Phytoplankton functional types

The term “functional types” emerged from biogeochemical studies. It represents the group of organisms that share common characteristic role in biogeochemical functions. In ecology, a functional type or group represents an aggregation of organisms according to some well-defined property that sets a role or “function” for them in a system. Phytoplankton Functional types (PFT) are defined as a group of organisms (irrespective of taxonomic affiliation) that carry out a particular chemical process such as calcification, silicification, nitrogen fixation, or dimethyl sulfide production; they are also referred to as “biogeochemical guilds”. For example, in Nitrogen-Phytoplankton-Zooplankton (NPZ) models, P and Z are representatives of functional types, i.e., producers and consumers. This aggregation is acceptable for some applications, but may be too coarse or even inappropriate for others

Fisheries oceanography- Established links in the eastern Arabian Sea

Fish distribution along the western Indian coastal waters indicates a bias for pelagicplanktivores to the southern coast and carnivores to the northern coast. Southwest coast of India is an upwelling zone rich in phytoplankton dominated by diatoms during summer monsoon. The landing centre observation data since 1985 clearly indicate a dominance of Indian oil sardine (Sardinella longiceps) in this upwelling zone. The physiological activity of the fish is also tuned to the arrival of summer monsoon

Biogeography of northern Indian Ocean

Biogeography is defined as the branch of science that deals with the large-scale distribution of flora and fauna in the context of environmental properties and topographic features. Studies on biogeography in Northern Indian Ocean have been relatively few. These lectures will survey the available literature, will mention as-yet unpublished work and will discuss possible future directions for biogeographical research in the Northern Indian Ocean

Success and its Dimensions

Success is widely defined as a state of achievements in life or accomplishments of targets in life. But I would define success as “a life with no regrets”. We were taught by our ancestors that, success in life is getting a good degree, employed at a right age at a right time, having a good residence and a luxury car. It is very few people who teach their future generations to overcome struggles and failures. In the current era of growing competitions and rivalries, it is most crucial to impart both positive and negative notions, simultaneously to each budding kid. This will enable them to be prepared and preserved from the negative consequences and reach success easily. I constantly admire the definition of success from the CEO of Conductor, Seth Besmertnik, “Success is looking back at your life, when you are in your final moments, and possessing a great amount of pride around your creations, accomplishments, and legacy, while possessing little to no regret about what you did not do and missed opportunities (i.e. your family still loves you). If I can die feeling this way, I believe this is success“. Real success is attained, when achievements create an everlasting impact on the world, so the society will remember us with respect and honour, their names will live till eternity. Success has three main dimensions (3Ds’): Discipline, Dedication and Determination. These dimensions are important keys towards victory, and it also deals with many other multi-dimensional factors. I anticipate explaining some of the major dimensions (Fig 1.) to be taken into consideration to achieve something in this great journey of life

Optical classification

Optical oceanography or Marine optics is the study of light propagation in the ocean surface through absorption or scattering processes. Marine bio-optics is the term used when the absorption and scattering by particles and dissolved substances are of biological origin. Ocean color is defined as the spectral variation of the water leaving radiance that can be related to the optical constituents present in the medium (Jerlov, 1976; Morel, 1974). Visible Spectral radiometry or Ocean colour remote sensing is the study on spectral signals of optically active materials using satellite observations. When sunlight reaches the upper water column or the photic zone of the ocean surface, the light propagation is determined by the optical properties of seawater

Fish Consumption: Gauging the determinants of consumption and buying patterns across Kerala markets

Fish marketing is an efficient economic production system which depends on several multi-level market functionaries from producers to consumers. The perfect model of fish market systems entails continuum in flow of the goods and services with high level of customer satisfaction. With this viewpoint, the current study was focused on analysing the different types of domestic fish markets across 14 districts of Kerala. The objective of the study is to quantify different market attributes such as type of domestic fish markets, frequency of fish consumption by consumers, source of purchase, access to the markets and consumers’ perception to choose markets according to their seafood requirement

Very severe cyclonic storm “Gaja” and its impact off the Tamil Nadu coastline

This paper presents an overview of the Gaja – a very severe cyclonic storm that battered thousands of lives in Cauvery delta regions of Tamil Nadu. The cyclone originated from the Gulf of Thailand on 5th November 2018 and gradually turned into a very severe cyclonic storm that made a landfall at Tamil Nadu coast on 15th November 2018. Nagapattinam was one of the most affected coastal districts, which endured extensive damage due to coastal flood and wind-rose to about 120 kmph. The current study was focused on the impact assessments of the co-operative society members. The statistical chisquare distribution was calculated to substantiate the significant relationships between the physical attributes, socioeconomic conditions and level of vulnerability to the coastal communities affected by the cyclone. The major findings of the study reveals that the human vulnerability is highly significant to the physical attributes and socio-economic factors such as mean sea level, distance of house-holds from the shore-line, house type, income and education. The study suggests that the policy managers should proactively consider all the identified variables homogeneously to proficiently improvise the disaster management, preparedness; adaptation and mitigation measures to efficiently conserve the resources from vulnerable hazards

