Tool use increases mechanical foraging success and tooth health in southern sea otters ().

Although tool use may enhance resource utilization, its fitness benefits are difficult to measure. By examining longitudinal data from 196 radio-tagged southern sea otters (), we found that tool-using individuals, particularly females, gained access to larger and/or harder-shelled prey. These mechanical advantages translated to reduced tooth damage during food processing.

Top-predator recovery abates geomorphic decline of a coastal ecosystem.

The recovery of top predators is thought to have cascading effects on vegetated ecosystems and their geomorphology, but the evidence for this remains correlational and intensely debated. Here we combine observational and experimental data to reveal that recolonization of sea otters in a US estuary generates a trophic cascade that facilitates coastal wetland plant biomass and suppresses the erosion of marsh edges-a process that otherwise leads to the severe loss of habitats and ecosystem services. Monitoring of the Elkhorn Slough estuary over several decades suggested top-down control in the system, because the erosion of salt marsh edges has generally slowed with increasing sea otter abundance, despite the consistently increasing physical stress in the system (that is, nutrient loading, sea-level rise and tidal scour).

Barriers and enablers for safe medication administration in adult and neonatal intensive care units mapped to the behaviour change wheel.

Background: Intensive care settings have high rates of medication administration errors. Medications are often administered by nurses and midwives using a specified process (the '5 rights'). Understanding where medication errors occur, the contributing factors and how best practice is delivered may assist in developing interventions to improve medication safety.