bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Long term influences of PVC microplastics on soil chemical and microbiological parameters
Authors: Barili Sofia , Bernetti Alessandro , Sannino Ciro , Montegiovo Nicolò , Calzoni Eleonora , Cesaretti Alessio , Pinchuk Irina , Pezzolla Daniela , Turchetti Benedetta , Buzzini Pietro , Gigliotti Giovanni , Emiliani Carla
Published: February 2023

Microplastics are emerging pollutant found in many ecosystems including soil. Within them, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is one of the most toxic polymers and is known for its remarkable resistance to degradation. The recalcitrant nature of PVC and the improper waste disposal could cause serious environmental concerns. In addition, the possible fragmentation and accumulation of small plastic particles in agricultural soils might have impacts on soil chemical and microbiological properties. Based on these considerations, a microcosm experiment was set up to investigate the effects of PVC microplastics (0.021% w/w) on soil chemical properties and soil bacterial and fungal communities at different incubation times (from 3 to 360 days).Among chemical parameters, soil CO2 emissions, fluorescein diacetate hydrolysis (FDA), total organic C (TOC), total N, water extractable organic C (WEOC), water extractable N (WEN) and SUVA254 were investigated, while the structure of soil microbial communities was studied at different taxonomic levels (phylum and genus) by sequencing bacterial 16S and fungal ITS2 rDNA (Illumina MiSeq). The number and the dimensions of PVC particles were also evaluated after one year of experiment.The results showed that the presence of PVC particles in soil caused significant (p < 0.05) variations in chemical parameters in short- and medium-term, thus suggesting that the presence of this polymer in soil can affect the turnover of organic matter. In the long period, instead, an increase of the soil enzymatic activity (FDA) was observed.The analysis of microbiological parameters showed that PVC microplastics significantly affected (p < 0.05) the structure of soil microbial communities changing the abundances of specific bacterial and fungal taxa: Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, Bacteroides, Candidatus_Saccharibacteria, and Proteobacteria, , among bacteria, and Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, and Mortierellomycota among fungi, suggesting that the impact of this polymer could be taxa-dependent.A significant (p < 0.05) decrease of the number and dimensions of PVC particles was also detected after one year of incubation, supposing a possible role of microbial community on polymer degradation.
Substantial contribution of iodine to Arctic ozone destruction
Authors: Cuevas Carlos A. , Benavent Nuria , Mahajan Anoop S. , Li Qinyi , Schmale Julia , Angot Hélène , Jokinen Tuija , Quéléver Lauriane L. J. , Blechschmidt Anne-Marlene , Zilker Bianca , Richter Andreas , Serna Jesus A. , Garcia-Nieto David , Fernandez Rafael P. , Skov Henrik , Dumitrascu Adela , Simões Pereira Patric , Abrahamsson Katarina , Bucci Silvia , Duetsch Marina ,   MOSAiC iodine Team
Published: February 2023

While the importance of bromine chemistry for the Arctic surface ozone budget is well documented, the effect of iodine chemistry has received less attention. Here we present observations performed as part of the ship-based Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) expedition, where halogen oxides were measured during the sunlit period from March to October 2020. Ozone shows drastic loss during the boreal spring (March, April and May), when near-complete depletion is regularly observed, highlighting that ozone depletion in the central Arctic is widespread. The drastic ozone depletion coincides with ‘bromine explosion’ episodes, when bromine oxide (BrO) reaches values as high as 14.8±0.8pptv. In contrast, observations of IO show the presence of active iodine chemistry on most days during the whole sunlit period (including boreal spring, summer and autumn), presenting elevated levels of IO (usually between 0.2 and 1 pptv) that peak during spring (2.9±0.3 pptv). We find that chemical reactions between iodine and ozone are the second highest contributor to ozone loss over the study period, after ozone photolysis-initiated loss and ahead of bromine.
DestinE-AQ: High-resolution air quality forecast, analysis, and scenario simulations coupled to the Digital Twin of DestinE
Authors: Lange Anne Caroline , Franke Philipp , Schröder Sabine , Kleinert Felix , Selke Niklas , Friese Elmar , Schultz Martin G.
Published: February 2023

