•Vine copula based drought indices top in application study of standardized indices.•Evaporation information added to precipitation resulted in better drought detection.•Additional variables improved ...drought detection further for streamflow, carbonflux.•Validation of indices is crucial for better understanding of drought.
Aiming for refined drought characterization, the validation of targeted drought indices is of vital importance. In this study, we compared the performance of established drought indices – the SPI (Standardized Precipitation Index) and the SPEI (Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index) – with standardized drought indices using a recently developed, vine copula based method for the computation of multivariate drought indices (here addressed as VCI). For our validation study, we used several environmental drought indicators: monthly streamflow anomalies and streamflow drought events from a network of 332 catchments across Europe, as well as gross primary production (GPP) and net ecosystem exchange (NEE) for Germany. The novel multivariate VC-Indices can combine two or more user-selected, drought relevant variables to model different drought types, depending on the user-application. Validation with streamflow data showed that the maximum probability of drought detection values for SPEI, SPI and VCI was observed for 12.0%, 25.9% and 62.0% of the catchments, and the minimum false alarm rate values for SPEI, SPI and VCI was observed for 20.5%, 33.4% and 46.1% of the catchments, respectively. Validation with carbon flux data showed that the average R2 values of a pixel-wise linear regression for the growing season for the period 1980 to 2010 between SPEI, SPI and VCI with NEE were 0.26, 0.07 and 0.37, respectively. Similarly, the average R2 values for SPEI, SPI and VCI with GPP were 0.03, 0.04 and 0.14, respectively. Our results emphasize using the VCI as an additional source of information in order to allow better understanding of drought characterization.
Standardized drought indices such as the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) or the Standardized Precipitation and Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) are frequently used around the world to assess ...drought severity across a continent or a larger region covering different meteorological regimes. But how standard are these standardized indices? In this paper we quantify the uncertainty of SPI and SPEI based on an Austrian dataset to shed light on what are the main sources of uncertainty in the study area. Five factors that either defy the control of the analyst (record length, observation period), or need to be subjectively decided during the steps of the calculation (choice of the distribution, parameter estimation method, and GOF-test of the fitted distribution) are considered. We use the root mean squared error (ERMS) for estimating the typical error for different calculation algorithm of SPI and SPEI. The total and relative uncertainty components for each factor are analysed by a linear mixed model (LMM) and significance of each model parameter are tested by the Akaike information criterion (AIC) and the restricted likelihood ratio test. The ERMS indicates that computational variations of standardized drought indices lead to highly variable results. From the LMM, the choice of the distribution and the observational window are the most important sources of uncertainty. They, on average, control between 19% and 63% (choice of distribution) and 24% to 70% (observation period) of the total variance of the SPI across all stations and month of the year, with similar values observed for the SPEI. The parameter estimation method and the GOF-tests, however, have almost no effect on the standardized indices. Total errors and observation period uncertainty are typically decreasing with the record length as one would expect, while the distribution uncertainty is almost independent from the record length. An additional assessment shows that the uncertainties are similar at the pan-European scale leading to uncertain characterizations of major events such as the drought of 2015. Overall, the uncertainty of standardized drought indices is substantial. Alternative approaches as nonparametric methods, ensemble approaches or probability-based indices based on established methods of extreme-value statistics should be considered, to make the indices more accurate.
•A novel error model sheds light on the accuracy of drought indices SPI and SPEI.•Main sources of uncertainty are observation period and choice of distribution.•Parameter estimation methods and GOF tests have almost no effect.•Errors are substantial and may yield to false classifications of drought events.•Concepts are discussed to make drought indices more accurate.
Amphibians and reptiles are among the most endangered vertebrate species worldwide. However, little is known how they are affected by road-kills on tertiary roads and whether the surrounding ...landscape structure can explain road-kill patterns. The aim of our study was to examine the applicability of open-access remote sensing data for a large-scale citizen science approach to describe spatial patterns of road-killed amphibians and reptiles on tertiary roads. Using a citizen science app we monitored road-kills of amphibians and reptiles along 97.5 km of tertiary roads covering agricultural, municipal and interurban roads as well as cycling paths in eastern Austria over two seasons. Surrounding landscape was assessed using open access land cover classes for the region (Coordination of Information on the Environment, CORINE). Hotspot analysis was performed using kernel density estimation (KDE+). Relations between land cover classes and amphibian and reptile road-kills were analysed with conditional probabilities and general linear models (GLM). We also estimated the potential cost-efficiency of a large scale citizen science monitoring project.
We recorded 180 amphibian and 72 reptile road-kills comprising eight species mainly occurring on agricultural roads. KDE+ analyses revealed a significant clustering of road-killed amphibians and reptiles, which is an important information for authorities aiming to mitigate road-kills. Overall, hotspots of amphibian and reptile road-kills were next to the land cover classes arable land, suburban areas and vineyards. Conditional probabilities and GLMs identified road-kills especially next to preferred habitats of green toad, common toad and grass snake, the most often found road-killed species. A citizen science approach appeared to be more cost-efficient than monitoring by professional researchers only when more than 400 km of road are monitored.
Our findings showed that freely available remote sensing data in combination with a citizen science approach would be a cost-efficient method aiming to identify and monitor road-kill hotspots of amphibians and reptiles on a larger scale.
Restoring the longitudinal connectivity of rivers through fish passes is of great importance for achieving good ecological status of surface waters. However, the key stimuli determining the ...findability of the entrance of these structures is still subject to debate. In this article, the influence of water temperature, light and acoustic stimuli in addition to flow parameters on fish movement is assessed. Analyses are based on a comprehensive dataset of 40,000 fish migrations covering time accurate recording of ascending individuals during the observation periods from 2015 to 2020 in various fish passes on the river Drava in Carinthia, Austria. The data are assessed by technical, fish ecological and statistical methods. Results indicate that the effect of the water temperature gradient between the fish pass and the main river has most impact on the ascent rates, whereas the two factors of light and acoustic, as well as most of the flow parameters, have no or negligible effect on the findability. A favourable thermal environment can be important to ensure efficient upstream migration and thus facilitate the findability of fish passes.
Red foxes (Vulpes vulpes L.) have become successful inhabitants of urban areas in recent years. However, our knowledge about the occurrence, distribution and association with land uses of these urban ...foxes is poor, partly because many favoured habitats are on private properties and therefore hardly accessible to scientists. We assumed that citizen science, i.e. the involvement of the public, could enable researchers to bridge this information gap. We analysed 1179 fox sightings in the city of Vienna, Austria reported via citizen science projects to examine relationships between foxes and the surrounding land use classes as well as sociodemographic parameters.
Conditional probabilities of encountering foxes were substantially higher in gardens, areas with a low building density, parks or squares as compared to agricultural areas, industrial areas or forests. Generalized linear model analyses showed that sociodemographic parameters such as education levels, district area, population density and average household income additionally improved the predictability of fox sightings.
Reports of fox sightings by citizen scientists might help to support the establishment of wildlife management in cities. Additionally, these data could be used to address public health issues in relation with red foxes as they can carry zoonoses that are also dangerous to humans.
The Spanish slug (Arion vulgaris, also known as A. lusitanicus) is considered one of the most invasive species in agriculture, horticulture and private gardens all over Europe. Although this slug has ...been problematic for decades, there is still not much known about its occurrence across private gardens and the underlying meteorological and ecological factors. One reason for this knowledge gap is the limited access of researchers to private gardens. Here we used a citizen science approach to overcome this obstacle and examined whether the occurrence of Arionidae in Austrian gardens was associated with meteorological (air temperature, precipitation, global solar radiation, relative humidity) or ecological factors (plant diversity, earthworm activity). Occurrence of the invasive A. vulgaris versus the similar-looking native A. rufus was compared using a DNA-barcoding approach.
Slugs were collected from 1061 gardens from the dry Pannonian lowland to the wet alpine climate (altitudinal range 742 m). Slug abundance in gardens was best explained and negatively associated with the parameters "sum of the mean air temperature in spring", "number of frost days in the previous winter" and "mean daily global solar radiation on the day of data collection". Precipitation, plant diversity and earthworm activity were also related to slug abundance, but positively. Out of our genetic sampling of collected slugs, 92% belonged to A. vulgaris.
Our study showed that citizen science (i) is a feasible approach to record species occurrence in restricted areas across a wide geographical range and (ii) could be more widely employed in order to identify underlying environmental factors of species occurrence.
Stream water temperature limits the growth and survival of aquatic organisms; whereby riparian shading plays a key role in inhibiting river warming. This study explains the effects of riparian ...shading on summer water temperatures at a pre-alpine Austrian river, during heatwave and non-heatwave periods at low flow conditions. A vegetation-shading index was introduced for the quantification of riparian vegetation effects on water temperature. For maximum water temperatures, a downstream warming of 3.9 °C was observed in unshaded areas, followed by a downstream cooling of 3.5 °C in shaded reaches. Water temperature directly responded to air temperature and cloudiness. For an air temperature change of 2 °C we modelled a water temperature change of 1.3 °C for unshaded reaches, but lower changes for intensively shaded reaches. Similar daily variations at shaded reaches were up to 4 °C lower than unshaded ones. This study gives clear evidence that for a medium-sized pre-alpine river, restoration practices should consider that discontinuity of riparian vegetation should be less than 6000 m; with more than 40% dense vegetation in order to minimize water temperature increases due to unshaded conditions. La température de l'eau d'une rivière limite la croissance et la survie des organismes aquatiques ; de ce fait l'ombrage rivulaire joue un rôle clé dans la limitation du réchauffement des rivières. Cette étude analyse les effets de l'ombrage rivulaire sur les températures estivales de l'eau dans une rivière autrichienne préalpine, pendant les périodes de canicule et de non-canicule à faible débit. Un indice d'ombrage de la végétation a été introduit pour la quantification des effets de la végétation rivulaire sur la température de l'eau. Pour les températures maximales de l'eau, un réchauffement en aval de 3,9 °C a été observé dans les zones non ombragées, suivi d'un refroidissement en aval de 3,5 °C dans les zones ombragées. La température de l'eau a répondu directement à la température de l'air et à la nébulosité. Pour un changement de température de l'air de 2 °C, nous avons modélisé un changement de température de l'eau de 1,3 °C pour les zones non ombragées, mais des changements plus faibles pour les niveaux intensivement ombragés. Des variations quotidiennes semblables dans des zones ombragées étaient jusqu'à 4 °C inférieures à celles non ombragées. Cette étude montre clairement que pour une rivière préalpine de taille moyenne, les pratiques de restauration devraient considérer que la discontinuité de la végétation riveraine doit être inférieure à 6 000 m, avec plus de 40 % de végétation dense afin de minimiser les augmentations de température de l'eau dues aux conditions non ombragées.
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