4,239 research outputs found
Niche evolution reveals disparate signatures of speciation in the ‘great speciator’ (white‐eyes, Aves: Zosterops )
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS J.O.E. and L.L. coordinated and secured project funding with the support from J.S.C.; we thank AT Peterson and CH Graham and two reviewers for critical feedback on earlier stages of the manuscript. The project was funded by the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO; 1527918N & G042318N). J.O.E. received additional funds by an FWO Postdoctoral Fellowship (12G4317N). The authors declare no conflict of interest. No permits were needed to conduct the re- search presented here. DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT All data are available from open source platforms. Raw GBIF.org occurrence data used for this work (as accessed on 21st October 2016) can be accessed through GBIF Occurrence Download http://doi.org/10.15468/dl.erwqs6. We have deposited the prepared data used for this work on FigShare accessible through https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.13042031.v1 as well as R scripts for data analysis in a GitHub repository accessible through https://github.com/JOEngler/ZostiNicheEvol.Peer reviewedPublisher PD
Are species occurrence data in global online repositories fit for modeling species distributions? The case of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). Final Report of the Task Group on GBIF Data Fitness for Use in Distribution Modelling.
Primary Biodiversity Data (PBD) are defined as the basic attributes of observations or records of the occurrences of species. PBD is a fundamental concept of biodiversity informatics since it is substantial in quantity and provides the links to organize other large and independent bodies of data concerning species (= taxonomic information) and environments. In fact, PBD is at the core of the exploding field of biodiversity informatics, which in some sense now underlies biogeography, macroecology, landscape ecology and several other subdisciplines of biology.
A principal - and rapidly growing - class of research that can be performed using PBD is the estimation of a species' environmental requirements and the projection of these in both environmental and geographic spaces to estimate niches or distributional ranges, generally by using models of ecological niches and species' distributions (often called ENMs or SDMs, respectively).
The largest point of access to PBD in the world is the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), and hundreds of papers have now used GBIF-mediated data to fit and apply ENM/SDM.
Experience has shown that GBIF, like other aggregated data research infrastructures, holds a number of potential problems related to incomplete or difficult access to all the fields in its schema, inconsistent information among fields, or simply erroneous or incomplete data. These drawbacks complicate ENM/SDM analyses considerably, and detract from the enormous scientific value of this information storehouse.
Three overlapping communities participate in GBIF's data process: providers (museums, herbaria, and observer's networks), users (scientists, analysts working for governments, NGOs or the private sector, the public) and the technical staff managing the huge databases, web services and servers at GBIF. Each can play a different role in fixing data issues of GBIF.
Our main recommendations for the GBIF Secretariat are the following:
GBIF.org should serve indicators of precision, quality, and uncertainty of data that can be calculated practically, and preferably "on the fly", as well as summaries and metrics of completeness of inventories, at scales and for regions defined by the user. The summaries should display maps and graphs of completeness by region, time-period and taxa.
The implementation of the GBIF information resource should go beyond unique identifiers of queries (DOIs for downloads, including the capability to re-run queries, http://www.gbif.org/publishing-data/summary#supporteddatasettypes), and to include identifiers of the individual data that make up the queried data.
GBIF.org should include applications or functionalities enabling users to annotate errors or problems, and communicate those changes directly to providers, as it may be practical and appropriate. This point may need to be discussed with providers.
A procedure enabling users to make accessible versions of their databases that have been improved and annotated should be supported, but this functionality should not lose the vital tie back to the original data records and the actual data provider.
