Using remote sensing assessments to document historical and current saved consumptive use (CU) on alfalfa and grass hayfields managed under full and partial-season irrigation regimes

August 2017.Includes bibliographical references

Foraging distribution of breeding northern fulmars is predicted by commercial fisheries

Funding: J.H.D. was funded by the Irish Research Council Enterprise Partnership Scheme, supported by the Petroleum Infrastructure Program. Field work on Little Saltee in 2018 and 2019 and S.d.G. were funded by the BlueFish project, funded by the European Regional Development fund through the Ireland Wales Cooperation Programme 2014−2020. Fieldwork on Eynhallow and St. Kilda was supported by Orkney Islands Council, the University of Aberdeen, the National Trust for Scotland and Talisman Energy (UK) Ltd. E.W.J.E. was funded by a Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland and University of Aberdeen studentship. Fieldwork elsewhere was funded by the EU Atlantic area INTERREG program via the Future of the Atlantic Marine Environment (FAME) project and by the RSPB, JNCC, Fair Isle Bird Observatory Trust and Marine Scotland, through the Seabird Tracking And Research (STAR) project. G.E.A. was funded by the MarPAMM project supported by the EU INTERREG VA Programme, managed by the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB).Habitat-use and distribution models are essential tools of conservation biology. For wide-ranging species, such models may be challenged by the expanse, remoteness and variability of their habitat, these challenges often being compounded by the species' mobility. In marine environments, direct observations and sampling are usually impractical over broad regions, and instead remotely sensed proxies of prey availability are often used to link species abundance or foraging behaviour to areas that are expected to provide food consistently. One source of food consumed by many marine top predators is fisheries waste, but habitat-use models rarely account for this interaction. We assessed the utility of commercial fishing effort as a covariate in foraging habitat models for northern fulmars Fulmarus glacialis, a species known to exploit fisheries waste, during their summer breeding season. First, we investigated the prevalence of fulmar-vessel interactions using concurrently tracked fulmars and fishing vessels. We infer that over half of our study individuals associate with fishing vessels while foraging, mostly with trawl-type vessels. We then used hidden Markov models to explain the spatio-temporal distribution of putative foraging behaviour as a function of a range of covariates. Persistent commercial fishing effort was a significant predictor of foraging behaviour, and was more important than commonly used environmental covariates retained in the model. This study demonstrates the effect of commercial fisheries on the foraging distribution and behaviour of a marine top predator, and supports the idea that, in some systems, incorporating human activities into distribution studies can improve model fit substantially.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Foraging distribution of breeding northern fulmars is predicted by commercial fisheries

Acknowledgements. J.H.D. was funded by the Irish Re- search Council Enterprise Partnership Scheme, supported by the Petroleum Infrastructure Program. Field work on Lit- tle Saltee in 2018 and 2019 and S.d.G. were funded by the BlueFish project, funded by the European Regional Devel- opment fund through the Ireland Wales Co-operation Pro- gramme 2014−2020. Fieldwork on Eynhallow and St. Kilda was supported by Orkney Islands Council, the University of Aberdeen, the National Trust for Scotland and Talisman Energy (UK) Ltd. E.W.J.E. was funded by a Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland and University of Aberdeen studentship. Fieldwork elsewhere was funded by the EU Atlantic area INTERREG program via the Future of the Atlantic Marine Environment (FAME) project and by the RSPB, JNCC, Fair Isle Bird Observatory Trust and Marine Scotland, through the Seabird Tracking And Research (STAR) project. We are grateful for field assistance from Ash Bennison, Cian Luck, Yvan Satge, Juliet Lamb, Chris Bell, Mara Nydegger, Robert Hughes, Elizabeth Mackley, Richard Bufton, Jenni Border, Derren Fox, Tegan Newman, Daisy Burnell, Antoine Grissott and Chris Taylor. Marine Scotland Science and the Marine Institute provided access to anony- mized VMS data. G.E.A. was funded by the MarPAMM pro- ject supported by the EU INTERREG VA Programme, man- aged by the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB). The views and opinions expressed in this manuscript do not nec- essarily reflect those of the European Commission or the SEUPB. Go raibh míle maith agaibh, Pat and Liezel of Little Saltee for their outstanding support and hospitality.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Atoms in the Surf: Molecular Dynamics Simulation of the Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability using 9 Billion Atoms

