In the past years, our knowledge of coastal environments has been enriched by remotely sensed data. However, to successfully extract information from a combination of different sensors systems, it should be understood how these interact with the common coastal environment. In this research we co-analyze two sensor systems: Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) and satellite based Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR). TLS shows large potential for examining coastal processes thanks to the possibility to retrieve repeated, accurate and dense topographic information in a rapid and non-invasive manner. However, TLS presents some limits due to its high economic costs and limited field of view. SAR systems are among the most used active remote sensor system for Earth Observation. Despite their relatively low resolution, SAR systems provide the ability to monitor and map coastal areas with complete, repeated and frequent coverage, penetrating through clouds and providing all weather monitoring. Moreover, Sentinel-1 SAR images are freely available. The availability of a permanently installed TLS system (PLS, Permanent Laser Scanner) allows us, to extensively compare Sentinel-1 SAR data and topographic laser scans during different conditions on a sandy beach. PLS data are compared with simultaneous Sentinel-1 SAR images in order to investigate the combined use of PLS and SAR in coastal environments. The purpose of this comparison is the investigation of a possible relation between PLS and SAR data: knowing their relation, SAR dataset could be correlated to beaches characteristics. Meteorological and surface roughness have also been taken into consideration in the evaluation of the correlation between PLS and SAR data. The permanently installed laser scanner for the present study is located in Noordwijk (the Netherlands). A generally positive but low correlation exists between the two variables. When considering weather phenomena, their correlation increases and shows a dependence on wind directions and speed. The correlation with the surface roughness, evaluated in terms of root-mean squared height, also depends on specific wind speed and directions.

Background: The possibility of nutrient composition design in biomass of invertebrates is studied. The results may be used for gaining the particular nutrient concentration in biomass used for food products or medicine purposes. Methods: Two model species of terrestrial invertebrates, such as the House cricket Acheta domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758) and the earthworm Eisenia fetida (Savigny, 1826), within the variation of feeding substrate, are studied in this paper. Results: It is stated that in crickets and earthworms similar tendencies of B-vitamin content increase occur for those vitamins where their initial level was high. A double dose of the vitamin enrichment of food substrate leads to increasing of vitamin C, fat-soluble vitamins and the major part of B-vitamins content. In a control group of crickets a level of vitamin C was 1.5 times lower than in a control group of earthworms. After the enrichment of feeding substrate, the level of vitamin C in biomass of crickets has not changed, but within the earthworms it has significantly increased. The content of a multiple range of minerals have not changed after a singular dose enrichment, but some microelements, such as Pb and Se, have significantly decreased in earthworms after a double dose enrichment of feeding substrate. The calorific value of crickets is twice higher than the earthworms one and it has not significantly changed after a double dose substrate enrichment. Conclusions: It is revealed that the content of vitamins in the biomass of model species can be controlled within the feeding substrate enrichment.

Operational weather and also flood forecasting has been performed successfully for decades and is of great socioeconomic importance. Up to now, forecast products focus on atmospheric variables, such as precipitation, air temperature and, in hydrology, on river discharge. Considering the full terrestrial system from groundwater across the land surface into the atmosphere, a number of important hydrologic variables are missing especially with regard to the shallow and deeper subsurface (e.g. groundwater), which are gaining considerable attention in the context of global change. In this study, we propose a terrestrial monitoring/forecasting system using the Terrestrial Systems Modeling Platform (TSMP) that predicts all essential states and fluxes of the terrestrial hydrologic and energy cycles from groundwater into the atmosphere. Closure of the terrestrial cycles provides a physically consistent picture of the terrestrial system in TSMP. TSMP has been implemented over a regional domain over North Rhine-Westphalia and a continental domain over European in a real-time forecast/monitoring workflow. Applying a real-time forecasting/monitoring workflow over both domains, experimental forecasts are being produced with different lead times since the beginning of 2016. Real-time forecast/monitoring products encompass all compartments of the terrestrial system including additional hydrologic variables, such as plant available soil water, groundwater table depth, and groundwater recharge and storage.

In urban areas, deep excavation-induced ground deformation may damage adjacent existing structures and is conventionally evaluated by levelling at installed settlement points. However, a small number of measurements cannot represent the total change in ground deformation adjacent to excavation sites. Furthermore, significant local subsidence may occur in places where settlement points have not been installed and only noticed after an accident. For deep excavation sites located in urban areas, paved pedestrian sidewalks are often located adjacent to sites, and construction activity can cause these paving blocks to displace. This study introduces a method to detect paving block displacement adjacent to deep excavation sites using terrestrial photogrammetry. A digital camera creating point cloud data (PCD) and an acquisition method satisfying the frontal and side overlap requirements were demonstrated. To investigate the displacement detection and measurement capabilities by PCD analysis, an experimental program was conducted, including a PCD comparison containing the uplift, settlement, and horizontal paving block displacement and reference data. The cloud-to-cloud distance computation algorithm was adopted for PCD comparison. Paving block displacement was detected for displacements of 5, 7.5, and 10 mm in the uplift, settlement, and horizontal directions; however, the horizontal displacements were less clear. PCD analysis enabled satisfactory measurements between 0.024 and 0.881 mm for the vertical-displacement cases, but a significant error was observed for the horizontal-displacement cases owing to the cloud-comparison algorithm. The measurement blind spot of limited settlement points was overcome by the proposed method that detected and measured paving block displacement adjacent to excavation sites.

