scholarly journals Oceanographic Drivers of Cuvier’s (Ziphius cavirostris) and Sowerby’s (Mesoplodon bidens) Beaked Whales Acoustic Occurrence along the Irish Shelf Edge

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 1081
Author(s):  
Cynthia Barile ◽  
Simon Berrow ◽  
Joanne O’Brien
Keyword(s):  
Prey Availability ◽  
Anthropogenic Activities ◽  
Additive Models ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Acoustic Data ◽  
Aggregation Processes ◽  
Beaked Whales ◽  
Oceanographic Variables ◽  
Elusive Species ◽  
Generalised Estimating Equations

Cuvier’s and Sowerby’s beaked whales occur year-round in western Irish waters, yet remain some of the most poorly understood cetaceans in the area. Considering the importance of the area for anthropogenic activities and the sensitivity of beaked whales to noise, understanding their ecology is essential to minimise potential overlaps. To this end, fixed bottom-mounted autonomous acoustic recorders were deployed at 10 stations over four recording periods spanning from May 2015 to November 2016. Acoustic data were collected over 1934 cumulative days, for a total of 7942 h of recordings. To model the probability of presence of Cuvier’s and Sowerby’s beaked whales in the area as a function of oceanographic predictors, we used Generalised Additive Models, fitted with Generalised Estimating Equations to deal with temporal autocorrelation. To reflect prey availability, oceanographic variables acting as proxies of primary productivity and prey aggregation processes such as upwelling events and thermal fronts were selected. Our results demonstrated that oceanographic variables significantly contributed to the occurrence of Cuvier’s and Sowerby’s beaked whales (p-values between <0.001 and <0.05). The species showed similar preferences, with the exception of sdSST. The inclusion of a parameter accounting for the recorders location confirmed the existence of a latitudinal partitioning for those species in the area. This study provides a point of comparison for future research and represents an important step towards a better understanding of those elusive species.

scholarly journals Root excretion and plant tolerance to cadmium toxicity - a review

2008 ◽  
Vol 53 (No. 5) ◽  
pp. 193-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Dong ◽  
W.H. Mao ◽  
G.P. Zhang ◽  
F.B. Wu ◽  
Y. Cai
Keyword(s):  
Root Exudates ◽  
Anthropogenic Activities ◽  
Cadmium Toxicity ◽  
Research Work ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Rhizosphere Ph ◽  
Plant Tolerance ◽  
Rhizosphere Environment ◽  
Safe Food ◽  
Tolerance To Cadmium

Significant quantities of Cd have been added to soils globally due to various anthropogenic activities, posing a serious threat to safe food production and human health. Rhizosphere, as an important interface of soil and plant, plays a significant role in the agro-environmental system. This article presents a review of relationship between root excretion and microorganisms and plant resistance to Cd toxicity and possible mechanisms. Root exudates markedly altered in species and quantity under Cd stress. Root exudates can affect Cd absorption by plants through changing the physical and chemical characteristics of rhizospheres. The influence of root exudates on Cd bioavailability and toxicity may include modifying the rhizosphere pH and Eh, chelating/complexing and depositing with Cd ions, and altering the community construction, the numbers and activities of rhizospheric microbes. In this paper, the methods to reduce the transfer of Cd in soil-plant system by adjusting rhizosphere environment are discussed, and some aspects are also proposed that should be emphasized in the future research work.

scholarly journals The Evolution of Data Sharing Practices in the Psychological Literature

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith Neve ◽  
Guillaume A Rousselet
Keyword(s):  
Data Sharing ◽  
Linear Models ◽  
Generalized Additive Models ◽  
Additive Models ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Science Data ◽  
Editorial Policies ◽  
Psychological Science ◽  
The Impact

