Public perceptions of how to reduce carbon footprints of consumer food choices

Carbon footprints – the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with consumer food choices –substantially contribute to climate change. Life cycle analyses from climate and environmental sciences have identified effective rules for reducing these food-related carbon footprints, including eating seasonal produce and replacing dairy and red meat with plant-based products. In a national UK survey, we studied how many and which rules our participants generated for reducing GHG emissions of produce, dairy, and protein-rich products. We also asked participants to estimate GHG emission reductions associated with pre-selected rules, expressed in either grams or percentages. We found that participants generated few and relatively less effective rules, including ambiguous ones like 'Buy local'. Furthermore, participants' numerical estimates of pre-selected rules were less accurate when they assessed GHG emission reductions in grams rather than in percentages. Findings suggest a need for communicating fewer rules in percentages, for informing consumers about reducing food-related GHG emissions

Visualizations of Projected Rainfall Change in the United Kingdom: An Interview Study about User Perceptions

Stakeholders from public, private, and third sectors need to adapt to a changing climate. Communications about climate may be challenging, especially for audiences with limited climate expertise. Here, we study how such audience members perceive visualizations about projected future rainfall. In semi-structured interviews, we presented 24 participants from climate-conscious organizations across the UK with three prototypical visualizations about projected future rainfall, adopted from the probabilistic United Kingdom Climate Projections: (1) Maps displaying a central estimate and confidence intervals, (2) a line graph and boxplots displaying change over time and associated confidence intervals, and (3) a probability density function for distributions of rainfall change. We analyzed participants’ responses using “Thematic Analysis”. In our analysis, we identified features that facilitated understanding—such as colors, simple captions, and comparisons between different emission scenarios—and barriers that hindered understanding, such as unfamiliar acronyms and terminology, confusing usage of probabilistic estimates, and expressions of relative change in percentages. We integrate these findings with the interdisciplinary risk communication literature and suggest content-related and editorial strategies for effectively designing visualizations about uncertain climate projections for audiences with limited climate expertise. These strategies will help organizations such as National Met Services to effectively communicate about a changing climate

Confidence levels and likelihood terms in IPCC reports : a survey of experts from different scientific disciplines

Scientific assessments, such as those by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), inform policymakers and the public about the state of scientific evidence and related uncertainties. We studied how experts from different scientific disciplines who were authors of IPCC reports, interpret the uncertainty language recommended in the Guidance Note for Lead Authors of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report on Consistent Treatment of Uncertainties. This IPCC guidance note discusses how to use confidence levels to describe the quality of evidence and scientific agreement, as well likelihood terms to describe the probability intervals associated with climate variables. We find that (1) physical science experts were more familiar with the IPCC guidance note than other experts, and they followed it more often; (2) experts' confidence levels increased more with perceptions of evidence than with agreement; (3) experts' estimated probability intervals for climate variables were wider when likelihood terms were presented with "medium confidence" rather than with "high confidence" and when seen in context of IPCC sentences rather than out of context, and were only partly in agreement with the IPCC guidance note. Our findings inform recommendations for communications about scientific evidence, assessments, and related uncertainties.Peer reviewe

Genetics of Microenvironmental Sensitivity of Body Weight in Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) Selected for Improved Growth

Microenvironmental sensitivity of a genotype refers to the ability to buffer against non-specific environmental factors, and it can be quantified by the amount of residual variation in a trait expressed by the genotype’s offspring within a (macro)environment. Due to the high degree of polymorphism in behavioral, growth and life-history traits, both farmed and wild salmonids are highly susceptible to microenvironmental variation, yet the heritable basis of this characteristic remains unknown. We estimated the genetic (co)variance of body weight and its residual variation in 2-year-old rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) using a multigenerational data of 45,900 individuals from the Finnish national breeding programme. We also tested whether or not microenvironmental sensitivity has been changed as a correlated genetic response when genetic improvement for growth has been practiced over five generations. The animal model analysis revealed the presence of genetic heterogeneity both in body weight and its residual variation. Heritability of residual variation was remarkably lower (0.02) than that for body weight (0.35). However, genetic coefficient of variation was notable in both body weight (14%) and its residual variation (37%), suggesting a substantial potential for selection responses in both traits. Furthermore, a significant negative genetic correlation (−0.16) was found between body weight and its residual variation, i.e., rapidly growing genotypes are also more tolerant to perturbations in microenvironment. The genetic trends showed that fish growth was successfully increased by selective breeding (an average of 6% per generation), whereas no genetic change occurred in residual variation during the same period. The results imply that genetic improvement for body weight does not cause a concomitant increase in microenvironmental sensitivity. For commercial production, however, there may be high potential to simultaneously improve weight gain and increase its uniformity if both criteria are included in a selection index

