Growth Rates of Intertidal Molluscs as Indicators of Effects of Unexpected Incidents of Pollution

1973 ◽  
Vol 30 (9) ◽  
pp. 1385-1388 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Black

Shells of living molluscs contain a record of previous growth rate if the time interval between check marks is known. The check marks in Mytilus edulis and Littorina littorea are probably annual marks. Growth rates of Mytilus in 1969, the year of significant elemental phosphorus pollution at Long Harbour, Newfoundland, were no different from those in preceding or succeeding years. No Littorina alive in 1969 occurred at Long Harbour, but they were abundant at other locations. This sort of analysis, used with caution because effects of pollutants may be confounded with effects of other variables, provides a method of examining nonlethal effects of unexpected polluting events.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Moreno ◽  
Miguel Bartolomé ◽  
Carlos Sancho ◽  
Eneko Iriarte ◽  
Ánchel Belmonte ◽  
...  

<p>Paleoclimate records from the Pyrenees covering last glacial period are scarce since many lakes were covered by the glaciers, glacier deposits just provide discontinuous information and in very few caves we can find speleothem growth during that cold and generally dry time period. Las Gloces cave, located close to Ordesa and Monte Perdido National Park (Central Pyrenees, Iberian Peninsula) at 1240 m a.s.l., is one the few examples to study that time interval. Thus, for the first time, we present a speleothem in the Pyrenees that was growing during the Maximum Ice Extent in the last glacial period in a cave located just 3 km away from the glacier. Two speleothems from las Gloces were sampled, one covering the Holocene and last deglaciation (last 16.6 ka) and the other one growing from MIS4 (67.8 ka) to Mid-Holocene (4.7 ka), with two hiatuses at 50-47 ky and 30-21 ka coinciding with cold/dry periods. Both stalagmites were dated and analyzed for stable i sotopes and trace elements.</p><p> </p><p>During MIS4, the lowest growth-rates correspond with Heinrich Stadial (HS) 6 while there is an increase in growth rate during MIS3 onset, reaching the maximum at Greenland Interstadial (GI)-14. After this, and corresponding with HS5, the growing stopped and it will reactivate again during GI-12, but with low growth rates. A new interruption took place 30 ka ago, with a second hiatus (30-21 ka), corresponding with an important retreat of Central Pyrenees glaciers and maximum regional aridity. During last glacial period, δ<sup>13</sup>C and δ<sup>18</sup>O records vary with rather small amplitude of change (4 ‰ and only 1‰, respectively) and showing low correlation between them indicating they were likely affected by different influences. At 21 ka BP, there is a new speleothem growth that will be characterized by the heaviest δ<sup>13</sup>C and δ<sup>18</sup>O values in the record (0‰ and -7‰, respectively) that occurred during the global LGM period.</p><p> </p><p>Changes in the growth rate in those stalagmites could be related to precipitation oscillations during GS-GI cycles while the variation in δ<sup>13</sup>C could respond with changes in the temperature and rainfall on a glacial landscape with reduced vegetation cover. Differences in mean values of δ<sup>13</sup>C between MIS3 (-5‰) and Holocene (-9‰) represent a forest revegetation over the cave related with the climatic amelioration experienced during last deglaciation due to the increase in temperature and humidity. Drivers on δ<sup>18</sup>O change during MIS 3 are multiple and more complex but they may correspond to changes in amount of rainfall, temperature or moisture source. The drastic change in d<sup>18</sup>O during last deglaciation (from -10‰ at HS1 to -7 ‰ at the onset of the Holocene) could be additionally related to the well-known isotopic change of sea surface water due to the massive entrance of freshwater into the north Atlantic region.</p>


1970 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 304-323 ◽  
Author(s):  
Torben Pedersen

ABSTRACT The variations in size, numbers and growth rates of mouse ovarian follicles were investigated at different stages of the oestrous cycle. Autoradiographs were prepared of sections of ovaries after pulse-labelling with tritiated thymidine. By determining the growth rate of the granulosa cells expressed as their doubling times, it was possible to estimate the exact growth rates of whole follicles. The number of follicles which began developing during a particular time interval was also determined. The results show that the number of large follicles fluctuates with the cycle, and that the size of the largest follicles increases during the cycle. Follicles of medium size grow faster at oestrus that at any other time. This is in contrast to the large follicles, in which only minor variations in growth rate were noted. It was moreover shown, that more follicles begin to grow at oestrus than at other periods during the cycle. It was concluded, that the reduction in the number of small follicles with age is mainly due to follicle development rather than to the degeneration of small follicles. The time required for the full development of an ovarian follicle is 19 days.


