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    The complete chloroplast genome of critically endangered Chimonobambusa hirtinoda (Poaceae: Chimonobambusa) and phylogenetic analysis

    Assembly and annotation of the chloroplast genomesAssembly resulted in a whole cp genome sequence of C. hirtinoda with a length of 139, 561 bp (Fig. 1), consisting of 83, 166 bp large single-copy region, 20, 811 bp small single-copy regions, and two 21,792 bp IR regions, comprising the typical quadripartite structure of terrestrial plants. The cp genome of C. hirtinoda was annotated with 130 genes, including 85 protein-coding genes, 37 tRNA genes, and 8 rRNA genes (Table 1). Most of the 15 genes in the C. hirtinoda cp genome contain introns. Of these, 13 genes contain one intron (atpF, ndhA, ndhB, petB, petD, rpl2, rpl16, rps16, trnA-UGC, trnI-GAU, trnK-UUU, trnL-UAA, trnV-UAC) and only the gene cyf3 includes two introns, and the gene clpP intron was deleted (Supplementary Table S1). The rps12 gene contained two copies, and the three exons were spliced into a trans-splicing gene18.Figure 1Chloroplast genome map of C. hirtinoda. Different colors represent different functional genes groups. Genes outside the circle indicate counterclockwise transcription, and genes inside the clockwise transcription. The thick black line on the outer circle represents the two IR regions. The GC content is the dark gray area within the ring.Full size imageTable 1 Summary of the chloroplast genome of C. hirtinoda.Full size tableThe accD, ycf1, and ycf2 genes were missing in the cp genome of C. hirtinoda, and the introns in the genes clpP and rpoC1 were lost. This phenomenon is consistent with previous systematic evolutionary studies on the genome structure of plants in the Poaceae family19. The phenomenon of missing genes is reported in other plants20,21,22,23.The total GC content in the C. hirtinoda cp genome was 38.90%, and the content for each of the four bases, A, T, G, and C, was 30.63%, 30.46%, 19.57%, and 19.33%, respectively (Table 2). The LSC region (36.98%) and SSC region (33.21%) exhibited much lower values than the IR region (44.23%), indicating a non-uniform distribution of the base contents in the cp genome, probably because of four rRNAs in the IR region, which in turn makes the GC content higher in the IR region. These values were similar to cp genome results previously reported for some Poaceae plants24,25.Table 2 Base composition in the C. hirtinoda choloroplast genome.Full size tableRepeat sequences and codon analysisSSR consists of 10-bp-long base repeats and is widely used for exploring phylogenetic evolution and genetic diversity analysis26,27,28,29.In total, 48 SSRs were detected in C. hirtinoda, including 27 mononucleotide versions, accounting for 56.25% of the total SSRs, primarily consisting of A or T. Additionally, four dinucleotide repeats consisting of AT/TA and TC/CT repeats, and 3 tri, 13 tetra, and 1penta-repeats (Fig. 2A). From the SSRs distribution perspective, the majority (79%) of SSRs (38) were observed in the LSC area, whereas 6 SSRs in the IR region (13%) and 4 SSRs in the SSC region (8%) were discovered (Fig. 2B). Previous research suggests that the distribution of SSRs numbers in each region and the differences among locations in GC content are related to the expansion or contraction of the IR boundary30.Figure 2Analysis of simple sequence repeats in C. hirtinoda cp genome. (A) The percentage distribution of 45 SSRs in LSC, SSC, and IR regions. (B).Full size imageThe REPuter program revealed that the cp genome of C. hirtinoda was identified with 61 repeats, consisting of 15 palindromic, 19 forward and no reverse and complement repeats (Fig. 3). We noticed that repeat analyses of three Chimonobambusa genus species exhibited 61–65 repeats, with only one reverse in C. hejiangensis. Most of the repeat lengths were between 30 and 100 bp, and the repeat sequences were located in either IR or LSC region31 (Supplementary Table S2).Figure 3Information of chloroplast genome repeats of Chimonobambusa genus species.Full size imageWe identified 20,180 codons in the coding region of C. hirtinoda (Fig. 4, Supplementary Table S3). The codon AUU of Ile was the most used, and the TER of UAG was the least used codon (817 and 19), excluding the termination codons. Leu was the most encoded amino acid (2,170), and TER was the lowest (85). The Relative Synonymous Codon Usage (RSCU) value greater than 1.0 means a codon is used more frequently32. The RSCU values for 31 codons exceeded 1 in the C. hirtinoda cp genome, and of these, the third most frequent codon was A/U with 29 (93.55%), and the frequency of start codons AUG and UGG used demonstrated no bias (RSCU = 1).Figure 4Amino acid frequencies in C. hirtinoda cp genome protein coding sequences. The column diagrams indicate the number of amino acid codes, and the broken line indicates the proportion of amino acid codes.Full size imageComparative analysis of genome