BLUE FUTURES, Blue Opportunities from the future: knowledge and tools to inform sustainable growth for an integrated terrestrial, coastal and marine zone economy

Blue Opportunities from the Future is a collaborative project co-designed between the University of East Anglia, Blue Ltd., the New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership, Coastal Partnership East, the Environment Agency, Orbis Energy and the RSPB. The project is driven by a desire to make better use of NERC funded research in coastal and marine environments to drive innovation and forward thinking in the delivery of future sustainable management and economic growth. East Anglia is already a centre for delivering advances in this area through its research organisations, forward-thinking local authorities, active wildlife conservation organisations and the Green Economy Pathfinder initiative of the New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership. This project provides a timely opportunity to broaden regional good practice by taking a more marine-facing view. In the East Anglian region there is growing interest among the institutions involved in planning for the coast and marine sectors in taking a more integrated and opportunity-focused look at the long-term future of our environment. This is driven by a recognition of inevitable on-going coastal change and the potential for significant future changes, for example due to global warming and rising sea level. There is a need to think creatively, adaptively and in an inclusive manner, and to consider future change as an opportunity to 'do better'. By connecting the coastal and offshore zones, and working from a bespoke set of 100 year futures scenarios, this project takes a novel and positive approach to thinking about the future of coastal and marine environments in an integrated way. We are undertaking an innovative futures analysis to 2115 to explore the potential future opportunities, spanning land and sea, for East Anglia's 'Blue' economy. We are co-creating a 'Blue Futures toolkit' of methods and associated knowledge base with which project partners can go on to develop a Blue pathfinder for the region to help drive sustainable blue economic growth. This will provide an exemplar approach that will be disseminated to end-users in other regions in the UK, EU and worldwide. The project is drawing upon many aspects of the extensive portfolio of NERC funded and related work at UEA, Cefas, partner organisations and beyond, from ecosystem service valuations (natural capital), to marine biogeochemistry. UEA is well placed to deliver novel creative thinking on future opportunities for sustainable growth, with extensive experience of research into the long-term sustainable futures of complex environments and the impacts of environmental change on economies and society. Integration of our partner groups within the project ensures our work is targeted appropriately and beneficially to maximise utility for the development of sustainable management by local and national bodies throughout the UK and beyond. Planned Impact Participation, knowledge exchange and co-creation of outputs with project partners, stakeholders and end-users is inherently embedded in this project. Combining evidence from NERC science with the expertise of our partners to develop a creative, free-ranging, long-term vision for the future, will result in the production of relevant, targeted information, which addresses real world challenges. This vision will be applied to the multi-way creation of a practical toolkit of solutions (Blue Futures Toolkit) directly relevant to our end-users, and the development of an exemplar Blue Economy Pathfinder plan, providing opportunities for all interested parties. This interaction will be strengthened through a dedicated dissemination and real-world decision-making work package. Primary project stakeholders were consulted during our proposal design and see benefit from the following innovative project features: 1) It takes an integrated view of the terrestrial, coastal and offshore zones, which tend to be managed and researched as separate entities. 2) It applies generically applicable concepts and approaches to a real case location to generate solutions, which will have local, regional and national relevance and transferability. 3) It situates an exploratory, futurescaping research exercise within a practical context, by working to a 100 year timeframe alongside partners concerned with the management and delivery of long term sustainable coastal and marine development. The networks, communication channels and professional impact building expertise of UEA's Marine Knowledge Exchange Network (M-KEN) will be utilised in this project to ensure maximum impact is derived from this projects outputs. Impact delivery will be facilitated by M-KEN's strong network of over 950 stakeholders (43% Policy/3rd Sector, 34% Business, 23% Research), including excellent links with UK policy/implementation bodies (it recently provided evidence to the House of Lords) and industry with international commercial interests (e.g. Gardline, Crown Estate). New stakeholders will be identified by an ongoing stakeholder mapping exercise linking to the M-KEN stakeholder database. Promotion of the project from the outset through to completion and beyond will be via social media, the M-KEN newsletter and website (marineknowledge.org.uk), and M-KEN partner channels (e.g. Tyndall Centre, InnovateUK, Cefas, UEA Research) and through regular M-KEN events. For example, the 'M-KEN Futures' event in March 2015, where 100 stakeholders participated, including marine survey companies (Gardline Environmental, Fugro), policy, implementing and marine monitoring bodies (Cefas, Natural England, JNCC, MMO, EA), data managers from Crown Estate and EMODNet and representatives of the Satellite Applications Catapult/InnovateUK. This will maximise the opportunity for participants to engage with the two-way research and decision making process. These channels will also be used for dissemination of the project outputs (Blue Futures Toolkit, framework for a Blue Economy Pathfinder) to a wide audience. With the strong partnerships involved we are confident that the work undertaken here will lead to measurable change in the way decisions are taken in the region and beyond, better informed by a vision of the options and opportunities of the future. From a local authority to a European scale this project will produce end-user designed tools and knowledge with NERC science at the core