Extreme air pollution events of high concentrated surface ozone (O3) or particulate matter (PM) pose a lethal threat to humans worldwide. To investigate air quality under extreme atmospheric situations, the DestinE-AQ use case develops a comprehensive user interface that enables high resolution air quality forecasts and analysis by combining numerical simulations, machine learning approaches and observations. The core of the system encloses access to the open database of global air quality observations (i.e. the Tropospheric Ozone Assessment Report data base, TOAR), innovative machine learning workflows (e.g. MLAir, IntelliO3-ts) including downscaling modules, and high resolution numerical simulations using the state of the art chemistry transport model EURAD-IM (EURopean Air pollution Dispersion- Inverse Model). The aspired air quality forecasts and analyses will dynamically be driven by the DestinE Digital Twin for weather extremes. Thus, the pursued horizontal resolution of the air quality simulations is identical to the resolution of the DestinE digital twin (< 1 km2).To provide reliable air quality analyses, the system makes use of observational data in both the machine learning tools and EURAD-IM by enabling 3D-var data assimilation. While focusing on Europe, the system will demonstrate how observations and physics-based and data-driven models can be woven together to achieve enhanced realism and finer resolution of air pollution information and thus provide better support to decision makers. The system is complemented by an efficient ensemble module that enables emission scenario simulations to test and develop air pollution mitigation strategies for future extreme events under realistic conditions. The development of the user interface is done in close cooperation with the German and North Rhine-Westphalian Environment Agencies to meet the end users’ needs. The system will provide detailed information about air quality, its underlying chemical processes, the influence of meteorological extreme events, and the impacts of anthropogenic emissions on air quality. Hence, it will also serve the scientific community to answer questions on air quality and atmospheric chemical processes under extreme weather conditions that are expected to increase in future. To allow for the investigation of the human impact of extreme events, the DestinE-AQ focuses on the key air pollutants PM2.5, nitrogen oxides (NOx), and O3 in the planetary boundary layer. The potential combination of the system with socio-economic and medical models will be evaluated.
Yield function of the DOSimetry TELescope (DOSTEL) count and dose rates aboard an aircraft
Authors: Romaneehsen Lisa , Burmeister Sönke , Giese Hanna , Heber Bernd , Herbst Konstantin
Published: February 2023

The Earth is continuously exposed to galactic cosmic rays. The magnetized solar wind in the heliosphere and the Earth's magnetic field alters the flux of these particles. If cosmic rays hit the atmosphere, they can form secondary particles. The total flux measured within the atmosphere depends on the atmospheric density above the observer. Therefore, the ability of a particle to approach an aircraft depends on its energy, the altitude, and the position of the plane. The cutoff rigidity describes the latter.The radiation detector of the detector system NAVIDOS (NAVIgation DOSimetry) is the DOSimetry Telescope (DOSTEL), measuring the count and dose rates in two semiconductor detectors. From 2008 to 2011, two instruments were installed in two aircraft. First, we corrected the data for pressure variation by normalizing them to one flight level and determined their dependence on the cutoff rigidity by fitting a Dorman function to the observation. The latter was used to compute the yield function, which describes the ratio of incoming primary cosmic rays, approximated by a force field solution, to the measured count and dose rate for a particular instrument. As for neutron monitors, the sensitivity increases substantially above a rigidity of about 1 GV.We received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 870405. 
Detecting and mapping the induced seismicity of a planned EGS in Helsinki/Espoo, Finland
Authors: Vuorinen Tommi , Hillers Gergor , Oinonen Kati , Hällsten Jennifer , Taylor George , Gal Martin
Published: February 2023

The company ST1 Oy planned to construct an Enhanced Geothermal System (EGS) with two boreholes drilled down to ca. 6 km depth beneath the Aalto University campus in Otaniemi, Espoo, on the border of Helsinki. The company performed two stimulations, in June–July 2018 and in May 2020, with a goal of opening up a water reservoir and achieving water circulation between the boreholes. The stimulation periods, which induced thousands of earthquakes, and their immediate surroundings were monitored by both permanent and temporary seismic networks with over 100 stations located within a few tens of kilometers of the site. Between and after the stimulations, the site was and is still being monitored by a relatively dense, consisting in total of ca. 20 stations, regional surface station and company installed borehole station networks.We have developed a cross-correlation based event detector which uses the existing ISUH manually analysed catalogues primarily of the 2018 and 2020 stimulation period seismicity, complemented by automatically picked catalogues from IMS, to detect events from the collected continuous waveform database. The 4-step detector – templating, detecting, event filtering & relocating – can run on varying station configuration and is able to detect events down to ML -0.5 – -1.0 with the station-event geometry around the EGS. We present here the results of the detector run from the beginning of the dense stimulation monitoring in May 2018 to the end of 2022 providing a comprehensive anatomy of the EGS induced seismicity.
First insights into mineralogy and weathering of the slags produced by smelting lateritic Ni ore at Vozarci, North Macedonia
Authors: Đorđević Tamara , Nagl Peter , Lengauer Christian L. , Kolitsch Uwe , Tasev Goran , Serafimovski Todor , Boev Ivan , Boev Blažo
Published: February 2023