Remote sensing data are essential for monitoring Earth’s surface waters, especially since the number of publicly available in-situ data is declining. Satellite altimetry provides valuable information on water level and its variations for lakes, reservoirs, and rivers. In combination with satellite imagery, the derived time series allow for monitoring lake storage changes and river discharge. However, satellite altimetry is limited in spatial resolution due to its measurement geometry, only providing information in nadir direction beneath the satellite’s orbit. In a case study in the Mississippi River Basin (MRB), this study investigates the potential and the limitations of past and current satellite missions to monitor basin-wide storage changes. For that purpose an automated target detection is developed and the extracted lake surfaces are merged with the satellites’ tracks. This reveals that the current altimeter configuration misses about 80% of all lakes larger than 0.1 km2 in the MRB, and still 20% of lakes larger than 10 km2, corresponding to 30% and 7% of surface area, respectively. Past altimetry configurations perform even worse. From the water bodies represented by a global hydrology model, at least 91% of targets and 98% of storage changes are captured by the current altimeter configuration. This will significantly improve with the launch of the planned SWOT mission.

Recent advances in open data initiatives allow us to free access to a vast amount of open LiDAR data in many cities. However, most of these open LiDAR data over cities are acquired by airborne scanning, where the points on façades are sparse or even completely missing due to the viewpoint and object occlusions in the urban environment. Integrating other sources of data, such as ground images, to complete the missing parts is an effective and practical solution. This paper presents an approach for improving open LiDAR data coverage on building façades by using point cloud generated from ground images. A coarse-to-fine strategy is proposed to fuse these two different sources of data. Firstly, the façade point cloud generated from terrestrial images is initially geolocated by matching the SFM camera positions to their GPS meta-information. Next, an improved Coherent Point Drift algorithm with normal consistency is proposed to accurately align building façades to open LiDAR data. The significance of the work resides in the use of 2D overlapping points on the outline of buildings instead of limited 3D overlap between the two point clouds and the achievement to a reliable and precise registration under possible incomplete coverage and ambiguous correspondence. Experiments show that the proposed approach can significantly improve the façades details of buildings in open LiDAR data and improving registration accuracy from up to 10 meters to less than half a meter compared to classic registration methods.

This article presents a methodology to process information from a Terrestrial Laser Scanner (TLS) from three dimensions (3D) to two dimensions (2D), and to two dimensions with a color value (2.5D), as a tool to document and analyze heritage buildings. Principally focused on the loss of material in stone, this study aims at creating an evaluation method for loss control, taking into account the state of conservation of the building in terms of restoration, from studying the pathologies, to their identification and delimitation. A case study on the Cathedral of the Seu Vella de Lleida was completed, examining the details of the stone surfaces. This cathedral was affected by military use, periods of abandonment, and periodic restorations.

The paper presents the results of high precision control survey carried out in the underground mining of Oyu Tolgoi project using terrestrial laser scanning technology. The purpose of the measurements is to ensure the heading, total length and volume of the penetration and excavation works are being implementing in accordance with the planned and designed dimensions. We established a network of 18 reference points in the tunnel of the selected underground level which were repeatedly measured 4 times by two round readings of the Trimble S7 tacheometry and processed by using the Trimble Business Center software. All points except the one was within the permissible error. Based on these points the excavation length and volumes were determined using the Trimble SX12 laser scanner. The difference between the planned work quantity provided by the Oyu Tolgoi project and the actual values measured by the laser scanning was calculated using the comparative method. The TLS partial control measurements in the excavations made through the ore bodies revealed the length of 20285.72 m and volume of 441128.80 m3 for underground 7 mine levels while their project values were 16158.26 m length and 422837.50 m3 volume, respectively.

Landsat and Sentinel-2 acquisitions are among the most widely used medium-resolution optical data adopted for terrestrial vegetation applications, such as land cover and land use mapping, vegetation condition and phenology monitoring, and disturbance and change mapping. When combined, both data archives provide over 40 years, and counting, of continuous and consistent observations. Although the spatio-temporal availability of both data archives is well-known at the scene level, information on the actual availability of cloud-, snow-, and shade-free observations at the pixel level is lacking and should be explored individually for each study to correctly parametrize subsequent analyses. However, data exploration is time and resource consuming, thus is rarely performed a-priori. Consequently, the spatio-temporal heterogeneity of usable data is often inadequately accounted for in the analysis design, risking ill-advised selection of algorithms and hypotheses, and thus inferior quality of final results. Here we present precomputed data on the daily 1982‑2023 availability of usable Landsat and Sentinel-2 acquisitions across the globe, sampled at a pixel-level in a regular 0.18°-point grid. The dataset comprises separate Landsat- and Sentinel‑2‑specific data records, and is accompanied by a pixel-specific growing season information to facilitate data exploration. The dataset was derived based on freely available 1982-2023 Landsat surface reflectance (Collection 2) and Sentinel-2 top-of-the-atmosphere reflectance (pre‑Collection-1 and Collection-1) scenes from 2015 through 2023, following the methodology developed in the recent study on data availability over Europe [1]. Growing season information was derived based on 2001‑2019 time series of the yearly 500 m MODIS land cover dynamics product (MCD12Q2; Collection 6) [1]. As such, the dataset presents a unique overview of the spatio-temporal availability of usable daily Landsat and Sentinel-2 data at the global scale, hence offering much needed a-priori information aiding identification of appropriate methods and challenges for terrestrial vegetation analyses at local to global scale.

