Status of the European Green Crab, Carcinus maenas, (aka 5-spine crab) in Oregon Estuaries. Report for 2022

The European green crab (Carcinus maenas) has persisted in Oregon and Washington coastal estuaries since the late 1990s. A strong year class arrived during the 1998 El Niño, but numbers decreased and remained below 1 per trap per day until the arrival of the 2015-2016 El Niño. Since then, numbers have increased to an average of around 4-6 crabs per trap per day for intertidal sites and ~ 9 per trap per day in the shallow subtidal. Measurable ecological impact is predicted to occur at around 10-20 per trap per day (Grosholz et al. 2011). Between the two major El Niños, recruitment of young green crabs has been sporadic, with many years of recruitment failures. But after the 2015-2016 El Niño recruitment has been good every year. The Davidson Current transporting larvae from California during the winter no longer appears to be the only source of larvae for our coastal estuaries (Behrens Yamada, Fisher and Kosro 2021). Now that the populations in Oregon, Washington and British Columbia have built up, we have evidence for local larval production and seeding from a genetically distinct population on Vancouver Island (Alan Shanks and Carolyn Tepolt, pers. com.). This report is a compilation of trapping data for Carcinus maenas from various sources and estuaries. These include the following: 1) Catches of adult crabs in Yaquina Bay using Fukui traps set in the intertidal and in the shallow subtidal. The latter were set at 22 sites along a salinity gradient from South Beach Marina to the Port of Toledo by Mitch Vance of Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. 2) Catches of adult crabs at 3 sites in the Salmon estuary using Fukui traps set in intertidal areas by volunteers and by Rebecca Flitcroft from the United Stated Department of Agriculture. 3) Summary of catches of crabs trapped in Coos Bay by Shon Schooler, interns and technicians of South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve. For detailed data on various sites in Coos Bay see Schooler et al. (2022). 4) Catches of adult crabs in Siuslaw and Umpqua estuaries by Shon Schooler and interns. 5) Average catches of Young-Of-The-Year (YOTY, or Age-0) crabs at the end of their first growing season, from 4 Oregon estuaries and Willapa Bay, Washington. This 25-year data set allows us to compare catches of YOTY crabs between years and between estuaries (Figure 3)

A possible architecture of the planetary system HR 8799

HR8799 is a nearby A-type star with a debris disk and three planetary candidates recently imaged directly. We undertake a coherent analysis of various portions of observational data on all known components of the system. The goal is to elucidate the architecture and evolutionary status of the system. We try to further constrain the age and orientation of the system, orbits and masses of the companions, as well as the location of dust. From the high luminosity of debris dust and dynamical constraints, we argue for a rather young system's age of <50Myr. The system must be seen nearly, but not exactly, pole-on. Our analysis of the stellar rotational velocity yields an inclination of 13-30deg, whereas i>20deg is needed for the system to be dynamically stable, which suggests a probable inclination range of 20-30deg. The spectral energy distribution is naturally reproduced with two dust rings associated with two planetesimal belts. The inner "asteroid belt" is located at ~10AU inside the orbit of the innermost companion and a "Kuiper belt" at >100AU is just exterior to the orbit of the outermost companion. The dust masses in the inner and outer ring are estimated to be ~1E-05 and 4E-02 M_earth, respectively. We show that all three planetary candidates may be stable in the mass range suggested in the discovery paper by Marois et al. 2008 (between 5 and 13 Jupiter masses), but only for some of all possible orientations. Stable orbits imply a double (4:2:1) mean-motion resonance between all three companions. We finally show that in the cases where the companions themselves are orbitally stable, the dust-producing planetesimal belts are also stable against planetary perturbations.Comment: 12 pages, 14 figures, 4 tables, accepted to be published in Astronomy & Astrophysics (May 20, 2009

Status of the European Green Crab, Carcinus maenas, in Oregon and Washington coastal Estuaries. Report for 2020 and 2021

