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

BRAF in Lung Cancers: Analysis of Patient Cases Reveals Recurrent BRAF Mutations, Fusions, Kinase Duplications, and Concurrent Alterations.

Dabrafenib and trametinib are approved for the management of advanced non-small-cell lung cancers (NSCLCs) that harbor BRAF V600E mutations. Small series and pan-cancer analyses have identified non-V600 alterations as therapeutic targets. We sought to examine a large genomic data set to comprehensively characterize non-V600 BRAF alterations in lung cancer. A total of 23,396 patients with lung cancer provided data to assay with comprehensive genomic profiling. Data were reviewed for predicted pathogenic BRAF base substitutions, short insertions and deletions, copy number changes, and rearrangements. Adenocarcinomas represented 65% of the occurrences; NSCLC not otherwise specified (NOS), 15%; squamous cell carcinoma, 12%; and small-cell lung carcinoma, 5%. BRAF was altered in 4.5% (1,048 of 23,396) of all tumors; 37.4% (n = 397) were BRAF V600E, 38% were BRAF non-V600E activating mutations, and 18% were BRAF inactivating. Rearrangements were observed at a frequency of 4.3% and consisted of N-terminal deletions (NTDs; 0.75%), kinase domain duplications (KDDs; 0.75%), and BRAF fusions (2.8%). The fusions involved three recurrent fusion partners: ARMC10, DOCK4, and TRIM24. BRAF V600E was associated with co-occurrence of SETD2 alterations, but other BRAF alterations were not and were instead associated with CDKN2A, TP53, and STK11 alterations (P &lt; .05). Potential mechanisms of acquired resistance to BRAF V600E inhibition are demonstrated. This series characterized the frequent occurrence (4.4%) of BRAF alterations in lung cancers. Recurrent BRAF alterations in NSCLC adenocarcinoma are comparable to the frequency of other NSCLC oncogenic drivers, such as ALK, and exceed that of ROS1 or RET. This work supports a broad profiling approach in lung cancers and suggests that non-V600E BRAF alterations represent a subgroup of lung cancers in which targeted therapy should be considered