388 research outputs found
Topo-edaphic controls over woody plant biomass in South African savannas
The distribution of woody biomass in savannas reflects spatial patterns fundamental to ecosystem processes, such as water flow, competition, and herbivory, and is a key contributor to savanna ecosystem services, such as fuelwood supply. While total precipitation sets an upper bound on savanna woody biomass, the extent to which substrate and terrain constrain trees and shrubs below this maximum remains poorly understood, often occluded by local-scale disturbances such as fire and trampling. Here we investigate the role of hillslope topography and soil properties in controlling woody plant aboveground biomass (AGB) in Kruger National Park, South Africa. Large-area sampling with airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) provided a means to average across local-scale disturbances, revealing an unexpectedly linear relationship between AGB and hillslope-position on basalts, where biomass levels were lowest on crests, and linearly increased toward streams (<i>R</i><sup>2</sup> = 0.91). The observed pattern was different on granite substrates, where AGB exhibited a strongly non-linear relationship with hillslope position: AGB was high on crests, decreased midslope, and then increased near stream channels (<i>R</i><sup>2</sup> = 0.87). Overall, we observed 5-to-8-fold lower AGB on clayey, basalt-derived soil than on granites, and we suggest this is due to herbivore-fire interactions rather than lower hydraulic conductivity or clay shrinkage/swelling, as previously hypothesized. By mapping AGB within and outside fire and herbivore exclosures, we found that basalt-derived soils support tenfold higher AGB in the absence of fire and herbivory, suggesting high clay content alone is not a proximal limitation on AGB. Understanding how fire and herbivory contribute to AGB heterogeneity is critical to predicting future savanna carbon storage under a changing climate
Rapid response of habitat structure and above-ground carbon storage to altered fire regimes in tropical savanna
Fire regimes across the globe have been altered through changes in land use,
land management, and climate conditions. Understanding how these modified fire
regimes impact vegetation structure and dynamics is essential for informed
biodiversity conservation and carbon management in savanna ecosystems. We
used a fire experiment at the Territory Wildlife Park (TWP), northern
Australia, to investigate the consequences of altered fire regimes for
vertical habitat structure and above-ground carbon storage. We mapped
vegetation three-dimensional (3-D) structure in high spatial resolution with
airborne lidar across 18 replicated 1 ha plots of varying fire frequency
and season treatments. We used lidar-derived canopy height and cover metrics
to extrapolate field-based measures of woody biomass to the full extent of
the experimental site (R2=0.82, RMSE = 7.35 t C ha−1) and
analysed differences in above-ground carbon storage and canopy structure among
treatments. Woody canopy cover and biomass were highest in the absence of
fire (76 % and 39.8 t C ha−1) and lowest in plots burnt late in
the dry season on a biennial basis (42 % and 18.2 t C ha−1).
Woody canopy vertical profiles differed among all six fire treatments, with
the greatest divergence in height classes <5 m. The magnitude of fire effects
on vegetation structure varied along the environmental gradient underpinning
the experiment, with less reduction in biomass in plots with deeper soils.
Our results highlight the large extent to which fire management can shape
woody structural patterns in savanna landscapes, even over time frames as
short as a decade. The structural profile changes shown here, and the
quantification of carbon reduction under late dry season burning, have
important implications for habitat conservation, carbon sequestration, and
emission reduction initiatives in the region.</p
Community Composition and Abundance of Bacterial, Archaeal and Nitrifying Populations in Savanna Soils on Contrasting Bedrock Material in Kruger National Park, South Africa
Savannas cover at least 13% of the global terrestrial surface and are often nutrient limited, especially by nitrogen. To gain a better understanding of their microbial diversity and the microbial nitrogen cycling in savanna soils, soil samples were collected along a granitic and a basaltic catena in Kruger National Park (South Africa) to characterize their bacterial and archaeal composition and the genetic potential for nitrification. Although the basaltic soils were on average 5 times more nutrient rich than the granitic soils, all investigated savanna soil samples showed typically low nutrient availabilities, i.e., up to 38 times lower soil N or C contents than temperate grasslands. Illumina MiSeq amplicon sequencing revealed a unique soil bacterial community dominated by Actinobacteria (20–66%), Chloroflexi (9–29%), and Firmicutes (7–42%) and an increase in the relative abundance of Actinobacteria with increasing soil nutrient content. The archaeal community reached up to 14% of the total soil microbial community and was dominated by the thaumarchaeal Soil Crenarchaeotic Group (43–99.8%), with a high fraction of sequences