Inclusive education for children with disabilities in a refugee camp

Children in refugee camps, and particularly those with disabilities, face unique challenges in accessing education and are at high risk of being marginalised. Best practices suggest that main-streaming is the optimal strategy for serving students with disabilities. This study examines the extent to which mainstreaming in a refugee camp helps to promote children's prosocial behaviours, taking into account their emotional and behavioural problems. In Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya, researchers collected data from the parents of children currently enrolled in special needs education centres (n=65) and from those formerly enrolled at these facilities who transitioned to mainstream classrooms (n=81). Children in mainstream schools functioned better in terms of prosocial behaviours, but this relationship disappeared when factoring in children's emotional and behavioural difficulties. In the context of a refugee camp, mainstreaming alone is not likely to help children's psychosocial and educational functioning, which requires dedicated supports, appropriate facilities and infrastructure, and a dual focus on disability-specific and disability-inclusive initiatives.     

Systematic regional planning for multiple objective natural resource management

On-ground natural resource management actions such as revegetation and remnant vegetation management can simultaneously affect multiple objectives including land, water and biodiversity resources. Hence, planning for the sustainable management of natural resources requires consideration of these multiple objectives. However, planning the location of management actions in the landscape often treats these objectives individually to reduce the process and spatial complexity inherent in human-modified and natural landscapes. This can be inefficient and potentially counterproductive given the linkages and trade-offs involved. We develop and apply a systematic regional planning approach to identify geographic priorities for on-ground natural resource management actions that most cost-effectively meet multiple natural resource management objectives. Our systematic regional planning approach utilises integer programming within a structured multi-criteria decision analysis framework. Intelligent siting can capitalise on the multiple benefits of on-ground actions and achieve natural resource management objectives more efficiently. The focus of this study is the human-modified landscape of the River Murray, South Australia. However, the methodology and analyses presented here can be adapted to other regions requiring more efficient and integrated planning for the management of natural resources.     

Genetic connectivity and historical demography of the blue barred parrotfish (Scarus ghobban) in the western Indian Ocean

Studies on genetic connectivity are essential for the design of management strategies for coral reef fisheries. In this study we used a mitochondrial DNA marker to investigate population structure of the reef-associated parrotfish, Scarus ghobban, from four countries, Kenya, Mauritius, Seychelles and Tanzania, in the western Indian Ocean. We obtained nucleotide sequences of the mitochondrial control region for 117 individuals. Measures of haplotype diversity were relatively high. Pairwise population differentiation (F _ST) was low, but not always non-significant. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) showed genetic differentiation between groups, when the data was partitioned into two groups consisting of samples from Mauritius and Tanzania in one group, and samples from Kenya and Seychelles in another group. Direction of gene flow was estimated using a Bayesian approach. Migration was sometimes asymmetric or directional, coinciding with the flow of major oceanic and coastal currents in the region. Mismatch distributions, based on the observed number of differences among haplotype pairs, produced a unimodal distribution, indicative of recent demographic expansion. Phylogenetic analyses revealed three clades without any geographic structure, suggesting recent migration between historically isolated lineages. We reconstructed the historical demography of S. ghobban and examined it in the context of Pleistocene climate stages and changes in relative sea level. Overall, these results showed that populations of S. ghobban are genetically diverse and have relatively high gene flow, with some genetic structuring in the western Indian Ocean.     

Monitoring of cadmium in "on" and "off" date palms

The study demonstrated that the mature dates we investigated were considered safe for human consumption. However, our findings revealed that much of the early fruit and leaves, which appeared at the advent of the fruiting season, possessed elevated levels of cadmium (Cd) that could accumulate in the food chain and thus impact adversely on the environment. In addition, animal feed for livestock contains date leaves, which should be restricted to the mature ones. The monitoring of cadmium in date palms is of considerable interest to environmental science and the thrust of this work, therefore, involved measurement, by ICP, of Cd in dates and corresponding leaf specimens, and evaluation of its distribution during the developmental stages of the fruiting season. Thirty-six date samples and 36 leaf specimens of the Fard cultivar were collected from "on" and "off" date palms during the Kimri, Bisir and Rutab stages of the fruiting season and subjected to suitable digestion procedures. Sample masses of typically 1 g (dry weight) were prepared in 25 ml dilute acid solution and investigated for trace levels of Cd by ICP-AES. Special attention was paid to contamination and the validation of our methodology. The Cd "threshold" in our study was 50 ng/g, in keeping with the levels of tolerance appearing in the literature. For the dates we found elevated levels of Cd [> 50 ng/g] in most of the samples, for both categories of "on" and "off" trees, during the Kimri stage. In the case of the leaves, the "on" samples revealed significant values up to 125 ng/g in Bisir, in some cases, but the trend for the "off" trees remained the same with the highest levels [> 100 ng/g] recorded during Kimri. Safe levels were attained during Rutab for all specimens. The possibility of a connection between Cd toxicity and the alternate-bearing phenomenon is discussed and this could be the subject of future interest.     

