405 research outputs found
Seals and ecosystem health : meeting report of the Northwest Atlantic Seal Research Consortium
On May 1 and 2, 2015, over 75 people attended the Northwest Atlantic Seal Research Consortium's first official
biennial two day scientific meeting, "Seals and Ecosystem Health", at Salem State University in Salem,
Massachusetts. The focus of the meeting was addressed by two keynote presentations: "Seals and Ecosystem
Health" and "Marine mammals and ecosystem functioning: what can recovering seal populations teach us?" The first
day of the meeting featured 16 oral and two poster presentations, covering a diverse range of topics highlighting the
important underlying concepts, data gaps and future directions. Following the theme of the meeting, attendees
discussed the nature of ecosystems, acknowledging the complex and often cryptic interactions between components,
with cumulative and synergistic effects on animals and their environment. As our understanding of the ecological role
of seals in the Northwest Atlantic grows, the cumulative interactions increase our recognition of seals as sentinels of
ecosystem health. Meeting presentations highlighted the value of existing data and ongoing research efforts, including
long-term population monitoring, tagging and photo-identification, stranding response, and rehabilitation facilities. The
importance of observational effort was recognized as a critical component in detecting mortality events, documenting
population processes in remote locations and cryptic species interactions. Research priorities identified included
development of molecular tools for study of diet and disease, population dynamics studies (demographics and trends),
telemetry-based investigations of spatiotemporal distribution, and model- and field-based ecosystem-level studies.
Several of the presentations and the panel discussion, "Addressing Perception vs. Reality: How data (or lack of data)
affects public perceptions and management decisions," highlighted the diverse and evolving perspectives with which
society views seals, perspectives that are often biased by the backgrounds of individual humans. Diverse opinions
necessitate engagement of stakeholders and the public, and societal objectives need to be defined in order to effect
science-based natural resource management at an ecosystem level. At the closing of the meeting, recommendations
from the panel discussion and for the overall goals of NASRC were discussed.Funding was provided by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Marine Mammal Center and
the US Marine Mammal Commissio
Gulf of Maine seals - fisheries interactions and integrated research : final report
Meeting held: October 28, 2011, Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies, Provincetown, MA. Sponsored by the Marine Mammal Center at the Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution and the Provincetown Center for Coastal StudiesThe 2011 meeting, “Gulf of Maine Seals: Fisheries Interactions and Integrated Research”, held at
the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies (PCCS), featured posters and oral presentations as
well as a series of discussion groups. This meeting was a follow up to the 2009 meeting, “Gulf
of Maine Seals - Populations, Problems and Priorities”, held at the Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution (WHOI) (Bogomolni et al. 2010). At the conclusion of the 2009 meeting, attendees
emphasized the need to improve communication, to obtain funding for long term research, to
continue meeting on a regular basis, to increase data and data sharing, and to support cross
cutting research between the meeting’s three primary topic areas: disease and health; human and
fishery interactions; and population biology. The overarching goals of the 2011 meeting were to discuss and share work to date, present some
of the tools developed since the 2009 meeting, and outline goals for future integrated research.
One of the tools presented within the framework of cross-cutting research areas and integrative
research was the development of a sightings database and website for uniquely identifiable
(unique pelage, scars, lesions, tagged, branded, marked, etc.) animals. The practicality of this
tool as a means to increase communication was discussed.
