Genetic Resources – A new attempt at serving the community

Through the Horizon 2020 project 'GenRes Bridge' the new journal Genetic Resources was conceived to serve as a new cross-cutting platform for stakeholders and practitioners in genetic resources. Its ambition is to provide access to relevant information and tools for the monitoring, conservation, management, characterization and use of genetic resources, and thus to contribute to the FAO global plans of action on genetic resources. Conceived to fill the gaps left by the discontinuation of the journals Plant Genetic Resources Newsletter and Animal Genetic Resources, it aims at serving the genetic resources community worldwide and across sectors

Engineering-geology model of the seismically-induced Cerda landslide

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Genetic considerations in ecosystem restoration using native tree species

Rehabilitation and restoration of forest ecosystems are in growing demand to tackle climate change, biodiversity loss and desertification—major environmental problems of our time. Interest in restoration of ecosystems is increasingly translated into strong political commitment to large-scale tree planting projects. Along with this new impetus and the enormous scale of planned projects come both opportunities and risks: opportunities to significantly increase the use of native species, and risks of failure associated with the use of inadequate or mismatched reproductive material, which though it may provide forest cover in the short term, will not likely establish a self-sustaining ecosystem. The value of using native tree species in ecosystem restoration is receiving growing recognition both among restoration practitioners and policy makers. However, insufficient attention has been given to genetic variation within and among native tree species, their life histories and the consequences of their interactions with each other and with their environment. Also restoration practitioners have often neglected to build in safeguards against the anticipated effects of anthropogenic climate change. Measurement of restoration success has tended to be assessments of hectares covered or seedling survival in a short timeframe, neither of which is an indicator of ecosystem establishment in the long term. In this article, we review current practices in ecosystem restoration using native tree species, with a particular focus on genetic considerations. Our discussion is organised across three themes: (i) species selection and the sourcing of forest reproductive material; (ii) increasing resilience by fostering natural selection, ecological connectivity and species associations; and (iii) measuring the success of restoration activities. We present a number of practical recommendations for researchers, policymakers and restoration practitioners to increase the potential for successful interventions. We recommend the development and adoption of decision-support tools for: (i) collecting and propagating germplasm in a way that ensures a broad genetic base of restored tree populations, including planning the sourcing of propagation material of desired species well before the intended planting time; (ii) matching species and provenances to restoration sites based on current and future site conditions, predicted or known patterns of variation in adaptive traits and availability of seed sources; and (iii) landscape-level planning in restoration projects

Approach to leg edema

Edema is defined as a palpable swelling caused by an increase in interstitial fluid volume. Leg edema is a common problem with a wide range of possible causes and is the result of an imbalance in the filtration system between the capillary and interstitial spaces. Major causes of edema include venous obstruction, increased capillary permeability and increased plasma volume secondary to sodium and water retention. In both hospital and general practice, the patient with a swollen leg presents a common dilemma in diagnosis and treatment. The cause may be trivial or life-threatening and it is often difficult to determine the clinical pathway. The diagnosis can be narrowed by categorizing the edema according to its duration, distribution (unilateral or bilateral) and accompanying symptoms. This work provides clinically oriented recommendations for the management of leg edema in adults

Dynamic conservation and utilization of forest tree genetic resources: indicators for in situ and ex situ genetic conservation and forest reproductive material

A set of Criteria and Indicators (C&I) for sustainable forest management was adopted by the Forest Europe process as a tool to aid forest policy formulation and decision making, forest monitoring and communication. Six criteria reflect complementary aspects of sustainable forest management in the pan-European region. These are currently being assessed (2019) by a set of 34 quantitative and 11 qualitative indicators. Indicator 4.6 is a quantitative indicator which contributes to Criterion 4 (Maintenance, conservation and appropriate enhancement of biological diversity in forest ecosystems) by focusing on the conservation and use of genetic resources. Between 2016 and 2019 the indicator was revised by a working group established by the EUFORGEN Programme, with the aim of addressing a number of shortcomings in the existing system. The report, Revised indicator on genetic resources (4.6) of the pan-European criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management, addresses the reasoning behind the revision of the indicator and provides details regarding its composition and the reporting of conservation efforts linked to each of the sub-indicators. The revised indicator comprises four sub-indicators: 1. Dynamic conservation (in situ and ex situ) of native species populations; 2. Dynamic conservation (ex situ) of populations of non-native species; 3. Static ex situ conservation; 4. Forest reproductive material production; resulting in informative and comparable verifiers and therefore an improvement in its overall reliability, robustness and resolution. Temporal monitoring of progress made can be carried out using EUFORGEN’s synthetic radar chart representation. I n d i c a t o r o n G e n e t i c R e s o u r c e s xii To ensure the effective use of the revised indicator, the working group gives a number of recommendations: • EUFORGEN member countries should continue to implement and further develop the Pan-European strategy for genetic conservation of forest trees. • Through the EUFORGEN Programme, member countries should work together to develop an agreed set of “minimum requirements” for static ex situ conservation. • Countries should support the development of the national lists of native tree species occurring in each country. With over twenty years of experience in FGR conservation and ten years in managing the EUFGIS information system on in situ conservation units of FGR in Europe, EUFORGEN can guarantee the reliability, specificity, relevance and usefulness of the revised indicator and sub-indicators, which come with a set of more precise definitions and standard scales.202

