Whale-fall Research Articles

A novel Beluga Whale Optimization for maximum power tracking in photovoltaic systems under shading and non-shading conditions

Partial shading poses a significant challenge for PV systems as it introduces multiple peaks in the panel output characteristics, making the power extraction process more complex. Efficiently locating the global maximum power from such a complex, non-linear curve is crucial for optimal system performance. Conventional MPPT techniques often fail to achieve this, resulting in reduced efficiency. Moreover, many metaheuristic algorithms struggle to balance tracking accuracy, convergence time, oscillations, and computational complexity. Therefore, this manuscript proposes a novel natural-inspired Beluga Whale Optimization (BWO) technique that effectively track the global maximum power without compromising its performance. This iteration-based algorithm integrates effective exploration through twin equations, incorporating the influence of both the best and neighboring position with levy flight function to enhance effective exploitation, and additional particle updation using the whale fall process ensures simultaneous diverse searching phenomenon in complex search spaces resulting in smooth and faster convergence. The algorithm was extensively examined under USC and five PSCs on a 250 W panel using MATLAB 2021a Simulink platform. The effectiveness of the technique was benchmarked against state-of-the-art MPPT techniques such as PO, CSO, PSO, and GWO. The rating-based approach confirms that BWO outperformed these techniques with an average MPPT efficiency of 99.98 %, a tracking time of 0.3195 s, transient state oscillations of 10.85 %, and steady-state oscillations of just 0.000453 % within 4–5 iterations, and other related aspects. Finally, the hardware demonstration using Solar Array Simulator (SAS) validated the performance of the proposed algorithm in the real-time environment, guaranteed the suitability towards practical applications.

Discovery of Miocene whale fall fauna from India: Taphonomy and palaeoecology of a vertebrate-invertebrate assemblage

ABSTRACT Hitherto unreported whale fall fauna has been found from the Lower Miocene of Khari Nadi Formation of Kutch, India.This vertebrate-invertebrate assemblage comprises jumbled up bone fragments of different parts of the whale along with molluscs and echinoids. Some representatives in this assemblage are characteristic whale fall fauna and some are characteristic shallow marine fauna. The molluscs belong to the families Buccinidae, Provannidae, Naticidae, Turritellidae, Borsoniidae, Volutidae, Haminoeidae, Cypraeidae, Strombidae, Rostelleriidae, Cassidae, Osteridae, Veneridae, Astartidae and the echinoids to family Spatangidae and Schizasteridae. The present study reveals that the deposition of this entire assemblage was in a shallow marine environment and also sheds some light on the molluscan association related to a whale fall from the western Indian sea waters in the Lower Miocene.

Enhancing the Exploitation Capabilities of Beluga Whale Optimization with Modified Probability of Whale Fall to Solve Nonlinear Systems of Equations

Enhancing the Exploitation Capabilities of Beluga Whale Optimization with Modified Probability of Whale Fall to Solve Nonlinear Systems of Equations

Book Review: Life After Whale: The Amazing Ecosystem of a Whale Fall by L. Brunelle and J. Chin

Book Review: Life After Whale: The Amazing Ecosystem of a Whale Fall by L. Brunelle and J. Chin

Shallow-water whale-fall communities: Evidence from the middle–late Eocene basilosaurid whale bones, Wadi El-Hitan, Fayum, Egypt

The present study examines the basilosaurid whale bone specimens collected from the Sandouk El-Borneta section, Wadi El-Hitan (Valley of Whales), Fayum, Egypt. These specimens are embedded in highly fossiliferous calcareous sandstones of the middle Eocene Gehannam and the upper Eocene Birket Qarun formations. These whale bones display some post-mortem alterations, representing good signs of at least three distinct stages in what is called the whale fall. The co-occurrence of shark, ray, and crocodile fossil specimens with the examined whale bones may indicate the first mobile-scavenger stage. Borings of the siboglinid polychaete genus Osedax represent the most common worm type that deeply bioeroded the whale bones, contributing to their rapid degradation, and representing the enrichment-opportunist stage. These fossil traces of the bone-eating worm Osedax represent the first record in the Eocene Epoch regionally and inter-regionally, filling the gap between the Late Cretaceous and the Oligocene occurrences. Subsequently, the studied whale bones served as hard substrates for some calcareous tube-dwelling encrusting polychaetes, balanoid barnacles, sheet‐like cheilostome bryozoans, and scleractinian corals. Furthermore, a bioerosion structure produced by polychaete annelids was also observed. The presence of these sclerobionts assemblage confirms the well-developed final reef stage with prolonged exposure and colonisation of these whale bones prior to final burial. Based on the recorded post-mortem alterations, together with other sedimentological and palaeontological data, the studied whale bones were deposited in a shallow open marine bay to sheltered gulf environments, which were characterised by low depositional energy, low to moderate rate of sedimentation, and high surface water productivity.

