Literature syntheses to inform marine ecosystem management: lessons learned from stakeholder participation

Systematic literature syntheses are a key element in the scientific realm, considering the steadily growing amount of available knowledge. Involving stakeholders in the research process brings a wide range of advantages, like broadening the perspectives on the problem in question, increasing the relevance of results for policy- and decision-making, the public and other end-users and thus enhancing the impact and acceptance of research. While participatory approaches are on the rise, reflections on stakeholder involvement in systematic syntheses on environmental management are scarce. We reflect on the process of involving stakeholders with expertise also from outside academia during three literature syntheses with different foci of marine and coastal ecosystem services in the Baltic Sea. Our analysis is based on notes, e-mails, minutes and recordings of internal project meetings, interviews and workshops involving both researchers and stakeholders. We discuss the challenges the participatory approach introduced and develop lessons learned to support the planning of stakeholder engagement for future literature syntheses. We conclude that stakeholder identification, communication, collaboration and knowledge translation are highly time- and resource-intensive processes. Furthermore, appropriate training and experience are necessary for the design, execution and evaluation of participatory methods tailored to each project stage. Therefore, we underline the importance of adequate consideration of the required resources during project planning and implementation. To encourage and support valuable stakeholder engagement and knowledge exchange between the research community and actors of policy and practice, more appreciation of such efforts by funding institutions and within the wider scientific community is needed

Re-analysis of the Levanluhta skeletal material : Sex and stature estimation of individuals in an Iron Age water burial in Finland

Levanluhta, an Iron Age water burial site in Finland, and its material consisting of commingled skeletal remains and artifacts, has been studied by several researchers over the past 100 years, resulting in multiple interpretations of the people and the site. Previous skeletal analyses have concluded that the majority of the individuals represented in the remains were females and children and were of relatively short stature, so possibly nutritionally deprived. This study re-analyzed the commingled adult human remains with updated methods. The methods applied in this study to estimate sex and stature were based on more representative European reference samples than the previously applied methods. The methods included morphology, osteometrics, and computed tomography (CT) scans. Our results indicated that depending on the reference data, the majority of the individual adult bones including os coxae (73%, n = 45) and long bones (humerus 83%-89%, n = 52; radius 72%-89%, n = 47; ulna 50%-65%, n = 58; femur 92%-100%, n = 25; tibia 77%-85%, n = 26) were classified as females based on their size and morphology. The cross-sectional bone properties of humerii, femora, and tibiae visualized using CT scanning also supported these findings. However, the cranial morphology did not show as clear female-biased sex ratio as other methods (42% females, 33% males, 24% undetermined, n = 33). In females, the mean stature based on the tibia (155.3 cm, n = 10) was within the range of the coeval European females and did not necessarily indicate nutritional deprivation, which is in line with previously published stable isotope findings from the site. The mean stature based on the tibia suggested that the Levanluhta males were short (164.0 cm, n = 3), but final interpretations were limited due to the small number of male individuals. The current study affirmed that the Levanluhta skeletal assemblage was female biased and gave new insights into interpretation of the stature.Peer reviewe

Tree height strongly affects estimates of water-use efficiency responses to climate and CO2 using isotopes

Various studies report substantial increases in intrinsic water-use efficiency (Wi), estimated using carbon isotopes in tree rings, suggesting trees are gaining increasingly more carbon per unit water lost due to increases in atmospheric CO2. Usually, reconstructions do not, however, correct for the effect of intrinsic developmental changes in Wi as trees grow larger. Here we show, by comparingWi across varying tree sizes at one CO2 level, that ignoring such developmental effects can severely affect inferences of trees' Wi. Wi doubled or even tripled over a trees' lifespan in three broadleaf species due to changes in tree height and light availability alone, and there are also weak trends for Pine trees. Developmental trends in broadleaf species are as large as the trends previously assigned to CO2 and climate. Credible future tree ring isotope studies require explicit accounting for species-specific developmental effects before CO2 and climate effects are inferred.Peer reviewe

A new isomer in 125^{125}La

Levels in $^{125}$La have been studied via $\beta ^+$/EC decay of on-line mass-separated $^{125}$Ce using the HIGISOL technique. A new (390 $\pm$ 40) ms isomer is definitely attributed to $^{125}$La by conversion electron measurements of the 107 keV E3 isomeric transition

