Improving coastal livelihoods through sustainable aquaculture practices - a report to the collaborative APEC Grouper Research and Development Network

Wild-harvest fisheries for live reef fish are largely over-exploited or unsustainable because of over-fishing and the widespread use of destructive fishing practices such as blast and cyanide fishing. Sustainable aquaculture – such as that of groupers – is one option for meeting the strong demand for reef fish, as well as potentially maintaining or improving the livelihoods of coastal communities. This report from a short study by the STREAM Initiative draws on secondary literature, media sources and four diverse case studies from at-risk reef fisheries, to frame a strategy for encouraging sustainable aquaculture as an alternative to destructive fishing practices. It was undertaken as a component of the APEC-funded project Collaborative Grouper Research and Development Network (FWG/01/2001) to better understand how recent technical advances in grouper culture and other complementary work – including that of the Asia-Pacific Marine Finfish Aquaculture Network (APMFAN) hosted by NACA – could better support the livelihoods of poor coastal communities. (PDF contains 49 pages

Infection of the brown alga Ectocarpus siliculosus by the oomycete Eurychasma dicksonii induces oxidative stress and halogen metabolism

Acknowledgments We would like to thank the Aberdeen Proteome Facility, especially Phil Cash, David Stead and Evelyn Argo for assistance with 2D electrophoresis and mass spectrometry. M.S. gratefully acknowledges a Marie Curie PhD fellowship from the European Commission (ECOSUMMER, MEST-CT-2005-20501), a joint FEMS/ESCMID Research Fellowship and the Genomia Fund. C.M.M.G. is supported by a Marie Curie postdoctoral fellowship (MEIF-CT-2006-022837), a Marie Curie Re-Integration Grant (PERG03-GA-2008-230865) and a New Investigator grant from the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC, grant NE/J00460X/1). F.C.K. would like to thank NERC for funding (grants NE/D521522/1, NE/F012705/1 and Oceans 2025 / WP 4.5). L.J.G.-B., C.M.M.G., F.C.K. and P.W. would like to acknowledge funding from NERC for a Strategic Ocean Funding Initiative award (NE/F012578/1). Funding from the MASTS pooling initiative (Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland, funded by the Scottish Funding Council and contributing institutions; grant reference HR09011) and from the TOTAL Foundation (Paris) to F.C.K. is gratefully acknowledged. Finally, we would like to thank the two anonymous referees for constructive suggestions to improve our manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

The diastereoselective Meth-Cohn epoxidation of camphor-derived vinyl sulfones

Some camphor-derived vinyl sulfones bearing oxygen functionality at the allylic position have been synthesized and their nucleophilic epoxidation reactions under Meth-Cohn conditions have been explored. The γ-oxygenated camphor-derived vinyl sulfones underwent mildly diastereoselective nucleophilic epoxidation reactions, affording the derived sulfonyloxiranes in up to 5.8:1 dr. The observed diastereoselectivities were sensitive to the reaction conditions employed. In contrast, no stereoselectivity was observed in the nucleophilic epoxidation of the corresponding γ-oxygenated isobornyl vinyl sulfone. A tentative mechanism has been proposed to explain the origins of the diastereoselectivit

Spatial Epidemiology: Current Approaches and Future Challenges

Spatial epidemiology is the description and analysis of geographic variations in disease with respect to demographic, environmental, behavioral, socioeconomic, genetic, and infectious risk factors. We focus on small-area analyses, encompassing disease mapping, geographic correlation studies, disease clusters, and clustering. Advances in geographic information systems, statistical methodology, and availability of high-resolution, geographically referenced health and environmental quality data have created unprecedented new opportunities to investigate environmental and other factors in explaining local geographic variations in disease. They also present new challenges. Problems include the large random component that may predominate disease rates across small areas. Though this can be dealt with appropriately using Bayesian statistics to provide smooth estimates of disease risks, sensitivity to detect areas at high risk is limited when expected numbers of cases are small. Potential biases and confounding, particularly due to socioeconomic factors, and a detailed understanding of data quality are important. Data errors can result in large apparent disease excess in a locality. Disease cluster reports often arise nonsystematically because of media, physician, or public concern. One ready means of investigating such concerns is the replication of analyses in different areas based on routine data, as is done in the United Kingdom through the Small Area Health Statistics Unit (and increasingly in other European countries, e.g., through the European Health and Environment Information System collaboration). In the future, developments in exposure modeling and mapping, enhanced study designs, and new methods of surveillance of large health databases promise to improve our ability to understand the complex relationships of environment to health

Wandering behaviour prevents inter and intra oceanic speciation in a coastal pelagic fish

Small pelagic fishes have the ability to disperse over long distances and may present complex evolutionary histories. Here, Old World Anchovies (OWA) were used as a model system to understand genetic patterns and connectivity of fish between the Atlantic and Pacific basins. We surveyed 16 locations worldwide using mtDNA and 8 microsatellite loci for genetic parameters, and mtDNA (cyt b; 16S) and nuclear (RAG1; RAG2) regions for dating major lineage-splitting events within Engraulidae family. The OWA genetic divergences (0-0.4%) are compatible with intra-specific divergence, showing evidence of both ancient and contemporary admixture between the Pacific and Atlantic populations, enhanced by high asymmetrical migration from the Pacific to the Atlantic. The estimated divergence between Atlantic and Pacific anchovies (0.67 [0.53-0.80] Ma) matches a severe drop of sea temperature during the Gunz glacial stage of the Pleistocene. Our results support an alternative evolutionary scenario for the OWA, suggesting a coastal migration along south Asia, Middle East and eastern Africa continental platforms, followed by the colonization of the Atlantic via the Cape of the Good Hope.Portuguese Foundation for Science & Technology (FCT) [SFRH/BD/36600/2007]; FCT [UID/MAR/04292/2013, SFRH/BPD/65830/2009]; FCT strategic plan [UID/Multi/04326/2013]info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio