Ecosystem services are typically valued for their immediate material or cultural benefits to human wellbeing, supported by regulating and supporting services. Under climate change, with more frequent ...stresses and novel shocks, 'climate adaptation services', are defined as the benefits to people from increased social ability to respond to change, provided by the capability of ecosystems to moderate and adapt to climate change and variability. They broaden the ecosystem services framework to assist decision makers in planning for an uncertain future with new choices and options. We present a generic framework for operationalising the adaptation services concept. Four steps guide the identification of intrinsic ecological mechanisms that facilitate the maintenance and emergence of ecosystem services during periods of change, and so materialise as adaptation services. We applied this framework for four contrasted Australian ecosystems. Comparative analyses enabled by the operational framework suggest that adaptation services that emerge during trajectories of ecological change are supported by common mechanisms: vegetation structural diversity, the role of keystone species or functional groups, response diversity and landscape connectivity, which underpin the persistence of function and the reassembly of ecological communities under severe climate change and variability. Such understanding should guide ecosystem management towards adaptation planning.
Ecosystem resilience depends on functional redundancy (the number of species contributing similarly to an ecosystem function) and response diversity (how functionally similar species respond ...differently to disturbance). Here, we explore how land-use change impacts these attributes in plant communities, using data from 18 land-use intensity gradients that represent five biomes and > 2800 species. We identify functional groups using multivariate analysis of plant traits which influence ecosystem processes. Functional redundancy is calculated as the species richness within each group, and response diversity as the multivariate within-group dispersion in response trait space, using traits that influence responses to disturbances. Meta-analysis across all datasets showed that land-use intensification significantly reduced both functional redundancy and response diversity, although specific relationships varied considerably among the different land-use gradients. These results indicate that intensified management of ecosystems for resource extraction can increase their vulnerability to future disturbances. Ecology Letters (2010) 13: 76-86
► Ecosystem services are useful for assessing trade-offs in water quality management. ► We trialled the approach in the Tully–Murray catchment, Great Barrier Reef and found. ► Trade-offs between food ...production, water quality regulation, tourism and fisheries. ► Symmetry between private stakeholders: farmers, tour operators, tourists and fishermen. ► Scale mis-matches between ecosystem service flows and water quality governance.
The Great Barrier Reef (GBR), Australia, is threatened by declining water quality largely derived from agricultural run-off. Water quality planning aims to mitigate pollutant run-off through land management, including riparian and wetland restoration, but no tools exist to assess trade-offs in land use change across the catchment-to-reef continuum. We adapted the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment framework in the GBR's Tully–Murray catchment to identify trade-offs between linked ecosystem services and stakeholders. Applying four land use scenarios we assessed outcomes for the ecosystem service of water quality regulation, and trade-offs with six floodplain services and four GBR services. Based on statistical correlations between ecosystem services’ status under the scenarios, we identified trade-offs and thresholds between services and associated stakeholders. The most direct trade-off in floodplain services (and primary stakeholders) was food and fibre production (farmers) versus water quality regulation (community, GBR tourists, tour operators and fishermen). There were synergies between water quality regulation (community, GBR tourists, tour operators and fishermen) and floodplain recreational and commercial fisheries (fishermen). Scale mis-matches between water quality management structures and ecosystem service flows were also evident. We discuss the strengths and weaknesses of this ecosystem services approach, and its potential application in the GBR and other catchment-to-reef social–ecological systems.
Leaf chemical and spectral properties of 162 canopy species were measured at 11 tropical forest sites along a 6024 mm precipitation/yr and 8.7°C climate gradient in Queensland, Australia. We found ...that variations in foliar nitrogen, phosphorus, chlorophyll a and b, and carotenoid concentrations, as well as specific leaf area (SLA), were expressed more strongly among species within a site than along the entire climate gradient. Integrated chemical signatures consisting of all leaf properties did not aggregate well at the genus or family levels. Leaf chemical diversity was maximal in the lowland tropical forest sites with the highest temperatures and moderate precipitation levels. Cooler and wetter montane tropical forests contained species with measurably lower variation in their chemical signatures. Foliar optical properties measured from 400 to 2500 nm were also highly diverse at the species level, and were well correlated with an ensemble of leaf chemical properties and SLA (r2 = 0.54—0.83). A probabilistic diversity model amplified the leaf chemical differences among species, revealing that lowland tropical forests maintain a chemical diversity per unit richness far greater than that of higher elevation forests in Australia. Modeled patterns in spectral diversity and species richness paralleled those of chemical diversity, demonstrating a linkage between the taxonomic and remotely sensed properties of tropical forest canopies. We conclude that species are the taxonomic unit causing chemical variance in Australian tropical forest canopies, and thus ecological and remote sensing studies should consider the role that species play in defining the functional properties of these forests.
Value of long-term ecological studies LINDENMAYER, DAVID B.; LIKENS, GENE E.; ANDERSEN, ALAN ...
