Toward a typology for social-ecological systems

Characterizing and understanding social-ecological systems (SESs) is increasingly necessary to answer questions about the development of sustainable human settlements. To date, much of the literature on SES analysis has focused on "neat" systems involving a single type of resource, a group of users, and a governance system. While these studies provide valuable and specific insights, they are of limited use for application to "messy" SESs that encompass the totality of human settlements, including social organization and technologies that result in the movement of materials, energy, water, and people. These considerations, in turn, create distribution systems that lead to different types of SESs. In messy SESs the concept of resilience, or the ability of a system to withstand perturbation while maintaining function, is further evolved to posit that different settlements will require different approaches to foster resilience. This article introduces a typology for refining SESs to improve short- and long-term adaptive strategies in developing human settlements

Enacting boundaries or building bridges? Language and engagement in food-energy-water systems science

Scientific study of issues at the nexus of food–energy–water systems (FEWS) requires grappling with multifaceted, “wicked” problems. FEWS involve interactions occurring directly and indirectly across complex and overlapping spatial and temporal scales; they are also imbued with diverse and sometimes conflicting meanings for the human and more-than-human beings that live within them. In this paper, we consider the role of language in the dynamics of boundary work, recognizing that the language often used in stakeholder and community engagement intended to address FEWS science and decision-making constructs boundaries and limits diverse and inclusive participation. In contrast, some language systems provide opportunities to build bridges rather than boundaries in engagement. Based on our experiences with engagement in FEWS science and with Indigenous knowledges and languages, we consider examples of the role of language in reflecting worldviews, values, practices, and interactions in FEWS science and engagement. We particularly focus on Indigenous knowledges from Anishinaabe and the language of Anishinaabemowin, contrasting languages of boundaries and bridges through concrete examples. These examples are used to unpack the argument of this work, which is that scientific research aiming to engage FEWS issues in working landscapes requires grappling with embedded, practical understandings. This perspective demonstrates the importance of grappling with the role of language in creating boundaries or bridges, while recognizing that training in engagement may not critically reflect on the role of language in limiting diversity and inclusivity in engagement efforts. Leaving this reflexive consideration of language unexamined may unknowingly perpetuate boundaries rather than building bridges, thus limiting the effectiveness of engagement that is intended to address wicked problems in working landscapes

A haploid pseudo-chromosome genome assembly for a keystone sagebrush species of western North American rangelands

Increased ecological disturbances, species invasions, and climate change are creating severe conservation problems for several plant species that are widespread and foundational. Understanding the genetic diversity of these species and how it relates to adaptation to these stressors are necessary for guiding conservation and restoration efforts. This need is particularly acute for big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata; Asteraceae), which was once the dominant shrub over 1,000,000 km2 in western North America but has since retracted by half and thus has become the target of one of the largest restoration seeding efforts globally. Here, we present the first reference-quality genome assembly for an ecologically important subspecies of big sagebrush (A. tridentata subsp. tridentata) based on short and long reads, as well as chromatin proximity ligation data analyzed using the HiRise pipeline. The final 4.2-Gb assembly consists of 5,492 scaffolds, with nine pseudo-chromosomal scaffolds (nine scaffolds comprising at least 90% of the assembled genome; n = 9). The assembly contains an estimated 43,377 genes based on ab initio gene discovery and transcriptional data analyzed using the MAKER pipeline, with 91.37% of BUSCOs being completely assembled. The final assembly was highly repetitive, with repeat elements comprising 77.99% of the genome, making the Artemisia tridentata subsp. tridentata genome one of the most highly repetitive plant genomes to be sequenced and assembled. This genome assembly advances studies on plant adaptation to drought and heat stress and provides a valuable tool for future genomic research.This research was made possible by 2 NSF Idaho EPSCoR grants (award numbers OIA-1757324 and OIA-1826801), as well as a Dovetail Genomics Tree of Life Award.Introduction Materials and methods Sample collection, in vitro tissue propagation, and biomass production Flow cytometry and genome complexity analysis PacBio and Omni-C sequence data generation PacBio long-read de novo assembly and validation Pseudomolecule construction with HiRise Genome annotation RNA sequencing Repeat identification Functional annotation Results and discussion Validation of genome assembly and annotation Genome complexity and evidence of past polyploidization Comparing the A. tridentata and A. annua genome assemblies Applications of the sagebrush reference genome Data availability Acknowledgments Literature cite

