| 1. |
- Kanoni, Stavroula, et al.
(författare)
-
Implicating genes, pleiotropy, and sexual dimorphism at blood lipid loci through multi-ancestry meta-analysis.
- 2022
-
Ingår i: Genome biology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1474-760X .- 1465-6906 .- 1474-7596. ; 23:1
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Genetic variants within nearly 1000 loci are known to contribute to modulation of blood lipid levels. However, the biological pathways underlying these associations are frequently unknown, limiting understanding of these findings and hindering downstream translational efforts such as drug target discovery.To expand our understanding of the underlying biological pathways and mechanisms controlling blood lipid levels, we leverage a large multi-ancestry meta-analysis (N=1,654,960) of blood lipids to prioritize putative causal genes for 2286 lipid associations using six gene prediction approaches. Using phenome-wide association (PheWAS) scans, we identify relationships of genetically predicted lipid levels to other diseases and conditions. We confirm known pleiotropic associations with cardiovascular phenotypes and determine novel associations, notably with cholelithiasis risk. We perform sex-stratified GWAS meta-analysis of lipid levels and show that 3-5% of autosomal lipid-associated loci demonstrate sex-biased effects. Finally, we report 21 novel lipid loci identified on the X chromosome. Many of the sex-biased autosomal and X chromosome lipid loci show pleiotropic associations with sex hormones, emphasizing the role of hormone regulation in lipid metabolism.Taken together, our findings provide insights into the biological mechanisms through which associated variants lead to altered lipid levels and potentially cardiovascular disease risk.
|
|
| 2. |
- Wells, Geoff J., et al.
(författare)
-
Hundreds of millions of people in the tropics need both wild harvests and other forms of economic development for their well-being
- 2024
-
Ingår i: One Earth. - 2590-3330 .- 2590-3322. ; 7:2, s. 311-324
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Local access to “wild,” common-pool terrestrial and aquatic resources is being diminished by global resource demand and large-scale conservation interventions. Many theories suggest the well-being of wild harvesters can be supported through transitions to other livelihoods, improved infrastructure, and market access. However, new theories argue that such benefits may not always occur because they are context dependent and vary across dimensions of well-being. We test these theories by comparing how wild harvesting and other livelihoods have been associated with food security and life satisfaction in different contexts across ∼10,800 households in the tropics. Wild harvests coincided with high well-being in remote, asset-poor, and less-transformed landscapes. Yet, overall, well-being increased with electrical infrastructure, proximity to cities, and household capitals. This provides large-scale confirmation of the context dependence of nature’s contributions to people, and suggests a need to maintain local wild resource access while investing in equitable access to infrastructure, markets, and skills.
|
|
| 3. |
- Blandon, Abigayil
(författare)
-
Sustainable Seafood: Exploring diverse conceptualisations and approaches
- 2024
-
Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Seafood has potential to contribute to the shift to sustainable global diets. However, seafood production is faced with multiple dimensions of sustainability problems. Certain types of production methods contribute to environmental degradation, while illegal and unregulated fishing is highly linked to incidences of human rights abuses and forced labour. The current market-based seafood sustainability movement has limited power and reach, and we require more variety in the tools we use to solve sustainability problems in the seafood industry. This Licentiate thesis presents two studies that help to broaden “what” is considered within “sustainable seafood” and “how” actors are currently working towards it. The thesis thus contributes to increasing the plurality of viewpoints, values and considerations in the current discussion around seafood sustainability.We first investigate what stakeholders within the seafood industry mean when they talk about “sustainable seafood”, using a Q method analysis. We discover that the conceptualisations of sustainable seafood are highly context-dependent and embedded based on which country the participants work in. We discover a range of priorities within the seafood industry, from social, ecological and economic sustainability, to framing seafood as a commodity, human right, common good or as a living thing rather than food. Participants have the most similar opinions around the ideas of social sustainability and seafood as a common good, but there are some fundamental disagreements along the lines of social versus ecological sustainability. We then conduct a literature review to uncover the ongoing efforts towards sustainable seafood outside of the typical certification scheme and rating systems. We find three broad categories of approaches that overlap with different theories of change towards transformations: 1) pre-competitive collaborations (“systemic” approaches), 2) landscape-based approaches (both “systemic” and “enabling” approaches) and 3) relational approaches (“enabling” approaches). We hypothesise some inherent incompatibilities due to the original literatures from which the approaches appear, but also advocate for plural approaches that fit the context. We finish with a proposal of matching stakeholders’ priorities around sustainability and framing of seafood, to the associated transformative approach to ensure buy-in.
|
|
| 4. |
- Chaigneau, Tomas, et al.
