Natural Variation

Salt marshes are challenging habitats due to natural variability in key environmental parameters including temperature, salinity, ultraviolet light, oxygen, sulfides, and reactive oxygen species. Compounding this natural variation, salt marshes are often heavily impacted by anthropogenic insults including eutrophication, toxic contamination, and coastal development that alter tidal and freshwater inputs. Commensurate with this environmental variability, estuarine animals generally exhibit broader physiological tolerances than freshwater, marine, or terrestrial species. One factor that determines an organism's physiological tolerance is its ability to upregulate "stressresponse genes" in reaction to particular stressors. Comparative studies on diverse organisms have identified a number of evolutionarily conserved genes involved in responding to abiotic and biotic stressors. We used homologybased scans to survey the sequenced genome of Nematostella vectensis, the starlet sea anemone, an estuarine specialist, to identify genes involved in the response to three kinds of insult-physiochemical insults, pathogens, and injury. Many components of the stress-response networks identified in triploblastic animals have clear orthologs in the sea anemone, meaning that they must predate the cnidariantriploblast split (e.g., xenobiotic receptors, biotransformative genes, ATP-dependent transporters, and genes involved in responding to reactive oxygen species, toxic metals, osmotic shock, thermal stress, pathogen exposure, and wounding). However, in some instances, stress-response genes known from triploblasts appear to be absent from the Nematostella genome (e.g., many metal-complexing genes). This is the first comprehensive examination of the genomic stress-response repertoire of an estuarine animal and a member of the phylum Cnidaria. The molecular markers of stress response identified in Nematostella may prove useful in monitoring estuary health and evaluating coastal conservation efforts. These data may also inform conservation efforts on other cnidarians, such as the reef-building corals.

A predicted rise in anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and associated effects on the Earth's climate system likely imply more frequent and severe weather extremes with alternations in hydroclimatic parameters expected to be most critical for ecosystem functioning, agricultural yield, and human health. Evaluating the return period and amplitude of modern climatic extremes in light of pre-industrial natural changes is, however, limited by generally too short instrumental meteorological observations. Here we introduce and analyze 11,873 annually resolved and absolutely dated ring width measurement series from living and historical fir (Abies alba Mill.) trees sampled across France, Switzerland, Germany, and the Czech Republic, which continuously span the AD 962e2007 period. Even though a dominant climatic driver of European fir growth was not found, ring width extremes were evidently triggered by anomalous variations in Central European AprileJune precipitation. Wet conditions were associated with dynamic low-pressure cells, whereas continental-scale droughts coincided with persistent high-pressure between 35 and 55 N. Documentary evidence independently confirms many of the dendro signals over the past millennium, and further provides insight on causes and consequences of ambient weather conditions related to the reconstructed extremes. A fairly uniform distribution of hydroclimatic extremes throughout the Medieval Climate Anomaly, Little Ice Age and Recent Global Warming may question the common believe that frequency and severity of such events closely relates to climate mean stages. This joint dendro-documentary approach not only allows extreme climate conditions of the industrial era to be placed against the backdrop of natural variations, but also probably helps to constrain climate model simulations over exceptional long timescales.

Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) has been detailed to affect soil microbial exercises or community composition. There is a lack of information on the degree to which PGPR as a biofertilizer concurrently influences the action, estimate, and composition of the soil microbial community. This research investigated the impacts of the timing and frequency of PGPR application as biofertilizers on the rhizosphere bacteria community in arable soil. We compared four treatments in an experimental field site, namely: one-time treatment of PGPR at the beginning of planting (P1), twice treatment of PGPR (P2), 15-days of planting (DP), and 30-DP (P3); and without treatment of PGPR (WP). A total rhizosphere bacteria community fingerprint was surveyed using ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis (RISA) using a culture-dependent and culture-independent approach. The rhizosphere bacteria community was surveyed during 80 DP. The unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic mean (UPGMA) clustering showed that the rhizosphere bacteria community in three-frequency applications of PGPR was more abundant than without PGPR application and one or two PGPR applications. This study revealed that the rhizosphere bacteria community was increased in soil with PGPR application, especially in P3, three dosages of PGPR application. Increasing the rhizosphere bacteria community could strongly influence the clay foam soil nutrient.

