Synergistic and additive effects of microplastic, nickel and pyrene on survival, reproduction, and egestion of a tropical copepod.

Coastal tropical ecosystems provide livelihood for millions of people but are at the same time exposed to an increasing intensity of diverse anthropogenic stressors, including pollution. Nevertheless, the combined effects of pollutants on marine ecosystems are poorly understood, particularly regarding lower trophic levels (plankton) and tropical ocean. We exposed the tropical copepod Centropages velificatus to 4-5 concentrations of a heavy metal (nickel), an oil compound (pyrene) and microplastic (PET), either alone or in combination, and measured their egestion, reproduction, and mortality rates. Microplastic alone did not have any effect on pellet or egg production of copepods, whereas nickel reduced egg production rate at concentrations ≥1 µg L-1 and pyrene reduced both egg and pellet production rates at concentrations ≥1 nM. The addition of nickel and pyrene to PET - microplastic resulted in a reduction similar to one caused by nickel or pyrene alone, suggesting an additive effect. In contrast, a combination of nickel and pyrene had a synergistic effect, with a strong reduction in survival, egg and pellet production. Our results suggest that combinations of contaminants that are commonly found in tropical coastal waters have detrimental effects on copepods-the crucial link in the pelagic food web-at lower concentrations than suggested by single stressor studies. This can have an influence on the food web productivity - the basis of fisheries that local communities rely on.

Parenting practices and family relationships during the COVID-19 lockdown in Ghana.

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have been far reaching across almost every sphere of life. Families, which are the basic units of society, have not been spared the ravages of the pandemic. Changes in family daily routines as a result of COVID-19 can affect spousal relationships, parenting and childcare practices. However, the extent to which the pandemic has affected parenting practices and family relationships in Ghana is not known. The goal of this study was to assess how parenting practices and family relationships have been influenced during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ghana. Data for this paper was drawn from an online questionnaire response from 463 participants in Ghana as a subset analysis from a multi-country study on personal and family coping system with COVID-19 pandemic in the global south. The mean score for pre-COVID-19 relationship with partner (36.86) was higher (p<0.0001) than the mean score for during COVID-19 relationship with partner (35.32) indicating that COVID-19 has had negative influence on relationships. The mean score for pre-COVID-19 parenting (32.78) was higher (p<0.0001) compared to the mean score for during COVID-19 parenting (31.40) indicating negative influence on parenting. We have predicted that participants whose coping levels were "Well" on the average, are likely to be doing well in relationship with partners and parenting practices during the COVID-19 period The challenging public health containment measures of the COVID-19 pandemic have negatively influenced the relationship between partners and parenting practices in Ghana.

Parenting practices and family relationships during the COVID-19 lockdown in Ghana

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have been far reaching across almost every sphere of life. Families, which are the basic units of society, have not been spared the ravages of the pandemic. Changes in family daily routines as a result of COVID-19 can affect spousal relationships, parenting and childcare practices. However, the extent to which the pandemic has affected parenting practices and family relationships in Ghana is not known. The goal of this study was to assess how parenting practices and family relationships have been influenced during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ghana. Data for this paper was drawn from an online questionnaire response from 463 participants in Ghana as a subset analysis from a multi-country study on personal and family coping system with COVID-19 pandemic in the global south. The mean score for pre-COVID-19 relationship with partner (36.86) was higher (p<0.0001) than the mean score for during COVID-19 relationship with partner (35.32) indicating that COVID-19 has had negative influence on relationships. The mean score for pre-COVID-19 parenting (32.78) was higher (p<0.0001) compared to the mean score for during COVID-19 parenting (31.40) indicating negative influence on parenting. We have predicted that participants whose coping levels were "Well" on the average, are likely to be doing well in relationship with partners and parenting practices during the COVID-19 period The challenging public health containment measures of the COVID-19 pandemic have negatively influenced the relationship between partners and parenting practices in Ghana.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) applications in coastal zone management-a review.

