Preliminary assessment of the knowledge gaps to improve nature conservation of soil biodiversity

20 páginas.- 2 tablas.- referencias.-In the past decades, there has been an increasing awareness of the importance of Nature Conservation of Soil Biodiversity. Approximately 59% of all biodiversity on the planet is comprised of soil living organisms (Anthony et al. 2023), ranging from microorganisms to vertebrate species (FAO et al. 2020, Anthony et al. 2023). Soil biodiversity plays a central role in soil health and ecosystem services, as the activities of soil biota support the delivery of various ecosystem services, such as carbon sequestration, nutrient cycling, prevention of soil erosion, pest control, and cleaning of air and water (Banerjee and van der Heijden 2023, Creamer et al. 2022, Pulleman et al. 2012). However, soil biodiversity is currently threatened by intensive agriculture and forestry as well as soil sealing in urban environments. Protecting soil biodiversity and thus its ecosystem functions and services will have positive effects on a number of sustainability development goals (SDGs), including water quality and food security, among others (FAO et al. 2020, Köninger et al. 2022). Nevertheless, recent work did not find positive effects of current conservation practices on soil biodiversity and its ecosystem functions (Zeiss et al. 2022). The authors suggest this is predominantly because the priorities and the decision-making paradigms used for selection of sites for conservation do not take into account soil biodiversity, its associated ecosystem functions, or the value of belowground ecosystems to human well-being and economic development (Bardgett and van der Putten 2014, FAO et al. 2020, Zeiss et al. 2022). While biodiversity-friendly management approaches, such as ecological intensification (Kleijn et al. 2019), regenerative agriculture and agroecology (Barrios et al. 2023, FAO 2023, Grilli et al. 2023) are receiving increasing attention, studies focused on conservation of soil biodiversity and its ecosystem functions are still limited (Bardgett and van der Putten 2014, FAO et al. 2020, Zeiss et al. 2022). Thus, there is a stark need for identifying knowledge gaps and new research and innovation to help protect and conserve soil biodiversity, the ecosystem services they provide, and their impact on human health and economics.Peer reviewe

Þættir sem stuðla að bættri næringu og hreyfingu unglinga

Fjölbreytt og næringarrík fæða ásamt reglulegri hreyfingu á unglingsárum getur lagt grunn að heilsusamlegum lífsstíl sem einstaklingurinn býr að alla ævi. Markmið þessarar fræðilegu samantektar var að skoða næringu og hreyfingu meðal 13-16 ára unglinga og þá þætti sem stuðla að bættri næringu og hreyfingu. Næring íslenskra unglinga er oft á tíðum einhæf og næringarsnauð, þeir neyta viðbætts sykurs í miklu magni og sleppa gjarnan mikilvægustu máltíð dagsins, morgunmatnum. Ávaxta- og grænmetisneysla er auk þess með því lægsta sem gerist í Evrópu. Á unglingsárunum dregur úr hreyfingu og í kringum 12 – 13 ára aldurinn eykst brottfall unglinga úr skipulagðri íþróttastarfsemi. Í ljósi þessara þátta er nauðsynlegt að stuðla að heilsueflingu unglinga og er það hlutverk samfélagsins í heild. Skólahjúkrunarfræðingar ásamt foreldrum og vinum gegna þar mikilvægu hlutverki. Hlutverk skólahjúkrunarfræðinga er meðal annars að veita nemendum fræðslu um næringu og hreyfingu. Fræðslan verður að vera stutt, hnitmiðuð og myndræn og verður að höfða til viðeigandi aldurshóps

