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Homicide in a quiet town summons investigative skills that a middle-aged religious never knew she had.
Sister Louise LaSalle, of the Congregation of St. Hermione of Ephesus, is worried about theology professor Dr. Maurice Jordan, her longtime friend from grad school. When Sister Lou has dinner with him the night before he's to speak at St. Hermione's affiliated college, she thinks he looks tired, older than his years, and definitely distressed about something, although he won't tell her what. The next day, he doesn't show up on time as promised, and Sister Lou learns why when she goes to his hotel room and finds him murdered. Despite the reassurance of her protective nephew, Chris, and her friends among the Sisters, Lou can't help blaming herself: if only she hadn't invited him to speak, Mo might still be alive. She knew he was a controversial figure in the world of academic theology, and he had many detractors, some of whom even sent death threats. Two of the local deputies start their interviews with the congregation of St. Hermione, but Sister Lou is convinced they're looking in the wrong place. And with the eager help of journalist Shari Henson and Chris' more cautious support, Sister Lou—for whom patience is an acquired virtue—takes time from her community outreach work for her own investigation. A conniving business partner, a couple of academic rivals, Maurice's unfaithful wife, and her lover all come under Sister Lou's scrutiny, even when pressure mounts from all sides to back off. The tale is bogged down by full-color descriptions of every article of clothing, item of furniture, head of hair, and pair of eyes, but the possibility of romance between two of the characters provides a pleasant foil to Sister Lou's pursuit of the truth for the sake of her old friend.
Cozy fans will forgive the extraneous details and Matthews' naïve style in this debut of a saintly sleuth with some very human failings.


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Hell or High Water
Season 1 • Episode 3
A kayaker fights for his life as he's caught in a raging torrent during n a flash flood in a South African river. A sailor fights for his life adrift in the middle of the North Atlantic and a man films a frightening light plane crash into the forest.
42 min|TV-PG|Premiered 09/29/2016


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One of my closest friends lives in Sydney, Australia. Let's call her B.
B is a fine specimen of a gal. She is a former model and actress turned lawyer, which means she is hot AND smart. In addition to all of this, B is a fantastic girl; she's nice, a good friend and one of those 'girls you marry' not 'girls you sleep with and dump'.
In the 'which character from Sex and the City are you' game – she was always Charlotte.
A few months ago B found a lovely man. They started dating and it turned serious pretty quickly as they moved in together and begin to talk about the next steps. The boyfriend is Jewish. B was raised Catholic but she is pretty much 'no religion' in particular, as the Australian Catholic Church seems to have a fantastic way of scaring children away from its faith. Being my friend, B has been to Israel and loved it, and knowing the guy came from a Jewish family she was getting used to the thought of converting.
B started studying Judaism and loved it. She connected to the message (You know, not believing in anything outside of yourself and all of that) she loved the sense of community in her Shul and so she committed herself to a full Orthodox conversion. She was in! She was ours to keep!


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Dealing with anxiety can be scary. It may prevent you from taking full advantage of your life. Fear of an attack can make you feel trapped and helpless. If you are done letting anxiety control your life, keep reading to learn how to manage the symptoms.
Keep daily stress managed. When you are experiencing high levels of stress, your anxiety increases as well. You can relieve some of your stress by learning to delegate responsibilities to others at work and home. Take some time each day to relax and unwind from your daily routine.
Anxiety can disrupt your normal breathing, so learning breathing techniques can be really helpful in regaining control. Count quietly to yourself as you breathe in and out, allowing the rhythm to relax you. For optimum results, try and find a nice quiet place away from others to practice this method of breathing.
Share your most significant fear with a confidant, and make an effort to exaggerate its importance when you do. After hearing how ridiculous you sound out loud, often people see their fear from a different perspective.
Upon first waking, take a few moments to say affirmations about the positive aspects that you want to experience in your life that day. Voice exactly how you would like your day to go and what you hope to accomplish for the day. With your goals thus set in your mind, do everything you can to fulfill them over the course of the day.
Getting control of your various emotions can happen when you have self discipline. After getting a handle on your feelings, you can better manage your anxiety. Negative thoughts work to spark additional attacks. Look at your emotions more objectively to improve your life.
There is some research which indicates some amino acids can help with anxiety. A lot of individuals notice that their bodies are unable to produce sufficient serotonin if their diet is lacking in key nutrients. There are a number of good books, like The Mood Cure, that talk about natural treatment options that can help reduce or even eliminate anxiety.
Write in a journal or diary regularly. Some people have stressful thoughts built up and no way for them to be released. Using the diary as a journal of all your stressful images will allow your mind to be free for thoughts of the present and make it easier to avoid thoughts that trigger anxious feelings.
Sitting and dwelling on what makes you anxious will make your worries worse instead of better. Keep yourself upbeat and distracted by staying busy. Try a new hobby or artistic outlet that keeps you busy and helps lower the anxiety you experience.
Avoid sitting too much daily. If you sit at work all the time, try exercising or moving when on your breaks. Stand up occasionally. When at home, keep yourself active with walks or jogging and reduce the amount of TV watching or inactive sitting. While everybody needs some relaxation, too much relaxation can actually increase your anxiety levels, as you begin to feel guilty for resting.
Exercise can alter brain chemistry. Low serotonin often brings on anxiety which can be combated with exercise. Whether you prefer gardening, walking the dog, or working out at the gym, any exercise can stimulate serotonin and dopamine production in the brain. This helps with both anxiety and depression, making it a double positive.
Make daily goals and do whatever is necessary to achieve them. Doing this can help keep you focused throughout the day, which can help prevent any negative thoughts and minimize your anxiety levels. Instead of worrying, you will then be able to concentrate on subjects that are far more constructive.
Make an effort to find someone that you trust to talk about your worries with. Having support really helps you get over your anxiety. Talking helps to put things in perspective. Even knowing there is someone to talk to is helpful. This relieves the anxiety that bottling things up causes.
Create a list of the things that stress you out every day. Make two lists for things that can be changed and those which cannot. Focus your energy on attempting to change things you have control over, and try to quit fretting over things you cannot change.
Don't spend time around folks that stress you out. For example, avoid friends who always take a pessimistic view on things. People like this only add to your stress and anxiety.
Take a yoga class if you are feeling overly anxious. Yoga is the perfect way to escape from reality and your anxiety, as it forces you to only focus on the physical exercises at hand. These exercises can help with physical balance which can help you feel better.
If you have a lot of anxiety, stay away from those that make you feel nervous. That may sound obvious, but too many people afflicted with anxiety take pain and discomfort upon themselves for various reasons, like not wanting to make waves or hurt feelings. Being around individuals that make you uncomfortable would only cause you to have unnecessary stress that could worsen your anxiety.
Get a massage. You've read correctly, a massage! Massage allows anyone who is anxious to regroup and start to feel less anxious. It is also possible for anxiety to cause muscle tension, and therefore, massage can be doubly useful.
Think about having a professional talk to you about your anxiety. Many times, we trivialize what's happening in our lives, and we do not bother to take proper care of ourselves. A certified professional can identify if your anxiety falls within normal ranges, or is an issue needing specific attention.
Try carbohydrates because they help your body manifest serotonin, which helps fight anxiety. Don't eat too many, just eat them when you feel very anxious. But it does work for some.
By understanding anxiety, you will stay in control. Apply what you just learned to gain more control of your everyday life. Once you have accomplished this, anxiety problems just might fade away.


