bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Impact of morpho- and vegetation-dynamics on flood, erosion and ecology in large lowland rivers
Authors: Gautam Kshitiz , Giri Sanjay , Bhattacharya Biswa , Donchyts Gennadii
Published: March 2021

Himalayan rivers in Nepal flow through the mountains with high gradient to emerge in lowlands as large rivers carrying enormous amount of discharge and sediments. They release significant quantity of sediment forming alluvial fan as a result of sudden decrease in gradient when they enter the lowland and gain braided form. This braided form has made the river morphologically more dynamic in nature. Division of channels into numerous anabranches leads to formation of temporary or permanent islands in between them. These islands in long run are either eroded gradually by the river channel or develop into vegetated islands. The development of vegetation may be long term with growth of trees or they may develop into grasslands that may be seasonal which is usually inundated during floods. The river channels and islands along with the surrounding floodplain with vegetation act as perfect recipe for the development of complex wetland ecosystem.

Koshi River in Nepal is among such rivers emerging from the mountains to flat plains of Terai thereby flowing into multiple channels within a large width of about 5 km, which is then controlled by Koshi Barrage at 41 km from the gorge. This dynamic river system feeds the Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve, a Ramsar site in the reach. The change in river course and vegetation of this large area which otherwise would be challenging to study can be done rather easily by the use of satellite imageries and cloud computing. Google Earth Engine (GEE) has been used in this study for analysing the morphological changes of the river as well as vegetation changes within the study area using the multiple satellite images taken at different times. NDWI has been calculated and used to identify the occurrence of water in the river channels, thus the morphological changes. While NDVI is used for intensity of vegetation. The temporal and spatial analysis of the morphodynamics and corresponding changes in vegetation is performed from 1987 to 2020 within the selected area.

The preliminary assessment of the results shows that the vegetation dynamics of the area has been affected by the continuous erosion and deposition caused by the morphological changes apparently due to the barrage. Over time, river has been channelizing and branching several times causing the existing islands to erode along with their vegetation as well as forming new islands with vegetation cover. This shifting of the river and resulting vegetation dynamics appear to have affected the habitat of the wild water buffaloes (Arna) as well as, other endangered species native to the area. Additional analysis on the effect of river morphology and vegetation dynamics to the flood pattern and other ecological components will be carried out to support the initial findings and draw generalized conclusions.
Red algae-bearing benthic foraminifera adapted to extremely warm temperatures and high salinity in the Persian Gulf 
Authors: Schmidt Christiane , Neumüller Katharina , Morard Raphael , Westphal Hildegard , Theara Gurjit , Vaughan Grace , Burt John
Published: March 2021

The Persian Gulf hosts corals reefs under the most extreme conditions in the world, where summer maxima reach >36°C in combination with high salinities >44 PSU. While high bleaching thresholds characterize corals on these reefs, knowledge of adaptation of other calcifiers to local conditions is lacking. Benthic foraminifera are important calcifiers for coral reefs ecosystems as they build calcium carbonate tests. To map the environmental envelopes and the physiological limits of dispersal of benthic foraminfera, we exposed adult and juvenile foraminifera to a range of temperature and salinity conditions. Samples were collected from two reefs in the southern Gulf of Abu Dhabi, UAE. The dominant symbiont-bearing foraminifera was Peneroplis planatus hosting the endosymbiotic red algae Porphyridium purpureum. This was a surprising finding of sampling in these extreme reefs, as other symbiont-bearing benthic foraminifera are normally more abundant, but were completely absent in the reefs investigated. In the laboratory, we exposed P. planatus to 27°C (control), 35°C local summer maxima, and 39°C, +4°C above summer maxima, each with and without sediment substrates. The ecophysiological parameters growth, survivorship and photophysiological performance were measured. Photosynthetic rates declined after one week of exposure to 35°C and symbionts were photoinhibited at 39°C. Conditions were clearly more hostile for the symbionts, as host survival was high and growth rates unaffected by temperature. We hypothesize that to sustain growth the holobionts gained energy through heterotrophy under these conditions. In a second experiment, we exposed asexually reproduced offspring to an orthogonal temperature and salinity stress treatment (27-39°C, x 34-42 PSU) for four weeks. Asexual reproduction occurred in several treatments but was reduced under high salinity and temperature and combination of both parameters. The higher rate of asexual reproduction at control conditions indicates that stressful conditions do not trigger asexual reproduction in P. planatus, but rather suppress it. The results indicate that P. planatus can resist temperatures above current summer maxima for short periods of time, but that reproduction is impaired. Such heat-adapted populations may be considered a refuge for colonizing an increasingly warming Indian Ocean. Reproductive declines in the local population with increased warming threatens the long-term viability of this uniquely adapted organism.
Supreme and selective capture of one of the most dangerous metal, URANIUM, by phosphonate-functionalized ordered mesoporous silica: surface chemistry matters the most
Authors: Giannakoudakis Dimitrios A. , Anastopoulos Ioannis , Barczak Mariusz , Αntoniou Εvita , Terpiłowski Konrad , Sigarikar Elmira Mohammadi , Shams Mahmoud , Coy Emerson , Bakandritsos Aristeidis , Katsoyiannis Ioannis A. , Colmenares Juan Carlos , Pashalidis Ioannis
Published: March 2021

