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Combining the frameworks of fundamental causes theory and diffusion of innovation, scholars had anticipated a delayed COVID-19 vaccination uptake for people in lower socioeconomic position depending on the socioeconomic context. We qualify these propositions and analyze educational differences in COVID-19 vaccination status over the first ten months of Germany's vaccination campaign in 2021. Data from the study "Corona Monitoring Nationwide" (RKI-SOEP-2), collected between November 2021 and February 2022, is linked with district-level data of the German Index of Socioeconomic Deprivation (GISD). We estimated the proportion of people with at least one vaccination dose stratified by educational groups and within different settings of regional socioeconomic deprivation at three time points. Logistic multilevel regression models were applied to adjust for multiple covariates and to test cross-level-interactions between educational levels and levels of area-level socioeconomic deprivation. Vaccination rates were lower among respondents with lower education. With increasing area-level socioeconomic deprivation, educational differences were larger due to particularly low vaccination rates in groups with low education levels. The analysis of vaccination timing reveals that educational gaps and gaps by area-level socioeconomic deprivation had appeared early in the vaccination campaign and did not close completely before the 4th wave of COVID-19 infections., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Aquatic ecosystems are threatened by eutrophication from nutrient pollution. In lakes, eutrophication causes a plethora of deleterious effects, such as harmful algal blooms, fish kills and increased methane emissions. However, lake-specific responses to nutrient changes are highly variable, complicating eutrophication management. These lake-specific responses could result from short-term stochastic drivers overshadowing lake-independent, long-term relationships between phytoplankton and nutrients. Here, we show that strong stoichiometric long-term relationships exist between nutrients and chlorophyll a (Chla) for 5-year simple moving averages (SMA, median R² = 0.87) along a gradient of total nitrogen to total phosphorus (TN:TP) ratios. These stoichiometric relationships are consistent across 159 shallow lakes (defined as average depth < 6 m) from a cross-continental, open-access database. We calculate 5-year SMA residuals to assess short-term variability and find substantial short-term Chla variation which is weakly related to nutrient concentrations (median R² = 0.12). With shallow lakes representing 89% of the world's lakes, the identified stoichiometric long-term relationships can globally improve quantitative nutrient management in both lakes and their catchments through a nutrient-ratio-based strategy., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

High-frequency nitrate-N (NO 3 - -N) data are increasingly available, while accurate assessments of in-stream NO 3 - -N retention in large streams and rivers require a better capture of complex river hydrodynamic conditions. This study demonstrates a fusion framework between high-frequency water quality data and hydrological transport models, that (1) captures river hydraulics and their impacts on solute signal propagation through river hydrodynamic modeling, and (2) infers in-stream retention as the differences between conservatively traced and reactively observed NO 3 - -N signals. Using this framework, continuous 15-min estimates of NO 3 - -N retention were derived in a 6th-order reach of the lower Bode River (27.4 km, central Germany), using long-term sensor monitoring data during a period of normal flow from 2015 to 2017 and a period of drought from 2018 to 2020. The unique NO 3 - -N retention estimates, together with metabolic characteristics, revealed insightful seasonal patterns (from high net autotrophic removal in late-spring to lower rates, to net heterotrophic release during autumn) and drought-induced variations of those patterns (reduced levels of net removal and autotrophic nitrate removal largely buffered by heterotrophic release processes, including organic matter mineralization). Four clusters of diel removal patterns were identified, potentially representing changes in dominant NO 3 - -N retention processes according to seasonal and hydrological conditions. For example, dominance of autotrophic NO 3 - -N retention extended more widely across seasons during the drought years. Such cross-scale patterns and changes under droughts are likely co-determined by catchment and river environments (e.g., river primary production, dissolved organic carbon availability and its quality), which resulted in more complex responses to the sequential droughts. Inferences derived from this novel data-model fusion provide new insights into NO 3 - dynamics and ecosystem function of large streams, as well as their responses to climate variability. Moreover, this framework can be flexibly transferred across sites and scales, thereby complementing high-frequency monitoring to identify in-stream retention processes and to inform river management., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Since its inception, the theory of alternative equilibria in shallow lakes has evolved and been applied to an ever wider range of ecological and socioecological systems. The theory posits the existence of two alternative stable states or equilibria, which in shallow lakes are characterised by either clear water with abundant plants or turbid water where phytoplankton dominate. Here, we used data simulations and real-world data sets from Denmark and north-eastern USA (902 lakes in total) to examine the relationship between shallow lake phytoplankton biomass (chlorophyll-a) and nutrient concentrations across a range of timescales. The data simulations demonstrated that three diagnostic tests could reliably identify the presence or absence of alternative equilibria. The real-world data accorded with data simulations where alternative equilibria were absent. Crucially, it was only as the temporal scale of observation increased (>3 years) that a predictable linear relationship between nutrient concentration and chlorophyll-a was evident. Thus, when a longer term perspective is taken, the notion of alternative equilibria is not required to explain the response of chlorophyll-a to nutrient enrichment which questions the utility of the theory for explaining shallow lake response to, and recovery from, eutrophication., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

