bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Drinking water quality research of the soum centers and settled areas in south Gobi of Mongolia
Authors: Danzan Altantungalag , Purevsuren Uuganbayar , Dorjgotov Gan-Erdene
Published: February 2023

Groundwater is vital resource for both the local people and livestock of the Gobi region of Southern Mongolia where surface water distribution is limited. Apparently, whether the water is suitable for drinking purpose is significant issue to study. The purpose of this study is to assess the quality of water in local water supply wells and to identify  hydrochemical facies and origin of the micro elements of the water. In the study, totally 233 water samples were collected from the existing water wells located in 77 soum centers and settled areas of 10 provinces of southern Mongolia. The water samples were analyzed at the Central Geological Laboratory in Ulaanbaatar. Major cations (K+, Na+, Ca2+, Mg2+, SiO2) and anions (Cl-, HCO3-, SO4-, NO2-, NO3-, F-) were determined. In addition, total 12 trace metals (Be, B, Cr, Mn, Cu, As, Se, Sr, Mo, Cd, Ba, U) have been determined by the ICP-124. As a result, the groundwater of the target region is identified to be alkaline and as for the mineralization, it refers to fresh or brakishwater type. Hydrochemical facies are identified to be the types of Ca-HCO3, NaCl, Ca-Na-HCO3 and Ca-Mg-Cl. Moreover, the sources of major ions of the groundwater in the region is characterized by more dominance of water and rock unit interaction and less impact of recharge and evaporation. When compared to drinking water standard, the hardness, Na ion and Mg ion exceed the maximum allowable limits in the water samples taken from water wells of 28 soums, 24 soums and 47 soums, respectively. The concentration of arsenic was higher than drinking water standards of World Health Organization (WHO) in 21 soums of the study area and other metals including uranium, strontium and selenium in water exceeded drinking water standards in 9 soums centers water supply wells.
Impact of Diurnal Warm Layers on Atmospheric Convection
Authors: Shevchenko Radomyra , Hohenegger Cathy , Schmitt Mira
Published: February 2023

The phenomenon of sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies created by oceanic diurnal warm layers has been extensively studied for the last decades, but the assessment of its importance for atmospheric convection has come within reach only very recently, thanks to the development of kilometre-scale simulations. We use the output of a global coupled simulation with a 5km horizontal grid spacing and near-surface ocean layers of order O(0.5m) to explicitly resolve both atmospheric convection and diurnal warm layers. As expected, the simulations produce daily SST fluctuations of up to several degrees. The increase of SST during the day causes an abrupt afternoon increase of atmospheric moisture due to enhanced latent heat flux. This increase is followed by an increase in cloud cover and cloud liquid water content. However, although the daily SST amplitude is exaggerated in comparison to reanalysis, the impact on cloud cover and cloud liquid water content only lasts for 5-6 hours. Moreover, the global daily average of these quantities is not influenced by their increase. All in all, we conclude that the global short-timescale impact of diurnal warm layers is negligible.
Uncertainty and observability of target ecosystem indicators within the operational system for the North-West European Shelf
Authors: Skakala Jozef , Ford David , Ciavatta Stefano
Published: February 2023

We developed biogeochemical ensembles within the research and development (R&D) version of the coupled physical-biogeochemical operational system on the North-West European Shelf (NWES). Based on the ensembles we analyse the uncertainty of a selected set of target ecosystem indicators, such as the net primary production, phytoplankton phenology and community structure, near-sea-bottom oxygen, particulate organic carbon (POC) fluxes, trophic efficiency and pH. By performing data assimilation experiments with a newly developed ensemble-3DVar system we determine how observable are these target indicators with the standard set of observations for the surface total chlorophyll derived from the ocean color satellite data. Some conclusions for how to improve the target indicator observability are being discussed.
Tracking tillage practices across European croplands using multi-scale remote sensing and machine learning.
Authors: Torbick Nathan , Whelan Aoife , Synes Nick , Huang Xiaodong , Cornwell Vincent
Published: February 2023

