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Received 12th May 2021. Accepted 17th May 2021. Published online 28th May 2021. Issue published 1st August 2021.

Background Children and young people (CYP) are increasingly attending acute paediatric services due to mental health difficulties. 50% of all mental health problems are established by 14 years of age and 75% by 24 years. Underinvestment in mental health has been a longstanding concern, amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic through extra stress caused by prolonged school closures, social isolation and a lack of access to usual support services. In 2020, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health highlighted that suicide is now the leading cause of death in England and Wales for children aged 5-19 years, emphasising the need to prioritise and improve mental health. Paediatricians must develop the knowledge and skills to identify, support and make appropriate referrals for common mental health problems. HEEADSSS is a well-known psychosocial screening tool with eight domains, used to identify potential or actual harm. Objectives Establish whether CYP within the West Midlands, UK are receiving adequate psychosocial assessments on hospital admission and whether healthcare professionals are signposting to relevant services. The primary outcome was the percentage of CYP with documented evidence of being offered a HEEADSSS assessment. Methods A regional prospective audit across nine hospitals was performed for three days per week from 4st -31st January 2021. A standardised proforma was used to gather information from medical records of all CYP aged >12 years admitted to paediatric wards. Pooled data were analysed using Microsoft Excel. Results 231 patients were included. The median age was 14 years old (range 12-17 years). 163(71%) were female. 202 (87%) had no known communication difficulties. 53(23%) were known to CAMHS and 43(19%) to social care. 78/231 (34%) were admitted with mental health as the presenting complaint. 35/231(15%) were documented to be given the opportunity to be spoken to alone;29(82%) accepted. No department had a psychosocial screening tool embedded in the admission document. 158/231(69%) had less than half of the eight domains completed. The median was 1.5 (range 0-8). Home and education/ employment were most frequently asked (37-42%). Eating/exercise, drugs, safety, sexual activity and other activities were the least frequently asked (14-27%). The proportion of those with a concern identified when asked ranged from 18%-39%. However, in self-harm, depression and suicide, only 85/231 (37%) were asked, with concern identified in 87%. 78 patients were admitted for mental health;28(39%) had less than half the domains completed (median 5, range 0-8). Drug use 46/78(59%), safety and sexual activity (both 38/78 (49%)) were inconsistently documented in this group, with concerns identified in 20-26% of those asked. 90/231(39%) were referred to CAMHS, social care, counselling, online or other support services. 16/77(21%) patients with a concern documented in at least one domain were not referred onwards. Conclusions This study demonstrates poor implementation of the HEEADSSS tool on admission, across a wide geographical area. Increased utilisation of a psychosocial screening tool would provide more opportunities to CYP to discuss their psychosocial health and receive appropriate support, in line with national guidance standards. Further work is underway addressing barriers to using HEEADSSS, considering electronic or embedded tools and signposting to relevant services.

A number of scientists have named our age the Anthropocene because humanity is globally affecting Earth systems, including the soil. Global soil change raises important questions about the future of soil, the environment, and human society. Although many soil scientists strive to understand human forcings as integral to soil genesis, there remains an explicit need for a science of anthropedology to detail how humanity is a fully fledged soil-forming factor and to understand how soil change affects human well being. The development and maturation of anthropedology is critical to achieving land-use sustainability and needs to be nurtured by all soil disciplines, with inputs from allied sciences and the humanities,. The Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) has recently approved a cross-divisional Working Group on Soil Change, which aims to advance the basic and applied science of anthropedology, to facilitate networks of scientists, long-term soil field studies, and regional databases and modeling, and to engage in new modes of communications about human–soil relations. We challenge all interested parties, especially young scientists and students, to contribute to these activities and help grow soil science in the Anthropocene.

