Hasil untuk "General. Including nature conservation, geographical distribution"

Junhe Mao, Feng Li, Jiaqing Hu

Maritime accidents are lethal threats to lives, economies, and the environment as a result of which there is a need to develop advanced prediction models for early risk identification. In this paper, a novel framework integrated with Capsule Neural Networks (CapsNets) and a Modified Orangutan Optimization (MOO) algorithm is proposed to predict maritime accident hotspots. The CapsNet model captures spatio-temporal dependencies from the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) dataset, while the MOO fine-tunes hyperparameters toward maximizing model accuracy and generalization. Experimental results suggest that the framework works exceedingly well against the baseline models by achieving an accuracy of 91.2%, while improving precision and recall, and reducing error rates on the contrary. Geospatial heatmaps and decision boundary visualizations strengthen the claim regarding the model’s capacity to identify high-hazard zones and clearly categorize incident types. Compelling case studies illustrate its potential for reducing response time through proactive monitoring and preparedness, which is possible only through integrating information with prediction methods. The study takes maritime safety analytics into a very intelligent and data-driven domain by overcoming shortcomings of existing predictive methods. The framework opens the door to the future integration into rescue resource planning systems, where predicted risk zones will inform strategies for asset deployment.

Leily Bakhtiari

The Metaverse, as a hypothetical virtual environment utilizing advanced technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things, has the potential to contribute to the sustainability of future smart cities, enhancing urban efficiency and quality of life. In this regard, the present study aims to analyze the framework of immersive Metaverse spaces for the sustainability of future smart cities in the metropolitan area of Tehran. The research strategy is application-oriented, and the methodology is descriptive-analytical, based on exploratory futures research methods. The theoretical data were collected using a documentary method, and the empirical data were gathered through a survey method based on the Delphi technique. The target population of this study included urban experts, and a purposive sample of 70 individuals was selected. To analyze the data, the Delphi method, structural analysis in the MICMAC environment, and Scenario Wizard software were employed. The findings revealed that indicators such as transparency, demand reduction, urban simulation, and digital education play significant roles in improving smart urban sustainability. Additionally, the study demonstrated that the Metaverse can serve as an effective tool for optimizing resource consumption, increasing citizen participation, and mitigating urban risks. The final results suggest that to fully harness the potential of the Metaverse, it is necessary to strengthen digital infrastructures, enhance technology-related education, and improve cybersecurity. Overall, it is recommended that policymakers in Tehran focus on developing Metaverse technologies and integrating them with urban systems to leverage all the capabilities of this technology.

Amr E. Keshta, Najlaa H. Almohmadi, Wafaa F. Abusudah

Wendy A. Mustaqim, Zulfan Arico, Aryo A. Condro et al.

Sajad Alipour, Maryam Behroozian

Maggie Dakin, Joshua Patterson, Alex Petrosino et al.

IntroductionIndividuals of some marine species can modify their phenotype in response to environmental factors, allowing them to adapt to new conditions throughout their ontogeny. Echinoids represent an ecologically significant taxon that exhibit such plasticity throughout a biphasic life history in response to known biotic and abiotic factors. Preliminary lab-based observations have suggested that morphological traits, specifically pluteal arm length, may be influenced by physical processes such as hydrodynamic flow during planktotrophic larval development. This dynamic remains understudied despite potentially critical demographic implications.MethodsHere, we tested the effect of continuous exposure to different shear stress treatments on larval morphology and life history timing shifts in three co-occurring species: Lytechinus variegatus, Tripneustes ventricosus, and Diadema antillarum.ResultsBoth T. ventricosus and D. antillarum displayed significantly longer postoral arms and increased percent metamorphic competence in response to greater shear. Treatment effects were not observed for L. variegatus.DiscussionThese findings represent the first observation of morphogenic plasticity in response to a hydrodynamic factor for larval echinoderms. Species-specific effects revealed a plasticity continuum which may be mediated by phylogeny, ecological niche, and/or functional morphology. This dynamic response offers insights into larval dispersal and recruitment potential, adult distribution, and the boom-and-bust cycles characteristic of ecologically relevant echinoid populations.

Giovanni Amori, Luca Luiselli

Davy Fonteyn, Adeline Fayolle, Julia E. Fa et al.

Abstract Engaging local communities is pivotal for wildlife conservation beyond protected areas, aligning with the 30 × 30 target of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. We assessed the effectiveness of 33 offtake indicators, derived from hunter declarations, in monitoring the status and extent of degradation of hunted wildlife sourced from camera trap surveys and faunal composition analysis. The rodents:ungulates ratio in offtake and the mean body mass of total offtake emerged as practical and robust indicators of faunal degradation within hunting systems, with significant potential for broader application in similar tropical forest environments. Our findings provide a blueprint for managing and conserving natural resources in tropical regions through community-based initiatives. Involving local stakeholders ensures sustainable wildlife use and fosters ownership and responsibility. This study advances conservation efforts, bridging scientific rigor with community engagement for effective biodiversity preservation.

