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Objective: Whilst the implications of climate change for public health continue to be elucidated, we still require much work to guide the development of a comprehensive strategy to underpin the adaptation of the health system. Our aim is to focus on the health system responses to health risks from climate change, and in particular how best to prepare Australian health services for health risks from; heatwaves, bushfires, infectious diseases, diminished air quality and the mental health impacts of climate change.Approach: We present some guiding principles for preparing health systems, and also overview some specific preparatory activities in relation to personnel, infrastructure and coordination. Conclusion:Increases in extreme weather related events superimposed upon health effects arising from a gradually changing climate will place additional burdens upon the health system and challenge existing capacity. Preparing the health system for climate change requires investment in personnel, infrastructure and service coordination. Key characteristics of a climate change prepared health system are that it should be flexible, strategically allocated and robust. Long term planning will also require close collaboration with the nonhealth sectors as part of a nationwide adaptive response.

Since 1950, average land temperatures in Australia have risen by 0.9°C. 1 A decline in rainfall has been observed for much of eastern and southwestern Australia, whereas northwestern Australia has experienced wetter summers. 1 Globally, the trend of climatic variability is similar. 2 The process will continue with a projected average global temperature increase of 1.8 to 4.0°C (average 3°C) by 2100 depending on actions taken to limit greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and scenarios for future development. 2 Rainfall is likely to become more variable and there will be more extreme weather with storms, floods and droughts. 2 By 2030 the average temperature in Australia

BackgroundMembers of the order Chlamydiales are known for their potential as human and veterinary bacterial pathogens. Despite this recognition, epidemiological factors such as routes of transmission are yet to be fully defined. Ticks are well known vectors for many other infections with several reports recently describing the presence of bacteria in the order Chlamydiales in these arthropods. Australian wildlife are hosts to an extensive range of tick species. Evidence is also growing that the marsupial hosts these ticks parasitise can also be infected by a number of bacteria in the order Chlamydiales, with at least one species, Chlamydia pecorum, posing a significant conservation threat. In the current study, we investigated the presence and identity of Chlamydiales in 438 ixodid ticks parasitizing wildlife in Australia by screening with a pan-Chlamydiales specific targeting the 16S rRNA gene.ResultsPan-Chlamydiales specific PCR assays confirmed the common presence of Chlamydiales in Australian ticks parasitising a range of native wildlife. Interestingly, we did not detect any Chlamydiaceae, including C. pecorum, the ubiquitous pathogen of the koala. Instead, the Chlamydiales diversity that could be resolved indicated that Australian ticks carry at least six novel Chlamydiales genotypes. Phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rRNA sequences (663 bp) of these novel Chlamydiales suggests that three of these genotypes are associated with the Simkaniaceae and putatively belong to three distinct novel strains of Fritschea spp. and three genotypes are related to the “Ca. Rhabdochlamydiaceae” and putatively belong to a novel genus, Rhabdochlamydia species and strain, respectively.ConclusionsSequence results suggest Australian wildlife ticks harbour a range of unique Chlamydiales bacteria that belong to families previously identified in a range of arthropod species. The results of this work also suggest that it is unlikely that arthropods act as vectors of pathogenic members of the family Chlamydiaceae, including C. pecorum, in Australian wildlife. The biology of novel Chlamydiales identified in arthropods remain unknown. The pathogenic role of the novel Chlamydiales identified in this study and the role that ticks may play in their transmission needs to be explored further.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13071-017-1994-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Species lists are widely used in legislation and regulation to manage and conserve biodiversity. In this paper, we explore the issues caused by the lack of an adequately governed and universally accepted list of the world's species. These include lack of quality control, duplicated effort, conflicts of interest, lack of currency, and confusion in the scientific use of taxonomic information. If species lists are to fulfill their role efficiently, then the governance systems underlying their creation must keep pace. Fortunately, modernization of species list governance is now possible as a result of advances in biodiversity informatics and two decades of experience working to create the backbone of a global species list.