The French communes of Contrexville and Vittel are known for their healing waters and health spas, and today they enjoy some of the purest water in all of Europe, but that wasnt always the case. Up until 1992, farms and light industry were dribbling pesticide, dung, and crude oil into rivers and streams, and had been doing so for decades.

But then the communities undertook a massive environmental overhaul: farmers started getting rid of their cows and weaning themselves off of pesticides by rotating their crops in ways that didnt give bugs a chance. Home-owners and businesses started digging up their oil tanks and replacing them with natural gas installations. Today, more than 90 percent of the land in both communes is under some sort of environmental protection.

But this overhaul wasnt led by environmental regulators; it was led by a private company with a very clear incentive.

The company was Swiss food giant Nestl, and its incentive was the fact that its lucrative Vittel, Contrex and Hpar mineral waters were only lucrative because theyre certified as natural. To keep that certification, they had to clean up the rivers that feed the aquifer that in turn feeds the springs that the waters gurgle up from.

The stakes were high enough and the incentive strong enoughthat Nestl created a separate consultancy called Agrivair and spent more than 24.5 million throughout the 1990s to design a system to either compensate farmers for their change in practice, or acquire the land and lease it for free under conditions targeting groundwater protection,according to a new report called State of European Markets 2017: Watershed Investments.

The report is one of three market outlooks that the Forest Trends initiative Ecosystem Marketplace created to support a cluster of new online university courseslaunched by green businesses accelerator ECOSTAR to help organic farmers, watershed managers and other green entrepreneurs better understand the business elements of their respective missions. The ecosystem services e-learning course will run from October to December, and the application deadline isSeptember, 30th. You can learn more atecostarhub.com/e-learning-course.

The Agrivair project still pays farmers an average of 200 per hectare to keep things green, and its one of more than a dozen payments for ecosystem services (PES) programs highlighted in the three reports. Lead author Genevieve Bennett, a Senior Associate at Ecosystem Marketplace, says the project illustrates the ability of companies to provide resources when properly incentivized. She adds, however, that private and public interests rarely line up so neatly, and that such projects work best within a well-structured regulatory environment.

You dont really want a private company taking a lead on decisions about water resources management in your basin, she says in an extensive, 45-minute interview that will run on episode 19 of the Bionic Planet podcast, which is set to be posted on Monday, 17 July. Thats a public issuebut where there is a seat for the private sector at the table is contributing resources: if youre a beverage company and youre concerned about clean water and you want to kick in some funding to help pay for thatthats a positive thing.

The three reports aim to identify the mechanisms that already exist, track the money flowing through them, and help people better understand their workings. They are built on interviews with scores of policymakers, entrepreneurs, and academics across Europe, and they explore existing financing mechanisms for reducing greenhouse gasses, conserving biodiversity, and managing water. Although designed to support the curriculum developed by ECOSTAR, they are designed to be accessible to a larger audience as well, and well be harvesting the findings for future articles on Ecosystem Marketplace.

Each report opens with an introduction that states the challenges in the respective environmental areas, then segues into a simple introduction to mechanisms that can be used to drive finance towards meeting those challenges, followed by an overview of specific European Union directives that drive the mechanisms use in Europe, then detailed findings on how individual countries are using those mechanisms, and finally and deep dives into specific case studies. Where possible, they also track financing flows and this yields interesting findings.

The water report, for example, opens with a clear overview of three basic mechanisms for tapping private finance to support water management (see Figure 1: Mechanisms Tracked in This Report, below). Then it examines drivers like the European Unions Water Framework Directive (WFD) and individual state laws and programs, and finally it examines individual projects like Nestls.

Although built on the same principles as similar programs in the United States, the European initiatives arent yet drawing significant amounts of finance from polluters and users perhaps because most European projects are one-off initiatives executed quietly, while the US restoration economy relies on third-party companies that restore degraded land and that compete in an open, regulated market. The water report, for example, tracks $5.7 billion flowing into water conservation programs, but only $13.4 million of that was coming from users. That means 99 percent of the money was still coming from general public coffers, and not from the companies or individuals that benefit from clean water.

I think that in Europe, we will start to see more and more water users themselves trying to initiate these programs, says Bennett. We have seen a little bit of a preview of that in the United Kingdom, wherethere has been a huge growth in interest on water companies part to manage their catchments because the costs of addressing the issues that theyre dealing with on-site are just getting out of control.

That preview came in part because WWF-UK and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds sued the UKs Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) for non-compliance with the Water Framework Directive, according to Ecosystem Marketplaces 2014 global overview of watershed investments. In response, the report says, DEFRA allocated $2 million to fund catchment partnerships, and 17 of the first 20 partnerships ended up developing payments for watershed services programs to promote sustainable management of the land.

It will be interesting to see if that starts happening on a large scale in Europe as the Water Framework Directive continues to roll out, she says. Its still in the early years, so its a little soon to say, but that basin-based approach is really interesting and exciting.

You can also hear an extended, 45-minute interview with report author Genevieve Bennett in episode 19 of the Bionic Planet Podcast, which is available at Bionic-Planet.com, as well as through iTunes, TuneIn, Stitcher, and wherever you access podcasts. You can also listen here:

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A juvenile black cod is tagged and released back into the ocean. (NOAA photo)

Over the past couple of decades black cod or sablefish has become one of Southeast Alaskas most commercially-important species. Longliners target them in deep waters off the continental shelf, during the same season as halibut.

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Although stocks are strong, biologists dont fully grasp black cod population ecology. A research partnership in Sitka hopes to change that.

Just about all commercially-utilized species in Alaska are studied intensively, and black cod are no different. There are fisheries surveys that go out and count and measure fish, and determine their age. And there are landings tons of black cod sampled by state biologists at the dock.

But in one very important way, black cod are different from, say, salmon. Jamal Moss is a research fisheries biologist with NOAAs Auke Bay Laboratories.

Black cod abundance doesnt seem to be related to the number of spawning adults out there, Moss said.

So what makes it a good year for black cod or, in Mosss words how do the stars align to increase the chances that young black cod will grow to maturity?

All signs point to that happening during their first year of life in the ocean, Moss said.

Moss is back in Sitka where hes teamed up with the Sitka Sound Science Center to survey the ecosystem that produces black cod. Its called the Gulf of Alaska Assessment.

Basically we go out there and measure the physical properties of the ocean. Temperature. We also look at phytoplankton the small plants that live in the ocean as well as zooplankton, larval marine fish, juvenile marine fish that are not larvae anymore, but are free swimming, and everything else we catch, Moss said. And that could range from jellyfish all the way up the line to salmon sharks and most recently, Pacific sunfish.

Sunfish? More on that in a moment. Moss believes that the missing piece to understanding black cod survival is somewhere in the ocean environment especially the kind of food, and the quality, that the juvenile fish need to survive.

As school children school children in Alaska anyway were taught all about the life cycle of salmon. And black cod, which are bottom dwellers, seem remote and mysterious by comparison. But it turns out that black cod have a fascinating beginning.

After they hatch the larvae rise to the surface and they actually spend most of their first year in shallow waters out in the ocean, but at shallow depths, lets say the top three or four fathoms and feed on plankton and other marine fish and critters, Moss said. And then they move closer to shore and typically rear in near-shore habitats before moving out into deeper water.

In Sitka, one of these black cod nurseries is St. John the Baptist Bay, near Salisbury Sound.

The objective of the assessment and its companion tagging study is better management of an important commercial species, but Moss said the bonus is a deeper knowledge of the changing ocean environment, and how it affects all species.

And the ocean is changing. Beginning in 2014 oceanographers detected a massive area of the Pacific Ocean that remained at higher-than-normal temperatures, and is just now dissipating. Nicknamed The Blob, the phenomenon was created by a rare combination of ocean conditions, rather than by climate change. Nevertheless, Mosss surveys during The Blob produced an atypical data set.

We had pomfret, which are a pelagic fish that are typically offshore. We saw those fish come inshore, Moss said. They were eating a lot of the juvenile rockfish Pacific Ocean perch in particular, in 14 and 15. We also saw Pacific sunfish 800-pound fish that we were bringing on deck at times in our trawls. They dont eat very high in the food chain they mostly eat jellies and other things but that was very interesting. And we saw more blue sharks come up into the waters.

