Litterfall Dynamics and Nutrient Cycling in Mangrove Forests of Southern Everglades, Florida and Terminos Lagoon, Mexico.

The objective of this dissertation was to investigate the processes that control litterfall and nutrient dynamics in two contrasting mangrove ecosystems at the Southeastern (SE) Everglades and Terminos Lagoon. The main objectives were: (a) to determine the spatial and temporal variability of litterfall dynamics, (b) to evaluate the relative importance of nutrient use efficiency as a nutrient conservation mechanism along a natural nutrient gradient, and (c) to assess the relative importance of nutrient resorption on litterfall dynamics. Two hypotheses were tested: (a) mangrove species living in nutrient-poor environments and in nutrient-rich environments do not differ in the efficiency in using nutrients, (b) nutrient resorption and nutrient immobilization do not differ along a natural nutrient gradient. Litterfall rates were lowest in a dwarf mangrove forest at SE Everglades and highest in fringe and riverine forests at Terminos Lagoon. Litterfall dynamics were linked to the local tidal pattern at each study site. Litter turnover rates were higher in areas most influenced by tides and lower in areas less affected by tides. In areas where tides were less frequent litterfall turnover was lower and nutrient immobilization was higher. Laguncularia racemosa and Rhizophora mangle were more efficient In resorbing both phosphorus and nitrogen than Avicennia germinans. This pattern was similar at both study regions; however, nutrient resorption was higher at SE Everglades sites and lower at Terminos Lagoon sites. Also, phosphorus resorption was higher than that of nitrogen, indicating that in carbonate environments phosphorus is more limiting than nitrogen. Since nutrient resorption was higher at SE Everglades, dry matter degradation was slower at these sites, relative to Terminos Lagoon. Thus, nutrient resorption plays an important role in controlling the nutrient economy in mangrove forests where phosphorus is limiting. Nutrient resorption was linked to patterns of litterfall dynamics. Thus, in mangrove forests where leaf turnover was high, nutrient conservation was enhanced at the canopy level, while at sites where leaf turnover was low, nutrient immobilization via leaf decomposition became an important mechanism to recycle nutrients

Sistema ciber-físico aplicado al mantenimiento predictivo en el sector hotelero

El sector turístico es clave para la economía española, por lo que desarrollos e innovaciones en términos de digitalización son necesarios para mejorarlo. Para ello, se plantea la utilización de sistemas ciber-físicos, los cuales parten del concepto de la virtualización de la planta mediante la adquisición de los estados de los equipos físicos. A partir de esta esta información, y mediante algoritmos específicos, se realizan acciones para cerrar los lazos de control, fomentando la digitalización del sector industrial. En este sistema ciber-físico se va a utilizar una aplicación de mantenimiento predictivo de los equipos de clima. Se ha desarrollado una red de adquisición de datos con algoritmos que se encarguen de la gestión y procesado de datos. Estos sistemas tienen conectividad a internet. Por último, cerrando el lazo de control, se actúa sobre el sistema cambiando el estado físico de los equipos. Este sistema se ha desplegado sobre una instalación hotelera específica, pudiendo ser interoperable con tecnologías de terceros

Integrated Carbon Budget Models for the Everglades Terrestrial-Coastal-Oceanic Gradient: Current Status and Needs for Inter-Site Comparisons

Recent studies suggest that coastal ecosystems can bury significantly more C than tropical forests, indicating that continued coastal development and exposure to sea level rise and storms will have global biogeochemical consequences. The Florida Coastal Everglades Long Term Ecological Research (FCE LTER) site provides an excellent subtropical system for examining carbon (C) balance because of its exposure to historical changes in freshwater distribution and sea level rise and its history of significant long-term carbon-cycling studies. FCE LTER scientists used net ecosystem C balance and net ecosystem exchange data to estimate C budgets for riverine mangrove, freshwater marsh, and seagrass meadows, providing insights into the magnitude of C accumulation and lateral aquatic C transport. Rates of net C production in the riverine mangrove forest exceeded those reported for many tropical systems, including terrestrial forests, but there are considerable uncertainties around those estimates due to the high potential for gain and loss of C through aquatic fluxes. C production was approximately balanced between gain and loss in Everglades marshes; however, the contribution of periphyton increases uncertainty in these estimates. Moreover, while the approaches used for these initial estimates were informative, a resolved approach for addressing areas of uncertainty is critically needed for coastal wetland ecosystems. Once resolved, these C balance estimates, in conjunction with an understanding of drivers and key ecosystem feedbacks, can inform cross-system studies of ecosystem response to long-term changes in climate, hydrologic management, and other land use along coastlines