The adoption of regenerative agricultural practices is gaining traction as an approach to enhance soil health and sequester carbon to combat climate change. Several sustainability frameworks and programmes are now incentivizing producers to transition to regenerative farming. These evolving initiatives have created a need to build and operate Measurement, Reporting and Verification (MRV) platforms to track cropland practices and impacts. To help scale initiatives, we have developed an automated approach that leverages multi-source remote sensing, data science and machine learning for cost-effective, robust and transparent tracking of tillage practices. Our approach leverages time-series satellite observations from Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 constellations, along with ancillary data from SMAP, soils and weather. Within a hierarchical classification, these inputs are blended with dense, independent training data (i.e., “ground truth”) collected across Europe with tens of thousands of samples gathered across France, Belgium, Denmark and the UK. Training data includes observations of crop types and rotations, residue, soil disturbance and field conditions. Together, these multi-source data feed into gradient boosting and Convolutional Neural Networks to ultimately help seasonally classify tillage practices into conventional, reduced or no till at field scale for all major row crops. Withheld independent observations and data science best practices are used to tune model performance and class accuracy depending on regional schemes, residue categories and landscape practice variability. F1 score and Overall Accuracy achieve > 80% with some crop and tillage practice combinations (i.e. corn, soy, wheat conventional) > 0.9. In addition, we share lessons learnt and next challenges. With this approach, the Community of Practice can robustly track every field wall-to-wall over seasons and feed downstream applications, such as estimating Soil Organic Carbon and emissions process modelling. With these tools, and open operational data streams such as Copernucis, we can support scaling regenerative agriculture impacts and grow carbon farming initiatives and ecosystem service markets across Europe. 
Identifying optimal type and locations of natural water retention measures using spatial modeling and cost-benefit analysis
Authors: Tal-maon Merav , Broitman Dani , Portman Michelle , Housh Mashor
Published: February 2023

Water management has recently changed from relying purely on technical and engineering methods towards nature-based solutions. These solutions can potentially benefit beyond hydrological concerns, such as improving life quality and biodiversity conservation. These measures are referred to as Natural Water Retention Measures (NWRM) in the water sector. Identifying the optimal type and locations of these measures is challenging due to the abundance of possible solutions, with different potential benefits and varying effects, depending on the characteristics of each place. Most research into sustainable runoff management addresses quantity, quality, and economic issues; few studies link these considerations with environmental and social benefits. We propose a methodology for identifying the most effective areas to place NWRMs and offer criteria for selecting appropriate measures based on hydrological, ecological, and social benefits.To simulate the effect of NWRM, we applied the Open Nonpoint Source (NPS) Pollution and Erosion Comparison Tool (OpenNSPECT) to simulate the hydrological processes in the Tavor basin. We ran the model multiple times; each time, we simulated increased infiltration in a different land parcel and used the resulting change in runoff, sediment, and pollutants to construct a Pareto frontier graph. We then identified a set of appropriate measures for each area using information from the EU Directorate General for the Environment to conduct a cost-benefit analysis of different water retention measures. Different measures were selected when considering social and ecological benefits than only hydrological benefits, further highlighting the importance of accounting for these aspects. This methodology, which links hydrological concerns with the less commonly found ecological and social aspects, could serve as a decision-making tool for planners and stakeholders with sustainable runoff management.
Comparing carbon emission and sequestration during two ancient hyperthermal events: the PETM and the end-Permian mass extinction
Authors: Cui Ying
Published: February 2023

Anthropogenic carbon emission rate has exceeded 10 Pg C yr-1 in 2020 (1), which is likely unprecedented in the last 252 million years. Studying ancient hyperthermal events may help us better understand the natural processes of carbon emission and sequestration, informing policy and decision-making to cope with climate change. Two ancient hyperthermals that occurred at the end of the Permian period and the end of the Paleocene Epoch have been studied extensively, but a key question remains: why is the end-Permian hyperthermal related to the largest mass extinction and a much-delayed recovery, yet the PETM is associated with only extinction of benthic foraminifera and a rapid recovery? I hypothesize that the life extinction and recovery patterns across these two hyperthermals are regulated by the carbon emission and sequestration rates, and the cumulative quantities of CO2 released. Emission rate is dependent on CO2 source (e.g., methane hydrate, thermogenic methane, marine or terrestrial organic matter, or volcanic CO2), and sequestration rate is dependent on the location (marine vs. terrestrial) and processes (silicate weathering vs. organic carbon burial) of carbon sequestration, which are largely uncertain. These uncertainties pose difficulties in unraveling the underlying mechanisms of the different extinction patterns. Here, I quantitatively compare the carbon emission and sequestration rates of the two hyperthermals, which allows for hypothesis regarding carbon sources and sinks to be tested.
Bias detection of ISMN soil moisture measurement through soil water balance model and data assimilation
Authors: Li Peijun , Zha Yuanyuan , Tso Chak-Hau Michael , Shi Liangsheng , Yu Danyang , Zhang Yonggen , Zeng Wenzhi , Peng Jian
Published: February 2023

