Non-living Environment Research Articles

Food Webs and Feedbacks: The Untold Ecological Relevance of Antimicrobial Resistance as Seen in Harmful Algal Blooms

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has long been framed as an epidemiological and public health concern. Its impacts on the environment are unclear. Yet, the basis for AMR is altered cell physiology. Just as this affects how microbes interact with antimicrobials, it can also affect how they interact with their own species, other species, and their non-living environment. Moreover, if the microbes are globally notorious for causing landscape-level environmental issues, then these effects could alter biodiversity and ecosystem function on a grand scale. To investigate these possibilities, we compiled peer-reviewed literature from the past 20 years regarding AMR in toxic freshwater cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms (HABs). We examined it for evidence of AMR affecting HAB frequency, severity, or persistence. Although no study within our scope was explicitly designed to address the question, multiple studies reported AMR-associated changes in HAB-forming cyanobacteria (and co-occurring microbes) that pertained directly to HAB timing, toxicity, and phase, as well as to the dynamics of HAB-afflicted aquatic food webs. These findings highlight the potential for AMR to have far-reaching environmental impacts (including the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem function) and bring into focus the importance of confronting complex interrelated issues such as AMR and HABs in concert, with interdisciplinary tools and perspectives.

Computational Complexity-based Fractional-Order Neural Network Models for the Diagnostic Treatments and Predictive Transdifferentiability of Heterogeneous Cancer Cell Propensity

Neural networks and fractional order calculus are powerful tools for system identification through which there exists the capability of approximating nonlinear functions owing to the use of nonlinear activation functions and of processing diverse inputs and outputs as well as the automatic adaptation of synaptic elements through a specified learning algorithm. Fractional-order calculus, concerning the differentiation and integration of non-integer orders, is reliant on fractional-order thinking which allows better understanding of complex and dynamic systems, enhancing the processing and control of complex, chaotic and heterogeneous elements. One of the most characteristic features of biological systems is their different levels of complexity; thus, chaos theory seems to be one of the most
 applicable areas of life sciences along with nonlinear dynamic and complex systems of living and non-living environment. Biocomplexity, with multiple scales ranging from molecules to cells and organisms, addresses complex structures and behaviors which emerge from nonlinear interactions of active biological agents. This sort of emergent complexity is concerned with the organization of molecules
 into cellular machinery by that of cells into tissues as well as that of individuals to communities. Healthy systems sustain complexity in their lifetime and are chaotic, so complexity loss or chaos loss results in diseases. Within the mathematics-informed frameworks, fractional-order calculus based Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) can be employed for accurate understanding of complex biological
 processes. This approach aims at achieving optimized solutions through the maximization of the model’s accuracy and minimization of computational burden and exhaustive methods. Relying on a transdifferentiable mathematics-informed framework and multifarious integrative methods concerning computational complexity, this study aims at establishing an accurate and robust model based upon
 integration of fractional-order derivative and ANN for the diagnosis and prediction purposes for cancer cell whose propensity exhibits various transient and dynamic biological properties. The other aim is concerned with showing the significance of computational complexity for obtaining the fractional-order derivative with the least complexity in order that optimized solution could be achieved. The multifarious
 scheme of the study, by applying fractional-order calculus to optimization methods, the advantageous aspect concerning model accuracy maximization has been demonstrated through the proposed method’s applicability and predictability aspect in various domains manifested by dynamic and nonlinear nature displaying different levels of chaos and complexity.

Trace level CN− measurement by ‘turn-on’ emission using Coumarinyl-Benzothiazolyl Schiff base probe in living and non-living environment

Coumarinyl-benzothiazolyl Schiff base (HL) is spectroscopically (FTIR, UV–Vis, NMR, Mass) characterized and the Single Crystal X-Ray Diffraction measurement confirms the structure. The molecule is water insoluble and DMSO solution shows weak emission which may be due to ESIPT assisted H-transfer quenching process. The emission is significantly enhanced in presence of CN−, one of the most toxic anions, through ‘turn-on’ emission (λem = 449 nm; λex = 350 nm) even in presence of many other anions. The mechanism of sensing towards CN− has been described by 1H NMR titration which reveals deprotonation of –OH group and nucleophilic attack to the imine (-CHN-) bond. Further, the Job's plot supports 1:1 molar binding ratio, [HL + CN−] (Kd, 0.696 x 104 M−1) and has been confirmed by ESI-MS. The detection limit (LOD), 0.75 μM, is third best literature. MTT assay of HL shows no-toxicity up to 100 μM and Intracellular Imaging in MDA-MB 231 cell line has been performed for the sensing of CN−.

