The current status of European wetland inventories and classifications

The status of wetland inventory and classification is considered for 44 European countries, as well as for the continent as a whole. Data and information were obtained from questionnaires compiled by the International Waterfowl and Wetland Research Bureau, the MedWet sub-project on inventory and monitoring, and the Ramsar Bureau. Nine European countries have national wetland inventories, and 32 have inventories of sites of international importance listed under the Ramsar Convention. There has been a trend in producing regional or continental inventories for wetlands that are important as waterfowl habitat. There is an urgent need to produce wetland inventories for all European countries. The Ramsar database takes into consideration hydrological and economic wetland values, as well as ecological ones. The Ramsar classification lists a total of 35 wetland types, and is sufficiently flexible that it could be used for classifying European wetlands at the national scale.     

辽宁省爬行动物名录及地理区划更新

基于此前辽宁省爬行动物调查资料和分类学研究,结合近年来野外调查进展,对辽宁省爬行动物名录和区系进行修订,并报道辽宁省蛇类新记录二种——乌梢蛇（Ptyasdhumnades）和黑头剑蛇（Sibynophischinensis）。根据从辽宁省凌源市野外获得的影像资料进一步确认黑眉锦蛇（Elaphe taeniura）在辽宁省的分布。另依据采集自葫芦岛市的1号王锦蛇（E. carinata）标本对该种在辽宁省的分布予以补充描述。截至2023年5月,辽宁省记录爬行动物2目11科21属37种,其中,龟鳖目3科4属5种,有鳞目蜥蜴亚目3科5属10种,蛇亚目5科12属22种。爬行动物中,国家一级重点保护野生动物3种,国家二级重点保护野生动物6种。此外,有15个物种被《中国生物多样性红色名录脊椎动物第三卷爬行动物》评估为受威胁物种。根据辽宁省爬行动物最新分布信息,将辽宁省划分为6个动物地理省,分别为辽东山地丘陵省、辽东半岛山地丘陵省、辽河平原省、努鲁儿虎山北麓丘陵台地及西辽河沙地省、辽西山地丘陵省和冀辽山地省,其中,冀辽山地省为本研究中新增动物地理省。扩大原辽东半岛丘陵省涵盖范围,并将其名称修订为“辽...     

Evidence of non‐stationary relationships between climate and forest responses: Increased sensitivity to climate change in Iberian forests

Climate and forest structure are considered major drivers of forest demography and productivity. However, recent evidence suggests that the relationships between climate and tree growth are generally non‐stationary (i.e. non‐time stable), and it remains uncertain whether the relationships between climate, forest structure, demography and productivity are stationary or are being altered by recent climatic and structural changes. Here we analysed three surveys from the Spanish Forest Inventory covering c. 30 years of information and we applied mixed and structural equation models to assess temporal trends in forest structure (stand density, basal area, tree size and tree size inequality), forest demography (ingrowth, growth and mortality) and above‐ground forest productivity. We also quantified whether the interactive effects of climate and forest structure on forest demography and above‐ground forest productivity were stationary over two consecutive time periods. Since the 1980s, density, basal area and tree size increased in Iberian forests, and tree size inequality decreased. In addition, we observed reductions in ingrowth and growth, and increases in mortality. Initial forest structure and water availability mainly modulated the temporal trends in forest structure and demography. The magnitude and direction of the interactive effects of climate and forest structure on forest demography changed over the two time periods analysed indicating non‐stationary relationships between climate, forest structure and demography. Above‐ground forest productivity increased due to a positive balance between ingrowth, growth and mortality. Despite increasing productivity over time, we observed an aggravation of the negative effects of climate change and increased competition on forest demography, reducing ingrowth and growth, and increasing mortality. Interestingly, our results suggest that the negative effects of climate change on forest demography could be ameliorated through forest management, which has profound implications for forest adaptation to climate change.     

Guidelines for consistent reporting of exchanges/to nature within life cycle inventories (LCI)

Data availability and data quality are still critical factors for successful LCA work. The SETAC-Europe LCA Working Group ‘Data Availability and Data Quality’ has therefore focused on ongoing developments toward a common data exchange format, public databases and accepted quality measures to find science-based solutions than can be widely accepted. A necessary prerequisite for the free flow and exchange of life cycle inventory (LCI) data and the comparability of LCIs is the consistent definition, nomenclature, and use of inventory parameters. This is the main subject of the subgroup ‘Recommended List of Exchanges’ that presents its results and findings here:

Epistasis effects of COMT and MTHFR on inter-individual differences in mental health: Under the inverted U-shaped prefrontal dopamine model