The international soil moisture network (ISMN) provides an important in-situ soil moisture dataset, which is widely utilized for hydrology, agriculture, environmental sciences, and remote sensing validation studies. ISMN soil moisture measurements are generally based on the relationship between soil moisture and other directly observable variables (e.g., dielectric constant) and therefore tend to be influenced by many factors at different installation sites, such as temperature, bulk density, texture, and mineralogy. Based on a previous study (Li, et al., 2020), it is found that coupling a linear bias-aware physical soil water model with data assimilation can effectively detect and calibrate the soil moisture measurement bias. The utilization of a sophisticated physical soil water model can accurately identify the bias but generally requires high costs, which makes extensive evaluation of the ISMN dataset on a large scale difficult. Therefore, a simplified model with less computational cost and satisfying simulation accuracy is needed. Herein, an efficient and bias-aware soil bucket balance model with a data assimilation scheme is developed. The newly developed model without significant accuracy loss has been used to evaluate ISMN data in the Conterminous United States (CONUS). Results show that the proposed model can effectively identify the bias direction based on soil water balance, and that there are many measurements with bias in the ISMN dataset over CONUS.
Improved assessment of OVOC sources and sinks over Reunion Island through WRF-Chem model evaluation against PTR-MS data and satellite retrievals
Authors: Poraicu Catalina , Müller Jean-François , Stavrakou Trissevgeni , Amelynck Crist , Schoon Niels , Verreyken Bert , Mouchel-Vallon Camille , Tulet Pierre , Brioude Jérôme
Published: February 2023

Oxygenated volatile organic compounds (OVOC) have a significant impact on atmospheric oxidation capacity and climate. OVOCs are directly emitted from biogenic sources and are produced from the oxidation of hydrocarbons in the atmosphere. However, their budget remains poorly understood, due to incomplete representation of photochemical OVOC production and uncertainties in terrestrial emissions and ocean/atmosphere exchanges. In addition, OVOC atmospheric measurements are scarce in remote areas, in particular in tropical regions. In this work, we exploit a 2-year high-temporal resolution dataset of mass spectrometry (PTR-MS) measurements of OVOC compounds at a remote high-altitude tropical site, the Maïdo Observatory (2155m asl) on Reunion Island. More precisely, the Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with Chemistry (WRF-Chem) is used to provide an updated evaluation of the budget of OVOCs over Reunion Island, based on the PTR-MS dataset complemented with meteorological measurements and satellite (TROPOMI) retrievals of relevant compounds. The model is configured to allow three nested domains centred on Reunion Island, with spatial resolution from 12.5, 2.5 and 0.5 km. The finest resolution is needed due to the complex orography of the island and the spatially heterogeneous distribution of reactive species. For computational reasons, the focus is on two one-month simulations in January and July 2019, allowing analysis of seasonal differences and their impacts on model performance and chemical budget.The WRF-simulated meteorology is first evaluated against meteorological measurements at a remote site (Maïdo) and two urban sites (Saint Denis and Saint Pierre). The impact of physical parameterizations (i.e. planetary boundary layer parameterizations, surface scheme, etc.) is tested through sensitivity simulations. A high-resolution (1km2) anthropogenic emission inventory for Reunion is implemented, complemented with information from global inventories. Biogenic VOC emissions (primarily isoprene) are calculated on-line using the MEGAN algorithm and high-resolution distributions of standard emission factors and plant functional types (PFTs). The MOZART chemical mechanism is adopted. The chemical simulations are evaluated against (1) NO2 and HCHO vertical columns from TROPOMI, (2) the PTR-MS OVOC dataset at Maïdo, and (3) network air quality measurements at several sites. Those comparisons will provide new constraints on the emissions of NOx and VOCs, and will result in recommendations for further refinements. This work will lead to a better appraisal of OVOC sources and sinks over the island. The main unknowns and potential issues will be discussed.
Deployment of the mobile seismic network around Petrinja in the aftermath of the Petrinja ML 6.2 earthquake
Authors: Fiket Tomislav
Published: February 2023

Deployment of the mobile seismic network around Petrinja in the aftermath of the Petrinja earthquakeAfter the devastating Petrinja earthquake (ML 6.2) in December 2020, the Croatian Seismological Survey acquired 20 sets (seismographs and accelerographs ) to use as a mobile pool of seismic stations. From January 2021, the installation of more than 20 stations in the wider Petrinja area began. All stations were operational in less than two weeks. Initially, the mobile pool worked offline until a working data transmission solution was found, as DynDNS didn't work with the current cellular network operator. Finally, a VPN solution was applied by installing an OpenVPN server and creating a VPN network that was proven to work properly. Since April 2021, all stations have been online and transmitting data to the CSS headquarters, where the SeisComP3 machine is responsible for data acquisition and processing. After the Ljubinje earthquake in April 2022, some of the stations of the Petrinja mobile pool were relocated to the wider Dubrovnik area. Both sites use accelerographs and seismographs for earthquake detection purposes, with 100 Hz and 200 Hz sampling for seismographs and 200 Hz for accelerographs.The Petrinja Mobile Network is still active today as the aftershock sequence is still active in that area. Details of the equipment purchased, problems encountered and solutions found for data transmission, site selection procedures applied and results achieved are presented.
Auroral currents from EMM and InSight: A comparison of EMM-EMUS auroral observations and InSight-IFG magnetic field fluctuations
Authors: Fillingim Matthew , Lillis Robert , Mittelholz Anna , AlMatroushi Hessa , AlMazmi Hoor , Chaffin Michael , Chi Peter , Chirakkil Krishnaprasad , Corriera John , Deighan Justin , England Scott , Evans Scott , Haviland Heidi , Holsclaw Greg , Jain Sonal , Johnson Catherine , Joy Steven , Langlais Benoit , Lootah Fatma , Raghuram Susarla
Published: February 2023

