Michel Etienne

Resilience and Regime Shifts: Assessing Cascading Effects

Most accounts of thresholds between alternate regimes involve a single, dominant shift defined by one, often slowly changing variable in an ecosystem. This paper expands the focus to include similar dynamics in social and economic systems, in which multiple variables may act together in ways that produce interacting regime shifts in social-ecological systems. We use four different regions in the world, each of which contains multiple thresholds, to develop a proposed general model of threshold interactions in social-ecological systems. The model identifies patch-scale ecological thresholds, farm- or landscape-scale economic thresholds, and regional-scale sociocultural thresholds. Cascading thresholds, i.e., the tendency of the crossing of one threshold to induce the crossing of other thresholds, often lead to very resilient, although often less desirable, alternative states.

The effect of energy and protein intake of sows on their longevity: a review☆

Abstract The characterization of the effects of protein and energy intake of sows on their longevity requires long-term experiments involving large numbers of females. Results from the studies available show that sows are culled mainly for reasons involving reproductive failure, locomotion problems or poor lactation performance. Energy under-feeding during gestation is associated with lower body fat reserves at farrowing or at weaning and generally return to oestrus is delayed and conception rate is lower. On the contrary, over-feeding during gestation increases weight and condition of the sow at the end of pregnancy and this can affect the occurrence of farrowing and lactation problems and culling for poor lactation performance or locomotion problems. During lactation, it seems that there are critical levels for energy and for protein below which weaning to oestrus interval, rate of return to oestrus and pregnancy rate are affected, especially in primiparous sows. This is the main reason for early culling of sows. The mechanisms are not yet elucidated, but the metabolic status or the status of body reserves of the sows at weaning seem to be involved. It is thus necessary to apply a feeding strategy adapted to each sow, in relation to its own level of production, its behaviour and the housing conditions, in order to maintain body reserves within an optimal zone all along the reproductive life and to maximize its longevity.

Effects of zearalenone or glucosinolates in the diet on reproduction in sows: A review

Abstract This review deals with the effects of intake of two important kinds of antinutritional factors on sow reproduction: a mycotoxin, zearalenone, and glucosinolates from rapeseed meal. Emphasis is given to their way of action on which numerous works were undertaken during the last years. Unlike a nutrient imbalance whose effects generally appear at long-term and are difficult to cure, the influence of antinutritional factors is observed rapidly, concerns many parameters and disappears when their intake is disrupted. Zearalenone, which is produced by some Fusarium strains, contaminates cereals harvested in damp conditions. It is characterized by its oestrogenic properties which induce vulvovaginitis in premature gilts, anoestrus in cycling females or delayed return into oestrus after weaning of the sows. During pregnancy, zearalenone reduces embryonic survival when fed beyond a threshold level, and sometimes decreases foetal weight. It could affect uterine environment by decreasing LH and progesterone secretion and modifying the morphology of uterine tissues. Rapeseed meal contains glucosinolates whose some by-products have anti-thyroidic properties. During pregnancy, they induce a thyroid hypertrophy in sows and foetuses. Foetuses are especially sensitive since their T4 level in plasma and their liveweight before birth decrease in relation with the glucosinolate level in maternal diet. All harmfull consequences are avoided when glucosinolate level in the diet remains below 2 μM/g. Thus, use of rapeseed cultivars with a very low glucosinolate content, obtained through selection, allows the feeding of reproductive sows with diets containing high levels of rapeseed meal.

Co-constructing with stakeholders a role-playing game to initiate collective management of erosive runoff risks at the watershed scale

Erosive runoff is a recurring problem and is a source of sometimes deadly muddy floods in the Pays de Caux (France). The risk results from a conjunction of natural factors and human activity. Efficient actions against runoff in agricultural watersheds are well known. However they are still difficult to implement as they require co-operation between stakeholders. Local actors thus need tools to help them understand the collective consequences of their individual decisions and help to initiate a process of negotiation between them. We decided to use a participatory approach called companion modelling (ComMod), and, in close collaboration with one of the first group of local stakeholders, to create a role-playing game (RPG) to facilitate negotiations on the future management of erosive runoff. This paper describes and discusses the development of the RPG and its use with other groups of local stakeholders within the framework of two game sessions organized by two different watershed management committees. During the joint construction step, stakeholders shared their viewpoints about the environment, agents, rules, and how to model runoff in preparation for the creation of the RPG. During the RPG sessions, two groups of eight players, including farmers, mayors and watershed advisors, were confronted with disastrous runoff in a fictive agricultural watershed. Results showed that they managed to reduce runoff by 20-50% by engaging a dialogue about grass strips, storage ponds and management of the intercrop period. However, further progress is still needed to better control runoff through the implementation of better agricultural practices because, during the RPG sessions, the watershed advisors did not encourage farmers to do so. Because of the complexity of management problems, results of jointly constructing the game and the RPG sessions showed that modelling and simulation can be a very useful way of accompanying the collective learning process. This new way of working was welcomed by the participants who expressed their interest in organizing further RPG sessions.

