Iterative Near-Term Ecological Forecasting: Needs, Opportunities, And Challenges

Two foundational questions about sustainability are “How are ecosystems and the services they provide going to change in the future?” and “How do human decisions affect these trajectories?” Answering these questions requires an ability to forecast ecological processes. Unfortunately, most ecological forecasts focus on centennial-scale climate responses, therefore neither meeting the needs of near-term (daily to decadal) environmental decision-making nor allowing comparison of specific, quantitative predictions to new observational data, one of the strongest tests of scientific theory. Near-term forecasts provide the opportunity to iteratively cycle between performing analyses and updating predictions in light of new evidence. This iterative process of gaining feedback, building experience, and correcting models and methods is critical for improving forecasts. Iterative, near-term forecasting will accelerate ecological research, make it more relevant to society, and inform sustainable decision-making under high uncertainty and adaptive management. Here, we identify the immediate scientific and societal needs, opportunities, and challenges for iterative near-term ecological forecasting. Over the past decade, data volume, variety, and accessibility have greatly increased, but challenges remain in interoperability, latency, and uncertainty quantification. Similarly, ecologists have made considerable advances in applying computational, informatic, and statistical methods, but opportunities exist for improving forecast-specific theory, methods, and cyberinfrastructure. Effective forecasting will also require changes in scientific training, culture, and institutions. The need to start forecasting is now; the time for making ecology more predictive is here, and learning by doing is the fastest route to drive the science forward

3D-SoftChip: A Novel Architecture for Next-Generation Adaptive Computing Systems

<p/> <p>This paper introduces a novel architecture for next-generation adaptive computing systems, which we term 3D-SoftChip. The 3D-SoftChip is a 3-dimensional (3D) vertically integrated adaptive computing system combining state-of-the-art processing and 3D interconnection technology. It comprises the vertical integration of two chips (a configurable array processor and an intelligent configurable switch) through an indium bump interconnection array (IBIA). The configurable array processor (CAP) is an array of heterogeneous processing elements (PEs), while the intelligent configurable switch (ICS) comprises a switch block, 32-bit dedicated RISC processor for control, on-chip program/data memory, data frame buffer, along with a direct memory access (DMA) controller. This paper introduces the novel 3D-SoftChip architecture for real-time communication and multimedia signal processing as a next-generation computing system. The paper further describes the advanced HW/SW codesign and verification methodology, including high-level system modeling of the 3D-SoftChip using SystemC, being used to determine the optimum hardware specification in the early design stage.</p

Asynchrony among local communities stabilises ecosystem function of metacommunities

Temporal stability of ecosystem functioning increases the predictability and reliability of ecosystem services, and understanding the drivers of stability across spatial scales is important for land management and policy decisions. We used species-level abundance data from 62 plant communities across five continents to assess mechanisms of temporal stability across spatial scales. We assessed how asynchrony (i.e. different units responding dissimilarly through time) of species and local communities stabilised metacommunity ecosystem function. Asynchrony of species increased stability of local communities, and asynchrony among local communities enhanced metacommunity stability by a wide range of magnitudes (1–315%); this range was positively correlated with the size of the metacommunity. Additionally, asynchronous responses among local communities were linked with species’ populations fluctuating asynchronously across space, perhaps stemming from physical and/or competitive differences among local communities. Accordingly, we suggest spatial heterogeneity should be a major focus for maintaining the stability of ecosystem services at larger spatial scales

Determinants of community compositional change are equally affected by global change

Global change is impacting plant community composition, but the mechanisms underlying these changes are unclear. Using a dataset of 58 global change experiments, we tested the five fundamental mechanisms of community change: changes in evenness and richness, reordering, species gains and losses. We found 71% of communities were impacted by global change treatments, and 88% of communities that were exposed to two or more global change drivers were impacted. Further, all mechanisms of change were equally likely to be affected by global change treatments—species losses and changes in richness were just as common as species gains and reordering. We also found no evidence of a progression of community changes, for example, reordering and changes in evenness did not precede species gains and losses. We demonstrate that all processes underlying plant community composition changes are equally affected by treatments and often occur simultaneously, necessitating a wholistic approach to quantifying community changes

Comment on Worldwide evidence of a unimodal relationship between productivity and plant species richness

Se analizan en este artículo los preceptos de la Propuesta de Ley sobre reforma del Estatuto de Autonomía de Extremadura dedicados a la economía de Extremadura, analizándose los principios generales aplicable en la materia, la planificación económica, el sector público y las entidades financieras, materia ésta en la que se también se efectúan unas breves consideraciones sobre la incidencia que sobre las competencias de las Comunidades Autónomas supone la implantación del Fondo de Reestructuración Ordenada Bancaria efectuada por el Real Decreto-ley 9/2009, de 26 de junio, sobre reestructuración bancaria y reforzamiento de los recursos propios de las entidades de crédito.This article discusses the provisions of the Proposal Law on reform of the Statute of Autonomy of Extremadura dedicated to the economy of Extremadura, analyzing the general principles applicable to the matter, economic planning, public sector and financial institutions, about this topic it also makes some brief thoughts on the impact on the powers of the Spanish Autonomous Communities that involves the introduction of the Fund for the Orderly Banking Restructuring by Real Decreto-ley 9/2009, of June 26, for the bank restructuring and strengthening the own resources of the credit entities.peerReviewe