How large is the difference in large-scale forest biomass estimations based on new climate-modified stand biomass models?

Abstract Background: Accurate quantification of forest biomass through allometric equations is crucial for global carbon accounting and climate change mitigation. Current models for oak species could not accurately estimate biomass in northeastern China, since they were usually established limited to Mongolian oak (Quercus mongolica) on local sites, and specifically, no biomass models were available for Liaodong oak (Quercus wutaishanica). The goal of this study was, therefore, to develop generic biomass models for both oak species on large scale and evaluate biomass allocation patterns within tree components. Results: The stem biomass accounts for about two-thirds of the aboveground biomass. The ratio of wood biomass holds constant and that of branch increases with increasing D, H, CW, CL, while a reverse trend was found for bark and foliage. The root-shoot ratio nonlinearly decreased with D, ranging from 1.06 to 0.11. Tree diameter proved to be a good predictor, especially for root biomass. Tree height is more prominent than crown size for improving stem biomass models, yet it puts negative effects on crown biomass models with non-significant coefficients. Crown width could help improve fitting results of branch and foliage biomass models. Conclusion: We conclude that the selected generic biomass models for Mongolian oak and Liaodong oak will vigorously promote the accuracy of biomass estimation.

Download Full-text

Relationship between total plasma homocysteine and the risk of aneurysms – a meta-analysis

VASA ◽

10.1024/0301-1526/a000891 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 1-6

Author(s):

Hanji Zhang ◽

Dexin Yin ◽

Yue Zhao ◽

Yezhou Li ◽

Dejiang Yao ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Single Species ◽

Total Plasma ◽

Control Groups ◽

Randomized Controlled ◽

Randomized Controlled Studies ◽

The Difference ◽

The Relationship ◽

Healthy Participants

Summary: Our meta-analysis focused on the relationship between homocysteine (Hcy) level and the incidence of aneurysms and looked at the relationship between smoking, hypertension and aneurysms. A systematic literature search of Pubmed, Web of Science, and Embase databases (up to March 31, 2020) resulted in the identification of 19 studies, including 2,629 aneurysm patients and 6,497 healthy participants. Combined analysis of the included studies showed that number of smoking, hypertension and hyperhomocysteinemia (HHcy) in aneurysm patients was higher than that in the control groups, and the total plasma Hcy level in aneurysm patients was also higher. These findings suggest that smoking, hypertension and HHcy may be risk factors for the development and progression of aneurysms. Although the heterogeneity of meta-analysis was significant, it was found that the heterogeneity might come from the difference between race and disease species through subgroup analysis. Large-scale randomized controlled studies of single species and single disease species are needed in the future to supplement the accuracy of the results.

Download Full-text

TO THE PROBLEMS OF COMBATING CORRUPTION IN MODERN RUSSIA AND INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION IN THE FIELD OF ANTI-CORRUPTION

Current problems of jurisprudence ◽

10.29039/02032-6/064-074 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Angela Dranishnikova

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

The State ◽

Point Of View ◽

Modern Life ◽

Existing Problems ◽

Moral Point ◽

Material Goods ◽

The Russian Federation ◽

The Difference ◽

The Government

In the article, the author reflects the existing problems of the fight against corruption in the Russian Federation. He focuses on the opacity of the work of state bodies, leading to an increase in bribery and corruption. The topic we have chosen is socially exciting in our days, since its significance is growing on a large scale at all levels of the investigated aspect of our modern life. Democratic institutions are being jeopardized, the difference in the position of social strata of society in society’s access to material goods is growing, and the state of society is suffering from the moral point of view, citizens are losing confidence in the government, and in the top officials of the state.

