Peatlands and plantations in Sumatra, Indonesia : Complex realities for resource governance, rural development and climate change mitigation

Peatlands play a crucial role in Indonesia's economic development, and in its stated goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Improved peatland management - including a national moratorium on the granting of any new conversion licenses - forms a cornerstone of Indonesia's climate change mitigation commitment. At the same time, rapid expansion of the plantation sector is driving wide-scale drainage and conversion of peat swamp ecosystems. The province of Riau, in central Sumatra, finds itself at the crossroads of these conflicting agendas. This essay presents a case study of three islands on Riau's east coast affected by industrial timber plantation concessions. It examines the divergent experiences, perceptions and responses of communities on the islands. A mix of dramatic protests, localised everyday actions and constructive dialogue has succeeded in delaying or perhaps halting one of the concessions, while negotiations and contestation with the other two continue. With the support of regional and national non-governmental organisations and local government, communities are pursuing alternative development strategies, including the cultivation of sago, which requires no peat drainage. While a powerful political economy of state and corporate actors shapes the contours of socio-environmental change, local social movements can alter trajectories of change, promoting incremental improvements and alternative pathways

Invasion Ecology goes to town : from disdain to sympathy

How can one understand the increasing interest in “urban invasions”, or biological invasions in urban environments? We argue that interest in urban invasions echoes a broader evolution in how ecologists view “the city” in relation to “the natural”. Previously stark categorical distinctions between urban and natural, human and wild, city and ecology have foundered. Drawing on conceptual material and an analysis of key texts, we first show how the ecological sciences in general – and then invasion science in particular – previously had a blind spot for cities, despite a number of important historical and continental European exceptions. Then, we document the advent of an urban turn in ecology and, more recently, in invasion ecology, and how this has challenged fundamental concepts about “nativity”, “naturalness”, and human agency in nature. The urban turn necessitates more explicit and direct attention to human roles and judgements. Ecology has moved from contempt (or indifference) for cities, towards interest or even sympathy

The Effect of Hot Gas in WMAP's First Year Data

By cross-correlating templates constructed from the 2 Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) Extended Source (XSC) catalogue with WMAP's first year data, we search for the thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich signature induced by hot gas in the local Universe. Assuming that galaxies trace the distribution of hot gas, we select regions on the sky with the largest projected density of galaxies. Under conservative assumptions on the amplitude of foreground residuals, we find a temperature decrement of -35 $\pm$ 7 $\mu$K ($\sim 5\sigma$ detection level, the highest reported so far) in the $\sim$ 26 square degrees of the sky containing the largest number of galaxies per solid angle. We show that most of the reported signal is caused by known galaxy clusters which, when convolved with the average beam of the WMAP W band channel, subtend a typical angular size of 20--30 arcmins. Finally, after removing from our analyses all pixels associated with known optical and X-ray galaxy clusters, we still find a tSZ decrement of -96 $\pm$ 37 $\mu$K in pixels subtending about $\sim$ 0.8 square degrees on the sky. Most of this signal is coming from five different cluster candidates in the Zone of Avoidance (ZoA), present in the Clusters In the ZoA (CIZA) catalogue. We found no evidence that structures less bound than clusters contribute to the tSZ signal present in the WMAP data.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, matches accepted version in ApJ Letter

Distribution and growth dynamics of invasive goldenrod (Solidago canadensis) in its introduced range in Estonia, and some Australian comparisons

Understanding the distribution and population dynamics of invasive plant species is fundamental to our capacity to appropriately predict and manage plant invasions. The invasion biology of non-native Solidago canadensis in Estonia was investigated for the first time by assessing its distribution patterns and growth dynamics. First, fifty-two peri-urban populations were surveyed, and population location, size, adjacent communities, number of shoots as well as shoot height were recorded. Then, thirty genets were excavated from previously surveyed populations in order to analyze their age and growth traits in the vicinity of Tartu. The majority of S. canadensis populations were small, i.e. occupying less than 50 m2, had 1 to 50 plants per population and were located predominantly on disturbed roadsides. The surveyed populations were young, with the average age of genets estimated to be five years at the time of sampling in 2006. We suggest that S. canadensis is well adapted to a wide range of habitats but predominantly occurs in human-disturbed habitats adjacent to settlements and roads. We found that Solidago canadensis genet age did not affect significantly its growth traits suggesting that growth traits are similar between younger and older genets

Farmer-Managed Natural Regeneration Enhances Rural Livelihoods in Dryland West Africa

Declining agricultural productivity, land clearance and climate change are compounding the vulnerability of already marginal rural populations in West Africa. 'Farmer-Managed Natural Regeneration' (FMNR) is an approach to arable land restoration and reforestation that seeks to reconcile sustained food production, conservation of soils and protection of biodiversity. It involves selecting and protecting the most vigorous stems regrowing from live stumps of felled trees, pruning off all other stems, and pollarding the chosen stems to grow into straight trunks. Despite widespread enthusiasm and application of FMNR by environmental management and development projects, to date, no research has provided a measure of the aggregate livelihood impact of community adoption of FMNR. This paper places FMNR in the context of other agroforestry initiatives, then seeks to quantify the value of livelihood outcomes of FMNR. We review published and unpublished evidence about the impacts of FMNR, and present a new case study that addresses gaps in the evidence base. The case study focuses on a FMNR project in the district of Talensi in the semi-arid Upper East Region in Ghana. The case study employs a Social Return on Investment (SROI) analysis, which identifies proxy financial values for non-economic as well as economic benefits. The results demonstrate income and agricultural benefits, but also show that asset creation, increased consumption of wild resources, health improvements and psycho-social benefits created more value in FMNR-adopting households during the period of the study than increases in income and agricultural yields

