Vitamins,folic acid and neural tube defects: Comments on investigations in the United States

No clear answer concerning whether multivitamin/folate supplementation prevents neural tube defects (NTDs) is provided by three studies in the United States. All these studies are occurrence in nature, no recurrence studies having been conducted. The Atlanta Birth Defects Study is subject to pronounced memory and recall biases, the length between event and interview being as long as 16 years. In a second study (Boston University), objections can be raised to certain aspects of the experimental design, and the claim that 22 per cent of women started vitamins sufficiently early after pregnancy diagnosis to influence NTD formation is suspicious. Our NICHD case control study of 541 women in California and Illinois revealed no evidence for multivitamins or folic acid preventing NTDs. U.S. public policy-makers face difficulties in applying results of recurrence or occurrence studies in high-risk areas to low-risk areas in the U.S.     

Local Perceptions of Changes in Traditional Ecological Knowledge: A Case Study from Malekula Island,Vanuatu

Traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) is a critical global resource that may be eroding amid social and environmental change. Here, we present data on local perceptions of TEK change from three communities on Malekula Island in Vanuatu. Utilizing a structured interview (n = 120), we find a common perception of TEK loss. Participants defined two key periods of TEK erosion (roughly 1940–1960 and 1980–present), and noted that TEK decline was driven both external (e.g., church) and internal (e.g., shifting values) processes. Erosion was perceived to more comprehensive in the worldview domain than in aspects of ethnobiological knowledge and practice. These data indicate the perceived fragility of TEK systems and the complexity of TEK change. TEK systems are critical to natural resource management, and data such as these will assist in designing nuanced responses to the ongoing loss of cultural knowledge and practice.     

Biogeochemical consequences of a changing Arctic shelf seafloor ecosystem

Unprecedented and dramatic transformations are occurring in the Arctic in response to climate change, but academic, public, and political discourse has disproportionately focussed on the most visible and direct aspects of change, including sea ice melt, permafrost thaw, the fate of charismatic megafauna, and the expansion of fisheries. Such narratives disregard the importance of less visible and indirect processes and, in particular, miss the substantive contribution of the shelf seafloor in regulating nutrients and sequestering carbon. Here, we summarise the biogeochemical functioning of the Arctic shelf seafloor before considering how climate change and regional adjustments to human activities may alter its biogeochemical and ecological dynamics, including ecosystem function, carbon burial, or nutrient recycling. We highlight the importance of the Arctic benthic system in mitigating climatic and anthropogenic change and, with a focus on the Barents Sea, offer some observations and our perspectives on future management and policy.     

Ecology of subtropical hermit crabs in S.W. Madagascar: cluster structure and function

The Madagascar coast (both) has a higher density and diversity of hermit crabs than is known from any other locality in the western Indian Ocean. Of the 20 species occurring at Anakao (S.W. Madagascar), 11 aggregated into clusters, including all but one of the species above the subtidal zone. The mean number of hermit crabs and species in clusters varied with several spatial parameters and time. Over 80% of the community clustered in certain habitats in particular tidal zones, whilst as low as 3% clustered in others. The highest intensity of clustering with shore zone was coincident with peak numbers of hermit crabs. The initiation and duration of clusters of hermit crabs above the eulittoral was driven by circadian rhythms, whilst those in the eulittoral were governed by tidal state. Clusters above and below the eulittoral were longer in duration, and those in the subtidal were more temporally variable than those above it. Certain pairs of species showed positive correlations of occurrence and (more rarely) of abundance, and all the correlations (of occurrence) of one, Clibanarius eurysternus, were negative. Positive correlations of occurrence were related to the degree of shell-use commonality between species pairs. Eulittoral species clustered with other individuals of approximately similar size and exchanged shells upon cluster disintegration. There was evidence of a dehydration-reduction function to shell clustering in addition to shell-exchange facilitation. The highly variable species-specific strategies of clustering may be important in alleviating both intra- and interspecific competition in assemblages of similar and highly abundant species.     

Estimation of Trends in Atmospheric Concentrations of Sulfate in the Northeastern United States

Abstract

Daily atmospheric concentrations of sulfate collected at six locations in the northeastern United States are regressed against meteorological factors, ozone, seasonal cycles, and time in order to determine if a significant trend in sulfate can be detected. The data used in this analysis were collected during the Sulfate Regional Experiment (SURE, 1977-1978) and the Eulerian Model Evaluation Field Study (EMEFS, 1988-1989). Ozone, specific humidity, and seasonal terms (reflecting the potential of the atmosphere for oxidation of sulfur dioxide) emerged as important explanatory variables. After accounting for the variability explained by environmental factors, the median estimated change in sulfate concentration from the six locations over the 11-year period is -22% (or -28% if ozone is not used as an explanatory variable). Although there are wide variations among locations, these changes are commensurate with an estimated 25% decline in sulfur emissions in the northeastern U.S. during the same period. These analyses provide insight into methods for detecting reductions in sulfate that may be expected to occur as a result of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. Uncertainties in the estimates, with consideration of serial correlation in the data, imply a minimum detectable reduction of 10% using this modeling procedure with similar data availability.     

A Question of Boundaries: The Importance of “Revenuesheds” for Watershed Protection1

Patterson, Lauren A., Jeffrey Hughes, Glenn Barnes, and Stacey I. Berahzer, 2012. A Question of Boundaries: The Importance of “Revenuesheds” for Watershed Protection. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 48(4): 838‐848. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752‐1688.2012.00655.x Abstract: Watersheds transcend jurisdictional boundaries; raising important questions of who should pay for watershed protection, and how can watershed governance be funded? The responsibility and cost for watershed protection has progressively devolved to local governments, resulting in additional negative externalities and financing challenges. Watershed governance structures have formed at the scale of the watershed, but they often lack the financing mechanisms needed to achieve policy goals. Financing mechanisms via local governments provide a reliable source of revenue and the flexibility to address watershed specific issues. We develop a “revenueshed” approach to access the initial challenges local governments face when seeking to finance trans‐jurisdictional watershed governance. The revenueshed approach engages local governments into discussion and implementation of financial strategies for collaborative watershed governance. Legislation places water quality regulations primarily on local governments inside the watershed. The revenueshed approach extends the financial and stewardship discussion to include local governments outside the watershed that benefit from the watershed. We applied the revenueshed approach to the Mills River and Upper Neuse watersheds in North Carolina. Mills River had a partnership governance seeking revenue for specific projects, whereas the Upper Neuse sought long‐term financial stability to meet new water quality legislation.     

Effect of outdoor temperature, heat primes and anchoring on belief in global warming

It is generally acknowledged that global warming is occurring, yet estimates of future climate change vary widely. Given this uncertainty, when asked about climate change, it is likely that people’s judgments may be affected by heuristics and accessible schemas. Three studies evaluated this proposition. Study 1 revealed a significant positive correlation between the outdoor temperature and beliefs in global warming. Study 2 showed that people were more likely to believe in global warming when they had first been primed with heat-related cognitions. Study 3 demonstrated that people were more likely to believe in global warming and more willing to pay to reduce global warming when they had first been exposed to a high vs. a low anchor for future increases in temperature. Together, results reveal that beliefs about global warming (and willingness to take actions to reduce global warming) are influenced by heuristics and accessible schemas. Several practical implications are discussed.     

Detection of low-grade mosaicism in fetal cells isolated from maternal blood

Recovering and analysing fetal erythrocytes from maternal blood is being pursued for non-invasive prenatal genetic diagnosis. We report the observation of 46, XY/47, XXY mosaicism in fetal cells from a woman whose first-trimester chorionic villus sampling (CVS) initially showed only 46, XY. Only after exhaustive (500 cells) analysis were four XXY cells found in cultured villi.     

Establishing ozone flux–response relationships for winter wheat: Analysis of uncertainties based on data for UK and Polish genotypes

The work outlined in this paper had three objectives. The first was to explore the effects of ozone pollution on grain yield and quality of commercially-grown winter wheat cultivars. The second was to derive a stomatal ozone flux model for winter wheat and compare with those already developed for spring wheat. The third was to evaluate exposure- versus flux–response approaches from a risk assessment perspective, and explore the implications of genetic variation in modelled ozone flux.Fifteen winter wheat cultivars were grown in open-top chambers where they were exposed to four levels of ozone. During fumigation, stomatal conductance measurements were made over the lifespan of the flag leaf across a range of environmental conditions. Although significant intra-specific variation in ‘ozone sensitivity’ (in terms of impacts on yield) was identified, yield was inversely related (R² = 0.63, P < 0.001) to the accumulated hourly averaged ozone exposure above 40 ppb during daylight hours (AOT40) across the dataset. The adverse effect of ozone on yield was principally due to a decline in seed weight. Algorithms defining the influence of environmental variables on stomatal uptake were subtly different from those currently in use, based on data for spring wheat, to map ozone impacts on pan-European cereal yield. Considerable intra-specific variation in phenological effects was identified. This meant that an ‘average behaviour’ had to be derived which reduced the predictive capability of the derived stomatal flux model (R² = 0.49, P < 0.001, 15 cultivars included). Indeed, given the intra-specific variability encountered, the flux model that was derived from the full dataset was no better in predicting O₃ impacts on wheat yield than was the AOT40 index. The study highlights the need to use ozone risk assessment tools appropriate to specific vegetation types when modelling and mapping ozone impacts at the regional level.