Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Erin E. McDuffie, Randall Martin, Joseph Spadaro, Richard Burnett, Steven J. Smith, Patrick O'Rourke, Melanie S. Hammer, Aaron van Donkelaar, Liam Bindle, Viral Shah, Lyatt Jaegle, Gan Luo, Fangqun Yu, Jamiu A. Adeniran, Jintai Lin, Michael Brauer
Summary: Ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5) is one of the most important environmental health risk factors in many regions. The authors assessed PM2.5 emission sources and related health impacts across global to sub-national scales, finding that over 1 million deaths were avoidable in 2017 by eliminating PM2.5 mass associated with fossil fuel combustion emissions.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2021)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Laura J. A. van Dijk, Xoaquin Moreira, Anna E. Barr, Luis Abdala-Roberts, Bastien Castagneyrol, Maria Faticov, Bess Hardwick, Jan P. J. G. ten Hoopen, Raul de la Mata, Ricardo Matheus Pires, Tomas Roslin, Dmitry S. Schigel, Bart G. H. Timmermans, Ayco J. M. Tack
Summary: This study is the first to describe the effects of urbanization on plant-pathogen interactions both within and among cities, and to uncover the potential mechanisms behind the observed patterns at each scale.
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Ashish Sharma, Donald J. Wuebbles, Rao Kotamarthi
Summary: The accelerating urbanization, evolving urban landscapes, and growing populations necessitate accurate representation of urban areas and processes. Strategies for urban-resolving climate research are discussed to capture the effects of climate on urban regions, advancing modeling capabilities to capture relevant natural and human components.
Review
Ecology
Simon A. F. Darroch, Erin E. Saupe, Michelle M. Casey, Maria L. S. P. Jorge
Summary: Geographic ranges are a fundamental unit of biogeography and macroecology. Paleontologists and ecologists are reconstructing geographic ranges of species from fossils to understand long-term processes. Geographic ranges are time-averaged and reflect biotic and abiotic processes. This framework integrates the study of geographic ranges using modern and ancient data, illuminating diversity patterns over various time intervals.
TRENDS IN ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION
(2022)
Article
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
John Strauser, William P. Stewart
Summary: Agricultural lands in the north-central United States are highly uniform and non-sustainable, with a broad social agreement shaping agricultural practices. The study highlights the influence of normative landscapes on farming practices and suggests using local events to disrupt and promote conservation farming practices.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Van Wishingrad, Robert C. Thomson
Summary: The field of biogeography combines landscape genetics and phylogeography to understand genetic variation across space and time. This study used the western fence lizard as a model species to investigate the connection between landscape genetics and phylogeography. The results showed significant concordance in landscape genetics processes at different geographical scales, while phylogeographical results indicated distinct clades restricted to specific river drainages or hydrological regions. Integrating theory, models, and methods between landscape genetics and phylogeography will enhance our understanding of ecological and evolutionary processes.
Article
Environmental Sciences
James Gahan, David R. Bellwood, Leo Nankervis, Sterling B. Tebbett
Summary: This study analyzed the characteristics of zooplankton communities in the offshore regions of the Queensland shelf using Australian data and found that the composition of these communities was predictable at a broad taxonomic level, but the variation in relative abundance was unpredictable.
MARINE ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Amir Mazrooei, Meredith Reitz, Dingbao Wang, A. Sankarasubramanian
Summary: This study investigates the impacts of urbanization on evapotranspiration (ET) fluxes across different landscapes and timescales. The observed patterns show that the difference in ET between urban and non-urban areas is influenced by local hydroclimate, with arid regions experiencing increased ET and humid regions showing decreased ET. Cities in cold climates tend to evaporate more during winter due to increased energy availability from human activities. Urban areas in arid regions have increased ET due to water withdrawals and irrigation during drought conditions. These findings can help planners in integrating environmental conditions into urban landscape design and management.
Article
Ecology
Fearghal O'Donncha, Yihao Hu, Paulito Palmes, Meredith Burke, Ramon Filgueira, Jon Grant
Summary: This study introduces a novel spatio-temporal LSTM architecture for time series forecasting in environmental datasets, demonstrating its ability to accurately replicate complex signals and provide high performance. Learning from multiple sensors simultaneously can enhance robustness to missing data.
