N2O in this region. In average, the MIPAS CH4 values show a small positive bias in the lower stratosphere of about 5%. A similar situation is observed for N2O with a positive bias of 4%. In the lower stratosphere/upper troposphere (UT/LS) the individual used MIPAS data version 4.61 still exhibits some unphysical oscillations in individual CH4 and N2O profiles caused by the processing algorithm (with almost no regularization). Taking these problems into account, the MIPAS CH4 and N2O profiles are behaving as expected from the internal error estimation of IPF v4.61 and the estimated errors of the correlative measurements.

This ScienceBrief Review examines the links between climate change and marine heatwaves. It synthesises findings from more than 110 peer-reviewed scientific articles gathered using ScienceBrief.The evidence shows clear consensus that human-caused climate change has contributed to observed increases in the frequency, intensity and duration of marine heatwaves over recent decades. Climate models have shown that recent marine heatwaves in all oceans have been longer and more intense than can be explained by natural variability alone. These changes have caused widespread impacts on marine species with changes in distribution, loss of biodiversity, collapse of foundation species including coral, kelp and seagrass and the ecosystems they support, and declines in fisheries and cultural values. Ongoing climate change will lead to additional increases in marine heatwave frequency and intensity, further threatening marine life and the ecosystem services they provide to human societies.&nbsp

Supplementary methods details, Figures S1-S7 and Tables S1-S4

Supplementary methods details, Figures S1-S7 and Tables S1-S4