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ABSTRACT Aim Location Time Period Major Taxa Studied Methods Results Main Conclusions Understanding the spatial structuring of ecological communities involves considering the interplay between evolutionary history and environmental factors. This study investigates how the phylogenetic structure of Canidae influences the geographical distribution and trait patterns of lineages globally, and how these patterns relate to Bergmann's and Rapoport's rules.Americas, Africa, Eurasia.12 million years ago—present.Canidae.Using distribution data and phylogenetic information for 37 Canidae species, we analysed key ecological, functional and evolutionary variables. We applied phylogenetic fuzzy‐weighting via principal coordinates of phylogenetic structure (PCPS) and variance partitioning analysis (VPA) to assess the contributions of phylogenetic structure and environmental factors to trait variation among species.Our results revealed distinct global patterns in body size, body weight, range size, habitat use and evolutionary distinctiveness among lineages. We also identified the shared contributions of phylogenetic structure and temperature to trait variation using variance partitioning analysis. The PCPS axes highlighted the influence of phylogenetic relationships on Canidae assemblages, particularly in South America.Importantly, the study challenges the applicability of Bergmann's and Rapoport's rules across continents. The unique diversification history of Canidae in South America and Africa and their diverse environmental conditions likely contribute to the observed trait patterns that make both continents so distinguished when compared to North America and Eurasia. Our findings underscore the need to incorporate phylogenetic information in models assessing trait variation across geographic scales for unbiased estimates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human dietary patterns are a major cause of environmental transformation, with agriculture occupying ~ 50% of global land space, while food production itself is responsible for ~ 30% of all greenhouse gas emissions and 70% of freshwater use. Furthermore, the global population is also growing, such that by 2050, it is estimated to exceed ~ 9 billion. While most of this expansion in population is expected to occur in developing countries, in high-income countries there are also predicted changes in demographics, with major increases in the number of older people. There is a growing consensus that older people have a greater requirement for protein. With a larger and older population, global needs for protein are set to increase. This paper summarises the conclusions from a Rank Prize funded colloquium evaluating novel strategies to meet this increasing global protein need. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aquaculture is expected to expand significantly in the coming decades to meet growing demand. A key variable for understanding the potential benefit of and impact from this growth is efficiency; yet a comprehensive assessment of on‐farm area use and yield is limited. Much like land‐based agriculture, range and variation in yields across space, species, and practice provide insights into area use and production efficiencies. Current estimates of aquaculture yields (production per area per time) aggregate on‐farm and off‐farm land use into one 'land use' category; in contrast, we disaggregate this category to provide on‐farm yield estimates and account for water area use. We use a quantitative review of scientific literature to synthesize and compare on‐farm area use and yield patterns across countries, taxa, aquatic systems, data source, and production mode (n = 378). Because recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) have been touted as a particularly efficient production mode, we also found estimates for RAS from industry (n = 4). Median, mean and range in yields among countries and taxa vary by orders of magnitude, with algal production greatly exceeding that of crustaceans, fishes and molluscs. Yields in marine systems were on average roughly 5× greater than yields in freshwater systems. RAS had particularly high yields but sparse data and estimates from private corporations were approximately 3.7× higher than literature estimates, on average. This comprehensive assessment of global aquaculture yields offers critical insight into the production efficiencies of different aquaculture forms and the large amount of variability, which could help guide aquaculture policy and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coastal wetlands have been long recognized for their importance to biodiversity and many biogeochemical processes including carbon sequestration; however, our understanding of plant-microbe interactions that govern many processes in these ecosystems remains elusive. Fungal communities are known to play critical roles in coastal wetlands, particularly due to their close relationships with plants, yet, systematic understanding of their distributional patterns and the factors shaping these patterns in natural coastal wetland environments has been rarely assessed. We synthesized existing published literature from fifty-one studies spanning 60 years to examine global fungal distributional patterns in coastal wetlands, draw linkages between fungi, the plant communities, and their environment, and identify gaps in fungal research and suggest future research directions. We focused on studies that reported root-associated fungi and fungi from the plant rhizosphere (i.e., soil surrounding roots) in coastal dunes, intertidal flats, salt marshes, and tidal wetlands. Our synthesis has revealed that (1) 203 fungal species were reported from salt marshes, 59 fungal species from coastal dunes, 