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The present study investigated the correlation between the levels of spiritual well-being and the levels of anxiety-been, in a sample of 190 patients obtained by means of nonprobabilístic sampling, the inclusion criteria were: adults of 35 to 85 years of age, diagnosed with diabetes mellitus type 2, excluded the patients with dementia. The theoretical frame that guided the study is the Model of Adaptation of Roy. The design was descriptive, cross-sectional, correlational. The population sample was distributed normally with a power of the 80. It was used the questionnaire of espirituality of Reed and the scale of anxiety-been of Spielberger; the instruments displayed a favorable internal consistency with a Alpha de Cronbach of 894 and 877 respectively. The information was successfully obtained of four institutions of health, one of first level and three of the second level of attention. The analysis of the data was carried out through statistical package SPSS version 13th. The average age of the participants was of 57,36 years with a standard deviation of 11,4; 55% were female gender, the 83,2% professes the catholic religion, the 51,5% presents some type of complication associated to diabetes. The coefficient of correlation between the spiritual well-being and anxiety-been was significant. These results support the hypothesis of the study that refers to greater spirituality smaller level of anxiety-been; situation that it invites to deepen as much in the study of these phenomena in the educative area as welfare in the nursing discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although climate change is expected to drive tree species toward colder and wetter regions of their distribution, broadscale empirical evidence is lacking. One possibility is that past and present human activities in forests obscure or alter the effects of climate. Here, using data from more than two million monitored trees from 73 widely distributed species, we quantify changes in tree species density within their climatic niches across Northern Hemisphere forests. We observe a reduction in mean density across species, coupled with a tendency toward increasing tree size. However, the direction and magnitude of changes in density exhibit considerable variability between species, influenced by stand development that results from previous stand-level disturbances. Remarkably, when accounting for stand development, our findings show a significant change in density toward cold and wet climatic conditions for 43% of the species, compared to only 14% of species significantly changing their density toward warm and arid conditions in both early- and late-development stands. The observed changes in climate-driven density showed no clear association with species traits related to drought tolerance, recruitment and dispersal capacity, or resource use, nor with the temperature or aridity affiliation of the species, leaving the underlying mechanism uncertain. Forest conservation policies and associated management strategies might want to consider anticipated long-term species range shifts alongside the integration of contemporary within-distribution density changes., Competing Interests: Competing interests statement:The authors declare no competing interest.

The emergence of alternative stable states in forest systems has significant implications for the functioning and structure of the terrestrial biosphere, yet empirical evidence remains scarce. Here, we combine global forest biodiversity observations and simulations to test for alternative stable states in the presence of evergreen and deciduous forest types. We reveal a bimodal distribution of forest leaf types across temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere that cannot be explained by the environment alone, suggesting signatures of alternative forest states. Moreover, we empirically demonstrate the existence of positive feedbacks in tree growth, recruitment and mortality, with trees having 4-43% higher growth rates, 14-17% higher survival rates and 4-7 times higher recruitment rates when they are surrounded by trees of their own leaf type. Simulations show that the observed positive feedbacks are necessary and sufficient to generate alternative forest states, which also lead to dependency on history (hysteresis) during ecosystem transition from evergreen to deciduous forests and vice versa. We identify hotspots of bistable forest types in evergreen-deciduous ecotones, which are likely driven by soil-related positive feedbacks. These findings are integral to predicting the distribution of forest biomes, and aid to our understanding of biodiversity, carbon turnover, and terrestrial climate feedbacks., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Forest ecosystems with long-lasting human imprints can emerge worldwide as outcomes of land-use cessation. However, the interaction of these anthropogenic legacies with climate change impacts on forests is not well understood. Here, we set out how anthropogenic land-use legacies that persist in forest properties, following alterations in forest distribution, structure, and composition, can interact with climate change stressors. We propose a risk-based framework to identify anthropogenic legacies of land uses in forest ecosystems and quantify the impact of their interaction with climate-related stress on forest responses. Considering anthropogenic land-use legacies alongside environmental drivers of forest ecosystem dynamics will improve our predictive capacity of climate-related risks to forests and our ability to promote ecosystem resilience to climate change., Competing Interests: Declaration of interests None declared by authors., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

