Assessing the recovery of fish assemblages downstream of hydrological barriers in India's Western Ghats

River flow regulation by dams and barrages threatens freshwater fish diversity globally. However, factors contributing to the recovery of fish communities downstream of barriers to river flow are not well understood. It is crucial to identify processes that might enable river restoration despite the presence of river barriers. In this study, we assess recovery of fish species, including endemics, downstream of large and small barriers in the Malaprabha basin in the Western Ghats of India. We define “fish species recovery” as the proportion of fish species occurring in river reaches downstream of barriers, of the species pool occurring in upstream unregulated segments with similar elevation, stream order, and habitat characteristics. As per the serial discontinuity concept, we predicted that recovery will reduce immediately after, but gradually increase with, increasing distance downstream of barriers, due to contributions from unregulated streams joining the river. As expected, fish recovery decreased immediately downstream of barriers and increased at greater distances and declined when the number of upstream barriers increased, indicating cumulative impacts. Dissolved oxygen and total alkalinity were positively and negatively correlated with both recovery and distance from barrier. Water temperature and rocky instream habitat influenced recovery positively, but independent of distance from barriers. Recovery of fish species, including Western Ghats endemics, was promising even under the current level of river regulation in the area, mainly due to connectivity with undammed tributaries. Strict limits on future stream regulation within already regulated basins will be critical for conservation of freshwater fish biodiversity in this region.     

Spectroscopic classification of tropical forest species using radiative transfer modeling

Leaf spectroscopy may be useful for tropical species discrimination, but few studies have provided an understanding of the spectral separability of species or how leaf spectroscopy scales to the canopy level relevant to mapping. Here we report on a study to classify humid tropical forest canopy species using field-measured leaf optical properties with leaf and canopy radiative transfer models. The experimental dataset included 188 canopy species collected in humid tropical forests of Hawaii. The leaf optical model PROSPECT-5 was used to simulate the leaf spectra of each species, which was used to train a classifier based on Linear Discriminant Analysis, and a canopy radiative transfer model 4SAIL2 to scale leaf measurements to the canopy level. The relationship linking classification accuracy at the leaf level to biodiversity showed an asymptotic trend reaching a maximum error of 47% when applied to the entire 188 species experimental dataset, and 56% when a simulated dataset showing amplified within-species spectral variability was used, suggesting uniqueness of the spectral signature for a significant proportion of species under study. The maximum error in canopy-level species classification was higher than leaf-level classification: 55% when canopy structure was held constant, and 64% with varying and unknown canopy structure. However, when classifying fewer species at a time, errors dropped considerably; for example, 20 species can be classified to 82-88% accuracy. These results highlight the potential of imaging spectroscopy to provide species discrimination in high-diversity, humid tropical forests.     

Artificial neural networks and naturally ventilated buildings

The author found that the results obtained were reliable and indicates that neural networks can be used as a predictor for investigating window opening configurations to study the effects on interior air motion. Further study is needed in the development of the database to cover wider architectural parameters and the implementation of new types of network is also needed, as well as the need to consider variation spatial coefficients more fully.     

BIPV: a real-time building performance study for a roof-integrated facility

Building integrated photovoltaic system (BIPV) is a photovoltaic (PV) integration that generates energy and serves as a building envelope. A building element (e.g. roof and wall) is based on its functional performance, which could include structure, durability, maintenance, weathering, thermal insulation, acoustics, and so on. The present paper discusses the suitability of PV as a building element in terms of thermal performance based on a case study of a 5.25?kW_p roof-integrated BIPV system in tropical regions. Performance of PV has been compared with conventional construction materials and various scenarios have been simulated to understand the impact on occupant comfort levels. In the current case study, PV as a roofing material has been shown to cause significant thermal discomfort to the occupants. The study has been based on real-time data monitoring supported by computer-based building simulation model.     

Diel variation of limnological parameters in a reservoir in northeastern Brazil (Boa Esperança, Maranhão/Piauí): Rainy period

The diel variation of limnological parameters, measured in Boa Esperança Reservoir, Brazil during the rainy period, exhibited small temperature gradients characterized by an increase in temperature by midday, followed by a partial homogenization of the water column in the night and the early morning. The result was an increase in the epilimnion to a depth of 17 m. The pH and dissolved oxygen concentrations showed higher values at the surface, with the occurrence of anomalies (concentrations higher than at the surface) of the latter variable in the epilimnion, probably as a result of the activity of primary producers and/or losses of oxygen to the atmosphere. The chemical forms of iron in the reservoir exhibited increasing concentrations with depth, as a result of an increase in the concentration of seston and/or accentuated reduction of the levels of oxygen in the bottom layers. The reduction of Fe³⁺ to Fe²⁺ in the bottom water layers in the reservoir, in addition to the primary production process in the epilimnion, could explain the increased phosphorus in the bottom water layer. The concentrations of nitrogen compounds did not exhibit relevant changes or a defined evolution profile, except for nitrate, which showed an outstanding increase in the bottom water layers, suggesting it could be an important nitrogen source for primary producers. Although not unequivocal, these data suggest that ecosystem instability in Boa Esperança Reservoir is the product of short diel thermal variations, and the reduced input of allochthonous materials and nutrients from local catchment. These conditions guarantee the oligotrophic status of Boa Esperança Reservoir for the present time.     