Additionally, seal/fisheries interactions throughout the Gulf of Maine, Cape Cod and waters off
of the northeast U.S. have continued to concern stakeholders since the 2009 meeting. The
urgency of documenting, understanding and mitigating these interactions has become more
apparent. Therefore, the focus of the 2011 Provincetown meeting was on fisheries interaction
and related topics raised at the last 2009 workshop and in the meetings with Cape Cod fishermen
described below. For the purposes of this report, 'fisheries interaction' can be direct/operational
(e.g. depredation, when seals remove fish from gear; or entanglement/bycatch, when seals are
unintentionally captured), or indirect/ecological (competition, displacement or other large-scale
interactions between seals and fisheries). Stakeholder concerns about fisheries interactions and recent increases in local seal abundance
were rising prior to the 2009 meeting. In December of 2006, the Chatham-based Cape Cod
Commercial Hook Fishermen’s Association (CCCHFA) took the lead in organizing a meeting
entitled, “Structuring a Novel Research Team to Define and Assess the Impact of Human/Seal
Interactions on Cape Cod/Gulf of Maine through Ecosystem-Based Analysis”. Participants
included fishermen, policy makers, environmental organizations and researchers aiming to
develop a unique partnership to study the New England seal population. The goal of this
meeting was to create a research team that would define the ecological role of seals in Cape Cod
waters by studying population dynamics, behavior, and health. This meeting resulted in a
successful partnership, financially aided by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW),
between fishermen and seal researchers. A cost-effective cooperative research agreement was
reached whereby seal researchers were provided boat transport around the Chatham and
Monomoy areas by local fishermen. This agreement allowed students and researchers to gain
access to areas off of Chatham that would otherwise not have been accessible. It also supported
a collaborative effort to increase understanding and communication between stakeholders. In addition to the CCCHFA-led meeting in 2006, a series of informal meetings have been held
on Cape Cod between commercial and recreational fishermen and marine scientists. This work
was initially funded by the Cape Cod Five Cents Savings Bank Charitable Foundation. Owen
Nichols and Lisa Sette (PCCS) have held individual meetings with commercial fishermen in
Chatham, Orleans, and Provincetown, and recreational fishermen, outfitters, and associations
throughout the Outer Cape. These individual meetings were followed by larger group meetings
in Eastham and Chatham in 2010 and 2011, and more are planned for 2012. Attendees included
commercial and recreational fishermen and scientists, and discussion topics included observed
seal/fishery interactions and potential collaborative research projects. The goal of the meetings
is to develop a working group composed of members of the fishing and scientific communities
with expertise in marine mammal and fisheries ecology.
The above meetings laid the foundation for the 2011 meeting, during which members of the
scientific and fishing communities gathered to focus on fisheries interactions and integrated
research techniques to quantify and mitigate interactions. Several invited presentations were
given, some of which were scheduled (Appendix A) with selected abstracts provided (Appendix
B), and some of which were delivered on an ad hoc basis upon request from organizers or
attendees (see Appendix F for edited transcripts of presentations). In order to ensure that the
fishing community had a distinct voice, a forum was included in the agenda, during which
fishermen were encouraged to share their observations, experiences and concerns. Separately,
moderated discussion groups focused specifically on fisheries interactions, tagging and tracking,
and management issues. All four sessions, despite their specific foci, shared common themes
such as the need for collaborative research involving both the scientific and fishing communities.
