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Uncertainty estimation for operational ocean forecast products—a multi-model ensemble for the North Sea and the Baltic Sea
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Multi-model ensembles for sea surface temperature (SST), sea surface salinity (SSS), sea surface currents (SSC), and water transports have been developed for the North Sea and the Baltic Sea using outputs from several operational ocean forecasting models provided by different institutes. The individual models differ in model code, resolution, boundary conditions, atmospheric forcing, and data assimilation. The ensembles are produced on a daily basis. Daily statistics are calculated for each parameter giving information about the spread of the forecasts with standard deviation, ensemble mean and median, and coefficient of variation. High forecast uncertainty, i.e., for SSS and SSC, was found in the Skagerrak, Kattegat (Transition Area between North Sea and Baltic Sea), and the Norwegian Channel. Based on the data collected, longer-term statistical analyses have been done, such as a comparison with satellite data for SST and evaluation of the deviation between forecasts in temporal and spatial scale. Regions of high forecast uncertainty for SSS and SSC have been detected in the Transition Area and the Norwegian Channel where a large spread between the models might evolve due to differences in simulating the frontal structures and their movements. A distinct seasonal pattern could be distinguished for SST with high uncertainty between the forecasts during summer. Forecasts with relatively high deviation from the multi-model ensemble (MME) products or the other individual forecasts were detected for each region and each parameter. The comparison with satellite data showed that the error of the MME products is lowest compared to those of the ensemble members.
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RBINS Staff Publications
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Under pressure: the relationship between cranial shape and burrowing force in caecilians (Gymnophiona)
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Caecilians are elongate, limbless and annulated amphibians that, with the exception of one aquatic family, all have an at least partly fossorial lifestyle. It has been suggested that caecilian evolution resulted in sturdy and compact skulls with fused bones and tight sutures, as an adaptation to their head-first burrowing habits. However, although their cranial osteology is well described, relationships between form and function remain poorly understood. In the present study, we explored the relationship between cranial shape and in vivo burrowing forces. Using micro-computed tomography (µCT) data, we performed 3D geometric morphometrics to explore whether cranial and mandibular shapes reflected patterns that might be associated with maximal push forces. The results highlight important differences in maximal push forces, with the aquatic Typhlonectes producing a lower force for a given size compared with other species. Despite substantial differences in head morphology across species, no relationship between overall skull shape and push force could be detected. Although a strong phylogenetic signal may partly obscure the results, our conclusions confirm previous studies using biomechanical models and suggest that differences in the degree of fossoriality do not appear to be driving the evolution of head shape.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2021
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Understanding taxonomic and nomenclatural instability – a case study of the Manila clam
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RBINS Staff Publications 2019
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Understanding the impact of sand extraction on benthic ecosystem functioning: a combination of functional indices and biological trait analysis
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RBINS Staff Publications 2023
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Understanding the role of ponds in a changing world
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RBINS Staff Publications
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Understanding the tangled taxonomy of the genus Pseudohercostomus Stackelberg, 1931 (Insecta: Diptera: Dolichopodidae) with description of new species from Singapore and DR Congo
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RBINS Staff Publications 2021
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Une remarquable association d’otolithes de poisons dans le Miocène moyen de Sos, Matillo, (France, Lot-et Garonne)
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RBINS Staff Publications
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Unequal contribution of native South African phylogeographic lineages to the invasion of the African clawed frog, Xenopus laevis, in Europe
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RBINS Staff Publications 2016
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Unexpected fish diversity gradients in the Amazon basin
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Using the most comprehensive fish occurrence database, we evaluated the importance of ecological and historical drivers in diversity patterns of subdrainage basins across the Amazon system. Linear models reveal the influence of climatic conditions, habitat size and sub-basin isolation on species diversity. Unexpectedly, the species richness model also highlighted a negative upriver-downriver gradient, contrary to predictions of increasing richness at more downriver locations along fluvial gradients. This reverse gradient may be linked to the history of the Amazon drainage network, which, after isolation as western and eastern basins throughout the Miocene, only began flowing eastward 1–9 million years (Ma) ago. Our results suggest that the main center of fish diversity was located westward, with fish dispersal progressing eastward after the basins were united and the Amazon River assumed its modern course toward the Atlantic. This dispersal process seems not yet achieved, suggesting a recent formation of the current Amazon system.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2019
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Unfolding veined fold limbs to deduce a basin’s prefolding stress state
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Tectonic structures that developed prior to folding, such as pre- and early-kinematic veins, hold valuable information on the stress state of the paleobasin in which these early structures formed. To derive the parental orientation of these prefolding brittle structures, folds need to be ‘unfold’. A fold restoration methodology is presented in which fold limbs, and structures they contain, are rotated back to their depositional horizontal position by removing the tilt of the fold hinge line and the dip of individual fold limbs. The method is applied on quartz veins emplaced in folded Lower Devonian sandstones from the High-Ardenne slate belt (Belgium, Germany) and allowed deducing NW-SE opening when the Ardenne-Eifel Basin was at maximum burial depth (early Carboniferous). This exercise can be used in structural geology classes to teach how to rotate data using stereonet techniques hereby encouraging students in applying an unfolding strategy to derive information from prefolding structures.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2018