Behind the Paper
The real stories behind the latest research papers, from conception to publication, the highs and the lows
Filtered by: Earth & Environment
How future compound drought-heatwave events would affect our society and ecosystem?
By combining hydrology, vegetation remote sensing and atmospheric dynamics, we attempted to understand the shifts in compound hazards as well as their impacts on our socio-ecosystem.
From sea level to high topography, the uplift of the Qaidam Basin, northern Tibetan Plateau since the Middle Miocene
“By identifying marine alkenones and anomalously high carbonate carbon isotopic values, Sun et al. suggest that the Qaidam Basin in the northern Tibetan Plateau was uplifted from sea level to its present altitude since the Mid-Miocene.”
“Chopping wood” won’t bring back encroached grasslands
“People love chopping wood. In this activity one immediately sees results” (Albert Einstein). Research published recently has revealed that removing woody plants is not a useful strategy to reverse the global increase in woody plants, a phenomenon known as woody encroachment.
Isotopic constraints reveal the significant contributions of combustion-related sources to ammonia emissions
By integrating nitrogen isotope systematics of ammonia emissions and transformations in the atmosphere, this study quantified the combustion-related ammonia emission and uncovered its importance for mitigating strategies of ammonia pollution.
Canopy interception loss of rainfall: upscaling from flux towers to the globe
An innovative framework is developed to infer rainfall interception loss (Ei) from flux tower measurements and upscale to the globe. Globally, ~8.5% of land rainfall is recycled to the atmosphere as Ei, and this ratio is decreasing because rainfall is getting more intense and less frequent.
