Attaining Aichi Target 11: How Well Are Marine Ecosystem Services Covered by Protected Areas?

The spatial coverage of marine and coastal protected areas worldwide has shown a rapid increase in recent years. Over 32% of the world's coral reefs and over 36% of the world's mangrove forests now fall within protected areas. However, simple measures of extent are insufficient for assessing progress toward achieving global targets. Notably, the CBD Aichi Target 11 calls for 'at least 17 per cent of terrestrial and inland water areas, and 10 per cent of coastal and marine areas, especially areas of particular importance for biodiversity and ecosystem services' to be protected. There is, therefore, an urgent need to assess how well protected areas cover these areas of importance for ecosystem services

Anxiety and Perceived English and French Language Competence of Education Students

The authors examined manifest anxiety and perceptions of English and French language competence among Anglophone (n = 35), Francophone (n = 29), and Mixed-heritage (n = 34) elementary education (60%) and secondary education (40%) students (80% female) in their second, third, or fourth year of study at the Faculté Saint Jean (University of Alberta). Participants assessed their language competence differently in English and French. Francophone and Mixed-heritage students felt equally competent in the two languages, but Anglophone students reported much higher language competence in English. Manifest anxiety and self-assessments of language competence were related only among the Anglophone group, with high levels of manifest anxiety associated with both low self-assessments of French language competence and high self- assessments of English language competence—the two being correlated with each other.Nous avons examiné l’anxiété latente et les perceptions de la compétence languagière en Anglais et en Français chez des étudiants anglophones (n = 35), francophones (n = 29) et mixtes (n = 35) en enseignement primaire (60%) et secondaire (40%) en première, deuxième, troisième et quatrième années à l’université de l’Alberta. Les sujets ont évalué leur compétence langagière en anglais et en français de manière différente. Les étudiants francophones et les étudiants mixtes se sentent compétents de manière égale dans les deux langues alors que les étudiants anglophones évoquent un niveau de compétence en Anglais bien supérieur à celui du Français. L’anxiété latente et les perceptions de la compétence languagière étaient associées négativement seulement chez les étudiants anglophones

Efekti prilagodbe u leksičkoj obradi

Psycholinguistic research generally adopts a scientific strategy that assumes a relatively stable set of representations and processes. In accordance with this strategy, researchers average measurements across trials, in an attempt to get a statistically stable estimate of performance for a given experimental condition. In this paper, we present four sets of example data drawn from various psycholinguistic tasks and show that the psycholinguistic system appears to adapt across the trials of the experiments. We show that there are cases in which a factor has no main effect, but interacts across trial; in other cases there is a main effect of a factor, but that factor also interacts with trial. Finally, we show that there are some cases in which the way that a factor interacts across trials is dependent on other, unrelated conditions included in the experiment. Our discussion focuses on both theoretical and methodological implications of the adaptiveness of the psycholinguistic system.Psiholingvistička istraživanja obično primjenjuju znanstvenu strategiju koja pretpostavlja relativno stabilan skup predodžbi i procesa. U skladu s tom strategijom, istraživači mjere prosječne vrijednosti tako da izvode više pokusnih ispitivanja kako bi dobili statistički stabilnu procjenu uspješnosti izvedbe određenoga pokusnog uvjeta. U ovom radu izložit će se četiri skupa podataka izvađenih iz različitih psiholingvističkih zadataka i pokazati kako se psiholingvistički sustav naizgled prilagođava tijekom pokusnog ispitivanja. Pokazat će se kako postoje slučajevi u kojima određeni čimbenik nema glavni efekt, ali je u interakciji tijekom ispitivanja; u drugim slučajevima postoji glavni efekt čimbenika, ali je i taj čimbenik u interakciji s ispitivanjem. Konačno, pokazujemo slučajeve u kojima je način na koji čimbenik utječe na ispitivanje ovisan o drugim, uz njega nevezanim uvjetima pokusa. Naša se diskusija usredotočuje na teorijske i metodološke implikacije prilagodljivosti psiholingvističkog sustava

