Browsing by Subject "fragmentation"

Now showing 1 - 8 of 8

Biodiversity Conservation In Metacommunity Networks: Linking Pattern And Persistence
(2011-06) Economo, Evan P.; Economo, Evan P.
A central goal of conservation science is to identify the most important habitat patches for maintaining biodiversity on a landscape. Spatial biodiversity patterns are often used for such assessments, and patches that harbor unique diversity are generally prioritized over those with high community similarity to other areas. This places an emphasis on biodiversity representation, but removing a patch can have cascading effects on biodiversity persistence in the remaining ecological communities. Metacommunity theory provides a mechanistic route to the linking of biodiversity patterns on a landscape with the subsequent dynamics of diversity loss after habitat is degraded. Using spatially explicit neutral theory, I focus on the situation where spatial patterns of diversity and similarity are generated by the structure of dispersal networks and not environmental gradients. I find that gains in biodiversity representation are nullified by losses in persistence, and as a result the effects of removing a patch on metacommunity diversity are essentially independent of complementarity or other biodiversity patterns. In this scenario, maximizing protected area and not biodiversity representation is the key to maintaining diversity in the long term. These results highlight the need for a broader understanding of how conservation paradigms perform under different models of metacommunity dynamics.
Capillary pressure in a porous medium with distinct pore surface and pore volume fractal dimensions
(2008-02) Deinert, M. R.; Dathe, A.; Parlange, J. Y.; Cady, K. B.; Deinert, M. R.; Deinert, M. R.
The relationship between capillary pressure and saturation in a porous medium often exhibits a power-law dependence. The physical basis for this relation has been substantiated by assuming that capillary pressure is directly related to the pore radius. When the pore space of a medium exhibits fractal structure this approach results in a power-law relation with an exponent of 3-D-v, where D-v is the pore volume fractal dimension. However, larger values of the exponent than are realistically allowed by this result have long been known to occur. Using a thermodynamic formulation for equilibrium capillary pressure we show that the standard result is a special case of the more general exponent (3-D-v)/(3-D-s) where D-s is the surface fractal dimension of the pores. The analysis reduces to the standard result when D-s=2, indicating a Euclidean relationship between a pore's surface area and the volume it encloses, and allows for a larger value for the exponent than the standard result when D-s>2.
Dark Stars: Improved Models And First Pulsation Results
(2015-02) Rindler-Daller, T.; Montgomery, Michael H.; Freese, K.; Winget, D. E.; Paxton, B.; Montgomery, Michael H.; Winget, D. E.
We use the stellar evolution code MESA to study dark stars (DSs). DSs, which are powered by dark matter (DM) self-annihilation rather than by nuclear fusion, may be the first stars to form in the universe. We compute stellar models for accreting DSs with masses up to 10(6) M-circle dot. The heating due to DM annihilation is self-consistently included, assuming extended adiabatic contraction of DM within the minihalos in which DSs form. We find remarkably good overall agreement with previous models, which assumed polytropic interiors. There are some differences in the details, with positive implications for observability. We found that, in the mass range of 10(4)-10(5) M-circle dot, our DSs are hotter by a factor of 1.5 than those in Freese et al., are smaller in radius by a factor of 0.6, denser by a factor of three to four, and more luminous by a factor of two. Our models also confirm previous results, according to which supermassive DSs are very well approximated by (n = 3)-polytropes. We also perform a first study of DS pulsations. Our DS models have pulsation modes with timescales ranging from less than a day to more than two years in their rest frames, at z similar to 15, depending on DM particle mass and overtone number. Such pulsations may someday be used to identify bright, cool objects uniquely as DSs; if properly calibrated, they might, in principle, also supply novel standard candles for cosmological studies.
Detection Of Low-Mass-Ratio Stellar Binary Systems
(2013-01) Gullikson, Kevin; Dodson-Robinson, Sarah; Gullikson, Kevin; Dodson-Robinson, Sarah
O- and B-type stars are often found in binary systems, but the low binary mass-ratio regime is relatively unexplored due to observational difficulties. Binary systems with low mass ratios may have formed through fragmentation of the circumstellar disk rather than molecular cloud core fragmentation. We describe a new technique sensitive to G-and K-type companions to early B stars, a mass ratio of roughly 0.1, using high-resolution, high signal-to-noise spectra. We apply this technique to a sample of archived VLT/CRIRES observations of nearby B stars in the CO bandhead near 2300 nm. While there are no unambiguous binary detections in our sample, we identify HIP 92855 and HIP 26713 as binary candidates warranting follow-up observations. We use our non-detections to determine upper limits to the frequency of FGK stars orbiting early B-type primaries.
