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Scleractinian corals are colonial animals with a range of life history strategies, making up diverse species assemblages that define coral reefs. We tagged and tracked approximately 30 colonies from each of 11 species during seven trips spanning six years (2009-2015) in order to measure their vital rates and competitive interactions on the reef crest at Trimodal Reef, Lizard Island, Australia. Pairs of species were chosen from five growth forms where one species of the pair was locally rare (R) and the other common (C). The sampled growth forms were massive [Goniastrea pectinata (R) and G. retiformis (C)], digitate [Acropora humilis (R) and A. cf. digitifera (C)], corymbose [A. millepora (R) and A. nasuta (C)], tabular [A. cytherea (R) and A. hyacinthus (C)] and arborescent [A. robusta (R) and A. intermedia (C)]. An extra corymbose species with intermediate abundance, A. spathulata was included when it became apparent that A. millepora was too rare on the reef crest, making the 11 species in total. The tagged colonies were visited each year in the weeks prior to spawning. During visits, two or more observers each took 2-3 photographs of each tagged colony from directly above and on the horizontal plane with a scale plate to track planar area. Dead or missing colonies were recorded and new colonies tagged in order to maintain approximately 30 colonies per species throughout the six years of the study. In addition to tracking tagged corals, 30 fragments were collected from neighboring untagged colonies of each species for counting numbers of eggs per polyp (fecundity); and fragments of untagged colonies were brought into the laboratory where spawned eggs were collected for biomass and energy measurements. We also conducted surveys at the study site to generate size structure data for each species in several of the years. Each tagged colony photograph was digitized by at least two people. Therefore, we could examine sources of error in planar area for both photographers and outliners. Competitive interactions were recorded for a subset of species by measuring the margins of tagged colony outlines interacting with neighboring corals. The study was abruptly ended by Tropical Cyclone Nathan (Category 4) that killed all but nine of the over 300 tagged colonies in early 2015. Nonetheless, these data will be of use to other researchers interested in coral demography and coexistence, functional ecology, and parametrizing population, community and ecosystem models. The data set is not copyright restricted, and users should cite this paper when using the data. Publisher PDF

Climate change is a driving force of changes to biodiversity worldwide and presents considerable management challenges for the resource-constrained environmental management sector. Effective management of biodiversity requires information about what species are present, how species respond to environmental conditions and which species are likely to be able to persist in the presence of ongoing change. Species distribution models are commonly used to predict future suitable habitat for particular species and areas of interest but a consistent nationwide approach is needed to understand how climate change will affect Australia's biodiversity. Here we describe a modelling approach that uses a consistent workflow and expert vetting to create current and future species distributions for 1872 terrestrial and freshwater vertebrate species. We used two emission scenarios, 18 General Circulation Models and seven time points into the future to explore how individual species distributions and taxa richness in Australia are predicted to change due to climate change. The maps are publicly available online and stakeholders can download them for post hoc analyses to assist in both regional and national management and protection of biodiversity assets and conservation planning for the future.

The discovery of multi-species synchronous spawning of scleractinian corals on the Great Barrier Reef in the 1980s stimulated an extraordinary effort to document spawning times in other parts of the globe. Unfortunately, most of these data remain unpublished which limits our understanding of regional and global reproductive patterns. The Coral Spawning Database (CSD) collates much of these disparate data into a single place. The CSD includes 6178 observations (3085 of which were unpublished) of the time or day of spawning for over 300 scleractinian species in 61 genera from 101 sites in the Indo-Pacific. The goal of the CSD is to provide open access to coral spawning data to accelerate our understanding of coral reproductive biology and to provide a baseline against which to evaluate any future changes in reproductive phenology., info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Coral cover has declined markedly in the recent past in many regions of the world, including the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), Australia. The major causes of this decline are generally considered to be mortality associated with large-scale severe disturbances (i.e. catastrophic mortality), such as Acanthaster planci outbreaks, cyclones and bleaching. However, background rates of mortality (i.e. not associated with catastrophic disturbance), are rarely quantified, but without these it is difficult to assess the relative importance of these 2 types of mortality (catastrophic and background). We quantified spatial and temporal variation in catastrophic and background whole-colony mortality of the common reef coral Acropora millepora over 24 mo at 2 sites in 3 regions separated by 700 km along the GBR. The study period included 2 cyclones and a flood. Overall mortality rates were exceptionally high. Of 180 colonies tagged in April 2009, only 36 (20%) were alive in April 2011, and 68% of this mortality occurred in intervals following the 3 large disturbances. Background mortality rates were also high in the Palm Islands, where they approached 40% yr-1 compared to

