University of Maine System

MOTIVATION: The BioTIME database contains raw data on species identities and abundances in ecological assemblages through time. These data enable users to calculate temporal trends in biodiversity within and amongst assemblages using a broad range of metrics. BioTIME is being developed as a community-led open-source database of biodiversity time series. Our goal is to accelerate and facilitate quantitative analysis of temporal patterns of biodiversity in the Anthropocene. MAIN TYPES OF VARIABLES INCLUDED: The database contains 8,777,413 species abundance records, from assemblages consistently sampled for a minimum of 2 years, which need not necessarily be consecutive. In addition, the database contains metadata relating to sampling methodology and contextual information about each record. SPATIAL LOCATION AND GRAIN: ). TIME PERIOD AND GRAIN: BioTIME records span from 1874 to 2016. The minimal temporal grain across all datasets in BioTIME is a year. MAJOR TAXA AND LEVEL OF MEASUREMENT: BioTIME includes data from 44,440 species across the plant and animal kingdoms, ranging from plants, plankton and terrestrial invertebrates to small and large vertebrates. SOFTWARE FORMAT: .csv and .SQL.

Mortality of corals is increasing due to bleaching, disease and algal overgrowth. In the Caribbean, low rates of coral recruitment contribute to the slow or undetectable rates of recovery in reef ecosystems. Although algae have long been suspected to interfere with coral recruitment, the mechanisms of that interaction remain unclear. We experimentally tested the effects of turf algal abundance on 3 sequential factors important to recruitment of corals: the biophysical delivery of planktonic coral larvae, their propensity to settle, and the availability of microhabitats where they survive. We deployed coral settlement plates inside and outside damselfish Stegastes spp. gardens and cages. Damselfish aggression reduced herbivory from fishes, and cages became fouled with turf algae, both locally increasing algal biomass surrounding the plates. This reduced flushing rates in nursery microhabitats on the plate underside, limiting larvae available for settlement. Coral spat settled preferentially on an early successional crustose coralline alga Titanoderma prototypum but also on or near other coralline algae, biofilms, and calcareous polychaete worm tubes. Post-settlement survival was highest in the fully grazed, lowest algal biomass treatment, and after 27 mo 'spat' densities were 73% higher in this treatment. The 'gauntlet' refers to the sequence of ecological processes through which corals must survive to recruit. The highest proportion of coral spat successfully running the gauntlet did so under conditions of low algal biomass resulting from increased herbivory. If coral recruitment is heavily controlled at very local scales by this gauntlet, then coral reef managers could improve a reef's recruitment potential by managing for reduced algal biomass.

This study examines several aspects of adolescents' pretransition peer relationships as predictors of their adjustment to middle school. Participants were 365 students (175 boys; 99% Caucasian) involved in the Time 1 (the spring of fifth grade) and Time 2 (the fall of sixth grade) assessments. Adolescents completed measures that assessed peer acceptance, number of friends, the quality of a specific mutual friendship, loneliness, depression, self-esteem, and involvement in school. Academic achievement and absentee data were obtained from student files. Regression analyses indicated that the pretransition peer variables predicted posttransition loneliness, self-esteem, school involvement, and academic achievement. The patterns of prediction varied slightly for each adjustment variable, with the most robust relationship being between peer acceptance and achievement. Results of repeated-measures MANOVAs indicated no differential changes in adjustment across time by gender. Implications for including a peer component in programs that prepare students for the middle school transition are discussed.

As e orts grow to develop spatio-temporal database systems and temporal geographical information systems that are capable of conveying how geographical phenomena change, it is important to distinguish the elements that are fundamental to scenarios of change.This paper presents a model based on the explicit description of change with respect to states of existence and nonexistence for identi able objects.Such changes are of concern when, for instance, modelling and reasoning about nations that are subsumed through con ict only to return once more at a later time, or about water bodies that uctuate due to seasonal or climatic change.The basis for tracing these changes is the concept of object identity.Identity, distinct from an object's properties, values, or structure, is that unique characteristic that distinguishes one object from another.Based on a small set of primitives relating to the identity states of objects, we model the semantics associated with change and through a systematic derivation, a complete set of identity-based change operations evolves from the primitives.These operations are basic to the types of change commonly experienced by geographical phenomena and modelled by researchers studying spatio-temporal change.This approach highlights the minimum elements necessary for reasoning about change, namely, object identity, an ordering of identity states, and co-occurrence of identity states.

