Indoor Sport Facility Feasibility Study: Assessment, Value and Demand

A sport management organization proposed to build an indoor sport facility in a town close to a major urban area. The potential investors and stakeholders required that a feasibility study be conducted before an investment decision was made. The study examined the proposed facility through a traditional economic feasibility study and a market analysis to understand the market, possible future market demands, and potential growth opportunities. Included in the study are the key components and data analysis which led to a positive investment report

Data for: Temperature and intraspecific variation affect host-parasite interactions

Parasites play key roles in regulating aquatic ecosystems, yet the impact of climate warming on their ecology and disease transmission remains poorly understood. Isolating the effect of warming is challenging as transmission involves multiple interacting species and potential intraspecific variation in temperature responses of one or more of these species. Here, we leverage a wide-ranging mosquito species and its facultative parasite as a model system to investigate the impact of temperature on host-parasite interactions and disease transmission. We conducted a common garden experiment measuring parasite growth and infection rates at seven temperatures using 12 field-collected parasite populations and a single mosquito population. We find that both free-living growth rates and infection rates varied with temperature, which were highest at 18-24.5°C and 13°C, respectively. Further, we find intraspecific variation in peak performance temperature reflecting patterns of local thermal adaptation—parasite populations from warmer source environments typically had higher thermal optima for free-living growth rates. For infection rates, we found a significant interaction between parasite population and nonlinear effects of temperature. These findings underscore the need to consider both host and parasite thermal responses, as well as intraspecific variation in thermal responses, when predicting the impacts of climate change on disease in aquatic ecosystems.Funding provided by: National Science FoundationCrossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100000001Award Number: DEB-2011147Funding provided by: National Institutes of HealthCrossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100000002Award Number: R35GM133439Funding provided by: Stanford King Center on Global Development*Crossref Funder Registry ID: Award Number: Funding provided by: Stanford Woods Institute for the EnvironmentCrossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100010869Award Number: Funding provided by: Stanford University Center for Innovation in Global HealthCrossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100014496Award Number: Funding provided by: Terman Award*Crossref Funder Registry ID: Award Number: Funding provided by: Rose Hills FoundationCrossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100015591Award Number: Funding provided by: Bing-Mooney Fellowship*Crossref Funder Registry ID: Award Number: Funding provided by: National Science FoundationCrossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100000001Award Number: 2208947Funding provided by: National Institutes of HealthCrossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100000002Award Number: R01AI168097Funding provided by: National Institutes of HealthCrossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100000002Award Number: R01AI10291

Data for: Temperature and intraspecific variation affect host-parasite interactions

Parasites play key roles in regulating aquatic ecosystems, yet the impact of climate warming on their ecology and disease transmission remains poorly understood. Isolating the effect of warming is challenging as transmission involves multiple interacting species and potential intraspecific variation in temperature responses of one or more of these species. Here, we leverage a wide-ranging mosquito species and its facultative parasite as a model system to investigate the impact of temperature on host-parasite interactions and disease transmission. We conducted a common garden experiment measuring parasite growth and infection rates at seven temperatures using 12 field-collected parasite populations and a single mosquito population. We find that both free-living growth rates and infection rates varied with temperature, which were highest at 18-24.5°C and 13°C, respectively. Further, we find intraspecific variation in peak performance temperature reflecting patterns of local thermal adaptation—parasite populations from warmer source environments typically had higher thermal optima for free-living growth rates. For infection rates, we found a significant interaction between parasite population and nonlinear effects of temperature. These findings underscore the need to consider both host and parasite thermal responses, as well as intraspecific variation in thermal responses, when predicting the impacts of climate change on disease in aquatic ecosystems.Funding provided by: National Science FoundationCrossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100000001Award Number: DEB-2011147Funding provided by: National Institutes of HealthCrossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100000002Award Number: R35GM133439Funding provided by: Stanford King Center on Global Development*Crossref Funder Registry ID: Award Number: Funding provided by: Stanford Woods Institute for the EnvironmentCrossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100010869Award Number: Funding provided by: Stanford University Center for Innovation in Global HealthCrossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100014496Award Number: Funding provided by: Terman Award*Crossref Funder Registry ID: Award Number: Funding provided by: Rose Hills FoundationCrossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100015591Award Number: Funding provided by: Bing-Mooney Fellowship*Crossref Funder Registry ID: Award Number: Funding provided by: National Science FoundationCrossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100000001Award Number: 2208947Funding provided by: National Institutes of HealthCrossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100000002Award Number: R01AI168097Funding provided by: National Institutes of HealthCrossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100000002Award Number: R01AI10291