All of which can affect the growth and survival of black cod. Moss said we need to understand what tradeoffs are happening in the ecosystem, and if they favor traditional commercial species, or other fish that are important ecologically, but maybe not commercially.

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Ecosystem study unlocks the mystery of black cod survival - Alaska Public Radio Network

Indonesias Leuser Ecosystem one of the largest expanses of tropical rainforest in the world and an ecological hotspot celebrated as the last place on earth where orangutans, rhinos, tigers and elephants coexist in the wild faces mounting pressure from agriculture, industry and infrastructure expansion.

Earlier this month, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee voted unanimously to retain the Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra (THRS) on its List of World Heritage in Danger. This designation is reserved for sites facing serious and specific dangers such as large-scale public or private projects that threaten the future existence of the property. The THRS, a tract of globally significant rainforest that includes part of the Leuser Ecosystem as well as other forests on Indonesias main western island of Sumatra, was in 2004 recognized as a World Heritage site for its extraordinary biodiversity, but has been inscribed on the danger list since 2011.

Although the Leuser Ecosystem is recognized globally and at the national level for its ecological significance, the Aceh provincial governments 2013 land-use plan does not mention the ecosystem. Around 87 percent of the Leusers 2.6 million hectares (~10,000 square miles) falls within Aceh (with the rest in North Sumatra), and officials the semi-autonomous province argue they have the right to develop the area.

Encroachment and illegal settlement, illegal wildlife poaching, roading, industrial development including ongoing proposals for geothermal plants and hydropower dams are still taking place, said Panut Hadsiswoyo, director of the Sumatra-based Orangutan Information Center at a July 4 meeting of World Heritage Committee meeting in Poland.

Planned projects within the ecosystem are also facing challenges closer to home.

One such development is a hydroelectric power plant in Tampur, Gayo Lues Regency, part of the Leuser Ecosystem.

The planned 428-megawatt dam will be 173.5 meters (570 feet) high, with a reservoir capacity of 697.4 million cubic meters (24.6 billion cubic feet). The plans also call for 4,000 hectares (15.4 square miles) to be flooded, and the construction of a network of high-voltage transmission lines.

Although 4,000 hectares of the Leuser Ecosystem will end up under water and dozens of families will have to be relocated, the committee responsible for reviewing environmental impact assessments (EIAs) in Aceh has approved the project.

In a Dec. 28, 2016 hearing, the Aceh EIA Analysis Commission stated that hydroelectric development plans in the regencies of Aceh Tamiang, Langsa City, East Aceh and Gayo Lues were acceptable and environmentally suitable, provided the documents be revised to reflect the advice of members of the technical team and the EIA commission.

The Tampur Dam faces opposition by Gayo Lues residents organized into the Forum of Caretakers of the Forest and the Harimau River (FPHSH), Pining. In a statement, forum chairman Aman Jarum called for a halt to the destruction of the Leuser for any reason.

There are no guarantees that projects carried out by foreigners do not include destructive activities. For the people of Pining, the forests are a part of life, said Jarum, who has previously sued Indonesias interior ministry, and Acehs governor and parliament, for not including the Leuser Ecosystem in the Aceh land-use plan.

Opposition to the dam underscores that the Leuser is not just a critical spot for wildlife. It also serves as a life-support system for some 4 million people in Aceh and North Sumatra.

According to Jarum, the proposed dam site is rich in plant and animal life, as well as serving as a valuable source of river fish. The project threatens the traditional wisdom and way of life of the local people, he said. This area is vulnerable to disasters if the forest is destroyed.

Jarum also questioned to where iconic animals like the Critically Endangered Sumatran elephant and tiger would be relocated. This area is home to numerous protected animals, he said.

The Orangutan Information Centers Hadsiswoyo also emphasized that construction of a high-capacity hydroelectric power plant will have negative impacts on both the people and animals in the area.

The livelihoods of the people of Gayo Lues, East Aceh and Aceh Temiang have traditionally relied on fish from the river system which will be dammed, Hadsiswoyo said. People also gather non-timber forest products like rattan and honey in the Tampur area.

Tampur is a key wildlife habitat within the ecosystem, especially for orangutans, elephants and Sumatran tigers, Hadsiswoyo added. If wildlife habitat is damaged, conflict between humans and wildlife will increase.

In addition to Tampur, a 180-megawatt hydropower dam is planned for South Aceh Regency. This project, known as Kluet 1, is the product of Chinese-Indonesian consortium PT Trinusa Energy Indonesia, with a total investment of 5.6 trillion rupiah ($420 million).

As planned, the Kluet dam will affect 443.79 hectares of protected forest in the subdistricts of Meukek, Sawang, Samadua, Tapaktuan and Central Kluet. The Kluet 1 Dam will also affect another 19.34 hectares of land not zoned as protected forest.

PT Trinusa Energy Indonesia just recently received from the Aceh forestry service a recommendation for a permit to use protected forests, for geological surveys, said Muhammad Nur, Aceh director of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi). The fact on the ground is that this company is cutting trees on the riverbank to set up a base camp and helicopter landing pad, as well as rock drilling.

The South Aceh regent also granted PT Trinusa Energy a land-use permit in February 2016. However, the land-use planning law for South Aceh was not approved by the local parliament until September 2016. This, Nur explained, means the South Aceh regent issued a permit for Kluet 1 before the relevant legislation existed.

The Orangutan Information Center has found an orangutan population in area where the dam is planned. If the Kluet hydropower plant is built, orangutan habit in this area will be disturbed, said Hadsiswoyo.

Aceh province does need energy, but not necessarily a giant power plant, Hadsiswoyo argued, pointing to other countries that have moved away from building large hydroelectric dams. Better to build micro-hydro in large numbers. In addition to not disturbing the environment, it also doesnt depend on one source. Aceh also has other energy sources, such as wind or solar power, he said.

Land cleared to grow corn in the Mount Leuser National Park. Photo by Junaidi Hanafiah/Mongabay-Indonesia.

The Singkil Swamp, one of the region's deepest and most intact peat swamps, also faces encroachment. Photo by Junaidi Hanfiah/Mongabay-Indonesia.

The Singkil Swamp, one of the region's deepest and most intact peat swamps, also faces encroachment. Photo by Junaidi Hanfiah/Mongabay-Indonesia.

Land cleared in the Alas River area of the Leuser Ecosystem. Photo by Junaidi Hanafiah/Mongabay-Indonesia.

Encroachment in the Alas River area. Photo by Junaidi Hanafiah/Mongabay-Indonesia.

Land cleared to grow oil palm within the Leuser Ecosystem. Photo by Junaidi Hanafiah/Mongabay-Indonesia.

Land cleared to grow oil palm within the Leuser Ecosystem. Photo by Junaidi Hanafiah/Mongabay-Indonesia.

A controversial plan to build a geothermal plant in the heart of the Leuser appears to be on hold for now. Aceh Governor Irwandi Yusuf said in March that he would revoke the proposal, which involved re-zoning a core area of Mount Leuser National Park to allow a Turkish company to drill for geothermal energy there. Green groups are, however, awaiting a more binding commitment to definitively quash this project and other such proposals that may arise in the future.

For now, plans to build roads through Mount Leuser National Park also appear to be on hold.

In the meantime, other forms of encroachment and destruction continue. Geographical Information System (GIS) monitoring by green group Forest, Nature and Environment of Aceh better known by its Indonesian acronym Haka shows that Leuser lost more than 22,000 hectares of forest cover between January 2015 and April 2017, including more than 1,800 hectares in the first four months of this year.

Efendi Isma, spokesperson for Aceh Forest Coalition (KPHA) said perpetrators of illegal activities in the park must face sanctions: Law enforcement actions must be taken against encroachers. Otherwise, the perpetrators are free to open up land for oil palm, maize, rubber and other purposes.

This story was reported by Mongabays Indonesia team and was first published on our Indonesian site in a series of articles on June 12, July 4 and July 8, 2017.

FEEDBACK: Use this form to send a message to the author of this post. If you want to post a public comment, you can do that at the bottom of the page.

Banner image: Sumatran elephants (Elephas maximus sumatrensis). Photo by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

Correction: this article has been updated to correctly spell Panut Hadsiswoyos name.

Article published by Isabel Esterman on 2017-07-17.

