Structure and succession of periphyton in an urban reservoir: artificial substrate specificity

2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivana Trbojević ◽  
Jelena Jovanović ◽  
Dušan Kostić ◽  
Slađana Popović ◽  
Jelena Krizmanić ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Substrate Specificity ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Artificial Substrate ◽  
Artificial Substrates ◽  
Ecological Groups ◽  
Periphyton Community ◽  
Algae Growth ◽  
Colonization Process ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Insight Into

AbstractSubstrate specificity of the periphyton community is usually underestimated in both periphyton ecology and biomonitoring studies, thus different kinds of both natural and artificial substrates (of organic and inorganic origin) are employed. Periphyton colonization and successional trajectories are particularly debatable processes when different kinds of substrates are considered. In our field experiment, we deployed four kinds of artificial substrates (two inorganic ones – glass and ceramic, and two organic ones – willow and yew wooden tiles) for the development of periphyton in an urban reservoir referred to as Lake Savsko (Belgrade, Serbia). We comparatively investigated the structure, colonization process, diversity and successional trajectories of periphyton. We also assessed the relationship between the dynamics of algae growth forms (ecological groups) on different substrates and selected abiotic limnological factors. Our objective was to determine whether the type of substrate affects periphyton characteristics at various levels and whether an artificial substrate potentially affects the bioindication capacity of ecological groups. We concluded that all substrates behave similarly at the level of structure and colonization phases, but when considering diversity and successional trajectories, the substrate specificity was demonstrated. Our results suggest that communities developed on inert substrates (glass and ceramic) could provide more realistic insight into complex environmental changes.

scholarly journals Colonization of benthic invertebrates on artificial and natural substrate in a Neotropical lotic environment in Southern Brazil

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
pp. e45872 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nilce Svarcz Jungles de Camargo ◽  
Atsler Luana Lehun ◽  
Jonathan Rosa ◽  
Ana Carolina de Deus Bueno-Krawczyk
Keyword(s):  
Benthic Invertebrates ◽  
Artificial Substrate ◽  
Artificial Substrates ◽  
Natural Substrate ◽  
Tropical Stream ◽  
Taxonomic Level ◽  
Lotic Environment ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Colonization Process ◽  
South Brazil

The objective of this research was to validate the colonization process on natural and artificial substrates by benthic invertebrates in a tropical stream in South Brazil. The samples were performed in July and August-2012, and 32 samplers were used, being 16 natural and 16 artificial substrates. In each sample, two replicas were taken for each substrate at the 2th, 4th, 7th, 14th, 21th 28th, 35th and 42th days of colonization. The organisms were identified to the lowest possible taxonomic level. In both substrates 3,070 benthic invertebrates were detected, of which 1,753 individuals were collected on the natural substrate, and 1,317 on the artificial substrate. From the identified taxa 8.5% were not dominant (Anacroneuria, Orthocladiinae, Tupiara, Smicridea, Baetodes, Tupiperla, Macrogynoplax, Gripopteryx, Cylloepus, Macrelmis, Microcylloepus, Hetaerina, Argia, Coryphaeschna, Atopsyche, Pomacea, Corydalus, Leptohyphes and Eccoptura), and 31.5% were dominant (Tanypodinae, Chironominae, and Paragripopteryx). The genus Simulium was very common, dominant and abundant, representing 65% of the collected individuals. No significant difference was found in the abundance and species composition between artificial and natural substrates. On the natural substrate, the higher colonization index was at the 35th day with 459 individuals, and the lowest was at the 14th day, with 87. On the artificial substrate the highest index was at the 42th day with 337 individuals, and the lowest was at the 4th day, with 85. Both natural and artificial substrates are efficient in characterizing the benthic community. In the evaluation of the ecological succession, it was not possible to observe a pattern that described the process, since the composition was nearly constant throughout the study period.

Integrating U-Th, 14C, and 210Pb methods to produce a chronologically reliable isotope record for the Belize River Valley Maya from a low-uranium stalagmite

The Holocene ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (7) ◽  
pp. 1234-1248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pete D Akers ◽  
George A Brook ◽  
L Bruce Railsback ◽  
Alex Cherkinksy ◽  
Fuyuan Liang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Scientific Discovery ◽  
River Valley ◽  
Spatiotemporal Variability ◽  
Combining Evidence ◽  
Belize River Valley ◽  
Early Postclassic ◽  
Isotope Record ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Insight Into

Social and environmental changes had great spatiotemporal variability in the Maya Lowlands during the Classic and Postclassic Periods, and stalagmites promise high-resolution paleoclimate data that can refine our understanding of this complex time. Unfortunately, stalagmites in this region are often difficult to date by U-Th methods because of low initial uranium concentrations. Other dating techniques can be used on such stalagmites, and we present here an age–depth model for BZBT1, a low-uranium stalagmite sampled from Box Tunich cave in the Belize River Valley. This age–depth model dates the growth of BZBT1 to between 400 and 1610 yr BP (340–1550 CE) by combining evidence from U-Th results, radiocarbon dating of both stalagmite CaCO3 and trapped organic material, and 210Pb dating. The resulting stable isotope record from BZBT1 reveals paleoclimate changes that affected local Maya populations during the Classic and early Postclassic Periods. This record is further refined by isotopically tuning the BZBT1 data with two other regional stalagmite records. Our work offers additional paleoclimate insight into the relationship between the Maya and their environment from a stalagmite that would typically be disregarded for research purposes. Continued research into alternative dating techniques for speleothems can enable additional scientific discovery while promoting speleothem conservation.

