Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Moist dynamics'

In this thesis I present a simple, computationally-inexpensive moist turbulence model in order to study the differences between moist and dry turbulence. The model is validated by comparing a moist-bubble simulation with ones presented in Grabowski and Clark (1993) using a more-sophisticated model. We show that the outputs compare well and that our model can easily be extended to higher resolutions due to its simplified equations and uncomplicated implementation. Measurements of liquid water content spectra from the 3843 validation run are shown having shallow slopes, implying that moist processes require high resolution. Consideration is also given to the issue of Gibb's oscillations near sharp gradients, such as at a cloud boundary. It is shown that, due to our high resolutions, the dynamics of our model are not seriously affected if corrections are not made to address them.
The model is used to study the small-scale predictability and dynamics of moist and dry shallow convective turbulence. Although moist flows are less predictable than their associated dry flows, we can account for the differences via a simple scaling. Using large-scale (the root-mean-squared vorticity) and small-scale (the dissipation wavenumber, kd) measures, we can reconcile classical predictability statistics from both wet and dry runs, with different lapse rates and relative humidities.
Finally, I present a more thorough investigation of the dynamical differences between wet and dry convective turbulence, and then consider the very small-scale (ℓ ≲ 10 m) variability of liquid water content and compare our high-resolution simulation results to existing in situ cumulus-cloud observations. We find that there is a small decrease in the spatial intermittency of vorticity in wet runs relative to dry ones. This is consistent with the idea that evaporation of the liquid water in the clouds reduces the instabilities that would lead to the most intense vortices. At the same time, the liquid water content spectra show that in these areas of intense mixing and cloud decay, the characteristic scale of variability is shifted to smaller scales compared to a passive scalar. Further integrations in which the convective forcing is removed show that as the amount of liquid water decreases through evaporation, there is delayed decay of the smallest scales of the cloud. These findings may explain the small-scale shallow liquid water content spectra from cumulus-cloud fly-through measurements reported in Davis et al. (1999).

The giant planets exhibit banded zonal jet streams that have maintained theirstructures over decades. There are long-standing questions: how deep the windstructures extend? What mechanisms generate and maintain the observed winds?Why are the wind structures so stable? To answer these questions, we performedthree-dimensional numerical simulations of the atmospheric flow using the primitiveequations.First, we use a simple Newtonian cooling scheme as a crude approach to gener-ate atmospheric latitudinal temperature differences that could be caused by latentheating or radiation. Our Jupiter-like simulations show that shallow thermal forcingconfined to pressures near the cloud tops can produce deep zonal winds from thetropopause all the way down to the bottom of the simulated atmosphere (a fewhundred bars). These deep winds can attain speeds comparable to the zonal jetspeeds within the shallow, forced layer; they are pumped by Coriolis accelerationacting on a deep meridional circulation driven by the shallow-layer eddies.Next, we explicitly include the transport of water vapor and allow condensationand latent heating to occur whenever the water vapor is supersaturated. Our simu-lations show that large-scale moist convection associated with condensation of watervapor can produce multiple zonal jets similar to those on the gas giants (Jupiterand Saturn) and ice giants (Uranus and Neptune). For plausible water abundances(3-5 times solar on Jupiter/Saturn and 30 times solar on Uranus/Neptune), oursimulations produce about 20 zonal jets for Jupiter and Saturn and 3 zonal jetson Uranus and Neptune. Moreover, these Jupiter/Saturn cases produce equatorialsuperrotation whereas the Uranus/Neptune cases produce equatorial subrotation,consistent with the observed equatorial jet direction on these planets. Sensitiv-ity tests show that the water abundance is the controlling factor; modest waterabundances favor equatorial superrotation, whereas large water abundances favorequatorial subrotation. This provides a possible mechanism for the existence ofequatorial superrotation on Jupiter and Saturn and the lack of superrotation onUranus and Neptune.

This work deals with statics and dynamics analysis of stayed cable bridge and design of supporting structure according to limit states. The work contains of static calculation, drawing documentation and visualization.

Studying team performance dynamics in tasks and activities has proven difficult because of the dynamic and unpredictable nature of the real world. Microworld systems aim to address that issue by providing researchers with controllable simulated environments that captures the essence of their real-world counterpart activities. This study utilized one such microworld system, called C3Fire, to simulate a forest firefighting setting where 48 participants divided into 12 teams were tasked with cooperating in extinguishing the fires. Teams consisted of four roles – each with its different responsibilities and resources. The aim of this study was to determine whether any individual team role had a greater impact on team performance than the other roles. Each team encountered three distinct scenarios of varying difficulty. Command input action counts and self-assessed performance scores were collected for each participant. These measurements were tested for correlations with team scores. The logistics chief role, who was responsible for re-filling and re-fueling other units, stood out as being the only role whose command input count correlated with team score, and being one of only two roles for which command inputs and self-assessed performance scores were correlated, as well. Results of a multiple regression procedure also indicated that the command counts of the logistics chief was a significant predictor of team score.

Thesis (S.M. in System Design and Management)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2010.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 86-87).
This work investigates the overload problems of one product development department in a consumer products company. Many in the organization attribute the problem to an external source - a burgeoning product portfolio. The most common solution posed is to split the department into two in order to reap the productivity gains of specialization and reduce the overload. It is proposed that some of the overload is internally generated and specialization alone will not be enough. There is a Reinventing the Wheel phenomenon that occurs when projects are handed off from one person to another. Additional work is generated with each hand off. This problem can be exacerbated by high turnover, lack of documentation, switch loss, or delays in project completion. System dynamics models were created to explore the feedback loops, delayed effects of managerial decisions and resulting behavior of the system. Results showed that specialization leads to initially high productivity, but the gains decrease over time as breadth of experience across the organization decays and rework and coordination costs increase. It is also shown that overload could be internally generated through managerial policies. If these policies are not changed, specializing may not be as effective. Recommendations include considering turnover as part of project planning and carefully monitoring workload so that the productivity does not plummet and affect all programs. Specialization is a good solution in some cases, but is not the best solution for work that requires a great deal of interaction between functions, where the level of coordination required to share knowledge outweighs the productivity gains.
by Linda Thi Nguyen.
S.M.in System Design and Management

Thesis (M.S.)--University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2006.
Title from electronic title page (viewed Oct. 10, 2007). "... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in the Department of Marine Sciences." Discipline: Marine Sciences; Department/School: Marine Sciences. On t.p. "alpha" appears as Greek letter.

Stellar companions can influence the formation and evolution of planetary systems, but there are currently few observational constraints on the properties of planet-hosting binary star systems. We search for stellar companions around 77 transiting hot Jupiter systems to explore the statistical properties of this population of companions as compared to field stars of similar spectral type. After correcting for survey incompleteness, we find that 47% +/- 7% of hot Jupiter systems have stellar companions with semimajor axes between 50 and 2000 au. This is 2.9 times larger than the field star companion fraction in this separation range, with a significance of 4.4 sigma. In the 1-50 au range, only 3.9(-2.0)(+4.5)% of hot Jupiters host stellar companions, compared to the field star value of 16.4% +/- 0.7%, which is a 2.7 sigma difference. We find that the distribution of mass ratios for stellar companions to hot Jupiter systems peaks at small values and therefore differs from that of field star binaries which tend to be uniformly distributed across all mass ratios. We conclude that either wide separation stellar binaries are more favorable sites for gas giant planet formation at all separations, or that the presence of stellar companions preferentially causes the inward migration of gas giant planets that formed farther out in the disk via dynamical processes such as Kozai-Lidov oscillations. We determine that less than 20% of hot Jupiters have stellar companions capable of inducing Kozai-Lidov oscillations assuming initial semimajor axes between 1 and 5 au, implying that the enhanced companion occurrence is likely correlated with environments where gas giants can form efficiently.

