Contemporary Gathering Practice and Antioxidant Benefit of Wild Seaweeds in Hawai’i

Contemporary Gathering Practice and Antioxidant Benefit of Wild Seaweeds in Hawai’i. Wild-gathered seaweeds (limu) are a prominent component of Native Hawaiian diet and culture, but are understudied for their nutritional benefits and contemporary cultural use. This study uses a combination of ethnographic, pharmacological, and ecological approaches to document contemporary levels of wild seaweed gathering and consumption, and it explores the impact of cultivation and eutrophication on the disease-preventive benefits wild seaweeds may provide. Levels of gathering and consumption of seaweed were assessed with surveys of high school students and interviews with adult limu gatherers on O’ahu island, Hawai’i. Antioxidant activity was assessed with laboratory-based assays. Almost all students surveyed reported consuming cultivated seaweeds, one-third reported having consumed wild seaweeds, and one-fifth had gathered them, confirming that gathering practice and traditional diet have persisted in Hawai’i despite major social and environmental change. Wild gathering was three times as high and consumption 60% more prevalent among Native Hawaiians compared to non-Hawaiian students. Further, students with a parent who gathered limu were six times more likely to have gathered limu themselves, asserting the importance of within-family transmission to cultural continuity. A larger proportion of male than female Hawaiian students reported gathering wild seaweeds, indicating a cultural shift from pre-Contact Hawai’i, when women were the predominant gatherers and consumers of limu. The wild seaweeds assessed demonstrated higher levels of antioxidant activity than did cultivated seaweeds. Eutrophication was correlated with a decline in antioxidant activity, indicating that changing ocean conditions may alter the nutritional quality of this traditional food. Today, nearly all students are receiving some antioxidant benefits from seaweed, with Native Hawaiian youth from families that gather seaweed most likely to receive this health benefit. Conservation and restoration of near-shore environments to promote native edible seaweeds in pollution-free areas would provide greater opportunities for Native Hawaiian gathering practice and would support Native Hawaiian health.     

Rattus exulans and the catastrophic disappearance of Hawai’i’s native lowland forest

Paleoenvironmental and archaeological investigations from the ’Ewa Plain of O’ahu provide insight into the problem of understanding lowland native forest loss in Hawai’i. Data from pollen analysis of a pond core record, avian paleontology, and archeology, document a precipitous decline of the native forest starting before Polynesian settlement on the ’Ewa Plain but after Polynesian colonization of O’ahu. It is hypothesized that rats, introduced by Polynesian colonizers, increased exponentially in the absence of significant predators or competitors, feeding on a largely endemic vegetation that had evolved in the absence of mammalian predators. Rats radiated ahead of human colonizers on O’ahu, eating their way through the vegetation, perhaps before the colonizers had encountered much of the pristine lowland forest into which the rats had radiated. This hypothesis is supported by several observations, including the almost complete absence of extinct or extirpated avian faunal remains in archaeological deposits, the present distribution of endemic vegetation in Hawai’i, rat ecology, population biology, and other evidence.

Barriers and Bridges to Prevention and Control of Dengue: The Need for a Social–Ecological Approach

This article critically examines how programs for the prevention and control of dengue fever have been conducted in the absence of an integrated approach, and considers the social and ecological factors influencing their effectiveness. Despite recognition of dengue fever as the most important arboviral disease affecting humans, and in spite of a greater emphasis on community-based control approaches, the burden placed on the communities, countries, and regions affected by this disease continues to rise. In considering historical experience in the Americas and the Asia-Pacific region, as well as the global forces that are exerting new pressures, the important elements of successful control programs are identified as community ownership, partnership with government, leadership, scalability, and control of immature mosquitoes. The key barriers to the exchange of knowledge and the transdisciplinary cooperation necessary for sustainable dengue control are rooted in differences in values among policy-makers, citizens, and scientists and are repeatedly expressed in technical, economic, cultural, geographic, and political dimensions. Through consideration of case studies in Cuba, Guatemala, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam, the limitations of control approaches that fail to take into account the complexities of ecological and social systems are presented. Bridges to effective control are identified as the basis for adaptability, both of control programs to the mosquito vector’s changing behavior and of education programs to public, regional and local particularities, as well as transdisciplinarity, community empowerment, the ability to scale local experiences up to the macro-level, and the capacity to learn from experience to achieve sustainability.     

