A geospatial approach to identifying and mapping areas of relative environmental pressure on ecosystem integrity.

The influence of increasing anthropogenic pressure on ecosystem integrity, such as land use change, is resulting in many ecosystems experiencing a decline in their ability to maintain balanced functions and services. Identifying and quantifying these pressures over different scales is challenging and thus impacting the achievement or maintenance of key environmental outcomes. In this study, a GIS-based and scalable tool was developed, the Relative Environmental Pressure (REP) Tool, to address these challenges.

Planning for the Rheumatologist Workforce: Factors Associated With Work Hours and Volumes.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate factors associated with rheumatologists' clinical work hours and patient volumes based on a national workforce survey in rheumatology.

Methods: Adult rheumatologists who participated in a 2015 workforce survey were included (n = 255). Univariate analysis evaluated the relationship between demographics (sex, age, academic vs.

Mercury in freshwater ecosystems of the Canadian Arctic: recent advances on its cycling and fate.

The Canadian Arctic has vast freshwater resources, and fish are important in the diet of many Northerners. Mercury is a contaminant of concern because of its potential toxicity and elevated bioaccumulation in some fish populations. Over the last decade, significant advances have been made in characterizing the cycling and fate of mercury in these freshwater environments.

Quantifying Hg within ectomycorrhizal fruiting bodies, from emergence to senescence.

Ectomycorrhizal fruiting bodies (basidiomata) collected from forested areas in southwestern New Brunswick were analyzed for total mercury, sulphur, nitrogen, and carbon concentrations (THg, TS, TN, and TC, respectively). This analysis was done for caps and stalks and by development stage (emergent, mature, senescent) across 27 species associated with five classes, eight families, and 13 genera. Across the species, THg correlated positively with TN and TS, thereby implying N as well as S mitigated transfer of Hg from the mycelia into the basidiomata, with THg ranging from 3 to 10 457 ppb.