The Biodiversity Forecasting Toolkit: Answering the ‘how much’, ‘what’, and ‘where’ of planning for biodiversity persistence

AbstractThis research reports on a new approach to conservation assessment that seeks to extend the target-based model traditionally underpinning systematic conservation planning. The Biodiversity Forecasting Tool (BFT) helps answer three important questions relating to regional biodiversity persistence: ‘how much’ biodiversity can persist for a given land-management scenario; ‘what’ habitats to focus conservation effort on; and ‘where’ in the landscape to undertake conservation action. The tool integrates fine-scaled variability in vegetation composition and structure with spatial context, which is critical for ensuring the viability of populations. Thus, a raster data framework is employed which deems each location or gridcell in a landscape as contributing to biodiversity benefits to various degrees. At its simplest, just two spatial inputs, vegetation community types and vegetation condition, are needed. Drawing on, as a case-study, a broad-scale biodiversity assessment for NSW, Australia, this paper reports on the successful application of the BFT tool for a variety of functions ranging from interactive scenario evaluation through to conservation benefits mapping

The Biodiversity Forecasting Toolkit: Answering the ‘how much’, ‘what’, and ‘where’ of planning for biodiversity persistence

AbstractThis research reports on a new approach to conservation assessment that seeks to extend the target-based model traditionally underpinning systematic conservation planning. The Biodiversity Forecasting Tool (BFT) helps answer three important questions relating to regional biodiversity persistence: ‘how much’ biodiversity can persist for a given land-management scenario; ‘what’ habitats to focus conservation effort on; and ‘where’ in the landscape to undertake conservation action. The tool integrates fine-scaled variability in vegetation composition and structure with spatial context, which is critical for ensuring the viability of populations. Thus, a raster data framework is employed which deems each location or gridcell in a landscape as contributing to biodiversity benefits to various degrees. At its simplest, just two spatial inputs, vegetation community types and vegetation condition, are needed. Drawing on, as a case-study, a broad-scale biodiversity assessment for NSW, Australia, this paper reports on the successful application of the BFT tool for a variety of functions ranging from interactive scenario evaluation through to conservation benefits mapping

The value of targeted biological surveys: an assessment of Australia's Bush Blitz programme

Biodiversity assessment and decisions rely on knowledge of the spatial distribution of species, yet most global biodiversity is inadequately represented by occurrence records. Efforts to improve our knowledge of biodiversity distribution include targeted taxon survey programmes aimed at generating records of new, or previously unrecorded, species. Here, we evaluate nearly 8 years of biodiversity record collection by Bush Blitz, Australia's largest species discovery programme, to test how efficiently knowledge was added through the programme

Prevalence of anti-lymphocyte IgM autoantibodies driving complement activation in COVID-19 patients

IntroductionCOVID-19 patients can develop autoantibodies against a variety of secreted and membrane proteins, including some expressed on lymphocytes. However, it is unclear what proportion of patients might develop anti-lymphocyte antibodies (ALAb) and what functional relevance they might have.MethodsWe evaluated the presence and lytic function of ALAb in the sera of a cohort of 85 COVID-19 patients (68 unvaccinated and 17 vaccinated) assigned to mild (N=63), or moderate/severe disease (N=22) groups. Thirty-seven patients were followed-up after recovery. We also analyzed in vivo complement deposition on COVID-19 patients’ lymphocytes and examined its correlation with lymphocyte numbers during acute disease.ResultsCompared with healthy donors (HD), patients had an increased prevalence of IgM ALAb, which was significantly higher in moderate/severe disease patients and persisted after recovery. Sera from IgM ALAb+ patients exhibited complement-dependent cytotoxicity (CDC) against HD lymphocytes. Complement protein C3b deposition on patients’ CD4 T cells was inversely correlated with CD4 T cell numbers. This correlation was stronger in moderate/severe disease patients.DiscussionIgM ALAb and complement activation against lymphocytes may contribute to the acute lymphopenia observed in COVID-19 patients

Measurements of double-helicity asymmetries in inclusive J/ψJ/\psi production in longitudinally polarized p+pp+p collisions at s=510\sqrt{s}=510 GeV

We report the double helicity asymmetry, $A_{LL}^{J/\psi}$, in inclusive $J/\psi$ production at forward rapidity as a function of transverse momentum $p_T$ and rapidity $|y|$. The data analyzed were taken during $\sqrt{s}=510$ GeV longitudinally polarized $p$$+$$p$ collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) in the 2013 run using the PHENIX detector. At this collision energy, $J/\psi$ particles are predominantly produced through gluon-gluon scatterings, thus $A_{LL}^{J/\psi}$ is sensitive to the gluon polarization inside the proton. We measured $A_{LL}^{J/\psi}$ by detecting the decay daughter muon pairs $\mu^+ \mu^-$ within the PHENIX muon spectrometers in the rapidity range $1.2<|y|<2.2$. In this kinematic range, we measured the $A_{LL}^{J/\psi}$ to be $0.012 \pm 0.010$~(stat)~$\pm$~$0.003$(syst). The $A_{LL}^{J/\psi}$ can be expressed to be proportional to the product of the gluon polarization distributions at two distinct ranges of Bjorken $x$: one at moderate range $x \approx 0.05$ where recent RHIC data of jet and $\pi^0$ double helicity spin asymmetries have shown evidence for significant gluon polarization, and the other one covering the poorly known small-$x$ region $x \approx 2\times 10^{-3}$. Thus our new results could be used to further constrain the gluon polarization for $x< 0.05$.Comment: 335 authors, 10 pages, 4 figures, 3 tables, 2013 data. Version accepted for publication by Phys. Rev. D. Plain text data tables for the points plotted in figures for this and previous PHENIX publications are (or will be) publicly available at http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.htm

J/psi suppression at forward rapidity in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN)=39 and 62.4 GeV

We present measurements of the J/psi invariant yields in sqrt(s_NN)=39 and 62.4 GeV Au+Au collisions at forward rapidity (1.2<|y|<2.2). Invariant yields are presented as a function of both collision centrality and transverse momentum. Nuclear modifications are obtained for central relative to peripheral Au+Au collisions (R_CP) and for various centrality selections in Au+Au relative to scaled p+p cross sections obtained from other measurements (R_AA). The observed suppression patterns at 39 and 62.4 GeV are quite similar to those previously measured at 200 GeV. This similar suppression presents a challenge to theoretical models that contain various competing mechanisms with different energy dependencies, some of which cause suppression and others enhancement.Comment: 365 authors, 10 pages, 11 figures, 4 tables. Submitted to Phys. Rev. C. Plain text data tables for the points plotted in figures for this and previous PHENIX publications are (or will be) publicly available at http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.htm