Sexual reproduction is vital for population persistence, even in organisms that can reproduce asexually, such as corals. Yet, information on spatial and temporal variation in reproductive traits is surprisingly rare. Here, we examined spatial and temporal variation in fecundity, defined as the number of oocytes per polyp, in the staghorn coral Acropora millepora over 2 yr among 6 populations separated by over 700 km on inshore reefs on the Great Barrier Reef. Variation in fecundity was greatest at small spatial scales: there were pronounced differences in fecundity within and among colonies at each site but little variation at the site or regional scale. This suggests that fecundity is affected by environmental variables that also vary at small scales, such as light and water flow, rather than variables that vary on a regional scale, such as temperature. Colony fecundity in the first year was a good predictor of colony fecundity in the second year, suggesting that some genotypes are more fecund than others. This research suggests that factors operating at the scale of the individual, such as microhabitat differences in flow or light, or genetic identity, are the main cause of variation in fecundity among coral colonies.

Species distribution models (SDMs) frequently project substantial declines in the spatial extent of climatically suitable habitat in response to scenarios of future climate change. Such projections are highly disconcerting. Yet, considerable variation can occur in the direction and magnitude of range changes projected by different SDM methods, even when predictive performance is similar. In this study, we assessed whether particular methods have a tendency to predict substantial loss or gain of suitable habitat. In particular, we asked, “are 14 SDM methods equally likely to predict extreme changes to the future extent of suitable habitat for 220 Australian mammal species?”. We defined five non-mutually exclusive categories of ‘extreme’ change, based on stability or loss of current habitat, or the dislocation of current and future habitat: a) no future habitat (range extinction); b) low stability of current habitat (≤10% remains); c) no gain of habitat in new locations; d) all future habitat is in new locations (i.e. completely displaced from current habitat); and e) substantial increase in size of habitat (future habitat is ≥100% larger than current). We found that some SDM methods were significantly more likely than others to predict extreme changes. In particular, distance-based models were significantly less likely than other methods to predict substantial increases in habitat size; Random Forest models and Surface Range Envelopes were significantly more likely to predict a complete loss of current habitat, and future range extinction. Generalised Additive Models and Generalised Linear Models rarely predicted range extinction; future habitat completely disjunct from current habitat was predicted more frequently than expected by Classification Tree Analysis and less frequently by Maxent. Random Forest generally predicted extreme range changes more frequently than other SDM methods. Our results identify trends among different methods with respect to tendency to predict extreme range changes. These are of significance for climate-impact assessments, with implications for transferability of models to novel environments. Our findings emphasise the need to explore and justify the use of different models and their parameterisations, and to develop approaches to assist with optimisation of models.

Predicted increases in sea-surface temperatures due to climate change are likely to alter the physiology of marine organisms and ultimately influence the distribution and abundance of their populations. The consequences of increased temperatures for marine species, including decreased survival and altered rates of development, growth and settlement, are well known and often attributed to imbalances between energy supply and demand. To test this hypothesis, we calibrated the effect of temperature on rates of survival and lipid depletion for larvae of the common stony coral Acropora tenuis over a 7 °C temperature range. Temperature had a pronounced, linearly increasing effect on larval mortality, with a sixfold decrease in median survival time. Contrary to expectation, however, temperature had a quasi-parabolic effect on lipid use; rates declined as temperatures either increased above or decreased below the ambient temperature at the time of spawning. This contrasts with previous work suggesting that increased energy depletion is the cause of larval mortality at higher temperatures. Our results highlight the sensitivity of coral larvae to temperature and have implications for dispersal potential because fewer larvae will survive to disperse. Such projected declines in connectivity among coral populations are likely to undermine reef resilience.

Advances in computing power and infrastructure, increases in the number and size of ecological and environmental datasets, and the number and type of data collection methods, are revolutionizing the field of Ecology. To integrate these advances, virtual laboratories offer a unique tool to facilitate, expedite, and accelerate research into the impacts of climate change on biodiversity. We introduce the uniquely cloud-based Biodiversity and Climate Change Virtual Laboratory (BCCVL), which provides access to numerous species distribution modelling tools; a large and growing collection of biological, climate, and other environmental datasets; and a variety of experiment types to conduct research into the impact of climate change on biodiversity.Users can upload and share datasets, potentially increasing collaboration, cross-fertilisation of ideas, and innovation among the user community. Feedback confirms that the BCCVL's goals of lowering the technical requirements for species distribution modelling, and reducing time spent on such research, are being met. BCCVL facilitates and expedites modelling of climate change's impact on biodiversity.BCCVL integrates numerous species distribution modelling tools and myriad datasets.BCCVL negates the need for advanced programming and modelling expertise.BCCVL allows for increases in productivity and complexity of experimental design.BCCVL facilitates the sharing of data promoting transparency in the research process.

A set of fluorophenoxyanilides, designed to be simplified analogues of previously reported ω-conotoxin GVIA mimetics, were prepared and tested for N-type calcium channel inhibition in a SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma FLIPR assay. N-type or Cav2.2 channel is a validated target for the treatment of refractory chronic pain. Despite being significantly less complex than the originally designed mimetics, up to a seven-fold improvement in activity was observed.

Marine reserves are widely used to protect species important for conservation and fisheries and to help maintain ecological processes that sustain their populations, including recruitment and dispersal. Achieving these goals requires well-connected networks of marine reserves that maximize larval connectivity, thus allowing exchanges between populations and recolonization after local disturbances. However, global warming can disrupt connectivity by shortening potential dispersal pathways through changes in larval physiology. These changes can compromise the performance of marine reserve networks, thus requiring adjusting their design to account for ocean warming. To date, empirical approaches to marine prioritization have not considered larval connectivity as affected by global warming. Here, we develop a framework for designing marine reserve networks that integrates graph theory and changes in larval connectivity due to potential reductions in planktonic larval duration (PLD) associated with ocean warming, given current socioeconomic constraints. Using the Gulf of California as case study, we assess the benefits and costs of adjusting networks to account for connectivity, with and without ocean warming. We compare reserve networks designed to achieve representation of species and ecosystems with networks designed to also maximize connectivity under current and future ocean-warming scenarios. Our results indicate that current larval connectivity could be reduced significantly under ocean warming because of shortened PLDs. Given the potential changes in connectivity, we show that our graph-theoretical approach based on centrality (eigenvector and distance-weighted fragmentation) of habitat patches can help design better-connected marine reserve networks for the future with equivalent costs. We found that maintaining dispersal connectivity incidentally through representation-only reserve design is unlikely, particularly in regions with strong asymmetric patterns of dispersal connectivity. Our results support previous studies suggesting that, given potential reductions in PLD due to ocean warming, future marine reserve networks would require more and/or larger reserves in closer proximity to maintain larval connectivity.

