Unexpectedly Good Soft Wheat Quality from a Hard × Soft Cross

The soft‐grained progeny of a recombinant inbred line (RIL) population was characterized for a comprehensive set of quality traits and associated quantitative trait loci (QTLs). The population was derived from the cross Tubbs (soft grained) × NSA 98‐0995 (hard grained) and was grown in two crop years in Corvallis, Oregon. Transgressive segregation was observed for all of the studied traits. Hardness index was significantly correlated with several important traits related to the absorption capacity of the flour for diagnostic aqueous solvents. Five lines with a desired combination of superior soft wheat quality traits were also identified. Fifteen QTLs were detected on nine wheat chromosomes for eight traits. The observed transgressive segregation was useful, because RILs with potentially above average soft wheat quality were unexpectedly identified in this hard × soft cross. The QTLs identified in this study could be useful in marker‐assisted selection for future preselection of progeny from Tubbs, NSA, or closely related genotypes.     

Regulating sustainability in the coffee sector: A comparative analysis of third-party environmental and social certification initiatives

Certification and labeling initiatives that seek to enhance environmental and social sustainability are growing rapidly. This article analyzes the expansion of these private regulatory efforts in the coffee sector. We compare the five major third-party certifications – the Organic, Fair Trade, Rainforest Alliance, Utz Kapeh, and Shade/Bird Friendly initiatives – outlining and contrasting their governance structures, environmental and social standards, and market positions. We argue that certifications that seek to raise ecological and social expectations are likely to be increasingly challenged by those that seek to simply uphold current standards. The vulnerability of these initiatives to market pressures highlights the need for private regulation to work in tandem with public regulation in enhancing social and environmental sustainability. Laura T. Raynolds is Professor of Sociology and Co-Director of the Center for Fair & Alternative Trade Studies (http://www.colostate.edu/Depts/Sociology/cfats/index.html) at Colorado State University. She has published extensively on organic and Fair Trade certification and globalization and has an edited volume forthcoming, Raynolds, L. T., D. Murray, and J. Wilkinson (eds.) (2007) Fair Trade: The Challenges of Transforming Globalization. London: Routledge Press. Douglas Murray is Professor of Sociology and Co-Director of the Center for Fair & Alternative Trade Studies at Colorado State University. His research and publications focus on global certification and regulatory initiatives, development, environment, and pesticide issues particularly in Latin America. Andrew Heller is PhD Candidate in Sociology and student affiliate of the Center for Fair & Alternative Trade Studies at Colorado State University. He is researching the impacts of certification on Guatemalan small scale coffee producers for his dissertation.     

Ecological effects of regime shifts in the Bering Sea and eastern North Pacific Ocean

Large‐scale shifts occurred in climatic and oceanic conditions in 1925, 1947, 1977, 1989 and possibly 1998. These shifts affected the mix and abundance of suites of coexisting species during each period of relative environmental stability—from primary producers to apex predators. However, the 1989 regime shift was not a simple reversal of the 1977 shift. The regime shifts occurred abruptly and were neither random variations nor simple reversals to the previous conditions. Timing of these anomalous environmental events in the North Pacific Ocean appears to be linked to physical and biological responses in other oceanic regions of the world. Changes in the atmospheric pressure can alter wind patterns that affect oceanic circulation and physical properties such as salinity and depth of the thermocline. This, in turn, affects primary and secondary production. Data from the North Pacific indicate that regime shifts can have opposite effects on species living in different domains, or can affect similar species living within a single domain in opposite ways. Climatic forcing appears to indirectly affect fish and marine mammal populations through changes in the distribution and abundance of their predators and prey. Effects of regime shifts on marine ecosystems are also manifested faster at lower trophic levels. Natural variability in the productivity of fish stocks in association with regime shifts indicates that new approaches to managing fisheries should incorporate climatic as well as fisheries effects.     

