Satellite sensor requirements for monitoring essential biodiversity variables of coastal ecosystems

© The Author(s), 2018. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Ecological Applications 28 (2018): 749-760, doi: 10.1002/eap.1682.The biodiversity and high productivity of coastal terrestrial and aquatic habitats are the foundation for important benefits to human societies around the world. These globally distributed habitats need frequent and broad systematic assessments, but field surveys only cover a small fraction of these areas. Satellite‐based sensors can repeatedly record the visible and near‐infrared reflectance spectra that contain the absorption, scattering, and fluorescence signatures of functional phytoplankton groups, colored dissolved matter, and particulate matter near the surface ocean, and of biologically structured habitats (floating and emergent vegetation, benthic habitats like coral, seagrass, and algae). These measures can be incorporated into Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs), including the distribution, abundance, and traits of groups of species populations, and used to evaluate habitat fragmentation. However, current and planned satellites are not designed to observe the EBVs that change rapidly with extreme tides, salinity, temperatures, storms, pollution, or physical habitat destruction over scales relevant to human activity. Making these observations requires a new generation of satellite sensors able to sample with these combined characteristics: (1) spatial resolution on the order of 30 to 100‐m pixels or smaller; (2) spectral resolution on the order of 5 nm in the visible and 10 nm in the short‐wave infrared spectrum (or at least two or more bands at 1,030, 1,240, 1,630, 2,125, and/or 2,260 nm) for atmospheric correction and aquatic and vegetation assessments; (3) radiometric quality with signal to noise ratios (SNR) above 800 (relative to signal levels typical of the open ocean), 14‐bit digitization, absolute radiometric calibration <2%, relative calibration of 0.2%, polarization sensitivity <1%, high radiometric stability and linearity, and operations designed to minimize sunglint; and (4) temporal resolution of hours to days. We refer to these combined specifications as H4 imaging. Enabling H4 imaging is vital for the conservation and management of global biodiversity and ecosystem services, including food provisioning and water security. An agile satellite in a 3‐d repeat low‐Earth orbit could sample 30‐km swath images of several hundred coastal habitats daily. Nine H4 satellites would provide weekly coverage of global coastal zones. Such satellite constellations are now feasible and are used in various applications.National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS); National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Grant Numbers: NNX16AQ34G, NNX14AR62A; National Ocean Partnership Program; NOAA US Integrated Ocean Observing System/IOOS Program Office; Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management Ecosystem Studies program (BOEM) Grant Number: MC15AC0000

Four new noncentrosymmetric salt-inclusion vanadates: (AX)2Mn(VO3)2 (A/X = Rb/Cl, Cs/Cl, Cs/Br) and (CsCl)2Cu(VO3)2

Hybrid solids, made of chem. dissimilar components, have drawn much interest in advanced materials synthesis due to their structural versatility and multifunctional properties. For example, metal-org. frameworks (MOFs) have been extensively explored for their potential applications in technol. important areas including heterogeneous catalysis, gas storage, and sensors. A newly emerging area of hybrid materials includes salt-inclusion solids (SISs). These fully-inorg. SISs have structural chem. complementary to MOFs where bonding at the interface of the dissimilar lattices is directional. Recent endeavors in the area of salt-inclusion chem. have been mostly focused on creating mixed framework solids contg. transition metal phosphates, arsenates, and silicates. We have substituted previously used (XO4)3- oxyanions (X = P, As), with the fully oxidized (VO4)3- anion unveiling extremely rich structural chem. Mixed-transition-metal systems are particularly attractive because they have more potential applications in the areas coupled to catalysis, batteries, or magnetism. This is in part due to variable oxidn. states of the added transition metals as well as the unique frameworks created by the salt. Here we report 4 new noncentrosym. (NCS) salt inclusion vanadates synthesized using high temp. molten salt methods, namely (RbCl)2Mn(VO3), 1, (CsCl)2Mn(VO3)2, 2, (CsBr)2Mn(VO3)2, 3, and (CsCl)2Cu(VO3)2, 4. The structures contain ReO3-type slabs of single M-X (M = Mn, Cu, and X = Cl, Br) sheets interlinked by metavanadate chains. These compds. are isomorphous adopting two different NCS structure types where their difference becomes evident only in the propagation directions of the metavanadate chains. The acentricity of these materials is attributed to the acentric Cl-centered salt units and oriented noncentrosym. VO4 units whose polar axes point in one direction. Here we will report the synthesis and structure characterization of this family of NCS salt-inclusion vanadates

