Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Life Sciences
Simulating land use change trajectories of the Cerrado Hotspot reveals the importance of considering private property sizes for biodiversity conservation
Published: 2021-05-24
Subjects: Life Sciences
Simulating future land use changes can be an important tool to support decisionmaking, especially in areas that are experiencing rapid anthropogenic pressure, such as the Cerrado – Brazilian savanna. Here we used a spatially-explicit model to identify the main drivers of native vegetation loss in the Cerrado, and then projected this loss for 2050 and 2070. We also analyzed the role of [...]
A re-examination of the mechanism of whiting events: A new role for diatoms in Fayetteville Green Lake (New York, USA)
Published: 2021-05-08
Subjects: Biogeochemistry, Environmental Microbiology and Microbial Ecology Life Sciences, Geochemistry, Life Sciences, Sedimentology
Whiting events – the episodic precipitation of fine-grained suspended calcium cabonates in the water column – have been documented across a variety of marine and lacustrine environments. Whitings likely are a major source of carbonate muds, a constituent of limestones, and important archives for geochemical proxies of Earth history. While several biological and physical mechanisms have been [...]
Revision of thelodonts, acanthodians, conodonts, and the depositional environments in the Burgen outlier (Ludlow, Silurian) of Gotland, Sweden
Published: 2021-04-20
Subjects: Biodiversity, Earth Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Ludfordian strata exposed in the Burgen outlier in eastern Gotland record a time of initial faunal recovery after a global environmental perturbation manifested in the Ludfordian Carbon Isotope Excursion (LCIE). Vertebrate microfossils in the collection of the late Lennart Jeppsson, hosted at the Swedish Museum of Natural History, hold the key to reconstruct the dynamics of faunal immigration and [...]
High resolution, annual maps of field boundaries for smallholder-dominated croplands at national scales
Published: 2021-03-12
Subjects: Agriculture, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Geographic Information Sciences, Geography, Life Sciences, Natural Resources and Conservation, Physical and Environmental Geography, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Remote Sensing, Spatial Science, Sustainability
Mapping the characteristics of Africa's smallholder-dominated croplands, including the sizes and numbers of fields, can provide critical insights into food security and a range of other socioeconomic and environmental concerns. However, accurately mapping these systems is difficult because there is 1) a spatial and temporal mismatch between satellite sensors and smallholder fields, and 2) a lack [...]
Rise and fall of vegetation primary production resilience to climate variability anticipated by a large ensemble of Earth System Models’ simulations
Published: 2021-03-09
Subjects: Life Sciences
Climate change is affecting many aspects of natural ecosystems and society. Anticipating the changes in vegetation resilience – the plants’ capacity to cope with disturbances and shocks such as those related to climate variability and extremes – is critical to understand and project ecosystems’ responses to global change and the impacts on the related ecosystem services, to support mitigation [...]
A baseline for microplastic particle occurrence and distribution in Great Bay Estuary
Published: 2021-02-18
Subjects: Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
We extracted and analyzed microplastics (MP) in archived sediment cores from Great Bay Estuary (GBE) in the Gulf of Maine region of North America. Results indicated that MP are distributed in GBE sediments, 0-30 cm, at an average occurrence of 116 ± 21 particles g-1 and that morphology varies by site and depth. Analysis by sediment depth and age class indicated that MP accumulation increased over [...]
Biological albedo reduction on ice sheets, glaciers, and snowfields
Published: 2021-01-30
Subjects: Life Sciences
The global cryosphere, Earth’s frozen water, is in precipitous decline. The ongoing and predicted impacts of cryosphere loss are diverse, ranging from disappearance of entire biomes to crises of water availability. Covering approximately one-fifth of the Earth, mass loss from the terrestrial cryosphere is driven primarily by a warming atmosphere but reductions in albedo (the proportion of [...]
Urban Running Activity Detected Using a Seismic Sensor duringCOVID-19 Pandemic
Published: 2021-01-30
Subjects: Engineering, Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Human foot traffic in urban environments provides essential information for city planners to manage the urban resources and urban residents to plan their activities. Compared to camera or mobile-based solutions, seismic sensors detect human footstep signals with fewer privacy concerns. However, seismic sensors often record signals generated from multiple sources, particularly in an urban outdoor [...]
Given that the Paris Agreement is unlikely to prevent dangerous climate overshoot, an alternative risk management strategy is urgently needed
Published: 2020-12-18
Subjects: Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Because the 2015 Paris Agreement will not prevent dangerous climate change, there is an urgent need to develop an alternative mitigation strategy. Even if most countries greatly increase their commitments and technological breakthroughs accelerate the transition to emission-free technologies, the 2°C target will still be overshot due to systemic inertia from existing greenhouse gases, warming [...]
Planted mangroves cap toxic oil spill
Published: 2020-12-07
Subjects: Life Sciences
Mangroves are known to provide many ecosystem services, however there is little information on their potential role to cap and immobilise toxic levels of total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH). Using an Australian case study, we investigated the capacity of planted mangroves (Avicennia marina) to immobilise TPH within a small embayment subjected to multiple oil spills throughout the 1980s. Mangroves [...]
High-resolution downscaled CMIP5 projections dataset of essential surface climate variables over Europe coherent with ERA5-Land reanalyses for climate change impact assessments
Published: 2020-11-27
Subjects: Engineering, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
A high-resolution climate projections dataset is obtained by statistically downscaling climate projections from the CMIP5 experiment using the ERA5-Land reanalyses from the Copernicus Climate Change service. The dataset is over Europe, has a spatial resolution of 0.10° x 0.10°, comprises 21 climate models and includes 5 surface daily variables: air temperature (mean, minimum, and maximum), [...]
High-resolution downscaled CMIP5 projections dataset of essential surface climate variables over the globe coherent with ERA5 reanalyses for climate change impact assessments
Published: 2020-11-27
Subjects: Engineering, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
A high-resolution climate projections dataset is obtained by statistically downscaling climate projections from the CMIP5 experiment using the ERA5 reanalyses from the Copernicus Climate Change service. The dataset is global has a spatial resolution of 0.25°x 0.25°, comprises 21 climate models and includes 5 surface daily variables: air temperature (mean, minimum, and maximum), precipitation, and [...]
A benthic light index of water quality in the Great Barrier Reef, Australia
Published: 2020-11-25
Subjects: Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Good water quality is essential to the health of marine ecosystems, yet current metrics used to track water quality in the Great Barrier Reef are not strongly tied to ecological outcomes. There is a need for a better water quality index (WQI). Benthic light, the amount of light reaching the seafloor, is critical for coral and seagrass health and is strongly affected by water quality. It therefore [...]
Global lockdown potential impact on achieving Sustainable Development Goals
Published: 2020-11-17
Subjects: Environmental Studies, Life Sciences
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has led to a lockdown worldwide. This restriction on human movements and activities significantly influences society and the environment. We examined the consequences of global lockdown for human movement and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) emissions using an air pollution index and dataset and satellite image analyses. We also evaluated the immediate (during [...]
¬Estimating Microbial Hydrogen Consumption in Hydrogen Storage in Porous Media as a Basis for Site Selection
Published: 2020-11-05
Subjects: Life Sciences
Subsurface storage of hydrogen, e.g. in depleted gas or oil fields (DOGF), is suggested as a means to overcome imbalances between supply and demand in the renewable energy sector. However, hydrogen is an electron donor for subsurface microbial processes, which may have important implications for hydrogen recovery, gas injectivity and corrosion. Here, we review the controls on the three major [...]