Biospheric context of Siberian development

Recent publications on human appropriation of Net Primary Production (NPP) raise the question of how much of the biosphere’s productivity we can appropriate in a sustainable way. This article brings the issue into the context of Siberian development. In contrast to many other regions of the world, the population density in Siberia is still very low as compared to the NPP supplied by regional ecosystems. Hence, it is not too late to raise the question on how much of the NPP supplied by Siberian ecosystems we can appropriate in a sustainable way

Biospheric context of Siberian development

Productivity of ecosystems surrounding a city is important for supporting its activities in a sustainable way. The total terrestrial net primary production (NPP) shows biosphere potential to supply primary food energy source for all non-autotrophic species including humans. Humans appropriate approximately 20% of NPP, in average. Even in the relatively well-populated regions of Siberia, NPP per capita exceeds the average level by several times suggesting the window of opportunity for achieving sustainable development. (3 pages, 1086 words, 2 maps)
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SiO Maser Survey towards off-plane O-rich AGBs around the orbital plane of the Sagittarius Stellar Stream

We conducted an SiO maser survey towards 221 O-rich AGB stars with the aim of identifying maser emission associated with the Sagittarius stellar stream. In this survey, maser emission was detected in 44 targets, of which 35 were new detections. All of these masers are within 5 kpc of the Sun. We also compiled a Galactic SiO maser catalogue including ~2300 SiO masers from the literature. The distribution of these SiO masers give a scale height of 0.40 kpc, while 42 sources deviate from the Galactic plane by more than 1.2 kpc, half of which were found in this survey. Regarding SiO masers in the disc, we found both the rotational speeds and the velocity dispersions vary with the Galactic plane distance. Assuming Galactic rotational speed $\Theta$0 = 240 km/s , we derived the velocity lags are 15 km/s and 55 km/s for disc and off-plane SiO masers respectively. Moreover, we identified three groups with significant peculiar motions (with 70% confidence). The most significant group is in the thick disc that might trace stream/peculiar motion of the Perseus arm. The other two groups are mainly made up of off-plane sources. The northern and southern off-plane sources were found to be moving at ~33 km/s and 54 km/s away from the Galactic plane, respectively. Causes of these peculiar motions are still unclear. For the two off-plane groups, we suspect they are thick disc stars whose kinematics affected by the Sgr stellar stream or very old Sgr stream debris.Comment: 27 pages, 17 figures, MNRAS accepted 2017 September 1

Antimatter from supersymmetric dark matter

We propose low-energy antideuterons in cosmic rays as a new possible signature for indirect detection of supersymmetric dark matter. Since the energy spectrum of the antiproton secondary component is still spoilt by considerable theoretical uncertainties, looking for low-energy antideuterons seems a plausible alternative. We apply our calculation to the AMS experiment, when mounted on the International Spatial Station. If a few low-energy antideuterons will be discovered by AMS, this should be seriously taken as a clue for the existence of relic, massive neutralinos in the dark halo of our Galaxy.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures, Talk presented at the 4th International Symposium On Sources And Detection Of Dark Matter In The Universe (DM 2000), Marina del Rey, California, 23-25 Feb. 200

Period-Luminosity Relation for Type II Cepheids

We have estimated JHKs magnitudes corrected to mean intensity for LMC type II Cepheids found in the OGLE-III survey. Period-luminosity relations (PLRs) are derived in JHKs as well as in a reddening-free VI parameter. The BL Her stars (P<4d) and the W Vir stars (P=4 to 20d) are co-linear in these PLRs. The slopes of the infrared relations agree with those found previously for type II Cepheids in globular clusters within the uncertainties. Using the pulsation parallaxes of V553 Cen and SW Tau, the data lead to an LMC modulus of 18.46+-0.10 mag, uncorrected for any metallicity effects. We have now established the PLR of type II Cepheids as a distance indicator by confirming that (almost) the same PLR satisfies the distributions in the PL diagram of type II Cepheids in (at least) two different systems, i.e. the LMC and Galactic globular clusters, and by calibrating the zero point of the PLR. RV Tau stars in the LMC, as a group, are not co-linear with the shorter-period type II Cepheids in the infrared PLRs in marked contrast to such stars in globular clusters. We note differences in period distribution and infrared colors for RV Tau stars in the LMC, globular clusters and Galactic field. We also compare the PLR of type II Cepheids with that of classical Cepheids.Comment: To appear in the proceedings for the conference "Stellar Pulsation: Challenges for Theory and Observations" held in Santa Fe, US