Geology and palaeontology of the Upper Miocene Toros-Menalla hominid locality,Chad

All six known specimens of the early hominid Sahelanthropus tchadensis come from Toros-Menalla site 266 (TM 266), a single locality in the Djurab Desert, northern Chad, central Africa. Here we present a preliminary analysis of the palaeontological and palaeoecological context of these finds. The rich fauna from TM 266 includes a significant aquatic component such as fish, crocodiles and amphibious mammals, alongside animals associated with gallery forest and savannah, such as primates, rodents, elephants, equids and bovids. The fauna suggests a biochronological age between 6 and 7 million years. Taken together with the sedimentological evidence, the fauna suggests that S. tchadensis lived close to a lake, but not far from a sandy desert, perhaps the oldest record of desert conditions in the Neogene of northern central Africa.     

Widespread local house-sparrow extinctions

House-sparrow populations have declined sharply in Western Europe in recent decades, but the reasons for this decline have yet to be identified, despite intense public interest in the matter. Here we use a combination of field experimentation, genetic analysis and demographic data to show that a reduction in winter food supply caused by agricultural intensification is probably the principal explanation for the widespread local extinctions of rural house-sparrow populations in southern England. We show that farmland populations exhibit fine-level genetic structuring and that some populations are unable to sustain themselves (sinks), whereas others act as sources.     

Observation of random-phase lattice solitons

The coherence of waves in periodic systems (lattices) is crucial to their dynamics, as interference effects, such as Bragg reflections, largely determine their propagation. Whereas linear systems allow superposition, nonlinearity introduces a non-trivial interplay between localization effects, coupling between lattice sites, and incoherence. Until recently, all research on solitary waves (solitons) in nonlinear lattices has involved only coherent waves. In such cases, linear dispersion or diffraction of wave packets can be balanced by nonlinear effects, resulting in coherent lattice (or 'discrete') solitons; these have been studied in many branches of science. However, in most natural systems, waves with only partial coherence are more common, because fluctuations (thermal, quantum or some other) can reduce the correlation length to a distance comparable to the lattice spacing. Such systems should support random-phase lattice solitons displaying distinct features. Here we report the experimental observation of random-phase lattice solitons, demonstrating their self-trapping and local periodicity in real space, in addition to their multi-peaked power spectrum in momentum space. We discuss the relevance of such solitons to other nonlinear periodic systems in which fluctuating waves propagate, such as atomic systems, plasmas and molecular chains.     

High-energy particle acceleration in the shell of a supernova remnant

A significant fraction of the energy density of the interstellar medium is in the form of high-energy charged particles (cosmic rays). The origin of these particles remains uncertain. Although it is generally accepted that the only sources capable of supplying the energy required to accelerate the bulk of Galactic cosmic rays are supernova explosions, and even though the mechanism of particle acceleration in expanding supernova remnant (SNR) shocks is thought to be well understood theoretically, unequivocal evidence for the production of high-energy particles in supernova shells has proven remarkably hard to find. Here we report on observations of the SNR RX J1713.7 - 3946 (G347.3 - 0.5), which was discovered by ROSAT in the X-ray spectrum and later claimed as a source of high-energy gamma-rays of TeV energies (1 TeV = 10(12) eV). We present a TeV gamma-ray image of the SNR: the spatially resolved remnant has a shell morphology similar to that seen in X-rays, which demonstrates that very-high-energy particles are accelerated there. The energy spectrum indicates efficient acceleration of charged particles to energies beyond 100 TeV, consistent with current ideas of particle acceleration in young SNR shocks.     