Ecology as a Systemic Science

"The work discusses the two revolutions which took place in the study of the living world, both caused by a change of vision concerning the way this world is organized. The first revolution started when scientists became aware of the fact that organisms were not isolated, but lived in communities occupying a nonliving environment. The second revolution came with the recognition of the organization of life in systems of different sizes, integrated one in another, into a hierarchy which comprises them all. The place and the role of ecology in this hierarchy are specified; a definition of ecology, consistent with the systemic approach, is proposed."

Coacervation of biopolymers on muscovite surface

The first life was believed to emerge in the early Earth via a process involving synthesis of organic compounds and formation of protocells. However, it is still a puzzle how the protocell with hierarchal structure and desirable functions was spontaneously generated in the non-living environment composed of mainly water and minerals. In this work, using muscovite as an example of minerals, we systemically studied the coacervation of poly (l-lysine) (PLL), quaternized dextran (Q-dextran), and single-stranded oligonucleotide (ss-oligo) on muscovite surface at varying mixing orders. Only when Q-dextran firstly interacts with muscovite surface to form a coating layer, followed by the addition of ss-oligo and PLL, the formed coacervates exhibit distinct and versatile morphologies, including spherical PLL/ss-oligo droplets on the surface, floating PLL/ss-oligo droplets above the Q-dextran/ss-oligo blanket, and PLL/ss-oligo islands surrounded by the Q-dextran/ss-oligo sea. The kinetic pathways to the resulting morphologies are specific in each case. There results suggest that polysaccharide was probably the first biopolymer accumulated on the mineral surface in early Earth. The sugar coating provided a “nest” for protein/peptide and DNA/RNA to from sub-compartments and to further develop advanced functions.

Design of a biomimetic, small-scale artificial leaf surface for the study of environmental interactions.

The cuticle with its superimposed epicuticular waxes represents the barrier of all aboveground parts of higher plant primary tissues. Epicuticular waxes have multiple effects on the interaction of plants with their living and non-living environment, whereby their shape, dimension, arrangement, and chemical composition play significant roles. Here, the ability of self-assembly of wax after isolation from the leaves was used to develop a small-scale wax-coated artificial leaf surface with the chemical composition and wettability of wheat (Triticum aestivum) leaves. By thermal evaporation of extracted plant waxes and adjustment of the evaporated wax amounts, the wettability and chemical character of the microstructure of the surface of wheat leaves were transferred onto a technical surface. For the use of these artificial leaves as a test system for biotic (e.g., germination of fungal pathogens) and non-biotic (e.g., applied surfactants) interactions on natural leaf surfaces, the chemical composition and the wetting behavior should be the same in both. Therefore, the morphology, chemistry, and wetting properties of natural and artificial surfaces with recrystallized wax structures were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy, gas chromatography–mass spectrometry, and by the determination of water contact angles, contact angle hysteresis, and tilting angles. Wheat leaves of different ages were covered exclusively with wax platelets. The extracted wheat wax was composed of alcohols, aldehydes, esters, and acids. The main component was 1-octacosanol. The waxes recrystallized as three-dimensional structures on the artificial surfaces. The three tested wetting parameters resembled the ones of the natural surface, providing an artificial surface with the chemical information of epicuticular waxes and the wetting properties of a natural leaf surface.

Negatively Charged MOF-Based Composite Anion Exchange Membrane with High Cation Selectivity and Permeability.