One and a half degrees on biodiversity Insects are the most diverse group of animals on Earth and are ubiquitous in terrestrial food webs. We have little information about their fate in a changing climate; data are scant for insects compared with other groups of organisms. Warren et al. performed a global-scale analysis of the effects of climate change on insect distribution (see the Perspective by Midgley). For vertebrates and plants, the number of species losing more than half their geographic range by 2100 is halved when warming is limited to 1.5°C, compared with projected losses at 2°C. But for insects, the number is reduced by two-thirds. Science , this issue p. 791 ; see also p. 714

Australia’s northern savannas have among the highest fire frequencies in the world. The climate is monsoonal, with a long, dry season of up to 9 months, during which most fires occur. The Australian Government’s Emissions Reduction Fund allows land managers to generate carbon credits by abating the direct emissions of CO2 equivalent gases via prescribed burning that shifts the fire regime from predominantly large, high-intensity late dry season fires to a more benign, early dry season fire regime. However, the Australian savannas are vast and there is significant variation in weather conditions and seasonality, which is likely to result in spatial and temporal variations in the commencement and length of late dry season conditions. Here, we assess the temporal and spatial consistency of the commencement of late dry season conditions, defined as those months that maximise fire size and where the most extreme fire weather conditions exist. The results demonstrate that significant yearly, seasonal and spatial variations in fire size and fire weather conditions exist, both within and between bioregions. The effective start of late dry season conditions, as defined by those months that maximise fire size and where the most extreme fire weather variables exist, is variable across the savannas.

Demographic connectivity requires both the dispersal of individuals between sub-populations, and their subsequent contribution to population dynamics. For planktonic, non-feeding marine larvae, the capacity to delay settlement enables greater dispersal distances, but the energetic cost of delayed settlement has been shown to adversely impact post-settlement fitness in several taxa. Here, we assess whether delayed settlement influences mortality rates or growth rates for the first 6 weeks following settlement of the scleractinian coral, Acropora tenuis. Coral larvae that were settled at 2, 4, and 6 weeks after spawning, and then deployed in the field, showed negligible effects of delayed settlement on post-settlement survival and time to initial budding for colony formation. Between-cohort differences in budding rate appeared to be explained by temporal variation in the post-settlement acquisition of zooxanthellae. The potential for coral larvae to remain in the pelagic zone for increased periods of time with little to no effect on post-settlement survival and growth suggests that the capacity for delayed settlement is likely to have meaningful demographic consequences for broadcast-spawning reef-building corals, and that the predicted trade-off between delayed settlement and post-settlement fitness is less applicable to reef-building scleractinian corals than other taxa with non-feeding larvae.

With the high rate of ecosystem change already occurring and predicted to occur in the coming decades, long-term conservation has to account not only for current biodiversity but also for the biodiversity patterns anticipated for the future. The trade-offs between prioritising future biodiversity at the expense of current priorities must be understood to guide current conservation planning, but have been largely unexplored. To fill this gap, we compared the performance of four conservation planning solutions involving 662 vertebrate species in the Wet Tropics Natural Resource Management Cluster Region in north-eastern Australia. Input species data for the four planning solutions were: 1) current distributions; 2) projected distributions for 2055; 3) projected distributions for 2085; and 4) current, 2055 and 2085 projected distributions, and the connectivity between each of the three time periods for each species. The four planning solutions were remarkably similar (up to 85% overlap), suggesting that modelling for either current or future scenarios is sufficient for conversation planning for this region, with little obvious trade-off. Our analyses also revealed that overall, species with small ranges occurring across steep elevation gradients and at higher elevations were more likely to be better represented in all solutions. Given that species with these characteristics are of high conservation significance, our results provide confidence that conservation planning focused on either current, near-or distant-future biodiversity will account for these species.