Ahmad Bin Afzal, Nabil Mohammed, Shehab Ahmed et al.

Climate change has led to an increase in the frequency and severity of extreme weather events, posing significant challenges for power distribution systems. In response, this work presents a planning approach in order to enhance the resilience of distribution systems against climatic hazards. The framework systematically addresses uncertainties during extreme events, including weather variability and line damage. Key strategies include line hardening, backup diesel generators, and sectionalizers to strengthen resilience. We model spatio-temporal dynamics and costs through a hybrid model integrating stochastic processes with deterministic elements. A two-stage stochastic mixed-integer linear approach is developed to optimize resilience investments against load loss, generator operations, and repairs. Case studies on the IEEE 15-bus benchmark system and a realistic distribution grid model in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia demonstrate enhanced system robustness as well as cost efficiency of 10% and 15%, respectively.

Burak Ekim, Michael Schmitt

In recent decades, the causes and consequences of climate change have accelerated, affecting our planet on an unprecedented scale. This change is closely tied to the ways in which humans alter their surroundings. As our actions continue to impact natural areas, using satellite images to observe and measure these effects has become crucial for understanding and combating climate change. Aiming to map land naturalness on the continuum of modern human pressure, we have developed a multi-modal supervised deep learning framework that addresses the unique challenges of satellite data and the task at hand. We incorporate contextual and geographical priors, represented by corresponding coordinate information and broader contextual information, including and surrounding the immediate patch to be predicted. Our framework improves the model's predictive performance in mapping land naturalness from Sentinel-2 data, a type of multi-spectral optical satellite imagery. Recognizing that our protective measures are only as effective as our understanding of the ecosystem, quantifying naturalness serves as a crucial step toward enhancing our environmental stewardship.

Wanda Kuswanda, Freddy Jontara Hutapea, Titiek Setyawati

Myeong-Taek Kwak, Yang-Ki Cho

A high-resolution, three-dimensional numerical ocean model was employed to understand the exchange flow through Noryang Channel, which connects Gwangyang Bay and Jinju Bay. These two bays exhibit contrasting topographies, with Gwangyang Bay connected to the open ocean through a broad and deep channel, whereas Jinju Bay is relatively isolated from the open ocean by a narrow and shallow channel. Numerical experiments were conducted to determine the contribution of river discharge, wind stress, surface heat flux, and tides to the exchange flow between the two bays during summer. The results suggested that river discharge was the dominant factor affecting the exchange flow along Noryang Channel. Particularly, a high river discharge during summer increased the sea level in Jinju Bay, creating a barotropic flow toward Gwangyang Bay. However, the dense water entering Gwangyang Bay through the wide and deep channel generated a baroclinic flow toward Jinju Bay along the lower layer of Noryang Channel. An analytical model supported the conclusion that river discharge is the main driver of the exchange flow in Noryang Channel.

Christina M. Burnham, Erin A. McKenney, Kimberly Ange‐van Heugten et al.

Abstract The southern white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum simum) faces an uncertain future in the wild due to increased poaching pressure and habitat fragmentation, thus the management of reproductively successful populations is of critical importance. Successful reproductive outcomes in rhinoceros may be mediated by diet and gut microbial diversity; therefore, understanding gut microbial dynamics within and between captive and wild populations may help improve conservation efforts. Accordingly, gut microbiome preservation methods are needed that are practical for in situ field sampling of wild populations. We evaluated the efficacy of 3 different preservation methods over 2 timepoints for stabilizing microbial communities in feces from southern white rhinoceros (n = 10) at the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro, North Carolina, USA, during July–September 2020 and January–March 2021. Samples were immediately frozen at −80°C, stored in PERFORMAbiome™·GUT (PB) tubes or stored in 95% ethanol at ambient temperatures (to simulate field conditions), and processed after 14 or 230 days post‐collection. We quantitatively compared alpha and beta diversity across microbial communities and identified taxa that were enriched in each treatment group. Samples preserved in 95% ethanol consistently harbored lower Shannon diversity index (SHDI) and Simpson's diversity (SDI) values compared to Frozen and PB samples. This trend was apparent in both Ethanol day‐14 samples (SHDI 4.94; SDI 0.98) versus Frozen day‐14 (SHDI 5.19; W = 518, P < 0.001; SDI 0.99; W = 476, P < 0.001) and PB day‐14 (SHDI 5.15; W = 430, P < 0.01; SDI 0.99; W = 1075, P = 1) samples, and in Ethanol day‐230 samples (SHDI 4.48; SDI 0.97) versus Frozen day‐230 (SHDI 5.18; W = 0, P < 0.05; SDI 0.99; W = 0, P = 0.032) and PB day‐230 (SHDI 5.23; W = 0, P < 0.05; SDI 0.99; W = 0, P = 0.032) samples. Ethanol day 230 samples differed (P < 0.05) from all other treatments in both alpha and beta diversity indices. Notably, frozen and PB preservation methods maintained compositionally similar microbial communities across both time points. Our results indicate that PB tubes stored at ambient temperatures perform similarly to freezing at −80°C, highlighting their utility for microbiome fieldwork applications. Identifying optimal and versatile microbiome preservation techniques will enable future studies of the gut microbiome in reproductively‐successful wild populations, an effort central to conservation efforts in the southern white rhinoceros and other threatened species.

Lucy Chai, Richard Tucker, Zhengqi Li et al.

Despite increasingly realistic image quality, recent 3D image generative models often operate on 3D volumes of fixed extent with limited camera motions. We investigate the task of unconditionally synthesizing unbounded nature scenes, enabling arbitrarily large camera motion while maintaining a persistent 3D world model. Our scene representation consists of an extendable, planar scene layout grid, which can be rendered from arbitrary camera poses via a 3D decoder and volume rendering, and a panoramic skydome. Based on this representation, we learn a generative world model solely from single-view internet photos. Our method enables simulating long flights through 3D landscapes, while maintaining global scene consistency--for instance, returning to the starting point yields the same view of the scene. Our approach enables scene extrapolation beyond the fixed bounds of current 3D generative models, while also supporting a persistent, camera-independent world representation that stands in contrast to auto-regressive 3D prediction models. Our project page: https://chail.github.io/persistent-nature/.

Pola Schwöbel, Jacek Golebiowski, Michele Donini et al.

Large language models (LLMs) encode vast amounts of world knowledge. However, since these models are trained on large swaths of internet data, they are at risk of inordinately capturing information about dominant groups. This imbalance can propagate into generated language. In this work, we study and operationalise a form of geographical erasure, wherein language models underpredict certain countries. We demonstrate consistent instances of erasure across a range of LLMs. We discover that erasure strongly correlates with low frequencies of country mentions in the training corpus. Lastly, we mitigate erasure by finetuning using a custom objective.

Thulani Tshabalala, Onisimo Mutanga, Elfatih M. Abdel-Rahman

There has been a recent rise in the number of medicinal plant users in Southern Africa, with approximately a million users reported to utilize these plants for various health conditions. Unfortunately, some of these plants are reportedly endangered and facing extinction due to harvesting pressure. In addition, climate change is likely to negatively affect the geographical distribution of these medicinal plants. In the current study, future greenhouse gas emission scenarios of the representative concentration pathways, RCP2.6 and RCP8.5, for future projections to 2050 and 2080 were used to simulate the effect of climate change on three medicinal plants’ (Aloe ferox, Bowiea volubilis, and Dioscorea elephantipes) distribution in South Africa. We studied these plant species as the International Union for Conservation of Nature stated that A. ferox is currently of least concern in South Africa, while B. volubilis and D. elephantipes are categorised as declining and vulnerable, respectively. Specifically, we utilised a species distribution model (i.e., the maximum entropy: MaxEnt) to investigate the effect of climate change on the future spatial distribution of medicinal plants in South Africa. In 2050 and 2080, under both RCP scenarios, the suitable habitat of the studied plant species will reduce in the country’s northern parts. Specifically, the habitat for D. elephantipes will totally disappear in the country’s northern parts. However, there will be slight additions of suitable habitats for the species in the country’s southern parts. Model validation indicated that the area under curve (AUC) for A. ferox was 0.924 ± 0.004, while for B. volubilis and D. elephantipes it was 0.884 ± 0.050 and 0.944 ± 0.030, respectively. Using the results from this study, there is a need for the long-term in situ and ex situ conservation of these medicinal plants. The results of the present study could guide the development of effective and efficient policies and strategies for managing and conserving medicinal plants in South Africa.

ChenYan Wu, XiaoGu Wang, JunSheng Zhong et al.

