Abiotic release of nitrous acid (HONO) in equilibrium with soil nitrite (NO 2 - ) was suggested as an important contributor to the missing source of atmospheric HONO and hydroxyl radicals (OH). The ...role of total soil-derived HONO in the biogeochemical and atmospheric nitrogen cycles, however, has remained unknown. In laboratory experiments, we found that for nonacidic soils from arid and arable areas, reactive nitrogen emitted as HONO is comparable with emissions of nitric oxide (NO). We show that ammonia-oxidizing bacteria can directly release HONO in quantities larger than expected from the acid-base and Henry's law equilibria of the aqueous phase in soil. This component of the nitrogen cycle constitutes an additional loss term for fixed nitrogen in soils and a source for reactive nitrogen in the atmosphere.
Desertification of the Sahel region has been debated for decades, while the concept of a "re-greening" Sahel appeared with satellite remote sensing data that allowed vegetation monitoring across wide ...regions and over increasingly long series of years (nowadays 30 years with the GIMMS-3g dataset). However, the scarcity of long-term field observations of vegetation in the Sahel prevents ground validation and deeper analysis of such trends. After assessing the consistency of the new GIMMS-3g NDVI product by comparison to three other AVHRR-NDVI datasets and MODIS NDVI, regional GIMMS-3g NDVI trends over 1981-2011 are analyzed. Trends are found positive and statistically significant almost everywhere in Sahel over the 1981-2011 period. Long-term field observations of the aboveground herbaceous layer mass have been collected within the Gourma region in Mali (1984-2011) and within the Fakara region in western Niger (1994-2011). These observations sample ecosystem and soil diversity, thus enabling estimation of averaged values representative of the Gourma and Fakara. NDVI measurements are found in good agreement with field observations, both over the Gourma and Fakara regions where re-greening and negative trends are observed respectively. A linear regression analysis performed between spatially averaged seasonal NDVI and a weighted average of field measurements explains 59% of the variability for the Gourma region over 1984-2011, and 38% for the Fakara region over 1994-2011. In the Gourma, which is a pastoral region, the re-greening trend is mainly observed over sandy soils, and attests for the ecosystem's resilience to the 1980s' drought, able to react to the more favorable rainfall of the 1990s and 2000s. However, contrasted changes in the landscape's functioning have occurred locally. An increase in erosion and run-off processes in association with decreasing or stable vegetation cover was observed over shallow soils, which occupy 30% of the area. In the agro-pastoral Fakara, the decreasing trends observed both from satellite NDVI and field assessments of herbaceous mass are hardly explained by rainfall. These results give confidence in the dominant positive trends in Sahelian greenness, but indicate that degradation trends can also be observed, both in situ and from satellite time series.
MOD17A2 provides operational gross primary production (GPP) data globally at 1km spatial resolution and 8-day temporal resolution. MOD17A2 estimates GPP according to the light use efficiency (LUE) ...concept assuming a fixed maximum rate of carbon assimilation per unit photosynthetically active radiation absorbed by the vegetation (εmax). Minimum temperature and vapor pressure deficit derived from meteorological data down-regulate εmax and constrain carbon assimilation. This data is useful for regional to global studies of the terrestrial carbon budget, climate change and natural resources. In this study we evaluated the MOD17A2 product and its driver data by using in situ measurements of meteorology and eddy covariance GPP for 12 African sites. MOD17A2 agreed well with eddy covariance GPP for wet sites. Overall, seasonality was well captured but MOD17A2 GPP was underestimated for the dry sites located in the Sahel region. Replacing the meteorological driver data derived from coarse resolution reanalysis data with tower measurements reduced MOD17A2 GPP uncertainties, however, the underestimations at the dry sites persisted. Inferred εmax calculated from tower data was higher than the εmax prescribed in MOD17A2. This, in addition to uncertainties in fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (FAPAR) explains some of the underestimations. The results suggest that improved quality of driver data, but primarily a readjustment of the parameters in the biome parameter look-up table (BPLUT) may be needed to better estimate GPP for African ecosystems in MOD17A2.
► We evaluate the MODIS GPP product for eddy covariance sites in Africa. ► Seasonality was well captured but MODIS underestimates GPP at dry sites. ► Modification of εmax and improved interpolation for FAPAR can improve MODIS GPP.
