Effects of Model‐based Teaching on Pre‐service Physics Teachers’ Conceptions of the Moon, Moon Phases, and Other Lunar Phenomena

2007 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 555-593 ◽  
Author(s):  
Feral Ogan‐Bekiroglu
2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 247-254 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonardo Vignoli ◽  
Manuela D’Amen ◽  
Francesca Della Rocca ◽  
Marco A. Bologna ◽  
Luca Luiselli

Many studies have provided evidence that prey adjust their behaviour to adaptively balance the fitness effects of reproduction and predation risk. Nocturnal terrestrial animals should deal with a range of environmental conditions during the reproductive season at the breeding sites, including a variable amount of natural ambient light. High degrees of illumination are expected to minimize those behaviours that might increase the animal detection by predators. Therefore, under habitat variable brightness conditions and in different ecosystems, the above mentioned behaviours are expected to depend on the variation in predation risk. Although moon effects on amphibian biology have been recognized, the direction of this influence is rather controversial with evidences of both increased and depressed activity under full moon. We tested in four nocturnal amphibian species (Hyla intermedia, Rana dalmatina, Rana italica, Salamandrina perspicillata) the effects of different (i) light conditions and (ii) habitats (open land vs. dense forest) on the reproductive phenology. Our results showed that the effects of the lunar cycle on the study species are associated with the change in luminosity, and there is no evidence of an endogenous rhythm controlled by biological clocks. The habitat type conditioned the amphibian reproductive strategy in relation to moon phases. Open habitat breeders (e.g., ponds with no canopy cover) strongly avoided conditions with high brightness, whereas forest habitat breeders were apparently unaffected by the different moon phases. Indeed, for all the studied species no effects of the moon phase itself on the considered metrics were found. Rather, the considered amphibian species seem to be conditioned mainly by moonlight irrespective of the moon phase. The two anurans spawning in open habitat apparently adjust their oviposition timing by balancing the fitness effects of the risk to be detected by predators and the reproduction.


1999 ◽  
Vol 56 (6) ◽  
pp. 939-946 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brett B Roper ◽  
Dennis L Scarnecchia

Two rotating smolt traps were used through 4 consecutive years to monitor emigrations of age-0 chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) from two watersheds of the upper South Umpqua River basin, Oregon, U.S.A. The number of wild smolts moving past the mainstem South Umpqua River trap ranged from 26 455 in 1991 to less than 5000 in 1993. The number of wild smolts passing the Jackson Creek trap ranged from 13 345 in 1991 to 0 in 1993. Higher numbers of wild smolts were significantly (P = 0.003) correlated with higher numbers of prespawning adults counted in index reaches the preceding year. Timing of emigration of smolts was found to be significantly related to stream temperature (P < 0.05) and phase of the lunar cycle (P < 0.05) but not related to changes in discharge (P > 0.05). Median emigration dates, which varied over 9 weeks, were earlier when spring water temperatures were higher. On average, two thirds of yearly smolt runs occurred when the moon was either waning or new, even though these moon phases were present only about half of the time. Significantly (P < 0.05) more fish than expected emigrated past both traps when day length was increasing.


2000 ◽  
Vol 151 (11) ◽  
pp. 439-443 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mihaly Bariska ◽  
Patrick Rösch

30 trees from the same growth site were felled at six different dates within ‹advantageous› and ‹disadvantageous›moon phases in order to investigate the influence of the moon phases on felling date and shrinkage behaviour of Norway spruce. The results showed no measurable changes in quality (neither sapwood nor heartwood) due to felling date.


2003 ◽  
Vol 154 (9) ◽  
pp. 351-359 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernst Zürcher

In order to investigate the significance of the moon phases at the felling date on wood properties of Norway spruce, 30 trees from the same growth site were felled at six different dates during waxing/ascending, and waning/descending moon cycles, respectively. The present work deals especially with the effect on wood-water-relations of the analysed samples, as well as with the effect on some wood properties after weathering. The results show significant differences in the second half of the experimental felling period.


2015 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 212 ◽  
Author(s):  
John L. Read ◽  
Matthew J. Ward ◽  
Katherine E. Moseby

Optimised detection and sensitivity of fauna-monitoring programs is essential for the adaptive management of threatened species. We describe the influence of trap type, trapping duration and timing on the detection rates of small vertebrates, in particular the nationally endangered sandhill dunnart (Sminthopsis psammophila) in its two primary populations in South Australia. A total of 118 and 155 sandhill dunnarts were captured from the Middleback and Yellabinna regions, respectively, from five trapping sessions between 2008 and 2012. Wide deep pitfall traps (225 mm diameter × 600–700 mm deep) captured significantly more adult sandhill dunnarts than shorter, narrower pitfalls (150 mm diameter × 500 mm deep) or Elliott traps. Deep pitfall traps also captured significantly more hopping mice (Notomys mitchellii) but smaller mammal species were equally trapable in deep or short pitfall traps. Capture rates declined through successive nights of trapping. Capture rates of sandhill dunnarts were greatest in one study region when the moon illumination was less than 40% compared with fuller moon phases but were not affected by moon illumination in the other study region. The results suggest that higher capture rates of sandhill dunnarts will be achieved when using wide, deep pitfall traps on dark nights during the first two nights of trapping. Trapping in summer detected more juvenile sandhill dunnarts than trapping in winter.


1969 ◽  
Vol 47 (6) ◽  
pp. 1183-1186 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. J. Doucet ◽  
J. R. Bider

Activity of Microtus pennsylvanicus was recorded as the number of crossings per day over a sand transect during four consecutive summers. Appropriate samples were selected to test the effects of both moon phases and moonlight on activity. Initially the results of tests comparing new moon to full moon phases showed that the voles were more active during new moon in only 3 of 10 discreet paired samples tested. However, when the effects of sampling sequence, phenology of population growth, date at which moon phases occurred, and, finally, the effect of climate were all considered as factors which could have affected the above results, it seemed reasonable to conclude that the new moon phase tended to be associated with higher activity. To establish if moonlight by itself, independent of phases, was a factor affecting the activity, tests were made during brightest and darkest nights of the lunar month and results indicated that moonlight did not affect the differences in activity found in the moon phase tests.


ECSCW 2009 ◽  
2009 ◽  
pp. 383-402 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kjeld Schmidt ◽  
Hilda Tellioglu ◽  
Ina Wagner

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