bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Unforeseen geomorphic consequences of modifying coastal river systems
Authors: Malito John , Mohrig David
Published: March 2024

Capital works projects, particularly the modification of coastal rivers, are becoming increasingly significant to economic activities worldwide as a response to climate-driven changes and urbanization. The economic benefits of channel modification projects can be realized quickly, but at decadal timescales the altered movement of sediments in the river channel can lead to harmful and costly morphologic changes that were not initially considered. An example of this is the closure of the San Bernard River mouth, located on the central coast of Texas, which was clogged by sediments in the 1990s as a result of two major capital works projects in the area: the diversion of the Brazos River channel (1929) and the construction of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (GIWW) (1940s). The objective of this study was to document the delayed geomorphic responses to the projects and provide a snapshot of the flow of water and sediment between engineered channels using measurements collected in situ. Results showed that the San Bernard River played only a peripheral role in the evolution of its river mouth. During low discharge conditions the GIWW was revealed to be the main conduit for river flow with speeds up to 38 cm/s, as the barge canal bisects the San Bernard 2 km inland of its river mouth. As a result, flow speeds and discharges in the terminal limb of the San Bernard were relatively small leading to accumulation of sediments and a reduction of the erosive ability of the river at its mouth. As a result of reduced flow, the river mouth became clogged with beach sediment transported along shore from the nearby Brazos River delta which had been diverted from its natural pathway to within 6 km of the San Bernard.  Since the San Bernard River is unable to maintain its own mouth, consistent dredging has been required to connect the river to the sea, incurring costs of over $10 million to this point, with more maintenance projects funded into the future.  To optimize the cost-benefit framework of channel modification projects, the long-term impact of hydrodynamic changes to sediment-transport fields must be considered as managers continue to adapt to ever-changing coastal zones.
Using Machine Learning to Predict Column Concentrations and Retrieval Diagnostics of the TROPESS Atmospheric Composition Profiles
Authors: Werner Frank , Bowman Kevin W. , Payne Vivienne Helen , McDuffie James Lester , Kantchev Valentin
Published: March 2024

Advances in sensor technology have led to a substantial increase in the data output from satellite-borne remote sensing instrumentation. For example, NASA’s Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS) and Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) provide millions of global, spectrally-resolved radiance observations every day. It is becoming increasingly challenging to process these large data sets and perform the subsequent composition profile retrievals for all observations. Indeed, NASA’s TRopospheric Ozone and its Precursors from Earth System Sounding (TROPESS) project, which produces records of atmospheric constituents from multiple satellite and ground data through a common retrieval algorithm, can only process about 1% of the sampled CrIS observations.This talk presents efforts to process all the observed CrIS and AIRS data by applying machine learning techniques. In particular, we present staggered artificial neural networks (ANNs) that can reliably replicate the retrieved CrIS carbon monoxide and ammonia profiles, as well as important retrieval diagnostics such as the retrieval error and averaging kernels. Once trained, these ANNs can perform predictions for millions of CrIS radiance observations in minutes. This new data set not only covers the gaps in the global retrievals of composition fields, but also provide uncertainty and variability information on very small scales.
A widespread, short-lived, off-craton subduction source for hidden crustal growth in Earth’s infancy
Authors: Vandenburg Eric , Nebel Oliver , Cawood Peter , Capitanio Fabio , Miller Laura , Millet Marc-Alban , Smithies Hugh
Published: March 2024

The scarce geological record of Earth’s infancy, particularly before 3 billion years ago (Ga), is restricted to cratons, many of which likely originated as volcano-plutonic plateaus in a non-mobile lid geodynamic regime. However, this scarcity is at odds with the significant volumes of continental crust at 3 Ga that multi-proxy models of mantle depletion and crustal growth predict. This challenges the notion that plateau-type cratonic nuclei represent the predominant tectonomagmatic settings operating on the early Earth. Reconciling this paradox necessitates a “silent majority” of missing off-craton Archean crust of an uncharacterized affinity.To investigate a potential rare remnant example of an Archean crust constructed away from cratonic nuclei, we report major and trace-element chemostratigraphic data from the 3.1 Ga Whundo Group of the Pilbara Craton, investigating the petrogenetic processes related to its formation. These data reveal three magmatic cycles of intercalated supracrustal successions comprising six groups: tholeiites, boninites, calc-alkaline BADR (basalt-andesite-dacite-rhyolite), high-magnesium ADR (including a subset of transitionally adakitic affinity), Nb-enriched basalts (NEB), and boninite-calc-alkaline hybrids. Th/Yb-Nb/Yb, Gd/YbN-Al/TiN, and Nd isotope systematics are inconsistent with contamination by felsic basement characteristic of cratonic cores, suggesting eruption onto thin, juvenile lithosphere that was only later incorporated into the Pilbara Craton.
Novel Soil Decomposition Sensor: Field Studies and Design Improvements
Authors: Atreya Madhur , Sharpe Taylor , Liu Shangshi , Killick Rebecca , Gong Mengyi , Verhaalen Kelly , Gopalakrishnan Anupam , Smock Noah , Sarralde Isabella , Bean Mac , Davies Jessica , Quinton John , Bardgett Richard , Neff Jason , Thomas Evan , Whiting Greg
Published: March 2024

