A Rosetta Stone for nature's benefits to people.

After a long incubation period, the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is now underway. Underpinning all its activities is the IPBES Conceptual Framework (CF), a simplified model of the interactions between nature and people. Drawing on the legacy of previous large-scale environmental assessments, the CF goes further in explicitly embracing different disciplines and knowledge systems (including indigenous and local knowledge) in the co-construction of assessments of the state of the world's biodiversity and the benefits it provides to humans. The CF can be thought of as a kind of "Rosetta Stone" that highlights commonalities between diverse value sets and seeks to facilitate crossdisciplinary and crosscultural understanding. We argue that the CF will contribute to the increasing trend towards interdisciplinarity in understanding and managing the environment. Rather than displacing disciplinary science, however, we believe that the CF will provide new contexts of discovery and policy applications for it.

Adaptive approaches to biosecurity governance.

This article discusses institutional changes that may facilitate an adaptive approach to biosecurity risk management where governance is viewed as a multidisciplinary, interactive experiment acknowledging uncertainty. Using the principles of adaptive governance, evolved from institutional theory, we explore how the concepts of lateral information flows, incentive alignment, and policy experimentation might shape Australia's invasive species defense mechanisms. We suggest design principles for biosecurity policies emphasizing overlapping complementary response capabilities and the sharing of invasive species risks via a polycentric system of governance.

Application of all solid-state 3D printed pH sensor to beverage samples using matrix matched standard.

In this work, an all solid-state potentiometric pH sensor is developed, which employs a thin-film sputter deposited RuO2 working electrode, a polyvinylbutyral-SiO2 modified RuO2 reference electrode and 3D printed electrode housing. The developed sensor exhibits linear pH response (- 55.7 mV/pH, R2 = 0.9997) and reasonable reproducibility (hysteresis < 2 mV). Experimental results show that by using a previously developed sample-equilibration and single-point calibration protocol, an accuracy of ±â€¯0.2 pH is achieved in a variety of sample matrices. However, by employing a matrix matched standard, bias errors are reduced and accuracy is improved to ±â€¯0.1 pH, when compared to a commercial glass pH sensor. The developed sensor and measurement protocol is then rationalised for low throughput analysis by unskilled users.

Manufacture and application of RuO2 solid-state metal-oxide pH sensor to common beverages.

A new reproducible solid-state metal-oxide pH sensor for beverage quality monitoring is developed and characterised. The working electrode of the developed pH sensor is based on the use of laser-etched sputter-deposited RuO2 on Al2O3 substrate, modified with thin layers of sputter-deposited Ta2O5 and drop-cast Nafion for minimisation of redox interference. The reference electrode is manufactured by further modifying a working electrode with a porous polyvinyl butyral layer loaded with fumed SiO2. The developed pH sensor shows excellent performance when applied to a selection of beverage samples, with a measured accuracy within 0.08 pH of a commercial glass pH sensor.

Effect of ordered mesoporous carbon contact layer on the sensing performance of sputtered RuO2 thin film pH sensor.

The effect of contact layer on the pH sensing performance of a sputtered RuO2 thin film pH sensor is investigated. The response of pH sensors employing RuO2 thin film electrodes on screen-printed Pt, carbon and ordered mesoporous carbon (OMC) contact layers are measured over a pH range from 4 to 10. Working electrodes with OMC contact layer are found to have Nernstian pH sensitivity (-58.4mV/pH), low short-term drift rate (5.0mV/h), low hysteresis values (1.13mV) and fast reaction times (30s), after only 1h of conditioning. A pH sensor constructed with OMC carbon contact layer displays improved sensing performance compared to Pt and carbon-based counterparts, making this electrode more attractive for applications requiring highly-accurate pH sensing with reduced conditioning time.

Tiller dynamics and self-thinning in grassland habitats.

