Modeling the effect of grazing on carbon and water use efficiencies in grasslands on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau

Abstract Background Carbon and water use efficiencies (CUE and WUE, respectively) are vital indicators of the adaptability of plants to environmental conditions. However, the effects of grazing and climate change on the spatiotemporal changes in CUE and WUE in Qinghai–Tibet Plateau grasslands (QTPG) are still unclear. Results Using the enhanced Biome-BGCMuSo model in combination with observed data, we estimated and analyzed the spatiotemporal variations in CUE and WUE and their responses to grazing in QTPG from 1979 to 2018. The mean annual CUE was 0.7066 in QTPG from 1979 to 2018 under the actual climate scenario. In general, the grassland CUE was low in the southeast and high in the northwest. Grazing generally decreased CUE in QTPG from 1979 to 2018, and there was an increasing trend in the difference in CUE between the grazing and nongrazing scenarios. The difference in CUE was generally greater in the northwest than in the southeast. The mean annual WUE was 0.5591 g C/kg H2O in QTPG from 1979 to 2018 under the actual climate scenario. After 2000, the grassland WUE exhibited a fluctuating upward trend. In general, the grassland WUE was greater in the southeast than in the northwest. Grazing generally decreased WUE in QTPG from 1979 to 2018, and there was an increasing trend in the difference in WUE between the grazing and nongrazing scenarios. The difference in WUE was generally greater in the northwest than in the southeast. Conclusions The findings of this study suggested that the spatiotemporal changes in CUE and WUE in QTPG were closely related to changes in the natural environment and grazing management

Quantifying and Mapping Human Appropriation of Net Primary Productivity in Qinghai Grasslands in China

Human appropriation of net primary productivity (HANPP) is an important indicator for assessing ecological sustainability. However, the spatiotemporal dynamics of HANPP in the Qinghai grasslands remain unclear. In this study, we used the spatially explicit Biome-BGCMuSo model to quantify and map HANPP in the Qinghai grasslands from 1979 to 2018. Generally, the actual net primary productivity (NPPact) was slightly lower than the potential net primary productivity (NPPpot), and the difference between the NPPpot and NPPact increased slightly over time. From 1979 to 2001, the NPPpot and NPPact were relatively stable; however, from 2001 to 2018, both showed significant fluctuating upward trends. From 1979 to 2018, HANPP showed a fluctuating upward trend from 6.36 to 31.85 gC/m2/yr, with an average increase of 2.14 gC/m2/yr. The average HANPP was 16.90 gC/m2/yr, which represented 18.80% of the NPPpot of Qinghai grasslands. High HANPP mainly occurred in eastern Qinghai, whereas it was low in central and western Qinghai. Conversely, from 1979 to 2018, the HANPP efficiency decreased in a fluctuating way from 98.28% to 72.05%, with an average annual decrease of 0.66%. The interannual variations in the HANPP efficiency and harvest were negatively correlated, with a correlation coefficient of −0.46 (p < 0.01). The average HANPP efficiency was 85.33%, and the values in most grids were between 80% and 100%, being relatively low in southern and eastern Qinghai. In rare cases, the HANPP efficiency was greater than 1. This study clarifies the details of spatiotemporal dynamics of HANPP in the Qinghai grasslands and indicates the need to optimize local management of grassland resources to ensure future ecological sustainability

Quantifying and Mapping Human Appropriation of Net Primary Productivity in Qinghai Grasslands in China

Human appropriation of net primary productivity (HANPP) is an important indicator for assessing ecological sustainability. However, the spatiotemporal dynamics of HANPP in the Qinghai grasslands remain unclear. In this study, we used the spatially explicit Biome-BGCMuSo model to quantify and map HANPP in the Qinghai grasslands from 1979 to 2018. Generally, the actual net primary productivity (NPPact) was slightly lower than the potential net primary productivity (NPPpot), and the difference between the NPPpot and NPPact increased slightly over time. From 1979 to 2001, the NPPpot and NPPact were relatively stable; however, from 2001 to 2018, both showed significant fluctuating upward trends. From 1979 to 2018, HANPP showed a fluctuating upward trend from 6.36 to 31.85 gC/m2/yr, with an average increase of 2.14 gC/m2/yr. The average HANPP was 16.90 gC/m2/yr, which represented 18.80% of the NPPpot of Qinghai grasslands. High HANPP mainly occurred in eastern Qinghai, whereas it was low in central and western Qinghai. Conversely, from 1979 to 2018, the HANPP efficiency decreased in a fluctuating way from 98.28% to 72.05%, with an average annual decrease of 0.66%. The interannual variations in the HANPP efficiency and harvest were negatively correlated, with a correlation coefficient of &minus;0.46 (p &lt; 0.01). The average HANPP efficiency was 85.33%, and the values in most grids were between 80% and 100%, being relatively low in southern and eastern Qinghai. In rare cases, the HANPP efficiency was greater than 1. This study clarifies the details of spatiotemporal dynamics of HANPP in the Qinghai grasslands and indicates the need to optimize local management of grassland resources to ensure future ecological sustainability