Life After Whale : The Amazing Ecosystem of a Whale Fall by Lynn Brunelle, illus. by Jason Chin (review)

Life After Whale : The Amazing Ecosystem of a Whale Fall by Lynn Brunelle, illus. by Jason Chin (review)

Online Prediction Method of Transmission Line Icing Based on Robust Seasonal Decomposition of Time Series and Bilinear Temporal–Spectral Fusion and Improved Beluga Whale Optimization Algorithm–Least Squares Support Vector Regression

Due to the prevalent challenges of inadequate accuracy, unstandardized parameters, and suboptimal efficiency with regard to icing prediction, this study introduces an innovative online method for icing prediction based on Robust STL–BTSF and IBWO–LSSVR. Firstly, this study adopts the Robust Seasonal Decomposition of Time Series and Bilinear Temporal–Spectral Fusion (Robust STL–BTSF) approach, which is demonstrably effective for short-term and limited sample data preprocessing. Subsequently, injecting a multi-faceted enhancement approach to the Beluga Whale Optimization algorithm (BWO), which integrates a nonlinear balancing factor, a population optimization strategy, a whale fall mechanism, and an ascendant elite learning scheme. Then, using the Improved BWO (IBWO) above to optimize the key hyperparameters of Least Squares Support Vector Regression (LSSVR), a superior offline predictive part is constructed based on this approach. In addition, an Incremental Online Learning algorithm (IOL) is imported. Integrating the two parts, the advanced online icing prediction model for transmission lines is built. Finally, simulations based on actual icing data unequivocally demonstrate that the proposed method markedly enhances both the accuracy and speed of predictions, thereby presenting a sophisticated solution for the icing prediction on the transmission lines.

Whale fall chemosymbiotic communities in a southwest Australian submarine canyon fill a distributional gap

A whale fall community of chemosymbiotic invertebrates living on cetacean bones has been identified off southwestern Australia during a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) survey at bathyal depths within the Bremer Marine Park, which is part of important marine mammal areas (IMMA) of the Albany Canyon Region. Cetacean bones on the seafloor of the Hood Canyon, consisted of isolated skulls of three species of beaked whales (family Ziphiidae): Mesoplodon cf. layardii, M. grayi, and M. hectori, a few vertebrae, and lower jaws. One of the beaked whale skulls (Mesoplodon cf. layardii) was sampled and found to be intensely colonised by hundreds of specimens of a bathymodilinae mussel (“Adipicola” s.l.). Live polychaetes (Phyllochaetopterus?), skeneimorph gastropods, and amphipods (Seba, Leptamphopus) colonised the skull bone, which represent a later stage (sulfophilic) of carcass decomposition. The reducing sediment below the skull was inhabited by lucinid (Lucinoma) and vesicomyid (Calyptogena) chemosymbiotic bivalves. Additionally, the sediment thanatocoenosis comprised shells of various other chemosymbiotic bivalves, such as Acharax, thyasirids, lucinids, vesicomyids, and limpets, representing the complex ecological turnover phases through time in this whale fall chemosynthetic habitat. With one exception, all bones recovered were colonized by bathymodiolin mussels. This is the first documented case of a chemosynthetic community and associated chemosymbiotic fauna relating to beaked whales, and the first fully documented record of a whale fall community within the Australian Southern Ocean region.

