Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Systematic Review of Dissolved Oxygen in Streams and Rivers: Advances, Challenges, and Opportunities
Published: 2026-01-29
Subjects: Environmental Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Dissolved oxygen (DO) has been extensively studied in streams and rivers. Despite this breadth of research, the processes governing DO are rarely quantified concurrently with whole-ecosystem measurements. To address this gap, we synthesize 230 empirical studies (1964-2024) to evaluate how, where, and with what methods oxygen exchanges—the processes by which oxygen enters and leaves streams—have [...]
What are the drivers of riparian vegetation recruitment and establishment in an alpine embanked river?
Published: 2026-01-10
Subjects: Geomorphology, Physical and Environmental Geography, Remote Sensing, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
1 – Rejuvenation operations are often conducted in rivers to manage vegetation encroachment and balance biodiversity benefits and flood risks. Understanding the drivers of vegetation recruitment and establishment is necessary to implement these operations but requires monitoring at spatial and temporal scales that are suited to pioneer riparian environment. 2 – Bi-yearly drone surveys were used [...]
Uncertainty in aquatic greenhouse gas flux estimates arises from subjective processing of floating chamber time series
Published: 2025-12-10
Subjects: Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Accurate quantification of greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes from aquatic systems is essential for constraining regional and global carbon budgets. Closed floating chambers are widely used to measure carbon dioxide (CO₂) and methane (CH₄) fluxes at the water–air interface, yet large uncertainties persist due to subjective processing of chamber time series. In particular, the treatment of non-linear [...]
Coastal Wetland Restoration and Greenhouse Gas Pathways: A Global Meta-Analysis
Published: 2025-11-14
Subjects: Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Microbiology and Microbial Ecology Life Sciences, Life Sciences, Marine Biology, Microbiology, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Coastal wetland restoration is widely promoted as a tool for climate change mitigation, but its effect on the carbon cycle is not well constrained. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of peer-reviewed field studies that directly contrasted restored with altered sites, covering carbon stocks and greenhouse gas fluxes across mangroves, saltmarshes, seagrass meadows, brackish systems, [...]
Local Prediction of Temperate Forest Structure in Eastern North America Using LiDAR, Radar, and Optical Data
Published: 2025-10-31
Subjects: Other Forestry and Forest Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Forest structure underpins the emergence of ecological patterns and processes yet remains costly and labor-intensive to measure at broad scales. NASA’s Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) mission provides three-dimensional Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) measurements at discrete footprints, leaving spatial gaps that complicate wall-to-wall mapping. Few studies have produced [...]
Global Alpine Treeline Elevational Transects
Published: 2025-10-23
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Monitoring, Forest Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
The Alpine Treeline Ecotone (ATE) is an important ecological transition zone at the juncture of montane forests and alpine tundra. It serves as a crucial habitat for diverse species and a sensitive indicator of climate change. Consistent characterization of the elevational gradients of ATE is challenging due to complex topography and data limitations. This study introduces a comprehensive [...]
Peatland Mid-Infrared Database 1.0.0
Published: 2025-10-06
Subjects: Biogeochemistry, Soil Science, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Systematic collections of peat mid-infrared spectra and other peat properties are scarce, but useful to understand peat chemistry and develop spectral prediction models. The Peatland Mid-Infrared Database ('pmird') stores 3877 mid-infrared spectra of peat, peat-forming vegetation, and dissolved organic matter, together with measurements of other peat properties that were collated from previous [...]
Beyond the mangroves: a global synthesis of tidal forested wetland types, drivers and future information needs
Published: 2025-09-20
Subjects: Biodiversity, Forest Management, Forest Sciences, Other Forestry and Forest Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
There is increasing awareness of the global diversity of tidal forested wetlands (TFWs) and their significance in the provision of ecosystem services. These ecosystems, including mangrove forests, tidal freshwater forested wetlands, supratidal forests and transitional forests together span tropical to temperate climatic zones and occur across diverse geomorphic, inundation and salinity regimes. [...]
Support for Forest Conservation Imperatives: A Robust Approach for Multi-dimensional, Spatially Explicit Resilience Assessment
Published: 2025-09-18
Subjects: Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Forest Management, Natural Resources and Conservation, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Forest ecosystems are ecologically, socially, and culturally valuable, and are arguably considered essential to global sustainability. Climate change and altered disturbance regimes are threatening the future of forests around the globe. Many countries are coming together to support and implement conservation and monitoring initiatives to improve future prospects for the restoration and [...]
A Bayesian Approach to Hyperspectral Leaf Trait Prediction with uncertainty quantification
Published: 2025-09-11
Subjects: Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Leaf functional traits are leaf features that determine ecosystem functioning, plant growth regulation, and resource allocation. Most of these traits can be effectively derived from leaf reflectance measurements across the visible to shortwave infrared range using various empirical and physical methods. Partial Least Squares Regression (PLSR) is a popular empirical approach due to its simplicity [...]
Governing transboundary river barriers: adaptive management challenges in South and Southeast Asia
Published: 2025-08-30
Subjects: Environmental Health and Protection, Environmental Monitoring, Hydrology, Sustainability, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology, Water Resource Management
Low-cost autonomous chambers enable high spatial and temporal resolution monitoring of soil CO₂ exchange across landscapes
Published: 2025-08-16
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Biogeochemistry, Climate, Environmental Engineering, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Meteorology, Natural Resources and Conservation, Soil Science, Sustainability, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
1. Soil CO₂ flux is a critical component of ecosystem carbon cycling, but due to high cost and mechanistic constraints, existing measurement systems are often limited by trade-offs between resolution (temporal and spatial), and spatial coverage. These constraints hinder efforts to monitor soil fluxes across diverse, heterogeneous landscapes and environmental gradients. 2. We developed Fluxbot [...]
Dual and divergent formation pathways govern the composition and origins of mineral-associated organic carbon
Published: 2025-08-13
Subjects: Biogeochemistry, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Mineral-associated organic matter (MAOM) is the largest and most stable soil carbon reservoir, playing a central role in soil health and climate mitigation. Yet, quantitative understanding is lacking for the two fundamental processes forming MAOM— adsorption of dissolved organic matter and aggregation of insoluble organic particles—and how each pathway incorporates plant- versus microbial-derived [...]
Long-term trends and drivers of water color in Missouri reservoirs
Published: 2025-08-12
Subjects: Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Contrasting water quality trends are occurring within and across North America, with waterbodies experiencing increasing phytoplankton blooms, increasing dissolved organic matter, or both, while others are becoming clearer and bluer; dramatically changing water color. To assess the spatial and temporal variability in water color, we quantified trends in satellite-derived dominant wavelength (λd) [...]
Oxic methane production in shallow productive lakes: linking field and in vitro experimental evidence
Published: 2025-07-31
Subjects: Microbiology, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Whereas the occurrence of oxic methane (CH₄) production (OMP) in the oxygenated water column of lakes is widely accepted, its mechanisms, isotopic signature, and contribution to total CH₄ emissions remain uncertain. Evidence suggests that phytoplankton produces CH₄, but it is unclear to what extent this pathway contributes to ecosystem OMP rates. Shallow lakes are often productive and feature [...]