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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 55 records · Page 3
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2018

Impacts of coastal reclamation on wetlands: Loss, resilience, and sustainable management

Coastal wetlands are some of the most valuable ecosystems on Earth because they provide many ecological services for coastal security. However, these wetlands are seriously threatened by accelerated climate change and intensive anthropogenic activities. To understand the impacts of land reclamation on landscape change of coastal wetlands and the long-term effects of disturbances of coastal wetlands on their sustainable management, we used time-series Landsat imagery with an object-oriented classification and Digital Shoreline Analysis System to map wetland changes within a reclaimed area in the Pudong District (PD), in Shanghai, China. Our analysis indicated that from 1989 to 2013, 19,793.4 ha of coastal wetlands have been changed to inland wetlands enclosed by a seawall and dike since 1989, thereby cutting off the exchange of sediment and water flux between the wetlands and the coastal ocean. Subsequently, under the increasing threats of anthropogenic activities, the wetland ecosystem collapsed sharply, in a transformation chain of inland wetland (fresh swamp), artificial wetland (agriculture and aquaculture wetland), and non-wetland (urban land). Under this explosive utilization following coastal reclamation, only 8.9% of natural wetlands remain in the reclaimed area, which has experienced an average annual wetland loss rate of 3.8% over the past 24 years. More than 80% of the wetlands have been developed for agricultural, industrial, and urban land uses, leading to an enormous loss of associated ecological services—benefits arising from the ecological functions provided by wetland ecosystems, thereby undermining the coastal protection these wetlands provided. Nevertheless, considerable regeneration of wetlands occurred because of their inherent resilience. This paper addresses the importance of maintaining a balance between economic growth and coastal ecological protection for sustainable management. It proposes a strategy for how ecosystem-based land planning and ecological engineering should be applied to ensure the effective and sustainable management of living shorelines so that the benefits of healthy ecological functions accrue to coastal ecosystems.

Reclamation, Remote sensing, landscape change, coa↗
DOE OSTI2021

Are 100 Ensemble Members Enough to Capture the Remote Atmospheric Response to +2°C Arctic Sea Ice Loss?

This study presents results from the Polar Amplification Multimodel Intercomparison Project (PAMIP) single-year time-slice experiments that aim to isolate the atmospheric response to Arctic sea ice loss at global warming levels of +2°C. Using two general circulation models (GCMs), the ensemble size is increased up to 300 ensemble members, beyond the recommended 100 members. After partitioning the response in groups of 100 ensemble members, the reproducibility of the results is evaluated, with a focus on the response of the midlatitude jet streams in the North Atlantic and North Pacific. Both atmosphere-only and coupled ocean–atmosphere PAMIP experiments are analyzed. Substantial differences in the midlatitude response are found among the different experiment subsets, suggesting that 100-member ensembles are still significantly influenced by internal variability, which can mislead conclusions. Despite an overall stronger response, the coupled ocean–atmosphere runs exhibit greater spread due to additional ENSO-related internal variability when the ocean is interactive. The lack of consistency in the response is true for anomalies that are statistically significant according to Student’s t and false discovery rate tests. This is problematic for the multimodel assessment of the response, as some of the spread may be attributed to different model sensitivities whereas it is due to internal variability. Here, we propose a method to overcome this consistency issue that allows for more robust conclusions when only 100 ensemble members are used.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS1994

Transitory endolymph leakage induced hearing loss and tinnitus: depolarization, biphasic shortening and loss of electromotility of outer hair cells

There are types of deafness and tinnitus in which ruptures or massive changes in the ionic permeability of the membranes lining the endolymphatic space [e.g., of the reticular lamina (RL)] are believed to allow potassium-rich endolymph to deluge the low [K+] perilymphatic fluid (e.g., in the small spaces of Nuel). This would result in a K+ intoxication of sensory and neural structures. Acute attacks of Meniere's disease have been suggested to be an important example for this event. The present study investigated the effects of transiently elevated [K+] due to the addition of artificial endolymph to the basolateral cell surface of outer hair cells (OHC) in replicating endolymph-induced K+ intoxication of the perilymph in the small spaces of Nuel. The influence of K+ intoxication of the basolateral OHC cell surface on the transduction was then examined. Intoxication resulted in an inhibition of the physiological repolarizing K+ efflux from hair cells. This induced unwanted depolarizations of the hair cells, interfering with mechanoelectrical transduction. A pathological longitudinal OHC shortening was also found, with subsequent compression of the organ of Corti possibly influencing the micromechanics of the mechanically active OHC. Both micromechanical and electrophysiological alterations are proposed to contribute to endolymph leakage induced attacks of deafness and possibly also to tinnitus. Moreover, repeated or long-lasting K+ intoxications of OHC resulted in a chronic and complete loss of OHC motility. This is suggested to be a pathophysiological basis in some patients with chronic hearing loss resulting from Meniere's syndrome.

