G. Carleton Ray

Classification of coastal and marine environments

Marine and coastal areas are classified in this paper according to attributes of the physical environment and by the faunal assemblages involved. Oceanic and coastal-margin realms are defined and mapped with the marginal seas and archipelagos named according to their connections to oceanic realms. There are seven types of ocean realms and thirteen types of coastal-margin realms. Latitudinal symmetry is present between hemispheres and from ocean basin to ocean basin. The defining characteristics for these realms are the seasonal variations in ocean surface currents and the companion seasonal variations in the main wind-currents of the atmosphere. Forty faunal provinces are indicated on the six maps of the oceanic and coastal realms. As sufficient database for their inclusion is not yet available, coastal marine and coastal terrestrial floristics and vegetation are not considered in this classification. While the boundaries between faunal provinces do not always match boundaries between ocean and coastal realms, the foundation is laid for a binominal designation system with the coastal or oceanic realm as ‘genus’ and the faunal province as the ‘epithet’—e.g. Western Subtropical—Cortezian. With this system, global intercomparisons become manageable. For example, the Western Subtropical-Cortezian can be directly contrasted with the Western Subtropical—Louisianian and the Western Subtropical—Southwestern Australian.

Coastal-marine discontinuities and synergisms: implications for biodiversity conservation

Coastal-marine biodiversity conservation must focus increasingly at the level of the land- and seascape. Five cases illustrate discontinuities and synergisms and how system changes may take place. For Caribbean coral reefs, the result of overfishing and disease has been a ‘shrinkage’ in the entire system, the effects of which may cascade through the coastal seascape. For Beringia, patterns of benthic diversity are best understood in a manner that matches the multiscale, integrated dynamics of weather, ice, marine mammal feeding, and community structure. In the case of US East Coast estuaries, oyster reefs may be keystone elements, with important effects on functional diversity. Large-scale coastal systems depend upon the connectivity of fresh and marine waters in the coastal zone, having implications for the apparent stochasticity of coastal fisheries. And, for a coastal barrier-lagoon site, a state change may be described in terms of a combination of succession, the attainment of a quasi-equilibrium state, and disturbance. A profound problem for conservation is that there is very little information about the relationship between species diversity and ecological function. Coastal-marine biodiversity conservation is best addressed at the level of the land- and seascape.

Establishing Biosphere Reserves for Coastal Barrier EcosystemsA focus on coastal barriers highlights the challenges of implementing the biosphere-reserve concept

F ew environments have been so heavily influenced by human activities as coastal barriers. In few systems do ecological dynamics and social-development processes interact more strongly. Despite decades of research that have provided increased understanding of coastal ecosystem processes, the tools and incentives for integrated management of coastal barriers remain to be fully developed. The biosphere-reserve concept can be applied to the problems of coastal barriers. Coastal barriers are prominent features of sedimentary shorelines, such as the east coast of the United States. Coastal barriers include islands, spits, bay barriers, and tombolos that are created and maintained by large-scale interactions of hydrological, geological, and ecological processes. These dynamic environments on the edge of the sea are attractive for development, but they are also hazardous. Past uses and abuses reflect inadequate appreciation for how these ecosystems function. Research has often been fragmented, localized, and short-term. Housing and tourist developments, navigation works, and shoreline stabilization have altered

Coastal Zone Ecotones

The coastal zone lies between terrestrial and marine systems. It includes the entirety of the coastal plains, the continental shelves and their waters, and bays, estuaries, lagoons, dune fields, and deltas (Inman and Nordstrom 1971; Ketchum 1972; Inman and Brush 1973; Fig. 21.1). Globally, this zone covers only about 8% of the earth, yet about two thirds of humanity and a disproportionate amount of biodiversity and productivity occur within it (Ray 1988).

In‐air and underwater sounds of the Ross seal, Ommatophocarossi

In‐air and underwater sounds were recorded from Ross seals, Ommatophoca rossi, during January 1966 in the western Ross Sea, Antarctica, from Cape Hallet to Cape Adare. In‐air sounds from seals hauled out on ice ranged from 100–1000 Hz and included short (0.05–0.1 s) tonal pulses with downward sweeping frequency, and longer (1–1.5 s) calls with downward and upward sweeping frequency, somewhat like a police siren. Underwater vocalizations included pulses and siren calls that were similar to the in‐air sounds except that they had greater and mostly higher‐frequency ranges (1–4 kHz). The underwater calls were pulse modulated at a consistent rate of about 650/s, and usually were formed of two independently varying tones, each with separate sideband harmonics. Overlapping underwater sound sequences were heard from seals scattered throughout the areas sampled. The distinctive springtime siren calls would be useful for locating groups of these elusive seals.

