Seasonal Diet Shifts and Overlap Between Two Sympatric Catfishes in an Estuarine Nursery

This study describes the seasonal feeding habits of different size classes of Cathorops spixii and Cathorops agassizii along an estuarine ecocline and the food overlap when different size classes occur together. These species were essentially zoobenthivorous, feeding mainly on Polychaeta Nereis sp., Copepoda Pseudodiaptomus acutus, Ostracoda Asterope sp., Gastropoda: Littorinidae, and Bivalvia Mytilus sp. and Anomalocardia brasiliana. However, during their life cycle and between different habitats and seasons, their trophic guild can change to zooplanktivore. The competition for resources was observed among C. spixii and C. agassizii, but was significantly reduced due to the seasonal diference in habitat use by different ontogenetic phases in the main channel of the estuary. The food niche separation was strongly influenced by environmental fluctuations, principally of salinity, resulting from rainfall and river inflow. High abundance of some preys, such as P. acutus (all estuary), Asterope sp. (upper and middle estuary), and Littorinidae (upper and lower estuary), could influence the significant diet overlap, principally during the rainy season, and call for more detailed studies of the benthic community structure. Moreover, dietary overlap was observed mainly between smaller sizes (intraspecific and/or interspecific) or between corresponding ontogenetic phases (interspecific), suggesting some differentiation in the diet in relation to the size class. Differences in prey type and size between the different ontogenetic phases of these ariids, principally among juveniles and adults, could be related to the size of the mouth, since adults are able to successfully capture larger preys or larger quantities of particular items.     

Water quality and risk assessment of dug wells: a case study for a poor community in the city of São Paulo, Brazil

Sparsely populated areas, or peripheral communities commonly lack access to a public water supply and sewerage systems. The inhabitants of these areas must make use of excavated wells to provide their water needs, and cesspits for domestic wastewater disposal. These on-site sanitation systems can release pathogens and nutrients into shallow groundwater. These poor communities urgently require cheap and efficient techniques for the detection of sanitary conditions, in order to prevent contamination of the water resources supplied by dug wells. The sanitary risk assessment methodology, applied in an irregular settlement south of the city of São Paulo, was based on a questionnaire with yes/no questions (risk factors), which allowed the identification of problems related to the well construction and operation, and the presence of potential contamination sources in its vicinity. These risk factors were compared against nitrate and bacterial analysis using the clustering statistical method, to verify the relationship between contamination and certain aspects surveyed in the questionnaire. Questions that were more related to contaminated wells were those concerning the presence of cover and its integrity; gaps between mouth and cover; the surrounding pavement and presence of ground irregularities; infiltration in the well casing; water-suspended materials; and proximity to contamination sources. Contamination models based on variograms allowed to observe that bacterial contamination presented a strong localized component, which was associated frequently with the way residents handled the wells, whereas nitrate contamination was related more to a regional (spatial) component; that is, the distance between wells and cesspits.     

Evaluation of pile foundation response to lateral spreading

The effects of liquefaction on deep foundations are very damaging and costly, and they keep recurring in many earthquakes. The first part of the paper reviews the field experience of deep foundations affected by liquefaction during earthquakes in the last few decades, as well as the main lessons learned. The second part of the paper presents results of physical modeling of deep foundations in the presence of liquefaction conducted by the authors and others at the 100g-ton RPI centrifuge. In the last decade centrifuge modeling has been identified as a key tool to identify and quantify mechanisms, calibrate analyses and evaluate retrofitting strategies for pile foundations. Results are presented of centrifuge models of instrumented pile foundations subjected to lateral spreading, including single pile and pile groups, 2- and 3-layer soil profiles, mass and stiffening elements above ground to incorporate the effect of the superstructure, and evaluation of proposed retrofitting strategies. Interpretations of these centrifuge experiments and their relation to field observations and soil properties.     

A frequency criterion for optimal node selection in smoothing with cubic splines

When smoothing a function with high‐frequency noise by means of optimal cubic splines, it is often not clear how to choose the number of nodes. The more nodes are used, the closer the smoothed function will follow the noisy one. In this work, we show that more nodes mean a better approximation of Fourier coefficients for higher frequencies. Thus, the number of nodes can be determined by specifying a frequency up to which all Fourier coefficients must be preserved and increasing the number of nodes until this criterion is met. A comparison of the corresponding smoothing results with those obtained by filtering using moving average and moving median filters of corresponding length and a low pass with corresponding high‐cut frequency shows that optimal cubic splines yield better results as they preserve not only the desired low‐frequency band but also important high‐frequency characteristics.     

