Sustainable management of transboundary pests requires holistic and inclusive solutions

Open Access JournalGlobalization and changing climates are aggravating the occurrence and impacts of transboundary pests, and driving the emergence of new threats. Most of the low- and middle-income countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America are not fully prepared in terms of surveillance, diagnostics, and deployment of plant health solutions due to several factors: adequate investment is lacking; knowledge is inadequate; and connections from the local to global, and global to local are insufficient. Effectively countering the current and emerging threats to plant health requires a holistic approach that includes: 1) globally coordinated diagnostic and surveillance systems; 2) epidemiological modelling, risk assessment, forecasting and preparedness for proactive management and containment; and 3) implementation of context-sensitive, eco-friendly, gender-responsive and socially inclusive integrated disease and pest management approaches to reduce the impacts of devastating transboundary pests and diseases. Despite several success stories where major pests and diseases have been brought to control through integrated approaches, further multi-institutional and multi-disciplinary efforts are necessary. Plant health management requires stronger interface between the biophysical and social sciences, and empowerment of local communities. These reflections derive from the proceedings of a webinar on “Transboundary Disease and Pest Management,” organized by CGIAR (Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research) on March 3, 2021, in recognition of the United Nations designated International Year of Plant Health

Objective mapping of observed sub-surface mesoscale cold core eddy in the Bay of Bengal by stochastic inverse technique with tomographically simulated travel times

307-324Present study consists the acoustic characteristics of a sub-surface cold core eddy observed (below the mixed layer between depths of 50 and 300m, with a diameter of about 200 km having temperature drop of 5ºC at the center) in the Bay of Bengal during south-west monsoon season and explore possibility to reconstruct the acoustic profile of the eddy by Stochastic Inverse Technique. A simulation experiment on forward and inverse problems for observed sound velocity perturbation field has been attempted for a range of 650 km (in the vertical slice) keeping the single source-receiver configuration (at the channel axis depth) in the SOFAR channel, under peculiar characteristics viz, depth-limited environment and weak gradient waters of the Bay of Bengal. For the formulation of the Stochastic Inverse, both vertical and horizontal structure of the ocean has been modeled using empirical orthogonal modes. Present Ocean Acoustic Tomography’s (OAT’s) simulation experiment results reveal that one can objectively map/monitor even the small mesoscale sub-surface eddies by stochastic inverse technique keeping single source and receiver in the SOFAR channel separated probably by larger distances also under such depth-limited environment of the Bay of Bengal

Long-term monitoring of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko’s jets with OSIRIS onboard Rosetta

We used the OSIRIS camera system onboard the Rosetta spacecraft to monitor jet activity of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. With a monthly cadence, we covered an epoch from 2014 December to 2015 October, thereby including the first equinox and the perihelion passage. Jet features were measured in individual images, which were used to perform a statistical inversion. The study provides maps for the locations of likeliest sources of jet activity on the comet’s surface as a function of time. The sources follow the subsolar latitude, show clustering and a broadening of the activity band with time in the Northern hemisphere. In the Southern hemisphere, they are not clustered but show a broader spread over all longitudes which is either related to the north–south dichotomy of the comet’s topography or due to a higher insolation during southern summer