With climate change, natural disturbances such as storm or fire are reshuffled, inducing pervasive shifts in forest dynamics. To predict how it will impact forest structure and composition, it is crucial to understand how tree species differ in their sensitivity to disturbances. In this study, we investigated how functional traits and species mean climate affect their sensitivity to disturbances while controlling for tree size and stand structure. With data on 130,594 trees located on 7617 plots that were disturbed by storm, fire, snow, biotic or other disturbances from the French, Spanish, and Finnish National Forest Inventory, we modeled annual mortality probability for 40 European tree species as a function of tree size, dominance status, disturbance type, and intensity. We tested the correlation of our estimated species probability of disturbance mortality with their traits and their mean climate niches. We found that different trait combinations controlled species sensitivity to disturbances. Storm-sensitive species had a high height-dbh ratio, low wood density and high maximum growth, while fire-sensitive species had low bark thickness and high P50. Species from warmer and drier climates, where fires are more frequent, were more resistant to fire. The ranking in disturbance sensitivity between species was overall consistent across disturbance types. Productive conifer species were the most disturbance sensitive, while Mediterranean oaks were the least disturbance sensitive. Our study identified key relations between species functional traits and disturbance sensitivity, that allows more reliable predictions of how changing climate and disturbance regimes will impact future forest structure and species composition at large spatial scales., (© 2023 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Previous attempts to quantify tree abundance at global scale have largely neglected the role of local competition in modulating the influence of climate and soils on tree density. Here, we evaluated whether mean tree size in the world's natural forests alters the effect of global productivity on tree density. In doing so, we gathered a vast set of forest inventories including >3000 sampling plots from 23 well-conserved areas worldwide to encompass (as much as possible) the main forest biomes on Earth. We evidence that latitudinal productivity patterns of tree density become evident as large trees become dominant. Global estimates of tree abundance should, therefore, consider dependencies of latitudinal sources of variability on local biotic influences to avoid underestimating the number of trees on Earth and to properly evaluate the functional and social consequences., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Data capturing multiple axes of tree size and shape, such as a tree's stem diameter, height and crown size, underpin a wide range of ecological research-from developing and testing theory on forest structure and dynamics, to estimating forest carbon stocks and their uncertainties, and integrating remote sensing imagery into forest monitoring programmes. However, these data can be surprisingly hard to come by, particularly for certain regions of the world and for specific taxonomic groups, posing a real barrier to progress in these fields. To overcome this challenge, we developed the Tallo database, a collection of 498,838 georeferenced and taxonomically standardized records of individual trees for which stem diameter, height and/or crown radius have been measured. These data were collected at 61,856 globally distributed sites, spanning all major forested and non-forested biomes. The majority of trees in the database are identified to species (88%), and collectively Tallo includes data for 5163 species distributed across 1453 genera and 187 plant families. The database is publicly archived under a CC-BY 4.0 licence and can be access from: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6637599. To demonstrate its value, here we present three case studies that highlight how the Tallo database can be used to address a range of theoretical and applied questions in ecology-from testing the predictions of metabolic scaling theory, to exploring the limits of tree allometric plasticity along environmental gradients and modelling global variation in maximum attainable tree height. In doing so, we provide a key resource for field ecologists, remote sensing researchers and the modelling community working together to better understand the role that trees play in regulating the terrestrial carbon cycle., (© 2022 The Authors. Global Change Biology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Tree-ring data has been widely used to inform about tree growth responses to drought at the individual scale, but less is known about how tree growth sensitivity to drought scales up driving changes in forest dynamics. Here, we related tree-ring growth chronologies and stand-level forest changes in basal area from two independent data sets to test if tree-ring responses to drought match stand forest dynamics (stand basal area growth, ingrowth, and mortality). We assessed if tree growth and changes in forest basal area covary as a function of spatial scale and tree taxa (gymnosperm or angiosperm). To this end, we compared a tree-ring network with stand data from the Spanish National Forest Inventory. We focused on the cumulative impact of drought on tree growth and demography in the period 1981-2005. Drought years were identified by the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index, and their impacts on tree growth by quantifying tree-ring width reductions. We hypothesized that forests with greater drought impacts on tree growth will also show reduced stand basal area growth and ingrowth and enhanced mortality. This is expected to occur in forests dominated by gymnosperms on drought-prone regions. Cumulative growth reductions during dry years were higher in forests dominated by gymnosperms and presented a greater magnitude and spatial autocorrelation than for angiosperms. Cumulative drought-induced tree growth reductions and changes in forest basal area were related, but initial stand density and basal area were the main factors driving changes in basal area. In drought-prone gymnosperm forests, we observed that sites with greater growth reductions had lower stand basal area growth and greater mortality. Consequently, stand basal area, forest growth, and ingrowth in regions with large drought impacts was significantly lower than in regions less impacted by drought. Tree growth sensitivity to drought can be used as a predictor of gymnosperm demographic rates in terms of stand basal area growth and ingrowth at regional scales, but further studies may try to disentangle how initial stand density modulates such relationships. Drought-induced growth reductions and their cumulative impacts have strong potential to be used as early-warning indicators of regional forest vulnerability., (© 2022 The Ecological Society of America.)