structureThe nucleotide variability (Pi) values of the three cp genomes discovered in the Chimonobambusa genus species ranged from 0 to 0.021 with an average value of 0.000544, as demonstrated from DnaSP 5.10 software analysis. Five peaks were observed in the two single-copy regions, and the highest peak was present in the trnT-trnE-trnY region of the LSC region (Fig. 5). The Pi value for LSC and SSC is significantly higher than that of the IR region. In the IR region, highly different sequences were not observed, a highly conserved region. The sequences of these highly variable regions are reported in other plants during examinations for species identification, phylogenetic analysis, and population genetics research33,34,35.Figure 5Sliding window analysis of Chimonobambusa genus complete chloroplast genome sequences. X-axis: position of the midpoint of a window, Y-axis: nucleotide diversity of each window.Full size imageThe structural information for the complete cp genomes among three Chimonobambusa genus species revealed that the sequences in most regions were conserved (Fig. 6). The LSC and SSC regions exhibit a remarkable degree of variation, higher than the IR region, and the non-coding region demonstrates higher variability than the coding region. In the non-coding areas, 7–9 k, 28–30 k, 36 k and other gene loci differed significantly. Genes rpoC2, rps19, ndhJ and other regions differ in the protein-coding region. However, the agreement between the tRNA and rRNA regions is 100%. A similar phenomenon has also been reported by others36.Figure 6Visualization of genome alignment of three species chloroplast genome sequences using Chimonobambusa hejiangensis as reference. The vertical scale shows the percent of identity, ranging from 50 to 100%. The horizontal axis shows the coordinates within the cp genome. Those are some colors represents protein coding, intron, mRNA and conserved non-coding sequence, respectively.Full size imageIR contraction and expansion in the chloroplast genomeDue to the unique circular structure of the cp genome, there are four junctions between the LSC/IRB/SSC/IRA regions. During species evolution, the stability of the two IR regions sequences was ensured by the IR region of the chloroplast genome expanding and contracting to some degree, and this adjustment is the primary reason for chloroplast genome length variation37,38.The variations at IR/SC boundary regions in the three Chimonobambusa genus chloroplast genomes were highly similar in the organization, gene content, and gene order. The size of IR ranges from 21,797 bp (C. tumidissinoda) to 21,835 bp (C. hejiangensis). The ndhH gene spans the SSC/IRa boundary, and this gene extended 181–224 bp into the IRa region for all three Chimonobambusa genus. The gene rps19 was extended from the IRb to the LSC region with a 31–35 bp gap. The rpl12 gene was located in the LSC region of all genomes, varied from 35–36 bp apart from the LSC/IRb (Fig. 7).Figure 7Comparison of LSC, SSC and IR boundaries of chloroplast genomes among the three Chimonobambusa species. The LSC, SSC and IRs regions are represented with different colors. JLB, JSB, JSA and JLA represent the connecting sites between the corresponding regions of the genome, respectively. Genes are showed by boxes.Full size imageThree chloroplast genomes of the Chimonobambusa genus were compared using the Mauve alignment. The results showed that all sequences show perfect synteny conservation with no inversion or rearrangements (Fig. 8).Figure 8The chloroplast genomes of three Chimonobambusa species rearranged by the software MAUVE. Locally collinear blocks (LCBs) are represented by the same color blocks connected by lines. The vertical line indicates the degree of conservatism among position. The small red bar represents rRNA.Full size imagePhylogenetic analysisWe performed a phylogenetic analysis using the complete chloroplast genomes and matK gene reflecting the phylogenetic position of C. hirtinoda. The maximum likelihood (ML) analysis based on the complete chloroplast genomes indicated seven nodes with entirely branch support (100% bootstrap value). However, the three Chimonobambusa genera exhibited a moderate relationship due to fewer samples used, supporting that C. hirtinoda is closely related to C. tumidissinoda with a 62% bootstrap value more than C. hejiangensis. A phylogenetic tree based on the matK gene revealed that Chimonobambusa species clustered in one branch was consistent with the phylogenetic tree constructed by the complete cp genome tree (Fig. 9). The results show that the whole chloroplast genome identified related species better than the former, consistent with the previous study39.Figure 9Maximum likelihood phylogenetic tree based on the complete chloroplast genomes (A) and matK gene (B).Full size image More

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    Synchronous vegetation response to the last glacial-interglacial transition in northwest Europe

