67 research outputs found
The functional role of producer diversity in ecosystems
Over the past several decades, a rapidly expanding field of research known as biodiversity and ecosystem functioning has begun to quantify how the world\u27s biological diversity can, as an independent variable, control ecological processes that are both essential for, and fundamental to, the functioning of ecosystems. Research in this area has often been justified on grounds that (1) loss of biological diversity ranks among the most pronounced changes to the global environment and that (2) reductions in diversity, and corresponding changes in species composition, could alter important services that ecosystems provide to humanity (e.g., food production, pest/disease control, water purification). Here we review over two decades of experiments that have examined how species richness of primary producers influences the suite of ecological processes that are controlled by plants and algae in terrestrial, marine, and freshwater ecosystems. Using formal meta-analyses, we assess the balance of evidence for eight fundamental questions and corresponding hypotheses about the functional role of producer diversity in ecosystems. These include questions about how primary producer diversity influences the efficiency of resource use and biomass production in ecosystems, how primary producer diversity influences the transfer and recycling of biomass to other trophic groups in a food web, and the number of species and spatial /temporal scales at which diversity effects are most apparent. After summarizing the balance of evidence and stating our own confidence in the conclusions, we outline several new questions that must now be addressed if this field is going to evolve into a predictive science that can help conserve and manage ecological processes in ecosystems
Absorption cross section in Lifshitz black hole
We derive the absorption cross section of a minimally coupled scalar in the
Lifshitz black hole obtained from the new massive gravity. The absorption cross
section reduces to the horizon area in the low energy and massless limit of
s-wave mode propagation, indicating that the Lifshitz black hole also satisfies
the universality of low energy absorption cross section for black holes.Comment: 13 pages, 1 figure, version to appear in EPJ
Phase transitions for the Lifshitz black holes
We study possibility of phase transitions between Lifshitz black holes and
other configurations by using free energies explicitly. A phase transition
between Lifshitz soliton and Lifshitz black hole might not occur in three
dimensions. We find that a phase transition between Lifshitz and BTZ black
holes unlikely occurs because they have different asymptotes. Similarly, we
point out that any phase transition between Lifshitz and black branes unlikely
occurs in four dimensions since they have different asymptotes. This is
consistent with a necessary condition for taking a phase transition in the
gravitational system, which requires the same asymptote.Comment: 19 pages, 7 figures, a revised version to appear in EPJ
Asymptotically Lifshitz wormholes and black holes for Lovelock gravity in vacuum
Static asymptotically Lifshitz wormholes and black holes in vacuum are shown
to exist for a class of Lovelock theories in d=2n+1>7 dimensions, selected by
requiring that all but one of their n maximally symmetric vacua are AdS of
radius l and degenerate. The wormhole geometry is regular everywhere and
connects two Lifshitz spacetimes with a nontrivial geometry at the boundary.
The dynamical exponent z is determined by the quotient of the curvature radii
of the maximally symmetric vacua according to n(z^2-1)+1=(l/L)^2, where L
corresponds to the curvature radius of the nondegenerate vacuum. Light signals
are able to connect both asymptotic regions in finite time, and the
gravitational field pulls towards a fixed surface located at some arbitrary
proper distance to the neck. The asymptotically Lifshitz black hole possesses
the same dynamical exponent and a fixed Hawking temperature given by T=z/(2^z
pi l). Further analytic solutions, including pure Lifshitz spacetimes with a
nontrivial geometry at the spacelike boundary, and wormholes that interpolate
between asymptotically Lifshitz spacetimes with different dynamical exponents
are also found.Comment: 19 pages, 1 figur
Geometry and BMS Lie algebras of spatially isotropic homogeneous spacetimes
Simply-connected homogeneous spacetimes for kinematical and aristotelian Lie
algebras (with space isotropy) have recently been classified in all dimensions.
In this paper, we continue the study of these "maximally symmetric" spacetimes
by investigating their local geometry. For each such spacetime and relative to
exponential coordinates, we calculate the (infinitesimal) action of the
kinematical symmetries, paying particular attention to the action of the
boosts, showing in almost all cases that they act with generic non-compact
orbits. We also calculate the soldering form, the associated vielbein and any
invariant aristotelian, galilean or carrollian structures. The (conformal)
symmetries of the galilean and carrollian structures we determine are typically
infinite-dimensional and reminiscent of BMS Lie algebras. We also determine the
space of invariant affine connections on each homogeneous spacetime and work
out their torsion and curvature.Comment: 62 pages, 3 figures, 4 tables, v2: Matches published version, mistake
corrected in Section 4.1.3., 10.2, 10.3, other minor improvements, added
reference
What Price Recreation in Finland?—A Contingent Valuation Study of Non-Market Benefits of Public Outdoor Recreation Areas
Basic services in Finnish national parks and state-owned recreation areas have traditionally been publicly financed and thus free of charge for users. Since the benefits of public recreation are not captured by market demand, government spending on recreation services must be motivated in some other way. Here, we elicit people’s willingness to pay (WTP) for services in the country’s state-owned parks to obtain an estimate of the value of outdoor recreation in monetary terms. A variant of the Tobit model is used in the econometric analysis to examine the WTP responses elicited by a payment card format. We also study who the current users of recreation services are in order to enable policymakers to anticipate the redistribution effects of a potential implementation of user fees. Finally, we discuss the motives for WTP, which reveal concerns such as equity and ability to pay that are relevant for planning public recreation in general and for the introduction of fees in particular
Limits of JT gravity
We construct various limits of JT gravity, including Newton-Cartan and
Carrollian versions of dilaton gravity in two dimensions as well as a theory on
the three-dimensional light cone. In the BF formulation our boundary conditions
relate boundary connection with boundary scalar, yielding as boundary action
the particle action on a group manifold or some Hamiltonian reduction thereof.
After recovering in our formulation the Schwarzian for JT, we show that
AdS-Carroll gravity yields a twisted warped boundary action. We comment on
numerous applications and generalizations.Comment: 41 pages, 3 figures, 1 table; v2: Matches published version +
Footnote 11; v3: Corrected typo in Carrollian/Galilean generalized dilaton
potentia
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