bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Enhanced Rock Weatherings Effects on Soil and Plant Chemistry in Acidic Biodiverse Grassland
Authors: Bell Derek , Leake jonathan , Beerling David , Epihov Dimitar
Published: March 2024

Enhanced rock weathering (ERW) is the process of spreading basalt rock on agricultural soils to absorb carbon dioxide (CO2). If rolled out globally models predict it could sequester gigatonnes of atmospheric CO2 by the end of the century (Beerling et al., 2020). Extensive research is being carried out on identifying potential co-benefits of ERW and validating carbon dioxide sequestration within tilled arable soils; the annual nature of crops grown in these soils and their associated fertiliser use causes plants to have limited total root surface areas and disturbed mycorrhizal networks. ERW’s potential in grasslands, where perennial plants dominate with stable root biomass and mycorrhizal partners, is yet to be tested thoroughly. It does offer potential, as previous studies have shown that mycorrhizal fungal association to plant roots enhances mineral weathering (Quirk et al., 2012). To characterise whether grasslands carry any potential as an ERW system 50 tonnes per hectare of basalt was applied in March 2022 to 5 plots, with 5 adjacent plots being left un-treated within a traditional mildly acidic hay meadow in the Peak District. Over the course of the growing season soil pH, cations, phosphorus, and plant available silicon was assessed at regular intervals for treated and untreated samples. Furthermore, plant yield, nutrition data, and biodiversity were also analysed. Results indicate that rock weathering did occur, with significant increases in soil magnesium, silicon, and pH noted over the course of the experiment. There were no significant changes to plant yield, biodiversity, or nutrition in most cases; however, in basalt treated samples there were significant increases in the plant concentrations of silicon, magnesium, strontium, and sodium. Results indicate that ERW could benefit acidic grasslands through its pH and soil nutrient effects, while also potentially resulting in the absorption of CO2.
Regional distribution of mercury in the leaves of Quercus ilex in the Almadén area (Spain)
Authors: Barquero Peralbo José Ignacio , Esbrí Víctor José María , Ntutumu Domingo M. , Minang Carmelo M. , Lorenzo Álvarez Saturnino , González Valoys Ana C. , Higueras Pablo
Published: March 2024

Quercus ilex is a vascular plant, a tree of large size, which is one of the most common species present in central Spain. Almadén (Ciudad Real province, South-central Spain) is the centre of a mining area active since prehistoric times, particularly for mercury, but also for others potentially toxic elements (PTEs: Pb, Zn, Ag, Cu), and in this area the Q. ilex constitutes woods, as well as the so called ‘dehesas’, a characteristic landscape with these trees scattered with variable density in pasture areas.In this work we have sampled and analysed Hg and other PTEs (data not shown here) in the leaves from a wide area, of some 2,300 Km2, located around the Almadén mine and site. A total of 88 samples were taken, prepared, and analysed, using the Atomic Absorption Spectrometry with Zeeman effect combined with a process pyrolisation, with a LUMEX RA-915 series equipment.The area corresponds to the southernmost Central Iberian Zone of the Iberian Hesperian Massif, characterized by Palaeozoic and Pre-Palaeozoic substrates. In particular, the samples are distributed in three geological subdomains: the Almadén syncline in the north, the Alcudia anticline in the centre and the Guadalmez syncline in the south. Siliciclastic Paleozoic detrital rocks are in the majority in both synclines, while the pre-Paleozoic rocks of the Alcudia anticline are mainly dominated by schists and greywackes. Mercury uptake by plants occur through their leaves, and it accumulates in these, as proven empirically and experimentally. Besides, the presence of Hg in the atmosphere depends on the eventual presence of discrete sources, such as mines or dumps, or on the Hg emissions from contaminated soils.Our results show that Hg concentrations in Q. ilex leaves are conditioned by the presence of discrete sources in the Almadén syncline (the Hg mines present in this region), with a mean value of 197 ng/g ± 169, reaching even 1,000 ng/g in areas close to the main sources of atmospheric Hg. On the other hand, in the Alcudia Valley (99 ng/g ± 170) and the Guadalmez syncline (64 ng/g ± 192) the concentrations are lower and show a certain variability that may be related to the possible presence of the element in the soil in the form of anthropogenic contamination, as this research team has demonstrated in recent scientific publications.
Project Pythia: Building an Inclusive Geoscience Community with Cookbooks
Authors: Clyne John , Rose Brian , Eroglu Orhan , Munroe James , May Ryan , Camron Drew , Kent Julia , Snyder Amelia , Tyle Kevin , Grover Maxwell , Ford Robert
Published: March 2024