Zooplankton as an indicator of trophic conditions in two large reservoirs in Brazil

The physical and chemical variables of the water, and the composition and structure of the zooplankton communities, in Três Marias and Furnas Reservoirs in Minas Gerais, Brazil, were compared to characterize these environments in relation to their trophic state. Higher values of electrical conductivity and chlorophyll‐a, total solids, suspended organic matter and total nitrogen concentrations were recorded in Três Marias Reservoir. Higher water transparency and nitrite and nitrate concentrations were observed in Furnas (P < 0.000). Higher zooplankton densities were always obtained in Três Marias Reservoir and, during the rainy period (P < 0.000), with mean values in the dry and rainy periods of 23 721 and 90 872 org m^?3, respectively, in Três Marias Reservoir and 9022 and 40 434 org m^?3, respectively, in Furnas Reservoir. Copepoda was the dominant group in both reservoirs, mainly the younger stages (nauplii and copepodids). Based on the absolute and relative values, the contribution of rotifers was higher in Três Marias Reservoir than in Furnas Reservoir. Although the Trophic State Index, based on water transparency and chlorophyll‐a and total phosphorus concentrations, indicated an oligotrophic state for both reservoirs, the higher densities of the zooplankton community in Três Marias Reservoir, as well as the predominance of cyclopoids and smaller‐sized species such as bosminids, characterized this environment as mesotrophic. Larger‐sized species such as calanoids, daphniids and sidids in Furnas Reservoir characterized the better water quality of this reservoir.     

影响我国热带气旋的频数与强度预测研究及其在海洋工程中的应对

应用滑动平均的方法,对近58年影响我国的热带气旋频数,强度和年极值强度进行趋势分析,并应用Spearman非参数趋势检验法进行了显著性检验。在此基础上应用基于分形理论的R/S方法对未来的热带气旋频数、强度和年极值强度进行了趋势预测。分析表明:未来影响我国的热带气旋频数、强度、年极值强度都是呈增加增强趋势的。最后,给出了面对热带气旋强度增强的海洋工程的应对方法。     

Pyrrolizidine alkaloids in floral honeys of tropical Ghana: a health risk assessment

ABSTRACT

There is a vast amount of information about the nutritional and medicinal properties of honey as a result of its numerous benefits. However, honeys have been found to be contaminated with hepatotoxic and carcinogenic pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) on account of bees foraging on PA-containing plants. This study deals with the analysis of PAs in tropical honeys emanating from different agro-ecological zones of Ghana in order to assess its potential health risk. PAs of 48 honey samples were analysed using high-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-ESI-MS/MS). The results show that a total of 85% of the honeys from various agro-ecological zones were PA positive including all honeys from supermarkets. The highest concentration of PAs was 2639 μg kg^?1, while the average PA concentration of the samples was 283 μg kg^?1. The study also found Chromolaena odorata pollens in majority of the honeys, thus indicating the plant as major source of PA contamination of honeys in the tropical regions.     

Evaluation of bistatic intersystem interference due to scattering by hydrometeors on tropical paths

Evaluation of bistatic transmission loss cumulative distribution is very useful in assessing the effect of interference due to hydrometeor scatter between the communication links operating at the same frequency. Out of the many factors that could be responsible for the intersystem interference between the microwave communication systems, this paper presents the result of computation of intersystem interference resulting from the hydrometeor scatter on tropical paths. Interference is computed in terms of the cumulative distribution of transmission loss. The effect of varying common volume formed by the intersection of the antenna beams on the transmission loss is investigated. Results show that at frequencies higher than 10 GHz, for antenna separation longer than 100 km, common volume will be in the ice region, leading to a higher interference level at the interfered terminal. Also, results obtained show that because total path attenuation at 30 GHz is lower than at 20 GHz (this is due to the decrease in water vapour attenuation in the 22·2–30 GHz window), transmission loss tends to be higher at 20 GHz than at 30 GHz. In addition, increasing the antenna gain of the interfering station will result in the increasing interference level at the interfered station. Evaluation of the effective transmission loss shows that this parameter gives a better assessment of interference on the tropical propagation paths noted for high-intensity convective precipitation. In this case, the effective transmission loss has been evaluated in terms of the joint occurrence of additional rain attenuation on the wanted path, and the cumulative distribution of transmission loss on the intersecting paths. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.