ALBERT

Description: Habitat degradation not only disrupts habitat-forming species, but alters the sensory landscape within which most species must balance behavioural activities against predation risk. Rapidly developing a cautious behavioural phenotype, a condition known as neophobia, is advantageous when entering a novel risky habitat. Many aquatic organisms rely on damage-released conspecific cues (i.e. alarm cues) as an indicator of impending danger and use them to assess general risk and develop neophobia. This study tested whether settlement-stage damselfish associated with degraded coral reef habitats were able to use alarm cues as an indicator of risk and, in turn, develop a neophobic response at the end of their larval phase. Our results indicate that fish in live coral habitats that were exposed to alarm cues developed neophobia, and, in situ , were found to be more cautious, more closely associated with their coral shelters and survived four-times better than non-neophobic control fish. In contrast, fish that settled onto degraded coral habitats did not exhibit neophobia and consequently suffered much greater mortality on the reef, regardless of their history of exposure to alarm cues. Our results show that habitat degradation alters the efficacy of alarm cues with phenotypic and survival consequences for newly settled recruits.

Description: Fish populations provide valuable ecosystem services and support important fisheries, yet we know little about their responses to multiple interacting pressures. We sought to reveal the effects of multiple pressures on walleye populations from 444 lakes across Ontario, Canada. By controlling for spatial autocorrelation, we found statistical interactions that suggest antagonisms exist among pressures including the presence of an invasive species, loss of mature forest cover, angling pressure, and climate change. Quantifying these types of interactions is critical to understanding the current state of fisheries and to developing effective resource management plans that minimize the effects of multiple pressures. Abstract The expanding human global footprint and growing demand for freshwater have placed tremendous stress on inland aquatic ecosystems. Aichi Target 10 of the Convention on Biological Diversity aims to minimize anthropogenic pressures affecting vulnerable ecosystems, and pressure interactions are increasingly being incorporated into environmental management and climate change adaptation strategies. In this study, we explore how climate change, overfishing, forest disturbance, and invasive species pressures interact to affect inland lake walleye (Sander vitreus) populations. Walleye support subsistence, recreational, and commercial fisheries and are one of most sought‐after freshwater fish species in North America. Using data from 444 lakes situated across an area of 475 000 km2 in Ontario, Canada, we apply a novel statistical tool, R‐INLA, to determine how walleye biomass deficit (carrying capacity—observed biomass) is impacted by multiple pressures. Individually, angling activity and the presence of invasive zebra mussels (Dreissena polymorpha) were positively related to biomass deficits. In combination, zebra mussel presence interacted negatively and antagonistically with angling activity and percentage decrease in watershed mature forest cover. Velocity of climate change in growing degree days above 5°C and decrease in mature forest cover interacted to negatively affect walleye populations. Our study demonstrates how multiple pressure evaluations can be conducted for hundreds of populations to identify influential pressures and vulnerable ecosystems. Understanding pressure interactions is necessary to guide management and climate change adaptation strategies, and achieve global biodiversity targets.

Description: Lead service lines (LSLs)—lead pipes connecting the water main under the street to a building’s plumbing—contribute an estimated 50% to 75% of lead in tap water when they are present. Although Congress banned lead in plumbing materials in 1986, over 6 million LSLs remain in homes across the United States today. This paper summarizes three different home buying or renting scenario-based experimental studies used to evaluate disclosure styles, to assess if these influenced respondents’ perceived risk of the LSL in a home, and their willingness to act. In renting scenarios, having landlords disclose the presence of an LSL, but also provide water test results showing lead levels below the EPA’s lead action level resulted in lower levels of perceived risk, and of willingness to act. In seller-disclosure home buying scenarios, levels of perceived risk and willingness to act were consistently high, and three different disclosure styles did not differentially influence those outcomes. In home inspector-disclosure home buying scenarios, levels of perceived risk and willingness to act were high, but having explicit recommendations to replace LSLs and/or information about risk did not further influence those outcomes. In some cases, including the specific recommendations backfired. Implications for policy and regulation are discussed.

Description: Social connection is important for people’s health and well-being. Social isolation arising from a lack of meaningful connection with others can result in deterioration of well-being with negative consequences for health. For people living with multiple long-term conditions, the building and maintaining of social connection may be challenging. The aim of this study was to explore with people with long-term conditions how they perceive they maintain and develop social connections. We undertook semi-structured interviews with seventeen adults, and analyzed the data for themes. Themes were “Meaningful connection”, “Wherewithal for social connection” and “Impact of a major change in life course”. The findings suggest that social connection is valued, and facilitates meaningful ways to reciprocate support with others, thus enabling access to knowledge and resources for better health and well-being. However, people with long-term conditions can experience challenges to developing and maintaining social connectedness after a major change in life course. We suggest that healthcare providers are well placed to facilitate ways for people with long-term conditions to socially connect with others in their neighbourhood and community, and that this in particular be attended to after a major life change.

Description: Environmental justice is a rising social movement throughout the world. Research is beginning to define the movement and address the disparities that exist among communities exposed to pollution. North Birmingham, a community made up of six neighborhoods in Jefferson County, Alabama, in the United States, is a story of environmental injustice. Heavy industry, including the 35th Avenue Superfund Site, has caused significant environmental pollution over time, leaving residents concerned that their health and well-being are at risk from continued exposure. For years, pollution has impacted the community, and residents have fought and challenged industry and government. The United States (U.S.) Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), and the Jefferson County Department of Health (JCDH) in Alabama have historically played a role in working with the community regarding their health concerns. In this manuscript, we describe a city entrenched in environmental injustice. We provide the history of the community, the responsible parties named for the contamination, the government’s involvement, and the community’s response to this injustice. Through this manuscript, we offer insight into a global concern that challenges local communities on a daily basis.

