4,079 research outputs found
Dynamic, intermediate soil carbon pools may drive future responsiveness to environmental change
Accurately capturing dynamic soil response to disturbance effects in agroecosystem models remains elusive, thereby limiting projections of climate change mitigation potential. Perennial grasses cultivated in zero-tillage management systems hold promise as sustainable agroecosystems. High-yielding tropical C grasses often have extensive rooting systems, and the belowground processes of root turnover, aggregate formation, and mineral stabilization drove rapid C accumulation after cultivation in a recent study. We sought (i) to understand and constrain the size and responsiveness of dynamic, intermediate-cycling C pools contributing to the observed C accrual rates, and (ii) to simulate C stocks over time under the disturbance of elevated temperature using soil incubation at multiple temperatures and physical fractionation via density and sonication. Three-pool transfer modeling of soil incubations revealed small pools of readily available (i.e., days to months) microbial substrate that were responsive to temperature, time since cultivation, and inputs. Larger, kinetically slow-cycling pools were more indicative of long-term (i.e., years to decades) changes in C stock and strongly connected to measured changes in physical fractions. Combining the sensitivity of readily available microbial substrate with three-pool transfer modeling of the physical fractions over time since cultivation revealed that dynamic transfers of inputs occurred between the free organic and aggregate-protected fractions, and from these fractions to the mineral-associated dense fraction. Under 5°C temperature elevation, increased transfer rates outweighed elevated decomposition losses to sustain soil C accrual into the future. To effectively plan managed landscapes and monitor sustainable agroecosystems for climate change mitigation, tools must incorporate the complexity of soil response to change
The Nonlinear Evolution of Instabilities Driven by Magnetic Buoyancy: A New Mechanism for the Formation of Coherent Magnetic Structures
Motivated by the problem of the formation of active regions from a
deep-seated solar magnetic field, we consider the nonlinear three-dimensional
evolution of magnetic buoyancy instabilities resulting from a smoothly
stratified horizontal magnetic field. By exploring the case for which the
instability is continuously driven we have identified a new mechanism for the
formation of concentrations of magnetic flux.Comment: Published in ApJL. Version with colour figure
Reduction of a metapopulation genetic model to an effective one island model
We explore a model of metapopulation genetics which is based on a more
ecologically motivated approach than is frequently used in population genetics.
The size of the population is regulated by competition between individuals,
rather than by artificially imposing a fixed population size. The increased
complexity of the model is managed by employing techniques often used in the
physical sciences, namely exploiting time-scale separation to eliminate fast
variables and then constructing an effective model from the slow modes.
Remarkably, an initial model with 2 variables, where
is the number of islands in the metapopulation, can be reduced to a model with
a single variable. We analyze this effective model and show that the
predictions for the probability of fixation of the alleles and the mean time to
fixation agree well with those found from numerical simulations of the original
model.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures. Supplementary material: 22 pages, 3 figure
Magnetization and Magnetotransport of LnBaCo2O5.5 (Ln=Gd, Eu) Single Crystals
The magnetization, resistivity and magnetoresistance (MR) of single crystals
of GdBaCo2O5.5 and EuBaCo2O5.5 are measured over a wide range of dc magnetic
fields (up to 30 T) and temperature. In LnBaCo2O5.5 (Ln=Gd, Eu), the Co-ions
are trivalent and can exist in three spin states, namely, the S=0 low spin
state (LS), the S= 1 intermediate spin state (IS) and the S=2 high spin state
(HS). We confirm that GdBaCo2O5.5 and EuBaCo2O5.5 have a metal-insulator
transition accompanied by a spin-state transition at TMI >> 365 and 335 K,
respectively. The data suggest an equal ratio of LS (S=0) and IS (S=1) Co3+
ions below TMI, with no indication of additional spin state transitions. The
low field magnetization shows a transition to a highly anisotropic
ferromagnetic phase at 270 K, followed by another magnetic transition to an
antiferromagnetic phase at a slightly lower temperature. The magnetization data
are suggestive of weak correlations between the Gd-spins but no clear signature
of ordering is seen for T > 2 K. Significant anisotropy between the a-b plane
and c axis was observed in magnetic and magnetotransport properties for both
compounds. For GdBaCo2O5.5, the resistivity and MR data imply a strong
correlation between the spin-order and charge carriers. For EuBaCo2O5.5, the
magnetic phase diagram is very similar to its Gd counterpart, but the low-T MR
with current flow in the ab plane is positive rather than negative as for Gd.
The magnitude and the hysteresis of the MR for EuBaCo2O5.5 decrease with
increasing temperature, and at higher T the MR changes sign and becomes
negative. The difference in the behavior of both compounds may arise from a
small valence admixture in the nonmagnetic Eu ions, i.e. a valence slightly
less than 3+.Comment: Accepted for publication in PR
Tradeoff between short-term and long-term adaptation in a changing environment
We investigate the competition dynamics of two microbial or viral strains
that live in an environment that switches periodically between two states. One
of the strains is adapted to the long-term environment, but pays a short-term
cost, while the other is adapted to the short-term environment and pays a cost
in the long term. We explore the tradeoff between these alternative strategies
in extensive numerical simulations, and present a simple analytic model that
can predict the outcome of these competitions as a function of the mutation
rate and the time scale of the environmental changes. Our model is relevant for
arboviruses, which alternate between different host species on a regular basis.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, PRE in pres
Pressure-Tuned Collapse of the Mott-Like State in Ca_{n+1}Ru_nO_{3n+1} (n=1,2): Raman Spectroscopic Studies
We report a Raman scattering study of the pressure-induced collapse of the
Mott-like phases of Ca_3Ru_2O_7 (T_N=56 K) and Ca_2RuO_4 (T_N=110 K). The
pressure-dependence of the phonon and two-magnon excitations in these materials
indicate: (i) a pressure-induced collapse of the antiferromagnetic (AF)
insulating phase above P* ~ 55 kbar in Ca_3Ru_2O_7 and P* ~ 5-10 kbar in
Ca_2RuO_4, reflecting the importance of Ru-O octahedral distortions in
stabilizing the AF insulating phase; and (ii) evidence for persistent AF
correlations above the critical pressure of Ca_2RuO_4, suggestive of phase
separation involving AF insulator and ferromagnetic metal phases.Comment: 3 figure
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