Sharing data has many benefits. However, data sharing rates remain low, for the most part well below 50%. A variety of interventions encouraging data sharing have been proposed. We focus here on editorial policies. Kidwell et al. (2016) assessed the impact of the introduction of badges in Psychological Science; Hardwicke et al. (2018) assessed the impact of Cognition’s mandatory data sharing policy. Both studies found policies to improve data sharing practices, but only assessed the impact of the policy for up to 25 months after its implementation. We examined the effect of these policies over a longer term by reusing their data and collecting a follow-up sample including articles published up until December 31st, 2019. We fit generalized additive models as these allow for a flexible assessment of the effect of time, in particular to identify non-linear changes in the trend. These models were compared to generalized linear models to examine whether the non-linearity is needed. Descriptive results and the outputs from generalized additive and linear models were coherent with previous findings: following the policies in Cognition and Psychological Science, data sharing statement rates increased immediately and continued to increase beyond the timeframes examined previously, until reaching close to 100%. In Clinical Psychological Science, data sharing statement rates started to increase only two years following the implementation of badges. Reusability rates jumped from close to 0% to around 50% but did not show changes within the pre-policy nor the post-policy timeframes. Journals that did not implement a policy showed no change in data sharing rates or reusability over time. There was variability across journals in the levels of increase, so we suggest future research should examine a larger number of policies to draw conclusions about their efficacy. We also encourage future research to investigate the barriers to data sharing specific to psychology subfields to identify the best interventions to tackle them.

Segmental Phonetics and Phonology in Caucasian languages

2021 ◽  
pp. 687-728
Author(s):  
Gašper Beguš
Keyword(s):  
Crucial Role ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Consonant Clusters ◽  
Instrumental Data ◽  
Acoustic Data ◽  
Voiceless Stop

This chapter surveys the major topics of Caucasian segmental phonetics and phonology, focusing on topics with broader implications for general phonetic and phonological theory. The author first presents an acoustic phonetic analysis of phonemic inventories in the three Caucasian families, including both a review of recent instrumental data on the topic as well as a new analysis of new and existing experimental acoustic data. This analysis focuses on four primary topics: obstruents with different laryngeal features, typologically unusual segments, small vocalic inventories, and pharyngealization. The new acoustic data from a nonce-word experiment in Georgian and Megrelian offer evidence that aspiration in voiceless stops gradually, yet significantly shortens if another voiceless stop precedes the relevant one in a given word. The second part reviews analyses of Caucasian phonotactics, primarily of South Caucasian consonant clusters that play a crucial role in discussions on production versus perception in phonology. The chapter concludes with a collection of phonological alternations that have potential for future research on phonology.

Foraging modes of carnivorous plants

2019 ◽  
Vol 66 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 101-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron M. Ellison
Keyword(s):  
Prey Availability ◽  
Soil Nutrient ◽  
Optimal Foraging Theory ◽  
Foraging Theory ◽  
Carnivorous Plants ◽  
Foraging Strategies ◽  
Nutrient Concentrations ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Single Location ◽  
Foraging Modes

Abstract Carnivorous plants are pure sit-and-wait predators: they remain rooted to a single location and depend on the abundance and movement of their prey to obtain nutrients required for growth and reproduction. Yet carnivorous plants exhibit phenotypically plastic responses to prey availability that parallel those of non-carnivorous plants to changes in light levels or soil-nutrient concentrations. The latter have been considered to be foraging behaviors, but the former have not. Here, I review aspects of foraging theory that can be profitably applied to carnivorous plants considered as sit-and-wait predators. A discussion of different strategies by which carnivorous plants attract, capture, kill, and digest prey, and subsequently acquire nutrients from them suggests that optimal foraging theory can be applied to carnivorous plants as easily as it has been applied to animals. Carnivorous plants can vary their production, placement, and types of traps; switch between capturing nutrients from leaf-derived traps and roots; temporarily activate traps in response to external cues; or cease trap production altogether. Future research on foraging strategies by carnivorous plants will yield new insights into the physiology and ecology of what Darwin called “the most wonderful plants in the world”. At the same time, inclusion of carnivorous plants into models of animal foraging behavior could lead to the development of a more general and taxonomically inclusive foraging theory.

scholarly journals Assessing large-scale weekly cycles in meteorological variables: a review

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (13) ◽  
pp. 5755-5771 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Sanchez-Lorenzo ◽  
P. Laux ◽  
H.-J. Hendricks Franssen ◽  
J. Calbó ◽  
S. Vogl ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Methods ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Anthropogenic Activities ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
Meteorological Variables ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Scientific Debate ◽  
The Us ◽  
The World ◽  
Weekly Cycles

Abstract. Several studies have claimed to have found significant weekly cycles of meteorological variables appearing over large domains, which can hardly be related to urban effects exclusively. Nevertheless, there is still an ongoing scientific debate whether these large-scale weekly cycles exist or not, and some other studies fail to reproduce them with statistical significance. In addition to the lack of the positive proof for the existence of these cycles, their possible physical explanations have been controversially discussed during the last years. In this work we review the main results about this topic published during the recent two decades, including a summary of the existence or non-existence of significant weekly weather cycles across different regions of the world, mainly over the US, Europe and Asia. In addition, some shortcomings of common statistical methods for analyzing weekly cycles are listed. Finally, a brief summary of supposed causes of the weekly cycles, focusing on the aerosol-cloud-radiation interactions and their impact on meteorological variables as a result of the weekly cycles of anthropogenic activities, and possible directions for future research, is presented.

