Search results for "WATER"

Conflicts between touristic recreational activities and breeding shearwaters: short-term effect of artificial light and sound on chick weight

2018

Human disturbances are increasingly becoming a conservation concern for many populations of colonial seabirds. Colonially reproducing species are particularly vulnerable to localised disturbances because detrimental elements can simultaneously affect the entire population. Studies of petrels and shearwaters have shown that light pollution, in particular, can be harmful for both fledglings and adults, but little is known of the way such anthropogenic elements affect the quality of parental care at the nest. Chick provisioning in petrels and shearwaters occurs exclusively at night and is also negatively correlated with the amount of moonlight. We tested the hypothesis that high-intensity ligh…

Seabird migration strategies: Flight budgets, diel activity patterns and lunar influence

2021

Every year, billions of birds undertake extensive migrations between breeding and nonbreeding areas, facing challenges that require behavioural adjustments, particularly to flight timing and duration. Such adjustments in daily activity patterns and the influence of extrinsic factors (e.g., environmental conditions, moonlight) have received much more research attention in terrestrial than marine migrants. Taking advantage of the widespread deployment in recent decades of combined light-level geolocator-immersion loggers, we investigated diel organisation and influence of the moon on flight activities during the non-breeding season of 21 migrant seabird species from a wide taxonomic range (6 …

Reappraisal of ‘chronospecies' and the use of Arvicola (Rodentia, Mammalia) for biochronology.

2008

13 pages; International audience; The water vole, genus Arvicola, is characterised by a broad geographic distribution throughout Europe and is widespread during the late Middle and Upper Pleistocene. This genus is used as a major biostratigraphic tool within the Quaternary. Specific determinations using the Schmelzband-Differenzierung-Quotient or SDQ have identified many chronospecies within the fossil species Arvicola cantiana (Hinton, 1910). As SDQ calculation remains limited, this study reappraises the Arvicola genus in terms of morphodiversity and morphospace using outline analysis which takes into account the tooth as a whole. Outline analysis suggests that one single species of Arvico…

Mandible morphology, dental microwear, and diet of the extinct giant rats Canariomys (Rodentia: Murinae) of the Canary Islands (Spain)

2010

An ecomorphological approach of mandible shape through Fourier analyses combined with a paleodietary analysis of dental microwear patterns is used to reconstruct the diet of the extinct endemic Canariomys bravoi Crusafont, Pairo & Petter, 1964 and Canariomys tamarani Lopez-Martinez & Lopez-Jurado, 1987. These two large rodents, respectively, lived on Tenerife and Gran Canaria, the central islands of the Canarian Archipelago. Mandible shape and dental microwear respectively inform us on the volume of vegetal matter and on the presence of grass in the diet. Both Canariomys, which are of similar size, possess relatively similar mandible outlines and microwear patterns. For each species, a diet…

Changes in spawning-stock structure and recruitment pattern of red mullet, Mullus barbatus, after a trawl ban in the Gulf of Castellammare (central M…

2008

Abstract Fiorentino, F., Badalamenti, F., D’Anna, G., Garofalo, G., Gianguzza, P., Gristina, M., Pipitone, C., Rizzo, P., and Fortibuoni, T. 2008. Changes in spawning-stock structure and recruitment pattern of red mullet, Mullus barbatus, after a trawl ban in the Gulf of Castellammare (central Mediterranean Sea). – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 65: 1175–1183. The increase in biomass of red mullet, Mullus barbatus, in the Gulf of Castellammare (northwestern Sicily, central Mediterranean) after a 14-year trawl ban, prompted us to compare the spawning-stock structure and the recruitment pattern before and after the closure. Datasets obtained from three experimental trawl surveys were availab…

Microsatellite analysis of red mullet Mullus barbatus (Perciformes, Mullidae) reveals the isolation of the Adriatic Basin in the Mediterranean Sea

2009

AbstractMaggio, T., Lo Brutto, S., Garoia, F., Tinti, F., and Arculeo, M. 2009. Microsatellite analysis of red mullet Mullus barbatus (Perciformes, Mullidae) reveals the isolation of the Adriatic Basin in the Mediterranean Sea. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 66: 1883–1891. The red mullet Mullus barbatus is commercially one of the most important demersal fish resources in the Mediterranean. Molecular data on its genetic population structure throughout the Mediterranean are reported. Six microsatellite loci displayed a high degree of expected heterozygosity and a high allele number per locus. The Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium test revealed an overall tendency towards heterozygote deficiency, …

Ocean acidification drives community shifts towards simplified non-calcified habitats in a subtropical?temperate transition zone

2018

AbstractRising atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide are causing surface seawater pH and carbonate ion concentrations to fall in a process known as ocean acidification. To assess the likely ecological effects of ocean acidification we compared intertidal and subtidal marine communities at increasing levels of pCO2 at recently discovered volcanic seeps off the Pacific coast of Japan (34° N). This study region is of particular interest for ocean acidification research as it has naturally low levels of surface seawater pCO2 (280–320 µatm) and is located at a transition zone between temperate and sub-tropical communities. We provide the first assessment of ocean acidification effects at …

Dynamics and Impacting Factors of Ice Regimes in Latvia Inland and Coastal Waters

2016

Abstract The sea ice regime is considered to be a sensitive indicator of climate change. This study investigates long-term changes in the ice regimes of the Gulf of Riga along the coast of Latvia in comparison with those of inland waters. The ice regime of the studied region indicates the impact of climate change related to increasing air and sea water temperatures. Ice cover duration on both the sea and inland waters has decreased during recent decades. In addition, long-term records on ice break in the studied region exhibit a pattern of periodic changes in the intensity of ice regime, while trends of the sea ice regime are not consistent between periods of time. Alternating mild and seve…

Explaining Bird Migration

2010

Arctic shorebirds can travel tens of thousands of kilometers every year as they fly along intercontinental flyways from their southern wintering grounds to their remote, harsh breeding sites. How these birds solve the navigational and physiological constraints has been largely answered, but why they migrate is still a question with many possible answers ( 1 ). On page 326 of this issue, McKinnon et al. ( 2 ) present a continent-wide study that points to predation as a driving mechanism for migration. The study also elucidates the role of predation in shaping Arctic terrestrial biodiversity.

2017

AbstractDespite dedicated research has been carried out to adequately map the distribution of the sperm whale in the Mediterranean Sea, unlike other regions of the world, the species population status is still presently uncertain. The analysis of two years of continuous acoustic data provided by the ANTARES neutrino telescope revealed the year-round presence of sperm whales in the Ligurian Sea, probably associated with the availability of cephalopods in the region. The presence of the Ligurian Sea sperm whales was demonstrated through the real-time analysis of audio data streamed from a cabled-to-shore deep-sea observatory that allowed the hourly tracking of their long-range echolocation be…