• Rural Digital Europe
• Publications close
• National Science Foundation close

AbstractSignificant progress in permafrost carbon science made over the past decades include the identification of vast permafrost carbon stocks, the development of new pan‐Arctic permafrost maps, an increase in terrestrial measurement sites for CO2 and methane fluxes, and important factors affecting carbon cycling, including vegetation changes, periods of soil freezing and thawing, wildfire, and other disturbance events. Process‐based modeling studies now include key elements of permafrost carbon cycling and advances in statistical modeling and inverse modeling enhance understanding of permafrost region C budgets. By combining existing data syntheses and model outputs, the permafrost region is likely a wetland methane source and small terrestrial ecosystem CO2 sink with lower net CO2 uptake toward higher latitudes, excluding wildfire emissions. For 2002–2014, the strongest CO2 sink was located in western Canada (median: −52 g C m−2 y−1) and smallest sinks in Alaska, Canadian tundra, and Siberian tundra (medians: −5 to −9 g C m−2 y−1). Eurasian regions had the largest median wetland methane fluxes (16–18 g CH4 m−2 y−1). Quantifying the regional scale carbon balance remains challenging because of high spatial and temporal variability and relatively low density of observations. More accurate permafrost region carbon fluxes require: (a) the development of better maps characterizing wetlands and dynamics of vegetation and disturbances, including abrupt permafrost thaw; (b) the establishment of new year‐round CO2 and methane flux sites in underrepresented areas; and (c) improved models that better represent important permafrost carbon cycle dynamics, including non‐growing season emissions and disturbance effects.

Antecedentes: Las huellas humanas globales han alterado fundamentalmente los regímenes de fuegos, creando serias consecuencias para la salud humana, la biodiversidad y el clima. Sin embargo, resulta difícil proyectar cómo las interacciones a largo plazo entre el uso de la tierra, la gestión, y el Cambio Climático van a afectar el comportamiento del fuego, lo que representa un vacío clave en el conocimiento para la gestión sostenible. Usamos las apreciaciones de expertos para combinar opiniones sobre regímenes de fuegos pasados y futuros de 99 investigadores en el tema de fuegos de vegetación. Preguntamos por determinaciones cualitativas y cuantitativas de la frecuencia, tipo, e implicaciones de los cambios en los regímenes de fuegos desde el inicio del Holoceno hasta el año 2300.Resultados Quienes respondieron indicaron alguna influencia humana directa en los fuegos de vegetación desde al menos ~ 12.000 años atrás, en los que la variabilidad climática perduró como la conductora dominante de los cambios en los regímenes de fuego hasta hace aproximadamente unos 5.000 años, para la mayoría de las regiones en estudio. Las respuestas sugirieron que hubo un incremento de 10 veces en la frecuencia de cambios en los regímenes de fuego durante los últimos 250 años comparado con el resto del Holoceno, correspondiendo en primer lugar con la intensificación y expansión del uso de la tierra y luego con el Cambio Climático antropogénico. Mirando al futuro, predicen que los cambios en los regímenes de fuego se intensificarán, con incrementos en la frecuencia, severidad, y tamaño en todos los biomas con excepción de los ecosistemas de pastizales. Los regímenes de fuego muestran diferente sensibilidad climática a través de los biomas, aunque la probabilidad de cambio en el régimen de fuego se incrementa con mayores escenarios de calentamiento en todos los biomas. Predicen asimismo que la biodiversidad, el almacenamiento de Carbono, y otros servicios ecosistémicos, van a decrecer para la mayoría de los biomas bajo escenarios de mayores emisiones. Presentamos recomendaciones para la adaptación y mitigación bajo regímenes de fuego emergentes, mientras que reconocemos que las opciones de manejo están condicionadas bajo escenarios de mayores emisiones.Conclusiones La influencia de los humanos en los regímenes de fuego se ha incrementado en las últimas dos centurias. Las perspectivas ganadas sobre incendios pasados deben ser consideradas en las estrategias de manejo de tierras y de fuego, aunque un nuevo comportamiento del fuego es probable, dado que la disrupción humana en las comunidades vegetales, en el clima, y en otros factores no tiene precedentes. Los regímenes de fuegos futuros probablemente degraden algunos servicios ecosistémicos clave, al menos que el Cambio Climático sea agresivamente mitigado. Las apreciaciones de los expertos complementan los datos empíricos y modelados, proveyendo una perspectiva más amplia de la ciencia del fuego para informar a los decisores y priorizar futuras investigaciones. Background The global human footprint has fundamentally altered wildfire regimes, creating serious consequences for human health, biodiversity, and climate. However, it remains difficult to project how long-term interactions among land use, management, and climate change will affect fire behavior, representing a key knowledge gap for sustainable management. We used expert assessment to combine opinions about past and future fire regimes from 99 wildfire researchers. We asked for quantitative and qualitative assessments of the frequency, type, and implications of fire regime change from the beginning of the Holocene through the year 2300.Results Respondents indicated some direct human influence on wildfire since at least ~ 12,000 years BP, though natural climate variability remained the dominant driver of fire regime change until around 5,000 years BP, for most study regions. Responses suggested a ten-fold increase in the frequency of fire regime change during the last 250 years compared with the rest of the Holocene, corresponding first with the intensification and extensification of land use and later with anthropogenic climate change. Looking to the future, fire regimes were predicted to intensify, with increases in frequency, severity, and size in all biomes except grassland ecosystems. Fire regimes showed different climate sensitivities across biomes, but the likelihood of fire regime change increased with higher warming scenarios for all biomes. Biodiversity, carbon storage, and other ecosystem services were predicted to decrease for most biomes under higher emission scenarios. We present recommendations for adaptation and mitigation under emerging fire regimes, while recognizing that management options are constrained under higher emission scenarios.Conclusion The influence of humans on wildfire regimes has increased over the last two centuries. The perspective gained from past fires should be considered in land and fire management strategies, but novel fire behavior is likely given the unprecedented human disruption of plant communities, climate, and other factors. Future fire regimes are likely to degrade key ecosystem services, unless climate change is aggressively mitigated. Expert assessment complements empirical data and modeling, providing a broader perspective of fire science to inform decision making and future research priorities. International audience

