Submitted by Biblioteca de Pós-Graduação em Geoquímica BGQ (bgq@ndc.uff.br) on 2018-02-22T17:10:01Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Microsoft Word - PDF-Dissertação.pdf: 917116 bytes, checksum: 87c5e9fb0e59ed8d9ca058ba985019f7 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-02-22T17:10:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Microsoft Word - PDF-Dissertação.pdf: 917116 bytes, checksum: 87c5e9fb0e59ed8d9ca058ba985019f7 (MD5) / Universidade Federal Fluminense. Instituto de Química. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Geoquímica, Niterói, RJ / A abordagem utilizada neste estudo visou caracterizar a composição da matéria orgânica no sedimento superficial dos diferentes lagos (águas brancas e pretas) que compõe a Várzea do Lago Grande de Curuai, através dos fenóis oriundos da lignina como traçador de plantas vascularizadas, e dados secundários de análises isotópicas ( 13C) e elementares (C/N), em amostras de sedimento superficial e de possíveis fontes de matéria orgânica. A caracterização dos fenóis de lignina nas amostras de sedimento para as possíveis fontes de matéria orgânica (plantas terrestres, macrófitas e perifiton) e para o sedimento foram feitas através da degradação oxidativa em meio básico com óxido de cobre (CuO). Das amostras de fontes de MO analisadas, Echinocloa polystachia (Capim Canarana) com maior razão S/V e Capim (nd) com maior razão C/V foram as que mais mostraram contribuição na composição da MO para os sedimentos superficiais, mostrando a grande contribuição de MO autóctone macrofítica e fitoplanctônica para a várzea do Lago Grande de Curuai. Os resultados obtidos com os fenóis oriundos da lignina apontam característica de vegetação terrestre, com elevada razão S/V para a amostra de fonte de MO Echinocloa spectabilis (Mutim), caracterizada como fonte alóctone de matéria orgânica para o sedimento da várzea, correspondendo á vegetação C4 terrestre. Gramínea (nd), Pistia stratiotes (Alface d’Água), Eichornia azurea (Mureru) e Eichornia crassipes correspondem a fonte autóctone de matéria orgânica para o sedimento da várzea apresentando elevados valores de razão C/V; e a amostra de Epifiton caracterizou-se como uma mistura de fontes fitoplanctônica, macrofítica e de vegetação terrestre para os sedimentos da várzea. Os resultados obtidos para as amostras de sedimento superficial mostram que a proximidade com terras florestadas, o grau de interferência do Rio Amazonas, e de interconexão entre os lagos que compõe a várzea do Lago Grande de Curuai, interferem na composição (alóctone ou autótone), e no grau de decomposição da MO depositada no sedimento. Os lagos de águas pretas Curumucuri e Açaí apresentaram grande contribuição de MO alóctone da drenagem do solo da floresta adjacente, mas com diferenças no grau de decomposição; sendo que para o Açaí com pouca interferência do Amazonas e isolado dos demais lagos da várzea a MO encontrada no sedimento apresenta maior degradação, enquanto que para o Lago Curumucuri, mais interligado ao sistema, a MO depositada no sedimento é menos degradada. A composição da matéria orgânica para o sedimento dos lagos de águas brancas apresenta maior influência de MO autóctone (vegetação aquática), com exceção do Lago Salé que apresenta grande influência de MO alóctone proveniente da floresta adjacente e do Rio Amazonas. Existem diferenças no grau de decomposição da MO nos lagos de águas brancas, sendo que para os pontos em maior contato com o rio Amazonas a MO no sedimento encontra-se menos degradada. / The approach applied in this study focused in characterizes the organic matter composition in plants and sediments of Várzea do Lago Grande do Curuai floodplain among white water and black water lakes. As a vascular plant tracer it was used lignin phenol composition through cupric oxide degradation under basic conditions analysis. To a better interpretation it was used a secondary data from elemental (C/N) and isotopic ( 13C) analysis. The results from possible organic matter sources to lake sediments, showed higher amount of a non-leaf origin indicated by syringyl phenol ratio normalized to vanillin (S/V) to Echinocloa spectabilis (Mutim); Echinocloa polystachia (Capim Canarana) and Capim (non-identified). However, higher value of C/V ratio coupled to the high S/V values found to Echinocloa polystachia (Capim Canarana) was related to its aquatic behavior allowing a more leaf growth against a terrestrial type as Echinocloa spectabilis (Mutim) with a more structure phenol necessity typical of a terrestrial grass. The Gramínea (ni), Pistia stratiotes (Alface d’Água) and Eichornia crassipes samlpes presented higher C/V ratios values, characterizing a more leaf material typical of aquatic plants. The epiphyton sample indicated a mixture composed by both aquatic and terrestrial plants. Those alochthone versus autochthones sources added to the degradation conditions determined the composition of organic matter deposited. The superficial sediments samples results appeared to be influenced by the forest low land proximity, the Amazon River influence and by the interconnection among the productivity of the floodplain lakes. The black water lakes Curumucuri e Açaí presented a high alochthone organic matter contribution from the drainage of the neighborhood forest. Differences found in degradation rates were related to the hydrological function of those black water lakes. Açai lake showed a higher degradation rate in relation to Cumurucuri Lake that presented a less degraded organic matter due to a higher influence from floodplain system. The organic matter from white water lakes sediments presented a high autochthones proximate sources (aquatic plants) and less alochthone ultimate source (terrestrial plants). Exception were found to Sale Lake with the influence of the neighborhood forest drainage and also from the contact of Amazon River. Among white water lakes, Lago Grande de Curuai, Poção, Santa Ninhã, Salé e Lago Grande do Poção, it was found differences in degradation rates, related with water circulation, where a more Amazon River influence showed a less degraded rate.

