International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 18-21, 2004 / Town & Country Resort, San Diego, California / This paper evaluates the performance as well as effectiveness of the High Speed Ethernet LANBased Distributed Telemetry Data Network Architecture. It also attempts to obtain a feasible solution for the Extension of LAN over High Performance Digital Modem via Routers and Bridges. With the advent of highly efficient broadband TCP/IP network and rapid growth of data traffic demand in the area of Telemetry Data Acquisition and Processing, one has to adopt a high bit rate PCM Telemetry Data Stream with the strategy of distributed task scheduling in multiprocessor environment. The proposed Telemetry System Architecture is adopted as a milestone to Modern Telemetry system. It incorporates various value added services for the performance evaluation of various flight vehicles providing authenticated data. This paper shows that by configuring the IP addresses of various nodes and router / bridges with V.35 interfaces, it is possible to extend the Telemetry Data on a local LAN to the remote LAN for display and high speed processing in real time. Necessary comparisons of performance of the existing to the proposed systems are presented.

The thesis examines the Children’s Centre Programme in England and develops an understanding of its development at national and local level by using Kingdon’s (1995) streams model. Central to the thesis is a case study of the Children’s Centre Programme which looks at influential factors in the development at national level and implementation of the programme in one local authority. Traditionally Kingdon’s (1995) model has been used to understand the way that a wide range of factors interact to enable policy change at national level but a small number of authors have also used the model at local level showing that the range of factors that impact on the local implementation of a policy are also many and varied. One of the most well know aspects of Kingdon’s model is in showing how the problem, policy and politics streams come together to create a window of opportunity which allows or drives policy change and or enactment. This thesis will use the model in a broader sense showing that although this window of opportunity is important the interaction of the three streams is ongoing and not only does it lead to significant policy change but it also informs debates and policy development on an ongoing basis.

Aquatic ecosystems are especially vulnerable to human impacts associated with agricultural land-use, which provide multiple stressors altering community composition, important ecosystem functions and human valued properties of freshwaters. However, the increased occurrence of excessive levels of nitrate-nitrogen has raised major concerns about toxicity and stress on aquatic life, especially in regions such as the Canterbury Plains, New Zealand. The aims of this thesis were to identify nitrate-nitrogen effects on stream communities, and additionally provide field data to inform proposed national bottom lines for nutrients in New Zealand streams. A field survey was conducted on 41 small streams on the Canterbury Plains spanning a nitrate-nitrogen gradient (mean 0.4 – 11.3 mg/L). Spot nitrate-nitrogen was collected during and after the field survey to measure temporal variation in stream nitrate-nitrogen concentration for six months. This showed nitrate-nitrogen concentration varied between season and sub-region, where concentrations increased in winter and Ashburton had higher nitrate-nitrogen than Rangiora and Lincoln, respectively. These regimes of nitrate-nitrogen showed similar patterns in mean, median and maximum concentrations. To be confident my spot nitrate-nitrogen provided a true representation of long-term water chemistry, I compared Environment Canterbury 12 monthly data with my six monthly data in a sub-set of 15 sites. This comparison showed similar nitrate-nitrogen patterns and range of values between the two datasets. I then compared 12 common benthic invertebrate biotic metrics with my nitrate-nitrogen data and found none were correlated with this contaminant. For example, the Macroinvertebrate Community Index and quantitative variant (QMCI) derived to measure the response to organic pollution provided inconsistent results when applied to my streams. Nevertheless, gut content stoichiometry of the common mayfly grazer Deleatidium spp. indicated improvement in food quality (lower C:N ratio) with higher nitrate-nitrogen concentrations. These results indicated either nitrate-nitrogen does not alter invertebrate structural metrics across this nitrate-nitrogen gradient, or that these biotic metrics measure community structure aspects not affected by nitrate-nitrogen. I then investigated possible community composition patterns across the nitrate-nitrogen gradient. Unconstrained ordination (on presence/absence data) showed invertebrate communities at my sites were influenced primarily by discharge and shade, with the next most important driver being nitrate-nitrogen. A constrained ordination (on the same data) testing the singular effect of nitrate-nitrogen showed a marginally non-significant change in composition, with higher variability in community composition at higher nitrate-nitrogen concentrations. A further aim of my study was to test the draft nitrate-nitrogen bands proposed by Hickey (2013). These nitrate-nitrogen bands may advise guidelines to protect aquatic organisms as required by the National Policy Statement on Freshwater. Analysis of my invertebrate communities showed differences in composition, particularly at < 1 and > 6.9 mg/L bands. Several predatory caddisfly taxa: Triplectides, Neurochorema and Oeconesus were identified as potential indicator species of communities associated with low nitrate-nitrogen. These findings show that nitrate-nitrogen effects are difficult to detect, and that it is not the main driver of community composition in Canterbury streams. However, nitrate-nitrogen may be an important stressor for sensitive benthic invertebrate communities, as effects were observed on pollution tolerant organisms in this study. Therefore, this research has implications for freshwater ecologists and environmental managers striving to improve the health of streams on the Canterbury Plains.

