Seamount seascape composition and configuration shape Southwest Indian Ridge fish assemblages

Seamounts are commercially important fishing grounds. Yet, little is known about their physical characteristics as fish habitat, important for informing conservation and ecosystem-based management. This study examines how multiscale seabed spatial heterogeneity influences commercially important fish families at three Southwest Indian Ridge seamounts (Coral Seamount, Melville Bank and Atlantis Bank). We quantified seascape heterogeneity from bathymetry and geomorphological habitat maps and identified 15 focal fish families from video data. Fish-habitat associations were examined using spatial pattern metrics that measured terrain morphology, seascape composition (variety and relative abundance of patch types) and seascape configuration (spatial arrangement of patches). Broader seascape context was characterised by geographic location and water depth. Multivariate regression trees and random forests modelled fish-habitat associations and identified the most influential explanatory variables. Assemblage characteristics and individual families were strongly influenced by geographic location and depth, and at finer scales (500 m buffers) seascape composition and configuration helped explain fish-habitat associations. Spatially continuous summit habitat and complex shaped ridge features supported high abundance and diversity of commercial fish families. Metrics of seascape composition and configuration (i.e., habitat size, shape and structural connectivity) had higher predictive power than the terrain metrics commonly used in developing proxies for deep-water fish species and biodiversity. These outcomes indicate that seascape metrics, commonly applied on land and in shallow marine environments, are also relevant environmental predictors of fish distributions in deep-sea environments. We highlight strong context dependency and depth-specific associations that hinder attempts to draw wider generalisations on fish-seascape linkages for seamounts

Transfer Matrices and Partition-Function Zeros for Antiferromagnetic Potts Models. V. Further Results for the Square-Lattice Chromatic Polynomial

We derive some new structural results for the transfer matrix of square-lattice Potts models with free and cylindrical boundary conditions. In particular, we obtain explicit closed-form expressions for the dominant (at large |q|) diagonal entry in the transfer matrix, for arbitrary widths m, as the solution of a special one-dimensional polymer model. We also obtain the large-q expansion of the bulk and surface (resp. corner) free energies for the zero-temperature antiferromagnet (= chromatic polynomial) through order q^{-47} (resp. q^{-46}). Finally, we compute chromatic roots for strips of widths 9 <= m <= 12 with free boundary conditions and locate roughly the limiting curves.Comment: 111 pages (LaTeX2e). Includes tex file, three sty files, and 19 Postscript figures. Also included are Mathematica files data_CYL.m and data_FREE.m. Many changes from version 1: new material on series expansions and their analysis, and several proofs of previously conjectured results. Final version to be published in J. Stat. Phy

Co-limitation towards lower latitudes shapes global forest diversity gradients

The latitudinal diversity gradient (LDG) is one of the most recognized global patterns of species richness exhibited across a wide range of taxa. Numerous hypotheses have been proposed in the past two centuries to explain LDG, but rigorous tests of the drivers of LDGs have been limited by a lack of high-quality global species richness data. Here we produce a high-resolution (0.025° × 0.025°) map of local tree species richness using a global forest inventory database with individual tree information and local biophysical characteristics from ~1.3 million sample plots. We then quantify drivers of local tree species richness patterns across latitudes. Generally, annual mean temperature was a dominant predictor of tree species richness, which is most consistent with the metabolic theory of biodiversity (MTB). However, MTB underestimated LDG in the tropics, where high species richness was also moderated by topographic, soil and anthropogenic factors operating at local scales. Given that local landscape variables operate synergistically with bioclimatic factors in shaping the global LDG pattern, we suggest that MTB be extended to account for co-limitation by subordinate drivers

Blockbusters or Bridge-Builders? The Role of Western Trainers in Developing New Entrepreneurialism in Eastern Europe

Original article can be found at: http://mlq.sagepub.com/ Copyright Sage Publications Ltd. DOI: 10.1177/1350507601324001 [Full text of this article is not available in the UHRA]Since the start of the transformation in Eastern Europe in late 1989, there has been a marked increase in training programmes and activities designed to modernize human capital in the region. Many of the initiatives are financed by the EU or other western sources and led by western training providers. This article deals with classroom training activities as a particular mechanism for developmental activity for post-socialist managers. Its empirical basis is a four-year training project that took place in Bulgaria from 1992 to 1996. The educators and trainers were from various EU countries while the trainees were Bulgarian middle and top-level managers from private and state-owned organizations. The article commences by considering why the western commitment to experiential learning appears to be compromised when trainers travel East, and relates this to broader issues of knowledge creation, ownership and transfer. As a prelude to describing the training programme itself we provide a brief insight into Bulgarian culture and then reveal trainee perceptions as to the value of the training initiative. We conclude by suggesting that if such training is to be meaningful to audiences in the post-command economies the principles of experiential learning need to be both reasserted and modified.Peer reviewe

Plains zebra (Equus quagga) adrenocortical activity increases during times of large aggregations in the Serengeti ecosystem

Adverse environmental stimuli (stressors) activate the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and contribute to allostatic load. This study investigates the contribution of environmental stressors and life history stage to allostatic load in a migratory population of plains zebras (Equus quagga) in the Serengeti ecosystem, in Tanzania, which experiences large local variations in aggregation. We expected higher fGCM response to the environmental stressors of feeding competition, predation pressure and unpredictable social relationships in larger than in smaller aggregations, and in animals at energetically costly life history stages. As the study was conducted during the 2016 El Niño, we did not expect food quality of forage or a lack of water to strongly affect fGCM responses in the dry season. We measured fecal glucocorticoid metabolite (fGCM) concentrations using an enzyme immunoassay (EIA) targeting 11β-hydroxyetiocholanolone and validated its reliability in captive plains zebras. Our results revealed significantly higher fGCM concentrations 1) in large aggregations than in smaller groupings, and 2) in band stallions than in bachelor males. Concentrations of fGCM were not significantly higher in females at the energetically costly life stage of late pregnancy/lactation. The higher allostatic load of stallions associated with females, than bachelor males is likely caused by social stressors. In conclusion, migratory zebras have elevated allostatic loads in large aggregations that probably result from their combined responses to increased feeding competition, predation pressure and various social stressors. Further research is required to disentangle the contribution of these stressors to allostatic load in migratory populations.A grant from the Leibniz Gemeinschaft (SAW-2015-IZW-1 440) and the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research.http://www.elsevier.com/locate/yhbeh2019-06-01hj2018Anatomy and PhysiologyMammal Research InstituteZoology and Entomolog