Lepidoptera collected in the Canadian Arctic during the Tundra Northwest 99 expedition

During the Swedish-Canadian icebreaker-based expedition to the Nearctic in summer 1999 (July and early August), moths and butterflies (Lepidoptera) were collected during short, helicopter-aided visits to eight sites in the Canadian archipelago, three sites on the Canadian mainland near the arctic coast and also at Thule Air Force Base in north Greenland. Some of the visited sites (notably those on Melville Peninsula, Somerset Island and King William Island) have not previously been investigated with respect to their insect faunas. Several records thus represent species range extensions. They generally corroborate an earlier hypothesis, based on a floristic zonation scheme, which has been used as a framework for understanding the distribution of Arctic butterflies

In vitro Evaluation of the Therapeutic Effects of Dual-Drug Loaded Spermine-Acetalated Dextran Nanoparticles Coated with Tannic Acid for Cardiac Applications

Myocardial infarction results in a massive loss of cardiomyocytes (CMs). Unfortunately, current therapies are unsuccessful in replacing lost CMs, and thus, there is an urgent need for innovative approaches. Here, a nanosystem based on spermine-acetalated dextran (AcDXSp) and encapsulating two drug compounds able to stimulate in vitro CMs proliferation is developed. The nanosystem is coated by deposition of a film constituted by tannic acid (TA) and Fe3+ ions. The coating with TA increases the retention of the nanocarrier in cell co-cultures of CMs and fibroblasts stimulated with transforming growth factor (TGF)-β, due to the high affinity of TA for components of the cardiac extracellular matrix. The system exhibits biocompatibility toward primary CMs and induces their proliferation, as indicated by the two-fold increase of CMs in the active cell cycle. At the same time, the presence of TA synergistically helps contrasting fibrosis by reducing profibrotic genes expression, such as collagen 1 and osteopontin, by approximately 80% compared to the control. Overall, the developed nanosystem demonstrates the capability to stimulate CMs proliferation and reduce fibrosis, showing potential benefits for future in vivo applications.Peer reviewe

Networked web-cameras monitor congruent seasonal development of birches with phenological field observations

Ecosystems' potential to provide services, e.g. to sequester carbon, is largely driven by the phonological cycle of vegetation. Timing of phenological events is required for understanding and predicting the influence of climate change on ecosystems and to support analyses of ecosystem functioning. Analyses of conventional camera time series mounted near vegetation has been suggested as a means of monitoring phenological events and supporting wider monitoring of phenological cycle of biomes that is frequently done with satellite earth observation (EO). Especially in the boreal biome, sparsely scattered deciduous trees amongst conifer-dominant forests pose a problem for EO techniques as species phenological signal mix, and render EO data difficult to interpret. Therefore, deriving phonological information from on the ground measurements would provide valuable reference data for earth observed phonology products in a larger scale. Keeping this in mind, we established a network of digital cameras for automated monitoring of phenological activity of vegetation in the boreal ecosystems of Finland. Cameras were mounted at 14 sites, each site having 1-3 cameras. In this study, we used data from 12 sites to investigate how well networked cameras can detect the phenological development of birches (Betula spp.) along a latitudinal gradient. Birches typically appear in small quantities within the dominant species. We tested whether the small, scattered birch image elements allow a reliable extraction of colour indices and the temporal changes therein. We compared automatically derived phenological dates from these birch image elements both to visually determined dates from the same image time series and to independent observations recorded in the phenological monitoring network covering the same region, Automatically extracted season start dates, which were based on the change of green colour fraction in spring, corresponded well with the visually interpreted start of the season, and also to the budburst dates observed in the field. Red colour fraction turned out to be superior to the green colour-based indices in predicting leaf yellowing and fall. The latitudinal gradients derived using automated phenological date extraction corresponded well with the gradients estimated from the phenological field observations. We conclude that small and scattered birch image elements allow reliable extraction of key phonological dates for the season start and end of deciduous species studied here, thus providing important species-specific data for model validation and for explaining the temporal variation in EO phenology products.Peer reviewe

Mutation analysis of aryl hydrocarbon receptor interacting protein (AIP) gene in colorectal, breast, and prostate cancers

