Forest decline caused by high soil water conditions in a permafrost region

In the permafrost region near Yakutsk, eastern Siberia, Russia, annual precipitation (June–May) in 2005–2006 and 2006–2007 exceeded the 26-year (1982–2008) mean of 222±68 mm by 185 mm and 128 mm, respectively, whereas in 2007–2008 the excedent was only 48 mm, well within the range of variability. Yellowing and browning of larch (<I>Larix cajanderi</I> Mayr.) trees occurred in an undisturbed forest near Yakutsk in the 2007 summer growing season. Soil water content at a depth of 0.20 m was measured along a roughly 400 m long line transect running through areas of yellowing and browning larch trees (YBL) and of normal larch trees (NL). In the two years of supranormal precipitation, soil water content was very high compared to values recorded for the same area in previous studies. For both wet years, the mean degree of saturation (<I>s</I>) was significantly greater in YBL than NL areas, whereas the converse was the case for the gas diffusivity in soil. This implies that rather than mitigating water stress suffered during normal precipitation years, elevated soil water conditions adversely affected the growth of larch trees. Eastern Siberia's taiga forest extends widely into the permafrost region. Was such supranormal annual precipitation to extend for more than two years, as might be expected under impending global climate changes, forest recovery may not be expected and emission of greenhouse gas might continue in future

Monitoring synaptic transmission in primary neuronal cultures using local extracellular stimulation

Various techniques have been applied for the functional analysis of synaptic transmission in Cultured neurons. Here, we describe a method of studying synaptic transmission in neurons cultured at high-density from different brain regions such as the cortex, striatum and spinal cord. We use postsynaptic whole-cell recordings to monitor synaptic Currents triggered by presynaptic action potentials that are induced by brief stimulations with a nearby extracellular bipolar electrode. Pharmacologically isolated excitatory or inhibitory postsynaptic currents can be reliably induced, with amplitudes, synaptic charge transfers, and short-term plasticity properties that are reproducible from culture to culture. We show that the size and kinetics of pharmacologically isolated inhibitory postsynaptic Currents triggered by single action potentials or stimulus trains depend on the Ca2+ concentration, temperature and stimulation frequency. This method can be applied to study synaptic transmission in wildtype neurons infected with lentiviruses encoding various components of presynaptic release machinery, or in neurons from genetically modified mice, for example neurons carrying floxed genes in which gene expression can be acutely ablated by expression of Cre recombinase. The preparation described in this paper should be useful for analysis of synaptic transmission in inter-neuronal synapses formed by different types of neurons. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

The seasonal cycle of the greenhouse gas balance of a continental tundra site in the Indigirka lowlands, NE Siberia

International audienceCarbon dioxide and methane fluxes were measured at a tundra site near Chokurdakh, in the lowlands of the Indigirka river in north-east Siberia. This site is one of the few stations on Russian tundra and it is different from most other tundra flux stations in its continentality. A suite of methods was applied to determine the fluxes of NEE, GPP, Reco and methane, including eddy covariance, chambers and leaf cuvettes. Net carbon dioxide fluxes were unusually high, compared with other tundra sites, with NEE=?92 g C m?2 yr?1, which is composed of an Reco=+141 g C m?2 yr?1 and GPP=?232 g C m?2 yr?1. This large carbon dioxide sink may be explained by the continental climate, that is reflected in low winter soil temperatures (?14°C), reducing the respiration rates, and short, relatively warm summers, stimulating high photosynthesis rates. Interannual variability in GPP was dominated by the frequency of light limitation (Rg ?2), whereas Reco depends most directly on soil temperature and time in the growing season, which serves as a proxy of the combined effects of active layer depth, leaf area index, soil moisture and substrate availability. The methane flux, in units of global warming potential, was +28 g C-CO2e m?2 yr?1, so that the greenhouse gas balance was ?64 g C-CO2e m?2 yr?1. Methane fluxes depended only slightly on soil temperature and were highly sensitive to hydrological conditions and vegetation composition

