ObjectiveDescribe demographical, social and psychological correlates of willingness to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.SettingSeries of online surveys undertaken between March and October 2020.ParticipantsA total of 25 separate national samples (matched to country population by age and sex) in 12 different countries were recruited through online panel providers (n=25 334).Primary outcome measuresReported willingness to receive a COVID-19 vaccination.ResultsReported willingness to receive a vaccine varied widely across samples, ranging from 63% to 88%. Multivariate logistic regression analyses reveal sex (female OR=0.59, 95% CI 0.55 to 0.64), trust in medical and scientific experts (OR=1.28, 95% CI 1.22 to 1.34) and worry about the COVID-19 virus (OR=1.47, 95% CI 1.41 to 1.53) as the strongest correlates of stated vaccine acceptance considering pooled data and the most consistent correlates across countries. In a subset of UK samples, we show that these effects are robust after controlling for attitudes towards vaccination in general.ConclusionsOur results indicate that the burden of trust largely rests on the shoulders of the scientific and medical community, with implications for how future COVID-19 vaccination information should be communicated to maximise uptake.
Modeling pollination ecosystem services requires a spatially explicit, process‐based approach because they depend on both the behavioral responses of pollinators to the amount and spatial arrangement of habitat and on the within‐ and between‐season dynamics of pollinator populations in response to land use. We describe a novel pollinator model predicting flower visitation rates by wild central‐place foragers (e.g., nesting bees) in spatially explicit landscapes. The model goes beyond existing approaches by: (1) integrating preferential use of more rewarding floral and nesting resources; (2) considering population growth over time; (3) allowing different dispersal distances for workers and reproductives; (4) providing visitation rates for use in crop pollination models. We use the model to estimate the effect of establishing grassy field margins offering nesting resources and a low quantity of flower resources, and/or late‐flowering flower strips offering no nesting resources but abundant flowers, on bumble bee populations and visitation rates to flowers in landscapes that differ in amounts of linear seminatural habitats and early mass‐flowering crops. Flower strips were three times more effective in increasing pollinator populations and visitation rates than field margins, and this effect increased over time. Late‐blooming flower strips increased early‐season visitation rates, but decreased visitation rates in other late‐season flowers. Increases in population size over time in response to flower strips and amounts of linear seminatural habitats reduced this apparent competition for pollinators. Our spatially explicit, process‐based model generates emergent patterns reflecting empirical observations, such that adding flower resources may have contrasting short‐ and long‐term effects due to apparent competition for pollinators and pollinator population size increase. It allows exploring these effects and comparing effect sizes in ways not possible with other existing models. Future applications include species comparisons, analysis of the sensitivity of predictions to life‐history traits, as well as large‐scale management intervention and policy assessment.
The quality of the outdoor environment at DCCs influenced the health and well-being of preschool children and should be given more attention among health care professionals and community planners.
To predict how organisms cope with habitat fragmentation we must understand their dispersal biology, which can be notoriously difficult. We used a novel, multi-pronged approach to study dispersal strategies in the endangered saproxylic hermit beetle Osmoderma eremita, exploiting its pheromone system to intercept high numbers of dispersing individuals, which is not possible with other methods. Mark-release-recapture, using unbaited pitfall traps inside oak hollows and pheromone-baited funnel traps suspended from tree branches, was combined with radio telemetry (in females only) to record displacements. Dispersal, modelled as a probability distribution of net displacement, did not differ significantly between sexes (males versus females recaptured), observation methods (females recaptured versus radio-tracked), or sites of first capture (pitfall trap in tree versus pheromone trap -distance from original dispersal point unknown). A model including all observed individuals yielded a mean displacement of 82 m with 1% dispersing [ 1 km. Differences in body length were small between individuals captured in pitfall versus pheromone traps, indicating that dispersal is rarely a condition-dependent response in O. eremita. Individuals captured in pheromone traps were consistently lighter, indicating that most dispersal events occur relatively late in life, which agrees with trap catch data. In addition, most (79%) females captured in pheromone traps were mated, showing that females typically mate before leaving their natal tree. Our data show that integrating odour attractants into insect conservation biology provides a means to target dispersing individuals and could greatly improve our knowledge of dispersal biology in threatened species.
In a north European context, identifying invasive species is far from trivial because the vegetation has been influenced by human activities for thousands of years. New species have immigrated continuously since the end of the last glaciation, both spontaneously and through direct or indirect help by man. Still, newly immigrated species may be problematic in a nature conservation context and may harm biodiversity, and cause changes in ecosystem services. In this study, all 721 presently established vascular plant and bryophyte taxa known to have been introduced to, or to have immigrated to, Sweden since the year 1700 are assessed for their invasive potential. The assessment is based on six components considered relevant for their invasiveness: 1) ability to compete in natural vegetation, 2) ability to form dense populations, 3) realized dispersal ability, 4) gene flow to native relatives, 5) time since immigration and 6) distance to their native range. Although the relative importance of these components is context dependent, a compound general index of invasive concern is proposed and calculated for all taxa. The index of invasive concern is validated by comparing it to assessments by a Bayesian Belief Network in which the influences of the same six components are assigned by expert opinions. In addition, rough estimates of the present‐day abundance of each taxon in Sweden are presented. The origin, biology and possible impact of the 150 taxa with the highest index values are discussed. Based on the index of invasive concern, Campylopus introflexus, Epilobium adenocaulon, E. ciliatum, Rosa rugosa, Lamiastrum galeobdolon subsp. argentatum, Orthodontium lineare, Solidago canadensis, Calystegia sepium subsp. spectabilis, Rubus armeniacus and Prunus serotina are identified as the ten most problematic alien vascular plant and bryophyte taxa in Sweden.
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