Australian healthcare services and the climate change debate

After years of highly charged political and public debate on tackling climate change, Australia started taxing carbon emissions on 1 July 2012. Under the carbon tax, Australia’s biggest carbon emitting companies will pay a fixed-price levy on their carbon emissions for three years. At the end of this period, the carbon tax will transition to an emissions trading scheme, from 1 July 2015. Healthcare services and hospitals are not directly affected by the carbon tax, as they are not among the biggest polluting companies in Australia. However, they may experience some indirect flow-on costs, in the form of higher energy prices. Though as this Policy Brief will explain, any overall increases in costs for public hospitals are likely to be minimal at most once the compensatory effects of new hospital funding arrangements are taken into account. Nonetheless, with the health sector responsible for 7 per cent of total carbon emissions from buildings in Australia,  there is significant scope for the sector to reduce its carbon footprint through greater energy efficiency measures. Of course, the health sector also has a much broader interest in the climate change debate: the impacts of climate change on human health. Climate experts now agree that the health impacts of climate change, such as the spread of infectious diseases, and illness and fatalities related to severe weather events, are significant, and pose a significant threat for the future. This Policy Brief will explore each of these issues and outline policy options and other initiatives currently in place to address them

A snapshot on composition and distribution of fish larvae across the North Atlantic Ocean

Harith MN, O’ Donnell C, Johnston G, Power AM. 2021. A snapshot on composition and distribution of fish larvae across the North Atlantic Ocean. Biodiversitas 22: 4496-4504. This study aims to describe the composition and distribution patterns of fish larvae communities across the North Atlantic Ocean. Several cruises were involved in the effort to collect the fish larvae samples. The sampling took place on the east side of the North Atlantic Ocean, towards the mid-Atlantic Ocean, and on the west side of the North Atlantic Ocean, near the eddies approaching Flemish Cap. A total of 9522 fish larvae were collected and identified from these surveys. These larvae came from 79 taxa and 29 families. Referring to the total abundance, considering all the sampled stations, Atlantic mackerel (Scomber scombrus) was the most abundant species (38.82% of the total fish larvae abundance), followed by blue whiting (Micromesistius poutassou) (15.9%). Referring to the Multi-dimensional scaling (MDS) ordination plots, two major stations clusters separate the on-shelf and off-shelf stations supported by SIMPER analysis. This study provides a snapshot of larval fish concentrations and assembly structure, but current knowledge suggests that the distribution of larval fish assemblages will be highly spatially variable, more research into plume front dynamics and their effects on the region's biota is needed to predict and understand changes

Sustainability toolkit for cephalopod fisheries: Cephs & Chefs Project

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Childhood cognitive skills trajectories and suicide by mid-adulthood:an investigation of the 1958 British Birth Cohort

International audienceBackground : Poor cognitive abilities and low intellectual quotient (IQ) are associated with an increased risk of suicide attempts and suicide mortality. However, knowledge of how this association develops across the life-course is limited. Our study aims to establish whether individuals who died by suicide by mid-adulthood are distinguishable by their child-to-adolescence cognitive trajectories.Methods : Participants were from the 1958 British Birth Cohort and were assessed for academic performance at ages 7, 11, and 16 and intelligence at 11 years. Suicides occurring by September 2012 were identified from linked national death certificates. We compared mean mathematics and reading abilities and rate of change across 7–16 years for individuals who died by suicide v. those still alive, with and without adjustment for potential early-life confounding factors. Analyses were based on 14 505 participants.Results : Fifty-five participants (48 males) had died by suicide by age 54 years. While males who died by suicide did not differ from participants still alive in reading scores at age 7 [effect size (g) = −0.04, p = 0.759], their reading scores had a less steep improvement up to age 16 compared to other participants. Adjustments for early-life confounding factors explained these differences. A similar pattern was observed for mathematics scores. There was no difference between individuals who died by suicide v. participants still alive on intelligence at 11 years.Conclusions : While no differences in tests of academic performance and IQ were observed, individuals who died by suicide had a less steep improvement in reading abilities over time compared to same-age peers

