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(1) Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada, (9) LDEO, Columbia University, New York, NY, United States, (2) U.S. Geological Survey, St. Petersburg, FL, United States, (3) College of Marine Science, University of South Florida, St. Petersburg, FL, United States, (4) Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies, University of Miami, Miami, FL, United States, (5) NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, Miami, United States, (6) Marine Sciences, The University of Trinidad and Tobago, Trinidad and Tobago, (7) National Commission for Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity (CONABIO), Mexico, (8) UAV Collaborative, Moffett Field, CA, United States

Light availability is an important factor driving primary productivity in benthic ecosystems, but in situ and remote sensing measurements of light quality are limited for coral reefs and seagrass beds. We evaluated the productivity responses of a patch reef and a seagrass site in the Lower Florida Keys to ambient light availability and spectral quality. In situ optical properties were characterized utilizing moored and water column bio-optical and hydrographic measurements. Net ecosystem productivity (NEP) was also estimated for these study sites using benthic productivity chambers. Our results show higher spectral light attenuation and absorption, and lower irradiance during low tide in the patch reef, tracking the influx of materials from shallower coastal areas. In contrast, the intrusion of clearer surface Atlantic Ocean water caused lower values of spectral attenuation and absorption, and higher irradiance in the patch reef during high tide. Storms during the studied period, with winds >10 m·s−1, caused higher spectral attenuation values. A spatial gradient of NEP was observed, from high productivity in the shallow seagrass area, to lower productivity in deeper patch reefs. The highest daytime NEP was observed in the seagrass, with values of almost 0.4 g·O2·m−2·h−1. Productivity at the patch reef area was lower in May than during October 2012 (mean = 0.137 and 0.177 g·O2·m−2·h−1, respectively). Higher photosynthetic active radiation (PAR) levels measured above water and lower light attenuation in the red region of the visible spectrum (~666 to ~699 nm) had a positive correlation with NEP. Our results indicate that changes in light availability and quality by suspended or resuspended particles limit benthic productivity in the Florida Keys.

Many of the natural forested ecosystems that still remain in mainland China are being cleared with potentially detrimental effects on woody plant species diversity on both local and regional scales. The most extensive stand of subtropical broad-leaved forest remaining in China is located in Yunnan Province. In an effort to document the influence of human-induced disturbance on Yunnan's woody flora, floristic inventories were conducted in a stand of primary forest and in regrowth stands located in its interior and along its outer margin in the Xujiaba Nature Sanctuary in the Ailao Mountain Range. Of particular interest was the location of the disturbance relative to the primary forest source area. A total of 134 woody plant species representing 74 genera and 43 families were recorded. The floristics of the two regrowth stands were significantly different from each other, with 40% were still non-co-occurring. The principal families represented in the primary forest and the interior regrowth stand were Aquifoliaceae, Berberidaceae, Fagaceae, Lauraceae, Rosaceae, Smilacaceae, Symplocaceae, Theaceae, and Vacciniaceae. The three dominant species with relative importance values ranging from > 5% to 18% in both the primary forest and the interior regrowth stand were Castanopsis wattii, Lithocarpus jingdongensis, and Symplocos sumuntia. The edge regrowth stands had the lowest species diversity and were dominated by the native pine Pinus yunnanensis, with a relative importance of 24%. The principal families represented in the edge regrowth stand were Betulaceae, Ericaceae, Fagaceae, Myricaceae, Pinaceae, and Theaceae. Only the Fagaceae and Theaceae were well-represented in all three stands. The results of the study document the low species diversity in post-cutting regrowth on the margins of the primary forest as compared with post-cutting regrowth in the forest interior.

