Observations on five coral diseases and coral bleaching along the north and west coasts of Dominica, West Indies : a capstone project ...

Scleractinian diseases and bleaching have been studied for about 30 years. And yet, very little is known about the vectors, pathogens, and long-term effects of coral disease and coral bleaching. In the 1990s, the reported number of coral diseases escalated significantly. Black Band Disease, White Plague, Dark Spot Syndrome, Yellow Blotch Disease, Aspergillosis, and Coral Bleaching events have been identified and reported in the coral reef ecosystems of Dominica since 2000. This study aims to add to the knowledge base of these coral afflictions around Dominica. The data collected in this survey are from the north and west shores of the island, previously unstudied areas. Height, widest diameter, disease symptoms, percent of diseased coral tissue, and the color differences between diseased and healthy coral tissue are recorded in situ within a 3-meter radius circle at each of 6 locations. Data collection begins the last week of October 2004 and ends the third week of November 2004. Eighteen zooxanthellate species suffer from coral bleaching. Yellow Blotch Disease infections are found in Montestraea faveolata and Montestraea annularis colonies. Siderastrea siderea is found infected by Dark Spot Syndrome and White Plague. Black Band Disease infections are rare. Gorgonia spp. are possibly infected by Aspergillosis. In future studies, incidence and occurrence of coral diseases and coral bleaching in framework building species Montestraea faveolata, Montestraea annularis, and Siderastrea siderea should be monitored to reduce overall reef degradation. Incidence and occurrence of coral disease and coral bleaching in non-framework species Agaricia agaricites and Porites asteroides should be monitored as possible indicators of an impending bleaching event

Detecting Change in Benthic Communities at San Cristobal Reef in La Parguera, Puerto Rico, 2007-2009

The ecological integrity of coral reef ecosystems around the world and their associated goods and services are threatened by the synergistic effects of natural and anthropogenic disturbances. Benthic community composition at San Cristobal reef in La Parguera, Puerto Rico, was monitored from 2007 to 2009 using SCUBA-based photoquadrat surveys, and assessed for change over time using a model-comparison approach, which accounted for spatial autocorrelation. Additionally, the optimal point densities and optimal photoquadrat totals necessary to detect change reliably in proportional cover were investigated. Benthic community structure was similar at all sampling sites throughout the study; algal and sand classes were the dominant classes with non-scleractinian invertebrate classes having similar or greater proportional cover than scleractinian classes. Detected changes in scleractinian classes, including Acropora and Montastraea classes, were lower than detected changes in other invertebrate classes. To investigate optimal sampling intensity, one-hundred re-samples of the point overlays were drawn for ten point densities, ranging from five points quadrat-1 to 90 points quadrat-1, and seven photoquadrat totals, ranging from two photoquadrats to 50 photoquadrats. The change for estimated proportional benthic cover between 2007 and 2008 for four benthic cover classes (M. annularis, P. astreoides, poriferans, and sand) within each re-sample were assessed for change. The minimum number of points required to detect change reliably depended on the cover class and desired detection sensitivity. Low point densities (e.g., five points photoquadrat-1 or 20 points m-2) were sufficient to detect large changes in classes with high proportional benthic cover while high point densities (e.g., 70 points photoquadrat-1 or 280 points m-2) were needed to detect small changes in benthic cover classes with low proportional cover reliably. Intermediate point densities (e.g., 50 points photoquadrat-1 or 200 points m-2) enabled detection of either small changes in classes with high proportional cover or large changes in classes with low proportional cover. Lower quadrat totals (e.g., 20 photoquadrats 100 m-2) were sufficient to detect large changes, and higher quadrat totals (e.g., 40 photoquadrats 100 m-2) were necessary to detect small changes reliably. Therefore, researchers should be conservative when determining sampling intensity and select higher point densities (e.g., 50-70 points photoqradrat-1) and higher photoquadrat totals because a less intense sampling regime (e.g., five points photoquadrat-1 or 20 photoquadrats) could result in inaccurate proportional cover estimates and unreliable detection of change. Programs monitoring benthic community structure in coral reefs using points overlaid on photoquadrats should determine the appropriate point density and number of photoquadrats per unit area based on proportional cover of the benthic classes, minimum change in cover to be detected, and the spatial autocorrelation distance, and should account for spatial autocorrelation between points when performing statistical analyses

