Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Environmental Monitoring
PING-Mapper: open-source software for automated benthic imaging and mapping using recreation-grade sonar
Published: 2022-06-14
Subjects: Environmental Monitoring, Hydrology, Natural Resources and Conservation
The characterization of benthic habitats is essential for aquatic ecosystem science and management, but is frequently limited by waterbody visibility and depth. Recreation-grade side scan sonar systems are increasingly used to aid scientific inquiries in shallow water due to their relative low-cost, ease of operation, low-weight, and ease of mounting on a variety of vessels. However, existing [...]
Retrieving Chl-a and total suspended solids in in-land waters using EnMAP simulated data
Published: 2022-05-27
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences
The Environmental Mapping and analysis program (EnMAP) is a new Earth observation satellite which will use imaging spectroscopy to obtain a diagnostic characterisation of the Earth's surface and record changes. Since we hypothesis that imaging spectroscopy can significantly improve the accuracy of predicting and assessing water quality traits of small in-land waters, our study investigates the [...]
Methane Emissions from the Fossil Fuel Industries of the Russian Federation
Published: 2022-05-19
Subjects: Climate, Environmental Engineering, Environmental Monitoring, Oil, Gas, and Energy
Methane is second only to carbon dioxide as a driver of human-induced climate change. Moreover, reducing the rate of methane emissions is the fastest and least disruptive way to moderate global temperature rise over the next several decades. The production of fossil fuels – principally coal, oil, and natural gas – is among the main sources of anthropogenic methane. As one of the world’s largest [...]
Fluorescence microscopy versus Raman spectroscopy for direct identification of small (< 2 µm) microplastics in soils
Published: 2022-04-25
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Monitoring, Soil Science
Research on microplastics (MP) in soils is much complicated due to the lack of dedicated (extraction) methodologies and the strong matrix interferences for MP detection, and there is almost no research on the dynamics of the smallest MP in soil. Here we compared the possible detection of the smallest MP fraction (1-2 µm) by µ-Raman spectroscopy and fluorescence microscopy in matrices of highly [...]
Data from the drain: a sensor framework that captures multiple drivers of chronic coastal floods
Published: 2022-04-02
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Hydrology, Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Tide gauge water levels are commonly used as a proxy for flood incidence on land. These proxies are useful for projecting how sea-level rise (SLR) will increase the frequency of coastal flooding. However, tide gauges do not account for land-based sources of coastal flooding and therefore flood thresholds and the proxies derived from them likely underestimate the current and future frequency of [...]
Camera-Based Intelligent Stream Stage Sensing for Decentralized Environmental Monitoring
Published: 2022-03-02
Subjects: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Engineering, Environmental Monitoring, Water Resource Management
On average, flood damages cost $4.4 billion in the US annually. Accurate, vast, and real-time coverage of water level monitoring is crucial for the advancement of environmental research, specifically in the areas of climate change, water distribution, and natural disaster preparedness and management. According to a 2018 EPA report, there are 2.7 million streams and associated watersheds in the US [...]
Matching high resolution satellite data and flux tower footprints improves their agreement in photosynthesis estimates
Published: 2022-01-10
Subjects: Agriculture, Environmental Monitoring
Mapping canopy photosynthesis in both high spatial and temporal resolution is essential for carbon cycle monitoring in heterogeneous areas. However, well established satellites in sun-synchronous orbits such as Sentinel-2, Landsat and MODIS can only provide either high spatial or high temporal resolution but not both. Recently established CubeSat satellite constellations have created an [...]
Initial estuarine response to the nutrient-rich Piney Point release into Tampa Bay, Florida
Published: 2022-01-05
Subjects: Environmental Health and Protection, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Monitoring
From March 30th to April 9th, 2021, 814 million liters of legacy phosphate mining wastewater and marine dredge water from the Piney Point facility were released into lower Tampa Bay (Florida, USA). This resulted in an estimated addition of 186 metric tons of total nitrogen, exceeding typical annual external nitrogen load estimates to lower Tampa Bay in a matter of days. Elevated levels of [...]
