julilili42/papers huggingface dataset:
&#8220;The Skin of the Earth &#8211; Where Life meets Rocks&#8221; &#8211; A Science Movie
2020-03-09

&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;What forms the landscapes of the Earth with their mountains, rivers, soils - the places we live in? Earth&amp;amp;#8217;s surface is shaped when rocks are uplifted by geologic forces, and are then destroyed by rain, ice, and wind that carve landscapes by erosion and weathering. But there is the green layer of life between rocks below and climate above. Do plants with their roots, animals that dig into soil, and the vast number of microorganisms shape the landscapes? Or do minerals, soil, and water provide the environment for life? Or are they both interdependent? Can they together resist the massive climate change imposed by humans today?&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Showcasing these complex interactions in an audiovisual format provides a fantastic opportunity for science dissemination, but making a movie is a formidable challenge that scientists are not experienced in. Based on the the German National Science Foundation (DFG)- funded research network &amp;amp;#8220;EarthShape &amp;amp;#8211; Earth Surface Shaping by Biota&amp;amp;#8221;, we produced a movie intended as public outreach for scientists as well as classrooms and a general public audience.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Watch the scientists of the German-Chilean &amp;amp;#8220;EarthShape&amp;amp;#8221; project study the shaping of the Earth along a climate gradient in Chile, in the National Parks Pan de Azu&amp;amp;#769;car, La Campana, and Nahuelbuta. Take a tour through fascinating landscapes and see the young scientists study the interactions between geology and biology, from the dry Atacama desert to dense forests, and in their sophisticated home laboratories. See how feedbacks control Earths&amp;amp;#8217; climate. The movie is available online in Youtube, including separate process animations, and as Open-Access MP4 resource.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Playlist on Youtube: https://go.daf.li/EarthShape; DOI of the English movie version: https://doi.org/10.2312/gfz.3.3.2019.005&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;
Peninsular Thailand as a part of the Pleistocene savanna corridor: isotopic evidence of mammalian tooth enamel from the cave of Tham Phedan
2020-03-09

&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;How climatic and environmental conditions contributed to early human migration between mainland and island Southeast Asia during the Pleistocene is one of the most hotly debated topics in paleoanthropological communities today. As Peninsular or Southern Thailand is regarded as an obligatory pathway for humans and mammals during their dispersal between these two terrestrial areas, the understanding of paleoenvironments and vegetation covers in this region is highly relevant. The hypothesis of a &amp;amp;#8220;savanna corridor&amp;amp;#8221; or a band of open vegetation (seasonal forests and grasslands) stretching from Central Thailand to Java during several periods of lowering sea level and exposed land bridges though the Pleistocene has been suggested for explaining the facilitated route of early humans and associated large mammals in migrating out of mainland Southeast Asia towards Sundaland southwards. However, the existence of savanna grasslands in Peninsular Thailand during the Pleistocene has rarely been demonstrated due to the scarcity of available proxies.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Here we reconstructed the Pleistocene vegetation and environments of the region using stable isotope analyses of mammalian tooth enamel from the channel cave deposits of Tham Phadan (Nakhon Si Thammarat Province in Peninsular Thailand) where diversified large mammal fossils were collected. The mammal fauna is tentatively attributed to a late Middle to early Late Pleistocene age according to the presence of an extirpated spotted hyaena &amp;lt;em&amp;gt;Crocuta crocuta ultima&amp;lt;/em&amp;gt;. The stable carbon isotope results, ranging from -13.9&amp;amp;#8240;VPDB to +4.3&amp;amp;#8240;VPDB, reveal that an open vegetation/forest-grassland mosaic was dominant in this region, unlike the present-day landscapes that are mostly covered by rainforests, thus confirming the existence of a savanna corridor in Peninsular Thailand during that time. The extreme southward distribution of some grassland-related taxa (such as spotted hyaenas and Himalayan gorals), which were common in mainland Southeast Asia during the Pleistocene, reflects the habitat continuity from north to south of Thailand. However, the lack of fossil records of these two taxa in Peninsular Malaysia and the islands of Indonesia suggests that the open vegetation band did not extend far beyond the transequatorial region. Further investigations of the Pleistocene mammal faunas in the Thai-Malay Peninsula will be helpful to identify such a corridor and to examine the paleobiogeographic affinities of Southeast Asian large mammals in the future, providing empirical data for understanding the timing and pathways of human migrations into island South-East Asia.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;
Chemical weathering and physical erosion rates along a vegetation and climate gradient, Chilean Coastal Cordillera (26&#176; &#8211; 38&#176;S)
2020-03-09