(författare)
-
Reconciling well-being and resilience for sustainable development
- 2022
-
Ingår i: Nature Sustainability. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2398-9629. ; 5:April 2022, s. 287-293
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Securing well-being and building resilience in response to shocks are often viewed as key goals of sustainable development. Here, we present an overview of the latest published evidence, as well as the consensus of a diverse group of scientists and practitioners drawn from a structured analytical review and deliberative workshop process. We argue that resilience and well-being are related in complex ways, but in their applications in practice they are often assumed to be synergistic. Although theoretically compatible, evidence we present here shows that they may in fact work against each other. This has important implications for policy.
|
|
| 5. |
- Crona, Beatrice, et al.
(författare)
-
Four ways blue foods can help achieve food system ambitions across nations
- 2023
-
Ingår i: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 616:7955, s. 104-112
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Blue foods, sourced in aquatic environments, are important for the economies, livelihoods, nutritional security and cultures of people in many nations. They are often nutrient rich1, generate lower emissions and impacts on land and water than many terrestrial meats2, and contribute to the health3, wellbeing and livelihoods of many rural communities4. The Blue Food Assessment recently evaluated nutritional, environmental, economic and justice dimensions of blue foods globally. Here we integrate these findings and translate them into four policy objectives to help realize the contributions that blue foods can make to national food systems around the world: ensuring supplies of critical nutrients, providing healthy alternatives to terrestrial meat, reducing dietary environmental footprints and safeguarding blue food contributions to nutrition, just economies and livelihoods under a changing climate. To account for how context-specific environmental, socio-economic and cultural aspects affect this contribution, we assess the relevance of each policy objective for individual countries, and examine associated co-benefits and trade-offs at national and international scales. We find that in many African and South American nations, facilitating consumption of culturally relevant blue food, especially among nutritionally vulnerable population segments, could address vitamin B12 and omega-3 deficiencies. Meanwhile, in many global North nations, cardiovascular disease rates and large greenhouse gas footprints from ruminant meat intake could be lowered through moderate consumption of seafood with low environmental impact. The analytical framework we provide also identifies countries with high future risk, for whom climate adaptation of blue food systems will be particularly important. Overall the framework helps decision makers to assess the blue food policy objectives most relevant to their geographies, and to compare and contrast the benefits and trade-offs associated with pursuing these objectives.
|
|
| 6. |
- Daw, Tim M., et al.
(författare)
-
Life satisfaction in coastal Kenya and Mozambique reflects culture, gendered relationships and security of basic needs : Implications for ecosystem services
- 2023
-
Ingår i: Ecosystem Services. - 2212-0416. ; 62
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Life satisfaction is both a desirable 'end' for sustainable development, and a means to understand the priorities, and behaviour of people towards local ecosystems. Ecosystem-services research on life satisfaction has focused on cultural services in wealthy, Western contexts, although ecosystem services are essential for poor people's livelihoods in the Global South. We examined reported life satisfaction from a survey of over 2000 people in rural and urban settings of coastal Kenya and Mozambique. We coded respondents' open-ended reasons for their reported satisfaction, and used multiple correspondence analysis to explore the characteristics of people who mentioned different reasons. We tested associations between satisfaction and the meeting of basic needs and income, with binary logistic regression, accounting for site and gender. Life satisfaction was lower in Kenya, for men, and in the most urbanised site. Respondents explained high, and low, satisfaction in terms of social relationships, basic needs, money and employment. They rarely mentioned the ecosystem services and related livelihoods that underpin those, suggesting an instrumental relation to nature. Meeting basic needs, including economic security better predicted satisfaction than household income. Life satisfaction reflected material differences in people's lives but also different evaluative criteria and national cultures. For example, family reasons more commonly explained women's satisfaction, while money was more important for urban-dwelling men. We propose that the holistic perspective offered by life-satisfaction research can inform environmental management alongside more focused ecosystem-service research. For example, our results suggest that a) interventions should recognise immediate needs and social relationships, b) the role of ecosystem services for subjective wellbeing varies by local culture and individual identities and c) secure and fair access to ecosystem services may support life satisfaction better than high incomes that are insecure or ineq-uitably distributed.
|
|
| 7. |
- Dennis B., Karcher, et al.
(författare)
-
Lessons from bright-spots for advancing knowledge exchange at the interface of marine science and policy
- 2022
-
Ingår i: Journal of Environmental Management. - : Elsevier BV. - 0301-4797 .- 1095-8630. ; 314
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Evidence-informed decision-making is in increasing demand given growing pressures on marine environments. A way to facilitate this is by knowledge exchange among marine scientists and decision-makers. While many barriers are reported in the literature, there are also examples whereby research has successfully informed marine decision-making (i.e., ‘bright-spots’). Here, we identify and analyze 25 bright-spots from a wide range of marine fields, contexts, and locations to provide insights into how to improve knowledge exchange at the interface of marine science and policy. Through qualitative surveys we investigate what initiated the bright-spots, their goals, and approaches to knowledge exchange. We also seek to identify what outcomes/impacts have been achieved, the enablers of success, and what lessons can be learnt to guide future knowledge exchange efforts. Results show that a diversity of approaches were used for knowledge exchange, from consultative engagement to genuine knowledge co-production. We show that diverse successes at the interface of marine science and policy are achievable and include impacts on policy, people, and governance. Such successes were enabled by factors related to the actors, processes, support, context, and timing. For example, the importance of involving diverse actors and managing positive relationships is a key lesson for success. However, enabling routine success will require: 1) transforming the ways in which we train scientists to include a greater focus on interpersonal skills, 2) institutionalizing and supporting knowledge exchange activities in organizational agendas, 3) conceptualizing and implementing broader research impact metrics, and 4) transforming funding mechanisms to focus on need-based interventions, impact planning, and an acknowledgement of the required time and effort that underpin knowledge exchange activities.
|
|
| 8. |
- Giri, Sandip, et al.
