Three billion new trees in the EU’s biodiversity strategy:low ambition, but better environmental outcomes?

The EU Biodiversity strategy aims to plant 3 billion trees by 2030, in order to improve ecosystem restoration and biodiversity. Here, we compute the land area that would be required to support this number of newly planted trees by taking account of different tree species and planting regimes across the EU member states. We find that 3 billion trees would require a total land area of between 0.81 and 1.37 Mha (avg. 1.02 Mha). The historic forest expansion in the EU since 2010 was 2.44 Mha, meaning that despite 3 billion trees sounding like a large number this target is considerably lower than historic afforestation rates within the EU, i.e. only 40% of the past trend. Abandoned agricultural land is often proposed as providing capacity for afforestation. We estimate agricultural abandoned land areas from the HIstoric Land Dynamics Assessment+ database using two time thresholds (abandonment since 2009 or 2014) to identify potential areas for tree planting. The area of agricultural abandoned land was 2.6 Mha (potentially accommodating 7.2 billion trees) since 2009 and 0.2 Mha (potentially accommodating 741 million trees) since 2014. Our study highlights that sufficient space could be available to meet the 3 billion tree planting target from abandoned land. However, large-scale afforestation beyond abandoned land could have displacement effects elsewhere in the world because of the embodied deforestation in the import of agricultural crops and livestock. This would negate the expected benefits of EU afforestation. Hence, the EU’s relatively low ambition on tree planting may actually be better in terms of avoiding such displacement effects. We suggest that tree planting targets should be set at a level that considers physical ecosystem dynamics as well as socio-economic conditions.</p

The XMM-Newton Slew view of IGRJ17361-4441: a transient in the globular cluster NGC 6388

IGRJ17361-4441 is a hard transient recently observed by the INTEGRAL satellite. The source, close to the center of gravity of the globular cluster NGC 6388, quickly became the target of follow-up observations conducted by the Chandra, Swift/XRT and RXTE observatories. Here, we concentrate in particular on a set of observations conducted by the XMM-Newton satellite during two slews, in order to get the spectral information of the source and search for spectral variations. The spectral parameters determined by the recent XMM-Newton slew observations were compared to the previously known results. The maximum unabsorbed $X$-ray flux in the 0.5-10 keV band as detected by the XMM-Newton slew observations is $\simeq 4.5\times 10^{-11}$ erg cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$, i.e. consistent with that observed by the Swift/XRT satellite 15 days earlier. The spectrum seems to be marginally consistent ($\Gamma\simeq 0.93-1.63$) with that derived from the previous high energy observation.Comment: Accepted for publication on New Astronomy, 2012. A sentence about the globular cluster 47 Tuc was partially rewritten to avoid confusio

Adsorption-desorption kinetics in nanoscopically confined oligomer films under shear

The method of molecular dynamics computer simulations is employed to study oligomer melts confined in ultra-thin films and subjected to shear. The focus is on the self-diffusion of oligomers near attractive surfaces and on their desorption, together with the effects of increasing energy of adsorption and shear. It is found that the mobility of the oligomers near an attractive surface is strongly decreased. Moreover, although shearing the system forces the chains to stretch parallel to the surfaces and thus increase the energy of adsorption per chain, flow also promotes desorption. The study of chain desorption kinetics reveals the molecular processes responsible for the enhancement of desorption under shear. They involve sequences of conformations starting with a desorbed tail and proceeding in a very fast, correlated, segment-by-segment manner to the desorption of the oligomers from the surfaces.

Spin Transistor and Quantum Spin Hall Effects in CdBxF2-x - p-CdF2 - CdBxF2-x Sandwich Nanostructures

Planar CdBxF2-x - p-CdF2 - CdBxF2-x sandwich nanostructures prepared on the surface of the n-type CdF2 bulk crystal are studied to register the spin transistor and quantum spin Hall effects. The current-voltage characteristics of the ultra-shallow p+-n junctions verify the CdF2 gap, 7.8 eV, and the quantum subbands of the 2D holes in the p-type CdF2 quantum well confined by the CdBxF2-x delta-barriers. The temperature and magnetic field dependencies of the resistance, specific heat and magnetic susceptibility demonstrate the high temperature superconductor properties for the CdBxF2-x delta-barriers. The value of the superconductor energy gap, 102.06 meV, determined by the tunneling spectroscopy method appears to be in a good agreement with the relationship between the zero-resistance supercurrent in superconductor state and the conductance in normal state at the energies of the 2D hole subbands. The results obtained are evidence of the important role of the multiple Andreev reflections in the creation of the high spin polarization of the 2D holes in the edged channels of the sandwich device. The high spin hole polarization in the edged channels is shown to identify the mechanism of the spin transistor and quantum spin Hall effects induced by varying the top gate voltage, which is revealed by the first observation of the Hall quantum conductance staircase.Comment: 5 pages, 9 figure