Resolution limits of quantum ghost imaging

Quantum ghost imaging uses photon pairs produced from parametric downconversion to enable an alternative method of image acquisition. Information from either one of the photons does not yield an image, but an image can be obtained by harnessing the correlations between them. Here we present an examination of the resolution limits of such ghost imaging systems. In both conventional imaging and quantum ghost imaging the resolution of the image is limited by the point-spread function of the optics associated with the spatially resolving detector. However, whereas in conventional imaging systems the resolution is limited only by this point spread function, in ghost imaging we show that the resolution can be further degraded by reducing the strength of the spatial correlations inherent in the downconversion process

Experimental limits of ghost diffraction: Popper’s thought experiment

Quantum ghost diffraction harnesses quantum correlations to record diffraction or interference features using photons that have never interacted with the diffractive element. By designing an optical system in which the diffraction pattern can be produced by double slits of variable width either through a conventional diffraction scheme or a ghost diffraction scheme, we can explore the transition between the case where ghost diffraction behaves as conventional diffraction and the case where it does not. For conventional diffraction the angular extent increases as the scale of the diffracting object is reduced. By contrast, we show that no matter how small the scale of the diffracting object, the angular extent of the ghost diffraction is limited (by the transverse extent of the spatial correlations between beams). Our study is an experimental realisation of Popper’s thought experiment on the validity of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics. We discuss the implication of our results in this context and explain that it is compatible with, but not proof of, the Copenhagen interpretation

Mangrove Restoration Potential: A global map highlighting a critical opportunity

Rapid losses of mangroves over the past 50 years have had negative consequences on the environment, the climate, and humanity, through diminished benefits such as carbon storage, coastal protection and fish production. Restoration of mangrove forests is possible, and has already been undertaken in many settings, but such efforts have been piecemeal, and many have failed. The current work describes the findings from an entirely new effort to locate and map, on a global scale, the places where mangroves can be restored, and to calculate the potential benefits from such restoration. The work has generated the Mangrove Restoration Potential Map, which provides a critical tool for encouraging restoration and enabling robust, data-driven policy changes and investments.This work forms part of a project supported by the International Climate Initiative (IKI). The German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) supports this initiative on the basis of a decision adopted by the German Bundesta

Global Mangrove Extent Change 1996–2020:Global Mangrove Watch Version 3.0

Mangroves are a globally important ecosystem that provides a wide range of ecosystem system services, such as carbon capture and storage, coastal protection and fisheries enhancement. Mangroves have significantly reduced in global extent over the last 50 years, primarily as a result of deforestation caused by the expansion of agriculture and aquaculture in coastal environments. However, a limited number of studies have attempted to estimate changes in global mangrove extent, particularly into the 1990s, despite much of the loss in mangrove extent occurring pre-2000. This study has used L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) global mosaic datasets from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) for 11 epochs from 1996 to 2020 to develop a long-term time-series of global mangrove extent and change. The study used a map-to-image approach to change detection where the baseline map (GMW v2.5) was updated using thresholding and a contextual mangrove change mask. This approach was applied between all image-date pairs producing 10 maps for each epoch, which were summarised to produce the global mangrove time-series. The resulting mangrove extent maps had an estimated accuracy of 87.4% (95th conf. int.: 86.2–88.6%), although the accuracies of the individual gain and loss change classes were lower at 58.1% (52.4–63.9%) and 60.6% (56.1–64.8%), respectively. Sources of error included misregistration in the SAR mosaic datasets, which could only be partially corrected for, but also confusion in fragmented areas of mangroves, such as around aquaculture ponds. Overall, 152,604 km2 (133,996–176,910) of mangroves were identified for 1996, with this decreasing by -5245 km2 (-13,587–1444) resulting in a total extent of 147,359 km2 (127,925–168,895) in 2020, and representing an estimated loss of 3.4% over the 24-year time period. The Global Mangrove Watch Version 3.0 represents the most comprehensive record of global mangrove change achieved to date and is expected to support a wide range of activities, including the ongoing monitoring of the global coastal environment, defining and assessments of progress toward conservation targets, protected area planning and risk assessments of mangrove ecosystems worldwide