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AbstractCrustose coralline algae (CCA) are a group of calcifying red macroalgae crucial to tropical coral reefs because they form crusts that cement together the reef framework1. Previous research into the responses of CCA to ocean warming (OW) and ocean acidification (OA) have found reductions in calcification rates and survival2,3, with magnitude of effect being species-specific. Responses of CCA to OW and OA could be linked to evolutionary divergence time and/or their underlying molecular biology, the role of either being unknown in CCA. Here we showSporolithon durum, a species from an earlier diverged lineage that exhibits low sensitivity to climate stressors, had little change in metabolic performance and did not significantly alter the expression of any genes when exposed to temperature and pH perturbations. In contrast,Porolithon onkodes, a species from a recently diverged lineage, reduced photosynthetic rates and had over 400 significantly differentially expressed genes in response to experimental treatments, with differential regulation of genes relating to physiological processes. We suggest earlier diverged CCA may be resistant to OW and OA conditions predicted for 2100, whereas taxa from more recently diverged lineages with demonstrated high sensitivity to climate stressors may have limited ability for acclimatisation.

To review the available evidence that examines the association between climatic and agricultural land use factors and the risks of enteric zoonoses in humans and consider information needs and possible pathways of intervention.The electronic databases PubMed, Web of Science and Embase and government websites were searched systematically for published literature that investigated the association of climatic and/or agricultural exposures with the incidence of the four most common enteric zoonotic diseases in New Zealand (campylobacteriosis, salmonellosis, cryptosporidiosis and giardiasis). Results The 16 studies in the review demonstrated significant associations between climate, agricultural land use and enteric disease occurrence. The evidence suggests that enteric disease risk from environmental reservoirs is pathogen specific. In some rural regions, environmental pathogen load is considerable, with multiple opportunities for zoonotic transmission.Enteric disease occurrence in NZ is associated with climate variability and agricultural land use. However, these relationships interact with demographic factors to influence disease patterns.Improved understanding of how environmental and social factors interact can inform effective public health interventions under scenarios of projected environmental change.

Sustainably feeding the world’s growing population represents one of our most significant challenges. Aquaculture is well positioned to make contributions towards this challenge. Yet, the translation of aquaculture production innovations into benefits for rural communities is constrained by a limited understanding of the social dynamics that influence the adoption of new agricultural practices. In this paper, we investigate the factors that shape the spread of small-scale tilapia aquaculture through rural Solomon Islands. Based on diffusion of innovation theory, we focus on three potentially influential factors: (i) socio-economic characteristics of adopters; (ii) the role of opinion leaders; and (iii) characteristics of the innovation. We find that farmers who were wealthier, older, and had more diverse livelihoods were most likely to be adopters. Opinion leaders facilitated the adoption of tilapia aquaculture, but lacked the capacity to provide fundamental knowledge necessary to realize its potential benefits to food security. The paper argues for more explicit attention to the poorest households and makes the case for a deeper engagement with the broader social and institutional contexts that shape the adoption process. Aquaculture interventions that account for these social dynamics are critical for translating production innovations into sustainable benefits to rural communities.

