CAS: Earth & Environment: Scholarly Papers
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Item Detecting short-term stress and recovery events in a vineyard using tower-based remote sensing of photochemical reflectance index (PRI)(Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2022-09) Wong, Christopher Y.S.; Bambach, Nicolas E.; Alsina, Maria Mar; McElrone, Andrew J.; Jones, Taylor; Buckley, Thomas N.; Kustas, William P.; Magney, Troy S.Frequent drought and high temperature conditions in California vineyards necessitate plant stress detection to support irrigation management strategies and decision making. Remote sensing provides a powerful tool to continuously monitor vegetation function across spatial and temporal scales. In this study, we utilized a tower-based optical-remote sensing system to continuously monitor four vineyard subplots in California’s Central Valley. We compared the performance of the greenness-based normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and the physiology-based photochemical reflectance index (PRI) to track variations of eddy covariance estimated gross primary productivity (GPP) during four stress events between July and September 2020. Our results demonstrate that NDVI was invariant during stress events. In contrast, PRI was effective at tracking the short-term stress-induced declines and recovery of GPP associated with soil water depletion and increased air temperature, as well as reductions in GPP from decreased PAR caused by smokey conditions from nearby fires. Canopy-scale remote sensing can provide continuous real-time data, and physiology-based vegetation indices such as PRI can be used to monitor variation of photosynthetic activity during stress events to aid in management decisions.Item Direct air carbon capture and storage market scan(Boston University Institute for Global Sustainability,, 2022-08-15) Cleveland, Cutler J.; Vilallonga, LucíaItem Improving the MODIS LAI compositing using prior time-series information(Elsevier BV, 2023-03) Pu, Jiabin; Yan, Kai; Gao, Si; Zhang, Yiman; Park, Taejin; Sun, Xian; Weiss, Marie; Knyazikhin, Yuri; Myneni, Ranga B.Item Vegetation Earth System Data Record from DSCOVR EPIC Observations: product status and scientific exploration(2022-12-16) Knjazihhin, Juri; Pisek, Jan; Myneni, RangaItem Vegetation Earth System Data Record from DSCOVR EPIC observations: product analysis and scientific exploration(2022-07-05) Knjazihhin, Juri; Pisek, Jan; Myneni, RangaThe NASA's Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) onboard NOAA's Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) mission was launched on February 11, 2015 to the Sun-Earth Lagrangian L1 point where it began to collect radiance data of the entire sunlit Earth every 65 to 110 min in June 2015. It provides imageries in near backscattering directions at ten ultraviolet to near infrared narrow spectral bands. The DSCOVR EPIC science product suite includes Vegetation Earth System Data Record (VESDR) that provides Leaf Area Index (LAI) and diurnal courses of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Sunlit LAI (SLAI), Fraction of incident Photosynthetically Active Radiation (FPAR) absorbed by the vegetation, Directional Area Scattering Function (DASF) as well as recently added Earth Reflector Type Index (ERTI) and Canopy Scattering Coefficient (CSC). The parameters at 10 km regional sinusoidal grids and 65 to 110 minute temporal frequency are being generated from the upstream DSCOVR EPIC surface reflectance product and available from the NASA Langley Atmospheric Science Data Center. This poster provides an overview of the EPIC VESDR research. This includes a description of the operational algorithm and its performance, VESDR product details, its quality assessment and scientific exploration.Item DSCOVR EPIC vegetation earth system data record: product status and science(2022-09-28) Knjazihhin, Juri; Ni, Xiangnan; Sun, Yanheng; Myneni, RangaItem Revisit the performance of MODIS and VIIRS leaf area index products from the perspective of time-series stability(Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), 2022) Zou, Dongxiao; Yan, Kai; Pu, Jiabin; Gao, Si; Li, Wenjuan; Mu, Xihan; Knyazikhin, Yuri; Myneni, Ranga B.As an essential vegetation structural parameter, leaf area index (LAI) is involved in many critical biochemical processes, such as photosynthesis, respiration, and precipitation interception. The MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) LAI sequence products have long supported various global climate, biogeochemistry, and energy flux research. These applications all rely on the accuracy of the product’s long time series. However, uncontrolled interferences (e.g., adverse observation conditions and sensor uncertainties) potentially introduce substantial uncertainties to time series in product applications. As one of the most sensitive areas in response to global climate change, the Tibet Plateau (TP) has been treated as a crucial testing ground for thousands of studies on vegetation. To ensure the credibility of the studies arising from MODIS/VIIRSLAI products, the temporal quality uncertainties of data need to be clarified. This article proposed a method to revisit the temporal stability of the MODIS (MOD and MYD) and VIIRS (VNP) LAI in the TP, expecting to provide useful information for better accounting for the uncertainties in this area. Results show that the MODIS and VIIRS LAI were relatively stable in time series and available to be used continuously, among which the temporal quality of the MODIS LAI was the most stable. Moreover, the MODIS and VIIRS LAI products performed similarly in both time-series stability and time-series anomaly distribution, magnitudes and fluctuations. The time-series stability evaluation strategy applied to the MODIS and VIIRS LAI can also be employed to other remote sensing products.Item Ozone and nitrogen dioxide pollution in a coastal urban environment: the role of sea breezes, and implications of their representation for remote sensing of local air quality(American Geophysical Union (AGU), 2021-09-27) Geddes, Jeffrey A.; Wang, Bo; Li, DanWe present an analysis of sea breeze conditions for the Boston region and examine their impact on the concentration of local air pollutants over the past decade. Sea breezes occur about one-third of the days during the summer and play an important role in the spatial distribution and temporal evolution of NO2 and O3 across the urban area. Mornings preceding a sea breeze are characterized by low horizontal wind speeds, low background O3, and an accumulation of local primary emissions. Air pollution is recirculated inland during sea breezes, frequently coinciding with the highest O3 measured at the urban center. We use "Ox" (= NO2 + O3) to account for temporary O3 suppression by NO and find large horizontal gradients (differences in Ox greater than 30 ppb across less than 15 km), which are not observed on otherwise westerly or easterly prevailing days. This implies a challenge in surface monitoring networks to adequately represent the spatial variability of secondary air pollution in coastal urban areas. We investigate satellite-based climatologies of tropospheric NO2, and find evidence of selection biases due to cloud conditions, but show that sea breeze days are well observed due to the fair weather conditions generally associated with these events. The fine scale of the sea breeze in Boston is not reliably represented by meteorological reanalyses products commonly used in chemical transport models required to provide inputs for the satellite-based retrievals. This implies a higher systematic error in the operational retrievals on sea breeze days compared to other days.Item Environmental law — resuming progress on lead poisoning: a prime indicator of civilization(2018) Reibstein, Richard[Failing to adequately protect citizens against the threat of lead poisoning is an indication that our society is not fully civilized. There are many compelling reasons to take concerted action against lead: the seriousness of its harm, the preventability of poisoning, that all of society is affected, and that many actions are economically feasible. Even the most costly action, removal of the source, has an excellent costbenefit ratio. After reviewing the state of affairs and the reasons to take action, this Article provides an overview of some of the actions that can be taken. Mustering the ability to take action will be a symbolic and important exercise of democracy, strengthening the sense of common purpose, and illustrating that government exists to care for the people.]Item Causal relationships among sea level rise, marsh crab activity, and salt marsh geomorphology(Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2022-03-01) Wilson, Carol A.; Hughes, Zoe J.; FitzGerald, Duncan M.Item