Preprints
There are 7999 Preprints listed.
Quantification of Water Distribution in California: A Case Study for Other Regions in the World
Published: 2024-02-02
Subjects: Agriculture
Data for water distribution by the urban sector, environment, and agriculture across the world is not readily available, publicly accessible, or quantitatively evaluated. It is critical for any society to define and transparently account for regional water distribution in a state or country to facilitate accurate information sharing with the public. Water use in California has been criticized for [...]
Aggregates versus pores? A survey among soil scientists about their perspectives on soil structure
Published: 2024-02-08
Subjects: Soil Science
Despite mostly uniform definitions of soil structure, two perspectives on it have been juxtaposed in the past: the “aggregate perspective” and the “pore perspective”. The debate as represented in the literature appears to be polarised. To test whether this is also the case in the wider soil science community, an online survey was conducted asking about soil [...]
Possible Mechanisms for Tsunami-like Surge Deposits Due to the Chicxulub Impact at the K-Pg Boundary at the Tanis Site, North Dakota
Published: 2024-02-02
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
At Tanis, a unique bi-directional sediment package occurs precisely at the Cretaceous-Paleogene (KPg) boundary, recording the first hours of the Paleogene in uncommonly fine temporal detail. The impact ejecta-bearing sediment package was rapidly emplaced by two massive, ~10-meter-high, potentially impact-triggered surges, that inundated a steep, deeply incised paleo river valley from the [...]
Subsurface microbial community structure shifts along the geological features of the Central American Volcanic Arc
Published: 2024-02-05
Subjects: Biodiversity, Biogeochemistry, Earth Sciences, Environmental Microbiology and Microbial Ecology Life Sciences, Geochemistry, Geology, Microbiology, Volcanology
Subduction of the Cocos and Nazca oceanic plates beneath the Caribbean plate drives the upward movement of deep fluids enriched in carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, and iron along the Central American Volcanic Arc (CAVA). These compounds fuel diverse subsurface microbial communities that in turn alter the distribution, redox state, and isotopic composition of these compounds. Microbial community [...]
Roman Ports in the Mediterranean: Geomorphology, Environment and Resilience
Published: 2024-02-05
Subjects: Social and Behavioral Sciences
Classical ports in the Mediterranean Sea existed not only in a social, economic and technical contexts but also in a geomorphological context. This geomorphological context, which includes both the harbour landform and the catchment (if any) is a function of the geomorphology of coasts and catchments (including neotectonics) and marine factors (bathymetry, low amplitude tides, surges, tsunamis [...]
Mechanisms and seismological signatures of rupture complexity induced by fault damage zones in fully-dynamic earthquake cycle models
Published: 2024-02-10
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Damage zones are common around faults, but their effects on earthquake mechanics are still incompletely understood. Here, we investigate how damage affects rupture patterns, source time functions and ground motions in 2D fully-dynamic cycle models. We find that back-propagating rupture fronts emerge in large faults and can be triggered by residual stresses left by previous ruptures or by [...]
Study on Serpentinites and the Consequence of the Misuse of Natural Stone in Buildings for Construction.
Published: 2024-02-05
Subjects: Engineering
Some rocks are very attractive as ornamental stone, but not all of them accomplish the needed requirements to be used in construction. Serpentinite can be an appealing rock, very commonly used as dimension stone. However, not all serpentinites can be used in such a way. The most widely used commercial serpentinite comes from Pakistan and India (i.e., Rajasthan Green), but other countries also [...]
Physicochemical and Urban Land-Use Characteristics Associated with Resistance to Precipitation in Estuaries Vary Across Scales
Published: 2024-02-07
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Estuaries are subject to frequent stressors, including elevated nutrient loading and extreme hydrologic events, which impact water quality and disrupt ecosystem stability and health. The capacity of an estuary to resist changes in function in response to precipitation events is a key component of maintaining estuarine health in our changing climate. However, generalizable patterns in factors [...]
From nutrients to fish: Impacts of mesoscale processes in a global CESM-FEISTY eddying ocean model framework
Published: 2024-02-10
Subjects: Life Sciences
The ocean sustains ecosystems that are essential for human livelihood and habitability of the planet. The ocean holds an enormous amount of carbon, and serves as a critical source of nutrition for human societies worldwide. Climate variability and change impacts marine biogeochemistry and ecosystems. Thus, having state-of-the-art simulations of the ocean, which include marine biogeochemistry and [...]
Increase in insurance losses caused by North Atlantic hurricanes in a warmer climate
Published: 2024-02-08
Subjects: Climate, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology
North Atlantic hurricanes are a major driver of property losses in the United States and a critical peril for the reinsurance industry globally. We leverage insurance loss data and stochastic modeling to investigate the impacts of projected changes in hurricane climatology on the insurance industry, for +2 °C and +4 °C warming scenarios. We find that, relative to the historical baseline [...]
Azimuthal Variation in the Spectra of the 2019 Ridgecrest Earthquake Clusters and its Application to Understanding Fault Zone Structure
Published: 2024-02-08
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
We first show through dynamic rupture models that FDZs can amplify high-frequency waves along directions close to fault strike and the amplified frequency band may be used to estimate the width and velocity contrast of the FDZ. Then, we identify this high-frequency amplification in the spectra of M1.5–3 earthquakes from the 2019 Ridgecrest earthquake sequence. We cluster the earthquakes by [...]
Climate and Air Quality Impact of Using Ammonia as an Alternative Shipping Fuel
Published: 2024-02-07
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Oil, Gas, and Energy
As carbon-free fuel, ammonia has been proposed as an alternative fuel to facilitate maritime decarbonization. Deployment of ammonia-powered ships is proposed as soon as 2024. However, emissions of NOx, NH3 and N2O resulting from ammonia combustion could cause impacts on air quality and climate. In this study, we assess whether and under what conditions switching to ammonia fuel might affect [...]
Magma solidification effects during sill emplacement: insights from laboratory experiments
Published: 2024-02-10
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Igneous sills and interconnected sill complexes transport magma both vertically through the Earth’s crust and laterally over potentially long distances. Although cooling and solidification of magma are acknowledged to play a major role in the propagation and emplacement of sills, their contributions to sill formation remain poorly understood. Here, the effects of solidification on sill [...]
Nitrogen Availability and Denitrification in Urban Agriculture and Regreened Vacant Lots
Published: 2024-02-08
Subjects: Environmental Sciences
Many cities demolish abandoned homes and create regreened vacant lots (RVLs), and an increasingly popular, high-intensity use of RVLs is as urban agriculture (UA) sites. UA may potentially result in higher nitrogen (N) runoff to aquatic ecosystems, but this potential has not been quantified. We examined the role that varying land reuse intensity plays in determining potential for N export via [...]
Collaborative systems thinking analysis for enhancing climate smart agricultural (CSA) technology adoption in Africa
Published: 2024-02-08
Subjects: Agriculture
Agricultural technology adoption is a critical driver of sustainable development, particularly in developing regions where agriculture plays a pivotal role in food security and livelihoods. This study combines network analysis, including causal loop diagrams (CLD), with centrality metrics, to uncover key leverage points within the system where targeted interventions can yield significant impacts [...]