Adaptive capacity beyond the household: a systematic review of empirical social-ecological research

The concept of adaptive capacity has received significant attention within social-ecological and environmental change research. Within both the resilience and vulnerability literatures specifically, adaptive capacity has emerged as a fundamental concept for assessing the ability of social-ecological systems to adapt to environmental change. Although methods and indicators used to evaluate adaptive capacity are broad, the focus of existing scholarship has predominately been at the individual- and household- levels. However, the capacities necessary for humans to adapt to global environmental change are often a function of individual and societal characteristics, as well as cumulative and emergent capacities across communities and jurisdictions. In this paper, we apply a systematic literature review and co-citation analysis to investigate empirical research on adaptive capacity that focus on societal levels beyond the household. Our review demonstrates that assessments of adaptive capacity at higher societal levels are increasing in frequency, yet vary widely in approach, framing, and results; analyses focus on adaptive capacity at many different levels (e.g. community, municipality, global region), geographic locations, and cover multiple types of disturbances and their impacts across sectors. We also found that there are considerable challenges with regard to the ‘fit’ between data collected and analytical methods used in adequately capturing the cross-scale and cross-level determinants of adaptive capacity. Current approaches to assessing adaptive capacity at societal levels beyond the household tend to simply aggregate individual- or household-level data, which we argue oversimplifies and ignores the inherent interactions within and across societal levels of decision-making that shape the capacity of humans to adapt to environmental change across multiple scales. In order for future adaptive capacity research to be more practice-oriented and effectively guide policy, there is a need to develop indicators and assessments that are matched with the levels of potential policy applications

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Data from: Species and population diversity in Pacific salmon fisheries underpin indigenous food security

Indigenous people are considered to be among the most vulnerable to food insecurity and biodiversity loss. Biodiversity is cited as a key component of indigenous food security; however, quantitative examples of this linkage are limited. We examined how species and population diversity influence the food security of indigenous fisheries for Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus species). We compared two dimensions of food security – catch stability (interannual variability) and access (season length) – across a salmon diversity gradient for 21 fisheries on the Fraser River, Canada, over 30 years, using linear regression models. We used population diversity proxies derived from a range of existing measures because population-specific data were unavailable. While both population and species diversity were generally associated with higher catch stability and temporal access, population diversity had a stronger signal. Fisheries with access to high species diversity had up to 1·4 times more stable catch than predicted by the portfolio effect and up to 1·2 times longer fishing seasons than fisheries with access to fewer species. Fisheries with access to high population diversity had up to 3·8 times more stable catch and three times longer seasons than fisheries with access to fewer populations. Catch stability of Chinook Oncorhynchus tshawytscha and sockeye Oncorhynchus nerka fisheries was best explained by the number of populations and conservation units, respectively, that migrate past a fishery en route to spawning grounds. Similar population diversity metrics were important explanatory variables for season length of sockeye, pink Oncorhynchus gorbuscha, coho Oncorhynchus kisutch and chum Oncorhynchus keta fisheries. Synthesis and applications. We show an empirical example of how multiple scales of biodiversity support food security across a large watershed and suggest that protecting fine-scale salmon diversity will help promote food security for indigenous people. The scales of environmental assessments need to match the scales of the socio-ecological processes that will be affected by development. We illustrate that upstream projects that damage salmon habitat could degrade the food security of downstream indigenous fisheries, with implications to Canadian indigenous people and to watersheds around the world where migratory fishes support local fisheries

FraserFSCSalmonFisheries_CatchData_1983_2012

This is a dataset of food, social, and ceremonial (FSC) fisheries weekly catch numbers of salmon on the Fraser River, BC, Canada from 1983 to 2012. FSC fisheries are indigenous fisheries that are jointly managed by Fisheries and Oceans Canada and indigenous groups. Data are available online (http://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fm-gp/fraser/archives-a-eng.html#First_Nations) and through request. Fisheries are managed by region. Column headers are: downstream_point (downstream point of each fishery management region), species (species of salmon caught), year, day (day number of year, represents beginning of week where fish were caught), weeklycatch (number of fish caught in that week), tributary (1 if the fishery was on a tributary, 0 if the fishery was on the mainstem of the Fraser), hells (0 if the fishery was downstream of Hell's Gate, 1 if the fishery was upstream of Hell's Gate), richness (population richness that the fishery had access to, see Nesbitt & Moore for more details), km (distance the downstream point of the fishery is from the ocean, along the river network), ind.mass (average mass of an individual fish of that species, in kg), lat_ds_point (latitude of downstream point of fishery), long_ds_point (longitude of downstream point of fishery)

