The coastal zones of Small Island States are hotspots of human habitation and economic endeavour. In the Pacific region, as elsewhere, there are large gaps in understandings of the exposure and ...vulnerability of people in coastal zones. The 22 Pacific Countries and Territories (PICTs) are poorly represented in global analyses of vulnerability to seaward risks. We combine several data sources to estimate populations to zones 1, 5 and 10 km from the coastline in each of the PICTs. Regional patterns in the proximity of Pacific people to the coast are dominated by Papua New Guinea. Overall, ca. half the population of the Pacific resides within 10 km of the coast but this jumps to 97% when Papua New Guinea is excluded. A quarter of Pacific people live within 1 km of the coast, but without PNG this increases to slightly more than half. Excluding PNG, 90% of Pacific Islanders live within 5 km of the coast. All of the population in the coral atoll nations of Tokelau and Tuvalu live within a km of the ocean. Results using two global datasets, the SEDAC-CIESIN Gridded Population of the World v4 (GPWv4) and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Landscan differed: Landscan under-dispersed population, overestimating numbers in urban centres and underestimating population in rural areas and GPWv4 over-dispersed the population. In addition to errors introduced by the allocation models of the two methods, errors were introduced as artefacts of allocating households to 1 km x 1 km grid cell data (30 arc-seconds) to polygons. The limited utility of LandScan and GPWv4 in advancing this analysis may be overcome with more spatially resolved census data and the inclusion of elevation above sea level as an important dimension of vulnerability.
Anthropogenic global warming has significantly influenced physical and biological processes at global and regional scales. The observed and anticipated changes in global climate present significant ...opportunities and challenges for societies and economies. We compare the vulnerability of 132 national economies to potential climate change impacts on their capture fisheries using an indicator‐based approach. Countries in Central and Western Africa (e.g. Malawi, Guinea, Senegal, and Uganda), Peru and Colombia in north‐western South America, and four tropical Asian countries (Bangladesh, Cambodia, Pakistan, and Yemen) were identified as most vulnerable. This vulnerability was due to the combined effect of predicted warming, the relative importance of fisheries to national economies and diets, and limited societal capacity to adapt to potential impacts and opportunities. Many vulnerable countries were also among the world’s least developed countries whose inhabitants are among the world’s poorest and twice as reliant on fish, which provides 27% of dietary protein compared to 13% in less vulnerable countries. These countries also produce 20% of the world’s fish exports and are in greatest need of adaptation planning to maintain or enhance the contribution that fisheries can make to poverty reduction. Although the precise impacts and direction of climate‐driven change for particular fish stocks and fisheries are uncertain, our analysis suggests they are likely to lead to either increased economic hardship or missed opportunities for development in countries that depend upon fisheries but lack the capacity to adapt.
Rigid wiry nets: Conjugated microporous polymer networks are formed by Sonogashira–Hagihara coupling. Although these materials are amorphous, the micropore size and surface area can be controlled by ...varying the length of the phenyleneethynylene struts (see picture; the network is shown in blue, and one 1,3,5‐substituted benzene node and three connected struts are highlighted with C gray and H white).
Expansion of the genetic code with nonstandard amino acids (nsAAs) has enabled biosynthesis of proteins with diverse new chemistries. However, this technology has been largely restricted to proteins ...containing a single or few nsAA instances. Here we describe an in vivo evolution approach in a genomically recoded Escherichia coli strain for the selection of orthogonal translation systems capable of multi-site nsAA incorporation. We evolved chromosomal aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (aaRSs) with up to 25-fold increased protein production for p-acetyl-L-phenylalanine and p-azido-L-phenylalanine (pAzF). We also evolved aaRSs with tunable specificities for 14 nsAAs, including an enzyme that efficiently charges pAzF while excluding 237 other nsAAs. These variants enabled production of elastin-like-polypeptides with 30 nsAA residues at high yields (∼50 mg/L) and high accuracy of incorporation (>95%). This approach to aaRS evolution should accelerate and expand our ability to produce functionalized proteins and sequence-defined polymers with diverse chemistries.
The vast development opportunities offered by the world’s coasts and oceans have attracted the attention of governments, private enterprises, philanthropic organizations and international ...conservation organizations. High-profile dialogue and policy decisions on ocean futures are informed largely by economic and ecological research. Key insights from the social sciences raise concerns for food and nutrition security, livelihoods and social justice but these have yet to gain traction with investors and the policy discourse on transforming ocean governance. The largest group of ocean-users – women and men who service, fish and trade from small-scale fisheries – argue they have been marginalized from dialogue between international environmental and economic actors determining strategies for ocean futures. Blue Economy or Blue Growth initiatives see the ocean as the new economic frontier and imply there is alignment with social objectives and small-scale fisheries concerns. Deeper analysis reveals fundamental differences in ideologies, priorities and approaches. We argue that small-scale fisheries are being subtly and overtly squeezed for geographic, political and economic space by larger scale economic and environmental conservation interests, jeopardizing the substantial benefits small-scale fisheries provide through livelihoods of millions of women and men, food for around four billion consumers globally, and in the developing world, a key source of micro-nutrients and protein for over a billion low-income consumers. Here we bring insights from social science and small-scale fisheries to explore how ocean governance might better account for social dimensions of fisheries.