&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Chemical weathering and physical erosion are important processes shaping topography, producing soils, and providing nutrients for life. &amp;amp;#160;The rates of these processes are influenced not only by tectonics, but also by climate and biota. &amp;amp;#160;The Chilean Coastal Cordillera from 26&amp;amp;#176; to 38&amp;amp;#176;S is a natural laboratory to investigate chemical weathering and physical erosion rates over different climatic settings. &amp;amp;#160;From North to South, climate changes from arid (Pan de Az&amp;amp;#250;car), semi-arid (Santa Gracia), Mediterranean (La Campana) to temperate humid (Nahuelbuta).&amp;amp;#160; Here we present chemical weathering and physical erosion rates based on published and new in situ-produced cosmogenic nuclides and immobile elements published from soil pedon depth profiles in the four study areas.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Calculated chemical weathering rates range from zero in Pan de Az&amp;amp;#250;car to an high value of 211 t/(km&amp;lt;sup&amp;gt;2&amp;lt;/sup&amp;gt; yr) in La Campana. &amp;amp;#160;Chemical weathering rates are comparable in Santa Gracia and Nahuelbuta (~20 t/(km&amp;lt;sup&amp;gt;2&amp;lt;/sup&amp;gt; yr).&amp;amp;#160; Physical erosion rates are low in Pan de Az&amp;amp;#250;car (~11 t/(km&amp;lt;sup&amp;gt;2&amp;lt;/sup&amp;gt; yr)) and increase towards the South (~ 40 t/(km&amp;lt;sup&amp;gt;2&amp;lt;/sup&amp;gt; yr)). &amp;amp;#160;Combined chemical weathering and physical erosion rates indicate that denudation rates are lowest in Pan de Az&amp;amp;#250;car and highest in La Campana. &amp;amp;#160;The contribution of chemical weathering to total denudation rates is increasing and then decreasing with increasing mean annual precipitation from North to South.&amp;amp;#160; The observation that the calculated chemical weathering rates in the southernmost location with the highest mean annual precipitation and the highest chemical index of alteration are not the highest of all four study areas is evaluated and discussed.&amp;amp;#160;&amp;amp;#160; We investigate possible influence of precipitation and vegetation on chemical weathering and physical erosion rates.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;
Volumetric soil quality modelling with machine learning in a diverse agricultural landscape in Andalusia, Spain
2020-03-09

