bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Energy content of soil organic matter pools under cropland and grassland sites
Authors: Andre Nina , Schugmann Martin , Kühnel Anna , Wiesmeier Martin , Schweizer Steffen
Published: March 2022

The storage of organic carbon in soils is regulated by different physicochemical mechanisms. The physical fractionation of soil organic matter (OM) into particulate and mineral-associated pools has advanced our knowledge based on these operationally-defined different storage forms of organic carbon in soils. Attempts to integrate a thermodynamic perspective to decipher mechanisms of soil organic carbon storage require the integration of our understanding of different physicochemical mechanisms. Here we analyzed the energy contents related to different pools of OM using differential scanning calorimetry. Various pools of OM were isolated by combined density and size fractionation differentiating free particulate OM (fPOM), occluded particulate OM larger than 20 µm (oPOM>20 µm), occluded particulate OM smaller than 20 µm (oPOM<20 µm) and mineral-associated OM smaller than 20 µm (MOM<20 µm). We compared cropland and grassland sites from long-term monitoring sites across Bavaria (Germany). Our aim was to relate the novel energy analyses with characterizations of the carbon storage and OM composition. In the cropland sites we found an energy gradient with increasing energy content (J/mg C) across fPOM, oPOM>20 µm, oPOM<20 µm, MOM<20 µm. The increasing energy gradient was independent of different carbon contents and correlated with decreasing C:N ratios. These results indicate an important role of energy accumulation through association of OM with minerals along the gradual decomposition of different OM pools. A relationship of the energy content with the alkyl/O-alkyl ratio serving as a proxy of decomposition based on 13C NMR spectroscopy was also related with the energy content but to a lower extent. In the grassland sites, the energy content gradient of different OM pools was in a similar range and the C/N ratios of the POM fractions were also lower compared to the cropland sites. By comparing energy stored in OM pools from cropland and grassland sites, we will discuss potential implications of energy analyses for our understanding of soil organic carbon storage.
Coupled ice-ocean modelling of the Amundsen Sea glaciers
Authors: De Rydt Jan , Naughten Kaitlin
Published: March 2022

Glaciers in the Pacific sector of West Antarctica are losing mass at an accelerating rate. Superimposed on this long-term trend are interannual variations in mass balance that result from a combination of internal ice dynamics and variability in ocean-induced ice shelf melt rates. We explore the relative importance of these internal and external drivers of change, using a newly developed coupling between the 3D ocean model MITgcm, and the SSA ice flow model Úa. For present-day ocean conditions, we simulate persistent retreat of the Pine Island, Thwaites, Smith and Kohler grounding lines between 2020 and 2150. We demonstrate complex changes in ice shelf melt rates caused by the evolving cavity geometries.
From landslide mapping to susceptibility modeling: a test in central Italy
Authors: Bufalini Margherita , Martinello Chiara , Cappadonia Chiara , Pambianchi Gilberto , Rotigliano Edoardo , Materazzi Marco
Published: March 2022

In the framework of the CARG (Geological and Geomorphological Mapping of Italy) project, landslides are also mapped as constituting one of the main surficial layers, masking the bedrock lithologies and related stratigraphic/tectonic contacts. As such, they are frequently mapped with a low resolution both in terms of spatial pattern and typology characterization. In particular, typical landslides affecting slopes in the Italian Apennines (slides and flows) are frequently grouped inside large polygons sometimes at a small catchment scale. However, the possibility to exploit such a reference landslide inventory for landslide susceptibility assessment is of great importance.

In this test, the existing CARG landslide dataset for the “Visso” map (Marche, Italy) was split according to the movement typology by exploiting topography maps and orthophotos, thus producing rotational slides, earth flows, and complex landslides archives (198, 91, and 51 cases, respectively). Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines (MARS)-based susceptibility models were following prepared by regressing each systematic landslide archive to a specific set of physical-environmental predictors, considered as determining for landslides activation. Furthermore, multicollinearity and variables importance analyses were carried out to verify their relevance and influence in landslide susceptibility assessment. Besides, a new type (LCL_SLU) of slope units, obtained by crossing classic hydrological partitioning with landform classification, was used as mapping units.

The results show good AUC (Area under the ROC curve) for all models when prediction skill is evaluated, with values of 0.82, 0.77, 0.78 for rotational slides, earth flows, and complex landslides, respectively; the same AUC became outstanding when success skill is detected, with 0.91, 0.95, and 0.99 scores, respectively. Finally, for potential use in territorial planning, an integrated map was produced by adding up the single-landslide susceptibility scores and ranking the output on a classical 0-1 scale. The final map reaches an AUC value of 0.89, confirming the high performance of the models.