Project Pythia is the educational arm of the Pangeo community, and provides a growing collection of community driven and developed training resources that help geoscientists navigate the Pangeo ecosystem, and the myriad complex technologies essential for today’s Big Data science challenges. Project Pythia began in 2020 with the support of a U.S. NSF EarthCube award. Much of the initial effort focused on Pythia Foundations: a collection of Jupyter Notebooks that covered essential topics such as Python language basics; managing projects with GitHub; authoring and using “binderized” Jupyter Notebooks; and many of Pangeo’s core packages such as Xarray, Pandas, and Matplotlib. Building upon Foundations, the Pythia community turned its attention toward creating Pythia Cookbooks: exemplar collections of recipes for transforming raw ingredients (publicly available, cloud-hosted data) into scientifically useful results. Built from Jupyter Notebooks, Cookbooks are explicitly tied to reproducible computational environments and supported by a rich infrastructure enabling collaborative authoring and automated health-checking – essential tools in the struggle against the widespread notebook obsolescence problem. Open-access, cloud-based Cookbooks are a democratizing force for growing the capacity of current and future geoscientists to practice open science within the rapidly evolving open science ecosystem. In this talk we outline our vision of a sustainable, inclusive open geoscience community enabled by Cookbooks. With further support from the NSF, the Pythia community will accelerate the development and broad buy-in of these resources, demonstrating highly scalable versions of common analysis workflows on high-value datasets across the geosciences. Infrastructure will be deployed for performant data-proximate Cookbook authoring, testing, and use, on both commercial and public cloud platforms. Content and community will expand through annual workshops, outreach, and classroom use, with recruitment targeting under-served communities. Priorities will be guided by an independent steering board; sustainability will be achieved by nurturing a vibrant, inclusive community backed by automation that lowers barriers to participation.
Smart information system based on RS and GIS as an adaptation strategy for reducing mortality from heat waves 
Authors: Yépez-Rincón Fabiola D. , Avendaño Alicia , Fernández Delgadillo Sergio , Ferriño Fierro Adrían L. , Guerra Cobián Víctor H. , Huerta García Roberto E. , González Méndez Bárbara , Ramírez Serrato Nelly L. , Ábrego Góngora Carlos J. , Pérez Ruiz Rebeca , Aguilar Cruz Rogelio
Published: March 2024

Multiple factors influence the risk of heat stroke and that, collectively, define the vulnerability of the population. This vulnerability can be physiologically differentiated by older adults and children, by gender, or due to the level of exposure to sporting activities or labor, among others. During the last two decades, hot extreme events are drastically increasing related to climate change and other climate phenomena such as El Niño event. The World Health Organization estimates that more than 70,000 heat-related deaths occurred in Europe during the last two weeks of August 2003 and almost 62,000 deaths during summer 2022. In Mexico, the record of heat-related deaths was set during the summer of 2023 when the Health Secretariat reported 373 deaths due to extreme heat events. The five ranking states were Nuevo León (27% of the cases), Sonora (20%), Baja California (14%), Tamaulipas and Veracruz (8% respectively), and 80% of them are located between the 25 to 31°Latitude North. To understand which the most influential factors for heat-related deaths are, this study analyzes the interaction between land surface temperature, spatial population dynamics, and the exposure-response relationship to urban form and the concentration of air pollution in the Monterrey Metropolitan Area. The paper will present the operational structure of a smart information system based on RS and GIS for planning a better and safer city life in San Nicolás de los Garza, the municipality that ranked first on heat-related deaths. In summary, results indicate the next highlights: (1) extreme heat waves are increasing every year in the metropolitan area, (2) urban heat islands are spatially and temporally located, therefore, (3) risk reduction and civil protection actions must include a holistic approach including warning early systems, social, labor and health care actions, (4) preventive policies must be implemented such as sustainable urban planning for population climate justice, (5) and adopting nature-based solutions. 
Impact and drivers of informal water markets in irrigation regions in India
Authors: Haensch Juliane , Mehta Yashree , Brümmer Bernhard
Published: March 2024

Significant water supply-demand gaps are projected in many regions of India under current scenarios. The government is considering and implementing different measures to support a sustainable water resources management in irrigated agriculture, e.g. incentives to reduce water abstractions, decreasing energy subsidies, metering, effective water pricing or community-based water management. Also, informal water markets are widespread in India; however, their impacts are largely unknown and under-researched due to a paucity in related data. We analyse the development and determinants of farmers’ water purchasing behaviour and related expenditure using a large representative household survey for India over two years. In addition, we merged district level average statistics for precipitation, temperature and groundwater storage with the survey data. Modelling results show that, after accounting for several control variables, irrigation water purchases were more likely where groundwater levels were already low, farmers have a diversified access to water sources but no access to public piped drinking water supply. Particularly in groundwater irrigation areas, purchases were also more likely where: a) conflicts are prevalent within the village; b) families solve (water supply) conflicts individually; c) farmers are not members in a cooperative; and d) farmers have low confidence in State or village governments. Increased expenditure (INR/acre) for irrigation water was associated when purchasing mainly from private as compared to government tubewell owners. There is a need for future research to examine this dataset at local spatial scales and per different irrigation types. This is reflected in the different results for the state-specific models. Overall, results highlight the severity of the state of India’s groundwater resources, local community cohesion issues and the need for better regulation and monitoring in water management, e.g. with regards to informal water markets and agricultural subsidies, to better serve local farming communities and the environment. At the same time, different water-related policies need to take into account the effects of multiple implemented measures as well as the existence of informal water markets.
Strofio Operations: A New Molecular Beam Facility
Authors: Schroeder Jared , Livi Stefano , Patrick Edward , Turner John
Published: March 2024