Geographic patterns of tree dispersal modes in Amazonia and their ecological correlates

Aim: To investigate the geographic patterns and ecological correlates in the geographic distribution of the most common tree dispersal modes in Amazonia (endozoochory, synzoochory, anemochory and hydrochory). We examined if the proportional abundance of these dispersal modes could be explained by the availability of dispersal agents (disperser-availability hypothesis) and/or the availability of resources for constructing zoochorous fruits (resource-availability hypothesis). Time period: Tree-inventory plots established between 1934 and 2019. Major taxa studied: Trees with a diameter at breast height (DBH) ≥ 9.55 cm. Location: Amazonia, here defined as the lowland rain forests of the Amazon River basin and the Guiana Shield. Methods: We assigned dispersal modes to a total of 5433 species and morphospecies within 1877 tree-inventory plots across terra-firme, seasonally flooded, and permanently flooded forests. We investigated geographic patterns in the proportional abundance of dispersal modes. We performed an abundance-weighted mean pairwise distance (MPD) test and fit generalized linear models (GLMs) to explain the geographic distribution of dispersal modes. Results: Anemochory was significantly, positively associated with mean annual wind speed, and hydrochory was significantly higher in flooded forests. Dispersal modes did not consistently show significant associations with the availability of resources for constructing zoochorous fruits. A lower dissimilarity in dispersal modes, resulting from a higher dominance of endozoochory, occurred in terra-firme forests (excluding podzols) compared to flooded forests. Main conclusions: The disperser-availability hypothesis was well supported for abiotic dispersal modes (anemochory and hydrochory). The availability of resources for constructing zoochorous fruits seems an unlikely explanation for the distribution of dispersal modes in Amazonia. The association between frugivores and the proportional abundance of zoochory requires further research, as tree recruitment not only depends on dispersal vectors but also on conditions that favour or limit seedling recruitment across forest types

Clonal chromosomal mosaicism and loss of chromosome Y in elderly men increase vulnerability for SARS-CoV-2

The pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19) had an estimated overall case fatality ratio of 1.38% (pre-vaccination), being 53% higher in males and increasing exponentially with age. Among 9578 individuals diagnosed with COVID-19 in the SCOURGE study, we found 133 cases (1.42%) with detectable clonal mosaicism for chromosome alterations (mCA) and 226 males (5.08%) with acquired loss of chromosome Y (LOY). Individuals with clonal mosaic events (mCA and/or LOY) showed a 54% increase in the risk of COVID-19 lethality. LOY is associated with transcriptomic biomarkers of immune dysfunction, pro-coagulation activity and cardiovascular risk. Interferon-induced genes involved in the initial immune response to SARS-CoV-2 are also down-regulated in LOY. Thus, mCA and LOY underlie at least part of the sex-biased severity and mortality of COVID-19 in aging patients. Given its potential therapeutic and prognostic relevance, evaluation of clonal mosaicism should be implemented as biomarker of COVID-19 severity in elderly people. Among 9578 individuals diagnosed with COVID-19 in the SCOURGE study, individuals with clonal mosaic events (clonal mosaicism for chromosome alterations and/or loss of chromosome Y) showed an increased risk of COVID-19 lethality

Mapping density, diversity and species-richness of the Amazon tree flora

Using 2.046 botanically-inventoried tree plots across the largest tropical forest on Earth, we mapped tree species-diversity and tree species-richness at 0.1-degree resolution, and investigated drivers for diversity and richness. Using only location, stratified by forest type, as predictor, our spatial model, to the best of our knowledge, provides the most accurate map of tree diversity in Amazonia to date, explaining approximately 70% of the tree diversity and species-richness. Large soil-forest combinations determine a significant percentage of the variation in tree species-richness and tree alpha-diversity in Amazonian forest-plots. We suggest that the size and fragmentation of these systems drive their large-scale diversity patterns and hence local diversity. A model not using location but cumulative water deficit, tree density, and temperature seasonality explains 47% of the tree species-richness in the terra-firme forest in Amazonia. Over large areas across Amazonia, residuals of this relationship are small and poorly spatially structured, suggesting that much of the residual variation may be local. The Guyana Shield area has consistently negative residuals, showing that this area has lower tree species-richness than expected by our models. We provide extensive plot meta-data, including tree density, tree alpha-diversity and tree species-richness results and gridded maps at 0.1-degree resolution

