Nonannual tree rings in a climate-sensitive Prioria copaifera chronology in the Atrato River, Colombia

In temperate climates, tree growth dormancy usually ensures the annual nature of tree rings, but in tropical environments, determination of annual periodicity can be more complex. The purposes of the work are as follows: (1) to generate a reliable tree‐ring width chronology for Prioria copaifera Griseb. (Leguminoceae), a tropical tree species dwelling in the Atrato River floodplains, Colombia; (2) to assess the climate signal recorded by the tree‐ring records; and (3) to validate the annual periodicity of the tree rings using independent methods. We used standard dendrochronological procedures to generate the P. copaifera tree‐ring chronology. We used Pearson correlations to evaluate the relationship of the chronology with the meteorological records, climate regional indices, and gridded precipitation/sea surface temperature products. We also evaluated 24 high‐precision 14C measurements spread over a range of preselected tree rings, with assigned calendar years by dendrochronological techniques, before and after the bomb spike in order to validate the annual nature of the tree rings. The tree‐ring width chronology was statistically reliable, and it correlated significantly with local records of annual and October–December (OND) streamflow and precipitation across the upper river watershed (positive), and OND temperature (negative). It was also significantly related to the Oceanic Niño Index, Pacific Decadal Oscillation, and the Southern Oscillation Index, as well as sea surface temperatures over the Caribbean and the Pacific region. However, 14C high‐precision measurements over the tree rings demonstrated offsets of up to 40 years that indicate that P. copaifera can produce more than one ring in certain years. Results derived from the strongest climate–growth relationship during the most recent years of the record suggest that the climatic signal reported may be due to the presence of annual rings in some of those trees in recent years. Our study alerts about the risk of applying dendrochronology in species with challenging anatomical features defining tree rings, commonly found in the tropics, without an independent validation of annual periodicity of tree rings. High‐precision 14C measurements in multiple trees are a useful method to validate the identification of annual tree rings

Cryo-FIB Machining: An Alternative to TEM Cryo-Sections Cut with Diamonds?

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2011 in Nashville, Tennessee, USA, August 7-August 11, 201

Posthumanist Education

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Biogeographic, Atmospheric, and Climatic Factors Influencing Tree Growth in Mediterranean Aleppo Pine Forests

There is a lack of knowledge on how tree species respond to climatic constraints like water shortages and related atmospheric patterns across broad spatial and temporal scales. These assessments are needed to project which populations will better tolerate or respond to global warming across the tree species distribution range. Warmer and drier conditions have been forecasted for the Mediterranean Basin, where Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensisMill.) is the most widely distributed conifer in dry sites. This species shows plastic growth responses to climate, being particularly sensitive to drought. We evaluated how 32 Aleppo pine forests responded to climate during the second half of the 20th century by using dendrochronology. Climatic constraints of radial growth were inferred by fitting the Vaganov-Shashkin (VS-Lite) growth model to ring-width data from our Aleppo pine forest network. Our findings reported that Aleppo pine growth decreased and showed the highest common coherence among trees in dry, continental sites located in southeastern and eastern inland Spain and Algeria. In contrast, growth increased in wetter sites located in northeastern Spain. Overall, across the Aleppo pine network tree growth was enhanced by prior wet winters and cool and wet springs, whilst warm summers were associated with less growth. The relationships between site ring-width chronologies were higher in nearby forests. This explains why Aleppo pine growth was distinctly linked to indices of atmospheric circulation patterns depending on the geographical location of the forests. The western forests were more influenced by moisture and temperature conditions driven by the Western Mediterranean Oscillation (WeMO) and the Northern Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), the southern forests by the East Atlantic (EA) and the august NAO, while the Balearic, Tunisian and northeastern sites by the Arctic Oscillation (AO) and the Scandinavian pattern (SCA). The climatic constraints for Aleppo pine tree growth and its biogeographical variability were well captured by the VS-Lite model. The model performed better in dry and continental sites, showing strong growth coherence between trees and climatic limitations of growth. Further research using similar broad-scale approaches to climate-growth relationships in drought-prone regions deserves more attention

Bio-Inspired Nanostructured Ti-6Al-4V Alloy: The Role of Two Alkaline Etchants and the Hydrothermal Processing Duration on Antibacterial Activity

