Tese(doutorado) - Universidade Federal do Rio Grande, Programa de Pós–Graduação em Oceanografia Biológica, Instituto de Oceanografia, 2012. / Submitted by Cristiane Gomides (cristiane_gomides@hotmail.com) on 2013-10-11T16:45:36Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Luciano.pdf: 10791164 bytes, checksum: abbbf3e63dd24039e4b6f6fb89af6147 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Sabrina Andrade (sabrinabeatriz@ibest.com.br) on 2013-10-17T17:51:18Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Luciano.pdf: 10791164 bytes, checksum: abbbf3e63dd24039e4b6f6fb89af6147 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-10-17T17:51:18Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Luciano.pdf: 10791164 bytes, checksum: abbbf3e63dd24039e4b6f6fb89af6147 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012 / Os peixes da família Macrouridae apresentaram uma das maiores biomassas entre os peixes demersais em cruzeiros de pesquisa no Sudeste-Sul do Brasil entre 300-600m. Embora não sejam alvo da pesca no Brasil, estão entre os principais itens no descarte da pesca de arrasto no talude, sofrendo impacto similar às espécies-alvo. Dados de dois cruzeiros sazonais de arrasto de fundo foram utilizados para analisar a distribuição, abundância, densidade, composição de comprimentos e estimativas de biomassas para sete espécies de Macrouridae do talude superior do Sudeste-Sul do Brasil: Coelorinchus marinii, Malacocephalus occidentalis, M. laevis, Lucigadus ori, Hymenocephalus billsam, Ventrifossa macropogon e V. mucocephalus. A biomassa total foi estimada em 5,5 e 8,3 kt, respectivamente, no inverno-primavera e verão-outono, das quais C. marinii e M. occidentalis compuseram 98%. Amostras mensais da pesca comercial foram adicionalmente usadas para analisar a ecologia trófica das quatro espécies mais abundantes no talude superior do Sul do Brasil. Foram analisadas a composição da dieta, as mudanças ontogenéticas, as variações sazonais, a sobreposição alimentar intra e interespecífica, a fauna parasitária e aspectos da morfologia funcional relacionada à alimentação. C.marinii consumiu presas pequenas da infauna, epifauna, plâncton, nécton e carcaças, aproveitando presas em manchas ou agregações. M.occidentalis apresentou certa seleção por presas maiores e de coluna d’água, além de caranguejos e carcaças. As duas espécies apresentaram mudanças ontogenéticas e variações sazonais na composição da dieta, ocasionando mudanças nos padrões de sobreposição, mas em geral houve uma baixa sobreposição alimentar. As distintas morfologias funcionais encontradas refletiram em diferenças na dieta e nas estratégias de alimentação das espécies. Para C.marinii e M.occidentalis foram contruídos mapas com densidades, áreas de desova, índice alimentar, proporções de sexos e de imaturos/maturos, que foram relacionadas aos processos oceanográficos, fornecendo uma visão sobre as estratégias de vida e processos que regulam os padrões de distribuição e abundância. Ambas as espécies apresentaram variação sazonal na extensão e localização das áreas de desova. A maioria das fêmeas de C.marinii estavam maturas (90%), sugerindo que assentam ao fundo simultaneamente à maturação e que os juvenis são pelágicos, enquanto M.occidentalis apresentou muitos juvenis e poucas fêmeas maturas, assentando ao fundo bem antes da maturação. São identificados e descritos três processos responsáveis pelos padrões de distribuição e abundância encontrados nestas espécies. Sugere-se que áreas encontradas com elevadas biomassas de Macrouridae (carniceiros) sejam causadas por zonas de ocorrência semipermanente de processos de mesoescala (e.g. vórtices). Esses processos aumentam a produtividade e possibilitam elevadas biomassas de organismos de vida-curta encontradas em camadas superiores, e por outro lado, aumentam a concentração, mortalidade e disponibilidade de carcaças desses organismos, favorecendo predadores carniceiros. Esses processos podem ser responsáveis por inconsistências nas biomassas de magafauna e macrofauna encontradas em alguns estudos, onde biomassas de megafauna foram da mesma ordem de grandeza ou maiores que as de macrofauna, contradizendo o princípio Eltoniano. / Macrourids are among the most abundant and diverse demersal fishes in all deep oceans, including the Southwestern Brazilian continental slope. Although not targeted by Brazilian fisheries, they suffer impact similar than the target species, being among the most discarded fishes by deep bottom trawling. Trophic