The laterite Ni ore smelting operations at Vozarci, North Macedonia, which produces ferronickel since 1982, have produced large amounts of smelting wastes dumped at the smelter. In May 2022 we have sampled three different types of slags occurring in these slag dumps. Slag 1 was produced using predominantly ore imported from Indonesia, slag 2 was formed using the ore from the nearby Ržanovo mine and slag 3 was produced using predominantly ore imported from the Ivory Coast. X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy analyses showed that slags 1 and 3 contain between 43–47 wt.% SiO2 and slag 2 35 wt.% SiO2. Relative to slags 1 and 3, slag 2 is enriched in iron (40 wt.% Fe2O3). Furthermore, slag 2 is characterized by a large Cr content (ca. 17400 ppm of Cr2O3). A combination of powder X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy and SEM-EDS analyses (of polished aliquots) showed that the slags consist of silicate glass, synthetic equivalents of orthopyroxenes (enstatite), clinopyroxenes (clinopyroxene, diopside, pigeonite, augite), olivines (forsterite, fayalite) and subordinate spinel-group phases (chromite, magnesiochromite, magnetite, trevorite), sulphides (pyrrhotite and FeS-NiS phases) and intermetallic compounds (metallic Fe with up to 10 at.% Ni and remnants of ferronickel). All three slags contain significant amounts of the following potentially toxic elements: Co (20-87 ppm), Cr (9600-17400 ppm), Ni (500-730 ppm) and Zn (150-380 ppm). The phase assemblages and textures in the Vozarci slags are similar to those in other pyrometallurgical slags produced during reworking of silicate and sulphide ores. Although the slags 1 and 2 have been exposed to atmospheric conditions for about 40 years, those occurring in the dumps are not much affected by weathering. At present, we have identified the following alteration products: (i) abundant iron oxy-hydroxides (including lepidocrocite) (slag 1), (ii) minor nesquehonite, MgCO3·3H2O (slag 2) and (iii) syngenite, K2Ca(SO4)2·H2O (slag 1). Since slag 3 is newly deposited slag, it is not weathered at all.Financial support of the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research (BMBWF) and Austria´s Agency for Education and Internationalisation (OeAD), (WTZ Grant MK 06/2022) is gratefully acknowledged.
Towards a robust, open-source logging platform for environmental monitoring in challenging environments: the Riverlabs toolbox
Authors: Buytaert Wouter
Published: February 2023

Hydrology is still one of the most data scarce natural sciences. The large number of variables to measure, their extreme spatiotemporal gradients, and the often harsh and hostile environmental conditions all contribute to this issue. This challenge is even more pronounced in remote and extreme environments such as the tropics, and mountain regions, where the need for robust data is most acute.Many new and emergent technologies can help with building more cost-effective, robust, and versatile hydrological monitoring systems. However, the speed at which these new technologies are being incorporated in commercially available systems is slow and dictated by commercial interests and bottlenecks.An alternative solution is for scientists to build their own systems using off the shelf components. Open-source hardware and software, such as the Arduino and Raspberry Pi ecosystems, make this increasingly feasible. As a result, a plethora of global initiatives for open-source sensing and logging solutions have emerged.But despite these new technologies, it remains a major challenge to build open-source solutions that equal the reliability and robustness of the high-end commercial systems that are available on the market. Sharing experiences, best practices, and evidence on the real-world performance of different designs may help with overcoming this bottleneck.In this contribution, I summarize the experience gained from developing and operating over 300 open-source data loggers, built around the Riverlabs platform. This platform is mostly a compilation of existing open-source hardware and software components and solutions, which were refined further and tweaked for robustness and reliability in extreme environments. Our loggers have been installed in locations as diverse as Arctic Norway, the high Andes of Peru and Chile, the Nepalese and Indian Himalayas, the Somali desert, and the Malaysian rainforest, providing a wide range of real-world test-cases and performances.
Urban flood hazard assessment in Pacific Peruvian catchments: Coupling hydrological, hydrodynamic and future land use modelling under climate change.
Authors: Montenegro Gambini Julio Isaac
Published: February 2023

There is a global consensus in the scientific community that urbanization and climate change are posing high uncertainty and challenges for the 21st century, exacerbating the flood risk in different cities or urban sub-catchments which also hinders resilience building. Land Use/Land Cover (LULC) change as a result of anthropogenic activity such as complex urban growth, is a critical aspect to study due to its main role on the hydrological response of river basins. Therefore, it is crucial to understand a basin response during hydrological extremes and how shifts in urban extension or any other complex LULC change impact on it, in order to make informed decisions and deploy strategies for mitigating flood risk. This research is aimed to implement a multi-scenario hazard assessment approach which couples GeoSOS-FLUS (Cellular Automata + Markov chains), a event-based hydrological model (HEC-HMS) and a 2D hydrodynamic model (HEC-RAS) simulations including multi-type natural and urban land uses in 3 Peruvian catchments which flow into the Pacific Ocean. Here, several cities currently face a lack of capacity and scientific understanding to respond to hydrological extremes and deal effectively with the uncertainty of complex LULC transitions and urbanization. HEC-HMS modelling system incorporates spatially varied land use parameters and simulates key hydrologic processes at sub-catchment scale which are impacted by LULC transitions. Flood events are studied in experiments for different return periods. The assessment was carried out using daily downscaled CMIP6 meteorological datasets under Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) scenarios at 0.25° of resolution from 2030 to 2050. According to the predicted flood extension, new built-up zones are also exhibiting a significant flood exposure. The rising flood hazard data generated by model simulations aids in our comprehension of future distribution of flood-prone zones at sub-catchment and city level. Our work and its ongoing improvements are pointed to be a promising method in several flood risk studies in Peru. The findings also encourage rethinking urban development and measures in high hazard intensity areas, overcoming the lack of scientific understanding and quantifiable evidence of climate change and urbanization effects.
Role of snow for changes hydrological regimes in the Lena river basin
Authors: Gustafsson David , Musuuza Jude , Klemeth Katharina , Bozhinova Denica , Popp Andrea , Lebedeva Liudmila , Hiyama Tetsuya
Published: February 2023

