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Forests regulate climate, as carbon, water and nutrient fluxes are modified by physiological processes of vegetation and soil. Forests also provide renewable raw material, food, and recreational possibilities. Rapid climate warming projected for the boreal zone may change the provision of these ecosystem services. We demonstrate model based estimates of present and future ecosystem services related to carbon cycling of boreal forests. The services were derived from biophysical variables calculated by two dynamic models. Future changes in the biophysical variables were driven by climate change scenarios obtained as results of a sample of global climate models downscaled for Finland, assuming three future pathways of radiative forcing. We introduce continuous monitoring on phenology to be used in model parametrization through a webcam network with automated image processing features. In our analysis, climate change impacts on key boreal forest ecosystem services are both beneficial and detrimental. Our results indicate an increase in annual forest growth of about 60% and an increase in annual carbon sink of roughly 40% from the reference period (1981–2010) to the end of the century. The vegetation active period was projected to start about 3 weeks earlier and end ten days later by the end of the century compared to currently. We found a risk for increasing drought, and a decrease in the number of soil frost days. Our results show a considerable uncertainty in future provision of boreal forest ecosystem services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current climate warming is expected to continue in coming decades, whereas high N deposition may stabilize, in contrast to the clear decrease in S deposition. These pressures have distinctive regional patterns and their resulting impact on soil conditions is modified by local site characteristics. We have applied the VSD+ soil dynamic model to study impacts of deposition and climate change on soil properties, using MetHyd and GrowUp as pre-processors to provide input to VSD+. The single-layer soil model VSD+ accounts for processes of organic C and N turnover, as well as charge and mass balances of elements, cation exchange and base cation weathering. We calibrated VSD+ at 26 ecosystem study sites throughout Europe using observed conditions, and simulated key soil properties: soil solution pH (pH), soil base saturation (BS) and soil organic carbon and nitrogen ratio (C:N) under projected deposition of N and S, and climate warming until 2100. The sites are forested, located in the Mediterranean, forested alpine, Atlantic, continental and boreal regions. They represent the long-term ecological research (LTER) Europe network, including sites of the ICP Forests and ICP Integrated Monitoring (IM) programmes under the UNECE Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (LRTAP), providing high quality long-term data on ecosystem response. Simulated future soil conditions improved under projected decrease in deposition and current climate conditions: higher pH, BS and C:N at 21, 16 and 12 of the sites, respectively. When climate change was included in the scenario analysis, the variability of the results increased. Climate warming resulted in higher simulated pH in most cases, and higher BS and C:N in roughly half of the cases. Especially the increase in C:N was more marked with climate warming. The study illustrates the value of LTER sites for applying models to predict soil responses to multiple environmental changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Uncertainty in future climate projections is widely recognised, yet few impact model studies explore the implications of this uncertainty on catchment hydrological and biogeochem-ical responses. Here, we report a novel model chain using HBV, INCA-C and MyLake to simulate runoff, snow dynamics, ice cover, soil moisture, lake thermal stratification and in-lake DOC concentrations in Valkea-Kotinen, a headwater lake in a forest-covered boreal catchment. Impact response surfaces (IRSs) were constructed with 63 combinations of changes in temperature (-2 °C to +14 °C) and precipitation (-10% to +50%). Superimposing probabilistic projections of climate change onto the IRSs, we illustrate the uncertainty in impacts under projected climate change. Projected climate warming is likely to result in drier soils, shorter snow and ice periods, as well as earlier onset and longer duration of lake stratification. In contrast to earlier results, in-lake DOC concentrations are projected to decrease slightly (-6%), primarily due to decreased terrestrial runoff. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chronic nitrogen (N) deposition is a threat to biodiversity that results from the eutrophication of ecosystems. We studied long-term monitoring data from 28 forest sites with a total of 1,335 permanent forest floor vegetation plots from northern Fennoscandia to southern Italy to analyse temporal trends in vascular plant species cover and diversity. We found that the cover of plant species which prefer nutrient-poor soils (oligotrophic species) decreased the more the measured N deposition exceeded the empirical critical load ( CL) for eutrophication effects ( P = 0.002). Although species preferring nutrient-rich sites (eutrophic species) did not experience a significantly increase in cover ( P = 0.440), in comparison to oligotrophic species they had a marginally higher proportion among new occurring species ( P = 0.091). The observed gradual replacement of oligotrophic species by eutrophic species as a response to N deposition seems to be a general pattern, as it was consistent on the European scale. Contrary to species cover changes, neither the decrease in species richness nor of homogeneity correlated with nitrogen CL exceedance (ExCLempN). We assume that the lack of diversity changes resulted from the restricted time period of our observations. Although existing habitat-specific empirical CL still hold some uncertainty, we exemplify that they are useful indicators for the sensitivity of forest floor vegetation to N deposition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Pregnant women were suspected to be at particular risk when H1N1pnd09 influenza became pandemic in 2009. Our primary objective was to compare the immune responses conferred by MF59®-adjuvanted vaccine (Focetria®) in H1N1pnd09-naïve pregnant and non-pregnant women. The secondary aims were to compare influences of dose and adjuvant on the immune response. Methods: The study was nested in the Copenhagen Prospective Studies on Asthma in Childhood (COPSAC2010) pregnancy cohort in 2009-2010 and conducted as a single-blinded block-randomised [1∶1∶1] controlled clinical trial in pregnant women after gestational week 20: (1) 7.5 µg H1N1pnd09 antigen with MF59-adjuvant (Pa7.5 µg); (2) 3.75 µg antigen half MF59-adjuvanted (Pa3.75 µg); (3) 15 µg antigen unadjuvanted (P15 µg); and in non-pregnant women receiving (4) 7.5 µg antigen full adjuvanted (NPa7.5 µg). Blood samples were collected at baseline, 3 weeks, 3 and 10 months after vaccination, adverse events were recorded prospectively. Results: 58 pregnant women were allocated to Pa7.5 µg and 149 non-pregnant women were recruited to NPa7.5 µg. The sero-conversion rate was significantly increased in non-pregnant (NPa7.5 µg) compared with pregnant (Pa7.5 µg) women (OR = 2.48 [1.03–5.95], p = 0.04) and geometric mean titers trended towards being higher, but this difference was not statistically significant (ratio 1.27 [0.85–1.93], p = 0.23). The significant titer increase rate showed no difference between pregnant (Pa7.5 µg) and non-pregnant (NPa7.5 µg) groups (OR = 0.49 [0.13–1.85], p = 0.29). Conclusion: Our study suggests the immune response to the 7.5 µg MF59-adjuvanted Focetria® H1N1pnd09 vaccine in pregnant women may be diminished compared with non-pregnant women. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01012557. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We designed artificial neural networks to model daily total organic carbon (TOC), total nitrogen (Ntot) and total phosphorus (Ptot) concentrations in streamwater and used the simulated concentrations to predict future fluxes under scenarios of climate change. The streams drain two forested catchments located in southern and eastern Finland. In the period 1990–2000, observed TOC, Ntot and Ptot concentrations were in the range 2–60mgCL−1, 0.1–1.4mgNL−1 and 1–60μgPL−1 with mean discharge per unit area in the range of 10–15Ls−1 km−2 for the three streams. Artificial neural networks consisting of 13 input variables, 1 hidden layer with 7 nodes and 1 output variable each were trained with the backpropagation algorithm to estimate the concentration of TOC, Ntot and Ptot in streamwater. Daily air temperature, precipitation and runoff observations were included in the input variables as well as catchment characteristics such as catchment area and the area of lakes and peatland within the catchment. The networks performed well in comparison with the alternative method, i.e. flow-weighted average concentrations. Artificial neural networks are a useful method for creating black-box models of streamwater quality in cases where the involved processes are too complex to simulate directly. Projected changes in monthly temperature and precipitation under a changing climate were used to generate daily temperature and precipitation series for the 2050s. Daily runoff values for this hypothetical year were produced with an operational runoff model. Carbon and nitrogen loads were calculated for the 2050s using the neural network models of TOC, Ntot and Ptot concentrations. The low change scenario resulted in annual fluxes close to present fluxes, while the high change scenario gave an increase of approximately 26% of annual TOC, Ntot and Ptot fluxes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The purpose of this inquiry was to increase the understanding of the significance of hope and hopelessness for patients' vitality. Fifty women suffering from breast cancer have contributed their stories. The stories were submitted to an analysis of content and were interpreted within the framework of Eriksson's theory. The findings show that hope and hopelessness succeed each other in a borderland situation of threatening death. The threat of death opens up the possibility of receiving hope. Communion with others and meaning in life are the sources of hope that provide strength to live and to endure hopelessness. Hope and hopelessness presuppose each other and stimulate vitality, the core substance of health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change may alter the services ecosystems provide by changing ecosystem functioning. As ecosystems can also resist