Ross Morrison

Validation of Spaceborne and Modelled Surface Soil Moisture Products with Cosmic-Ray Neutron Probes

The scale difference between point in situ soil moisture measurements and low resolution satellite products limits the quality of any validation efforts in heterogeneous regions. Cosmic Ray Neutron Probes (CRNP) could be an option to fill the scale gap between both systems, as they provide area-average soil moisture within a 150–250 m radius footprint. In this study, we evaluate differences and similarities between CRNP observations, and surface soil moisture products from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2), the METOP-A/B Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT), the Soil Moisture Active and Passive (SMAP), the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS), as well as simulations from the Global Land Data Assimilation System Version 2 (GLDAS2). Six CRNPs located on five continents have been selected as test sites: the Rur catchment in Germany, the COSMOS sites in Arizona and California (USA), and Kenya, one CosmOz site in New South Wales (Australia), and a site in Karnataka (India). Standard validation scores as well as the Triple Collocation (TC) method identified SMAP to provide a high accuracy soil moisture product with low noise or uncertainties as compared to CRNPs. The potential of CRNPs for satellite soil moisture validation has been proven; however, biomass correction methods should be implemented to improve its application in regions with large vegetation dynamics.

Benefits and costs of ecological restoration: Rapid assessment of changing ecosystem service values at a U.K. wetland.

Restoration of degraded land is recognized by the international community as an important way of enhancing both biodiversity and ecosystem services, but more information is needed about its costs and benefits. In Cambridgeshire, U.K., a long-term initiative to convert drained, intensively farmed arable land to a wetland habitat mosaic is driven by a desire both to prevent biodiversity loss from the nationally important Wicken Fen National Nature Reserve (Wicken Fen NNR) and to increase the provision of ecosystem services. We evaluated the changes in ecosystem service delivery resulting from this land conversion, using a new Toolkit for Ecosystem Service Site-based Assessment (TESSA) to estimate biophysical and monetary values of ecosystem services provided by the restored wetland mosaic compared with the former arable land. Overall results suggest that restoration is associated with a net gain to society as a whole of

Policy perils of ignoring uncertainty in oil palm research

199 ha−1y−1, for a one-off investment in restoration of

Simulation of greenhouse gases following land-use change to bioenergy crops using the ECOSSE model. A comparison between site measurements and model predictions

2320 ha−1. Restoration has led to an estimated loss of arable production of

A Miscanthus plantation can be carbon neutral without increasing soil carbon stocks

2040 ha−1y−1, but estimated gains of

A Case Study of Turbulence in the Nocturnal Boundary Layer During the Indian Summer Monsoon

671 ha−1y−1 in nature-based recreation,

Cosmic-ray neutron probes for satellite soil moisture validation

120 ha−1y−1 from grazing,

Soil water content in southern England derived from a cosmic‐ray soil moisture observing system – COSMOS‐UK

48 ha−1y−1 from flood protection, and a reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions worth an estimated

Carbon dioxide fluxes at an intensively cultivated temperate lowland peatland in the East Anglian Fens, UK

72 ha−1y−1. Management costs have also declined by an estimated

Multi-Scale Entropy Analysis as a Method for Time-Series Analysis of Climate Data

1325 ha−1y−1. Despite uncertainties associated with all measured values and the conservative assumptions used, we conclude that there was a substantial gain to society as a whole from this land-use conversion. The beneficiaries also changed from local arable farmers under arable production to graziers, countryside users from towns and villages, and the global community, under restoration. We emphasize that the values reported here are not necessarily transferable to other sites.