The results of the test in the “Visso” map suggest as potentially very worth processing the landslide inventories already available from the CARG project to assess landslide susceptibility on a regional to national scale.
Carbon sequestration potential of the Lorestan area, Iran
Authors: Soleimani Dinani Pegah , Bigi Sabina , Proietti Giampaolo , Romano Valentina , Moallemi Seyed Ali
Published: March 2022

Current climate policies are not being implemented at a sufficient rate to mitigate global warming and as a result evaluation for the potentiality of more sites for a purpose of Greenhouse gas storage, in particular Carbon Dioxide, is on the rise. Iran is a country that ranks 7th in the emission of Carbon Dioxide in 2020 by 0.72 GT and is the 4th largest and 2nd largest reserve holder of oil and natural gas, respectively. For this reason and due to its potential, could play an important role in the context of CCS. Since the Zagros area is one of the most important foreland basins in the world hosting oil and gas fields, we addressed this zone for a purpose of Carbon sequestration. The existence of potential reservoirs in the Lorestan zone and vicinity to the source of emissions made us more decisive to focus on this area.

In this work, we evaluate the potentiality of four anticlines by using the data of abandoned oil and gas wells. Through the analysis of seismic lines and well data provided by NIOC (National Iranian Oil Company), we confirmed the geometrical potential and petrophysical characteristics of these structures for a purpose of carbon sequestration.

Required geological storage criteria such as geometry, pressure, depth, and petrophysical parameters are applied with the aim of screening the exploitable structures in the mentioned zone. In the final step, geological models of the structures have been built to represent petrophysical properties three-dimensionally, in order to evaluate the reservoir volumes and more importantly to estimate the storage capacity of this area.
Impact of energy crops strips such as miscanthus and short-rotation coppice on surface runoff and infiltration
Authors: Froehlicher Adele , Manssens Gilles , Bielders Charles , Degré Aurore
Published: March 2022

Vegetative filters are increasingly used throughout Europe to reduce water flow, sediment and phytosanitary products transfers from fields and thus mitigate negative off-site consequences of soil erosion. If grass strips efficiency to do so has been largely documented, they have the disadvantage of resulting in loss of agricultural area and consequently in loss of income for the farmer. This study therefore focuses on the efficiency of biomass crop strips - miscanthus and willow short-rotation coppice (SRC) – as erosion-mitigating tools.

A first series of simulated runoff experiments took place in 2021 on two sites, one 4-year-old miscanthus strip and one 2-year-old willow SRC, in the loess region of Belgium. Hydraulic roughness and infiltration is computed, respectively based on the water height throughout the vegetation and the inflow-outflow balance. Additionally to those simulations, single-ring infiltration measurements are carried on on 21 sites, chosen to reflect the diversity existing in terms of age, planting density and soil type among the biomass crop vegetative filters already in place in the Belgian loess region.

Results of the simulation tests demonstrate a mean Manning coefficient n of 0.58±0.32 s.m-1/3 in the miscanthus strip, and of 0.34± 0.02 s.m-1/3 in the SRC. In comparison, literature indicates n in the range of 0.1 to 0.3 s.m-1/3 for grass strips. Those first results indicate that biomass crop strips might prove at least as efficient as grass strips as erosion-mitigation tools. During the simulation test, infiltration capacity in the SCR (254 ± 183 mm/h) was greater than in the miscanthus strips (76 ± 81 mm/h). Soil types and slopes were however different on both sites and treatment of the complementary infiltration data will be necessary to confirm this statement. Further results will be available and discussed in the context of the conference.
Sustainability of Water Supply and Sanitation systems in Kazakhstan 
Authors: Tussupova Kamshat , Kaliyeva Ainagul , Persson Kenneth M
Published: March 2022

Sustainable development goals (6.1 and 6.2) call for full coverage with safely managed drinking water and safely managed sanitation by 2030. Thus, the UN Sustainable development goals declare to provide water, sanitation and hygiene for all and to involve local water users and find most suitable local practices for water provision.

While the MDGs highly promoted access to piped water and flushed toilets as the safest distribution of water and sanitation services, the SDGs promote access to all water sources and sanitation facilities if a safe management can be assured.

The SDGs "Safely managed drinking water" indicator includes the three following conditions: accessible on-premises, available when needed and free from contamination, and “Safely managed sanitation” indicator includes an improved sanitation facility which is: not shared, excreta is safely disposed in situ or excreta is transported and treated off-site. Thus, both centralized and decentralized water supply and sanitation systems are considered safe if met the sustainability criterias.

Since the Soviet Union time most of the centralized water systems in towns and rural areas in Kazakhstan were built in a linear way with piped water in and no sewer pipes out or limited wastewater collection pipes with no treatment and direct discharge. This research attempts to assess centralized water supply and sanitation systems on a household and the system levels in rural/urban areas in Kazakhstan using six sustainability components: environmental, socio-cultural, institutional, economic, health and technological sustainability. The survey included the questionannire of the households, discussions with the responsible for water supply systems and observation of water and sanitation points. The survey was conducted in three settlements with the access to centralised and decentralized water supply systems in Nothern part of Kazakhstan and covered 82% of the households. More than 85% of households used water from private sources; water from centralized sources if used mainly for watering the garden and not for drinking purposes. No sewer system was provided in the settlements and the waste/grey water is the responsibility of the household itself. Every household had pit laterine outside, meeting basic technical requirements and partially lacking the environmental safety requirements.  

