Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Environmental Sciences
Effective Disinfection of Escherichia coli Contaminated Water Using Silver Nanoparticle-Decorated Magnetic Cobalt Cores
Published: 2023-10-12
Subjects: Environmental Sciences
In recent years, the development of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and their application in wastewater treatment have emerged as highly effective disinfection methods. Wastewater treatment processes effectively remove silver particles and colloids (most processes exceed 95%), but this still leaves notable concentrations that escape to effluent-receiving waters. To address this challenge, in this [...]
Knowledge co-production for identifying sustainability indicators and prioritising solutions for food and land system transformation in Australia.
Published: 2023-10-10
Subjects: Environmental Sciences
The sustainable transformation of food and land systems requires the rapid implementation and scaling up of a broad suite of solutions to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Decision-making frameworks are needed to identify suitable indicators and prioritise solutions at national scales. Using a knowledge co-production framework, we convened 150 stakeholders from 100+ organisations to [...]
Field Report No. 3 - Tabor Tree Project Summary Report 2021
Published: 2023-10-10
Subjects: Adult and Continuing Education, Earth Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies, Outdoor Education, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
“The Friends of Mt. Tabor Park (FMTP) was organized as a non-profit group* in 2000. Our pur- pose is to improve and help maintain Mt. Tabor Park for the benefit of individuals, organizations and the Park Bureau; to identify and help solve problems; and to participate in park planning projects.”(FMTP) During the winter of 2021 with covid closures of the Visitor Center, Tree Medicine hikes were [...]
Field Report No. 2 - Tabor Tree Project: Citizen Scientists Training
Published: 2023-10-10
Subjects: Adult and Continuing Education, Earth Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Sciences, Outdoor Education, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
“NASA’s citizen science projects are collaborations between scientists and interested members of the public. Through these collaborations, volunteers (known as citizen scientists) have helped make thou- sands of important scientific discoveries.” (NASA) In January 2021, using the GLOBE Observer app, the Mt. Tabor community joined this global network of scientists, students, teachers, hikers, and [...]
Field Report No. 1 - Tabor Tree Project Report 2021
Published: 2023-10-10
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies, Nature and Society Relations, Other Plant Sciences
In this Survey, the Tabor Tree Project identified 130 trees randomly in all 12 zones of the park called Mt. Tabor in Portland, Oregon. The Majority of the Trees at Mt. Tabor Park are conifers, and specifically Douglas Fir who can live longer than 1,000 years. The oldest one in the park is 496 years old, and sprouted sometime around 1520 AD. Through the efforts of Tree Medicine hikes and Citizen [...]
Rano Kao & Ava Ranga Uka: Rapa Nui Report 2014
Published: 2023-10-10
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Climate, Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Fresh Water Studies
29 March 2014 Objective: Sampling and testing Rano Kao water depth, evaporation and volume. Compare with previous results from 2005, 2008 and 2014 coring expeditions and detect the rate of change in lake water evaporation as compared to Global Meteoric Water Line.
Spaceborne assessment of the Soviet Union's role in the 1990s methane slowdown
Published: 2023-10-04
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Oil, Gas, and Energy, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Methane is the second most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas, amounting to 60% of the radiative forcing from CO2 since pre-industrial times based on emitted compound. Global atmospheric methane concentrations rose by 10-15 ppb/yr in the 1980s before abruptly slowing to 2-8 ppb/yr in the early 1990s. This period in the 1990s is known as the ``methane slowdown'' and has been attributed to the [...]
Geological evidence confirms the staircase patterns of Earth’s rotation deceleration from the Neoproterozoic to the Mesozoic Era
Published: 2023-10-02
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences
Due to tidal dissipation, the Earth’s rotation has been slowing down, but the past rates of this process remain subject of debate. Here we conducted a comprehensive cyclostratigraphic analysis of eight geological datasets to further constrain the Earth's rotation history from the Neoproterozoic to Mesozoic. Our results allow us to further test theoretical physical tidal models, and support a [...]
Revisiting oxygen-18 and clumped isotopes in planktic and benthic foraminifera
Published: 2023-09-27
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences
Foraminiferal isotopes are widely used to study past oceans, with different species recording conditions at different depths. Their δ18O values record both seawater oxygen-18 and temperature according to species-specific fractionation factors, while their Δ47 signatures likely depend only on temperature. We describe an open-source framework to collect/combine data relevant to foraminiferal [...]
Accuracy of UAV mapping of Natura 2000 forest, wetland and grassland habitats: Do we need more seasons or more spectral bands?
Published: 2023-09-22
Subjects: Biodiversity, Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Research Methods in Life Sciences
Mapping and monitoring of Natura 2000 habitats (Habitat Directive 92/43/EEC) is one of the key activities to ensure the protection of natural habitats in Europe. Remote sensing can help to acquire high-quality maps of the distribution and conservation status of Natura 2000 habitats, for example through classifying multispectral data. However, due to the high number of habitats (classes) [...]
Catchment characterization: current descriptors, knowledge gaps and future opportunities
Published: 2023-09-20
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences
An ability to describe hydrologically relevant differences between places is at the core of our science. A common way to characterize hydrological catchments is to use descriptors that summarize important physical aspects of the system, often by aggregating heterogeneous geospatial data into a single number. Such descriptors aim to capture various facets of catchment functioning and structure, [...]
Shifting institutional culture to develop climate solutions with Open Science
Published: 2023-09-20
Subjects: Climate, Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Is the smoke aloft? Caveats regarding the use of the Hazard Mapping System (HMS) smoke product as a proxy for surface smoke presence across the United States
Published: 2023-09-14
Subjects: Environmental Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Background: NOAA’s Hazard Mapping System (HMS) smoke product comprises smoke plumes digitized from satellite imagery. Recent studies have used HMS as a proxy for surface smoke presence. Aims: We compare HMS to airport observations, air quality station measurements, and model estimates of near-surface smoke. Methods: We quantify the agreement in smoke days and trends, regional discrepancies in [...]
Using convex optimization to efficiently apportion tracer and pollutant sources from point concentration observations
Published: 2023-09-05
Subjects: Computer Sciences, Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Mathematics
Rivers transport elements, minerals, chemicals, and pollutants produced in their upstream basins. A sample from a river is a mixture of all of its upstream sources, making it challenging to pinpoint the contribution from each individual source. Here, we show how a nested sample design and convex optimization can be used to efficiently unmix downstream samples of a well-mixed, conservative tracer [...]
SeisMIC - an Open Source Python Toolset to Compute Velocity Changes from Ambient Seismic Noise
Published: 2023-09-01
Subjects: Computer Sciences, Earth Sciences, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
We present SeisMIC, a fast, versatile, and adaptable open-source software to estimate seismic velocity changes from ambient seismic noise. SeisMIC includes a broad set of tools and functions to facilitate end-to-end processing of ambient noise data, from data retrieval and raw data analysis via spectrogram computation, over waveform coherence analysis, to post-processing of the final velocity [...]