Ecology: Data from research surveys and commercial fishing were used to analyze the trophic ecology of four species inhabiting the upper slope of southern Brazil: Coelorinchus marinii, Malacocephalus occidentalis, M. laevis and Lucigadus ori. For the two abundant ones, ontogenetic changes, seasonal variations, intra- and interspecific dietary overlap, parasite fauna and aspects of functional morphology are also described. C.marinii had an extremely diverse diet, preying infauna, epifauna, plankton, necton and carcasses. M.occidentalis fed on larger and nektonic prey, but also included crabs and carcasses in the diet. Both species showed ontogenetic shifts and seasonal variations in diet composition, both leading to changes in intra- and interspecific diet overlap patterns. Species showed quite distinct feeding anatomy and proportions of body with mouth size, reflecting on feeding strategies. There was little interspecific food overlap. In most cases when the diet was more similar there was a spatial segregation. The coexistence of these species appears to be facilitated by the development of different functional morphologies and feeding strategies. A considerable portion of the diet of these species is due to the consumption of carcasses of pelagic and mesopelagic organisms, and even insects, bypassing the benthic trophic web. Conservative (minimum) estimates of the mean weight of carcasses in diet ranged from 3 to 20%, increasing with the size of the predators and towards deeper waters. C.marinii showed a lower consumption of carcasses and a high proportion of mesopelagic fishes and cephalopods, however, the analysis of the feeding morphology and prey size leads to believe that most of these two groups of prey were consumed as carcasses. This source of food bypass the detritus food chains and connect the concentrations of macrourids to fluctuations in the abundance of epi and mesopelagic organisms and to oceanographic processes that increase their concentration and mortality (e.g. mesoscale anticyclonic eddies). Distribution, Biomass and Oceanography: Data from two seasonal bottom trawl surveys were used to provide information on distribution, abundances, densities, sizecomposition and biomass estimates for seven species: Coelorinchus marinii, Malacocephalus occidentalis, M. laevis, Lucigadus ori, Hymenocephalus billsam, Ventrifossa macropogon and V. mucocephalus. The total biomass was estimated in 5.5 and 8.3 kt respectively in winter-spring and summer-autumn. C.marinii and M.occidentalis comprised 98% of the biomass. For these two abundant species, surface maps were made with spawning areas, feeding index, sex and immature/mature ratios, and were related to oceanographic processes, providing insights on strategies and important processes regulating distribution and abundance patterns. Both species showed a marked seasonal variation in the extent and location of spawning areas. Most C.marinii females were mature (90%), suggesting an early maturation during pelagic phase and acquiring demersal habit just prior the onset of maturation, while M.occidentalis showed few matures females and settle to bottom well before maturity. Temperature rather than depth seems to be the main factor regulating the batimetric distribution of both species. We describe three processes responsible for distribution and abundance patterns found in these species. Differentpatterns of spatial segregation were found in both species, related with depth, sex and maturity. It is suggested that areas with high biomass Macrouridae (scavengers) are induced by zones of occurrence semi-permanent mesoscale processes (e.g. eddies). These processes increase productivity and enable large biomass of short-lived organisms found in the upper layers, and also increase the concentration, mortality and availability of carcasses, favoring scavenger predators. These processes may be responsible for inconsistencies in biomass of megafauna and macrofauna found in some studies, where biomass of megafauna was of the same order of magnitude or larger than macrofauna, contradicting the Eltonian principle. It is suggested that future studies attempt to relate mesoscale processes with the biomass of potential short-lived prey in surface waters and higher biomass of scavengers. This work highlights the importance of the study of ocean dynamics, combining biological and oceanographic observations, trying to understand the role of mesoscale physical processes on the distribution and abundance patterns of species.