32 from tidal wetlands, and ten from intertidal flats; (2) rhizosphere fungal communities were more species-rich and reported more often for all ecosystems except in salt marshes; and (3) nineteen different fungal guilds, which are predominantly arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. We conclude that more research is needed to better understand root-associated fungal diversity in less studied ecosystems reviewed here. We have identified knowledge gaps in reported data and outlined suggestions to facilitate future plant-fungal research in these declining, but important, coastal ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Predicting the true status of Data Deficient (DD) species is a prominent theme in recent conservation biology, but there still is much debate regarding the conservation approach that should be used for DD taxa and no definitive conclusions are yet available. We review and analyse the current data available on the conservation status of amphibians in Vietnam, with an emphasis on the DD species. We also compare Vietnamese DD frequency of occurrence with other regions of the world, examine the extent of the range of taxa divided by Red List status, and explore the protection attributes of the taxa based on their inclusion within protected areas of Vietnam. We documented that the analysis of amphibians in Southeast Asia, and especially in Vietnam, substantially agrees with patterns highlighted by previous global research, and confirms the risk that several DD species may silently go extinct without their actual risk ever being recognized. Importantly, our study showed that fine-scale analyses are essential to highlight the potential drivers of extinction risk for the DD species of amphibians. A crucial next step for conservation policies in Vietnam (and in surrounding countries) is developing and implementing species-specific studies targeted at addressing each species' drivers of extinction and determining science-based strategies for minimizing their extinction risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To give a better assistance to users in the understanding and analyzing of data, this paper proposes a new color mapping method based on global statistical and focal spacial characteristics, aiming at emphasis of both the global patterns and the boundary information of data. Our method employs Jenks natural break method to minimize control points in the color map and maximizes the color differences between boundary points and its neighbors to obtain the color napping. The effectiveness of our method Is verified via qualitative experiments and user researches on the 2D scalar field data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dynamically similar regions of the global ocean are identified using a barotropic vorticity (BV) framework from a 20-year mean of the Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean state estimate at 1° resolution. An unsupervised machine learning algorithm, K-means, objectively clusters the standardized BV equation, identifying five unambiguous regimes. Cluster 1 covers 43 ± 3.3% of the ocean area. Surface and bottom stress torque are balanced by the bottom pressure torque and the nonlinear torque. Cluster 2 covers 24.8 ± 1.2%, where the beta effect balances the bottom pressure torque. Cluster 3 covers 14.6 ± 1.0%, characterized by a Quasi-Sverdrupian regime where the beta effect is balanced by the wind and bottom stress term. The small region of Cluster 4 has baroclinic dynamics covering 6.9 ± 2.9% of the ocean. Cluster 5 occurs primarily in the Southern Ocean. Residual dominantly nonlinear regions highlight where the BV approach is inadequate, found in areas of rough topography in the Southern Ocean and along western boundaries.

Bacteria are diverse and play important roles in biogeochemical cycling of aquatic ecosystems, but the global distribution patterns of bacterial communities in lake sediments across different climate zones are still obscure. Here we integrated the high-throughput sequencing data of 750 sediment samples from published literature to investigate the distribution of bacterial communities in different climate zones and the potential driving mechanisms. The obtained results indicated that the diversity and richness of bacterial community were notably higher in temperate and cold zones than those in other climate zones. In addition, the bacterial community composition varied significantly in different climate zones, which further led to changes in bacterial functional groups. Specifically, the relative abundance of nitrogen cycling functional groups in polar zones was notably higher compared to other climate zones. Regression analysis revealed that climate (mean annual precipitation, MAP; and mean annual temperature, MAT), vegetation, and geography together determined the diversity pattern of sediment bacterial community on a global scale. The results of partial least squares path modeling further demonstrated that climate was the most significant factor affecting the composition and diversity of bacterial communities, and MAP was the most important climate factor affecting the composition of bacteria community (R2 = 0.443, P < 0.001). It is worth noting that a strong positive correlation was observed between the abundance of the dominant bacterial group uncultured_f_Anaerolineaceae and the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI; P < 0.001), suggesting that vegetation could affect bacterial community diversity by influencing dominant bacterial taxa. This study enhances our understanding of the global diversity patterns and biogeography of sediment bacteria. [Display omitted] • The diversity patterns and biogeography of lake sediment bacteria have been studied on a global scale. • Bacterial community composition