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    The DeepFish computer vision dataset for fish instance segmentation, classification, and size estimation

    Fisheries overexploitation is a problem in all oceans and seas globally. Authorities and administrations in charge of assigning quotas have very little fine-grained information on the fish captures, and instead use large-scale, coarse data to assess the health level of fisheries. Thus, being able to cross-match fish species and sizes, to the sea regions they were captured from, can be helpful in this regard, providing finer-grained information.Previous attempts at assembling datasets for fish detection and classification exist, ranging from fish detection or counting in underwater images and video streams1,2,3, to counting on belts on trawler ships4, to classification in laboratory conditions5,6, or in underwater preprocessed images of single fish7,8,9, or single fish in free-form pictures10, as well as simultaneous detection and classification of several fish11,12. However, none of the works found in the literature addresses the topic of simultaneous instance segmentation and species classification, along with fish size estimation, in a fish market environment, as is the aim of this paper. Instance segmentation refers to the extraction of pixel-level masks for each individual object (in this case fish specimens), rather than bounding boxes (object detection), or class label masks (e.g. a single mask for all fish specimens of the same species, also referred to as semantic segmentation). Moreover, works in the literature use pictures taken in laboratory conditions (with a single fish per image, shown from the side), or in underwater conditions. Only French et al.4 uses pictures of fish catches on a belt, for counting purposes. Table 1 shows a summary of the datasets identified in the literature, along with their characteristics, including how the proposed dataset compares.Table 1 Summary of previous datasets found in the literature, and comparison to proposed dataset.Full size tableThe DeepFish project (website: http://deepfish.dtic.ua.es/) is aimed at providing fish species classification and size estimation for fish specimens arriving at fish markets, both for the automation of fish sales, and the retrieval of fine-grained information about the health of fisheries. For a period of six months (April to September 2021), images have been captured at the fish market in El Campello (Alicante, Spain). Images of market trays show a variety of fish species, including targeted as well as accidental captures from the ‘Cabo de la Huerta’, an important site for protection and preservation of marine habitats and biodiversity as defined by the European Comission Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC). From the pictures, a total of 59 different species are identified with 12 species having more than 100 specimens and 25 with more than 10 specimens, as shown in Table 2. There is a high imbalance of species captured due to the natural variation in fish species populations according to seasonality and other ecological factors (rarity of the species, i.e. total population count, etc). Due to some species showing sexual dimorphism (i.e. Symphodus tinca), this species is split into two separate class labels, leading to a different number of species, and class labels (59 species, but 60 class labels). The dataset presents a high temporal imbalance too. As shown in Fig. 1, the capture of new fish tray images was not evenly distributed during the six month study period. Several factors contributed to this: wholesale fish market operating days (e.g. no weekend data, holidays and stop periods, etc.), fish species variability (one of the aims was to be able to capture at least 100 specimens from several species, and seasonality meant some could not be available for capture in later months), as well as the time availability of research group members to attend the fish arrival, tray preparation and auctioning in the evenings.Table 2 Distribution of fish species in the dataset.Full size tableFig. 1Temporal distribution of fish tray images captured. It can be observed that April (04) and May (05) were much more active than the rest of months. This is due to several contributing factors.Full size imageThe resulting DeepFish dataset introduced here contains annotated images from 1,291 fish market trays, with a total of 7,339 specimens (individual fish instances) which were labelled (species and mask) using a specially-adapted version of the Django labeller instance segmentation labelling tool13. Subsequently, another JSON file is generated, following the Microsoft Common Objects in Context (MS COCO) dataset format14, which can be directly fed to a neural network. This is done via a script that is also provided15. Figure 2 shows the distribution of individuals for the selected species within the dataset. Furthermore, Fig. 3 shows examples of the trays, with instance segmentation (ground truth silhouette, i.e. as an interpolation from human-provided points) along with species labelling (different colour shading).Fig. 2Graphical view of the distribution of fish species in the DeepFish dataset for species above 10 specimens. Note, Symphodus tinca is considered separately due to sexual dimorphism (211 male; 335 female samples).Full size imageFig. 