Analyzing the carbon dynamics of central European forests: comparison of Biome-BGC simulations with measurements

Biogeochemical models are often used for making projections of future carbon dynamics under scenarios of global change. The aim of this study was to assess the accuracy of the process-based biogeochemical model Biome-BGC for application in central European forests from the lowlands to upper treeline as a pre-requisite for environmental impact assessments. We analyzed model behavior along an altitudinal gradient across the alpine treeline, which provided insights on the sensitivity of simulated average carbon pools to changes in environmental factors. A second set of tests included medium-term (30years) simulations of carbon fluxes, and a third set of tests focused on daily carbon and water fluxes. Model results were compared to aboveground biomass measurements, leaf area index recordings as well as net ecosystem exchange (NEE) and actual evapotranspiration (AET) measurements. The simulated medium-term forest growth agreed well with measured data. Also daily NEE fluxes were simulated adequately in most cases. Problems were detected when simulating ecosystems close to the upper timberline (overestimation of measured growth and pool sizes), and when simulating daily AET fluxes (overestimation of measured fluxes). The results showed that future applications of Biome-BGC could benefit much from an improvement of model algorithms (e.g., the Q10 model for respiration) as well as from a detailed analysis of the ecological significance of crucial parameters (e.g., the canopy water interception coefficient

Irrigation as adaptation strategy to climate change—a biophysical and economic appraisal for Swiss maize production

The impact of climate change on Swiss maize production is assessed using an approach that integrates a biophysical and an economic model. Simple adaptation options such as shifts in sowing dates and adjustments of production intensity are considered. In addition, irrigation is evaluated as an adaptation strategy. It shows that the impact of climate change on yield levels is small but yield variability increases in rainfed production. Even though the adoption of irrigation leads to higher and less variable maize yields in the future, economic benefits of this adoption decision are expected to be rather small. Thus, no shift from the currently used rainfed system to irrigated production is expected in the future. Moreover, we find that changes in institutional and market conditions rather than changes in climatic conditions will influence the development of the Swiss maize production and the adoption of irrigation in the futur

Evaluation of the forest growth model SILVA along an elevational gradient in Switzerland

The semi-empirical single-tree model SILVA 2.2 has been developed and parameterised using forest research and inventory data from Germany that range from the colline to the montane zone. The focus of the model evaluation presented in this study was to test the applicability of the model for the main Swiss forest types and at elevations ranging from the colline to the upper subalpine zone. To this end, SILVA was initialized using data from long-term forest yield research plots. The results at the end of the 30-year simulation were compared with observed data. The analysis of the results at each test site showed that there were no significant differences in model performance between forest types. However, the deviation between simulated and observed growth depended strongly on the elevational zone, i.e., on climate. As expected, the best results were found in the colline zone, for which the model had been calibrated, whereas the upper subalpine sites revealed the strongest differences. The quality of the data regarding forest structure that were available for model initialization had a strong impact on the simulation results, mainly at high-elevation zones (i.e., supalpine and upper subalpine). We conclude that SILVA 2.2 is a suitable tool to estimate the development of single trees and standing volume for a large fraction of the forests in Switzerland. However, extreme climate conditions should be avoided with the model, and the availability of detailed stand structure information is a key priority that has a strong effect on the quality of the simulation result

Modelling Agricultural Production Risk and the Adaptation to Climate Change

A model that integrates biophysical simulations in an economic model is used to analyze the impact of climate change on crop production. The biophysical model simulates future plant-management-climate relationships and the economic model simulates farmers’ adaptation actions to climate change using a nonlinear programming approach. Beyond the development of average yields, special attention is devoted to the impact of climate change on crop yield variability. This study analyzes corn and winter wheat production on the Swiss Plateau with respect to climate change scenarios that cover the period of 2030-2050. In our model, adaptation options such as changes in seeding dates, changes in production intensity and the adoption of irrigation farming are considered. Different scenarios of climate change, output prices and farmers’ risk aversion are applied in order to show the sensitivity of adaptation strategies and crop yields, respectively, on these factors. Our results show that adaptation actions, yields and yield variation highly depend on both climate change and output prices. The sensitivity of adaptation options and yields, respectively, to prices and risk aversion for winter wheat is much lower than for corn because of different growing periods. In general, our results show that both corn and winter wheat yields increase in the next decades. In contrast to other studies, we find the coefficient of variation of corn and winter wheat yields to decrease. We therefore conclude that simple adaptation measures are sufficient to take advantage of climate change in Swiss crop farming