and diversity significantly varied across climatic zones. • Climate was the main factor affecting the global distribution of bacterial communities in lake sediments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vapor pressure deficit (VPD) is a critical factor in crop growth, and low yields are often associated with high VPD. The adverse effects of VPD on crop yield have been well-documented; however, whether and where yield sensitivity to VPD (S VPD) changes over time across global cropping areas remain elusive. Based on the observed maize yield and VPD at the grid scale, the S VPD calculated using least-squares linear regression for 27.5 % and 25.9 % of the global maize-growing areas, respectively, showed a significant (p < 0.05) decreasing and increasing trend from 1983 to 2010. Spatially, a statistically negative trend in S VPD was found in southeastern Brazil, the central United States, most of Europe, and northeastern China, whereas a positive trend was observed in the eastern United States and northern China. In particular, negative S VPD was alleviated in 23.2 % of global maize areas, primarily in the northeastern United States and northern China, but was aggravated in 18.4 % of maize areas in the middle latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. In addition, the sign of S VPD was reversed in 34.4 % of the global maize areas, notably in the central United States, northern China, and southern Brazil. The results of the random forest model show that shortwave radiation was identified as the primary co-varying factor that modulated the pattern of changing S VPD in about 26 % of the global maize area, followed by maximum temperature (24.3 %) and minimum relative humidity (21.5 %). By assessing the 14 process-based crop models, we found that their ensemble mean could reproduce the annual patterns of S VPD well but failed to capture its decadal change trends. • Temporal trend in global maize yield sensitivity to VPD is quantified in 1983–2010. • The negative impact of VPD has been alleviated in 37.6 % of global maize areas under climate change. • SR, Tmax, and RHmin drive sensitivity changes in 72 % of the global maize areas. • Process-based crop models fail to reproduce the observed sensitivity trend. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pollinating insects are critical to ecosystem stability and food security. Concerns about the impact of insect declines have therefore seen increased research on the role of wild pollinators in cropping systems. However, this research has predominantly focused on diurnal pollinators such as bees and flies, leaving the role of nocturnal pollinators poorly understood in comparison.Here, we review the literature on nocturnal pollinators of food crops and medicinal plants by undertaking an abstract, title, and keyword literature search in Web of Science Core Collection [v.5.32].We found interactions recorded between plants and nocturnal pollinators for 52 plant families, with Cactaceae, Fabaceae and Asparagaceae being mentioned most frequently in the context of nocturnal pollination. We identified 81 animal families that behave as nocturnal crop pollinators, with Sphingidae and Noctuidae moths and Phyllostomidae bats being mentioned most frequently.The evidence to support claims of pollination by nocturnally active animals varied in strength and mostly involved observations of flower visitation or pollination being inferred based on floral traits. There was a lack of strong experimental evidence. Detailed experimental work, such as pollinator exclusion experiments, is therefore required to corroborate the patterns we have discovered.Our review is biased towards publications in the English language, but despite this our study shows tropical regions such as Brazil appear to be hotspots for nocturnal crop pollination.Policy implications. Our findings suggest that nocturnal pollinators visit a large range of crop plants, and may be more important to ecosystem function and food production than currently thought. Current policies in cropping systems implemented to protect bees, such as regulations on pesticide use, are unlikely to also protect nocturnal pollinators. As we develop a better understanding of the importance of nocturnal pollinators for crop plants, many of these regulations may need to be updated to ensure pollination service is not being compromised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Predicting the true status of Data Deficient (DD) species is a prominent theme in recent conservation biology, but there still is much debate regarding the conservation approach that should be used for DD taxa and no definitive conclusions are yet available. We review and analyse the current data available on the conservation status of amphibians in Vietnam, with an emphasis on the DD species. We also compare Vietnamese DD frequency of occurrence with other regions of the world, examine the extent of the range of taxa divided by Red List status, and explore the protection attributes of the taxa based on their inclusion within protected areas of Vietnam. We documented that the analysis of amphibians in Southeast Asia, and especially in Vietnam, substantially agrees with patterns highlighted by previous global research, and confirms the risk that several DD species may silently go extinct without their actual risk ever being recognized. Importantly, our study showed that fine-scale analyses are essential to highlight the potential drivers of extinction risk for the DD species of amphibians. A crucial next step for conservation policies in Vietnam (and in surrounding countries) is developing and implementing species-specific studies targeted at addressing each species’ drivers of extinction and determining science-based strategies for minimizing their extinction risk.

