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Multi-purpose crops as maize, rice, soybean, and wheat are key in the debate concerning food, land, water and energy security and sustainability. While strong evidence exists on the effects of climate variability on the production of these crops, so far multifaceted attributes of droughts—magnitude, frequency, duration, and timing—have been tackled mainly separately, for a limited part of the cropping season, or over small regions. Here, a more comprehensive assessment is provided on how droughts with their complex patterns—given by their compound attributes—are consistently related to negative impacts on crop yield on a global scale. Magnitude and frequency of both climate and yield variability are jointly analysed from 1981 to 2016 considering multiscale droughts, i.e., dry conditions occurring with different durations and timings along the whole farming season, through two analogous and standardized indicators enabling comparison among crops, countries, and years. Mainly winter wheat and then spring wheat, soybean and the main maize's season reveal high susceptibility of yield under more complex drought patterns than previously assessed. The second maize's season and rice present less marked and more uncertain results, respectively. Overall, southern and eastern Europe, the Americas and sub-Saharan Africa presents multi-crop susceptibility, with eastern Europe, Middle East and Central Asia appearing critical regions for the most vulnerable crop, which is wheat. Finally, yield losses for wheat and soybean clearly worsen when moving from moderate to extreme multiscale droughts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forest conservation strategies and plans can be unsuccessful if the new habitat conditions determined by climate change are not considered. Our work aims at investigating the likelihood of future suitability, distribution and diversity for some common European forest species under the projected changes in climate, focusing on Southern Europe. We combine an Ensemble Platform for Species Distribution Models ( SDMs) to five Global Circulation Models ( GCMs) driven by two Representative Concentration Pathways ( RCPs), to produce maps of future climate-driven habitat suitability for ten categories of forest species and two time horizons. For each forest category and time horizon, ten maps of future distribution (5 GCMs by 2 RCPs) are thus combined in a single suitability map supplied with information about the 'likelihood' adopting the IPCC terminology based on consensus among projections. Then, the statistical significance of spatially aggregated changes in forest composition at local and regional level is analyzed. Finally, we discuss the importance, among SDMs, that environmental predictors seem to have in influencing forest distribution. Future impacts of climate change appear to be diversified across forest categories. A strong change in forest regional distribution and local diversity is projected to take place, as some forest categories will find more suitable conditions in previously unsuitable locations, while for other categories the same new conditions will become less suited. A decrease in species diversity is projected in most of the area, with Alpine region showing the potentiality to become a refuge for species migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Mediterranean basin is one of the most varied areas worldwide in terms of biodiversity and species richness due to its climatic and geomorphological features, and it is characterized by multi-faceted habitats where forests play a crucial role. Nowadays, the geographic distribution of forest species is well known and multiple geographic datasets are available with different spatial details. However, protection and conservation strategies need more specific information to identify areas with high conservation priority or more vulnerable to the ongoing environmental change ("hot spots"). To this purpose, tree species distribution data were investigated through hot spot analysis using Geographic Information Systems. The analysis was carried out on presence data of ten relevant forest tree species/classes across Mediterranean Europe. By combining spatial analysis and spatial statistics, we identified high and very high hot spot areas for the selected species/classes, which were validated by assessing their biological significance. Given the sub-continental extent of the study, a multiple scale approach was applied ranging from regional, subregional to local scale, coherently with the potential multi-level and multi-sector users of similar data and tools. Our results confirm the feasibility of the approach used to increase the quality and quantity of information achievable from available forest distribution datasets. The hot spot maps obtained are a useful support for further spatial evaluations, and may help environmental decision makers to identify priority areas for forest protection and conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Degradation, a reduction of the ecosystem's capacity to supply goods and services, is widespread in tropical forests and mainly caused by human disturbance. To maintain the full range of forest ecosystem services and support the development of effective conservation policies, we must understand the overall impact of degradation on different forest resources. This research investigates the response to disturbance of forest structure using several indicators: soil carbon content, arboreal richness and biodiversity, functional composition (guild and wood density), and productivity. We drew upon large field and remote sensing datasets from different forest types in Ghana, characterized by varied protection status, to investigate impacts of selective logging, and of illegal land use and resources extraction, which are the