For this study, several sustainability limitations were recognised where the most prevalent component, which consequently affected other components, was the institutional sustainability in the region, namely lack of community-based water supply systems,  the local municipality organization and regulation and education on maintaining the WSS systems.
Numerical modelling of extreme wave events in the Southwestern South Atlantic
Authors: Gramcianinov Carolina , Behrens Arno , Staneva Joanna , Ricker Marcel , Wiese Anne , de Camargo Ricardo , da Silva Dias Pedro
Published: March 2022

Severe ocean surface waves generated by wind (hereafter waves) have a strong impact on socio-economic activities such as navigation, harbours, oil exploitation, and coastal infrastructure. The South Atlantic monitoring remains behind regarding high-resolution wave products that can support the understanding and impacts of extreme wave events over the region. In this work, we present a high-resolution wave hindcast for the Southwestern South Atlantic (SWSA) evaluated under extreme conditions. Such a product can be used by several sectors to contribute to a more predictive and open data ocean, engaging the goals proposed by the UN Ocean Decade. The hindcast is produced using the WAM model forced by 1-hourly ERA5 surface winds. Three horizontal grids are used for downscaling, to keep a smooth resolution increase: a Global grid (0.25°), an intermediate grid that covers the Eastern coast of South America (0.1°), and a finer grid, focusing on the SWSA (0.05°). The spectral domain is discretized into 30 logarithmically spaced frequency bins and the wave propagating directions are set with a resolution of 24°. Sensibility runs are performed to obtain the more suitable configuration to represent the extreme wave climate in the region. The physics parameterization for the input and open ocean dissipation are tested between Jansen and Ardhuin formulations. The analyses showed that Ardhuin's parameterization (ST4) with Betamax of 1.60 performed better in comparison with buoys and satellite measurements during storm conditions. Moreover, the sea ice inclusion improved the wave height and wave direction in the coastal region, particularly on the southern Brazilian coast. Including depth refraction in both intermediate and finer grids also played an important role in the wave direction, improving the wave model performance against in situ data. We also present the wave hindcast evaluation against buoy and satellite data from 2017 to 2021, focusing on extreme wave events. Furthermore, significant wave height and wind speed are assimilated and the benefits of data assimilation in predicting extreme waves in the region are evaluated.
Supporting national reporting of drought hazard, exposure and vulnerability to track progress in drought adaptation, mitigation and management
Authors: Barker Lucy , Rickards Nathan , Sarkar Sunita , Hannaford Jamie , Magee Eugene , Rees Gwyn
Published: March 2022

Droughts are known to be one of the most damaging and costly natural hazards as a result of their large spatial scale, creeping nature and long duration. They have widespread primary and secondary impacts, and as such, proactive drought management is crucial to mitigate those impacts. In order to do so, it is crucial to understand the drought risk in terms of the characteristics of the drought hazard, who or what is exposed to the drought hazard, and who (or what) is vulnerable to the effects of drought. Drought mitigation, adaptation and management was adopted as one of five strategic objectives under the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNNCD) 2018-2030 Strategic Framework. Country Parties to the UNCCD agreed a monitoring framework and a range of indicators in order to track progress towards this objective.

Here we present new guidance created to help Parties to the UNCCD report on their progress towards Strategic Objective 3 ‘To mitigate, adapt to, and manage the effects of drought in order to enhance resilience of vulnerable populations and ecosystems’. Progress is monitored using three indicators, characterising the three fundamental components of risk: drought hazard, exposure to drought and vulnerability to drought. The three indicators, as agreed by Parties to the UNCCD, are:

Trends in the proportion of land under drought over the total land area,

Trends in the proportion of the total population exposed to drought, and

Trends in the degree of drought vulnerability.

Acknowledging the need for global applicability, the methods recommended to calculate these three indicators balance state-of-the-art science with relative simplicity, whilst also meeting the requirements set out in official UNCCD Decisions, guidelines of the World Meteorological Organization, and where possible utilising datasets used for other reporting activities (e.g. the Sustainable Development Goals).

The recommended methods for each indicator are illustrated using contrasting case studies from the UK and Thailand, utilising the recommended globally available datasets to calculate the three indicators listed above. In-country data are also used, where available, to calculate the indicators, highlighting the benefits of increased spatial resolution, and/or sensitivity to assessing changes in drought hazard, exposure or vulnerability over time. Finally, opportunities for the future of national reporting on drought risk are discussed.
Optimizations of Multiscale Simulation with AGRIF, towards Exascale Applications
Authors: Irrmann Gaston , Masson Sebastien , Debreu Laurent , Guibert David , Raffin Erwan
Published: March 2022