Legacies of past climate conditions and historical management govern forest productivity and tree growth. Understanding how these processes interact and the timescales over which they influence tree growth is critical to assess forest vulnerability to climate change. Yet, few studies address this issue, likely because integrated long-term records of both growth and forest management are uncommon. We applied the stochastic antecedent modelling (SAM) framework to annual tree-ring widths from mixed forests to recover the ecological memory of tree growth. We quantified the effects of antecedent temperature and precipitation up to 4 years preceding the year of ring formation and integrated management effects with records of harvesting intensity from historical forest management archives. The SAM approach uncovered important time periods most influential to growth, typically the warmer and drier months or seasons, but variation among species and sites emerged. Silver fir responded primarily to past climate conditions (25-50 months prior to the year of ring formation), while European beech and Scots pine responded mostly to climate conditions during the year of ring formation and the previous year, although these responses varied among sites. Past management and climate interacted in such a way that harvesting promoted growth in young silver fir under wet and warm conditions and in old European beech under drier and cooler conditions. Our study shows that the ecological memory associated with climate legacies and historical forest management is species-specific and context-dependent, suggesting that both aspects are needed to properly evaluate forest functioning under climate change., Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10021-021-00650-8., (© The Author(s) 2021.)

Forest dieback processes linked to drought are expected to increase due to climate warming. Remotely sensed data offer several advantages over common field monitoring methods such as the ability to observe large areas on a systematic basis and monitoring their changes, making them increasingly used to assess changes in forest health. Here we aim to use a combined approximation of fieldwork and remote sensing to explore possible links between forest dieback and land surface phenological and trend variables derived from long Landsat time series. Forest dieback was evaluated in the field over 31 plots in a Mediterranean, xeric Pinus pinaster forest. Landsat 31-year time series of three greenness (EVI, NDVI, SAVI) and two wetness spectral indices (NMDI and TCW) were derived covering the period 1990-2020. Spectral indices from time series were decomposed into trend and seasonality using a Bayesian estimator while the relationships of the phenological and trend variables among levels of damage were assessed using linear and additive mixed models. We have not found any statistical pieces of evidence of extension or shortening patterns for the length of the phenological season over the examined 31-year period. Our results indicate that the dieback process was mainly related to the trend component of the spectral indices series whereas the phenological metrics were not related to forest dieback. We also found that plots with more dying or damaged trees displayed lower spectral indices trends after a severe drought event in the middle of the 1990s, which confirms the Landsat-derived spectral indices as indicators of early-warning signals. Drops in trends occurred earlier for wetness indices rather than for greenness indices which suggests that the former could be more appropriate for dieback detection, i.e. they could be used as early warning signals of impending loss of tree vigor., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

More tree species can increase the carbon storage capacity of forests (here referred to as the more species hypothesis) through increased tree productivity and tree abundance resulting from complementarity, but they can also be the consequence of increased tree abundance through increased available energy (more individuals hypothesis). To test these two contrasting hypotheses, we analyse the most plausible pathways in the richness-abundance relationship and its stability along global climatic gradients. We show that positive effect of species richness on tree abundance only prevails in eight of the twenty-three forest regions considered in this study. In the other forest regions, any benefit from having more species is just as likely (9 regions) or even less likely (6 regions) than the effects of having more individuals. We demonstrate that diversity effects prevail in the most productive environments, and abundance effects become dominant towards the most limiting conditions. These findings can contribute to refining cost-effective mitigation strategies based on fostering carbon storage through increased tree diversity. Specifically, in less productive environments, mitigation measures should promote abundance of locally adapted and stress tolerant tree species instead of increasing species richness.

