Cardiovascular screening in young athletes is widely recommended and routinely performed prior to participation in competitive sports. While there is general agreement that early detection of cardiac ...conditions at risk for sudden cardiac arrest and death (SCA/D) is an important objective, the optimal strategy for cardiovascular screening in athletes remains an issue of considerable debate. At the centre of the controversy is the addition of a resting ECG to the standard preparticipation evaluation using history and physical examination. The American Medical Society for Sports Medicine (AMSSM) formed a task force to address the current evidence and knowledge gaps regarding preparticipation cardiovascular screening in athletes from the perspective of a primary care sports medicine physician. The absence of definitive outcome-based evidence at this time precludes AMSSM from endorsing any single or universal cardiovascular screening strategy for all athletes, including legislative mandates. This statement presents a new paradigm to assist the individual physician in assessing the most appropriate cardiovascular screening strategy unique to their athlete population, community needs and resources. The decision to implement a cardiovascular screening programme, with or without the addition of ECG, necessitates careful consideration of the risk of SCA/D in the targeted population and the availability of cardiology resources and infrastructure. Importantly, it is the individual physician's assessment in the context of an emerging evidence base that the chosen model for early detection of cardiac disorders in the specific population provides greater benefit than harm. AMSSM is committed to advancing evidenced-based research and educational initiatives that will validate and promote the most efficacious strategies to foster safe sport participation and reduce SCA/D in athletes.
Land surface phenology (LSP) is an integrative indicator of vegetation dynamics under a changing environment. Increasing amounts of remote sensing measurements and CO
2
flux observations offer ...unprecedented opportunities to quantify LSP phases at landscape scale. LSP start of season (SOS) and end of season (EOS) estimates are often based on the use of a single‐purpose vegetation index derived from optical satellite data, characterized by poor performances in decoupling soil and snow cover dynamics from LSP cycles, as well as contrasting responses of the needleleaf and broadleaf forests in boreal ecosystems. We propose a new remote‐sensing‐based phenology index (PI) which combines the merits of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and normalized difference infrared index (NDII) by taking the difference of squared greenness and wetness to remove the soil and snow cover dynamics from key vegetation LSP cycles. We have cross‐validated the remote‐sensing‐based LSP dates with those of CO
2
flux observations from 11 selected tower sites across Canada and the United States consisting of needleleaf forests, broadleaf forests, and croplands. The results indicate that PI estimates the SOS and EOS dates better than NDVI when compared to the LSP dates from CO
2
flux measurements (reduced RMSE, bias and dispersions, and higher correlation). PI‐based SOS and EOS estimates are in good agreement with those derived from CO
2
flux measurements with mean bias comparable to the temporal resolution of the high‐quality, 8‐day composite satellite measurements. Finally, PI also shows a smoother time series compared to NDVI and NDII.
Key Points
A new phenology index (PI) is developed from red, NIR and SWIR spectral bands
PI removes the effect of soil and snow from key seasonal vegetation cycles
Remote sensing can be used to accurately estimate the end of growing season
Many studies project future bird ranges by relying on correlative species distribution models. Such models do not usually represent important processes explicitly related to climate change and ...harvesting, which limits their potential for predicting and understanding the future of boreal bird assemblages at the landscape scale. In this study, we attempted to assess the cumulative and specific impacts of both harvesting and climate-induced changes on wildfires and stand-level processes (e.g., reproduction, growth) in the boreal forest of eastern Canada. The projected changes in these landscape- and stand-scale processes (referred to as "drivers of change") were then assessed for their impacts on future habitats and potential productivity of black-backed woodpecker (BBWO; Picoides arcticus), a focal species representative of deadwood and old-growth biodiversity in eastern Canada. Forest attributes were simulated using a forest landscape model, LANDIS-II, and were used to infer future landscape suitability to BBWO under three anthropogenic climate forcing scenarios (RCP 2.6, RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5), compared to the historical baseline. We found climate change is likely to be detrimental for BBWO, with up to 92% decline in potential productivity under the worst-case climate forcing scenario (RCP 8.5). However, large declines were also projected under baseline climate, underlining the importance of harvest in determining future BBWO productivity. Present-day harvesting practices were the single most important cause of declining areas of old-growth coniferous forest, and hence appeared as the single most important driver of future BBWO productivity, regardless of the climate scenario. Climate-induced increases in fire activity would further promote young, deciduous stands at the expense of old-growth coniferous stands. This suggests that the biodiversity associated with deadwood and old-growth boreal forests may be greatly altered by the cumulative impacts of natural and anthropogenic disturbances under a changing climate. Management adaptations, including reduced harvesting levels and strategies to promote coniferous species content, may help mitigate these cumulative impacts.