 
The sensing of soil microbial and enzymatic activity continues to be a challenge, as current techniques are typically limited to the laboratory, and are time and labor intensive. In addition, such offsite assessments are not necessarily reflective of in situ bio-chemical-physical processes. We previously presented a novel printed decomposition sensor comprising a poly(hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV) and carbon composite material, wherein the sensor response correlated with the microbial activity in incubated soils [1]. In field trials carried out in the Yorkshire Dales (UK) these devices showed a clear correlation with measured soil microbial biomass carbon. These sensors consisted of a single fuse-like resistive element and as such were subject to stochastic effects in soil, requiring large numbers of devices to be used in order to address variability in field measurements. Here, we present a novel hardware solution to mitigate these stochastic effects by parallelizing multiple printed sensing elements on custom printed circuit boards (PCBs). The first instantiation of this approach showed to be effective at smoothing out sensor response in potato farms in the Upper Midwest region of the United States. In order to further shape the signal response of these decomposition sensors, we explored different parallel topologies by varying the number of sensing elements, element width, and element length. We discuss the advantages and disadvantages of these different topologies.
[1] Atreya, M.; Desousa, S.; Kauzya, J.; Williams, E.; Hayes, A.; Dikshit, K.; Nielson, J.; Palmgren, A.; Khorchidian, S.; Liu, S.; Gopalakrishnan, A.; Bihar, E.; Bruns, C. J.; Bardgett, R.; Quinton, J. N.; Davies, J.; Neff, J. C.; Whiting, G. L. A Transient Printed Soil Decomposition Sensor Based on a Biopolymer Composite Conductor. Adv. Sci. 2022, 2205785, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202205785.
Mapping water from our tap to the watershed: A first step toward ecological limits  
Authors: Singer Katie
Published: March 2024

Fifty years ago, Peter Berg developed a way to locate yourself within your bio-region, starting with your watershed. To begin, trace your water from precipitation to tap—and back to precipitation. Then, how much rain fell in your area last year? How much water does your household consume per month? What percentage of your town’s water supply goes to households? to manufacturing? to farming? to golf courses? to mining operations? to extinguishing fires? What pollutants affect your water supply? Once you can map your local water supplies, consider how manufacturing transistors, operating data storage centers and streaming videos impact international waters. With awareness of our daily lives’ impacts on local and international waters, we can create realistic limits.  
Weathering the STORM: Challenges and opportunities in tropical cyclone risk research 
Authors: Bloemendaal Nadia
Published: March 2024

Tropical cyclones (TCs), also referred to as hurricanes or typhoons, are amongst the deadliest and costliest natural hazards, affecting people, economies, and the environment in coastal areas around the globe when they make landfall. TCs are projected to become more intense in a warming climate, enhancing the risks associated with their wind speeds, precipitation and storm surges. It is therefore crucial to minimize future loss of life and by performing accurate TC risk assessments for coastal areas. Calculating TC risk at a global scale, however, has proven to be difficult, given the limited temporal and spatial information on landfalling TCs around much of the global coastline, and how this is going to change under climate change.To overcome these limitations, we developed a novel approach to calculate TC risk under present and future climate conditions using the Synthetic Tropical cyclOne geneRation Model (STORM). STORM is a fully statistical model that can take any input dataset and statistically resamples this to an equivalent of 10,000 years of TC activity under the same climate condition. The resulting publicly available STORM dataset contains of enough TC activity in any coastal region of interest to adequately calculate TC probabilities and risk from. Furthermore, the STORM algorithm has been expanded with a future-climate module, enabling globally consistent local-scale assessments of (changes in) TC risk. This presentation will discuss the challenges and opportunities in using such synthetic datasets, particularly in the light of improving our understanding of TC risk. 
Measuring the tidal deformation of Mercury through co-registration of MLA profiles
Authors: Xiao Haifeng , Stark Alexander , Gutierrez Pedro J. , Lara Luisa M.
Published: March 2024