Possibilities of object based image analysis for monitoring of meadow vegetation and management in the Krkonoše Mountains National Park Abstract The main aim of the thesis was to evaluate possibilities of Object Based Image Analysis (OBIA) of WorldView-2 satellite image data and aerial optical scanner for meadow vegetation and managment types classification in Krkonoše Mountains National Park. The classification was based on legend prepared by botanist of the national park. The second goal was to compare classification accuracy of Object Based Image Analysis and neural net classification method that was used by Pomahačová (2012) for the same area and the same WorldView-2 data. OBIA for meadow vegetation was conducted using SVM algorithm and "Decision Tree" algorithm. The classification accuracy was estimated using reference points from the field. The thesis puts the requirements (optimal parameters and conditions) for successfull object based classification of mountain meadow vegetation into a new perspective. Key words: Object based classification, meadows, WorldView-2, aerial optical scanner, SVM, KRNAP

Loss of biodiversity is a global concern and one of the affected habitats are meadows, where we have a large species richness among fungi and vascular plants who interact in ways that are poorly researched. Many of these meadow species are severely affected by reduced meadow areas which have been converted into farmland, lost their rich flora and mycota because of added fertilizers or have been left unmanaged. The purpose of this study was to investigate if there is any connection between species richness in plants and fungi on meadows, if the meadow age affects species richness, and if environmental variables such as pH, shadowing, moss and soil type has an effect on species richness. During the summer of 2021 plants were counted and in the fall the fungi was counted. Statistical analysis was performed on two different datasets, one with all species counted, one with plant species that have their main habitat on meadows, and fungi commonly known as waxcaps. The result showed a significant connection in species richness between plants and fungi when all species were tested and when a selection of meadow living species was tested. The effect of time showed that the youngest meadow contained the least number of species. Shadowing for plants had a significant negative effect when all species were counted, and all other tests of GLM-models showed significant effects on plants by fungi and vice versa. The results show that there is an interaction between plants and fungi, although we today have a poor knowledge about the actual functionality of these interactions. Other studies have tested low-cost methods to establish meadows in cities and ski slopes, where it is possible to create new suitable habitats for species that have meadows as their main habitat. One of the meadows in this study shows that overgrown meadows can be restored with great results. / Förlust av biodiversitet är ett globalt problem och ett av de habitat som påverkas är ängarna, där det finns en stor artrikedom bland svampar och växter som interagerar med varandra på ett sätt som i dag är dåligt utrett. Många av dessa arter hotas av kraftigt minskande arealer av ängar vilka har gjorts om till åkrar, gödslats så att de har förlorat sin rika flora och funga samt växer igen då de inte längre anses vara användbara. I denna studie undersöks om det går att finna ett samband mellan antalet arter av växter på en äng och antalet arter av svampar samtidigt som påverkan av tiden lokalen har varit en äng testas. Dessutom undersöks vilken påverkan pH, skugga, täckning av mossa och jordtyp kan ha. Under sommaren 2021 inventerades växter och därefter svamparna under hösten. Analysen gjordes i två olika indelningar där alla arter togs med i en och den andra en reducerad indelning där enbart ängsspecifika växter och vaxskivlingar togs med. Datat analyserades statistiskt och resultatet visade att det finns ett signifikant samband mellan antalet arter av växter och antalet arter av svampar både när alla arter räknades in och när de specifikt ängslevande arterna togs med. Effekten av tiden ängarna varit hävdade visade flera signifikanta resultat där tendensen var att den yngsta ängen innehöll minst antal arter. Skuggning visade en signifikant negativ effekt på antalet växtarter när alla arter togs med och övriga statistiska test med GLM visade en signifikant påverkan av växter på svampar och omvänt. Detta resultat visar att det finns interaktioner mellan svampar och växter på ängarna, även om vi idag inte har så god kännedom om hur interaktionen faktiskt fungerar. Det finns undersökningar som visar att det med relativt billiga metoder går att skapa nya ängar både i städer och i skidbackar för att skapa nya lämpliga habitat för ängslevande arter samtidigt som en av ängarna i denna studie visar att vi med rätt vilja kan väcka liv i en äng som under lång tid fått växa igen.

