The three Rs of river ecosystem resilience: Resources,recruitment, and refugia

Resilience in river ecosystems requires that organisms must persist in the face of highly dynamic hydrological and geomorphological variations. Disturbance events such as floods and droughts are postulated to shape life history traits that support resilience, but river management and conservation would benefit from greater understanding of the emergent effects in communities of river organisms. We unify current knowledge of taxonomic‐, phylogenetic‐, and trait‐based aspects of river communities that might aid the identification and quantification of resilience mechanisms. Temporal variations in river productivity, physical connectivity, and environmental heterogeneity resulting from floods and droughts are highlighted as key characteristics that promote resilience in these dynamic ecosystems. Three community‐wide mechanisms that underlie resilience are (a) partitioning (competition/facilitation) of dynamically varying resources, (b) dispersal, recolonization, and recruitment promoted by connectivity, and (c) functional redundancy in communities promoted by resource heterogeneity and refugia. Along with taxonomic and phylogenetic identity, biological traits related to feeding specialization, dispersal ability, and habitat specialization mediate organism responses to disturbance. Measures of these factors might also enable assessment of the relative contributions of different mechanisms to community resilience. Interactions between abiotic drivers and biotic aspects of resource use, dispersal, and persistence have clear implications for river conservation and management. To support these management needs, we propose a set of taxonomic, phylogenetic, and life‐history trait metrics that might be used to measure resilience mechanisms. By identifying such indicators, our proposed framework can enable targeted management strategies to adapt river ecosystems to global change.     

Long-term sensor measurements of lung deposited surface area of particulate matter emitted from local vehicular and residential wood combustion sources

Abstract

Lung deposited surface area (LDSA) is a relatively new metric that has been argued to be more accurate at predicting health effects from aerosol exposure. For typical atmospheric aerosol, the LDSA concentration depends mainly on the concentration of ultrafine particles (e.g. vehicular exhaust emissions and residential wood combustion) and therefore optical methods cannot be used to measure and quantify it. The objective of this study was to investigate and describe typical characteristics of LDSA under different urban environments and evaluate how a diffusion charging-based Pegasor AQ Urban sensor (Pegasor Ltd., Finland) can be used as an alternative to optical sensors when assessing local combustion emissions and respective LDSA concentrations. Long-term (12?months) sensor measurements of LDSA were carried out at three distinctly different measurement sites (four sensor nodes) in the Helsinki metropolitan area, Finland. The sites were affected mainly by vehicular exhaust emission (street canyon and urban background stations) and by residential wood combustion (two detached housing area stations). The results showed that the accuracy of the AQ Urban was good (R² = 0.90) for the measurement of LDSA when compared to differential mobility particle sizer. The mean concentrations of LDSA were more than twice as high at the street canyon (mean 22 µm² cm^?3) site when compared to the urban background site (mean 9.4 µm² cm^?3). In the detached housing area, the mean concentrations were 12 µm² cm^?3, and wood combustion typically caused high LDSA peaks in the evenings. High correlations and similar diurnal cycles were observed for the LDSA and black carbon at street canyon and urban background stations. The utilization of a small-scale sensor network (four nodes) showed that the cross-station variability in hourly LDSA concentrations was significant in every site, even within the same detached housing area (distance between the two sites ～670?m).     

Partial Discharge Simulations Used for the Design of a Non-Intrusive Cable Condition Monitoring Technique

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of PD （partial discharge） activity within medium voltage XLPE （cross-linked polyethylene） cables. The effect of partial discharge was studied by means of a number of simulations. The simulations were based on the well-known three capacitor model for partial discharge. An equivalent circuit was derived for partial discharge due to a single void in the insulation material of a power cable. The results obtained from the simulations will form the basis of the design proses of a non-intrusive condition monitoring technique. The technique is based on the classification of discharge activity according to five levels of PD. Future work will include the improvement of the simulation model by investigating the high frequency model of a power cable as well as the statistical nature of PD activity. This will improve the accuracy of the simulation results when compared to actual measurements. The work discussed in this paper will be used to construct and calibrate a practical model which will make use of PD measurements for non-intrusive condition monitoring of medium voltage electrical cables.     

Comparative analysis of available life cycle inventories of cement in the EU

Life cycle inventories (LCIs) are a prerequisite of life-cycle assessments (LCA). This paper conducts a comparative analysis of inventories of several different types of cement produced in Europe. It considers the production of 1 kg of cement from cradle to gate, and all results are based on this mass unit. The reliability of cement inventories is affected by inaccurate or nonrepresentative data, and comparative analysis is difficult due to varying system boundary definitions. Only the four main emissions (CO₂, NOx, SO₂ and dust) are considered. The theoretical model used gives reasonable estimates of emission levels and, thus, can serve as a reference to measured values. In the case of CO₂, this is definitely a feasible alternative to in situ measurements. The emissions derive primarily from the production of clinker, both from the chemical reactions occurring in the kiln and by its fossil fuel consumption.     

