Water-stained leaves: formation and application as a field indicator of wetland hydrology

Wetland delineations conducted in the United States utilize field indicators as proxy measures of the presence or absence of wetland hydrology. Water-stained leaves provide a practical, qualitative field indicator of wetland hydrology; however, the formation of water-stained leaves has not been elucidated. In response, leaves from six tree species were examined under five treatments to investigate the water-staining process and concomitant timeframes. Results indicate that leaf staining occurred within 14-21 days of continuous exposure to wetland waters and sediment under both laboratory and field conditions. Leaf staining was characterized by readily observable shifts in leaf color (i.e., decreasing Munsell hue, value, and chroma) causing the leaves to appear very dark or black. No color shifts associated with leaf staining occurred in treatments exposed to upland conditions. The timeframe associated with leaf staining corresponds with established wetland hydrology criteria requiring a minimum hydroperiod of 14 consecutive days of soil saturation, flooding, or ponding. Leaves exposed to wetland waters and sediment underwent color shifts significantly faster and to a greater extent than leaves inundated with deionized water, likely as a result of increased microbial abundance and the presence of anaerobic conditions in the simulated wetland treatments. Results suggest that water-stained leaves 1) are a useful and reliable wetland hydrology field indicator for wetland delineation purposes, 2) may provide a proxy measure of wetland hydroperiod, and 3) Munsell color measurements can help differentiate between leaves exposed to wetland and upland conditions.

Usage of The Field Index in Machine Translation

The current article discusses the main problems of human and machine translations, as well as introduces a new lexical description in machine translation for faster and more accurate translation. The new method uses so-called field indicators or the Field Indices to facilitate the MT search engine for words by marking these words with special components creating a semantic field, and allowing the MT devices to search for the word according to its usage in the text. The Field Index system covers the semantic description of the following main spheres: scientific field, public or social field and humanitarian field. These three spheres contain subfields that usually mingle with the parent index through a dash, with the parent index being with the first one. The scientific field includes such aspects as geography, mathematics, chemistry, physics, economy, medicine, etc., with related subfields like diseases and biological terms (for medicine), names of drugs (as a separate filed), finance and accounting (as part of economy), etc. Applied Sciences Index contains miscellaneous words used by other subfields of the same scientific sphere: e.g., computer, telephone, function and many others, and plays a crucial part in distinguishing polysemantic words such as mouse (hardware), root (in mathematics), etc. The public or social field contains subfields that narrow the meaning of words to a specific one and includes aspects as art, agriculture, law, education, religion, housing utilities, time, transportation, people, etc.i+iT Ss the widest semantic field containing a lot of subfields specifying words that belong to such groups as colours, architecture, games, music, sport, etc. (for art index), clothing, beverages, food and production (for agriculture index). Notions of time, people, professions and terms for religion and items used in household are present in this group due to its wide usage within the society. The humanitarian sphere deals mostly with terms used in languages, literature, manuscripts and libraries. These subfields help identify polysemantic words between nations and languages, book titles and ordinary words and phrases, and literary styles (documentaries, fairy tales, dramas, etc.). In turn, these can be further defined as prose or a poem. All formulae proposed in the project consider the presence of the Field Indices and its position at the end of the description of the word. Depending on the target language, the translated version should be identical with the source following this very principle.

Can crop phenology and plant height be channelized to improvise wheat productivity in diverse production environments?

Non-grain parameters like height, flowering and maturity should also be tried to break yield plateau in wheat. This study explores such possibilities by analysing performance of released and pre-released varieties evaluated in ten diverse production environments of India during the period 2000-2020. Regression analysis supports relevance of such non-grain determinants in grain yield under every environment but magnitude of impact can vary. Collective contribution of non-grain parameters can be high in a production environment where growth condition is most favourable for wheat growth and every factor is important in such situations. They contribute less in the environments engrossed with abiotic stress and merely one or two factors can be earmarked for selection. Besides yield, this selection strategy can also enhance grain weight in certain environments. At a time when selection for grain attributes is not providing further push; it would be worth trying to explore these non-grain field indicators as selection strategy for further advancement in productivity and grain weight of bread wheat.