Germline mutations in the aryl hydrocarbon receptor interacting protein (AIP) gene were recently identified in individuals with pituitary adenoma predisposition (PAP). These patients have prolactin (PRL) or growth hormone (GH) oversecreting pituitary adenomas, the latter exhibiting acromegaly or gigantism. Loss-of-heterozygosity (LOH) analysis revealed that AIP is lost in PAP tumours, suggesting that it acts as a tumour-suppressor gene. Aryl hydrocarbon receptor interacting protein is involved in several pathways, but it is best characterised as a cytoplasmic partner of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR). To examine the possible role of AIP in the genesis of common cancers, we performed somatic mutation screening in a series of 373 colorectal cancers (CRCs), 82 breast cancers, and 44 prostate tumour samples. A missense R16H (47G>A) change was identified in two CRC samples, as well as in the respective normal tissues, but was absent in 209 healthy controls. The remaining findings were silent, previously unreported, changes of the coding, non-coding, or untranslated regions of AIP. These results suggest that somatic AIP mutations are not common in CRC, breast, and prostate cancers

Suomen kansantalouden materiaalivirrat ja niiden vaikutukset : Toteutunut kehitys ja kiertotalouden skenaariot vuodelle 2035

Tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli lisätä ymmärrystä kiertotalouden potentiaalista vaikuttaa Suomen luonnonvarojen käyttöön ja niistä aiheutuviin ympäristö- ja talousvaikutuksiin. Viimeaikaisen kehityksen lisäksi arvioitiin kolmea luonnonvarojen käytön skenaariota vuodelle 2035. Niihin lisättiin kiertotaloustoimenpiteitä vaiheittain siten, että kunniahimoisin skenaario pyrki saavuttamaan Suomen kiertotalouden strategisen ohjelman luonnonvaratavoitteiden lisäksi myös Suomen hiilineutraalisuustavoitteen. Tulosten perusteella kiertotalouden strategisessa ohjelmassa asetut luonnonvaratavoitteet ovat osin saavutettavissa. Tällöin Suomen raaka-aineiden kokonaiskulutus vuonna 2035 ei ylitä vuoden 2015 tasoa, ja materiaalien kiertotalousaste kaksinkertaistuu vuodesta 2015. Myös hiilineutraalisuus voidaan saavuttaa vuoteen 2035 mennessä työssä hahmoteltujen oletuksien ja lisätoimien toteutuessa. Puhdas energiasiirtymä vähentää Suomen päästöjä ja luonnonvarojen käyttöä merkittävästi jo nykyisten päätösten toteutuessa perusskenaariossa. Kiertotaloustoimenpiteet edistävät edelleen päästöjen laskua ja vahvistavat nieluja. Suomen raaka-aineiden kulutus asukasta kohden säilyy kiertotaloustoimenpiteistä huolimatta globaalisti erittäin korkealla tasolla ja resurssituottavuudessa jäädään kauas EU-maiden keskiarvosta. Kiertotalouden toteutukseen tarvitaan lisää kunnianhimoa ja toimintaa tukevia ohjauskeinoja. Julkaisu on päivitetty 22.3.2024, s. 21, 23, 43, 89

Biochar composition-dependent impacts on soil nutrient release, carbon mineralization, and potential environmental risk: A review

Biochar application has multiple benefits for soil fertility improvement and climate change mitigation. Biochar can act as a source of nutrients and sequester carbon (C) in the soil. The nutrient release capacity of biochar once applied to the soil varies with the composition of the biochar, which is a function of the feedstock type and pyrolysis condition used for biochar production. Biochar has a crucial influence on soil C mineralization, including its positive or negative priming of microorganisms involved in soil C cycling. However, in various cases, biochar application to the soil may cause negative effects in the soil and the wider environment. For instance, biochar may suppress soil nutrient availability and crop productivity due to the reduction in plant nutrient uptake or reduction in soil C mineralization. Biochar application may also negatively affect environmental quality and human health because of harmful compounds such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated dibenzodioxins, and dibenzofurans (PCDD/DF). In this review, we discuss the linkage between biochar composition and function, evaluate the role biochar plays in soil fertility improvement and C sequestration, and discuss regulations and concerns regarding biochar's negative environmental impact. We also summarize advancements in biochar production technologies and discuss future challenges and priorities in biochar research

