Binational Areas Research Articles

Microbial metatranscriptomic investigations across contaminant gradients of the Detroit River

Microbial community function in freshwater sediments is influenced by the presence and persistence of anthropogenic pollutants, yet simultaneously imposes significant control on their transformation. Thus, microbes provide valuable ecosystem services in terms of biodegradation and bioindicators of compromised habitats. From a remediation perspective it is valuable to leverage the suite of microbial genes at the transcriptional level that are active in either natural versus stressed environments to provide insight into the cycling and fate of contaminants. Metatranscriptomic analysis of total bacterial and archaeal messenger RNA (mRNA) is a useful tool in this facet and was applied to sediments sampled from the Detroit River; a binational Area of Concern (AOC) in the Great Lakes. Previously established sediment surveys and modelling delineated the river into contaminant gradients based on concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and metals. Differential expression analysis through DESeq2 revealed that microbial transcripts associated with nitrate reduction, methanogenesis, and beta-oxidation were significant in legacy polluted sediments and linked with energetic pathways key in the generation of cellular currencies (acetyl-CoA, succinyl-CoA). Gluconeogenesis and polyester synthesis also showed high abundance in contaminated regions, along with increased expression of stress response genes and transposons, despite decreases in community α-diversity. Aromatic cleavage genes were detected, but in low abundance across the contaminant gradient. These results suggest that microbial communities within the Detroit River exploit unique anabolic and catabolic pathways to derive and store energy from legacy organic contaminants while simultaneously recruiting stress-response and gene transfer mechanisms to cope with xenobiotic pressures. By coupling well-resolved chemical datasets with metatranscriptomics, this study adds to the spatial understanding of in-situ microbial activities in pristine and perturbed freshwater sediments.

Symmetry and solitude: Status and lessons learned from binational Areas of Concern

Areas of Concern are geographically distinct areas within the waters of the Great Lakes that are contaminated to the extent that they were originally identified by the International Joint Commission’s Water Quality Board and later codified in the 1987 Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement as areas requiring remedial actions. Five of the 43 Areas of Concern are binational (Canada, USA), and are located on every river or connecting channel that drains a Great Lake. Implementing an ecosystem approach, as called for in the Agreement, presents unique challenges for binational Areas of Concern due to multiple jurisdictions and communities, and hence greater institutional, program and participatory complexity. Our review of progress in each of the binational Areas of Concern suggests that a binational and ecosystem-oriented approach is underway in the St. Marys, St. Clair and Detroit River Areas of Concern, while the Niagara River and St. Lawrence River Areas of Concern are proceeding on decidedly more independent domestic tracks. Our case study analysis of the Detroit River and St. Lawrence River Areas of Concern suggest that well developed and formal governance frameworks, the establishment of informal networks, and maintaining flexibility within a science-focused approach create conditions better suited to a binational, ecosystem-oriented means of remediation.

Cierre de fronteras, libre comercio y migrantes: el área binacional de San Diego – Tijuana como resultado inesperado

La presente investigación analiza la aparición de áreas y ciudades binacionales a lo largo de la frontera entre Estados Unidos y México. Es decir, si son fruto de la interacción o bien de la integración. En este sentido, pareciera que este fenómeno ha vivido un incremento constante y progresivo en los últimos tiempos, a pesar de la combinación de medidas represivas ante la migración y su asociación a la inseguridad y el terrorismo. Se sostiene que las áreas binacionales serían un resultado no esperado de la creciente represión a la migración latinoamericana y, por otra, efecto de la difuminación de fronteras para mercancías y capitales entre los miembros del Tratado de Libre Comercio de América del Norte. En este sentido, el estudio de caso de la frontera San Diego – Tijuana no pareciera dibujar un área de convergencia económica, cultural y social a la luz de los datos, aunque sí de creciente interacción económica. © Revista Colombiana de Ciencias Sociales.

A new species of Metacyclops Kiefer, 1927 (Copepoda, Cyclopidae, Cyclopinae) from the Chihuahuan desert, northern Mexico

A new species of the freshwater cyclopoid copepod genus Metacyclops Kiefer, 1927 is described from a single pond in northern Mexico, within the binational area known as the Chihuahuan Desert. This species belongs to a group of Metacyclops species with a 3443 spine formula of swimming legs. It is morphologically similar to Metacyclops lusitanus Lindberg, 1961 but differs from this and other congeners by having a unique combination of characters, including a caudal rami length/width proportion of 3.5–3.8, a innermost terminal seta slightly longer than the outermost terminal seta, intercoxal sclerites of legs 1-4 naked, a strong apical spine of the second endopodal segment of leg 1 and one row of 6-8 small spinules at the insertion of this spine. The finding of this species represents also the first record of the genus in Mexico and the third in North America, where only two other species, Metacyclops gracilis (Lilljeborg, 1853)and Metacyclops cushae Reid, 1991 have been hitherto reported. This is also the first continental record of a species of Metacyclops from an arid environment in the Americas. This species appears to be endemic to the Chihuahuan Desert, thus emphasizing the high endemicity of this area.

Borders which unite and disunite: Mobilities and development of new territorialities on the Chile ‐ Argentina frontier

Upon the establishment of National States in the Southern Cone, borders started to be considered as differentiation settings and, according to circumstances, international cooperation areas. Integration processes and neo‐liberal policies implemented in the region in the 1990's, however, nurtured discourses encouraging the constitution of a common territory and the end of National State borders. These discourses and their associated rules paved the way for the creation of a new territory on a binational area. Thus, the Veladero and Pascua‐Lama mining complexes (Iglesia, San Juan, Argentina ‐ Regions III and IV, Chile) became geographical settings where only one transnational mining company may “use, influence upon, control people, phenomena, and relationships” (Sack 1986). While production and reproduction areas can be defined almost freely by transnational capital, the traditionally transhumant inhabitants of the Andes have seen their border mobility restricted by a set of sanitary rules hampering the performance of their activity, e.g. the placement of a portion of their handmade production on non‐local markets. What strategies, then, have been devised by these transhumant social groups in order to continue to carry out their family economic activity, which is actually a legacy from their ancestors?

The idea of Cascadia: Emergent transborder regionalisms in the pacific northwest‐western Canada

Abstract This paper examines the binational economic and ecological region in the Pacific Northwest and western Canada known as “Cascadia.” Growing awareness of regional economic strength and ecological interdependence has stimulated various Cascadia visions and agendas aimed at diminishing the barrier effect of the Canada‐United States border. These visions vary depending on how the region is geographically constructed and the extent to which growth economies or ecosystems are valued. The paper argues that business groups and nongovernmental organizations are the key actors promoting regional ties. The nature of these linkages and cooperative processes that have evolved to sustain them are discussed. The paper concludes by assessing Cascadia as both a set of mind‐sets about the region and evolving frameworks for transnational cooperation and problem solving in the binational area.