Given the prevalence of vestibular dysfunction in pediatric concussion, there is a need to better understand pathophysiological disruptions within vestibular and associated cognitive, affective, and ...sensory-integrative networks. Although current research leverages established intrinsic connectivity networks, these are nonspecific for vestibular function, suggesting that a pathologically guided approach is warranted. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the generalizability of the previously identified "vestibular neuromatrix" in adults with and without postconcussive vestibular dysfunction to young athletes aged 14-17.
This retrospective study leveraged resting-state functional MRI data from two sites. Site A included adults with diagnosed postconcussive vestibular impairment and healthy adult controls and Site B consisted of young athletes with preseason, postconcussion, and postseason time points (prospective longitudinal data). Adjacency matrices were generated from preprocessed resting-state data from each sample and assessed for overlap and network structure in MATLAB.
Analyses indicated the presence of a conserved "core" network of vestibular regions as well as areas subserving visual, spatial, and attentional processing. Other vestibular connections were also conserved across samples but were not linked to the "core" subnetwork by regions of interest included in this study.
Our results suggest that connections between central vestibular, visuospatial, and known intrinsic connectivity networks are conserved across adult and pediatric participants with and without concussion, evincing the significance of this expanded, vestibular-associated network. Our findings thus support this network as a workable model for investigation in future studies of dysfunction in young athlete populations.
Every year large proportions of northern Australia's tropical savanna landscapes are burnt, resulting in high fire frequencies and short intervals between fires. The dominant fire management paradigm ...in these regions is the use of low‐intensity prescribed fire early in the dry season, to reduce the incidence of higher‐intensity, more extensive wildfire later in the year. This use of frequent prescribed fire to mitigate against high‐intensity wildfire has parallels with fire management in temperate forests of southern Australia. However, unlike in southern Australia, the ecological implications of high fire frequency have received little attention in the north. CSIRO and collaborators recently completed a landscape‐scale fire experiment at Kapalga in Kakadu National Park, Northern Territory, Australia, and here we provide a synthesis of the effects of experimental fire regimes on biodiversity, with particular consideration of fire frequency and, more specifically, time‐since‐fire. Two recurring themes emerged from Kapalga. First, much of the savanna biota is remarkably resilient to fire, even of high intensity. Over the 5‐year experimental period, the abundance of most invertebrate groups remained unaffected by fire treatment, as did the abundance of most vertebrate species, and we were unable to detect any effect of fire on floristic composition of the grass‐layer. Riparian vegetation and associated stream biota, as well as small mammals, were notable exceptions to this general resilience. Second, the occurrence of fire, independent of its intensity, was often the major factor influencing fire‐sensitive species. This was especially the case for extinction‐prone small mammals, which have suffered serious population declines across northern Australia in recent decades. Results from Kapalga indicate that key components of the savanna biota of northern Australia favour habitat that has remained unburnt for at least several years. This raises a serious conservation concern, given that very little relatively long unburnt habitat currently occurs in conservation reserves, with most sites being burnt at least once every 2 years. We propose a conservation objective of increasing the area that remains relatively long unburnt. This could be achieved either by reducing the proportion of the landscape burnt each year, or by setting prescribed fires more strategically. The provision of appropriately long unburnt habitat is a conservation challenge for Australia's tropical savanna landscapes, just as it is for its temperate forests.
Carbon markets afford potentially useful opportunities for supporting socially and environmentally sustainable land management programs but, to date, have been little applied in globally significant ...fire-prone savanna settings. While fire is intrinsic to regulating the composition, structure and dynamics of savanna systems, in north Australian savannas frequent and extensive late dry season wildfires incur significant environmental, production and social impacts. Here we assess the potential of market-based savanna burning greenhouse gas emissions abatement and allied carbon biosequestration projects to deliver compatible environmental and broader socio-economic benefits in a highly biodiverse north Australian setting. Drawing on extensive regional ecological knowledge of fire regime effects on fire-vulnerable taxa and communities, we compare three fire regime metrics (seasonal fire frequency, proportion of long-unburnt vegetation, fire patch-size distribution) over a 15-year period for three national parks with an indigenously (Aboriginal) owned and managed market-based emissions abatement enterprise. Our assessment indicates improved fire management outcomes under the emissions abatement program, and mostly little change or declining outcomes on the parks. We attribute improved outcomes and putative biodiversity benefits under the abatement program to enhanced strategic management made possible by the market-based mitigation arrangement. For these same sites we estimate quanta of carbon credits that could be delivered under realistic enhanced fire management practice, using currently available and developing accredited Australian savanna burning accounting methods. We conclude that, in appropriate situations, market-based savanna burning activities can provide transformative climate change mitigation, ecosystem health, and community benefits in northern Australia, and, despite significant challenges, potentially in other fire-prone savanna settings.