Genotype-by-environment interaction of growth traits in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss): A continental scale study.

Rainbow trout is a globally important fish species for aquaculture. However, fish for most farms worldwide are produced by only a few breeding companies. Selection based solely on fish performance recorded at a nucleus may lead to lower-than-expected genetic gains in other production environments when genotype-by-environment (G × E) interaction exists. The aim was to quantify the magnitude of G × E interaction of growth traits (tagging weight; BWT, harvest weight; BWH, and growth rate; TGC) measured across 4 environments, located in 3 different continents, by estimating genetic correlations between environments. A total of 100 families, of at least 25 in size, were produced from the mating 58 sires and 100 dams. In total, 13,806 offspring were reared at the nucleus (selection environment) in Washington State (NUC) and in 3 other environments: a recirculating aquaculture system in Freshwater Institute (FI), West Virginia; a high-altitude farm in Peru (PE), and a cold-water farm in Germany (GER). To account for selection bias due to selective mortality, a multitrait multienvironment animal mixed model was applied to analyze the performance data in different environments as different traits. Genetic correlation (rg) of a trait measured in different environments and rg of different traits measured in different environments were estimated. The results show that heterogeneity of additive genetic variances was mainly found for BWH measured in FI and PE. Additive genetic coefficient of variation for BWH in NUC, FI, PE, and GER were 7.63, 8.36, 8.64, and 9.75, respectively. Genetic correlations between the same trait in different environments were low, indicating strong reranking (BWT: rg = 0.15 to 0.37, BWH: rg = 0.19 to 0.48, TGC: rg = 0.31 to 0.36) across environments. The rg between BWT in NUC and BWH in both FI (0.31) and GER (0.36) were positive, which was also found between BWT in NUC and TGC in both FI (0.10) and GER (0.20). However, rg were negative between BWT in NUC and both BWH (–0.06) and TGC (–0.20) in PE. Correction for selection bias resulted in higher additive genetic variances. In conclusion, strong G × E interaction was found for BWT, BWH, and TGC. Accounting for G × E interaction in the breeding program, either by using sib information from testing stations or environment-specific breeding programs, would increase genetic gains for environments that differ significantly from NUC

Use of multi-trait and random regression models to identify genetic variation in tolerance to porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus

Background: A host can adopt two response strategies to infection: resistance (reduce pathogen load) and tolerance (minimize impact of infection on performance). Both strategies may be under genetic control and could thus be targeted for genetic improvement. Although there is evidence that supports a genetic basis for resistance to porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS), it is not known whether pigs also differ genetically in tolerance. We determined to what extent pigs that have been shown to vary genetically in resistance to PRRS also exhibit genetic variation in tolerance. Multi-trait linear mixed models and random regression sire models were fitted to PRRS Host Genetics Consortium data from 1320 weaned pigs (offspring of 54 sires) that were experimentally infected with a virulent strain of PRRS virus to obtain genetic parameter estimates for resistance and tolerance. Resistance was defined as the inverse of within-host viral load (VL) from 0 to 21 (VL21) or 0 to 42 (VL42) days post-infection and tolerance as the slope of the reaction-norm of average daily gain (ADG21, ADG42) on VL21 or VL42. Results: Multi-trait analysis of ADG associated with either low or high VL was not indicative of genetic variation in tolerance. Similarly, random regression models for ADG21 and ADG42 with a tolerance slope fitted for each sire did not result in a better fit to the data than a model without genetic variation in tolerance. However, the distribution of data around average VL suggested possible confounding between level and slope estimates of the regression lines. Augmenting the data with simulated growth rates of non-infected half-sibs (ADG0) helped resolve this statistical confounding and indicated that genetic variation in tolerance to PRRS may exist if genetic correlations between ADG0 and ADG21 or ADG42 are low to moderate. Conclusions: Evidence for genetic variation in tolerance of pigs to PRRS was weak when based on data from infected piglets only. However, simulations indicated that genetic variance in tolerance may exist and could be detected if comparable data on uninfected relatives were available. In conclusion, of the two defense strategies, genetics of tolerance is more difficult to elucidate than genetics of resistance.</p

