Understanding the relationships between species traits and the environment is essential for assessment of functional diversity. The variation in avian plumage colouration has attracted much scientific attention for a long time. It is thought that the colouration of birds is a product of interaction between environmental and sexual selection forces. Using two complementary three-matrix approaches (fourth-corner and RLQ analyses) I investigate geographical variation in plumage colouration of birds living along environmental gradient of productivity in South Africa. I suppose that productivity of environment could explain the part of variation in colouration of species at large geographical scales. I compiled information about 14 plumage traits for 649 species. Co- inertia analysis revealed that more vari-coloured species (e.g. with more saturated and vivid plumage), species with carotenoids in feather, blue-green or predominantly black species occur mainly in productive habitats such as moist savannas and woodlands in the north-east of the country. On the contrary pale species (e.g. greyishbrown), whose feathers are brighter (have higher values of brightness), occupy arid habitats in the west. It shows that another pattern such as iridescence, sexual dimorphism and brightness of particular body region exhibit...

Relationship between animal signalization and environmental conditions, where these species are living, is one of crucial topics of ecology. Using two complementary statistical approaches (fourth-corner and RLQ analyzes) I investigated geographical variation in parameters of bird vocalization in South Africa (RSA) and Lesotho. Altogether, I used nine quantitative and five qualitative acoustic traits for 472 bird species and nine environmental variables which could significantly influence parameters of their vocalization. My results supported findings of previous studies about the important effect of body size on species-specific vocal characteristics. In passerines, analyzes corrected for body size showed that the number of elements and element types were increasing with variability of natural conditions and were highest in very arid and climatically unpredictable areas. Element and element type rate were positively associated with altitude. Minimal song frequency in passerines and frequency range of vocalization in other birds were negatively correlated with average temperature of warmest and coldest month of the year, respectively. Similarly, environmental variables significantly influenced distribution of several qualitative song traits in passerines. Passerines, where female song and...

Este trabajo estudia la composición faunística del poblamiento de equinodermos del archipiélago de Cabo Verde y examina sus pautas y escalas de variabilidad espacial. También, analiza cuantitativamente las relaciones entre la variabilidad espacial observada con la estructura física del hábitat y temperatura, así como con ciertos atributos biológicos y ecológicos de las especies estudiadas. La variabilidad espacial del poblamiento a escala fina estuvo relacionada con las variaciones en la estructura física del hábitat. Los efectos de la complejidad y heterogeneidad del hábitat parecen ser específicos, aunque dichas relaciones podrían determinarse a nivel de clase taxonómica. Las especies con determinadas características biológicas y ecológicas mostraron relaciones específicas con los distintos descriptores del hábitat analizados. La variabilidad espacial del poblamiento también se manifestó entre los rangos de profundidad muestreados y mostró relaciones significativas con el poblamiento y ciertas modalidades de atributos biológicos y ecológicos. La variabilidad encontrada a escala gruesa parece estar relacionada con las temperaturas medias y mínimas. / This study examines the species composition, distribution and abundance of the echinoderm assemblage of the Cape Verde archipelago at three spatial scales and at two depth strata. It also analises the relationship between their spatial variability and variation of habitat structure, temperature, and certain biological and ecological atributes of the species. The assemblage exhibited spatial variability at all considered scales. There were significant realtionships between habitat architecture and depth and both assemblage parameters and species abundances at fine spatial scale. The effects of habitat structure were species-specific, although these associationss could be also determined at taxonomic class level. The observed spatial patterns are inferred to reflect behavioural responses to fine-scale microhabitat complexity and heterogeneity, as well as broad-scale oceanic variables such as anual medium and minimum temperatures.

Species with particular traits are not randomly distributed across landscape. Habitats provide the templet on which evolution forges characteristic morphologies and life-history strategies and environmental determinants in an ecological processes represent a filter for certain species with appropriate traits. It is essential to understand how spatial differences in community composition are affected by geographical patterns in a distribution of species characteristics. I was interested in searching and determining the relationships between species traits and environmental parameters within avifauna of south Africa. I investigated the effect of which variables of environment most influenced bird assemblage composition and distribution of species traits in space. Relationships between the environmental factors and the species traits and life-history stategies were investigated using RLQ analysis, a multivariate ordination method able to relate a species trait table to an environmental table by way of a species presence/absence table. The first axis of the RLQ analysis was highly statistically significant and explained most of the variability. It was strongly positively related to increasing productivity, to atributes reflecting vegetation character and to availability of water sources. The rest of...

