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From the SEA to the SOLution. An integrative assessment of marine pollution in a changing Arctic

Marine chemical pollution poses known threats to human health and to biodiversity, ecosystem and societal services. The Arctic is a major sink of global mercury (Hg) pollution. Arctic sediments, sea and glacial ice constitute vast Hg reservoirs. Recent studies raise concerns about their increasing role as local Hg sources. In a rapidly warming Arctic, the consequences of potentially increased environmental Hg on marine biota remain unknown. The objective of SEASOL is to identify the pathway(s) of Hg bioaccumulation in marine food webs of the High Arctic Kongsfjorden (Svalbard). This changing glacial fjord is recognised as a ‘natural laboratory’ of climate change in the Arctic. The fellow’s earlier research has shown the sole measurement of Hg levels as insufficient to connect biotic Hg dynamics to environmental change, whereas the analysis of Hg stable isotopes proved to be a promising tool for source discrimination and biotic transfer. SEASOL will build on the novel application of stable isotope analysis to identify the sources of Hg within the fjord system and the pathways to Hg accumulation within sentinel marine species. On the short-term, the study will provide fundamental knowledge to help understand how emerging sources of Hg from rapid environmental change will impact Arctic marine predators. On the long-term, SEASOL will contribute to the development of early-warning, adaptive management strategies, including modelling, for mitigating the cumulative impact of pollutants and climate change on Arctic marine species. This multidisciplinary approach and the central position of the host institution (Norwegian Polar Institute) in the field of Polar Research will equip the Fellow with a broad set of new skills and lay the foundation for building her specific niche as a future leader in marine pollution science.

Tørkeperioder kan gjøre bakken hardere og frastøte seg vann, dette fører til økt fare for flom og jorderosjon hvis det skulle komme styrtregn. Sammenfallende hendelser hvor en tørkeperiode ender i styrtregn kan derfor forårsake større skader på infrastruktur og avlinger enn enkelthendelser med kun tørke eller styrtregn. Global oppvarming har forårsaket at både tørkeperioder og styrtregn intensiveres og skjer oftere, som også kan føre til at sammenfallende hendelser med tørke etterfulgt av styrtregn også kan intensiveres og skje oftere. 
Selv om det er funnet en økning i tørkeperioder og ekstremnedbør med global oppvarming også i klimamodellene, er det også en stor spredning mellom modellene på hvor mye og i hvilke områder som opplever mer tørke og nedbør. Prosjektet vil undersøke faktiske historiske hendelser hvor tørkeperioder endte i styrtregn i værobservasjoner og værmodelldata for å finne passende indekser som kan brukes til å analysere hvordan de forekommer i klimamodellene. Modeller på finere skala gjør en bedre jobb med å modellere nedbør, prosjektet vil derfor bruke finskala høytoppløselige klimamodeller og globale klimamodeller for å se hvordan tørkeperioder avsluttet med styrtregn forekommer i disse. De modellene som gjør det godt opp mot observasjoner vil bli identifisert.  Videre vil prosjektet studere endringene i hyppighet og intensitet av sammenfallende hendelser med tørke og styrtregn med global oppvarming.
En av grunnene man vet til hvorfor det er stor usikkerhet knyttet til hvordan klimamodellene gjenskaper nedbørsmønstre er hvordan fordamping varierer over skog- og andre arealer. I prosjektet vil vi se på effekten av avskoging og økt skogbruk i globale modeller, og gjøre egne beregninger over mindre areal på finskala for å for å se hvordan fordamping blir påvirket. Resultatene av prosjektet er viktig får å unngå eller minimere skadene slike sammenfallende med tørke etterfulgt av styrtregn kan forårsake.

Global warming intensifies drought and extreme precipitation. Compound events with droughts ending in intensified precipitation - DRIP can cause large damages but are extremely understudied. This project aims to estimate the change in frequency and intensity of DRIP events with global warming due to changes in the water-cycle. We will identify actual historical compound DRIP events and find indices that are suitable to identify these events in model data. As global climate models show a large spread in precipitation for both historical and the different future climate projections, there is expected to be a spread in model projections of DRIP events as well. We will constrain this spread by identifying global climate models that do a good statistical representation of historical DRIP events and by analyzing large ensembles to evaluate the natural variability. As higher resolution modelling shows a better representation of the water cycle, the project will analyze regional downscaled global models in identified regions of interest.  We will also perform in-house regional simulations of identified global models down to convection permitting scale to study the change in DRIP events with model resolution. The project will also target a highlighted uncertainty connected to the water-cycle by exploring how evapotranspiration and the occurrence of DRIP events found in climate models respond to land use change. For this analysis we will extend the regional downscaling to include sensitivity studies which contain deforestation and forestation. Results gained from DRIP will make a large contribution to the knowledge needed on future mitigation measures due to the increase in compound events.

DRIP - DRought ending in Intensified Precipitation

The Natural History Museum, University of Oslo (NHMO) plans to host the annual scientific conference for European Association for Vertebrate Palaeontology 2024 in Longyearbyen, Svalbard in partnership with Evolutionsmuseet, University of Uppsala (EM-UU), The University Centre in Svalbard (UniS) and Svalbard Museum (SM). This will be the first international conference for vertebrate palaeontology in Norway and comes as a result of the last two decades of research on fossils from Svalbard. Hosting the conference in Longyearbyen is a major attraction for international researchers, and an opportunity to showcase Norwegian research in the Arctic. The conference will focus on polar research, with dedicated sessions on the frontiers of high latitude palaeontology and will result in contributions from the hosts to international processes, such as ICARP IV.

