The Olive Ridley Project (ORP): A successful example of how to engage researchers, conservation practitioners and civil society

The Olive Ridley Project (ORP) was set up to protect sea turtles and their habitats. The project was formed in 2013, and it became a registered charity in the UK in 2016. From its inception, ORP took a multidisciplinary approach to achieve its goals. Part of its objectives, and the reason why the charity came to fruition, are related to the issue of olive ridley sea turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea) entanglement in abandoned, lost or discarded fishing gear (also known as ‘ghost gear’ or ‘ghost nets’), and the search for ghost gear and turtle entanglement ‘hot spots’ throughout the Indian Ocean. The initial ORP research questions were soon challenged by societal interests to develop inclusive educational programmes in local communities and tourist resorts that could raise awareness about the need for conservation of all sea turtle species. In February 2017, ORP opened the first veterinarian-run, fully equipped Marine Turtle Rescue Centre in the Maldives, bringing together the work of researchers, citizen scientists, volunteers, environmentalists, marine biologists and veterinarians. The present work of ORP sits on a strong and scientifically robust collaborative plan. Current ORP research projects range from sea turtle population analyses, spatial ecology, rehabilitation of injured and sick individuals, epibiont parasite analyses, precise turtle identification through photo-ID research, linking ghost gear to responsible fisheries, and analyses of ghost gear drift patterns. The programme enhances community education and outreach by engaging schoolchildren, organizing workshops, promoting sustainable use of ghost gear waste, and training citizen scientists and local fishing communities. The ORP programme encompasses many principles of research engagement, effectively combining scientific knowledge, education and action. This article explores all stages of the process (from research planning and design, to knowledge exchange and inter- and trans-disciplinary impact assessments), describing the active engagement originated by the ORP initiative. A reflective insight into the learning, enrichment and challenges of engaging researchers and community actors is also included, considering the current social and scientific framework

Long-distance dispersal of pigeons and doves generated new ecological opportunities for host-switching and adaptive radiation by their parasites.

Adaptive radiation is an important mechanism of organismal diversification and can be triggered by new ecological opportunities. Although poorly studied in this regard, parasites are an ideal group in which to study adaptive radiations because of their close associations with host species. Both experimental and comparative studies suggest that the ectoparasitic wing lice of pigeons and doves have adaptively radiated, leading to differences in body size and overall coloration. Here, we show that long-distance dispersal by dove hosts was central to parasite diversification because it provided new ecological opportunities for parasites to speciate after host-switching. We further show that among extant parasite lineages host-switching decreased over time, with cospeciation becoming the more dominant mode of parasite speciation. Taken together, our results suggest that host dispersal, followed by host-switching, provided novel ecological opportunities that facilitated adaptive radiation by parasites

A weakly stable algorithm for general Toeplitz systems

We show that a fast algorithm for the QR factorization of a Toeplitz or Hankel matrix A is weakly stable in the sense that R^T.R is close to A^T.A. Thus, when the algorithm is used to solve the semi-normal equations R^T.Rx = A^Tb, we obtain a weakly stable method for the solution of a nonsingular Toeplitz or Hankel linear system Ax = b. The algorithm also applies to the solution of the full-rank Toeplitz or Hankel least squares problem.Comment: 17 pages. An old Technical Report with postscript added. For further details, see http://wwwmaths.anu.edu.au/~brent/pub/pub143.htm

Recent Advances in Understanding Particle Acceleration Processes in Solar Flares

We review basic theoretical concepts in particle acceleration, with particular emphasis on processes likely to occur in regions of magnetic reconnection. Several new developments are discussed, including detailed studies of reconnection in three-dimensional magnetic field configurations (e.g., current sheets, collapsing traps, separatrix regions) and stochastic acceleration in a turbulent environment. Fluid, test-particle, and particle-in-cell approaches are used and results compared. While these studies show considerable promise in accounting for the various observational manifestations of solar flares, they are limited by a number of factors, mostly relating to available computational power. Not the least of these issues is the need to explicitly incorporate the electrodynamic feedback of the accelerated particles themselves on the environment in which they are accelerated. A brief prognosis for future advancement is offered.Comment: This is a chapter in a monograph on the physics of solar flares, inspired by RHESSI observations. The individual articles are to appear in Space Science Reviews (2011

