Perspectives on managing fisheries for community wellbeing in the face of climate change.

Coastal communities are being impacted by climate change, affecting the livelihoods, food security, and wellbeing of residents. Human wellbeing is influenced by the heath of the environment through numerous pathways and is increasingly being included as a desired outcome in environmental management. However, the contributors to wellbeing can be subjective and the values and perspectives of decision-makers can affect the aspects of wellbeing that are included in planning. We used Q methodology to examine how a group of individuals in fisheries management prioritize components of wellbeing that may be important to coastal communities in the California Current social-ecological system (SES). The California Current SES is an integrated system of ecological and human communities with complex linkages and connections where commercial fishing is part of the culture and an important livelihood. We asked individuals that sit on advisory bodies to the Pacific Fisheries Management Council to rank 36 statements about coastal community wellbeing, ultimately revealing three discourses about how we can best support or improve wellbeing in those communities. We examine how the priorities differ between the discourses, identify areas of consensus, and discuss how these perspectives may influence decision-making when it comes to tradeoffs inherent in climate adaptation in fisheries. Lastly, we consider if and how thoughts about priorities have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Social-ecological vulnerability of fishing communities to climate change: A U.S. West Coast case study.

Climate change is already impacting coastal communities, and ongoing and future shifts in fisheries species productivity from climate change have implications for the livelihoods and cultures of coastal communities. Harvested marine species in the California Current Large Marine Ecosystem support U.S. West Coast communities economically, socially, and culturally. Ecological vulnerability assessments exist for individual species in the California Current but ecological and human vulnerability are linked and vulnerability is expected to vary by community. Here, we present automatable, reproducible methods for assessing the vulnerability of U.S. West Coast fishing dependent communities to climate change within a social-ecological vulnerability framework. We first assessed the ecological risk of marine resources, on which fishing communities rely, to 50 years of climate change projections. We then combined this with the adaptive capacity of fishing communities, based on social indicators, to assess the potential ability of communities to cope with future changes. Specific communities (particularly in Washington state) were determined to be at risk to climate change mainly due to economic reliance on at risk marine fisheries species, like salmon, hake, or sea urchins. But, due to higher social adaptive capacity, these communities were often not found to be the most vulnerable overall. Conversely, certain communities that were not the most at risk, ecologically and economically, ranked in the category of highly vulnerable communities due to low adaptive capacity based on social indicators (particularly in Southern California). Certain communities were both ecologically at risk due to catch composition and socially vulnerable (low adaptive capacity) leading to the highest tier of vulnerability. The integration of climatic, ecological, economic, and societal data reveals that factors underlying vulnerability are variable across fishing communities on the U.S West Coast, and suggests the need to develop a variety of well-aligned strategies to adapt to the ecological impacts of climate change.

Molecular analysis of the bovine anaphylatoxin C5a receptor.

Recruitment of phagocytes to inflammatory sites involves the coordinated action of several chemoattractants, including the anaphylatoxin C5a. While the C5a receptor (C5aR) has been well characterized in humans and rodents, little is known about the bovine C5aR. Here, we report cloning of bovine C5R1, the gene encoding bovine C5aR. We also analyzed genomic sequence upstream of the C5R1 translation start site. Although the bovine C5aR amino acid sequence was well conserved among species, significant differences in conserved features were found, including major differences in the N terminus, intracellular loop 3, and transmembrane domain VII. Analysis of C5aR expression by flow cytometry and confocal microscopy demonstrated high levels of C5aR on all bovine neutrophils and a subset of bovine monocytes. C5aR was not expressed on resting or activated bovine lymphocytes, although C5aR message was present in these cells. C5aR was also expressed on a small subset of bovine mammary epithelial cells. Pharmacological analysis of bovine C5aR-mediated responses showed that bovine C5a and C5adesArg both induced dose-dependent calcium fluxes and chemotaxis in bovine neutrophils, with similar efficacy for both agonists. Treatment of bovine neutrophils with C5a or C5adesArg resulted in homologous desensitization of bovine C5aR and cross-desensitization to interleukin 8 (IL-8) and platelet-activating factor (PAF); whereas, treatment with IL-8 or PAF did not cross-desensitize the cells to C5a or C5adesArg. Overall, these studies provide important information regarding distinct structural and functional features that may contribute to the unique pharmacological properties of bovine C5aR.

Cloning and sequencing of rabbit leukocyte NADPH oxidase genes reveals a unique p67(phox) homolog.

The NADPH oxidase plays an important role in immune and nonimmune cell functions. Because rabbits represent an established model for studying a number of important disease processes that involve NADPH oxidase activity, we carried out studies to clone and sequence all five rabbit leukocyte NADPH oxidase genes. Comparison of the rabbit sequences with those of other species showed that, with the exception of p67(phox), the rabbit phox proteins were highly conserved. In contrast, rabbit p67(phox) had a very divergent C-terminus and was 17 amino acids longer than any other known p67(phox) homolog. This was surprising, given the high degree of conservation among all of the phox proteins sequenced previously. To evaluate the functional consequences of this difference, wild-type rabbit p67(phox) and a mutated rabbit p67(phox) missing the C-terminal 17 amino acids were expressed and analyzed in a cell-free assay. Our results show that the full-length and truncated rabbit p67(phox) proteins were able to support oxidase activity, although the truncated form reproducibly supported a higher level of activity than full-length p67(phox). These studies contribute to our understanding of the nature of the leukocyte NADPH oxidase in different species and will be valuable in future research using the rabbit model.

Inhibition of the neutrophil NADPH oxidase by adenosine is associated with increased movement of flavocytochrome b between subcellular fractions.

Adenosine is a potent inhibitor of reactive oxygen species (ROS) production by the NADPH oxidase in fMLF-stimulated neutrophils. Although much is known about the pharamacology and signal transduction of this effect, it is not known how adenosine affects assembly and localization of the NADPH oxidase components within the neutrophil. We report here that adenosine pretreatment of fMLF-stimulated neutrophils results in decreased plasma membrane/secretory granule content of the flavocytochrome b components (p22phox and gp91phox) of the NADPH oxidase, which correlates with inhibition of ROS production. Adenosine treatment did not affect upregulation of secretory and specific granule surface markers, confirming that degranulation was not impaired by adenosine. However, adenosine treatment did result in increased movement of cell-surface flavocytochrome b to heavy granule fractions in fMLF-stimulated neutrophils. These data suggest that adenosine-mediated effects on neutrophil ROS production are due, in part to endocytosis and/or redistribution of flavocytochrome b between various subcellular compartments.