Although plant–plant interactions (i.e. competition and facilitation) have long been recognised as key drivers of plant community composition and dynamics, their global patterns and relationships with climate have remained unclear. Here, we assembled a global database of 10,502 pairs of empirical data from the literature to address the patterns of and climatic effects on the net outcome of plant interactions in natural communities. We found that plant interactions varied among plant performance indicators, interaction types and biomes, yet competition occurred more frequently than facilitation in plant communities worldwide. Unexpectedly, plant interactions showed weak latitudinal pattern and were weakly related to climate. Our study provides a global comprehensive overview of plant interactions, highlighting competition as a fundamental mechanism structuring plant communities worldwide. We suggest that further investigations should focus more on local factors (e.g. microclimate, soil and disturbance) than on macroclimate to identify key environmental determinants of interactions in plant communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Droughts significantly impact land carbon uptake by reducing the gross primary productivity (GPP). Projections suggest an increase in severe and extreme droughts in the twenty‐first century. Despite the importance of droughts on carbon uptakes, it remains unclear about the GPP responses under different drought severity and its changes under current climate changes. Using four state‐of‐the‐science GPP products, we showed that moderate (−1 ≤ SPEI < −1.5), severe (−1.5 ≤ SPEI < −2), and extreme (SPEI < −2) droughts caused on average 5%, 7%, and 9% GPP reductions, respectively, across the globe during the recent decades. Although the mean reductions varied among GPP products, we observed similar spatial patterns. The reductions increased significantly along the severity gradient, while the sharpest increases were observed in semi‐arid and grassland ecosystems. On a biome level, we found that the reductions increased nonlinearly with increasing drought severities for almost all vegetation types, but the trends and slopes varied significantly. In addition, we found that the mean drought‐induced GPP reductions had increased in dry ecosystems but decreased in humid ecosystems from 2001–2008 to 2009–2016. The result highlights the potential increase of drought‐induced land carbon sink loss responding to more extreme climates and offers new perspectives to improve the prediction of global carbon fluxes in a changing climate. Plain Language Summary: Drought is a natural disaster characterized by a long period of water shortage. In ecosystems, the gross primary productivity (GPP) is the amount of energy or carbon biomass produced by plants used for all living creatures' activities. Drought causes substantial GPP loss, depending on its severity. In this study, we calculate the loss of GPP under different drought severities. The result shows that rising drought severities increase GPP loss, while the largest increases are found in dry ecosystems and grasslands. In addition, we find that GPP reductions in droughts have increased in dry areas and decreased in humid areas from 2001–2008 to 2009–2016. Key Points: The drought‐induced gross primary productivity (GPP) reductions across global terrestrial ecosystems were evaluated along severity gradients during 1987–2018 using four GPP productsThe drought‐induced GPP reductions increased significantly along the severity gradient, while the sharpest increases were observed in semi‐arid and grassland ecosystemsDuring 2001–2016, the size of drought‐induced GPP reductions increased in arid ecosystems but decreased in humid ecosystems [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is intensifying the hydrologic cycle and is expected to increase the frequency of extreme wet and dry years. Beyond precipitation amount, extreme wet and dry years may differ in other ways, such as the number of precipitation events, event size, and the time between events. We assessed 1614 long-term (100 year) precipitation records from around the world to identify key attributes of precipitation regimes, besides amount, that distinguish statistically extreme wet from extreme dry years. In general, in regions where mean annual precipitation (MAP) exceeded 1000 mm, precipitation amounts in extreme wet and dry years differed from average years by ~40% and 30%, respectively. The magnitude of these deviations increased to >60% for dry years and to >150% for wet years in arid regions (MAP99th percentile of all events); these occurred twice as often in extreme wet years compared to average years. In contrast, these large precipitation events were rare in extreme dry years. Less important for distinguishing extreme wet from dry years were mean event size and frequency, or the number of dry days between events. However, extreme dry years were distinguished from average years by an increase in the number of dry days between events. These precipitation regime attributes consistently differed between extreme wet and dry years across 12 major terrestrial ecoregions from around the world, from deserts to the tropics. Thus, we recommend that climate change experiments and model simulations incorporate these differences in key precipitation regime attributes, as well as amount into treatments. This will allow experiments to more realistically simulate extreme precipitation years and more accurately assess the ecological consequences.

The colours of fleshy fruits play a critical role in plant dispersal by advertising ripe fruits to consumers. Fruit colours have long been classified into syndromes attributed to selection by animal dispersers, despite weak evidence for this hypothesis. Here, we test the relative importance of biotic (bird and mammal frugivory) and abiotic (wet season temperatures, growing season length and UV‐B radiation) factors in determining fruit colour syndrome in 3163 species of fleshy‐fruited plants. We find that both dispersers and environment are important, and they interact. In warm areas, contrastive, bird‐associated fruit colours increase with relative bird frugivore prevalence, whereas in cold places these colours dominate even where mammalian dispersers are prevalent. We present near‐global maps of predicted fruit colour syndrome based on our species‐level model and our newly developed characterisations of relative importance of bird and mammal frugivores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Old-age pensions are the most widespread social security programmes around the world. While many case studies have focused on the historical