This paper presents a comprehensive and adaptive framework for orchid conservation programs illustrated with data from published and unpublished case studies. There is a specific focus on West Australian terrestrial orchids, but many of the approaches have universal relevance. Aspects of the framework include (1) setting appropriate objectives, (2) establishing effective collaborations between scientists, volunteers and regulators to fill knowledge and funding gaps, (3) use of survey and demographics data to determine extinction risks and management requirements for species, (4) effective habitat management to overcome threats such as grazing, (5) finding potential new habitats by modelling climate and site data, (6) investigating the effectiveness of pollinators and (7) using seed baiting to detect mycorrhizal fungi. The relative cost and effectiveness of different methods used to propagate orchids for translocation are compared. Methods known to be successful, in order of complexity, include placement of seed in situ, vegetative propagation, symbiotic germination in non-sterile organic matter, symbiotic germination in sterile culture, asymbiotic sterile germination and clonal division in tissue culture. These form a continuum of complexity, cost, time required, faculties needed, as well as the capacity to maintain genetic diversity and produce seedlings preadapted to survive in situ. They all start with seed collection and lead to seed storage, living collections used as tuber banks and seed orchards, as well as translocation for conservation. They could also lead to commercial availability and sustainable ecotourism, both of which are needed to reduce pressure on wild plants. Overall, there has been a strong preference to use relatively complex, expensive and time-consuming methods for orchid conservation, despite evidence that simpler approaches have also been successful. These simpler methods, which include in situ seed placement and non-sterile germination on inorganic substrates, should be trialled in combination with more complex orchid propagation methods as part of an adaptive management framework. It is essential that orchid conservation projects harness the unique biological features of orchids, such as abundant seed production and mycorrhizal fungi which are far more widespread than their hosts. This is necessary to increase the efficiency and coverage of recovery actions for the largest and most threatened plant family.

Terrestrial LiDAR becomes more and more popular to estimate leaf and plant area density. Voxel-based approaches account for this vegetation heterogeneity and significant work has been done in this recent research field, but no general theoretical analysis is available. Although estimators have been proposed and several causes of biases have been identified, their consistency and efficiency have not been evaluated. Also, confidence intervals are almost never provided. In the present paper, we solve the transmittance equation and use the Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE), to derive unbiased estimators and confidence intervals for the attenuation coefficient, which is proportional to leaf area density. The new estimators and confidence intervals are defined at voxel scale, and account for the number of beams crossing the voxel, the inequality of path lengths in voxel, the size of vegetation elements, as well as for the variability of element positions between vegetation samples. They are completed by numerous numerical simulations for the evaluation of estimator consistency and efficiency, as well as the assessment of the coverage probabilities of confidence intervals. • Although commonly used when the beam number is low, the usual estimators are strongly biased and the 95% confidence intervals can be ≈±100% of the estimate. • Our unbiased estimators are consistent in a wider range of validity than the usual ones, especially for the unbiased MLE, which is consistent when the beam number is as low as 5. The unbiased MLE is efficient, meaning it reaches the lowest residual errors that can be expected (for an unbiased estimator). Also the unbiased MLE does not require any bias correction when path lengths are unequal. • When elements are small (or voxel is large), 103 beams entering the voxel leads to some confidence intervals ≈±10%, but when elements are larger (or voxel smaller), it can remain wider than ±50%, even for a large beam number. This is explained by the variability of element positions between vegetation samples. Such a result shows that a significant part of residual error can be explained by random effects. • Confidence intervals are much smaller (±5 to 10%) when LAD estimates are averaged over several small voxels, typically within a horizontal layer or in the crown of individual plants. In this context, our unbiased estimators show a reduction of 50% of the radius of confidence intervals, in comparison to usual estimators. Our study provides some new ready-to-use estimators and confidence intervals for attenuation coefficients, which are consistent and efficient within a fairly large range of parameter values. The consistency is achieved for a low beam number, which is promising for application to airborne LiDAR data. They entail to raise the level of understanding and confidence on LAD estimation. Among other applications, their usage should help determine the most suitable voxel size, for given vegetation types and scanning density, whereas existing guidelines are highly variable among studies, probably because of differences in vegetation, scanning design and estimators.

This article argues that philosophy and its influential narrative should take and think "food" - the gastro-world - in order to radically renew itself and develop a gastrocentric view of the world and the future of humanity. It discusses first some of the basic ideas of a gastrocentric understanding of the world, second the adventure of becoming a Terran, and third the daily practice of what I will call "terra madre forming". It tells us this: If there is to be a future of human survival and well-being on Earth, if we are to achieve the goals of sustainable development, then we have a clear agenda for tomorrow with the re-humidification of the soil - madre terra - that nourishes us. What needs to be done is quite simple and down-to-earth: We, each of us, if possible, must participate in the regeneration of the earth. In conclusion, it is time for the Slow Food movement to blossom into a geo-gastro-activism. The future task of this organization is to make itself electable as a political party to support the much-needed transformation of humans into Terrans.

This paper studies pandemic viruses that spread during the period (1759–2020) according to solar activity cycles. Our findings and results include the following: (1) The severity of a pandemic correlates negatively with the strength of solar activity; (2) Pandemic viruses are classified into three types based on their compatibility with solar activity associations. Most of them spread through the quiet Sun, where viruses survive better in cold and rainy weather, and in stable geomagnetic fields without strong disturbances; (3) The emergence of new strains of influenza viruses was manifested in two ways. First, the annual epidemics due to antigenic drift. Second, pandemics recur every 1–12 solar cycles (about 11–120 years) due to viral reassortment of new subtypes, which results in antigenic shifts; (4) Pandemic viruses have two groups according to their recurring period: first, recurring in nine solar cycles; second, recurring in twelve solar cycles. Furthermore, we reassort pandemic viruses from their previous spread in the same periodic classification. Moreover, we derive a periodicity formula for each subtype of the pandemic virus as a spread date.

