scholarly journals Large-scale migration of a school shark, Galeorhinus galeus , in the Southwestern Atlantic

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrés J. Jaureguizar ◽  
Federico Argemi ◽  
Gastón Trobbiani ◽  
Elbio D. Palma ◽  
Alejo J. Irigoyen

ABSTRACT Knowledge of the spatial and temporal distribution patterns of chondrichthyans is critical for their effective management. In this study we report and analyze a large-scale latitudinal migration (~ 1,425 km) of a female school shark in the Southwestern Atlantic shelf where it is currently classified as Critically Endangered. During the austral summer (February 15, 2015), ninety-four school sharks were captured (75 females and 19 males) and tagged with fin tags in Nuevo Gulf (~ 42°43’S, 64°53’W, Argentina). A female of 112 cm total length was recaptured in Uruguayan shelf waters in the austral winter (August 17, 2015). This long displacement represents the first direct evidence to support Vooren and Lucifora’s hypothesis of a single transnational population of Galeorhinus galeus in the Southwestern Atlantic. The good agreement found between the school shark habitat conditions (salinity 33-34, temperature 12-17°C) and the warmer member of Subantarctic Shelf Waters suggests that the seasonal variation in school shark abundance within this region could be related to water masses movements.

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laís de C. T. Chaves ◽  
João L. L. Feitosa ◽  
Túlio F. Xavier ◽  
Beatrice P. Ferreira ◽  
Carlos E. L. Ferreira

Abstract Damselfishes are known keystone species of reef environments, however large-scale distribution patterns are poorly studied in the southwestern Atlantic. We evaluated main drivers of distribution of three conspicuous damselfishes, along tropical and subtropical coastal systems, in Brazil. Abundances were assessed against wave exposure, depth (within 1–7 m in tropical and 1–11 m in subtropical reefs) and benthic cover. Despite differences between systems, exposure and depth consistently explained damselfishes distribution. Stegastes fuscus, the larger damselfish species of the genus in the southwestern Atlantic, was dominant in both systems, inhabiting preferably shallow and sheltered reefs. Conversely, Stegastes variabilis occupied shallow habitats with higher exposure. Stegastes pictus was absent from tropical reefs sampled, inhabiting depths >7 m, in subtropical reefs. Species were weakly associated with benthic features, which poorly predicted changes in abundances. Regardless, S. fuscus showed association with articulated calcareous algae, and S. variabilis juveniles associated with erect macroalgae. Despite occurring in very distinctive reef systems, Brazilian damsels habitat requirements are consistent in both tropical and subtropical reefs. While highly persistent species, long term monitoring will inform us how they respond to pervasive global changes and human impacts along Brazilian reefs.


2020 ◽  
pp. 469-496
Author(s):  
Grzegorz Majcherek

The report offers an account of archaeological and conservation work carried out at the site. Excavations in the central part of the site (Sector F) were continued for the fourth season in a row. Exploration of remains of early Roman houses led to the discovery of a well preserved multicolored triclinium mosaic floor with a floral and geometric design. A large assemblage of fragments of polychrome marble floor tiles, recorded in the house collapse, showed the scale of importation of decorative stone material from various regions of the Mediterranean. Overlying the early Roman strata was direct evidence of intensive construction work carried out in the vicinity in the form of large-scale kilnworks, supplying lime most probably for the building of the late Roman bath and cistern. Included in the presentation is a brief review of the limited conservation work that was conducted in the complex of late antique auditoria.


Hydrology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 57
Author(s):  
Konstantinos Vantas ◽  
Epaminondas Sidiropoulos

The identification and recognition of temporal rainfall patterns is important and useful not only for climatological studies, but mainly for supporting rainfall–runoff modeling and water resources management. Clustering techniques applied to rainfall data provide meaningful ways for producing concise and inclusive pattern classifications. In this paper, a timeseries of rainfall data coming from the Greek National Bank of Hydrological and Meteorological Information are delineated to independent rainstorms and subjected to cluster analysis, in order to identify and extract representative patterns. The computational process is a custom-developed, domain-specific algorithm that produces temporal rainfall patterns using common characteristics from the data via fuzzy clustering in which (a) every storm may belong to more than one cluster, allowing for some equivocation in the data, (b) the number of the clusters is not assumed known a priori but is determined solely from the data and, finally, (c) intra-storm and seasonal temporal distribution patterns are produced. Traditional classification methods include prior empirical knowledge, while the proposed method is fully unsupervised, not presupposing any external elements and giving results superior to the former.


Atmosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 758
Author(s):  
Wayne Yuan-Huai Tsai ◽  
Mong-Ming Lu ◽  
Chung-Hsiung Sui ◽  
Yin-Min Cho

During the austral summer 2018/19, devastating floods occurred over northeast Australia that killed approximately 625,000 head of cattle and inundated over 3000 homes in Townsville. In this paper, the disastrous event was identified as a record-breaking subseasonal peak rainfall event (SPRE). The SPRE was mainly induced by an anomalously strong monsoon depression that was modulated by the convective phases of an MJO and an equatorial Rossby (ER) wave. The ER wave originated from an active equatorial deep convection associated with the El Niño warm sea surface temperatures near the dateline over the central Pacific. Based on the S2S Project Database, we analyzed the extended-range forecast skill of the SPRE from two different perspectives, the monsoon depression represented by an 850-hPa wind shear index and the 15-day accumulated precipitation characterized by the percentile rank (PR) and the ratio to the three-month seasonal (DJF) totals. The results of four S2S models of this study suggest that the monsoon depression can maintain the same level of skill as the short-range (3 days) forecast up to 8–10 days. For precipitation parameters, the conclusions are similar to the monsoon depression. For the 2019 northern Queensland SPRE, the model forecast was, in general, worse than the expectation derived from the hindcast analysis. The clear modulation of the ER wave that enhanced the SPRE monsoon depression circulation and precipitation is suspected as the main cause for the lower forecast skill. The analysis procedure proposed in this study can be applied to analyze the SPREs and their associated large-scale drivers in other regions.


Liver Cancer ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 734-743
Author(s):  
Kazuya Kariyama ◽  
Kazuhiro Nouso ◽  
Atsushi Hiraoka ◽  
Akiko Wakuta ◽  
Ayano Oonishi ◽  
...  

<b><i>Introduction:</i></b> The ALBI score is acknowledged as the gold standard for the assessment of liver function in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Unlike the Child-Pugh score, the ALBI score uses only objective parameters, albumin (Alb) and total bilirubin (T.Bil), enabling a better evaluation. However, the complex calculation of the ALBI score limits its applicability. Therefore, we developed a simplified ALBI score, based on data from a large-scale HCC database.We used the data of 5,249 naïve HCC cases registered in eight collaborating hospitals. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> We developed a new score, the EZ (Easy)-ALBI score, based on regression coefficients of Alb and T.Bil for survival risk in a multivariate Cox proportional hazard model. We also developed the EZ-ALBI grade and EZ-ALBI-T grade as alternative options for the ALBI grade and ALBI-T grade and evaluated their stratifying ability. <b><i>Results:</i></b> The equation used to calculate the EZ-ALBI score was simple {[T.Bil (mg/dL)] – [9 × Alb (g/dL)]}; this value highly correlated with the ALBI score (correlation coefficient, 0.981; <i>p</i> &#x3c; 0.0001). The correlation was preserved across different Barcelona clinic liver cancer grade scores (regression coefficient, 0.93–0.98) and across different hospitals (regression coefficient, 0.98–0.99), indicating good generalizability. Although a good agreement was observed between ALBI and EZ-ALBI, discrepancies were observed in patients with poor liver function (T.Bil, ≥3 mg/dL; regression coefficient, 0.877). The stratifying ability of EZ-ALBI grade and EZ-ALBI-T grade were good and their Akaike’s information criterion values (35,897 and 34,812, respectively) were comparable with those of ALBI grade and ALBI-T grade (35,914 and 34,816, respectively). <b><i>Conclusions:</i></b> The EZ-ALBI score, EZ-ALBI grade, and EZ-ALBI-T grade are useful, simple scores, which might replace the conventional ALBI score in the future.


2010 ◽  
Vol 138 (4) ◽  
pp. 1368-1382 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey S. Gall ◽  
William M. Frank ◽  
Matthew C. Wheeler