Designing of materials for effective uranium removal remains an open challenge. In the present work, we present a one-step co-condensation synthesis of a phosphonate functionalized ordered mesoporous silica (OMS-P). This novel material was characterized by various physicochemical methods (HR-TEM, SEM, N2sorption, XPS, solid NMR, low-angle XRD, and FTIR) and its ability to remove U(VI) by adsorption from aqueous solutions was studied. The maximum adsorption capacity reached 345 mg/g in 10 minutes, the highest reported up to day for silicas at pH = 4 and almost four times higher than for the unfunctionalized silica. Even more interestingly, the coexistence of other cations, such as Eu(III), did not affect adsorption capacity and selectivity. The adsorption results were evaluated based on various theoretical models in order to conclude regarding the kinetics. Moreover, the main interactions responsible for the increased U(VI) removal efficiency and in general the role of surface chemistry were analyzed by spectroscopic characterizations of OMS-P before and after adsorption.
New constraints on the age, geochemistry and environmental impact of High Arctic Large Igneous Province magmatism: Tracing the extension of the Alpha Ridge onto Ellesmere Island, Canada
Authors: Naber Tiera V. , Grasby Steve E. , Cuthbertson Jennifer P. , Rayner Nicole , Tegner Christian
Published: March 2021

The High Arctic Large Igneous Province (HALIP) represents extensive Cretaceous magmatism throughout the circum-Arctic borderlands and within the Arctic Ocean (e.g., the Alpha-Mendeleev Ridge). Recent aeromagnetic data shows anomalies that extend from the Alpha Ridge onto the northern coast of Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada. To test this linkage we present new bulk rock major and trace element geochemistry, and mineral compositions for clinopyroxene, plagioclase, and olivine of basaltic dykes and sheets and rhyolitic lavas for the stratotype section at Hansen Point, which coincides geographically with the magnetic anomaly at northern Ellesmere Island. New U-Pb chronology is also presented.

The basaltic and basaltic-andesite dykes and sheets at Hansen Point are all evolved with 5.5–2.5 wt% MgO, 48.3–57.0 wt% SiO2, and have light rare-earth element enriched patterns. They classify as tholeiites and in Th/Yb vs. Nb/Yb space they define a trend extending from the mantle array toward upper continental crust. This trend, also including a rhyolite lava, can be modeled successfully by assimilation and fractional crystallization. The U-Pb data for a dacite sample, that is cut by basaltic dykes at Hansen Point, yields a crystallization age of 95.5 ± 1.0 Ma, and also shows crustal inheritance. The chronology and the geochemistry of the Hansen Point samples are correlative with the basaltic lavas, sills, and dykes of the Strand Fiord Formation on Axel Heiberg Island, Nunavut, Canada. In contrast, a new U-Pb age for an alkaline syenite at Audhild Bay is significantly younger at 79.5 ± 0.5 Ma, and correlative to alkaline basalts and rhyo- lites from other locations of northern Ellesmere Island (Audhild Bay, Philips Inlet, and Yelverton Bay West; 83–73 Ma). We propose these volcanic occurrences be referred to collectively as the Audhild Bay alkaline suite (ABAS). In this revised nomenclature, the rocks of Hansen Point stratotype and other tholeiitic rocks are ascribed to the Hansen Point tholeiitic suite (HPTS) that was emplaced at 97–93 Ma. We suggest this subdivision into suites replace the collective term Hansen Point volcanic complex.

The few dredge samples of alkali basalt available from the top of the Alpha Ridge are akin to ABAS in terms of geochemistry. Our revised dates also suggest that the HPTS and Strand Fiord Formation volcanic rocks may be the hypothesized subaerial large igneous province eruption that drove the Cretaceous Ocean Anoxic Event 2.
Identifying Seismic Anisotropy Patterns in the Alps and Apennines with Splitting Intensity and Backazimuthal Dependencies
Authors: Confal Judith , Pondrelli Silvia , Faccenda Manuele , Baccheschi Paola , Salimbeni Simone
Published: March 2021

The current tectonics of the Alps and Apennines are driven and influenced by current and
past subduction systems. Computational advances over the years made it possible to
identify remnant and active slabs until great depths and large seismic deployments
revealed mostly clockwise rotation SKS splitting measurements. But the effects of layered
anisotropy and regional upper mantle flow through possible tears in the slabs remain
unknown. A comparison of several seismological methods can be a very efficient tool to
separate lithospheric and asthenospheric anisotropy. This study tries to understand if
anisotropy patterns change with depth in some regions (e.g., possible subslab mantle flow
in the Western Alps) and if tears can be identified with shear wave splitting measurements
(e.g., Central Apennines). Furthermore, splitting intensities will be analyzed for
backazimuthal dependencies and used to correct velocities in a full-waveform tomography.
By mapping and comparing existing and new anisotropy measurements (e.g., SKS, Pn
anisotropy, azimuthal anisotropy from surface waves tomography, and splitting intensities)
we intend to identify anisotropic depth dependencies.
Efficient multi-scale imaging of subsurface resistivity with uncertainty quantification using ensemble Kalman inversion
Authors: Binley Andrew , Tso Michael , Iglesias Marco , Wilkinson Paul , Kuras Oliver , Chambers Jonathan
Published: March 2021

Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) is widely used to image the Earth's subsurface and has proven to be an extremely useful tool in application to hydrological problems. Conventional smoothness-constrained inversion of ERT data is efficient and robust, and consequently very popular. However, it does not resolve well sharp interfaces of a resistivity field and tends to reduce and smooth resistivity variations. These issues can be problematic in a range of hydrological or near-surface studies, e.g. mapping regolith-bedrock interfaces. While fully Bayesian approaches, such as those employing Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling, can address the above issues, their very high computation cost makes them impractical for many applications. Ensemble Kalman Inversion (EKI) offers a computationally efficient alternative by approximating the Bayesian posterior distribution in a derivative-free manner, which means only a relatively small number of 'black-box' model runs are required. Although common limitations for ensemble Kalman filter-type methods apply to EKI, it is both efficient and generally captures uncertainty patterns correctly. We propose the use of a new EKI-based framework for ERT which estimates a resistivity model and its uncertainty at a modest computational cost. Our EKI framework uses a level-set parameterization of the unknown resistivity to allow efficient estimation of discontinuous resistivity fields. Instead of estimating level-set parameters directly, we introduce a second step to characterize the spatial variability of the resistivity field and infer length scale hyper-parameters directly. We demonstrate these features by applying the method to a series of synthetic and field examples. We also benchmark our results by comparing them to those obtained from standard smoothness-constrained inversion. Resultant resistivity images from EKI successfully capture arbitrarily shaped interfaces between resistivity zones and the inverted resistivities are close to the true values in synthetic cases. We highlight its readiness and applicability to similar problems in geophysics.
Flash Drought identification – a comparison of definitions across different datasets.
Authors: Lima Alencar Pedro Henrique , de Araújo José Carlos , Paton Eva Nora
Published: March 2021

Flash droughts recently started to draw a larger curiosity to its occurrence and, therefore, its features. Differently from the slow development of droughts (months to years), flash droughts evolve over a short time (weeks) of a rapid intensification. Over the last few years, multiple methods for flash drought identification were proposed. Those methods, although sharing some characteristics, as tracking of soil water content and/or evapotranspiration (actual and potential), end up not flagging the same periods under flash drought events. We compared six well-known flash drought identification methods from the literature and used two different datasets. The datasets are: (1) the FluxNET15 dataset (Pastorello et al, 2020), a collection of worldwide, quality-controlled measurements of several hydroclimatic variables, such as soil water content, precipitation, temperature, and wind speed; and (2) the ECMWF Reanalysis 5 (ERA5 – Hersbach et al., 2019) provides over three hundred different data including soil water content in multiple levels, evapotranspiration, precipitation, and temperature. Ten stations from FluxNET15 were selected and the data from the ERA5 on the respective pixels was acquired. The aim of this work is to compare the event identification of different methods using different datasets as input (direct measures and reanalysis based).
A step by step procedure for multivariate modeling
Authors: Cappello Claudia , De Iaco Sandra , Palma Monica , Maggio Sabrina
Published: March 2021

In environmental sciences, it is very common to observe spatio-temporal multiple data concerning several correlated variables which are measured in time over a monitored spatial domain. In multivariate Geostatistics, the analysis of these correlated variables requires the estimation and modelling of the spatio-temporal multivariate covariance structure.
In the literature, the linear coregionalization model (LCM) has been widely used, in order to describe the spatio-temporal dependence which characterizes two or more variables. In particular, the LCM model requires the identification of the basic independent components underlying the analyzed phenomenon, and this represents a tough task. In order to overcome the aforementioned problem, this contribution provides a complete procedure where all the necessary steps to be followed for properly detect the basic space-time components for the phenomenon under study, together with some computational advances which support the selection of an ST-LCM.
The implemented procedure and the related algorithms are applied on a space-time air quality dataset.
Note that the proposed procedure can help practitioners to reproduce all the modeling stages and to replicate the analysis for different multivariate spatio-temporal data.
Connecting Antarctic Sea Ice and Mid-latitude Precipitation
Authors: Rendfrey Tristan , Payne Ashley
Published: March 2021

Climatic changes induce many significant changes to long standing weather patterns. These mechanisms interact to drive consequences that may not be immediately obvious. One such connection involves the apparent relationship between polar sea ice extent and mid-latitude precipitation timing and location. This correlation, its mechanisms, and possible influences on weather are decently understood with respect to the Northern Hemisphere. However, the analogous relation for the Southern Hemisphere has been less studied. This provides an opportunity to examine connections between polar conditions and mid-latitude weather.