Personality Development

Personality is defined as the form of characteristic thoughts, feelings and behavior that differentiate one individual from the other and it persists over time. It is the integration of biological and experienced behaviours of an individual that forms responses to environmental stimuli. To build a good personality, following traits are listed to be most crucial (Fig. 1.): 1. Character traits 2. Behavioral traits 3. Attitude traits Personality traits are different to each other and could be a mixture of both good and bad. It’s always an individual’s choice to choose change of traits provided; we need to endure the desire to make changes in life. Personality Development is a step towards improvement and development of talents and potentials, enhancing quality of life, realization of dreams and aspirations and facilitating employability. The stages include formal and informal activities and the leaders and program managers may realize the full potential of each individual in an existing group. Hence, this process of improving or transforming the personality is called personality development

Upwelling over the eastern Arabian Sea

Upwelling is a vital oceanographic phenomena determining the biological productivity of the coastal oceanic provinces in a greater extent. The annual pelagic fisheries of coastal rim countries, adjacent to the eastern boundary of the Ocean, over the trade wind zone are greatly dependent on upwelling. Over the North India Ocean (NIO), west coast of India, adjacent to the eastern Arabian Sea is well known for its seasonal occurrence of upwelling and downwelling annually. Over the past, several authors have studied upwelling along the west coast of India (Banse 1959, 1968; Sharma 1978; Johannessen et al., 1987

Course Manual Winter School on Structure and Functions of Marine Ecosystem: Fisheries

Marine ecosystems comprises of diverse organisms and their ambient abiotic components in varied relationships leading to an ecosystem functioning. These relationships provides the services that are essential for marine organisms to sustain in the nature. The studies examining the structure and functioning of these relationships remains unclear and hence understanding and modelling of the ecological functioning is imperative in the context of the threats different ecosystem components are facing. The relationship between marine population and their environment is complex and is subjected to fluctuations which affects the bottom level of an ecosystem pyramid to higher trophic levels. Understanding the energy flow within the marine ecosystems with the help of primary to secondary producers and secondary consumers are potentially important when assessing such states and changes in these environments. Many of the physiological changes are known to affect the key functional group, ie. the species or group of organisms, which play an important role in the health of the ecosystem. In marine environment, phytoplankton are the main functional forms which serves as the base of marine food web. Any change in the phytoplankton community structure may lead to alteration in the composition, size and structure of the entire ecosystem. Hence, it is critical to understand how these effects may scale up to population, communities, and entire marine ecosystem. Such changes are difficult to predict, particularly when more than one trophic level is affected. The identification and quantification of indicators of changes in ecosystem functioning and the knowledge base generated will provide a suitable way of bridging issues related to a specific ecosystem. New and meaningful indicators, derived from our current understanding of marine ecosystem functioning, can be used for assessing the impact of these changes and can be used as an aid in promoting responsible fisheries in marine ecosystems. Phytoplantkon is an indicator determining the colour of open Ocean. In recent years, new technologies have emerged which involves multidisciplinary activities including biogeochemistry and its dynamics affecting higher trophic levels including fishery. The winter school proposed will provide the insights into background required for such an approach involving teaching the theory, practical, analysis and interpretation techniques in understanding the structure and functioning of marine ecosystems from ground truth measurements as well as from satellite remote sensing data. This is organized with the full funding support from Indian council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) New Delhi and the 25 participants who are attending this programme has been selected after scrutiny of their applications based on their bio-data. The participants are from different States across Indian subcontinent covering north, east, west and south. They are serving as academicians such as Professors/ scientists and in similar posts. The training will be a feather in their career and will enable them to do their academic programmes in a better manner. Selected participants will be scrutinized initially to understand their knowledge level and classes will be oriented based on this. In addition, all of them will be provided with an e-manual based on the classes. All selected participants are provided with their travel and accommodation grants. The faculty include the scientists who developed this technology, those who are practicing it and few user groups who do their research in related areas. The programme is coordinated by the Fishery Resources Assessment Division of CMFRI. This programme will generate a team of elite academicians who can contribute to sustainable management of marine ecosystem and they will further contribute to capacity building in the sector by training many more interested researchers in the years to come