7 research outputs found
DAM! Put Your Power into Saving the Salmon
No full textHydropower can be a cleaner energy source, but comes with costs including displacement of those currently on the unflooded land and disrupts the development of salmon
Restoring Access to Micrologus: Exploring the World of Early Music via the American Archive of Public Broadcasting
No full textThis presentation explains the significance of Micrologus as an educational program and describes the author\u27s collaboration with the American Archive of Public Broadcasting. The project resulted in greater visibility of the program and its successful preservation within appropriate bounds of copyright and fair use
031 - Measuring the Success of Remediation using Ostracodes in the Western Finger Lakes, NY
No full textConesus Lake, a mesoeutrophic lake located in the Finger Lakes, has experienced environmental disruptions over the past centuries. Conesus Lake contains six species of ostracods, Cypridopisis vidua, Candona candida, Candona ohioensis, Candona ellipitica, Darwinula stevensoni, and Limocythere verrucosa. These species reflect the lake\u27s environmental conditions, including remediation efforts used to restore it. This study aims to show the effectiveness of remediation using the diversity and abundance of ostracodes found in the lake. Cores were collected from the south basin of Conesus Lake. Samples of sediment were collected at one-centimeter intervals from 3 cm to 154 cm. Subfossils were separated from the sediments, sorted, and identified to the lowest level. 1,363 ostracodes were found from 51 horizons in the core. Cy. vidua and Ca. candida were the most prevalent. Cy. vidua had the most overall abundance throughout the core whereas Ca. candida showed elevated abundance at both the top and base of the core. Ca. ohioensis displayed lower abundances near both core-bottom and core-top with peak abundance mid-core whereas Ca. elliptica displayed moderate abundances near core base with infrequent occurrences near core-top. We propose Ca. candida and Cy. vidua may be indicators of mesotrophic conditions, Ca. ohioensis may indicate eutrophic conditions and Ca. elliptica may be indicative of more oligotrophic conditions. The return of Ca. candida and Cy. vidua near the core-top reveals the positive impact of remediation on the ecosystem and monitoring live ostracodes can be used to indicate the lake’s trophic state
203 - Investigating the Impact of Invasive Mussels on Ecosystem Dynamics in Conesus Lake
No full textThis study examines how invasive mussels influence ecosystem dynamics in Conesus Lake, the westernmost Finger Lake in New York. Conesus Lake has experienced cultural eutrophication, remediation efforts, and ongoing challenges such as hypoxia, harmful algal blooms, and invasive species such as Dreissena polymorpha and Dreissena bugensis. Using lake sediment archives, this study analyzes invasive mussel body size and morphology over time to assess their ecological impacts. Two 150 cm sediment cores from the south basin were analyzed using a Geotek multi-sensor core logger. Sub-fossilized mussel shells were identified to species level, and body size metrics—including length, height, and dorsal curvature—were measured. A total of 138 mussels from 12 stratigraphic horizons, spanning contemporary sediments to the first Dreissena appearance (mid-1990s), were assessed. D. polymorpha had a mean length of 5.2 mm, height of 2.7 mm, and L/H ratio of 1.8, while D. bugensis had a mean length of 1.9 mm, height of 1.2 mm, and L/H ratio of 1.6. Both species showed a strong correlation between valve length and height (r² = 0.998 and r² = 0.9611, respectively). Stratigraphic trends indicate that zebra mussels initially exhibited a broader size range, while quagga mussels remained smaller and stable, possibly due to competition or environmental constraints. These findings improve our understanding of invasive mussel population dynamics and their effects on nutrient cycling, benthic habitats, and food webs. Future research will integrate molecular techniques to refine species identification and invasion timelines
Seasonal and daily patterns of the mating calls of the oyster toadfish, Opsanus tau.
No full textAuthor Posting. © University of Chicago Press, 2019. This article is posted here by permission of [publisher] for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Van Wert, J. C., & Mensinger, A. F. Seasonal and daily patterns of the mating calls of the oyster toadfish, Opsanus tau. Biological Bulletin, 236(2), (2019):97-107, doi:10.1086/701754.Acoustic communication is vital across many taxa for mating behavior, defense, and social interactions. Male oyster toadfish, Opsanus tau, produce courtship calls, or “boatwhistles,” characterized by an initial broadband segment (30–50 ms) and a longer tone-like second part (200–650 ms) during mating season. Male calls were monitored continuously with an in situ SoundTrap hydrophone that was deployed in Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, during the 2015 mating season. At least 10 vocalizing males were positively identified by their unique acoustic signatures. This resident population was tracked throughout the season, with several individuals tracked for extended periods of time (72 hours). Toadfish began calling in mid-May when water temperature reached 14.6 °C with these early-season “precursor” boatwhistles that were shorter in duration and contained less distinct tonal segments compared to calls later in the season. The resident toadfish stopped calling in mid-August, when water temperature was about 25.5 °C. The pulse repetition rate of the tonal part of the call was significantly related to ambient water temperature during both short-term (hourly) and long-term (weekly) monitoring. This was the first study to monitor individuals in the same population of oyster toadfish in situ continuously throughout the mating season.We thank Emily Cardinal for help with data collection and initial hydrophone setup, the Marine Resources Center at Marine
Biological Laboratory for dock space and resources, John Atkins for SoundTrap hydrophone support, and Beth Giuffrida for analysis support. Rosalyn Putland and Jenni Stanley are gratefully acknowledged for coding assistance. We also thank UCSBPSTAT for statistics guidance.We are also grateful to the three anonymous reviewers and the editor for their comments. This study was made possible by National Science Foundation grants IOS 1354745 and DBI 1359230.2020-02-0
Lateral line sensitivity in free-swimming toadfish Opsanus tau
No full textAuthor Posting. © The Company of Biologists, 2019. This article is posted here by permission of Company of Biologists for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Experimental Biology 222(2) (2019): jeb190587, doi:10.1242/jeb.190587.A longstanding question in aquatic animal sensory physiology is the impact of self-generated movement on lateral line sensitivity. One hypothesis is that efferent modulation of the sensory hair cells cancels self-generated noise and allows fish to sample their surroundings while swimming. In this study, microwire electrodes were chronically implanted into the anterior lateral line nerve of oyster toadfish and neural activity was monitored during forward movement. Fish were allowed to freely swim or were moved by a tethered sled. In all cases, neural activity increased during movement with no evidence of efferent modulation. The anterior lateral line of moving fish responded to a vibrating sphere or the tail oscillations of a robotic fish, indicating that the lateral line also remains sensitive to outside stimulus during self-generated movement. The results suggest that during normal swim speeds, lateral line neuromasts are not saturated and retain the ability to detect external stimuli without efferent modulation.Funding was provided by National Science Foundation grants IOS 1354745 and DBI 1359230 and 1659604.2020-01-2
‘Welcome to the Machine!’ Resisting isomorphic, masculinised corporatisation of Higher Education through feminist scholarship
No full textThis paper discusses the synthesised findings from two interdisciplinary, feminist studies conducted under the auspices of the non-corporate nexus, the Women’s Academic Network at Bournemouth University, UK, of which the main author is a co-convenor and co-founder. These qualitative studies focus on academic women’s experiences of managing careers in the work culture of corporate Institutions of Higher Education (HEI) in a modern UK university. The background to this work draws from a body of international research into the slower career progression rates of women academics in comparison to male counterparts and gendered barriers the former encounter. While there has encouragement within Higher Education bodies across the EU to balance out the current gendered inequities within academia, our findings indicate that these are woven into the institutional fabric of enacted daily academic practices serving to disadvantage women scholars