[1] The origin of terra rossa, red or reddish-brown, clay-rich soils overlying high-purity carbonate substrates, has intrigued geologists and pedologists for decades. Terra rossa soils can form from accumulation of insoluble residues during dissolution of the host limestones, addition of volcanic ash, or addition of externally derived, long-range-transported (LRT) aeolian particles. We studied soils and paleosols on high-purity, carbonate aeolianites of Quaternary age on Bermuda, where terra rossa origins have been debated for more than a century. Potential soil parent materials on this island include sand-sized fragments of local volcanic bedrock, the LRT, fine-grained (

The long-term studies of water and chemical budgets in the Hubbard Brook watershed, White Mountains, New Hampshire, have assumed that the underlying bedrock is watertight and that all of the liquid water discharged from the experimental subcatchment areas was measured using stream gauging instrumentation. This paper reviews the evidence used by past workers to support this assumption. In a reanalysis of the reported relationship between precipitation inputs and stream outputs of chloride, the mean annual groundwater discharge beneath the stream gauging stations was computed to be at least 5–10% of the mean annual precipitation. Groundwater discharge of this quantity would change both the evapotranspiration and the rock-weathering rates reported for the Hubbard Brook watershed. On-site hydrogeological field tests are recommended in all watersheds that are assumed to be underlain by watertight bedrock. [Key words: forested ecosystems, groundwater hydrology, bedrock fractures, water budgets, evapotranspirati...

A Nighttime UAV Vineyard Mission will demonstrate the use of a UAV-based thermal infrared imaging system for improved direction of frost damage mitigation efforts in agricultural crops. The UAV selected for this April 2005 mission is the APV-3. A flight height of 8,000 ft is planned, enabling thermal mapping coverage of the largest vineyard in California on an hourly basis. To accomplish the Nighttime Mission, it is necessary to demonstrate that the ground-based autopilot has the capability to see-and-avoid potentially conflicting aircraft in the National Airspace System (NAS). This paper provides a review of a daytime UAV test flight conducted in-visual range over the vineyard in August 2003 and describes additional tests being conducted to satisfy FAA see-and-avoid requirements for the planned out-of-visual range nighttime mission.

The economic potential of UAVs serving as long-duration platforms equipped with high resolution real-time imaging systems is being demonstrated. In September 2002, the UAV Pathfinder-Plus will be used to collect high-spatial resolution, multispectral imagery of the Kauai Coffee Plantation, the largest coffee plantation in the USA. Imagery from two digital camera systems will be analyzed for the mapping of coffee field ripeness, and for the identification of drip irrigation problems and weed proliferation. A payload test was conducted aboard a conventional piloted aircraft during the harvest season in 2001. Use of "off- the-shelf" wireless technology was implemented to remotely control camera operation and downlink imagery in near-real time. Image analysis and the acquisition of ground-based data revealed a positive relationship between brightness of the coffee tree canopy and the harvested yield of ripe coffee cherries.

Controlled environment treatments were applied to assess the effects of temperature on the seedling mortality and growth rates of Toona australis and Flindersia brayleyana, two tropical rainforest tree species from northeast Queensland, Australia. Past workers have assigned these two species to the same ecological niche in terms of their response to canopy disturbance and gap-phase regeneration; however, their geographic ranges are very different. The hypothesis was that the species confined to the warm tropics (F. brayleyana) would have higher seedling mortality and a slower growth rate at lower temperatures than the species that occurs over a wide latitudinal range from the warm tropics to cooler temperate environments (T. australis). Significant differences were found in the growth rates of these two species in the warm (29/22° C) and cool (22/10°C), but not the intermediate (24/16° C), day/night temperature regimes. Their growth rates both decreased with decreasing temperature, but the decrease was significantly less for F. brayleyana which had the faster growth rate and lower seedling mortality in the cool regime. These results led to the rejection of the hypothesis and a test of the assignment of these two species to the same ecological niche. The test involved monitoring their growth to sapling-size in the intermediate temperature regime together with four other co-occurring tropical rainforest tree species belonging to different ecological niches. The growth rates and proportions of above-ground biomass allocated to woody tissue distinguished T. australis and a fast-growing pioneer species from F. brayleyana and three primary forest species. The stem heights and aboveground biomass of T. australis and the pioneer species exceeded the other four species by factors ranging from two to five. It is concluded that T. australis does not belong to the same ecological niche as F. brayleyana, and it is recommended that more research be conducted on the ecotypic temperature responses of the taxon T. australis.

The objective of our study was to determine whether Z. dumosum exhibits a significant difference between the upslope and downslope distribution of its roots on these hillslopes