Earth, Volume 1, Issue 1 (December 2020) – 6 articles

(1) Background: Human activity is warming the planet and destabilizing the climate through greenhouse gas emissions, which underscores the need for climate communication to overcome barriers to action. (2) Methods: We launched a five-month campaign that included questionnaires (n = 500) and one-on-one interviews (n = 24) to assess climate change sentiment, engagement, adaptation, as well as understand who climate outreach reaches and the observations and concerns such groups report across the U.S. so as to better understand the local context of climate change and enable more effective climate communication and outreach in the future. (3) Results: Results showed outreach efforts to mostly reach college educated Caucasians who identified as Democrats. “Future generations” was the most frequently ranked climate concern, with the economy, property value, and national security ranked last. Communities frequently observed hotter temperatures, increased flooding, and species impacts. Among “climate-concerned” individuals, the majority reported never contacting a local politician about climate change. College students least frequently reported climate change as a top priority and reported a low frequency of civic engagement on the issue. In-person interviews highlighted climate impacts disproportionately affecting low-income communities and communities of color, such as heat-related mortality and gentrification. Climate adaptation strategies were underway, but mostly among farmers, ecologists, and non-governmental organizations (NGO) workers. (4) Discussion: This study helps inform elected officials, urban planners, and climate communicators as it relates to the allocation of resources for climate adaptation and education, and highlights key knowledge gaps that deserve focus by future outreach efforts. Full article

This study investigated the evolution and development of plate-shaped dolines (depressions with a large diameter, small depth and plain floor) within the framework of a case study. For the determination of their morphological characteristics, the morphological parameters of 16 dolines were measured and calculated (their average values were compared to the parameter average values of the dolines of other doline types). Based on the data from the vertical electrical sounding measurements, the superficial deposit and the morphology of the bedrock of six dolines were studied. It can be stated that the plate-shaped dolines increased in size by widening. They were formed at sites where the water drainage and material transport capacities of the epikarst of the bedrock ceased on doline floors, while the drainage and material transport took place at the margin of the dolines. Their genetic varieties were plate-shaped dolines with a karren, plate-shaped dolines with a drawdown doline, plate-shaped dolines with a subsidence doline, plate-shaped dolines without a drawdown doline and plate-shaped dolines with a partial doline. Full article

Fischer plots are a technique that is used to graph changes in accommodation in cyclic carbonate successions. They typically depict the cumulative departure from the average cycle thickness as a function of the cycle number or stratigraphic depth. Many applications of Fischer plots focus on their construction from exposed cyclic carbonate successions. No published programs allow the direct construction of Fischer plots from digital wireline well-logs or dynamic presentations of Fischer plots. Here, we introduce a program known as FischerLab, which facilitates the generation and analysis of Fischer plots. In addition to accepting interpreted stratigraphic data input, FischerLab facilitates the interpretation of digital wireline logs for the generation of Fischer plots in cycle and depth domains, as well as in a dynamic evolving cycle and relative depth domain from an easy-to-use interface. The dynamic construction facilitates the correlation of specific stratigraphic packages to parts of the accommodation cycle while simultaneously tracking the locus of the mean subsidence vector. We demonstrate the use of FischerLab on data derived from the carbonate succession outcrops of the Al-Athrun Formation, Libya, and the Glen Rose Formation, Central Texas, USA, as well as on wireline well-log data from the Western Great Bahama Bank, the Bahamas. Full article

Current applications of the Ecosystems Services (ES) framework to soils are narrowly defined (e.g., soil-based, pedosphere-based, etc.), and focus on soil properties while treating soil as a closed system. Because soil is an open system, it receives and loses matter across its boundaries within Earth’s spheres (atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, ecosphere, and anthroposphere), which also need to be accounted for in economic analysis. In market economies, the market transforms resources from the Earth’s pedosphere and related spheres into goods and services for societal welfare with non-market institutions mediating human and environmental interactions. These transformations and mediations can result not only in welfare but damages as well. The concept of soil ES and ecosystem disservices (ED) is a human-centered framework, which can be a useful tool in business decision-making. Soil ES (e.g., provisioning, regulation/ maintenance, and cultural) are used to produce goods and services, but the value of these ES and ED are not always accounted for as a part of business decision-making. The objective of this review is to illustrate the monetary valuation of ecosystem services of soil systems (SS) with examples based on the organizational hierarchy of soil systems. The organizational hierarchy of soil systems can be used in economic valuations of soil ES by scale (e.g., world, continent), time (e.g., soil, geologic), qualitative and quantitative degrees of computation (e.g., mental, verbal, descriptive, mathematical, deterministic, stochastic), and degree of complexity (e.g., mechanistic, empirical). Soil survey databases, soil analyses, Soil Data Systems (SDS), and Soil Business Systems (SBS) provide tools and a wide range of quantitative/qualitative data and information to evaluate goods and services for various business applications, but these sources of soil data may be limited in scope due to their static nature. Valuation of soil resources based on soil and non-soil science databases (e.g., National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP) databases, etc.) is critically needed to account for these ES/ED as part of business decision-making to provide more sustainable use of soil resources. Since most ecosystems on Earth have been modified by human activity, “soil systems goods and services” (SSGS) may be a more applicable term to describe soil contributions (benefits/damages) to economic activity, compared to a term such as “soil ecosystem goods and services.” Full article

Progress in science is significantly influenced by the treatment of information generated by the international research community. A relevant problem is the unawareness of scientists regarding more widely published works and ideas. This problem is illustrated with two examples from geological studies. In the first case, the citation analysis implies that many geologists still use outdated reconstructions regarding eustasy for the Mesozoic–Cenozoic, and important updates are missed. This erroneous practice leads to the accumulation of questionable regional interpretations. In the second case, it is found that studies in which the end-Pleistocene extraterrestrial impact hypothesis was first proposed are cited more prolifically than contrary studies using arguments against this hypothesis.A kind of ‘abandonment’ of this still debatable but potentially important hypothesis also is found. The root cause behind such a patterns of unawareness by the research community is explained by insufficient attention being paid by today’s geologists to critical literature reviewing, the rare use of bibliometric approaches, and, more generally, limited theorizing (especially in comparison to social sciences). A shift to full-scale theoretical geology is proposed, which would also help to minimize any negative consequences brought on by unawareness of a more global information base. Full article