The Missing Piece: Drought Impacts Monitoring Report from a Workshop in Tucson, AZ MARCH 5-6, 2013

Based on a shared interest to better understand the impacts of drought and the potential utility of using drought impacts reporting as a tool for monitoring conditions, researchers from the Carolinas RISA (Dow, Lackstrom, and Brennan), the Climate Assessment for the Southwest (Crimmins and Ferguson), and the Southwest Climate Science Center (Meadow) decided to convene a workshop in Tucson in March 2013. The primary goal was to assemble a small group of university and agency scientists involved with drought impacts monitoring to discuss opportunities and barriers associated with drought impacts reporting, recommend best practices for implementing a drought impacts reporting system, and develop a path forward for addressing or overcoming barriers. The longer-term objective of the initial meeting was to explore the feasibility of creating a community of practice that could share information and integrate activities related to drought impacts research and reporting

The value and opportunities of community-and citizen-based approaches to tropical forest biodiversity monitoring

The biodiversity sourcebook is accessible in pdf format for free from:•GOFC-GOLD Land Cover Office website: http://www.gofcgold.wur.nl/sites/gofcgold-geobon_biodiversitysourcebook.php•GEO BON website:http://geobon.org

County-level climate change information to support decision-making on working lands

Farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners across the USA make weather- and climate-related management decisions at varying temporal and spatial scales, often with input from local experts like crop consultants and cooperative extension (CE) personnel. In order to provide additional guidance to such longer-term planning efforts, we developed a tool that shows statistically downscaled climate projections of temperature and precipitation consolidated to the county level for the contiguous US. Using the county as a fundamental mapping unit encourages the use of this information within existing institutional structures like CE and other U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) programs. A "quick-look" metric based on the spatial variability of climate within each county aids in the interpretation of county-level information. For instance, relatively higher spatial variability within a county indicates that more localized information should be used to support stakeholder planning. Changes in annual precipitation show a latitudinal dipole where increases are projected for much of the northern US while declines are projected for counties across the southern US. Seasonal shifts in county-level precipitation are projected nationwide with declines most evident in summer months in most regions. Changes in the spatial variability of annual precipitation for most counties were less than 10 mm, indicating fairly spatially homogenous midcentury precipitation changes at the county level. Annual and seasonal midcentury temperatures are projected to increase across the USA, with relatively low change in the spatial variability (< 0.3 A degrees C) of temperature across most counties. The utility of these data is shown for forage and almond applications, both indicating a potential decline in production in some future years, to illustrate use of county-level seasonal projections in adaptation planning and decision-making.USDA, Agricultural Research Service, Rangeland Management Research Unit based at the Jornada Experimental Range; USDA (CRIS) [3050-11210-007D]; National Science Foundation [DEB-0618210]Open access articleThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

A New Approach to Riparian Area Education in Arizona

From the Proceedings of the 2006 Meetings of the Hydrology Section - Arizona-Nevada Academy of Science - April 8, 2006, University of Arizona, TucsonThis article is part of the Hydrology and Water Resources in Arizona and the Southwest collections. Digital access to this material is made possible by the Arizona-Nevada Academy of Science and the University of Arizona Libraries. For more information about items in this collection, contact [email protected]

Concurrent course of transient neonatal diabetes with cholestasis and paucity of interlobular bile ducts: a case report

We report for the first time a patient with both transient neonatal diabetes mellitus (TNDM) and idiopathic neonatal cholestasis, with both features resolving over a similar time course. Cholestasis was due to paucity of interlobular bile ducts (PILBD). Genetic analysis was consistent with a uniparental disomy of chromosome 6. Paucity of interlobular bile ducts is common in Alagille syndrome but also occurs by unknown mechanisms in a wide spectrum of other diseases. We propose a shared explanation for this patient's TNDM and PILBD mediated by the noted chromosomal abnormality. We suggest that hepatobiliary function be evaluated in patients with TNDM to determine the prevalence and course of cholestasis of the diseas

Will telomere erosion lead to a loss of T-cell memory?

Evidence is accumulating that elderly individuals are more susceptible to infection with organisms to which they were previously immune. This indicates that there might be a limit to the persistence of immune memory. This fact is particularly disturbing because the average life expectancy of humans has almost doubled in the past 200 years and is still increasing. We discuss mechanisms that might constrain the persistence of memory T cells and consider whether humans will suffer from memory T-cell exhaustion as life expectancy increases