EAVP 24 – a polar perspective of palaeontology
Application for event support

The ongoing climatic changes will have undisputable effects on biodiversity and ecosystems. For small ectotherms (e.g. insects) the current state-of-the-art focusses on physiological performances (often measured as critical thermal limits), warming tolerance (resilience) and phenotypic and evolutionary responses. These data provide input to models used to describe expansion – or more often restriction – of species distributions. The climate is changing especially rapidly in the Arctic. Much of the knowledge we have on responses (or lack hereof) to warmer temperatures in terrestrial arthropods is based on studies on temperate and tropic species. Further, the little we do know about the realized warming tolerance under field conditions in the Arctic is based on extreme physiological endpoints, such as critical thermal maxima, measured in the laboratory. The aim of the project is to investigate the consequences of increasing temperatures on behaviour and energy budget for coping with heat under field relevant conditions in Arctic insects. In doing so, the project will generate much needed information on potential overlooked consequences and resilience of Arctic insects to increasing temperature. Here, we want to explore to role of behavior for thermal adaptation and adaptive thermal responses, and assess the energetic consequences of increasing temperatures. The results might fundamental change our understanding of thermal adaptation in small ectotherms in general and the current predictions regarding the resilience to climate change specifically. Thus, there is a potential for reforming the research field.

The role of energy budget in a changing world: Are forecasts missing an important aspect for Arctic insects?

Vi vil arrangere Havforskarmøte 2024 i Tromsø. Norsk havforsking står sterkt internasjonalt, men det er få nasjonale arenaar der havforskarar i Noreg kan samlast for å dele forsking og bygge nettverk. Havforskarmøtet er derfor ein viktig møteplass. Dei ca. 40 - 100 deltakarane kjem frå ulike sektorar og representerer marine fagmiljø frå heile landet. Det er eit ope arrangement, med påmelding via nettsidene til NHF. 
Havforskarmøtet blir arrangert årleg, og kvart år er fokus på eit spesifikt tema. Eksempel på tema frå dei seinaste åra har vore: «Hvordan få mer mat fra havet» (2017), "Hvordan kan forskere gjøre økologi mer politisk relevant?" (2019), "Klimaendring i havet" (2020, online), "Nye metodar for å møte morgondagens utfordringar" (2021), «Bruk eller vern – arealbruk til havs» (2022) og «Mat frå havet» (2023) - sjekk https://www.havforsk.no/nb/arkiv/ 
I 2024 blir temaet “Effektar av klimaendringar og klimatiltak på marin natur”, kor vi ønskjer ein diskusjon både om direkte effektar av klimaendringane på enkeltartar og marine økosystem, men og korleis dei tiltaka vi iverksett for å motverke klimaendringane kan påverke marin natur. Eksempel på slike tiltak være naturbaserte løysingar i sjø, bygging av havvindmølleparkar for grøn energiproduksjon, eller gruvedrift i fjord og hav for å sikre mineral nødvendig for ei grøn omstilling. Vi ønskjer å ha ei tverrfagleg vinkling til forskingsspørsmåla, og vil gjere møtet til ein møteplass mellom akademia, forvaltning og industriaktørar. Dei største effektane av klimaendringane ser vi i nordlege havområde, som i Barentshavet der forskarar har observert eit skifte frå eit arktisk til eit meir atlantisk klima og økosystem dei siste tiåra. Samtidig er det i dette området fleire initiativ både knytt til gruvedrift og havvind (til dømes GoliatVind-prosjektet). Vi fant det derfor naturlig å legge årets møte til Tromsø.

Havforskermøte 2024

Prosjektet går ut på å invitere forskere fra norske eller utenlandske universiteter til å presentere sin forskning om økonomi og klima ved Handelshøyskolen ved Universitetet i Stavanger (HHUiS).

Dette skjer i form av et seminar som vanligvis finner sted en gang i uken. En kjent forsker fra et annet universitet kommer til Stavanger og holder et 60-minutters seminar og har en rekke møter med forskere i Stavanger. Vi prøver å ha minst 6-8 møter per gjest. I tillegg spiser gjesten lunsj og middag med UiS-ansatte.

Disse seminarene er en del av en eksisterende seminarserie som også tar for seg andre klimaspørsmål. En stor del av seminarene er imidlertid fokusert på klimaendringer og økonomi, og det er kun til disse seminarene vi søker midler.

En aktiv seminarrekke er hjertet i et forskningsuniversitet, og svært viktig for at forskerne ved universitetet skal kunne utvikle seg og være en aktiv del av det globale forskningsmiljøet. Dessverre må vi av budsjettmessige årsaker kutte ned på denne aktiviteten i år og fremover, og derfor sender vi denne søknaden for å be om midler til denne aktiviteten.

UiS har et meget energisk forskerteam innen økonomi og klima. For eksempel ble Dora Simons forskning nylig nevnt i The Economist, Anders Åkermans forskning ble denne uken nevnt av Det hvite hus i den amerikanske presidentens årlige økonomiske rapport, og Torfinn Harding skriver jevnlig artikler i Dagens Næringsliv og opptrer på norsk TV. For at denne gruppen skal overleve, er det svært viktig å kunne arrangere seminarer om klimaendringer på høyeste internasjonale nivå.