Cube Testers and Key Recovery Attacks On Reduced-Round MD6 and Trivium

CRYPTO 2008 saw the introduction of the hash function MD6 and of cube attacks, a type of algebraic attack applicable to cryptographic functions having a low-degree algebraic normal form over GF(2). This paper applies cube attacks to reduced round MD6, finding the full 128-bit key of a 14-round MD6 with complexity 2^22 (which takes less than a minute on a single PC). This is the best key recovery attack announced so far for MD6. We then introduce a new class of attacks called cube testers, based on efficient property-testing algorithms, and apply them to MD6 and to the stream cipher Trivium. Unlike the standard cube attacks, cube testers detect nonrandom behavior rather than performing key extraction, but they can also attack cryptographic schemes described by nonrandom polynomials of relatively high degree. Applied to MD6, cube testers detect nonrandomness over 18 rounds in 2^17 complexity; applied to a slightly modified version of the MD6 compression function, they can distinguish 66 rounds from random in 2^24 complexity. Cube testers give distinguishers on Trivium reduced to 790 rounds from random with 2^30 complexity and detect nonrandomness over 885 rounds in 2^27, improving on the original 767-round cube attack

Nearby low-mass triple system GJ795

We report the results of our optical speckle-interferometric observations of the nearby triple system GJ795 performed with the 6-m BTA telescope with diffraction-limited angular resolution. The three components of the system were optically resolved for the first time. Position measurements allowed us to determine the elements of the inner orbit of the triple system. We use the measured magnitude differences to estimate the absolute magnitudes and spectral types of the components of the triple: $M_{V}^{Aa}$=7.31$\pm$0.08, $M_{V}^{Ab}$=8.66$\pm$0.10, $M_{V}^{B}$=8.42$\pm$0.10, $Sp_{Aa}$ $\approx$K5, $Sp_{Ab}$ $\approx$K9, $Sp_{B}$ $\approx$K8. The total mass of the system is equal to $\Sigma\mathcal{M}_{AB}$=1.69$\pm0.27\mathcal{M}_{\odot}$. We show GJ795 to be a hierarchical triple system which satisfies the empirical stability criteria.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, published in Astrophysical Bulleti

Interferometry of Direct Photons in Central 280Pb+208Pb Collisions at 158A GeV

Two-particle correlations of direct photons were measured in central 208Pb+208Pb collisions at 158 AGeV. The invariant interferometric radii were extracted for 100<K_T<300 MeV/c and compared to radii extracted from charged pion correlations. The yield of soft direct photons, K_T<300 MeV/c, was extracted from the correlation strength and compared to theoretical calculations.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting lasers and quantum dot lasers

The use of cavity to manipulate photon emission of quantum dots (QDs) has been opening unprecedented opportunities for realizing quantum functional nanophotonic devices and also quantum information devices. In particular, in the field of semiconductor lasers, QDs were introduced as a superior alternative to quantum wells to suppress the temperature dependence of the threshold current in vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VECSELs). In this work, a review of properties and development of semiconductor VECSEL devices and QD laser devices is given. Based on the features of VECSEL devices, the main emphasis is put on the recent development of technological approach on semiconductor QD VECSELs. Then, from the viewpoint of both single QD nanolaser and cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED), a single-QD-cavity system resulting from the strong coupling of QD cavity is presented. A difference of this review from the other existing works on semiconductor VECSEL devices is that we will cover both the fundamental aspects and technological approaches of QD VECSEL devices. And lastly, the presented review here has provided a deep insight into useful guideline for the development of QD VECSEL technology and future quantum functional nanophotonic devices and monolithic photonic integrated circuits (MPhICs).Comment: 21 pages, 4 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:0904.369

Tracing silicate weathering processes in the permafrost-dominated Lena River watershed using lithium isotopes