Measuring organization of large surficial clasts in heterogeneous gravel beach sediments(MDPI AG, 2022-04) Lees, Dennis; Hein, Christopher; FitzGerald, Duncan M.The natural stratification and interlocking “organization” of armored sediments in heterogeneous, coarse-grained, beaches provides protection and enhances habitat for borrowing sedentary megafauna and macrofauna such as hard-shelled clams. Here, we develop a novel metric for quantifying sediment organization of large surficial beach clasts through sedimentologic and photogrammetric analyses of 37 lower intertidal heterogeneous gravel beaches in western Prince William Sound, Alaska (USA). Grain size, photogrammetric, and Wolman Pebble Count clast-size data from 64, ~1-m2 study plots are combined into a clast-size-independent “Organization Metric” to quantify the degree of organization in the meshed arrangement of larger surficial sediments. This metric was validated through field manipulation experiments and comparisons of adjacent plots characterized by different clast sizes. Application of this metric to subsets of Prince William Sound beaches that underwent differential treatment following the Exxon Valdez oil spill reveals persistent physical effects of artificial beach disturbance even 21 years after the cleanup. This has important implications for beach management (e.g., cleaning or dredging) and for the diverse and productive sedentary megafaunal assemblages that live within these sediments. Overall, this study provides a new approach for quantifying organization of heterogenous coarse sediments in diverse natural settings; in particular, heterogenous gravel beaches.Item Following the sand grains(MDPI AG, 2022-05) FitzGerald, Duncan M.; Hughes, Zoe J.; Staro, Alice; Hein, Christopher J.; Sakib, Md Mohiuddin; Georgiou, Ioannis Y.; Novak, AlyssaWhen longshore transport systems encounter tidal inlets, complex mechanisms are involved in bypassing sand to downdrift barriers. Here, this process is examined at Plum Island Sound and Essex Inlets, Massachusetts, USA. One major finding from this study is that sand is transferred along the coast—especially at tidal inlets—by parcels, in discrete steps, and over decadal-scale periods. The southerly orientation of the main-ebb channel at Plum Island Sound, coupled with the landward migration of bars from the ebb delta to the central portion of the downdrift Castle Neck barrier island, have formed a beach protuberance. During the constructional phase, sand is sequestered at the protuberance and the spit-end of the barrier becomes sediment starved, leading to shoreline retreat and a broadening of the spit platform at the mouth to Essex Bay (downdrift side of Castle Neck). Storm-induced sand transport from erosion of the spit and across the spit platform is washed into Essex Bay, filling channels and enlarging flood deltas. This study illustrates the pathways and processes of sand transfer along the shoreline of a barrier-island/tidal-inlet system and provides an important example of the processes that future hydrodynamic and sediment-transport modeling should strive to replicate.Item Priorities for synthesis research in ecology and environmental science(Wiley, 2023-01) Halpern, Benjamin S.; Boettiger, Carl; Dietze, Michael C.; Gephart, Jessica A.; Gonzalez, Patrick; Grimm, Nancy B.; Groffman, Peter M.; Gurevitch, Jessica; Hobbie, Sarah E.; Komatsu, Kimberly J.; Kroeker, Kristy J.; Lahr, Heather J.; Lodge, David M.; Lortie, Christopher J.; Lowndes, Julie S.S.; Micheli, Fiorenza; Possingham, Hugh P.; Ruckelshaus, Mary H.; Scarborough, Courtney; Wood, Chelsea L.; Wu, Grace C.; Aoyama, Lina; Arroyo, Eva E.; Bahlai, Christie A.; Beller, Erin E.; Blake, Rachael E.; Bork, Karrigan S.; Branch, Trevor A.; Brown, Norah E.M.; Brun, Julien; Bruna, Emilio M.; Buckley, Lauren B.; Burnett, Jessica L.; Castorani, Max C.N.; Cheng, Samantha H.; Cohen, Sarah C.; Couture, Jessica L.; Crowder, Larry B.; Dee, Laura E.; Dias, Arildo S.; Diaz‐Maroto, Ignacio J.; Downs, Martha R.; Dudney, Joan C.; Ellis, Erle C.; Emery, Kyle A.; Eurich, Jacob G.; Ferriss, Bridget E.; Fredston, Alexa; Furukawa, Hikaru; Gagné, Sara A.; Garlick, Sarah R.; Garroway, Colin J.; Gaynor, Kaitlyn M.; González, Angélica L.; Grames, Eliza M.; Guy‐Haim, Tamar; Hackett, Ed; Hallett, Lauren M.; Harms, Tamara K.; Haulsee, Danielle E.; Haynes, Kyle J.; Hazen, Elliott L.; Jarvis, Rebecca M.; Jones, Kristal; Kandlikar, Gaurav