Very high resolution mapping of coral reef state using airborne bathymetric LiDAR surface-intensity and drone imagery

International audienceVery high resolution (VHR) airborne data enable detection and physical measurements of individual coral reef colonies. The bathymetric LiDAR system, as an active remote sensing technique, accurately computes the coral reef ecosystem’s surface and reflectance using a single green wavelength at the decimetre scale over 1-to-100 km2 areas. A passive multispectral camera mounted on an airborne drone can build a blue-green-red (BGR) orthorectified mosaic at the centimetre scale over 0.01-to-0.1 km2 areas. A combination of these technologies is used for the first time here to map coral reef ecological state at the submeter scale. Airborne drone BGR values (0.03 m pixel size) serve to calibrate airborne bathymetric LiDAR surface and intensity data (0.5 m pixel size). A classification of five ecological states is then mapped through an artificial neural network (ANN). The classification was developed over a small area (0.01 km2) in the lagoon of Moorea Island (French Polynesia) at VHR (0.5 m pixel size) and then extended to the whole lagoon (46.83 km2). The ANN was first calibrated with 275 samples to determine the class of coral state through LiDAR-based predictors; then, the classification was validated through 135 samples, reaching a satisfactory performance (overall accuracy = 0.75)

Cryptic Diversity in Indo-Pacific Coral-Reef Fishes Revealed by DNA-Barcoding Provides New Support to the Centre-of-Overlap Hypothesis

Diversity in coral reef fishes is not evenly distributed and tends to accumulate in the Indo-Malay-Philippines Archipelago (IMPA). The comprehension of the mechanisms that initiated this pattern is in its infancy despite its importance for the conservation of coral reefs. Considering the IMPA either as an area of overlap or a cradle of marine biodiversity, the hypotheses proposed to account for this pattern rely on extant knowledge about taxonomy and species range distribution. The recent large-scale use of standard molecular data (DNA barcoding), however, has revealed the importance of taking into account cryptic diversity when assessing tropical biodiversity. We DNA barcoded 2276 specimens belonging to 668 coral reef fish species through a collaborative effort conducted concomitantly in both Indian and Pacific oceans to appraise the importance of cryptic diversity in species with an Indo-Pacific distribution range. Of the 141 species sampled on each side of the IMPA, 62 presented no spatial structure whereas 67 exhibited divergent lineages on each side of the IMPA with K2P distances ranging between 1% and 12%, and 12 presented several lineages with K2P distances ranging between 3% and 22%. Thus, from this initial pool of 141 nominal species with Indo-Pacific distribution, 79 dissolved into 165 biological units among which 162 were found in a single ocean. This result is consistent with the view that the IMPA accumulates diversity as a consequence of its geological history, its location on the junction between the two main tropical oceans and the presence of a land bridge during glacial times in the IMPA that fostered allopatric divergence and secondary contacts between the Indian and Pacific oceans

Compass-like biped robot -- Part I: Stability and bifurcation of passive gaits

It is well-known that a suitably designed unpowered mechanical biped robot can "walk" down an inclined plane with a steady gait. The characteristics of the gait (e.g., velocity, step period, step length) depend on the geometry and the inertial properties of the robot and the slope of the plane. The energy required to maintain the steady motion comes from the conversion of the biped's gravitational potential energy as it descends. Investigation of such passive "natural" motions may potentially lead us to strategies useful for controlling active walking machines as well as to understand human locomotion. In this report we demonstrate the existence and the stability of symmetric and asymmetric passive gaits using a simple nonlinear biped robot model. Kinematically the robot is identical to a double pendulum (similar to the Acrobot and the Pendubot) and is able to walk with the so-called compass gait. We also identify period-doubling bifurcation in this passive gait which eventually lead..

Bifurcation and Chaos in a Simple Passive Bipedal Gait

This paper proposes an analysis of the behavior of perhaps the simplest biped robot: the compass gait model. It has been shown previously that such a robot can walk down a slope indefinitely without any actuation. Passive motions of this nature are of particular interest since they may lead us to strategies for controlling active walking machines as well as to a better understanding of human locomotion. We show here that, depending on the parameters of the system, passive compass gait may exhibit 1-periodic, 2 n -periodic and chaotic gaits proceeding from cascades of perioddoubling bifurcations. Since compass equations are quite involved (they combine nonlinear differential and algebraic equations in a 4-dimensional space), our investigations rely, in part, on numerical simulations. 1 Motivation At the INRIA Rhone-Alpes Laboratory of Grenoble, France, we are working on the development of an anthropomorphic biped walker. The envisioned prototype will have reasonable adaptation capabi..

Phenotypic diversity and selection maintain Leishmania amazonensis infectivity in BALB/c mouse model

International audienceLeishmania are protozoan parasites that show remarkable diversity, as revealed by the various clinical forms of leishmaniasis,which can range from mild skin lesions to severe metastatic cutaneous/mucosal lesions. The exact nature andextent of Leishmania phenotypic diversity in establishing infection is not fully understood. In order to try to understandsome aspects of this diversity, we subcutaneously infected BALB/c mice with first and second generation subclones of aL. amazonensis strain isolated from a patient (BA125) and examined in vivo lesion growth rate and antimony susceptibility.In vivo fast-, medium- and slow-growing subclones were obtained; moreover, fast-growing subclones could generateslow-growing subclones and inversely, revealing the continuous generation of diversity after passage into mice. Noantimony-resistant subclone appeared, probably a rare occurrence. By tagging subclone cells with a L. amazonensisgenomic cosmid library, we found that only a very small number of founding cells could produce lesions. Leishmaniaclones transfected with in vivo selected individual cosmids were also diverse in terms of lesion growth rate, revealing thecosmid-independent intrinsic characteristics of each clone. Our results suggest that only a few of the infecting parasitesare able to grow and produce lesions; later, within the cell mixture of each lesion, there coexist several parasite populationswith different potentialities to grow lesions during the next infection round. This may reflect a sort of programmedheterogeneity of individual parasites, favoring the survival of some individuals in various environmental conditions

More than local adaptation: high diversity of response to seawater acidification in seven coral species from the same assemblage in French Polynesia

International audienceAbstract Responses of corals to seawater acidification have been extensively studied. Sensitivity varies widely between species, highlighting the need to avoid extrapolation from one to another to get an accurate understanding of coral community responses. We tested the responses of seven coral species ( Acropora cytherea , Acropora hyacinthus , Acropora pulchra , Leptastrea pruinosa , Montipora grisea , Pavona cactus , Pocillopora verrucosa ) from the Mo'orea lagoon to a 48-day exposure to three pH scenarios (pH 7.95, 7.7 and 7.3). Tissue necrosis, mortality, growth rates, photophysiological performances and colour index were recorded. Few significant differences were noted between pH 7.95 and 7.7, but species-specific responses were observed at pH 7.3. While our data do not allow identification of the mechanisms behind this diversity in response between species inhabiting the same environment, it can exclude several hypotheses such as local adaptation, skeletal type, corallum morphology or calcification rate as sole factors determining coral sensitivity to pH

Seawater carbonate chemistry and tissue necrosis, photosynthetic efficiency and colour index of seven coral species

Responses of corals to seawater acidification have been extensively studied. Sensitivity varies widely between species, highlighting the need to avoid extrapolation from one to another to get an accurate understanding of coral community responses. We tested the responses of seven coral species (Acropora cytherea, Acropora hyacinthus, Acropora pulchra, Leptastrea pruinosa, Montipora grisea, Pavona cactus, Pocillopora verrucosa) from the Mo'orea lagoon to a 48-day exposure to three pH scenarios (pH 7.95, 7.7 and 7.3). Tissue necrosis, mortality, growth rates, photophysiological performances and colour index were recorded. Few significant differences were noted between pH 7.95 and 7.7, but species-specific responses were observed at pH 7.3. While our data do not allow identification of the mechanisms behind this diversity in response between species inhabiting the same environment, it can exclude several hypotheses such as local adaptation, skeletal type, corallum morphology or calcification rate as sole factors determining coral sensitivity to pH

Compass-like biped robot Part 1 : Stability and bifurcation of passive gaits

Theme 4 - Simulation et optimisation de systemes complexes. Projet BIPAvailable at INIST (FR), Document Supply Service, under shelf-number : 14802 E, issue : a.1996 n.2996 / INIST-CNRS - Institut de l'Information Scientifique et TechniqueSIGLEFRFranc

Scaling up calcification, respiration, and photosynthesis rates of six prominent coral taxa

Coral reefs provide a range of important services to humanity, which are underpinned by community-level ecological processes such as coral calcification. Estimating these processes relies on our knowledge of individual physiological rates and species-specific abundances in the field. For colonial animals such as reef-building corals, abundance is frequently expressed as the relative surface cover of coral colonies, a metric that does not account for demographic parameters such as coral size. This may be problematic because many physiological rates are directly related to organism size, and failure to account for linear scaling patterns may skew estimates of ecosystem functioning. In the present study, we characterize the scaling of three physiological rates — calcification, respiration, and photosynthesis — considering the colony size for six prominent, reef-building coral taxa in Mo'orea, French Polynesia. After a seven-day acclimation period in the laboratory, we quantified coral physiological rates for three hours during daylight (i.e., calcification and gross photosynthesis) and one hour during night light conditions (i.e., dark respiration). Our results indicate that area-specific calcification rates are higher for smaller colonies across all taxa. However, photosynthesis and respiration rates remain constant over the colony-size gradient. Furthermore, we revealed a correlation between the demographic dynamics of coral genera and the ratio between net primary production and calcification rates. Therefore, intraspecific scaling of reef-building coral physiology not only improves our understanding of community-level coral reef functioning but it may also explain species-specific responses to disturbances