Sealworm (<i>Pseudoterranova decipiens</i>) dynamics in Sable Island grey seals (<i>Halichoerus grypus</i>): seasonal fluctuations and other changes in worm infections during the 1980s
Bibliographic record
Abstract
The abundance of P. decipiens sampled from the stomachs of 553 grey seals (aged 0-48 years) collected during 14 field trips to Sable Island in 1983 and 1989 did not change significantly between years, even though the seal population has been increasing at over 12% annually and there has been a substantial decline in the fish biomass upon which they depend. The proportion of mature worms in the seals’ stomachs has decreased, however. Seal growth, expressed in terms of either age orlength, showed the strongest correlation with total worm abundance. These infections were not completely eliminated at any time during the year, but a seasonal pattern in worm abundance was apparent. Among the youngest seals an inverse relationship was demonstrated between the abundance of P. decipiens and another parasitic nematode, Contracaecum osculatum. Sexually mature P. decipiens were found in pups within 3 to 4 months of the commencement of independent feeding, and the abundance of P. decipiens progressively increased throughout the first year of life. Male pups contracted more worms than female pups of the same age. P. decipiens abundances in juvenile seals were primarily associated with seasonal pattern and age, with C. osculatum abundance still influencing the abundance of P. decipiens, but to a much lesser extent than seen with pups. Length of seals was the main predictor of total worm abundance in adult seals, with a seasonal pattern being next in order of importance. Age was also significant, possibly representing a component of growth not accounted for by length alone. No relationship between the abundances of P. decipiens and C. osculatum was apparent for adult seals. The seasonal pattern in total worm abundance of juvenile and adult seals was characterized by declines during the winter and mid-summer. We suggest these declines are due, respectively, to the breeding season fast and one or both of 1) a change in seal diet from primarily highly infected fish species to less infected ones, and 2) a partial fast during the annual moult. The proportion of mature worms increased during reductions in worm abundance throughout most of the year, but during the breeding fast both total abundance and the proportionmature declined.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".