Plant Management Systems of British Columbia\u27s First Peoples

This article provides an overview of the diverse plant resource management strategies of First Nations of British Columbia. Management practices range from relatively large-scale (geographically) and longterm activities – such as the use of fire to clear prairies and subalpine meadows – to very focused actions, such as the pruning of individual shrubs. We describe plant resource management practices and the diverse methods used to identify them, and focus on three case studies to augment this description. These case studies exemplify the range of plants and ecosystems that were managed as well as the combinations of strategies and outcomes encompassed within these systems. While we focus our review on coastal British Columbia, we recognize that these are practices that occurred throughout northwestern North America. We also recognize that plant management is nested within a larger continuum of management practices that encompassed terrestrial and aquatic animals and their ecosystems (Carpenter, Humchitt, and Eldridge 2000; Lepofsky and Caldwell in press; Thornton et al. 2010). We end this summary with a discussion of how traditional and “new” management approaches introduced by European newcomers were integrated into “moditional management systems,” and we identify some of the more recent trends in the study of Indigenous management systems. Finally, we focus on future prospects for traditional plant management as part of the contemporary movements towards ethnoecological restoration, cultural renewal, and enhanced food security for Indigenous peoples – a point explored more fully in the final section of this special issue

Deposit and suspension feeding in oscillatory flows and sediment fluxes

We present a survey of feeding behavior of benthic organisms in oscillatory flow and sediment fluxes. These results are based on seventeen species from five phyla and several feeding guilds from an intertidal sandflat and the continental shelf of the Mid-Atlantic coast, U.S.A. General responses to oscillatory flows are: (1) nearly immediate change in feeding behavior or position of feeding appendage when flow is initiated, (2) decrease in feeding area for surface deposit feeders, often (3) alteration of feeding mode, and when anatomically permitted (4) rotation of feeding appendages to track flow direction. At high sediment fluxes, responses are functional group and morphology-specific. Organisms with one or two muscular feeding appendages continue to feed (e.g., Spio setosa, Spiochaetopterus oculatus and Emerita talpoida), while those with a crown of tentacles cannot (e.g., Pista palmata, Serpula vermicularis granulosa, and Terebella rubra). A continental shelf brittle star, Amphipholis squamata, ceases suspension feeding in high flows. Organisms with strong tentacles feed at the sediment surface in much restricted feeding area (Marenzelleria jonesi and Saccoglossus kowalevskii). Organisms with long, thin palps coil them helically and capture particles in near-bed flux (Spiochaetopterus oculatus and Spio setosa). Siphonate feeders maintain siphon tips near the sediment surface and continue pumping (Ensis directus, Mercenaria mercenaria and Tagelus plebeius). A sedentary omnivore (Diopatra cuprea) is able to capture food particles in low and moderate flow, but in high flows the tube opening is closed. Motile scavengers may either increase (Pagurus longicarpus) or decrease (Echinarachnius parma and Ilyanassa obsoleta) movement rate. Of all species studied, only the burrowing predatory starfish Astropecten americanus showed no change in behavior with respect to oscillatory flow. In addition, we report detailed quantitative changes in feeding behavior by a facultative suspension-feeding spionid polychaete Spio setosa and an obligate deposit-feeding terebellid polychaete Terebella rubra which indicate hysteresis or time-dependence in the response to flow and sediment flux. We attempt a summary of responses by functional group and morphology and suggest that new descriptive terms combining low-flow feeding behavior and morphology are needed to characterize feeding modes adequately. Our analysis suggests that it is important to consider the possible presence of flow and flux micro-environments, an individual organisms\u27s variability, flow history and the various time scales of behavioral responses and other biological rate processes. There is a current need for dynamic feeding models that incorporate these factors as well as for experimental tests of the derived predictions

Back to the Clam Gardens

In the following story, Kwakwaka’wakw Clan Chief Adam Dick, known by his traditional name Kwaxsistalla, travels back to the clam gardens off the eastern coast of Vancouver Island, where his grandparents raised food and passed down a huge body of traditional ecological knowledge. The story also documents the first of a series of trips to be undertaken over the next two years to document waxsistalla’s unique and detailed knowledge and experiences of the food harvesting and other resource‐based activities of his Qawadiliqallalan of the Tsawataineuk people of Kingcome Inlet

Kwakwaka’wakw “Clam Gardens”: Motive and Agency in Traditional Northwest Coast Mariculture

The indigenous peoples of the Northwest Coast of North America actively managed natural resources in diverse ways to enhance their productivity and proximity. Among those practices that have escaped the attention of anthropologists until recently is the traditional management of intertidal clam beds, which Northwest Coast peoples have enhanced through techniques such as selective harvests, the removal of shells and other debris, and the mechanical aeration of the soil matrix. In some cases, harvesters also removed stones or even created stone revetments that served to laterally expand sediments suitable for clam production into previously unusable portions of the tidal zone. This article presents the only account of these activities, their motivations, and their outcomes, based on the first-hand knowledge of a traditional practitioner, Kwakwaka’wakw Clan Chief Kwaxistalla Adam Dick, trained in these techniques by elders raised in the nineteenth century when clam “gardening” was still widely practiced

Subsistence and Resistance on the British Columbia Coast: Kingcome Village’s Estuarine Gardens as Contested Space

A case study is presented on the contested land ownership of the estuarine gardens in Kingcome Village, British Columbia (BC) between white settlers and the native Kwakwaka\u27wakw Indian Nation during the 19th century. The role that the natural resources of Kingcome Village\u27s estuarine gardens played in white colonists\u27 settlement of the Kingcome Village area is discussed

The Membership and Distance of the Open Cluster Collinder 419

The young open cluster Collinder 419 surrounds the massive O star, HD 193322, that is itself a remarkable multiple star system containing at least four components. Here we present a discussion of the cluster distance based upon new spectral classifications of the brighter members, UBV photometry, and an analysis of astrometric and photometric data from the UCAC3 and 2MASS catalogs. We determine an average cluster reddening of E(B-V)=0.37 +- 0.05 mag and a cluster distance of 741 +- 36 pc. The cluster probably contains some very young stars that may include a reddened M3 III star, IRAS~20161+4035

Evaluation of a coastal acoustic buoy for cetacean detections, bearing accuracy and exclusion zone monitoring

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources and the Maryland Offshore Wind Development Fund at the Maryland Energy Administration cosponsored this work. This report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States Government.There is strong socio-political support for offshore wind development in US territorial waters and construction is planned off several east coast states. Some of the planned development sites coincide with important habitat for critically endangered North Atlantic right whales. Both exclusion zones and passive acoustic monitoring are important tools for managing interactions between marine mammals and human activities. Understanding where animals are with respect to exclusion zones is important to avoid costly construction delays while minimizing the potential for negative impacts. Impact piling from construction of hundreds of offshore wind turbines likely require exclusion zones as large as 10 km. We have developed a three-hydrophone passive acoustic monitoring system that provides bearing information along with marine mammal detections to allow for informed management decisions in real-time. Multiple units form a monitoring system designed to determine whether marine mammal calls originate from inside or outside of an exclusion zone. In October 2021, we undertook a full system validation, with a focus on evaluating the detection range and bearing accuracy of the system with respect to right whale upcalls. Five units were deployed in Mid-Atlantic waters and we played more than 3500 simulated right whale upcalls at known locations to characterize the detection function and bearing accuracy of each unit. The modelled results of the detection function error were then used to compare the effectiveness of a bearing-based system to a single sensor that can only detect a signal but not ascertain directivity. Field trials indicated maximum detection ranges from 4-7.3 km depending on source and ambient noise levels. Simulations showed that incorporating bearing detections provide a substantial improvement in false alarm rates (6 to 12 times depending on number of units, placement and signal to noise conditions) for a small increase in the risk of missed detections inside of an exclusion zone (1%-3%). We show that the system can be used for monitoring exclusion zones and clearly highlight the value of including bearing estimation into exclusion zone monitoring plans while noting that placement and configuration of units should reflect anticipated ambient noise conditions.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Bellybutton: Accessible and Customizable Deep-Learning Image Segmentation