scholarly journals Harbour Seals: Population Structure, Status, and Threats in a Rapidly Changing Environment

Oceans ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-63
Author(s):  
Marie-Anne Blanchet ◽  
Cécile Vincent ◽  
Jamie N. Womble ◽  
Sheanna M. Steingass ◽  
Geneviève Desportes
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Prey Availability ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Management Approach ◽  
Weather Patterns ◽  
Arctic Regions ◽  
Run Off ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Harbour Seals ◽  
Pinniped Species

The harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) is the world’s most widely distributed pinniped species ranging from temperate to Arctic regions (30–78.5° N in the Atlantic, 28–61.2° N in the Pacific), but no detailed overview of the species status exists. The aims of this review are to (i) provide current information on the genetic structure, population status, and threats; (ii) review potential consequences of a changing climate; and (iii) identify knowledge gaps to guide future research and monitoring. Although the species is globally abundant, wide differences exist across the species’ broad range. As climate warms, populations at the edges of the species’ distributional range are likely to be more affected. The primary climate-related drivers include: (i) changes in weather patterns, which can affect thermoregulation; (ii) decrease in availability of haul-out substrates; (iii) large-scale changes in prey availability and inter-specific competition; (iv) shifts in the range of pathogens; (v) increase in temperature favouring the biotransformation of contaminants; and (vi) increased exposure to pollutant from increased freshwater run-off. Multiple anthropogenic stressors may collectively impact some populations. Coordinated monitoring efforts across and within regions is needed. This would allow for a spatially explicit management approach including population-specific responses to known stressors.

scholarly journals Eastern Baltic cod recruitment revisited—dynamics and impacting factors

2016 ◽  
Vol 74 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Friedrich W. Köster ◽  
Bastian Huwer ◽  
Hans-Harald Hinrichsen ◽  
Viola Neumann ◽  
Andrei Makarchouk ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Success ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Prey Availability ◽  
Stock Assessment ◽  
Future Research ◽  
First Feeding ◽  
Spawning Areas ◽  
The Baltic ◽  
Eastern Baltic ◽  
Baltic Cod

The Eastern Baltic cod abundance started rapidly to increase in the mid-2000s as evidenced by analytical stock assessments, due to increased recruitment and declining fishing mortality. Since 2014, the analytical stock assessment is not available, leaving the present stock status unclear and casting doubts about the magnitude of the recent increase in recruitment. Earlier studies identified main factors impacting on cod reproductive success to be related to the loss of two out of three spawning areas in the 1980s caused by lack of major Baltic inflows with a concurrent reduction in salinity and oxygen. Other important factors include prey availability for first-feeding larvae, egg predation by sprat and herring and cannibalism on juveniles, all in one way or the other related to the prevailing hydrographic conditions. These factors cannot explain increased reproductive success in the last decade, as the period was characterized by an absence of large-scale Baltic inflows since 2003 and persistent anoxic conditions in the bottom water of the deep Baltic basins. This questions the perception of the increased recruitment in later years and challenges our present understanding of cod recruitment dynamics in the Baltic Sea. In this contribution, we review evidence from the recent literature supplemented by information from latest research cruises to elucidate whether cod reproductive success indeed has increased during the last decade, and we suggest the key processes responsible for the recent dynamics in cod recruitment and outline directions for future research.

Relating spatial distributions of acoustically determined patches of fish and plankton: data viewing, image analysis, and spatial proximity

1999 ◽  
Vol 56 (S1) ◽  
pp. 188-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gordon Swartzman ◽  
Richard Brodeur ◽  
Jeffrey Napp ◽  
Danny Walsh ◽  
Roger Hewitt ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bering Sea ◽  
Generalized Additive Models ◽  
Biological Data ◽  
Additive Models ◽  
Spatial Proximity ◽  
Connected Component ◽  
Proximity Measure ◽  
Nonparametric Regression Model ◽  
Acoustic Data ◽  
Acoustic Images

