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Evidence-backed gain

Developing and evaluating automated deep learning and human-in-the-loop vision-language systems for microplastic characterization

Microplastic (MP) pollution poses escalating environmental risks, demanding efficient and reproducible tools for morphological characterization of plastic particles. Traditional manual microscopy is labour-intensive, operator-dependent, and poorly suited to large-scale monitoring. This study presents a comparative evaluation of two distinct artificial intelligence paradigms for the analysis of optical microscope images of microplastics. The first paradigm is a domain-specific, multi-task deep learning (DL) class…

Scientific Reports · Climate

Evidence-backed problem

US building twice as much gas-fired capacity as China in AI boom, analysis finds

The US has surged ahead of China in the building of new gas-fired power generation, largely to feed a boom in artificial intelligence (AI) that is adding vast amounts of planet-heating emissions, a new analysis has found. For decades, China’s rapid economic growth has seen it outpace the US in the addition of new gas power generation but a recent “frenzy” in datacenter construction for AI has reversed this, said Global Energy Monitor (Gem) in its new report. The US is now building twice as much gas-fired capacit…

Climate

Both readings

Impact of allometric reference selection on management scale aboveground biomass estimation via Sentinel-2 and machine learning

Accurate estimation of aboveground biomass (AGB) is essential for sustainable forest management, carbon accounting, and climate change mitigation. In remote sensing-based biomass mapping, field-derived AGB values are commonly used as reference data; however, these values are strongly influenced by the selected allometric equation. This study evaluates how alternative allometric reference datasets affect Sentinel-2-based AGB estimation at the forest management scale in Pinus brutia stands. Reference AGB values we…

Climate

Evidence-backed gain

Productivity-based sampling for field-scale soil organic carbon mapping: from regional models to carbon farming needs

This study evaluates an innovative field-scale targeted sampling strategy within a regional hybrid spatial prediction model that combines machine learning and geostatistics. The framework is designed so that newly collected field observations are incorporated only through the local residual kriging step, while the regional Random Forest trend model remains unchanged, allowing field-scale predictions to be refined without full model refitting. The proposed sampling approach integrates a Normalized Difference Vege…

Climate

Evidence-backed problem

A carbon aware job scheduling framework for data center sustainability using deep learning training

Abstract Deep learning workloads have experienced rapid growth which has resulted in higher energy consumption and increased carbon emissions for contemporary data centres. The existing solutions of carbon tracking and static scheduling systems provide insufficient capacity to implement carbon awareness in actual machine learning operational processes. In this paper, we present EcoSchedAI (Eco-...

Climate

Evidence-backed gain

Beyond concentration-based analysis: explainable AI identifies environmental settings influencing urban PM 10 variability

This study applies an explainable artificial intelligence framework to investigate PM10 variability using routine regulatory air-quality data from a single monitoring station, targeting data-limited conditions. A four-year dataset (2020-2023) of PM10, PM2.5, NO2, SO2, O3, and meteorological predictors was analyzed using ensemble machine-learning models with metaheuristic hyperparameter optimization. The best-performing model achieved high predictive performance (R2 = 0.913), supporting model-based interpretation…

Climate

Evidence-backed gain

Identifying causal pathways and risk-decision rules for nitrous oxide emission hot moments in wastewater treatment plants using probabilistic causal machine learning

Nitrous oxide (N_2O) emissions from biological wastewater treatment represent a significant challenge for climate-responsible operation due to their intermittency and occurrence as short-lived emission hot moments. Effective mitigation therefore requires accurate prediction and systematic identification of causal pathways and operational risk conditions. This study develops a probabilistic causal machine learning framework based on long-term online monitoring data from a full-scale wastewater treatment plant for…

Climate

Effect of Deep Learning Training Policy on Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Carbon Efficiency for Chest Radiograph Classification