environmental perturbations, it is crucial to consider the different processes that influence resilience. Our case study considered increased NO3− concentration in drinking water due to the climate change. We analyzed changes in ecosystem services connected to water purification at a catchment scale in southern Finland. We combined climate change scenarios with process-based forest growth (PREBAS) and eco-hydrological (PERSiST and INCA) models. We improved traditional model calibration by timing of forest phenology and snow-covered period from network of cameras and satellite data. We upscaled the combined modelling results with scenarios of population growth to form vulnerability maps. The boreal ecosystems seemed to be strongly buffered against NO3- leaching by increase in evapotranspiration and vegetation NO3- uptake. Societal vulnerability varied greatly between scenarios and municipalities. The most vulnerable were agricultural areas on permeable soil types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Water Framework Directive requires the ecological status of European water bodies to be good in light of advanced biological indicators. Multiple stressors impact ecological status in water bodies, so the diagnosis of the causes of deterioration becomes increasingly important. Currently, practical management focus on the control of single stressors which are assumed to be dominant. Modelling methods have widely been used to predict effects of altered land use and climate change on water quality. However, process based models typically predict abiotic responses and neglect biological effects of modelled changes in abiotic conditions. These, however, are important for river basin management. We applied a Bayesian network (BN) modelling approach to link future scenarios of climate change, land use change and modification of water bodies to ecological status. The objective was (i) to assess the combined effect of changes in land use and climate on the ecological status of a river and (ii) to assess the suitability of the BN modelling approach for this purpose. The BN was able to model effects of climate change and management on ecological status of a river, by combining scenarios, process-based model output and ecological, hydrological and water quality data. The results showed that the benefits of better land-use management were partly counteracted by future warming under these scenarios. Thus, the BN approach is potentially useful for water body diagnosis in river basins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract In Finland, a recent ecological classification of surface waters showed that the rivers and coastal waters need attention to improve their ecological state. We combined eco-hydrological and empirical models to study chlorophyll- a concentration as an indicator of eutrophication in a small agricultural river. We used a modified story-and-simulation method to build three storylines for possible changes in future land use due to climate change and political change. The main objective in the first storyline is to stimulate economic activity but also to promote the sustainable and efficient use of resources. The second storyline is based on the high awareness but poor regulation of environmental protection, and the third is to survive as individual countries instead of being part of a unified Europe. We assumed trade of agricultural products to increase to countries outside Europe. We found that chlorophyll- a concentration in the river depended on total phosphorus concentration. In addition, there was a positive synergistic interaction between total phosphorus and water temperature. In future storylines, chlorophyll- a concentration increased due to land use and climate change. Climate change mainly had an indirect influence via increasing nutrient losses from intensified agriculture. We found that well-designed agri-environmental measures had the potential to decrease nutrient loading from fields, as long as the predicted increase in temperature remained under 2 °C. However, we were not able to achieve the nutrient reduction stated in current water protection targets. In addition, the ecological status of the river deteriorated. The influence of temperature on chlorophyll- a growth indicates that novel measures for shading rivers to decrease water temperature may be needed in the future. Graphical abstract Unlabelled Image Highlights • Chl- a depended on TP with synergistic interaction with water temperature. • Climate change influences mainly indirectly via intensifying agriculture. • Riparian re-forestration for shading the river to decrease water temperature is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report mutational analysis of the last 42 exons of the nebulin gene (NEB) in 77 patients with various forms of nemaline myopathy. In addition to the previously described six mutations in five families, we identified 12 novel recessive mutations in 13 families. Affected individuals were homozygous for the mutations in five families and compound heterozygous in two, while in the remaining cases only one heterozygous mutation was identified. The majority of the mutations were frameshifts due to small deletions or insertions; also common were point mutations causing premature stop codons or abnormal splicing, while missense mutations appeared rare. There were no obvious mutational hotspots, although four unrelated patients showed mutations in the differentially expressed exon 177d, and another three showed mutations in exon 184. Most of the mutations are predicted to result in truncated or internally deleted proteins. Mutations in the differentially expressed exons are expected to reduce the nebulin isoform diversity necessary for normal muscle development. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Anthropogenic emissions of nitrogen (N) and sulphur (S) compounds and their long-range transport have caused widespread negative impacts on different ecosystems. Critical loads (CLs) are deposition thresholds used to describe the sensitivity of ecosystems to atmospheric deposition. The CL methodology has been a key science-based tool for assessing the environmental consequences of air pollution. We computed CLs for eutrophication and acidification using a European long-term dataset of intensively studied forested ecosystem sites (n = 17) in northern and central Europe. The sites belong to the ICP IM and eLTER networks. The link between the site-specific calculations and time-series of CL exceedances and measured site data was evaluated using long-term measurements (1990–2017) for bulk deposition, throughfall and runoff water chemistry. Novel techniques for presenting exceedances of CLs and their temporal development were also developed. Concentrations and fluxes of sulphate, total inorganic nitrogen (TIN) and acidity in deposition substantially decreased at the sites. Decreases in S deposition resulted in statistically significant decreased concentrations and fluxes of sulphate in runoff and decreasing trends of TIN in runoff were more common than increasing trends. The temporal developments of the exceedance of the CLs indicated the more effective reductions of S deposition compared to N at the sites. There was a relation between calculated exceedance of the CLs and measured runoff water concentrations and fluxes, and most sites with higher CL exceedances showed larger decreases in both TIN and H+ concentrations and fluxes. Sites with higher cumulative exceedance of eutrophication CLs (averaged over 3 and 30 years) generally showed higher TIN concentrations in runoff. The results provided evidence on the link between CL exceedances and empirical impacts, increasing confidence in the methodology used for the European-scale CL calculations. The results also confirm that emission abatement actions are having their intended effects on CL exceedances and ecosystem impacts. Unlabelled Image • Novel techniques for presenting exceedances of critical loads (CL) and their temporal development were developed. • Concentrations and fluxes of N and S compounds in deposition and runoff have decreased as a response to decreasing emissions. • Most sites with higher CL exceedances showed larger decreases in both inorganic N and H+ concentrations and fluxes in runoff. • Effects of the cumulative exceedance of the eutrophication CL were evaluated. • The results provide evidence on the link between CL exceedances and empirical impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecosystem services have become an important concept in policy-making. Carbon (C) sequestration into ecosystems is a significant ecosystem service, whereas C losses can be considered as an ecosystem disservice. Municipalities are in a position to make decisions that affect local emissions and therefore are important when considering greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation. Integrated estimations of fluxes at a regional level help local authorities to develop land use policies for minimising GHG emissions and maximising C sinks. In this study, the Finnish national GHG accounting system is modified and applied at the municipal level by combining emissions and sinks from agricultural land, forest areas, water bodies and mires (land use-related GHG emissions) with emissions from activities such as energy production and traffic (anthropogenic GHG emissions) into the LUONNIKAS calculation tool. The study area consists of 14 municipalities within the Vanajavesi catchment area located in Southern Finland. In these municipalities, croplands, peat extraction sites, water bodies and undrained mires are emission sources, whereas forests are large carbon sinks that turn the land use-related GHG budget negative, resulting in C sequestration into the ecosystem. The annual land use-related sink in the study area was 78 t CO 2 eq km − 2 and 2.8 t CO 2 eq per capita. Annual anthropogenic GHG emissions from the area amounted to 250 t CO 2 eq km − 2 and 9.2 t CO 2 eq per capita. Since forests are a significant carbon sink and the efficiency of this sink is heavily affected by forest management practices, forest management policy is a key contributing factor for mitigating municipal GHG emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing the use of forest biomass for energy production is an important mitigation strategy against climate change. Sustainable use of natural resources requires that these policies are evaluated, planned and implemented, taking into account the boundary conditions of the ecological systems affected. This paper describes the development and application of a quantitative modelling framework for evaluating integrated impacts of forest biomass removal scenarios on four key environmental sustainability/ecosystem service indicators: (i) carbon sequestration and balance, (ii) soil