related to the ammonia-oxidizing genus Nitrosopshaera sp. Quantitative PCR targeting amoA genes encoding the alpha subunit of ammonia monooxygenase also revealed a high genetic potential for ammonia oxidation dominated by archaea (~5 × 107 archaeal amoA gene copies g−1 soil vs. mostly < 7 × 104 bacterial amoA gene copies g−1 soil). Abundances of archaeal 16S rRNA and amoA genes were positively correlated with soil nitrate, N and C contents. Nitrospira sp. was detected as the most abundant group of nitrite oxidizing bacteria. The specific geochemical conditions and particle transport dynamics at the granitic catena were found to affect soil microbial communities through clay and nutrient relocation along the hill slope, causing a shift to different, less diverse bacterial and archaeal communities at the footslope. Overall, our results suggest a strong effect of the savanna soils' nutrient scarcity on all microbial communities, resulting in a distinct community structure that differs markedly from nutrient-rich, temperate grasslands, along with a high relevance of archaeal ammonia oxidation in savanna soils
KINEROS2-AGWA: Model Use, Calibration, and Validation
KINEROS (KINematic runoff and EROSion) originated in the 1960s as a distributed event-based model that conceptualizes a watershed as a cascade of overland flow model elements that flow into trapezoidal channel model elements. KINEROS was one of the first widely available watershed models that interactively coupled a finite difference approximation of the kinematic overland flow equations to a physically based infiltration model. Development and improvement of KINEROS continued from the 1960s on a variety of projects for a range of purposes, which has resulted in a suite of KINEROS-based modeling tools. This article focuses on KINEROS2 (K2), a spatially distributed, event-based watershed rainfall-runoff and erosion model, and the companion ArcGIS-based Automated Geospatial Watershed Assessment (AGWA) tool. AGWA automates the time-consuming tasks of watershed delineation into distributed model elements and initial parameterization of these elements using commonly available, national GIS data layers. A variety of approaches have been used to calibrate and validate K2 successfully across a relatively broad range of applications (e.g., urbanization, pre- and post-fire, hillslope erosion, erosion from roads, runoff and recharge, and manure transport). The case studies presented in this article (1) compare lumped to stepwise calibration and validation of runoff and sediment at plot, hillslope, and small watershed scales; and (2) demonstrate an uncalibrated application to address relative change in watershed response to wildfire
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Mãe, cadê o bebê? Repercussões do nascimento prematuro de um irmão
O objetivo deste artigo foi investigar as repercussões do nascimento prematuro do bebê sobre o(s) seu(s) irmão(s), sob a perspectiva materna, durante a internação do recém-nascido na Unidade de Terapia Intensiva Neonatal. O estudo contou com a participação de 37 mães, entrevistadas no 15º dia após o parto. Elas responderam a instrumentos que contemplaram dados demográficos familiares, informações clínicas do bebê e da mãe, e a experiência da maternidade no contexto da prematuridade. A entrevista sobre maternidade continha questões acerca do irmão do bebê, cujas respostas foram examinadas a partir de análise de conteúdo qualitativa. Os resultados revelaram alteração na rotina dos irmãos em razão da maior ausência materna. Os sentimentos e reações dos irmãos incluíram questionamentos, preocupações, ciúme e ansiedade, ao lado de contentamento e curiosidade. A visita do irmão ao bebê prematuro não foi permitida por alguns hospitais. Evidencia-se a importância de os irmãos serem atendidos em suas necessidades de cuidado nesse período de hospitalização do bebê
Addressing Corporate Ties to Slavery: Corporate Apologia in a Discourse of Reconciliation
Pressured by activists to take responsibility, American corporations recently found themselves in the spotlight for their past ties to slavery. Responding to the issue, they stepped into a complex discourse of reconciliation. Taking a rhetorical approach, this article analyzes the response of Aetna Inc. It explores how corporate rhetoric functions within present discourses about historical injustices and illustrates that Aetna\u27s response informed by common strategies of corporate apologia inhibited meaningful reconciliation. The article thus furthers criticisms of (corporate) apologia in the context of historical injustice and raises questions about the potentialities and limitations of corporate rhetoric for reconciliation
Exploring haemodynamics of haemodialysis using extrema points analysis model
Background: Haemodialysis is a form of renal replacement therapy used to treat
patients with end stage renal failure. It is becoming more appreciated that
haemodialysis patients exhibit higher rates of multiple end organ damage
compared to the general population. There is also a strong emerging evidence that
haemodialysis itself causes circulatory stress. We aimed at examining
haemodynamic patterns during haemodialysis using a new model and test that
model against a normal control.