We will present the design and establishment of a cutting-edge molecular beam facility at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI). The primary focus of this facility is to support the operations of Strofio, the neutral mass spectrometer and payload of the BepiColombo mission. Testing of this instrument requires a molecular beam with an average speed of 3 km/s. Beyond serving the immediate needs of Strofio, our vision extends to collaborative efforts with other organizations in the development of future instrumentation. We look forward to fostering partnerships that will collectively advance the capabilities of in-situ particle instruments and contribute to the broader scientific community.
Biomass burning influence on tropospheric ozone from recent airborne and ground-based field studies
Authors: Brown Steven , Bourgeios Ilann , Chace Wyndom , Coggon Matthew , Langford Andrew , Peischl Jeff , Rickly Pamela , Robinson Michael , Senff Christoph , Zuraski Kristen
Published: March 2024

Biomass burning emits large quantities of ozone precursors, nitrogen oxides (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), to the lower atmosphere.  Recent analysis of ozone and tracers for biomass burning and urban emissions in the remote atmosphere shows that a larger fraction of tropospheric ozone may be attributable to biomass burning than global models predict.  At continental and regional scales, increasing trends in biomass burning emissions in North America are associated with enhanced ozone in U.S. cities.  Ozone production within smoke plumes leads to enhanced regional scale backgrounds, while interaction of aged smoke with urban NOx pollution may lead to increased rates of ozone production depending on the local NOx sensitivity regime.  Several recent airborne and ground-based field studies have investigated ozone in biomass burning influenced air.  The 2016-2018 Atmospheric Tomography Mission (ATom) sampled remote tropospheric biomass burning influence. The 2019 Fire Influence on Regional to Global Environments and Air Quality (FIREX-AQ) sampled wildfire smoke across the U.S. with multiple research aircraft.  The 2022 California Fire Dynamics Experiment (CalFiDE) conducted focused in-situ and remote sensing measurements in California and Oregon.  Ground-based measurements in Boulder, Colorado intercepted periods of smoke influence in the Northern Front Range urban area in 2020 and 2021.  Finally, the 2023 Atmospheric Emissions and Reactivity Observed from Megacities to Marine Areas (AEROMMA) campaign on the NASA DC-8 and the Coastal Urban Plume Dynamics Study (CUPiDS) on the NOAA Twin Otter observed long range smoke transported to U.S. urban areas and the associated impacts on ozone.  These studies provide a comprehensive analysis of the biomass burning influence on tropospheric ozone at all scales, from near field plume chemistry to the global remote troposphere, and from the continental background to local urban influence.
Post-mining earthquakes and changes in observed vertical ground displacements during the period of mine flooding 
Authors: Sokoła-Szewioła Violetta , Siejka Zbigniew , Jarczyk Patrycja
Published: March 2024

The period of coal mine closures can be accompanied by many hazards, including the post-mining seismic hazard. Seismic phenomena, particularly during mine flooding, are felt by people, can cause minor or severe damage to buildings and affect shallow mine workings, and can cause reactivation of shallow mine workings in the form of sinkholes or other discontinuous deformations. It is therefore important to deepen the knowledge concerning these phenomena, particularly their relationship to surface deformations. This issue was the subject of a European research project with the acronym PostMinQuake financed by the Research Fund for Coal and Steel in 2020- 2023 (Grant Agreement No: 899192). The project involved the study of surface deformation in relation to registered post-mining earthquakes during the flooding of the Kazimierz- Juliusz coal mine. The research area was located in Poland in the area of the Upper Silesian Coal Basin. In this area, continuous monitoring of surface deformation was carried out for more than 2 years on single observation points using GNSS technology. The monitoring was carried out using an automatic GNSS monitoring system developed in the project. The paper presents the results of an analysis of the course of changes in vertical displacements at the above-mentioned points, in relation to the post-mining earthquakes registered during the study period. The analysis showed that in the case of more than 58% of the analyzed phenomena in the course of vertical displacements in the period associated with the occurrence of the post-mining earthquake, there were some regularities in the course of these displacements. It was found that, an increased uplift was observed prior to the occurrence of the event, in the next period of time, after the occurrence of the event, an increased increment in subsidence was generally observed, after that period, stabilization of the changes in vertical displacements was observed, as well as a slow increment of subsidence and/or the increment of uplifts. On this basis, it was concluded that there was a relationship between the observed course of displacements and the occurrence of post-mining earthquake. It was assumed that the significant increase in observed uplift can be a predictor of the occurrence of a post-mining earthquake. 
Multi-instrument synergetic retrieval of aerosol and surface properties with GRASP algorithm
Authors: Litvinov Pavel , Chen Cheng , Dubovik Oleg , Zhai Siyao , Matar Christian , Fuertes David , Lopatin Anton , Lapionak Tatsiana , Dornacher Manuel , Lehner Arthur , Retscher Christian
Published: March 2024

Big variety of different satellites on Earth orbit are dedicated to aerosol studies. However, due to limited information content, the main aerosol products of the most of satellite missions is AOD while the accuracy of aerosol size and type retrieval from space-borne remote sensing still requires essential improvement. . The combination of measurements from different satellites essentially extends their information content and, therefore, can provide new possibility for much better retrieval of extended set of both aerosol and surface properties.In the frame of ESA SYREMIS project GRASP algorithm was adapted for synergetic retrieval from combined space-borne instruments: (i) synergy from polar-orbiting (LEO) satellites (in particular, synergy of Sentinel-5p/TROPOMI, Sentinel-3A, -3B/OLCI instruments) and (ii) synergy of LEO and geostationary (GEO) satellites (in particular, synergy of Sentinel-5p/TROPOMI, Sentinel-3A, -3B/OLCI and HIMAWARI/AHI sensors). On one hand such synergy constellation extends the spectral range of the measurements. On another hand it provides unprecedented global spatial coverage with several measurements per day which is crucial for global climate studies and air-quality monitoring.In this talk we discuss physical basis and concept of the LEO-LEO and LEO-GEO synergies used in GRASP retrieval. It will be demonstrated that SYREMIS/GRASP synergetic approach allows transition of information from the instruments with richest information content  to the instruments with lower one. This results in increased performance of AOD, aerosol size and absorption properties retrieval and more consistent surface BRDF characterization. 
The effect of subduction relief on megathrust slip properties in Ecuador, constraints from gravity anomalies and seismic tomography
Authors: Paulatto Michele , Jiang Yueyu , Galve Audrey , Laigle Mireille , Rietbrock Andreas , Segovia Monica , Vaca Sandro
Published: March 2024

The subduction margin in Ecuador is dominated by the subduction of the Carnegie Ridge and associated oceanic plate relief. This region is also affected by complex slip behaviour including aseismic deformation, slow slip, and large earthquakes. We present new seismic and gravity data collected as part of the HIPER campaign in 2020 and 2022, covering the subduction margin at the northern edge of the Carnegie Ridge. Traveltime tomography of dense active source wide-angle seismic data from a trench perpendicular profile reveals the structure of this part of the margin. The slab crust thickens from 7.5 km at the western end of the profile to 15 km at the eastern end. The profile crosses two seamounts (Atacames seamounts), one currently impinging onto the margin (AS2) and the other already buried beneath the accretionary prism (AS1). The seamounts have low P-wave velocity roots and are associated with gravity anomaly highs. The forearc is uplifted in front of the subducted seamount AS1 and is affected by gravitational collapse in its wake. In the area affected by the seamounts, the interseismic plate coupling is reduced to almost zero likely because of the fracturing and disruption of the forearc and lubrication induced by enhanced fluid input. Further downdip the profile extends into the rupture area of the 2016 M7.8 Pedernales earthquake. This part of the plate interface is more laterally homogeneous and characterised by higher Vp. Our results confirm that rugged plate relief is associated with reduced interseismic coupling and that megathrust earthquake rupture areas tend to have high Vp and laterally homogeneous properties.
Enhanced Rock Weathering and Climate Mitigation: Prospects in Urban Farming 
Authors: Redfern Simon , Ma Shang , Zhang Yiwen , Ouyang Zhaofeng , Cheng Chin-Hsien
Published: March 2024

As part of a study of enhanced rock weathering in tropical lowland soils in an agricultural setting we are embarking on an assessment of the role of ERW in urban farming scenarios. Here, we present an evaluation of key agricultural settings in which quantification may be best achieved. In the context of Singapore, which has an ambition of domestic production of 30% of its nutritional needs by 2030, this must include urban farming. We assess development of methods for geochemical analysis of cation mobility due to weathering in urban farming substrates. We have developed a matrix of key factors in enhancing soil and likely carbon drawdown; validation and testing of existing models. Finally, we conduct assessment of implications for agricultural productivity and economic viability.
Clams reveal the North Atlantic subpolar gyre has destabilised over recent decades
Authors: Arellano Nava Beatriz , Halloran Paul R. , Boulton Chris A. , Lenton Timothy M.
Published: March 2024

