Publications by authors named "Michael Burrows"

Background: Modern general practice is characterised by increased demand and growing multi-disciplinarity, including ring-fenced funding for additional non-clinical roles. However, for practice receptionists training has remained unchanged for decades, yet primary care is under greater pressure than ever with receptionists becoming a growing focal point of abuse and unprecedented numbers leaving the role.

Aim: To present the evidence of the range of tasks that receptionists continue to perform, describing their impact on primary care delivery and how the role might be better supported.

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Rising global temperatures are often identified as the key driver impacting ecosystems and the services they provide by affecting biodiversity structure and function. A disproportionate amount of our understanding of biodiversity and function is from short-term experimental studies and static values of biodiversity indices, lacking the ability to monitor long-term trends and capture community dynamics. Here, we analyse a biennial dataset spanning 32 years of macroinvertebrate benthic communities and their functional response to increasing temperatures.

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Article Synopsis
  • Rocky shore communities are influenced by both environmental factors (like ocean temperature and wave exposure) and biological processes, affecting the population structure of key species along Brazil's coastline.
  • Research revealed three distinct oceanographic groups: a cold-oligotrophic region in the north, a eutrophic zone in estuaries and urban areas, and a transitional warm-water area between them.
  • Larger species such as Stramonita brasiliensis thrive in colder regions, while smaller suspension feeders are more common in warmer eutrophic waters, highlighting the greater impact of environmental factors over biological interactions in shaping these communities.
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With increasingly intense marine heatwaves affecting nearshore regions, foundation species are coming under increasing stress. To better understand their impacts, we examine responses of critical, habitat-forming foundation species (macroalgae, seagrass, corals) to marine heatwaves in 1322 shallow coastal areas located across 85 marine ecoregions. We find compelling evidence that intense, summer marine heatwaves play a significant role in the decline of foundation species globally.

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Introduction: In care settings across the globe non-clinical staff are involved in filtering patients to the most appropriate source of care. This includes primary care where general practice receptionists are key in facilitating access to individual surgeries and the wider National Health Service. Despite the complexity and significance of their role little is known of how the decision-making behaviors of receptionists impact policy implementation and service delivery.

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The effects of nutrient effluents from fish cage aquaculture are an important eutrophication concern. It has been proposed that marine fish farm derived nutrients have the potential to increase phytoplankton abundance and lead to intensification of Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs), and that these blooms may negatively impact both the finfish and the shellfish industry. This study addressed this hypothesis using farmed salmon biomass in Scottish marine waters (as a proxy for nutrient load added to the water column as a consequence of fish farming) cell abundance of HAB taxa that most frequently impact shellfish farms and human health in the region (Dinophysis spp.

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Coastal habitats are increasingly recognized as fundamentally important components of global carbon cycles, but the rates of carbon flow associated with marine macrophytes are not well resolved for many species in many regions. We quantified density, rates of primary productivity, and detritus production of intertidal stands of two common intertidal kelp species- (oarweed) and (sugar kelp)-on four NE Atlantic rocky shores over 22 months. The density of was greater at exposed compared to moderately exposed shores but remained consistently low for throughout the survey period.

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Distributional shifts in species ranges provide critical evidence of ecological responses to climate change. Assessments of climate-driven changes typically focus on broad-scale range shifts (e.g.

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Anthropogenic climate change along with the more frequent extreme weather it prompts, are having direct and indirect effects on distributions and abundance of species with consequence for community structure-especially if habitat providers are lost. Rocky shores have long been recognized as tractable experimental arenas for ecology contributing to theory. They have also emerged as important sentinel systems for tracking climate change responses of marine biodiversity and ecosystems, capitalizing on both historic broadscale surveys and time series.

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The magnitude and distribution of net primary production (NPP) in the coastal ocean remains poorly constrained, particularly for shallow marine vegetation. Here, using a compilation of in situ annual NPP measurements across >400 sites in 72 geographic ecoregions, we provide global predictions of the productivity of seaweed habitats, which form the largest vegetated coastal biome on the planet. We find that seaweed NPP is strongly coupled to climatic variables, peaks at temperate latitudes, and is dominated by forests of large brown seaweeds.

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Introduction: The significance of the role of receptionists during the recent shift to remote triage has been widely recognised and they will have a significant role to play in UK general practice as it continues to cope with a huge increase in demand exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. To maximise their contribution, it is important the social and occupational characteristics of the modern receptionist are understood, alongside their attitudes towards the role and their perceptions of the support and training they receive .

Methods: We used convenience and cross-sectional sampling to survey the demographic characteristics of receptionists and various aspects of their role and responsibilities.

