Biodiversity increases the resistance of ecosystem productivity to climate extremes

It remains unclear whether biodiversity buffers ecosystems against climate extremes, which are becoming increasingly frequent worldwide1. Early results suggested that the ecosystem productivity of diverse grassland plant communities was more resistant, changing less during drought, and more resilient, recovering more quickly after drought, than that of depauperate communities2. However, subsequent experimental tests produced mixed results3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13. Here we use data from 46 experiments that manipulated grassland plant diversity to test whether biodiversity provides resistance during and resilience after climate events. We show that biodiversity increased ecosystem resistance for a broad range of climate events, including wet or dry, moderate or extreme, and brief or prolonged events. Across all studies and climate events, the productivity of low-diversity communities with one or two species changed by approximately 50% during climate events, whereas that of high-diversity communities with 16–32 species was more resistant, changing by only approximately 25%. By a year after each climate event, ecosystem productivity had often fully recovered, or overshot, normal levels of productivity in both high- and low-diversity communities, leading to no detectable dependence of ecosystem resilience on biodiversity. Our results suggest that biodiversity mainly stabilizes ecosystem productivity, and productivity-dependent ecosystem services, by increasing resistance to climate events. Anthropogenic environmental changes that drive biodiversity loss thus seem likely to decrease ecosystem stability14, and restoration of biodiversity to increase it, mainly by changing the resistance of ecosystem productivity to climate events

Associations of autozygosity with a broad range of human phenotypes

In many species, the offspring of related parents suffer reduced reproductive success, a phenomenon known as inbreeding depression. In humans, the importance of this effect has remained unclear, partly because reproduction between close relatives is both rare and frequently associated with confounding social factors. Here, using genomic inbreeding coefficients (F-ROH) for >1.4 million individuals, we show that F-ROH is significantly associated (p <0.0005) with apparently deleterious changes in 32 out of 100 traits analysed. These changes are associated with runs of homozygosity (ROH), but not with common variant homozygosity, suggesting that genetic variants associated with inbreeding depression are predominantly rare. The effect on fertility is striking: F-ROH equivalent to the offspring of first cousins is associated with a 55% decrease [95% CI 44-66%] in the odds of having children. Finally, the effects of F-ROH are confirmed within full-sibling pairs, where the variation in F-ROH is independent of all environmental confounding.Peer reviewe

Novel Loci for Adiponectin Levels and Their Influence on Type 2 Diabetes and Metabolic Traits : A Multi-Ethnic Meta-Analysis of 45,891 Individuals

J. Kaprio, S. Ripatti ja M.-L. Lokki työryhmien jäseniä.Peer reviewe

Is Psychology Really `the Study of Behavior'?

In this paper, we examine the concept `behavior' within the context of the development of American psychology. After explicating the term's meaning within ordinary usage, we argue that `behavior' is a theoretical construct within behavior analysis, and that its privileged status in psychology outside behavior analysis is really just a residuum from the days of the hegemony of behaviorism. The claim `psychology is the study of behavior' falters within psychology more generally on the grounds that `behavior' is simply too confused and ambiguous a construct on which to found psychology. On the other hand, within behaviorism itself, it is still possible to vindicate the claim that psychology is the study of behavior, since `behavior' has a technical sense within behavior analysis. However, to establish that psychology is the study of behavior in this technical sense would require that behaviorism succeed in explaining all of the phenomena of interest to psychologists, since otherwise some psychological phenomena would be left outside this domain.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68888/2/10.1177_0959354394044006.pd

Desempenho da cultura do feijão após diferentes formas de uso do solo no inverno Performance of common bean cultivated after different soil use during the winter

O uso e manejo do solo durante o inverno pode alterar as características físicas do solo, a cobertura remanescente e o desempenho da cultura semeada em sucessão. O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar o efeito de formas de uso do solo no inverno sobre essas variáveis, semeando-se a cultura do feijão em sucessão, manejada em plantio direto. Na safra 2007/08, foram conduzidos três experimentos na região do Planalto Norte Catarinense, onde foram avaliadas cinco formas de uso do solo durante o inverno: 1) consórcio de aveia preta + azevém + ervilhaca + trevo vesiculoso manejado sem pastejo e sem adubação nitrogenada (consórcio cobertura); 2) o mesmo consórcio, com pastejo e com 100kg ha-1 de N em cobertura (pastagem com N); 3) o mesmo consórcio, com pastejo e sem adubação nitrogenada (pastagem sem N); 4) nabo forrageiro, sem pastejo e sem adubação nitrogenada (nabo forrageiro); e 5) pousio, sem pastejo e sem adubação nitrogenada (pousio). O consórcio cobertura proporciona maior quantidade de palha para o cultivo de feijão em sucessão, mas as formas de uso do solo no inverno estudadas não afetam expressivamente a densidade e a macroporosidade do solo. O uso do solo no inverno com pastagem anual em sistema integração lavoura-pecuária, coberturas de solo e pousio não afeta o desempenho da cultura do feijão semeada em sucessão, manejada em plantio direto.<br>Soil use and management during the winter can affect soil physical properties, reminiscent straw and performance of the crop cultivated in succession. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of winter soil use on these variables, cultivating black bean under no tillage system in the summer. Three experiments were carried out in the North Plateau of Santa Catarina State, Brazil, during 2007/08 crop season, with five strategies of soil use during the winter: 1) multicropping with black oat + ryegrass + commom vetch + arrow leaf clover without grazing and nitrogen fertilization (multicropping cover); 2) the same multicropping, with grazing and 100kg ha-1 of nitrogen fertilization (pasture with N); 3) the same multicropping, with grazing and without nitrogen fertilization (pasture without N); 4) oil seed radish, without grazing and nitrogen fertilization (oil seed radish); and 5) natural vegetation, without grazing and nitrogen fertilization (fallow). Highest straw dry mass is verified in multicropping cover, but the strategies of winter soil use do not affect significantly the soil bulk density and macroporosity. The soil use with winter annual pasture in crop-livestock system, cover crops and fallow does not affect the black bean performance in succession, under no tillage system