Centre for the Observation and Modelling of Earthquakes, Volcanoes and Tectonics
NERC Open Research ArchiveNot a member yet
55023 research outputs found
Sort by
Village level fertilizer management for increasing nitrogen use efficiency, rice yield and household income
Get PDFLimited soil nitrogen (N) availability constrains crop growth and yield. Low N use efficiency (NUE) coupled with overuse of fertilizer-N result in environmental pollution and huge economic loss. Hence, effects of N management practices on rice grain yield and NUE were studied in two separate experiments in experimental farm and farmer’s field. Each of the study was conducted in two consecutive rice seasons of Boro (dry season rice) and Transplanted Aman (T. Aman) (wet season rice) using several N treatments. Results revealed that compared with the recommended dose of N (RDN), urea super granule (USG) and biochar with RDN (BRDN) increased grain yield by 6–18% irrespective of experimental sites and cropping seasons. USG contributed to the highest NUE, while. USG and BRDN increased agronomic efficiency (1.3–2.3 folds), apparent N-recovery (1.3–1.9 folds) efficiency and physiological efficiency (0.9–1.3 folds), compared to RDN. USG appeared to be economically the most viable option, with a benefit-cost ratio (BCR) of 1.5–1.6 over locations and seasons. BRDN showed a lower BCR (1.1–1.2) due to additional expense on biochar. Biochar might contribute towards a carbon-negative economy, and its economic benefits require to be addressed. Supportive government policies are needed for adoption of USG and biochar in agriculture
Advances and shortfalls in knowledge of Antarctic terrestrial and freshwater biodiversity
No full textAntarctica harbors many distinctive features of life, yet much about the diversity and functioning of Antarctica’s life remains unknown. Evolutionary histories and functional ecology are well understood only for vertebrates, whereas research on invertebrates is largely limited to species descriptions and some studies on environmental tolerances. Knowledge on Antarctic vegetation cover showcases the challenges of characterizing population trends for most groups. Recent community-level microbial studies have provided insights into the functioning of life at its limits. Overall, biotic interactions remain largely unknown across all groups, restricted to basic information on trophic level placement. Insufficient knowledge of many groups limits the understanding of ecological processes on the continent. Remedies for the current situation rely on identifying the caveats of each ecological discipline and finding targeted solutions. Such precise delimitation of knowledge gaps will enable a more aware, representative, and strategic systematic conservation planning of Antarctica
Improving the reproducibility in geoscientific papers: lessons learned from a Hackathon in climate science
Get PDFIn this paper, we explore the crucial role and challenges of computational reproducibility in geosciences, drawing insights from the Climate Informatics Reproducibility Challenge (CICR) in 2023. The competition aimed at (1) identifying common hurdles to reproduce computational climate science; and (2) creating interactive reproducible publications for selected papers of the Environmental Data Science journal. Based on lessons learned from the challenge, we emphasize the significance of open research practices, mentorship, transparency guidelines, as well as the use of technologies such as executable research objects for the reproduction of geoscientific published research. We propose a supportive framework of tools and infrastructure for evaluating reproducibility in geoscientific publications, with a case study for the climate informatics community. While the recommendations focus on future CIRCs, we expect they would be beneficial for wider umbrella of reproducibility initiatives in geosciences
Global Marine Flyways Identified for Long‐Distance Migrating Seabirds From Tracking Data
Get PDFAim: To identify the broad‐scale oceanic migration routes (‘marine flyways’) used by multiple pelagic, long‐distance migratory seabirds based on a global compilation of tracking data.
Location: Global.
Time Period: 1989–2023.
Major Taxa Studied: Seabirds (Families: Phaethontidae, Hydrobatidae, Diomedeidae, Procellariidae, Laridae and Stercorariidae).
Methods: We collated a comprehensive global tracking dataset that included the migratory routes of 48 pelagic and long‐distance migrating seabird species across the Atlantic, Indian, Pacific and Southern Oceans. We grouped individuals that followed similar routes, independent of species or timings of migration, using a dynamic time warping clustering approach. We visualised the routes of each cluster using a line density analysis and used knowledge of seabird spatial ecology to combine the clusters to identify the broad‐scale flyways followed by most pelagic migratory seabirds tracked to‐date at an ocean‐basin scale.
Results: Six marine flyways were identified across the world's oceans: the Atlantic Ocean Flyway, North Indian Ocean Flyway, East Indian Ocean Flyway, West Pacific Ocean Flyway, Pacific Ocean Flyway and Southern Ocean Flyway. Generally, the flyways were used bidirectionally, and individuals either followed sections of a flyway, a complete flyway, or their movements linked two or more flyways. Transhemispheric figure‐of‐eight routes in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and a circumnavigation flyway in the Southern Ocean correspond with major wind ‐ driven ocean currents.