Skeletal elements of crinoid echinoderms: High-resolution structural and microanalytical results

1983 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
pp. 194-195
Author(s):  
D. F. Blake ◽  
L. F. Allard ◽  
D. R. Peacor
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Marine Invertebrates ◽  
Sea Urchins ◽  
Structural Features ◽  
Sea Stars ◽  
High Resolution Tem ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Insight Into

Echinodermata is a phylum of marine invertebrates which has been extant since Cambrian time (c.a. 500 m.y. before the present). Modern examples of echinoderms include sea urchins, sea stars, and sea lilies (crinoids). The endoskeletons of echinoderms are composed of plates or ossicles (Fig. 1) which are with few exceptions, porous, single crystals of high-magnesian calcite. Despite their single crystal nature, fracture surfaces do not exhibit the near-perfect {10.4} cleavage characteristic of inorganic calcite. This paradoxical mix of biogenic and inorganic features has prompted much recent work on echinoderm skeletal crystallography. Furthermore, fossil echinoderm hard parts comprise a volumetrically significant portion of some marine limestones sequences. The ultrastructural and microchemical characterization of modern skeletal material should lend insight into: 1). The nature of the biogenic processes involved, for example, the relationship of Mg heterogeneity to morphological and structural features in modern echinoderm material, and 2). The nature of the diagenetic changes undergone by their ancient, fossilized counterparts. In this study, high resolution TEM (HRTEM), high voltage TEM (HVTEM), and STEM microanalysis are used to characterize tha ultrastructural and microchemical composition of skeletal elements of the modern crinoid Neocrinus blakei.

Holocene diatom assemblages from Dunderbukhta sediments, West Svalbard

2019 ◽  
pp. 242-245
Author(s):  
Ksenya V. Poleshchuk ◽  
Zinaida V. Pushina ◽  
Sergey R. Verkulich
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Ecological Groups ◽  
Diatom Assemblages ◽  
Diatom Analysis ◽  
Diatom Flora ◽  
Sediment Samples ◽  
Ecological Zones ◽  
Middle Holocene ◽  
Temperature Trends

The diatom analysis results of sediment samples from Dunderbukta area (Wedel Jarlsberg Land, West Svalbard) are presented in this paper. The diatom flora consists of four ecological groups, which ratio indicates three ecological zones. These zones show environmental changes of the area in early–middle Holocene that is demonstrating periods of regression and temperature trends.

On Metaphysics and the Political: A Polemics of Reading Baudelaire in the 1930s

2019 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-259
Author(s):  
Joseph Acquisto
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Political Crisis ◽  
The Political ◽  
Modern Poetry ◽  
Progressive Politics ◽  
The World ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Insight Into

This essay examines a polemic between two Baudelaire critics of the 1930s, Jean Cassou and Benjamin Fondane, which centered on the relationship of poetry to progressive politics and metaphysics. I argue that a return to Baudelaire's poetry can yield insight into what seems like an impasse in Cassou and Fondane. Baudelaire provides the possibility of realigning metaphysics and politics so that poetry has the potential to become the space in which we can begin to think the two of them together, as opposed to seeing them in unresolvable tension. Or rather, the tension that Baudelaire animates between the two allows us a new way of thinking about the role of esthetics in moments of political crisis. We can in some ways see Baudelaire as responding, avant la lettre, to two of his early twentieth-century readers who correctly perceived his work as the space that breathes a new urgency into the questions of how modern poetry relates to the world from which it springs and in which it intervenes.

The Annual Reports of the Prison Commissioners for Scotland and Religion, 1903–1931

2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-101
Author(s):  
Cameron McKay
Keyword(s):  
Annual Report ◽  
Annual Reports ◽  
Individual Choice ◽  
Drinking Habits ◽  
Parental Neglect ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
Causes Of Crime ◽  
Criminological Theories ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Insight Into

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth century penologists began to explore the possibility that environment and upbringing, as opposed to individual choice, were the causes criminality. The Prison Commissioners for Scotland, the devolved body who administered prisons north of the border, were not immune to this wider trend. Smith has argued that from the 1890s onwards the Commissioners began to accept that criminality was caused by social problems, namely alcoholism, but also parental neglect, poor education and poverty. In their efforts to test these new criminological theories, the Commissioners began to make more careful enquiries into the backgrounds of their charges. From 1896 to 1931 the Commissioners interviewed a sample of prisoners each year and included the findings in their annual report. Although the main focus of these interviews was on the upbringing and drinking habits of prisoners; by the 1900s the Commissioners seem to have added irreligion to the growing list of etiological causes of crime, and from 1903 onwards prisoners were asked to give details on their religious habits. Although it is debateable how much the Prison Commissioners revealed about the relationship between religion and crime, they did however provide a useful insight into the religiosity of the average prisoner.