&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Soils and soil functions are recognized as a key resource for human well-being throughout time. In an agricultural and forestry perspective, soil functions contribute to food and timber production. Other soil functions are related to freshwater security and energy provisioning. In general, the capacity of a soil to function within specific boundaries is summarised as soil quality. Knowledge about the spatial distribution of soil quality is crucial for sustainable land use and the protection of soils and their functions. This spatial knowledge can be obtained with accurate and efficient machine-learning-based soil mapping approaches, which allow the estimation of the soil quality at distinct locations. However, the vertical distribution of soil properties is usually neglected when assessing soil quality at distinct locations. To overcome such limitations, the depth function of soil properties needs to be incorporated in the modelling. This is not only important to get a better estimation of the overall soil quality throughout the rooting zone, but also to identify factors that limit plant growth, such as strong acidity or alkalinity, and the water holding capacity. Thus, the objective of this study was to model and map the soil quality indicators pH, soil organic carbon, sand, silt and clay content as a volumetric entity. The study area is located in southern Spain in the Province of Seville at the Guadalquivir river. It covers 1,000&amp;amp;#160;km&amp;lt;sup&amp;gt;2&amp;lt;/sup&amp;gt; of farmland, citrus and olive plantations, pastures and wood pasture (Dehesa) in the Sierra Morena mountain range, at the Guadalquivir flood plain and tertiary terraces. Soil samples were taken at 130 soil profiles in five depths (or less at shallow soils). The profiles were randomly stratified depending on slope position and land cover. We used a subset of 99 samples from representative soil profiles to assess the overall 513 samples with FT-IR spectroscopy and machine learning methods to model equal-area spline, polynomial and exponential depth functions for each soil quality indicator at each of the 130 profiles. These depth functions were modelled and predicted spatially with a comprehensive set of environmental covariates from remote sensing data, multi-scale terrain analysis and geological maps. By solving the spatially predicted depth functions with a vertical resolution of 5&amp;amp;#160;cm, we obtained a volumetric, i.e. three-dimensional, map of pH, soil organic carbon content and soil texture. Preliminary results are promising for volumetric soil mapping and the estimation of soil quality and limiting factors in three-dimensional space.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;
Human environmental interactions during the Neolithization of the Ammer Valley: first results integrating paleo-ecological and bio-archaeological evidence
2020-03-09

&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;The Upper Neckar and Ammer river valleys in southwestern Germany correspond to the southwestern limit of the overall distribution of the oldest Linear Bandkeramik (LBK) culture. More than 200 Neolithic sites are known from this region with one of the oldest sites located in the vicinity of the village Ammerbuch-Pf&amp;amp;#228;ffingen, around 10 km west of T&amp;amp;#252;bingen, Germany. The archaeological record suggests that settlement activities occurred here between 7260 and 7110 cal BP (or 5310-5160 cal BC). Despite the various activities at the settling site itself, little is known about the environmental impact of the first settlers on the area, ranging from the introduction of farming and animal husbandry with impacts to the forests due to pasture and collection of wood, as well as possible control of water bodies. We here present the first results of a palynological study of two parallel, overlapping 8 m long sediment cores that were retrieved in 2018 from a shallow paleo-lake only a few hundred meters distant from the excavation site. The composite core allows environmental reconstruction of the area between 11540 and 7000 cal BP, based on six radiocarbon dates. Pollen analysis indicates mixed oak forests and an increase of light-demanding vegetation (i.e. &amp;lt;em&amp;gt;Quercus, Corylus, Betula&amp;lt;/em&amp;gt;). Current analyses on micro- and macro-charcoal are going to reveal the natural or anthropogenic induced causes of paleo-fire events and Non-Pollen-Palynomorphs (NPP), including dung spores, unravel the possible presence of herbivores (including domestic ones) in the area. The results of the current study and its integration into the bioarchaeological record are relevant even beyond the region providing the usually rarely available paleoecological records from close proximity of an LBK site and thus deliver valuable insights on the environmental settings at the beginning of farming in central Europe.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;&amp;amp;#160;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;
Reconstructing the Holocene paleoenvironment of the semi-arid Shiraki Plain of eastern Georgia &#8211; a center of settlement activity during the Late Bronze and Early Iron age
2020-03-09

