481 research outputs found
The generality of cryptic dietary niche differences in diverse large-herbivore assemblages
Ecological niche differences are necessary for stable species coexistence but are often difficult to discern. Models of dietary niche differentiation in large mammalian herbivores invoke the quality, quantity, and spatiotemporal distribution of plant tissues and growth forms but are agnostic toward food plant species identity. Empirical support for these models is variable, suggesting that additional mechanisms of resource partitioning may be important in sustaining large-herbivore diversity in African savannas. We used DNA metabarcoding to conduct a taxonomically explicit analysis of large-herbivore diets across southeastern Africa, analyzing âŒ4,000 fecal samples of 30 species from 10 sites in seven countries over 6 y. We detected 893 food plant taxa from 124 families, but just two familiesâgrasses and legumesâaccounted for the majority of herbivore diets. Nonetheless, herbivore species almost invariably partitioned food plant taxa; diet composition differed significantly in 97% of pairwise comparisons between sympatric species, and dissimilarity was pronounced even between the strictest grazers (grass eaters), strictest browsers (nongrass eaters), and closest relatives at each site. Niche differentiation was weakest in an ecosystem recovering from catastrophic defaunation, indicating that food plant partitioning is driven by species interactions, and was stronger at low rainfall, as expected if interspecific competition is a predominant driver. Diets differed more between browsers than grazers, which predictably shaped community organization: Grazer-dominated trophic networks had higher nestedness and lower modularity. That dietary differentiation is structured along taxonomic lines complements prior work on how herbivores partition plant parts and patches and suggests that common mechanisms govern herbivore coexistence and community assembly in savannas
Modelling microbial exchanges between forms of soil nitrogen in contrasting ecosystems
Although nitrogen (N) is often combined with carbon (C) in organic
molecules, C passes from the air to the soil through plant photosynthesis,
whereas N passes from the soil to plants through a chain of microbial
conversions. However, dynamic models do not fully consider the
microorganisms at the centre of exchange processes between organic and
mineral forms of N. This study monitored the transfer of <sup>14</sup>C and
<sup>15</sup>N between plant materials, microorganisms, humified compartments, and
inorganic forms in six very different ecosystems along an altitudinal
transect. The microbial conversions of the <sup>15</sup>N forms appear to be
strongly linked to the previously modelled C cycle, and the same equations
and parameters can be used to model both C and N cycles. The only
difference is in the modelling of the flows between microbial and inorganic
forms. The processes of mineralization and immobilization of N appear to be
regulated by a two-way microbial exchange depending on the C : N ratios of
microorganisms and available substrates. The MOMOS (Modelling of Organic Matter of Soils) model has already been
validated for the C cycle and also appears to be valid for the prediction of
microbial transformations of N forms. This study shows that the hypothesis
of microbial homeostasis can give robust predictions at global scale.
However, the microbial populations did not appear to always be independent
of the external constraints. At some altitudes their C : N ratio could be
better modelled as decreasing during incubation and increasing with
increasing C storage in cold conditions. The ratio of potentially
mineralizable-<sup>15</sup>N/inorganic-<sup>15</sup>N and the <sup>15</sup>N stock in the
plant debris and the microorganisms was modelled as increasing with altitude,
whereas the <sup>15</sup>N storage in stable humus was modelled as decreasing with
altitude. This predicts that there is a risk that mineralization of organic
reserves in cold areas may increase global warming
Gain properties of dye-doped polymer thin films
Hybrid pumping appears as a promising compromise in order to reach the much
coveted goal of an electrically pumped organic laser. In such configuration the
organic material is optically pumped by an electrically pumped inorganic device
on chip. This engineering solution requires therefore an optimization of the
organic gain medium under optical pumping. Here, we report a detailed study of
the gain features of dye-doped polymer thin films. In particular we introduce
the gain efficiency , in order to facilitate comparison between different
materials and experimental conditions. The gain efficiency was measured with
various setups (pump-probe amplification, variable stripe length method, laser
thresholds) in order to study several factors which modify the actual gain of a
layer, namely the confinement factor, the pump polarization, the molecular
anisotropy, and the re-absorption. For instance, for a 600 nm thick 5 wt\% DCM
doped PMMA layer, the different experimental approaches give a consistent value
80 cm.MW. On the contrary, the usual model predicting the gain
from the characteristics of the material leads to an overestimation by two
orders of magnitude, which raises a serious problem in the design of actual
devices. In this context, we demonstrate the feasibility to infer the gain
efficiency from the laser threshold of well-calibrated devices. Besides,
temporal measurements at the picosecond scale were carried out to support the
analysis.Comment: 15 pages, 17 figure
The dynamics of thin vibrated granular layers
We describe a series of experiments and computer simulations on vibrated
granular media in a geometry chosen to eliminate gravitationally induced
settling. The system consists of a collection of identical spherical particles
on a horizontal plate vibrating vertically, with or without a confining lid.