Role of Social Network on Technology Adoption: Application to Nebraska Producers in the Face of Undesirable Vegetation Transitions

Conclusion Producers need to have access to information regarding new conservation practices and technologies to ensure land management in the face of ecological threats in general and vegetation transitions (VTs) in the context of our study. This study investigates the role of an individual producer\u27s social network on the willingness to seek information about technologies and management practices and the likelihood of new technology adoption with special attention to risk attitudes and producer spillover effects. Our results provide evidence that network composition and information obtained through a producer\u27s social network don\u27t influence an individual\u27s willingness to seek information about new technologies or management practices. However, when it comes to adopting specific technology, like screening and imaging technology, social network measures have a significant impact. Additionally, we found risk attitude and spillover effect positively influence the likelihood of technology adoption. The significant positive impact of the spillover effect confirms that producers are reactive to the effects of VTs that they observe within their neighbor\u27s land and are willing to seek information regarding new practices and technologies and adopt them. Considering the above results, it is evident that if public and private agencies are interested in addressing negative effects of VTs through changes in producer behaviors, they would be well served to invoke the mechanism of producer personal social networks to ensure effective receipt and dissemination of information regarding the new technology. Such effective information transmission can be combined with existing (and new) environmental policies to address VTs issues in Nebraska (and possibly in other areas where producers have similar profiles)

Appendix A. More information regarding the application of portfolio theory to river networks, a figure illustrating the vast dendritic network of the Fraser River study system, a figure showing wavelet analyses, and a table that highlights previous research on stability in river processes.

More information regarding the application of portfolio theory to river networks, a figure illustrating the vast dendritic network of the Fraser River study system, a figure showing wavelet analyses, and a table that highlights previous research on stability in river processes

De Novo Mutations in Protein Kinase Genes CAMK2A and CAMK2B Cause Intellectual Disability

Calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CAMK2) is one of the first proteins shown to be essential for normal learning and synaptic plasticity in mice, but its requirement for human brain development has not yet been established. Through a multi-center collaborative study based on a whole-exome sequencing approach, we identified 19 exceedingly rare de novo CAMK2A or CAMK2B variants in 24 unrelated individuals with intellectual disability. Variants were assessed for their effect on CAMK2 function and on neuronal migration. For both CAMK2A and CAMK2B, we identified mutations that decreased or increased CAMK2 auto-phosphorylation at Thr286/Thr287. We further found that all mutations affecting auto-phosphorylation also affected neuronal migration, highlighting the importance of tightly regulated CAMK2 auto-phosphorylation in neuronal function and neurodevelopment. Our data establish the importance of CAMK2A and CAMK2B and their auto-phosphorylation in human brain function and expand the phenotypic spectrum of the disorders caused by variants in key players of the glutamatergic signaling pathway

De Novo Mutations in Protein Kinase Genes CAMK2A and CAMK2B Cause Intellectual Disability

Calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CAMK2) is one of the first proteins shown to be essential for normal learning and synaptic plasticity in mice, but its requirement for human brain development has not yet been established. Through a multi-center collaborative study based on a whole-exome sequencing approach, we identified 19 exceedingly rare de novo CAMK2A or CAMK2B variants in 24 unrelated individuals with intellectual disability. Variants were assessed for their effect on CAMK2 function and on neuronal migration. For both CAMK2A and CAMK2B, we identified mutations that decreased or increased CAMK2 auto-phosphorylation at Thr286/Thr287. We further found that all mutations affecting auto-phosphorylation also affected neuronal migration, highlighting the importance of tightly regulated CAMK2 auto-phosphorylation in neuronal function and neurodevelopment. Our data establish the importance of CAMK2A and CAMK2B and their auto-phosphorylation in human brain function and expand the phenotypic spectrum of the disorders caused by variants in key players of the glutamatergic signaling pathway