Design, development, and implementation of IsoBank: A centralized repository for isotopic data.

Stable isotope data have made pivotal contributions to nearly every discipline of the physical and natural sciences. As the generation and application of stable isotope data continues to grow exponentially, so does the need for a unifying data repository to improve accessibility and promote collaborative engagement. This paper provides an overview of the design, development, and implementation of IsoBank (www.

Year-round sampling of the fish community in a boreal lake: differences between summer and winter influence estimates of species composition, catch, and fish size.

Boreal lakes experience pronounced seasonal variation in abiotic factors, especially light, temperature, and oxygen. A deep boreal humic lake was sampled year-round to test putative changes in total fish catch, species composition, catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE), habitat use, fish size, and condition. Monthly sampling was conducted in Lake Pääjärvi, southern Finland, during one full year in 2020-2021 as well as in March and August 2021 and 2022.

Mercury and amino acid content relations in northern pike (Esox lucius) in subarctic lakes along a climate-productivity gradient.

Mercury is a highly toxic element for consumers, but its relation to amino acids and physiology of wild fish is not well known. The main aim of this study was to evaluate how total mercury content (THg) of northern pike (Esox lucius) is related to amino acids and potentially important environmental and biological factors along a climate-productivity gradient of ten subarctic lakes. Linear regression between THg and sixteen amino acids content [nmol mg dry weight] from white dorsal muscle of pike from these lakes were tested.

Distance decay 2.0 - A global synthesis of taxonomic and functional turnover in ecological communities.

Aim: Understanding the variation in community composition and species abundances (i.e., β-diversity) is at the heart of community ecology.

Comparative trophic ecology of microhabitat-associated guilds of reef fishes in the Adriatic Sea.

Reef ecosystems are characterized by highly heterogenous habitats and functionally diverse fish communities. Few studies have examined how functional diversity differs among habitats within these communities, i.e.

Winter ecology of specialist and generalist morphs of European whitefish, Coregonus lavaretus, in subarctic northern Europe.

European whitefish is a model species for adaptive radiation of fishes in temperate and subarctic lakes. In northern Europe the most commonly observed morphotypes are a generalist (LSR) morph and a pelagic specialist (DR) morph. The evolution of a pelagic specialist morph is something of an enigma, however, as this region is characterized by long, dark winters with pelagic primary production limited to a brief window in late summer.

Season and species influence stable isotope ratios between lethally and non-lethally sampled tissues in freshwater fish.

The field of stable isotope ecology is moving away from lethal sampling (internal organs and muscle) towards non-lethal sampling (fins, scales and epidermal mucus). Lethally and non-lethally sampled tissues often differ in their stable isotope ratios due to differences in metabolic turnover rate and isotopic routing. If not accounted for when using non-lethal tissues, these differences may result in inaccurate estimates of resource use and trophic position derived from stable isotopes.

An arithmetic correction for the effect of lipid on carbon stable isotope ratios in muscle and digestive glands of the American lobster (Homarus americanus).

Rationale: Lipid correction models use elemental carbon-to-nitrogen ratios to estimate the effect of lipids on δ C values and provide a fast and inexpensive alternative to chemically removing lipids. However, the performance of these models varies, especially in whole-body invertebrate samples. The generation of tissue-specific lipid correction models for American lobsters, both an ecologically and an economically important species in eastern North America, will aid ecological research of this species and our understanding of the function of these models in invertebrates.

Environmental and biological factors are joint drivers of mercury biomagnification in subarctic lake food webs along a climate and productivity gradient.

Subarctic lakes are getting warmer and more productive due to the joint effects of climate change and intensive land-use practices (e.g. forest clear-cutting and peatland ditching), processes that potentially increase leaching of peat- and soil-stored mercury into lake ecosystems.

Predator community and resource use jointly modulate the inducible defense response in body height of crucian carp.

Phenotypic plasticity can be expressed as changes in body shape in response to environmental variability. Crucian carp (), a widespread cyprinid, displays remarkable plasticity in body morphology and increases body depth when exposed to cues from predators, suggesting the triggering of an antipredator defense mechanism. However, these morphological changes could also be related to resource use and foraging behavior, as an indirect effect of predator presence.