We focus on the radial deformation of planet Mercury during its orbital period due to tidal forces exerted by the Sun. Bertone et al. (2021) obtained the first measurement of the tidal Love number h2 of Mercury via least squares minimization of height discrepancies at the cross-overs of the profiles obtained by the Mercury Laser Altimeter (MLA) onboard NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft. However, height discrepancies at cross-overs, intersection points of profiles, can suffer from significant interpolation errors when the separation of consecutive footprints is large and the underlying terrain is rough. Here, we re-analyze the MLA profiles using new techniques of co-registration analysis that also include a post-correction procedure based on pseudo cross-overs. We have successfully applied these techniques to obtain the spatio-temporal thickness variations of the seasonal deposits on Martian poles (Xiao et al., 2022a, 2022b). Provided that a reference DTM is available, any particular pair of profile segments forms a pseudo cross-over. The height misfit at a pseudo cross-over is assigned as the difference in height corrections in the co-registrations of the profile pair, that form the pseudo cross-over, to the underlying reference DTM. Pseudo cross-overs can have great advantages over real cross-overs: (1) Lateral shifts of the profiles can be naturally compensated and interpolation errors avoided through the co-registration process in forming the height misfits at the pseudo cross-overs; (2) Since the profile segments do not necessarily have to intersect, the available number of "cross-overs" is normally multiplied in number; (3) Furthermore, the profile segment pair forming a pseudo cross-over can be widely separated across the research region, offering "global" constraints on the adjustment. For the uncertainty and sensitivity quantification, we create synthetic MLA observations by adding realistic errors and tidal deformation assuming an a priori tidal h2 and invert for the tidal h2 using the proposed techniques. Our measurement of tidal h2, combined with refined determination of the tidal potential Love number k2 from radio science experiments, will be used to discuss updated bounds of interior structure parameters of Mercury, especially the inner core size, which will improve our understanding of its thermal evolution and magnetic dynamo.Bertone et al. (2021). JGR: Planets, 126(4), e2020JE006683.Xiao et al. (2022a). PSS, 214, 105446.Xiao et al. (2022b). JGR: Planets, 127(10), e2021JE007158.
Seasonality of tree water uptake explained by amount and timing of soil water refill
Authors: Beria Harsh , Floriancic Marius G. , Kirchner James W.
Published: March 2024

The hydrologic cycle in Switzerland relies on inputs from winter precipitation, whereby snowmelt plays an important role replenishing soil water, streams and aquifers. Previous studies found that plant water uptake during the summer growing season is dominated by winter precipitation. Here we use stable water isotope data of xylem and soil water from four experimental catchments and from two snapshot sampling campaigns during the growing season to assess what drives seasonal patterns in xylem water signatures.We unveil divergent trends in the seasonal origin of waters used by trees compared to water flowing into nearby streams and aquifers. In low-elevation catchments characterized by little snowfall, summer precipitation predominantly refills streams and aquifers, while winter precipitation feeds vegetation water uptake. Conversely, higher-elevation catchments exhibit an opposite pattern, where winter precipitation primarily recharges streams and aquifers, and vegetation water uptake is driven by summer precipitation. We propose a theoretical framework to elucidate the divergence in vegetation water uptake from stream and groundwater recharge. This framework offers insights into the intricate relationships governing water availability in terrestrial ecosystems in different elevations across the Swiss Alps.
Analysis of extreme hydrological events over the Great Hungarian Plain based on Earth Observation data
Authors: Birinyi Edina , Kern Anikó , Kristóf Dániel , Hollós Roland , Barcza Zoltán
Published: March 2024

In Hungary, especially in the Great Hungarian Plain, hydrological cycle related extreme events – such as floods, inland excess water and droughts – are recurrent problems of increasing economic importance. These extremes often occur in the same area and sometimes within the same growing season, largely affecting agricultural production and raising questions related to water conservation and potential land use adjustments. In addition to climate change, the regulation of large rivers and poor water management are also likely to influence the phenomenon. The last major extreme events occurred in 2022 (drought) and 2023 (inland excess water). Relevant studies are mostly based on meteorological data, with one of the most comprehensive describing the frequency of extremes for the period 1931–2010. However, based on more than two decades of MODIS time series, it is possible to analyze variables such as vegetation conditions and water-covered areas, and hence, to investigate the relationship between the vegetation state and the environmental factors. Our study attempts to provide objective, time-series based statistical evidence specifically on the vulnerability of arable lands of the Great Plain and the relationship between environmental and EO-based variables for the period 2000-2023. In addition to spectral indices and land surface temperatures and their anomalies derived from MODIS measurements, land cover (CORINE), meteorology (FORESEE), soil moisture (ERA5-Land), soil properties (DoSoReMi), optical-based relative inland excess water incidence map (1998–2023), radar-based relative inland excess water incidence maps (2020– 2023), as well as aggregated yield loss compensation claims submitted to the Agricultural Risk Management System are included in the analysis. All the variables are aggregated to a spatial grid of 1-km resolution, and their relationship is analysed with mathematical methods (e.g. BORUTA, linear regression). Project no. 993788 has been implemented with the support provided by the Ministry of Culture and Innovation of Hungary from the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund, financed under the KDP-2020 funding scheme and by the TKP2021-NVA-29 project of the Hungarian National Research, Development and Innovation Fund and by the OTKA FK-146600 and by National Multidisciplinary Laboratory for Climate Change, RRF-2.3.1-21-2022-00014 project.
Evaluation of the coupled coordination of the water–energy–food–ecology system based on the Sustainable Development Goals in the Upper Han River of China 
Authors: Liu Dengfeng , Fu Nan , Liu Hui , Pan Baozhu , Ming Guanghui , Huang Qiang
Published: March 2024

