Small is profitable: No support for the optimal foraging theory in sea stars Asterias rubens foraging on the blue edible mussel Mytilus edulis   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Christiaan Hummel  Pieter HonkoopJaap van der Meer 《Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science》2011,94(1):89-92

Doubt has been shed recently on the most popular optimal foraging theory stating that predators should maximize prey profitability, i.e., select that prey item that contains the highest energy content per handling time. We hypothesized that sea stars do not forage on blue mussels according to the classical optimal foraging theory but are actively avoiding damage that may be caused by e.g. capture of foraging on too-strong mussel shells, hence the sea stars will have a stronger preference for mussels that are smaller than the most profitable ones. Here we present experimental evidence of the sea star Asterias rubens as a predator that indeed chooses much smaller blue mussels Mytilus edulis to forage on than the most profitable ones. Hence this study does not support the optimal foraging theory. There may be other constraints involved in foraging than just optimizing energy intake, for example predators may also be concerned with preventing potential loss or damage of their foraging instruments.  相似文献   

A diagnostic modelling framework to construct indices of biotic integrity: A case study of fish in the Zeeschelde estuary (Belgium)     

Paul Quataert  Pieter Verschelde 《Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science》2011,94(3):222-233

We propose a coherent regression model building framework to construct fish-based indices. More specifically, we concentrate on the selection of an optimal set of metrics which remains a difficult problem. The paper departs from the observation that an index of biotic integrity (IBI) is analogous to a diagnostic model in medicine assessing the health condition of a patient from a series of biomarkers. In the same vein, an IBI is a diagnostic model predicting the ecosystem condition of a site from a set of (scored) metrics. Metrics are community attributes sensitive to anthropogenic pressure and their scores express the “distance to target” to a reference condition. In a medical context, Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves are commonly used to assess the diagnostic accuracy of laboratory tests. An ROC curve plots the sensitivity of a test (Se; the capacity to detect a disease or degradation) as a function of its false positive fraction (FPF) which is the complement of the specificity (Sp = 1 - FPF; the capacity to recognise a healthy person or a reference condition). The ROC curve represents the strength of the index to discriminate between degraded and reference sites. Higher curves correspond to stronger tests as then a higher sensitivity can be combined with a lower false positive fraction. Hence, it is intuitively clear to use summary statistics of the ROC curve as criteria to optimise medical tests or biotic indices. In this paper, we illustrate the value of this modelling framework with a case study in the Zeeschelde estuary in Belgium. In essence, a “traditional” IBI is an average of metrics scoring relevant properties of the ecosystem. We demonstrate this average score model (AVG) is a special member of the more flexible predictive logistic model (PLM) family. The selection of a set of metrics becomes equivalent to variable selection in statistical model building. We apply model building techniques as best subsets regression to facilitate the search for an optimal suite of metrics from a candidate set and use cross-validation to avoid overfitting. The results show that a few metrics suffice to discriminate between most-impacted and least-impacted sites.  相似文献   

Seventh International CO₂ Conference, Boulder, Colorado, 25–30 September 2005 Part 2     

Pieter P. Tans 《Tellus. Series B, Chemical and physical meteorology》2007,59(2):167-167

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The hydrology of inland valleys in the sub‐humid zone of West Africa: rainfall‐runoff processes in the M'bé experimental watershed     

Mutsa C. Masiyandima  Nick van de Giesen  Sitapha Diatta  Pieter N. Windmeijer  Tammo S. Steenhuis 《水文研究》2003,17(6):1213-1225

Inland valleys with wet lowlands are an important water source for farming communities in the sub‐humid zone of West Africa. An inland valley and surrounding contributing watershed area located in the sub‐humid zone near M'bé in central Côte d'Ivoire was instrumented to study surface runoff and base flow mechanisms. Four flumes at different distances down the main stream and more than 100 piezometers were installed. Measurements were taken during two rainfall seasons in 1998 and 1999. Under initial wet conditions, a typical single‐peak hydrograph was observed. Under low antecedent moisture conditions, however, runoff was characterized by a double‐peaked hydrograph. The first peak, which occurred during the storm, was caused by rain falling on the saturated valley bottom. The second peak was delayed by minutes to hours from the first peak and consisted of rain flowing via the subsurface of the hydromorphic zone that surrounds the valley bottom. The duration of the delay was a function of the water table depth in the hydromorphic zone before the storm. The volume of the second peak constituted the largest portion of the stream flow. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