Acid treatment of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) scales prior to analysis has negligible effects on δC and δN isotope ratios.

There is debate in the literature as to whether scales of fishes require acidification to remove inorganic carbonates prior to stable isotope analysis. Acid-treated and untreated scales from 208 Atlantic salmon from nine locations on both sides of the Atlantic were analysed for δC and δN. Linear mixed-effect models determined the effect of acid treatment to be statistically significant.

Increasing temperature and productivity change biomass, trophic pyramids and community-level omega-3 fatty acid content in subarctic lake food webs.

Climate change in the Arctic is outpacing the global average and land-use is intensifying due to exploitation of previously inaccessible or unprofitable natural resources. A comprehensive understanding of how the joint effects of changing climate and productivity modify lake food web structure, biomass, trophic pyramid shape and abundance of physiologically essential biomolecules (omega-3 fatty acids) in the biotic community is lacking. We conducted a space-for-time study in 20 subarctic lakes spanning a climatic (+3.

Resource polymorphism in European whitefish: Analysis of fatty acid profiles provides more detailed evidence than traditional methods alone.

Resource polymorphism-whereby ancestral generalist populations give rise to several specialised morphs along a resource gradient-is common where species colonise newly formed ecosystems. This phenomenon is particularly well documented in freshwater fish populations inhabiting postglacial lakes formed at the end of the last ice age. However, knowledge on how such differential exploitation of resources across contrasting habitats might be reflected in the biochemical compositions of diverging populations is still limited, though such patterns might be expected.

ABO and ACBD(OE): review of experimental optimisation of thin film perovskites by high-throughput evaporative physical vapour deposition.

The development of functional perovskites for future technologies can be achieved though the combinatorial synthetic method of evaporative physical vapour deposition (HT-ePVD) which provides a direct low temperature route to anion stoichiometric materials. When combined with the ability to control and vary precisely the composition of thin film libraries of materials, high-throughput methods of screening and characterisation provides a rapid experimental determination of the structure/function relationship. This review of the use of HT-ePVD shows that controlled cationic substitutions in A and/or B sites can easily be explored, as can the effect of anionic substitution.

Fruit of the forest - larval sea lamprey Petromyzon marinus are fuelled by allochthonous resources.

We used stable isotopes of carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen to quantify the trophic position and resource use of larval sea lamprey Petromyzon marinus, four benthic macroinvertebrate functional feeding guilds (scraper, shredder, collector and predator) and other fishes in three rivers in eastern Canada. Larval lamprey and most invertebrate guilds foraged as primary consumers in all rivers whereas all other fishes predominantly foraged as secondary consumers. Larval lamprey obtained 75-85% of their resources from allochthonous derived material.

Reversible perovskite electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction/oxygen evolution.

The identification of electrocatalysts mediating both the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) are prerequisite for the development of reversible fuel cells and rechargeable metal-air batteries. The question remains as to whether a bifunctional catalyst, or a single catalyst site, will exhibit potentials converging to +1.23 V.

Stoichiometric Engineering of Chalcogenide Semiconductor Alloys for Nanophotonic Applications.

A variety of alternative plasmonic and dielectric material platforms-among them nitrides, semiconductors, and conductive oxides-have come to prominence in recent years as means to address the shortcomings of noble metals (including Joule losses, cost, and passive character) in certain nanophotonic and optical-frequency metamaterial applications. Here, it is shown that chalcogenide semiconductor alloys offer a uniquely broad pallet of optical properties, complementary to those of existing material platforms, which can be controlled by stoichiometric design. Using combinatorial high-throughput techniques, the extraordinary epsilon-near-zero, plasmonic, and low/high-index characteristics of Bi:Sb:Te alloys are explored.

Compositionally controlled plasmonics in amorphous semiconductor metasurfaces.

