2,430 research outputs found
Environmental factors influence both abundance and genetic diversity in a widespread bird species.
Genetic diversity is one of the key evolutionary variables that correlate with population size, being of critical importance for population viability and the persistence of species. Genetic diversity can also have important ecological consequences within populations, and in turn, ecological factors may drive patterns of genetic diversity. However, the relationship between the genetic diversity of a population and how this interacts with ecological processes has so far only been investigated in a few studies. Here, we investigate the link between ecological factors, local population size, and allelic diversity, using a field study of a common bird species, the house sparrow (Passer domesticus). We studied sparrows outside the breeding season in a confined small valley dominated by dispersed farms and small-scale agriculture in southern France. Population surveys at 36 locations revealed that sparrows were more abundant in locations with high food availability. We then captured and genotyped 891 house sparrows at 10 microsatellite loci from a subset of these locations (N = 12). Population genetic analyses revealed weak genetic structure, where each locality represented a distinct substructure within the study area. We found that food availability was the main factor among others tested to influence the genetic structure between locations. These results suggest that ecological factors can have strong impacts on both population size per se and intrapopulation genetic variation even at a small scale. On a more general level, our data indicate that a patchy environment and low dispersal rate can result in fine-scale patterns of genetic diversity. Given the importance of genetic diversity for population viability, combining ecological and genetic data can help to identify factors limiting population size and determine the conservation potential of populations
Polymer-Chain Adsorption Transition at a Cylindrical Boundary
In a recent letter, a simple method was proposed to generate solvable models
that predict the critical properties of statistical systems in hyperspherical
geometries. To that end, it was shown how to reduce a random walk in
dimensions to an anisotropic one-dimensional random walk on concentric
hyperspheres. Here, I construct such a random walk to model the
adsorption-desorption transition of polymer chains growing near an attractive
cylindrical boundary such as that of a cell membrane. I find that the fraction
of adsorbed monomers on the boundary vanishes exponentially when the adsorption
energy decreases towards its critical value. When the adsorption energy rises
beyond a certain value above the critical point whose scale is set by the
radius of the cell, the adsorption fraction exhibits a crossover to a linear
increase characteristic to polymers growing near planar boundaries.Comment: latex, 12 pages, 3 ps-figures, uuencode
Extremal Optimization for Graph Partitioning
Extremal optimization is a new general-purpose method for approximating
solutions to hard optimization problems. We study the method in detail by way
of the NP-hard graph partitioning problem. We discuss the scaling behavior of
extremal optimization, focusing on the convergence of the average run as a
function of runtime and system size. The method has a single free parameter,
which we determine numerically and justify using a simple argument. Our
numerical results demonstrate that on random graphs, extremal optimization
maintains consistent accuracy for increasing system sizes, with an
approximation error decreasing over runtime roughly as a power law t^(-0.4). On
geometrically structured graphs, the scaling of results from the average run
suggests that these are far from optimal, with large fluctuations between
individual trials. But when only the best runs are considered, results
consistent with theoretical arguments are recovered.Comment: 34 pages, RevTex4, 1 table and 20 ps-figures included, related papers
available at http://www.physics.emory.edu/faculty/boettcher
Surface states and the charge of a dust particle in a plasma
We investigate electron and ion surface states of a negatively charged dust
particle in a gas discharge and identify the charge of the particle with the
electron surface density bound in the polarization-induced short-range part of
the particle potential. On that scale, ions do not affect the charge. They are
trapped in the shallow states of the Coulomb tail of the potential and act only
as screening charges. Using orbital-motion limited electron charging fluxes and
the particle temperature as an adjustable parameter, we obtain excellent
agreement with experimental data.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, slightly revised manuscript including radius
dependence of the particle charg
A comparison of extremal optimization with flat-histogram dynamics for finding spin-glass ground states
We compare the performance of extremal optimization (EO), flat-histogram and
equal-hit algorithms for finding spin-glass ground states. The
first-passage-times to a ground state are computed. At optimal parameter of
tau=1.15, EO outperforms other methods for small system sizes, but equal-hit
algorithm is competitive to EO, particularly for large systems. Flat-histogram
and equal-hit algorithms offer additional advantage that they can be used for
equilibrium thermodynamic calculations. We also propose a method to turn EO
into a useful algorithm for equilibrium calculations.