Headwater stream systems are important components of the overall hydrologic system. Forestry best management practices (BMP) are effective at minimizing non point source pollution from forest harvesting activities. Streamside management zones (SMZ) are one BMP used to protect surface water quality by maintaining shade near streams, filtering runoff, and minimizing soil disturbance near streams. An evaluation of BMP effectiveness on the watershed scale was conducted at the University of Kentucky’s Robinson Forest. Six watersheds were harvested using a two-age deferment harvest with one of three SMZ configurations applied to each watershed. Two unharvested watersheds served as controls. Treatment 1 was based on the current Kentucky Forest Practice Guidelines for Water Quality Management and included a 16.8 m SMZ with 50% canopy retention for perennial streams, a 7.6 m SMZ with no canopy retention for intermittent streams, and no SMZ or canopy retention for ephemeral streams with unimproved crossings. Treatment 2 also included a 16.8 m perennial SMZ but increased canopy retention to 100%, as well as a 7.6 m intermittent SMZ with 25% canopy retention, and retention of channel bank trees and use of improved crossings for ephemeral streams. Treatment 3 required a 33.5 m perennial SMZ with 100% canopy retention, a 16.8 intermittent SMZ with 25% canopy retention, and a 7.6 m ephemeral SMZ with retention of channel bank trees and use of improved crossings. Total suspended solids (TSS) concentration and turbidity was measured in storm samples in perennial and ephemeral streams, and in non-storm samples in perennial and intermittent streams. Nitrate-N, ammonium-N, and dissolved oxygen concentrations were also measured in non-storm samples in perennial and intermittent streams. Temperature and water level were recorded every 15 minutes for the duration of the study. Results showed that treatment 3 was able to maintain TSS concentrations and turbidity levels similar to those measured in unharvested control watersheds. Increases in nitrate-N and mean daily temperature were measured for all treatments. Ammonium-N and dissolved oxygen concentrations were not different from unharvested control watersheds for any treatment. Storm hydrograph separation did not result in consistent changes post-harvest for any treatment.

The potential relationship between riparian arachnids and aquatic insect productivity was assessed in forest streams throughout the central South Island of New Zealand. Initially, a survey was conducted of thirty seven, first-third order forest streams. Streams were selected to represent a range of benthic invertebrate standing crops (as a surrogate measure of "productivity") from Banks Peninsula streams with relatively high benthic invertebrate densities to acid mine drainage streams near Reefton that were almost devoid of aquatic life. At each site benthic invertebrate densities and biomass were measured in riffle habitats and adjacent gravel bars were sampled for terrestrial invertebrates. At a sub-set of 16 sites, a 20 metre longitudinal web-building spider survey was conducted along each bank of the stream. As an additional component, a 20 metre transect starting at the stream margin and running perpendicularly into the forest was used to survey the density of web-building spiders with increasing distance from the stream. Results from the survey of in-situ stream insect biomass and gravel bar invertebrates showed a strong relationship between aquatic insect biomass and the biomass of riparian arachnids (R2 = 0.42, P < 0.001) having accounted for potentially confounding factors such as stream size, elevation, substrate and disturbance. The 20 metre longitudinal survey showed that streams with the highest in-situ insect biomass had significantly higher densities of web-building spiders along their banks (R2 = 0.28, P < 0.05), having accounted for potential confounding variables of elevation, habitat architecture and stream and channel width. The stream to forest survey showed a strong exponential decay in web-building spider densities with increasing distance from the stream (R2 = 0.96, P < 0.0001). Regardless of stream productivity web-building spiders were most abundant at the stream margins and rapidly declined to very low densities 20 metres from the stream. In order to further test the relationship between riparian web-building spider densities and stream insect productivity, a stream fertilization experiment was conducted on six first-second order streams in the Maimai experimental catchment, Reefton. Three streams were enriched by the addition of a fertiliser solution mainly consisting of sodium nitrate for seven months, and the other three streams were used as controls. Water chemistry, benthic invertebrate communities, emerging aquatic adults, and the densities of web-building spiders along the stream corridor and in the forest were monitored in three seasons (spring, summer and autumn) over the course of the nutrient-addition. By the end of the experiment, conductivity was significantly higher in nutrient-addition streams than in the control streams (F = 80.5, P < 0.001), but chlorophyll concentrations showed no significant differences between treatments. Both benthic mayfly densities (F = 6.15, P < 0.05) and the biomass of adult aquatic dipterans (Chironomidae, Simuliidae) (F = 9.25, P < 0.01) were significantly higher in nutrient-addition streams in the last sampling round. Spiders recorded from intercept traps indicated that by the end of the experiment spider activity was significantly higher within 2.5 metres of the nutrient-addition streams (F = 5.70, P < 0.01). However, seasonal densities of web-building spiders along the stream margin and in the forest decreased with no significant differences observed between nutrient-addition and control streams. The results from these studies indicate that adult insects emerging from streams represent an important source of prey that could influence the biomass and abundance of riparian arachnids. Additionally, the results imply that stream productivity and size could mediate the strength of the interaction between riparian and stream habitats. Moreover, feedback mechanisms present in both systems could have implications for such interactions. The elevated densities of web-building spiders observed at the stream margin led to the proposal of the "Highway Robber" hypothesis. This hypothesis suggests that such higher densities of spiders are the result of increased insect activity along the stream corridor: the emergence of adult aquatic insects was predicted to vary less over temporal and spatial scales than that of terrestrial insects due to the poorly synchronized life histories in many New Zealand stream insects. I conclude by suggesting that there are numerous anthropocentric perturbations such as loss of heterogeneity, introduced species, pollution and habitat degradation that could undermine and decouple the intimate linkages between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems.