Every metal and metallurgical industry is associated with the generation of wastewater, influencing the living and non-living environment, which is alarming to environmentalists. The strict regulations about the dismissal of acid and metal into the environment and the increasing emphasis on the recycling/reuse of these effluents after proper remedy have focused the research community’s curiosity in developing distinctive approaches for the recovery of acid and metals from industrial wastewaters. This study reports the synthesis of UiO-66-(COOH)2 using dual ligand in water as a green solvent. Then, the prepared MOF nanoparticles were introduced into the DMAM quaternized QPPO matrix through a straightforward blending approach. Four defect-free UiO-66-(COOH)2/QPPO MMMs were prepared with four different MOF structures. The BET characterization of UiO-66-(COOH)2 nanoparticles with a highly crystalline structure and sub-nanometer pore size (~7 Å) was confirmed by XRD. Because of the introduction of MOF nanoparticles with an electrostatic interaction and pore size screening effect, a separation coefficient (SHCl/FeCl2) of 565 and UHCl of 0.0089 m·h−1 for U-C(60)/QPPO were perceived when the loading dosage of the MOF content was 10 wt%. The obtained results showed that the prepared defect-free MOF membrane has broad prospects in acid recovery applications.

Molecular Study of Acinetobacter baumannii that Lacking Some Essentials Genes Responsible of Toxin-Antitoxin System.

Acinetobacter genus has various species that are widespread in different environments and can exist in non-living environment samples as well. Acinetobacter baumannii (A. baumannii) is known to be one of the main causes of nosocomial infection. Few studies have examined the possibility of the presence of this opportunistic pathogen in non-living environment samples. In this study, A. baumannii strain cl-2 was isolated from dishwasher basket samples and it was identified by 16S ribosomal RNA sequencing analysis. The present study also investigated the presence of some important genes responsible for toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems necessary for the resistance of this bacterium in improper environmental conditions. Additionally, attempts were made to study some essential virulence factors, such as hemolysin, lipase, protease, and lecithinase production, as well as biofilm formation and surface motility. The findings revealed that the isolate belongs to the A. baumannii strain cl-2. The isolate was deposed in the National Center for Biotechnology Information, (NCBI) and the data can be accessed via the NCBI accession number (MW642251). The results of screening the TA system by higBA, mazEF, and relBE genes showed the isolate did not contain these genes. The hemolysin toxin activity (phenotypic test) was performed by using the streaking and spot methods on blood agar. It was found that the A. baumannii strain cl-2 had the ability to hemolyze red blood cells and produce lecithinase and protease enzymes. Finally, it was revealed that the A. baumannii strain cl-2 had surface motility based on the concentric diffusion ring of growth observed on Luria Broth agar (0.3%). In conclusion, the isolates under study showed association patterns between their ability to produce hemolysin, lipase, lecithinase, as well as protease, and other virulence factors, including surface motility and biofilm formation.

Microplastic Characterization in Soil Samples in Urban and Rural Areas of Eskişehir

Plastics, which are widely used in daily life, are preferred in many areas from the construction sector to the textile sector due to some of their features such as ease of processing and being economical. Nearly 9 million tons of plastic have been produced so far, most of which is emitted as pollution. These plastics, which turn into particles smaller than 5 mm called "microplastic" by exposure to some physical effects such as sunlight, wind and waves, increase pollution due to their smaller size and densities and spread to much wider areas. Microplastics, which can be formed by the disintegration of large-sized plastics, threaten the living and non-living environment with their non-degradable structures. The severity of microplastic pollution, which can be defined as invisible pollution, should be better understood and awareness should be raised about the impact of its negative consequences. The aim of this study is to reveal the microplastic pollution in soil environments of rural and urban areas in Eskişehir. In the study, soil samples taken from urban and rural areas were visually analyzed. As a result, it was observed that the microplastic density was higher in urban samples. In addition, by visual analysis of microplastics, it was determined that the most common type was fiber type, and black colored microplastics were seen most frequently.

Genetic architecture of root and shoot ionomes in rice (Oryza sativa L.)

