Utilization of a multicriteria least cost path model in an aquatic environment

A critical component of maintaining biodiversity in fragmented habitats is maintaining connectivity among the usable fragments. Least cost path (LCP) analysis is a tool that can be used for predicting the ability of an organism to move from one habitat patch to another, based on geographical features of the landscape and life history traits of the organism. While this analysis has been utilized for terrestrial habitats, it is rarely applied to aquatic environments. Aquatic hypoxic conditions occur when dissolved oxygen falls below 2 mg/L. These conditions can create barriers in the water column that can either force fish to leave a habitat, or avoid that habitat altogether. Using the lower St. Johns River (LSJR) estuary in Florida, USA, as a study system, the ability of an adult silver perch, Bairdiella chrysoura, to escape a large-scale hypoxic event was modeled using a multicriteria LCP approach. Criteria-specific cost grids were constructed based upon current speed, risk of predation, and whether oxygen levels in the habitat area were normoxic (>5.5 mg/L), or hypoxic (<2.0–1.5 mg/L) as a function of water depth for the LSJR. The criteria cost grids were combined using relative weighting to produce the multicriteria cost grid used to implement the LCP analysis. Three origin and destination point locations within the LSJR study area were selected for modeling whether or not a silver perch would be able to escape a hypoxic zone. Since the LCP model will always determine a LCP from the specified origin point location, ecologically relevant swimming capacities for silver perch under normoxic and hypoxic conditions were then applied to assess the model, and to determine whether the fish would be able to reach areas unimpacted by hypoxia. The LCP model and the swimming capacity results for this study predict that under normoxic conditions, fish movement was unimpeded. During the rapidly developing hypoxic event that was modeled, the results from the LCP model indicate that the fish could move outside the hypoxic zone, but when swimming capacities were applied to the model, the silver perch could not escape. Ecologically, the results of this study suggest that silver perch would experience high mortality under a rapidly developing hypoxic event. Additionally, the results of this study indicate that a LCP model can be applied to an aquatic habitat, as long as the cost grids incorporate relevant abiotic and biotic factors.     

ELIMINATING COMPLEX EIGENVECTORS AND EIGENVALUES IN MULTIWAY ANALYSES USING THE DIRECT TRILINEAR DECOMPOSITION METHOD

The direct trilinear decomposition method(DTDM)is an algorithm for performing quantitative curveresolution of three-dimensional data that follow the so-called trilinear model,e.g.chromatography-spectroscopy or emission-excitation fluorescence.Under certain conditions complexeigenvalues and eigenvectors emerge when the generalized eigenproblem is solved in DTDM.Previouspublications never treated those cases.In this paper we show how similarity transformations can be usedto eliminate the imaginary part of the complex eigenvalues and eigenvectors,thereby increasing theusefulness of DTDM in practical applications.The similarity transformation technique was first used byour laboratory to solve the similar problem in the generalized rank annihilation method(GRAM).Because unique elution profiles and spectra can be derived by using data matrices from three or moresamples simultaneously,DTDM with similarity transformations is more efficient than GRAM in the casewhere there are many samples to be investigated.     

A genetic algorithm for designing optimal patch configurations in GIS

Optimal patch design is a generic problem in which the objective is to find the best configuration of patches subject to multiple criteria. It is a hard problem in spatial geometry relevant to numerous applications in spatial planning and analysis. GIS packages do not have optimal patch design functions and there has been very little research in this area. This paper describes a computer system for solving optimal patch design problems in raster GIS. The method uses a genetic algorithm search heuristic combined with a region-growing programme that generates alternative patch configurations. The version described here solves multiple patch problems and was developed from an earlier version for designing single patches. In tests on a hypothetical planning problem the multi-patch version was found to be more efficient, but less effective, than the single patch version. The last part of the paper discusses outstanding issues regarding the applicability usability and external validity of the system and suggests ideas for further research.     

AN AUTOMATIC PROCEDURE FOR ESTIMATING SPRING SMALL GRAINS ACREAGE FROM LANDSAT DATA

The development and testing of a computerized technique for utilizing multitemporal Landsat multispectral scanner data to estimate spring small grains acreage are described. The Kauth-Thomas green number transformation is applied to the data prior to application of the pixel-level standardized logic. Four years of data from the U.S. and Canada are used in testing. A comparison of the test results to those of the analyst-intensive procedures indicates a potential for increase in near-harvest estimation efficiency with little sacrifice in accuracy.     

Geology and regional significance of the Sarnoo Hills,eastern rift margin of the Barmer Basin,NW India

The Barmer Basin is a poorly understood rift basin in Rajasthan, northwest India. Exposures in the Sarnoo Hills, situated along the central eastern rift margin of the Barmer Basin, reveal a sedimentary succession that accumulated prior to the main Barmer Basin rift event, and a rift‐oblique fault network that displays unusual geometries and characteristics. Here, we present a comprehensive study of Lower Cretaceous sedimentology on the basin margin, along with a detailed investigation of rift‐oblique faults that are exposed nowhere else in the region and provide critical insights into Barmer Basin evolution. Lower Cretaceous sediments were deposited within a rapidly subsiding alluvial plain fluvial system. Subsequent to deposition, the evolving Sarnoo Hills fault network was affected by structural inheritance during an early, previously unrecognised, rift‐oblique extensional event attributed to transtension between India and Madagascar, and formed a juvenile fault network within the immediate rift‐margin footwall. Ghaggar‐Hakra Formation deposition may have been triggered by early rifting which tectonically destabilised the Marwar Craton prior to the main northeast–southwest Barmer Basin rift event. The identification of early rifting in the Barmer Basin demonstrates that regional extension and the associated rift systems were established throughout northwest India prior to the main phase of Deccan eruptions. Inheritance of early oblique fault systems within the evolving Barmer Basin provides a robust explanation for poorly understood structural complications interpreted in the subsurface throughout the rift. Critically, the presence of syn‐rift sedimentary successions within older oblique rift systems obscured beneath the present‐day Barmer Basin has significant implications for hydrocarbon exploration.