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As Indonesia's Leuser Ecosystem faces multiple threats, local resistance grows - Mongabay.com

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Rich ecosystem at Pomological Station in Coonoor attracts bird ... The Hindu The Pomological Station near the Sims Park in Coonoor was set up in the late 1940s. and more »

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Rich ecosystem at Pomological Station in Coonoor attracts bird ... - The Hindu

Suppliers and other industry players need to evolve their organizations and their partnering approaches to successfully transition to a new automotive ecosystem, according to a reported released on July 12 by AlixPartners.

Trends such as the connected, autonomous, shared and electric vehicles of the not-too-distant future are causing the auto sector to change directions and quickly. Companies that are relying on traditional auto-industry approaches are falling behind and why they should consider revamping their operating models.

This is especially important, the report says, as U.S. auto sales are forecasted to see a downturn to 16.9 million,light-vehicle units this year and to a cyclical trough of 15.2 million units in 2019 partly driven by a used-car time bomb of 500,000 more off-lease vehicle-returns in 2017 vs. 2016, on top of the 500,000 more in 2016 vs. 2015.

For the last 11 months sales incentives in the U.S. have averaged more than 10% of vehicle prices a historical harbinger of downturns, and that theres a used-car time bomb about to explode in the market 500,000 more off-lease vehicle-returns hitting the market this year than last, likely depressing used-vehicle prices double the 13% drop already since 2014, and costing automakers captive finance companies up to $5 billion.

This all, notes the reports, will likely be a double-whammy to new-vehicle sales, displacing sales to cheaper used cars while increasing lease payments on new vehicles as leases get written with anticipated higher residual rates and tighter credit standards.

On the autonomous-vehicle front, there are now more than 50 major companies are now working on autonomous vehicles or full autonomous-vehicle systems, as well as a plethora of smaller companies and start-ups. This Wild-West environment will likely result in a handful of big winners, says the study, but on the other hand, also many disappointed investors. The report also notes that many of the newer high-tech entrants have completely different DNAs than traditional automotive companies, including being used to very high returns on capital. Given the white-hot competition brewing, the analysis predicts that AV systems-costs could drop 78% by 2025.

On the shared-mobility front, the analysis includes a survey of a total of 2,000 US adult consumers that shows just how fast things are changing in todays automotive world. The survey polled 1,000 consumers across 10 large markets where both car-sharing and ride-sharing are popular (the metro areas of Austin, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Portland, Seattle, San Francisco-Oakland and Washington, D.C) and, as a control group, 1,000 respondents across the entire U.S.

This mirrored a consumer survey by AlixPartners in November 2013. In this years survey, consumers in the 10 trend-setting markets said their awareness for virtually all major car-sharing brands (names such as Zipcar, Car2Go and Enterprise CarShare) has decreased, and 21% of respondents were unable to name any brands at all.

On the connectivity front, the analysis points to the example of Tesla Inc.s high-spec center-stack display, featuring over-the-air upgrades from the company and iPad-like features.Though this feature has been on the market since the 2012 model year, and has garnered very strong reviews from consumers, no other major automaker has moved to match the system.

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New Automotive Ecosystem Is Leaving Many Players Behind: Report - IndustryWeek

183 million years ago, oceans around the world started running low on oxygen. Though the cause of what is called the Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event (T-OAE) is uncertain most likely global warming triggered by huge volcanic eruptions scientists do know it lasted for several hundred thousand years and caused mass extinctions.

In a paper published in the journal Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, researchers have traced the effects of the T-OAE in detail on a marine ecosystem at what is now the Ya Ha Tinda Ranch fossil site in Alberta, Canada. It is of interest to scientists because it demonstrates how different ecosystems react to severe climate change.

Study authors Rowan Martindale from the University of Texas at Austin and Martin Aberhan of the Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science in Berlin used geochemical data from the fossil site that had been previously collected by Benjamin Gill and Theodore Them of Virgina Tech University to establish a timeline against which they could examine paleontological evidence.

Prior to the T-OAE, the Ya Ha Tinda marine community was diverse and included a variety of species of fish, ammonites, ichthyosaurs (dolphin-looking reptiles), sea lilies, clams, coleoids (squid-like octopods) and lobsters. During the T-OAE, however, this underwater ecosystem shrank and restructured.

In particular, a large species of clam that had been the most abundant biological feature was completely wiped out by the reduction of oxygen in the environment. Only smaller species of clams survived.

Sites in Europe have been found that suffered similar effects to their ecosystems during the T-OAE, but the Ya Ha Tinda community appears to have had a much more difficult time recovering from the impact.

The exact reason for this struggle to rebound is unknown, but the researchers state that the environment was undergoing local stresses that kept oxygen levels low.

The authors say that this study should serve as a warning about the potential impacts of ongoing and future climate change to marine communities, since the T-OAE was the side-effect of a similar environmental shift.

On a human time scale, notes Aberhan, climate-related stresses can have very long-lasting effects, with no signs of recovery for hundreds of thousands of years.

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How climate change strangled a Jurassic ocean ecosystem | Cosmos - Cosmos

After more than a week of relative silence, Ingenu officially announced that it is looking for a new CEO and is embarking on a new strategic direction that will include increased emphasis on ecosystem development to bring simple, turnkey solutions to theInternet of Things market. This will include enhancement of the RPMA (Random Phase Multiple Access) brand and focus on enabling and leveraging partners for success. This is essential as RPMA scales to many billions of connected devices.

In a release announcing the news, the company added that it will also work to hire new management focusing on wireless technology veterans that possess the industry experience to position RPMA as the worldwide de facto standard for IoT connectivity, and that it will also leverage operator partnerships to deliver RPMA network connectivity across the globe.

Ingenu said the chairman of its board, Babak Razi, will serve as the companys interim CEO while the company looks for a replacement for its previous CEO, John Horn.

Ingenus RPMA has been established as the industrys disruptive connectivity solution, serving the massive IoT market opportunity, Razi said in the release. With renewed emphasis on its technology, the company and its RPMA ecosystem are well positioned to benefit from this growth.

FierceWireless reported earlier this month that Horn was no longer CEO of Ingenu.

In an interview with FierceWireless following the companys announcement, Ingenus Chief Network Officer Rob Boesel said that we want to accelerate the growth of the RPMA ecosystem, which he explained requires a slightly different focus and slightly different skill set.

He said that Ingenu has been licensing its RPMA technology internationally and will work to expand the licensing of its technology in the United States and globally. He said the company will continue to support its existing network footprint and network operations, and that he expects the changes to the companys focus will result in an acceleration of the expansion of RPMA networks nationwide and globally.

When asked about possible layoffs at Ingenu, Boesel said there was no determination of anything like that but added that there might be some adjustments in the companys workforce to align with its direction.

Interestingly, former top executives from Qualcomm and Verizon appeared to have left Ingenus board, but the company said that former Qualcomm executive Andrew Viterbi and former Verizon executives Ivan Seidenberg and Richard Lynch would continue to work with Ingenu as board advisors.

San Diego, California-based Ingenu launched in more than 30 metro areas in 2016, including Atlanta, Los Angeles and San Diego. Earlier this year the company said that its goal in 2017 was to grow its RPMA markets to around 100. However, Boesel declined to confirm whether the company would hit that number, noting that Ingenus buildout targets are going to be reevaluated.

Boesel added that Ingenus business model has not fundamentally changed and that the company will work with licensees to build out RPMA networks for the IoT, and that going forward the company would work to increase support for the RPMA ecosystem.

In working to create an RPMA ecosystem, Ingenu will be going up against LoRa network technology, which also works in unlicensed spectrum to support IoT applications.

We consider LoRa playing in the same space, but in a different way, Boesel said. The RPMA solution, end to end, is designed and implemented solely by Ingenu, so you have a guarantee of end to end functionality and performance metrics being met. LoRa to us is more fractured, with independent companies delivering different pieces of the solution, which, from a philosophical sort of concept, leads to interoperability and functional performance problems.

Concluded Boesel of Ingenu: There will be a lot more news coming out in the coming weeks, around a number of exciting pilots and the like. The changes were really spurred on by some really fantastic traction weve been getting in the ecosystem space and the success that those opportunities and project executions have brought to the company. We decided that thats something we want a lot more of, and we should be seeing some more press about that in the coming weeks and months.

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IoT provider Ingenu to focus on RPMA 'ecosystem development' amid search for new CEO - FierceWireless

UBS analyst Eric Sheridan is eyeing nearly 20 percent in shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), as he maintained his Buy rating and raised his price target from $1,100 to $1,200.