The efficacy of higher plants at mining Si from primary and secondary minerals in terrestrial ecosystems is now recognized as an important weathering mechanism. Grassland ecosystems are a particularly large reservoir of biogenic silica and are thus likely to be a key regulator of Si mobilization. Herein, we examine the effects of parent material (basaltic and granitic rocks) on the range and variability of biogenic silica pools in grass-dominated ecosystems along two precipitation gradients of Kruger National Park, South Africa. Four soil pedons and adjacent dominant plant species were characterized for biogenic silica content. Our results indicate that although soils derived from basalt had less total Si and dissolved Si than soils derived from granite, a greater proportion of the total Si was made up of biogenically derived silica. In general, plants and soils overlying basaltic versus granitic parent material stored greater quantities of biogenic silica and had longer turnover times of the biogenic silica pool in soils. Additionally, the relative abundance of biogenic silica was greater at the drier sites along the precipitation gradient regardless of parent material. These results suggest that the biogeochemical cycling of Si is strongly influenced by parent material and the hydrologic controls parent material imparts on soils. While soils derived from both basalt and granite are strongly regulated by biologic uptake, the former is a “tighter” system with less loss of Si than the latter which, although more dependent on biogenic silica dissolution, has greater losses of total Si. Lithologic discontinuities span beyond grasslands and are predicted to also influence biogenic silica cycling in other ecosystems.

We investigated the fate of soil nutrients after centuries of indigenous dryland agriculture in Hawai‘i using a coupled geochemical and archaeological approach. Beginning ≈500 years ago, farmers began growing dryland taro and sweet potato on the leeward slopes of East Maui. Their digging sticks pierced a subsurface layer of cinders, enhancing crop access to the soil water stored below the intact cinders. Cultivation also catalyzed nutrient losses, directly by facilitating leaching of mobile nutrients after disturbing a stratigraphic barrier to vertical water movement, and indirectly by increasing mineral weathering and subsequent uptake and harvest. As a result, centuries of cultivation lowered volumetric total calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, and phosphorus content by 49%, 28%, 75%, 37%, and 32%, respectively. In the absence of written records, we used the difference in soil phosphorus to estimate that prehistoric yields were sufficient to meet local demand over very long time frames, but the associated acceleration of nutrient losses could have compromised subsequent yields.

Polynesians settled and farmed the leeward, relatively arid slopes of Haleakala Volcano beginning about ad 1400. Archaeological investigations at two sites revealed dense concentrations of conical impressions in a subsurface 20cm cinder layer that was previously undisturbed, interpreted as resulting from cultivation practices involving digging sticks. Ethnographic accounts of Hawaiian sweet potato and dryland taro cultivation techniques provide details on the use of such digging sticks. By puncturing this cinder layer, farmers created a loamy mixture of ash and cinder suited to root crop development. Archaeobotanical analyses suggest an intensive, short-fallow regime: macroscopic wood charcoal was absent (therefore no fallow sufficient for secondary re-growth of dryland forest) and evidence of disturbance-tolerant, weedy species is abundant. Geochemical analyses relying on stratigraphic relationships show that cultivation depleted nutrient levels in the digging-stick impressions, through harvest and leach...

Before European contact, Hawai`i supported large human populations in complex societies that were based on multiple pathways of intensive agriculture. We show that soils within a long-abandoned 60-square-kilometer dryland agricultural complex are substantially richer in bases and phosphorus than are those just outside it, and that this enrichment predated the establishment of intensive agriculture. Climate and soil fertility combined to constrain large dryland agricultural systems and the societies they supported to well-defined portions of just the younger islands within the Hawaiian archipelago; societies on the older islands were based on irrigated wetland agriculture. Similar processes may have influenced the dynamics of agricultural intensification across the tropics.

Unless sustainable development becomes much more prevalent in tropical forests, appreciable areas of unprotected tropical forests will not survive far into the twenty-first century. Sustainable tropical forestry must integrate forest conservation and economic development. Key ecological factors discussed here include: reproduction, natural regeneration, growth, ecosystem functions, and biodiversity conservation. Four models of sustainable tropical forestry are described: 1) Industrial timber production based on the PORTICO company in Costa Rica that owns and manages its production forests and makes a substantive investment in research. 2) Community-based timber production using the Yanesha Forestry Cooperative in the Peruvian Amazon as an example of local empowerment over the protection and use of forests. This Coop has a local processing facility that enables most of the timber to be marketed, and it uses an innovative strip-cut management system that promotes excellent natural regeneration of native tree species. 3) Community-based production of nontimber forest products depends on local rights of access or tenure to tropical forests. However, more information is needed on harvestable levels and management techniques as local preferences move from subsistence uses to commercial production. 4) Locally controlled nature tourism is touted as the most benign use of tropical forests, but local communities receive minimal economic returns and have little say in prioritizing development objectives.