The hyporheic zone underneath stream channels is considered a biogeochemical hotspot reducing nutrient loads being transported downstream due to its high surface-to-volume ratio in combination with the hyporheic exchange. However, the effect of environmental stressors such as high amounts of fine sediment (FS; grain size <0.2 mm) on nutrient cycling in the hyporheic zone are not well understood. Physical clogging caused by fine sediment (FS) decreases the hyporheic exchange, thus, diminishing its potential to reduce nutrient loads despite increasing its surface-to-volume ratio. We determined the effect of physical clogging on nutrient cycling based on net change rates of dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN; nitrate-N, ammonium-N), soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP), and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) for a sand and gravel hyporheic zone. We performed three experimental runs in 12 flumes with four-week duration each following a factorial design. First, we determined nutrient cycling in sand and gravel in absence of clogging, and then tested the clogging effect for each sediment type under increasing clogging (0-480 g of FS addition increasing by 60 g per level). Without clogging, gravel acted as a source of nitrate-N; and both sand and gravel released SRP. Regardless of the clogging level and the resulting reduced hyporheic exchange, we found no changes in DOC and nitrate-N dynamics but net-release of ammonium-N and SRP for gravel. In contrast, in sand, physical clogging inhibited DOC release for flumes with the higher FS. We propose that not physical clogging but DOC availability limited the nutrient uptake, as molar ratios of DOC to DIN and SRP ranged 1.2-1.5 and 77-191, respectively, indicating severe C limitation of N-uptake and partial C limitation of P-uptake. Our results suggest an interplay between nutrient molar ratios and physical clogging, which emphasize the interactions between hydrology and the stoichiometry of organic carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus in the hyporheic zone., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Human impacts, particularly nutrient pollution and land-use change, have caused significant declines in the quality and quantity of freshwater resources. Most global assessments have concentrated on species diversity and composition, but effects on the multifunctionality of streams and rivers remain unclear. Here, we analyse the most comprehensive compilation of stream ecosystem functions to date to provide an overview of the responses of nutrient uptake, leaf litter decomposition, ecosystem productivity, and food web complexity to six globally pervasive human stressors. We show that human stressors inhibited ecosystem functioning for most stressor-function pairs. Nitrate uptake efficiency was most affected and was inhibited by 347% due to agriculture. However, concomitant negative and positive effects were common even within a given stressor-function pair. Some part of this variability in effect direction could be explained by the structural heterogeneity of the landscape and latitudinal position of the streams. Ranking human stressors by their absolute effects on ecosystem multifunctionality revealed significant effects for all studied stressors, with wastewater effluents (194%), agriculture (148%), and urban land use (137%) having the strongest effects. Our results demonstrate that we are at risk of losing the functional backbone of streams and rivers if human stressors persist in contemporary intensity, and that freshwaters are losing critical ecosystem services that humans rely on. We advocate for more studies on the effects of multiple stressors on ecosystem multifunctionality to improve the functional understanding of human impacts. Finally, freshwater management must shift its focus toward an ecological function-based approach and needs to develop strategies for maintaining or restoring ecosystem functioning of streams and rivers., (© 2022 The Authors. Global Change Biology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Background: According to a recent paper by Gelfand et al., COVID-19 infection and case mortality rates are closely connected to the strength of social norms: "Tighter" cultures that abide by strict social norms are more successful in combating the pandemic than "looser" cultures that are more permissive. However, countries with similar levels of cultural tightness exhibit big differences in mortality rates. We are investigating potential explanations for this fact. Using data from Germany and Japan-two "tight" countries with very different infection and mortality rates-we examined how differences in socio-demographic and other determinants explain differences in individual preventive attitudes and behaviors., Methods: We compared preventive attitudes and behaviors in 2020 based on real-time representative survey data and used logit regression models to study how individual attitudes and behaviors are shaped by four sets of covariates: individual socio-demographics, health, personality, and regional-level controls. Employing Blinder-Oaxaca regression techniques, we quantified the extent to which differences in averages of the covariates between Japan and Germany explain the differences in the observed preventive attitudes and behaviors., Results: In Germany and Japan, similar proportions of the population supported mandatory vaccination, avoided travel, and avoided people with symptoms of a cold. In Germany, however, a significantly higher proportion washed their hands frequently and avoided crowds, physical contact, public transport, peak-hour shopping, and contact with the elderly. In Japan, a significantly higher proportion were willing to be vaccinated. We also show that attitudes and behaviors varied significantly more with covariates in Germany than in Japan. Differences in averages of the covariates contribute little to explaining the observed differences in preventive attitudes and behaviors between the two countries., Conclusion: Consistent with tightness-looseness theory, the populations of Japan and Germany responded similarly to the pandemic. The observed differences in infection and fatality rates therefore cannot be explained by differences in behavior. The major difference in attitudes is the willingness to be vaccinated, which was much higher in Japan. Furthermore, the Japanese population behaved more uniformly across social groups than the German population. This difference in the degree of homogeneity has important implications for the effectiveness of policy measures during the pandemic., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Schmidt-Petri, Schröder, Okubo, Graeber and Rieger.)

