Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Natural Resources and Conservation
Ecosystem restoration can lead to carbon recovery in semi-arid savanna grasslands in India
Published: 2023-08-10
Subjects: Environmental Monitoring, Natural Resources and Conservation, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Semi-arid savanna grasslands (SG) in India deliver enormous benefits to people and nature but are currently undergoing large-scale degradation. Soil carbon stocks in degraded SGs vary in response to a host of anthropogenic driving factors including agricultural expansion and industrial development. Although there is increasing support for restoring grasslands by planting native grass species, its [...]
Estimating the silica content and loss-on-ignition in the North American Soil Geochemical Landscapes datasets: a recursive inversion approach
Published: 2023-07-28
Subjects: Geochemistry, Natural Resources and Conservation, Soil Science
A novel method of estimating the silica (SiO2) and loss-on-ignition (LOI) concentrations for the North American Soil Geochemical Landscapes (NASGL) project datasets is proposed. Combining the precision of the geochemical determinations with the completeness of the mineralogical NASGL data, we suggest a ‘reverse normative’ or inversion approach to calculate first the minimum SiO2, water (H2O) and [...]
An Artificial Neural Network to Estimate the Foliar and Ground Cover Input Variables of the Rangeland Hydrology and Erosion Model
Published: 2023-07-12
Subjects: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Environmental Monitoring, Hydrology, Natural Resources and Conservation, Natural Resources Management and Policy, Soil Science
Models like the Rangeland Hydrology and Erosion Model (RHEM) are useful for estimating soil erosion, however, they rely on input parameters that are sometimes difficult or expensive to measure. Specifically, RHEM requires information about foliar and ground cover fractions that generally must be measured in situ, which makes it difficult to use models like RHEM to produce erosion or soil risk [...]
Lidar-based MaxEnt models to support conservation planning for endangered Red-cockaded Woodpeckers in urbanizing environments
Published: 2023-05-28
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Natural Resources and Conservation, Remote Sensing, Spatial Science
Sensitive and intensively managed species require carefully thought-out management plans to promote and maintain specific habitat conditions. Urban features and land-use change must be assimilated into these habitat management plans, as they become increasingly present globally. As a case study, several MaxEnt species distribution models were developed that could enable habitat management efforts [...]
Revisiting the Climate Narrative
Published: 2023-04-06
Subjects: Agriculture, Climate, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Engineering, Environmental Studies, Food Science, Forest Management, Hydrology, Natural Resources and Conservation, Natural Resources Management and Policy, Oil, Gas, and Energy, Other Environmental Sciences, Soil Science, Sustainability, Water Resource Management
The rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide is chiefly tied to land stewardship. Farmers and loggers have removed the plants that, until the industrial era, kept the soil fungi alive, kept soil emissions nearby by breaking the wind, and soaked those up. The result is plumes of carbon dioxide. Putting plants back in would curb these emissions. Farmers and loggers could address biodiversity loss [...]
Ambitious food system interventions required to mitigate the risk of exceeding Earth’s environmental limits
Published: 2023-04-06
Subjects: Agriculture, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Natural Resources and Conservation, Natural Resources Management and Policy, Sustainability
Transforming the global food system is necessary to avoid exceeding the Earth’s environmental limits. A robust evidence base is crucial to assess the scale and combination of interventions required for a sustainable transformation. We developed a risk assessment framework, underpinned by an evidence synthesis of global food system modeling studies, to quantify the potential of individual and [...]
Stream Thermalscape Scenarios for British Columbia, Canada
Published: 2023-03-22
Subjects: Fresh Water Studies, Hydrology, Natural Resources and Conservation, Water Resource Management
Water temperature is a key feature of freshwater ecosystems but comprehensive datasets are severely lacking, a limiting factor in research and management of freshwater species and habitats. An existing statistical stream temperature model developed for British Columbia, Canada, was refit to predict August mean stream temperatures, a common index of stream thermal regime also used in thermalscapes [...]
Data, knowledge and modeling challenges for science-informed management of river deltas
Published: 2023-03-16
Subjects: Environmental Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Natural Resources and Conservation, Natural Resources Management and Policy, Other Civil and Environmental Engineering, Other Environmental Sciences, Sustainability, Water Resource Management
450 million people live on river deltas and thus on land that is precariously low above the sea level and sinking because of human activities and natural processes. Although global debates around coastal risk typically focus on sea level rise, it is sinking lands and rising seas that together endanger lives and livelihoods in river deltas. However, the ability to quantify and address those risks [...]
The unknown fate of macroplastic in mountain rivers
Published: 2022-11-09
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Monitoring, Geology, Geomorphology, Hydrology, Life Sciences, Natural Resources and Conservation, Sedimentology, Stratigraphy, Sustainability, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology, Water Resource Management
Mountain rivers are typically seen as relatively pristine ecosystems, supporting numerous goods (e.g., water resources) for human populations living not only in the mountain regions but also downstream from them. Recent evidence suggests, however, that mountain river valleys in populated areas can be substantially polluted by macroplastic (plastic item > 5 mm). It is, however, unknown how [...]
Seasonally-decomposed Sentinel-1 backscatter time-series are useful indicators of peatland wildfire vulnerability
Published: 2022-10-22
Subjects: Environmental Monitoring, Natural Resources and Conservation, Other Environmental Sciences
Peatlands throughout the boreal forest are expected to experience changes in precipitation, evapotranspiration and temperature due to climate change. Correspondingly, changes in hydrologic regimes could lead to increased drought and occurrence of wildfire. Fire management agencies require information about near-real time wildfire vulnerability in boreal peatlands. Remote sensing tools (e.g., [...]
Groundwatersheds of protected areas reveal globally overlooked risks and opportunities
Published: 2022-09-23
Subjects: Natural Resources and Conservation, Water Resource Management
Protected areas are a key tool for conserving biodiversity, sustaining ecosystem services and improving human well-being. Global initiatives that aim to expand and connect protected areas generally focus on controlling ‘above ground’ impacts such as land use, overlooking the potential for human actions in adjacent areas to affect protected areas through groundwater flow. Here, we assess the [...]
Fighting symptom or root cause? - The need for shifting the focus in climate politics from greenhouse gases to environmental protection
Published: 2022-08-16
Subjects: Environmental Sciences, Natural Resources and Conservation, Natural Resources Management and Policy, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Sustainability
Addressing the environmental crisis requires a substantial change of our current lifestyle. Yet, in media coverage and political communication, climate change has taken the lead over other aspects such as biodiversity loss and one may sometimes get the impression that reducing greenhouse gas emissions is fighting the root cause itself. The atmosphere, however, does not respond linearly to our [...]
An Artificial Neural Network Emulator of the Rangeland Hydrology and Erosion Model
Published: 2022-06-17
Subjects: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Dynamic Systems, Hydrology, Natural Resources and Conservation
Machine learning (ML) is becoming an ever more important tool in hydrologic modeling. Many studies have shown the higher prediction accuracy of the ML models over traditional process-based ones. However, there is another advantage of ML which is its lower computer time of execution. This is important for the applications such as hydraulic soil erosion estimation over a large area and at a finer [...]
Contemporary Remote Sensing Tools for Integrated Assessment and Conservation Planning of Ice-free Antarctica
Published: 2022-06-17
Subjects: Environmental Monitoring, Natural Resources and Conservation, Remote Sensing
Monitoring and understanding Antarctica is critical for conservation of its values. Remote sensing has been increasingly employed to observe large areas at higher frequency than traditional monitoring methods, enabling systematic assessments at low cost. However, currently there are limitations in the ability of the available remote sensing tools to answer the most pressing scientific, [...]
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 [...]