Intertidal distribution and feeding habits of the mud crab,Eurytium limosum

Average summer densities of the xanthid crab,Eurytium limosum, in an intertidal salt marsh on Sapelo Island, Georgia were in the range of 7.5 to 80.0 individuals m^?2. Crab densities were lowest in wet, lowlying marsh and highest in well-drained creekbank and mussel mound habitats. An analysis of crab stomach contents indicated that feeding occurred mostly around high tide, especially at night. Although the diet included some plant material,Eurytium limosum is primarily predatory and consumed crabs, polychaetes, ostracods, bivalves, and snails. In the laboratory, under simulated low-tide field conditions, both small (11–15 mm carapace width) and large (20–37 mm CW)Eurytium could capture and consume young killifish (Fundulus heteroclitus). Large crabs consumed the entire size range (7–19 mm total length) of larval/juvenile fish offered, but small crabs did not prey upon fish >11.5 mm TL. The potential importance ofE. limosum as a predator on young killifish may not be realized in the field because alternative prey are available and the crabs feed primarily at high tide, when young killifish are dispersed in the water column and are less vulnerable to benthic predators.     

The influence of nonlinear material properties and resistance to bending on the development of internal structures

A reexamination of Biot's internal instability analysis, including the effects of bending resistance and nonlinear material properties, shows that internal buckling and oblique localized shearing into bands are the two end-member processes associated with internal instability. The first is a consequence of a high anisotropy which is an intrinsic property of the original unstressed layering or foliation. The second is a consequence of a highly anisotropic material response to perturbations which is induced during the initial uniform compression if material properties are nonlinear. The incremental anisotropy generating the instability is associated with planes of least resistance to shearing in directions parallel to the initial compression in the first case and at 45° to the initial compression in the second case.     

Efficacy of minnow traps for sampling mummichogs in tidal marshes

We evaluated two types of wire-mesh minnow traps for sampling mummichogs (Fundulus heteroclitus) from intertidal rivulets on the surface of a salt marsh. In field trials, mean catch (no. of fish trap⁻¹) did not differ significantly between trap types nor across soak times ranging from 30 to 240 min. Catch rate (no. of fish trap⁻¹ min⁻¹) was significantly (K-W ANOVA on ranked data, H_4df=24.79; p<0.001) greater at shorter soak times, and larger size classes (>45 mm TL) of fish were relatively more abundant (Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, p<0.0001) in collections from double-funnel cylindrical traps (volume=10,330 cm³) compared to rectangular traps having about twice the volume and a single funnel cylindrical traps (volume=10,330 cm³) compared to rectangular traps having about twice the volume and a single funnel opening. We estimated entry and escape rates by adding marked fish to traps at initial densities of 30, 60, and 120 trap⁻¹ and measuring changes in the numbers of marked and unmarked fish in each trap type at soak times ranging from 15 to 120 min during the flood stage of the tidal cycle. Escape rate was almost, twice as great from the two-funnel cylindrical traps (0.77 fish min⁻¹) than from the single-funnel rectangular type (0.42 fish min⁻¹) but entry rates did not differ significantly (K-W ANOVA, H_4df=0.06; p=0.813) between trap types. Escape rate increased and entry rate decreased as fish density within traps was increased. Escape rates were highest immediately following immersion of the traps, but approached a constant value after 30 min. Trap-specific rates of entry and escape can be affected by a variety of factors including physical characteristics of different trap types, method and timing of trap deployment, and fish behavior. Catch data from minnow traps are unlikely to be useful in measuring relative abundance of mummichogs among habitats unless very short soak times (≤60 min) are used and calibration tests are performed. Use of longer soak times virtually ignores the dynamics involved in determining catch, and is unlikely to provide accurate information on either abundance or size distribution of mummichogs from tidal marsh habitats.     

The effects of stock size and environmental variability on Cape hake recruitment in Namibia: an unsolved puzzle (a comment on Kainge et al. 2013)

Measuring and forecasting recruitment are central to the understanding and management of fish stocks. Kainge et al. (2013) studied the effect of spawning stock size and environmental fluctuations on the recruitment levels of the Cape hake Merluccius capensis in Namibia. However, their study contains some flaws that undermine the conclusion that Cape hake recruitment is under the influence of upwelling in summer. Until those flaws are properly addressed, this conclusion, in our view, should be treated with caution.     

Multiscale cluster lens mass mapping – I. Strong lensing modelling

We propose a novel technique to refine the modelling of galaxy cluster mass distribution using gravitational lensing. The idea is to combine the strengths of both 'parametric' and 'non-parametric' methods to improve the quality of the fit. We develop a multiscale model that allows sharper contrast in regions of higher density where the number of constraints is generally higher. Our model consists of (i) a multiscale grid of radial basis functions with physically motivated profiles and (ii) a list of galaxy-scale potentials at the location of the cluster member galaxies. This arrangement of potentials of different sizes allows us to reach a high resolution for the model with a minimum number of parameters. We apply our model to the well-studied cluster Abell 1689. We estimate the quality of our mass reconstruction with a Bayesian Monte Carlo Markov Chain sampler. For a selected subset of multiple images, we manage to halve the errors between the positions of predicted and observed images compared to previous studies. This is due to the flexibility of multiscale models at intermediate scale between cluster and galaxy scale. The software developed for this paper is part of the public lenstool package which can be found at http://www.oamp.fr/cosmology/lenstool .     

Early life stages of resident nekton in intertidal marshes

Variability in early life stages of species that are permanent residents of the estuarine nekton is poorly understood, especially in systems with extensive areas of emergent vegetation (e.g., salt marshes and mangroves). Sampling small mobile nekton in these shallow intertidal habitats presents a difficult methodological challenge. Simulated aquatic microhabitats (SAMs) were used to collect the early life stages of resident nekton that remained on the emergent marsh surface after it was exposed by the tide and could not be adequately sampled by traditional methods. Where the intertidal is a prominent areal component of the estuary, a large portion of young nekton could be overlooked using other common survey methods (e.g., plankton tows or block nets). Populations of young fishes and natant crustaceans were monitored for a year at 3-d to 6-d intervals from both low and high intertidal elevations within each of two marsh sites on Sapelo Island, Georgia, USA. Three species accounted for >99% of the 41,023 individuals collected. These were the killifishesFundulus heteroclitus (57.0%) andF. luciae (4.0%), and the daggerblade grass shrimp,Palaemonetes pugio (38.4%). YoungF. heteroclitus were used in field enclosure experiments to relate abundance data to actual areal densities. Average annual estimated density of young nekton on the surface of the intertidal marsh at low tide was 7.2 individuals m^?2. Early life stages of estuarine resident species, particularly those with demersal young, are not affected by the same physical processes influencing larval supply and recruitment variability in marine-spawned species. In salt marshes, biotic factors (e.g., adult reproductive activity, predation, and food limitation) may be more important as proximate causes of variation during the early life histories of resident nekton.