When bringing a new or improved product to market, a design and manufacturing enterprise can speed the process and improve the result by understanding and designing within the manufacturing process used We propose process characterization modeling and experiments aimed at uncovering their effect upon product functional requirement metrics In a real industrial design and manufacturing enterprise however, social and managerial problems drive any such design-for manufacturing integration modeling Modeling and experiments are limited to activities that provide direct answers to short-term real identfied problems This means that only a continuous improvement approach is practical to con struct process constraint models We develop and demonstrate a methodology to quantify the quality constraints imposed on a product design by its manufacturing process We start with the sequence of operations transforming the incoming material into the final product which is dia grammed into a topology of ...

It is well established that social conditions often modify foraging behaviour, but the theoretical interpretation of the changes produced is not straightforward. Changes may be due to alterations of the foraging currency (the mathematical expression that behaviour maximizes) and/or of the available resources. An example of the latter is when both solitary and social foragers maximize rates of gain over time, but competition alters the behaviour required to achieve this, as assumed by ideal free distribution models. Here we examine this problem using captive starlings Sturnus vulgaris. Subjects had access to two depleting patches that replenished whenever the alternative patch was visited. The theoretical ratemaximizing policy was the same across all treatments, and consisted of alternating between patches following a pattern that could be predicted using the marginal value theorem (MVT). There were three treatments that di¡ered in the contents of an aviary adjacent to one of the two patches (called the `social' patch). In the control treatment, the aviary was empty, in the social condition it contained a group of starlings, and in a non-speci¢c stimulus control it contained a group of zebra ¢nches. In the control condition both patches were used equally and behaviour was well predicted by the MVT. In the social condition, starlings foraged more slowly in the social than in the solitary patch. Further, foraging in the solitary patch was faster and in the social patch slower in the social condition than in the control condition. Although these changes are incompatible with overall rate maximization (gain rate decreased by about 24% by self-imposed changes), if the self-generated gain functions were used the MVT was a good predictor of patch exploitation under all conditions. We discuss the complexities of nesting optimal foraging models in more comprehensive theoretical accounts of behaviour integrating functional and mechanistic perspectives.

A predicted rise in anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and associated effects on the Earth's climate system likely imply more frequent and severe weather extremes with alternations in hydroclimatic parameters expected to be most critical for ecosystem functioning, agricultural yield, and human health. Evaluating the return period and amplitude of modern climatic extremes in light of pre-industrial natural changes is, however, limited by generally too short instrumental meteorological observations. Here we introduce and analyze 11,873 annually resolved and absolutely dated ring width measurement series from living and historical fir (Abies alba Mill.) trees sampled across France, Switzerland, Germany, and the Czech Republic, which continuously span the AD 962e2007 period. Even though a dominant climatic driver of European fir growth was not found, ring width extremes were evidently triggered by anomalous variations in Central European AprileJune precipitation. Wet conditions were associated with dynamic low-pressure cells, whereas continental-scale droughts coincided with persistent high-pressure between 35 and 55 N. Documentary evidence independently confirms many of the dendro signals over the past millennium, and further provides insight on causes and consequences of ambient weather conditions related to the reconstructed extremes. A fairly uniform distribution of hydroclimatic extremes throughout the Medieval Climate Anomaly, Little Ice Age and Recent Global Warming may question the common believe that frequency and severity of such events closely relates to climate mean stages. This joint dendro-documentary approach not only allows extreme climate conditions of the industrial era to be placed against the backdrop of natural variations, but also probably helps to constrain climate model simulations over exceptional long timescales.