AGRIF (Adaptive Grid Refinement In Fortran) is a package for the integration of full adaptive mesh refinement features within a multidimensional finite difference model. This library is used in ocean models like NEMO (Nucleus for European Modelling of the Ocean) to offer the possibility to run multiple levels and 2-way nested embedded zooms. Within the ESiWACE2 project, AGRIF performance have been addressed toward high resolution simulations. 
First, a simple AGRIF configuration within NEMO has been set up to simplify benchmarking, profiling and testing new optimizations ideas. We selected on purpose a configuration with small MPI sudomains to mimic simulations running on high numbers of core. Second, a profiling analysis has let us identify an important overhead. Indeed, on a zoom with a refinement of a factor 3 in both latitude and longitude covering 1/9 of the simulated domain an overhead of 46% has been observed compared with the theoretical performance. The correction of land points used in the interpolation on the zoom has been found to be a major bottlenecks. Third, we implemented an optimization concerning the correction on land point limiting as much as possible the computations and taking advantage of the specificity of each interpolation. This adjustment provided us with a reduction of 25% of the time to solution in the aforementioned configuration. For future work, we identified numerous optimizations including further optimizations of the correction of land points.
Late Holocene sea-level change and storms in southwestern Norway based on new data from intertidal basins and salt marshes
Authors: Holthuis Max , Nixon Francis Chantel , Kylander Malin , van der Bilt Willem , Martin Jake , Lakeman Thomas
Published: March 2022

Most relative sea level (RSL) curves in Norway have been solidly constructed using sea-level index points (SLIPs) from isolation basins. Many of these curves show RSL falling at a slow and steady rate to modern sea level during the late Holocene, despite a lack of SLIPs younger than ca. 2000 years. Tide gauge records from southern and western Norway indicate that RSL may have been rising since they were installed (ca. 100 years ago), while the few RSL curves with one or two SLIPs younger than 2000 years BP hint that rates of sea-level fall accelerated during this period. This study aims to close the gap between palaeo and instrumental data by generating late Holocene SLIPs from low-elevation and intertidal basins in southwestern Norway. Geochemical analyses of the sediment cores from all the studied areas thus far suggests that marine influence has been increasing in recent centuries, possibly due to rates of eustatic sea level rise overtaking residual glacioisostatic adjustment (ca. 1-2 mm/yr) from the Last Glacial Maximum. Anecdotal evidence from local residents of Egersund, with family histories and records of past storm levels going back to the 1800s, confirm this. Discrete storm layers consisting of shell fragments in one salt marsh at the back of a sheltered intertidal basin, however, may be overprinting any subtle trends in recent RSL rise. Full results of multi-proxy analyses of 8 cores from four salt marshes and protected, intertidal basins with bedrock sills will be presented from the southwestern corner of Norway.
Configuration entropy analysis of river water quality dynamics under fine time resolution and network topology
Authors: Pang Tianrui , Jiang Jiping , Wang Peng , Zheng Yi , Zheng Tong
Published: March 2022

The water environment is an important carrier of material processes, in which a large number of biochemical reactions and energy transmission processes occur. High-frequency water quality observation can help us understand the dynamics of solute transport in the water environment. The information-theoretic approaches to system dynamics are receiving more and more attention that it reveals the new laws and support board applications. Configuration entropy (H*) is one of the derivative indexes that originated from information entropy, which was first introduced in 1994 to describe the disorder in random morphologies. It can reflect the complexity of the system under different space or time resolutions. Researchers have analyzed the characteristics of configuration entropy in some of the environment scenarios, such as spatial arrangement of rainfall. In this paper, we analyzed the space structure of river basin water quality dynamic system under the network topology of rivers, together with the time structure of water quality dynamic system. We calculated the configuration entropy of six water quality parameter data from four monitoring stations at Potomac River in two dimensions of time and space with topological treatment of river water system map. We arranged the high-frequency water quality time series according to different time slices to form a two-dimensional pixel image for calculating configuration entropy and the variation under different time resolutions. Results show that with the increasing length of time slice (from 1 day to 9 days), except pH and turbidity, the configuration entropy curve of other parameters has only one peak (1 day, 1.5 days, 2 days) to the valley (2.5 days and later), which confirms a hypothesis that the configuration entropy will not have a valley when the length of time grid is significantly greater than the width. When the length of the time slice is more than 2.5 days, even if the length of the time slice is increased, the overall shape of configuration entropy curve does not change significantly, suggesting that the configuration entropy of specific water quality parameters did not show temporal heterogeneity in a long-time period observation. We also assumed that temporal fractal phenomena exist in some water quality parameters consistent with previous studies. More analysis is in progress.
Multi-channel singular spectrum analysis of soil radon concentration, Japan: Relationship between soil radon flux and precipitation and the local seismic activity
Authors: Hattori Katsumi , Nemoto Kazuhide , Kojina Haruna , Kitade Akitsugu , kaneko Shu , Yoshino Chie , Mogi Toru , Konishi Toshiharu , Ouzounov Dimitar
Published: March 2022

