Empowerment and regulation – dilemmas in participatory fisheries science

Using a perspective from the sociology of knowledge, this study identifies some ‘dilemmas of participatory research’. We look at how social relationships between fishers and scientists develop around the exchange of fishers’ knowledge in particular institutional contexts. We survey the general types and global examples of fisher–scientist relationships in terms of how they approach the integration of fishers’ and scientists’ knowledge. Based on an empirical study of three European cases of participatory research, we then discuss five dilemmas that tend to characterize fisher–scientist relationships. These dilemmas centre on the relationship between fisheries research, fishery regulations and fishers as subjects of both regulation and participatory research endeavours. We argue that these dilemmas – experienced by both scientists and fishers – express an underlying tension between ‘empowering’ fishers to support the effective management of the fishing commons and the bureaucratic need to regulate the fishery as an industry.     

Beitrag zur Biologie desThrips angusticeps Uz

Ohne Zusammenfassung Mit 2 Abbildungen.     

Genetic population structure and variation at phenology-related loci in anadromous Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus)

The Arctic will be especially affected by climate change, resulting in altered seasonal timing. Anadromous Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus) is strongly influenced by sea surface temperature (SST) delimiting time periods available for foraging in the sea. Recent studies of salmonid species have shown variation at phenology-related loci associated with timing of migration and spawning. We contrasted genetic population structure at 53 SNPs versus four phenology-related loci among 15 anadromous Arctic char populations from Western Greenland and three outgroup populations. Among anadromous populations, the time period available for foraging at sea (>2°C) ranges from a few weeks to several months, motivating two research questions: (a) Is population structure compatible with possibilities for evolutionary rescue of anadromous populations during climate change? (b) Does selection associated with latitude or SST regimes act on phenology-related loci? In Western Greenland, strong isolation by distance at SNPs was observed and spatial autocorrelation analysis showed genetic patch size up to 450 km, documenting contingency and gene flow among populations. Outlier tests provided no evidence for selection at phenology-related loci. However, in Western Greenland, mean allele length at OtsClock1b was positively associated with the time of year when SST first exceeded 2°C and negatively associated with duration of the period where SST exceeded 2°C. This is consistent with local adaptation for making full use of the time period available for foraging in the sea. Current adaptation may become maladaptive under climate change, but long-distance connectivity of anadromous populations could redistribute adaptive variation across populations and lead to evolutionary rescue.     

Haploid barley from the intergeneric cross Hordeum vulgare x Psathyrostachys fragilis

Summary The intergeneric hybrid Hordeum vulgare x Psathyrostachys fragilis was fairly easily obtained. During each growing season the intermediate, perennial hybrid yielded haploid tillers of H. vulgare. Late in one season few, hybrid tillers headed. The morphology, cytology and enzymatic patterns of hybrid and haploid tillers were investigated.     

Seed germination in weedy Brassica campestris and its hybrids with B. napus: Implications for risk assessment of transgenic oilseed rape

We studied the germination behaviour of the following types of seeds: weedy Brassica campestris, oilseed rape (Brassica napus), B. campestris (♀) × B. napus (♂), B. napus (♀) × B. campestris (♂) and, finally, seeds harvested on B. napus (♀) × B. campestris (♂) hybrids in open pollination with B. campestris and B. napus. The seeds were germinated in Petri dishes, using three different consecutive treatments and assaying the viability of non-germinated seeds with tetrazolium staining. B. campestris seeds varied in the treatment they required in order to germinate and many seeds were dormant, in contrast to B. napus seeds, which lacked dormancy. B. campestris (♀) × B. napus (♂) and B. napus (♀) × B. campestris (♂) seeds both resembled B. napus being non-dormant whereas seeds harvested on B. napus (♀) × B. campestris (♂) hybrids were more B. campestris-like in germination behaviour. We discuss implications for risk of transgene spread from oilseed rape to weedy B. campestris. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Reduced sexual compatibility between cultivated and wild chicory and their F1 hybrids

Crops were domesticated from wild plants not too long ago and have subsequently diverged from the wild ones, especially in traits used by humans. Whether divergence between the cultigen and wild forms has also lead to reduced reproductive compatibility is unknown for many species. Chicory (Cichorium intybus L.) has been bred as a crop at least since Roman times. To test if this has led to a loss in reproductive compatibility with wild chicory, we planted cultivar, wild, and F₁ hybrid plants into two field plots, and let them pollinate freely. On 2?days, in the beginning and middle of the flowering season, we counted the numbers of flowering capitula and open flowers per capitulum, which in combination with counts of viable pollen per flower were used to estimate the expected proportion of seeds fathered by cultivar, wild, and hybrid plants. Open capitula on wild and hybrid plants were marked, and when seeds were ripe we determined whether cultivar, wild or hybrid plants had pollinated the seeds, using AFLP markers. Cultivar plants fathered much fewer seeds than expected, both on wild and hybrid plants, suggesting that some degree of incompatibility has evolved between cultivar and wild chicory. Hybrid plants fathered more seeds than expected on some of the hybrid plants, indicating that hybrids do not suffer much from outbreeding depression. Our study thus suggests that cultivated and wild chicory, even though they belong to the same species, have diverged to an extent where reproduction between them is somewhat impaired.     

Helophorus porculus Bedel als Stoppelrübenschädling

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

The factualization of uncertainty: Risk,politics, and genetically modified crops – a case of rape

Mandatory risk assessment is intended to reassure concerned citizens and introduce reason into the heated European controversies on genetically modified crops and food. The authors, examining a case of risk assessment of genetically modified oilseed rape, claim that the new European legislation on risk assessment does nothing of the sort and is not likely to present an escape from the international deadlock on the use of genetic modification in agriculture and food production. The new legislation is likely to stimulate the kind of emotive reactions it was intended to prevent. In risk assessment exercises, scientific uncertainty is turned into risk, expressed in facts and figures. Paradoxically, this conveys an impression of certainty, while value-disagreement and conflicts of interest remain hidden below the surface of factuality. Public dialogue and negotiation along these lines are rendered impossible. The only option left to critics is to resort to claims of fear and to call for new risk assessments to be performed, on and on again. Science is allowing itself to be abused by accepting the burden of proof in matters more suited to reflection and negotiation. The specific challenge to science would be to take care of itself – rethinking the role and the limitations of science in a social context, and, thereby gaining the strength to fulfill this role and to enter into dialogue with the rest of society. Scientific communities appear to be obvious candidates for prompting reflection and dialogue on this issue.     

Improving the effectiveness of escape windows in directed Norway lobster Nephrops norvegicus trawl fisheries

A substantial improvement in the bycatch selectivity of Norway lobster Nephrops norvegicus trawls is required, particularly with respect to cod Gadus morhua, whose stocks are at low levels in several areas. Conventional escape windows are not adequate to properly release cod and other bycatch species caught in the trawls. To address this issue, we developed a novel sorting box concept consisting of a four-panel section with a window on the top in order to improve the escape of cod and other bycatch species through an escape window while retaining the target catch of Norway lobster. The concept was tested on a commercial trawler in Kattegat and Skagerrak. Two different window mesh sizes and two different sorting box heights were tested using a traditional codend cover and a dual codend cover. We observed greatly reduced bycatches of both cod and other fish species compared to a standard codend. The reduction in bycatch decreased with decreasing mesh size and increasing height of the sorting box. Escape of Norway lobster through the escape window was limited. A modified version of the sorting box concept was implemented in the Kattegat fishery from 2009 onwards.