scholarly journals Diving physiology of marine mammals and birds: the development of biologging techniques

2021 ◽  
Vol 376 (1830) ◽  
pp. 20200211
Author(s):  
Cassondra L. Williams ◽  
Paul J. Ponganis

In the 1940s, Scholander and Irving revealed fundamental physiological responses to forced diving of marine mammals and birds, setting the stage for the study of diving physiology. Since then, diving physiology research has moved from the laboratory to the field. Modern biologging, with the development of microprocessor technology, recorder memory capacity and battery life, has advanced and expanded investigations of the diving physiology of marine mammals and birds. This review describes a brief history of the start of field diving physiology investigations, including the invention of the time depth recorder, and then tracks the use of biologging studies in four key diving physiology topics: heart rate, blood flow, body temperature and oxygen store management. Investigations of diving heart rates in cetaceans and O 2 store management in diving emperor penguins are highlighted to emphasize the value of diving physiology biologging research. The review concludes with current challenges, remaining diving physiology questions and what technologies are needed to advance the field. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Measuring physiology in free-living animals (Part I)’.

Physiology ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 116-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela Fago ◽  
Frank B. Jensen

Among vertebrates able to tolerate periods of oxygen deprivation, the painted and red-eared slider turtles ( Chrysemys picta and Trachemys scripta) and the crucian carp ( Carassius carassius) are the most extreme and can survive even months of total lack of oxygen during winter. The key to hypoxia survival resides in concerted physiological responses, including strong metabolic depression, protection against oxidative damage and–in air-breathing animals–redistribution of blood flow. Each of these responses is known to be tightly regulated by nitric oxide (NO) and during hypoxia by its metabolite nitrite. The aim of this review is to highlight recent work illustrating the widespread roles of NO and nitrite in the tolerance to extreme oxygen deprivation, in particular in the red-eared slider turtle and crucian carp, but also in diving marine mammals. The emerging picture underscores the importance of NO and nitrite signaling in the adaptive response to hypoxia in vertebrate animals.


2007 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 6-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerald Kooyman

The history of animal-borne instrumentation is reviewed from the first basic depth gauge invented in the late 1800s, to the complex animal-borne imagery and archival systems of the present day. A major breakthrough occurred in 1964 when the first time-depth recorder was deployed on a Weddell Seal in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. The next phase in the study of animals at sea was the use of microprocessors as archival recorders in the mid-1980s. These also were first attached to Weddell seals in McMurdo Sound. Microprocessor technology made possible the next major step of attaching a video camera housed in a submersible case (Crittercam) to a loggerhead turtle. Since the 1990s the field of “Biologging” has flourished, with new additions of satellite and GPS tracking, and resulted in three major international symposiums in the past four years (2003-2007).


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 435-441
Author(s):  
A. I. Prisyazhnenko

The development of humanity is impossible without means of signaling. Signaling in any sphere of human activity has always been a means of ensuring the safety of his life. One of these areas was railway transport, the development of which and, accordingly, signalling facilities began in the early 19th century.With the progress of technological progress in Russia, signaling tools have also evolved, which have gone from the simplest sound and optical signals to modern ones using satellite technologies. Naturally, this path in the technical evolution of mankind is of interest to scientists and just curious people, since knowledge of the stages of the origin and development of signaling allows contemporaries to improve it and at the same time not forget the basics of this area.As a result of this process, the signaling system on railway transport, its means have undergone serious changes. Primitive ways of giving commands - optical (disk, flag) and sound (whistle) to the participants of the movement were pushed by more modern means of signaling, which already involve microprocessor technology and satellite technologies.An example of modern signaling means is the automatic locomotive signaling of a single row of continuous type (ALS-EN). The signal of this type of signaling is more informative: it contains information about the number of free block sections ahead of the train, as well as about the permissible speed of its movement.


Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 2435
Author(s):  
Adriana Trotta ◽  
Mariarosaria Marinaro ◽  
Alessio Sposato ◽  
Michela Galgano ◽  
Stefano Ciccarelli ◽  
...  

Gram negative organisms are frequently isolated from Caretta caretta turtles, which can act as reservoir species for resistant microorganisms in the aquatic environment. C. caretta, which have no history of treatment with antimicrobials, are useful sentinel species for resistant microbes. In this culture-based study, commensal bacteria isolated from oral and cloacal samples of 98 healthy C. caretta were compared to clinical isolates from the wounds of 102 injured animals, in order to investigate the presence of AMR bacteria in free-living loggerheads from the Adriatic Sea. A total of 410 isolates were cultured. Escherichia coli and genera such as Serratia, Moraxella, Kluyvera, Salmonella were isolated only in healthy animals, while Acinetobacter, Enterobacter, Klebsiella and Morganella were isolated only from the wounds of the injured animals. When tested for susceptibility to ampicillin, amoxicillin + clavulanic acid, ceftazidime, cefuroxime, gentamicin, doxycycline, ciprofloxacin and enrofloxacin, the clinical isolates showed highly significant differences in AMR rates vs. commensal isolates for all the drugs tested, except for doxycycline. The detection of high AMR rates in loggerheads is of clinical and microbiological significance since it impacts both the choice of a proper antibiotic therapy and the implementation of conservation programs.


