Assessing sustainability at farm-level: Lessons learned from a comparison of tools in practice

In the past decades a wide variety of tools have been developed to assess the sustainability performance of farms. Although multiple studies have compared tools on a theoretical basis, little attention has been paid to the comparing tools in practice. This research compared indicator-based sustainability assessment tools to gain insight in practical requirements, procedures and complexity involved in applying sustainability assessment tools. In addition, the relevance of the tools, as perceived by farmers, was evaluated. An overview of 48 indicator-based sustainability assessment tools was developed to, subsequently, select tools that address the environmental, social and economic dimension of sustainability, are issued in a scientific publication and suitable for assessing the sustainability performance of livestock and arable farms in Denmark. Only four tools (RISE, SAFA, PG and IDEA) complied with the selection criteria and were used to assess the sustainability performance of five Danish farms. The tools vary widely in their scoring and aggregation method, time requirement and data input. The farmers perceived RISE as the most relevant tool to gain insight in the sustainability performance of their farm. The findings emphasize the importance of context specificity, user-friendliness, complexity of the tool, language use, and a match between value judgements of tool developers and farmers. Even though RISE was considered as the most relevant tool, the farmers expressed a hesitation to apply the outcomes of the four tools in their decision making and management. Furthermore, they identified limitations in their options to improve their sustainability performance. Additional efforts are needed to support farmers in using the outcomes in their decision making. The outcomes of sustainability assessment tools should therefore be considered as a starting point for discussion, reflection and learning.     

Beyond the green: assessing quarry restoration success through plant and beetle communities

In assessing the effectiveness of ecological restoration actions, outcomes evaluation using a multi‐taxa approach can greatly contribute to a clearer understanding of their success/failure. Since comprehensive biodiversity assessments are rarely possible, choosing taxa groups that are indicative of the ecosystem's structural and functional recovery is of major importance. Our goal was to evaluate the success of revegetation actions performed in a Mediterranean limestone quarry, using plants and epigean beetles as indicators. We compared their abundance, diversity, and community composition between revegetated sites aged 5, 13, and 19 years and a natural reference. Total plant cover significantly increased with restoration age and quickly reached reference values. However, native woody species cover dropped in the oldest site, while non‐native species became dominant. The abundance of beetles was always lower in restoration sites when compared to the reference, increasing with age, although not significantly. The richness of both plant species and beetle families was lower in restoration sites and did not show any trend towards the reference values. Finally, using nonmetric multidimensional scaling, the composition of plant and beetle communities from restoration sites showed a clear separation from the reference. Restoration efforts have successfully modified post‐quarry sites, but considerable differences remain, probably largely related to the use of the non‐native species Pinus halepensis in restoration plans. P. halepensis high cover in restoration sites greatly affects the structure of the ecosystem, and most likely its functioning too, as well as related ecosystem services, causing divergence from the reference values and compromising restoration success.     

脆弱性研究进展:从理论研究到综合实践

从20世纪60年代脆弱性概念提出到21世纪脆弱性逐渐成为一门独立的新科学,脆弱性已成为评价地区发展状况的依据以及衡量未来发展规划的判据。基于国内外脆弱性研究文献的回顾和总结,回顾了脆弱性概念起源与发展,梳理了脆弱性评价的定性和定量方法,科学评述了21世纪以来脆弱性研究的新进展:评价方法创新、多尺度精细评价、多源数据挖掘、关键要素阈值界定、人为活动影响和脆弱性演化机理综合研究。研究发现21世纪以来脆弱性进展迅速,主要特点为多元化、多角度、精细化和综合化,表现为评价数据和方法的多元化;横向空间对比和纵向时间序列的多角度分析;多尺度精细评价;关键要素阈值与演化机理综合研究。未来,脆弱性研究应完善脆弱性概念框架和理论体系,关注耦合系统脆弱性过程与机制,探究脆弱性驱动因素和演化机理,科学界定脆弱性关键要素阈值,挖掘和提取多源遥感数据信息,开展系统脆弱性动态评价和时空分析,实现脆弱性定量评价与综合实践,最终满足国家和地区可持续发展战略的需要。     

Ecological indicators for assessing ecological success of forest restoration: a world review

Restoration is increasingly being used to reverse degradation and destruction of forest ecosystems. With increasing investment in restoration, there is an urgent need to develop effective programs to assess treatment efficacy and effects. We conducted a global review of forest restoration assessments, in order to identify geographic trends in the locations where assessments have been implemented and the specific ecological attributes (ecosystem composition, structure, and function) and indicators being used to measure effects. We found that the number of forest restoration assessments varied by region and was not related to degree of degradation or restoration need. Some regions, like Africa, which have experienced high rates of forest loss and degradation, had few assessments. The majority (43%) of assessments included indicators for only two of three key ecological attributes (composition‐structure or composition‐function) and assessments on average used fewer than three indicators per attribute. The most commonly employed indicators for composition were richness and abundance of plant species and for structure were height and diameter of trees, variables that are generally relatively easy to measure. The use of functional indicators has been increasing over time and they are now more commonly used than structural indicators. The most common functional indicators were soil functions. Most investigators evaluated treatment effects for 6–10 years after implementation. Our findings related to gaps in analysis of ecological indicators can serve as a guide for developing monitoring and assessment protocols for current global forest restoration initiatives by 2020–2030.     