In our newly published & rebuilt Amazon financial model, we take a fresh approach at modeling some of the long-tailed opportunities that can drive overall Amazon ecosystem value, Sheridan wrote Monday. He specifically highlighted four components he believes will drive growth for shares of Amazon.

Overall, Sheridan remains bullish on Amazon especially after channel checks raised his short/medium-term estimates.

As a result of that, we feel comfortable recommending Amazon as a Buy despite its strong YTD stock performance," Sheridan concluded. "With many avenues of growth ahead, we think that investors are much more likely to remain focused on topline opportunities vs. the quarterly cadence of profit margins."

To read the latest and exclusive financial news, check out the Benzinga Pro news wire.

Image credit: By lvaro Ibez from Madrid, Spain (Amazon Espaa por dentro) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

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BlackRock (BLK) CEO Larry Fink said that "markets have been resilient to political shocks," but even as they anticipate policy normalization, "negative yields remain a reality in some countries."

Fink's comments were made on an earnings call highlighting the company's adaptation to a shifting geopolitical environment and a new wealth management industry centered on implementing technology.

Technology will change "the entire ecosystem of what we do," Fink said. BlackRock will spend $1 billion on technology and data solutions this year with over 3,500 employees in related roles including programming and quant analytics.

Fink also spoke at length about BlackRock's Aladdin Platform investment operating system. Aladdin will be a "transformation" for BlackRock to excel in portfolio construction and risk management. The margins are "subdued" during Aladdin's implementation process, but increased utilization and subsequent revenues will shift Aladdin to the front of BlackRock's operations.

BlackRock stock traded down almost 2% at Monday's open.

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Amazon wants to upend every business, or so it seems: New day, a new business Amazon (AMZN) wants to dip its toes in. The latest looks to be the meal kit space, TheStreet reports.

In a July 6 trademark application, Amazon subsidiary Amazon Technologies Inc. revealed it's planning "prepared food kits composed of meat, poultry, fish, seafood, fruit and/or and [sic] vegetables...ready for cooking and assembly as a meal," as well as primarily grain-based offerings.

The product's tagline: "We do the prep. You be the chef." Amazon already sells other companies' meal kits, including Tyson Foods Inc.'s (TSN) Tyson Tastemakers. Martha Stewart is even offering meal kits on Amazon Fresh, the company's grocery delivery service. But, this may be the first hint of something bigger for Amazon, which would put it in direct competition with newly minted IPO Blue Apron (APRN) .

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Technology Will Change the Entire Ecosystem of What We Do: BlackRock's Fink - TheStreet.com

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Last month, about 20 researchers and community stakeholders convened at Northeastern to talk dataspecifically, newly published data from surveys with Boston residents on topics ranging from demographics to perceptions of community safety.

The Boston Area Research Initiative, or BARIwhich is based at Northeasterns School of Public Policy and Urban Affairsled the meeting, which was designed to demonstrate how community organizations can use a variety of online tools BARI has developed to learn more about the neighborhoods they serve and promote informed advocacy on their behalf.

We are focused on trying to build a thriving civic data ecosystem in Boston, said BARI co-director Daniel T. OBrien, assistant professor with joint appointments in the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs and the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Northeastern.

Launched in 2011, BARI is an interuniversity research partnership between Northeastern and Harvard University, in conjunction with the city of Boston. It focuses on spurring cutting-edge research in the Boston area that advances both scholarship and public policy.

One of BARIs primary projects is the Boston Data Portal, a National Science Foundation-funded infrastructure that harvests and publishes a variety of data related to Boston and its neighborhoodsfrom census and social media data, to city building records and 311 calls. The portal includes an interactive map that allows users to better understand the social dynamics across Bostons neighborhoods. For example, they can view and compare by neighborhood everything from the age of buildings to incidences of 311 and 911 reports.

The results of the Boston Neighborhood Survey from 2010 on topics such how residents perceive disorder and crime in their neighborhoods were recently added to the portals map, and at the meeting last month BARI program coordinator Samantha Levy showed participants how to access this data and compare it alongside other neighborhood dynamicssuch as the locations of schools and community centers.

We think the Boston Data Portal can be used for many different things, Levy said. There are a lot of data-related demands nowadays on nonprofits, and the portal is useful for nonprofits to learn more about the communities theyre serving to enhance their advocacy goals and evaluate their internal operations.

Few city-university collaborations have data infrastructure that is making research-quality data readily available to the public nor are they doing much to engage nonprofits and grassroots community groups, OBrien said. We saw major opportunities for researchers and policymakers to work together, he noted. Not only does BARI run community-based trainings, but the researchers like OBrien who are involved also use them as teaching tools in the classroom for their students.

OBrien explained that BARIs work and his Northeastern research are intertwined. In his research, which focuses primarily on Boston, he uses large, administrative data setsi.e., Big Datain conjunction with traditional methodologies to explore the behavioral and social dynamics of urban neighborhoods.

One particular area of focus is the broken windows theorythat acts of public disorder in neighborhoods lead to future crime. He just wrapped up a five-year research project studying custodianship, or how people take care of their neighborhoods.

In all these different things, he said, the common theme is they all leverage modern digital data to ask interesting questions with scholarly and practical implications.

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Building a 'thriving civic data ecosystem' in Boston - News@Northeastern

Feral species of cane toads could be turning even more deadly, due to their exposure to a common everyday weedkiller.

Scientists in Hungary have discovered that toad tadpoles which have come into contact with the globallyused weedkiller Glyphogan, produce much more of the toxic chemicals used to ward off predators.

The findings, published by The Royal Society on Wednesday, are particularly relevant to Australias cane toad population.

Scientists say they fear our cane toads could become even more toxic, due to the wide variety of habitats on offer, and the amount of pollutants and pesticides our cane toads are exposed to.

"Our results indicate that pesticide pollution might exacerbate the problem of invasive toxic species," author of the study Veronika Bokony said.

"For example, in Australia, the survival of native tadpoles is reduced by poisoning from ingestion of toxic cane toad eggs, and predators suffer drastic mortality due to ingesting or mouthing cane toads."

RoundUp - A common weedkiller used in Australia containing Glyphosate

The study involves testing the effects of the glyphosate-based weedkiller Glyphogan on a vast amount of common tadpoles in a laboratory and a pond at an experiment station near Budapest.

Results showed that all of the exposed tadpoles produced significantly more amounts of bufadienolides (the toxic steroids used by as toads, snakes, and certain plants) after being exposed to Glyphogan for between nine days and three weeks.

The developments spell bad news for our native ecosystems, with scientists opining that the more toxic toads become, the more their predators may switch to other prey.

Cane toads have already had a devastating effect on native animals since arriving on our shores in 1935 and spreading across the country.

The northern quoll populations were hit hardest by the toads arrival, and their poison has also taken down freshwater crocs, snakes and goannas.

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Cane toad mutations destroying our ecosystem - Ten Eyewitness News

Members of the project team worked to construct a rain garden on Brook Lane last August. Courtesy photo

The Town of Shelburne has been awarded a grant of $12,395 from the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation to help fund stormwater system improvements on Brook Lane.

The grant will pay for the town to replace 260 feet of failing stormwater pipe with 260 feet of perforated pipe, stone lining, and two catch basins, according to Ann Janda, Shelburnes director of administration.

The storm drain culvert, which is failing, is located under the road and has been contributing to stormwater overflow issues in the whole Hullcrest Park area, creating safety hazards with water pooling up in ditches, she explained.

Shelburnes Stormwater branch of the Public Works Department worked on Brook Lane last summer in partnership with the Lewis Creek Association, to create a rain garden that would absorb excess water. But they could only concentrate their efforts on a portion of the Brook Lane storm water system.

At the time we wanted to do the whole project from curb to curb on Brook Lane, Janda said. But we did not get the grant we applied for then. This is our second attempt to find a grant that will support the funding.

The VDEC grant will cover half the cost of the project, the rest being paid for by the Town of Shelburne, Janda said. The Storm Water Department plans on using green techniques such as perforated pipe to fix the problems, and to reshape the ditches so that they will lie flatter and wont accumulate as much water. Janda said the nearby rain garden will also help to absorb water that would otherwise go into the ditches.