Salmon aquaculture is an important economic activity globally where local freshwater supplies permit land-based salmon aquaculture facilities to cultivate early life stage salmon. Nitrogen, phosphorus and organic matter in aquaculture effluents contribute to the eutrophication of adjacent and downstream rivers and lakes. This study quantifies the enrichment of nutrients in land-based salmon aquaculture facility effluents compared to receiving waters. We measured nutrient concentrations and dissolved organic matter (DOM) quantity and quality via fluorescence spectroscopy in streams and effluent waters associated with 27 facilities in Chile. We found that facilities added on average 0.9 (s.d. = 2.0) mg-C L -1 , 542 (s.d. = 637) μg-total N L -1 , and 104 (s.d. = 104) μg-total P L -1 to effluents compared to stream waters. DOM in stream water was enriched in humic-like fluorescence, while aquaculture effluents were enriched in protein-like DOM fluorophores. Principal component and correlation analysis revealed that tryptophan-like fluorescence was a good predictor of total N and P in effluents, but the strength of significant linear relationships varied among individual facilities (r 2 : 0.2 to 0.9). Agreement between laboratory fluorescence and a portable fluorometer indicates the utility of in-situ sensors for monitoring of both tryptophan-like fluorescence and covarying nutrients in effluents. Thus, continuous in-situ sensors are likely to improve industry management and allow more robust estimates of aquaculture-derived nutrients delivered to receiving waters., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

A mesocosm experiment was conducted in a temperate eutrophic lake with the hypotheses: 1) the addition of a labile form of DOC would trigger a more pronounced response in phytoplankton biomass and composition compared with a non-labile form; 2) DOC addition would increase phytoplankton biomass by co-inserting organic nutrients for phytoplankton growth; 3) DOC addition would change phytoplankton composition, in particular towards mixotrophic taxa due to higher DOC availability; and that 4) there would be differences in phytoplankton responses to DOC addition, depending on whether sediment was included or not. We used two types of mesocosms: pelagic mesocosms with closed bottom, and benthic mesocosms open to the sediment. The experiment ran for 29 days in total. The DOC addition occurred once, at Day 1. Besides the control, there were two treatments: HuminFeed® (non-labile DOC) at a concentration of 2 mg L -1 , and a combination of 2 mg L -1 HuminFeed® and 2 mg L -1 DOC from alder leaf leachate (labile). Responses were detected only in the treatment with alder leaf extract. Ecosystem processes responded immediately to DOC addition, with the fall in dissolved oxygen and pH indicating an increase in respiration, relative to primary production (Day 2). In contrast, there was a delay of a few days in structural responses in the phytoplankton community (Day 6). Phytoplankton biomass increased after DOC addition, probably boosted by the phosphorus released from alder leaf extract. Changes in phytoplankton composition towards mixotrophic taxa were not as strong as changes in biomass, and happened only in the pelagic mesocosms. With the DOC addition, diatoms prevailed in benthic mesocosms, while the contribution of colonial buoyant cyanobacteria increased in the pelagic ones. This study points towards the necessity to look in greater detail at specific responses of phytoplankton to DOC concentration increases considering lake-habitat and sediment influence., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Meeting ecological and water quality standards in lotic ecosystems is often failed due to multiple stressors. However, disentangling stressor effects and identifying relevant stressor-effect-relationships in complex environmental settings remain major challenges. By combining state-of-the-art methods from ecotoxicology and aquatic ecosystem analysis, we aimed here to disentangle the effects of multiple chemical and non-chemical stressors along a longitudinal land use gradient in a third-order river in Germany. We distinguished and evaluated four dominant stressor categories along this gradient: (1) Hydromorphological alterations: Flow diversity and substrate diversity correlated with the EU-Water Framework Directive based indicators for the quality element macroinvertebrates, which deteriorated at the transition from near-natural reference sites to urban sites. (2) Elevated nutrient levels and eutrophication: Low to moderate nutrient concentrations together with complete canopy cover at the reference sites correlated with low densities of benthic algae (biofilms). We found no more systematic relation of algal density with nutrient concentrations at the downstream sites, suggesting that limiting concentrations are exceeded already at moderate nutrient concentrations and reduced shading by riparian vegetation. (3) Elevated organic matter levels: Wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) and stormwater drainage systems were the primary sources of bioavailable dissolved organic carbon. Consequently, planktonic bacterial production and especially extracellular enzyme activity increased downstream of those effluents showing local peaks. (4) Micropollutants and toxicity-related stress: WWTPs were the predominant source of toxic stress, resulting in a rapid increase of the toxicity for invertebrates and algae with only one order of magnitude below the acute toxic levels. This toxicity correlates negatively with the contribution of invertebrate species being sensitive towards pesticides (SPEAR pesticides index), probably contributing to the loss of biodiversity recorded in response to WWTP effluents. Our longitudinal approach highlights the potential of coordinated community efforts in supplementing established monitoring methods to tackle the complex phenomenon of multiple stress., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Several vaccines against COVID-19 have now been developed and are already being rolled out around the world. The decision whether or not to get vaccinated has so far been left to the individual citizens. However, there are good reasons, both in theory as well as in practice, to believe that the willingness to get vaccinated might not be sufficiently high to achieve herd immunity. A policy of mandatory vaccination could ensure high levels of vaccination coverage, but its legitimacy is doubtful. We investigate the willingness to get vaccinated and the reasons for an acceptance (or rejection) of a policy of mandatory vaccination against COVID-19 in June and July 2020 in Germany based on a representative real time survey, a random sub-sample (SOEP-CoV) of the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). Our results show that about 70 percent of adults in Germany would voluntarily get vaccinated against the coronavirus if a vaccine without side effects was available. About half of residents of Germany are in favor, and half against, a policy of mandatory vaccination. The approval rate for mandatory vaccination is significantly higher among those who would get vaccinated voluntarily (around 60 percent) than among those who would not get vaccinated voluntarily (27 percent). The individual willingness to get vaccinated and acceptance of a policy of mandatory vaccination correlates systematically with socio-demographic and psychological characteristics of the respondents. We conclude that as far as people's declared intentions are concerned, herd immunity could be reached without a policy of mandatory vaccination, but that such a policy might be found acceptable too, were it to become necessary., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