 

We explore the teleconnection between sea ice extent and lower latitude precipitation over the Southern Hemisphere. We investigate this relationship through observations of sea ice coverage using ICESat and ICESat-2 compared with reanalysis data via MERRA-2 in order to understand the variability of sea ice extent and its impact on midlatitude precipitation over the Southern Hemisphere. This study particularly examines the importance of seasonality and regional variations of the relationship.
Ensemble Kalman Filter for non-conservative moving mesh solvers with a joint physics and mesh location update
Authors: Sampson Christian , Carrassi Alberto , Aydogdu Ali , Jones Chris
Published: March 2021

Numerical solvers using adaptive meshes can focus computational power on important regions of a model domain capturing important or unresolved physics. The adaptation can be informed by the model state, external information, or made to depend on the model physics. 
 In this latter case, one can think of the mesh configuration  as part of the model state. If observational data is to be assimilated into the model, the question of updating the mesh configuration with the physical values arises. Adaptive meshes present significant challenges when using popular ensemble Data Assimilation (DA) methods. We develop a novel strategy for ensemble-based DA for which the adaptive mesh is updated along with the physical values. This involves including the node locations as a part of the model state itself allowing them to be updated automatically at the analysis step. This poses a number of challenges which we resolve to produce an effective approach that promises to apply with some generality. We evaluate our strategy with two testbed models in 1-d comparing to a strategy that we previously developed that does not update the mesh configuration. We find updating the mesh improves the fidelity and convergence of the filter. An extensive analysis on the performance of our scheme beyond just the RMSE error is also presented.
High resolution air temperature maps for urban planning and management
Authors: Frustaci Giuseppe , Montoli Enea , Lavecchia Cristina , Pilati Samantha
Published: March 2021

Existence of more or less dense urban meteorological networks is nowadays relatively common, even if often heterogenous in scopes, hardware and management. Those networks are undoubtedly useful tools for a variety of practical purposes.  Nevertheless, they are generally unfit to climatological studies, and unable to describe Air Temperature in the Urban Canopy Layer (UCL) with sufficient spatial resolution: for example, as required by several professional activities and for local adaptation measures to climate change.

 On the other hand, remote sensing data from space has become more and more frequent and easily available, offering a higher spatial resolution (but a still very low frequency) of surface characteristics as the Land Surface Temperature (LST). Often used to describe Urban Heat Islands (UHI), LST has not a simple correlation with canopy layer Air Temperature, which on the contrary is the most required variable for planning and management purposes in cities.

 Using both high quality in situ measurements of Air Temperature at top of UCL obtained by a dedicated urban network as a primary variable, and satellite derived LSTs as the secondary one, a Co-Kriging based methodology has been developed and tested to obtain medium to high spatial resolution Air Temperature maps. Instantaneous as well as long period mean fields of fine spatially resolved Air Temperature find relevant application not only in monitoring and assessing activities of adaptation and mitigation measures in the urban environment, but also in urban climate studies.

 In this paper the methodology is shortly described, and results for the metropolitan area of Milan and the neighbourhoods, obtained in the framework of the first 2 years of ClimaMi Project (https://www.progettoclimami.it/), are presented and discussed together with error estimations.
Fracture network analysis for carbon mineralization in basalts of the Oligocene Jizan volcanics, Saudi Arabia
Authors: Al Malallah Murtadha , Fedorik Jakub , Losi Giacomo , Panara Yuri , Menegoni Niccolo , Alafifi Abdulkader , Hoteit Hussein
Published: March 2021

This study aims to characterize fracture permeability in altered Oligocene-Early Miocene basalts of the Jizan Group, which accumulated in half grabens during the continental rift stage of Red Sea evolution. Unlike fresh basalts, the Jizan Group was affected by low temperature hydrothermal metamorphism, which plugged the original matrix porosity in vesicles, breccias, and interflow layers with alteration minerals. On the other hand, the basalts are pervasively shattered by open closely spaced fractures in several directions. Characterization of these fractures is essential to reducing the fracture permeability uncertainty for mineral carbonation by the dissolved CO2 process such as Carbfix.
Conventional measurements of fracture orientations and densities were initially taken at outcrops of the Jizan Group to characterize the fracture network. Photogrammetry of drone images covering larger areas were then used to create 3D models of the outcrops using Agisoft Metashape, which were analyzed for fracture geometries using Cloud Compare. The automated analysis of fracture orientations and densities compared well with conventional manual measurements. This gives confidence in semi-automated dronebased fracture characterization techniques in 3D, which are faster and less labor intensive, especially for characterization of large and difficult to reach outcrops.
Our fracture characterization will be used to construct 3D fracture permeability models of the Jizan Group for combined physical and chemical simulation of injection of dissolved CO2 from industrial sources into basalts. This will provide essential parameters to mitigate geological risks and to determine depth, spacing, and injection rates in CO2 disposal wells.
Simulation of the impact of COVID-19 lockdowns on aerosols and radiation at a global and European scale in CAMS
Authors: Pelletier Sophie , Rémy Samuel , Kipling Zak , Vilardell Marc Guevara , Bouarar Idir , Engelen Richard , Flemming Johannes , Huijnen Vincent , Meziane Mehdi
Published: March 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic struck China in January 2020 and the rest of the world from February 2020 onwards. Public authorities enforced several kinds of lockdowns in order to limit the spread of the pandemic and reduce its impact on the health system: at the height of the first wave of the pandemic, more than one human in two was subjected to a lockdown, with associated disruption in local and international travel, industry, tourism etc. These lockdowns had a profound effect on anthropogenic emissions of aerosol, trace gases and greenhouse gases; in this work we focus on aerosols and a selection of trace gases.