There are a large number of research vessels and fishing vessels equipped with echosounders plying the world ocean, making continual observations of the ocean interior. Developing data collation programmes (e.g. Integrated Marine Observing System) and automated, repeatable analyses techniques enable the upper c. 1,200 meters of the world ocean to be sampled routinely, and for their characteristic deep scattering layers (DSLs) to be compared. Deep scattering layers are comprised of zooplankton (e.g. euphausiids) and fish, particularly myctophids or lantern fish, and comprise the majority of sub-surface biomass. Here we present, by the analysis of a global acoustic dataset, a mesopelagic biogeography of the sea. This was accomplished by (i) the collation and processing of a global active acoustic dataset, (ii) the development of a standardised and automated method of sound scattering layer (SSL) extraction and description, (iii) the derivation of the environmental drivers of DSL depth and biomass, (iv) the definition of a mesopelagic biogeography based on the drivers of DSL metrics and (v) the prediction, using output from the NEMO-MEDUSA-2.0 coupled model, of how the metrics and biogeography may change by 2100. Key findings include, the development of the Sound Scattering Layer Extraction Method (SSLEM) the inference that primary production, water temperature and wind stress are key drivers in DSL depth and biomass and that mesopelagic fish biomass may increase by 2100. Such an increase is a result of increased trophic efficiency from the shallowing of DSLs and rising water temperatures, suggesting, that as the climate warms the ocean is becoming more efficient. The biophysical relationships and biogeography derived here, serve to improve our understanding of mesopelagic mid-trophic level dynamics in open-ocean ecosystems. This will aid both fisheries and conservation management, which now adopt more holistic approaches when monitoring and evaluating ecosystem health and stability.

Ce travail de thèse porte sur l'étude de la faisabilité d'un capteur d'ondes acoustiques à base de laser à fibre. Cet hydrophone doit permettre la détection de faibles fluctuations de pression hydrostatique rencontrées à des grandes profondeurs marines. Sous l'influence d'une perturbation acoustique le laser est étiré; ce qui change le pas du réseau de Bragg et ainsi sa fréquence d'émission. L'information est donc codée dans la fréquence de la lumière émise. Le bruit de fréquence intrinsèque du laser doit alors être le plus bas possible d'où l'importance de pouvoir le mesurer dans la bande de fréquence [DC-20kHz]. Ainsi, nous effectuons une étude approfondie des propriétés physiques de l'émission laser en terme de cohérence temporelle. La sensibilité d'un laser à fibre à la pression acoustique est insuffisante. Il est primordial de concevoir un amplificateur mécanique qui permettra d'augmenter le rapport signal sur bruit du capteur. / This thesis focuses on the study of the feasibility of an acoustic wave sensor based on fiber laser. This hydrophone should allow the detection of low hydrostatic pressure fluctuations encountered in deep marine. Under the influence of an acoustic disturbance is stretched the laser; thereby changing the pitch of the Bragg grating and thus its transmission frequency. The information is coded in the frequency of the emitted light. The intrinsic frequency noise of the laser must be as low as possible so it is important to be able to measure in the frequency band of $[DC-20KHz]$. Thus we conduct a thorough study of the physical properties of the laser emission in terms of temporal coherence.The sensitivity of a fiber laser acoustic pressure is insufficient. It is essential to design a mechanical amplifier for to increase the signal to noise ratio of the sensor.