main disturbance causes in West Africa. Results indicate that functional composition and the overall number of species are less affected by degradation, while forest structure, soil carbon content and species abundance are seriously impacted, with resources distribution reflecting the protection level of the areas. Remote sensing analysis showed an increase in productivity in the last three decades, with higher resiliency to change in drier forest types, and stronger productivity correlation with solar radiation in the short dry season. The study region is affected by growing anthropogenic pressure on natural resources and by an increased climate variability: possible interactions of disturbance with climate are also discussed, together with the urgency to reduce degradation in order to preserve the full range of ecosystem functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This study describes a GIS-based software tool for the qualitative assessment of desertification risk. The tool integrates results from several land degradation models into ArcGIS using the object-oriented programming language Visual Basic. The integration of GIS and models is based on different coupling approaches. The proposed methodology was developed and tested on Sardinia Island (Italy). Six driving factors of desertification (overgrazing, vegetation productivity, soil fertility, water erosion, wind erosion and seawater intrusion) were model-simulated over two time periods to investigate the spatio-temporal evolution pattern of desertification-prone areas. Model results were normalized, weighted and combined into an Integrated Desertification Index (IDI) ranging from 0 to 1 (representing the best and the worst conditions, respectively), and classified into five desertification risk levels. The implementation, performance of the methodology and benefits provided by the modelling approach to land management authorities for monitoring processes of land degradation are fully described in the paper. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Objective: To evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of HYAFF 11-based autologous dermal and epidermal grafts in the management of diabetic foot ulcers.Research Design and Methods: A total of 79 patients with diabetic dorsal (n = 37) or plantar (n = 42) ulcers were randomized to either the control group with nonadherent paraffin gauze (n = 36) or the treatment group with autologous tissue-engineered grafts (n = 43). Weekly assessment, aggressive debridement, wound infection control, and adequate pressure relief (fiberglass off-loading cast for plantar ulcers) were provided in both groups. Complete wound healing was assessed within 11 weeks. Safety was monitored by adverse events.Results: Complete ulcer healing was achieved in 65.3% of the treatment group and 49.6% of the control group (P = 0.191). The Kaplan-Meier mean time to closure was 57 and 77 days, respectively, for the treatment versus control groups. Plantar foot ulcer healing was 55% and 50% in the treatment and control groups, respectively. Dorsal foot ulcer healing was significantly different, with 67% in the treatment group and 31% in the control group (P = 0.049). The mean healing time in the dorsal treatment group was 63 days, and the odds ratio for dorsal ulcer healing compared with the control group was 4.44 (P = 0.037). Adverse events were equally distributed between the two groups, and none were related to the treatments.Conclusions: The autologous tissue-engineered treatment exhibited improved healing in dorsal ulcers when compared with the current standard dressing. For plantar ulcers, the off-loading cast was presumably paramount and masked or nullified the effects of the autologous wound treatment. This treatment, however, may be useful in patients for whom the total off-loading cast is not recommended and only a less effective off-loading device can be applied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change and human interventions are modifying freshwater-related ecosystem services on both supply and demand side. A better understanding of the dynamic of these services, driven by the interactions among above-mentioned factors, could bring benefits to water resources management and society. In this work, we develop an integrated modeling approach, driving the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs model (InVEST) with future projections of climate and land use data until 2050. Scenarios are developed by Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (CMCC) considering the more pessimistic, business as usual, RCP8.5. The core outcomes are set of maps and indicators to quantify the alterations in water availability and in quality such as annual average water yield and nutrient retention. This approach is tested in the case study of the Taro River basin (Emilia Romagna Region), within the activities of INTERREG-CE PROLINE project (https://bit.ly/2JGH1Gm). Preliminary results demonstrate that different ecosystem services respond differently to climate and land use change, i.e. reductions up to 32% for water yield service expected driven by increases in evapotranspiration demand and changes in rainfall patterns; and mean increases of about 4% for nutrient retention service. Moreover, the rate of change results different over time with maximum changes between 2020-2030 and slower changes afterwards. Finally, the responses are sensitive to the distribution of land use, i.e. more changes are found in the urban and agricultural areas while the woodland and meadowland areas are more stable. Ultimately, these results could be used to identify and prioritize the best management practices, balancing the tradeoffs among services and improving the resilience and biodiversity of the freshwater ecosystem at river basin level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]