Mapping of Pyroclastic Density Currents Hazards and Assessment of Related Risks by AMS Technique in the West-Cameroon Highlands: Case of Bambouto and Bamenda Volcanoes

Ignimbritic flow deposits which derived from pyroclastic density currents (PDCs) are mostly observed in West-Cameroon Highlands located in the central portion of the Cameroon Volcanic Line (CVL), especially in Bambouto (21.12 - 0.50 Ma) and Bamenda (27.40 - 0 Ma) volcanoes. These deposits covering approximately 27% (≈195 km2) of the volcanoes surface with thickness ranging from 30 to 200 m representing a total volume estimated at 20 km3. Because of the intense weathering of the ignimbritic formations after their setting up and being buried by basaltic and trachtytic flows, the initial volume of these pyroclastic deposits is really much larger. Soil fertility has fostered an important population growth (more than 1,200,000 people) in these volcanoes. The economic and agropastoral activities on the flanks and inside the caldera of the volcanoes are estimated at about $US7.5 billion. In this paper, we evaluate and realize cartography of the hazards associated to ignimbritic eruptions which are most disastrous in term of volcanic process in this region. Magnetic studies, specifically, Anisotropy of Magnetic Susceptibility (AMS) method has been utilized for the determination of flow directions in visually nearly isotropic ignimbritic deposits outcrops. The AMS data reported from the Bamenda and Bambouto volcanoes ignimbrites produced significant informations about the depositional scheme of the PDCs. In most sites, magnetic lineations and principally magnetic foliation are reliably parallel to downhill directions, frequently with an upslope imbrication. Inferred palaeoflow directions based on the field indicators, orientation of minerals and other objects in oriented thin sections and the directional AMS data show that Bambouto caldera, Oku crater and Santa-Mbu caldera are the sources of main PDCs of Bambouto and Bamenda volcanoes. These AMS results have aided us to produce a hazard and risks maps related to potential future pyroclastic flows on these volcanoes. The assessment of risks in these volcanoes was based on populations in the study area, infrastructures (houses and roads) and average income of breeding activity.

Initial Laramide tectonism recorded by Upper Cretaceous paleoseismites in the northern Bighorn Basin, USA: Field indicators of an applied end load stress

Soft-sediment deformational structures associated with paleoseismicity (e.g., planar clastic dikes) exist within Upper Cretaceous Mesaverde Group strata in the Laramide Elk Basin anticline, northern Bighorn Basin (Wyoming, USA). Retrodeformation of the Elk Basin anticline to a horizontal Mesaverde Group position indicates that all basement offset is removed and that clastic dikes exhibit a dominant northeast trend. The trend of clastic dikes corresponds to the interpreted northeast-southwest direction of early Laramide layer-parallel shortening, suggesting that the development of clastic dikes recorded initiation of basement deformation and Laramide tectonism. To determine the timing of clastic dike development, we present zircon U-Pb geochronology from the stratigraphically lowest sand-source bed generating upwardly injected clastic dikes and a volcanic bentonite bed (Ardmore bentonite) above the stratigraphic interval containing clastic dikes. Weighted mean ages bracket clastic dike development between 82.4 and 78.0 Ma. Our results imply initiation of basement deformation ∼8–15 m.y. prior than other estimates in the Bighorn Basin. Therefore, we interpret the development of clastic dikes in the Elk Basin anticline to represent an initial phase of Laramide tectonism associated with an applied end load stress transmitted from the southwestern North American plate margin in response to the collision of the conjugate Shatsky Rise oceanic plateau ca. 90–85 Ma. Results demonstrate how sedimentary responses in the foreland can be used to understand tectonic processes at plate boundaries and provide spatial-temporal parameters for models of Laramide deformation.