GBIF should partner with and/or support initiatives to do more for training and guiding users on the proper use of the data; such initiatives should incorporate actual expert uses in ENM/SDM to assure that current best practices are followed
The effects of r-process heating on fall-back accretion in compact object mergers
We explore the effects of r-process nucleosynthesis on fall-back accretion in
neutron star(NS)-NS and black hole-NS mergers, and the resulting implications
for short-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). Though dynamically important, the
energy released during the r-process is not yet taken into account in merger
simulations. We use a nuclear reaction network to calculate the heating (due to
beta-decays and nuclear fission) experienced by material on the
marginally-bound orbits nominally responsible for late-time fall-back. Since
matter with longer orbital periods t_orb experiences lower densities, for
longer periods of time, the total r-process heating rises rapidly with t_orb,
such that material with t_orb > 1 seconds can become completely unbound. Thus,
r-process heating fundamentally changes the canonical prediction of an
uninterrupted power-law decline in the fall-back rate dM/dt at late times. When
the timescale for r-process to complete is > 1 second, the heating produces a
complete cut-off in fall-back accretion after ~ 1 second; if robust, this would
imply that fall-back accretion cannot explain the late-time X-ray flaring
observed following some short GRBs. However, for a narrow, but physically
plausible, range of parameters, fall-back accretion can resume after ~ 10 s,
despite having been strongly suppressed for ~ 1-10 s after the merger. This
suggests the intriguing possibility that the gap observed between the prompt
and extended emission in short GRBs is a manifestation of r-process heating.Comment: 7 pages; 4 figures; submitted to MNRA
Electron fraction constraints based on Nuclear Statistical Equilibrium with beta equilibrium
The electron-to-nucleon ratio or electron fraction is a key parameter in many
astrophysical studies. Its value is determined by weak-interaction rates that
are based on theoretical calculations subject to several nuclear physics
uncertainties. Consequently, it is important to have a model independent way of
constraining the electron fraction value in different astrophysical
environments. Here we show that nuclear statistical equilibrium combined with
beta equilibrium can provide such a constraint. We test the validity of this
approximation in presupernova models and give lower limits for the electron
fraction in type Ia supernova and accretion-induced collapse.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, Astronomy and Astrophysic
In situ observation of stress relaxation in epitaxial graphene
Upon cooling, branched line defects develop in epitaxial graphene grown at
high temperature on Pt(111) and Ir(111). Using atomically resolved scanning
tunneling microscopy we demonstrate that these defects are wrinkles in the
graphene layer, i.e. stripes of partially delaminated graphene. With low energy
electron microscopy (LEEM) we investigate the wrinkling phenomenon in situ.
Upon temperature cycling we observe hysteresis in the appearance and
disappearance of the wrinkles. Simultaneously with wrinkle formation a change
in bright field imaging intensity of adjacent areas and a shift in the moire
spot positions for micro diffraction of such areas takes place. The stress
relieved by wrinkle formation results from the mismatch in thermal expansion
coefficients of graphene and the substrate. A simple one-dimensional model
taking into account the energies related to strain, delamination and bending of
graphene is in qualitative agreement with our observations.Comment: Supplementary information: S1: Photo electron emission microscopy and
LEEM measurements of rotational domains, STM data of a delaminated bulge
around a dislocation. S2: Movie with increasing brightness upon wrinkle
formation as in figure 4. v2: Major revision including new experimental dat
Electromagnetic Counterparts of Compact Object Mergers Powered by the Radioactive Decay of R-process Nuclei
The most promising astrophysical sources of kHz gravitational waves (GWs) are
the inspiral and merger of binary neutron star(NS)/black hole systems.
Maximizing the scientific return of a GW detection will require identifying a
coincident electro-magnetic (EM) counterpart. One of the most likely sources of
isotropic EM emission from compact object mergers is a supernova-like transient
powered by the radioactive decay of heavy elements synthesized in ejecta from
the merger. We present the first calculations of the optical transients from
compact object mergers that self-consistently determine the radioactive heating
by means of a nuclear reaction network; using this heating rate, we model the
light curve with a one dimensional Monte Carlo radiation transfer calculation.
For an ejecta mass ~1e-2 M_sun[1e-3 M_sun] the resulting light curve peaks on a
timescale ~ 1 day at a V-band luminosity nu L_nu ~ 3e41[1e41] ergs/s (M_V =
-15[-14]); this corresponds to an effective "f" parameter ~3e-6 in the
Li-Paczynski toy model. We argue that these results are relatively insensitive
to uncertainties in the relevant nuclear physics and to the precise early-time
dynamics and ejecta composition. Due to the rapid evolution and low luminosity
of NS merger transients, EM counterpart searches triggered by GW detections
will require close collaboration between the GW and astronomical communities.
