250 research outputs found
Strong paleoclimatic legacies in current plant functional diversity patterns across Europe
Numerous studies indicate that environmental changes during the late Quaternary have elicited longâterm disequilibria between species diversity and environment. Despite its importance for ecosystem functioning, the importance of historical environmental conditions as determinants of FD (functional diversity) remains largely unstudied. We quantified the geographic distributions of plant FD (richness and dispersion) across Europe using distribution and functional trait information for 2702 plant species. We then compared the importance of historical and contemporary factors to determine the relevance of past conditions as predictors of current plant FD in Europe. For this, we compared the strength of the relationships between FD with temperature and precipitation stability since the LGM (Last Glacial Maximum), accessibility to LGM refugia, and contemporary environmental conditions (climate, productivity, soil, topography, and land use). Functional richness and dispersion exhibited geographic patterns with strong associations to the environmental history of the region. The effect size of accessibility to LGM refugia and climate stability since the LGM was comparable to that of the contemporary predictors. Both functional richness and dispersion increased with temperature stability since the LGM and accessibility to LGM refugia. Functional richness' geographic pattern was primarily associated with accessibility to LGM refugia growing degreeâdays, land use heterogeneity, diversity of soil types, and absolute minimum winter temperature. Functional dispersion's geographic pattern was primarily associated with accessibility to LGM refugia growing degreeâdays and absolute minimum winter temperature. The high explained variance and model support of historical predictors are consistent with the idea that longâterm variability in environmental conditions supplements contemporary factors in shaping FD patterns at continental scales. Given the importance of FD for ecosystem functioning, future climate change may elicit not just shortâterm shifts in ecosystem functioning, but also longâterm functional disequilibria
LUX -- A Laser-Plasma Driven Undulator Beamline
The LUX beamline is a novel type of laser-plasma accelerator. Building on the
joint expertise of the University of Hamburg and DESY the beamline was
carefully designed to combine state-of-the-art expertise in laser-plasma
acceleration with the latest advances in accelerator technology and beam
diagnostics. LUX introduces a paradigm change moving from single-shot
demonstration experiments towards available, stable and controllable
accelerator operation. Here, we discuss the general design concepts of LUX and
present first critical milestones that have recently been achieved, including
the generation of electron beams at the repetition rate of up to 5 Hz with
energies above 600 MeV and the generation of spontaneous undulator radiation at
a wavelength well below 9 nm.Comment: submitte
Patterns of modern pollen and plant richness across northern Europe
Sedimentary pollen offers excellent opportunities to reconstruct vegetation changes over past millennia. Number of different pollen taxa or pollen richness is used to characterise past plant richness. To improve the interpretation of sedimentary pollen richness, it is essential to understand the relationship between pollen and plant richness in contemporary landscapes. This study presents a regional-scale comparison of pollen and plant richness from northern Europe and evaluates the importance of environmental variables on pollen and plant richness. We use a pollen dataset of 511 lake-surface pollen samples ranging through temperate, boreal and tundra biomes. To characterise plant diversity, we use a dataset formulated from the two largest plant atlases available in Europe. We compare pollen and plant richness estimates in different groups of taxa (wind-pollinated vs. non-wind-pollinated, trees and shrubs vs. herbs and grasses) and test their relationships with climate and landscape variables. Pollen richness is significantly positively correlated with plant richness (r = 0.53). The pollen plant richness correlation improves (r = 0.63) when high pollen producers are downweighted prior to estimating richness minimising the influence of pollen production on the pollen richness estimate. This suggests that methods accommodating pollen-production differences in richness estimates deserve further attention and should become more widely used in Quaternary pollen diversity studies. The highest correlations are found between pollen and plant richness of trees and shrubs (r = 0.83) and of wind-pollinated taxa (r = 0.75) suggesting that these are the best measures of broad-scale plant richness over several thousands of square kilometres. Mean annual temperature is the strongest predictor of both pollen and plant richness. Landscape openness is positively associated with pollen richness but not with plant richness. Pollen richness values from extremely open and/or cold areas where pollen production is low should be interpreted with caution because low local pollen production increases the proportion of extra-regional pollen. Synthesis. Our results confirm that pollen data can provide insights into past plant richness changes in northern Europe, and with careful consideration of pollen-production differences and spatial scale represented, pollen data make it possible to investigate vegetation diversity trends over long time-scales and under changing climatic and habitat conditions.Peer reviewe
The BSUIN project
Baltic Sea Underground Innovation Network (BSUIN) is an European Union funded project that
extends capabilities of underground laboratories. The aim of the project is to join efforts in making
the underground laboratories in the Baltic Sea Regionâs more accessible for innovation, business
development and science by improving the availability of information about the underground
facilities, service offerings, user experience, safety and marketing.The development of standards
for the characterization of underground laboratories will allow to compared them with each other.
