Lactation curves of dairy cows have been studied by dairy scientists for many years. The effects of various hereditary end non-hereditary influences on the lactation curve have been observed. Factors have been developed to standardize production to a common basis, correcting for differences in age, length of lactation, milking per day, gestation and environment.

Ocean warming near the Antarctic ice shelves has critical implications for future ice sheet mass loss and global sea level rise. A global climate model with an eddying ocean is used to quantify the mechanisms contributing to ocean warming on the Antarctic continental shelf in an idealized 2xCO(2) experiment. The results indicate that relatively large warm anomalies occur both in the upper 100 m and at depths above the shelf floor, which are controlled by different mechanisms. The near-surface ocean warming is primarily a response to enhanced onshore advective heat transport across the shelf break. The deep shelf warming is initiated by onshore intrusions of relatively warm Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW), in density classes that access the shelf, as well as the reduction of the vertical mixing of heat. CO2-induced shelf freshening influences both warming mechanisms. The shelf freshening slows vertical mixing by limiting gravitational instabilities and the upward diffusion of heat associated with CDW, resulting in the buildup of heat at depth. Meanwhile, freshening near the shelf break enhances the lateral density gradient of the Antarctic Slope Front (ASF) and disconnect isopycnals between the shelf and CDW, making cross-ASF heat exchange more difficult. However, at several locations along the ASF, the cross-ASF heat transport is less inhibited and heat can move onshore. Once onshore, lateral and vertical heat advection work to disperse the heat anomalies across the shelf region. Understanding the inhomogeneous Antarctic shelf warming will lead to better projections of future ice sheet mass loss.

Early 1990s to late 2000s freshening (ΔS ≈ -0.001–0.002) and warming (Δθ ≈ 0.02°C–0.035°C) of bottom waters was detected in the southern Pacific Ocean, and Ross Sea source waters progressively freshened during the past four decades. This study investigates potential freshwater anomaly sources and quantifies their effect. Glacial melt water inputs to the GCT increased by 1.3 km^3 per decade (1976– 2007), more rapidly so after 2000 (6.8 km^3 per decade), freshening local Shelf Water by 0.0004 per decade. Lighter basal melt inputs to the LAT started in 1994 and also picked up after 2000 to 14.9 km^3 per decade, lowering the local Antarctic Surface Water salinity by -0.017 per decade. Upstream in the Amundsen Sea surface water freshened by -0.03 per decade (1994–2007) mostly (50%) from larger melt water inputs from the Pine Island (17.7 km^3 per decade) and Dotson (14.8 km^3 per decade) glaciers. Two decades of steady (1978-2000) strengthening of sea ice productivity (200 km^3 per decade) within the Ross Sea Polynya suddenly reversed to weakening (-98.6 km^3 per decade) and resulted in Shelf Water freshening (-0.02 per decade) thereafter. To fully account for the observed variability in Ross Sea waters, the progressive (1992- 2011) adjustment of the density field and induced advective contributions are estimated based on a simplified three-layer stratification. Eastern (western) inflow (outflow) of light surface (dense shelf) water increased by 28% (15%) to 1.11 Sv (1.01 Sv) by 2011; whereas a sluggish intermediate inflow (0.02 Sv) of Modified Circumpolar Deep Water turned into outflow after 2007, thus contributing 0.09 Sv by 2011 to the ventilation of deep waters farther offshore. The estimated evolution of overturning and advective salt fluxes in the Ross Sea yield overall freshening of water masses similar to those derived from observations. Volumetric mean salinities declined at -0.07 per decade for Antarctic Surface Water, -0.05 per decade for Modified Circumpolar Water, and -0.03 per decade for Shelf Water. Outflow intensification of Shelf Water mixtures is also consistent with bottom water property changes (freshening and warming) measured farther downstream in the southern Pacific Ocean.