The respiratory environment of the Namib Desert Golden Mole

We measured the partial pressure of oxygen (PO₂) in the interstitial gas surrounding the sand-swimming Namib moleEremitalpa granti namibensis. At a sand temperature of 26 °C, which produced a nearly maximal rate of oxygen consumption, thePO₂near the noses of the animals averaged only 0·9 kPa (6·7 Torr) below the level in the free atmosphere. High oxygen availability was a result of the notably low metabolic rate in the 20 g mammals and the dry, porous and metabolically inactive nature of dune sand. A mathematical model indicated that normal mammals weighing 200 g or more could comfortably exist completely encased in dune sand. We concluded that the moles' small size and low metabolic rate are not adaptations to hypoxia or hypercapnia underground but are probably related to low food availability and the energetic cost of foraging in their desert environment.     

全球重要农业文化遗产(GIAHS)经济评估概念框架:以中国稻鱼共生系统为例（英文）

全球重要农业文化遗产(GIAHS)项目是2002年由联合国粮农组织(FAO)发起,旨在建立全球重要农业文化遗产及其有关的景观、生物多样性、知识和文化保护体系,并在世界范围内得到认可与保护,使之成为可持续管理的基础。农业文化遗产地往往被认为比非遗产地更具经济价值,但目前还没有经济学分析来证明这一点,也没有任何针对农业文化遗产地的复杂的经济性能标准来长期监测其经济功能。本研究的目的在于建立一个经济评价方法,可用于遗产地与非遗产地之间比较。为此,本文选择了成本效益分析(CBA)方法。鉴于数据可得性的限制,经济分析的框架应该包括分析的方向、假设和数据要求,由此指导未来对GIAHS的经济评价。本研究选择中国青田稻鱼共生系统作为案例,根据数据可得性并针对不同活动(旅游,国内和国际市场的销售产品)以及相似系统间比较进行计算。     

A community-based urban forest inventory using online mapping services and consumer-grade digital images

Community involvement in gathering and submitting spatially referenced data via web mapping applications has recently been gaining momentum. Urban forest inventory data analyzed by programs such as the i-Tree ECO inventory method is a good candidate for such an approach. In this research, we tested the feasibility of using spatially referenced data gathered and submitted by non-professional individuals through a web application to augment urban forest inventory data. We examined the use of close range photogrammetry solutions of images taken by consumer-grade cameras to extract quantitative metric information such as crown diameter, tree heights and trunk diameters. Several tests were performed to evaluate the accuracy of the photogrammetric solutions and to examine their use in addition to existing aerial image data to supplement or partially substitute for standard i-Tree ECO field measurements.     

Selection and quality assessment of Landsat data for the North American forest dynamics forest history maps of the US

Using the NASA Earth Exchange platform, the North American Forest Dynamics (NAFD) project mapped forest history wall-to-wall, annually for the contiguous US (1986–2010) using the Vegetation Change Tracker algorithm. As with any effort to identify real changes in remotely sensed time-series, data gaps, shifts in seasonality, misregistration, inconsistent radiometry and cloud contamination can be sources of error. We discuss the NAFD image selection and processing stream (NISPS) that was designed to minimize these sources of error. The NISPS image quality assessments highlighted issues with the Landsat archive and metadata including inadequate georegistration, unreliability of the pre-2009 L5 cloud cover assessments algorithm, missing growing-season imagery and paucity of clear views. Assessment maps of Landsat 5–7 image quantities and qualities are presented that offer novel perspectives on the growing-season archive considered for this study. Over 150,000+ Landsat images were considered for the NAFD project. Optimally, one high quality cloud-free image in each year or a total of 12,152 images would be used. However, to accommodate data gaps and cloud/shadow contamination 23,338 images were needed. In 220 specific path-row image years no acceptable images were found resulting in data gaps in the annual national map products.     

Integrating Indoor and Outdoor Spaces for Pedestrian Navigation Guidance: A Review

In light of the many improvements within 3D urban modeling and Location‐Based Services, this article provides a timely review of the state‐of‐the‐art on integrating indoor and outdoor spaces in pedestrian navigation guidance aids. With people moving seamlessly between buildings and surrounding areas, navigation guidance tools should extend from merely outdoor or indoor guidance, to provide support in the combined indoor‐outdoor context. This article first examines the challenges and complexities of integrating indoor and outdoor spaces into a single navigation system. Next, by using objective selection criteria, 36 relevant studies were withheld and further reviewed on their specific developments in data model requirements, and algorithmic and context support for integrated IO navigation systems. This review shows that the challenges of dealing with both indoor and outdoor space structures, while taking into account pedestrian's freer use of space, currently complicate the proposition of a unified IO space concept for navigation. However, there are some ongoing developments (e.g. context definitions, algorithmic extensions, increased data availability, growing awareness of pedestrians’ perception during wayfinding) that will help to bring outdoor and indoor spaces closer together in the realm of combined geospatial analysis.     

Late Quaternary paleoclimate of western Alaska inferred from fossil chironomids and its relation to vegetation histories

Fossil Chironomidae assemblages (with a few Chaoboridae and Ceratopogonidae) from Zagoskin and Burial Lakes in western Alaska provide quantitative reconstructions of mean July air temperatures for periods of the late-middle Wisconsin (～39,000–34,000 cal yr B.P.) to the present. Inferred temperatures are compared with previously analyzed pollen data from each site summarized here by indirect ordination. Paleotemperature trends reveal substantial differences in the timing of climatic warming following the late Wisconsin at each site, although chronological uncertainty exists. Zagoskin Lake shows early warming beginning at about 21,000 cal yr B.P., whereas warming at Burial Lake begins ～4000 years later. Summer climates during the last glacial maximum (LGM) were on average ～3.5 °C below the modern temperatures at each site. Major shifts in vegetation occurred from ～19,000 to 10,000 cal yr B.P. at Zagoskin Lake and from ～17,000 to 10,000 cal yr B.P. at Burial Lake. Vegetation shifts followed climatic warming, when temperatures neared modern values. Both sites provide evidence of an early postglacial thermal maximum at ～12,300 cal yr B.P. These chironomid records, combined with other insect-based climatic reconstructions from Beringia, indicate that during the LGM: (1) greater continentality likely influenced regions adjacent to the Bering Land Bridge and (2) summer climates were, at times, not dominated by severe cold.