Smart concretes for civil infrastructure systems

Smart concretes for civil infrastructure systems are reviewed, with emphasis on carbon fiber reinforced concrete for strain/stress sensing as well as improved mechanical properties. The sensing by electrical resistance measurement had been demonstrated during compressive, tensile and flexural deformation.(AU)

The global carbon cycle

Basic components of global carbon cycle are described which are treated in existing high resolution global numerical models. With model supercomputers the models give a fairly realistic reproduction of the observed large scale structure od geochemical tracers in the ocean and thus provide a reliable tool for prognoses (AU)

Variability of the ocean carbon cycle : A Medellin approach towards an explanation of the glacial pCO2 reduction in the atmosphere

Hypotheses for an explanation of the glacial pCO2 reduction in the atmosphere were tested with a high resolution carbon cycle model and a simple linear response model. A decrease of ocean ventilation is suggested as the primary cause for the pCO2 decrease (AU)

CO2=carbon and water vapour exchanges of a Mediterranean macchia canopy

rol of terrestrial vegetation on the global carbon cycle is becoming an important subject and a growing need is felt for more precise and detailed measurements of the response of terrestrial ecosystems to the changing environment. Many ecophysiological models developed in order to assess the impact of climatic change on vegetation are based on physiological processes occurring at cellular or leaf level. Scaling up these processes from leaf or individual plant to the canopy level is a complicate and rather difficult matter, requiring accurate and reliable methods of results testing. In this paper an application of the eddy correlation technique to the determination of water vapour and CO2 gaseous exchanges of a #macchia# canopy is presented. Experimental data of the three days of measurements are discussed in terms of energy balance, carbon fluxes and carbon-water flux ratio (CWFR) (AU)

Dry matter accumulation, CO2 gas exchanges, and water uptake of plants and plant communities under increased CO2 concentration

effect of long term exposure to elevated CO2 levels on biomass production at 18 herbaceous plant species was studied. The grain yield, CO2 gas exchange, and water uptake on plant communities of Trifolium pratense and festucs prstensis were examined at 340 represent ambient conditions, 450, 600 and 800 ppm atmospheric CO2 concentrations in mini - glasshouses under field conditions. Plant species grown at nearly doubling CO2 differed widely in the response to dry weight accumulation, all species together show an average increase of about 30

dry weight. (AU)