Extinction risk from climate change

Climate change over the past approximately 30 years has produced numerous shifts in the distributions and abundances of species and has been implicated in one species-level extinction. Using projections of species' distributions for future climate scenarios, we assess extinction risks for sample regions that cover some 20% of the Earth's terrestrial surface. Exploring three approaches in which the estimated probability of extinction shows a power-law relationship with geographical range size, we predict, on the basis of mid-range climate-warming scenarios for 2050, that 15-37% of species in our sample of regions and taxa will be 'committed to extinction'. When the average of the three methods and two dispersal scenarios is taken, minimal climate-warming scenarios produce lower projections of species committed to extinction ( approximately 18%) than mid-range ( approximately 24%) and maximum-change ( approximately 35%) scenarios. These estimates show the importance of rapid implementation of technologies to decrease greenhouse gas emissions and strategies for carbon sequestration.     

Interdecadal variation in the extent of South Pacific tropical waters during the Younger Dryas event

During the Younger Dryas event, about 12,000 years ago, the Northern Hemisphere cooled by between 2 and 10 degrees C (refs 1, 2) whereas East Antarctica experienced warming. But the spatial signature of the event in the southern mid-latitudes and tropics is less well known, as records are sparse and inconclusive. Here we present high-resolution analyses of skeletal Sr/Ca and 18O/16O ratios for a giant fossil Diploastrea heliopora coral that was preserved in growth position on the raised reef terraces of Espiritu Santo Island, Vanuatu, in the southwestern tropical Pacific Ocean. Our data indicate that sea surface temperatures in Vanuatu were on average 4.5 +/- 1.3 degrees C cooler during the Younger Dryas event than today, with a significant interdecadal modulation. The amplified annual cycle of sea surface temperatures, relative to today, indicates that cooling was caused by the compression of tropical waters towards the Equator. The positive correlation in our record between the oxygen isotope ratios of sea water and sea surface temperatures suggests that the South Pacific convergence zone, which brings 18O-depleted precipitation to the area today, was not active during the Younger Dryas period.     

Wave and defect dynamics in nonlinear photonic quasicrystals

Quasicrystals are unique structures with long-range order but no periodicity. Their properties have intrigued scientists ever since their discovery and initial theoretical analysis. The lack of periodicity excludes the possibility of describing quasicrystal structures with well-established analytical tools, including common notions like Brillouin zones and Bloch's theorem. New and unique features such as fractal-like band structures and 'phason' degrees of freedom are introduced. In general, it is very difficult to directly observe the evolution of electronic waves in solid-state atomic quasicrystals, or the dynamics of the structure itself. Here we use optical induction to create two-dimensional photonic quasicrystals, whose macroscopic nature allows us to explore wave transport phenomena. We demonstrate that light launched at different quasicrystal sites travels through the lattice in a way equivalent to quantum tunnelling of electrons in a quasiperiodic potential. At high intensity, lattice solitons are formed. Finally, we directly observe dislocation dynamics when crystal sites are allowed to interact with each other. Our experimental results apply not only to photonics, but also to other quasiperiodic systems such as matter waves in quasiperiodic traps, generic pattern-forming systems as in parametrically excited surface waves, liquid quasicrystals, and the more familiar atomic quasicrystals.     

水分和热胁迫对5种苗木生长及生物量的影响

以杉木、马尾松、花旗松、北美乔柏和扭叶松为对象，研究了水分和热胁迫对苗木生长期间生长和生物量的影响。结果表明：(1)水分胁迫对杉木、马尾松、花旗松、北美乔柏和扭叶松5个树种的苗高增长量和增长率均有显影响，但影响的程度因树种而异；(2)热胁迫对苗高增长量和增长率也有一定影响，但不如水分胁迫的影响大。热胁迫对北美乔柏和花旗松的苗高增长量及增长率有显影响，对其它树种的影响较小；(3)水分胁迫对杉苗生物量的影响不大，热胁迫对杉苗生物量指标的各部分干重有显影响；热和水分胁迫对马尾松苗木3个生物量指标均有显影响；热胁迫对花旗松、北美乔柏和扭叶松苗木生物量指标的影响均大于水分胁迫；(4)5个受试树种的根茎比受热和水分胁迫的影响都不大。