Marine Protected Areas and Pelagic Fishing: The Case of the Chagos Archipelago

This editorial elaborates on the ramifications of the new Chagos Marine Reserve in the context of pelagic fisheries

Capitalising the value of free schools : the impact of supply characteristics and uncertainty.

There has been a growing literature in both the US (for example Haurin and Brasington 1996, and Black 1999) and the UK (for example Gibbons & Machin, 2003) that estimates the way in which school quality is capitalised into house prices. Cheshire and Sheppard 1995 and 1999 estimated hedonic models in which the quality of the secondary school to which a household was assigned was a significant variable which provided evidence that secondary school quality was being capitalised into the price of houses. In contrast Gibbons and Machin concluded that primary schools were more significant. Each of these analyses is predicated on the assumption that the value of local schools should be reflected in the value of houses. We argue here that this is rather too simple. We should expect variation in the capitalised price of a given school quality at either primary or secondary level according to the elasticity of supply of ‘school quality’ in the local market, the certainty with which that quality can be expected to be maintained over time and the suitability of the dwelling to accommodate children. These factors will vary systematically between and perhaps within cities. This paper explores the sources and the impact of such variations as well as the impact of model specification. The results provide new evidence on the complex and subtle ways in which housing markets capitalise the value of local public goods such as school quality and perhaps most importantly suggest that this is highly non-linear: houses in the catchment areas of only the best state schools command substantial premiums but such capitalised values can be very substantial indeed.

The holdfast ecosystem of laminaria hyprborea (gunn,) fosl. and environmental monitoring: an ecological study

The holdfast fauna eonsystem of Laminaria hyperborea was tested for use as a means of environmental monitoring. Samples of about three litres of holdfast space are desirable sample sizes although one litre is the absolute minimum. Several natural environmental variables, namely fresh water, rock type, depth, exposure and sedimentation were shown to have no significant effects on holdfast fauna composition. In pollution monitoring therefore these can be disregarded as complicating factors. Gradients of heavy metals and water clarity around the U.K. were defined. To these two variables were added those of latitude and longitude, and these four variables have marked effects on holdfast faunas. Changes in holdfast composition at the 35 main sites sampled are interpreted in the light of these variables. Along the North Sea and West coast sewage pollution and heavy metals respectively have a marked effect on the fauna. Along the South coast unidentified variables correlating very closely with longitude are important. Emphasis in interpretation must be placed on numbers of organisms, species richness and diversity in known sample sizes of holdfasts, and on the community trophic structure. Species presence / absence information has no meaning in holdfast work

Atoll rim expansion or erosion in Diego Garcia Atoll, Indian Ocean? : comment on Hamylton, S., East, H. A geospatial appraisal of ecological and geomorphic change on Diego Garcia Atoll, Chagos Islands (British Indian Ocean Territory). Remote Sens. 2012, 4, 3444–3461

Hamylton and East [1] reported a remarkably substantial expansion and accretion of land since the 1960s at numerous sites along the island of Diego Garcia atoll. This atoll has a near continuous rim encircling its lagoon, and they reported that the width of the island rim has expanded by several tens of metres in many places. Those results contrast markedly with my own near-annual observations on the ground where erosion and increased seawater inundation, rather than land accretion, is evident in many places. Hamylton and East have never visited the atoll but their results have been picked up for various reasons. Therefore I note possible reasons for the substantial discrepancy between their measurements and my own observations, and propose a resolution

Phylogeography of the crown-of-thorns starfish in the Indian Ocean

Background: Understanding the limits and population dynamics of closely related sibling species in the marine realm is particularly relevant in organisms that require management. The crown-of-thorns starfish Acanthaster planci, recently shown to be a species complex of at least four closely related species, is a coral predator infamous for its outbreaks that have devastated reefs throughout much of its Indo-Pacific distribution. Methodology/Principal Findings: In this first Indian Ocean-wide genetic study of a marine organism we investigated the genetic structure and inferred the paleohistory of the two Indian Ocean sister-species of Acanthaster planci using mitochondrial DNA sequence analyses. We suggest that the first of two main diversification events led to the formation of a Southern and Northern Indian Ocean sister-species in the late Pliocene-early Pleistocene. The second led to the formation of two internal clades within each species around the onset of the last interglacial. The subsequent demographic history of the two lineages strongly differed, the Southern Indian Ocean sister-species showing a signature of recent population expansion and hardly any regional structure, whereas the Northern Indian Ocean sister-species apparently maintained a constant size with highly differentiated regional groupings that were asymmetrically connected by gene flow. Conclusions/Significance: Past and present surface circulation patterns in conjunction with ocean primary productivity were identified as the processes most likely to have shaped the genetic structure between and within the two Indian Ocean lineages. This knowledge will help to understand the biological or ecological differences of the two sibling species and therefore aid in developing strategies to manage population outbreaks of this coral predator in the Indian Ocean

Inter-Personal and Critical-Thinking Capabilities in Those about to Enter Qualified Social Work: A Six-Centre Study

The ‘process’ of intervention is understood to be fundamental to social work—evident in, for example, the literature on reflexivity. Little work, though, has focused on the detailed excavation of the cognitive processes of reasoning in decision making. This is widely recognised as requiring considerable analytic and critical abilities. Although this is long established, its importance is contemporarily apparent at the policy level from the rationale underlying current initiatives such as Frontline. However, it is also long understood that the reasoning capabilities underlying these processes cannot be considered in isolation from the inter-personal–emotional, encapsulated in a long-term theoretical concern for both Heart and Head. Furthermore, terms like ‘capability’ or ‘proficiency’ in professional qualification imply some standard to be reached in practice. This invites measurement. This novel study seeks to bring together three dimensions of the (i) measurement of (ii) the inter-personal–emotional and (iii) critical thinking—measurement of key facets of both Head and Heart. A six-centre, six-university collaboration, it focuses on those at a crucial point: where individuals are about to enter qualified practice. The findings show they score highly on most inter-personal measures (with room for improvement), but show huge variability in critical-thinking capabilities. The implications of this are discussed