Effect of viscosity ratio and processing conditions on the morphology of blends of liquid crystalline polymer and polypropylene

The effect of viscosity ratio and processing conditions on LCP/PP blend morphology was studied. The viscosity ratio (η_LCP/η_PP) was varied from 0.1 to 3.6 by using five different polypropylene grades as the matrix and two LCPs as the dispersed phase (20 wt %). The most spontaneous fiber formation was achieved when the viscosity ratio was between 0.5 and 1. In addition to shear forces, elongational forces are important in achieving a highly fibrillar structure and significant mechanical reinforcement. The lubricating effect induced by the low viscosity of LCP was most pronounced for the blends exhibiting a fibrillar morphology. The morphologies of blends produced by different mixing equipment differed only slightly. The greatest variation in the mixing efficiency was found for blends whose components had totally dissimilar melt viscosities. The slight differences in morphology due to melt blending in dissimilar equipment were decreased after injection molding, whereas the differences in morphology due to dissimilar viscosity ratios were still evident in the injection molded blends. Thus, the viscosity ratio at processing in the actual processing conditions is of great importance. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Studies on compatibilization of blends of polypropylene and a thermotropic liquid crystalline polymer

Thermotropic liquid crystalline polymers, LCPs, are frequently blended with thermoplastics to achieve an in situ composite structure. Significant mechanical reinforcement is obtained for the matrix polymer in the direction of the LCP fibers, but the transversal properties are often inferior because of the incompatibility of the components. Blends of LCP with polypropylene, and with three related matrix polymers, and PP/LCP blends with added potential compatibilizers were prepared and studied for their mechanical properties and morphology. A notable improvement in impact strength was achieved when a small amount of ethylene-based terpolymer was added as compatibilizer. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Compatibilization of PP/PBT and PP/PA6 blends with a new oxazoline-functionalized polypropylene

Summary Aim of this work was to study the effectiveness of a novel oxazoline-functionalized polypropylene as a compatibilizer for PP/PBT and PP/PA6 blends. This polypropylene-based compatibilizer mixes well with the polypropylene and is capable of reacting with the carboxylic and amine end groups of PBT and PA6. Significant improvements in blend toughness were achieved without reduction in strength and stiffness. These effects were related to stabilized morphology of finely dispersed minor phase well attached to the matrix. The enhanced interfacial interactions between the two phases, in particular at high PBT content were evidenced by increased melt viscosity.     

Investigating the chemical species in submicron particles emitted by city buses

Detailed chemical characterization of exhaust particles from 23 individual city buses was performed in Helsinki, Finland. Investigated buses represented different technologies in terms of engines, exhaust after-treatment systems (e.g., diesel particulate filter, selective catalytic reduction, and three-way catalyst) and fuels (diesel, diesel-electric (hybrid), ethanol, and compressed natural gas). Regarding emission standards, the buses operated at EURO III, EURO IV, and EEV (enhanced environmentally friendly vehicle) emission levels. The chemical composition of exhaust particles was determined by using a soot particle aerosol mass spectrometer (SP-AMS). Based on the SP-AMS results, the bus emission particles were dominated by organics and refractory black carbon (rBC). The mass spectra of organics consisted mostly of hydrocarbon fragments (54–86% of total organics), the pattern of hydrocarbon fragments being rather similar regardless of the bus type. Regarding oxygenated organic fragments, ethanol-fueled buses had unique mass-to-charge ratios (m/z) of 45, 73, 87, and 89 (mass fragments of C₂H₅O⁺, C₃H₅O₂⁺, C₄H₇O₂⁺, and C₄H₉O₂⁺, respectively) that were not detected for the other bus types at the same level. For rBC, there was a small difference in the ratio of C₄⁺ and C₅⁺ to C₃⁺ for different bus types but also for the individual buses of the same type. In addition to organics and rBC, the presence of trace metals in the bus emission particles was investigated.

Copyright © 2017 American Association for Aerosol Research     

The effect of materials and obliquity of the impact on the critical velocity of rebound

The critical velocity of rebound was determined for spherical ammonium fluorescein particles in the size range of 0.44–7.3 μm. The method was based on measurements with a variable nozzle area impactor (VNAI) and numerical simulations. A comparison to previous results with spherical silver particles obtained with the same method showed that the critical velocity was approximately two orders of magnitude higher for ammonium fluorescein than for silver at the same size range. Among the hard test materials, including steel, aluminium, molybdenum, and Tedlar, the surface material had no significant effect on the critical velocity of rebound within the accuracy of the method. On the contrary, the critical velocity was observed to be highly dependent on the obliquity of the impact at the onset of rebound. While the ratio of the maximum tangential and normal velocities was defined as a measure for the obliquity, the critical velocity was found to be more than a magnitude smaller for very oblique impacts with the velocity ratio above 9 than for close-to-normal impacts with the velocity ratio below 1.5. The results of this study can be considered as a link between the recently published critical velocity results for nanoparticles and the older results for micron-sized particles.

Copyright © 2017 American Association for Aerosol Research