Formation Of The First Galaxies
(2012) Bromm, V.; Bromm, Volker
The emergence of the first stars and galaxies ended the cosmic dark ages, thus fundamentally transforming the simple initial state of the universe into one of ever increasing complexity. We will review the basic physics governing the formation of the first galaxies. Their properties sensitively depend on the feedback exerted by the first, Population III, stars, which in turn reflects how massive those stars were. The key goal is to derive their observational signature, to be probed with upcoming next-generation facilities, such as the James Webb Space Telescope.
A Parameter Study Of The Dust And Gas Temperature In A Field Of Young Stars
(2009-06) Urban, Andrea; Evans, Neal J.; Doty, Steven D.; Urban, Andrea; Evans, Neal J.
We model the thermal effect of young stars on their surrounding environment in order to understand clustered star formation. We take radiative heating of dust, dust-gas collisional heating, cosmic-ray heating, and molecular cooling into account. Using DUSTY, a spherical continuum radiative transfer code, we model the dust temperature distribution around young stellar objects with various luminosities and surrounding gas and dust density distributions. We have created a grid of dust temperature models, based on our modeling with DUSTY, which we can use to calculate the dust temperature in a field of stars with various parameters. We then determine the gas temperature assuming energy balance. Our models can be used to make large-scale simulations of clustered star formation more realistic.
Reserve Size And Fragmentation Alter Community Assembly, Diversity, And Dynamics
(2013-11) Lasky, Jesse R.; Keitt, Timothy H.; Lasky, Jesse R.; Keitt, Timothy H.
Researchers have disputed whether a single large habitat reserve will support more species than many small reserves. However, relatively little is known from a theoretical perspective about how reserve size affects competitive communities structured by spatial abiotic gradients. We investigate how reserve size affects theoretical communities whose assembly is governed by dispersal limitation, abiotic niche differentiation, and source-sink dynamics. Simulations were conducted with varying scales of dispersal across landscapes with variable environmental spatial autocorrelation. Landscapes were inhabited by simulated trees with seedling and adult stages. For a fixed total area in reserves, we found that small reserve systems increased the distance between environments dominated by different species, diminishing the effects of source-sink dynamics. As reserve size decreased, environmental limitations to community assembly became stronger, species richness decreased, and richness increased. When dispersal occurred across short distances, a large reserve strategy caused greater stochastic community variation, greater richness, and lower richness than in small reserve systems. We found that reserve size variation trades off between preserving different aspects of natural communities, including diversity versus diversity. Optimal reserve size will depend on the importance of source-sink dynamics and the value placed on different characteristics of natural communities. Anthropogenic changes to the size and separation of remnant habitats can have far-reaching effects on community structure and assembly.
X-Ray Tomography To Measure Size Of Fragments From Penetration Of High-Velocity Tungsten Rods
(2012-03) Stone, Z.; Bless, S.; Tolman, J.; McDonald, J.; Levinson, S.; Hanna, R.; Stone, Z.; Bless, S.; Tolman, J.; McDonald, J.; Levinson, S.; Hanna, R.
Behind-armor debris that results from tungsten rods penetrating armor steel at 2 km/s was studied by analysis of recovered fragments. Fragment recovery was by means of particle board. Individual fragments were analyzed by x-ray tomography, which provides information for fragment identification, mass, shape, and penetration down to masses of a few milligrams. The experiments were complemented by AUTODYN and EPIC calculations. Fragments were steel or tungsten generated from the channel or from the breakout through the target rear surface. Channel fragment motions were well described by Tate theory. Breakout fragments had velocities from the projectile remnant to the channel velocity, apparently depending on where in the projectile a fragment originated. The fragment size distribution was extremely broad and did not correlate well with simple uniform-fragment-size models.