scholarly journals Assessment of seagrass communities in the northern Gulf of Aqaba: Mapping their distribution

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gidon Winters ◽  
Rachamim Shem Tov ◽  
Tal Elmaliach ◽  
Dor Edelist ◽  
Gil Rilov
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Coral Reefs ◽  
Gulf Of Aqaba ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Management Tools ◽  
Seagrass Meadows ◽  
Seagrass Cover ◽  
Data Points ◽  
Scientific Attention ◽  
Conservation And Management

Within the Gulf of Aqaba, coral reefs have been considered the dominating ecosystem, attracting not only scientific attention, but also restoration efforts, aquarium exhibits and outreach educational programs. Seagrasses, which are known worldwide as a highly important ecosystem, have not received much attention by the public, scientists or authorities involved in conservation and management in this region. This is surprising considering the value of ecosystem services associated with seagarsses and the fact that many of these services are important to adjacent coral reefs. The absence of comprehensive seagrass maps for this region, prohibits other downstream activities such as evaluations of the associated ecosystem services and implementation of potential conservation and management tools. Here we present efforts to map seagrass meadows along the Israeli coast of the northern Gulf of Aqaba. Mapping was done by snorkeling with a GPS and a handheld echo-sounder. Transects perpendicular to the shore were conducted with measurements taken every 10-20 m that included water depth, GPS position and percent of seagrass cover estimated visually up to 13-23 m depending on visibility. In addition to these transects, we also tracked the shallow boundary of the meadows parallel to shore, usually at 3-5 m depth. Both data sets were then fed into Arc-GIS to create an interpolated GIS layer. Out of 11 km available shoreline, we swam along 9.7 km and collected a total of 2830 data points. Seagrasses were found growing along 7.5 km of these shores, with seagrass meadows covering 707,000 sqm2.estimated to be worth = US$ 2,000,000 year-1 in associated ecosystem services. In addition to mapping the seagrass meadows themselvs, we also mapped the potential dangers to seagrasses in the region. Disturbances were ranked as low, medium or high according to severity and frequency. We expect that these maps (GIS layers) will allow us to not only understand the current distribution of seagrasses in the area, but also to develop a GIS-based tool that will improve our understanding of how changes in the Gulf could affect the cover and state of seagrasses, and thus improve conservation efforts in the region.

scholarly journals Assessment of seagrass communities in the northern Gulf of Aqaba: Mapping their distribution

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gidon Winters ◽  
Rachamim Shem Tov ◽  
Tal Elmaliach ◽  
Dor Edelist ◽  
Gil Rilov
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Coral Reefs ◽  
Gulf Of Aqaba ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Management Tools ◽  
Seagrass Meadows ◽  
Seagrass Cover ◽  
Data Points ◽  
Scientific Attention ◽  
Conservation And Management

Within the Gulf of Aqaba, coral reefs have been considered the dominating ecosystem, attracting not only scientific attention, but also restoration efforts, aquarium exhibits and outreach educational programs. Seagrasses, which are known worldwide as a highly important ecosystem, have not received much attention by the public, scientists or authorities involved in conservation and management in this region. This is surprising considering the value of ecosystem services associated with seagarsses and the fact that many of these services are important to adjacent coral reefs. The absence of comprehensive seagrass maps for this region, prohibits other downstream activities such as evaluations of the associated ecosystem services and implementation of potential conservation and management tools. Here we present efforts to map seagrass meadows along the Israeli coast of the northern Gulf of Aqaba. Mapping was done by snorkeling with a GPS and a handheld echo-sounder. Transects perpendicular to the shore were conducted with measurements taken every 10-20 m that included water depth, GPS position and percent of seagrass cover estimated visually up to 13-23 m depending on visibility. In addition to these transects, we also tracked the shallow boundary of the meadows parallel to shore, usually at 3-5 m depth. Both data sets were then fed into Arc-GIS to create an interpolated GIS layer. Out of 11 km available shoreline, we swam along 9.7 km and collected a total of 2830 data points. Seagrasses were found growing along 7.5 km of these shores, with seagrass meadows covering 707,000 sqm2.estimated to be worth = US$ 2,000,000 year-1 in associated ecosystem services. In addition to mapping the seagrass meadows themselvs, we also mapped the potential dangers to seagrasses in the region. Disturbances were ranked as low, medium or high according to severity and frequency. We expect that these maps (GIS layers) will allow us to not only understand the current distribution of seagrasses in the area, but also to develop a GIS-based tool that will improve our understanding of how changes in the Gulf could affect the cover and state of seagrasses, and thus improve conservation efforts in the region.

