Differential photosynthetic adaptation between size-classes of Spruce and Fir juveniles help to explain the co-existence of the two species.

Background/Question/Methods 
_Abies sachalinensis_ (Sakhalin Fir) and _Picea glehnii_ (Glehn’s Spruce) are major components of the sub-boreal forests of Hokkaido, Japan. Similar Spruce-Fir forests can be found in many other places in the northern hemisphere and will probably be impacted by global warming. Therefore, detailed knowledge of these species’ physiology and life-history strategies at different growth stages is important to understand present communities and to support reliable prediction of possible consequences of global climate change. 
Accordingly, the objective of this study was to establish relations between community dynamics, life-history strategies and photosynthetic adaptation of these species, on different developmental stages. 
The study is taking place on a sub-boreal forest plot in north Japan (N 44º 19’, E 142º 15’). Twenty shade-growing individuals of both species were divided into two height classes: seedlings, if height < 50cm; and saplings, if height > 100cm. The canopy coverage over each individual was assessed by analyzing hemispherical photography and average light incidence. Leaf pigments are being analyzed by chromatography. Light response curves and chlorophyll fluorescence are being measured seasonally, except in winter. Results are analyzed through General Linear Models. The study period was from spring 2009 to summer 2010. 
Results/Conclusions 
Results show an inversion of the photosynthetic adaptation between seedlings and saplings, and also between species. _Picea_ seedlings and _Abies_ saplings have greater total chlorophyll content and higher photosynthetic rates than _Picea_ saplings and _Abies_ seedlings. As a consequence, the superior competitor between similar sized individuals of both species appears to change between size-classes, with _Abies_ presenting higher photosynthetic rates at the sapling class and _Picea_ at the seedling class. Nevertheless, no significant growth has been observed in any of the groups until now. Results also disagree with some of the previously reported photosynthetic characteristics of these species, with _Picea_ seedlings displaying more traits usually associated with shade adaptation than _Abies_ seedlings.
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Relationship between fine-mode AOD and precipitation on seasonal and interannual time scales

On seasonal and interannual time scales, weather is highly influential in aerosol variability. In this study, we investigate the relationship between fine-mode AOD (fAOD) and precipitation on these scales, in order to unravel the effect of wet weather on aerosol amount. We find with integrated satellite and ground observations that biomass burning related fAOD has a relatively greater seasonal variation than fossil fuel combustion related fAOD. It is also found that wet weather reduces biomass burning fAOD and increases fossil fuel combustion fAOD. Aerosol simulation models forced by reanalyses consistently simulate the biomass burning fAOD reduced during wet weather but only in the tropics and furthermore do not consistently increase fossil fuel combustion fAOD during wet conditions. The identified relationship between fAOD and precipitation in observations allows for seasonal predictability of fAOD, since average precipitation can be predicted a few to several months in advance due to the well-established predictability of El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). We reveal ENSO-covariant fAOD using a rotated component principal analysis of combined interannual variation of sea surface temperature, precipitation and fAOD. During the warm phase of ENSO, we find that fAOD increases over Indonesia and the eastern coastal area of China, and decreases over South Asia, the Amazon and the continental parts of China

Influence of pH, competing ions, and salinity on the sorption of strontium and cobalt onto biogenic hydroxyapatite

Anthropogenic radionuclides contaminate a range of environments as a result of nuclear activities, for example, leakage from waste storage tanks/ponds (e.g. Hanford, USA or Sellafield sites, UK) or as a result of large scale nuclear accidents (e.g. Chernobyl, Ukraine or Fukushima, Japan). One of the most widely applied remediation techniques for contaminated waters is the use of sorbent materials (e.g. zeolites and apatites). However, a key problem at nuclear contaminated sites is the remediation of radionuclides from complex chemical environments. In this study, biogenic hydroxyapatite (BHAP) produced by Serratia sp. bacteria was investigated for its potential to remediate surrogate radionuclides (Sr2+ and Co2+) from environmentally relevant waters by varying pH, salinity and the type and concentration of cations present. The sorption capacity of the BHAP for both Sr2+ and Co2+ was higher than for a synthetically produced hydroxyapatite (HAP) in the solutions tested. BHAP also compared favorably against a natural zeolite (as used in industrial decontamination) for Sr 2+ and Co 2+ uptake from saline waters. Results confirm that hydroxyapatite minerals of high surface area and amorphous calcium phosphate content, typical for biogenic sources, are suitable restoration or reactive barrier materials for the remediation of complex contaminated environments or wastewaters

Progress and challenges to control malaria in a remote area of Chittagong hill tracts, Bangladesh

