Sample records for vaher mihkel koel
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Vocalizations of adult male Asian koels (Eudynamys scolopacea) in the breeding season.
Khan, Abdul Aziz; Qureshi, Irfan Zia
2017-01-01
Defining the vocal repertoire provides a basis for understanding the role of acoustic signals in sexual and social interactions of an animal. The Asian koel (Eudynamys scolopacea) is a migratory bird which spends its summer breeding season in the plains of Pakistan. The bird is typically wary and secretive but produces loud and distinct calls, making it easily detected when unseen. Like the other birds in the wild, presumably Asian koels use their calls for social cohesion and coordination of different behaviors. To date, the description of vocal repertoire of the male Asian koel has been lacking. Presently we analyzed and described for the first time the vocalizations of the adult male Asian koel, recorded in two consecutive breeding seasons. Using 10 call parameters, we categorized the vocalization type into six different categories on the basis of spectrogram and statistical analyses, namely the; "type 1 cooee call", "type 2 cooee call", "type 1 coegh call", "type 2 coegh call", "wurroo call" and "coe call". These names were assigned not on the basis of functional analysis and were therefore onomatopoeic. Stepwise cross validated discriminant function analysis classified the vocalization correctly (100%) into the predicted vocal categories that we initially classified on the basis of spectrographic examination. Our findings enrich the biological knowledge about vocalizations of the adult male Asian koel and provide a foundation for future acoustic monitoring of the species, as well as for comparative studies with vocalizations of other bird species of the cuckoo family. Further studies on the vocalizations of the Asian koel are required to unravel their functions in sexual selection and individual recognition.
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USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database
Common crabgrass (Digitaria ciliaris [Retz.] Koel.) is a warm-season annual that offers an advantage over many perennial warm-season grasses because of its greater nutritive value and high palatability. However, little is known about how baling crabgrass hay at high moisture affects ruminal forage ...
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Xiao, Ran; Wang, Shuang; Li, Ronghua; Wang, Jim J; Zhang, Zengqiang
2017-07-01
Soil contamination with heavy metals due to mining activities poses risks to ecological safety and human well-being. Limited studies have investigated heavy metal pollution due to artisanal mining. The present study focused on soil contamination and the health risk in villages in China with historical artisanal mining activities. Heavy metal levels in soils, tailings, cereal and vegetable crops were analyzed and health risk assessed. Additionally, a botany investigation was conducted to identify potential plants for further phytoremediation. The results showed that soils were highly contaminated by residual tailings and previous mining activities. Hg and Cd were the main pollutants in soils. The Hg and Pb concentrations in grains and some vegetables exceeded tolerance limits. Moreover, heavy metal contents in wheat grains were higher than those in maize grains, and leafy vegetables had high concentrations of metals. Ingestion of local grain-based food was the main sources of Hg, Cd, and Pb intake. Local residents had high chronic risks due to the intake of Hg and Pb, while their carcinogenic risk associated with Cd through inhalation was low. Three plants (Erigeron canadensis L., Digitaria ciliaris (Retz.) Koel., and Solanum nigrum L.) were identified as suitable species for phytoremediation. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Inc.
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Wetting a rail tanker behind a noise shield.
Rosmuller, Nils
2009-05-30
In the Netherlands, the Betuweline is a dedicated freight railway. It will, among other things, be used for transportation of all kinds of hazardous materials from the Port of Rotterdam to the German Hinterland and vice versa. The line is approximately 150 km long. Alongside the line, over more than 100 km noise shields are apparent. The question is to what extent this noise shield hinders the cooling of a rail tanker, carrying flammable liquid such as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG)? To answer this question, a full scale test was conducted on an already constructed part of the Betuweline [N. Rosmuller, D.W.G. Arentsen, (2005). Praktijkproeven Betuweroute: Instantane uitstroming en koeling 24 juni 2005, Nibra, Arnhem, The Netherlands]. Two railcars and a rail tanker were placed behind a 3m high noise shield. First, it was tested as to whether firemen or water canons should be used to deliver the water. Water canons were best next, four positions of the water canons to wet the rail tanker were tested. Three camera's and three observers recorded the locations and the extent of water that hit the rail tanker. The results indicate that the noise shield, to a large extent, prevents the water from hitting, and therefore cooling, the rail tanker. The upper parts of the rail tanker were minimally struck by the water canons and the small amount of water flowing down the rail tanker did not reach the lower parts of it because of the armatures at the rail tanker. Also, the amount of water in the ditches to be used for wetting was too small. The ditch nearby ran empty. These insights are both relevant to emergency responders for disaster abatement purposes and to water management organizations. The Ministry of Transport is examining the possible strategies to deal with these findings. The results are based upon one single full scale test near a 3m high noise shield. In addition, it would be valuable to determine what the influence would be of other heights of the noise shields.
