Temporal contingencies associated with multiple anthropogenic disturbances in shallow marine assemblages

This thesis characterises the roles of indirect effects and temporal contingencies, which are events that have happened at some point in time and lead to one of many possible outcomes, on ecosystem level response to multiple potentially-interacting stressors. The assemblage response of a semi-natural marine food web to the interactive effects of warming, eutrophication and changing body size of a top predator was observed. The effects of minor nutrient enrichment are negligible and warming produces subtle responses, but the manipulation of top predator body size evokes a strong trophic cascade. This suggests that the long-term decreased body size effect of warming will be of greater ecological consequence than any short-term direct effects of higher temperature that may be experienced by individuals. The relative body size can explain much of the trophic interaction between predator and prey species. The absence of refugia down-shifts the size-structuring of the predator-prey relationship so that larger predators exert greater predation pressure on smaller prey. The effect of copper contamination on two successional stages of subtidal community assembly was examined. It was found that: (1) biofilms are sensitive to changes in copper concentration in the surrounding water column, irrespective of whether the changes involve exposure to or depuration from copper, and not just exposure to elevated copper concentrations per se and; (2) invertebrate assemblages respond to increased exposure to copper from the surrounding water column. This suggests that benthic invertebrate settlement is robust to the indirect effect of copper-induced changes in biofilm communities, but not to the direct toxic effect of copper itself. This work highlights the importance of temporal contingencies including legacy effects, ecological history and the coincidence of random events for identification of the mechanisms in community assembly

Recent advances in SPE (tm) water electrolyzer

A new cell structure has been introduced into the SPE Water Electrolyzer which has improved overall characteristics significantly. Weight, reliability, and efficiency are the characteristics that are improved the most, with volume having a second order improvement. This paper discusses the capabilities of the new cell structure and the impact it would have in various space applications

Making a Third Space for Student Voices in Two Academic Libraries

When we think of voices in the library, we have tended to think of them as disruptive, something to control and manage for the sake of the total library environment. The stereotype of the shushing librarian pervades public perception, creating expectations about the kinds of spaces libraries want to create. Voices are not always disruptive, however. Indeed, developing an academic voice is one of the main challenges facing incoming university students, and libraries can play an important role in helping these students find their academic voices. Two initiatives at two different academic libraries are explored here: a Secrets Wall, where students are invited to write and share a secret during exam time while seeing, reading, commenting on the secrets of others; and a librarian and historian team-taught course called History on the Web, which brings together information literacy and the study of history in the digital age. This article examines both projects and considers how critical perspectives on voice and identity might guide our instructional practices, helping students to learn to write themselves into the university. Further, it describes how both the Secrets Wall and the History on the Web projects intentionally create a kind of “Third Space” designed specifically so students can enter it, negotiate with it, interrogate it, and eventually come to be part of it