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- Achberger, Christine, 1968, et al.
(author)
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State of the Climate in 2011
- 2012
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In: Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. - 0003-0007. ; 93:7
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Large-scale climate patterns influenced temperature and weather patterns around the globe in 2011. In particular, a moderate-to-strong La Nina at the beginning of the year dissipated during boreal spring but reemerged during fall. The phenomenon contributed to historical droughts in East Africa, the southern United States, and northern Mexico, as well the wettest two-year period (2010-11) on record for Australia, particularly remarkable as this follows a decade-long dry period. Precipitation patterns in South America were also influenced by La Nina. Heavy rain in Rio de Janeiro in January triggered the country's worst floods and landslides in Brazil's history. The 2011 combined average temperature across global land and ocean surfaces was the coolest since 2008, but was also among the 15 warmest years on record and above the 1981-2010 average. The global sea surface temperature cooled by 0.1 degrees C from 2010 to 2011, associated with cooling influences of La Nina. Global integrals of upper ocean heat content for 2011 were higher than for all prior years, demonstrating the Earth's dominant role of the oceans in the Earth's energy budget. In the upper atmosphere, tropical stratospheric temperatures were anomalously warm, while polar temperatures were anomalously cold. This led to large springtime stratospheric ozone reductions in polar latitudes in both hemispheres. Ozone concentrations in the Arctic stratosphere during March were the lowest for that period since satellite records began in 1979. An extensive, deep, and persistent ozone hole over the Antarctic in September indicates that the recovery to pre-1980 conditions is proceeding very slowly. Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations increased by 2.10 ppm in 2011, and exceeded 390 ppm for the first time since instrumental records began. Other greenhouse gases also continued to rise in concentration and the combined effect now represents a 30% increase in radiative forcing over a 1990 baseline. Most ozone depleting substances continued to fall. The global net ocean carbon dioxide uptake for the 2010 transition period from El Nino to La Nina, the most recent period for which analyzed data are available, was estimated to be 1.30 Pg C yr(-1), almost 12% below the 29-year long-term average. Relative to the long-term trend, global sea level dropped noticeably in mid-2010 and reached a local minimum in 2011. The drop has been linked to the La Nina conditions that prevailed throughout much of 2010-11. Global sea level increased sharply during the second half of 2011. Global tropical cyclone activity during 2011 was well-below average, with a total of 74 storms compared with the 1981-2010 average of 89. Similar to 2010, the North Atlantic was the only basin that experienced above-normal activity. For the first year since the widespread introduction of the Dvorak intensity-estimation method in the 1980s, only three tropical cyclones reached Category 5 intensity level-all in the Northwest Pacific basin. The Arctic continued to warm at about twice the rate compared with lower latitudes. Below-normal summer snowfall, a decreasing trend in surface albedo, and above-average surface and upper air temperatures resulted in a continued pattern of extreme surface melting, and net snow and ice loss on the Greenland ice sheet. Warmer-than-normal temperatures over the Eurasian Arctic in spring resulted in a new record-low June snow cover extent and spring snow cover duration in this region. In the Canadian Arctic, the mass loss from glaciers and ice caps was the greatest since GRACE measurements began in 2002, continuing a negative trend that began in 1987. New record high temperatures occurred at 20 m below the land surface at all permafrost observatories on the North Slope of Alaska, where measurements began in the late 1970s. Arctic sea ice extent in September 2011 was the second-lowest on record, while the extent of old ice (four and five years) reached a new record minimum that was just 19% of normal. On the opposite pole, austral winter and spring temperatures were more than 3 degrees C above normal over much of the Antarctic continent. However, winter temperatures were below normal in the northern Antarctic Peninsula, which continued the downward trend there during the last 15 years. In summer, an all-time record high temperature of -12.3 degrees C was set at the South Pole station on 25 December, exceeding the previous record by more than a full degree. Antarctic sea ice extent anomalies increased steadily through much of the year, from briefly setting a record low in April, to well above average in December. The latter trend reflects the dispersive effects of low pressure on sea ice and the generally cool conditions around the Antarctic perimeter.
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- Riley, M A, et al.
(author)
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Beyond band termination in Er-157 and the search for wobbling excitations in strongly deformed Hf-174
- 2005
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In: Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics. - : IOP Publishing. - 0954-3899 .- 1361-6471. ; 31:10, s. 1735-1740
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- High-spin terminating bands in heavy nuclei were first identified in nuclei around Er-158(90). While examples of special terminating states have been identified in a number of erbium isotopes, almost nothing is known about the states lying beyond band termination. In the present work the high-spin structure of Er-157 has been studied using the Gammasphere spectrometer. The subject of triaxial superdeformation and 'wobbling' modes in Lu nuclei has rightly attracted a great deal of attention. Very recently, four strongly or superdeformed (SD) sequences have been observed in Hf-174 and ultimate cranker calculations predict, such structures may have significant triaxial deformation. We have performed two experiments in an attempt to verify the possible triaxial nature of these bands. A lifetime measurement was performed to confirm the large (and similar) deformation of the bands. In addition, a high-statistics, thin-target experiment was run to search for linking transitions between the SD bands and possible wobbling modes.
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4. |
- Riley, M. A., et al.
