Impacts of Deforestation on Childhood Malaria Depend on Wealth and Vector Biology.

Ecosystem change can profoundly affect human well-being and health, including through changes in exposure to vector-borne diseases. Deforestation has increased human exposure to mosquito vectors and malaria risk in Africa, but there is little understanding of how socioeconomic and ecological factors influence the relationship between deforestation and malaria risk. We examined these interrelationships in six sub-Saharan African countries using demographic and health survey data linked to remotely sensed environmental variables for 11,746 children under 5 years old. We found that the relationship between deforestation and malaria prevalence varies by wealth levels. Deforestation is associated with increased malaria prevalence in the poorest households, but there was not significantly increased malaria prevalence in the richest households, suggesting that deforestation has disproportionate negative health impacts on the poor. In poorer households, malaria prevalence was 27%-33% larger for one standard deviation increase in deforestation across urban and rural populations. Deforestation is also associated with increased malaria prevalence in regions where Anopheles gambiae and Anopheles funestus are dominant vectors, but not in areas of Anopheles arabiensis. These findings indicate that deforestation is an important driver of malaria risk among the world's most vulnerable children, and its impact depends critically on often-overlooked social and biological factors. An in-depth understanding of the links between ecosystems and human health is crucial in designing conservation policies that benefit people and the environment.

Lessons from an experiment with values-based messaging to support watershed conservation.

Conservation professionals use language related to instrumental, intrinsic, and relational values when communicating about the importance of conservation, frequently in connection with ecosystem services. However, few researchers have examined whether messages that emphasize values associated with ecosystem services result in different policy-support or behavior-change outcomes among different audiences. We conducted a large-scale survey experiment with participants (n = 815) who resided in the United States and were recruited online via the survey platform Qualtrics. The experiment tested whether messages about watershed protection that emphasize instrumental, intrinsic, or relational values (as opposed to the information-only control message) resulted in differing support for policies or behavioral intentions related to watershed conservation. Respondents' personal characteristics had a stronger effect on conservation beliefs than the way values were framed (i.e., than treatments in the experiment). For example, income positively predicted policy support (ß = 0.07, 95% CI 0.02-0.12, p = 0.01, corrected p = 0.03). Instrumental messages decreased (SSG, tense) policy support among people who identified as politically liberal (ß = -0.75, 95% CI -1.19 to -0.30, p = 0.001, corrected p = 0.003). Over 40% of respondents selected relational values over other value types as the main reason to protect watersheds. Our results demonstrated that political orientation interacts with how the importance of conservation is framed in complex ways and that conservation practitioners might improve the effectiveness of their communications by incorporating relational values and tailoring messages to different audiences.

Aprendizajes de un Experimento con Mensajería Basada en Valores para Apoyar la Conservación de Cuencas Resumen Los profesionales de la conservación usan un lenguaje relacionado con los valores instrumentales, intrínsecos y de relación cuando comunican la importancia de la conservación, con frecuencia en relación con los servicios ambientales. Sin embargo, pocos investigadores han analizado si los mensajes que enfatizan los valores asociados con los servicios ambientales resultan en el respaldo a políticas diferentes o cambios en el comportamiento entre los diferentes públicos receptores. Realizamos un experimento de encuesta a gran escala con participantes (n = 815) residentes en los Estados Unidos reclutados mediante la plataforma en línea Qualtrics. El experimento evaluó si los mensajes sobre la protección de cuencas que resaltan los valores instrumentales, intrínsecos y de relación (contrario al mensaje-control de sólo información) llevaban a diferencias en el apoyo a las políticas o intenciones conductuales relacionadas con la conservación. Las características personales de los participantes tuvieron un efecto más importante sobre las creencias de la conservación que la manera en la que se estructuraron los valores (es decir, que los tratamientos en el experimento). Por ejemplo, el nivel de ingresos pronosticó positivamente el apoyo a las políticas (ß = 0.07, 95% CI 0.02 a 0.12, p = 0.01, corregido p = 0.03). Los mensajes instrumentales disminuyeron (SSG, tiempo) el apoyo a las políticas entre las personas identificadas como liberales políticamente (ß = −0.75, 95% CI −1.19 a −0.30, p = 0.001, corregido p = 0.003). Más de 40% de los participantes relacionaron los valores por encima de otros tipos de valores como la razón principal para proteger las cuencas. Nuestros resultados demostraron que la orientación política interactúa con cómo la importancia de la conservación se estructura de formas complejas y que quienes practican la conservación pueden incrementar la efectividad de sus comunicados si incorporan los valores de relación y ajustan los mensajes para diferentes públicos receptores.

