Lacustrine strata record long-term variations in climatic and tectonic perturbations during orogen evolution. Here we use the sedimentological record of the early to middle Miocene intramontane lacustrine Pranjani Basin (Serbia) to study tectonic and climatic variations during the evolution of the Dinaridic orogen. Our study focuses on a Mg-clay-bearing succession that belongs to the second depositional

Sharks are apex-predators that play an important role in past and present aquatic food webs. However, their diet - especially in extinct species - is often not well constrained. Dental microwear texture analysis (DMTA) has been successfully applied to reconstruct diet and feeding behaviours of different aquatic and terrestrial vertebrates. However, unlike in mammals, food-to-tooth contact in sharks

The ocean floor sedimentological signature of Heinrich event 3 (H3) is markedly different from that of other Heinrich events that are known to have originated in Hudson Strait. It has therefore been suggested that the H3 contribution to iceberg flux may have been delivered by ice streams located in the eastern sector of the North Atlantic, from the Fennoscandian or British Isles ice sheets. To investigate

This article presents the findings from systematically reviewing 26 empirical research studies published from 2005 to 2014 on the use of GIS for learning and teaching. By employing methods of narrative synthesis and qualitative content analysis, the study gives evidence about the state of knowledge of competence‐based GIS education. The results explain what factors and variables effect GIS learning

City planners have a professional and ethical responsibility to provide public goods equitably. Parks improve mental and physical health by nurturing social cohesion and enabling physical activity. So who gets parks? Park access has traditionally been evaluated using constructed variables of potential access: distances, buffers, and gravity models. These models have major limitations: they ignore commutes

The aim of this study was test whether maximum body mass and jaw length are reliable predictors of trophic position (TP) in fishes, and to compare linear and nonlinear machine‐learning (ML) models incorporating biogeography, habitat and other morphological traits.

Dynamic range models are proposed to investigate species distributions and to project range shifts under climate change. They are based upon the Hutchinsonian niche theory, specifying that the occurrence of a species in an environmental space should be limited to positions where the intrinsic growth rate is positive. Evaluating population growth rate is, however, difficult for physiologically structured

A central question in ecology has been that of why animal home ranges scale more steeply with body size than do metabolic rates. Yet, the generality of this notion has scarcely been tested in non‐model species like ectotherms, which have lower metabolic requirements than endotherms and which may, therefore, have different home range area requirements. Our aim was to examine how home range area scales

The Río de la Plata is a micro-tidal estuary located in Southeast South America. With an annual mean flow of 26,500 m3/s, it receives 160 million tons/yr of suspended sediments. The high content of cohesive fine sediments in the estuary generates high turbidity levels in its inner and intermediate zones, which can be clearly seen in color satellite images. In this work, an image-based algorithm was

The purpose of this study is to compare nine models, composed of certainty factors (CFs), weights of evidence (WoE), evidential belief function (EBF) and two machine learning models, namely random forest (RF) and support vector machine (SVM). In the first step, fifteen landslide conditioning factors were selected to prepare thematic maps, including slope aspect, slope angle, elevation, stream power

Under the Belt and Road Initiative, a new city-regionalism has replaced the independent county system in western China to form a new accumulation regime. Drawing on empirical materials related to the annexation of Guanghan to Deyang, this study delves into three research questions: (1) how a new accumulation regime is enabled by a new state spatial selectivity in western China; (2) how the changing

Several cities around the world have changed their transportation planning paradigm, understanding that the prime goal is to provide access to opportunities for everyone. To address this goal, public transport plays a fundamental role and, therefore, it is key for developing a sustainable and equitable city. This paper proposes a methodology to analyze access to opportunities through public transport

Two phases of archaeological investigation were performed in the Novi Sad City Museum at Petrovaradin Fortress. In this study, we summarize the results of geo-archaeological investigations of the second period of excavation inside the Novi Sad City Museum building. The fortress is situated on a Danube terrace with the top of the bedrock at ca.123 m asl. The investigated section consists of undisturbed

Noise annoyance is considered to be the most widespread and recognized health effect of environmental noise. Previous research is mostly based on the static study of residential environmental noise, but few studies have focused on the effects of noise exposure in different activity contexts on real-time annoyance. The two deficiency are that they neglect the influence of activity context besides residence