Measures for assessing practice change in medical practitioners

Background

A randomised trial of a multifaceted intervention for improving adherence to clinical practice guidelines for the pharmacological management of hypertension and hypercholesterolemia increased prescribing of thiazides, butdetected no impact onthe use of cardiovascular risk assessment toolsor achievement of treatment targets. We carried out a predominantly quantitative process evaluation to help explain and interpret the trial-findings.

Methods

Several data-sources were used including: questionnaires completed by pharmacists immediately after educational outreach visits, semi-structured interviews with physicians subjected to the intervention, and data extracted from their electronic medical records. Multivariate regression analyses were conducted to explore the association between possible explanatory variables and the observed variation across practices for the three main outcomes.

Results

The attendance rate during the educational sessions in each practice was high; few problems were reported, and the physicians were perceived as being largely supportive of the recommendations we promoted, except for some scepticism regarding the use of thiazides as first-line antihypertensive medication. Multivariate regression models could explain only a small part of the observed variation across practices and across trial-outcomes, and key factors that might explain the observed variation in adherence to the recommendations across practices were not identified.

Conclusion

This study did not provide compelling explanations for the trial results. Possible reasons for this include a lack of statistical power and failure to include potential explanatory variables in our analyses, particularly organisational factors. More use of qualitative research methods in the course of the trial could have improved our understanding.     

Control of trophoblast cell differentiation: Lessons from the genetics of early pregnancy loss and trophoblast neoplasia

Trophoblast cell differentiation is crucial to the morphogenesis of the placenta and thus the establishment of pregnancy and the growth and development of the embryo/fetus. In the present review, we discuss current evidence for the existence of regulatory genes crucial to trophoblast cell differentiation and placental morphogenesis. The elucidation of regulatory pathways controlling normal differentiation of trophoblast cells will facilitate the identification of sensitive junctures in the regulatory pathways leading to various developmental disorders, including those associated with the initiation of pregnancy, fetal growth retardation and gestational trophoblast disease.     

Kinases and Pseudokinases: Lessons from RAF

Protein kinases are thought to mediate their biological effects through their catalytic activity. The large number of pseudokinases in the kinome and an increasing appreciation that they have critical roles in signaling pathways, however, suggest that catalyzing protein phosphorylation may not be the only function of protein kinases. Using the principle of hydrophobic spine assembly, we interpret how kinases are capable of performing a dual function in signaling. Its first role is that of a signaling enzyme (classical kinases; canonical), while its second role is that of an allosteric activator of other kinases or as a scaffold protein for signaling in a manner that is independent of phosphoryl transfer (classical pseudokinases; noncanonical). As the hydrophobic spines are a conserved feature of the kinase domain itself, all kinases carry an inherent potential to play both roles in signaling. This review focuses on the recent lessons from the RAF kinases that effectively toggle between these roles and can be “frozen” by introducing mutations at their hydrophobic spines.     

Systematic planning for river rehabilitation: integrating multiple ecological and economic objectives in complex decisions

1. Owing to intensive human use, freshwaters are among the most seriously threatened and modified environments on the planet. Their poor condition and the risk to services that humans need from these ecosystems make their rehabilitation a priority. However, many previous studies have reported the poor performance of many rehabilitation activities. 2. Here, we analyse reasons for this poor performance, focussing on the planning of rehabilitation activities, and propose a new approach. We argue that the failure to include driving factors at a scale adequate to capture the ecological processes involved, together with an insufficient incorporation of socio‐economic aspects, is a key factor leading the poor performance of many rehabilitation activities. 3. We propose a new approach, ‘systematic rehabilitation planning’, that brings together advances made in conservation planning (cost‐effectiveness analysis) and ecosystem science (understanding the complexity of ecosystem processes). This enables planning to be done at the catchment scale, and the trade‐offs between various rehabilitation actions to be integrated and prioritised. 4. Finally, it is important, given the constraints imposed by a lack of knowledge, that the planning process is part of an adaptive cycle where it can benefit from and consolidate the experience gained during the implementation and monitoring stages.