Direct Persecution of Crowned Eagles Buteogallus coronatus in Argentina: A New Call for Their Conservation

The Crowned Eagle (Buteogallus coronatus) is a large Neotropical raptor and one of the most threatened raptor species in the world, with a maximum estimated population of 1500 individuals. The main threats identified for the species are habitat loss and degradation and non-natural mortality by direct persecution and collisions with human infrastructures. Here we report cases of direct persecution on the species in Argentina. We compiled all the available published information, as well as cases of birds delivered to the rehabilitation center of the Program of Conservation and Rescue of Birds of Prey of the Buenos Aires Zoo. For the period 1980 to 2014, we found 83 cases from almost every Argentine province where the eagle is present. Our results show that direct persecution is probably an important cause of mortality for the eagles in the Argentinean territoryFil: Barbar, Facundo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte. Instituto de Investigaciones en Biodiversidad y Medioambiente. Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Centro Regional Universidad Bariloche. Instituto de Investigaciones en Biodiversidad y Medioambiente; ArgentinaFil: Capdevielle, Andres. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte. Instituto de Investigaciones en Biodiversidad y Medioambiente. Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Centro Regional Universidad Bariloche. Instituto de Investigaciones en Biodiversidad y Medioambiente; Argentina. Jardín Zoológico de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Fundación Caburé; ArgentinaFil: Encabo, Manuel. Jardín Zoológico de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Fundación Caburé; Argentin

Runaway electron beam control

Post-disruption runaway electron (RE) beams in tokamaks with large current can cause deep melting of the vessel and are one of the major concerns for ITER operations. Consequently, a considerable effort is provided by the scientific community in order to test RE mitigation strategies. We present an overview of the results obtained at FTU and TCV controlling the current and position of RE beams to improve safety and repeatability of mitigation studies such as massive gas (MGI) and shattered pellet injections (SPI). We show that the proposed RE beam controller (REB-C) implemented at FTU and TCV is effective and that current reduction of the beam can be performed via the central solenoid reducing the energy of REs, providing an alternative/parallel mitigation strategy to MGI/SPI. Experimental results show that, meanwhile deuterium pellets injected on a fully formed RE beam are ablated but do not improve RE energy dissipation rate, heavy metals injected by a laser blow off system on low-density flat-top discharges with a high level of RE seeding seem to induce disruptions expelling REs. Instabilities during the RE beam plateau phase have shown to enhance losses of REs, expelled from the beam core. Then, with the aim of triggering instabilities to increase RE losses, an oscillating loop voltage has been tested on RE beam plateau phase at TCV revealing, for the first time, what seems to be a full conversion from runaway to ohmic current. We finally report progresses in the design of control strategies at JET in view of the incoming SPI mitigation experiments