Space‐time data are becoming more abundant as time goes by, with hands‐on interest in them becoming more prevalent. These data have a very sensitive ordering in space and time, one that the simplest of recording errors can scramble. These data are also complex, containing both spatial and temporal autocorrelation coupled with their interaction. One goal of many researchers is to disentangle and account

Geological processes of island growth and erosion, in addition to eustatic sea‐level fluctuations, alter key physical properties of oceanic islands, such as area, elevation and isolation over time. These dynamics operate over similar time‐scales to the biogeographical processes of colonization, speciation and extinction, and thus should strongly affect island biodiversity patterns as we observe them

The enemy release hypothesis (ERH) posits that exotic species suffer less enemy damage than natives, which promotes their successful invasion. However, the generality of less damage for exotics remains widely debated. A recent view proposes that enemy release (ER) could change systematically with latitude, potentially helping to explain these inconsistencies. Here, we test whether exotic plant species

Simulation models are important tools for quantifying the resilience (i.e., persistence under changed environmental conditions) of forest ecosystems to global change. We synthesized the modelling literature on forest resilience, summarizing common models and applications in resilience research, and scrutinizing the implementation of important resilience mechanisms in these models. Models applied to

For decades, biogeographers have used patterns of animal and plant diversity to identify areas that could be considered for conservation efforts. Since richness is not the best framework to conserve biodiversity, ecologists have been using patterns of complementarity to ensure that sites selected for inclusion in a reserve network complement those already selected. They also have investigated their

Many studies have found that diazotrophic distribution is mainly determined by soil properties from field to regional scales. However, we lack strong evidence for the relative importance of different drivers controlling broad‐scale biogeography of forest diazotrophs, especially for soil multi‐nutrients.

Connectivity among ecosystems is necessary to sustain ecological processes that promote biodiversity, community stability and ecosystem resilience, such as organism and nutrient dispersal. Along with human land use and habitat fragmentation, connectivity can also be affected by faunal changes. Here, we address this issue by studying how human‐driven late Quaternary extinctions and extirpations of terrestrial

Trait data are increasingly being used in studies investigating the impacts of global changes on the structure and functioning of ecological communities. Despite a growing number of trait data collations for terrestrial vertebrates, there is to date no global assessment of the gaps and biases the data present. Here, we assess whether terrestrial vertebrate trait data are taxonomically, spatially and

Soil dissolved organic carbon (DOC) is a primary form of labile carbon in terrestrial ecosystems, and therefore plays a vital role in soil carbon cycling. This study aims to quantify the budgets of soil DOC at biome and global levels and to examine the variations in soil DOC and their environmental controls.

Community‐level biomass‐to‐nutrient ratios and elemental stoichiometry of forests can provide insights for understanding the efficiency of nutrient use and the adaptation strategies of trees. However, the global‐scale pattern of biomass:N:K:Ca:Mg:P ratios in forest stands and its responses to environmental drivers remain unknown.

Stopping the decline of biodiversity is one of today’s greatest challenges. To help address this, we require studies that disentangle the effects of the most important drivers behind species range losses and shifts. In this large‐scale study, we aim to evaluate the relative impacts of changes in land use and climate on distributional changes in grasshoppers.

Higher temperatures increase the metabolic rate of ectothermic organisms up to a certain level and make them grow faster. This temperature‐sensitivity of growth is frequently used to predict the long‐term effects of climate warming on ectotherms. Yet, realized growth also depends on ecological factors and evolutionary adaptation. Here we study whether faster growth is observed along temperature clines

Global biodiversity loss has raised interest in understanding variation in diversity at different scales. In particular, studies conducted across large spatial gradients are crucial, because they can increase perspectives on how ecological patterns change relative to environmental factors and facilitate predictions of possible responses to environmental change. We explored the full extent of a brackish

Predictions for the future of coral reefs are largely based on thermal exposure and poorly account for potential geographic variation in biological sensitivity to thermal stress. Without accounting for complex sensitivity responses, simple climate exposure models and associated predictions may lead to poor estimates of future coral survival and lead to policies that fail to identify and implement the

We test whether geographical variation in the length of appendages in rodent species follows predictions of Allen's rule (a positive relationship between appendage length and temperature) at a broad taxonomic scale (order Rodentia). We also test whether the applicability of this rule varies based on the unit of analysis (species or assemblage), the appendage examined (tail, hind foot, ear), body size

Litter decomposition is a vital process of carbon and nutrient cycling in terrestrial ecosystems. Despite rapid declines in plant diversity worldwide, the effects of plant diversity on litter decomposition, along with the factors driving their directions and magnitudes, remain uncertain.