The study investigates the role of snow for the climate change impacts in hydrological regimes across the Lena river basin in Yakutia, Eastern Siberia using a hydrological model constrained by in-situ and satellite-based snow and river discharge observations. The river runoff observations in large and medium sized rivers show an increase over recent decades that can be associated with increasing air temperature and precipitation, as well as changes in snow, glaciers, and permafrost. We assessed the relation between changes in snow and streamflow using the satellite-based ESA CCI snow data and the hydrological model HYPE. The streamflow trend analysis showed a general pattern of increasing monthly mean and minimum stream flows from October to April, but more frequent in larger river basins, and especially if the last 20 years are included in the trend analysis. This can be explained by the increasing autumn precipitation, but the absence of change in annual maximum flow and streamflow in June also suggests relation to changes in the snow. The snow data shows a pattern of decreasing maximum snow water equivalent in the western part of the study area, and a corresponding decreasing trend of number of days with snow cover. These results are in line with the trends in observed streamflow; a short snow cover period (and increasing amount of autumn and winter rainfall, not shown here) as well as a lower maximum snow water equivalent could contribute both to the increasing winter runoff, and the absence of increasing streamflow in early summer. This work was conducted as part of the HYPE-ERAS project funded by FORMAS (project DNR: 2019-02332), RFBR (project No. 20-55-71005), and JST (Grant No. JPMJBF2003) through the Belmont Forum Collaborative Research Action: Resilience in the Rapidly Changing Arctic.
The land-to-ocean loops of the global carbon cycle: How much do we know about long-term trends and drivers of changes in CO2 fluxes ?
Authors: Regnier Pierre , Resplandy Laure , Rosentreter Judith , Najjar Raymond , Ciais Philippe
Published: February 2023

This contribution presents a new view of the global carbon cycle which accounts for the land-to-ocean transport of carbon through inland waters, estuaries, tidal wetlands and continental shelf waters—the ‘land-to-ocean aquatic continuum’ (LOAC). We highlight how biogeochemical and ecological processes from land-to-ocean have been perturbed by human interventions, including atmospheric composition change, climate change and land-use change. The extend to which these anthropogenic perturbations have altered regional and global CO2 budgets and trends along the LOAC are also presented and the knowledge gaps that are key to reduce uncertainties in future assessments of LOAC fluxes are identified. Finally, broader implications regarding the quantification of the terrestrial and open ocean sinks of anthropogenic carbon are briefly discussed 
Short-term fast ice dynamics derived from passive seismic data at a large Greenland outlet glacier
Authors: Nap Ana , Walter Fabian , Wehrlé Adrien , Kneib-Walter Andrea , Jouvet Guillaume , Lüthi Martin P.
Published: February 2023

Outlet glaciers and ice streams are the main channels through which ice sheets transport their mass towards the ocean. One of Greenland’s largest outlet glaciers Sermeq Kujalleq in Kangia (Jakobshavn Isbrae) has been broadly researched after experiencing a rapid retreat of the terminus and accompanying speedup to up to 40 m/day in the early 2000’s. However, such short-term ice dynamic variations remain poorly understood making numerical models difficult to constrain and predictions on future sea-level rise uncertain.The short-term ice dynamics of Sermeq Kujalleq consists in transient states and can only be captured by in-situ measurements of high spatial and temporal resolution. Glacier seismology has proven to be a valuable tool to study these dynamics, it provides data with a high temporal resolution and can provide information on processes happening below the ice surface. Within the COEBELI project we combine passive glacier seismology with global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receivers, long-range drones, time-lapse cameras and terrestrial radar interferometry to capture processes such as calving and basal sliding at their respective timescales.Here, we present results from a multi-array seismic deployment at Sermeq Kujalleq in Summer 2022. From May until September two arrays were deployed in the upstream part of the fast-flowing ice stream (>22 km from calving front) and one array on slower moving ice North of the main trunk. For a 3-week period in July, four more arrays were deployed on the fast-flowing ice stream closer to the calving front (<15 km). In the severely crevassed areas near the calving front (<15 km), the arrays consisted of custom-made autonomous seismic boxes whereas at more accessible upstream areas we installed borehole instruments. During the deployment we recorded multiple large calving events, glacier speedups and periodic multi-hour tremors accompanied by bursts of short-term high frequency (>50 Hz) icequakes. By studying these different signals, we are able to better constrain the processes and forces that control fluctuating ice-flow velocity and calving events.
Latitudinal and Longitudinal Structure of Io's Atmosphere explained by an Atmosphere that is purely Sublimation Driven
Authors: Dott Anne-Cathrine , Saur Joachim , Schlegel Stephan , Strobel Darrell
Published: February 2023