Blue Opportunities from the future: Knowledge and tools to inform sustainable growth for an integrated terrestrial, coastal and marine zone economy - a summary report

<div> <div> <div> <p><b>This summary brochure presents highlights of the ‘Blue Opportunities from the Future’ project.</b></p><p><b><br></b></p><p><b>When referencing this report, please use the following citation: Day, S.A., Tolhurst, T.J., Lorenzoni, I., Johnson, M.J., Kennedy, K., Dunnett, I., Forster, J., Goodli e,<br> R., Luisetti, T., Mengo, E., Moore, K., Parker, B., Reynolds, J., Rickards, S., and Southern, A. (2018) Blue Opportunities from the future: Knowledge and tools to inform sustainable growth for an integrated terrestrial, coastal and marine zone economy – a summary report. Marine Knowledge Exchange Network (MKEN), School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich. </b></p><p><b>This project was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (grant NE/ N017323/1) and the Economic and Social Research Council, via Impact Accelerator support to the University of East Anglia. </b></p><p><b><br></b></p><p><b>PROJECT PARTNERS: </b><br></p><p><b>Blue Ltd.<br> CEFAS<br> Coastal Partnership East<br> Environment Agency<br> New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership OrbisEnergy<br> RSPB and The Landscape Partnership </b></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><b>We thank our project partners and participants for contributing their insights, knowledge and expertise to this research. </b></p><br></div> </div> </div

The chemical composition of two seaweed flies (Coelopa frigida and Coelopa pilipes) reared in the laboratory

Two species of seaweed flies, Coelopa frigida and Coelopa pilipes, were reared in the laboratory and their larvae were sampled for composition of amino acids, fatty acids and elements. The larvae were grown on two different species of seaweed, Laminaria digitata and Fucus serratus. The aim was to gain knowledge on the influence of feeding media on the growth and composition of the larvae. Fucus serratus was more nutrient-dense than L. digitata, being richer in both protein and lipids, and thus led to ~70 % higher larvae growth. The larvae grown on F. serratus also had higher lipid and protein content than the larvae grown on L. digitata; F. serratus-grown larvae had ~8-9 % protein and ~18 % lipid (total fatty acids) (both values of dry matter), while the larvae grown on L. digitata had only ~7.5 % protein and ~13 % lipids. All seaweed flies had a similar and balanced amino acid composition, suitable for animal and human nutrition. The fatty acid composition was not highly affected by either insect species or feeding media, with all groups containing high concentrations of the monounsaturated fatty acid, palmitoleic acid (16:1n-7). The larvae also contained some fatty acids characteristic of marine environments, like eicosapentaenoic acid (20:5n-3), likely originating from the seaweed. Both species of seaweed fly larvae accumulated As, Cd, and Pb, but not Hg. The elevated levels of As and Cd in the larvae (highest measured concentrations 18.4 and 11.6 mg/kg, respectively, based on 12% moisture content) could potentially limit the use of seaweed fly larvae as a feed ingredient

Metabolic engineering of Arabidopsis for butanetriol production using bacterial genes

Includes bibliographical references (pages 119-120).1,2,4-butanetriol (butanetriol) is a useful precursor for the synthesis of the energetic material butanetriol trinitrate and several pharmaceutical compounds. Bacterial synthesis of butanetriol from xylose or arabinose takes place in a pathway that requires four enzymes. To produce butanetriol in plants by expressing bacterial enzymes, we cloned native bacterial or codon optimized synthetic genes under different promoters into a binary vector and stably transformed Arabidopsis plants. Transgenic lines expressing introduced genes were analyzed for the production of butanetriol using gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Soil-grown transgenic plants expressing these genes produced up to 20 µg/g of butanetriol. To test if an exogenous supply of pentose sugar precursors would enhance the butanetriol level, transgenic plants were grown in a medium supplemented with either xylose or arabinose and the amount of butanetriol was quantified. Plants expressing synthetic genes in the arabinose pathway showed up to a forty-fold increase in butanetriol levels after arabinose was added to the medium. Transgenic plants expressing either bacterial or synthetic xylose pathways, or the arabinose pathway showed toxicity symptoms when xylose or arabinose was added to the medium, suggesting that a by-product in the pathway or butanetriol affected plant growth. Furthermore, the metabolite profile of plants expressing arabinose and xylose pathways was altered. Our results demonstrate that bacterial pathways that produce butanetriol can be engineered into plants to produce this chemical. This proof-of-concept study for phytoproduction of butanetriol paves the way to further manipulate metabolic pathways in plants to enhance the level of butanetriol production.Published with support from the Colorado State University Libraries Open Access Research and Scholarship Fund

Innovation in coastal governance: management and expectations of the UK’s first sandscaping scheme

Many coastal places around the UK face change, with impacts on communities, livelihoods, and landscapes. A tidal surge in 2013 caused significant erosion and flooding on the east coast of England (UK). This was the catalyst for the innovative Bacton to Walcott Coastal Management Scheme, also known as the Sandscaping Scheme, implemented in summer 2019. It is a one-off, large-scale beach nourishment scheme with a design prediction of 15–20 years functional life, the first of its kind in the UK and worldwide outside of the Netherlands. Through stakeholder interviews and a household questionnaire survey, this paper examines the institutional and political challenges, expectations, and hopes associated with this Scheme just before its implementation. The findings indicate that a combination of factors enabled technical and institutional experimentation and innovation at this location: critical erosion risk at a site of strategic infrastructure adjacent to two highly vulnerable villages, extensive stakeholder collaboration across scales, resolute leadership, and recognition of co-benefits. Although most interviewees and local residents foresaw significant benefit from the Scheme—not least respite from the deep anxiety caused by the threat of flooding and erosion risk—tensions were expressed around uncertainty beyond the Scheme’s lifetime and the need to start effective conversations about future adaptation options for the area. This study provides reflections for similar nature-based coastal management schemes elsewhere. It highlights the fundamental challenges facing the governance of natural and social coastal systems for adapting to current and future coastal change and the importance of articulating local and sometimes intangible understandings and expectations of adaptive coastal management interventions

Performance of Epigenetic Markers SEPT9 and ALX4 in Plasma for Detection of Colorectal Precancerous Lesions