2014 ◽  
Vol 25 (05) ◽  
pp. 1440012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qu Chen ◽  
Jiang-Hai Qian ◽  
Ding-Ding Han

The traditional Gibrat's hypotheses were once used to model the topological fluctuations of Internet. Although it seems to reproduce the scaling relation of Internet's degree distribution, the detailed micro-dynamics have never been empirically validated. Here, we analyze the distribution of degree growth rates of the Internet for various time scales. We find that in contrast to the traditional Gibrat's assumptions, none of the degree growth rates are normally distributed, but behaves as an exponential decrease on its body and a power-law decay on its tail. Moreover, the observed growth rate distribution turns out independent of the initial degree when the time interval enlarges to a year. Our observations do not consist with the traditional Gibrat law model and suggest a more complex fluctuation mechanism underlying the evolution of Internet.


Author(s):  
Khalid A. Farrag

External corrosion growth rate is an essential parameter to establish the time interval between successive pipe integrity evaluations. Actual corrosion rates are difficult to measure or predict. NACE Standard RP0502 [1] recommends several methods including comparison with historical data, buried coupons, electrical resistance (ER), and Linear Polarization Resistance (LPR) measurements. This paper presents a testing program and procedure to validate the use of the LPR and ER methods to enhance the estimation of corrosion growth rates and improve the selection of reassessment intervals of gas transmission pipelines. Laboratory and field tests were performed using the LPR and ER technologies. The evaluation of soil parameters that affect localized corrosion included its type, moisture content, pH, resistivity, drainage characteristics, chloride and sulfite levels, and soil Redox potential. The results show that the LPR device provides instantaneous measurement of corrosion potential and it may be used to reflect the variations of corrosion rates with the changes of soil conditions, moisture, and temperature. However, LPR measurements are more efficient in saturated soils with uncertainty about its validity in partially and totally dry soils. Consequently, seasonal changes in soil conditions make it difficult to estimate total corrosion growth rate. On the other hand, the measurements using the ER method provided consistent estimates for long-term corrosion growth rates. Corrosion growth rates were also evaluated from a previous study by the National Institute of Standards (NIST) [2]. A procedure was developed to correlate soil properties to corrosion rates from the ER measurements and NIST data. The procedure was implemented in a computer program to provide an estimate of corrosion rate based on the soil input data and allows the operator to use the ER probes to improve the reliability of corrosion rate estimates.


2012 ◽  
Vol 22 (03) ◽  
pp. 1250047
Author(s):  
YUSUKE TOTOKI ◽  
TAKAMI MATSUO

The Lyapunov exponent gives a measure of the mean decay/growth rates of the flows of nonlinear systems. However, the Lyapunov exponent needs an infinite time interval of flows and the Jacobian matrix of system dynamics. In this paper, we propose an instantaneous decay/growth rate that is a kind of generalized Lyapunov exponent and call the instantaneous Lyapunov exponent (ILE) with respect to a decay function. The instantaneous Lyapunov exponent is one of the measures that estimate the decay and growth rates of flows of nonlinear systems by assigning a comparison function and can apply a stable system whose decay rate is slower than an exponential function. Moreover, we propose a synchronization measure of two signals using the ILE.


Author(s):  
Kim N. Mouritsen ◽  
A. Gorbushin ◽  
K. Thomas Jensen

The influence of various species of digenean trematodes on the in situ growth rate of Littorina littorea (Gastropoda: Prosobranchia) from different habitats was investigated. The main results showed: (1) that infections either reduced or had no significant effect on growth in comparison with uninfected snails; (2) that the same type of infection could have a differential effect on growth depending on the habitat/population from which the snails originated. These findings are consistent with the life history hypothesis expecting no or a stunting effect of trematode infections on the growth of longer-lived snails, but do also emphasize that growth rates following trematode invasion can be significantly modified by environmental conditions, such as, food availability.


