[1] Rising temperatures caused by climatic warming may cause poleward range shifts and/or expansions in species distribution. Tropical reef corals (hereafter corals) are some of the world's most important species, being not only primary producers, but also habitat-forming species, and thus fundamental ecosystem modification is expected according to changes in their distribution. Although most studies of climate change effects on corals have focused on temperatureinduced coral bleaching in tropical areas, poleward range shifts and/or expansions may also occur in temperate areas. We show the first large-scale evidence of the poleward range expansion of modern corals, based on 80 years of national records from the temperate areas of Japan, where centurylong measurements of in situ sea-surface temperatures have shown statistically significant rises. Four major coral species categories, including two key species for reef formation in tropical areas, showed poleward range expansions since the 1930s, whereas no species demonstrated southward range shrinkage or local extinction. The speed of these expansions reached up to 14 km/year, which is far greater than that for other species. Our results, in combination with recent findings suggesting range expansions of tropical coral-reef associated organisms, strongly suggest that rapid, fundamental modifications of temperate coastal ecosystems could be in progress. Citation: Yamano, H., K. Sugihara, and K. Nomura (2011), Rapid poleward range expansion of tropical reef corals in response to rising sea surface temperatures, Geophys. Res. Lett., 38, L04601,
An oxidation-resistant and elastic mesoporous carbon, graphene mesosponge (GMS), is prepared. GMS has a sponge-like mesoporous framework (mean pore size is 5.8 nm) consisting mostly of single-layer graphene walls, which realizes a high electric conductivity and a large surface area (1940 m 2 g −1 ). Moreover, the graphene-based framework includes only a very small amount of edge sites, thereby achieving much higher stability against oxidation than conventional porous carbons such as carbon blacks and activated carbons. Thus, GMS can simultaneously possess seemingly incompatible properties; the advantages of graphitized carbon materials (high conductivity and high oxidation resistance) and porous carbons (large surface area). These unique features allow GMS to exhibit a suffi cient capacitance (125 F g −1 ), wide potential window (4 V), and good rate capability as an electrode material for electric double-layer capacitors utilizing an organic electrolyte. Hence, GMS achieves a high energy density of 59.3 Wh kg −1 (material mass base), which is more than twice that of commercial materials. Moreover, the continuous graphene framework makes GMS mechanically tough and extremely elastic, and its mean pore size (5.8 nm) can be reversibly compressed down to 0.7 nm by simply applying mechanical force. The sponge-like elastic property enables an advanced force-induced adsorption control.
Super-stable mesoporous carbon sheet made of edge-free graphene walls enabled the assembly of symmetric supercapacitors with excellent stability under 3.5 V@60 °C and 4.4 V@25 °C conditions, even with a conventional electrolyte.
Nano-confined spaces in nanoporous materials enable anomalous physicochemical phenomena. While most nanoporous materials including metal-organic frameworks are mechanically hard, graphene-based nanoporous materials possess significant elasticity and behave as nanosponges that enable the force-driven liquid–gas phase transition of guest molecules. In this work, we demonstrate force-driven liquid–gas phase transition mediated by nanosponges, which may be suitable in high-efficiency heat management. Compression and free-expansion of the nanosponge afford cooling upon evaporation and heating upon condensation, respectively, which are opposite to the force-driven solid–solid phase transition in shape-memory metals. The present mechanism can be applied to green refrigerants such as H
2
O and alcohols, and the available latent heat is at least as high as 192 kJ kg
−1
. Cooling systems using such nanosponges can potentially achieve high coefficients of performance by decreasing the Young’s modulus of the nanosponge.
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