origins of old-age pensions, global and comparative studies are limited mainly due to missing data. To address this shortcoming, this article introduces the novel PENLEG dataset (Pension Legislation around the World, 1880–2010), which comprises data on: (1) the timing of the first pension introductions; (2) the pension design; (3) the mode of financing; (4) eligibility criteria; (5) benefit generosity and (6) coverage rates for all independent countries. Additionally, the article describes global pension patterns and highlights case evidence. It shows that economic development strategies, political incentives to bind citizens to the state, administrative reasons as well as colonial legacies and the Soviet model of social security have strongly affected the origins of old-age pensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reptiles are an important, yet often understudied, taxon in nature conservation. They play a significant role in ecosystems 1 and can serve as indicators of environmental health, often responding more rapidly to human pressures than other vertebrate groups. 2 At least 21% of reptiles are currently assessed as threatened with extinction by the IUCN. 3 However, due to the lack of comprehensive global assessments until recently, they have been omitted from spatial studies addressing conservation or spatial prioritization (e.g., Rosauer et al., 4,5,6,7,8 Fritz and Rahbek, 4,5,6,7,8 Farooq et al., 4,5,6,7,8 Meyer et al., 4,5,6,7,8 and Farooq et al. 4,5,6,7,8). One important knowledge gap in conservation is the lack of spatially explicit information on the main threats to biodiversity, 9 which significantly hampers our ability to respond effectively to the current biodiversity crisis. 10,11 In this study, we calculate the probability of a reptile species in a specific location being affected by one of seven biodiversity threats—agriculture, climate change, hunting, invasive species, logging, pollution, and urbanization. We conducted the analysis at a global scale, using a 50 km × 50 km grid, and evaluated the impact of these threats by studying their relationship with the risk of extinction. We find that climate change, logging, pollution, and invasive species are most linked to extinction risk. However, we also show that there is considerable geographical variation in these results. Our study highlights the importance of going beyond measuring the intensity of threats to measuring the impact of these separately for various biogeographical regions of the world, with different historical contingencies, as opposed to a single global analysis treating all regions the same. [Display omitted] • Agriculture, hunting, and urbanization are the most common threats to reptiles • Climate change, logging, pollution, and invasives are most linked to extinction risk • There is considerable geographical variation in how different threats impact reptiles Farooq et al. identify climate change, logging, pollution, and invasive species as the primary threats linked to extinction risk, with considerable geographical variation. This highlights the importance of studying the impact of these threats separately for various biogeographical regions of the world that exhibit different historical contingencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dynamically similar regions of the global ocean are identified using a barotropic vorticity (BV) framework from a 20‐year mean of the Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean state estimate at 1° resolution. An unsupervised machine learning algorithm, K‐means, objectively clusters the standardized BV equation, identifying five unambiguous regimes. Cluster 1 covers 43 ± 3.3% of the ocean area. Surface and bottom stress torque are balanced by the bottom pressure torque and the nonlinear torque. Cluster 2 covers 24.8 ± 1.2%, where the beta effect balances the bottom pressure torque. Cluster 3 covers 14.6 ± 1.0%, characterized by a “Quasi‐Sverdrupian” regime where the beta effect is balanced by the wind and bottom stress term. The small region of Cluster 4 has baroclinic dynamics covering 6.9 ± 2.9% of the ocean. Cluster 5 occurs primarily in the Southern Ocean. Residual “dominantly nonlinear” regions highlight where the BV approach is inadequate, found in areas of rough topography in the Southern Ocean and along western boundaries.

Aim: Alpine ecosystems differ in area, macroenvironment and biogeographical history across the Earth, but the relationship between these factors and plant species richness is still unexplored. Here, we assess the global patterns of plant species richness in alpine ecosystems and their association with environmental, geographical and historical factors at regional and community scales. Location: Global. Time period: Data collected between 1923 and 2019. Major taxa studied: Vascular plants. Methods: We used a dataset representative of global alpine vegetation, consisting of 8,928 plots sampled within 26 ecoregions and six biogeographical realms, to estimate regional richness using sample‐based rarefaction and extrapolation. Then, we evaluated latitudinal patterns of regional and community richness with generalized additive models. Using environmental, geographical and historical predictors from global raster layers, we modelled regional and community richness in a mixed‐effect modelling framework. Results: The latitudinal pattern of regional richness peaked around the equator and at mid‐latitudes, in response to current and past alpine area, isolation and the variation in soil pH among regions. At the community level, species richness peaked at mid‐latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, despite a considerable within‐region variation. Community richness was related to macroclimate and historical predictors, with strong effects of other spatially structured factors. Main conclusions: In contrast to the well‐known latitudinal diversity gradient, the alpine plant species richness of some temperate regions in Eurasia was comparable to that of hyperdiverse tropical ecosystems, such as the páramo. The species richness of these putative hotspot regions is explained mainly by the extent of alpine area and their glacial history, whereas community richness depends on local environmental factors. Our results highlight hotspots of species richness at mid‐latitudes, indicating that the diversity of alpine plants is linked to regional idiosyncrasies and to the historical prevalence of alpine ecosystems, rather than current macroclimatic gradients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Our understanding of the biological strategies employed by species to cope with challenges posed by aridity is still limited. Despite