Climate and forest structure are considered major drivers of forest demography and productivity. However, recent evidence suggests that the relationships between climate and tree growth are generally non-stationary (i.e. non-time stable), and it remains uncertain whether the relationships between climate, forest structure, demography and productivity are stationary or are being altered by recent climatic and structural changes. Here we analysed three surveys from the Spanish Forest Inventory covering c. 30 years of information and we applied mixed and structural equation models to assess temporal trends in forest structure (stand density, basal area, tree size and tree size inequality), forest demography (ingrowth, growth and mortality) and above-ground forest productivity. We also quantified whether the interactive effects of climate and forest structure on forest demography and above-ground forest productivity were stationary over two consecutive time periods. Since the 1980s, density, basal area and tree size increased in Iberian forests, and tree size inequality decreased. In addition, we observed reductions in ingrowth and growth, and increases in mortality. Initial forest structure and water availability mainly modulated the temporal trends in forest structure and demography. The magnitude and direction of the interactive effects of climate and forest structure on forest demography changed over the two time periods analysed indicating non-stationary relationships between climate, forest structure and demography. Above-ground forest productivity increased due to a positive balance between ingrowth, growth and mortality. Despite increasing productivity over time, we observed an aggravation of the negative effects of climate change and increased competition on forest demography, reducing ingrowth and growth, and increasing mortality. Interestingly, our results suggest that the negative effects of climate change on forest demography could be ameliorated through forest management, which has profound implications for forest adaptation to climate change., (© 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

For decades, ecologists have investigated the effects of tree species diversity on tree productivity at different scales and with different approaches ranging from observational to experimental study designs. Using data from five European national forest inventories (16,773 plots), six tree species diversity experiments (584 plots), and six networks of comparative plots (169 plots), we tested whether tree species growth responses to species mixing are consistent and therefore transferrable between those different research approaches. Our results confirm the general positive effect of tree species mixing on species growth (16% on average) but we found no consistency in species-specific responses to mixing between any of the three approaches, even after restricting comparisons to only those plots that shared similar mixtures compositions and forest types. These findings highlight the necessity to consider results from different research approaches when selecting species mixtures that should maximize positive forest biodiversity and functioning relationships., Competing Interests: None declared., (© 2019 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Climate change can impair ecosystem functions and services in extensive dry forests worldwide. However, attribution of climate change impacts on tree growth and forest productivity is challenging due to multiple inter-annual patterns of climatic variability associated with atmospheric and oceanic circulations. Moreover, growth responses to rising atmospheric CO 2 , namely carbon fertilization, as well as size ontogenetic changes can obscure the climate change signature as well. Here we apply Structural Equation Models (SEM) to investigate the relative role of climate change on tree growth in an extreme Mediterranean environment (i.e., extreme in terms of the combination of sandy-unconsolidated soils and climatic aridity). Specifically, we analyzed potential direct and indirect pathways by which different sources of climatic variability (i.e. warming and precipitation trends, the North Atlantic Oscillation, [NAO]; the Mediterranean Oscillation, [MOI]; the Atlantic Mediterranean Oscillation, [AMO]) affect aridity through their control on local climate (in terms of mean annual temperature and total annual precipitation), and subsequently tree productivity, in terms of basal area increments (BAI). Our results support the predominant role of Diameter at Breast Height (DHB) as the main growth driver. In terms of climate, NAO and AMO are the most important drivers of tree growth through their control of aridity (via effects of precipitation and temperature, respectively). Furthermore and contrary to current expectations, our findings also support a net positive role of climate warming on growth over the last 50 years and suggest that impacts of climate warming should be evaluated considering multi-annual and multi-decadal periods of local climate defined by atmospheric and oceanic circulation in the North Atlantic., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Drought and frosts are major determinants of plant functioning and distribution. Both stresses can cause xylem embolism and foliage damage. The objective of this study was to analyse if the distribution of six common pine species along latitudinal and altitudinal gradients in Europe is related to their interspecific differences in frost tolerance and to the physiological mechanisms underlying species-specific frost tolerance. We also evaluate if frost tolerance depends on plant water status. We studied survival to a range of freezing temperatures in 2-year-old plants and assessed the percentage loss of hydraulic conductivity (PLC) due xylem embolism formation and foliage damage determined by needle electrolyte leakage (EL) after a single frost cycle to -15 °C and over a range of predawn water potential (ψpd) values. Species experiencing cold winters in their range (Pinus nigra J.F. Arnold, Pinus sylvestris L. and Pinus uncinata Raymond ex A. DC.) had the highest frost survival rates and lowest needle EL and soluble sugar (SS) concentration. In contrast, the pines inhabiting mild or cool winter locations (especially Pinus halepensis Mill. and Pinus pinea L. and, to a lesser extent, Pinus pinaster Ait.) had the lowest frost survival and highest needle EL and SS values. Freezing-induced PLC was very low and differences among species were not related to frost damage. Reduction in ψpd decreased leaf frost damage in P. pinea and P. sylvestris, increased it in P. uncinata and had a neutral effect on the rest of the species. This study demonstrates that freezing temperatures are a major environmental driver for pine distribution and suggests that interspecific differences in leaf frost sensitivity rather than vulnerability to freezing-induced embolism or SS explain pine juvenile frost survival.

