106 research outputs found
Protected areas: providing natural solutions to 21st century challenges
Protected areas remain a cornerstone of global conservation efforts. The double impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss are major threats to achieving the Millennium Development Goals, especially those relating to environmental sustainability, poverty alleviation and food and water security. The growing awareness of the planetâs vulnerability to human driven changes also provides an opportunity to re-emphasize the multiple values of natural ecosystems and the services that they provide. Protected areas, when integrated into landuse plans as part of larger and connected conservation networks, offer practical, tangible solutions to the problems of both species loss and adaptation to climate change. Natural habitats make a significant contribution to mitigation by storing and sequestering carbon in vegetation and soils, and to adaptation by maintaining essential ecosystem services which help societies to respond to, and cope with climate change and other environmental challenges. Many protected areas could be justified on socioeconomic grounds alone yet their multiple goods and services are largely unrecognized in national accounting. This paper argues that there is a convincing case for greater investment in expanded and better-connected protected area systems, under a range of governance and management regimes that are specifically designed to counter the threats of climate change, increased demand and altered patterns of resource use. The new agenda for protected areas requires greater inclusivity of a broader spectrum of actors and rights holders, with growing attention to landscapes and seascapes protected by indigenous peoples, local communities, private owners and other actors which complement conservation areas managed by state agencies. Greater attention also needs to be focused on ways to integrate and mainstream protected areas into sustainable development, including promotion of âgreenâ infrastructure as a strategic part of responses to climate change
Contrasting futures for ocean and society from different anthropogenic CO2 emissions scenarios
The ocean moderates anthropogenic climate change at the cost of profound alterations of its physics, chemistry, ecology, and services. Here, we evaluate and compare the risks of impacts on marine and coastal ecosystems and the goods and services they provide for growing cumulative carbon emissions under two contrasting emissions scenarios. The current emissions trajectory would rapidly and significantly alter many ecosystems and the associated services on which humans heavily depend. A reduced emissions scenario consistent with the Copenhagen Accordâs goal of a global temperature increase of less than 2°Câis much more favorable to the ocean but still substantially alters important marine ecosystems and associated goods and services. The management options to address ocean impacts narrow as the ocean warms and acidifies. Consequently, any new climate regime that fails to minimize ocean impacts would be incomplete and inadequate
Author Correction: The future of Blue Carbon science.
An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper
Far from \u27Easy\u27 Spectroscopy with the 8Ï and GRIFFIN Spectrometers at TRIUMF-ISAC
The 8Ï spectrometer, installed at the TRIUMF-ISAC facility, was the world\u27s most sensitive Îł-ray spectrometer dedicated to ÎČ-decay studies. A description is given of the 8Ï spectrometer and its auxiliary detectors including the plastic scintillator array SCEPTAR used for ÎČ-particle tagging and the Si(Li) array PACES for conversion electron measurements, its moving tape collector, and its data acquisition system. The recent investigation of the decay of 124Cs to study the nuclear structure of 124Xe, and how the ÎČ-decay measurements complemented previous Coulomb excitation studies, is highlighted, including the extraction of the deformation parameters for the excited 0+ bands in 124Xe. As a by-product, the decay scheme of the (7+) 124Cs isomeric state, for which the data from the PACES detectors were vital, was studied. Finally, a description of the new GRIFFIN spectrometer, which uses the same auxiliary detectors as the 8Ï spectrometer, is given
High-precision half-life and branching-ratio measurements for superallowed Fermi ÎČ \u3csup\u3e+\u3c/sup\u3e emitters at TRIUMF - ISAC
A program of high-precision half-life and branching-ratio measurements for superallowed Fermi ÎČ emitters is being carried out at TRIUMF\u27s Isotope Separator and Accelerator (ISAC) radioactive ion beam facility. Recent half-life measurements for the superallowed decays of 14O, 18Ne, and 26Alm, as well as branching-ratio measurements for 26Alm and 74Rb are reported. These results provide demanding tests of the Standard Model and the theoretical isospin symmetry breaking (ISB) corrections in superallowed Fermi ÎČ decays. © Owned by the authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2014
Eight urgent, fundamental and simultaneous steps needed to restore ocean health, and the consequences for humanity and the planet of inaction or delay
The ocean crisis is urgent and central to human wellbeing and life on Earth; past and current activities are damaging the planet's main life support system for future generations. We are witnessing an increase in ocean heat, disturbance, acidification, bioâinvasions and nutrients, and reducing oxygen levels. Several of these act like ratchets: once detrimental or negative changes have occurred, they may lock in place and may not be reversible, especially at gross ecological and ocean process scales.
Each change may represent a loss to humanity of resources, ecosystem function, oxygen production and species. The longer we pursue unsuitable actions, the more we close the path to recovery and better ocean health and greater benefits for humanity in the future.
We stand at a critical juncture and have identified eight priority issues that need to be addressed in unison to help avert a potential ecological disaster in the global ocean. They form a purposely ambitious agenda for global governance and are aimed at informing decisionâmakers at a high level. They should also be of interest to the general public.
Of all the themes, the highest priority is to rigorously address global warming and limit surface temperature rise to 1.5°C by 2100, as warming is the preâeminent factor driving change in the ocean. The other themes are establishing a robust and comprehensive High Seas Treaty, enforcing existing standards for Marine Protected Areas and expanding their coverage, especially in terms of high levels of protection, adopting a precautionary pause on deepâsea mining, ending overfishing and destructive fishing practices, radically reducing marine pollution, putting in place a financing mechanism for ocean management and protection, and lastly, scaling up science/data gathering and facilitating data sharing.
By implementing all eight measures in unison, as a coordinated strategy, we can build resilience to climate change, help sustain fisheries productivity, particularly for lowâincome countries dependent on fisheries, protect coasts (e.g. via softâengineering/habitatâbased approaches), promote mitigation (e.g. carbon storage) and enable improved adaptation to rapid global change.The attached document is the author(âsâ) final accepted/submitted version of the journal article. You are advised to consult the publisherâs version if you wish to cite from it
First Evidence of Axial Shape Asymmetry and Configuration Coexistence in Zn: Suggestion for a Northern Extension of the Island of Inversion
The excited states of Zn were investigated via -ray
spectroscopy following Cu decay. By exploiting -
angular correlation analysis, the , , and states
in Zn were firmly established. The -ray branching and
mixing ratios for transitions de-exciting the , and
states were measured, allowing for the extraction of relative values.
In particular, the and transitions were
observed for the first time. The results show excellent agreement with new
microscopic large-scale shell-model calculations, and are discussed in terms of
underlying shapes, as well as the role of neutron excitations across the
gap. Enhanced axial shape asymmetry (triaxiality) is suggested to characterize
Zn in its ground state. Furthermore, an excited band with a
significantly larger softness in its shape is identified. A shore of the
``island of inversion'' appears to manifest above , previously thought as
its northern limit in the chart of the nuclides
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