‘To prevent this disease, we have to stay at home, but if we stay at home, we die of hunger’ – livelihoods, vulnerability and coping with Covid-19 in rural Mozambique

Non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) such as social distancing and travel restrictions have been introduced to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus (hereinafter Covid). In many countries of the Global South, NPIs are affecting rural livelihoods, but in-depth empirical data on these impacts are limited. We traced the differentiated impacts of Covid NPIs throughout the start of the pandemic May to July 2020. We conducted qualitative weekly phone interviews (n=441) with 92 panelists from nine contrasting rural communities across Mozambique (3 to 7 study weeks), exploring how panelists’ livelihoods changed and how the NPIs intersected with, and often exacerbated, existing vulnerabilities, and created new exposures. The NPIs significantly re-shaped many livelihoods and placed greatest burdens on those with precarious incomes, women, children and the elderly, exacerbating existing vulnerabilities and creating new exposures. Travel and trading restrictions and rising prices for consumables including food meant some respondents were concerned about dying not of Covid, but of hunger because of the disruptions caused by NPIs. No direct health impacts of the pandemic were reported during our study period. Most market-orientated income diversification strategies largely failed to provide resilience to the NPI shocks. The exception was one specific case linked to a socially-minded value chain for baobab, where a strong duty of care helped avoid the collapse of incomes seen elsewhere. In contrast, agricultural and charcoal value chains either collapsed or saw producer prices and volumes reduced. The hyper-covariate, unprecedented nature of the shock caused significant restrictions on livelihoods through trading and transport limits and thus a region-wide decline in cash generation opportunities, which was seen as being unlike any prior shock. The scale of human-made interventions and their repercussions thus raises questions about the roles of institutional actors, diversification and socially-minded trading partners in addressing coping and vulnerability both conceptually and in policy-making

Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy investigation of water microenvironments in polyelectrolyte multilayers at varying temperatures

Polyelectrolyte multilayers (PEMs) are thin films formed by the alternating deposition of oppositely charged polyelectrolytes. Water plays an important role in influencing the physical properties of PEMs, as it can act both as a plasticizer and swelling agent. However, the way in which water molecules distribute around and hydrate ion pairs has not been fully quantified with respect to both temperature and ionic strength. Here, we examine the effects of temperature and ionic strength on the hydration microenvironments of fully immersed poly(diallyldimethylammonium)/polystyrene sulfonate (PDADMA/PSS) PEMs. This is accomplished by tracking the OD stretch peak using attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy at 0.25-1.5 M NaCl and 35-70 °C. The OD stretch peak is deconvoluted into three peaks: (1) high frequency water, which represents a tightly bound microenvironment, (2) low frequency water, which represents a loosely bound microenvironment, and (3) bulk water. In general, the majority of water absorbed into the PEM exists in a bound state, with little-to-no bulk water observed. Increasing temperature slightly reduces the amount of absorbed water, while addition of salt increases the amount of absorbed water. Finally, a van't Hoff analysis is applied to estimate the enthalpy (11-22 kJ mol-1) and entropy (48-79 kJ mol-1 K-1) of water exchanging from low to high frequency states.Peer reviewe

Edaphic specialization in relation to termite mounds in Katanga (DR Congo): A reciprocal transplant experiment with congeneric tree species

Question: Do termitophilous and non-termitophilous trees of dry tropical woodlands show local adaptation? Location: Region of Lubumbashi, Upper Katanga, DR Congo. Methods: Three pairs of congeneric tree species showing strict edaphic specialization with respect to termite mounds, Combretum molle (termitophilous, T)/C. collinum (non-termitophilous, NT); Strychnos potatorum (T)/S. spinosa (NT), Ziziphus mucronata (T)/Z. abyssinica (NT), were used in a reciprocal transplant experiment in situ. Seedlings were reciprocally transplanted on termite mounds and in the surrounding matrix in a miombo woodland. Growth (height and number of leaves) and survival were monitored for 30 months. Soil physical and chemical properties, and available water, were assessed on and off mounds. Results: Growth was little affected by habitat; only one species showed better growth in its home habitat (S. spinosa in the matrix). Survival was strongly affected by habitat, in opposite directions consistent with species’ habitat specialization. Termitophilous species experienced a very high mortality rate in the matrix, especially during the dry season. Available water content was higher in termite mound soil than in the matrix soil. Conclusions: Termitophilous and non-termitophilous tree species show local adaptation at the seedling stage, expressed mostly as different patterns of mortality in the dry season. The results point to water supply as a critical factor in the edaphic specialization of termitophilous species. In contrast, the higher mortality of non-termitophilous species on termite mounds is not explained by water stress.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe