Influence of Pitch Height on the Perception of Submissiveness and Threat in Musical Passages

Bolinger, Ohala, Morton and others have established that vocal pitch height is perceived to be associated with social signals of dominance and submissiveness: higher vocal pitch is associated with submissiveness, whereas lower vocal pitch is associated with social dominance. An experiment was carried out to test this relationship in the perception of non-vocal melodies. Results show a parallel situation in music: higher-pitched melodies sound more submissive (less threatening) than lower-pitched melodies

Multi-Trophic Species Interactions Shape Seascape-Scale Coral Reef Vegetation Patterns

How species interactions shape habitat structure is a longstanding question in ecology. A curious phenomenon reflecting ecological self-organization around reef habitat structures exists on coral reefs: large-scale (hundreds to hundreds of thousands of m2) halo-like patterns surrounding patch reefs, i.e., individual coral reefs that are often separated by seagrass or macroalgal meadows. These “halos,” long known to occur in various locations worldwide, reflect a distinct band of unvegetated sediments surrounding coral patch reefs. However, the full suite of mechanisms controlling them have never been rigorously explored, perhaps due to the common assumption dating back nearly 50 years that they arise solely from reef-based herbivory patterns shaped by anti-predator behavior. Here we provide empirical evidence from a set of halos within Australia's Great Barrier Reef that risk-averse foraging and a previously unrecognized functional group contribute to halo formation, demonstrating that these halos cannot be explained by any one mechanism in isolation. Our results show that halos are a more complex ecological phenomenon than previously assumed by the majority of studies of halos. Specifically, risk-averse grazing by herbivores is likely a key mechanism behind the formation of halos, as generally assumed, but bioturbators also play a central role. This knowledge furthers our understanding of how small-scale species interactions can structure habitat at landscape scales. These large-scale habitat features are important because they affect at least one important ecosystem function, carbon storage, and potentially others (e.g., biological nutrient transfer). These results also raise the question of whether other self-organized ecological patterns may be more nuanced than is currently assumed. This study capitalizes on recent advances in high resolution satellite imagery accessibility that allow ecologists to measure landscape-scale habitat features nearly everywhere on land and in shallow seas. Our results suggest that halos may hold potential as the basis for a tool for remotely observing ecological interactions and measuring large-scale ecosystem change on coral reefs

Contrasting patterns of changes in abundance following a bleaching event between juvenile and adult scleractinian corals

Funding was provided by the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (CE140100020) and the Templeton Foundation (Grant #60501, ‘Putting the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis to the Test’). MD is grateful to the Scottish Funding Council (MASTS, grant reference HR09011) and the European Research Council (grant BioTIME). The study was partially supported by Australian Research Council grants DP1093448 and FT110100609.Coral bleaching events have caused extensive mortality on reefs around the world. Juvenile corals are generally less affected by bleaching than their conspecific adults and therefore have the potential to buffer population declines and seed recovery. Here, we use juvenile and adult abundance data at 20 sites encircling Lizard Island, Great Barrier Reef, before and after the 2016 bleaching event to quantify: (1) correlates of changes in juvenile abundance following a bleaching event; (2) differences in susceptibility to extreme thermal stress between juveniles and adults. Declines in juvenile abundance were lower at sites closer to the 20-m-depth contour and higher for Acropora and Pocillopora juveniles than for other taxa. Juveniles of Acropora and Goniastrea were less susceptible to bleaching than adults, but the opposite was true for Pocillopora spp. and taxa in the family Merulinidae. Our results indicate that the potential of the juvenile life stage to act as a buffer during bleaching events is taxon-dependent.PostprintPeer reviewe

Non-mainstream Languages and Speech Recognition

Most languages of the world have not been the focus of a speech recognition development effort, and the choice of technical approaches best suited to a language can be substantially impacted by the cultural context surrounding it. As the technologist and the teacher of or expert in a non-mainstream language and its culture are typically not the same person, issues that are self-evident to one may come as a surprise to the other. The goal of this paper is to add one plank to the bridge between these two areas of expertise by highlighting some aspects of non-mainstream linguistic contexts that pose challenges to the usual model of speech recognition system development and by suggesting alternative ways to meet these challenges.</jats:p