The Munroe Brook watershed where Brooke Lane is located covers a large swath of land in the center of Shelburne, from Rte. 7 to Dorset Street, and from the South Burlington Town Line to Irish Hill Road. The watershed is currently included in the Agency of Natural Resources Stormwater Imapaired List. Brook Lane is part of an older suburban neighborhood that is in need of stormwater retrofitting.

Ecosystem Restoration Grants such as this are made available to Vermont government entities, non-profit organizations, and citizen groups as part of the Ecosystem Restoration Programs on-going efforts to reduce surface water pollution from phosphorus and sediment. The grants support projects that improve stream stability, protect against flood hazards, improve in-stream and riparian habitat, lessen the effects of stormwater runoff, protect and restore riparian wetlands, re-establish lake shoreline native vegetation, and enhance the environmental and economic sustainability of agricultural lands.

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Shelburne awarded ecosystem restoration grant - Shelburne News

Its rare for Canadians to come out and assert global leadership in anything (barring hockey and winter coats), but here we are, on the brink of adding artificial intelligence (AI) to the list.

This is no small measure. It requires us to move away from the understated modesty that often defines our national character and demands that we take action to be able to declare our place on the world stage.

Thankfully, we have the goods to declare. Seminal breakthroughs such as deep learning and reinforcement learning, which have resulted in unprecedented technological transformation and are currently fuelling the AI engine, were brought to life by Canadian universities. Machines trained on deep-learning algorithms can now automatically recognize objects, translate speech in real time and enable the contextual understanding of data, while reinforcement learning has provided the intelligence that allows computers to beat human world champions in complex and sophisticated games such as Go.

These pioneering achievements can all be traced to labs in Edmonton, Montreal and Toronto.

But in order for our made-in-Canada story to emerge, we need all participants in the AI ecosystem to align behind the same goal. Universities, institutions, startups and enterprises need to work together for the greater good.

The good news is some wheels have finally started to turn. Over the past few months, industry and government have pledged more than $500-million toward AI, a commitment that has led to the rise of powerful institutions such as the Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms, the Vector Institute and the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute. These structures are well positioned to keep churning out cutting-edge research, train the next generation of AI leaders, and advance the innovation and technology transfer of AI.

However, theres still a major gap to close. The majority of Canadian enterprises are not yet at the forefront of AI innovation, despite the fact that many of the worlds leading research scientists are sitting on their doorstep. A recent study by RBC Economics shows that only 13 out of the countrys 60 largest companies are currently making material investments in AI.

Were facing a critical moment in determining whether history will remember Canada as a leader or bit player at the advent of one of the biggest technological leaps in human history. Theres an urgency to act now and act wisely.

And while weve made many of the right moves, we need to do more.

A good place to start is by preserving our own intellectual assets and creating an environment that entices our academics to remain local. Academics help facilitate this shift by training students and company employees on the latest advances, while young entrepreneurs should consider scaling their companies on Canadian soil where they can benefit most from our rich brain trust.

Traditionally, Canadian businesses have lagged on productivity and, as a result, the country has been slower to attract investment and create jobs than other economies. In the AI space, Google has been retraining 5,000 of its engineers in machine learning and, as a result, was able to push to market deep-learning tech at an unprecedented speed.

Our three AI Institutes are set up to offer Canadian businesses similar training programs and theres good reason for them to use these resources: Canadian enterprises that consider investing in state-of-the-art machine-learning and data infrastructure can enjoy results such as increased efficiency in manufacturing, better management of underwriting risk, minimization of fraud and reduction of health-care costs.

We also do better by giving early opportunities to researchers in Canadian companies and encouraging them to become homegrown winners. Companies will find a federal government open to ideas and do well to take advantage of Ottawas recent announcement for supercluster funding through participation and support of the AI cluster. At the same time, Canadian enterprises can help incubate and scale up small businesses or spinoffs while fostering meaningful partnerships with Canadian universities and research centres.

This is particularly important for a field whose lifeline depends on access to massive data sets owned by the few. Scientists benefit from government and industry collaborations that enable privacy-protective sharing of data and information. This level of access can spearhead novel AI solutions in areas such as machine automation, security and medical diagnostics. For instance, Canadian provincial health-care ministries have invested in digitizing patient records and by covering 100 per cent of the population, this information serves as a unique asset to present researchers with a major competitive advantage.

Money, while crucial to this development, is not enough. The government will help tilt the AI playing field in Canadas favour by ensuring our policies keep Canadian firms competitive. We hold a strong advantage already with our open borders and the governments receptiveness to change. But progress requires action and there are tangible steps left to take. Among the most urgent are ensuring the market is well supplied by streamlining immigration, ensuring higher education and industrial research-funding programs are well capitalized and targeted, modifying tax policies to encourage entrepreneurship and streamlining research and development tax credits to support AI investments.

The government can also consider a Canadian fund or additional support mechanisms to encourage the patenting and commercialization of intellectual property in Canada.

All parties are responsible for creating an accessible AI ecosystem that generates value and wealth for our entrepreneurs, investors, businesses and academics. From that baseline, it becomes a self-sustaining system in which good things start circulating back into the environment and allow the stakes to rise.

Lets talk about seeing this vision through and embrace the daring mind-shift of taking on a goal to be a world leader. We need to move fast, with long strides and every party focused on the same prize. Its ours for the taking.

Foteini Agrafioti is the CSO and head of research at RBC Research Institute, Yoshua Bengio is professor at the University of Montreal and head of the Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms and Tomi Poutanen is co-CEO of Layer 6 AI and a founder of the Vector Institute.

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It's time to make the Canadian AI ecosystem bloom - The Globe and Mail

After their instructor for the evening told the kids that honey is essentially bee vomit, some of the youngsters made audible groans. Meanwhile, others couldnt help but smile and shout out, Cool! and then made pretend-vomiting noises and gestures.

About a dozen children and their parents attended Jeffco Open Spaces campfire, which was substituted with a gas-powered fire pit because of area fire restrictions, at Lair o the Bear on Thursday night.

They had the opportunity to make smores, play games, taste honey, and learn about preventing wildfires and bees important role in the ecosystem.

JCOS Rangers Mark Oline and Martin Barwick discussed how fires are started and how to prevent wildfires from starting or spreading.

They showed the different tools firefighters use to dig fire lines, douse fires with water or slurry, and even had Skyler Hart, 10, of Castle Rock dress up in firefighter gear to show all the equipment needed to keep firefighters safe.

Afterward, Charlotte Sandkuhler, environmental education specialist for Majestic View Nature Center in Arvada, taught the children and their parents about the three types of bees in a hive queen, drone and worker and what each of them does.

She gave an analogy of a major league baseball field: theres one pitcher on the field, about 100 players and other staff members, and about 20,000 to 60,000 spectators.

That was about the ratio of queen bees to drones to worker bees in a hive, she said.

Sandkuhler emphasized that bees, and to a lesser degree wasps, help to pollinate plants as they gather nectar, and that its easier to count the number of fruits and vegetables that arent pollinated by bees than the ones that are.

For every one in three bites you take, you should thank a bee, Sandkuhler told the attendees, adding that bee populations are declining nationally.

Good stewards of nature

Brothers Logan, 11, and Davis OBryan, 9, ofLittleton attended with their mom and younger brother after they had visited Majestic View and heard about more of its programming.

The boys said they liked the activities that they did learning about bees, such as tasting different types of honey and playing a pollination game.

Davis said that he thought hearing how long bees live was the coolest fact he learned, clarifying that queens can live three to five years while workers only live six weeks.

Loganadded that everyone should know that bees are in danger, and that people need to respect bees and wasps because of their roles in pollination. He said he also really liked learning what honey really was.

Likewise Natalie Hart, 7, of Castle Rock also enjoyed hearing how honey is made, describing the process as disturbing but interesting.

Her brother Skyler said his favorite part was being dressed up in the firefighters outfit, but commented that the shroud over his face made it hard to breathe sometimes.

He also pointed out that it was important to know that wasps have an actual purpose: helping to pollinate.

All four kids said they had fun and would like to come back for another campfire event.

Mike Dempsey, JCOS education specialist, said the events are a great way for families to learn about trail safety, resource management and ecology, as well as an opportunity to spend time outside and enjoy a campfire and smores.

Open Space will organize one more campfire event at Lair o the Bear for 2017, which will be in mid-July, he said.