Исследование водопользования на территории золоторудного месторождения Бакырчик (Восточный Казахстан)

В работе рассматриваются вопросы водопользования на территории золоторудного месторождения Бакырчик, оценка качества воды в водных объектах этой территории, способы их водоподготовки, очистки и сброса сточных вод. А так же рассмотрен способ очистки сточных вод с применением шунгита.The paper discusses issues of water use on the gold ore field Bakyrchik, assessment of water quality in water bodies of this territory, methods of their water treatment, treatment and discharge of sewage. And also the method of wastewater treatment with shungite is considered

Switch-peptides: design and characterization of controllable super-amyloid-forming host-guest peptides as tools for identifying anti-amyloid agents

Several amyloid-forming proteins are characterized by the presence of hydrophobic and highly amyloidogenic core sequences that play critical roles in the initiation and progression of amyloid fibril formation. Therefore targeting these sequences represents a viable strategy for identifying candidate molecules that could interfere with amyloid formation and toxicity of the parent proteins. However, the highly amyloidogenic and insoluble nature of these sequences has hampered efforts to develop high-throughput fibrillization assays. Here we describe the design and characterization of host-guest switch peptides that can be used for in vitro mechanistic and screening studies that are aimed at discovering aggregation inhibitors that target highly amyloidogenic sequences. These model systems are based on a host-guest system where the amyloidogenic sequence (guest peptide) is flanked by two beta-sheet-promoting (Leu-Ser)(n) oligomers as host sequences. Two host-guest peptides were prepared by using the hydrophobic core of Abeta comprising residues 14-24 (HQKLVFFAEDV) as the guest peptide with switch elements inserted within (peptide 1) or at the N and C termini of the guest peptide (peptide 2). Both model peptides can be triggered to undergo rapid self-assembly and amyloid formation in a highly controllable manner and their fibrillization kinetics is tuneable by manipulating solution conditions (for example, peptide concentration and pH). The fibrillization of both peptides reproduces many features of the full-length Abeta peptides and can be inhibited by known inhibitors of Abeta fibril formation. Our results suggest that this approach can be extended to other amyloid proteins and should facilitate the discovery of small-molecule aggregation inhibitors and the development of more efficacious anti-amyloid agents to treat and/or reverse the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative and systemic amyloid diseases

Differences and Similarities in Predictors of Externalizing Behavior Problems Between Boys and Girls: A 1-Year Follow-Up Study

The aim of this study was to investigate the sex-specific predictive value of age of onset of delinquent behaviors, callous-unemotional (CU) traits, and anger-irritability problems for externalizing behavior problems in institutionalized adolescents over the course of 1 year. A total of 118 girls and 240 boys from child welfare and juvenile justice institutions were evaluated twice: At T1, age of onset, CU traits, anger-irritability problems, nonverbal reasoning, and externalizing behavior problems were measured; at T2 (later), externalizing behavior problems were measured a second time. Results showed significant interactions between sex and anger-irritability problems, and between sex and CU traits, in the sense that the relation between these two predictors at T1 and externalizing behavior problems at T2 was stronger in girls than in boys. Results of this study point out sex differences in the validity of predictors of externalizing behavior problems

Integrative epigenomic mapping defines four main chromatin states in Arabidopsis

This first comprehensive view of the Arabidopsis epigenome reveals that it is organized into four main chromatin types based on the integrative mapping of a broad set of 11 histone marks and DNA methylation in seedlings

Argo data 1999-2019: two million temperature-salinity profiles and subsurface velocity observations from a global array of profiling floats.