Accurately quantifying the above-ground volume (AGV) and thus above-ground biomass (AGB) of forest stands is an important aspect in the conservation of mangrove ecosystem owing to their ecological and economic benefits. However, the number of studies focusing on quantifying mangrove forests’ biomass has been relatively low due to their marshy terrain, making exploratory studies challenging. In recent times, the use of LiDAR technologies in forest inventory studies has become increasingly popular, due to the reliability of LiDAR as a highly accurate means of 3D spatial data acquisition. In this study, we propose an end-to-end methodology for estimating AGV of mangrove forest stands from terrestrial LiDAR data. Many of the recent studies on this topic effectively employ machine learning algorithms such as multi layer perceptron, random forests, etc. for filtering foliage in the point cloud data of single trees. This study further extends that approach by incorporating the impact of class imbalance of forest point cloud data in a weighted random forest classifier. For the task of segmentation of wood/foliage points in a single tree point cloud, this approach yielded an average increase of 2.737% in the balanced accuracy score, 0.007 in the Cohen’s kappa score, 2.745% in the ROC AUC score and 0.857% in the F1 score. For the task of AGV estimation of a single tree, this approach resulted in an average coefficient of determination of 0.93 with respect to the ground truth volumes. For the task of counting pneumatophores in a plot-level point cloud, the proposed breadth-first searching method yielded an average coefficient of determination of 0.9391. Also, the machine learning classifier and geometric features used in this study were invariant to tree species and hence could be generalised for the classification of point clouds of other tree species as well. Finally, a breadth-first graph-search segmentation based approach is also proposed as part of this pipeline to estimate the contribution of pneumatophores to the AGB of mangrove forest stands. Since pneumatophores are a special adaptation of mangrove forests for gaseous exchange in marshy environments, this study aims to incorporate the detection and AGB estimation of pneumatophores in the inventory of mangrove forest stands. Studying the contribution of pneumatophores to the AGB of mangrove forest plots could also aid future mangrove forest inventory studies in modeling the underlying root network and estimating the below-ground biomass of mangrove trees.

The study of hydrothermal travertines contributes to the understanding of the interaction between physico-chemical processes and the role played by microbial mats and biofilms in influencing carbonate precipitation. Three active travertine sites were investigated in Central Italy to identify the types of carbonate precipitates and the associated microbial mats at varying physico-chemical parameters. Carbonate precipitated fabrics at the decimetre- to millimetre-scale and microbial mats vary with decreasing water temperature: a) at high temperature (55-44°C) calcite or aragonite crystals precipitate on microbial mats of sulphide oxidizing, sulphate reducing and anoxygenic phototrophic bacteria forming filamentous streamer fabrics, b) at intermediate temperature (44-40°C), rafts, coated gas bubbles and dendrites are associated with Spirulina cyanobacteria and other filamentous and rod-shaped cyanobacteria, c) low temperature (34-33°C) laminated crusts and oncoids in a terraced slope system are associated with diverse Oscillatoriales and Nostocales filamentous cyanobacteria, sparse Spirulina and diatoms. At the microscale, carbonate precipitates are similar in the three sites consisting of prismatic calcite (40-100 µm long, 20-40 µm wide) or acicular aragonite crystals organized in radial spherulites, overlying or embedded within biofilm EPS (Extracellular Polymeric Substances). Microsparite and sparite crystal size decreases with decreasing temperature and clotted peloidal micrite dominates at temperatures < 40°C, also encrusting filamentous microbes. Carbonates are associated with gypsum and Ca-phosphate crystals; EPS elemental composition is enriched in Si, Al, Mg, Ca, P, S and authigenic aluminium-silicates form aggregates on EPS. This study confirms that microbial communities in hydrothermal travertine settings vary as a function of temperature. Carbonate precipitate types at the microscale do not vary considerably, despite different microbial communities suggesting that travertine precipitation, driven by CO2 degassing, is influenced by biofilm EPS acting as template for crystal nucleation (EPS-mediated mineralization) and affecting the fabric types, independently from specific microbial metabolism.

We numerically investigate the relationship between the main parameters of thinned antenna arrays using a specifically designed evolutionary algorithm, the Multi-Objective Pareto Evolution for Thinning (MOPET). We provide some useful results that allow assessing the achievable performance of antenna arrays and help researchers and practitioners design radar, 5G, and 6G systems.

Abstract: Conventional antibiotic and multidrug treatments become less and less effective and a discovery of new effective and safe antibacterial agents got a global priority. The returning to the natural antibacterial product is relatively new current trend. Terrestrial biota is a rich source of biologically active substances whose antibacterial potential was not fully utilized. Aim of this review is to present the current state-of-the art of terrestrial biota-derived antibacterial agents and inspired by nature treatments. It is a summary of the most important sources and new identified or modified antibacterial agents and treatments during the last 5 years. It focuses on the significance of plants- animals- and bacteria-derived biologically active agents as powerful alternatives to antibiotics as well as on the advantages of utilizing natural antibacterial molecules alone or in combinations with antibiotics. The main conclusion is that the terrestrial biota derived antibacterial products and substances open variety of new ways to modern improved therapeutic strategies. New terrestrial sources of known antibacterial agents and new antibacterial agents from terrestrial biota were discovered during the last 5 years, which are under investigation together with some long ago known but now surviving their renaissance for the development of new medical treatments. Use of natural antibacterial peptides as well as combinational therapy by commercial antibiotics and natural products outlines as the most promising for treating of bacterial infections. In vivo testing and clinical trials are necessary to reach clinical application.

Terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) provides detailed three-dimensional representation of the surrounding forest structure. However, due to close-range hemispherical scanning geometry, the ability of TLS technique to comprehensively characterize all trees and especially the upper parts of forest canopy is often limited. In this study, we investigated how much forest characterization capacity can be improved in managed Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) stands if TLS point cloud is complemented with a photogrammetric point cloud acquired from above the canopy using unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). In this multisensorial (TLS+UAV) close-range sensing approach, the used UAV point cloud data was considered feasible especially in characterizing the vertical forest structure and improvements were obtained in estimation accuracy of tree height as well as plot-level basal-area weighted mean height (H_g) and mean stem volume (V_mean). Most notably the root mean square error (RMSE) in H_g improved from 0.88 m to 0.58 m and the bias improved from -0.75 m to -0.45 m with the multisensorial close-range sensing approach. However, in managed Scots pine stands the mere TLS captured also the upper parts of the forest canopy rather well. Both approaches were capable of deriving stem number, basal area, V_mean, H_g and basal area-weighted mean diameter with a relative RMSE less than 5.5% for all of the sample plots. Although the multisensorial close-range sensing approach mainly enhanced characterization of forest vertical structure in single-species, single-layer forest conditions, representation of more complex forest structures may benefit more from point clouds collected with sensors of different measurement geometries.

Our research assesses the effects of four forest species, namely Swietenia macrophylla King, Swietenia mahogany (L.) Jack., Pinus occidentalis Swartz, and Pinus caribaea Morelet var. Caribaea, on organic carbon (OC) dynamics and carbon dioxide equivalent balance (BCO2 Eq.) in the soils beneath these species. Reforestation projects in the study region cover 1,200, 543, 770, and 1,152 hectares, with these four species, respectively, being the most relevant species in reforestation projects within the country. To determine the BCO2 Eq. per unit area, we compared the greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O) with the OC reserves found in the mineral soil to a depth of 30 cm and in the forest litter. For 18 months, we conducted field measurements in sixteen stands, four for each species. Our results indicate that S. macrophylla absorbed the highest amount of CO2, while S. mahogany released the highest amount into the atmosphere. BCO2 Eq. from S. macrophylla soils was -23.19 metric tons of CO2 Eq. ha-1 year-1, while for P. occidentalis, S. mahogany, and P. caribaea, the corresponding quantities were -3.838, -2.299, and +0.982, respectively. During the measurement period, soils under S. macrophylla, P. occidentalis, and P. caribaea were net sinks of CO2 Eq., while soils under S. mahogany behaved as a source. The absorption rate of CO2 Eq. from the atmosphere was approximately 6, 10, and 24 times higher in S. macrophylla when compared to the respective rates of P. occidentalis, P. caribaea, and S. mahagony.

Abstract: Little is known about landbird group dynamics in response to predation. Here, we describe the interactions between the Helmeted Guineafowl (Numida meleagris) and its predators regarding the survival advantages grouping behaviour may provide. Livestream webcam observations were conducted in Madikwe Game Reserve (South Africa) from August 2020 to December 2021. Emphasis was placed on predator–prey interaction and its effect on group size and structure in a spatial framework. Although Black-Backed Jackals (Lupulella mesomelas) are not adept at hunting birds, they might negatively impact guineafowl by curtailing their feeding time during winter with constant harassment. We found that these canids often approach larger and denser groups in the morning and late evenings. Surprisingly, guineafowl most often responded by standing nearby. On the contrary, a higher predator-induced response was associated with the presence of predatory birds, arguably as part of an evolutionary stable prey-predator system. This line of thought is also supported by the lack of a precise defensive mechanism elicited by jackal attacks, unlike those of aerial predators. Nevertheless, we contend that grouping in Helmeted Guineafowl is a defensive strategy to respond to predator attacks while individuals engage in daily activities.

Current commitments by European governments seek to improve energy consumption as a means to reduce carbon emissions from building stock by 2050. Within such context, retrieving reliable three-dimensional contours from point clouds becomes an important step in developing facade retrofitting solutions since facade retrofitting projects often make use of as-built 3D models to help reduce inaccuracies by narrowing interpretation and measurement errors. This work aims to provide a method that uses topology-based parametric modelling for reconstructing building envelopes from point clouds. Through a semi-automated process that gives permanent visual feedback, the user adjusts parameters to custom standards of acceptability. A solution under the form of a Grasshopper definition delivers building envelope 3D contours in various file formats as a means for increasing interoperability. The main contributions of this work consist of a parametric reconstruction workflow capable of solving building topology for retrieving 3D contours, a strategy to bypass point cloud occlusion, and a strategy for converting those contours into an IFC model directly from the parametric modelling environment.

Geochemists disagree whether or not prebiotic chemistry has existed already during the Hadean Eon and whether the then terrestrial atmosphere has been strongly or weakly reduced. Here I argue that cellular life has existed already just after the end of the Hadean Eon and that terrestrial life has survived a number of cataclysms during the Earth's history. I argue that although organic molecules have been detected in meteorites that most organic molecules required for the formation of macromolecules must have been formed on Earth. Finally, I argue that the primitive terrestrial atmosphere during the Hadean Eon has been weakly reduced, so that amino acids and small nucleic acids could have been formed. I suggest that the first self-replicable macromolecules have been similar to viroids.

The accuracy of estimating changes in terrestrial water storage (TWS) using Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) level-2 products is limited by the leakage effect resulting from post-processing and the weaker signal magnitude in adjacent areas. TWS anomaly in Dnieper River basin, where characteristic with medium scale and adjacent weak TWS anomaly, is estimate in this work. Two categories of leakage error repaired method (including forward modeling, Data-driven, single and multiple scaling factor) are employed. Root mean square error (RMSE) and Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) are used to evaluate the efficiency of methods. Compare to independent methods, TWS anomaly inverted by multiple scaling factor depending on CPC Soil Moisture model is more accurate in terms with RMSE 2.32 and NSE 0.88, which scaling factors corresponding to trend term 1.02, annual term 1.04, and semi-annual term 1.14. Further, comprehensive climate insights behind of the TWS anomaly were confirmed. The temperate continental climate of this River basin is shown, according to the variation of TWS anomaly in spatial domain. Snowmelt is significant role in TWS anomaly of Dnieper River basin, which is accord with the precipitation record and the 14 years temperature spatial distribution of February. Overall, we compare TWS anomaly recovered by single and multiple scaling method, the leakage signal originates mainly from semi-annual term of the TWS anomaly.

