Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Life Sciences
Separating measurement from definition: an object-based workflow for national forest mapping
Published: 2026-10-05
Subjects: Engineering, Life Sciences
Forest is defined rather than observed, and definitions are written to serve different management objectives. In Norway, four authoritative datasets place forest between 35 and 43% of the mainland because each encodes a different rule. Categorical forest maps inherit this problem, since each serves only the definition it was built on. We present a documented object-based workflow that separates [...]
Climate resilience from long-term low till adoption in US farms
Published: 2026-10-03
Subjects: Agriculture, Environmental Sciences, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sustainability
Low-intensity tillage (low till) has expanded rapidly in the United States since 2000. Evidence on its yield impacts has come mainly from field experiments and has been limited to short time horizons. Using satellite-based observations from more than 40 million field-year pairs across the U.S. Corn Belt from 1999-2023, we demonstrate that yield gains continue to accrue with longer duration of [...]
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, [...]
Evaluating Bank Restoration and Stabilization in the Yellow River in Northern Indiana: Mitigation of Sediment and Nutrient Transport
Published: 2026-10-02
Subjects: Engineering, Life Sciences
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Kankakee River Basin and Yellow River Basin Development Commission, evaluated the effects of streambank remediation on the Yellow River in northwest Indiana. Two phases of remediation were completed on the Yellow River between 2021 and 2023, after assessments indicated it was a large contributor of sediment to the Kankakee River. Temporal [...]
Can recovered data-centre heat supply solid-sorbent direct air capture regeneration? A thermodynamic and carbon-accounting review of the proposed DACR–HSDC coupling, with falsifiable deployment gates
Published: 2026-09-30
Subjects: Education, Engineering, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Abstract Background. Direct air capture (DAC) using temperature-vacuum swing adsorption requires electricity and low- to medium-temperature regeneration heat. Data centres reject heat that may be available for this purpose, but the temperature, timing and emissions intensity of that heat determine whether integration produces additional net atmospheric removal. An earlier design document by the [...]
Unlocking Historical Sea Level Records through Digitisation—A Review and Inventory
Published: 2026-09-28
Subjects: Life Sciences
Multi-decadal to centennial sea-level time series are essential for quantifying historic trends in mean and extreme sea levels, refining future projections, calibrating coastal models, and supporting coastal management and adaptation strategies. Data archaeology can increase the spatial coverage and length of timeseries through the recovery of historical observations from paper-based records. [...]
Evaluating Modern Tools and Large Language Models for Digitising Sea-Level Data from Marigrams
Published: 2026-09-27
Subjects: Life Sciences
Numerous graphical data digitisation tools exist; however, few have been applied to the recovery of historical sea-level marigrams (tidal charts). Using an early twentieth-century marigram from the Clyde Estuary, Scotland, containing one week of sea level observations, we evaluated the performance of 11 digitisation tools and 2 large language models (LLMs) in digitising marigrams. A multi-user [...]
Interface Habitats: An Integrated Observing Strategy for Earth’s Most Dynamic and Consequential Aquatic Boundaries
Published: 2026-09-25
Subjects: Biodiversity, Climate, Earth Sciences, Life Sciences, Marine Biology, Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology
One line, no hard line breaks — safe to copy and paste: Interface Habitats – the dynamic boundaries where water meets land, the seafloor, the atmosphere, and ice, and where fronts, eddies, and filaments draw comparably sharp boundaries within the water itself – are among Earth's most productive, diverse, and rapidly changing ecosystems, and the site of most human interaction with aquatic [...]
Co-production as a mechanism for long-term Nature-based Solution viability: evidence from urban biofilters in an informal settlement of the Global South
Published: 2026-09-24
Subjects: Life Sciences
Assessing the long-term viability of Nature-based Solutions (NbS) in vulnerable urban contexts remains a major methodological challenge. Existing assessment frameworks primarily emphasize technical performance while giving limited attention to physical device survival and the continuity of the socio-technical arrangements required to sustain interventions over time. This study develops and [...]
From buffer-based tables to dynamic response curves for soil-specific lime requirement estimation using machine learning
Published: 2026-09-21
Subjects: Engineering, Life Sciences
Accurate estimation of lime requirement (LR) remains a major challenge in acid soils, as conventional buffer-based approaches, particularly the Shoemaker–McLean–Pratt (SMP) method, rely on a single equilibrium measurement and predefined target pH values, limiting their ability to capture the diversity of soil neutralization responses. This study evaluated whether machine-learning (ML) models can [...]
In-context learning for small-sample soil mid-infrared spectroscopy: evaluating TabPFN across an integrated soil-acidity panel
Published: 2026-09-21
Subjects: Engineering, Life Sciences
Soil acidity diagnosis requires several interdependent laboratory measurements, limiting throughput. Mid-infrared (MIR) spectroscopy can estimate this panel from one scan, but practical use depends on robust calibration. Deep learning has surpassed conventional methods in many data-rich fields; however, adapted deep learning architectures such as convolutional neural networks (CNNs) are [...]
A response surface framework for persistence-aware lime requirement
Published: 2026-09-21
Subjects: Engineering, Life Sciences
Conventional lime-requirement (LR) methods estimate the dose needed to attain a target soil pH, but do not indicate how long the correction remains acceptable during re-acidification. We tested whether repeated dose–response measurements could provide a persistence-aware LR. Single applications of calcium carbonate (CaCO{\! }_{3}) and calcium oxide (CaO) were evaluated in clay, sandy loam, and [...]
Incommensurate Global Cold-Seep Area Constructions and Their Consequences for an Iron-Bound Organic-Carbon Stock
Published: 2026-09-18
Subjects: Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Global biogeochemical inventories require a spatial domain that is commensurate with the measured concentration, sediment mass, and ecosystem state. We re-evaluate the area term used by Ye et al. (2026) to estimate 142–218 Tg C of iron-bound organic carbon (Fe-OC) in the upper 30 cm of mature cold-seep sediment. Two primary results emerge. First, Ye et al. state that cold seeps occupy less than [...]
Particle morphology and electrostatic screening shape salinity-dependent flocculation and settling of fine blasted tunnel sediments
Published: 2026-09-17
Subjects: Engineering, Life Sciences
Rock-blasted fine-grained sediments generated during tunnel excavation may enter receiving waters that range from freshwater to marine conditions. Yet the combined roles of primary-particle morphology and salinity-dependent electrostatic interactions in their settling remain poorly understood. In this work, fine sediments from five Norwegian tunnel construction sites were investigated using [...]
Rapid declines in UK PM2.5 reflect coordinated reductions in regional nitrate and continental influence
Published: 2026-09-15
Subjects: Life Sciences
Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) is a major environmental risk factor for premature mortality globally. Although PM2.5 concentrations have declined across Europe since the 1990s, recent progress has shown signs of slowing, raising concerns over the achievability of increasingly stringent ambient air quality targets. Ambient PM2.5 concentrations across the UK underwent a rapid and sustained decline [...]