Dropstones in the Mar del Plata Canyon Area (SW Atlantic): Evidence for Provenance, Transport, Distribution, and Oceanographic Implications

A variety of gravel- to cobble-sized rocks, recovered from the Mar del Plata (MdP) Canyon area (Western South Atlantic at 38°S) and interpreted as ice-rafted debris, represent the first evidence that large icebergs have floated in the Falkland (Malvinas) Current from the southern polar high latitudes far northward. Detailed petrographic analyses identified the Antarctic Peninsula, sub-Antarctic islands in the Scotia Sea, and Tierra del Fuego as plausible source areas. The drift process could have started as early as at the beginning of the last deglaciation, according to an age obtained from a cold-water coral fragment associated with one of the dropstones. At the end of the Last Glacial Maximum, large icebergs have been supplied to the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, captured by those ocean current branches that circumvent the Falkland (Malvinas) Islands and entered the Argentine Margin. When the iceberg fleets approached the Brazil-Falkland (Malvinas) Confluence Zone with its steep latitudinal temperature gradient, the icebergs got oceanographically trapped and melted off rapidly. The sediment load sinking down to the seafloor formed a dropstone blanket particularly where the MdP Canyon had incised into the continental slope. Here, mass-flow processes, induced by local slope instability, and along-slope sediment resorting, due to the erosional effects of strong and persistent contouritic bottom currents, favored local enrichment in dropstones in the form of a loose, coarse sediment drape inside morphological depressions. The bottom current velocity would be locally strong enough to rework this sediment, leaving coarse rafted debris as a lag deposit.Fil: Bozzano, Graziella. Ministerio de Defensa. Armada Argentina. Servicio de Hidrografía Naval; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Cerredo, Maria Elena. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Geociencias Básicas, Aplicadas y Ambientales de Buenos Aires. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Geociencias Básicas, Aplicadas y Ambientales de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Remesal, Marcela Beatriz. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Geociencias Básicas, Aplicadas y Ambientales de Buenos Aires. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Geociencias Básicas, Aplicadas y Ambientales de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Steinmann, L.. Universitat Bremen; AlemaniaFil: Hanebuth, Till J.J.. Coastal Carolina University; Estados UnidosFil: Schwenk, T.. Universitat Bremen; AlemaniaFil: Baqués, Michele. Ministerio de Defensa. Armada Argentina. Servicio de Hidrografía Naval; Argentina. Ministerio de Defensa. Armada Argentina. Dirección Gral. de Investigación y Desarrollo de la Ara. Dirección de Investigación de la Armada; ArgentinaFil: Hebbeln, Dierk. Universitat Bremen; AlemaniaFil: Spoltore, Daniela Veronica. Ministerio de Defensa. Armada Argentina. Servicio de Hidrografía Naval; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Geociencias Básicas, Aplicadas y Ambientales de Buenos Aires. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Geociencias Básicas, Aplicadas y Ambientales de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Silvestri, Ornella. Ministerio de Defensa. Armada Argentina. Servicio de Hidrografía Naval; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Acevedo, Rogelio Daniel. Universidad Nacional de Tierra del Fuego, Antártida e Islas del Atlántico Sur. Instituto de Ciencias Polares, Ambientales y Recursos Naturales; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Austral de Investigaciones Científicas; ArgentinaFil: Spiess, V.. Universitat Bremen; AlemaniaFil: Violante, Roberto Antonio. Ministerio de Defensa. Armada Argentina. Servicio de Hidrografía Naval; ArgentinaFil: Kasten, Sabine. Universitat Bremen; Alemania. Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research; Alemani

Forest genetic resources strategy for Europe

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