Recommendations from the discussion groups and summaries from each session are listed on the
following pages.Funding was provided by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Marine Mammal Center and
the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studie
Gulf of Maine seals - populations, problems and priorities
Meeting held: May 28th – 29th 2009, WHOI, Quissett Campus, Sponsored by the Marine Mammal Center at WHOIAs pinniped populations shift and change along the northeast U.S. and Canadian coastline, so
too do the interests and issues of regional residents, scientists and stakeholders. In May 2009 the
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) sponsored a meeting resulting in
recommendations in three key areas regarding pinnipeds: population dynamics, human
interaction and disease/health. The population group recommended: developing long-term
surveys over all seasons and geographic ranges, coordinating sampling efforts for dietary
research, refining correction factors for survey results, increasing documentation of fishery
interactions and developing means of funding. The human interactions group recommended:
addressing marine debris, developing survey, reporting and retrieval protocols for discarded
fishing gear, studying impact of and expanding education and outreach for commercial seal
watching, researching methods to deter depredation from fishing gear, streamlining the permitting
processes for acoustic deterrent and gear modification research, and increasing cooperative
research and outreach to the fishing community. The health and disease working group
recommended: establishing baseline health indicators, addressing priority disease concerns,
creating a pool of resources for standardized analysis of normal and unusual health event
monitoring, determining standard health baselines for release, establishing a health consortium,
improving communication along the coastline and establishing long term funding and ongoing
collaboration.Funding was provided by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Marine Mammal Cente
Spatial and temporal distribution of North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) in Cape Cod Bay, and implications for management
Cape Cod Bay (Massachusetts) is the only known winter and early spring feeding area for concentrations of the endangered North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis)
population. During January–May, 1998–2002, 167 aerial surveys were conducted (66,466 km of total survey effort), providing a complete representation of the spatiotemporal
distribution of right whales in the bay during winter and spring. A total of 1553 right whales were sighted; some of these sightings were multiple sightings of the same individuals. Right whale distribution and relative abundance patterns were quantified as sightings per unit of effort (SPUE) and partitioned into 103 23-km2 cells and 12 2-week periods. Significant interannual variations in mean SPUE and timing of SPUE maxima were likely due to physically forced changes in available food resources. The area of greatest SPUE expanded and contracted during the season but its center remained in the eastern bay. Most cells with SPUE>0 were inside the federal critical habitat (CH) and this finding gave evidence of the need for management measures within CH boundaries to reduce anthropogenic mortality from vessel strikes and entanglement. There was significant within-season SPUE variability: low in December−January, increasing to a maximum in late February−early April, and declining to zero in May; and these results provide support for management measures from 1 Januar
Frame-Dragging Vortexes and Tidal Tendexes Attached to Colliding Black Holes: Visualizing the Curvature of Spacetime
When one splits spacetime into space plus time, the spacetime curvature (Weyl
tensor) gets split into an "electric" part E_{jk} that describes tidal gravity
and a "magnetic" part B_{jk} that describes differential dragging of inertial
frames. We introduce tools for visualizing B_{jk} (frame-drag vortex lines,
their vorticity, and vortexes) and E_{jk} (tidal tendex lines, their tendicity,
and tendexes), and also visualizations of a black-hole horizon's (scalar)
vorticity and tendicity. We use these tools to elucidate the nonlinear dynamics
of curved spacetime in merging black-hole binaries.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
Visualizing Spacetime Curvature via Frame-Drag Vortexes and Tidal Tendexes I. General Theory and Weak-Gravity Applications
When one splits spacetime into space plus time, the Weyl curvature tensor
(vacuum Riemann tensor) gets split into two spatial, symmetric, and trace-free
(STF) tensors: (i) the Weyl tensor's so-called "electric" part or tidal field,
and (ii) the Weyl tensor's so-called "magnetic" part or frame-drag field. Being
STF, the tidal field and frame-drag field each have three orthogonal
eigenvector fields which can be depicted by their integral curves. We call the
integral curves of the tidal field's eigenvectors tendex lines, we call each
tendex line's eigenvalue its tendicity, and we give the name tendex to a
collection of tendex lines with large tendicity. The analogous quantities for
the frame-drag field are vortex lines, their vorticities, and vortexes. We
build up physical intuition into these concepts by applying them to a variety
of weak-gravity phenomena: a spinning, gravitating point particle, two such
particles side by side, a plane gravitational wave, a point particle with a
