Water-Food-Energy Nexus

The proposed SDGs on water, food and energy security all include targets on increasing efficiencies. Yet the water–food–energy nexus has multiple dimensions that, if managed in isolation, will compromise a nation’s ability to achieve the full portfolio of SDGs. Climate change introduces additional uncertainties, further increasing tensions between sectors for access to water. Conventional energy and food production are emitters of greenhouse gases, but measures to reduce emissions—including renewable energy interventions, such as subsidies for biofuel production—can have adverse consequences on food prices. To achieve desirable and sustainable outcomes for water, food, and energy requires investigating these elements as an integrated whole, across sectors and scales. The nexus approach is part of broader systems thinking; it features a pragmatic focus on the relatively limited number of policy choices that are constrained by political realities. This approach recognizes and minimizes trade-offs, builds synergies, and increases resource use efficiencies

Acting to Address the Ocean-Related Impacts of Climate Change on Human and National Security, with Recommendations for Priority Actions drawn from the discussions of the Global Conference on Oceans, Climate and Security at the University of Massachusetts Boston

In the course of the past calendar year the United States has been struck by a series of droughts, tornadoes, hurricanes, blizzards, wildfires, and floods whose size and path of resulting damage defy previously established patterns. The U.S. thus joins nations on every continent that have increasingly experienced extreme and extremely damaging weather events over the past two decades. At the same time, the world’s oceans have been exhibiting a less-visible but equally dangerous sequence of temperature rise, acidification increase, fish kills, coastal erosion, salinity shifts, algae blooms, and steady decreases in commercially available fish and shellfish species. Those impacts are not only significant indicators of a climate change that is rapidly increasing in the natural world, they are also warning signals of the effects of that changing climate on national and human security. A new focus is emerging on how climate change impacts ocean systems, the oceans’ subsequent vital role in exacerbating or mitigating those impacts, and how both climate and ocean systems substantially impact national security. The stunning effects of Hurricane Sandy provided only an initial glimpse of the extensive primary, secondary, and tertiary impacts that will result from these system shifts domestically and internationally. Understanding the interconnectedness among oceans, climate, and security is therefore increasingly crucial to our collective future. The first Global Conference on Oceans, Climate and Security (GC ’12) was designed to raise awareness of the effects of climate change on ocean systems and the consequent impacts on national and international security. The conference attempted to identify and prioritize the knowledge gaps in science and technology that have inhibited understanding, response, and adaptation to future threats and opportunities. It then generated a series of human security policy and governance recommendations reflecting the climate, ocean, and security continuum. Participants agreed that the required solutions were not the responsibility of either the public sector (government), the private sector (business), or the voluntary sector (NGOs) alone—but were the responsibilities of all of these working together. They also emphasized the potential in approaching the issues from the perspective of positive economic and social opportunity, rather than focusing solely on risks and threats. This white paper presents the observations of the conference and highlights its primary conclusions. It then expands upon those to include the extraordinary impacts—both physical and political—of the recent and ongoing series of extreme-weather phenomena that peaked in 2012 with the devastation of Sandy and has continued in 2013 with a melting Arctic and floods across the U.S. Midwest

Effects of oral probiotic supplements on vaginal microbiota during pregnancy: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial with microbiome analysis

OBJECTIVE: To determine the effects on the vaginal microbiota of an oral probiotic preparation administered from early pregnancy. DESIGN: Randomised, double blind, placebo-controlled trial. SETTING: Four maternity units in the UK. POPULATION: Women aged 16 years or older recruited at 9-14 weeks' gestation. METHODS: Participants were randomly allocated to receive oral capsules of probiotic containing Lactobacillus rhamnosus GR-1 and Lactobacillus reuteri RC-14 each at 2.5 × 109 colony-forming units (CFUs) or placebo once daily from recruitment until the end of pregnancy. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Rates of bacterial vaginosis (BV, defined as Nugent score ≥7) at 18-20 weeks' gestation compared by logistic regression adjusted for possible confounders. RESULTS: The primary analysis included 78% (238/304) of participants who initially consented (probiotic group 123, placebo group 115). Of these participants, 95% (227/238) reported an intake of 93% or more of the required number of capsules. The rates of BV did not differ between groups at 18-20 weeks' gestation (15% (19/123) in the probiotic group vs. 9% (10/115) in the placebo group, adjusted odds ratio 1.82, 95% confidence interval 0.64-5.19). There were also no differences between the groups in the proportion of women colonised with the probiotic strains, Escherichia coli, Group B streptococci or other vaginal microbiota. There were no differences in the alpha diversity or composition of the bacterial communities between or within the probiotic and placebo groups at 9-14 and 18-20 weeks' gestation. CONCLUSIONS: Oral probiotics taken from early pregnancy did not modify the vaginal microbiota. TWEETABLE ABSTRACT: The oral probiotic preparation used in this study does not prevent BV in pregnant women