The tiller dynamics and weight-density relationships of grasses were investigated in sown monocultures and in an established grassland both in full light and under shade. Monocultures of Festuca pratensis and Lolium perenne sown at high densities conformed to the-3/2 Power Law during establishment, but once the maximum standing had been reached the trajectory of the thinning line switched to a slope of approximately-1 when weight was plotted against density on logarithmic scales. Subsequently the populations showed a cyclical pattern of tiller weight and density bound by a line related to the maximum standing crop but also close to the-3/2 thinning line.The natural populations also showed a cyclical pattern of tiller weight and density at combinations very similar to those in the sown monocultures and close to a thinning line with an intercept (log c) of 4.4-4.7 assuming the generality of the -3/2 Power Law as w=cN -3/2. Tiller dynamics were very similar on all the plots despite differences in the species composition of each plot. The greatest seasonal variation in tiller number occurred under the shade of birch trees, perhaps due to resource depletion caused by the tree canopy during late summer and the presence of tree litter during the winter. The artificial shade treatment had little effect on plant yield but caused a significant change in the composition of the vegetation. It is suggested that mixed populations of grasses behave in essentially the same fashion as monocultures and that vegetational change might be analysed as a multispecies participation in a mutual cyclical proces of tiller death and regeneration.

A neighbourhood approach to self-thinning.

The fate of individual plants of Helianthus annuus was monitored in populations sown at a density of 650 seeds m-2. Ninety six percent of the seeds germinated but only fifty two percent of the seedlings survived to the end of the experiment due to self-thinning. Whilst the seedlings emerged over only four days the cotyledons then took up to eight days to emerge from the seed case and open fully. The survival of individuals depended primarily on cotyledon-opening time but plants which occupied very small areas (<900 mm2) at germination were also less likely to survice. The increased likelihood of mortality amongst the late germinating individuals was probably as a result of shade from older, larger neighbours. It is suggested that one-sided interference for light during self-thinning will increase the importance of early establishment relative to neighbour effects in determining the survival of plants except at very high levels of crowding. The complex of environmental and genetic factors acting to maximise the growth rate of the very young seedling relative to its neighbours will clearly play an important part in determining the position of a plant in the size hierarchy of a population.

Biosecurity and yield improvement technologies are strategic complements in the fight against food insecurity.

The delivery of food security via continued crop yield improvement alone is not an effective food security strategy, and must be supported by pre- and post-border biosecurity policies to guard against perverse outcomes. In the wake of the green revolution, yield gains have been in steady decline, while post-harvest crop losses have increased as a result of insufficiently resourced and uncoordinated efforts to control spoilage throughout global transport and storage networks. This paper focuses on the role that biosecurity is set to play in future food security by preventing both pre- and post-harvest losses, thereby protecting crop yield. We model biosecurity as a food security technology that may complement conventional yield improvement policies if the gains in global farm profits are sufficient to offset the costs of implementation and maintenance. Using phytosanitary measures that slow global spread of the Ug99 strain of wheat stem rust as an example of pre-border biosecurity risk mitigation and combining it with post-border surveillance and invasive alien species control efforts, we estimate global farm profitability may be improved by over US$4.5 billion per annum.

Identifying hazards in complex ecological systems. Part 3: Hierarchical Holographic Model for herbicide tolerant oilseed rape.

This paper is the third in a series designed to demonstrate the application of rigorous, systematic hazard identification techniques to ecological systems. Here we use Hierarchical Holographic Modelling to identify the potential ecological hazards associated with the commercial release of herbicide tolerant oilseed rape. Hierarchical Holographic Models decompose complex systems into a series of sub-systems and consider interactions between the components and processes of these sub-systems in order to identify hazards. In this example we considered 1356 potential interactions between the biological, chemical and physical components and processes of the herbicide tolerant oilseed rape environment, and identified 152 potential hazards, grouped into 14 categories. The hazards were subsequently scored for degree of concern and plausibility, and then compared with an equivalent list of hazards generated independently by a checklist approach. The incidence of herbicide tolerant volunteers (and weeds) both on and off the farm had the highest average score of all the ecological hazard categories. The checklist based approach identified or implied 44% of the hazards identified in the Hierarchical Holographic Model, including nine of the ten hazards ranked most important. The checklist approach focussed almost exclusively on the phenotypic and genotypic hazards associated with herbicide tolerant oilseed rape and largely ignored the hazards associated with the circumstances surrounding its use. As a result the checklist identified only 6 out of the 79 potential hazards associated with changes to farming practice. The commercial release of herbicide tolerant oilseed rape will be associated with changes in tillage and the application of post-emergent herbicides. It may also lead to changes in spray schedules of insecticide and fungicide. Many of the environmental hazards identified with these changes are plausible and may warrant further investigation or targeted monitoring.