Lack of behavioral effect of surgical mask leachate on the Asian shore crab Hemigrapsus sanguineus: Implications for invasion success in polluted coastal waters.

The COVID-19 pandemic generated a new source of plastic mass pollution, i.e. surgical masks, that preferentially accumulate in intertidal environments. Made of polymers, surgical masks are likely to leach additives and impact local intertidal fauna. As typical endpoints of complex developmental and physiological functions, behavioral properties are non-invasive key variables that are particularly studied in ecotoxicological and pharmacological studies, but have, first and foremost, adaptive ecological significance. In an era of ever-growing plastic pollution, this study focused on anxiety behaviors, i.e. startle response, scototaxis (i.e. preference for dark or light areas), thigmotaxis (i.e. preference for moving toward or away from physical barriers), vigilance and level of activity, of the invasive shore crab Hemigrapsus sanguineus in response to leachate from surgical masks. We first showed that in the absence of mask leachates H. sanguineus is characterized by a short startle time, a positive scototaxis, a strong positive thigmotaxis, and an acute vigilance behavior. Specifically, a significantly higher level of activity was observed in white areas, in contrast to the lack of significant differences observed in black areas. Noticeably, the anxiety behaviors of H. sanguineus did not significantly differ after a 6-h exposure to leachate solutions of masks incubated in seawater for 6, 12, 24, 48 and 96 h. In addition, our results were consistently characterized by a high inter-individual variability. This specific feature is discussed as an adaptive behavioral trait, which - through the observed high behavioral flexibility - increases H. sanguineus resilience to contaminant exposures and ultimately contribute to its invasion success in anthropogenically-impacted environments.

Heads in the clouds: On the carbon footprint of conference-seeded publications in the advancement of knowledge.

The carbon footprint of flying overseas to conferences, meetings, and workshops to share and build knowledge has been increasingly questioned over the last two decades, especially in environmental and climate sciences, due to the related colossal carbon emissions. Here, we infer the value of scientific meetings through the number of publications produced either directly or indirectly after attending a scientific conference, symposium, or workshop (i.e., the conference-related production) and the number of publications produced per meeting (i.e., the conference-related productivity) as proxies for the academic value of these meetings, and relate them to both the number of meetings attended and the related carbon emissions. We show that conference-related production and productivity, respectively, increase and decay with the number of meetings attended, and noticeably that the less productive people exhibit the largest carbon footprint. Taken together, our results imply that a twofold decrease in the carbon footprint F CO 2 of a given scientist would result in a twofold increase in productivity through a fivefold decrease in the number of meeting attended. In light of these figures, we call for both the implementation of objective and quantitative criteria related to the optimum number of conferences to attend in an effort to maximize scientific productivity while minimizing the related carbon footprint, and the development of a rationale to minimize the carbon emission related to scientific activities.