Spore dispersal in the intertidal kelp Lessonia spicata: macrochallenges for the harvested Lessonia species complex at microscales of space and time

2016 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 283-289
Author(s):  
Gloria M. Parada ◽  
Florence Tellier ◽  
Enrique A. Martínez

Abstract The intertidal coast of Chile has two cryptic kelp species, Lessonia spicata and L. berteroana, which share closely situated, but not overlapping, high-energy habitats. Their populations recover slowly after major disturbances and massive mortalities, suggesting that dispersal from remnant populations is strongly limited. This low dispersal is also a factor that probably favours the speciation process. Understanding the limiting factors for spore dispersal is crucial. Here we evaluated 1. spore dispersal and spore dilution over distance, 2. if submersion in calm waters for a specific period of time is needed for the settlement of spores before exposure to water movement, and 3. duration of spore attachment ability. Results were consistent with the hypothesis of low-distance dispersal of spores: stained-spore dilution was high at short spatial scales (<4 m); spores settled quickly (1–2 min) even under constant water movement, but they lost the ability to attach rapidly (≤16 h). Water motion did not affect spore attachment to the substratum, a fact probably resulting from an adaptation to high energy intertidal habitats. The very low dispersal range of the spores may explain the strong genetic differentiation at small spatial scales, the speciation event that occurred within the Lessonia species complex and the slow recovery of L. berteroana after massive mortalities occurring with the 1982/1983 El Niño Southern oscillation event.

Author(s):  
Maurizio D'Anna ◽  
Deborah Idier ◽  
Bruno Castelle ◽  
Goneri Le Cozannet ◽  
Jeremy Rohmer ◽  
...  

Chronic erosion of sandy coasts is a continuous potential threat for the growing coastal communities worldwide. The prediction of shoreline evolution is therefore key issue for robust decision making worldwide, especially in the context of climate change. Shorelines respond to various complex processes interacting at several temporal and spatial scales, making shoreline reconstructions and predictions challenging and uncertain, especially on long time scales (e.g. decades or century). Despite the increasing progresses in addressing uncertainties related to the physics of Sea Level Rise, very little effort is made towards understanding and reducing the uncertainties related to wave driven coastal response. To fill this gap, we analyse the uncertainties associated with long-term (2 decades) modelling of the cross-shore transport dominated high-energy sandy coast around Truc Vert beach, SW France, which has been surveyed semi-monthly over the last 12 years.Recorded Presentation from the vICCE (YouTube Link): https://youtu.be/_NBJ2v-koMs


Rangifer ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 33
Author(s):  
Robert Serrouya ◽  
Bruce N. McLellan ◽  
Clayton D. Apps ◽  
Heiko U. Wittmer