Background and Aims: Obesity is a complex, chronic, and multifactorial disease that has become a major, and worldwide, public health problem contributing to an increased number of pathologies, including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hyperlipidemia, and metabolic syndrome, thus suggesting a commolon origin. A diet high in sugar and fats coupled with a sedentary lifestyle has a major role in the development of obesity. However, the genetic background has also been associated with body fat accumulation. The aim of this study was to assess the effect ofACE-rs4646994, APOA5-rs662799, and MTP-rs1800591 gene polymorphisms on clinical and biochemical parameters and to evaluate the association with body phenotypes in children and adolescent population of Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico., Methods: Anthropometric, clinical, biochemical parameters and BMI were obtained from 405 children and adolescents. The BMI was used to determine the body phenotype. The rs4646994 gene polymorphism was determined by PCR, whereas rs662799 and rs1800591 were determined by PCR-RFLP. The obtained results were analyzed to determine their association of these single nucleotide polymorphisms with body phenotype and biochemical parameters., Results: TT genotype for APOA5-rs662799 was associated with increased levels of HDL-C in the analyzed population (p <0.05). The ACErs4646994gene polymorphism is associated with high Insulin levels, HOMAIR index, and triglyceride levels, mainly when presenting a I/I genotype (p <0.05)., Conclusion: The polymorphic allele of the ACE gene is capable of modulating triglyceride levels, insulin levels and HOMA-IR index in the evaluated population; it must be highlighted that this has not been reported in other studied populations elsewhere., (Copyright © 2018 IMSS. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Climate change in the Mediterranean, associated with warmer temperatures and more frequent droughts, is expected to impact forest productivity and the functioning of forests ecosystems as carbon reservoirs in the region. Climate warming can positively affect forest growth by extending the growing season, whereas increasing summer drought generally reduces forest productivity and may cause growth decline, trigger dieback, hamper regeneration, and increase mortality. Forest management could potentially counteract such negative effects by reducing stand density and thereby competition for water. The effectiveness of such interventions, however, has so far mostly been evaluated for short time periods at the tree and stand levels, which limits our confidence regarding the efficacy of thinning interventions over longer time scales under the complex interplay between climate, stand structure, and forest management. In this study, we use a century-long historical data set to assess the effects of climate and management on forest productivity. We consider rear-edge Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) populations covering continental and Mediterranean conditions along an altitudinal gradient in Central Spain. We use linear mixed-effects models to disentangle the effects of altitude, climate, and stand volume on forest growth and ingrowth (recruitment and young trees' growth). We find that warming tends to benefit these tree populations, warmer winter temperature has a significant positive effect on both forest growth and ingrowth, and the effect is more pronounced at low elevations. However, drought conditions severely reduce growth and ingrowth, in particular when competition (stand volume) is high. We conclude that summer droughts are the main threat to Scots pine populations in the region, and that a reduction of stand volume can partially mitigate the negative impacts of more arid conditions. Mitigation and adaptation measures could therefore manage stand structure to adopt for the anticipated impacts of climate change in Mediterranean forest ecosystems., (© 2017 by the Ecological Society of America.)