Behavioral niche partitioning in a sympatric tiger beetle assemblage and implications for the endangered Salt Creek tiger beetle

How behavioral patterns are related to niche partitioning is an important question in understanding how closely related species within ecological communities function. Behavioral niche partitioning associated with thermoregulation is well documented in tiger beetles as a group. Co-occurring species of salt flat tiger beetles have adapted many thermoregulatory behaviors to cope with this harsh ecosystem. On first examination these beetles appear to occur in overlapping microhabitats and therefore compete for resources. To determine if behavioral niche partitioning is allowing multiple species to occur within the same harsh salt flat ecosystem we observed Cicindela nevadica lincolniana, Cicindela circumpicta, Cicindela fulgida, and Cicindela togata between 8:00 h and 21:00 h and recorded all behaviors related to thermoregulation using a digital voice recorder. Results of this study strongly indicate that competition among these species for resources has been reduced by the adaptation of different thermoregulatory behaviors such as spending time in shallow water, avoiding the sun during the hottest parts of the day, and by positioning their body against or away from the soil. The endangered C. n. lincolniana appears to rely most heavily on the shallow water of seeps for their diurnal foraging behavior (potentially limiting their foraging habitat), but with the advantage of allowing foraging during the hottest times of the day when potential competitors are less frequent. Ironically, this association also may help explain C. n. lincolniana’s susceptibility to extinction: beyond the loss of saline wetlands generally, limited seeps and pools even within remaining saline habitat may represent a further habitat limitation within an already limited habitat

Panarctic lakes exerted a small positive feedback on early Holocene warming due to deglacial release of methane

Climate-driven permafrost thaw can release ancient carbon to the atmosphere, begetting further warming in a positive feedback loop. Polar ice core data and young radiocarbon ages of dissolved methane in thermokarst lakes have challenged the importance of this feedback, but field studies did not adequately account for older methane released from permafrost through bubbling. We synthesized panarctic isotope and emissions datasets to derive integrated ages of panarctic lake methane fluxes. Methane age in modern thermokarst lakes (3132 ± 731 years before present) reflects remobilization of ancient carbon. Thermokarst-lake methane emissions fit within the constraints imposed by polar ice core data. Younger, albeit ultimately larger sources of methane from glacial lakes, estimated here, lagged those from thermokarst lakes. Our results imply that panarctic lake methane release was a small positive feedback to climate warming, comprising up to 17% of total northern hemisphere sources during the deglacial period

Behavioral niche partitioning in a sympatric tiger beetle assemblage and implications for the endangered Salt Creek tiger beetle

How behavioral patterns are related to niche partitioning is an important question in understanding how closely related species within ecological communities function. Behavioral niche partitioning associated with thermoregulation is well documented in tiger beetles as a group. Co-occurring species of salt flat tiger beetles have adapted many thermoregulatory behaviors to cope with this harsh ecosystem. On first examination these beetles appear to occur in overlapping microhabitats and therefore compete for resources. To determine if behavioral niche partitioning is allowing multiple species to occur within the same harsh salt flat ecosystem we observed Cicindela nevadica lincolniana, Cicindela circumpicta, Cicindela fulgida, and Cicindela togata between 8:00 h and 21:00 h and recorded all behaviors related to thermoregulation using a digital voice recorder. Results of this study strongly indicate that competition among these species for resources has been reduced by the adaptation of different thermoregulatory behaviors such as spending time in shallow water, avoiding the sun during the hottest parts of the day, and by positioning their body against or away from the soil. The endangered C. n. lincolniana appears to rely most heavily on the shallow water of seeps for their diurnal foraging behavior (potentially limiting their foraging habitat), but with the advantage of allowing foraging during the hottest times of the day when potential competitors are less frequent. Ironically, this association also may help explain C. n. lincolniana’s susceptibility to extinction: beyond the loss of saline wetlands generally, limited seeps and pools even within remaining saline habitat may represent a further habitat limitation within an already limited habitat

Process Analysis and Physical Simulation of Electromagnetic Joining of Thin-Walled parts