Safety and prevention of injuries should always be considered in a firefighting environment due to the hazardous conditions experienced on the fireground. These hazardous environmental conditions lead to an increased risk of contracting job-related injuries and illnesses. This review article focuses on evaluating from a statistical perspective the potential solutions found in the literature and how they decrease the likelihood and impact of occupational firefighting injuries. Investigating, identifying, and prioritizing the most common activities leading to injury, the nature of injury, and the body parts affected is a vital step in the implementation of preventive solutions. The scientific community has conducted various studies to evaluate the main injuries and injury profiles commonly suffered by firefighters. Researchers have conducted many independent studies on firefighter communities in the United States, while others have referenced national databases from sources such as the National Fire Protection Association, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System. Unfortunately, the results of these independent studies lacked standardization in survey categories and terminology, impairing the ability to obtain a clear consensus among studies on the primary nature of injuries, the body parts injured, and the activities contributing to these injuries. Consequently, this review article performed a comparative statistical analysis of published data between 1992 and 2020 to define and rank the most common work scenarios where firefighters were likely to be injured, the most common types of injuries, the parts of the body affected, and the activities that most contribute to United States firefighter injuries as documented in both national databases and independent research surveys. The statistical analysis consisted of determining the mean, standard deviation, confidence intervals (95%), and coefficients of variation for the reported data. The present study identified that despite the preventative measures taken by many organizations in the firefighting community, strains and sprains were still the leading type of injury reported from all the databases under this analysis.

We present best-fit values of porosity -- and the corresponding effective thermal inertiae -- determined from three different depths in Europa's near-subsurface (~1-20 cm). The porosity of the upper ~20 cm of Europa's subsurface varies between 75-50% ($\Gamma_{eff}\approx50-140$ J m$^{-2}$ K$^{-1}$ s$^{-1/2}$) on the leading hemisphere and 50-40% ($\Gamma_{eff}\approx140-180$ J m$^{-2}$ K$^{-1}$ s$^{-1/2}$) on the trailing hemisphere. Residual maps produced by comparison with these models reveal thermally anomalous features that cannot be reproduced by globally homogeneous porosity models. These regions are compared to Europa's surface terrain and known compositional variations. We find that some instances of warm thermal anomalies are co-located with known geographical or compositional features on both the leading and trailing hemisphere; cool temperature anomalies are well correlated with surfaces previously observed to contain pure, crystalline water ice and the expansive rays of Pwyll crater. Anomalous regions correspond to locations with subsurface properties different from those of our best-fit models, such as potentially elevated thermal inertia, decreased emissivity, or more porous regolith. We also find that ALMA observations at ~3 mm sound below the thermal skin depth of Europa (~10-15 cm) for a range of porosity values, and thus do not exhibit features indicative of diurnal variability or residuals similar to other frequency bands. Future observations of Europa at higher angular resolution may reveal additional locations of variable subsurface thermophysical properties, while those at other wavelengths will inform our understanding of the regolith compaction length and the effects of external processes on the shallow subsurface. Comment: Accepted for publication in the Planetary Science Journal on 01/31/2024. 34 pages, 10 Figures, 4 tables