This will help you choose the best places for physical measurements such as neutrino physics or
searching for dark matter. The project concerns laboratories where so far no measurements have
been made, and even undergrounds where there are no organized laboratories yet.The description
of the BSUIN project and the first results of characterization of natural radioactive background in
underground laboratories will be presented Ë The BSUIN Project is funded by Interreg Baltic Sea
funding cooperation [2]
Developing a 50 MeV LPA-based Injector at ATHENA for a Compact Storage Ring
The laser-driven generation of relativistic electron beams in plasma and
their acceleration to high energies with GV/m-gradients has been successfully
demonstrated. Now, it is time to focus on the application of laser-plasma
accelerated (LPA) beams. The "Accelerator Technology HElmholtz iNfrAstructure"
(ATHENA) of the Helmholtz Association fosters innovative particle accelerators
and high-power laser technology. As part of the ATHENAe pillar several
different applications driven by LPAs are to be developed, such as a compact
FEL, medical imaging and the first realization of LPA-beam injection into a
storage ring. The latter endeavour is conducted in close collaboration between
Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
(KIT) and Helmholtz Institute Jena (HIJ). In the cSTART project at KIT, a
compact storage ring optimized for short bunches and suitable to accept
LPA-based electron bunches is in preparation. In this conference contribution
we will introduce the 50 MeV LPA-based injector and give an overview about the
project goals. The key parameters of the plasma injector will be presented.
Finally, the current status of the project will be summarized
Status Report of the 50 MeV LPA-Based Injector at ATHENA for a Compact Storage Ring
Laser-based plasma accelerators (LPA) have successfully demonstrated their capability to generate high-energy electron beams with intrinsically short bunch lengths and high peak currents at a setup with a small footprint. These properties make them attractive drivers for a broad range of different applications including injectors for rf-driven, ring-based light sources. In close collaboration the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the Helmholtz Institute Jena aim to develop a 50 MeV plasma injector and demonstrate the injection into a compact storage ring. This storage ring will be built within the project cSTART at KIT. As part of the ATHENA (Accelerator Technology HElmholtz iNfrAstructure) project, DESY will design, setup and operate a 50 MeV plasma injector prototype for this endeavor. This contribution gives a status update of the 50 MeV LPA-based injector and presents a first layout of the prototype design at DESY in Hamburg
Topological Photonics
Topology is revolutionizing photonics, bringing with it new theoretical
discoveries and a wealth of potential applications. This field was inspired by
the discovery of topological insulators, in which interfacial electrons
transport without dissipation even in the presence of impurities. Similarly,
new optical mirrors of different wave-vector space topologies have been
constructed to support new states of light propagating at their interfaces.
These novel waveguides allow light to flow around large imperfections without
back-reflection. The present review explains the underlying principles and
highlights the major findings in photonic crystals, coupled resonators,
metamaterials and quasicrystals.Comment: progress and review of an emerging field, 12 pages, 6 figures and 1
tabl
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Simultaneous activities in the household and residential electricity demand in Spain
Recent research and policy studies on the low-carbon future highlight the importance of flexible electricity demand. This might be problematic particularly for residential electricity demand, which is related to simultaneous consumersâ practices in the household. This paper analyses issues of simultaneity in residential electricity demand in Spain. It makes use of the 2011 Spanish Time Use Survey data with comparisons from the previous Spanish Time Use Survey and the Harmonised European Time Use Surveys. Findings show that media activities are associated the highest levels of continuity and simultaneity, particularly in the early and late parts of the evening during weekdays
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