International Virtual Research Organization Network Evolution

International Virtual Research Organizations (IVROs) are organizations established to foster collaboration between international groups using cyberinfrastructure, which provides mechanisms for organizing, planning, and executing scientific research. This study traces the evolution of the organizational network of a large multi-disciplinary IVRO over the course of nine years. Results show significant deviations in participation during certain years that may indicate organizational turbulenc

A Typology of Virtual Research Environments

Virtual Research Environments (VREs) are online spaces that support communication and collaboration among scientists. Hundreds of VREs have been constructed using various configurations of research tools and information and communication technologies (ICTs) to serve many disciplines and interdisciplinary inquiry. This study characterizes a large sample of VREs in terms of the research and ICT resources they incorporate and derives a typology of VREs based on their particular ICT configurations. The four types are correlated with previous VRE typologies and disciplinary domains. Results indicate that there are correspondences, but that types of ICT configurations also exhibit complex relationships with function and discipline

Environmental determinants of perch (Perca fluviatilis) growth in gravel pit lakes and the relative performance of simple versus complex ecological predictors

Growth of fish is an important contributor to individual fitness as well as fish production. Explaining and predicting growth variation across populations is thus important from fundamental and applied perspectives, which requires knowledge about the ecological factors involved in shaping growth. To that end, we estimated environment-dependent von Bertalanffy growth models for 13 gravel pit lake populations of Eurasian perch (Perca fluviatilis) from north-western Germany. To identify the main drivers of perch growth, we evaluated the performance of 16 different biotic or abiotic lake variables in explaining growth variation among lakes. In addition, we compared growth predictions from the best-performing model incorporating “complex” variables that require intensive sampling effort, with a model using only “simple”, easily measurable lake variables (e.g. shoreline development factor). The derivation of a simple model aimed at future applications in typically data-poor inland fisheries, predicting expected growth potential from easily measurable lake variables. A model combining metabolic biomass of predators, maximum depth and shoreline development factor performed best in predicting perch growth variation across gravel pits. All three parameters in this model were positively related to perch growth. The best-performing simple model consisted only of the shoreline development factor. Length-at-age predictions from both models were largely identical, highlighting the utility of shoreline development factor in approximating growth potential of perch in gravel pits similar to our study lakes. Our results can be used to inform fisheries management and restoration efforts at existing or newly excavated gravel pit lakes.Bundesamt für Naturschutz http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100010415Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100002347Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100010198Peer Reviewe

Localization and functional consequences of a direct interaction between TRIOBP-1 and hERG/KCNH2 proteins in the heart

Reduced levels of hERG protein and the corresponding repolarizing current IKr can cause arrhythmia and sudden cardiac death, but the underlying cellular mechanisms controlling hERG surface expression are not well understood. We identified TRIOBP-1, an F-actin binding protein previously associated with actin polymerization, as a putative hERG-interacting protein in a yeast-two hybrid screen of a cardiac library. We corroborated this interaction using Forster resonance energy transfer (FRET) in HEK293 cells and co-immunoprecipitation in HEK293 cells and native cardiac tissue. TRIOBP-1 overexpression reduced hERG surface expression and current density, whereas reducing TRIOBP-1 expression via shRNA knockdown resulted in increased hERG protein levels. Immunolabeling in rat cardiomyocytes showed that native TRIOBP-1 overlapped predominantly with myosin binding protein C and secondarily with rat ERG. In human stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes, TRIOBP-1 overexpression caused intracellular co-sequestration of hERG signal, reduced native IKr, and disrupted action potential repolarization. Calcium currents were also reduced to a lesser degree and cell capacitance was increased. These findings establish that TRIOBP-1 interacts directly with hERG and can affect protein levels, IKr magnitude, and cardiac membrane excitability