Full text
Available for:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Canadian boreal woodlands and forests cover approximately 3.09 × 106km2, located within a larger boreal zone characterized by cool summers and long cold winters. Warming since the 1850s, increases in ...annual mean temperature of at least 2 °C between 2000 and 2050 are highly probable. Annual mean temperatures across the Canadian boreal zone could be 4–5 °C warmer than today's by 2100. All aspects of boreal forest ecosystem function are likely to be affected. Further, several potential “tipping elements” — where exposure to increasing changes in climate may trigger distinct shifts in ecosystem state — can be identified across the Canadian boreal zone. Approximately 40% of the forested area is underlain by permafrost, some of which is already degrading irreversibly, triggering a process of forest decline and re-establishment lasting several decades, while also releasing significant quantities of greenhouse gases that will amplify the future global warming trend. Warmer temperatures coupled with significant changes in the distribution and timing of annual precipitation are likely to cause serious tree-killing droughts in the west; east of the Great Lakes, however, where precipitation is generally nonlimiting, warming coupled with increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide may stimulate higher forest productivity. Large wildfires, which can cause serious economic losses, are expected to become more frequent, but increases in mean annual area burned will be relatively gradual. The most immediate threats could come from endemic forest insect pests that have the potential for population outbreaks in response to relatively small temperature increases. Quantifying the multiple effects of climate change will be challenging, particularly because there are great uncertainties attached to possible interactions among them, as well as with other land-use pressures. Considerable ingenuity will be needed from forest managers and scientists to address the formidable challenges posed by climate change to boreal ecosystems and develop effective strategies to adapt sustainable forest management practices to the impending changes.
Full text
Available for:
BFBNIB, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Context
Forest landscapes at the southern boreal forest transition zone are likely to undergo great alterations due to projected changes in regional climate.
Objectives
We projected changes in forest ...landscapes resulting from four climate scenarios (baseline, RCP 2.6, RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5), by simulating changes in tree growth and disturbances at the southern edge of Canada’s boreal zone.
Methods
Projections were performed for four regions located on an east–west gradient using a forest landscape model (LANDIS-II) parameterized using a forest patch model (PICUS).
Results
Climate-induced changes in the competitiveness of dominant tree species due to changes in potential growth, and substantial intensification of the fire regime, appear likely to combine in driving major changes in boreal forest landscapes. Resulting cumulative impacts on forest ecosystems would be manifold but key changes would include (i) a strong decrease in the biomass of the dominant boreal species, especially mid- to late-successional conifers; (ii) increases in abundance of some temperate species able to colonize disturbed areas in a warmer climate; (iii) increases in the proportions of pioneer and fire-adapted species in these landscapes and (iv) an overall decrease in productivity and total biomass. The greatest changes would occur under the RCP 8.5 radiative forcing scenario, but some impacts can be expected even with RCP 2.6.
Conclusions
Western boreal forests, i.e., those bordering the prairies, are the most vulnerable because of a lack of species adapted to warmer climates and major increases in areas burned. Conservation and forest management planning within the southern boreal transition zone should consider both disturbance- and climate-induced changes in forest communities.
Full text
Available for:
EMUNI, FZAB, GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NUK, OBVAL, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
1. Forest ecosystems contain several climate-sensitive drivers that respond differentially to changes in climate and climate variability. For example, growth and regeneration processes are ..."stand-scale" drivers, while natural disturbances operate at "landscape scale". The relative contributions of these different scale drivers of change in ecosystems create great uncertainty when simulating potential responses of a forest to changes in climate. 2. Here, we assess those contributions, along with harvesting effects, on biomass (both total and of individual species) in the southern boreal forest of Canada under three climate scenarios (RCP 2.6, RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5). 3. Projections were performed for three future 30-year time periods, in four study regions located on an east-west transect, using a forest landscape model (LANDIS- II), parameterized using a forest patch model (PICUS). Projected future impacts were assessed for each driver of change, and found to vary greatly among regions, impacts, species, future period and forcing scenarios. Fire, and stand-scale climate-induced had the strongest effects on forest vegetation, as well as on total and speafter 2050, particularly with the RCP 8.5 scenario. 4. The relative importance and trends in species-specific impacts varied, both spatially and according to the different RCP scenarios. Western regions were generally more sensitive to stand-scale climate-induced changes, whereas eastern regions were more sensitive to changes in fire regime. Our study also highlights the imporing the sensitivity of forest landscapes to a given driver of change in the context of increasing anthropogenic climate forcing. 5. Synthesis. Increases in fire activity, and direct impacts of climate change on fores growth and regeneration, will be the most important drivers of future changes in southern boreal forest landscapes.
Full text
Available for:
BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, INZLJ, KILJ, NLZOH, NMLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK, ZRSKP
Aim: To investigate the importance of autumn phenology in controlling interannual variability of forest net ecosystem productivity (NEP) and to derive new phenological metrics to explain the ...interannual variability of NEP. Location: North America and Europe. Method: Flux data from nine deciduous broadleaf forests (DBF) and 13 evergreen needleleaf forests (ENF) across North America and Europe (212 site-years) were used to explore the relationships between the yearly anomalies of annual NEP and several carbon flux based phenological indicators, including the onset/end of the growing season, onset/end of the carbon uptake period, the spring lag (time interval between the onset of growing season and carbon uptake period) and the autumn lag (time interval between the end of the carbon uptake period and the growing season). Meteorological variables, including global shortwave radiation, air temperature, soil temperature, soil water content and precipitation, were also used to explain the phenological variations.
Results: We found that interannual variability of NEP can be largely explained by autumn phenology, i.e. the autumn lag. While variation in neither annual gross primary productivity (GPP) nor in annual ecosystem respiration (R
e
) alone could explain this variability, the negative relationship between annual NEP and autumn lag was due to a larger R
e
/GPP ratio in years with a prolonged autumn lag. For DBF sites, a longer autumn lag coincided with a significant decrease in annual GPP but showed no correlation with annual R
e
. However, annual GPP was insensitive to a longer autumn lag in ENF sites but annual R
e
increased significantly.
Main conclusions: These results demonstrate that autumn phenology plays a more direct role than spring phenology in regulating interannual variability of annual NEP. In particular, the importance of respiration may be potentially underestimated in deriving phenological indicators.
Full text
Available for:
BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NMLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Context
Forest landscapes at the boreal–temperate ecotone have been extensively altered. Reducing the gap between current and presettlement forest conditions through ecosystem-based forest management ...(EBFM) is thought to enhance ecological integrity. However, climate change may interfere with this goal and make these targets unrealistic.
Objectives
We evaluated the impacts of climate change on the ability of EBFM to reduce discrepancies between current and presettlement forest conditions in southeastern Canada.
Methods
We used early-land-survey data as well as projections from a forest landscape model (LANDIS-II) under four climate change scenarios and four management scenarios to evaluate future discrepancies between presettlement forest conditions and future forest landscapes.
Results
By triggering swift declines in most late-succession boreal conifer species biomass, climate change would greatly reduce the ability of forest management to reduce the gap with presettlement forest composition, especially under severe anthropogenic climate forcing. Scenarios assuming extensive clearcutting also favor aggressive competitor species that have already increased with high historical harvest levels (e.g., poplars, maples).
Conclusions
EBFM would still be the “less bad” forest harvesting strategy in order to mitigate composition discrepancies with the presettlement forests, though it is likely to fail under severe climate forcing. In this latter case, one might thus question the relevancy of using presettlement forest composition as a target for restoring degraded forest landscapes. As such, we advocate that managers should relax the centrality of the reference condition and focus on functional restoration rather than aiming at reducing the gaps with presettlement forest composition per se.
Full text
Available for:
EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NUK, OBVAL, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
Plant sap-feeding insects are widespread, having evolved to occupy diverse environmental niches despite exclusive feeding on an impoverished diet lacking in essential amino acids and vitamins. ...Success depends exquisitely on their symbiotic relationships with microbial symbionts housed within specialized eukaryotic bacteriocyte cells. Each bacteriocyte is packed with symbionts that are individually surrounded by a host-derived symbiosomal membrane representing the absolute host–symbiont interface. The symbiosomal membrane must be a dynamic and selectively permeable structure to enable bidirectional and differential movement of essential nutrients, metabolites, and biosynthetic intermediates, vital for growth and survival of host and symbiont. However, despite this crucial role, the molecular basis of membrane transport across the symbiosomal membrane remains unresolved in all bacteriocyte-containing insects. A transport protein was immunolocalized to the symbiosomal membrane separating the pea aphid Acyrthosiphon pisum from its intracellular symbiont Buchnera aphidicola. The transporter, A. pisum nonessential amino acid transporter 1, or ApNEAAT1 (gene: ACYPI008971), was characterized functionally following heterologous expression in Xenopus oocytes, and mediates both inward and outward transport of small dipolar amino acids (serine, proline, cysteine, alanine, glycine). Electroneutral ApNEAAT1 transport is driven by amino acid concentration gradients and is not coupled to transmembrane ion gradients. Previous metabolite profiling of hemolymph and bacteriocyte, alongside metabolic pathway analysis in host and symbiont, enable prediction of a physiological role for ApNEAAT1 in bidirectional host–symbiont amino acid transfer, supplying both host and symbiont with indispensable nutrients and biosynthetic precursors to facilitate metabolic complementarity.
Full text
Available for:
BFBNIB, NMLJ, NUK, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
PDF