We investigate how the economic consequences of the pandemic and the government-mandated measures to contain its spread affect the self-employed - particularly women - in Germany. For our analysis, we use representative, real-time survey data in which respondents were asked about their situation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings indicate that among the self-employed, who generally face a higher likelihood of income losses due to COVID-19 than employees, women are about one-third more likely to experience income losses than their male counterparts. We do not find a comparable gender gap among employees. Our results further suggest that the gender gap among the self-employed is largely explained by the fact that women disproportionately work in industries that are more severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Our analysis of potential mechanisms reveals that women are significantly more likely to be impacted by government-imposed restrictions, e.g., the regulation of opening hours. We conclude that future policy measures intending to mitigate the consequences of such shocks should account for this considerable variation in economic hardship., Competing Interests: Conflict of InterestThe authors declare that they have no conflict of interest., (© The Author(s) 2021.)

Low flow and co-occurring stress is a more and more frequent phenomenon these years in small agricultural streams as a consequence of climate change. In the present study we explored short and longer term structural responses of the stream benthic algae community and biofilm metabolism to multiple stress in small streams applying a semi-experimental approach. We hypothesized that i) a reduction in flow in combination with secondary stress (nutrients and sediments) have immediate effects on the benthic algae community in terms of biomass (chlorophyll a, biovolume), taxonomic and trait (lifeform and size distribution) compositions as well as on metabolism (GPP and CR), and ii) that changes in the benthic algae community persist due to altered environmental settings but that functional redundancy among benthic algae species provides a high level of resilience in metabolism (GPP and CR). Overall, we found that stress imposed by nutrients was less pronounced than stress imposed by fine sediments under low flow, and that nutrient enrichment to some extent mitigated effects of fine sediments. Fine sediment deposition mediated a decline in the fraction of erect algae and/or algae with mucilage stalks but this did not happen under co-occurring stress from both sediments and nutrients. Additionally, fine sediment deposition mediated a decline in GPP of the biofilm, but again this did not happen under co-occurring stress from nutrients. We conclude that 1) the benthic algae community and biofilm metabolism displayed similar resilience to stress imposed by low flow and co-occurring stress from nutrients and sediments on a short and longer time scale and 2) as structure-function adaptations may occur at several trophic levels in the biofilm, more research is needed to explore mechanisms underlying mitigating effects of nutrients in response to sediment deposition under low flow., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Climate and land-use change drive a suite of stressors that shape ecosystems and interact to yield complex ecological responses (that is, additive, antagonistic and synergistic effects). We know little about the spatial scales relevant for the outcomes of such interactions and little about effect sizes. These knowledge gaps need to be filled to underpin future land management decisions or climate mitigation interventions for protecting and restoring freshwater ecosystems. This study combines data across scales from 33 mesocosm experiments with those from 14 river basins and 22 cross-basin studies in Europe, producing 174 combinations of paired-stressor effects on a biological response variable. Generalized linear models showed that only one of the two stressors had a significant effect in 39% of the analysed cases, 28% of the paired-stressor combinations resulted in additive effects and 33% resulted in interactive (antagonistic, synergistic, opposing or reversal) effects. For lakes, the frequencies of additive and interactive effects were similar for all spatial scales addressed, while for rivers these frequencies increased with scale. Nutrient enrichment was the overriding stressor for lakes, with effects generally exceeding those of secondary stressors. For rivers, the effects of nutrient enrichment were dependent on the specific stressor combination and biological response variable. These results vindicate the traditional focus of lake restoration and management on nutrient stress, while highlighting that river management requires more bespoke management solutions.

