Preprints
There are 4895 Preprints listed.
Private protected areas exhibit greater bias towards unproductive land compared to public protected areas
Published: 2024-09-13
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Studies, Geography, Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Globally, private protected areas (PPAs) have become an important tool for biodiversity conservation. While they are expanding in size and number, there is limited evidence on their potential impact on avoiding biodiversity loss, and how this impact compares to the public protected areas (PAs). The impact of protection is measured as the actual biodiversity outcome within the area protected [...]
Heatwaves and Hostilities - Can rising temperatures lead to lasting peace?
Published: 2024-09-13
Subjects: Bioresource and Agricultural Engineering, Earth Sciences, Environmental Public Health, Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies, International and Area Studies, Nature and Society Relations, Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering, Other Earth Sciences, Public Health, Social and Behavioral Sciences
In this paper, we are going to explore the complex relationship between climate change and global peace. Climate change and wars have a reciprocal relationship. As the war fuels climate change, the latter can catalyze the war too. Through the analysis of the ongoing conflicts across the world, recent technological advancements, and the globalized nature of the world, we will review different [...]
Mapping current and future European potential vegetation to support restoration planning
Published: 2024-09-12
Subjects: Biodiversity, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Sciences, Natural Resources and Conservation
The extent and intactness of natural ecosystems is a key factor enabling species populations to thrive. However, the distribution of ecosystems is changing owing to both climatic and anthropogenic factors. Recently negotiated European policy directives, such as the Nature Restoration Law, argue for the restoration of natural ecosystems. Yet to determine what is to be restored the range of [...]
ML-CASCADE: A Machine Learning and Cloud Computing-based Tool for Rapid and Automated Mapping of Landslides using Earth Observation Data
Published: 2024-09-12
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Engineering
Landslides pose a significant threat to humans as well as the environment. Rapid and precise mapping of landslide extent is necessary for understanding their spatial distribution, assessing susceptibility, and developing early warning systems. Traditional landslide mapping methods rely on labor-intensive field studies and manual mapping using high-resolution imagery, which are both costly and [...]
A Community-Centric Intelligent Cyberinfrastructure for Addressing Nitrogen Pollution using Web Systems and Conversational AI
Published: 2024-09-12
Subjects: Agricultural Science, Agriculture, Environmental Studies, Marine Biology, Pharmacology, Toxicology and Environmental Health
The Blue-Green Action Platform (BlueGAP) information system (IS) is an intelligent cyberinfrastructure framework designed to support large-scale water quality assessments in the context of demographic statistics and community stories about water issues. The system prioritizes collaboration with interested parties in three pilot watersheds with test cases implemented in US locations including [...]
Sedimentological controls on plant-fossil preservation in an Eocene caldera-lake fill: a high-resolution, age-constrained record from the Tufolitas Laguna del Hunco, Chubut Province, Argentina
Published: 2024-09-12
Subjects: Earth Sciences
Caldera lake sediments of the early Eocene Tufolitas Laguna del Hunco (Chubut Province, Argentina) host one of the world’s best-preserved and most diverse fossil plant assemblages, but the exceptional quality of preservation remains unexplained. The fossils have singular importance because they include numerous oldest and unique occurrences in South America of genera that today are restricted to [...]
Nd isotopic equilibration during channelized melt transport through the lithosphere: a feasibility study using idealized numerical models
Published: 2024-09-12
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geochemistry
Abstract {This study is motivated by the observed variability in trace element isotopic and chemical compositions of primitive (SiO$_2<$52 wt \%) basalts in southwest North America (SWNA) during the Cenozoic transition from subduction to extension. Specifically, we focus on processes that may explain the enigmatic observation that in some localities, basalts with low Ta/Th, consistent with [...]