Description: Extreme heat events (EHEs) are becoming more intense, more frequent and longer lasting in the 21st century. These events can disproportionately impact the health of low-income, minority, and urban populations. To better understand heat-related intervention strategies used by four U.S. cities, we conducted 73 semi-structured interviews with government and non-governmental organization leaders representing public health, general social services, emergency management, meteorology, and the environmental planning sectors in Detroit, MI; New York City, NY; Philadelphia, PA and Phoenix, AZ—cities selected for their diverse demographics, climates, and climate adaptation strategies. We identified activities these leaders used to reduce the harmful effects of heat for residents in their city, as well as the obstacles they faced and the approaches they used to evaluate these efforts. Local leaders provided a description of how local context (e.g., climate, governance and city structure) impacted heat preparedness. Despite the differences among study cities, political will and resource access were critical to driving heat-health related programming. Upon completion of our interviews, we convened leaders in each city to discuss these findings and their ongoing efforts through day-long workshops. Our findings and the recommendations that emerged from these workshops could inform other local or national efforts towards preventing heat-related morbidity and mortality.

Description: Ocean warming and acidification are serious threats to marine life. While each stressor alone has been studied in detail, their combined effects on the outcome of ecological interactions are poorly understood. We measured predation rates and predator selectivity of two closely-related species of damselfish exposed to a predatory dottyback. We found temperature and CO 2 interacted synergistically on overall predation rate, but antagonistically on predator selectivity. Notably, elevated CO 2 or temperature alone reversed predator selectivity, but the interaction between the two stressors cancelled selectivity. Routine metabolic rates of the two prey showed strong species differences in tolerance to CO 2 and not temperature, but these differences did not correlate with recorded mortality. This highlights the difficulty of linking species-level physiological tolerance to resulting ecological outcomes. This study is the first to document both synergistic and antagonistic effects of elevated CO 2 and temperature on a crucial ecological process like predator-prey dynamics. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Description: Venous blood was drawn from 35 pregnant Hispanic women living in Brownsville, Texas, and matched cord blood was collected at birth. Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry was used to measure concentrations of 55 individual PAHs or groups of PAHs. Results indicate that these women and their fetuses were regularly exposed to multiple PAHs at comparatively low concentrations, with levels in cord blood generally exceeding levels in paired maternal blood. While the possibility of related adverse effects on the fetus is uncertain, these exposures in combination with socioeconomically-disadvantaged and environmentally-challenging living conditions raise legitimate public health concerns.

Description: Change in abiotic factors such as climate may lead to shifts in species’ traits across their ranges, but the impacts of biotic elements of global change on latitudinal clines in species’ traits are less well understood. We find evidence that the presence of predatory invasive fire ants alters clines in the behavior, stress responsiveness, and morphology of a native lizard within 80 years (≈40 lizard generations). These results suggest that biotic components of global change can have powerful impacts across multiple organismal systems and large geographical extents even over relatively short time periods. Abstract Understanding the processes driving formation and maintenance of latitudinal clines has become increasingly important in light of accelerating global change. Many studies have focused on the role of abiotic factors, especially temperature, in generating clines, but biotic factors, including the introduction of non‐native species, may also drive clinal variation. We assessed the impact of invasion by predatory fire ants on latitudinal clines in multiple fitness‐relevant traits—morphology, physiological stress responsiveness, and antipredator behavior—in a native fence lizard. In areas invaded by fire ants, a latitudinal cline in morphology is opposite both the cline found in museum specimens from historical populations across the species’ full latitudinal range and that found in current populations uninvaded by fire ants. Similarly, clines in stress‐relevant hormone response to a stressor and in antipredator behavior differ significantly between the portions of the fence lizard range invaded and uninvaded by fire ants. Changes in these traits within fire ant‐invaded areas are adaptive and together support increased and more effective antipredator behavior that allows escape from attacks by this invasive predator. However, these changes may mismatch lizards to the environments under which they historically evolved. This research shows that novel biotic pressures can alter latitudinal clines in multiple traits within a single species on ecological timescales. As global change intensifies, a greater understanding of novel abiotic and biotic pressures and how affected organisms adapt to them across space and time will be central to predicting and managing our changing environment.

Description: Ocean acidification is predicted to negatively impact the reproduction of many marine species, either by reducing fertilization success or diverting energy from reproductive effort. While recent studies have demonstrated how ocean acidification will affect larval and juvenile fishes, little is known about how increasing partial pressure of carbon dioxide ( p CO 2 ) and decreasing pH might affect reproduction in adult fishes. We investigated the effects of near-future levels of p CO 2 on the reproductive performance of the cinnamon anemonefish, Amphiprion melanopus , from the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Breeding pairs were held under three CO 2 treatments (Current-day Control (430 μ atm), Moderate (584 μ atm) and High (1032 μ atm)) for a 9-month period that included the summer breeding season. Unexpectedly, increased CO 2 dramatically stimulated breeding activity in this species of fish. Over twice as many pairs bred in the Moderate (67% of pairs) and High (55%) compared to the Control (27%) CO 2 treatment. Pairs in the High CO 2 group produced double the number of clutches per pair and 67% more eggs per clutch compared to the Moderate and Control groups. As a result, reproductive output in the High group was 82% higher than the Control group and 50% higher than the Moderate group. Despite the increase in reproductive activity, there was no difference in adult body condition between the three treatment groups. There was no significant difference in hatchling length between the treatment groups, but larvae from the High CO 2 group had smaller yolks than Controls. This study provides the first evidence of the potential effects of ocean acidification on key reproductive attributes of marine fishes and, contrary to expectations, demonstrates an initially stimulatory (hormetic) effect in response to increased p CO 2 . However, any long-term consequences of increased reproductive effort on individuals or populations remains to be determined. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.