A Primer for Monitoring Water Funds

This document is intended to assist people working on Water Funds to understand their information needs and become familiar with the strengths and weaknesses of various monitoring approaches. This primer is not intended to make people monitoring experts, but rather to help them become familiar with and conversant in the major issues so they can communicate effectively with experts to design a scientifically defensible monitoring program.The document highlights the critical information needs common to Water Fund projects and summarizes issues and steps to address in developing a Water Fund monitoring program. It explains key concepts and challenges; suggests monitoring parameters and an array of sampling designs to consider as a starting-point; and provides suggestions for further reading, links to helpful resources,and an annotated bibliography of studies on the impacts that result from activities commonly implemented in Water Fund projects

Detectability of Non-passerines Using "Pishing" in Eastern Ontario Woodlands

During spring and summer 1997, non-passerines were surveyed in three woodlots near Arnprior, Ontario, using standard point counts, and standard point counts combined with “pishing” (pishing involves the observer saying the words “pish pish pish pish” in a continuous series of short bursts). Of the 27 non-passerine species detected, 22 were recorded on more days using pishing as opposed to the standard point count method. However, only three of these species were recorded on significantly more days using pishing. Several woodpecker species approached more closely during point counts with pishing, which facilitated identification. In contrast, raptors and some other non-passerines that may have otherwise gone unnoticed were identified as they fled from the pishing sound. Hence, when the overall goal of research is to detect species richness or to gather presence and absence data in woodlands, point counts combined with pishing may increase detectability of some non-passerines

Bat Mortality at Ontario Wind Farms Quantified and Compared Using Four Candidate Estimator Equations

Wind farm development is expanding globally. While wind energy is a low-cost option for new electricity supply, the impacts to wildlife populations, including bats (Chiroptera), are of ecological concern. To quantify these impacts, scientists have developed estimator equations to estimate bat mortality, which vary in assumptions related to correction factors. We compared the results of 4 estimators applied to post-construction monitoring data from Ontario, Canada, wind farms to evaluate the effects of field methods and correction factors on estimator consistency. To conduct our study, we obtained data from 21 wind farms between 2011 and 2017 for a total of 26 wind farm survey years, because some wind farms supplied fatality monitoring data in \u3e1 year, to estimate mortality. The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry estimator (OMNRF) tended to be highest, while the Huso, Schoenfeld-Erickson, and GenEst estimators produced similar results. Huso and Schoenfeld-Erickson estimates tended to fall within 95% confidence intervals for GenEst, while OMNRF estimates tended to be higher than the upper confidence interval for GenEst. The results from the OMNRF estimator were consistent with the other candidates when carcass persistence times were \u3e6.5 days but inconsistent when carcass persistence times were shorter. Our results demonstrated the degree to which mortality estimates can vary among estimators and highlight the need for a consistent estimator in comparative studies. We recommend GenEst for such studies, as this estimator can incorporate more inputs with flexibility to reflect site-specific field conditions and produces highly consistent results. Conversely, the OMNRF estimator produced consistently higher estimates than the other candidate estimators, and assumptions related to carcass persistence were regularly violated. We recommend that these limitations be acknowledged when interpreting results from this estimator and that its use be reconsidered when assumptions related to carcass persistence are not met

Canadian Estimate of Bird Mortality Due to Collisions and Direct Habitat Loss Associated with Wind Turbine Developments

