5 research outputs found

    3D-Printed Fluorescence Hyperspectral Lidar for Monitoring Tagged Insects

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    Insects play crucial roles in ecosystems, and how they disperse within their habitat has significant implications for our daily life. Examples include foraging ranges for pollinators, as well as the spread of disease vectors and pests. Despite technological advances with radio tags, isotopes, and genetic sequencing, insect dispersal and migration range remain challenging to study. The gold standard method of mark-recapture is tedious and inefficient. This paper demonstrates the construction of a compact, inexpensive hyperspectral fluorescence lidar. The system is based on off-the-shelf components and 3D printing. After evaluating the performance of the instrument in the laboratory, we demonstrate its efficient range-resolved fluorescence spectra in situ. We present daytime remote ranging and fluorescent identification of auto-powder-tagged honey bees. We also showcase range-, temporally- and spectrally-resolved free-flying mosquitoes, which were tagged through feeding on fluorescent-dyed sugar water. We conclude that violet light can efficiently excite administered sugar meals imbibed by flying insects. Our field experiences provide realistic expectations of signal-to-noise levels, which can be used in future studies. The technique is generally applicable and can efficiently monitor several tagged insect groups in parallel for comparative ecological analysis. This technique opens up a range of ecological experiments, which were previously unfeasible

    A global synthesis of the current knowledge on the taxonomic and geographic distribution of major coral diseases

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    Although knowledge on the diseases affecting corals has been accumulating exponentially since the 2000s, even more effort is required to summarize and guide further investigation. Here, we used the Web of Science database to review 226 studies published, between 2000 and 2020, to identify the major geographic and taxonomic gaps in the literature, and propose future directions for the study of coral diseases. We classified the studies according to the ocean, ecoregion, coral species, disease types, approach (e.g., observational or experimental), and depth. In total, 22 types of diseases were reported for 165 coral species. Acropora spp. was the most studied taxa with 12 types of diseases and 8.2% of the records. Black band, white plague, white syndromes, skeletal eroding, dark spot, and yellow band were the six most common diseases, accounting together for 76.8% of the records. As expected, most studies were conducted in the Caribbean and Indo-Pacific (34.0% and 28.7%, respectively), but only in 44 of the 141 global ecoregions that harbour corals. Observational approaches were the most frequent (75.6% of the records), while experimental approaches accounted for 19.9% and were mainly done on Acropora. The vast majority of studies (∼98%) were performed in shallow waters (<30 m depth). We conclude that over the past two decades, coral diseases have been assessed on a very small fraction of coral species, in very few locations around the globe, and at a limited range of their depth distribution. While monitoring bleaching is mandatory for reef ecology and conservation, the ecoepidemiology of coral diseases deserves more space in the research agenda of reef ecosystems

    Application of Remote Sensing to the Chesapeake Bay Region. Volume 2: Proceedings

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    A conference was held on the application of remote sensing to the Chesapeake Bay region. Copies of the papers, resource contributions, panel discussions, and reports of the working groups are presented

    Development of a Regional Coral Observation Method by a Fluorescence Imaging LIDAR Installed in a Towable Buoy

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    Coral bleaching and mortality is predicted to increase under global climate change. A new observation technique is required to monitor regional coral conditions. To this end, we developed a light detection and ranging (LIDAR) system installed in a towable buoy for boat observations, which acquires continuous fluorescent images of the seabed during day-time. Most corals have innate fluorescent proteins in their tissue, and they emit fluorescence by ultraviolet excitation. This fluorescence distinguishes living coral from dead coral skeleton, crustose coralline algae, and sea algae. This paper provides a proof of concept for using the LIDAR system and fluorescence to map coral distribution within 1 km scale and coral cover within 100 m scale for a single reef in Japan
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