Summary of statistical analyses. ‘Repeated Measures ANOVA’ is abbreviated to ‘RM ANOVA’ in the table.

<p>Summary of statistical analyses. ‘Repeated Measures ANOVA’ is abbreviated to ‘RM ANOVA’ in the table.</p

Mean OM content (%), chlorophyll a and pheopigment concentrations (µg

<p> <b>g </b><b>dw</b>^−<b>1</b><b>) and bacterial abundance (10⁷</b><b>cells </b><b>cm</b>^−<b>3</b><b>) at intervals in the top 5 cm of sediment.</b> Error bars represent the standard error about the mean in the positive direction only.</p

Comparisons of the oxygen penetration depth (OPD), total (TOE) and depth-integrated O₂ consumption rates (<i>R</i>) for each treatment (I, S, SM and SMSC-cores) during dark hours and light hours.

<p>All rates of O₂ consumption/production are in µmol m⁻² h⁻¹. Note: positive values indicate production and negative values consumption.</p

Pigment concentrations in the top 0.5 cm of sediment in S, SM and SMSC-cores, <i>A. mollis</i> feces (F) and mussel biodeposits (B).

<p>(A) The total concentration of chloro-pigment (µg g dw⁻¹) and (B) the mean proportion (%) of chlorophyll <i>a</i> and pheopigment. Error bars represent the standard error about the mean.</p

Mixing model outputs showing the range of the potential contribution (0.0 to 1.0 representing 0% to 100%) of different primary producers to venerid bivalves, <i>Austrovenus stutchburyi</i> inside the estuaries and <i>Dosinia subrosea</i>, on the open coast at Tairua (left) and Whangapoua (right) estuaries.

<p>The shaded boxes represent the 75^th (top) to 25^th (bottom) percentiles with the central lines indicating the median. The vertical lines outside the boxes indicate the 95^th (top) and 5^th (bottom) percentiles. MPB = microphytobenthos.</p

‘Best’ model of total community uptake of <i>Ulva</i>-derived nitrogen.

<p>Results from the ‘best’ model selection procedure for different numbers of predictor variables at the <i>Austrovenus</i> site, <i>Macomona</i> site and both sites pooled (biomass normalized). AICc denote corrected Akaike information criterion and R² is the total cumulative variance explained by the model. See Tables <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0158785#pone.0158785.t001" target="_blank">1</a> and <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0158785#pone.0158785.t002" target="_blank">2</a> for definitions of other abbreviations.</p

Macrofaunal metadata.

<p>Differences between the <i>Austrovenus</i> and <i>Macomona</i> sites in terms of infaunal species richness, functional group richness (FG), Shannon diversity index forspecies (H’SP) and functional groups (H’FG), total density of individuals and the density of the key FG, (see <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0158785#pone.0158785.t001" target="_blank">Table 1</a> for explanations to abbreviations). Values are mean ± 1 SD. Headings in bold are predictors for statistical analyses.</p

Ecosystem Services Transcend Boundaries: Estuaries Provide Resource Subsidies and Influence Functional Diversity in Coastal Benthic Communities

<div><h3>Background</h3><p>Estuaries are highly productive ecosystems that can export organic matter to coastal seas (the ‘outwelling hypothesis’). However the role of this food resource subsidy on coastal ecosystem functioning has not been examined.</p> <h3>Methodology/Principal Findings</h3><p>We investigated the influence of estuarine primary production as a resource subsidy and the influence of estuaries on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in coastal mollusk-dominated sediment communities. Stable isotope values (δ¹³C, δ¹⁵N) demonstrated that estuarine primary production was exported to the adjacent coast and contributed to secondary production up to 4 km from the estuary mouth. Further, isotope signatures of suspension feeding bivalves on the adjacent coast (<em>Dosinia subrosea</em>) closely mirrored the isotope values of the dominant bivalves inside the estuaries (<em>Austrovenus stutchburyi</em>), indicating utilization of similar organic matter sources. However, the food subsidies varied between estuaries; with estuarine suspended particulate organic matter (SPOM) dominant at Tairua estuary, while seagrass and fringing vegetation detritus was proportionately more important at Whangapoua estuary, with lesser contributions of estuarine SPOM. Distance from the estuary mouth and the size and density of large bivalves (<em>Dosinia</em> spp.) had a significant influence on the composition of biological traits in the coastal macrobenthic communities, signaling the potential influence of these spatial subsidies on ecosystem functioning.</p> <h3>Conclusions/Significance</h3><p>Our study demonstrated that the locations where ecosystem services like productivity are generated are not necessarily where the services are utilized. Further, we identified indirect positive effects of the nutrient subsidies on biodiversity (the estuarine subsidies influenced the bivalves, which in turn affected the diversity and functional trait composition of the coastal sediment macrofaunal communities). These findings highlight the importance of integrative ecosystem-based management that maintains the connectivity of estuarine and coastal ecosystems.</p> </div

Dual isotope (δ¹³C, δ¹⁵N) plots of estuarine primary producers (crosses) and predicted fractionation associated with one trophic level for Tairua and Whangapoua estuaries.

<p><i>Dosinia subrosea</i> (foot muscle) from site 1 closest to the estuary mouth are presented as solid circles and from site 9 as empty circles. For comparative purposes, the isotope values of a suspension-feeding bivalve, <i>Austrovenus stutchburyi</i>, within each estuary are presented as grey triangles.</p

Research into RCM using the case of Hidrovía: Practical use in the Aid to Navigation sector

Additional thesis - This thesis looks into the use of the Reliability Centred Maintenance in practice, by applying the methodology in a real life case, analysing the maintenance department of the organisation Hidrovía S.A.. Nowadays Hidrovía S.A. is maintaining the aid to navigation of the main river in Argentina, a concession given by the national government of maintaining and dredging more than 1500 km of waterway. The aid to navigation can be divided in roughly three types: buoy, beacon and spar, which they mainly hold up by using corrective maintenance. This could positively be changed by adapting some maintenance strategies. Using a Fault Tree Analysis and Failure Mode Effect Analysis during the RCM process, a few things were noticed; the three types of Aid to Navigation (AtoN) have a lot different sub components in common, the buoy has the highest failure rate and within the buoy there are six critical sub components: the top mark, lantern, battery (case), solar panel, floating system and chain. These six critical sub components could gain more reliability by adapting the maintenance policy: scheduled maintenance of the lantern, battery case and solar panel, redesign of the floating system and a combined strategy (preventive and scheduled maintenance) for the chain. In order to give a real maintenance policy adaptation, unfortunately more information is needed. More research should be done in the possibility of combining the scheduled replacement with the preventive maintenance and the redesigned buoys replacement. Also, the feasibility of the redesignitself should be looked into.Civil Engineering and GeosciencesHydraulic EngineeringConstruction Management and Engineerin