Biodiversity conservation as a promising frontier for behavioural science.

Human activities are degrading ecosystems worldwide, posing existential threats for biodiversity and humankind. Slowing and reversing this degradation will require profound and widespread changes to human behaviour. Behavioural scientists are therefore well placed to contribute intellectual leadership in this area. This Perspective aims to stimulate a marked increase in the amount and breadth of behavioural research addressing this challenge. First, we describe the importance of the biodiversity crisis for human and non-human prosperity and the central role of human behaviour in reversing this decline. Next, we discuss key gaps in our understanding of how to achieve behaviour change for biodiversity conservation and suggest how to identify key behaviour changes and actors capable of improving biodiversity outcomes. Finally, we outline the core components for building a robust evidence base and suggest priority research questions for behavioural scientists to explore in opening a new frontier of behavioural science for the benefit of nature and human wellbeing.

Applications of behavioral science to biodiversity management in agricultural landscapes: conceptual mapping and a California case study.

The plot-level decisions of land managers (i.e., farmers, ranchers, and forest owners) influence landscape-scale environmental outcomes for biodiversity in agricultural landscapes. The impacts of their decisions often develop in complex, non-additive ways that unfold over time and space. Behavioral science offers insights into ways decision-makers manage complexity, uncertainty, choice over time, and social influence. We review such insights to understand the plot-level conservation actions of farmers that impact biodiversity. To make these connections concrete, we provide a case study of the decision to adopt biodiversity management practices in the heavily cultivated region of the Central Valley, California, USA. We use results from a survey of 122 farmers in the region to test whether adoption is related to farm tenure arrangements or peer influence. We find farmers who are more sensitive to peer influence are three times more likely to adopt practices that support biodiversity, including wildflowers, native grasses, cover crops, hedgerows, and wetlands. This relationship could have important implications for how plot-level decisions aggregate to landscape-scale outcomes. Finally, we suggest priorities for future research and program design to integrate behavioral science into biodiversity conservation in agricultural landscapes. By considering land managers' plot-level conservation decisions with the lens of behavioral science, we identify barriers and opportunities to promote environmental benefits.

The importance of urban natural areas and urban ecosystem services during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Urban, peri-urban forests and other natural areas provide a wide range of material and non-material benefits to people known as ecosystem services. Access to these areas has been linked to benefits for physical and mental health of local populations. In the spring of 2020, the COVID-19 global pandemic forced many governments to impose a set of restrictions including the closure of businesses, cancelation of public events and schooling, social distancing, limitations on the size of social gatherings, and travel restrictions. During this period of restrictions, we conducted a study assessing the importance of urban and peri-urban forests and other natural areas to people living in and around the city of Burlington, Vermont, USA. We evaluated the self-reported use and changes in personal importance related to these natural areas before and during the period of restrictions. We received over 400 responses to our field survey. The results show that 69.0% of the respondents had increased or greatly increased their visitation rate to our natural areas and urban forests, and 80.6% of respondents considered that the importance of these areas, and access to them, either increased or greatly increased. Moreover 25.8% of the sample had either never, or very rarely accessed their local natural areas before the pandemic, but 69.2% of the first time or infrequent visitors reported that having access to these areas during COVID-19 as 'very important'. People reported that these areas were important for a wide range of activities from exercise to birding, but also reported values related to reducing stress in a time of global chaos. Our results indicate the increasing demand and value of such areas in times of crisis such as COVID-19. Experts in zoonotic disease predict the potential for more frequent pandemic events, thus predicating the importance for continued funding for, maintenance of, and improved access to, natural areas to our largely urban civilization.

Analogies and lessons from COVID-19 for tackling the extinction and climate crises.

As environmental scientists working in countries whose COVID-linked deaths already exceed their military casualties from all campaigns since 1945, we believe there are significant messages from the handling of this horrific disease for efforts addressing the enormous challenges posed by the ongoing extinction and climate emergencies.

Landslides in the Andes: Forests can provide cost-effective landslide regulation services.

