The recovery of European freshwater biodiversity has come to a halt

Owing to a long history of anthropogenic pressures, freshwater ecosystems are among the most vulnerable to biodiversity loss1. Mitigation measures, including wastewater treatment and hydromorphological restoration, have aimed to improve environmental quality and foster the recovery of freshwater biodiversity2. Here, using 1,816 time series of freshwater invertebrate communities collected across 22 European countries between 1968 and 2020, we quantified temporal trends in taxonomic and functional diversity and their responses to environmental pressures and gradients. We observed overall increases in taxon richness (0.73% per year), functional richness (2.4% per year) and abundance (1.17% per year). However, these increases primarily occurred before the 2010s, and have since plateaued. Freshwater communities downstream of dams, urban areas and cropland were less likely to experience recovery. Communities at sites with faster rates of warming had fewer gains in taxon richness, functional richness and abundance. Although biodiversity gains in the 1990s and 2000s probably reflect the effectiveness of water-quality improvements and restoration projects, the decelerating trajectory in the 2010s suggests that the current measures offer diminishing returns. Given new and persistent pressures on freshwater ecosystems, including emerging pollutants, climate change and the spread of invasive species, we call for additional mitigation to revive the recovery of freshwater biodiversity.publishedVersio

ASA 2019 Election: Shelley Correll

Our coverage of the 2019 ASA election continues with an interview of Presidential candidate Shelley Correl

How to last alone at the top : US strategic planning for the unipolar era

This article investigates how key actors within the US defence policy community realigned their interests to forge a new consensus on the redirection of US defence strategy following the 'peace shock' they faced with the collapse of bipolarity. This consensus centred on the idea that achieving US security in the 'age of uncertainty' demanded overwhelming US military power, which was widely interpreted as necessitating military capabilities to fight multiple major theatre wars simultaneously against regional 'Third World' adversaries. This helped to preserve many of the principal pillars of US Cold War defence policy through deflecting calls for more radical organisational changes and deeper cuts to defence budgets

Evaluation of phosphorus indices after twenty years of science and development

Citation: Nelson, N.O. and Shober, A.L. (2012), Evaluation of Phosphorus Indices after Twenty Years of Science and Development. J. Environ. Qual., 41: 1703-1710. doi:10.2134/jeq2012.0342The P Index was proposed as a nutrient management tool in 1992 and has been implemented as such for the past decade. However, lack of water quality improvement in agricultural watersheds and discrepancies in P loss ratings between P indices have raised questions about continued use of the P Index. In response to these concerns, a symposium was held as part of the 2011 ASA, CSSA, SSSA annual meetings. This symposium produced a special collection of seven papers describing the role of P indices in P management, evaluation of P indices, new models for assessing P loss, methods to improve P indices, and changes in producer behavior resulting from P Index use. The objectives of this introductory paper are to provide background on the P Index concept, overviews of the special collection papers, and recommendations for future P Index evaluation and development research. The papers in this special collection conclude that P indices can provide accurate assessments of P loss but must be evaluated appropriately. Evaluation will require compiling large regional P loss datasets at field and small watershed scales. Simulation models may be used to generate P loss estimates; however, models must be calibrated and validated to ensure their accuracy. Further development of P indices will require coordinated regional efforts to identify common P Index frameworks and standardized interpretations. Stringent P Index evaluations will expand the utility of P indices for critical source area identification and strategic best management practice implementation by regulatory, education, and scientific communities alike

Placebo effects in mental health disorders: protocol for an umbrella review

Introduction: given the high prevalence of mental health disorders and their significant socioeconomic burden, there is a need to develop improved treatments, and to evaluate them through placebo-controlled trials. However, the magnitude of the placebo response in randomised controlled trials to test medications may be substantial, affecting their interpretation. Therefore, improved understanding of the patient, trial and mental disorder factors that influence placebo responses would inform clinical trial design to better detect active treatment effects. There is a growing literature exploring the placebo response within specific mental health disorders, but no overarching synthesis of this research has been produced to date. We present a protocol for an umbrella review of systematic reviews and/or meta-analyses in which we aim to understand the effect size and potential predictors of placebo response within, and across, mental health disorders.Methods and analysis: we will systematically search databases (Medline, PsycINFO, EMBASE+EMBASE Classic, Web of Knowledge) for systematic reviews and/or meta-analyses that report placebo effect size in clinical trials in patients with mental health disorders (initial search date 23 October 2022). Screening of abstracts and full texts will be done in pairs. We will extract data to qualitatively examine how placebo effect size varies across mental health disorders. We also plan to qualitatively summarise predictors of increased placebo response identified either quantitatively (eg, through meta-regression) or qualitatively. Risk of bias will be assessed using the AMSTAR-2 tool. We aim to not only summarise the current literature but also to identify gaps in knowledge and generate further hypotheses.Ethics and dissemination: we do not believe there are any specific ethical considerations relevant to this study. We will publish the results in a peer-reviewed journal.</p