Mountain caribou are an endangered ecotype of woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) that live in highprecipitation, mountainous ecosystems of southeastern British Columbia and northern Idaho. The distribution and abundance of these caribou have declined dramatically from historical figures. Results from many studies have indicated that mountain caribou rely on old conifer forests for several life-history requirements including an abundance of their primary winter food, arboreal lichen, and a scarcity of other ungulates and their predators. These old forests often have high timber value, and understanding mountain caribou ecology at a variety of spatial scales is thus required to develop effective conservation strategies. Here we summarize results of studies conducted at three different spatial scales ranging from broad limiting factors at the population level to studies describing the selection of feeding sites within seasonal home ranges of individuals. The goal of this multi-scale review is to provide a more complete picture of caribou ecology and to determine possible shifts in limiting factors across scales. Our review produced two important results. First, mountain caribou select old forests and old trees at all spatial scales, signifying their importance for foraging opportunities as well as conditions required to avoid alternate ungulates and their predators. Second, relationships differ across scales. For example, landscapes dominated by roads and edges negatively affect caribou survival, but appear to attract caribou during certain times of the year. This juxtaposition of fine-scale behaviour with broad-scale vulnerability to predation could only be identified through integrated multi-scale analyses of resource selection. Consequently we suggest that effective management strategies for endangered species require an integrative approach across multiple spatial scales to avoid a focus that may be too narrow to maintain viable populations. Abstract in Norwegian / Sammendrag:Skala-avhengig økologi og truet fjellvillrein i Britisk ColumbiaFjellvillreinen i de nedbørsrike fjellområdene i sørøstre Britisk Columbia og nordlige Idaho som er en truet økotype av skogsreinen (Rangifer tarandus caribou), har blitt kraftig redusert både i utbredelse og antall. Mange studier har vist at denne økotypen er avhengig av vinterføden hengelav i gammel barskog hvor det også er få andre klovdyr og dermed få predatorer. Slik skog er også viktige hogstområder, og å forstå økologien til fjellvillreinen i forskjellige skaleringer er derfor nødvendig for å utvikle forvaltningsstrategier som kan berge og ta vare på denne reinen. Artikkelen gir en oversikt over slike arbeider: fra studier av begrensende faktorer på populasjonsnivå til studier av sesongmessige beiteplasser på individnivå. Hensikten er å få frem et mer helhetlig perspektiv på fjellvillreinen og finne hvordan de begrensende faktorene varierer etter skaleringen som er benyttet i studiet. Oversikten vår frembragte to viktige resultater; 1) Uansett skalering så velger dyrene gammel skog og gamle trær. 2) Dyrenes bruk av et område kan variere med benyttet skalering, for eksempel vil landskap utbygd med veier og hogstflater være ufordelaktig for overlevelsen, men synes likevel å kunne tiltrekke fjellvillreinen til visse tider av året. Forholdet mellom atferd ut fra fin-skalering og stor-skalering sårbarhet hva gjelder predasjon, ville kun blitt avdekket ved flere-skaleringsanalyse av hvordan ressursene benyttes. Ut fra dette foreslår vi at forvaltningsstrategier for truete bestander som eksempelvis fjellvillreinen, må baseres på tilnærminger ut fra ulike skaleringer for å hindre at et for snevert perspektiv kan begrense muligheten for vedvarende levedyktighet.


10.1144/sp482 ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 482 (1) ◽  
pp. NP-NP

This Special Publication highlights the importance of clays and clayey material, and their multiple roles, in many national geological disposal facilities for higher activity radioactive wastes. Clays can be both the disposal facility host rock and part of its intrinsic engineered barriers, and may be present in the surrounding geological environment. Clays possess various characteristics that make them high-quality barriers to the migration of radionuclides and chemical contaminants, e.g. very little water movement, diffusive transport, retention capacity, self-sealing capacity, stability over millions of years, homogeneity and lateral continuity.The 20 papers presented in this Special Publication cover a range of topics related to clays in radioactive waste confinement. Aspects of clay characterization and behaviour at various temporal and spatial scales relevant to the confinement of radionuclides in clay are discussed, from phenomenological processes to the overall understanding of the performance and safety of geological disposal facilities.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allison C. Michaelis ◽  
Gary M. Lackmann ◽  
Walter A. Robinson

Abstract. We present multi-seasonal simulations representative of present-day and future thermodynamic environments using the global Model for Prediction Across Scales-Atmosphere (MPAS) version 5.1 with high resolution (15 km) throughout the Northern Hemisphere. We select ten simulation years with varying phases of El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and integrate each for 14.5 months. We use analysed sea surface temperature (SST) patterns for present-day simulations. For the future climate simulations, we alter present-day SSTs by applying monthly-averaged temperature changes derived from a 20-member ensemble of Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) general circulation models (GCMs) following the Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 8.5 emissions scenario. Daily sea ice fields, obtained from the monthly-averaged CMIP5 ensemble mean sea ice, are used for present-day and future simulations. The present-day simulations provide a reasonable reproduction of large-scale atmospheric features in the Northern Hemisphere such as the wintertime midlatitude storm tracks, upper-tropospheric jets, and maritime sea-level pressure features as well as annual precipitation patterns across the tropics. The simulations also adequately represent tropical cyclone (TC) characteristics such as strength, spatial distribution, and seasonal cycles for most of Northern Hemispheric basins. These results demonstrate the applicability of these model simulations for future studies examining climate change effects on various Northern Hemispheric phenomena, and, more generally, the utility of MPAS for studying climate change at spatial scales generally unachievable in GCMs.


2010 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 959-977 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Ueyama ◽  
K. Ichii ◽  
R. Hirata ◽  
K. Takagi ◽  
J. Asanuma ◽  
...  