Purpose Environmental sustainability is an emerging priority in radiology, yet the impact of deep learning training policies on greenhouse gas emissions remains poorly characterized. This study quantified the effect of training policy on carbon dioxide equivalent (CO 2 eq) emissions and model performance for chest radiograph classification. Methods Anteroposterior chest radiographs (128 907 training, 24 570 validation, 8282 test) were used to train 3 ImageNet-pretrained convolutional neural networks (ResNet-50,…

Climate

Distinguishing compound and cumulative hazards using machine learning and fuzzy logic in multi-hazard susceptibility mapping

This study presents an integrated multi-hazard susceptibility assessment for a mountainous region in northern Iran, focusing on four major hazards: flood, avalanche, rockfall, and landslide. Three machine learning models Artificial Neural Network (ANN), Random Forest (RF), and Support Vector Machine (SVM) were applied to model single-hazard susceptibility using 21 topographic, climatic, geological, land-cover, and proximity-related variables at 30 m spatial resolution. Model performance was evaluated using ROC-A…

Climate

Predicting antifouling paint particle contamination based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing data using random forest-based machine learning

Antifouling paints often contain biocides designed to inhibit biological growth, and antifouling paint particles (APPs) have been previously shown to affect microbial communities in sediment. Given that typical methods for monitoring for APP presence can be specialized and challenging, alternative methods using simple, standardized, and universal approaches, such as 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing, would be highly valuable. This study uses a field-based mesocosm approach to train a random forest-based (supervised)…

Climate

Predicting antifouling paint particle contamination based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing data using random forest-based machine learning

Coupling machine learning with a biophysical model for maturity date prediction of apple fruit across China's apple planting regions

Background Accurate prediction of apple fruit maturity date is essential for optimizing harvest timing, fruit quality and market value under climate change. However, process-based crop models often show limited performance when extrapolated across large spatial scales, whereas machine learning models lack physiological interpretability. To address these limitations, this study has developed a hybrid framework integrating the process-based STICS model with machine learning approaches across China's apple planting…

Climate

Coupling machine learning with a biophysical model for maturity date prediction of apple fruit across China's apple planting regions

The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Revolutionizing Industrial Automation for Municipal Waste Management in Industry 4.0

The topic’s relevance is related to the need to improve the efficiency of municipal waste management in the context of the development of Industry 4.0, where artificial intelligence (AI) can play a key role in optimizing the processes of sorting, collecting, and recycling waste. The purpose of the study is to study the potential of AI to improve environmental and operational indicators in the field of waste management, as well as to test hypotheses regarding the impact of AI on reducing costs, increasing efficie…

Climate

Global genomic surveillance of β-lactam resistance in Escherichia coli across human, animal, and environmental reservoirs

Background Escherichia coli poses a global health threat from increasing β-lactam resistance. This study uses genomic and One-Health data to map resistance patterns and enhance antimicrobial resistance (AMR) prediction and management. Methods This study performed a One-Health whole-genome analysis of 30,554 E. coli isolates from human, animal, and environmental sources, spanning from 2000 to 2025. Publicly available genomic data were retrieved from NCBI, encompassing β-lactam resistance genes, including extended…

Climate

Global genomic surveillance of β-lactam resistance in Escherichia coli across human, animal, and environmental reservoirs

Artificial intelligence for modeling and understanding extreme weather and climate events

In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has deeply impacted various fields, including Earth system sciences, by improving weather forecasting, model emulation, parameter estimation, and the prediction of extreme events. The latter comes with specific challenges, such as developing accurate predictors from noisy, heterogeneous, small sample sizes and data with limited annotations. This paper reviews how AI is being used to analyze extreme climate events (like floods, droughts, wildfires, and heatwaves), hig…

Climate

A foundation model for the Earth system

Reliable forecasting of the Earth system is essential for mitigating natural disasters and supporting human progress. Traditional numerical models, although powerful, are extremely computationally expensive1. Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have shown promise in improving both predictive performance and efficiency2,3, yet their potential remains underexplored in many Earth system domains. Here we introduce Aurora, a large-scale foundation model trained on more than one million hours of diverse ge…

Climate