3Examples of ground truth fish instance masks with class labelling, showing the 12 species (13 labels) with more than 100 specimens (in bold in Table 2).Full size imageFrom the point of view of research, this data is important for the classification of fish species, instance segmentation, as well as specimen size estimation (e.g. as a regression problem, or otherwise). From an end-results perspective, data automatically labelled with fish instance segmentation accompanied by species name and estimated size is useful to different stakeholders, namely: fishing authorities (to understand how much of each species is being caught per zone), maritime conservation (to calculate depletion of fisheries), but also managers of the markets themselves, as well as clients (digitized sales, e-commerce), etc.The usage of the provided data can be manifold, as it can be used for several problems, namely: object detection and classification, which involves finding objects (in this case fish specimens) providing a bounding box, and a class for each of these boxes; additionally, the data can also be used for semantic segmentation, which can provide a pixel-wise segmentation of the image providing labels (in this case species labels) to different pixel regions of the image; furthermore, also instance segmentation is possible, in which not just a single label for all instances of the same species is provided, but each specimen is provided with a mask (specimen segmentation), as well as a label (species). Furthermore, several measurements of each fish are provided, which can also be used to estimate their size, since they have been shown to be correlated with each other16. These are estimated from the calculated homography (given the tray size is known), given the burden of measuring each fish due to the large amount of specimens in the dataset. More

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    DNA databases of an important tropical timber tree species Shorea leprosula (Dipterocarpaceae) for forensic timber identification

    cpDNA haplotype databaseDNA sequencing of the choloroplast (cp) markers produced sequences of the following lengths: 573 bp (atpB-rbcL); 487 bp (petG-trnP); 500 bp (trnL1-trnL2); and 593 bp (psbM-trnD). Alignment of the 352 individuals from the 44 populations yielded a total 28 variable sites: 11 in the atpB-rbcL spacer, seven in both the petG-trnP and psbM-trnD spacers, and three in the trnL1-trnL2 spacer (Supplementary Table S1). Based on these 28 variable sites (21 base substitutions and 7 deletions) across the combined intergenic regions, a total of 22 unique haplotypes were found (Fig. 1a).Figure 1(a) Chloroplast haplotype distribution in the Shorea leprosula populations. The pie chart colours indicate haplotype distributions; and sector areas are proportional to sample size (Map was generated by ArcGIS-ArcMap version 10.8). (b) STRUCTURE analysis identified two clusters (K = 2) corresponding to Region A and B.Full size imageSSR allele frequency databaseThe reproducibility of SSR genotyping was confirmed by achieving consistent genotypes from five independent PCR amplifications on a single individual for each of the ten SSR loci. Individual bar plots from STRUCTURE analysis are presented in Fig. 1b. At the highest Delta K likelihood scores, the best representation of the data was K = 2 suggesting that the 44 populations in Peninsular Malaysia can be divided into two main genetic clusters: Region A and Region B. The first cluster, ‘Region A’ consists of 12 populations, namely SBadak, BPerangin, BEnggang, GJerai, RTelui, GInas, GBongsu, Belum, Piah, BHijau, Korbu and Bubu. The second cluster, ‘Region B’ consists of 32 populations, namely Behrang, Ampang, HGombak, HLangat, SLalang, PPanjang, Berembun, Angsi, Kenaboi, Triang, Pasoh, BSenggeh, GLedang, Krau, TNegara, Terenggun, SBetis, USat, CTongkat, HTerengganu, Jengai, AGading, Tekam, Beserah, Jengka, Lentang, Lesong, ERompin, GArong, Labis, AHitam and Panti. Similarly, the UPGMA dendrogram analysis also divided the 44 populations into two genetic clusters (Fig. 2) corresponding to Region A and B of the STRUCTURE result.Figure 2Dendrogram showing the relationship between 44 populations of Shorea leprosula in Peninsular Malaysia based on the UPGMA cluster analysis of SSR markers.Full size imageSSR allele frequency databases were established according to Region A and B, and characterized to evaluate the relative usefulness of each SSR marker in forensic investigation. The distribution of allele frequencies for each locus is listed in Table S2 (Region A database) and Table