The Emirates Mars Ultraviolet Spectrometer (EMUS) onboard the Emirates Mars Mission spacecraft, which observes ultraviolet emission between approximately 100 and 170 nm, has observed multiple instances of nightside aurora at Mars. Variations in the auroral brightness and morphology have been observed to change on timescales of tens of minutes. The brightest aurorae are typically seen following space weather events, i.e., coronal mass ejection and stream interaction region impacts. The InSight Fluxgate Magnetometer (IFG) on the Interior Explorations using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) lander measured the magnetic field at the surface of Mars. IFG has measured variations in the nightside surface magnetic field, presumably due to variations in ionospheric and magnetospheric currents. Periodic and aperiodic variations in the surface field have been observed, including with timescales of a few minutes to tens of minutes. The magnitude of the fluctuations is often larger following space weather events. We examine the connection between the presence of aurora as observed by EMUS and surface magnetic field fluctuations as measured by IFG. Coincident EMUS and IFG observations show enhanced surface magnetic field fluctuations during times when aurorae were present. Additionally, the timescale of fluctuations in the auroral brightness are similar to the timescale of surface magnetic field fluctuations for non-coincident observations. These results suggest that IFG measured the surface magnetic field effect of time varying ionospheric auroral currents.
Climatic effects of the Indian Ocean tripole on the western United States in boreal summer
Authors: Zhang Yazhou , Li Jianping
Published: February 2023

The Indian Ocean tripole (IOT) is an independent mode of ocean–atmosphere circulation centered on the tropical Indian Ocean. This study explores the physical mechanisms of the IOT affecting the western United States climate variation during the boreal summer. We find that the IOT is significantly correlated with both western United States summer surface temperature and precipitation anomalies. During positive IOT events, the westerly wind anomalies over the northern Indian Ocean are intensified by two cross-equator airflows over the tropical eastern Indian Ocean and the east coast of Africa. The resulting convergence of air over the northern Bay of Bengal–Indochina Peninsula–northern South China Sea (NBB–IP–NSCS) region (80°–125°E, 15°–25°N) exacerbates the surplus precipitation there. Serving as a heat source, these NBB–IP–NSCS precipitation anomalies can excite a circum-global teleconnection-like (CGT–like) pattern that propagates eastward from west-central Asia towards North America along the Asia subtropical westerly jet, further influencing local circulation anomalies. Development of strong anticyclonic circulation over the western United States enhances descending motion and divergence there, resulting in negative precipitation anomalies. This circulation anomaly also induces the diabatic heating anomalies through allowing more solar radiation to reach the ground surface, further increasing the surface temperature anomalies. Meanwhile, the increased tropospheric temperature also raises local surface temperatures by modulating the adiabatic air expansion and compression. Ultimately, the CGT-like pattern associated with NBB–IP–NSCS precipitation anomalies sets up an atmospheric bridge by which the IOT can impact summer climate in the western United States.
Indian Plate stratigraphic units: On-line open-access database (Lexicon), including options to display sediment and volcanic facies onto plate reconstructions
Authors: Mamallapalli ONeil , Datla Raju DSN , Addula Nallapa Reddy , Siddiqui Nusrat Kamal , Ogg James , Ogg Gabriele , Chang Sabrina , Du Wen , Mishra Suyash , Ault Aaron , Om Bhargava N , Singh Birendra P
Published: February 2023

Our international team has worked with regional experts to compile details on nearly every geologic formation of the Indian Plate from Proterozoic through Quaternary. This suite of nearly 1000 sedimentary and volcanic formations includes India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Myanmar, plus all offshore sedimentary basins that have been explored for hydrocarbons. The data for each formation includes its lithologic succession, fossil content, age­ span details, regional extent and images of stratigraphic columns/outcrops/etc. (when available). The geologic age spans (as percent-up in stages) are auto-converted to numerical ages using a look-up table (currently Geologic Time Scale 2020), and the regional extents include GeoJSON coding. APIs provide open access to this information for other applications.The user can explore this information using a map interface, stratigraphic-column interfaces (generated with TimeScale Creator software), and a variety of search filters (including and/or logic for words within lithologic descriptions). An additional option on the displayed output is to display either a single formation GeoJSON or an age-suite of formation GeoJSONs as facies­ pattern-filled polygons onto a user-selected plate reconstruction model for that appropriate age via a one-click activation of pyGPlates-pyGMT graphics.This cloud-based database and website (currently at indplex.geolex.org/index.php) will be hosted and maintained by the Geologic Society of India in coordination with colleagues in Pakistan and other nations. Our online Indian Plate database currently links to adjacent regional lexicons of China and Indochina for regional paleogeographic displays, and is intended to share age-facies­ location information with stratigraphic databases of Australia, MacroStrat, One-Stratigraphy, etc., within the lUGS Deep-Time Digital Earth system, to generate paleogeographic visualizations of any desired geologic age onto any plate-motion model.
The eastward trajectories in the Kuroshio upstream region
Authors: Tseng Yu-Hao , Ho Chung-Ru
Published: February 2023

