Historical fire records at the two ends of Iberian Central Mountain system: Estrela massif and Ayllon massif

The Iberian Peninsula has a long history of fire, as the Central Mountain System, from the Estrela massif in Portugal to the Ayllón massif in Spain, is a major fire-prone area. Despite being part of the same natural region, there are different environmental, political and socio-economic contexts at either end, which might have led to distinct human causes of wildfires and associated fire regimes. The hypothesis for this research lies in the historical long-term relationship between wildfire risks and fire use practices within a context of landscape dynamics. In addition to conducting an analysis of the statistical period, a spatial and temporal multiscale approach was taken by reconstructing the historical record of prestatistical fires and land management history at both ends of the Central Mountain System. The main result is the different structural causes of wildland fires at either end of the Central Mountain System, with human factors being more important than environmental factors in determining the fire regimes in both contexts. The study shows that the development of the fire regime was non-linear in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, due to broader local human context factors which led to a shift in fire-use practicesLa Península Ibérica cuenta con una larga historia de incendios forestales. Es el caso del Sistema Central, desde la Sierra de Estrela en Portugal a la Sierra de Ayllón en España, aunque las causas humanas y el régimen de incendios difieren en función del contexto ambiental, político y socioeconómico en uno y otro extremo de la cordillera. La validación de la hipótesis de trabajo, sobre la relación histórica entre el riesgo de incendios y el uso del fuego en las actividades humanas, se ha llevado a partir de la reconstrucción del registro histórico de incendios forestales y de la gestión del territorio, y mediante el análisis multiescalar espacio- temporal de los incendios históricos y estadísticos. Como principal resultado se han identificado las causas estructurales de incendios en las sierras de Estrela y Ayllón. Además, se ha demostrado la influencia mayor de los aspectos humanos que de los físicos en la evolución del régimen de fuego. En conclusión, este trabajo evidencia la evolución discontinua de los incendios forestales a lo largo de los siglos XIX y XX debido a los factores contextuales humanos que influyen en el manejo tradicional del fuego a escala localinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Have historical land use/land cover changes triggered a fire regime shift in central Spain?

Fire is one of the main disturbance factors shaping the landscape, and landscape is a key driver of fire behavior. Considering the role played by land use and land cover (LULC) changes as the main driver of landscape dynamics, the aim of this study was to calculate and analyze (i) the real impact of fire on LULC changes and (ii) how these LULC changes were influencing the fire regime. We used methods of historical geography and socio-spatial systemic analysis for reconstructing and assessing the LULC change and fire history in six case studies in the Central Mountain System (Spain) from archival documentary sources and historical cartography. The main result is an accurate dataset of fire records from 1497 to 2013 and a set of LULC maps for three time points (1890s–1930s, 1956–1957, and the 2000s). We have shown the nonlinear evolution of the fire regime and the importance of the local scale when assessing the interaction of landscape dynamics and fire regime variation. Our findings suggest that LULC trends have been the main influencing factor of fire regime variation in Central Spain since the mid-19th centuryinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The Introduction of Historical and Cultural Values in the Sustainable Management of European Forests

Document produced for the Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forest in Europe by Mauro Agnoletti, Steven Anderson, Elisabeth Johann, Mart Kulvik, Andrey Kushlin, Peter Mayer, Cristina Montiel Molina, John Parrotta, Ian D. Rotherham, Eirini Saratsi</jats:p

Impact of cross-section uncertainties on supernova neutrino spectral parameter fitting in the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment

A primary goal of the upcoming Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) is to measure the O(10) MeV neutrinos produced by a Galactic core-collapse supernova if one should occur during the lifetime of the experiment. The liquid-argon-based detectors planned for DUNE are expected to be uniquely sensitive to the νe component of the supernova flux, enabling a wide variety of physics and astrophysics measurements. A key requirement for a correct interpretation of these measurements is a good understanding of the energy-dependent total cross section σ(Eν) for charged-current νe absorption on argon. In the context of a simulated extraction of supernova νe spectral parameters from a toy analysis, we investigate the impact of σ(Eν) modeling uncertainties on DUNE's supernova neutrino physics sensitivity for the first time. We find that the currently large theoretical uncertainties on σ(Eν) must be substantially reduced before the νe flux parameters can be extracted reliably; in the absence of external constraints, a measurement of the integrated neutrino luminosity with less than 10% bias with DUNE requires σ(Eν) to be known to about 5%. The neutrino spectral shape parameters can be known to better than 10% for a 20% uncertainty on the cross-section scale, although they will be sensitive to uncertainties on the shape of σ(Eν). A direct measurement of low-energy νe-argon scattering would be invaluable for improving the theoretical precision to the needed level

Discourses of conflict and collaboration and institutional context in the implementation of forest conservation policies in Soria, Spain

