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- Fenton, M Brock3
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- OPEN ACCESSAn age-structured life-cycle model of steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss) for the Stillaguamish River in Puget Sound, Washington, USA, was employed to estimate the number of age-1 steelhead parr that could have produced the estimated adult return of 69 000 in 1895. We then divided the estimated parr numbers by the estimated area of steelhead rearing habitat in the Stillaguamish River basin in 1895 and under current conditions to estimate density of rearing steelhead then and now. Scaled to estimates of total wetted area of tributary and mainstem shallow shoreline habitat, our historic estimates averaged 0.39–0.49 parr·m−2, and ranged from 0.24 to 0.7 parr·m−2. These values are significantly greater than current densities in the Stillaguamish (mainstem average: 0.15 parr·m−2, tributaries: 0.07 parr·m−2), but well within the range of recent estimates of steelhead parr rearing densities in high-quality habitats. Our results indicate that modest improvement in the capacity of mainstem and tributary rearing habitat in Puget Sound rivers will yield large recovery benefits if realized in a large proportion of the area of river basins currently accessible to steelhead.
- OPEN ACCESSThe accumulation of evidence that open access publishing can increase citation rates highlights one benefit of universal accessibility to scholarly works. However, studies investigating the effect of open access publishing on citations are typically conducted across a wide variety of journals and disciplines, introducing a number of potential issues and limiting their utility for specific disciplines. Here, I used three primary marine ecology journals with an open access option as a “microcosm” of scientific publishing to determine whether or not open access articles received more citations than non-open access articles during the same time frame, controlling for self-citations, article type, and journal impact factor. I also tested for the effects of time since publication and the number of authors. Citations were positively correlated with time since publication and differed across the three journals. In addition, open access articles received significantly more citations than non-open access articles. Self-citations increased with author number and were affected by a complex interaction between open access, journal, and time since publication. This study demonstrates that open access articles receive more citations in hybrid marine ecology journals, although the causal factors driving this trend are unknown.
- OPEN ACCESSAtlantic salmon populations are declining, and warming river temperatures in the summer months are thought to be a significant contributing factor. We describe the time course of cellular and metabolic responses to an ecologically relevant short-term thermal cycle in juvenile Atlantic salmon. We then examined whether this heat event would affect tolerance to a subsequent heat shock in terms of critical thermal maximum (CTmax). Fish induced heat shock protein 70 in red blood cells, heart, liver, and red and white muscle; whole blood glucose and lactate transiently increased during the heat cycle. In contrast, we observed no significant effect of a prior heat shock on CTmax. The CTmax was positively correlated with Fulton’s condition factor suggesting that fish with greater energy reserves are more thermally tolerant. Atlantic salmon activate cellular protection pathways in response to a single thermal cycle and appear to cope with this short-term, ∼1 d heat shock, but this challenge may compromise the ability to cope with subsequent heat events.
- OPEN ACCESSContemporary approaches to market-oriented agricultural development focus on increasing production and economic efficiency to improve livelihoods and well-being. For seed system development, this has meant a focus on seed value chains predicated on standardized economic transactions and improved variety seeds. Building formal seed systems requires establishing and strengthening social institutions that reflect the market-oriented values of efficiency and standardization, institutions that often do not currently exist in many local and informal seed systems. This paper describes and analyzes efforts to develop formal seed systems in Sahelian West Africa over the past 10 years, and identifies the impacts for farmers of the social institutions that constitute formal seed systems. Using qualitative and spatial data and analysis, the paper characterizes farmers’ and communities’ experiences with seed access through the newly established formal seed system. The results demonstrate that the social and spatial extents of the formal and informal seed systems are extended and integrated through social institutions that reflect values inherent in both systems. The impacts of current market-oriented agricultural development projects are, therefore, more than in the past, in part because the social institutions associated with them are less singular in their vision for productive and economic efficiency.
- OPEN ACCESSThis paper addresses how available resources, food security, technology, and culture are shaping the choices rural Malian women are making to ensure the health, energy, and well-being of their families. This research contributed to evaluating an eight-year research project (An Be Jigi) targeting improved nutrition. The study, performed over four months, used semi-structured interviews of 120 women in six villages in Mali to assess the identified issues with qualitative and quantitative approaches. This paper describes the history of the An Be Jigi project, whole-grain processing techniques, and group cooking for knowledge sharing with rural women for improved nutrition. Interviews revealed substantial adoption of whole-grain processing techniques and women’s appreciation of the nutritional benefits of those techniques. The women engaged in group cooking (cuisines collectives) appreciated the activities and mentioned multiple benefits from using them. Women identified access to mills, and to some extent the social stigma of laziness and poverty associated with whole-grain food, as limiting factors of adoption. This study of women’s practices and perceptions regarding use of whole grain tells a story of changing consumption habits being shaped by culture, technology, knowledge, and available resources. Malian women are agents of change and care in their adoption of new techniques and recipes for the improved nutrition of young children and households.
- OPEN ACCESSAspects of Canada’s health regulatory system are currently being reviewed. This is timely, as the regulation and definition of drugs, foods, and natural health products (NHPs) is in need of revision to facilitate greater transparency and less ambiguity. A number of studies have illustrated the importance of a nutritious diet to prevent and manage chronic disease. Therefore, legislation surrounding food health claims needs to be adjusted so that it is more informative for disease prevention and, in some cases, treatment. Canada is modernizing the regulation of self-care products, under which NHPs, including probiotic products, are listed. With the growing appreciation for the role that microbes play in human health and the recognition that many foods, including those containing probiotic organisms, can prevent or mitigate disease, this provides an opportunity to reassess regulatory categories.
- OPEN ACCESS
- Claire N. Freeman,
- Lena Scriver,
- Kara D. Neudorf,
- Lisbeth Truelstrup Hansen,
- Rob C. Jamieson, and
- Christopher K. Yost
Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) have been identified as hotspots for antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) and thus represent a critical point where patterns in ARG abundances can be monitored prior to their release into the environment. The aim of the current study was to measure the impact of the release of the final treated effluent (FE) on the abundance of ARGs in the receiving water of a recently upgraded WWTP in the Canadian prairies. Sample nutrient content (phosphorous and nitrogen species) was measured as a proxy for WWTP functional performance, and quantitative PCR (qPCR) was used to measure the abundance of eight ARGs, the intI1 gene associated with class I integrons, and the 16S rRNA gene. The genes ermB, sul1, intI1, blaCTX-M, qnrS, and tetO all had higher abundances downstream of the WWTP, consistent with the genes with highest abundance in the FE. These findings are consistent with the increasing evidence suggesting that human activity affects the abundances of ARGs in the environment. Although the degree of risk associated with releasing ARGs into the environment is still unclear, understanding the environmental dimension of this threat will help develop informed management policies to reduce the spread of antibiotic resistance and protect public health. - OPEN ACCESSCoastal biogenic habitats are vulnerable to human impacts from both terrestrial and marine realms. Yet the broad spatial scale used in current approaches of quantifying anthropogenic stressors is not relevant to the finer scales affecting most coastal habitats. We developed a standardized human impact metric that includes five bay-scale and four local-scale (0–1 km) terrestrial and marine-based impacts to quantify the magnitude of anthropogenic impacts to coastal bays and nearshore biogenic habitats. We applied this metric to 180 seagrass beds (Zostera marina), an important biogenic habitat prioritized for marine protection, in 52 bays across Atlantic Canada. The results show that seagrass beds and coastal bays exist across a wide human impact gradient and provide insight into which are the most and least affected by human threats. Generally, land alteration, nutrient loading, and shellfish aquaculture were higher in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, whereas invasive species and fishing activities were higher along the Atlantic coast. Sixty-four percent of bays were at risk of seagrass decline from nitrogen loading. We also found high within-bay variation in impact intensity, emphasizing the necessity of quantifying impacts at multiple spatial scales. We discuss implications for management and conservation planning, and application to other coastal habitats in Canada and beyond.
- OPEN ACCESS
An analysis of threats and factors that predict trends in Canadian vertebrates designated as at-risk
The identification of factors that predict trends in population abundance is critical to formulate successful conservation strategies. Here, we explore population trends of Canadian vertebrates assessed as “at-risk” by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada and the threats affecting these trends using data from the Canadian Living Planet Index. We investigate how threat profiles—the combination of threats for a given species—vary among species and taxonomic groups. We then investigate threat profile as a predictor of temporal trends—both exclusively and in combination with additional biotic and abiotic factors. Species had 5.06 (±2.77) threats listed on average, and biological resource use (BRU) was the most frequently cited. Our analysis also revealed an association between taxonomic group and population trends, as measured by the proportion of annual increases (years with a positive interannual change). By contrast, the predictive power of threat profile was poor. This analysis yielded some useful insight for conservation action, particularly the prioritization of abating BRU. However, the predictive models were not as meaningful as originally anticipated. We provide recommendations on methodological improvements to advance the understanding of factors that predict trends in population abundance for prioritizing conservation action. - OPEN ACCESS
- R. Drew Carleton,
- Emily Owens,
- Holly Blaquière,
- Stéphane Bourassa,
- Joseph J. Bowden,
- Jean-Noël Candau,
- Ian DeMerchant,
- Sara Edwards,
- Allyson Heustis,
- Patrick M.A. James,
- Alison M. Kanoti,
- Chris J.K. MacQuarrie,
- Véronique Martel,
- Eric R.D. Moise,
- Deepa S. Pureswaran,
- Evan Shanks, and
- Rob C. Johns
Insect outbreaks can cover vast geographic areas making it onerous to cost-effectively monitor populations to address management or ecological questions. Community science (or citizen science), which entails engaging the public to assist with data collection, provides a possible solution to this challenge for the spruce budworm (Choristoneura fumiferana Clemens), a major defoliating pest in North America. Here, we lay out the Budworm Tracker Program, a contributory community science program developed to help monitor spruce budworm moths throughout eastern Canada. The program outsources free pheromone trap kits to volunteers who periodically check and collect moths from their traps throughout the budworm flight period, then return them in a prepaid envelope to the organizers. Over three years, the program engaged an average of 216–375 volunteers and yielded a data return rate of 68%–89%, for a total of 16 311–54 525 moths per year. Volunteer retention among years was 71%–89%. Data from this program offer compelling evidence for the range of long-distance moth dispersal. Although our program was designed for spruce budworm, this template could easily be adapted for forestry, urban forestry, and agricultural systems to monitor any of the numerous organisms for which there is an established trapping method. - OPEN ACCESS
- Kyle A. Schang,
- Andrew J. Trant,
- Sara A. Bohnert,
- Alana M. Closs,
- Megan Humchitt,
- Kelsea P. McIntosh,
- Robert G. Way, and
- Sara B. Wickham
The relationship between Indigenous peoples and the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems has received increased attention in recent years. As a result, it is becoming more critical for researchers focusing on terrestrial ecosystems to work with Indigenous groups to gain a better understanding of how past and current stewardship of these lands may influence results. As a case study to explore these ideas, we systematically reviewed articles from 2008 to 2018 where research was conducted in North America, South America, and Oceania. Of the 159 articles included, 11 included acknowledgement of Indigenous stewardship, acknowledged the Indigenous Territories or lands, or named the Indigenous group on whose Territory the research was conducted. Within the scope of this case study, our results demonstrate an overall lack of Indigenous acknowledgement or consideration within the scope of our review. Given the recent advancements in our understanding of how Indigenous groups have shaped their lands, we implore researchers to consider collaboration among local Indigenous groups as to better cultivate relationships and foster a greater understanding of their ecosystems. - OPEN ACCESSWe report on the results of the first mark–recapture survey of freshwater turtles in an isolated urban wetland complex in one of Canada’s fastest growing municipalities. Although we found turtles in every surveyed wetland, the density and assemblage of turtles in smaller wetlands were significantly different than in larger wetland bodies. We also documented two species of turtles that were thought to be absent from this wetland complex, the Northern Map turtle and Eastern Musk turtle. We noted that a wetland that was bisected by a high-traffic road showed a male-skewed sex ratio in the population of Midland Painted turtles but not in the population of Eastern Snapping turtles. As a whole, the sex ratios inside the wetland complex were not skewed. These results reinforce the conclusions of a previous study of a single wetland within this same complex that had found a correlation between road mortality and a male-skewed sex ratio in Midland painted turtles. We discuss population sources and sinks within the complex and the importance of protecting the overland corridors that support the safe turtle movements within this provincially significant wetland complex.
