Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Hemispheric geochemical dichotomy of the mantle is a legacy of austral supercontinent assembly and deep subduction of continental crust
Published: 2021-11-01
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Oceanic hotspots with extreme enriched mantle radiogenic isotopic signatures—including high 87Sr/86Sr and low 143Nd/144Nd indicative of ancient subduction of continental crust—are restricted to the southern hemispheric mantle. However, the mechanisms responsible for concentrating subducted continental crust in the austral mantle are unknown. We show subduction of sediments and subduction eroded [...]
Constraints on the behaviour and content of volatiles in Galápagos magmas from melt inclusions and nominally anhydrous minerals
Published: 2021-10-30
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Despite their relatively low concentration in most oceanic basalts, volatile species (e.g. H2O, CO2 and S) have a disproportionately large influence on a wide range of mantle and magmatic processes. However, constraining the concentration of H2O (and other volatiles) in basaltic magmas is not straightforward as submarine glass analyses are influenced by assimilation of hydrothermal brines, and [...]
Airborne laser scanning proxies of canopy light transmission in forests
Published: 2021-10-29
Subjects: Biodiversity, Biogeochemistry, Computer Sciences, Earth Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Sciences, Forest Sciences, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Plant Sciences, Software Engineering, Statistics and Probability
Reliable estimates of canopy light transmission are critical to understanding the structure and function of vegetation communities but are difficult and costly to attain by traditional field inventory methods. Airborne laser scanning (ALS) data uniquely provide multi-angular vertically resolved representation of canopy geometry across large geographic areas. While previous studies have proposed [...]
Bridging knowledge gaps with hybrid machine-learning forest ecosystem models (ML-FEMs): inferential simulation of past understory light regimes
Published: 2021-10-29
Subjects: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Biodiversity, Biogeochemistry, Computer Sciences, Earth Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Forest Sciences, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Plant Sciences
Soil moisture is a key limiting factor of plant productivity in boreal and montane regions, producing additional climate feedbacks through evaporation, regeneration, mortality, and respiration. Understory solar irradiation – the primary driver of surface temperature and evaporative demand – remains poorly represented in vegetation models due to a lack of 3-D canopy geometry. Existing models are [...]
Simulated decline of a northern forest due to anthropogenic controls on the regeneration-mortality balance
Published: 2021-10-29
Subjects: Biodiversity, Biogeochemistry, Earth Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Sciences, Forest Sciences, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Plant Sciences
The population structure of forests is shaped by balancing the opposing forces of regeneration and mortality, each of which influence C turnover rates and are sensitive to climate. Regeneration underlies the migrational potential of forests to climatic change and remains underserved in modeling studies. Our objective was to test the hypothesis that warming may reduce tree regeneration rates while [...]
Fast anisotropic Mg and H diffusion in wet forsterite
Published: 2021-10-29
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Mg diffusion, which is important for properties of forsterite such as conductivity and deformation, is a strong function of water content. The mechanism behind this effect, however, has not been fully elucidated. In this study we use Density Functional Theory to predict the diffusivity of 〖(2H)〗_Mg^X and we find that they are around 1000 times slower than H-free Mg vacancies V_Mg^''. In most [...]
Potency density tensor inversion of complex body waveforms with time-adaptive smoothing constraint
Published: 2021-10-29
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Large earthquakes are often accompanied by complex fault rupture, but it has been difficult to reliably estimate such a complex rupture process with conventional waveform analysis tools due to modelling errors originating from limited accuracy of the fault geometry. Recently, a potency density tensor inversion method has been developed to solve this problem; allowing any types of faulting [...]
A 18,000 yr record of tropical land temperature, convective activity and rainfall seasonality from the maritime continent
Published: 2021-10-27
Subjects: Biogeochemistry, Climate, Earth Sciences, Geology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Planetary Hydrology
The maritime continent exports an enormous amount of heat and moisture to the rest of the globe via deep atmospheric convection. How this export has changed through time during the last deglacial period and through the Holocene, is hardly known yet critical for the understanding of global climate dynamics. Here we present a continuous paleoclimate record from southern Thailand covering the last [...]
Carbon dioxide emissions rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic
Published: 2021-10-27
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Global CO2 emissions have rebounded strongly from the historic decrease caused by the COVID 19 pandemic in 2020. We project 2021 emissions will be only 0.9% less than the record levels of 2019. In particular, power- and industry-related emissions in China and India have increased relative to 2019, and the carbon intensity of electricity used worldwide has returned to its pre-pandemic level. Is [...]
Feasibility of Afforestation as an Equitable Nature-Based Solution in Urban Areas
Published: 2021-10-23
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Although nature-based solutions for urban heat mitigation have gained momentum, it is important to quantitatively assess the feasibility of such strategies to utilize space efficiently and prioritize lower-income communities, who have fewer options for climate change adaptation. Here we combine data from US census estimates, satellites, and satellite-derived products to develop a framework to [...]
Late Eocene-early Oligocene paleoenvironmental changes recorded at Lühe, Yunnan, southwestern China
Published: 2021-10-23
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
During the late Eocene to the early Oligocene, marine records document a globally congruent record of declining carbon dioxide concentrations, Antarctic icesheet growth, and associated reorganisation of the global climate system. In contrast, the few existing terrestrial records demonstrate high heterogeneity of environmental change and are difficult to reconcile with those of the oceanic realm. [...]
Sharp-based, mixed carbonate-siliciclastic shallow-marine deposits (upper Miocene, Betic Cordillera, Spain): the record of ancient transgressive shelf ridges?
Published: 2021-10-23
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology, Stratigraphy
Isolated sharp-based sedimentary bodies in shelf settings can develop via the reworking of regressive deposits during transgressions. An example of these are shelf ridges, formed under a wide range of processes, and widely studied due to their high reservoir potential. However, there is still a lack of examples in mixed (carbonate-siliciclastic) successions. This study presents an outcrop example [...]
Constraints on the ice composition of carbonaceous chondrites from their magnetic mineralogy
Published: 2021-10-22
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Planetary Sciences
Carbonaceous chondrites experienced varying degrees of aqueous alteration on their parent asteroids, which influenced their mineralogies, textures, and bulk chemical and isotopic compositions. Although this alteration was a crucial event in the history of these meteorites, their various alteration pathways are not well understood. One phase that formed during this alteration was magnetite, and [...]
Fe5S2 identified as a host for sulfur in Earth and planetary cores
Published: 2021-10-22
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Cosmochemical considerations suggest that sulfur is a candidate light alloying element in rocky planetary cores, such that the high pressure-temperature (P-T) Fe-S phase relations likely play a key role in planetary core crystallization thermodynamics. The iron-saturated Fe-S phase relations were investigated to 200 GPa and 3250 K using combined powder and single-crystal X-ray diffraction [...]
The seismic wavefield as seen by Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) arrays: local, regional and teleseismic sources
Published: 2021-10-21
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) exploiting fibre optic cables provides a means for high-density sampling of the seismic wavefield. The scattered returns from multiple laser pulses provide local averages of strain rate over a finite gauge length, and the nature of the signal depends on the orientation of the cable with respect to the passing seismic waves. The properties of the wavefield in [...]