Water table depth and plant species determine the direction and magnitude of methane fluxes in floodplain meadow soils.

Methane (CH) is a powerful greenhouse gas with ongoing efforts aiming to quantify and map emissions from natural and managed ecosystems. Wetlands play a significant role in the global CH budget, but uncertainties in their total emissions remain large, due to a combined lack of CH data and fuzzy boundaries between mapped ecosystem categories. European floodplain meadows are anthropogenic ecosystems that originated due to traditional management for hay cropping.

Acute heart failure presentation, management, and outcomes in cancer patients: a national longitudinal study.

Aims: Currently, little evidence exists on survival and quality of care in cancer patients presenting with acute heart failure (HF). The aim of the study is to investigate the presentation and outcomes of hospital admission with acute HF in a national cohort of patients with prior cancer.

Methods And Results: This retrospective, population-based cohort study identified 221 953 patients admitted to a hospital in England for HF during 2012-2018 (12 867 with a breast, prostate, colorectal, or lung cancer diagnosis in the previous 10 years).

Short-range multispectral imaging is an inexpensive, fast, and accurate approach to estimate biodiversity in a temperate calcareous grassland.

Image sensing technologies are rapidly increasing the cost-effectiveness of biodiversity monitoring efforts. Species differences in the reflectance of electromagnetic radiation can be used as a surrogate estimate plant biodiversity using multispectral image data. However, these efforts are often hampered by logistical difficulties in broad-scale implementation.

A risk stratifying tool to facilitate safe late-stage percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy in ALS.

Background: The safety of percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) insertion in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients with significant respiratory compromise has been questioned.

Objectives: To review the characteristics of an ALS clinic patient cohort undergoing PEG, and the introduction of a risk stratification tool with procedural adaptations for higher-risk individuals.

Methods: Patients undergoing PEG insertion were analysed (n = 107).

Nutritional pathway for people with motor neurone disease.

This paper provides an overview of the nutritional management and care of people living with motor neurone disease (MND) in a specialist nutrition clinic. A specialist pathway of care has been developed to enable people living with MND to undergo a percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) procedure in a safe way; the pathway incorporates attendance at a dedicated nutrition clinic, a stratification tool to identify patients with a high periprocedural risk and a PEG insertion team with significant experience in the MND population. Since this pathway has been in place, gastrostomies have been successfully placed in patients with a forced vital capacity (FVC) of less than 50%; previously, this would not have been possible.

Potential contribution of natural enemies to patterns of local adaptation in plants.

Genetic differentiation among plant populations and adaptation to local environmental conditions are well documented. However, few studies have examined the potential contribution of plant antagonists, such as insect herbivores and pathogens, to the pattern of local adaptation. Here, a reciprocal transplant experiment was set up at three sites across Europe using two common plant species, Holcus lanatus and Plantago lanceolata.

Climate vs. soil factors in local adaptation of two common plant species.

Evolutionary theory suggests that divergent natural selection in heterogeneous environments can result in locally adapted plant genotypes. To understand local adaptation it is important to study the ecological factors responsible for divergent selection. At a continental scale, variation in climate can be important while at a local scale soil properties could also play a role.

Phylogeny and the hierarchical organization of plant diversity.

R. H. Whittaker's idea that plant diversity can be divided into a hierarchy of spatial components from alpha at the within-habitat scale through beta for the turnover of species between habitats to gamma along regional gradients implies the underlying existence of alpha, beta, and gamma niches.