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Even today none of us take decisions lightly to leave our family and friends and go and try our hand in another country. But if we do, thanks to those who have gone before us, there is often a community read and waiting to help us out on our arrival.
All over Europe, Irish ex-pats are playing Gaelic football, sometimes along with locals or with other ex-pats from Australia and America. A whole network of GAA clubs has sprung up across the continent and they even have their own administrative structure, the European County Board, affiliated to the GAA.
Philip O'Connor's marvellous book is an account of one year in the life of one player and one club in one country. You wouldn't normally associate the GAA with Sweden or with continental Europe generally but its there, where ever there are Irish exiles to nurture it in parishes far from home.
A Parish Far From Home
- Publisher: Gillmacmillan
- Availability: In Stock
Tags: 9780717150182, parish, far, from, home, GAA, Europe, Ireland


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Our Mission
We believe God has given us a mission. It is entirely based on His own words found in the greatest commandments and the Great Commission. Condensed down, it simply reads: "Love God. Love people. Make disciples worldwide."
Our vision is to see the church thriving in four key areas: worship, community, discipleship and mission.
What We Believe
At the core, it all begins with knowing His Word and basing all we do from a solid understanding of the non-negotiables revealed through Scripture.
We believe there is one living God. This one God eternally exists in three persons-Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. These three persons are equal in divine perfection, and that they execute distinct but harmonious offices in the work of creation, providence and redemption.
(Gen 1:1,26; Deut. 6:4; John 1:1,3; Matt. 28:19; 1Cor. 8:6; Rev. 22:13; 2 Cor. 13:14)
God the Father
We believe in God the Father, an infinite, personal spirit, perfect in holiness, wisdom, power and love. We believe that He infallibly foreknows all that shall come to pass, that He concerns Himself mercifully in the affairs of men, that He hears and answers prayer, and that He saves from sin and death all who come to Him through Jesus Christ.
(Luke 10:21,22; Matt. 23:9; John 3:16; 6:27; Romans 1:7; I Timothy1:1,2; 2:5,6; I Peter 1:3; Revelation 1:6)
Jesus Christ
We believe in Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man. We believe in His virginal birth, in His sinless life, and in His voluntary and vicarious death on the cross to atone for the sin of man. We believe in His burial, His bodily resurrection, and His ascension to the right hand of the Father as our mediator and advocate. We believe that the shed blood of Jesus Christ and His resurrection provide the only grounds for justification before a holy God. Salvation is available to all, who repent of sin and, by faith, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
(Luke 1:34-35; Phil. 2:6-8; John 1:14; Heb. 4:15; John 10:18; 1 Cor. 15:3-4; Acts 1:9; Acts 5:31; 1 Timothy 2:5; Rom. 5:18-19; 1 Peter 3:18; Eph. 1:7; Eph. 2:8-9)
Holy Spirit
We believe that the ministry of the Holy Spirit is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. He convicts the world of sin, regenerates and converts sinners, and baptizes them into the church, which is the body of Christ. We believe that He indwells, guides, instructs and empowers the believer for godly living and service, and that He seals and keeps him until the Lord comes. We believe that He bestows spiritual gifts upon each one. We believe that the believer has received one or more spiritual gifts so that he might exercise them for the strengthening and outreach of the body of Christ. The practice of any gift in any gathered body shall be in keeping with the Scripture.
(John 14:16-17, Ephesians 4:30, 1 Corinthians 12:7)
The Word of God
We believe that the Bible is the Word of God, fully inspired and without error in the original manuscripts, written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and that it has supreme authority in all matters of faith and conduct.
(2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Peter 1:20-21; Psalm 12:6; Mark 13:31; John 8:31,32; Acts 20:32)
We believe that man was created by God in His own image; that he sinned and thereby incurred physical, spiritual and eternal death, which is separation from God; that as a consequence, all human beings are born with a sinful nature and are sinners by choice and therefore under condemnation. We believe that those who repent and forsake sin and trust Jesus Christ as Savior are regenerated by the Holy Spirit and become new creatures, delivered from condemnation and receive eternal life.
(Genesis. 1:26; 5:2; Genesis 3; Genesis 2:17; 3:19; Eccl. 2:11; John 3:14; 5:24; John 5:30; 7:13; 8:12; 10:26; Romans 9:22; II Thessalonians 1:9; Rev. 19:3,20; 20:10;14,15; 21:18; Psalm 51:7; Jeremiah 17:9; James 1:14; Romans 3:19; 5:19; Proverbs 28:13; I John 1:9; John 3:16; John 1:13; II Corinthians 5:17; Romans 8:16.)
Human Destiny
We believe in the personal and visible return of the Lord Jesus Christ to earth and the establishment of His kingdom. We believe in the resurrection of the body, the final judgment, the eternal joy of the righteous and the endless suffering of the wicked.
(Matthew 16:27; Mark 14:62; John 14:3; Acts 1:11; Phil. 3:20; I Thessalonians 4:15; II Timothy 4:1; Titus 2:13; I Corinthians 4:5; I Corinthians 15; II Thessalonians 1:7-10; Revelation 20:4-6,11-15)
The Church
All who acknowledge Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord are united with Him as member of His body, the one true church. Scripture commands believers to gather for worship, prayer, fellowship, and the teaching of the Word; to observe Baptism and Communion as established by Jesus Christ; to offer service to the body through development and use of talents, gifts, and outreach to the world. The local expression of the church is wherever God's people meet regularly in obedience to this command. Cared for and led by Elders and leaders, church members are to work together in love and unity for the ultimate purpose of glorifying Christ.
(Eph. 2:19-22; Acts 1:8; Ephesians 5:19-21; Acts 2:42; Hebrews 10:23-25)
Our Command and Commission
We believe that Jesus Christ has commanded us to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, our soul, our minds and our strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves. As a means of fulfilling this command, he has commissioned His church to go into the entire world and make disciples of all peoples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching those who believe to obey all that Christ commanded.
(Matthew 22:36-40, Matthew 28:16-20)
Our Vision
To experience God's miraculous power at work in us, resulting in our giving witness to Jesus Christ in every sphere of every society worldwide.
To receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on us; and to be Christ's witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Acts 1:8
Have you ever noticed that God often leads His people in crazy ways? Go talk to a bush on fire. Let's wrestle all night. Have everyone in the army blow a trumpet. Let's have the King of the Universe be born in a smelly barn. Let's have believers rattle off God's praises in languages they don't know.
OneWay Church was born out of a simple desire to obey and follow God wherever He leads. For those who know us, this has led to an amazing provision of a facility, a core group of like-minded families and a clear vision to lead people into a fully-surrendered-at-all-cost relationship with Jesus.
Our aim is to know everyone by name and work together towards each person experiencing a fruitful, growing walk with Christ.
Core Values
Saturated with God's Word
It all begins with knowing God's Word and applying it to every life circumstance.
Devoted to Prayer
We dedicate ourselves to a thriving life marked by ongoing communication with our Lord and Savior.
Holy Spirit Directed
We are sensitive to and strive to understand the movement of God's Spirit.
Ethos of Grace/Unity
Love covers over a multitude of sins. We forgive readily and seek to live in unity with those around us.
Self Sacrifice and Generosity
We seek to be fully surrendered with our time, money and resources.
Flexible and Accepting of Change
We love tradition, but are not bound to it.
Equipping People for Works of Service
We believe every follower of Christ should use and develop their gifts for God's glory.
Dedicated to Kingdom Advancement
Whether ministering locally or around the world, we strive for living a life dedicated to grow God's kingdom and participate in His life-saving work.


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Please, pardon me if this series on Choosing a Veterinarian seems to have taken over my blog recently. My reasons for that are deeply personal. Recently, a good friend and colleague, and his wonderful German Shepherd (not an Omorrow, but a great dog still) suffered catastrophic health complications due to inattentive veterinary care. Had the owner and the Vet, or his staff effectively communicated beforehand and had a PLAN, a great dog only 3 years old would not have died in an Anaphylactic state of shock. The magnificent dog was reduced to a quivering, salivating, mess while uninformed and opinionated humans debated and blamed others. I have been both saddened and angered by the "We should have done this,…I wish we had spoken…If only I had known…" conversation on both sides. We are all responsible as Dog Owners, to the health of our four-legged friends. The dog has no way to express his opinion, so we must all be Caring, empathetic, stewards, of our dogs. It's hard work…It consumes our time learning about this care. Valuable time. But NOT doing it is tantamount to abuse of an intelligent living soul. The situation has now made it necessary for me to make standardized "Veterinary Responsibilities" for the handlers in my Response Group. I will never again assume that one of my people is caring for his or her canine properly. These Veterinary posts are dedicated to you "Alex"…you will be missed with tears, and with pride.
I wanted you to know why I've frothing over this subject. Next Post: Vaccines and Antibiotics.


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Rolling out the welcome mat
Kelly Wilton, a second-year general internal medicine resident, is all too familiar with the chaos of starting a placement at a new hospital. "July 1 was typically an anxiety-provoking day," said Wilton. "In addition to starting a new rotation, often at a new hospital, there was always uncertainty around how to make sure you were prepared to hit the ground running."
The product of a year's worth of interprofessional collaboration, St. Michael's new Student Registration System is accessible anytime, anywhere, and features everything students need in order to register. Students can also complete their orientation ahead of time through a 60–minute, online module.
The new processes are tangibly improving the student learning experience: "They've allowed us to prepare preemptively, so on July 1 we could focus on clinical duties," said Wilton.
The new online orientation process has ensured that all St. Michael's students, regardless of discipline, receive the same information and training before they begin their placements. Other institutions have taken notice – St. Michael's is now collaborating with several academic hospitals in Toronto to share and further develop the system.
Bryan Abankwah, the St. Michael's Student Centre team leader, particularly appreciates the new tools. "It used to take several steps and even student involvement to process applications, but now that we have the Student Registration System, all of our requests are sent and processed automatically," said Abankwah. "And thanks to the orientation system, all our students are equipped with the right information to support the safety and protection of themselves, their colleagues and our patients."