An index of canopy closure was used to estimate closure above the crowns of all trees ≥ 10 cm dbh in 11.11 ha of undisturbed lowland tropical forest at La Selva, Costa Rica. To correct for the efFects of tree size on canopy closure, we used the residual of the regression of the canopy closure index on tree size. Analyses were carried out for the 104 species which had ≥ individuals; a total of 3224 trees were included. Nine species were found to have their crowns in significantly more open conditions than expected by chance and five species were found to have their crowns in significantly more closed conditions than expected by chance (P < 0.05). The remaining 90 species (86.5% of the assemblage) were distributed at random with respect to canopy closure, occupying the available light conditions indiscriminately. Species occurring under higher light levels did not show a narrower range of tolerance than did other species. Most species were found to occur over a substantial proportion of the canopy closure continuum present in the stand; overlap among the great majority of species in the assemblage is extensive. The results support the view that tropical forests comprise assemblages of generalist tree species, and raise questions about the classic notions of gap-phase dynamics.

Global vegetation models predict the spread of woody vegetation in African savannas and grasslands under future climate scenarios, but they operate too broadly to consider hillslope-scale variations in tree-grass distribution. Topographically linked hydrology-soil-vegetation sequences, or catenas, underpin a variety of ecological processes in savannas, including responses to climate change. In this study, we explore the three-dimensional structure of hillslopes and vegetation, using high-resolution airborne LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging), to understand the long-term effects of mean annual precipitation (MAP) on catena pattern. Our results reveal that the presence and position of hillslope hydrological boundaries, or seeplines, vary as a function of MAP through its long-term influence on clay redistribution. We suggest that changes in climate will differentially alter the structure of savannas through hydrological changes to the seasonally saturated grasslands downslope of seeplines. The mechanisms underlying future woody encroachment are not simply physiological responses to elevated temperatures and CO(2) levels but also involve hydrogeomorphological processes at the hillslope scale.

What controls the chemical weathering of soils in actively eroding landscapes? In this study, we explore the tectonic signature on soil weathering in the San Gabriel Mountains (SGM) of California, where propagating waves of incision triggered by increasing rock uplift have resulted in distinctly different hillslope morphologies and erosion rates across the range. We quantify downslope patterns of soil weathering across this landscape using sites that bracket low-gradient hillslopes of the stable upland plateau and hillslopes near the margins of the incising landscape. We use elemental mass balances in rock and soil to index the weathered extent of soils, and couple these extents with previously measured 10Be-derived soil production rates to calculate rates of soil weathering and erosion. Across all sites, Tau-Si—the fractional loss or gain of Si from parent material—averages -0.32±0.04, and the weathered extent of soils generally increases with increasing distance from the hillcrest. However, weathering intensities decrease as hillslope gradients steepen beyond 30°. Chemical weathering extents on slopes < 30° averaged 0.35±0.04, 50% more than steeper slopes (0.23±0.05). Similarly, the relationships between soil weathering and erosion rates show distinct patterns on high and low gradient slopes. Erosion and weathering rates are positively correlated on low gradient hillslopes, and negatively correlated on high gradient hillslopes, likely due to the role of erosion rates in controlling mineral supply and residence time. These patterns are consistent with previously published predictive models for denudation-weathering relationships based on mineral weathering kinetics. Variable weathering extents in soils indicate that soil weathering in the SGM is largely kinetically limited. This work provides a field-based quantification of the complex relationship between soil erosion and chemical weathering, and together our data suggest that tectonic forcing strongly influences soil weathering rates and extents through its control on erosion rates, transport processes and soil thickness.