The European green crab (Carcinus maenas) has persisted in Oregon and Washington coastal estuaries since the late 1990s. A strong year class arrived in the Davidson Current during the 1998 El Niño, but numbers decreased and remained below 1 per trap per day until the arrival of the 2015-2016 El Niño. Ocean indices indicate that California was the predominate source of larvae prior to the 2015-2016 El Niño (Behrens Yamada & Kosro, Behrens Yamada, Peterson & Kosro, 2015). Since then, numbers have increased steadily to an average of around 6 crabs per trap per day for Yaquina and Coos estuaries, with maximums of up to 25- 28 per trap. Measurable ecological impact is predicted to occur around 10 per trap (Grosholz et al. 2011). Between the two El Niños recruitment of young green crabs to these estuaries was sporadic with many years of recruitment failure. But since 2015 recruitment has been good every year. Since green crabs live for 6 years, these recent strong year classes can produce larvae until 2027. Evidence suggests that the Davidson Current transporting larvae from California during the winter is no longer the only source of larvae for our coastal estuaries (Behrens Yamada, Fisher and Kosro 2021). Now that populations in Oregon, Washington and British Columbia have built up, we have evidence for local production and for larvae sources from a genetically distinct population on Vancouver Island (Alan Shanks and Carolyn Tepolt, personal communication). The current cooler ocean conditions could hold recruitment in check, but a return to high PDO and strong El Niño patterns would signal good recruitment and higher green crab densities. Even though green crab abundance in Oregon and Washington is still low when compared to Europe, eastern North America, Tasmania, California and the west coast of Vancouver Island, it is imperative to continue monitoring efforts for two reasons: 1) To elucidate the process of range expansion and population persistence of European green crabs. It could serve as a model for the spread of other non-indigenous species with planktonic larvae. 2) To predict the arrival of strong year classes from ocean conditions and to alert managers and shellfish growers of possible increases in predation pressure from this invader

Resistance Evolution to Bt Crops: Predispersal Mating of European Corn Borers

Over the past decade, the high-dose refuge (HDR) strategy, aimed at delaying the evolution of pest resistance to Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) toxins produced by transgenic crops, became mandatory in the United States and is being discussed for Europe. However, precopulatory dispersal and the mating rate between resident and immigrant individuals, two features influencing the efficiency of this strategy, have seldom been quantified in pests targeted by these toxins. We combined mark-recapture and biogeochemical marking over three breeding seasons to quantify these features directly in natural populations of Ostrinia nubilalis, a major lepidopteran corn pest. At the local scale, resident females mated regardless of males having dispersed beforehand or not, as assumed in the HDR strategy. Accordingly, 0–67% of resident females mating before dispersal did so with resident males, this percentage depending on the local proportion of resident males (0% to 67.2%). However, resident males rarely mated with immigrant females (which mostly arrived mated), the fraction of females mating before dispersal was variable and sometimes substantial (4.8% to 56.8%), and there was no evidence for male premating dispersal being higher. Hence, O. nubilalis probably mates at a more restricted spatial scale than previously assumed, a feature that may decrease the efficiency of the HDR strategy under certain circumstances, depending for example on crop rotation practices

Palaeo-environment in an ancient low-latitude, arid lacustrine basin with loessite : The Smith Bank Formation (Early Triassic) in the Central North Sea, UK Continental Shelf

Acknowledgements This work was conducted as part of the Triassic Mudstones Joint Industry Project which was sponsored by BP, ConocoPhillips, EON E&P, Esso Exploration and Production UK Limited, GDF SUEZ E&P UK Ltd, JX Nippon, Maersk Oil, Shell and Total. The guidance of Prof. Steve Hillier of the James Hutton Institute in quantitative mineralogical analysis is acknowledged with gratitude. Dr Stuart Jones and an anonymous referee are thanked for their incisive and constructive reviews that significantly helped in the revision of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPostprin

Premature ovarian failure and ovarian autoimmunity

Premature ovarian failure (POF) is defined as a syndrome characterized by menopause before the age of 40 yr. The patients suffer from anovulation and hypoestrogenism. Approximately 1% of women will experience menopause before the age of 40 yr. POF is a heterogeneous disorder with a multicausal pathogenesis involving chromosomal, genetic, enzymatic, infectious, and iatrogenic causes. There remains, however, a group of POF patients without a known etiology, the so-called "idiopathic" form. An autoimmune etiology is hypothesized for the POF cases with a concomitant Addison's disease and/or oophoritis. It is concluded in this review that POF in association with adrenal autoimmunity and/or Addison's disease (2-10% of the idiopathic POF patients) is indeed an autoimmune disease. The following evidence warrants this view: 1) The presence of autoantibodies to steroid-producing cells in these patients; 2) The characterization of shared autoantigens between adrenal and ovarian steroid-producing cells; 3) The histological picture of the ovaries of such cases (lymphoplasmacellular infiltrate around steroid-producing cells); 4) The existence of various autoimmune animal models for this syndrome, which underlines the autoimmune nature of the disease. There is some circumstantial evidence for an autoimmune pathogenesis in idiopathic POF patients in the absence of adrenal autoimmunity or Addison's disease. Arguments in support of this are: 1) The presence of cellular immune abnormalities in this POF patient group reminiscent of endocrine autoimmune diseases such as IDDM, Graves' disease, and Addison's disease; 2) The more than normal association with IDDM and myasthenia gravis. Data on the presence of various ovarian autoantibodies and anti-receptor antibodies in these patients are, however, inconclusive and need further evaluation. A strong argument against an autoimmune pathogenesis of POF in these patients is the nearly absent histological confirmation (the presence of an oophoritis) in these cases (< 3%). However, in animal models using ZP immunization, similar follicular depletion and fibrosis (as in the POF women) can be detected. Accepting the concept that POF is a heterogenous disorder in which some of the idiopathic forms are based on an abnormal self-recognition by th

Developing Behavior Change Interventions

Peer reviewe

Changing Behavior : A Theory- and Evidence-Based Approach

Social problems in many domains, including health, education, social relationships, and the workplace, have their origins in human behavior. The documented links between behavior and social problems have sparked interest in governments and organizations to develop effective interventions to promote behavior change. The Handbook of Behavior Change provides comprehensive coverage of contemporary theory, research, and practice on behavior change. The handbook incorporates theory- and evidence-based approaches to behavior change with chapters from leading theorists, researchers, and practitioners from multiple disciplines, including psychology, sociology, behavioral science, economics, and implementation science. Chapters are organized into three parts: (1) Theory and Behavior Change; (2) Methods and Processes of Behavior Change: Intervention Development, Application, and Translation; and (3) Behavior Change Interventions: Practical Guides to Behavior Change. This chapter provides an overview of the theory- and evidence-based approaches of the handbook, introduces the content of the handbook, and provides suggestions on how the handbook may be used by different readers. The handbook aims to provide all interested in behavior change, including researchers and students, practitioners, and policy makers, with up-to-date knowledge on behavior change and guidance on how to develop effective interventions to change behavior in different populations and contexts.Peer reviewe

Design concepts for the Cherenkov Telescope Array CTA: an advanced facility for ground-based high-energy gamma-ray astronomy

Ground-based gamma-ray astronomy has had a major breakthrough with the impressive results obtained using systems of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes. Ground-based gamma-ray astronomy has a huge potential in astrophysics, particle physics and cosmology. CTA is an international initiative to build the next generation instrument, with a factor of 5-10 improvement in sensitivity in the 100 GeV-10 TeV range and the extension to energies well below 100 GeV and above 100 TeV. CTA will consist of two arrays (one in the north, one in the south) for full sky coverage and will be operated as open observatory. The design of CTA is based on currently available technology. This document reports on the status and presents the major design concepts of CTA

The Science Performance of JWST as Characterized in Commissioning

This paper characterizes the actual science performance of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), as determined from the six month commissioning period. We summarize the performance of the spacecraft, telescope, science instruments, and ground system, with an emphasis on differences from pre-launch expectations. Commissioning has made clear that JWST is fully capable of achieving the discoveries for which it was built. Moreover, almost across the board, the science performance of JWST is better than expected; in most cases, JWST will go deeper faster than expected. The telescope and instrument suite have demonstrated the sensitivity, stability, image quality, and spectral range that are necessary to transform our understanding of the cosmos through observations spanning from near-earth asteroids to the most distant galaxies.Comment: 5th version as accepted to PASP; 31 pages, 18 figures; https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1538-3873/acb29