A cloud mask methodology for high resolution remote sensing data combining information from high and medium resolution optical sensors   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Fernando Sedano  Pieter KempeneersPeter Strobl  Jan KuceraPeter Vogt  Lucia SeebachJesús San-Miguel-Ayanz 《ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing》2011,66(5):588-596

This study presents a novel cloud masking approach for high resolution remote sensing images in the context of land cover mapping. As an advantage to traditional methods, the approach does not rely on thermal bands and it is applicable to images from most high resolution earth observation remote sensing sensors. The methodology couples pixel-based seed identification and object-based region growing. The seed identification stage relies on pixel value comparison between high resolution images and cloud free composites at lower spatial resolution from almost simultaneously acquired dates. The methodology was tested taking SPOT4-HRVIR, SPOT5-HRG and IRS-LISS III as high resolution images and cloud free MODIS composites as reference images. The selected scenes included a wide range of cloud types and surface features. The resulting cloud masks were evaluated through visual comparison. They were also compared with ad-hoc independently generated cloud masks and with the automatic cloud cover assessment algorithm (ACCA). In general the results showed an agreement in detected clouds higher than 95% for clouds larger than 50 ha. The approach produced consistent results identifying and mapping clouds of different type and size over various land surfaces including natural vegetation, agriculture land, built-up areas, water bodies and snow.  相似文献   

An idealized model of tidal dynamics in the North Sea: resonance properties and response to large-scale changes   总被引：3，自引：1，他引：2  

Pieter C. Roos  Jorick J. Velema  Suzanne J. M. H. Hulscher  Ad Stolk 《Ocean Dynamics》2011,61(12):2019-2035

An idealized process-based model is developed to investigate tidal dynamics in the North Sea. The model geometry consists of a sequence of different rectangular compartments of uniform depth, thus, accounting for width and depth variations in a stepwise manner. This schematization allows for a quick and transparent solution procedure. The solution, forced by incoming Kelvin waves at the open boundaries and satisfying the linear shallow water equations on the f plane with bottom friction, is in each compartment written as a superposition of eigenmodes, i.e. Kelvin and Poincaré waves. A collocation method is employed to satisfy boundary and matching conditions. First, the general resonance properties of a strongly simplified geometry with two compartments, representing the Northern North Sea and Southern Bight, are studied. Varying the forcing frequency while neglecting bottom friction reveals Kelvin and Poincaré resonance. These resonances continue to exist (but with lower amplification and a modified spatial structure) when adding the Dover Strait as a third compartment and separating the solutions due to forcing from either the north or the south only. Including bottom friction dampens the peaks. Next, comparison with tide observations along the North Sea coast shows remarkable agreement for both semi-diurnal and diurnal tides. This result is achieved with a more detailed geometry consisting of 12 compartments fitted to the coastline of the North Sea. Further simulations emphasize the importance of Dover Strait and bottom friction. Finally, it is found that a sea level rise of 1 m, uniformly applied to the entire North Sea, amplifies the M2-elevation amplitudes almost everywhere along the coast, with an increase of up to 8 cm in Dover Strait. Bed level changes of ±1 m, uniformly applied to the Southern Bight only, imply weaker changes, with changes in coastal M2-elevation amplitudes below 5 cm.  相似文献   

Amenity value in post-industrial Chinese cities: the case of Nanjing   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Hong Hu  Stan Geertman  Pieter Hooimeijer 《Urban geography》2013,34(3):420-439

