Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Life Sciences
Closure of Constraints in the Earth System: Biogeochemical Cycles and Planetary-Scale Biological Organisation
Published: 2026-04-06
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Life Sciences, Systems Biology
The concept of closure of constraints has been developed as a characterization of the distinctive causal regime at work in biological systems. Its extension to ecological systems has been attempted but faces persistent difficulties regarding the individuation of ecosystems and the scope of functional ascription. Meanwhile, the question of the biological character of the Earth system (variously [...]
A snag for nutrient fertilization: decoupled production and export
Published: 2026-03-28
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Sciences, Life Sciences, Marine Biology, Microbiology, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Interest in nutrient fertilization waned after inconclusive field experiments, but has resurged. Collating Southern Ocean \textit{in-situ} observations and available fertilization simulations, we find phytoplankton primary production and organic carbon export are uncorrelated in the largest high-nutrient-low-chlorophyll (HNLC) region, while model estimates cast doubt on realistic deployments [...]
SIM4Action: An Interactive Platform for Social-Environmental Systems Mapping and Causal Analysis
Published: 2026-03-25
Subjects: Environmental Engineering, Environmental Studies, Hydraulic Engineering, Life Sciences
SIM4Action is an open-source, browser-based platform for participatory analysis of complex socio-environmental systems through interactive causal network graphs. Existing systems mapping tools require practitioners to combine separate software for map construction, network analysis, and causal simulation; none provides an integrated workflow accessible to non-technical stakeholders. SIM4Action [...]
Benefits of the Sentinel-2 mission triplet constellation in 2025
Published: 2026-03-21
Subjects: Life Sciences
With the first-year extension of Copernicus Sentinel-2A satellite operations nearing its end, an evaluation of its added-value is urgently needed. Here, we show that despite reduced spatio temporal coverage, the additional Sentinel-2A acquisitions in 2025 enhanced the number of usable Sentinel-2 observations over Europe for the March-December period by almost 34%, and at the global scale by more [...]
HIGH-RESOLUTION DIGITAL TERRAIN MODEL FOR THE ITALIAN TERRITORY
Published: 2026-03-12
Subjects: Agriculture, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Computer Sciences, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Engineering Education, Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies, Geography, Life Sciences, Mining Engineering, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Risk Analysis, Social and Behavioral Sciences
High-resolution digital terrain models are essential for environmental planning and territorial analyses, and provide foundations for geomorphological and hydrological applications, including flood and landslide modelling and geo-hydrological hazard and risk assessments. In Italy, airborne LiDAR surveys have improved the representation of terrain morphology in the last decade, but their coverage [...]
crstools 1.0.0: an R package for cartographic analyses
Published: 2026-03-11
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Spatial analyses are central to ecological studies, underpinning applications ranging from species distribution modelling to conservation planning and macroecological inference. However, most of these require translating processes occurring on a spherical surface into a planar map, inevitably introducing distortion biases. Projection choice can therefore influence both visual interpretation and [...]
Coral connectivity: Biophysical drivers, key knowledge gaps and emerging empirical advances
Published: 2026-03-11
Subjects: Life Sciences
Coral reefs are experiencing widespread decline from climate change and anthropogenic stressors, increasing the need to understand the processes that maintain and replenish coral populations. Connectivity—the exchange of individuals between coral populations—underpins population recovery, yet major uncertainties remain in larval biology and behaviour during dispersal and settlement. This review [...]
Characterization and Meteorological Drivers of Dust Events over California’s Central Valley
Published: 2026-03-10
Subjects: Life Sciences
Dust events in California’s Central Valley pose severe risks to public health, regional air quality, and transportation. Yet, the climatology and meteorological drivers of dust events in the region are poorly characterized due to sparse monitoring and limitations of satellite observations. Using meteorological observations from 15 meteorological stations, we systematically catalog and analyze [...]
Assessing the medium-term risk to reef damage and rubble generation for the Great Barrier Reef
Published: 2026-03-06
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Environmental Monitoring, Life Sciences, Marine Biology, Natural Resources and Conservation, Oceanography, Other Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Coral reef systems live in multi-hazard environments and are exposed to a wide range of disturbance events that operate at different spatial and temporal scales. We identify seven drivers derived from hazards that have and can result in reef damage in the Great Barrier Reef (GBR): waves, winds, bottom current velocity, coral bleaching, crown-of-thorns seastar outbreaks, ship groundings, and [...]
Constructed floating wetlands cut greenhouse gas emissions from wastewater lagoons
Published: 2026-03-03
Subjects: Life Sciences
Wastewater treatment is a significant, yet often overlooked, contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for ~1.6% of anthropogenic emissions (~0.77 Gt CO2-equivalent per year), including 7-10% of methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide emissions (N2O). However, scalable mitigation options remain scarce. Constructed floating wetlands (CFWs) are widely used to reduce nutrient loads in [...]
Water-efficient Indian rice cultivation boosts exports despite high carbon footprints
Published: 2026-03-03
Subjects: Agriculture, Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Planetary Sciences, Plant Sciences
Most agricultural sustainability efforts adopt a national-scale view, masking regional trade-offs between crop yields and environmental footprints. To measure trade-offs, satellite remote sensing based life cycle assessment of rice agroecosystems across India from 2004 to 2021 was conducted revealing pivotal shifts of four cultivation typologies, termed as unsustainable, conventional, productive, [...]
The Solar Paradox: Pure Social Diffusion and Competitive Resource Capture in Semi-Arid Irrigated Land Expansion
Published: 2026-03-02
Subjects: Agriculture, Engineering, Life Sciences
Solar-powered irrigation is expanding rapidly across semi-arid regions, but the mechanisms through which this technology diffuses in informal groundwa- ter economies—where the majority of wells operate without permits—remain poorly understood. We address this gap through a spatiotemporal analysis of 3,201 solar wells identified via satellite census in Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia, combined with 10,000 [...]
Multi-Parametric Assessment of Avian Biodiversity and Anthropogenic Disturbance for Conservation Prioritization in Belize
Published: 2026-02-28
Subjects: Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Background: Anthropogenic climate change and rising levels have accelerated global warming, causing severe disruptions to Belizean ecosystems through sea-level rise and habitat fragmentation. To mitigate these impacts, identifying high-value land for protected status is a critical conservation priority for maintaining medicinal biodiversity and preventing zoonotic disease spillover. Objective: [...]
Machine Learning and Explainable AI for Agricultural Drought Prediction: A Comparative Analysis of Gradient Boosting Methods Using Multi-Source Earth Observation Data
Published: 2026-02-21
Subjects: Agriculture, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Engineering, Life Sciences
Drought monitoring and prediction remain critical challenges in climate science and agricultural management, particularly under accelerating climate change. This study presents a comprehensive machine learning framework for drought susceptibility mapping in Iowa, USA, using multi-source Earth observation data and explainable artificial intelligence. We systematically evaluated eleven supervised [...]
A Novel Climatic Threat Framework Linking Biodiversity’s Vulnerability to Administrative Responsibility
Published: 2026-02-06
Subjects: Life Sciences
Biodiversity is cornered by human habitat alteration and eroded by climate change. Protecting it urgently requires efficient allocation of conservation resources to protect vulnerable species and ecosystems. However, conservation decisions are often hindered by fragmented governance and a disconnection between policymakers, funders, managers and scientists. To address this, we propose the [...]