Both Dempsey and Sandkuhler said they hope the attendees were able to take away more reasons to appreciate Mother Nature.

I hope they try to do one more thing to help the environment, Sandkuhler said. Kids inColorado are already very aware of those things, but I want them to continue being good stewards of nature.

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Campfire an opportunity to teach kids about wildfires, ecosystem - Canyon Courier

Serving as a launchpad for entrepreneurs from throughout the region who are looking to start businesses, Al Masah Capital Limited (AMCL) has been at the forefront of honing start-up entrepreneurial skills in the region.

With the start-up trend showing no signs of abating, AMCL sees the technology industry, e-commerce and distribution as popular sectors for growth in the start-up ecosystem.

Adding up to the benefits, the UAE provides start-ups with a favourable regulatory framework, low taxes and government support.

Cashing on these, AMCL has been presenting start-ups with opportunities to raise capital from a myriad of venture capital firms, private equity firms, and angel investors. AMCL helps investors who are looking to invest in different sectors of the industries and advises them on their investments.

Fintech ecosystems have stimulated technological innovation, made financial markets and systems more efficient, and improved the overall customer experience. A consensus is emerging among governments and financial institutions that nurturing these ecosystems is important and beneficial for the region.

Believing strongly in the philosophy of bringing buyers closer to their sellers; AMCL, over the years has contributed towards the rise in terms of advising investors and aiding start-ups with finances.

Capitalising on the growing population in a tech-savvy generation; AMCL is open about encouraging digital technology based start-ups in the region.

AMCLs contribution in the start-up healthcare segment is commendable. In fact Healthcare MENA Limited (HML) was founded in 2011 by AMCL. Its vision for HML was to create a region-wide healthcare network through a buy-and-build strategy, acquiring profitable and non-capital intensive healthcare businesses and integrating them into a unified entity.

Realising that new business ideas and trend-making concepts cannot thrive in a vacuum; AMCL has been consciously channelling efforts to provide a flourishing ecosystem to start-ups with financial assistance as well as professional advice.

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Funding growth: Al Masah Capital encourages UAE's entrepreneurial ecosystem - ArabianBusiness.com

By offering a smorgasbord of different services under a single umbrella and streamlining the customer experience, ecosystem brandsare proving to be some of the most valuable companies in the world.

Google, Apple, Microsoft and Amazon the top fourbrands in Kantar Millward Browns 2017 BrandZ ranking fall into the ecosystem brand category, each of which connects with consumers across a number of different touchpoints making them highly desirable.

Ecosystem brands cleverly meet our needs and make our lives easier by offering us all sorts of things that are connected so we gain this traction with them, says Peter Walshe, BrandZ global strategy director. Amazon, in particular, has mastered that way of establishing a perfect relationship with people.

But is it a model that will work for every business?

READ MORE:Ecosystem brands are the clear winners in the BrandZ top 100

Entering the BrandZ top five for the first time in 2017, Amazon grew its brand value by 41% to $139bn (108bn), success driven in large part by its expanding ecosystem. Each aspect of the ecosystem isconnected by the 79-a-year Amazon Prime subscription model, which offers members a range of exclusive perks, including free same-day delivery and access to Amazons own-brand fashion.

Expanding the brand proposition, as well as growing Prime membership, continues to be the goal. This year alone Amazon has launched live music venture Prime Live Events, own-brand mens and womenswear fashion label Find and splashed out 10.7bn on the acquisition of natural food grocery brand Whole Foods.

Amazon is a convenience brand. Youre not loyal to Amazon, youre loyal to the convenience it provides.

The deal sent waves through the global grocery market, as rivals reacted to the prospect of Whole Foods being added to the Amazon Fresh grocery delivery service.

READ MORE:Amazon continues its journey into food with 10.7bn acquisition of Whole Foods

The acquisition was mentioned more than 304,000 times on social media during the days following the announcement of the deal on 16 June, according to data from social listening and analytics company, Brandwatch. While the public reaction was 63.7% positive, many questioned the synergy between Amazon and a natural food grocery brand like Whole Foods, which has 466 stores across North America and the UK.

Four days later Amazon expanded its ecosystem further with the announcement it is trialling a personalised subscription clothes service called Prime Wardrobe,similar to The Chapar in the UK or Trunk Club in the US.

Prime Wardrobe will allow Prime members to order clothing with no upfront charge and then pay for what they keep from the selection, receiving a 20% discount across Amazons site if they keep five or more items.

The roll-out of Prime Wardrobe on 20 June was largely overshadowed by the continued discussion around the Whole Foods deal, notching up just 9,500 mentions online, according to Brandwatch figures. These discussions were, however, largely upbeat, registering 89.1% positive sentiment, showing consumers continue to supportthe ever-expanding Amazon ecosystem.

By tying all these services together under a single parent brand, connected by a subscription model, Amazon is steadily extending its influence into a wide variety of sectors from film and TV to live music, clothing and food.

While Amazon excels in offeringconvenience across itsecosystem, that does not necessarily mean the business has built real brand affinity, says Trinity Mirror group marketing director Zoe Harris.

Amazon is a convenience brand. Youre not loyal to Amazon, youre loyal to the convenience it provides and if someone can do that convenience better or cheaper, I think people would switch quite quickly, which is different to a genuine brand where you have an emotional relationship.I think theres a difference between brand diversification and this idea of ecosystem brands.

Within the Trinity Mirror group, she explains, it is crucial that each media brand has its own unique sense of identity and connection with its readers, both in the local community and nationally.

Some of our news brands are over 150-years-old, so they have this incredible relationship with their readers. In Liverpool people would say they are working for the Liverpool Echo not Trinity Mirror, but they are part of that bigger family, says Harris.

You look at what the Liverpool Echo did for 30 years after Hillsborough, it shows the real integrity of that brand and the real connection it has with the people of Liverpool. That would be impossible to have if it said Trinity Mirror on the masthead.

Instead of sitting under a single homogenous brand, what connects the Trinity Mirror brands is a shared perspective on life. Harris defines that perspective as being for the many, not the few, producing journalism that holds people to account, gives a voice to the underdog and celebrates ordinary people.

She argues that having a suite of distinctive brands helps Trinity Mirror meet consumer needs at different times, catering for different mindsets. So while readers will look for an unbiased, national perspective about Manchester United on the Daily Mirror, they will also go to the Manchester Evening News to get that fan-first view.

Cultivating brand fans across every touchpoint is also key to success at ecosystem brand Microsoft. This strategy is particularly relevant as its data shows that fans of one Microsoft brand tend to have higher usage and adoption of other Microsoft products, explains consumer marketing director Paul Davies.

While each brand in Microsofts consumer portfolio, from Windows to Surface to Xbox, has its own distinct set of fans, some are fans of the Microsoft parent brand and therefore want to tap into the benefits of a connected ecosystem. It is for this reason that the technology has been specifically designed to connect best when used together.

For example, Windows is our operating system, which is available on our own Surface hardware, which in turn can run Office software and so everything connects seamlessly for consumers, says Davies.

We care about our fans more than ever as their influence has never been greater in todays digitally and socially connected world. This approach is evidenced in a number of initiatives we have to create new fans and influencers, and to nurture them.

Spanning social networks, entertainment and utilities, Chinese internet giant Tencent has created an ecosystem of diverse services through a process of prolific investment.

We call it the Tencent family, says corporate vice-president of Tencent,Steven Chang. The ecosystem is even bigger because we also invested, for instance in JD.com [Chinasnumber two ecommerce site], Didi [the Chinese Uber] and [bike sharing business] Mobike.Three months ago we also invested in Tesla.

We are investing in different ways, which is helping us build up abig coverage in terms of multiple platforms either through us or our Tencent family members.

We care about our fans more than ever as their influence has never been greater in todays digitally and socially connected world.

Chang describes Tencent as building a true ecosystem, encompassing services such as instant messaging app QQ and social network WeChat, as well as online payment platform Tenpay, Tencent games and streaming service QQ Music. Tencent can then easily track the identityof its customers across its different platforms.

This is really powerful, Chang adds. This is what I call the Tencent advertising ecosystem with recognisable ID that we can track.

The ecosystem strategy appears to be working for Tencent, which claimed eighth spot on Kantar Millward Browns 2017 BrandZ ranking.