We estimated impacts on birds from the development and operation of wind turbines in Canada considering both mortality due to collisions and loss of nesting habitat. We estimated collision mortality using data from carcass searches for 43 wind farms, incorporating correction factors for scavenger removal, searcher efficiency, and carcasses that fell beyond the area searched. On average, 8.2 ± 1.4 birds (95% C.I.) were killed per turbine per year at these sites, although the numbers at individual wind farms varied from 0 - 26.9 birds per turbine per year. Based on 2955 installed turbines (the number installed in Canada by December 2011), an estimated 23,300 birds (95% C.I. 20,000 - 28,300) would be killed from collisions with turbines each year. We estimated direct habitat loss based on data from 32 wind farms in Canada. On average, total habitat loss per turbine was 1.23 ha, which corresponds to an estimated total habitat loss due to wind farms nationwide of 3635 ha. Based on published estimates of nest density, this could represent habitat for ~5700 nests of all species. Assuming nearby habitats are saturated, and 2 adults displaced per nest site, effects of direct habitat loss are less than that of direct mortality. Installed wind capacity is growing rapidly, and is predicted to increase more than 10-fold over the next 10-15 years, which could lead to direct mortality of approximately 233,000 birds / year, and displacement of 57,000 pairs. Despite concerns about the impacts of biased correction factors on the accuracy of mortality estimates, these values are likely much lower than those from collisions with some other anthropogenic sources such as windows, vehicles, or towers, or habitat loss due to many other forms of development. Species composition data suggest that < 0.2% of the population of any species is currently affected by mortality or displacement from wind turbine development. Therefore, population level impacts are unlikely, provided that highly sensitive or rare habitats, as well as concentration areas for species at risk, are avoided

Ionic liquid gating of SrTiO3_3 lamellas fabricated with a focused ion beam

In this work, we combine two previously-incompatible techniques for defining electronic devices: shaping three-dimensional crystals by focused ion beam (FIB), and two-dimensional electrostatic accumulation of charge carriers. The principal challenge for this integration is nanometer-scale surface damage inherent to any FIB-based fabrication. We address this by using a sacrificial protective layer to preserve a selected pristine surface. The test case presented here is accumulation of 2D carriers by ionic liquid gating at the surface of a micron-scale SrTiO$_3$ lamella. Preservation of surface quality is reflected in superconductivity of the accumulated carriers. This technique opens new avenues for realizing electrostatic charge tuning in materials that are not available as large or exfoliatable single crystals, and for patterning the geometry of the accumulated carriers

Bright quantum photon sources from a topological Floquet resonance

Entanglement, a fundamental concept in quantum mechanics, plays a crucial role as a valuable resource in quantum technologies. The practical implementation of entangled photon sources encounters obstacles arising from imperfections and defects inherent in physical systems and microchips, resulting in a loss or degradation of entanglement. The topological photonic insulators, however, have emerged as promising candidates, demonstrating an exceptional capability to resist defect-induced scattering, thus enabling the development of robust entangled sources. Despite their inherent advantages, building bright and programmable topologically protected entangled sources remains challenging due to intricate device designs and weak material nonlinearity. Here we present an advancement in entanglement generation achieved through a non-magnetic and tunable resonance-based anomalous Floquet insulator, utilizing an optical spontaneous four-wave mixing process. Our experiment demonstrates a substantial enhancement in entangled photon pair generation compared to devices reliant solely on topological edge states and outperforming trivial photonic devices in spectral resilience. This work marks a step forward in the pursuit of defect-robust and bright entangled sources that can open avenues for the exploration of cascaded quantum devices and the engineering of quantum states. Our result could lead to the development of resilient quantum sources with potential applications in quantum technologies.Comment: 20 pages, 10 figure

Algorithm for multi-curve-fitting with shared parameters and a possible application in evoked compound action potential measurements

BACKGROUND: Experimental results are commonly fitted by determining parameter values of suitable mathematical expressions. In case a relation exists between different data sets, the accuracy of the parameters obtained can be increased by incorporating this relationship in the fitting process instead of fitting the recordings separately. METHODS: An algorithm to fit multiple measured curves simultaneously was developed. The method accounts for parameters that are shared by some curves. It can be applied to either linear or nonlinear equations. Simulated noisy "measurement results" were created to compare the introduced method to the "straight forward" way of fitting the curves separately. RESULTS: The analysis of the simulated measurements confirm, that the introduced method yields more accurate parameters compared to the ones gained by fitting the measurements separately. Therefore it needs more computer time. As an example, the new fitting algorithm is applied to the measurements of the evoked compound action potentials (ECAP) of the auditory nerve: This leads to promising ideas to reduce artefacts generated by the measuring process. CONCLUSION: The introduced fitting algorithm uses the relationship between multiple measurement results to increase the accuracy of the parameters. Its application in the field of ECAP measurements is promising and should be further investigated