Investigating the impacts of recycled water on long-lived conifers.

Recycled wastewater is a popular alternative water resource. Recycled water typically has higher salinity than potable water and therefore may not be an appropriate water source for landscapes planted with salt-intolerant plant species. Coast redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) are an important agricultural, horticultural and ecological species assumed to be salt intolerant.

State-of-the-art RF signal generation from optical frequency division.

We present the design of a novel, ultralow-phase-noise frequency synthesizer implemented with extremely-low-noise regenerative frequency dividers. This synthesizer generates eight outputs, viz. 1.

Ultra-low-noise regenerative frequency divider.

We designed ultra-low-noise regenerative divide-by- 2 circuits that operate at input frequencies of 10, 20, and 40 MHz. We achieved output-referred single-sideband residual phase noise equal to -164 dBc/Hz at 10 Hz offset and estimated residual Allan deviation, σ(y)(τ) less than 3 × 10(-15)τ(-1) for a single divider, which is, to our knowledge, the lowest noise of any divider ever reported at these frequencies. To measure such a low noise, we also built a cross-spectrum measurement system that has a noise floor of -175 dBc/Hz at 10 Hz offset from the carrier frequency.

Plasticity tradeoffs in salt tolerance mechanisms among desert Distichlis spicata genotypes.

We investigated genetic differences in salinity tolerance among 20 saltgrass (Distichlis spicata (L.) Greene) genotypes, including constitutive, gender-based and phenotypic plasticity traits, to better understand the basis of adaptation and acclimation by saltgrass in diverse environments. On average, the plants survived NaCl treatments up to ~1M, with reductions in growth and health that varied with genotype.