READ MORE:Chinas biggest brand on its plans to conquer the West

With a portfolio spanning 30 hotel brands in 124 countries, Marriott International has developed three loyalty programmes Marriott Rewards, Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) and The Ritz-Carlton Rewards to connect and track customer journeys across the group.

The hotel chainthen uses data on customer preferences from its more than 100 million rewards members to recommend different destinations across the group, thereby leveraging the power of a diverse portfolio. Members arealso able to link their Marriott Rewards and SPG loyalty accounts in order to transfer points across the programmes.

With 30 distinct brands that service millions of diverse people every year our members do not want a one-size-fits-all programme, which is why we created one that is flexible and places emphasis on creating an emotional connection by enabling our members to use their earned points for experiences, on and off property, personalised to them, says Stephanie Linnartz, Marriott International chief commercial officer.

Every day Marriott works to sharpen the distinction between hotel brands. Each of our brands has distinct traits, from room types, food and beverage options and amenities, providing a wealth of data and insights.

Following the completion of the acquisition of hotel group Starwood in September, Marriott International chose to raise awareness of its wider portfolio of brands with the launch of the You Are Here campaign, featuring the stories of real loyalty members at staying at different hotels across the group.

READ MORE:RitsonMarriott faces one of the toughest jobs in branding

The organisation is working to bring its loyalty programmes closer together to gain richer data insights and drive relationships with brand partners such as the NFL andUniversal Music Group, explains Linnartz.

The hotel group has also invested in travel search platform PlacePass, which enables visitors to search for 100,000 in-destination experiences across 800 locations, that can be booked direct through the Marriott and SPG apps.

A similar connected approach is being taken at Virgin. Leveraging the potential of an ecosystem spanning five core sectors and 60 million customers, Virgin is tapping into the rich data collected through its connected loyalty programme Virgin Red to create personalised experiences across every touchpoint in the ecosystem.

READ MORE:Why Virgin is launching a loyalty app to unite all its UK businesses for the first time

This means that a Virgin Media and Virgin Active member,who is also using Virgin Trains regularly, would receive different personalised rewards to someone who is only a Virgin Media customer. Virgin Red also uses application programme interfaces (APIs) to recognise and serve exclusive content to users. So for example, if Virgin Money wants to offer a limited edition credit card to its top spenders this can seamlessly be delivered through the Virgin Red app.

The seamlessness of the offer is crucial as consumers see Virgin as one brand and therefore expect a consistent customer experience, saysVirgin Red head of marketing Gaelle Comte.

We know that the more Virgin a user is, the more loyal and engaged they are across the whole group and all industries. Theyre also more likely to favour Virgin over another brand when theyre choosing a product in a new category, says Comte.

I hope in the future we will be able to consolidate other aspects of the customer experience through our app so as a customer you could book your spin classes or check your flight status all through Virgin Red but thats quite a big ambition.

While the goal as an ecosystem brand is to offer a connected and consistent customer experience that reflects the Virgin tone of voice, Comte acknowledges that each company in the group has to tailor its approach to make it relevant for the industry in which it operates.

You can be playful when it comes to a holiday, but a bank needs to have some gravitas to retain credibility. So our group customer experiencestrategy allows for the flex needed by all Virgin companies to ensure they can tailor it to their customers needs and expectations, says Comte.

Reflecting on whether ecosystem brands are the future, Comte acknowledges a trend towards the consolidation of brands worldwide, from Facebooks acquisition of Instagram and WhatsApp, to Google moving under theAlphabet umbrella.

Many more follow their lead and these companies aim to make their users lives easier by connecting industries and touchpoints, says Comte. If they succeed and therefore create a new model of loyalty, then they will undoubtedly be the future.

By offering a suite of services under a single, connected proposition, brands like Amazon are cashing in on their convenience, usingloyalty programmes and subscription models to keep consumers within their ecosystem. However, by keeping every service under a single brand ecosystem brands are ultimately reliant on the strength of the parent brand alone,which in todays turbulent times could prove a risky strategy.

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The Big Debate: Is becoming an 'ecosystem' brand the only way to win customer loyalty? - Marketing Week

(KNOM file photo)

The University of Alaska Fairbankshas begun a new, comprehensive ocean ecosystem study on the Bering and Chukchi Seas.

From June 9th to 28th, the crew of the research vesselSikuliaqcollected preliminary data through observations of marine mammals, birds, weather conditions and much more. It was the first research cruise of its kind funded by UAF; while theSikuliaqhas sailed in sub-Arctic waters before, the June sailing was its maiden voyage as a research vessel for UAF.

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As Dr. Seth Danielson explained, this study focused on how changing climate would affect everything in the ocean, all the way down to the smallest organisms:

Small scales and large scales we are trying to get a handle on what our ocean looks like out here, what the ecosystem looks like: how its working, how its functioning, Danielson said. And, hopefully, put ourselves in a better position to be able to anticipate what this ecosystem really could be looking like ten and twenty years down the road from now.

Danielson works with the University of AlaskaFairbanks College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, and he was one of the crew members aboard theSikuliaq. The entire science party involved was made up of grad students from UAF, scientists from various organizations, and Opik Ahkinga, a resident of Little Diomede.

Danielson said every participant on the research team put in large amounts of work while running on minimal amounts of sleep.

We traveled about 2,700 nautical miles, and we spent 180 hours of on-station, over-the-side wire operations going on, collecting up to 6,500 liters of water for (the) team, who got to lug all of those around from one end of the deck to the other, Danielson said. They dredged up 45,000 baby clams, measured and counted (them) very precisely.

According to Danielson, its been 30 years since a study of this magnitude has taken place in the Northern Bering and Chukchi Seas.

Going forward, more data will be collected on sea temperatures in these areas, then released in comprehensive reports and publications for the public. Danielson expects their full findings wont be available for five years or so.

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UAF research vessel begins ecosystem study in Bering and Chukchi ... - Alaska Public Radio Network

The volume of data that the billions of things lying at the edge of the Internet of Things (IoT) will generate needs a comprehensive strategy for protocol mediation, processing, analysing, storing, securing, applying, and even sharing data to deliver value-creating and scalable use cases to industries and consumers.

But, while trying to figure out how to manage Big Data, it is easy to forget that, when it comes to the IoT, it is actually the little things that matter.

With the objective of maximising energy efficiency, many sensors are configured to only send small packets of data which, for convenience sake, can be called small data.

Small data is, for example, the temperature inside the storage area of a truck carrying perishable goods, sent out once every 10 minutes.

It is the data relayed from a sensor placed above a parking bay that notes when the space is taken. Or the tiny packet of data relayed once a day from a water level sensor inside a reservoir, logging whether it is submerged or not.

Small data gives context and enables us to identify patterns in behaviour, enabling machine learning, and driving data analytics, opening up a big world of opportunity.

The amount of data sent out in each case is minuscule often no more than just a few bytes in size. And it needs to be, since larger data packets can place a heavy payload burden on the base station of a wireless IoT network that needs to connect and service millions of things.

Hence, while it is easy to say dont sweat the small stuff, for the IoT, it is the small stuff that truly matters.

This is because all these small data packets eventually make up larger data sets from which to draw certain information.

Take for example the parking-bay-sensor data mentioned earlier. Using the collected data from a parking lot over a period of months, the shopping centre management can trace a pattern of busy periods and quiet ones.

This enables them to notify tenants when to run specials to attract more customers.

As IoT usability expands, the reliance on small data packets that deliver more points of context become even more important.

In certain use cases, a whole cascade of events will be triggered as soon as one sensor sends through specific data.

One case in point is a patient being monitored at home something we will see a lot more of as telehealth becomes more commonplace.

When accelerometer data from a wearable on an aged patient records an abrupt stop, it might indicate an injurious fall.

This will trigger an automatic notification to the next of kin and the patients doctor. If no further movement from the patient is detected for a certain time, emergency services will be alerted to dispatch an ambulance.

Furthermore, the patients smart home security system could also send out an access code once the ambulance crew arrives. This complete range of events is subject to the reliability of a small data sensor and a trustworthy network.

To ensure the dependability of small data emanating from IoT sensors, SqwidNet, a subsidiary of DFA, is rolling out the SIGFOX IoT network in South Africa.

The SqwidNet network is purpose built for listening to and delivering small packets of contextual data from these billions of connected things.

