To explore the perceptions of food access by African American women in Flint, MI.Using womanist theory, in which African American women's experiential knowledge centered the analysis, 8 focus groups were conducted during fall/spring, 2014–2015. Seventeen mothers aged 21–50 years with children aged <18 years and 13 women aged >60 years comprised the groups.The high cost of water, poor availability of healthy foods in inner-city stores, and limited transportation were barriers to accessing healthy food. Conversely, receiving food from food giveaways, friends, and family, as well as access to transportation facilitated food access. These women also reported discriminatory experiences and diet-related health concerns. Participants were keenly aware of available free community resources and gender, racial, and income barriers to accessing them.Understanding these barriers and facilitators provides information to aid local food policy assistance decisions and inform community-based interventions, especially given the lead contamination of water and the purported importance of a healthy diet to sequester lead.

Food composition of Abramis brama was studied in the shallow, meso-eutrophic Hamry reservoir (Czech Republic). Fish were sampled during the daytime in the pre-spawning period (April), the post-spawning (June), summer (July) and autumn (October) in 2011. The bream sampled comprised two main size groups: small (124-186 mm) and large (210-315 mm) standard length. Twenty specimens of each size group (except April - 40 large fish) were taken for analysis on each sampling occasion. Food composition was evaluated using gravimetric methods. Over the whole season, detritus and aquatic vegetation were the dominant dietary items taken. During summer, the diet of large bream comprised mainly aquatic vegetation. Benthic macroinvertebrates and zooplankton formed a minor part of bream diet over the whole season. Specific food habits of bream could be explained by specific conditions within the reservoir and available food resources.

Food security and water sustainability in arid and semiarid regions are threatened by rapid population growth, declining natural resources, and global climate change. Countries in the arid regions compensate meat import by raising domestic livestock with cultivated green fodder, which diminishes lands for other crops and depletes precious water resources. This study presents for the first time an in-depth integrated food water ecosystem (FWEco) nexus modeling on the feasibility of restoring 10% of Kuwait's desert as grazing rangeland to alleviate water consumption from fodder production. Our results showed that revegetating 10% of the country's land with native species could support up to 23% of domestic livestock through natural grazing at optimal coverage (70%) and high productivity, and decrease water consumption by up to 90%. However, depending solely on natural rainfall is unlikely to achieve the optimal coverage. Strategic supplemental irrigation in the fall season (e.g., October and November) is required to maximize vegetation coverage and enhance food security and water sustainability. Significantly, strategic irrigation results in much lower net water consumption because irrigating native species requires much less water than green fodder cultivation. Therefore, revegetating desert lands with native species to restore their natural grazing service can be a sustainable approach to simultaneously improve food security and water sustainability in arid landscapes.

Fat accumulation by blackcaps (Sylvia atricapilla) is a prerequisite for successful migratory flight in the autumn and has recently been determined to be constrained by availability of drinking water. Birds staging in a fruit-rich Pistacia atlantica plantation that had access to water increased their body mass and fat reserves both faster and to a greater extent than birds deprived of water. We conducted a series of laboratory experiments on birds captured during the autumn migration period in which we tested the hypotheses that drinking water increases food use by easing limitations on the birds' dietary choices and, consequently, feeding and food processing rates, and that the availability of drinking water leads to improved digestion and, therefore, to higher apparent metabolizable energy. Blackcaps were trapped in autumn in the Northern Negev Desert, Israel and transferred to individual cages in the laboratory. Birds were provided with P. atlantica fruit and mealworms, and had either free access to water (controls) or were water-deprived. In experiment 1, in which mealworm availability was restricted, water-deprived birds had a fourfold lower fruit and energy intake rates and, consequently, gained less fat and total mass than control birds. Water availability did not affect food metabolizability. In experiment 2, in which mealworms were provided ad libitum, water availability influenced the birds' diet: water-restricted birds ate more mealworms, while control birds consumed mainly P. atlantica fruit. Further, in experiment 2, fat and mass gain did not differ between the two treatment groups. We conclude that water availability may have important consequences for fat accumulation in migrating birds while they fatten at stopover sites, especially when water-rich food is scarce. Restricted water availability may also impede the blackcap's dietary shift from insectivory to frugivory, a shift probably necessary for successful pre-migratory fattening.

It is well known that immune defenses of bivalves against environmental and pathogenic stresses are primarily attributable to hemocytes. Hemocyte parameters are being used progressively as indicators to assess the host immune status. Moreover, there is increasing evidence that seasonal variations on the immune status have two origins: exogenous and endogenous. In this work, we investigated the effects of seasonal exogenous (water temperature and food availability) and endogenous (size and reproduction) factors on the hemocyte parameters in the scallop Chlamys farreri. Scallops were monthly collected from February to December 2009 at 2 sampling sites differing in culture mode: Qingdao for monoculture and Weihai for scallop—kelp polyculture. Six hemocyte parameters including total hemocyte count (THC), granulocyte percentage (GP), intrahemocytic phenoloxidase (PO), acid phosphatase (ACP), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and peroxidase (POD) were analyzed. Results illustrated that all hemocyte parameters exhibited marked seasonal variations, following a similar pattern at both sites. High values of THC, GP, PO, and POD were observed in spring and early summer, a period of favorable water temperature and high food availability and gonad index, whereas low values were found in summer and early autumn, a period corresponding to reproduction completion and high water temperature. Moreover, SOD was lowest in February and highest in August, and correlated positively with water temperature. Hemocyte parameters in the scallop C. farreri varied greatly among seasons, and their values were generally low during summer and early autumn, suggesting that scallops had a depressed immune status during this period.