The thesis focuses on design of prestressed concrete footbridge which passes pedestrian and bicycle path over the Elbe river near city of Celakovice in the Czech Republic. Three different bridge options were analyzed and for further development a cable-stayed footbridge was chosen. Its bridge deck is formed of a box girder supported by cables in its vertical axis and all cable stays are anchored into two concrete A-shaped pylons. This structure was analyzed in SCIA Engineer and assessment of serviceability limit states and ultimate limit states according to recent European standards (Eurocodes) was made. Both the global structural behavior and the local structural integrity of box cross-section were assessed as well as construction stages and cross-sections of pylons and cable stays. Assessments were performed in IDEA StatiCa combined with hand calculations. Eventually a dynamic response of structure was analyzed. Natural modes and frequencies were found and forced oscillation response was evaluated. The thesis includes technical drawings, construction process and visualization.

This master thesis deals with the dynamic analysis of a footbridge. Computational model of the footbridge was created using ANSYS software. The model was subjected to dynamic wind load in longitudal and lateral direction. Furthermore pedestrian load in lateral direction was analyzed. Afterwards, due to unsatisfactory response to the pedestrian laod, a tuned mass damper was introduced to reduce the vibration. This lead to decrease in the vibration to a satisfactory levels, as is shown in the analyses of the model.

Various aspects of dry and moist atmospheric dynamics are explored through systems of varying complexity, ranging from a 2-D shallow water model to a more complex 3-D general circulation model. First, we examine the response of the nonlinear spherical shallow water equations to tropical vorticity forcing. For a wide range of scenarios we show the emergence of a robust superrotating state. Unlike previous examples, this state of superrotation does not rely on any particular form of dissipation. In fact, even in the absence of any damping we find propagating solutions that have superrotating zonal mean winds. Further, our prescription allows for the construction of arbitrary equatorial zonal wind profiles. In all the cases, rotational eddy fluxes in the equatorial region are responsible for the required eastward acceleration. Arguments based on the nature of potential vorticity (PV) and enstrophy are put forth to shed some light on these results. Next, we introduce moisture and examine the transient response of a spherical moist shallow water system to tropical imbalances. In particular, our focus is on studying the response in the presence of inhomogeneous moist saturation fields. While the initial moist response is similar to the dry reference run, albeit with a reduced equivalent depth, the long-time solution depends quite strikingly on the nature of the saturation field. With a latitudinally varying background saturation, height imbalances adjust to large-scale, low-frequency westward propagating modes. When the background saturation environment is also allowed to vary with longitude, in addition to a westward quadrupole, a distinct moist PV conserving eastward propagating mode (“moist Rossby” wave) emerges at long times. Many of these basic features carry over to the response in the presence of realistic saturation fields, and we catalogue the changing nature of the nonlinear atmospheric responses in the presence of saturation fields that characterize the summer and winter seasons. After this, we proceed to moist steady and statistically stationary solutions that result from continuous forcing and dissipation. The moist analogue of the “Matsuno-Gill” problem yields a response which is comparatively localized in both latitude and longitude. The sensitivity of the moist solutions to various model parameters like strength of latent heating, condensation and evaporation timescales, momentum and radiative damping as well as the background saturation field and mean flows is examined. In the presence of a random large or small-scale forcing, i.e., moist turbulence, the system is seen to support significantly slower large-scale waves along with a smaller scale turbulent field. Also, in contrast to the dry shallow water turbulence, interscale kinetic energy transfer is inhibited and smaller scales are also dominated by rotational modes. Interestingly, unlike the dry momentum forced case, moist solution yields superrotation, which is again tied to tropical eddy fluxes. Further, the effects of varying forcing protocols on kinetic energy spectra, the relative roles of divergent and rotational components as well as the spontaneous aggregation of moisture fields is systematically documented. Finally, we extend our theme of moist versus dry atmospheres to a more complex general circulation model. Specifically, dynamically dry and moist responses to uniform sea-surface temperature are studied in an aquaplanet setting by varying the latent heat of condensation. Despite having no meridional thermal gradients, Hadley and Ferrel cells with magnitude comparable to present-day Earth are observed for relatively moist cases. This tropical circulation, and the secondary Ferrel cell reverses as water vapor becomes dynamically inactive. In all cases, the Hadley cell is thermally indirect and is strongly influenced by eddy fluxes. Further, there is a systematic poleward transport of energy that remains almost invariant for relatively strong coupling of water substance. The emergence of tropical storm-like warm core vortices, associated extreme rainfall events and their sensitivity to moist coupling is examined. Finally, the changing nature of precipitation and tropical intraseasonal variability is documented for varying latent heats. Here, we see a systematic decrease in the dominant time period of the tropical disturbances with weaker dynamical coupling of water vapor. In fact, low-frequency modes such as the Madden Julian Oscillation (MJO) disappear when water vapor becomes dynamically passive in nature.