Lecithotrophic, or non-feeding, marine invertebrate larvae generally have shorter pelagic larval durations (PLDs) than planktotrophic larvae. However, non-feeding larvae of scleractinian corals have PLDs far exceeding those of feeding larvae of other organisms and predictions of PLD based on energy reserves and metabolic rates, raising questions about how such longevity is achieved. Here, we measured temporal changes in metabolic rates and total lipid content of non-feeding larvae of four species of reef corals to determine whether changes in energy utilization through time contribute to extended larval durations. The temporal dynamics of both metabolic rates and lipid content were highly consistent among species. Prior to fertilization, metabolic rates were low (2.73–8.63 nmol O2 larva−1 h−1) before rapidly increasing to a peak during embryogenesis and early development 1–2 days after spawning. Metabolic rates remained high until shortly after larvae first became competent to metamorphose and then declined by up to two orders of magnitude to levels at or below rates seen in unfertilized eggs over the following week. Larvae remained in this state of low metabolic activity for up to 2 months. Consistent with temporal patterns in metabolic rates, depletion of lipids was extremely rapid during early development and then slowed dramatically from 1 week onward. Despite the very low metabolic rates in these species, larvae continued to swim and retained competence for at least 2 months. The capacity of non-feeding coral larvae to enter a state of low metabolism soon after becoming competent to metamorphose significantly extends dispersal potential, thereby accruing advantages typically associated with planktotrophy, notably enhanced population connectivity.

As a determinant of survival, immunity is likely to be significant in enabling coral larvae to disperse and successfully recruit, however, whether reef-building coral larvae have immune defenses is unknown. We investigated the potential presence and variation in immunity in the lecithotrophic larvae of Acropora tenuis through larval development. Enzymes indicative of tyrosinase and laccase–type melanin-synthesis were quantified, and the concentration of three coral fluorescent proteins was measured over six developmental stages; egg, embryo, motile planula, planula post-exposure to crustose coralline algae (CCA; settlement cue), settled, settled post-exposure to Symbiodinium (endosymbiont). Both types of melanin-synthesis pathways and the three fluorescent proteins were present in A. tenuis throughout development. Laccase-type activity and red fluorescence increased following exposure of planula to CCA, whereas tyrosinase-type activity and cyan fluorescence increased following settlement. No change was detected in the measured parameters following exposure to Symbiodinium. This study is the first to document coral larval immune responses and suggests the melanin-synthesis pathways have disparate roles-the laccase-type potentially non-immunological and the tyrosinase-type in cytotoxic defense. Our results indicate that corals have the potential to resist infection from the earliest life history phase.

In this work a series of ABA tri-block copolymers was prepared from oligo(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate (OEGMA 475 ) and N,N -dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate (DMAEMA) to investigate the effect of polymer composition on cell viability, siRNA uptake, serum stability and gene silencing. Reversible Addition–Fragmentation Chain Transfer (RAFT) polymerization was used as the method of polymer synthesis as this technique allows the preparation of well-defined block copolymers with low polydispersity. Eight block copolymers were prepared by systematically varying the central cationic block (DMAEMA) length from 38 to 192 monomer units and the outer hydrophilic block (OEGMA 475 ) from 7 to 69 units. The polymers were characterized using size exclusion chromatography and 1 H NMR. Chinese Hamster Ovary-GFP and Human Embryonic Kidney 293 cells were used to assay cell viability while the efficiency of block copolymers to complex with siRNA was evaluated by agarose gel electrophoresis. The ability of the polymer–siRNA complexes to enter into cells and to silence the targeted reporter gene enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) was measured by using a CHO-GFP silencing assay. The length of the central cationic block appears to be the key structural parameter that has a significant effect on cell viability and gene silencing efficiency with block lengths of 110–120 monomer units being the optimum. The ABA block copolymer architecture is also critical with the outer hydrophilic blocks contributing to serum stability and overall efficiency of the polymer as a delivery system.