Climate Change and Fisheries

This book, coordinated by AllEnvi, is published on the occasion of the 22nd Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP22, Marrakech, 2016).-- 13 pages, 4 figures

Iterative Reconstruction of Large Scenes Using Heterogeneous Feature Tracking

With image capturing technology growing ubiquitous in consumer products and scientific studies, there is a corresponding growth in the applications that utilize scene structure for deriving information. This trend has also been reflected in the plethora of recent studies on reconstruction using robust structure from motion, bundle adjustment, and related techniques. Most of these studies, however, have concentrated on unstructured collections of images. In this paper, we propose a feature tracking and reconstruction framework for structured image collections using heterogenous features. This is motivated by the observation that images contain a small number of features that are fast/easy to track and a large number of features that are difficult/slow to track. By tracking these separately, we show that we can not only improve the tracking speed, but also improve the tracking accuracy by using a camera geometry based descriptor. We demonstrate this on a new challenging dataset which contains images of Arctic sea ice. The reconstruction pipeline constructed using the proposed method provides near real time reconstruction of the scene, enabling the user to parse vast amounts of data rapidly. Quantitative comparisons with baseline SFM techniques show that reconstruction accuracy does not suffer.

The central role of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in marine mammal bioacoustics

WHOI researchers pioneered marine mammal bioacoustics. Schevill and Lawrence in 1949 made the first recordings of marine mammals, beluga whales, and in 1956 first demonstrated cetacean echolocation. Schevill later concentrated on the taxonomy and behavior of cetaceans while Watkins developed the first portable high-frequency recorder and passive and active acoustic tracking systems. Ray, Watkins, and Schevill in 1969 presented the first evidence of song in a marine mammal, the bearded seal, linked to the behavior of males in the breeding season. Watkins’ papers on vocalizations informed a generation of bioacousticians on how to interpret sonograms. He was one of the first to use the Navy’s SOSUS hydrophone array to track cetacean movements. Schevill and Watkins also inspired the research of others, both in recoding marine mammal sounds and in interpreting sound in behavior. Tyack led the development of the D-Tag, which simultaneously records vocalizations and movements of cetaceans. Ketten used CAT scans to develop hearing models for cetaceans. Sayigh advanced knowledge of delphnid signature whistles and Fristrup further developed the concept of soundscapes. Watkins and Schevill’s database of more than 20,000 vocalizations from 70 marine mammal species now resides at the New Bedford Whaling Museum, freely available to the public.WHOI researchers pioneered marine mammal bioacoustics. Schevill and Lawrence in 1949 made the first recordings of marine mammals, beluga whales, and in 1956 first demonstrated cetacean echolocation. Schevill later concentrated on the taxonomy and behavior of cetaceans while Watkins developed the first portable high-frequency recorder and passive and active acoustic tracking systems. Ray, Watkins, and Schevill in 1969 presented the first evidence of song in a marine mammal, the bearded seal, linked to the behavior of males in the breeding season. Watkins’ papers on vocalizations informed a generation of bioacousticians on how to interpret sonograms. He was one of the first to use the Navy’s SOSUS hydrophone array to track cetacean movements. Schevill and Watkins also inspired the research of others, both in recoding marine mammal sounds and in interpreting sound in behavior. Tyack led the development of the D-Tag, which simultaneously records vocalizations and movements of cetaceans. Ketten used CAT scans ...

Diminishing Sea Ice

In their useful Report, “A global map of human impact on marine ecosystems” (15 February, p. [948][1]), B. S. Halpern et al . wrote that “large areas of relatively little human impact remain, particularly near the poles.” They failed to take into account sea-ice diminishment, which may

Ocean Beats Out Space, Four to One!

“Ocean Beats out Space, Four to One!” the headlines should read. At almost the same time that “Ocean Pulse: A Critical Diagnosis” was being developed, a nationwide survey (SeaWeb 1996) concluded that: “An overwhelming number of Americans believe funding for ocean exploration is a more important priority than funding for space exploration”. The numbers were 72% for ocean, 17% for space. No contest!