When the Kuroshio passes through the Luzon Strait from its upstream east of Luzon Island to its downstream east of Taiwan, there are three types of possible routes. First of them is the western component, also known as the western branch, which can be further divided into looping path and leaking path (the Kuroshio intruding into the South China Sea). The second type is the mainstream connecting the eastern Luzon Island and the eastern Taiwan Island, which has the pattern nearly as same as the long-term mean of the Kuroshio path in this region. Lastly, the third type of route is the eastern branch that is to be focused by this study. Its definition is that the east components of the current around the Kuroshio's route are greater than the north components and then taking the material away from the Kuroshio main stream in the eastward direction. Therefore, to find the possible routes of the Kuroshio and make the numbers of trajectories of each simulation to be fairly same with the other days, we use OpenDrift (an open-source Python-based framework for Lagrangian particle modeling) as a tool to simulate the trajectories of the Kuroshio started at a given position 18.375°N and 122.875°E from 1993 to 2020. The input data that used as simulation is the geostrophic current derived from altimeter data provided by CMEMS from January 1993 to December 2021. The spatial and temporal resolutions of the input data are 0.25° and one-day, respectively. The results revealed that the accumulated numbers of trajectories as the type of the eastern branch of the Kuroshio would be more frequently during March to June. Meanwhile, the averaged wind stress curl (WSC) of the 10-m wind field data from NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis 1 with a 4-times daily temporal resolution and a 1.875° horizontal resolution was calculated. The difference between the monthly WSC and the annual mean WSC over the entire Pacific Ocean from 1993 to 2020 showed that there is a significant eastward transport along the 20°N-21°N latitude in May. This implies that the eastern branch of the Kuroshio may be caused by WSC.
Open questions in heliophysics: terrestrial laboratory
Authors: Kronberg Elena
Published: February 2023

The heliosphere is a part of the Universe in which we can do in situ measurements of plasma dynamics under diverse conditions. The terrestrial magnetosphere is especially well accessible for studying universal plasma processes, in particular those associated with the conversion and flow of electromagnetic and plasma energy. To fully understand phenomena such as shocks, instabilities at plasma boundaries, and magnetic reconnection it is crucial to consider the coupling between physical processes at small and large scales. Planetary magnetospheric systems are not completely understood, because kinetic and global scales are rarely measured simultaneously. In most observations, the energy range and composition are not resolved for all important contributors.  The mentioned aspects are essential for an assessment of the magnetosphere-ionosphere-atmosphere-subsurface coupling and for the prediction of space weather. The influence of ionospheric charged particles on the magnetospheric dynamics will be used as an illustrative example. 
Seismic random noise attenuation in the Laplace domain using deep learning
Authors: Ha Wansoo , Jo Jun Hyeon , Uwibambe Lydie
Published: February 2023

We attenuated random noise in Laplace-domain seismic wavefields using a modified U-net. Laplace-domain wavefields can be obtained by Laplace-transforming time-domain wavefields. Due to the damping in the Laplace transform, small-amplitude noises near the first arrival signal can severely contaminate Laplace-domain wavefields. Therefore, time-domain denoising is not sufficient for seismic data processing in the Laplace domain. We trained a modified U-net in a supervised manner to generate clean wavefields from noisy wavefields. Since Laplace-domain wavefields show exponential decay with respect to offset, we used the logarithmic representation of the wavefields to train the network. Numerical examples show that the deep-learning approach can attenuate random noise better than denoising using singular value decomposition.
SelfMin: Self-Supervised Deep Learning for Advanced Mineralogical Analysis
Authors: Koeshidayatullah Ardiansyah , Ferreira Ivan
Published: February 2023

Mineralogical analysis is critical for understanding the origins and properties of various rock types. Recent advancements in artificial intelligence technologies, particularly supervised deep learning, have transformed qualitative and quantitative mineral analysis. However, current deep-learning approaches require high-quality annotated datasets to acquire and identify different mineralogical characteristics and properties. This is exacerbated by the time-consuming and error-prone labeling processes for the datasets. With self-supervised architectures matching supervised approaches in many computer vision tasks, it is timely to investigate the potential of Self-Supervised Learning (SSL) models in the geosciences. As a result, we use a self-supervised semantic segmentation model to identify and characterize minerals in thin sections, with the model attempting to obtain categories of interest from images without the need for human intervention in annotating the minerals. In this study, we adopted a Self-Supervised Transformer architecture and proposed SelfMin to automatically segment out pyrite minerals from other background gangue minerals in the thin section. Our proposed method achieved 80% in the mean Intersection over Union (mIoU) metric, indicating the model's ability to accurately segment minerals that were not labeled during the annotation process. This work describes the first use of self-supervised deep learning in mineralogical analysis. Further application of this proposed method would allow a robust and efficient advanced qualitative and quantitative mineralogical analysis. It also demonstrates how this technique can be implemented to avoid the need for a large volume of high-quality labeled datasets in other image-based deep learning geosciences analyses.
Geostatistical study of the gold mineralization of the Nsour region. Reguibat shield, Northern Mauritania
Authors: Gueimar Nema , Abdellahi Mouhamadou Idriss , Benali Hanafi
Published: February 2023

Archean and Paleoproterozoic rocks of the Reguibat shied contain main potential Mauritania's mineral deposits. The western Archean terrane includes significant iron deposits in the Tiris and Tasiast gold deposits, while the eastern Birimian rocks have proved mining indices of gold and uranium. Located on the northeastern edge of the Reguibat shield,  the study area of NSOUR, and OUED EL MA prospects represent a complex shear zone of favorable gold mineralization. Through our drill cores and soil samples analysis, the gold mineralization is proved to be hosted within a series of nearly parallel, steeply dipping quartz veins. Our chemical and geophysical results demonstrate a set of indicators of important tonnage and grade of gold in the quartz veins. Results of chemical analyses obtained on all the analyzed samples show gold concentration between 0.33 to 2.12 g/m. Importantly, in the southern part of the prospect, 62% of the wells samples recorded an interception of at least one gram per tonne over more than one meter. Statistical evaluation of these data established large first-level zones delineating areas favorable to gold resources and important potential gold accumulation in these areas. Such first-level identifications nonetheless make it possible to roughly define the potential zones for orogenic gold deposits and encourage the continuation and the intensification of the works of exploration that favor discovery in these Precambrian rocks.
Locating earthquake hypocenter using first arrivals and depth phase in 3D model at local and regional distances
Authors: Li Tianjue , Chen Jing , Tong Ping
Published: February 2023

Precise determination of earthquake hypocenter (longitude, latitude and depth) and its origin time is of fundamental importance for not only understanding the seismogenic process but also revealing the Earth’s interior structure. Instrumental coverage plays the first-order role in determining earthquake locations. For earthquakes that occurred in the continental interior, it is favorable to have seismic stations with full azimuthal coverage; nonetheless, precise determination of earthquake depth is often challenging due to its tradeoff with earthquake origin time. The situation is even worse for earthquakes that occurred in offshore regions, e.g., Pacific ring of fire, because regional seismic stations are mostly installed on the continent. To deal with those challenges aforementioned, we propose to constrain the earthquake hypocenter by jointly using first arrivals (P and S waves) and depth phase traveltimes. The theoretical travelling times of these phases are precisely and efficiently calculated in 3D velocity model through solving the Eikonal equation. Once the earthquake hypocenter is well constrained, we further improve the accuracy of the origin time. We tested and verified the proposed earthquake location strategy in the Ridgecrest area (southern California), which serves as an end member of continental setting, and central Chile, which serves as another end member of offshore setting. The station coverage is complete in the Ridgecrest area. We have identified and picked first arrivals and sPL phases at local distances. On the contrary, seismic stations are only installed on the continent in central Chile. We have identified and picked first arrivals and sPn phases at regional distances. Determined earthquakes have comparable location accuracy as the regional catalog in the horizontal plane, while the depth uncertainty has been reduced greatly. Our study shows that incorporating depth phases into the earthquake location algorithm together with first arrivals can greatly increase earthquake location accuracy, especially earthquake depth, which will lay the solid foundation for wide-scope topics in earth science studies.
Microbial growth kinetics under deeply- vs. shallow-rooted plants with soil depth profiles
Authors: Min Kyungjin , Slessarev Eric , Kan Megan , Pett-Ridge Jennifer , McFarlane Karis , Oerter Erik , Nuccio Erin
Published: February 2023