Recently, there are many papers on electromagnetic pre-earthquake phenomena such as geomagnetic, ionospheric, and atmospheric anomalous changes. Ionospheric anomaly preceding large earthquakes is one of the most promising phenomena. Lithosphere-Atmosphere-Ionosphere Coupling (LAIC) model has been proposed to explain these phenomena. In this study, to evaluate the possibility of chemical channel of LAIC by observation, we have installed sensors for atmospheric electric field, atmospheric ion concentration, atmospheric Rn concentration, soil radon Rn concentration (SRC), and weather elements at Asahi station, Boso, Japan. Since the atmospheric electricity parameters are very much influenced by weather factors, it is necessary to remove these effects as much as possible. In this aim, we apply the MSSA (Multi-channel Singular Spectral Analysis) to remove these influences from the variation of GRC and estimate the soil Rn flux (SRF). We investigated the correlations (1) between SRF and precipitation and (2) between SRF and the local seismic activity around Asahi station. The preliminary results show that SRF was significantly increased by heavy precipitations of 20 mm or more in total for 2 hours. We proposed two types of models, a rainwater load model and a rainwater infiltration model, and it is appropriate for both models to work and (2) between SRF and local seismicity within an epicenter distance of 50 km from the station.

 
Discontinuous low order pressure formulation in control volume finite element method for simulating flow and transport in highly heterogeneous porous media
Authors: Al Kubaisy Jumanah , Salinas Pablo , Jackson Matthew
Published: March 2022

Control volume finite element (CVFE) methods provide flexible framework for modelling flow and transport in complex geological features such as faults and fractures. They combine the finite element method that captures complex flow characteristics with the control volume approach known for its stability and mass conservative properties. The general approach of CVFE methods maps the physical properties of the system onto the element mesh (element-wise properties) while the node centred control volumes span element boundaries. In the presence of abrupt material interfaces between elements which are often encountered in fractured models, the method suffers from non-physical leakage in the saturation solution as the result of control volume discretization used for advancing the transport solution. In this work, we present a discontinuous pressure formulation based on control volume finite element (CVFE) method for modelling coupled flow and transport in highly heterogeneous porous media. We propose the element pair P(1,DG)-P(0,DG), a discontinuous first order velocity approximation combined with a discontinuous low order pressure approximation. The approach circumvents the non-physical leakage issue by incorporating a discontinuous, element-based approximation of pressure. Hence, the resultant control volume representation directly maps to the element mesh as well as to the projected physical properties of the system. Due to the low order nature of the formulation, low computational requirement per element and the improved control volume discretization, the presented formulation is proven more robust and accurate than classical CVFE methods in the presence of highly heterogeneous domains.
The response of extreme extratropical cyclone wind fields to climate change
Authors: Priestley Matthew , Catto Jennifer
Published: March 2022

How extratropical cyclones will respond to changes in future climate forcing is often uncertain. Changes in the overall number of cyclones and precipitation rates is well understood, however, there is less consensus on how the frequency of extreme cyclones and the near-surface winds will respond to a warmer climate. Using an ensemble of models from CMIP6 across a range of climate scenarios we aim to reduce the previous uncertainty and have investigated how extreme cyclones will change using a composite analysis method across a variety of intensity metrics.

 

We find an increase in the frequency of extreme cyclones in the Northern Hemisphere winter, with the reverse being found in the summer. For the cyclone winds in the lower troposphere we examine both the maximum wind speed and the area of wind speeds above a high intensity threshold. Results show that despite there being little change in the maximum wind speed by the end of the century, the portion of the cyclone with wind speeds above a high intensity threshold may be at least 15% higher in the NH winter. This increase is partly driven by changes in the cyclone propagation speed, although dynamical changes within the cyclones leads to further increases in wind speeds for extreme cyclones compared to those of average intensity. These results have significant implications for risk modellers and the loss potential of high impact wind storms.
Application of deep learning segmentation techniques in smartphone images to assess growth of fine roots of spruce seedlings manipulated by air humidity and soil nitrogen source
Authors: Sell Marili , Smith Abraham George , Burdun Iuliia , Rohula-Okunev Gristin , Kupper Priit , Ostonen Ivika
Published: March 2022

A new insight in root growth dynamics is presented in this study, where pictures of root growth were taken with personal mobile phones and analysed by the machine learning based program RootPainter (Smith et al. 2020). Todays’ smartphones provide high-quality photos and user-friendly free software enables rapid processing of these images. We aimed to explore 1) how accurate the results are of the deep learning segmentation models created for assessing root growth, 2) how the changes in relative air humidity and dominating soil nitrogen source and their interactions influence root growth.
Picea abies trees were grown separately in transparent boxes in growth chambers in moderate or elevated air humidity and on nitrate or ammonium soil source. The pictures of roots were made from each side of boxes every week, together six sessions. The pictures were analysed with RootPainter twice, one where total root projection area was measured, second with only young white roots.
The total root growth was highest in trees growing in moderate air humidity and on ammonium source, lowest in elevated air humidity grown on nitrate source, 9.4 ± 1.9 and 3.9 ± 0.6 cm2, respectively. The young root projection area was highest in the beginning of experiment, and was affected by the soil nitrogen source. The amount of lignified roots increased over time and was affected by the air humidity treatment. The F measure was 0.88, when we compared a subset of automatically measured pictures to manually annotated pictures. We will further discuss about the magnitude of the errors 1) where the program identified “root as soil” and “soil as root”, and 2) where the root projection area of young roots was greater than the total root projection area. We did not discover treatment-specific bias in our error measurements. We conclude that the combination of smartphone images and RootPainter gives accurate and reliable results and is easy to use in plant growth manipulation experiments in the future.

