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Thermal Constraints (thermal + constraint)
Selected AbstractsModelling species distributions without using species distributions: the cane toad in Australia under current and future climatesECOGRAPHY, Issue 4 2008Michael Kearney Accurate predictions of the potential distribution of range-shifting species are required for effective management of invasive species, and for assessments of the impact of climate change on native species. Range-shifting species pose a challenge for traditional correlative approaches to range prediction, often requiring the extrapolation of complex statistical associations into novel environmental space. Here we take an alternative approach that does not use species occurrence data, but instead captures the fundamental niche of a species by mechanistically linking key organismal traits with spatial data using biophysical models. We demonstrate this approach with a major invasive species, the cane toad Bufo marinus in Australia, assessing the direct climatic constraints on its ability to move, survive, and reproduce. We show that the current range can be explained by thermal constraints on the locomotor potential of the adult stage together with limitations on the availability of water for the larval stage. Our analysis provides a framework for biologically grounded predictions of the potential for cane toads to expand their range under current and future climate scenarios. More generally, by quantifying spatial variation in physiological constraints on an organism, trait-based approaches can be used to investigate the range-limits of any species. Assessments of spatial variation in the physiological constraints on an organism may also provide a mechanistic basis for forecasting the rate of range expansion and for understanding a species' potential to evolve at range-edges. Mechanistic approaches thus have broad application to process-based ecological and evolutionary models of range-shift. [source] Application of dynamic rating to increase the available transfer capabilityELECTRICAL ENGINEERING IN JAPAN, Issue 4 2009Masaki Miura Abstract As the deregulated environment of power systems has spread worldwide, it is essential to operate power systems efficiently and economically. With the advance of communication technologies and sensors, so-called dynamic rating is now to be realized. Dynamic rating is a method which determines accurate ratings by utilizing real-time information such as conductor temperatures, ambient temperatures, and wind speeds. The dynamic rating is considered to increase the thermal capacities of overhead transmission lines and therefore take on importance in the deregulated electric power industry. The importance of the dynamic rating lies mainly in the area of Available Transfer Capability (ATC) improvement. In this paper, the validity of the proposed dynamic rating application is shown from the viewpoint of ATC, especially ATC with thermal constraints. In addition, the possibilities of ATC estimations using sensitivities are verified for the purpose of reducing calculation time, considering the importance of real-time simulation of ATC. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 166(4): 40,47, 2009; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/eej.20537 [source] Lizard community structure along environmental gradientsJOURNAL OF ANIMAL ECOLOGY, Issue 2 2010Lauren B. Buckley Summary 1. ,How the total number of individuals in a community is divided among its species is governed by both the distribution of species along landscape-scale environmental gradients and by local resource partitioning. In vertebrate ectotherms, abiotic environmental conditions may constrain geographic distributions more strongly than local population densities due to thermal constraints on resource acquisition and due to behavioural thermoregulation. 2. ,We investigate whether local density and species richness are decoupled for lizard communities within the Southwest US by comparing 18 species-abundance distributions. 3. ,While species richness decreases strongly with decreasing temperature, there is no significant relationship between temperature or resource availability (net primary productivity) and the total number of individuals within a community. Consequently, in more species-rich communities species have lower mean abundances. 4. ,This suggestion that lizard species richness is not a function of an area's capacity to support more individuals questions for this group species diversity theories based on this assumption. [source] Unravelling the multi-stage burial history of the Swiss Molasse Basin: integration of apatite fission track, vitrinite reflectance and biomarker isomerisation analysisBASIN RESEARCH, Issue 1 2006Martin Mazurek ABSTRACT A complex basin evolution was studied using various methods, including thermal constraints based on apatite fission-track (AFT) analysis, vitrinite reflectance (VR) and biomarker isomerisation, in addition to a detailed analysis of the regional stratigraphic record and of the lithological properties. The study indicates that (1) given the substantial amount of data, the distinction and characterisation of successive stages of heating and burial in the same area are feasible, and (2) the three thermal indicators (AFT, VR and biomarkers) yield internally consistent thermal histories, which supports the validity of the underlying kinetic algorithms and their applicability to natural basins. All data pertaining to burial and thermal evolution were integrated in a basin model, which provides constraints on the thickness of eroded sections and on heat flow over geologic time. Three stages of basin evolution occurred in northern Switzerland. The Permo-Carboniferous strike,slip basin was characterised by high geothermal gradients (80,100°C km,1) and maximum temperature up to 160°C. After the erosion of a few hundreds of metres in the Permian, the post-orogenic, epicontinental Mesozoic basin developed in Central Europe, with subsidence triggered by several stages of rifting. Geothermal gradients in northern Switzerland during Cretaceous burial were relatively high (35,40°C km,1), and maximum temperature typically reached 75°C (top middle Jurassic) to 100°C (base Mesozoic). At least in the early Cretaceous, a stage of increased heat flow is needed to explain the observed maturity level. After erosion of 600,700 m of Cretaceous and late Jurassic strata during the Paleocene, the wedge-shaped Molasse Foreland Basin developed. Geothermal gradients were low at this time (,20°C km,1). Maximum temperature of Miocene burial exceeded that of Cretaceous burial in proximal parts (<35 km from the Alpine front), but was lower in more distal parts (>45 km). Thus, maximum temperature as well as maximum burial depth ever reached in Mesozoic strata occurred at different times in different regions. Since the Miocene, 750,1050 m were eroded, a process that still continues in the proximal parts of the basin. Current average geothermal gradients in the uppermost 2500 m are elevated (32,47°C km,1). They are due to a Quaternary increase of heat flow, most probably triggered by limited advective heat transport along Paleozoic faults in the crystalline basement. [source] | ||||||||||