Phosphorus inputs to many rivers have been reduced in recent decades to mitigate the damaging effects of eutrophication. However, reductions in total phosphorus (TP) inputs rarely correspond with ecological improvements of the river ecosystem. We analyzed a unique weekly long-term data set ranging from 1966 to 2013, covering seven monitoring sites in the Ruhr River in Germany. We identified the relative importance of different TP sources, quantified long-term trajectories of degradation and recovery, including the dynamics of TP retention, and assessed the response of chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) to increasing and decreasing TP concentrations along the whole river gradient. We found that the decline of TP loads at the beginning of the 1980s was dominantly triggered by a reduction of point sources. The cumulative TP retention capacity increased along the river gradient, increasing from effectively zero in the upstream section, to 26% and 36% of TP input in the upper midstream and lower downstream section. This pattern is consistent with higher prevalence of impoundments and weirs downstream, indicating that TP retention is likely associated with sedimentation posing a potential risk due to remobilization of legacy phosphorus. Degradation and recovery pathways differ from upstream to downstream. Along the river continuum we found three distinct types of reversible trajectories: 1. instream storage only during the recovery phase (upstream only); 2. instream storage in both degradation and recovery phases, but with significantly different characteristics depending on TP input load (midstream only); 3. higher instream storage during the recovery phase (downstream only). While in-stream TP loads may recover rapidly, the ecological response to altered nutrient inputs can be associated with considerable time-lags and decouplings between Chl-a and TP concentrations. Therefore, river systems may not return to historically good ecological status solely from massive nutrient reduction, but may also require other management activities., (Copyright © 2019. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Vegetated buffer strips (VBS) between agricultural areas and surface waters are important retention areas for eroded particulate P through which they may obtain critically high degrees of P saturation imposing high risk of soluble P leaching. We tested topsoil removal and three harvesting frequencies (once, twice, or four times per year) of natural buffer vegetation to reduce P leaching with the aim to offset erosional P accumulation and high degrees of P saturation. We used a simple numerical time-step model to estimate changes in VBS soil P levels with and without harvest. Harvesting offset erosional deposition as it resulted in an annual ammonium oxalate-extractable P reduction of 0.3 to 2.8% (25-cm topsoil content) in soils of the VBS and thus, with time, reduced potential P leaching below a baseline of 50 μg L. Topsoil removal only marginally reduced potential leaching at two sites and not anywhere near this baseline. The harvest frequency only marginally affected the annual P removal, making single annual harvests the most economical. We estimate 50 to 300 yr to reach the P leaching baseline, due to substantial amounts of P accumulated in the soils. Even in high-erosion-risk situations in our study, harvesting reduced soil P content and the P leaching risk. We suggest harvesting as a practical and efficient management to combat P leaching from agricultural VBS, not just for short-term reductions of dissolved P, but also for reductions of the total soil P pool and for possible multiple benefits for VBS., (Copyright © by the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America, Inc.)

Reactive nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) inputs to surface waters modify aquatic environments, affect public health and recreation. Source controls dominate eutrophication management, whilst biological regulation of nutrients is largely neglected, although aquatic microbial organisms have huge potential to process nutrients. The stoichiometric ratio of organic carbon (OC) to N to P atoms should modulate heterotrophic pathways of aquatic nutrient processing, as high OC availability favours aquatic microbial processing. Heterotrophic microbial processing removes N by denitrification and captures N and P as organically-complexed, less eutrophying forms. With a global data synthesis, we show that the atomic ratios of bioavailable dissolved OC to either N or P in rivers with urban and agricultural land use are often distant from a "microbial optimum". This OC-deficiency relative to high availabilities of N and P likely overwhelms within-river heterotrophic processing. We propose that the capability of streams and rivers to retain N and P may be improved by active stoichiometric rebalancing. Although autotrophic OC production contributes to heterotrophic rates substantial control on nutrient processing from allochthonous OC is documented for N and an emerging field for P. Hence, rebalancing should be done by reconnecting appropriate OC sources such as wetlands and riparian forests that have become disconnected from rivers concurrent with agriculture and urbanisation. However, key knowledge gaps require research prior to the safe implementation of this approach in management: (i) to evaluate system responses to catchment inputs of dissolved OC forms and amounts relative to internal production of autotrophic dissolved OC and aquatic and terrestrial particulate OC and (ii) evaluate risk factors in anoxia-mediated P desorption with elevated OC scenarios. Still, we find stoichiometric rebalancing through reconnecting landscape beneficial OC sources has considerable potential for river management to alleviate eutrophication, improve water quality and aquatic ecosystem health, if augmenting nutrient source control., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

A large part of the organic carbon in streams is transported by pulses of terrestrial dissolved organic carbon (tDOC) during hydrological events, which is more pronounced in agricultural catchments due to their hydrological flashiness. The majority of the literature considers stationary benthic biofilms and hyporheic biofilms to dominate uptake and processing of tDOC. Here, we argue for expanding this viewpoint to planktonic bacteria, which are transported downstream together with tDOC pulses, and thus perceive them as a less variable resource relative to stationary benthic bacteria. We show that pulse DOC can contribute significantly to the annual DOC export of streams and that planktonic bacteria take up considerable labile tDOC from such pulses in a short time frame, with the DOC uptake being as high as that of benthic biofilm bacteria. Furthermore, we show that planktonic bacteria efficiently take up labile tDOC which strongly increases planktonic bacterial production and abundance. We found that the response of planktonic bacteria to tDOC pulses was stronger in smaller streams than in larger streams, which may be related to bacterial metacommunity dynamics. Furthermore, the response of planktonic bacterial abundance was influenced by soluble reactive phosphorus concentration, pointing to phosphorus limitation. Our data suggest that planktonic bacteria can efficiently utilize tDOC pulses and likely determine tDOC fate during downstream transport, influencing aquatic food webs and related biochemical cycles., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Worldwide, lowland stream ecosystems are exposed to multiple anthropogenic stress due to the combination of water scarcity, eutrophication, and fine sedimentation. The understanding of the effects of such multiple stress on stream benthic macroinvertebrates has been growing in recent years. However, the interdependence of multiple stress and stream habitat characteristics has received little attention, although single stressor studies indicate that habitat characteristics may be decisive in shaping the macroinvertebrate response. We conducted an experiment in large outdoor flumes to assess the effects of low flow, fine sedimentation, and nutrient enrichment on the structure of the benthic macroinvertebrate community in riffle and run habitats of lowland streams. For most taxa, we found a negative effect of low flow on macroinvertebrate abundance in the riffle habitat, an effect which was mitigated by fine sedimentation for overall community composition and the dominant shredder species (Gammarus pulex) and by nutrient enrichment for the dominant grazer species (Baetis rhodani). In contrast, fine sediment in combination with low flow rapidly affected macroinvertebrate composition in the run habitat, with decreasing abundances of many species. We conclude that the effects of typical multiple stressor scenarios on lowland stream benthic macroinvertebrates are highly dependent on habitat conditions and that high habitat diversity needs to be given priority by stream managers to maximize the resilience of stream macroinvertebrate communities to multiple stress., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Aquacultures are of great economic importance worldwide but pollute pristine headwater streams, lakes, and estuaries. However, there are no in-depth studies of the consequences of aquacultures on dissolved organic matter (DOM) composition and structure. We performed a detailed molecular level characterization of aquaculture DOM quality and its bacterial degradation using four salmon aquacultures in Chile. Fluorescence measurements, ultrahigh-resolution mass spectrometry, and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy of the DOM revealed specific and extensive molecular alterations caused by aquacultures. Aquacultures released large quantities of readily bioavailable metabolites (primarily carbohydrates and peptides/proteins, and lipids), causing the organic matter downstream of all the investigated aquacultures to deviate strongly from the highly processed, polydisperse and molecularly heterogeneous DOM found in pristine rivers. However, the upstream individual catchment DOM signatures remained distinguishable at the downstream sites. The benthic algal biovolume decreased and the bacterial biovolume and production increased downstream of the aquacultures, shifting stream ecosystems to a more heterotrophic state and thus impairing the ecosystem health. The bacterial DOM degradation rates explain the attenuation of aquaculture DOM within the subsequent stream reaches. This knowledge may aid the development of improved waste processing facilities and may help to define emission thresholds to protect sensitive stream ecosystems.