Development of a nomogram to predict the incidence of acute kidney injury among ischemic stroke individuals during ICU hospitalization

Background: Limited clinical prediction models exist to assess the likelihood of acute kidney injury (AKI) occurrence in ischemic stroke individuals. In this retrospective study, our aim was to construct a nomogram that utilizes commonly available clinical features to predict the occurrence of AKI during intensive care unit hospitalization among this patient population. Methods: In this study, the MIMIC-IV database was utilized to investigate potential risk factors associated with the incidence of AKI among ischemic stroke individuals. A predictive nomogram was developed based on these identified risk factors. The discriminative performance of the constructed nomogram was assessed. Calibration analysis was utilized to evaluate the calibration performance of the constructed model, assessing the agreement between predicted probabilities and actual outcomes. Furthermore, decision curve analysis (DCA) was employed to assess the clinical net benefit, taking into account the potential risks and benefits associated with different decision thresholds. Results: A total of 2089 ischemic stroke individuals were included and randomly allocated into developing (n = 1452) and verification cohorts (n = 637). Risk factors for AKI incidence in ischemic stroke individuals, determined through LASSO and logistic regression. The constructed nomogram had good performance in predicting the occurrence of AKI among ischemic stroke patients and provided significant improvement compared to existing scoring systems. DCA demonstrated satisfactory clinical net benefit of the constructed nomogram in both the validation and development cohorts. Conclusions: The developed nomogram exhibits robust predictive performance in forecasting AKI occurrence in ischemic stroke individuals

Human appropriation of net primary production estimates in the Xinjiang grasslands.

The human appropriation of net primary production (HANPP) was developed to estimate the intensity of human activities in natural ecosystems, which is still unclear in the Xinjiang grasslands. Using the Biome-Biogeochemical Cycle (Biome-BGC) grazing model in combination with field data, we assessed the HANPP and explored its spatiotemporal patterns in the Xinjiang grasslands. Our results showed that (1) the HANPP increased from 38 g C/m2/yr in 1979 to 88 g C/m2/yr in 2012, with an average annual increase of 1.47%. The HANPP was 80 g C/m2/yr, which represented 51% of the potential net primary production (NPPpot), and the HANPP efficiency was 70% in this region. (2) The areas with high HANPP values mainly occurred in northern Xinjiang and northwest of the Tianshan Mountains, while areas with low HANPP values mainly occurred in southern Xinjiang and southwest of the Tianshan Mountains. (3) Interannual variations in HANPP and NPPpot were significantly positively correlated (P<0.01). Interannual variations in HANPP efficiency and grazing intensity were negatively correlated (P<0.01). These results can help identify the complex impacts of human activities on grassland ecosystems and provide basic data for grassland management

Arbuscular Mycorrhiza Fungi Strengthen the Beneficial Effects of Warming on the Growth of Gynaephora Menyuanensis Larvae

 Herbivores experience an unprecedented variously impacts of climate warming. Besides, arbuscular mycorrhiza fungi (AMF) also is influence on herbivores through their common host plants. Surprisingly, there are no reports about how AMF affect the responses of herbivores to warming. To close this gap, we conducted a two factors experiment to research the effects of warming, fungicide (AMF suppression), and their interaction on the development of Gynaephora menyuanensis larvae, an endemic generalist herbivore species in northeastern Tibetan Plateau, and nitrogen content of Elymus nutans, which was the main food of G. menyuanensis. Warming significantly advanced the pupation time (PT), expanded the phenomena of protandry and increased the growth rate (GR) of G. menyuanensis larvae. Fungicide not affected the development of G. menyuanensis larvae, despite their negative effects on the content of E. nutans. Warming with fungicide decreased the GR of G. menyuanensis compared with warming treatment. In other words, AMF strengthen the beneficial effects of warming to G. menyuanensis. This study provides the first evidence of the impacts of AMF on the response of herbivore to warming