Abstract. Larch forests are widely distributed across many cool-temperate and boreal regions, and they are expected to play an important role in global carbon and water cycles. Model parameterizations for larch forests still contain large uncertainties owing to a lack of validation. In this study, a process-based terrestrial biosphere model, BIOME-BGC, was tested for larch forests at six AsiaFlux sites and used to identify important environmental factors that affect the carbon and water cycles at both temporal and spatial scales. The model simulation performed with the default deciduous conifer parameters produced results that had large differences from the observed net ecosystem exchange (NEE), gross primary productivity (GPP), ecosystem respiration (RE), and evapotranspiration (ET). Therefore, we adjusted several model parameters in order to reproduce the observed rates of carbon and water cycle processes. This model calibration, performed using the AsiaFlux data, substantially improved the model performance. The simulated annual GPP, RE, NEE, and ET from the calibrated model were highly consistent with observed values. The observed and simulated GPP and RE across the six sites were positively correlated with the annual mean air temperature and annual total precipitation. On the other hand, the simulated carbon budget was partly explained by the stand disturbance history in addition to the climate. The sensitivity study indicated that spring warming enhanced the carbon sink, whereas summer warming decreased it across the larch forests. The summer radiation was the most important factor that controlled the carbon fluxes in the temperate site, but the VPD and water conditions were the limiting factors in the boreal sites. One model parameter, the allocation ratio of carbon between belowground and aboveground, was site-specific, and it was negatively correlated with the annual climate of annual mean air temperature and total precipitation. Although this study substantially improved the model performance, the uncertainties that remained in terms of the sensitivity to water conditions should be examined in ongoing and long-term observations.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 3725-3743 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allison C. Michaelis ◽  
Gary M. Lackmann ◽  
Walter A. Robinson

Abstract. We present multi-seasonal simulations representative of present-day and future environments using the global Model for Prediction Across Scales – Atmosphere (MPAS-A) version 5.1 with high resolution (15 km) throughout the Northern Hemisphere. We select 10 simulation years with varying phases of El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and integrate each for 14.5 months. We use analyzed sea surface temperature (SST) patterns for present-day simulations. For the future climate simulations, we alter present-day SSTs by applying monthly-averaged temperature changes derived from a 20-member ensemble of Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 5 (CMIP5) general circulation models (GCMs) following the Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 8.5 emissions scenario. Daily sea ice fields, obtained from the monthly-averaged CMIP5 ensemble mean sea ice, are used for present-day and future simulations. The present-day simulations provide a reasonable reproduction of large-scale atmospheric features in the Northern Hemisphere such as the wintertime midlatitude storm tracks, upper-tropospheric jets, and maritime sea-level pressure features as well as annual precipitation patterns across the tropics. The simulations also adequately represent tropical cyclone (TC) characteristics such as strength, spatial distribution, and seasonal cycles for most Northern Hemisphere basins. These results demonstrate the applicability of these model simulations for future studies examining climate change effects on various Northern Hemisphere phenomena, and, more generally, the utility of MPAS-A for studying climate change at spatial scales generally unachievable in GCMs.


Author(s):  
D.A Jaroszynski ◽  
R Bingham ◽  
E Brunetti ◽  
B Ersfeld ◽  
J Gallacher ◽  
...  

Plasma waves excited by intense laser beams can be harnessed to produce femtosecond duration bunches of electrons with relativistic energies. The very large electrostatic forces of plasma density wakes trailing behind an intense laser pulse provide field potentials capable of accelerating charged particles to high energies over very short distances, as high as 1 GeV in a few millimetres. The short length scale of plasma waves provides a means of developing very compact high-energy accelerators, which could form the basis of compact next-generation light sources with unique properties. Tuneable X-ray radiation and particle pulses with durations of the order of or less than 5 fs should be possible and would be useful for probing matter on unprecedented time and spatial scales. If developed to fruition this revolutionary technology could reduce the size and cost of light sources by three orders of magnitude and, therefore, provide powerful new tools to a large scientific community. We will discuss how a laser-driven plasma wakefield accelerator can be used to produce radiation with unique characteristics over a very large spectral range.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Fiedler ◽  
Traute Crueger ◽  
Roberta D’Agostino ◽  
Karsten Peters ◽  
Tobias Becker ◽  
...  