Seminarer med internasjonale forskere om økonomi og klima ved Universitetet i Stavanger

The term "hunger gap" (no: “vårknipa”) traditionally used in agricultural communities, refers to the period at the end of winter when winter provisions are depleting, yet the growing season has not yet started. In contemporary usage, the term also describes the food situation for wild animals, which may encounter challenging conditions at the end of winter. This situation is particularly pronounced in the Arctic, where the Svalbard reindeer is awaiting new plant growth after an eight-month-long winter. The limited winter food supply has prompted various morphological, physiological, and behavioral adaptations to conserve energy, crucial for overcoming the "hunger gap". The aim of my thesis is to investigate annual and individual variation in what ends the “hunger gap” for reindeer. I will utilize a dataset of activity and heart rate monitoring of ca 50 GPS-marked female Svalbard reindeer. In these data there is a very rapid increase in activity and heart rate from a “winter mode” to “summer mode”, a signal I define as the end of the “hunger gap”. I hypothesize a relatively large annual variation in the date of this switch, cause by annual variation in snow melt, spring temperatures and plant growth. On the individual level I will investigate the effect of body condition, age and reproductive status on the date of the “end of hunger gap” signal. I will be provided with activity and heart rate data from my supervisor, and will myself collect the required data on ground spring temperatures and calf at heel status together with a field assistant in august 2024.

From winter time to summer time – what ends the "hunger gap" for Svalbard reindeer?

SCAPE (Scandinavian Association for Pollination Ecology) er en årlig konferanse for forskere og studenter innen pollineringsøkologi. Det forventes deltagere fra særlig Skandinavia og resten av Europa. Men vi forventer også deltagelse fra andre deler av verden som Nord-Amerika og Asia. Konferansen legger særlig vekt på å være en arena for yngre forskere. Årets konferanse er lagt til Lofthus, Hardanger, midt i et viktig fruktdistrikt som er avhengig av pollinering for gode fruktavlinger. En tre-dagers konferanse er planlagt for å samle og utveksle kunnskap innen pollineringsøkologi. Konferansen vil bestå av foredrag, postere og en guidet tur i frukthagene. Vi har invitert to foredragsholdere/"keynotes" til å holde lengre innlegg om henholdsvis plante-pollinator interaksjoner i forhold til bærekraftsmålene og pollinatorer i jordbrukslandskapet og betydningen av forvaltning og ulik praksis.

Det 38. møtet i Skandinavisk forening for pollineringsøkologi

Improving tropical forest conservation in Africa

The importance of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) for better balancing tropical forest conservation and poverty alleviation goals is increasingly recognised. Yet, in Africa, poor understanding of the impact of harvesting on species’ populations and forest carbon stocks, together with little information on the traditional institutions which have informally regulated NTFPs extraction in the past -and could continue to do so in the future-, hamper the use of NTFPs in both forest conservation and development initiatives. 
AFRI-FOR will gather the knowledge needed to determine (1) the key enablers of sustainable harvesting for groups of plant or wild meat species, (2) which types of NTFP harvesting can have synergies with carbon storage, and (3) how traditional institutions can be integrated into formal conservation. To achieve these objectives, AFRI-FOR provide new methods, including (i) a new interdisciplinary approach for investigating NTFPs harvesting impacts, combining traditional ecological knowledge (TEK, from local communities), surveys of plants and wildlife, market surveys and modelling techniques; and (ii) a novel standardised protocol for gathering information about traditional institutions and compliance towards them. AFRI-FOR will gather data and knowledge from 20 socio-ecological forest contexts in five countries (Sierra Leone, Cameroon, DR Congo, Uganda and Kenya), which will allow insights to transcend single sites and provide a much-needed general understanding. This high-risk and high-gain project will provide a step-change in our ability to inform forest conservation in Africa, by identifying synergies between biodiversity conservation, carbon storage and poverty alleviation goals.


Sjøisen i Arktis har minket drastisk de siste tiårene, og Polhavet forventes å være isfritt om sommeren mot slutten av århundret. Denne nedgangen har utsatt store havområder for vind, noe som har resultert i at det oftere dannes store bølger i Polhavet. Disse bølgene kan forplante seg over flere titalls til hundrevis av kilometer i sjøisen, knekke den og akselerere smeltingen. Disse fysiske prosessene – bølger som knekker sjøis og effekten dette har på sjøissmelting og vekst – mangler i modellene vi bruker for å forutsi klimautviklingen. Dette bidrar til store usikkerheter i klimamodeller. Effekten av bølger på sjøisen er heller ikke tatt med i prognoser for havets og sjøisens forhold, som brukes av skip som opererer i islagte farvann. I ForWArd ønsker vi å vurdere bølgenes innvirkning på sjøisens utvikling i det stadig røffere Polhavet. I dette arbeidet brukes en svært avansert modell som inkluderer sjøis, hav, bølger og deres interaksjoner. Vi skal først vurdere hvor godt den representerer forholdene i Polhavet sammenlignet med de få tilgjengelige observasjonene. Vi vil så bruke modellen til å undersøke hvordan bølgehøyden og arealet av ødelagt sjøis har utviklet seg de siste tre tiårene. Deretter vil vi kombinere modellen vår med forholdene i det fremtidige Polhavet gitt av klimafremskrivninger, for å undersøke hvordan betydningen av interaksjoner mellom bølger og is vil utvikle seg ettersom sjøis avtar i det 21. århundre. Vår modells estimering av "bølgepåvirkningen" vil tillate polarvitenskapsmiljøet å vurdere hvor usikre deres klimaspådommer uten bølger er. Til syvende og sist vil våre modellresultater og utviklinger legge grunnlaget for å legge til bølgeeffekter i hav- og sjøisvarsler i Arktis. Dette vil gjøre varslene mer nøyaktige og bidra til sikkerheten for menneskelig aktivitet i denne regionen.

