2015 Olympia oyster, Ostrea lurida, brooding results from northern Puget Sound

The Swinomish Indian Tribal Community recently began a restoration project to establish, expand, and research Olympia oyster, Ostrea lurida, populations on reservation tidelands. For our pilot project, we evenly distributed seeded cultch in two pocket estuaries in Similk and northern Skagit Bays during the summer of 2012 and spring of 2013. Subsequently, we initiated a long-term monitoring program that included measuring reproductive benchmarks to determine population expansion potential. While brooding data have been collected at one other site in northern Puget Sound (i.e. Fidalgo Bay), it is likely that oysters in pocket estuaries will be exposed to different environmental conditions than the Fidalgo Bay oysters. Our goal was to quantify the timing and environmental conditions for peak brooding of oysters in pocket estuaries. Brooding status was recorded from May to early September 2015 and water temperature was continuously logged at each of the two restoration sites. Our data clearly indicate that northern Puget Sound oysters located in pocket estuaries can begin brooding before May when daily minimum water temperatures reach 11°C, 2°C below the published thermal threshold. Managers and scientists working with native oysters in pocket estuaries should target early to mid-April as the optimal time for restoration expansion efforts

Blood Parasites in Owls with Conservation Implications for the Spotted Owl (Strix occidentalis)

The three subspecies of Spotted Owl (Northern, Strix occidentalis caurina; California, S. o. occidentalis; and Mexican, S. o. lucida) are all threatened by habitat loss and range expansion of the Barred Owl (S. varia). An unaddressed threat is whether Barred Owls could be a source of novel strains of disease such as avian malaria (Plasmodium spp.) or other blood parasites potentially harmful for Spotted Owls. Although Barred Owls commonly harbor Plasmodium infections, these parasites have not been documented in the Spotted Owl. We screened 111 Spotted Owls, 44 Barred Owls, and 387 owls of nine other species for haemosporidian parasites (Leucocytozoon, Plasmodium, and Haemoproteus spp.). California Spotted Owls had the greatest number of simultaneous multi-species infections (44%). Additionally, sequencing results revealed that the Northern and California Spotted Owl subspecies together had the highest number of Leucocytozoon parasite lineages (n = 17) and unique lineages (n = 12). This high level of sequence diversity is significant because only one Leucocytozoon species (L. danilewskyi) has been accepted as valid among all owls, suggesting that L. danilewskyi is a cryptic species. Furthermore, a Plasmodium parasite was documented in a Northern Spotted Owl for the first time. West Coast Barred Owls had a lower prevalence of infection (15%) when compared to sympatric Spotted Owls (S. o. caurina 52%, S. o. occidentalis 79%) and Barred Owls from the historic range (61%). Consequently, Barred Owls on the West Coast may have a competitive advantage over the potentially immune compromised Spotted Owls

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

Planning and managing for resilience : lessons from national forest plan revisions

16 pagesThe forest plan revision process presents an opportunity for managers to reorient a national forest’s management direction in pursuit of resilient landscapes, among other goals. It also represents an opportunity for public engagement and the identification of new roles and responsibilities for governmental and non-governmental entities. Through a Joint Fire Science Program-funded project, we compared three recently completed national forest plan revision processes to determine whether and how planners were able to plan for resilient landscape outcomes. Our work helps illustrate the ways that front-line forest planners attempt to promote landscape resilience while reconciling potentially conflicting pressures and management directions. The lessons from our comparative analysis are relevant for forest managers and key stakeholders attempting to plan in pursuit of more resilient landscapes.This project was funded by the Joint Fire Science Program (grant #16-3-01-10)

Planning and managing for resilience : lessons from national forest plan revisions

2 pagesRecent federal forest and wildfire policies have increasingly united around a vision of restoring resilient landscapes in the face of increasingly destructive wildfires driven by altered forest conditions and climate change. The process of revising forest plans guiding national forest management presents opportunities to reorient management informed by concepts of resilience. This Joint Fire Science Program-funded research used case studies of three recently completed national forest plan revision processes to determine whether and how USDA Forest Service staff were able to plan for resilient outcomes. The lessons from our comparative analysis are relevant for forest managers and key stakeholders attempting to plan in pursuit of more resilient landscapes.This research is supported by the Joint Fire Science Program under grant No. 16-3-01-10

Spatial and temporal population cohesion in intertidal clams

Although long-term datasets can be particularly useful for parsing out factors influencing populations, few studies have utilized continuous datasets to quantify population synchrony in bivalve mollusks. Dynamic factor analysis was used on a clam biomass dataset spanning 28 years and four distinct regions in the southern Salish Sea to determine (1) if native intertidal clam populations exhibit spatial or temporal coherence and (2) what environmental covariates influence population trends. The model with the most data support included three predominant trends to describe decadal change in mean clam biomass. Results demonstrate that intertidal clam population coherence can vary spatially and temporally by species. Intraspecific coherence was the highest in Leukoma staminea, followed by Saxidomus gigantea, with lowest synchrony in Clinocardium nuttallii. Population dynamics on three beaches (two in Hood Canal and one in Admiralty Inlet) showed similar temporal trends regardless of species. No other beaches showed synchrony in temporal trends across species indicating that species-specific trends (regardless of location) were more common than beach-specific trends (regardless of species). Eight covariates were evaluated in their ability to explain variability in annual mean biomass not captured in the latent trends. Of these, the North Pacific Gyre Oscillation lagged four years prior to the observation year received the strongest data support. While this large-scale oceanographic factor may play a valuable and previously undescribed role in population variation of venerid clams, local factors are also likely to account for variance not explained by our model

Spatial and temporal population coherence in intertidal clams

This repository includes detailed code and raw data for reproducing analyses in <i>Spatial and temporal population coherence in intertidal clams </i>(Barber et al.). Files include readme.txt containing metadata, detailed R code, and several .csv files with environmental data needed for dynamic factor analysis

Stress-impaired transcription factor expression and insulin secretion in transplanted human islets

Type 2 diabetes is characterized by insulin resistance, hyperglycemia, and progressive β cell dysfunction. Excess glucose and lipid impair β cell function in islet cell lines, cultured rodent and human islets, and in vivo rodent models. Here, we examined the mechanistic consequences of glucotoxic and lipotoxic conditions on human islets in vivo and developed and/or used 3 complementary models that allowed comparison of the effects of hyperglycemic and/or insulin-resistant metabolic stress conditions on human and mouse islets, which responded quite differently to these challenges. Hyperglycemia and/or insulin resistance impaired insulin secretion only from human islets in vivo. In human grafts, chronic insulin resistance decreased antioxidant enzyme expression and increased superoxide and amyloid formation. In human islet grafts, expression of transcription factors NKX6.1 and MAFB was decreased by chronic insulin resistance, but only MAFB decreased under chronic hyperglycemia. Knockdown of NKX6.1 or MAFB expression in a human β cell line recapitulated the insulin secretion defect seen in vivo. Contrary to rodent islet studies, neither insulin resistance nor hyperglycemia led to human β cell proliferation or apoptosis. These results demonstrate profound differences in how excess glucose or lipid influence mouse and human insulin secretion and β cell activity and show that reduced expression of key islet-enriched transcription factors is an important mediator of glucotoxicity and lipotoxicity