Sand type influences the energetics of nest escape in Brisbane river turtle hatchlings

2018 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohd Uzair Rusli ◽  
David T. Booth

Freshwater turtles can construct their nest in a wide range of soil types, and because different soil types have different physical characteristics such as particle size distribution and compactness, soil type presumably affects digging performance and the energetics of nest escape of turtle hatchlings. Previous studies have reported how cohort size affects the energetic cost of nest escape in turtle hatchlings, but no studies have reported the influence of substrate type on the energetic cost of nest escape. The time taken and the energy required by the same number of hatchlings to dig through two different sand types were quantified by open-flow respirometry. Brisbane river turtle hatchlings digging through fine sand escaped faster and spent less energy than hatchlings digging through coarse sand, and a larger cohort size provided a clear energetic advantage while digging in both sand types. Across all group sizes, hatchlings digging through fine sand spent 33.8% less energy compared with hatchlings digging through coarse sand. We conclude that hatchlings emerging from nests constructed in fine sand have an energetic advantage over hatchlings emerging from nests constructed in course sand because they would have greater energy reserves upon reaching the nest’s surface.

Soil Research ◽  
1987 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 347 ◽  
Author(s):  
PJ Thorburn ◽  
RJ Shaw

Particle-size analysis (PSA) methods to be used in routine situations need to be rapid, require no prior information about the sample and give precise results over a wide range of soil textures. Effects of three physical dispersion and two fine-fraction determination methods on PSA results were investigated over a wide range of soil textures to find the most appropriate technique for routine PSA. Interactions between physical dispersion and fine-fraction determination methods were also investigated. The reciprocating shaker produced significantly lower silt and fine sand and higher coarse sand (and clay, although not significant) values than either drink mixer or end-over-end shaker dispersions. This result was interpreted as the reciprocating shaker giving the most effective dispersion, with aggregated clay being dispersed to primary particles while coarse sand was not fragmented to fine sand or silt. The end-over-end shaker did not reliably disperse a heavy clay soil, and so cannot be recommended for routine use where similar soils may be encountered. When considered over all soils and dispersion methods, hydrometer clay and clay + silt values were higher than pipette values. These results were due to the effective depth of the hydrometer being greater, on average, than the depth of the pipette. However, there were interactions between dispersion and fine-fraction determination methods for the clay and clay +silt classes. Hydrometer values were greater than pipette values with drink mixer and end-over-end shaker dispersion, but were similar with reciprocating shaker dispersion. For the clay fraction, inferior dispersion given by the drink mixer and end-over-end shaker resulted in a significant mass of particles between the sampling depths of the pipette and hydrometer, causing the higher hydrometer values. For the clay +silt fraction, both drink mixer and end-over-end dispersion methods fragmented sands to a size which was recorded by the hydrometer but not the pipette. These interactions highlighted the requirement for effective dispersion where clay and silt are determined by the hydrometer, and may explain some of the conflicting observations of the precision of the hydrometer compared with the pipette. Reciprocating shaker physical dispersion combined with the hydrometer fine-fraction determination method was found the most appropriate PSA method combination for use in a routine situation.


Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 455
Author(s):  
Ammar El-Husseiny

Binary mixed soils, containing coarse sand particles mixed with variable content of fines (fine sand, silt, or clay) are important for several environmental and engineering applications. The packing state (or porosity) of such sand-fines mixtures controls several important physical properties such as hydraulic conductivity. Therefore, developing an analytical packing model to predict porosity of binary mixed soils, based on properties of pure unmixed sand and fines (endmembers), can contribute to predicting hydraulic conductivity for the mixtures without the need for extensive laboratory measurements. Toward this goal, this study presents a unified packing model for the purpose of predicting the porosity and hydraulic conductivity of binary mixed soils as function of fines fraction. The current model modifies an existing packing model developed for coarse binary mixed soils to achieve three main improvements: (1) being inclusive of wide range of binary mixed soils covering the whole range particle sizes, (2) incorporating the impact of cohesive packing behavior of the fines on binary mixture porosity, and (3) accounting for the impact of clay swelling. The presented model is the first of its kind incorporating the combined impact of all three factors: particle size ratio, fines cohesive packing and swelling, on binary mixtures porosity. The predictions of the modified model are validated using experimental published data for the porosity of sand-fines mixtures from 24 different studies. The model shows significant improvement in predicting porosity compared to existing packing models that frequently underestimate the porosity. By using the predicted porosity as an input in Kozeny–Carman formulation, the absolute mean error in predicting hydraulic conductivity, as function of fines fraction for 16 different binary mixed soils, is reduced by 50% when compared to the use of the previous packing model. The current model provides insights about the endmembers properties (porosity, hydraulic conductivity, and grain size) and fines content required to achieve a certain target desirable porosity and hydraulic conductivity of the mixed soils. This can assist the optimization of soil mixing design for various applications.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Gbenga Williams ◽  
Oluwapelumi O. Ojuri