I studied how geology, land use and rainfall, correlated with peak flow responses in 110 headwater stream sites during a drought year. Highest discharges were observed in the most developed catchments and in the most poorly drained soils, but specific responses were variable depending on both geology and land disturbance. Redundancy analysis indicated that both surficial geology and land disturbance were important predictors of discharge and that rainfall was in general a poor predictor of discharge. I conclude that responses of headwater streams to individual storms are unpredictable from data generated using GIS, but increased peak flows occur associated with human development, mitigated by surficial geology. The headwater streams that are most vulnerable to flow alterations occur on poorly drained soils, and where urbanization tends to concentrate. Much greater attention to managing water is required if further degradation of stream ecosystems is to be prevented from our future land use.

The influence of channel morphology and hydraulics on sediment transport within steep upland streams is investigated. Step-pools are the most common bedform in such streams. Bedload transport processes operating in a perennial step-pool stream in central England are established using magnetically-tagged particles and bedload pit samplers. Water-surface slope in two step-pool streams is monitored in detail. Water-surface slope measurements show that step-pool bedforms cause large spatial variations in flow depth during floods, and that the temporal variation of watersurface slope during a flood wave differs diametrically from the pattern found in lowgradient rivers that have little roughness. These results demonstrate that it is difficult to estimate the forces acting on the streambed in steep, rough streams and, therefore, conventionally established flow variables cannot be used to predict bedload transport . rates in step-pool channels. Particle tracing experiments are used to determine the control that step-pool morphology and flow hycfraulics have on particle displacements. Step-pool streams exhibit smaller particle travel distance per flood event than low-gradient rivers. This difference reflects the greater flow resistance and bed rugosity of step-pool streams. Bed morphology dictates flood particle displacement at step-pool bedform scale. It is shown that entrainment, pool export rates and transport distances of coarse sediment are dependent on downstream step dimensions, step permeability and pool form. Large variations in bedload transport rates at any given flow strength are associated with variable sediment supply, and particle tracing demonstrates that sediment availability is controlled at unit pool scale. Bedload consists of fine gravel moving over a stable bed surface at low discharges, while, at higher discharges, bedload coarsens, approaching the size of the pool bed material as the bed surface is partially mobilized. Step framework clasts are stable features of the streambed. Results from this study are incorporated into a descriptive model of discharge-related bedload transport phases in step-pool streams.

We present a brief history of Galactic astrophysics, and explain the origin of halo substructure in the Milky Way Galaxy. We motivate our study of the dynamics of tidal streams in our Galaxy by highlighting the tight constraints that analysis of the trajectories of tidal streams can place on the form of the Galactic potential. We address the reconstruction of orbits from observations of tidal streams. We upgrade the geometrodynamical scheme reported by Binney (2008) and Jin & Lynden-Bell (2007), which reconstructs orbits from streams using radial-velocity measurements, to allow it to work with erroneous input data. The upgraded algorithm can correct for both statistical error on observations, and systematic error due to streams not delineating individual orbits, and given high-quality but realistic input data, it can diagnose the potential with considerable accuracy. We complement the work of Binney (2008) by deriving a new algorithm, which reconstructs orbits from streams using proper-motion data rather than radial-velocity data. We demonstrate that the new algorithm has a similar potency for diagnosing the Galactic potential. We explore the concept of Galactic parallax, which arises in connection with our proper-motion study. Galactic parallax allows trigonometric distance calculation to stars at 40 times the range of conventional parallax, although its applicability is limited to only those stars in tidal streams. We examine from first principles the mechanics of tidal stream formation and propagation. We find that the mechanics of tidal streams has a natural expression in terms of action-angle variables. We find that tidal streams in realistic galaxy potentials will generally not delineate orbits precisely, and that attempting to constrain the Galactic potential by assuming that they do can lead to large systematic error. We show that we can accurately predict the real-space trajectories of streams, even when they differ significantly from orbits.