This article examines the emergence of conflict and collaboration in the implementation of forest conservation policies in Soria, Spain. We draw insights from discursive institutionalism and use a comparative case study approach to analyse and compare a situation of social conflict over the Natural Park declaration in the Sierra de Urbión, and a civil society led collaborative process to develop management plans for the “Sierra de Cabrejas” in Soria. The implementation of the EU Habitats Directive generated different outcomes in these two cases, which unfolded in the context of the same nature conservation legislation and national and provincial administrative structures but differed in terms of types of forests involved, property rights arrangements and forest use histories. We critically examine the influence of the institutional context and dominant discourses on the emergence of outcomes: conflict emerged where local institutions and discourses were threatened by the EU directive, while collaboration was possible where local institutions and counter-discourses were weak. We find that the institutional context plays an important part in determining local discourses in the implementation of forest conservation policies. Yet local counter-discourses have limited influence in the implementation and policy processes in the face of contestation by the discourses of regional civil servants conservation activists

Computer-Based Screening of Functional Conformers of Proteins

A long-standing goal in biology is to establish the link between function, structure, and dynamics of proteins. Considering that protein function at the molecular level is understood by the ability of proteins to bind to other molecules, the limited structural data of proteins in association with other bio-molecules represents a major hurdle to understanding protein function at the structural level. Recent reports show that protein function can be linked to protein structure and dynamics through network centrality analysis, suggesting that the structures of proteins bound to natural ligands may be inferred computationally. In the present work, a new method is described to discriminate protein conformations relevant to the specific recognition of a ligand. The method relies on a scoring system that matches critical residues with central residues in different structures of a given protein. Central residues are the most traversed residues with the same frequency in networks derived from protein structures. We tested our method in a set of 24 different proteins and more than 260,000 structures of these in the absence of a ligand or bound to it. To illustrate the usefulness of our method in the study of the structure/dynamics/function relationship of proteins, we analyzed mutants of the yeast TATA-binding protein with impaired DNA binding. Our results indicate that critical residues for an interaction are preferentially found as central residues of protein structures in complex with a ligand. Thus, our scoring system effectively distinguishes protein conformations relevant to the function of interest

Low exposure long-baseline neutrino oscillation sensitivity of the DUNE experiment

The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) will produce world-leading neutrino oscillation measurements over the lifetime of the experiment. In this work, we explore DUNE's sensitivity to observe charge-parity violation (CPV) in the neutrino sector, and to resolve the mass ordering, for exposures of up to 100 kiloton-megawatt-years (kt-MW-yr). The analysis includes detailed uncertainties on the flux prediction, the neutrino interaction model, and detector effects. We demonstrate that DUNE will be able to unambiguously resolve the neutrino mass ordering at a 3$\sigma$ (5$\sigma$) level, with a 66 (100) kt-MW-yr far detector exposure, and has the ability to make strong statements at significantly shorter exposures depending on the true value of other oscillation parameters. We also show that DUNE has the potential to make a robust measurement of CPV at a 3$\sigma$ level with a 100 kt-MW-yr exposure for the maximally CP-violating values \delta_{\rm CP}} = \pm\pi/2. Additionally, the dependence of DUNE's sensitivity on the exposure taken in neutrino-enhanced and antineutrino-enhanced running is discussed. An equal fraction of exposure taken in each beam mode is found to be close to optimal when considered over the entire space of interest

Snowmass Neutrino Frontier: DUNE Physics Summary

The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) is a next-generation long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment with a primary physics goal of observing neutrino and antineutrino oscillation patterns to precisely measure the parameters governing long-baseline neutrino oscillation in a single experiment, and to test the three-flavor paradigm. DUNE's design has been developed by a large, international collaboration of scientists and engineers to have unique capability to measure neutrino oscillation as a function of energy in a broadband beam, to resolve degeneracy among oscillation parameters, and to control systematic uncertainty using the exquisite imaging capability of massive LArTPC far detector modules and an argon-based near detector. DUNE's neutrino oscillation measurements will unambiguously resolve the neutrino mass ordering and provide the sensitivity to discover CP violation in neutrinos for a wide range of possible values of δCP. DUNE is also uniquely sensitive to electron neutrinos from a galactic supernova burst, and to a broad range of physics beyond the Standard Model (BSM), including nucleon decays. DUNE is anticipated to begin collecting physics data with Phase I, an initial experiment configuration consisting of two far detector modules and a minimal suite of near detector components, with a 1.2 MW proton beam. To realize its extensive, world-leading physics potential requires the full scope of DUNE be completed in Phase II. The three Phase II upgrades are all necessary to achieve DUNE's physics goals: (1) addition of far detector modules three and four for a total FD fiducial mass of at least 40 kt, (2) upgrade of the proton beam power from 1.2 MW to 2.4 MW, and (3) replacement of the near detector's temporary muon spectrometer with a magnetized, high-pressure gaseous argon TPC and calorimeter

A Gaseous Argon-Based Near Detector to Enhance the Physics Capabilities of DUNE

This document presents the concept and physics case for a magnetized gaseous argon-based detector system (ND-GAr) for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) Near Detector. This detector system is required in order for DUNE to reach its full physics potential in the measurement of CP violation and in delivering precision measurements of oscillation parameters. In addition to its critical role in the long-baseline oscillation program, ND-GAr will extend the overall physics program of DUNE. The LBNF high-intensity proton beam will provide a large flux of neutrinos that is sampled by ND-GAr, enabling DUNE to discover new particles and search for new interactions and symmetries beyond those predicted in the Standard Model