(author)
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Observation of states beyond band termination in Er-156,Er-157,Er-158 and strongly deformed structures in Hf-173,Hf-174,Hf-175
- 2006
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In: Physica Scripta. - 0031-8949. ; T125, s. 123-126
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- High-spin terminating bands in heavy nuclei were first identified in nuclei around Er-158(90). While examples of terminating states have been identified in a number of erbium isotopes, almost nothing is known about the states lying beyond band termination. In the present work, the high-spin structure of Er-156,Er-157,Er-158 has been studied using the Gammasphere spectrometer. The subject of triaxial superdeformation and 'wobbling' modes in Lu nuclei has rightly attracted a great deal of attention. Very recently four strongly or superdeformed (SD) sequences have been observed in Hf-174, and cranking calculations using the Ultimate Cranker code predict that such structures may have significant triaxial deformation. We have performed two experiments in an attempt to verify the possible triaxial nature of these bands. A lifetime measurement was performed to confirm the large (and similar) deformation of the bands. In addition, a high-statistics, thin-target experiment took place to search for linking transitions between the SD bands, possible wobbling modes, and new SD band structures.
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5. |
- Grill, G., et al.
(author)
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Mapping the world's free-flowing rivers
- 2019
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In: Nature. - : Nature Publishing Group. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 569:7755, s. 215-221
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Free-flowing rivers (FFRs) support diverse, complex and dynamic ecosystems globally, providing important societal and economic services. Infrastructure development threatens the ecosystem processes, biodiversity and services that these rivers support. Here we assess the connectivity status of 12 million kilometres of rivers globally and identify those that remain free-flowing in their entire length. Only 37 per cent of rivers longer than 1,000 kilometres remain free-flowing over their entire length and 23 per cent flow uninterrupted to the ocean. Very long FFRs are largely restricted to remote regions of the Arctic and of the Amazon and Congo basins. In densely populated areas only few very long rivers remain free-flowing, such as the Irrawaddy and Salween. Dams and reservoirs and their up- and downstream propagation of fragmentation and flow regulation are the leading contributors to the loss of river connectivity. By applying a new method to quantify riverine connectivity and map FFRs, we provide a foundation for concerted global and national strategies to maintain or restore them.
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- Cooke, Robert S., 1992, et al.
(author)
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Anthropogenic disruptions to longstanding patterns of trophic-size structure in vertebrates
- 2022
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In: Nature Ecology & Evolution. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2397-334X. ; 6:6, s. 684-92
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Diet and body mass are inextricably linked in vertebrates: while herbivores and carnivores have converged on much larger sizes, invertivores and omnivores are, on average, much smaller, leading to a roughly U-shaped relationship between body size and trophic guild. Although this U-shaped trophic-size structure is well documented in extant terrestrial mammals, whether this pattern manifests across diverse vertebrate clades and biomes is unknown. Moreover, emergence of the U-shape over geological time and future persistence are unknown. Here we compiled a comprehensive dataset of diet and body size spanning several vertebrate classes and show that the U-shaped pattern is taxonomically and biogeographically universal in modern vertebrate groups, except for marine mammals and seabirds. We further found that, for terrestrial mammals, this U-shape emerged by the Palaeocene and has thus persisted for at least 66 million years. Yet disruption of this fundamental trophic-size structure in mammals appears likely in the next century, based on projected extinctions. Actions to prevent declines in the largest animals will sustain the functioning of Earth's wild ecosystems and biomass energy distributions that have persisted through deep time. Analysis of diet and body size in terrestrial and aquatic vertebrates shows that a U-shaped relationship between body size and trophic guild prevails across extant vertebrates with the exception of marine mammals and seabirds. Analysis of fossil data shows that, for terrestrial mammals, this pattern has persisted for at least 66 million years, despite anthropogenic perturbance, which may have greater effects in the next centuries.
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- Nichols, Hazel B., et al.
(author)
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The Premenopausal Breast Cancer Collaboration : A Pooling Project of Studies Participating in the National Cancer Institute Cohort Consortium
- 2017
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In: Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention. - : AMER ASSOC CANCER RESEARCH. - 1055-9965 .- 1538-7755. ; 26:9, s. 1360-1369
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Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Breast cancer is a leading cancer diagnosis among premenopausal women around the world. Unlike rates in postmenopausal women, incidence rates of advanced breast cancer have increased in recent decades for premenopausal women. Progress in identifying contributors to breast cancer risk among premenopausal women has been constrained by the limited numbers of premenopausal breast cancer cases in individual studies and resulting low statistical power to subcategorize exposures or to study specific subtypes. The Premenopausal Breast Cancer Collaborative Group was established to facilitate cohort-based analyses of risk factors for premenopausal breast cancer by pooling individuallevel data from studies participating in the United States National Cancer Institute Cohort Consortium. This article describes the Group, including the rationale for its initial aims related to pregnancy, obesity, and physical activity. We also describe the 20 cohort studies with data submitted to the Group by June 2016. The infrastructure developed for this work can be leveraged to support additional investigations.
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12. |
- Bravo, M. E., et al.
(author)
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Insights from the management of offshore energy resources: Toward an ecosystem-services based management approach for deep-ocean industries
- 2023
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In: Frontiers in Marine Science. - : Frontiers Media SA. - 2296-7745. ; 9
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Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The deep ocean comprises complex ecosystems made up of numerous community and habitat types that provide multiple services that benefit humans. As the industrialization of the deep sea proceeds, a standardized and robust set of methods and metrics need to be developed to monitor the baseline conditions and any anthropogenic and climate change-related impacts on biodiversity, ecosystem function, and ecosystem services. Here, we review what we have learned from studies involving offshore-energy industries, including state-of-the-art technologies and strategies for obtaining reliable metrics of deep-sea biodiversity and ecosystem function. An approach that includes the detection and monitoring of ecosystem services, with open access to baseline data from multiple sectors, can help to improve our global capacity for the management of the deep ocean.
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