Landslides cause billions of dollars (USD) in damage and hundreds of life losses every year in mountainous areas globally, and these effects are exacerbated by climate change and increased human occupation of vulnerable areas. In many mountainous regions forests deliver slope stability, helping to prevent landslides. However, forests are progressively converted into other land uses in many mountainous regions. In this study, we focus on the Colombian Andes, the most populated and deadly landslide-prone part of Colombia. We aim to determine the difference in frequency of landslides from forested and non-forested areas, and subsequently, quantify the potential costs and benefits of protecting forest and of restoring forest from agricultural lands. To that end, we combine economic data with geographical information related to public and private infrastructure, land use, and landslide susceptibility. Analyzing the national landslide database of Colombia, we established that landslides are almost six times (581%) more likely to occur on non-forested lands than on forested lands. From an economic perspective, by preventing landslides, forests provide a net benefit through the provision of slope stability services. Our most conservative estimates indicate it is 16 times more cost-effective to promote forest corridors, via conservation or reforestation along roads by paying farmers and cattle herders their opportunity costs, than for the public to pay the expected value of landslide damage. Our analysis provides strong evidence that vegetated hillsides can provide a cost-effective ecosystem service approach to mitigate economic losses due to landslides in one of the world's most landslide prone areas.

Breathing the same air? Socioeconomic disparities in PM2.5 exposure and the potential benefits from air filtration.

Air pollution caused by particulate matter <2.5 µm in diameter (PM2.5) imposes a severe health burden to people worldwide. Across the globe, and even within cities, the health burden of air pollution is not equally shared by citizens. Despite being the region suffering from the most severe air pollution, studies examining the inequity of the burdens of air pollution in Asia are limited. We aim to fill in this gap by analyzing the relationship between PM2.5 pollution and residents' socioeconomic characteristics in Beijing, the icon city for PM2.5 pollution. Our results show that household income and education were negatively correlated with ambient air quality (r = -0.62; p < 0.05 and r = -0.73; p < 0.01 respectively) in 2014. We found in Beijing air quality is worse where residents have less income and lower education rates and are less capable to protect themselves from the potential health risk. To counter the effects of air pollution in Beijing, air filtration has been shown to be an effective means to reduce, at least, indoor PM2.5 levels. We illustrate through a simple scenario analysis that air filtration can reduce exposure (26-79%) to a similar extent as the structural mitigation programs (e.g. closing coal factories) achieved in recent years (53%). We argue government intervention is needed to convey the benefit of air filtration to the socioeconomically disadvantaged groups.

Impacts of forests on children's diet in rural areas across 27 developing countries.

Micronutrient deficiency affects about a third of the world's population. Children in developing countries are particularly vulnerable. Consequences include impaired cognitive and physical development and increased childhood morbidity and mortality. Recent studies suggest that forests help alleviate micronutrient deficiency by increasing dietary diversity. However, evidence is mostly based on weakly designed local case studies of limited relevance to global policies. Furthermore, impacts of forests on diet vary among communities, and understanding this variation can help target actions to enhance impact. We compile data on children's diets in over 43,000 households across 27 developing countries to examine the impacts of forests on dietary diversity. We use empirical designs that are attentive to assumptions necessary for causal interpretations and that adequately account for confounding factors that could mask or mimic the impact. We find that high exposure to forests causes children to have at least 25% greater dietary diversity compared to lack of exposure, a result comparable to the impacts of some nutrition-sensitive agricultural programs. A closer look at a subset of African countries indicates that impacts are generally higher for less developed communities, but highest with certain access to markets, roads, and education. Our results also indicate that forests could help reduce vitamin A and iron deficiencies. Our study establishes the causal relationship between forests and diet and thus strengthens the evidence for integrating forest conservation and management into nutrition interventions. Our results also suggest that providing households some access to capital can increase the impact of forest-related interventions on nutrition.

Upstream watershed condition predicts rural children's health across 35 developing countries.

Diarrheal disease (DD) due to contaminated water is a major cause of child mortality globally. Forests and wetlands can provide ecosystem services that help maintain water quality. To understand the connections between land cover and childhood DD, we compiled a database of 293,362 children in 35 countries with information on health, socioeconomic factors, climate, and watershed condition. Using hierarchical models, here we find that higher upstream tree cover is associated with lower probability of DD downstream. This effect is significant for rural households but not for urban households, suggesting differing dependence on watershed conditions. In rural areas, the effect of a 30% increase in upstream tree cover is similar to the effect of improved sanitation, but smaller than the effect of improved water source, wealth or education. We conclude that maintaining natural capital within watersheds can be an important public health investment, especially for populations with low levels of built capital.Globally diarrheal disease through contaminated water sources is a major cause of child mortality. Here, the authors compile a database of 293,362 children in 35 countries and find that upstream tree cover is linked to a lower probability of diarrheal disease and that increasing tree cover may lower mortality.

An unprecedented stereoselective base-induced trimerization of an α-bromovinylsulfone.

A unprecedented base-induced trimerization of bromovinylsulfone 1 afforded the cyclohexene 6 as a single diastereoisomer. Optimization of this reaction gave the adduct 6 in 49% yield. A mechanistic rationale for the trimerization involving consecutive SN2' additions and [3,3]-rearrangements and a final stereoselective intramolecular conjugate addition is proposed and supported by M06-2X density functional theory calculations.