© The Author(s), 2020. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Wong, A. P. S., Wijffels, S. E., Riser, S. C., Pouliquen, S., Hosoda, S., Roemmich, D., Gilson, J., Johnson, G. C., Martini, K., Murphy, D. J., Scanderbeg, M., Bhaskar, T. V. S. U., Buck, J. J. H., Merceur, F., Carval, T., Maze, G., Cabanes, C., Andre, X., Poffa, N., Yashayaev, I., Barker, P. M., Guinehut, S., Belbeoch, M., Ignaszewski, M., Baringer, M. O., Schmid, C., Lyman, J. M., McTaggart, K. E., Purkey, S. G., Zilberman, N., Alkire, M. B., Swift, D., Owens, W. B., Jayne, S. R., Hersh, C., Robbins, P., West-Mack, D., Bahr, F., Yoshida, S., Sutton, P. J. H., Cancouet, R., Coatanoan, C., Dobbler, D., Juan, A. G., Gourrion, J., Kolodziejczyk, N., Bernard, V., Bourles, B., Claustre, H., D'Ortenzio, F., Le Reste, S., Le Traon, P., Rannou, J., Saout-Grit, C., Speich, S., Thierry, V., Verbrugge, N., Angel-Benavides, I. M., Klein, B., Notarstefano, G., Poulain, P., Velez-Belchi, P., Suga, T., Ando, K., Iwasaska, N., Kobayashi, T., Masuda, S., Oka, E., Sato, K., Nakamura, T., Sato, K., Takatsuki, Y., Yoshida, T., Cowley, R., Lovell, J. L., Oke, P. R., van Wijk, E. M., Carse, F., Donnelly, M., Gould, W. J., Gowers, K., King, B. A., Loch, S. G., Mowat, M., Turton, J., Rama Rao, E. P., Ravichandran, M., Freeland, H. J., Gaboury, I., Gilbert, D., Greenan, B. J. W., Ouellet, M., Ross, T., Tran, A., Dong, M., Liu, Z., Xu, J., Kang, K., Jo, H., Kim, S., & Park, H. Argo data 1999-2019: two million temperature-salinity profiles and subsurface velocity observations from a global array of profiling floats. Frontiers in Marine Science, 7, (2020): 700, doi:10.3389/fmars.2020.00700.In the past two decades, the Argo Program has collected, processed, and distributed over two million vertical profiles of temperature and salinity from the upper two kilometers of the global ocean. A similar number of subsurface velocity observations near 1,000 dbar have also been collected. This paper recounts the history of the global Argo Program, from its aspiration arising out of the World Ocean Circulation Experiment, to the development and implementation of its instrumentation and telecommunication systems, and the various technical problems encountered. We describe the Argo data system and its quality control procedures, and the gradual changes in the vertical resolution and spatial coverage of Argo data from 1999 to 2019. The accuracies of the float data have been assessed by comparison with high-quality shipboard measurements, and are concluded to be 0.002°C for temperature, 2.4 dbar for pressure, and 0.01 PSS-78 for salinity, after delayed-mode adjustments. Finally, the challenges faced by the vision of an expanding Argo Program beyond 2020 are discussed.AW, SR, and other scientists at the University of Washington (UW) were supported by the US Argo Program through the NOAA Grant NA15OAR4320063 to the Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean (JISAO) at the UW. SW and other scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) were supported by the US Argo Program through the NOAA Grant NA19OAR4320074 (CINAR/WHOI Argo). The Scripps Institution of Oceanography's role in Argo was supported by the US Argo Program through the NOAA Grant NA15OAR4320071 (CIMEC). Euro-Argo scientists were supported by the Monitoring the Oceans and Climate Change with Argo (MOCCA) project, under the Grant Agreement EASME/EMFF/2015/1.2.1.1/SI2.709624 for the European Commission