Changes in protocol after Nuss surgery. A quality improvement study

Bakgrunnur: Holubringa er aflögun á brjóstkassa sem er algengari meðal drengja en stúlkna. Truflun getur orðið á starfsemi hjarta og lungna og einstaklingar með holubringu geta upplifað einkenni líkt og þreytu, verki, þungan hjartslátt og andþyngsli í tengslum við áreynslu. Á unglingsárunum geta einkenni holubringu versnað og valdið andlegri vanlíðan og haft áhrif á félagslegan þroska. Aflögunina er hægt að leiðrétta með skurðaðgerð og hér á landi er notast við svokallaða Nuss skurðaðgerð til lagfæringar. Mikilvægt er að verkjastilla einstaklinga sem undirgangast þessa skurðaðgerð til þess að ná fullum bata og forðast fylgikvilla. Tilgangur: Tilgangur þessa verkefnis var að rannsaka fylgni við nýtt verklag varðandi Nuss aðgerðir sem tekið var upp á Landspítala árið 2016. Í verkefninu voru þar að auki skoðaðir verkir og truflandi áhrif þeirra eftir leiðréttingu á holubringu. Aðferð: Þátttakendur í rannsókninni voru einstaklingar sem gengust undir leiðréttingu á holubringu frá nóvember 2016 til loka mars 2017. Þátttakendur svöruðu spurningalista á þremur mismunandi tímapunktum ásamt því að fylla út verkjadagbók í 10 daga eftir útskrif sjúkrahúsinu. Einnig var upplýsingum safnað úr sjúkraskrá og lyfjaumsjónarkerfi. Unnið var úr gögnum í Microsoft Excel og IBM SPSS Statistics software 24.0. Niðurstöður: Helstu niðurstöður rannsóknarinnar eru að nýju verklagi var fylgt í flestum tilvikum. Þátttakendur upplifðu mikla verki og aukaverkanir af verkjalyfjum fyrsta dag eftir heimkomu sem fóru dvínandi eftir því sem frá leið frá aðgerð. Verkir höfðu truflandi áhrif á svefn þátttakenda fyrstu 10 daga eftir útskrift. Ánægja með verkjameðferð var almennt góð fyrsta dag eftir aðgerð en hafði dvínað á 14. degi eftir aðgerð. Þátttakendur voru með utanbastsdeyfingu á fyrsta degi eftir aðgerð og teljum við það vera ástæðuna fyrir betri verkjastillingu þann dag en á 14. degi eftir aðgerð. Ályktanir: Nýju verklagi var að mörgu leyti fylgt þótt á því væru undantekningar. Hafa ber í huga að stutt er síðan það var tekið upp en nauðsynlegt er að halda áfram að finna leiðir til að bæta notkun þess. Verkjastilling þátttakenda eftir útskrift var ekki fullnægjandi og aukaverkanir af verkjameðferð miklar, leita þarf leiða til þess að bæta verkjameðferð og fyrirbyggja aukaverkanir verkjameðferðar. Lykilorð: Holubringa, verkir, verkjameðferð, aukaverkanir verkjalyfja, legutímiBackground: Pectus excavatum is a deformity of the chest which is more common amongst boys than girls. The functions of the heart and lungs can be disturbed and individuals with pectus excavatum can experience symptoms like tiredness, pain, heavy heartbeats, and trouble with breathing when under physical stress. During the teenage years the symptoms of pectus excavatum can grow worse. They can cause emotional pain and affect their social development. The deformity can be fixed with a surgical procedure and surgeons in Iceland use the Nuss procedure to fix the deformity. Pain management is crucial for individuals who undergo this procedure in order for them to fully recover and avoid side effects. Purpose: The purpose of this research was to examine how well hospital staff are following new protocol for postoperative care after the Nuss procedure that were established at the Landspítali in 2016. Additionally, the patients’ pain and pain interference was assessed after the procedure. Method: Participants in the research were individuals who underwent the Nuss procedure from November 2016 to the end of March 2017. Participants answered a questionnaire at three different points in time as well as filling out a pain diary for 10 days after being discharged from the hospital. In addition, information was gathered from medical records and medicine. The data was processed with Microsoft Excel and IBM SPSS Statistics Software 24.0. Results: The main results of the research are that the new protocol was followed in most cases. Participants experienced significant pain and side effects of pain management during the first day after being discharged from the hospital. Pain interfered with the patients’ sleep during the first 10 days after discharge. Patients were generally satisfied with the pain management on the first day following the procedure but had dwindled on the fourteenth day after the procedure. Conclusion: The rate of which hospital staff follow the new protocol is acceptable considering how recently it was applied but it is necessary to keep searching for ways to improve its usage. Pain management of patients after discharge was not sufficient and the side effects of pain management were too great. It is important to find better ways of pain management and to prevent side effects of pain management. Keywords: Pectus excavatum, pain, pain management, side effects of pain management, length of hospital sta

Regla File Storage System

Regla skalavistunarkerfi is a software that four students designed and created for Fakta ehf for their final project towards their BSc degree in Computer Science at Reykjavík University. The system is an add on to Fakta’s business solutions. The main purpose of the system is to make it easy to store and organize files in such a way that makes it fast to retrieve them later

Conventional agriculture and not drought alters relationships between soil biota and functions

Soil biodiversity constitutes the biological pillars of ecosystem services provided by soils worldwide. Soil life is threatened by intense agricultural management and shifts in climatic conditions as two important global change drivers which are not often jointly studied under field conditions. We addressed the effects of experimental short-term drought over the wheat growing season on soil organisms and ecosystem functions under organic and conventional farming in a Swiss long term trial. Our results suggest that activity and community metrics are suitable indicators for drought stress while microbial communities primarily responded to agricultural practices. Importantly, we found a significant loss of multiple pairwise positive and negative relationships between soil biota and process-related variables in response to conventional farming, but not in response to experimental drought. These results suggest a considerable weakening of the contribution of soil biota to ecosystem functions under long-term conventional agriculture. Independent of the farming system, experimental and seasonal (ambient) drought conditions directly affected soil biota and activity. A higher soil water content during early and intermediate stages of the growing season and a high number of significant relationships between soil biota to ecosystem functions suggest that organic farming provides a buffer against drought effects.publishe

