Contrasting effects of fire severity on regeneration of the dominant woody species in two coastal plant communities at Wilsons Promontory, Victoria

Following wildfire in 2005 at Wilsons Promontory, Victoria, we asked how fire severity affected the postfire regeneration of dominant woody species in two coastal plant communities. We documented the effects of fire severity (unburned, low, high) on stand mortality and seedling regeneration in shrublands dominated by the obligate seeder Leptospermum laevigatum (Myrtaceae) and woodlands dominated by the resprouting Banksia integrifolia var. integrifolia (Proteaceae). Leptospermum laevigatum is a range-expanding native species that has encroached into grassy Banksia woodland and hence, we were also interested whether fire severity affects post-fire succession in encroached and un-encroached stands. Fire severity impacted on all measures of post-fire recovery examined: stand mortality, seedling germination, seedling survival, seedling growth. High fire severity (complete canopy consumption) led to 100% mortality of both species. Despite variable responses at the stand level, mean Leptospermum laevigatum seedling establishment, growth and survival all increased with increasing fire severity in shrublands, thus ensuring shrublands are replaced. Banksia integrifolia recruitment, however, was minimal in all stands and not fire-cued. Increasing fire severity enabled Leptospermum laevigatum to recruit into woodland sites from where it was previously absent and this establishment, coupled with the loss of overstorey Banksia trees, may rapidly transform woodlands into shrublands. Hence, fire severity-induced population responses were observed and these imprints are likely to affect longer-term succession by reinforcing site occupancy of the encroaching Leptospermum laevigatum while simultaneously leading to the potential decline of Banksia woodlands

Effects of temperature-dependent viscosity variation on entropy generation, heat and fluid flow through a porous-saturated duct of rectangular cross-section

Effect of temperature-dependent viscosity on fully developed forced convection in a duct of rectangular cross-section occupied by a fluid-saturated porous medium is investigated analytically. The Darcy flow model is applied and the viscosity-temperature relation is assumed to be an inverse-linear one. The case of uniform heat flux on the walls, i.e. the H boundary condition in the terminology of Kays and Crawford, is treated. For the case of a fluid whose viscosity decreases with temperature, it is found that the effect of the variation is to increase the Nusselt number for heated walls. Having found the velocity and the temperature distribution, the second law of thermodynamics is invoked to find the local and average entropy generation rate. Expressions for the entropy generation rate, the Bejan number, the heat transfer irreversibility, and the fluid flow irreversibility are presented in terms of the Brinkman number, the Péclet number, the viscosity variation number, the dimensionless wall heat flux, and the aspect ratio (width to height ratio). These expressions let a parametric study of the problem based on which it is observed that the entropy generated due to flow in a duct of square cross-section is more than those of rectangular counterparts while increasing the aspect ratio decreases the entropy generation rate similar to what previously reported for the clear flow case

Experimental insights on the development of buoyant plumes injected into a porous media

We describe a series of new laboratory experiments which examine the rise of a two-dimensional buoyancy-driven plume of freshwater through a porous layer initially saturated with aqueous saline solution. Measurements show that the plume head accounts for a constant fraction of about 0.7 of the buoyancy supplied at the source and that it grows as it rises through the porous layer. However, the morphology of the plume head becomes increasingly complex as the ratio of the injection speed to the buoyancy rise speed increases, with the fluid spreading laterally and developing localized buoyant fingers which intermingle with the ambient fluid. Behind the plume head, a tail of nearly constant width develops providing a pathway from the source to the plume head. These starting plume dynamics may be relevant for buoyancy-driven contaminant dispersal and also for the convection which develops during CO2 sequestration as CO2 dissolves into aquifer water.This work was partially supported by a grant from the Chinese Ministry of Education

Strangeness nuclear physics: a critical review on selected topics

Selected topics in strangeness nuclear physics are critically reviewed. This includes production, structure and weak decay of $\Lambda$--Hypernuclei, the $\bar K$ nuclear interaction and the possible existence of $\bar K$ bound states in nuclei. Perspectives for future studies on these issues are also outlined.Comment: 63 pages, 51 figures, accepted for publication on European Physical Journal

Integral potential method for a transmission problem with Lipschitz interface in R^3 for the Stokes and Darcy–Forchheimer–Brinkman PDE systems

The purpose of this paper is to obtain existence and uniqueness results in weighted Sobolev spaces for transmission problems for the non-linear Darcy-Forchheimer-Brinkman system and the linear Stokes system in two complementary Lipschitz domains in R3, one of them is a bounded Lipschitz domain with connected boundary, and the other one is the exterior Lipschitz domain R3 n. We exploit a layer potential method for the Stokes and Brinkman systems combined with a fixed point theorem in order to show the desired existence and uniqueness results, whenever the given data are suitably small in some weighted Sobolev spaces and boundary Sobolev spaces