Traditionally managed temperate semi-natural meadows are generally considered as one of the most diverse habitats worldwide. During the past decades, management changes and abandonment of meadows pose serious threats to communities of both flowering plants and pollinators. However, the extent to which are pollinators affected by changes in floral resources still remain unknown. To investigate the effect of floral resources on visitation specialization, species richness and abundance of hoverflies, pollination networks from 13 meadows in the Železné hory PLA were constructed and analysed. Moreover, patterns were recorded on two spatial scales, in transects and in the whole meadows. To specify the specialization of hoverfly pollinators, unvisited plant species and all resources present on a site (transect/meadow), offered by plants as floral abundance and nectar rewards, was added in the networks. Relationships between plant species richness, floral abundance and nectar sugar production were positively correlated with visitation specialization of hoverflies on the meadow scale. Species richness and abundance of hoverflies was affected by floral resources on the transect scale, unlike the specialization of hoverflies. The usage of extended network indices may act as an improvement towards the better...

Small-scale fisheries employ many millions of people around the world, and are particularly important in developing countries, where the dependency on marine resources is high and livelihood diversification options are scarce. In many areas of the world however, small-scale fisheries are at risk which threatens the food security and wellbeing of coastal people. Small-scale fisheries management has in many cases been insufficient and new comprehensive approaches are recommended to achieve social-ecological sustainability in the long-term. The aim of this thesis is to analyze empirically how social-ecological elements of seagrass-associated small-scale fisheries in the Western Indian Ocean region can be addressed for a transformation from the current mostly degraded state to more sustainable social-ecological systems and secure future livelihoods. The main method used was semi-structured interviews with local fishers. The main findings show the crucial contributions seagrass-associated small-scale fisheries make to food security and income generation and highlight the need to acknowledge the social-ecological importance of seagrasses in the seascape (Paper I). A discrepancy between low societal gains of the fishing of sea urchin predator fish species and their crucial importance in the food web (in controlling sea urchin populations and the associated grazing pressure on seagrasses) was identified (Paper II). These results suggest catch-and-release practice of sea urchin predator fish species, which could contribute to more balanced predator – sea urchin – seagrass food webs in the long run. The use of illegal dragnets was identified as a major threat to local seagrass meadows (Paper IV). Institutional elements influencing the use of such destructive dragnet were identified to be normative, cultural-cognitive and economic, which constitutes an institutional misfit to the current emphasis on regulative elements in a hierarchical manner (Paper III). Concerning future co-management initiatives, gear restrictions and education were the favoured management measures among all fishers (Paper IV). A majority of fishers were willing to participate in monitoring and controls, and most fishers thought they themselves and their communities would benefit most from seagrass-specific management. These findings highlight the need for actions on multiple scales, being the local-, management-, policy- and governance levels. The suggested actions include: education and exchange of ecological and scientific knowledge, gear management including the cessation of dragnet fishing, strengthening of local institutions, an active participation of fishers in enforcement of existing rules and regulations and an introduction of adequate alternative livelihood options. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 1: Manuscript. Paper 4: Manuscript.</p>

The thesis focuses on the reflection of the discovery of America by the Norsemen, and does so in three steps. Firstly, the approach to and the significance of the Norse voyages to America in the medieval materials, and especially in the Vinland sagas, are presented. This part is accompanied by a general introduction into the sagas. Secondly, the situation in the 19th century is introduced. In this period a lot of scientific works as well as works of art aiming at the Norse voyages to the New continent arose. The factors that led to this increased interest are explored, e.g. national movement in Scandinavia. Thirdly, the contemporary reflexion of the Norse discovery of America is analyzed (particularly its influence on works of art, society, politics and scientific research). The methodology used in this thesis is discourse analysis, which points out to the changing reflexion of the given topic.

