Depth Profile of Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Accumulation over Two Decades in a Prairie Restoration Experiment

Ecosystems - Prairies converted from agriculture are known to accumulate carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) and are an important contribution to terrestrial C sequestration. However, estimates of decadal...     

Soil Aggregates and Associated Organic Matter under Conventional Tillage,No-Tillage,and Forest Succession after Three Decades

Impacts of land use on soil organic C (SOC) are of interest relative to SOC sequestration and soil sustainability. The role of aggregate stability in SOC storage under contrasting land uses has been of particular interest relative to conventional tillage (CT) and no-till (NT) agriculture. This study compares soil structure and SOC fractions at the 30-yr-old Horseshoe Bend Agroecosystem Experiment (HSB). This research is unique in comparing NT and CT with adjacent land concurrently undergoing forest succession (FS) and in sampling to depths (15–28 cm) previously not studied at HSB. A soil moving experiment (SME) was also undertaken to monitor 1-yr changes in SOC and aggregation. After 30 years, enhanced aggregate stability under NT compared to CT was limited to a depth of 5 cm, while enhanced aggregate stability under FS compared to CT occurred to a depth of 28 cm and FS exceeded NT from 5–28 cm. Increases in SOC concentrations generally followed the increases in stability, except that no differences in SOC concentration were observed from 15–28 cm despite greater aggregate stability. Land use differences in SOC were explained equally by differences in particulate organic carbon (POC) and in silt-clay associated fine C. Enhanced structural stability of the SME soil was observed under FS and was linked to an increase of 1 Mg SOC ha⁻¹ in 0–5 cm, of which 90% could be attributed to a POC increase. The crushing of macroaggregates in the SME soil also induced a 10% reduction in SOC over 1 yr that occurred under all three land uses from 5–15 cm. The majority of this loss was in the fine C fraction. NT and FS ecosystems had greater aggregation and carbon storage at the soil surface but only FS increased aggregation below the surface, although in the absence of increased carbon storage.     

Rice Genomics: over the Past Two Decades and into the Future

Domestic rice (Oryza sativa L.) is one of the most important cereal crops, feeding a large number of worldwide populations. Along with various high-throughput genome sequencing projects, rice genomics has been making great headway toward direct field applications of basic research advances in understanding the molecular mechanisms of agronomical traits and utilizing diverse germplasm resources. Here, we briefly review its achievements over the past two decades and present the potential for its bright future.     

Sustainability in metal mining: from exploration, over processing to mine waste management

Metal mining or more general mineral mining, is the base industry of the economic wealth and development of numerous countries. However, mining has a negative reputation due to the complex problems of environmental contamination like SO₂ and CO₂ emissions and acid mine drainage (AMD) formation, which endangers vital limited resources, like air, water, and soils. This view paper highlights the environmental problems of todays metal mining operations and explores possibilities of future more sustainable mining operations with focus on enhanced and optimized metal recovery systems in combination with a minimization of the environmental impact. These changes depend on a change in mentality and in the mining operation process, which can nowadays yet be observed in some modern mining operations. The goal for the future will be to implement these changes as standard for all future mining operations.     

Antigen Retrieval Immunohistochemistry: Review and Future Prospects in Research and Diagnosis over Two Decades

As a review for the 20th anniversary of publishing the antigen retrieval (AR) technique in this journal, the authors intend briefly to summarize developments in AR-immunohistochemistry (IHC)–based research and diagnostics, with particular emphasis on current challenges and future research directions. Over the past 20 years, the efforts of many different investigators have coalesced in extending the AR approach to all areas of anatomic pathology diagnosis and research and further have led to AR-based protein extraction techniques and tissue-based proteomics. As a result, formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) archival tissue collections are now seen as a literal treasure of materials for clinical and translational research to an extent unimaginable just two decades ago. Further research in AR-IHC is likely to focus on tissue proteomics, developing a more efficient protocol for protein extraction from FFPE tissue based on the AR principle, and combining the proteomics approach with AR-IHC to establish a practical, sophisticated platform for identifying and using biomarkers in personalized medicine.     

