Bio-inspired Dual-auger Self-burrowing Robots in Granular Media

It has been found that certain biological organisms, such as Erodium seeds and Scincus scincus, are capable of effectively and efficiently burying themselves in soil. Biological Organisms employ various locomotion modes, including coiling and uncoiling motions, asymmetric body twisting, and undulating movements that generate motion waves. The coiling-uncoiling motion drives a seed awn to bury itself like a corkscrew, while sandfish skinks use undulatory swimming, which can be thought of as a 2D version of helical motion. Studying burrowing behavior aims to understand how animals navigate underground, whether in their natural burrows or underground habitats, and to implement this knowledge in solving geotechnical penetration problems. Underground horizontal burrowing is challenging due to overcoming the resistance of interaction forces of granular media to move forward. Inspired by the burrowing behavior of seed-awn and sandfish skink, a horizontal self-burrowing robot is developed. The robot is driven by two augers and stabilized by a fin structure. The robot's burrowing behavior is studied in a laboratory setting. It is found that rotation and propulsive motion along the axis of the auger's helical shape significantly reduce granular media's resistance against horizontal penetration by breaking kinematic symmetry or granular media boundary. Additional thrusting and dragging tests were performed to examine the propulsive and resistive forces and unify the observed burrowing behaviors. The tests revealed that the rotation of an auger not only reduces the resistive force and generates a propulsive force, which is influenced by the auger geometry, rotational speed, and direction. As a result, the burrowing behavior of the robot can be predicted using the geometry-rotation-force relations.Comment: Master's thesis, 62 pages, 40 figures, ProQues

Remote Sensing and the Earth

A text book on remote sensing, as part of the earth resources Skylab programs, is presented. The fundamentals of remote sensing and its application to agriculture, land use, geology, water and marine resources, and environmental monitoring are summarized

Hanford Site National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Characterization

This document describes the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Hanford Site environment. It is updated each year and is intended to provide a consistent description of the Hanford Site environment for the many National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) documents being prepared by DOE contractors. No statements of significance or environmental consequences are provided. This year's report is the thirteenth revision of the original document published in 1988 and is (until replaced by the fourteenth revision) the only version that is relevant for use in the preparation of Hanford NEPA, State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA), and Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) documents. The two chapters included in this document (Chapters 4 and 6) are numbered to correspond to the chapters where such information is typically presented in environmental impact statements (Weiss) and other Hanford Site NEPA or CERCLA documentation. Chapter 4.0 (Affected Environment) describes Hanford Site climate and meteorology, geology, hydrology, ecology, cultural, archaeological, and historical resources, socioeconomics, occupational safety, and noise. Chapter 6.0 (Statutory and Regulatory Requirements) describes federal and state laws and regulations, DOE directives and permits, and presidential executive orders that are applicable to the NEPA documents prepared for Hanford Site activities

Explaining Late Holocene Hunter-Gatherer Provisioning and Landscape Use in the Sacramento Valley, California

This study addresses how hunter-gatherers provision themselves when they have a large, dense population and are faced with constraints like small territories and reduced mobility. These conditions were present in the Sacramento Valley, California at the end of the Late Period (1,000 to 150 cal BP). The problem of provisioning is examined using intensification theory to hypothesize three solutions: diversification, specialization, and householding. Diversification entails a widening of the diet to include lower ranked, costlier to process resources acquired within constrained territories. Specialization includes a focus on anadromous fish as a commodity for trade to obtain resources not available in small, constrained territories. Householding places economic decision making at the smallest economic unit of the household instead of at the large scale of the group. Individual decisions contribute to the whole household. Each hypothesis has specific expectations for settlement patterns, technology assemblages, and economic patterns, the latter focusing on the zooarchaeological record.A database of regional site data including site locations and archaeological assemblages from CA-TEH-2203 and CA-TEH-2634 were examined to answer the question about provisioning that is driving this research. The regional database covered an approximately 435 km2 study area and included occupation sites with clearly defined chronological components dating from the Early Period (5,000 cal BP) through the Protohistoric Period (early 19th century), as well as other sites like hunting locations and lithic scatters. The site assemblages contain over 50,000 artifacts including formal tools like projectile points, edge-modified flakes, and groundstone; basalt, chert; and obsidian debitage; fire-affected rock, and a robust vertebrate and invertebrate faunal collection. The 6,000-year time span of the archaeological deposits at the two sites provided an opportunity to view macroeconomic changes at a large scale. The results of the study found a shift in economic patterns from a group aquatic specialization focused on salmon in the Early Period (5,000 to 2,500 cal BP) to a group intensified diversified diet with a wide range of terrestrial and aquatic vertebrates in the Middle Period (2,500 to 1,300 cal BP). The introduction of the bow and arrow near the beginning of the Late Phase I Period (1,000 to 500 cal BP) changed the socioeconomic organization from the group to the household unit. This changed settlement patterns as larger groups fissioned into smaller ones, changed technology to include some highly specialized tools like the bow and hopper mortar, and changed diet from a broad diverse one to one reliant on a few staple foods supplemented by other resources as needed. This pattern of intensified householding was well developed by the Late Phase II Period (500 to 150 cal BP)

Forest landscapes and global change. New frontiers in management, conservation and restoration. Proceedings of the IUFRO Landscape Ecology Working Group International Conference

