Protection gaps and restoration opportunities for primary forests in Europe

Aims: Primary forests are critical for forest biodiversity and provide key ecosystem services. In Europe, these forests are particularly scarce and it is unclear whether they are sufficiently protected. Here we aim to: (a) understand whether extant primary forests are representative of the range of naturally occurring forest types, (b) identify forest types which host enough primary forest under strict protection to meet conservation targets and (c) highlight areas where restoration is needed and feasible. Location: Europe. Methods: We combined a unique geodatabase of primary forests with maps of forest cover, potential natural vegetation, biogeographic regions and protected areas to quantify the proportion of extant primary forest across Europe\u27s forest types and to identify gaps in protection. Using spatial predictions of primary forest locations to account for underreporting of primary forests, we then highlighted areas where restoration could complement protection. Results: We found a substantial bias in primary forest distribution across forest types. Of the 54 forest types we assessed, six had no primary forest at all, and in two-thirds of forest types, less than 1% of forest was primary. Even if generally protected, only ten forest types had more than half of their primary forests strictly protected. Protecting all documented primary forests requires expanding the protected area networks by 1,132 km2 (19,194 km2 when including also predicted primary forests). Encouragingly, large areas of non-primary forest existed inside protected areas for most types, thus presenting restoration opportunities. Main conclusion: Europe\u27s primary forests are in a perilous state, as also acknowledged by EU\u27s “Biodiversity Strategy for 2030.” Yet, there are considerable opportunities for ensuring better protection and restoring primary forest structure, composition and functioning, at least partially. We advocate integrated policy reforms that explicitly account for the irreplaceable nature of primary forests and ramp up protection and restoration efforts alike

Where are we now with European forest multi-taxon biodiversity and where can we head to?

The European biodiversity and forest strategies rely on forest sustainable management (SFM) to conserve forest biodiversity. However, current sustainability assessments hardly account for direct biodiversity indicators. We focused on forest multi-taxon biodiversity to: i) gather and map the existing information; ii) identify knowledge and research gaps; iii) discuss its research potential. We established a research network to fit data on species, standing trees, lying deadwood and sampling unit description from 34 local datasets across 3591 sampling units. A total of 8724 species were represented, with the share of common and rare species varying across taxonomic classes: some included many species with several rare ones (e.g., Insecta); others (e.g., Bryopsida) were represented by few common species. Tree-related structural attributes were sampled in a subset of sampling units (2889; 2356; 2309 and 1388 respectively for diameter, height, deadwood and microhabitats). Overall, multi-taxon studies are biased towards mature forests and may underrepresent the species related to other developmental phases. European forest compositional categories were all represented, but beech forests were over-represented as compared to thermophilous and boreal forests. Most sampling units (94%) were referred to a habitat type of conservation concern. Existing information may support European conservation and SFM strategies in: (i) methodological harmonization and coordinated monitoring; (ii) definition and testing of SFM indicators and thresholds; (iii) data-driven assessment of the effects of environmental and management drivers on multi-taxon forest biological and functional diversity, (iv) multi-scale forest monitoring integrating in-situ and remotely sensed information

Influence of extra- and intra-oral application of CPP-ACP and fluoride on re-hardening of eroded enamel

Abstract Objectives. This in-situ study aimed to investigate the potential of casein phosphopeptide-amorphous calcium phosphate (CPP-ACP) crème and fluoride mouth rinse to re-harden erosively softened enamel and to evaluate the influence of an intra-oral or extra-oral application. Methods. Ten volunteers performed five experimental series. Per series, four bovine enamel samples were extra-orally softened by immersion in Sprite light (2 min) and subsequently worn intra-orally for 5 min in intra-oral appliances. Thereafter, samples were treated (3 min) with either 250 ppm AmF/SnF(2) solution (Meridol) (series 1 and 3) or CPP-ACP crème (Tooth Mousse) (series 2 and 4). Application of the substances was performed extra-orally (series 1 and 2) or intra-orally (series 3 and 4). Untreated specimens served as control (series 5). The appliances were worn for 4 h afterwards. Knoop microhardness (KHN) measurement was performed at baseline, after softening and after completing of the respective run. Data were statistically analyzed by ANOVA and Bonferroni/Dunn post-hoc test. Results. No significant difference in baseline microhardness was observed, while immersion in Sprite light reduced the microhardness significantly. Significant re-hardening after intra-oral exposure occurred in all series, but baseline microhardness was not achieved. Microhardness in series 2 was significantly higher than that in series 1 and 5. No significant differences in KHN were detected between series 3, 4 and 5. The re-hardening ΔKHN (final microhardness - microhardness after erosion) was not significant different in all five series. Conclusion. Intra-oral application of CPP-ACP crème or fluoride solution provides no benefit regarding re-hardening of erosively softened enamel

Continuing cognitive impairment after isolated transient global amnesia

Kessler J, Markowitsch HJ, Rudolf J, Heiss WD. Continuing cognitive impairment after isolated transient global amnesia. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE. 2001;106(3-4):159-168.Fourteen patients were investigated 3-4 days after end of their transient global amnesia (TGA) with a number of neuropsychological tests. Their performance was compared with that of a control group. marched For ape, education. and profession. II was found that in spits of the common definition of TGA. impairments in both verbal and nonverbal long term memory and verbal fluency persisted and were in fact impaired to such a degree that it seemed unlikely that full recovery would have occurred within the next few days. We propose a major role of stress in the etiology and the recovery process of TGA and consider it likely that stress hormones are of major influence both in the triggering of TGA and the subsequent continuation of cognitive impairments