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Browse the failure-mode index

171 real negative results, null findings, and replication failures in Environmental Science. Search the index →

WASTE indexes published research — it does not host or republish full papers. Each entry is a metadata record compiled from open scholarly databases; the abstract is shown in full only where the paper is openly licensed, otherwise a short excerpt under fair use. Classifications are automated and approximate.

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessEnvironmental Science

Climate mediates hypoxic stress on fish diversity and nursery function at the land–sea interface

Brent B. Hughes, M. D. Levey, Monique C. Fountain et al. · 2015 · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Coastal ecosystems provide numerous important ecological services, including maintenance of biodiversity and nursery grounds for many fish species of ecological and economic importance. However, human population growth has led to increased…

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Failed Experiment ReportOpen accessEnvironmental Science

Capillary pressure and saturation relations for supercritical CO2 and brine in sand: High‐pressure Pc(Sw) controller/meter measurements and capillary scaling predictions

Tetsu K. Tokunaga, Jiamin Wan, Jongwon Jung et al. · 2013 · Water Resources Research

In geologic carbon sequestration, reliable predictions of CO 2 storage require understanding the capillary behavior of supercritical (sc) CO 2 . Given the limited availability of measurements of the capillary pressure ( P c ) dependence on…

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Negative / Null Result ReportEnvironmental Science

Behaviour and effects of prescribed fire in masticated fuelbeds

Eric E. Knapp, J. Morgan Varner, Matt D. Busse et al. · 2011 · International Journal of Wildland Fire

Mechanical mastication converts shrub and small tree fuels into surface fuels, and this method is being widely used as a treatment to reduce fire hazard. The compactness of these fuelbeds is thought to moderate fire behaviour, but whether…

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Failed Experiment ReportOpen accessEnvironmental Science

A Model of Loggerhead Sea Turtle (Caretta caretta) Habitat and Movement in the Oceanic North Pacific

Mélanie Abécassis, Inna Senina, Patrick Lehodey et al. · 2013 · PLoS ONE

Habitat preferences for juvenile loggerhead turtles in the North Pacific were investigated with data from two several-year long tagging programs, using 224 satellite transmitters deployed on wild and captive-reared turtles. Animals ranged between 23 and 81 cm in straight carapace length. Tracks were used to investigate changes in temperature preferences and speed of the animals with size. Average sea surface temperatures along the tracks ranged from 18 to 23 °C. Bigger turtles generally experienced larger temperature ranges and were encountered in warmer surface waters. Seasonal differences be

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessEnvironmental Science

Machine learning to predict final fire size at the time of ignition

Shane Coffield, Casey Graff, Yang Chen et al. · 2019 · International Journal of Wildland Fire

Fires in boreal forests of Alaska are changing, threatening human health and ecosystems. Given expected increases in fire activity with climate warming, insight into the controls on fire size from the time of ignition is necessary. Such…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessEnvironmental Science

Reduced carbon uptake during the 2010 Northern Hemisphere summer from GOSAT

Sandrine Guerlet, Sourish Basu, A. Butz et al. · 2013 · Geophysical Research Letters

Column‐averaged dry air mole fractions of carbon dioxide (XCO 2 ) measured by the Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite (GOSAT) reveal significant interannual variation (IAV) of CO 2 uptake during the Northern Hemisphere summer between 2009…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessEnvironmental Science

Selecting the optimal method to calculate daily global reference potential evaporation from CFSR reanalysis data for application in a hydrological model study

Frederiek Sperna Weiland, Clément Tisseuil, Hans H. Dürr et al. · 2012 · Hydrology and earth system sciences

Abstract. Potential evaporation (PET) is one of the main inputs of hydrological models. Yet, there is limited consensus on which PET equation is most applicable in hydrological climate impact assessments. In this study six different methods to derive global scale reference PET daily time series from Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR) data are compared: Penman-Monteith, Priestley-Taylor and original and re-calibrated versions of the Hargreaves and Blaney-Criddle method. The calculated PET time series are (1) evaluated against global monthly Penman-Monteith PET time series calculated from

