Publications

Responsibility and Laboratory Animal Research Governance

Publication ID: pub.1091467934

Publication date: 01/09/2017

Keywords: Engagement; Expertise; Governance; Intervention; Politics; Power; Other; UK

The use of animals in experiments and research remains highly contentious. Laboratory animal research governance provides guidance and regulatory frameworks to oversee the use and welfare of laboratory animals and relies heavily on the replacement, reduction, and refinement (3Rs) principles to demonstrate responsibility. However, the application of the 3Rs is criticized for being too narrow […]

Biogeographic distributions of neotropical trees reflect their directly measured drought tolerances

Publication ID: pub.1091148282

Publication date: 21/08/2017

Keywords: Droughts; Ecosystem; Forests; Neotropics; Phylogeography; Trees; Tropical Climate

High levels of species diversity hamper current understanding of how tropical forests may respond to environmental change. In the tropics, water availability is a leading driver of the diversity and distribution of tree species, suggesting that many tropical taxa may be physiologically incapable of tolerating dry conditions, and that their distributions along moisture gradients can […]

Coevolutionary arms race versus host defense chase in a tropical herbivore–plant system

Publication ID: pub.1091296401

Publication date: 21/08/2017

Keywords: Amazon; Animals; Biological Evolution; Fabaceae; Herbivory; Host-Parasite Interactions; Insecta; Lepidoptera; Peru; Phenotype; Phylogeny; Plant Leaves

Coevolutionary models suggest that herbivores drive diversification and community composition in plants. For herbivores, many questions remain regarding how plant defenses shape host choice and community structure. We addressed these questions using the tree genus Inga and its lepidopteran herbivores in the Amazon. We constructed phylogenies for both plants and insects and quantified host associations […]

Closing the loop: Reconnecting human dynamics to Earth System science

Publication ID: pub.1091251884

Publication date: 14/08/2017

Keywords: Coevolutionary dynamics; Complex Adaptive Networks; Earth System Analysis; Earth System Modelling; Global; Human Agency; Planetary Boundaries; Safe and Just Space for Humanity; Sustainable Development Goals

International commitment to the appropriately ambitious Paris climate agreement and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals in 2015 has pulled into the limelight the urgent need for major scientific progress in understanding and modelling the Anthropocene, the tightly intertwined social-environmental planetary system that humanity now inhabits. The Anthropocene qualitatively differs from previous eras in Earth’s […]

Ocean deoxygenation, the global phosphorus cycle and the possibility of human-caused large-scale ocean anoxia

Publication ID: pub.1091084504

Publication date: 07/08/2017

Keywords: Climate Change; Global; Models, Statistical; Oceans and Seas; Oxygen; Phosphorus; Seawater

The major biogeochemical cycles that keep the present-day Earth habitable are linked by a network of feedbacks, which has led to a broadly stable chemical composition of the oceans and atmosphere over hundreds of millions of years. This includes the processes that control both the atmospheric and oceanic concentrations of oxygen. However, one notable exception […]

High risk of unprecedented UK rainfall in the current climate

Publication ID: pub.1090754866

Publication date: 24/07/2017

Keywords: Clean-up Costs; Current Climate; Flooding; High-resolution Initialised Climate Simulations; Record Rainfall; Regions; Risk; South East England; Storms; Thames River Valley; UK; Wales; Winter

In winter 2013/14 a succession of storms hit the UK leading to record rainfall and flooding in many regions including south east England. In the Thames river valley there was widespread flooding, with clean-up costs of over £1 billion. There was no observational precedent for this level of rainfall. Here we present analysis of a […]