The degree of mine burial is a crucial factor in Mine Counter Measure (MCM) mission planning, having a significant effect on sensor range and effectiveness. The ultimate goal of this project is to provide an mine burial prediction fleet aid for operational Navy MCM decision making that incorporates recent research in burial mechanisms and seafloor sediment behavior. This predictive tool should ...

Adipocere is a decomposition product comprising predominantly of saturated fatty acids which results from the hydrolysis and hydrogenation of neutral fats in the body. Adipocere formation may occur in various decomposition environments but is chiefly dependent on the surrounding conditions. In a soil burial environment these conditions may include such factors as soil pH, temperature, moisture ...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Hard-seeded (physical) dormancy is common among plants, yet mechanisms for dormancy release are poorly understood, especially in the tropics. The following questions are asked: (a) whether dormancy release in seed banks of the tropical shrub Parkinsonia aculeata (Caesalpiniaceae) is determined by wet heat (incubation under wet, warm to hot, conditions); and (b) whether its e...

Core body temperature cooling during avalanche burial results in hypothermia, and further core temperature cooling during extrication and evacuation of an avalanche burial victim may result in more severe hypothermia. We performed two studies measuring the rate of core body temperature cooling during snow burial and after extrication from snow burial. Subjects were completely buried in a large ...

For thirty years, from the early 1840s, Charles Darwin documented the disappearance of flints in the grounds of Down House in Kent, at a location originally known as the “Stony Field”. This site (Great Pucklands Meadow – GPM) was visited in 2007 and an experiment set up in this ungrazed grassland. Locally-sourced flints (either large – 12 cm, or small – 5 cm dia.) were deposited at two densitie...

The foot and mouth disease (FMD) outbreak that occurred in the United Kingdom in 2001 was of an unprecedented scale and severity and presented a massive logistical challenge to Government. Over 6.5 million animals were slaughtered and disposed of, over 4 million as a direct result of disease and a further 2.5 million on welfare grounds. On-farm burial and on-farm burning were the principal rout...

Clonal propagations of shoot or root fragments play pivotal roles in adaptation of clonal trees to environmental heterogeneity, i.e. soil nutrient heterogeneity and burials after disturbance. However, little is known about whether burial orientation and nutrient supply can alter the effects of fragment traits in Populus. Shoot and root fragments of Populus deltoides × P. simonii were subjected ...

This ongoing monitoring study provides forensic search teams with systematic geophysical data over simulated clandestine graves for comparison to active cases. Simulated "wrapped," "naked," and "control" burials were created. Multiple geophysical surveys were collected over 6 years, here showing data from 4 to 6 years after burial. Electrical resistivity (twin electrode and ERI), multifrequency...

Oxygen minimum zones (OMZs) that impinge on continental margins favor the release of phosphorus (P) from the sediments to the water column, enhancing primary productivity and the maintenance or expansion of low-oxygen waters. A comprehensive field program in the Peruvian OMZ was undertaken to identify the sources of benthic P at six stations, including the analysis of particles from the water c...

Phosphorus (P) is a key nutrient for marine organisms. The only long-term removal pathway for P in the marine realm is burial in sediments. Iron (Fe) bound P accounts for a significant proportion of this burial at the global scale. In sediments underlying anoxic bottom waters, burial of Fe-bound P is generally assumed to be negligible because of reductive dissolution of Fe(III) (oxyhydr)oxides ...