- OPEN ACCESS
- OPEN ACCESSWith the widespread loss of biodiversity, zoos and aquariums are striving to become leaders in biodiversity conservation and research. Canada’s Accredited Zoos and Aquariums (CAZA) is a nonprofit organization created to represent its members, including as agencies of conservation and science. However, the contribution of CAZA members to conservation and science has not been quantified. We used research productivity in the form of peer-reviewed publications to systematically quantify biodiversity conservation engagement by CAZA institutions. We extracted publications from the ISI Web of Science database and found that the annual number of publications increased over time. CAZA members published most in the area of veterinary science, with few publications in biodiversity conservation. Organization age, research-orientated mission statements, and financial assets were significant predictors of research productivity. CAZA institutions also published significantly less (X¯ = 12.5 ± 5.52 SE) than members of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (X¯ = 24.27 ± 5.08 SE), based in the United States. Zoos and aquariums are important resources in mitigating biodiversity loss, and are increasing their research output in this area. Nonetheless, only a small proportion of publications were in biodiversity conservation, and the majority of all publications occurred in zoo-centric journals.
- OPEN ACCESSBats are susceptible to rabies. Although bats may appear to be asymptomatic carriers of rabies for a few days, eventually they fall ill to the viral infection and die. Two of at least four bat-specific variants of rabies virus in Canada have killed humans. Rabies is usually transmitted by biting, but bats are small mammals so their bites may go unnoticed. People exposed to rabid animals should receive postexposure prophylaxis (PEP). With 60 known human deaths from 1950 to 2009, rabies is rare in Canada and the United States of America compared with India where it kills over 100 people annually. In Asia and Africa, most human rabies is acquired from dog bites. In Brazil, dog and bat bites together account for >80% of human rabies. In Canada, rabies is a disease primarily confined to wildlife (foxes, racoons, skunks, and bats). The public image of bats is negatively affected by their association with diseases. Too often bats are victimized by allegations of their role in deadly diseases such as rabies, Ebola, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). In general, bats are not dangerous, but humans should seek treatment if they are bitten by one. (Graphical abstract shows a 4-g elegant myotis biting MBF’s finger—photo by Sherri and Brock Fenton.)
- OPEN ACCESSThere is a gap between fundamental science and managers. There are many general solutions including the need to better leverage the primary scientific literature for decision-making. Herein, we provide a list of 10 simple rules to support environmental management through better scientific writing and suggest practices for more transparent publications. These rules can also be used as a checklist for reusing the primary literature when searching for relevant evidence in the environmental sciences. We need to better structure knowledge in papers for connections within sustainable societies.
- OPEN ACCESS
- Jeremy R. Brammer,
- Allyson K. Menzies,
- Laurence S. Carter,
- Xavier Giroux-Bougard,
- Manuelle Landry-Cuerrier,
- Melanie-Louise Leblanc,
- Mikhaela N. Neelin,
- Emily K. Studd, and
- Murray M. Humphries
Traditional food systems based on harvest from the local environment are fundamental to the well-being of many communities, but their security is challenged by rapid socio-ecological change. We synthesized literature and data describing how a fundamental form of biodiversity, animal body size, contributes to the security of traditional food systems through relationships with species availability, accessibility, adequacy, and use. We found larger vertebrate species were more available, accessible, and used on a per kilogram basis, particularly for mammals. Conversely, larger species were no more or less adequate from a combined nutritional, health, and cultural perspective. Larger species represented more biomass, and this biomass required less time to harvest, with greater but more variable mean caloric returns over time. Smaller species provided more consistent caloric returns and were harvested during documented shortages of prey. This reliance on species with a range of body sizes is consistent with optimal foraging theory and the evolutionary value of flexibility, and highlights the importance of a biodiverse pool of species for traditional food security in times of change. Our synthesis of published literature and data highlights the many socio-ecological correlates of species size and how these relate to the security of traditional food systems. - OPEN ACCESS
- OPEN ACCESSOpen access (OA) allows for peer-reviewed research to be freely accessed and there has been a collective shift from both researchers and publishers towards more OA publishing. OA typically occurs either through article-processing charges (the gold road) or via self-archiving (the green road); the former can be expensive, while the latter has seen minimal uptake. The gold road of OA has led to predatory publishers and, to some, questionable publications. Here, I used publicly available grant information in Canada and combined this with individual publishing statistics to test a variety of factors and their influence on OA publishing. I showed that an individual’s award amount, H-index, and gender did not influence the proportion of OA articles they published, but an individual’s H-index scaled with the number of OA publications. Institute size influenced OA publishing patterns, with researchers at large universities (i.e., >20 000 full-time students) publishing proportionately more OA articles than medium and small institutes. I discuss the potential for this pattern to build on pre-existing systemic biases when it comes to funding and publishing.
- OPEN ACCESS