1,720,962 research outputs found
Mussel larval responses to turbulence are unaltered by larvalage or light condition
No full textLarval responses to hydromechanical cues potentially have important effects on larval dispersal and settlement. This study examined the behavior of mussel larvae (Mytilus edulis) in laboratory-generated turbulence representative of nearshore currents. We video recorded the behavior of early- and late-stage veligers in a grid-stirred tank at five turbulence levels under light and dark conditions. Water velocities and kinetic energy dissipation rates were measured using particle image velocimetry and acoustic Doppler velocimetry. We characterized the vertical velocity distributions for sinking, hovering, and swimming modes in still water and calculated the average larval behavioral velocity in turbulence. In still water, young larvae had more positive (upward) velocities than old larvae, and both stages had more positive velocities in light than in dark. In turbulence, the mean larval vertical velocity varied from positive at low dissipation rates to negative at dissipation rates above a threshold of 8.3 £ 1022 cm2 s23. At this threshold, the Kolmogorov length scale (h ¼ 590mm) was two to three times the mean larval shell lengths (171–256mm), implying that turbulence is detectable even by larvae that are smaller than the smallest eddies. Responses to turbulence were unaffected by larval age or light conditions and contributed substantial behavioral variation. By sinking in strong turbulence, mussel larvae could increase their flux to the bed in energetic coastal flows, particularly over rough substrates like mussel beds. The response to turbulence by early-stage larvae will also affect their dispersal and may help larvae remain near coastal populations.Peer reviewedOriginally published in Limnology and Oceanography: Fluids & Environments (2011) and available via this link: http://lofe.dukejournals.org/content/1/120.full.pdfCopyright 2011 by the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography, Inc
Larval responses to turbulence and temperature in a tidal inlet: Habitat selection by dispersing gastropods?
Full text linkAuthor Posting. © Sears Foundation for Marine Research, 2010. This article is posted here by permission of Sears Foundation for Marine Research for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Marine Research 68 (2010): 153-188, doi:10.1357/002224010793079013.Marine larval dispersal is affected by hydrodynamic transport and larval behavior, but little is known about how behavior affects large-scale patterns of dispersal and recruitment. Intertidal habitats are characterized by strong and variable turbulence relative to shelf and pelagic waters, so larval responses to turbulence may affect both dispersal and habitat selection. This study combined observations and theoretical approaches to model gastropod larval responses to multiple physical variables in a well-mixed tidal inlet. Physical measurements and larvae were collected in July 2004 in Barnstable Harbor, Massachusetts (USA). Physical measurements were incorporated in an advection-diffusion model where larval vertical velocity is a function of turbulence dissipation rate, temperature, and the temperature gradient. Modeled larval distributions were fitted to observed concentration profiles by maximum likelihood to estimate larval behavioral velocity (swimming or sinking) as a function of environmental conditions. These quantitative behavior estimates were used to test hypotheses about behavioral differences among groups and to assess the relative impact of different cues on overall larval behavior. Larvae of five common gastropod species from different coastal habitats reacted most strongly to turbulence but had genus-specific responses to environmental cues. Larvae of a species from tidal inlets (the mud snail Nassarius obsoletus) had near-zero velocities under calmer conditions and sank in strong turbulence. In contrast, larvae from exposed beach habitats (Crepidula spp. and Anachis spp.) sank in weak turbulence and swam up in strong turbulence, with additional responses to temperature and temperature gradient. Larval responses also differed between small and large size classes and between flood and ebb tides. Behavior of mud snail larvae would contribute to retention inside the inlet and near adult habitats, whereas behavior of beach snail larvae would contribute to rapid export from muddy inlets lacking suitable adult habitats.This work was funded by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) Coastal Ocean
Institute, the WHOI Rinehart Coastal Research Center, the National Science Foundation (NSF OCE-
0326734), NSF and US Office of Naval Research grants to S. Elgar and B. Raubenheimer, and the
WHOI Sea Grant (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Grant No. NA16RG2273,
project no. R/O-38-PD). Analyses were completed while HLF was a postdoctoral scholar at Scripps
Institution of Oceanography (SIO), supported by the California Current Ecosystem Long-Term Ecological
Research program (NSF OCE-0417616) and by SIO funding to P. Franks
Plankton community properties determined by nutrients and size-selective feeding
