Spatio-temporal variability of small copepods (especially Oithona plumifera) in shallow nearshore waters off the south coast of South Africa

Although small copepods are one of the main dietary sources for many commercially important fish, their role in the pelagic trophic dynamics has traditionally been underestimated due to the methodology commonly used in plankton sampling. Temporal variation in abundance of adults and nauplii of small copepods (particularly Oithona plumifera) in nearshore waters on the south coast of South Africa was investigated fortnightly over 14 months at site (km) and location (100 m) scales. Sampling was within <500 m of the shore, where depth was ca. 10 m, using vertical hauls of an 80-μm mesh plankton net from 1 m above the seabed to the surface. Twenty-seven adult copepod taxa were recorded, but Oithona spp. was consistently the most abundant. Taxon richness was 7–19 on each sampling occasion. There was strong temporal variation (Oithona varied between 0 and 2300 m⁻³), but much of this was short-term variability (e.g. between consecutive sampling sessions), with no seasonality or other long-term discernable patterns. There were periods of consistently low numbers, but very high numbers often followed samples with low abundances. Nor was there spatial structure at the location scale, though numbers differed between sites. Despite considerable variability at the location scale within sites, Kenton consistently showed higher densities than High Rocks. Separate analyses, with Bonferroni adjustment, showed that this difference was significant on eight out of 21 occasions for Oithona, six for other pelagic copepods and three for nauplii. This suggests that hydrodynamics favour aggregation of plankton at Kenton. A high degree of short-term variability, with a tendency for aggregation of small zooplankton at certain sites has implications for both pelagic processes and food-web links between the benthic and pelagic environments.     

Diet of albacore Thunnus alalunga from the waters of Mauritius (western Indian Ocean) inferred from stomach contents and fatty acid analysis

The diet of albacore Thunnus alalunga from their spawning ground in the waters of Mauritius was investigated. The stomach contents of 249 albacore individuals, caught by industrial longliners and artisanal fishers, was analysed, and the dominant prey taxa were selected for lipid and fatty acid (FA) analysis. The FA profiles of prey were compared with those of liver tissue of spawning-capable and post-spawning female albacore, using multivariate analysis. Whereas stomach content analysis identified cephalopods and crustaceans as the dominant prey items in number, FA-profile analysis identified crustaceans and fishes as the most-frequently consumed prey of post-spawning female albacore. In contrast, the FA profiles of spawning-capable albacore and those of prey showed very low similarity. Analysis of the prey suggests that although cephalopods, crustaceans and fishes could all provide albacore with the required lipids and FAs, cephalopod prey seem to be less desirable owing to their lower energy content (i.e. low in total lipid, triacylglycerol, 16:0, 18:0 and 18:1ω9). Instead, the most beneficial food appeared to be locally available fishes, which are more energy-rich and have a higher docosahexaenoic acid/ eicosapentaenoic acid ratio. These results provide new information on the trophic ecology of albacore, promote our understanding of the importance of prey type for successful reproduction of albacore, and highlight the advantages of FA profiling to study diet.     

Feeding intensity and molecular prey identification of the mantis shrimp,Oratosquilla oratoria (De Haan, 1844), in the Tianjin coastal zone of Bohai Bay

