Control of macrophytes by grass carp (ctenopharyngodon idella) in a Waikato drain, New Zealand

Hornwort (Ceratophyllum demersum L.) and other aquatic macrophytes have historically been mechanically removed from the Rangiriri drain and Churchill East drain to maintain drain efficiency. As an alternative control method for the high plant biomass that accumulates at the end of summer, the effect of stocking diploid grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella L.) on the aquatic vegetation was evaluated in these Waikato drainage systems. At the start of the trial, both drains had a low diversity of aquatic macrophytes, and of the nine species (including the emergents), seven were exotic. Two months after grass carp were released to Churchill East drain (the treated drain) the four submerged and floating macrophyte species became scarce in the main drain. Over the same period, these species increased in biomass in Rangiriri drain (the untreated drain), where hornwort became dense and surface-reaching and remained so for the duration of the trial. However, grass carp did not control submerged vegetation in smaller side drains or the shallow, upper parts of the main drain, or the marginal sprawling species and emergent species. The cost of leasing the grass carp was similar to the cost of clearing the drains mechanically, but grass carp provided continuous weed control. However, subsequent to this trial, 62 dead grass carp were found in Churchill East drain in February 2001, and weed cover subsequently increased. This illustrates that grass carp management in New Zealand agricultural drains can be problematic due to periodic fish kills

Fish and macroinvertebrates in lowland drainage canals with and without grass carp

Diploid grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella L.) were introduced to a lowland Waikato drainage canal at an initial density of 40-80 kg ha -1(83-167 fish ha -1) to control aquatic macrophytes and improve water flow. A near-by canal was left without grass carp to act as an untreated control. After 7 months, macrophytes occupied 17% of the water column in the treated canal compared to 78% in the untreated canal. Fish and macroinvertebrates in both canals were examined before and after the release of grass carp by sampling with replacement by fyke netting on seven occasions. Brown bullhead catfish (Ameiurus nebulosus (Lesueur)) and shortfinned eels (Anguilla australis Richardson) comprised most of the resident fish biomass in both canals; however, before grass carp stocking, eels were more abundant than catfish in the treated canal. There was no change in the abundance of resident fish after stocking, but young-of-the-year catfish had greater mortality and grew faster in the treated canal than in the untreated canal. Macroinvertebrates were primarily associated with aquatic macrophytes. Grass carp reduced aquatic macrophyte abundance in the treated canal by about 80%, which by inference reduced the abundance of associated macroinvertebrates, but there was no observed impact of grass carp stocking on the resident fish assemblage. We examined the relationship between head width and fish length, and from this determined that 70% of the grass carp could have escaped through the downstream retention screen. Despite this possibility, grass carp remained in the canal and effectively controlled aquatic macrophytes for 18 months

Consumption of submerged aquatic macrophytes by rudd (scardinius erythrophthalmus L.) in New Zealand

In experiments in New Zealand, rudd (Scardinius erythrophthalmus L.) of 108–277mm fork length (FL) ate a wide range of native and introduced submerged aquatic macrophytes in captivity and in the field. Rudd consumed the native charophytes Chara globularis Thuill., Chara fibrosa Ag. ex Bruz., and Nitella spp., the native macrophytes Potamogeton ochreatus Raoul. and Myriophyllum propinquum A. Cunn., and the introduced macrophytes Elodea canadensis Michx., Egeria densa Planch., Lagarosiphon major L., and Ceratophyllum demersum L. Rudd consistently consumed the Nitella spp. and Potamogeton ochreatus before Ceratophyllum demersum. From the results of experiments in tanks and in the field, we found the order of highest to lowest palatability was: Nitella spp. > Potamogeton ochreatus > Elodea canadensis> Chara globularis = Chara fibrosa> Egeria densa = Lagarosiphon major > Myriophyllum propinquum > Ceratophyllum demersum. The order of consumption was subject to some variation with season, especially for Egeria densa, Lagarosiphon major, and Myriophyllum propinquum. Rudd consumed up to 20% of their body weight per day of Egeria densa in spring, and 22% of their body weight per day of Nitella spp. in summer. Consumption rates were considerably lower in winter than in summer. The results of our field trial suggested that the order of consumption also applies in the field and that rudd are having a profound impact on vulnerable native aquatic plant communities in New Zealand. Nitella spp. and Potamogeton ochreatus are likely to be selectively eaten, and herbivory by rudd might prevent the re-establishment of these species in restoration efforts