Ecosystem birth near melting glaciers : A review on the pioneer role of ground-dwelling arthropods

As glaciers retreat, their forelands represent “natural laboratories” for the study of primary succession. This review describes how certain arthropods conquer pristine ground and develop food webs before the establishment of vascular plants. Based on soil samples, pitfall traps, fallout and sticky traps, gut content studies, and some unpublished data, we compare early arthropod succession on glacial forelands of northern Europe (Iceland, Norway including Svalbard, and Sweden) and of the Alps (Austria, Italy). While macroarthropod predators like ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae), harvestmen (Arachnida: Opiliones), and spiders (Arachnida: Araneae) have usually been considered as pioneers, assumed to feed on airborne prey, this review explains a different pattern. Here, we highlight that springtails (Collembola), probably feeding on biofilm made up of algae or cyanobacteria, are super-pioneers, even at high altitudes and under arctic conditions. We also point out that macroarthropod predators can use locally available prey, such as springtails or non-biting midges (Diptera: Chironomidae). Pioneer arthropod communities vary under different biogeographical and climatic conditions. Two pioneer food webs, from northern Europe and the Alps, respectively, differed in structure and function. However, certain genera and orders were common to both. Generalists and specialists live together in a pioneer community. Cold-adapted specialists are threatened by glacier melting

Conventional agriculture and not drought alters relationships between soil biota and functions

Abstract Soil biodiversity constitutes the biological pillars of ecosystem services provided by soils worldwide. Soil life is threatened by intense agricultural management and shifts in climatic conditions as two important global change drivers which are not often jointly studied under field conditions. We addressed the effects of experimental short-term drought over the wheat growing season on soil organisms and ecosystem functions under organic and conventional farming in a Swiss long term trial. Our results suggest that activity and community metrics are suitable indicators for drought stress while microbial communities primarily responded to agricultural practices. Importantly, we found a significant loss of multiple pairwise positive and negative relationships between soil biota and process-related variables in response to conventional farming, but not in response to experimental drought. These results suggest a considerable weakening of the contribution of soil biota to ecosystem functions under long-term conventional agriculture. Independent of the farming system, experimental and seasonal (ambient) drought conditions directly affected soil biota and activity. A higher soil water content during early and intermediate stages of the growing season and a high number of significant relationships between soil biota to ecosystem functions suggest that organic farming provides a buffer against drought effects.Svenska Forskningsrådet Formas http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100001862Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100001711Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100003329Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100001659Eesti Teadusagentuur http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100002301Brandenburgische TU Cottbus-Senftenberg (5408

Conventional agriculture and not drought alters relationships between soil biota and functions

Soil biodiversity constitutes the biological pillars of ecosystem services provided by soils worldwide. Soil life is threatened by intense agricultural management and shifts in climatic conditions as two important global change drivers which are not often jointly studied under field conditions. We addressed the effects of experimental short-term drought over the wheat growing season on soil organisms and ecosystem functions under organic and conventional farming in a Swiss long term trial. Our results suggest that activity and community metrics are suitable indicators for drought stress while microbial communities primarily responded to agricultural practices. Importantly, we found a significant loss of multiple pairwise positive and negative relationships between soil biota and process-related variables in response to conventional farming, but not in response to experimental drought. These results suggest a considerable weakening of the contribution of soil biota to ecosystem functions under long-term conventional agriculture. Independent of the farming system, experimental and seasonal (ambient) drought conditions directly affected soil biota and activity. A higher soil water content during early and intermediate stages of the growing season and a high number of significant relationships between soil biota to ecosystem functions suggest that organic farming provides a buffer against drought effects

Corridor or drift fence? The role of medial moraines for fly dispersal over glacier

Corridors are often considered to promote dispersal between habitat patches. In this paper, we study whether or not corridors induce colonisation of nunataks (ice-free areas in glacier surroundings) by promoting dispersal from lowland to the nunataks. On outlet glaciers, debris originating from nunataks forms the so-called medial moraines that stretch from the nunataks down-glacier to the lowland, forming corridors of debris on the glacier. Aerial dispersal was determined with yellow sticky traps on the moraines, bare glacier and glacier foreland. Dipterans were sampled in pitfall traps on the nunataks. Flying insects that were present on the vegetated glacier foreland belonged to five orders, that is, Diptera, Hemiptera, Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera and Trichoptera. On the glacier and medial moraines, however, mainly dipterans were present, with the majority of individuals found on the moraines. Hoverflies (Syrphidae) were abundant on the moraines and on the edges of nunataks close to the moraines, but were not present on the vegetated foreland. The origin of the hoverflies is thus not the nunataks and not the lowland. Rather, they are brought in by air currents towards the glacier, where they aggregate on a land type where they have a chance of survival, although it is not habitable. Thus, we conclude that the medial moraines do not function as regular corridors but as drift fences that direct the dispersal towards the adjacent land types, that is, the nunataks and the glacier foreland