Pure Topology Results: We prove that any unified gauge theory whose U(1) sector satisfies charge quantization (discrete admissible charges) and completeness (realization of every principal U(1)-bundle over any paracompact base) must be formulated, up to homotopy equivalence of the base and isomorphism of bundles, on the universal complex Hopf fibration and its finite shells. Such a system is shown to be indecomposable (that is, it presents as a unified field which cannot be broken down without losing information). The Standard Model gauge groups arise as natural reductions along the nested shell hierarchy: U(1) from the circular S^1 fiber, SU(2) from the S^3 shell and SU(3) from the S^5 shell. Gravity emerges as the spacetime gauge sector from the Kahler geometry of the base and fiber-induced torsion, yielding Einstein-Cartan analogous structure with the Levi-Civita connection recovered in the torsion-free limit. The unified structure group G_total = (SU(3) x SU(2) x U(1) x SO(4))/Gamma is intrinsically non-factorable due to the generating role of the universal first Chern class in H*(CP^infinity; Z) = Z[c_1]. Applied Topology Results: On each Hopf shell, the generalized Beltrami operator B = d|_xi acting on the contact distribution is elliptic, essentially self-adjoint, and possesses a discrete spectrum stable under torsion perturbations by the Kato-Rellich theorem. Fiber winding decomposition yields independent topological sectors whose Gaussian functional determinants, regularized via spectral zeta functions, generate intrinsic mass scales. Fermion mixing (CKM, PMNS) arises from intersection-form overlaps of admissible cycles in H(CP^4), with CP violation induced by fiber holonomy phases. Dynamics emerge from the fluctuation spectrum of the topological action on S^9. Given one empirical scale set by the Fermi constant (with its associated electroweak vacuum expectation value), the fine-structure constant and all shell-specific mass scales, spectral coefficients, and coupling constants entering the particle spectrum are fixed by the spectral geometry of the complex Hopf fibration. Phenomenology, Physical Interpretations and Numerical Predictions: The framework predicts the complete particle mass spectrum and anomalous magnetic moments, with suggested independent experimental tests (torsion-induced phase wobble, absolute neutrino mass scale, and the electron, mu and tau g-2) providing falsifiability. Fundamental constants arise from topological normalization. Further results include anomaly cancellation, dark sector effects from bundle torsion and holonomy, and the elimination of singularities. The mathematical results stand independently as contributions to the topology of classifying spaces, reductions along nested Hopf shells, and contact spectral geometry.

The geologic diversity of landforms in the Southwest complicates efforts to evaluate impacts of land uses such as livestock grazing. We examined a research study that evaluated relationships between trout biomass and stream habitat in the White Mountains of east-central Arizona. That study interpreted results of stepwise regressions and a nonparametric test of ''grazed and ungrazed meadow reaches'' as evidence that livestock grazing was the most important factor to consider in the recovery of the Apache trout (Oncorhynchus apache Miller). That study had assumed that geologic variation was insignificant in the study area. However, lithologic and topographic differences between the felsic slopes of Mount Baldy and adjacent mafic plateaus influence many attributes of trout habitat. We tested the robustness of the earlier study by using its dataset and its method of stepwise regression, but with the addition of a variable representing geologic variation. The results suggested that geology was a highly significant predictor of trout biomass (P , 0.0001), whereas bank damage by ungulates was not a useful predictor of residual variation in trout biomass after accounting for geology (r 2 ¼ 0.015, P ¼ 0.290). However, the associations between natural variation and land use impacts in this spatial dataset confound attempts to make inferences concerning effects of livestock grazing upon trout. Despite fundamental problems in the analysis, the results of the earlier study were repeatedly cited in scientific literature and debates about grazing management. To fairly decipher relationships between ecological production and livestock grazing in diverse landscapes requires temporal studies with reliable methodologies and proper controls for landscape variation. Ignoring geologic variation has the potential to mislead conservation policies by inappropriately implicating land use, by undervaluing inherently favorable habitats, and by inflating expectations for inherently less favorable habitats. La diversidad geolo ´gica de los paisajes del Sudoeste Americano complica los esfuerzos para evaluar los impactos de los usos del suelo, como el apacentamiento del ganado. Examinamos una investigacio ´n que evaluo ´las relaciones entre la biomasa de truchas y su ha ´bitat riberen ˜o en las White Mountains, de la region este-central de Arizona. Ese estudio interpreto ´resultados de regresio ´n gradual y una prueba no parame ´trica de ''praderas apacentadas y no apacentadas,'' como evidencia de que el apacentamiento del ganado era el factor ma ´s importante a considerar en la recuperacio ´n de la trucha ''Apache'' (Oncorhynchus apache Miller). Ese estudio habı ´a asumido que la variacio ´n geolo ´gica era insignificante en el a ´rea del estudio. Sin embargo, las diferencias litolo ´gicas y topogra ´ficas entre las pendientes fe ´lsicas del Mount Baldy y las mesetas ma ´ficas adyacentes influencian muchos atributos del ha ´bitat de la trucha. Probamos la robustez del estudio anterior usando sus datos y su me ´todo de regresio ´n gradual, pero con la adicio ´n de una variable representando la variacio ´n geolo ´gica. Los resultados sugirieron que la geologı ´a fue un predictor altamente significativo de la biomasa de la trucha (P , 0.0001), mientras que el dan ˜o de las riberas por los ungulados no fue un predictor u ´til de la variacio ´n residual en biomasa de la trucha despue ´s de considerar la geologı ´a (r 2 ¼ 0.015, P ¼ 0.290). Sin embargo, las asociaciones entre variacio ´n natural y la utilizacio ´n del suelo en este juego espacial de datos confunden los intentos de hacer inferencias respecto a los efectos del apacentamineto del ganado sobre la trucha. A pesar de problemas fundamentales en el ana ´lisis, los resultados del estudio previo fueron citados repetidamente en la literatura y discusiones cientı ´ficas sobre el manejo del apacentamineto. Para descifrar justamente las relaciones entre la produccio ´n ecolo ´gica y el apacentamineto del ganado en paisajes diversos, tambie ´n se requieren estudios temporales con metodologı ´as confiables y controles apropiados de la variacio ´n del paisaje. Ignorar la variacio ´n geolo ´gica tiene el potencial de conduccir erroneamente las politicas de conservacio ´n al implicar inapropiadamente la utilizacio ´n del suelo, por subvaluar los ha ´bitats intrı ´nsecamente favorables, y por sobrevalorar las espectativas para ha ´bitats intrı ´nsecamente menos favorables.

ABSTRACTLitter‐nesting ants are diverse and abundant in tropical forests, but the factors structuring their communities are poorly known. Here we present results of the first study to examine the impact of natural variation in flooding on a highly diverse (21 genera, 77 species) litter‐nesting ant community in a primary Amazonian forest. Fifty‐six 3 × 3 m plots experiencing strong variation in flooding and twenty‐eight 3 × 3 m terra firme plots were exhaustively searched for litter‐nesting ants to determine patterns of density, species richness and species composition. In each plot, flooding, litter depth, twig availability, canopy cover, plant density, percent soil nitrogen, carbon, and phosphorus were measured. Degree of flooding, measured as flood frequency and flood interval, had the strongest impact on ant density in flooded forest. Flooding caused a linear decrease in ant abundance, potentially due to a reduction of suitable nesting sites. However, its influence on species ric...