A molecular-based identification resource for the arthropods of Finland

Publisher Copyright: © 2021 The Authors. Molecular Ecology Resources published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.To associate specimens identified by molecular characters to other biological knowledge, we need reference sequences annotated by Linnaean taxonomy. In this study, we (1) report the creation of a comprehensive reference library of DNA barcodes for the arthropods of an entire country (Finland), (2) publish this library, and (3) deliver a new identification tool for insects and spiders, as based on this resource. The reference library contains mtDNA COI barcodes for 11,275 (43%) of 26,437 arthropod species known from Finland, including 10,811 (45%) of 23,956 insect species. To quantify the improvement in identification accuracy enabled by the current reference library, we ran 1000 Finnish insect and spider species through the Barcode of Life Data system (BOLD) identification engine. Of these, 91% were correctly assigned to a unique species when compared to the new reference library alone, 85% were correctly identified when compared to BOLD with the new material included, and 75% with the new material excluded. To capitalize on this resource, we used the new reference material to train a probabilistic taxonomic assignment tool, FinPROTAX, scoring high success. For the full-length barcode region, the accuracy of taxonomic assignments at the level of classes, orders, families, subfamilies, tribes, genera, and species reached 99.9%, 99.9%, 99.8%, 99.7%, 99.4%, 96.8%, and 88.5%, respectively. The FinBOL arthropod reference library and FinPROTAX are available through the Finnish Biodiversity Information Facility (www.laji.fi) at https://laji.fi/en/theme/protax. Overall, the FinBOL investment represents a massive capacity-transfer from the taxonomic community of Finland to all sectors of society.Peer reviewe

How good is the evidence that soil applied biochar improves water holding capacity?

Biochar application to soil is suggested as a way of enhancing soil fertility by increasing the availability of nutrients and water. The former is perhaps better documented while the latter has less experimental support. This review critically investigates recent literature which focuses on determining if biochar induces increases in plant available water and that this provides part of the explanation for possible increases in crop yield. A number of studies suggests that biochar increases crop yields and this is linked to enhancement of soil water content and increased crop growth. However, many of these studies fail to fully consider if the measured biochar increases of 10-30% in soil water content, were actually responsible for an increase in plant available water for crop growth. There is also limited evidence of increased crop yields when biochar is used in field experiments. While biochar soil application may increase soil water content, this appears to most likely occur with free draining coarsely textured sandy soils. As yet there is limited evidence that biochar improves soil water content in temperate soils and even less that it facilitates plant tolerance to drought stress. More recent literature shows the use of methods which quantify soil biochar changes with respect to plant water availability. However, despite some advances in our understanding of biochar’s mode of action, there are still only a few studies which link increases in plant available water with increased crop yields, and particularly with respect to the longer-term use and functionality of soil applied biochar

Webcam network and image database for studies of phenological changes of vegetation and snow cover in Finland, image time series from 2014 to 2016

In recent years, monitoring of the status of ecosystems using low-cost web (IP) or time lapse cameras has received wide interest. With broad spatial coverage and high temporal resolution, networked cameras can provide information about snow cover and vegetation status, serve as ground truths to Earth observations and be useful for gap-filling of cloudy areas in Earth observation time series. Networked cameras can also play an important role in supplementing laborious phenological field surveys and citizen science projects, which also suffer from observer-dependent observation bias. We established a network of digital surveillance cameras for automated monitoring of phenological activity of vegetation and snow cover in the boreal ecosystems of Finland. Cameras were mounted at 14 sites, each site having 1-3 cameras. Here, we document the network, basic camera information and access to images in the permanent data repository (http://www.zenodo.org/communities/phenology_camera/). Individual DOI-referenced image time series consist of half-hourly images collected between 2014 and 2016 (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1066862). Additionally, we present an example of a colour index time series derived from images from two contrasting sites.Peer reviewe