Keywords: extremal optimization. flat-histogram algorithm, equal-hit
algorithm, spin-glass model, ground state.Comment: 10 LaTeX pages, 2 figure
Aging in lattice-gas models with constrained dynamics
We investigate the aging behavior of lattice-gas models with constrained
dynamics in which particle exchange with a reservoir is allowed. Such models
provide a particularly simple interpretation of aging phenomena as a slow
approach to criticality. They appear as the simplest three dimensional models
exhibiting a glassy behavior similar to that of mean field (low temperature
mode-coupling) models.Comment: 5 pages and 3 figures, REVTeX. Submitted to Europhysics Letter
Dynamics of concurrent and sequential Central European and Scandinavian heatwaves
In both 2003 and 2018 a heatwave in Scandinavia in July was followed by a heatwave in Central Europe in August. Whereas the transition occurred abruptly in 2003, it was gradual in 2018 with a 12-day period of concurrent heatwaves in both regions. This study contrasts these two events in the context of a heatwave climatology to elucidate the dynamics of both concurrent and sequential heatwaves. Central European and, in particular, concurrent heatwaves are climatologically associated with weak pressure gradient (WPG) events over Central Europe, which indicate the absence of synoptic activity over this region. One synoptic pattern associated with such events is Scandinavian blocking. This pattern is at the same time conducive to heatwaves in Scandinavia, thereby providing a mechanism by which Scandinavian and Central European heatwaves can co-occur. Further, the association of WPG events with Scandinavian blocking constitutes a mechanism that allows heatwaves to grow beyond the perimeter of the synoptic system from which they emanated. A trajectory analysis of the source regions of the low-level air incorporated in the heatwaves indicates rapidly changing air mass sources throughout the heatwaves in both regions, but no recycling of heat from one heatwave to the other. This finding is line with a composite analysis indicating that transitions between Scandinavian and Central European heatwaves are merely a random coincidence of heatwave onset and decay
Evidence for a Soft Nuclear Equation-of-State from Kaon Production in Heavy Ion Collisions
The production of pions and kaons has been measured in Au+Au collisions at
beam energies from 0.6 to 1.5 AGeV with the Kaon Spectrometer at SIS/GSI. The
K+ meson multiplicity per nucleon is enhanced in Au+Au collisions by factors up
to 6 relative to C+C reactions whereas the corresponding pion ratio is reduced.
The ratio of the K+ meson excitation functions for Au+Au and C+C collisions
increases with decreasing beam energy. This behavior is expected for a soft
nuclear equation-of-state.Comment: 14 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Let
Production of Charged Pions, Kaons and Antikaons in Relativistic C+C and C+Au Collisions
Production cross sections of charged pions, kaons and antikaons have been
measured in C+C and C+Au collisions at beam energies of 1.0 and 1.8 AGeV for
different polar emission angles. The kaon and antikaon energy spectra can be
described by Boltzmann distributions whereas the pion spectra exhibit an
additional enhancement at low energies. The pion multiplicity per participating
nucleon M(pi+)/A_part is a factor of about 3 smaller in C+Au than in C+C
collisions at 1.0 AGeV whereas it differs only little for the C and the Au
target at a beam energy of 1.8 AGeV. The K+ multiplicities per participating
nucleon M(K+)/A_part are independent of the target size at 1 AGeV and at 1.8
AGeV. The K- multiplicity per participating nucleon M(K-)/A_part is reduced by
a factor of about 2 in C+Au as compared to C+C collisions at 1.8 AGeV. This
effect might be caused by the absorption of antikaons in the heavy target
nucleus. Transport model calculations underestimate the K-/K+ ratio for C+C
collisions at 1.8 AGeV by a factor of about 4 if in-medium modifications of K
mesons are neglected.Comment: 19 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in Eur. Phys. J.
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