Serviços ecossistêmicos prestados por recifes de coral nas ilhas de Tinharé e Boipeba, Baixo Sul da Bahia, Brasil

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carla Isobel Elliff
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Coral Reefs ◽  
Current Model ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Environmental Indicators ◽  
Management Actions ◽  
Shoreline Protection ◽  
Fringing Reefs ◽  
Integrated Valuation ◽  
Reef Decline

Coral reefs provide important ecosystem services to coastal communities. The Archipelago of Tinhar?e andBoipeba, Bahia, Brazil, are mostly surrounded by fringing reefs, which have undergone several chronichuman impacts. The objective of the present study was to apply an ecosystem-based approach byanalyzing the ecosystem services provided by the coral reefs of the Archipelago of Tinhar?e and Boipeba inorder to support management actions and serve as a tool for coastal management. Ecosystem serviceswere assessed through the observation of environmental indicators of their occurrence and by using asuite of models from the Integrated Valuation of Environmental Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) softwarecombined with data from the Atlantic and Gulf Rapid Reef Assessment (AGRRA) protocol database. Theservices of greatest occurrence were food provision, habitat maintenance, shoreline protection andrecreation. While the main stressful factors were tourism activities, the absence of a sewage system andfisheries. The coral reefs presented potential for shoreline protection along 50.5% of the islands. Moreover,46.8% of the shoreline would present moderate to high vulnerability in case of coral reef disappearance.The coincidence of areas with high risk of loss in the capacity to provide services and highvulnerability in the scenario of absence of reefs is concerning. Thus, the current model for tourism usedin the area should be altered, as should new management strategies be implemented, which can bringbenefits and avoid reef decline.

scholarly journals Applying the ecosystem services - EBM framework to sustainably manage Qatar's coral reefs and seagrass beds

2021 ◽  
Vol 205 ◽  
pp. 105566
Author(s):  
Lucia M. Fanning ◽  
Mera Nasser Al-Naimi ◽  
Pedro Range ◽  
Abdel-Samad M. Ali ◽  
Jessica Bouwmeester ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Coral Reefs ◽  
Seagrass Beds

scholarly journals ON GENERATING DIGITAL ELEVATION MODELS FROM LIDAR DATA – RESOLUTION VERSUS ACCURACY AND TOPOGRAPHIC WETNESS INDEX INDICES IN NORTHERN PEATLANDS

2012 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 57-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdulghani Hasan ◽  
Petter Pilesjö ◽  
Andreas Persson
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Drainage Area ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Topographic Wetness Index ◽  
Absolute Deviation ◽  
Digital Elevation ◽  
Elevation Data ◽  
Scale Modelling ◽  
Data Points ◽  
Emission Modelling

Global change and GHG emission modelling are dependent on accurate wetness estimations for predictions of e.g. methane emissions. This study aims to quantify how the slope, drainage area and the TWI vary with the resolution of DEMs for a flat peatland area. Six DEMs with spatial resolutions from 0.5 to 90 m were interpolated with four different search radiuses. The relationship between accuracy of the DEM and the slope was tested. The LiDAR elevation data was divided into two data sets. The number of data points facilitated an evaluation dataset with data points not more than 10 mm away from the cell centre points in the interpolation dataset. The DEM was evaluated using a quantile-quantile test and the normalized median absolute deviation. It showed independence of the resolution when using the same search radius. The accuracy of the estimated elevation for different slopes was tested using the 0.5 meter DEM and it showed a higher deviation from evaluation data for steep areas. The slope estimations between resolutions showed differences with values that exceeded 50%. Drainage areas were tested for three resolutions, with coinciding evaluation points. The model ability to generate drainage area at each resolution was tested by pair wise comparison of three data subsets and showed differences of more than 50% in 25% of the evaluated points. The results show that consideration of DEM resolution is a necessity for the use of slope, drainage area and TWI data in large scale modelling.

scholarly journals Inter- and Intralaboratory Comparison of JC Polyomavirus Antibody Testing Using Two Different Virus-Like Particle-Based Assays

2014 ◽  
Vol 21 (11) ◽  
pp. 1581-1588 ◽  
Author(s):  
Piotr Kardas ◽  
Mohammadreza Sadeghi ◽  
Fabian H. Weissbach ◽  
Tingting Chen ◽  
Lea Hedman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Stratification ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Antibody Testing ◽  
Jc Polyomavirus ◽  
Virus Like Particle ◽  
Interlaboratory Variability ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
Basic Protocol ◽  
Data Points ◽  
Reference Serum