Level structure of 99Nb

The β decay of 97Sr to 97Y has been investigated using ion-guide on-line mass separation and a 10 Ge-detector array to record γ−γ coincidences to a detection limit well below that of former studies. Similarities are found in the β-decay patterns of 99Zr and of its isotone 97Sr and also in the γ-ray decay rates and branchings of the corresponding levels in their respective daughters 99Nb and 97Y. This indicates a persisting influence of the d5/2 neutron shell closure for 99Nb. The level structure of 99Nb and the β-feeding pattern are discussed in the frame of the interacting boson-fermion plus broken pair model and the microscopic quasiparticle phonon model

"Safe" Coulomb Excitation of 30Mg

We report on the first radioactive beam experiment performed at the recently commissioned REX-ISOLDE facility at CERN in conjunction with the highly efficient gamma spectrometer MINIBALL. Using 30Mg ions accelerated to an energy of 2.25 MeV/u together with a thin nat-Ni target, Coulomb excitation of the first excited 2+ states of the projectile and target nuclei well below the Coulomb barrier was observed. From the measured relative de-excitation gamma ray yields the B(E2; 0+ -> 2+) value of 30Mg was determined to be 241(31) e2fm4. Our result is lower than values obtained at projectile fragmentation facilities using the intermediate-energy Coulomb excitation method, and confirms the theoretical conjecture that the neutron-rich magnesium isotope 30Mg lies still outside the ``island of inversion''

Is the degree of clonality of forest herbs dependent on gap age? Using fingerprinting approaches to assess optimum successional stages for montane forest herbs

Using molecular fingerprinting (amplified fragment length polymorphism [AFLP] method), we explored the potential of small-scale population analysis for understanding colonization patterns of herb layer species in forests after canopy disturbance. We investigated three common forest understorey species with different life forms (Trientalis europaea, Calamagrostis villosa, and Vaccinium myrtillus) in the Harz Mountains in Germany in three different gap age classes and undisturbed forest. For two of them (T. europaea and C. villosa), we analyzed clone sizes and clonal structure. We hypothesized that clone sizes depend on age since gap formation and are affected by light availability. Mean patch sizes of V. myrtillus, T. europaea, and C. villosa formed were 3.7 m2, 27.9 m2, and 40.6 m2, respectively. Trientalis europaea and C. villosa patches consisted mostly of more than one genet. Largest clone sizes of T. europaea were encountered in gaps of intermediate successional age (15–60 years, averaged minimum estimation of clone sizes: 6.56 m2) whereas clone size of C. villosa was found to be independent from gap age and had a mean minimum clone size of 0.49 m2. In both species, clone size was positively related to light availability. Additionally, there was a positive relationship between clone size and ramet density for T. europaea and C. villosa. Genetic variation was higher within populations of T. europaea and C. villosa than among populations. Trientalis europaea was the only species with a clear genetic isolation by distance, pointing at an equilibrium between gene flow and genetic drift. In conclusion, we showed that forest canopy gap dynamics clearly affect the small-scale structure of populations of understorey plants. Species with high lateral growth rates, such as T. europaea offer the possibility to serve as “ecological clock” for dating ecological processes

Oxide Fiber Targets at ISOLDE

Many elements are rapidly released from oxide matrices. Some oxide powder targets show a fast sintering, thus losing their favorable release characteristics. Loosely packed oxyde fiber targets are less critical since they may maintain their open structure even when starting to fuse together at some contact points. The experience with various oxyde fiber targets (titania, zirconia, ceria and thoria) used in the last years at ISOLDE is reviewed. For short-lived isotopes of Cu, Ga and Xe the zirconia and ceria targets respectively provided significantly higher yields than any other target (metal foils, oxide powders, etc.) tested before. Titania fibers, which were not commercially available, were produced in a relic process by impregnation of a rayon felt in a titanium chloride solution and subsequent calcination by heating the dried felt in air. Thoria fibers were obtained either by the same process or by burning commercial gas lantern mantle cloth. In the future a beryllia fiber target could be used to produce very intense ^6He beams (order of 10^13 ions per s) via the ^9Be(n, alpha) reaction using spallation neutrons