Many Chinese cities are in a transition from industrial to post-industrial urban economies. In this process of urban restructuring, land use becomes polycentric and fragmented. More sophisticated models are needed to estimate the amenity effects of this complex residential environment. This article assesses the relative housing price effects of neighborhood characteristics and accessibility in Nanjing, China. This is achieved with a hedonic price model that incorporates detailed spatial measures, geographical contingency, and a modified version of Alonso’s (1964) general theory of land rent. A crucial finding is that the effect of job accessibility on house price varies depending upon the specific sector of employment. Accessibility to jobs in the public and private service sectors has strong positive effects. However, housing proximity to heavy industries has a spatially nonlinear effect: negative in close proximity, but positive at a larger distance. Second, when we control for job accessibility, access to public transport has an added positive effect. Finally, neighborhood “quality” (defined in terms of nearby amenities) is also relevant, but far less than access to service employment. This research shows that Nanjing’s housing prices are affected by different residential characteristics than those with dominant price effects in Western cities.  相似文献   

Modelling the influence of spatially varying hydrodynamics on the cross-sectional stability of double inlet systems     

Brouwer  Ronald L.  Schuttelaars  Henk M.  Roos  Pieter C. 《Ocean Dynamics》2013,63(11):1263-1278

The cross-sectional stability of double inlet systems is investigated using an exploratory model that combines Escoffier’s stability concept for the evolution of the inlet’s cross-sectional area with a two-dimensional, depth-averaged (2DH) hydrodynamic model for tidal flow. The model geometry consists of four rectangular compartments, each with a uniform depth, associated with the ocean, tidal inlets and basin. The water motion, forced by an incoming Kelvin wave at the ocean’s open boundary and satisfying the linear shallow water equations on the f -plane with linearised bottom friction, is in each compartment written as a superposition of eigenmodes, i.e. Kelvin and Poincaré waves. A collocation method is employed to satisfy boundary and matching conditions. The analysis of resulting equilibrium configurations is done using flow diagrams.

Model results show that internally generated spatial variations in the water motion are essential for the existence of stable equilibria with two inlets open. In the hydrodynamic model used in the paper, both radiation damping into the ocean and basin depth effects result in these necessary spatial variations. Coriolis effects trigger an asymmetry in the stable equilibrium cross-sectional areas of the inlets. Furthermore, square basin geometries generally correspond to significantly larger equilibrium values of the inlet cross-sections. These model outcomes result from a competition between a destabilising (caused by inlet bottom friction) and a stabilising mechanism (caused by spatially varying local pressure gradients over the inlets).

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The contribution of Dutch landscape painters to the conservation of geoheritage     

Pieter Jungerius  Hanneke van den Ancker  Nina Wevers 《Geology Today》2012,28(3):95-97

Landscape images are a way to register geoheritage, and we have applied it here in a consideration of the landscapes of the Netherlands. Before the 1950s these landscapes were documented chiefly by landscape painters; with useful photographs of limited availability. We have looked through a large number of paintings of Dutch landscapes to assess their geoheritage value, and present here a first reconnaissance.  相似文献   

Response of large-scale coastal basins to wind forcing: influence of topography     

Wen L. Chen  Pieter C. Roos  Henk M. Schuttelaars  Mohit Kumar  Tjerk J. Zitman  Suzanne J. M. H. Hulscher 《Ocean Dynamics》2016,66(4):549-565

Because wind is one of the main forcings in storm surge, we present an idealised process-based model to study the influence of topographic variations on the frequency response of large-scale coastal basins subject to time-periodic wind forcing. Coastal basins are represented by a semi-enclosed rectangular inner region forced by wind. It is connected to an outer region (represented as an infinitely long channel) without wind forcing, which allows waves to freely propagate outward. The model solves the three-dimensional linearised shallow water equations on the f plane, forced by a spatially uniform wind field that has an arbitrary angle with respect to the along-basin direction. Turbulence is represented using a spatially uniform vertical eddy viscosity, combined with a partial slip condition at the bed. The surface elevation amplitudes, and hence the vertical profiles of the velocity, are obtained using the finite element method (FEM), extended to account for the connection to the outer region. The results are then evaluated in terms of the elevation amplitude averaged over the basin’s landward end, as a function of the wind forcing frequency. In general, the results point out that adding topographic elements in the inner region (such as a topographic step, a linearly sloping bed or a parabolic cross-basin profile), causes the resonance peaks to shift in the frequency domain, through their effect on local wave speed. The Coriolis effect causes the resonance peaks associated with cross-basin modes (which without rotation only appear in the response to cross-basin wind) to emerge also in the response to along-basin wind and vice versa.  相似文献