Spared, shared and lost-routes for maintaining the Scandinavian Mountain foothill intact forest landscapes

Intact forest landscapes harbor significant biodiversity values and pools of ecosystem services essential for conservation, land use and rural development. Threatened by fragmentation and loss by transitions to industrial clear-cut forestry, those landscapes are of pivotal interest for protection that secures their intact character. With wall-to-wall land-cover data, we explored opportunities for maintaining intact forest landscapes through comprehensive spatial planning across a 2.5 million hectares boreal to sub-alpine forest region along the eastern slopes of the Scandinavian Mountain range. We analyzed forest and woodland types that are protected, need protection or potentially can be subject to continued forest management. We established that the fraction of already clear-cut forest is very small and that the forest landscape of the Scandinavian Mountain foothills contains a high proportion of protected high conservation value forests, covering almost 2 million ha, and that over 500,000 ha (27%) remains unprotected and may be subject to future protection or continued adapted forest management. We found evident north to south differences with respect to forest landscape configuration, distribution of unprotected forests and land ownership. With a focus on non-industrial private landowners, we conclude that sustainable land-use requires integrative, multi-functional approaches that rely on further protection, forest and forest landscape restoration and a much larger share of continuous cover forestry than presently. Our results provide input into ongoing policy implementation and green infrastructure planning in the context of securing intact forest values and integrative opportunities for rural livelihood and regional development based on multiple value chains

Spared, shared and lost—routes for maintaining the Scandinavian Mountain foothill intact forest landscapes

Intact forest landscapes harbor significant biodiversity values and pools of ecosystem services essential for conservation, land use and rural development. Threatened by fragmentation and loss by transitions to industrial clear-cut forestry, those landscapes are of pivotal interest for protection that secures their intact character. With wall-to-wall land-cover data, we explored opportunities for maintaining intact forest landscapes through comprehensive spatial planning across a 2.5 million hectares boreal to sub-alpine forest region along the eastern slopes of the Scandinavian Mountain range. We analyzed forest and woodland types that are protected, need protection or potentially can be subject to continued forest management. We established that the fraction of already clear-cut forest is very small and that the forest landscape of the Scandinavian Mountain foothills contains a high proportion of protected high conservation value forests, covering almost 2 million ha, and that over 500,000 ha (27%) remains unprotected and may be subject to future protection or continued adapted forest management. We found evident north to south differences with respect to forest landscape configuration, distribution of unprotected forests and land ownership. With a focus on non-industrial private landowners, we conclude that sustainable land-use requires integrative, multi-functional approaches that rely on further protection, forest, and forest landscape restoration and a much larger share of continuous cover forestry than presently. Our results provide input into ongoing policy implementation and green infrastructure planning in the context of securing intact forest values and integrative opportunities for rural livelihood and regional development based on multiple value chains.publishedVersio

Equilibrium shape of nano-cavities in H implanted ZnO

Thermally equilibrated nano-cavities are formed in ZnO by H implantation and subsequent high temperature annealing to determine the relative surface formation energies and step energies of ZnO from reverse Wulff construction and related analysis. H adsorption, vicinal surfaces, and surface polarity are found to play an important role in determining the final thermal equilibrium shape of the nano-cavities. Under H coverage, the O-terminated surface shows a significantly lower surface formation energy than the Zn-terminated surface

Comparison of the structural properties of Zn-face and O-face single crystal homoepitaxial ZnO epilayers grown by RF-magnetron sputtering

Homoepitaxial ZnO growth is demonstrated from conventional RF-sputtering at 400 °C on both Zn and O polar faces of hydrothermally grown ZnO substrates. A minimum yield for the Rutherford backscattering and channeling spectrum, χmin, equal to ∼3% and ∼12% and a full width at half maximum of the 00.2 diffraction peak rocking curve of (70 ± 10) arc sec and (1400 ± 100) arc sec have been found for samples grown on the Zn and O face, respectively. The structural characteristics of the film deposited on the Zn face are comparable with those of epilayers grown by more complex techniques like molecular beam epitaxy. In contrast, the film simultaneously deposited on the O-face exhibits an inferior crystalline structure ∼0.7% strained in the c-direction and a higher atomic number contrast compared with the substrate, as revealed by high angle annular dark field imaging measurements. These differences between the Zn- and O-face films are discussed in detail and associated with the different growth mechanisms prevailing on the two surfacesThis work has been performed within “The Norwegian Research Centre for Solar Cell Technology” Project No. 193829, a Centre for Environment-friendly Energy Research co-sponsored by the Norwegian Research Council and research and industry partners in Norway and the Frienergi program. R.S. acknowledges the partial support from the EU 7th Framework Programme Project No. REGPOT-CT-2013- 316014 (EAgLE)

New genetic loci link adipose and insulin biology to body fat distribution.