Arctic sea ice decline under climate change has allowed waves to form and grow more easily in the Arctic Ocean. These waves propagate into the sea ice over tens to hundreds of kilometres, fragmenting it into small floes. This area of broken ice, known as the Marginal Ice Zone (MIZ), is a highly complex region where many interactions occur between the ocean, sea ice, and atmosphere. The action of waves strongly affects these interactions, with rapid feedbacks on the sea ice. However, climate models do not account for these wave-ice interaction processes, which likely contributes to the strong biases in their estimation of modelled sea ice extent and volume and their inability to capture short-term sea ice extent variability. Given the lack of observations available, numerical models remain the best way to estimate how wave-ice interaction processes can impact Arctic sea ice, but most wave-ice coupled models are still prototypes. In ForWArd, we will use one of the most advanced of these models to assess this impact in the context of climate change. To this aim, we will use the latest observations to calibrate the modelled wave-affected area and produce a 30-year-long hindcast of the MIZ extent evolution to analyse how it responded to larger wave height, delayed refreezing, and thinner ice. Then, we will assess the relative importance of the wave-ice interactions suspected to affect sea ice in the MIZ using well-documented events. Finally, we will estimate how waves will contribute to sea ice extent and volume variability in the coming decades, as large areas of open water will remain open until late in the autumn. The flexibility of our setup will allow us to test the sensitivity of our results to model resolution and assumptions, giving invaluable insights into the biases induced by misrepresenting wave-ice interactions. ForWArd will also pave the way for the integration of wave effects in sea ice forecasts, a requirement for safer operations in ice-infested waters.

Forecasting Wave impact as Arctic sea ice declines

Midlene fra GAVEFORST-Gaveforsterkningsordningen fordelt på år

Midlene fra GAVEFORST-Gaveforsterkningsordningen fordelt på fylker

Midlene fra GAVEFORST-Gaveforsterkningsordningen fordelt på fagområde

Økonomidirektør

Gave fra Bergen forskningsstiftelse til Universitetet i Bergen - forskning på prostatakreft

Convective rainfalls are of enormous importance for agriculture and water resource management in semi-arid areas such as Central-North-Eastern South Africa, where more than 50% of the country population is concentrated. This project will contribute into t he redress and capacity development of the South African Universities in the area of micro-meteorology and adaptation to changing environment such as climate change or urbanization. This redress will be achieved through promotion of micro-meteorological e ducation and research on the basis of the most recent advances in the theoretical understanding (non-local and roughness turbulence theories) and numerical modelling (large-eddy and non-hydrostatic simulations). The main beneficiaries will be historically  disadvantaged and indigenes The project will give to their representatives the necessarily knowledge, field equipment and inexpensive numerical tools to rational landscape planning to support sustainable agricultural and air quality management. Impossibl e without extensive collaboration, the project will link established international consortiums driving all necessarily research components and lead them to attack the convection and rainfall problem successfully. An absolutely novel, and thus risky, eleme nt of the project, is a study of possibility to control the micro-meteorological processes through rational landscape management. In the case of success, it may bring major benefits to humanity, in the third world where other means to improve environmenta l conditions could be too costly.

Analysis and Possibility for Control of Atmospheric Boundary Layer Processes to Facilitate Adaptation to Environmental Changes

The success in combating AIDS may depend upon whether we are able to support women´s agency and emerging leadership roles, overcome the overly moralist and curative discourse of AIDS and extend the field to include a deeper, communal healing approach. Thi s must include women´s yearning for radical social change, be alert to a new field of ritual invention and appropriation at the interface of Christian and indigenous resources. In this field mother´s try to protect their daughters, rework violent experien ces and invoke new hopes for the future by renegotiating faith and what it means to live womanly with balanced social relations. The yearning for change has the effect of ongoing creative activity in reconstituting rituals and making them new and powerful  in the present. Our research will be based on ethnographic and narrative methods and contribute to an understanding for why women re-appropriate African indigenous knowledge systems in order to find tools for healing and fight for social and gendered cha nges. What do these resources consist of, and to what extent do they include visions of new partnership models between women and men? Which roles do mediators as male and female Sangomas play in interpreting, bridging and filling them with power? It is im portant to learn how this work is orchestrated socially and incorporated ritually to help guard integrity and boundary of the subject. Re-appropriation of tradition is not a culturally or politically innocent move but is itself in need of critical examina tion, in our case, with the discipline of theology and its critical discourse on autonomy versus interdependence. This study provides new knowledge for critical gender studies and the religious construction of gendered personhood. It raises critical quest ions for how we construct interventions in the field by asking how we can contribute to building healing communities of active prevention and self-education.

Broken Women, Healing Traditions? Indigenous resources for gender Critique and Social transformation in the Context of AIDS in South Africa.

The effects of environmental pollutants on human health are often subtle, long-term, sometimes transgenerational and difficult to measure even in long-term epidemiological studies in large populations. There is therefore a need for comprehensive research that monitors the concentration and distribution of toxic substances in humans. A number of persistent toxic substances are recognised as being responsible for adverse development and health effect in children. The growing foetus and newborn child are esp ecially sensitive to the toxic effects of many environmental pollutants, and several of them move from mother to foetus via the umbilical cord and to the child via mother's milk. Of particular concern are long-term, subtle effects that might influence rep roductive health, pregnancy outcomes, reduce defence against diseases, affect the children?s mental development, or increase the risk of cancer.