The Integrated Forecasting System (IFS) of ECMWF is core of the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) to provide global analyses and forecasts of atmospheric composition, including reactive gases, as well as aerosol and greenhouse gases. In this work, we use two emission reduction scenario with an experimental version of the IFS in its CAMS configuration: a global and a European one.  Global simulations of aerosols were carried out with these two scenarii and compared to a reference simulation without any COVID-19 impact, and to worldwide observations of PM2.5, AOD and trace gases.

The simulated PM2.5 using the global emission reduction scenario were found to reproduce quite accurately the observed evolution over China, India and United States. Over Europe, the simulated PM2.5 using the European reduction scenario were closer to observations and appeared more realistic. India was the only place where a significant impact on AOD and on temperature and radiation from the COVID-19 lockdowns was simulated. These simulations also provided information on how the aerosol speciation was altered by the COVID-19 lockdowns: over Europe and the U.S., most of the decrease in surface aerosols was simulated to come from nitrate aerosols. Over the U.S., this matched well with observations of speciated aerosols at surface.
Implementing the capability to respond to large volcanic eruptions in the C3S prediction systems
Authors: Bilbao Roberto , Balmaseda Magdalena , Batte Lauriane , Donat Markus , Ortega Pablo , Tourigny Etienne , Stockdale Tim
Published: March 2021

Explosive volcanic eruptions have climate impacts on seasonal-to-decadal time-scales. Studies have shown that these climate impacts have high predictive potential, and could therefore be exploited to improve operational climate predictions whenever a new explosive volcanic eruption happens. In preparation for such an event, which has occurred three times in the last 60 years, it is necessary to develop the capability to estimate and ingest the associated stratospheric volcanic forcing into the operational seasonal-to-decadal forecasts systems. This is one of the objectives of the H2020 project CONFESS (CONsistent representation of temporal variations of boundary Forcings in reanalysES and Seasonal forecasts), for which the main tasks envisaged are presented herein. The first task involves several technical developments in the IFS (the atmospheric model of the European Center for Medium-range Weather Forecasting) to improve the model representation of volcanic aerosols. Since for a new major volcanic eruption the evolution and distribution of the volcanic aerosols is initially unknown, the second task is to evaluate a method to estimate them based on several assumptions. For this purpose the recently enhanced emulator of volcanic aerosols EVA_H (Aubrey et al., 2019) will be used to produce the stratospheric volcanic aerosol forcing. In a final task, the outputs of the EVA_H module will be validated by producing the forcings of the past volcanic eruptions of Agung, El Chichon and Pinatubo, and the realism of their climate response will be evaluated in seasonal and multi-annual re-forecasts.
Litter and Microplastics: Environmental monitoring in the Arctic
Authors: Larsen Jan Rene , Provencher Jennifer , Farmen Eivind
Published: March 2021

While the Arctic Ecosystem is already stressed by the effects of the climate crisis, another threat is emerging: plastics. Plastic pollution has become an environmental issue of the highest concern world-wide, and the plastic pollution tide is also rising in the Arctic.

The pristine Arctic environments, far from most of the world’s major industrial areas, are becoming laden with plastic pollution. Microplastics have been found in Arctic snow, sea-ice, seawater, in sediments collected on the ocean floor, and on Arctic beaches. Larger pieces of plastic debris are also making their way into the food webs as whales, fish and birds can ingest them or get entangled in them. Climate change is expected to exacerbate the amount of debris in the Arctic, via melting sea-ice and increasing contributions from human activities.

The Artic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) is a Working Group of the Arctic Council. AMAP has a mandate to monitor and assess the status and trends of contaminants in the Arctic. In the Spring of 2019, AMAP decided to step up its efforts on the plastic issue and established an Expert Group on microplastics and litter with experts from Artic Council States and Observer countries.

The Expert Group has developed a comprehensive monitoring plan and technical guidelines for monitoring microplastics and litter in the Arctic. It will be the first time that all parts of the Arctic ecosystem are examined for traces of this type of pollution. The Expert Group aims to:

Design a program for the monitoring of microplastics and litter in the Arctic environment.

Develop necessary guidelines supporting the monitoring program.