1990 ◽  
Vol 55 (7) ◽  
pp. 1691-1707 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miloslav Karel ◽  
Jiří Hostomský ◽  
Jaroslav Nývlt ◽  
Axel König

Crystal growth rates of copper sulphate pentahydrate (CuSO4.5 H2O) determined by different authors and methods are compared. The methods included in this comparison are: (i) Measurement on a fixed crystal suspended in a streaming solution, (ii) measurement on a rotating disc, (iii) measurement in a fluidized bed, (iv) measurement in an agitated suspension. The comparison involves critical estimation of the supersaturation used in measurements, of shape factors used for data treatment and a correction for the effect of temperature. Conclusions are drawn for the choice of values to be specified when data of crystal growth rate measurements are published.


1989 ◽  
Vol 54 (11) ◽  
pp. 2951-2961 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miloslav Karel ◽  
Jaroslav Nývlt

Measured growth and dissolution rates of single crystals and tablets were used to calculate the overall linear rates of growth and dissolution of CuSO4.5 H2O crystals. The growth rate for the tablet is by 20% higher than that calculated for the single crystal. It has been concluded that this difference is due to a preferred orientation of crystal faces on the tablet surface. Calculated diffusion coefficients and thicknesses of the diffusion and hydrodynamic layers in the vicinity of the growing or dissolving crystal are in good agreement with published values.


2021 ◽  
pp. 0272989X2110222
Author(s):  
Yuwen Gu ◽  
Elise DeDoncker ◽  
Richard VanEnk ◽  
Rajib Paul ◽  
Susan Peters ◽  
...  

It is long perceived that the more data collection, the more knowledge emerges about the real disease progression. During emergencies like the H1N1 and the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 pandemics, public health surveillance requested increased testing to address the exacerbated demand. However, it is currently unknown how accurately surveillance portrays disease progression through incidence and confirmed case trends. State surveillance, unlike commercial testing, can process specimens based on the upcoming demand (e.g., with testing restrictions). Hence, proper assessment of accuracy may lead to improvements for a robust infrastructure. Using the H1N1 pandemic experience, we developed a simulation that models the true unobserved influenza incidence trend in the State of Michigan, as well as trends observed at different data collection points of the surveillance system. We calculated the growth rate, or speed at which each trend increases during the pandemic growth phase, and we performed statistical experiments to assess the biases (or differences) between growth rates of unobserved and observed trends. We highlight the following results: 1) emergency-driven high-risk perception increases reporting, which leads to reduction of biases in the growth rates; 2) the best predicted growth rates are those estimated from the trend of specimens submitted to the surveillance point that receives reports from a variety of health care providers; and 3) under several criteria to queue specimens for viral subtyping with limited capacity, the best-performing criterion was to queue first-come, first-serve restricted to specimens with higher hospitalization risk. Under this criterion, the lab released capacity to subtype specimens for each day in the trend, which reduced the growth rate bias the most compared to other queuing criteria. Future research should investigate additional restrictions to the queue.


Fluids ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Meunier ◽  
Claire Ménesguen ◽  
Xavier Carton ◽  
Sylvie Le Gentil ◽  
Richard Schopp

The stability properties of a vortex lens are studied in the quasi geostrophic (QG) framework using the generalized stability theory. Optimal perturbations are obtained using a tangent linear QG model and its adjoint. Their fine-scale spatial structures are studied in details. Growth rates of optimal perturbations are shown to be extremely sensitive to the time interval of optimization: The most unstable perturbations are found for time intervals of about 3 days, while the growth rates continuously decrease towards the most unstable normal mode, which is reached after about 170 days. The horizontal structure of the optimal perturbations consists of an intense counter-shear spiralling. It is also extremely sensitive to time interval: for short time intervals, the optimal perturbations are made of a broad spectrum of high azimuthal wave numbers. As the time interval increases, only low azimuthal wave numbers are found. The vertical structures of optimal perturbations exhibit strong layering associated with high vertical wave numbers whatever the time interval. However, the latter parameter plays an important role in the width of the vertical spectrum of the perturbation: short time interval perturbations have a narrow vertical spectrum while long time interval perturbations show a broad range of vertical scales. Optimal perturbations were set as initial perturbations of the vortex lens in a fully non linear QG model. It appears that for short time intervals, the perturbations decay after an initial transient growth, while for longer time intervals, the optimal perturbation keeps on growing, quickly leading to a non-linear regime or exciting lower azimuthal modes, consistent with normal mode instability. Very long time intervals simply behave like the most unstable normal mode. The possible impact of optimal perturbations on layering is also discussed.


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