Scaling and balancing carbon dioxide fluxes in a heterogeneous tundra ecosystem of the Lena River Delta

The current assessments of the carbon turnover in the Arctic tundra are subject to large uncertainties. This problem can (inter alia) be ascribed to both the general shortage of flux data from the vast and sparsely inhabited Arctic region, as well as the typically high spatiotemporal variability of carbon fluxes in tundra ecosystems. Addressing these challenges, carbon dioxide fluxes on an active flood plain situated in the Siberian Lena River Delta were studied during two growing seasons with the eddy covariance method. The footprint exhibited a heterogeneous surface, which generated mixed flux signals that could be partitioned in such a way that both respiratory loss and photosynthetic gain were obtained for each of two vegetation classes. This downscaling of the observed fluxes revealed a differing seasonality in the net uptake of bushes (−0.89 µmol m−2 s−1) and sedges (−0.38 µmol mm−2 s−1) in 2014. That discrepancy, which was concealed in the net signal, resulted from a comparatively warm spring in conjunction with an early snowmelt and a varying canopy structure. Thus, the representativeness of footprints may adversely be affected in response to prolonged unusual weather conditions. In 2015, when air temperatures on average corresponded to climatological means, both vegetation-class-specific flux rates were of similar magnitude (−0.69 µmol m−2 s−1). A comprehensive set of measures (e.g. phenocam) corroborated the reliability of the partitioned fluxes and hence confirmed the utility of flux decomposition for enhanced flux data analysis. This scrutiny encompassed insights into both the phenological dynamic of individual vegetation classes and their respective functional flux to flux driver relationships with the aid of ecophysiologically interpretable parameters. For comparison with other sites, the decomposed fluxes were employed in a vegetation class area-weighted upscaling that was based on a classified high-resolution orthomosaic of the flood plain. In this way, robust budgets that take the heterogeneous surface characteristics into account were estimated. In relation to the average sink strength of various Arctic flux sites, the flood plain constitutes a distinctly stronger carbon dioxide sink. Roughly 42 % of this net uptake, however, was on average offset by methane emissions lowering the sink strength for greenhouse gases. With growing concern about rising greenhouse gas emissions in high-latitude regions, providing robust carbon budgets from tundra ecosystems is critical in view of accelerating permafrost thaw, which can impact the global climate for centuries

Einführung von Variablen in Klasse 7 mit erdachten Dialogen von Schülern und mit Holzrobotern

Empirische Grundlage dieser Untersuchung waren von Schülerinnen und Schüler selbst erdachte Dialoge zwischen zwei fiktiven Lernenden. Die Dialoge wurden von Schülerinnen und Schülern der Jahrgangstufe 7 innerhalb von Unterrichtsreihen zur Einführung von Variablen geschrieben. Hinter der Untersuchung stand die Frage, welche Aspekte des Variablenkonzeptes bei den Schülerinnen und Schülern vorkamen. In den Unterrichtseinheiten wurde ein algorithmischer Zugang zu Variablen durch eine einfache Programmiersprache gewählt, die ohne Computer mit Holzrobotern und Streichholzschachteln ausgeführt wurde

Evaluating Behavioral Health Service Need for Sexual and Gender Minorities: A Community-Based Qualitative Study

The LGBTQ community experiences mental health challenges, such as anxiety, depression, and substance use disorders, at rates higher than heterosexual and cisgender counterparts. Given these disparities in mental health, it is crucial that the LGBTQ population has access to mental health services. However, LGBTQ individuals face barriers to accessing mental health care due to service affordability, availability, and/or lack of LGBT-inclusivity. A Place to Nourish your Health (APNH), formerly known as AIDS Project New Haven, has historically provided care to those in New Haven who live with HIV and AIDS. APNH is now seeking to re-define itself as an organization by expanding services to support those experiencing stigma related to gender identity, sexual orientation, addiction, and mental health. Thus, to aid APNH in their service expansion to stigmatized populations, we performed a qualitative community needs assessment in the greater New Haven area to inform where APNH’s priorities should lie in their expansion of services. Findings provided insight into the current mental health landscape of New Haven’s LGBTQ community and led to reccomendatios regarding APNH\u27s expanion of behavoral health services.https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/ysph_pbchrr/1024/thumbnail.jp

Localization of bosonic atoms by fermionic impurities in a 3d optical lattice

We observe a localized phase of ultracold bosonic quantum gases in a 3-dimensional optical lattice induced by a small contribution of fermionic atoms acting as impurities in a Fermi-Bose quantum gas mixture. In particular we study the dependence of this transition on the fermionic 40K impurity concentration by a comparison to the corresponding superfluid to Mott insulator transition in a pure bosonic 87Rb gas and find a significant shift in the transition parameter. The observed shift is larger than expected based on a mean-field argument, which is a strong indication that disorder-related effects play a significant role.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure