Australian wetlands: the monitoring challenge

Management of Australian wetlands is confounded by an absence of adequate environmental monitoring data. To a large extent we are still not sure of the exact location and extent of many wetlands. Inventory and monitoring information are intricately linked and at the heart of successful wetland management. Monitoring addresses the extent of change in the environment, yet, for wetlands, it is rarely based on valid scientific principles. Monitoring is also a research tool, but has not, until relatively recently, been accepted as integral to the research effort in environmental management, in part because the questions that may be answered have not been well defined or articulated. The absence of rigorous scientific input to monitoring design has contributed to the devaluing of past long-term monitoring effort. To turn this around and to ensure that wetland managers receive adequate and timely data we need to enhance the scientific rigor applied to monitoring. This requires long-term and strategic support. Management is a complex process and involves many sectors of society. Involving these sectors in monitoring has recently received some attention, but this is not universal and is not necessarily well supported. The challenge is to correct this situation and take advantage of community interest in wetland conservation that may provide mechanisms for more cost effective monitoring. A protocol for monitoring Australian wetlands is presented. This is a series of logical steps to assist in the development and implementation of monitoring programs that are effectively linked to management procedures (such as a formal management plan). The protocol includes a review process that could result in the termination of a program that has achieved its goals, or the abandonment or revamping of one that has failed.     

Predicted climate change,sea-level rise and wetland management in the Australian wet-dry tropics

The vulnerability of coastal areas in the Alligator Rivers Region (northern Australia) to predicted climate change and potential sea level rise was assessed as part of a national study. The coastal area is composed of a number of estuarine and freshwater habitats that are intricately interlinked and can not be effectively managed in isolation of each other. The outcomes of the assessment focused on the floodplain environments of the region, but are also applicable to the broader wetland environments that occur across the northern Australian wet-dry tropics. The management regime in the region is based on traditional Aboriginal ownership of much of the land, which is leased to the federal government as a national park. Scientific research has been intensive; however, important questions have been raised about the collation and effective use of this information. The vulnerability assessment framework required effective use of this information and cooperation with the management authority to identify change scenarios and management and research responses. A climate change scenario was established as the basis for predicting biophysical change in the coastal and wetland environments. The predictions suggest that large-scale change will occur and many of the existing values derived from these areas (i.e., usage by traditional Aboriginal occupants, and nature conservation) could be degraded or even lost. Recommended management responses include the initiation of specific monitoring, empowerment of local bodies to take active management steps, and to increase awareness of the likely consequences of change. Further data coordination and review are needed to ascertain the validity of the predictions and the concomitant management responses.     

Decorticate, decerebrate and opisthotonic posturing and seizures in Kenyan children with cerebral malaria

Background

Intermittent preventive treatment of malaria during pregnancy (IPTp) is a key intervention in the national strategy for malaria control in Tanzania. SP, the current drug of choice, is recommended to be administered in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy during antenatal care (ANC) visits. To allow for a proper design of planned scaling up of IPT services in Tanzania it is useful to understand the IPTp strategy's acceptability to health managers, ANC service providers and pregnant women. This study assesses the knowledge, attitudes and practices of these groups in relation to malaria control with emphasis on IPTp services.

Methods

The study was conducted in February 2004, in Korogwe District, Tanzania. It involved in-depth interviews with the district medical officer (DMO), district hospital medical officer in charge and relevant health service staff at two peripheral dispensaries, and separate focus group discussions (FGDs) with district Council Health Management Team members at district level and pregnant women at dispensary and community levels.

Results

Knowledge of malaria risks during pregnancy was high among pregnant women although some women did not associate coma and convulsions with malaria. Contacting traditional healers and self-medication with local herbs for malaria management was reported to be common. Pregnant women and ANC staff were generally aware of SP as the drug recommended for IPTp, albeit some nurses and the majority of pregnant women expressed concern about the use of SP during pregnancy. Some pregnant women testified that sometimes ANC staff allow the women to swallow SP tablets at home which gives a room for some women to throw away SP tablets after leaving the clinic. The DMO was sceptical about health workers' compliance with the direct observed therapy in administering SP for IPTp due to a shortage of clean water and cups at ANC clinics. Intensified sensitization of pregnant women about the benefits of IPTp was suggested by the study participants as an important approach for improving IPTp compliance.

Conclusion

The successful implementation of the IPTp strategy in Tanzania depends on the proper planning of, and support to, the training of health staff and sustained sensitization of pregnant women at health facility and community levels about the benefits of IPTp for the women and their unborn babies.     

Growth rates of Salvinia molesta in Lake Moondarra,Mount Isa,Australia

The seasonal growth of Salvinia molesta Mitchell was recorded during the period March 1978 to April 1979 in floating quadrats established in Lake Moondarra and a nearby sewage lagoon. Primary-form plants were used as inoculum in the quadrats; leaf numbers, fresh weight and percentage cover changes were recorded. These three parameters were significantly correlated. The highest individual rates of increase recorded in the lagoon were 51.4% per day for percentage cover, 50.1% per day for leaf numbers and 38.3% per day for fresh weight. In the lake, the highest values were 19.0% per day, 25.7% per day and 16.6% per day, respectively. A simple growth model for this species, relating growth rate to water temperature, accounted for 76% of the observed variance in leaf number growth rates in the lagoon. The same model, however, only explained 5% of the variance in the lake, suggesting growth limitations by other factors.     

Characterization studies of a rat hepatic cytosolic androgen-binding protein

A rat hepatic cytosolic [3H]methyltrienolone (R1881) binding protein was studied under various conditions. This protein was also compared with the male-specific high capacity--low affinity estrogen-binding protein derived from the same cytosolic fraction. Analysis of the R1881 binding protein in adult (60-85 days old) male rat liver cytosol indicated the presence of a high affinity--low capacity binding site (Kd = 0.3 nM; Bmax = 5.9 fmol/mg) and a lower affinity--higher capacity component (Kd = 10.4 nM; Bmax = 131 fmol/mg). The latter component was eliminated by addition of triamcinolone or cortisol to the assay mixture. Steroid binding to the high affinity R1881 site was specific for testosterone, dihydrotestosterone, androstenedione, and mibolerone, with a moderate specificity to cyproterone acetate, flutamide hydroxide, and estradiol. Saturation studies indicated that these steroids were binding to the same or a similar high affinity component except for flutamide hydroxide which produced nonsaturable displacement. The high affinity site had no specificity for progesterone, diethylstilbestrol, or cortisol. Like the high capacity--low affinity protein, this protein was not present in the immature, adult, or 10-day ovariectomized adult female. However, unlike the high capacity--low affinity protein, it was present in low quantities in the immature male. In addition, castration of the adult for 18 h, 4 days, or 10 days or hypophysectomy for 10-17 days did not have a significant effect on the high affinity component compared with the controls. Testosterone administration to these animals did not alter this protein binding. These studies indicate that a specific, high affinity--low capacity androgen-binding protein exists in rat hepatic cytosol. Furthermore, this protein shows age and sex dependency, but its presence is not affected by altering gonadal or hypophyseal factors in the adult male.