Water, energy, food, and ecology are crucial to the sustainable development of society, and their security determines the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. Based on Goals 2, 6, 7, and 15 of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), this study analyzed the interactions among the water system, food system, energy system, and ecosystem in the Upper Han River in China, and the current level of achievement of the SDGs in the Upper Han River was evaluated. A comprehensive evaluation index system for this water–energy–food–ecology system was established, and the entropy method and CRITIC weighting method were combined to assign weights to its indicators. The level of coupling coordination in the system from 2000 to 2021 was quantitatively evaluated by using a coupling coordination degree model. A differential autoregressive moving average model was established to predict the process of change in each index over the next 20 years, and an analysis of the degree of coupling coordination was carried out. The comprehensive evaluation development index increased by 113% over last 22 years, and the degree of coupling coordination increased from 0.396 to 0.845, demonstrating that there was stable development in general. The fragile support capacity of the water system for the energy system, food system, and ecosystem had a great impact on the overall comprehensive evaluation index. There were more prominent internal conflicts in SDG 2 for food systems, SDG 6 for water systems, SDG 7 for energy systems, and SDG 15 for ecosystems. These bi-directional dynamics tended to converge in the sufficiency development model in both the historical period and the projected period. The coupling analysis showed that the coupling among SDG 2, SDG 6, and SDG 7 remained at a high level, indicating that there were intrinsic linkages and interactions among the three goals. In the process of promoting the achievement of these goals, the coupling degree also tends to be coordinated in 2022–2041. The results provide a reference for the management and sustainable development of the river basin.
Assessing the adaptability of maize phenology to climate change: The role of anthropogenic-management practices
Authors: Chen Jiahao , Liu Yujie , Zhang Jie , Zhang Ermei , Liu Junjie
Published: March 2024

Phenology has been regarded as an essential bio-indicator of climate change widely. Quantifying the crop phenological changes caused by climate change and anthropogenic-management practices can help formulate effective climate change adaptation strategies. In this study, the effects of climate change and anthropogenic-management practices on maize phenology (spring, summer, and intercropping maize) in China were distinguished based on historical meteorological and phenological data (1981–2010) of 114 stations using the first-order difference regression method. Our results show: (1) The vegetative growing period of spring and intercropping maize was extended, whereas that of summer maize was shortened. The reproductive growing periods of spring, summer, and intercropping maize were extended. (2) Isolated impacts of climate change shortened the vegetative growing period of spring maize, summer maize, and intercropping maize by 0.19, 1.06, and 3.12 d decade−1, respectively, while the reproductive growing period was extended by 0.19, 0.74, and 3.47 d decade−1, respectively. (3) The contribution of temperature to maize phenology was greater in the northwest inland maize zone and north spring maize zone than in other regions, whereas the contribution of sunshine hours was higher in Huang-Huai Plain intercropping maize zone and the southwest mountain hills maize zone. (4) The effects of anthropogenic-management practices on maize phenological stages such as sowing, emergence, and maturity were generally greater than that of climate change, which has delayed the phenological stages of summer and intercropping maize and extended the growing period of spring maize. The focus should be paid to the emergence, jointing, and milky stages to increase the water use efficiency in the northwest inland maize zone. The findings provide a scientific basis for improving the adaptability of agricultural systems in climate change.
Potential influence of climate change in the water budget variables related to the conjunctive use in the Transboundary Rio Grande 
Authors: Perez Kevin , Fernald Alexander
Published: March 2024