Smith AG, Han E, Petersen J, Olsen NAF, Giese C, Athmann M, Dresbøll DB, Thorup-Kristensen K. 2020. RootPainter: Deep learning segmentation of biological images with corrective annotation. bioRxiv, doi:10.1101/2020.04.16.044461
Lithospheric structure in and around Slow Slip in the Alaska Subduction Region
Authors: Mukherjee Pousali , Ito Yoshihiro
Published: March 2022

Subduction zones host some of the greatest megathrust earthquakes in the world. Slow earthquakes have been also discovered around the subduction zones of the Pacific rim very close to megathrust earthquakes in several subduction zones in Chile, Cascadia, Mexico, Alaska, and New Zealand (Obara and Kato, 2016). Investigating the lithosphere of the slow earthquake area versus non slow-earthquake areas in subduction zones is crucial in understanding the role of the internal structure to control slow earthquakes. Deep transient slow slip had been detected in the Lower and Upper Cook Inlet in the Alaska subduction region(Fu et al. 2015; Li et al. 2016; Wei et al. 2012). In this study, we investigate the lithospheric structure beneath the stations in and around the slow earthquake area in Alaska. We also study the non slow-earthquake areas in the Alaska subduction zone using receiver function analysis and inversion method using teleseismic earthquakes. Here we focus on, especially the Vs and Vp/Vs ratios from both the slow and non-slow earthquake areas, because of the sensitivity  to the fluid distribution in the lithosphere; the fluid distribution possibly controls the potential occurrence of slow earthquakes.
Additionally, the nature of the slab can also play a crucial factor. The velocities around the plate interface region in the lower continental mantle, subducted oceanic crust and upper oceanic mantle has the potential to reveal information that the structural heterogeneity could be related to the slow slip.
Late Holocene permafrost development triggers hydrological and geochemical changes in subarctic peatlands (Abisko, 68ºN)
Authors: Margalef Olga , Grau Oriol , Joosten Hans , Pérez Haase Aaron , Pla Rabes Sergi , Fernández Pere Roc , Giralt Santiago , Sánchez Marc , Pérez Obiol Ramon , Soriano Joan Manuel , Pèlachs Albert , Campderrós Sara , Fernández Alarcón Cristina , Peñuelas Josep
Published: March 2022

Palsa mires are a common feature in the Subarctic zone of discontinuous permafrost. In these peatlands, the patchy distribution of frozen soil constrains relief, water regime and vegetation distribution. Because they lie at the edge of permafrost distribution, palsa mires are very sensitive to climate changes and become extremely valuable high-latitude terrestrial records. However, both (1) their origin, including their rapid development towards ombrotrophy because of uplift by ice accretion and (2) the irreversible geochemical effects of collapse and permafrost thaw make them challenging environmental archives. Understanding the Late Holocene evolution of these systems becomes a key framework to decipher potential consequences of the permafrost disappearance observed during the last decades. A 120 cm peat record was recovered on the Storflaket Palsa plateau (Abisko, Sweden, 68ºN) on June 2018.  This register contains more than 9000 years of paleoenvironmental information and was entirely made of peat, with two centimetric layers of volcanic ash interbedded at 74-77 and 46-47cm depth. A multidisciplinary approach using chemical (stoichiometry, stable isotopy and elemental composition) and biological proxies (macrofossil and pollen determination) was used to reconstruct the environmental evolution of the site. Bottom most layers (50-120cm) were characterized by peat made of different types of brown mosses and abundant aquatic fauna indicating that the area was covered by a high and stable water table that promoted organic matter accumulation in a percolation mire system. The very high accumulation rates and the extremely good preservation of macrofossil remains suggest a permafrost free area around 8000 cal yr BP. From 50 to 9 cm the peat is made of highly degraded brown moss, with increasing degradation towards the top. Chemical and macrofossil analyses indicate a strong oxidation processes due to peat exposition. The top layer (9 to 0 cm) is characterized by dry palsa peat and depicts very low accumulation rates, suggesting that this record is capturing the uplift movement of the peat mound by ice accretion and a shift from a minerotrophic and waterlogged mire system towards the development of a palsa plateau. Chemical and biological signals allow us to date the age of permafrost establishment later than 3000 cal. yr BP. The deposition of ash layers is linked to sudden inputs of phosphorus and metals leading to stoichiometric changes in peat composition.
Agricultural land abandonment and regulation ecosystem services balance in the Mediterranean area of Spain
Authors: Rivero Carlos , Pérez-Hoyos Ana , Albero Erika , Gilabert M. Amparo , López-Baeza Ernesto
Published: March 2022

The abandonment of traditional agricultural land is a challenge of increasing importance in recent years. In Spain, the annual abandonment rate of agricultural lands has been growing leading to several social and economic impacts. The environmental consequences of abandonment of cultivation can directly impact the benefits that human beings obtain from them. Furthermore, land abandonment affects ecosystem services, defined as the benefits that humans obtain directly or indirectly from ecosystems (Constanza et al., 1997).  Besides product provision, ecosystem services help to regulate, mediate and provide a better environment, supporting human life as well as climate change adaptation or biodiversity. This research aims to evaluating the effect of the abandonment of agricultural lands on three relevant regulation ecosystem services such as global climate regulation, soil stabilization, and protection and pollination.