Download Full-text

Large-Scale Analysis of the Spatiotemporal Changes of Net Ecosystem Production in Hindu Kush Himalayan Region

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs13061180 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (6) ◽

pp. 1180

Author(s):

Da Guo ◽

Xiaoning Song ◽

Ronghai Hu ◽

Xinming Zhu ◽

Yazhen Jiang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

Net Primary Production ◽

Carbon Sink ◽

Carbon Sources ◽

Spatial Dynamics ◽

Tibet Plateau ◽

Geostatistical Model ◽

Hindu Kush ◽

Temporal And Spatial ◽

The Difference

The Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region is one of the most ecologically vulnerable regions in the world. Several studies have been conducted on the dynamic changes of grassland in the HKH region, but few have considered grassland net ecosystem productivity (NEP). In this study, we quantitatively analyzed the temporal and spatial changes of NEP magnitude and the influence of climate factors on the HKH region from 2001 to 2018. The NEP magnitude was obtained by calculating the difference between the net primary production (NPP) estimated by the Carnegie–Ames Stanford Approach (CASA) model and the heterotrophic respiration (Rh) estimated by the geostatistical model. The results showed that the grassland ecosystem in the HKH region exhibited weak net carbon uptake with NEP values of 42.03 gC∙m−2∙yr−1, and the total net carbon sequestration was 0.077 Pg C. The distribution of NEP gradually increased from west to east, and in the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, it gradually increased from northwest to southeast. The grassland carbon sources and sinks differed at different altitudes. The grassland was a carbon sink at 3000–5000 m, while grasslands below 3000 m and above 5000 m were carbon sources. Grassland NEP exhibited the strongest correlation with precipitation, and it had a lagging effect on precipitation. The correlation between NEP and the precipitation of the previous year was stronger than that of the current year. NEP was negatively correlated with temperature but not with solar radiation. The study of the temporal and spatial dynamics of NEP in the HKH region can provide a theoretical basis to help herders balance grazing and forage.

Download Full-text

Can Mandatory Disclosure Policies Promote Corporate Environmental Responsibility?—Quasi-Natural Experimental Research on China

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph18116033 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (11) ◽

pp. 6033

Author(s):

Yue Liu ◽

Pierre Failler ◽

Liming Chen

Keyword(s):

Property Rights ◽

Large Scale ◽

Environmental Responsibility ◽

Mandatory Disclosure ◽

Corporate Environmental Responsibility ◽

Disclosure Policy ◽

Protection Information ◽

The Difference ◽

Csr Disclosure ◽

Corporate Social

Corporate environmental responsibility (CER) is an important component of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) report, and an important carrier for enterprises to disclose environmental protection information. Based on the corporate micro data, this paper evaluates the effect of a mandatory CSR disclosure policy on the fulfillment of corporate environmental responsibility by adopting the difference-in-differences model (DID) with the release of a mandatory disclosure policy of China in 2008 as a quasi-natural experiment. The study draws the following conclusions: First, a mandatory CSR disclosure policy can promote the fulfillment of CER. Second, after the implementation of a mandatory CSR disclosure policy, enterprises can improve their CER level through two channels: improving the quality of environmental management disclosure and increasing the number of patents. Third, the heterogeneity of the impacts of mandatory CSR disclosure on CER is reflected in three aspects: different CER levels, different corporate scales and a different property rights structure. In terms of the CER level, there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between the CER level and mandatory CSR disclosure effect. In terms of the corporate scale, mandatory disclosure of CSR plays a greater role in large-scale enterprises. In terms of the structure of property rights, mandatory CSR disclosure has a greater effect on non-state-owned enterprises.

Download Full-text

Investigating the properties of a galaxy group at z = 0.6

Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union ◽

10.1017/s1743921320001945 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 15 (S359) ◽

pp. 188-189

Author(s):

Daniela Hiromi Okido ◽

Cristina Furlanetto ◽

Marina Trevisan ◽

Mônica Tergolina

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

The Other ◽

Numerical Density ◽

Spectroscopy Data ◽

Stellar Kinematics ◽

Galaxy Groups ◽

The Galaxy ◽

The Difference ◽

The Impact ◽

The Universe

AbstractGalaxy groups offer an important perspective on how the large-scale structure of the Universe has formed and evolved, being great laboratories to study the impact of the environment on the evolution of galaxies. We aim to investigate the properties of a galaxy group that is gravitationally lensing HELMS18, a submillimeter galaxy at z = 2.39. We obtained multi-object spectroscopy data using Gemini-GMOS to investigate the stellar kinematics of the central galaxies, determine its members and obtain the mass, radius and the numerical density profile of this group. Our final goal is to build a complete description of this galaxy group. In this work we present an analysis of its two central galaxies: one is an active galaxy with z = 0.59852 ± 0.00007, while the other is a passive galaxy with z = 0.6027 ± 0.0002. Furthermore, the difference between the redshifts obtained using emission and absorption lines indicates an outflow of gas with velocity v = 278.0 ± 34.3 km/s relative to the galaxy.

