Food-web structure in relation to environmental gradients and predator-prey ratios in tank-bromeliad ecosystems

Little is known of how linkage patterns between species change along environmental gradients. The small, spatially discrete food webs inhabiting tank-bromeliads provide an excellent opportunity to analyse patterns of community diversity and food-web topology (connectance, linkage density, nestedness) in relation to key environmental variables (habitat size, detrital resource, incident radiation) and predators: prey ratios. We sampled 365 bromeliads in a wide range of understorey environments in French Guiana and used gut contents of invertebrates to draw the corresponding 365 connectance webs. At the bromeliad scale, habitat size (water volume) determined the number of species that constitute food-web nodes, the proportion of predators, and food-web topology. The number of species as well as the proportion of predators within bromeliads declined from open to forested habitats, where the volume of water collected by bromeliads was generally lower because of rainfall interception by the canopy. A core group of microorganisms and generalist detritivores remained relatively constant across environments. This suggests that (i) a highly-connected core ensures food-web stability and key ecosystem functions across environments, and (ii) larger deviations in food-web structures can be expected following disturbance if detritivores share traits that determine responses to environmental changes. While linkage density and nestedness were lower in bromeliads in the forest than in open areas, experiments are needed to confirm a trend for lower food-web stability in the understorey of primary forests

A Measurement of the holographic minimum observable beam branching ratio in the Fermilab 15-foot bubble chamber

Holography has been used successfully in combination with conventional optics for the first time in a large cryogenic bubble chamber, the 15-Foot Bubble Chamber at Fermilab, during a physics run. The innovative system combined the reference beam with the object beam, illuminating a conical volume of $\sim 1.4$~m$^3$. Bubble tracks from neutrino interactions with a width of $\sim 120\;\mu$m have been recorded with good contrast. The ratio of intensities of the object light to the reference light striking the film is called the Beam Branching Ratio. We obtained in our experiment an exceedingly small minimum-observable ratio of $(0.54 \pm 0.21) \times 10^{-7}$. The technology has the potential for a wide range of applications

COHERENT PRODUCTION OF pi+ pi- MESONS BY CHARGED CURRENT INTERACTIONS OF NEUTRINOS AND ANTI-NEUTRINOS ON NEON NUCLEI AT THE TEVATRON

Coherent single-pion production on neon nuclei is studied using the Fermilab 15-ft bubble chamber filled with a heavy Ne-H2 mixture and exposed to the Tevatron neutrino beam. In the neutrino energy range 40ε300 GeV, the net signal is 20±6 events, giving a corrected rate per charged-current event of (0.26±0.10)%. The cross section and kinematic distributions agree with the predictions of a model based on partial conservation of axial-vector current and meson dominance. © 1989 The American Physical Society.0SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

The Tracking, calorimeter and muon detectors of the H1 experiment at HERA

Technical aspects of the three major components of the H1 detector at the electron-proton storage ring HERA are described. This paper covers the detector status up to the end of 1994 when a major upgrading of some of its elements was undertaken. A description of the other elements of the detector and some performance figures from luminosity runs at HERA during 1993 and 1994 are given in a paper previously published in this journal.0400 auteursSCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe