Evaluating diversionary feeding as a method to resolve conservation conflicts in a recovering ecosystem

Funding: Scottish University Partnership of Environmental Research (SUPER DTP), Grant/Award Number: NE/S007342/1; Forestry and Land Scotland.1. The recovery of mammalian predators of conservation concern in Europe is a success story, but their impact on some prey species of conservation concern may cause conservation dilemmas. This calls for effective intervention strategies that mitigate predator impacts without compromising their recovery. 2. We evaluated diversionary feeding as a management intervention tool to reduce depredation on nests of rapidly declining Western capercaillies in Scotland. We studied the influence of diversionary feeding provision on the fates of artificial nests deployed using a replicated and representative randomised landscape-scale experiment. This comprised 30 'paired' control (no diversionary feeding) and treatment (diversionary feeding applied) sites, 60 in total, each containing six artificial nests distributed across 600 km2. The experiment was replicated over 2 years, and in the second year, the control-treatment pairs were reversed, yielding 60 treatment and 60 control sites and 720 artificial nests. 3. Diversionary feeding substantially reduced depredation of artificial nests, translating into an 82.5% increase in predicted nest survival over 28 days of incubation. The increase in survival was mostly accounted for by a reduction in the probability that a pine marten, the main nest predator, consumed or cached eggs. Diversionary food also significantly reduced nest predation by badgers, although the magnitude of this effect varied by year. 4. Synthesis and applications. Diversionary feeding is an easily employable method shown in this study to reduce predator impact (functional) without lethal (numerical) intervention. Managers should proceed with its application for conserving capercaillie in Scotland without delay.Peer reviewe

Predator arrival elicits differential dispersal, change in age structure and reproductive performance in a prey population

Acknowledgements We thank everyone monitoring colonies over the years, in particular Carles Domingo from the Ebro Delta NP Staff, Ràpita, Castelló and the Tarragona Port Authorities and José Manuel Igual from the Group of Ecology and Animal Demography. We also thank the editorial board and the reviewers for their constructive comments. RESET (ref.CGL2017-85210-P), FPU (ref. FPU2012-000869), IBISES (ref. CGL2013-42203-R) and MINOW (ref. H2020- 634495). ASA and MG are supported by a postdoctoral contract co-funded by the Regional Government of the Balearic Islands and the European Social Fund (ref. PD/003/2016 and PD/023/2015).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Reaching the boundary between stellar kinematic groups and very wide binaries. IV. The widest Washington double star systems with rho > 1000 arcsec in Gaia DR3

Aims: With the latest Gaia DR3 data, we analyse the widest pairs in the Washington Double Star (WDS) catalogue with angular separations, $\rho$, greater than 1000 arcsec. Methods: We confirmed the pair's membership to stellar systems based on common proper motions, parallaxes, and (when available) radial velocities, together with the locii of the individual components in colour-magnitude diagrams. We also looked for additional closer companions to the ultrawide pairs, either reported by WDS or found by us with a new Gaia astrometric search. In addition, we determined masses for each star (and white dwarf) and, with the projected physical separation, computed the gravitational potential energy, |Ug*|, of the systems. Results: Of the 155159 pairs currently catalogued by WDS, there are 504 with $\rho$ > 1000 arcsec. Of these, only 2 ultrawide pairs have not been identified, 10 do not have any available astrometry, 339 have not passed a conservative filtering in proper motion or parallax, 59 are members of young stellar kinematic groups, associations or open clusters, and only 94 remain as bona fide ultrawide pairs in the galactic field. Accounting for the additional members at shorter separations identified in a complementary astrometric and bibliographic search, we found 79 new stars (39 reported, plus 40 not reported by WDS) in 94 ultrawide stellar systems. This sample is expanded when including new close binary candidates with large Gaia DR3 RUWE, $\sigma_{Vr}$, or a proper motion anomaly. Furthermore, the large fraction of subsystems and the non-hierarchical configurations of many wide systems with three or more stars is remarkable.Comment: Accepted to A&A. 38 Pages, 8 figures and 9 tables (4 tables online