Food, energy, and water (FEW) resources are critical concerns to achieve long-term sustainability. Climate change and socio-economic development both affect the FEW Nexus, but the combined impacts of these two factors on a Nexus system is not well understood. An integrated management model was applied to quantify the combined impacts on the FEW Nexus through rice yield, power generation, and water withdrawal. Five scenarios from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 were chosen as the inputs of the integrated model in the Mekong River Delta (MRD). Results showed that rice yields will be vulnerable to extreme climate events. The minimum autumn rice yield, 4.7 ton/ha in 2023 under the SSP1–2.6 scenario, will be as low as the yield of the 2016 drought year (4.6 ton/ha). Power generation will increase sharply due to socio-economic development. The power generation of SSP5–8.5 in 2050 will be about 10 times higher than that in 2010. The average total water withdrawal in 2050 was estimated to increase by 40% compared to that in the 2016 drought year and will be more than 3 times higher than the average withdrawal of 1995–2010. Nexus analysis found water is a central resource that connects food and energy sectors in MRD. Regional sustainability analysis showed that climate change and socio-economic development both have a significant impact through affecting the FEW Nexus. Specifically, the energy and water sectors will be more vulnerable to the combined impacts than the food sector due to the coal-fired power plants planned in the MRD.

Food processing waste waters at two irrigated land disposal sites and subsurface waters (perched and ground waters) were monitored at daily to monthly intervals over one annual cycle of production. Soil profiles were sampled to depths up to 6.6 m in the early fall. Yearly inputs were calculated at 487 kg/ha total N (Kjeldahl plus NO³-N) and 101 kg/ha soluble PO₄-P (orthophosphate) from cannery wastes at site 1. Estimates for milk wastes at site 2 were 562 kg/ha total N and 522 kg/ha PO₄-P. The range for NO₃-N in subsurface waters was 7 to 16 ppm at site 1 (perched water at 1.5 m) and 2 to 41 ppm at site 2 (ground water at 0.9 m). Maximum concentrations, found in summer, were essentially the same as the average for total N in the input wastes (16 ppm at site 1 and 38 ppm at site 2). Nitrate was stable in the percolation stream below the root zone. Annual additions to subsurface waters were estimated at 76% of input N at site 1 and 65% at site 2. The range of PO₄-P in subsurface waters was 0.5 to 1.5 ppm at site 1 and 0.04 to 1.8 ppm at site 2; average waste water concentrations were 3 and 35 ppm. The highest concentrations in subsurface water were found in spring. Annual subsurface discharge was estimated at 27% of input P at site 1 and 2% at site 2. The extensive removals of PO₄ and the similar concentrations encountered in subsurface waters are of theoretical and practical interest since PO₄-P had already accumulated in soil profiles at both sites in quantities which exceed the Langmuir maxima for nonirrigated control soils. During seasons of major irrigation input, NO₃ appeared in subsurface waters in concentrations exceeding public health standards; PO₄ concentrations exceeded environmental guidelines at all times except where irrigation was discontinued during the winter at site 2. Soil systems appeared poised to discharge at the observed rates because of the large quantities of organic N and fixed P which had accumulated in the profiles over 20 years operation at site 1, and 10 years at site 2. The rate of residual accumulation in soil could have been reduced by harvest, to extend system life materially. The harvest potential of three grass clippings per season removed for silage, was estimated experimentally at 31% of input N at both sites and 80% of input PO₄ at site 1; 27% at site 2.

Water transparency is an important factor affecting fish availability (underwater visibility) for diving birds. The diet of Great Cormorants Phalacrocorax carbo in relation to water transparency (range 1.4–4.0 m) was studied by pellet analyses at the submontane reservoir Dobczyce, Poland, from June to November. Although water transparency proved to be related to the birds' distribution, in the range of turbidities studied, no relationship was found with either fish species and fish size taken. Of 14 species in the diet, Roach Rutilus rutilus was dominant in all monthly samples (35–91% in 2002, 56–82% in 2004). Numbers of Great Cormorants and water transparency (range 0.4–1.4 m) were studied in the turbid lowland reservoir Goczałkowice during the migration period in autumn (August–November 2011 and 2012). Observations here suggest that the effect of water transparency on food uptake and habitat choice was only apparent below 0.6 m Secchi depth. The number of foraging Great Cormorants was not only affected by Secchi depth, but by a complex of factors (year, month, place, Secchi depth and water depth). We argue that, especially when the number of Great Cormorants is low, only highly detailed measurements of these factors (both spatially and as time series) can show the complex relationship between prey distribution, environmental conditions and the predator's behaviour.