Benthic assemblages are more predictable than fish assemblages at an island scale

© The Author(s), 2022. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Sandin, S. A., Alcantar, E., Clark, R., de Leon, R., Dilrosun, F., Edwards, C. B., Estep, A. J., Eynaud, Y., French, B. J., Fox, M. D., Grenda, D., Hamilton, S. L., Kramp, H., Marhaver, K. L., Miller, S. D., Roach, T. N. F., Seferina, G., Silveira, C. B., Smith, J. E., Zgliczynski, B. J., & Vermeij, M. J. A. Benthic assemblages are more predictable than fish assemblages at an island scale. Coral Reefs, 41, (2022.): 1031–1043, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-022-02272-5.Decades of research have revealed relationships between the abundance of coral reef taxa and local conditions, especially at small scales. However, a rigorous test of covariation requires a robust dataset collected across wide environmental or experimental gradients. Here, we surveyed spatial variability in the densities of major coral reef functional groups at 122 sites along a 70 km expanse of the leeward, forereef habitat of Curaçao in the southern Caribbean. These data were used to test the degree to which spatial variability in community composition could be predicted based on assumed functional relationships and site-specific anthropogenic, physical, and ecological conditions. In general, models revealed less power to describe the spatial variability of fish biomass than cover of reef builders (R2 of best-fit models: 0.25 [fish] and 0.64 [reef builders]). The variability in total benthic cover of reef builders was best described by physical (wave exposure and reef relief) and ecological (turf algal height and coral recruit density) predictors. No metric of anthropogenic pressure was related to spatial variation in reef builder cover. In contrast, total fish biomass showed a consistent (albeit weak) association with anthropogenic predictors (fishing and diving pressure). As is typical of most environmental gradients, the spatial patterns of both fish biomass density and reef builder cover were spatially autocorrelated. Residuals from the best-fit model for fish biomass retained a signature of spatial autocorrelation while the best-fit model for reef builder cover removed spatial autocorrelation, thus reinforcing our finding that environmental predictors were better able to describe the spatial variability of reef builders than that of fish biomass. As we seek to understand spatial variability of coral reef communities at the scale of most management units (i.e., at kilometer- to island-scales), distinct and scale-dependent perspectives will be needed when considering different functional groups.This research and the larger efforts of Blue Halo Curacao were supported by funding from the Waitt Institute and with permissions from the Government of Curacao, Ministry of Health, Environment, and Nature. Field logistics were further supported by the Waitt Institute vessel crew, CARMABI Foundation, The Dive Shop Curacao, and Dive Charter Curacao

Stepping across the line: Information sharing, truth-telling and the role of the personal carer in the Australian Nursing Home

The author draws on an Australian study using multiple qualitative methods to investigate truth telling in aged care. Thematic analysis of data from five nursing homes involving 23 personal care assistants revealed participants’ role understanding as influencing their perceptions about truth telling in practice. Five themes emerged: role as the happy comfort carer, division of labor, division of disclosure, role tension and frustration, and managing the division of disclosure. Role emphasis on comfort and happiness and a dominant perception that telling the truth can cause harm mean that disclosure will be withheld, edited, or partial. Participants’ role understanding divides labor and disclosure responsibility between the personal carer and registered nurse. Personal carers’ strategies for managing the division of disclosure include game playing, obfuscation, lying (denial), and the use of nonverbals. These perceptions about personal carer role, information sharing, and truth telling are paramount for understanding and improving nursing home eldercare

Host-Adaptation of Francisella tularensis Alters the Bacterium's Surface-Carbohydrates to Hinder Effectors of Innate and Adaptive Immunity

The gram-negative bacterium Francisella tularensis survives in arthropods, fresh water amoeba, and mammals with both intracellular and extracellular phases and could reasonably be expected to express distinct phenotypes in these environments. The presence of a capsule on this bacterium has been controversial with some groups finding such a structure while other groups report that no capsule could be identified. Previously we reported in vitro culture conditions for this bacterium which, in contrast to typical methods, yielded a bacterial phenotype that mimics that of the bacterium's mammalian, extracellular phase.SDS-PAGE and carbohydrate analysis of differentially-cultivated F. tularensis LVS revealed that bacteria displaying the host-adapted phenotype produce both longer polymers of LPS O-antigen (OAg) and additional HMW carbohydrates/glycoproteins that are reduced/absent in non-host-adapted bacteria. Analysis of wildtype and OAg-mutant bacteria indicated that the induced changes in surface carbohydrates involved both OAg and non-OAg species. To assess the impact of these HMW carbohydrates on the access of outer membrane constituents to antibody we used differentially-cultivated bacteria in vitro to immunoprecipitate antibodies directed against outer membrane moieties. We observed that the surface-carbohydrates induced during host-adaptation shield many outer membrane antigens from binding by antibody. Similar assays with normal mouse serum indicate that the induced HMW carbohydrates also impede complement deposition. Using an in vitro macrophage infection assay, we find that the bacterial HMW carbohydrate impedes TLR2-dependent, pro-inflammatory cytokine production by macrophages. Lastly we show that upon host-adaptation, the human-virulent strain, F. tularensis SchuS4 also induces capsule production with the effect of reducing macrophage-activation and accelerating tularemia pathogenesis in mice.F. tularensis undergoes host-adaptation which includes production of multiple capsular materials. These capsules impede recognition of bacterial outer membrane constituents by antibody, complement, and Toll-Like Receptor 2. These changes in the host-pathogen interface have profound implications for pathogenesis and vaccine development

