DATA AVAILABILITY : Data will be made available on request. | The Water-Energy-Food (WEF) nexus has become an integral component duly suited to enable sustainable development and an important tool to achieve and sustain various socioeconomic and environmental outcomes, including the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals. The WEF nexus has become increasingly important in recent years as it can holistically address humankind's current triple challenges, including resource depletion, environmental degradation, and population growth. Socioeconomic factors such as increased population, economic development, and climate change patterns frequently induce unprecedented pressure on WEF resources. From the various climate change model simulations, the climate is likely to increase in the future, exacerbating the demand of the population to access the WEF resources and services. For effective resource planning and decision-making, the availability of WEF resources must be assessed under ongoing climate change. In this regard, this study assessed rural livelihoods, health, and wellbeing indicators within the WEF nexus framework in Vhembe District Municipality (VDM), South Africa, and Narok County, Kenya. The premise was to determine the drivers of livelihood changes by applying the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), a Multi-Criteria Decision-Making to understand the causal linkages between the WEF nexus resources and the sustainable livelihood indicators. Data collected from the literature review, questionnaire/group discussions, and field visit engagements were used to formulate and develop a matrix of indicators to assess livelihoods, health, and wellbeing. A correlation analysis based on the AHP was used to determine the linkages between WEF resources and sustainable livelihood indicators. The multivariate analysis used the correlation matrix to capture the pairwise degrees of relationship between WEF resources and sustainable livelihood indicators in the two study areas. The results show that the resources for sustainable livelihoods in VDM are more sustainable than those in Narok County. The Consistency Ratio values for Narok County and VDM were 0.046 and 0.067, respectively. The resulting composite index (0.143) classified both study sites under the lowly sustainable category. The results are important for informing policy formulation that guides timely interventions to balance socio-ecological systems. | The Water Research Commission of South Africa and the National Research Foundation of South Africa. | https://www.elsevier.com/locate/envsci | hj2024 | Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorology | SDG-02:Zero Hunger | SDG-03:Good heatlh and well-being | SDG-06:Clean water and sanitation | SDG-07:Affordable and clean energy | SDG-13:Climate action

Microplastics pervade the hydrosphere and inevitably come into contact with aquatic organisms. The study reports quantitative data on absorption and excretion of polystyrene microspheres 2 and 10 µm in diameter by zooplankton and fish larvae on the example of Artemia salina L. and Acipenser rithenus L. At the initial concentration of 500 µg/L, A. salina accumulated 2 and 10 µm particles in amounts up to 0.103 and 0.151 ng/individual, respectively, at a similar rate. The mass content of large-sized particles in A. salina was significantly higher (p < 0.01) compared to small-sized particles throughout the experiment. Artemia salina and A. rithenus larvae did not accumulate microplastics in the gastrointestinal tract over a period of 96 and 72 h, respectively. Consumption of microplastics by A. ruthenus larvae with A. salina through the food chain was slower and less pronounced in mass than their direct absorption from water. The rates of absorption of 2 and 10 μm particles by fish attained 0.9 and 8.22 ng/individual/h from water, and 0.06 and 0.23 ng/individual/h with food, respectively. In the models of water pollution and food chain transfer, A. ruthenus larvae consumed more 10 µm particles in mass compared to 2 µm particles (p < 0.05) and at a higher rate. For 2 µm particles, the excretion time for 50% of particles from the gastrointestinal tract of fish (T50) was 32–33 h, whereas for 10 µm particles, the excretion of particles consumed with food was slower (T50=45 h) compared to that of particles absorbed directly from water (T50=25 h). The data obtained can be used to simulate transport and circulation of microplastics of different sizes in the environment.

Water resources, energy, and food are fundamental resources for high-quality regional development. In the process of rapid regional economic growth, integrating the utilization of these fundamental resources has become a critical challenge for achieving high-quality development in the Ili River Valley. To explore the coordinated development status of water, energy, and food (W-E-F) in the Ili River Valley, we constructed a comprehensive evaluation indicator system for the regional W-E-F system, and we calculated and analyzed the comprehensive development level, coupling coordination degree, and spatial equilibrium of the W-E-F system from 2008 to 2020. The results indicate that the comprehensive evaluation indicators of the W-E-F system in the Ili River Valley exhibited an overall upward trend, indicating that the system is moving in a positive direction. Among them, the water subsystem’s comprehensive evaluation indicator showed an upward trend but fluctuated significantly during the study period, with the excessive proportion of agricultural water consumption being a key factor affecting its development. Furthermore, the comprehensive evaluation indicator of the energy subsystem showed a slight downward trend, indicating constraints on the development of energy subsystems. Agricultural surface pollution and industrial waste pollution are the primary factors limiting its development. Meanwhile, due to the significant attention from governments at all levels, the food subsystem has been developed rapidly, with its comprehensive evaluation indicator showing a significant upward trend, which shows that the region is actively promoting food production capacity enhancement initiatives. Additionally, the coupling degree of the W-E-F system remained in a state of coordinated coupling, with an average value between 0.7 and 1.0, indicating a high overall development level, and that the development of each resource affects and constrains that of the other two. The coupling coordination degree transitioned through phases of near coordination, primary coordination, good coordination, and moderate coordination, and all counties and cities showed a tendency to evolve towards high coupling, indicating significant potential for the further development of the regional W-E-F system coupling and coordination. Among the subsystems, the food subsystem exhibited the highest spatial equilibrium (0.78) and the smallest spatial disparities, while the energy subsystem demonstrated the lowest spatial equilibrium (0.40) and the largest spatial disparities. There were still significant issues with the utilization and equilibrium of the regional resource allocation, necessitating integrated planning for the coordinated development of the W-E-F system to achieve sustainable resource management and high-quality ecological and economic development.

