Holoturian, Ariel Guzik

For the last 10 years, artist Ariel Guzik has searched for a way to communicate with whales and dolphins. Guzik’s project has encompassed the creation of underwater instruments, expeditions to contact whales and dolphins off the coasts of Baja California, Costa Rica and Scotland, and sound recordings of these remarkable encounters. Guzik's Holoturian was a new work commissioned by Arts Catalyst and Edinburgh Art Festival in 2015. It was an installation of a new underwater resonance instrument, specially designed to communicate with whales and dolphins in the deep seas, and incorporated objects, drawings and films from the artist’s decade-long research project, which included a field trip by the artist and his team with Arts Catalyst to the Moray Firth in the North of Scotland to encounter the population of bottlenose dolphins that live there. This new book records the project to date and explores the ideas underlying it, bringing together artistic, scientific and environmental reflections on Guzik’s work, the language and culture of cetaceans, and the challenges facing these intelligent creatures in our threatened oceans today. It comprises images of the research and installation with texts by curator Nicola Triscott and marine scientist and conservationist Mark Simmonds OBE

State of the world’s plants and fungi 2020

Kew’s State of the World’s Plants and Fungi project provides assessments of our current knowledge of the diversity of plants and fungi on Earth, the global threats that they face, and the policies to safeguard them. Produced in conjunction with an international scientific symposium, Kew’s State of the World’s Plants and Fungi sets an important international standard from which we can annually track trends in the global status of plant and fungal diversity

Search for eccentric black hole coalescences during the third observing run of LIGO and Virgo

Despite the growing number of binary black hole coalescences confidently observed through gravitational waves so far, the astrophysical origin of these binaries remains uncertain. Orbital eccentricity is one of the clearest tracers of binary formation channels. Identifying binary eccentricity, however, remains challenging due to the limited availability of gravitational waveforms that include the effects of eccentricity. Here, we present observational results for a waveform-independent search sensitive to eccentric black hole coalescences, covering the third observing run (O3) of the LIGO and Virgo detectors. We identified no new high-significance candidates beyond those that have already been identified with searches focusing on quasi-circular binaries. We determine the sensitivity of our search to high-mass (total source-frame mass M > 70 M⊙) binaries covering eccentricities up to 0.3 at 15 Hz emitted gravitational-wave frequency, and use this to compare model predictions to search results. Assuming all detections are indeed quasi-circular, for our fiducial population model, we place a conservative upper limit for the merger rate density of high-mass binaries with eccentricities 0 < e ≤ 0.3 at 16.9 Gpc−3 yr−1 at the 90% confidence level

Photo-identification methods reveal seasonal and long-term site-fidelity of Risso’s dolphins (Grampus griseus) in shallow waters (Cardigan Bay, Wales)

A photo-identification study on Risso’s dolphins was carried out off Bardsey Island in Wales (July to September, 1997-2007). Their local abundance was estimated using two different analytical techniques: 1) mark-recapture of well-marked dolphins using a “closed-population” model; and 2) a census technique based on the total number of iden-tified individual dolphins sighted over the study period. The mark-recapture estimates of 121 (left sides; 64 - 178, 95% CI; CV 0.24) and 145 dolphins (right sides; 78 - 213, 95% CI; CV 0.24) closely matched the census technique estimates (population size of 90 - 151). It was found that the dolphins showed a degree of long-term and seasonal site-fidelity. A first long-distance match was made for Risso’s dolphins (319 km) between Bardsey Island and Cornwall, confirming they can be wide-ranging animals. This study demonstrates that the combination of systematic and opportunistic photo-ID studies has complementary value as a population assessment tool in generating the first local abundance esti-mate for Risso’s dolphins in UK waters. From the conservation perspective, these studies confirm the regular presence of Risso’s dolphins in these waters and the presence of calves shows breeding. Bardsey Island may be part of a network of localities that are important habitats to this species where it may take advantage of prey abundance in shallow waters. As such, results of this study may provide assistance to include the Risso’s dolphin in future regional conservation strategies including the envisaged marine protected areas