Main Conclusions: The marine flyways identified demonstrate that pelagic seabirds have similar and repeatable migration routes across ocean‐basin scales. Our study highlights the need to account for connectivity in seabird conservation and provides a framework for international cooperation
The genome sequence of the warted knot-horn moth, Acrobasis repandana Fabricius, 1798
Get PDFWe present a genome assembly from an individual female specimen of Acrobasis repandana (Warted Knot-Horn moth; Arthropoda; Insecta; Lepidoptera; Pyralidae). The genome sequence has a total length of 620.40 megabases. Most of the assembly (99.78%) is scaffolded into 32 chromosomal pseudomolecules, including the Z and W sex chromosomes. The mitochondrial genome has also been assembled and is 15.21 kilobases in length. Gene annotation of this assembly on Ensembl identified 11,522 protein-coding genes
Heterogeneous thermal tolerance of dominant Andean montane tree species
Get PDFIn tropical montane forests, the Earth’s largest biodiversity hotspots, there is increasing evidence that climate warming is resulting in montane species being displaced by their lowland counterparts. However, the drivers of these changes are poorly understood. Across a large elevation gradient in the Colombian Andes, we established three experimental plantations of 15 dominant tree species including both naturally occurring montane and lowland species and measured their survival and growth. Here we show that 55% of the studied montane species maintained growth at their survival’s hottest temperature with the remaining 45% being intolerant to such levels of warming, declining their growth, while lowland species benefited strongly from the warmest temperatures. Our findings suggest that the direct negative effects of warming and increased competition of montane species with lowland species are promoting increased homogeneity in community composition, resulting in reduced biodiversity
Key drivers of large scale changes in North Atlantic atmospheric and oceanic circulations and their predictability
Get PDFSignificant changes have occurred during the last few decades across the North Atlantic climate system, including in the atmosphere, ocean, and cryosphere. These large-scale changes play a vital role in shaping regional climate and extreme weather events across the UK and Western Europe. This review synthesizes the characteristics of observed large-scale changes in North Atlantic atmospheric and oceanic circulations during past decades, identifies the drivers and physical processes responsible for these changes, outlines projected changes due to anthropogenic warming, and discusses the predictability of these circulations. On multi-decadal time scales, internal variability, anthropogenic forcings (especially greenhouse gases), and natural forcings (such as solar variability and volcanic eruptions) are identified as key contributors to large-scale variability in North Atlantic atmospheric and oceanic circulations. However, there remain many uncertainties regarding the detailed characteristics of these various influences, and in some cases their relative importance. We therefore conclude that a better understanding of these drivers, and more accurate quantification of their relative roles, are crucial for more reliable decadal predictions and projections of regional climate for the North Atlantic and Europe
Inferring Species Interactions From Co-occurrence Networks With Environmental DNA Metabarcoding Data in a Coastal Marine Food Web
Get PDFA good understanding of biotic interactions is necessary to accurately predict the vulnerability of ecosystems to climate change. Recently, co-occurrence networks built from environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding data have arisen as a tool to explore interspecific interactions in ecological communities exposed to different human and environmental pressures. Such networks can identify environmentally driven relationships in microbial and eukaryotic communities, but whether inferred co-occurrences robustly represent biotic interactions remains unclear. Here, we tackle this challenge and compare spatio-temporal variability in the structure and complexity of inferred co-occurrence networks and food webs, using 60 eDNA samples covering vertebrates and other eukaryotes in a North Sea coastal ecosystem. We compare topological characteristics and identify highly connected species across spatial and temporal subsets to evaluate variance in community composition and structure. We find consistent trends in topological characteristics across eDNA-derived co-occurrence networks and food webs that support some ability for the co-occurrence networks to detect real ecological processes, despite trophic interactions forming a minority of significant co-occurrences. The lack of significant trophic interactions detected in co-occurrence networks may result from ecological complexities, such as generalist predators having flexible interactions or behavioural partitioning, the inability to distinguish age class with eDNA or co-occurrences being driven by non-trophic or abiotic interactions. We find support for using eDNA-derived co-occurrence networks to infer ecological interactions, but further work is needed to assess their power to reliably detect and differentiate different interaction types and overcome methodological limitations, such as species detection uncertainties, which could influence inferred ecosystem complexity
Bayesian network modelling for predicting the environmental hazard of silver nanomaterials in soils
No full textIn alignment with the European Union's Green Deal, which directs safe and sustainable practices for all chemicals, including nanomaterials (NMs) and advanced materials (AdMa), this study addresses the environmental hazard of silver NMs to terrestrial ecosystems. In the context of safe and sustainable by design (SSbD) framework, there is a need for methodologies that integrate pHysicochemical characteristics and experimental conditions to reliably predict their hazards to exposed species. Bayesian Networks (BN) represent a pivotal machine-learning (ML) tool with the potential to accelerate the SSbD process by leveraging predictive capabilities. In this study, we employed BN models trained on a literature-derived dataset capturing the ecotoxicity of silver (Ag) NMs in soils, focusing on predicting chronic no-observed effect concentrations (chronic NOECs). The model incorporates physicochemical characteristics such as surface coating, nominal particle diameter and particle shape as provided by manufacturers, species information such as life stage and taxonomic class, and exposure medium characteristics. The BN, refined through expert insights, achieved an average predictive accuracy of approximately 82 % across the output labels. The study also extracted interpretable rules from the BN, outlining environmental safety criteria and identified key factors influencing NM hazard for terrestrial organisms. The critical need for experimental datasets that provide fuller details of physiochemical characteristics and experimental conditions, as well as current limitations, are highlighted. This modelling approach facilitates the rapid screening of the potential hazards of AgNMs to terrestrial ecosystems, with the potential to accelerate safety evaluations and rationalise experimental demands
Data sources:
Access Repository Dashboard
Do you manage NERC Open Research Archive? Access insider analytics, issue reports and manage access to outputs from your repository in the CORE Repository Dashboard!