How to promote wellbeing in old age is an issue that is drawing increasing attention as populations age in societies around the world. This study explores arts participation in later life and creative ageing through artistic engagement. We focus on potential participants who have had little prior experience with the arts, examining their journey through artistic activities, and the broader benefits to society of a creatively engaged population. We applied an action research methodology by designing two phases of arts workshops, one focused on hands-on creation activities and the other on appreciation of professional artists' works. This approach yielded the following findings. First, facilitation is key to initiating and sustaining artistic engagement among older adults, in part by helping them adapt to a changing society. Second, potential participants should be centred in discussions on creative initiatives. In particular, still active pre-seniors have much to offer in developing creative ageing initiatives. Third, arts participation for creative ageing goes far beyond the individual; it promotes community wellbeing and contributes to creating social value. Finally, we make an actionable suggestion that ‘facilitation for arts participation’ be developed as a specialised professional field.

The problems of today are increasingly complex in nature. Yet, most support provided by design agencies and innovation consultancies is based on unstructured approaches, guided by the facilitators own intuition. This article presents the Teckel canvas, an approach to guide problem reframing in facilitation to both tackle solution and problem understanding. After synthesising the main insights from prominent reframing methods and models, a meta-process of reframing was created, which was translated into a practical canvas. Two Dutch case studies are examined in which the proposed reframing canvas is tested. When this canvas was used in facilitation, we found out that the medium and message can be reframed separately or together and that the canvas can be used as a tool for overview on the subject. Our findings indicate that an explicit and tangible use of reframing can improve solving complex problems to be more clear, visual and reflective.

The continued development of the aquaculture industry is contributing to the proliferation of artificial structures in the marine environment. Observations of seaweed farms (infrastructure and biomass) suggest they act as a habitat for associated species. Seaweed farms differ from other forms of artificial infrastructure as the material deployed already has marine organisms (i.e. culture species) growing on it. This ‘priming’ of ropes with juvenile sporophytes may affect future development of communities by facilitating colonizing species or suppressing competitors. We call this process ‘ecological priming’: the provision of a biological platform that influences the successional development of specific communities. The communities that developed on ropes primed with Alaria esculenta individuals were compared with unprimed ropes to assess the ecological priming effect, at a commercial kelp farm in south-west Ireland. Species richness increased over two cultivation seasons and species composition was consistent between years, with distinct communities developing on primed and unprimed treatments. Timing of species occurrence on primed ropes was predictable with no predictable pattern occurring on unprimed ropes. Multivariate tests indicated distinct communities between treatments, with suppression of other algal species and potential facilitation of some species that have a particular association with A. esculenta on primed ropes. Communities from primed holdfasts contained a lower diversity of algal species compared with unprimed communities. Cultivated kelp holdfasts represent a habitat for distinct assemblages that reflect ecological priming of the substratum.

With the growing human population, and their improving wealth, it is predicted that there will be significant increases in demand for livestock products (mainly meat and milk). Recent years have demonstrated that the growth in livestock production has generally had significant impacts on wildlife worldwide; and these are, usually, negative. Here I review the interactions between livestock and wildlife and assess the mechanisms through which these interactions occur. The review is framed within the context of the socio-ecological system whereby people are as much a part of the interaction between livestock and wildlife as the animal species themselves. I highlight areas of interaction that are mediated through effects on the forage supply (vegetation) – neutral, positive and negative – however, the review broadly analyses the impacts of livestock production activities. The evidence suggests that it is not the interaction between the species themselves but the ancillary activities associated with livestock production (e.g. land use change, removal of predators, provision of water points) that are the major factors affecting the outcome for wildlife. So in future, there are two key issues that need to be addressed – first, we need to intensify livestock production in areas of ‘intensive’ livestock production in order to reduce the pressure for land use change to meet the demand for meat (land sparing). And second, if wildlife is to survive in areas where livestock production dominates, it will have to be the people part of the socio-ecological system that sees the benefits of having wildlife co-exist with livestock on farming lands (land sharing and win-win).

Canopy-forming fucoid algae have an important role as ecosystem engineers on rocky intertidal shores, where they increase the abundance of species otherwise limited by exposure during low tide. The facilitative relationship between Ascophyllum nodosum and associated organisms was explored using a frond breakage experiment (100%, 50%, 25%, 0% intact-frond treatments) in southern England, to assess the consequences of disturbance. Understorey substratum temperature was on average 3°C higher in 0% and 25% intact-frond treatments than in plots with 50% and 100% intact fronds. Light (as PAR during low tide) doubled in 0% intact-frond treatments in comparison to other treatments (which had similar light levels). Mobile invertebrate species richness declined by on average 1 species per m2 in the treatments with only 25% and 0% intact fronds, and the abundance of Littorina obtusata declined by 2.4–4.2 individuals per m2 in the treatments with 25 and 0% intact fronds. Sessile taxa, including Osmundea pinnatifida and encrusting coralline algae, declined by half on average in the 0% intact-frond treatment. These results suggest that the ability of Ascophyllum to mediate environmental conditions to the understorey is the mechanism responsible for species distributed in the understorey (autogenic ecosystem engineering). The results of this study imply that a pulse disturbance resulting in a 50% breakage of Ascophyllum fronds significantly increases temperature and decreases the abundance of mobile invertebrates usually associated with Ascophyllum. Sessile taxa associated with Ascophyllum can, however, withstand disturbances down to 25% intact Ascophyllum fronds.