How much Io's SO2 atmosphere is driven by direct volcanic outgasing or the sublimation of SO2 surface frost is still debated. Since the sublimation supported part of the atmosphere is highly surface temperature dependent, the atmosphere is expected to have a lower SO2 column density on the nightside consistent with observations of a decreased column density in eclipse. Furthermore, the atmosphere is observed to be thicker in equatorial regions compared to the poles and when Jupiter is in Perihelion.To investigate how well observed structures of Io's SO2 distribution can be explained with a purely sublimation driven atmosphere, we developed a time dependent surface temperature model including the effect of thermal inertia. Analyzing the conductive heat transfer from Io's surface towards its interior and vice versa, which is mainly determined by the thermal diffusivity α, allows us to show that many observations can be well explained by assuming a sublimation dominated atmosphere. Simulations show that α=3.1x10-6 m2 / s yields an averaged atmospheric SO2 column density decreasing from 1016 to 2.5x1014 cm-2 from the equator to the poles. In a parameter study regarding the thermal inertia we discuss the influence of different values of the thermal inertia on the diurnal surface temperature and column density variation and find that a thermal diffusivity lower by a factor of 10 results in an atmosphere having both features, a less pronounced latitudinal dependence but a strong day-night asymmetry. Due to Io's inclination, we also find features of the surface temperature and column density that vary seasonally. 
Future changes in heat stress over CORDEX East Asia phase 2 domain by the end of the century
Authors: Juzbasic Ana , Cha Dong-Hyun , Ahn Joong-Bae
Published: February 2023

Changes in summer heat extremes have been recorded all over the globe in recent years. East Asia is one of the most vulnerable areas for climate change, owing to a combination of natural and anthropogenic factors. The human experience of heat, however, does not only depend on the temperature itself but rather the combination of factors that regulate the exchange of heat with the environment. The present study uses Net Effective Temperature (NET), an index that combines the effects of temperature, humidity, and wind, to assess heat stress perception and its potential changes by the end of the century over East Asia. The data used in the study are maximums calculated from the three-hourly output of the 10 Coupled General Circulation Model (CGCM) - Regional Climate Model (CGM) chains participating in the Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX)-East Asia phase 2. As human beings can acclimate to their environment, not only maximum values but also 95th percentiles of maximum values have been used. The assessment of the models showed that all of the models reproduced the current climate reasonably. The present study utilized two different scenarios, RCP8-5, and SSP5-8.5. In both scenarios, the increase in averages and 95th percentiles of both maximum temperatures and NETs over the whole domain has been projected. The increase in NET was projected to be higher than the increase in temperature itself, and the increase in the SSP5-8.5 scenario was projected to be higher than the increase in the RCP8.5 scenario, but the details of the warming patterns were dependent on the choice of model. Additionally, the Korean Peninsula and Japan have been shown to have the largest difference in the increase between heat stress and temperature, while the highest overall increase of both temperature and NET was projected over the North-Western part of the domain in both scenarios.
Erosive and accretive response of a natural beach to storm events
Authors: Criado Sudau Francisco Fabián , Fernandez-Mora Àngels , Soriano-González Jesús , Gallo Marcos , Gómez-Pujol Lluís , Orfila Alejandro , Tintoré Joaquín
Published: February 2023

Coastal zones are low-lying areas that support highly dynamic and productive ecosystems of great ecological and economic value. Anthropic and natural processes coexist and interact between them mediated by environmental fluctuations. The nature of coastal areas makes them susceptible to climate change effects. For instance, sea level rise and the increased frequency and intensity of storms and surges have a great impact on the morphodynamics of sandy beaches. Understanding how these environments behave under today's changing conditions is key to proposing efficient adaptation measures and management strategies.  However, the wide range of modulators involved in beach morphodynamics, and their high dynamism, make the integrated monitoring of these areas costly (time, human, and  economic resources) and challenging. Despite technological improvements and the increased availability of low-cost instrumentation and data (video monitoring systems, satellites’ observations, near-real-time oceanographic instruments/data), long-term and high-frequency data-sets, including morphological and wave data, remain scarce. Since 2011, the ICTS SOCIB (Balearic Islands Coastal Observing and forecasting System) has been monitoring three beaches of the Balearic Islands through the deployment of Modular Beach Integral Monitoring Systems (MOBIMS). MOBIMS aims to fill the gap of high-resolution and continuous beach monitoring by combining data from hybrid field surveys-remote sensing systems. MOBIMS is composed of low-cost open-source video monitoring imagery (SIRENA), Acoustic Wave and Current Profilers (AWAC), meteorological stations, and bi-annual high-resolution bathymetries and topographic surveys, as well as sediment granulometry. In this study, we present the analysis of the Son Bou Beach (Menorca, Spain) MOBIMS dataset generated over the last 12 years (2011-2022). The analysis focuses on characterizing the response of Son Bou beach to extreme events (i.e., storms), by means of shoreline position-change detection. Over 170 shorelines were derived from the SIRENA video-monitoring system, and meteorological and oceanographic data corresponding to 150 coastal storms were collected. The most energetic events eroded the beach, moving the shoreline landward significantly; but, accretive storms were also found, increasing the width of the beach. The presence of a coastal lagoon and the well-preserved dunes was crucial to understanding the beach response and its behaviour under different wave conditions. 
Successful characterisation of on-site wastewater treatment system biomats using the Microbes of Activated Sludge and Anaerobic Digesters (MiDAS) taxonomic database
Authors: Criado Monleon Alejandro Javier , Knappe Jan , Somlai Celia , Ospina Betancourth Carolina , Ali Muhammad , Curtis Thomas P. , Gill Laurence William
Published: February 2023