Les environnements profonds marins ou continentaux représentent la majorité des biotopes sur Terre. Ils sont colonisés par des organismes, appelés piézophiles, adaptés aux fortes pressions hydrostatiques du milieu, conditions qui sont inhibitrices pour la croissance des organismes de surface. Dans le cadre de ce travail, j'ai cherché à élucider les spécificités de l’adaptation aux hautes pressions hydrostatiques. Pour cela, j'ai étudié un micro-organisme piézophile issu d'une source hydrothermale profonde, la souche MP de Thermococcus barophilus, dont l'optimum de croissance est de 400 fois la pression atmosphérique. J'ai caractérisé l'adaptation particulière de deux cibles cellulaires parmi les plus sensibles à la pression : les membranes et le protéome.Mes résultats montrent que la souche MP accumule des molécules de stress en condition de faible pression hydrostatique, c'est-à-dire que le protéome de cette souche est adapté aux conditions de hautes pressions. Il s'agit de la première démonstration d'une adaptation structurale chez un piézophile, et la démonstration que cette souche est une piézophile vraie. Par ailleurs, j'ai pu démontrer les mécanismes d'adaptation de la membrane en réponse à la pression et à la température. J'ai montré que cette réponse correspond à une adaptation homéovisqueuse de la composition membranaire, et que celle-ci est unique, car elle met en jeu trois mécanismes différents : une régulation du ratio di-/tetraéthers, une régulation du niveau d'insaturation des lipides, et la présence de lipides neutres dans la structure de la membrane. Ceci m'a amenée à proposer un nouveau modèle de membrane pour la souche modèle piézophile T. barophilus. La généralisation de ces observations et la confirmation de leur lien avec la piézophilie passe par l'étude d'autres organismes piézophiles. / Deep marine and continental environments represent the major ecosystems on Earth. They are colonized by organisms named piezophiles, adapted to high pressures of the deep biosphere, conditions that inhibit the growth of surface organisms. My objectives were to elucidate the special features of adaptation to high hydrostatic pressures. My model of study was a piezophilic microorganism isolated from a deep-sea vent; Thermococcus barophilus strain MP, which grows optimally at a pressure of 400 times the atmospheric pressure. I characterized the specific adaptation of two cellular compartments amongst the most sensitive to pressure: membranes and proteome. My results show that strain MP accumulates stress molecules in conditions of low pressure, which mean T. barophilus proteome is adapted to high pressure conditions. This is the first demonstration of structural adaptation in a piezophile, and also shows that T. barophilus is a true piezophile. Besides, I proved membrane adaptation mechanisms in response to pressure and temperature. These mechanisms are based on homeoviscous adaptation of lipids composition. This adaptation is unique and involves three different mechanisms: the regulation of the di-/tetraether ratio, the modulation of lipid unsaturation, and the insertion of neutral lipids in the membrane structure. These results brought me to propose a new membrane model for the piezophilic strain T. barophilus. Before confirming these observations as a possible piezophilic trait of adaptation, this study needs to be extended to other piezophilic organisms.

A l'aide de deux exemples, l'un actuel (l'éventail du Cap-Ferret), l'autre ancien (la série des Grés d'Annot) et par des méthodes d'approche complémentaires (analyse morphologique, sédirnentologique, interprétation sismique) sont caractérisés les facteurs et les processus dynamiques qui conditionnent l'édification des appareils turbiditiques. Le cadre morphostructural de la marge continentale, le climat et les variations du niveau marin déterminent le volume et la nature de l'alimentation terrigène, la dynamique des écoulements gravitaires et par conséquence les modalités de construction et d'évolution des appareils turbiditiques. L'éventail du Cap-Ferret, éloigné des sources terrigènes grossières se caractérise par l'importance des dépôts turbiditiques silto-argileux de débordement, fortement influencés par l'accélération complémentaire de Coriolis. Inversement les Grés d'Annot se mettent en place à pro* ximité des sources terrigènes grossières et forment, dans des dépressions/des remplissages en "onlap", constitués de lobes gréseux très aplatis.