This paper analyses and evaluate the precision and the accuracy the capability of low-cost terrestrial photogrammetry by using many digital cameras to construct a 3D model of an object. To obtain the goal, a building façade has imaged by two inexpensive digital cameras such as Canon and Pentax camera. Bundle adjustment and image processing calculated by using Agisoft PhotScan software. Several factors will be included during this study, different cameras, and control points. Many photogrammetric point clouds will be generated. Their accuracy will be compared with some natural control points which collected by the laser total station of the same building. The cloud to cloud distance will be computed for different comparison 3D models to investigate different variables. The practical field experiment showed a spatial positioning reported by the investigated technique was between 2-4cm in the 3D coordinates of a façade. This accuracy is optimistic since the captured images were processed without any control points.

Unlike plants which have special gravity-sensing cells, such special cells in animals are yet to be discovered. However, microgravity, the condition of apparent weightlessness, causes bone, muscular and immune system dysfunctions in astronauts following spaceflights. Decades of investigations show correlations between these organ and system-level dysfunctions with changes induced at the cellular level both by simulated microgravity as well as microgravity conditions in outer space. Changes in single bone, muscle and immune cells include morphological abnormalities, altered gene expression, protein expression, metabolic pathways and signaling pathways. These suggest that human cells mount some response to microgravity. However, the implications of such adjustments on many cellular functions and responses are not clear. Here, we addressed the question whether microgravity induces alterations to drug response in cancer cells. We used both adherent cancer cells (T98G) and cancer cells in suspension (K562) to confirm known effects of microgravity and then treated the K562 cells with common cancer drugs (hydroxyurea and paclitaxel) following 48 hours of exposure to microgravity via a NASA-developed rotary cell culture system. Fluorescence-guided morphometry revealed microgravity-induced loss of the significant reduction (p < 0.0l) to the nuclear to cytoplasm ratio of cancer cells treated with hydroxyurea. Our results call for more studies on impact of microgravity on cellular drug-response, in view of the growing need for space medicine, as space exploration grows.

Gardens play a key role in the definition of the cultural landscape since they reflect the culture, identity and history of a people. They also contribute to the ecological balance of the city. Despite gardens have an historic and social value, they are not protected as much as the rest of the existing heritage, like architecture and archaeological sites. While methods of built-heritage mapping and monitoring are increasing and constantly improving to reduce built-heritage loss and the severe impact of natural disasters, the documentation and survey techniques for gardens are often antiquated, inventories are typically made by non-updated/updatable reports, and rarely they are on digital format and in 3D. This paper presents the preliminary results of a study on latest technology for gardens laser scanning. We compared static Terrestrial Laser Scanning and Mobile Laser Scanning point clouds, to evaluate their quality for documentation and the estimation of the tree attributes. The evaluation is based on visual observation and graphic comparison of the two point clouds acquired in different instances. Both methods produced useful outcomes for the research scope within their limitations. Terrestrial Laser Scanning is still the method that offers more accurate point clouds with a higher point density and less noise level. However, the more recent Mobile Laser Scanning is able to survey in less time, significantly reducing the costs for site activities, data post-production and registration. Both methods have their own restrictions that are amplified by site features, mainly the lack of plans for the geometric alignment of scans and for the Simultaneous Location and Mapping (SLAM) process. We also offer the results of a comparison of the functional range of the two machines, as well as for a comparison of their terrain information extraction capabilities.

The Arctic freshwater budget is critical for understanding the climate in the northern regions. However, the hydrology of the Arctic circumpolar tundra region (ACTR) and the largest pan-Arctic rivers are still not well understood. In the present paper, we analyze the spatiotemporal variations in terrestrial water storage (TWS) of the ACTR, including three of its largest pan-Arctic river basins (Lena, Mackenzie, Yukon), using monthly Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) data from 2002 to 2016. Together with global land reanalysis, river runoff, and inundation extent area (IEA) data, we identify declining TWS trends throughout the ACTR that we attribute largely to increasing evapotranspiration driven by increasing summer air temperatures. In terms of regional changes, large and significant negative trends in TWS are observed mainly over the North American continent. At basin scale, we show that, in the Lena River basin, the autumnal TWS signal persists until the winter of the following year, while in the Mackenzie River basin, the TWS levels in the autumn and winter has no significant impact on the following year. As global warming is expected to be particularly significant in the northern regions, our results are important for understanding future TWS trends, with possible further decline.

5G low-earth orbit satellite communications offer enhanced wireless coverage beyond the reach of 5G terrestrial networks, with important implications, particularly for automated and connected vehicles. Such wireless automotive mass-market applications demand well-designed compact user equipment antenna terminals offering non-terrestrial jointly with terrestrial communications. The antenna should be low-profile, conformal, and meet specific parameter values for gain and operational frequency bandwidth, tailored to the intended applications, in line with the aesthetic design requirements of passenger cars. This work presents an original concept for a dual-band nested circularly polarized automotive user terminal that operates at the S-band frequencies around 3.5 GHz and Ka-band frequencies around 28 GHz, namely within the 5G new-radio bands n78 and n257, respectively. The proposed terminal is designed to be integrated into the plastic components of a passenger vehicle. The arrays consist of 2×2 aperture-coupled corner-truncated microstrip slot patch antenna elements for the n78 band and of 4×4 single-layer edge-truncated microstrip circular slot patch antenna elements for the n257 band. The embedded arrays offer, across the two bands, respectively 9.9 and 13.7 dBi measured realized gain and 3-dB axial ratio bandwidths of 100 and 1500 MHz for the n78 and n257 bands along the broadside direction. Detailed link budget calculations anticipate uplink data rates of 21 and 6 Mbit/s, respectively, deeming it suitable for various automotive mobility and internet-of-things applications.