Quercus alba L., also known as white oak, eastern white oak, or American white oak, is a quintessential North American species within the white oak section (Quercus) of the genus Quercus, subgenus Quercus. This species plays a vital role as a keystone species in eastern North American forests and plays a significant role in local and regional economies. As a long-lived woody perennial covering an extensive natural range, Q. alba’s biology is shaped by a myriad of adaptations accumulated throughout its natural history. Populations of Q. alba are crucial repositories of genetic, genomic, and evolutionary insights, capturing the essence of successful historical adaptations and ongoing responses to contemporary environmental challenges in the Anthropocene. This intersection offers an exceptional opportunity to integrate genomic knowledge with the discovery of climate-relevant traits, advancing tree improvement, forest ecology, and forest management strategies. This review provides a comprehensive examination of the current understanding of Q. alba’s biology, considering past, present, and future research perspectives. It encompasses aspects such as distribution, phylogeny, population structure, key adaptive traits to cyclical environmental conditions (including water use, reproduction, propagation, and growth), as well as the species’ resilience to biotic and abiotic stressors. Additionally, this review highlights the state-of-the-art research resources available for the Quercus genus, including Q. alba, showcasing developments in genetics, genomics, biotechnology, and phenomics tools. This overview lays the groundwork for exploring and elucidating the principles of longevity in plants, positioning Q. alba as an emerging model tree species, ideally suited for investigating the biology of climate-relevant traits.

Hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) has the potential to be a sustainable and environmentally beneficial approach for organic waste treatment. It is likely that HTC product use will dictate the viability of large-scale HTC facilities; therefore, understanding the viability and environmental implications associated with HTC product valorization pathways is critical. The overall goal of this review is to gain an understanding of how HTC product valorization is currently being modeled in life cycle assessment studies, and to use such information to assess current research and/or data needs associated with product valorization. To accomplish this, a review of existing HTC literature was conducted and used to assess the current state of knowledge surrounding the environmental implications of HTC product use. From this review of the literature, it is clear that potential exists for HTC product valorization. To realize this potential in a full-scale application, research gaps and data needs were identified that included a system-level integration to evaluate location-specific information as well as more extensive characterization of the impact of HTC product properties on valorization impacts.

Situated in the transitional zone between non-tidal forests upstream and tidal freshwater marshes downstream, tidal freshwater forests (TFF) occupy a unique and increasingly precarious habitat due to the threat of saltwater intrusion and sea level rise. Salinization causes tree mortality and forest-to-marsh transition, which reduces biodiversity and carbon sequestration. The Altamaha River is the longest undammed river on the United States East Coast and has extensive TFF, but there have been only limited field studies examining TFF along the entire gradient of salinity and flooding. We surveyed thirty-eight forest plots on the Altamaha River along a gradient of tidal influence, and measured tree species composition, diameter, and height. Hierarchical clustering and indicator species analysis were used to identify TFF communities. The relationship of these communities to elevation and river distance was assessed using non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS). We identified six significantly different forest communities: Oak/Hornbeam, Water Tupelo, Bald Cypress/Tupelo, Pine, Swamp Tupelo, and Bald Cypress. Both elevation and river distance were significantly correlated with plot species composition (p = 0.001). Plots at the downstream extent of our study area had lower stem density, basal area, and species diversity than those further upstream, suggesting saltwater intrusion. This study demonstrates the importance of and need for thorough and robust analyses of tidal freshwater forest composition to improve prediction of TFF response to sea level rise.