Ongoing alterations to Earth’s biogeochemical cycles (e.g., via fertilization, burning of fossil fuels, and pollution) are expected to impact plants, plant consumers and all subsequent trophic levels. While fertilization experiments often reveal arthropod nutrient limitation by nitrogen and phosphorus via effects on plant nutrient density and biomass, these macronutrients are only two of many nutrients

Despite the well-known dependence of vertex and network structural parameters on network boundary specification employed by researchers, there has so far been effectively no discussion of this methodological caveat in the global and world city literature. Given the reliance of empirical studies of urban networks on the sampling of underlying actors that form these networks by their interactions, we

Mesoscale eddies in the Prince Edward Island (PEI) region of the Southern Ocean were identified and tracked using satellite altimetry over a 26-year period between 1993 and 2018. We further substantiated previous findings that eddies originating from the eddy hotspot east of the Southwest Indian Ridge have little direct effect on the PEIs, by demonstrating that over the 26-year period, only 3 cyclonic

Landslide hazards affect the security of human life and property. Mapping the spatial distribution of landslide hazard risk is critical for decision-makers to implement disaster prevention measures. This study aimed to predict and zone landslide hazard risk, using Guixi County in eastern Jiangxi, China, as an example. An integrated dataset composed of 21 geo-information layers, including lithology

A multidisciplinary study of the Devonian–Carboniferous boundary interval in pelagic successions of the Holy Cross Mountains and Sudetes and the ramp successions in the Western Pomerania region (Poland) is presented herein. The analysis applies the results of new palaeontological and biostratigraphic studies based mainly on conodonts, ammonoids and palynomorphs, biostratigraphic results interpreted

Participatory visioning in transport scenario building can be particularly useful to anticipate and examine unexpected outcomes over long-term future timelines, providing broad legitimacy to today’s decision-making processes. However, the strategic value of participatory approaches is increasingly being contested due to the difficulty to operationalize non-linear thinking, resulting in long-term visions

The neodymium isotope composition (εNd) of planktic foraminifera and the relative abundances and δ13C of the benthic foraminiferal species C. wuellerstorfi from two cores retrieved from the western margin of South Africa provide a late Quaternary (MIS 6 to MIS 1) record of the variations in North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) and Southern Component Water (SCW). The εNd records from cores at water depths

Studies of large herbivorous mammal (ungulate) communities have revealed an association between increased tooth crown height (hypsodonty) and a shift to more arid environments over the Cenozoic. Ecometric analyses have also been used to examine the relationship between current climate conditions and crown height of these communities, and very successfully used to estimate past precipitation. Small

The oxygen isotopic composition of sedimentary carbonate (δ18Ocarb) provides information on the regional water balance between precipitation and evaporation in a lacustrine system. A volume effect was proposed to explain the abnormally low δ18Ocarb values in Lake Qinghai on the northern Tibetan Plateau, under the conditions of high evaporation and low water levels, as observed during the early Holocene

The origin of reddish nodular limestone in the Zitai Formation, a deeper-water type of marine red beds (MRBs) distributed along the marginal Yangtze Platform, South China, is enigmatic. This paper will focus on the red colorations through sedimentological, mineralogical and geochemical analyses, as exemplified by the Zitai Formation at the Xiangshuidong section, Songzi City, Hubei Province and the

The Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC) successions record extreme fluctuations in the Mediterranean's environmental conditions. However, some of the scenarios that are thought to have caused these extreme environments are contentious. One prominent example of this is the Mediterranean water level during the Lago-Mare stage of the MSC, which is interpreted either as being very low during a largely desiccated