Formulate recommendations and identify areas where new research and development is necessary from an Arctic perspective.
New deep-learning based approaches for forest landscape modeling
Authors: Rammer Werner , Seidl Rupert
Published: March 2021

In times of rapid global change, the ability to faithfully predict the development of vegetation on larger scales is of key relevance to society. However, ecosystem models that incorporate enough process understanding for being applicable under future and non-analog conditions are often restricted to finer spatial scales due to data and computational constraints. Recent breakthroughs in machine learning, particularly in the field of deep learning, allow bridging this scale mismatch by providing new means for analyzing data, e.g., in remote sensing, but also new modelling approaches. We here present a novel approach for Scaling Vegetation Dynamics (SVD) which uses a deep neural network for predicting large-scale vegetation development. In a first step, the network learns its representation of vegetation dynamics as a function of current vegetation state and environmental drivers from process-based models and empirical data. The trained model is then used within of a dynamic simulation on large spatial scales. In this contribution we introduce the conceptual approach of SVD and show results for example applications in Europe and the US. More broadly we discuss aspects of applying deep learning in the context of ecological modeling.
Stratigraphy of habitation deposits and fire history of the early medieval town Dzhankent (Kazakhstan, Eastern Aral region)  
Authors: Bronnikova Maria , Shumilovskikh Lyudmila , Karpova Yulia , Panin Andrey , Arzhantseva Irina , Härke Heinrich
Published: March 2021

Anthropogenic soils and soil-sedimentary systems (cultural layer, occupation deposit) in settlement archaeological settings are highly valuable and underappreciated archives of past environments, land-use activities, and life cycles within past residential areas. This study is aimed to reconstruct fire history for the early medieval town of Dzhankent located in Eastern Aral region, Kazakstan as based on the C14 dated stratigraphy, morphology and micromorphology, data on charcoal morphology, C:N and C13 isotope records.  

Several sections of cultural layers were studied within excavated areas. Stratigraphic units were thoroughly C14 dated (58 dates). Most 14C dates are between the 7th and 10th centuries, and most of the dates have overlapping intervals of calibrated age although clear up-section trends from older to younger ages may be seen. This demonstrates the slow, progressive accumulation of occupation deposits. The analysed excavation sections are very well stratified. Stratigraphic units based on char-enriched marker beds could sometimes be traced for long distances. Char enriched layers contain enormous quantities of both grass and wood charcoals. Thin, about 1 m long lenses of ash and charcoals of poor and unified taxonomic variety are thought to be fireplaces. Extended thick char-enriched layers (about 10 meters long and 0,1 m thick), well stratified at macro-, and micro-levels, with sub-parallel oriented charcoals of highly variable taxonomic compositions considered to be traces of big fires. Three fire events were detected based on the stratigraphy, morphology, charcoal amounts, C, N and C13 isotope depth variability.  

Filed studies and were funded by DFG project 389351859. The analytical part was supported by RFBR 19-29-05238, and DFG 389351859.
Thermal imaging and rock slabs deformation due to daily solar radiation
Authors: Derron Marc-Henri , Maillard Lena , Fei Li , Jaboyedoff Michel , Guérin Antoine
Published: March 2021

In the Yosemite National Park, it has been shown that large granitic exfoliation sheets can be subject to spectacular daily deformations (with cracks opening and closing with a magnitude of up to 15 mm over 24 hours). These thermal deformations, observed during hot summer days, are known to contribute greatly to rock falls. However, it is questionable whether this kind of deformation only occurs with exfoliation flakes (which have very particular shapes), or if it can be observed on more common rock faces geometries.  Moreover, does this phenomenon only occur during hot summer days or also in other seasons?

To answer these questions, cracks and slabs in two sedimentary rock walls were monitored over 24-hour cycles, in summer and winter. The first site is in the massive limestones of the old quarry of St-Triphon (in the Swiss Prealps), the second one in the cliff of la Cornalle (near Lausanne), an intercalation of poorly consolidated sandstone and marls. Air and contact temperature loggers, a pyranometer to measure the incident solar radiation and crackmeters were used in situ. Thermal images were acquired every 20 minutes (surface thermocouples sensors and aluminum reflectors are used to constrain the surface emissivity and the environmental radiative temperature).

First it was shown, that during sunny days, the amplitude of the daily variation of the rock surface temperature is as large in winter than in summer (up to 30°C). As expected, this amplitude is larger in the detached slab than in the massive rock mass. In both sites, the deformation measured in the cracks reach about 0.2 mm. Depending on the slab geometry and its “attachment points” with the main rock mass, an increase of temperature can correspond to a closing or to an opening of the cracks. In conclusions, however these daily deformations are about two orders of magnitude smaller than those measured in the Yosemite big walls, they appear to occur also in “common” rock faces all around the year. On the long term, these deformations will contribute to the rock weakening at sub-surface conditions.
Comparison between the coseismic surface displacement during the 29 December 2020 Mw 6.4 Petrinja earthquake (Croatia) from optical image correlation and long-term geomorphological observations of cumulative displacements
Authors: Henriquet Maxime , Moulin Adrien , Vukovski Matija , Kordić Branko , Budić Marko , Hollingsworth James , Gold Ryan , Baize Stéphane , Benedetti Lucilla
Published: March 2021