There has been a large output of genomic data in ecological studies of centralised wastewater treatment plants over the past number of years. One significant collaboration of Danish and Swedish research institutions lead to the development of the Microbes of Activated Sludge and Anaerobic Digesters (MiDAS 4) global taxonomic database. The database has been an effective tool in understanding centralised systems, however, there has been no known application of this tool in understanding the ecology of organisms in the on-site wastewater treatment systems. The growth of microbial mats or "biomats" has been identified as an essential component in the attenuation of pollutants within the soil treatment unit (STU) of conventional on-site wastewater treatment systems (OWTSs). Two research sites were employed to determine the influence of the pre-treatment of raw-domestic wastewater on these communities. The STUs at each of the two sites were split, whereby half received effluent directly from septic tanks, and half received more highly treated effluents from packaged aerobic treatment systems [a coconut husk media filter on one site, and a rotating biodisc contactor (RBC) on the other site]. Effluents from the RBC had a higher level of pre-treatment [~90% Total Organic Carbon (TOC) removal], compared to the media filter (~60% TOC removal).  These sites' biomat were sampled two-dimensionally in respect of distance and depth, to configure ecological data with changes in the volumetric water content values which had been used successfully as an indicator of the location of the biomat. A total of 92 samples were obtained from both STU locations and characterized by MiDAS taxonomic database. Our study has shown that the biomats receiving primary or untreated effluent have less pronounced increases in denitrifiers compared to the biomats receiving treated or partially treated effluent. but biomats receiving primary effluents have been found to be capable of removing six times the amount of total nitrogen. This suggests that the increases in functional richness within the STU are secondary to bioclogging, as metabolic rates could be limited by hydraulic conductivity.
Statistical analysis of electron heating across quasi-perpendicular shocks
Authors: Lalti Ahmad , Khotyaintsev Yuri V. , Graham Daniel B.
Published: February 2023

The process of electron heating across collisionless shocks is not fully understood. Their heating is believed to be an interplay between adiabatic large scale, DC electric and magnetic fields across the shock and non-adiabatic large amplitude AC electromagnetic and electrostatic waves. In this work we use the database developed by Lalti et al. 2022 to select 426 quasi-perpendicular shock crossings by MMS spacecraft, each of which exhibiting a clean upstream and downstream region. For each shock we calculate the various shock and plasma parameters such as θBn, MA, βe, cross shock potential, electron temperature parallel and perpendicular to the magnetic field.  We investigate the various correlations between those parameters in order to understand the general character of electron heating, and to what extent non-adiabatic effects contribute to the process.

 

Lalti, A., Khotyaintsev, Y. V., Dimmock, A. P., Johlander, A., Graham, D. B., and Olshevsky, V., “A Database of MMS Bow Shock Crossings Compiled Using Machine Learning”, Journal of Geophysical Research (Space Physics), vol. 127, no. 8, 2022. doi:10.1029/2022JA030454.
Coastal exposure and adaptability under the sea-level rise in coastal cities: a case study in Mumbai, India
Authors: Fang Yongqiang
Published: February 2023

Coastal cities and settlements play a key role in moving toward higher climate resilient development. But as urbanization trends in exposed areas continue, this will exacerbate the associated flood risk affecting climate change, including sea level rise. Understanding future sea level rise and future urban growth is essential for urban adaptation to flood risk. Here, we combined a future land use simulation (GeoSOS) model and floodplain inundation model (LISFLOOD-FP) to simulate and evaluate the impacts of future socioeconomic development scenarios under different representative concentration pathways and proposed possible adaptations measures for the coastal city Mumbai, India. The results showed that flood inundation under different scenarios showed differences. Our results confirm that sea level rise will significantly affect the coastal Mumbai urban area.
From flood forecast to direct damage prediction: Supporting early action with an Impact-based Forecasting system
Authors: Sarcinella Margherita , Pagán Brianna R. , Landuyt Lisa , Pal Jeremy S. , Essenfelder Arthur H. , Mysiak Jaroslav
Published: February 2023