Interlinkages and gaps: a review of the literature on intergovernmental relations for flood management in the face of climate change

Current approaches to flood management are increasingly insufficient to deal with intensifying flood trends. In this paper, we define and map out the responsibilities and relationships of local, state, and federal governing entities at various levels. We use these relationships to identify gaps in governance needed to address the high financial, human, and infrastructure costs of flooding. This paper offers a description of current flood policies and provides recommendations for innovations in policy solutions to improve governance gaps. We identify three themes from the literature on intergovernmental relations and flood governance: (1) intergovernmental relations (interlinkages and gaps) for flood governance; (2) risks inherent to flood governance (financial, physical, social and individual, and perception of risk); (3) data adequacy and interoperability

Interlinkages and gaps: a review of the literature on intergovernmental relations for flood management in the face of climate change

Current approaches to flood management are increasingly insufficient to deal with intensifying flood trends. In this paper, we define and map out the responsibilities and relationships of local, state, and federal governing entities at various levels. We use these relationships to identify gaps in governance needed to address the high financial, human, and infrastructure costs of flooding. This paper offers a description of current flood policies and provides recommendations for innovations in policy solutions to improve governance gaps. We identify three themes from the literature on intergovernmental relations and flood governance: (1) intergovernmental relations (interlinkages and gaps) for flood governance; (2) risks inherent to flood governance (financial, physical, social and individual, and perception of risk); (3) data adequacy and interoperability

Plant immunity in plant-aphid interactions

Aphids are economically important pests that cause extensive feeding damage and transmit viruses. While some species have a broad host range and cause damage to a variety of crops, others are restricted to only closely related plant species. While probing and feeding aphids secrete saliva, containing effectors, into their hosts to manipulate host cell processes and promote infestation. Aphid effector discovery studies pointed out parallels between infection and infestation strategies of plant pathogens and aphids. Interestingly, resistance to some aphid species is known to involve plant resistance proteins with a typical NB-LRR domain structure. Whether these resistance proteins indeed recognize aphid effectors to trigger ETI remains to be elucidated. In addition, it was recently shown that unknown aphid derived elicitors can initiate ROS (reactive oxygen species) production and callose deposition and that these responses were dependent on BAK1 (BRASSINOSTERIOD INSENSITIVE 1-ASSOCIATED RECEPTOR KINASE 1) which is a key component of the plant immune system. In addition, BAK-1 contributes to nonhost resistance to aphids pointing to another parallel between plant-pathogen and –aphid interactions. Understanding the role of plant immunity and non-host resistance to aphids is essential to generate durable and sustainable aphid control strategies. Although insect behavior plays a role in host selection and non-host resistance, an important observation is that aphids interact with nonhost plants by probing the leaf surface, but are unable to feed or establish colonization. Therefore, we hypothesize that aphids interact with nonhost plants at the molecular level, but are potentially not successful in suppressing plant defenses and/or releasing nutrients

A Conserved EAR Motif Is Required for Avirulence and Stability of the Ralstonia solanacearum Effector PopP2 In Planta

(extract) Overall, this study reveals high conservation of the PopP2 effector in Korean R. solanacearum strains isolated from commercially cultivated tomato and pepper genotypes. Importantly, our data also indicate that the PopP2 conserved repressor motif could contribute to the effector accumulation in plant cells

Structure-function analysis of the <em>Fusarium oxysporum</em> Avr2 effector allows uncoupling of its immune-suppressing activity from recognition

Plant pathogens employ effector proteins to manipulate their hosts. Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici (Fol), the causal agent of tomato wilt disease, produces effector protein Avr2. Besides being a virulence factor, Avr2 triggers immunity in I-2 carrying tomato (Solanum lycopersicum). Fol strains that evade I-2 recognition carry point mutations in Avr2 (e.g. Avr2R45H), but retain full virulence. Here we investigate the virulence function of Avr2 and determine its crystal structure. Transgenic tomato and Arabidopsis expressing either wild-type ΔspAvr2 (deleted signal-peptide) or the ΔspAvr2R45H variant become hypersusceptible to fungal, and even bacterial infections, suggesting that Avr2 targets a conserved defense mechanism. Indeed, Avr2 transgenic plants are attenuated in immunity-related readouts, including flg22-induced growth inhibition, ROS production and callose deposition. The crystal structure of Avr2 reveals that the protein shares intriguing structural similarity to ToxA from the wheat pathogen Pyrenophora tritici-repentis and to TRAF proteins. The I-2 resistance-breaking Avr2V41M, Avr2R45H and Avr2R46P variants cluster on a surface-presented loop. Structure-guided mutagenesis enabled uncoupling of virulence from I-2-mediated recognition. We conclude that I-2-mediated recognition is not based on monitoring Avr2 virulence activity, which includes suppression of immune responses via an evolutionarily conserved effector target, but by recognition of a distinct epitope