There is increasing interest in developing better predictive tools and a broader conceptual framework to guide the restoration of degraded land. Traditionally, restoration efforts have focused on re-establishing historical disturbance regimes or abiotic conditions, relying on successional processes to guide the recovery of biotic communities. However, strong feedbacks between biotic factors and the physical environment can alter the efficacy of these successional-based management efforts. Recent experimental work indicates that some degraded systems are resilient to traditional restoration efforts owing to constraints such as changes in landscape connectivity and organization, loss of native species pools, shifts in species dominance, trophic interactions and/or invasion by exotics, and concomitant effects on biogeochemical processes. Models of alternative ecosystem states that incorporate system thresholds and feedbacks are now being applied to the dynamics of recovery in degraded systems and are suggesting ways in which restoration can identify, prioritize and address these constraints.

/pdf/alternative-states-and-positive-feedbacks-in-restoration-3p92oa7stw.pdf

Alternative states and positive feedbacks in restoration ecology

[1] The HiRISE camera features a 0.5 m diameter primary mirror, 12 m effective focal length, and a focal plane system that can acquire images containing up to 28 Gb (gigabits) of data in as little as 6 seconds. HiRISE will provide detailed images (0.25 to 1.3 m/pixel) covering ∼1% of the Martian surface during the 2-year Primary Science Phase (PSP) beginning November 2006. Most images will include color data covering 20% of the potential field of view. A top priority is to acquire ∼1000 stereo pairs and apply precision geometric corrections to enable topographic measurements to better than 25 cm vertical precision. We expect to return more than 12 Tb of HiRISE data during the 2-year PSP, and use pixel binning, conversion from 14 to 8 bit values, and a lossless compression system to increase coverage. HiRISE images are acquired via 14 CCD detectors, each with 2 output channels, and with multiple choices for pixel binning and number of Time Delay and Integration lines. HiRISE will support Mars exploration by locating and characterizing past, present, and future landing sites, unsuccessful landing sites, and past and potentially future rover traverses. We will investigate cratering, volcanism, tectonism, hydrology, sedimentary processes, stratigraphy, aeolian processes, mass wasting, landscape evolution, seasonal processes, climate change, spectrophotometry, glacial and periglacial processes, polar geology, and regolith properties. An Internet Web site (HiWeb) will enable anyone in the world to suggest HiRISE targets on Mars and to easily locate, view, and download HiRISE data products.

/pdf/mars-reconnaissance-orbiter-s-high-resolution-imaging-4bjw0ks5y9.pdf

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE)

We present tomographic evidence for the existence of deep-mantle thermal convection plumes. P-wave velocity images show at least six well-resolved plumes that extend into the lowermost mantle: Ascension, Azores, Canary, Easter, Samoa, and Tahiti. Other less well-resolved plumes, including Hawaii, may also reach the lowermost mantle. We also see several plumes that are mostly confined to the upper mantle, suggesting that convection may be partially separated into two depth regimes. All of the observed plumes have diameters of several hundred kilometers, indicating that plumes convey a substantial fraction of the internal heat escaping from Earth.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/303/5656/338.full.pdf

Finite-Frequency Tomography Reveals a Variety of Plumes in the Mantle

The subject of surface potentials on natural and artificial bodies in space is reviewed with particular emphasis on recent developments. Following a brief survey of work done up to the early 1970s on the charging of astrophysical objects in interstellar and interplanetary space and spacecraft charging, the various charging mechanisms in space are examined, including the collection of plasma particles, photoemission, and secondary electron emission by electron impact and ion impact, and the effects on charging of nonisotropic plasmas, wakes, and environmental magnetic and electric fields are considered. The concept of equilibrium potential is discussed, along with differential charging, potential barriers and discharge processes. The measurement of spacecraft potentials is then considered, and recent work on spacecraft potential modification and control by active and passive means is presented. Finally, astrophysical applications where charging effects may be important are discussed, and areas for further work are indicated.

http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0034-4885/44/11/002/pdf

Potentials of surfaces in space

Estimates of the amount of water outgassed from Mars, based on the composition of the atmosphere, range from 6 to 160 m, as compared with 3 km for the Earth. In contrast, large flood features, valley networks, and several indicators of ground ice suggest that at least 500 m of water have outgassed. The two sets of estimates may be reconciled if early in its history, Mars lost part of its atmosphere by impact erosion and hydrodynamic escape.

Water on Mars

The entropy associated with the thermodynamic states produced by hypervelocity meteoroid impacts at various velocities are calculated for a series of lunar rocks and minerals and compared with the entropy values required for melting and vaporization.

Shock melting and vaporization of lunar rocks and minerals

Questions concerning the tektite distribution are examined, taking into account the Australasian strewn field, the Ivory Coast strewn field, the Moldavite strewn field, the North American strewn field, the Libyan desert glass, the Aouelloul crater glass, and amerikanites. Attention is given to the shapes of tektites, the internal structure of tektites, the physical properties of tektite glass, the chemical composition of tektites, isotopes, fission tracks, cosmic ray tracks, and arguments in favor and against the terrestrial origin of tektites. It is concluded that tektites cannot be terrestrial in origin. They are probably volcanic ejects, of geologically recent epochs, from one or a number of lunar volcanoes.

Tektites and their origin

One of the key issues associated with the understanding of large scale impacts is how the observable complex crater structural features (e.g., central peaks and pits, flat floors, ring shaped ridges and depressions, stratigraphic modifications, and faults) relate to the impactor's parameters (e.g., radius, velocity, and density) and the nonobservable transient crater measures (e.g., depth of penetration and diameter at maximum penetration). We have numerically modeled large-scale impacts on planets for a range of impactor parameters, gravity and planetary material strengths. From these we found that the collapse of the transient cavity results in the development of a tall, transient central peak that oscillates and drives surface waves that are arrested by the balance between gravitational forces and planetary strength to produce a wide range of the observed surface features. In addition, we found that the underlying stratigraphy is inverted outside of the transient cavity diameter (overturned flap region), but not inside. This change in stratigraphy is observable by remote sensing, drilling, seismic imaging and gravity mapping techniques. We used the above results to develop scaling laws and to make estimates of the impact parameters for the Chicxulub impact and also compared the calculated stratigraphic profile with the internal structure model developed by Hildebrand et. al. [1998], using gravity, seismic and other field data. For a stratigraphy rotation diameter of 90 km, the maximum depth of penetration is ∼43 km. The impactor diameter was also calculated. From the scaling relationships we get for a 2.7 g/cm^3 asteroid impacting at 20 km/s, or a 1.0 g/cm^3 comet impacting at 40 km/s, an impactor diameter of ∼13 km, and for a comet impacting at 60 km/s, an impactor diameter of ∼10 km.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1029/1998JE000596

Complex craters: Relationship of stratigraphy and rings to impact conditions

The gravitational field of the earth

Origin of Moung Nong type tektities detached by meteoritic impact, considering lunar origin based on diffusion rates in silicates

John A. O'Keefe

Papers

Shock melting and vaporization of lunar rocks and minerals

Tektites and their origin

Complex craters: Relationship of stratigraphy and rings to impact conditions

The gravitational field of the earth

The origin of tektites.