The objective of this study was to investigate influence of meso-scale eddies in the western South China Sea on species composition and spatial patterns of fish larvae and juveniles based on the data collected during summer and autumn in 2012. Nintyeight species belonging to 38 families were collected, including 78 species in summer and 41 species in autumn. The dominant species in summer were Vinciguerria sp. (39.70%), Stephanolepis cirrhifer (11.21%), Caranx sp. (5.45%) and Benthosema pterotum (1.97%). The dominant species in autumn were Gobiidae sp. (15.32%), Ceratoscopelus townsendi (7.26%), Diaphus sp. (6.45%), Astronesthes sp. (5.65%) and Callionymidae sp. (4.03%). Abundance of fish larvae and juveniles in summer was higher than that found in autumn. Similarity cluster analysis results indicated that larval fish assemblages in summer can be divided into two communities: (1) larval fish in the cyclonic eddy; (2) larval fish in the anticyclonic eddies. While in autumn, the larval fish assemblages can be divided into three communities: (1) larval fish without influence of the cyclonic eddy; (2) larval fish influenced slightly by the cyclonic eddy; (3) larval fish gathered near the center of the cyclonic eddy. The variations of abundance and assemblage of larval fish might be attributed to sea surface temperature (SST), sea surface salinity (SSS) and sea level anomaly (SLA).

Maysoon Lundevall-Zara, Maysoon Lundevall-Zara, Maysoon Lundevall-Zara et al.

We report sea-air fluxes of methane in physically and biologically distinct inshore habitats of the Baltic Sea with the goal to establish empirical relationships that allow upscaling of local site-specific flux measurements. Flux measurements were conducted using floating chambers with and without bubble shields, and by using a boundary layer gas transfer model before, during, and after an annually occurring algal bloom from June to October 2019. Water and air temperature, salinity, wind, sediment organic content, and organic content of floating algal biomass were found to successfully discriminate the different habitats in terms of methane flux, both over periods of days and over a season. Multivariate statistical analysis was used to establish the relative environmental forcing of methane emissions over one growth season for each flux method. Floating algal biomass carbon and sediment organic content were identified as the most important controlling factors for methane emissions based on flux chamber measurements over a period of days to weeks, whereas water and air temperature and wind velocity were the most important factors based on the gas transfer model on these time scales. Over the season, water and air temperature were the most important controlling factors with both methods. We present a first attempt how our observations can be extrapolated to determine the coastal methane emission along the coastline.

Fiona Bairstow, Sven Gastauer, Sven Gastauer et al.

Antarctic krill are subject to precautionary catch limits, based on biomass estimates, to ensure human activities do not adversely impact their important ecological role. Accurate target strength models of individual krill underpin biomass estimates. These models are scaled using measured and estimated distributions of length and orientation. However, while the length distribution of a krill swarm is accessible from net samples, there is currently limited consensus on the method for estimating krill orientation distribution. This leads to a limiting factor in biomass calculations. In this work, we consider geometric shape as a variable in target strength calculations and describe a practical method for generating a catalog of krill shapes. A catalog of shapes produces a more variable target strength response than an equivalent population of a scaled generic shape. Furthermore, using a shape catalog has the greatest impact on backscattering cross-section (linearized target strength) where the dominant scattering mechanism is mie scattering, irrespective of orientation distribution weighting. We suggest that shape distributions should be used in addition to length and orientation distributions to improve the accuracy of krill biomass estimates.

Qianchu Zhang, Boris Katsnelson

We report herein an underwater biological chorus coming from the margin of the New Jersey Atlantic continental shelf that we tentatively attribute to a species of fish. The chorus occurred every night for over a month during the Shallow Water 2006 experiment and covers the frequency band 150–4,800 Hz, with maximum intensity in the band from 1450 to 2,000 Hz. Remarkable intensity peaks occurred at 500, 725, 960, 1,215, 1,465, 1,700, and 1,920 Hz, rising to as much as 20 dB above the background noise without the chorus. The chorus begins at sunset and reaches its maximum intensity within an hour, following which it weakens slightly and then gradually climbs again to a peak before sunrise, at which point it quickly weakens and disappears. Its frequency-domain characteristics and the nocturnal timing are reminiscent of sound produced by underwater animals. The intensity of the chorus weakens along the across-shelf path going shoreward, which indicates that the chorus originates from the margin of the continental shelf rather than from the coastal zone, as is generally considered. The chorus contains a single type of acoustic signal that takes the form of double-pulse bursts that last about 8.7 ms, with each pulse containing several acoustic cycles. The time interval between successive bursts varies from 1.5 to 1.9 s. Signals containing a number of bursts vary in length from tens to hundreds of seconds. Although it is impossible to determine the fish species responsible for the chorus, its characteristics, including its low frequency and intensity, its single type of short-duration sound signal, and its multiple peaks in the frequency domain, are all consistent with the general characteristics of fish sounds.