Responses of marine organisms to physical and chemical impacts

Studies on the effects of a variety of exogenous and anthropogenic environmental factors, including endocrine disruptors, heavy metals, UV light, high temperature, and others, on marine organisms have been presented at the 2nd Bilateral Seminar Italy–Japan held in November 2006. Reports were discussed in order to reveal the current situation of marine ecosystems, aiming at evaluation and prediction of environmental risks.

Advances in concepts and methods for the marine environment: implications for policy

Science-based indicators aimed at measuring the sustainability of human activities on the environment have become of prime importance in the policy arena. At the international level, the Commission on Sustainable Development and the Convention on Biological Diversity and other Multilateral Environmental Agreements have recognised the need to develop a set of scientific indicators related to changes in biodiversity and other environmental issues able to direct policy decisions. In the marine realm, the study of the effects of both ‘top-down’ extractive activities such as fishing is more and more dealt with, in conjunction with ‘bottom-up’ activities such as nutrient loading and the effects on biogeochemical cycles, marine geochemistry and ecosystem structure and functioning of other pollutants and contaminants. ‘Conventional’ approaches such as the identification of taxa, model organisms and related methodologies will continue playing a key role for the monitoring of human-induced changes in the marine environment. On the other hand, newly developed disciplines such as genomics, proteomics and biodiversity informatics are increasingly looked at as a source of information and applications that can respond to questions and concerns by the policy community such as the need to adapt to global and climate change in the marine environment so as to mitigate its societal implications.

A fuzzy outranking approach in risk analysis of web service security

Risk analysis is considered as an important process to identify the known and potential vulnerabilities and threats in the web services security. It is quite difficult for users to collect adequate events to estimate the full vulnerabilities and probability of threats in the Web, due to the rapid change of the malicious attacks and the new computer’s vulnerabilities. In this paper, a fuzzy risk assessment model is developed in order to evaluate the risk of web services in a situation where complete information is not available. The proposed model extends Pseudo-Order Preference Model (POPM) to estimate the imprecise risk based on richness of information and to determine their ranking using a weighted additive rule. A case study of a number of web services is presented in order to test the proposed approach.

Is it a revolution?

Jablonka and Lamb's claim that evolutionary biology is undergoing a ‘revolution’ is queried. But the very concept of revolutionary change has uncertain application to a field organized in the manner of contemporary biology. The explanatory primacy of sequence properties is also discussed.

Adaptationism and the adaptive landscape

Debates over adaptationism can be clarified and partially resolved by careful consideration of the ‘grain’ at which evolutionary processes are described. The framework of ‘adaptive landscapes’ can be used to illustrate and facilitate this investigation. We argue that natural selection may have special status at an intermediate grain of analysis of evolutionary processes. The cases of sickle-cell disease and genomic imprinting are used as case studies.

An introduction to the Freshwater Animal Diversity Assessment (FADA) project

The Freshwater Animal Diversity Assessment (FADA) project aims at compiling an overview of genus- and species-level diversity of animals in the continental, aquatic ecosystems of the world. It is a collective effort of 163 experts, and presents 59 articles treating the diversity and endemism of different animal taxa, ranging from microscopic worms to mammals, at global and regional scales. Given their structural importance, an article on macrophytes is also added. Here, we give an overview of the project’s history, and outline the common framework of the various articles, as well as the conventions the experts agreed to adhere to in their treatises. Furthermore, we briefly introduce future prospects.

Stemming the tide of centrifugal forces in Igbo orthography

The paper deplores the increasing practice whereby individuals and groups write Igbo with orthographic conventions that deviate from those of the official Igbo (Ọnwụ) Orthography. It warns that these divergent acts are steadily dragging Igbo Orthography into a state of anarchy whose consequences could be more disastrous than those of the earlier orthography controversy of 1929–1961. The paper briefly traces the history of Igbo orthography from the earliest mention of Igbo in the sixteenth century writings of European travelers to the present times. Among its recommendations for the restoration of sanity in Igbo orthography are: the respect of the present official one until new conventions are officially agreed to and sanctioned; the revival of the Igbo Standardization Committee which formerly regulated and supervised developments in the language; the convening of an international workshop on Igbo orthography and the production of an enlarged Pan Igbo orthography for writing in dialects while the present official (Ọnwụ) orthography serves for Standard Igbo.

Leitlinien zur molekulargenetischen Diagnostik: Fragiles-X und Fragiles-X assoziiertes Tremor/Ataxie Syndrom

Ohne Zusammenfassung

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Spandrels and a pervasive problem of evidence

Evolutionary biology, indeed any science that attempts to reconstruct prehistory, faces practical limitations on available data. These limitations create the problem of contrast failure: specific observations may fail to discriminate between rival evolutionary hypotheses. Assessing the risk of contrast failure provides a way to evaluate testing protocols in evolutionary science. Here I will argue that part of the methodological critique in the Spandrels paper involves diagnosing contrast failure problems. I then distinguish the problem of contrast failure from the more familiar philosophical problem of underdetermination, and demonstrate how contrast failure arises in scientific practice with an investigation into Lewontin and White’s (Evolution 14:116–129, 1960) estimation of an adaptive landscape.

The rise and fall of the adaptive landscape?

The discussion of the adaptive landscape in the philosophical literature appears to be divided along the following lines. On the one hand, some claim that the adaptive landscape is either “uninterpretable” or incoherent. On the other hand, some argue that the adaptive landscape has been an important heuristic, or tool in the service of explaining, as well as proposing and testing hypotheses about evolutionary change. This paper attempts to reconcile these two views.

