Korrelationen zwischen Änderungen des Windstresses, des Meeresspiegels und der Dichteschichtung im atlantischen Sektor des Südlichen Ozeans im Bezug auf den Jahresgang und auf zwischenjährliche Zeitskalen

Due to the increasing data coverage of the Southern Ocean by programs like the Argo Float Program, an analysis for this area concerning seasonal timescales is possible (Sallee). During the last three decades observations show an increase of the Southern Hemisphere westerlies (Visbeck (2007)). In most of the climate projections this trend tends to continue (Böning et. al. (2008)). By now the reactions of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (Antarctic Circumpolar Current) concerning these changes in wind stress are not sufficiently clarified as well as in what timescales theses reactions might occur. In this bachelor thesis it is examined whether correlations can be found between changes in wind stress, in the steepness of the sea surface and stratification using CERSAT- scatterometer, AVISO - altimeter and Argo float data. These studies concern seasonal and interannual timescales. Therefore the chronological sequence of the mean wind stress from 40◦S to 55◦S, as well as the variation in time of the height differences of the sea surface and depth differences of the sigma27.2 density surface between 40◦S and 55◦S are observed. As a conclusion the development of the density surface on seasonal timescales arises to 61% from the influence of the wind stress. There is a time lag of two months between the wind stress and the reaction in the isopycnal tilt. The strength of the influence of the sea surface steepness is still uncertain. It is not possible to state clear positions concerning correlations on interannual timescales, as the time series of the float-data is too short (five years) for exact calculations

Space and process: the organizational importance of what we leave behind

Organizational research recently advocated an attention to space (Kornberger & Clegg, 2004), examining how space both produces and is produced by complex relationships of materiality, identity and power (Dale & Burrell, 2008). This literature widely turned to the founding book The Production of Space by Henri Lefebvre (1991/1974) to show how organizational practices resist (Wasserman & Frenkel, 2011), or are enchanted by (Hancock & Spicer, 2011) particular corporate architectures. Research on the role of spatial legacies (De Vaujany & Vaast, 2013), showed how corporate spaces of the past are differently remembered over time to signify the solidity of evolving intentions (Decker, 2014). These studies well capture how practices transform previously planned and already existing spaces, charging them with different meanings after construction. Less we know about how space is produced before and during the phases of organizational planning and construction. Tracing sacrificed planned spaces and missed compromises, I inquire into what is left behind in the discursive and material testing processes that excluded alternative possibilities. A first part of this dissertation focuses on the role of history and remembering in space planning practices. I empirically analyse the narratives surrounding the planning of an important culture centre. The introduction of the concept of lost space specifies how urban planning organizes sociomaterial and spatiotemporal narratives of loss to articulate the need to regain certain spaces (and not others) and design a continuity with a selected past that should not be left behind. Lost space allows planners to narratively “remember the future”. This section contributes a processual interpretation of the interplay between Lefebvre’s (1991/1974) three moments of conceived, perceived and lived space, through a processual focus on conceiving (i.e. planning). By reviewing Lefebvre’s work on everyday temporality (2004/1992, 2014a) and history (1970, 1975), I balance an organizational analysis of space with a sensitivity towards time and remembering. A second part of this dissertation engages in a theoretical discussion and empirical illustration of the representational problem of space and time, which pervades organizational literature and practices. I review longstanding debates on the spatialization of time (Bergson, 2001/1889) and on the principle of simple location, calling for a more space-balanced approach to phenomena in process organization studies. The attention process studies devote to temporality (Helin, Hernes, Hjorth & Holt, 2014; Langley & Tsoukas, 2010, 2016) risks not accounting adequately for space. I suggest space as a processual dimension inseparable from time, and while calling for spatiotemporal representations of space’s plural simultaneity of durations (Massey, 2005), I warn on the need to address the performativity of conflicting organizational representations of space. Space-time integrated representations can account for the complex web of multiple lived organizational dimensions, and process organizational analysis is well positioned to analyze the performativity of all spatial representations. This section addresses different assumptions of time and space by illustrating, through empirical examples, how opposed (dynamic or static) representations of space performed change in construction management practices. The third paper of this dissertation addresses the topic of how values pragmatically justify spaces under construction. Coordination practices and conventions in construction management involve the skillful trade-off process of testing and compromising, with a retrospective reasoning on the sacrifices incurred to grasp how costs could have been (and could still be) avoided. By analysing the composition of values through a new methodology that traces in various data sources the abstract and pragmatic construct of what could have been, the study contributes a processual interpretation of the economies of worth (EW) framework (Boltanski & Thévenot, 2006/1987). Challenging the equilibrium assumptions of sacrifice underlying the value-based action framings of the EW, the core organizational and managerial sacrifice of compromising extends the model’s horizon of critique and uncertainty. I review the growing organizational literature on EW compromises. The analyzed interplay of tests and compromises in everyday building site controversies shows how coordination conventions act together and relationally over time, across different situations, shaping the actors’ critical awareness of the possibilities unduly left behind