The Petrinja-Pokupsko fault-system is a NW-SE right-lateral fault system that ruptured during the 29 December 2020 Mw 6.4 earthquake (~40km south-east of Zagreb, Croatia). Field analysis revealed opening of cracks and offsets of several centimeters (3 to 40 cm) along a ~20 km long fault zone extending from the Kupa river (in the northwest) to the Petrinjčica river (in the southeast). Optical image correlation based on WorldView satellite images has been used to document the first-order near-field rupture signal. The pre-event image was acquired on 7th December 2017, and the post-event image on 15th January 2021. The first results indicate a right-lateral displacement of ≈75 cm with a small (<10 cm) extensional dip-slip component localized on the Petrinja fault. Using 1:5,000 topographic maps, a WorldView-derived DEM (1 m), and field observations, we identified and quantified cumulative dextral offsets along the central and southern section of the fault (south of Župić). Right-lateral offsets range from 5 to 200 m near Križ and Cepeliš (central sector). Diverted streams also extend southeast of the Petrinjčica river, where no surface ruptures have currently been reported to date. To the northwest, perched valleys, wind gaps, and karst features all testify to ongoing uplift across NW-SE-trending anticlines. It is unclear if the primary component of faulting changes from strike-slip (in the SE) to reverse (in the NW), or if these folds merely record a transpressive component across the fault. The activity of this fault system is poorly known. The region experienced a magnitude Mw 5.8 in 1909, ~30 km northwest of Petrinja, which may have been associated with the Petrinja-Pokupsko fault system. The recent 29 December 2020 earthquake confirms the seismic potential of this fault system to generate Mw>6 earthquakes. Since the fault extends farther NW and SE, from the Vukomeričke Gorice hills to Mount Kozara (Bosnia), for a total length of about 100 km, it could generate potentially larger events. It is also noteworthy that the 2020 Petrinja event occurred only 9 months after the Zagreb March 2020 (Mw 5.3) earthquake. This event occurred on an ENE-WSW-trending thrust fault, broadly orthogonal to the right-lateral Petrinja-Pokupsko fault system, ~45 km north of Petrinja, and raises the prospect of potential interplay between strike-slip and thrust faults in moderate strain-rate intra-plate settings. To address this problem, future works will aim at constraining the geometry of this fault network and its seismogenic potential.
An urban climate service to manage heat risks in UK and Chinese cities 
Authors: Ramsey Victoria , Scannell Claire
Published: March 2021

Recent extreme heat events in the UK are likely to become more frequent over the 21st Century and exacerbated in cities due to the urban heat island effect. Due to high population densities and a concentration of assets, urban areas are more vulnerable to climatic extremes with impacts that traverse health, infrastructure, built environment and economic activity. Risks to health, well-being and productivity from high temperatures is one of six priority areas from in UK Climate Change Risk Assessment (2017) where more action is needed to manage risks, prompting local authorities to understand heat risks within their city. 
City based climate services are needed for day-to-day operations in cities, emergency response and to inform urban design and development.  Recent advances in high resolution modelling enable better representation of urban processes and provide greater understanding of extreme events.  By exploiting such advances in underpinning science, the Met Office is generating urban climate services for city stakeholders to plan for and manage heat stress in their city.
The Met Office has been engaging with local authorities and city stakeholders in the UK and China to co-produce a prototype, two tier, urban heat climate service to enhance the resilience of urban environments to extreme heat events.  The prototype is based on a strong requirement from several cities to develop an evidence base of the heat hazard and understand current and future hot spots vulnerable to extremes of heat within the city.  Tier 1 uses observations and high-resolution climate data to provide city specific information of the heat hazard in a graphical factsheet format.  This includes information on future changes in temperature, extreme heat indicators, frequency and duration of heatwave events, and spatial distribution of heat across the city.  Tier 2 involves working closely with city stakeholders to combine the hazard information with data on health, built environment and socio-economics, to provide tailored information on heat exposure and vulnerability.  This will allow users to identify highly vulnerable parts of the city network and neighbourhoods for priority action.  This two-tier service can provide an evidence base to inform urban policy, design and adaptation strategies, and prepare authorities and city stakeholders for future demand on city services. 
Multispectral analysis of the Martian dayglow from UVIS-NOMAD on board TGO
Authors: Gérard Jean-Claude , Aoki Shohei , Leonardos Gkouvelis , Lauriane Soret , Yannick Willame , Ian Thomas , Cédric Depiesse , Bojan Ristic , Ann Carine Vandaele , Frank Daerden , Manish Patel , Jose López-Moreno , Giancarlo Bellucci , Jon Mason
Published: March 2021

The NOMAD instrument currently in orbit around Mars on board ESA's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) includes UVIS, a UV-visible spectrograph covering the spectral range 200-700 nm. This instrument has two channels, one for solar occultation and a nadir channel essentially designed to analyse solar backscattered radiation. Since April 2019, the TGO spacecraft is occasionally tilted so that the nadir channel is pointed toward the Martian limb to observe the planetary airglow. A first success was the discovery of the forbidden oxygen green line at 557.7 nm that is ubiquitous in all UVIS limb dayside observations. This emission gives its characteristic colour to the terrestrial polar aurora but had was never been observed before in the airglow of other planetary atmospheres. This emission is excited by the interaction between solar radiation and CO2 and shows a mean intensity peak near 80 km. More recently, the much weaker OI 630-nm emission has been detected following co-addition of several hundreds of UVIS spectra. It is much weaker than the green line, as a consequence of collisional deactivation of the long-lived O(1D) excited state. Both oxygen dayglow emissions have been successfully modelled. Molecular transitions are also identified in the UVIS ultraviolet spectrum, including the CO Cameron bands, the CO2+ ultraviolet doublet at 298-299 nm and the Fox-Duffendack-Baker (FDB) bands. They originate from the lower thermosphere near 120 km.