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Climatic extremes are becoming increasingly common against a background trend of global warming. In the oceans, marine heatwaves (MHWs)-discrete periods of anomalously warm water-have intensified and become more frequent over the past century, impacting the integrity of marine ecosystems globally. We review and synthesize current understanding of MHW impacts at the individual, population, and community levels.

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Cycling of organic carbon in the ocean has the potential to mitigate or exacerbate global climate change, but major questions remain about the environmental controls on organic carbon flux in the coastal zone. Here, we used a field experiment distributed across 28° of latitude, and the entire range of 2 dominant kelp species in the northern hemisphere, to measure decomposition rates of kelp detritus on the seafloor in relation to local environmental factors. Detritus decomposition in both species were strongly related to ocean temperature and initial carbon content, with higher rates of biomass loss at lower latitudes with warmer temperatures.

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Extreme climatic events, including marine heatwaves (MHWs), are altering ecosystems globally, often with profound socioeconomic impacts. We examine how MHWs have affected the provision of ecosystem services and evaluate the socioeconomic consequences for human society. Ecological impacts range from harmful algal blooms and mass mortality events to reconfigurations of entire ecosystems, affecting provisioning, habitat, regulating, and cultural ecosystem services globally.

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Understanding and predicting the response of marine communities to climate change at large spatial scales, and distilling this information for policymakers, are prerequisites for ecosystem-based management. Changes in thermal habitat suitability across species' distributions are especially concerning because of their implications for abundance, affecting species' conservation, trophic interactions and fisheries. However, most predictive studies of the effects of climate change have tended to be sub-global in scale and focused on shifts in species' range edges or commercially exploited species.

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Quantifying scale-dependent patterns and linking ecological to environmental variation is required to understand mechanisms regulating biodiversity. We conducted a large-scale survey in rocky shores along the SE Brazilian coast to examine spatial variability in body size and density of an intertidal barnacle (Chthamalus bisinuatus) and its relationships with benthic and oceanographic predictors. Both the size and density of barnacles showed most variation at the smallest spatial scales.

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In the North Atlantic, euphausiids (krill) form a major link between primary production and predators including commercially exploited fish. This basin is warming very rapidly, with species expected to shift northwards following their thermal tolerances. Here we show, however, that there has been a 50% decline in surface krill abundance over the last 60 years that occurred in situ, with no associated range shift.

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Data that can be used to monitor biodiversity through time are essential for conservation and management. The reef-forming worm, Sabellaria alveolata (L. 1767) is currently classed as 'Data Deficient' due to an imbalance in the spread of data on its distribution.

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Understanding how community composition is reshaped by changing climate is important for interpreting and predicting patterns of community assembly through time or across space. Community composition often does not perfectly correspond to expectations from current environmental conditions, leading to community-climate mismatches. Here, we combine data analysis and theory development to explore how species climate response curves affect the community response to climate change.

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Prolonged high-temperature extreme events in the ocean, marine heatwaves, can have severe and long-lasting impacts on marine ecosystems, fisheries and associated services. This study applies a marine heatwave framework to analyse a global sea surface temperature product and identify the most extreme events, based on their intensity, duration and spatial extent. Many of these events have yet to be described in terms of their physical attributes, generation mechanisms, or ecological impacts.

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The rock type used in coastal engineering structures impacts biodiversity, but its effect has been understudied to date. We report here on whether different combinations of rock material and rock mass properties can improve habitat suitability and early phase ecological outcomes on coastal engineering structures. We examine two coastal engineering schemes that used different granites during construction.

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Rates and drivers of primary productivity are well understood for many terrestrial ecosystems, but remain poorly resolved for many marine ecosystems, particularly those within in coastal benthic environments. We quantified net primary productivity (NPP) using two methods as well as carbon standing stock within kelp forests (Laminaria hyperborea) at multiple subtidal habitats in the United Kingdom (UK). Study sites spanned 9° in latitude and encompassed a gradient in average temperature of ~ 2.

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Background: Amidst increased pressures on General Practice across England, the receptionist continues to fulfil key administrative and clinically related tasks. The need for more robust support for these key personnel to ensure they stay focussed and motivated is apparent, however, to be effective a more systematic understanding of the parameters of their work is required. Here we present a valuable insight into the tasks they fulfil, their relationship with colleagues and their organisation and their attitudes and behaviour at work collectively defined as their 'work design'.

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Changes in rocky shore community composition as responses to climatic fluctuations and anthropogenic warming can be shown by changes in average species thermal affinities. In this study, we derived thermal affinities for European Atlantic rocky intertidal species by matching their known distributions to patterns in average annual sea surface temperature. Average thermal affinities (the Community Temperature Index, CTI) tracked patterns in sea surface temperature from Portugal to Norway, but CTI for communities of macroalgae and plant species changed less than those composed of animal species.

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