Body fat distribution is a heritable trait and a well-established predictor of adverse metabolic outcomes, independent of overall adiposity. To increase our understanding of the genetic basis of body fat distribution and its molecular links to cardiometabolic traits, here we conduct genome-wide association meta-analyses of traits related to waist and hip circumferences in up to 224,459 individuals. We identify 49 loci (33 new) associated with waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for body mass index (BMI), and an additional 19 loci newly associated with related waist and hip circumference measures (P < 5 × 10(-8)). In total, 20 of the 49 waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for BMI loci show significant sexual dimorphism, 19 of which display a stronger effect in women. The identified loci were enriched for genes expressed in adipose tissue and for putative regulatory elements in adipocytes. Pathway analyses implicated adipogenesis, angiogenesis, transcriptional regulation and insulin resistance as processes affecting fat distribution, providing insight into potential pathophysiological mechanisms

Oxidation-enhanced annealing of implantation-induced Z(1/2) centers in 4H-SiC: Reaction kinetics and modeling

High-purity epitaxial layers of n-type 4H-SiC have been implanted with 4.3-MeV Si ions to a dose of 3 × 108 cm−2 and then subjected to dry isothermal oxidation at temperatures between 1050 and 1175 °C. Analysis of the samples by depth-resolved deep level transient spectroscopy unveils a strong oxidation-enhanced annealing of the prominent Z1/2 center, commonly ascribed to the carbon vacancy. The integrated (total) loss of Z1/2 centers is proportional to the thickness of the silicon dioxide (SiO2) layer grown but the proportionality constant, or annihilation efficiency, decreases with decreasing oxidation temperature. At a given depth x, the annealing of Z1/2 obeys first-order kinetics with a rate constant c having an activation energy of ∼5.3 eV. The pre-exponential factor c decreases with increasing x and a normalized concentration-versus-depth distribution of the species injected from the surface and annihilating the Z1/2 centers has been deducted. This species is believed to be the carbon interstitial and is labeled CI: numerical simulations of the reaction kinetics employing a model where (i) the generation rate of CI at the SiO2/SiC interface is related to the oxidation rate, (ii) the diffusion of CI into the SiC layer is fast, and (iii) a steady-state concentration profile of CI is rapidly established, yield good agreement with the experimental data for the evolution of both Z1/2 (absolute values) and CI (relative values) with temperature, depth, and time. The activation energy obtained for the diffusivity of CI is ∼3.0 eV, presumably reflecting the migration barrier for CI and possibly some contribution from an extra barrier to be surmounted at the SiO2/SiC interface. © 2012 American Physical Societ

Interaction between the divacancy and hydrogen in silicon: Observation of fast and slow kinetics

The divacancy (V2) is one of the fundamental defects in silicon. However, the interaction of V2 with hydrogen is still not fully understood. In the present work, deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) results on hydrogen-assisted annealing of V2 are presented. H+ ions were implanted with multiple energies into n-type Czochralski-grown samples, yielding uniform (box-like) concentration-versus-depth profiles of V2 and hydrogen in the region probed by the DLTS measurements. The evolution kinetics of V2 reveals two distinct processes: (i) a fast one attributed to dissociation of phosphorus-hydrogen pairs and reaction with highly mobile atomic Hi and (ii) a slow one whose origin is not identified yet. During the slow process, we observe the formation of a hydrogen-related electronic state, labeled E5* and positioned ∼0.42 eV below the conduction band edge. The growth of E5* displays a close one-to-one proportionality with the loss of a V2-related DLTS peak, presumably due to V2H, overlapping with that of the single negatively charged V2

Correlated annealing and formation of vacancy-hydrogen related complexes in silicon

We report on a deep level transient spectroscopy study of annealing kinetics of a deep, vacancy-hydrogen related level, labeled E5* , at 0.42 eV below the conduction band in hydrogen-implanted n-type silicon. The E5* annealing correlates with the formation of another commonly observed vacancy-hydrogen related level, labeled E5, at 0.45 eV below the conduction band. The annealing of E5* and the formation of E5 exhibit first-order kinetics with an activation energy of 1.61 ± 0.07 eV and a pre-factor of ~1013–1014 s−1 . The pre-factor indicates a dissociation or structural transformation mechanism. The analysis of electron capture cross-sections for E5* and E5 reveals considerable transition entropies for both states and a temperature dependent capture cross-section for E5* . Two possible identifications of E5* and E5 are put forward. Firstly, E5* can be attributed to V2H2(−/0) or V2H3(−/0), which dissociate with the emission of VH (E5). Secondly, E5* and E5 can be assigned to two different configurations of V3H

Det boreala skogslandskapets gröna infrastruktur

Rapporten handlar om norra Sveriges skogs- och fjällnäralandskap och beskriver hur biologisk mångfald och ekosystemtjänster i skog kan säkerställas i planering för gröninfrastruktur. Forskarna har analyserat struktur och konnektivitet i dagens skogslandskap och hur detta har förändrats sedan mitten av 1900-talet med ett omfattande kal- och trakthyggesbruk. Grön infrastruktur för att bevara och förstärka naturvärden måste ta sin utgångspunkt i de återstående och återhämtade resterna av naturnära skog, där redan formellt skyddad skog kompletteras med restaurering för att förstärka och återskapa naturvärden i brukad skog. Den fjällnära barrskogen och fjällbjörkskogen är ett unikt område med höga, samlade naturvärden. Förutsättningen för att kunna bevara den intakta karaktären är en fortsatt restriktiv och kunskapsbaserad skogspolitik ovanför den fjällnära gränsen. Forskningen har finansierats av Naturvårdsverkets miljöforskningsanslag till stöd för Naturvårdsverket och Havs- och vattenmyndighetens verksamhet