Beihai Whale Falls—Conceptual Architectural Design of a Superfield Ecological Museum Based on Spatial Modeling Organization

Beihai Whale Falls—Conceptual Architectural Design of a Superfield Ecological Museum Based on Spatial Modeling Organization

Modified beluga whale optimization with multi-strategies for solving engineering problems

Abstract The beluga whale optimization (BWO) algorithm is a recently proposed metaheuristic optimization algorithm that simulates three behaviors: beluga whales interacting in pairs to perform mirror swimming, population sharing information to cooperate in predation, and whale fall. However, the optimization performance of the BWO algorithm still needs to be improved to enhance its practicality. This paper proposes a modified beluga whale optimization (MBWO) with a multi-strategy. It was inspired by beluga whales’ two behaviors: group gathering for foraging and searching for new habitats in long-distance migration. This paper proposes a group aggregation strategy (GAs) and a migration strategy (Ms). The GAs can improve the local development ability of the algorithm and accelerate the overall rate of convergence through the group aggregation fine search; the Ms randomly moves towards the periphery of the population, enhancing the ability to jump out of local optima. In order to verify the optimization ability of MBWO, this article conducted comprehensive testing on MBWO using 23 benchmark functions, IEEE CEC2014, and IEEE CEC2021. The experimental results indicate that MBWO has a strong optimization ability. This paper also tests MBWO’s ability to solve practical engineering optimization problems through five practical engineering problems. The final results prove the effectiveness of MBWO in solving practical engineering optimization problems.

The annelid community of a natural deep-sea whale fall off eastern Australia

In the deep ocean, whale falls (deceased whales that sink to the seafloor) act as a boost of productivity in this otherwise generally food-limited setting, nourishing organisms from sharks to microbes during the various stages of their decomposition. Annelid worms are habitual colonizers of whale falls, with new species regularly reported from these settings and their systematics helping to resolve biogeographic patterns among deep-sea organic fall environments. During a 2017 expedition of the Australian research vessel RV Investigator to sample bathyal to abyssal communities off Australia’s east coast, a natural whale fall was opportunistically trawled at ~1000 m depth. In this study, we provide detailed taxonomic descriptions of the annelids associated with this whale-fall community, using both morphological and molecular techniques. From this material we describe nine new species from five families (Dorvilleidae: Ophryotrocha dahlgreni sp. nov. Ophryotrocha hanneloreae sp. nov., Ophryotrocha ravarae sp. nov.; Hesionidae: Vrijenhoekia timoharai sp. nov.; Nereididae: Neanthes adriangloveri sp. nov., Neanthes visicete sp. nov.; Orbiniidae: Orbiniella jamesi sp. nov.), including two belonging to the bone-eating genus Osedax (Siboglinidae: Osedax waadjum sp. nov., Osedax byronbayensis sp. nov.) that are the first to be described from Australian waters. We further provide systematic accounts for 10 taxa within the Ampharetidae, Amphinomidae, Microphthalmidae, Nereididae, Orbiniidae, Phyllodocidae, Protodrilidae, Sphaerodoridae and Phascolosomatidae. Our investigations uncover unique occurrences and for the first time enable the evaluation of biogeographic links between Australian whale falls and others in the western Pacific as well as worldwide.

Whale falls as chemosynthetic refugia: a perspective from free-living deep-sea nematodes

Whale carcasses create habitats in the deep sea which are colonized by organisms related to other chemosynthetic environments suggesting that whale falls may act as intermediate refugia for the dispersal and evolution of deep-sea organisms. Such evidence comes mainly from macrofaunal organisms whereas for the smaller meiofauna, data on whalebone assemblages is lacking. In this study, we investigated nematode colonization of whalebones experimentally deployed at 1500 and 3300 m depth and bones from a natural whale carcass found at 4204 m, in the Southwest Atlantic Ocean, off Brazil. By comparing whalebone assemblages to other deep-sea environments, we tested the hypothesis that whale fall nematode assemblages are more similar to those from other cognate chemosynthetic-based habitats, rather than those from sediments surrounding the carcass or other deep-sea habitats. Our results showed that whalebone nematode assemblages resemble those of hydrothermal vents and cold seeps and suggest that organic falls may act as intermediate refugia for meiofauna from chemosynthetic environments. It also showed that oceanographic conditions and the age of the carcasses on the ocean floor could influence nematode assemblage composition and richness. Such findings highlight the importance of organic falls for understanding the connectivity and phylogeny of benthic organisms, including representatives of the meiofauna.