The seasonal-latitudinal evolution of the 557.7-nm emission will be described and compared with model simulations for the conditions of the observations. Simultaneous observations of dayglow emissions originating from different altitude will be available over a full Martian year. Coupled with model simulations, they provide constraints on the changing structure and composition of the Martian lower thermosphere, a region difficult to probe otherwise.

 
The influences of climatic and biotic parameters on the isotopic offset among topsoil waters in typical vegetation types in alpine
Authors: Qin Wenyi , Chen Guo , Wang Peng , Wang Xiang , Li Xiaozhen
Published: March 2021

Hydrogen and oxygen stable isotope compositions in soil waters have been widely used to investigate hydrologic cycles, particularly for understanding plant water usage. However, most studies of soil water isotopes have traditionally ignored the importance of O-horizon that may potentially influence the accurate evaluation of hydrologic processes, especially in alpine regions where O-horizon are thick due to low temperatures. Therefore, we investigated the isotopic differences (via mean effect size, lnRR) of waters from O-horizon and 0–10 cm soil layer in grasslands and woodlands of Western Sichuan alpine regions and evaluated the influences of climatic and biotic factors on observed differences. The results indicated that the δ2H and δ18O of O-horizon water were significantly higher than those of the 0–10 cm soil layer in grasslands, but these differences were not significant in woodlands. The influence of climatic factors on lnRR was limited relative to biotic factors, and the influence of climate contrasted with expectations based on evaporation principles. Rather, above ground biomass (AGB) was the most important factor associated with lnRR and it was significantly correlated with lnRR between and within soil waters from two vegetation types. Consequently, the observed differences were mainly related to vegetation conditions that influence microclimates within canopies. Therefore, investigations of hydrological processes may inaccurately estimate their influences when not separately considering the high stable isotopes values of O-horizon in grasslands of alpine regions with thin soil layers. In particular, the influence of O-horizon should especially be considered when AGB was lower than 100 t/hm2 not only in grassland but also in other vegetation types.
Performance of a mobile infrasound station in the framework of CEEIN 
Authors: Mitterbauer Ulrike , Ghica Daniela
Published: March 2021

The project ABC-MAUS is undertaken by a collaboration of the Austrian Ministry of Defense, Joanneum Research, the Austrian national weather and geophysical service Zentralanstalt für Meteorologie und Geodynamik (ZAMG), including the Austrian National Data Center (NDC), as well as the private company GIHMM. The aim is to develop a strategy of protection for chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threads (CBRN) for the Austrian armed forces.

In the frame of the project, a mobile infrasound array was deployed together with seismic sensors to monitor the military training ground Allentsteig in Lower Austria. During one week a series of controlled explosions was recorded. Infrasound data was processed and analyzed by using a duo of infrasound detection-oriented software (DTK-GPMCC and DTK-DIVA, packaged into NDC-in-a-Box). The dataset contained not only local and regional data, but revealed as well long term sources and – after comparing the data with data from stations of the CEEIN (Central Eastern European Infrasound Network) – some global events. Those events were localized using data of the temporary deployed array and by observations collected by other stations of the CEEIN.
Cropmarks used in aerial archaeology as special spatial indicators of soil features potentially applicable in soil mapping
Authors: Árvai Mátyás , Czajlik Zoltán , Mészáros János , Nagy Balázs , Pásztor László
Published: March 2021

Cropmarks are a major factor in the effectiveness of traditional aerial archaeology. The positive and negative features shown up by cropmarks are the role of the different cultivated plants and the importance of precipitation and other elements of the physical environment. In co-operation with the experts of the Eötvös Loránd University a new research was initiated to compare the pedological features of cropmark plots (CMP) and non-cropmark plots (nCMP) in order to identify demonstrable differences between them. For this purpose, the spatial soil information on primary soil properties provided by DOSoReMI.hu was employed. To compensate for the inherent vagueness of spatial predictions, together with the fact that the definition of CMPs and nCMPs is somewhat indefinite, the comparisons were carried out using data-driven, statistical approaches. In the first round three pilot areas were investigated, where Chernozem and Meadow type soils proved to be correlated with the formation of cropmarks. Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests and Random Forest models showed a different relative predominance of pedological variables in each study area. The geomorphological differences between the study areas explain these variations satisfactorily. In the next round, the identified relationships between cropmarking and soil features are planned to be utilized in the spatial inference of soil properties, where crop-marking sites will represent a unique, spatially non-exhaustive auxiliary information.