Spatially explicit estimation of heat stress-related impacts of climate change on the milk production of dairy cows in the United Kingdom

Dairy farming is one the most important sectors of United Kingdom (UK) agriculture. It faces major challenges due to climate change, which will have direct impacts on dairy cows as a result of heat stress. In the absence of adaptations, this could potentially lead to considerable milk loss. Using an 11-member climate projection ensemble, as well as an ensemble of 18 milk loss estimation methods, temporal changes in milk production of UK dairy cows were estimated for the 21st century at a 25 km resolution in a spatially-explicit way. While increases in UK temperatures are projected to lead to relatively low average annual milk losses, even for southern UK regions (<180 kg/cow), the ‘hottest’ 25×25 km grid cell in the hottest year in the 2090s, showed an annual milk loss exceeding 1300 kg/cow. This figure represents approximately 17% of the potential milk production of today’s average cow. Despite the potential considerable inter-annual variability of annual milk loss, as well as the large differences between the climate projections, the variety of calculation methods is likely to introduce even greater uncertainty into milk loss estimations. To address this issue, a novel, more biologically-appropriate mechanism of estimating milk loss is proposed that provides more realistic future projections. We conclude that South West England is the region most vulnerable to climate change economically, because it is characterised by a high dairy herd density and therefore potentially high heat stress-related milk loss. In the absence of mitigation measures, estimated heat stress-related annual income loss for this region by the end of this century may reach £13.4M in average years and £33.8M in extreme years

Holography of Charged Dilaton Black Holes

We study charged dilaton black branes in $AdS_4$. Our system involves a dilaton $\phi$ coupled to a Maxwell field $F_{\mu\nu}$ with dilaton-dependent gauge coupling, ${1\over g^2} = f^2(\phi)$. First, we find the solutions for extremal and near extremal branes through a combination of analytical and numerical techniques. The near horizon geometries in the simplest cases, where $f(\phi) = e^{\alpha\phi}$, are Lifshitz-like, with a dynamical exponent $z$ determined by $\alpha$. The black hole thermodynamics varies in an interesting way with $\alpha$, but in all cases the entropy is vanishing and the specific heat is positive for the near extremal solutions. We then compute conductivity in these backgrounds. We find that somewhat surprisingly, the AC conductivity vanishes like $\omega^2$ at T=0 independent of $\alpha$. We also explore the charged black brane physics of several other classes of gauge-coupling functions $f(\phi)$. In addition to possible applications in AdS/CMT, the extremal black branes are of interest from the point of view of the attractor mechanism. The near horizon geometries for these branes are universal, independent of the asymptotic values of the moduli, and describe generic classes of endpoints for attractor flows which are different from $AdS_2\times R^2$.Comment: 33 pages, 3 figures, LaTex; v2, references added; v3, more refs added; v4, refs added, minor correction

Cephalopods represented by beaks in the stomach of a sperm whale stranded at Paekakariki, north island, New Zealand

More than 3 000 cephalopod beaks taken from the stomach of a sperm whale stranded at Paekakariki, North Island, New Zealand, were identified to species and measured; estimates were made of the masses and standard lengths of the cephalopods represented. In all, 24 species of cephalopod in 13 families were represented. The most important species were Histioteuthis atlantica (contributing 78.56% of the number and 41.0% of the wet massestimated from lower rostral lengths), Moroteuthis ingens (11.06% and 15.26%), Taonius pavo (3.69% and 2.32%), Taningia danae (1.50% and 8.56%), Moroteuthis robsoni (1.25% and 5.35%), Architeuthis sp. (0.12% and 23.74%) and Kondakovia longimana (0.31% and 1.28%). Other species each contributed less than 1%. A total of 10 lower beaks was from three Antarctic species and show that the whale had been in the Antarctic but probably had been in the New Zealand region for several days, at least, before stranding. The mean wet mass of individuals represented was 432 g, and they varied from 170 to 2 631 mm in standard length