Previously reported results are reviewed, including the observation of
homogeneous, disordered liquid-like states, an instability to a `collapse' of
motionless spheres on a perfect hexagonal lattice, and a fluctuating,
hexagonally ordered state. In the presence of a confining lid we see a variety
of solid phases at high densities and relatively high vibration amplitudes,
several of which are reported for the first time in this article. The phase
behavior of the system is closely related to that observed in confined
hard-sphere colloidal suspensions in equilibrium, but with modifications due to
the effects of the forcing and dissipation. We also review measurements of
velocity distributions, which range from Maxwellian to strongly non-Maxwellian
depending on the experimental parameter values. We describe measurements of
spatial velocity correlations that show a clear dependence on the mechanism of
energy injection. We also report new measurements of the velocity
autocorrelation function in the granular layer and show that increased
inelasticity leads to enhanced particle self-diffusion.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figure
Contracting automorphisms and L^p-cohomology in degree one
We characterize those Lie groups, and algebraic groups over a local field of
characteristic zero, whose first reduced L^p-cohomology is zero for all p>1,
extending a result of Pansu. As an application, we obtain a description of
Gromov-hyperbolic groups among those groups. In particular we prove that any
non-elementary Gromov-hyperbolic algebraic group over a non-Archimedean local
field of zero characteristic is quasi-isometric to a 3-regular tree. We also
extend the study to semidirect products of a general locally compact group by a
cyclic group acting by contracting automorphisms.Comment: 27 pages, no figur
Monge's transport problem in the Heisenberg group
We prove the existence of solutions to Monge transport problem between two
compactly supported Borel probability measures in the Heisenberg group equipped
with its Carnot-Caratheodory distance assuming that the initial measure is
absolutely continuous with respect to the Haar measure of the group
Conformal dimension and random groups
We give a lower and an upper bound for the conformal dimension of the
boundaries of certain small cancellation groups. We apply these bounds to the
few relator and density models for random groups. This gives generic bounds of
the following form, where is the relator length, going to infinity.
(a) 1 + 1/C < \Cdim(\bdry G) < C l / \log(l), for the few relator model,
and
(b) 1 + l / (C\log(l)) < \Cdim(\bdry G) < C l, for the density model, at
densities .
In particular, for the density model at densities , as the relator
length goes to infinity, the random groups will pass through infinitely
many different quasi-isometry classes.Comment: 32 pages, 4 figures. v2: Final version. Main result improved to
density < 1/16. Many minor improvements. To appear in GAF
Symbolic approach and induction in the Heisenberg group
We associate a homomorphism in the Heisenberg group to each hyperbolic
unimodular automorphism of the free group on two generators. We show that the
first return-time of some flows in "good" sections, are conjugate to
niltranslations, which have the property of being self-induced.Comment: 18 page
An insight into polarization states of solid-state organic lasers
The polarization states of lasers are crucial issues both for practical
applications and fundamental research. In general, they depend in a combined
manner on the properties of the gain material and on the structure of the
electromagnetic modes. In this paper, we address this issue in the case of
solid-state organic lasers, a technology which enables to vary independently
gain and mode properties. Different kinds of resonators are investigated:
in-plane micro-resonators with Fabry-Perot, square, pentagon, stadium, disk,
and kite shapes, and external vertical resonators. The degree of polarization P
is measured in each case. It is shown that although TE modes prevail generally
(P>0), kite-shaped micro-laser generates negative values for P, i.e. a flip of
the dominant polarization which becomes mostly TM polarized. We at last
investigated two degrees of freedom that are available to tailor the
polarization of organic lasers, in addition to the pump polarization and the
resonator geometry: upon using resonant energy transfer (RET) or upon pumping
the laser dye to an higher excited state. We then demonstrate that
significantly lower P factors can be obtained.Comment: 12 pages, 12 figure
Comparison of five soil organic matter decomposition models using data from a 14C and 15N labeling field experiment
Five alternatives of the previously published MOMOS model (MOMOS-2 to -6) are tested to predict the dynamics of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) in soil during the decomposition of plant necromass. 14C and 15N labeled wheat straw was incubated over 2 years in fallow soils of the high Andean Paramo of Venezuela. The following data were collected: soil moisture, total 14C and 15N and microbial biomass (MB)-14C and -15N, daily rainfall, air temperature and total radiation. Daily soil moisture was predicted using the SAHEL model. MOMOS-2 to -4 (type 1 models) use kinetic constants and flow partitioning parameters. MOMOS-2 can be simplified to MOMOS-3 and further to MOMOS-4, with no significant changes in the prediction accuracy and robustness for total-14C and -15N as well as for MB-14C and -15N. MOMOS-5 (type 2 models) uses only kinetic constants: three MB-inputs (from labile and stable plant material and from humified compounds) and two MB-outputs (mortality and respiration constants). MOMOS-5 did not significantly change the total-14C and -15N predictions but markedly improved the predictive quality and robustness of MB-14C and -15N predictions (with a dynamic different from the predictions by other models). Thus MOMOS-5 is proposed as an accurate and ecologically consistent description of decomposition processes. MOMOS-6 extends MOMOS-5 by including a stable humus compartment for long-term simulations of soil native C and N. The improvement of the predictions is not significant for this 2-year experiment, but MOMOS-6 enables prediction of a sequestration in the stable humus compartment of 2% of the initially added 14C and 5.4% of the added 15
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