Aims In the context of trauma, plain facial X-rays do not represent the gold standard imaging modality, as many patients with equivocal findings will require further imaging with facial CT views. The aim of this project was to review the use of facial X-rays of patients seen in a paediatric ED following trauma, to ascertain the degree of correlation between clinical signs and radiological findings. Methods Retrospective review. All facial X-rays performed within the ED over a 1 year period (09/2012–09/2013) were identified from the hospital PACS system. Clinical details were obtained from the ED notes and compared with the X-ray report from a consultant radiologist. Results See Figure 1 below. Conclusions The vast majority of facial X-rays performed in our ED showed no evidence of fracture. A negative X-ray may be falsely reassuring as, in some cases, clinical suspicion of bony injury was high, but no further investigation/referral was made. In other cases, a facial CT was performed despite a negative facial X-ray. Therefore, in general, facial X-rays and their interpretation by ED clinicians do not appear to make a significant difference to the subsequent clinical management of patients. If suspicion of fracture is high then CT would be a better imaging modality, as where suspicion remains high an equivocal plain X-ray result would not confidently exclude facial bone fracture. On the basis of this we have developed a new clinical guideline which stratifies patients into 3 management paths according to clinical signs and symptoms: Our intention is to reduce the number of unnecessary facial X-rays, and practice will be re-audited one year post- implementation.

The effects of the El NiA±o-Southern Oscillation on weather are well documented, but ENSO also influences flowering and fruiting of trees in tropical forests. In a Perspective, Hartshorn and Bynum describe new findings ( Curran et al .) showing that mass seed production by dipterocarp canopy trees in the Bornean rainforest is dependent on ENSO. They further discuss the negative synergy between logging and dipterocarp recruitment both in and outside of protected areas.

1 Forest inventory data were collected in 1988-89 from permanent plots in undisturbed tropical forest along an altitudinal transect on the northern slope of Volcan Barva, Costa Rica. Plot altitude ranged from 30 m at the base to 2600 m near the summit. 2 A total of 14 plots with a total area of 23.4 hectares was censused; all stems > 10 cm d.b.h. were tagged, identified, mapped, and measured in diameter and height. 3 Altogether 11 478 live stems > 10 cm d.b.h. were encountered in the 1988-89 census, representing 561 species in 91 families. 4 Canopy height was greatest at 300 m, decreasing both above and below that altitude, and reaching a minimum at the summit. Mean stem diameter remained constant from the base of the gradient to 1500 m a.s.l., increasing slightly at higher altitudes. Largediameter trees were least abundant at middle altitudes. Basal area was greatest near the summit, exceeding 40 m2 ha' in the two highest plots. 5 Diversity was highest at 300 m, with 149 species and 55 families per hectare. There was a progressive decrease both above and below this altitude in species richness, species diversity, number of families, and the number of species per family. Diversity was lowest at the summit. 6 Five life-forms were recorded: dicot trees comprised 78.0% of stems; palms 14.9%; tree ferns 5.2%; lianas 1.5%; and hemi-epiphytes 0.4%. Life-form distribution varied markedly over the gradient. 7 Species composition varied continuously with altitude, as shown by a detrended correspondence analysis ordination of data from 375 20-m x 20-m subplots. There were no discontinuities, nor evidence of discrete floristic zones. 8 No species was distributed over the entire 2600-m range of altitudes. The species with the greatest amplitude, Ardisia palmana, occurred over 75% of the gradient (a range of around 2000 m). A total of 203 species were recorded from only a single 1-ha plot. 9 The altitudinal range of species did not vary with altitude: the range of lowland species was similar to that of montane species. Species of high-diversity assemblages (encountered at low altitude) were similar in altitudinal niche breadth to species of low-diversity assemblages (found at high altitude).

La Selva, a nature reserve and field station in Costa Rica, is one of the most intensively studied and best-understood tropical field sites in the world. For over 30 years, La Selva has been a major focus of research on rainforest ecology, flora and fauna. This volume provides a comprehensive review of this research, covering La Selva's geographical history and physical setting, its plant and animal life, and agricultural development and land use. Drawing together a wealth of information, "La Selva" offers a substantive treatment of the ecology of a rainforest. Part 1 summarizes research on the physical setting and environment of the rainforest, as well as the history of the research station. Some chapters in this part focus on climate, geomorphology and aquatic systems, while others look at soils, nutrient acquisition and cycles of energy. Part 2 synthesizes what is known about the plant community. It begins with chapters on vegetation types and plant diversity, and also explores plant demography, spatial patterns of trees, and the impact of treefall gaps on forest structure and dynamics. Other chapters address plant physiological ecology, as well as plant reproductive systems. Part 3 covers the animal community, summarizing information on the six best-known animal taxa of the region: fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals and butterflies. This part includes an overview of faunal studies at La Selva and a chapter on animal population biology, which examines animal demography and abundance, and interactions between predators and prey. Part 4 addresses interactions between plants and animals and the effects of these interactions on species diversity. Part 5 considers the impact of land use and agricultural development on La Selva and other areas of Costa Rica. One chapter examines land colonization and conservation in Sarapiqui, another covers subsistence and commercial agricultural development in the Atlantic lowlands region, and a third looks at the forest industry in north-eastern Costa Rica. This part also assesses the role and research priorities of La Selva. "La Selva" provides an introduction to tropical ecology for students and researchers at La Selva, a major source of comparative information for biologists working in other tropical areas, and a resource for conservationists.