Historical records of the fluctuations of glaciers in the Himalayas and Trans-Himalayas date back to the early 19th century. Local and regional syntheses of 112 of these fluctuation records are presented in this study. The local syntheses deal with fluctuations of glaciers in Kanchenjunga-Everest, Garwhal, Lahaul-Spiti, Kolahoi, Nanga Parbat, Karakoram (north and south sides), Rakaposhi-Haramosh, Batura Mustagh, and Khunjerab-Ghujerab. Regional syntheses deal with the composite record and the differentiation of records by glacier type (longitudinal versus transverse) and regional setting (Himalayan versus Trans-Himalayan). In a gross regional sense Himalayan and Trans-Himalayan glaciers have been in a general state of retreat since AD 1850. Filtering of the fluctuation records with respect to glacier type and regional setting reveals that the period AD 1870 to 1940 was characterized by alternations in the dominancy of retreat, advance, and standstill regimes.

In my 15th and final year as JRRE editor, I identify methodological and substantive shortcomings in the rural education re-search literature and, in turn, suggest strategies for improvement. I structure my observations around the following considera-tions: describing the rural context of research, making the rural argument, framing the research question, drawing on other disciplines, synthesizing the extant research, and distinguishing between (a) exploring empirical questions and (b) adducing data to support personal convictions.

An international association advancing the multidisciplinary study of informing systems. Founded in 1998, the Informing Science Institute (ISI) is a global community of academics shaping the future of informing science.

MEPS Marine Ecology Progress Series Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsTheme Sections MEPS 277:291-295 (2004) - doi:10.3354/meps277291 Habitat complexity mitigates trophic transfer on oyster reefs Jonathan H. Grabowski1,4,*, Sean P. Powers2,3 1University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Institute of Marine Sciences, Morehead City, North Carolina 28557, USA 2Department of Marine Sciences, University of South Alabama, Mobile, Alabama 36688, USA 3Dauphin Island Sea Lab, Dauphin Island, Alabama 36528, USA 4Present address: Gulf of Maine Research Institute, PO Box 7549, Portland, Maine 04573, USA *Email: jgrabow@maine.edu ABSTRACT: Structured habitats within several aquatic systems have been characterized as having higher abundances of both predators and their prey. Understanding this somewhat paradoxical phenomenon requires teasing apart how habitat complexity influences predator-prey dynamics. To determine whether habitat complexity influences predator foraging efficiency, we measured predator foraging rates within structurally simple and complex habitats. We selected as our test system mud crabs feeding on juvenile hard clams within biogenic reefs formed by the eastern oyster. At low and intermediate crab densities, foraging rates of mud crabs were similar between simple and complex habitats. However, at high crab densities foraging rates were higher for crabs in the complex reefs than in the simple reefs. In addition to providing refuge to both intermediate predators and their prey, habitat complexity appears to enhance predator foraging efficiency by reducing interference competition among predators. In systems where interference competition among densely populated predators may be intense, complex habitats may not provide survival benefits to all trophic levels. KEY WORDS: Mercenaria mercenaria · Panopeus herbstii · Habitat complexity · Interference competition · Density dependence · Oyster reefs Full text in pdf format PreviousNextExport citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in MEPS Vol. 277. Online publication date: August 16, 2004 Print ISSN: 0171-8630; Online ISSN: 1616-1599 Copyright © 2004 Inter-Research.

