The spatial structuring of populations or communities is an important driver of their functioning and their influence on ecosystems. Identifying the (in)stability of the spatial structure of populations is a first step towards understanding the underlying causes of these structures. Here we studied the relative importance of spatial vs. interannual variability in explaining the patterns of abundance of a large herbivore community (8 species) at waterholes in Hwange National Park (Zimbabwe). We analyzed census data collected over 13 years using multivariate methods. Our results showed that variability in the census data was mostly explained by the spatial structure of the community, as some waterholes had consistently greater herbivore abundance than others. Some temporal variability probably linked to Park-scale migration dependent on annual rainfall was noticeable, however. Once this was accounted for, little temporal variability remained to be explained, suggesting that other factors affecting herbivore abundance over time had a negligible effect at the scale of the study. The extent of spatial and temporal variability in census data was also measured for each species. This study could help in projecting the consequences of surface water management, and more generally presents a methodological framework to simultaneously address the relative importance of spatial vs. temporal effects in driving the distribution of organisms across landscapes.
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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4830562 | PMC |
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0153639 | PLOS |
BMC Womens Health
December 2024
Better Outcomes Registry & Network (BORN) Ontario, Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO), Ottawa, ON, Canada.
Background: The World Health Organization has recognized maternal mental illness as an emerging issue. Previous studies have indicated that maternal mental illness is associated with socioeconomic status (SES). However, there is a lack of research concerning the mental health of pregnant people with low SES in Ontario, Canada.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCurr Probl Cardiol
December 2024
Department of Medicine, Creighton University School of Medicine, 7710 Mercy Road, Suite 301, Omaha, Nebraska, United States of America 68124.
Introduction: Heart failure (HF) represents a significant contributor to morbidity and mortality. Heart failure mortality trends among the middle aged have not been fully characterized into the years of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our objective was to analyze the trends in mortality related to heart failure across various demographic and geographic categories-including gender, race, and census region-spanning from 1999 to 2022, with particular attention paid to the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on HF mortality.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives To examine a comprehensive monitoring framework for health inequalities in Japan, this study aimed to quantify educational inequalities in mortality and its regional variations, which are widely used internationally as outcome measures of health inequalities.Methods Individual data were obtained from the 2010 Population Census and Vital Statistics death records (2010-2015). We used the combination of "sex," "birth month/year," "municipality of residence," "marital status," and "age of spouse (married individuals only)" as a linkage key.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBMC Public Health
December 2024
Social Statistics Division, Census and Statistics Department of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Wanchai Tower, 12 Harbour Road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China.
Background: Many countries have developed their country/nation-wide multidimensional area-based index on deprivation or socioeconomic status for resource allocation, service planning and research. However, whether each geographical unit proxied by a single index is sufficiently small to contain a relatively homogeneous population remains questionable. Globally, this is the first study that presents the distribution of domestic households by the territory-wide economic status index decile groups within each of the 2,252 small subunit groups (SSUGs) throughout Hong Kong, with a median study population of 1,300 and a median area of 42,400 m.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSubst Abuse Treat Prev Policy
December 2024
JBS International, 11200 Rockville Pike, Suite 320, North Bethesda, MD, 20852, USA.
Background: Section 1262 Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 eliminates the federal DATA waiver registration requirement to prescribe buprenorphine for opioid use disorder (OUD), along with patient limits, perhaps as a way to increase provider capacity to prescribe buprenorphine. Understanding the factors that influence provider capacity, patient access, and whether community need for MAT is met could inform how to capitalize on DATA waiver eliminations in the United States.
Methods: This observational study utilized required reporting from two cohorts of the Rural Communities Opioid Response Program (RCORP).
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