Anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are acidifying the ocean, affecting calcification rates in pelagic organisms, and thereby modifying the oceanic carbon and alkalinity cycles. However, the responses of pelagic calcifying organisms to acidification vary widely between species, contributing uncertainty to predictions of atmospheric CO2 and the resulting climate change. At the same time...

The high degree of physical factors in intertidal estuarine ecosystem increases material processing between benthic and pelagic compartments. In these ecosystems, microphytobenthos resuspension is a major phenomenon since its contribution to higher trophic levels can be highly significant. Understanding the sediment and associated microphytobenthos resuspension and its fate in the water column ...

Virtual geographic environments (VGE) are environments pertaining to the relationship between post-humans and 3-D virtual worlds. Post-humans are defined as a combination of humans in the real world with 3-D avatars in 3-D virtual worlds. Five types of space, namely Internet space, data space, 3-D graphical space, personal perceptual and cognitive space, and social space are used to explore the...

In this paper, we address two challenging issues underlying spatial cognitive simulation using software agents immersed in Virtual Geographic Environments (VGE). First, the way to describe virtual VGE models using accurate spatial decomposition approaches structured using graph theory techniques. Second, the use of graph abstraction techniques to realistically support advanced navigation and pa...

A transient, vertically resolved, analytical model for the early diagenesis of silica has been developed to quantify the importance of benthic-pelagic coupling in estuarine biogeochemical silica cycling. A sensitivity analysis based on Monte-Carlo simulations is carried out to assess the intensity and timing of benthic diffusive fluxes in response to a pelagic diatom bloom. The diffusive flux d...

BACKGROUND During the Ordovician the global diversity increased dramatically at family, genus and species levels. Partially the diversification is explained by an increased nutrient, and phytoplankton availability in the open water. Cephalopods are among the top predators of today's open oceans. Their Ordovician occurrences, diversity evolution and abundance pattern potentially provides informa...

Linkages between benthic and pelagic habitats occur in both freshwater and marine systems across multiple spatial and temporal scales, and are influenced by a number of chemical, biological, and physical forces. We identified three major mechanisms of benthic-pelagic coupling: (1) organism movement, (2) trophic interactions, and (3) biogeochemical cycling. We also explore the implications of se...

19 The digestive organs in decapodiform cephalopod species morphologically vary by 20 individual lifestyle. We examined the following six species of adult decapodiformes 21 cephalopods representing different habitats: Todarodes pacificus, Loligo bleekeri, Loligo 22 edulis, Watasenia scintillans (pelagic), Sepia lycidas, and Euprymna morsei (benthic). L. 23 bleekeri and L. edulis possess a bursi...