Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Life Sciences
Understanding Europe’s forest harvesting regimes
Published: 2023-08-31
Subjects: Environmental Sciences, Forest Management, Forest Sciences, Life Sciences, Natural Resources Management and Policy, Nature and Society Relations
The functioning and structure of most European forests are actively shaped by intensive human use. Harvesting of wood is one of the key processes of forest management, making it a crucial element to include in any large-scale analysis of forest ecosystems. Yet, our understanding of how forests are harvested across Europe is limited, as the true harvest regimes – a realisation of decisions made by [...]
Independent estimates of net carbon uptake in croplands: UAV-LiDAR and machine learning vs. eddy-covariance
Published: 2023-08-30
Subjects: Engineering, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Understanding sequestration of organic carbon (C) in agroecosystems is of primary importance for greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting in managed ecosystems, reducing the environmental footprint of land use, and inform crediting programs. However, a broader application of precise C accounting is currently constrained by a limited number of direct flux measurements. Aside well-studied ecosystems via the [...]
Beyond microbial carbon use efficiency
Published: 2023-08-16
Subjects: Biogeochemistry, Earth Sciences, Environmental Microbiology and Microbial Ecology Life Sciences, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Soil Science
Microbial carbon use efficiency (CUE) is defined as the proportion of microbial biomass growth C versus substrate C uptake, and thus provides a useful measure of microbially driven accumulation and loss of soil organic carbon (SOC) 1. In a recent study published in Nature 2, the authors use a data-driven machine learning approach to conclude that CUE promotes global SOC storage based on a [...]
New Ediacaran biota from the oldest Nama Group, Namibia (Tsaus Mountains), and re-definition of the Nama Assemblage
Published: 2023-08-07
Subjects: Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The Nama Group, Namibia (≥550.5 to <538 million years ago, Ma) preserves one of the most diverse metazoan fossil records of the terminal Ediacaran Period. We report numerous features that may be biological in origin from the shallow marine, siliciclastic, lowermost Mara Member (older than ca. 550.5 Ma) from the Tsaus Mountains. These include forms that potentially represent body fossils, [...]
The ostracod clumped-isotope thermometer: A novel tool to reconstruct quantitative continental climate changes.
Published: 2023-08-02
Subjects: Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
This study presents the ostracod clumped-isotope (∆47) thermometer, a new tool that provides quantitative temperature and hydrological reconstruction from lacustrine systems, which are among the best archives to reconstruct continental paleotemperature variations. The relationship between ∆47 and the temperature at which ostracod shell crystallized, is determined by measuring ∆47 on different [...]
How big is a boulder? Evaluating fixed and process-based definitions for boulders
Published: 2023-07-28
Subjects: Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Boulders are globally widespread and influence landscape processes across hillslopes, coasts, rivers and extra-terrestrial settings. Boulders are described as particles, sufficiently large, that the movement of an individual grain promotes substantial geomorphic change. Moving beyond this conceptual definition, however, requires a somewhat arbitrary decision of how to define a minimum boulder [...]
Synchrony dynamics of dissolved organic carbon in high-mountain streams: insights into scale-dependent processes
Published: 2023-07-05
Subjects: Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
In high-mountain landscapes, biological resources such as organic carbon (OC) are often limited and heterogeneously stored in poorly developed soils, snow, ground ice and glaciers. Climate change influences the dynamics of OC mobilization to- and processing into- the recipient streams. These patterns can vary from seasonal (e.g., snow melt in spring) to daily (e.g., ice melt in summer) depending [...]
Protocols for the quantification and characterization of dissolved organic carbon from seaweed and its sequestration potential
Published: 2023-06-30
Subjects: Life Sciences
Seaweed cultivation for atmospheric CO2 sequestration requires full accounting of net primary production (NPP). In addition to large amounts of observable biomass produced, a fraction of NPP is released as dissolved organic carbon (DOC), which can fuel heterotrophic metabolisms or resist remineralization and contribute to carbon export and sequestration. We currently lack the ability to predict [...]
Food web complexity alters phytoplankton resistance and resilience to nutrient pulses in experimental ecosystems
Published: 2023-06-23
Subjects: Life Sciences
Food webs may mediate the resistance and resilience of ecosystems to disturbances driven by climate change. In aquatic ecosystems, greater food web complexity is theorized to increasing the resistance (longer response time) and resilience (shorter recovery time) of primary production to pulse disturbances, yet experimental evidence is limited. We simulated two storm-induced pulse disturbances by [...]
Mind the uncertainty: Global plate model choice impacts deep-time palaeobiological studies
Published: 2023-06-23
Subjects: Biodiversity, Climate, Earth Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Geology, Life Sciences, Paleobiology, Paleontology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Tectonics and Structure
1. Global plate models (GPMs) aim to reconstruct the tectonic evolution of the Earth by modelling the motion of the plates and continents through time. These models enable palaeobiologists to study the past distribution of extinct organisms. However, different GPMs exist that vary in their partitioning of the Earth's surface and the modelling of continental motions. Consequently, the preferred [...]
Comparing Kelp Conveyance Strategies for Marine Carbon Dioxide Removal with Farmed Macroalgae
Published: 2023-06-23
Subjects: Life Sciences
Sequestration of carbon dioxide via sinking of farmed seaweed into the ocean is a promising strategy to the ever-growing need to achieve negative emissions of carbon dioxide. A key component to the durability of the strategy is the method to which seaweed biomass is conveyed to the seafloor. The purpose of this white paper is to introduce four different conveyance techniques, plans for how each [...]
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 [...]