Thinning followed by slash burning enhances growth and reduces vulnerability to drought for Pinus nigra.

Increasingly frequent severe drought events are pushing Mediterranean forests to unprecedented responses. Lack of management leads to dense forests that are highly susceptible to drought stress, potentially resulting in extensive dieback and increased vulnerability to other disturbances. Forest treatments like thinning and slash burning reduce competition for resources and have the potential to enhance tree growth and vigor and minimize tree vulnerability to drought.

Burning intensity and low light availability reduce resprouting ability and vigor of Buxus sempervirens L. after clearing.

Thinning and prescribed burning are two common operations for reducing fuel accumulation and decreasing the intensity and severity of wildfires. However, the resprouting response of understory species may reduce the effectiveness of fuel load treatments and thus negatively affect the cost-benefit ratio of these treatments. This study focuses on Buxus sempervirens, a slow-growing, multi-stemmed tree species, frequently dominant in the understory of temperate European forests, which resprouts strongly after clearing or burning.

Temporal effects of prescribed burning on terpene production in Mediterranean pines.

Prescribed burning is used to reduce fuel hazard but underburning can damage standing trees. The effect of burning on needle terpene storage, a proxy for secondary metabolism, in fire-damaged pines is poorly understood despite the protection terpenes confer against biotic and abiotic stressors. We investigated variation in needle terpene storage after burning in three Mediterranean pine species featuring different adaptations to fire regimes.

Collaborative intervention to improve airway assessment and safety in management for anaesthesia: the Qualitat & Via Aèria (QUAVA) study.

Background: Airway assessment and management are cornerstones of anaesthesia, yet airway complications remain an important source of morbidity.

Objective: We performed a before-and-after evaluation of a collaborative intervention to improve adherence to airway assessment and management guidelines in patients scheduled for surgery under general anaesthesia.

Design: A prospective, multicentre before-and-after evaluation of a collaborative intervention.

How spatial heterogeneity of cover affects patterns of shrub encroachment into mesic grasslands.

We used a multi-method approach to analyze the spatial patterns of shrubs and cover types (plant species, litter or bare soil) in grassland-shrubland ecotones. This approach allows us to assess how fine-scale spatial heterogeneity of cover types affects the patterns of Cytisus balansae shrub encroachment into mesic mountain grasslands (Catalan Pyrenees, Spain). Spatial patterns and the spatial associations between juvenile shrubs and different cover types were assessed in mesic grasslands dominated by species with different palatabilities (palatable grass Festuca nigrescens and unpalatable grass Festuca eskia).