The unfolding COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the vulnerability of the Pacific food system to externalities and has had far-reaching impacts, despite the small number of COVID-19 cases recorded thus ...far. Measures adopted to mitigate risk from the pandemic have had severe impacts on tourism, remittances, and international trade, among other aspects of the political economy of the region, and are thus impacting on food systems, food security and livelihoods. Of particular concern will be the interplay between loss of incomes and the availability and affordability of local and imported foods. In this paper, we examine some of the key pathways of impact on food systems, and identify opportunities to strengthen Pacific food systems during these challenging times. The great diversity among Pacific Island Countries and Territories in their economies, societies, and agricultural potential will be an important guide to planning interventions and developing scenarios of alternative futures. Bolstering regional production and intraregional trade in a currently import-dependent region could strengthen the regional economy, and provide the health benefits of consuming locally produced and harvested fresh foods – as well as decreasing reliance on global supply chains. However, significant production, processing, and storage challenges remain and would need to be consistently overcome to influence a move away from shelf-stable foods, particularly during periods when human movement is restricted and during post-disaster recovery.
A series of hypercrosslinked polymer networks has been synthesized by the self-condensation of bischloromethyl monomers such as dichloroxylene (DCX), 4,4‘-bis(chloromethyl)-1,1‘-biphenyl (BCMBP), and ...9,10-bis(chloromethyl)anthracene (BCMA). These materials are predominantly microporous and exhibit Brunauer−Emmett−Teller (BET) surface areas of up to 1904 m2/g as measured by N2 adsorption at 77.3 K (Langmuir surface area = 2992 m2/g). Networks based on BCMBP exhibit a gravimetric storage capacity of 3.68 wt % at 15 bar and 77.3 K, the highest yet reported for an organic polymer. The micro- and mesostructure of the networks is explained by a combination of solid-state NMR, gas sorption measurements, pycnometry, and molecular simulations. The isosteric heat of sorption for H2 on these materials is found to be in the range 6−7.5 kJ/mol. A molecular model is presented for a p-DCX network that simulates well certain key physical properties such as pore volume, pore width, absolute density, and bulk density. This model also predicts the isotherm shape and isosteric heat for H2 sorption at 77.3 and 87.2 K but overestimates the absolute degree of H2 uptake, most likely because of a degree of occluded, inaccessible porosity in the real physical samples.
Inshore marine resources play an important role in the livelihoods of Pacific Island coastal communities. However, such reliance can be detrimental to inshore marine ecosystems. Understanding the ...livelihoods of coastal communities is important for devising relevant and effective fisheries management strategies. Semi-structured household interviews were conducted with householders in Langalanga Lagoon, Solomon Islands, to understand household livelihoods and resource governance in fishing-dependent communities. Households were engaged in a diverse range of livelihoods. Fishing, shell money production and gardening were the most important livelihoods. Proximity to an urban centre influenced how households accessed some livelihoods. Perceptions of management rules varied and different reasons were cited for why rules were broken, the most common reason being to meet livelihood needs. Current models of inshore small-scale fisheries management that are based on the notion of community-based resource management may not work in locations where customary management systems are weak and livelihoods are heavily reliant on marine resources. An important step for fisheries management in such locations should include elucidating community priorities through participatory development planning, taking into consideration livelihoods as well as governance and development aspirations.
Hydrogels can be prepared using the commercially available Fmoc-phenylalanine or Fmoc-tyrosine as the gelator. Gelation is triggered by careful adjustment of the pH of the solution using ...glucono-δ-lactone (GdL). Model dyes have been entrapped in the hydrogels, and the release of the dyes from the hydrogels has been monitored. The release ratios indicate that the systems are under Fickian diffusion control. A range of dyes with different radii of gyration diffuse from the Fmoc-phenylalanine hydrogels with similar diffusion coefficients, implying that the network is not specifically retaining even relatively large (5 nm) dyes. On the other hand, the larger dyes are restricted in their diffusion from Fmoc-tyrosine hydrogels. These results correlate with the rheological measurements for the hydrogels, where those formed from Fmoc-tyrosine were shown to have significantly higher storage moduli than those formed from Fmoc-phenylalanine. In addition, the frequency-dependent behavior of the hydrogels demonstrates that Fmoc-tyrosine shows the classic response of a strong gel with a storage modulus that is nearly independent of frequency. However, for Fmoc-phenylalanine, the frequency dependence of moduli is very strong and very similar to that displayed by a transient network, where the interconnections between junction zones in the network are highly flexible and able to withstand large deformations.
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