1986 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
MM Roper ◽  
DM Halsall

The potential for N2 fixation by free-living bacteria using straw as a source of energy was evaluated in three soils (one from Gunnedah and two from Cowra) representative of the wheat belt in New South Wales. All three soils had a history of straw incorporation. The abilities of the respective microbial populations to use a range of carbon sources, including potential products of decomposition of straw, was determined and compared with the size and composition of each population. Neutral to alkaline (pH 7.4) soil of high (51%) clay content from Gunnedah produced higher rates of nitrogenase activity with straw than more acid (pH 5.6) lower (17%) clay containing soil from Cowra (site B). Gunnedah soil also contained a larger population of N2-fixing bacteria which used a broader range of energy sources than soil from either Cowra site B or Cowra site W (pH 5.8, clay content 34%). There was little difference in the composition of the N2-fixing populations in each of the soils except that Azotobacter spp. were absent from the acid Cowra soils. It was concluded that the difference in behaviour of the respective N2-fixing populations was primarily due to the physical characteristics of the soil affecting the numbers and activities of diazotrophic microorganisms. In addition some soil environments failed to support specific organisms.


2012 ◽  
Vol 81 (3) ◽  
pp. 125-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesca Benzoni ◽  
Roberto Arrigoni ◽  
Fabrizio Stefani ◽  
Bastian T. Reijnen ◽  
Simone Montano ◽  
...  

The scleractinian species Psammocora explanulata and Coscinaraea wellsi were originally classified in the family Siderastreidae, but in a recent morpho-molecular study it appeared that they are more closely related to each other and to the Fungiidae than to any siderastreid taxon. A subsequent morpho-molecular study of the Fungiidae provided new insights regarding the phylogenetic relationships within that family. In the present study existing molecular data sets of both families were analyzed jointly with those of new specimens and sequences of P. explanulata and C. wellsi. The results indicate that both species actually belong to the Cycloseris clade within the family Fungiidae. A reappraisal of their morphologic characters based on museum specimens and recently collected material substantiate the molecular results. Consequently, they are renamed Cycloseris explanulata and C. wellsi. They are polystomatous and encrusting like C. mokai, another species recently added to the genus, whereas all Cycloseris species were initially thought to be monostomatous and free-living. In the light of the new findings, the taxonomy and distribution data of C. explanulata and C. wellsi have been updated and revised. Finally, the ecological implications of the evolutionary history of the three encrusting polystomatous Cycloseris species and their free-living monostomatous congeners are discussed.


2019 ◽  
Vol 374 (1769) ◽  
pp. 20180190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rose Thorogood ◽  
Claire N. Spottiswoode ◽  
Steven J. Portugal ◽  
Ros Gloag

Obligate brood-parasitic cheats have fascinated natural historians since ancient times. Passing on the costs of parental care to others occurs widely in birds, insects and fish, and often exerts selection pressure on hosts that in turn evolve defences. Brood parasites have therefore provided an illuminating system for researching coevolution. Nevertheless, much remains unknown about how ecology and evolutionary history constrain or facilitate brood parasitism, or the mechanisms that shape or respond to selection. In this special issue, we bring together examples from across the animal kingdom to illustrate the diverse ways in which recent research is addressing these gaps. This special issue also considers how research on brood parasitism may benefit from, and in turn inform, related fields such as social evolution and immunity. Here, we argue that progress in our understanding of coevolution would benefit from the increased integration of ideas across taxonomic boundaries and across Tinbergen’s Four Questions: mechanism, ontogeny, function and phylogeny of brood parasitism. We also encourage renewed vigour in uncovering the natural history of the majority of the world's brood parasites that remain little-known. Indeed, it seems very likely that some of nature’s brood parasites remain entirely unknown, because otherwise we are left with a puzzle: if parental care is so costly, why is brood parasitism not more common?This article is part of the theme issue ‘The coevolutionary biology of brood parasitism: from mechanism to pattern’.


2005 ◽  
Vol 79 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.A. Shears ◽  
C.R. Kennedy

AbstractPrevious studies on the life history of the nematode eel specialist Paraquimperia tenerrima (Nematoda: Quimperiidae) have failed to determine whether an intermediate host is required in the life cycle. In the laboratory, eggs failed to hatch below 10°C, hatching occurring only at temperatures between 11 and 30°C. Survival of the free-living second stage larvae (L2) was also temperature dependent, with maximal survival between 10 and 20°C. Total survival of the free-living stages (eggs and L2) is unlikely to exceed a month at normal summer water temperatures, confirming that parasite could not survive the 6 month gap between shedding of eggs in spring and infection of eels in early winter outside of a host. Eels could not be infected directly with L2, nor could a range of common freshwater invertebrate species. Third stage larvae (L3) resembling P. tenerrima were found frequently and abundantly in the swimbladder of minnows Phoxinus phoxinus from several localities throughout the year and were able to survive in this host in the laboratory for at least 6 months. Third stage larvae identical to these larvae were recovered from minnows experimentally fed L2 of P. tenerrima, and eels infected experimentally with naturally and experimentally infected minnows were found to harbour fourth stage larvae (L4) and juvenile P. tenerrima in their intestines. Finally, the whole life cycle from eggs to adult was completed in the laboratory, confirming that minnows are an obligate intermediate host for P. tenerrima.


Author(s):  
Julyan H. E. Cartwright

Clocks run through the history of physics. Galileo conceived of using the pendulum as a timing device on watching a hanging lamp swing in Pisa cathedral; Huygens invented the pendulum clock; and Einstein thought about clock synchronization in his Gedankenexperiment that led to relativity. Stokes derived his law in the course of investigations to determine the effect of a fluid medium on the swing of a pendulum. I sketch the work that has come out of this, Stokes drag, one of his most famous results. And to celebrate the 200th anniversary of George Gabriel Stokes’ birth I propose using the time of fall of a sphere through a fluid for a sculptural clock—a public kinetic artwork that will tell the time. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Stokes at 200 (part 2)’.


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