Hierarchies and the Sloshing Bucket: Toward the Unification of Evolutionary Biology

Evolutionary biology presents a bewildering array of phenomena to scientists and students alike—ranging from molecules to species and ecosystems; and embracing 3.8 billion years of life’s history on earth. Biological systems are arranged hierarchically, with smaller units forming the components of larger systems. The evolutionary hierarchy, based on replication of genetic information and reproduction, is a complex of genes/organisms/demes/species and higher taxa. The ecological hierarchy, based on patterns of matter–energy transfer, is a complex of proteins/organisms/avatars/local ecosystems/regional ecosystems. All organisms are simultaneously parts of both hierarchical systems. Darwin’s original formulation of natural selection maps smoothly onto a diagram where the two hierarchical systems are placed side-by-side. The “sloshing bucket” theory of evolution emerges from empirical cases in biological history mapped onto this dual hierarchy scheme: little phenotypically discernible evolution occurs with minor ecological disturbance; conversely, greatest concentrations of change in evolutionary history follow mass extinctions, themselves based on physical perturbations of global extent. Most evolution occurs in intermediate-level regional “turnovers,” when species extinction leads to rapid evolution of new species. Hierarchy theory provides a way of integrating all fields of evolutionary biology into an easily understood—and taught—rubric.

Towards dynamical system models of language-related brain potentials

Event-related brain potentials (ERP) are important neural correlates of cognitive processes. In the domain of language processing, the N400 and P600 reflect lexical-semantic integration and syntactic processing problems, respectively. We suggest an interpretation of these markers in terms of dynamical system theory and present two nonlinear dynamical models for syntactic computations where different processing strategies correspond to functionally different regions in the system’s phase space.

Estimating economic values of vegetation restoration with choice experiments: a case study of an endangered species in Lake Kasumigaura, Japan

As the pace of ecosystem restoration increases, more attention has been directed towards understanding public preferences for ecosystem restoration projects. This paper utilizes a choice experiments technique to evaluate the restoration project of an endangered species, Nymphoides peltata (known locally as asaza) in Lake Kasumigaura, Japan. The restoration project evaluated in this paper consists of two attributes: an extinction risk and a lakeshore ecosystem. First, we observe a positive willingness-to-pay for the vegetation restoration project: the mean willingness-to-pay for restoring the endangered specie and avoiding extinction was about JPY6,800 and the mean willingness-to-pay for restoring the covering area to the ideal condition that the species originally inhabited in 1996 was about JPY1,600. Second, we clarify what kinds of individual characteristics affect preferences for restoration projects compared with preferences for the status quo. The results show that respondents who have strong environmental attitudes, visit experience, high income, and are female are more likely to prefer restoration projects to the status quo. Third, we investigate whether knowledge and comprehension of ecological information have any influence on respondents’ value formations. We find that respondents’ comprehension of ecological information is positively related to their willingness-to-pay for the avoidable level of extinction risk attribute, while respondents’ knowledge of ecological terms has no effect. Overall, our findings suggest that the public strongly desires the avoidance of extinction of endangered species, and indicates that researchers should be careful about how ecological information is given.

Individual variability of behavioural responses by Wandering Albatrosses (Diomedea exulans) to human disturbance

Sub-Antarctic Marion Island has had a permanent research station for 50 years and the islands Wandering Albatrosses have been intensively studied for 20 years. The reactions of breeding birds to approaches by a human on foot were recorded. Three response variables were calculated: intensity of vocal reaction (IVR), intensity of non-vocal reaction (INR) and overall response index (ORI). At 5 m from the nest, twice as many birds stood and/or vocalised as at 15 m. Nearest neighbour distance, age and gender did not explain individual variability of responses. Study colony birds had higher IVR scores than non-study colony birds; birds at colonies closest to the station had the highest ORI scores. A better breeding record was associated with lower IVR and ORI scores, but a causative relationship remains to be demonstrated. A minimum viewing distance of 25 m is recommended for breeding Wandering Albatrosses.

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Objects limit human comprehension

This paper demonstrates that the human visual system, the primary sensory conduit for primates, processes ambient energy in a way that obligatorily constructs the objects that we ineluctably perceive. And since our perceptual apparatus processes information only in terms of objects (along with the properties and movements of objects), we are limited in our ability to comprehend ‘what is’ when we move beyond our ordinary world of midsize objects—as, for example, when we address the micro microworld of quantum physics.

Assessing Marine Resource Exploitation in Lofanga,Tonga: One Case Study—Two Approaches

This paper is an attempt to combine the results and conclusions of two independently designed research projects, in order to achieve a more complete understanding of the degree of exploitation of living marine resources by a small Tongan coastal fishing community. Results of a socioeconomic resource-driven survey and an anthropological study adopting a commons dilemma approach, agree substantially on the impact of tradition and changes, but disagree with regard to the driving forces. The socioeconomic study argues that dynamics between traditional and modern economic values best explain the state of the community’s coastal fisheries; while the anthropological study argues that social values and obligations still determine to a great extent the goals people pursue with their economic activities. Current fishing pressure, the marine tenure system, and present and future marketing potentials are all factors which may result in conflict between the traditional Tongan system and the modern cash-based, remittance sustained system. These will ultimately affect the current and future status of coastal resources and the social cohesion of the community.

Best practices for improved governance of coral reef marine protected areas

Coral reef marine protected areas (MPA) are widely distributed around the globe for social and ecological reasons. Relatively few of these MPAs are well managed. This review examines the governance of coral reef MPAs and the means to improve coral reef MPA management. It highlights common governance challenges, such as confused goals, conflict, and unrealistic attempts to scale up beyond institutional capacity. Recommendations, based on field experience and empirical evidence from around the world, are made for best practices at various stages of MPA implementation.