S3 (Region B database). Forensic parameters are shown in Table 1, with a total of 143 alleles and 174 alleles detected in the Region A and B databases, respectively. The observed (Ho) and expected (He) heterozygosity ranged from 0.3570 to 0.8346 and 0.4375 to 0.8795, respectively for populations in the Region A database; and ranged from 0.3298 to 0.8356 and 0.3469 to 0.8793, respectively for populations in the Region B database. The power of discrimination (PD) for the SSR loci ranged from 0.601 to 0.972 and 0.554 to 0.975, in Region A and B databases, respectively. The most discriminating locus was Sle605 in both the Region A (PD = 0.972) and Region B (PD = 0.975) databases. Minimum allele frequency was adjusted for alleles falling below the thresholds of 0.0066 (Region A) and 0.0024 (Region B).Table 1 Genetic diversity and forensic variables (A: total number of alleles; Ho: observed heterozygosity; He: expected heterozygosity; PIC: polymorphic information content; HWE: Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium; MP: matching probability; PD: power of discrimination) for each the 10 SSR loci of Shorea leprosula in the Region A and B databases.Full size tableDeviations from HWE were detected in four of the SSR loci for Region A (SleT11, SleT15, SleT17 and Sle465) and six SSR loci in Region B (SleT01, SleT11, SleT15, SleT17, SleT29 and SleT31). We evaluated these loci in each population independently to rule out the possible presence of null alleles. There were four populations in Region A (GJerai, RTelui, GBongsu and Piah) where a single one locus deviated from HWE; whereas there were eight populations in Region B (Behrang, HGombak, SLalang, Angsi, Klau, USat, Jengka and Panti) with a single locus and a single population (GLedang) with two loci that deviated from HWE (Table S4). Observed deviation from HWE was substantially lower in each population (either absence or not more than two loci) and thus it might be due to Wahlund effect caused by population substructuring in both Region A and B. Linkage disequilibrium (LD) testing was used to evaluate the independence of frequencies for all the SSR genotypes. A total of 13.3% and 28.9% of the 45 pairwise loci were found significant evidence of LD for Region A and B, respectively. Some of the loci might be linked as a result of population substructuring and inbreeding (inbreeding coefficient = 0.0822 [Peninsular Malaysia]). These results are in line with observations in real populations, where the assumption of completely random mating and zero migration required for HWE and LD are unlikely to be met, either in humans, animals or plants 21,22,23.Mean self-assignment, the proportion of individuals correctly assigned back to their population, was 45.9% and ranged from 14.3% (Kenaboi) to 81.3% (CTongkat) between population (Table 2). At the regional level, correct assignment rate of individuals to their region of origin was higher, 87.4% for Region A and 90.0% for Region B, (average of 88.7%).Table 2 Self-assignment test outcomes for Shorea leprosula individuals at the population and regional levels.Full size tableConservativeness of the databaseThe coancestry coefficient (θ) for Peninsular Malaysia (0.0579) was higher than those of Region A (0.0454) and Region B (0.0500) (Table 3). A total of 4.54% and 5.00% of the genetic variability was distributed among populations within Region A and Region B, respectively. In terms of inbreeding coefficient (f), the value for the Region A database (f = 0.0892) was highest, followed by Peninsular Malaysia (f = 0.0822) and Region B (f = 0.0666). All the θ and f values were significantly greater than zero, demonstrated by the 95% confidence intervals not overlapping with zero. Both of the θ and f values were used to calculate the conservativeness of each database by testing the cognate database (Porigin) against the regional database (Pcombined). The databases were non-conservative at the calculated θ value. In order for both the Region databases (A and B) to be conservative, the value of θ was adjusted from 0.0454 to 0.1900 for Region A and from 0.0500 to 0.1500 for Region B. For the Region A database, the most common SSR profile frequency is 2.69 × 10–7 or 1 in 3.72 million and the rarest profile frequency is 1.84 × 10–14 or 1 in 54.3 trillion. For the Region B database, the most common SSR profile frequency is 1.06 × 10–7 or 1 in 9.43 million and the rarest profile frequency is 4.03 × 10–16 or 1 in 2.48 quadrillion.Table 3 Coancestry (θ) and inbreeding (f) coefficients for Shorea leprosula at each hierarchical level.Full size table More

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    Dynamic World, Near real-time global 10 m land use land cover mapping