Filtering ground noise from LiDAR returns produces inferior models of forest aboveground biomass in heterogenous landscapes
Published: 2021-12-14
Subjects: Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Forest Sciences, Research Methods in Life Sciences
Airborne LiDAR has become an essential data source for large-scale, high-resolution modeling of forest aboveground biomass and carbon stocks, enabling predictions with much higher resolution and accuracy than can be achieved using optical imagery alone. Ground noise filtering – that is, excluding returns from LiDAR point clouds based on simple height thresholds – is a common practice meant to [...]
Multi-proxy assessment of surface sediments using APPI-P FTICR-MS reveals a complex biogeochemical record along a salinity gradient in the Pearl River estuary and coastal South China Sea
Published: 2021-12-10
Subjects: Analytical Chemistry, Biogeochemistry, Chemistry, Earth Sciences, Environmental Chemistry, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Geochemistry, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The Pearl River drains the second largest watershed in China, funnelling large amounts of freshwater and organic matter into the northern part of the South China Sea through an estuary characterized by pronounced biogeochemical gradients. In this study we analyzed organic extracts of surface sediments collected along land-sea transect that captures a transition from freshwater environment at the [...]
Evidences of horizontal urban heat advection in London using 6 years of data from a citizen weather station network
Published: 2021-12-05
Subjects: Climate, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Meteorology, Physical and Environmental Geography
Recent advances in citizen weather station (CWS) networks, with data accessible via crowd-sourcing, provide relevant climatic information to urban scientists and decision makers. In particular, CWS can provide long-term measurements of urban heat and valuable information on spatio-temporal heterogeneity related to horizontal heat advection. In this study, we make the first compilation of a [...]
Climate change, fire return intervals and the growing risk of permanent forest loss in boreal Eurasia
Published: 2021-11-15
Subjects: Climate, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Monitoring, Other Environmental Sciences, Physical and Environmental Geography, Remote Sensing, Spatial Science
Climate change has driven an increase in the frequency and severity of fires in Eurasian boreal forests. A growing number of field studies have linked the change in fire regime to post-fire recruitment failure and permanent forest loss. In this study we used four burnt area and two forest loss datasets to calculate the landscape-scale fire return interval (FRI) and associated risk of permanent [...]
Vertical Deformation and Residual Altimeter Systematic Errors around Continental Australia Inferred from a Kalman-Based Approach
Published: 2021-11-15
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Monitoring, Other Earth Sciences
We further developed a space-time Kalman approach to estimate time-variable signals in residual altimeter systematic errors and vertical land motion (VLM) around the Australian coast since the 1990s, through combining multi-mission absolute sea-level (ASL), relative sea-level (RSL) from tide gauges (TGs) and GPS heights records. Our results confirmed continent-wide subsidence and TG-specific VLMs [...]
Reproducibility in subsurface geoscience
Published: 2021-10-27
Subjects: Biogeochemistry, Cosmochemistry, Earth Sciences, Environmental Education, Environmental Health and Protection, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Geochemistry, Geology, Geomorphology, Geophysics and Seismology, Glaciology, Hydrology, Mineral Physics, Natural Resource Economics, Natural Resources and Conservation, Natural Resources Management and Policy, Oil, Gas, and Energy, Other Earth Sciences, Other Environmental Sciences, Paleobiology, Paleontology, Sedimentology, Soil Science, Speleology, Stratigraphy, Sustainability, Tectonics and Structure, Volcanology, Water Resource Management
Reproducibility, the extent to which consistent results are obtained when an experiment or study is repeated, sits at the foundation of science. The aim of this process is to produce robust findings and knowledge, with reproducibility being the screening tool to benchmark how well we are implementing the scientific method. However, the re-examination of results from many disciplines has caused [...]
SAR data and field surveys combination to update rainfall-induced shallow landslides inventory
Published: 2021-10-22
Subjects: Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Monitoring, Geology
The Campania region has been recurrently hit by severe landslides in volcanoclastic deposits. The city of Naples, and in particular the Camaldoli and Agnano hills, also suffered several landslide crises in weathered volcanoclastic rocks as a consequence of intense rainfalls or wildfires. This work provides an updated landslide database for the suburbs of Naples. The obtained database consists of [...]