nutrient balances (base cations and nitrogen), (iii) nutrient leaching to surface waters (nitrogen and phosphorus), and (iv) dead wood biomass (used as proxy indicator for impacts on species diversity). The system is based on the use of spatial data sets, mass balance calculations, loading coefficients and dynamic modelling. The approach is demonstrated using data from an intensively studied region (Hämeenlinna municipality) encompassing the Lammi LTER (Long-Term Ecosystem Research) site in southern Finland. Forest biomass removal scenarios were derived from a management-oriented large-scale forestry model (MELA) based on sample plot and stand-level data from national forest inventories. These scenarios have been developed to guide future Finnish forest management with respect to bioenergy use. Using harvest residues for district heat production reduced fossil carbon emissions but also the carbon sink of forests in the case study area. Calculations of the net removal of base cations of the different scenarios ranged between −36 to −43 meq m −2 a −1 , indicating that the supply of base cations (soil weathering + deposition) would be enough to sustain also energy-wood harvesting. Greatly increased nutrient removal values and increasing nitrogen limitation problems were however predicted. Clear-cuttings and site preparation were predicted to increase the load of total nitrogen (4.0%) and total phosphorus (4.5%) to surface waters, compared with background leaching. The amount of dead wood has been identified as a key factor for forest species diversity in Finland. A scenario maximising harvest residues used for bioenergy production, would decrease stem dead wood biomass by about 40%, compared with a business-as-usual scenario. Clear trade-off situations could be observed in the case study area between maximising the use of energy-wood and minimising impacts on species diversity, soil carbon and nutrient stores, and nutrient leaching. The developed model system allows seeking for optimised solutions with respect to different management options and sustainability considerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Competitive protein adsorption from human serum onto unmodified polyethylene terephthalate (PET) surfaces and plasma-polymerized PET surfaces, using the monomer diethylene glycol vinyl ether (DEGVE), has been investigated using radioactive labeling. Albumin and immunoglobulin G (IgG) labeled with two different iodine isotopes have been added to human serum solutions of different concentrations, and adsorption has been performed using adsorption times from approximately 5 s to 24 h. DEGVE surfaces showed indications of being nonfouling regarding albumin and IgG adsorption during competitive protein adsorption from diluted human serum solutions with relatively low protein concentrations, but the nonfouling character was weakened when less diluted human serum solutions with higher protein concentrations were used. The observed adsorption trend is independent of adsorption time, indicating that the protein concentration has a stronger influence on observed adsorption characteristics of the material than the adsorption time has.

In this study, competitive adsorption of albumin and IgG (immunoglobulin G) from human serum solutions and protein mixtures onto polymer surfaces is studied by means of radioactive labeling. By using two different radiolabels (125I and 131I), albumin and IgG adsorption to polymer surfaces is monitored simultaneously and the influence from the presence of other human serum proteins on albumin and IgG adsorption, as well as their mutual influence during adsorption processes, is investigated. Exploring protein adsorption by combining analysis of competitive adsorption from complex solutions of high concentration with investigation of single protein adsorption and interdependent adsorption between two specific proteins enables us to map protein adsorption sequences during competitive protein adsorption. Our study shows that proteins can adsorb in a multilayer fashion onto the polymer surfaces and that the outcome of IgG adsorption is much more sensitive to surface characteristics than the outcome of albumin adsorption. Using high concentrations of protein solution and hydrophobic polymer surfaces during adsorption can induce IgG aggregation, which is observed as extremely high IgG adsorptions. Besides using a more hydrophilic substrate, surface-induced IgG aggregation can be inhibited by changing the adsorption sequence of albumin and IgG.

A major difficulty in evaluating the optimization theory of leaf gas exchange under conditions of water deficit has been that of obtaining suitable experimental data. Mathematical solutions to three formulations of optimal stomatal control are presented which can be tested experimentally. First, it is assumed that the movement of stomata and changes in environmental factors are slow compared to changes in the internal CO(2) concentration. The optimization problem is solved under this assumption, and the procedures for testing the solution experimentally are described. Second, instantaneous stomatal response is postulated and the solution suggests that very rapid oscillations provide optimal CO(2) uptake. Third, variable stomatal dynamics are postulated and the mathematical solution shown to be similar to that of the second case. The second and third cases can also be tested empirically.