SPATIAL VARIABILITY IN THE MUDPRAWN UPOGEBIA AFRICANA ON THE SOUTH-EAST COAST OF SOUTH AFRICA

A nested sampling design was used to examine the variability in density, biomass, sex ratio and size of the estuarine mudprawn Upogebia africana in six estuaries on the south-east coast of South Africa. The objectives were to test the general hypothesis that there is variability in these variables at the scales of regions, estuaries, banks and tidal levels, and then to determine at which spatial scales these were most variable. Nested analyses of variance revealed significant differences in the mean size of mudprawns at the scale of regions, in mean size and sex ratio at the scale of banks, and in all four variables at the scale of tidal levels. The greatest variability in all four variables was at the smallest spatial scale examined. The likely causes of this spatial variability are discussed.Afr. J. mar. Sci. 25: 275–28

Civil society leadership in the struggle for AIDS treatment in South Africa and Uganda

Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references.This thesis is an attempt to theorise and operationalise empirically the notion of ‘civil society leadership’ in Sub-Saharan Africa. ‘AIDS leadership,’ which is associated with the intergovernmental institutions charged with coordinating the global response to HIV/AIDS, is both under-theorised and highly context-specific. In this study I therefore opt for an inclusive framework that draws on a range of approaches, including the literature on ‘leadership’, institutions, social movements and the ‘network’ perspective on civil society mobilisation. This framework is employed in rich and detailed empirical descriptions (‘thick description’) of civil society mobilisation around AIDS, including contentious AIDS activism, in the key case studies of South Africa and Uganda. South Africa and Uganda are widely considered key examples of poor and good leadership (from national political leaders) respectively, while the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and The AIDS Support Organisation (TASO) are both seen as highly effective civil society movements. These descriptions emphasise ‘transnational networks of influence’ in which civil society leaders participated (and at times actively constructed) in order to mobilise both symbolic and material resources aimed at exerting influence at the transnational, national and local levels

Effects of autotomy on long-term survival and growth of painted spiny lobster (Panulirus versicolor) on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia

The effects of autotomy (shedding of appendages) on survival and growth rates of painted spiny lobster were investigated at Northwest Island (23° 18′ S, 152° 43′ E) during the period 2003–2006. Adult lobsters were captured, tagged, and classified as either uninjured (n = 68), minimally injured (n = 39) or moderately injured (n = 19) depending on the number and type of appendages that were autotomized during capture and handling. Six to thirty-six months after release, 86 lobsters were recaptured (mean time at large = 305 days). Recapture rates of uninjured (64.7%), minimally injured (71.8%), and moderately injured lobsters (73.7%) were not significantly different. Similarly, mean annualized growth rates of uninjured, minimally injured, and moderately injured lobsters were not significantly different. This suggests that the energetic cost of a single episode of autotomy is either negligible or exists as a trade-off with some other life history trait, such as reduced reproductive performance. These results support the use of certain management tools (e.g., size limits) that prescribe release of non-legal lobsters, regardless of their injury status