Les écosystèmes marins côtiers subissent de nombreuses perturbations naturelles et anthropiques. Dans le contexte socio-économique actuel, mieux comprendre le fonctionnement et transfert des contaminants dans ces écosystèmes est primordial. L’étude du transfert de la matière organique et des contaminants aux interfaces, constitue un enjeu crucial. Les principaux objectifs sont de caractériser l’ichtyofaune des herbiers de posidonie et comprendre les relations trophiques ; d’établir les niveaux et variabilité spatiale de la contamination en éléments traces ETs et polluants organiques persistants POPs dans les compartiments de l’écosystème ; et d’identifier les sources et les processus influençant les niveaux de contamination le long du réseau trophique à Marseille et Hyères. La caractérisation du peuplement de poissons et des relations trophiques au sein de l’écosystème est nécessaire pour comprendre les niveaux de contamination. Chez les poissons, le phénomène de bioaccumulation des ETs est difficile à mettre en évidence, excepté pour le mercure. L’influence du régime alimentaire, taille et besoins physiologiques et métaboliques est manifeste. La grande stabilité et la rémanence des POPs leur confèrent des propriétés de bioconcentration et de bioamplification importantes. Les concentrations en contaminants mesurées, ainsi que la détection de pesticides toxiques interdits, attestent de la nécessité de considérer cette pollution avec attention, plus forte à Marseille. / The marine ecosystems undergo frequent disturbances. In the current socio-economic context characterized by intensive urban development and industrialization, it is of primordial importance for the management of the environment to achieve a better understanding of the functioning and the transfer of contaminants within these ecosystems. The study of the transfer of organic matter and contaminants to the interfaces is thus a crucial issue. The main objectives are to characterize the fish fauna and to determine the food webs; to establish the levels and patterns of spatial variability of contamination by trace elements TEs and persistent organic pollutants POPs; and to identify the sources and the processes having an influence on the levels of contamination throughout the food webs. The characterization of the fish populations and the trophic relations between the compartments of the ecosystem is necessary in order to understand the levels of contamination in TEs and POPs. For the fishes, it is difficult to provide evidence of the phenomenon of bioaccumulation of TEs, except for mercury, but the influence of diet, size and physiological and metabolic requirements is obvious. The great stability, liposolubility and persistence of the POPs confer on them significant bioconcentration and bioamplification capabilities. The concentrations in TEs and POPs recorded, and the detection of banned toxic pesticides, attest to the necessity of paying close attention to this pollution.

The aim of this study was to develop and examine the use of backscatter data collected with multibeam sonar (MBS) systems for benthic habitat mapping. Backscatter data were collected from six sites around the Australian coastal zone using the Reson SeaBat 8125 MBS system operating at 455 kHz. Benthic habitats surveyed in this study included: seagrass meadows, rhodolith beds, coral reef, rock, gravel, sand, muddy sand, and mixtures of those habitats. Methods for processing MBS backscatter data were developed for the Coastal Water Habitat Mapping (CWHM) project by a team from the Centre for Marine Science and Technology (CMST). The CMST algorithm calculates the seafloor backscatter strength derived from the peak and integral (or average) intensity of backscattered signals for each beam. The seafloor backscatter strength estimated from the mean value of the integral backscatter intensity was shown in this study to provide an accurate measurement of the actual backscatter strength of the seafloor and its angular dependence. However, the seafloor backscatter strength derived from the peak intensity was found to be overestimated when the sonar insonification area is significantly smaller than the footprint of receive beams, which occurs primarily at oblique angles. The angular dependence of the mean backscatter strength showed distinct differences between hard rough substrates (such as rock and coral reef), seagrass, coarse sediments and fine sediments. The highest backscatter strength was observed not only for the hard and rough substrate, but also for marine vegetation, such as rhodolith and seagrass. The main difference in acoustic backscatter from the different habitats was the mean level, or angle-average backscatter strength. However, additional information can also be obtained from the slope of the angular dependence of backscatter strength. / It was shown that the distribution of the backscatter. The shape parameter was shown to relate to the ratio of the insonification area (which can be interpreted as an elementary scattering cell) to the footprint size rather than to the angular dependence of backscatter strength. When this ratio is less than 5, the gamma shape parameter is very similar for different habitats and is nearly linearly proportional to the ratio. Above a ratio of 5, the gamma shape parameter is not significantly dependent on the ratio and there is a noticeable difference in this parameter between different seafloor types. A new approach to producing images of backscatter properties, introduced and referred to as the angle cube method, was developed. The angle cube method uses spatial interpolation to construct a three-dimensional array of backscatter data that is a function of X-Y coordinates and the incidence angle. This allows the spatial visualisation of backscatter properties to be free from artefacts of the angular dependence and provides satisfactory estimates of the backscatter characteristics. / Using the angle-average backscatter strength and slope of the angular dependence, derived by the angle cube method, in addition to seafloor terrain parameters, habitat probability and classification maps were produced to show distributions of sand, marine vegetation (e.g. seagrass and rhodolith) and hard substrate (e.g. coral and bedrock) for five different survey areas. Ultimately, this study demonstrated that the combination of high-resolution bathymetry and backscatter strength data, as collected by MBS, is an efficient and cost-effective tool for benthic habitat mapping in costal zones.