This volume contains the contributions of numerous participants at the IUFRO Landscape Ecology Working Group International Conference, which took place in Bragança, Portugal, from 21 to 24 of September 2010. The conference was dedicated to the theme Forest Landscapes and Global Change - New Frontiers in Management, Conservation and Restoration. The 128 papers included in this book follow the structure and topics of the conference. Sections 1 to 8 include papers relative to presentations in 18 thematic oral and two poster sessions. Section 9 is devoted to a wide-range of landscape ecology fields covered in the 12 symposia of the conference. The Proceedings of the IUFRO Landscape Ecology Working Group International Conference register the growth of scientific interest in forest landscape patterns and processes, and the recognition of the role of landscape ecology in the advancement of science and management, particularly within the context of emerging physical, social and political drivers of change, which influence forest systems and the services they provide. We believe that these papers, together with the presentations and debate which took place during the IUFRO Landscape Ecology Working Group International Conference – Bragança 2010, will definitively contribute to the advancement of landscape ecology and science in general. For their additional effort and commitment, we thank all the participants in the conference for leaving this record of their work, thoughts and science

Evaluation, maintenance and improvement of biodiversity for environmental protection and crop nutritional properties

Biodiversity is expected to be an assurance for agroecosystem resilience because it seems fundamental to preserve basic ecosystem services (ES). To examine in depth these topics, the present research aims: a) to evaluate, in real farms, the environmental sustainability by measuring the efficiency of some key ES in agroecosystems with different management; b) to search for relationships among biodiversity groups and ES and c) to explore the existence of correlations between different bioindication methodologies. The basic hypothesis is that a high efficiency of the ES can improve the environmental sustainability of agroecosystems. ES were studied by using several bioindicators associated to the functional biodiversity, which guarantees these useful services to crops. The chosen bioindicators, representing the principal trophic levels, were appropriate tools to investigate the complexity of food web in the crop field. The chosen bioindicators providing basic ES were: 1. Earthworms, soil structure drivers, responsible for air and water circulation and drainage, for organic matter (OM) decomposition and for cast enriching activity; 2. Mesofauna (including mites and springtails), which comprises mainly detritivores and small preys and predators; 3. Soil bacteria and fungi, promoters of OM decomposition, nutrient cycles, soil enzymatic activities and improvement of soil-root-water relationships; 4. Key Predators (including carabids) and parasitoids, natural control agents for crop pest outbreaks; 5. Crop Weeds and field margin vegetation, important reporters of soil conditions, can act as shelters for overwintering, provide alternative food sources for useful fauna and can attract pollinators in the field area. The research was carried out during 2012-2013 in five organic-biodynamic and five conventional horticultural fields in the Venice and Treviso provinces. The methodologies adopted to sample biodiversity of these bioindicators were: 30x30x20cm soil core hand sorting with irritant mustard powder water suspension for earthworms; Berlese-Tullgren extractor for mesofauna; Automated Ribosomal Intergenic Spacer Analysis and 16S and ITS sequencing performed in a 454 system (Roche) for overall communities of soil bacteria and fungi, PCR and qRT-PCR with specific primers for Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (AMF); Visual control on the aboveground part of crop for phytophagous agent and predator communities; Indoor breeding for parasitoid communities; Random nested data collection for weed communities. After sampling with the aim to know the biodiversity guilds, other innovative techniques were exploited to measure environmental quality. Regarding the component of soil mesofauna, the QBS-ar index was applied to assess the status of soil alteration but not performable by a taxonomically inexperienced operator. In order to analyse earthworms, the new QBS-e index based on earthworm ecological categories, similar to QBS-ar but easier to use also by non-experts, was successfully applied. To measure microbiological activity and biomass, soil respiration rate assay, Fluorescein Diacetate hydrolysis test, dsDNA quantification together with key soil enzymatic activities were carried out along with probes with Fertimeters , simple devices made of silk and cotton yarns working as reporters of organic matter degradation. In order to assess the natural pest control, besides the quantification of predator presence in the field, the parasitization and hyperparasitization percentages regarding one of the most problematic cabbage pest (Plutella xylostella) were calculated. To quantify the extent of pollinator and useful fauna attraction of weed communities, an Entomophily Index (E.I.) was adopted that takes into account the presence and abundance of insect-pollinated species. Some conclusive remarks were: 1.Taxa composition of a bioindicator group does not always change according to different agroecosystem managements. There seem to be more sensitive bioindicators to management practices, such as predators and parasitoids (belonging to higher trophic levels), than others, such as phytophagous agents and weeds. 2.Biodiversity, simply described with classical diversity indexes found in literature, seemed not to be associated to the ES efficiency, probably because the link has to be searched in the complexity of interactions among all biodiversity groups. 3.Agroecosystems managed in an organic-biodynamic way demonstrated to have more efficient ES (almost all among the ones measured) both in the aboveground and in the epigeal sectors and therefore this management system can be defined as more sustainable from environmental point of view. 4.Finally a great quantity of correlations emerged between all analysed indicators (biotic and functional): these could be very useful to better planning future programs of monitoring of agroecosystem condition

Друга міжнародна конференція зі сталого майбутнього: екологічні, технологічні, соціальні та економічні питання (ICSF 2021). Кривий Ріг, Україна, 19-21 травня 2021 року

Second International Conference on Sustainable Futures: Environmental, Technological, Social and Economic Matters (ICSF 2021). Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, May 19-21, 2021.Друга міжнародна конференція зі сталого майбутнього: екологічні, технологічні, соціальні та економічні питання (ICSF 2021). Кривий Ріг, Україна, 19-21 травня 2021 року