Quantifying the effect of forest age in annual net forest carbon balance

Forests dominate carbon (C) exchanges between the terrestrial biosphere and the atmosphere on land. In the long term, the net carbon flux between forests and the atmosphere has been significantly impacted by changes in forest cover area and structure due to ecological disturbances and management activities. Current empirical approaches for estimating net ecosystem productivity (NEP) rarely consider forest age as a predictor, which represents variation in physiological processes that can respond differently to environmental drivers, and regrowth following disturbance. Here, we conduct an observational synthesis to empirically determine to what extent climate, soil properties, nitrogen deposition, forest age and management influence the spatial and interannual variability of forest NEP across 126 forest eddy-covariance flux sites worldwide. The empirical models explained up to 62% and 71% of spatio-temporal and across-site variability of annual NEP, respectively. An investigation of model structures revealed that forest age was a dominant factor of NEP spatio-temporal variability in both space and time at the global scale as compared to abiotic factors, such as nutrient availability, soil characteristics and climate. These findings emphasize the importance of forest age in quantifying spatio-temporal variation in NEP using empirical approaches

Altered energy partitioning across terrestrial ecosystems in the European drought year 2018

Drought and heat events, such as the 2018 European drought, interact with the exchange of energy between the land surface and the atmosphere, potentially affecting albedo, sensible and latent heat fluxes, as well as CO(2)exchange. Each of these quantities may aggravate or mitigate the drought, heat, their side effects on productivity, water scarcity and global warming. We used measurements of 56 eddy covariance sites across Europe to examine the response of fluxes to extreme drought prevailing most of the year 2018 and how the response differed across various ecosystem types (forests, grasslands, croplands and peatlands). Each component of the surface radiation and energy balance observed in 2018 was compared to available data per site during a reference period 2004-2017. Based on anomalies in precipitation and reference evapotranspiration, we classified 46 sites as drought affected. These received on average 9% more solar radiation and released 32% more sensible heat to the atmosphere compared to the mean of the reference period. In general, drought decreased net CO(2)uptake by 17.8%, but did not significantly change net evapotranspiration. The response of these fluxes differed characteristically between ecosystems; in particular, the general increase in the evaporative index was strongest in peatlands and weakest in croplands. This article is part of the theme issue 'Impacts of the 2018 severe drought and heatwave in Europe: from site to continental scale'

Quantifying the effect of forest age in annual net forest carbon balance

Forests dominate carbon (C) exchanges between the terrestrial biosphere and the atmosphere on land. In the long term, the net carbon flux between forests and the atmosphere has been significantly impacted by changes in forest cover area and structure due to ecological disturbances and management activities. Current empirical approaches for estimating net ecosystem productivity (NEP) rarely consider forest age as a predictor, which represents variation in physiological processes that can respond differently to environmental drivers, and regrowth following disturbance. Here, we conduct an observational synthesis to empirically determine to what extent climate, soil properties, nitrogen deposition, forest age and management influence the spatial and interannual variability of forest NEP across 126 forest eddy-covariance flux sites worldwide. The empirical models explained up to 62% and 71% of spatio-temporal and across-site variability of annual NEP, respectively. An investigation of model structures revealed that forest age was adominant factor of NEP spatio-temporal variability in both space and time at the global scale as compared to abiotic factors, such as nutrient availability, soil characteristics and climate. These findings emphasize the importance of forest age in quantifying spatio-temporal variation in NEP using empirical approaches

Single domain antibodies: promising experimental and therapeutic tools in infection and immunity

Antibodies are important tools for experimental research and medical applications. Most antibodies are composed of two heavy and two light chains. Both chains contribute to the antigen-binding site which is usually flat or concave. In addition to these conventional antibodies, llamas, other camelids, and sharks also produce antibodies composed only of heavy chains. The antigen-binding site of these unusual heavy chain antibodies (hcAbs) is formed only by a single domain, designated VHH in camelid hcAbs and VNAR in shark hcAbs. VHH and VNAR are easily produced as recombinant proteins, designated single domain antibodies (sdAbs) or nanobodies. The CDR3 region of these sdAbs possesses the extraordinary capacity to form long fingerlike extensions that can extend into cavities on antigens, e.g., the active site crevice of enzymes. Other advantageous features of nanobodies include their small size, high solubility, thermal stability, refolding capacity, and good tissue penetration in vivo. Here we review the results of several recent proof-of-principle studies that open the exciting perspective of using sdAbs for modulating immune functions and for targeting toxins and microbes