PdeltaI data for Southcentral and Southeast Alaska

Compiled data for perceptions of environmental change (social dataset) and instrumented measures of biophysical change (biophysical dataset) for southcentral and southeast Alaska

A Typology for Complex Social-Ecological Systems in Mountain Communities

The efficient assessment of social-ecological systems is crucial for supporting increased resilience of human communities. One challenge for researchers and managers is that few frameworks exist to assess social-ecological resilience and vulnerability for different landscapes. Mountain landscapes offer management challenges because of their valuable ecosystem services, varying biophysical characteristics, steep gradients, and the socioeconomics of human communities that are distributed across watersheds. Despite this, many mountain communities and regions lack effective management plans to enable adaptive responses to changing socioeconomic and environmental conditions. Assessing the vulnerability and resilience of mountain communities in a standardized manner is an important step in developing adaptation strategies. To help fill this gap, we investigated the utility of a conceptual social-ecological systems typology by assessing 21 mountain communities in the western United States. Our results show that larger cities or urban areas are generally more resilient than smaller communities, but the difference does not seem to be significant. Where there are resilience differences they are often found between communities of different population sizes. However, no community in the Western United States is seen as highly vulnerable to social-ecological change. More broadly, development of such standardized social-ecological systems typologies that are region-specific can be applied towards accommodating other unique environmental niches, while allowing for cross comparisons between regions on a broader continental scale

Osteoclast-like cells in soft tissue leiomyosarcomas.

Giant cell-rich leiomyosarcoma of soft tissues is an unusual variant of malignant smooth muscle tumor characterized by the presence of numerous multinucleated giant cells (MNGCs). The nature of MNGCs and the cellular mechanisms underlying their accumulation in this tumor are poorly understood. Analysis of the expression of osteoclast, macrophage, and smooth muscle markers in two cases of giant cell-rich leiomyosarcoma revealed that the MNGCs in giant cell-rich leiomyosarcoma were negative for smooth muscle markers and that these cells expressed an osteoclast-like phenotype, being positive for CD45, CD68, tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase, and CD51 but negative for CD14 and HLA-DR. Scattered tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) also expressed this phenotype. Leiomyosarcoma tumor cells strongly reacted for CD51 but were negative for CD14, CD45, and CD68. An analysis of 25 conventional (nongiant cell-containing) leiomyosarcomas found isolated CD68(+) MNGCs in three cases (12%), all of which were grade II/III leiomyosarcomas containing a prominent TAM infiltrate. Leiomyosarcoma-derived TAMs in the presence of receptor activator for nuclear factor kappa B ligand (RANKL) and macrophage colony-stimulating factor were capable of differentiating into osteoclast-like cells capable of resorbing bone. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction studies showed that RANKL, osteoprotegerin, and TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand were expressed by leiomyosarcoma cells. Our findings indicate that the giant cells found in leiomyosarcomas are osteoclast-like and that they are formed from TAMs by a RANKL-dependent mechanism

Simulating Water, Individuals, and Management using a coupled and distributed approach

Water is a key issue in sustainable urban development. SWIM (Simulating Water, Individuals and Management) is an agent-based model of water supply, management structure, and residential water consumer perception and behavior. Initial work applied data mining on newspaper articles to map networks of water management institutions and structures. SWIM extends this by linking an agent-based model of residential water consumption connected via networks of water managers to a global-scale hydrological model. In our case study, we focus on Tucson, Arizona, where management and social behaviors are well documented. Census data are used to create synthetic populations of consumers endowed with price sensitivity and behaviors impacting water use. Social networks, including those based on geographic proximity, allow water use behaviors to spread to others. We examine possible factors leading to recent attested declines in per-capita water use, leveraging ensemble runs on high-performance computing resources using the Swift parallel scripting language to strategically explore complex parameter spaces