We developed a point-and-click acoustic data viewer (FishViewer) for exploratory comparison of up to three acoustic survey transects (or three frequencies) at a time and other environmental and biological data (e.g., surface temperature and seabird abundance). FishViewer also contains image-processing tools (e.g., morphological and threshold filters) for distinguishing between fish shoals and plankton patches and for patch identification. These tools and methods are illustrated using survey data collected at three frequencies (38, 120, and 200 kHz) near the Pribilof Islands, Bering Sea, during September 1995. Data were also visualized by converting the patches identified in the acoustic images to polygons, showing the boundaries of each patch using a connected component algorithm. Proximity between these fish shoal and plankton patch polygons was examined statistically using an interval-based nonparametric regression model (generalized additive models) and a distance-based proximity measure. The methods presented for data refinement, visualization, and the establishment of fish-plankton patch proximity serve as a paradigm for scale-robust hypothesis formulation and testing of spatial patterns of fish and plankton.

scholarly journals Environmental conditions are poor predictors of immature white shark Carcharodon carcharias occurrences on coastal beaches of eastern Australia

2020 ◽  
Vol 653 ◽  
pp. 167-179
Author(s):  
JLY Spaet ◽  
A Manica ◽  
CP Brand ◽  
C Gallen ◽  
PA Butcher
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Prey Availability ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
Time Of Day ◽  
White Shark ◽  
Additive Models ◽  
Large Sample Size ◽  
Lunar Phase ◽  
Carcharodon Carcharias ◽  
Eastern Australia

Understanding and predicting the distribution of organisms in heterogeneous environments is a fundamental ecological question and a requirement for sound management. To implement effective conservation strategies for white shark Carcharodon carcharias populations, it is imperative to define drivers of their movement and occurrence patterns and to protect critical habitats. Here, we acoustically tagged 444 immature white sharks and monitored their presence in relation to environmental factors over a 3 yr period (2016-2019) using an array of 21 iridium satellite-linked (VR4G) receivers spread along the coast of New South Wales, Australia. Results of generalized additive models showed that all tested predictors (month, time of day, water temperature, tidal height, swell height, lunar phase) had a significant effect on shark occurrence. However, collectively, these predictors only explained 1.8% of deviance, suggesting that statistical significance may be rooted in the large sample size rather than biological importance. On the other hand, receiver location, which captures geographic fidelity and local conditions not captured by the aforementioned environmental variables, explained a sizeable 17.3% of deviance. Sharks tracked in this study hence appear to be tolerant to episodic changes in environmental conditions, and movement patterns are likely related to currently undetermined, location-specific habitat characteristics or biological components, such as local currents, prey availability or competition. Importantly, we show that performance of VR4G receivers can be strongly affected by local environmental conditions, and provide an example of how a lack of range test controls can lead to misinterpretation and erroneous conclusions of acoustic detection data.

scholarly journals A Review on Thermophotovoltaic Cell and Its Applications in Energy Conversion: Issues and Recommendations

Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (17) ◽  
pp. 4944
Author(s):  
Mansur Mohammed Ali Gamel ◽  
Hui Jing Lee ◽  
Wan Emilin Suliza Wan Abdul Rashid ◽  
Pin Jern Ker ◽  
Lau Kuen Yau ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Conversion Efficiency ◽  
Gallium Antimonide ◽  
Waste Heat ◽  
Anthropogenic Activities ◽  
Electrical Energy ◽  
Urban Heat Islands ◽  
Semiconductor Materials ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Practical Applications ◽  
Cell Conversion

Generally, waste heat is redundantly released into the surrounding by anthropogenic activities without strategized planning. Consequently, urban heat islands and global warming chronically increases over time. Thermophotovoltaic (TPV) systems can be potentially deployed to harvest waste heat and recuperate energy to tackle this global issue with supplementary generation of electrical energy. This paper presents a critical review on two dominant types of semiconductor materials, namely gallium antimonide (GaSb) and indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs), as the potential candidates for TPV cells. The advantages and drawbacks of non-epitaxy and epitaxy growth methods are well-discussed based on different semiconductor materials. In addition, this paper critically examines and summarizes the electrical cell performance of TPV cells made of GaSb, InGaAs and other narrow bandgap semiconductor materials. The cell conversion efficiency improvement in terms of structural design and architectural optimization are also comprehensively analyzed and discussed. Lastly, the practical applications, current issues and challenges of TPV cells are critically reviewed and concluded with recommendations for future research. The highlighted insights of this review will contribute to the increase in effort towards development of future TPV systems with improved cell conversion efficiency.

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