dynamical current-quadrupole moment or dynamical mass-quadrupole moment, and a
slow-motion binary system made of nonspinning point particles. [Abstract is
abbreviated; full abstract also mentions additional results.]Comment: 25 pages, 20 figures, matches the published versio
Recommended from our members
Parsing Arabic Dialects
The Arabic language is a collection of spoken dialects with important phonological, morphological, lexical, and syntactic differences, along with a standard written language, Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). Since the spoken dialects are not officially written, it is very costly to obtain adequate corpora to use for training dialect NLP tools such as parsers. In this paper, we address the problem of parsing transcribed spoken Levantine Arabic (LA). We do not assume the existence of any annotated LA corpus (except for development and testing), nor of a parallel corpus LA-MSA. Instead, we use explicit knowledge about the relation between LA and MSA
Understanding a successful obesity prevention initiative in children under 5 from a systems perspective
INTRODUCTION/BACKGROUND: Systems thinking represents an innovative and logical approach to understanding complexity in community-based obesity prevention interventions. We report on an approach to apply systems thinking to understand the complexity of a successful obesity prevention intervention in early childhood (children aged up to 5 years) conducted in a regional city in Victoria, Australia. METHODS: A causal loop diagram (CLD) was developed to represent system elements related to a successful childhood obesity prevention intervention in early childhood. Key stakeholder interviews (n = 16) were examined retrospectively to generate purposive text data, create microstructures, and form a CLD. RESULTS: A CLD representing key stakeholder perceptions of a successful intervention comprised six key feedback loops explaining changes in project implementation over time. The loops described the dynamics of collaboration, network formation, community awareness, human resources, project clarity, and innovation. CONCLUSION: The CLD developed provides a replicable means to capture, evaluate and disseminate a description of the dynamic elements of a successful obesity prevention intervention in early childhood
Effects of historic and projected climate change on the range and impacts of an emerging wildlife disease
The global trend of increasing environmental temperatures is often predicted to result in more severe disease epidemics. However, unambiguous evidence that temperature is a driver of epidemics is largely lacking, because it is demanding to demonstrate its role among the complex interactions between hosts, pathogens and their shared environment. Here we apply a three-pronged approach to understand the effects of temperature on ranavirus epidemics in UK common frogs, combining in vitro, in vivo and field studies. Each approach suggests that higher temperatures drive increasing severity of epidemics. In wild populations, ranavirosis incidents were more frequent and more severe at higher temperatures, and their frequency increased through a period of historic warming in the 1990s. Laboratory experiments using cell culture and whole animal models showed that higher temperature increased ranavirus propagation, disease incidence, and mortality rate. These results, combined with climate projections, predict severe ranavirosis outbreaks will occur over wider areas and an extended season, possibly affecting larval recruitment. Since ranaviruses affect a variety of ectothermic hosts (amphibians, reptiles and fish), wider ecological damage could occur. Our three complementary lines of evidence present a clear case for direct environmental modulation of these epidemics and suggest management options to protect species from disease
Suppressed Far-UV stellar activity and low planetary mass-loss in the WASP-18 system
WASP-18 hosts a massive, very close-in Jupiter-like planet. Despite its young age (R′HK activity parameter lies slightly below the basal level; there is no significant time-variability in the log R′HK value; there is no detection of the star in the X-rays. We present results of far-UV observations of WASP-18 obtained with COS on board of HST aimed at explaining this anomaly. From the star’s spectral energy distribution, we infer the extinction (E(B − V) ≈ 0.01mag) and then the ISM column density for a number of ions, concluding that ISM absorption is not the origin of the anomaly. We measure the flux of the four stellar emission features detected in the COS spectrum (C II, C III, C IV, Si IV). Comparing the C II/C IV flux ratio measured for WASP-18 with that derived from spectra of nearby stars with known age, we see that the far-UV spectrum of WASP-18 resembles that of old (>5Gyr), inactive stars, in stark contrast with its young age. We conclude that WASP-18 has an intrinsically low activity level, possibly caused by star-planet tidal interaction, as suggested by previous studies. Re-scaling the solar irradiance reference spectrum to match the flux of the Si IV line, yields an XUV integrated flux at the planet orbit of 10.2 erg s−1 cm−2. We employ the rescaled XUV solar fluxes to model of the planetary upper atmosphere, deriving an extremely low thermal mass-loss rate of 10−20MJ Gyr−1. For such high-mass planets, thermal escape is not energy limited, but driven by Jeans escape
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