In the theridiid spider, Anelosimus studiosus, most juveniles remain in their natal web, forming temporary colonies in which individuals cooperate in web maintenance and prey capture until they disperse at maturity. There is natural variation in age at dispersal, and subadult spiders removed from their natal webs build webs and continue to develop. To explore the costs and benefits of delayed dispersal, we compared the rate of prey capture and developmental rate for individuals in colonies and those isolated at the fourth instar. Rate of prey capture by colonies increased with colony size and age; this result was driven primarily by the enhanced capture of large prey by larger and older colonies. The presence of juveniles increased the overall productivity of webs, an effect which remained after the juveniles were removed from the web. Despite the overall increase in prey capture, per-individual prey capture decreased with colony size. The variance in prey capture success decreased ...

In the theridiid spider, Anelosimus studiosus, most juveniles remain in their natal web, forming temporary colonies in which individuals cooperate in web maintenance and prey capture until they disperse at maturity. There is natural variation in age at dispersal, and subadult spiders removed from their natal webs build webs and continue to develop. To explore the costs and benefits of delayed dispersal, we compared the rate of prey capture and developmental rate for individuals in colonies and those isolated at the fourth instar. Rate of prey capture by colonies increased with colony size and age; this result was driven primarily by the enhanced capture of large prey by larger and older colonies. The presence of juveniles increased the overall productivity of webs, an effect which remained after the juveniles were removed from the web. Despite the overall increase in prey capture, per-individual prey capture decreased with colony size. The variance in prey capture success decreased significantly with colony size, but not with colony age. Spiders in colonies captured more prey per juvenile than singletons experimentally dispersed at the fourth instar; however, this did not result in increased development rate of colonial juveniles over isolated juveniles. These data suggest that juvenile A. studiosus benefit from delayed dispersal by acquiring more resources and acquiring them more steadily. The productivity of webs of females whose juveniles were removed at the fourth instar remained higher than those of similarly aged females who never produced juveniles. This suggests that delayed dispersal of juveniles enhances the resources which the female could allocate to her next egg mass.

Bermuda's herpetofauna includes three species of amphibians, one fossil tortoise, two species of freshwater turtles, five species of marine turtles, and four species of lizards. The amphibians Eleutherodactylus johnstonei, E. gossei and Bufo marinus were all introduced in the late 1880s. Amphibian population declines, including the possible extirpation of E. gossei, prompted the initiation in 1995 of an on-going investigation. Research into the high deformity rates in B. marinus has indicated that survival and development of larvae are affected by contaminants in a number of ponds and by the transgenerational transfer of accumulated contaminants. Of the two emydid turtles in Bermuda, Malaclemys terrapin may be native and its population characteristics are being studied; Trachemys scripta elegans is considered invasive and efforts are underway to remove its populations from the wild. The sizeable resident Chelonia mydas population has been the focus of a markrecapture study since 1968. Results indicate that Bermuda is currently an important developmental habitat for green turtles originating from at least four different nesting beaches in the Caribbean. Immature Eretmochelys imbricata also reside on the Bermuda Platform and genetics studies suggest that multiple Caribbean genotypes are represented in Bermuda's hawksbill population. Caretta caretta do not appear to be regular inhabitants, but two known loggerhead nesting events have recently occurred (in 1990 and 2005) and post-hatchling loggerheads regularly strand after winter storms. Dermochelys coriacea are only occasionally seen and the last record for a live Lepidochelys kempi in Bermuda occurred in 1949. Three of the lizard species are introduced Anolis; A. grahami grahami, A. leachii, and A. extremus. Their populations appear stable and they are presently not being studied. The fourth lizard, the Bermuda skink Eumeces longirostris, is Bermuda's only endemic terrestrial vertebrate. It is classified as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List and is protected under the Protected Species Act (2003); much research has been undertaken recently to aid the development of effective conservation management plans for this species.

