Louisiana
Louisiana is a state in the Deep South region of the South Central United States. It is the 25th most populous of the 50 United States. Louisiana is bordered by the state of Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, Mississippi to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south. A large part of its eastern boundary is demarcated by the Mississippi River. Louisiana is the only U. S. state with political subdivisions termed parishes. The state's capital is Baton Rouge, its largest city is New Orleans. Much of the state's lands were formed from sediment washed down the Mississippi River, leaving enormous deltas and vast areas of coastal marsh and swamp; these contain a rich southern biota. There are many species of tree frogs, fish such as sturgeon and paddlefish. In more elevated areas, fire is a natural process in the landscape, has produced extensive areas of longleaf pine forest and wet savannas; these support an exceptionally large number of plant species, including many species of terrestrial orchids and carnivorous plants.
Louisiana has more Native American tribes than any other southern state, including four that are federally recognized, ten that are state recognized, four that have not received recognition. Some Louisiana urban environments have a multicultural, multilingual heritage, being so influenced by a mixture of 18th-century French, Spanish, Native American, African cultures that they are considered to be exceptional in the US. Before the American purchase of the territory in 1803, present-day Louisiana State had been both a French colony and for a brief period a Spanish one. In addition, colonists imported numerous African people as slaves in the 18th century. Many came from peoples of the same region of West Africa. In the post-Civil War environment, Anglo-Americans increased the pressure for Anglicization, in 1921, English was for a time made the sole language of instruction in Louisiana schools before a policy of multilingualism was revived in 1974. There has never been an official language in Louisiana, the state constitution enumerates "the right of the people to preserve and promote their respective historic and cultural origins."
Louisiana was named after Louis XIV, King of France from 1643 to 1715. When René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle claimed the territory drained by the Mississippi River for France, he named it La Louisiane; the suffix -ana is a Latin suffix that can refer to "information relating to a particular individual, subject, or place." Thus Louis + ana carries the idea of "related to Louis." Once part of the French Colonial Empire, the Louisiana Territory stretched from present-day Mobile Bay to just north of the present-day Canada–United States border, including a small part of what is now the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. The Gulf of Mexico did not exist 250 million years ago when there was but one supercontinent, Pangea; as Pangea split apart, the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico opened. Louisiana developed, over millions of years, from water into land, from north to south; the oldest rocks are exposed in areas such as the Kisatchie National Forest. The oldest rocks date back to the early Cenozoic Era, some 60 million years ago.
The history of the formation of these rocks can be found in D. Spearing's Roadside Geology of Louisiana; the youngest parts of the state were formed during the last 12,000 years as successive deltas of the Mississippi River: the Maringouin, Teche, St. Bernard, the modern Mississippi, now the Atchafalaya; the sediments were carried from north to south by the Mississippi River. In between the Tertiary rocks of the north, the new sediments along the coast, is a vast belt known as the Pleistocene Terraces, their age and distribution can be related to the rise and fall of sea levels during past ice ages. In general, the northern terraces have had sufficient time for rivers to cut deep channels, while the newer terraces tend to be much flatter. Salt domes are found in Louisiana, their origin can be traced back to the early Gulf of Mexico, when the shallow ocean had high rates of evaporation. There are several hundred salt domes in the state. Salt domes are important not only as a source of salt. Louisiana is bordered to the west by Texas.
The state may properly be divided into two parts, the uplands of the north, the alluvial along the coast. The alluvial region includes low swamp lands, coastal marshlands and beaches, barrier islands that cover about 20,000 square miles; this area lies principally along the Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi River, which traverses the state from north to south for a distance of about 600 mi ) and empties into the Gulf of Mexico. The breadth of the alluvial region along the Mississippi is from 10 to 60 miles, along the other rivers, the alluvial region averages about 10 miles across; the Mississippi River flows along a ridge formed by its own natural deposits, from which the lands decline toward a river beyond at an average fall of six feet per mile. The alluvial lands along other streams present similar features; the higher and contiguous hill lands of the north and northwestern part of the state have an area of more than 25,000 square miles. They consist of prairie and woodl
Perciformes
Perciformes called the Percomorpha or Acanthopteri, is an order or superorder of ray-finned fish. If considered a single order, they are the most numerous order of vertebrates, containing about 41% of all bony fish. Perciformes means "perch-like"; this group comprises over 10,000 species found in all aquatic ecosystems. The order contains about 160 families, the most of any order within the vertebrates, it is the most variably sized order of vertebrates, ranging from the 7-mm Schindleria brevipinguis to the 5-m marlin in the genus Makaira. They first diversified in the Late Cretaceous. Among the well-known members of this group are perch and darters, sea bass and groupers; the dorsal and anal fins are divided into anterior spiny and posterior soft-rayed portions, which may be or separated. The pelvic fins have one spine and up to five soft rays, positioned unusually far forward under the chin or under the belly. Scales are ctenoid, although sometimes they are cycloid or otherwise modified. Classification is controversial.