Survival of pelagic marine larvae is an important determinant of dispersal potential. Despite this, few estimates of larval survival are available. For scleractinian corals, few studies of larval survival are long enough to provide accurate estimates of longevity. Moreover, changes in mortality rates during larval life, expected on theoretical grounds, have implications for the degree of connectivity among reefs and have not been quantified for any coral species. This study quantified the survival of larvae from five broadcast-spawning scleractinian corals (Acropora latistella, Favia pallida, Pectinia paeonia, Goniastrea aspera, and Montastraea magnistellata) to estimate larval longevity, and to test for changes in mortality rates as larvae age. Maximum lifespans ranged from 195 to 244 d. These longevities substantially exceed those documented previously for coral larvae that lack zooxanthellae, and they exceed predictions based on metabolic rates prevailing early in larval life. In addition, larval mortality rates exhibited strong patterns of variation throughout the larval stage. Three periods were identified in four species: high initial rates of mortality; followed by a low, approximately constant rate of mortality; and finally, progressively increasing mortality after approximately 100 d. The lifetimes observed in this study suggest that the potential for long-distance dispersal may be substantially greater than previously thought. Indeed, detection of increasing mortality rates late in life suggests that energy reserves do not reach critically low levels until approximately 100 d after spawning. Conversely, increased mortality rates early in life decrease the likelihood that larvae transported away from their natal reef will survive to reach nearby reefs, and thus decrease connectivity at regional scales. These results show how variation in larval survivorship with age may help to explain the seeming paradox of high genetic structure at metapopulation scales, coupled with the maintenance of extensive geographic ranges observed in many coral species.

A 44-year-old man presented to hospital 24 h after an intentional overdose of metformin and gliclazide. He had a critical metabolic acidosis on presentation with a pH of 6.88, and very rapidly deteriorated into distributive shock refractory to large volume fluid resuscitation and massive doses of vasopressors. We introduced a methylene blue infusion as a rescue therapy in an attempt to improve the patient's haemodynamics, which was successful. The patient made a full recovery with no long-term sequelae.

Interprofessional education (IPE) of health professions students is a starting point for developing collaborative-practice-ready healthcare professionals, ultimately leading to improved patient care. The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate a novel, foundational, IPE pilot program that incorporates TeamSTEPPS® for health professions students.Students representing 13 different health professions programs participated in successive Level 1 and Level 2 "Foundations of Interprofessional Collaboration: Introduction to TeamSTEPPS®" half-day activities (n = 241). Students' satisfaction with the pilot program, changes in attitudes toward teamwork from before to after participation, TeamSTEPPS® knowledge acquisition, and anticipated future interprofessional collaboration-oriented behavior change were assessed through online surveys.Overall, students were highly satisfied with the pilot program and reported that learning from other professions was valuable. Statistically significant positive changes were noted in attitudes toward teamwork, most notably with the Level 1 pilot. Greater than 80% of students who completed the surveys demonstrated acquisition of TeamSTEPPS® knowledge. Students also reported feeling more prepared to collaborate interprofessionally in their future practice.This study demonstrated that the two-level foundational pilot program is feasible and had the intended effects with regards to moving health professions students toward becoming collaborative-practice-ready healthcare professionals.

A number of omega-conotoxin GVIA mimetics based on an anthranilamide core were prepared and tested for their affinity for rat brain Ca(v)2.2 channels. Features such as the presence of hydroxyl and fluoro substituents on the tyrosine side chain mimic, the length of the chains on the lysine/arginine side chain mimics and the use of diguanidino and diamino substituents rather than mono-guanidine/mono-amine substitution were examined. The diguanidinylated compounds proved to be the most active and deletion of the hydroxyl substituent had a limited influence on activity. The SAR associated with variation in the lysine/arginine side chain mimics was not strong. The introduction of a fluoro substituent into the tyrosine mimic produced the most active compound prepared in this study (2g), with an EC(50) at rat brain Ca(v)2.2 channels of 6 microM.

A practical, high-yielding, one-step synthesis of 1,4-dithiin is described starting from commercially available 1,4-dithiane-2,5-diol.

A simple and efficient method has been developed for the synthesis of two anthranilamide-based non-peptide mimetics of ω-conotoxin GVIA. These anthranilamide derivatives aim to mimic the K2, R17, and Y13 residues of the peptide. The synthetic route described enables the rapid synthesis of anthranilamide analogues with identical alkyl chain lengths. The target compounds show affinity to rat N-type voltage gated calcium channels (Cav2.2) with EC50 values of 42 and 75 μM.