Resilient foods for preventing global famine: a review of food supply interventions for global catastrophic food shocks including nuclear winter and infrastructure collapse
Published: 2024-09-12
Subjects: Agricultural Science, Agriculture, Animal Sciences, Aquaculture and Fisheries Life Sciences, Chemical Engineering, Engineering, Food Science, Life Sciences, Plant Sciences, Risk Analysis
Global catastrophic threats to the food system upon which human society depends are numerous. A nuclear war or volcanic eruption could collapse agricultural yields by inhibiting crop growth. Nuclear electromagnetic pulses or extreme pandemics could disrupt industry and mass-scale food supply by unprecedented levels. Global food storage is limited. What can be done? This article presents the state [...]
Half of anthropogenic warming now caused by fossil fuels
Published: 2024-09-12
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Many human activities influence the climate, such as burning fossil fuels, clearing land, growing food, and using refrigerants. Among these, fossil fuels have long been considered the primary driver of global warming. Here, the impact of fossil fuels on historical warming is reassessed using a climate emulator ensemble that accounts for key uncertainties. This reveals that, until the 2020s, [...]
Elevated Methane in Massachusetts and Rhode Island Homes Using Fracked Gas
Published: 2024-09-11
Subjects: Environmental Sciences, Pharmacology, Toxicology and Environmental Health, Public Health
We surveyed 197 Massachusetts and Rhode Island houses ranging in building style and age to test whether homes served by fracked gas have higher indoor methane concentrations ([CH4]) than in homes without gas. The answer is clearly “Yes”. From basements and single-floor slab homes to third floors of triple deckers, indoor [CH4] in households with gas service was significantly elevated over outdoor [...]
Designing a scenario of unilateral climate intervention
Published: 2024-09-11
Subjects: Climate, Environmental Studies, International and Area Studies, Other Environmental Sciences
Climate change is causing increasingly alarming global impacts, such as rising temperatures and more severe storms. Despite this, current multilateral initiatives and agreements to systematically reduce greenhouse gas emissions are completely incommensurate with the scale of the problem. Thus, we explore the potential that some unilateral actor, finding present and near-future climate changes [...]
Symmetry in mesoscale circulations explains weak impact of trade cumulus self-organisation on the radiation budget in large-eddy simulations
Published: 2024-09-11
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
We investigate if mesoscale self-organisation of trade cumuli in 150 km-domain large-eddy simulations modifies the top-of-atmosphere radiation budget relative to 10 km-domain simulations, across 77 characteristic, idealised environments. In large domains, self-generated mesoscale circulations produce fewer, larger and deeper clouds, raising the cloud albedo. Yet they also precipitate more than [...]
HarvestStat Africa – Harmonized Subnational Crop Statistics for Sub-Saharan Africa
Published: 2024-09-10
Subjects: Agriculture, Environmental Sciences
Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) faces severe agricultural data scarcity amidst high food insecurity and a large agricultural yield gap, making crop production data crucial for understanding and enhancing food systems. To address this gap, HarvestStat Africa presents the largest compilation of open-access subnational crop statistics and time-series across SSA. Based on agricultural statistics collated by [...]
Competitive and Cooperative Effects of Chloride on Palladium(II) Adsorption to Iron (Oxyhydr)oxides: Implications for Mobility During Weathering
Published: 2024-09-10
Subjects: Geochemistry
In surface and near-surface weathering environments, the mobilization and partial loss of palladium (Pd) under oxidizing and weakly acidic conditions has been attributed to aqueous chloride complexation. However, prior work has also observed that a portion of Pd is retained by iron (oxyhydr)oxides in the weathering zone. The effect chloride has on the relative amount of Pd mobilization versus [...]
Deployment of Enhanced Geothermal System technology leads to rapid cost reductions and performance improvements
Published: 2024-09-10
Subjects: Engineering
Following successful production testing of the world’s first horizontal well enhanced geothermal system in 2023, continued deployment and optimization of the technology across two commercial projects has resulted in significant cost reductions and performance improvements. In this paper, we present field results and updates from Fervo Energy’s enhanced geothermal system projects in Nevada and [...]