Estimating economic losses to tourism in Africa from the illegal killing of elephants.

Recent surveys suggest tens of thousands of elephants are being poached annually across Africa, putting the two species at risk across much of their range. Although the financial motivations for ivory poaching are clear, the economic benefits of elephant conservation are poorly understood. We use Bayesian statistical modelling of tourist visits to protected areas, to quantify the lost economic benefits that poached elephants would have delivered to African countries via tourism. Our results show these figures are substantial (∼USD $25 million annually), and that the lost benefits exceed the anti-poaching costs necessary to stop elephant declines across the continent's savannah areas, although not currently in the forests of central Africa. Furthermore, elephant conservation in savannah protected areas has net positive economic returns comparable to investments in sectors such as education and infrastructure. Even from a tourism perspective alone, increased elephant conservation is therefore a wise investment by governments in these regions.

Opportunities for biodiversity gains under the world's largest reforestation programme.

Reforestation is a critical means of addressing the environmental and social problems of deforestation. China's Grain-for-Green Program (GFGP) is the world's largest reforestation scheme. Here we provide the first nationwide assessment of the tree composition of GFGP forests and the first combined ecological and economic study aimed at understanding GFGP's biodiversity implications. Across China, GFGP forests are overwhelmingly monocultures or compositionally simple mixed forests. Focusing on birds and bees in Sichuan Province, we find that GFGP reforestation results in modest gains (via mixed forest) and losses (via monocultures) of bird diversity, along with major losses of bee diversity. Moreover, all current modes of GFGP reforestation fall short of restoring biodiversity to levels approximating native forests. However, even within existing modes of reforestation, GFGP can achieve greater biodiversity gains by promoting mixed forests over monocultures; doing so is unlikely to entail major opportunity costs or pose unforeseen economic risks to households.

The Geography of Gender Inequality.

Reducing gender inequality is a major policy concern worldwide, and one of the Sustainable Development Goals. However, our understanding of the magnitude and spatial distribution of gender inequality results either from limited-scale case studies or from national-level statistics. Here, we produce the first high resolution map of gender inequality by analyzing over 689,000 households in 47 countries. Across these countries, we find that male-headed households have, on average, 13% more asset wealth and 303% more land for agriculture than do female-headed households. However, this aggregate global result masks a high degree of spatial heterogeneity, with bands of both high inequality and high equality apparent in countries and regions of the world. Further, areas where inequality is highest when measured by land ownership generally are not the same areas that have high inequality as measured by asset wealth. Our metrics of gender inequality in land and wealth are not strongly correlated with existing metrics of poverty, development, and income inequality, and therefore provide new information to increase the understanding of one critical dimension of poverty across the globe.

The role of strigolactones during plant interactions with the pathogenic fungus Fusarium oxysporum.

MAIN CONCLUSION: Strigolactones (SLs) do not influence spore germination or hyphal growth of Fusarium oxysporum. Mutant studies revealed no role for SLs but a role for ethylene signalling in defence against this pathogen in pea. Strigolactones (SLs) play important roles both inside the plant as a hormone and outside the plant as a rhizosphere signal in interactions with mycorrhizal fungi and parasitic weeds. What is less well understood is any potential role SLs may play in interactions with disease causing microbes such as pathogenic fungi. In this paper we investigate the influence of SLs on the hemibiotrophic pathogen Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. pisi both directly via their effects on fungal growth and inside the plant through the use of a mutant deficient in SL. Given that various stereoisomers of synthetic and naturally occuring SLs can display different biological activities, we used (+)-GR24, (-)-GR24 and the naturally occurring SL, (+)-strigol, as well as a racemic mixture of 5-deoxystrigol. As a positive control, we examined the influence of a plant mutant with altered ethylene signalling, ein2, on disease development. We found no evidence that SLs influence spore germination or hyphal growth of Fusarium oxysporum and that, while ethylene signalling influences pea susceptibility to this pathogen, SLs do not.

Towards the Synthesis of Dihydrooxepino[4,3-b]pyrrole-Containing Natural Products via Cope Rearrangement of Vinyl Pyrrole Epoxides.

An approach to the dihydrooxepino[4,3-b]pyrrole core of diketopiperazine natural products which utilizes a vinyl pyrrole epoxide Cope rearrangement was investigated. It was found that an ester substituent on the epoxide was essential for the [3,3]-rearrangement to occur. Density functional calculations with M06-2X provided explanations for the effects of the pyrrole and ester groups on these rearrangements.