Interannual variability of the Black Sea Proper oxygen and nutrients regime: The role of climatic and anthropogenic forcing

The Black Sea is a unique, stratified, enclosed ocean basin of great importance. The water column provides a wealth of information concerning aerobic-anaerobic biogeochemistry, the responses of which can have links to anthropogenic and climatic forcing. Herein, we synthesize dissolved oxygen (DO) and nutrient data (phosphate, dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN), and silicate) for the period 1984-2010 received in the northeastern and western areas of the Sea. In the subsequent analysis we discuss the role of anthropogenic and climatic forcing in the context of the Black Sea oxic layer and oxic/anoxic interface characteristics.The DO concentration in the surface layer and in the Cold Intermediate Layer (CIL) decreased in warm periods and increased in cold periods, correlating to North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index variation. The biogeochemical regime of the Black Sea oxygenated upper layer has notably changed since 1999. After 1999 DO concentration in the CIL decreased by 20% while the concentrations in the surface layer changed very little. This provides evidence that the CIL waters were not fully replenished during the winters of the last decade.The nutrient concentrations (DIN and phosphate) in the surface layer decreased significantly in the 2000s compared with the 1980s-1990s. This decrease is regarded as improvement of the Black Sea ecosystem state. Oxygen and nutrient dynamics in the middle pycnocline have been decoupled since 1999. Presently physical (climatic) forcing is the dominant affecting factor controlling the Sea oxygen and nitrogen regime. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd

Role of the Various Surface Sites and Species in CO Hydrogenation Over Alumina-supported Co-Pd Catalysts

The paper is focused on evaluation of active centres and impact of adsorbed species on (10%Co+0.5%Pd)/Al2O3 catalyst system performance aiming selectivity optimization. Application of different sets of precursor pretreatment and reduction resulted in catalysts exhibiting high CO conversion or high methane selectivity. A sample of high selectivity was prepared by pretreatment in hydrogen and the performance was determined by lower amount of strongly adsorbed CO, strongly adsorbed carbonate species, and higher amount of reduced metal and bimetallic particles. A more active system was formed by pretreatment in air leading to larger amount of unreduced metal and CO-bridged species on the surface, stable coverage of hydroxyl groups on the support, and medium-strength sites for adsorption of carbonates. Ratios of hydrogen to carbon monoxide adsorption (H/СО) and of strongly to weakly adsorbed СО species appeared as important criteria for catalyst efficiency together with supported metal state, amount of unreduced ions, bimetallic particle formation, and alumina’s ability to adsorb CO and CO2. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Impact of renal impairment on atrial fibrillation: ESC-EHRA EORP-AF Long-Term General Registry

Background: Atrial fibrillation (AF) and renal impairment share a bidirectional relationship with important pathophysiological interactions. We evaluated the impact of renal impairment in a contemporary cohort of patients with AF. Methods: We utilised the ESC-EHRA EORP-AF Long-Term General Registry. Outcomes were analysed according to renal function by CKD-EPI equation. The primary endpoint was a composite of thromboembolism, major bleeding, acute coronary syndrome and all-cause death. Secondary endpoints were each of these separately including ischaemic stroke, haemorrhagic event, intracranial haemorrhage, cardiovascular death and hospital admission. Results: A total of 9306 patients were included. The distribution of patients with no, mild, moderate and severe renal impairment at baseline were 16.9%, 49.3%, 30% and 3.8%, respectively. AF patients with impaired renal function were older, more likely to be females, had worse cardiac imaging parameters and multiple comorbidities. Among patients with an indication for anticoagulation, prescription of these agents was reduced in those with severe renal impairment, p <.001. Over 24 months, impaired renal function was associated with significantly greater incidence of the primary composite outcome and all secondary outcomes. Multivariable Cox regression analysis demonstrated an inverse relationship between eGFR and the primary outcome (HR 1.07 [95% CI, 1.01–1.14] per 10 ml/min/1.73 m2 decrease), that was most notable in patients with eGFR <30 ml/min/1.73 m2 (HR 2.21 [95% CI, 1.23–3.99] compared to eGFR ≥90 ml/min/1.73 m2). Conclusion: A significant proportion of patients with AF suffer from concomitant renal impairment which impacts their overall management. Furthermore, renal impairment is an independent predictor of major adverse events including thromboembolism, major bleeding, acute coronary syndrome and all-cause death in patients with AF