We present a fluid dynamics video showing the results of a 9-billion atom molecular dynamics simulation of complex fluid flow in molten copper and aluminum. Starting with an atomically flat interface, a shear is imposed along the copper-aluminum interface and random atomic fluctuations seed the formation of vortices. These vortices grow due to the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability. The resulting vortical structures are beautifully intricate, decorated with secondary instabilities and complex mixing phenomena. This work performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344.Comment: Description of video submitted to APS DFD Gallery of Fluid Motion 200

Very High Energy Gamma-ray spectral properties of Mrk 501 from CAT Cerenkov telescope observations in 1997

The BL Lac object Mrk 501 went into a very high state of activity during 1997, both in VHE gamma-rays and X-rays. We present here results from observations at energies above 250 GeV carried out between March and October 1997 with the CAT Cerenkov imaging Telescope. The average differential spectrum between 30 GeV and 13 TeV shows significant curvature and is well represented by phi_0 * E_TeV^{-(alpha + beta*log10(E_TeV))}, with: phi_0 = 5.19 +/- 0.13 {stat} +/- 0.12 {sys-MC} +1.66/-1.04 {sys-atm} * 10^-11 /cm^2/s/TeV alpha = 2.24 +/- 0.04 {stat} +/- 0.05 {sys} beta = 0.50 +/- 0.07 {stat} (negligible systematics). The TeV spectral energy distribution of Mrk 501 clearly peaks in the range 500 GeV-1 TeV. Investigation of spectral variations shows a significant hardness-intensity correlation with no measurable effect on the curvature. This can be described as an increase of the peak TeV emission energy with intensity. Simultaneous and quasi-simultaneous CAT VHE gamma-ray and BeppoSAX hard X-ray detections for the highest recorded flare on 16th April and for lower-activity states of the same period show correlated variability with a higher luminosity in X-rays than in gamma-rays. The observed spectral energy distribution and the correlated variability between X-rays and gamma-rays, both in amplitude and in hardening of spectra, favour a two-component emission scheme where the low and high energy components are attributed to synchrotron and inverse Compton (IC) radiation, respectively.Comment: Submitted to Astronomy and Astrophysics, 8 pages including 6 figures. Published with minor change

Spectrum and Variability of Mrk501 as observed by the CAT Imaging Telescope

The CAT Imaging Telescope has observed the BL Lac object Markarian 501 between March and August 1997. We report here on the variability over this time including several large flares. We present also preliminary spectra for all these data, for the low emission state, and for the largest flare.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, Late

Observation of the Crab Nebula Gamma-Ray Emission Above 220 Gev by the Cat Cherenkov Imaging Telescope

The CAT imaging telescope, recently built on the site of the former solar plant Themis (French Pyrenees), observed gamma-rays from the Crab nebula from October 1996 to March 1997. This steady source, often considered as the standard candle of very-high-energy gamma-ray astronomy, is used as a test-beam to probe the performances of the new telescope, particularly its energy threshold (220 GeV at 20 degrees zenith angle) and the stability of its response. Due to the fine-grain camera, an accurate analysis of the longitudinal profiles of shower images is performed, yielding the source position in two dimensions for each individual shower.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, Tex, contribution to 25th ICRC Durba

Detection of Vhe Gamma-Rays from MRK 501 with the Cat Imaging Telescope

The CAT imaging telescope on the site on the former solar plant Themis has been observing gamma-rays from Mrk501 above 220 GeV in March and April 1997. This source is shown to be highly variable and the light curve is presented. The detected gamma-ray rate for the most intense flare is in excess of 10 per minute.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, Tex, contribution to 25th ICRC Durba