Managers reduce piñon (Pinus spp.) and juniper (Juniperus spp.) trees that are encroaching on sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) communities to lower fuel loads and increase cover of desirable understory species. All plant species in these communities depend on soil water held at . 1.5 MPa matric potential in the upper 0.3 m of soil for nutrient diffusion to roots and major growth in spring (resource g...

Ecological economics studies the interactions and coevolution in time and space between ecosystems and human economies. The rate at which humans exploit or harvest ecosystems services exceeds what might be regarded as a desirable level from society’s point of view. The consequences of this overexploitation are well known (e.g., climate change, biodiversity loss and extinction of species, collap...

The purpose of this contribution is to discuss conceptual issues and challenges related to the integration of emotional agents in the design of computer-based learning environments and to propose a framework for the discussion of future research. We review some emotion theories and computational models that have been developed in cognitive science and Artificial Intelligence (AI). We then will ...

Seafloor cabled observatories have an obvious role as part of the sustained infrastructure needed to observe climate variability. To highlight this point a couple of important discoveries of the physical climate of the ocean that have been based on data acquired at open ocean “observatories” are reviewed. Perhaps the more important role for observatories in physical oceanography may be the prov...

Reef managers cannot fight global warming through mitigation at local scale, but they can use information on thermal patterns to plan for reserve networks that maximize the probability of persistence of their reef system. Here we assess previous methods for the design of reserves for climate change and present a new approach to prioritize areas for conservation that leverages the most desirable...

To estimate the water requirements of exclusively breast-fed infants in a hot climate, theoretical calculations of water requirements were made and a field study was carried out in Jamaica. Three urine samples were collected from each of 16 infants. The specific gravity of individual urine samples ranged from 1.005 through 1.015, with a mean of 1.009 (SD +/- 0.002). Corresponding values for osm...

Recent theoretical work in the economics of climate change has suggested that climate policy is highly sensitive to ‘fat-tailed’ risks of catastrophic outcomes (Weitzman, 2009b). Such risks are suggested to be an inevitable consequence of scientific uncertainty about the effects of increased greenhouse gas concentrations on climate. Criticisms of this controversial result fall into three catego...