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessEnvironmental Science

Pixel-based yield mapping and prediction from Sentinel-2 using spectral indices and neural networks

Gregor Perich, Mehmet Özgür Türkoglu, Lukas Valentin Graf et al. · 2023 · Field Crops Research

Mapping and predicting crop yield on a large scale is increasingly important for use cases such as policy-making, risk insurance and precision agriculture applications at farm and field scale. The higher spatial resolution of Sentinel-2 compared to Landsat allows for satellite-based crop yield mapping even in relatively small scaled agricultural settings such as found in Switzerland and other central European regions. In this study, five years (2017–2021) of cereal crop yield data from a combine harvester were used to model crop yield within-field, on a spatial scale corresponding to the Senti

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessEnvironmental Science

Identifying unidirectional and dynamic habitat filters to faunal recolonisation in restored mine‐pits

Michael Craig, G.E.St.J. Hardy, Joseph B. Fontaine et al. · 2012 · Journal of Applied Ecology

Summary 1. There is increasing evidence that passive faunal recolonisation of restored areas can take decades or even centuries, reducing benefits to biodiversity from restoration. Thus, there is a need to develop restoration and…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessEnvironmental Science

Biodegradation of metformin and its transformation product, guanylurea, by natural and exposed microbial communities

Baptiste A.J. Poursat, Rob J. M. van Spanning, Martin Braster et al. · 2019 · Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety

) under the test conditions. Inoculation of the chemostat led to a rapid shift in the community composition and abundance. The community exposed to 1.5 mg/l of MET was still able to completely consume MET in the RBTs after one-month exposure, but three- and nine-months exposure resulted in reduced removal of MET in the RBTs. The ability of the activated sludge community to degrade MET and GUA is the result of environmental exposure to these chemicals as well as of conditions that could not be reproduced in the laboratory system. A MET-degrading strain belonging to the genus Aminobacter has bee

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Failed Experiment ReportOpen accessEnvironmental Science

A Regularization Approach to Improve the Sequential Calibration of a Semidistributed Hydrological Model

Alban de Lavenne, Vazken Andréassian, Guillaume Thirel et al. · 2019 · Water Resources Research

Abstract In semidistributed hydrological modeling, sequential calibration usually refers to the calibration of a model by considering not only the flows observed at the outlet of a catchment but also the different gauging points inside the…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessEnvironmental Science

Soil-Borne Bacterial Structure and Diversity Does Not Reflect Community Activity in Pampa Biome

Manoeli Lupatini, Afnan Khalil Ahmad Suleiman, Rodrigo Josemar Seminoti Jacques et al. · 2013 · PLoS ONE

The Pampa biome is considered one of the main hotspots of the world's biodiversity and it is estimated that half of its original vegetation was removed and converted to agricultural land and tree plantations. Although an increasing amount of knowledge is being assembled regarding the response of soil bacterial communities to land use change, to the associated plant community and to soil properties, our understanding about how these interactions affect the microbial community from the Brazilian Pampa is still poor and incomplete. In this study, we hypothesized that the same soil type from the s

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessEnvironmental Science

A Multicentre Open-Label Safety and Efficacy Study of Tetrodotoxin for Cancer Pain

Neil A. Hagen, Bernard Lapointe, May Ong-Lam et al. · 2011 · Current Oncology

BACKGROUND: Cancer pain is highly prevalent, and existing treatments are often insufficient to provide adequate relief. OBJECTIVES: We assessed the long-term safety and efficacy of subcutaneous tetrodotoxin treatment in reducing the intensity of chronic cancer-related pain. METHODS: In this multicentre open-label longitudinal trial, 30 μg tetrodotoxin was administered subcutaneously twice daily for 4 days in a heterogeneous cohort of patients with persistent pain despite opioids and other analgesics. "Responder" was defined as a mean reduction of 30% or more in pain intensity from baseline; an

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessEnvironmental Science

RENEWABLE ENERGY CONSUMPTION AND UNEMPLOYMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA

Hlalefang Khobai, Nwabisa Kolisi, Clement Moyo et al. · 2020 · International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy

The importance of renewable energy consumption has grown to a large extent over the recent years. The benefits of renewable energy consumption ranging from improved environmental quality to higher economic growth are well documented. However, the impact of renewable energy consumption on unemployment has received relatively less attention. This study examines the relationship between renewable energy consumption and unemployment in South Africa over the period 1990-2014. The Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model was employed to test the long-run and short-run impacts of renewable energy

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessEnvironmental Science

Do community‐level models describe community variation effectively?