BACKGROUND: Screening for colorectal cancer (CRC) has shown to reduce cancer-related mortality, however, acceptance and compliance to current programmes are poor. Developing new, more acceptable non-invasive tests for the detection of cancerous and precancerous colorectal lesions would not only allow preselection of individuals for colonoscopy, but may also prevent cancer by removal of precancerous lesions. METHODS: Plasma from 128 individuals (cohort I - exploratory study: 73 cases / 55 controls) was used to test the performance of a single marker, SEPT9, using a real-time quantitative PCR assay. To validate performance of SEPT9, plasma of 76 individuals (cohort II - validation study: 54 cases / 22 controls) was assessed. Additionally, improvement of predictive capability considering SEPT9 and additionally ALX4 methylation was investigated within these patients. RESULTS: In both cohorts combined, methylation of SEPT9 was observed in 9% of controls (3/33), 29% of patients with colorectal precancerous lesions (27/94) and 73% of colorectal cancer patients (24/33). The presence of both SEPT9 and ALX4 markers was analysed in cohort II and was observed in 5% of controls (1/22) and 37% of patients with polyps (18/49). Interestingly, also 3/5 (60%) patients with colorectal cancer were tested positive by the two marker panel in plasma. CONCLUSIONS: While these data confirm the detection rate of SEPT9 as a biomarker for colorectal cancer, they also show that methylated DNA from advanced precancerous colorectal lesions can be detected using a panel of two DNA methylation markers, ALX4 and SEPT9. If confirmed in larger studies these data indicate that screening for colorectal precancerous lesions with a blood-based test may be as feasible as screening for invasive cancer

Predicting potential global and future distributions of the African armyworm (Spodoptera exempta) using Species Distribution Models

Invasive species have historically been a problem derived from global trade and transport. To aid in the control and management of these species, Species Distribution Models (SDMs) have been used to help predict possible areas of expansion. Our focal organism, the African Armyworm (AAW), has historically been known as an important pest species in Africa, occurring at high larval densities and causing outbreaks that can cause enormous economic damage to staple crops. The goal of this study is to map the AAW’s present and potential distribution in three future scenarios for the region, and the potential global distribution if the species were to invade other territories, using 40 years of data on more than 700 larval outbreak reports from Kenya and Tanzania. The present distribution in East Africa coincides with its previously known distribution, as well as other areas of grassland and cropland, which are the host plants for this species. The different future climatic scenarios show broadly similar potential distributions in East Africa to the present day. The predicted global distribution shows areas where the AAW has already been reported, but also shows many potential areas in the Americas where, if transported, environmental conditions are suitable for AAW to thrive and where it could become an invasive species

Brief Educational Workshops in Secondary Schools Trial (BESST): Protocol for a school-based cluster randomised controlled trial of open-access psychological workshop programme for 16–18-year-olds

Anxiety and depression are increasingly prevalent in adolescents, often causing daily distress and negative long-term outcomes. Despite significant and growing burden, less than 25% of those with probable diagnosis of anxiety and depression are receiving help in England. Significant barriers to help-seeking exist in this population, with a scarcity of easily accessible, effective, and cost-effective interventions tailored specially for this age group. One intervention that has been shown to be feasible to deliver and with the promise of reducing stress in this age group is a school-based stress workshop programme for 16-18-year-olds (herein called DISCOVER). The next step is to rigorously assess the effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness, of the DISCOVER intervention in a fully powered cluster randomised controlled trial (cRCT). If found to be clinically and cost effective, DISCOVER could be scaled up as a service model UK-wide and have a meaningful impact on the mental health of adolescents across the country

Sperm Toolbox-A selection of small molecules to study human spermatozoa

Male contraceptive options and infertility treatments are limited, and almost all innovation has been limited to updates to medically assisted reproduction protocols and methods. To accelerate the development of drugs that can either improve or inhibit fertility, we established a small molecule library as a toolbox for assay development and screening campaigns using human spermatozoa. We have profiled all compounds in the Sperm Toolbox in several automated high-throughput assays that measure stimulation or inhibition of sperm motility or the acrosome reaction. We have assayed motility under non-capacitating and capacitating conditions to distinguish between pathways operating under these different physiological states. We also assayed cell viability to ensure any effects on sperm function are specific. A key advantage of our studies is that all compounds are assayed together in the same experimental conditions, which allows quantitative comparisons of their effects in complementary functional assays. We have combined the resulting datasets to generate fingerprints of the Sperm Toolbox compounds on sperm function. The data are included in an on-line R-based app for convenient querying.</p