As traditionally defined before the introduction of cladistics, the Perciformes are certainly paraphyletic. Other orders that should be included as suborders are the Scorpaeniformes, Tetraodontiformes, Pleuronectiformes. Of the presently recognized suborders, several may be paraphyletic, as well; these are grouped by suborder/superfamily following the text Fishes of the World. Photos of Perciformes on Sealife Collection
Bait (luring substance)
Bait is any substance used to attract prey, e.g. in a mousetrap. The term is used with regard to catching fish. Traditionally, nightcrawlers and smaller fish have been used for this purpose. Fishermen have begun using plastic bait and, more electronic lures, to attract fish; because of the risk of transmitting Myxobolus cerebralis and salmon should not be used as bait. There are various types of saltwater baits. Studies show that natural baits like croaker and shrimp are more recognized by the fish and are more accepted; the best bait for Red Drum is the pogie or menhaden and in the fall specks like croakers thrown in marshy areas. Using bait is a common practice in leopard hunting on a safari. A dead, smaller sized antelope is placed high in the tree to lure the otherwise overcautious leopard; the hunter either watches the bait from a shootable distance or stalks the animal if it came for the bait during the night. Bait is used in bear hunting. In areas where bears are hunted, one can find such bait for sale at gas stations and hunting supply stores.
The bait consists of some sweet substance frosting or molasses, combined with some aromatic such as rotten meat or fish. The bait is spread and the hunter waits under cover for his prey. Baiting in Australia refers to specific campaigns to control foxes, wild dogs and dingos by poisoning in areas where they are a problem; these programs are held in conjunction with the local Department of Primary Industriey, Rural Lands Protection Board and National Parks and Wildlife Service to facilitate a neighbourhood baiting campaign. Australian hunters use carcasses when hunting feral pigs. Shot feral animals are left in the field, the decaying smell attracts more pigs over subsequent days. Fishing bait Fishing lure Honeypot Chumming Berley/Berlying Rubby dubby
Cyclopoida
The Cyclopoida are an order of small crustaceans from the subclass Copepoda. Like many other copepods, members of Cyclopoida are small, planktonic animals living both in the sea and in freshwater habitats, they are capable of rapid movement. Their larval development is metamorphic, the embryos are carried in paired or single sacs attached to first abdominal somite. Cyclopoids are distinguished from other copepods by having first antennae shorter than the length of the head and thorax, uniramous second antennae; the main joint lies between the fifth segments of the body. The Cyclopoida contain 30 families: Suborder Poecilostomatoida contains families Corallovexiidae and Paralubbockiidae; the order Poecilostomatoida was recognised as junior synonym of the order Cyclopoida by Khodami et al.. All of its families were placed in a "poecilostome lineage" within the Cyclopoida; the name Poecilostomatoida is retained here as a temporary name for the lineage containing all the poecilostome families. Data related to Cyclopoida at Wikispecies Cyclopoida fact sheet - Guide to the marine zooplankton of south eastern Australia Cyclopoida pictures Mikko's Phylogeny Archive: Cyclopoida
Binomial nomenclature
Binomial nomenclature called binominal nomenclature or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin grammatical forms, although they can be based on words from other languages. Such a name is called a binomen, binominal name or a scientific name; the first part of the name – the generic name – identifies the genus to which the species belongs, while the second part – the specific name or specific epithet – identifies the species within the genus. For example, humans belong within this genus to the species Homo sapiens. Tyrannosaurus rex is the most known binomial; the formal introduction of this system of naming species is credited to Carl Linnaeus beginning with his work Species Plantarum in 1753. But Gaspard Bauhin, in as early as 1623, had introduced in his book Pinax theatri botanici many names of genera that were adopted by Linnaeus; the application of binomial nomenclature is now governed by various internationally agreed codes of rules, of which the two most important are the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature for animals and the International Code of Nomenclature for algae and plants.
