Women's Knowledge, Views, and Experiences Regarding Alcohol Use and Pregnancy: Opportunities to Improve Health Messages.

BACKGROUND: Women continue to drink alcohol during pregnancy despite Surgeon Generals' Advisory statements and educational efforts about the dangers. PURPOSE: This focus group research study examined women's knowledge and beliefs about alcohol consumption and its risks during pregnancy along with related perceptions of social influences and information sources in order to inform future messaging. METHODS: The study included 20 focus groups of 149 reproductive-age women segmented by age, pregnancy status, and race/ethnicity. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Women acknowledged the risks and consequences of drinking alcohol during pregnancy, but many held common misconceptions. Some women continued to drink during pregnancy or expressed intent to continue drinking until pregnancy confirmation. Findings indicated that women's partners, families, and friends influence women's decisions to drink or abstain from alcohol. In addition, health care providers and the Internet act as important sources of health information for women but sometimes do not adequately educate them about the risks of alcohol use and pregnancy. TRANSLATION TO HEALTH EDUCATION PRACTICE: Considerations for messaging and educational materials related to alcohol use and pregnancy include providing clear and consistent messaging (especially from health professionals), focusing on social support strategies, and utilizing electronic media. The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Propagule size and predispersal damage by insects affect establishment and early growth of mangrove seedlings.

Variation in rates of seedling recruitment, growth, and survival can strongly influence the rate and course of forest regeneration following disturbance. Using a combination of field sampling and shadehouse experiments, we investigated the influence of propagule size and predispersal insect damage on the establishment and early growth of the three common mangrove species on the Caribbean coast of Panama: Avicennia germinans, Laguncularia racemosa, and Rhizophora mangle. In our field samples, all three species exhibited considerable intraspecific variation in mature propagule size, and suffered moderate to high levels of predispersal attack by larval insects. Rates of insect attack were largely independent of propagule size both within and among trees. Our experimental studies using undamaged mature propagules showed that, for all three species, seedlings established at high rates regardless of propagule size. However, propagule size did have a marked effect on early seedling growth: seedlings that developed from larger propagules grew more rapidly. Predispersal insect infestations that had destroyed or removed a substantial amount of tissue, particularly if that tissue was meristematic or conductive, reduced the establishment of propagules of all three species. The effect of sublethal tissue damage or loss on the subsequent growth of established seedlings varied among the three mangrove species. For Avicennia, the growth response was graded: for a propagule of a given size, the more tissue lost, the slower the growth of the seedling. For Laguncularia, the response to insect attack appeared to be all-or-none. If the boring insect penetrated the outer spongy seed coat and reached the developing embryo, it usually caused sufficient damage to prevent a seedling from developing. On the other hand, if the insect damaged but did not penetrate the seed coat, a completely healthy seedling developed and its growth rate was indistinguishable from a seedling developing from an undamaged propagule of the same size. Similar to Avicennia, if an infestation did not completely girdle a Rhizophora seedling, it survived, but grew at a reduced rate. In summary, our experiments demonstrated that natural levels of variation in propagule size and predispersal damage by insects translate into significant differences in seedling performance in terms of establishment and/or early growth. Such differences are sufficiently large that they could influence the intensity and outcome of competitive interactions during forest regeneration.

Regeneration of Rhizophora mangle in a Caribbean mangrove forest: interacting effects of canopy disturbance and a stem-boring beetle.

Current theory predicts that in low-density, seed-limited plant populations, seed predation will be more important than competition in determining the number of individuals that reach maturity. However, when plant density is high, competition for microsites suitable for establishment and growth is expected to have a relatively greater effect. This dichotomous perspective does not account for situations in which the risk of seed predation differs inside versus outside recruitment microsites. We report the results of a field experiment and sampling studies that demonstrate such an interaction between microsite quality and the risk of propagule predation in mangrove forests on the Caribbean coast of Panama, where it appears to play a key role in shaping the demography and dynamics of the mangrove, Rhizophora mangle. Rhizophora's water-borne propagules establish wherever they strand, but long-term sampling revealed that only those that do so in or near lightning-created canopy gaps survive and grow to maturity. These microsites afford better growth conditions than the surrounding understory and, as importantly, provide a refuge from predation by the scolytid beetle, Coccotrypes rhizophorae. This refuge effect was confirmed with a field experiment in which Rhizophora seedlings were planted at different positions relative to gap edges, from 5 m inside to 20 m outside the gap. Mortality due to beetle attack increased linearly from an average of 10% inside a gap to 72% at 20 m into the forest. The interaction between canopy disturbance and propagule predation may be having a large impact on the composition of our study forests. Being shade-tolerant, Rhizophora seedlings that escape or survive beetle attack can persist in the understory for years. However, the high rate of beetle-induced mortality effectively eliminates the contribution of advance regeneration by Rhizophora saplings to gap succession. This may explain why the shade-intolerant mangrove, Laguncularia racemosa, is able to co-dominate the canopy in low intertidal forests at our study sites.