Recruitment Strategies and Lessons Learned from the Children's Healthy Living Program Prevalence Survey

The US Affiliated Pacific region's childhood obesity prevalence has reached epidemic proportions. To guide program and policy development, a multi-site study was initiated, in collaboration with partners from across the region, to gather comprehensive information on the regional childhood obesity prevalence. The environmental and cultural diversity of the region presented challenges to recruiting for and implementing a shared community-based, public health research program. This paper presents the strategies used to recruit families with young children (n = 5775 for children 2 - 8 years old) for obesity-related measurement across eleven jurisdictions in the US Affiliated Pacific Region. Data were generated by site teams that provided summaries of their recruitment strategies and lessons learned. Conducting this large multi-site prevalence study required considerable coordination, time and flexibility. In every location, local staff knowledgeable of the community was hired to lead recruitment, and participant compensation reflected jurisdictional appropriateness (e.g., gift cards, vouchers, or cash). Although recruitment approaches were site-specific, they were predominantly school-based or a combination of school- and community-based. Lessons learned included the importance of organization buy-in; communication, and advance planning; local travel and site peculiarities; and flexibility. Future monitoring of childhood obesity prevalence in the region should consider ways to integrate measurement activities into existing organizational infrastructures for sustainability and cost-effectiveness, while meeting programmatic (e.g. study) goals

Evaluating Rockfish Conservation Areas in Southern British Columbia, Canada using a Random Forest Model of Rocky Reef Habitat

We developed a rockfish habitat model to evaluate a network of Rockfish Conservation Areas (RCAs) implemented by Fisheries and Oceans Canada to reverse population declines of inshore Pacific rockfishes (Sebastes spp.). We modeled rocky reef habitat in all nearshore waters of southern British Columbia (BC) using a supervised classification of variables derived from a bathymetry model with 20 m^2 resolution. We compared the results from models at intermediate (20 m^2) and fine (5 m^2) resolutions in five test areas where acoustic multibeam echosounder and backscatter data were available. The inclusion of backscatter variables did not substantially improve model accuracy. The intermediate-resolution model performed well with an accuracy of 75%, except in very steep habitats such as coastal inlets; it was used to estimate the total habitat area and the percent of rocky habitat in 144 RCAs in southern BC. We also compared the amount of habitat estimated by our 20 m^2 model to the 100 m^2 management model used to designate the RCAs and found that a slightly lower proportion of habitat (18% vs 20%) but a considerably smaller area (400 km^2 vs 1370 km^2) is protected in the RCAs, likely as a result of the poor resolution of the original model. Empirically derived maps of important habitats, such as rocky reefs, are necessary to support effective marine spatial planning and to design and evaluate the efficacy of management and conservation actions

Predicting important rockfish (Sebastes spp.) habitat from large-scale longline surveys for southern British Columbia, Canada

Rockfish, particularly Yelloweye, and Quillback, are vulnerable to overfishing because they mature late and have affinity for shallow water (50-200m) habitats. Because studies relating habitat characteristics with the distribution and presence of rockfishes at large scales (100kms) remain scarce, we sought to investigate the relationships between benthic characteristics with the presence-absence and abundance of rockfishes caught in longline surveys in nearshore waters of southern British Columbia. Habitat parameters were calculated from a 20m resolution bathymetry layer. Yelloweye and Quillback were examined separately and combined with 19 other rockfish species in a species aggregate (total rockfish); occurrence data were fitted with generalized linear mixed effects models and abundance data were fitted with zero-inflated mixed effects models. The relationship between rockfish abundance with presence/absence and slope, distance to rocky habitat, and fine bathymetric position index (FBPI), suggests that these species prefer rocky, steep habitat. While underwater visual observation data offer measures of visual fish habitat and abundance, longline surveys may be a more cost-effective method for large-scale studies.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author

Subtle Population Genetic Structure in Yelloweye Rockfish (<i>Sebastes ruberrimus</i>) Is Consistent with a Major Oceanographic Division in British Columbia, Canada

<div><p>The boundaries between oceanographic domains often function as dispersal barriers for many temperate marine species with a dispersive pelagic larval phase. Yelloweye rockfish (<i>Sebastes ruberrimus</i>, YR) are widely distributed across the northeastern Pacific Ocean, inhabiting coastal rocky reefs from the Aleutian Islands in Alaska through southern California. This species exhibits an extended pelagic larval duration and has the capacity for long distance larval transport. We assayed 2,862 YR individuals from 13 general areas in the northeast Pacific Ocean for allelic variation at nine microsatellite loci. Bayesian model-based clustering analyses grouped individuals from the Strait of Georgia (SG) into a distinct genetic cluster, while individuals from outer coastal water locations (OCLs) were partitioned equally across two genetic clusters, including the cluster associated with the SG fish. Pairwise F_ST values were consistently an order of magnitude higher for comparisons between the SG and OCLs than they were for all OCL-OCL comparisons (∼0.016 vs. ∼0.001). This same pattern was observed across two time points when individuals were binned into an “old” and “young” group according to birth year (old: ∼0.020 vs. 0.0003; young: ∼0.020 vs. ∼0.004). Additionally, mean allelic richness was markedly lower within the SG compared to the OCLs (8.00 vs. 10.54–11.77). These results indicate that the Strait of Georgia “deep-basin” estuary oceanographic domain acts as a dispersal barrier from the outer coastal waters via the Juan de Fuca Strait. Alternatively, selection against maladapted dispersers across this oceanographic transition may underlie the observed genetic differentiation between the Georgia basin and the outer coastal waters, and further work is needed to confirm the SG-OCL divide acts as a barrier to larval dispersal.</p></div

Pairwise F_ST values.

<p>Pairwise F_ST values for all sample locations are shown. Values in <b>bold</b> type are significant after correcting for multiple comparisons using the Bonferroni correction (adjusted critical value: 0.000641). All pairwise comparisons with the Strait of Georgia (SG) sample location are significant, and amongst the outer coast location comparisons, only the Barber Point (BP) – Tasu (TA) pairwise comparison is significant.</p

Isolation-by-distance analysis.

<p>The relationship between genetic distance (F_ST/1-F_ST) and geographic distance is shown for all pairwise locations, excluding the Strait of Georgia and Bowie Seamount sample locations. No significant correlation was detected with a Mantel test (P>0.25).</p

Map of sampling locations in Northeast Pacific Ocean.

<p>Sampling locations and location codes of yelloweye rockfish (<i>Sebastes ruberrimus</i>), assayed at nine microsatellite loci.</p

STRUCTURE analysis.

<p>STRUCTURE outputs for the admixture model without a location prior (<i>a</i>) and the admixture model with the location prior (<i>b</i>). The genome of each individual fish is represented by a thin vertical line as assayed by nine microsatellite markers, where each shade of grey represents a unique genetic cluster, and the proportion of each genetic cluster that contributes to an individual's genome is illustrated by the relative amount of each shade within each vertical line. Under the admixture model without a location prior, all individuals exhibit roughly equal admixture between the two genetic clusters (q is approximately 0.5). Under the admixture model with a location prior, however, the Strait of Georgia individuals exhibit a q-value close to 1.0, while the outer coast location individuals still exhibit equal admixture of both clusters.</p

Sample location specific descriptive statistics.

<p>Sample size (N), mean allelic richness (A_R), observed heterozygosity (H_O), expected heterozygosity (H_E), coefficient of inbreeding (F_IS) and associated P-values are shown for each sample location. P-values in <b>bold</b> denote significant heterozygote deficiencies at the 5% level after correcting for multiple comparisons (critical value: 0.00043).</p