Clinical complexity and impact of the ABC (Atrial fibrillation Better Care) pathway in patients with atrial fibrillation: a report from the ESC-EHRA EURObservational Research Programme in AF General Long-Term Registry

Background: Clinical complexity is increasingly prevalent among patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). The ‘Atrial fibrillation Better Care’ (ABC) pathway approach has been proposed to streamline a more holistic and integrated approach to AF care; however, there are limited data on its usefulness among clinically complex patients. We aim to determine the impact of ABC pathway in a contemporary cohort of clinically complex AF patients. Methods: From the ESC-EHRA EORP-AF General Long-Term Registry, we analysed clinically complex AF patients, defined as the presence of frailty, multimorbidity and/or polypharmacy. A K-medoids cluster analysis was performed to identify different groups of clinical complexity. The impact of an ABC-adherent approach on major outcomes was analysed through Cox-regression analyses and delay of event (DoE) analyses. Results: Among 9966 AF patients included, 8289 (83.1%) were clinically complex. Adherence to the ABC pathway in the clinically complex group reduced the risk of all-cause death (adjusted HR [aHR]: 0.72, 95%CI 0.58–0.91), major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs; aHR: 0.68, 95%CI 0.52–0.87) and composite outcome (aHR: 0.70, 95%CI: 0.58–0.85). Adherence to the ABC pathway was associated with a significant reduction in the risk of death (aHR: 0.74, 95%CI 0.56–0.98) and composite outcome (aHR: 0.76, 95%CI 0.60–0.96) also in the high-complexity cluster; similar trends were observed for MACEs. In DoE analyses, an ABC-adherent approach resulted in significant gains in event-free survival for all the outcomes investigated in clinically complex patients. Based on absolute risk reduction at 1 year of follow-up, the number needed to treat for ABC pathway adherence was 24 for all-cause death, 31 for MACEs and 20 for the composite outcome. Conclusions: An ABC-adherent approach reduces the risk of major outcomes in clinically complex AF patients. Ensuring adherence to the ABC pathway is essential to improve clinical outcomes among clinically complex AF patients

Impact of clinical phenotypes on management and outcomes in European atrial fibrillation patients: a report from the ESC-EHRA EURObservational Research Programme in AF (EORP-AF) General Long-Term Registry

Background: Epidemiological studies in atrial fibrillation (AF) illustrate that clinical complexity increase the risk of major adverse outcomes. We aimed to describe European AF patients\u2019 clinical phenotypes and analyse the differential clinical course. Methods: We performed a hierarchical cluster analysis based on Ward\u2019s Method and Squared Euclidean Distance using 22 clinical binary variables, identifying the optimal number of clusters. We investigated differences in clinical management, use of healthcare resources and outcomes in a cohort of European AF patients from a Europe-wide observational registry. Results: A total of 9363 were available for this analysis. We identified three clusters: Cluster 1 (n = 3634; 38.8%) characterized by older patients and prevalent non-cardiac comorbidities; Cluster 2 (n = 2774; 29.6%) characterized by younger patients with low prevalence of comorbidities; Cluster 3 (n = 2955;31.6%) characterized by patients\u2019 prevalent cardiovascular risk factors/comorbidities. Over a mean follow-up of 22.5 months, Cluster 3 had the highest rate of cardiovascular events, all-cause death, and the composite outcome (combining the previous two) compared to Cluster 1 and Cluster 2 (all P <.001). An adjusted Cox regression showed that compared to Cluster 2, Cluster 3 (hazard ratio (HR) 2.87, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.27\u20133.62; HR 3.42, 95%CI 2.72\u20134.31; HR 2.79, 95%CI 2.32\u20133.35), and Cluster 1 (HR 1.88, 95%CI 1.48\u20132.38; HR 2.50, 95%CI 1.98\u20133.15; HR 2.09, 95%CI 1.74\u20132.51) reported a higher risk for the three outcomes respectively. Conclusions: In European AF patients, three main clusters were identified, differentiated by differential presence of comorbidities. Both non-cardiac and cardiac comorbidities clusters were found to be associated with an increased risk of major adverse outcomes

