Preprints
There are 4713 Preprints listed.
Shifts in water supply and demand drive land cover change across Chile
Published: 2024-06-19
Subjects: Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Monitoring, Natural Resources and Conservation, Water Resource Management
Globally, droughts are becoming longer, more frequent and more severe, and their impacts are multidimensional. The impacts of droughts typically extend beyond the water balance as they accumulate over time, and can lead to regime shifts in land use. Here, we assess the effects of temporal changes in water supply and demand on vegetation productivity and land cover change over multiple time scales [...]
Critical transition in barrier islands’ dune ecosystem and the sudden loss of barrier’s resilience
Published: 2024-06-18
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Barrier islands cover a large fraction of US coasts and support unique ecosystems and coastal infrastructure. The 'barrier' function of a barrier island depends on coastal dunes that can prevent storm flooding and widespread ecosystem loss. Furthermore, dune-less barriers are more susceptible to breaching and potential drowning under sea level rise. Here we study the transition from [...]
Mitigating Microbial Artifacts in Laboratory Research of H2 Energy Geo-storage
Published: 2024-06-18
Subjects: Engineering
Today our energy sectors are focusing on the marathon of CO2 cut and coherently require progress in energy transition schemes to meet the UN climate change challenge and achieve a zero-emission target. Among these schemes, radioactive disposal, CO2, NH3, and H2 geological storage are promising options for fixing anthropogenic waste, greenhouse gases and storing green energy in the depleted [...]
Predictive modelling of seismic properties in single-foliated slates
Published: 2024-06-17
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology
Slates play a key role in understanding the seismic anisotropy of the continental crust, a crucial aspect of geophysical interpretation. Using a comprehensive set of high-quality single-foliated roofing slates, we determined their typical seismic properties via mineral fractions and orientation distribution functions using the VRH averaging method. Our study focused on identifying optimal polar [...]
Modeling the Impact of Storm Surge Flooding and Associated Costs on North Carolina Coastal Region Corn and Soybean Fields via Remote Sensing
Published: 2024-06-16
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Hurricane and tropical storm-driven storm surge flooding places coastal farmlands at high risk of crop damage and soil salinization. The damage can total to millions of dollars in costs and force farmers to abandon coastal fields. Additionally, many agricultural, and often rural, areas are unable to access accurate and reliable flood-risk projection maps and analyses that can inform prevention [...]
Automatic identification of streamlined subglacial bedforms using machine learning: an open-source Python approach
Published: 2024-06-16
Subjects: Geomorphology, Glaciology, Statistical Models
Subglacial processes exert a major control on ice streaming. Constraining subglacial conditions thus allows for more accurate predictions of ice mass loss. Due to the difficulty in observing large‐scale conditions of the modern subglacial environment, we turn to geologic records of ice streaming in deglaciated environments. Morphometric values of streamlined subglacial bedforms provide valuable [...]
An Immersive Hydroinformatics Framework with Extended Reality for Enhanced Visualization and Simulation of Hydrologic Data
Published: 2024-06-15
Subjects: Environmental Sciences, Graphics and Human Computer Interfaces, Hydrology
This study introduces a novel framework, with the use of Extended Reality (XR) systems in hydrology, particularly focusing on immersive visualization of hydrologic data for enhanced environmental planning and decision-making. The study details the shift from traditional two-dimensional data visualization methods in hydrology to more advanced XR technologies, including virtual and augmented [...]
A method for evaluating sediment-induced macroinvertebrate community composition changes in Idaho streams
Published: 2024-06-15
Subjects: Life Sciences
This study developed stream surface fine sediment < 2 mm (SF) and macroinvertebrate fine sediment biotic index (FSBI) benchmarks and an application framework to test for sediment-induced macroinvertebrate community composition changes in 1st-4th order Idaho streams. FSBI reference benchmarks were calculated as the 25th percentile FSBI value among reference sites within three ecoregion-based [...]
The Impact Measurement and Application of Conservation System (IMACS): A Review of a Framework for Impact Measurement, Application of Conservation and a Return to Sustainable Conditions
Published: 2024-06-15
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The Impact Measurement and Application of Conservation System (IMACS) was recently described in ten preprint papers. IMACS represents the first “first principals” based system for measurement of damaging and conserving impacts and the calculation of sustainabilities for products, services and individuals. IMACS distinguishes “participating” and [...]
Power optimisation of a rogue-wave energy device in a contraction
Published: 2024-06-14
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
We consider optimisation of a wave-energy device placed in a contraction consisting of unidirectional wave-induced buoy motion coupled to a tubular electromagnetic generator. First, optimisation of the generator is achieved by using three induction coils instead of one. Second, geometric optimisation is explored for two contraction-shape parameters. Finally, we discuss the advantages of using [...]
Evolution of Fluvial Landscapes during the Eocene-Oligocene Transition in Central North America: Reconstructions from Toadstool Geologic Park, Nebraska, U. S. A.
Published: 2024-06-14
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Sedimentology, Stratigraphy
Rivers drive geomorphic change at Earth’s surface by transporting sediment from mountains to sedimentary basins. They are sensitive to changes in water and sediment flux driven by tectonism, climatic perturbation and or volcanism. We characterized changes in fluvial landscapes during a major Cenozoic cooling event, the Eocene-Oligocene Transition (EOT) at 33.9 Ma. The EOT is characterized by a [...]
The direction of core soldification in asteroids: implications for dynamo generation.
Published: 2024-06-14
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Paleomagnetic studies of meteorites over the past two decades have revealed that the cores of multiple meteorite parent bodies, including those of certain chondritic groups, generated dynamo fields as they crystallised. However, uncertainties in the direction and mode of core solidification in asteroid-sized bodies have meant using the timings and durations of these fields to constrain parent [...]
Can Surface Water Color Accurately Determine Sediment Concentration and Grain Size? A Hyperspectral Imaging Study
Published: 2024-06-14
Subjects: Education, Engineering
Water color changes are closely linked to variations in suspended sediment characteristics, motivating efforts to reliably determine sediment concentration and size through remote sensing. However, current turbidity measurement practices that rely on empirical correlations have not been rigorously tested in the lab and the past testing was limited to limited particle conditions, leading to a wide [...]
Paleohydrology of North American Catchments and Rivers at the Onset of the Eocene-Oligocene Climate Transition: Reconstructions from Fluvial Strata of the White River Group, Toadstool Geologic Park, Nebraska
Published: 2024-06-14
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Sedimentology, Stratigraphy
Member of the Brule Formation of the White River Group at Toadstool Geologic Park in Nebraska. Our approach combined descriptive and quantitative methods to reconstruct river flow, sediment transport, channel dynamics, floodplain behavior, and catchment-scale moisture variability and ecosystem function. We found that rivers were ephemeral, with peak flow depths and widths of approximately 2.5 m [...]
Evaluating estimation methods for wildfire smoke and their implications for assessing health effects
Published: 2024-06-13
Subjects: Environmental Health and Protection, Environmental Public Health, Environmental Sciences, Public Health
Growing wildfire smoke represents a substantial threat to air quality and human health in the US and across much of the globe. However, the impact of wildfire smoke on human health remains imprecisely understood, due to uncertainties in both the measurement of population wildfire smoke exposure and dose-response functions linking exposure to health. Here, we compare daily wildfire smoke-related [...]