University of East Anglia

About: University of East Anglia is a education organization based out in Norwich, Norfolk, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Climate change. The organization has 13250 authors who have published 37504 publications receiving 1669060 citations. The organization is also known as: UEA.

Navigating the Anthropocene: Improving Earth System Governance

Abstract: Science assessments indicate that human activities are moving several of Earth's sub-systems outside the range of natural variability typical for the previous 500,000 years ( 1 , 2 ). Human societies must now change course and steer away from critical tipping points in the Earth system that might lead to rapid and irreversible change ( 3 ). This requires fundamental reorientation and restructuring of national and international institutions toward more effective Earth system governance and planetary stewardship.

Social capital, individual responses to heat waves and climate change adaptation: An empirical study of two UK cities

Abstract: It has been claimed that high social capital contributes to both positive public health outcomes and to climate change adaptation. Strong social networks have been said to support individuals and collective initiatives of adaptation and enhance resilience. As a result, there is an expectation that social capital could reduce vulnerability to risks from the impacts of climate change in the health sector. This paper examines evidence on the role social networks play in individuals’ responses to heat wave risk in a case study in the UK. Based on interviews with independently living elderly people and their primary social contacts in London and Norwich, we suggest that strong bonding networks could potentially exacerbate rather than reduce the vulnerability of elderly people to the effects of heat waves. Most respondents interviewed did not feel that heat waves posed a significant risk to them personally, and most said that they would be able to cope with hot weather. Bonding networks could perpetuate rather than challenge these narratives and therefore contribute to vulnerability rather than ameliorating it. These results suggest a complex rather than uniformly positive relationship between social capital, health and adaptation to climate change.

Primary submicron marine aerosol dominated by insoluble organic colloids and aggregates

Abstract: The chemical properties of sea-spray aerosol particles produced by artificially generated bubbles using oceanic waters were investigated during a phytoplankton bloom in the North Atlantic. Spray pa ...

Scrutinizing key steps for reliable metabarcoding of environmental samples

Abstract: 1.Metabarcoding of environmental samples has many challenges and limitations that require carefully considered laboratory and analysis pipelines to ensure reliable results. We explore how decisions regarding study design, laboratory work and bioinformatic processing affect the final results, and provide guidelines for reliable study of environmental samples. 2.We evaluate the performance of four primer sets targeting COI and 16S regions characterising arthropod diversity in bat faecal samples, and investigate how metabarcoding results are affected by parameters including: i) number of PCR replicates per sample, ii) sequencing depth, iii) PCR replicate processing strategy (i.e. either additively, by combining the sequences obtained from the PCR replicates, or restrictively, by only retaining sequences that occur in multiple PCR replicates for each sample), iv) minimum copy number for sequences to be retained, v) chimera removal, and vi) similarity thresholds for OTU clustering. Lastly, we measure within- and between-taxa dissimilarities when using sequences from public databases to determine the most appropriate thresholds for OTU clustering and taxonomy assignment. 3.Our results show that the use of multiple primer sets reduces taxonomic biases and increases taxonomic coverage. Taxonomic profiles resulting from each primer set are principally affected by how many PCR replicates are carried out per sample and how sequences are filtered across them, the sequence copy number threshold and the OTU clustering threshold. We also report considerable diversity differences between PCR replicates from each sample. Sequencing depth increases the dissimilarity between PCR replicates unless the bioinformatic strategies to remove allegedly artefactual sequences are adjusted according to the number of analysed sequences. Finally, we show that the appropriate identity thresholds for OTU clustering and taxonomy assignment differ between target markers. 4.Metabarcoding of complex environmental samples ideally requires i) investigation of whether more than one primer sets targeting the same taxonomic group is needed to offset the effect of primer biases, ii) more than one PCR replicate per sample, iii) bioinformatic processing approaches of sequences that balance diversity detection with removal of artificial sequences, and iv) empirical selection of OTU clustering and taxonomy assignment thresholds tailored to each genetic marker and the obtained taxa. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.