Spatial distribution of Cephalopods of the European Shelf and their associated oceanographic parameters based on occurrence in standardized demersal fishing trawls

Changing oceans impact the whole marine ecosystem in different ways. For example, rising ocean temperatures can affect the presence / absence of species, especially when local environmental conditions exceed individual species’ physiological tolerances. Accordingly, climate change has caused shifts in distribution and expansions for various cephalopods worldwide. Cephalopods play an important role in the ecosystem, especially in food webs. Consequently, spatial distribution shifts might help explain observed ecosystem changes. Therefore, maps for cephalopod distributions need to be reviewed and updated. Meanwhile, information on the associated environmental conditions will permit future occurrence of cephalopods to be modelled, which is interesting from a fishery and ecological perspective. Some information about physiological tolerances of cephalopods are known from laboratory studies and aquaculture experience, as well as from field observations. Laboratory data are often based on narrow ranges, depending on the experimental design, and can therefore provide only a limited understanding of physiological tolerances. On the other hand, field observations are also limited due to the spatial and temporal limitations of surveys, but these might provide a more realistic picture of natural tolerances. Here, we use the ICES Datras dataset to, first, describe the current distribution of cephalopods associated with the European shelf and, second, advance the knowledge regarding environmental ranges of the various species included in the analysis by combining occurrence data with in-situ oceanographic data. An additional literature review will provide information about the different environmental requirements of various life stages. The results allow us to increase the knowledge of physiological preferences of various cephalopod species within the North-East Atlantic Ocean. Finally, we will discuss and present potential future trends in cephalopod occurrence within the NE Atlantic. In order to further strengthen our knowledge of physiological tolerances of various cephalopod species more data on life history and life stages is needed to develop a more advanced mechanistic model.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Market opportunities for octopus in the Atlantic area: Cephs & Chefs: summary of main achievements

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Disentangling global market drivers for cephalopods to foster transformations towards sustainable seafood systems

21 pages, 11 figures, 1 table.-- Open accessAquatic food systems are important contributors to global food security to satisfy an intensifying demand for protein-based diets, but global economic growth threatens marine systems. Cephalopod (octopus, squid and cuttlefish) fisheries can contribute to food security; however, their sustainable exploitation requires understanding connections between nature's contributions to people (NCP), food system policies and human wellbeingThe authors acknowledge the financial support from the Cephs and Chefs Project (https://www.cephsandchefs.com/) funded by the European Regional Development Fund (https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/funding/erdf/) through the Interreg Atlantic Area Programme grant number EAPA_282/2016. CP, TF, KR and DC acknowledge financial support to CESAM by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia/MCTES (UIDP/50017/2020 + UIDB/50017/2020 + LA/P/0094/2020), through national funds. CP acknowledges the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia research contract 2020.02510. CEECIND and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA). SV and PP acknowledge financial support from the Xunta de Galicia (https://www.xunta.gal/portada) (RECREGES II project under Grant 1400 ED481B2018/017 and Grupo de Referencia Competitiva GI-2060 AEMI, under Grant 1401 ED431C2019/11)Peer reviewe

Omics‐based molecular analyses of adhesion by aquatic invertebrates

Many aquatic invertebrates are associated with surfaces, using adhesives to attach to the substratum for locomotion, prey capture, reproduction, building or defence. Their intriguing and sophisticated biological glues have been the focus of study for decades. In all but a couple of specific taxa, however, the precise mechanisms by which the bioadhesives stick to surfaces underwater and (in many cases) harden have proved to be elusive. Since the bulk components are known to be based on proteins in most organisms, the opportunities provided by advancing ‘omics technologies have revolutionised bioadhesion research. Time‐consuming isolation and analysis of single molecules has been either replaced or augmented by the generation of massive data sets that describe the organism's translated genes and proteins. While these new approaches have provided resources and opportunities that have enabled physiological insights and taxonomic comparisons that were not previously possible, they do not provide the complete picture and continued multi‐disciplinarity is essential. This review covers the various ways in which ‘omics have contributed to our understanding of adhesion by aquatic invertebrates, with new data to illustrate key points. The associated challenges are highlighted and priorities are suggested for future research