Local knowledge surveys with small-scale fishers indicate challenges to sawfish conservation in southern Papua New Guinea

1. Sawfish (Pristidae) are considered to be among the most threatened families of elasmobranch (sharks and rays). There is a need to gather information on the status of poorly known sawfish populations to assist in global recovery initiatives.
2. This study used interviews with local fishers to investigate the presence of sawfish in southern Papua New Guinea (PNG) and their interactions with and uses and values for small-scale fishers.
3. A range of sawfish size classes are still encountered throughout southern PNG, while juvenile largetooth sawfish Pristis pristis were additionally reported in the freshwater reaches of all rivers surveyed. Reports of large size classes in estuarine and marine environments provide an optimistic outlook that sawfish populations persist throughout southern PNG.
4. Most fishers that catch sawfish retain them for various uses including consumption and for the sale of meat, fins and occasionally rostra. Negative population trends including decreases in catch frequency and/or size classes were reported by 66% of interviewees, with the largest declines being reported in the Kikori River. The increasing technical capacity of small-scale fishers, their preference for gillnetting and the emerging market for teleost swim bladder (a high-value fishery product) present a major ongoing threat to sawfish in southern PNG. Furthermore, the tendency of fishers to kill or remove rostra from entangled sawfish results in high fishing mortality regardless of any use by the fisher.
5. This study indicates that considerable community engagement will be necessary to manifest any legislative actions or increased enforcement on international trade regulations for sawfish in PNG. This is due to traditional land and waterway ownership values throughout PNG and the local perception of sawfish as a traditional food resource rather than an animal of intrinsic biodiversity value as perceived by global conservationists. Future research should consider exploring culturally appropriate conservation initiatives that are likely to achieve engagement and participation from local fishers.

     

Contrasting climate velocity impacts in warm and cool locations show that effects of marine warming are worse in already warmer temperate waters

Species responses to climate change are often measured at broad spatiotemporal scales, which can miss the fine-scale changes that are most relevant to conservation and fisheries management. We develop a scaleable geostatistical approach to assess how juvenile and adult fish distributions have been shaped by changes in bottom temperature and dissolved oxygen over a recent decade of warming in the northeast Pacific. Across 38 demersal fishes, biomass trends were associated negatively with warming and positively with dissolved oxygen, but when trends in both biomass and climate were converted to velocities—the speed and direction a population would have to move to maintain consistent conditions—the effect of temperature change differed depending on local conditions. In the warmest locations, warming velocities were associated with negative biotic velocities for 19 of 69 species-maturity combinations, and yet were almost always associated with stable or positive biotic velocities in the coolest locations (64 of 69). These spatially consistent biomass declines (negative biotic velocities) in the warmest locations and increases in cooler locations suggest a redistribution of species with the potential for new ecological and fisheries interactions. After controlling for temperature, the more spatially consistent effects of dissolved oxygen were often negative, suggesting a mechanism other than hypoxia avoidance—potentially changes in primary production. Our approach identifies the species and locations that are most sensitive to observed changes in the environment at any scale, thus facilitating future vulnerability assessments.     

Effects of Stocking Density on Growth of Tilapia nilotica Cultured in Cages in Ponds

Reported maximum carrying capacities of Tilapia nilotica reared in cages are Iow ranging from 10 to 70 kg/m³. This may be related to total numbers of caged fish reared in a body of water and not simply density per cage volume. An experiment was conducted to demonstrate such effects.
Sixteen cages in a 0.77 ha pond were stocked with T. nilotica at either 250, 500, 750, or 1,000 fish/cage for a total of 12,987 fish/ha. One cage in each of four 0.13 ha ponds was stocked with either 250 or 1,000 fish/cage for a total of 1,923 or 7,692 fish/hectare, respectively. Fish were fed a 32% protein diet at equal rates for 169 days. In the 0.77 ha pond, yield per cage was positively correlated with stocking density, while individual mean weights were negatively correlated with stocking density. However, among equal densities per cage between ponds, fish in the 0.13 ha ponds gained about 26% more than in the 0.77 ha pond. An interaction of the effects of density per cage volume and per pond area may have occurred.