The Search for the Missing Baryons at Low Redshift

At low redshift, only about one-tenth of the known baryons lie in galaxies or the hot gas seen in galaxy clusters and groups. Models posit that these "missing baryons" are in gaseous form in overdense filaments that connect the much denser virialized groups and clusters. About 30% are cool (<1E5 K) and are detected in Ly alpha absorption studies, but about half is predicted to lie in the 1E5-1E7 K regime. Gas is detected in the 2-5E5 K range through OVI absorption studies (7% of the baryons) and possibly near 1E5 K from broad Ly absorption (20% of the baryons). Hotter gas (0.5-2E6 K) is detected at zero redshift by OVII and OVIII K X-ray absorption, and the OVII line strengths seem to correlate with the Galactic soft X-ray background, so it is probably produced by Galactic Halo gas, rather than a Local Group medium. There are no compelling detections of the intergalactic hot gas (0.5-10E6 K) either in absorption or emission and these upper limits are consistent with theoretical models. Claimed X-ray absorption lines are not confirmed, while most of the claims of soft emission are attributable to artifacts of background subtraction and field-flattening. The missing baryons should become detectable with moderate improvements in instrumental sensitivity.Comment: To appear in Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Vol 45 (Sept 2007) 44 pages, including 11 figure

Twenty Years of Timing SS433

We present observations of the optical ``moving lines'' in spectra of the Galactic relativistic jet source SS433 spread over a twenty year baseline from 1979 to 1999. The red/blue-shifts of the lines reveal the apparent precession of the jet axis in SS433, and we present a new determination of the precession parameters based on these data. We investigate the amplitude and nature of time- and phase-dependent deviations from the kinematic model for the jet precession, including an upper limit on any precessional period derivative of $\dot P < 5 \times 10^{-5}$. We also dicuss the implications of these results for the origins of the relativistic jets in SS433.Comment: 21 pages, including 9 figures. To appear in the Astrophysical Journa

OAO-3 end of mission tests report

Twelve engineering type tests were performed on several subsystems and experiment(s) of the OAO 3 spacecraft near its end of mission. The systems tested include: Princeton experiment package (PEP), fine error system guidance, inertial reference unit, star trackers, heat pipes, thermal control coatings, command and data handling, solar array; batteries, and onboard processor/power boost regulator. Generally, the systems performed well for the 8 1/2 years life of OAO 3, although some degradation was noted in the sensitivity of PEP and in the absorptivity of the skin coatings. Battery life was prolonged during the life of the mission in large part by carefully monitoring the charge-discharge cycle with careful attention not to overcharge

Investigating the Effects of Daily Inventory Record Inaccuracy in Multichannel Retailing

Inventory record inaccuracy (IRI) challenges multichannel retailers in fulfilling both brick-and-mortar and direct channel demands from their distribution centers. The nature and damaging effects of IRI largely go unnoticed because retailers assume daily IRI remains stable over time within the replenishment cycle. While research shows that a high level of IRI is damaging, in reality the level of IRI can change every day. We posit that daily IRI variation increases the uncertainty in the system to negatively affect inventory and service levels. Our research uses data collected daily from a multichannel retailer to ground a discrete-event simulation experiment. Going beyond testing just the level of IRI, we evaluate daily IRI variation\u27s impact on operating performance. What we find in our empirical data challenges extant assumptions regarding the characteristics of IRI. In addition, our simulation results reveal that daily IRI variation has a paradoxical effect: it increases inventory levels while also decreasing service levels. Moreover, we also reveal that brick-and-mortar and direct channels are impacted differently. Our findings show that assumptions and practices that ignore daily IRI variation need revising. For managers, we demonstrate how periods of multiday counting help assess their daily IRI variation and indicate what the causes may be

The Impact of the Introduction of Total Mesorectal Excision on Local Recurrence Rate and Survival in Rectal Cancer: Long-Term Results

Purpose: To investigate the influence of the introduction of total mesorectal excision (TME) on local recurrence rate and survival in patients with rectal cancer. Methods: A total of 171 consecutive patients underwent anterior or abdominoperineal resection for primary rectal cancer. When the TME technique was introduced, the clinical setting, including the surgeons, remained the same. Group 1 (1993-95, n=53) underwent conventional surgery and group 2 (1995-2001, n=118) underwent TME. All patients were followed for 7years or until death. Results: Between the two groups, no statistically significant differences were present with regards to patient-, treatment-, or tumor-related characteristics apart from the time point of radiotherapy. The total local recurrence rates were 11 of 53 (20.8%) in group 1 and 7 of 118 (5.9%) in group 2, and the rates of isolated local recurrences were 6 of 53 (11.3%) in group 1 and 2 of 118 (1.7%) in group 2. Both differences were highly statistically significant. The disease-free survival in groups 1 and 2 was 60.4 and 65.3% at 5years, and 58.5 and 65.3% at 7years, respectively. Excluding patients with synchronous or metachronous distant metastasis from the analysis, both the disease-free survival and the cancer-specific survival were statistically significantly better in group 2 than in group 1. No statistically significant difference between the two groups was detected regarding the overall survival. Conclusions: The introduction of TME led to an impressive reduction of the local recurrence rate. Survival is mainly determined by the occurrence of distant metastasis, but TME seems to improve survival in patients without systemic diseas