Lesions mimicking lacrimal gland pleomorphic adenoma

Aim: To report a series of patients with lacrimal gland lesions simulating the clinicoradiological features of lacrimal gland pleomorphic adenoma (LGPA). Methods: Multicentre retrospective, interventional case series. Clinical records of all patients with lesions mimicking LGPA seen in five orbital units were reviewed. Results: The study included 14 patients (seven men and seven women) with a mean age of 50.9 years. The diagnosis of LGPA was made in all cases by experienced orbital surgeons, based on clinicoradiological features, and lacrimal gland excision was performed. Postoperative histology revealed lymphoma (four patients), chronic dacryoadenitis (three patients), adenoid cystic carcinoma (two patients), Sjogren's syndrome (two patients), cavernous haemangioma (one patient), benign lymphoid hyperplasia (one patient) and granulomatous dacryoadenitis (one patient). Comparison with the total number of histologically confirmed LGPA cases seen during the study period revealed that 22.6% of cases of suspected LGPA were misdiagnosed based on clinicoradiological criteria. Conclusions: Many different lesions may mimic the clinicoradiological features of LGPA. The accepted clinicoradiological criteria used for the diagnosis of LGPA have a high false-positive rate, even in experienced hands. Based on this study, the authors believe that fine-needle aspiration biopsy or intraoperative biopsy and frozen section diagnosis may help reduce unnecessary lacrimal gland excision.Venkatesh C Prabhakaran, Paul S Cannon, Alan McNab, Garry Davis, Brett O’Donnell, Peter J Dolman, Raf Ghabrial, Dinesh Selv

Detecting the long-term impacts from climate variability and increasing water consumption on runoff in the Krishna river basin (India)

Variations in climate, land-use and water consumption can have profound effects on river runoff. There is an increasing demand to study these factors at the regional to river basin-scale since these effects will particularly affect water resources management at this level. This paper presents a method that can help to differentiate between the effects of man-made hydrological developments and climate variability at the basin scale. We show and explain the relation between climate, water consumption and changes in runoff for the Krishna river basin in central India. Runoff under climate variability and increasing water consumption for irrigation and hydropower is simulated for the last 100 years using the STREAM water balance model. Runoff under climate variability is shown to vary only by about 14–34 mm (6–15%). It appears that reservoir construction after 1960 and increasing water consumption has caused a persistent decrease in annual runoff of up to approximately 123 mm (61%). Variation in runoff under natural climate variability only would have decreased over the period under study, but we estimate that increasing water consumption causes about two thirds of the current runoff variability

Proposed power transmission lines in Cambodia constitute a significant new threat to the largest population of Bengal florican Houbaropsis bengalensis

The remaining Indochina population of the Critically Endangered Bengal florican Houbaropsis bengalensis breeds in the floodplain of Cambodia’s Tonle Sap Lake. The population has declined substantially but survival rates have not been published previously. Survival could potentially be reduced by the planned construction of high-tension power transmission lines that may begin in 2016. Using data from 17 individuals monitored by satellite transmitters over 4 years we estimated the annual adult survival rate to be 89.9% (95% CI 82.2–97.6%), which is comparable to that of other bustards. Interrogation of movement paths revealed that for the 13 individuals for which we had sufficient data for non-breeding seasons, all annual migration routes between breeding and non-breeding areas crossed the proposed route of the transmission line. The route also impinged on the margins of one important and one minor breeding concentration. A review of bustard collision rates confirmed the vulnerability of bustards to power lines, and the proposed development therefore presents an additional threat to the future of this species in Indochina

Contribution of water-limited ecoregions to their own supply of rainfall

The occurrence of wet and dry growing seasons in water-limited regions remains poorly understood, partly due to the complex role that these regions play in the genesis of their own rainfall. This limits the predictability of global carbon and water budgets, and hinders the regional management of naturalresources. Using novel satellite observations and atmospheric trajectory modelling, we unravel the origin and immediate drivers of growing-season precipitation, and the extent to which ecoregions themselves contribute to their own supply of rainfall. Results show that persistent anomalies in growing-season precipitation—and subsequent biomass anomalies—are caused by a complex interplay of land and ocean evaporation, air circulation and local atmospheric stability changes. For regions such as the Kalahari and Australia, the volumes of moisture recycling decline in dry years, providing a positive feedback that intensifies dry conditions. However, recycling ratios increase up to40%, pointing to the crucial role of these regions in generating their own supply of rainfall; transpiration in periods of water stress allows vegetation to partly offset the decrease in regional precipitation. Findings highlight the need to adequately represent vegetation–atmosphere feedbacks in models to predict biomass changes and to simulate the fate of water-limited regions in our warming climate

Response of methane emissions from wetlands to the Last Glacial Maximum and an idealized Dansgaard-Oeschger climate event: insights from two models of different complexity