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Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Exclusion of Indigenous and local communities' connections to the rest-of-nature is a typical problem in policy-decision making. This paper highlights the key attributes of these connections and ...suggests evaluation pathways to mainstream them into policy development. For this, we integrate and apply the ecosystem services (ES) and human capability concepts. Five socio-cultural and economic values relating to peoples' well-being are identified as the core attributes for developing policy tools: (1) livelihoods; (2) social values; (3) cultural values; (4) spiritual values; and (5) capabilities. For policy tools, common ES frameworks and the relevant ES evaluation techniques that can be applied along with community participatory approaches, are considered. We recommend that developing a pluralistic policy platform is essential to appropriately comprehend Indigenous and local communities' connections with nature for enhancing well-being, not just sustaining livelihoods. A three-step process: (1) identifying attributes of natural systems that are vital for peoples' well-being (beyond their livelihoods); (2) developing locally-specific integrated frameworks; and (3) evaluating identified attributes (monetary and non-monetary), is clearly described in this paper to inform the policy-makers. Recognition and understanding of Indigenous and local communities’ values for nature beyond livelihood opportunities is essential for informing inclusive sustainable development processes and policies.
•Focusing on inclusive policy development for incorporating Indigenous and local peoples' connections with nature.•Describing a clear three-step approach for policy decision-making including: 1. identifying key Ecosystem Services (ES); 2. developing a suitable ES framework; and 3. applying relevant ES evaluation techniques to mainstream the role of ES for enhancing peoples' well-being.•Highlighting Indigenous and local values of natural systems including livelihoods, social, cultural, and spiritual values, and capabilities, beyond the livelihood opportunities typically considered for informing international developmental policies.•Applying integrated Ecosystem Services and Capability Approaches to evaluate people's connections with nature for informing various local, national and global developmental policies.
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•Transition from safer to more dangerous burning conditions occurs at a different time every year.•Active fire data from MODIS gives insights as to when this occurs, and other EO data ...insights into drivers behind the variability.•Fuel connectivity rather than fuel condition appears to be the deter- mining factor in when this transition occurs.•Early dry season burning lessens the impact of larger late dry season fires.
Tropical savannas and grasslands are the most frequently burned biome in the world, and fire has an important role in sustaining ecosystem processes. Modern management of fires in savannas has roots in traditions stretching back centuries, and nowadays earth observation data is incorporated extensively in fire management practices. In tropical savannas in particular strongly seasonal monsoonal climates allow relatively low severity prescribed burning in the early part of the dry season (EDS) with the goal of preventing more destructive late dry season (LDS) fires. In many regional contexts it is common that a specific, fixed date is used officially to indicate when the window of safe burning has expired and the EDS transitions to the LDS, based on the experience of local or regional fire management authorities. This approach, while practical, neglects inter-annual variability in meteorological conditions and timing of onset of more dangerous fire weather. In this study, we pro-pose a remote sensing-based method for determining when this EDS window expires for five savanna-dominated continental-scale regions. By taking ad- vantage of the fact that conditions allowing night-time burning occur later in the dry season, we use day and night-time active fire detections from the MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments to set a flexible date of transition between the EDS and LDS. The vast majority of tropical savannas have very variable (std. dev. ≈ 20–40 days) transition dates, though this is somewhat modulated by fire frequency. Fuel connectivity rather than fuel condition appears to be a strong driving factor behind this variability. We find that especially national parks and protected areas have a high proportion of potentially more severe burning in the LDS, though areas with well-established EDS burning programmes are reducing this impact.
This paper examines the economic potential for fire management to provide offsets to carbon markets in the savannas of northern Australia. Long‐term field trials in Australia's savannas have ...quantified greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions abatement resulting from improved fire management. However, little is known about the economic potential of fire management projects or the locations where projects might be economically viable for providing GHG offsets. A benefit–cost analysis of fire management for GHG offsets is presented here, which includes spatially explicit estimates for GHG abatement under three assumptions of management efficacy (conservative, empirically based, upper potential). The total supply of GHG abatement is estimated under different prices and management efficacy assumptions, and areas that pass the benefit–cost analysis are identified. At the Australian Government's carbon price of A$23 per metric tonne of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2‐e), fire management would be economically viable across 51 million hectares, all within the higher monsoonal rainfall regions of northern Australia, abating 1.6 million tonnes of CO2‐e per year. These estimates suggest that fire management projects can contribute to GHG abatement targets and be financially viable across large areas of northern Australia. Additional benefits are anticipated from these projects for biodiversity conservation, livelihoods for indigenous Australians and economic development in remote regions.