being sensitive to water loss, bats successfully inhabit a wide range of arid lands. We here investigated how functional traits of bat assemblages vary along the global aridity gradient to identify traits that favour their persistence in arid environments. Location: Global. Time period: Contemporary. Major taxa studied: Bats. Methods: We mapped the assemblage‐level averages of four key bat traits describing wing morphology, echolocation and body size, based on a grid of 100‐km resolution and a pool of 915 bat species, and modelled them against aridity values. To support our results, we conducted analyses also at the species level to control for phylogenetic autocorrelation. Results: At the assemblage level, we detected a rise in values of aspect ratio, wing loading and forearm length, and a decrease in echolocation frequency with increasing aridity. These patterns were consistent with trends detected at the species level for all traits. Main conclusions: Our findings show that trait variation in bats is associated with the aridity gradient and suggest that greater mobility and larger body size are advantageous features in arid environments. Greater mobility favours bats' ability to track patchy and temporary resources, while the reduced surface‐to‐volume ratio associated with a larger body size is likely to reduce water stress by limiting cutaneous evaporation. These findings highlight the importance of extending attention from species‐specific adaptations to broad scale and multispecies variation in traits when investigating the ability of species to withstand arid conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Breast cancer in young women (< 40 years) is rare and carries a poor prognosis relative to breast cancer in older women. Most studies examining global breast cancer patterns do not describe the trends in young women specifically. Methods: Data from GLOBOCAN 2018 were used to compare breast cancer incidence and mortality rates among younger (ages 0–39) vs. older (ages 40+) women across 185 countries. The coefficient of variation (the ratio of the standard deviation to the mean) was used to quantify relative variability. Results: The risk of developing breast cancer to age 39 ranged from 0.13% in Guinea to 0.95% in South Korea (coefficient of variation: 46%), and the risk of death from breast cancer to age 39 ranged from 0.02% in China to 0.72% in Cameroon (coefficient of variation: 81%). In contrast, the risk of developing breast cancer to age 74 ranged from 1.5% in Mozambique to 12.2% in Belgium (coefficient of variation: 50%), and the risk of death from breast cancer to age 74 ranged from 0.65% in South Korea to 3.0% in Somalia (coefficient of variation: 36%). Conclusions: Among young women, breast cancer mortality rates varied more worldwide than breast cancer incidence. In contrast, among older women/women of all ages, breast cancer incidence varied more than breast cancer mortality. Further research is required to examine the impact of stage at diagnosis, clinicopathologic features, and treatments received, on variations in the survival and mortality of breast cancer in young women around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To investigate global patterns of cardiovascular risk factor control in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D). Methods: DISCOVER is an international, observational cohort study of patients with T2D beginning second‐line glucose‐lowering therapy. Risk factor management was examined among eligible patients (ie, those with the risk factor) at study baseline. Inter‐country variability was estimated using median odds ratios (MORs). Results: Among 14 343 patients with T2D from 34 countries, the mean age was 57.4 ± 12.0 years and the median (interquartile range) duration of T2D was 4.2 (2.0–8.0) years; 11.8% had documented atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD). Among eligible patients, blood pressure was controlled in 67.5% (9284/13756), statins were prescribed in 43.7% (5775/13208), angiotensin‐converting enzyme inhibitors/angiotensin II receptor blockers were prescribed in 55.6% (5292/9512), aspirin was prescribed in 53.3% of those with established ASCVD (876/1645), and 84.4% (12 102/14343) were non‐smoking. Only 21.5% of patients (3088/14343) had optimal risk factor management (defined as control of all eligible measures), with wide inter‐country variability (10%–44%), even after adjusting for patient and site differences (MOR 1.47, 95% confidence interval 1.24–1.66). Conclusion: Globally, comprehensive control of ASCVD risk factors is not being achieved in most patients, with wide variability among countries unaccounted for by patient and site differences. Better country‐specific strategies are needed to implement comprehensive cardiovascular risk factor control consistently in patients with T2D to improve long‐term outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Greenhouse gas emissions have significantly altered global climate, and will continue to do so in the future. Increases in the frequency, duration, and/or severity of drought and heat stress associated with climate change could fundamentally alter the composition, structure, and biogeography of forests in many regions. Of particular concern are potential increases in tree mortality associated with climate-induced physiological stress and interactions with other climate-mediated processes such as insect outbreaks and wildfire. Despite this risk, existing projections of tree mortality are based on models that lack functionally realistic mortality mechanisms, and there has been no attempt to track observations of climate-driven tree mortality globally. Here we present the first global assessment of recent tree mortality attributed to drought and heat stress. Although episodic mortality occurs in the absence of climate change, studies compiled here suggest that at least some of the world's forested ecosystems already may be responding to climate change and raise concern that forests may become increasingly vulnerable to higher background tree mortality rates and die-off in response to future warming and drought, even in environments that are not normally considered water-limited. This further suggests risks to ecosystem services, including the loss of sequestered forest carbon and associated atmospheric feedbacks. Our review also identifies key information gaps and scientific uncertainties that currently hinder our ability to predict tree mortality in response to climate change and emphasizes the need for a globally coordinated observation system. Overall, our review reveals the potential for amplified tree mortality due to drought and heat in forests worldwide.