Methods: We hypothesised that blood pressures generated by each heart beat
constantly vary between local peaks and troughs (local extrema), the frequency and
amplitude of which is regulated to maintain optimal organ perfusion. We also
hypothesised that such model could reveal multiple haemodynamic aberrations
during HD. Using a non-invasive cardiac output monitoring device (Finometer®) we
compared various haemodynamic parameters using the above model between a
haemodialysis patient during a dialysis session and an exercised normal control after
comparison at rest.
Results: Measurements yielded 29,751 data points for each haemodynamic
parameter. Extrema points frequency of mean arterial blood pressure was higher in
the HD subject compared to the normal control (0.761Hz IQR 0.5-0.818 vs 0.468Hz
IQR 0.223-0.872, P < 0.0001). Similarly, extrema points frequency of systolic blood
pressure was significantly higher in haemodialysis compared to normal. In contrary,
the frequency of extrema points for TPR was higher in the normal control compared
to HD (0.947 IQR 0.520-1.512 vs 0.845 IQR 0.730-1.569, P < 0.0001) with significantly
higher amplitudes.
Conclusion: Haemodialysis patients potentially exhibit an aberrant haemodynamic
behaviour characterised by higher extrema frequencies of mean arterial blood
pressure and lower extrema frequencies of total peripheral resistance. This, in
theory, could lead to higher variation in organ perfusion and may be detrimental to vulnerable vascular beds
Lymphatic density and metastatic spread in human malignant melanoma
Lymphatic density and metastatic spread in human malignant melanoma. Malignant melanoma (MM), the most common cause of skin cancer deaths, metastasises to regional lymph nodes. In animal models of other cancers, lymphatic growth is associated with metastasis. To assess if lymphatic density (LD) was increased in human MM, and its association with metastasis, we measured LD inside and around archival MM samples (MM, n = 21), and compared them with normal dermis (n = 11), basal cell carcinoma (BCC, n = 6) and Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC), a skin tumour thought to metastasise through a vascular route (MCC, n = 6). Lymphatic capillary density (mm(-2)), as determined by immunohistochemical staining with the lymphatic specific marker LYVE-1, was significantly increased around MM (10.0+/-2.5 mm(-2)) compared with normal dermis (2.4+/-0.9 mm(-2)), BCC (3.0+/-0.9 mm(-2)) and MCC (2.4+/-1.4 mm(-2)) (P<0.0001). There was a small decrease in LD inside MM (1.1+/-0.7 mm(-2)) compared with normal dermis, but a highly significant decrease in BCC (0.14+/-0.13) and MCC (0.12+/-2.4) (P<0.01 Kruskal-Wallis). Astonishingly, LD discriminated between melanomas that subsequently metastasised (12.8+/-1.6 mm(-2)) and those that did not (5.4+/-1.1 mm(-2), P<0.01, Mann-Whitney). Lymphatic invasion by tumour cells was seen mainly in MM that metastasised (70% compared with 12% not metastasising, P<0.05 Fisher's Exact test). The results show that LD was increased around MMs, and that LD and tumour cell invasion of lymphatics may help to predict metastasis. To this end, a prognostic index was calculated using LD, lymphatic invasion and thickness that clearly discriminated metastatic from nonmetastatic tumours
3D finite compartment modeling of formation and healing of bruises may identify methods for age determination of bruises
Simulating the spatial and temporal behavior of bruises may identify methods that allow accurate age determination of bruises to assess child abuse. We developed a numerical 3D model to simulate the spatial kinetics of hemoglobin and bilirubin during the formation and healing of bruises. Using this model, we studied how skin thickness, bruise diameter and diffusivities affect the formation and healing of circular symmetric bruises and compared a simulated bruise with a natural inhomogeneous bruise. Healing is faster for smaller bruises in thinner and less dense skin. The simulated and natural bruises showed similar spatial and temporal dynamics. The different spatio-temporal dynamics of hemoglobin and bilirubin allows age determination of model bruises. Combining our model predictions with individual natural bruises may allow optimizing our model parameters. It may particularly identify methods for more accurate age determination than currently possible to aid the assessment of child abuse
Potential Relevance of α1-Adrenergic Receptor Autoantibodies in Refractory Hypertension
-AAB might have a mechanistic role and could represent a therapeutic target. in cardiomyocytes and induce mesentery artery segment contraction.-AAB in hypertensive patients, and the notion of immunity as a possible cause of hypertension
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