Meteorological data rescue: Citizen science lessons learned from Southern Weather Discovery.

Daily weather reconstructions (called "reanalyses") can help improve our understanding of meteorology and long-term climate changes. Adding undigitized historical weather observations to the datasets that underpin reanalyses is desirable; however, time requirements to capture those data from a range of archives is usually limited. Southern Weather Discovery is a citizen science data rescue project that recovered tabulated handwritten meteorological observations from ship log books and land-based stations spanning New Zealand, the Southern Ocean, and Antarctica. We describe the Zooniverse-hosted Southern Weather Discovery campaign, highlight promotion tactics, and replicate keying levels needed to obtain 100% complete transcribed datasets with minimal type 1 and type 2 transcription errors. Rescued weather observations can augment optical character recognition (OCR) text recognition libraries. Closer links between citizen science data rescue and OCR-based scientific data capture will accelerate weather reconstruction improvements, which can be harnessed to mitigate impacts on communities and infrastructure from weather extremes.

Insights into the crystallisation process from anhydrous, hydrated and solvated crystal forms of diatrizoic acid.

Diatrizoic acid (DTA), a clinically used X-ray contrast agent, crystallises in two hydrated, three anhydrous and nine solvated solid forms, all of which have been characterised by X-ray crystallography. Single-crystal neutron structures of DTA dihydrate and monosodium DTA tetrahydrate have been determined. All of the solid-state structures have been analysed using partial atomic charges and hardness algorithm (PACHA) calculations. Even though in general all DTA crystal forms reveal similar intermolecular interactions, the overall crystal packing differs considerably from form to form. The water of the dihydrate is encapsulated between a pair of host molecules, which calculations reveal to be an extraordinarily stable motif. DTA presents functionalities that enable hydrogen and halogen bonding, and whilst an extended hydrogen-bonding network is realised in all crystal forms, halogen bonding is not present in the hydrated crystal forms. This is due to the formation of a hydrogen-bonding network based on individual enclosed water squares, which is not amenable to the concomitant formation of halogen bonds. The main interaction in the solvates involves the carboxylic acid, which corroborates the hypothesis that this strong interaction is the last one to be broken during the crystal desolvation and nucleation process.

Status of Caribbean coral reefs in seven countries in 1986.

There are few long-term datasets available to make reliable statements about trends in cover and structure in many coral reefs around the world. We present 27year old summary data of the cover of corals and other biota on Caribbean and Western Atlantic coral reefs in 7 countries collected in late 1985 and early 1986. These data were collected to support research on sponge populations and show relatively low coral cover on many of these reefs with particularly low cover of Acropora spp. We present these summaries to encourage other researchers to compare with current conditions or repeat the surveys to show long-term trends; the raw data will be supplied on request.

Coastal resource degradation in the tropics: does the tragedy of the commons apply for coral reefs, mangrove forests and seagrass beds.

The keynote paper by Garrett Hardin 44 years ago introduced the term 'tragedy of the commons' into our language (Hardin, 1968); this term is now used widely, but it is neither universally accepted nor fully understood. Irrespective, the 'tragedy of the commons' is an increasing reality for more than 500 million people that rely on the biodiversity resources and services of tropical coral reefs, mangrove forests, seagrass beds and associated fisheries. These natural resources continue to decline despite major advances in our scientific understanding of how ecosystems and human populations interact, and the application of considerable conservation and management efforts at scales from local user communities to oceans. Greater effort will be required to avert increasing damage from over-exploitation, pollution and global climate change; all deriving from increasing exploitation driven by poverty and progress i.e. continuing to expand development indefinitely and extraction of resources at industrial scales. However, the 'tragedy' concept has been widely criticized as a simple metaphor for a much larger set of problems and solutions. We argue that the 'tragedy' is essentially real and will continue to threaten the lives of millions of people unless there are some major moral and policy shifts to reverse increasing damage to coastal habitats and resources. We agree with the conclusion by Hardin that the solution to the tragedy will not be through the application of natural sciences, but via implementing exceedingly difficult and controversial moral decisions. An extreme example of a moral and controversial direction suggested by Hardin was in re-examining the 'freedom to breed' as an inherent human value. The need for 'moral decisions' is even greater in 2012.

Cooperative hydrogen-bonding effects in a water square: a single-crystal neutron and partial atomic charges and hardness analysis study.

Four isomorphous complexes of formula [M(L)(4)(H(2)O)(2)]SO(4).2H(2)O (M = Co, 1a; Ni, 1b; Cu, 1c; Zn, 1d) have been isolated and characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction and neutron diffraction using the quasi-Laue diffractometer VIVALDI at the Institut Laue-Langevin as well as by thermogravimetric analysis. The structures contain a discrete, strongly hydrogen-bonded water tetramer which causes a significant distortion of the metal coordination sphere in each case. Partial atomic charges and hardness analysis (PACHA) calculations reveal that the shortest hydrogen bonds are not the strongest in this constrained, cyclic solid-state structure and show that the distortion at the metal center is caused by the drive to maintain the integrity of the water tetramer. The system undergoes a disorder-order transition on slow cooling that provides insight into the nature of communication between water squares.

The Sulu-Sulawesi Sea: environmental and socioeconomic status, future prognosis and ameliorative policy options.

The Sulu-Sulawesi Sea, with neighboring Indonesian Seas and South China Sea, lies at the center of the world's tropical marine biodiversity. Encircled by 3 populous, developing nations, the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, the Sea and its adjacent coastal and terrestrial ecosystems, supports ca. 33 million people, most with subsistence livelihoods heavily reliant on its renewable natural resources. These resources are being impacted severely by rapid population growth (> 2% yr-1, with expected doubling by 2035) and widespread poverty, coupled with increasing international market demand and rapid technological changes, compounded by inefficiencies in governance and a lack of awareness and/or acceptance of some laws among local populations, particularly in parts of the Philippines and Indonesia. These key root causes all contribute to illegal practices and corruption, and are resulting in severe resource depletion and degradation of water catchments, river, lacustrine, estuarine, coastal, and marine ecosystems. The Sulu-Sulawesi Sea forms a major geopolitical focus, with porous borders, transmigration, separatist movements, piracy, and illegal fishing all contributing to environmental degradation, human suffering and political instability, and inhibiting strong trilateral support for interventions. This review analyzes these multifarious environmental and socioeconomic impacts and their root causes, provides a future prognosis of status by 2020, and recommends policy options aimed at amelioration through sustainable management and development.

Ultrastructure of siliceous spicules and microsclerocytes in the marine sponge Neofibularia irata N. SP.

The marine sponge Neofibularia irata contains four different categories of siliceous spicules. These spicules are evident in the tissues as distinct bundles that act to increase the structural rigidity of the sponge. All spicules have a normal structural morphology with silica deposition around a hexagonal axial canal containing a crystalline axial filament. The megasclere strongyles are secreted in typical megasclerocytes. The sigma and raphid microscleres are secreted in individual microsclerocytes that are grouped together in parallel to form loose bundles. However, the microxea microscleres are apparently secreted in distinct tight bundles (trichodragmas) within a single cell. These cells, containing between 13 and 39 spicules, are grouped to form large packets of bundles of spicules.