We exposed 34 species of stream macroinvertebrates, representing 29 families, to a 90 min pulse of the pyrethroid λ-cyhalothrin. For 28 of these species, no pyrethroid ecotoxicity data exist. We recorded mortality rates 6 days post-exposure, and the behavioral response to pyrethroid exposure was recorded using automated video tracking. Most arthropod species showed mortality responses to the exposure concentrations (0.01-10 μg L(-1)), whereas nonarthropod species remained unaffected. LC50 varied by at least a factor of 1000 among arthropod species, even within the same family. This variation could not be predicted using ecotoxicity data from closely related species, nor using species-specific indicator values from traditional ecological quality indices. Moreover, LC50 was not significantly correlated to effect thresholds for behavioral responses. Importantly, however, the measured surface area-weight ratio and the preference for coarse substrates significantly influenced the LC50 for arthropod species, with the combination of small individuals and strong preference for coarse substrates indicating higher pyrethroid sensitivity. Our study highlights that existing pesticide ecotoxicity data should be extrapolated to untested species with caution and that actual body size (not maximum potential body size, as is usually available in traits databases) and habitat preference are central parameters determining species sensitivities to pyrethroids.

Many tropical biomes are threatened by rapid land-use change, but its catchment-wide biogeochemical effects are poorly understood. The few previous studies on DOM in tropical catchments suggest that deforestation and subsequent land use increase stream water dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations, but consistent effects on DOM elemental stoichiometry have not yet been reported. Here, we studied stream water DOC concentrations, catchment DOC exports, and DOM elemental stoichiometry in 20 tropical catchments at the Cerrado-Atlantic rainforest transition, dominated by natural vegetation, pasture, intensive agriculture, and urban land cover. Streams draining pasture could be distinguished from those draining natural catchments by their lower DOC concentrations, with lower DOM C:N and C:P ratios. Catchments with intensive agriculture had higher DOC exports and lower DOM C:P ratios than natural catchments. Finally, with the highest DOC concentrations and exports, as well as the highest DOM C:P and N:P ratios, but the lowest C:N ratios among all land-use types, urbanized catchments had the strongest effects on catchment DOM. Thus, urbanization may have alleviated N limitation of heterotrophic DOM decomposition, but increased P limitation. Land use-especially urbanization-also affected the seasonality of catchment biogeochemistry. While natural catchments exhibited high DOC exports and concentrations, with high DOM C:P ratios in the rainy season only, urbanized catchments had high values in these variables throughout the year. Our results suggest that urbanization and pastoral land use exerted the strongest impacts on DOM biogeochemistry in the investigated tropical catchments and should thus be important targets for management and mitigation efforts., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Chile is the second largest producer of salmonids worldwide. The first step in the production of salmonids takes place in land-based aquacultures. However, the effects of the discharge from these aquacultures on stream dissolved organic matter (DOM) content, molecular composition and degradability are unknown. The aim of this study was thus to investigate the inputs of anthropogenic DOM from land-based aquaculture to the predominantly pristine river systems of North Patagonia. We hypothesized, that i) DOM exported from land-based aquaculture mainly consists of protein-like fluorescence (tyrosine and tryptophan) released from fish feces and food remains, and that ii) this DOM is highly degradable and therefore rapidly turned-over within the receiving streams. In the North Patagonian region we conducted a screening of ten land-based aquacultures and an intensive sampling campaign for one aquaculture. This was combined with longitudinal transects and a degradation experiment in order to couple the composition of DOM exported from land-based aquacultures to its degradability in streams. We measured dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentration by high-temperature catalytic oxidation and DOM composition by fluorescence spectroscopy and parallel factor analysis. In the effluent of the ten screened aquacultures and in the repeated sampling of one aquaculture, we consistently found an increase of DOC concentrations and a dominance of protein-like fluorescence. The protein-like fluorescence rapidly disappeared downstream of the aquacultures, and in the degradation experiment. 21% of the DOC export from the repeatedly sampled aquaculture resulted from food addition and 76% from fish production. We conclude that large amounts of degradable DOM are exported from land-based aquacultures. This probably has strong effects on the ecological structure and function of North Patagonian streams, and similarly affected streams worldwide., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Agricultural land covers approximately 40% of Earth's land surface and affects hydromorphological, biogeochemical and ecological characteristics of fluvial networks. In the northern temperate region, agriculture also strongly affects the amount and molecular composition of dissolved organic matter (DOM), which constitutes the main vector of carbon transport from soils to fluvial networks and to the sea, and is involved in a large variety of biogeochemical processes. Here, we provide first evidence about the wider occurrence of agricultural impacts on the concentration and composition of fluvial DOM across climate zones of the northern and southern hemispheres. Both extensive and intensive farming altered fluvial DOM towards a more microbial and less plant-derived composition. Moreover, intensive farming significantly increased dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) concentrations. The DOM composition change and DON concentration increase differed among climate zones and could be related to the intensity of current and historical nitrogen fertilizer use. As a result of agriculture intensification, increased DON concentrations and a more microbial-like DOM composition likely will enhance the reactivity of catchment DOM emissions, thereby fuelling the biogeochemical processing in fluvial networks, and resulting in higher ecosystem productivity and CO2 outgassing.