Previous studies have reported significant variation in prostate cancer rates and trends mainly due to differences in detection practices, availability of treatment, and underlying genetic susceptibility. To assess recent worldwide prostate cancer incidence, mortality rates, and trends using up-to-date incidence and mortality data. We present estimated age-standardized prostate cancer incidence and mortality rates by country and world regions for 2018 based on the GLOBOCAN database. We also examined rates and temporal trends for incidence (44 countries) and mortality (76 countries) based on data series from population-based registries. The highest estimated incidence rates were found in Australia/New Zealand, Northern America, Western and Northern Europe, and the Caribbean, and the lowest rates were found in South-Central Asia, Northern Africa, and South-Eastern and Eastern Asia. The highest estimated mortality rates were found in the Caribbean (Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, and Cuba), sub-Saharan Africa (South Africa), parts of former Soviet Union (Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia), whereas the lowest rates were found in Asia (Thailand and Turkmenistan). Prostate cancer incidence rates during the most recent 5 yr declined (five countries) or stabilized (35 countries), after increasing for many years; in contrast, rates continued to increase for four countries in Eastern Europe and Asia. During the most recent 5 data years, mortality rates among the 76 countries examined increased (three countries), remained stable (59 countries), or decreased (14 countries). As evident from available data, prostate cancer incidence and mortality rates have been on the decline or have stabilized recently in many countries, with decreases more pronounced in high-income countries. These trends may reflect a decline in prostate-specific antigen testing (incidence) and improvements in treatment (mortality). We examined recent trends in prostate cancer incidence and mortality rates in 44 and 76 countries, respectively, and found that rates in most countries stabilized or decreased. We examined recent trends in prostate cancer incidence and mortality rates in 44 and 76 countries, respectively, and found that rates mostly stabilized or decreased. These trends may reflect declines in prostate-specific antigen testing (incidence) and improvements in treatment (mortality). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using internally consistent albedo, aerosol, cloud, and surface data from the Multiangle Imaging Spectroradiometer (MISR) instrument onboard the Terra satellite, top-of-atmosphere (TOA) spectral albedo change (dα) in the presence of aerosols over land is estimated and its dependence on aerosol and surface properties is analyzed. Linear regressions between spectral TOA albedo and aerosol optical depth (AOD) for different surface types are examined to derive the aerosol-free TOA albedo. MISR surface BiHemispherical Reflectance (BHR) values are used to differentiate surface types. We find relatively high correlations between spectral TOA albedo and AOD for BHR-stratified data in 2° × 2° grid cells. The global mean values of cloud-free dα over land for June–September 2007 are estimated to be 0.018 ± 0.003 (blue), 0.010 ± 0.003 (green), 0.007 ± 0.003 (red), and 0.008 ± 0.006 (near-infrared). Individual regions show large variations from these values. Global patterns of dα are determined mainly by AOD and aerosol radiative efficiency. Large positive values of dα are observed over regions with high aerosol loading and large single-scattering albedo, where the aerosol scattering effect is dominant. The presence of light-absorbing aerosols reduces aerosol radiative efficiency and dα. Surface reflectance influences both aerosol scattering and absorbing effects. Generally, the aerosol radiative efficiency decreases with increasing BHR. We also examined dα-AOD correlations over different vegetation types. We find the smallest dα values are over needleleaf forests and shrublands, whereas the largest values are over cropland and barren regions. The aerosol radiative efficiencies are lowest over needleleaf forests and barren regions and highest over grasslands and croplands.