Andrés Baselga, Miguel B. Araújo · 2010 · Journal of Biogeography

Abstract Aim The aim of community‐level modelling is to improve the performance of species distributional models by taking patterns of co‐occurrence among species into account. Here, we test this expectation by examining how well three…

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Negative / Null Result ReportEnvironmental Science

Urban–rural differences in near‐surface air temperature as resolved by the Central Europe Refined analysis (CER): sensitivity to planetary boundary layer schemes and urban canopy models

Britta Jänicke, Fred Meier, Daniel Fenner et al. · 2016 · International Journal of Climatology

ABSTRACT Model‐based studies on urban heat islands can be seriously affected by errors in near‐surface air temperature ( T 2), especially if errors differ between cities and their rural surroundings. Furthermore, errors in T 2 strongly…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessEnvironmental Science

Bare‐Earth DEM Generation in Urban Areas for Flood Inundation Simulation Using Global Digital Elevation Models

Yinxue Liu, Paul Bates, Jeffrey Neal et al. · 2021 · Water Resources Research

Abstract Accurate terrain representation is critical to estimating flood risk in urban areas. However, all current global elevation data sets can be regarded as digital surface models in urban areas as they contain building artifacts that…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessEnvironmental Science

Exposure to Phthalates Affects Calcium Handling and Intercellular Connectivity of Human Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocytes

Nikki Gillum Posnack, Rabia Idrees, Hao Ding et al. · 2015 · PLoS ONE

BACKGROUND: The pervasive nature of plastics has raised concerns about the impact of continuous exposure to plastic additives on human health. Of particular concern is the use of phthalates in the production of flexible polyvinyl chloride (PVC) products. Di-2-ethylhexyl-phthalate (DEHP) is a commonly used phthalate ester plasticizer that imparts flexibility and elasticity to PVC products. Recent epidemiological studies have reported correlations between urinary phthalate concentrations and cardiovascular disease, including an increased risk of high blood pressure and coronary risk. Yet, there

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessEnvironmental Science

First Insights into the Microbiome of a Mangrove Tree Reveal Significant Differences in Taxonomic and Functional Composition among Plant and Soil Compartments

Witoon Purahong, Dolaya Sadubsarn, Benjawan Tanunchai et al. · 2019 · Microorganisms

Mangrove forest trees play important ecological functions at the interface between terrestrial and marine ecosystems. However, despite playing crucial roles in plant health and productivity, there is little information on microbiomes of the tree species in mangrove ecosystems. Thus, in this study we aimed to characterize the microbiome in soil (rhizosphere) and plant (root, stem, and leaf endosphere) compartments of the widely distributed mangrove tree Rhizophora stylosa. Surprisingly, bacterial operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were only confidently detected in rhizosphere soil, while fungal

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessEnvironmental Science

Prolonged exposure does not increase soil microbial community compositional response to warming along geothermal gradients

Dajana Radujković, Erik Verbruggen, Bjarni D. Sigurðsson et al. · 2017 · FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Global change is expected to affect soil microbial communities through their responsiveness to temperature. It has been proposed that prolonged exposure to elevated temperatures may lead to progressively larger effects on soil microbial…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessEnvironmental Science

Benefits of Aerosolized Phages for the Treatment of Pneumonia Due to Methicillin-ResistantStaphylococcus aureus: An Experimental Study in Rats

J Prazák, Luca G. Valente, Manuela Iten et al. · 2021 · The Journal of Infectious Diseases