Sustainable use of species-rich moist forests is hampered by an insufficient understanding of their dynamics and long-term response to different wood harvesting strategies. This thesis contributes to a better understanding of natural forest dynamics, explores the productivity of native forests subjected to different management strategies, and quantifies the ecological impacts of these strategies. The thesis focuses on two study regions: tropical montane cloud forest (TMCF) in central Veracruz, Mexico, and Valdivian temperate rain forest (VTRF) in northern Chiloé Island, Chile. The process-based forest growth model FORMIND is applied to study natural forest succession, to assess long-term ecological implications of fuelwood extraction on TMCF, to explore the potential of secondary TMCF for provision of ecosystem services and fuelwood, and to compare potential harvesting strategies for VTRF regarding forest productivity and ecological consequences.Simulation results show that both forest types have a high potential for wood production. As wood extraction increases, the forest structure becomes simplified because large old trees disappear from the forest. The species composition shifts to tree species that are favoured by the respective harvesting strategy. The overall ecological impact increases linearly with the amount of extracted wood. Simulation results allow to define management strategies that balance conservation and production objectives, promote the regeneration of desired tree species, or minimise shifts in the species composition of the forest. Process-based forest models enhance our understanding of the dynamics of species-rich moist forests and are indispensable tools to assess long-term implications of anthropogenic disturbances on forest ecosystems. Thereby they contribute to the conservation and sustainable use of native forests outside protected areas.