Opah muscle is one of the abundant biological sources of balenine (Bal), which together with carnosine (Car) and anserine (Ans), is among the most widely studied of vertebrate imidazole dipeptides. The characteristics of imidazole dipeptides have been extensively investigated. We examined changes in the concentration of Bal and its constituent amino acids in human plasma following the ingestion of opah muscle extract and opah flesh. Bal plasma concentrations increased after ingestion, with maximum plasma concentrations (Cmax) of 89.87, 152.13, and 81.82 nmol/mL observed after ingestion of 5 and 10 g of opah muscle extract and 80 g of opah flesh, respectively. The constituent amino acids of Bal, 3-methyl-histidine (3-Me-His) and β-alanine (β-Ala), increased in plasma after ingestion. The Cmax of Bal was the highest of any food-derived peptide in human plasma reported to date. The findings showed that ingestion of opah muscle and muscle extract may be beneficial for human health.

Artificial reefs have been advocated and implemented as management tools for aquaculture, species conservation and habitat replacement. However, the shelter capacity of artificial reefs and its influencing factors are still not well understood. In this study, we identified factors that may limit the shelter capacity of artificial reefs for sea cucumber (<i>Apostichopus japonicas</i>) with a laboratory experiment. We investigated how water flow and food availability affect the shelter capacity and conducted shelter utilization experiments to determine whether sea cucumber sheltering behavior was density dependent. The results revealed that shelter capacity of artificial reefs in high velocity is significantly higher than that of artificial reefs in low velocity or no velocity. The artificial reefs that were provided food had significantly higher shelter capacity than those that did not have food. The densities did not affect the sheltering capacity of artificial reefs in the laboratory experiment. There was a logarithmic relationship between the shelter capacity and shelter availability assessed by the exposed surface area of the artificial reefs. In conclusion, abundant food resources and high water flow may have a positive effect on the shelter capacity of artificial reefs.

Solar irrigation pumps (SIPs) are emerging as a popular technology to address water, energy, and climate change challenges in South Asia while enhancing livelihoods and food security. SIPs are deemed to be a women-friendly renewable energy technology (RET) due to their design, operating system, and safety. While the gender dimensions of natural resources are well documented, the extent to which the water, energy, and food (WEF) policies—including policies to promote SIP technologies in the countries of South Asia—conceptualize and operationalize gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) is not well understood. Therefore, in this study, we reviewed 39 WEF sectoral policies of Bangladesh and Nepal by adopting a gender-transformative analysis approach to rank the policies on a continuum ranging from a scale of 0–3 (denoting gender-unaware, gender-aware, gender-responsive, and gender-transformative). We found that the governments in both countries commit to gender equality and women’s advancement in their WEF sector policies, institutions, and decision-making by ensuring gender and justice principles in their constitutions and national development frameworks. However, these higher-level aspirational principles are not always operationalized in the WEF sector policies. We found that the WEF policies are aware of the need to include GESI and social equity in sectoral programming, yet operational rules for their implementation often fail to challenge structural barriers. Such barriers hinder women and marginalized groups from participating in and benefiting from WEF policies, including the deployment of SIP technologies. This calls for a transformation not only in project implementation but also in the policymaking processes of WEF sectors in the South Asian region.

