We monitored the recruitment of 8 fish taxa at 10 d intervals for 1 yr on 5 fringing coral reefs along a 15 km stretch of the west coast of Barbados, using benthic standard monitoring units of recruitment of fishes (SMURFs). SMURFs are designed to sample taxa that settle onto coral rubble, including cryptic species, and to minimize post-settlement predation. We deployed SMURFs in reef habitat t...

Recruitment patterns of crabs and other benthic invertebrates with planktonic larvae are determined by a combination of preand post-settlement factors. Recruitment is considered settlement limited when there is a positive correlation between the postlarvae available in the water column and the number of recruits, and regulated when abundance of individuals is mainly affected by post-settlement ...

Over small spatial scales, variation in the density of settlers of benthic sessile species is the result of interactions among larval behavior, local hydrodynamic conditions, and the physical, chemical and biological characteristics of the benthic habitat. It has been shown repeatedly that adult benthic filter-feeders can consume larvae of their own and other species, but their effects on the d...

In most species, some individuals delay reproduction or occupy inferior breeding positions. The queue hypothesis tries to explain both patterns by proposing that individuals strategically delay breeding (queue) to acquire better breeding or social positions. In 1995, Ens, Weissing, and Drent addressed evolutionarily stable queuing strategies in situations with habitat heterogeneity. However, th...

This paper investigates the existence and extent of economies of scale in depository and settlement systems. Evidence from 16 settlement institutions across different regions for the years 1993–2000 indicates the existence of significant economies of scale. The degree of such economies, however, differs by size of settlement institution and region. While smaller settlement service providers rev...

This work explores the spatial distribution of monsoonal flooded areas using ENVISAT C-band Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) in the semi-arid region of N. Gujarat, India. The amplitude component of SAR Single Look Complex (SLC) images has been used to estimate the extent of surface and near-surface water dynamics using the mean amplitude (MA) of monsoonal (July to September) and post-mo...

Dispersal influences ecological dynamics, evolution, biogeography, and biodiversity conservation, but models of larval dispersal in marine organisms make simplifying assumptions that are likely to approximate poorly the temporal dynamics of larval survival and capacity for settlement. In particular, larval mortality rates are typically assumed to be constant throughout larval life; and all larv...

Understanding the causes of fluctuations in population abundance is critical for ecologists and fishery biologists. For marine fishes with life histories in which adults have limited home ranges and larvae are pelagic and advected vast distances from natal sites, an understanding of variability in larval supply to local populations is critical for understanding the mechanisms that produce dynam...

Reconstructing stock herding strategies and land use is key to comprehending past human social organization and economy. We present laser-ablation strontium and carbon isotope data from 25 cattle (Bos taurus) to reconstruct mobility and infer herding management at the Swiss lakeside settlement of Arbon Bleiche 3, occupied for only 15 years (3384-3370 BC). Our results reveal three distinct isoto...

Automatic classification of urban settlement from satellite images has various applications such as urban development planning and the gathering of environmental statistics. Abeigne Ella et al. [1] showed that Local Binary Patterns (LBP) features extracted from QuickBird images of the Soweto region in South Africa is superior to other feature extraction methods described in [2],[3], [4], [5], [...