What is the state? The State of Freedom offers an important new take on this classic question by exploring what exactly the state did and how it worked. Patrick Joyce asks us to re-examine the ...ordinary things of the British state from dusty government files and post offices to well-thumbed primers in ancient Greek and Latin and the classrooms and dormitories of public schools and Oxbridge colleges. This is also a history of the 'who' and the 'where' of the state, of the people who ran the state, the government offices they sat in and the college halls they dined in. Patrick Joyce argues that only by considering these things, people and places can we really understand the nature of the modern state. This is both a pioneering new approach to political history in which social and material factors are centre stage, and a highly original history of modern Britain.
Material Powers Bennett, Tony; Joyce, Patrick
2010, 20130513, 2013-05-13, 20100101
eBook
This edited collection is a major contribution to the current development of a 'material turn' in the social sciences and humanities. It does so by exploring new understandings of how power is made ...up and exercised by examining the role of material infrastructures in the organization of state power and the role of material cultural practices in the organization of colonial forms of governance.
A diverse range of historical examples is drawn on in illustrating these concerns - from the role of territorial engineering projects in seventeenth-century France through the development of the postal system in nineteenth-century Britain to the relations between the state and road-building in contemporary Peru, for example. The colonial contexts examined are similarly varied, ranging from the role of photographic practices in the constitution of colonial power in India and the measurement of the bodies of the colonized in French colonial practices to the part played by the relations between museums and expeditions in the organization of Australian forms of colonial rule. These specific concerns are connected to major critical re-examination of the limits of the earlier formulations of cultural materialism and the logic of the 'cultural turn'.
The collection brings together a group of key international scholars whose work has played a leading role in debates in and across the fields of history, visual culture studies, anthropology, geography, cultural studies, museum studies, and literary studies.
Microplastics are ubiquitous in the marine environment, and their uptake by many organisms has been well documented. Concern about increasing plastic waste in ecosystems and organisms has led to the ...production of biodegradable alternatives. However, long breakdown times of biodegradable plastics in natural environments mean they still have the potential to induce ecological impacts. The impacts of microplastics on organisms remain unclear, especially as many experimental microplastic exposures employ particle concentrations orders of magnitude greater than those found in natural ecosystems. Here, we exposed the ecosystem engineer, the Asian green mussel Perna viridis, to non-biodegradable and biodegradable microplastics at two environmentally relevant concentrations (~17–20 particles L−1 and ~ 135–140 particles L−1). After four weeks of exposure, there were no significant effects of microplastic type or concentration on the mortality, oxygen consumption rate, clearance rate, or condition index of P. viridis. With the increasing body of microplastic literature, future exposure studies considering biotic effects should make efforts to employ environmentally relevant concentrations. Further, we suggest that, while a high-profile threat to ecosystems, investigating the effects of microplastics on ecosystems should be conducted alongside, and not draw focus away from, other major threats such as climate change.
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•Non-biodegradable and biodegradable microplastics are found in natural systems.•Ecological impacts of microplastics are understudied.•Non-biodegradable and biodegradable microplastics did not affect mussel functioning.•Microplastic concentration did not affect mussel functioning.•Microplastic experiments should include environmentally-relevant scenarios.
The ability of marine organisms to persist under, and recover from, periods of stressful conditions will shape their occurrence in future oceans characterized by exacerbated marine heatwaves (MHWs). ...Organism persistence and recovery may, in turn, be shaped by traits of the organisms themselves including, for example, body size. In the present study, we tested the responses (survival, heart rate, Arrhenius breakpoint temperature – ABT, clearance rate, respiration rate, and condition index) of large (5 cm) and small (3 cm)
Perna viridis
mussels after exposure to a three-week marine heatwave (MHW; + 4 °C) and a one-week recovery period. Exposure to elevated temperatures did not affect the survival of large or small mussels, however, at the end of the MHW both size classes exhibited increased heart rate under elevated temperatures, small mussels exhibited increased ABT, and large mussels exhibited significantly increased clearance rate. Following one week of recovery at control temperature, the altered responses had returned to be similar to those of mussels held under control conditions. The results obtained here indicate that both sizes of mussels can readily recover from exposure to short-term elevated temperatures imposed by MHWs, enabling the continued persistence of
P. viridis
mussels in future oceans.
As humans accelerate global environmental change, extreme climatic events are increasing in frequency, duration, and intensity. In marine environments, extreme events of particular concern are marine ...heatwaves (MHWs). Previous reviews synthesising subsets of field-based research examining the ecological effects of these short-term warming events have found they could drive important changes to ecosystems. Here, we reviewed the traits of published literature that has used field, laboratory, and modelling approaches to examine the biotic effects of MHWs, and highlight some of the key findings. Since its first use in this context in 2013, the term “marine heatwave” has generally been used in field-based literature primarily documenting changes in abundance, biodiversity, species distributions, and mortality, primarily in fish and molluscs. Research is increasingly also conducted in laboratory settings, with these investigations focussing on changes in mechanistic processes such as growth and biochemical responses, often in smaller or less motile organisms including seagrasses, algae, molluscs, and crustaceans. Given their different applications, these complementary approaches will provide a more complete understanding when used to consider the same taxonomic groups. Moreover, those manipulating MHWs in laboratory experiments could benefit from the consideration of a range of MHW traits (intensity, duration, and their combination), for species in both isolation and combination, and in the presence of additional abiotic stressors. As such, where future research into MHWs use varied approaches and treatment settings, they will contribute to a more holistic understanding of the biological and ecological effects of future short-term warming events in our ocean.