The conversion of raw images into quantifiable data can be a major hurdle in experimental research, and typically involves identifying region(s) of interest, a process known as segmentation. Machine learning tools for image segmentation are often specific to a set of tasks, such as tracking cells, or require substantial compute or coding knowledge to train and use. Here we introduce an easy-to-use (no coding required), image segmentation method, using a 15-layer convolutional neural network that can be trained on a laptop: Bellybutton. The algorithm trains on user-provided segmentation of example images, but, as we show, just one or even a portion of one training image can be sufficient in some cases. We detail the machine learning method and give three use cases where Bellybutton correctly segments images despite substantial lighting, shape, size, focus, and/or structure variation across the regions(s) of interest. Instructions for easy download and use, with further details and the datasets used in this paper are available at pypi.org/project/Bellybuttonseg.Comment: 6 Pages 3 Figure

Tuberculosis incidence correlates with sunshine : an ecological 28-year time series study

Birmingham is the largest UK city after London, and central Birmingham has an annual tuberculosis incidence of 80 per 100,000. We examined seasonality and sunlight as drivers of tuberculosis incidence. Hours of sunshine are seasonal, sunshine exposure is necessary for the production of vitamin D by the body and vitamin D plays a role in the host response to tuberculosis. Methods: We performed an ecological study that examined tuberculosis incidence in Birmingham from Dec 1981 to Nov 2009, using publicly-available data from statutory tuberculosis notifications, and related this to the seasons and hours of sunshine (UK Meteorological Office data) using unmeasured component models. Results: There were 9,739 tuberculosis cases over the study period. There was strong evidence for seasonality, with notifications being 24.1% higher in summer than winter (p<0.001). Winter dips in sunshine correlated with peaks in tuberculosis incidence six months later (4.7% increase in incidence for each 100 hours decrease in sunshine, p<0.001). Discussion and Conclusion: A potential mechanism for these associations includes decreased vitamin D levels with consequent impaired host defence arising from reduced sunshine exposure in winter. This is the longest time series of any published study and our use of statutory notifications means this data is essentially complete. We cannot, however, exclude the possibility that another factor closely correlated with the seasons, other than sunshine, is responsible. Furthermore, exposure to sunlight depends not only on total hours of sunshine but also on multiple individual factors. Our results should therefore be considered hypothesis-generating. Confirmation of a potential causal relationship between winter vitamin D deficiency and summer peaks in tuberculosis incidence would require a randomized-controlled trial of the effect of vitamin D supplementation on future tuberculosis incidence

Stellar Diameters and Temperatures. I. Main-Sequence A, F, and G Stars

We have executed a survey of nearby, main-sequence A-, F-, and G-type stars with the CHARA Array, successfully measuring the angular diameters of forty-four stars with an average precision of ~1.5%. We present new measures of the bolometric flux, which in turn leads to an empirical determination of the effective temperature for the stars observed. In addition, these CHARA-determined temperatures, radii, and luminosities are fit to Yonsei-Yale model isochrones to constrain the masses and ages of the stars. These results are compared to indirect estimates of these quantities obtained by collecting photometry of the stars and applying them to model atmospheres and evolutionary isochrones. We find that for most cases, the models overestimate the effective temperature by ~1.5%-4% when compared to our directly measured values. The overestimated temperatures and underestimated radii in these works appear to cause an additional offset in the star's surface gravity measurements, which consequently yield higher masses and younger ages, in particular for stars with masses greater than ~1.3 M_☉. Additionally, we compare our measurements to a large sample of eclipsing binary stars, and excellent agreement is seen within both data sets. Finally, we present temperature relations with respect to (B – V) and (V – K) colors as well as spectral type, showing that calibration of effective temperatures with errors ~1% is now possible from interferometric angular diameters of stars