A review of thin-film transistors/circuits fabrication with 3D self-aligned imprint lithography

Nanoimprint lithography (NIL) is a promising method for the fabrication of micro/nanostructures through a simple, low-cost, and high throughput process. Imprinted 2D structure with high resolution has been demonstrated successfully for certain applications including magnetic hard disks and optical gratings. Manufacturing low-cost electronic devices that require patterned multi-layers with NIL is very challenging, particularly for those requiring different patterns. In recent years, considerable effort has been made using the self-aligned imprinting technique, opening an alternative way to develop and fabricate complementary flexible electronics. In this paper we review thin film transistor (TFT) fabrication with 3D self-aligned imprint lithography (SAIL), which enables the patterning and alignment of submicron features on meter-scale flexible substrates in the roll-to-roll configuration. The 3D SAIL solves the problem of precision interlayer registry of devices on a moving web by encoding all geometric information required for all device patterning steps into a monolithic imprinted 3D structure.The authors acknowledge support from the Marie-Curie Fellowship (IEF): project number 301028

Consistency of demographic trade-offs across 13 (sub)tropical forests

1. Organisms of all species must balance their allocation to growth, survival and recruitment. Among tree species, evolution has resulted in different life-history strategies for partitioning resources to these key demographic processes.Life-history strategies in tropical forests have often been shown to align along a trade-off between fast growth and high survival, that is, the well-known fast–slow continuum. In addition, an orthogonal trade-off has been proposed between tall stature—resulting from fast growth and high survival— and recruit- ment success, that is, a stature−recruitment trade-off. However, it is not clear whether these two independent dimensions of life-history variation structure tropical forests worldwide. 2. We used data from 13 large-scale and long-term tropical forest monitoring plots in three continents to explore the principal trade-offs in annual growth, sur- vival and recruitment as well as tree stature. These forests included relatively undisturbed forests as well as typhoon-disturbed forests. Life-history variation in 12 forests was structured by two orthogonal trade-offs, the growth−survival trade-off and the stature−recruitment trade- off. Pairwise Procrustes analysis revealed a high similarity of demographic relationships among forests. The small deviations were related to differences between African and Asian plots. 3. Synthesis. The fast–slow continuum and tree stature are two independent di- mensions structuring many, but not all tropical tree communities. Our discovery of the consistency of demographic trade-offs and life-history strategies across different forest types from three continents substantially improves our ability to predict tropical forest dynamics worldwide

Climate-trait relationships exhibit strong habitat specificity in plant communities across Europe

Ecological theory predicts close relationships between macroclimate and functional traits. Yet, global climatic gradients correlate only weakly with the trait composition of local plant communities, suggesting that important factors have been ignored. Here, we investigate the consistency of climate-trait relationships for plant communities in European habitats. Assuming that local factors are better accounted for in more narrowly defined habitats, we assigned > 300,000 vegetation plots to hierarchically classified habitats and modelled the effects of climate on the community-weighted means of four key functional traits using generalized additive models. We found that the predictive power of climate increased from broadly to narrowly defined habitats for specific leaf area and root length, but not for plant height and seed mass. Although macroclimate generally predicted the distribution of all traits, its effects varied, with habitat-specificity increasing toward more narrowly defined habitats. We conclude that macroclimate is an important determinant of terrestrial plant communities, but future predictions of climatic effects must consider how habitats are defined

Global patterns of vascular plant alpha diversity

Global patterns of regional (gamma) plant diversity are relatively well known, but whether these patterns hold for local communities, and the dependence on spatial grain, remain controversial. Using data on 170,272 georeferenced local plant assemblages, we created global maps of alpha diversity (local species richness) for vascular plants at three different spatial grains, for forests and non-forests. We show that alpha diversity is consistently high across grains in some regions (for example, Andean-Amazonian foothills), but regional 'scaling anomalies' (deviations from the positive correlation) exist elsewhere, particularly in Eurasian temperate forests with disproportionally higher fine-grained richness and many African tropical forests with disproportionally higher coarse-grained richness. The influence of different climatic, topographic and biogeographical variables on alpha diversity also varies across grains. Our multi-grain maps return a nuanced understanding of vascular plant biodiversity patterns that complements classic maps of biodiversity hotspots and will improve predictions of global change effects on biodiversity

StephanKambach/trait-climate_regulation_relationships: Initial release

<p>Code released to support the publication "Climate regulation processes are linked to the functional composition of plant communities in European forests, shrublands, and grasslands." in Global Change Biology (2024).</p&gt