Amidst the ongoing climate crisis, there is a pressing need to assess the resilience of different components of the climate system. Two candidate tipping elements involve changes in circulation in the Atlantic Ocean, raising alarms about the potential consequences for the climate system and human societies. An approach to measure changes in resilience consists of assessing signs of critical slowing down by measuring changes in lag-1 autocorrelation and variance. However, this approach requires long-term, regularly spaced time-series, characteristics that are rare among observational records, especially in the ocean. The recent development of annually-resolved proxy records based on information encoded in bivalve shells provides a unique opportunity for assessing resilience in the marine environment. Here, we assess changes in resilience in the northern North Atlantic by measuring changes in lag-1 autocorrelation in a compilation of 29 bivalve-derived records. Our findings indicate that the marine environment has lost stability over the last decades over much of the North Atlantic sea shelves. Records that exhibit significant increasing trends in autocorrelation are highly sensitive to temperature variability over the subpolar gyre region, suggesting that the observed slowing down in variability may be associated with this system. Furthermore, bivalves reveal a basin-scale destabilisation episode preceding a documented regime shift in the northern North Atlantic circulation system around 1920, demonstrating their sensitivity to changes in resilience in circulation elements. Both findings suggest that the subpolar North Atlantic circulation system has lost resilience over recent decades and is potentially approaching a tipping point.
Constraints on the Alfvénicity of switchbacks
Authors: Agapitov Oleksiy , Drake James , Swisdak Marc , Choi Kyung-Eun , Raouafi Nour
Published: March 2024

Switchbacks (SBs) are localized structures in the solar wind containing deflections of the magnetic field direction relative to the background solar wind magnetic field. The amplitudes of the magnetic field deflection angles (θ) for different SBs vary from ~40 to ~160-170 degrees. Alignment of the perturbations of the magnetic field (Δ\vec{B}) and the bulk solar wind velocity (\Delta \vec{V}) is observed inside SBs, so that \Delta\vec{V}~\Delta \vec{B} when the background magnetic field is directed toward the sun (if the background solar wind magnetic field direction is anti-sunward then \Delta\vec{V}~-\Delta\vec{B}, supporting anti-sunward propagation in the background solar wind frame). This causes spiky enhancements of the radial bulk velocity inside SBs. We have investigated the deviations of SB perturbations from Alfvénicity by evaluating the distribution of the parameter α, defined as the ratio of the parallel to Δ\vec{B} component of Δ\vec{V} to Δ\vec{V}_A=Δ\vec{B}/sqrt(4π n_i m_i) inside SBs, i.e. α=V_{}/Δ\vec{V}_A (α=Δ\vec{V}/Δ\vec{V}_A when Δ\vec{V}~-Δ\vec{B}), which quantifies the deviation of the perturbation from an Alfvénic one. Based on Parker Solar Probe (PSP) observations, we show that α inside SBs has systematically lower values than it has in the pristine solar wind: α inside SBs observed during PSP Encounter 1 were distributed in a range from ~0.2 to ~0.9 The upper limit on α is constrained by the requirement that the jump in velocity across the switchback boundary be less than the local Alfvén speed. This prevents the onset of shear flow instabilities. The consequence of this limitation is that the perturbation of the proton bulk velocity in SBs with θ>π/3 cannot reach α=1 (the Alfvénicity condition) and the highest possible alpha for an SB with θ=π is 0.5. These results have consequences for the interpretation of switchbacks as large amplitude Alfvén waves.
Radio science investigations with an Uranus orbiter mission
Authors: Zannoni Marco , Brighi Giancorrado , Buccino Dustin , Caruso Andrea , Durante Daniele , Gomez Casajus Luis , Hemingway Douglas , Lari Giacomo , Magnanini Andrea , Mitri Giuseppe , Olivieri Angelo , Oudrhiri Kamal , Park Ryan , Parisi Marzia , Spada Giorgio , Tortora Paolo
Published: March 2024

The latest Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey selected Uranus Orbiter and Probe (UOP) as the next highest-priority Flagship mission. In this context, radio science investigations can provide a significant contribution to the science objectives of a future mission to the Uranian system, as demonstrated by past missions to Jupiter and Saturn, such as Galileo, Cassini, and Juno. This study provides expected performance of radio science investigations, i.e., gravity, radio occultation, and bistatic experiments.Regarding gravity science, radiometric tracking data enable precise spacecraft orbit determination and estimation of various dynamical parameters of the Uranian system. The measurements can be obtained via the onboard transponder. We will discuss the expected performance for the retrieval of the gravity parameters of Uranus and its satellites, and the satellite orbits. When the spacecraft will be occulted by Uranus’ atmosphere, the radio link will be affected, allowing us to obtain vertical profiles of its neutral component (temperature-pressure) and ionosphere (electron density). In addition, radio occultations also provide measurements of planetary shape, a constraint on the interior and zonal winds. One-way radio occultations require the presence of an onboard ultra-stable oscillator. If a multi-frequency link is available, the dispersive effects can be isolated, improving ionosphere electron density retrievals. Occultations of the Uranian ring system may also be possible to constrain particle size. In this work, the expected performance on the vertical profiles of the atmosphere of Uranus and its satellites will be discussed. Lastly, bistatic radar observations can provide information about the surface of a target, in terms of roughness, dielectric constant, and porosity. A preliminary assessment of bistatic radar observations of the Uranian moons will be provided.
Do Mature, Fluvial Landscapes Obey Hamilton's Principle?
Authors: Peckham Scott D.
Published: March 2024