&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Studying of the interactions between past environmental changes and former human societies delivers key information to understand the future evolution of landscapes under changing environmental conditions and increasing human stress. The combination of these two factors is especially critical for fragile landscapes such as drylands, where even small-scale climatic or anthropogenic factors can have relatively large effects on the landscape dynamics.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Holocene paleoenvironmental changes on the Shiraki Plain, located in Eastern Georgia (South Caucasus), were studied. The selected site is characterized by semiarid climate conditions (annual precipitation &amp;lt;500 mm per year) and an open dry steppic landscape today. Currently the area is devoid of settlements, due to absence of water resources. However, recent archaeological data collected using remote sensing and ground-proven by ongoing archaeological excavations, delivered evidences of an active former human inhabitation of this area mostly during the Late Bronze - Early Iron Ages. Several large, city-type settlements of the given period that were identified on the Shiraki Plain suggest the existence of early state formation under favorable environmental conditions.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;During the conducted study we have combined stratigraphical-sedimentological investigations of sediments using drilling cores, trenches and laboratory analyses with high-resolution D-GPS measurements in the RTK mode, remote sensing using drone photogrammetric surveys, paleoecological investigations, and hydrological modeling. Our initial results clearly support the hypothesis of a large shallow lake in the center of the Shiraki Plain that was surrounded by the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age settlements. Therefore, the regional water balance of that period was obviously more positive than today. Furthermore, our investigations indicate that this period of high settlement intensity was characterized by intensive soil erosion processes that washed away the dominant Chernozem soils.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Altogether, our investigations suggest a tipping point of the landscape evolution dynamics that must have been crossed during the Late Bronze and Early Iron period, leading to the current dry steppic landscape. This also provides key information to reconstruct the archaeological past of the region, and to address the main question of rapid depopulation and further abandonment of this area.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;
Porosity channeling and fracturing in fluid over-pressure zones
2020-03-09

&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;It is important to understand the effects of fluid over-pressure in rocks because gradients in over-pressure can lead to failure of rocks and expulsion of fluids. Examples are hydro-fracturing in engineering as well as fluid generation during hydrocarbon maturation, metamorphic reactions or over-pressure below seals in sedimentary basins. In order to have an understanding of the complexity of effective stress fields, fracture, failure and fluid drainage the process was studied with a dynamic hydro-mechanical numerical model. The evolution of fluid pressure build up, fracturing and the dynamic interaction between solid and fluid is modeled. Three scenarios are studied: fluid pressure build up in a sedimentary basin, in a confined zone and in a horizontal layer that is offset by a fault. Results indicate that the geometry of the fluid-overpressure zone has a first order control on the patterns including porosity evolution and fracturing. If the over-pressure develops below a seal in a sedimentary basin, the effective differential and mean stress approach zero and the horizontal and vertical effective stresses flip in orientation leading to horizontal hydro-factures or breccia zones. If the over-pressure zone is confined vertically as well, the standard effective stress model develops with the effective mean stress decreasing while the differential stress remains mainly constant. This leads to semi-vertically aligned extensional and conjugate shear failure at much lower over-pressures than in the sedimentary basin. A perfectly aligned horizontal layer that increases in fluid pressure internally leads to a horizontal hydro-fracture within the layer. A faulted layer develops complex multi-directional failure with the fault itself being a location of early fracturing followed by brecciation of the layer itself. All simulations undergo a phase transition in porosity evolution with an initially random porosity reducing its symmetry and forming a static porosity wave with an internal dilation zone and the development of dynamic porosity channels within this zone that drain the over-pressure. Our results show that patterns of fractures, hence fluid release, that form due to high fluid overpressures can only be successfully predicted if the geometry of the geological system is known, including the fluid overpressure source and the position of seals and faults that offset source layers and seals.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;
Managing collaborative research data for integrated, interdisciplinary environmental research
2020-03-09

&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;The consistent management of research data is crucial for the success of long-term and large-scale collaborative research. Research data management is the basis for efficiency, continuity, and quality of the research, as well as for maximum impact and outreach, including the long-term publication of data and their accessibility. Both funding agencies and publishers increasingly require this long term and open access to research data. Joint environmental studies typically take place in a fragmented research landscape of diverse disciplines; researchers involved typically show a variety of attitudes towards and previous experiences with common data policies, and the extensive variety of data types in interdisciplinary research poses particular challenges for collaborative data management.We present organizational measures, data and metadata management concepts, and technical solutions to form a flexible research data management framework that allows for efficiently sharing the full range of data and metadata among all researchers of the project, and smooth publishing of selected data and data streams to publicly accessible sites. The concept is built upon data type-specific and hierarchical metadata using a common taxonomy agreed upon by all researchers of the project. The framework&amp;amp;#8217;s concept has been developed along the needs and demands of the scientists involved, and aims to minimize their effort in data management, which we illustrate from the researchers&amp;amp;#8217; perspective describing their typical workflow from the generation and preparation of data and metadata to the long-term preservation of data including their metadata.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;
Comparison of Holocene and Last Interglacial sapropels in the Gulf of Sirte (eastern Mediterranean)
2020-03-09