The human brain relies upon the dynamic formation and dissolution of a hierarchy of functional networks to support ongoing cognition. However, how functional connectivities underlying such networks ...are supported by cortical microstructure remains poorly understood. Recent animal work has demonstrated that electrical activity promotes myelination. Inspired by this, we test a hypothesis that gray-matter myelin is related to electrophysiological connectivity. Using ultra-high field MRI and the principle of structural covariance, we derive a structural network showing how myelin density differs across cortical regions and how separate regions can exhibit similar myeloarchitecture. Building upon recent evidence that neural oscillations mediate connectivity, we use magnetoencephalography to elucidate networks that represent the major electrophysiological pathways of communication in the brain. Finally, we show that a significant relationship exists between our functional and structural networks; this relationship differs as a function of neural oscillatory frequency and becomes stronger when integrating oscillations over frequency bands. Our study sheds light on the way in which cortical microstructure supports functional networks. Further, it paves the way for future investigations of the gray-matter structure/function relationship and its breakdown in pathology.
•Method developed to derive water inflow into Sahelian lakes.•Applicable to current and future satellite missions.•Increased water inflow to lakes over the last 50years at different Sahelian sites.
A ...large part of the Sahel consists of endorheic hydrological systems, where reservoirs and lakes capture surface runoff during the rainy season, making water available during the dry season. Monitoring and understanding the dynamics of these lakes and their relationships to the ecohydrological evolution of the region is important to assess past, present and future changes of water resources in the Sahel.
Yet, most of Sahelian watersheds are still ungauged or poorly gauged, which hinders the assessment of the water flows feeding the lakes and the overall runoff over their watershed.
In this paper, a methodology is developed to estimate water inflow to lakes for ungauged watersheds. It is tested for the Agoufou lake in the Gourma region in Mali, for which in situ water height measurements and surface areas estimations by remote sensing are simultaneously available. A Height-Volume-Area (HVA) model is developed to relate water volume to water height and lake surface area. This model is combined to daily evaporation and precipitation to estimate water inflow to the lake, which approximates runoff over the whole watershed. The ratio between annual water inflow and precipitation increases over the last sixty years as a result of a significant increase in runoff coefficient over the Agoufou watershed.
The method is then extended to derive water inflow to three other Sahelian lakes in Mauritania and Niger. No in situ measurements are available and lake surface areas estimation by remote sensing is the only source of information. Dry season surface area changes and estimated evaporation are used to select a suited VA relationship for each case.
It is found that the ratio between annual water inflow and precipitation has also increased in the last 60years over these watersheds, although trends at the Mauritanian site are not statistically significant.
The remote sensing approach developed in this study can be easily applied to recent sensors such as Sentinel-2 or Landsat-8, to quantify the evolution of hydrological systems in ungauged Sahelian regions.
In semi-arid areas like the Sahel, vegetation is particularly sensitive to climate variability and can play an important role in surface-atmosphere coupling. After a wet period extending from 1950 to ...1970, the Sahel experienced a severe drought in the 1970s and 1980s, followed by a partial recovery of rainfall and a “re-greening” of vegetation beginning in the 1990s. This study explores how the multidecadal variability of Sahelian rainfall and particularly the drought period have affected vegetation phenology and growth since 1960.
The STEP model, which is specifically designed to simulate the Sahelian annual vegetation, including the dry season processes, is run over an area extending from 13°N to 18°N and from 20°W to 20°E. Mean values, interannual variability and phenological characteristics of the Sahelian annual grasslands simulated by STEP are in good agreement with MODIS derived production and phenology over the 2001–2014 period, which demonstrates the skill of the model and allows the analysis of vegetation changes and variability over the last 50years.
It was found that droughts in the 1970s and 1980s shortened the mean vegetation cycle and reduced its amplitude and that, despite the rainfall recovery since the 1990s, the current conditions for green and dry vegetation are still below pre-drought conditions. While the decrease in vegetation production has been largely homogeneous during droughts, vegetation recovery has been heterogeneous over the Sahel since 1990, with specific changes near the western coast and at the eastern edge of the West African monsoon area. Since 1970, the Sahel also experienced an increased interannual variability in vegetation mass and phenology. In terms of phenology, region-averaged End and Length of Season are the most variable, while maximum date and Start of Season are the least variable, although the latter displays a high variability locally.
•Sahelian annual vegetation is simulated from 1960 to 2014•Simulated vegetation captures phenology and spatial patterns as observed by satellite•The present vegetation cover is still far below its pre-drought levels
Core Ideas
OZCAR is a network of sites studying the critical zone.
OZCAR covers various disciplines.
OZCAR will help disciplines to work together for a better representation and modeling of the ...critical zone.
