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"Smith, Christopher D."
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A discursive review of the textual use of ‘trapped’ in environmental migration studies
First mooted in 2011, the concept of Trapped Populations referring to people unable to move from environmentally high-risk areas broadened the study of human responses to environmental change. While a seemingly straightforward concept, the underlying discourses around the reasons for being ‘trapped’, and the language describing the concept have profound influences on the way in which policy and practice approaches the needs of populations at risk from environmental stresses and shocks. In this article, we apply a Critical Discourse Analysis to the academic literature on the subject to reveal some of the assumptions implicit within discussing ‘trapped’ populations. The analysis reveals a dominant school of thought that assisted migration, relocation, and resettlement in the face of climate change are potentially effective adaptation strategies along a gradient of migrant agency and governance.
Journal Article
Epidemiology of Tumor-Induced Osteomalacia in Denmark
Tumor-induced osteomalacia (TIO) is a rare, acquired condition of phosphate wasting due to phosphaturic mesenchymal tumors. Because the incidence and prevalence of TIO is unknown, we conducted an observational cohort study using national Danish health registers for the period 2008 to 2018 to obtain such information. The study also aimed to describe the demographics of the TIO population and the prognosis. The operational definition was based on hypophosphatemia or adult osteomalacia diagnoses, combined with prescriptions used in the initial management and procedures consistent with advanced imaging used for locating tumors. The incidence of TIO in Denmark was found to be below 0.13 per 100,000 person years for the total population of the country and 0.10 per 100,000 in adult-onset disease. The prevalence of TIO was estimated to be no more than 0.70 per 100,000 persons for the total population and 0.43 per 100,000 in adults. In 2018, there were a maximum of nine new cases of TIO in Danish adults. Mortality was low but few patients fulfilled the protocol cure criterion during the observation period. TIO has no ICD-10 code and limitations to the study include lack of information on serum biochemistry and on the use of phosphate supplements. Strengths include the use of long-term longitudinal, national hospital and prescription data from a country with universal healthcare. Given the very small patient population with TIO and the known delay to diagnosis and cure, management of patients with suspected TIO should be centralized.
Journal Article
Social class and fertility: A long-run analysis of Southern Sweden, 1922-2015
This paper examines social class differences in fertility, using longitudinal micro-level data for a regional sample in Sweden, 1922-2015. Using discrete-time event history models, we estimated the association between social class and parity-specific duration to next birth, adjusting for household income in separate models. Social class was associated with fertility quite independently from income and the association was both parity-dependent and sex-specific. For transitions to parenthood, higher class position was associated with higher fertility for men and lower fertility for women before 1970, but then converged into a positive association for both sexes after 1990. For continued childbearing, a weak U-shaped relationship before 1947 turned into a positive relationship for second births and a negative relationship for higher-order births in the period after 1990. These patterns likely reflect broader changes in work-family compatibility and are connected to profound shifts in labour markets and institutional arrangements in twentieth-century Sweden.
Journal Article
Transposable element islands facilitate adaptation to novel environments in an invasive species
Adaptation requires genetic variation, but founder populations are generally genetically depleted. Here we sequence two populations of an inbred ant that diverge in phenotype to determine how variability is generated.
Cardiocondyla obscurior
has the smallest of the sequenced ant genomes and its structure suggests a fundamental role of transposable elements (TEs) in adaptive evolution. Accumulations of TEs (TE islands) comprising 7.18% of the genome evolve faster than other regions with regard to single-nucleotide variants, gene/exon duplications and deletions and gene homology. A non-random distribution of gene families, larvae/adult specific gene expression and signs of differential methylation in TE islands indicate intragenomic differences in regulation, evolutionary rates and coalescent effective population size. Our study reveals a tripartite interplay between TEs, life history and adaptation in an invasive species.
Genetic variation is key to species evolution. Here the authors sequence two phenotypically distinct populations of the ant
Cardiocondyla obscurior
, and find accumulations of transposable elements correlating with genetic variation that may have a role in differentiation, adaptation and speciation.
Journal Article
Community Engagement in UNESCO Biosphere Reserves and Geoparks: Case Studies from Mount Hakusan in Japan and Altai in Russia
UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB) and the International Geoscience and Geoparks Programme (IGGP) are two themes in UNESCO’s Natural Science Sector. Biosphere Reserves of the MAB Programme are more focused on building international, regional, sub-regional, and ecosystem-specific cooperation as “learning places’’ for sustainable development with a focus on biodiversity. The IGGP supports research and capacity development in Earth Sciences and comprises two sub-programmes: the International Geoscience Programme (IGCP) and the UNESCO Global Geoparks Programme (UGGP). UNESCO Global Geoparks (UGGps) use a bottom-up approach to engage local communities in capacity building, via tourism development, with the common goal of promoting and protecting the area’s geological and cultural heritage. Here, we present the results of comparing local involvement from two case studies from Japan, the Mount Hakusan Biosphere Reserve and the National Mount Hakusan Tedori-river Geopark, along with two case studies from Russia, the Altaisky Biosphere Reserve and the regional Geopark Altai. In this study, we found more involvement by local community members in the Geopark than in the Biosphere Reserve in Japan. The Russian case studies show a complete opposite result with more involvement of local communities in the BRs, and less participation in Geopark management. The purpose of this project was to provide information to improve local involvement in both Japanese and Russian Biosphere Reserves and Geoparks through changes in education and management styles.
Journal Article
Body condition as a descriptor of American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) health status in the Greater Everglades, Florida, United States
Body condition is used as an indicator of the degree of body fat in an animal but evidence of its actual relationship with health diagnostics (e.g., blood parameters) is usually lacking across species. In American alligators ( Alligator mississippiensis ), body condition has been used as a performance metric within the Greater Everglades ecosystem to provide insight on hydrological and landscape changes on alligator populations. However, there is no clear evidence that spatial body condition changes relate to different health conditions (low food intake vs sickness) and whether this link can be made when relating body condition values with blood parameters. We assessed the relationship between alligator body condition and 36 hematological and biochemistry (blood) parameters in four areas across two physiographic regions (Everglades and Big Cypress) of the Greater Everglades (sample size = 120). We found very strong to weak evidence of linearity between 7 (Big Cypress) and 19 (Everglades) blood parameters and relative condition factor index, from which cholesterol (38%) and uric acid (41%) for the former and phosphorus (up to 52%) and cholesterol (up to 45%) for the latter (mean absolute error MAE = 0.18 each) were the predictors that individually explain most of the body condition variation. The best combination of blood parameters for the Everglades were cholesterol, phosphorus, osmolality, total protein, albumin, alpha 2, beta, and gamma globulins, and corticosterone accounting for 40% (37 ± 21%, MAE = 0.16) of the variation found in alligator body condition for this region. We found better predictability power in models when analyzed at smaller rather than larger scales showing a potential habitat effect on the body condition—blood parameters relationship. Overall, Everglades alligators in poorer condition are likely dehydrated or have an inadequate diet and the spatial differences found between physiographic regions suggest that these areas differ in prey availability/quality.
Journal Article
Comparative Analysis between the Role of Local Communities in Regional Development inside Japanese and Russian UNESCO’s Biosphere Reserves: Case Studies of Mount Hakusan and Katunskiy Biosphere Reserves
The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization has designated the Man and Biosphere Program to foster a better relationship between the environment and people. The topic of this study is to elucidate the role of local communities in the regional development of Biosphere Reserves with a focus on management roles (top-down or participatory) and the motivational drivers of the people involved (ecocentric or anthropocentric). Based on qualitative interviews taken from the two case studies of the Mount Hakusan Biosphere Reserve in Japan and the Katunskiy Biosphere Reserve in Russia, a comparative analysis was conducted to explore the differences between the engagement of locals in the management of their biosphere reserves. This analysis examined relationships between the government and the local communities, the attitudes of the locals towards the biosphere reserves, and the historical perception on nature protection for each community. The findings showed that Russian biosphere reserves are mainly managed by local people who live inside the protected area while Japanese biosphere reserves are governed by local authorities and administration offices. This allows the Russian communities to have greater access to management processes, and therefore play a larger role in regional development.
Journal Article
A New Threat to Honey Bees, the Parasitic Phorid Fly Apocephalus borealis
Honey bee colonies are subject to numerous pathogens and parasites. Interaction among multiple pathogens and parasites is the proposed cause for Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), a syndrome characterized by worker bees abandoning their hive. Here we provide the first documentation that the phorid fly Apocephalus borealis, previously known to parasitize bumble bees, also infects and eventually kills honey bees and may pose an emerging threat to North American apiculture. Parasitized honey bees show hive abandonment behavior, leaving their hives at night and dying shortly thereafter. On average, seven days later up to 13 phorid larvae emerge from each dead bee and pupate away from the bee. Using DNA barcoding, we confirmed that phorids that emerged from honey bees and bumble bees were the same species. Microarray analyses of honey bees from infected hives revealed that these bees are often infected with deformed wing virus and Nosema ceranae. Larvae and adult phorids also tested positive for these pathogens, implicating the fly as a potential vector or reservoir of these honey bee pathogens. Phorid parasitism may affect hive viability since 77% of sites sampled in the San Francisco Bay Area were infected by the fly and microarray analyses detected phorids in commercial hives in South Dakota and California's Central Valley. Understanding details of phorid infection may shed light on similar hive abandonment behaviors seen in CCD.
Journal Article
Patterns of DNA Methylation in Development, Division of Labor and Hybridization in an Ant with Genetic Caste Determination
DNA methylation is a common regulator of gene expression, including acting as a regulator of developmental events and behavioral changes in adults. Using the unique system of genetic caste determination in Pogonomyrmex barbatus, we were able to document changes in DNA methylation during development, and also across both ancient and contemporary hybridization events.
Sodium bisulfite sequencing demonstrated in vivo methylation of symmetric CG dinucleotides in P. barbatus. We also found methylation of non-CpG sequences. This validated two bioinformatics methods for predicting gene methylation, the bias in observed to expected ratio of CpG dinucleotides and the density of CpG/TpG single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP). Frequencies of genomic DNA methylation were determined for different developmental stages and castes using ms-AFLP assays. The genetic caste determination system (GCD) is probably the product of an ancestral hybridization event between P. barbatus and P. rugosus. Two lineages obligately co-occur within a GCD population, and queens are derived from intra-lineage matings whereas workers are produced from inter-lineage matings. Relative DNA methylation levels of queens and workers from GCD lineages (contemporary hybrids) were not significantly different until adulthood. Virgin queens had significantly higher relative levels of DNA methylation compared to workers. Worker DNA methylation did not vary among developmental stages within each lineage, but was significantly different between the currently hybridizing lineages. Finally, workers of the two genetic caste determination lineages had half as many methylated cytosines as workers from the putative parental species, which have environmental caste determination.
These results suggest that DNA methylation may be a conserved regulatory mechanism moderating division of labor in both bees and ants. Current and historic hybridization appear to have altered genomic methylation levels suggesting a possible link between changes in overall DNA methylation and the origin and regulation of genetic caste determination in P. barbatus.
Journal Article