659 research outputs found
Decomposition of coarse woody debris in a long-term litter manipulation experiment: A focus on nutrient availability
The majority of above-ground carbon in tropical forests is stored in wood, which is returned to the atmosphere during decomposition of coarse woody debris. However, the factors controlling wood decomposition have not been experimentally manipulated over time scales comparable to the length of this process.We hypothesized that wood decomposition is limited by nutrient availability and tested this hypothesis in a long-term litter addition and removal experiment in a lowland tropical forest in Panama. Specifically, we quantified decomposition using a 15-year chronosequence of decaying boles, and measured respiration rates and nutrient limitation of wood decomposer communities.The long-term probability that a dead tree completely decomposed was decreased in plots where litter was removed, but did not differ between litter addition and control treatments. Similarly, respiration rates of wood decomposer communities were greater in control treatments relative to litter removal plots; litter addition treatments did not differ from either of the other treatments. Respiration rates increased in response to nutrient addition (nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium) in the litter removal and addition treatments, but not in the controls.Established decreases in concentrations of soil nutrients in litter removal plots and increased respiration rates in response to nutrient addition suggest that reduced rates of wood decomposition after litter removal were caused by decreased nutrient availability. The effects of litter manipulations differed directionally from a previous short-term decomposition study in the same plots, and reduced rates of bole decomposition in litter removal plots did not emerge until after more than 6 years of decomposition. These differences suggest that litter-mediated effects on nutrient dynamics have complex interactions with decomposition over time
Stochastic stability versus localization in chaotic dynamical systems
We prove stochastic stability of chaotic maps for a general class of Markov
random perturbations (including singular ones) satisfying some kind of mixing
conditions. One of the consequences of this statement is the proof of Ulam's
conjecture about the approximation of the dynamics of a chaotic system by a
finite state Markov chain. Conditions under which the localization phenomenon
(i.e. stabilization of singular invariant measures) takes place are also
considered. Our main tools are the so called bounded variation approach
combined with the ergodic theorem of Ionescu-Tulcea and Marinescu, and a random
walk argument that we apply to prove the absence of ``traps'' under the action
of random perturbations.Comment: 27 pages, LaTe
Approximate Solution of the effective mass Klein-Gordon Equation for the Hulthen Potential with any Angular Momentum
The radial part of the effective mass Klein-Gordon equation for the Hulthen
potential is solved by making an approximation to the centrifugal potential.
The Nikiforov-Uvarov method is used in the calculations. Energy spectra and the
corresponding eigenfunctions are computed. Results are also given for the case
of constant mass.Comment: 12 page
The TIANSHAN Radio Experiment for Neutrino Detection
An antenna array devoted to the autonomous radio-detection of high energy
cosmic rays is being deployed on the site of the 21 cm array radio telescope in
XinJiang, China. Thanks in particular to the very good electromagnetic
environment of this remote experimental site, self-triggering on extensive air
showers induced by cosmic rays has been achieved with a small scale prototype
of the foreseen antenna array. We give here a detailed description of the
detector and present the first detection of extensive air showers with this
prototype.Comment: 37 pages, 15 figures. Astroparticle Physics (in press
Belowground traits lack response to chronic nitrogen additions in the tallgrass prairie
Anthropogenic effects are pervasive, ignoring country and even conservation boundaries. Nitrogen deposition, a major component of global change, alters nutrient limitation with cascading consequences for biodiversity and ecosystem function. This project investigates the effect of nitrogen addition on belowground plant traits, which are underexplored due to the unique challenges of studying them, yet are critical for understanding important processes such as carbon sequestration. Specifically, I take advantage of three long-term and on-going nutrient addition experiments at the Konza Long-term Ecological Research Site in Manhattan, Kansas. Using these platforms, I explored how nitrogen addition affects belowground traits of five different plant species in the tallgrass prairie community over a six-week data collection period, sampling each species at its peak flowering time. Belowground traits were overwhelmingly not responsive to N additions as compared to aboveground. Individual trait responses were species specific, making generalities of N responses challenging. Aboveground and belowground were found to be correlated with strength of correlation increasing with N additions. Understanding the relationship between plant traits and certain variables like nitrogen addition will help improve our ability to predict future responses to global change drivers
Ordering ambiguity revisited via position dependent mass pseudo-momentum operators
Ordering ambiguity associated with the von Roos position dependent mass (PDM)
Hamiltonian is considered. An affine locally scaled first order differential
introduced, in Eq.(9), as a PDM-pseudo-momentum operator. Upon intertwining our
Hamiltonian, which is the sum of the square of this operator and the potential
function, with the von Roos d-dimensional PDM-Hamiltonian, we observed that the
so-called von Roos ambiguity parameters are strictly determined, but not
necessarily unique. Our new ambiguity parameters' setting is subjected to
Dutra's and Almeida's [11] reliability test and classified as good ordering.Comment: 10 pages, no figures, revised/expanded, mathematical presentations in
section 2 (Especially, the typological Errors in Eqs.(9)-(12))are now
corrected. To appear in the Int. J. Theor. Phy
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