How geographic distance and depth drive ecological variability and isolation of demersal fish communities in an archipelago system (Cape Verde, Eastern Atlantic Ocean)

Cape Verde is a tropical oceanic ecosystem, highly fragmented and dispersed, with islands physically isolated by distance and depth. To understand how isolation affects the ecological variability in this archipelago, we conducted a research project on the community structure of the 18 commercially most important demersal fishes. An index of ecological distance based on species relative dominance (Di) is developed from Catch Per Unit Effort, derived from an extensive database of artisanal fisheries. Two ecological measures of distance between islands are calculated: at the species level, DDi, and at the community level, DD (sum of DDi). A physical isolation factor (Idb) combining distance (d) and bathymetry (b) is proposed. Covariance analysis shows that isolation factor is positively correlated with both DDi and DD, suggesting that Idb can be considered as an ecological isolation factor. The effect of Idb varies with season and species. This effect is stronger in summer (May to November), than in winter (December to April), which appears to be more unstable. Species react differently to Idb, independently of season. A principal component analysis on the monthly (DDi) for the 12 islands and the 18 species, complemented by an agglomerative hierarchical clustering, shows a geographic pattern of island organization, according to Idb. Results indicate that the ecological structure of demersal fish communities of Cape Verde archipelago, both in time and space, can be explained by a geographic isolation factor. The analytical approach used here is promising and could be tested in other archipelago systems.

Research- Web app for android

Application development for mobile devices has evolved substantially in recent years. Creating apps for mobile systems is becoming a standard in order to create better solutions to meet the market demand. Currently, half of the US population own Smartphones. This market comprises 150 million people, and 28% of these people consider mobiles their primary way of accessing the Web (Hales, 2013). A common feature of most websites tailored for mobile devices is that they are reduced versions of the desktop site. Several factors that must be considered when making this transition from desktop sites to mobile devices are: identifying elements from the desktop website that should be displayed on the mobile device screen; the amount of information the institution (BSU in this case) wishes to provide and designing an interface that will please the users;