Metagenomics has revealed that the marine microbial biosphere is immensely more diverse than originally considered, and is an almost untapped reservoir for the potential discovery of microbial natural products. Despite numerous advances in culturing, biosynthetic engineering and genomic-based screening efforts to uncover much of this diversity in relatively accessible environments, a high rediscovery rate has resulted in the investigation of unique, relatively unexplored ecosystems harboring phylogenetically diverse communities of marine organisms. The focus of this research was to establish a culture repository of microorganisms collected from the Red Sea and from deep-sea hydrothermal vents, and to assess their biosynthetic potential for the production of new chemical scaffolds. Cultivation of marine cyanobacteria from the Red Sea has led to the identification of five new cyclic depsipeptides, apratoxin H, grassypeptolides D and E, Ibu-epidemethoxylyngbyastin 3 and leptochelin, the latter possessing a unique chemical scaffold capable of binding metals. A collection of deep-sea hydrothermal vent sediment and microbial mat samples led to the isolation of 64 unique bacterial strains, with eight assigned as members of the order Actinomycetales. Importantly, these isolates, along with a collection of deep-vent invertebrates and microbes, have led to the development of methods for the collection, culturing and biological screening of organisms from this extreme environment for future natural products research. / Graduation date: 2013

Originally developed in the 1970s for the optimal control of systems governed by partial differential equations, the adjoint method has found several successful applications, e.g. in meteorology with large-scale 3D or 4D atmospheric data assimilation schemes, for carbon cycle data assimilation in biogeochemistry and climate research, or in oceanographic modelling with efficient adjoint codes of ocean general circulation models.<p><p>Despite the variety of applications in these research fields, adjoint methods have only very recently drawn attention from the ocean acoustics community. In ocean acoustic tomography and geoacoustic inversion, where the inverse problem is to recover unknown acoustic properties of the water column and the seabed from acoustic transmission data, the solution approaches are typically based on travel time inversion or standard matched-field processing in combination with metaheuristics for global optimization. <p><p>In order to complement the adjoint schemes already in use in meteorology and oceanography with an ocean acoustic component, this thesis is concerned with the development of the adjoint of a full-field acoustic propagation model for shallow water environments. <p><p>In view of the increasing importance of global ocean observing systems such as the European Seas Observatory Network, the Arctic Ocean Observing System and Maritime Rapid Environmental Assessment (MREA) systems for defence and security applications, the adjoint of an ocean acoustic propagation model can become an integral part of a coupled oceanographic and acoustic data assimilation scheme in the future. <p><p>Given the acoustic pressure field measured on a vertical hydrophone array and a modelled replica field that is calculated for a specific parametrization of the environment, the developed adjoint model backpropagates the mismatch (residual) between the measured and predicted field from the receiver array towards the source.<p><p>The backpropagated error field is then converted into an estimate of the exact gradient of the objective function with respect to any of the relevant physical parameters of the environment including the sound speed structure in the water column and densities, compressional/shear sound speeds, and attenuations of the sediment layers and the sub-bottom halfspace. The resulting environmental gradients can be used in combination with gradient descent methods such as conjugate gradient, or Newton-type optimization methods tolocate the error surface minimum via a series of iterations. This is particularly attractive for monitoring slowly varying environments, where the gradient information can be used to track the environmental parameters continuously over time and space.<p><p>In shallow water environments, where an accurate treatment of the acoustic interaction with the bottom is of outmost importance for a correct prediction of the sound field, and field data are often recorded on non-fully populated arrays, there is an inherent need for observation over a broad range of frequencies. For this purpose, the adjoint-based approach is generalized for a joint optimization across multiple frequencies and special attention is devoted to regularization methods that incorporate additional information about the desired solution in order to stabilize the optimization process.<p><p>Starting with an analytical formulation of the multiple-frequency adjoint approach for parabolic-type approximations, the adjoint method is progressively tailored in the course of the thesis towards a realistic wide-angle parabolic equation propagation model and the treatment of fully nonlocal impedance boundary conditions. A semi-automatic adjoint generation via modular graph approach enables the direct inversion of both the geoacoustic parameters embedded in the discrete nonlocal boundary condition and the acoustic properties of the water column. Several case studies based on environmental data obtained in Mediterranean shallow waters are used in the thesis to assess the capabilities of adjoint-based acoustic inversion for different experimental configurations, particularly taking into account sparse array geometries and partial depth coverage of the water column. The numerical implementation of the approach is found to be robust, provided that the initial guesses are not too far from the desired solution, and accurate, and converges in a small number of iterations. During the multi-frequency optimization process, the evolution of the control parameters displays a parameter hierarchy which clearly relates to the relative sensitivity of the acoustic pressure field to the physical parameters. <p><p>The actual validation of the adjoint-generated environmental gradients for acoustic monitoring of a shallow water environment is based on acoustic and oceanographic data from the Yellow Shark '94 and the MREA '07 sea trials, conducted in the Tyrrhenian Sea, south of the island of Elba.<p> <p>Starting from an initial guess of the environmental control parameters, either obtained through acoustic inversion with global search or supported by archival in-situ data, the adjoint method provides an efficient means to adjust local changes with a couple of iterations and monitor the environmental properties over a series of inversions. <p><p>In this thesis the adjoint-based approach is used, e.g. to fine-tune up to eight bottom geoacoustic parameters of a shallow-water environment and to track the time-varying sound speed profile in the water column. <p><p>In the same way the approach can be extended to track the spatial water column and bottom structure using a mobile network of sparse arrays.<p><p>Work is currently being focused on the inclusion of the adjoint approach into hybrid optimization schemes or ensemble predictions, as an essential building block in a combined ocean acoustic data assimilation framework and the subsequent validation of the acoustic monitoring capabilities with long-term experimental data in shallow water environments. / Doctorat en Sciences de l'ingénieur / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

【中 文 摘 要】 博物館功能主要為「展示、教育、研究、典藏」，其中「展示」為博物館與大眾接觸最直接的方式。在現代科技發展中，「展示」的觀念與形式也有所改變，互動式展示日受重視，虛擬呈現的比例亦逐漸加重。 本研究以「國立海洋生物博物館」之BOT專案「世界水域館」《深海水域》電子展示設計為主題，以實務個案為例，探討自然博物館如何規劃與製作深海水域的生態展演，與如何利用〝虛擬實境〞、〝人工智慧〞與〝即時運算〞等尖端技術，架構出「世界第一」無水水族館的展示模式。 往昔自然生態展示以活體展示為主，即複製生態空間讓水中生物悠遊水族箱內。但為了超越時空，讓全球代表生態皆能集中於特定展示館內，遂有電子展示的觀念與製作，以擬仿物取代真實，創造尚‧布希亞的「超真實」世界。 本研究於製程的影音紀錄與相關人員的訪談中，歸納、整理出發展生態電子展示設計的因素與理想，探討製作上的困難之處，同時也以研究者觀點對展示設計過程提出檢討與建議。 深海水域生態在陸地上展示係屬跨越時空的創舉，本個案不但為台灣首例，在世界上亦為先驅。創新嘗試，成果雖不如預期，但以整個專案的具體呈現而言，實為相關領域之前鋒。本研究認為，整理與探討本個案，對未來電子展示設計與製作皆有參考價值；同時，由本個案所建置的生態電子展示平台，亦為台灣博物館界提供國際化的新思維，對博物館未來的展示設計奠定了新的基礎，創造一個新的開始。 / Abstract The main functions of museums are demonstration/exhibition, education, research and collection/preservation. “Exhibition” provides the most direct link between a museum and the public. As modern science and technology continue to develop, the concepts and formats of “exhibition” have also evolved. Interactive exhibits become more valued, and virtual simulation approaches have also increased in proportion. The focus of this research study is the electronic display design for the Waters of the World – BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer) Project, pioneered by the National Museum of Marine Biology & Aquarium. This study uses this project as a case study to explore how a Nature museum planned and produced an exhibit of The Deep Sea waters ecology, and with the use of the most advanced technology such as VR (Virtual Reality), AI (Artificial Intelligence), and the “real-time operation,” etc., how the museum built the world’s first protocol for a water-less aquarium. In the past, ecological exhibits mainly constituted real living creatures, by duplicating the ecological environment necessary