Environmental Change, Injustice and Sustainability

This paper argues that a combination of increasing inequality, hypocrisy, population growth and adverse global environmental change imperils our civilisation. Selected examples of existing inequality and the immoral treatment of human beings are provided from countries of the Asia Pacific. There is also limited discussion of the global eco-social crisis, stressing the links between environmental scarcity and the human responses of resentment, conflict, terrorism and ill-governance. The essay contends that just as the lives of unborn humans similar to us are of interest and value to bio-ethicists, so too should be the lives and descendants of people who are unlike us, even if such people are perceived to be substantially different to ourselves in terms of status, culture and spending power. It is argued that it is in the interests of ourselves, society, and global civilisation that the lives of such people are considered and where possible improved in order to foster the “sustainability transition” needed to secure our collective future. The essay concludes with a discussion of an important element for securing our future: the development and implementation of alternative economic systems which will provide more accurate indicators of global progress.     

Maternal Vitamin D Status and Offspring Bone Fractures: Prospective Study over Two Decades in Aarhus City,Denmark

Background

Studies investigating the association between maternal vitamin D status and offspring bone mass measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) during childhood have shown conflicting results.

Purpose

We used occurrence of bone fractures up to the age of 18 as a measure reflecting offspring bone mass and related that to maternal vitamin D status.

Methods

The Danish Fetal Origins 1988 Cohort recruited 965 pregnant women during 1988–89 at their 30^th gestation week antenatal midwife visit. A blood sample was drawn and serum was stored, which later was analyzed for the concentration of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) by the liquid chromatography coupled with a tandem mass spectrometric method (LC-MS/MS). Outcome was diagnosis of first time bone fractures extracted from the Danish National Patient Register.

Results

Vitamin D status was available for 850 women. The median (5^th–95^th percentile) 25(OH)D was 76.2 (23.0–152.1) nmol/l. During follow up 294 children were registered with at least one bone fracture diagnosis. Multivariable Cox regression models using age as the underlying time scale indicated no overall association between maternal vitamin D status and first time bone fractures. However, there was a significantly increased hazard ratio (HR) during childhood for those who had maternal blood drawn in Dec/Jan/Feb compared with Jun/Jul/Aug (HR: 1.75, 95%CI: 1.11–2.74). Adjustment for vitamin D status strengthened this association (1.82, 1.12–2.97), which indicated a potential seasonal impact on offspring fractures independent of maternal vitamin D status. In a sensitivity analysis we found a borderline significant inverse association between continuous concentrations of 25(OH)D and offspring forearm fractures (P = 0.054).

Conclusion

Overall, our results did not substantiate an association between maternal vitamin D status and offspring bone fractures. Further studies on this subject are needed, but the study populations must be large enough to allow for subdivision of fractures.     

Shifts in Dominance and Species Assemblages over Two Decades in Alternative Successions in Central Amazonia

Following perturbation, different assemblages that originate under the same abiotic conditions initiate successional pathways that may continue to diverge or converge toward an eventual climax. Forest regeneration in the Central Amazon begins with alternative successional pathways associated with prior land use. In a 12‐yr study of secondary forests, initially ranging between 2 and 19 yrs after abandonment, we compared species compositions through time along two pathways, abandoned clear‐cuts dominated by Cecropia and abandoned pastures dominated by Vismia; prior results at these sites have not directly evaluated species composition. At all ages, the Chao–Jaccard similarity index of species composition was highest comparing pasture transects to each other, lowest comparing pastures transects to clear‐cut transects, and intermediate comparing clear‐cut transects to each other. Through time, clear‐cut transects became less similar to each other, as did pasture transects. Changes in similarity reflected declining dominance along both pathways, but Cecropia dominance of clear‐cut transects declined more rapidly than Vismia dominance of pasture transects. A rich association of species replaced Cecropia in clear‐cut transects, resulting in decreased similarity among them. In pasture transects one genus, Bellucia, replaced the lost Vismia, so similarity of Vismia transects was maintained despite some turnover in dominance. Overall, even with turnover of individuals and decline of the dominant pioneers, the alternative pathways exhibited strikingly different species assemblies after two decades of succession, suggesting that the effect of land use persists well beyond initial floristic composition.     

Sustainability,Health, and the Human Population

A sustainable human population (e.g., range, density, and total numbers) is essential to health and in management. The notion of sustainability applies to all species and ecosystems and to the biosphere. Sustainability involves the health not only of individual humans, but also of ecosystems and other species. Thus, sustainability of the human population is important because of the wealth of factors involved: both the elements of systems it affects and those that contribute to its size. In this article, I address the sustainability of the human population on the basis of the argument that other species serve as examples of sustainability at the species level—an example of an application of systemic management that simultaneously accounts for complexity and achieves measurable health for individuals, species, and ecosystems. I conclude that the human population is two to four orders of magnitude larger than is optimally sustainable when compared with the populations of other mammalian species of similar body size and that this is a significant contributor to health problems for our species, other species, and ecosystems—a systemic pathology.     