Climate-smart land management practices that replace shallow-rooted annual crop systems with deeply-rooted perennial plants can contribute to soil carbon sequestration. However, deep soil carbon accrual may be influenced by active microbial biomass and their capacity to assimilate fresh carbon at depth. Incorporating active microbial biomass, dormancy, and growth in microbially-explicit models can improve our ability to predict soil’s capacity to store carbon. But, so far, the microbial parameters that are needed for such modeling are poorly constrained, especially in deep soil layers. Here, we used a lab incubation experiment and growth kinetics model to estimate how microbial parameters vary along 240 cm of soil depth in profiles under shallow- (soy) and deeply-rooted (switchgrass) plants 11 years after plant cover conversion. We also assessed resource origin and availability (total organic carbon, 14C, extractable organic carbon, specific UV absorbance of K2SO4 extractable organic C, total nitrogen, total dissolved nitrogen) along the soil profiles to examine associations between soil chemical and biological parameters. Even though root biomass was greater and rooting depth was deeper under switchgrass than soy, resource availability and microbial growth parameters were generally similar between vegetation types. Instead, depth significantly influenced soil chemical and biological parameters. For example, resource availability and total and relative active microbial biomass decreased with soil depth. Decreases in the relative active microbial biomass coincided with increased lag time (response time to external carbon inputs) along the soil profiles. Even at a depth of 210–240 cm, microbial communities were activated to grow by added resources within a day. Maximum specific growth rate decreased to a depth of 90 cm and then remained consistent in deeper layers. Our findings show that >10 years of vegetation and rooting depth changes may not be long enough to alter microbial growth parameters, and suggest that at least a portion of the microbial community in deep soils can grow rapidly in response to added resources. Our study determined microbial growth parameters that can be used in microbially-explicit models to simulate carbon dynamics in deep soil layers.
Learning the Concept of Sustainability: Interdisciplinary Activities @Primary Education
Authors: Damian Daniela
Published: February 2023

The National College “Johannes Honterus” is not among the educational institutions that include in its curriculum concepts such as sustainability, healthy nutrition, nature conservation. Also, few chapters included in the curriculum can be considered interdisciplinary.  Hence, the teachers of our educational institution, which educates students between the ages of 6 and 18, try to remedy these deficiencies through various activities included both within the course hours and through extracurricular activities.At the same time, we try to offer our students a learning system, already practiced in Europe, but too little in Romania, namely learning by practical application.The goal is that, at the end of the school, the students will be left not only with theoretical concepts, without the connection between them, which does not help them much further, but with practical ideas. Students must understand that fundamental ideas do not belong to a single field, but each discipline can analyze the same phenomenon from different perspectives. In the end, all these analyses form a whole that completely defines the respective phenomenon.Our students participated in several activities on sustainability, healthy nutrition, nature conservation. A first activity was carried out during the technology classes and was completed with a competition under the aegis of EU-CONEXUS and had the title Green School Presentation. 9th grade students participated in this project. They built a Green School with the help of Minecraft World a were ranked among the 5 best projects in Romania.In math and statistics classes, 10th grade students wrote a journal for a week with everyone’s eating habits and the resulting waste. The results were analyzed through different statistics and then disseminated within our school.In the chemistry laboratory classes, a few hours were dedicated to traditional food from our country. Thus, the fats, sugars and food additives contained in them were chemically analyzed. The results were the product of an Erasmus+ Project.Another Erasmus+ project had as its theme the preservation of the environment and especially forests.The feedback received from the students who participated in these activities was very good, which is why I want to present these activities to others through the poster.
Flow structure around a hydraulic lifting dam and its implication for sediment transport and morphological changes
Authors: Ni Yufang
Published: February 2023

As different from traditional large dams, the hydraulic lifting dam is a kind of low-head movable weir, which can be partly lifted to impede water while the rest part of the weir collapsed to surpass water, resulting in a rather complicated terrain. Therefore, the flow structure around a hydraulic lifting dam might become complex and highly three-dimensional (3D). Generally, depth-averaged two-dimensional (2D) models are employed in the prediction of riverine morphodynamic processes. However, in the vicinity of a hydraulic lifting dam, the 2D models not only lose the turbulence details, but also neglect the impacts of turbulence on sediment transport and hence bed deformation. Here, a comparison study is conducted by using a 2D and a 3D model, respectively. The 2D model is a validated depth-averaged hydro-sediment-morphodynamic model using Finite Volume Method on unstructured meshes. The 3D model adopts a Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) based turbulence model or a delay detached eddy simulation (DDES) model under the framework of OpenFOAM. The results show that the flow details, which cannot be reproduced by a 2D model, have a great potential of modifying the morphodynamic processes, so a 3D model is desperately required for resolving flow structure as well as sediment transport and morphological changes in the vicinity of a hydraulic lifting dam.
Biogenic waste transformation into resources through anaerobic digestion
Authors: Lee You-Yi , Fan Chihhao
Published: February 2023