Non-NASA Center↗
DOE OSTI2019

Direct Nanoscale Characterization of Deep Levels in AgCuInGaSe 2 Using Electron Energy–Loss Spectroscopy in the Scanning Transmission Electron Microscope

A new experimental framework for the characterization of defects in semiconductors is demonstrated. Through the direct, energy-resolved correlation of three analytical techniques spanning six orders of magnitude in spatial resolution, a critical mid-bandgap electronic trap level (E V + 0.56 eV) within Ag 0.2 Cu 0.8 In 1–x Ga x Se 2 is traced to its nanoscale physical location and chemical source. This is achieved through a stepwise, site-specific correlated characterization workflow consisting of device-scale (≈1 mm 2 ) deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) to survey the traps present, scanning probe–based DLTS (scanning-DLTS) for mesoscale-resolved (hundreds of nanometers) mapping of the target trap state’s spatial distribution, and scanning transmission electron microscope based electron energy-loss spectroscopy (STEM-EELS) and X-ray energy-dispersive spectroscopy for nanoscale energy-, structure, and chemical-resolved investigation of the defect source. Furthermore, this first demonstration of the direct observation of sub-bandgap defect levels via STEM-EELS, combined with the DLTS methods, provides strong evidence that the longsuspected Cu In/Ga substitutional defects are indeed the most likely source of the E V + 0.56 eV trap state and serves as a key example of this approach for the fundamental identification of defects within semiconductors, in general.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2018

Rate of Mass Loss Across the Instability Threshold for Thwaites Glacier Determines Rate of Mass Loss for Entire Basin

Rapid change now underway on Thwaites Glacier (TG) raises concern that a threshold for unstoppable grounding line retreat has been or is about to be crossed. We use a high-resolution ice sheet model to examine the mechanics of TG self-sustained retreat by nudging the grounding line just past the point of instability. We find that by modifying surface slope in the region of the grounding line, the rate of the forcing dictates the rate of retreat, even after the external forcing is removed. Grounding line retreats that begin faster proceed more rapidly because the shorter time interval for the grounding line to erode into the grounded ice sheet means relatively thicker ice and larger driving stress upstream of the boundary. Retreat is sensitive to short-duration re-advances associated with reduced external forcing where the bathymetry allows regrounding, even when an instability is invoked.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2018

Duplications and losses of genes encoding known elements of the stress defence system of the Aspergilli contribute to the evolution of these filamentous fungi but do not directly influence their environmental stress tolerance

The contribution of stress protein duplication and deletion events to the evolution of the Aspergilli was studied. We performed a large-scale homology analysis of stress proteins and generated and analysed three stress defence system models based on Saccharomyces cerevisiae , Schizosaccharomyces pombe and Aspergillus nidulans . Although both yeast-based and A. nidulans -based models were suitable to trace evolutionary changes, the A. nidulans -based model performed better in mapping stress protein radiations. The strong Mantel correlation found between the positions of species in the phylogenetic tree on the one hand and either in the A. nidulans -based or S. cerevisiae -based models on the other hand demonstrated that stress protein expansions and reductions contributed significantly to the evolution of the Aspergilli. Interestingly, stress tolerance attributes correlated well with the number of orthologs only for a few stress proteins. Notable examples are Ftr1 iron permease and Fet3 ferro-O 2 -oxidoreductase, elements of the reductive iron assimilation pathway, in the S. cerevisiae -based model, as well as MpkC, a HogA-like mitogen activated protein kinase in the A. nidulans-based model. In the case of the iron assimilation proteins, the number of orthologs showed a positive correlation with H 2 O 2 -induced stress tolerance while the number of MpkC orthologs correlated positively with Congo Red induced cell wall stress, sorbitol induced osmotic stress and H 2 O 2 induced oxidative stress tolerances. For most stress proteins, changes in the number of orthologs did not correlate well with any stress tolerance attributes. As a consequence, stress tolerance patterns of the studied Aspergilli did not correlate with either the sets of stress response proteins in general or with the phylogeny of the species studied. These observations suggest that stress protein duplication and deletion events significantly contributed to the evolution of stress tolerance attributes of Aspergilli. In contrast, there are other processes, which may counterbalance the effects of stress gene duplications or deletions including (i) alterations in the structures of stress proteins leading to changes in their biological activities, (ii) varying biosynthesis of stress proteins, (iii) rewiring stress response regulatory networks or even (iv) acquiring new stress response genes by horizontal gene transfer. As a result, all these multilevel changes are indispensable for the successful adaptation of filamentous fungi to altering environmental conditions, especially when these organisms are entering new ecological niches.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