Solar irradiance and ENSO affect food security in Lake Tanganyika, a major African inland fishery.

Food security in a warming world is a grave concern for rapidly growing impoverished populations. Low-latitude inland fisheries provide protein for millions of rural poor, yet the impacts of high-frequency climate oscillations on these aquatic ecosystems are unknown. Here, we present a sub-annual-to-annual resolution paleolimnological reconstruction of upwelling, productivity, and algal composition at Lake Tanganyika, one of Africa's largest landlocked fisheries. The data reveal increases in diatom production at centennial-scale solar irradiance maxima, and interannual variability in upwelling linked to La Niña. Our study shows that interactions between global climatic controls and El Niño-Southern Oscillation teleconnections exert profound influences on the foundation of Lake Tanganyika's food web. Adapting long-term management practices to account for high-frequency changes in algal production will help safeguard inland fish resources.

Verbal memory in non-demented patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease.

This study assessed the verbal memory functions of 20 patients with idiopathic Parkinson's Disease (PD) without any clinical evidence of dementia and 20 Medical Control (MC) patients with similar levels of physical disability. Performance was compared on tests of immediate recall, word list learning in intentional and incidental contexts, word completion priming, remote memory, metamemory and awareness of mnestic abilities. Significant differences were found in new learning of verbal material under incidental but not intentional learning conditions. Group differences were also observed on measures of remote memory and metamemory. The groups did not differ in word completion priming performance or recognition memory. These findings are consistent with other evidence suggesting that PD patients without dementia may have subtle cognitive deficits that affect memory performance. These may be attributable to impairments of attention allocation, formulation of retrieval strategies, and effortful learning associated with frontal lobe dysfunction. The group differences could not be attributed to impairments of intellectual functions, verbal fluency, level of physical disability, or mood disturbance.