Using interview surveys and multispecies occupancy models to inform vertebrate conservation

Species distribution data are an essential biodiversity variable requiring robust monitoring to inform wildlife conservation. Yet, such data remain inherently sparse because of the logistical challenges of monitoring biodiversity across broad geographic extents. Surveys of people knowledgeable about the occurrence of wildlife provide an opportunity to evaluate species distributions and the ecology of wildlife communities across large spatial scales. We analyzed detection histories of 30 vertebrate species across the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot in India, obtained from a large-scale interview survey of 2318 people who live and work in the forests of this region. We developed a multispecies occupancy model that simultaneously corrected for false-negative (non-detection) and false-positive (misidentification) errors that interview surveys can be prone to. Using this model, we integrated data across species in composite analyses of the responses of functional species groups (based on disturbance tolerance, diet, and body mass traits) to spatial variation in environmental variables, protection, and anthropogenic pressures. We observed a positive association between forest cover and the occurrence of species with low tolerance of human disturbance. Protected areas were associated with higher occurrence for species across different functional groups compared with unprotected lands. We also observed the occurrence of species with low disturbance tolerance, herbivores, and large-bodied species was negatively associated with developmental pressures, such as human settlements, energy production and mining, and demographic pressures, such as biological resource extraction. For the conservation of threatened vertebrates, our work underscores the importance of maintaining forest cover and reducing deforestation within and outside protected areas, respectively. In addition, mitigating a suite of pervasive human pressures is also crucial for wildlife conservation in one of the world's most densely populated biodiversity hotspots.     

Biostimulation and bioaugmentation enhances aerobic biodegradation of dichloroethenes

The accumulation of dichloroethenes (DCEs) as dominant products of microbial reductive dechlorination activity in soil and water represent a significant obstacle to the application of bioremediation as a remedial option for chloroethenes in many contaminated systems. In this study, the effects of biostimulation and/or bioaugmentation on the biodegradation of cis- and trans-DCE in soil and water samples collected from contaminated sites in South Africa were evaluated in order to determine the possible bioremediation option for these compounds in the contaminated sites. Results from this study indicate that cis- and trans-DCE were readily degraded to varying degrees by natural microbial populations in all the soil and water samples tested, with up to 44% of cis-DCE and 41% of trans-DCE degraded in the untreated soil and water samples in two weeks. The degradation rate constants ranged significantly (P<0.05) between 0.0938 and 0.560 wk(-1) and 0.182 and 0.401 wk(-1), for cis- and trans-DCE, respectively, for the various treatments employed. A combination of biostimulation and bioaugmentation significantly increased the biodegradation of both compounds within two weeks; 14% for cis-DCE and 18% for trans-DCE degradation, above those observed in untreated soil and water samples. These findings support the use of a combination of biostimulation and bioaugmentation for the efficient biodegradation of these compounds in contaminated soil and water. In addition, the results clearly demonstrate that while naturally occurring microorganisms are capable of aerobic biodegradation of cis- and trans-DCE, biotransformation may be affected by several factors, including isomer structure, soil type, and the amount of nutrients available in the water and soil.     

Conserving alpha and beta diversity in wood-production landscapes

International demand for wood and other forest products continues to grow rapidly, and uncertainties remain about how animal communities will respond to intensifying resource extraction associated with woody bioenergy production. We examined changes in alpha and beta diversity of bats, bees, birds, and reptiles across wood production landscapes in the southeastern United States, a biodiversity hotspot that is one of the principal sources of woody biomass globally. We sampled across a spatial gradient of paired forest land-uses (representing pre and postharvest) that allowed us to evaluate biological community changes resulting from several types of biomass harvest. Short-rotation practices and residue removal following clearcuts were associated with reduced alpha diversity (−14.1 and −13.9 species, respectively) and lower beta diversity (i.e., Jaccard dissimilarity) between land-use pairs (0.46 and 0.50, respectively), whereas midrotation thinning increased alpha (+3.5 species) and beta diversity (0.59). Over the course of a stand rotation in a single location, biomass harvesting generally led to less biodiversity. Cross-taxa responses to resource extraction were poorly predicted by alpha diversity: correlations in responses between taxonomic groups were highly variable (−0.2 to 0.4) with large uncertainties. In contrast, beta diversity patterns were highly consistent and predictable across taxa, where correlations in responses between taxonomic groups were all positive (0.05–0.4) with more narrow uncertainties. Beta diversity may, therefore, be a more reliable and information-rich indicator than alpha diversity in understanding animal community response to landscape change. Patterns in beta diversity were primarily driven by turnover instead of species loss or gain, indicating that wood extraction generates habitats that support different biological communities.