In this thesis, I examine the variation in plant species richness along gradients of productivity and disturbance in grasslands and forest habitats in southern Sweden, and I compare the documented patterns with theoretical predictions. Moreover, I evaluate the relative importance of habitat quality and habitat configuration for the occurrence of field layer species in deciduous forests. Finally, I present a new method for the determination of the regional species pool. To examine regional and local variation in plant species richness, I gathered data on species composition in plots of different size (0.001 - 1000 m2) in three vegetation types (deciduous forests, dry grasslands and coastal meadows) in four regions of southern Sweden (Öland, Gotland, Småland and Uppland). As predicted by the species pool hypothesis, differences in small-scale species richness of deciduous forests and dry grasslands were correlated with differences in the size of the regional species pool. Moreover, among plots large-scale diversity was predictive of small-scale diversity. Species diversity showed a hump-shaped relationship with productivity in forests, and was related to environmental heterogeneity and the size of the 'habitat-specific' species pool. In the two types of grassland examined, grazed sites were richer in species than abandoned sites. Moreover, both species composition and the representation of plants with different life-history characteristics differed between grazed and abandoned sites. As predicted by the intermediate disturbance hypothesis, species richness was highest at intermediate levels of grazing in coastal meadows. However, all the above patterns were scale-dependent, and not observed at all plot sizes. The occurrence of field layer species in deciduous forests was more strongly related to habitat quality (mainly soil factors) than to habitat configuration (forest area and isolation). Across species, low seed production, clonal reproduction and habitat specificity were negatively associated with isolation.

Denial-of-service attacks (DoS) and distributed denial-of-service attacks (DDoS) attempt to temporarily disrupt users or computer resources to cause service un- availability to legitimate users in the internetworking system. The most common type of DoS attack occurs when adversaries °ood a large amount of bogus data to interfere or disrupt the service on the server. The attack can be either a single-source attack, which originates at only one host, or a multi-source attack, in which multiple hosts coordinate to °ood a large number of packets to the server. Cryptographic mechanisms in authentication schemes are an example ap- proach to help the server to validate malicious tra±c. Since authentication in key establishment protocols requires the veri¯er to spend some resources before successfully detecting the bogus messages, adversaries might be able to exploit this °aw to mount an attack to overwhelm the server resources. The attacker is able to perform this kind of attack because many key establishment protocols incorporate strong authentication at the beginning phase before they can iden- tify the attacks. This is an example of DoS threats in most key establishment protocols because they have been implemented to support con¯dentiality and data integrity, but do not carefully consider other security objectives, such as availability. The main objective of this research is to design denial-of-service resistant mechanisms in key establishment protocols. In particular, we focus on the design of cryptographic protocols related to key establishment protocols that implement client puzzles to protect the server against resource exhaustion attacks. Another objective is to extend formal analysis techniques to include DoS- resistance. Basically, the formal analysis approach is used not only to analyse and verify the security of a cryptographic scheme carefully but also to help in the design stage of new protocols with a high level of security guarantee. In this research, we focus on an analysis technique of Meadows' cost-based framework, and we implement DoS-resistant model using Coloured Petri Nets. Meadows' cost-based framework is directly proposed to assess denial-of-service vulnerabil- ities in the cryptographic protocols using mathematical proof, while Coloured Petri Nets is used to model and verify the communication protocols using inter- active simulations. In addition, Coloured Petri Nets are able to help the protocol designer to clarify and reduce some inconsistency of the protocol speci¯cation. Therefore, the second objective of this research is to explore vulnerabilities in existing DoS-resistant protocols, as well as extend a formal analysis approach to our new framework for improving DoS-resistance and evaluating the performance of the new proposed mechanism. In summary, the speci¯c outcomes of this research include following results; 1. A taxonomy of denial-of-service resistant strategies and techniques used in key establishment protocols; 2. A critical analysis of existing DoS-resistant key exchange and key estab- lishment protocols; 3. An implementation of Meadows's cost-based framework using Coloured Petri Nets for modelling and evaluating DoS-resistant protocols; and 4. A development of new e±cient and practical DoS-resistant mechanisms to improve the resistance to denial-of-service attacks in key establishment protocols.