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Proven Results. Very Focused Practice Areas. Cases Resolved in all 67 Alabama Counties.
- DUI Defense
- Traffic Ticket Defense
- Defense of Drug Charges
- General Criminal Defense
- Alabama Board of Nursing Defense
- Alabama State Board of Pharmacy Defense
- Professional Board Defense
- Criminal Defense Law Firm
We Represent Our Fellow Human Beings.
We know it is stressful to try and find the right lawyer. We know what you are going through because we have represented thousands of people over 15+ years and we have resolved 15,000+ charges in Alabama. We don't judge you. We don't look down on you. When you come to us, you come into a space where you are welcome – you are treated like the human being that you are. We love our clients and they know it. It's not just a job for us. It's why we are on this earth today.
We Pour Our Lives Into Our Clients.
The people that choose to work with us know what we bring. We are legit. We don't mess around and play games. Whether helping a client with a traffic ticket or a DUI or an issue with their professional board, they get the best of us. People know this and they love it. Kreps doesn't mess around and bullshit with his clients – we handle big-time cases on a big-time stage and shoot straight as an arrow with the people that trust us to handle their case in Alabama. This is the reason why we have 450+ 5 Star Perfect Actual Client Reviews on AVVO and why we have been endorsed by 40+ Lawyers around the country.
We Believe that With the Right Mindset, We Can Help Anyone.
Kreps is a legend but is also a human being. We know that in order to provide the best representation and service to our client that we have to sync up energetically with the people that we are called to represent. We will do all we can to try and help everyone that seeks out our help but not everyone is a good fit for us. Some potential clients don't appreciate our honesty and our transparency and just want to be told what they want to hear and we don't do that and cannot work for those people even if it is for a large amount of money. Some people would say that is crazy – why wouldn't you want to work for everyone and make all the money. Sometimes clients are just not a good fit for us – don't misread what we are saying – most people are beating down the door to hire us but the fact is that not everyone is a good fit. We want to talk with you about your case in Alabama and learn more about you – contact us today to see for yourself why we have 450+ Positive 5 Star AVVO Ratings and are endorsed by 40+ Attorneys from around the country.
We Do Everything the Right Way. If We Make a Mistake, We Admit It and We Fix It.
At Kreps Law Firm, we do everything the right way. Don't misunderstand what we are saying here – we don't claim to be perfect. If we make a mistake, we own it, we accept responsibility and we fix it. Our clients' seek us out and love to hire us and work with us. Energetically, we are a good fit for our clients – it just works and we know it and our clients know it.
We don't pay police officers or bail bonding companies to refer business to us. We don't prowl around and directly pounce on potential clients during their time of weakness. We play by the rules that are set up to protect the public and protect our clients. Many of our clients come from referrals – from other lawyers, past clients, etc. Our clients seek us out and have a deep down desire to team up with us – if you found us on the web, then you know we are an open book. You can google the name of the law firm or Joseph C. Kreps or search in YouTube and see us talk about who and what we are. We don't hide from transparency – we welcome it. It's who we are – it's why people love us. Kreps fixes problems for his clients – period. It's why he is well-known as the "Alabama Fixer."
We Have a Mission – To Relieve Human Suffering.
We Know Our Why. We Have a Mission. To Relieve Human Suffering.
At Kreps Law Firm, we don't sit around and wonder why we do what we do. We know. We don't believe in coincidences and we don't believe that anything happens by chance. Without failures, struggles and disappointments, we would not be who we are today and our clients wouldn't better for what they are going through. Our clients are special because they fight alongside us – they keep going and the keep growing.
Alabama Criminal Defense Attorney Joseph Kreps is a Member of the National College for DUI Defense; is Certified to Administer the Standardized Field Sobriety Tests per NHTSA guidelines; and Instructor Certified for the Standardized Field Sobriety Tests per NHTSA guidelines. He has personally fought and won tons of DUI cases in the state of Alabama and has an impeccable record and commitment to his clients.
If you have been arrested or charged with a crime in Alabama, the lawyers at Kreps Law Firm are standing by to help you. Payment Plans Available. Call Now.
Our Promise
We know you are in a difficult situation, and we want you to know that with Kreps you don't have to face it alone. We're here to help you every step of the way.
Charges Resolved
5 Star AVVO Reviews
Perfect AVVO Rating
Lawyer Endorsements
Years of Experience
Alabama Criminal Defense and Professional Board Defense
Statewide Representation – DUI, Traffic Tickets, Drug Crimes, Criminal Defense, Expungements & Professional Board Defense. 15+ Years of Experience. 450+ 5 Star Avvo Reviews. 100% Free Case Evaluation. Payment Plans Available. Call NOW if you have been contacted by your Professional Board, arrested or charged with a crime in Alabama.
Don't Plead Guilty to a Traffic Ticket, DUI or other Criminal Offense in Alabama. You Need Kreps.
Don't Face Your Professional Board Alone. You Need Kreps.
Hiring an attorney early on in the process is always the best strategy.
If charged with DUI, you only have 10 days from the date of your arrest to request a hearing from the Alabama State Law Enforcement Agency. Take the next step to fight your charge, protect your license and work towards the best result possible. Call or text anytime. We're available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.


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Attorneys will spar in May over a challenge to the city of Gary's "Welcoming City" ordinance.
Magistrate Judge Nanette Raduenz on Wednesday scheduled oral arguments for May 8 on two motions related to a lawsuit filed against Gary by James Bopp Jr.
The judge granted several motions to allow attorneys from outside the state to be heard in the case, which includes attorneys from the Georgetown Law Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection and the Oakland-based Public Rights Project, organizations that recently filed motions defending Gary's ordinance.
For the full story, click here.


