Butterfly community shifts over two centuries

Environmental changes strongly impact the distribution of species and subsequently the composition of species assemblages. Although most community ecology studies represent temporal snap shots, long‐term observations are rather rare. However, only such time series allow the identification of species composition shifts over several decades or even centuries. We analyzed changes in the species composition of a southeastern German butterfly and burnet moth community over nearly 2 centuries (1840–2013). We classified all species observed over this period according to their ecological tolerance, thereby assessing their degree of habitat specialisation. This classification was based on traits of the butterfly and burnet moth species and on their larval host plants. We collected data on temperature and precipitation for our study area over the same period. The number of species declined substantially from 1840 (117 species) to 2013 (71 species). The proportion of habitat specialists decreased, and most of these are currently endangered. In contrast, the proportion of habitat generalists increased. Species with restricted dispersal behavior and species in need of areas poor in soil nutrients had severe losses. Furthermore, our data indicated a decrease in species composition similarity between different decades over time. These data on species composition changes and the general trends of modifications may reflect effects from climate change and atmospheric nitrogen loads, as indicated by the ecological characteristics of host plant species and local changes in habitat configuration with increasing fragmentation. Our observation of major declines over time of currently threatened and protected species shows the importance of efficient conservation strategies.     

Influence of dustiness on small-scale vented dust explosions

A new safety characteristic the “dustiness” according to VDI 2263 – part 9 (Verein Deutscher Ingenieure, 2008) is investigated. Dustiness means the tendency of a dust to form clouds. The paper deals with the physical reasons for the different behavior of dusts, even if they have similar properties such as particle size and density and the influence of the dustiness on dust explosions. In order to study the effects of the dustiness on dust cloud formation for different dispersion methods experiments in a vertical dust dispersion glass tube apparatus were carried out. Furthermore vented dust explosion experiments were done for two different dispersion methods and two static activation pressures.Experiments show that particle size and density are not the only factors which influence dispersibility. Particle shape, specific surface area, flow and dispersion method have an influence which can outweigh size and density. Preliminary explosion experiments showed that the dustiness has an influence on the reduced explosion pressure and flame speed in a vented 75 L test apparatus. In order to verify the results for applications in the process industries further tests with industrial scale experiments are planned.     

Thermal,Mechanical and Physical Properties of Composite Films Developed from Seaweed Polysaccharides/Cellulose Nanofibers

Journal of Polymers and the Environment - Algae-based materials appear to be promising substitutes for plastics in many applications due to their eco-friendly belongings. However, high solubility,...     

Response of drinking-water reservoir ecosystems to decreased acidic atmospheric deposition in SE Germany: trends of chemical reversal

This study evaluates chemical trends of seven acidified reservoirs and 22 tributaries in the Erzgebirge from 1993 to 2003. About 85% of these waters showed significantly (p < 0.05) declining concentrations of protons (-69%), nitrate (-41%), sulfate (-27%), and reactive aluminum (-50% on average). This reversal is attributed to the intense reduction of industrial SO2 and NOx emissions from formerly high levels, which declined by 99% and 82% in the German-Czech border region between 1993 and 1999. The deposition rates of protons and sulfur decreased by 70-90%. Since 1993, the dry deposition of total inorganic nitrogen diminished to a minor degree, but the wet deposition remained unchanged. The surface waters reflect a substantial decrease in Al exchange processes, a release of sulfur previously stored in soils, and an uptake of nitrate by forest vegetation. The latter effect may be supported by soil protection liming which contributed to the chemical reversal in almost 20% of the study waters.     

Reliability data acquisition and evaluation in process plants

Based on the practical experience of assessing reliability data in two plants of the explosives industry, the organization and scope of the data collection, the component delimitation, the procedures of quality assurance and the data evaluation for their final use in PSA studies are presented. An example is given for the type of detection and repair, etc. The mathematical background for evaluating observed component lifetimes is discussed. Both frequentist and Bayesian methods are addressed. The resulting failure rate distributions and their approximations by log-normal distributions for several key components are presented. They were obtained using a Bayesian approach with a non-informative prior. Remarks on uncertainty, their treatment and a proposal for transferring data to plants other than the ones investigated conclude the presentation.     

Using a Bayesian Network to Summarize Variability in Numerical Long-Term Simulations of a Meteorological–Marine System: Drift Climatology of Assumed Oil Spills in the North Sea

Climate-related scientific analyses of meteorological–marine systems are often based on numerical long-term simulations at high spatial and temporal detail. Such comprehensive data sets require much resources and specific evaluation tools, which sometimes hampers their use within interdisciplinary projects. In the present study, we propose the use of a Bayesian network to represent simulated transports in the North Sea depending on variable external forcing in terms of conditional probabilities. Eliciting probability tables from multi-decadal numerical simulations ensures that all realistic weather and resulting sea state conditions are covered in agreement with the frequency of their occurrence. The probabilistic representation conveniently allows for conditioning numerical simulations on either external forcing (weather conditions) or observed transports. In the latter case, the Bayesian inversion formula becomes involved to transfer information in a direction opposite to causal dependencies encoded in the underlying mechanistic model. We show that simulated travel time distributions even allow for taking into account a substance’s specific half-life, although this was not an issue in the original passive tracer simulations.