Plant competition studies designed to quantify interference between species provide valuable information on competitive interactions and on the effects of agronomic practices on those interactions. The effect of each species' density on the growth of itself and on the growth of the other species is quantified in a series of regression models. Traditionally, the models' regression coefficients have been combined in a series of ratios to quantify relative competitive ability and niche differentiation. Coefficients that are negative (positive interference—facilitation, mutualism) or zero (neutral interference or nonsignificant coefficient) do not lend themselves well to ratio-based methodology because of sign cancellation or undefined values, respectively. As a result, ratio-based methodology is limited to using only positive coefficients (negative interference—amensalism, competition). Rather than using ratios, the absolute-log method uses addition and subtraction of coefficients converted to a pseudologarithmic scale, thus allowing for use of coefficients with values that are negative or zero. As a result, the absolute-log method can be used to quantify relative competitive ability and niche differentiation involving all types of interference—negative, positive, and neutral. The absolute-log method includes an optional statistical procedure constructing confidence intervals for the estimates of relative competitive ability and niche differentiation.

Any plant not sown from seed is often labeled a weed in improved pastures of New Zealand. Most improved pastures are a mix of perennial ryegrass and white clover but generally are infested with broadleaf weeds. Changes in forage production due to individual weeds were determined using measurements of perennial ryegrass and white clover before and after dairy cattle, beef cattle, or sheep grazing under, near, and far from individual plants of six rosette-forming weed species throughout a growing season. The larger weeds, bull thistle and musk thistle, reduced the amount of forage utilized 42 and 72%, respectively, in beef cattle– and sheep-grazed hill-country pastures. Forage production under and near Canada thistle, hedge mustard, broadleaf plantain, and hairy buttercup in a dairy pasture was greater (136, 140, 178, and 450%, respectively) than in the control areas. Although the dairy pasture was grazed following recommended grazing procedures, our results indicate that this grazing system was not maximizing forage yield potentials of perennial ryegrass and white clover and that these weeds served as an indicator that the pasture was being overgrazed.

The interactions between native and exotic species occur on a continuum from facilitative to competitive. A growing thrust in invasive species science is differentiating where particular native species occur along this continuum, with practical implications for identifying species that might reduce the invasibility of ecosystems. We used a greenhouse experiment to develop a competitive hierarchy of 27 native species with red brome, an invasive annual grass in the arid lands of the southwestern United States, and a field study to assess in situ responses of brome to native perennial species in the Mojave Desert. Native species most competitive with brome in the competition experiment included the annuals Esteve's pincushion and western fiddleneck and the perennials eastern Mojave buckwheat, sweetbush, and brittlebush, which reduced brome biomass to 49 to 70% of its grown-alone amount. There was no clear difference in competitive abilities with brome between annual and perennial natives, and competiveness was not strongly correlated (r = 0.15) with the biomass of the native species. In the field, sweetbush and brittlebush supported among the least cover of brome, suggesting congruence of the strong early competitive abilities of these species with in situ patterns of brome distribution. At the other extreme, brome attained its highest average cover (19%) below littleleaf ratany, significantly greater than all but 3 of the 16 species evaluated. Cover by brome was only weakly related (r = 0.19) to the area of the perennial canopy, suggesting that factors other than the sizes of perennial plants were linked to differences in brome cover among species. Results suggest that (1) interactions with brome differ substantially among native species, (2) these interactions are not as closely linked to biomass production as in more temperate regions, and (3) there is potential for identifying native species that can reduce invasion of desert ecosystems.

Experimental removals of the dominant canopy-forming kelp Ecklonia radiata were conducted at two sites on rocky walls in New Zealand and monitored for approximately 1.5 years. We hypothesized that the removal of the E. radiata canopy would affect the structure of subcanopy assemblages, such that there would be a reduction in sponge species richness and abundance. Furthermore, we investigated the biological and physical (predictor) variables that best explained variability in sponge assemblages after canopy removal. Canopy removal led to a community dominated by turf algae, which corresponded with a decrease in sponge abundance and richness. Our results suggest that the Ecklonia canopy may positively influence the presence of sponge species such as Crella incrustans; we propose that the canopy may allow its coexistence with turf algae underneath the canopy by altering the light regime and other environmental factors, which may be detrimental for some species. Our results highlight how any loss of canopy-forming species might have negative effects on sponge assemblages, which could affect the energy flow and the overall biodiversity found in these habitats.