Plants under salt stress require additional energy supply to fuel salt tolerance mechanisms and growth. Bandehagh and Taylor (2020) establish that plants must strike a balance between energy supply and demand to maintain growth and development during salt stress. This review (1) summaries how salt stress affects different physiological and biochemical process altering the abundance of different metabolites that are feeding into regular and alternative respiratory pathways and shunts; (monomeric complex I, dimeric complex III and I + III2 supercomplex) found to be higher in halophyte mitochondria in comparison with glycophyte, implying efficient electron transfer from complex I to complex III in halophyte mitochondria. Further, the stability of ATP synthase (complex V) also found to be higher in halophyte suggesting halophyte mitochondria better equipped to supply additional ATP required to support salt stress response.Synthesis of organic compatible solutes is an important component for plant salt stress tolerance. In this regard, proline plays an important role in protecting plants from under salinity conditions and showed that salt tolerance is associated with changes in lipid metabolic processes. They also discovered the important role of phosphatidylserine (PS) in mediating enzyme activity, and exogenous application of PS alleviated the effects of NaCl tissue toxicity. The results showed that the superior K + retention ability in both mature and elongation zone of rice root is the key trait conferring its differential salinity stress tolerance. They suggested that besides the superior ability to activate root H + -ATPase pump operation, this key trait is also related to the reduced sensitivity of K + efflux channels to reactive oxygen species and the lower upregulation in OsGORK and higher upregulation of OsAKT1.A key trait long recognized to improve salinity tolerance in many plants is the maintenance of a low Na + /K + ratio. Transient expression experiment showed that JcHDZ07 is a nuclear-localized protein.In improving Na + exclusion ability to maintain root ion homeostasis to ensure a relatively 9 low shoot Na + concentration under saline conditions; 2) maintaining a high shoot sugar content under saline conditions which is enabled by protecting photosystems structures, enhancing photosynthetic performance and sucrose synthetase activity, and inhibiting sucrose degradation. Further, authors suggested that targeting the key genes related to the regulatory mechanisms could provide opportunities to breed more salt tolerant sweet sorghum.Overall, we hope this special issue of benefit to plant breeders and land managers by delivering novel information and insights on the salinity stress response, signalling and adaptive mechanisms operating in plants.

Natural ecosystems are threatened by climate change, fragmentation, and non-native species. Dispersal-limitation potentially compounds impacts of these factors on plant diversity, especially in isolated vegetation patches. Changes in climate can impact the phenology of native species in distinct ways from non-natives, potentially resulting in cascading impacts on native communities. Few empirical studies have examined the combined effects of climate change and dispersal limitation on community diversity or phenology. Using a five-year dispersal-restriction experiment in an invaded semi-arid annual plant system in Western Australia, we investigated the interactive effects of dispersal-restriction and inter-annual rainfall variation on community composition, species dominance and seed production timing. We found inter-annual rainfall variation to be the principal driver of community dynamics. Drought years had long-term, stable effects on community composition, with evidence of shifts from native toward non-native dominance. Surprisingly, community composition remained largely unchanged under dispersal restriction. A subtle dispersal rescue effect was evident for a dominant native annual forb and a dominant annual non-native grass but only in average rainfall years. The timing of seed production was primarily driven by annual rainfall with native and non-native grasses having opposite responses. There was no evidence that inter-annual variation in seeding timing affected community diversity over time. Our study demonstrates that dispersal is not a major factor in driving community diversity in this invaded, semi-arid system. Results do suggest, however, that increases in drought frequency likely benefit non-native species over natives in the long term. Climate Change Ecology, 2 ISSN:2666-9005

Abstract The accuracy of predictive models (also known as mechanistic or causal models) of animal responses to climate change depends on properly incorporating the principles of heat transfer and thermoregulation into those models. Regrettably, proper incorporation of these principles is not always evident. We have revisited the relevant principles of thermal physiology and analysed how they have been applied in predictive models of large mammals, which are particularly vulnerable, to climate change. We considered dry heat exchange, evaporative heat transfer, the thermoneutral zone and homeothermy, and we examined the roles of size and shape in the thermal physiology of large mammals. We report on the following misconceptions in influential predictive models: underestimation of the role of radiant heat transfer, misassignment of the role and misunderstanding of the sustainability of evaporative cooling, misinterpretation of the thermoneutral zone as a zone of thermal tolerance or as a zone of sustainable energetics, confusion of upper critical temperature and critical thermal maximum, overestimation of the metabolic energy cost of evaporative cooling, failure to appreciate that the current advantages of size and shape will become disadvantageous as climate change advances, misassumptions about skin temperature and, lastly, misconceptions about the relationship between body core temperature and its variability with body mass in large mammals. Not all misconceptions invalidate the models, but we believe that preventing inappropriate assumptions from propagating will improve model accuracy, especially as models progress beyond their current typically static format to include genetic and epigenetic adaptation that can result in phenotypic plasticity.