ABSTRACTJC polyomavirus (JCPyV) can cause progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML), a debilitating, often fatal brain disease in immunocompromised patients. JCPyV-seropositive multiple sclerosis (MS) patients treated with natalizumab have a 2- to 10-fold increased risk of developing PML. Therefore, JCPyV serology has been recommended for PML risk stratification. However, different antibody tests may not be equivalent. To study intra- and interlaboratory variability, sera from 398 healthy blood donors were compared in 4 independent enzyme-linked immunoassay (ELISA) measurements generating >1,592 data points. Three data sets (Basel1, Basel2, and Basel3) used the same basic protocol but different JCPyV virus-like particle (VLP) preparations and introduced normalization to a reference serum. The data sets were also compared with an independent method using biotinylated VLPs (Helsinki1). VLP preadsorption reducing ≥35% activity was used to identify seropositive sera. The results indicated that Basel1, Basel2, Basel3, and Helsinki1 were similar regarding overall data distribution (P= 0.79) and seroprevalence (58.0, 54.5, 54.8, and 53.5%, respectively;P= 0.95). However, intra-assay intralaboratory comparison yielded 3.7% to 12% discordant results, most of which were close to the cutoff (0.080 < optical density [OD] < 0.250) according to Bland-Altman analysis. Introduction of normalization improved overall performance and reduced discordance. The interlaboratory interassay comparison between Basel3 and Helsinki1 revealed only 15 discordant results, 14 (93%) of which were close to the cutoff. Preadsorption identified specificities of 99.44% and 97.78% and sensitivities of 99.54% and 95.87% for Basel3 and Helsinki1, respectively. Thus, normalization to a preferably WHO-approved reference serum, duplicate testing, and preadsorption for samples around the cutoff may be necessary for reliable JCPyV serology and PML risk stratification.

Implementation of “Epic Healthy Planet” registry for survivorship care coordination.

2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (28_suppl) ◽  
pp. 337-337
Author(s):  
Karen Kinahan ◽  
Bijal Desai ◽  
Michele Volpentesta ◽  
Margo Klein ◽  
Melissa Duffy ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Medical Oncology ◽  
Discrete Data ◽  
Mandatory Reporting ◽  
Survivorship Care ◽  
Management Tools ◽  
Noticeable Increase ◽  
Episode Of Care ◽  
Data Points ◽  
User Friendly

337 Background: The evolving Commission on Cancer (CoC) reporting mandate and institution’s growing survivorship program led to identifying the need for systematic tracking of survivorship patients, surveillance tests, return appointments and referrals placed. Our aim was to develop an electronic medical record (EMR) integrated registry utilizing discrete data fields to assist our team in tracking key elements of high-quality survivorship care. Methods: Stakeholders from our survivorship team (APP/RN), medical oncology, psychology, research, operations and IT analytics reached consensus on essential discrete EMR fields to be included in the registry. For implementation we utilized the EPIC module, “Healthy Planet”, where patients enter the registry by initiating an “Episode of Care” at their initial survivorship visit. SmartForm fields create unique discrete patient data points identified by the stakeholders. Results: The following domains were identified as important elements of care that require tracking in a dedicated survivorship program. The registry domains populate from two sources: 1) currently existing EMR data fields, 2) domains with no currently discrete data (e.g. lymphedema, peripheral neuropathy) were captured in the developed SmartForm (see Table). From January 1, 2019 to June 1, 2021, 778 patients were entered into the registry. Since September 4, 2020, 112 patient follow-up appointment reminders were sent via EMR which has led to a noticeable increase in return appointments. SmartForm data fields are being amended as additional malignancy types are added to our survivorship program. Conclusions: The utilization of Healthy Planet is an effective and user-friendly way to track survivorship return appointments, remind providers of diagnostic tests that are due, and track referrals for CoC reporting. As the numbers of cancer survivors continues to increase, systematic population management tools are essential to ensure adherence to survivorship guideline recommendations, follow-up care and mandatory reporting.[Table: see text]

A Support Based Initialization Algorithm for Categorical Data Clustering

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 53-67
Author(s):  
Ajay Kumar ◽  
Shishir Kumar
Keyword(s):  
Categorical Data ◽  
Selection Process ◽  
Numerical Data ◽  
Real Data ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Data Object ◽  
Data Points ◽  
Wu Method ◽  
Selection Algorithms

Several initial center selection algorithms are proposed in the literature for numerical data, but the values of the categorical data are unordered so, these methods are not applicable to a categorical data set. This article investigates the initial center selection process for the categorical data and after that present a new support based initial center selection algorithm. The proposed algorithm measures the weight of unique data points of an attribute with the help of support and then integrates these weights along the rows, to get the support of every row. Further, a data object having the largest support is chosen as an initial center followed by finding other centers that are at the greatest distance from the initially selected center. The quality of the proposed algorithm is compared with the random initial center selection method, Cao's method, Wu method and the method introduced by Khan and Ahmad. Experimental analysis on real data sets shows the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

Mahalanobis distance informed by clustering

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 377-406
Author(s):  
Almog Lahav ◽  
Ronen Talmon ◽  
Yuval Kluger
Keyword(s):  
Mahalanobis Distance ◽  
High Dimensional Data ◽  
Hidden Variables ◽  
Real Data ◽  
Risk Groups ◽  
High Dimensional ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Kaplan Meier ◽  
Data Points ◽  
Survival Plot

Abstract A fundamental question in data analysis, machine learning and signal processing is how to compare between data points. The choice of the distance metric is specifically challenging for high-dimensional data sets, where the problem of meaningfulness is more prominent (e.g. the Euclidean distance between images). In this paper, we propose to exploit a property of high-dimensional data that is usually ignored, which is the structure stemming from the relationships between the coordinates. Specifically, we show that organizing similar coordinates in clusters can be exploited for the construction of the Mahalanobis distance between samples. When the observable samples are generated by a nonlinear transformation of hidden variables, the Mahalanobis distance allows the recovery of the Euclidean distances in the hidden space. We illustrate the advantage of our approach on a synthetic example where the discovery of clusters of correlated coordinates improves the estimation of the principal directions of the samples. Our method was applied to real data of gene expression for lung adenocarcinomas (lung cancer). By using the proposed metric we found a partition of subjects to risk groups with a good separation between their Kaplan–Meier survival plot.

scholarly journals New Scales to Guide the Assessment of Hard Coral Cover and Diversity in the Philippines

2020 ◽  
pp. 121-126
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Coral Reefs ◽  
Coral Cover ◽  
Rapid Identification ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Hard Coral ◽  
Hard Coral Cover ◽  
Assessment Scales

Coral reefs supply vital ecosystem services to the Philippines. Safeguarding these services requires the rapid identification of reefs that provide most services, and identification is best made by measuring hard coral cover and diversity and using updated and locally relevant assessment scales on these measurements. The use of these assessment scales has advantages and is recommended to update and improve Philippine laws.

scholarly journals Development of a conceptual framework for the management of biodiversity and ecosystem services in the Mexican Caribbean

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (suppl 1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrés Sánchez-Quinto ◽  
Julliet Correa da Costa ◽  
Nadia S. Zamboni ◽  
Fábio H. C. Sanches ◽  
Silas C. Principe ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Coral Reefs ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Conceptual Model ◽  
Coastal Region ◽  
Ecosystem Model ◽  
Coastal Protection ◽  
Coastal Environments ◽  
Management Actions ◽  
Global Biodiversity

Abstract: Coral reefs and mangroves support rich biodiversity and provide ecosystem services that range from food, recreational benefits and coastal protection services, among others. They are one of the most threatened ecosystems by urbanization processes. In this context, we developed a conceptual framework for the management of biodiversity and ecosystem services for these coastal environments. We based our workflow on two sections: “Information base” and “Governance” and use the Puerto Morelos Coastal region as a case study for coastal protection. Puerto Morelos is between two of the most touristic destinations of Mexico (Playa del Carmen and Cancun) that has experienced an increase of population in the past four decades resulting in an intensification of multiple threats to its ecosystems. We characterized the two ecosystems with a “Management Units” strategy. An expert-based ecosystem services matrix was also described in order to connect mangroves and coral reef ecosystems with the multiple beneficiaries. Then an ecosystem model (conceptual model and Global Biodiversity model) was developed. The conceptual model was useful in understanding the interplay processes between systems regarding the ecosystem service of “Coastal Protection”. The Global Biodiversity model evidenced the human-induced shifts in the biodiversity for mangrove and coral reefs ecosystems. Also, a projection for 2035 of “best” and “worst” scenarios was applied using GLOBIO3. A DPSIR conceptual framework was used to analyze environmental problems regarding ecosystem services maintenance. Finally, we evaluated a set of policies associated with these ecosystems that favor coastal protection integrity. This framework facilitates the identification of the most relevant processes and controls about the provision of coastal protection service. It can also be useful to better target management actions and as a tool to identify future management needs to tackle the challenges preventing more effective conservation of coastal environments.

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