Direct and indirect competitive effects of foliage feeding guilds on the performance of the birch leaf minor Eriocrania

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Citizen science unoccupied aerial vehicles: A technique for advancing coastal data acquisition for management and research

Coasts are highly dynamic systems. Understanding how they respond to individual storms events and to future climate change is difficult as local boundary conditions determines their evolutionary trajectory. A lack of field data at this local scale therefore limits the ability of managers and researchers to apply existing modelling frameworks to their region of interest to ensure preservation of the natural environment. Data acquisition through low-cost Unoccupied Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) has become a viable means for obtaining high-resolution surveys (cm-scale) on the coast for whole sediment compartments (km-scale). A continued limitation however is the intensive labour costs involved in data acquisition. Here we show the power of Citizen Science in providing high quality, cost-effective data collection, when provided with adequate training and resources along a high-energy, temperate coast in Victoria, Australia. This was conducted through the Victorian Coastal Monitoring Program (VCMP), formed in 2018 as a collaboration between Australian universities and the Victorian State Government. As of 2022, this program covered 28 sites, with over 450 individual surveys taken at 6–8 week intervals. The VCMP has guided and driven significant management actions on the coast from realignment of coastal walking paths for public safety to measuring sand renourishment success. In this paper we (i) present the Citizen Science UAV program methodology, as an example that can be replicated in other jurisdictions, and (ii) illustrate, through a case-study of a sandy beach and rocky cliff, the benefits and precision achievable using our Citizen Science approach. We outline how outputs can be made widely available and applied to coastal management, with the aid of data portals and decision support systems. This data accessibility has been central to our community engagement, enabling citizen scientists to conduct their own bespoke analysis for co-creation of management solutions for their local area. It was also found to be key for facilitating continued community engagement during one of the world's longest lockdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic, impacting the program for almost two years

Supplemental parenteral nutrition in critically ill patients: A study protocol for a phase II randomised controlled trial

Background: Nutrition is one of the fundamentals of care provided to critically ill adults. The volume of enteral nutrition received, however, is often much less than prescribed due to multiple functional and process issues. To deliver the prescribed volume and correct the energy deficit associated with enteral nutrition alone, parenteral nutrition can be used in combination (termed "supplemental parenteral nutrition"), but benefits of this method have not been firmly established. A multi-centre, randomised, clinical trial is currently underway to determine if prescribed energy requirements can be provided to critically ill patients by using a supplemental parenteral nutrition strategy in the critically ill. Methods/design: This prospective, multi-centre, randomised, stratified, parallel-group, controlled, phase II trial aims to determine whether a supplemental parenteral nutrition strategy will reliably and safely increase energy intake when compared to usual care. The study will be conducted for 100 critically ill adults with at least one organ system failure and evidence of insufficient enteral intake from six intensive care units in Australia and New Zealand. Enrolled patients will be allocated to either a supplemental parenteral nutrition strategy for 7 days post randomisation or to usual care with enteral nutrition. The primary outcome will be the average energy amount delivered from nutrition therapy over the first 7 days of the study period. Secondary outcomes include protein delivery for 7 days post randomisation; total energy and protein delivery, antibiotic use and organ failure rates (up to 28 days); duration of ventilation, length of intensive care unit and hospital stay. At both intensive care unit and hospital discharge strength and health-related quality of life assessments will be undertaken. Study participants will be followed up for health-related quality of life, resource utilisation and survival at 90 and 180 days post randomisation (unless death occurs first). Discussion: This trial aims to determine if provision of a supplemental parenteral nutrition strategy to critically ill adults will increase energy intake compared to usual care in Australia and New Zealand. Trial outcomes will guide development of a subsequent larger randomised controlled trial. Trial registration:NCT01847534(First registered 5 February 2013, last updated 14 October 2015

Seascape ecology: Identifying research priorities for an emerging ocean sustainability science

Seascape ecology, the marine-centric counterpart to landscape ecology, is rapidly emerging as an interdisciplinary and spatially explicit eco logical science with relevance to marine management, biodiversity conservation, and restoration. While important progress in this field has been made in the past de -cade, there has been no coherent prioritisation of key research questions to help set the future research agenda for seascape ecology. We used a 2-stage modified Delphi method to solicit applied research questions from academic experts in seascape ecology and then asked respondents to identify priority questions across 9 interrelated research themes using 2 rounds of selection. We also invited senior management/conservation practitioners to prioritise the same research questions. Analyses highlighted congruence and discrepancies in perceived priorities for applied research. Themes related to both ecological concepts and management practice, and those identified as priorities include seascape change, seascape connectivity, spatial and temporal scale, ecosystem-based management, and emerging technologies and metrics. Highestpriority questions (upper tercile) received 50% agreement between respondent groups, and lowest priorities (lower tercile) received 58% agreement. Across all 3 priority tiers, 36 of the 55 questions were within a ±10% band of agreement. We present the most important applied research questions as determined by the proportion of votes received. For each theme, we provide a synthesis of the research challenges and the potential role of seascape ecology. These priority questions and themes serve as a roadmap for advancing applied seascape ecology during, and beyond, the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021−2030)