The South Island, New Zealand, endemics Lepidium sisymbrioides and L. solandri are accepted at species rank. L. solandri Kirk is reinstated and includes L. matau Petrie in synonymy, and L. kawarau is reduced to synonymy of L. sisymbrioides. Twenty-nine floral and vegetative morphological characters were measured and used for analyses of character variation and principal components analysis. Leaf characters proved to be the most useful in distinguishing between L. sisymbrioides and L. solandri, with 12 of the 15 leaf characters having significantly different means. Only 7 of the 14 floral characters included in the study have significantly different means. In comparison to L. solandri, L. sisymbrioides has longer and narrower terminal and primary pinnae and cauline leaves, more secondary pinnae and cauline leaf lobes, less hairy sepals and ovaries, narrower ovaries, and shorter filaments. L. sisymbrioides occurs on rock outcrops in the upper Manuherikia, Waitaki, and Kawarau river valleys. L. solandri grows mainly on alluvium and outwash gravels in semi-arid parts of inland Canterbury and Central Otago. DNA sequence data from ITS, ETS, and trnL-trnF markers were used to examine phylogenetic patterns in L. sisymbrioides and L. solandri, and the related species L. kirkii, L. naufragorum, and L. tenuicaule. There is substantial variation in these markers in L. sisymbrioides and L. solandri, and this is considered to be due to introgression from other species of Lepidium, such as L. kirkii and L. tenuicaule. Much of the variation in the ETS sequences occurs in samples of L. sisymbrioides and L. solandri from the Manuherikia River valley, and this can be attributed to geneflow with the sympatric L. kirkii. Lepidium sisymbrioides and L. solandri are considered to be "Acutely Threatened, Nationally Endangered" using the New Zealand threatened plant classification criteria. In this assessment both species are considered to be data poor. Further field survey for new populations is required.

Background: Previously, we have shown there is clinal variation for egg-to-adult developmental time along geographic gradients in Drosophila melanogaster. Further, we also have identified mutations in genes involved in metabolic and neurogenic pathways that affect development time (heterochronic genes). However, we do not know whether these loci affect variation in developmental time in natural populations. Methodology/Principal Findings: Here, we constructed second chromosome substitution lines from natural populations of Drosophila melanogaster from an altitudinal cline, and measured egg-adult development time for each line. We found not only a large amount of genetic variation for developmental time, but also positive associations of the development time with thermal amplitude and altitude. We performed genetic complementation tests using substitution lines with the longest and shortest developmental times and heterochronic mutations. We identified segregating variation for neurogenic and metabolic genes that largely affected the duration of the larval stages but had no impact on the timing of metamorphosis. Conclusions/Significance: Altitudinal clinal variation in developmental time for natural chromosome substitution lines provides a unique opportunity to dissect the response of heterochronic genes to environmental gradients. Ontogenetic stage-specific variation in invected, mastermind, cricklet and CG14591 may affect natural variation in development time and thermal evolution.

proposed a method to construct variable importance measures and provided the respective statistical inference. This technique involves determining the importance of a variable in predicting an outcome. This method can be applied as an inverse probability of treatment weighted (IPTW) or double robust inverse probability of treatment weighted (DR-IPTW) estimator. A respective significance of the estimator is determined by estimating the influence curve and hence determining the corresponding variance and p-value. This article applies the van der Laan (2005) variable importance measures and corresponding inference to HIV-1 sequence data. In this data application, protease and reverse transcriptase codon position on the HIV-1 strand are assessed to determine their respective variable importance, with respect to an outcome of viral replication capacity. We estimate the W-adjusted variable importance measure for a specified set of potential effect modifiers W. Both the IPTW and DR-IPTW methods were implemented on this dataset