Although the general principles underlying binomial nomenclature are common to these two codes, there are some differences, both in the terminology they use and in their precise rules. In modern usage, the first letter of the first part of the name, the genus, is always capitalized in writing, while that of the second part is not when derived from a proper noun such as the name of a person or place. Both parts are italicized when a binomial name occurs in normal text, thus the binomial name of the annual phlox is now written as Phlox drummondii. In scientific works, the authority for a binomial name is given, at least when it is first mentioned, the date of publication may be specified. In zoology "Patella vulgata Linnaeus, 1758"; the name "Linnaeus" tells the reader who it was that first published a description and name for this species of limpet. "Passer domesticus". The original name given by Linnaeus was Fringilla domestica; the ICZN does not require that the name of the person who changed the genus be given, nor the date on which the change was made, although nomenclatorial catalogs include such information.
In botany "Amaranthus retroflexus L." – "L." is the standard abbreviation used in botany for "Linnaeus". "Hyacinthoides italica Rothm. – Linnaeus first named this bluebell species Scilla italica. The name is composed of two word-forming elements: "bi", a Latin prefix for two, "-nomial", relating to a term or terms; the word "binomium" was used in Medieval Latin to mean a two-term expression in mathematics. Prior to the adoption of the modern binomial system of naming species, a scientific name consisted of a generic name combined with a specific name, from one to several words long. Together they formed a system of polynomial nomenclature; these names had two separate functions. First, to designate or label the species, second, to be a diagnosis or description. In a simple genus, containing only two species, it was easy to tell them apart with a one-word genus and a one-word specific name; such "polynomial names" may sometimes look like binomials, but are different. For example, Gerard's herbal describes various kinds of spiderwort: "The first is called Phalangium ramosum, Branched Spiderwort.
The other... is aptly termed Phalangium Ephemerum Virginianum, Soon-Fading Spiderwort of Virginia". The Latin phrases are short descriptions, rather than identifying labels; the Bauhins, in particular Caspar Bauhin, took some important steps towards the binomial system, by pruning the Latin descriptions, in many cases to two words. The adoption by biologists of a system of binomial nomenclature is due to Swedish botanist and physician Carl von Linné, more known by his Latinized name Carl Linnaeus, it was in his 1753 Species Plantarum that he first began using a one-word "trivial name" together with a generic name in a system of binomial nomenclature. This trivial name is what is now known as specific name; the Bauhins' genus names were retained in many of these, but the descriptive part was reduced to a single word. Linnaeus's trivial names introduced an important new idea, namely that the function of a name could be to give a species a unique label; this meant. Thus Gerard's Phalangium ephemerum virginianum became Tradescantia virgi
FishBase
FishBase is a global species database of fish species. It is the most extensively accessed online database on adult finfish on the web. Over time it has "evolved into a dynamic and versatile ecological tool", cited in scholarly publications. FishBase provides comprehensive species data, including information on taxonomy, geographical distribution and morphology, behaviour and habitats and population dynamics as well as reproductive and genetic data. There is access to tools such as trophic pyramids, identification keys, biogeographical modelling and fishery statistics and there are direct species level links to information in other databases such as LarvalBase, GenBank, the IUCN Red List and the Catalog of Fishes; as of November 2018, FishBase included descriptions of 34,000 species and subspecies, 323,200 common names in 300 languages, 58,900 pictures, references to 55,300 works in the scientific literature. The site has about 700,000 unique visitors per month; the origins of FishBase go back to the 1970s, when the fisheries scientist Daniel Pauly found himself struggling to test a hypothesis on how the growing ability of fish was affected by the size of their gills.
Hypotheses, such as this one, could be tested only if large amounts of empirical data were available. At the time, fisheries management used analytical models which required estimates for fish growth and mortality, it can be difficult for fishery scientists and managers to get the information they need on the species that concern them, because the relevant facts can be scattered across and buried in numerous journal articles, reports and other sources. It can be difficult for people in developing countries who need such information. Pauly believed that the only practical way fisheries managers could access the volume of data they needed was to assemble and consolidate all the data available in the published literature into some central and accessed repository; such a database would be useful if the data has been standardised and validated. This would mean that when scientists or managers need to test a new hypothesis, the available data will be there in a validated and accessible form, there will be no need to create a new dataset and have to validate it.