Climate change and intense anthropogenic activities have heightened the vulnerability of coastal areas globally. The intensification in the dynamism and uncertainty of coastal processes and change in the past few decades have led researchers and coastal managers to explore new tools with the capability of undertaking a rapid assessment of coastal resources at a relatively lower cost compared with the conventional in situ data collection. The latest advances in unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) platforms and sensor technologies have made them useful environmental remote sensing tools due to the high temporal and spatial resolution and relatively inexpensive operating costs. This study reviews literature that explored UAV applications in five different areas of the coastal zone comprising the intertidal, coastal organisms and habitats, marine litter, coastal zone disaster management, and coastal zone land use and land cover mapping. The review provides evidence of the potentials and effectiveness of UAVs for coastal zone management (CZM). However, factors such as difficulty in imaging water, setting out ground control points (GCPs) for geolocation of images, and processing large volumes of data can pose a challenge to coastal managers. Extensive review shows the capabilities of current UAV technologies for monitoring and tracking changes in the coastal environment at high spatial and temporal resolution.

Climate change and oil pollution: A dangerous cocktail for tropical zooplankton.

Climate change and oil pollution pose a major threat to tropical marine ecosystems and to the coastal communities relying on their resources. The Gulf of Guinea is severely affected by multiple human induced stressors, but the potential impacts of these on marine productivity remain unknown. We investigated the combined effects of heatwaves (climate stressor) and the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon pyrene (proxy for oil) on the copepod Centropages velificatus. We quantified survival, reproduction and fecal pellet production of females exposed to concentrations of 0, 10, 100 and 100+ nM (saturated) pyrene under simulated heatwaves of different thermal intensity (+3 °C and +5 °C above control treatment temperature). Thermal stress due to both moderate and intensive heatwaves resulted in reduced survival and egg production. The negative effects of pyrene were only measurable at the high pyrene concentrations. However, thermal stress increased the sensitivity of C. velificatus to pyrene, indicating a synergistic interaction between the two stressors. We document that the interaction of multiple stressors can result in cumulative impacts that are stronger than expected based on single stressor studies. Further research is urgently needed to evaluate the combined impact of climatic and anthropogenic stressors on the productivity of coastal ecosystems, particularly in the tropical areas.

Physical distancing and risk of COVID-19 in small-scale fisheries: a remote sensing assessment in coastal Ghana.

The novel coronavirus is predicted to have dire implications on global food systems including fisheries value chains due to restrictions imposed on human movements in many countries. In Ghana, food production, both agriculture and fisheries, is exempted from restrictions as an essential service. The enforcement of COVID-19 prevention protocols, particularly social distancing, has been widely reported in Ghana's agricultural markets whereas casual observations and media reports on fish landing sites suggest no such enforcements are in place. This study aimed to provide sound scientific evidence as a basis for informed policy direction and intervention for the artisanal fishing sector in these challenging times. We employed an unmanned aerial vehicle in assessing the risk of artisanal fishers to the pandemic using physical distancing as a proxy. From analysis of cumulative distribution function (G-function) of the nearest-neighbour distances, this study underscored crowding at all surveyed fish landing beaches, and identified potential "hotspots" for disease transmission. Aerial measurements taken at times of peak landing beach activity indicated that the highest proportion of people, representing 56%, 48%, 39% and 78% in Elmina, Winneba, Apam and Mumford respectively, were located at distances of less than one metre from their nearest neighbour. Risk of crowding was independent of the population at the landing beaches, suggesting that all categories of fish landing sites along the coast would require equal urgency and measured attention towards preventing and mitigating the spread of the disease.

