Publications by authors named "A Hector"
Increasing extreme climatic events threaten the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems. Because soil microbes govern key biogeochemical processes, understanding their response to climate extremes is crucial in predicting the consequences for ecosystem functioning. Here we subjected soils from 30 grasslands across Europe to four contrasting extreme climatic events under common controlled conditions (drought, flood, freezing and heat), and compared the response of soil microbial communities and their functioning with those of undisturbed soils.
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- * Analysis of data from over 1 million forest plots and thousands of tree species shows that wood density varies significantly by latitude, being up to 30% denser in tropical forests compared to boreal forests, and is influenced mainly by temperature and soil moisture.
- * The research also finds that disturbances like human activity and fire alter wood density at local levels, affecting forest carbon stock estimates by up to 21%, emphasizing the importance of understanding environmental impacts on forest ecosystems.
A series of ruthenium iron nitride phases with Ru:Fe ratios of ca. 1:3 were synthesized by ammonolysis. When the ammonolysis temperature was above 500°C, the obtained RuFeN materials had a ε-FeN (622) structure, while two similar phases were present when the ammonolysis was lower than 500°C.
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- - The study investigates the relationship between tree species diversity and community productivity in forest ecosystems, focusing on the roles of different mycorrhizal associations (arbuscular and ectomycorrhizal fungi) in this relationship.
- - Results showed that higher tree species richness generally enhances community productivity, particularly when both types of mycorrhizal trees coexist, likely due to complementary interactions between them.
- - In communities with only ectomycorrhizal trees, species richness positively influenced productivity, but this effect was not seen in communities composed solely of arbuscular mycorrhizal trees, highlighting the importance of mycorrhizal interactions in biodiversity-productivity dynamics.
Nanostructures synthesised by hard-templating assisted methods are advantageous as they retain the size and morphology of the host templates which are vital characteristics for their intended applications. A number of techniques have been employed to deposit materials inside porous templates, such as electrodeposition, vapour deposition, lithography, melt and solution filling, but most of these efforts have been applied with pore sizes higher in the mesoporous regime or even larger. Here, we explore atomic layer deposition (ALD) as a method for nanostructure deposition into mesoporous hard templates consisting of mesoporous silica films with sub-5 nm pore diameters.
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