Sub-Planckian black holes and the Generalized Uncertainty Principle

The Black Hole Uncertainty Principle correspondence suggests that there could exist black holes with mass beneath the Planck scale but radius of order the Compton scale rather than Schwarzschild scale. We present a modified, self-dual Schwarzschild-like metric that reproduces desirable aspects of a variety of disparate models in the sub-Planckian limit, while remaining Schwarzschild in the large mass limit. The self-dual nature of this solution under $M \leftrightarrow M^{-1}$ naturally implies a Generalized Uncertainty Principle with the linear form $\Delta x \sim \frac{1}{\Delta p} + \Delta p$. We also demonstrate a natural dimensional reduction feature, in that the gravitational radius and thermodynamics of sub-Planckian objects resemble that of $(1+1)$-D gravity. The temperature of sub-Planckian black holes scales as $M$ rather than $M^{-1}$ but the evaporation of those smaller than $10^{-36}$g is suppressed by the cosmic background radiation. This suggests that relics of this mass could provide the dark matter.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, version published in J. High En. Phy

Linking arable and livestock farms: Impact of grazing sheep on winter cereals and soil health

Given, in recent years, the UK has experienced a number of extreme weather events, and climate modellers are predicting these to occur more frequently in future, there is concern by some farmers in their ability to reliably provide sufficient homegrown forage for their ruminant livestock, especially over the winter period before grass fields are ready. There is also a desire by some arable farms to include livestock within their system in some way in order to try improving their soil health and in particular levels of residual nitrogen and organic matter through the act of animal manuring and urine deposition. These arable farmers do not necessarily want to change to a fully mixed farming system, or have overall responsibility for the animals involved. The grazing of winter cereals on arable farms by local shepherds / graziers has potential to provide a route to achieve this mutualistically beneficial relationship. This paper is based on a recent series of controlled field experiments and farmer led demonstrations in NE Scotland that have been used to test the hypothesis that the grazing of winter cereals can provide both a valuable late winter feed source for ruminants, as well as maintain acceptable grain and straw yields, while maintaining soil “health”. The overall aim was to assess a number of factors, including how crop establishment timing, grazing timing, intensity and stocking rate impacts on the performance of different winter cereals and the potential for economic and environmental benefits associated with this practice to be achieved.Results to date suggest that winter wheat, winter barley and winter oats can be grazed quite heavily, using either intensive grazing over a short period of time, or less intensive grazing over a longer period of time, without any clear negative impacts on a range of crop (including yield and quality) or soil factors. Analysis of the feed value of these crops at the time grazing has taken place, typically for between a few days and several weeks, within the period late November through to mid-March, has been consistently impressive. <br/

Maximisation of production of intercropping pea/cereal crops

Intercropping of cereals and legumes is regarded as a sustainable production system and are likely to results in higher levels of productivity than the counterpart sole crops. However, the choices the famer makes about the management of the intercrop will affect both its productivity and the relative contribution of each crop. The management decisions will be influenced by whether the farmer is growing the crop for grain, either for human or livestock consumption, or for silage. As well as what varieties should be sown, the farmer must make decisions on the relative quantities of the legume and cereal that are sown, and the quantity of nitrogen applied. A review of experiment relevant to European agriculture has been carried out on pea/cereal intercrops to assess the effect of the sowing ratio and the nitrogen application rates on crop productivity of cereal.The relative proportion of the pea in the yield for cereal pea intercrops is likely to be lower than the proportion of pea sown, although this will be affected by other management factors, soils and climatic conditions. Changing the seed rate from the 100% sown as a sole crop has no impact on the total yield for oats, however sowing extremely high rates of seeds in barley pea mixtures does increase the absolute yield.Applying nitrogen to pea cereal mixtures will reduce the rate of nitrogen fixation by the legume, which will in turn make the legume less competitive. The impact of applying low (less than 50 kg N ha-1 yr-1), medium (50–100 kg N ha-1 yr-1) or high (&gt; 100 ha-1 yr-1) was assessed relative to no nitrogen applied. At low rates, there was a possibility that yields could be reduced or showed little change from those receiving no nitrogen. At medium rates, yields tended to increase by between 5–35%. There were few observations where high rates of nitrogen had been applied, but the impact on yields varied between 5–15% increase to a 45–55% increase. However, unsurprisingly as the rate of N applied increase, the proportion of the legume in the yield decreased.<br/