eLearning

David W. Schindler
ABSTRACT
The results of bottle and mesocosm experiments
were compared with those obtained in whole-
ecosystem experiments at the Experimental Lakes
Area. Unless they can be cleverly designed to mimic
major ecosystem processes and community compo-
sitions, smaller-scale experiments often give highly
replicable, but spurious, answers. Problems with
appropriate scaling are difficult to deduce without
direct comparisons with whole-ecosystem experi-
ments. Reasons aremany, but include inappropriate
spatial scales to include whole communities, in
particular predators and nocturnally active animals;
temporal scales that are too short to assess accu-
rately the response of slow-responding organisms
and biogeochemical processes; and elimination of
key littoral–pelagic and catchment–lake interac-
tions. Identical studies of limnological processes in
lakes of a large …

David A. Starrett
Economists are widely viewed by the general public
as being committed tomarkets as a way of allocating
resources and consequently to the use of market
prices as a reflection of social value. This view has
given economists a bad reputation in some circles;
indeed, there is a cynical definition of an economist
as someone who ‘‘knows the price of everything and
the value of nothing.’’ Whereas economists prob-
ably do as a group have more faith in markets than
others, it certainly is not true that we equate price
with value. We recognize many goods and services
for which there are no markets (such as clean air,
wildlife habitat, and …

Dan Binkley,
Yowhan Son,
and David W. Valentine
ABSTRACT
The nitrogen (N) cycle of forest ecosystems is un-
derstood relatively well, and few scientists expect
that major revisions will be necessary; most current
work on N cycling focuses on improving the preci-
sion estimates of pools and fluxes, or measuring the
magnitudes of well-known pools in response to
management or disturbances. However, in the past
few decades more than a dozen articles in refereed
journals have claimed very high rates of N input, far
beyond the rates expected for known sources of N.
In this review, we summarize the literature on N
accretion rates in forests that lack substantial con-
tributions from symbiotic N-fixing plants. We …

Howard T. Odum
and Eugene P. Odum
Valuation is one mechanism by which humans
organize occupancy and use of large-scale ecosys-
tems and regions, such as watersheds, estuaries,
cities, states, nations, and ultimately the whole
earth (the global perspective). When human valua-
tions do not measure the real contributions of
natural ecosystems, as is currently the case, ecosys-
tems are not protected, and the larger systems
produce less when the natural ecosystems are lost to
development. Ecologists working on small-scale
studies are concerned with the loss of their study
areas and biodiversity. Ecologists working at large
scales, and society in general, have to be concerned
that poor valuation is delaying the organization of a
sustainable pattern …

Lowell Pritchard Jr.,
Carl Folke,
and Lance Gunderson
INTRODUCTION
As long as we are forced to make choices, we are
doing valuation. But different approaches to valua-
tion are based on qualitatively different assump-
tions. For example, the economics approach to
valuation is based on the ethical principle of con-
sumer sovereignty, and it privileges the kinds of
decisions individuals make in the marketplace. We
accept the economics approach as a useful partial
approach to decision making in relation to ecosys-
temservices if one is interested in what people think
about and want from services; if one believes that
human preferences are the basis for the value of
services; if one accepts the assumption that adding
individual …

X Z Shang1,3
,SDWu2
, C Liu1
,WXWang2
, LWGuo2
, Q Huang2
and J M Zhou2
1
School of Physics and Technology, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, Hubei, People’s
Republic of China
2
State Key Laboratory for Surface Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of
Sciences, Beijing 100080, People’s Republic of China
E-mail: xunzhong@acc-lab.whu.edu.cn
Received 8 December 2005
Published 20 April 2006
Online at stacks.iop.org/JPhysD/39/1800
Abstract
Low-temperature step-graded InAlAs metamorphic buffer layers on GaAs
substrate grown by molecular beam epitaxy were investigated. The strain
relaxation and the composition of the top InAlAs layer were determined by
high-resolution triple-axis x-ray diffraction measurements, which show that
the top InAlAs layer is nearly fully relaxed. Surface morphology was
observed by reflection high-energy electron diffraction pattern and …

Cheng Cen,
Stefan Thiel,
Jochen Mannhart,
Jeremy Levy
Electronic confinement at nanoscale dimensions remains a central means of science and
technology. We demonstrate nanoscale lateral confinement of a quasi–two-dimensional electron
gas at a lanthanum aluminate–strontium titanate interface. Control of this confinement using an
atomic force microscope lithography technique enabled us to create tunnel junctions and field-effect
transistors with characteristic dimensions as small as 2 nanometers. These electronic devices can be
modified or erased without the need for complex lithographic procedures. Our on-demand
nanoelectronics fabrication platform has the potential for widespread technological application.

Abstract With this paper we present a first attempt to
combine the direct results on lithology, composition
and age dating in the boreholes BDP-93, BDP-96 and
BDP-97 with geological and seismic data from the areas
where those sections were drilled. The sedimentary
environments represented by the BDP boreholes are
markedly different and possess characteristic litholog-
ical features. The results of the deep drilling provide
the essential means for testing …

Bruce P. Luyendyk Institute for Crustal Studies and Department of Geological Sciences, University of California,
Santa Barbara, California 93106-1100
ABSTRACT
In the process of subducted slab capture, a spreading ridge approaches subparallel to
a subduction zone following the trailing edge of a downgoing plate. Eventually the down-
going plate is too young and small to subduct, and spreading stops. The spreading ridge
stalls many tens of kilometres outboard of the subduction zone. The subducted plate welds
to the outboard plate across the dormant spreading center and is captured by it. The
captured plate then acquires the motion of the plate it welded to. In the southwest Pacific
the Pacific-Phoenix …

Ross D. King,
Jem Rowland,
Stephen G. Oliver,
Michael Young,
Wayne Aubrey,
Emma Byrne,
Maria Liakata,
Magdalena Markham,
Pınar Pir,
Larisa N. Soldatova,
Andrew Sparkes,
Kenneth E. Whelan,
Amanda Clare
The basis of science is the hypothetico-deductive method and the recording of experiments in
sufficient detail to enable reproducibility. We report the development of Robot Scientist “Adam,”
which advances the automation of both. Adam has autonomously generated functional genomics
hypotheses about the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and experimentally tested these hypotheses
by using laboratory automation. We have confirmed Adam’s conclusions through manual
experiments. To describe Adam’s research, we have developed an ontology and logical language.
The resulting formalization involves over 10,000 different research units in a nested treelike
structure, 10 levels …