For leaves, the light-capturing surface area per unit dry mass investment (specific leaf area, SLA) is a key trait from physiological, ecological and biophysical perspectives. To address whether SLA declines with leaf size, as hypothesized due to increasing costs of support in larger leaves, we compiled data on intraspecific variation in leaf dry mass (LM) and leaf surface area (LA) for 6334 le...

Two groups of eight Friesland bull calves each were used in the trial. Calves received a commercial, coagulable milk replacer in which casein coagulation either was normal (CM treatment), or was prevented by the precipitation of Ca++ with an oxalic acid-sodium hydroxide buffer (NCM treatment). In both treatments, the daily milk replacer feeding level (percentage of birth mass) was increased fro...

The seasons in the 1 year study were classified as rainy, transitional rainy-dry, dry, and transitional dry-rainy. Semen pH and the consistency of the testes did not vary between seasons or among rams. All other characteristics of semen and testis varied between rams. Significant seasonal differences were observed for ejaculate volume, mass, % motility, forward motility score and concentration ...

Structure is an important factor of soil functioning in ecosystems. Soil aggregate size distributions are commonly used to characterize soil structure. Relationships between density of dry soil aggregates and aggregate size present a different way to use aggregate-related information in soil structure characterization. Those relationships have been simulated assuming soils to be mass fractals. ...

1293, 2001; [5] Jun I., JPL, pers. comm., 2002; [6] Hahn et al., IEEE Trans. Nuc. Sci., submitted, 2002; [7] Waters, MCNPX Users Manual, LA-UR 02-2607, 2002. Figure 1. Schematic diagram of the NS, rover, and Martian surface model used for this study. Figure 2. Epithermal neutrons (counts per second) versus H2O content for the bottom dry layer. Black and left scale are for the RTG case; red and ...

Field studies among diverse biomes demonstrate that mass-based nitrogen concentration at leaf and canopy scales is strongly related to carbon uptake and cycling. Combined field and airborne imaging spectrometry studies demonstrate the capacity for accurate empirical estimation of forest canopy N concentration and other biochemical constituents at scales from forest stands to small landscapes. I...

Greater leaf thickness is usually associated with greater leaf carbon assimilation rate, but the tradeoff between thicker versus larger leaves also affects canopy structure and light interception. Many studies equate the ratio of dry leaf mass to area (leaf specific mass) with leaf thickness. This approximation has utility but ignores differences in true thickness due to variation in water or a...