Agricultural Conversion Without External Water and Nutrient Inputs Reduces Terrestrial Vegetation Productivity

Driven by global population and standard of living increases, humanity co-opts a growing share of the planet\u27s natural resources resulting in many well-known environmental trade-offs. In this study, we explored the impact of agriculture on a resource fundamental to life on Earth: terrestrial vegetation growth (net primary production; NPP). We demonstrate that agricultural conversion has reduced terrestrial NPP by ~7.0%. Increases in NPP due to agricultural conversion were observed only in areas receiving external inputs (i.e., irrigation and/or fertilization). NPP reductions were found for ~88% of agricultural lands, with the largest reductions observed in areas formerly occupied by tropical forests and savannas (~71% and ~66% reductions, respectively). Without policies that explicitly consider the impact of agricultural conversion on primary production, future demand-driven increases in agricultural output will likely continue to drive net declines in global terrestrial productivity, with potential detrimental consequences for net ecosystem carbon storage and subsequent climate warming

Bioenergy: how much can we expect for 2050?

Estimates of global primary bioenergy potentials in the literature span almost three orders of magnitude. We narrow that range by discussing biophysical constraints on bioenergy potentials resulting from plant growth (NPP) and its current human use. In the last 30 years, terrestrial NPP was almost constant near 54 PgC yr−1, despite massive efforts to increase yields in agriculture and forestry. The global human appropriation of terrestrial plant production has doubled in the last century. We estimate the maximum physical potential of the world\u27s total land area outside croplands, infrastructure, wilderness and denser forests to deliver bioenergy at approximately 190 EJ yr−1. These pasture lands, sparser woodlands, savannas and tundras are already used heavily for grazing and store abundant carbon; they would have to be entirely converted to bioenergy and intensive forage production to provide that amount of energy. Such a high level of bioenergy supply would roughly double the global human biomass harvest, with far-reaching effects on biodiversity, ecosystems and food supply. Identifying sustainable levels of bioenergy and finding ways to integrate bioenergy with food supply and ecological conservation goals remains a huge and pressing scientific challenge

When Tutors Self Tutor: What Preservice Teachers Learn about Themselves, Technology, and Teaching during a Time of Remote Learning

Tutoring has been called “the act of saying to somebody else, ‘Let me help you learn’ ” (Chin, Rabow, & Estrada, 2011, p. 2). Teacher preparation programs regularly encourage college students becoming elementary or secondary school teachers to tutor younger learners as an early school-based field experience. Tutors, acting as teachers, must learn how to provide ideas and information to aid and encourage students to accomplish learning goals. Tutors must also assess the effectiveness of their decisions about when and how to implement different instructional strategies to respond to students’ needs

A comparison of plot-based satellite and Earth system model estimates of tropical forest net primary production

Net primary production (NPP) by plants represents the largest annual flux of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere to the terrestrial biosphere, playing a critical role in the global carbon (C) cycle and the Earth’s climate. Rates of NPP in tropical forests are thought to be among the highest on Earth, but debates about the magnitude, patterns, and controls of NPP in the tropics highlight uncertainty in our understanding of how tropical forests may respond to environmental change. Here, we compared tropical NPP estimates generated using three common approaches: (1) field-based methods scaled from plot-level measurements of plant biomass, (2) radiation-based methods that model NPP from satellite-derived radiation absorption by plants, (3) and biogeochemical model-based methods. For undisturbed tropical forests as a whole, the three methods produced similar NPP estimates (i.e. about 10 Pg C yr1). However, the three different approaches produced vastly different patterns of NPP both in space and through time, suggesting that our understanding of tropical NPP is poor and that our ability to predict the response of NPP in the tropics to environmental change is limited. To address this shortcoming, we suggest the development of an expanded, high-density, permanent network of sites where NPP is continuously evaluated using multiple approaches. Well-designed NPP megatransects that include a high-density plot network would significantly increase the accuracy and certainty in the observed rates and patterns of tropical NPP and improve the reliability of Earth system models used to predict NPP–carbon cycle–climate interactions into the futur

Comparison of Gross Primary Productivity Derived from GIMMS NDVI3g, GIMMS, and MODIS in Southeast Asia

Gross primary production (GPP) plays an important role in the net ecosystem exchange of CO2 between the atmosphere and terrestrial ecosystems. It is particularly important to monitor GPP in Southeast Asia because of increasing rates of tropical forest degradation and deforestation in the region in recent decades. The newly available, improved, third generation Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI3g) from the Global Inventory Modelling and Mapping Studies (GIMMS) group provides a long temporal dataset, from July 1981 to December 2011, for terrestrial carbon cycle and climate response research. However, GIMMS NDVI3g-based GPP estimates are not yet available. We applied the GLOPEM-CEVSA model, which integrates an ecosystem process model and a production efficiency model, to estimate GPP in Southeast Asia based on three independent results of the fraction of photosynthetically active radiation absorbed by vegetation (FPAR) from GIMMS NDVI3g (GPPNDVI3g), GIMMS NDVI1g (GPPNDVI1g), and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) MOD15A2 FPAR product (GPPMOD15). The GPP results were validated using ground data from eddy flux towers located in different forest biomes, and comparisons were made among the three GPPs as well as the MOD17A2 GPP products (GPPMOD17). Based on validation with flux tower derived GPP estimates the results show that GPPNDVI3g is more accurate than GPPNDVI1g and is comparable in accuracy with GPPMOD15. In addition, GPPNDVI3g and GPPMOD15 have good spatial-temporal consistency. Our results indicate that GIMMS NDVI3g is an effective dataset for regional GPP simulation in Southeast Asia, capable of accurately tracking the variation and trends in long-term terrestrial ecosystem GPP dynamics