The Colorado potato beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata (Say) (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) is the most important insect defoliator of potatoes that can completely destroy potato crops. Its current range covers about 16 million km in North America, Europe, and Asia and continues to expand. A complex and diverse life history, combined with an impressive ability to develop insecticide resistance, make the Colorado potato beetle a challenging pest to manage. Beetle populations on commercial farms are usually suppressed by insecticides, which are likely to remain the predominant approach for the foreseeable future. In addition, the beetles can be controlled through the use of relatively common cultural practices, with crop rotation being the most effective and easily implemented approach. In spite of a long history of breeding efforts, no commercial cultivars resistant to the Colorado potato beetles are currently available on the market. Natural enemies are usually incapable of reducing beetle densities below the economically damaging levels and have to be used in combination with other control techniques. Unfortunately, there will never be a “silver bullet” solution to preventing the damage caused by this insect. The only sustainable way to protect potato crops is to integrate multiple control techniques into a scientifically sound management approach. This is not an easy task, but the only alternatives are recurrent crop losses in combination with environmental degradation. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Similarity is the assessment of deviation from equivalence. Spatial similarity is complex due to the numerous constraining properties of geographic objects and their embedding in space. Among these properties, the spatial relations between geographic objects---topological, directional, and metrical---are critical, because they capture the essence of a scene's structure. These relations can be categorized as a basis for similarity assessment. This paper describes a computational method to formally assess the similarity of spatial scenes based on the ordering of spatial relations. One scene is transformed into another through a sequence of gradual changes of spatial relations. The number of changes required yields a measure that is compared against others, or against a pre-existing scale. Two scenes that require a large number of changes are less similar than scenes that require fewer changes.

An international association advancing the multidisciplinary study of informing systems. Founded in 1998, the Informing Science Institute (ISI) is a global community of academics shaping the future of informing science.

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Detailed investigations of student reasoning show that students approach the topic of wave physics using both event-like and object-like descriptions of wavepulses, but primarily focus on object properties in their reasoning. Student responses to interview and written questions are analysed using diSessa and Sherin's coordination class model which suggests that student use of specific reasoning resources is guided by possibly unconscious cues. Here, the term reasoning resources is used in a general fashion to describe any of the smaller grain size models of reasoning (p-prims, facets of knowledge, intuitive rules, etc) rather than theoretically ambiguous (mis)conceptions. Student applications of reasoning resources, including one previously undocumented, are described. Though the coordination class model is extremely helpful in organising the research data, problematic aspects of the model are also discussed.

Dominance shifts in ecosystems can occur rapidly, resulting in alternative stable states. While some coral reef ecosystems shift and recover relatively quickly, others recover slowly or not at all over periods of centuries. We explore the role of large (fishing-susceptible) parrotfish in triggering algal phase shifts as alternative attractors that may lock reefs into coral-depleted alternative stable states. We designed an experiment to modestly reduce herbivory only from large parrotfish in the immediate vicinity of experimental coral settlement nursery habitats. We used vertical pegs ('parrotfish deterrents' or PDs) around coral settlement plates on 2 Belizean fore reefs. Time-lapse videos and a year's accumulation of bite-marks on plates confirmed that only herbivory from large parrotfish declined significantly due to PDs. Patches of macroalgae developed around PDs reducing coral recruitment in this treatment only. Two dominant reefdwelling coral genera (Porites and Agaricia) recruited to our settlement plates. The fast-growing, high-light requiring, reef-building coral Porites was more negatively affected by phase shifts; this coral failed to recruit at and above mid-levels of algal abundance. We illustrate the direct roles eco logical processes such as herbivory from large parrotfish play in regulating algal abundance, which in turn reduces the recruitment potential of reefs and thus the ecosystem's capacity to recover. Combining our empirical results with an individually-based ecological simulation model, we determined that these processes cascade to drive alternative states and create a 'hysteresis' effect delaying or preventing recovery of the coral reef ecosystem.

Aquatic birnaviruses, such as infectious pancreatic necrosis virus (IPNV), cause serious diseases in a variety of fish species used worldwide in aquaculture and have also been isolated from a variety of healthy fish and shellfish species. These viruses exhibit a high degree of antigenic heterogeneity and variation in biological properties such as pathogenicity, host range, and temperature of replication. To better understand genetic and biological diversity among these viruses, the nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequences were determined from cDNA of the large open reading frame (ORF) of genome segment A of the 9 type strains of Serogroup A and 4 other representative strains of Serotype A1, the predominant serotype in the United States. In addition, nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequences were determined for the VP2 coding region of a variety of isolates representing 5 of the 9 serotypes. VP2 is the major outer capsid protein of aquatic birnaviruses. RT-PCR was used to amplify a 2904 bp cDNA fragment including all but a few bp of the large ORF of genome segment A or a 1611 bp fragment representing the entire VP2 coding region. Nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequences were determined from the PCR products. Pairwise comparisons were made among our data and 2 other aquatic birnavirus sequences previously published. Several hypervariable regions were identified within the large ORF. The most divergent pair of viruses exhibited a similarity of 80.1% in the deduced amino acid sequence encoded by the large ORF. Genomic relationships revealed in a phylogenetic tree constructed from comparison of the deduced amino acid sequences of the large ORF demonstrated that these viruses were clustered into several genogroups. Phylogenetic comparison of the deduced amino acid sequences of the VP2 coding region of 28 aquatic birnavirus isolates, including the type strains of all 9 serotypes, demonstrated 6 genogroups, some of which were comprised of several genotypes. The most divergent pair of viruses exhibited a similarity of 81.2% in the deduced amino acid sequence from the VP2 coding region. In contrast to previous studies of much shorter genomic sequences within the C-terminus-pVP2/NS junction coding region, these genogroups based on the entire large ORF or the VP2 coding region generally correlated with geographical origin and serological classification. Isolates from the major Canadian serotypes were more closely related to the European isolates than to isolates from the United States.