Effects of the 'Prestige' oil spill on macroalgal assemblages: large-scale comparison

An assessment of the effects of the 'Prestige' oil spill on intertidal, macroalgal assemblages was carried out comparing abundance data obtained before and after the spill. Four zones in the North and Northwest coast of Spain were sampled, one of them located at the immediate vicinity of the spill, the zone most heavily oiled. Macroalgal assemblages had similar structure between years. Neither critical decrease in abundance of the dominant macroalgae, nor increase in opportunistic species were found. Some differences in abundance were observed, but they did not show any pattern, being more likely the result of the natural variability of the assemblage. Extensive, but not intense fuel deposition on the shores and a limited use of aggressive cleanup methods are suggested as possible causes for the lack of the effects in these assemblages after the 'Prestige' oil spill.     

Rare earth elements in sediments of the Vigo Ria,NW Iberian Peninsula

The abundance and distribution of rare earth elements (REE) and their signatures in the Vigo Ria were studied from 50 samples of surface sediments and related to the geological formation in its watershed. The total amount of REE in the Ria is heterogeneous. It ranges from 220 mg kg⁻¹ in the southern middle Ria margin in the vicinity of the Galiñeiro geological shore complex, which contains REE-enriched minerals, to 2 mg kg⁻¹ near the Ria mouth due to dilution with high levels of carbonated biogenic particles (31% of Ca). Rare earth elements of the Ria sediments are considerably enriched in light-REE relative to heavy-REE (a LREE/HREE ratio of 9.7±1.6) and also show a slightly negative Eu-anomaly. Low European shale normalised REE patterns were distinguished in the innermost sediments of Vigo Ria, but were not correlated with Al. This suggests a minor contribution of REE from upstream freshwater inputs to the sediments in the middle Vigo Ria zone. Normalised REE ratios in the middle Ria imply that fine particles enriched in REE may be exported from the Ria to shelf mud patches and REE can be useful as sediment tracers of Ria input on the shelf.     

Study of Metal Distribution in Raw and Screened Swine Manure

The growth of industrial swine production over the last few years has led to a growth in concern over effluents generated by the activity. Several elements, mainly toxic metals, can be present in swine wastewater and can have a serious environmental impact. It is important, therefore, to know the metal concentration before the discharge of wastewater. In this work the temporal metal distribution in swine manure and its potential reduction using coarse (2 mm) and fine (<0.45 μm) liquid‐solid separation techniques were investigated. In order to do this, different swine manure sample preparation methods for Al, Ba, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mg, Mn, Ni, Pb, Sr and Zn determination by Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP OES) were tested. The acid mixtures used to digest the manure sample significantly affected the metal recovery. Good analyte recoveries were observed with nitric acid/hydrogen peroxide mixtures or nitric acid/perchloric acid mixtures. Sulfuric acid/hydrogen peroxide mixtures produced inconsistent results and poor recoveries, mainly for Ba and Pb. It was observed that metal concentrations in swine manure varied greatly with time, up to one order of magnitude, due to changes in swine production such as feed and animal numbers. Metals concentrations observed in the raw wastewater exceeded Brazilian limits for discharge into water bodies and recommendations for agricultural use. Results obtained from the liquid‐solid separation study showed that metals in the raw swine manure were not removed with coarse screening. However, the major fraction of metals were removed by filtration (0.45 μm), with the exception of Na, K and Sr. Thus, the use of liquid‐solid separation techniques that capture the fine solid fractions (and associated metals) from raw manure can have a favorable impact on the environment and contribute to swine production wastewater treatment.     

Quantifying Multipath Using MNR Ratios

The global positioning system (GPS) is used increasingly to control horizontal and vertical displacement of large civil constructions. The displacements can occur over varius time scales. For example, in case of the loading test of a bridge, the time span between measurements is on the order of 30 min. The achievable precision in the vertical component and its relation to residual multiplath effects become critically important in such aaplications. A multipath-to-noise ratio (MNR) on individual satellites is introduced to quantify the multipath effects. ? 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

海草床鱼类群落结构的时空变化及其在热带海草床中的育幼

本文以印尼北苏拉威西东部的潟湖为对象,研究了热带海草床鱼类群落的种类组成和时空变化。研究发现当地鱼类的香农-威纳指数在1.57-3.69之间多样性相对较高。在科水平,天竺鲷科的丰度（8.27 ind./（100 m²））和生物量（28.49 g/（100 m²））最高。在物种水平,侧带天竺鲷（Apogon lateralis）的丰度最高,环纹圆天竺鲷（Sphaeramia orbicularis）的生物量最大。对于物种的空间变化,潟湖湖顶、湖中和湖口首先聚类在一起,这可能是由于基质类型引起的。干季和湿季的鱼类种类、丰度和生物量均比转换季高,这可能是由较强的季风造成的,强季风为鱼类提供了更适宜的环境和食物。93.1%的鱼类的最大体长小于它们的性成熟体长,暗示了海草床是很多鱼类的育幼场。因此,保护海草床对渔业和资源的可持续利用至关重要。