Forest Restoration and Parasitoid Wasp Communities in Montane Hawai’i

Globally, most restoration efforts focus on re-creating the physical structure (flora or physical features) of a target ecosystem with the assumption that other ecosystem components will follow. Here we investigate that assumption by documenting biogeographical patterns in an important invertebrate taxon, the parasitoid wasp family Ichneumonidae, in a recently reforested Hawaiian landscape. Specifically, we test the influence of (1) planting configurations (corridors versus patches), (2) vegetation age, (3) distance from mature native forest, (4) surrounding tree cover, and (5) plant community composition on ichneumonid richness, abundance, and composition. We sampled over 7,000 wasps, 96.5% of which were not native to Hawai’i. We found greater relative richness and abundance of ichneumonids, and substantially different communities, in restored areas compared to mature forest and abandoned pasturelands. Non-native ichneumonids drive these differences; restored areas and native forest did not differ in native ichneumonid abundance. Among restored areas, ichneumonid communities did not differ by planting age or configuration. As tree cover increased within 120 m of a sampling point, ichneumonid community composition increasingly resembled that found in native forest. Similarly, native ichneumonid abundance increased with proximity to native forest. Our results suggest that restoration plantings, if situated near target forest ecosystems and in areas with higher local tree cover, can facilitate restoration of native fauna even in a highly invaded system.     

‘It’s Always About the Eating Disorder’: Finding the Person Through Recovery-Oriented Practice for Bulimia

Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry - Bulimia is an eating disorder characterised primarily by binging and ‘inappropriate’ compensatory behaviours, such as purging or excessive exercise....     

Living on the Edge: Ecological and Cultural Edges as Sources of Diversity for Social—Ecological Resilience

A well-known facet of ecosystems is that the edges—the boundaries or transitions from one ecosystem to another—often exhibit high levels of species richness or biodiversity. These transitional areas often show features of species composition, structure, and function representative of the ecosystems they transcend, as well as having their own unique array of species and characteristics. Cultural transitional areas—zones where two or more cultures converge and interact—are similarly rich and diverse in cultural traits, exhibiting cultural and linguistic features of each of the contributing peoples. This results in an increase in cultural capital, and resilience, by providing a wider range of traditional ecological knowledge and wisdom on which to draw, especially in times of stress and change. We propose that indigenous peoples whose living territories traverse ecological edges have a correspondingly increased access to economically important resources and therefore have a greater capacity for flexibility. Finally, we suggest that indigenous peoples are drawn to areas having a high incidence of ecological edges, and furthermore, that they actively create and maintain ecological edges. This practice provides them with a greater diversity of cultural capital and helps to maintain their flexibility and resilience. Examples from several regions of Canada are provided, from the southern interior of British Columbia, to the Lake Winnipeg watershed of Manitoba and Ontario, to James Bay.     

Fruit and seed traits of native and invasive plant species in Hawai‘i: implications for seed dispersal by non-native birds

Biological Invasions - For alien invasive plant species dependent on frugivores for seed dispersal, traits that influence consumption can be important determinants of invasion and spread. However,...     

The Patient’s View: Issues of Theory and Practice

Almost all the knowledge now produced about psychiatry includes what is called “the patient’s or client’s perspective.” This paper analyzes how this notion has been framed in the discourses on mental health over the last two decades, particularly in mental health research and in anthropology. The very concept of the “patient’s perspective” is a social and historical construct. Despite its remarkable prevalence, the notion remains vague. Mental health research pictures it as a stable attribute of the individual. Anthropologists integrate the contextual nature of the patient view; but they still largely envision the psychiatric patient as a rational actor producing narratives based on common sense. However, in psychiatric practice, the client’s perspective is not something the patient individually produces; it is rather shaped by and in a context. To explore this process, my research investigated interactions between staff and patients in a French community mental health center, and showed that the client’s perspective is the result of a collective process. Further analysis demonstrates that eliciting or producing the patient’s view is sometimes considered a therapeutic goal in itself, since being granted the status of a rational and narrative actor gives access to the most valued model of care, one that is based on partnership. Being an outcome that is negotiated between patients and care providers, the “patient’s view” then becomes a new resource in mental health settings.