To avoid typical problems when connecting different metallic materials as aluminum and titanium as e.g. the formation of intermetallic phases, electromagnetic welding represents an alternative technology to conventional (i.e. usually thermal) joining processes. Although feasibility and potential of this technique are already proved, the fundamental correlations of part- and process-parameters have not yet been investigated systematically. As an approach to examine these, the performance of model experiments and supplementary technological tests is suggested. The resulting connection quality is evaluated using metallographic methods

Process Investigation of Tube Expansion by Gas Detonation

The present paper deals with the expansion of tubes by direct application of gas detonation waves, i.e. the gas is both pressure medium and energy source. After an introduction to gas detonation forming, measurements of the motion process and the internal pressures are presented. Results of free expansion and of forming into a die are thoroughly studied and compared to the results of quasi-static burst tests and hydroforming. Using pure aluminum Al99.5 and a medium strength alloy AlMgSi1, expansions by 25 % and 20 % respectively are obtained. A simulation delivers details on the deformation process and specially prepared probes of high-speed tension tests give new insight into metallographic material behavior at different strain rates

Design and Analysis of a Deep Drawing and Inprocess Electromagnetic Sheet Metal Forming Process

The design as well as the subsequent analysis of a deep drawing and in-process electromagnetic sheet metal forming calibration will be described in this paper. Due to the quite different forming processes concerning the occurred strain rates, an investigation on the microstructure of the formed workpieces will be pointed out. Furthermore, the design steps regarding the integrated tool coil will be presented and the resulting examples discussed. Finally, the setup of the integrated process as well as the feasibility will be shown on an exemplary semi-industrial workpiece

Extreme Ultra-Violet Spectroscopy of the Lower Solar Atmosphere During Solar Flares

The extreme ultraviolet portion of the solar spectrum contains a wealth of diagnostic tools for probing the lower solar atmosphere in response to an injection of energy, particularly during the impulsive phase of solar flares. These include temperature and density sensitive line ratios, Doppler shifted emission lines and nonthermal broadening, abundance measurements, differential emission measure profiles, and continuum temperatures and energetics, among others. In this paper I shall review some of the advances made in recent years using these techniques, focusing primarily on studies that have utilized data from Hinode/EIS and SDO/EVE, while also providing some historical background and a summary of future spectroscopic instrumentation.Comment: 34 pages, 8 figures. Submitted to Solar Physics as part of the Topical Issue on Solar and Stellar Flare

Observation and Modeling of the Solar Transition Region: II. Solutions of the Quasi-Static Loop Model

In the present work we undertake a study of the quasi-static loop model and the observational consequences of the various solutions found. We obtain the most general solutions consistent with certain initial conditions. Great care is exercised in choosing these conditions to be physically plausible (motivated by observations). We show that the assumptions of previous quasi-static loop models, such as the models of Rosner, Tucker and Vaiana (1978) and Veseckey, Antiochos and Underwood (1979), are not necessarily valid for small loops at transition region temperatures. We find three general classes of solutions for the quasi-static loop model, which we denote, radiation dominated loops, conduction dominated loops and classical loops. These solutions are then compared with observations. Departures from the classical scaling law of RTV are found for the solutions obtained. It is shown that loops of the type that we model here can make a significant contribution to lower transition region emission via thermal conduction from the upper transition region.Comment: 30 pages, 3 figures, Submitted to ApJ, Microsoft Word File 6.0/9

Development of design principles for form-fit joints in lightweight frame structures

Based on fundamental technological investigations, alternative joining strategies using electromagnetic forming (EMF) for the flexible production of lightweight frame structures are developed in the collaborative research project SFB/TR10. The results of these investigations will also be used to create general design principles for the joining process itself as well as for the joining zone. The focus of this article will be on dominating form-fit joints of aluminum frame structures and the parameters which have a significant influence on the strength of those joints. For the development of design principles regarding the joining zone, the groove geometry of the connection elements was varied in terms of size and shape, and the influence of those variations was analyzed. In terms of the joining process itself the effect on the joint strength of different forming pressures for a given groove geometry was also investigated. In the first step these experiments were performed on solid mandrels. In order to reduce the weight of the structure, experiments were then performed with hollow connection elements and similar groove geometries to analyze how the reduced stiffness of those elements affected the strength of the joints