Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Life Sciences
Considerations for Regional Simulations of Seaweed Carbon Dioxide Removal
Published: 2023-06-01
Subjects: Engineering, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
There is a growing interest in sequestering carbon dioxide via cultivation and sinking of seaweed in the ocean. Robust quantification of the viability of this marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR) strategy requires deployment and interrogation of computer simulations that resolve coupling between turbulent oceanic circulation, biogeochemical fluxes, and cultivated seaweed with regional [...]
Artificial Energy General Intelligence AEGI
Published: 2023-06-01
Subjects: Engineering, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Artificial Energy General Intelligence (AEGI) is a natural progression of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) that caters to the energy industry. It is crucial to optimize the entire value chain involved in generating, transporting, and storing energy for the betterment of humanity, the environment, industry, and the scientific community. Most research efforts focus on a specific area of the [...]
Dynamic hydrological niche segregation: how plants compete for water in a semiarid ecosystem
Published: 2023-05-14
Subjects: Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Hydrological niche segregation (HNS), which refers to differences in root water uptake depth and physiological traits among coexisting species, remains poorly understood especially with respect to moisture changes and diverse water use strategies. This is particularly the case in regions with a seasonally dry climate where plants must constantly adapt to water stress. Over a 2-year period, we [...]
National-scale, remotely sensed lake trophic state, 1984-2020
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 [...]
Aboveground biomass estimates from UAV LiDAR improved via contextual learning in a Norway spruce forest
Published: 2023-04-19
Subjects: Engineering, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Forest structure analysis and biomass prediction systems are key tools for advancingforest trait-based ecology and management. Surveys using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAV) and Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) systems have contributedto this field with increased accuracy in tree phenotyping. Moreover, methods combiningUAV LiDAR surveying and machine learning (ML) have also emerged to [...]
Soil carbon stocks not linked to aboveground litter input and chemistry of old-growth forest and adjacent prairie
Published: 2023-04-14
Subjects: Life Sciences
The long-standing assumption that aboveground plant litter inputs have a substantial influence on soil organic carbon storage (SOC) and dynamics has been challenged by a new paradigm for SOC formation and persistence. We tested the importance of plant litter chemistry on SOC storage, distribution, composition, and age by comparing two highly contrasting ecosystems: an old-growth coast redwood [...]
Calling for a National Model Benchmarking Facility
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 [...]
Intercomparison of global foliar trait maps reveals fundamental differences and limitations of upscaling approaches
Published: 2023-04-14
Subjects: Life Sciences
Foliar traits such as specific leaf area (SLA), leaf nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) concentrations play an important role in plant economic strategies and ecosystem functioning. Various global maps of these foliar traits have been generated using statistical upscaling approaches based on in-situ trait observations. Here, we intercompare such global upscaled foliar trait maps at 0.5° spatial [...]
Settlement and anthropization of the Azores Islands
Published: 2023-04-07
Subjects: Life Sciences
The landscape of the Azores Islands is one of the most deeply transformed among oceanic islands, as most of their original forests have been replaced by other vegetation types introduced from elsewhere. This has been considered a large-scale unintentional ecological and biogeographical experiment on the assembly of island biotas and ecosystems. These transformations are known to have been caused [...]
Mercury methylation in boreal aquatic ecosystems under oxic conditions and climate change: a review
Published: 2023-04-07
Subjects: Life Sciences
Methylmercury (MeHg) formation is a concerning environmental issue described in waters and sediments from multiple aquatic ecosystems. The genetic and metabolic bases of mercury (Hg) methylation have been well described in anoxic environments, but a number of factors seem to point towards alternative pathways potentially occurring in pelagic waters under oxic conditions. Boreal aquatic ecosystems [...]
Basin and depositional control on the initiation and development of fluid-escape pipes in the Canterbury Basin, New Zealand.
Published: 2023-04-01
Subjects: Life Sciences
The influence of basin and depositional context on the formation and growth of fluid escape pipes in sedimentary basins is not fully understood. While seismic reflection data is commonly used to study these structures, direct observation and sampling of field analogues of pipes and their related structures are rare. In this study, we investigate the evolution of meter-tall fluid escape pipes [...]
A novel fluoro-electrochemical technique for classifying diverse marine nanophytoplankton
Published: 2023-03-31
Subjects: Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
To broaden our understanding of pelagic ecosystem responses to environmental change, it is essential that we improve the spatio-temporal resolution of in situ monitoring of phytoplankton communities. A key challenge for existing methods is in classifying and quantifying cells within the nanophytoplankton size range (2-20µm). This is particularly difficult when there are similarities in [...]
Rice residue burning trajectories in Eastern India: Current realities, scenarios of change, and implications for air quality
Published: 2023-03-24
Subjects: Life Sciences
In 2019, the Government of India launched the National Clean Air Program (NCAP) to address the pervasive problem of poor air quality and the adverse effect on public health. Coordinated efforts to prevent agricultural burning of crop residues in Northwestern IGP (Indo-Gangetic Plain) have been implemented, but the practice is rapidly expanding into the populous Eastern IGP states, including [...]
Rise and fall of Caribbean mangroves
Published: 2023-03-22
Subjects: Life Sciences
Mangrove forests, which are essential for the maintenance of terrestrial and marine biodiversity on tropical coasts and constitute the main blue-carbon ecosystems for the mitigation of global warming, are among the world’s most threatened ecosystems. Mangrove conservation can greatly benefit from paleoecological and evolutionary studies, as past analogs documenting the responses of these [...]
Geomorphologic Controls on the Evolution of Submarine Channels in the Clifdenian-Tongaporutuan Interval of the Southern Taranaki Basin, offshore New Zealand
Published: 2023-03-16
Subjects: Life Sciences
The Clifdenian-Tongaporutuan interval in the Southern Taranaki Basin experienced significant turbidity activities during the Middle to Late Miocene leading to formation and burial of several submarine channels. The chronologic evolution of these channels is difficult to prove because of their architectures, repeated cut- and- fill, stacking patterns, erosive nature, and spatial-temporal [...]