The rank reversal problem in multi-criteria decision making : a literature review

Despite the importance of multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) techniques for constructing effective decision models, there are many criticisms due to the occurrence of a problem called rank reversal. Nevertheless, there is a lack of a systematic literature review on this important subject which involves different methods. This study reviews the pertinent literature on rank reversal, based on 130 related articles published from 1980 to 2015 in international journals, which were gathered and analyzed according to the following perspectives: multicriteria technique, year and journal in which the papers were published, co-authorship network, rank reversal types, and research goal. Thus our survey provides recommendations for future research, besides useful information and knowledge regarding rank reversal in the MCDM field

The FLUXNET2015 dataset and the ONEFlux processing pipeline for eddy covariance data

The FLUXNET2015 dataset provides ecosystem-scale data on CO2, water, and energy exchange between the biosphere and the atmosphere, and other meteorological and biological measurements, from 212 sites around the globe (over 1500 site-years, up to and including year 2014). These sites, independently managed and operated, voluntarily contributed their data to create global datasets. Data were quality controlled and processed using uniform methods, to improve consistency and intercomparability across sites. The dataset is already being used in a number of applications, including ecophysiology studies, remote sensing studies, and development of ecosystem and Earth system models. FLUXNET2015 includes derived-data products, such as gap-filled time series, ecosystem respiration and photosynthetic uptake estimates, estimation of uncertainties, and metadata about the measurements, presented for the first time in this paper. In addition, 206 of these sites are for the first time distributed under a Creative Commons (CC-BY 4.0) license. This paper details this enhanced dataset and the processing methods, now made available as open-source codes, making the dataset more accessible, transparent, and reproducible.Peer reviewe

Beam-loss induced pressure rise of Large Hadron Collider collimator materials irradiated with 158 GeV/u In49+In^{49+} ions at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron

During heavy ion operation, large pressure rises, up to a few orders of magnitude, were observed at CERN, GSI, and BNL. The dynamic pressure rises were triggered by lost beam ions that impacted onto the vacuum chamber walls and desorbed about 10/sup 4/ to 10/sup 7/ molecules per ion. The deterioration of the dynamic vacuum conditions can enhance charge-exchange beam losses and can lead to beam instabilities or even to beam abortion triggered by vacuum interlocks. Consequently, a dedicated measurement of heavy-ion induced molecular desorption in the GeV/u energy range is important for Large Hadron Collider (LHC) ion operation. In 2003, a desorption experiment was installed at the super proton synchrotron to measure the beam-loss induced pressure rise of potential LHC collimator materials. Samples of bare graphite, sputter coated (Cu, TiZrV) graphite, and 316 LN (low carbon with nitrogen) stainless steel were irradiated under grazing angle with 158 GeV/u indium ions. After a description of the new experimental setup, the results of the pressure rise measurements are presented, and the derived desorption yields are compared with data from other experiments

Beam-Loss Induced Pressure Rise of LHC Collimator Materials Irradiated with 158 GeV/u In49+In^{49+} Ions at the CERN SPS

During heavy ion operation, large pressure rises, up to a few orders of magnitude, were observed at CERN, GSI, and BNL. The dynamic pressure rises were triggered by lost beam ions that impacted onto the vacuum chamber walls and desorbed about 1044 to 107 molecules per ion. The deterioration of the dynamic vacuum conditions can enhance charge-exchange beam losses and can lead to beam instabilities or even to beam abortion triggered by vacuum interlocks. Consequently, a dedicated measure-ment of heavy-ion induced molecular desorption in the GeV/u energy range is important for LHC ion operation. In 2003, a desorption experiment was installed at the SPS to measure the beam-loss induced pressure rise of potential LHC collimator materials. Samples of bare graphite, sputter coated (Cu, TiZrV) graphite, and 316 LN stainless steel, were irradiated under grazing angle with 158 GeV/u indium ions. After a description of the new experimental set-up, the results of the pressure rise measurements are presented, and the derived desorption yields are compared with data from other experiments