&lt;p&gt;Climate models are known to have biases in tropical precipitation. We assessed to what extent simulations of tropical precipitation have improved in the new Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) phase six, using state-of-the-art observational products and model results from the earlier CMIP phases three and five. We characterize tropical precipitation with different well-established metrics. Our assessment includes (1) general aspects of the mean climatology like precipitation associated with the Intertropical Convergence Zone and shallow cloud regimes in the tropics, (2) solar radiative effects including the summer monsoons and the time of occurrence of tropical precipitation in the course of the day, (3) modes of internal variability such as the Madden-Julian Oscillation and the El Ni&amp;#241;o Southern Oscillation, and (4) changes in the course of the 20th century. The results point to improvements of CMIP6 models for some metrics, e.g., the occurrence of drizzle events and consecutive dry days. However, no improvements of CMIP6 models are identified for other aspects of tropical precipitation. These include the area and intensity of the global summer monsoon as well as the diurnal cycle of the tropical precipitation amount, frequency and intensity.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;All our metrics taken together, CMIP6 models show no systematic improvement of tropical precipitation across different temporal and spatial scales. The model biases in the spatial distribution of tropical precipitation are typically larger than the changes associated with anthropogenic warming. Given the pace of climate change as compared to the pace of climate model improvements, we suggest to use novel modeling approaches to understand the responseof tropical precipitation to changes in atmospheric composition.&lt;/p&gt;


1993 ◽  
Vol 67 (6) ◽  
pp. 1064-1068 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory E. Webb

Paleozoic corals are very rare in rocky shore settings. The only Paleozoic encrusting coral so far reported from this environment is Favosites sp. from Ordovician rocky shore deposits in Manitoba, Canada (Johnson and Baarli, 1987). Reading and Poole (1961) reported corals and brachiopods that occur between, and “coating,” boulders from a Silurian rocky shore in England, but it appears that the corals and brachiopods only occur in the sediment enveloping the boulders, not as encrusters on the surfaces of the boulders. One reason for the sparse record of Paleozoic corals in rocky shore settings is the scarcity of described Paleozoic rocky shore deposits themselves. Johnson (1988) found only 20 examples of Paleozoic rocky shores in a compilation of references on ancient rocky shores from the literature. The paucity of described ancient rocky shores has been attributed to the prevalence in the past of epicontinental seas with little relief upon which to develop rocky shores and with higher wave attenuation farther from shore (Boucot, 1981; Harland and Pickerill, 1984). Johnson (1988) concluded that the major reason for the rarity of ancient rocky shores in the literature is the difficulty with which they are recognized and studied, owing to the relatively poor exposure of most unconformity surfaces. The rocky shore environment was also probably hostile to many Paleozoic coral genera. Recent scleractinian corals may serve as analogues because they are also not very abundant in rocky shore settings despite their great abundance in similar shallow-water, high-wave-energy reefal environments. Turbidity and relative substrate stability may be important limiting factors for corals in rocky shore environments. Many corals are known to be highly sensitive to sediment in the water column. Substrate stability (Wilson, 1987) and the scouring effects of sand in high-energy environments (Palmer and Palmer, 1977) also have been shown to affect the abundance and diversity of organisms encrusting cobbles and boulders.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Wiedermann ◽  
Jonatan F. Siegmund ◽  
Jonathan F. Donges ◽  
Reik V. Donner

The effects of El Niño's two distinct flavors, East Pacific (EP) and Central Pacific (CP)/Modoki El Niño, on global climate variability have been studied intensively in recent years. Most of these studies have made use of linear multivariate statistics or composite analysis. Especially the former assumes the same type of linear statistical dependency to apply across different phases of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO), which appears not necessarily a justified assumption. Here, we statistically evaluate the likelihood of co-occurrences between very high or very low seasonal precipitation sums over vast parts of the global land surface and the presence of the respective EP and CP types of both, El Niño and La Niña. By employing event coincidence analysis, we uncover differential imprints of both flavors on very low and very high seasonal precipitation patterns over distinct regions across the globe, which may severely affect, among others, agricultural and biomass production or public health. We particularly find that EP periods exhibit statistically significant event coincidence rates with hydrometeorological anomalies at larger spatial scales, whereas sparser patterns emerge along with CP periods. Our statistical analysis confirms previously reported interrelations for EP periods and uncovers additional distinct regional patterns of very high/low seasonal precipitation, such as increased rainfall over Central Asia alongside CP periods that have to our knowledge not been reported so far. Our results demonstrate that a thorough distinction of El Niño and La Niña into their two respective flavors could be crucial for understanding the emergence of strong regional hydrometeorological anomalies and anticipating their associated ecological and socioeconomic impacts.


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