Diameter growth rates and age-size relationships are reported for 45 abundant tree species and one liana in tropical wet forest at La Selva, Costa Rica. Thirteen-year increments in each species were analysed using growth simulation, a stochastic technique which projects growth trajectories.Median growth rates ranged from 0.35 mm yr-1 (Anaxagorea crassipetala) to 13.41 mm yr-1) (Stryphnodendron excelsum). Maximum ranges ranged from 0.95 mm yr-1 (Quararibea brac-teolosa) to 14.62 mm yr-1 (Hernandia didymanthera). Minimum rates ranged from zero growth (Capparis pittieri, Colubrina spinosa, Doliocarpus spp.) to 7.45 mm yr-1 (Stryphno dendron excelsum).Projected lifespan (from 100 mm dbh to the maximum dbh for the species) varied from 52 years (Anaxagorea crassipetala, Guatteria inuncta) to 442 years (Carapa guianensis). The mean longevity among the 45 tree species studied is 190 years.Four main patterns of growth behaviour are recognized, based upon longevity and growth rates: (1) understorey species have slow maximum growth rates and short lifespans; (2) shade-tolerant subcanopy trees live around twice as long as understorey trees and grow at approxi-mately the same maximum rates; (3) canopy and subcanopy trees that are shade-tolerant but respond opportunistically to increased light levels have long lifespans and fast maximum growth rates; (4) shade-intolerant canopy and subcanopy species are short-lived and have fast maximum growth rates. Understorey species intergrade with shade-tolerant subcanopy species in terms of growth behaviour; shade-tolerant subcanopy species with opportunistic, shade-tolerant species; and opportunistic, shade-tolerant with shade-intolerant species.Intraspecific variation in growth rates is lower in short-lived trees (understorey species with uniformly slow growth and shade-intolerant species with uniformly rapid growth) than in the two long-lived groups. These patterns are discussed in the context of tree ecophysiology and forest light environments.

Windthrown trees and large broken branches create a mosaic of light gaps in tropical forests. Viewed from above, these canopy openings are easily recognized and can be surveyed with aerial photos. Within canopy openings, many biological activities take place that occur rarely or not at all elsewhere in the forest near the forest floor. This is mainly a result of the greater amount of sunlight reaching the lowest levels of the canopy strata and frequently but ephemerally, the forest floor. This mosaic of forest structure was first recognized by Aubreville (1938). Recent research has focused on forest regeneration within canopy gaps in primary forest (Brokaw 1982, Hartshorn 1980). Canopy openings are critical for regeneration of many canopy tree species (Denslow 1980, Hartshorn 1978, Lang & Knight 1983, Richards 1952, Whitmore 1978). Nutrient availability and soil nutrient storage may be expected to change in canopy openings (Anderson & Swift 1983, Bazzaz 1983, Orians 1982). Large canopy openings provide one of the few rain forest habitats for many pioneer