Students of physics typically take a theory course on classical mechanics in which they learn about Hamilton's Principle and how it can be used to derive many well-known physical laws that describe the motion of objects from particles, to light rays, to celestial bodies, including Newton's laws and Snell's Law from geometrical optics.  This powerful principle has also been shown to apply to fields (i.e., continuous systems) such as the electromagnetic and gravitational fields, and it is a foundational concept in quantum physics.  Hamilton's principle states that the dynamics of a physical system will optimize a functional (in our case, an integral over a spatial domain) of the system's Lagrangian, which is typically the difference between its kinetic and potential energies.  Many previous authors have postulated that fluvial landscapes may evolve in such a way that local and/or global kinetic energy dissipation or stream power is minimized, and this is the basis of the optimal channel network (OCN) simulation models that have been widely studied.  However, Hamilton's Principle suggests that these formulations are lacking an important piece, namely the global introduction of potential energy into the fluvial system by rainfall.  The author will show that by introducing this missing piece, Hamilton's Principle and the Euler-Lagrange theorem lead to a partial differential equation (PDE) for idealized, steady-state landforms.  This same PDE can also be derived from conservation of mass and an empirical slope-discharge formula.  These connections therefore point to a new theoretical framework for understanding the interplay between function and form in mature, fluvial landforms;  that is, an explanation for why these landforms take the forms we observe.  The author will also present ideas and algorithms for analyzing digital elevation models (DEMs), in an effort to test for agreement with Hamilton's principle.
Atmospheric moisture recycling and its influence in the Sudd Region in the Upper Nile Basin
Authors: Chen Yueyang , Shamseldin Asaad
Published: March 2024

Moisture recycling, is defined as the precipitation in a region which is partially contributedby evapotranspiration from the same region. It is the interaction between terrestrial hydrologyand atmospheric processes, and plays a crucial role in forming local water resources andaffecting local climate. Up to date, global moisture recycling at regional and continentalscales has been understood relatively well, the patterns of local moisture recycling and themain variables impacting it remain unclear. For wetlands, the evaporation alters local climateby re-precipitation in surrounding regions, which can also be analysed from the viewpoint ofmoisture recycling. Yet, there is rare research has been done in this viewpoint to analyse andmanage water resources of wetlands. It is thus of importance to carry out such research tounveil it. As the largest wetland in Africa, the Sudd region has relatively large precipitationrecycling contributed by the surrounding regions, as well as large swampy areas of upperNile Basin, which makes it an appropriate study case for the moisture recycling of wetlands.In this research, it is the first time to carry out atmospheric moisture recycling of Sudd region,considering anthropogenic activities such as engineering practices, hydro-politics andcomplex system. In this article, we will present multi-year hydro-climatology patterns ofSudd, and the calculation results from Water Accounting Model-Two Layers (WAM-2layers), including water vapor sources of its precipitation, and the reprecipitation of itsevapotranspiration. We will also analyse their spatial distributions, origin and destination, andfind the multi-year average moisture recycling ratio of the basin. From our calculation, it is ashigh as 24% in some regions. In summary, this work shows that Sudd region is of greatsignificance to the neighbouring regions in terms of moisture recycling, and this would bealso useful to provide a practical basis for planning by considering local land-atmosphereinteraction.
Machine Learning Models Use Large Scale Signals to Forecast the MJO
Authors: Yao Lin , Yang Da , Duncan James , Kumar Chattopadhyay Ashesh , Hassanzadeh Pedram , Bhimji Wahid , Yu Bin
Published: March 2024

The Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) is a large-scale tropical phenomenon where fluctuations of clouds, rainfall, winds, and pressure propagate eastward around the globe every 30 to 90 days on average. The MJO has significant impacts on weather and climate both locally and globally. Despite its importance, forecasting the MJO remains challenging due to the limitations of traditional numerical and statistical methods. To address this, machine learning has emerged as a promising avenue for MJO forecasting (Martin et al. 2022, Silini et al. 2021, Delaunay and Christensen 2022). Apart from accurate forecasts emphasized in previous research, our study aims to get more physical insights: we build a predictive and interpretable convolution neural network (CNN) and unravel what tropical waves at which spatial scales are essential for MJO forecasting.Our CNN model takes tropical reanalysis maps as input and predicts the MJO index, achieving forecast skills comparable to NCEP Climate Forecast System (CFSv2). This level of skill is state-of-art in interpretable neural networks. To understand what information is crucial to our MJO forecast, we decompose the output of each convolution layer into tropical waves at different zonal scales. We find that the CNN focuses on large-scale patterns whose zonal scale is above 2500 km. In fact, even when fed exclusively with large-scale features as input, the CNN achieves MJO forecasts akin to the skill of the original model. Furthermore, the CNN chooses to reconstruct large-scale features from input containing solely small-scale features instead of relying directly on small scales for forecasting. This reconstruction further emphasizes the critical role of large-scale patterns in MJO predictions.In future research, we plan to perform a systematic analysis to evaluate the contribution of different tropical waves to MJO forecasting. We will also simplify the model architecture to facilitate better understanding. Additionally, we plan to incorporate more previous time steps as input memories to enhance forecast accuracy. This work represents a promising advance towards economic yet precise MJO forecasting.
Evolution of the polycrisis: Anthropocene traps that challenge global sustainability
Authors: Søgaard Jørgensen Peter , Jansen Raf , Avila Ortega Daniel , Wang-Erlandsson Lan , Donges Jonathan F. , Österblom Henrik , Olsson Per , Nyström Magnus , Lade Steve , Hahn Thomas , Folke Carl , Peterson Garry , Crepin Anne-Sophie
Published: March 2024

