abstract: Drylands (arid and semi-arid grassland ecosystems) cover about 40% of the Earth's surface and support over 40% of the human population, most of which is in emerging economies. Human development of drylands leads to topsoil loss, and over the last 160 years, woody plants have encroached on drylands, both of which have implications for maintaining soil viability. Understanding the spatial variability in erosion and soil organic carbon and total nitrogen under varying geomorphic and biotic forcing in drylands is therefore of paramount importance. This study focuses on how two plants, palo verde (Parkinsonia microphylla, nitrogen-fixing) and jojoba (Simmondsia chinensis, non-nitrogen fixing), affect sediment transport and soil organic carbon and total nitrogen pools in a dryland environment north of Phoenix, Arizona. Bulk samples were systematically collected from the top 10 cm of soil in twelve catenae to control for the existence and type of plants, location to canopy (sub- or intercanopy, up- or downslope), aspect, and distance from the divide. Samples were measured for soil organic carbon and total nitrogen and an unmanned aerial system-derived digital elevation map of the field site was created for spatial analysis. A subset of the samples was measured for the short-lived isotopes 137Cs and 210Pbex, which serve as proxy erosion rates. Erosional soils were found to have less organic carbon and total nitrogen than depositional soils. There were clear differences in the data between the two plant types: jojoba catenae had higher short-lived isotope activity, lower carbon and nitrogen, and smaller canopies than those of palo verde, suggesting lower erosion rates and nutrient contributions from jojoba plants. This research quantifies the importance of biota on influencing hillslope and soil dynamics in a semi-arid field site in central AZ and finishes with a discussion on the global implications for soil sustainability. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Geological Sciences 2018

Le sujet de cette thèse est le développement d'une cible liquide haute puissance capable de gérer les contraintes liées a un impact de faisceau de protons de haute puissance (de l'ordre du GW en quelques ms) tout en optimisant la production d'isotopes a court temps de demi-vie (ici, l'intérêt se porte sur du Mercure, de temps de demi vie 130 ms). L'objectif est d'améliorer l'extraction des particules élémentaires d'intérêt pour les physiciens une fois celles-ci créées. La thèse a été principalement préparée au CERN (Genève, Suisse). De plus en plus, la puissance des faisceaux primaires envoyés sur les cibles augmente jusqu'à atteindre plusieurs centaines de kiloWatt, créant ainsi de nouvelles problématiques et de nouveaux défis. De nouveaux concepts de cibles ont ainsi vu le jour. Parmi eux, une boucle liquide utilisant du Plomb Bismuth Eutectic (LBE) comme matériau de cible, et dans lequel un échangeur de chaleur et une pompe sont intégrés, a été proposée durant la phase de développement du projet EURISOL. Ce concept prévoit de plus de transformer le liquide irradié sous forme degouttes de manière à faciliter l'extraction des isotopes créés et ainsi d'augmenter la production d'isotopes à court temps de demi-vie. Cette thèse présente le développement de ce design. Un prototype a été développé et sera testé sous faisceau de protons à ISOLDE au CERN. Plusieurs outils analytiques pour l'étude et la conception de cible haute puissance sont proposés, prenant en considération divers paramètres de design. Ces outils peuvent être utilisés pour d'autres cibles haute puissance et permettent un dimensionnement simple de ce genre de cible. De plus, un design innovant d'échangeur de chaleur est présenté, permettant d'extraire une puissance constante pour différentes températures de LBE. Le design proposé est validé grâce à divers outils numériques et analytiques. De plus, des tests expérimentaux ont été réalisés pour valider la faisabilité de douche. Des gouttes de 400 um ont été obtenues. La cible proposée est la première combinant l'utilisation d'une chambre de diffusion où la douche est créée, avec une pompe et un échangeur de chaleur. Les concepts avancés peuvent être utilisés pour ledéveloppement de cibles similaires dans d'autres instituts. / The subject of this thesis is to design a liquid target able to account for the stress induced by the impact of a highpower proton beam (of the order of GW in few ms) and to optimize the isotopes production of species with short half-life (here, the isotope of interest is a Mercury one, with a half-life of 130 ms). The objective is to improve the extraction of elementary particles of interest for physicists. The thesis was mainly conducted at the CERN (Geneva, Switzerland).More and more, the power of primary beam sent onto targets increases until reaching several kiloWatts of magnitude, inducing new problematic and challenges. Consequently, the need of new target design arises and leads to new conceptual design proposal. Amongst them, a concept of Lead Bismuth Eutectic (LBE) loop target making use of an heat exchanger (HEX) and a pump has been proposed during the European project EURISOL Design Study. This concept proposed an improvement in terms of release efficiency of short-lived species by transforming the irradiated liquid into droplets shape. This thesis presents the development of this target design proposal. A prototype target has been developed and will be tested under proton beam at ISOLDE at CERN. Several analytical tools for the study of this kind of targets are proposed, taking into account different design parameters. These tools can be applied for other high power target concept and allow an easy dimensioning of this kind of targets. As well, an innovative heat exchanger is developed, allowing to extract constant power out of the target for different LBE temperature. The proposed target design is validated thanks to different numerical and analytical tools while experimental tests have been conducted in order to assess the droplet formation feasibility. These tests prove that a shower of droplets of 400 ¿m is possible. The developed target is the first one combining a diffusion chamber where a shower is created combined with a pump and a HEX. The concepts of this design could be applied for similar targets that could be developed in other facilities.