Gas-cushioned droplet impacts with a thin layer of porous media

The authors are grateful to Dr. Manish Tiwari for introducing them to experiments involving droplet impacts with textured substrates. PDH is grateful for the use of the Maxwell High-Performance Computing Cluster of the University of Aberdeen IT Service. RP is grateful for the use of the High-Performance Computing Cluster supported by the Research and Specialist Computing Support service at the University of East Anglia.Peer reviewedPostprin

Marine integrons containing novel integrase genes, attachment sites, attI, and associated gene cassettes in polluted sediments from Suez and Tokyo Bays

In order to understand the structure and biological significance of integrons and associated gene cassettes in marine polluted sediments, metagenomic DNAs were extracted from sites at Suez and Tokyo Bays. PCR amplicons containing new integrase genes, intI, linked with novel gene cassettes, were recovered and had sizes from 1.8 to 2.5 kb. This approach uncovered, for the first time, the structure and diversity of both marine integron attachment site, attI, and the first gene cassette, the most efficiently expressed integron-associated gene cassette. The recovered 13 and 20 intI phylotypes, from Suez and Tokyo Bay samples, respectively, showed a highly divergence, suggesting a difference in integron composition between the sampling sites. Some intI phylotypes showed similarity with that from Geobacter metallireducens, belonging to Deltaproteobacteria, the dominant class in both sampling sites, as determined by 16S rRNA gene analysis. Thirty distinct families of putative attI site, as determined by the presence of an attI-like simple site, were recovered. A total of 146 and 68 gene cassettes represented Suez and Tokyo Bay unsaturated cassette pools, respectively. Gene cassettes, including a first cassette, from both sampling sites encoded two novel families of glyoxalase/bleomycin antibiotic-resistance protein. Gene cassettes from Suez Bay encoded proteins similar to haloacid dehalogenases, protein disulfide isomerases and death-on-curing and plasmid maintenance system killer proteins. First gene cassettes from Tokyo Bay encoded a xenobiotic-degrading protein, cardiolipin synthetase, esterase and WD40-like β propeller protein. Many of the first gene cassettes encoded proteins with no ascribable function but some of them were duplicated and possessed signal functional sites, suggesting efficient adaptive functions to their bacterial sources. Thus, each sampling site had a specific profile of integrons and cassette types consistent with the hypothesis that the environment shapes the genome

Immersive event experience and attendee motivation: a quantitative analysis using sensory, localisation, and participatory factors

‘Immersive events' is a growing category within the range of event typologies that includes participatory theatre, interactive launch parties, ‘escape rooms’ and dress-up cinema. A conceptual model reflects three core elements of the immersive events: Interaction, Sensory experience, and Localisation. A targeted online survey obtained a sample of n = 201 participants who had attended an immersive event within the past year. The results reveal that novelty and entertainment are highly important to attendee motivation. Gender, marital status, age, and education affected attendance patterns. Attendees were drawn to the uniqueness and participatory aspects of the immersive event. Deterrents to attendance were cost and perceived value. Rapid developments in digital technology suggest even greater degrees of immersivity on the horizon. These findings offer a timely contribution to the better understanding of the immersiveness concept, and its influence on attendee motivation and experience

Measuring and modeling the effect of surface moisture on the spectral reflectance of coastal beach sand

Surface moisture is an important supply limiting factor for aeolian sand transport, which is the primary driver of coastal dune development. As such, it is critical to account for the control of surface moisture on available sand for dune building. Optical remote sensing has the potential to measure surface moisture at a high spatio-temporal resolution. It is based on the principle that wet sand appears darker than dry sand: it is less reflective. The goals of this study are (1) to measure and model reflectance under controlled laboratory conditions as function of wavelength () and surface moisture () over the optical domain of 350–2500 nm, and (2) to explore the implications of our laboratory findings for accurately mapping the distribution of surface moisture under natural conditions. A laboratory spectroscopy experiment was conducted to measure spectral reflectance (1 nm interval) under different surface moisture conditions using beach sand. A non-linear increase of reflectance upon drying was observed over the full range of wavelengths. Two models were developed and tested. The first model is grounded in optics and describes the proportional contribution of scattering and absorption of light by pore water in an unsaturated sand matrix. The second model is grounded in soil physics and links the hydraulic behaviour of pore water in an unsaturated sand matrix to its optical properties. The optical model performed well for volumetric moisture content 24% ( 0.97), but underestimated reflectance for between 24–30% ( 0.92), most notable around the 1940 nm water absorption peak. The soil-physical model performed very well ( 0.99) but is limited to 4% 24%. Results from a field experiment show that a short-wave infrared terrestrial laser scanner ( = 1550 nm) can accurately relate surface moisture to reflectance (standard error 2.6%), demonstrating its potential to derive spatially extensive surface moisture maps of a natural coastal beach