The study was conducted for the Comunitat Valenciana (East of Spain), where agricultural land change and abandonment are especially remarkable because of the importance of traditional orchards around cities and villages and their slow fading out in the last three decades.

Agricultural abandoned areas, during the 2012-2019 period, have been delineated using the Temperature - Vegetation Dryness Index (TVDI). The TDVI is a water stress index based on the relationship between land surface temperature and the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) from remote sensing data (i.e., MODIS). The selected area corresponds to a zone that was cultivated in 2012 but with persistent water stress (i.e., TVDI > 0.8) for the rest of the period.

The estimation of gains and losses of ecosystem services in the selected abandoned areas was computed using a set of remote sensing methodology-based indicators. More specifically, carbon sequestration computed from Gross Primary Production (GPP) and Net Primary Production (NPP) was used to evaluate the potential to mitigate climate change. Soil stabilization was evaluated by using the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE). Finally, pollination was evaluated by computing nesting and floral resources.  

The assessment of the ecosystem services throughout the 2012-2019 period indicates that there is a loss of ecosystem services in the study area. Furthermore, the results show a balance of gains and losses of each service all along the study period. The outcomes could be implemented in a decision-making process to improve land management.
Integrated irrigation and drainage approach to overcome summer droughts in Nordic conditions
Authors: Ghag Kedar , Ahrari Amirhossein , Mustafa Syed , Panchanathan Anandharuban , Liedes Toni , Klöve Björn , Torabi Haghighi Ali
Published: March 2022

Globally, the hydro-climatological parameters such as precipitation, temperature, and soil moisture are getting more uncertain and varying regionally as well as seasonally with the changing climate. The Nordic region and the regional agriculture are no exception to this. Recent global studies have projected the increasing trend of precipitation during winter and autumn in Northern Europe. Whereas, the declining trend during spring and summer. The studies further lead to the resulting decline in mean soil moisture that consequently will increase the potential for agricultural drought. Additionally, the summer droughts are already getting highlighted locally as the agriculture in the region experiencing substantial yield losses besides excessive rainfall as a common issue. Therefore, supplemental irrigation, and controlled drainage during water-sensitive growth stages of crops, or crop selection could be potential alternatives and need further investigation. In this study, we present an integrated irrigation and drainage approach (IIDA) based on Water Balance Simulation (WBS) to reduce the negative impact of summer droughts in Nordic agriculture. A WBS is developed in the present study for potato crop fields in Tyrnävä municipal area of Finland to examine the required irrigation or drainage during the cropping season. The model considers precipitation, temperature, and soil water-holding properties as inputs to simulate daily water availability in the crop root zone and provide output as the required amount of either irrigation or drainage or a combination of both for the cropping season from 2000 to 2020. The results showed that around 20% of the mentioned period (2003, 2006, 2018, and 2019), the potato fields required supplemental irrigation between 12-120 mm during the entire season. Furthermore, except for 2009 and 2018, an annual average of 44 mm of drainage was required due to extreme rainfall events. The findings of the study will benefit to increasing the sustainability of agricultural yield in the Nordic region by reducing the negative impact of summer droughts.
An action-oriented approach to make the most of the wind and solar power complementarity
Authors: Jerez Sonia , Barriopedro David , García-López Alejandro , Lorente-Plazas Raquel , Somoza Andrés , Turco Marco , Trigo Ricardo M.
Published: March 2022

Solar and wind power curves typically exhibit inverted daily and annual cycles. However, their monthly anomalies show both positive and negative low correlation values across Europe, which compromises the effectiveness of their integration in the energy grid. This is because the well-known asymmetric response of the resources to the main large-scale teleconnection patterns vanishes and/or shows low synchronicity when the compound effect of these patterns is considered, as we show here. So we propose a step-wise method to help narrowing the monthly deviations of the total wind-plus-solar electricity production at the regional level from a given curve (here, the mean annual cycle of the total production), applied here across five continuous European regions but with straight application elsewhere and at other temporal scales. It detects the optimal shares of each power over previously identified sub-regions with homogeneous temporal variability of the monthly anomalies of the wind and solar capacity factors. Results show that, keeping the current total regional shares, just through a smart distribution of the power units, the standard deviation of the monthly anomalies of the total wind-plus-solar production is reduced up to 20% without loss in the mean capacity factor as compared to a base scenario with uniform distribution of the installations. This reduction grows above 50% if the total regional shares also came into the optimization game.