Key messageAssociation analysis for ionomic concentrations of 20 elements identified independent genetic factors underlying the root and shoot ionomes of rice, providing a platform for selecting and dissecting causal genetic variants.Understanding the genetic basis of mineral nutrient acquisition is key to fully describing how terrestrial organisms interact with the non-living environment. Rice (Oryza sativa L.) serves both as a model organism for genetic studies and as an important component of the global food system. Studies in rice ionomics have primarily focused on above ground tissues evaluated from field-grown plants. Here, we describe a comprehensive study of the genetic basis of the rice ionome in both roots and shoots of 6-week-old rice plants for 20 elements using a controlled hydroponics growth system. Building on the wealth of publicly available rice genomic resources, including a panel of 373 diverse rice lines, 4.8 M genome-wide single-nucleotide polymorphisms, single- and multi-marker analysis pipelines, an extensive tome of 321 candidate genes and legacy QTLs from across 15 years of rice genetics literature, we used genome-wide association analysis and biparental QTL analysis to identify 114 genomic regions associated with ionomic variation. The genetic basis for root and shoot ionomes was highly distinct; 78 loci were associated with roots and 36 loci with shoots, with no overlapping genomic regions for the same element across tissues. We further describe the distribution of phenotypic variation across haplotypes and identify candidate genes within highly significant regions associated with sulfur, manganese, cadmium, and molybdenum. Our analysis provides critical insight into the genetic basis of natural phenotypic variation for both root and shoot ionomes in rice and provides a comprehensive resource for dissecting and testing causal genetic variants.

Degradation of high energetic material hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine (RDX) by a microbial consortium using response surface methodological approach

Soil and water get polluted with hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine (RDX) during its manufacturing, storage and use for civil and military purposes. RDX has toxic effects on living and non-living environment and is a recalcitrant compound. Therefore, the remediation of this compound is necessary. Microbial degradation of RDX can be a suitable and sustainable option to reduce its deleterious impact on the environment. Therefore, the optimization for degradation of energetic munition compound RDX employing the consortium of native bacterial species, isolated from an actual contaminated site, was performed. The experiment was planned with three independent variables (initial RDX concentration, inoculum size of microbes, and duration of the experiment) and three dependent variables (percentage removal of RDX, optical density, and nitrite release). Both independent and dependent variables were analyzed by the response surface methodology (RSM) using the Box–Behnken design. The statistical analysis using analysis of variance (ANOVA) depicted a high regression coefficient, R2 = 0.9881 with the statistically significant p-value fitted into a quadratic regression model for percentage removal of RDX. Results showed an initial RDX concentration of 40 mg/L, inoculation size 6 mL and a time duration of 12 days was optimal for the reduction of RDX up to 80.4%.

Diffusion Dialysis for Acid Recovery from Acidic Waste Solutions: Anion Exchange Membranes and Technology Integration.

Inorganic acids are commonly used in mining, metallurgical, metal-processing, and nuclear-fuel-reprocessing industries in various processes, such as leaching, etching, electroplating, and metal-refining. Large amounts of spent acidic liquids containing toxic metal ion complexes are produced during these operations, which pose a serious hazard to the living and non-living environment. Developing economic and eco-friendly regeneration approaches to recover acid and valuable metals from these industrial effluents has focused the interest of the research community. Diffusion dialysis (DD) using anion exchange membranes (AEMs) driven by an activity gradient is considered an effective technology with a low energy consumption and little environmental contamination. In addition, the properties of AEMs have an important effect on the DD process. Hence, this paper gives a critical review of the properties of AEMs, including their acid permeability, membrane stability, and acid selectivity during the DD process for acid recovery. Furthermore, the DD processes using AEMs integrated with various technologies, such as pressure, an electric field, or continuous operation are discussed to enhance its potential for industrial applications. Finally, some directions are provided for the further development of AEMs in DD for acid recovery from acidic waste solutions.

Conservation, economic planning and natural capital in early Soviet ecology

The advancements in ecological science and policies for conservation proposed by Soviet thinkers of the 1920s/1930s are the result of pioneering research on community ecology, i.e. the study of the relations between living organisms and between them and their non-living environment. The creation of large natural reserves for scientific research – the zapovedniki – put in practice an unprecedented nature conservation plan, based on the theoretical framework of community ecology and resulting in policy recommendations on what would be an ecologically acceptable economic planning programme. Bearing these elements in mind, the paper aims to unveil the intellectual contributions of early Soviet ecology, particularly in relation to their quest toward conservationist economic planning programmes and the associated notions of natural capital and ecosystem services.