Systematic Correlation Matrix Evaluation (SCoMaE) – a bottom–up, science-led approach to identifying indicators

This study introduces the Systematic Correlation Matrix Evaluation (SCoMaE) method, a bottom–up approach which combines expert judgment and statistical information to systematically select transparent, nonredundant indicators for a comprehensive assessment of the state of the Earth system. The methods consists of two basic steps: (1) the calculation of a correlation matrix among variables relevant for a given research question and (2) the systematic evaluation of the matrix, to identify clusters of variables with similar behavior and respective mutually independent indicators. Optional further analysis steps include (3) the interpretation of the identified clusters, enabling a learning effect from the selection of indicators, (4) testing the robustness of identified clusters with respect to changes in forcing or boundary conditions, (5) enabling a comparative assessment of varying scenarios by constructing and evaluating a common correlation matrix, and (6) the inclusion of expert judgment, for example, to prescribe indicators, to allow for considerations other than statistical consistency. The example application of the SCoMaE method to Earth system model output forced by different CO2 emission scenarios reveals the necessity of reevaluating indicators identified in a historical scenario simulation for an accurate assessment of an intermediate–high, as well as a business-as-usual, climate change scenario simulation. This necessity arises from changes in prevailing correlations in the Earth system under varying climate forcing. For a comparative assessment of the three climate change scenarios, we construct and evaluate a common correlation matrix, in which we identify robust correlations between variables across the three considered scenarios

Simplifying and improving the extraction of nitrate from freshwater for stable isotope analyses

Determining the isotopic composition of nitrate (NO3_) in water can prove useful to identify NO3_ sources and to understand its dynamics in aquatic systems. Among the procedures available, the ‘ionexchange resin method’ involves extracting NO3_ from freshwater and converting it into solid silver nitrate (AgNO3), which is then analysed for 15N/14N and 18O/16O ratios. This study describes a simplified methodology where water was not pre-treated to remove dissolved organic carbon (DOC) or barium cations (added to precipitate O-bearing contaminants), which suited samples with high NO3_ ($400 mM or 25 mg L_1 NO3_) and low DOC (typically <417 mM of C or 5 mg L_1 C) levels. % N analysis revealed that a few AgNO3 samples were of low purity (compared with expected % N of 8.2), highlighting the necessity to introduce quality control/quality assurance procedures for silver nitrate prepared from field water samples. Recommendations are then made to monitor % N together with % O (expected at 28.6, i.e. 3.5 fold % N) in AgNO3 in order to better assess the type and gravity of the contamination as well as to identify potentially unreliable data

Uncertainty in the response of transpiration to CO2 and implications for climate change

While terrestrial precipitation is a societally highly relevant climate variable, there is little consensus among climate models about its projected 21st century changes. An important source of precipitable water over land is plant transpiration. Plants control transpiration by opening and closing their stomata. The sensitivity of this process to increasing CO2 concentrations is uncertain. To assess the impact of this uncertainty on future climate, we perform experiments with an intermediate complexity Earth System Climate Model (UVic ESCM) for a range of model-imposed transpiration-sensitivities to CO2. Changing the sensitivity of transpiration to CO2 causes simulated terrestrial precipitation to change by −10% to +27% by 2100 under a high emission scenario. This study emphasises the importance of an improved assessment of the dynamics of environmental impact on vegetation to better predict future changes of the terrestrial hydrological and carbon cycles

Integrating knowledge in the face of epistemic uncertainty : dialogically drawing distinctions

In this article, we contribute to a processual understanding of knowledge integration in interdisciplinary collaboration by foregrounding the role of dialogue in dealing with epistemic uncertainty. Drawing on an ethnographic study of collaboration among scientists involved in developing a highly novel bioreactor, we suggest that knowledge integration is not a homogeneous process but requires switching between different knowledge integration practices over time. This is particularly notable in the case of ‘epistemic breakdowns’ – deeply unsettling events where hitherto-held understandings of the nature of problems appear unworkable. In such cases, it is not sufficient to deal solely with coordination issues; collaborators need to find ways to address generative knowledge integration processes and to venture, collectively, into the unknown. We demonstrate how this generative quest of knowledge integration is achieved through a dialogical process of drawing and testing new distinctions that allows actors to gradually handle the epistemic uncertainty they face

Recovering the performative role of innovations in the Global Travel of Healthcare Practices : is there a ghost in the machine?