 

Acknowledgments:

This study was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities – Agencia Estatal de Investigación and the European Regional Development Fund through the project EASE (RTI2018-100870-A-I00), and by the Fundación Séneca – Agencia de Ciencia y Tecnología de la Región de Murcia through the project CLIMAX (20642/JLI/18).
Geological risk at Roque de los Muchachos astronomical observatory: lessons learned from Cumbre Vieja eruption. 
Authors: Eff-Darwich Antonio , González Pablo J. , García-Lorenzo Begoña , Castro-Almazán Julio , Pérez-Arencibia Juan Carlos , Rodríguez-Losada Jose Antonio
Published: March 2022

In 2010, it was published an analysis of the impact of geological activity on the main astronomical observatories worldwide (Eff-Darwich et al., 2010), among them, Roque de los Muchachos observatory (ORM), in the island of La Palma, Canary Islands (Spain). In this work, we compare the results on geological risk at ORM that were obtained in 2010 with the actual impact  of Cumbre Vieja eruption. In this sense, we studied the effects of seismicity, ash fall, landslides and ground deformation at ORM. In general, we found a good agreement between the expected and actual impact of volcanic activity at the observatory; however, large differences were found in the distribution of ash fall, likely due to the improper characterization of the atmospheric inversion layer in the model of the dispersion of the volcanic plume.

 

Eff-Darwich, A., García-Lorenzo, B., Rodríguez-Losada, J., de la Nuez, J., Hernández-Gutiérrez, L., Romero, C., Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 407, Issue 3, September 2010, Pages 1361–1375, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2010.16925.x
Tectonic activity assessment using morphometric indices - Tokaj Mountain (Hungary)
Authors: Ammar Seif , Albert Gáspár
Published: March 2022

The Tokaj Mountain in North eastern Hungary is part of the andesitic and dacitic volcanic arc of the inner Carpathians. The mountain is surrounded by first order strike-slip faults from the W and SE side respectively called as the Hernád Fault and Bodorg Fault. These faults are moderately active today, in the interior of the mountain range. However, there are few rock outcrops indicative of structural movement, but the morphology of the watercourses suggests that the area was more active in the recent past.

The present study aims to examine the link between the actual morphology of the mountain and the major tectonic factors affecting the region. In this regard, a morphometric analysis was performed adopting six indices in order to describ the relative active tectonism of the region based on the method of El Hamdouni et al.(2008). 

The method consists of the analyis of drainage basins and includes the evaluation of the morphometric indices namely: the stream-gradient index (SL), the asymmetry factor (AF), the basin shape ratio (Bs), the hypsometric integral (HI), the ratio of valley floor width to valley height (Vf) and the mountain front sinuosity (Smf). The combination of these parameters could be used to generate the relative tectonic activity index (Iat). A pre-processed SRTM DEM 30m resolution has been used for the watershed delineation, calibrated with open source real stream data. 

The study area covers the entire catchment area of the Hernád River the Tokaj and the Cserehát Mountains devided into six drainage basins. The evaluation result shows a moderate relative tectonic activity, except the eastern side of the mountain, where  the activity is low (flat area). However, there was also a slight difference in activity between the western and eastern sides of the lower Hernád River, and also a remarquable morphological  contrast could be noticed on the bordering areas of Hernád drainage basin. The results are in line with the relatively quiet structural activity currently observed, but further detailed data (well logs, interferometry analysis) and high resolution DEM are needed to reveal the structural characteristics of the Tokaj Mountains.

From the part of G.A. financial support was provided from the NRDI Fund of Hungary, Thematic Excellence Programme no. TKP2020-NKA-06 (National Challenges Subprogramme) funding scheme.

Reference:

El Hamdouni et al (2008). Assessment of relative active tectonics, southwest border of the Sierra Nevada (southern Spain), Geomorphology, 96(1-2), 150-173.

 
Antarctic surface climate in RACMO2.3p3
Authors: van Dalum Christiaan , van de Berg Willem Jan , van den Broeke Michiel
Published: March 2022

This study investigates the sensitivity of modeled surface melt and subsurface heating on the Antarctic ice sheet to a new spectral snow albedo and radiative transfer scheme in the Regional Atmospheric Climate Model (RACMO), version 2.3p3 (Rp3). We tune Rp3 to observations by performing several sensitivity experiments and assess the impact on temperature and melt by incrementally changing one parameter at a time. When fully tuned, Rp3 compares well with in situ and remote sensing observations of surface mass and energy balance, melt, near-surface and (sub)surface temperature, albedo and snow grain specific surface area. Near surface snow temperature is especially sensitive to the prescribed fresh snow specific surface area and fresh dry snow metamorphism. These processes, together with the refreezing water grain size and subsurface heating, are important for melt around the margins of the Antarctic ice sheet. Moreover, small changes in the albedo and the aforementioned processes can lead to an order of magnitude overestimation of melt, locally leading to runoff and a reduced surface mass balance.