NS merger transients may also be detectable following a short-duration
Gamma-Ray Burst or "blindly" with present or upcoming optical transient
surveys. Because the emission produced by NS merger ejecta is powered by the
formation of rare r-process elements, current optical transient surveys can
directly constrain the unknown origin of the heaviest elements in the Universe.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures; accepted to MNRAS; title changed to highlight
r-process connection and new figure added
On-Surface Synthesis and Characterization of a High-Spin Aza-[5]-Triangulene
Triangulenes are open-shell triangular graphene flakes with total spin
increasing with their size. In the last years, on-surface-synthesis strategies
have permitted fabricating and engineering triangulenes of various sizes and
structures with atomic precision. However, direct proof of the increasing total
spin with their size remains elusive. In this work, we report the combined
in-solution and on-surface synthesis of a large nitrogen-doped triangulene
(aza-[5]-triangulene) and the detection of its high spin ground state on a
Au(111) surface. Bond-resolved scanning tunneling microscopy images uncovered
radical states distributed along the zigzag edges, which were detected as weak
zero-bias resonances in scanning tunneling spectra. These spectral features
reveal the partial Kondo screening of a high spin state. Through a combination
of several simulation tools, we find that the observed distribution of radical
states is explained by a quintet ground state (S = 2), instead of the expected
quartet state (S = 3/2), confirming the positively charged state of the
molecule on the surface. We further provide a qualitative description of the
change of (anti)aromaticity introduced by N-substitution, and its role in the
charge stabilization on a surface, resulting in a S = 2 aza-[5]-triangulene on
Au(111).Comment: 8 pages with 4 figure
Svestka's Research: Then and Now
Zdenek Svestka's research work influenced many fields of solar physics,
especially in the area of flare research. In this article I take five of the
areas that particularly interested him and assess them in a "then and now"
style. His insights in each case were quite sound, although of course in the
modern era we have learned things that he could not readily have envisioned.
His own views about his research life have been published recently in this
journal, to which he contributed so much, and his memoir contains much
additional scientific and personal information (Svestka, 2010).Comment: Invited review for "Solar and Stellar Flares," a conference in honour
of Prof. Zden\v{e}k \v{S}vestka, Prague, June 23-27, 2014. This is a
contribution to a Topical Issue in Solar Physics, based on the presentations
at this meeting (Editors Lyndsay Fletcher and Petr Heinzel
Recommended from our members
Consistent phenological shifts in the making of a biodiversity hotspot: the Cape flora
Background
The best documented survival responses of organisms to past climate change on short (glacial-interglacial) timescales are distributional shifts. Despite ample evidence on such timescales for local adaptations of populations at specific sites, the long-term impacts of such changes on evolutionary significant units in response to past climatic change have been little documented. Here we use phylogenies to reconstruct changes in distribution and flowering ecology of the Cape flora - South Africa's biodiversity hotspot - through a period of past (Neogene and Quaternary) changes in the seasonality of rainfall over a timescale of several million years.
Results
Forty-three distributional and phenological shifts consistent with past climatic change occur across the flora, and a comparable number of clades underwent adaptive changes in their flowering phenology (9 clades; half of the clades investigated) as underwent distributional shifts (12 clades; two thirds of the clades investigated). Of extant Cape angiosperm species, 14-41% have been contributed by lineages that show distributional shifts consistent with past climate change, yet a similar proportion (14-55%) arose from lineages that shifted flowering phenology.
Conclusions
Adaptive changes in ecology at the scale we uncover in the Cape and consistent with past climatic change have not been documented for other floras. Shifts in climate tolerance appear to have been more important in this flora than is currently appreciated, and lineages that underwent such shifts went on to contribute a high proportion of the flora's extant species diversity. That shifts in phenology, on an evolutionary timescale and on such a scale, have not yet been detected for other floras is likely a result of the method used; shifts in flowering phenology cannot be detected in the fossil record
Models and Observations of Sunspot Penumbrae
The mysteries of sunspot penumbrae have been under an intense scrutiny for
the past 10 years. During this time, some models have been proposed and
refuted, while the surviving ones had to be modified, adapted and evolved to
explain the ever-increasing array of observational constraints. In this
contribution I will review two of the present models, emphasizing their
contributions to this field, but also pinpointing some of their inadequacies to
explain a number of recent observations at very high spatial resolution. To
help explaining these new observations I propose some modifications to each of
them. These modifications bring those two seemingly opposite models closer
together into a general picture that agrees well with recent 3D
magneto-hydrodynamic simulations.Comment: 9 pages, 1 color figure. Review talk to appear in the proceedings of
the International Workshop of 2008 Solar Total Eclipse: Solar Magnetism,
Corona and Space Weather--Chinese Space Solar Telescope Scienc
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