Growth, flesh adiposity and fatty acid composition of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) families with contrasting flesh adiposity: effects of replacement of dietary fish oil with vegetable oils

The present study compared the effects of diets formulated with reduced fishmeal (FM) content and either 100% fish oil (FO) or 100% of a vegetable oil (VO) blend in post-smolts of three family groups of Atlantic salmon. Two groups were selected as being either &ldquo;Lean&rdquo; or &ldquo;Fat&rdquo; based on estimated breeding values (EBV) for flesh adiposity of their parents derived from a breeding programme, while the third group (CAL) was a mix of non-pedigreed commercial families unrelated to the two groups above. The VO blend comprised rapeseed, palm and a new product, Camelina oil in a ratio of 5/3/2, and diets were fed to duplicate pens of each salmon group. After an ongrowing period of 55 weeks, to reach a mean weight of 3kg, the fish from all treatments were switched to a decontaminated FO for a further 24 weeks to follow restoration of long-chain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PUFA) in the fish previously fed VO. Final weights were significantly affected by family group and there was also an interaction between diet and group with Fat and Lean FO fish being larger than the same fish fed VO. Specific growth rate (SGR) was highest in CAL fish (1.01), feed conversion ratio (FCR) was highest in the Lean fish but there were no significant effects on thermal growth coefficient (TGC). Condition Factor (CF) was lowest in CAL fish while the hepato-somatic index (HSI) was highest in Lean fish and viscero-somatic index (VSI) highest in Fat fish. Flesh and viscera lipid content was affected by both family group and diet with a significant interaction between the two. Flesh lipid in fish fed FO was in the order Fat &gt; CAL &gt; Lean although this order was Fat = Lean &gt; CAL when fed VO. Flesh fatty acid compositions were affected mainly by diet although some minor fatty acids were also influenced by group. Fish fed VO had n-3 LC-PUFA reduced by ~65% compared to fish fed FO but this could be restored by a 16 week FO finishing diet phase. The differences observed in lipid and fatty acid deposition suggested that genetics affected lipid deposition and metabolism and that breeding programmes could select for fish that retained more n-3 LC-PUFA in their flesh, particularly when fed diets low in these fatty acids

Determination of quantitative trait loci (QTL) for early maturation in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)

To identify quantitative trait loci (QTL) influencing early maturation (EM) in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), a genome scan was performed using 100 microsatellite loci across 29 linkage groups. Six inter-strain paternal half-sib families using three inter-strain F(1) brothers (approximately 50 progeny in each family) derived from two strains that differ in the propensity for EM were used in the study. Alleles derived from both parental sources were observed to contribute to the expression of EM in the progeny of the brothers. Four genome-wide significant QTL regions (i.e., RT-8, -17, -24, and -30) were observed. EM QTL detected on RT-8 and -24 demonstrated significant and suggestive QTL effects in both male and female progeny. Furthermore, within both male and female full-sib groupings, QTL on RT-8 and -24 were detected in two or more of the five parents used. Significant genome-wide and several strong chromosome-wide QTL for EM localized to different regions in males and females, suggesting some sex-specific control. Namely, QTL detected on RT-13, -15, -21, and -30 were associated with EM only in females, and those on RT-3, -17, and -19 were associated with EM only in males. Within the QTL regions identified, a comparison of syntenic EST markers from the rainbow trout linkage map with the zebrafish (Danio rerio) genome identified several putative candidate genes that may influence EM. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10126-008-9098-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users