Changes in population and agricultural development are increasing demands on available water resources in the Transboundary Rio Grande (TRG), an area defined by the Rio Grande River and the Mesilla aquifer between New Mexico, Texas, and Mexico. Due to the continued drought, surface water availability is continuously declining, increasing the reliance on groundwater to satisfy the water demands (mainly for agriculture and domestic uses). To simulate the conjunctive use and management of the surface water and groundwater in the TRG, a groundwater flow model implemented on Modflow-OWHM called the Rio Grande Transboundary Integrated Hydrologic Model (RGTIHM) has been previously developed. In this study, the RGTIHM model is used to assess the historical conditions and to project climate change driven scenarios on the water budget variables related to conjunctive use of surface water and groundwater in the TRG. The historical conditions were simulated from 1940-2014, while the future scenarios were simulated for the period 2015-2065 considering: i) inputs of precipitation and temperature from global climate change models, ii) management scenarios of land use and water demands for agriculture. The historical period of the model shows that due to the aquifer depletion, the river is permanently becoming a losing stream and at the same time is becoming a source of recharge for aquifer storage, the recharge from irrigated fields has a significant weight in the total recharge, and the diffuse recharge from precipitation is a small source compared to the previous two. The future period shows that maximum and minimum temperatures tend to increase, as well as the real evapotranspiration; precipitation does not change significantly, diffuse recharge decreases, and runoff increases. Water availability in the Rio Grande River decreases due to reduced snowpack in the Rocky Mountains, increasing the reliance on groundwater and posing uncertainty in future water supply management in the TRG.
Differences of denitrification potential between straight and meandering pool-riffle streams with riparian zones
Authors: Zhu Shijie , Huang Peng , May Chui Ting Fong
Published: March 2024

The hyporheic zone (HZ), an interstitial space immediately beneath and adjacent to streams, is characterized by frequent exchanges between groundwater and surface water, and by transformations of energy, organics, and solutes. Our previous studies on HZ (Huang and Chui, 2021, https://doi.org/10.1029/2020wr029182, 2022, https://doi.org/10.1029/2022WR032221) have shown that stream morphology, such as meanders and pool-riffle bedforms, significantly complicates subsurface flow patterns and increases the flowrate and scale of the hyporheic exchange (HE), leading to a hypothesis of a more dynamic and complex biogeochemical regime in both vertical and lateral extents of the HZ.In this study, we focused on the biogeochemical reactions associated with stream nitrogen cycling, including aerobic respiration (AR) and denitrification (DN) in both straight and meandering pool-riffle streams — due to their significant effects on stream ecology improvement. We also compared how stream morphology influences redox zonation and denitrification potential on a spatial-temporal scale. Using the physical pool-riffle stream model built in our previous study, we conducted tracer experiments with the conservative material NaCl. A three-dimensional (3D) model that couples with hyporheic flow and biogeochemical reactions was developed to investigate AR and DN processes. The groundwater reaction model was calibrated using the measured concentration curves at downwelling and upwelling regions of the HZ, assuming reaction rate was zero. Our preliminary results from the numerical simulation showed that 1) both straight and meandering pool-riffle streams with riparian zones exhibit significant nitrate transfer zones in the anoxic regions beneath the streambed and in the riparian area, which is dominated by advection. 2) the interbank of meandering streams may contain multiple DN hotspots, which is significantly affected by the local HEs. Ignoring the riparian zone may lead to an underestimation of the denitrification potential in the HZ. Further studies are needed to comprehensively investigate biogeochemical reactions in 3D meandering streams and their responses to morphologic factors (e.g., sinuosity), hydrological factors (e.g. stream discharge and groundwater flow) and environmental factors (e.g. diurnal and seasonal temperature variations).
Transboundary Offshore Freshened Groundwater: What Law Applies?
Authors: Martin-Nagle Renée
Published: March 2024

Before extraction of offshore freshened groundwater (OFG) begins, ownership must first be determined in order to confirm the right to access, possess and distribute of the resource.  Since the geological formations sheltering OFG extend beyond the coastline, the UN Convention on the Law of Sea, which has been ratified by most countries in the world, will apply, and it provides that the nation having rights to the continental shelf where the OFG is located will have sovereign rights to the resource.  However, political boundaries do not often respect geologic formations, and some deposits of OFG will straddle national boundaries.  The Law of the Sea Convention is silent on transboundary resources, so policymakers must look to other legal principles that address governance of natural resources in order to develop a governance regime.  This presentation will summarize the applicable international law principles and will provide guidance on how transboundary OFG may be governed.
Combining synchrotron and acoustic emission techniques to reveal the secrets of high PT faulting
Authors: Mingardi Giulia , Gasc Julien , Farla Robert , Schubnel Alexandre
Published: March 2024

