2,685 research outputs found
An experimental evaluation of cattail (Typha spp.) cutting depths on subsequent regrowth
Citation: Moorberg, C. & Ahlers, A. (2020). An experimental evaluation of cattail (Typha spp.) cutting depths on subsequent regrowth.Cattail (Typha spp.) expansions can negatively affect both native wetland flora and fauna diversity, and active management is often needed to maintain wetland habitat quality. Cattail removal is often non-permanent, requiring repeated treatments to retard reestablishment. Mechanically cutting cattails is a common management technique, but it is unclear what cutting depths are optimal. We conducted an experiment at Cheyenne Bottoms Wildlife Area (Kansas, USA) during 2017-2019 to address this question. We established a randomized complete block design experiment with four blocks and three cutting treatments in July 2017, including cattail cut above water, cut below water, and an uncut control. We hypothesized that cattails cut below water would have reduced gas-exchange capabilities due to flooded aerenchyma. We quantified emergent stem densities in each plot in September 2017 to assess the effectiveness of simulated management actions. The above water treatment had significantly fewer total stems than both the control (p = 0.0003) and the below water treatments (p = 0.0203). The above water treatment also had significantly fewer stems than the control treatment (p = 0.0032). Our results suggest that management efforts focused on cutting cattails below water slow cattail reestablishment
Neutrino diagnostics of ultra-high energy cosmic ray protons
The energy at which cosmic rays from extra-galactic sources begin to dominate
over those from galactic sources is an important open question in astroparticle
physics. A natural candidate is the energy at the 'ankle' in the approximately
power-law energy spectrum which is indicative of a cross-over from a falling
galactic component to a flatter extra-galactic component. The transition can
occur without such flattening but this requires some degree of conspiracy of
the spectral shapes and normalizations of the two components. Nevertheless it
has been argued that extra-galactic sources of cosmic ray protons which undergo
interactions on the CMB can reproduce the energy spectrum below the ankle if
the cross-over energy is as low as the 'second knee' in the spectrum. This low
cross-over model is constrained by direct measurements by the Pierre Auger
Observatory which indicate a heavier composition at these energies. We
demonstrate that upper limits on the cosmic diffuse neutrino flux provide a
complementary constraint on the proton fraction in ultra-high energy
extra-galactic cosmic rays and forthcoming data from IceCube will provide a
definitive test of this model.Comment: 12 pages, 15 figures, accepted for publication in PR
Quantum Decoherence of Photons in the Presence of Hidden U(1)s
Many extensions of the standard model predict the existence of hidden sectors
that may contain unbroken abelian gauge groups. We argue that in the presence
of quantum decoherence photons may convert into hidden photons on sufficiently
long time scales and show that this effect is strongly constrained by CMB and
supernova data. In particular, Planck-scale suppressed decoherence scales D ~
E^2/M_Pl (characteristic for non-critical string theories) are incompatible
with the presence of even a single hidden U(1). The corresponding bounds on the
decoherence scale are four orders of magnitude stronger than analogous bounds
derived from solar and reactor neutrino data and complement other bounds
derived from atmospheric neutrino data.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figure
Clustering in a precipitate free GeMn magnetic semiconductor
We present the first study relating structural parameters of precipitate free
Ge0.95Mn0.05 films to magnetisation data. Nanometer sized clusters - areas with
increased Mn content on substitutional lattice sites compared to the host
matrix - are detected in transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis. The
films show no overall spontaneous magnetisation at all down to 2K. The TEM and
magnetisation results are interpreted in terms of an assembly of
superparamagnetic moments developing in the dense distribution of clusters.
Each cluster individually turns ferromagnetic below an ordering temperature
which depends on its volume and Mn content.Comment: accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Lett. (2006). High resolution
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Power-Law Behavior of Power Spectra in Low Prandtl Number Rayleigh-Benard Convection
The origin of the power-law decay measured in the power spectra of low
Prandtl number Rayleigh-Benard convection near the onset of chaos is addressed
using long time numerical simulations of the three-dimensional Boussinesq
equations in cylindrical domains. The power-law is found to arise from
quasi-discontinuous changes in the slope of the time series of the heat
transport associated with the nucleation of dislocation pairs and roll
pinch-off events. For larger frequencies, the power spectra decay exponentially
as expected for time continuous deterministic dynamics.Comment: (10 pages, 6 figures
Rayleigh-B\'{e}nard convection in a homeotropically aligned nematic liquid crystal
We report experimental results for convection near onset in a thin layer of a
homeotropically aligned nematic liquid crystal heated from below as a function
of the temperature difference and the applied vertical magnetic
field and compare them with theoretical calculations. The experiments cover
the field range 8 \alt h \equiv H/ H_{F} \alt 80 ( is the
Fr\'eedericksz field). For less than a codimension-two field the bifurcation is subcritical and oscillatory, with travelling- and
standing-wave transients. Beyond the bifurcation is stationary and
subcritical until a tricritical field is reached, beyond which it
is supercritical. The bifurcation sequence as a function of found in the
experiment confirms the qualitative aspects of the theoretical predictions.
However, the value of is about 10% higher than the predicted value and
the results for are systematically below the theory by about 2% at small
and by as much as 7% near . At , is continuous within
the experimental resolution whereas the theory indicates a 7% discontinuity.
The theoretical tricritical field is somewhat below the
experimental one. The fully developed flow above for is
chaotic. For the subcritical stationary bifurcation also
leads to a chaotic state. The chaotic states persist upon reducing the Rayleigh
number below , i.e. the bifurcation is hysteretic. Above the tricritical
field , we find a bifurcation to a time independent pattern which within
our resolution is non-hysteretic.Comment: 15 pages incl. 23 eps figure
Spiral Defect Chaos in Large Aspect Ratio Rayleigh-Benard Convection
We report experiments on convection patterns in a cylindrical cell with a
large aspect ratio. The fluid had a Prandtl number of approximately 1. We
observed a chaotic pattern consisting of many rotating spirals and other
defects in the parameter range where theory predicts that steady straight rolls
should be stable. The correlation length of the pattern decreased rapidly with
increasing control parameter so that the size of a correlated area became much
smaller than the area of the cell. This suggests that the chaotic behavior is
intrinsic to large aspect ratio geometries.Comment: Preprint of experimental paper submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett. May 12
1993. Text is preceeded by many TeX macros. Figures 1 and 2 are rather lon
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