Assessment and Comparison of Commonly Used Eutrophication Indexes

Eutrophication is a phenomenon that causes the degradation of the water quality which results in negative impacts on living and non-living environment of the water body. Therefore, monitoring, evaluation and classification of water quality is the utmost importance for policy makers and regional institutions/organizations in order to be able to assess the quality and sustainability of water bodies and take timely and relevant measures for its rehabilitation when and where required. Regional conventions such as the Helsinki Convention, Oslo-Paris Convention, Barcelona Convention – Programme for the Assessment and Control of Marine Pollution in the Mediterranean, Strategic Action Programme and Integrated Coastal Zone Management as well as legislative instruments such as the Water Framework Directive, Marine Strategy Framework Directive, Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive and Nitrate Directive in Europe; the Clean Water Act, Water Quality Act, National Environmental Policy and Coastal Zone Management Act issued by the United State Environmental Protection Agency in the United States, addressed the importance of eutrophication monitoring. The eutrophication indexes have been developed in line with regional requirements by using specific data sets of state variables and parameters, representative of a location. In this study, we reviewed the commonly used eutrophication indexes worldwide within the areas applied, parameters, methods and classification scales and presented trophic level equivalence between the indexes. We expected to provide the researchers with comprehensive approaches related to eutrophication indexes while evaluating the trophic status of a water body.

Effect of physiographic factors on woody species diversity in oak forests (case study: Sardasht forest -Iran)

Research on species diversity in different gradients of altitudes, aspect and slope is attempting to understand the interactions of vegetation and the non-living environment. The aim of this study was to examine the impact of altitude, slope and aspect variation on the woody species diversity in the Oak forests of Zagros (northern of Iran). 178 samples were taken by using of transect method with a fixed length of 50 m. Altitude, slope, aspect, woody species and diameter at breast height of all trees was recorded in each transect. Margalef richness index, Shannon and Simpson diversity indices and Shannon evenness index were calculated. The Means of the different diversity indices were compared with Kruskal- Wallis test. Results showed that altitude had significant impact on the diversity, richness and evenness of woody species and the middle elevation class (1400 - 1600 m) allocated maximum values of indices. Also, the highest species richness was observed in the (0 - 20%) and (20 - 40%) slope classes but the slope hadn’t effected on the woody species evenness and diversity. The lowest amount of species richness was observed in the east aspect than other aspects. In general, it can be concluded that the altitude had a large proportion of diversity variation than slope and aspect in the research area.J. bio-sci. 23: 19-27, 2015

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS OF HYDROGEL FOR IRRIGATION IN WATER SCARCE AREA

Water being most important and basic resource for crop production is always in high demand. The scarcity of water reflects upon photosynthesis, translocation, respiration utilization of minerals and cell division. Due to water deficiency, many draught prone areas and uneven rainfall in India, it is important to mitigate water losses and to increase efficient use of water for better yield of crops and vegetation. The water needs in India can be fulfilled in much greater potential by use of hydrogel and such super absorbent polymers. Hydrogel is a polymer which is cross linked structure. It can absorb up to 30-40 times of its weight in pure water and then forms gel granules. It increases the water holding capacity, water efficiency, and permeability. It helps in reducing the irrigation frequency, dry density, water runoff. It can be degraded by both living and non-living environment factors. Hence practical application of hydrogel is much important in drought prone areas.

Construction Waste Reduction Through BIM-Based Site Management Approach

Today, construction practices with potential damages to the environment are carried out uncontrollably to respond to rapidly growing population needs. In the construction sector, which is one of the leading sectors closely following technological developments, steps must be taken to protect the world's ecologic balance. The goal of the professionals is not only to put up a building in accordance with its design but also to comply with environmental requirements in a respectful way. Different parameters such as erroneous design decisions, inadequate work schedules, sudden weather oppositions, defects in product supply can affect directly or indirectly the construction process, resulting in the generation of construction waste on the construction site. These wastes negatively affect the living and non-living environment. It is not technically possible to completely eliminate construction wastes generated during the construction process, but it is possible to control and recover these wastes. For this reason, innovative applications are important in the construction sector. This study examines the potential of BIM applications in preventing/reducing wastes in the construction process. For this purpose; articles that talk about the reasons of waste generation in the construction sector and the relationship between BIM technology and construction waste management practices were examined, and the findings obtained were evaluated. BIM applications have been proposed to be developed to prevent/reduce wastes on the construction site.