Aldo Leopold’s Land Health from a Resilience Point of View: Self-renewal Capacity of Social–Ecological Systems

Health approaches to ecology have a strong basis in Aldo Leopold’s thinking, and contemporary ecohealth in turn has a strong philosophical basis in Leopold. To commemorate the 125th anniversary of Leopold’s birth (1887–1948), we revisit his ideas, specifically the notions of stewardship (land ethic), productive use of ecosystems (land), and ecosystem renewal. We focus on Leopold’s perspective on the self-renewal capacity of the land, as understood in terms of integrity and land health, from the contemporary perspective of resilience theory and ecological theory more generally. Using a broad range of literature, we explore insights and implications of Leopold’s work for today’s human–environment relationships (integrated social–ecological systems), concerns for biodiversity, the development of agency with respect to stewardship, and key challenges of his time and of ours. Leopold’s seminal concept of land health can be seen as a triangulation of productive use, self-renewal, and stewardship, and it can be reinterpreted through the resilience lens as the health of social–ecological systems. In contemporary language, this involves the maintenance of biodiversity and ecosystem services, and the ability to exercise agency both for conservation and for environmental justice.     

Of ‘Disgrace’ and ‘Pain’ – Corticolimbic Interaction Patterns for Disorder-Relevant and Emotional Words in Social Phobia

Limbic hyperactivation and an impaired functional interplay between the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex are discussed to go along with, or even cause, pathological anxiety. Within the multi-faceted group of anxiety disorders, the highly prevalent social phobia (SP) is characterized by excessive fear of being negatively evaluated. Although there is widespread evidence for amygdala hypersensitivity to emotional faces in SP, verbal material has rarely been used in imaging studies, in particular with an eye on disorder-specificity. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and a block design consisting of (1) overall negative, (2) social-phobia related, (3) positive, and (4) neutral words, we studied 25 female patients with social phobia and 25 healthy female control subjects (HC). Results demonstrated amygdala hyperactivation to disorder-relevant but not to generally negative words in SP patients, with a positive correlation to symptom severity. A functional connectivity analysis revealed a weaker coupling between the amygdala and the left middle frontal gyrus in patients. Symptom severity was negatively related to connectivity strength between the amygdala and the ventromedial prefrontal and orbitofrontal cortex (Brodmann Area 10 and 11). The findings clearly support the view of a hypersensitive threat-detection system, combined with disorder-related alterations in amygdala-prefrontal cortex connectivity in pathological anxiety.     

New Directions for Understanding the Spatial Resilience of Social–Ecological Systems

The concept of spatial resilience has brought a new focus on the influence of multi-scale processes on the dynamics of ecosystems. Initial ideas about spatial resilience focused on coral reefs and emphasized escalating anthropogenic disturbances across the broader seascape. This perspective resonated with a new awareness of global drivers of change, such as growth in international trade and shifts in climate, and the need to respond by scaling up governance and management. We review recent trends and emerging ideas in spatial resilience, using coral reefs and dependent communities as exemplars of multi-scale social–ecological systems. Despite recent advances, management and governance of ecosystems remain spatially fragmented and constrained to small scales. Temporally, many interventions still miss or ignore warning signals and struggle to cope with history, politics, long-term cumulative pressures, feedbacks, and sudden surprises. Significant recent progress has been made in understanding the relevance of spatial and temporal scale, heterogeneity, networks, the importance of place, and multi-scale governance. Emerging themes include better integration of ecology and conservation with social and economic science, and incorporating temporal dynamics in spatial analyses. A better understanding of the multi-scale spatial and temporal processes that drive the resilience of linked social-ecosystems will help address the widespread mismatch between the scales of ongoing ecological change and effective long-term governance of land- and seascapes.     