Economic load dispatch solution of large-scale power systems using an enhanced beluga whale optimizer

The aim of the optimization economic load dispatch (ELD) problem is to assign the optimal generated power of the thermal units for cost reduction with satisfying the loading of the operational constraints. The ELD is a high-dimensional and non-convex problem that became a more complex problem in the case of optimizing the output generated power of large-scale systems. In this regard, an enhanced version of the Beluga whale optimization (EBWO) is proposed to deal with the ELD of the large-scale systems. Beluga whale optimization (BWO) is an efficient new optimization technique that mimics the behavior of the Beluga whales (BWs) in preying, swimming, and whale fall. However, the BWO may suffer from stagnation in local optima and scarcity of population diversity like other metaheuristics. The proposed EBWO algorithm is presented to render the standard BWO more robust and powerful search by using two strategies including the cyclone foraging motion for boosting the exploitation phase of the optimization algorithm and the quasi-oppositional based learning (QOBL) for improving population diversity. Firstly, Simulations are carried out on seven benchmark functions to prove the validation of the proposed EBWO algorihm compared with five recent algorithms. Then, The performance of the EBWO is checked on 11-units, 40-units, and also 110-unit test systems, and the obtained results of EBWO are compared with other well-known techniques such as the classical BWO, FOX Optimization Algorithm (FOX), Skill Optimization Algorithm (SOA), and Sand Cat swarm optimization (SCSO) as well as the with existing algorithms from the literature including DE, TLBO, MPSO, NGWO, IGA, NPSO, CJAYA, SMA, PSO, PPSO, SSA, MPA, MGMPA, and HSSA. The Numerical results show that the proposed algorithm is very competitive compared with the other reported optimization algorithms in obtaining low fuel costs.

In-situ observations of an intact natural whale fall in Palmer deep, Western Antarctic Peninsula

Whale carcasses on the seafloor support unique, ephemeral communities of organisms, and ‘natural’ whale fall sites are infrequently encountered, especially in polar regions. During a manned submersible dive in early 2017, we discovered the skeleton of an Antarctic minke whale (Balaenoptera bonaerensis) at 963 m in Palmer Deep, in the Western Antarctic Peninsula. The site was filmed in HD for approximately two hours, enabling visual identification of representatives from at least eight phyla, although physical sampling was not possible. The remains appeared to be in the late ‘enrichment–opportunistic’ phase (although some mobile scavengers were still present and some sulfonic activity had already commenced), with polychaetes of the order Aciculata, and family Ampharetidae, plus several amphipod species, most abundant. Novel eusirid amphipod and rhodaliid siphonophore taxa were also present. The observed faunal distribution suggests patterns consistent with reports from other Antarctic whale falls (both experimental and natural). This discovery represents the highest-latitude natural whale fall reported to date.

Study on Information Graphic Design and Evaluation of Whale Falls from the Perspective of Defamiliarization

To make the information graphic design of whale falls under the perspective of defamiliarization more in line with user needs and improve the dissemination efficiency of information, this study explored the process of whale fall information graphic design guided by the defamiliarization theory and the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS). This study aimed to promote people's understanding of the unique deep-sea ecosystem formed by the whale fall process, and to raise awareness of the need to protect the marine ecological environment. The defamiliarization theory and TOPSIS method were combined to explore the demand factors that affect user cognition, based on the clear explanation of relevant concepts. The factors that affect the understanding of whale fall information graphic design were identified through literature review and user research. After obtaining the results of user research, a evaluation matrix was established using the TOPSIS method to score different design options. The best solution that meets user cognition needs was obtained by calculating positive and negative ideal solutions, and the value of using a hybrid method to guide design practice was analyzed. Whale fall information graphic design not only has important research value for human understanding of the deep-sea ecosystem and how to maintain the mechanism of deep-sea life, but also promotes the protection and utilization of deep-sea biodiversity resources in China. The application of the defamiliarization theory and TOPSIS in the whale fall information graphic design process can eliminate the influence of subjective factors of designers, and provide a scientific and rigorous basis for information graphic design and option selection. This study has theoretical significance and practical value for the design of whale fall-related information graphics, providing innovative ideas and practical references for related research.