This chapter discusses the global travel of a specific approach to incident investigation (Root Cause Analysis or RCA for short). We assess how knowledge of the technique was mobilized, from the United States to Australia, the United Kingdom and beyond. We argue that the globalization and world spanning circulation of this set of practices was sustained and facilitated by the construction of an “anxiety-reassurance” package. This package raised public and professional anxiety about patient safety and created reassurance by proposing a new management solution to solve this problem. Playing together these two seemingly opposite discourses, the innovation generated a wave of interest and urgency that it then rode and that allowed rapid globalization. We suggest that a focus on the innovation as a well-oiled piece of discursive machinery helps us to understand the active role of innovations in fuelling their own translation without reverting to the old idea that innovations are “diffused.

Ansatz einer umfassenden, vergleichenden Bewertung von Climate Engineering Massnahmen: Metriken, Indikatoren und Unsicherheiten

Climate Engineering (CE) as an option to prevent dangerous climate change has reached the political debate. For a well informed decision on CE research and deployment in the future, work towards a comprehensive, comparative assessment is needed. In the first part of this thesis, climate impacts and side effects of an artificial Arctic ocean albedo modification scheme are studied. The second part of this thesis presents a parameter sensitivity study on the uncertainty in the response of transpiration to CO2 and implications for climate change. Is the application of indicators used for the historical time period valid for a comprehensive assessment of future climate change? In the third part of the thesis we introduce a methodological approach to systematically evaluate correlation matrices, identifying robust indicators from Earth system variables, to be used in a natural-science based assessment. In the fourth part of this thesis this method is applied to three exemplary CE scenarios: Large-scale afforestation, ocean alkalinity enhancement and solar radiation management. Changes in correlation patterns provide information on which variables might become more relevant under CE scenarios. To enable a comprehensive comparison of the three scenarios, the common correlation matrix is systematically evaluated to identify an indicator set. A preliminary evaluation of the three scenarios based on these indicators remains inconclusive. If the indicators are further aggregated into a metric to reduce the complexity, a ranking of the different scenarios becomes evident. Given all assumptions, we find that overall the RCP4.5 scenario performs ’best’ in staying close to todays climate state. Solar Radiation Management is identified as the ’best’ CE scenario, followed by Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement and Large-scale Afforestation. These analyses advance the natural-science based assessment of CE, which is essential prior to a decision making process.Auf politischer Ebene hat man begonnen über Climate Engineering (CE) als mögliche Option gegen den mensch-gemachten Klimawandel zu sprechen. Um gut informierte Entscheidungen zum Thema zukünftiger Forschung oder potentiellen Umsetzung von CE Massnahmen zu treffen, benötigt man eine umfassende und vergleichende Einschätzung der verschiedenen Methoden. Im ersten Teil der Arbeit werden Effekte und Nebenwirkungen der CE Methode Ozeanoberlächenaufhellung in der Arktis (AOAM) untersucht. Im zweiten Teil der Arbeit wird eine Parameter Studie zur CO2 Sensitivität von Vegetationstranspiration vorgestellt. Ist es ausreichend die Indikatoren für die historische Zeitspanne zu benutzen, um zukünftigen Klimawandel umfassend zu beschreiben? Im dritten Teil der Arbeit wird eine Methodik eingeführt, um systematisch Korrelationsmatrizen auszuwerten. Das ermöglicht die Identifizierung eines Indikatorensets für eine umfassende, naturwissenschaftliche Beurteilung der gegebenen Fragestellung. Im vierten Teil der Arbeit wird diese Methode auf drei CE Szenarien angewendet, wodurch Änderungen in den jeweiligen Korrelationsmustern gegenüber der zwei Klimawandel Szenarien identifiziert werden können. Eine erste Beurteilung der drei exemplarischen CE Methoden, basierend auf den ausgewählten Indikatoren, bleibt zunächst ergebnislos. Erst wenn die Indikatoren zu einer Metrik zusammen gefasst werden, gelangen wir zu einem klareren Ranking der Szenarien. Unter den gegebenen Annahmen, stellen wir fest, dass das RCP4.5 Szenario am nächsten an dem gewählten Referenzklimazustand bleibt. Das Strahlungsmanagement Szenario ist das ’beste’ CE Szenario, gefolgt von der Ozeankalkung und der gross-skaligen Aufforstung. Diese Analysen bringen das naturwissenschaftliche Verständnis von verschiedenen CE Methoden voran, welches massgeblich für eine spätere Entscheidungsfindung ist