ECOLOGICAL INFORMATICS
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Yoshimitsu Chikamoto, Wei Zhang, Lawrence Hipps, S-Y Simon Wang, Robert R. Gillies, Siiri Bigalke
Summary: This study examines the relationship between climate factors and summer air quality in Northern Utah. The analysis of 20 years of data reveals that the number of unhealthy days is strongly correlated with dry-hot days, wildfire size, and an upper atmospheric ridge over the Northwestern United States. Climate model simulations confirm these observations, suggesting a trend of increasing upper atmospheric ridge and dry days in the northwestern states.
ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS
(2023)
Article
Neurosciences
Tatiana A. Engel, Marieke L. Schoelvinck, Christopher M. Lewis
Summary: Human macroscopic neuroimaging reveals the organization of brain-wide activity, but hides the detailed responses and connections of individual neurons. New invasive approaches in animals allow for recording and manipulating neural activity at finer scales, shedding light on the significance of neural activity for global brain states and adaptive behavior.
Article
Ecology
Tadeu Siqueira, Charles P. Hawkins, Julian D. Olden, Jonathan Tonkin, Lise Comte, Victor S. Saito, Thomas L. Anderson, Gedimar P. Barbosa, Nuria Bonada, Claudia C. Bonecker, Miguel Canedo-Argueelles, Thibault Datry, Michael B. Flinn, Pau Fortuno, Gretchen A. Gerrish, Peter Haase, Matthew J. Hill, James M. Hood, Kaisa-Leena Huttunen, Michael J. Jeffries, Timo Muotka, Daniel R. O'Donnell, Riku Paavola, Petr Paril, Michael J. Paterson, Christopher J. Patrick, Gilmar Perbiche-Neves, Luzia C. Rodrigues, Susanne C. Schneider, Michal Straka, Albert Ruhi
Summary: Temporal variability in ecological structure and processes tends to decrease with increasing spatial scales and levels of biological organization. However, the patterns and mechanisms of variability across trophic levels remain poorly understood. In this study, we analyzed abundance time series data from spatially structured communities and found that temporal variability in abundance decreases from producers to tertiary consumers, mainly at the local scale. Synchrony within sites increases with trophic level, while synchrony among communities decreases.
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Hongru Sun, Zhenzhu Xu, Bingrui Jia
Summary: This article presents a comprehensive dataset of soil respiration in undisturbed forest ecosystems in China, including monthly respiration rate, soil temperature, and relevant information on climate factors and stand characteristics. The authors hope that the scientific community can utilize this dataset to enhance understanding of the carbon cycle in China's forest ecosystems and reduce uncertainty in large-scale carbon budget evaluations.
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE DATA
(2022)
Editorial Material
Environmental Sciences
Hannah L. Joy-Warren
Summary: The polar regions are undergoing significant changes, with impacts on polar ecosystems and global climate. The growth of phytoplankton, an important component of these ecosystems, is influenced by environmental factors such as light and nutrients, which are affected by climate-induced changes in ocean circulation, stratification, and sea ice cover. A recent study focused on the Southern Ocean revealed that the variability of chlorophyll, a proxy for phytoplankton biomass, occurs primarily at sub-seasonal scales and is influenced by small-scale processes such as storms and eddies, rather than large-scale climate oscillations. Understanding and studying these small-scale events is crucial for explaining chlorophyll variability.
GLOBAL BIOGEOCHEMICAL CYCLES
(2022)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Sarah C. McColl-Gausden, Lauren T. Bennett, Hamish G. Clarke, Dan A. Ababei, Trent D. Penman
Summary: This study quantifies the direct and indirect effects of climate on fire regime change in temperate forests in southeastern Australia. The results indicate that future climate change will intensify fire regimes by increasing wildfire extent and intensity and decreasing fire interval. The role of future fuel also interacts with climate change, either synergistically or antagonistically, depending on the landscape and fire regime attribute. These findings suggest that temperate ecosystems in southeastern Australia are likely to experience shifts in fire regimes in the coming decades.
GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY
(2022)
Review
Plant Sciences
David Schimel, Fabian D. Schneider, Anthony Bloom, Kevin Bowman, Kerry Cawse-Nicholson, Clayton Elder, Antonio Ferraz, Joshua Fisher, Glynn Hulley, Liu Junjie, Troy Magney, Victoria Meyer, Charles Miller, Nicholas Parazoo, Ryan Pavlick, Erika Podest, Sassari Saatchi, Natasha Stavros, Michael Keller, Philip Townsend, Ting Zheng
Article
Environmental Sciences
Alireza Farahmand, E. Natasha Stavros, John T. Reager, Ali Behrangi
Article
Environmental Sciences
Red Willow Coleman, Natasha Stavros, Vineet Yadav, Nicholas Parazoo
Article
Environmental Sciences
Mariano Garcia, Peter North, Alba Viana-Soto, Natasha E. Stavros, Jackie Rosette, M. Pilar Martin, Magi Franques, Rosario Gonzalez-Cascon, David Riano, Javier Becerra, Kaiguang Zhao
REMOTE SENSING OF ENVIRONMENT
(2020)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Red Willow Coleman, Natasha Stavros, Glynn Hulley, Nicholas Parazoo
Review
Environmental Sciences
Kerry Cawse-Nicholson, Philip A. Townsend, David Schimel, Ali M. Assiri, Pamela L. Blake, Maria Fabrizia Buongiorno, Petya Campbell, Nimrod Carmon, Kimberly A. Casey, Rosa Elvira Correa-Pabon, Kyla M. Dahlin, Hamid Dashti, Philip E. Dennison, Heidi Dierssen, Adam Erickson, Joshua B. Fisher, Robert Frouin, Charles K. Gatebe, Hamed Gholizadeh, Michelle Gierach, Nancy F. Glenn, James A. Goodman, Daniel M. Griffith, Liane Guild, Christopher R. Hakkenberg, Eric J. Hochberg, Thomas R. H. Holmes, Chuanmin Hu, Glynn Hulley, Karl F. Huemmrich, Raphael M. Kudela, Raymond F. Kokaly, Christine M. Lee, Roberta Martin, Charles E. Miller, Wesley J. Moses, Frank E. Muller-Karger, Joseph D. Ortiz, Daniel B. Otis, Nima Pahlevan, Thomas H. Painter, Ryan Pavlick, Ben Poulter, Yi Qi, Vincent J. Realmuto, Dar Roberts, Michael E. Schaepman, Fabian D. Schneider, Florian M. Schwandner, Shawn P. Serbin, Alexey N. Shiklomanov, E. Natasha Stavros, David R. Thompson, Juan L. Torres-Perez, Kevin R. Turpie, Maria Tzortziou, Susan Ustin, Qian Yu, Yusri Yusup, Qingyuan Zhang
Summary: The paper summarizes the Surface Biology and Geology (SBG) as a Designated Targeted Observable (DO) recommended in the 2017-2027 National Academies' Decadal Survey, focusing on agriculture, natural habitats, water use/quality, and urban development. It reviews existing algorithms in each category and synthesizes the findings of over 130 scientists.
REMOTE SENSING OF ENVIRONMENT
(2021)
Article
Business
E. Natasha Stavros
Summary: Wicked problems stem from complex systems without clear solutions. WKID Innovation, modeled after NASA's science system engineering, aims to scale NASA processes to tackle wicked problems by bridging design thinking and complex systems science for disruptive innovation. NASA, a pioneer in disruptive technologies, has pushed the boundaries of human knowledge through feats like human moon landings and Mars rovers.
RESEARCH-TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT
(2021)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Nicholas C. Parazoo, Red Willow Coleman, Vineet Yadav, E. Natasha Stavros, Glynn Hulley, Lucy Hutyra
Summary: This study quantifies the spatial and seasonal variability of gross primary production (GPP) in urban and non-urban areas of the Southern California Air Basin (SoCAB) using high-resolution land cover maps and the Urban Vegetation Photosynthesis and Respiration Model (UrbanVPRM). It finds that irrigated vegetation, fragmented landscapes, and non-irrigated shrubs play significant roles in urban GPP.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Virginia Iglesias, Natasha Stavros, Jennifer K. Balch, Kimiko Barrett, Jeanette Cobian-Iniguez, Cyrus Hester, Crystal A. Kolden, Stefan Leyk, R. Chelsea Nagy, Colleen E. Reid, Christine Wiedinmyer, Elizabeth Woolner, William R. Travis
Summary: Increasing fire impacts in North America are attributed to climate and vegetation change, urban development, and social vulnerability. It is crucial to transition from emergency response to proactive measures to build sustainable communities, protect human health, and restore the use of fire for ecosystem processes. An integrated risk factor approach is proposed to identify 'fires that matter' and prioritize science-informed planning strategies for increasing community resilience to fires.
ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Erin J. Questad, Marlee Antill, Nanfeng Liu, E. Natasha Stavros, Philip A. Townsend, Susan Bonfield, David Schimel
Summary: Understanding trends in species loss through vegetation mapping is crucial. The team developed a method to rapidly collect ground-truth data for shrubland plant communities using semi-aerial photos captured with a high-resolution digital camera. This image-based method showed higher efficiency compared to traditional ground surveys. However, there was lower correspondence in estimates of species richness and evenness.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Christine M. Lee, Nancy F. Glenn, E. Natasha Stavros, Jeff Luvall, Karen Yuen, Chris Hain, Stephanie Schollaert Uz
Summary: The Surface Biology and Geology (SBG) concept is the first NASA Earth mission to systematically integrate science application needs at the early stage of mission planning. Through discussions with international partners, application needs for low latency and improved temporal resolution were identified. Furthermore, mission concept decisions were influenced by both application needs and science priorities.
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-BIOGEOSCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Philip E. Higuera, Maxwell C. Cook, Jennifer K. Balch, E. Natasha Stavros, Adam L. Mahood, Lise A. St Denis
Summary: Structure loss has increased significantly due to the wildfire crisis in the western United States. The increase in structure loss is not solely due to the expansion of burned areas, but also the increased destructiveness of wildfires. Human-related ignitions, such as backyard burning and power lines, are the primary drivers of structure loss. Annual structure loss can be explained by the area burned from human-related ignitions, while decadal structure loss is influenced by the abundance of structures in flammable vegetation.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Jacquelyn K. Shuman, Jennifer K. Balch, Rebecca T. Barnes, Philip E. Higuera, Christopher I. Roos, Dylan W. Schwilk, E. Natasha Stavros, Tirtha Banerjee, Megan M. Bela, Jacob Bendix, Sandro Bertolino, Solomon Bililign, Kevin D. Bladon, Paulo Brando, Robert E. Breidenthal, Brian Buma, Donna Calhoun, Leila M. V. Carvalho, Megan E. Cattau, Kaelin M. Cawley, Sudeep Chandra, Melissa L. Chipman, Jeanette Cobian-Iniguez, Erin Conlisk, Jonathan D. Coop, Alison Cullen, Kimberley T. Davis, Archana Dayalu, Fernando De Sales, Megan Dolman, Lisa M. Ellsworth, Scott Franklin, Christopher H. Guiterman, Matthew Hamilton, Erin J. Hanan, Winslow D. Hansen, Stijn Hantson, Brian J. Harvey, Andres Holz, Tao Huang, Matthew D. Hurteau, Nayani T. Ilangakoon, Megan Jennings, Charles Jones, Anna Klimaszewski-Patterson, Leda N. Kobziar, John Kominoski, Branko Kosovic, Meg A. Krawchuk, Paul Laris, Jackson Leonard, S. Marcela Loria-Salazar, Melissa Lucash, Hussam Mahmoud, Ellis Margolis, Toby Maxwell, Jessica L. McCarty, David B. McWethy, Rachel S. Meyer, Jessica R. Miesel, W. Keith Moser, R. Chelsea Nagy, Dev Niyogi, Hannah M. Palmer, Adam Pellegrini, Benjamin Poulter, Kevin Robertson, Adrian V. Rocha, Mojtaba Sadegh, Fernanda Santos, Facundo Scordo, Joseph O. Sexton, A. Surjalal Sharma, Alistair M. S. Smith, Amber J. Soja, Christopher Still, Tyson Swetnam, Alexandra D. Syphard, Morgan W. Tingley, Ali Tohidi, Anna T. Trugman, Merritt Turetsky, J. Morgan Varner, Yuhang Wang, Thea Whitman, Stephanie Yelenik, Xuan Zhang
Summary: Fire is a crucial element in ecosystems globally, but altered fire regimes due to global change are causing devastating impacts. Addressing the increasing fire danger requires interdisciplinary and inclusive partnerships, as well as integration of diverse knowledge and data for more predictive and adaptive approaches.
Article
Computer Science, Information Systems
E. Natasha Stavros, Catalina M. Oaida, Jessica Hausman, Michelle M. Gierach
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Alireza Farahmand, E. Natasha Stavros, John T. Reager, Ali Behrangi, James T. Randerson, Brad Quayle
NATURAL HAZARDS AND EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCES
(2020)
