Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Life Sciences
Fish species classification in underwater video monitoring using Convolutional Neural Networks
Published: 2018-05-15
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Aquaculture and Fisheries Life Sciences, Computer Sciences, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Life Sciences, Other Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Software Engineering
This report presents a case study for automatic fish species classification in underwater video monitoring of fish passes. Although the presented approach is based on the FishCam monitoring system, it can be used with any video-based monitoring system. The presented classification scheme in this study, is based on Convolutional Neural Networks that do not require the calculation of any [...]
Regional-scale paleobathymetry controlled location, but not magnitude, of tidal dynamics in the Late Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway, USA.
Published: 2018-05-11
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Life Sciences, Other Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Despite extensive outcrop and previous sedimentologic study, the role of tidal processes along sandy, wave- and river-dominated shorelines of the North American Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway remains uncertain, particularly for the extensive mid-Campanian (c. 75-77.5 Ma) tidal deposits of Utah and Colorado, USA. Herein paleotidal modelling, paleogeographic reconstructions, and interpretation [...]
Plants and Drought in a Changing Climate
Published: 2018-04-23
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Other Earth Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Purpose of review: Climate is changing in response to rising concentrations of atmospheric CO2 and it is commonly asserted that this will cause droughts to become more frequent and severe. However, different metrics of drought give diverging estimates of future impacts. I present a summary of the significant yet underappreciated influence that plant stomatal and growth responses to CO2 have on [...]
Strain analysis of a seismically-imaged mass-transport complex, offshore Uruguay
Published: 2018-04-22
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Engineering, Geology, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Strain style, magnitude, and distribution within mass-transport complexes (MTCs) is important for understanding the process evolution of submarine mass flows and for estimating their runout distances. Structural restoration and quantification of strain in gravitationally-driven passive margins have been shown to approximately balance between updip extensional and downdip compressional domains; [...]
Marine and freshwater micropearls: Biomineralization producing strontium-rich amorphous calcium carbonate inclusions is widespread in the genus Tetraselmis (Chlorophyta)
Published: 2018-04-21
Subjects: Life Sciences, Other Life Sciences
The genus Tetraselmis (Chlorophyta) includes more than 30 species of unicellular micro-algae that have been widely studied since the description of the first species in 1878. Tetraselmis cordiformis (presumably the only freshwater species of the genus) was discovered recently to form intracellular mineral inclusions, called micropearls, which had been previously overlooked. These non-skeletal [...]
Constraints on North Anatolian Fault zone width in the crust and upper mantle from S-wave teleseismic tomography
Published: 2018-04-09
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
We present high resolution S‐wave teleseismic tomography images of the western segment of the North Anatolian Fault (NAFZ) in Turkey using teleseismic data recorded during the deployment period of the DANA array. The array comprised 66 stations with a nominal station spacing of 7 km, thus permitting a horizontal and vertical resolution of approximately 15 km. We use the current S‐wave results [...]
Knowledge in the Dark: Scientific Challenges and Ways Forward
Published: 2018-03-26
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Education, Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies, Higher Education, Language and Literacy Education, Liberal Studies, Library and Information Science, Life Sciences, Medicine and Health Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Public Health, Science and Mathematics Education, Social and Behavioral Sciences
We propose the concept of knowledge in the dark – or short: dark knowledge – and outline how it can help clarify why in our current era of Big Data, the knowledge (i.e. evidence-based understanding) of people does not seem to be substantially increasing despite a rapid increase in produced data and information. Key reasons underlying dark knowledge are: (1) the production of biased, erroneous or [...]
Reporting negative results to stimulate experimental hydrology
Published: 2018-03-13
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Hydrology, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Experimental work in hydrology is in decline. Based on a community survey, Blume et al. showed that the hydrological community associates experimental work with greater risks. One of the main issues with experimental work is the higher chance on negative results (defined here as when the expected or wanted result was not observed despite careful experimental design, planning and execution), [...]
What caused Earths largest mass extinction event? New evidence from the Permian-Triassic boundary in northeastern Utah
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 [...]
Global inventory of landscape patterns and latent variables of landscape spatial configuration
Published: 2018-02-15
Subjects: Biodiversity, Earth Sciences, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Sciences, Geographic Information Sciences, Geography, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Spatial Science
We present a regionalization of the entire Earth’s landmass into land units of homogeneous landscape patterns. The input to the regionalization is a high resolution Global Land Cover (GLC) dataset. The GLC is first divided into local landscapes – small non-overlapping square blocks of GLC cells. These blocks are agglomerated into much larger land units using a pattern-based segmentation [...]
Erosion-initiated stromatolite formation in a recent hypersaline sabkha setting (Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates)
Published: 2018-02-13
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Microbiology and Microbial Ecology Life Sciences, Life Sciences, Microbiology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology
Laminated microbial mats and microbialites are documented from a variety of coastal marine environments. These features form through: a) the combination of trapping and binding of allochthonous grains, and b) microbially-mediated or controlled precipitation of a variety of minerals, including high-magnesium calcite and dolomite. Intertidal pools and associated microbial features have been [...]
A consistent global approach for morphometric characterisation of subaqueous landslides
Published: 2018-01-12
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Geophysics and Seismology, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology, Stratigraphy
Landslides are common in aquatic settings worldwide, from lakes and coastal environments to the deep-sea. Fast-moving, large volume landslides can potentially trigger destructive tsunamis. Landslides damage and disrupt global communication links and other critical marine infrastructure. Landslide deposits act as foci for localised, but important deep-seafloor biological communities. Under burial, [...]
Leaf trait acclimation amplifies simulated climate warming in response to elevated carbon dioxide
Published: 2018-01-10
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Sciences, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Physiology, Plant Sciences
Vegetation modifies Earth’s climate by controlling the fluxes of energy, carbon, and water. Of critical importance is a better understanding of how vegetation responses to climate change will feedback on climate. Observations show that plant traits respond to elevated carbon dioxide concentrations. These plant trait acclimations can alter leaf area and thus productivity and surface energy fluxes. [...]
Lake sediment records of persistent organic pollutants and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in Southern Siberia mirror the changing fortunes of the Russian economy over the past 70 years
Published: 2017-12-18
Subjects: Chemistry, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Chemistry, Environmental Sciences, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) have previously been detected in the surface sediments, water, and endemic organisms of Lake Baikal, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Selenga River is the primary source of freshwater to Lake Baikal, and transports pollutants accumulating in the Selenga River basin to the lake. Sources of POPs and PAHs in the [...]
Global Sensitivity Analysis of Parameter Uncertainty in Landscape Evolution Models
Published: 2017-11-08
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geomorphology, Hydrology, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Landscape Evolution Models have a long history of use as exploratory models, providing greater understanding of the role large scale processes have on the long-term development of the Earth’s surface. As computational power has advanced so has the development and sophistication of these models. This has seen them applied at increasingly smaller scale and shorter-term simulations at greater [...]