Vertical distribution of summer phytoplankton in the western Black Sea during 1991-1995 with respect to some environmental factors

The present paper deals with the vertical distribution of summer phytoplankton in different layers (SHL, TCL and Ca) at selected subregions of the western Black Sea. A comparison between the north-western, western and southern Black Sea is also presented. A special statistical software package was used to display the core species along the vertical axis and to select environmental variables explaining the community distribution. Despite the subregional differences the results reveal that about 50% of the total biomass was maintained in the SHL, about 40% in the TCL and from 10% to 20% in the CIL depending on the position and depth of each layer. The environmental factors, especially nutrients have more important implications for algal species composition and abundance in the SHL, while for the deep flora the formation of CIL waters and the mechanisms of biological control may be the more significant processes

Existing monitoring of Mediterranean sea: a gap analysis

The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (2008/56/EC) of the European Parliament and of the Council (17th June 2008) establishes a framework for community action in the field of marine environmental policy. A crucial issue will be to improve the existing marine monitoring programs to cover the MSFD requirements. The comparison and identification of gaps in the existent national monitoring is a first step to include new parameters and frequencies of observation according to all relevant Directives and specially to MSFD. Our report is a first, integrated, cross-state assessment of the present state of Mediterranean monitoring networks. Data on monitoring stations have been provided from all member states of IRIS-SES + Croatia and joint in a unique georeferenced dataset. We used the cross-classification to build contingency tables of the counts at each combination of factor levels. Distances from coastline, densities of sampling stations, spatial overlap across descriptors, were also reported. As main results, we observed a large heterogeneity across MS on the parameters measured for each descriptors, on the density of sampling stations and on the frequency of sampling. Larger gaps have been identified for the descriptors Mammals, Birds, Reptiles (D1, D4, D6), Litter (D10), Energy & Noise (D11). The outputs from this work will be included into a GIS planning tool (Activity 3) including many scales and levels on which the MSFD Directive has been built on, such as the characteristics level (e.g. biological features, physicochemical features), pressure and impact, indicator/threshold, spatial (location of monitoring stations) and temporal (frequency-periodicity) across regions-subregions-countries

Spatial and temporal extent of monitoring water column and seabed habitats indicators, based on their scales of natural variation

The Marine Framework Strategy Directive (MFSD, 2008/56/EC) aims for clean, healthy and productive marine ecosystems within all the EU Members states. The MFSD promotes an holistic, ecosystem based approach to marine conservation and monitoring (Art. 13) Monitoring strategies should: 1) focus on the potential of scale dependence in the observed dynamics and 2) be able to integrate the effect of mediating factors operating at different scale levels. However, present knowledge on spatial and temporal fluctuations in marine ecosystems is scarce. The boundaries of natural variation of several important marine ecosystem processes are still undefined. A major source of complexity is the fact that ecosystem processes are occurred across different spatial as well as temporal scales. The present knowledge gap results in uncertainty on the selection of measured parameters and the definition of sampling frequency and sites. Hereby, we discuss theoretical and applied issues related to definition of optimal cross-scale monitoring strategies. Literature data and existing databases were analyzed, to define the connectivity across nested scales of principal D1 (Biodiversity), D5 (Eutrophication), D6 (Seabed habitat integrity) MFSD descriptors. We conclude that present monitoring strategy does not completely fulfil the scaling issues due to lack of theoretical knowledge on cross-scale processes and poor coordination across monitoring operators. A stronger cooperation among member states and regional environmental agencies is needed to implement efficient cross-scale environmental monitoring. This research was developed by partners of the Integrated Regional monitoring Implementation Strategy in the South European Seas (IRIS-SES, http://iris-ses.eu) Project, a pilot project on new knowledge for an integrated management of human activities in the sea (PP/ENV D2/SEA 2012), funded by the European Union