Remote sensing‐based forest modeling reveals positive effects of functional diversity on productivity at local spatial scale

Forest biodiversity is critical for many ecosystem functions and services. Yet, it remains uncertain how plant functional diversity influences ecosystem functioning across environmental gradients and contiguous larger areas. We integrated remote sensing and terrestrial biosphere modeling to explore functional diversity–productivity relationships at multiple spatial scales for a heterogeneous forest ecosystem in Switzerland. We initialized forest structure and composition in the ecosystem demography model (ED2) through a combination of ground-based surveys, airborne laser scanning and imaging spectroscopy for forest patches at 10×10-m spatial grain. We derived morphological and physiological forest traits and productivity from model simulations at patch-level to relate morphological and physiological aspects of functional diversity to the average productivity from 2006–2015 at 20×20-m to 100×100-m spatial extent. We did this for model simulations under observed and experimental conditions (mono-soils, mono-cultures and mono-structures). Functional diversity increased productivity significantly (p < 0.001) across all simulations at 20×20-m to 30×30-m scale, but at 100×100-m scale positive relationships disappeared under homogeneous soil conditions potentially due to the low beta diversity of this forest and the saturation of functional richness represented in the model. Although local functional diversity was an important driver of productivity, environmental context underpinned the variation of productivity (and functional diversity) at larger spatial scales. In this study, we could show that the integration of remotely-sensed information on forest composition and structure into terrestrial biosphere models is important to fill knowledge gaps about how plant biodiversity affects carbon cycling and biosphere feedbacks onto climate over large contiguous areas

Data by Schneider et al. (2023) Remote sensing-based forest modeling reveals positive effects of functional diversity on productivity at local spatial scale

Datasets from the scientific article by Schneider, et al. (2023).  Remote sensing-based forest modeling reveals positive effects of functional diversity on productivity at local spatial scale. Please cite: Schneider, F. D., Longo, M., Paul-Limoges, E., Scholl, V. M., Schmid, B., Morsdorf, F., Pavlick, R. P., Schimel, D. S., Schaepman, M. E. & Moorcroft, P. R. (2023). Remote sensing-based forest modeling reveals positive effects of functional diversity on productivity at local spatial scale. JGR Biogeosciences.</p

Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) clinical practice guideline on immunotherapy for the treatment of melanoma, version 3.0

Since the first approval for immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) for the treatment of cutaneous melanoma more than a decade ago, immunotherapy has completely transformed the treatment landscape of this chemotherapy-resistant disease. Combination regimens including ICIs directed against programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) with anti-cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen-4 (CTLA-4) agents or, more recently, anti-lymphocyte-activation gene 3 (LAG-3) agents, have gained regulatory approvals for the treatment of metastatic cutaneous melanoma, with long-term follow-up data suggesting the possibility of cure for some patients with advanced disease. In the resectable setting, adjuvant ICIs prolong recurrence-free survival, and neoadjuvant strategies are an active area of investigation. Other immunotherapy strategies, such as oncolytic virotherapy for injectable cutaneous melanoma and bispecific T-cell engager therapy for HLA-A*02:01 genotype-positive uveal melanoma, are also available to patients. Despite the remarkable efficacy of these regimens for many patients with cutaneous melanoma, traditional immunotherapy biomarkers (ie, programmed death-ligand 1 expression, tumor mutational burden, T-cell infiltrate and/or microsatellite stability) have failed to reliably predict response. Furthermore, ICIs are associated with unique toxicity profiles, particularly for the highly active combination of anti-PD-1 plus anti-CTLA-4 agents. The Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) convened a panel of experts to develop this clinical practice guideline on immunotherapy for the treatment of melanoma, including rare subtypes of the disease (eg, uveal, mucosal), with the goal of improving patient care by providing guidance to the oncology community. Drawing from published data and clinical experience, the Expert Panel developed evidence- and consensus-based recommendations for healthcare professionals using immunotherapy to treat melanoma, with topics including therapy selection in the advanced and perioperative settings, intratumoral immunotherapy, when to use immunotherapy for patients with BRAFV600-mutated disease, management of patients with brain metastases, evaluation of treatment response, special patient populations, patient education, quality of life, and survivorship, among others