Streams in cold regions are characterized by unique hydrological processes that control flow regime and water levels. One of the most important processes is the formation, growth and melting of different types of ice in and around the stream channel during winter. River ice controls major hydrologic events such as winter floods with magnitudes and frequencies often greater than those created by open-water conditions. While river management in northern countries has already recognized high risk of ice damages, the focus of the risk assessment has been mostly aimed towards the local economy; the ecological role of river ice has been less acknowledged. Along rivers in boreal Sweden, riparian vegetation has developed specific zonation with height and age of the plants increasing the further away they are from the stream channel. On lower levels the vegetation is often comprised of short-lived plants, such as annuals and biennials whereas more permanent woody vegetation is found at higher levels. This zonation has most often been explained by the resilience of different growth forms to the inundation regimes, such as the spring flood in northern systems. Within this framework, I investigated which factors drive the ice formation and how ice and ice-induced floods affect riparian and in-stream vegetation. A 3-year survey was conducted of ice formation and vegetation along 25 stream reaches and a set of experiments were used to evaluate ice as a disturbance agent. Reaches far away from lake outlets which had a low input of groundwater and a high velocity and stream power were most prone to form anchor ice, but many other factors also influenced ice formation. Streams with anchor ice experienced more frequent flooding of the riparian vegetation during winter. Our findings suggests that ice and winter floods favour diversity and create habitat heterogeneity for riparian species. On a community level, woody plants such as evergreen dwarf shrubs are eliminated when flooded during winter, opening up patches for other species to colonize, creating a dynamic riparian understory community. Significant changes in river ice conditions could develop with projected changes in climate which would have important geomorphologic, ecological and socio-economic impacts. One implication of climate change could be less ice disturbance and consequently a riparian vegetation in cold regions that slowly changes from forb to dwarf-shrub dominated with a subsequent decrease in species richness. Changes in species diversity and abundance of groups of species related to changes in ice formation could potentially cascade into riparian and in-stream processes such as nutrient cycling, litter decomposition and organism dispersal.

The Arctic is warming rapidly as a result of global climate change. Permafrost - permanently frozen ground - plays a critical role in shaping arctic ecosystems and stores nearly one half of the global soil organic matter. Therefore, disturbance of permafrost will likely impact the carbon and related biogeochemical processes on local and global scales. In the Alaskan Arctic, fire and thermokarst (permafrost thaw) have become more common and have been hypothesized to accelerate the hydrological export of inorganic nutrients and sediment, as well as biodegradable dissolved organic carbon (BDOC), which may alter ecosystem processes of impacted streams. The biogeochemical characteristics of two tundra streams were quantified several years after the development of gully thermokarst features. The observed responses in sediment and nutrient loading four years after gully formation were more subtle than expected, likely due to the stabilization of the features and the dynamics controlling the hydrologic connectivity between the gully and the stream. The response of impacted streams may depend on the presence of water tracks, particularly their location in reference to the thermokarst and downslope aquatic ecosystem. We found evidence of altered ecosystem structure (benthic standing stocks, algal biomass, and macroinvertebrate composition) and function (stream metabolism and nutrient uptake), which may be attributable to the previous years' allochthonous gully inputs. The patterns between the reference and impacted reaches were different for both stream sites. Rates of ecosystem production and respiration and benthic chlorophyll-a in the impacted reaches of the alluvial and peat-lined streams were significantly lower and greater, respectively, compared to the reference reaches, even though minimal differences in sediment and nutrient loading were detected. Rates of ammonium and soluble reactive phosphorus uptake were consistently lower in the impacted reach at the alluvial site. The observed differences in metabolism, nutrient uptake and macroinvertebrate community composition suggest that even though the geochemical signal diminished, gully features may have long-lasting impacts on the biological aspects of downstream ecosystem function. In a separate study, a suite of streams impacted by thermokarst and fire were sampled seasonally and spatially. Regional differences in water chemistry and BDOC were more significant than the influences of fire or thermokarst, likely due to differences in glacial age and elevation of the landscape. The streams of the older (>700 ka), lower elevation landscape contained higher concentrations of dissolved nitrogen and phosphorus and DOC and lower BDOC compared to the streams of the younger (50-200 ka) landscapes that had lower dissolved nutrient and DOC quantity of higher biodegradability. The findings in this dissertation indicate that arctic stream ecosystems are more resilient than we expected to small-scale, rapidly stabilizing gully thermokarst features and disturbance caused by fire. Scaling the results of these types of studies should consider the size of thermokarst features in relation to the size of impacted rivers and streams. It remains to be determined how general permafrost thaw will affect the structure and function of arctic streams in the future.