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(Austin and a sibling trying to 'hold him down' )
It was night time and my husband walked into our bedroom with his little shadow tagging behind him. "Time for bed, Austin," he said standing at the foot of our bed. "Go upstairs and get in your bed."
Giggling furiously, Austin climbed up the foot board and somersaulted into our bed. Rapidly crawling across the mattress, the defiant child tossed pillows out of the way, pulled back the comforter and snuggled down on his Daddy's side of the bed. Rolling on to his belly, he squinted his eyes and then began to 'snore' loudly.
Hands on his hips, Hubby tried to hide his laughter and said, "Austin, that is pure-t-ugly. Get up and go upstairs to your bed. Now."
With louder snores and a few wiggles, Austin continued his disobedient mocking of his Daddy. Finally, a sister came in and rescued the pretender before he got into serious trouble.
Funny. In one of the first serious talks that doctors have with parents who's children are born with an anomaly... "They" said he wouldn't be able to pretend and he wouldn't ever have a sense of humor. "Those are higher functioning abilities...," they sniffed. "Given his extra chromosome, you can't expect him to develop higher cognitive abilities." They didn't mean to be demeaning or discouraging, you understand. Parents need to understand and accept their child's limitations.
Austin's in all out rebellion to do everything they said he "wouldn't be able to do." And like the good parents we are ... we are totally encouraging his rebellious attitude against authority.
Keep the Faith and Resist Conforming to the "Man"
Monday, August 3, 2009
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Continuous measurement of methane flux over a larch forest using a relaxed eddy accumulation method
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We measured the methane flux of a forest canopy throughout a year using a relaxed eddy accumulation (REA) method. This sampling system was carefully validated against heat and CO2 fluxes measured by the eddy covariance method. Although the sampling system was robust, there were large uncertainties in the measured methane fluxes because of the limited precision of the methane gas analyzer. Based on the spectral characteristics of signals from the methane analyzer and the diurnal variations in the standard deviation of the vertical wind velocity, we found the daytime and nighttime precision of half-hourly methane flux measurements to be approximately 1.2 and 0.7 μg CH4 m−2 s−1, respectively. Additional uncertainties caused by the dilution effect were estimated to affect the accuracy by as much as 0.21 μg CH4 m−2 s−1 on a half-hourly basis. Diurnal and seasonal variations were observed in the measured fluxes. The biological emission from plant leaves was not observed in our studies, and thus could be negligible at the canopy-scale exchange. The annual methane sink was 835 ± 175 mg CH4 m−2 year−1 (8.35 kg CH4 ha−1 year−1), which was comparable to the flux range of 379–2,478 mg CH4 m−2 year−1 previously measured in other Japanese forest soils. This study indicated that the REA method could be a promising technique to measure canopy scale methane fluxes over forests, but further improvement of precision of the analyzer will be required.
KeywordsMethane Concentration Eddy Covariance Sonic Anemometer Methane Flux Larch Forest
1 Introduction
Methane (CH4) is a major greenhouse gas with a global warming potential approximately 21 times higher than that of CO2 (Forster et al. 2007). Methane has a radiative forcing of 0.48 W m−2, and it accounts for approximately 18% of the total radiative forcing by long-lived greenhouse gases (Forster et al. 2007). Since preindustrial times, the atmospheric concentration of methane has increased from approximately 770–1,774 ppb. Although the growth rate of atmospheric methane has decreased in the years prior to 2006 (Wuebbles and Hayhoe 2002), renewed growth in these concentrations has been observed since 2007 (Rigby et al. 2008). Although several conflicting hypotheses that largely involve wetland CH4 emissions, anthropogenic CH4 emissions, wild fires, and hydroxyl radical photochemistry have been proposed for the interannual variation of atmospheric CH4 concentrations (Bousquet et al. 2006 and their references), they have not yet adequately explained the observed atmospheric trends and inter-annual variations in methane concentrations.
Terrestrial soils are thought to consume approximately 30–40 Tg methane from the atmosphere annually, accounting for 5–7% of the global methane sink (Wuebbles and Hayhoe 2002). Methane degradation by microbial oxidation in aerobic soils is the planet's second largest sink of methane, following reaction with tropospheric hydroxyl radicals. Methane flux measurements have been obtained from many forest soils using chamber techniques (King 1997; Ishizuka et al. 2009; Itoh et al. 2009), and they identified large spatial variations in methane uptake that make the quantification of methane uptake at the stand, watershed, regional, and continental scales difficult. Compared with wetlands, forests consist of complex structures with varying vertical distributions of trees and an understory, which are potential methane sources (Keppler et al. 2006), as well as a large spatial variation of soil conditions ranging from anaerobic to aerobic. This variability could make forests alternate between functioning as methane sinks and sources as the results of subtle environmental changes. Itoh et al. (2009) found that methane fluxes measured within a watershed exhibited considerable spatial variations; large dry areas were found to be methane sinks, whereas small wet areas were strong sources, that overwhelmed the total impact of the methane sinks at the watershed level, with a high degree of temporal variability. Ishizuka et al. (2009) compared methane fluxes at 27 temperate forest sites in Japan and found that the annual sink was substantially different at each site (factor of 6.5). It was also found that the rate of methane uptake in Japanese forest soils was very high in comparison to the soils of other regions. This high rate of uptake can be attributed to the high porosity of Japanese soils resulting from their volcanic ash parent materials.
Keppler et al. (2006) suggested that living terrestrial vegetation emits large amounts of methane under aerobic conditions, making forests major methane sources. The global methane production rates from living plants were estimated to be 62–236 Tg CH4 year−1, which may have a considerable effect on the global methane budget. This study generated a vigorous scientific debate and many subsequent studies were performed (e.g., Kirschbaum et al. 2006; Kitaoka et al. 2007; Beerling et al. 2008; Kirschbaum and Walcroft 2008; Bowling et al. 2009). In subsequent experiments, emission rates were found to be quite distinct in each experiment (e.g., Keppler et al. 2006; Kirschbaum et al. 2006; Kitaoka et al. 2007), and some studies failed to measure any emissions (Beerling et al. 2008; Kirschbaum and Walcroft 2008). Consequently, there are large uncertainties in the methane budgets of forest ecosystems.
The micrometeorological measurement of methane flux is a promising method for capturing values that are both spatially and temporally representative (Baldocchi 2003). Previously, this method was applied in ecosystems that represented well-known methane sources, such as rice paddies (Miyata et al. 2000; Takimoto et al. 2010), natural wetlands (Friborg and Christensen 1997; Simpson et al. 1997; Werner et al. 2003; Rinne et al. 2007), and tundra (Harazono et al. 2006; Wille et al. 2008). However, relatively few studies have been conducted in forest ecosystems (Ueyama et al. 2006; Smeets et al. 2009), probably because the measurements of small methane uptakes is much more difficult than the measurement of fluxes from large sources.
The eddy covariance (EC) method is one of the most reliable approaches for measuring vertical turbulent fluxes of heat, water vapor, and CO2 from the Earth's surface to the atmosphere (Baldocchi 2003). Application of this method requires a gas analyzer with a fast response and high signal stability, that is able to measure the fluctuations associated from all eddies that transport scalar quantities with sufficient precision. In late 1980s, the EC method was applied to methane flux measurements in subarctic tundra by combining a flame ionization detector (FID) with a Zeeman-split HeNe laser (Fan et al. 1992). With the advance of technologies for methane gas analyzer, such as tunable diode laser spectroscopy (TDLS; Billesbach et al. 1998; Baer et al. 2002), the EC method has been widely used to measure methane emissions from a subarctic mire (Friborg and Christensen 1997), a Siberian wetland (Friborg et al. 2003), a peatland (Shurpali and Verma 1998), a black spruce forest (Pattey et al. 2006), a boreal fen (Rinne et al. 2007), a peat meadow (Hendriks et al. 2008), and an arctic tundra (Zona et al. 2009). Although many of those studies successfully quantified methane emissions from the sources in question, measurement in forest ecosystems is still challenging because the magnitude of the methane uptake by aerobic soils is very small compared with the magnitude of the emissions from wetlands. Eugster and Plüss (2010) quantified the detection limit of a state-of-the-art TDLS at 0.35 ppb with an optimum integration time and a white-noise level of 1.5 ppb Hz−1/2, which might be insufficient to measure low rates of methane uptake by the EC method. The closed-path EC system for methane flux also requires large pumps because of the large cavity volume of TDLS systems, which limits the applicability for remote areas where electric power is limited.
The relaxed eddy accumulation (REA) method is a theoretically simple micrometeorological technique in which fluxes are measured using the vertical wind velocity and a conditional sampling of updraft and downdraft air (Businger and Oncley 1990). Because this method does not required a gas analyzer with a rapid response, unlike the EC method, it has begun to attract considerable attention for use in studies of trace gas fluxes (Simpson et al. 1997; Nemitz et al. 2001). An REA system was previously developed by our group (Hamotani et al. 1996, 2001), and its precision and accuracy have been validated (Ueyama et al. 2009). The REA system could be applicable to the measurement of methane fluxes in forest ecosystems, which could enable researchers to use methane gas analyzers for measurements at optimal integration times without high electric power requirements. Consequently, the REA method could have several advantages compared with the EC method for measuring small methane fluxes in forest ecosystems.
In this study, we continuously measured methane fluxes in a larch forest using the REA system developed by our group. The objectives of this study were (1) to determine the applicability and limitations of the REA method for methane flux measurements over forests and (2) to examine the fluxes at diurnal and seasonal timescales as well as possible contribution of plant leaves for the net methane efflux.
2 Methods
2.1 Relaxed eddy accumulation method
2.2 Sampling system
We developed two independent sampling systems for CO2 and methane; air was sampled by each system using the same signal from the sonic anemometer. Updraft and downdraft conditions were determined by the difference between the instantaneous and adjacent 15-min moving averages of the vertical wind velocity. Adjacent 15-min moving averages were used because it was impossible to obtain averages in a true Reynolds sense (Bowling et al. 1999). The pump for sampling updraft air operated only under updraft conditions at a rate of 1.2 l min−1 (LPM), whereas the pump for sampling downdraft only operated under downdraft conditions. The sampled air was stored in reservoirs (Tedlar® Bags) with a volume of 20 l (CCK-20, GL Science, Japan). After each 0.5-h sampling period, the stored air in each reservoir flowed through a FID methane gas analyzer (Model APHA-360, Horiba, Japan) at a rate of 0.8 LPM. The air stored for CO2 flux measurements flowed through a closed path infrared gas analyzer (Li-6262, Li-Cor, USA). Methane and CO2 concentrations were collected at rate of 1 Hz via a data logger (CR1000, Campbell, USA) beginning 120 s after the lines were switched.
Time table for the sampling system
Considering the sampling flow rate, the inner diameter of the tube and the tube length between the air inlet and the bags (approximately 40 m), the dead volume inside the tube was approximately 0.5 l and the retention time was 0.4 min. Because the amount of air in the dead volume (sampled during adjacent run) was sufficiently small compared with the sampled air (approximately 18 l), the error associated with the dead volume was considered negligible.
The system had no dead bands for increasing the concentration differences (Bowling et al. 1999) to avoid system instabilities arising from limited sample air. The methane analyzer was automatically calibrated once per week (at 00:00–1:00). In addition to this calibration, the system was checked for bias in the concentration differences between the updraft and downdraft reservoirs twice per day (at 00:00–1:00 and 12:00–13:00). During these inspection periods, the system pumped the same air to the updraft and downdraft reservoirs and measured the reported concentration difference. The difference was expected to be zero, and when small biases were detected (ranging from 0 to 4 ppb with no differences between daytime and nighttime biases), we corrected for these biases in the methane flux calculations.