Within this project we intend to obtain data on the current levels in mother?s blood and milk of DDT and othe r pesticides used for malaria vector control and/or in agriculture in Northern KwaZulu-Natal, to evaluate the exposure to foetuses and children of the target chemicals, and to investigate if their main source is the malaria control programme or agricultur e. We will take samples from areas where there is an active malaria vector control with DDT and other compounds and from areas where malaria vector control is not needed. In KwaZulu-Natal such areas are located quite close to each other and have essential ly the same conditions for agriculture and social life. We, therefore, expect to be able to distinguish between pesticide residues that are due to malaria control activities and those that have other sources, e.g., agriculture. The data will be compared w ith general medical history, reproductive outcome and child development. Ultimately the data can be used in policy decisions on appropriate malaria vector control procedures.

DDT and "current use pesticides" in mothers and children in a malaria control area in South Africa

NIVA and CGS are to embark on a pilot study to develop methodologies and techniques to determine ecological footprints and volumetric contributions for apportioning liability for sustainable management of pollution and water ingress into underground gold mine openings of the Witwatersrand Central Basin, South Africa.

Water is ingressing into the underground mine voids in the Central Rand Basin of the Witwatersrand, necessitating dewatering of operational areas through pumping.  Such pumping also ensures avoidance of sterilization of remaining gold reserves.

The CGS has been tasked by the South African Department of Minerals and Energy (DME) to identify sustainable management options to, amongst other objectives, apportion liability of costs to polluters  and/or contributors to ingress and water contamination.

Furthermore, regional mine closure strategies are being developed to ensure that there is a financial provision for sustainable environmental management, once mining operations cease.  Based upon t he polluter pays principle adopted by the DME, apportioning of such financial liability in the industrial area of the Central Rand Basin and environs is critical to implement such mine closure strategies.  A scientific basis for such apportionment is plan ned in this pilot project.  This groundbreaking approach has not been attempted anywhere else in the world, and would serve as a pilot approach for other areas similarly impacted by mining operations in South Africa, and further afield in areas of Africa where an immature mining industry exists.

Apportioning liability for environmental problems is a contentious issue with high potential for legal objections from identified impactors or contributors. The involvement of NIVA, an independent, impartial, non -partisan, and credible international water research institution would bring legitimacy to the research and apportionment process likely to reduce the risk of objections from affected parties.

Witwatersrand Central Basin Mine Water Apportionment Pilot Study

The question of the gender in relation to rhetoric studies understood as the discipline tasked with studying public argumentation and popular deliberative practices that are at the heart of a social and liberal democracy, has undergone radical development s in the past twenty years. It has led to a diversification of rhetoric theory and practice concerning democracy and deliberation, and, in keeping with Third Wave Feminism, has made rhetoric studies a field of excellence to re-examine gender-in-politics. 

South Africa's consolidated democracy stands firmly by its constitutional principle of non-discrimination on the basis of gender as well as a sustained policy of gender redress and progress (if 52% percent of South Africans are women, 29% are elected to wn councillors and 18% are mayors, while their ratio in Parliament is one of the highest among democratic states). South Africa offers a field of enquiry on the rhetoric of gender on a new and challenging scale, unknown before in the South, while Norway p rovides a touchstone or reference for achieving gender parity.

The project will establish:
1) A typological understanding of what rhetoric studies call 'ideographs'or how the media construct visual arguments regarding, in this case, gender.
2) A typology  of verbal arguments concerning gender as they are played out in the public arena (political and corporate) with regard to policy making, whether the issues are or are not gendered (examples: rape crimes, or defence policy).
3) A typology of what rhetoric  calls 'taken-for-granted', that is, sets of arguments and styles or arguing which operate without public debaters or agents being aware of their usage and effect on audiences.

Our aim is to make a significant contribution to gender studies and to rhetor ic studies by providing historical, theoretical and practical comparative analyses about women as subjects of public deliberation and as objects for public deliberation.

Gender in the Deliberative Public Sphere

This project aims to look at different aspects of HIV/AIDS and disability in South Africa. It is hypothesized that people with disabilities face a higher risk of HIV infection. To understand the effects of HIV on people with disabilities one must look at  the status society awards them in relation to HIV and AIDS, the sexual practices of this group, as well as their knowledge, attitudes, practices and their access to HIV and AIDS prevention programs.
Issues linking disability and HIV and AIDS can be group ed under: 
- Sexual Practices
- Vulnerability and issues of sexual abuse
- Lack of accessible information/ Lack of knowledge
- Lack of services that are disability friendly (i.e. are inclusive and welcome the participation of disabled people and are not j udgemental in their attitudes and are accessible in all aspects of their operation)

This project will consist of two independent, but equal, components:
1. A study of knowledge, attitudes and practices of people with disabilities in relation to HIV and A IDS and sexuality; and an assessment of access to voluntary counselling and testing services (VCT) by people with disabilities
2. A study of the extent to which organizations of and for  people with disabilities are dealing with HIV/AIDS, and general HIV prevention programmes, and the extent to which disabled persons are catered for, or excluded from, these programmes (PhD study).

A study of HIV and AIDS in relation to people with disability in South Africa

The project has two main components. 

One component comprises networking and research collaboration with regional universities with research profiles addressing Khoe-San/indigenous issues (e.g. University of Namibia, University of Botswana and the Univer sity of the Western Cape) and the University of Tromso, through the Department of Social Anthropology and the Centre for Saami Studies. These activities will contribute to the development of Khoe-San research competence and capacity at the University of t he Free State. The main collaborators in the Culture and Memory project will serve as a reference group for the research  project, advise  PhD students affiliated with the project, and carry out independent fieldwork as appropriate.


