  Recent studies have shown that baroclinic vortex amplification is strongly
dependent on certain factors, namely, the global entropy gradient, the
efficiency of thermal diffusion and/or relaxation as well as numerical
resolution. We conduct a comprehensive study of a broad range and combination
of various entropy gradients, thermal diffusion and thermal relaxation
time-scales via local shearing sheet simulations covering the parameter space
relevant for protoplanetary disks. We measure the Reynolds stresses as a
function of our control parameters and see that there is angular momentum
transport even for entropy gradients as low as $\beta=-{d\ln s}/{d\ln
r}={1}/{2}$, which corresponds to values observed in protoplanetary accretion
disks. The amplification-rate of the perturbations, $\Gamma$, appears to be
proportional to $\beta^2$ and thus proportional to the square of the \BV
($\Gamma \propto \beta^2 \propto N^2$). The saturation level of Reynolds
stresses on the other hand seems to be proportional to $\beta^{1/2}$. This
highlights the importance of baroclinic effects even for the low entropy
gradients expected in protoplanetary disks.
