Rapid increase in coral cover on an isolated coral reef, the Ashmore Reef National Nature Reserve, north-western Australia

Against a background of coral reef ecosystem decline, understanding the propensity for coral communities to recover after acute disturbances is fundamental to forecasting and maintaining resilience. It may be expected that offshore reef ecosystems are less affected by anthropogenic disturbances compared with reefs closer to population centres, but that recovery may be slower on isolated reefs following disturbances. To test the hypothesis that community recovery is slow in isolated locations, we measured changes in coral cover and relative abundance of coral genera over a 4 year period (200509) at Ashmore Reef, north Western Australia, following severe bleaching. The percent cover of hard coral tripled, from 10.2% (±1.46 s.e.) in 2005 to 29.4% (±1.83 s.e.) in 2009 in all habitats (exposed and lagoonal) and depth zones (25 and 810m), and the percent cover of soft corals doubled, from 4.5% (+0.63 s.e.) in 2005 to 8.3% (+1.4 s.e.) in 2009. Significant shifts in the taxonomic composition of hard corals were detected. Our results imply that coral recovery in isolated locations can occur rapidly after an initial delay in recruitment, presumably through the interacting effects of self-recruitment and reduced exposure to additive impacts such as coastal pollution

Astronomical Data Management

We present a summary of the major contributions to the Special Session on Data Management held at the IAU General Assembly in Prague in 2006. While recent years have seen enormous improvements in access to astronomical data, and the Virtual Observatory aims to provide astronomers with seamless access to on-line resources, more attention needs to be paid to ensuring the quality and completeness of those resources. For example, data produced by telescopes are not always made available to the astronomical community, and new instruments are sometimes designed and built with insufficient planning for data management, while older but valuable legacy data often remain undigitised. Data and results published in journals do not always appear in the data centres, and astronomers in developing countries sometimes have inadequate access to on-line resources. To address these issues, an 'Astronomers Data Manifesto' has been formulated with the aim of initiating a discussion that will lead to the development of a 'code of best practice' in astronomical data management.Comment: Proceedings of Special Session SPS6 (Astronomical Data Management) at the IAU GA 2006. To appear in Highlights of Astronomy, Volume 14, ed. K.A. van der Huch

New Mexico\u27s Right to Know: The Impacts of LANL Operations on Public Health and the Environment

Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety (CCNS) contracted with Bernd Franke, Catherine M. Richards, M.S., Steve Wing, Ph.D., and David Richardson, Ph.D. to investigate the following public health issues concerning LANL emissions: • Historical and current emissions of radioactive materials from LANL (Los Alamos National Laboratory) operations into the air; • Incidence and mortality rates for LAC (Los Alamos County) residents for 24 types of cancer compared with state and national reference populations; and • Occupational health studies of LANL employees exposed to radionuclides. These studies focus on localized impacts at LANL and in LAC. LANL employees and LAC residents may receive the highest dose of radiation because of their proximity to the facility. Therefore, exposure of LANL employees and LAC residents may serve as an indicator of impacts to those living in the surrounding communities. This research was completed money allocated during Round 1 of the Citizens’ Monitoring and Technical Assessment Fund (MTA Fund). Clark University was named conservator of these works. If you have any questions or concerns please contact us at [email protected]://commons.clarku.edu/ccns/1000/thumbnail.jp

Flaring Miras

Product is a conference poster, not in proceedings.Long-term monitoring have allowed the discovery of a new class of OH masers towards thin-shell Miras. The 2 main characteristics of these events are their high degree of polarisation and indications that the OH flaring zones are more internal than the standard OH ones. This latter fact has been confirmed by recent mapping. These flaring events have now being recorded towards objects believed to be isolated as well as belonging to a binary system. The overall characteristics of such events and the implications with respect to the standard models will be discussed

Magnetically aligned dust and SiO maser polarisation in the envelope of the red supergiant VY Canis Majoris

International audienceWe use Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array Band 5 science verification observations of the red supergiant VY CMa to study the polarization of SiO thermal/masers lines and dust continuum at ~1.7 mm wavelength. We analyse both linear and circular polarization and derive the magnetic field strength and structure, assuming the polarization of the lines originates from the Zeeman effect, and that of the dust originates from aligned dust grains. We also discuss other effects that could give rise to the observed polarization. We detect, for the first time, significant polarization (~3%) of the circumstellar dust emission at millimeter wavelengths. The polarization is uniform with an electric vector position angle of $\sim8^\circ$. Varying levels of linear polarization are detected for the J=4-3 28SiO v=0, 1, 2, and 29SiO v=0, 1 lines, with the strongest polarization fraction of ~30% found for the 29SiO v=1 maser. The linear polarization vectors rotate with velocity, consistent with earlier observations. We also find significant (up to ~1%) circular polarization in several lines, consistent with previous measurements. We conclude that the detection is robust against calibration and regular instrumental errors, although we cannot yet fully rule out non-standard instrumental effects. Emission from magnetically aligned grains is the most likely origin of the observed continuum polarization. This implies that the dust is embedded in a magnetic field >13 mG. The maser line polarization traces the magnetic field structure. The magnetic field in the gas and dust is consistent with an approximately toroidal field configuration, but only higher angular resolution observations will be able to reveal more detailed field structure. If the circular polarization is due to Zeeman splitting, it indicates a magnetic field strength of ~1-3 Gauss, consistent with previous maser observations

Quasars and their host galaxies

This review attempts to describe developments in the fields of quasar and quasar host galaxies in the past five. In this time period, the Sloan and 2dF quasar surveys have added several tens of thousands of quasars, with Sloan quasars being found to z>6. Obscured, or partially obscured quasars have begun to be found in significant numbers. Black hole mass estimates for quasars, and our confidence in them, have improved significantly, allowing a start on relating quasar properties such as radio jet power to fundamental parameters of the quasar such as black hole mass and accretion rate. Quasar host galaxy studies have allowed us to find and characterize the host galaxies of quasars to z>2. Despite these developments, many questions remain unresolved, in particular the origin of the close relationship between black hole mass and galaxy bulge mass/velocity dispersion seen in local galaxies.Comment: Review article, to appear in Astrophysics Update

An integrated approach to the assessment of long range correlation in time series data

To assess whether a given time series can be modeled by a stochastic process possessing long range correlation one usually applies one of two types of analysis methods: the spectral method and the random walk analysis. The first objective of this work is to show that each one of these methods used alone can be susceptible to producing false results. We thus advocate an integrated approach which requires the use of both methods in a consistent fashion. We provide the theoretical foundation of this approach and illustrate the main ideas using examples. The second objective relates to the observation of long range anticorrelation (Hurst exponent H < 1/2) in real world time series data. The very peculiar nature of such processes is emphasized in light of the stringent condition under which such processes can occur. Using examples we discuss the possible factors that could contribute to the false claim of long range anticorrelations and demonstrate the particular importance of the integrated approach in this case.Comment: 15 pages, 33 figure

Has the evolution of complexity in the amphibian papilla influenced anuran speciation rates?

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/72375/1/j.1420-9101.2006.01079.x.pd