This paper presents an extensive performance analysis of open-ended waveguide elements for direct radiating arrays with high scan angle (± 50º/60º). The evaluated designs are based on square and hexagonal apertures loaded with ridges. Both square and triangular lattices are considered in the framework of Ka-band downlink design requirements for future LEO mega-constellations. The parameter space defined by the monomodal condition has been explored to find an optimum value for each structure. The analyses are validated with both infinite and finite full-wave models in terms of active reflection coefficient, scan loss and cross-polar discrimination.

Using both GRACE satellite data and statistical records, we apply the advanced Super-SBM model in this study to evaluate the efficiency of water resource utilization in 34 prefecture-level cities across three provinces in Northeast China from 2003 to 2020. Furthermore, we employ the Tobit model to examine the factors influencing efficiency. Our findings suggest that while spatial clustering is moderately low, the efficiency of water resource utilization in the Northeast Region is praiseworthy and significantly correlates with the level of technological advancement. Four distinct categories can be identified among the prefecture-level cities based on the scale and technological efficiency of water resource utilization. To promote enhanced utilization of water resources, different regions should implement measures that are specifically tailored to their unique circumstances.

In a recent paper, we extended previous studies on solar-terrestrial relationships by investigating the origin of the March 2012 heatwave in northeast USA. In the present study we check the possible relationship of solar activity with the early March 2012 bad weather in northeast Thrace, Greece. To this end, we examined data from various remote sensing instrumentation monitoring the Sun (SDO satellite), the Interplanetary Space (ACE satellite), the Earth’s magnetosphere (Earth based measurements, NOAA-19 satellite), the top of the clouds (TERRA and AQUA satellites) and the near ground atmosphere. Our comparative data analysis suggests that: (i) the winter-like weather (rainfall, fast winds, decreased temperature) in Thrace started on 6 March 2012, on the same day as the heatwave starting in USA, (ii) during the March 2012 winter-like event in Thrace (6-15 March), the ACE satellite recorded enhanced fluxes of solar energetic particles (SEPs), while SOHO and PAMELA recorded solar protons at very high energies (> 500 MeV), (iii) Thrace experienced particularly intense cyclonic circulation, during periods of magnetic storms on 8 - 10 and 12-13 March, which occurred after the arrival at ACE of two interplanetary shock waves, on March 8 and March 11, respectively, (iv) at the beginning of the two above mentioned periods large atmospheric electric fields were recorded, with values ranging between ~-2000V/m - ~1800V/m on 8 March, (v) the winter-like 8-10 March 2012 weather occurred after the detection of the main SEP event related with a coronal mass ejection released in the interplanetary space as a result of intense solar flare activity observed by SDO on 7 March 2012, (vi) the 8-10 March weather was related with a deep drop of ~630C in the cloud top temperature measured by MODIS/TERRA, which favors strong precipitation. Finally, we analyzed data from the electric power network in Thrace (~410N) and we found, for the first time sudden voltage changes of ~3.5kV in the electric grid in Greece, during the decay phase of the March 2012 superstorm. We discuss the winter-like March 2012 event in Thrace in terms of solar cosmic ray influence on the low troposphere mediated by positive NAO. Finally, we infer that the novel finding of the geomagnetic effects on the electric power grid in Thrace may open a new window into space weather applications research.

In this paper, we consider a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-assisted integrated satellite-high altitude platform-terrestrial networks (IS-HAP-TNs) that can improve network performance by exploiting HAP's stability and RIS's reflection. Specifically, the reflector RIS is installed on the side of HAP to reflect signals from the multiple ground user equipments (UEs) to the satellite. To aim at maximising system sum rate, we jointly optimize the transmit beamforming matrix at the ground UEs and RIS phase shift matrix. Due to the limitation of the unit modulus of the RIS reflective elements constraint, the combinatorial optimization problem is difficult to tackle it effectively by traditional solving methods. Based on this, this paper studies deep reinforcement learning (DRL) algorithm to achieve online decision making for this joint optimization problem. In addition, it is verified through simulation experiments that the proposed DRL algorithm outperforms the standard scheme in terms of system performance and execution time, and higher computing speed, making real-time decision making truly feasible。

TETRA (Terrestrial Trunked Radio, formerly known as Trans-European Trunked Radio) is used worldwide for Radio Frequency (RF) communications by emergency services, militaries, transportation and for commercial use. TETRA systems have been in use since the 1990’s in critical infrastructure worldwide and are still being deployed in the US for use in new projects. One example is the deployment of TETRA in new Offshore Wind Farm installations which are new to the US and still mimic European standards and installations. Even though the TETRA standard has been around since the nineties, it is still relevant and important to secure. Many of these systems remain in service or are still being deployed without a solution to a recently discovered Air Interface Encryption (AIE) vulnerability. Voice and data transmitted by TETRA radio systems is Air Interface Encrypted to protect its confidentiality and integrity and prevent eavesdropping and man-in-the-middle type attacks. This paper presents a recently discovered vulnerability in one of TETRA’s Air Interface Encryption Algorithms, examines existing solutions, and explores the use of Friendly Jamming (FJ) techniques to solve this problem.