for underwater creatures to survive in an aquarium. But, in order to go beyond the limitation of space and time, and to facilitate the presentation of global ecology within a specific exhibition space, the electronic display concept and production has thus been introduced. It is to imitate reality and create a world of hyper-reality, as depicted by Jean Baudrillard. Relying on historical video and audio records, and actual interviews with key people on the project, this research study summarized factors and objectives of the original design, and discussed difficulties encountered in the production process. In addition, the study also provided input and recommendations concerning the design process. The exhibition of The Deep Sea waters ecology on land is a pioneering act, second to none. The case is not only a 1st in Taiwan, but also a 1st of its kind in the world. Although the new attempt has not exactly achieved the expected outcomes, it did initiate a pioneering work within ecology demo field. The researcher believes that the case study is a valuable reference for future electronic display design and production. In the meantime, the ecological electronic-platform created by this project provides an international perspective, and establishes a new milestone for further development in the future.

Natural cycles of environmental variability and long-term deoxygenation in the ocean impose oxygen deficiency (hypoxia) on marine communities. My research exploits a naturally occurring hypoxia cycle in Saanich Inlet, British Columbia, Canada where I combined spatial surveys with remotely operated vehicles, ecological time-series from the subsea cabled observatory VENUS, and lab-based respirometry experiments to examine the influence of seasonally variable oxygen conditions on epibenthic communities. In situ oxygen thresholds established for dozens of fish and invertebrate species in this system show they naturally occur in lower oxygen levels than what general lethal and sublethal thresholds would predict. Expansion of hypoxic waters induced a loss of community structure which was previously characterized by disjunct distributions among species. Communities in variable hypoxia also have scale-dependent structure across a range of time scales but are primarily synchronized to a seasonal oscillation between two phases. Time-series revealed timing of diurnal movement in the slender sole Lyopsetta exilis and reproductive behavior of squat lobster Munida quadrispina in the hypoxia cycle. Hypoxia-induced mortality of sessile species slowed the rate of community recovery after deoxygenation. The 10-year oxygen time-series from VENUS, revealed a significant increase in the annual low-oxygen period in Saanich Inlet and that deoxygenation has occurred in this system since 2006. Differences in the critical oxygen thresholds (O2crit) and standard metabolic rates of key species (spot prawn Pandalus platyceros, slender sole, and squat lobster) determined the lowest in situ oxygen at which populations occurred and explained disproportionate shifts in distributions and community respiration. Finally, a meta-analysis on global O2crit reported for crustaceans showed that hypoxia tolerance differs among major ocean basins. Long-term trends of deoxygenation suggest a future regime shift may occur when the duration at which a system remains below critical oxygen levels exceeds the time needed for communities to recover. Species-specific traits will determine the critical threshold and the nature of the community response in systems influenced by variable states of oxygen deficiency. However, oceanographic and evolutionary history provides context when determining the regional response of benthic communities influenced by rapidly changing environments. / Graduate / 0329 / 0416 / 0433 / jwfchu@gmail.com

The thesis is devoted to determining the parameters of the bucket to increase productivity of dredgers while mining deep-water organic-mineral sediments. It was achieved by increasing the fill factor through determining the rational geometrical parameters of the bucket. Analytical dependencies of the rational height and length of the bucket on the cutting parameters and physical-and-mechanical properties of the excavated sediments were determined. Expressions for defining forces while digging plasticity water-saturated soils were developed. Experimental investigations of the process of digging deep-water organic-mineral sediments in laboratory conditions and in the real conditions of operating single-bucket dredger in the Black Sea at the depth of 1885 m were carried out. The technique for calculation of the bucket\'s parameters was developed.