The other component is a  longitudinal  interdisciplinary research project, involving anthropologists, historians and linguists, embedded in the network activities. The research will examine the nature and dynamics of Khoe-San culture, language, memory, identities and repres entations in South Africa. Drawing especially on data from the 1936 South African population census, which also enumerated Khoe-San language speakers, the project will seek remaining Khoe-San language speakers in the country (a number of whom have already  come to the fore after 1994), as well as their immediate descendants, and record and analyse their cultural and linguistic memories and life histories. Their life histories should yield valuable insights into the historical dynamics of Khoe-San culture, language, identity and memory in South Africa. Their life histories and memories should also challenge widely held misconceptions about the Khoe-San heritage in South Africa, especially the view that the Khoe-San and their cultures and languages are long extinct. This perception has inclined those in positions of power, including academics, to neglect the living Khoe-San heritage.

Khoe-San Culture, Language and Memory in South Africa

Our aim is to investigate how the goby (Sufflogobius bibarbatus) and the shallow water hake (Merluccius capensis) cope with the hypoxic waters of the Benguela current. Both are key species of the ecosystem. They show a remarkable tolerance to the hypoxic conditions found in this up-welling area, which is one of the five most productive marine ecosystems of the world. Due to high sedimentation rate, large areas of the shelf are covered with hydrogen sulphide sediments, making hypoxic conditions above and i n the water column. As key species with strong influence on the ecosystem functioning and productivity, these species ought to have evolved a very special physiology and behaviour making them so successful in this extreme marine environment.
  We will use  new acoustic methods (developed by Norwegian partners) to find individual hake and goby, and track their swimming patterns in the field. This method allows us to investigate (in the field) how the two species respond to changes in oxygen, sulphide and pr edator-prey conditions. To test our field generated hypotheses, we will conduct laboratory experiments where we will study their physiology and behaviour. Controlled experiments allow us to control water conditions (oxygen, sulphide levels), as well as to  monitor the individual fish's swimming speed and activity level.
Our research questions are based on pure, curiosity-driven research but they have applications for fisheries management. We will use an interdisciplinary approach wherein marine ecologistst s, environmental biologists, physiologists, fisheries biologists and behavioural ecologists will meet and work together. The new acoustic knowledge that the project will deliver may be a big step forward for the South African fisheries management institut ions in their estimations of species abundance using acoustic techniques.
Through the project we will provide common research opportunities for scientists and post graduate students in the South Africa and Norway

Gobies and hake in the hypoxic waters of the Benguela up-welling current

Introducing hydrogen as universal environment-friendly energy carrier demands efficient technologies allowing to extract it from industrial streams (products of coal gasification, process gases of refineries, etc.), to store it by a compact and safe way, and, finally, to deliver H2 to a consumer at high pressure. Metal hydride (MH) technology is a promising solution. However, its implementation requires new MH materials whose performances are not deteriorated in contaminated H2. In addition, novel enginee ring solutions incorporating the materials into H extraction-purification-storage-compression system are in great demand.

This proposal is focused on the detailed study of advanced "low-temperature" H storage alloys (RE-containing AB5; and Ti-containing AB and AB2) and multiphase compositions on their basis. Nanotechnological routes, including reactive mechanical alloying and forming the MH-carbon nanocomposites will be worked-out. Special attention will be paid to surface modification of the materials i ncluding deposition of thin metal films onto their particles, dosed surface oxidation and/or creation of oxide-modified hydride forming constituent phases. As a result, the MH materials characterised by high "poisoning" resistance, easy activation and fas t H sorption / desorption kinetics will be developed. Furthermore, the experimental prototype of combined MH system for H2 extraction/purification, storage and compression will be developed, including H2 extraction/purification subsystem, H storage unit, as well as efficient MH H2 compressor.

The work will combine the best efforts of the R&D communities in MH technologies including universities and academic institutions (IFE and NTNU in Norway; UWC in South Africa) and important industrial partners inclu ding Eskom (SA). 2 PhD students from SA will be educated

Industrial Applications of Metal Hydrides for Hydrogen Extraction, Storage and Compression

Cardiovascular disease remains a leading cause of death worldwide. Impaired coronary circulation in the heart following a myocardial ischemic episode will lead to compromised hemodynamic function and ultimately cell death. Coronary reperfusion is the only  means of limiting infarct size, provided that it occurs early after coronary occlusion, but may paradoxically directly result in tissue injury (lethal reperfusion injury). The management of patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) has improved dra matically with the widespread use of thrombolytic and antiplatelet therapy as well as mechanical disruption of the occlusive coronary thrombus or plaque. Even so, attention has turned to adjunctive pharmacologic treatments to enhance myocardial tolerance to ischemia/reperfusion induced stress. This strategy is being pursued in an attempt to further reduce mortality in patients undergoing reperfusion therapy.This project is part of a translational effort dedicated to the development of new therapeutic prot ocols for the identification and validation of novel therapeutic targets in the treatment of acute myocardial ischemia (AMI) and reperfusion injury, in addition to development of novel MRI imaging protocols and sequences to be used in both clinical and ex perimental settings. The project will utilize state-of-the-art technologies in global gene expression analysis, retroviral vector RNAi technology, functional in vivo validation by inducible siRNA transgenic mouse model targeting candidate genes regulated by insulin therapy at reperfusion, and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging. Overall, this research program will provide greater insight into the genetic mechanisms orchestrating insulin pro-survival effects, providing new targets for therapeutic interventi on in the context of ischemia/reperfusion injury in patients and implementation of more advanced and sensitive MRI protocols and sequences for studying progression of AMI in patients.

