Meta-studies in land use science: Current coverage and prospects

Land use science has traditionally used case-study approaches for in-depth investigation of land use change processes and impacts. Meta-studies synthesize findings across case-study evidence to identify general patterns. In this paper, we provide a review of meta-studies in land use science. Various meta-studies have been conducted, which synthesize deforestation and agricultural land use change processes, while other important changes, such as urbanization, wetland conversion, and grassland dynamics have hardly been addressed. Meta-studies of land use change impacts focus mostly on biodiversity and biogeochemical cycles, while meta-studies of socioeconomic consequences are rare. Land use change processes and land use change impacts are generally addressed in isolation, while only few studies considered trajectories of drivers through changes to their impacts and their potential feedbacks. We provide a conceptual framework for linking meta-studies of land use change processes and impacts for the analysis of coupled human–environmental systems. Moreover, we provide suggestions for combining meta-studies of different land use change processes to develop a more integrated theory of land use change, and for combining meta-studies of land use change impacts to identify tradeoffs between different impacts. Land use science can benefit from an improved conceptualization of land use change processes and their impacts, and from new methods that combine meta-study findings to advance our understanding of human–environmental systems.

Biodiversity increases the resistance of ecosystem productivity to climate extremes

It remains unclear whether biodiversity buffers ecosystems against climate extremes, which are becoming increasingly frequent worldwide. Early results suggested that the ecosystem productivity of diverse grassland plant communities was more resistant, changing less during drought, and more resilient, recovering more quickly after drought, than that of depauperate communities. However, subsequent experimental tests produced mixed results. Here we use data from 46 experiments that manipulated grassland plant diversity to test whether biodiversity provides resistance during and resilience after climate events. We show that biodiversity increased ecosystem resistance for a broad range of climate events, including wet or dry, moderate or extreme, and brief or prolonged events. Across all studies and climate events, the productivity of low-diversity communities with one or two species changed by approximately 50% during climate events, whereas that of high-diversity communities with 16–32 species was more resistant, changing by only approximately 25%. By a year after each climate event, ecosystem productivity had often fully recovered, or overshot, normal levels of productivity in both high- and low-diversity communities, leading to no detectable dependence of ecosystem resilience on biodiversity. Our results suggest that biodiversity mainly stabilizes ecosystem productivity, and productivity-dependent ecosystem services, by increasing resistance to climate events. Anthropogenic environmental changes that drive biodiversity loss thus seem likely to decrease ecosystem stability, and restoration of biodiversity to increase it, mainly by changing the resistance of ecosystem productivity to climate events.

Bekenntnisse eines Soldaten

Boberach: Die Habsburger Monarchie, die sich auf die Armee verlassen kann, soll gegen die Minderheiten, darunter viele Juden, die in Lesevereinen gegen Österreich hetzen, verteidigt werden. Ministerverantwortlichkeit ist ein Hirngespinst

Rückblicke auf die politische Bewegung in Oesterreich in den Jahren 1848 und 1849

Boberach: Österreich konnte keinem deutschen Bundesstaat beitreten, dem es die Selbständigkeit seiner Gesetzgebung und die Einheit der Gesamtmonarchie hätte opfern müssen. Nun streiten sich zwei Systeme, der Polizeistaat "im besseren Sinne" und der Rechtsstaat, Gewalt und Recht, in Österreich, dessen Erneuerung auf konstitutionellem Wege fortgesetzt werden soll, ohne die Fehler der Radikalen in Deutschland zu wiederholen. Windischgrätz wird ohne Namensnennung kritisiert. - Wentzke: Rechenschaftsbericht über seine [Pillersdorffs] Tätigkeit als Minister und als Abgeordneter zum österreichischen Reichstag. - Die größte Schwierigkeit des Kabinets [sic!] lag in der Gestaltung der Beziehungen zu Deutschland. Die Richtschnur bildete die Erklärung, daß Österreich einem Bundesstaat, der ihm die Selbständigkeit seiner Gesetzgebung entziehe und die Aufgabe der Einheit seines Reiches fordere, nicht beitreten könne. Heute, da sich in Österreich zwei Systeme streiten, der Polizeistaat im besseren Sinne und der Rechtsstaat, werden die Sympathien für Österreich in Deutschland am sichersten wieder aufleben, wenn Österreich mit seiner eigenen Kräftigung auf der konstitutionellen Bahn fortschreitet

Beleuchtung der Aufklärungen des Herrn L. Grafen Ficquelmont

Boberach: Dem Nachfolger Metternichs wird Illusionismus vorgeworfen; die Unabhängigkeit der österreichischen Freiheitsbewegung von den Ereignissen in Deutschland und die Chancen, die ihre Erfolge für das Ansehen Österreichs bedeuteten, hat er nicht verstanden. - Wentzke: Verteidigung der deutschen Bewegung gegen Ficquelmonts Angriffe. Gegen die Anschauung, daß die österreichische Reformbewegung vom März 1848 "durch Frankfurt am Gängelband der deutschen Farben in die allgemeine Revolution hineingezogen wurde". "Im Allgemeinen herrschte in ganz Deutschland, mit Ausnahme Urpreußens, eine entschieden günstige Stimmung für Österreich, solange man vertrauen konnte, Österreich werde keinem Rückfall in die alte reaktionäre Politik unterliegen."