Download Full-text

Grounding semantic transparency in context

Morphology ◽

10.1007/s11525-021-09382-w ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Rossella Varvara ◽

Gabriella Lapesa ◽

Sebastian Padó

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

Point Of View ◽

Distributional Semantics ◽

Semantic Transparency ◽

Inclusion Measure ◽

The Difference ◽

Semantic Point ◽

The Many ◽

The Relationship

AbstractWe present the results of a large-scale corpus-based comparison of two German event nominalization patterns: deverbal nouns in -ung (e.g., die Evaluierung, ‘the evaluation’) and nominal infinitives (e.g., das Evaluieren, ‘the evaluating’). Among the many available event nominalization patterns for German, we selected these two because they are both highly productive and challenging from the semantic point of view. Both patterns are known to keep a tight relation with the event denoted by the base verb, but with different nuances. Our study targets a better understanding of the differences in their semantic import.The key notion of our comparison is that of semantic transparency, and we propose a usage-based characterization of the relationship between derived nominals and their bases. Using methods from distributional semantics, we bring to bear two concrete measures of transparency which highlight different nuances: the first one, cosine, detects nominalizations which are semantically similar to their bases; the second one, distributional inclusion, detects nominalizations which are used in a subset of the contexts of the base verb. We find that only the inclusion measure helps in characterizing the difference between the two types of nominalizations, in relation with the traditionally considered variable of relative frequency (Hay, 2001). Finally, the distributional analysis allows us to frame our comparison in the broader coordinates of the inflection vs. derivation cline.

Download Full-text

Allometric Equations for Estimating Biomass and Carbon Stocks in Afforested Open Woodlands with Black Spruce and Jack Pine, in the Eastern Canadian Boreal Forest

Forests ◽

10.3390/f12010059 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

pp. 59

Author(s):

Olivier Fradette ◽

Charles Marty ◽

Pascal Tremblay ◽

Daniel Lord ◽

Jean-François Boucher

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

Ad Hoc ◽

Black Spruce ◽

Tree Height ◽

Jack Pine ◽

Carbon Stocks ◽

Allometric Equations ◽

C Stocks ◽

The Difference ◽

Canadian Boreal Forest

Allometric equations use easily measurable biometric variables to determine the aboveground and belowground biomasses of trees. Equations produced for estimating the biomass within Canadian forests at a large scale have not yet been validated for eastern Canadian boreal open woodlands (OWs), where trees experience particular environmental conditions. In this study, we harvested 167 trees from seven boreal OWs in Quebec, Canada for biomass and allometric measurements. These data show that Canadian national equations accurately predict the whole aboveground biomass for both black spruce and jack pine trees, but underestimated branches biomass, possibly owing to a particular tree morphology in OWs relative to closed-canopy stands. We therefore developed ad hoc allometric equations based on three power models including diameter at breast height (DBH) alone or in combination with tree height (H) as allometric variables. Our results show that although the inclusion of H in the model yields better fits for most tree compartments in both species, the difference is minor and does not markedly affect biomass C stocks at the stand level. Using these newly developed equations, we found that carbon stocks in afforested OWs varied markedly among sites owing to differences in tree growth and species. Nine years after afforestation, jack pine plantations had accumulated about five times more carbon than black spruce plantations (0.14 vs. 0.80 t C·ha−1), highlighting the much larger potential of jack pine for OW afforestation projects in this environment.

Download Full-text

Can We Infer Diapycnal Mixing Rates from the World Ocean Temperature–Salinity Distribution?

