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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Resilience And Alternative Stable States After Desert Wildfires, Scott R. Abella, Dominic M. Gentilcore, Lindsay P. Chiquoine Sep 2020

Resilience And Alternative Stable States After Desert Wildfires, Scott R. Abella, Dominic M. Gentilcore, Lindsay P. Chiquoine

Life Sciences Faculty Research

Improving models of community change is a fundamental goal in ecology and has renewed importance during global change and increasing human disturbance of the biosphere. Using the Mojave Desert (southwestern United States) as a model system, invaded by nonnative plants and subject to wildfire disturbances, we examined models of resilience, alternative stable states, and convergent-divergent trajectories for 36 yr of plant community change after 31 wildfires in communities dominated by the native shrubs Larrea tridentata or Coleogyne ramosissima. Perennial species richness on average was fully resilient within 23 yr after disturbance in both community types. Perennial cover was fully resilient …


Assessing The Potential For Greater Solar Development In West Texas, Usa, Dale D. Devitt, M. H. Young, J. P. Pierre May 2020

Assessing The Potential For Greater Solar Development In West Texas, Usa, Dale D. Devitt, M. H. Young, J. P. Pierre

Life Sciences Faculty Research

As population and economies continue to grow on a global scale, so too does the demand for energy. To improve reliability and independence of energy supplies, the U.S. and many other countries are seeking internally-sourced renewable energy; solar is one such renewable-energy source that meets these criteria. However, all energy sources exert some environmental impacts. In the case of solar, direct impacts stem mostly from alteration of land needed to host infrastructure. Understanding the environmental upside and downside potential of solar energy systems allows a more comprehensive, side-by-side comparison with different energy sources. In this article, we focus on the …


Insight On Thermal Stability Of Magnetite Magnetosomes: Implications For The Fossil Record And Biotechnology, Jefferson Cypriano, Mounib Bahri, Kassioge Dembele, Walid Baaziz, Pedro Leao, Dennis A. Bazylinski, Fernanda Abreu, Ovidiu Ersen, Marcos Farina, Jacques Werckmann Apr 2020

Insight On Thermal Stability Of Magnetite Magnetosomes: Implications For The Fossil Record And Biotechnology, Jefferson Cypriano, Mounib Bahri, Kassioge Dembele, Walid Baaziz, Pedro Leao, Dennis A. Bazylinski, Fernanda Abreu, Ovidiu Ersen, Marcos Farina, Jacques Werckmann

Life Sciences Faculty Research

Magnetosomes are intracellular magnetic nanocrystals composed of magnetite (Fe3O4) or greigite (Fe3S4), enveloped by a lipid bilayer membrane, produced by magnetotactic bacteria. Because of the stability of these structures in certain environments after cell death and lysis, magnetosome magnetite crystals contribute to the magnetization of sediments as well as providing a fossil record of ancient microbial ecosystems. The persistence or changes of the chemical and magnetic features of magnetosomes under certain conditions in different environments are important factors in biotechnology and paleomagnetism. Here we evaluated the thermal stability of magnetosomes in a temperature range between 150 and 500 °C subjected …