In this study, we integrated our REA system with a system for measuring the concentration of methane across a vertical gradient (Fig. 1). The same gas analyzer was used to measure concentrations at multiple heights by switching the flow lines leading to the gas analyzer (Table 1). Measurements of each new vertical concentration began 120 s after the lines were switched. The vertical profile of the methane concentrations was only measured when the gas analyzer was not being used for the REA measurements.
2.3 Measurements
Measurements were taken at the Fuji-hokuroku Flux Research Site, Yamanashi, Japan (35°N26′, 138° 45′). This site is located at the northern foothills of Mt. Fuji with a moderate slope of 3–4° and an elevation of approximately 1,100 m. The predominant tree cover at the site is a 50-year-old stand of Japanese larch (Larix kaempferi Sarg.) that is interspersed with evergreen needleleaved species (Pinus densiflora) and mixed broadleaved species (Swida controversa, Quercus serrata, and Quercus crispula). The canopy height is 20–25 m. Because the forest canopy is open, the forest floor is covered by understory species such as Prunus incisa and Dryopteris crassirhizoma. The leaf area index measured by a plant canopy analyzer (LAI-2000, Li-Cor, USA) was 2.9 m2 m−2. The soil consisted mainly of volcanic ash deposits from Mt. Fuji. Since the larch trees were uniformly planted within the study area across approximately 150 ha, measured fluxes were mainly attributable to the larch forest for all wind directions. In 2009, the average annual air temperature was 8.9°C and the total annual precipitation was 1,800 mm. The average soil temperature at 5 cm was 9.6°C, whereas the soil water content at depths of 0, 5, and 10 cm was 0.162, 0.111, and 0.144 m3 H2O m−3 soil in 2009, respectively.
Methane fluxes were measured continuously beginning in February 2009 using a 31-m scaffold tower. The EC method was used to measure the fluxes of heat, water vapor, and CO2 at a height of 35 m above the ground with a sonic anemometer (DA600, Kaijo, Japan) and a closed path infrared gas analyzer (LI-6262, Li-Cor, USA). Sample air was pumped at a flow rate of approximately 5.6 LPM into the gas analyzer through approximately 12.4-m of polyethylene/aluminum composite wall tubing (Dekoron-1300, Furon, USA) with an inner diameter of 4.3 mm. A fine-wire thermocouple thermometer (70 μm in the diameter; COCO-03, Omega, Japan) was also installed near the sonic anemometer to measure fluctuations in air temperature. Data were recorded at a rate of 10 Hz using a datalogger (DR-M3, Teac Corp., Japan) and averaged over 30-min intervals. The vertical wind velocity and air temperature signals were also used by the REA system.
The two REA systems for CO2 and methane measurements were installed at the base of the tower. Updraft and downdraft air samples were pumped to the system through a polyethylene/aluminum composite wall tubing (DK-tube; 1300-6-BK, Nitta Moore, Japan) with an inner diameter of 4 mm. The sample inlets were set at 35 m, and the horizontal distance between the inlets and the sonic anemometer was approximately 0.3 m. For vertical profile measurements, the air inlets were set at 35, 27, 16, and 0.3 m above the ground, and air was directed to the REA system at a flow rate of 1.2 L min−1 (LPM).
2.4 Data processing
Before processing the eddy covariance data, we removed the noise spikes from the raw data and then calculated the covariance every 30 min. We applied corrections for coordinate rotation and air density effects arising from water vapor concentration fluctuations (Webb et al. 1980) as well as corrections for the loss of high-frequency transport arising from sensor separation and line averaging (Moore 1986). The lag time of the sample from the inlet to the cell of the closed-path analyzer was determined by maximizing the covariance between the vertical wind velocity and the CO2 concentration; the median of the determined lag time was applied for all processing. The high-frequency loss for the closed-path system was corrected using an empirical transfer function (Aubinet et al. 2000). Further details of the flux calculations are shown in Hirata et al. (2007).
For the eddy covariance data, we applied a quality test to remove noise attributed to conditions of rain, snow, or fog. Nonstationary and integral turbulence tests (Foken and Wichura 1996) were applied as routine treatments. After these routine treatments, we manually excluded the remaining outliers.
To reduce the effects of random noise in the methane gas analyzer, we excluded data collected using the REA method when the signal of the methane analyzer was unstable. This instability possibly arose from fluctuations in the detector's flame ionization efficiency or from decreases in the catalyst temperature for the oxidization of nonmethane hydrocarbons as a result of the influence of water vapor. Instability was indicated by a fluctuation of greater than 5 ppb in methane concentrations during the 4-min period for each reservoir. For the methane flux calculations, we excluded the data when the CO2 fluxes measured by the EC and REA methods were different by more than 50% of the absolute value. Finally, we manually excluded the remaining outliers. After these quality tests, only 27% of the data from the measurement period were found to be suitable for analysis.
Gaps in the methane flux data were filled using standard methods. Linear interpolation was applied for small gaps of less than 1.5 h. For larger gaps, a mean diurnal variation method was applied in which the diurnal pattern was determined each day for a 15-day moving window.
In this study, negative fluxes indicated uptake by the forest, whereas positive fluxes indicated emissions to the atmosphere.
2.5 Error analyses
Half-hourly fluxes could have large uncertainties because of the precision of the methane gas analyzer (shown in later section). We averaged the individual half-hourly results for the monthly diurnal patterns and the seasonal variations of 7-day moving windows rather than addressing the individual values. To evaluate the possible error distributions of random errors, we created monthly mean diurnal patterns by resampling our data 1,000 times using a bootstrapping technique and then filling the data gaps using the resulting patterns. Each bootstrapping dataset was averaged for monthly and annual time periods. The frequency distributions of the average values were used to determine the uncertainty of the measurement because the half-hourly random errors could propagate to the monthly diurnal patterns and annual fluxes despite error reductions obtained by increasing the number of samples for averaging.
3 Results
3.1 Specifications of the methane analyzer
The evaluated random errors in the fluxes are shown in Fig. 2; the errors were calculated from the diurnal variations of σ w and Eq. 2 using the precision of the methane gas analyzer, 4.5 ppb. Because the σ w was higher in the daytime than in the nighttime, the expected random errors were larger in the daytime. The average daytime and nighttime errors were 1.2 and 0.7 μg CH4 m−2 s−1, respectively. The precision tended to be higher in the summer than in the winter because of the seasonal variations of σ w (Fig. 2).
3.2 Determination of the empirical coefficient
3.3 Validation using the CO2 flux measurements
3.4 Methane flux
The random errors observed in the half-hourly calculations could be reduced by increasing the number of samples to be averaged. We examined the diurnal variations for each month by calculating an ensemble mean (Fig. 6b). These variations were only considered when the number of data points for the ensemble mean was greater than 5. Our results show that the diurnal variations in methane flux occurred from May to October, but were not evident in other months. This result suggests that biological activities, such as microbial oxidation in the soil, were responsible for this daytime uptake of methane.
We calculated the daily methane flux by filling data gaps using the diurnal variations. The seasonal variation in flux is shown in Fig. 6c, and a clear seasonal pattern is evident. Because the daily values could be affected by random errors, they were analyzed using 7-day running means. In this forest, significant methane uptake was only apparent during the summer months, when the soil temperature was higher than 10–15°C. During the remainder of the year, measured fluxes were fluctuated between a small methane sink and a methane source, possibly because the fluxes were less than detectable limit of our system. The seasonal maximum and average uptake rates were −21.0 and −2.3 mg CH4 m−2 day−1, respectively. Assuming the January methane flux to be negligible because the ground was covered in snow, the annual methane sink was calculated to be 835 mg CH4 m−2 year−1 (8.35 kg CH4 ha−1 year−1), which was within the range of 379–2478 mg CH4 m−2 year−1 for annual sinks observed using chamber techniques in other Japanese forest soils (Ishizuka et al. 2009).
4 Discussion
We performed a continuous observation of methane fluxes above a forest canopy using an alternative micrometeorological technique known as the REA method. Our REA method was validated by a comparison against CO2 flux measurements using the EC method. Although previous studies only validated this method based on short-term measurements (Hamotani et al. 2001; Ueyama et al. 2009), we found that the performance of the REA method was suitable for measuring fluxes on the annual time scale. The data coverage of the REA method was also higher than that of the EC method, although the data coverage of the EC method would increase if the sampled air was fully dehydrated. These results indicate that the REA method is a useful tool for measuring fluxes of trace gases such as methane and CO2 at the canopy scale. Because of the lack of adequate methane analyzer for measuring the very small fluxes in the forest canopy via the EC method, the REA method could be an alternative way to measure methane flux over forest canopy. Although we could only validate the performance in CO2 flux measurement, this method could be applicable for methane flux measurements because of scalar transport similarity among scalar quantities (Baker et al. 1992; Bowling et al. 1999).
The REA method has some advantages in trace gas measurements compared with the EC method because it does not require pumps that have high flow rates or a gas analyzer with a fast response time; therefore, the REA method can be operated with low power consumption, which facilitates the application of methane flux measurements in remote areas, where electric power is limited. Current closed-path eddy covariance systems require large pumps with a flow rate of at least 330 LPM (Hendriks et al. 2008), which could limit their applicability to the limited sites that have grid connection. Although an open-path methane analyzer have been available in flux studies (McDermitt et al. 2010), the resolution of these systems is 5 ppb, which is not low enough to measure methane fluxes in the forest canopy via the EC method. Another advantage of the REA method is that it can measure continuous half-hourly fluxes while only using the analyzer for short analysis times (our system only used the analyzer for 14 min per run; Table 1), which enables the same analyzer to be used for simultaneous measurements of vertical concentration profiles (Fig. 1) and multiple chambers. Based on the Allan variance technique (Allan 1966), state-of-the-art methane gas analyzers still have insufficient precision to measure methane fluxes of forests. Previous studies reported this precision to be 1.5 ppb Hz−1/2 (Eugster and Plüss 2010) and 2.9 ppb Hz−1/2 (Kroon et al. 2007). The performance of the analyzers used in these studies was different for each integration time (Eugster and Plüss 2010). The REA method can be designed to use the optimal integration time for the gas analyzer employed, which represents a significant advantage for trace gas flux measurement compared with the EC method.
One possible shortcoming of the REA method is that careful evaluation of \( \overline w \) is necessary to accurately discriminate updraft and downdraft conditions, which could limit the utility of this method under non-stationary conditions. Consequently, the careful validation by means of concurrent evaluation of CO2 flux measurements is necessary in the REA method but not in the EC method. One recent study indicated that the REA method could generate reliable estimates of methane fluxes even though half-hourly fluxes showed relatively large deviations from results of the EC method (Hendriks et al. 2008).
This study increased the precision of measurements made using an FID methane analyzer by increasing the degree of time averaging. Specifically, the precision of measurements made with analyzer improved from 18 to 4.5 ppb (Fig. 3). These results indicate that using the appropriate averaging strategy can increase the precision of a system. Ueyama et al. (2009) also showed that the use of the appropriate averaging time substantially increased the precision of a CO2 gas analyzer. However, despite this precision enhancement, the precision of the FID analyzer was still insufficient for the measurement of half-hourly methane fluxes in our forest ecosystem. Some data were rejected by the quality control criteria because of the random noise of the FID gas analyzer. The random noise also introduced large uncertainties into the half-hourly fluxes. Although we were able to reduce this noise using an averaging procedure, the averaging limited us to treating the data as a monthly diurnal pattern or a moving average of daily values.