    Land Use Land Cover taxonomyThe classification schema or “taxonomy” for Dynamic World, shown in Table 1, was determined after a review of global LULC maps, including the USGS Anderson classification system18, ESA Land Use and Coverage Area frame Survey (LUCAS) land cover modalities19, MapBiomas classification20, and GlobeLand30 land cover types13. The Dynamic World taxonomy maintains a close semblance to the land use classes presented in the IPCC Good Practice Guidance (forest land, grassland, cropland, wetland, settlement, and other)21 to ensure easier application of the resulting data for estimating carbon stocks and greenhouse gas emissions. Unlike single-pixel labels, which are usually defined in terms of percent cover thresholds, the Dynamic World taxonomy was applied using “dense” polygon-based annotations such that LULC labels are applied to areas of relatively homogenous cover types with similar colors and textures.Table 1 Dynamic World Land Use Land Cover (LULC) classification taxonomy.Full size tableTraining dataset collectionOur modeling approach relies on semi-supervised deep learning and requires spatially dense (i.e., ideally wall-to-wall) annotations. To collect a diverse set of training and evaluation data, we divided the world into three regions: the Western Hemisphere (160°W to 20°W), Eastern Hemisphere-1 (20°W to 100°E), and Eastern Hemisphere-2 (100°E to 160°W). We further divided each region by the 14 RESOLVE Ecoregions biomes22. We collected a stratified sample of sites for each biome per region based on NASA MCD12Q1 land cover for 20174. Given the availability of higher-resolution LULC maps in the United States and Brazil, we used the NLCD 201610 and MapBiomas 201720 LULC products respectively in place of MODIS products for stratification in these two countries.At each sample location, we performed an initial selection of Sentinel-2 images from 2019 scenes based on image cloudiness metadata reported in the Sentinel-2 tile’s QA60 band. We further filtered scenes to remove images with many masked pixels. We finally extracted individual tiles of 510 × 510 pixels centered on the sample sites from random dates in 2019. Tiles were sampled in the UTM projection of the source image and we selected one tile corresponding to a single Sentinel-2 ID number and single date.Further steps were then taken to obtain an “as balanced as possible” training dataset with respect to the LULC classifications from the respective LULC products. In particular, for each Dynamic World LULC category contained within a tile, the tile was labeled to be high, medium, or low in that category. We then selected an approximately equal number of tiles with high, medium or low category labels for each category.To achieve a large dataset of labeled Sentinel-2 scenes, we worked with two groups of annotators. The first group included 25 annotators with previous photo-interpretation and/or remote sensing experience. The expert group labeled approximately 4,000 image tiles (Fig. 1a), which were then used to train and measure the performance and accuracy of a second “non-expert” group of 45 additional annotators who labeled a second set of approximately 20,000 image tiles (Fig. 1b). A final validation set of 409 image tiles were held back from the modeling effort and used for evaluation as described in the Technical Validation section. Each image tile in the validation set was annotated by three experts and one non-expert to facilitate cross-expert and expert/non-expert QA comparisons.Fig. 1Global distribution of annotated Sentinel-2 image tiles used for model training and periodic testing (neither including 409 validation tiles). (a) 4,000 tiles interpreted by a group of 25 experts (b) 20,000 tiles interpreted by a group of 45 non-experts. Hexagons represent approximately 58,500 km2 areas and shading corresponds to the count of annotated tile centroids per hexagon.Full size imageAll Dynamic World annotators used the Labelbox platform23, which provides a vector drawing tool to mark the boundaries of feature classes directly over the Sentinel-2 tile (Fig. 2). We instructed both expert and non-expert annotators to use dense markup instead of single pixel labels with a minimum mapping unit of 50 × 50 m (5 × 5 pixels). For water, trees, crops, built area, bare ground, snow & ice, and cloud, this was a fairly straightforward procedure at the Sentinel-2 10 m resolution since these feature classes tend to appear in fairly homogenous agglomerations. Shrub & scrub and flooded vegetation classes proved to be more challenging as they tended not to appear as homogenous features (e.g. mix of vegetation types) and have variable appearance. Annotators used their best discretion in these situations based on the guidance provided in our training material (i.e. descriptions and examples in Table 1). In addition to the Sentinel-2 tile, annotators had access to a matching high-resolution satellite image via Google Maps and ground photography via Google Street View from the image center point. We also provided the date and center point coordinates for each annotation. All annotators were asked to label at least 70% of a tile within 20 to 60 minutes and were allowed to skip some tiles to best balance