A Translational Effort to Develop Novel Magnetic Resonance Imaging Protocols and Sequences for Studying Myocardial Lethal Reperfusion Injury

Tuberculosis (TB) is a major public health problem in developing countries as well as in the Republic of South Africa (RSA). Despite significant strides in case detection and treatment, the prevalence of TB continues to rise at an alarming, also in the RS A. More effective diagnostic methods are required as early diagnosis is the cornerstone of effective TB control. The inexpensive standard Mantoux skin test which is currently used to identify TB suffers from poor specificity and poor positive predictive v alue (PPV) because the antigens are present in environmental bacteria as well as in the BCG vaccine. The ESAT-6 antigens are specific for Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb), the causative agent of TB. New blood-based in vitro IFN-gamma release assays (IGRA s), based on ESAT-6 antigens, are more specific than the Mantoux skin test and have shown to have enhanced sensitivity in diagnosing active TB disease in HIV-infected and malnourished HIV-infected children. We hereby propose to evaluate the diagnostic val ue and utility of the new ESAT-6-based IGRAs to detect M.tb infection and predict TB disease in HIV-infected and uninfected South African children.

TB drugs are often administered to malnourished individuals, despite the fact that specific micronutrient deficiencies may negatively affect drug kinetics, decrease their efficacy and increase their toxicity. A randomised controlled trial will assess the effect of adjunctive micronutrient supplementation, administered as part of the established Directly Obser ved Treatment Short-course (DOTS), on treatment outcome among pulmonary TB patients. Depending on the magnitude and range of effects, the data from this trial could lead to national and international policy recommendations to include micronutrient supplem entation as an adjunct to standard anti-TB treatment.

Nutritional intervention and novel diagnostics to improve community-based control of tuberculosis

Agricultural trade liberalization is high on the agenda for the World Trade Organisation, specifically underscoring the potential positive effects for the world?s poor. This project will study how better international market access will ?trickle down? to rural livelihoods in the developing world. The project focuses on the effects from trade to rural economic growth and development. Based on a theoretical analysis of these effects both short run and long run effects will be studied, using data from South Africa. The project will study both the direct effects for agricultural products, and indirect effects from improved market access.

The WTO-Doha and the Economic Growth for The Rural Poor

With extreme oceanographic variability over very short distances, the waters around South Africa provide a wealth of information on the mechanistic controls on marine biogeochemical variability. South African waters occupy a special niche in oceanography lying at the junction between western and eastern boundary systems and the Southern Ocean. This natural laboratory offers a special opportunity to research oceanographers to study a range of different mechanisms impacting on the regional biogeochemistry. Both natural and anthropogenic forcing has an effect on each of these different systems with analogous implications for marine systems elsewhere. Understanding these mechanisms is necessary for developing accurate models of the biogeochemical response of the oceans to (inter alia) changes in atmospheric characteristics such as the Antarctic Circumpolar Wave (Southern Annular Mode) and  Benguela Ninos.  The Southern Ocean is considered to be one of the two, North Atlantic being the other, most important oc ean sinks of anthropogenic CO2. However, the Southern Ocean remains one of the least sampled and understood ocean domains. The approach in this proposal is to train and educate South African Oceanographers and Students through joint research using a combi nation of observations and diagnostic modelling to understand the carbon biogeochemistry of the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic.  Importantly, this approach builds on existing strengths within each of the collaborating groups.  This initiative is contextualis ed within the IPY global effort The proposed approach is to synthesise recent literature, re-analyse the data archives and to increase knowledge through observations from 2 project cruises. Subsequent data analysis will result in the production of scienti fic peer reviewed journals and 2 South African PhDs

Southern Ocean Biogeochemistry: Education and Research

The aim of this project is to investigate the way in which environmental variation cascades up through life history variation to effect species- and assemblage-level responses to habitat fragmentation and climate change. It builds on observations that cli mate change and habitat fragmentation are two major threats to biodiversity, and on recent work demonstrating that predictability and variability are two components of environmental variation that need to be clearly distinguished. The work will focus on a  functionally significant group of soil animals, the springtails (Collembola), which are sufficiently circumscribed in their diversity to enable appropriate comparisons between different environments. Moreover, several of the species are common to virtual ly all of the sites owing to biological invasions in the southern hemisphere. The environments will include a southern sub-Antarctic site (Marion Island), a northern Arctic one (Svalbard), and two more temperate sites (in Scandinavia, and the Western Cape  of South Africa). These sites differ substantially in the characteristics of their environments. The study will make use of both naturally (Marion, Svalbard) and artificially fragmented (Western Cape) landscapes to investigate the ways in which temperatu re effects on life histories might cascade up to influence responses to fragmentation. Specific goals of the study include investigations of widely held ideas about differences in phenology between the northern and southern hemisphere arthropods, and abou t the likely responses of soil organisms to habitat fragmentation. The project will also develop an inventory of springtails of the Western Cape Fynbos and will use genetic techniques coupled with traditional morphological systematics to identify and desc ribe new species and make this knowledge accessible more broadly to ecologists.

