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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

A Realistic Meteorological Assessment Of Perennial Biofuel Crop Deployment: A Southern Great Plains Perspective, Melissa Wagner, Meng Wang, Gonzalo Miguez-Macho, Jesse Miller, Andy Vanloocke, Justin E. Bagley, Carl J. Bernacchi, Matei Georgescu Jan 2017

A Realistic Meteorological Assessment Of Perennial Biofuel Crop Deployment: A Southern Great Plains Perspective, Melissa Wagner, Meng Wang, Gonzalo Miguez-Macho, Jesse Miller, Andy Vanloocke, Justin E. Bagley, Carl J. Bernacchi, Matei Georgescu

Andy VanLoocke

Utility of perennial bioenergy crops (e.g., switchgrass and miscanthus) offers unique opportunities to transition toward a more sustainable energy pathway due to their reduced carbon footprint, averted competition with food crops, and ability to grow on abandoned and degraded farmlands. Studies that have examined biogeophysical impacts of these crops noted a positive feedback between near-surface cooling and enhanced evapotranspiration (ET), but also potential unintended consequences of soil moisture and groundwater depletion. To better understand hydrometeorological effects of perennial bioenergy crop expansion, this study conducted high-resolution (2-km grid spacing) simulations with a state-of-the-art atmospheric model (Weather Research and Forecasting system) dynamically …


The Costs Of Photorespiration To Food Production Now And In The Future, Berkley J. Walker, Andy Vanloocke, Carl J. Bernacchi, Donald R. Ort Jan 2017

The Costs Of Photorespiration To Food Production Now And In The Future, Berkley J. Walker, Andy Vanloocke, Carl J. Bernacchi, Donald R. Ort

Andy VanLoocke

Photorespiration is essential for C3 plants but operates at the massive expense of fixed carbon dioxide and energy. Photorespiration is initiated when the initial enzyme of photosynthesis, ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/ oxygenase (Rubisco), reacts with oxygen instead of carbon dioxide and produces a toxic compound that is then recycled by photorespiration. Photorespiration can be modeled at the canopy and regional scales to determine its cost under current and future atmospheres. A regional-scale model reveals that photorespiration currently decreases US soybean and wheat yields by 36% and 20%, respectively, and a 5% decrease in the losses due to photorespiration would be worth approximately …


Evaluating And Predicting Agricultural Management Effects Under Tile Drainage Using Modified Apsim, Robert W. Malone, N. Huth, P. S. Carberry, Liwang Ma, Thomas C. Kaspar, Douglas L. Karlen, T. Meade, Ramesh S. Kanwar, Philip Heilman Dec 2015

Evaluating And Predicting Agricultural Management Effects Under Tile Drainage Using Modified Apsim, Robert W. Malone, N. Huth, P. S. Carberry, Liwang Ma, Thomas C. Kaspar, Douglas L. Karlen, T. Meade, Ramesh S. Kanwar, Philip Heilman

Douglas L Karlen

An accurate and management sensitive simulation model for tile-drained Midwestern soils is needed to optimize the use of agricultural management practices (e.g., winter cover crops) to reduce nitrate leaching without adversely affecting corn yield. Our objectives were to enhance the Agricultural Production Systems Simulator (APSIM) for tile drainage, test the modified model for several management scenarios, and then predict nitrate leaching with and without winter wheat cover crop. Twelve years of data (1990–2001) from northeast Iowa were used for model testing. Management scenarios included continuous corn and corn–soybean rotations with single or split N applications. For 38 of 44 observations, …


Forecasting Climate Change Impacts On The Distribution Of Wetland Habitat In The Midwestern United States, Heath Garris, Randall Mitchell, Lauchlan Fraser, Linda Barrett Dec 2015

Forecasting Climate Change Impacts On The Distribution Of Wetland Habitat In The Midwestern United States, Heath Garris, Randall Mitchell, Lauchlan Fraser, Linda Barrett

Randall J. Mitchell

Shifting precipitation patterns brought on by climate change threaten to alter the future distribution of wetlands. We developed a set of models to understand the role climate plays in determining wetland formation on a landscape scale and to forecast changes in wetland distribution for the Midwestern United States. These models combined 35 climate variables with 21 geographic and anthropogenic factors thought to encapsulate other major drivers of wetland distribution for the Midwest. All models successfully recreated a majority of the variation in current wetland area within the Midwest, and showed that wetland area was significantly associated with climate, even when …