Spatial and temporal patterns of coral health and disease along leeward Hawai’i Island

Ecological processes including disease, competition for space, and predation strongly influence coral reef health from the colony to reef level. The leeward/west coast of the island of Hawai’i consists of the largest expanse of intact reefs in the Main Hawaiian Islands (MHI), yet little is known about the health of its coral communities. We measured prevalence of coral diseases and non-disease conditions at nine regions across two depths in the summer and winter months between 2010 and 2011. We also assessed long-term changes in coral cover (2003–2011). Mean prevalence of chronic diseases was 5–21 times greater than previously reported for the MHI. Coral health varied minimally across survey months with mild seasonality only detected in algal overgrowth (ALOG). Coral health varied considerably by depth and site, and was primarily driven by the most prevalent and common conditions: Porites growth anomalies (13.7 ± 0.82 %), Porites trematodiasis (9.5 ± 0.90 %), discoloration (5.6 ± 0.33 %), ALOG (9.9 ± 0.54 %), and gastropod predation (2.4 ± 0.23). While several conditions were significantly elevated in shallow zones, unique site × depth interactions suggest that specific site-level factors are driving prevalence. At the coast-wide level, percentage of coral cover did not change significantly between 2003 and 2011, but decreased significantly at two sites and increased at one site. Based on coral cover decline and high prevalence of certain coral health conditions, we identified four regions of concern (Puakō, Mauna Lani, Ka’ūpūlehu, and Hōnaunau). The high spatial variation in coral health not only advances our understanding of coral disease ecology, but also supports reef resilience planning by identifying vulnerable areas that would benefit most from targeted conservation and management efforts.     

Building Resilience in Lagoon Social–Ecological Systems: A Local-level Perspective

Building resilience in integrated human and nature systems or social–ecological systems (SES) is key for sustainability. Therefore, developing ways of assessing resilience is of practical as well as theoretical significance. We approached the issue by focusing on the local level and using five lagoon systems from various parts of the world for illustration. We used a framework based on four categories of factors for building resilience: (1) learning to live with change and uncertainty; (2) nurturing diversity for reorganization and renewal; (3) combining different kinds of knowledge; and (4) creating opportunity for self-organization. Under each category, the cases generated a number of items for building resilience, and potential surrogates of resilience, that is, variables through which the persistence of SES emerging through change can be assessed. The following factors were robust across all five lagoon SES cases: learning from crisis, responding to change, nurturing ecological memory, monitoring the environment, and building capacity for self-organization and conflict management.     

Introduced weed richness across altitudinal gradients in Hawai’i: humps,humans and water-energy dynamics

Native species richness commonly declines with increasing altitude, but patterns of introduced species richness across altitudinal gradients have been less frequently studied. We surveyed introduced roadside weeds along altitudinal transects ranging from 30 to 4,100 m in Hawai’i, with the objectives of (1) testing the hypothesis that a mass effect due to mixing of tropical and temperate species at mid-elevation promotes a hump-shaped pattern of introduced species richness with altitude, and (2) testing the potential roles of anthropogenic activity, energy (temperature) and water-energy dynamics (productivity-diversity hypothesis) in determining introduced weed richness. A total of 178 introduced weeds were recorded. Introduced weed richness does not decline monotonically with altitude. Rather, mixing of tropical and temperate species helps to maintain high mean richness up to 2,000 m, suggesting a mass effect, but without a distinct richness peak. Patchy occurrence of a transformer species, Pennisetum clandestinum, introduced high variance in richness at mid-elevations. General linear models considering estimated actual evapotranspiration (AET, a measure of energy-water dynamics) together with an index of human activity (distance from urban area or length of major roads) accounted for more variance in introduced weed richness than models with energy alone (temperature) and human activity. Native Hawaiian species richness along roadsides was also weakly correlated with AET but negatively associated with human activity. Our observed association between introduced species richness and AET mirrors patterns reported for native species richness around the world, indicating that AET-richness patterns can develop on a short time scale (on the order of 100 years). To test the generality of introduced weed richness patterns, we tried using the Hawai’i island model to predict weed richness on the neighboring island of Maui. Although weed richness on Maui was under-predicted, the same predictors (human activity and AET) were important on Maui. Scaling for differences in regional human population density or economic activity (both higher on Maui) may allow more accurate and transferable quantitative predictions of introduced weed richness patterns.