their labeling accuracy with their efficiency.Fig. 2Sentinel-2 tile and example reference annotation provided as part of interpreter training. This example was used to illustrate the Flooded vegetation class, which is distinguished by small “mottled” areas of water mixed with vegetation near a riverbed. Also note that some areas of the tile are left unlabeled.Full size imageImage preprocessingWe prepared Sentinel-2 imagery in a number of ways to accommodate both annotation and training workflows. An overview of the preprocessing workflow is shown in Fig. 3.Fig. 3Training inputs workflow. Annotations created using Sentinel-2 Level 2 A Surface Reflectance imagery are paired with masked and normalized Sentinel-2 Level 1 C Top of Atmosphere imagery, and inputs are augmented to create training inputs used for modeling. Cloud and shadow masking involves a three-step process that combines the Sentinel-2 Cloud Probability (S2C) product with the Cloud Displacement Index (CDI), which is used to correct over-masking of bright non-cloud targets” and directional distance transform (DDT), which is used to remove the expected path of shadows based on sun-sensor geometry.Full size imageFor training data collection, we used the Sentinel-2 Level-2A (L2A) product, which provides radiometrically calibrated surface reflectance (SR) processed using the Sen2Cor software package24. This advanced level of processing was advantageous for annotation, as it attempts to remove inter-scene variability due to solar distance, zenith angle, and atmospheric conditions. However, systematically produced Sentinel-2 SR products are currently only available from 2017 onwards. Therefore, for our modeling approach, we used the Level-1C (L1C) product, which has been generated since the beginning of the Sentinel-2 program in 2015. The L1C product represents Top-of-Atmosphere (TOA) reflectance measurements and is not subject to a change in processing algorithm in the future. We note that for any L2A image, there is a corresponding L1C image, allowing us to directly map annotations performed using L2A imagery to the L1C imagery used in model training. All bands except for B1, B8A, B9, and B10 were kept, with all bands bilinearly upsampled to 10 m for both training and inference.In addition to our preliminary cloud filtering in training image selection, we adopted and applied a novel masking solution that combines several existing products and techniques. Our procedure is to first take the 10 m Sentinel-2 Cloud Probability (S2C) product available in Earth Engine25 and join it to our working set of Sentinel-2 scenes such that each image is paired with the corresponding mask. We compute a cloud mask by thresholding S2C using a cloud probability of 65% to identify pixels that are likely obscured by cloud cover. We then apply the Cloud Displacement Index (CDI) algorithm26 and threshold the result to produce a second cloud mask, which is intersected with the S2C mask to reduce errors of commission by removing bright non-cloud targets based on Sentinel-2 parallax effects. We finally intersect this sub-cirrus mask with a threshold on the Sentinel-2 cirrus band (B10) using the thresholding constants proposed for the CDI algorithm26, and take a morphological opening of this as our cloudy pixel mask. This mask is computed at 20 m resolution.In order to remove cloud shadows, we extend the cloudy pixel mask 5 km in the direction opposite the solar azimuthal angle using the scene level metadata “SOLAR_AZIMUTH_ANGLE” and a directional distance transform (DDT) operation in Earth Engine. The final cloud and shadow mask is resampled to 100 m to decrease both the data volume and processing time. The resulting mask is applied to Sentinel-2 images used for training and inference such that unmasked pixels represent observations that are likely to be cloud- and shadow-free.The distribution of Sentinel-2 reflectance values are highly compressed towards the low end of the sensor range, with the remainder mostly occupied by high return phenomena like snow and ice, bare ground, and specular reflection. To combat this imbalance, we introduce a normalization scheme that better utilizes the useful range of Sentinel-2 reflectance values for each band. We first log-transform the raw reflectance values to equalize the long tail of highly reflective surfaces, then remap percentiles of the log-transformed values to points on a sigmoid function. The latter is done to bound on (0, 1) without truncation, and condenses the extreme end members of reflectances to a smaller range.To account for an annotation skill differential between the non-expert and expert groups, we one-hot encode the labeled pixels, and smooth them according to the confidence in a binary label of the individual annotator (expert/non-expert): this is effectively linearly interpolating the distributions per-pixel from their one-hot encoding (i.e. a vector of binary variables for each class label) to uniform probability. We