Because the effects of humidity were not apparent in previous studies (Ueyama et al. 2009), our system was not dehumidified, which suggests that measured fluxes might have been affected by dilution from the water vapor. Our system could not measure the water vapor flux because water vapor was adsorbed in the REA system. This suggests that the dilution effect was small compared with that in the EC system but might still introduce complex uncertainties. The adsorption of water vapor occurred in the reservoirs, introducing a possible bias in the concentration differences between updraft and downdraft reservoirs in the event of a lag between adsorption and desorption. Although this effect was generally small in the measurements of CO2 fluxes, the effect could be important to the measurement of methane fluxes (Smeets et al. 2009). To correct for this effect, we monitored the bias among the reservoirs twice per day and corrected for this bias in flux calculations (as explained previously). As a result of this monitoring and the bias corrections, we believe that the effect of dilution was relatively small in this study, although it may still have introduced significant uncertainties in the measured fluxes. We theoretically calculated the possible dilution effect of the water vapor flux in the EC measurements using the WPL equation (Webb et al. 1980), and we found that the effect was as large as 0.21 μg CH4 m−2 s−1 in the midsummer season on a half-hourly basis. Part of the diurnal variation observed in the methane fluxes was caused by this effect. However, the diurnal variation seen in Fig. 6b remained even after appropriate corrections for these effects were applied to the methane flux measurements, suggesting that the observed diurnal variations could be caused by ecological fluxes rather than biases or errors in the measurement. In the future, the REA system should be dehumidified for methane flux measurements, as is necessary for the EC method and the gradient method. Considering that it is difficult to fully dehumidify sample air using typical systems, such as the Perma-pure drier, the simultaneous measurements of both CH4 and water vapor in the same cell could be useful for measuring CH4 mixing ratios in flux measurements.
The daily methane uptake was found to be as high as 20 mg CH4 m−2 day−1, which was somewhat higher than the values observed in other Japanese forest soils using chamber measurements. In a comparison of methane fluxes at 27 sites in Japan, Ishizuka et al. (2009) found that the daily maximum uptake ranged from 0.55 to 10.48 mg CH4 m−2 day−1. Considering the large spatial variations in the observed fluxes (factor of 19), the measured peak at this site is reasonable for a Japanese forest. Because the spatial variation of the methane uptake rate is regulated mainly by soil porosity (King 1997; Ishizuka et al. 2009), the high uptake rate we observed could be explained by the high porosity of soil formed by volcanic ash deposits from Mt. Fuji. The low soil water content (annual average of 0.111 m3 H2O m−3 soil at 5 cm depth) also promoted effective gas diffusion within the soil. Because methodological differences between micrometeorological and chamber techniques could cause this difference, a comparison between both methods will be required at the same site in the future.
Although the measured methane flux showed the sink activities only at the summer months (Fig. 6), methane concentration near soil showed lower values throughout the year (Fig. 8). Part of this inconsistency is caused by spatially heterogeneous nature of air within the canopy. Other possibility was caused by limited precision of the flux measurement, where precision during the winter period was lower than those at the summer months (Fig. 2). Consequently, further studies will be required especially for winter period.
Our analysis indicates that the larch forest was a methane sink at the canopy scale, although a recent study proposed that forest ecosystems are potentially a large methane source at the global scale (Keppler et al. 2006). In incubation experiments (Kitaoka et al. 2007), the leaves of the Japanese larch (L. kaempferi) emitted methane at rate of 31.3 ng CH4 g−1 h−1. Based on the measured LAI (2.9 m2 m−2) and the specific leaf area of larch leaves (22.0 m2 kg C−1; White et al. 2000), we calculated canopy scale emissions to be approximately 0.2 ng CH4 m−2 day−1, which was too low a level to be compared with the measured canopy-scale methane uptake and too little to be observed with the current precision of our measurements. Consequently, the methane emission from the leaves of the larch trees could be negligible at the canopy scale, even though it remains uncertain whether leaves emit methane at the low rates reported previously.
The application of micrometeorological techniques provides great advantages in the measurement of methane fluxes in terms of (1) spatial and temporal representativeness, and (2) minimum disturbance to the underlying vegetation and soil. The measured fluxes showed both diurnal and seasonal variations. The results suggest that traditional approaches, such as chamber techniques, yield potentially biased results because the chamber measurements are usually taken at a coarse temporal resolution, typically once or twice per month (e.g., Itoh et al. 2009). Furthermore, chamber measurements often disturb natural conditions by eliminating wind diffusion. Given that methane consumption is strongly related to the methane concentration (King 1997), a decrease in the methane concentration within the chamber headspace might result in an underestimation of methane fluxes. To reduce the uncertainties observed in previous plot scale measurements, future studies should implement micrometeorological measurements with high rates of accuracy and precision.
5 Conclusions
This study is a first report on efforts to measure methane fluxes using the REA method at a temperate forest site throughout an entire season. The system accurately sampled updraft and downdraft air with results that were validated by the CO2 flux measurements obtained by the EC method. The application of micrometeorological measurements provides a great advantage in the continuous measurement of methane fluxes. This study showed that methane fluxes had diurnal and seasonal variations. More traditional approaches to flux measurement usually occur at coarser (e.g., monthly) temporal resolutions, possibly introducing bias into the results. According to the canopy-scale flux measurement, we found that the forest acted as a small methane sink during the summer months. The biological emission from plant leaves was not observed in our study, and thus could be negligible at the canopy-scale exchange.
The fluxes measured using our system had a high level of uncertainty because of the low precision of the FID gas analyzer. For more accurate measurements of methane flux, a more precise gas analyzer will be required. Recently, cavity ringdown laser spectrometers have been made available for flux measurements (Eugster and Plüss 2010), and these are applicable to both the EC and the REA methods (Hendriks et al. 2008; Smeets et al. 2009). Application of these analyzers will allow more accurate flux measurements from the micrometeorological techniques. Because the fluxes observed in this study had a high level of uncertainty, the measured fluxes and their variations should be validated in future studies. To improve our techniques for trace gas flux measurements, the publication of both successful studies and less conclusive results is particularly important because the techniques for methane flux measurement are still developing and numerous issues remain. A greater availability of information and new technologies will improve the availability of advanced techniques for trace gas measurement.
We thank all those who contributed to the field observations and data analysis. The measurements were obtained with the help of Mr. Munehisa Okado and Mr. Yuki Morimoto of Osaka Prefecture University. We also thank Dr. Yoshiaki Kitaya and Dr. Toshio Shibuya of Osaka Prefecture University for supporting our CO2 flux measurements. We are grateful to Dr. Hiroki Iwata of the International Arctic Research Center of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Dr. Kenshi Takahashi, Dr. Yoshiko Kosugi, and Ms. Ayaka Sakabe of Kyoto University for their constructive discussions of regarding methods of methane flux measurements. We also thank the four anonymous reviewers for constructive comments on earlier versions of the manuscript. This study was partly supported by Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (A) (23681004) and the JSPS A3 Foresight Program (CarboEastAsia).
Open Access
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November is National Scholarship Month! It's the perfect time to amp up your search for scholarships, and you can start here. Our new short-essay scholarships are the latest way we are helping students like you get the money you need to cover your college expenses.
We're giving away two $2,500 awards this month, and there's still time to enter! Submit your essay by November 23 for your chance to win. LEARN MORE >>
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I'm unsure about college still. If I apply for FAFSA®, and I get the money already, what happens to it if I decide I don't want to go to college anymore?
Completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®) does not mean you are awarded money right away. The information provided on the FAFSA is shared with your prospective colleges and you will only receive financial aid monies from the school where you decide to enroll. It is not uncommon for some individuals to complete the FAFSA in order to determine what amount of financial aid they will be awarded to see if they can afford to attend college.
Now if you decide to attend college, enroll, receive financial aid funds and then decide to withdraw, there could be some financial consequences. When you withdraw from a school, there are two withdrawal policies that could impact you.
It is okay if you are unsure about college right now. It is always best to wait until you are ready, because withdrawing from school could have some financial consequences.
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Every woman needs to have a black bag in her wardrobe, a great black bag never goes out of style, it goes with everything. The Christi Leather Bag Black is just what you need any time of the year to carry your daily essentials. This summer, keep your style cool in the heat of the season with a floral boyfriend blazer. Pair it up with your favorite denim skinny jeans, a tank top and booties. Throw in some floral accessories and your favorite bag to complete your stylish ensemble. Just because it's summer, doesn't mean you cannot wear dark colors. It's not really about the color, but it's how you wear it.
Some women don't pick up colorful accessories, instead choosing to go for neutral bags and wallets. The false assumption is that when an accessory comes in a neutral color, you can wear it with anything and you'll get more use out of it. The real story is that an eye-catching bag or wallet can wake up so many outfits. Avoid bold on bold. Instead of keeping the accessory understated, keep your clothes understated. Bright colors like orange are good at complementing so many other colors, especially blues and whites.
If there's one basic thing to know about fashion, it's that clean lines and cuts always look stylish. That's why you can wear a little black dress as simple as this one and still look fabulous. The trick is to style the outfit well. Trendy black leather ankle boots keep it from looking dull. A bold color choice of rich green can be infused into the look in the form of a wallet. Baginc's International Wallet in Intreciatto is always a good choice if you're looking for something simple, elegant and beautiful.
When you go out at night, it's not always acceptable to be carrying a large bag or purse that you have on your mind the entire time. Sometimes all you need is a little cash and a few cards. For these instances, you need a small clutch or wallet that not only looks stylish but adds to your overall look. A really easy way to add a little touch of drama to an otherwise monochrome outfit is to carry a brightly colored wallet like this one. Black and white always looks great with orange and orange looks great with gold, as the shoes!
What says summer more than pineapples? To add fun on top of fun, wear a printed dress and carry a summery blue bag to go with it. This is the best outfit to put together if you want something light and upbeat. It's like a pop song or a summer hit in the form of clothing. What's even more cutesy is if you can find jewelry to complement or contrast the rest of your outfit. This is only possible if you wear a printed dress. Most commonly, fruit or bug themed jewelry is easy to find with objects like pineapples, cherries or butterflies. Even if you're no longer a teenager, this cute kind of look can still look sophisticated if you do your hair and makeup like a fancy shmancy lady!
What do you wear with a bag as beautiful as this one? There was a time when the one shoe every woman had to have were the Christian Louboutins with the red soles. This bag is just as must-have worthy with its black leather and red trim. The slight hint of racy red indicates its more than just your average bag, so you have to wear more than just your average outfit! A pretty red dress is more like it. Topped with a stylish black hat to protect your face from the sun, this look is guaranteed to make you the most stylish girl wherever you go this summer.
Rag & Bone Leather-Trimmed Wool Felt Fedora
Splendid Woven Mini Dress
YSL Lipstick
This weekend, it's time to get sparkly without guilt or shame. Go all out as the fireworks start popping and the sparklers start blazing. Don't let the night sky be the only thing that's on fire – add a touch of bejazzling to your own self! This pair of ridiculously cute shorts are one way to get down with the festive 4th of July spirit while still looking classy, not trashy. Keep it elegant by pairing it with something simple on top, an elegant pair of heels (to add oomph to your legs in shorts) and a cute clutch like the Coralie Wallet.


