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Nat Commun 2021 02 24;12(1):1268. Epub 2021 Feb 24.

Department of Geological and Atmospheric Sciences, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA.

Atmospheric rivers (ARs) are responsible for over 90% of poleward water vapor transport in the mid-latitudes and can produce extreme precipitation when making landfall. However, weather and climate models still have difficulty simulating and predicting landfalling ARs and associated extreme precipitation, highlighting the need to better understand AR dynamics. Here, using high-resolution climate models and observations, we demonstrate that mesoscale sea-surface temperature (SST) anomalies along the Kuroshio Extension can exert a remote influence on landfalling ARs and related heavy precipitation along the west coast of North America. Read More

Environ Pollut 2021 Feb 2;275:116626. Epub 2021 Feb 2.

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, National University of Singapore, 117576, Singapore; NUS Environmental Research Institute, National University of Singapore, 117411, Singapore. Electronic address:

This study characterizes the impacts of transported peat-forest (PF) burning smoke on an urban environment and evaluates associated source burning conditions based on carbon properties of PM at the receptor site. We developed and validated a three-step classification that enables systematic and more rapid identification of PF smoke impacts on a tropical urban environment with diverse emissions and complex atmospheric processes. This approach was used to characterize over 300 daily PM data collected during 2011-2013, 2015 and 2019 in Singapore. Read More

Ecol Evol 2021 Feb 29;11(3):1264-1279. Epub 2020 Dec 29.

National Park Service Sedro Woolley WA USA.

Recent snow droughts associated with unusually warm winters are predicted to increase in frequency and affect species dependent upon snowpack for winter survival. Changes in populations of some cold-adapted species have been attributed to heat stress or indirect effects on habitat from unusually warm summers, but little is known about the importance of winter weather to population dynamics and how responses to snow drought vary among sympatric species. We evaluated changes in abundance of hoary marmots () over a period that included a year of record-low snowpack to identify mechanisms associated with weather and snowpack. Read More

Sci Rep 2021 Feb 15;11(1):3794. Epub 2021 Feb 15.

Department of Ecology, Taxonomy and Nature Conservation, Romanian Academy, Institute of Biology Bucharest, street Splaiul Independenţei, no. 296, PO-BOX 56-53, 0603100, Bucharest, Romania.

The aim of the present study was to establish the effect of management type and of environmental variables on the structure, abundance and species richness of soil mites (Acari: Mesostigmata) in twelve urban green areas in Bucharest-Romania. Three categories of ecosystem based upon management type were investigated: protected area, managed (metropolitan, municipal and district parks) and unmanaged urban areas. The environmental variables which were analysed were: soil and air temperature, soil moisture and atmospheric humidity, soil pH and soil penetration resistance. Read More

Front Microbiol 2021 27;12:616730. Epub 2021 Jan 27.

Department of Biology, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, United States.

Ice-free soils in the McMurdo Dry Valleys select for taxa able to cope with challenging environmental conditions, including extreme chemical water activity gradients, freeze-thaw cycling, desiccation, and solar radiation regimes. The low biotic complexity of Dry Valley soils makes them well suited to investigate environmental and spatial influences on bacterial community structure. Water tracks are annually wetted habitats in the cold-arid soils of Antarctica that form briefly each summer with moisture sourced from snow melt, ground ice thaw, and atmospheric deposition via deliquescence and vapor flow into brines. Read More