Abstract This two-part series of papers examines the role of equatorial Rossby (ER) waves in tropical cyclone (TC) genesis. To do this, a unique initialization procedure is utilized to insert n = 1 ER waves into a numerical model that is able to faithfully produce TCs. In this first paper, experiments are carried out under the idealized condition of an initially quiescent background environment. Experiments are performed with varying initial wave amplitudes and with and without diabatic effects. This is done to both investigate how the properties of the simulated ER waves compare to the properties of observed ER waves and explore the role of the initial perturbation strength of the ER wave on genesis. In the dry, frictionless ER wave simulation the phase speed is slightly slower than the phase speed predicted from linear theory. Large-scale ascent develops in the region of low-level poleward flow, which is in good agreement with the theoretical structure of an n = 1 ER wave. The structures and phase speeds of the simulated full-physics ER waves are in good agreement with recent observational studies of ER waves that utilize wavenumber–frequency filtering techniques. Convection occurs primarily in the eastern half of the cyclonic gyre, as do the most favorable conditions for TC genesis. This region features sufficient midlevel moisture, anomalously strong low-level cyclonic vorticity, enhanced convection, and minimal vertical shear. Tropical cyclogenesis occurs only in the largest initial-amplitude ER wave simulation. The formation of the initial tropical disturbance that ultimately develops into a tropical cyclone is shown to be sensitive to the nonlinear horizontal momentum advection terms. When the largest initial-amplitude simulation is rerun with the nonlinear horizontal momentum advection terms turned off, tropical cyclogenesis does not occur, but the convectively coupled ER wave retains the properties of the ER wave observed in the smaller initial-amplitude simulations. It is shown that this isolated wave-only genesis process only occurs for strong ER waves in which the nonlinear advection is large. Part II will look at the more realistic case of ER wave–related genesis in which a sufficiently intense ER wave interacts with favorable large-scale flow features.


Archaea ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabeth W. Vissers ◽  
Flavio S. Anselmetti ◽  
Paul L. E. Bodelier ◽  
Gerard Muyzer ◽  
Christa Schleper ◽  
...  

Despite their crucial role in the nitrogen cycle, freshwater ecosystems are relatively rarely studied for active ammonia oxidizers (AO). This study of Lake Lucerne determined the abundance of bothamoAgenes and gene transcripts of ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) and bacteria (AOB) over a period of 16 months, shedding more light on the role of both AO in a deep, alpine lake environment. At the surface, at 42 m water depth, and in the water layer immediately above the sediment, AOA generally outnumbered AOB. However, in the surface water during summer stratification, when both AO were low in abundance, AOB were more numerous than AOA. Temporal distribution patterns of AOA and AOB were comparable. Higher abundances ofamoAgene transcripts were observed at the onset and end of summer stratification. In summer, archaealamoAgenes and transcripts correlated negatively with temperature and conductivity. Concentrations of ammonium and oxygen did not vary enough to explain theamoAgene and transcript dynamics. The observed herbivorous zooplankton may have caused a hidden flux of mineralized ammonium and a change in abundance of genes and transcripts. At the surface, AO might have been repressed during summer stratification due to nutrient limitation caused by active phytoplankton.


2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 363-373 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Bencherif ◽  
L. El Amraoui ◽  
G. Kirgis ◽  
J. Leclair De Bellevue ◽  
A. Hauchecorne ◽  
...  

Abstract. This paper reports on an increase of ozone event observed over Kerguelen (49.4° S, 70.3° E) in relationship with large-scale isentropic transport. This is evidenced by ground-based observations (co-localised radiosonde and SAOZ experiments) together with satellite global observations (Aura/MLS) assimilated into MOCAGE, a Méteo-France model. The study is based on the analyses of the first ozonesonde experiment never recorded at the Kerguelen site within the framework of a French campaign called ROCK that took place from April to August 2008. Comparisons and interpretations of the observed event are supported by co-localised SAOZ observations, by global mapping of tracers (O3, N2O and columns of O3) from Aura/MLS and Aura/OMI experiments, and by model simulations of Ertel Potential Vorticity initialised by the ECMWF (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts) data reanalyses. Satellite and ground-based observational data revealed a consistent increase of ozone in the local stratosphere by mid-April 2008. Additionally, Ozone (O3) and nitrous oxide (N2O) profiles obtained during January–May 2008 using the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) aboard the Aura satellite are assimilated into MOCAGE (MOdèle de Chimie Atmosphérique à Grande Echelle), a global three-dimensional chemistry transport model of Météo-France. The assimilated total O3 values are consistent with SAOZ ground observations (within ±5%), and isentropic distributions of O3 match well with maps of advected potential vorticity (APV) derived from the MIMOSA model, a high-resolution advection transport model, and from the ECMWF reanalysis. The event studied seems to be related to the isentropic transport of air masses that took place simultaneously in the lower- and middle-stratosphere, respectively from the polar region and from the tropics to the mid-latitudes. In fact, the ozone increase observed by mid April 2008 resulted simultaneously: (1) from an equator-ward departure of polar air masses characterised with a high-ozone layer in the lower stratosphere (near the 475 K isentropic level), and (2) from a reverse isentropic transport from the tropics to mid- and high-latitudes in the upper stratosphere (nearby the 700 K level). The increase of ozone observed over Kerguelen from the 16-April ozonesonde profile is thus attributed to a concomitant isentropic transport of ozone in two stratospheric layers: the tropical air moving southward and reaching over Kerguelen in the upper stratosphere, and the polar air passing over the same area but in the lower stratosphere.


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