Publisher Correction: Ice sheets matter for the global carbon cycle.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Ice sheets matter for the global carbon cycle.

The cycling of carbon on Earth exerts a fundamental influence upon the greenhouse gas content of the atmosphere, and hence global climate over millennia. Until recently, ice sheets were viewed as inert components of this cycle and largely disregarded in global models. Research in the past decade has transformed this view, demonstrating the existence of uniquely adapted microbial communities, high rates of biogeochemical/physical weathering in ice sheets and storage and cycling of organic carbon (>104 Pg C) and nutrients. Here we assess the active role of ice sheets in the global carbon cycle and potential ramifications of enhanced melt and ice discharge in a warming world.

Ice stream activity scaled to ice sheet volume during Laurentide Ice Sheet deglaciation.

The contribution of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets to sea level has increased in recent decades, largely owing to the thinning and retreat of outlet glaciers and ice streams. This dynamic loss is a serious concern, with some modelling studies suggesting that the collapse of a major ice sheet could be imminent or potentially underway in West Antarctica, but others predicting a more limited response. A major problem is that observations used to initialize and calibrate models typically span only a few decades, and, at the ice-sheet scale, it is unclear how the entire drainage network of ice streams evolves over longer timescales. This represents one of the largest sources of uncertainty when predicting the contributions of ice sheets to sea-level rise. A key question is whether ice streams might increase and sustain rates of mass loss over centuries or millennia, beyond those expected for a given ocean-climate forcing. Here we reconstruct the activity of 117 ice streams that operated at various times during deglaciation of the Laurentide Ice Sheet (from about 22,000 to 7,000 years ago) and show that as they activated and deactivated in different locations, their overall number decreased, they occupied a progressively smaller percentage of the ice sheet perimeter and their total discharge decreased. The underlying geology and topography clearly influenced ice stream activity, but--at the ice-sheet scale--their drainage network adjusted and was linked to changes in ice sheet volume. It is unclear whether these findings can be directly translated to modern ice sheets. However, contrary to the view that sees ice streams as unstable entities that can accelerate ice-sheet deglaciation, we conclude that ice streams exerted progressively less influence on ice sheet mass balance during the retreat of the Laurentide Ice Sheet.

[Mechanism of post-synthetic changes in glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase in human cells cultured in vitro]. / Mekhanizm postsinteticheskoi modifikatsii gliukozo-6- fosfatdegidrogenazy v kletkakh cheloveka, kul'tiviruemykh in vitro.

The reasons for the decreased stability of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase in transformed human cells were investigated. The enzyme stability was found to be dependent on its subunit composition; the dimeric form possessed a lower stability in comparison with the tetrameric one. An addition of NADP to cell extracts which had partly lost their glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase activity, resulted in reactivation and stabilization of the enzyme. The constants for a forward (k1) and back (k2) reactions during stabilization are equal to 2.87 X 10(-3) and 5.77 X 10(-1) s-1, respectively. The inactivation and reactivation kinetics suggest that the enzyme destabilization may also occur inside the cells. The cells contain more than 40% of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase molecules in an inactive form. A mechanism of destabilization and inactivation of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase is proposed, which consists in NADP hydrolysis and enzyme decomposition to inactive monomers which are less stable to proteolysis.

[Secondary structure of RNA of influenza virus in free form and in ribonucleoprotein]. / Izuchenie vtorichnoi struktury RNK virusa grippa v svobodnom sostoianii i v sostave ribonukleoproteidov.

Large amounts of RNA and RNP isolated from influenza virus were obtained. This has allowed us to undertake detailed physical studies of the secondary structure of RNA of influenza virus in free form and in RNP. Analysis of CD spectrum and the hypochromic effect after thermal denaturation of RNA indicated that RNA in free form contains 58--62% double-stranded regions. By comparative studies of the secondary structure of RNA in RNP, it was estimated that 12--14% of the RNA exists in double-stranded form.