Models and experiments of ecological and evolutionary dynamics

The building evidence that evolution can be extremely rapid leads us to consider the convergence of ecological and evolutionary timescales. The convergence of timescales implies that evolution has the potential to significantly affect ecological processes and vice versa. The models and experiments presented here fall under this shared framework of eco-evolutionary feedbacks. Chapter 1 uses a general model to consider one way in which evolution affects ecology. It asks the question how rapid evolution affects short-term population dynamics and extinction risk in a population facing extreme climate events. We found that evolution can increase extinction risk if the extreme event is short-lived. Chapters 2 and 3 consider the other direction: how ecological contexts drive evolutionary change. In a controlled laboratory experiment using the common freshwater zooplankton Daphnia, we explored two selective mechanisms through which predators can cause prey life-history evolution. We found that both density-dependent selection and size selection are important drivers of life-history evolution. Then, in an outdoor experiment, we explored to what extent rapid evolution in Daphnia is predictable in a natural environment. We found consistent changes across replicate populations that are potentially driven by the ability of different clones to utilize resources. Finally, Chapter 4 documents a purely ecological feedback. In a lab experiment, we exposed multiple naturally diverse communities of phytoplankton to zooplankton grazing and showed that the composition of primary producers was altered as a result of the changes they imposed on the composition and feeding behavior of consumers

Rastverksamhet : En studie om rastverksamhet och konflikter

Bakgrund I bakgrunden förklaras mina anledningar till varför just detta ämne är valt. Mina erfarenheter har givit mig insikten att det arbetas för lite med fysiska aktiviteter under rasterna genom organiserad och lärarledd rastverksamhet. Förklaringarna varför har varit varierande, antingen har det berott på för lite personal ute på rasterna samtidigt eller varierande arbetsuppgifter för fritidspedagogerna, exempelvis undervisning i ett skolämne eller att vara ute på skolgården och se till barnens trygghet. Vidare i bakgrunden förklaras att fritidshemmets verksamhet bland annat ska utgå ifrån barnens intressen och behov. Syfte Det övergripande syftet är att belysa fritidspedagogers upplevelser och erfarenheter av organiserad rastverksamhet och fri lek i utemiljö. Metod I studien används intervjuer med hjälp av en diktafon. Urvalet gjordes på en skola i västra Sverige med sex fritidspedagoger. Alla intervjuade arbetade på samma skola, men på olika avdelningar. Resultat I resultatet framkommer fritidspedagogernas olika arbetssätt med en planerad och organiserad rastverksamhet samt hur de arbetar för att minska konflikter mellan barnen. Resultatet visar även hur fritidspedagogerna förebygger och minimerar antalet konflikter med stöd av organiserade rastaktiviteter

Data for: Differential genotype response to increased resource abundance helps explain parallel evolution of Daphnia populations in the wild

Under controlled laboratory conditions, previous studies have shown that selection can produce repeatable evolutionary trajectories. Yet, the question remains for many of these studies if, given identical starting populations, evolution in the wild proceeds in a non-random direction. In the present study, we investigated the extent to which rapid evolution in the wild is parallel by monitoring the genetic composition of replicate populations of Daphnia in field mesocosms containing two clonal genotypes. We found parallel changes across all nine mesocosms, in which the same genotype increased in frequency. To probe whether genotype-specific response to resource abundance could have led to this frequency change, we conducted a life-history assay under high resource abundance and low resource abundance. We found that resource exploitation differed by genotype, in that, while one genotype (the winner in the field mesocosms) was more fit than the other genotype at high resources, the other genotype performed slightly better at low resources. We suspect that levels of resource abundance found in the summer field mesocosms had values in which the genotype better with abundant resources had the advantage. These findings suggest that variation in certain traits associated with resource acquisition can drive genotype frequency change.Funding provided by: Mildred E. Matthias Grant *Crossref Funder Registry ID: Award Number: Funding provided by: University of California Davis Center for Population Biology*Crossref Funder Registry ID: Award Number

Intraspecific diversity poorly predicts invasibility and invasiveness: A meta-analysis of experimental invasions

Identifying the biotic factors underlying invasion success is critical to understand the dynamics of biological invasions; and while some studies suggest that intraspecific diversity may play an important role, there has not been a systematic evaluation of the evidence. We performed a meta-analysis on 34 experimental studies and 106 effect sizes to test two hypotheses: (1) higher intraspecific diversity in a resident population decreases the likelihood of it being successfully invaded by other species, and (2) higher intraspecific diversity in an invading population increases its ability to invade another species or community. We found small effects in the direction of our hypotheses, but these were not significant and were influenced by taxon and study duration. The lack of significant findings are somewhat unexpected, given the well-understood mechanisms analogous to those offered for interspecific diversity. These include sampling effects and complementarity, in which diversity is expected to maximize resource use and increase density, thereby reducing niche availability and subsequent invasibility. Additionally, we found evidence of publication bias for studies of invader intraspecific diversity. We recommend that future research focus on a wider diversity of organisms, include longer term experiments, and measure genetic dissimilarity to better understand the role of intraspecific diversity.Funding provided by: National Science FoundationCrossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100000001Award Number: 2208947Funding provided by: National Institutes of HealthCrossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100000002Award Number: R35GM13343