Springtail (Collembola) responses to changing, variable environments: a bi-polar approach linking individuals to ecosystems

We aim to use metagenomic methods to access portions of Antarctic low temperature crenarchaeotal genomes. Large insert metagenomic fosmid clones identified by colony hybridization with crenarchaeotal 16S rRNA gene probes will be sequenced and ORFs identif ied. The design of probes to terminal regions of the positive clones can provide access to proximal sequences, allowing us to genome walk along the crenarchaeotal chromosome. Detailed bioinformatic analysis (particularly using COG databases) will allow us  to infer the function of a proportion of the identified ORFs, from which we aim to derive information on physiological function. The long term aim of this project would be to use physiological information to guide the development of isolation strategies in order to access pure cultures of these recalcitrant organisms. Dr. Cowan?s laboratory has a wide variety of source material from the Dry Valleys of Eastern Antarctica.  These samples have been collected as part of an on-going research program on the di versity and function of microorganisms in the desert soils of the Antarctic Dry Valleys. Based on the metagenomic clones, we will also investigate the mechanisms of cold-adaptation of enzymes, using isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) as a model. This will she d light on  how the organisms have adapted to the arctic environment. Furthermore, we intend to study the Cdc6 and MCM proteins from a variety of archaeal species identified in the libraries. This will broaden our knowledge about the mechanism of initiati on of archaeal DNA replication. A comparative functional analysis as well as protein-protein and protein-DNA- interactions of purified Cdc6 and MCM proteins encoded on identical cloned fragments will be carried out. This will include studies on how Cdc6 s timulates or inhibits the helicase activity of MCM, and how they physically interact with each other. Finally, functional analyses using homologous replication origins will be pursued.

Metagenomics and Gene Discovery in Antarctic Terrestrial Habitats

Mercury is one of the most important contaminants emitted to the atmosphere due to its toxic effects on the environment and human health, as well as its role in the chemistry of the atmosphere. Although substantial information has been collected on enviro nmental effects of mercury and its behaviour in the environment much less data is available on atmospheric emissions of the element. Information on emissions is needed for various policy and modeling purposes. This information is very limited for sources and emissions in South Africa. The main goal of the proposed project is to provide a thorough assessment of current and future emissions of Hg to the air, water and land from anthropogenic sources in South Africa. An assessment of emissions from natural s ources will also be made. 
The following tasks will be carried out:
-Collection of information on the content of Hg in raw materials, such as various fuel types and ores, combustion and industrial technologies, and type and efficiency of emission control equipment employed in the South African power plants and other industrial plants
-Estimation of current emission quantities to the atmosphere, water, and land for major source categories on the basis of emission factors and statistical data obtained from Task 1
-Preparation of 3 major scenarios of future emissions of mercury to the atmosphere, water and land: (1) Business-As-Usual (BAU), (2) Policy Target (POT), and (3) Deep Green (DEG) scenarios
-Preparation of the final report of the project with conclu sions and recommendations for policy making in South Africa. Organization of stakeholders meeting with presentation of project results.

Assessment of current and future emissions of mercury from anthropogenic sources in South Africa

The dependency on critical habitats, such as estuaries, represents a bottleneck in the life-history of many exploited fishery species. The proposed project aims to assess the management implications of estuarine dependency in two important South African c oastal fishery species, spotted grunter (Pomadasys commersonnii) and dusky kob (Argyrosomus japonicus). 
The poor stock status of both species has been ascribed, in part, to the overexploitation of juveniles during their obligatory dependence on estuarine  habitats. A rational management plan for these species cannot be developed without explicit information on their movement patterns and ontogenetic use of estuaries. Despite heavy exploitation of juveniles within estuaries, the same stocks also support co astal and marine fisheries. Therefore, successful management for these species relies on knowledge of their dispersal characteristics, migrations between estuaries and the sea, and the possible movements between neighbouring, nearby and/or other estuaries . 
This study will assess ontogenetic changes in habitat use and the movement patterns of individuals between their natal estuary, other estuaries and coastal areas, using otolith microchemistry and acoustic telemetry methods. The results will provide imp roved knowledge on two of South Africa's most data-deficient fisheries, namely estuarine and subsistence fisheries, and be used to (i) evaluate the role of single estuaries in the production and export of juveniles to coastal fisheries, (ii) evaluate the role of protected areas as a management option to assist with restoring spawner stock biomass levels, (iii) develop an appropriate management procedure to ensure sustainability, and (iv) form the scientific basis for capacity building and education of stu dents. 
The project promotes capacity building, equity redress and research excellence through collaboration during fieldwork and publication of project results.

Assessment of estuary dependency and management of two important fishery species

The performance of UV sensitive detectors has steadily increased over the last decades, and astronomical as well as terrestrial applications benefit from this evolution. These UV detectors have made possible the success of several solar missions and are n ow also finding application in the fabrication of user-friendly UV detectors for the prevention of skin cancer. However, the common Si-based UV-detectors exhibit some drawbacks that are difficult to overcome, including the issues of cooling and filtering to detect only a specific UV wavelength. These drawbacks can be resolved by using wide band-gap materials like GaN, SiC, ZnO and diamond. These materials can operate at elevated temperatures and, by a proper design, the detector requires no spectral filte ring via additional coatings. In particular, their wide band-gaps facilitate the construction of so-called daylight (solar) blind UV detectors which do not respond to radiation from the visible or infrared spectra but only to 'UV light'.
During the manufa cturing of UV detectors and in their operation afterwards, defects are introduced in them due to their exposure to energetic particles. In this project we intend comparing the introduction rates of defects in GaN, SiC, ZnO and diamond, during processing a s well as afterwards during controlled irradiation with high-energy particles. The results will show which of these four materials is the least affected by radiation. The radiation hardness of the materials will be assessed by, firstly, manufacturing UV d etectors on the four materials and, secondly, exposing them to MeV electrons, protons, He- and heavy-ions and then determining the defect introduction rates and free carrier removal rates. These results will be of great value both fundamentally and to the  UV detector and spacecraft industries.
The project implies heavy involvement by both research teams and constitutes a good example of sustainable research co-operation on equal partnership.

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