Bridging the biodiversity data gaps: Recommendations to meet users’ data needs

A strong case has been made for freely available, high quality data on species occurrence, in order to track changes in biodiversity. However, one of the main issues surrounding the provision of such data is that sources vary in quality, scope, and accuracy. Therefore publishers of such data must face the challenge of maximizing quality, utility and breadth of data coverage, in order to make such data useful to users. Here, we report a number of recommendations that stem from a content need assessment survey conducted by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). Through this survey, we aimed to distil the main user needs regarding biodiversity data. We find a broad range of recommendations from the survey respondents, principally concerning issues such as data quality, bias, and coverage, and extending ease of access. We recommend a candidate set of actions for the GBIF that fall into three classes: 1) addressing data gaps, data volume, and data quality, 2) aggregating new kinds of data for new applications, and 3) promoting ease-of-use and providing incentives for wider use. Addressing the challenge of providing high quality primary biodiversity data can potentially serve the needs of many international biodiversity initiatives, including the new 2020 biodiversity targets of the Convention on Biological Diversity, the emerging global biodiversity observation network (GEO BON), and the new Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES)

The zonation of Carp Lake River and the fish species that occupy each region.

The purpose of this study was to understand how abiotic factors change along Carp Lake River and how these factors influence species abundance and distribution. Temperature, velocity, pH, conductivity, depth, nutrient levels, dissolved oxygen concentration, slope, and substrate were measured at four sites along the stream. The species of fish sound at each site were also recorded. We found that groundwater inputs at the third site had a significant impact on the abiotic factors observed. We explored the relationships between the observed trends in abiotic factors and the variation in species diversity over the course of the stream. This study concludes that differences in velocity, substrate, and depth influence the distribution of fish species along Carp Lake River. The presence of a lake at both ends of the stream also influenced species distribution.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/54712/1/3153.pd

Co-design for Curriculum Planning: A Model for Professional Development for High School Teachers

This paper describes a model for teacher professional development as co-design for curriculum planning in which facilitators with design and pedagogical expertise iteratively work with groups of secondary school teachers, one school at a time, to plan whole terms of work, as a form of teacher professional development. It contains preliminary results from a design-based research study involving co-design with digital technologies teachers in two Australian secondary schools. It describes two phases of design involving workshops, strategies and instruments that work to facilitate effective co-design with teachers. Results from this pilot study suggest that the co-design for curriculum planning model leads to high quality teacher professional development for 21st century learning

Field trial of an automated ground-based infrared cloud classification system

Automated classification of cloud types using a ground-based infrared imager can provide invaluable high resolution and localised information for Air Traffic Controllers. Observations can be made consistently, continuously in real time and accurately during both day and night operation. Details of a field trial of an automated, ground-based infrared cloud classification system are presented. The system was designed at Campbell Scientific ltd in collaboration with Loughborough University, UK. The main objective of the trial was to assess the performance of an automated infrared camera system with a lightning detector in classifying several types of clouds, specifically Cumulonimbus and Towering Cumulus, during continuous day and night operation. Results from the classification system were compared with those obtained from Meteorological Aerodrome Reports (METAR) and with data generated by the UK Meteorological Office from their radar and sferics automated cloud reports system. In comparisons with METAR data, a Probability of Detection of up to 82% was achieved, together with a minimum Probability of False Detection of 18%

Effects of Guideline and Formulary Changes on Statin Prescribing in the Veterans Affairs

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/139955/1/hesr12788-sup-0001-AppendixSA1.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/139955/2/hesr12788_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/139955/3/hesr12788.pd