Although detrimental genetic processes are known to adversely affect the viability of populations, little is known about how detrimental genetic processes in a keystone species can affect the functioning of ecosystems. Here, we assessed how changes in the genetic characteristics of a keystone predator, grey wolves, affected the ecosystem of Isle Royale National Park over two decades. Changes in the genetic characteristic of the wolf population associated with a genetic rescue event, followed by high levels of inbreeding, led to a rise and then fall in predation rates on moose, the primary prey of wolves and dominant mammalian herbivore in this system. Those changes in predation rate led to large fluctuations in moose abundance, which in turn affected browse rates on balsam fir, the dominant forage for moose during winter and an important boreal forest species. Thus, forest dynamics can be traced back to changes in the genetic characteristics of a predator population.
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Far-reaching geometrical artefacts due to thermal decomposition of polymeric coatings around focused ion beam milled pigment particles: FAR REACHING FIB INDUCED ARTEFACTS
- Award ID(s):
- 1236656
- PAR ID:
- 10188013
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Microscopy
- Volume:
- 262
- Issue:
- 3
- ISSN:
- 0022-2720
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 316 to 325
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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ABSTRACT Polarization measurements done using Imaging Polarimeters such as the Robotic Polarimeter are very sensitive to the presence of artefacts in images. Artefacts can range from internal reflections in a telescope to satellite trails that could contaminate an area of interest in the image. With the advent of wide-field polarimetry surveys, it is imperative to develop methods that automatically flag artefacts in images. In this paper, we implement a Convolutional Neural Network to identify the most dominant artefacts in the images. We find that our model can successfully classify sources with 98 per cent true positive and 97 per cent true negative rates. Such models, combined with transfer learning, will give us a running start in artefact elimination for near-future surveys like WALOP.more » « less
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