Bohai Bay, a representative semi-enclosed bay of China, has been severely impacted in recent decades by rapid human development. Although the mantis shrimp Oratosquilla oratoria plays an important role in the Bohai Bay ecosystem and fishery, its feeding ecology and the impact of habitat changes on its feeding habits are poorly known. In this study, we sought to identify its feeding strategy through the separation of stomach contents, and to describe its trophic ecology during maturation in the Tianjin coastal zone of Bohai Bay by the DNA barcoding method using a fragment (about 690 bp) of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (CO I) gene. A total of 594 specimens were collected from March to July 2018, and 347 (58.42%) stomachs were found to have food remains. More than half of the O. oratoria individuals had poor feeding activity, and the degree of feeding of females was higher than that of males, but there was no significant difference in the visual fullness index and the fullness weight index (FWI) between sexes for each month. In addition, the feeding activity of O. oratoria was consistent across the months, suggesting in artificial breeding programs it is not worried too much about the accessional diet supplied to the female bloodstocks except maintaining their normal food. A total of 167 retrieved prey items yielded 187 readable sequences; 86.63% of these sequences could be assigned to the species level. Consequently, 25 different prey taxa covering all readable sequences were identified, showing O. oratoria is a generalist predator. In terms of percent composition by frequency of occurrences (%N), crustaceans and fishes accounted for the same and highest percentage (35.83%) in the mantis shrimp diet, followed by mollusks (24.59%) and the remaining marine organisms (3.73%) including Polychaeta (2.67%), Sagittoidea (0.53%), and Chromadorea (0.53%). The result shows the benthic fish Oxudercidae (family) appears to be an especially important food supply for O. oratoria during maturation. The degree of cannibalism decreased with an increase in diet species and the frequencies of cannibalism in this study was noticeably higher than that in previous studies, suggesting that cannibalism may be a significant feeding strategy in the mantis shrimp O. oratoria in the Tianjin coastal zone of Bohai Bay, and because of the frequently cannibalistic behavior, the high stocking density of broodstocks should be avoided.     

基于局部回波幅值统计的海杂波背景下小目标检测

针对传统舰载雷达和岸基雷达很难检测出海杂波背景下小目标的现状,提出一种基于局部回波幅值统计的方法来检测海杂波背景下小目标.该算法基于数学统计思想:计算不同距离单元海杂波的幅值的最大值和标准偏差,分析发现距离单元含有小目标回波的最大幅值明显小于其它距离单元只含有海杂波回波的最大幅值,距离单元含有小目标回波的幅值的标准偏差明显大于距离单元只含有海杂波回波的幅值的标准偏差,因此可以在对小目标没有任何先验知识条件下,较准确地检测出海杂波背景下的小目标.实验证明,该算法是有效的.     

遥感监测下的渝东南小城镇镇区拓展特征探究

DUAN Songjiang     

Malaria and related environmental issues in India: a case study of Aligarh city

Malaria is one of the most widespread diseases in the world. Endemic malaria no longer occurs in many temperate zones as a result of social and economic improvement. At present malaria is the Third World's most dreaded killer. It kills over 1 million people and causes 300–500 million episodes of illness. In India, malaria-reported deaths have shown an upward trend. In 1955, a drive to eradicate malaria was launched in India. But after initial success it failed and malaria made a comeback. Malarial mosquitoes generally prefer unpolluted natural breeding sites but now they have adapted to the changed urban environment. In this paper, an attempt has been made to examine the occurrence of malaria and related environmental issues in a small town of India. Aligarh city, lying in the shadow of the country's capital New Delhi, was selected as a case study. Data were collected mainly from household surveys with the help of questionnaire interviews. About 2,185 households belonging to different income groups were sampled. The differences in the occurrence of malaria in the different income households (in 87% low, 69% lower-middle, 65% middle, 14% upper-middle, and 5% upper) suggest that most of these differences are related to the environmental conditions existing inside and outside their homes, such as poor drainage system, poor sullage disposal, open blocked drains, waterlogging and indoor water storage in open containers. Commitment both by the Government and local residents is needed to improve the environmental conditions and eradicate malaria.     

胶结钙质土的室内试验研究进展

天然胶结钙质土是广泛分布于热带及亚热带海洋中由生物碎屑经碳酸钙胶结或固结而形成的碳酸盐岩类。其独特的工程性质常常给岩土工程设计与施工带来麻烦,也正因此引起了研究者的兴趣并对其开展了较为全面的试验研究工作。针对天然胶结钙质土、人工胶结钙质土的室内试验以及人工胶结钙质土试样的制备等3方面取得的研究进展进行总结回顾,汇总了胶结钙质土的基本应力-应变行为以及围压、初始密度及胶结度等主要参数的影响规律,指出了研究中尚存在的问题,并对胶结钙质土的进一步的研究工作进行了展望。该工作必将对此领域的研究具有借鉴和指导意义。     

基于RS和GIS的小城镇建设土地利用优化研究

提出了利用卫星遥感数据和GIS空间信息分析技术进行土地利用空间优化配置的方法,分析了小城镇土地利用结构特点及小城镇建设和土地开发利用过程中存在的问题,实现了对洛带镇土地利用变化的监测和土地利用结构的优化。