Полифункциональность языковой единицы в формате двуязычного контекста

Предложенный материал показывает взаимосвязь функций языка на примере наименований предприятий конкретного профиля деятельности - кафе и ресторанов Томска. Показана их взаимосвязь, как основа полифункциональности языковой единицы. Интерпретированные языковые средства, которые использованы в названиях в формате двуязычного контекста

Processing and mechanical properties of magnesium-lithium composites containing steel fibers

Deformation-processed metal-metal composites (DMMC) of Mg-Li alloys containing steel reinforcing fibers were prepared by infiltrating a preform of steel wool with the molten matrix. The Li content was varied to control the crystal structure of the matrix; Mg-4 wt pct Li is hexagonal close packed (hcp), while Mg-12 wt pct Li is body-centered cubic (bcc). The low carbon steel used as the reinforcing fiber is essentially bcc. The hcp/bcc and bcc/bcc composites were subsequently deformed by rolling and by extrusion/swaging and mechanically tested to relate the tensile strength of the composites to true deformation strain. The hcp/bcc composites had limited formability at temperatures up to 400 °C, while the bcc/bcc composites had excellent formability during sheet rolling at room temperature but limited formability during swaging at room temperature. The tensile strengths of the hcp/bcc composite rod and the bcc/bcc composite sheet and rod increased moderately with deformation, though less than predicted from rule-of-mixtures (ROM) calculations. This article presents the experimental data for these DMMC materials and comments on the possible effect of texture development in the matrix and fiber phases on the deformation characteristics of the composite material

United classification of cosmic gamma-ray bursts and their counterparts

United classification of gamma-ray bursts and their counterparts is established on the basis of measured characteristics: photon energy E and emission duration T. The founded interrelation between the mentioned characteristics of events consists in that, as the energy increases, the duration decreases (and vice versa). The given interrelation reflects the nature of the phenomenon and forms the E-T diagram, which represents a natural classification of all observed events in the energy range from 10E9 to 10E-6 eV and in the corresponding interval of durations from about 10E-2 up to 10E8 s. The proposed classification results in the consequences, which are principal for the theory and practical study of the phenomenon.Comment: Keywords Gamma rays: burst

The 3D Structure of N132D in the LMC: A Late-Stage Young Supernova Remnant

We have used the Wide Field Spectrograph (WiFeS) on the 2.3m telescope at Siding Spring Observatory to map the [O III] 5007{\AA} dynamics of the young oxygen-rich supernova remnant N132D in the Large Magellanic Cloud. From the resultant data cube, we have been able to reconstruct the full 3D structure of the system of [O III] filaments. The majority of the ejecta form a ring of ~12pc in diameter inclined at an angle of 25 degrees to the line of sight. We conclude that SNR N132D is approaching the end of the reverse shock phase before entering the fully thermalized Sedov phase of evolution. We speculate that the ring of oxygen-rich material comes from ejecta in the equatorial plane of a bipolar explosion, and that the overall shape of the SNR is strongly influenced by the pre-supernova mass loss from the progenitor star. We find tantalizing evidence of a polar jet associated with a very fast oxygen-rich knot, and clear evidence that the central star has interacted with one or more dense clouds in the surrounding ISM.Comment: Accepted for Publication in Astrophysics & Space Science, 18pp, 8 figure

Magnetic fields in supernova remnants and pulsar-wind nebulae

We review the observations of supernova remnants (SNRs) and pulsar-wind nebulae (PWNe) that give information on the strength and orientation of magnetic fields. Radio polarimetry gives the degree of order of magnetic fields, and the orientation of the ordered component. Many young shell supernova remnants show evidence for synchrotron X-ray emission. The spatial analysis of this emission suggests that magnetic fields are amplified by one to two orders of magnitude in strong shocks. Detection of several remnants in TeV gamma rays implies a lower limit on the magnetic-field strength (or a measurement, if the emission process is inverse-Compton upscattering of cosmic microwave background photons). Upper limits to GeV emission similarly provide lower limits on magnetic-field strengths. In the historical shell remnants, lower limits on B range from 25 to 1000 microGauss. Two remnants show variability of synchrotron X-ray emission with a timescale of years. If this timescale is the electron-acceleration or radiative loss timescale, magnetic fields of order 1 mG are also implied. In pulsar-wind nebulae, equipartition arguments and dynamical modeling can be used to infer magnetic-field strengths anywhere from about 5 microGauss to 1 mG. Polarized fractions are considerably higher than in SNRs, ranging to 50 or 60% in some cases; magnetic-field geometries often suggest a toroidal structure around the pulsar, but this is not universal. Viewing-angle effects undoubtedly play a role. MHD models of radio emission in shell SNRs show that different orientations of upstream magnetic field, and different assumptions about electron acceleration, predict different radio morphology. In the remnant of SN 1006, such comparisons imply a magnetic-field orientation connecting the bright limbs, with a non-negligible gradient of its strength across the remnant.Comment: 20 pages, 24 figures; to be published in SpSciRev. Minor wording change in Abstrac