A Social–Ecological Odyssey in Fisheries and Wildlife Management

Aldo Leopold, famous ecologist and “father” of North American wildlife management, once said, “These are two things that interest me: the relation of people to each other, and the relation of people to land” (Leopold 1947). Ever prescient, Leopold recognized that natural resource management is fundamentally about humans and their relationship with nature well before conservation became an established way of thinking, much less the bedrock of entire professions. Similarly, amid the Green Revolution to increase agricultural production, in part, through widespread use of pesticides, renowned environmentalist and journalist Rachel Carson noted that we are all “a part of nature, and [our] war against nature is inevitably a war against [ourselves]” (Carson 1962). Leopold’s and Carson’s words spoke volumes about pressing problems facing humanity and ecosystems at a time when innovative social–ecological thinking in mainstream spheres was direly needed. Throughout their lives, Leopold and Carson illustrated, in word and deed, how people and the environment are intertwined in ways that affect the productivity and sustainability of human and natural systems. Today, these human– environmental connections are well known by some groups of people—thanks to dedicated natural resource scientists, managers, and communicators, not to mention millennia-old connections to and understandings of the land by Indigenous peoples—but are too often unrecognized or taken for granted in broader society. The consequence of such social–ecological silence is a modern natural resource policy management environment that tends to approach conservation in fragments as opposed to holistically across human/social systems (e.g., socioeconomic, political, cultural) and natural/ecological systems (e.g., biological, geological, climatological). Although such fragmentation results from the historical independence of social and natural sciences, as well as the difficulty of integrating them (Liu et al. 2007a, 2007b; Ostrom 2009), we now have the knowledge and tools to write a new social–ecological chapter in conservation history. This is a crucial task because many of the world’s most pressing environmental challenges— those that threaten ecosystems and human systems alike (e.g., climate change, biodiversity loss, air and water pollution, food and nutrition insecurity, water scarcity)—are social–ecological by origin and structure, demanding integrative solutions rooted in human–environmental inquiry. Fortunately, the interconnectedness of humans and nature that so fascinated Leopold, Carson, and countless others represents an expanding research area—coupled human and natural systems (CHANS)—with promising potential to improve ecosystem integrity and human health and wellbeing (Hulina et al. 2017; López-Hoffman et al. 2017a; Kaemingk et al. 2020)

Lower possession limits and shorter seasons directly reduce for-hire fishing effort in a multispecies marine recreational fishery

Managers of recreational fisheries often rely on implicit and rarely-tested assumptions regarding how fishing effort will change in response to regulations. For instance, they assume that reduced seasons will directly reduce fishing effort without producing angler behavioral adaptations to maintain fishing opportunities and harvest. Vessel trip reports from a multispecies for-hire fishery in New Jersey, USA allowed us to empirically evaluate changes in fishing effort as overlapping seasons for four species became shorter and as possession limits decreased. We conducted focus groups with fishery stakeholders and then developed statistical models to evaluate hypotheses describing how anglers aboard for-hire vessels adapted to regulations. Fishing effort aboard charter boats remained consistent and primarily responded to the availability of “something” to harvest, suggesting that their customers are willing to substitute target species. Party boat anglers, in contrast, responded to the possession limits of black sea bass (Centropristis striata), and summer flounder (Paralichthys dentatus). Because party anglers were less willing to substitute target species, party vessel operators are likely particularly vulnerable to reductions in fishing opportunity and harvest potential.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author

Feeding Aquatic Ecosystems : Whole-Lake Experimental Addition of Angler’s Ground Bait Strongly Affects Omnivorous Fish Despite Low Contribution to Lake Carbon Budget

It is well documented that aquatic ecosystems may be subsidized by naturally derived terrestrial carbon sources. In contrast, the intentional or unintentional subsidy of animal populations by human-derived feed resources and their ecosystem effects are poorly studied. We added ground baits of the type, amount and temporal duration commonly applied by anglers targeting cyprinid fishes to a small lake, and studied behavior, diet composition and annual growth rate of the lake fish community in response to the bait addition. Based on recordings by a high-resolution ultrasonic telemetry array, common carp (Cyprinus carpio) as a model benthivore spend more time at the sites where ground baits were added, and they significantly reduced their home range relative to the period before bait addition. Furthermore, many omnivorous cyprinid fish species were regularly caught by angling at the feeding sites, indicating active ingestion of the artificially added food items. Stable isotope analyses of 13C and 15N showed that in particular larger specimens of common carp, bream (Abramis brama), white bream (Blicca bjoerkna), tench (Tinca tinca), roach (Rutilus rutilus) and rudd (Scardinius erythrophthalmus) included substantial amounts of angler baits into their diet. There was also a significant acceleration of growth in bream and white bream after bait addition, most likely attributable to the energetic benefits from bait addition. In contrast, there was no response in annual growth rate in top predators, suggesting they did not benefit from the subsidy. The amount of carbon introduced was very low (about 1%) relative to an estimate of in-lake C fixation by autotrophs. However, if the C added by bait was compared with the coarsely estimated secondary production of benthic macroinvertebrates in the lake, the C available to benthivorous and omnivorous fishes was comparable between natural resources and angler baits. We conclude that human-derived feed resources associated with recreational fishing may constitute a substantial subsidy to omnivorous fishes in lakes, in particular if the food is provided in form of particles, which are readily accessible and found at repeatable feeding places and over sufficiently long time periods during a year. The long-term consequences for the receiving ecosystems still have to be elucidated.peerReviewe