Forecasting Climate Change Impacts On The Distribution Of Wetland Habitat In The Midwestern United States, Heath Garris, Randall Mitchell, Lauchlan Fraser, Linda Barrett Sep 2015

Forecasting Climate Change Impacts On The Distribution Of Wetland Habitat In The Midwestern United States, Heath Garris, Randall Mitchell, Lauchlan Fraser, Linda Barrett

Linda R. Barrett

Shifting precipitation patterns brought on by climate change threaten to alter the future distribution of wetlands. We developed a set of models to understand the role climate plays in determining wetland formation on a landscape scale and to forecast changes in wetland distribution for the Midwestern United States. These models combined 35 climate variables with 21 geographic and anthropogenic factors thought to encapsulate other major drivers of wetland distribution for the Midwest. All models successfully recreated a majority of the variation in current wetland area within the Midwest, and showed that wetland area was significantly associated with climate, even when …


Toward “Optimal” Integration Of Terrestrial Biosphere Models, Christopher R. Schwalm, Deborah N. Huntzinger, Joshua B. Fisher, Anna M. Michalak, Kevin Bowman, Philippe Ciais, Robert Cook, Bassil El-Masri, Daniel Hayes, Maoyi Huang, Akihiko Ito, Atul Jain, Anthony W. King, Hiumin Lei, Junjie Liu, Chaoqun (Crystal) Lu, Jaifu Mao, Shushi Peng, Benjamin Poulter, Daniel Ricciuto, Kevin Schaefer, Xiaoying Shi, Bo Tao, Hanqin Tian, Weile Wang, Yaxing Wei, Jia Yang, Ning Zeng Jun 2015

Toward “Optimal” Integration Of Terrestrial Biosphere Models, Christopher R. Schwalm, Deborah N. Huntzinger, Joshua B. Fisher, Anna M. Michalak, Kevin Bowman, Philippe Ciais, Robert Cook, Bassil El-Masri, Daniel Hayes, Maoyi Huang, Akihiko Ito, Atul Jain, Anthony W. King, Hiumin Lei, Junjie Liu, Chaoqun (Crystal) Lu, Jaifu Mao, Shushi Peng, Benjamin Poulter, Daniel Ricciuto, Kevin Schaefer, Xiaoying Shi, Bo Tao, Hanqin Tian, Weile Wang, Yaxing Wei, Jia Yang, Ning Zeng

Chaoqun (Crystal) Lu

Multimodel ensembles (MME) are commonplace in Earth system modeling. Here we perform MME integration using a 10-member ensemble of terrestrial biosphere models (TBMs) from the Multiscale synthesis and Terrestrial Model Intercomparison Project (MsTMIP). We contrast optimal (skill based for present-day carbon cycling) versus naïve (“one model-one vote”) integration. MsTMIP optimal and naïve mean land sink strength estimates (−1.16 versus −1.15 Pg C per annum respectively) are statistically indistinguishable. This holds also for grid cell values and extends to gross uptake, biomass, and net ecosystem productivity. TBM skill is similarly indistinguishable. The added complexity of skill-based integration does not materially change …


Economics Of The Queensland Mud Crab Fishery, Tor Hundloe Jan 2015

Economics Of The Queensland Mud Crab Fishery, Tor Hundloe

Tor Hundloe

A series of analyses of catch-effort data from compulsory commercial logbooks and from the Department’s Long-Term Monitoring Programme (LTMP) were conducted after the Workshop. Although not part of the Project plan, these were initiated as a result of questions arising from the Workshop participants about the reliability of the data used in the simulation modelling. Exploration of the logbook data and results of the analyses suggest that biases in the data (from a variety of sources, but principally the widespread use of more than the permitted number of pots) may be giving an over-optimistic view of the status of the …


Synthesis, Modeling, And Characterization Of Conducting Polymers, Geoffrey M. Spinks, Lianbin Zhao, Weihua Li, Yanzhe Wu, Dezhi Zhou, Gordon G. Wallace Mar 2013

Synthesis, Modeling, And Characterization Of Conducting Polymers, Geoffrey M. Spinks, Lianbin Zhao, Weihua Li, Yanzhe Wu, Dezhi Zhou, Gordon G. Wallace

Gordon Wallace

This paper presents synthesis and characterization of polypyrrole based conducting polymers in terms of electronic and mechanical disciplines. Using the electrochemical polymerization approach, conducting polymer samples with different dimensions (length, width, and thickness) was fabricated. For each sample, both sinusoidal and step excitations were used to study its mechanical and electrical properties. An equivalent electric circuit based on constant phase element (CPE) is proposed to model such responses. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) method was used to identify the relationship between the dimensions of conducting polymers and model elements parameters.


Synthesis, Modeling, And Characterization Of Conducting Polymers, Geoffrey M. Spinks, Lianbin Zhao, Weihua Li, Yanzhe Wu, Dezhi Zhou, Gordon G. Wallace Aug 2012

Synthesis, Modeling, And Characterization Of Conducting Polymers, Geoffrey M. Spinks, Lianbin Zhao, Weihua Li, Yanzhe Wu, Dezhi Zhou, Gordon G. Wallace

Professor Weihua Li

This paper presents synthesis and characterization of polypyrrole based conducting polymers in terms of electronic and mechanical disciplines. Using the electrochemical polymerization approach, conducting polymer samples with different dimensions (length, width, and thickness) was fabricated. For each sample, both sinusoidal and step excitations were used to study its mechanical and electrical properties. An equivalent electric circuit based on constant phase element (CPE) is proposed to model such responses. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) method was used to identify the relationship between the dimensions of conducting polymers and model elements parameters.


Synthesis, Modeling, And Characterization Of Conducting Polymers, Geoffrey M. Spinks, Lianbin Zhao, Weihua Li, Yanzhe Wu, Dezhi Zhou, Gordon G. Wallace Aug 2012

Synthesis, Modeling, And Characterization Of Conducting Polymers, Geoffrey M. Spinks, Lianbin Zhao, Weihua Li, Yanzhe Wu, Dezhi Zhou, Gordon G. Wallace

Professor Weihua Li

This paper presents synthesis and characterization of polypyrrole based conducting polymers in terms of electronic and mechanical disciplines. Using the electrochemical polymerization approach, conducting polymer samples with different dimensions (length, width, and thickness) was fabricated. For each sample, both sinusoidal and step excitations were used to study its mechanical and electrical properties. An equivalent electric circuit based on constant phase element (CPE) is proposed to model such responses. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) method was used to identify the relationship between the dimensions of conducting polymers and model elements parameters.


Modeling Of Soil Sealing By Urban Sprawl In Wukro, Ethiopia Using Remote Sensing And Gis Techniques, Ahmed Harb Rabia A.H. Rabia May 2012

Modeling Of Soil Sealing By Urban Sprawl In Wukro, Ethiopia Using Remote Sensing And Gis Techniques, Ahmed Harb Rabia A.H. Rabia

Ahmed Harb Rabia A.H. Rabia

Soil sealing is the covering of the soil surface with materials like concrete and stone, as a result of new buildings, roads, parking places but also other public and private space. Soil sealing by urban sprawl continues to increase all over the world where the area of urbanized land is increasing even more rapidly than the population. The degree of sealing is associated to the land use type and the density of population. Techniques of Remote Sensing and Geographical Information System (GIS) have been used widely to measure urban sprawl and to analyze the spatial features and unique mechanism of …


Global Effects Of Climate Change On Wildfire: Causal Relationships Of Fire, The Natural Environment And Human Activities, Lindon N. Pronto Dec 2011

Global Effects Of Climate Change On Wildfire: Causal Relationships Of Fire, The Natural Environment And Human Activities, Lindon N. Pronto

Lindon N Pronto

Climate change and human activity is significantly impacting the frequency and severity of wildfires across the globe. Although climate change and human population are the overarching factors affecting wildfires in the current dialogue, the issues are more complex and often not fully understood. These issues range from global temperature increases and severe drought cycles to the relatively new phenomenon of the wildland urban interface (WUI). This is the area where structures are integrated with or immediately surrounded by areas of moderate to high fire risk and are directly linked to fuel types and topographic features. Because climate change is such …