Preprints
There are 6976 Preprints listed.
Is abyssal dark oxygen production even possible at all?
Published: 2025-03-10
Subjects: Chemistry, Environmental Sciences, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Physical principles need to be respected when interpreting controversial findings such as the production of abyssal oxygen. Such extraordinary claims must be analysed carefully before a large research effort is mounted and valuable human and financial resources are wasted based on flawed data. We are aware of the sensitivities around polymetallic nodules and their potential value as a source of [...]
Embracing Large Language Model (LLM) Technologies in Hydrology Research
Published: 2025-03-14
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Hydrology
The growing complexity of hydrological systems necessitates innovative approaches to data management, knowledge management, and model development. Large Language Models (LLMs) have great potential to revolutionize hydrological research by unifying and advancing these three critical aspects. In this perspective work, we review recent advances and applications of LLMs and exemplify using LLMs in [...]
Solar control of global mean temperature outweighed since 1940s by anthropogenic warming (by airborne soot, not CO2): literature synthesis
Published: 2025-03-14
Subjects: Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology
Primarily solar control of global warming and cooling for the last 9,000 years is proven by the striking likeness between published graphs of (1) average near-surface air temperature (from proxies and, since 1880, NASA-GISS thermometer data) and (2) solar-magnetic output. Graph-to-graph visual cross-matching of spikes (peaks, troughs) and of multi-century trends reveals a ~150-year temperature [...]
Reflections on the first State of the Map Conference in Malawi
Published: 2025-03-15
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geographic Information Sciences, Remote Sensing, Spatial Science
State of the Map (SotM) conferences are important events that enable OpenStreetMap (OSM) contributors and users to present and discuss their work. However, when international SotM conferences are held in the Global North countries, participation by African geospatial scientists is not guaranteed due to various barriers, including travel costs and visa restrictions. Conversely, locally held SotM [...]
Mercury budget in global rivers at present-day: impacts from reservoirs and dams
Published: 2025-03-14
Subjects: Biogeochemistry, Earth Sciences, Environmental Health and Protection, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Water Resource Management
Many world rivers are currently polluted by mercury (Hg) compounds, leading to the bioaccumulation of methylmercury (MeHg) in the food web, which poses potential health risks to humans. However, the riverine Hg budgets of global scale remain poorly understood due to limited observations, complicating efficient environmental governance. Here, we employ a process-driven Hg model to track its [...]
Ediacaran coupling of climate and biosphere dynamics
Published: 2025-03-14
Subjects: Climate, Glaciology, Paleontology, Sedimentology, Stratigraphy
Throughout the Phanerozoic (538.8 Ma to present), climate change is demonstrably linked to radiations, extinctions, and turnovers in the biosphere. Here, we show that this connection existed in the late Ediacaran (~579 to 538.8 Ma), the first interval in Earth’s history to host complex macro-organisms, including early metazoans. Current correlations of glacial sedimentary deposits have been used [...]
Collaborative Assessment of a Large-Scale Integrated Landscape Restoration Project in the Steep-Slope Regions of Central Africa
Published: 2025-03-14
Subjects: Engineering, Life Sciences
Landscape restoration projects are among the most extensive conservation actions at the global level that have been promoted in the last three decades. Such projects, however, cannot exclusively be based on the restoration of natural and semi-natural ecosystems, but should focus on a cultural landscape approach balancing environmental and socio-economic needs. One of the largest restoration [...]
Bridging the Macro-Micro Divide through a New Paradigm for Climate Resilience Assessment in Data-Scarce Regions
Published: 2025-06-04
Subjects: Environmental Studies
Efforts to assess climate resilience in low-income countries (LICs) are often hampered by fragmented data systems and analytical silos between national and local scales. This study proposes and operationalizes an integrated empirical framework that bridges macroeconomic econometric modeling and micro-level spatial analysis to measure and visualize climate resilience in data-scarce settings. Using [...]
Understanding Flood Risk in Public Transit Systems: Insights from Accessibility and Vulnerability Analysis in Iowa
Published: 2025-03-14
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Engineering, Geographic Information Sciences, Geography, Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering, Risk Analysis, Spatial Science, Transportation Engineering
Flooding is a major challenge for urban transportation systems, hindering access to essential services and jobs, especially for vulnerable populations. This study examines the impact of large flood extents on public transportation in Johnson and Linn counties, Iowa, United States, focusing on flood-prone bus routes, reduced service frequency, and access to job locations. Using Geographic [...]
Global estimates of groundwater withdrawal trends and uncertainties
Published: 2025-03-20
Subjects: Environmental Engineering, Water Resource Management
Groundwater, Earth’s largest source of liquid freshwater, is essential for sustaining ecosystems and meeting societal demands. However, accurately quantifying global groundwater withdrawals remains a significant challenge due to inherent uncertainties in input data, sectoral allocation assumptions, and model parameterization. In this study, we analyze global groundwater withdrawals from 2001 to [...]
Thermogenic Methane Production in Antarctic Subglacial Hydrocarbon Seeps
Published: 2025-03-14
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Methane forms beneath ice sheets through microbial methanogenesis and thermogenic breakdown of organic matter, creating a potentially large greenhouse gas reservoir prone to release during glacial retreat. Subglacial thermogenic methanogenesis can increase gas buildup and create oases for life, but this process has not yet been observed in Antarctica, contributing to uncertainty in the spatial [...]
Summertime sediment storage on the Alaskan Beaufort Shelf and implications for ice-sediment rafting and shelf erosion
Published: 2025-03-14
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Arctic coastlines are known to be rapidly eroding, but the fate of this material in the coastal ocean (and the sedimentary dynamics of Arctic continental shelves in general) is less well-constrained. This study used summertime mooring data from the Alaskan Beaufort Shelf to study sediment-transport patterns which are dominated by waves and wind-driven currents. Easterly wind events account for [...]
Beyond efficiency: Disentangling structural and behavioral sufficiency in U.S. residential decarbonization pathways
Published: 2026-03-16
Subjects: Climate, Environmental Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Decarbonization strategies in the residential sector have largely focused on lowering the carbon intensity of energy supply and improving end-use efficiency. Sufficiency, defined as avoiding unnecessary energy demand while maintaining well-being, remains largely absent from national energy system analyses, obscuring the relative and combined roles of efficiency and sufficiency in reducing energy [...]
Towards HydroLLM: A Benchmark Dataset for Hydrology-Specific Knowledge Assessment for Large Language Models
Published: 2025-03-15
Subjects: Environmental Engineering
The rapid advancement of Large Language Models (LLMs) has enabled their integration into a wide range of scientific disciplines. This paper introduces a comprehensive benchmark dataset specifically designed for testing recent large language models in hydrology domain. Leveraging a collection of research articles and hydrology textbook, we generated a wide array of hydrology-specific questions in [...]
Translating national climate policies to resilience actions at the subnational level in low resource settings: Lessons from Ghana’s health systems.
Published: 2025-11-22
Subjects: Public Health
According to the WHO 2021 Health and Climate Change Global Survey Report, most countries’ climate change and health plans are witnessing low to moderate implementation due to (among other reasons) insufficient funding, evidence, research, and multisectoral collaboration. In Ghana, the national climate change agenda has, for over a decade, consistently prioritized its health systems, but progress [...]