Aims Factors limiting distributions of species are fundamental to ecology and evolution but have rarely been addressed experimentally for multiple species. The conspicuous linear distribution patterns of plant species confined to river corridors in the Central European lowlands constitute an especially long-standing distribution puzzle. We experimentally tested our novel hypothesis that the tol...

Introduction Dense non-aqueous phase liquids (or DNAPLs) are liquids that are water immiscible and at the same time are heavier than water. When a spill occurs, these liquids can migrate into aquifers and become trapped in the pores. Some techniques proved to be efficient for the recovery of DNAPLs from the aquifers. One method is the injection of fluids through injection wells, for example, co...

Australia, described in Dorothea Mackellar's 1904 poem My Country as the country of ‘drought and flooding rains’, may be better placed than most to adapt to changes in climate extremes. However, climate change might shift extremes towards conditions that will stress vulnerable systems such as Australia’s unique ecosystems (Pittock et al. 2001). There is growing evidence that the global changes ...

Climate change is expected to increase the frequency and magnitude of extreme weather events. It is therefore of major importance to identify the community attributes that confer stability in ecological communities during such events. In June 2013, a flood event affected a plant diversity experiment in Central Europe (Jena, Germany). We assessed the effects of plant species richness, functional...

Fluvial processes such as flooding and sediment deposition play a crucial role in structuring riparian plant communities. In rivers throughout the world, these processes have been altered by channelization and other anthropogenic stresses. Yet despite increasing awareness of the need to restore natural flow regimes for the preservation of riparian biodiversity, few studies have examined the eff...

Major negative oxygen isotopic anomalies in planktonic foraminifera are associated with deep-sea anoxic mud layers (sapropels) deposited 9000 and 80,000 years ago in the eastern Mediterranean. The isotopic depletion in surface-dwelling foraminifera is significantly greater than in mesopelagic foraminifera. This difference in isotopic response suggests that surface-water salinities were drastica...

Decomposition of red oak acorns (Quercus spp.; Section Erythrobalanus) could decrease forage biomass and gross energy (GE) available to wintering ducks from acorns. We estimated changes in mass and GE for 3 species of red oak acorns in flooded and non-flooded bottomland hardwood forests in Mississippi during winter 2009–2010. Mass loss of acorns was 8.1% and reduction in GE 0.03 kcal/g after ex...

Flooding is a serious and increasing problem. As a result, there is a need to deploy more sophisticated sensor networks to detect and react to flooding. This paper outlines a demonstration which showcases a deployed flood monitoring platform, which uses WSN technologies and next generation middleware to improve support for flood warning.

The fractal geometry is the most appropriate mathematical instrument to describe the irregularity of a natural scene, by means of few effective and reliable parameters. Therefore, fractal concepts can be used to model and to identify geometrical changes occurred in areas hit by disasters. An overall framework employing fractal based models, algorithms and tools to support identification of natu...