Comparing Historical and Contemporary Observations of Avian Fauna on the Yáláƛi (Goose Island) Archipelago, British Columbia, Canada.

In an era of global change, historical natural history data can improve our understanding of ecological phenomena, particularly when evaluated with contemporary Indigenous and place-based knowledge. The Yáláƛi (Goose Island) Archipelago is a group of islands in Heiltsuk (Haíɫzaqv) territory on the Central Coast of British Columbia, Canada. Not only has this region been important to the Heiltsuk for millennia but also it is both a federally and internationally recognized important bird area.

COVID-19 symptoms are reduced by targeted hydration of the nose, larynx and trachea.

Dehydration of the upper airways increases risks of respiratory diseases from COVID-19 to asthma and COPD. We find in human volunteer studies involving 464 human subjects in Germany, the US, and India that respiratory droplet generation increases by up to 4 orders of magnitude in dehydration-associated states of advanced age (n = 357), elevated BMI-age (n = 148), strenuous exercise (n = 20) and SARS-CoV-2 infection (n = 87), and falls with hydration of the nose, larynx and trachea by calcium-rich hypertonic salts. We also find in a protocol of exercise-induced airway dehydration that hydration of the airways by calcium-rich salts increases oxygenation relative to a non-treatment control (P < 0.

Ultrasound-Responsive Aqueous Two-Phase Microcapsules for On-Demand Drug Release.

Traditional implanted drug delivery systems cannot easily change their release profile in real time to respond to physiological changes. Here we present a microfluidic aqueous two-phase system to generate microcapsules that can release drugs on demand as triggered by focused ultrasound (FUS). The biphasic microcapsules are made of hydrogels with an outer phase of mixed molecular weight (MW) poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate that mitigates premature payload release and an inner phase of high MW dextran with payload that breaks down in response to FUS.

Mapping the functional connectivity of ecosystem services supply across a regional landscape.

Sustainably managing multifunctional landscapes for production of multiple ecosystem services (ES) requires thorough understanding of the interactions between ES and the ecological processes that drive them. We build upon landscape connectivity theory to present a spatial approach for assessing functional connections between multiple ES at the landscape scale, and take a closer look at the concept of ES interactions by explicitly representing the mechanisms behind the relationships between ES. We demonstrate application of the approach using existing ES supply mapping data for plant agriculture, waterflow regulation, and landscape aesthetics and map the functional connectivity between them.

Relationships between Pacific salmon and aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems: implications for ecosystem-based management.

Pacific salmon influence temperate terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems through the dispersal of marine-derived nutrients and ecosystem engineering of stream beds when spawning. They also support large fisheries, particularly along the west coast of North America. We provide a comprehensive synthesis of relationships between the densities of Pacific salmon and terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, summarize the direction, shape, and magnitude of these relationships, and identify possible ecosystem-based management indicators and benchmarks.

Sea to sky: impacts of residual salmon-derived nutrients on estuarine breeding bird communities.

Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) returning to streams around the North Pacific Rim provide a nutrient subsidy to these ecosystems. While many species of animals feed directly on salmon carcasses each autumn, salmon-derived nutrients can also be stored in coastal habitats throughout the year.