Question: It is well established that predators can influence the structure and dynamics of prey communities and that changes in prey communities can drive predator evolution. Here we ask whether changes in prey communities, brought on by the effects of predators, can feed back to mould the evolution of predator foraging traits. Study system: We sampled lakes in Connecticut (USA) containing either anadromous or landlocked (freshwater resident) alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus) populations in 2004 and 2005. Methods: We examined alewife populations for differences in (1) seasonal effects on zooplankton communities, (2) feeding morphology, (3) prey size, and (4) prey selectivity. Results: Landlocked alewives, which are year-round residents of lakes, permanently structure lake zooplankton communities, thereby creating a strong feedback on the evolution of their foraging traits. Anadromous alewives, which are seasonal residents of lakes, intermittently structure lake zooplankton communities, preventing a strong feedback on the evolution of their foraging traits. This difference in the strength of the eco-evolutionary feedback between predator and prey appears to have led to the divergence of foraging morphology and prey selectivity between alewife life-history forms. Conclusions: Predator-induced changes to prey communities can feed back to drive the evolution of predator foraging traits under conditions where eco-evolutionary feedbacks are strong. Moreover, variation in the strength of eco-evolutionary feedbacks appears to shape patterns of ecological and evolutionary diversity in this predator–prey system.

Gender roles are based on the different expectations that individuals, groups, and societies have of individuals based on their sex and based on each society's values and beliefs about gender. Gender roles are the product of the interactions between individuals and their environments, and they give individuals cues about what sort of behavior is believed to be appropriate for what sex. Appropriate gender roles are defined according to a society's beliefs about differences between the sexes.

Diabetic autonomic neuropathy is a major cause of morbidity and mortality. However, its etiology and treatment remain obscure. Using the in vitro rat superior cervical ganglion model of diabetic neuropathy, we studied the neuroprotective effects of IGF-I on neurite growth and neuronal apoptosis in a high-glucose milieu. In the presence of elevated levels of glucose similar to those seen in poorly controlled diabetics (20 mM above control), there is inhibition of neurite growth, reduction in neurite caliber, beading of neurites, and retraction of the neurite growth cone. High glucose also induces apoptosis in ganglion neurons. In contrast, IGF-I prevented both glucose induced apoptosis and changes in neurites, even after 96 hours. The IGF-I receptor was uniformly distributed throughout the developing neurite and growth cone in control and IGF-I treated neurons, but not with high glucose alone. These findings suggest that high glucose inhibits neurite growth and initiates apoptosis in cultured sympathetic primary neurons, and IGF-I ameliorates these changes. Collectively, these observations suggest that many of the features of diabetic autonomic neuropathy can be reproduced in a tissue culture model using defined conditions, and may have important implications in defining the etiology and treatment of diabetic neuropathy.

<i>We quantify the effect that public conservation lands have on employment growth in the Northern Forest region of the United States. A model of simultaneous employment and net migration growth is estimated with data on non-metropolitan counties from 1990 to 1997. Exogenous variables include the 1990 share of the land base in public conservation uses. We find that net migration rates were higher in counties with more conservation lands, but the effects are relatively small. No significant effect on employment growth is detected. As well, variables measuring changes in public timber harvests have no effect on employment growth.</i> (JEL Q26)

In this paper we exhibit, under suitable conditions, a neat relationship between the Moore--Penrose generalized inverse of a sum of two matrices and the Moore--Penrose generalized inverses of the individual terms. We include an application to the parallel sum of matrices.