In 2050, which aspects of ecosystem change will we regret not having measured? Long‐term monitoring plays a crucial part in managing Australia's natural environment because time is a key factor ...underpinning changes in ecosystems. It is critical to start measuring key attributes of ecosystems – and the human and natural process affecting them – now, so that we can track the trajectory of change over time. This will facilitate informed choices about how to manage ecological changes (including interventions where they are required) and promote better understanding by 2050 of how particular ecosystems have been shaped over time. There will be considerable value in building on existing long‐term monitoring programmes because this can add significantly to the temporal depth of information. The economic and social processes driving change in ecosystems are not identical in all ecosystems, so much of what is monitored (and the means by which it is monitored) will most likely target specific ecosystems or groups of ecosystems. To best understand the effects of ecosystem‐specific threats and drivers, monitoring also will need to address the economic and social factors underpinning ecosystem‐specific change. Therefore, robust assessments of the state of Australia's environment will be best achieved by reporting on the ecological performance of a representative sample of ecosystems over time. Political, policy and financial support to implement appropriate ecosystem‐specific monitoring is a perennial problem. We suggest that the value of ecological monitoring will be demonstrable, when plot‐based monitoring data make a unique and crucial contribution to Australia's ability to produce environmental accounts, environmental reports (e.g. the State of the Environment, State of the Forests) and to fulfilling reporting obligations under international agreements, such as the Convention on Biological Diversity. This paper suggests what must be done to meet Australia's ecological information needs by 2050.
Summary Much of northern Australia’s tropical savannas are subject to annual intense and extensive late dry season wildfires, much of this occurring on Aboriginal land. Based on the successful West ...Arnhem Land Fire Abatement (WALFA) model, which has resulted in significantly reduced greenhouse gas emissions, fire abatement programmes are planned for other significant regions of northern Australia. This study offers an introduction to the ideas behind a proposed environmental and social benchmarking project that aims to evaluate the potential benefits of expanding the fire abatement program in northern Australia, under the leadership of NAILSMA and its partners. Gaining a better understanding of the biodiversity, social and cultural outcomes of these fire abatement activities is an important component of demonstrating multiple benefits of these programmes. We emphasize the role of both biodiversity and cultural mapping to establish benchmarks and baseline states, with the involvement of Indigenous communities being a key element to optimize social and biodiversity benefits. Consultation with Traditional Owners and ranger groups to establish an agreed set of targets, indicators and sampling protocols and methodologies are critical component of this process. Examples of preliminary work to date are provided.
In the context of Australia's developing carbon economy, fire management helps to abate emissions of greenhouse gases and is an important means of generating carbon credits. The vast high-rainfall ...savannas of northern Australia are one of the world's most flammable landscapes. Management of fires in this region has the potential to assist with meeting emissions reduction targets, as well as conserving biodiversity and providing employment for Indigenous people in remote parts of Australia's north. This comprehensive volume brings together recent research from northern Australian savannas to provide an internationally relevant case study for applying greenhouse gas accounting methodologies to the practice of fire management. It provides scientific arguments for enlarging the area of fire- prone land managed for emissions abatement. The book also charts the progress towards development of a savanna fire bio-sequestration methodology. The future of integrated approaches to emissions abatement and bio-sequestration is also discussed.
Despite calls by various international agencies, considerable work is still required to understand and incorporate the importance of earth’s ecosystems for informing public policies. Savannas ...comprise nearly one third of global terrestrial ecosystems and support many local and Indigenous communities, but the value of their ecosystem services (ES) is insufficiently understood. This study proposes an integrated ES valuation framework and applies it to assess ES for an Indigenous savanna estate in northern Australia, describing how capabilities along with biophysical and socio-cultural ES benefits play a vital role for peoples’ wellbeing. We estimated the monetary value of ES by applying a conventional Basic Value Transfer (BVT) method for biophysical benefits (USD 84 M y−1), and a wellbeing approach for valuing socio-cultural benefits and capabilities (USD 4 M y−1). The latter offers a relatively nominal estimate but underscores the importance of including peoples’ capabilities in order to demonstrate wellbeing benefits for Indigenous people who regularly visit and utilize their lands. We explore two scenarios, Business as Usual (pastoral land use) and ES-based economies (implying customary land use, particularly through fire management) to project plausible broader benefits for the community over a longer term. This research describes how inclusion of Indigenous peoples’ capabilities and socio-cultural values are critical for ES assessments, and indicates that an integrated approach is essential for appropriately informing local, regional and global development policies.
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