Amorphous bismuth telluride (Bi:Te) provides a composition-dependent, CMOS-compatible alternative material platform for plasmonics in the ultraviolet-visible spectral range. Thin films of the chalcogenide semiconductor are found, using high-throughput physical vapor deposition and characterization techniques, to exhibit a plasmonic response (a negative value of the real part of relative permittivity) over a band of wavelengths extending from ~250 nm to between 530 and 978 nm, depending on alloy composition (Bi:Te at% ratio). The plasmonic response is illustrated via the fabrication of subwavelength period nano-grating metasurfaces, which present strong, period-dependent plasmonic absorption resonances in the visible range, manifested in the perceived color of the nanostructured domains in reflection.

High-Throughput Synthesis and Characterization of Eu Doped Ba SrSiO Thin Film Phosphors.

High-throughput techniques have been employed for the synthesis and characterization of thin film phosphors of Eu-doped Ba SrSiO. Direct synthesis from evaporation of the constituent elements under a flux of atomic oxygen on a sapphire substrate at 850 °C was used to directly produce thin film libraries (415 nm thickness) of the crystalline orthosilicate phase with the desired compositional variation (0.24 > x > 1.

Climate and productivity affect total mercury concentration and bioaccumulation rate of fish along a spatial gradient of subarctic lakes.

Climate change is resulting in increased temperatures and precipitation in subarctic regions of Europe. These changes are extending tree lines to higher altitudes and latitudes, and enhancing tree growth enabling intensification of forestry into previously inhospitable subarctic regions. The combined effects of climate change and land-use intensification extend the warm, open-water season in subarctic lakes and increase lake productivity and may also increase leaching and methylation activity of mercury within the lakes.

Total mercury concentrations in liver and muscle of European whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus (L.)) in a subarctic lake - Assessing the factors driving year-round variation.

Subarctic lakes are characterised by extreme seasonal variation in light and temperature which influences growth, maturation, condition and resource use of fishes. However, our understanding of how seasonal changes affect mercury concentrations of fishes is limited. We conducted a year-round study (3 ice-covered months, 3 open-water months) with open-water inter-annual aspect (3 years: samples from August/September), focusing on total mercury (THg) concentrations and ecological characteristics of a common freshwater fish, European whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus (L.

Ecological speciation in a generalist consumer expands the trophic niche of a dominant predator.

Ecological speciation - whereby an ancestral founder species diversifies to fill vacant niches - is a phenomenon characteristic of newly formed ecosystems. Despite such ubiquity, ecosystem-level effects of such divergence remain poorly understood. Here, we compared the trophic niche of European whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus) and their predators in a series of contrasting subarctic lakes where this species had either diversified into four ecomorphologically distinct morphs or instead formed monomorphic populations.

Conceptualising the interactive effects of climate change and biological invasions on subarctic freshwater fish.

Climate change and species invasions represent key threats to global biodiversity. Subarctic freshwaters are sentinels for understanding both stressors because the effects of climate change are disproportionately strong at high latitudes and invasion of temperate species is prevalent. Here, we summarize the environmental effects of climate change and illustrate the ecological responses of freshwater fishes to these effects, spanning individual, population, community and ecosystem levels.

Ecomorphological divergence drives differential mercury bioaccumulation in polymorphic European whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus) populations of subarctic lakes.

Resource polymorphism, whereby ancestral trophic generalists undergo divergence into multiple specialist morphs, is common in salmonid fish populations inhabiting subarctic lakes. However, the extent to which such resource specialization into the three principal lake habitats (littoral, profundal, and pelagic) affects patterns of contaminant bioaccumulation remains largely unexplored. We assessed total mercury concentrations (THg) of European whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus (L.

Synthesis and Screening of Phase Change Chalcogenide Thin Film Materials for Data Storage.

A combinatorial synthetic methodology based on evaporation sources under an ultrahigh vacuum has been used to directly synthesize compositional gradient thin film libraries of the amorphous phases of GeSbTe alloys at room temperature over a wide compositional range. An optical screen is described that allows rapid parallel mapping of the amorphous-to-crystalline phase transition temperature and optical contrast associated with the phase change on such libraries. The results are shown to be consistent with the literature for compositions where published data are available along the SbTe-GeTe tie line.