First-in-Human Proof-of-Concept Study: Intralesional Administration of BQ788, an Endothelin Receptor B Antagonist, to Melanoma Skin Metastases

BACKGROUND This first-in-human proof-of-concept study aimed to check whether safety and preclinical results obtained by intratumoral administration of BQ788, an endothelin receptor B (EDNRB) antagonist, can be repeated in human melanoma patients. METHODS Three patients received a single intralesional BQ788 application of 3 mg. After 3-7 days, the lesions were measured and removed for analysis. The administered dose was increased to a cumulative dosage of 8 mg in patient 4 (4 × 2.0 mg, days 0-3; lesion removed on day 4) and to 10 mg in patient 5 (3 × 3.3 mg, days 0, 3, and 10; lesion removed after 14 days). Control lesions were simultaneously treated with phosphate-buffered saline (PBS). All samples were processed and analyzed without knowledge of the clinical findings. RESULTS No statistical evaluation was possible because of the number of patients (n = 5) and the variability in the mode of administration. No adverse events were observed, regardless of administered dose. All observations were in accordance with results obtained in preclinical studies. Accordingly, no difference in degree of tumor necrosis was detected between BQ788- and PBS-treated samples. In addition, both EDNRB and Ki67 showed decreased expression in patients 2 and 5 and, to a lesser extent, in patient 1. Similarly, decreased expression of EDNRB mRNA in patients 2 and 5 and of BCL2A1 and/or PARP3 in patients 2, 3, and 5 was found. Importantly, semiquantitatively scored immunohistochemistry for CD31 and CD3 revealed more blood vessels and lymphocytes, respectively, in BQ788-treated tumors of patients 2 and 4. Also, in all patients, we observed inverse correlation in expression levels between EDNRB and HIF1A. Finally, in patient 5 (the only patient treated for longer than 1 week), we observed inhibition in lesion growth, as shown by size measurement. CONCLUSION The intralesional applications of BQ788 were well tolerated and showed signs of directly and indirectly reducing the viability of melanoma cells.

Foliar fungal pathogens and grassland biodiversity

By attacking plants, herbivorous mammals, insects, and belowground pathogens are known to play an important role in maintaining biodiversity in grasslands. Foliar fungal pathogens are ubiquitous in grassland ecosystems, but little is known about their role as drivers of community composition and diversity. Here we excluded foliar fungal pathogens from perennial grassland by using fungicide to determine the effect of natural levels of disease on an otherwise undisturbed plant community. Importantly, we excluded foliar fungal pathogens along with rabbits, insects, and mollusks in a full factorial design, which allowed a comparison of pathogen effects along with those of better studied plant enemies. This revealed that fungal pathogens substantially reduced aboveground plant biomass and promoted plant diversity and that this especially benefited legumes. The scale of pathogen effects on productivity and biodiversity was similar to that of rabbits and insects, but different plant species responded to the exclusion of the three plant enemies. These results suggest that theories of plant coexistence and management of biodiversity in grasslands should consider foliar fungal pathogens as potentially important drivers of community composition.

Plant diversity effects on grassland productivity are robust to both nutrient enrichment and drought

Global change drivers are rapidly altering resource availability and biodiversity. While there is consensus that greater biodiversity increases the functioning of ecosystems, the extent to which biodiversity buffers ecosystem productivity in response to changes in resource availability remains unclear. We use data from 16 grassland experiments across North America and Europe that manipulated plant species richness and one of two essential resources—soil nutrients or water—to assess the direction and strength of the interaction between plant diversity and resource alteration on above-ground productivity and net biodiversity, complementarity, and selection effects. Despite strong increases in productivity with nutrient addition and decreases in productivity with drought, we found that resource alterations did not alter biodiversity–ecosystem functioning relationships. Our results suggest that these relationships are largely determined by increases in complementarity effects along plant species richness gradients. Although nutrient addition reduced complementarity effects at high diversity, this appears to be due to high biomass in monocultures under nutrient enrichment. Our results indicate that diversity and the complementarity of species are important regulators of grassland ecosystem productivity, regardless of changes in other drivers of ecosystem function.

La fe filosófica de Jaspers frente a la fe revelada

Fil: Presas, Mario Alfonso. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación; Argentina.

La fe filosófica de Jaspers frente a la fe revelada

Fil: Presas, Mario Alfonso. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación; Argentina.