Search results for "eat"

An Ecohydrological Cellular Automata Model Investigation of Juniper Tree Encroachment in a Western North American Landscape

2016

Woody plant encroachment over the past 140 years has substantially changed grasslands in western North American. We studied encroachment of western juniper (Juniperus occidentalis var. occidentalis) into a previously mixed shrub–grassland site in central Oregon (USA) using a modified version of Cellular Automata Tree–Grass–Shrub Simulator (CATGraSS) ecohydrological model. We developed simple algorithms to simulate three encroachment factors (grazing, fire frequency reduction, and seed dispersal by herbivores) in CATGraSS. Local ecohydrological dynamics represented by the model were first evaluated using satellite-derived leaf area index and measured evapotranspiration data. Reconstruc…

2019

Urban Heat Islands (UHIs) at the surface and canopy levels are major issues in urban planification and development. For this reason, the comprehension and quantification of the influence that the different land-uses/land-covers have on UHIs is of particular importance. In order to perform a detailed thermal characterisation of the city, measures covering the whole scenario (city and surroundings) and with a recurrent revisit are needed. In addition, a resolution of tens of meters is needed to characterise the urban heterogeneities. Spaceborne remote sensing meets the first and the second requirements but the Land Surface Temperature (LST) resolutions remain too rough compared to the urban o…

New advances in dial-lidar-based remote sensing of the volcanic CO2 flux

2017

We report here on the results of a proof-of-concept study aimed at remotely sensing the volcanic CO2 flux using a Differential Adsorption lidar (DIAL-lidar). The observations we report on were conducted on June 2014 on Stromboli volcano, where our lidar (LIght Detection And Ranging) was used to scan the volcanic plume from ~ 3 km distance from the summit vents. The obtained results prove that a remotely operating lidar can resolve a volcanic CO2 signal of a few tens of ppm (in excess to background air) over km-long optical paths. We combine these results with independent estimates of plume transport speed (from processing of UV Camera images) to derive volcanic CO2 flux time-series of ≈16-3…

Understanding the SO 2 degassing budget of Mt Etna’s paroxysms: First clues from the december 2015 sequence

2019

The persistent open-vent activity of basaltic volcanoes is periodically interrupted by spectacular but hazardous paroxysmal explosions. The rapid transition from quiescence to explosive eruption poses a significant challenge for volcanic hazard assessment and mitigation, and improving our understanding of the processes that trigger these paroxysmal events is critical. Although magmatic gas is unquestionably the driver, direct measurements of a paroxysm’s gas flux budget have remained challenging, to date. A particularly violent paroxysmal sequence took place on Etna on December 2015, intermittently involving all summit craters, especially the Voragine (VOR) that had previously displayed no…

Lidar sounding of volcanic plumes

2013

ABSTRACT Accurate knowledge of gas composition in volcanic plumes has high scientific and societal value. On the one hand, it gives information on the geophysical processes taking place inside volcanos; on the other hand, it provides alert on possible eruptions. For this reasons, it has been suggested to monitor volcanic plumes by lidar. In particular, one of the aims of the FP7 ERC project BRIDGE is the measurement of CO 2 concentration in volcanic gases by differential absorption lidar. This is a very challenging task due to the harsh environment, the narrowness and weakness of the CO 2 absorption lines and the difficulty to procure a suitable laser source. This paper, after a review on r…

Pharmaceuticals and other urban contaminants threaten Amazonian freshwater ecosystems

2021

Abstract Urban areas in the Brazilian Amazon have grown at an unprecedented rate during the last years. About 90% of the wastewater produced by these urban areas are discharged untreated into Amazonian freshwater ecosystems, constituting a potential environmental pathway for pharmaceuticals and other chemicals consumed by modern societies (e.g. psychostimulants, personal-care products, hormones). The distribution of these chemicals into the Amazon River and their potential risks for freshwater biodiversity have not been evaluated so far. Here, we show the results of the largest chemical monitoring campaign conducted in the Amazon region. We assessed exposure patterns for 43 pharmaceuticals …

Modeling the Effects of Climate Change on the Supply of Phosphate-Phosphorus

2009

The transfer of phosphorus from terrestrial to aquatic ecosystems is a key route through which climate can influence aquatic ecosystems. A number of climatic factors interact in complex ways to regulate the transfer of phosphorus and modulate its ecological effects on downstream lakes and reservoirs. Processes influencing both the amount and timing of phosphorus export from terrestrial watersheds must be quantified before we can assess the direct and indirect effects of the weather on the supply and recycling of phosphorus. Simulation of the export of phosphorus from the terrestrial environment is complicated by the fact that it is difficult to describe seasonal and inter-annual variations …

A coronal explosion on the flare star CN Leonis

2008

We present simultaneous high-temporal and high-spectral resolution observations at optical and soft X-ray wavelengths of the nearby flare star CN Leo. During our observing campaign a major flare occurred, raising the star's instantaneous energy output by almost three orders of magnitude. The flare shows the often observed impulsive behavior, with a rapid rise and slow decay in the optical and a broad soft X-ray maximum about 200 seconds after the optical flare peak. However, in addition to this usually encountered flare phenomenology we find an extremely short (~2 sec) soft X-ray peak, which is very likely of thermal, rather than non-thermal nature and temporally coincides with the optical …

Simulated European stalagmite record and its relation to a quasi-decadal climate mode

2013

Abstract. A synthetic stalagmite record for the Bunker cave is constructed using a combined climate-stalagmite modeling approach. The power spectrum of the simulated speleothem calcite δ18O record has a pronounced peak at quasi-decadal time scale. Interestingly, mixing processes in the soil and karst above the cave represent a natural low-pass filter of the speleothem climate archive. We identify a quasi-decadal mode characterized by a "tripole pattern" of sea surface temperature affecting stalagmite δ18O values. This pattern, which is well-known in literature as the quasi-decadal mode in the North Atlantic, propagates eastwards and affects western European temperature surrounding the cave.…

Strombolian eruptions and dynamics of magma degassing at Yasur Volcano (Vanuatu)

2020

Abstract Open vent basaltic volcanoes account for a substantial portion of the global atmospheric outgassing flux, largely through passive degassing and mild explosive activity. We present volcanic gas flux and composition data from Yasur Volcano, Vanuatu collected in July 2018. The average volcanic plume chemistry is characterised by a mean molar CO2/SO2 ratio of 2.14, H2O/SO2 of 148 and SO2/HCl of 1.02. The measured mean SO2 flux in the period of 6th to 9th July is 4.9 kg s−1. Therefore, the mean fluxes of the other species are 7.5 kg∙s−1 CO2, 208 kg∙s−1 H2O and 4.8 kg∙s−1 HCl. The degassing regime at Yasur volcano ranges from ‘passive’ to ‘active’ styles, with the latter including Stromb…