Self-reported disease symptoms of stone quarry workers exposed to silica dust in Ghana.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Understanding the importance of using personal protective equipment (PPE) and the influence of work-post (working distance to main dust source-crusher) in stone quarries is vital for designing tailored interventions in minimizing workers' exposure to silica dust. Nonetheless, studies on silica dust and disease symptoms in Ghana are nascent. This study assessed how work-post and use of required PPE jointly influence exposure to silica dust and disease symptoms in Ghana. METHODS: Generalized linear models (complementary log-log regression) were fitted to cross-sectional survey data of 524 stone quarry workers in Ghana to assess the joint effect of work-post and PPE usage on self-reported disease symptoms while controlling for relevant compositional and contextual factors. RESULTS: Stone quarry workers who work between 1-100 m and beyond 100 m from the crusher with the required PPE were 90% and 87% respectively less likely to report eye irritation compared with their counterparts who work between 1 and 100 m from the crusher without the required PPE. Individuals who work between 1-100 m and beyond 100 m from the crusher with the required PPE were 94% and 95% respectively less likely to report breathing difficulty compared with the reference group. Workers who work between 1-100 m and beyond 100 m from the crusher with the required PPE were 97% and 99% respectively less likely to report coughing compared with the reference group. Workers who work between 1-100 m and beyond 100 m from the crusher with the required PPE were 93% and 97% respectively less likely to report common cold compared with their counterparts who work between 1 and 100 m from the crusher without the required PPE. CONCLUSION: There are adverse health implications for people who work in silica dust polluted environments, suggesting the need for a national safety and health policy to target them.

Disparate on-site access to water, sanitation, and food storage heighten the risk of COVID-19 spread in Sub-Saharan Africa.

COVID-19 is an active pandemic that likely poses an existential threat to humanity. Frequent handwashing, social distancing, and partial or total lockdowns are among the suite of measures prescribed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and being implemented across the world to contain the pandemic. However, existing inequalities in access to certain basic necessities of life (water, sanitation facility, and food storage) create layered vulnerabilities to COVID-19 and can render the preventive measures ineffective or simply counterproductive. We hypothesized that individuals in households without any of the named basic necessities of life are more likely to violate the preventive (especially lockdown) measures and thereby increase the risk of infection or aid the spread of COVID-19. Based on nationally-representative data for 25 sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries, multivariate statistical and geospatial analyses were used to investigate whether, and to what extent, household family structure is associated with in-house access to basic needs which, in turn, could reflect on a higher risk of COVID-19 infection. The results indicate that approximately 46% of the sampled households in these countries (except South Africa) did not have in-house access to any of the three basic needs and about 8% had access to all the three basic needs. Five countries had less than 2% of their households with in-house access to all three basic needs. Ten countries had over 50% of their households with no in-house access to all the three basic needs. There is a social gradient in in-house access between the rich and the poor, urban and rural richest, male- and female-headed households, among others. We conclude that SSA governments would need to infuse innovative gender- and age-sensitive support services (such as water supply, portable sanitation) to augment the preventive measures prescribed by the WHO. Short-, medium- and long-term interventions within and across countries should necessarily address the upstream, midstream and downstream determinants of in-house access and the full spectrum of layers of inequalities including individual, interpersonal, institutional, and population levels.

Access to improved water and sanitation in sub-Saharan Africa in a quarter century.

The realization of the scale, magnitude, and complexity of the water and sanitation problem at the global level has compelled international agencies and national governments to increase their resolve to face the challenge. There is extensive evidence on the independent effects of urbanicity (rural-urban environment) and wealth status on access to water and sanitation services in sub-Saharan Africa. However, our understanding of the joint effect of urbanicity and wealth on access to water and sanitation services across spatio-temporal scales is nascent. In this study, a pooled regression analysis of the compositional and contextual factors that systematically vary with access to water and sanitation services over a 25-year time period in fifteen countries across sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) was carried out. On the whole, substantial improvements have been made in providing access to improved water sources in SSA from 1990 to 2015 unlike access to sanitation facilities over the same period. Households were 28.2 percent and 125.2 percent more likely to have access to improved water sources in 2000-2005 and 2010-2015 respectively, than in 1990-1995. Urban rich households were 329 percent more likely to have access to improved water sources compared with the urban poor. Although access to improved sanitation facilities increased from 69 percent in 1990-1995 and 74 percent in 2000-2005 it declined significantly to 53 percent in 2010-2015. Urban rich households were 227 percent more likely to have access to improved sanitation facilities compared with urban poor households. These results were mediated and attenuated by biosocial, socio-cultural and contextual factors and underscore the fact that the challenge of access to water and sanitation in sub-Saharan Africa is not merely scientific and technical but interwoven with environment, culture, economics and human behaviour necessitating the need for interdisciplinary research and policy interventions.