Machine learning for quality control system

In this work, we propose and develop a classification model to be used in a quality control system for clothing manufacturing using machine learning algorithms. The system consists of using pictures taken through mobile devices to detect defects on production objects. In this work, a defect can be a missing component or a wrong component in a production object. Therefore, the function of the system is to classify the components that compose a production object through the use of a classification model. As a manufacturing business progresses, new objects are created, thus, the classification model must be able to learn the new classes without losing previous knowledge. However, most classification algorithms do not support an increase of classes, these need to be trained from scratch with all . Thus. In this work, we make use of an incremental learning algorithm to tackle this problem. This algorithm classifies features extracted from pictures of the production objects using a convolutional neural network (CNN), which have proven to be very successful in image classification problems. We apply the current developed approach to a process in clothing manufacturing. Therefore, the production objects correspond to clothing itemsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/submittedVersio

Trial of “Cliff and shore erosion under accelerating sea level rise: user guide”

This report describes perceived strengths and challenges encountered with the trial of the User Guide [1], explaining how new indicators of cliff toe sensitivity to sea level rise may be used to conservatively estimate cliff retreat at suitable sites along the coastlines of England and Wales. The authors of the User Guide approached the British Geological Survey (BGS) to test the guide and invited BGS to present their experience during a technical workshop during which feedback from a broader spectrum of peers and end-users was sought. This document summarises the testing process and outcomes. The first part of the report introduces the project, the context and the approach followed. In the results section we have described, for each one of the 53 locations included in this study, the results of applying the User Guide including the description of the auxiliary data used and any pre- and post-processing done. We have used FutureCoast and Coastal Explorer as the primary sources of data. In the discussion section we summarise the lessons learned from applying the User Guide to all sites. We conclude this report with a series of recommendations that should help to maximize the strengths and alleviate some of the challenges identified. In Appendix 4 we include the slides that were used to summarise the results and main conclusions of this report to the broader technical community

Coastal Modelling Environment version 1.0: a framework for integrating landform-specific component models in order to simulate decadal to centennial morphological changes on complex coasts

The ability to model morphological changes on complex, multi-landform coasts over decadal to centennial timescales is essential for sustainable coastal management worldwide. One approach involves coupling of landform-specific simulation models (e.g. cliffs, beaches, dunes and estuaries) that have been independently developed. An alternative, novel approach explored in this paper is to capture the essential characteristics of the landform-specific models using a common spatial representation within an appropriate software framework. This avoid the problems that result from the model-coupling approach due to between-model differences in the conceptualizations of geometries, volumes and locations of sediment. In the proposed framework, the Coastal Modelling Environment (CoastalME), change in coastal morphology is represented by means of dynamically linked raster and geometrical objects. A grid of raster cells provides the data structure for representing quasi-3-D spatial heterogeneity and sediment conservation. Other geometrical objects (lines, areas and volumes) that are consistent with, and derived from, the raster structure represent a library of coastal elements (e.g. shoreline, beach profiles and estuary volumes) as required by different landform-specific models. As a proof-of-concept, we illustrate the capabilities of an initial version of CoastalME by integrating a cliff–beach model and two wave propagation approaches. We verify that CoastalME can reproduce behaviours of the component landform-specific models. Additionally, the integration of these component models within the CoastalME framework reveals behaviours that emerge from the interaction of landforms, which have not previously been captured, such as the influence of the regional bathymetry on the local alongshore sediment-transport gradient and the effect on coastal change on an undefended coastal segment and on sediment bypassing of coastal structures

Communicating simulation outputs of mesoscale coastal evolution to specialist and non-specialist audiences

Coastal geomorphologists and engineers worldwide are increasingly facing the non-trivial challenge of visualising and communicating mesoscale modelling assumptions, uncertainties and outcomes to both coastal specialists and decision-makers. Visualisation of simulation outcomes is a non-trivial problem because the more abstract scientific visualisation techniques favoured by specialists for data exploration and hypothesis-testing are not always as successful at engaging decision-makers and planners. In this paper, we show how the risk of simulation model outcomes becoming disconnected from more realistic visualisations of model outcomes can be minimised by using the Coastal Modelling Environment (CoastalME). CoastalME is a modelling framework for coastal mesoscale morphological modelling that can achieve close linkages between the scientific model abstractions, in the form of lines, areas and volumes, and the 3D representation of topographic and bathymetric surfaces and shallow sub-surface sediment composition. We propose and illustrate through the study case of Happisburgh (eastern England, UK), a transparent methodology to merge the required variety of data types and formats into a 3D-thickness model that is used to initialise a simulation. We conclude by highlighting some of the barriers to the adoption of the methodology proposed

