Environmental Factors Affecting Large-Bodied Coral Reef Fish Assemblages in the Mariana Archipelago

Large-bodied reef fishes represent an economically and ecologically important segment of the coral reef fish assemblage. Many of these individuals supply the bulk of the reproductive output for their population and have a disproportionate effect on their environment (e.g. as apex predators or bioeroding herbivores). Large-bodied reef fishes also tend to be at greatest risk of overfishing, and their loss can result in a myriad of either cascading (direct) or indirect trophic and other effects. While many studies have investigated habitat characteristics affecting populations of small-bodied reef fishes, few have explored the relationship between large-bodied species and their environment. Here, we describe the distribution of the large-bodied reef fishes in the Mariana Archipelago with an emphasis on the environmental factors associated with their distribution. Of the factors considered in this study, a negative association with human population density showed the highest relative influence on the distribution of large-bodied reef fishes; however, depth, water temperature, and distance to deep water also were important. These findings provide new information on the ecology of large-bodied reef fishes can inform discussions concerning essential fish habitat and ecosystem-based management for these species and highlight important knowledge gaps worthy of additional research

Ultrasonic Signal Enhancement Using Order Statistic and Morphological Filters

Order statistic and morphological filters belong to a class of nonlinear filters that have recently found many applications in signal analysis and image processing. In this paper, order statistic and morphological filters have been applied to enhance the features of the ultrasonic signal when it has been contaminated by multiple interfering microstructure echoes with random amplitudes and phases. These interfering echoes (i.e., speckles or grain scattering noise) often become significant to the point where detection of flaw echoes becomes very difficult. We have examined frequency diverse order statistic and time domain morphological and recursive median filters for improved ultrasonic flaw detection. In particular, the performance of these filters is evaluated using different ranks of order statistics and different shapes of structuring elements in the application of morphological filters. The processed experimental results in testing steel samples demonstrate that these filters are capable of improving flaw detection in ultrasonic systems