As futuras utilizações de sistemas de controle em automóveis seguirão a tendência de integração, através do desenvolvimento de sistemas de controle integrados capazes de coordenar as ações dos vários subsistemas que compõem o veículo. Esta coordenação e integração requerem que as integrações entre os subsistemas sejam levadas em conta já nos primeiros estágios de projeto, levando ao desenvolvimento de modelos completos de veículos. Neste sentido, o comportamento dinâmico de um veículo de quatro rodas é analisado através de técnicas de modelagem de sistemas multicorpos utilizando-se o programa ADAMS. Posteriormente, são gerados modelos lineares obtidos através do Jacobiano das equações do modelo original, resultando em uma gama de equações na forma de espaço de estados. O modelo linearizado é então submetido a vários tipos de simulações e os resultados são comparados às respostas do modelo não linear de modo a validar as aproximações lineares em diferentes condições de operação do veículo. São também desenvolvidos dois sistemas de controle de suspensão baseados em técnicas de controle ótimo como duas diferentes abordagens: um controlador skyhook que foi implementado no modelo não linear desenvolvido no ADAMS e um controle de suspensão baseado em um controlador RLQ (Regulador Linear Quadrático), com realimentação de saída que utiliza os modelos linearizados na forma de espaço de estados, sendo este último implementado através da co-simulação ADAMS/Matlab. O sistema de controle de suspensão desenvolvido é um primeiro passo na tentativa de projeto de um sistema de controle integrado do movimento. / Future applications of control in automotive vehicles will follow a trend towards system integration, leading ultimately to the development of integrated vehicle control systems capable of coordinating the action of the various subsystems. The coordination and integration of automotive vehicle subsystems require the interaction amongst the various subsystems to be taken into consideration at the control design stages, resulting in full vehicle models. Therefore, a nonlinear 10 degree of freedom model is obtained through MBS modelling techniques present in ADAMS package software. Then, a linear model is obtained by linearization of the system equations through the Jacobian facility also present in ADAMS. The resulting linearised models are simulated and their response are compared to the previous non-linear one in order to validate the linear approximations. This work also presents two distincts suspension control systems based in optimal control theory: a skyhook controler designed at ADAMS (with the non-linear vehicle model) and a LQR (Linear Quadratic Regulator) with output feedback based on the state space linear vehicle model. This last one was designed through ADAMS/Matlab co-simulation facilities. This designed suspension control is a first attempt to future developments of integrated vehicle control.

As futuras utilizações de sistemas de controle em automóveis seguirão a tendência de integração, através do desenvolvimento de sistemas de controle integrados capazes de coordenar as ações dos vários subsistemas que compõem o veículo. Esta coordenação e integração requerem que as integrações entre os subsistemas sejam levadas em conta já nos primeiros estágios de projeto, levando ao desenvolvimento de modelos completos de veículos. Neste sentido, o comportamento dinâmico de um veículo de quatro rodas é analisado através de técnicas de modelagem de sistemas multicorpos utilizando-se o programa ADAMS. Posteriormente, são gerados modelos lineares obtidos através do Jacobiano das equações do modelo original, resultando em uma gama de equações na forma de espaço de estados. O modelo linearizado é então submetido a vários tipos de simulações e os resultados são comparados às respostas do modelo não linear de modo a validar as aproximações lineares em diferentes condições de operação do veículo. São também desenvolvidos dois sistemas de controle de suspensão baseados em técnicas de controle ótimo como duas diferentes abordagens: um controlador skyhook que foi implementado no modelo não linear desenvolvido no ADAMS e um controle de suspensão baseado em um controlador RLQ (Regulador Linear Quadrático), com realimentação de saída que utiliza os modelos linearizados na forma de espaço de estados, sendo este último implementado através da co-simulação ADAMS/Matlab. O sistema de controle de suspensão desenvolvido é um primeiro passo na tentativa de projeto de um sistema de controle integrado do movimento. / Future applications of control in automotive vehicles will follow a trend towards system integration, leading ultimately to the development of integrated vehicle control systems capable of coordinating the action of the various subsystems. The coordination and integration of automotive vehicle subsystems require the interaction amongst the various subsystems to be taken into consideration at the control design stages, resulting in full vehicle models. Therefore, a nonlinear 10 degree of freedom model is obtained through MBS modelling techniques present in ADAMS package software. Then, a linear model is obtained by linearization of the system equations through the Jacobian facility also present in ADAMS. The resulting linearised models are simulated and their response are compared to the previous non-linear one in order to validate the linear approximations. This work also presents two distincts suspension control systems based in optimal control theory: a skyhook controler designed at ADAMS (with the non-linear vehicle model) and a LQR (Linear Quadratic Regulator) with output feedback based on the state space linear vehicle model. This last one was designed through ADAMS/Matlab co-simulation facilities. This designed suspension control is a first attempt to future developments of integrated vehicle control.

Water quality of a stream or river is influenced by the surrounding landscape and vegetation. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) is commonly used to characterize landcover and vegetation density. Benthic macroinvertebrates are ubiquitous in freshwater streams and are excellent indicators of the quality of freshwater habitats. Data from one NDVI remote sensing flight and one macroinvertebrate sampling event for eight wadeable stream study sites in the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) were acquired. Proportions of high, moderate, and sparse vegetation were calculated for each stream watershed using ArcGIS. Functional feeding groups and tolerance values were assigned to macroinvertebrate taxa. The Fourth-corner and RLQ methods of analysis, available in the ade4 package for R software, were used to evaluate the relationships of macroinvertebrate traits with environmental variables. Hypothesis testing using Model 6 in the ade4 package resulted in p-values of 0.066 and 0.057 for global (overall) significance. Mean NDVI values of moderately vegetated areas and proportion of sparse vegetation were found to be significant to percent shredders at alpha ≤ 0.05. Results of these methods of analysis, when combined with traditional macroinvertebrate sampling metrics, show that NDVI can be a useful, additional tool to characterize a watershed and its effects on macroinvertebrate community composition and structure.