An international prospective general population-based study of respiratory work disability

Background: Previous cross-sectional studies have shown that job change due to breathing problems at the workplace (respiratory work disability) is common among adults of working age. That research indicated that occupational exposure to gases, dust and fumes was associated with job change due to breathing problems, although causal inferences have been tempered by the cross-sectional nature of previously available data. There is a need for general population-based prospective studies to assess the incidence of respiratory work disability and to delineate better the roles of potential predictors of respiratory work disability.Methods: A prospective general population cohort study was performed in 25 centres in 11 European countries and one centre in the USA. A longitudinal analysis was undertaken of the European Community Respiratory Health Survey including all participants employed at any point since the baseline survey, 6659 subjects randomly sampled and 779 subjects comprising all subjects reporting physician-diagnosed asthma. The main outcome measure was new-onset respiratory work disability, defined as a reported job change during follow-up attributed to breathing problems. Exposure to dusts (biological or mineral), gases or fumes during follow-up was recorded using a job-exposure matrix. Cox proportional hazard regression modelling was used to analyse such exposure as a predictor of time until job change due to breathing problems.Results: The incidence rate of respiratory work disability was 1.2/1000 person-years of observation in the random sample (95% CI 1.0 to 1.5) and 5.7/1000 person-years in the asthma cohort (95% CI 4.1 to 7.8). In the random population sample, as well as in the asthma cohort, high occupational exposure to biological dust, mineral dust or gases or fumes predicted increased risk of respiratory work disability. In the random sample, sex was not associated with increased risk of work disability while, in the asthma cohort, female sex was associated with an increased disability risk (hazard ratio 2.8, 95% CI 1.3 to 5.9).Conclusions: Respiratory work disability is common overall. It is associated with workplace exposures that could be controlled through preventive measures

Episodes of opposing survival and reproductive selection cause strong fluctuating selection on seasonal migration versus residence

Acknowledgements We thank everyone who contributed to fieldwork (ESM S7), particularly Raymond Duncan, Moray Souter, Jenny Sturgeon, Hanna Granroth-Wilding, Katherine Herborn, Olivia Hicks, Richard Howells, Ruth Dunn, Alice Carravieri, Tom Reed and Morten Frederiksen; UK Natural Environment Research Council (NE/R000859/1; NE/R016429/1 through the UK487 SCaPE programme delivering National Capability; NE/M005186/1) and Joint Nature Conservation Committee for funding; Sarah Fenn for helpful comments; and NatureScot for access to the IoM NNR.Peer reviewedPostprin

A Method to Extract Measurable Indicators of Coastal Cliff Erosion from Topographical Cliff and Beach Profiles: Application to North Norfolk and Suffolk, East England, UK

Recession of coastal cliffs (bluffs) is a significant problem globally, as around 80% of Earth’s coastlines are classified as sea cliffs. It has long been recognised that beaches control wave energy dissipation on the foreshore and, as a result, can provide protection from shoreline and cliff erosion. However, there have been few studies that have quantified the relationship between beach levels and cliff recession rates. One of the few quantitative studies has shown that there is a measurable relationship between the beach thickness (or beach wedge area (BWA) as a proxy for beach thickness) and the annual cliff top recession rate along the undefended coast of North Norfolk and Suffolk in eastern England, United Kingdom (UK). Additionally, previous studies also found that for profiles with low BWA, the annual cliff top recession rate frequency distribution follows a bimodal distribution. This observation suggests that as BWA increases, not only does cliff top recession rate become lower, but also more predictable, which has important implications for coastal stakeholders particularly for planning purposes at decadal and longer time scales. In this study, we have addressed some of the limitations of the previous analysis to make it more transferable to other study sites and applicable to longer time scales. In particular, we have automatised the extraction of cliff tops, toe locations, and BWA from elevation profiles. Most importantly, we have verified the basic assumption of space-for-time substitution in three different ways: (1) Extending the number or years analysed in a previous study from 11 to 24 years, (2) extending the number of locations at which cliff top recession rate and BWA are calculated, and (3) exploring the assumption of surface material remaining unchanged over time by using innovative 3D subsurface modelling. The present study contributes to our understanding of a poorly known aspect of cliff–beach interaction and outlines a quantitative approach that allows for simple analysis of widely available topographical elevation profiles, enabling the extraction of measurable indicators of coastal erosion