Increasing global temperatures are causing widespread changes in the Arctic, including permafrost thawing and altered freshwater inputs and trace metal and carbon fluxes into the ocean and atmosphere. Changes in the permafrost active layer thickness can affect subsurface water flow-paths and water-rock interaction times, and hence weathering processes. Riverine lithium isotope ratios (reported as δ7Li) are tracers of silicate weathering that are unaffected by biological uptake, redox, carbonate weathering and primary lithology. Here we use Li isotopes to examine silicate weathering processes in one of the largest Russian Arctic rivers: the Lena River in eastern Siberia. The Lena River watershed is a large multi-lithological catchment, underlain by continuous permafrost. An extensive dataset of dissolved Li isotopic compositions of waters from the Lena River main channel, two main tributaries (the Aldan and Viliui Rivers) and a range of smaller sub-tributaries are presented from the post-spring flood/early-summer period at the onset of active layer development and enhanced water-rock interactions. The Lena River main channel (average δ7Lidiss ∼ 19‰) has a slightly lower isotopic composition than the mean global average of 23‰ (Huh et al., 1998a). The greatest range of [Li] and δ7Lidiss are observed in catchments draining the south-facing slopes of the Verkhoyansk Mountain Range. South-facing slopes in high-latitude, permafrost-dominated regions are typically characterised by increased summer insolation and higher daytime temperatures relative to other slope aspects. The increased solar radiation on south-facing catchments promotes repeated freeze-thaw cycles, and contributes to more rapid melting of snow cover, warmer soils, and increased active layer thaw depths. The greater variability in δ7Li and [Li] in the south-facing rivers likely reflect the greater infiltration of melt water and enhanced water-rock interactions within the active layer. A similar magnitude of isotopic fractionation is observed between the low-lying regions of the Central Siberian Plateau (and catchments draining into the Viliui River), and catchments draining the Verkhoyansk Mountain Range into the Aldan River. This is in contrast to global rivers in non-permafrost terrains that drain high elevations or areas of rapid uplift, where high degrees of physical erosion promote dissolution of freshly exposed primary rock typically yielding low δ7Lidiss, and low-lying regions exhibit high riverine δ7Li values resulting from greater water-rock interaction and formation of secondary mineral that fractionates Li isotopes. Overall, the range of Li concentrations and δ7Lidiss observed within the Lena River catchment are comparable to global rivers located in temperate and tropical regions. This suggests that cryogenic weathering features specific to permafrost regions (such as the continual exposure of fresh primary minerals due to seasonal freeze-thaw cycles, frost shattering and salt weathering), and climate (temperature and runoff), are not a dominant control on δ7Li variations. Despite vastly different climatic and weathering regimes, the same range of riverine δ7Li values globally suggests that the same processes govern Li geochemistry – that is, the balance between primary silicate mineral dissolution and the formation (or exchange with) secondary minerals. This has implications for the use of δ7Li as a palaeo-weathering tracer for interpreting changes in past weathering regimes

Event-by-Event Fluctuations in Particle Multiplicities and Transverse Energy Produced in 158.A GeV Pb+Pb collisions

Event-by-event fluctuations in the multiplicities of charged particles and photons, and the total transverse energy in 158$\cdot A$ GeV Pb+Pb collisions are studied for a wide range of centralities. For narrow centrality bins the multiplicity and transverse energy distributions are found to be near perfect Gaussians. The effect of detector acceptance on the multiplicity fluctuations has been studied and demonstrated to follow statistical considerations. The centrality dependence of the charged particle multiplicity fluctuations in the measured data has been found to agree reasonably well with those obtained from a participant model. However for photons the multiplicity fluctuations has been found to be lower compared to those obtained from a participant model. The multiplicity and transverse energy fluctuations have also been compared to those obtained from the VENUS event generator.Comment: To appear in Physical Review C; changes : more detailed discussion on errors and few figures modifie