Data from: Ecosystem nitrogen retention is regulated by plant community trait interactions with nutrient status in an alpine meadow

1.Biotic nitrogen (N) retention is an important ecosystem function in the context of ongoing land use intensification, N deposition and global warming. However, a paucity of experimental evidence limits understanding of how different plant community components influence N retention in terrestrial ecosystems. 2.In this investigation we conducted a 15N labelling experiment to test how plant community properties, including plant species richness/diversity, dominance and functional traits, influence plant N uptake and retention under different nutrient availabilities. A three-year experiment examined the effects of adding N (10 g N m−2 year−1) and phosphorus (P) (5 g P m−2 year−1) to an alpine meadow on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. 3.Results show that 15N retention increased with the addition of N and P; the addition of P produced the largest increase of 15N retention in plant and soil N pools. Changes in soil nutrient conditions also facilitated different plant community controls on ecosystem N retention. Ecosystem 15N retention was influenced by species richness and root biomass in the control plots; whereas the N addition treatment showed an important effect of community-weighted means (CWM) of specific leaf area (SLA), and plots with additional P recorded lower CWM of root nitrogen content (root N) and larger CWM root:shoot ratios (R/S) as important determinants. 4.Synthesis. Ecosystem N retention was influenced by conservative and exploitative plant species and/or their traits under N deficient and abundant conditions, respectively, whereas species richness and community plant biomass were most influential under control conditions. The discovery of an interaction between plant community traits and nutrient biogeochemistry as a mechanism for ecosystem N retention offers a means to predict how vegetation in alpine meadow ecosystems will respond to expected global change

Unveiling poly(rC)-binding protein 2 as the target protein for curcusone C against prostate cancer: mechanism validation through click chemistry-activity based proteomics profiling approach

Abstract Background Prostate cancer is a disease that seriously troubles men. However, there are some inevitable limitations in interventional therapy for prostate cancer patients at present, most of which are caused by low selectivity and high toxic side effects due to unclear drug targets. In this study, we identified the target protein of Curcusone C with anti-prostate cancer potential activity and verified its target and mechanism of action. Methods Click chemistry-activity based proteomics profiling (CC-ABPP) method was used to find target protein of Curcusone C against prostate cancer. Competitive CC-ABPP, drug affinity responsive target stability (DARTS) and surface plasmon resonance (SPR) methods were used to verifying the target protein. Moreover, potential mechanism was validated by western blot in vitro and by hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining, detection of apoptosis in tumor tissue (TUNEL), and immunohistochemical (IHC) in vivo. Results We found that poly(rC)-binding protein 2 (PCBP2) was the target protein of Curcusone C. In addition, Curcusone C might disrupt the Bax/Bcl-2 balance in PC-3 cells by inhibiting the expression of the target protein PCBP2, thereby inducing mitochondrial damage and activation of the mitochondrial apoptosis pathway, and ultimately inducing apoptosis of prostate cancer cells. Conclusions Curcusone C is a potential compound with anti-prostate cancer activity, and this effect occurs by targeting the PCBP2 protein, which in turn may affect the TGF/Smad signaling pathway and Bax/Bcl-2 balance. Our results laid a material and theoretical foundation for Curcusone C, to be widely used in anti-prostate cancer

Data submit -2017.11.28

The data collected site was located at HBAMERS (latitude 37°37' N and longitude 101°12' E). The research station lies at 3200 m a.s.l on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau and is subjected to a typical plateau continental climate, with short cool summers and long cold winters. Mean annual temperature is 2 ℃ and mean annual precipitation is 500 mm; with over 80% of precipitation falling during the summer months from June to August. The experiment was conducted in an alpine meadow dominated by Kobresia humilis, Festuca sinensis, Elymus nutans, Poa pratensis, Stipa purpurea, Carex tristachya, Gentiana straminea, Potentilla nivea and Gentiana farreri. Soil type is Gelic Cambisol with an average thickness of 0.65 m