Synthetic textiles can shed numerous microfibers during conventional washing, but evaluating environmental consequences as well as source-control strategies requires understanding mass releases. ...Polyester apparel accounts for a large proportion of the polyester market, and synthetic jackets represent the broadest range in apparel construction, allowing for potential changes in manufacturing as a mitigation measure to reduce microfiber release during laundering. Here, detergent-free washing experiments were conducted and replicated in both front- and top-load conventional home machines for five new and mechanically aged jackets or sweaters: four from one name-brand clothing manufacturer (three majority polyester fleece, and one nylon shell with nonwoven polyester insulation) and one off-brand (100% polyester fleece). Wash water was filtered to recover two size fractions (>333 μm and between 20 and 333 μm); filters were then imaged, and microfiber masses were calculated. Across all treatments, the recovered microfiber mass per garment ranged from approximately 0 to 2 g, or exceeding 0.3% of the unwashed garment mass. Microfiber masses from top-load machines were approximately 7 times those from front-load machines; garments mechanically aged via a 24 h continuous wash had increased mass release under the same wash protocol as new garments. When published wastewater treatment plant influent characterization and microfiber removal studies are considered, washing synthetic jackets or sweaters as per this study would account for most microfibers entering the environment.
Marine aquaculture (i.e. seafood farming in the ocean) has the potential to substantially support growing demand for animal protein. Despite vast amounts of suitable ocean space across the world, ...marine aquaculture development has been slow and geographically heterogeneous, indicating that factors other than suitable farming conditions are influencing industry growth. Using multivariate techniques, this study explores to what extent certain socioeconomic, governance, and biophysical factors can explain country-level patterns of mariculture production. We find that socioeconomic conditions are a significant contributor to whether a country produces mariculture and the magnitude of its production; our models explain up to 33% more of the variation in mariculture production compared to models including only biophysical parameters. These results are relatively consistent across types of mariculture production (i.e. finfish, crustaceans, molluscs, and algae). Our findings suggest that improving seafood farming infrastructure, creating local demand for seafood, and facilitating knowledge transfer from land-based and freshwater aquaculture could help countries develop stronger mariculture industries.
•Marine aquaculture presents fertile territory for extending agro-food discourses.•Geographers can offer critical commentary on topics overlooked by other disciplines.•The marine aquaculture context ...can challenge and expand disciplinary paradigms.•Food, feminist, and technology studies are notable arenas for geographic engagement.
The field of geography has long contributed crucial insights to our understanding of food systems; however, this scholarship has focused predominantly on terrestrial food production, even though over a third of the global population relies on seafood to meet their dietary needs. While geographers have identified aquaculture (the farming of aquatic species) as a fruitful field of study, there has been little consideration for how the varied environments in which aquaculture is produced, from freshwater ponds to open ocean net pens, can and should shape specific research questions and disciplinary pursuits within the broader aquacultural geography discourse. As such, we present the case for a ‘maricultural geography’ that engages with the distinct dynamics and tensions of farming in the sea. We evaluate geographers’ existing contributions to the mariculture literature and identify emerging discourses within political economy, political ecology, and science and technology studies. We then outline three pathways for further disciplinary engagement focused on food geographies, feminist geographies, and social studies of science. Geographers can offer valuable analyses of mariculture’s position within existing sociocultural food structures, present alternative pathways for postcapitalist production, and explore the mechanization of a fluid world through technoscientific systems. In return, the ocean context provides novel opportunities for thinking geographically about our food systems and reimagining terrestrial ontologies of governance and regulation, development and urbanization, and sustainability and innovation.
Marine aquaculture (mariculture) plays a relatively small role in the United States’ domestic seafood production, despite considerable scope for industry development and high volumes of imported ...farmed seafood resulting in a significant trade deficit. Currently, most mariculture in the United States occurs in nearshore waters or land‐based tanks and is regulated and guided using state‐level policy, with a relative absence of national coordinating mechanisms to link the patchwork of state policies. There is no comprehensive evaluation showing how different state policies may be enabling or impeding mariculture development. In response, we provide the first systematic overview of state‐level mariculture policy for the 23 coastal marine states in the United States. We compiled information for 16 aquaculture and mariculture policy attributes, including legislation, regulations and management characteristics, particularly those that could enable mariculture development. We found considerable heterogeneity in how states govern and regulate mariculture. As examples, 48% of states have an aquaculture development act, 35% have spatial zoning specifically for mariculture and only 26% have a government‐provided mariculture best management practices document. We examined the relationship between enabling policies and metrics of mariculture output (e.g. production value, number of farms), and while the effect of enabling policy is often equivocal, certain features stand out as important (e.g. government‐provided best management practices). Overall, this policy synthesis suggests approaches that may be influential in enabling mariculture development, which could inform new state‐level policies, an effective overarching federal policy in the United States, or policies in other countries seeking to support an expanded mariculture industry.
Marine aquaculture in the United States has faced substantial development hurdles that have limited the industry’s contributions to the nation’s domestic seafood supply. Federal attempts to address ...these impediments to industry growth have not fully resolved these hurdles, leaving much of the onus of development on individual states. Because changes in policies, regulation, and legislation to better enable marine aquaculture development take extensive effort and time, targeted strategies that work within existing management frameworks can and should be utilized to address development challenges at a smaller scale while waiting on larger institutional shifts. Here, we make the case specifically for state authorization of pilot farming schemes, an approach that allows for the trialing of marine aquaculture operations within a limited spatial and temporal scope. While we argue that pilot frameworks can improve the economic, operational, and ecological feasibility of marine aquaculture, we also posit that they can support diversification across the industry, from participants to culture methods, bolstering industry resiliency.