designated the selection system as the featured method on large tracts comprising up to one-half the area occupied by shade-tolerant hardwoods (e.g., United States Forest Service 1986a, b, c). It is well known that the small gaps created by single-tree selection are not conducive to high species diversity in temperate hardwood forests (Johnson 1984, Della-Bianca and Beck 1985), and so an appropriate response is to intersperse multiple-tree gaps of at least 500 M2. The selection system has also been criticized on the grounds that the relatively low light levels in small gaps may result in mediocre levels of stand productivity (Assmann 1970). However, empirical evidence in eastern hardwood forests indicates that productivity under the selection system is very good, reaching or exceeding 1.5-1.7m3 ha' yr-' (250-300 board-feet acre ' yrI; Bramble and Fix 1980, Crow et al. 1981, Rudolph and Bresnahan 1982, Mader and Nyland 1984). Both yield and quality may be higher than is possible under even-aged management of shadetolerant species (Hasse and Ek 1981, Erdmann 1987). Most of the stands being placed under uneven-aged management are currently more or less even-aged, with unimodal diameter distributions. There is a transitional period of at least several decades during which an uneven-aged structure is developed. During this period, few of the larger trees in the stand are cut. The approach is more like a thinning of the canopy to hasten the development of large trees and the creation of gaps to stimulate the development of younger age classes (Erdmann 1987). The same process would happen naturally but at a much slower rate. The effect of unevenaged management by regulation of the diameter distribution will be to hasten the development of some sizable stands with large trees across the landscape. The managed uneven-aged stands will be similar to forests in presettlement times except that the maximum diameter will be smaller (generally a maximum of 5060 cm in northern forests) and basal area will be somewhat lower (20-30 m2/ha). Because of the variety of both even-aged and uneven-aged management regimes, however, the future wooded landscape in many rural areas is likely to be more diverse in terms of species and structure than either the presettlement forest or the present forest.

In Costa Rican tropical wet forest the distribution of seedlings of most tree species colonizing 51 tree-fall gaps is clumped, probably because of differences in the proximity of gaps to fruiting trees. Different gap zones (root, bole and crown) are more similar to one another, in terms of their species composition, than they are to other zones in the same gap. This nonrandom pattern is established soon after gap formation, indicating that mortality of young seedlings is both high and related to gap zones. Some tree species are strongly positively associated with one of the gap zones, whereas others are associated with the age of the gap at the time the census was taken or the species of tree whose fall caused the gap. Root zones are dominated by fewer species than are bole or crown zones. Results are consistent with the assumption that an initial random distribution of seedlings is quickly changed to a strongly non-random pattern by selective mortality of seedlings of different tree species in the different gap zones. The internal heterogeneity of gaps is probably one of the factors helping to maintain the high tree species richness characteristic of tropical wet forests.

(1) All trees and lianas (>10 cm dbh) on 12.4 ha of primary lowland wet tropical forest at La Selva, Costa Rica, were enumerated. (2) A total of 5530 live stems were encountered, representing 269 species. Palms comprised 25-5% of stems, lianas 2-4%, tree ferns 0-1% and true trees 72-0%. The most abundant species, Pentaclethra macroloba (Mimosaceae), accounted for 13.6% of stems. Species richness ranged from 79 to 107 species per ha. (3) Species composition varies continuously with altitude over a range of 39 m, as shown by a detrended correspondence analysis ordination of data from 0-04-ha subplots. (4) The pool of available species at any altitude is large, and floristic variation between sites at the same altitude is influenced by chance. (5) Seasonally-flooded sites are floristically distinct from sites on higher ground, and show great variation in species composition over short distances. (6) Microtopography and drainage features in a 1.8-ha swamp forest were mapped. There is a dramatic reduction of stem density and species richness with increasingly poor drainage. This lower number of species reflects the exclusion of species intolerant of waterlogged soils.

Neotropical forest dynamics are reviewed by focusing on four questions: (1) What is a mature neotropical forest? (2) How long does it take to attain maturity? (3) How important are gaps to species regeneration? and (4) What are the important equilibrium processes in neotropical forest dynamics? The absence of regeneration of dominants has often been used as a distinguishing feature of late secondary forest; however, the abundance of shade-intolerant species in mature forest suggests that local absence of regeneration is an inadequate criterion for distinguishing between late secondary and mature forest. Recent studies estimate forest turnover rates of 75-150 years, indicating tropical forests are much more dynamic than thought previously. The dependence on gaps by almost half of the 320 tree species in a Costa Rican wet forest for successful regeneration illustrates the importance of gaps in tropical forest dynamics. Factors important in determining which species successfully colonize a gap are: time of gap occurrence; proximity and dispersal of seeds; size of gap; substrate conditions; and plant-herbivore interactions.