This study analyses the detection efficiency of the Worldwide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN) of sensors over Spain, a comparison is made with the Meteorological Spanish Agency (AEMET) Lightning Detection Network. The WWLLN operates a planetary distributed network of Very Low Frequency (VLF) antennas which detect lightning VLF signals around the Earth. Very high currents from lightning strokes radiate strong VLF signals in the band 6-22 kHz, which are detected up to 10,000 km, therefore WWLLN receiving sensors can be sparsely spaced. However the detection capability of VLF signals depends on the environment, and clean areas with a good ground and no metal parts around must be selected for proper reception. For the area of Spain and Portugal we had two WWLLN sensors in 2012, and three sensors later on for the data of 2020, 2021 and 2022. The sensors in Iberian Peninsula are at a distance of around 760 km; that is very close in comparison with other WWLLN sensors in the Earth which are around 5.000-15.000 km. The WWLLN sensors send the timing of the detection to the central sensor where the location of the lightning is determined with an improved algorithm when a mini-mum of 5 sensors detect the VLF signal. We show that detection efficiency was excellent and consistent with previous studies. Lightning location data from 1st January 2012 to 30st April 2012 from AEMET was used to analyze time and space shared events with the WWLLN network with 0.5s time difference and 20 km distance. The results improved in 2020, 2021 and 2022. More than 40,000 lightning strikes were analyzed in the present work, and we found a detection efficiency > 38%.

Drought-induced plant mortality has increased globally during the last decades and is forecasted to influence global vegetation dynamics. Timely information on plant water dynamics is essential for understanding and anticipating drought-induced plant mortality. The most common metric that has been used for decades for measuring water stress is leaf water potential (Ψ_L), which is measured destructively. To obtain information on water dynamics from trees and forested landscapes, remote sensing methods have been developed. However, the spatial and temporal resolution of the existing methods have limited our understanding of water dynamics and diurnal variation of Ψ_L within single trees. Thus, we investigated the capability of terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) intensity in observing diurnal variation in Ψ_L during a 50 hour monitoring period and aimed to improve understanding on how large part of the diurnal variation in Ψ_L can be captured using intensity observations. We found that TLS intensity at 905 nm wavelength was able to explain 78% of the variation in Ψ_L for three trees of two tree species with a root-mean square error of 0.137 MPa. Based on our experiment with three trees, time-series of TLS intensity measurements can be used in detecting changes in Ψ_L, and thus it is worthwhile to expand the investigations to cover a wider range of tree species and forests and further increase our understanding of plant water dynamics at wider spatial and temporal scales.

On February 28th, 2023, Spanish Royal Decree 150/2023 as published, approving the plans for the management of the maritime space of the five Spanish marine demarcations. This Royal Decree Law inaugurates the Planning of the Maritime Space in Spain. Terrestrial Space Planning is very advanced, both in the legislation and in the instruments that are enabled to organize this space, from the national scale to the municipal scale, passing through the regional, provincial, and supra-municipal scales. Naturally, both Planning must converge and thus speak of an Integrated Space Planning. In some of the countries that we can take as global references, this convergence in the form of integration is taking place. On the other hand, and within the context of climate change, coastal cities will be the most affected, both by the potential rise in sea level and by the increasingly continuous and greater extreme events. Integrated Space Planning is postulated as the most effective tool to carry out adequate territorial and urban planning of our coastal cities, as well as to analyse the influence and possible corrective measures to apply against the effects produced by climate change.

In this article, we combine datasets from multiple research projects and remote sensing tech-nologies to evaluate the conservation conditions of La Fortaleza de Kuelap, a pre-Hispanic monument in Peru’s northeastern Andes that suffered significant damage during historically high seasonal rains in April 2022. Our analyses seek to identify the main causes of the collapse and locate places where the monument is likely at risk of further deterioration. To do so, we model surface hydrology using a digital elevation model (DEM) derived from drone LiDAR data, re-construct a history of previous collapses, and calculate the volume of the most recent by fusing terrestrial LiDAR and photogrammetric datasets. In addition, we examine subsurface water ac-cumulation through electrical resistivity data, reconstruct the stratification of the monument from seismic refraction data, and analyze vegetation loss and ground moisture accumulation using high resolution satellite imagery. Our results point to water accumulation as the most significant source of risk for La Fortaleza’s perimeter walls. Combined with adverse contemporary conser-vation interventions and natural conditions, this led to the collapse of April 2022. This integration of analytical results demonstrates how multi-scalar and multi-instrumental approaches provide comprehensive and timely assessments of conservation needs.

Currently, there is increasing industrial demand for rare earth elements (REE) as these elements are now integral to the manufacture of many carbon-neutral technologies. The depleting REE ores and increasing mining costs are prompting to look for alternative sources for these valuable metals, particularly from waste streams. Although REE concentrations in most of the alternate resources are lower than current REE ores, some sources such as marine sediments, coal ash, and industrial wastes like red mud are looking promising with significant concentrations of REE in them. This review focuses on the alternative resources for REE such as ocean bottom sediments, continental shelf sediments, river sediments, stream sediments, lake sediments, phosphorites deposits, industrial waste products like red mud, and phosphogypsum, coal, coal fly ash, and related materials, waste rock sources from old and closed mines, acid mine drainage, and recycling of e-waste. Possible future Moon exploration and mining for REE and other valuable minerals are also discussed. It is evident that REE extractions from both primary and secondary ores alone are not adequate to meet the current demand, and sustainable REE recovery from the alternative resources described here is also necessary to meet the growing REE demand. An attempt is made to identify the potential of these alternative resources and sustainability challenges, benefits, and possible environmental hazards to meet the growing challenges in meeting the future REE requirements.