A mixed methods study examined the relationship between childhood adversity (ACE) and coping among individuals grouped by perceived impact of ACE in adulthood. Groups did not differ on mean total ACE scores and total ACE score was not associated with any coping strategy. Differences between groups were found in 6 of 14 coping strategies. Planning and active coping were endorsed the most by both groups, despite their being used in significantly different amounts and in different ways. How individuals with ACE rate its impact in their current lives is a significant factor in the use and meaning of coping strategies.

Agricultural management practices promote organic matter (OM) turnover and thus alter both the processing of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in soils and presumably also the export of DOM to headwater streams, which intimately connect the terrestrial with the aquatic environment. Size-exclusion chromatography, in combination with absorbance and emission matrix fluorometry, was applied to assess how agricultural land use alters the amount and composition of DOM, as well as dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) forms in headwater streams, including temporal variations, in a temperate region of NE Germany. By comparing six agriculturally and six forest-impacted headwater streams, we demonstrated that agriculture promotes increased DOC and DON concentrations, entailing an even more pronounced effect on DON. The major part of DOC and DON in agricultural and forest reference streams is exported in the form of humic-like material with high molecular weight, which indicates terrestrial, i.e., allochthonous sources. As an obvious difference in agricultural streams, the contribution of DOC and particularly DON occurring in the form of nonhumic high-molecular-weight, presumably proteinous material is clearly elevated. Altogether, DOM in agricultural headwaters is mainly complex-soil-derived and aromatic material with a low C:N ratio, which is more microbial processed than its counterpart from forest reference catchments. Our results emphasize the importance of agricultural land use on DOM loss from soils and identify agricultural soils as important DOC and particularly DON sources to headwater streams.