Information <em>in</em> the ecosystem: Against the “information ecosystem”

The “information ecosystem” metaphor is widely used in academic libraries and has become nearly ubiquitous when speaking of the information systems that support scholarly communication and varied forms of data sharing and publication. The trending use of this language arises from non-academic applications — for example in big data (the Hadoop ecosystem) or software development (the node.js ecosystem) — and there remains little critical examination of the use of this metaphor. Indeed, the definition of ecosystem as the set of relations between living organisms and their surrounding non-living environment is apparently not directly a part of the metaphor. This paper first describes the emergence of ecological thinking and how it was influenced by early information science and then explores how different “ecologies” are used within the academy, including in the emergent field of information ecology. A short critique of the metaphor is then posed and the paper concludes that the information ecosystem metaphor is useful, yet at the same time there are dangerous elements that render aspects of human societies and natural ecosystems invisible.

Bridging Food Webs, Ecosystem Metabolism, and Biogeochemistry Using Ecological Stoichiometry Theory.

Although aquatic ecologists and biogeochemists are well aware of the crucial importance of ecosystem functions, i.e., how biota drive biogeochemical processes and vice-versa, linking these fields in conceptual models is still uncommon. Attempts to explain the variability in elemental cycling consequently miss an important biological component and thereby impede a comprehensive understanding of the underlying processes governing energy and matter flow and transformation. The fate of multiple chemical elements in ecosystems is strongly linked by biotic demand and uptake; thus, considering elemental stoichiometry is important for both biogeochemical and ecological research. Nonetheless, assessments of ecological stoichiometry (ES) often focus on the elemental content of biota rather than taking a more holistic view by examining both elemental pools and fluxes (e.g., organismal stoichiometry and ecosystem process rates). ES theory holds the promise to be a unifying concept to link across hierarchical scales of patterns and processes in ecology, but this has not been fully achieved. Therefore, we propose connecting the expertise of aquatic ecologists and biogeochemists with ES theory as a common currency to connect food webs, ecosystem metabolism, and biogeochemistry, as they are inherently concatenated by the transfer of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorous through biotic and abiotic nutrient transformation and fluxes. Several new studies exist that demonstrate the connections between food web ecology, biogeochemistry, and ecosystem metabolism. In addition to a general introduction into the topic, this paper presents examples of how these fields can be combined with a focus on ES. In this review, a series of concepts have guided the discussion: (1) changing biogeochemistry affects trophic interactions and ecosystem processes by altering the elemental ratios of key species and assemblages; (2) changing trophic dynamics influences the transformation and fluxes of matter across environmental boundaries; (3) changing ecosystem metabolism will alter the chemical diversity of the non-living environment. Finally, we propose that using ES to link nutrient cycling, trophic dynamics, and ecosystem metabolism would allow for a more holistic understanding of ecosystem functions in a changing environment.

An efficient divide-and-conquer approach for big data analytics in machine-to-machine communication

Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication relies on the physical objects (e.g., satellites, sensors, and so forth) interconnected with each other, creating mesh of machines producing massive volume of data about large geographical area (e.g., living and non-living environment). Thus, the M2M is an ideal example of Big Data. On the contrary, the M2M platforms that handle Big Data might perform poorly or not according to the goals of their operator (in term of cost, database utilization, data quality, processing and computational efficiency, analysis and feature extraction applications). Therefore, to address the aforementioned needs, we propose a new effective, memory and processing efficient system architecture for Big Data in M2M, which, unlike other previous proposals, does not require whole set of data to be processed (including raw data sets), and to be kept in the main memory. Our designed system architecture exploits divide-and-conquer approach and data block-wise vertical representation of the database follows a particular petitionary strategy, which formalizes the problem of feature extraction applications. The architecture goes from physical objects to the processing servers, where Big Data set is first transformed into a several data blocks that can be quickly processed, then it classifies and reorganizes these data blocks from the same source. In addition, the data blocks are aggregated in a sequential manner based on a machine ID, and equally partitions the data using fusion algorithm. Finally, the results are stored in a server that helps the users in making decision. The feasibility and efficiency of the proposed system architecture are implemented on Hadoop single node setup on UBUNTU 14.04 LTS core™i5 machine with 3.2GHz processor and 4GB memory. The results show that the proposed system architecture efficiently extract various features (such as River) from the massive volume of satellite data.