Mothers and monsters : Black female subjectivity in Black speculative fiction

textFor if, as literary theorist Barbara Christian argues "people of color have always theorized--but in forms quite different from the Western form of abstract logic" and "often in narrative forms," then it only makes sense that we should turn to Black speculative fiction, a genre that has always been just as rooted in diasporic pasts as it has been invested in creating diasporic future(s) as a new avenue for exploring the trope of (mother)loss in diaspora. I first argue that Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is a black speculative proto-text from which we can begin to consider the usefulness and necessity of the imagination in radical formation of black female subjectivity. I then engage black science fiction writer Nalo Hopkinson’s 2013 novel, Sister Mine, which addresses intersections of race gender and sexuality in in exciting ways. The ways that Jacobs and Hopkinson intentionally delve into mystery and imagination signify a unique opportunity for Black female writers to theorize themselves, to name themselves, and most importantly to claim what Hortense Spillers calls "the monstrosity (of a female with the potential to 'name')" and the potential to name herself. I choose to bring particular attention to the Black speculative literature of Nalo Hopkinson not solely because she theorizes black female subjectivity but because of the ways that Hopkinson literally embraces the "monstrosity" of Black female subjectivity by writing black women as mermaids, goddesses, monsters into her work, echoes of which are also seen in Jacobs' work. The literal mermaids and monsters found in Hopkinson's 21st century (re)imagining of Toronto and Lake Ontario or Jacobs' loophole of retreat provide new ways of understanding what it means to be diasporic Black/woman/mother/child in both the midst and aftermath of transatlantic slavery, striking a necessary balance between acknowledging contemporary and historical struggles of black people across the world, and drawing on the power of the imaginative to look towards the future.African and African Diaspora Studie

Ecological and Genomic Attributes of Novel Bacterial Taxa That Thrive in Subsurface Soil Horizons.

While most bacterial and archaeal taxa living in surface soils remain undescribed, this problem is exacerbated in deeper soils, owing to the unique oligotrophic conditions found in the subsurface. Additionally, previous studies of soil microbiomes have focused almost exclusively on surface soils, even though the microbes living in deeper soils also play critical roles in a wide range of biogeochemical processes. We examined soils collected from 20 distinct profiles across the United States to characterize the bacterial and archaeal communities that live in subsurface soils and to determine whether there are consistent changes in soil microbial communities with depth across a wide range of soil and environmental conditions. We found that bacterial and archaeal diversity generally decreased with depth, as did the degree of similarity of microbial communities to those found in surface horizons. We observed five phyla that consistently increased in relative abundance with depth across our soil profiles: Chloroflexi, Nitrospirae, Euryarchaeota, and candidate phyla GAL15 and Dormibacteraeota (formerly AD3). Leveraging the unusually high abundance of Dormibacteraeota at depth, we assembled genomes representative of this candidate phylum and identified traits that are likely to be beneficial in low-nutrient environments, including the synthesis and storage of carbohydrates, the potential to use carbon monoxide (CO) as a supplemental energy source, and the ability to form spores. Together these attributes likely allow members of the candidate phylum Dormibacteraeota to flourish in deeper soils and provide insight into the survival and growth strategies employed by the microbes that thrive in oligotrophic soil environments.IMPORTANCE Soil profiles are rarely homogeneous. Resource availability and microbial abundances typically decrease with soil depth, but microbes found in deeper horizons are still important components of terrestrial ecosystems. By studying 20 soil profiles across the United States, we documented consistent changes in soil bacterial and archaeal communities with depth. Deeper soils harbored communities distinct from those of the more commonly studied surface horizons. Most notably, we found that the candidate phylum Dormibacteraeota (formerly AD3) was often dominant in subsurface soils, and we used genomes from uncultivated members of this group to identify why these taxa are able to thrive in such resource-limited environments. Simply digging deeper into soil can reveal a surprising number of novel microbes with unique adaptations to oligotrophic subsurface conditions

Assessment of Underwater Noise Generated by Wave Energy Devices

The potential for creating underwater noise disturbance is one environmental impact that must be accounted for by wave energy developers to meet the needs of regulatory agencies. This review study has been conducted to provide a concise knowledge base of the expected underwater noise conditions in the near shore environment in regions of the Oregon coast where wave energy projects could be developed and to present an overview of noise measurement methodologies that would be suitable for the effective regulatory assessment of potential acoustic impacts. This report is intended as a reference to be used by wave energy developers in the specification and selection of approaches to underwater noise measurement that would be acceptable to regulatory bodies, consistent with the state of the industry and cost effective to implement. In an attempt to address some of the uncertainties surrounding these types of environmental noise assessment studies, this report provides information on the expected existing ambient noise conditions, the sound propagation characteristics of the environment, and the expected sources of noise associated with various types of wave energy devices. Guidelines detailing specific noise measurement studies are provided, along with a listing of several commercially available devices that are suitable for performing these measurements

SNAPSHOT USA 2019 : a coordinated national camera trap survey of the United States

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.With the accelerating pace of global change, it is imperative that we obtain rapid inventories of the status and distribution of wildlife for ecological inferences and conservation planning. To address this challenge, we launched the SNAPSHOT USA project, a collaborative survey of terrestrial wildlife populations using camera traps across the United States. For our first annual survey, we compiled data across all 50 states during a 14-week period (17 August - 24 November of 2019). We sampled wildlife at 1509 camera trap sites from 110 camera trap arrays covering 12 different ecoregions across four development zones. This effort resulted in 166,036 unique detections of 83 species of mammals and 17 species of birds. All images were processed through the Smithsonian's eMammal camera trap data repository and included an expert review phase to ensure taxonomic accuracy of data, resulting in each picture being reviewed at least twice. The results represent a timely and standardized camera trap survey of the USA. All of the 2019 survey data are made available herein. We are currently repeating surveys in fall 2020, opening up the opportunity to other institutions and cooperators to expand coverage of all the urban-wild gradients and ecophysiographic regions of the country. Future data will be available as the database is updated at eMammal.si.edu/snapshot-usa, as well as future data paper submissions. These data will be useful for local and macroecological research including the examination of community assembly, effects of environmental and anthropogenic landscape variables, effects of fragmentation and extinction debt dynamics, as well as species-specific population dynamics and conservation action plans. There are no copyright restrictions; please cite this paper when using the data for publication.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Anatomy of the shrimp plant, Justicia brandegeana (Acanthaceae)

Justicia brandegeana is a popular ornamental plant in North America commonly known as the shrimp plant. In the wild, it grows as a shrub in semi-arid climates. Little is documented on the anatomy of this plant, therefore the purpose of this study was to determine the anatomy of the shrimp plant at the cellular level through various hand sectioning and staining techniques. It was determined that many anatomical features of this plant were synonymous to those of a typical dicotyledonous plant. However there were unique features of this plant that can be linked to its hot/dry environment such as a layer of suberized parenchyma in the stem surrounding the vascular tissue, a thick band of secondary xylem in the stem and root, phi thickenings in cortical cells just inside the exodermis in mature root, and expansion of the Casparian bands in the endodermis consistent with the secondary growth of the vascular tissue in the root. Further research is necessary on plants that have also adapted to semi-arid environments in order to compare and contrast the adaptations found in the anatomy of J. brandegeana