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Join our expressive arts program at A Wider Circle! We go every other Wednesday. Looking for talented artistic volunteers to bring fun projects to the kids of the Highland Dwellings and Additions.
Back to All Events
Earlier Event: May 12Baltimore Garden Build 2nd Saturdays
Later Event: May 20Girls on the Run Spring 5K


text: It's a hard core MMA edition of the show, as the guys preview this Saturday's double header of fight cards. Frank gives his in depth analysis on Amanda Nunes, Kelvin Gastelum, and why the Belfort/Machida fight should be elevated to main event status. Frank also explains why he thinks that this weekend's Ryan Bader/King Mo match up is the most intriguing of the opening round contests in Bellator's heavyweight grand prix tournament. The guys also discuss the promotional debut of Jon Fitch in the co main event against a disgruntled Paul Daley. Other news & notes around the sport are discussed to round out the show.


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Dr. Richard Norman, DPM
2 James Way Ste 205 Pismo Beach , CA 93449
Dr. Richard Norman, DPM's Experience
Procedures Performed
- Abscess Incision and Drainage
- Ankle Fracture Repair
- Foot and Ankle Fracture and Dislocation Treatment
- Foot and Ankle Fracture Treatment, Open
- Foot and Ankle Ligament and Tendon Repair
- Fracture Care
- Hammer Toe Repair
- Nail Avulsion and Excision
Conditions Treated
- Achilles Tendinitis
- Ankle Disorders
- Ankle Injury
- Ankle Sprain and Achilles Tendon Sprain or Rupture
- Bunion
- Flat Foot
- Foot and Ankle Disorders
- Foot and Ankle Injuries
- Foot Conditions
- Foot Fracture
- Foot Injuries
- Foot Sprain
- Fracture
- Hammer Toe
- Heel Pain
- Non-Traumatic Rupture of Achilles Tendon
- Plantar Fasciitis
- Sever's Disease
- Stress Fracture of Foot
- Ulcer of Foot
- Warts
Dr. Richard Norman, DPM's Locations
Accepting New Patients
2 James Way Ste 205, Pismo Beach, CA 93449
(805) 773-3668 Fax: (805) 773-1043
Affiliated Hospitals
Arroyo Grande Community Hospital
345 S Halcyon Rd, Arroyo Grande, CA 93420
Notice: "Find a Doctor" is provided by Dignity Health as a convenience to you. The information on each participating doctor is submitted to Dignity Health by each doctor and is not independently verified by Dignity Health. Each doctor is solely responsible for the completeness and accuracy of the information listed about him or her. Dignity Health is not responsible for any loss or damages caused by your reliance on the doctor information contained on Find a Doctor. You should telephone the doctor's office in advance to verify the accuracy of the information.