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NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Trondman, Anna-Kari; Gaillard, Marie-José; Sugita, Shinya; Mazier, Florence; Fyfe, Ralph; Nielsen, Anne-Birgitte; Leydet, Michelle; Members, Landclim
2010-05-01
) number of pollen taxa, 3) PPEs dataset, and 4) number of dates per record used to establish the chronology (≥3 or ≥5) was tested (see Mazier et al. CL 1.21). Following the results of these tests, the first maps are based on REVEALS runs using pollen records from both lakes and bogs with ≥3 dates, 24 taxa (entomophilous taxa excluded), and the mean of all PPEs available in the study area. The maps are produced for 10 PFTs (LPJ-GUESS) and 3 PFTs (RCA3) at a spatial resolution of 1o x 1o for five selected time windows of the Holocene with contrasting human-induced land-cover (0-100 cal BP, 100-350 cal BP, 350-700 cal BP, 2700-3200 cal BP and 5700-6200 cal BP). The maps of PFTs show significant changes in the degree of human-induced vegetation openness through the Holocene over most of the study area. There are large discrepancies between these first quantitative land-cover maps and earlier maps based on pollen data and other methods such as biomization and the modern analogue approach. * The following LANDCLIM members are acknowledged for providing pollen records and for help with pollen databases: Teija Alenius (Espoo), Heather Almquist-Jacobson (Montana, USA), Lena Barnekow and Thomas Persson (Lund), Jonas Bergman (Stockholm), Anne Bjune and John Birks (Bergen), Thomas Giesecke (Göttingen), Rixt de Jong (Bern), Mihkel Kangur and Tiiuu Koff (Tallinn), Malgorzata Latalowa (Gdansk), Ann-Marie Robertsson (Stockholm), Ulf Segerström and Henrik von Stedingk (Umeå), Heikki Seppä (Helsinki). Sugita, S. 2007. The Holocene, 17, 229-241.
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NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Gaillard, Marie-Jose; Sugita, Shinya; Rundgren, Mats; Smith, Benjamin; Mazier, Florence; Trondman, Anna-Kari; Fyfe, Ralph; Kokfelt, Ulla; Nielsen, Anne-Birgitte; Strandberg, Gustav
2010-05-01
of ca. 1o x 1o. The REVEALS estimates of the past cover of PFTs will be 1) compared with the outputs of the LPJ-GUESS (10 PFTs), a widely-used dynamic vegetation model and 2) used as an alternative to the LPJ-GUESS-simulated vegetation (3 PFTs) to run for the past the regional climate model RCA3 developed at the Rossby Centre, Norrköping, Sweden. The study will evaluate and further refine these models (RCA3 and LPJ-GUESS) using a data-model comparison approach that incorporates new syntheses of palaeoclimatic data as well. It will lead to new assessments of the possible effect of various factors on climate, such as deforestations and afforestations, and changes in vegetation composition and spatial patterns of land cover/land use. Refined climate models and empirical land-cover reconstructions will shed new light on controversial hypotheses of past climate change and human impacts, such as the "Ruddiman hypothesis". First maps of REVEALS estimates of plant functional types (PFTs) are now available for Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Estonia, Poland, Germany, The Czech Republic, Switzerland and Britain (see Mazier et al. C1.21 and Trondman et al. C1.22). Correlation tests show that the REVEALS estimates are robust in terms of ranking of the PFTs' abundance (see Mazier et al, C1.21). The LANDCLIM project and network are a contribution to the IGBP-PAGES-Focus 4 PHAROS programme on human impact on environmental changes in the past. The following LANDCLIM members are acknowledged for providing pollen records, for help with pollen databases, and for providing results to the project: Mihkel Kangur and Tiiu Koff (Univ. Tallinn, Tallinn); Erik Kjellström (SMHI, Norrköping), Anna Broström, Lena Barnekow and Thomas Persson (GeoBiosphere Science Centre, Lund University); Anneli Poska (Physical Geography and Ecosystems Analysis, Lund University); Thomas Giesecke (Albrecht-von-Haller-Institute for Plant Sciences, University of Göttingen), Anne Bjune and John Birks (Dept. of