Higher cognitive performance, maintenance of mental health and psychological well-being require adequate prefrontal cortex (PFC) function. “Inverted U-shaped” dopamine model indicates optimal PFC dopamine level is important to attain its function while high or low levels have adverse effects. Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) and methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) may be involved in this complex non-linear PFC dopamine regulation. We addressed whether genetic variation reflecting COMT and MTHFR activities can explain the inter-individual mental health differences in healthy Japanese men (n = 188). The mental health was measured by Mental Health Inventory (MHI)-5 score. The rs4633–rs4818–rs4680 haplotypes were used to represent the multilevel COMT activities, while for MTHFR, the functional single polymorphism, rs1801133 (C677T), was used. We examined the effectiveness of haplotype-based association analysis of COMT on mental health together with studying its interaction with MTHFR-C677T. As a result, the relation between activity-ranked COMT genotype and MHI-5 score showed a tendency to fit into an “inverted U-shaped” quadratic curve (P = 0.054). This curvilinear correlation was significant in the subjects with MTHFR-CC (P < 0.001), but not with MTHFR T-allele carriers (P = 0.793). Our pilot study implies a potential influence of COMT and MTHFR genotypic combination on normal variation of mental health.     

A survey of unresolved problems in life cycle assessment

Background, aims, and scope  Life cycle assessment (LCA) stands as the pre-eminent tool for estimating environmental effects caused by products and processes from ‘cradle to grave’ or ‘cradle to cradle.’ It exists in multiple forms, claims a growing list of practitioners, and remains a focus of continuing research. Despite its popularity and codification by organizations such as the International Organization for Standards and the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, life cycle assessment is a tool in need of improvement. Multiple authors have written about its individual problems, but a unified treatment of the subject is lacking. The following literature survey gathers and explains issues, problems and problematic decisions currently limiting LCA’s goal and scope definition and life cycle inventory phases. Main features  The review identifies 15 major problem areas and organizes them by the LCA phases in which each appears. This part of the review focuses on the first 7 of these problems occurring during the goal and scope definition and life cycle inventory phases. It is meant as a concise summary for practitioners interested in methodological limitations which might degrade the accuracy of their assessments. For new researchers, it provides an overview of pertinent problem areas toward which they might wish to direct their research efforts. Results and discussion  Multiple problems occur in each of LCA’s four phases and reduce the accuracy of this tool. Considering problem severity and the adequacy of current solutions, six of the 15 discussed problems are of paramount importance. In LCA’s first two phases, functional unit definition, boundary selection, and allocation are critical problems requiring particular attention. Conclusions and recommendations  Problems encountered during goal and scope definition arise from decisions about inclusion and exclusion while those in inventory analysis involve flows and transformations. Foundational decisions about the basis of comparison (functional unit), bounds of the study, and physical relationships between included processes largely dictate the representativeness and, therefore, the value of an LCA. It is for this reason that problems in functional unit definition, boundary selection, and allocation are the most critical examined in the first part of this review.

Reproducibility of vegetation cover estimates in south‐central Alaska forests

Abstract. Reproducibility of vegetation measurements is critical for large‐scale or long‐term studies, where numerous observers collect data, but past studies have questioned repro‐ducibility of some techniques. Five methods of evaluating understory composition were appraised for reproducibility among six observers in two forest types in south‐central Alaska: ocular estimates in quadrats, overall community species rank and cover estimates, nested rooted frequency, horizontal‐vertical profiles, and pin drop (systematic points). One forest type was selected to represent structure of coastal communities, another to represent structure of interior Alaska communities. Three general methods of evaluating reproducibility were considered: standard deviations (precision among observers), components of variance (percentage of total variance attributable to observers), and analysis of variance (significance of observer variance). Observer variances were generally similar among techniques and significant in most cases. No technique stood out as being more reproducible than others. Features of techniques other than reproducibility may be more important when selecting a technique. Management decisions based on vegetation cover data should consider the observer errors involved as well as biological significance.     

The Eating Inventory and Body Adiposity from Leanness to Massive Obesity: a Study of 2509 Adults

Objective: To examine how chronic dietary restraint, disinhibition, and hunger, as assessed by the Eating Inventory, vary over a broad range of BMI values from leanness to massive obesity, in subjects with family obesity. Eating Inventory factors were also studied as a function of personal weight history. Research Methods and Procedures: Subjects were 2509 participants in a genetic study of obesity. BMIs ranged from 15 to 87 kg/m². Six BMI groups were formed (<27, 27 to 30, 30 to 35, 35 to 40, 40 to 45, and >45). Results: Multivariate analyses showed that restraint and disinhibition were significantly associated with BMI in men, whereas only disinhibition was in women. Disinhibition scores correlated strongly with hunger scores in both genders in all BMI categories; dietary restraint tended to correlate with the other two factors positively in leaner subjects and negatively in the highest BMI categories. Highly restrained normal‐weight subjects were likely to exhibit disinhibition and hunger, whereas massively obese persons with very high disinhibition scores showed high hunger but little restraint. The highest restraint scores were observed in nonobese adult women with previous obesity in childhood and/or adolescence. Discussion: The factor most strongly associated with BMI in this large population was disinhibition, suggesting that obesity treatment should target behaviors associated with disinhibition, especially in individuals showing a low level of dietary restraint. High restraint scores in formerly obese normal‐weight women suggest that dietary restraint may exert a beneficial influence on body weight control under conditions that deserve further investigation.