used 0.2 for experts, and 0.3 for non-experts (i.e. ~82% confidence on the true class for experts and ~73% confidence on the true class for the non-expert. We note that these values approximately mirror the Non-Expert to Expert Consensus agreement as discussed in the Technical Validation section). This is akin to standard label-smoothing27,28, with the addition that the degree of smoothing is associated with annotation confidence.We generate a pair of weights for each pixel in an augmented example designed to compensate for class imbalance across the training set and weight high-frequency spatial features at the inputs during “synthesis” (discussed further in the following section). We also include a weight per pixel designed to attenuate labels in the center of labeled polygons where human annotators often missed small details using a simple edge finding kernel.We finally perform a series of augmentations (random rotation and random per-band contrasting) to our input data to improve generalizability and performance of our model. These augmentations are applied four times to each example to yield our final training dataset of examples paired with class distributions, masks, and weights (Fig. 3).Model trainingOur broad approach to transferring the supervised label data to a system that could be applied globally was to train a Fully Convolutional Neural Network (FCNN)29. Conceptually, this approach transforms pre-processed Sentinel-2 optical bands to a discrete probability distribution of the classes in our taxonomy on the basis of spatial context. This is done per-image with the assumption that sufficient spatial and spectral context is available to recover one of our taxonomic labels at a pixel. There are a few notable benefits to such an approach: namely that given the generalizability of modern deep neural networks, it is possible, as we will show, to produce a single model that achieves acceptable agreement with hand-digitized expert annotations globally. Furthermore, since model outputs are generated from a single image and a single model, it is straightforward to scale as each Sentinel-2 L1C image need only be observed once.Although applying CNN modeling, including FCNN, to recover LULC is not a new idea30,31,32, we introduce a number of novel innovations that achieve state-of-the-art performance on LULC globally with a neural network architecture almost 100x smaller than architectures used for semantic segmentation or regression of ground-level camera imagery (specifically compared to U-Net33 and DeepLab v3+34 architectures). Our approach also leverages weak supervision by way of a synthesis pathway: this pathway includes a replica of the labeling model architecture that learns a mapping from estimated probabilities back to the input reflectances, in a way, a reverse LULC classifier that offers both multi-tasking and a constraint to overcome deficiencies in human labeling (Fig. 4).Fig. 4Training protocol used to recover the labeling model. The bottom row shows the progression from a normalized Sentinel-2 L1C image, to class probabilities, to synthesized Sentinel-2. The dashed red and blue arrows show how the labeling model is optimized with respect to both the class probability and synthesis pathway, and the synthesis model is optimized only with respect to the synthesized imagery. The example image is retrieved from Earth Engine using ee.Image(‘GOOGLE/DYNAMICWORLD/V1/20190517T083601_20190517T083604_T37UET’).Full size imageNear real-time inferenceUsing Earth Engine in combination with Cloud AI Platform, it is possible to handle enormous quantities of satellite data and apply custom image processing and classification methods using a simple scaling paradigm (Fig. 5). To generate our NRT products, we apply the normalization described earlier to the raw Sentinel-2 L1C imagery and pass all normalized bands except B1, B8A, B9 and B10 after bilinear upscaling to ee.Model.predictImage. This output is then masked using our cloud mask derived from the unnormalized L1C image. Creation of these images is triggered automatically when new Sentinel-2 L1C and S2C images are available. The NRT collection is continuously updated with new results. For a full Sentinel-2 tile (roughly 100 km x 100 km), predictions are completed on the order of 45 minutes. In total, we evaluate ~12,000 Sentinel-2 scenes per day, processing half on average due to a filter criteria on the CLOUDY_PIXEL_PERCENTAGE metadata of 35%. A new Dynamic World LULC image is processed approximately every 14.4 s.Fig. 5Near-Real-Time (NRT) prediction workflow. Input imagery is normalized following the same protocol used in training and the trained model is applied to generate land cover predictions. Predicted results are masked to remove cloud and cloud shadow artifacts using Sentinel-2 cloud probabilities (S2C), the Cloud Displacement Index (CDI) and a directional distance transform (DDT), then added to the Dynamic World image collection.Full size image More