Improved measurements of the neutrino mixing angle Ɵ<inf>13</inf> with the double chooz detector

The Double Chooz experiment presents improved measurements of the neutrino mixing angle Ɵ13 using the data collected in 467.90 live days from a detector positioned at an average distance of 1050m from two reactor cores at the Chooz nuclear power plant. Several novel techniques have been developed to achieve significant reductions of the backgrounds and systematic uncertainties with respect to previous publications, whereas the efficiency of the (Formula Presented.) signal has increased. The value of Ɵ13 is measured to be sin22Ɵ13 = 0.090-0.029+0.032 from a fit to the observed energy spectrum. Deviations from the reactor (Formula Presented.) prediction observed above a prompt signal energy of 4MeV and possible explanations are also reported. A consistent value of Ɵ13 is obtained from a fit to the observed rate as a function of the reactor power independently of the spectrum shape and background estimation, demonstrating the robustness of the Ɵ13 measurement despite the observed distortion

Temperature effects on summer growth rates in the Antarctic scallop, Adamussium colbecki

Annual growth rates of Antarctic marine organisms are low compared to their relatives from warmer waters. Previous studies hypothesise that high food availability during austral spring–summer may enable Antarctic invertebrates to attain comparatively high short-term growth rates despite the low temperature. Neither a temperature-growth experiment with juvenile Adamussium colbecki (Smith 1902) nor the comparison of A. colbecki summer growth rates with an empirical scallop specific growth-to-temperature relationship could confirm this hypothesis. Hence, summer growth rates of young, immature A. colbecki are strongly affected by temperature, i.e. no uncoupling from temperature

Elemental Fingerprinting of Mussel Shells to Predict Population Sources and Redistribution Potential in the Gulf of Maine

As the climate warms, species that cannot tolerate changing conditions will only persist if they undergo range shifts. Redistribution ability may be particularly variable for benthic marine species that disperse as pelagic larvae in ocean currents. The blue mussel, Mytilus edulis, has recently experienced a warming-related range contraction in the southeastern USA and may face limitations to northward range shifts within the Gulf of Maine where dominant coastal currents flow southward. Thus, blue mussels might be especially vulnerable to warming, and understanding dispersal patterns is crucial given the species' relatively long planktonic larval period (>1 month). To determine whether trace elemental “fingerprints” incorporated in mussel shells could be used to identify population sources (i.e. collection locations), we assessed the geographic variation in shell chemistry of blue mussels collected from seven populations between Cape Cod, Massachusetts and northern Maine. Across this ∼500 km of coastline, we were able to successfully predict population sources for over two-thirds of juvenile individuals, with almost 80% of juveniles classified within one site of their collection location and 97% correctly classified to region. These results indicate that significant differences in elemental signatures of mussel shells exist between open-coast sites separated by ∼50 km throughout the Gulf of Maine. Our findings suggest that elemental “fingerprinting” is a promising approach for predicting redistribution potential of the blue mussel, an ecologically and economically important species in the region