No full textThe potential impacts of climate change on marine planktonic ecosystems remain difficult to predict. Climate forcing can alter nutrient availability and predator community composition, and here we show that these shifts may dramatically alter plankton trophic structure, size distributions and biomass. We modeled phytoplankton and zooplankton as a highly resolved size spectrum with size-dependent nutrient uptake and predation and analyzed the model both as a size spectrum and as a food web. Model results identified 2 distinct regimes defined by the average zooplankton feeding preferences. Regime I communities, where planktonic predators are specialists or large relative to prey, had low omnivory, many top predators, low connectance and relatively flat size spectra. Regime II communities, where predators are generalists or small relative to prey, had a high degree of omnivory, no top predators, high connectance and steep size spectra. Model ecosystems with generalist predators had lower size diversity, smaller plankton and gappier size distributions than ecosystems with specialist predators. Nutrient availability had little influence on trophic structure but strongly impacted size structure and biomass. Most surprisingly, phytoplankton biomass sometimes decreased with added nutrients if predators were small relative to prey, implying that both predators and nutrients mediate shifts between bottom-up and top-down control. Based on our synthesized estimates of size-selective feeding parameters, we infer that size and trophic structure should be strongly affected by abundances of generalist, bloom-forming taxa such as salps and jellyfish, many of which are responsive to ocean temperature. Size-selective feeding fundamentally affects community structure and is a likely mechanism of change in planktonic ecosystems where community composition varies with temperature.Article accompanied by supplement (13 p.): Plankton community properties determined by nutrients and size-selective feedingPeer reviewe
Biophysical Constraints on Optimal Patch Lengths for Settlement of a Reef-Building Bivalve
No full textReef-building species form discrete patches atop soft sediments, and reef restoration often involves depositing solid material as a substrate for larval settlement and growth. There have been few theoretical efforts to optimize the physical characteristics of a restored reef patch to achieve high recruitment rates. The delivery of competent larvae to a reef patch is influenced by larval behavior and by physical habitat characteristics such as substrate roughness, patch length, current speed, and water depth. We used a spatial model, the ‘‘hitting-distance’’ model, to identify habitat characteristics that will jointly maximize both the settlement probability and the density of recruits on an oyster reef (Crassostrea virginica). Modeled larval behaviors were based on laboratory observations and included turbulence-induced diving, turbulenceinduced passive sinking, and neutral buoyancy. Profiles of currents and turbulence were based on velocity profiles measured in coastal Virginia over four different substrates: natural oyster reefs, mud, and deposited oyster and whelk shell. Settlement probabilities were higher on larger patches, whereas average settler densities were higher on smaller patches. Larvae settled most successfully and had the smallest optimal patch length when diving over rough substrates in shallow water. Water depth was the greatest source of variability, followed by larval behavior, substrate roughness, and tidal current speed. This result suggests that the best way to maximize settlement on restored reefs is to construct patches of optimal length for the water depth, whereas substrate type is less important than expected. Although physical patch characteristics are easy to measure, uncertainty about larval behavior remains an obstacle for predicting settlement patterns. The mechanistic approach presented here could be combined with a spatially explicit metapopulation model to optimize the arrangement of reef patches in an estuary or region for greater sustainability of restored habitats.Peer reviewe
Swimming behavior and velocities of barnacle cyprids in a downwelling flume
No full textIt has been proposed that barnacle cyprids can maintain position in shorewardpropagating fronts by swimming upward against a downwelling flow, potentially mediating onshore transport of larvae toward intertidal habitat. This study developed a novel flume to characterize swimming behavior of barnacle cyprids in a laboratory downwelling flow. Seawater was pumped through a cylindrical observation chamber fitted with diffusers to produce a homogeneous downwelling velocity field. The flume generated plug flow with mean downwelling velocities (indicated by negative sign) of 0 to –47.3 mm s–1. Behavior experiments were done with wild Semibalanus balanoides cyprids. Vertical swimming rates and behaviors were estimated from video observations, and a mixture model was used to estimate velocity distributions for distinct behavioral modes. Larvae exhibited multiple behaviors but typically swam upward in response to downwelling, with a maximum estimated vertical velocity of 72.3 mm s–1. When faced with downwelling flows, cyprids alternated between upward swimming and downward swimming to maintain their vertical position in the chamber. As downwelling velocities increased, cyprids that remained in the field of view of the cameras exhibited faster mean upward swimming velocities. It is unclear how long individual S. balanoides cyprids can maintain depth, but cyprids were able to maintain depth throughout the 2 min observation period. This study supports earlier hypotheses based on field observations by demonstrating that S. balanoides cyprids swim well enough to counter downwelling velocities characteristic of convergence zones. Swimming against downwelling flow could be an adaptive behavior that enables shoreward transport in the absence of any larval ability to swim toward shore or even to sense its direction.Peer reviewe
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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