Plymouth — A World Harbour through the ages

Plymouth Sound and adjacent estuaries, UK has been used as a working harbour throughout the ages and has a place in maritime history as the port from where the Pilgrim Fathers left for North America in 1620 on the Mayflower and Charles Darwin departed from on the HMS Beagle on his trip to Galapagos in 1831. Today, it remains a working harbour, home to the largest naval base in Western Europe, the host of numerous cruise ships and recreational boats, yet its complex of estuaries (Tamar, Plym, Lynher) and creeks is nationally and internationally recognised as of conservation importance due to its physical characteristics and flora and fauna. Here, we briefly recount the history and importance of Plymouth through the ages in terms of its historic use as a harbour, its marine science heritage and importance on the international stage. We also briefly describe its ecology.

The Assault on Human Rigths and the Resilience of the Andean Dream: Health Inequities in Ecuador. IV Annual Distinguished Lecture sponsored by the Center for Research on Ethnicity, Culture and Health; School of Public Health; University of Michigan

The point of departure for these reflections is life, since its protection is the central purpose encouraging the defense of human rights and of public health. Life in the Andes has an exceptional diversity. Particularly in Ecuador, my country, this diversity constitutes a characteristic sign that is expressed in two main forms: natural megadiversity and multiculturalism. Indeed, Ecuador’s small territory synthesizes practically all types of lifezones that exist on Earth, having received the gift of high average rates of solar energy and abundant nutritional sources, which have facilitated the natural reproduction of countless species that show their beautiful vitality in the variety of ecosystems that compose the Andean mountain range, the tropical plains, the Amazon humid forests, and the Galapagos Islands. But besides being a highly biodiverse country, it is also a plurinational and multi-cultural society, in which the activity of human beings, organized into social conglomerates of different historical and cultural backgrounds, have formed more than a dozen nations and peoples. Regrettably this natural and human wealth has not been able to bear its best fruits due to the violent operation of a deep social inequity – unfortunately also one of the highest in the Americas—which conspires against life and is reproduced in national and international inequitable relations. This structural inequity has changed its form throughout the centuries and currently has reached its highest and most perverse level of development.

Ecuador

Ecuador’s total population numbers some 15,682,792 inhabitants, and includes 14 nationalities accounting for around 1,100,000 people, all joined together in a series of local, regional and national organisations. 60.3% of the Andean Kichwa live in six provinces in the Central-North Mountains; 24.1% live in the Amazon region and belong to ten nationalities; 7.3% live in the Southern Mountains; and the remaining 8.3% live in the Coastal region and the Galapagos Islands. 78.5% still live in rural areas and 21.5% in urban areas. The current Constitution of the Republic recognises the country as a “…constitutional state of law and social justice, democratic, sovereign, independent, unitary, intercultural, multinational and secular”. Over the last five years, the country has undergone a series of political and institutional reforms. At the same time, however, enforcing and guaranteeing the collective rights recognised in the Constitution has become a challenge to the process, and a permanent point of disagreement between the government, headed by the economist Rafael Correa, and the indigenous social organisations. The government’s economic action has been largely marked by an opening up of the extractive industries - oil, copper and gold - to foreign investment, either of Chinese or Belarussian origin, or from other Latin American countries such as Brazil, Chile or Argentina. This has resulted in risk to and impacts on the territorial and cultural integrity of various indigenous peoples, and an uncertainty created around the true validity of the broad collective rights enshrined in the Constitution.

Psammophilous halacarid mites (Trombidiformes, Halacaridae) from the North Coast of Sao Paulo State, Brazil

Five halacarid species are reported from the Brazilian coast for the first time. Scaptognathides delicatulus, formerly known only from its type locality in Kuwait; Scaptognathus gibbosus, known from Galapagos and Somalia; and Scaptognathus insularis known from northeastern Australia, have their distributions extended. Along with these new records, Halacaroides antoniazziae sp. nov. and Acarochelopodia caissara sp. nov. are described. Halacaroides antoniazziae sp. nov. differs from its congeners by the presence of three subgenital setae in males and none in females, 41-44 perigenital setae and two posterior external genital acetabula in males. Acarochelopodia caissara sp. nov. has a rounded anterior epimeral plate margin, the posterior epimeral plates are partially divided into two halves but anteriorly joined by a narrow band, the dorsal setae on tarsus I are grouped 1:2, and the anterior and posterior dorsal plates have a length: width ratio of 1.61-1.77 and 1.60-1.70, respectively.

Accuracy of ARGOS locations of pinnipeds at-sea estimated using Fastloc GPS

Background: ARGOS satellite telemetry is one of the most widely used methods to track the movements of free-ranging marine and terrestrial animals and is fundamental to studies of foraging ecology, migratory behavior and habitat-use. ARGOS location estimates do not include complete error estimations, and for many marine organisms, the most commonly acquired locations (Location Class 0, A, B, or Z) are provided with no declared error estimate.
Methodology/Principal Findings: We compared the accuracy of ARGOS locations to those obtained using Fastloc GPS from the same electronic tags on five species of pinnipeds: 9 California sea lions (Zalophus californianus), 4 Galapagos sea lions (Zalophus wollebaeki), 6 Cape fur seals (Arctocephalus pusillus pusillus), 3 Australian fur seals (A. p. doriferus) and 5 northern elephant seals (Mirounga angustirostris). These species encompass a range of marine habitats (highly pelagic vs coastal), diving behaviors (mean dive durations 2–21 min) and range of latitudes (equator to temperate). A total of 7,318 ARGOS positions and 27,046 GPS positions were collected. Of these, 1,105 ARGOS positions were obtained within five minutes of a GPS position and were used for comparison. The 68^th percentile ARGOS location errors as measured in this study were LC-3
0.49 km, LC-2 1.01 km, LC-1 1.20 km, LC-0 4.18 km, LC-A 6.19 km, LC-B 10.28 km.
Conclusions/Significance: The ARGOS errors measured here are greater than those provided by ARGOS, but within the range of other studies. The error was non-normally distributed with each LC highly right-skewed. Locations of species that make short duration dives and spend extended periods on the surface (sea lions and fur seals) had less error than species like elephant seals that spend more time underwater and have shorter surface intervals. Supplemental data (S1) are provided allowing the creation of density distributions that can be used in a variety of filtering algorithms to improve the quality of ARGOS tracking data.