In the past two decades, large-scale land transactions (LSLTs), commonly known as land grabs or large-scale land acquisitions, have been pursued by agricultural investors and host-country governments in Lower- and Middle-Income Countries (LMIC) to boost crop yield. Existing knowledge on LSLTs is highly diverse, generated by scholars taking a wide range of perspectives and frameworks. However, the global patterns of LSLT-related research and their potential shortcomings remain under-investigated. In this paper, we analyze 370 peer-reviewed papers on LSLTs to advance this field of knowledge towards a science of 'land grabbing'. Our findings reveal that 1) research on LSLTs displays geographical imbalances; 2) global statistics do not fully capture the complexity of LSLTs on the ground; 3) different disciplinary interests and theoretical traditions result in different use of terms in referring to LSLTs and divergent impressions of their social consequences; and 4) the environmental consequences of LSLTs are under-studied relatively. We suggest that a better understanding of LSLTs could result from greater engagement with each discipline's strength and epistemic frameworks. • Research on LSLTs displays geographical imbalances. • Global statistics may not fully capture the complexity of LSLTs on the ground. • Use of terms in referring to LSLTs is highly diverse. • Environmental consequences of LSLTs are understudied. • Greater engagement with each discipline's epistemic frameworks needed in future work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human activities are accelerating global biodiversity change and have resulted in severely threatened ecosystem services. A large proportion of terrestrial biodiversity is harbored by soil, but soil biodiversity has been omitted from many global biodiversity assessments and conservation actions, and understanding of global patterns of soil biodiversity remains limited. In particular, the extent to which hotspots and coldspots of aboveground and soil biodiversity overlap is not clear. We examined global patterns of these overlaps by mapping indices of aboveground (mammals, birds, amphibians, vascular plants) and soil (bacteria, fungi, macrofauna) biodiversity that we created using previously published data on species richness. Areas of mismatch between aboveground and soil biodiversity covered 27% of Earth's terrestrial surface. The temperate broadleaf and mixed forests biome had the highest proportion of grid cells with high aboveground biodiversity but low soil biodiversity, whereas the boreal and tundra biomes had intermediate soil biodiversity but low aboveground biodiversity. While more data on soil biodiversity are needed, both to cover geographic gaps and to include additional taxa, our results suggest that protecting aboveground biodiversity may not sufficiently reduce threats to soil biodiversity. Given the functional importance of soil biodiversity and the role of soils in human well‐being, soil biodiversity should be considered further in policy agendas and conservation actions by adapting management practices to sustain soil biodiversity and considering soil biodiversity when designing protected areas. Article impact statement: Given the importance of soil biodiversity for human well‐being, it should be considered in conservation policy and actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International collaboration with the Western countries has over the years been the main component of research and development in Africa's higher education. However, Africa continues to lag behind in research performance. In the last decade, the rise of China brought on board an additional partnership through the Forum on China-Africa Collaboration initiatives guided by China-Africa policy. In view of the growing scepticism and misgivings over the China approach to collaboration with Africa, assessing patterns of progress by the China-Africa research collaborations cannot be ignored. Using bibliometric analysis of research data from InCites, the study reveals that the partnership is growing progressively in absolute terms though with high levels of relative growth rate. A few of the African countries are more engaged than the others. Fortunately for Africa, the partnership involves the physical sciences where the continent is greatly lacking and high impact is being registered. The study has the implication that while Africa needs to address issues of policy on sciences and funding for research in higher education, China equally needs to go beyond the current locations in Africa and equally engage with the lesser developed players on the continent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is often difficult to determine the relative importance of different sorts of species interactions in shaping community structure or how communities function because we lack basic information on patterns of occurrence of biotic interactions. Here we determine the geographic distribution of seed-dispersal mutualisms across North America, and then test the hypotheses that those patterns are correlated with mean annual precipitation and latitude. We analyze the floras of 197 sites across North America to identify which species of native seed plants are dispersed by animals in one of three types of plant-animal mutualisms: frugivory, scatter hoarding, and ants. We identified 1655 plant species that are involved in these seed-dispersal mutualisms. 16.5 ± 6.5% of all seed plants across North America are dispersed by animals; 10.0 ± 4.2% by frugivores, 3.7 ± 1.7% by scatter hoarders, and 3.9 ± 2.2% by ants. Secondary dispersal by a different mode and vector (e.g., wind dispersal followed by scatter hoarding, or ballistic dispersal followed by myrmecochory) occurred in 16.8% of all plant mutualist records. Although each mode of dispersal showed a different pattern, the prevalence of seed-dispersal mutualisms increased with mean annual precipitation. The prevalence of seed dispersal by frugivory and scatter-hoarding decreased with increasing latitude. The prevalence of seed-dispersal interactions varies dramatically across North America. The center of greatest diversity for all three types of seed-dispersal mutualisms is the eastern United States, roughly coincident with the eastern deciduous forest. Knowing the distribution of species interactions improves our understanding of how the structure and functioning of communities varies across environmental gradients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interplay between structural connections and emerging information flow in the human brain remains an open research problem. A recent study observed global patterns of directional information flow in empirical data using the measure of transfer entropy. For higher frequency bands, the overall direction of information flow was from posterior to anterior regions whereas an anterior-to-posterior pattern was observed in lower frequency bands. In this study, we applied a simple Susceptible-Infected-Susceptible (SIS) epidemic spreading model on the human connectome with the aim to reveal the topological properties of the structural network that give rise to these global patterns. We found that direct structural connections induced higher transfer entropy between two brain regions and that transfer entropy decreased with increasing distance between nodes (in terms of hops in the structural network). Applying the SIS model, we were able to confirm the empirically observed opposite information flow patterns and posterior hubs in the structural network seem to play a dominant role in the network dynamics. For small time scales, when these hubs acted as strong receivers of information, the global pattern of information flow was in the posterior-to-anterior direction and in the opposite direction when they were strong senders. Our analysis suggests that these global patterns of directional information flow are the result of an unequal spatial distribution of the structural degree between posterior and anterior regions and their directions seem to be linked to different time scales of the spreading process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]