Meta-analysis in forest biodiversity-ecosystem functioning research

Unter dem Begriff der ˈMetaanalyseˈ werden Methoden systematischer und quantitativer Reviews zusammengefasst, welche objektive Aussagen zur Größe und Konsistenz eines untersuchten Effektes über die veröffentlichte Literatur zu ermöglichen. Mit meiner Dissertation trage ich die folgenden Hauptergebnisse zu dem, sich noch entwickelnden, Forschungsfeld der Metaanalyse von Zusammenhängen zwischen Baum-Diversität und Waldfunktionen bei: (i) Effekte der Baumdiversität auf Insektenherbivoren könnten sich entlang eines, bisher nicht berücksichtigten, globalen Gradienten ändern, (ii) artspezifische Mischungseffekte auf das Wachstum verschiedener Baumarten können (noch) nicht zwischen verschiedenen Forschungsansätzen übertragen werden und (iii) unter Berücksichtigung möglicher Korrelationsstrukturen kann die Schätzung fehlender Varianzwerte die Glaubwürdigkeit und Präzision von Metaanalyse-Ergebnissen erhöhen.Meta-analysis refers to a toolbox for conducting systematic quantitative reviews in order to derive unbiased conclusions on the consistency and magnitude of effects across a body of published literature. With this thesis I contribute the following main findings to the emergent field of meta-analyses on tree diversity-forest functioning relationships: (i) tree diversity effects on insect herbivory could change along a not yet considered global gradient, (ii) species-specific effects of tree diversity on growth cannot (yet) be transferred between different research approaches and (iii) imputation of missing variance estimates in meta-analysis dataset can increase the reliability and precision of the obtained grand mean effect (under consideration of different correlation structures)

Successional shifts in tree demographic strategies in wet and dry Neotropical forests

Aim: Tropical forest succession and associated changes in community composition are driven by species demographic rates, but how demographic strategies shift dur-ing succession remains unclear. Our goal was to identify generalities in demographic trade- offs and successional shifts in demographic strategies across Neotropical for-ests that cover a large rainfall gradient and to test whether the current conceptual model of tropical forest succession applies to wet and dry forests.Location: Mexico and Central America.Time period: 19 8 5 – 2 0 1 8 .Major taxa studied: Trees.Methods: We used repeated forest inventory data from two wet and two dry forests to quantify demographic rates of 781 tree species. For each forest, we explored the main demographic trade-offs and assigned tree species to five demographic groups by performing a weighted principal components analysis to account for differences in sample size. We aggregated the basal area and abundance across demographic groups to identify successional shifts in demographic strategies over the entire successional gradient from very young (<5 years) to old- growth forests.Results: Across all forests, we found two demographic trade-offs, namely the growth–survival trade-off and the stature–recruitment trade-off, enabling the data- driven assignment of species to five demographic strategies. Fast species dominated early in succession and were then replaced by long- lived pioneers in three forests. Intermediate and slow species increased in basal area over succession in all forests, but, in contrast to the current conceptual model, long- lived pioneers continued to dominate until the old- growth stage in all forests. The basal area of short- lived breed-ers was low across all successional stages.Main conclusions: The current conceptual model of Neotropical forest succes-sion should be revised to incorporate the dominance of long- lived pioneers in late- successional and old- growth forests. Moreover, the definition of consistent de-mographic strategies that show clear dominance shifts across succession substan-tially improves the mechanistic understanding and predictability of Neotropical forest succession

Human-Induced Disturbance Alters Pollinator Communities in Tropical Mountain Forests

Mountain forest ecosystems in the Andes are threatened by deforestation. Increasing fire frequencies lead to fire-degraded habitats that are often characterized by a persistent fern-dominated vegetation. Little is known about the consequences of these drastic changes in habitat conditions for pollinator communities. In a rapid diversity assessment, we collected individuals of two major groups of insect pollinators (bees and butterflies/moths) with pan traps and compared pollinator diversities in a spatial block design between forest interior, forest edge and adjacent fire-degraded habitats at eight sites in the Bolivian Andes. We found that bee species richness and abundance were significantly higher in fire-degraded habitats than in forest habitats, whereas species richness and abundance of butterflies/moths increased towards the forests interior. Species turnover between forest and fire-degraded habitats was very high for both pollinator groups and was reflected by an increase in the body size of bee species and a decrease in the body size of butterfly/moth species in fire-degraded habitats. We conclude that deforestation by frequent fires has profound impacts on the diversity and composition of pollinator communities. Our tentative findings suggest shifts towards bee-dominated pollinator communities in fire-degraded habitats that may have important feedbacks on the regenerating communities of insect-pollinated plant species

Human-Induced Disturbance Alters Pollinator Communities in Tropical Mountain Forests

Mountain forest ecosystems in the Andes are threatened by deforestation. Increasing fire frequencies lead to fire-degraded habitats that are often characterized by a persistent fern-dominated vegetation. Little is known about the consequences of these drastic changes in habitat conditions for pollinator communities. In a rapid diversity assessment, we collected individuals of two major groups of insect pollinators (bees and butterflies/moths) with pan traps and compared pollinator diversities in a spatial block design between forest interior, forest edge and adjacent fire-degraded habitats at eight sites in the Bolivian Andes. We found that bee species richness and abundance were significantly higher in fire-degraded habitats than in forest habitats, whereas species richness and abundance of butterflies/moths increased towards the forests interior. Species turnover between forest and fire-degraded habitats was very high for both pollinator groups and was reflected by an increase in the body size of bee species and a decrease in the body size of butterfly/moth species in fire-degraded habitats. We conclude that deforestation by frequent fires has profound impacts on the diversity and composition of pollinator communities. Our tentative findings suggest shifts towards bee-dominated pollinator communities in fire-degraded habitats that may have important feedbacks on the regenerating communities of insect-pollinated plant species

Flow chart of the study search and selection process.

<p>Flow chart of the study search and selection process.</p