Search results for "Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences"

Biomass Assessment of Agricultural Crops Using Multi-temporal Dual-Polarimetric TerraSAR-X Data

2019

The biomass of three agricultural crops, winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), barley (Hordeum vulgare L.), and canola (Brassica napus L.), was studied using multi-temporal dual-polarimetric TerraSAR-X data. The radar backscattering coefficient sigma nought of the two polarization channels HH and VV was extracted from the satellite images. Subsequently, combinations of HH and VV polarizations were calculated (e.g. HH/VV, HH + VV, HH × VV) to establish relationships between SAR data and the fresh and dry biomass of each crop type using multiple stepwise regression. Additionally, the semi-empirical water cloud model (WCM) was used to account for the effect of crop biomass on radar backscatter …

Classification of tall-forb vegetation in the Pamir-Alai and western Tian Shan Mountains (Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, Middle Asia)

2020

Aims: To complete the syntaxonomic scheme for tall-forb vegetation of the montane and alpine belts in the Pamir-Alai and western Tian Shan Mountains in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan with some remarks on its environmental predictors. Study area: Middle Asia: Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. Methods: A total of 244 relevés were sampled in 2013–2019 using the seven-degree cover-abundance scale of the Braun-Blanquet approach. These were classified with a modified TWINSPAN algorithm with pseudospecies cut-levels 0%, 5% and 25%, and total inertia as a measure of cluster heterogeneity. Diagnostic species were identified using the phi coefficient as a fidelity measure. NMDS was used to explore the relationsh…

Projecting biodiversity and wood production in future forest landscapes: 15 key modeling considerations

2017

A variety of modeling approaches can be used to project the future development of forest systems, and help to assess the implications of different management alternatives for biodiversity and ecosystem services. This diversity of approaches does however present both an opportunity and an obstacle for those trying to decide which modeling technique to apply, and interpreting the management implications of model output. Furthermore, the breadth of issues relevant to addressing key questions related to forest ecology, conservation biology, silviculture, economics, requires insights stemming from a number of distinct scientific disciplines. As forest planners, conservation ecologists, ecologica…

Évolution du stress gélif et idéotypes de pois d'hiver dans le contexte de changement climatique, à une échelle régionale.

2017

11 pages; International audience; Pea (Pisum sativum L.) is an important crop in temperate regions for its high seed protein concentration that is particularly sensitive to abiotic stresses. The abrupt temperature increase known as the “1987/1988 temperature regime shift” that occurs over Europe is questioning how winter pea will perform in the changing climate. This study assessed the winter frost damage evolution along from 1961 to 2015 in Burgundy-Franche-Comté by using: (1) daily observed and gridded regional temperature data and (2) a validated crop winter frost stress model calibrated for pea. This study shows a global decrease of the frost stress nevertheless resulting from a subtle …

Climate signatures on decadal to interdecadal time scales as obtained from mollusk shells (Arctica islandica) from Iceland

2013

Abstract Pronounced decadal climate oscillations are detected in a multi-centennial record based on shell growth rates of the marine bivalve mollusk, Arctica islandica, from Iceland. The corresponding analysis of patterns in sea level pressure and temperature exhibit large-scale teleconnections with North Atlantic climate quantities. We find that the record projects onto blocking situations in the northern North Atlantic. The associated circulation shows a low-pressure signature over Greenland and the Labrador Sea and a high-pressure system over Western Europe associated with northeasterly flow towards Iceland and weakening in the westerly zonal flow over Europe. It can be speculated that s…

2020

Although volcanic eruptions represent short periods in the whole history of a volcano, the large amount of loose pyroclastic material produced, combined with aeolian processes, can lead to continuous, long-lasting reworking of volcanic products. Driven by wind, these processes significantly influence the geomorphology and prolong the impacts of eruptions on exposed communities and ecosystems. Since such phenomena are of interest to scientists from a range of disciplines (e.g. volcanology, atmospheric and soil sciences), a well-defined, common nomenclature is necessary to optimize the multidisciplinary characterisation of both processes and deposits. We, therefore, first describe ash wind-re…

New lithostratigraphy for the Cantabrian Mountains: A common tectono-stratigraphic evolution for the onset of the Alpine cycle in the W Pyrenean real…

2019

The Pyrenean-Cantabrian Orogen arose through the collision of the Iberian and Eurasian plates, mostly in Cenozoic times. This orogen comprises two main mountain ranges, the Pyrenees to the east, and the Cantabrian Mountains to the west. To date, the early Alpine tectono-sedimentary phases preserved in the Cantabrian Mountains, of Permian and Triassic age, have been considered independently from the same phases in neighbouring basins of SW Europe, and even from the eastern part of the same orogeny (the Pyrenean orogeny). In consequence, the beginning of the Alpine cycle in the Cantabrian Mountains has been interpreted within a specific geodynamic context, far from the general evolutionary ph…

Volcanic Gas Emissions Along the Colombian Arc Segment of the Northern Volcanic Zone (CAS-NVZ): Implications for volcano monitoring and volatile budg…

2019

Studying spatial and temporal trends in volcanic gas compositions and fluxes is crucial both to volcano monitoring and to constrain the origin and recycling efficiency of volatiles at active convergent margins. New volcanic gas compositions and volatile fluxes are here reported for Nevado del Ruiz, Galeras, and Purace, three of the most persistently degassing volcanoes located in the Colombian Arc Segment of the Northern Volcanic Zone. At Nevado del Ruiz, from 2014 to 2017, plume emissions showed an average molar CO2/S-T ratio of 3.9 +/- 1.6 (S-T is total sulfur, S). Contemporary, fumarolic chemistry at Galeras progressively shifted toward low-temperature, S-depleted fumarolic gas discharge…

Tracking dynamics of magma migration in open-conduit systems

2016

Open-conduit volcanic systems are typically characterized by unsealed volcanic conduits feeding permanent or quasi-permanent volcanic activity. This persistent activity limits our ability to read changes in the monitored parameters, making the assessment of possible eruptive crises more difficult. We show how an integrated approach to monitoring can solve this problem, opening a new way to data interpretation. The increasing rate of explosive transients, tremor amplitude, thermal emissions of ejected tephra, and rise of the very-long-period (VLP) seismic source towards the surface are interpreted as indicating an upward migration of the magma column in response to an increased magma input r…

Geoarchaeological evidence of marshland destruction in the area of Rungholt, present-day Wadden Sea around Hallig Südfall (North Frisia, Germany), by…

2018

Abstract Geophysical and geoarchaeological investigations were carried out in the Wadden Sea of North Frisia (Schleswig-Holstein, Germany) to elucidate major environmental changes that considerably altered the coastal landscape since medieval times. Between the 12 th and 14 th cent. AD, the present-day tidal flats around the marsh island Hallig Sudfall belonged to the historical Edomsharde district and its main settlement Rungholt . For North Frisia, it is well known that during medieval and early modern times, extreme storm surges caused major land losses associated with a massive landward shift of the coastline. Today, cultural traces like remains of dikes, drainage ditches, terps or even…