A satellite image-based analysis of factors contributing to the green-space cool island intensity on a city scale

Urban green spaces provide cooler microclimates and create localized urban cool islands and, as part of an adaption strategy to cope with future urban climate change, have been proposed as a means to mitigate the urban heat island effect. Numerous previous research papers have discussed green-space size, type, and vegetation density, as well as many other factors that might influence green-space cooling effects. However, little has been done with regard to exploring and quantifying the characteristics of the green-space cool island (UCI). It is also largely unknown whether or how the patterns of green space and land use, as well as the adjacent urban thermal environment, affect UCIs. In this paper, based on the satellite image, the land surface temperature (LST) was retrieved and the UCI was first identified, then the UCI intensity, one of the UCI characteristics, is defined and at last multiple linear regression models used to explore and quantify the combined effects of factors related to UCI intensity. The results show that the intensity differed between UCIs, and that it was correlated significantly with the extent of and mean temperature reduction associated with a UCI. Multiple linear regression analysis shows that UCI intensity was affected by areas of forest vegetation and its spatial arrangements, as well as by the composition of the cool island and its neighboring thermal environment. The study validated the suitability of using intensity as an indicator of the UCI. Identifying the UCI as a result of the green-space cooling effect, will help in the management and planning of the spatial arrangement of green spaces in cities to mitigate the effects of the urban heat environment and help cities adapt to the climate change

Pittsburgh\u27s Mt. Lebanon Tunnels- Case History

Discussions of basic design philosophy and comparison of alternative contract bid options are presented. Also discussed are descriptions of field monitoring activities with respect to the construction methods, ground response, installation of materials and their performance. Finally, conclusions are reached relative to the NATM philosophy as applied to this project and its place as a design process within the context of United States underground construction practice

Quantitative trait loci associated with traits determining grain and stover yield in pearl millet under terminal drought stress conditions.

Drought stress during the reproductive stage is one of the most important environmental factors reducing the grain yield and yield stability of pearl millet. A QTL mapping approach has been used in this study to understand the genetic and physiological basis of drought tolerance in pearl millet and to provide a more-targeted approach to improving the drought tolerance and yield of this crop in water-limited environments. The aim was to identify specific genomic regions associated with the enhanced tolerance of pearl millet to drought stress during the flowering and grain-filling stages. Test-crosses of a set of mapping-population progenies, derived from a cross of two inbred pollinators that differed in their response to drought, were evaluated in a range of managed terminal drought-stress environments. A number of genomic regions were associated with drought tolerance in terms of both grain yield and its components. For example, a QTL associated with grain yield per se and for the drought tolerance of grain yield mapped on linkage group 2 and explained up to 23% of the phenotypic variation. Some of these QTLs were common across stress environments whereas others were specific to only a particular stress environment. All the QTLs that contributed to increased drought tolerance did so either through better than average maintenance (compared to non-stress environments) of harvest index, or harvest index and biomass productivity. It is concluded that there is considerable potential for marker-assisted backcross transfer of selected QTLs to the elite parent of the mapping population and for their general use in the improvement of pearl millet productivity in water-limited environments

Mapping urban green infrastructure : a novel landscape-based approach to incorporating land-use and land-cover in the mapping of human-dominated systems

Common approaches to mapping green infrastructure in urbanized landscapes invariably focus on measures of land-use or land-cover and associated functional or physical traits. However, such one-dimensional perspectives do not accurately capture the character and complexity of the landscapes in which urban inhabitants live. The new approach presented in this paper demonstrates how open-source, high spatial and temporal resolution data with global coverage can be used to measure and represent the landscape qualities of urban environments. Through going beyond simple metrics of quantity, such as percentage green and blue cover it is now possible to explore the extent to which landscape quality helps to unpick the mixed evidence presented in the literature on the benefits of urban nature to human well-being. Here we present a landscape approach, employing remote sensing, GIS and data reduction techniques, to map urban green infrastructure elements in a large UK city-region. Comparison with existing urban datasets demonstrates considerable improvement in terms of coverage and thematic detail. The characterisation of landscapes, using census tracts as spatial units, and subsequent exploration of associations with social-ecological attributes highlights the further detail which can be uncovered with the approach. For example, eight urban landscape types identified for the case study city exhibited associations with distinct socio-economic conditions accountable not only to quantities but also qualities of green and blue space. The identification of individual landscape features through simultaneous measures of land-use and land cover demonstrated unique and significant associations between the former and indicators of human health and ecological condition. The approach may therefore provide a promising basis for developing further insight into the processes and characteristics which affect human health and wellbeing in urban areas, both in the UK and beyond

Attenuation of particulate organic carbon flux in the Scotia Sea, Southern Ocean, is controlled by zooplankton fecal pellets

The Southern Ocean (SO) is an important CO2 reservoir, some of which enters via the production, sinking and remineralization of organic matter. Recent work suggests the fraction of production that sinks is inversely related to production in the SO, a suggestion we confirm from 20 stations in the Scotia Sea. The efficiency with which exported material is transferred to depth (transfer efficiency) is believed to be low in high latitude systems. However, our estimates of transfer efficiency are bimodal, with stations in the seasonal ice zone showing intense losses and others displaying increases in flux with depth. Zooplankton fecal pellets dominated organic carbon flux and at stations with transfer efficiency >100 % fecal pellets were brown, indicative of fresh phytodetritus. We suggest that active flux mediated by zooplankton vertical migration and the presence of sea ice regulate the transfer of organic carbon into the oceans interior in the Southern Ocean

Improving pearl millet drought tolerance

Quantitative trait loci (QTL) have been identified for drought tolerance of grain yield in pearl millet (Yadav et al. 1999 and 2002). Marker-assisted selection (MAS) is being used to develop improved parental lines by introgression of QTLs into a homozygous inbred line background for the subsequent production of improved hybrids (marker-assisted backcrossing). and by transforming them into topcross pollinator populations that are more heterogeneous than inbred lines. Until - and unless - it is clearly demonstrated that the incorporation of these QTLs into elite breeding lines will significantly enhance the performance ofcultivars based on those lines, the benefits of these QTLs are unlikely to ever reach farmers' fields

Teamwork delivers biotechnology products to Indian small-holder crop-livestock producers: Pearl millet hybrid “HHB 67 Improved” enters seed delivery pipeline

HHB 67, released in 1990 by CCS Haryana Agricultural University, is one such single-cross pearl millet hybrid. HHB 67 is highly popular because of its extra-early maturity (it needs less than 65 days from sowing to grain maturity) and is now grown on over 500 000 ha in Haryana and Rajasthan, India. Recent surveys have indicated that this hybrid is starting to succumb to downy mildew (DM; caused by the pseudo-fungus Sclerospora graminicola), showing up to 30% incidence in farmers' fields. By rapidly adopting hybrid "HHB 67 Improved", farmers in Haryana and Rajasthan can avoid grain production losses of Rs36 crores (US$8 million) which would be expected in the first year of a major DM outbreak on the original HHB 67

Marker-assisted backcrossing to improve terminal drought tolerance in pearl millet

Several alternative marker-assisted backcrossing (MABC) procedures are described that can be used for transferring quantitative trait loci (QTLs) from a donor to an elite recurrent parent when these two lines have been used in forming the base mapping population. We describe ICRISAT’s experience to date in using these methods in pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.). We are attempting to improve terminal drought tolerance of elite inbred pollinator H 77/833-2 using donor PRLT 2/89-33, and elite inbred seed parent maintainer line ICMB 841 using donor 863B. The advantages and disadvantages of the alternatives are discusse