Numerous studies have illustrated that mineral transformations have the capability to induce faulting at elevated pressure and temperature (PT), circumstances in which ductile flow would typically dominate. This mechanism, commonly known as transformational faulting, emerges as a plausible explanation for the puzzling phenomenon of deep-focus earthquakes occurring at depths up to 700 km. Currently, the debate partly revolves around determining why certain phase transformations lead to faulting while others do not. To better understand this phenomenon, we can compare different transformations taking place in similar experimental conditions and see how they do or do not cause strain localization and faulting. In this regard, we conducted a series of five deformation experiments in the large volume press at the PB61 beamline at DESY synchrotron. Two of these experiments involved deforming germanium-olivine samples as they transformed into ringwoodite (the high-pressure phase). The other three experiments were carried out on quartzite (novaculite) samples while they were transforming to coesite. Throughout the experiments, we collected X-ray diffraction patterns and images concurrently with the collection of Acoustic Emissions (AEs).The results indicate, in both quartz and olivine experiments, the growth of the high-pressure phase at various rates depending on PT conditions and equilibrium overstep. Specifically, we observed rapid olivine-ringwoodite kinetics at elevated PT, far from equilibrium, while slower kinetics were noted for the quartz-coesite transformation. Thousands of AEs were collected in each experiment, and their locations reconstructed using arrival times on the six transducers used. Interestingly, the spatial distribution of these AEs revealed that for some quartz-coesite experiments, AEs originated from fault planes that formed within the initially intact rock cores. Furthermore, an analysis of the AE catalogues, focusing on the magnitude-frequency distribution, revealed a wide range of b-values influenced by varying PT conditions and transformation kinetics. This observation underscores the different underlying mechanisms since the obtained b-values are high when transformation and strain are distributed and lower when strain is localized (i.e., when a fault plane develops).Our study supports the major role of mineral transformations in inducing faulting under high PT. These findings will help better quantify the intricate relationships between mineral transformations and faulting and in turn contribute to a better understanding of the fundamental geological processes behind deep and intermediate earthquakes.
An indicator to monitor farmland biodiversity in OECD countries
Authors: Fjellstad Wendy , Bayr Ulrike
Published: March 2024

The OECD uses a wide range of agri-environmental indicators to monitor effects of the agricultural sector on the environment. However, the only indicator of farmland biodiversity is the farmland bird index, and this is not reported by all member states. Therefore, work is ongoing to design a more general indicator of farmland biodiversity that can be reported by all member states.There are many challenges in creating an indicator that can be applied across all OECD countries. These countries have very diverse farming systems, land ownership, climate, biophysical conditions, and species pools. In addition, there are big differences in the type and amount of data available with which to calculate an indicator. Some countries already have monitoring programmes, tailored to their specific national needs and priorities. It may be challenging to harmonize reporting across countries, when data are collected in different ways and from different sources.As a first step, the OECD published in 2023 guidelines for the development of an OECD farmland habitat biodiversity indicator (https://doi.org/10.1787/09d45d55-en). The aim is to calculate an indicator based on all agricultural habitats within a country, both those of high nature value, but also the ordinary and those that are currently of very low value.In 2024, several countries are testing calculation of the indicator using national data. This presentation will describe the proposed indicator and share experiences from work to calculate the indicator for Norway.
Exceedance of probabilistic seismic hazard maps in Italy
Authors: Cito Pasquale , Vitale Antonio , Iervolino Iunio
Published: March 2024

Seismic hazard maps deriving from probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA) collect the intensities, in terms of one ground motion intensity measure (𝐼𝑀), that, at each site taken individually, have the same probability of being exceeded in a time interval or, equivalently, exceedance return period. In the case of Italy, there are three authoritative nationwide PSHA studies that can be currently considered of interest. Given the return period, they provide hazard maps that can differ even significantly in some areas of the country. This contribution pertains to the assessment of the fractional area of Italian territory where 𝐼𝑀 values from hazard maps have been exceeded, at least once, due to seventy-one historical mainshocks that occurred in the country from 1117 to 1968. Ground shaking data for such events were derived from a recently developed large database of ShakeMap inferred from macroseismic intensity data. Such database is not complete, with the Italian catalogue (Catalogo Parametrico dei Terremoti Italiani; CPTI) counting more than two thousand mainshocks in that time interval, yet it is, to date, the highest level of information on shaking data due to historical events. For each hazard model, the exceedance area was quantified considering hazard maps with four return periods, that is, 50yr, 475yr, 975yr and 2475yr, and three 𝐼𝑀𝑠, that is, peak ground acceleration and pseudo-spectral acceleration associated to a vibration period of 0.3s and 1s. It was found that, based on the available regional shaking estimates for historical earthquakes in Italy, the fraction of the country exposed to at least one exceedance, in almost one thousand years, is comparable, given return period and 𝐼𝑀, for all the hazard models, despite their apparent differences. Such comparability was also found when considering instrumental, rather than historical, earthquakes that occurred in Italy in a continuously monitored time interval spanning twelve years. In this case, the exceedance area was quantified considering ShakeMap data for nineteen mainshocks that occurred from 2008 to 2019 according to CPTI, and therefore the dataset can be deemed complete. Thus, the fraction of the country possibly subjected to exceedance of 𝐼𝑀 values from hazard maps according to ShakeMap estimates was also compared with its expected value from PSHA, something that depends only the return period the maps refer to. It was found that, for each return period, the estimated fractional exceedance area in the available twelve years is one order of magnitude lower (or slightly less) than the expected value according to all PSHA studies.
Greening the financial system: How can national meteorological services drive the transition?
Authors: Wright Elizabeth , Robinson Niall
Published: March 2024