The recent proliferation of resilience discourses invited critical inquiries into the concept and its ability to construct policy narratives of ‘certainty’. Critical works have deconstructed and debated the instrumentalist notions of resilience as overly simplified, raised to the forefront questions of power, emphasized the linkages of the concept to dominant political and economic regimes, and underscored

Building disaster-resilient communities require operative resilience frameworks enabling factual decision-making and resource allocation at national and sub-national scales. While Pakistan is frequently hit by several natural hazards (i.e., floods, droughts, earthquakes, and extreme heatwaves) resulting in devastating impacts, no national-level higher-resolution disaster resilience information is available

Dengue disease has serious health and socioeconomic consequences. Preventive actions are needed to avoid outbreaks. Bayesian spatiotemporal models with conditional autoregressive (CAR) and random walk (RW) priors are two common smoothing approaches used in disease mapping to develop early warning systems and action plans. However, this approach can lead to over‐smoothing, such that discontinuities

OpenStreetMap (OSM), often thought of as a technological tool or platform, can be envisioned as a community of communities and informed by a broad understanding of geographical systems. In this article, we explore the community of university students known as YouthMappers, who utilize OSM and related tools for humanitarian data creation, analysis and learning. Students approach OSM simultaneously as

The interannual variability of the Río de la Plata plume over the Southwestern Atlantic Continental Shelf is analyzed based on the global ocean reanalysis ORAP5.0 and the global atmospheric reanalysis Era-Interim for the 35-years period 1979–2013. A regional validation of the dataset is performed to evaluate the ocean reanalysis ability to solve the main features associated with the plume dynamics

Equity in public transit ridership has attracted the attention of planning authorities as a mechanism to tackle social exclusion. The association of accessibility indexing with different income groups is fundamental to analyses of socio-spatial inequalities and identifying gaps in public transit services. However, few studies have addressed accessibility inequalities in medium-sized cities of the global

Transit has long connected people to opportunities but access to transit varies greatly across space. In some cases, unevenly distributed transit supply creates gaps in service that impede travelers' abilities to cross space and access jobs or other opportunities. With the advent of ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft, however, travelers now have a new potential to gain automobility without high

It is confirmed that there exists a scaling effect in downscaling land surface temperature (DLST) processes. However, a literature review indicates that quantifying and fully understanding scaling effect in DLST processing remains unclear. In this study, a main goal is to quantify, assess and understand scaling effect in downscaling LST product processes at different higher spatial resolutions and

The CORINE Land Cover dataset for Norway for the reference year 2018 (CLC2018) was compared to detailed national land cover and land use data. This allowed us to describe the thematic composition of the CLC-polygons and aggregate the information into statistical profiles for each CLC-class. We compared the results to the class definitions found in the CLC mapping instructions, while considering the

The Liangzhu culture (5300– 4300 cal yr BP) is considered to be the testification of the five thousand year history of Chinese civilization, and has thus attracted a great deal of attention from the archaeological community. However, the rise and fall of the Liangzhu culture, especially the cause of its vanishing, is still a topic of intense debate. Since the Liangzhu Ancient City area is a low-lying

Over the last 50,000 years, a majority of megafauna went extinct globally. Only two regions, Africa, and tropical Asia retain megafaunal communities today. Their persistence in Africa has been attributed to co-evolution with hominins, but faunal dynamics are largely understudied in South Asia. Focusing on the Indian Subcontinent and using a novel dataset compiled from the published literature, we report

On the southeastern Tunisian coastline, very diverse living microbial mats colonize the lower supratidal and intertidal zones, and locally may extend into the upper infratidal zone. The interaction between the benthic cyanobacteria and their siliciclastic substratum leads to the development of several types of microbially induced sedimentary structures (MISS). The mapping of the microbial mats has

The production of information in crowdsourcing projects from multiple, often unorganized, individuals makes it a challenge to assess the value of volunteers' contributions. Moreover, measures of how the reliability and credibility of this information can be established, based on a contributor’s reputation, remain a challenge. Statistical methods can be used to develop quantitative indicators that

Invasive species have the potential to alter hydrological processes by changing the local water balance. However, general patterns of how rainfall is partitioned into interception, throughfall and stemflow for invasive species worldwide have been seldom explored. We (a) describe the percentage of interception, throughfall and stemflow for invasive woody plant species; (b) analyse the influence of morphological