Global perspectives and transdisciplinary opportunities for locust and grasshopper pest management and research

Locusts and other migratory grasshoppers are transboundary pests. Monitoring and control, therefore, involve a complex system made up of social, ecological, and technological factors. Researchers and those involved in active management are calling for more integration between these siloed but often interrelated sectors. In this paper, we bring together 38 coauthors from six continents and 34 unique organizations, representing much of the social-ecological-technological system (SETS) related to grasshopper and locust management and research around the globe, to introduce current topics of interest and review recent advancements. Together, the paper explores the relationships, strengths, and weaknesses of the organizations responsible for the management of major locust-affected regions. The authors cover topics spanning humanities, social science, and the history of locust biological research and offer insights and approaches for the future of collaborative sustainable locust management. These perspectives will help support sustainable locust management, which still faces immense challenges such as fluctuations in funding, focus, isolated agendas, trust, communication, transparency, pesticide use, and environmental and human health standards. Arizona State University launched the Global Locust Initiative (GLI) in 2018 as a response to some of these challenges. The GLI welcomes individuals with interests in locusts and grasshoppers, transboundary pests, integrated pest management, landscape-level processes, food security, and/or cross-sectoral initiatives

Dealing with moving spatialities in disaster governance: the case of locust swarms

International audienceLocusts, albeit considered a biological hazard and one of the most destructive migratory pests in the world by the United Nations, are almost absent from risk governance studies. Yet their natural dynamic that alternates between recessions and periods of large-scale expansions imposes great spatio-temporal variabilities and discontinuities, and brings into sharp relief societies’ capacities to collaborate to face this transboundary and erratic bio-hazard. While natural sciences have largely contributed to building efficient preventive strategies around the world, invasions still occur and other approaches are needed to understand locust outbreaks and implement effective and sustainable responses. In this context, social sciences and geography are essential to address the social factors that shape preventive strategies and their articulation from local to international levels. Using multiple sources of data including interviews, literature review, and participatory workshops in three different case studies - the desert locust, the Australian plague locust, and the South American locust - we analyze the main challenges in the multi-level and nested governance systems required for locusts. In particular, we discuss the consequences of the extended, uncertain and discontinuous spatial structure imposed by locusts on the distribution of responsibility among multiple players with diverging values, interests, and/or capacity to act. We identify the responses implemented by locust managers around the world to face this variability, and analyze their inherent fragilities. We conclude that in a context of global change that imposes renewed conditions of interconnectedness, hazards, and vulnerabilities, locusts are a textbook case that can inform collaborative governance for managing and responding to large-scale disasters

Governing in the face of extreme variance and the inherent fragilities of adaptiveness: Insights from locusts

International audienc

Global perspectives and transdisciplinary opportunities for locust and grasshopper pest management and research

International audienceLocusts and other migratory grasshoppers are transboundary pests. Monitoring and control, therefore, involve a complex system made up of social, ecological, and technological factors. Researchers and those involved in active management are calling for more integration between these siloed but often interrelated sectors. In this paper, we bring together 38 coauthors from six continents and 34 unique organizations, representing much of the social-ecological-technological system (SETS) related to grasshopper and locust management and research around the globe, to introduce current topics of interest and review recent advancements. Together, the paper explores the relationships, strengths, and weaknesses of the organizations responsible for the management of major locust-affected regions. The authors cover topics spanning humanities, social science, and the history of locust biological research and offer insights and approaches for the future of collaborative sustainable locust management. These perspectives will help support sustainable locust management, which still faces immense challenges such as fluctuations in funding, focus, isolated agendas, trust, communication, transparency, pesticide use, and environmental and human health standards. Arizona State University launched the Global Locust Initiative (GLI) in 2018 as a response to some of these challenges. The GLI welcomes individuals with interests in locusts and grasshoppers, transboundary pests, integrated pest management, landscape-level processes, food security, and/or cross-sectoral initiatives

Analysis of Outcomes in Ischemic vs Nonischemic Cardiomyopathy in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation A Report From the GARFIELD-AF Registry

IMPORTANCE Congestive heart failure (CHF) is commonly associated with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation (AF), and their combination may affect treatment strategies and outcomes