A global synthesis reveals biodiversity-mediated benefits for crop production

Human land use threatens global biodiversity and compromises multiple ecosystem functions critical to food production. Whether crop yield-related ecosystem services can be maintained by a few dominant species or rely on high richness remains unclear. Using a global database from 89 studies (with 1475 locations), we partition the relative importance of species richness, abundance, and dominance for pollination; biological pest control; and final yields in the context of ongoing land-use change. Pollinator and enemy richness directly supported ecosystem services in addition to and independent of abundance and dominance. Up to 50% of the negative effects of landscape simplification on ecosystem services was due to richness losses of service-providing organisms, with negative consequences for crop yields. Maintaining the biodiversity of ecosystem service providers is therefore vital to sustain the flow of key agroecosystem benefits to society. [Abstract copyright: Copyright © 2019 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC).

MR-Untersuchungen bei Patienten mit Herzschrittmachern und implantierbaren Kardioverter-Defibrillatoren : Konsensuspapier der Deutschen Gesellschaft fuer Kardiologie (DGK) und der Deutschen Roentgengesellschaft (DRG) [MRI examinations in patients with cardiac pacemakers and implantable cardioverter defibrilators : Consensus paper of the German Cardiac Society (DKG) and the German Roentgen Society (DRG)]

This joint consensus paper of the German Roentgen Society and the German Cardiac Society describes the physical and electrophysiological background and provides specific recommendations for the procedural management of patients with cardiac pacemakers (PM) and implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICD) undergoing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The paper outlines the responsibilities of radiologists and cardiologists regarding patients education, indications, monitoring, modification of MRI sequences and PM/ICD reprogramming strategies being discussed in particular. The aim is to optimize patient safety and to improve legal certainty in order to facilitate the access of SM/ICD-patient to MR imaging. The key message of this paper are as follows: 1. Conventional PM and ICD systems are no longer an absolute but rather a relavite contraindication for performing an MRI examination. Procedural management includes the assessment of the individual risk/benefit ratio, comprehensive patient informed consent about specific risks and "off label" use, extensive PM/ICD-related and MRI-related safety precautions to reduce these risks to the greatest extent possible, as well as adequate monitoring techniques. 2. MR conditional pacemaker and ICD system have been tested and approved for MRI examination under specific conditions ("interlabel" use). Precise understanding of and compliance with the terms of use for the specific pacemaker system are essential for patient safety. 3. The risk for an ICD patient during MRI examinations to be considered significantly higher compared to PM patients due to the higher vulnerability of the structural damaged myocardium and the higher risk of irreversible damage to conventional ICS systems. The indication for an MRI examination of an ICD patient should therefore be determinded on a stricter basis and the expected risk/benefit ratio should be critically reviewed. 4. This complex subject requires close collaboration between radiology and cardiology