Great Apes and Biodiversity Offset Projects in Africa: The Case for National Offset Strategies

The development and private sectors are increasingly considering “biodiversity offsets” as a strategy to compensate for their negative impacts on biodiversity, including impacts on great apes and their habitats in Africa. In the absence of national offset policies in sub-Saharan Africa, offset design and implementation are guided by company internal standards, lending bank standards or international best practice principles. We examine four projects in Africa that are seeking to compensate for their negative impacts on great ape populations. Our assessment of these projects reveals that not all apply or implement best practices, and that there is little standardization in the methods used to measure losses and gains in species numbers. Even if they were to follow currently accepted best-practice principles, we find that these actions may still fail to contribute to conservation objectives over the long term. We advocate for an alternative approach in which biodiversity offset and compensation projects are designed and implemented as part of a National Offset Strategy that (1) takes into account the cumulative impacts of development in individual countries, (2) identifies priority offset sites, (3) promotes aggregated offsets, and (4) integrates biodiversity offset and compensation projects with national biodiversity conservation objectives. We also propose supplementary principles necessary for biodiversity offsets to contribute to great ape conservation in Africa. Caution should still be exercised, however, with regard to offsets until further field-based evidence of their effectiveness is available

AusTraits, a curated plant trait database for the Australian flora

We introduce the AusTraits database - a compilation of values of plant traits for taxa in the Australian flora (hereafter AusTraits). AusTraits synthesises data on 448 traits across 28,640 taxa from field campaigns, published literature, taxonomic monographs, and individual taxon descriptions. Traits vary in scope from physiological measures of performance (e.g. photosynthetic gas exchange, water-use efficiency) to morphological attributes (e.g. leaf area, seed mass, plant height) which link to aspects of ecological variation. AusTraits contains curated and harmonised individual- and species-level measurements coupled to, where available, contextual information on site properties and experimental conditions. This article provides information on version 3.0.2 of AusTraits which contains data for 997,808 trait-by-taxon combinations. We envision AusTraits as an ongoing collaborative initiative for easily archiving and sharing trait data, which also provides a template for other national or regional initiatives globally to fill persistent gaps in trait knowledge

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival

Future sea-level rise drives rocky intertidal habitat loss and benthic community change

The impacts of sea-level rise (SLR) are likely to be the greatest for ecosystems that exist at the land-sea interface, where small changes in sea-level could result in drastic changes in habitat availability. Rocky intertidal ecosystems possess a number of characteristics which make them highly vulnerable to changes in sea-level, yet our understanding of potential community-scale responses to future SLR scenarios is limited. Combining remote-sensing with in-situ large-area imaging, we quantified habitat extent and characterized the biological community at two rocky intertidal study locations in California, USA. We then used a model-based approach to estimate how a range of SLR scenarios would affect total habitat area, areal extent of dominant benthic space occupiers, and numerical abundance of invertebrates. Our results suggest that SLR will reduce total available rocky intertidal habitat area at our study locations, leading to an overall decrease in areal extent of dominant benthic space occupiers, and a reduction in invertebrate abundances. As large-scale environmental changes, such as SLR, accelerate in the next century, more extensive spatially explicit monitoring at ecologically relevant scales will be needed to visualize and quantify their impacts to biological systems

Post-settlement demographics of reef building corals suggest prolonged recruitment bottlenecks

For many organisms, early life stages experience significantly higher rates of mortality relative to adults. However, tracking early life stage individuals through time in natural settings is difficult, limiting our understanding of the duration of these 'mortality bottlenecks', and the time required for survivorship to match that of adults. Here, we track a cohort of juvenile corals (1-5&nbsp;cm maximum diameter) from 12 taxa at a remote atoll in the Central Pacific from 2013 to 2017 and describe patterns of annual survivorship. Of the 537 juveniles initially detected, 219 (41%) were alive 4 years later, 163 (30%) died via complete loss of live tissue from the skeleton, and the remaining 155 (29%) died via dislodgement. The differing mortality patterns suggest that habitat characteristics, as well as species-specific features, may influence early life stage survival. Across most taxa, survival fit a logistic model, reaching &gt; 90% annual survival within 4&nbsp;years. These data suggest that mortality bottlenecks characteristic of 'recruitment' extend up to 5 years after individuals can be visually detected. Ultimately, replenishment of adult coral populations via sexual reproduction is needed to maintain both coral cover and genetic diversity. This study provides key insights into the dynamics and time scales that characterize these critical early life stages

Next generation systems; A framework for prioritising innovation

Primary production industries are constantly changing in response to external factors such as new market opportunities, consumer demands, changing community expectations of the social and environmental outcomes associated with the primary sector, and technological innovation (Gerber et al., 2010). These external forces for change will likely intensify over the next 10 years (MfE, 2016; DairyNZ, 2016; NZHEA, 2016). To enable primary producers to meet government targets such as doubling the value of New Zealand export returns while improving environmental performance, next generation land-based primary production systems (NGS) will be required. Next-generation systems may include redevelopment or redesign of existing enterprises and production systems, wholly new or novel enterprises, and new technologies that add options across temporal and spatial scales. The systems may cover a broad range of pastoral, arable, horticultural and forestry industries

Accelerated professional development and peer consultation : two strategies for continuing professional education for nurses

A comparison was made of accelerated professional development (APD) for nurses (n=64), involving peer consultation and reflective practice, and peer consultation alone (n=30). Although APD participants had a higher completion rate, improvements in caregiver behaviors and work environment were not significantly different