Acoustic Observation of Living Organisms Reveals the Upper Limit of the Oxygen Minimum Zone

Background: Oxygen minimum zones (OMZs) are expanding in the World Ocean as a result of climate change and direct anthropogenic influence. OMZ expansion greatly affects biogeochemical processes and marine life, especially by constraining the vertical habitat of most marine organisms. Currently, monitoring the variability of the upper limit of the OMZs relies on time intensive sampling protocols, causing poor spatial resolution. Methodology/Principal Findings: Using routine underwater acoustic observations of the vertical distribution of marine organisms, we propose a new method that allows determination of the upper limit of the OMZ with a high precision. Applied in the eastern South-Pacific, this original sampling technique provides high-resolution information on the depth of the upper OMZ allowing documentation of mesoscale and submesoscale features (e.g., eddies and filaments) that structure the upper ocean and the marine ecosystems. We also use this information to estimate the habitable volume for the world’s most exploited fish, the Peruvian anchovy (Engraulis ringens). Conclusions/Significance: This opportunistic method could be implemented on any vessel geared with multi-frequency echosounders to perform comprehensive high-resolution monitoring of the upper limit of the OMZ. Our approach is a novel way of studying the impact of physical processes on marine life and extracting valid information about the pelagic habitat an

Non-invasive diagnosis of liver lesions by blood tests in NAFLD

Background and Aims: Non invasive tests are not well developedin NAFLD. This could be partly due to the pathological description of certain lesions that is hampered by semi-quantitative scorings. Our aim was to develop an accurate non-invasive measurement of main liver lesions in NAFLD by blood tests based on a thorough pathological and morphometric analysis. Methods: Steatosis, NASH and fibrosis were graded according to CRN-NASH (Kleiner, Hepatology 2005) and Metavir systems in 226 patients with NAFLD. A fully automated, in-house software measured the fractal dimension (reflecting architecture) and the area (reflecting amount) of steatosis or fibrosis on liver specimens. Independent predictors were selected by logistic or multiple regression repeated in 1000 random bootstrap samples. When models were determined, a second bootstrap resampling was performed to measure optimism bias (Steyerberg et al. 2001)

Save reefs to rescue all ecosystems

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Nature Research via the DOI in this recor

Light depolarization effects in tip enhanced Raman spectroscopy of silicon (001) and gallium arsenide (001)

We report on the effects of light depolarization induced by sharp metallic tips in Tip-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (TERS). Experiments on Si(001) and GaAs(001) crystals show that the excitation field depolarization induces a selective enhancement of specific Raman modes, depending on their Raman tensor symmetry. A complete polarization analysis of the light backscattered from the tip confirms the TERS findings. The spatial confinement of the depolarization field is studied and its dependence on the excitation wavelength and power are explored

Feature integration in natural language concepts

Two experiments measured the joint influence of three key sets of semantic features on the frequency with which artifacts (Experiment 1) or plants and creatures (Experiment 2) were categorized in familiar categories. For artifacts, current function outweighed both originally intended function and current appearance. For biological kinds, appearance and behavior, an inner biological function, and appearance and behavior of offspring all had similarly strong effects on categorization. The data were analyzed to determine whether an independent cue model or an interactive model best accounted for how the effects of the three feature sets combined. Feature integration was found to be additive for artifacts but interactive for biological kinds. In keeping with this, membership in contrasting artifact categories tended to be superadditive, indicating overlapping categories, whereas for biological kinds, it was subadditive, indicating conceptual gaps between categories. It is argued that the results underline a key domain difference between artifact and biological concepts

Elasticity in ecosystem services: Exploring the variable relationship between ecosystems and human well-being

Although ecosystem services are increasingly recognized as benefits people obtain from nature, we still have a poor understanding of how they actually enhance multidimensional human well-being, and how well-being is affected by ecosystem change. We develop a concept of “ecosystem service elasticity” (ES elasticity) that describes the sensitivity of human well-being to changes in ecosystems. ES Elasticity is a result of complex social and ecological dynamics and is context dependent, individually variable, and likely to demonstrate nonlinear dynamics such as thresholds and hysteresis. We present a conceptual framework that unpacks the chain of causality from ecosystem stocks through flows, goods, value, and shares to contribute to the well-being of different people. This framework builds on previous conceptualizations, but places multidimensional well-being of different people as the final element. This ultimately disaggregated approach emphasizes how different people access benefits and how benefits match their needs or aspirations. Applying this framework to case studies of individual coastal ecosystem services in East Africa illustrates a wide range of social and ecological factors that can affect ES elasticity. For example, food web and habitat dynamics affect the sensitivity of different fisheries ecosystem services to ecological change. Meanwhile high cultural significance, or lack of alternatives enhance ES elasticity, while social mechanisms that prevent access can reduce elasticity. Mapping out how chains are interlinked illustrates how different types of value and the well-being of different people are linked to each other and to common ecological stocks. We suggest that examining chains for individual ecosystem services can suggest potential interventions aimed at poverty alleviation and sustainable ecosystems while mapping out of interlinkages between chains can help to identify possible ecosystem service trade-offs and winners and losers. We discuss conceptual and practical challenges of applying such a framework and conclude on its utility as a heuristic for structuring interdisciplinary analysis of ecosystem services and human wellbeing.This paper results from the project Sustainable Poverty Alleviation from Coastal Ecosystem Services (SPACES) project number NE-K010484-1, funded by the Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) programme. The ESPA programme is funded by the Department for International Development (DFID), the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).

Doing marine spatial zoning in coastal marine tropics: Palawan’s Environmental Critical Areas Network (ECAN)

This is the final version. Available from Elsevier via the DOI in this record. Zoning is an important tool in marine spatial planning (MSP) for balancing the multi-uses of the marine environment. Whilst mainly developed conceptually and implemented in Europe and North America, marine zoning is becoming a popular tool for addressing diverse coastal marine issues in the tropics. However, we know little about how it is being implemented in practice in that context. In this study, we analysed the factors and strategies that enable and hinder the establishment of marine zoning in the low-income tropics through a case study of the 26-year history of the development of the Environmental Critical Areas Network (ECAN) in Palawan, Philippines. We employed two participatory methods: Innovation Histories to investigate how implementation barriers and opportunities change over time, and the Net-Map method to reveal the social relations and power distributions that enabled, blocked, and stalled its implementation. We found that MSP can be durable in these contexts when institutionalised in national law and adopted by local co-coordinative bodies, yet it remains an externally-driven agenda. Our study shows that the scaling up of zoning does not necessarily help resolve conflicts around marine and coastal space, and highlights the importance and influence of the political economy on MSP implementation and outcomes. We conclude that MSP's insensitivity to contextual power relations and politics raises concerns over social inclusivity, equity and justice. Moving forward, MSP implemented in the tropics needs to make conflicts, trade-offs and power distributions explicit at the outset through participatory decision-making that involves and empowers all stakeholders from the early stages of initiatives.United Kingdom Research and InnovationGlobal Challenges Research Fun