The Anthropocene is characterized by accelerating change and global challenges of increasing complexity and most recently by what some have called a polycrisis. Based on an adaptation of the evolutionary traps concept to a global human context, we explore whether the human trajectory of increasing complexity and influence on the Earth system could become a form of Anthropocene trap for humanity. We identify 14 Anthropocene traps and categorize them as either global, technology or structural traps. An assessment reveals that 12 traps (86%) could be in an advanced phase of trapping with high risk of hard-to-reverse lock-ins and growing risks of negative impacts on human well-being. Ten traps (71%) currently see growing trends in their indicators. Revealing the systemic nature of the polycrisis, we assess that Anthropocene traps often interact reinforcingly (45% of pairwise interactions), and rarely in a dampening fashion (3%). We end by discussing capacities that will be important for navigating these systemic challenges in pursuit of global sustainability. Doing so, we introduce evolvability as a unifying concept for such research between the sustainability and evolutionary sciences.
Can Trend Tests Detect Changes in Design-Flood Quantiles under Changing Climate?
Authors: Awasthi Chandramauli , Archfield Stacey A. , Reich Brian J. , Arumugam Sankarasubramanian
Published: March 2024

To estimate design-flood quantiles, such as the 100-year flood, the observed annual maximum flood (AMF) series is fitted to a probability distribution and then the design flood quantile is estimated from the fitted distribution. This is because, in most cases, historical records are not long enough to observe rare, design-flood events. Changes in the AMF series, which are usually detected using simple trend tests (e.g., Mann-Kendall test (MKT)), are hypothesized to result in changes in  design-flood estimates. This hypothesis is tested by using an alternate framework to detect significant changes in design-flood between two periods – rather than changes in the AMF series – and then evaluated using synthetically generated AMF series from the Log-Pearson Type-3 (LP3) distribution due to changes in moments associated with flood distribution. Synthetic experiments show that the MKT does not consider changes in all three moments of the LP3 distribution and incorrectly detects changes in design-flood. We applied the framework on 31 river basins spread across the United States. Statistically significant changes in design-flood quantiles were observed even without a significant trend in the AMF series and basins with statistically significant trends did not necessarily exhibit statistically significant changes in design-flood. If changes to design-flood quantiles are of interest, this framework can be useful rather than simple trend tests on the AMF series which may or may not indicate changes in the design-flood quantiles have occurred. We are now extending the application of the developed framework to mixed population scenarios where floods are generated from more than one causal mechanism under the hypothesis that two more causal mechanisms result in statistically different design-flood quantile estimates at the same river.
Promote scientific data sharing for the world’s Third Pole
Authors: Li Xin , Pan Xiaoduo , Feng Min
Published: March 2024

 The Tibetan Plateau, also known as the world’s Third Pole, holds immense significance in the global context, influencing climate patterns, water resources, and biodiversity across Asia and even the globe. Scientific data related to the Tibetan Plateau is crucial for understanding of the complex interactions among its lithosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, biosphere, atmosphere, and anthroposphere. Additionally, sharing scientific data facilitates collaborative research efforts, fostering a comprehensive approach to addressing challenges such as water resource management, natural disasters, and the sustainable development of the Tibetan Plateau. By promoting and sharing scientific data of the Third Pole, the international scientific community can contribute to the understand and preservation of this vital region and its far-reaching implications for the Earth system.The National Tibetan Plateau/Third Pole Environment Data Center (TPDC, https://data.tpdc.ac.cn) is one of the first 20 national data centers endorsed by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China in 2019. The TPDC is dedicated to consolidating and integrating extensive data resources of the Tibetan Plateau. The data center is featured by the most complete scientific data for the Tibetan Plateau and its surrounding regions, and is hosting more than 6,300 datasets collected from diverse disciplines, covering terrestrial surface, human-nature relationship, atmosphere, solid Earth, cryosphere, remote sensing, paleoenvironment, and others. The TPDC provides a cloud-based platform with integrated online data acquisition, quality control, analysis, and visualization capability to maximize the efficiency of data sharing. These advancements will also promote modeling of the dynamics in environment, ecosystem, human society, and the Earth system cross the Third Pole region, providing key data and knowledge supports to decision-making related to the region’s sustainable development.TPDC complies with the “findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR)” data sharing principles and strengthens its cooperation with international organizations, such as collaborating with WOM to promote the Global Cryosphere Watch project. It also collaborates with the ICIMOD on data exchanging, observation capability, capacity-building, and joint research. As a recommended data repository for international journals like Nature, AGU, ESSD, and Elsevier to encourage data authors to share their data along publications. Additionally, the TPDC provides data support for various international science programs, including TPE, GEWEX/GASS LS4P and WCRP-CORDEX CPTP.
Implementation of soil restoration strategies based on methodology for defining soil health farm types in EU
Authors: Nikolov Dimitre , Boevsky Ivan , Kostenarov Krasimir , Tzvetanova Ekatherina , Banov Martin , Huliyan Magardich , Zavattaro Laura , Krasa Josef , Dostal Tomas , Liebhard Gunther Carl , Strauss Peter , Bakacsi Zsofia , Hudek Csilla , Gomez Jose A.
Published: March 2024

