Preprints

Filtering by Subject: Biology

Clarifying the trophic state concept to advance freshwater science, management, and interdisciplinary collaboration across spatial and temporal scales

Michael Frederick Meyer, Benjamin M Kraemer, Carolina C Barbosa, et al.

Published: 2023-10-03
Subjects: Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology

For over a century, ecologists have used the concept of trophic state (TS) to characterize an aquatic ecosystem’s biological productivity. Because measuring productivity can be challenging within an ecosystem and across landscapes, multiple TS classification schemes, each relying on a variety of proxies for productivity, have emerged to meet use-specific needs. Most commonly, chlorophyll a, [...]

Oxidoreductases and metal cofactors in the functioning of Earth

Bruno Hay Mele, Maria Monticelli, Serena Leone, et al.

Published: 2023-05-15
Subjects: Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology, Biogeochemistry, Biology, Microbiology

Life sustains itself using energy generated by thermodynamic disequilibria, commonly existing as redox disequilibria. Metals are significant players in controlling redox reactions, as they are essential components of the engine that life uses to tap into the thermodynamic disequilibria necessary for metabolism. The number of proteins that evolved to catalyze redox reactions is extraordinary, as [...]

National-scale, remotely sensed lake trophic state, 1984-2020

Michael Frederick Meyer, Simon Topp, Tyler V King, et al.

Published: 2023-05-10
Subjects: Biology, Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology

Lake trophic state is a key ecosystem property that integrates a lake’s physical, chemical, and biological processes. Despite the importance of trophic state as a gauge of lake water quality, standardized and machine-readable observations are uncommon. Remote sensing presents an opportunity to detect and analyze lake trophic state with reproducible, robust methods across time and space. We used [...]

Calling for a National Model Benchmarking Facility

Benjamin Lyle Ruddell, Martyn Clark, Jessica M Driscoll, et al.

Published: 2023-04-14
Subjects: Biology, Computer Sciences, Earth Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Sciences, Life Sciences, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Other Life Sciences, Physical and Environmental Geography, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Planetary Sciences, Systems Biology

The modern world uses predictive computer models for many important purposes, including weather predictions, epidemic management, flood forecasting and warnings, and economic policymaking. We need to know how much we can trust the projections of these models, not only to achieve more accurate projections for systems, but also to undertake scientific learning about systems by incrementally testing [...]

Contribution of zooplankton nutrient recycling and effects on phytoplankton size structure in a hypereutrophic reservoir

Tyler James Butts, Eric K Moody, Grace Marie Wilkinson

Published: 2022-02-17
Subjects: Biochemistry, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Other Life Sciences

Consumer nutrient recycling influences aquatic ecosystem functioning by altering the movement and transformation of nutrients. In hypereutrophic reservoirs, zooplankton nutrient recycling has been considered negligible due to high concentrations of available nutrients. A comparative analysis (Moody and Wilkinson, 2019) found that zooplankton communities in hypereutrophic lakes are dominated by [...]

Mars Dichotomy: Prospects for human life on Mars

María Angélica Leal Leal, David Tovar, Jimena Sánchez Nieves, et al.

Published: 2021-03-04
Subjects: Biology, Environmental Microbiology and Microbial Ecology Life Sciences, Medical Sciences, Other Astrophysics and Astronomy, Other Food Science, Planetary Geology, Planetary Sciences

Within the framework of the Mars City State Contest 2020 of The Mars Society, from Colombia, with an interdisciplinary and academic perspective, it was sought to give a perspective of solutions and answers to the challenges of possible human life on Mars. Thus, the document initially addresses a forward-looking prologue, an introduction to the concept of the proposed state, taking as a starting [...]

NIRvP: a robust structural proxy for sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence and photosynthesis across scales

Benjamin Dechant, Youngryel Ryu, Grayson Badgley, et al.

Published: 2020-12-31
Subjects: Agriculture, Biology, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Plant Sciences

Sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) is a promising new tool for remotely estimating photosynthesis. However, the degree to which incoming sunlight and the structure of the canopy rather than leaf physiology contribute to SIF variations is still not well characterized. Here we demonstrate that the canopy structure-related near-infrared reflectance of vegetation multiplied by incoming [...]

The Baltic TRANSCOAST approach – investigating shallow coasts as terrestrial-marine interface of water and matter fluxes

Manon Janssen, Michael E Böttcher, Martin Brede, et al.

Published: 2019-07-16
Subjects: Biogeochemistry, Biology, Earth Sciences, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Hydrology, Life Sciences, Marine Biology, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Other Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Other Plant Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Plant Sciences, Soil Science

In Baltic TRANSCOAST we study the physical, biogeochemical, and biological processes at the land-ocean interface. The coastal zone is heavily impacted by various human activities as well as by geomorphological and climatic processes – on both the land and the sea side. Land-sea interactions at low lying coastal areas that are often dominated by peatlands, and are a common feature along the Baltic [...]

Wind tunnel tests inform Ammophila planting spacing for dune management

Bianca Charbonneau, Brenda B Casper

Published: 2018-09-24
Subjects: Biology, Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Geology, Geomorphology, Life Sciences, Natural Resources Management and Policy, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology

Coastal dunes are invaluable natural resources that bu er upland areas. Vegetation is key in dune development and stabilization. Dunes form with sufficient wind, sand source, and obstruction; plants are the ideal obstruction. Storms o en erode foredunes and coastal managers replant vegetation to re-establish the necessary obstruction for sand accretion and dune growth. We used a wind tunnel to [...]

Reactionary fence installation for post-Superstorm Sandy dune recovery

Bianca Charbonneau, John P. Wnek

Published: 2018-09-24
Subjects: Biology, Earth Sciences, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Life Sciences, Natural Resources and Conservation, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology, Sustainability

Dunes are invaluable to coastal areas as dynamic buffers to erosion during high tides and storms, but do not accrue naturally in developed areas without assistance. Wood paling fencing is commonly used to cultivate dune development and thereby increase the protection afforded to coastal areas. In 2012, Superstorm Sandy devastated the mid-Atlantic, especially New Jersey where many areas are still [...]

Fluid inclusions from the deep Dead Sea sediment provide new insights on Holocene extreme microbial life

Camille Thomas, Daniel Ariztegui

Published: 2018-07-24
Subjects: Biology, Earth Sciences, Environmental Microbiology and Microbial Ecology Life Sciences, Life Sciences, Microbiology, Paleobiology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics

The Dead Sea Deep Drilling Project allowed to retrieve a continuous sedimentary record spanning the two last glacial cycles. This unique archive, in such an extreme environment, has allowed for the development of new proxies and the refinement of already available paleoenvironmental studies. In particular, the interaction of the lake and sediment biosphere with elements and minerals that [...]

What caused Earths largest mass extinction event? New evidence from the Permian-Triassic boundary in northeastern Utah

Benjamin Burger

Published: 2018-02-26
Subjects: Biogeochemistry, Biology, Chemistry, Earth Sciences, Environmental Chemistry, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Sciences, Geology, Life Sciences, Paleobiology, Paleontology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology

The discovery of a Permian-Triassic boundary section in northeastern Utah reveals a detailed record of events that led to one of the greatest mass extinctions on the planet. From 83% to 97% of the species living on the planet went extinct during this relatively short interval of geological time, which defines the major geological boundary between the Paleozoic and Mesozoic Eras. The cause and [...]

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