AbstractAs a result of heterogeneity nature of soils and variation in its hydraulic conductivity over several orders of magnitude for various soil types from fine-grained to coarse-grained soils, predictive methods to estimate hydraulic conductivity of soils from properties considered more easily obtainable have now been given an appropriate consideration. This study evaluates the performance of artificial neural network (ANN) being one of the popular computational intelligence techniques in predicting hydraulic conductivity of wide range of soil types and compared with the traditional multiple linear regression (MLR). ANN and MLR models were developed using six input variables. Results revealed that only three input variables were statistically significant in MLR model development. Performance evaluations of the developed models using determination coefficient and mean square error show that the prediction capability of ANN is far better than MLR. In addition, comparative study with available existing models shows that the developed ANN and MLR in this study performed relatively better.


1982 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 114-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. W. Mainwood ◽  
M. Alward ◽  
B. Eiselt

Rats were fed on a diet containing 1% β-guanidinopropionate (Gp) to deplete their muscles of creatine. The apparent energy reserves (creatine phosphate (CrP) + ATP) of rested state diaphragm muscle strips were found to be 79% depleted by this treatment. To determine if the effective energy reserves for contraction were depleted to a similar extent, the response to direct electrical stimulation (0.2-s tetani) was measured in the presence of inhibitors of respiration (NaCN) and glycolysis (iodoacetate). Only 4 ± 1 contractions could be elicited from strips from Gp-fed animals. Normal strips gave 15 ± 2 contractions under the same conditions. For both sets of diaphragms the energetic cost of contraction in terms of ~P was approximately 1 μmol/g wet weight. The mean level of Pi generated following stimulation to exhaustion was 10.1 μmol/g more in normal than in depleted strips. It is concluded that no significant additional energy stores such as phosphorylated Gp are readily available for contraction in muscles depleted of creatine by Gp treatment.


Wear ◽  
2022 ◽  
pp. 204241
Author(s):  
Karuppasamy Pandian Marimuthu ◽  
Uihwan Jeong ◽  
Jungmoo Han ◽  
Giyeol Han ◽  
Hyungyil Lee

2017 ◽  
Vol 65 (3) ◽  
pp. 332-345 ◽  
Author(s):  
Larissa Felicidade Werkhauser Demarco ◽  
Antonio Henrique da Fontoura Klein ◽  
Jorge Antonio Guimarães de Souza

Abstract This paper presents an evaluation of the response of seismic reflection attributes in different types of marine substrate (rock, shallow gas, sediments) using seafloor samples for ground-truth statistical comparisons. The data analyzed include seismic reflection profiles collected using two CHIRP subbottom profilers (Edgetech Model 3100 SB-216S), with frequency ranging between 2 and 16 kHz, and a number (38) of sediment samples collected from the seafloor. The statistical method used to discriminate between different substratum responses was the non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis analysis, carried out in two steps: 1) comparison of Seismic Attributes between different marine substrates (unconsolidated sediments, rock and shallow gas); 2) comparison of Seismic Attributes between different sediment classes in seafloors characterized by unconsolidated sediments (subdivided according to sorting). These analyses suggest that amplitude-related attributes were effective in discriminating between sediment and gassy/rocky substratum, but did not differentiate between rocks and shallow gas. On the other hand, the Instantaneous Frequency attribute was effective in differentiating sediments, rocks and shallow gas, with sediment showing higher frequency range, rock an intermediate range, and shallow gas the lowest response. Regarding grain-size classes and sorting, statistical analysis discriminated between two distinct groups of samples, the SVFS (silt and very fine sand) and the SFMC (fine, medium and coarse sand) groups. Using a Spearman coefficient, it was found that the Instantaneous Amplitude was more efficient in distinguishing between the two groups. None of the attributes was able to distinguish between the closest grain size classes such as those of silt and very fine sand.