Financial markets are key catalysts for a net-zero future by 2050, with trillions of capital and resources ready to be unlocked. So what is holding them back? Green finance is pushing to be at the forefront of any structured financial activity, however the lack of clear definitions, standards, and regulations, misaligned incentives and interests, scarce data and information, and a gap between the demand and supply of green finance is slowing down its impact and implementation. This talk examines the role of government agencies, such as the UK Met Office, in helping markets to address climate risk. By aligning the financial system with the Paris Agreement and Sustainable Development Goals, green finance can reduce the exposure of financial institutions to climate-related risks, such as stranded assets, physical damages, and transition costs and help to address some of the key challenges they are facing. 
Sustainable and digitalized water management in rural environments in the SUDOE area (GestEAUr project)
Authors: Molina Jose Luis , Monsalvo Victor , Encinas Angel , Lacasa Engracia
Published: March 2024

The rural areas of the SUDOE present many common challenges related to the integrated water cycle: the scarcity of water resources (aggravated by climate change), the impact of agricultural and livestock activities on water quality (and the consequent difficulty of reconciling compliance with the European directive, the continuity of economic activity and the availability of water) and the lack of efficiency and profitability in management (with obsolete facilities and few human resources).It is essential to strengthen collaboration networks between the many stakeholders involved in water resources management in order to implement efficient, sustainable and cost-effective techniques for water purification, reuse and treatment. To this end, it is necessary to create a new governance system based on territorial cooperation. Water is a common good and, as such, it does not understand borders.The project will develop a strategy to improve water efficiency and quality in rural SUDOE areas in a context of climate change, 5 action plans for 4 organizations to improve water supply and treatment services, 3 pilot tests of cost-effective and sustainable solutions for water purification, purification and reuse, and a digital tool for 2 organizations to improve water management. In addition, it will improve the capacities of public authorities in 3 countries and the knowledge of water purification, treatment and reuse techniques like water treatment, reuse and purification techniques of 3 scientific institutions.GestEAUr will adopt an innovative approach, addressing the integrated water cycle holistically (taking into account all its stages) and will go beyond existing practice, which tends to apply the same solutions whatever the characteristics of the territory where they are implemented.Consequently, it will analyze and test cost-effective, cutting-edge and nature-based techniques (and combinations of techniques) (SBN) specific to the needs of rural areas in the SUDOE. It will also provide digital tools to optimize and facilitate their management and planning.
Decadal Characterization of Satellite-based Aerosol Types Over Arabian Peninsula: Comprehensive Insight and General Performance
Authors: Mhawish Alaa , Sulaymon Ishaq , Patlakas Platon , Maimani Abdulrahman , Alharbi Turki , Alqahtani Jumaan
Published: March 2024

Retrieving aerosol characteristics such as particle size, shape, and absorption properties is a big challenge in satellite-based remote sensing, mainly for the single-viewing-angle instrument. Multi-angle instruments such as Multi-angle Imaging Spectroradiometer (MISR) measure the reflected radiation from nine viewing angles, allowing the retrieval algorithm to accurately distinguish different aerosol microphysical and optical properties along with total aerosol loading in the atmospheric column. Recently, MISR upgraded the aerosol retrieval algorithm version 23 (V23) and enhanced the spatial resolution of the aerosol products to 4.4km, enabling the study of the aerosol characteristics at a finer scale. This study uses 20 years of MISR V23 aerosol products to comprehensively investigate aerosol optical and microphysical properties and their performance over Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries using two decades of aerosol products from the MISR algorithm. The assessment of MISR AOD showed good agreement with ground-truth AOD from AERONET, with ~75% of retrieval falling within the expected error (0.05±0.2AOD) and a high Pearson’s correlation coefficient (R = 0.86). However, MISR relatively underestimates AOD at higher aerosol loading conditions (AOD>0.6) while overestimating coarse-dominated aerosol mixture (Angstrom Exponent <0.7). The 20 years mean MISR AOD showed higher aerosol loading dominated by coarse aerosol types over the Eastern province of Saudi Arabia and Rub’al Khali. Seasonally, the size-fractionated AOD showed that GCC countries dominated by coarse AOD (cAOD) and non-spherical aerosol particles mainly in Spring, while the contribution of small AOD (sAOD) to the total range from 42-45% for Winter and Autumn. Overall, the high spatial resolution of MISR aerosol data products has a great potential to identify an aerosol hot spot and constrain the aerosol types, mainly dust, across the highly polluted region in the Middle East.
Living in a warming world – climate impacts on society 
Authors: Stechemesser Annika
Published: March 2024