Recent attention to the ecosystem service-generating potential of marine aquaculture (mariculture) indicates that there is substantial opportunity for marine farming to optimise practices that ...benefit both production and nature. One strategy for augmenting sustainability within the mariculture industry is to develop more diverse farming practices and culture species that can operate within existing ocean space constraints, contribute to ecological and conservation objectives, and assuage negative public sentiment towards mariculture. While this strategy has the potential to expand mariculture's sustainability, the implementation of these alternative culture approaches will likely depend on whether the management frameworks that regulate the industry have the authority and the capacity to enable farming innovations and encourage investment in diverse mariculture systems. Using Australia and seafloor ranching of molluscs as a case study, we explore the suitability of existing policy and legislation to support novel farming methods. We find that the policy frameworks differ across States in terms of their applicability (both implicit and explicit) to seafloor ranching activities, with substantial gaps regarding the siting and building of farming infrastructure. In the context of these results, we discuss potential strategies for leveraging existing policy and management frameworks to meet the needs of seafloor ranching and identify operational stages where new, targeted policy could be particularly impactful. Our case study offers practical insights to policymakers in Australia and other countries and regions seeking to support innovations in culture methods with a greater potential for sustainability.
•Diversification can bolster sustainability within the mariculture industry.•Policy gaps could hamper operationalization of alternative farming practices.•Governance frameworks require specific consideration of alternative culture methods.•Leveraging existing policies can permit and support mariculture innovations.
Given competing objectives vying for space in the marine environment, the island of Bermuda may be an ideal candidate for comprehensive marine spatial planning (MSP). However, faced with other ...pressing issues, ocean management reform has not yet received significant traction from the government, a pattern seen in many locations. Spatial planning processes often struggle during the proposal, planning, or implementation phases due to stakeholder opposition and/or government wariness to change. Conflict among stakeholders about management reform has also proven to be a deterrent to MSP application in many locations. With these obstacles in mind, a detailed stakeholder survey was conducted in Bermuda to determine awareness, attitudes and perceptions regarding ocean health, threats to ocean environments, the effectiveness of current ocean management, and possible future changes to management. How perceptions vary for different types of stakeholders and how attitudes about specific concerns relate to attitudes about management changes were examined. Overall, the results indicate a high degree of support for spatial planning and ocean zoning and a high level of concordance even among stakeholder groups that are typically assumed to have conflicting agendas. However, attitudes were not entirely homogeneous, particularly when delving into details about specific management changes. For example, commercial fishers were generally less in favor, relative to other stakeholder groups, of increasing regulations on ocean uses with the notable exception of regulations for recreational fishing. Given the results of this survey, public support is likely to be high for government action focused on ocean management reform in Bermuda.
Governance and mariculture in the Caribbean Ruff, Elizabeth O.; Gentry, Rebecca R.; Clavelle, Tyler ...
Marine policy,
September 2019, 2019-09-00, Letnik:
107
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Despite overall global growth of marine and coastal aquaculture (i.e., mariculture), there is substantial regional heterogeneity in production. Biophysical growing conditions do not explain variation ...in production, indicating that other economic, social, and political drivers are likely influencing geographic patterns of industry development. The Caribbean is one such region where mariculture has considerable potential, but current production is very low. This is particularly surprising because the region relies heavily on seafood products and has experienced substantial declines in capture fisheries. Given the discrepancy between potential and realized production, this paper evaluates governance mechanisms (e.g., policies, laws, and regulations) related to current and future mariculture production in the Caribbean. We review literature examining the development and governance of several emerging industries, which we use to inform a Mariculture Governance Index that we assess for each Caribbean country and interpret relative to their current and potential mariculture production. Further, we seek to provide insight into the dynamic relationship between governance and mariculture development through country-specific case studies by exploring the timelines of mariculture growth relative to the timing of mariculture policy and legislation for select countries. This work develops a method for better understanding the role of governance in mariculture development and is applicable across regions, providing valuable context for identifying opportunities and barriers to mariculture expansion.
The impenetrability of the blood–brain barrier (BBB) to most conventional drugs impedes the treatment of central nervous system (CNS) disorders. Interventions for diseases like brain cancer, ...neurodegeneration, or age-associated inflammatory processes require varied approaches to CNS drug delivery. Cystine-dense peptides (CDPs) have drawn recent interest as drugs or drug-delivery vehicles. Found throughout the phylogenetic tree, often in drug-like roles, their size, stability, and protein interaction capabilities make CDPs an attractive mid-size biologic scaffold to complement conventional antibody-based drugs. Here, we describe the identification, maturation, characterization, and utilization of a CDP that binds to the transferrin receptor (TfR), a native receptor and BBB transporter for the iron chaperone transferrin. We developed variants with varying binding affinities (KD as low as 216 pM), co-crystallized it with the receptor, and confirmed murine cross-reactivity. It accumulates in the mouse CNS at ~25% of blood levels (CNS blood content is only ~1%–6%) and delivers neurotensin, an otherwise non-BBB-penetrant neuropeptide, at levels capable of modulating CREB signaling in the mouse brain. Our work highlights the utility of CDPs as a diverse, easy-to-screen scaffold family worthy of inclusion in modern drug discovery strategies, demonstrated by the discovery of a candidate CNS drug delivery vehicle ready for further optimization and preclinical development.
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•Blood–brain barrier penetration is key to treating central nervous system diseases.•A drug-like cystine-dense peptide that binds transferrin receptor was identified.•Brain accumulation and pharmacodynamic effect of peptide cargo were seen.•This peptide represents a small (5 kDa) tag permitting CNS delivery of therapeutics.
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