Connecting to the oceans: supporting ocean literacy and public engagement

Improved public understanding of the ocean and the importance of sustainable ocean use, or ocean literacy, is essential for achieving global commitments to sustainable development by 2030 and beyond. However, growing human populations (particularly in mega-cities), urbanisation and socio-economic disparity threaten opportunities for people to engage and connect directly with ocean environments. Thus, a major challenge in engaging the whole of society in achieving ocean sustainability by 2030 is to develop strategies to improve societal connections to the ocean. The concept of ocean literacy reflects public understanding of the ocean, but is also an indication of connections to, and attitudes and behaviours towards, the ocean. Improving and progressing global ocean literacy has potential to catalyse the behaviour changes necessary for achieving a sustainable future. As part of the Future Seas project (https://futureseas2030.org/), this paper aims to synthesise knowledge and perspectives on ocean literacy from a range of disciplines, including but not exclusive to marine biology, socio-ecology, philosophy, technology, psychology, oceanography and human health. Using examples from the literature, we outline the potential for positive change towards a sustainable future based on knowledge that already exists. We focus on four drivers that can influence and improve ocean literacy and societal connections to the ocean: (1) education, (2) cultural connections, (3) technological developments, and (4) knowledge exchange and science-policy interconnections. We explore how each driver plays a role in improving perceptions of the ocean to engender more widespread societal support for effective ocean management and conservation. In doing so, we develop an ocean literacy toolkit, a practical resource for enhancing ocean connections across a broad range of contexts worldwide.

     

Oceans and society: feedbacks between ocean and human health

The concentration of human population along coastlines has far-reaching effects on ocean and societal health. The oceans provide benefits to humans such as food, coastal protection and improved mental well-being, but can also impact negatively via natural disasters. At the same time, humans influence ocean health, for example, via coastal development or through environmental stewardship. Given the strong feedbacks between ocean and human health there is a need to promote desirable interactions, while minimising undesirable interactions. To this end, we articulate two scenarios for 2030. First, Business-as-Usual, named ‘Command and (out of) Control’, focuses on the anticipated future based on our current trajectory. Second, a more sustainable scenario called ‘Living and Connecting’, emphasises the development of interactions between oceans and society consistent with achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. We describe a potential pathway to achieving the ‘Living and Connecting’ scenario, centred on improving marine citizenship, achieving a more equitable distribution of power among stakeholders, and more equitable access to resources and opportunities. The constituent actions of this pathway can be categorised into four groups: (i) improved approaches to science and health communication that account for society’s diverse values, beliefs and worldviews, (ii) a shift towards more trusted relationships among stakeholders to enable two-way knowledge exchange, (iii) economic incentives that encourage behavioural changes necessary for achieving desired sustainability outcomes, and (iv) stronger regulations that simultaneously focus on ocean and human health. We contend that these changes will provide improved outcomes for both oceans and society over the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science.

Graphic abstract

     

Occurrence of Two Types of Secretory Vesicles in the Human Neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y

Abstract: Western blot analysis showed that the human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y expresses the proteins synaptotagmin I, synaptobrevin, synapsin I, rab3a, syntaxin, SNAP-25, NSF, α-SNAP, and munc-18, which have been implicated in the movement, docking, and fusion of vesicles during exocytosis from other neuroendocrine cells. The subcellular localization of secretogranins I and II, synaptotagmin I, neuropeptide Y, rab3a, synaptobrevin, synaptophysin, and syntaxin was investigated by immunofluorescence microscopy and revealed punctate staining patterns characteristic of secretory vesicles. The comigration of noradrenaline, secretogranin II, and dopamine-β-hydroxylase on sucrose-D₂O gradient fractions indicates the presence of a population of noradrenaline-containing large dense-cored vesicles (LDCVs). In addition, a lighter vesicle population is also present that does not appear to be noradrenergic and contains a 48-kDa synaptophysin antigen absent from the large dense-cored vesicles. Immunocytochemical experiments show that not all of the vesicles that express synaptotagmin I contain secretogranin II. Thus, our studies suggest that two types of vesicle are present in SH-SY5Y cells, one of which, the LDCVs, contains noradrenaline. These findings confirm our previous studies suggesting that depolarization-evoked release of noradrenaline from SH-SY5Y occurs by LDCV exocytosis. This enhances the value of SH-SY5Y as a cell line in which to study the mechanism by which noradrenaline release is regulated.     

Resolving the identification of weak-flying insects during flight: a coupling between rigorous data processing and biology

1. Bioacoustic methods play an increasingly important role for the detection of insects in a range of surveillance and monitoring programmes.
2. Weak-flying insects evade detection because they do not yield sufficient audio information to capture wingbeat and harmonic frequencies. These inaudible insects often pose a significant threat to food security as pests of key agricultural crops worldwide.
3. Automatic detection of such insects is crucial to the future of crop protection by providing critical information to assess the risk to a crop and the need for preventative measures.
4. We describe an experimental set-up designed to derive audio recordings from a range of weak-flying aphids and beetles using an LED array.
5. A rigorous data processing pipeline was developed to extract meaningful features, linked to morphological characteristics, from the audio and harmonic series for six aphid and two beetle species.
6. An ensemble of over 50 bioacoustic parameters was used to achieve species discrimination with a success rate of 80%. The inclusion of the dominant and fundamental frequencies improved prediction between beetles and aphids because of large differences in wingbeat frequencies.
7. At the species level, error rates were minimized when harmonic features were supplemented by features indicative of differences in species' flight energies.

     

Potentiation of methicillin activity against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus by diterpenes

Totarol is a diterpene compound extracted from the totara tree. Totarol and eight other diterpenes were found to potentiate methicillin, one reducing the minimum inhibitory concentration of methicillin against resistant Staphylococcus aureus 256-fold. Totarol did not inhibit the synthesis of DNA or peptidoglycan in S. aureus, but reduced the respiration rate by 70%. Under potentiation conditions, diterpenes had only a slight effect on the respiration rate, but had a significant effect on expression of PBP 2a. We conclude that the primary staphylococcal target for totarol is the respiratory chain, but that potentiation of methicillin by diterpenes is by interference with PBP 2a expression.