The east-west oriented cloud bands in the tropics are called the Inter-tropical Con-vergence Zones (ITCZ). Till recently, the ITCZ has been assumed to have a simple vertical structure with convergence near the surface boundary layer and divergence near the tropopause. Recent work has shown that the ITCZ can have a complex ver-tical structure with multi-level ows. This complex structure has a profound impact on the mass, momentum and energy budget in the ITCZ. This thesis addresses the factors that govern the shallow meridional circulation that occurs in the ITCZ and the mechanisms that govern the abrupt poleward transition and the gradual poleward migration . The shallow meridional circulation forms when the boundary layer ow that con-verges in the ITCZ, rises above the boundary layer and diverges in the lower tropo-sphere. The ow above the boundary layer is in the direction opposite to the direction of the ow within the boundary layer. Some authors have argued that this is caused by the reversal of pressure gradients just above the boundary layer in response to strong sea surface temperature gradients. This hypothesis neglects the eect of plan-etary rotation on the ow and was found to be insucient to explain the formation of shallow meridional circulation. In the east Pacic ocean, the shallow circulation forms only to the south of the ITCZ when the ITCZ forms away from the equator, while it is absent when the ITCZ forms close to the equator. The aqua-planet simulations of the equatorial and the o-equatorial ITCZ were conducted using Community Atmosphere Model (CAM 3.0). The model used the Eulerian dynamical core with T42 horizontal resolution and 26 levels in vertical. Each simulation was run for 3 years and analysis of last six months was presented. The simulations reproduced the contrast in the vertical structure of the equatorial and o-equatorial ITCZ. The shallow circulation was simulated with-out the reversal of pressure gradients and the SST gradients were weakest when the shallow circulation was simulated. We have proposed a new mechanism for the exis-tence of shallow meridional circulation in the ITCZ. We have argued that, in Earth's atmosphere, the mean horizontal ow generally occurs in the direction perpendicular to the direction of applied pressure gradient due to the action of Coriolis force. If the local rotational eects of the ow (relative vorticity) cancels the action of the Coriolis force, then a ow along the pressure gradient is possible. We demonstrated that this condition was satised only to the south of the ITCZ when it forms away from the equator. The ITCZ is characterized by the maximum mass convergence in the boundary layer. The mass convergence is mainly caused by the deceleration of poleward ow in the boundary layer. When the ITCZ forms close to the equator, the ow in the boundary layer is a resultant of vector addition of three forces, a pressure gradient force in the north-south direction (i.e., the ow towards low pressure), a Coriolis force which acts in the east-west direction( perpendicular to the direction of the ow), and surface friction which opposes the resultant ow. When the ITCZ forms away from the equator a three way balance does not capture the dynamics of ow. As the poleward ow is accelerated towards low pressure, it has to advect a considerable amount of zonal momentum with it which acts to retard the poleward ow. This eect of advection of zonal momentum has to be included in the force balance to obtain an accurate estimate of the ow and associated convergence. The ITCZ acts like a heat engine. The energy is gained near the surface, some energy is transported towards pole while some is utilized in driving the meridional circulation. The rest is rejected near the tropopause. The transport within the troposphere occurs through the vertical or horizontal advection of the energy due to vertical and horizontal motions respectively. Our analysis of the ITCZ suggests that; a large amount of transport occurs through horizontal motions that was neglected in the previous studies. The detailed analysis suggests that the latent energy in the form of mass of water vapor is exported out of the ITCZ at dierent levels in association with the multilevel ows. The equatorial and the o-equatorial ITCZ are dierent because, evaporation is larger in the o-equatorial ITCZ when compared to the equatorial ITCZ. The ITCZ shows a strong sub-seasonal variability in its location in the Indian Ocean and the west Pacic Ocean during boreal summer. There are two favorable locations, one near the equator and another away from the equator, for formation of the ITCZ. The equatorial ITCZ either propagates abruptly or gradually to the o-equatorial location. A detailed analysis of moisture and momentum budget of the simulated abrupt and gradual propagations enabled us to separate the role of thermo-dynamic and dynamic processes. We found that, if the equatorial ITCZ would propa-gate abruptly or gradually to the o-equatorial location is decided by the availability of the water vapor in the boundary layer between the two locations of the ITCZ, i.e., by the thermodynamic processes. But, such a transition to the o-equatorial location is allowed only when the constraints imposed by the re-adjustment in the circulation are satised. In simple terms, these constraints emerge due to two processes. 1. The Earth (lower boundary of the atmosphere) spins at maximum eective radius near the equator. As a result, the atmosphere gains maximum angular momentum near the equator (`zonal momentum' in Cartesian co-ordinates) . The ITCZ is one of the primary avenues to transport the zonal momentum from the lower troposphere to the upper troposphere. When the favorable location of ITCZ is near the equator, the location of ITCZ and the location where atmosphere gains maximum zonal momentum are coincident. The ITCZ and associated meridional circulation transports the zonal momentum upwards which is then transported polewards. As the favorable location of ITCZ moves away from the equator, the two locations are die rent. As a result, the atmospheric ow has to re-adjust so that the zonal momentum is transported from the equator to the favorable location of the ITCZ which then transports it upwards and polewards. In summary, this thesis proposes a new mechanism for the generation of shallow meridional circulation, the abrupt transition and the gradual propagations of the ITCZ.

The east-west oriented cloud bands in the tropics are called the Inter-tropical Con-vergence Zones (ITCZ). Till recently, the ITCZ has been assumed to have a simple vertical structure with convergence near the surface boundary layer and divergence near the tropopause. Recent work has shown that the ITCZ can have a complex ver-tical structure with multi-level ows. This complex structure has a profound impact on the mass, momentum and energy budget in the ITCZ. This thesis addresses the factors that govern the shallow meridional circulation that occurs in the ITCZ and the mechanisms that govern the abrupt poleward transition and the gradual poleward migration . The shallow meridional circulation forms when the boundary layer ow that con-verges in the ITCZ, rises above the boundary layer and diverges in the lower tropo-sphere. The ow above the boundary layer is in the direction opposite to the direction of the ow within the boundary layer. Some authors have argued that this is caused by the reversal of pressure gradients just above the boundary layer in response to strong sea surface temperature gradients. This hypothesis neglects the eect of plan-etary rotation on the ow and was found to be insucient to explain the formation of shallow meridional circulation. In the east Pacic ocean, the shallow circulation forms only to the south of the ITCZ when the ITCZ forms away from the equator, while it is absent when the ITCZ forms close to the equator. The aqua-planet simulations of the equatorial and the o-equatorial ITCZ were conducted using Community Atmosphere Model (CAM 3.0). The model used the Eulerian dynamical core with T42 horizontal resolution and 26 levels in vertical. Each simulation was run for 3 years and analysis of last six months was presented. The simulations reproduced the contrast in the vertical structure of the equatorial and o-equatorial ITCZ. The shallow circulation was simulated with-out the reversal of pressure gradients and the SST gradients were weakest when the shallow circulation was simulated. We have proposed a new mechanism for the exis-tence of shallow meridional circulation in the ITCZ. We have argued that, in Earth's atmosphere, the mean horizontal ow generally occurs in the direction perpendicular to the direction of applied pressure gradient due to the action of Coriolis force. If the local rotational eects of the ow (relative vorticity) cancels the action of the Coriolis force, then a ow along the pressure gradient is possible. We demonstrated that this condition was satised only to the south of the ITCZ when it forms away from the equator. The ITCZ is characterized by the maximum mass convergence in the boundary layer. The mass convergence is mainly caused by the deceleration of poleward ow in the boundary layer. When the ITCZ forms close to the equator, the ow in the boundary layer is a resultant of vector addition of three forces, a pressure gradient force in the north-south direction (i.e., the ow towards low pressure), a Coriolis force which acts in the east-west direction( perpendicular to the direction of the ow), and surface friction which opposes the resultant ow. When the ITCZ forms away from the equator a three way balance does not capture the dynamics of ow. As the poleward ow is accelerated towards low pressure, it has to advect a considerable amount of zonal momentum with it which acts to retard the poleward ow. This eect of advection of zonal momentum has to be included in the force balance to obtain an accurate estimate of the ow and associated convergence. The ITCZ acts like a heat engine. The energy is gained near the surface, some energy is transported towards pole while some is utilized in driving the meridional circulation. The rest is rejected near the tropopause. The transport within the troposphere occurs through the vertical or horizontal advection of the energy due to vertical and horizontal motions respectively. Our analysis of the ITCZ suggests that; a large amount of transport occurs through horizontal motions that was neglected in the previous studies. The detailed analysis suggests that the latent energy in the form of mass of water vapor is exported out of the ITCZ at dierent levels in association with the multilevel ows. The equatorial and the o-equatorial ITCZ are dierent because, evaporation is larger in the o-equatorial ITCZ when compared to the equatorial ITCZ. The ITCZ shows a strong sub-seasonal variability in its location in the Indian Ocean and the west Pacic Ocean during boreal summer. There are two favorable locations, one near the equator and another away from the equator, for formation of the ITCZ. The equatorial ITCZ either propagates abruptly or gradually to the o-equatorial location. A detailed analysis of moisture and momentum budget of the simulated abrupt and gradual propagations enabled us to separate the role of thermo-dynamic and dynamic processes. We found that, if the equatorial ITCZ would propa-gate abruptly or gradually to the o-equatorial location is decided by the availability of the water vapor in the boundary layer between the two locations of the ITCZ, i.e., by the thermodynamic processes. But, such a transition to the o-equatorial location is allowed only when the constraints imposed by the re-adjustment in the circulation are satised. In simple terms, these constraints emerge due to two processes. 1. The Earth (lower boundary of the atmosphere) spins at maximum eective radius near the equator. As a result, the atmosphere gains maximum angular momentum near the equator (`zonal momentum' in Cartesian co-ordinates) . The ITCZ is one of the primary avenues to transport the zonal momentum from the lower troposphere to the upper troposphere. When the favorable location of ITCZ is near the equator, the location of ITCZ and the location where atmosphere gains maximum zonal momentum are coincident. The ITCZ and associated meridional circulation transports the zonal momentum upwards which is then transported polewards. As the favorable location of ITCZ moves away from the equator, the two locations are die rent. As a result, the atmospheric ow has to re-adjust so that the zonal momentum is transported from the equator to the favorable location of the ITCZ which then transports it upwards and polewards. In summary, this thesis proposes a new mechanism for the generation of shallow meridional circulation, the abrupt transition and the gradual propagations of the ITCZ.