&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;The Mediterranean thermohaline circulation is sensitive to ongoing climate change and generally stagnant circulation is expected by the end of the 21&amp;lt;sup&amp;gt;st&amp;lt;/sup&amp;gt; century. In the past, the eastern Mediterranean Sea has experienced slower ventilation as demonstrated by rhythmic occurrence of organic-rich sediments &amp;amp;#8220;sapropels&amp;amp;#8221;. The two sapropels S1 (Holocene) and S5 (Last Interglacial) were formed under conditions of excess fresh water inputs via Nile river in relation to insolation-driven African monsoon intensification and deglacial meltwater inputs from the North Atlantic. In addition to the Nile river discharge, the paleodrainage toward Gulf of Sirte off Libya has been proposed although its contribution could be significantly different between S1 and S5 because of distinct monsoon intensification. Since the response of circulation to freshwater forcing could vary with the region of perturbation, comparison of S1 and S5 deposited in the Gulf of Sirte will provide key information on the Mediterranean ventilation sensitivity.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;We applied a multi-proxy approach (bulk elemental composition by XRF scanning, redox sensitive elemental concentration, planktonic foraminiferal &amp;amp;#948;&amp;lt;sup&amp;gt;18&amp;lt;/sup&amp;gt;O and benthic foraminiferal faunal assemblages) to core SL95 (32&amp;amp;#186;46.46N, 19&amp;amp;#186;11.46E; 1390 m water depth) from the eastern side of the Gulf of Sirte. Both S1 and S5 are marked by prominent peaks of Ba/Al and Ba/Ti with more pronounced Ba enrichment for S5. Redox sensitive elements such as U and Mo present enrichment prior to the Ba peaks that can be interpreted as reduced ventilation before sapropel deposition. However, expected reduced oxygenation is not synchronous with benthic foraminiferal faunal changes, suggesting possible remobilisation of the trace elements during sapropel interruption and/or post-sapropel oxygenation. Acquisition of high-temporal resolution data of &amp;lt;em&amp;gt;Globigerinoides ruber&amp;lt;/em&amp;gt; &amp;amp;#948;&amp;lt;sup&amp;gt;18&amp;lt;/sup&amp;gt;O and benthic foraminiferal assemblages is in progress. We will discuss potential influence of (partial) ventilation at intermediate water depths during sapropel interruption in association with 8.2 event and possible different freshwater inputs at S1 and S5 depositions.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;
A novel approach towards the reliable characterization of complex sedimentary aquifers
2020-03-09

&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;The reliable characterization of heterogeneous sedimentary aquifers, especially the identification of preferential flow paths and their connectivity remains a challenge in applied hydrogeology research and practice. However, aforementioned information is crucial for predicting subsurface flow and contaminant transport in complex deposits. Well established characterization methods such as outcrop analogue studies, hydraulic tomography, tracer testing, and direct push profiling suffer from uncertainty due to non-uniqueness of underlying inversions or insufficient temporal and/or spatial data resolution. Furthermore, the relation and effects of observed heterogeneity in hydraulic conductivity on transport is not always straight forward.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;A promising novel approach to overcome the limitations of conventional hydraulic site characterization techniques is the joint application of tracer testing and direct push logging. We present a proof-of-concept field study, where conventional salt tracer testing was combined with vertical high resolution direct push electrical conductivity profiling. The method successfully captured tracer distribution in heterogeneous sedimentary deposits in-situ and visualized measured tracer distribution over time. Additional measurements, such as breakthrough-curves and surface geophysics can be easily integrated to set up ex-post simulations to further increase site-specific understanding of groundwater flow and transport processes.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;