Journal of Physical Oceanography ◽

10.1175/jpo-d-16-0152.1 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 46 (12) ◽

pp. 3751-3775 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Olivier Arzel ◽

Alain Colin de Verdière

Keyword(s):

General Circulation ◽

Large Scale ◽

Water Mass ◽

World Ocean ◽

Eddy Diffusivity ◽

Regional Variability ◽

Diapycnal Mixing ◽

Inverse Models ◽

The World ◽

The Difference

AbstractThe turbulent diapycnal mixing in the ocean is currently obtained from microstructure and finestructure measurements, dye experiments, and inverse models. This study presents a new method that infers the diapycnal mixing from low-resolution numerical calculations of the World Ocean whose temperatures and salinities are restored to the climatology. At the difference of robust general circulation ocean models, diapycnal diffusion is not prescribed but inferred. At steady state the buoyancy equation shows an equilibrium between the large-scale diapycnal advection and the restoring terms that take the place of the divergence of eddy buoyancy fluxes. The geography of the diapycnal flow reveals a strong regional variability of water mass transformations. Positive values of the diapycnal flow indicate an erosion of a deep-water mass and negative values indicate a creation. When the diapycnal flow is upward, a diffusion law can be fitted in the vertical and the diapycnal eddy diffusivity is obtained throughout the water column. The basin averages of diapycnal diffusivities are small in the first 1500 m [O(10−5) m2 s−1] and increase downward with bottom values of about 2.5 × 10−4 m2 s−1 in all ocean basins, with the exception of the Southern Ocean (50°–30°S), where they reach 12 × 10−4 m2 s−1. This study confirms the small diffusivity in the thermocline and the robustness of the higher canonical Munk’s value in the abyssal ocean. It indicates that the upward dianeutral transport in the Atlantic mostly takes place in the abyss and the upper ocean, supporting the quasi-adiabatic character of the middepth overturning.

Download Full-text

Barotropic Regeneration of Upper-Level Synoptic Disturbances in Different Configurations of the Zonal Weather Regime

Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences ◽

10.1175/2008jas2603.1 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 65 (10) ◽

pp. 3159-3178 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Gwendal Rivière

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

Deformation Field ◽

Regeneration Process ◽

Barotropic Model ◽

Weather Regime ◽

The North ◽

The Difference ◽

Upper Level ◽

Composite Maps ◽

Large Scale Flow

Barotropic dynamics of upper-tropospheric midlatitude disturbances evolving in different configurations of the zonal weather regime (i.e., in different zonal-like large-scale flows) were studied using observational analyses and barotropic model experiments. The contraction stage of upper-level disturbances that follows their elongation stage leads to an increase of eddy kinetic energy that is called the barotropic regeneration process in this text. This barotropic mechanism is studied through notions of barotropic critical regions (BtCRs) and effective deformation that have been introduced in a previous paper. The effective deformation field is equal to the difference between the square of the large-scale deformation magnitude and the square of the large-scale vorticity. Regions where the effective deformation is positive correspond to regions where the large-scale flow tends to strongly stretch synoptic disturbances. A BtCR is an area separating two large-scale regions of positive effective deformation, one located upstream and on the south side of the jet and the other downstream and on the north side. Such a region presents a discontinuity in the orientation of the dilatation axes and is a potential area where the barotropic regeneration process may occur. Winter days presenting a zonal weather regime in the 40-yr ECMWF Re-Analysis dataset are decomposed, via a partitioning algorithm, into different configurations of the effective deformation field at 300 hPa. A six-cluster partition is obtained. Composite maps of the barotropic generation rate for each cluster exhibit a succession of negative and positive values on both sides of the BtCRs. It confirms statistically that the barotropic regeneration mechanism occurs preferentially about BtCRs. Numerical experiments using a forced barotropic model on the sphere are performed. Each experiment consists of adding a synoptic-scale perturbation to one of the zonal-like jet configurations found in observations, which is kept fixed with time. The combined effects of the effective deformation and nonlinearities are shown to be crucial to reproduce the barotropic regeneration process about BtCRs.

Download Full-text