Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Environmental Sciences
Removal of Cd (II) and Zn (II) ions from Aqueous Solutions using Carbonized and Functionalized Persea americana Root Stem Powder
Published: 2025-01-30
Subjects: Environmental Sciences
The ability of carbonized and modified avocado (Persea americana) root stem powder (C-PA and M-PA) to remediate Cadmium (Cd (II)) and Zinc (Zn (II)) contamination in aqueous solution was studied by varying the carbonization temperature, particle size of the adsorbent, adsorption temperature, pH of the solution, contact time, adsorbent dose and adsorbate concentration. Scanning electron microscopy [...]
SpartANN - Spectral Pattern Analysis and Remote-sensing Tool with Artificial Neural Networks
Published: 2025-01-28
Subjects: Environmental Sciences, Geography, Remote Sensing, Software Engineering
Remote sensing, particularly from satellite observation, has become the standard tool for monitoring the planet with a steady increase of data production, and has seen wide application in ecosystem services analysis and management. Many remote sensing applications involve image classification, using methods from simple regressions to complex machine learning approaches that require advanced user [...]
Interpretable biome-aligned temperature zones for climate classification via average monthly temperatures
Published: 2025-01-25
Subjects: Environmental Sciences
We introduce temperature zones based on average monthly temperatures that closely align with biome boundaries, intended for use in climate classification. This new system retains the simplicity and interpretability of existing classifications, such as those of Köppen-Geiger and Trewartha, while providing an improved fit to biome boundaries. Unlike previous classifications, we developed our system [...]
Enhanced Oil Recovery using carbon dioxide directly captured from air does not enable carbon-neutral oil
Published: 2025-01-24
Subjects: Chemical Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Oil, Gas, and Energy, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
This study evaluates the feasibility of producing carbon neutral oil via CO2 Enhanced Oil Recovery (CO2-EOR) coupled with direct air capture. Existing analyses often provide case-specific insights based on short-term operations that do not encompass the full life cycle of reservoir exploitation. In contrast, we propose a novel, top-down approach based on mass and volume conservation, expanding [...]
2027: Waking the AKU-- A Cosmic Hyperobject View of the Ancient Giant Palm Forest on Rapa Nui
Published: 2025-01-06
Subjects: Astrophysics and Astronomy, Earth Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Sciences, Forest Sciences, Other Astrophysics and Astronomy, Other Environmental Sciences, Other Plant Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Planetary Sciences, Plant Sciences, The Sun and the Solar System
Can a repeating climate event be termed as a cosmic hyperobject? Even if it is dynamically changing within hundreds of thousands of years? At the center of this paper is the science: observable data, 15,000 years of climate change on Rapa Nui. Reaching into the past however we begin with a much broader mathematical view from the eyes of Milankovitch theories of the cosmos that stretches a million [...]
Sea level rise submergence simulations suggest substantial deterioration of Indian River Lagoon ecosystem services by 2050, Florida, U.S.A.
Published: 2025-01-03
Subjects: Climate, Earth Sciences, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Geology, Geomorphology, Natural Resources and Conservation, Natural Resources Management and Policy, Sustainability, Water Resource Management
The Indian River Lagoon is a 250-km-long Estuary of National Significance located along the east-central Florida coast of the USA. NOAA tidal data generated at a station located in the central reaches of the estuary indicate sea level rise has accelerated over the duration of record to an average of 9.6 ± 1.6 mm year−1 (2003–2022). It is expected to continue accelerating over the duration of this [...]
Chromium Isotopes: A Window into Atmospheric Oxygenation
Published: 2024-12-31
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology
Chromium (Cr) isotopes are pivotal proxies for understanding Earth’s atmospheric oxygenation history. This review highlights δ53Cr signatures as tools for reconstructing redox dynamics during events like the Great Oxidation Event (GOE) and the Neoproterozoic Oxygenation Event (NOE). Advances in analytical techniques, particularly multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry [...]
