Fine-Scale Plant Species Identification in a Poor Fen and Integration of Techniques and Instrumentation in a Classroom Setting

Refining carbon flux measurements in the carbon cycle is an ongoing challenge. This study attempted to identify plant species in Sallie’s Fen, a nutrient-poor fen in Barrington, New Hampshire, at a fine scale in order to better model and understand carbon exchange between plants and the atmosphere in this type of ecosystem. A protocol for estimating percent cover of species in plots via ground measurements was developed. The next stage of this project was to compare these measurements with measurements derived from spectral images using ImageJ computer software. Statistical tests of the ground measurement data revealed that patterns of seasonal defoliation had a strong effect on the apparent species richness, evenness, and biodiversity of plants as seen aerially. The presence of Sphagnum mosses excluded the presence of other species, but the presence of other plants only excluded the visibility of Sphagnum since it resides in the understory of the layered community. A regression comparing percent cover of the vascular plant functional group and fractal dimensions from a digital camera was statistically significant, indicating that ground and aerial measurements agree and that spectral imaging can be used to save time in the field in place of ground measurements. Additionally, since ecosystem science is such an interdisciplinary field, it provides the perfect platform around which students can apply their scientific knowledge and understanding. Modifications to this project were suggested so that it can be carried out in a secondary school classroom setting while aligning with the Next Generation Science Standards

Actions for Integrable Systems and Deformed Conformal Theories

I report on work on a Lagrangian formulation for the simplest 1+1 dimensional integrable hierarchies. This formulation makes the relationship between conformal field theories and (quantized) 1+1 dimensional integrable hierarchies very clear.Comment: (based on a talk given at the NSERC-CAP Workshop, "Quantum Groups, Integrable Models and Statistical Systems", Kingston, Ontario, Canada, July 1992), 11 pages, plain tex, no figures, IASSNS-HEP-92/7

HexaKdV

An analog of the lattice KdV equation of Nijhoff et al. is constructed on a hexagonal lattice. The resulting system of difference equations exhibits soliton solutions with interesting local structure: there is a nontrivial phase shift on moving between adjacent lattice sites, with the magnitude of the shift tending to zero in the continuum limit.Comment: LaTeX, 9 pages, 2 figures, see warning at top of fil

The KdV Action and Deformed Minimal Models

An action is constructed that gives an arbitrary equation in the KdV or MKdV hierarchies as equation of motion; the second Hamiltonian structure of the KdV equation and the Hamiltonian structure of the MKdV equation appear as Poisson bracket structures derived from this action. Quantization of this theory can be carried out in two different schemes, to obtain either the quantum KdV theory of Kupershmidt and Mathieu or the quantum MKdV theory of Sasaki and Yamanaka. The latter is, for specific values of the coupling constant, related to a generalized deformation of the minimal models, and clarifies the relationship of integrable systems of KdV type and conformal field theories. As a generalization it is shown how to construct an action for the $SL(3)$-KdV (Boussinesq) hierarchy.Comment: 15 pages, no figures, plain tex. Revised version - a few points clarified. IASSNS-HEP-92/2

Symmetries of KdV and Loop Groups

A simple version of the Segal-Wilson map from the SL(2,C) loop group to a class of solutions of the KdV hierarchy is given, clarifying certain aspects of this map. It is explained how the known symmetries, including Backlund transformations, of KdV arise from simple, field independent, actions on the loop group. A variety of issues in understanding the algebraic structure of Backlund transformations are thus resolved.Comment: 36 pages (sorry), LaTeX using a4 documentstyl

Quark-like particles in dual electromagnetic fields

In a classical field model involving extended dual electromagnetic fields quark-like particles are shown to have fractional charges and a confining energy that provides an asymptotically free spherical surface. A suggestion is made for combining a measure of the confining energy with color in QCD.Comment: 13 page