The performance of the jet trigger for the ATLAS detector during 2011 data taking

The performance of the jet trigger for the ATLAS detector at the LHC during the 2011 data taking period is described. During 2011 the LHC provided proton–proton collisions with a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV and heavy ion collisions with a 2.76 TeV per nucleon–nucleon collision energy. The ATLAS trigger is a three level system designed to reduce the rate of events from the 40 MHz nominal maximum bunch crossing rate to the approximate 400 Hz which can be written to offline storage. The ATLAS jet trigger is the primary means for the online selection of events containing jets. Events are accepted by the trigger if they contain one or more jets above some transverse energy threshold. During 2011 data taking the jet trigger was fully efficient for jets with transverse energy above 25 GeV for triggers seeded randomly at Level 1. For triggers which require a jet to be identified at each of the three trigger levels, full efficiency is reached for offline jets with transverse energy above 60 GeV. Jets reconstructed in the final trigger level and corresponding to offline jets with transverse energy greater than 60 GeV, are reconstructed with a resolution in transverse energy with respect to offline jets, of better than 4 % in the central region and better than 2.5 % in the forward direction

Search for W′→tb→qqbbW' \rightarrow tb \rightarrow qqbb W ′ → t b → q q b b decays in pppp p p collisions at s\sqrt{s} s = 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search for a massive W′ gauge boson decaying to a top quark and a bottom quark is performed with the ATLAS detector in pp collisions at the LHC. The dataset was taken at a centre-of-mass energy of s√=8 TeVs=8 TeV and corresponds to 20.3 fb −120.3 fb −1 of integrated luminosity. This analysis is done in the hadronic decay mode of the top quark, where novel jet substructure techniques are used to identify jets from high-momentum top quarks. This allows for a search for high-mass W′ bosons in the range 1.5–3.0 TeV TeV. bb-tagging is used to identify jets originating from bb-quarks. The data are consistent with Standard Model background-only expectations, and upper limits at 95 % confidence level are set on the W′→tbW′→tb cross section times branching ratio ranging from 0.16pb0.16pb to 0.33pb0.33pb for left-handed W′W′ bosons, and ranging from 0.10pb0.10pb to 0.21pb0.21pb for W′ bosons with purely right-handed couplings. Upper limits at 95 % confidence level are set on the W′-boson coupling to tb as a function of the W′ mass using an effective field theory approach, which is independent of details of particular models predicting a W′ boson

Search for exclusive Higgs and Z boson decays to ϕγ and ργ with the ATLAS detector

A search for the exclusive decays of the Higgs and Z bosons to a φ or ρ meson and a photon is performed with a pp collision data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of up to 35.6 fb−1 collected at √s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. These decays have been suggested as a probe of the Higgs boson couplings to light quarks. No significant excess of events is observed above the background, as expected from the Standard Model. Upper limits at 95% confidence level were obtained on the branching fractions of the Higgs boson decays to φγ and ργ of 4.8 × 10−4 and 8.8 × 10−4, respectively. The corresponding 95% confidence level upper limits for the Z boson decays are 0.9 × 10−6 and 25 × 10−6 for φγ and ργ, respectively

Cluster studies in molecular beams

In the present work we study properties of clusters of small heteroatomic molecules with biological relevance by several experimental methods based on molecular beams. In the first experiment structure and dynamics of size-selected charged pyrrole clusters have been studied by means of molecular beam scattering experiment. Small neutral Pyn clusters were produced in Py/He expansions and larger mixed PynArm clusters in Py/Ar expansions, and the scattering experiment with a secondary beam of He atoms was used to select the neutral clusters of dierent sizes. The complete size-selected fragmentation patterns for the neutral dimer to tetramer after an electron impact ionization at 70 eV from the measurements of the angular and velocity distributions at dierent fragment masses. In second experiment photolysis of size selected pyrrole, imidazole and pyrazole clusters has been investigated. Comparison with the photolysis of an isolated molecules and between studied systems has been made. Clusters were photolyzed at 243 and 193 nm and the kinetic energy distributions of the H-photofragments have been measured and analyzed. Finally the mass spectra of the fragments after multiphoton ionization have been measured. The significant inuence of the cluster environment to the photolytic behavior was observed and discussed