The global economic loss caused by weather-related extreme events amounts to over $260 billion in 2022. Storms and floods are among the deadliest disasters and are responsible for the highest toll. Despite committed research efforts in strengthening flood forecasting and making those predictions readily and openly available, much remains to be done to facilitate intervention when locally acting upon those forecasts. This research aims at building an automated tool to forecast flood direct damages with a high spatial resolution and timeliness. Thus, allowing prompt, informed and targeted early action on site before the disaster hits. Moreover, it can serve as a device to unravel criticalities within preparedness plans and guide the adoption of adaptation measures in the long term. The proposed research develops a tool to rapidly link GLOFAS discharge forecasts with the relative inundation map and direct damages caused. The method includes three modules: i) a factual component collecting satellite-derived flood maps of historical events; ii) a probabilistic component based on hydrological modelling and iii) the impact assessment. The past event database comprises 10-meter resolution inundation maps derived from Sentinel-1 SAR imagery with a single-scene automated classification method. The outcome of hydrological modelling is then integrated with the remote sensing database to improve its accuracy and spatial resolution. Lastly, the impact assessment module estimates affected people and the economic damage to buildings. The presented methodology is applied to two case studies: the flooding caused by Tropical Cyclone Idai that made landfall in March 2019 in Mozambique and the country-wide flood event that occurred in Pakistan in the summer of 2022.
Understanding recovery: The role of values, rules, and knowledge in recovery of winegrowers after the 2021 floods in the Ahr valley
Authors: Hassel Jonathan , Werners Saskia
Published: February 2023

Against the backdrop of the unpreventable impacts of climate change and ongoing debates about how manifested losses and damages from climate related disasters could be addressed , it is important to not only make progress in climate change mitigation and adaptation, but to also engage with the topic of post-disaster recovery. The guiding principle of recovery as defined in the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 is “Building Back Better”, and involves systematically incorporating disaster risk reduction measures into the recovery process. Under this framing, research to date has focused primarily on how to implement Building Back Better as a top-down process. Offering an alternative approach to understanding recovery, I investigate how values, rules, and knowledge shape the recovery pathways of winegrowers after the 2021 floods in the Ahr valley.We derive from conducted interviews, that most affected winegrowers plan to continue winegrowing at their former location. The decision is partly driven by the perception that winegrowing is generally a profitable business opportunity and by values like achievement and self-direction.. Along the wine production chain, the most fundamental change is observable in the marketing and sales section. As technical rules inherent in existing sales infrastructure like restaurants and hotels are broken, while the digital infrastructure improved significantly in response to COVID-19, a long-lasting shift towards online markets and wholesale is discussed among winegrowers. Knowledge of the threat of a flood recurrence or other climate change-related impacts does not fundamentally influence first recovery decisions.To better understand ‘building back better’ in recovery, we analyse how affected actors envision their recovery, along with the interaction of values, rules, and knowledge. We reveal dilemmas that prevent the implementation of Building Back Better in recovery and stories of hope, which enable it. On this basis, we argue that recovery on the ground must be understood as part of ongoing political struggles.. Furthermore, establishing a plan to adapt to climate change before a disaster strikes can serve as a guiding vision for recovery. Measuring the recovery success as the time passed until the disaster site is physically reconstructed, as often done,  falls short of considering aspects of recovery like building a shared memory of the disaster as a basis for risk awareness. Lastly, the co-occurrence of COVID-19 and the flood showed how winegrowers were better equipped to respond to the flood due to recovery and adaptation measures previously set up in response to COVID-19. Building on this observation, we suggest moving forward with the idea of “systemic recovery”, propagating the success of interventions from one hazard to another.
Seasonal forecast of the Sudden Stratospheric Warming occurrence
Authors: Vokhmyanin Mikhail , Asikainen Timo , Salminen Antti , Mursula Kalevi
Published: February 2023

The polar vortex in the wintertime Northern Hemisphere can sometimes experience a dramatic breakdown after an associated warming of the stratosphere during so-called Sudden Stratospheric Warmings (SSWs). These events are known to influence the ground weather in Northern Eurasia and large parts of North America. SSWs are primarily generated by enhanced planetary waves propagating from the troposphere to the stratosphere where they decelerate the vortex and lead to its breakdown. According to the Holton-Tan mechanism, the easterly direction of equatorial stratospheric QBO (Quasi-Biennial Oscillation) winds weakens the northern polar vortex by guiding more waves poleward. Recently, we found that during easterly QBO the occurrence rate of SSWs is modulated by the geomagnetic activity. We used the aa-index which is a good proxy for the energetic electron precipitations (EEP) responsible for the indirect effect on ozone. Our model shows that the breaking of the polar vortex is very likely to occur if the geomagnetic activity is weak. On the other hand, during westerly QBO, solar irradiance modulates the SSW occurrence: more SSWs happen under high solar activity.
Homography-based continuous bridge scour depth estimation
Authors: Bento Ana Margarida , Mendes Luís , Ferreira Rui
Published: February 2023