The Number Of Magnetic Null Points In The Quiet Sun Corona

The coronal magnetic field above a particular photospheric region will vanish at a certain number of points, called null points. These points can be found directly in a potential field extrapolation or their density can be estimated from Fourier spectrum of the magnetogram. The spectral estimate, which assumes that the extrapolated field is random, homogeneous and has Gaussian statistics, is found here to be relatively accurate for quiet Sun magnetograms from SOHO's MDI. The majority of null points occur at low altitudes, and their distribution is dictated by high wavenumbers in the Fourier spectrum. This portion of the spectrum is affected by Poisson noise, and as many as five-sixths of null points identified from a direct extrapolation can be attributed to noise. The null distribution above 1500 km is found to depend on wavelengths that are reliably measured by MDI in either its low-resolution or high-resolution mode. After correcting the spectrum to remove white noise and compensate for the modulation transfer function we find that a potential field extrapolation contains, on average, one magnetic null point, with altitude greater than 1.5 Mm, above every 322 square Mm patch of quiet Sun. Analysis of 562 quiet Sun magnetograms spanning the two latest solar minimum shows that the null point density is relatively constant with roughly 10% day-to-day variation. At heights above 1.5 Mm, the null point density decreases approximately as the inverse cube of height. The photospheric field in the quiet Sun is well approximated as that from discrete elements with mean flux 1.0e19 Mx distributed randomly with density n=0.007 per square Mm

The state of the Martian climate

60°N was +2.0°C, relative to the 1981–2010 average value (Fig. 5.1). This marks a new high for the record. The average annual surface air temperature (SAT) anomaly for 2016 for land stations north of starting in 1900, and is a significant increase over the previous highest value of +1.2°C, which was observed in 2007, 2011, and 2015. Average global annual temperatures also showed record values in 2015 and 2016. Currently, the Arctic is warming at more than twice the rate of lower latitudes

First foods in a packaged world: Results from the COMMIT consortium to protect young child diets in Southeast Asia

Although commercially produced complementary foods (CPCFs) are increasingly sold throughout Southeast Asia, concerns have been raised about CPCFs nutritional quality, labelling practices and the strength and scope of national CPCF regulations. The Consortium for Improving Complementary Foods in Southeast Asia (COMMIT), composed of UN agencies and civil society organizations, was formed to assess the nutrient gap in the diets of young children and the consumer, product and policy landscapes for CPCFs in seven Southeast Asian countries. Results from a nutrient gap assessment indicate that the diets of children aged 6–23 months are suboptimal and deficient in micronutrients. A consumer survey revealed that caretakers commonly use CPCFs, are conscious of the importance of nutrition and are influenced by label claims. Results from a CPCF benchmarking showed that many products sold in Southeast Asia contained added sugar or sweeteners, had a high total sugar and/or high sodium content and that no CPCF product adhered to all recommended labelling practices. Further, a legal review of national binding legal measures relevant to CPCFs showed minimal alignment with available global guidance. Urgent actions are necessary to strengthen national regulations related to CPCF nutrient composition and labelling practices. To speed progress, COMMIT developed a compendium of existing standards and global guidance to help countries align their national regulations with CPCF composition, labelling and production recommendations. Advocacy to garner public support for new or improved CPCF regulations, as well as strong government monitoring and enforcement of regulations, is crucial to support efforts to safeguard and improve the diets of older infants and young children in Southeast Asia

An Observational Overview of Solar Flares

We present an overview of solar flares and associated phenomena, drawing upon a wide range of observational data primarily from the RHESSI era. Following an introductory discussion and overview of the status of observational capabilities, the article is split into topical sections which deal with different areas of flare phenomena (footpoints and ribbons, coronal sources, relationship to coronal mass ejections) and their interconnections. We also discuss flare soft X-ray spectroscopy and the energetics of the process. The emphasis is to describe the observations from multiple points of view, while bearing in mind the models that link them to each other and to theory. The present theoretical and observational understanding of solar flares is far from complete, so we conclude with a brief discussion of models, and a list of missing but important observations.Comment: This is an article for a monograph on the physics of solar flares, inspired by RHESSI observations. The individual articles are to appear in Space Science Reviews (2011

State of the climate in 2013

In 2013, the vast majority of the monitored climate variables reported here maintained trends established in recent decades. ENSO was in a neutral state during the entire year, remaining mostly on the cool side of neutral with modest impacts on regional weather patterns around the world. This follows several years dominated by the effects of either La Niña or El Niño events. According to several independent analyses, 2013 was again among the 10 warmest years on record at the global scale, both at the Earths surface and through the troposphere. Some regions in the Southern Hemisphere had record or near-record high temperatures for the year. Australia observed its hottest year on record, while Argentina and New Zealand reported their second and third hottest years, respectively. In Antarctica, Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station reported its highest annual temperature since records began in 1957. At the opposite pole, the Arctic observed its seventh warmest year since records began in the early 20th century. At 20-m depth, record high temperatures were measured at some permafrost stations on the North Slope of Alaska and in the Brooks Range. In the Northern Hemisphere extratropics, anomalous meridional atmospheric circulation occurred throughout much of the year, leading to marked regional extremes of both temperature and precipitation. Cold temperature anomalies during winter across Eurasia were followed by warm spring temperature anomalies, which were linked to a new record low Eurasian snow cover extent in May. Minimum sea ice extent in the Arctic was the sixth lowest since satellite observations began in 1979. Including 2013, all seven lowest extents on record have occurred in the past seven years. Antarctica, on the other hand, had above-average sea ice extent throughout 2013, with 116 days of new daily high extent records, including a new daily maximum sea ice area of 19.57 million km2 reached on 1 October. ENSO-neutral conditions in the eastern central Pacific Ocean and a negative Pacific decadal oscillation pattern in the North Pacific had the largest impacts on the global sea surface temperature in 2013. The North Pacific reached a historic high temperature in 2013 and on balance the globally-averaged sea surface temperature was among the 10 highest on record. Overall, the salt content in nearsurface ocean waters increased while in intermediate waters it decreased. Global mean sea level continued to rise during 2013, on pace with a trend of 3.2 mm yr-1 over the past two decades. A portion of this trend (0.5 mm yr-1) has been attributed to natural variability associated with the Pacific decadal oscillation as well as to ongoing contributions from the melting of glaciers and ice sheets and ocean warming. Global tropical cyclone frequency during 2013 was slightly above average with a total of 94 storms, although the North Atlantic Basin had its quietest hurricane season since 1994. In the Western North Pacific Basin, Super Typhoon Haiyan, the deadliest tropical cyclone of 2013, had 1-minute sustained winds estimated to be 170 kt (87.5 m s-1) on 7 November, the highest wind speed ever assigned to a tropical cyclone. High storm surge was also associated with Haiyan as it made landfall over the central Philippines, an area where sea level is currently at historic highs, increasing by 200 mm since 1970. In the atmosphere, carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide all continued to increase in 2013. As in previous years, each of these major greenhouse gases once again reached historic high concentrations. In the Arctic, carbon dioxide and methane increased at the same rate as the global increase. These increases are likely due to export from lower latitudes rather than a consequence of increases in Arctic sources, such as thawing permafrost. At Mauna Loa, Hawaii, for the first time since measurements began in 1958, the daily average mixing ratio of carbon dioxide exceeded 400 ppm on 9 May. The state of these variables, along with dozens of others, and the 2013 climate conditions of regions around the world are discussed in further detail in this 24th edition of the State of the Climate series. © 2014, American Meteorological Society. All rights reserved