A large amount of agricultural byproducts and animal husbandry waste have been produced due to the inevitable agricultural practice for human survival. The utilization of agricultural and animal husbandry residues in waste-to-energy technologies has become an eye-catching issue over years because of the concept of circular economy for sustainable development. These biogenic residues possess a high content of organic carbon such as sugars, proteins, and lipids and are being dumped into landfills or incinerated, causing severe environmental challenges and the waste of available resources. Anaerobic digestion (AD) provides a sustainable route for resource circular utilization in agriculture and husbandry waste. The dry anaerobic digestion process is adopted to treat biogenic waste including outer leaves of cabbage (C), litter (L), and pig manure (PM) in the present study. Different from the main target of past studies to enhance biomethane production, this study aimed to transform the waste into saccharides and organic acids which are the intermediates in AD processes (i.e. hydrolysis and acidogenesis phases) and can be further refined or utilized in various industries. For instance, succinic acid of high economic benefits can be obtained through transforming AD digestate. Hence, Saccharomyces cerevisiae was chosen as the microbial inoculum due to its non-gas-generating characteristic. The results of batch AD experiments for 35 days showed that the optimum feedstock mass mixture ratios are C:L = 2:1, C:L = 3:1, C:PM = 2:1, and C:PM = 3:1 since the observation of more saccharides formation. Moreover, the optimal feedstock-to-inoculum ratio (F/I ratio) is 1:1 and the best AD operation temperature is 50℃. The substance flow analysis was established based on the measurement of key AD products (i.e. saccharides, organic acids, CH4, CO2, and digestate). The batch experiments was scaled up to the 10L continuously-stirred reaction tank to determine the feasibility of in situ AD practice. In comparison to the traditional way to deal with agriculture and husbandry waste, AD is promising to be a valorized treatment to convert waste into reusable bioproducts which enables economic and environmental benefits to realize the concept of the circular economy.
A study of the interaction of sulfate, ammonium and nitrate on the particulate matter (PM) concentration in Taiwan using WRF-CMAQ
Authors: Huang Ping-Chieh , Hung Hui-Ming
Published: February 2023

Aerosol particles, one major air pollution, are getting serious attention not only for health concerns, but also affecting global radiation budgets. They can be directly emitted into the atmosphere (primary aerosol), including black carbon, sea salt, dust, and some organic substances, and produced by chemical reactions in the atmosphere (secondary aerosol), such as sulfate (SO­42-), nitrate (NO3-), and ammonium (NH4+). Secondary inorganic composition accounts for a significant proportion in particulate matter (PM) and controls the pH value of PM, which can further affect the secondary organic matter formation. In this study, we focus on the secondary inorganic species, SO­42-, NO3- and NH4+ due to the complex interaction of NH3 and HNO3 partitioning on the aerosols containing SO­42- using the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model with Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model for the meteorological conditions for December 2018. With either the decrease of SO2 or having the SO42- formation pathway off, NH4+ has a similar trend as SO42- while NO3- has a minor variation. The model analysis indicates an ammonia-saturated condition for most of Western Taiwan. With such an ammonia-saturated condition, the emission adjustment results show that the reduction of either NOX or NH3 emission can reduce both NO3- and NH4+ and lead to a more significant effect on PM2.5 than changing SO2. The simulated ammonia is significantly higher over Western Taiwan than the observation data of the ground stations, and that promotes the dissolution of available nitric acid. Furthermore, sensitivity tests suggest that the accuracy of ammonia emission plays an important role in ruling the PM concentration via the interaction with nitric acid, which will be further discussed to reveal the feasible PM reduction via emission reduction.
Construction of integrated DB for domestic water-cycle system and development of transfer function model
Authors: Lee Seungyeon , Lee Sangeun
Published: February 2023

Due to the influence of climate change, the range of change in precipitation and regional variation have increased over the past 10 years, and the occurrence of local drought is increasing. The existing water supply and demand analysis system in Korea is produced by each management department, so there are limitations in data collection and decision-making on water distribution. For efficient water management, integration of water information should be prioritized. Based on this, actual water use monitoring, evaluation and water shortage prediction technology can be developed.
In this study, the DB of water-cycle system was constructed focusing on domestic water and transfer function model was developed. DB construction was classified into 3 stages (pre-preparation/investigation and analysis/application and evaluation), and the first stage was defined as the concept of water inflow/delivery/outflow from the urban perspective and the current status of data by point was identified. In the second stage, research directions were established through expert consultation and undisclosed data were collected through cooperation with related organizations. The third stage was applied to Gongju-si and Nonsan-si in Korea, which are the study sites, and the supplementations were reviewed. A transfer function model was developed using the constructed DB. It is expected that it will be possible to construct a useful transfer function model when analyzing the performance index by learning the outflow of the Singwan sewage treatment equipment based on the water intake amount of the Hyeondo intake station and confirming the autocorrelation of the non-significant residual.
In the future, additional considerations (outlet location, service area, and sewage treatment area subdivision) are required in national reports on river basins and droughts, and precipitation is also considered as a major input factor for outflow.
 
(This work was supported by a grant from the Korea Environmental Industry & Technology Institute (KEITI), funded by the Ministry of Environment (ME) of the Republic of Korea (2022003610003))