Soil health is a significant problem in agriculture which demands a tailor-made approach. The study aims to develop a methodological approach for farm typology construction in terms of soil health. Thus, the focus is on EU farms, which produce in the three key cropping systems - grassland, cereal-based rotation, and tree crops. It was applied principal component analysis based on which it was constructed four factors, related to soil health. This approach bridges soil health problems with socioeconomic, environmental, and technology assessments. Soil health farm typology determinations is an essential step in any realistic evaluation of constraints and opportunities that farmers face and helps develop appropriate technological solutions, policy interventions, and comprehensive environmental assessment. It can be used to describe the possibilities and implications at larger regional scales of new strategies for promoting soil restoring and best fertilization technologies in agriculture and its inclusion in agricultural and environmental policies. The farm typology in term of soil health was constructed applying two sequential multivariate techniques: principal component analysis (PCA), and cluster analysis (CA).Key words: soil health, farm typology, crops, tree crops, cereal-based rotation, grasslandAcknowledgement: The research is made under the project “Transforming Unsustainable management of soils in key agricultural systems in EU and China. Developing an integrated platform of alternatives to reverse soil degradation” – TUdi. This project receives funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation action under grant agreement No 101000224.
The sociology of modelling: how we shape a perception together
Authors: Melsen Lieke
Published: March 2024

Science, despite its status as objective and searching for truth, is inherently a social activity. Research is conducted by scientists that collaborate, work in teams, get advised by their supervisor, get funding to study particular questions, know one another from earlier projects, and so on. In these social interactions, we together define what we consider important to study, or what we deem unimportant. This occurs at multiple levels: Funding agencies, for example, have the power to determine which research questions should be addressed. As hydrological modelling community, we have implicitly agreed that discharge is the main variable of interest - focusing on other fluxes or states is often presented as an advancement.  And at the modelling team level, we often (implicitly) agree on a modelling vision. From interviews with modellers from different teams, it for example became apparent that one team had the modelling vision to `keep things as simple as possible’. Given this vision, the modeller was inclined to choose the simpler parameterization over a more complex one to describe the same process. In another team, ‘scale invariance’ was considered more important, and therefore process representations were selected based on their scalability. Therefore, if we want to “advance” process-representation in models across spatial and temporal scales, the theme of this session, we should acknowledge that different researchers have different perceptions of what advancing comprehends, that there is no objective measure to define advancement, and that the first step probably is, that we have to clarify and express our modelling vision.
Evolution and Growth of Lava Deltas: Insights from the 2021 La Palma Eruption (Canary Islands)
Authors: Sáez-Gabarrón Lucía , Sanz-Mangas David , Galindo-Jiménez Inés , Vegas Juana , García-Davalillo Juan Carlos , Hernández Mario , Pérez-López Raúl , Camuñas Carlos , Lozano Gonzalo , Lorenzo Carnicero Carlos , Rodríguez-Pascua Miguel Ángel , Perucha Maria Ángeles , López Gutiérrez Julio , Sánchez Nieves
Published: March 2024

During the 2021 eruption on La Palma Island, the predominant volcanic hazard was lava flows, while tephra fall and gas emission were significant concerns. Consequently, monitoring the expansion of the lava flow perimeter considering the variations in volcanic activity became fundamental. The interaction of lava with the sea water was also a major concern for emergency managers due to its associated hazards like gas emission and explosive activity due to interaction lava-water, leading to a specific focus on the formation and development of lava deltas.Almost 10 days after the beginning of the eruption, the lava reached the sea, forming a main structure (south delta) that grew in different phases until nearly the end of the eruption, covering an area of approximately 83 ha. The south delta encroached upon the sea and additionally buried the northern part of a pre-existing lava delta from the 1949 San Juan eruption. About 1300 m from the northernmost tip of the south delta, a new lava flow entry to the sea occurred 64 days into the eruption, feeding a second lava delta (north delta) of about 5 ha over a 4-day period.This study has made significant technical and scientific contributions, not only during the emergency but also in preparation for future recovery efforts on La Palma. Remotely Pilot Aircrafts (RPAs) provided valuable information about the lava-flow development and enhanced a deeper understanding of the formation and evolution of lava deltas and their potential hazards. Moreover, the study highlights the potential impact on new inhabited or economically exploited areas and is imperative its preservation for the geological heritage, including marine zones. Furthermore, it will play a crucial role in forecasting the behaviour of lava deltas and in the development of mitigation measures for potential future eruptions.