An Integrative Salt Marsh Conceptual Framework for Global Comparisons

Salt marshes occur globally across climatic and coastal settings, providing key linkages between terrestrial and marine ecosystems. However, salt marsh science lacks a unifying conceptual framework; consequently, historically well-studied locations have been used as normative benchmarks. To allow for more effective comparisons across the diversity of salt marshes, we developed an integrative salt marsh conceptual framework. We review ecosystem-relevant drivers from global to local spatial scales, integrate these multi-scale settings into a framework, and provide guidance on applying the framework using specific variables on 11 global examples. Overall, this framework allows for appropriate comparison of study sites by accounting for global, coastal, inter-, and intra-system spatial settings unique to each salt marsh. We anticipate that incorporating this framework into salt marsh science will provide a mechanism to critically evaluate research questions and a foundation for effective quantitative studies that deepen our understanding of salt marsh function across spatial scales

VEP oscillation solutions to the solar neutrino problem

We study the solar neutrino problem within the framework of a parametrized post-Newtonian formulation for the gravitational interaction of the neutrinos, which incorporates a violation to the equivalence principle (VEP). Using the current data on the rates and the energy spectrum we find two possible oscillation solutions, both for a large mixing angle. One of them involves the MSW effect in matter and the other corresponds to vacuum oscillations. An interesting characteristic of this mechanism is that it predicts a semi-annual variation of the neutrino flux. Our analysis provides new constraints for some VEP parameters.Comment: revtex, 18 pages, 11 figure

Microcausality and quantization of the fermionic Myers-Pospelov model

We study the fermionic sector of the Myers and Pospelov theory with a general background $n$. The spacelike case without temporal component is well defined and no new ingredients came about, apart from the explicit Lorentz invariance violation. The lightlike case is ill defined and physically discarded. However, the other case where a nonvanishing temporal component of the background is present, the theory is physically consistent. We show that new modes appear as a consequence of higher time derivatives. We quantize the timelike theory and calculate the microcausality violation which turns out to occur near the light cone.Comment: 9 pages and 3 figures, new version accepted in EPJC, Volume 72, Issue 9, includes lee-wick review, microcausalit

Differential responses to woodland character and landscape context by cryptic bats in urban environments

© 2015 Lintott et al. Urbanisation is one of the most dramatic forms of land use change which relatively few species can adapt to. Determining how and why species respond differently to urban habitats is important in predicting future biodiversity loss as urban areas rapidly expand. Understanding how morphological or behavioural traits can influence species adaptability to the built environment may enable us to improve the effectiveness of conservation efforts. Although many bat species are able to exploit human resources, bat species richness generally declines with increasing urbanisation and there is considerable variation in the responses of different bat species to urbanisation. Here, we use acoustic recordings from two cryptic, and largely sympatric European bat species to assess differential responses in their use of fragmented urban woodland and the surrounding urban matrix. There was a high probability of P. pygmaeus activity relative to P. pipistrellus in woodlands with low clutter and understory cover which were surrounded by low levels of built environment. Additionally, the probability of recording P. pygmaeus relative to P. pipistrellus was considerably higher in urban woodland interior or edge habitat in contrast to urban grey or non-wooded green space. These results show differential habitat use occurring between two morphologically similar species; whilst the underlying mechanism for this partitioning is unknown it may be driven by competition avoidance over foraging resources. Their differing response to urbanisation indicates the difficulties involved when attempting to assess how adaptable a species is to urbanisation for conservation purposes

Description of the Vitis vinifera L. phenotypic variability in eno-carpological traits by a Euro-Asiatic collaborative network among ampelographic collections

The grapevine intra-specific variability captured an increasing interest during the last decades, as demonstrated by the number of recently funded European projects focused on the grapevine biodiversity preservation. However, nowadays, crop plants are mainly characterized by genotyping methods. The present work summarizes the phenotype data collected among 20 ampelographic collections spread in 15 countries, covering mostly of the viticultural areas in the Euro-Asiatic range: from Portugal to Armenia and from Cyprus to Luxembourg. Together with agro-climatic characterization of the experimental site, in two years, about 2400 accessions were described, following a common experimental protocol mainly focused on the carpological and oenological traits, obtaining a general overview of the distribution of the considered phenotypic traits in the cultivated Vitis vinifera species. The most replicated cultivars were selected and, for the subset of these reference cultivars, their behavior in the different environmental conditions over sites and years was described by ANOVA methods

Global-change effects on early-stage decomposition processes in tidal wetlands – implications from a global survey using standardized litter

