3D Model of a hand specimen of the Rasthof Formation bearing lonestones and granule clusters

As supplementary material, we present a 3 D model of a hand specimen of the Rasthof Formation in .fbx format. It can be viewed in the free Windows 3D Viewer app, and imported to various other software platforms e.g. Agisoft Metashape. The model was constructed from 119 photos taken by Christoph Kettler in May 2020. The photographs were aligned, a dense point cloud generated, textured, and a 3 D model created following the standard photogrammetry workflow in Agisoft Metashape. The model was then exported to .fbx format for viewing on multiple different platforms

U–Pb zircon-rutile dating of the Llangynog Inlier, Wales: constraints on an Ediacaran shallow marine fossil assemblage from East Avalonia

The Llangynog Inlier of south Wales contains an assemblage of Ediacaran macrofossils from a shallow-marine environment, including discoidal morphs of Aspidella and rare examples of Hiemalora, Palaeopascichnus and Yelovichnus. These are taxa found in other sites in the Avalonian microcontinent (e.g. Charnwood Forest and eastern Newfoundland) and in the younger White Sea Ediacaran assemblages. As the Charnwood fossils reflect a deep-water environment, and no macrofossils have been found in the Ediacaran rocks of the Long Mynd, the fossils of the Llangynog Inlier represent a unique glimpse of shallow marine life in southern Britain (East Avalonia). However, the lack of absolute age constraints has hampered direct comparison with other assemblages. Here, we report in-situ zircon and rutile U–Pb dates from a rhyolitic ash-flow layer of the Coed Cochion Volcaniclastic Member, Llangynog Inlier, which constrains the age of the fossiliferous strata. A weighted mean single grain zircon ID-TIMS U–Pb age of 564.09 ± 0.70 Ma is interpreted as the rhyolite's crystallisation age. This age is consistent with in-situ LA-ICPMS zircon and rutile U–Pb dating. The Llangynog age temporally correlates these fossils to dated horizons within East Avalonia at the Beacon Hill Formation, Charnwood (565.22 ± 0.89 Ma), and the Stretton Shale Formation, Long Mynd (566.6 ± 2.9 Ma). Correlations to West Avalonia include the time-equivalent Fermeuse Formation, St John’s Group, eastern Newfoundland (564.13 ± 0.65 Ma). The data presented here establish the biota of the Llangynog Inlier as a lateral equivalent to the similarly shallow marine, tidally influenced ecosystem of the upper Fermeuse Formation. Intra-terrane depositional environmental variability also affects what is preserved in Avalonian fossil sites. Further, time-constrained geochemical data reinforce the Llangynog Inlier's classification within the Wrekin Terrane

Controls on luminescence signals in lake sediment cores:A study from Lake Suigetsu, Japan

The luminescence characteristics of sediments are driven by a range of environmental factors and can be used as indicators of both local and regional environmental shifts. Hence, rapid luminescence profiling techniques are increasingly employed during multiproxy analysis of sediment cores, overcoming the practical limitations of traditional (dating) methods. One emerging application of luminescence profiling is in the palaeoenvironmental investigation of lake cores. This study demonstrates the versatility of rapid core profiling using portable optically stimulated luminescence and laboratory profiling techniques for appraising the luminescence characteristics of the Lake Suigetsu (Japan) sediment cores. These techniques were employed across four key time periods, each selected for their unique environmental context and significance on either a local or global scale, in order to identify relationships between down-core luminescence and environmental change. We demonstrate that the luminescence characteristics of the cores are susceptible to a range of environmental perturbations and can therefore act as proxies of past change. Additionally, the quantification of these luminescence signals, alongside an assessment of dose rate variations down-core, supports the notion that future luminescence dating is feasible. The results of this analysis contribute to the wider understanding of the application of luminescence techniques – both profiling and dating – to lake sediment cores

A systematic multi-technique comparison of luminescence characteristics of two reference quartz samples

MB did the experiments using the equipment belonging to the Centre for Modern Interdisciplinary Technologies, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, ul. Wilenska 4, 87–100 Torun, Poland (e-mail: [email protected]) and has been financed by the grant of the National Science Centre, Poland, No. 2018/31/B/ST10/03917.International audienceFurther developments in luminescence dating, dosimetry and temperature-sensing require a deep understanding of luminescence processes and their driving parameters. Natural quartz is one of the most widely used minerals for these purposes. Still, poor reproducibility of results often hampers comparability and credibility of findings in the literature. We identified the lack of suitable natural reference samples as a pivotal problem impeding significant progression. Ideally, basic investigations involve several laboratories working on well-characterised reference quartz samples with different characteristics. Investigations should include multiple complementing methods to analyse luminescence properties and mineralogical and geochemical composition.Here, we present such a multi-technique luminescence comparison of two natural quartz samples. Next to the recently introduced Fontainebleau (FB) reference quartz, we propose another reference sample derived from the ‘Silver Sands of Morar’ (lab code ‘MR’; Scotland, UK). Our experiments confirm that both quartz samples behave fundamentally different in terms of signal composition and sensitivity. The comparative characterisation of both samples targeted electron traps via thermoluminescence (TL) and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) techniques and luminescence centres via radioluminescence and time-resolved OSL spectrometry. In summary, we conclude that all observed differences are likely the results of divergent defect concentrations rather than variances in defects' composition (nature). The measurement data of our study are accessible open-access for inspection by others

