3,551 research outputs found
Plant community structure mediates potential methane production and potential iron reduction in wetland mesocosms.
Abstract
Wetlands are the largest natural source of methane to the atmosphere, but factors controlling methane emissions from wetlands are a major source of uncertainty in greenhouse gas budgets and projections of future climate change. We conducted a controlled outdoor mesocosm experiment to assess the effects of plant community structure (functional group richness and composition) on potential methane production and potential iron reduction in freshwater emergent marshes. Four plant functional groups (facultative annuals, obligate annuals, reeds, and tussocks) were arranged in a full-factorial design and additional mesocosms were assigned as no-plant controls. Soil samples from the top 10 cm were collected three times during the growing season to determine potential methane production and potential iron reduction (in unamended soils and in soils amended with 200 mM formate). These data were compared to soil organic matter, soil pH, and previously published data on above and belowground plant biomass. We found that functional group richness was less important than the presence of specific functional groups (reeds or tussocks) in mediating potential iron reduction. In our mesocosms, where oxidized iron was abundant and electron donors were limiting, iron reducing bacteria outcompeted methanogens, keeping methane production barely detectable in unamended lab incubations. When the possibility of re-oxidizing iron was eliminated via anaerobic incubations and the electron donor limitation was removed by adding formate, potential methane production increased and followed the same patterns as potential iron reduction. Our findings suggest that in the absence of abundant oxidized iron and/or the presence of abundant electron donors, wetlands dominated by either reeds or tussocks may have increased methane production compared to wetlands dominated by annuals. Depending on functional traits such as plant transport and rhizospheric oxygenation capacities, this could potentially lead to increased methane emissions in some wetlands. Additional research examining the role these plant functional groups play in other aspects of methane dynamics will be useful given the importance of methane as a greenhouse gas
Experimentally induced root mortality increased nitrous oxide emission from tropical forest soils
We conducted an experiment on sand and clay tropical forest soils to test the short‐term effect of root mortality on the soil‐atmosphere flux of nitrous oxide, nitric oxide, methane, and carbon dioxide. We induced root mortality by isolating blocks of land to 1 m using trenching and root exclusion screening. Gas fluxes were measured weekly for ten weeks following the trenching treatment. For nitrous oxide there was a highly significant increase in soil‐atmosphere flux over the ten weeks following treatment for trenched plots compared to control plots. N2O flux averaged 37.5 and 18.5 ng N cm−2 h−1 from clay trenched and control plots and 4.7 and 1.5 ng N cm−2 h−1 from sand trenched and control plots. In contrast, there was no effect for soil‐atmosphere flux of nitric oxide, carbon dioxide, or methane
Elastic scattering and breakup of 17^F at 10 MeV/nucleon
Angular distributions of fluorine and oxygen produced from 170 MeV 17^F
incident on 208^Pb were measured. The elastic scattering data are in good
agreement with optical model calculations using a double-folding potential and
parameters similar to those obtained from 16^O+208^Pb. A large yield of oxygen
was observed near \theta_lab=36 deg. It is reproduced fairly well by a
calculation of the (17^F,16^O) breakup, which is dominated by one-proton
stripping reactions. The discrepancy between our previous coincidence
measurement and theoretical predictions was resolved by including core
absorption in the present calculation.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure
Expression of Interest: The Atmospheric Neutrino Neutron Interaction Experiment (ANNIE)
Submitted for the January 2014 Fermilab Physics Advisory Committee meetingSubmitted for the January 2014 Fermilab Physics Advisory Committee meetingSubmitted for the January 2014 Fermilab Physics Advisory Committee meetingSubmitted for the January 2014 Fermilab Physics Advisory Committee meetingNeutron tagging in Gadolinium-doped water may play a significant role in reducing backgrounds from atmospheric neutrinos in next generation proton-decay searches using megaton-scale Water Cherenkov detectors. Similar techniques might also be useful in the detection of supernova neutrinos. Accurate determination of neutron tagging efficiencies will require a detailed understanding of the number of neutrons produced by neutrino interactions in water as a function of momentum transferred. We propose the Atmospheric Neutrino Neutron Interaction Experiment (ANNIE), designed to measure the neutron yield of atmospheric neutrino interactions in gadolinium-doped water. An innovative aspect of the ANNIE design is the use of precision timing to localize interaction vertices in the small fiducial volume of the detector. We propose to achieve this by using early production of LAPPDs (Large Area Picosecond Photodetectors). This experiment will be a first application of these devices demonstrating their feasibility for Water Cherenkov neutrino detectors
Plasma Panel Sensors for Particle and Beam Detection
The plasma panel sensor (PPS) is an inherently digital, high gain, novel
variant of micropattern gas detectors inspired by many operational and
fabrication principles common to plasma display panels (PDPs). The PPS is
comprised of a dense array of small, plasma discharge, gas cells within a
hermetically-sealed glass panel, and is assembled from non-reactive,
intrinsically radiation-hard materials such as glass substrates, metal
electrodes and mostly inert gas mixtures. We are developing the technology to
fabricate these devices with very low mass and small thickness, using gas gaps
of at least a few hundred micrometers. Our tests with these devices demonstrate
a spatial resolution of about 1 mm. We intend to make PPS devices with much
smaller cells and the potential for much finer position resolutions. Our PPS
tests also show response times of several nanoseconds. We report here our
results in detecting betas, cosmic-ray muons, and our first proton beam tests.Comment: 2012 IEEE NS
Expression of Interest: The Atmospheric Neutrino Neutron Interaction Experiment (ANNIE)
Neutron tagging in Gadolinium-doped water may play a significant role in
reducing backgrounds from atmospheric neutrinos in next generation proton-decay
searches using megaton-scale Water Cherenkov detectors. Similar techniques
might also be useful in the detection of supernova neutrinos. Accurate
determination of neutron tagging efficiencies will require a detailed
understanding of the number of neutrons produced by neutrino interactions in
water as a function of momentum transferred. We propose the Atmospheric
Neutrino Neutron Interaction Experiment (ANNIE), designed to measure the
neutron yield of atmospheric neutrino interactions in gadolinium-doped water.
An innovative aspect of the ANNIE design is the use of precision timing to
localize interaction vertices in the small fiducial volume of the detector. We
propose to achieve this by using early production of LAPPDs (Large Area
Picosecond Photodetectors). This experiment will be a first application of
these devices demonstrating their feasibility for Water Cherenkov neutrino
detectors.Comment: Submitted for the January 2014 Fermilab Physics Advisory Committee
meetin
Development Toward a Ground-Based Interferometric Phased Array for Radio Detection of High Energy Neutrinos
The in-ice radio interferometric phased array technique for detection of high
energy neutrinos looks for Askaryan emission from neutrinos interacting in
large volumes of glacial ice, and is being developed as a way to achieve a low
energy threshold and a large effective volume at high energies. The technique
is based on coherently summing the impulsive Askaryan signal from multiple
antennas, which increases the signal-to-noise ratio for weak signals. We report
here on measurements and a simulation of thermal noise correlations between
nearby antennas, beamforming of impulsive signals, and a measurement of the
expected improvement in trigger efficiency through the phased array technique.
We also discuss the noise environment observed with an analog phased array at
Summit Station, Greenland, a possible site for an interferometric phased array
for radio detection of high energy neutrinos.Comment: 13 Pages, 14 Figure
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