Austral ecology,
November 2012, Letnik:
37, Številka:
7
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Long‐term ecological studies are critical for providing key insights in ecology, environmental change, natural resource management and biodiversity conservation. In this paper, we briefly discuss ...five key values of such studies. These are: (1) quantifying ecological responses to drivers of ecosystem change; (2) understanding complex ecosystem processes that occur over prolonged periods; (3) providing core ecological data that may be used to develop theoretical ecological models and to parameterize and validate simulation models; (4) acting as platforms for collaborative studies, thus promoting multidisciplinary research; and (5) providing data and understanding at scales relevant to management, and hence critically supporting evidence‐based policy, decision making and the management of ecosystems. We suggest that the ecological research community needs to put higher priority on communicating the benefits of long‐term ecological studies to resource managers, policy makers and the general public. Long‐term research will be especially important for tackling large‐scale emerging problems confronting humanity such as resource management for a rapidly increasing human population, mass species extinction, and climate change detection, mitigation and adaptation. While some ecologically relevant, long‐term data sets are now becoming more generally available, these are exceptions. This deficiency occurs because ecological studies can be difficult to maintain for long periods as they exceed the length of government administrations and funding cycles. We argue that the ecological research community will need to coordinate ongoing efforts in an open and collaborative way, to ensure that discoverable long‐term ecological studies do not become a long‐term deficiency. It is important to maintain publishing outlets for empirical field‐based ecology, while simultaneously developing new systems of recognition that reward ecologists for the use and collaborative sharing of their long‐term data sets. Funding schemes must be re‐crafted to emphasize collaborative partnerships between field‐based ecologists, theoreticians and modellers, and to provide financial support that is committed over commensurate time frames.
Hedera helix L Metcalfe, Daniel J.
The Journal of ecology,
June 2005, Letnik:
93, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Metcalfe discusses the characteristics and habitat of Hedera helix L, also called as an Irish ivy. Ivy is common throughout the British Isles, except for parts of northern Scotland, with recorded ...introductions to northern and eastern Scotland, and to Shetland. It occurs from sea level to 615 m in Ireland, to 550 m in Wales and Scotland and to 480 m in England.
Identification of clinically actionable molecular subtypes of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is key to improving patient outcome. Intertumoral metabolic heterogeneity contributes to cancer ...survival and the balance between distinct metabolic pathways may influence PDAC outcome. We hypothesized that PDAC can be stratified into prognostic metabolic subgroups based on alterations in the expression of genes involved in glycolysis and cholesterol synthesis.
We performed bioinformatics analysis of genomic, transcriptomic, and clinical data in an integrated cohort of 325 resectable and nonresectable PDAC. The resectable datasets included retrospective The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) cohorts. The nonresectable PDAC cohort studies included prospective COMPASS, PanGen, and BC Cancer Personalized OncoGenomics program (POG).
On the basis of the median normalized expression of glycolytic and cholesterogenic genes, four subgroups were identified: quiescent, glycolytic, cholesterogenic, and mixed. Glycolytic tumors were associated with the shortest median survival in resectable (log-rank test
= 0.018) and metastatic settings (log-rank test
= 0.027). Patients with cholesterogenic tumors had the longest median survival.
and
-amplified tumors had higher expression of glycolytic genes than tumors with normal or lost copies of the oncogenes (Wilcoxon rank sum test
= 0.015). Glycolytic tumors had the lowest expression of mitochondrial pyruvate carriers
and
. Glycolytic and cholesterogenic gene expression correlated with the expression of prognostic PDAC subtype classifier genes.
Metabolic classification specific to glycolytic and cholesterogenic pathways provides novel biological insight into previously established PDAC subtypes and may help develop personalized therapies targeting unique tumor metabolic profiles.
.
A sample of white dwarfs is selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 3 using their reduced proper motions, based on improved proper motions from combined SDSS and USNO-B data. ...Numerous SDSS and follow-up spectra (Kilic and coworkers) are used to quantify completeness and contamination of the sample; kinematics models are used to understand and correct for velocity-dependent selection biases. A luminosity function is constructed covering the range 7 < Mbol < 16, and its sensitivity to various assumptions and selection limits is discussed. The white dwarf luminosity function based on 6000 stars is remarkably smooth and rises nearly monotonically to Mbol = 15.3. It then drops abruptly, although the small number of low-luminosity stars in the sample and their unknown atmospheric composition prevent quantitative conclusions about this decline. Stars are identified that may have high tangential velocities, and a preliminary luminosity function is constructed for them.
Leaf dark respiration (R
dark) represents an important component controlling the carbon balance in tropical forests. Here, we test how nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) affect R
dark and its ...relationship with photosynthesis using three widely separated tropical forests which differ in soil fertility.
R
dark was measured on 431 rainforest canopy trees, from 182 species, in French Guiana, Peru and Australia. The variation in R
dark was examined in relation to leaf N and P content, leaf structure and maximum photosynthetic rates at ambient and saturating atmospheric CO2 concentration.
We found that the site with the lowest fertility (French Guiana) exhibited greater rates of R
dark per unit leaf N, P and photosynthesis. The data from Australia, for which there were no phylogenetic overlaps with the samples from the South American sites, yielded the most distinct relationships of R
dark with the measured leaf traits.
Our data indicate that no single universal scaling relationship accounts for variation in R
dark across this large biogeographical space. Variability between sites in the absolute rates of R
dark and the R
dark: photosynthesis ratio were driven by variations in N- and P-use efficiency, which were related to both taxonomic and environmental variability.
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