A New Relativistic High Temperature Bose-Einstein Condensation

We discuss the properties of an ideal relativistic gas of events possessing Bose-Einstein statistics. We find that the mass spectrum of such a system is bounded by $\mu \leq m\leq 2M/\mu _K,$ where $\mu$ is the usual chemical potential, $M$ is an intrinsic dimensional scale parameter for the motion of an event in space-time, and $\mu _K$ is an additional mass potential of the ensemble. For the system including both particles and antiparticles, with nonzero chemical potential $\mu ,$ the mass spectrum is shown to be bounded by $|\mu |\leq m\leq 2M/\mu _K,$ and a special type of high-temperature Bose-Einstein condensation can occur. We study this Bose-Einstein condensation, and show that it corresponds to a phase transition from the sector of continuous relativistic mass distributions to a sector in which the boson mass distribution becomes sharp at a definite mass $M/\mu _K.$ This phenomenon provides a mechanism for the mass distribution of the particles to be sharp at some definite value.Comment: Latex, 22 page

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time, and attempts to address it require a clear understanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space. While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes, vast areas of the tropics remain understudied. In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world's most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity, but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepresented in biodiversity databases. To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications may eliminate pieces of the Amazon's biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological communities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge, it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple organism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region's vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most neglected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lost

Resistance of tomato strains to the moth Tuta absoluta imparted by allelochemicals and trichome density Resistência de linhagens de tomateiro à traça Tuta absoluta, relacionada a aleloquímicos e à densidade de tricomas

We examined the resistance of improved tomato strains rich in 2-tridecanone (2-TD), zingiberene (ZGB) and acyl sugars (AA) to the tomato moth, Tuta absoluta. We also studied whether selection for strains with higher densities of glandular trichomes, and thus presumably strains with higher concentrations of 2-tridecanone, was effective in promoting greater resistance to the moth. The TOM-584 and TOM-679 strains were used as susceptible controls, which have normal concentrations of the three allelochemicals. The improved strain TOM-687, which has a high AA content, has a widely documented resistance and was used as a standard resistant strain. The wild strain PI134417, which is resistant by means of its high 2-TD content, was also used as a standard resistant strain. The experiment was installed in a greenhouse with a completely randomized design. The wild strain PI 134417 was confirmed as being highly resistant. TOM-622 (rich in 2-TD), ZGB-703 (rich in ZGB), and TOM-687 (rich in AA) showed significant reductions in the oviposition rate of the tomato moth, damage to the plants, injury to the leaflets, and the percentage of leaflets attacked in comparison with the control strains (TOM-584 and TOM-679). The levels of resistance to the moth for the TOM-622, ZGB-703, and TOM-687 strains were similar. In general, the genotypes with higher densities of glandular trichomes had greater resistance than the susceptible controls, with the strain BPX-367D-238-02 being particularly notable in its resistance.<br>Comparou-se a efetividade de linhagens melhoradas de tomateiro, ricas em 2-tridecanona (2-TD), zingibereno (ZGB) e acilaçúcares (AA), em relação aos níveis de resistência à traça-do-tomateiro Tuta absoluta. Verificaram-se, também, se linhagens selecionadas para maiores densidades de tricomas glandulares, presumivelmente com maiores níveis de 2-tridecanona, são efetivas em promover maior resistência à traça. Como testemunhas suscetíveis foram utilizadas as linhagens TOM-584 e TOM-679, com nível normal dos três aleloquímicos. A linhagem melhorada TOM-687 (com alto teor de AA) foi utilizada como linhagem resistente padrão, por ter sua resistência amplamente documentada, juntamente com o também resistente acesso selvagem PI134417 (com alto teor de 2-TD). O experimento foi instalado em casa de vegetação, em delineamento inteiramente casualizado. O acesso selvagem PI 134417 confirmou-se como altamente resistente. TOM-622 (rica em 2-TD), ZGB-703 (rica em ZGB) e TOM-687 apresentaram diminuições significativas na ovoposição da traça-do-tomateiro, bem como no dano geral na planta, lesão nos folíolos e porcentagem de folíolos atacados, comparadas às testemunhas TOM-584 e TOM-679. Os níveis de resistência à traça em TOM-622, ZGB-703 e TOM-687 foram similares entre si. Em geral, os genótipos selecionados com maiores densidades de tricomas glandulares apresentaram níveis de resistência também superiores aos das testemunhas suscetíveis, destacando entre eles o tratamento BPX-367D-238-02

Giants of the Amazon: How does environmental variation drive the diversity patterns of large trees?

For more than three decades, major efforts in sampling and analyzing tree diversity in South America have focused almost exclusively on trees with stems of at least 10 and 2.5 cm diameter, showing highest species diversity in the wetter western and northern Amazon forests. By contrast, little attention has been paid to patterns and drivers of diversity in the largest canopy and emergent trees, which is surprising given these have dominant ecological functions. Here, we use a machine learning approach to quantify the importance of environmental factors and apply it to generate spatial predictions of the species diversity of all trees (dbh ≥ 10 cm) and for very large trees (dbh ≥ 70 cm) using data from 243 forest plots (108,450 trees and 2832 species) distributed across different forest types and biogeographic regions of the Brazilian Amazon. The diversity of large trees and of all trees was significantly associated with three environmental factors, but in contrasting ways across regions and forest types. Environmental variables associated with disturbances, for example, the lightning flash rate and wind speed, as well as the fraction of photosynthetically active radiation, tend to govern the diversity of large trees. Upland rainforests in the Guiana Shield and Roraima regions had a high diversity of large trees. By contrast, variables associated with resources tend to govern tree diversity in general. Places such as the province of Imeri and the northern portion of the province of Madeira stand out for their high diversity of species in general. Climatic and topographic stability and functional adaptation mechanisms promote ideal conditions for species diversity. Finally, we mapped general patterns of tree species diversity in the Brazilian Amazon, which differ substantially depending on size class

Tropical tree growth driven by dry-season climate variability

Interannual variability in the global land carbon sink is strongly related to variations in tropical temperature and rainfall. This association suggests an important role for moisture-driven fluctuations in tropical vegetation productivity, but empirical evidence to quantify the responsible ecological processes is missing. Such evidence can be obtained from tree-ring data that quantify variability in a major vegetation productivity component: woody biomass growth. Here we compile a pantropical tree-ring network to show that annual woody biomass growth increases primarily with dry-season precipitation and decreases with dry-season maximum temperature. The strength of these dry-season climate responses varies among sites, as reflected in four robust and distinct climate response groups of tropical tree growth derived from clustering. Using cluster and regression analyses, we find that dry-season climate responses are amplified in regions that are drier, hotter and more climatically variable. These amplification patterns suggest that projected global warming will probably aggravate drought-induced declines in annual tropical vegetation productivity. Our study reveals a previously underappreciated role of dry-season climate variability in driving the dynamics of tropical vegetation productivity and consequently in influencing the land carbon sink