Tidal wetlands, such as tidal marshes and mangroves, are hotspots for carbon sequestration. The preservation of organic matter (OM) is a critical process by which tidal wetlands exert influence over the global carbon cycle and at the same time gain elevation to keep pace with sea-level rise (SLR). The present study assessed the effects of temperature and relative sea level on the decomposition rate and stabilization of OM in tidal wetlands worldwide, utilizing commercially available standardized litter. While effects on decomposition rate per se were minor, we show strong negative effects of temperature and relative sea level on stabilization, as based on the fraction of labile, rapidly hydrolyzable OM that becomes stabilized during deployment. Across study sites, OM stabilization was 29 % lower in low, more frequently flooded vs. high, less frequently flooded zones. Stabilization declined by ∼ 75 % over the studied temperature gradient from 10.9 to 28.5 ∘C. Additionally, data from the Plum Island long-term ecological research site in Massachusetts, USA, show a pronounced reduction in OM stabilization by > 70 % in response to simulated coastal eutrophication, confirming the potentially high sensitivity of OM stabilization to global change. We therefore provide evidence that rising temperature, accelerated SLR, and coastal eutrophication may decrease the future capacity of tidal wetlands to sequester carbon by affecting the initial transformations of recent OM inputs to soil OM

Description of the vitis vinifera L. Phenotypic variability in eno-carpological traits by a Euro-Asiatic collaborative network among ampelographic collections

The grapevine intra-specific variability captured an increasing interest during the last decades, as demonstrated by the number of recently funded European projects focused on the grapevine biodiversity preservation. However, nowadays, crop plants are mainly characterized by genotyping methods. The present work summarizes the phenotype data collected among 20 ampelographic collections spread over 15 countries, covering most of the viticultural areas in the Euro-Asiatic region: from Portugal to Armenia and from Cyprus to Luxembourg. Together with agro-climatic characterization of the experimental site, over two years about 2,400 accessions were described. A common experimental protocol mainly focused on the carpological and oe-nological traits was followed, obtaining a general overview of the distribution of the considered phenotypic traits in the cultivated Vitis vinifera species. The most replicated cultivars were selected and, for the subset of these reference cultivars, their behavior in the different environmental conditions over sites and years was described by ANOVA methods

An integrative salt marsh conceptual framework for global comparisons

Salt marshes occur globally across climatic and coastal settings, providing key linkages between terrestrial and marine ecosystems. However, salt marsh science lacks a unifying conceptual framework; consequently, historically well-studied locations have been used as normative benchmarks. To allow for more effective comparisons across the diversity of salt marshes, we developed an integrative salt marsh conceptual framework. We review ecosystem-relevant drivers from global to local spatial scales, integrate these multi-scale settings into a framework, and provide guidance on applying the framework using specific variables on 11 global examples. Overall, this framework allows for appropriate comparison of study sites by accounting for global, coastal, inter-, and intra-system spatial settings unique to each salt marsh. We anticipate that incorporating this framework into salt marsh science will provide a mechanism to critically evaluate research questions and a foundation for effective quantitative studies that deepen our understanding of salt marsh function across spatial scales

Neutrinos in a gravitational background: a test for the universality of the gravitational interaction

In this work we propose an extended formulation for the interaction between neutrinos and gravitational fields. It is based on the parametrized post-Newtonian aproach, and includes a violation of the universality of the gravitational interaction which is non diagonal in the weak flavor space. We find new effects that are not considered in the standard scenario for violation of the equivalence principle. They are of the same order as the effects produced by the Newtonian potential, but they are highly directional dependent and could provide a very clean test of that violation. Phenomenological consequences are briefly discussed.Comment: 18 pages, revtex, no figure

Testing CPT- and Lorentz-odd electrodynamics with waveguides

We study CPT- and Lorentz-odd electrodynamics described by the Standard Model Extension. Its radiation is confined to the geometry of hollow conductor waveguide, open along $z$. In a special class of reference frames, with vanishing both 0-th and $z$ components of the background field, $(k_{\rm AF})^\mu$, we realize a number of {\em huge and macroscopically detectable} effects on the confined waves spectra, compared to standard results. Particularly, if $(k_{\rm AF})^\mu$ points along $x$ (or $y$) direction only transverse electric modes, with $E_z=0$, should be observed propagating throughout the guide, while all the transverse magnetic, $B_z=0$, are absent. Such a strong mode suppression makes waveguides quite suitable to probe these symmetry violations using a simple and easily reproducible apparatus.Comment: 11pages, double-spacing, tex forma