Resting Subtropical Grasslands from Grazing in the Wet Season Boosts Biocrust Hotspots to Improve Soil Health

Effective grazing management in Australia’s semi-arid rangelands requires monitoring landscape conditions and identifying sustainable and productive practice through understanding the interactions of environmental factors and management of soil health. Challenges include extreme rainfall variability, intensifying drought, and inherently nutrient-poor soils. We investigated the impacts of grazing strategies on landscape function—specifically soil health—as the foundation for productive pastures, integrating the heterogenous nature of grass tussocks and the interspaces that naturally exist in between them. At Wambiana—a long-term research site in north-eastern Australia—we studied two soil types, two stocking rates (high, moderate), and resting land from grazing during wet seasons (rotational spelling). Rotational spelling had the highest biocrust (living soil cover), in interspaces and under grass tussocks. Biocrusts were dominated by cyanobacteria that binds soil particles, reduces erosion, sequesters carbon, fixes nitrogen, and improves soil fertility. Rotational spelling with a moderate stocking rate emerged as best practice at these sites, with adjustment of stocking rates in line with rainfall and soil type recommended. In drought-prone environments, monitoring the presence and integrity of biocrusts connects landscape function and soil health. Biocrusts that protect and enrich the soil will support long-term ecosystem integrity and economic profitability of cattle production in rangelands

Summer

ABSTRACT: In two experiments, interpersonal status was experimentally manipulated by assigning one dyad member to be the owner of a mock art gallery and the other to be the owner's assistant. Without forewarning, participants were asked immediately following the interaction to recall their partner's hand gestures, selftouch, gazing, smiling, and nodding. Accuracy of recall was determined by comparing these ratings to their partners' behavior as coded from the videotape. In both experiments, assistants were more accurate at recalling the amount of owners' selftouch than vice versa, but there was little evidence of an accuracy difference in recall of the other nonverbal cues. When accuracy was defined as the correlation between a participant's ratings of the partner's behaviors and the partner's actual behaviors, there was evidence that assistants were more accurate than owners when a combined p-value was calculated across both studies. KEY WORDS: nonverbal sensitivity; recall accuracy; status; power. Social psychologists have hypothesized that people with weak or subordinate status display enhanced interpersonal sensitivity, either as a general skill or vis-à-vis superiors (e.

Regulators of male and female sexual development are critical for the transmission of a malaria parasite

Malaria transmission to mosquitoes requires a developmental switch in asexually dividing blood-stage parasites to sexual reproduction. In Plasmodium berghei, the transcription factor AP2-G is required and sufficient for this switch, but how a particular sex is determined in a haploid parasite remains unknown. Using a global screen of barcoded mutants, we here identify genes essential for the formation of either male or female sexual forms and validate their importance for transmission. High-resolution single-cell transcriptomics of ten mutant parasites portrays the developmental bifurcation and reveals a regulatory cascade of putative gene functions in the determination and subsequent differentiation of each sex. A male-determining gene with a LOTUS/OST-HTH domain as well as the protein interactors of a female-determining zinc-finger protein indicate that germ-granule-like ribonucleoprotein complexes complement transcriptional processes in the regulation of both male and female development of a malaria parasite

Motion sickness

Motion sickness is caused principally by conflicting sensory information. The motion usually has a rhythmic or erratic character. The inner ear monitors direction of motion. The eyes monitor where the body is in space (upside down, for example) and sense of balance or equilibrium. Skin pressure receptors, such as on the feet, tell the brain which part of the body is in touch with the ground. Muscle and joint sensory receptors tell which part of the body is moving. The central nervous system processes information from the four systems. Motion sickness is caused when the brain receives conflicting stimuli

Building support for protected areas through tourism

Tourism is an increasingly important feature of protected area management, an opportunity for new conservation partnerships and a potential source of financing. It can also increase pressure on protected areas due to rapidly escalating interest in visitation and nature-based tourism. Tourism and visitation to protected areas is thus an important area that will gain prominence in conservation planning and management

Health

In 1976 the World Health Organisation defined health as `a complete state of physical, mental and social well-being, not just the absence of disease or infirmity.' In spite of this long-standing definition, health in relation to tourism has been researched largely from the perspective of `tourist illness'. This fails to recognise the full extent of tourism and health issues by limiting attention to both a negative (illness) orientation and visitor oriented focus. Some research has explored the concept involving destinations with perceived health benefits, such as spas, and forms of special interest tourism in which the tourist is actively seeking improved health. Limited work has also focused on the positive concept of the value of tourism per se, to enhance good health and quality of life for both host and guest. Health and tourism require a more rigorous connection to contemporary approaches to an expanding new ecological public health

Balancing conservation and visitation

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Local public health safety

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Health

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