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I could've done some sewing on Sunday. I spent a couple of hours on my thesis after church and still had free time in the afternoon, but that hour clock change hit me like a ton of bricks. I was yawning all through church (which is tricky now that I'm singing in the choir!) and by the time I was done with my thesis I was definitely dragging. I tried to take a short nap to see if I could regroup, but it only marginally helped.
So, instead of sewing and risking messing something up, I just played with EQ8.
Mostly, I decided to work on my fabric libraries. Several years ago I had scanned a bunch of my stash fabrics to include in my EQ fabric library (I think it may have been when I first bought 7 but don't recall). I wanted to move those into EQ8, plus the Stash collections I had purchased back then as well. I figured out how to do that and then downloaded some freebie fabric collection images from Moda and added those to libraries too.
Then I treated myself to a couple of EQ8 add-ons. I had Kimberly Einmo's Jelly Roll Quilt Magic for EQ7, so that's reinstalled for 8 now. Yesterday, I added her other two EQ programs, Jelly Roll Quilts & More and Clever Combo Quilts. And then I just played with pulling some of her designs into EQ and coloring them with fabrics from the libraries I'd built.
I've got some free evenings this week so once I've caught up on my sleep, I plan on actually powering up my sewing machine.


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Here we have an exclusive interview with the winners in Budapest.
Erik & Eszter from Hungary.
1. What is your hometown/current location? …
We live in Budapest, but we travel quite lot around the world, because we work as guest artists in different tattoo studios.
2. How many years have you been in the tattoo industry? …
Erik started tattooing 8-9 years ago, I (Eszter) circa 6-7 years ago.
3. What made you realize that tattooing would be a good career for you? …
Both used to draw/paint a lot in our childhood, so we had known we would like to work as an artists when we grew up:) Tattooing gives a lot of freedom to us, in every part of our life and this was really likeable for us, that's why we choose this "lifestyle".
4. Do you see yourself tattooing for the rest of your life? …
Definitely, tattooing is an important part of our lives already, i think if it would be up to us, we would never quit completely. We have to accept, after an older age it will be more difficult to make tattoos, because of this we have other plans for the future.
5. Who do you look up to as your role models? …
When we were younger, we had a lot of role models, but we realized, we can and should learn from everybody. For example when we are on guest spot on abroad, we meet a lot of great tattoo artists from different countries, and all of them show us something new, for example interesting techniques, which we didn't know. We think everybody can motivate you and you can learn from everybody, it doesn't matter he/she is a really or not so well known tattoo artist.
6. What effect or influence do you hope to have on the tattoo industry? …
Of course we are really happy and means a big honor for us, if we get a lot of positive feedback to our works, but we don't want to have any influence, it's more then enough if our costumer is satisfied with the work what we made:)
7. Are you happy as were you stand as a tattoo artist? …
We are really thankful for everything, what we got from life as tattoo artists, but when we look at our works, we should never be 100% satisfied, we always have to keep learning. So we are satisfied and censorious at the same time:)
8. Does it make you lose focus, if the customer talks while you are tattooing them? Or annoy you? …
Since we got the chance to buy a really good headphone, it's not a problem anymore! :))
9. Please share any other hobbies, sports, or passions that are a part of your life. …
Erik- My big passions (beyond tattooing) are the old timer muscle cars, motorcycle riding. Besides this a few month ago i started to learn sport shooting.
Eszter- After Erik's answer i realized how boring person i am…:))
10. Have you ever had any TV exposure, or media involvement? I.e. magazines, events : …
Erik had already some interviews with different magazines, and our works also appeared in them.
11. Tell us a little about the shop and the other that work there? …
A few years ago we opened a big studio in Budapest, but as we said already, we travel a lot around the world to work as guest artists, because of that unfortunately we didn't have enough time for our own studio, so finally we had to close it.. Nowadays mostly we work abroad.
12. Tell us any future plans you have for your career or life in general. …
We would like to spend more time with our family, friends and create a calmer lifestyle. When we will be older, we really would like to have a nice house in a small village, close to the nature.
13. List any other influences on you or your art. I.e. other art forms, music, people : …
We can't tell any exact thing unfortunately. sometimes the inspiration comes from the most various way, it can be anything, a song, a painting or a movie etc.
Tell us how it feels when your name was called up in the speakers. …
When we prepared the plan for the tattoo, we decided to try out a new composition, what we have never done before. Instead of winning, that was the biggest motivation for us, to create something what is new for us, but of course we were really really happy that the jury appreciated our effort!
Name: Erik Adamik & Eszter Karády
Age: Erik-29 & Eszter-28
Country: Hungary
City: Budapest
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Tattoos-by-Eszter-Karady-Erik-Adamik-966762516668834
Mail: firstname.lastname@example.com
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text:
Pens Activity Bible
Pens Activity Bible
Pens Activity Bible
Alexa Tewkesbury
190 x 190mm, 180 page paperback
Add To Cart
Bible stories, puzzles, games and activities ... and all with your Pens friends!
There is plenty to entertain and teach young children. Bible stories are taken from the Old and New Testament (in order) and each Bible story comes with two activities.
Ideal for 3 to 6 year olds.


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Yesterday, Vertbase announced that they will start pairing Digibyte (DGB) against the US dollar as from 14thDec. The company has stated in their blog that they are aiming to provide a fiat gateway for cryptos that are not supported by industry leaders like Coinbase. This is a big step for Digibyte (DGB) because it makes this crypto more accessible, and will play a role in driving up its demand.
As accessibility through fiat becomes a common thing, Digibyte (DGB) will over time disentangle itself from the chokehold that Bitcoin (BTC) has on the market. That's because Digibyte's current market drop, like that of most other good altcoins, can be directly attributed to the drop in the value of bitcoin (BTC). The market is heavily tied to bitcoin (BTC), and the more fiat gateways open up for good altcoins like Digibyte (DGB), the better for their long-term growth.
However, this a long-term goal. In the near-term, the focus for most altcoins is on adoption. This is what will play a role in their growth and speed up market maturity. On this front, Digibyte is doing well and has the potential to achieve even more. For instance, Digibyte is cutting itself aniche in cybersecurity and it's working quite well.
Companies like Antum-ID and V-ID have already adopted Digibyte for this very purpose, and this is just the beginning. Digibyte (DGB) has more room for growth in this market. That's because it is free, and the need for strong cybersecurity solutions is on the rise. For instance, recently over 7000 WordPress accounts were compromised. This is one of the platforms that lots of people use in creating websites. With such risks, there is a high chance that more website owners will be looking for better security solutions and Digibyte (DGB) is among the best of them. It is easy to integrate, free, and best of all, it is unbreakable, when used as an authentication mechanism.
Another fundamentally important feature to the long-term growth of Digibyte (DGB) is the fact that it stands out as one of the most decentralized cryptos in the market. There is a fundamental battle between decentralization and a continuation of the centralized status quo. While blockchain came along due to the failings of a centralized system, most crypto projects have chosen to go the centralized route. However, with a market that is in a sustained bear run, many of these centralized projects may not sustain through it, due to funding issues.
This means that chances are that decentralized projects stand a chance to reign the market. Digibyte happens to be one of the most efficient decentralizedcryptos in the market. It is community driven and as long as it is getting adopted and used for real-world applications, it can never go under. There is no central organization that could run out of funding and bring down Digibyte (DGB). DGB's future prospects are bright.


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The legend of the world football, Diego Maradona, expressed his gratitude for open-armed welcome in Belarus.
"The food is like the one at home. Thank you, Belarus, for this reception.
I do not think I deserve this, but I will try hard to do the best to Dynamo Brest," Diego Maradona wrote on Instagram.
The celebrity took to his Instagram page to share his emotions after he was met like a true football king in Brest.
Read also: Brest, te amo! Locals create special city guide for Diego Maradona
He was so impressed with the reception he even considered the idea of settling in Brest.
The 57-year-old footballer landed in Brest on Monday to give his first press conference in Belarus.
He also attended a game of the Belarusian Football Championship between Dynamo Brest and Shakhtyor Soligorsk.
Diego Maradona is expected to spend some time in Argentina with his family.
Read also: Diego Maradona wants to meet Lukashenko, says when he comes to Belarus
His next meeting with the Belarusian club is scheduled on 2 August in Athens.
Argentinian icon is set to attend a game of Dynamo Brest against Atromitos FC in the Europa League second round.
Recall that Maradona signed a three-year deal to join the Belarusian top-flight club Dynamo Brest as the new chairman.
His role at Dynamo doesn't revolve around coaching, he will oversee the strategic development of the club.