Supporting Information for Shaking up assumptions: Earthquakes have rarely triggered Andean Glacier Lake Outburst Floods

This supporting information includes a note on the research consensus on the triggering of Glacier Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFS; Text S1). We provide a description of those lakes which were affected by the exceptional 1970 earthquake (Text S2 and Figure S1). Finally we provide a geological map for the region in which the six 1970 GLOFs occurred (Figure S2) and provide annotations on Google Earth images showing potential routes for mass movement triggering of GLOFs (Figures S3-S4)

Flow-line model code for accumulation of ice along velocity-based trajectories

The flow-line model was designed to enable estimation of the age and surface origin for various ice bodies identified within hot-water drilled boreholes on Larsen C Ice Shelf. Surface fluxes are accumulated, converted to thicknesses, and advected down flow from a fixed number of selected points. The model requires input datasets of surface mass balance, surface velocity, vertical strain rates, ice-shelf thickness, and a vertical density profile. This model is part of a larger project. Input datasets such as density profiles and trajectory vectors are available separately. Resolution is dependent on the input datasets. Funding was provided by the NERC grant NE/L005409/1

Plant profit maximisation improves predictions of European forest responses to drought

- Knowledge of how water stress impacts the carbon and water cycles is a key uncertainty in terrestrial biosphere models. - We tested a new profit maximisation model, where photosynthetic uptake of CO2 is optimally traded against plant hydraulic function, as an alternative to the empirical functions commonly used in models to regulate gas exchange during periods of water stress. We conducted a multi-site evaluation of this model at the ecosystem scale, before and during major droughts in Europe. Additionally, we asked whether the maximum hydraulic conductance in the soil-plant continuum

The Australian Plant Biomass Library

The Australian Biomass Plot Library is a collation of stem inventory data across federal, state and local government departments, universities, private companies and other agencies. It was motivated to the need for calibration/validation data to underpin national mapping of above-ground biomass from integration of Landsat time-series, ICESat/GLAS lidar, and ALOS PALSAR backscatter data under the auspices of the JAXA Kyoto & Carbon (K&C) Initiative (Armston et al., 2016). At the time of Version 1.0 publication 1,073,837 hugs of 839,866 trees across 1,467 species had been collated. This has resulted from 16,391 visits to 12,663 sites across most of Australia's bioregions. Data provided for each project by the various source organisation were imported to a PostGIS database in their native form and then translated to a common set of tree, plot and site level observations with explicit plot footprints where available. The above-ground, below-ground and total biomass (live+dead) estimation was implemented using the generic allometric models for Australian plant functional types developed by Paul et al. (2016a,b) and decay correction factors implemented by Lucas et al. (2010). Site level estimates of biomass error were derived through comprehensive analysis of measurement and allometric model prediction errors (Roxburgh & Paul, 2016), propagating the random error (precision) associated with the development of the allometric models, all the way through to the prediction of total site biomass (Figure 3). In total eight sources of error are included, with four of these relating to errors encountered during allometric model development, with additional errors arising from diameter measurements during field inventory, allometric model prediction errors, and plot sampling and areal extent errors during field inventory. The tree level error propagation and biomass predictions were undertaken using the Carbon Analysis Tool (CAT), a software system developed by CSIRO for the Department of the Environment in support of vegetation-based greenhouse-gas mitigation activities under the Emissions Reduction Fund

Australia's Terrestrial Environment Research Network (TERN) Mangrove Portal

The TERN Mangrove Portal arose, in part, from the desire to provide robust scientific datasets that could be used to quantify the extent of mangroves and monitor and understand change across Australia. An objective was to provide supportive ground information for calibrating and validating biophysical retrieval and classification algorithms. In achieving this goal, a wide range of datasets and approaches were considered, including Landsat time-series, RapidEye and other CubeSat data, mobile field data collection devices for near real time data collection and targeted airborne lidar and digital image captures. The TERN Mangrove Portal represents and important contribution towards mangrove monitoring across Australia, with the intention that this will serve to enhance protection, conservation and sustainable management of mangroves and also forewarn (or otherwise) of adverse impacts. A diverse range of ground, airborne and satellite data and derived products are available through the TERN Mangrove Portal and are being updated and added to continuously. Major contributions include: a) A 2016 capture of airborne LIDAR and aerial photography for the Gulf of Carpentaria, northern Australia. b) Global mangrove maps for 1996, 2007, 08, 09 and 10 and 2015 and 2016 c) 30 annual mangrove extent and cover maps for Australia c) Rapideye mosaics showing mangrove dieback across northern Australia between 2014 and 2015

Zanzibar Drone Imagery

Drone orthoimages for sites in Zanzibar (Tanzania) used in the SIS Mapping Quality study component