Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Fixed-ground multisensor monitoring resolves longitudinal vegetation condition and fuel-state structure in Southern California chaparral and oak scenes
Published: 2026-10-03
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Forest Sciences, Geography, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Plant Sciences, Remote Sensing, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Wildfire-relevant vegetation and fuel conditions evolve through interacting changes in vegetation condition, three-dimensional fuel structure, thermal response, and atmospheric drying, yet these dimensions are commonly monitored separately. This study evaluated repeated fixed-ground multisensor monitoring at two fixed vegetation scenes in Placerita Canyon, California. Multispectral imaging, [...]
Forecasting the moisture content of live forest fuels with a transformer machine learning model and Sentinel-2 satellite data
Published: 2026-09-29
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Monitoring, Forest Biology, Forest Sciences, Meteorology, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Other Plant Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Planetary Hydrology, Planetary Sciences, Plant Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Live fuel moisture content (LFMC) provides an indicator of vegetation flammability, the potential for canopy dieback from drought, and habitat quality for arboreal fauna. Recent advances in artificial intelligence have increased the potential in meteorological forecasts for Earth surface forecasting. Combining weather forecasts with remotely sensed LFMC offers a promising avenue for short and [...]
Groundwater-dependent ecosystems are missing from global research and policy agendas
Published: 2026-09-22
Subjects: Hydrology, Sustainability, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology, Water Resource Management
A groundwater-dependent ecosystem (GDE) can be a stream or wetland sustained by groundwater, a terrestrial ecosystem that relies on groundwater for root water uptake, or the biodiversity that lives within aquifers. These ecosystems perform hydrological, ecological, and climate functions, and are meaningful to people through recreational, spiritual, and cultural practices. Traditionally studied at [...]
The Uncertainty Landscape Beyond Variance
Published: 2026-09-02
Subjects: Environmental Sciences, Forest Management, Mathematics, Statistics and Probability, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Modern science has become good at measuring uncertainty. Across statistics, artificial intelligence, economics, Earth observation, environmental modelling and decision science, researchers increasingly invoke uncertainty when interpreting evidence, evaluating predictions and supporting decisions. These disciplines often use the word uncertainty to describe conceptually different scientific [...]
Floating algal beds and methane dynamics: a potential positive feedback loop
Published: 2026-08-06
Subjects: Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Eutrophic shallow freshwater ecosystems often develop floating filamentous microalgae on their surface during spring and summer, known as floating algal beds (FLAB). In recent years, FLAB has become more frequent and pronounced due to rising temperatures and drier conditions, sometimes even covering the entire surface of water bodies. New evidence suggests that phytoplankton can produce methane [...]
Hydrological contaminant mobilisation from thawing permafrost in Alaska
Published: 2026-08-05
Subjects: Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Global warming and permafrost thaw increasingly threaten contaminated sites across Alaska, altering contaminant mobilisation risks in sensitive ecosystems and communities. To assess this threat, we used the SIRIUS database to identify 1261 active contaminated sites within Alaska’s permafrost region, noting that many sit near lakes, rivers, and coastlines. We evaluated current and future [...]
Per-tree leaf area index mapping of Amsterdam’s unrecorded shade canopy
Published: 2026-07-08
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Engineering, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Most of the trees shading Amsterdam are absent from any municipal record. Using the Dutch national LiDAR survey (AHN5), we derive per-tree Leaf Area Index for nearly 850,000 trees across 243km2. Roughly 62% of the canopy is unrecorded, and these unregistered trees carry a disproportionate share (about two-thirds) of the city’s gross shade, so most of this shade-providing canopy lies outside the [...]
Ecosystem Metabolism as an Early Warning Indicator of Lake Algal Blooms
Published: 2026-06-15
Subjects: Environmental Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Algal blooms represent ecosystem state shifts that degrade drinking water, restrict recreation, threaten public health, and lower property values. Detecting blooms in advance on management relevant timescales of days to weeks can support proactive intervention. Early warning statistics derived from indicator time series offer a framework for detecting state shifts, but the use of lake metabolic [...]
Extreme changes in water level regenerate reed stands and a stable water regime leads to die-off: lessons from the analysis of 40-year satellite time series observations in a shallow lake ecosystem.
Published: 2026-05-30
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Hydrology, Natural Resources and Conservation, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology, Water Resource Management
Reed wetlands are key to the productivity of shallow lakes, and their condition is tightly governed by water level variability. Using long-term satellite observations, we provide the first analysis linking hydrology and reed vitality at Lake Neusiedl, a major climate sensitive wetland system in the Pannonian Basin. We assembled a 40-year record (1985–2025) of Landsat derived Enhanced Vegetation [...]
Global forest typology at 10-meter resolution for forest and land-use monitoring
Published: 2026-05-22
Subjects: Forest Management, Forest Sciences, Life Sciences, Other Forestry and Forest Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Distinguishing forest types---primary, naturally regenerating, planted, and plantation forests---from agricultural tree crops and other land uses is essential for carbon accounting, biodiversity assessment, conservation planning, and supply-chain regulation. However, no existing global dataset resolves this typology at high spatial resolution. We present the Forest Typology (ForTy) v1 dataset, a [...]
Spatiotemporal Evolution of Urban Thermal Conditions, Vegetation Dynamics, and Built-up Expansion in Ahmedabad, India (2000–2025) Using Multi-Temporal Landsat Analysis.
Published: 2026-05-11
Subjects: Climate, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Sustainability, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Rapid urban expansion has substantially altered urban thermal conditions across many semi-arid cities. This study examined spatiotemporal variation in land surface temperature (LST), vegetation cover, and built-up intensity across Ahmedabad, India, between 2000 and 2025 using multi-temporal Landsat imagery and the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform. Spatial analysis revealed progressive expansion [...]
First Characterisation of P-band Scattering Mechanisms from Orbit in Lower Shire Valley, southern Malawi, using ESA Biomass Imagery
Published: 2026-04-06
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
The European Space Agency (ESA) Biomass mission provides the first spaceborne fully polarimetric P-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) observations in orbit. Here, we report the first characterisation of P-band scattering mechanisms over the Lower Shire Valley (LSV) floodplain, southern Malawi. A single quad-polarimetric acquisition, collected at the onset of the rainy season in November 2025, [...]
Hybrid Physics–AI Ecosystem Simulations Improve Biogeochemical Predictions in Temperate Shelf Seas
Published: 2026-02-02
Subjects: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Biochemistry, Biogeochemistry, Environmental Health and Protection, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Monitoring, Marine Biology, Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing, Oceanography, Planetary Biogeochemistry, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Biogeochemical models form a core part of marine forecasting and climate projections, yet they suffer from persistent biases in predicting key ecosystem variables, creating challenges across regional and global scales. To address this, we developed an AI-augmented three-dimensional hybrid framework that integrates machine-learning corrections directly into a process-based model’s productivity [...]
Systematic Review of Dissolved Oxygen in Streams and Rivers: Advances, Challenges, and Opportunities
Published: 2026-01-28
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: 2026-01-09
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 [...]