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While extensive research has focused on evapotranspiration (ET) from land surface, the spatial distributions of ET of the woodland and forest understorey remain poorly understood. This study developed a method for estimating spatially distributed understorey ET by integrating the Maximum Entropy Production model with airborne thermal imagery. Validation against ground-truth estimation showed good model performance (R2 = 0.93, RMSE = 0.03 mm/h), confirming its efficacy across different land cover types, including open and understory areas. The results revealed significant spatial heterogeneity in understory ET with varying vegetation cover and topographic attributes, and distinct responses to wetting events. This method provides a new tool for estimating the important understory water consumption in forests and woodlands, contributing to assessing ecosystem water use efficiency and improving water resource and vegetation management strategies. 

Climate-driven sea-level rise is increasing the frequency of coastal flooding worldwide, exacerbated locally by factors like land subsidence from groundwater and resource extraction. However, a process rarely considered in future sea-level rise scenarios is sudden (over minutes) land subsidence associated with great (>M8) earthquakes, which can exceed 1 m. Along the Washington, Oregon, and northern California coasts, the next great Cascadia subduction zone earthquake could cause up to 2 m of sudden coastal subsidence, dramatically raising sea level, expanding floodplains, and increasing the flood risk to local communities. Here, we quantify the potential expansion of the 1 % floodplain (i.e., the area with an annual flood risk of 1%) under low (~0.5 m), medium (~1 m), and high (~2 m) earthquake-driven subsidence scenarios at 24 Cascadia estuaries. If a great earthquake occurred today, floodplains could expand by 90 km² (low), 160 km² (medium), or 300 km² (high subsidence), more than doubling the flooding exposure of residents, structures, and roads under the high subsidence scenario. By 2100, when climate-driven sea-level rise will compound the hazard, a great earthquake could expand floodplains by 170 km² (low), 240 km² (medium), or 370 km² (high subsidence), more than tripling the flooding exposure of residents, structures, and roads under the high subsidence scenario compared to the 2023 floodplain. Our findings can support decision makers and coastal communities along the Cascadia subduction zone as they prepare for compound hazards from earthquake-cycle and climate-driven sea-level rise, and provide critical insights for tectonically active coastlines globally. 

Climate-driven sea-level rise is increasing the frequency of coastal flooding worldwide, exacerbated locally by factors like land subsidence from groundwater and resource extraction. However, a process rarely considered in future sea-level rise scenarios is sudden (over minutes) land subsidence associated with great (>M8) earthquakes, which can exceed 1 m. Along the Washington, Oregon, and northern California coasts, the next great Cascadia subduction zone earthquake could cause up to 2 m of sudden coastal subsidence, dramatically raising sea level, expanding floodplains, and increasing the flood risk to local communities. Here, we quantify the potential expansion of the 1% floodplain (i.e., the area with an annual flood risk of 1%) under low (~0.5 m), medium (~1 m), and high (~2 m) earthquake-driven subsidence scenarios at 24 Cascadia estuaries. If a great earthquake occurred today, floodplains could expand by 90 km²(low), 160 km²(medium), or 300 km²(high subsidence), more than doubling the flooding exposure of residents, structures, and roads under the high subsidence scenario. By 2100, when climate-driven sea-level rise will compound the hazard, a great earthquake could expand floodplains by 170 km²(low), 240 km²(medium), or 370 km²(high subsidence), more than tripling the flooding exposure of residents, structures, and roads under the high subsidence scenario compared to the 2023 floodplain. Our findings can support decision-makers and coastal communities along the Cascadia subduction zone as they prepare for compound hazards from the earthquake cycle and climate-driven sea-level rise and provide critical insights for tectonically active coastlines globally. 

As a recent advancement in reaction engineering, magnetic induction heating (MIH) is utilized to initiate the intended reactions by enabling the self-heating of the ferromagnetic catalyst particles. While MIH can be energy-efficient and industrially scalable, its full potential has been underappreciated in catalysis because of the perception that MIH is merely an alternative heating approach. Unexpectedly, we show that the MIH-triggered reaction could go beyond standard thermal catalysis. Specifically, by probing the representative Pt/Fe3O4 catalysts with CO oxidation in both thermal and MIH modes with consistent temperature profiles and catalyst structures, we found that the MIH mode boosts the reactivity more than 25 times by modifying Pt−FeOx interfacial synergies and promoting facile oxidation of the adsorbed carbonyl species by atomic oxygen. As we preliminarily observed, this beneficial MIH catalysis can be translational to other thermal reactions, potentially paving the way to launch MIH catalysis as a distinct reaction category.