Evidence suggests that patterns of benthic community structure are functionally linked to estuarine processes and physical characteristics of the benthos. To assess these linkages for coarse-sediment shorelines, we used a spatially nested sampling design to quantify patterns of distribution and abundance of both macroinfauna and macroepibiota. We examined replicate beach segments within a site (w1 km), sites within areas of relatively uniform salinity and temperature (w10 km), and areas (w100 km) in the two major basins of Puget Sound, Washington. Because slight variations in physical characteristics of a beach can lead to significant alterations in biota, we minimized confounding physical influences by working only in the predominant shoreline habitat type in Puget Sound, a mixture of sand, pebbles and cobbles. Species richness decreased steadily from north to south along gradients of declining wave energy, increasing temperature and decreasing salinity. A few taxa were confined to the South Basin, but many more were found in the North. Most of the variability in population abundance was captured at the smaller spatial scales. Physical conditions tend to become increasingly different with distance among sites. Communities became more different from north to south as species intolerant of more estuarine conditions dropped out. There was significant spatial autocorrelation among populations on neighboring beach segments for 73 of the 172 species sampled. Populations of these benthic species may be connected via dispersal on scales of at least km in Puget Sound. Our results strengthen prior conclusions about the strong linkages between the biota and physical patterns and processes in estuaries. It is important for monitoring and impact-detection studies to account for natural variation of physical gradients across the sampling scales used. Nested, replicated sampling designs can facilitate the detection of environmental change at spatial scales ranging from global (e.g., warming or El Nin˜o), to regional (e.g., estuary-wide changes in salinity patterns), to local (e.g., from development at a site).

Predicting the adverse effects of light at night is necessary to ensure compliance with laws and regulations that protect species. Using two case studies, we developed a method to map the impacts of roadway lighting on two endangered species using software widely available and used in lighting engineering and conservation planning. We calculated vertical and horizontal illuminance at each site and converted the values based on the spectral sensitivity of the species and the spectral composition of the lamps. We mapped illumination in equivalent moonlight illuminance (lux), meaning the illumination is as bright as the same amount of moonlight would appear to the organism, once the spectral sensitivity of the organism is considered, proposing a threshold for adverse impacts at 0.01 and 0.1 moonlight equivalent illuminance. Finally, we compared as-built lamps to lamps with other spectral compositions and calculated illumination that would result from use of commercially available shields. Although this workflow was feasible, improvements in software and characterization of species spectral responses is needed. Nevertheless, spectral tuning reduced the impact area for both species (8-19% and 21-25%). Shielding reduced the impact area for one case study by focusing light more closely on the roadways, but for the other site the available shields increased high-angle forward light emissions. The results demonstrate an approach to calculate the effects of new lights and to analyze benefits of spectral tuning, shielding, or reduction in light intensity that could be further refined through both basic ecological research and software development. ☆ This article is part of a Special issue entitled: 'Dark night conservation' published in Biological Conservation.

The first attempts to monitor coastal fish in Sweden were made in the 1960s and 1970s. Ecological, physiological, biochemical and environmental chemistry data were collected in separate projects. When the National Marine Monitoring Programme was revised in 1992, a new strategy was introduced for assessments of long-term trends in coastal fish communities. Annual integrated monitoring of contaminants, biomarkers and population and community indicators of ecosystem health was started in selected areas using common sentinel species. Data from one monitoring area at the coast of the Baltic proper are analyzed in this paper. The results have shown a shift in fish community structure indicating changes in ecosystem productivity. Trends have been detected in growth rate (positive) and relative gonad size (negative) in perch (Perca fluviatilis), suggesting a metabolic disturbance according to the predictive response model developed for interpretations. One factor which may have contributed ...

The use of access predictors to improve storage device performance has been investigated for both improving access times, as well as a means of reducing energy consumed by the disk. Such predictors also offer us an opportunity to demonstrate the benefits of an adaptive approach to handling unexpected workloads, whether they are the result of natural variation or deliberate attempts to generate a problematic workload. Such workloads can pose a threat to system availability if they result in the excessive consumption of potentially limited resources such as energy. We propose that actively reshaping a disk access workload, using a dynamically self-adjusting access predictor, allows for consistently good performance in the face of varying workloads. Specifically, we describe how our Best Shifting prefetching policy, by adapting to the needs of the currently observed workload, can use 15% to 35% less energy than traditional disk spin-down strategies and 5% to 10% less energy than the use of a fixed prefetching policy.