Land-use change, such as agricultural expansion and urbanization, can affect riverine biological diversity and ecosystem functioning. Identifying the major stressors associated with catchment land-use change is a prerequisite for devising successful river conservation and restoration strategies. Here, we analyzed land-use effects on the fatty acid (FA) composition and concentrations in suspended particulate organic matter (SPOM) along a fourth-order tropical river, the Rio das Mortes. Thereby, we aimed at testing the potential of fatty acids in riverine suspended particulate organic matter (SPOM-FAs) as indicators of land-use change in tropical catchments, and at identifying major human impacts on the biochemical composition of SPOM, which represents an important basal energy and organic matter resource for aquatic consumers. River water SPOM and total FA concentrations ranged between 2.8 and 10.2mg dry weight(DW)L(-1) and between 130.6 and 268.2μg DW L(-1), respectively, in our study. Urbanization was the only land-use category correlating with both FA composition and concentrations, despite its low contribution to whole catchment (1.5-5.6%) and riparian buffer land cover (1.7-6.6%). Higher concentrations of saturated FAs, especially C16:0 and C18:0, which are the main components of domestic sewage, were observed at sampling stations downstream of urban centers, and were highly correlated to urbanization, especially within the 60m riparian buffer zone. Compared to water chemical characteristics (inorganic nutrients, dissolved oxygen, pH, and specific conductance) and river habitat structural integrity, FA variables exhibited a higher variability along the investigated river and were more strongly correlated to urban land use, suggesting that SPOM-FA profiles may be an efficient indicator of urban land-use impacts on larger tropical rivers. High total FA concentrations in the SPOM of urbanized tropical rivers may represent high-energy biochemical subsidies to food webs, potentially leading to changes in functional ecosystem characteristics, such as bacterial and suspension-feeder production., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Dissolved organic matter (DOM) is an important part of the global carbon cycle and significantly influences aquatic ecosystem functions. Recent studies suggest that its amount and composition in freshwaters may be altered by agricultural land use, whereby the influence of preceding in-stream production and processing is not clear. To assess the land use effect on DOM amount and composition for the export from terrestrial to freshwater systems at the land-water interface, we sampled headwater streams draining agricultural and near-pristine catchments (forested and wetland) in the North German plains. To account for spatial and seasonal variation, we conducted a screening of DOM amount (53 sites) and composition (42 sites), and conducted bi-weekly samplings to investigate seasonal variation at eight sites over one year. Concentrations of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) were significantly higher for agricultural and wetland catchments than for forested catchments. Moreover, DOC loads exhibited higher seasonal variation for agricultural and wetland catchments than for forested catchments, which was due to higher variation in discharge. Parallel Factor Analysis revealed that the composition of DOM in agricultural catchments was significantly different from the other studied catchment types, and was characterized by low redox state and high structural complexity. Moreover, a gradient from protein- to humic-like fluorescence significantly separated forested from agricultural and wetland catchments. The contribution of humic-like DOM was strongly and positively related to DOC concentration, suggesting a mechanistic coupling of both. The effects of land use on patterns of DOC concentration and DOM composition were consistent across seasons, implying that land use strongly regulates DOM export. Overall, this study clearly shows the seasonally independent importance of agricultural land use for the amount and composition of DOM fluxes from the terrestrial zone to surface waters. These altered fluxes may affect ecosystem metabolism and health of agricultural headwaters and downstream situated aquatic ecosystems., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Exposure to adverse events in childhood is a predictor of subsequent exposure to adverse events in adulthood, and both are predictors of depression in adults. The degree to which adult depression has a direct effect of childhood adversity versus an indirect effect mediated by adult adversity has not previously been reported. We report data collected from 210 adult participants regarding childhood and adult adversity and current symptoms of depression. Mediation of the relationship between childhood adversity and adult depression by adult adversity was statistically assessed to evaluate the relative direct and indirect effects of childhood adversity on current depression levels in adults. Both the direct effect of childhood adversity on adult depression and the indirect effect, mediated by adulthood events, were significant. Therefore, partial mediation of the relationship between childhood adversity and adult symptoms of depression by adult adverse events was found in the sample. Implications for treatment are presented.

Context: Although olanzapine has been widely adopted as a treatment of choice for schizophrenia, its long-term effectiveness and costs have not been evaluated in a controlled trial in comparison with a standard antipsychotic drug., Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness and cost impact of olanzapine compared with haloperidol in the treatment of schizophrenia., Design and Setting: Double-blind, randomized controlled trial with randomization conducted between June 1998 and June 2000 at 17 US Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers., Participants: Three hundred nine patients with a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition diagnosis of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder, serious symptoms, and serious dysfunction for the previous 2 years. Fifty-nine percent fully completed and 36% partially completed follow-up assessments., Interventions: Patients were randomly assigned to receive flexibly dosed olanzapine, 5 to 20 mg/d, with prophylactic benztropine, 1 to 4 mg/d (n = 159); or haloperidol, 5 to 20 mg/d (n = 150), for 12 months., Main Outcome Measures: Standardized measures of symptoms, quality of life, neurocognitive status, and adverse effects of medication. Veterans Affairs administrative data and interviews concerning non-VA service use were used to estimate costs from the perspective of the VA health care system and society as a whole (ie, consumption of all resources on behalf of these patients)., Results: There were no significant differences between groups in study retention; positive, negative, or total symptoms of schizophrenia; quality of life; or extrapyramidal symptoms. Olanzapine was associated with reduced akathisia in the intention-to-treat analysis (P<.001) and with lower symptoms of tardive dyskinesia in a secondary analysis including only observations during blinded treatment with study drug. Small but significant advantages were also observed on measures of memory and motor function. Olanzapine was also associated with more frequent reports of weight gain and significantly greater VA costs, ranging from 3000 dollars to 9000 dollars annually. Differences in societal costs were somewhat smaller and were not significant., Conclusion: Olanzapine does not demonstrate advantages compared with haloperidol (in combination with prophylactic benztropine) in compliance, symptoms, extrapyramidal symptoms, or overall quality of life, and its benefits in reducing akathisia and improving cognition must be balanced with the problems of weight gain and higher cost.

Magnetoencephalography (MEG) offers an attractive alternative to electroencephalography (EEG) in the assessment of psychiatric patients. In this study, a whole-head biomagnetometer equipped with 122 super-cooled sensors was used to assess spontaneous neuromagnetic activity in 11 unmedicated schizophrenic patients and 8 schizophrenic patients medicated for more than 8 weeks with novel antipsychotics (5 of whom were initially studied as part of the unmedicated group). Ten normal (nonpsychiatric) controls were also examined. For each subject, 5 minutes of data were collected in an eyes-closed state. Data were visually inspected for gross MEG abnormalities, and average power spectra were calculated for the data at each sensor. No gross abnormalities were identified for control subjects. One unmedicated schizophrenic patient showed epileptiform sharp waves, and 4 showed abnormal slow waves. No gross MEG abnormalities were found for the medicated schizophrenic group (which included 3 patients who had previously shown slow waves in the unmedicated state). Spectral analyses showed that the schizophrenia patients demonstrated lower alpha power and peak frequency than controls. The data are interpreted within the context of previously reported magnetic resonance abnormalities of the thalamus.