Site Planning for a Network of Government-operated Weather Stations in the Dominican Republic Using Zonal Statistics from Geospatial Sources, Multi-Criteria Decision-Making, and Neighborhood Analysis
Published: 2024-12-30
Subjects: Applied Statistics, Climate, Earth Sciences, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Geographic Information Sciences, Geography, Meteorology, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical and Environmental Geography, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Remote Sensing, Spatial Science
Many weather station networks lack sufficient representativeness, and their station density is often inadequate to capture spatial and climatic variability effectively. Optimal site selection is therefore essential to enhance spatial coverage and improve data quality. This study proposes a methodology for identifying optimal sites for a meteorological station network in the Dominican Republic, [...]
Effect of Recent Prescribed Burning and Land Management on Wildfire Burn Severity and Smoke Emissions in the Western United States
Published: 2024-12-21
Subjects: Environmental Sciences
Wildfires in the western US increasingly threaten infrastructure, air quality, and public health. Prescribed (“Rx”) fire is often proposed to mitigate future wildfires, but treatments remain limited, and few studies quantify their effectiveness on recent major wildfires. We investigate the effects of Rx fire treatments on subsequent burn severity across western US ecoregions and particulate [...]
Global drivers of forest loss at 1 km resolution
Published: 2024-12-20
Subjects: Computer Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Geographic Information Sciences, Remote Sensing
Forests are in decline worldwide due to human activities such as agricultural expansion, urbanization, and mineral extraction. Forest loss due to generally temporary causes, such as wildfire and forest management, is important to distinguish from permanent land use conversion due to the differing ecological and climate impacts of these disturbances and for the purposes of developing effective [...]
A Novel Model to Assess the Greenhouse Effect
Published: 2024-12-20
Subjects: Environmental Sciences
The greenhouse effect is the warming of the earth's surface due to the presence of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. It is said to be 33 °C, but we cannot measure this value because we cannot create the state “without greenhouse gases”. We therefore have to rely on calculations, although these are controversial. In the climate debate, this lack of measurements is often denoted as a major [...]
Nonlinear carbon feedbacks in CMIP6 and their impacts on future freshwater availability
Published: 2024-12-20
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Will plants consume more or less water in a high carbon dioxide [CO2] world? What will the hydrologic consequences of those changes will be? Some theories and analyses of earlier generations of Earth System Models (ESM) suggest that transpiration will decline with higher atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations [CO2] due to stomatal closure, thereby enhancing runoff and soil moisture and [...]
Groundwater Flooding of Superficial Gravels in an Urbanized Catchment
Published: 2024-12-20
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Groundwater behavior in superficial gravel aquifers is globallypoorly understood, especially across urban regions where drinking water is sourced from elsewhere. We focus on one such region around Staines, SE UK, where local River Terrace Gravels form a thin (<10 m) superficial aquifer. Our objective was to explain the unusually broad and long-lived distribution of flooding by investigating [...]
Holocene environmental change in Rotsee and its impact on sedimentary carbon storage
Published: 2024-12-20
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences
To assess the long-term impact of climate change and human influence on lakes and their sedimentary carbon storage, paleo-environmental approaches using well-dated lake sediment cores can be employed. Here, we reconstruct carbon mass accumulation rates for organic and inorganic carbon since 13 ka BP in Rotsee, a perialpine lake near the Swiss Alps, using a 12m sediment core. A multiproxy approach [...]
A Conversational Intelligent Assistant for Enhanced Operational Support in Floodplain Management with Multimodal Data
Published: 2024-12-19
Subjects: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Computer Sciences, Databases and Information Systems, Earth Sciences, Environmental Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies, Hydraulic Engineering, Hydrology, Water Resource Management
Floodplain management is crucial for mitigating flood risks and enhancing community resilience, yet floodplain managers often face significant challenges, including the complexity of data analysis, regulatory compliance, and effective communication with diverse stakeholders. This study introduces Floodplain Manager AI, an innovative artificial intelligence (AI) based virtual assistant designed to [...]