Proceedings ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (13) ◽  
pp. 815
Author(s):  
Eliana Vieira ◽  
Joana Figueira ◽  
Ana Lucia Pires ◽  
José Grilo ◽  
Manuel Fernando Silva ◽  
...  

The influence of substrate type in boosting thermoelectric properties of co-evaporated Bi2Te3 and Sb2Te3 films (with 400 nm-thick) is here reported. Optimized power factor values are 2.7 × 10−3 W K−2 m−1 and 1.4 × 10−3 W K−2 m−1 for flexible Bi2Te3 and Sb2Te3 films, respectively. This is an important result as it is at least 2 times higher than the power factor found in the literature for flexible Bi2Te3 and Sb2Te3 films. A flexible infrared thermopile sensor was developed with high detectivity (2.50 × 107 cm √HzW−1).


1986 ◽  
Vol 23 (11) ◽  
pp. 1700-1708 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denis A. St-Onge ◽  
Jean Lajoie

The late Quaternary olistostrome exposed in the lower Coppermine River valley fills a paleovalley that ranges in apparent width from 150 to 400 m and was cut into Precambrian bedrock before the last glaciation. The olistostrome is here named the Sleigh Creek Formation. The coarse fraction of the formation is matrix supported; beds are massive or reversely graded and have sharp, nonerosive contacts. These characteristics suggest deposition of the coarse fraction by debris flows. The olistostrome sequence is bracketed by, and wedged into, a marine rhythmite sequence, which indicates that deposition occurred in a marine environment.About 10 500 years BP glacier ice in the Coronation Gulf lowland dammed the valley to the south, which was occupied by glacial Lake Coppermine. Sediments accumulated in this lake in a 30 m thick, coarsening upward sequence ranging from glaciolacustrine rhythmites of silt and fine sand at the base to coarse sand alluvium, and deltaic gravels at the top. As the Coronation Gulf lowlands became ice free, the Coppermine River reoccupied its former drainage course to the north. The steep south to north gradient and rapid downcutting by the river through the glacial lake sediments produced unstable slope conditions. The resulting debris flows filled a bedrock valley network below the postglacial sea level, forming the diamicton sequence.The interpretation of the Sleigh Creek Formation raises questions concerning silimar diamicton deposits usually defined as "flowtills." More generally, the results of this study indicate that care must be used when attempting paleogeographic reconstructions of "glaciogenic" deposits in marine sequences in any part of the geologic record.


2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Małgorzata Maślanka ◽  
Renata Magdziarz

AbstractThis study was conducted to investigate the effect of various horticultural substrates (compost, peat-coconut, peat TS1, flower soil, lowmoor peat) and a foliar spray of chlormequat (at a concentration of 1380 mg dm-3) on the growth and flowering of the marigold cultivars belonging to two species: Tagetes erecta - ʻMarvel Mixtureʼ and ʻTaishan Orangeʼ, and Tagetes patula - ʻDurango Redʼ and ʻBonanza Flameʼ. The obtained results show that the plants grown in peat TS1 and peat-coconut were taller, had longer internodes and leaves, and thicker stems than the plants grown in the other substrates. Chlormequat significantly reduced the height of ʻMarvel Mixtureʼ (in peat TS1), ʻTaishan Orangeʼ (in lowmoor peat) and ‘Bonanza Flameʼ (in peat-coconut). The use of chlormequat also accelerated the development of flower heads in ʻTaishan Orangeʼ (in lowmoor peat).


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document