The Postcranial Musculoskeletal System of Xenarthrans: Insights from over Two Centuries of Research and Future Directions

Xenarthrans stand out among mammals for various reasons, one of them being their musculoskeletal postcranial specializations. Extant armadillos, anteaters, and sloths feature archetypical adaptations to digging and/or diverse arboreal lifestyles. Numerous extinct xenarthrans dramatically depart in size and morphology from their extant relatives, which has sparked functional interpretations since the end of the eighteenth century. Here, we review the diverse methodological approaches that have been used to investigate functional aspects of the postcranial musculoskeletal system in extant and extinct xenarthrans. Specifically, we address qualitative and quantitative bone morphology (including geometric morphometrics), body size and allometry, bone inner structure, myology, as well as in vivo, ex vivo, and in silico experimentation. Finally, a short account is given on those analyses that included xenarthrans to gain insight into primate anatomy. This review helped to identify potential future directions for the functional analysis of the xenarthran anatomy, a tradition over two centuries old.     

Four Decades of Forest Persistence,Clearance and Logging on Borneo

The native forests of Borneo have been impacted by selective logging, fire, and conversion to plantations at unprecedented scales since industrial-scale extractive industries began in the early 1970s. There is no island-wide documentation of forest clearance or logging since the 1970s. This creates an information gap for conservation planning, especially with regard to selectively logged forests that maintain high conservation potential. Analysing LANDSAT images, we estimate that 75.7% (558,060 km²) of Borneo''s area (737,188 km²) was forested around 1973. Based upon a forest cover map for 2010 derived using ALOS-PALSAR and visually reviewing LANDSAT images, we estimate that the 1973 forest area had declined by 168,493 km² (30.2%) in 2010. The highest losses were recorded in Sabah and Kalimantan with 39.5% and 30.7% of their total forest area in 1973 becoming non-forest in 2010, and the lowest in Brunei and Sarawak (8.4%, and 23.1%). We estimate that the combined area planted in industrial oil palm and timber plantations in 2010 was 75,480 km², representing 10% of Borneo. We mapped 271,819 km of primary logging roads that were created between 1973 and 2010. The greatest density of logging roads was found in Sarawak, at 0.89 km km⁻², and the lowest density in Brunei, at 0.18 km km⁻². Analyzing MODIS-based tree cover maps, we estimate that logging operated within 700 m of primary logging roads. Using this distance, we estimate that 266,257 km² of 1973 forest cover has been logged. With 389,566 km² (52.8%) of the island remaining forested, of which 209,649 km² remains intact. There is still hope for biodiversity conservation in Borneo. Protecting logged forests from fire and conversion to plantations is an urgent priority for reducing rates of deforestation in Borneo.     

Sustainability, Health and Precautionary Perspectives on Lawn Pesticides, and Alternatives

This article considers health concerns associated with lawn pesticide use and potential policy actions to address those concerns. We first briefly present the generations of pesticide technology, and then apply a sustainability lens to consider the dissipative use of persistent compounds. We enumerate uncertainties in available science and gaps in toxicity testing of pesticides, along with potential for exposure and evidence of harm from lawn pesticide exposure. We consider how a precautionary approach complements a sustainability perspective and detailed scientific findings, and then briefly present practical approaches to reducing use of lawn pesticides. Finally, we highlight factors pivotal for successful policy to limit lawn pesticide use.     

A Delphi Approach to Understanding Varying Expert Viewpoints in Sustainability Communication: The Case of Water Footprints of Bio‐Based Fiber Resources

In recent years, the concepts of accounting for water use and assessing its impact, also known as the water footprint (WF), have evolved. The cultivation of wood and cotton are two important bio‐based fiber resources that can use, consume, and pollute huge amounts of water. The purpose of this study is to identify the methodological options on an inventory level asociated with a WF assessment for bio‐based fiber resources. Using a three‐step Argument Delphi approach with international experts, important, but controversial, aspects of water footprinting are elaborated. During the different rounds of the Delphi procedure, the interlacement of the crucial topics became apparent, including the net green water or the total volume of green water, trade‐offs between water use and land‐use impacts, allocation of the green WF on ecosystem services, and nomination of a reference situation (e.g., potential natural vegetation). Further, this study evaluates whether the experts allowed generalizations about these methodological options. Finally, the agreement of experts on some generalized statements showed that such statements can be used legitimately as long as knowledge of the inventory methods and knowledge of production characteristics are carefully combined.