The French critical zone initiative, called OZCAR (Observatoires de la Zone Critique–Application et Recherche or Critical Zone Observatories–Application and Research) is a National Research Infrastructure (RI). OZCAR‐RI is a network of instrumented sites, bringing together 21 pre‐existing research observatories monitoring different compartments of the zone situated between “the rock and the sky,” the Earth's skin or critical zone (CZ), over the long term. These observatories are regionally based and have specific initial scientific questions, monitoring strategies, databases, and modeling activities. The diversity of OZCAR‐RI observatories and sites is well representative of the heterogeneity of the CZ and of the scientific communities studying it. Despite this diversity, all OZCAR‐RI sites share a main overarching mandate, which is to monitor, understand, and predict (“earthcast”) the fluxes of water and matter of the Earth's near surface and how they will change in response to the “new climatic regime.” The vision for OZCAR strategic development aims at designing an open infrastructure, building a national CZ community able to share a systemic representation of the CZ, and educating a new generation of scientists more apt to tackle the wicked problem of the Anthropocene. OZCAR articulates around: (i) a set of common scientific questions and cross‐cutting scientific activities using the wealth of OZCAR‐RI observatories, (ii) an ambitious instrumental development program, and (iii) a better interaction between data and models to integrate the different time and spatial scales. Internationally, OZCAR‐RI aims at strengthening the CZ community by providing a model of organization for pre‐existing observatories and by offering CZ instrumented sites. OZCAR is one of two French mirrors of the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructure (eLTER‐ESFRI) project.
Soil moisture (SM) products provided by remote sensing approaches at continental scale are of great importance for land surface modeling and numerical weather prediction. Before using remotely sensed ...SM products it is crucial to validate them. This paper presents an evaluation of AMSR‐E (Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer ‐ Earth Observing System) SM products over two sites. They are located in the south‐west of France and in the Sahelian part of Mali in West Africa, in the framework of the SMOSREX (Surface Monitoring Of Soil Reservoir Experiment) and AMMA (African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analysis) projects respectively. The most representative station of the four stations of each site is used for the comparison of AMSR‐E derived and in‐situ SM measurements in absolute and normalized values. Results suggest that, although AMSR‐E SM product is not able to capture absolute SM values, it provides reliable information on surface SM temporal variability, at seasonal and rainy event scale. It is shown, however, that the use of radiometric products, such as polarization ratio, provides better agreement with ground stations than the derived SM products.
•CAN-EYE software for deriving LAI, fCover and fAPAR was validated for a Sahelian herbaceous cover.•A sampling methodology providing reliable estimates of vegetation variables was developed.•Seasonal ...and interannual variations of LAI and clumping index up to the 1km scale were characterized.•The errors associated to sampling and photographs processing were estimated at the 1km scale.
Leaf area index, LAI, fraction of absorbed photosynthetic active radiation, fAPAR, and vegetation cover fraction, fCover, drive the main vegetation canopy processes and are key variables in ecosystem, climate, hydrology and biogeochemistry models. The present study aims to evaluate the joint use of hemispherical photographs and the CAN-EYE image processing software for deriving reliable estimates of these 3 variables in a semi-arid environment. First, LAI and fAPAR estimates are evaluated at a fine scale (about 1m2) for which independent observations (destructive measurements for LAI, direct transmitted PAR radiation for fAPAR) are also accurately acquired. Second, a sampling methodology is defined to provide reliable estimations of these variables at the 1km scale taking into account the spatial heterogeneity of the vegetation cover. Estimated accuracy for the 3 variables is about ±17.3% when 100 photographs are acquired along a 1km transect. In addition, spatial and temporal variations of the clumping index of the herbaceous canopy are characterized. For pastoral sites of northern Sahel, measurements performed along one or two perpendicular 1km transects provide reliable LAI/fAPAR/fCover estimates at that scale that should allow comparison with satellite products derived from medium resolution satellites such as the moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer, MODIS.
Whether the integrity of normal-appearing white matter (NAWM) is preserved in neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders (NMOSD) is open to debate. To examine whether the tissue integrity of NAWM in ...NMOSD is compromised compared to that in healthy controls and patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), we prospectively enrolled 14 patients with NMOSD, 12 patients with MS, and 10 controls for clinical functional assessments and quantitative imaging, including T1 relaxation time (T1) and magnetization transfer ratio (MTR) at 7 Tesla. Cognitive performance on the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test with a 3-second interstimulus interval (PASAT-3) was significantly lower in the NMOSD compared to the MS group (mean number of correct answers, 34.1 vs. 47.6; p = 0.006), but there were no differences in disease duration or disability. Histograms of T1 and MTR maps of NAWM demonstrated a decreased peak height in patients with NMOSD compared to the healthy controls, but not compared to patients with MS. Using 7T quantitative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), this study showed that the NAWM in patients with NMOSD is abnormal, with reduced myelin signal; this was not previously observed using MRI at a lower field strength.
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