Understanding protected area resilience: a multi‐scale, social‐ecological approach

Protected areas (PAs) remain central to the conservation of biodiversity. Classical PAs were conceived as areas that would be set aside to maintain a natural state with minimal human influence. However, global environmental change and growing cross-scale anthropogenic influences mean that PAs can no longer be thought of as ecological islands that function independently of the broader social-ecological system in which they are located. For PAs to be resilient (and to contribute to broader social-ecological resilience), they must be able to adapt to changing social and ecological conditions over time in a way that supports the long-term persistence of populations, communities, and ecosystems of conservation concern. We extend Ostroms social-ecological systems framework to consider the long-term persistence of PAs, as a form of land use embedded in social-ecological systems, with important cross-scale feedbacks. Most notably, we highlight the cross-scale influences and feedbacks on PAs that exist from the local to the global scale, contextualizing PAs within multi-scale social-ecological functional landscapes. Such functional landscapes are integral to understand and manage individual PAs for long-term sustainability. We illustrate our conceptual contribution with three case studies that highlight cross-scale feedbacks and social-ecological interactions in the functioning of PAs and in relation to regional resilience. Our analysis suggests that while ecological, economic, and social processes are often directly relevant to PAs at finer scales, at broader scales, the dominant processes that shape and alter PA resilience are primarily social and economic.

Dietary fiber for pregnant sows: influence on sow physiology and performance during lactation.

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of feeding sows a bulky diet during gestation on their physiological and metabolic adaptations during the peripartum period, and to determine how these effects may relate to sow and piglet performances. From d 26 of gestation until farrowing, gilts were fed diets that contained 2.8 or 11.0% crude fiber (control and high-fiber diets, respectively, n = 9/group). Daily feed allowance provided the same amount of DE daily (33 MJ of DE/d). Throughout lactation, sows were allowed to consume a standard lactating sow diet ad libitum. Litters were standardized to 12 piglets beyond 48 h after birth. On d 105 of gestation, a jugular catheter was surgically implanted. Preprandial blood samples were collected from d 109 of gestation to the day after farrowing and on d 4, 18, and 26 of lactation. Meal tests and glucose tolerance tests were performed on d 109 of gestation and d 4 and 18 of lactation. During gestation, BW and backfat gain did not differ between treatment groups. During lactation, sows fed the high-fiber diet ate an average of 0.94 kg/d more than control sows (P < 0.02). Piglets born from sows fed the high-fiber diet grew faster than piglets from control sows (P = 0.03). Body weight and backfat losses did not differ between the 2 treatment groups. Sows fed the high-fiber diet during gestation had lesser concentrations of leptin before farrowing than control sows (P < 0.01). Leptin concentrations were negatively correlated with feed intake during lactation (P < 0.05). The prepartal increase in prolactin concentrations tended to be greater in sows fed the high-fiber diet than in control sows (P < 0.1). Preprandial concentrations of glucose, NEFA, lactate, and IGF-I fluctuated over time without significant treatment effect. Glucose half-life was shorter in late gestation than during both stages of lactation, but did not differ between sows in the 2 groups. In late gestation, the postprandial increases in glucose and insulin were delayed, and smaller, after a high-fiber meal than after a control meal. During lactation, glucose and insulin profiles after a standard meal did not differ between sows from treatment groups. In conclusion, the greater appetite of lactating sows fed a high-fiber diet during gestation does not seem related to changes in glucose and insulin metabolism and may be partly due to decreased secretion of leptin. The greater feed consumption was accompanied by a faster growth rate of piglets without sparing effect on maternal body reserves.

Water Management in the Camargue Biosphere Reserve: Insights from Comparative Mental Models Analysis

Mental models are the cognitive representations of the world that frame how people interact with the world. Learning implies changing these mental models. The successful management of complex social-ecological systems requires the coordination of actions to achieve shared goals. The coordination of actions requires a level of shared understanding of the system or situation; a shared or common mental model. We first describe the elicitation and analysis of mental models of different stakeholder groups associated with water management in the Camargue Biosphere Reserve in the Rhone River delta on the French Mediterranean coast. We use cultural consensus analysis to explore the degree to which different groups shared mental models of the whole system, of stakeholders, of resources, of processes, and of interactions among these last three. The analysis of the elicited data from this group structure enabled us to tentatively explore the evidence for learning in the nonstatute Water Board; comprising important stakeholders related to the management of the central Rhone delta. The results indicate that learning does occur and results in richer mental models that are more likely to be shared among group members. However, the results also show lower than expected levels of agreement with these consensual mental models. Based on this result, we argue that a careful process and facilitation design can greatly enhance the functioning of the participatory process in the Water Board. We conclude that this methodology holds promise for eliciting and comparing mental models. It enriches group-model building and participatory approaches with a broader view of social learning and knowledge-sharing issues.