(författare)
-
Economic incentives drive the conversion of agriculture to aquaculture in the Indian Sundarbans : Livelihood and environmental implications of different aquaculture types
- 2022
-
Ingår i: Ambio. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0044-7447 .- 1654-7209. ; 51:9, s. 1963-1977
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Expansion of aquaculture in the Sundarbans Biosphere Reserve (SBR) is irreversibly replacing agricultural land and the drivers of this change are disputed. Based on in-depth interviews with 67 aquaculture farmers, this paper characterizes major aquaculture types in the SBR, their impacts, and identifies drivers of conversion from agricultural land. Aquaculture types included traditional, improved-traditional, modified-extensive, and semi-intensive systems. Extensive capture of wild shrimp larvae is environmentally harmful but constitutes an important livelihood. Semi-intensive aquaculture of exotic shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) has much higher unit-area profitability than other types but involves greater financial risk. Profitability is the main driver for the transition from agriculture, but environmental factors such as lowered crop yields and cyclone impacts also contributed. Many conversions from agriculture to aquaculture are illegal according to the stakeholders. Existing legislation, if enforced, could halt the loss of agriculture, while the promotion of improved-traditional aquaculture could reduce the demand for wild seed.
|
|
| 9. |
- Hakkarainen, Viola, et al.
(författare)
-
On the other end of research : exploring community-level knowledge exchanges in small-scale fisheries in Zanzibar
- 2020
-
Ingår i: Sustainability Science. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1862-4065 .- 1862-4057. ; 15:1, s. 281-295
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Sustainability science has increasingly adopted more action-oriented approaches in an attempt to mobilise and implement a broad knowledge base to sustain human wellbeing and promote sustainable development. There is an increasing recognition of the importance of knowledge exchange (KE) between scientists and end users of research for enhancing social, environmental and economic impacts of research. Here, we explore the process of KE through close observation of two cases of KE between external PhD researchers and local actors in small-scale fisheries at the community level in Zanzibar, Tanzania. First, we address context by examining perceptions of research held by actors at community level and patterns of interactions and flows of benefits between external researchers and local actors including fisheries managers, local research institute as well as fishers and traders. Second, we unpack experiences of actors engaged in the cases of KE. The study draws attention to KE processes in the Global South and actors outside decision-making processes in fisheries management. The study concludes that as KE is a complex and dynamic process and that (i) history and relationships between actors shape the outcomes of KE, (ii) KE includes more than knowledge-based processes and outcomes because multiple incentives of different actors shape KE and how it is experiences and (iii) knowledge-based outcomes of KE are complex and unpredictable as different actors create their own meaning from shared information. The results exemplify the inevitably complex and unpredictable nature of KE processes and their outcomes, and provide insight into how KE can contribute to science–society relationships.
|
|
| 10. |
- Käll, Sofia, et al.
(författare)
-
From good intentions to unexpected results — a cross-scale analysis of a fishery improvement project within the Indonesian blue swimming crab
- 2022
-
Ingår i: Maritime Studies. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1872-7859 .- 2212-9790. ; 21:4, s. 587-607
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Private actors have become prominent players in the work to drive social and environmental sustainability transitions. In the fisheries sector, fishery improvement projects (FIPs) aim to address environmental challenges by leveraging the capacity of industry actors and using value chains to incentivize change. Despite globally rising FIP numbers, the incentive structures behind FIP establishment and the role of internal dynamics remain poorly understood. This paper uses institutional entrepreneurship as an analytical lens to examine the institutional change surrounding the management and trade of the Indonesian blue swimming crab and sheds light on how global market dynamics, local fishery dynamics, and value chain initiatives interact to affect the trajectory towards sustainability over time. We contribute to the institutional entrepreneurship framework by extending it with social-ecological dynamics, different actors’ ability to realize or resist change, and outcomes of institutional change. These additions can improve its explanatory power in relation to sustainability initiatives in fisheries governance and beyond. Our cross-scale historical analysis of the value chain shows not only the entrepreneurship behind the FIP’s establishment, and its institutional interventions, but also why these have been unsuccessful in improving the ecological sustainability of fishers’ and traders’ behavior. This provides valuable empirical grounding to a wider debate about industry leadership and private incentives for sustainability at large and helps disentangle under what conditions such initiatives are more (or less) likely to have intended effects.
|
|