S.; Kincaid, Dustin W.; Knope, Matthew L.; Koirala, Anil; Kolasa, Jurek; Kominoski, John S.; Koricheva, Julia; Lancaster, Lesley T.; Lawlor, Jake A.; Lowman, Heili E.; Muller‐Karger, Frank E.; Norman, Kari E.A.; Nourn, Nan; O'Hara, Casey C.; Ou, Suzanne X.; Padilla‐Gamino, Jacqueline L.; Pappalardo, Paula; Peek, Ryan A.; Pelletier, Dominique; Plont, Stephen; Ponisio, Lauren C.; Portales‐Reyes, Cristina; Provete, Diogo B.; Raes, Eric J.; Ramirez‐Reyes, Carlos; Ramos, Irene; Record, Sydne; Richardson, Anthony J.; Salguero‐Gómez, Roberto; Satterthwaite, Erin V.; Schmidt, Chloé; Schwartz, Aaron J.; See, Craig R.; Shea, Brendan D.; Smith, Rachel S.; Sokol, Eric R.; Solomon, Christopher T.; Spanbauer, Trisha; Stefanoudis, Paris V.; Sterner, Beckett W.; Sudbrack, Vitor; Tonkin, Jonathan D.; Townes, Ashley R.; Valle, Mireia; Walter, Jonathan A.; Wheeler, Kathryn I.; Wieder, William R.; Williams, David R.; Winter, Marten; Winterova, Barbora; Woodall, Lucy C.; Wymore, Adam S.; Youngflesh, CaseyItem The BosWash infrastructure biome and energy system succession(MDPI AG, 2022) Wright, Jessica; Ackley, Robert; Gopal, Sucharita; Phillips, NathanThe BosWash corridor is a megalopolis, or large urbanized region composed of interconnected transportation, infrastructure, physiography, and sociopolitical systems. Previous work has not considered the BosWash corridor as an integrated, holistic ecosystem. Building on the emerging field of infrastructure ecology, the region is conceptualized here as an infrastructure biome, and this concept is applied to the region’s energy transition to a post-fossil fueled heating sector, in analogy to ecosystem succession. In this conception, infrastructure systems are analogous to focal species. A case study for an energy succession from an aging natural gas infrastructure to a carbon-free heating sector is presented, in order to demonstrate the utility of the infrastructure biome framework to address climate and energy challenges facing BosWash communities. Natural gas is a dominant energy source that emits carbon dioxide when burned and methane when leaked along the process chain; therefore, a transition to electricity is widely seen as necessary toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Utilizing an infrastructure biome framework for energy policy, a regional gas transition plan akin to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative is generated to harmonize natural gas transition within the BosWash infrastructure biome and resolve conflict arising from a siloed approach to infrastructure management at individual city and state levels. This work generates and utilizes the novel infrastructure biome concept to prescribe a regional energy policy for an element of infrastructure that has not previously been explored at the regional scale—natural gas.Item Dataset for: New Insights into the Role of Atmospheric Transport and Mixing on Column and Surface Concentrations of NO2 at a Coastal Urban Site(2023) Geddes, Jeffrey; Adams, TaylorThis entry contains the raw nitrogen dioxide column abundance collected from Pandora direct sun spectrometer measurements at Boston University described in the publication: "New Insights into the Role of Atmospheric Transport and Mixing on Column and Surface Concentrations of NO2 at a Coastal Urban Site", published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres (https://doi.org/10.1029/2022JD038237).Item How to keep it adequate: a protocol for ensuring validity in agent-based simulation(Elsevier BV, 2023-01) Troost, Christian; Huber, Robert; Bell, Andrew Reid; van Delden, Hedwig; Filatova, Tatiana; Le, Quang Bao; Lippe, Melvin; Niamir, Leila; Polhill, J. Gareth; Sun, Zhanli; Berger, ThomasItem Migration theory in climate mobility research(Frontiers Media SA, 2022) de Sherbinin, Alex; Grace, Kathryn; McDermid, Sonali; van der Geest, Kees; Puma, Michael J.; Bell, Andrew ReidThe purpose of this article is to explore how migration theory is invoked in empirical studies of climate-related migration, and to provide suggestions for engagement with theory in the emerging field of climate mobility. Theory is critical for understanding processes we observe in social-ecological systems because it points to a specific locus of attention for research, shapes research questions, guides quantitative model development, influences what researchers find, and ultimately informs policies and programs. Research into climate mobility