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Malaria is endemic in 13 eastern districts where the overall infection prevalence is 3.97%. In 2006, Bangladesh received US$ 36.9 million from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) to support the national malaria control programme of Bangladesh.</p> <p>Objectives</p> <p>The objective of this study was to i) clarify factors associated with treatment seeking behaviours of malaria ii) distribution of LLIN, and iii) re-treatment of ITN in remote area of a CHT district of Bangladesh two years after implementation of national control programme.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>All households of Rajasthali sub-district of Rangamati district (households about 5,322, population about 24,097), all BRAC health workers (n = 15), health facilities and drug vendors' locations were mapped. Distances from households to health facilities, BRAC health workers and drug vendors were calculated. Logistic regression analysis was performed to assess the associations between the choice of the treatment and the distance to various treatment sources, education, occupation and ethnicity. SaTScan was used to detect clustering of treatment-seeking approaches.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>LLIN distribution and the re-treatment of ITN exceeded target goals. The most common treatment facility for malaria-associated fever was malaria control programme led by BRAC and government (66.6%) followed by the drug vendor (48.8%).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Closeness to health facilities run by the malaria control programme and drug vendors were significantly associated with the choice of treatment. A high proportion of people preferred drug vendors without having a proper diagnosis. Drug vendors are highly patronized and thus there is a need to improve their services for public health good. Otherwise it may cause incomplete treatment, misuse of anti-malarial drugs that will contribute to the risk of drug resistance and jeopardize the present malaria control efforts in Bangladesh.</p

Intercomparison of the cloud water phase among global climate models

Mixed‐phase clouds (clouds that consist of both cloud droplets and ice crystals) are frequently present in the Earth's atmosphere and influence the Earth's energy budget through their radiative properties, which are highly dependent on the cloud water phase. In this study, the phase partitioning of cloud water is compared among six global climate models (GCMs) and with Cloud and Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization retrievals. It is found that the GCMs predict vastly different distributions of cloud phase for a given temperature, and none of them are capable of reproducing the spatial distribution or magnitude of the observed phase partitioning. While some GCMs produced liquid water paths comparable to satellite observations, they all failed to preserve sufficient liquid water at mixed‐phase cloud temperatures. Our results suggest that validating GCMs using only the vertically integrated water contents could lead to amplified differences in cloud radiative feedback. The sensitivity of the simulated cloud phase in GCMs to the choice of heterogeneous ice nucleation parameterization is also investigated. The response to a change in ice nucleation is quite different for each GCM, and the implementation of the same ice nucleation parameterization in all models does not reduce the spread in simulated phase among GCMs. The results suggest that processes subsequent to ice nucleation are at least as important in determining phase and should be the focus of future studies aimed at understanding and reducing differences among the models. Key Points Phase partitioning of cloud water in GCMs is investigated Cloud water phase in GCMs is compared to satellite observations Ice nucleation parameterization influence on cloud water phase is investigatedPeer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/106995/1/jgrd51239.pd

Nucleosynthesis in Early Neutrino Driven Winds

Nucleosynthesis in early neutrino winds is investigated. Presented is a brief overview of two recent problems of supernova nucleosynthesis. In the first part we investigate the effect of nuclear parameters on the synthesis of Mo92 and Mo94. Based on recent experimental results, we find that the proton rich winds of the model investigated here can not be the source of solar Mo92 and Mo94. In the second part we investigate the nucleosynthesis from neutron rich bubbles and show that they do not contribute to the overall nucleosynthesis.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, proceedings for CNR 2007 Compound-Nuclear Reactions and Related Topics Worksho

Asian and trans-Pacific dust: a multi-model and multi-remote sensing observation analysis

Dust is one of the dominant aerosol types over Asia and the North Pacific Ocean, but quantitative estimation of dust distribution and its contribution to the total regional aerosol load from observations is challenging due to the presence of significant anthropogenic and natural aerosols and the frequent influence of clouds over the region. This study presents the dust aerosol distributions over Asia and the North Pacific using simulations from five global models that participated in the AeroCom phase II model experiments, and from multiple satellite remote-sensing and ground-based measurements of total aerosol optical depth (AOD) and dust optical depth (DOD). We examine various aspects of aerosol and dust presence in our study domain: (1) the horizontal distribution, (2) the longitudinal gradient during trans-Pacific transport, (3) seasonal variations, (4) vertical profiles, and (5) model-simulated dust life cycles. This study reveals that the diversity of DOD is mostly driven by the diversity of the dust source followed by residence time and mass extinction efficiency