Climate change remains one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century. Humans are not only the key driver of climate change, but are also affected by its consequences, with profound impacts on human life arising through changes in environmental and social circumstances. Climate change impacts on human behaviour are observed via two principle data types which both reflect daily human activity: social media and mobility data. Specifically, social media data are employed to analyse temperature impacts on hate speech online. Even though links between temperature and physical aggression are known, it remains unclear how these patterns extend to online environments, where hate speech can have detrimental consequences for the mental health of the affected persons. Using machine learning classifiers to identify hate speech in four billion geolocated tweets, we show that temperature has strong non-linear impacts on the occurrence of online hate speech across the USA with hate-tweet levels remaining low at moderate temperatures but sharply rising during both hot and cold extremes. This pattern persists across income groups, religious beliefs, and election outcomes and even various climate zones, including those where heat is common which suggests adaptation limits to hot temperatures. A complementary analysis for six European countries finds quasi-quadratic, nonlinear temperature impacts on digital racism and xenophobia across Europe. To assess not only the impacts of heat but also the ability to adapt we employ mobility data from New York City. An analysis of daily passenger data of more than 400 subway stations over six years shows that there is not only a strong, non-linear temperature impact on subway usage but also disparities between neighborhoods with respect to the capacity for heat mitigation. Correlations between neighbourhood-level mobility reductions and socioeconomic indicators suggest that the ability to reduce mobility on hot days is afforded by those that also hold other privileges, hence leading to unequal, compounding health impacts in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Finally, we harness a combination of mobility data, Google search trends and Covid-19 data to explore how behavioural responses may develop under a prolonged or repeated risk exposure. The econometric approach explores changes in the response to Covid-19 risk through two channels: risk perception and the resulting behavioural response, i.e. mobility reduction. Across both channels, the risk response diminishes over time even before the availability of vaccines. This highlights the attenuation of behavioural responses to prolonged risks, with implications for managing long-term crises such as increasingly repeated exposure to weather extremes under ongoing climate change.
Biological weathering in model systems across scales
Authors: Dontsova Katerina
Published: March 2024

Plants and microorganisms derive mineral nutrients needed for their development and growth from dissolution of the minerals present in the soil. There is strong evidence that plants and microorganisms can increase the weathering and nutrient supply through active and passive mechanisms. However, biological weathering is challenging to quantify, particularly in natural systems, due to complex interactions between rock/parent material, hydrology of the site, and biota. Because of this, model experimental systems are often used to examine weathering in general and biological weathering in particular. This presentation focuses on several experiments that examined rock weathering as influenced by biota – non-vascular and vascular plants, free living microorganisms, and microorganisms in symbiotic relationships with plants – across different space and time scales from small mesocosm experiments to Landscape Evolution Observatory, a facility at the University of Arizona Biosphere 2 with three replicate 30 by 11 m hillslopes. The majority of these studies represent incipient weathering, where unweathered rock is used as a medium for plant growth. We will discuss evidence for biological weathering, partitioning of weathering products, and fluxes of CO2 related to weathering processes. Influence of natural succession and biological complexity on weathering will also be discussed.
Experimental Canopy Nitrogen Deposition Effects in Temperate Forests: The case of Quercus petraea L. and Fagus sylvatica L. Ring Width and Wood Density
Authors: Minikaev Daniel
Published: March 2024

As an essential nutrient, Nitrogen (N) availability is fundamental in monitoring forest productivity, and as such, understanding the effects of changing atmospheric N inputs in forest ecosystems is of high significance. While most field experiments have been employing ground fertilization to simulate Nitrogen deposition, two experimental forest sites in Italy have adopted the more advanced canopy N application approach.Here we present findings from a case study of wood core analyses of predominantly pure, even aged, Sessile Oak (Quercus petraea L.) and European Beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) forest stands, under two treatments of below and above canopy Nitrogen application, comparing between the two methods. The potential effect of elevated N availability on total ring width, mean ring density, and their corresponding earlywood and latewood fractions are examined.Our results indicate inconclusive effects of the treatments on the ring widths of either Q. petraea or F. sylvatica, although basal area increment patterns appeared to be affected divergently between the species and treatments. Mean and earlywood, but not latewood, densities exhibited a decrease in certain years of treatment in Q. petraea following the above canopy N application only, whereas F. sylvatica wood density showed no clear response to any of the treatments.Thus, we describe distinct responses of these broadleaved species to the different treatment approaches, discussing potential growth patterns under increased N availability, and emphasizing the importance of considering wood density in tree biomass accumulation and Carbon storage capacity assessments.