Fires occur in most forest reserves in Ghana. However, there is a limited understanding of the fires and their behaviour in the different ecological zones. Therefore, this research was to analyze the spatial and temporal distribution of fires, examine the driving factors, direct and underlying causes and impacts of the fires, determine and compare the fuel dynamics to predict fire behaviour and estimate the effects of fire on carbon stocks in different ecological zones of Ghana. The research used different methodologies including questionnaires, fire records, satellite fire data from MODIS (2001 to 2015) (first approach) and field experiment (second approach). A total of 304 respondents was sampled for eight communities, two communities each around the moist and dry semi-deciduous forest, upland evergreen forest and savanna. The spatial distribution of fire showed a trend along the forest boundaries, open vegetation, degraded areas, human settlements, shrubs, farms, rivers and roads. The temporal trend was significant in the dry forest (435 hotspots), followed by the savanna (229 hotspots), moist forest (76 hotspots) and the least in the evergreen forest (5 hotspots). The fires were observed from August, October to May with the dry forest having the longest seasonality. Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday were the peak days of the detected fire hotspots in the dry, moist and savanna respectively. Most of the fires in the different ecological zones peaked from 13 to 14 pm. The results of the research also revealed that the fires were driven primarily by socioeconomic factors which were supported by environmental, type of vegetation and cultural factors. In all the ecological zones, fires were originating from humans. The study pointed out three categories of human-caused fires through activity (farming), non-activity (carelessness or negligence) and others (unknown causes). The major underlying causes of fire mentioned were the inadequate management of the forest and weak compliance and enforcement of forest laws. All these fires have resulted in several impacts in the various ecological zones. Concerning the fuel dynamics, the total downed woody fuel load in the evergreen forest was found to be higher (228 and 208.4 tonnes per hectare). The litter and duff density (112.2 kilogram per cubic meter) in unburned area and loading (6.3 and 13.5 tonnes per hectare) for both burned and unburned area respectively were significantly greater in the moist forest. Also, the dry forest showed 2.4 tonnes per hectare of herbaceous loading in the burned area. However, fires were predicted to be severe in the savanna regarding the surface rate of spread, flame length and fireline intensity, but with low reaction intensity and heat per unit area. The total amount of aboveground tree carbon, aboveground non-tree and belowground root for both burned and the unburned area varied under the different ecological zones. The highest was seen in the moist forest with the emission of 294 tonnes of carbon per hectare accounting for 82% losses. This research has brought out the current situation of fire in the various ecological zones for the implementation of necessary actions for the future.

This Master thesis compares growth of Percidae and Cyprinidae in flooded mining pit Most with water reservoir Vír, which is stable, fifty years old. Fish were cought using toils by workers from Hydrobiology institute, Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic, which are exploring fish stock. Otoliths, scales, and operculas from both families, Cyrinidae and Percidae, were removed from fish for age determination and growth back-calculation in individual years. Due to surplus of nutrients and food in flooding mining pit is assumed a huge growth difference in the first two years of life. The aim of this thesis is not only to describe the difference in the expected growth of individual species, but also to estimate its causes. At the same time will be in a very contrasting conditions compared different methods of age determination. Key words: otolith, fish age, fish population, fish growth, water reservoir, flooded mining pit, growth back-calculations