Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
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 [...]
Human Intelligence Forming in the Rhythm of Solar Activity
Published: 2025-05-10
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Biology, Earth Sciences, Neuroscience and Neurobiology, Other Earth Sciences, Other Planetary Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
This study relates to environmental biology and examines a possible link between atmospheric radiation ecology, modulated by space weather, and human cognitive development by analyzing correlations of solar activity phenomena with various indicators of intellectual potential. A novel metric, the Proton Flare Index (PFI), is introduced to quantify the influence of high-energy solar proton events [...]
AI-Driven Decision-Making for Water Resources Planning and Hazard Mitigation Using Automated Multi Agents
Published: 2024-12-27
Subjects: Civil Engineering, Computational Engineering, Computer and Systems Architecture, Computer Engineering, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Education, Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Geotechnical Engineering, Higher Education, Hydraulic Engineering, Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering, Risk Analysis, Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, Systems Engineering, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology, Transportation Engineering
This project simulates the Multi-Hazard Tournament (MHT) framework, a decision support system designed for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, using AI agents to enhance decisionmaking processes for flood mitigation and water resource management. The objective of the framework is to develop optimal strategies for protecting water resources, habitats, and communities within a defined budget. The [...]
Quantifying the benefits of nature-based solutions in urban drainage on headwater stream water quality
Published: 2024-12-21
Subjects: Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
In urban areas lacking adequate sanitation infrastructure, greywater flows into nearby urban streams through the stormwater drainage network. This study evaluates the impact of this drainage on water quality in a headwater stream in the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires (AMBA), Argentina. We analysed and model pollutant loads — organic matter, nutrients, and allochthonous faecal bacteria — [...]
Potential impacts of plant pests and diseases on trees and forests in the UK
Published: 2024-12-14
Subjects: Forest Biology, Forest Management, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Plant pests and diseases (PPDs) pose a serious threat to trees and forests globally. In the wake of the ash dieback epidemic, the UK Government instigated the UK Plant Health Risk Register (PHRR) to provide semi-quantitative estimates of invasion probability and impact on host plants for PPDs thought to pose a risk to the UK to help prioritize biosecurity activities. The PHRR currently contains [...]