Corrigendum: Review of the impact of whale fall on biodiversity in deep-sea ecosystems

Corrigendum: Review of the impact of whale fall on biodiversity in deep-sea ecosystems

Whale Fall by David Baker

Whale Fall by David Baker

Beluga whale optimization: A novel nature-inspired metaheuristic algorithm

In this paper, a novel swarm-based metaheuristic algorithm inspired from the behaviors of beluga whales, called beluga whale optimization (BWO), is presented to solve optimization problem. Three phases of exploration, exploitation and whale fall are established in BWO, corresponding to the behaviors of pair swim, prey, and whale fall, respectively. The balance factor and probability of whale fall in BWO are self-adaptive which play significant roles to control the ability of exploration and exploitation. Besides, the Levy flight is introduced to enhance the global convergence in the exploitation phase. The effectiveness of the proposed BWO is tested using 30 benchmark functions, with qualitative, quantitative and scalability analysis, and the statistical results are compared with 15 other metaheuristic algorithms. According to the results and discussion, BWO is a competitive algorithm in solving unimodal and multimodal optimization problems, and the overall rank of BWO is the first in the scalability analysis of benchmark functions among compared metaheuristic algorithms through the Friedman ranking test. Finally, four engineering problems demonstrate the merits and potential of BWO in solving complex real-world optimization problems. The source code of BWO is currently available to public: https://ww2.mathworks.cn/matlabcentral/fileexchange/112830-beluga-whale-optimization-bwo/.

The Fish Is in the Water and the Water Is in the Fish: Symbiosis in a Nuclear Whale Fall

The nuclear site of Sellafield in West Cumbria, North West England, embarks on a long period of decommissioning. Sellafield Limited (SL), the government-owned company running the site, is intent on disentangling the strong socioeconomic and affective relations with its host area with a view to making West Cumbria less dependent on SL, the area’s major employer, as the company prepares for a slow withdrawal. Comparing West Cumbria to a whale fall, the habitat that comes into being around the nourishing presence of a decomposing whale carcass, I suggest that West Cumbria has feasted on Sellafield through different stages of nuclear activity, from its production of plutonium down to the long-life materiality of its nuclear legacy wastes. From this perspective on a symbiotic relationship, dependency is shown to be not a one-sided reality but a discursive tool wielded by both the industry and West Cumbrians for different strategic purposes.

Systematics, taphonomy and palaeobiogeography of a balaenopterid (Cetacea, Mysticeti) from the Early Pleistocene of southern Italy

An almost complete and partially articulated skeleton of an Early Pleistocene baleen whale is here described. The fossil, measuring 11 m in length, was discovered in the Calcarenite di Gravina Formation at Lama Lamasinata site (Bari, southern Italy) in 1968. The bifurcated first rib combined with other characters supports the identification of the fossil whale as a possible undescribed species of Balaenoptera (Mysticeti, Balaenopteridae), close to or nested in the B. borealis–B. edeni–B. ricei clade. However, the limited number of preserved diagnostic characters suggests a prudent assignment of the Bari whale to Balaenoptera sp. The associated molluscs suggest a mid-shelf setting deposition near to the boundary between infralittoral and circalittoral environments, probably 40–60 m deep. An associated Carcharodon carcharias tooth (the first case of a possible trophic interaction between white shark and cetaceans in the Pleistocene) and shark bite marks on a rib support the hypothesis that an early scavenger action prevented the rising of the whale carcass because of the removal of abdominal tissues and the consequent reduction of the decomposition gas accumulation. The occurrence of chemosymbiotic bivalves near the skeleton could testify the development of the sulphophilic stage during decay. Overall, the Bari whale skeleton and its associated fossil fauna represent the first well-documented case of Pleistocene whale fall community. The Bari specimen sheds new light on the diversity and disparity of the mysticete fauna in the Mediterranean Pleistocene also related to the geodynamic, palaeoclimatic and palaeoceanographic conditions that favoured upwelling events and nutrients supply into the southern Adriatic basin.