Global climate change is leading to shifts in abiotic conditions. Short-term temperature stresses induced by marine heatwaves (MHWs) can affect organisms both during and after the events. However, ...the recovery capacity of organisms is likely dependent on the magnitude of the initial stress event. Here, we experimentally assessed the effect of MHW magnitude on behavioural and physiological responses of a common marine gastropod, Lunella granulata, both during and after the MHW. Self-righting behaviours tended to become faster under moderate MHWs, whereas there was a trend toward these behaviours slowing under extreme MHWs. After a recovery period at ambient temperatures, individuals that experienced extreme MHWs showed persistent small, but not significant, negative effects. Survival and oxygen consumption rates were unaffected by MHW magnitude both during and after the event. While extreme MHWs may have negative behavioural consequences for tropical marine gastropods, their physiological responses may allow continued survival.
Ecological impacts caused by invasive alien species can be severe but may vary depending upon environmental conditions. Many European populations of the native mussel,
Mytilus edulis,
have been ...invaded by the Pacific oyster,
Crassostrea
(
Magallana
)
gigas
. Although widespread invasions have occurred, interactions between
M. edulis
and
C. gigas
have largely been investigated with regards to competition for space and food as well as effects on species assemblages. Experimental investigation of competitive interactions on physiological responses of the two species requires further exploration. To this end, we used a 12-month field manipulation experiment to examine growth rates, mortality and condition indices of the two species occurring in monospecific and heterospecific groups. Growth rates and mortality of both species were similar in monospecific and heterospecific groups, whereas condition indices were significantly reduced for both species in heterospecific groups. Growth rates and condition indices also differed amongst experimental sites, potentially due to differing water motion. Shell weight-length relationships did not explain the observed differences in condition for either species. We show that coexistence between the two species may occur but could be detrimental for both species. We also provide a preliminary viewpoint that water motion can mediate competitive interactions between these species.
In Bacillus subtilis, FtsZ ring formation and cell division is favoured at the midcell because the inhibitor proteins MinC and MinD are indirectly restricted to the cell poles by the protein DivIVA. ...Here we identify MinJ, a topological determinant of medial FtsZ positioning that acts as an intermediary between DivIVA and MinD. Due to unrestricted MinD activity, cells mutated for minJ exhibited pleiotropic defects in homologous recombination, swarming motility and cell division. MinJ restricted MinD activity by localizing MinD to the cell poles through direct protein-protein interaction. MinJ itself localized to cell poles in a manner that was dependent on DivIVA. MinJ is conserved in other low G+C Gram-positive bacteria and may be an important component of cell division site selection in these organisms.
Internationalisation of curriculum can enhance graduate awareness of global issues, such as climate change, and shape behaviours in ways that facilitate sustainable development. To ensure all ...students can develop this perspective, internationalisation needs to be done at home using a variety of approaches. There is a growing body of research exploring internationalisation at home; however, much of this research focuses on Western academic institutions, with other regions being largely overlooked. This study investigated the application of an internationalisation at home approach, specifically the use of contemporary media, during the “Global Change Biology” course taught at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Case studies of the international aspects of global change were introduced to students through the use of news articles at the beginning of lectures. Student responses to this activity were identified using surveys conducted at the beginning and end of the course. There was an overwhelmingly positive response to the sharing of case studies and internationalisation of the curriculum, with students at the end of the course reporting increased knowledge confidence about the global effects of climate change. Further, students were able to share more location-specific examples of the effects of global change, and indicated they may shift behaviours in the future so that they adapt more sustainably to climate change. In terms of the teaching approach used, students stated the sharing of news articles provided them with a greater appreciation of the global nature of climate change impacts. Together, these results indicate that internationalisation at home can be effective, and allow an internationalised experience for students regardless of their access to travel.
Tropical regions contain ecologically and socio‐economically important habitats, and are home to about 3.8 billion people, many of which directly depend on tropical coastal waters for their ...well‐being. At the basis of these ecosystems are biogeochemical processes. Climate change is expected to have a greater impact in the tropics compared to temperate regions because of the relatively stable environmental conditions found there. However, it was surprising to find only 660 research articles published focusing on the impact of climate change on the biogeochemistry of coastal tropical waters compared to 4823 for temperate waters. In this perspective, we highlight important topics in need of further research. Specifically, we suggest that in tropical regions compared to temperate counterparts climate change stressors will be experienced differently, that organisms have a lower acclimation capacity, and that long‐term baseline biogeochemical datasets useful for quantifying future changes are lacking. The low number of research papers on the impacts of climate change in coastal tropical regions is likely due to a mix of reasons including limited resources for research and limited number of long time series in many developing tropical countries. Finally, we propose some action points that we hope will stimulate more studies in tropical coastal waters.
Tropical coastal waters are home to 3.8 billion people, but what do we know about the biogeochemistry sustaining these ecosystems? In this perspective article, we argue that research should focus on these important, yet forgotten regions.
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