Solar irrigation pumps (SIPs) are emerging as a popular technology to address water, energy, and climate change challenges in South Asia while enhancing livelihoods and food security. SIPs are deemed to be a women-friendly renewable energy technology (RET) due to their design, operating system, and safety. While the gender dimensions of natural resources are well documented, the extent to which the water, energy, and food (WEF) policies—including policies to promote SIP technologies in the countries of South Asia—conceptualize and operationalize gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) is not well understood. Therefore, in this study, we reviewed 39 WEF sectoral policies of Bangladesh and Nepal by adopting a gender-transformative analysis approach to rank the policies on a continuum ranging from a scale of 0–3 (denoting gender-unaware, gender-aware, gender-responsive, and gendertransformative). We found that the governments in both countries commit to gender equality and women’s advancement in their WEF sector policies, institutions, and decision-making by ensuring gender and justice principles in their constitutions and national development frameworks. However, these higher-level aspirational principles are not always operationalized in the WEF sector policies. We found that the WEF policies are aware of the need to include GESI and social equity in sectoral programming, yet operational rules for their implementation often fail to challenge structural barriers. Such barriers hinder women and marginalized groups from participating in and benefiting from WEF policies, including the deployment of SIP technologies. This calls for a transformation not only in project implementation but also in the policymaking processes of WEF sectors in the South Asian region.

There is growing recognition that water insecurity – the inability to reliably access sufficient water for all household uses – is commonly experienced globally and has myriad adverse consequences for human well-being. The role of water insecurity in food insecurity and diet quality, however, has received minimal attention. Data are from panel surveys conducted during 2020–21 among adults involved in smallholder agriculture in Niger (n = 364, 3 rounds), Nigeria (n = 501, 5 rounds), Senegal (n = 501, 5 rounds), and Ghana (n = 543, 5 rounds). We hypothesized that household water insecurity (measured using the brief Household Water Insecurity Experiences Scale) would be associated with greater individual food insecurity (using 5 of the 8 Food Insecurity Experiences Scale items) and lower dietary diversity (using the Minimum Dietary Diversity Score for Women). At baseline, 37.1% of individuals were living in water-insecure households and of these, 90.6% had some experience of food insecurity. In multilevel mixed-effects regressions, individuals living in water-insecure households had 1.67 (95% CI: 1.47, 1.89) times higher odds of reporting any food insecurity experience and were estimated to consume 0.38-fewer food groups (95% CI: -0.50, -0.27) than those living in water-secure households. Experiences with suboptimal water access and use are associated with poor nutrition. The pathways by which water insecurity impacts nutrition should be identified. Global and national food and nutrition security policies could be strengthened by monitoring and developing strategies to address household water insecurity. | PR | IFPRI3; 1 Fostering Climate-Resilient and Sustainable Food Supply; 2 Promoting Healthy Diets and Nutrition for all; GCAN | Natural Resources and Resilience (NRR); Transformation Strategies

There is growing recognition that water insecurity – the inability to reliably access sufficient water for all household uses – is commonly experienced globally and has myriad adverse consequences for human well-being. The role of water insecurity in food insecurity and diet quality, however, has received minimal attention. Data are from panel surveys conducted during 2020–21 among adults involved in smallholder agriculture in Niger (n = 364, 3 rounds), Nigeria (n = 501, 5 rounds), Senegal (n = 501, 5 rounds), and Ghana (n = 543, 5 rounds). We hypothesized that household water insecurity (measured using the brief Household Water Insecurity Experiences Scale) would be associated with greater individual food insecurity (using 5 of the 8 Food Insecurity Experiences Scale items) and lower dietary diversity (using the Minimum Dietary Diversity Score for Women). At baseline, 37.1% of individuals were living in water-insecure households and of these, 90.6% had some experience of food insecurity. In multilevel mixed-effects regressions, individuals living in water-insecure households had 1.67 (95% CI: 1.47, 1.89) times higher odds of reporting any food insecurity experience and were estimated to consume 0.38-fewer food groups (95% CI: -0.50, -0.27) than those living in water-secure households. Experiences with suboptimal water access and use are associated with poor nutrition. The pathways by which water insecurity impacts nutrition should be identified. Global and national food and nutrition security policies could be strengthened by monitoring and developing strategies to address household water insecurity.

This study investigates the impact of different diets on fish growth and bacterial community structure present in the intestine of goldfish (<i>Carassius auratus</i>) and their aquaculture water under recirculating water conditions. We assumed that different types of diet would form different intestinal microbiota that may affect host growth. Using Illumina MiSeq high-throughput sequencing, we analyzed bacterial communities in goldfish fed with formulated pellet feed, Tubifex worms (<i>Limnodrilus hoffmeisteri</i>), and an alternating diet of both. Over a 14-day feeding trial, no significant differences in juvenile goldfish growth were observed between groups. After 7 days, diet changes significantly influenced the abundance and diversity of intestinal bacteria, with the alternating diet notably enhancing bacterial diversity in both the intestines and water. However, these differences in bacterial diversity decreased by day 14. The results indicate that diet type affects microbial community diversity in the intestines and water of goldfish, and that goldfish intestines maintain a stable core bacterial community structure. This highlights the potential for optimizing diet types to enhance microbial health and stability in aquaculture systems and, in addition, provides an important scientific basis for alternative diets in goldfish aquaculture in the industry.