Feeding level, metabolic parameters and reproductive performance of primiparous sows

Primiparous LW sows were used to determine the effect of feed level during lactation (L: 2.5 vs. H: 5.5 kg of feed/day) on return to oestrus after weaning. It was attempted to explain an eventual delay by alterations in body reserves, plasma concentrations of some metabolites, insulin and reproductive hormones. Preprandial blood samples were taken at 14 and 26 days postpartum and 1 day after weaning. More sows had ovulated within 28 days after weaning in H (7 of 12) than in L group (5 of 14) and their weaning to oestrus interval was shorter in H than in L group (P < 0.05). Females lost more live weight (44 vs. 23 kg) and backfat (7.2 vs. 3.5 mm) during lactation in L than in H group but variations were not related to postweaning oestrus. During lactation, glucose was lower, free fatty acids and urea were higher in H than in L sows (P < 0.05) while insulin did not differ. After weaning, insulin and glucose increased while free fatty acids and urea decreased in both feeding groups (P < 0.05). No relationship was observed between postweaning oestrus and any of these metabolic parameters. During lactation, oestradiol and FSH did not differ between feeding groups and between sows ovulating or not after weaning. At day 1 postweaning, oestradiol was increased (P < 0.05) only in sows ovulating. This experiment shows a negative influence of feed restriction during lactation on postweaning oestrus, but does not reveal any link with the preprandial metabolic parameters which were measured. However, delayed oestrus could be associated with a low secretion of oestradiol by the ovaries the day following weaning.

Humoral defence improvement and haematopoiesis stimulation in sows and offspring by oral supply of shark-liver oil to mothers during gestation and lactation

Shark-liver oil (SLO) contains two bioactive lipids: alkylglycerols and n-3 PUFA. Alkylglycerols have immunostimulating and haematopoietic properties, while n-3 PUFA are essential for optimal neonatal development. We investigated the beneficial effects of dietary supplementation with 32 g SLO/d to twelve pregnant and then lactating sows (from day 80 of pregnancy to weaning) on the growth and immune status of their offspring, compared with a control group. Sows were vaccinated against Aujeszkys disease 21 d before term. Blood samples were collected from sows before treatment, on delivery and 14 d later, and from five piglets per litter on days 2, 21 and 36 after birth; colostrum and milk samples were collected 12 h, 14 and 28 d postpartum. Compared with controls, supplemented sows had higher levels of both erythrocytes and Hb in their blood, and higher concentrations of IgG, alkylglycerols and n-3 PUFA in their mammary secretions. In piglets from supplemented sows, leucocytes and IgG were higher. Supplementation with SLO resulted in an increase in Aujeszky antibodies in both blood and colostrum of sows after vaccination, together with an increase in Aujeszky antibodies in piglet blood. Our findings demonstrate that improvement of both passive and active immune status in piglets is related to the consumption of alkylglycerols associated with n-3 PUFA in the sow diet. The overall improvement in offspring health status by SLO supplementation to the mother could be of interest for optimisation of the lipid diet during and after pregnancy.

Waypoints on a Journey of Discovery: Mental Models in Human- Environment Interactions

Although the broad concept of mental models is gaining currency as a way to explore the link between how people think and interact with their world, this concept is limited by a theoretical and practical understanding of how it can be applied in the study of human-environment relationships. Tools and processes are needed to be able to elicit and analyze mental models. Because mental models are not directly observable, it is also important to understand how the application of any tools and processes affects what is measured. Equally important are the needs to be clear on the intent of the elicitation and to design the methods and choose the settings accordingly. Through this special edition, we explore how mental models are elicited using two approaches applied in two case-study regions. We analyze two approaches used in the Crocodile River catchment of South Africa: a graphically based approach, i.e., actors, resources, dynamics, and interactions (ARDI); and an interview- or text-based approach, i.e., consensus analysis (CA). A further experiment in the Rhone Delta (Camargue), France, enabled us to test a cross- over between these two methods using ARDI methodology to collect data and CA to analyse it. Here, we compare and explore the limitations and challenges in applying these two methods in context and conclude that they have much to offer when used singly or in combination. We first develop a conceptual framework as a synthesis of key social and cognitive psychology literature. We then use this framework to guide the enquiry into the key lessons emerging from the comparative application of these approaches to eliciting mental models in the two case regions. We identify key gaps in our knowledge and suggest important research questions that remain to be addressed.