Traffic patterns, more than adjacent land use, influence element content of roadside forbs for insect pollinators

Abstract Roadsides are targeted for restoration of pollinator‐friendly plants. Yet, roads are sources of macronutrient, micronutrient and heavy metal pollution that may contaminate roadside plants. Adjacent landscape features such as railroads and agriculture provide additional macronutrient and heavy metal pollution that may exacerbate traffic effects. However, we lack perspective on how roads combine with rural landscape features to influence nutrition of roadside plants, which could have implications for pollinator health. We surveyed roadsides across Minnesota, USA and measured foliar levels of dietary macronutrients (nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium), a micronutrient (sodium) and metals (iron, zinc, copper, chromium, nickel, lead, aluminium and cadmium) in six abundant roadside forb species used by insect pollinators: Asclepias syriaca, Dalea purpurea, Monarda fistulosa, Ratibida pinnata, Solidago spp. and Trifolium pratense. We aimed to determine (1) how road variables (traffic volume and distance from road) combine with adjacent land use (railroad and agriculture) to influence element content of roadside forbs and (2) whether some forb species show consistent differences in their accumulation of potentially toxic heavy metals, which could inform selection of species to plant along roadsides. We found that foliar concentrations of nine elements increased with greater traffic volume (nitrogen, phosphorous, iron, zinc, copper, chromium, nickel, lead and aluminium), and concentrations of six elements declined with distance from the road (nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, iron, zinc and copper). Leaves collected adjacent to railroad had less phosphorous, potassium, iron, nickel and aluminium than leaves collected from sites not adjacent to railroad. Additionally, leaves collected from sites adjacent to agriculture had lower copper levels than leaves from sites without adjacent agriculture. We found no evidence that particular ford species along roadsides consistently rank higher than other species in their accumulation of heavy metals. Our results show that traffic alters more elements in roadside plants than does adjacent landscape context, alleviating concerns that landscape features exacerbate pollutant levels in roadside pollinator habitat. However, nutrient contamination of most roadside plants is unlikely to reach toxic levels for insect pollinators. This work is consistent with the positive conservation potential of low to moderate traffic roadsides for pollinators

The influence of edge geometry on end-correction coefficients in micro perforated plates

Global expressions are proposed for end-correction coefficients in micro perforated plates (MPPs) using non-dimensional parameters. MPPs are sound absorbers with small perforation diameters such that the Stokes boundary layers fill up almost the entire perforation. Sound absorption does not only occur within the perforation, but also takes place just outside of it. The latter contribution plus the outside inertia effect on the transfer impedance of the MPP are referred to as end-corrections. In order to determine them, an analytical solution employing the very thin Stokes layer assumption has been derived. However, this assumption requires empirical coefficients in the end-corrections for accurate results. To explore the effects of various parameters a numerical model is used. This model is verified with open-end reflection coefficient measurements. The most prominent result from this study is that compared to plate thickness, the ratio of perforation diameter to Stokes layer thickness (Shear number) and edge geometry affect the end-correction coefficients more significantly. The effect of plate thickness can be neglected for practical purposes, therefore, expressions for the end-corrections in terms of Shear number and edge geometry are provided. The relative error of these expressions i