Spectral Fingerprints Predict Functional Chemistry of Native Plants Across Sagebrush-Steppe Landscapes

Landscapes are changing and under threat from anthropogenic activities, decreasing land cover, contaminated air and water quality, and climate change. These changes impact native communities and their functions at all spatial scales. A major functional trait being affected across these communities is nitrogen. Nitrogen supports plant nutrient cycling and growth, serves as an indicator for crude protein and productivity, and offers quality forage for wild and domestic herbivores. We need better ways to monitor nitrogen across space and time. Current monitoring is elaborate, time-consuming, and expensive. We propose drawing from agricultural methodologies to incorporate near-infrared spectroscopy as a technique in detecting and monitoring nitrogen concentrations across a threatened shrub-steppe ecosystem. We are currently developing calibration equations for nitrogen in sagebrush across four species (Artemisia tridentata wyomingensis, A. tripartita, A. arbuscula, A. nova), three study sites and two seasons. Preliminary results suggest that nitrogen can be accurately predicted across all sites, species, and seasons, explaining 75-90% of the variation in nitrogen. These results indicate that near infrared spectroscopy offers a rapid, noninvasive diagnostic tool for assessing nitrogen in wild systems. This advancing technology is important because it economizes the collection of ecological data in rapidly changing landscapes and provides land managers and researchers with valuable information about the health and sustainability of their lands

Remotely-Sensing Chemical Diversity and Function of Native Plants Across Sagebrush-Steppe Landscapes

Plant chemical diversity provides ecosystem services by supporting wildlife diversity and offering sources for novel medicines. Current mapping of phytochemicals can be expensive, time-intensive and provides only a snapshot of available diversity. To overcome this, I will use handheld and airborne instruments collecting near infrared spectra and hyperspectral imagery to remotely sense chemical diversity within plants and ecosystems. I hypothesize that greater plant chemical diversity will be correlated with greater habitat use by wildlife and greater bioactivity of plant extracts. This research provides a powerful tool to map chemical diversity, target wildlife conservation and direct the discovery of novel medicines

Evidence-based improvisation: Facing the challenges of cervical cancer care in Uganda

There is significant disparity in the prevalence of cervical cancer globally, with low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) shouldering a disproportionate share of disease incidence and an even greater proportion of morbidity and mortality. Available resources for diagnosis, treatment and palliation of cervical cancer are inversely related to per capita income. While prevention and screening remain public health priorities, given the large number of women affected by cervical cancer, expanding treatment capacity should be included in any evidence-based intervention plan. Uganda, a country with a high incidence of cervical cancer, serves as a representative case study in terms of the challenges of diagnosis and access to treatment in sub-Saharan Africa. Providers and patients in Uganda are challenged by late presentation to care, limited training opportunities, cost-prohibitive diagnostic studies, insufficient access to gold-standard treatment, and under-utilized palliative care services. This review highlights the ways in which Uganda's experience is typical of the continent at large, as well as areas where Uganda is unique. We describe the ways in which a small but dedicated group of gynecologists carefully use limited evidence and available resources creatively to provide the best possible care for their patients. We show that improvisation, albeit evidence-based, is central to the nature and success of oncology care in Africa (Livingston, 2012). We argue that a “recalibrated global response” (Farmer et al., 2010), particularly stressing the expansion of radiotherapy capabilities, could dramatically improve cancer care and outcomes for women in Uganda as well as in LMICs globally