has grown out of early studies on environmental migration, and has often developed in isolation from broader theoretical developments in the migration research community. As such, there is a risk that the work may be inadequately informed by the rich corpus of theory that has contributed to our understanding of who migrates; why they migrate; the types of mobility they employ; what sustains migration streams; and why they choose certain destinations over others. On the other hand, there are ways in which climate and broader environment migration research is enriching the conceptual frameworks being employed to understand migration, particularly forced migration. This paper draws on a review of 75 empirical studies and modeling efforts conducted by researchers from a diversity of disciplines, covering various regions, and using a variety of data sources and methods to assess how they used theory in their research. The goal is to suggest ways forward for engagement with migration theory in this large and growing research domain.Item Crafting spaces for good water governance in Pakistan(American Geophysical Union (AGU), 2022-04) Bell, Andrew Reid; Shah, Muhammad Azeem Ali; Anwar, Arif; Sam, ThidaItem New insights into the role of atmospheric transport and mixing on column and surface concentrations of NO2 at a coastal urban site(American Geophysical Union) Geddes, Jeffrey; Adams, Taylor; Spinei, ElenaWe use a multi-year record of Pandora-derived NO2 total column abundance in Boston to examine the influence of atmospheric transport on column NO2 and its surface concentrations during the warm season in a coastal urban environment. We derive tropospheric NO2 estimates from the total column with a measurement-model fusion approach using near-real-time estimates of stratospheric NO2 from NASA’s GEOS-CF model system and find the average influence of stratospheric NO2 at this urban site can be 30-70% depending on season and time of day. Sea breeze days tend to exhibit rapid temporal variability in the column that which can go in the opposite direction of changes in surface NO2 concentrations. By comparing tropospheric NO2 with surface concentrations, we constrain the role of boundary layer entrainment processes in the evolution of surface NO2 concentrations, while highlighting the value of column measurements in identifying sea breeze frontal dynamics. We estimate an apparent equal mixing layer height of NO2 and infer that surface NOx emissions remain concentrated near the surface regardless of atmospheric stability regime. When comparing the Pandora- to TROPOMI-derived column NO2 measurements, we find that sea breeze days present a unique challenge likely due to higher spatial heterogeneity in NO2 and the meteorology involved that is not well represented in operational retrieval inputs. Our observations provide new insights into column and surface variability of NO2 which will be relevant to interpreting geostationary observations, especially in coastal urban locations.Item A high spatial resolution land surface phenology dataset for AmeriFlux and NEON sites(Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2022-07-27) Moon, Minkyu; Richardson, Andrew D.; Milliman, Thomas; Friedl, Mark A.Vegetation phenology is a key control on water, energy, and carbon fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems. Because vegetation canopies are heterogeneous, spatially explicit information related to seasonality in vegetation activity provides valuable information for studies that use eddy covariance measurements to study ecosystem function and land-atmosphere interactions. Here we present a land surface phenology (LSP) dataset derived at 3 m spatial resolution from PlanetScope imagery across a range of plant functional types and climates in North America. The dataset provides spatially explicit information related to the timing of phenophase changes such as the start, peak, and end of vegetation activity, along with vegetation index metrics and associated quality assurance flags for the growing seasons of 2017-2021 for 10 × 10 km windows centred over 104 eddy covariance towers at AmeriFlux and National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) sites. These LSP data can be used to analyse processes controlling the seasonality of ecosystem-scale carbon, water, and energy fluxes, to evaluate predictions from land surface models, and to assess satellite-based LSP products.