Tractament de manteniment amb metadona: manual de pràctica clínica

Tractament de manteniment amb metadona; Pràctica clínica; DrogodependènciesTratamiento de mantenimiento con metadona; Práctica clínica; DrogodependenciasMethadone maintenance treatment; Clinical practice; Drug addictionsEl Manual pretén ser una eina útil per disminuir la variabilitat de la pràctica clínica i garantir un nivell òptim de qualitat i millora de l'atenció sanitària en el tractament de manteniment amb metadona (TMM). Aplica les normes bàsiques utilitzades per a la preparació de guies de pràctica clínica; en primer lloc, incloent-hi la millor evidència possible sobre la base de revisions sistemàtiques de la literatura, en segon lloc, amb recomanacions clares i curtes, i en tercer lloc, en absència d’una evidència fiable en la literatura, incorporant-hi la opinió d’experts per mitjà de tècniques de consens com el mètode Delphi

Geography and ecology shape the phylogenetic composition of Amazonian tree communities

Aim: Amazonia hosts more tree species from numerous evolutionary lineages, both young and ancient, than any other biogeographic region. Previous studies have shown that tree lineages colonized multiple edaphic environments and dispersed widely across Amazonia, leading to a hypothesis, which we test, that lineages should not be strongly associated with either geographic regions or edaphic forest types. Location: Amazonia. Taxon: Angiosperms (Magnoliids; Monocots; Eudicots). Methods: Data for the abundance of 5082 tree species in 1989 plots were combined with a mega‐phylogeny. We applied evolutionary ordination to assess how phylogenetic composition varies across Amazonia. We used variation partitioning and Moran's eigenvector maps (MEM) to test and quantify the separate and joint contributions of spatial and environmental variables to explain the phylogenetic composition of plots. We tested the indicator value of lineages for geographic regions and edaphic forest types and mapped associations onto the phylogeny. Results: In the terra firme and várzea forest types, the phylogenetic composition varies by geographic region, but the igapó and white‐sand forest types retain a unique evolutionary signature regardless of region. Overall, we find that soil chemistry, climate and topography explain 24% of the variation in phylogenetic composition, with 79% of that variation being spatially structured (R2 = 19% overall for combined spatial/environmental effects). The phylogenetic composition also shows substantial spatial patterns not related to the environmental variables we quantified (R2 = 28%). A greater number of lineages were significant indicators of geographic regions than forest types. Main Conclusion: Numerous tree lineages, including some ancient ones (>66 Ma), show strong associations with geographic regions and edaphic forest types of Amazonia. This shows that specialization in specific edaphic environments has played a long‐standing role in the evolutionary assembly of Amazonian forests. Furthermore, many lineages, even those that have dispersed across Amazonia, dominate within a specific region, likely because of phylogenetically conserved niches for environmental conditions that are prevalent within regions

Author correction: One sixth of Amazonian tree diversity is dependent on river floodplains

In the version of the article initially published, the affiliation of Edgardo Manuel Latrubesse was incorrect and has now been amended to Environmental Sciences Graduate Program-CIAMB, Federal University of Goiás, Goiânia, Brazil in the HTML and PDF versions of the article

Mapping density, diversity and species-richness of the Amazon tree flora

Using 2.046 botanically-inventoried tree plots across the largest tropical forest on Earth, we mapped tree species-diversity and tree species-richness at 0.1-degree resolution, and investigated drivers for diversity and richness. Using only location, stratified by forest type, as predictor, our spatial model, to the best of our knowledge, provides the most accurate map of tree diversity in Amazonia to date, explaining approximately 70% of the tree diversity and species-richness. Large soil-forest combinations determine a significant percentage of the variation in tree species-richness and tree alpha-diversity in Amazonian forest-plots. We suggest that the size and fragmentation of these systems drive their large-scale diversity patterns and hence local diversity. A model not using location but cumulative water deficit, tree density, and temperature seasonality explains 47% of the tree species-richness in the terra-firme forest in Amazonia. Over large areas across Amazonia, residuals of this relationship are small and poorly spatially structured, suggesting that much of the residual variation may be local. The Guyana Shield area has consistently negative residuals, showing that this area has lower tree species-richness than expected by our models. We provide extensive plot meta-data, including tree density, tree alpha-diversity and tree species-richness results and gridded maps at 0.1-degree resolution