Importantly, the SIGFOX standard ensures low-power usage, which is key to maximising sensors battery life.

Since the launch in November 2016, they have successfully deployed the network across all of South Africas eight major metros and they currently cover over 47% of the population.

The network will exceed 85% of the population by the end of the year.

While the growth of IoT is a given, it is important to ensure that the foundations being laid now are stable and futureproof.

To this end, securing small datas place in the setup remains crucial. It its one small step for data; one giant leap for IoT.

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Small Data The crucial cog in the IoT ecosystem - MyBroadband

The historic Captain Angus J. Walters House in Lunenburg is more than a museum dedicated to the captain of the Bluenose, it is also the home to the Bluenose Coastal Action Foundation (BCAF), a charitable organization that addresses the environmental concerns in the South Shore region.

BCAF was established in 1993 and it has grown to an internationally recognized organization. BCAFs goal is to promote the restoration, enhancement and conservation of the ecosystem through research, education and action. BCAF is involved in many environmental projects, including species at risk, watershed-based and environmental education projects. The organization receives direction from a volunteer board of directors supported through a full-time executive director Brooke Nodding.

Nodding is quick to point out that BCAF concentrates on research and the collection of scientific data. The organization is not a lobby group and while they partner with other organizations and groups that may have vested interests, BCAF focuses on the collection and analysis of accurate data which is often made available to community groups and various levels of government.

We are not an issue-focused group, nor are we a lobby group or an advocacy group, Nodding says. Our basis is science. We have worked hard to develop the trust of several groups and to form good working relationships with several local and provincial organizations, including all levels of governments.

Education is an important part of BCAFs mandate and one component are Earth Adventure Camps, held every summer at the Morton Centre on Heckmans Island. The camps being offered in 2017 include:

1. Nature Detectives for children ages six to eight. The afternoon camp will run from July 10 to 14. Children will be asked to help solve a mystery. Natures clues will be used to understand habitats and discover what all creatures need to survive. Children will be encouraged to use their sneaky detective skills to solve the puzzle of the shapeshifters.

2. Wild Adventurers is a full day camp for children ages nine to 12 and will take place July 31 to Aug. 4. Children attending will learn skills from wild animals about how to live in harmony with the natural world. Those skills will be put to the test when the attendees build and sleep in their own forest shelters.

3. Eco Scientists, scheduled for Aug. 14 to 18, is designed for children ages six to eight. They will be encouraged to become a scientist who conducts experiments, explores the natural world, and uncovers the beauty and mysteries of the great outdoors.

There will also be family events that are suitable for all ages and are free of charge. More information on the upcoming camps is available by emailing education@coastalaction.org.

When you are attending the local farmers markets or the summer festivals in our South Shore communities you may see a booth or display distributing information about BCAF. This is another method that the organization uses to get information about the projects and events that are currently underway at BCAF to interested individuals.

There are 14 projects listed as current on the BCAFs website http://www.coastalaction.org, from the American Eel project to Microplastic Debris Research to Stormwater Management. Another current project is the study of the Atlantic Whitefish, which is related to salmon and trout. The endangered Atlantic whitefish is not found anywhere in the world except for Nova Scotia. Historically, this fish has been found in only the Tusket River and the Petite Riviere watersheds. Many factors, including over-fishing, acidification, inadequate fish passage, and the introduction of non-native species are believed to have contributed to the loss of this species on the Tusket River. The introduction of invasive species including smallmouth bass and pickerel add to the unknown factors in recover planning for the Atlantic whitefish. BCAF has found partially digested salmon in the stomachs of pickerel. And in one case there were two living baby snap turtles removed from the stomach of a pickerel.

BCAF is looking forward to staffing three additional term positions for the summer months. Some of the positions at BCAF are long-term and permanent while others are term positions and depended on funding.

While most of the projects that BCAF staff are working on are in the Lunenburg County area, the organization has worked on international projects, provided information to various government departments at all levels and studied specific environmental issues in various parts of the Maritimes. This diverse group is a well-kept secret that is working every day to learn more about the South Shore ecosystem and how it can can be protected for future generations.

Excerpt from:

Bluenose Coastal Action Foundation :Protecting the ecosystem with a basis in science - TheChronicleHerald.ca

Beach closures, habitat loss and degradation and beach fouling in the eastern basin continue to be major concerns, the study's authors say.

A U.S.-Canada governmentstudyexamining the status and trends of the Great Lakes ecosystem determined that Lake Erie's ecosystem is in poor condition and deteriorating.

Those findingswere released recently in the State of the Great Lakes 2017 Highlights Report. The report was assembled by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Environment and Climate Change Canada.

"I am not surprised that Lake Erie is in the most difficultcondition of the five Great Lakes,''saidDave Skellie,acoastal land use and economic specialist with Pennsylvania Sea Grant. "Why is it having these problems? There are a lot of population centers, and Lake Erie is the most developed from a land use and population standpoint, with Detroit, Toledo, Cleveland, Erie and Buffalo on its shores.''

The ecosystem status for Lake Superior was found to be "in good condition and the trend is unchanging,'' while the ecosystem status for Lakes Michigan, Huron and Ontario were labeled "in fair condition and the trend is unchanging,'' according to the study.

Overall, the Great Lakes are assessed as fair and unchanging.

The U.S. and Canadian governments, pursuant to theGreat Lakes Water Quality Agreement,basedtheir studyfindings on nine indicators of ecosystem health: drinking water, beaches, fish consumption, toxic chemicals, habitats and species, nutrients and algae, invasive species, groundwater quality, and watershed impacts and climate trends.

Those indicators are supported by 44 sub-indicators, which measure such things as concentrations of contaminants in water and fish tissue, changes in the quality of and abundance of wetland habitat and the introduction and spread of invasive species.

More than 180 government and nongovernment Great Lakes scientists and other experts assembled data on the sub-indicators and what those indicators revealed. Status was defined as poor, fair or good. Trend was defined as deteriorating, unchanging or improving.

"Harmful algal blooms resulting from excessive nutrient inputs occur regularly in the western basin and Lake St. Clair during summer, and have impacted drinking water treatment systems,'' the study said of Lake Erie. "Beach closures, habitat loss and degradation, and beach fouling in the eastern basin continue to be major concerns.''

OtherLake Erie study findingsindicate that increased amounts ofdecaying algae "exacerbate seasonal anoxia (depleted dissolved oxygen conditions) and hypoxia (low oxygen conditions) in bottom waters of the central basin.''

Despite thosechallenges, the study found some positive Lake Erie ecosystem trends, including increased walleye across the lake and lake sturgeon in the St. Clair-Detroit River system; increased aquatic habitat connectivity due to dam removal and mitigation projects; and declines insea lamprey wounding of fish since 2010.

The study reports that, since 2009, the western Lake Erie Cooperative Weed Management Area partners in Ohio and Michigan have treated more than13,000 acres of invasive phragmites, resulting in a 70 percent decrease in live phragmites in Ohio and a resurgence of native plants in Michigan and Ohio.

Some of those study indicators also tell researchers that the Great Lakes remain a source of high-quality drinking water; that some beaches are unsafe for swimming at times due to bacterial contamination; that we are losing the battle against aquatic invasive species, and that we face challenges with nutrient loadings in Lake Erie.

"Information from studies like these are crucial to informing the public and helping regulating agencies do their job better,'' Skellie said. "It appears that Lake Erie is being hit the hardest with these series of problems with the nine indicators of the Great Lakes ecosystem health.''

While the study reports that progress has been made in reducing toxic chemicals in the Great Lakes,the reportsays invasive species, harmful algal blooms and nutrient-related runoff continue to harm the Great Lakes Basin ecosystem.

"We continue to move into outlying areas, where you have more impact on the watershed that is draining into the lakes,'' Skellie said.

Skellie said more than 180 invasive species are established in the Great Lakes basin.

"We have a lot of challenges there,'' Skelliesaid."I would say we have a lot of work to do to stabilize where we're at, let alone moving the needle in a positive direction to restoring the lakes closer to where they once were. It's never going to return to pre-humanity days. We have to work harder and be smarterand find resources to address these problems.''

Ron Leonardi can be reached at 870-1680 or by email. Follow him on twitter at twitter.com/ETNleonardi.

See more here:

Study: Health of Lake Erie's ecosystem 'poor, deteriorating' - GoErie.com