Catchment-scale patterns of geomorphic activity and vegetation distribution in an alpine glacier foreland (Kaunertal Valley, Austria)

The interaction between geomorphological and ecological processes plays a significant role in determining landscape patterns in glacier forelands. However, the spatial organization of this biogeomorphic mosaic remains unclear due to limited catchment-scale data. To address this gap, we used a multi-proxy analysis to map potential geomorphic activity related to surface changes induced by sediment transport on drift-mantled slopes and a glaciofluvial plain. High-resolution vegetation data were used to generate a catchment-scale map delineating vegetation cover and stability thresholds. The two maps were integrated, and an exploratory regression analysis was conducted to investigate the influence of geomorphic activity on vegetation colonization. The multi-proxy analysis resulted in an accurate mapping of catchment-wide geomorphic activity, with a validation accuracy ranging from 75.3% through field mapping to 85.9% through plot sampling. Through vegetation cover mapping, we identified biogeomorphic stability thresholds, revealing a mosaic of vegetation distribution. Distinct colonization patterns emerged across different geomorphic process groups, influenced by process magnitude and the time since the last disturbance event. The exploratory regression analysis showed that vegetation distribution is significantly affected by geomorphic processes. Based on the overlay of results regarding geomorphic activity and vegetation distribution, we suggest an age-independent framework that indicates four potential situations of biogeomorphic succession

Global application of an unoccupied aerial vehicle photogrammetry protocol for predicting aboveground biomass in non‐forest ecosystems

P. 1-15Non-forest ecosystems, dominated by shrubs, grasses and herbaceous plants, provide ecosystem services including carbon sequestration and forage for grazing, and are highly sensitive to climatic changes. Yet these ecosystems are poorly represented in remotely sensed biomass products and are undersampled by in situ monitoring. Current global change threats emphasize the need for new tools to capture biomass change in non-forest ecosystems at appropriate scales. Here we developed and deployed a new protocol for photogrammetric height using unoccupied aerial vehicle (UAV) images to test its capability for delivering standardized measurements of biomass across a globally distributed field experiment. We assessed whether canopy height inferred from UAV photogrammetry allows the prediction of aboveground biomass (AGB) across low-stature plant species by conducting 38 photogrammetric surveys over 741 harvested plots to sample 50 species. We found mean canopy height was strongly predictive of AGB across species, with a median adjusted R2 of 0.87 (ranging from 0.46 to 0.99) and median prediction error from leave-one-out cross-validation of 3.9%. Biomass per-unit-of-height was similar within but different among, plant functional types. We found that photogrammetric reconstructions of canopy height were sensitive to wind speed but not sun elevation during surveys. We demonstrated that our photogrammetric approach produced generalizable measurements across growth forms and environmental settings and yielded accuracies as good as those obtained from in situ approaches. We demonstrate that using a standardized approach for UAV photogrammetry can deliver accurate AGB estimates across a wide range of dynamic and heterogeneous ecosystems. Many academic and land management institutions have the technical capacity to deploy these approaches over extents of 1–10 ha−1. Photogrammetric approaches could provide much-needed information required to calibrate and validate the vegetation models and satellite-derived biomass products that are essential to understand vulnerable and understudied non-forested ecosystems around the globe.S

Evidence for Human Adaptation and Foodborne Transmission of Livestock-Associated Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus

We investigated the evolution and epidemiology of a novel livestock-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus strain, which colonizes and infects urban-dwelling Danes even without a Danish animal reservoir. Genetic evidence suggests both poultry and human adaptation, with poultry meat implicated as a probable source