BACKGROUND: The optimal method for delivering phages in the context of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is unknown. In the current study, we assessed the utility of aerosolized phages (aerophages) for experimental…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessEnvironmental Science

Lights Off, Lights On: The Effects of Electricity Shortages on Small Firms

Morgan Hardy, Jamie McCasland · 2019 · The World Bank Economic Review

Abstract Entrepreneurs in developing countries report that unreliable electricity imposes a serious constraint, yet little evidence exists on how blackouts impact the micro-firms that account for the majority of employment. This article…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessEnvironmental Science

Hillslopes in humid‐tropical climates aren't always wet: Implications for hydrologic response and landslide initiation in Puerto Rico

Matthew A. Thomas, Benjamin B. Mirus, Joel B. Smith · 2020 · Hydrological Processes

Abstract The devastating impacts of the widespread flooding and landsliding in Puerto Rico following the September 2017 landfall of Hurricane Maria highlight the increasingly extreme atmospheric disturbances and enhanced hazard potential…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessEnvironmental Science

Infants' indoor and outdoor residential exposure to benzene and respiratory health in a Spanish cohort

Amparo Ferrero, Ana Esplugues, Marisa Estarlich et al. · 2017 · Environmental Pollution

derived from a lifetime risk of leukemia above 1/100 000. Monitoring season, maternal country of birth and parental tobacco consumption were associated with residential benzene exposure (indoor and outdoors). Additionally, indoor levels…

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Negative / Null Result ReportEnvironmental Science

Statistical Downscaling Multimodel Forecasts for Seasonal Precipitation and Surface Temperature over the Southeastern United States

Di Tian, Christopher J. Martinez, W. D. Graham et al. · 2014 · Journal of Climate

Abstract This study compared two types of approaches to downscale seasonal precipitation (P) and 2-m air temperature (T2M) forecasts from the North American Multimodel Ensemble (NMME) over the states of Alabama, Georgia, and Florida in the…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessEnvironmental Science

Modelling of extreme minimum rainfall using generalised extreme value distribution for Zimbabwe

Delson Chikobvu, Retius Chifurira · 2015 · South African Journal of Science

We modelled the mean annual rainfall for data recorded in Zimbabwe from 1901 to 2009. Extreme value theory was used to estimate the probabilities of meteorological droughts. Droughts can be viewed as extreme events which go beyond and/or below normal rainfall occurrences, such as exceptionally low mean annual rainfall. The duality between the distribution of the minima and maxima was exploited and used to fit the generalised extreme value distribution (GEVD) to the data and hence find probabilities of extreme low levels of mean annual rainfall. The augmented Dickey Fuller test confirmed that r

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessEnvironmental Science

Understanding Spatial Variability of Air Quality in Sydney: Part 2—A Roadside Case Study

Imogen Wadlow, Clare Paton‐Walsh, Hugh Forehead et al. · 2019 · Atmosphere

Motivated by public interest, the Clean Air and Urban Landscapes (CAUL) hub deployed instrumentation to measure air quality at a roadside location in Sydney. The main aim was to compare concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) measured along a busy road section with ambient regional urban background levels, as measured at nearby regulatory air quality stations. The study also explored spatial and temporal variations in the observed PM2.5 concentrations. The chosen area was Randwick in Sydney, because it was also the subject area for an agent-based traffic model. Over a four-day campai

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Methods Dead-EndOpen accessEnvironmental Science

Digital Mapping of Soil Properties Using Ensemble Machine Learning Approaches in an Agricultural Lowland Area of Lombardy, Italy

Odunayo David Adeniyi, Alexander Brenning, Alice Bernini et al. · 2023 · Land

Sustainable agricultural landscape management needs reliable and accurate soil maps and updated geospatial soil information. Recently, machine learning (ML) models have commonly been used in digital soil mapping, together with limited data, for various types of landscapes. In this study, we tested linear and nonlinear ML models in predicting and mapping soil properties in an agricultural lowland landscape of Lombardy region, Italy. We further evaluated the ability of an ensemble learning model, based on a stacking approach, to predict the spatial variation of soil properties, such as sand, sil

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