The role of different sources and sinks of CH₄ in changes in atmospheric methane ([CH₄]) concentration during the last 100 000 yr is still not fully understood. In particular, the magnitude of the change in wetland CH₄ emissions at the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) relative to the pre-industrial period (PI), as well as during abrupt climatic warming or Dansgaard–Oeschger (D–O) events of the last glacial period, is largely unconstrained. In the present study, we aim to understand the uncertainties related to the parameterization of the wetland CH₄ emission models relevant to these time periods by using two wetland models of different complexity (SDGVM and ORCHIDEE). These models have been forced by identical climate fields from low-resolution coupled atmosphere–ocean general circulation model (FAMOUS) simulations of these time periods. Both emission models simulate a large decrease in emissions during LGM in comparison to PI consistent with ice core observations and previous modelling studies. The global reduction is much larger in ORCHIDEE than in SDGVM (respectively −67 and −46%), and whilst the differences can be partially explained by different model sensitivities to temperature, the major reason for spatial differences between the models is the inclusion of freezing of soil water in ORCHIDEE and the resultant impact on methanogenesis substrate availability in boreal regions. Besides, a sensitivity test performed with ORCHIDEE in which the methanogenesis substrate sensitivity to the precipitations is modified to be more realistic gives a LGM reduction of −36%. The range of the global LGM decrease is still prone to uncertainty, and here we underline its sensitivity to different process parameterizations. Over the course of an idealized D–O warming, the magnitude of the change in wetland CH₄ emissions simulated by the two models at global scale is very similar at around 15 Tg yr⁻¹, but this is only around 25% of the ice-core measured changes in [CH₄]. The two models do show regional differences in emission sensitivity to climate with much larger magnitudes of northern and southern tropical anomalies in ORCHIDEE. However, the simulated northern and southern tropical anomalies partially compensate each other in both models limiting the net flux change. Future work may need to consider the inclusion of more detailed wetland processes (e.g. linked to permafrost or tropical floodplains), other non-wetland CH₄ sources or different patterns of D–O climate change in order to be able to reconcile emission estimates with the ice-core data for rapid CH₄ events

Plantation clear-fell patches benefit heathland arthropods

Plantation forests constitute a significant amount of the wooded area in many parts of the globe. However, the extent of biological provision conferred by plantation forest depends on regional conservation priorities and biogeographical context. Here, we evaluate the arthropod biodiversity in a chronosequence of pine plantation (clear-felled, 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 13, 21-years) in the largest lowland conifer forest in the UK. We compare the assemblage within 37 plantation stands and eight important open habitat remnants in a formerly heathland dominated region. We also assess the configuration and potential isolation of ephemeral open early growth stage habitat across a 60-year plantation rotation. Carabid and spider assemblages changed throughout the sampled chronosequence. In the early growth stages (1–7 years) before canopy closure, arthropod assemblages contained many individuals and species associated with dry-open habitats, greater numbers of rare species than closed canopy plantation and had similar composition (non-metric multidimensional scaling) to heathland samples. Early growth stages and heathlands primarily differed in the additional presence of generalist species in the plantation. Species associated with woodland increased in abundance as the plantation aged, but remained far less numerous than dry-open or generalist species. The spatial distribution of young growth stages across the rotation cycle was significantly clustered in the early and late rotation phases. Plantation landscapes often support high species richness but we highlight their value for vulnerable heathland biodiversity early in the rotation cycle. To increase plantation value regional conservation priorities should be supported with appropriate consideration of growth stage configuration across the full rotation

CO2 budgeting at the regional scale using a Lagrangian experimental strategy and meso-scale modeling

An atmospheric Lagrangian experiment for regional CO2 budgeting with aircraft measurements took place during the CarboEurope Regional Experiment Strategy campaign (CERES) in south-west France, in June 2005. The atmospheric CO2 aircraft measurements taken upstream and downstream of an active and homogeneous pine forest revealed a CO2 depletion in the same air mass, using a Lagrangian strategy. This field experiment was analyzed with a meteorological meso-scale model interactively coupled with a surface scheme, with plant assimilation, ecosystem respiration, anthropogenic CO2 emissions and sea fluxes. First, the model was carefully validated against observations made close to the surface and in the atmospheric boundary layer. Then, the carbon budget was evaluated using the numerous CERES observations, by upscaling the surface fluxes observations, and using the modeling results, in order to estimate the relative contribution of each physical process. A good agreement is found between the two methods which use the same vegetation map: the estimation of the regional CO2 surface flux by the Eulerian meso-scale model budget is close to the budget deduced from the upscaling of the observed surface fluxes, and found a budget between −9.4 and −12.1μmol.m−2.s−1, depending on the size of the considered area. Nevertheless, the associated uncertainties are rather large for the upscaling method and reach 50%. A third method, using Lagrangian observations of CO2 estimates a regional CO2 budget a few different and more scattered, (−16.8μmol.m−2.s−1 for the small sub-domain and −8.6μmol.m−2.s−1 for the larger one). For this budgeting method, we estimate a mean of 31% error, mainly arising from the time of integration between the two measurements of the Lagrangian experiment. The paper describes in details the three methods to assess the regional CO2 budget and the associated error

Marine Noise Pollution - Increasing Recognition But Need for More Practical Action

Over the last two decades, marine noise pollution has become increasingly recognized as an issue of major significance. The issue has become a primary focus of marine mammal research, but is also of concern to the public and policy makers. The result has been efforts involving a variety of disciplines, and relevant legislation and associated guidance are now in place in many parts of the world. Most current mitigation efforts are directed at reducing the risk of injury from exposure to intense noise, although the effectiveness of such mitigation measures in terms of risk reduction has rarely been quantified. Longer-term chronic impacts of noise including disturbance or masking of sounds critical for feeding and reproduction have received substantially less attention in management. New technologies are being developed for a number of activities which can substantially reduce noise inputs into the marine environment. As with other forms of pollution, reducing input at source is likely to be the most effective way of reducing impacts. We recommend as a priority the implementation of noise quieting technologies and the spatial and temporal exclusion of noise to minimize contact with marine life