Inspired by observations that the natural topography observed on cicada and dragonfly wings may be lethal to bacteria, researchers have sought to reproduce these nanostructures on biomaterials with the goal of reducing implant-associated infections. Titanium and its alloys are widely employed biomaterials with excellent properties but are susceptible to bacterial colonisation. Hydrothermal etching is a simple, cost-effective procedure which fabricates nanoscale protrusions of various dimensions upon titanium, depending on the etching parameters used. We investigated the role of etching time and the choice of cation (sodium and potassium) in the alkaline heat treatment on the topographical, physical, and bactericidal properties of the resulting modified titanium surfaces. Optimal etching times were 4 h for sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and 5 h for potassium hydroxide (KOH). NaOH etching for 4 h produced dense, but somewhat ordered, surface nanofeatures with 75 nanospikes per µm2. In comparison, KOH etching for 5 h resulted sparser but nonetheless disordered surface morphology with only 8 spikes per µm2. The NaOH surface was more effective at eliminating Gram-negative pathogens, while the KOH surface was more effective against the Gram-positive strains. These findings may guide further research and development of bactericidal titanium surfaces which are optimised for the predominant pathogens associated with the intended application

Matching Dendrochronological Dates with the Southern Hemisphere ¹⁴C Bomb Curve to Confirm Annual Tree Rings in Pseudolmedia rigida from Bolivia

This study used high-precision radiocarbon bomb-pulse dating of selected wood rings to provide an independent validation of the tree growth periodicity of Pseudolmedia rigida (Klotzsch & H. Karst.) Cuatrec. from the Moraceae family, collected in the Madidi National Park in Bolivia. ¹⁴C content was measured by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) in 10 samples from a single tree covering over 70 yr from 1939 to 2011. These preliminary calendar dates were determined by dendrochronological techniques and were also used to select the samples for ¹⁴C AMS. In order to validate these preliminary dates using the established Southern Hemisphere (SH) ¹⁴C atmospheric concentration data set, the targeted rings were selected to be formed during periods before and after the ¹⁴C bomb spike nuclear tests (i.e. 1950s–1960s). The excellent agreement of the dendrochronological dates and the ¹⁴C signatures in tree rings associated with the same dates provided by the bombpulse ¹⁴C atmospheric values for the SH (SHCal zone 1–2) confirms the annual periodicity of the observed growth layers, and thus the high potential of this species for tree-ring analysis. The lack of discrepancies between both data sets also suggests that there are no significant latitudinal differences between the ¹⁴C SHCal zone 1–2 curve and the ¹⁴C values obtained from the selected tree rings at this geographic location (14°33′S, 68°49′W) in South America. The annual resolution of P. rigida tree rings opens the possibility of broader applications of dendrochronological analysis for ecological and paleoclimatic studies in the Bolivian tropics, as well as the possibility of using wood samples from some tree species from this region to improve the quality of the bomb-pulse ¹⁴C SHCal curve at this latitude

Biogeographic, atmospheric, and climatic factors influencing tree growth in Mediterranean Aleppo pine forests

There is a lack of knowledge on how tree species respond to climatic constraintslike water shortages and related atmospheric patterns across broad spatial and temporal scales.These assessments are needed to project which populations will better tolerate or respond to globalwarming across the tree species distribution range. Warmer and drier conditions have been forecastedfor the Mediterranean Basin, where Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensisMill.) is the most widely distributedconifer in dry sites. This species shows plastic growth responses to climate, being particularly sensitiveto drought. We evaluated how 32 Aleppo pine forests responded to climate during the second half ofthe 20th century by using dendrochronology. Climatic constraints of radial growth were inferred byfitting the Vaganov-Shashkin (VS-Lite) growth model to ring-width data from our Aleppo pine forestnetwork. Our findings reported that Aleppo pine growth decreased and showed the highest commoncoherence among trees in dry, continental sites located in southeastern and eastern inland Spain andAlgeria. In contrast, growth increased in wetter sites located in northeastern Spain. Overall, across theAleppo pine network tree growth was enhanced by prior wet winters and cool and wet springs,whilst warm summers were associated with less growth. The relationships between site ring-widthchronologies were higher in nearby forests. This explains why Aleppo pine growth was distinctlylinked to indices of atmospheric circulation patterns depending on the geographical location of theforests. The western forests were more influenced by moisture and temperature conditions drivenby the Western Mediterranean Oscillation (WeMO) and the Northern Atlantic Oscillation (NAO),the southern forests by the East Atlantic (EA) and the august NAO, while the Balearic, Tunisian andnortheastern sites by the Arctic Oscillation (AO) and the Scandinavian pattern (SCA). The climaticconstraints for Aleppo pine tree growth and its biogeographical variability were well captured by theVS-Lite model. The model performed better in dry and continental sites, showing strong growthcoherence between trees and climatic limitations of growth. Further research using similar broad-scaleapproaches to climate-growth relationships in drought-prone regions deserves more attention