Pauly recruited Rainer Froese, the beginnings of a software database along these lines was encoded in 1988. This database confined to tropical fish, became the prototype for FishBase. FishBase was subsequently extended to cover all finfish, was launched on the Web in August 1996, it is now the most accessed online database for fish in the world. In 1995 the first CD-ROM was released as "FishBase 100". Subsequent CDs have been released annually; the software runs on Microsoft Access. FishBase does not detail the early and juvenile stages of fish. In 1999 a complimentary database, called LarvalBase, went online under the supervision of Bernd Ueberschär, it covers ichthyoplankton and the juvenile stage of fishes, with detailed data on fish eggs and larvae, fish identification, as well as data relevant to the rearing of young fish in aquaculture. Given FishBase's success, there was a demand for a database covering forms of aquatic life other than finfish; this resulted, in the birth of SeaLifeBase. The long-term goal of SeaLifeBase is to develop an information system modelled on FishBase, but including all forms of aquatic life, both marine and freshwater, apart from the finfish which FishBase specialises in.
Altogether, there are about 300,000 known species in this category. As awareness of FishBase has grown among fish specialists, it has attracted over 2,310 contributors and collaborators. Since 2000 FishBase has been supervised by a consortium of nine international institutions. To date, the FishBase consortium has grown to twelve members; the GEOMAR - Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research for Ocean Research Kiel in Germany, functions as the coordinating body. Catalog of Fishes List of online encyclopedias Bailly N Why there may be discrepancies in the assessment of scientific names between the Catalog of Fishes and FishBase Version 2, 6 May 2010. Bailly N, Reyes Jr R, Atanacio R and Froese R "Simple Identification Tools in FishBase" In: Nimis PL and Vignes Lebbe R. Tools for Identifying Biodiversity: Progress and Problems, pages 31–36. ISBN 978-88-8303-295-0. Christensen V, CJ Walters, R Ahrens, J Alder, J Buszowski, LB Christensen, WWL Cheung, J Dunne, R Froese, V Karpouzi, K Kaschner, K Kearney, S Lai, V Lam, MLD Palomares, A Peters-Mason, C Piroddia, JL Sarmiento, J Steenbeek, R Sumaila, R Watson, D Zeller and D Pauly Database-driven models of the world's Large Marine Ecosystems Ecological Modelling, 220: 1984–1996.
Froese R "The science in Fishbase" In: Villy Christensen and Jay Maclean Ecosystem Approaches to Fisheries: A Global Perspective, Cambridge University Press, pages 47–54. ISBN 978-0-521-13022-6. Froese R and Pauly D FishBase 2000: concepts and data sources ICLARM, Philippines. Froese R and Pauly D "Fishbase as a tool for comparing the life history patterns of flatfish" Netherlands Journal of Sea Research, 32: 235–239. Nauen CE A public electronic archive on the world’s fishes in support of sustainable fisheries CTA/Commonwealth Secretariat Seminar, Expert Meeting on ACP-EU Fisheries Relations, Brussels. Palomares, M. L. D. N. Bailly and D. Pauly FishBase, SeaLifeBase and database-driven ecosystem modeling p. 156-158. In: M. L. D. Palomares, L. Morissette, A. Cisnero-Montemayor, D. Varkey, M. Coll and C. Piroddi Ecopath 25 Years Conference Proceedings: Extended Abstracts. UBC Fisheries Centre Resear
Tributary
A tributary or affluent is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainage basin of its surface water and groundwater, leading the water out into an ocean. A confluence, where two or more bodies of water meet together refers to the joining of tributaries; the opposite to a tributary is a distributary, a river or stream that branches off from and flows away from the main stream. Distributaries are most found in river deltas. "Right tributary" and "left tributary" are terms stating the orientation of the tributary relative to the flow of the main stem river. These terms are defined from the perspective of looking downstream. In the United States, where tributaries sometimes have the same name as the river into which they feed, they are called forks; these are designated by compass direction. For example, the American River receives flow from its North and South forks.
The Chicago River's North Branch has the East and Middle Fork. Forks are sometimes left. Here, the "handedness" is from the point of view of an observer facing upstream. For instance, Steer Creek has a left tributary, called Right Fork Steer Creek. Tributaries are sometimes listed starting with those nearest to the source of the river and ending with those nearest to the mouth of the river; the Strahler Stream Order examines the arrangement of tributaries in a hierarchy of first, second and higher orders, with the first-order tributary being the least in size. For example, a second-order tributary would be the result of two or more first-order tributaries combining to form the second-order tributary. Another method is to list tributaries from mouth to source, in the form of a tree structure, stored as a tree data structure. A gallery of major river basins with tributaries Estuary