Scour monitoring in experimental environments relies primarily on visual point-wise measurements that may provide less accurate estimates of scour and its effects. To fulfil these issues many studies and methods has been developed to analyse scour surfaces. Recently, the use of 3D point clouds and digital elevation models has proven to be an effective method for describing scour around bridge foundations with a high degree of accuracy. This is especially true under drained conditions. Therefore, it has become necessary to develop a system that can continuously monitor the development of scour at bridge foundations without interrupting the flow. Few studies have addressed continuous monitoring of the scouring process. These include: (i) photogrammetry-based methods using two cameras and algorithms for image calibration, rectification, and stereo-triangulation, and (ii) a laser-based approach using both a laser source and a camera. As a result of these studies, further researches need to be developed in order to effectively monitor scouring process by using the increasing technology of submersible cameras and underwater processing capabilities. In this study, a novel method for acquiring 2D scour profiles was developed to enable continuous monitoring of the scour phenomenon. The developed technique uses a computer vision technique, namely homography transformation, which relates the coordinates of points in one image to the coordinates of corresponding points in another image through a Python routine. This algorithm also considered the critical issues inherent in any underwater image processing technique, such as correcting for perspective, distortion, scaling, and camera lens rotation. In the laboratory, four cameras were used to collect synchronized underwater images of the scour holes formed and the affected surrounding areas around an oblong bridge pier model due to the local scour phenomenon. By processing each image sequence and running the Python code to measure the depth of the border line between the sand and the bridge foundation model at specific times during the scouring experiment, it was possible to obtain the evolution of the scour holes in the form of 2D bed profiles. The accuracy of the developed algorithm to study the bed morphology in the vicinity of bridge piers during the scouring process showed promising results compared to point-wise scour depth measurements.This work was partially funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) through Project DikesFPro PTDC/ECI-EGC/7739/2020 and through CERIS funding UIDB/04625/2020.
Complexity-based robust hydrologic prediction: extension of statistical learning theory to conceptual hydrological models
Authors: Pande Saket , Moayeri Mehdi
Published: February 2023

The applications of statistical learning theory (SLT) in hydrology have been either in the form of Support Vector Machines and other complexity regularized machine learning algorithms that learn and predict input-output patterns such as rainfall-runoff time series or of identifying optimal complexity of low order models such as k nearest neighbour models to predict hydrological time series such as streamflow. The regularization of model complexity offers a way to identify minimal complexity of a model to accurately predict a time series of interest. However such applications often assume that the modelled residual are independent of each other. This limits its application to conceptual hydrological models where residuals are often auto-correlated. This paper applies recent results of risk bounds for time series forecasting and SLT approaches to dynamical system identification to conceptual hydrological models, offering a means to identify optimal complexity of conceptual models and complexity regularised streamflow predictions based on it.Basins from CAMELS data set are used to demonstrate the effect of regularizing the problem of hydrological model calibration on streamflow prediction over unseen data. SAC-SMA and SIXPAR (a lower order version of SACSMA) are used as model examples. Preliminary results show that prediction uncertainty bounds are narrower if regularization does not improve the performance of a calibrated model over unseen data. This effect is stronger in drier basins than in humid ones. Also, as expected, this effect is stronger when training data size is small and holds for both SACSMA and SIXPAR. 
Modeling of ionospheric irregularities in the Arctic region based on empirical orthogonal function method
Authors: Jin Yaqi , Clausen Lasse , Miloch Wojciech
Published: February 2023

The polar ionosphere is often highly structured with significant plasma irregularities, influencing the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) service that relies on trans-ionospheric radio waves. Due to the practical usage, there is a high demand for modeling and forecasting of ionospheric irregularities. In this study, we develop a climatological model based on the long-term dataset (2010-2021) of rate of change of the total electron content (TEC) index (ROTI) maps from the International GNSS Service (IGS). The IGS ROTI maps are daily averaged in magnetic coordinates. In order to develop a climatological model, the ROTI maps are decomposed into a few base functions and coefficients using the empirical orthogonal function (EOF) method. The EOF method converges very quickly, and the first four EOFs could reflect the majority (96%) of the total data variability. Furthermore, the first four EOF base functions reflect different drivers of ionospheric irregularities. For example, the first EOF reflects the averaged ROTI activity and the impact of the solar radiation characterized by F10.7; the 2nd EOF base function reflects the impact of interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) Bz and electric field; the 3rd and 4th EOF base functions reflect the dawn-dusk asymmetry in the auroral oval and polar cap, and therefore related to the IMF By. To build an empirical model, we fit the EOF coefficients using geophysical proxies from four different categories (namely, solar radiation, magnetic indices, IMF, and solar wind coupling function) based on linear regression. The preliminary data-model comparison shows satisfactory results with a good correlation coefficient and adequate errors.