The Relationship between Seeker and Spiritual Guide as portrayed in contemporary Western Sufi Autobiographies

2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 297-332
Author(s):  
Kate Zebiri
Keyword(s):  
Life Writing ◽  
New Age ◽  
The Self ◽  
Individual Autonomy ◽  
Religious Authority ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Continuity And Discontinuity

This article aims to explore the Shaykh-mur?d (disciple) or teacher-pupil relationship as portrayed in Western Sufi life writing in recent decades, observing elements of continuity and discontinuity with classical Sufism. Additionally, it traces the influence on the texts of certain developments in religiosity in contemporary Western societies, especially New Age understandings of religious authority. Studying these works will provide an insight into the diversity of expressions of contemporary Sufism, while shedding light on a phenomenon which seems to fly in the face of contemporary social and religious trends which deemphasize external authority and promote the authority of the self or individual autonomy.

Empathy as moderator of gender differences in Chinese insurance agents' business ethical sensitivity

2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (6) ◽  
pp. 1029-1042 ◽  
Author(s):  
Na Zhang ◽  
Jian Zhang ◽  
Jing Wang
Keyword(s):  
Gender Differences ◽  
Business Ethics ◽  
Research Field ◽  
Ethical Sensitivity ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Insurance Agents ◽  
Factors Associated ◽  
Ethics Research ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Insight Into

To expand the business ethics research field, and to increase society's understanding of Chinese insurance agents' business ethics, we investigated how gender differences are related to agents' business ethical sensitivity and whether or not these relationships are moderated by empathy. Through a regression analysis of the factors associated with the business ethical sensitivity of 417 Chinese insurance agents, we found that gender played an important role in affecting business ethical sensitivity, and empathy significantly affected business ethical sensitivity. Furthermore, empathy had a moderating effect on the relationship between gender and business ethical sensitivity. Both men and women with strong empathy scored high on business ethical sensitivity; however, men with strong empathy had higher levels of business ethical sensitivity than did women with little empathy. The findings add to the literature by providing insight into the mechanisms responsible for the benefits of empathy in increasing business ethical sensitivity.

AI Narratives

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Ancient Greece ◽  
Historical Overview ◽  
Intelligent Machines ◽  
Narrative History ◽  
History Of ◽  
Imaginative Thinking ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Insight Into

This book is the first to examine the history of imaginative thinking about intelligent machines. As real artificial intelligence (AI) begins to touch on all aspects of our lives, this long narrative history shapes how the technology is developed, deployed, and regulated. It is therefore a crucial social and ethical issue. Part I of this book provides a historical overview from ancient Greece to the start of modernity. These chapters explore the revealing prehistory of key concerns of contemporary AI discourse, from the nature of mind and creativity to issues of power and rights, from the tension between fascination and ambivalence to investigations into artificial voices and technophobia. Part II focuses on the twentieth and twenty-first centuries in which a greater density of narratives emerged alongside rapid developments in AI technology. These chapters reveal not only how AI narratives have consistently been entangled with the emergence of real robotics and AI, but also how they offer a rich source of insight into how we might live with these revolutionary machines. Through their close textual engagements, these chapters explore the relationship between imaginative narratives and contemporary debates about AI’s social, ethical, and philosophical consequences, including questions of dehumanization, automation, anthropomorphization, cybernetics, cyberpunk, immortality, slavery, and governance. The contributions, from leading humanities and social science scholars, show that narratives about AI offer a crucial epistemic site for exploring contemporary debates about these powerful new technologies.

Die klingende Ferne; Walter Braunfels’ Opera Die Vögel after Aristophanes’ Birds

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 355-371
Author(s):  
Michael Ewans
Keyword(s):  
Central Theme ◽  
Spiritual Values ◽  
Greek Comedy ◽  
Human Understanding ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Insight Into

Abstract This article explores the opera Die Vögel (1920) by Walter Braunfels (1882–1954), and its reception of Aristophanes' Birds. The Introduction is substantial, as the work is little known. It is followed by an Overview of each of the two Acts, which discusses in Act I the relationship to Aristophanes (Braunfels discarded the second half of the original Greek comedy and struck out on a completely new path). Then the article analyses the development during Act II of insight into die klingende Ferne (‘the music of far away') by Hopeful, who is the principal human character in Braunfels' adaptation. It is shown that Hopeful's quest for spiritual values almost beyond human understanding is the central theme of the opera; the superiority of the life of birds, which Aristophanes treats humorously in the two parabaseis, is taken seriously in Braunfels' mystical second Act.

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