Tropical nighttime warming as a dominant driver of variability in the terrestrial carbon sink

The terrestrial biosphere is currently a strong carbon (C) sink but may switch to a source in the 21st century as climate-driven losses exceed CO2-driven C gains, thereby accelerating global warming. Although it has long been recognized that tropical climate plays a critical role in regulating interannual climate variability, the causal link between changes in temperature and precipitation and terrestrial processes remains uncertain. Here, we combine atmospheric mass balance, remote sensing-modeled datasets of vegetation C uptake, and climate datasets to characterize the temporal variability of the terrestrial C sink and determine the dominant climate drivers of this variability. We show that the interannual variability of global land C sink has grown by 50–100% over the past 50 y. We further find that interannual land C sink variability is most strongly linked to tropical nighttime warming, likely through respiration. This apparent sensitivity of respiration to nighttime temperatures, which are projected to increase faster than global average temperatures, suggests that C stored in tropical forests may be vulnerable to future warming

Fire decline in dry tropical ecosystems enhances decadal land carbon sink

The terrestrial carbon sink has significantly increased in the past decades, but the underlying mechanisms are still unclear. The current synthesis of process-based estimates of land and ocean sinks requires an additional sink of 0.6 PgC yr⁻¹ in the last decade to explain the observed airborne fraction. A concurrent global fire decline was observed in association with tropical agriculture expansion and landscape fragmentation. Here we show that a decline of 0.2 ± 0.1 PgC yr⁻¹ in fire emissions during 2008–2014 relative to 2001–2007 also induced an additional carbon sink enhancement of 0.4 ± 0.2 PgC yr⁻¹ attributable to carbon cycle feedbacks, amounting to a combined sink increase comparable to the 0.6 PgC yr⁻¹ budget imbalance. Our results suggest that the indirect effects of fire, in addition to the direct emissions, is an overlooked mechanism for explaining decadal-scale changes in the land carbon sink and highlight the importance of fire management in climate mitigation

Synthesis and Characterization of Nonbanded U-Nb Plate Material

This report describes the synthesis and characterization of four plates, two each of U-5.5Nb and U-7.5Nb (nominal wt%) for aging studies described elsewhere. The plates were induction melted and cast into graphite molds that were unheated and {approx}0.5 inches thick to maximize the cooling rate and minimize large length-scale Nb segregation (banding). Microstructural images and electron microprobe traces observed after various processing stages, including casting, hot rolling, and homogenizing are documented. The as-cast microsegregation assumed the form of an isotropic cellular structure, with an amplitude of 3-15 wt% Nb and 40-50 micron-length scales. Subsequent thermomechanical processing was shown to be sufficient to attain Nb compositional homogeneity on local scales of hundreds of microns. The results of chemical analysis and other characterization methods are given. The principal impurity elements (of the 40+ elements measured) were carbon, boron, oxygen, tantalum, and iron. In all four plates, after homogenization, the Nb distribution across the entire plate cross-section showed minima at the plate faces and a broad maximum in the center, the differential being 0.5-0.7 wt% in U-7.5Nb and 0.2-0.5 wt% in U-5.5Nb. None of the impurity elements showed statistically significant variations between the center 50% of the plate volume vs the outer 25%. These plates were considered nonbanded and compositionally homogeneous for their proposed use because the required tensile, metallographic, and dilatometer specimens could be extracted from the fairly homogeneous center portion of the plate cross-section. Characterization of the phases and their transition temperatures by x-ray diffraction and dilatometry in rapidly quenched specimens from the final product confirmed that the microstructure of this plate material was suitable for the intended aging studies. The as-quenched tensile response from multiple specimens taken from each plate showed some variability, especially in the ultimate tensile strength and elongation to failure. In general, U-5.5Nb has higher strength and less ductility than U-7.5Nb, though both alloys exhibited the double yield behavior characteristic of banded U-6Nb

Global Bioenergy Capacity as Constrained by Observed Biospheric Productivity Rates

Virtually all global energy forecasts include an expectation that bioenergy will be a substantial future energy source. However, the scale of this potential resource remains poorly understood because of uncertain land availability and yield expectations. Here, we used climate-constrained, satellite-derived net primary productivity data computed for 110 million square kilometers of terrestrial plant production as an upper-envelope constraint on primary bioenergy potential (PBP). We estimated the maximum PBP to realistically range from 12% to 35% of 2009 global primary energy consumption, with yield potential ranging from 6.6 to 18.8 megajoules per square meter per year—roughly four times lower than previous evaluations. Our results highlight many recent bioenergy evaluations as overoptimistic, which we attribute to a failure to adequately apply biophysical constraints in estimates of yield potential. We do not advocate bioenergy production at the levels reported in this analysis; instead, we simply report the ceiling for PBP based on current planetary productivity